Sea of Monsters

You people gotta stop whining and get busy.

Figure out how to make the country change it's heart, not just B & M about how scrwed up things are. The Brazilians figured it out....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5829046

Anyone know if the Prius is Flex Fuel? It should be...

It should also have a 15 or 20 gallon fuel tank...

Figure out how to give incentives to the most miserly vehicles to the point where people decide to go for them.

Then, have them available. I go to the lot on my moment of inspration and come home in a fuel efficient car... none of this 5 month wait thing.

Mine.. Ordered 9/15.. shoudl be here about 2/15

and here is how much fuel I wasted since then:


http://d.spicher.home.comcast.net/prius/mileage.htm

I would have saved 442 gallons of fuel and over $1300 if I could have bought a Prius off the lot.

People gotta stop yappin about there being a problem and start coming up with a list of solutions. I love that whole Brazilian thing where their 600 billion goes in the pocket of their local sugar cane growing industry and not to saudi.

 

Well, SUV's are fun to have if you are going to use them. A jeep wrangler would of been helpful when my friend and I went off-roading in his saturn car. We kinda ripped the catalytic converter cover off, and ripped a hole in his downpipe, and stuffed his engine bay with grass and mud. :lol: Sure it was fun, but a wrangler would of been more helpful. They aren't really needed, but I think they are more of a toy and shouldn't be driven on a daily basis.

 

Well spoke, Kemosabe.

And don't forget the cost of oil wars. How much has Iraq cost (both times)? How much will it cost to deal with Iran? Iran knows the US has to take over the entire Middle East, and that's why they're building nukes. It's a great big mess and it's our own fault.

The energy situation is a classic example of the Tragedy of the Commons, as explained by Garrett Hardin. The basic idea is that a commonly-owned resource tends to be abused because it's in each individual's interest to use it as rapidly as possible, to the detriment to the group as a whole. If you're interested,

The Tragedy Of The Commons

and in particular, about oil,

The Way Things Are Going To Be: Energy

 

Fair enough I won't use the word "hate" when you stop being prejudice.

So I shouldn't get involved if I am going to upset people? My gosh this is not a Communist county. This is also a forum, if you can not handle the replies do not post in the first place.

So I do not know squat? That is a personal attack and the first one directly aimed at each other.

You started this thread, with hopes everyone would join on your side, but it is not so. Do not blame others around you for things that are out of line. We could go into a giant discussion about insurance of any kind. I have to pay big dollars for it, yet rarely use it. Why because that is the way it is...Get it? Do I walk into a body shop, or hospital and go you all should be ashamed of yourselves, as you could have avoided this by not doing _______. Now it is costing ME more! Alcoholism, smoking, stupidity...they all cost us a lot of money.

Think about it...

Why don't we all agree that the oil companies are turning big profits at our expense. Might be a good place to invest all that money you are saving buying a fuel efficient Prius.

 

Who's to say that they're not the smart ones? They might be timing it so they use up the last drop of oil on the planet at precisely the same moment as the earth becomes uninhabitable for humans due to global warming.

 

Thanks Peter. I do disagree though that anyone "needs" those toys and if they don't "need" those toys, then they don't "need" a large vehicle to tow them. There are lots of ways to have water therapy without requiring a huge boat (they can check out their local swimming pool or whirlpool dealer if they would like).

Getting down to the crux of the matter, I would say they "need" an SUV/truck because they "want" lots of toys. They may need a large vehicle to tow their big toy, I'm not disputing that SUVs/trucks have uses, but for many people it all starts with "want" and not "need." Again, I won't say that it is inherently wrong (although I may think it is very misguided and foolish).

 

No, but I did see one the other day called "Bow Movement". :blink:
Walker1 is right about one thing, the number of HUGE SUV owners here in the Palm Beach area is ridiculous. But, as others said, to each his own. I'm just glad I'm not going to be paying their bill at the pump when oil hits $100 a barrel.
One thing I do wish though: I wish they'd slow down. On my commute home, its always the SUV's and big pickups that are blowing past you at 70+ mph in a 55 zone. If they have a 40 mile roundtrip commute, they WASTE more gas each day than I use. I've tried to explain that point to my wife that, without the Consumption Screen, they can't see the improvement from slowing down. Even if they save 10%, that's only 1 extra mile per gallon on some of those beasts, which they'll barely notice if they do calculate their consumption. And ,they certainly aren't going to notice changes even smaller than that.
On a side note: my doctor was complaining to me how he was "inheriting" an Escalade from his wife, as part of the divorce settlement, and how much he hated it. But, he's $15,000 upside down on the loan at this point, so he's stuck driving it for a couple more years. It makes you wonder how many others have gotten themselves into a similar situation, and can't extract themselves.

 

america has had "want" and "need" confused for decades.

i see station wagons are making a comeback. hopefully they'll become trendy enough that people will "need" them more than some big suv.

 

Many people like the SUVs so they can "see more" and they are "safer". I don't get this because they are so prone to rollover and unless there is a big honkin' one right next to me I can see just fine. And as far as "toys" go......

I am not a wild environmentalist but off roading kills plant and animal life needlessly, it pollutes like crazy. I think a kayak ride on the bay is a hell of alot better for everyone involved then getting the SeaDo or whatever they are called out there.

One day the choice for oil will be out of our hands. Too bad we cannot seem to think past the ends of our own noses and be more responsible to our children and future generations.

 

Actually I fear driving my Prius over a larger vehicle. I used to have an even smaller car too. Given most any crash I will take a full SUV over my Prius. Rollovers are caused by inexperienced drivers, and yes I have rolled more times than I can count, but never onroad. Everytime I get back into a truck, it is very nice to see better.

You can be more responsible, but you are going to have to give up so much of your life that you would never do it. Including having children. Oil is not damaging the planet nearly as much as production and harvesting. Just look at the fishing industry. They are fearful of running out of fish sooner rather than later.

Micheal, I was kidding around, there are few things we really need in life B)

As to station wagons I am totally a wagon guy. The Prius is pretty close. The Honda Hybrid was out just for that reason.

 

Well, if you wanna know....
I'm not the off-roading type, but it was my first time, and a blast. Plus, it was our my property in Alsip, IL. We put a few divets in the field, but what the heck. We just cleared it today, and are planting a crap load of trees around the perimeter. It had a few trees here and there, but they were unhealthy; and I'm gonna keep a hole in the fence so the deer can come in and out! Gonna plant flowers for the bees, but on the farthest side from the facility so we don't get stung every week.
Know anywhere I can get some good prices on young trees in the Chicagoland area? , or should I just plant seeds?

 

Unless that fence is over 8 feet, it won't matter to the deer one way or the other.

 

Galaxee I also hope station wagons make a comeback as the replacement to many SUV's. However, the craze around here before SUV's were Mercedes DIESEL stationwagons and they were really awful to be around. I often wonder where all those wogons went so suddenly.

 

Well, we have barbed wire so the theifs don't come in. Apparently that didn't help when they cut the wire and stole a few computers and lcd monitors. :angry:

 

You are a wise lady. When I ask my wife if she "needs" something, she frequently says "NEED is such a strong word". It is a little reminder to us to differentiate between need and want.

 

See, I guess I operate in a different ballfield... Keep in mind, you only live once, for the life of me, I can't see denying oneself various pleasures because of this or that in the future. To a certain degree, of course.

This whole concept of live "humble" in a hole under a bridge just getting by for all of humanity really rubs me the wrong way. :angry:

 

Ouch, sorry about the robbery. I have never been a robbery victim, and I think I would have a hard time getting over it for awhile.

Ah, but the deer don't care what kind of wire it is as they sail right over. Trust me. We have a NINE foot fence around our garden, and they still jump over it occasionally. It's actually quite impressive to watch, right up til they start compacting the soil in my beds.

 

As I can recall, we've been ripped off 3 times. One time a hvac specialist was supposedly working on the facility's air system. He was walking back and forth to a semi trailor full of stainless steel pipe ends, fittings, ect. with a toolbox, and leaning on the side he was holding the box. My dad confronted him, and we never paid the company the bill. They got mad, but when we told them that their employee stole thousands of dollars of stainless steel from us, they were shocked and fired him. Next week, he came over to our house :blink: yelling at us because he lost his job because of us. What a retard. We also caught the people from the other 2 robberies, and they were just as stupid as the first one.

So deer can jump that high? :blink: I never knew that they could over 3 feet.

 

Have you tried *two* fences? Deer can indeed leap surprisingly high, but they are picky about their landing spot. Putting another fence about a metre away from the first one, even if it's not very tall, tends to keep them on the outside looking in.

 

I think the only people who need SUVs are the ones who are doing serious off-road driving, and even then I have to ask WHY they are doing it. All those folks who think they need Subrubans and Excursions and the like to carry people and stuff around would have more carrying capacity and get better mileage in a good minivan.

Our other car besides the Prius is an '04 Toyota Sienna, which is extremely roomy, comfortable, and versatile and gets around 27 mpg. (The Sienna displays instant mpg and trip average mpg, just like the Prius.) It has a towing capacity of 3500 pounds -- plenty to haul around most "toys." My wife's friend just bought a Toyota Highlander midsize SUV, which is MUCH smaller inside, and she gets around 20 mpg. Why does she have it? Her teenage kids think SUVs are cool, and they nixed a minivan.

My opinion is that automakers' advertising has sold the American public on an image of SUVs, and that's what many people feel they have to have one. Otherwise, it makes no sense.