GorillaOffTopic, Everything But Gorilla Trades

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and it’s simply amazing how new products seem to arise out of extreme need in order to heed the call. This time is no exception in the auto industry. With ridiculously high gas prices, the last thing this economy needs is more SUV’s. That is why one innovative auto maker decided to create a product that will not only save you money bigtime, but will most likely outlast the competition over time.  How does a car that gets 106 mpg sound to you? As long as this big Gorilla can fit into it just fine, it sounds great! And what if this Gorilla told you that this super car could run partially on air? Yes, it’s true folks, there is such a car, and not only could we see it out on the market as early as 2010, but it will actually be affordable as well, at a price of only $18,500; a bargain for such an economically and environmentally sensitive product. This incredible air-compressed car is generating plenty of skepticism, but it is also generating plenty of buzz out there.  A European company, MDI, is using a technology which was founded by a former race car engineer who is also an inventor. A New York based company has already jumped into the driver’s seat by being the first to obtain a license from MDI to produce the cars in the United States.  So, how exactly does it work? Well the Gorilla was, of course, wondering the same thing. It sounds simple: It’s a cool technology in which the engine’s pistons are powered by compressed air, similar to a locomotive, but sans the steam. Gas is still used however, and drawn from a tank underneath the vehicle and used as a mix with the compressed air, but that’s only after the car accelerates to over 35 mpg. Under that speed, the car runs strictly on the air.  Shiva Vencat, Vice President of MDI and CEO of Zero Pollution Motors, explains that the car will only go a short distance when using just air so fuel is needed to get the full range. “Above 35 mph, there is an external combustion system, which is basically a heater that uses a little bit of gasoline, biofuel, ethanol, or vegetable oil that will heat the air,” Vencat said. “Heating the air increases its volume, and by increasing its volume, it increases [the car’s] range. That’s why with one gallon of gasoline, or its equivalent, we are able to make over 100 mpg.”  

Although the vehicle has been met with extreme skepticism in many areas (some companies doubt the capabilities of the technology saying it could never realistically get that kind of gas mileage unless is was an “experimental product”), many automakers are still buying into the technology. Tata Motors of India is one of them. It is not saying however that they are developing an air compressed car, but that it is working on “refining” the technology. “The project is under progress. We do not yet have any timeframe for launch,” said Debasis Ray, the head of corporate communications for Tata Motors. At this point in time there are only prototypes, but the Gorilla, and many “Green Watchers” like him, is impressed by the thought of such a seemingly great product, which will help people save money, while also cutting down on deadly carbon monoxide emissions. If it works, it could certainly be a win-win product!

When most of us think of migrant workers, we think of a situation of extreme poverty and misfortune. If you saw a migrant worker in the fields today, would you think his chances of having a better life would be promising, or would you assume that his life will be pretty much etched out for him in those fields until the day he dies? Most of us would believe the latter, and for the most part you would be correct.  Most of the workers that come to toil in U.S. farmlands and groves are the most impoverished illegal immigrants, who have escaped their own poor countries and have come to the U.S. to find a better life. One migrant worker did just that himself, but when posed with the thought of having to labor tirelessly in the fields for the rest of his life, he just couldn’t stand the thought of it so he took matters into his own hands and started himself on a progressive path, which changed his life for the better. Once a migrant worker, who picked produce, Dr. Alfredo Quinones is now a brain surgeon. Dr. “Q,” as he is called, defied the odds and is now considered to be one of the top brain surgeons in the world. Currently a surgeon at John Hopkins in Baltimore, Dr. Q is on a mission to find a cure for brain cancer, and is currently constructing a team of physicians from all over the world, with the belief that all of their various backgrounds will give each of them a different perspective, and perhaps lend itself to finding a cure.   Now running his own lab at Johns Hopkins, the good doctor recalls his days of picking produce for a mere $22 per day, while living under a camper in the middle of a California field.  “Sometimes I would cry myself to sleep thinking, ‘What am I doing here?’ ” Quinones recalls. “I have a cousin who told me, ‘You’re never going to be anything but a migrant worker the rest of your life.’ But it just ignited this fire in my belly.” From that point on, Dr. Q learned various skills and blazed through school. He eventually ended up going to the University of California at Berkeley, where he came into the lab of  Dr. Joe Martinez Jr., who steered him towards medicine. “He knew nothing about the brain, but learned at an amazing rate. He was one of the two best students I ever taught.” Dr. Martinez said. With his exceptional grades  Dr. Q was able to make it into Harvard’s medical school and graduated at the top of his class there. He says that it was his fear of failure that drove him and while he says that fear is actually “Ok”, he admits that it was a driving force behind his motivation and success. Now Dr. Q is passing on the love and opportunity to his students, urging them to be their patients’ “friends” and that it is important to remember the “human” side in medicine. So when asked if he thinks he will be successful in finding a cure for brain cancer, he responds cheerfully, “It doesn’t matter whether you’re successful or not.” “What matters is that you give the world the best, and the best will come back to you.” Now that is a great story we call all appreciate. Way to go Dr. Q; someone who defied the odds to better their own life. That is true success!

The Gorilla recently saw the movie “Step Brothers” with Will Farrell and as hilarious as some found it, it highlighted an interesting theme: Parents who are enablers, where their children are concerned. In the movie, Will Farrell is a 40 year-old man, who still lives at home with his mother, who meets and marries a man, who also has an almost 40 year-old son living at home as well. The two sons must now live in one home together with their parents; thus the name “Step Brothers.”  A funny movie to be sure, but the theme, as exaggerated as it was, brought to mind the issue of parenting and the way people so often over-indulge their children. Now you may well know by now that good parenting- or rather lack thereof - is one of the Gorilla’s pet peeves. (He has many of course.) But when parents let their kids take over and rule the roost, they are NOT doing their kids any favors…in fact, psychologists agree that these parents are doing the exact opposite; they are making it harder for their kids to thrive on their own in this world.  Letting your kids mooch off of you well into adulthood is one good example, and here’s another: when the Gorilla was in the airport recently, he observed a mother with her child. The girl must have been around 12 years-old. Interestingly, the child (who was disguised as an adult) was wearing a very similar outfit to her mother. This included an expensive (adult looking ) handbag made of high quality leather, she had on what looked to be very expensive shoes, she had a piece of Louis Vuitton luggage, and was texting from an expensive Blackberry.  Now don’t get me wrong here folks, the Gorilla is a somewhat successful guy in his own rite, and he can afford to get his kids many nice things, but that doesn’t mean he will!  Really, does a girl of 12 need to have all of the same things as the mother who bore her in hard labor and has lived a lifetime and has (most likely) earned it? What has a girl of 12 done in her life to earn such expensive things?  Yes, yes, it is a very different world now, and kids have everything and want everything, but surely there are compromises that can be made. Even for the very wealthy. The Gorilla’s neighbors also “over-indulge” their kids, buying them simply everything and anything they ask for from Jet Skis to four-wheelers, and even their own expensive boats (the kids are teenagers).  Geez! When the Gorilla was a young chimp, he was simply thrilled to use his dad’s old beat-up boat on occasion. That was something special to the Gorilla and he felt so grateful for it! And remember the days that ice cream cone cost $0.25, and if you wanted one, you had to do some chores to get it. Nowadays, kids want a Mercedes for their first car and many times they get one. And this doesn’t always apply to just the wealthy any longer. More and more parents are trying too hard to indulge their kids’ desires and it begs the question: why?  It’s not only material interests and desires (although that’s the most obvious manifestation), but it’s the general way in which many parents answer to their kids instead of getting their kids to answer to them –with respect and a slight amount of healthy fear. Instead, it seems as if the parents almost fear their own children and show it by never saying “no!”  Studies have shown that kids who were over-indulged during the course of childhood often have a hard time “launching” into mainstream society (thus the term and movie, ”failure to launch”).  Besides that, if you give kids too many material things, they quickly have little or no appreciation for much in life- thus making it hard for them to be happy. It’s common sense that if they are getting everything they want, kids (and people in general) tend to have nothing to look forward to or nothing to work towards and no goals. The solution: Make it tough on them.  Children must have goals. Simply giving them what they want when they want it sends a message that life is easy and that nothing has to be achieved in order for a reward to be given. Let your kids earn the things they ask for over time. Let them experience delayed gratification by making them wait for it, and oh…here’s an idea! How about telling them “no” to certain things they want, just for the sake of saying “no?”  In reality, you just don’t get what you want many times in life and your kids need to learn to deal with it! So no, this Gorilla won’t be buying his kids the most expensive things in life, no sir. Instead, he will be giving them the best thing money cannot buy; a sense of self-worth, self respect, and the feeling of satisfaction one can only get from simply knowing how it feels to earn something in life! As for those other parents…well they have one spoiled rotten daughter already. Her name is Paris. Really people, does the world need a whole bunch of her running around? Ughh!

Cutbacks are a reality in the airline industry now, and if you haven’t flown in a while, you are bound to be shocked by how severe the cutbacks have become.  To start with, airlines have been offering fewer flights to destinations like the Caribbean and many other international destinations as well, making it difficult on those who travel internationally or just want to take a vacation. And not to state the obvious, but the rising fuel costs have forced airlines to now charge more money per ticket and to charge for things that were once complimentary as well.  Most airlines have been charging for those once complimentary meals for years now so that isn’t exactly anything new but now, you can’t even get a pack of peanuts for free! Nice. Absolutely nothing is free on an airplane any longer, which is just plain rude! It’s bad enough that some airlines are now charging bag fees (meaning to check in a bag or more than one in some cases), but that is not even the worst of it. And how about this story from the Gorilla’s recent travel log: Okay, so as much as the Gorilla travels, he certainly gets why the airlines must save money, he really does- but his latest travel experience just took the cake for him.  A Gorilla can take a lot of things. He can handle the charges for the various meals, blankets, and even headphones. He can handle no pillows on an overnight flight (true story- they simply weren’t available to coach passengers), and how about the attitude of the flight attendants themselves? Have you noticed lately just how hostile they are? Yes, a Gorilla can even handle that. But what he fails to comprehend is how, when all of the beverage services were completed, and everyone was seemingly asleep, there were absolutely NO lights on whatsoever in the cockpit. None! Not even the normally lit running lights (or exit light) down the aisles! The airplane went completely pitch (and he means pitch) black inside. Now save a few iPods and computer screens going on and off intermittently, there were NO lights to speak of.  Yes, the Gorilla let out a very audible “hmm” for his neighbors to hear with the realization that he now had to use the little Gorilla lavatory in the back of the plane. ”How hard could it be to find his way up and down an isle,” he thought. After all, it was a straight run.” Well to put it lightly, on the way to the lavatory, the Gorilla stepped on two different passengers’ feet (which were only slightly in the aisle), accidentally pulled a woman’s hair as he felt for the seatbacks to help him maneuver, and could not find his way back to his own seat on the trip back.(Humiliating). He actually had to head back to the rear of the plane and ask for help from one of the flight attendants, who himself carried a flashlight. How nice for him!  But to make it so that passengers must feel there way in the dark or count seat numbers on the way back to their seats from the bathroom is simply too much to ask of any passenger. It is simply not fair. The Gorilla could easily see someone falling and hurting themselves or another, while the airlines continue to overlook this potentially dangerous (but mostly embarrassing) cost-saving method. If a passenger sues them, which is not that unlikely, they are going to have a lot more to worry about than the few bucks they are saving on aisle lights.  

The Gorilla’s advice: Well you can’t beat the system. Unfortunately air travel is just not all that fun these days so there is nothing one can really do about it but be prepared. Oh, and btw… a flashlight might not be a bad idea if you are taking the redeye!

Have you ever noticed that your best friend seems to mimic your behavior at certain times? The truth is, the more you are around them, the more they start to follow your cues! It’s human nature, right?  Well actually no, it is more like canine nature. The Gorilla isn’t talking about your human best friend…he’s talking about your dog. British scientists have now suggested that dogs may very well try to imitate their owner’s behavior at certain times. Much like many humans do with one another. When you yawn, your dog may mimic you and yawn himself, which suggests a small degree of empathy for their human counterparts. This behavior has previously been shown only to occur in humans and chimpanzees–until now.  Recently, 72% of 29 dogs tested were caught yawning after observing a person doing it. So pay attention next time you yawn when Fido is watching. The Gorilla has actually made this observation in the past, but it has not been limited to just yawning. The Gorilla’ furry friend will cry (howl)  when he sees tears and sing (howl) when he hears the Gorilla sing (most likely due to the pain inflicted by the sound of it), and he barks furiously at anyone in the house who is yelling or arguing, as if he would like it to stop! Empathy? Well this animal has plenty of it, and it didn’t take a British scientist to make us aware of it!  

Our beloved dogs are simply loaded with more sympathy in one paw than most humans have in their whole body! No wonder they are called “man’s best friend!”  Now if only we can train them to take out the garbage and make us coffee. Now that would be the cat’s pajamas, don’t ya think?

Yeah, yeah, we know. If you want to lose weight you MUST exercise. No if’s, and’s, or (big) but’s about it! Right? Well, for now, yes. However, the future may bring something very new, exciting, and totally unbelievable to the market, and it’s something like a miracle weight loss pill. And yeah, yeah, we all have heard that one before, but new interesting research has proven very promising for a brand new diet pill.  Currently, there is a new drug called AICAR, which is currently being tested on mice and has shown incredible results. According to the study, the sedentary mice that were given the drug were reported to have run (on a testing treadmill) 44% faster and 23% longer than those who weren’t given the drug.  The mice took the drugs for four weeks and burned more calories and had less fat than the untreated mice. Scientists are not exactly sure how well that will translate to humans, but the future looks promising.  Exercise in a pill? That’s exactly what scientists are calling it. “We have exercise in a pill,” said Ron Evans, an author of the study. “With no exercise, you can take a drug and chemically mimic it.” Chemically mimicking exercise? Well, hot damn! Sign the Gorilla up! He is tired of all of those tree-swinging, banana-finding, cardio workouts! Give him the easy shortcut any day!  But while that scenario may ultimately be a stretch, it could, one day, be possible to at least partially mimic the chemical reaction the body has as a result of an exercise workout and still, that is pretty darn cool! Of course, researchers warn that athletes my try to illegally jump on the chemically altered body bandwagon and so we must be cautious. But hey, that is certainly not something new.  Still, the idea seems too good to be true, but it could prove useful in other areas as well. Currently, the no-exercise drug is in advanced human testing to see if it can prevent a complication of heart bypass surgery. But, it takes more than just altered muscles to turn a sedentary mouse into a distance runner, Evans said, and “honestly, I just don’t know how that happens. Whether it would happen in a person, I don’t know. I think it’s a small miracle it happened at all.”  Experts who study muscle agreed that a drug like AICAR may prove useful someday in treating obesity and diabetes. It could also be helpful in helping those who cannot get exercise due to pain or a medical condition. Quick, get it! And hurry up! Isn’t that how we all feel? But still, experts all agree (overwhelmingly) that there is NO replacement for exercise no matter how much we wish there was! (Sigh) Oh well. A guy can dream can’t he?

Okay, so now that we have heard all of the warnings about the dangers of  talking on your cell while driving, people seem to have finally gotten the message (no pun intended) not to mention, many states have passed new laws banning people from using phones while driving. Well that’s just fantastic (the Gorilla always hates it when people aren’t driving properly because they too busy talking on their phones). But now that we’ve got a handle on that situation, of course, we have another concern to think about; texting.  The American College of Emergency Physicians warns that there may be serious dangers involved in texting while walking, driving, or doing just about anything at the same time your fingers are punching those keys at a thousand miles per minute. One student talks about how she often stumbles while texting and walking because she isn’t paying attention or looking at the ground where she is walking. Another woman admits that she fell off of a curb and twisted her ankle while fingering away at her blackberry. “It was a nice wake-up call for me to be a lot more careful in the future, because I clearly wasn’t paying attention and I should have,” she says.  But the physician’s warnings come at a time when ER doctors are seeing a rise in serious accidents involving people texting and doing other things simultaneously such as walking, biking, roller-blading, and yes, driving. One ER doctor in Texas, Dr. Angela Gardner, even said she recently saw a man who was injured while texting and riding on a segway. Ouch! She says that when questioned about their injuries, people usually lie or make excuses about how they were injured. She usually ends up getting the real story from snickering ambulance drivers and crew.  “People don’t want to admit they were doing something so silly,” Gardner said.  

In a country where 363 billion text messages were sent last year, according to CTIA, a wireless association, this is a big concern. There have also been hundreds of deaths due to texting and driving, and while that may not seem like much, those are only the proven documented cases and authorities say that number will most likely to increase in the next few years due to the popularity of text messaging. The Gorilla’s advice? People can always wait. Remember the days when there were no cell phones? It never killed anyone to have to wait back then, now did it?

In the movie ’Wild Hogs,’ a group of men go on a ”guys” biker road trip, having a couple of things in common: They are all going through a “mid-life crisis” of sorts and they all have Harley’s. The mission? Well it’s the same for every good bike trip; to experience the open road, while relishing the feeling of extreme freedom (and of course to see some sights in the process). This could very well be the reason so many people are hitting the road, biker-style this summer, and why not? It’s a great way to experience the world, and hey, it’s a whole lot cheaper than taking your car, truck, or SUV.  Ask any biker what it’s like and they will tell you that once you’ve ridden on a motorcycle cross-country, riding in a car feels like being in a cage. The feeling of your body moving from side to side as you sweep along the endless stretch of highway is like living out a movie with you and your bike as the main characters.  The smell of fresh pine and honeysuckle can only be imagined from the inside of a car. But on a bike, there is a feeling of oneness with nature, with the open road, and with freedom. More and more these days people are ditching their cars and trucks and getting on motorcycles to travel, to run errands, or to go to work (yes, it’s unconventional, but still pretty cool indeed!)  This summer, the Gorilla visited one small city he has frequented many times and was surprised to find that many of the locals were even riding around on scooters instead of using their cars for short distances within the city. Hmm. Smart idea! So the point is simple: Whether you thinking about exploring the Outer Banks or the Cumberland Gap, or simply trying to save on gasoline, a bike trip is a good option this summer!  

If you haven’t yet experienced biking on the open road whether it be on a motor scooter, a Kawasaki, or a Harley, rent or buy one and get out there and enjoy all of the open road our beautiful US of A has to offer! Happy Trails to you, but be safe!

Well it has finally happened folks. The first state in the union to get smart about the food served in public restaurants is, of course, the forerunner: California. The terminator placed a ban on trans-fats in that state, which will ‘terminate’ forever the use of the artery-clogging fats once and for all. Specifically, he signed legislation that will ban restaurants and other fast food retail establishments from using oil, margarine, and shortening containing trans-fats.  Trans-fats, are extremely unhealthy man-made fats that are both unnecessary and difficult to digest and consuming them increases one’s risk of coronary artery disease by raising levels of bad LDL cholesterol and lowering HDL or good cholesterol levels.  Governor Schwarzenegger has been advocating a healthy lifestyle since his days as Mr. Universe, so it’s only fitting that the “Govenator” should be the first to sign the new legislation. “Today we are taking a strong step toward creating a healthier future for California,” he said.  So which states will follow suit? Well although California is the first to have a state-wide ban on trans-fats in restaurants, it is certainly not the first to do it in general. The great state of California joins cities like New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Montgomery County MD, all of which have ordinances banning them. The California legislation will take effect on Jan. 1, 2010.  Some say it is an attempt for Big Brother to tell us how to live, but as you probably figured out by now, the Gorilla LOVES this ban and wishes it had come a lot sooner! Will it change lives? Well that is yet to be determined, but in the Gorilla’s humble opinion, it sure won’t hurt!

Have you ever wondered how much of the energy the gasoline you put in your tank really uses? Well, if the Gorilla told you, you probably wouldn’t believe it! Of the gasoline you put in your car’s tank, only a mere 25% of the energy is actually used to power your car…the rest is expelled out of your exhaust pipe! Yuck! (Global warming anyone?)  What a waste of precious energy and money. But wait- don’t think for a minute you and the Gorilla are the only ones who are bothered by this fact. Many people over the years have tried to create ways to harness that additional energy to make your gas go a lot further, but no one has found a practical way to do it- until now.   Researchers at the Ohio State University and Caltech in California have found a way to harness and recycle some of the extra energy using a thermoelectric material that is nearly twice as effective as current materials. ”The material does all the work. It produces electrical power just like conventional heat engines — steam engines, gas or diesel engines — that are coupled to electrical generators, but it uses electrons as the working fluids instead of water or gases, and makes electricity directly,” Joseph Heremans, who led the project, said in a statement.  Jeff Snyder of Caltech worked on the project and says that the device can increase the vehicle’s fuel efficiency by 10%. Snyder says the idea of thermoelectrics has been around for a long time, but it didn’t make sense when oil was only $20 per barrel. ”Now that energy costs have gone up by a factor of five, these alternative ideas that have been around for awhile are a lot more viable,” Snyder said in a telephone interview. He believes it would be possible to make the systems available in the next 10 years. Hmmm…10 years?  

Call the Gorilla crazy, but 10 years just seems a little too late, considering the ballgame could quite possibly be a bit more “green” by then! After all, aren’t automakers currently focusing on the non-use of gasoline and more energy efficient cars in the next 10 years? A good idea, yes- but it’s just too bad the good idea didn’t have better timing! It would be great to have that technology available right now when we are currently experiencing an energy crisis, with gasoline costing more than $4 per gallon! But yes, a great idea indeed, and who knows, maybe in ten years gasoline may still be the number one source of energy for automobiles. (But let’s hope not!)