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JakeTheTall wrote:

resedit wrote:

JakeTheTall wrote:

The indicators visible in April were used by myself and others to see how bad it would get.  Heck, August 2007 was when this visibly started.

I can't always be right - and neither can you.

We didn't know how smurfed up the Banks were - that's what makes things so dangerous now.
With smurfed up banking, money doesn't flow, and that's the core of the current problem, is it not?

I knew how bad banking was in September 2007.  I also knew then how much of the past 5 years of growth was dependent on real estate and construction.

I'm just trying to show you maybe there's a reason why I was correct.

Something to do with supervolcanoes, near as I can figure it.

resedit wrote:

sturner wrote:

Like the tax cuts, the extension to unemployment payments, and several other things that the Republicans agree with?

Tax cuts haven't helped worth squat. We've had several years of tax cuts for businesses and higher income people. Why do the Repubs want more, since by their reasoning, none of this would be happening due to the previous tax cuts?

If you disagree with those things, by all means, let your senator know and tell them why.
I think the more letters they get, the better the odds of them being reminded who they really represent.

They've done a pretty good job representing the folks who finance their campaigns.

The thing about high taxes that always worries me is that it can result in money being invested in more tax friendly countries than in the US.

En passant, I'll note that the new numbers are out. The 400 richest Americans paid, if I heard right, an average of 17% income tax. I'll try to check that, or someone else can.

Not all that high. No wonder the middle class is disappearing, with all the money flowing upwards.

I've already explained the earth-shattering concept behind the alternative-fuel car purchase many times.

Guess it's easier to ignore it, or unnecessarily belittle if you can't.

Last edited by user (2009-01-31 9:10 am)

I am looking at a '97 Geo Metro for a back and forth to work beater. That car is rated at 45MPG while the Prius gets 47.
The current offering of Alt-Fuel cars are a smurfing joke, barely beating ten year old conventional technology.

1) That article is about a '92 Geo.
2) RTFComments

A person

daemon wrote:

1) That article is about a '92 Geo.
2) RTFComments

A person

SRSLY.
Anyone buying a Geo for fuel efficiency today is going to be a more careful driver than the EPA imagined standard. I don't have a Geo but I do drive for efficiency and get 25% better fuel economy than EPA ratings. The comments section suggests that Geo Metro buyers today are doing about the same or better. Similar anecdotal evidence suggests that the Prius is rated at about the top of its potential; I haven't heard of very many people doing significantly better.

The Geo will be cheaper and easier to do maintenance.

daemon wrote:

Roosevelt 'electirfied' w/TVA and the Hoover Dam.

Obama should electrify w/solar panel subsidies and a mandate for each building. NOW.

Atlfuel cars shoulda been on the roads in the '80's, ferkrissakes.

Oh. And res would love to ride the maglevs that could take him from Redding to Portland in 15 min.

Solar panels do not have that great of a return of energy on either cost or square footage of land needed for the array. I understand there is also considerable waste pollution involved in the manufacture of solar cells, I will have to look that up.

One place they should (and often are) used however are for remote lighting, such as parking lots at trail heads in national / state parks. Often they have a solar panel up on top of the light that charges a battery enough to keep the lot lit during dusk and dawn (I believe they shut off during the wee hours of the night). That way they don't have to have a diesel generator in the vicinity.

Nuclear, hydro, wind produce a lot more power for the dollar invested and need far less land to generate the same quantity of power as a solar array does. Wind apparently can have some fairly high maintenance cost, but that maintenance cost is low enough that some ranchers in suitable areas profit by installing private wind farms and selling the power to the grid. That's a really nice solution because it does not require destruction of land that is otherwise left to nature.

Last edited by resedit (2009-01-31 1:12 pm)

Pariah wrote:

The Metro I am thinking about has a price of $800. Basically it will be a disposable car. I will do minor repairs as needed but anything major and off to the junkyard it goes.

When my Dad had to commute to Berkeley from Brentwood, he bought a used Geo Metro.
The car lasted a LONG time. Sure, it needed repairs from time to time, but the thing lasted until someone sideswiped it - I think 5 years.
His primary motive for getting a metro was to have a car that was less likely to be stolen at the BART parking lot and got good mileage for the days when he had to drive all the way in to work.

His was a manual transmission 4 cylinder geo (some models were/are 3 bangers), no air conditioning (a decision he ended up regretting - opening the window doesn't work in 95F weather in stop and go traffic), basic radio, no frills, purchased as a lease return.

Never park a valuable car at a BART parking lot or park and ride. BART police doesn't have the necessary staff, it will be broken into.

Dunno about that, but they're slated to get Wi-Fi.

Do you ride public transportation?  If so, you may have noticed more buses and train systems that are utilizing wireless Internet access for customers to use while en route to their destination.  The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system -- a San Francisco Bay Area train system -- plans to expand its wireless internet to cover all trains and stations.

"This is a unique opportunity to demonstrate what high-speed Wi-Fi access, interconnected by a huge fiber optic backbone, can mean to a transit system and its passengers," Wi-Fi Rail Inc. CEO Cooper Lee said.

Some trains have Wi-Fi internet access already, but this 20-year agreement will cover 104 miles of track and all 43 BART stations with Internet by 2012.  Wi-Fi Rail will pay the entire cost of the $20 million internet installation, and BART riders will have the option of paying daily, monthly or annual subscription fees for the connection.

BART to Install Systemwide Wi-Fi Internet

Interesting to see where the GOP is getting help on the stimulus from:

You’d think Joe the Plumber’s 15 minutes would be up by now. But , no, after a stint as a correspondent in Israel, he took his act to Capitol Hill today.

The first order of business: giving political advice to conservative Republican staffers at breakfast, which, Wurzelbacher told us, “Went really well.”

His advice, essentially, was to take no prisoners in standing up for their beliefs.

“It’s not politically incorrect to say you’re Republican or conservative,” Joe said. “They need to dig their heels in and fight for what needs to be done.”

And no reason to be subtle, he said, as long as folks inform themselves. “I don’t believe there’s two sides to every story. It’s black and white,” Wurzelbacher explained. “There’s right and wrong.”

One thing that needs to be done, he said, is killing this stimulus package, because it’s just another example of “American government” — Republicans and Democrats — “kicking our butts left and right.” He also called it welfare.

As for his own political career, America will just have to wait six years until his son grows up.

“I don’t know if the American public deserve me,” he said, “but my son definitely deserves my time now.”

So look for Joe for Something in 2015. Why not? He’s kept his 15 minutes going this long.

Link.

Is the GOP of the opinion that "Joe the Plumber" is doing anything for them?