| |
Subject |
Author |
Date Posted |
Forum
|
 |
RE: Fuel Issues & Prices - Post 'Em Here!
The way to get alternatives is to get government out of it and let the private sector free without all of the hindrances and lawsuits have at it.
Isn't that what lead to the collapse of Wall Street, the trillion dollar bailouts, and the widespread failure of mortgages?
The US has spent over $75 billion on trying to prove human induced global warming and still hasn’t.
Huh? How did they hide that? Where can I read about it?
That's pretty sensational stuff, so you must have good sources.
|
Fezziwig
|
11/13/09 07:04pm |
General RVing Issues
|
|
RE: Fuel Issues & Prices - Post 'Em Here!
How can you say:
Any research or actual production of shale oil is now under a congressional ban...
and then say:
I have read all I can on this and the beauty of this is the latest test plants utilized a system of utilizing steam...
How can there be test plants if all research is under congressional ban?
It just doesn't make sense.
|
Fezziwig
|
11/13/09 06:58pm |
General RVing Issues
|
|
RE: Fuel Issues & Prices - Post 'Em Here!
If the USA had followed the "drill baby drill" idea for the last 60 years we'd be busted! All our US oil reserves would be depleted, all our current oil would be imported, and we'd be at the mercy of foreigners!
And hooray for the treehuggers! They saved many of the hunting fields and fishing streams of my youth from destruction, and am I GLAD! I know that my favorite fishing river would be choked in paper mill waste if it weren't for treehuggers stopping it.
I guess Lindsay was deprived of hunting and fishing trips with Dad when he was a kid. How sad. Hunting and fishing is a lot more fun than driving a ten ton truck with 8 foot tires down the freeway.
|
Fezziwig
|
11/09/09 09:39am |
General RVing Issues
|
|
RE: Fuel Issues & Prices - Post 'Em Here!
Character is action. The policy we have actively pursued since 1945 is to go all over the world seeking oil and exploiting foreign oil fields. We did it with commerce rather than with armies, like the old-time colonialists.
QED.
|
Fezziwig
|
11/08/09 03:13pm |
General RVing Issues
|
|
RE: Fuel Issues & Prices - Post 'Em Here!
Nevertheless, that has obviously been US policy since 1945. Otherwise we would have exhausted our own oil before looking abroad for oil. And we would be in a worse position, by far, than we are today. We would have to pay extortionate prices or go to war for oil.
So it's been our policy, and it has served us well.
|
Fezziwig
|
11/08/09 10:52am |
General RVing Issues
|
|
RE: Fuel Issues & Prices - Post 'Em Here!
In the San Jose area gas prices are wobbling around the $2.85 - $3.05 area for some time now. Seems pretty stable. Looking at EIA (DOE) figures it looks like the last 30 years have been priced about the same, adjusted for inflation.
How do people account for this stability? Perhaps the Chinese, while demanding more of the world supply of oil, also will not pay above an affordable price (inflexible demand price), which stabilizes world oil prices since oil is fungible. Thus, oil producers while seeing increased demand have to pump it out at the low price because they'd rather make some profit at high yield rather than try to squeeze markets for higher profits.
So, as a consumer the USA benefits. That accords with colonial history: one is much better off being a consumer of raw materials than a producer. In fact, that has been the main principle of US oil policy since WW2. That's why we shifted our consumption to foreign oil: we consume cheap foreign oil while holding our own supply in reserve.
|
Fezziwig
|
11/07/09 05:22pm |
General RVing Issues
|
 |
RE: 2 1/2 hours PC shopping.......
I'm a careful shopper and a very experienced computer user. I bought my first microcomputer in 1978, a CPM machine.
For the last 13 years I have only bought Thinkpads. I also bought Thinkpads for my 5 kids, my wife and my 10 yr. old granddaughter. OK, so the wife and granddaughter prefer to use their Macs.
Since I'm a good shopper, I like to buy used Thinkpads that I have investigated carefully. I'm cheap.
I like Thinkpads because I can always get service from IBM or Lenovo, the keyboard is the best available, and they just keep working. Also, the informal users site at thinkpads.com is very useful.
At this moment I am using a Thinkpad T40 that I bought 5 years ago, used, for about $700. I've upgraded the HDD twice, and it still works like a champ. T40s have a known weakness: the case is a little too flexible and if you pick it up by the corner it may re-cycle. So, use two hands. For all around use it's just great. However, the CPU is starting to show it's age because I have many tasks going at the same time.
I still have some antique Thinkpads (560, 570 and 600) in service, which I leave in remote towns that I travel to occasionally. I also have a 570 here dedicated to burning CDs and DVDs.
I have a T60 with 15" widescreen that I use mostly for watching HDTV. I paid about $700 three years ago and it works perfectly.
I just bought a used X60s for only $285: a killer deal. It weighs less than 3 lbs. has an almost fullsize KB (with good feel) and a duo core 1.8 CPU so it outperforms any netbook I looked at. That's the Thinkpad I take to the coffeeshop. Sometimes I watch HDTV on it in bed.
I use the T40, T60 and X60s every day. They all connect to internet thru a Cradlepoint CTR500 in my rig, which I can connect either to a ATT DSL or to a Verizon USB727 G3 datacard. Or the coffeeshop.
I have Windows XP on each machine as well as Ubuntu. I use the XP for the HDTV viewer, and everything else is Ubuntu.
I'm very satisfied with this setup. I can do everything I want, I have lots of fallbacks and backups, I can travel anywhere. And a benefit, as a boondocker, is that I have 11 computer batteries, which I keep charged, so if I lose main power I can keep working for many many hours by swapping in batteries and computers.
And I figure that the annual capital cost to accumulate this setup has been very very low. Much less than buying a chintzy laptop or netbook.
YMMV.
|
Fezziwig
|
10/30/09 05:52pm |
Technology Corner
|
|
RE: Fuel Issues & Prices - Post 'Em Here!
So you know nothing about physics, yet you claim something as a law of physics.
At last, Festus, have you no shame?
|
Fezziwig
|
10/28/09 12:22pm |
General RVing Issues
|
|
RE: Fuel Issues & Prices - Post 'Em Here!
Paw paw says: "Its a basic rule of physics that what goes up, must come down."
No it's not. That's just a lay-persons interpretation of gravity. It's NOT physics. Did you actually ever take a physics course?
|
Fezziwig
|
10/26/09 04:43pm |
General RVing Issues
|
|
RE: Thinking of fulltime RVing to stretch retirement funds
Great ideas, Iris! I'm already using some of them.
You know, the idea of using heated stones goes waaaay back! old farmhouses used to have heater pans, which were long-handled pans that you could use to pick a stone out of the fire and put it in the foot of your bed. I haven't done that yet, but on cold nights I put on Merino wool socks (they're the best!)to keep my tootsies toasty! Also, it helps to have a knitted watch cap, like sailors use.
I make sun-tea during the summer, and now when it's cooler I heat water and make a two quart batch of hot herb tea when I arise, drink some of it while it's warm, and put the leftover aside as cold tea.
It's amazing how little we really need! Most of the junk we use is just bad habit. I keep throwing things away. Now, three of my overhead cabinets are half empty.
|
Fezziwig
|
10/26/09 04:37pm |
Beginning RVing
|
|
RE: Thinking of fulltime RVing to stretch retirement funds
Work Camping is great! I've been 'working' as Camp Host at a county park since june. Full hookups in a gorgeous 19,000 acre park in the mountains, surrounded by oaks and sugar pines with a view of the mountaintop. My basic 'work' is to keep an eye out for potential forest fires (I actually put one out myself this summer!), chat with campers and watch out they don't start wood fires. No money changes hands.
|
Fezziwig
|
10/26/09 03:44am |
Beginning RVing
|
|
RE: Fuel Issues & Prices - Post 'Em Here!
Lindsay and Paw Paw are representatives of the oil industry. Their salaries and bonuses are based on TODAYs revenues and TODAYs profits.
I'm just a USA taxpayer and citizen.
I don't want to be thrown on the tender mercies of the Saudi Oil Princes in a few years after US oil reserves are prematurely exhausted. And remember that 2/3 of all oil pumped under current leases from US oil fields is sold to foreigners. We have no obligation to the rest of the world to supply oil to them just to fatten Lindsay and Paw Paws wallets.
|
Fezziwig
|
10/26/09 03:29am |
General RVing Issues
|
|
RE: Fuel Issues & Prices - Post 'Em Here!
USA oil leases are owned and sold by the US government, and it's the duty of that agency to act on behalf of the USA and it's citizens.The best interests of the USA citizen is to hold much of that oil lease land in reserve for future needs because the long-term trend of oil prices is upward.
It's better than money in the bank.
Why would it be better to sell off cheap oil leases now? The oil won't come online for 20 years, and the USA interest will be diminished because it will be sold at the new, high, 2029 price, while the oil company is only paying the old 2009 lease rate. Besides that, the oil company just pays a reduced rental fee while holding the lease idle. So we, the USA, have surrendered control of the oil field for puny fees.
Seems like a loser to me.
|
Fezziwig
|
10/25/09 12:48pm |
General RVing Issues
|
|
RE: Fuel Issues & Prices - Post 'Em Here!
"We are buying over 60 % of our foreign oil from overseas when we have huge supplies of oil, natural gas, shale oil, and coal in the USA. Now why is this a good ideal?"
Because, although you may not think so, foreign oil is cheap right now. the long-term secular trend in oil prices is up: our oil will be worth much more in 20 years than it is now. It's better than money in the bank.
If the oil situation gets worse with time, as the chinese and others escalate their demand, our underground oil increases in value. Any oil leases we let under current international trade agreements will result in 2/3 of the pumped oil from US resources going to other coutries. But if we hoard the oil until later we will be able to change the terms of sales then to secure a higher percentage for ourselves.
Letting leases now will shortchange us for the future when prices will be higher. It is penny-wise and pound foolish.
|
Fezziwig
|
10/24/09 06:57pm |
General RVing Issues
|
|
RE: Fuel Issues & Prices - Post 'Em Here!
"That is not the reason we don't drill for our own oil. The real reason is environmental pressure - pure and simple. "
I didn't know that the Environmentalists had more money than the oil companies. It must be so because we all know that congress-critters are For sale to the highest bidder.
|
Fezziwig
|
10/24/09 06:27pm |
General RVing Issues
|
|
RE: Thinking of fulltime RVing to stretch retirement funds
Bingo!
John S, you are right on the money!
Those are the reasons I settled on a 1983 Fleetwood Class C, 24' long. With Ford 461 V8 and only 70k. then I did a bunch of preventative maintenance on it like new water pump, etc.
I cut my electricty needs down to the minimum and added two arrays of cheap HF solar panels. I can charge everything during 3 hours of sunlight.
I cut my propane needs down by changing my diet to be mostly raw food with some cooked occasional treats. I only used 1/4 tank thru the whole summer. I'm going to add a solar oven made of a silver windshield cover stuck in a pail.
|
Fezziwig
|
10/24/09 12:20pm |
Beginning RVing
|
|
RE: Fuel Issues & Prices - Post 'Em Here!
"I would like some one to tell me why leaving our natural resources unrecouped and purchasing them and the associated jobs they produce, helps our country and our people."
The easiest answer is that the value of our resources goes up as other peoples resources are exhausted. So we should use up cheap oil from the middle east while holding ours in reserve for the future when demand is higher (and it seems demand increases every year as more countries demand a modern high-consumption economy) and the value of that underground oil increases. With world-wide known oil reserves peaking out it's better than money in the bank.
That's the policy we've pursued for 60 years and it's worked out well for us.
It's just a savvy business decision.
By contrast, if you are a counter-party (an adversary) what you would like is for the USA to sell oil leases on ANWR and OCS at todays cheap prices. then, in 20 years when they are ready to come online, the prices will be much higher and you can sell it to higher bidders, like China, at the expense of the USA. So if you are a Harvard-trained Saudi MBA (and there are whole armies of those guys) with all the resources provided by all the money the USA has paid to Saudis for the past 50 years you lay a plan to get the USA to sign over cheap oil leases now.
One form that Saudi plan could take (say, I were a Saudi MBA) would be to start a propaganda campaign in the USA to get citizens to pressure the government into selling oil leases right now. For example, I might start a US corporation with a nice all-american name like, say "American Solutions", and I would put an American flag on the web page, and I'd hire a prominent American politician, like, say, Newt Gingrich to front it. A PR firm would think up a catchy slogan, say, "Drill baby drill".
If I were such a devious Saudi MBA I would hold out as a carrot that letting leases now would solve todays USA gas problems, though I know that the oil won't come online for 20 years and then 2/3 or more will be sold to foreigners at high prices while being pumped out of USA oil reserves at old 2009 cheap prices.
But then, our loyal royal allies in Saudi Arabia wouldn't do that would they?
They wouldn't be that mean and selfish would they?
They wouldn't be that calculating would they?
After all, they love us! Pay no attention to the fact that 15 of 19 bombers on 9/11/2001 were Saudis. Oh, and ignore that Osama Bin Ladin is a Saudi.
|
Fezziwig
|
10/24/09 12:05pm |
General RVing Issues
|
|
RE: Thinking of fulltime RVing to stretch retirement funds
There was also a Mini Winnie Class C 19' long.
|
Fezziwig
|
10/23/09 04:02pm |
Beginning RVing
|
|
RE: Fuel Issues & Prices - Post 'Em Here!
Supply and demand?
Most people have a grossly oversimplified notion of "supply and demand".
For example, supply and demand are suspended when a monopoly (or it's brother oligopoly) controls things, as OPEC did in 1973.
Economists use monotonic curves for 'demand' and 'supply' (the notions we usually have when we laymen talk about supply and demand), and where they intersect is the Equilibrium Point. But history is full of exceptions to the monotonic curve idea. For example, during the Irish potato famine when potato prices increased demand actually increased. And that was a Free Market. It's because of 'externalities' as economists call other independent variables. Any Electronics Engineer who's tuned a stagger-tuned IF strip can sympathize.
It's a terrible thing when actual fact interferes with a guys ideology.
|
Fezziwig
|
10/23/09 03:57pm |
General RVing Issues
|
|
RE: Thinking of fulltime RVing to stretch retirement funds
I'll try SUPERBRIGHTLEDs again. I couldn't purchase from them because they don't take PayPal.
I'm sure it's possible to make durable LEDs. Many of the Harborfreight lights are good. But the 1141/1156 auto replacement market is poor.
|
Fezziwig
|
10/21/09 10:04pm |
Beginning RVing
|
|
