Friday, September 02, 2005

Giving technology a whirl

One of the pains about having a blog is actually updating it.  Last night I found a setting that allowed you to post to your blog by (get this) emailing it in.  Now I no longer have to deal with the pain of having to open a web browser, going to blogger.com, logging in, create a new post, and then write out what I want to say.  I instead can just email an address and it goes to where it is supposed to go.
 
On to other things:
 
It's been tough looking at images of New Orleans.  I heard on the radio this morning that a man was sleeping on the roof of his house and he was attacked by an alligator.  As if those people don't have enough to worry about.
 
The president urged people to conserve energy (particularly gasoline) because of this.  Some refineries were located out that way and now they aern't.  I think now is a good time to start having people evaluate gasoline consumption. 
 
1st) SUV's are fun.  They really are especially when you go off roading.  But if the biggest incline you have is 7 degrees and that's from the parking deck at work, you shouldn't have one.  They don't help in the ice (we hardly have snow here). Honestly, most major US cities don't need them. I saw tons of them in LA.  LA is a desert!  Why do they need them?   There should be a minimum requirement that cars in general get a minimum of 20 mpg..and that's low.  If you drive some lincoln town car that get 17 mpg highway, you need to get a different car.  There is no reason for you to be in that thing.  You are probably some old person in a hat driving 20 mph to slow anyway.  Don't get me wrong. I like SUVs.  I don't want to preach. If you like spending $100 each time at the pump, fine you do that.  But honestly, there is no need for it.  You people in the hybrid SUVs, good for you, you get the same fuel economy as my Escort, but I still have a smaller tank than you AND I get around fine in the ice/snow.

2nd) Brazil has a great idea and I have no idea why this hasn't taken off.  They have cars that run on alcohol/gasoline.  You can put either in the tank.  The alcohol gets half the fuel economy but costs half the price (if that).  We could use corn (they use sugercane), soy, or any other crop really to produce the fuel.  That would send a big "Up Yours" (shout out to Cris) to OPEC.  All the big motor companies make engines for these cars.  They have been wary of doing it here because at the moment, you can't fill up anywhere and they don't know how the US market will react.  It burns clean which is nice and all but really I'm not concerned with that.  I just want to take the hit off my wallet.
 
I don't know if this is true or not (it probably isn't), but I remember hearing once that if we were to put all our farming resources to full use our country alone would be able to feed most of the world's hungry.  Let's for the moment assume this is true.  Let's put them to full use and create our own fuel supply.  If we have a famine or dought (or even a hurricane) we can switch to gas (because remember the cars can take either one). 
 
I really hope this email thing worked. I really don't want to type this stuff out again.
 

 

6 comments:

  1. wow, it worked faster than publishing takes. This is definitely my new method of posting.

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  2. You can also post from your cell phone. Which isn't a good idea if you have a lot to say...but it's great if you want to share a pic!

    And as the driver of an SUV (albeit a small one that's on a car chassis), I like sitting up higher in traffic, makes me feel less claustraphobic. I like having the extra person and cargo space. And I actually get decent gas mileage (around 22 in town)...and I always pay less that $30 to fill up. At least until now. Filling up Daisha's Camry cost WAY more. But I think the alcohol/gas cars sound like a great idea.

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  3. Look at my husband getting all activist on us. I'm proud of you dear. The economist degree really shows today. :-) Hannah, your car doesn't count as an SUV. I love you anyway, though . . . :-)

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  4. I think my husband is talking about Hummer's and the like that get ridiculously low gas mileage.

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  5. yeah, I think a min of 20 mpg should be required. I saw a video of a guy driving a hummer. It has a guage that will show in realtime what the mpg is. He floored it and it went to 1. 1 mile per gallon. That is crazy. But some surburbans and things like that get 10-15. That's still just not right.

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  6. Anonymous3:00 AM

    I have a gas powered scooter that gets 6 miles to one can of beans. Plus, an instant "Jet Engine Converter" is available for only $0.99 (it's actually a book of matches). Stick that in your tank and floor it!

    I remember hearing once that if we were to put all our farming resources to full use our country alone would be able to feed most of the world's hungry.

    Presuming of course, that the soil quality was sufficient to produce plants fit for human consumption. A lot of it isn't; you can grow grain and stuff that a cow can take, but isn't nearly decent enough for a human to digest. It should suffice for corn liquor though; let's head to the still for some of Grandma's cough medicine and go for a spin!

    -Gdog4evr

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