How very true....

[A_Volpe]

Sad, yup.

Well it's not that Oil is evil, it's probably not the best thing for everything - as it is used for just about everything - but it is useful...It's the cost of this nasty sludge we find so precious I think is what's evil.

Although it is ironic how for thousands of years we've done it on foot or on horseback, only the last century has given us this oil based everything...and it's only become a real pain in the last decade. So, hopefully something better coming along soon.

I wish Solar power was being worked on here in the States. There is just so much potential...I just sit and wonder looking at parkinglots...oceans of cars baking in the sun (or the asphalt when no cars are on it) - and just ponder the energy possibilities of all of that radiant heat. I wonder about how a car broiling at 120 degrees inside during the summer and how that could possibly be put to better use than burning off your fingers when you go to grab the wheel.

Unfortunately for the States, each Region will have to find it's own unique sources...ie, in New England, wind power won't work, not enough room and not enough wind for the dense population and demand...But lots of hot, sunny summer days as well as blinding sun on some winter days.

But in the midwest there is massive open space with lots of wind, so wind power there would work better, and just as well as populations are more scattered, so 'local' windfarms would be better.

speaking of which, I find it sad that I see all of the old images of the midwest with windvanes, yet these have dissapeared because oil got cheap. So only now are they coming back.

What I find most irritating, is the industry that refuses to make the change and to swallow the really harsh expenses to get the alternative methods out to us consumers. US car companies are 20 years, if not more, behind in new technology, because gas was cheap, profits were staggering, and the rich just got richer and didn't see and end. It's just such a horrible shame that we [US] can't find a way to make something domestically to benefit ourselves. We're too busy with importing everything. Sad.

Oh well, the cartoon was funny, and Libitina is right, Chocolate is GOOOD.

[Jona Lendering]

Oh well, the cartoon was funny, and Libitina is right, Chocolate is GOOOD.

Yep.

[sulla felix]

Perspective

We're paying about $4.50 per gallon in The Peoples Republik of Kalifornia.... about $1.78 per litre

So, for my EU compatriots.... I'll stop grumbling.... so loudly

We had several of our members not attend our BIG event .. complaining about the cost of gas....

A local news station calculated the cost of a horse and buggy and it was less expensive to fed and maintain a horse than it was to operate a car... "X" numbers of miles per average commute, averaging "X" miles per gallon...

Hmmm.. how many Mopeds to haul a trailer full of gear?

Hibernicus

I hesitate to post this..but..we pay about US 1.68 (about 86 pence) a gallon here in Dubai. I would stress that the rulers of Dubai are putting the excess money to good use by attempting to make it snow in the desert, or at least parts of the desert hock:

[P. Clodius Secundus]

Looking at the bright side, partially due to the cost of gas I have convinced my wife to let me register the motorcycle one of my friends gave me. It's only a 250cc Hyosung GV, but after some modifications to the intake, carbs, and exhaust it runs much better. It gets about 70 MPG which is double the 35 MPG I get on my Hyundai. I have about a 90 mile round trip commute. It's a bit of a haul on the bike, especially if the weather is less thatn perfect. It's really great for running short errands. Last month I rode to a Civil War event in uniform. It's actually quite easy to ride with a 3-band Enfield musket on your back. In fact people don't seem to follw too closely. I have yet to ride it to a Roman event. Imagine the sparks a seggie would make if I had to lay it down on pavement :lol:

[Hibernicus]

YES, Chocolate rocks... dark unadulterated with nuts but, maybe wrapped around a strawberry or dripped onto .. .OH wait.. sorry...

back on subject

windvanes pump water

The lib-green US Congress in a moment of selfserving PCness forcing the use of a food to make ethanol drove the cost of maize and anything using maize up up up all over the world. Corn tortillas, a staple in Mexico, quadrupled in price.

The solution is simple.

And the US can solve it. The high price of oil is our fault. We have umpteen-gazillions barrels of oil but a Polit Party so paranoid about the color green that they'd rather complain about Saudis oil than do something clever like drill for more of our own. Complaining is easy, it scares people, makes 'em vote for you. "You feel my pain"

They slam Exxon who nets under 10% per gallon of gas/petrol but say nothing about the local/state/fed taxes that net 40% per gallon and instead distract the blindered masses with see I told you sos about futures speculators an dhow bad their neighbor is for driving an SUV and how good they'll feel if they take a 2 hour bus for a 20 minute car ride.

In the short term..... drill for more oil and increase gasoline production.. takes about 3-7 years.

Start going nuclear... takes 5- 10 years

Small nuclear. The safest nuclear power plants are in the holds of US Navy ships. For example it takes about 20 (if I remember correctly) to power the needs of San Diego County.. 3 million people.


NO NO MORE OIL! OIL BAD.. Oil Pollutes! The air is so dirty!!! Bullpucky. I remember when you could drive through Anaheim California and NOT see the Matterhorn ride from The 405 because the air was so thick. That's about a quarter mile boys and girlz.

Or like the twit ratsa haired beaded hippie-ette in her docmartins sucking a frothy Starbucks chemical monstrocity (no fat / artificial sweeteners) soliciting signatures to clean up Yosemite Valley because its so polluted...

Didn't this well meaning sheepling ever look at photos of Yosemite from the late 60's or ealy 70's when you couldn't see the top of Half Dome from the Valley floor?

I was there sister! Your parents were still peein' in their real diapers.

Read some history.

AHHHH the planet is warming!... has to be human caused... no matter that the planet has been warming since the end of the last ICE AGE.. and always has.. always! no matter that on Pinatubo put more CO2 in the air than all the cars and trucks in the US since cars burned liquid fuel. What next, ban volcanoes?

No oil leaks from oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico after Katrina, yet oil platforms and off shore drilling is dangerous.. no mater that globules of oil wash up on SoCalifornia beaches from natural seepage of off shore oil deposits and have for as long as anyone has paid attention... the local news still does stories blaming off shore drilling.. and the sheeple believe!

And you can't "SAVE" water.. if ya don't use it it flows out to sea... besides they won't let us build more reservoirs!

Can't put solar panales on my own roof
Can't put up a windturbine
Can't drill a heat exchange well
.. not without variances, permits and specialty contactors all of which cost more than the money saved installing those electrical generating/saving devices.. and whose fault is that? ....ask the Donkey

Hiberncussing

[Libitina]

Ah Hibernicus if only we could harness the energy of your blood boiling we could power several small towns :wink:

I jest, and see your points.

When we have a Dad in this country who is hassled and threatened with court action by the council because he's put up a skull & crossbones flag for his sons birthday party... I can't see them liking wind turbines etc either!

[Robert Vermaat]

You've made a grown woman cry....

Not just women; I discovered the terrible truth when the chocolate shop around the corner (two corners, actually) had to close. Only two real chocolate shops left in all of Amsterdam.

The End of Civilization is near. :x

[Narukami]

But wait!

We still have those pink cookie like things so beloved and consumed by the modern Batavians... :roll:

Sorry -- forgot what they are called. :oops:


:wink:

Narukami

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

When we have a Dad in this country who is hassled and threatened with court action by the council because he's put up a skull & crossbones flag for his sons birthday party... I can't see them liking wind turbines etc either!

Que pasa? hock:

[A_Volpe]

What we really need is a way to get energy from Human poo, and without the smell.

That or the boundless energy of 5 year olds.....

or both? 8)

[Praefectusclassis]

We still have those pink cookie like things so beloved and consumed by the modern Batavians..

These? I'd say opinions are divided about their loveliness...

[Magnus]

That looks disgusting....I want one.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Naaaa, they taste disgusting too! Bleackkkkk........ :o

[Libitina]

That looks disgusting....I want one.

:lol:

Are they like those Mr Kipling french fancies things in the UK?

What we really need is a way to get energy from Human poo, and without the smell.

And eww. Cake and poo should never go together in a thread.

[Narukami]

And eww. Cake and poo should never go together in a thread.

True enough.

But this is a Roman Forum and the ancient Romans were a practical and pragmatic people to a fault. If anyone could combine too more unlikely partners as those listed above then certainly it was the Romans.

hock:

Narukami