No that is not the real story here today. It does give a perspective on why so many too big, too fast, and too often vehicles are eating up limited supplies of gasoline and oil. However, what is being missed is we are not buying more oil for the Strategic Oil Reserve. Although, I am recalling our younger days when for Christmas the boys (meaning my brothers and I) would get “metal” Tonka pickup trucks and other versions of the same brand. Not a...
Read More »Gasoline Pricing during my lifetime
A bit of Kevin Drum: “Raw data: Gasoline during my lifetime,” jabberwocking.com, Kevin Drum. I had just been discharged from Marine Corp active duty in 71, married, and bought a boxy Datson 510 to get around in the Chicago suburbs. Finished up at one college in 72 and started finishing my BA at another college 40-something miles away. The1.8 litre with a three speed Borg Warner transmission Datsun paid off at 30 miles to the gallon. I hauled...
Read More »Is Choosing the Status Quo sage ? Is it even possible ?
I am struggling with thoughts about status quo bias. I see many issues where a proposal to do something new is subject to severe scrutiny which is not applied to the implicit proposal to keep doing what we have been doing. The logic is small c conservative — better to stick with what we know than to take a chance. In many critically important cases, this makes no sense, as we are not in a steady state and things won’t stay the same (being what we...
Read More »Is It Worth the Pollution and Costs? Flying Montreal Bagels to Vancouver, Canada
We do not measure the amount of pollution and costs incurring when products are transporting in a way having greater pollution and cost. This as measured against local products. A comment on Lloyd Alter’s piece discusses dough coming from Italy for pizzas? “I’m less concerned about this than that our major grocery chains. Currently, PC (store) has a “Hand Tossed in Italy” brand of pizza. So Canada ships our wheat to Italy to be processed, turned...
Read More »It is not the economics,
The myth of markets How is it that a market created by Madison Avenue becomes prescient? Omniscient? It doesn’t. It isn’t; never was. Like capitalism, the primacy of private healthcare and the myth of markets are a big lie.The planet is dying from our burning of fossil fuels, yet we hear ‘news readers’ demand that alternative energy needs to be competitive with fossil fuels. Like hell, it does. Markets may, probably do, have a place in an economy,...
Read More »New Model Oversized Cars are ridiculously Large
Too Big, too Loud, and Too fast appears to be the thing these days. Either they are jacked up squatting, large tired, multiple rear tires, altered mufflered, adjusted emission control to emit soot from acceleration, etc. Anything to gain attention for those who probably never received such while growing up. As children, we all had our favorite displays of machoism and then we grew up. Other things became more important than the vehicle we drove....
Read More »Utah officials sued over failure to save Great Salt Lake
In Arizona, much of its water is drawn from the Colorado River. As everyone knows, The Lake Colorado Eiver Reservoirs dropped ~150 feet since 1983. It gained water due to the recent hurricane and also a large snowfall this last year. It still has not returned to prior levels. Meanwhile, the state of Arizona continues to build more houses to accommodate people. Somewhere there is a balance here and only the Federal Government can set it. Just another...
Read More »John Deere partners with a Battery-electrified Product Manufacturer
This is interesting. John Deere a manufacturer of gasoline driven equipment is partnering with an international company owned by Chevron and is based in Nanjing China. EGO is led by CEO Long Quan Pan (title: Chairman/CEO/Executive Director/Co-Founder, Chervon Holdings Ltd.). My initial thought was, why doesn’t John Deere buy EGO out right making it a division of it. I suspect the opposite will happen as John Deere has an extensive distribution...
Read More »Open Thread August 31, 2023 Mixed News Topics
Not Everything We Call Cancer Should Be Called Cancer, rsn.org. The NYPD Denied Our Request for Body Camera Footage of a “Friendly Fire” Killing. Here’s How We Got It Anyway, ProPublica, Mike Hayes. Clarence Thomas officially discloses private jet trips on GOP donor Harlan Crow’s plane, CNN Politics, Ariane de Vogue and Devan Cole. Stay away from Arizona. That’s what Canada essentially is telling its people, msn.com, Phil Boas. Arizona...
Read More »Ford Reveals New Lineup of EV Chargers + a Home Version
This is mostly about commercial charging stations for companies. However, the company does offer a home version which I have added a picture and the pricing. Not cheap. It does solve the issue of where do I charge my vehicle? Not endorsing this as it is early on in the introduction of EVs and barely touching on the economics of an EV. Still, my Detroit attachment to automotive. The other factor(s), needing to be brought to the forefront is the...
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