14 Apr 06 Wild WebCam Girls
14 Apr 06 Paris Hilton on Google Image Search
You know what’s ‘hot’, check out a search for Paris Hilton on Google Image Search.
Plenty More Where That Came From
14 Apr 06 Gas War | Alternative Energy Debate
Yesterday I got this email forward which I’ve seen a few times before, but the conversation the ensued was very interesting. I encourage you all to continue the dialog in the comments section below. Here is the forward we got followed by the dialog below:
GAS WAR - an idea that WILL work, this was originally sent by a retired Coca Cola executive It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. It’s worth your consideration.
Join the resistance!!!! I hear we are going to hit close to $ 4.00 a gallon by next summer and it might go higher!! Want gasoline prices to come down? We need to take some intelligent, united action.
Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea. This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the “don’t buy gas on a certain day” campaign that was going around last April or May!
The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn’t continue to “hurt” ourselves by refusing to buy gas. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can
really work. Please read on and join with us!
By now you’re probably thinking gasoline priced at about $1.50 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $2.79 for regular unleaded in my town. Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $1.50 - $1.75, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace… not sellers. With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.
How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can’t just stop buying gas. But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war. Don’t purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers. It’s really simple to do! Now, don’t wimp out on me.
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There’s no way this will work… all that will happen is that Exxon/Mobil will lose a little market share that others like BP will pick-up. That is what an oligopoly is all about. This plan is a zero-sum game.
Here are 2 ideas that will absolutely work to bring down prices at the pump-
1: Conserve. Figure out ways to drive less, use less gas, car pool, take a bike, ride a motorcycle, use public transportation, turn off the lights, open the windows instead of air conditioning, etc.
2: If everyone kept filled their tanks at 1/4 but only up to 3/4 - we’d all be keeping 5 or 6 gallons less in our tanks. That’s a lot of inventory, we as consumers hold. Short term, that would lower prices as wholesale supplies increased. But only short term, since actual usage remains the same.
-Steven
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Steven,
I like your suggestions. America uses way more oil than we have to. Countries like China are developing so fast, creating more and more demand everyday. Conservation is key… check out the new 100+ mpg Prius, it’s a step in the right direction.
- Josh
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Steven, I would like to conserve , how about towing my formula to Nantucket in July??????
- Billy
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Sorry buddy but I don’t think this idea will work?
In my opinion, the way it works is if say Exxon and Shell were to be boycotted and their sales drop, the others will take up the demand. The others are not prepared for the increased demand so they need to go into the wholesale market and purchase more supply to meet demand.
Guess who they but it from? Right.
It may be a headache, but it does not really change much.
Still, it would send a message of consumer solidarity and frustration to the energy industry, but there is not much incentive for them to do anything in a free market.
Still more, maybe the Bush Administration would stand up and do something… nahhh.
- Ed
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All of the nay sayers are assuming that our gas prices are set solely by the market price of crude oil. This is not the case. If it were, then the oligopoly argument would hold water and the supply would just shift from one purveyor to another. This however is not the whole picture. There are two components, the crude price and the profits realized by the purveyors… ie Exxon/Mobile/Shell etc.
IF we as a large percentage of the consumers were to boycott a few of the largest purveyors, it is reasonable to assume that they would cut their profits to keep up with the other purveyors. The price of crude would not change… as Steve Friedel correctly notes. However, it is reasonable to assume that the profit margin charged could be eroded in our favor. The PERFECT example of this is the Pizza Wars of the 70’s. NYC pizza went to as low as a nickel a slice as pizza parlors tried to stay in business with volume. Flour and cheese prices didn’t change. The merchants were willing to accept smaller margins…. Now the kicker…. 6 months later the pizza prices came right back up! The public has shown that collectively they can’t stay on a diet long-term! What is the true solution? A 10-20% consumption cut combined with alternative energy. Willy Diesel… fuel from corn. The American farmers flourish again and then the Arabs could keep their deserts!
- Joel
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Don’t be fooled by the ethanol/corn as gas debate. Corn is a factory plant and a very greedy one too requiring masses of feritlizer to be grown at the speed and in the quantities that make the dollar signs roll in those greedy CEO’s eyes.
Factory farming is not the answer to our planets problems let alone eco friendly. Guess what fertilizer is made from? It may take a gallon of gas to make a gallon of ethanol when you add it all up and the run off from the farms is killing our streams and rivers. There is a giant dead zone the size of New Jersy in the golf of Mexico caused by nitrate poisoning from Fertilizer run off from the corn belt states.
Iowa has become a gigantic corn factory. The bio diversity is zero. There are fewer and fewer trees and animal friendly plants grown there. Birds have to virtually fly around it to migrate.Iowa is the equivalent of a giant paved parking lot - except it is paved with corn - looks like a good thing - but not.
I want to know where I can get solar panels to put on the roof of my car, not to mention house. It is really hard to find, I have been looking. We are so far behind in this technology. President Jimmy Carter tried to jump start an alternative energy industryitiative pre the 1979 election, support for which was stopped as soon as Ronald Reagan won. It is much further ahead in Europe where they don’t even have the amoount of sun we do, and they actually have thought about how to make them pretty too and incorporate solar voltaic cells into roof tiles so I hear. I bet you could make really neat glass ones in pretty colors…….
Now that is an idea to invest in and a way to make a difference so we don’t have to buy their bloody oil!
- Marilyn
13 Apr 06 Microsoft in 1978
Check the guy in the lower left…………………….. that’s Bill Gates.
Paul Allen, the owner of the Seattle Seahawks with a net worth around $20 billion is on the far right, lower corner!!
13 Apr 06 Hamas’ Palestinian Authority
Most of the foreign aid that went to the Palestinian Authority went towards paying their citizens for “do nothing jobs”, in what is basically welfare. One of these salaries is typically enough to support 10 people in this area, and it is estimated that 25% of them rely on this money. But they are not going to get this money anymore, because Hamas will misappropriate it to fund terror. The US and the EU will continue to provide the territory with food and water because they can do so without Hamas getting its paws on it. That leaves one important question, how do we give them health care and education without letting Hamas touch it? Obviously we would rather let them go without it than have any chance of Hamas getting a hand in this money.
Hamas is the quintessential terror organization, but they were rightfully elected in a supposedly free election. I don’t know what the citizens thought they were going to be able to achieve under Hamas’ leadership, but it’s not going to happen.
When Israel withdrew from Guf Katif, an extremely productive Gaza settlement, they left behind many fully functioning, high-tech greenhouses. This was an extraordinary gesture of peace if I’ve ever seen one. What did the people there do, they destroyed them. There are certainly to be no peace offerings for Hamas.
So for the time being the people there get to live with the knowledge that electing Hamas was the worst decision they could have possibly made. They will suffer greatly under Hamas’ authority. And hopefully they will be more careful who they vote into power next time around. Hamas had better not try anything funny between now and then, otherwise they’ll be in much bigger trouble.
Hamas should try to become known for something other than terror. Use that energy for something productive, plant some olive trees, clean up the place a bit, it’s your home - make the most of it!!!
13 Apr 06 A Fish That Hunts On Land!
Nature Magazine reports that a fish that hunts on land has been discovered living in rugged swamps of Africa. This “eel catfish” has vertibrae that can support its head to grab insects off the shore. It puts it’s head way up in the air and then sucks up insects like a Hoover.
This being looked at as possible evidence of a key step in our evolutionary history.
13 Apr 06 Cool Click Tracking Experiment
This is interesting, very quick.
11 Apr 06 5 Drinks Bartenders Hate
You’re at a crowded bar, finally the bartender gets around to take your order, you tell them what you want and then they get this look on their face like you’re the jerk… it is very possible that you included one of the 5 most despised drinks for bartenders to make, in your order.
11 Apr 06 Diebold Sucks
According to this article from the Washington Post it is much harder to rig a slot machine in Vegas than it would be to rig our Diebold election machines. That is because there is a tremendous amount of regulation and oversite concerning the slot machines, and none concerning the election machines (by design?). To me this is the scariest issue of them all. Our country’s founding principle is the right to vote out corrupt governments and replace them with representatives of the people.. but if the current government has a lock on the voting machines, what are we supposed to do?
10 Apr 06 Scientology is Crazy
This University level piece on Scientology seems exceptionally well done. It details the training routine, whereby candidates are brainwashed. Tons of dirty secrets of Scientology are revealed in this article. This is intense (bull)shit.
