Dark Side of Hybrid Vehicles

Ha.

Seems like the only people who ever try to invoke secondary meanings of
"liberal" in political discussions are Right-leaning folk (which in my
experience includes certain self-described Libertarians).

I wouldn't call you a conservative at all. To me, you're obviously an
Independent.

 

It would be pedantic of me to point out that the definition of
liberal I used has been historically the primary meaning, so I won't. ;-)
But yes, my experience with Libertarians has been that they generally
attempt to prove to anyone who will listen that they're actually
Libertarians, but just haven't been educated enough to realize it yet.
Which, to me, is extraordinarily annoying.

Again, definitions. My experience is that people who are declared
Independents tend to mostly be leftists who occasionally vote
to the right in local elections - but almost always go left
in the nationals. I call myself a conservative because I tend
to prefer political policies that pretty much leave me to
my own devices, whether it involves launching loud and
noisy rockets in the desert, or marrying a box turtle. But I'm
happy to pay taxes for clean water, to give a helping hand to
people who have had problems ( just not TOO much of a hand ;-) ),
and to pay for public sculptures whose purpose and meaning I
can't even begin to fathom. But hey, that's OK, as long as my
industry gets big tax breaks so I stay employed. ;-)

- Rich

 

I agree that they are certainly easier now, but I can easily imagine a
future time when another solution could become equally easy, once its
technical hurdles have been ironed out and it goes into mass-production.
It mostly comes down to how important people decide that it is to make a
change, and the energy invested in finding solutions.

It is pretty much impossible to get accurate figures about reserves. See
this interesting piece: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4681935.stm
.. If OPEC countries can pump more if they have greater reserves and they
therefore inflate reported reserves, if they don't allow outside
auditing, and if estimated reserves have remained unchanged in 20 years,
we're basically without real information. Never mind the difficulties of
mapping what's actually deep underground. Then there are the
difficulties estimating future demand. It's a morass made deeper by the
vast industries/sums riding on the info.

For the sake of discussion, however, let's take an OPEC 2003 estimate of
1 trillion barrels world reserves and the ~77.75 million barrels/day
world consumption (from the BBC article): the reserves would last a bit
over 35 years if consumption were to remain the same. Consumption is
certain to increase, as China, etc. become more industrialized, however.
35 years ain't that far off.

And then there's the geological question of what happens to the planet
as that volume of matter is removed from the crust. One 42-US gallon
barrel = 5.6146 cubic feet, or 0.145 metric tons. I can't be bothered
to figure out an estimate of how much crude has been extracted to date
to come up with a volume. Per day it's currently 436.54 million cubic
feet. That equates to 159.34 billion cubic feet per year, or 1.082 cubic
*miles*/year.

That kind of volume is miniscule considering the scale we're dealing
with, granted--the earth's total volume is ~260 *billion* cubic
miles--but crude is removed from the earths crust, which apparently
ranges from ~3 miles thick in much of the ocean to avg. 19-28 miles
thick on the continents surveyed at
http://mahi.ucsd.edu/Gabi/rem.dir/crust/crust2.dir/crust2a.thick.gif.
How is that volume distributed? Is it simply replaced by water (I've
seen examples of oil wells atop water)? How does it impact on plate
tectonics? Could we end up with monstrous sinkholes where oil is being
extracted? What other potential problems do we face? I'm no expert, and
simply don't know.

 

Likewise, it would be pedantic of me to point out that context is
everything, so here, it should have been obvious that the definition I
intended was the modern political one. ;-)

Well put.

It is helpful in the sense that it saves time: I move on more quickly to
talk to someone else more intelligent.

Interesting. I've seen just the opposite: Self-described Independents I've
known tend to lean Right.

Not saying you're lying or anything.

 

Obviously we need to start a country composed of your friends
and mine, and we'll have a perfect place where, uh, ( desperately
thinking of how to get back on topic... ) everyone will
buy Honda vehicles and be kind to kittens. ;-)

- Rich

 

Hold on there: My friends are all Democrats. These Independents (of either
your or my breeds) are no more than acquaintances or sports teammates.

The Democrats stand for and behind certain highly important core values
which the typical Independent is happy to abandon for issues that are lesser
in value to society AFAIC. That's not irrational of them. It's just not my
"religion" to put my personal needs so far ahead of greater society's.

Not that every Democrat is right about everything. Some are horribly wrong
about many things.

Elle
"... she writes as she checks how the stock markets are doing today. "

Back to Honda

 

I used to make the same observations about Subarus. I think it is caused
by the mindset that "I have 4wd, I can ignore the snow". Some would go
flying by, at speeds I thought were ridiculous for conditions, apparently
with success, others would plant it in a parking lot.

I know people with large vehicles that are used rarely, for those occasions
when they think they need power. One has a 2004 Ford F250 that sits most
of the time, while she drives a Prius. Driving the F250 every day because
you tow a trailer on vacation isn't sensible. I don't think owning one and
leaving it in the driveway makes a lot of sense either, but ...

 

Darling International Inc. provides recycling and rendering services in
which animal and food waste products are turned into useful commercial
goods, including tallow, protein meals (Meat and Bone Meal), and yellow
grease. Darling also services the restaurant industry by removing used
cooking oil and pumping grease traps.

so basically if everyone used old cooking oil to drive, the price of
this stuff goes up:

http://www.darlingii.com/products/animal_protiens/index.html

 

Abeness wrote:

At last, peace in the Middle East.

Maybe we should encourage consumption?

 

Maybe they're Democrats, not liberals?

 

Well said, Rich!

 

Last I looked, you haven't been appointed to speak on behalf of
"liberals" (whatever they are).

 

In the modern US political parlance "liberal" is used as a pejorative to
refer to anyone not toeing the neocon/GOP party line. It's used
interchangeably with "commie", "pinko", "fag", "feminazi", etc. IOW, it
has no meaning.

 

LOL! If only it were that easy... <g>

 

<wisely> Somtimes it must be difficult to be truly easy, Grasshopper.

 

The HX has none of the hybrid's feature. It has a special lean burning
engine. it seems like 05 will be the last year for it.

 

Not excatly, you can run the car on battery alone. But you will not get
far on it. Some people have managed to alter the program on the car's
CPU and allows it to run longer on battery and recharge it at night to
get better mileage.

A true gasoline car of the same displacment will not get that kind of
mileage, but a hybrid will.

 

You have a problem with people posting an opinion? Note the qualification,
"to me."

You haven't been appointed government censor.

 

You need a course in reading comprehension.