I find that almost any TV drama and comedy is obvious and formulaic these days. Just once in a blue moon, something comes along that peaks my interest. And talking about peaks, if I ever venture to the iPlayer, there is Peaky Blinders staring at me, challenging me to watch it. Crime/police/hospital dramas don't really do a thing for me. Almost never have, unless they are exceptional. Which kind of cuts off 90%% of drama on TV for me. So I end up stepping back from regularly watching TV to almost nothing, except in binge watching moments, so watching stuff after it has run its course. It means I don't have to wait for next week because the next episode is there waiting for me. For example, I've just been through the entire 7 series of the recently finished, Armando Iannucci's Veep, which has been absolutely hilarious, and which is an American off-shoot of The Thick Of It, which I never watched at the time. And on the strength of his comedy writing I watched In The Loop, the film version, over the weekend: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00rf174/in-the-loop And it was really biting good. Funnily enough there are lots of actors in it who later went onto make Veep. Anyway, it looks like I will finally be watching The Thick Of It after all. Writing that lot has made me think of what I have watched on regular TV this year. Yes, several documentaries, but in drama it has been Gentleman Jack, Poldark, and that's about it entirely. Oh, I did give Sanditon a go. Might leave that until it has finished. Could be another one to binge watch. Incidentally, part of the reason Veep has been so good is because many of the things Trump has done since 2016, Veep did a year or two earlier. Shut down government for an extended time? Yep, Veep did that in Series 2 in 2015 before Trump in 2018. Get foreign countries to interfere with elections? Yep, done. When satire predicts reality, you realise it knows what it is talking about. Oh yeah, and the future President has to seek asylum in a Finnish embassy at one point and is rescued by a Russian oligarth who recently purchased Leeds Utd. There's a clip where the VP is rushing to the waiting plane wearing a Leeds Utd leisure top. Julia Louis-Dreyfuss actually makes that look quite good.
Big powerful 4x4 private vehicles [I don't mean people carriers]. I've never quite understood them. Never understood their fuel guzzling appeal. Even one of them on its own is a potential traffic jam on British roads. I understand that one of the reasons for buying them is that they are safer vehicles. That's a myth of huge proportions. So it comes as zero surprise to me that people have had enough of them: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...suv-ban-after-four-people-killed-in-collision Politicians in Berlin are calling for a city-centre ban on “tank-like” 4x4s after a driver reportedly lost control of his car and hit a group of pedestrians in the German capital, killing four people. A 64-year-old woman, her three-year-old grandson, a Briton and a Spanish national, both in their 20s, died at the scene. Police said the family of the 29-year-old Briton, who was living in Berlin, had been informed.
I've started the two seasons of Young Sheldon. Zoe Perry who plays Sheldon's mum is the real life daughter of Laurie Metcalf who plays Sheldon's mum in Big Bang
Me and the other half sit and watch plebs when the kids go to bed and a bit of old school two and a half men .
Have always disliked them because the drivers think they own the road...especially an issue on the Island where roads are narrow. You don't need one unless you have a large family or need to transport the occasional sheep and sacks of fodder. It has been shown that the safer a driver feels the more likely he is to have an accident. For instance, the number of accidents went up when seat belts were introduced (though of course many lives were saved) because drivers took more risks. It is so rare that a 4x4 gives way that I am shocked when it happens. I was hit twice by a 4x4 in one week once...one reversed at speed across the road and hit me and the second just backed into me (luckily not hard). I'm still not sure if bad drivers buy these vehicles or you become a bad driver once you've bought one.
Phew! Stayed up watching the political debate before I did my round up of reading environmental bits and bobs. So VW's announcement of their new electric hatchback, the ID.3, comes while my head is nodding. But it's worth the news. And I will grudgingly give them a wee bit of credit back, because the car looks as though it might be a real winner. It comes in three versions: please log in to view this image Base Volkswagen ID.3 — 330 kilometer (205 mile) range from 45 kWh battery (usable kWh, not gross kWh). Medium-Range Volkswagen ID.3 — 420 kilometer (261 mile) range from 58 kWh battery. Long-Range Volkswagen ID.3 — 550 kilometer (342 mile) range from 77 kWh battery. Pricing for the higher range models is not given, but the base model starts below €30,000 [I'll stick with Euros at present because the £Pound is all over the place], and that's before government subsidy. The car will include OTA updates, and will sustain 100mph. Cheap 0-80% in 30 minutes charge rate is possible at a decent rapid charger. Overnight cheap as chips full charging is possible too, so you don't have to go near any rapid chargers unless you're doing a long trip. EVs are always fairly quick, but acceleration rates aren't available yet, nor is the car itself. VW start deliveries in June 2020, although they start production this November. VW have a quite respectable 30,000 pre-order book for the ID.3. Oh, and it looks like a stylish normal car, not an EV freak show. In my honest opinion, it's a competitive car, in what will become a very competitive market. Tonnes of these types are going to emerge over the next few years as traditional car makers decide whether going out of business is preferable to bringing out rival models. This one will undoubtedly help kill off the ICE car equivalents, because they simply won't be able to compete on overall ownership costs. VW get an approval star for this, but they need to stop making diesel and petrol clunkers before they get a pass mark from me. As a former loving operator of a Transporter petrol van, let's just say that I've stopped spitting at the badge, for now. Forgiveness for Diesel and the new Petrolgate is a few years away yet.
Bad weather on it’s way to where I am on holiday, from tomorrow. Talking of a “Medicane” a Mediterranean equivalent of a hurricane, with wind speeds exceeding 100kph. Better get some food in.
Oh go on. I'll let my ignorance of electric vehicles shine through. How long does it take to charge a car? Where do you charge it? I live in Serbia (you never guessed that) I've never seen a charging point. Saw a free one in a village in Croatia, a Smart car was parked there all day.
They look fantastic, and the specs are impressive, but are they independently verified, or just theoretical? With VW’s record, we can’t really believe what they say unless someone has checked the figures, can we?
Thunderstorms and heavy rain here in Sicily https://www.bbc.com/weather/2522975 looking good for Friday 13th
SiS, you are no more ignorant of electric vehicles than the average person, in my experience, although I have come across some extreme ignorance of electrifican of transport. Anyway, to your questions: 1] Where do you charge? Well, if you have a driveway or parking right outside your house, you do 99%, or as much as much as you want of it, at home overnight. Home overnight charging will give you a 'full tank' every day at a fraction of the cost of petrol/diesel. 2] Rapid chargers, or if you own a Tesla, Superchargers, are dotted about all over the place. You can get an app on your phone to find them. Once again, if you own a Tesla, the car finds them for you. But you don't need them unless you go on a long trip, and it depends on the electric car you have. Some have great range, some have tiny, although those tend to be aged ones these days. 3] How fast do they charge? Overnight, it doesn't matter so long as you have a 'full tank of power' in the morning. At a Rapid Charger it's anything between 15-45 minutes for 0-80% of charge. Once again it depends on how old tech is with the car and how small the range. An example of the best is the Tesla Model 3 which can Supercharge 75 miles into the car in 5 minutes. 75 miles is over most people's daily drive range. The average motorist in the UK drives 26 miles a day. You may do more, you may do less. You may be an exception. 4]Yep, sometimes the rapid and supercharging is free, but don't budget for it. On average, if a diesel or petrol car cost £60 to fill up, the same range from a rapid charger will be about £12-18, depending upon who is supplying the electricity. Of course, at home using overnight electricity, it'll cost £3-5 for the same amount. As usual with a disruption that involves infrastructure changes, not everywhere changes all at once. Europe is awash with Super and Rapid Chargers, but maybe not Serbia. I don't know, I haven't looked. I do know that recently, Tesla owners from eastern Europe got together and tweeted Elon Musk and asked if they could build up the charging and servicing infrastructure in places like Croatia, Serbia, Ukraine, etc.., and he got back to them and said he instructed the company to make it a top priority. So the best thing to do is ask. And ask your local authority and even your member of parliament, if need be if you feel that the infrastructure isn't happening quick enough. After all, you may not have access to easy charging from home [like 42% of the people in the UK, for example]. Hope that answers a few questions. If you have any more, I'm happy to answer them, if I can.
Yeah, they are verified because they've been tested under the WLTP rating format. Whilst that is said to be a wee bit optimistic by commentators in the USA, who use the EPA rating, it's still real. I would knock off 5-10% to be cynical. If you see NEDC stats, take them with a pinch of salt. I'm convinced they use a rolling road or something, because they bear no relationship to reality. And I totally get your reluctance to believe VW. So do I. I was just putting out the published specs because they will be near them under real conditions. All we have to do is wait for road tests. Thing is, VW have ploughed a stack of Deutschmarks into the MEB platform [new totally EV and not FFV vehicle framework]. If it isn't successful by being good it'll really hurt them [part of me thinks that's no bad thing] and progress towards an electrical future will be slower. Tesla can't do it all, even with the Chinese helping. And whatever we currently think of VW, they are a huge voice in the auto world. Here's a video published yesterday to see how it looks on the road. You find others on YT which will show you interiors:
