A cab ride to pretty much anywhere in Vegas is a MINIMUM of $3. If you get into the cab queue at a hotel, they start the meter at $3.
On my last trip, of about a half dozen cab rides, all of them were around $10 + tip. Considering the limited reach of the monorail, I'm not sure it would be a better deal. But if where you're going is on the monorail system (or near enough)- then it's golden, baby.
The question here is - do you buy your cars with cash?
Typically, you can get a loan for a $17630 car with a much lower interest rate than for a $10870 car. That's simply the mechanics of car loans -
The important bit here, is that the gas milage improvement is going to reduce your monthly payment to the gas-station charge card.
But if your monthly car payment is higher - though the actual PRICE of the car is lower (and perhaps the terms of the loan are shorter) - a cheaper car price doesn't always necessarily mean a lower payment. Seems the car-loan industry is rigged up like this to force a payment in the $250-$350 range, no matter what (unless you're talking about a car in the $35,000+ range).
It's the monthly payment+operating costs which have the impact on your standard of living. That's the true cost of a car. So what I'm saying is that a cheaper car, with equal gas milage, in the short term, may not give you that much of an improvement in monthly transportation expenses. If you're buying with a car-loan.
The lesson: NEVER get a "car-loan". Maybe buy a car on a home-equity line if necessary. Otherwise - cash is best.
I guarantee you that ULSD will NEVER arrive in the US. It may become available in limited quantities in certain areas, at like double the price. But it should be obvious to you that the Oil companies do not want to have to provide ULSD. They won't do it if they don't have to. And as Operation Iraqi Liberation has proven, they're willing to go quite far to get what they want.
The only reason I'm pro-Diesel is because #1; I don't give a crap about the environment - I just want protection from Gasoline price spikes, and #2; Diesel is how the gasoline industry moves their product - they won't fark with the diesel supply to fix prices. Not to the degree they do with gasoline.
Hell - gimmie a diesel hybrid while we're at it. If I could make my 40 mile/day commute any other cheaper way, I would. It pisses me off that I have to pay my daily "Transportation Tax" to Ken Lay and his buddies, just so I can work and provide for my family. I will minimize it as much as possible - it's my Duty as a Consumer in a Free Market to do so. It would be even better if we had a truly Free Market, and not one rigged by the Oil Oligopoly.
Isn't this what we, at the dawn of the information age, called "Information Overload" - I guess we forgot about that one, didn't we? (too much else going on I guess)
And different drivers will handle different car configurations differently. Give a driver inexperienced with a rear-weight-biased car a rear-weight-biased car, and after the first hairpin, he's going to be flying off the course backwards, and wondering why.
Give a driver inexperienced with a front-weight-biased car, a front-weight-biased car, and he'll wonder why you put a front-weight-biased car on a racetrack.
. . . in other news; Former Oil Company Halliburton executive, now US Vice President lobbies to start a destabilizing war causing oil markets to fluctuate.
Extremely Wealthy President pushes through tax cuts which disproportionately reward the extremely wealthy.
. . . ah, screw it. I could go on all day about these two, but I just don't have the heart anymore.
It's not that IR is more abundant at night (of course) - it's the fact that it's LESS abundant, especially in the atmosphere - so that heat sources, like human soldiers under exertion, or tank motors, aircraft engines, or campfires, show up better (more contrast)... . Light is actually a better medium for "seeing" - but since there's less light around at night (along with less IR) and there's more IR contrast because things you're likely to be looking for radiate it, while it's absent from the background, IR turns out to be handy for looking for things at night.
Did you know that the US Navy built a few Zeppelin Aircraft Carriers in the 1930s?
Yes, and they were ALL lost with all-hands in different bad-weather situations. That's why we don't use these things today. It was more than the Hindenburg disaster. There were many others. The Hindenburg was just the most famoust (because the Germans accused the Americans of sabotage - this was an issue of national pride for the Germans at the time).
I've wondered about this since the first days of MTV.
Prior to MTV - music videos were PROMOTIONAL - that is, they were paid for by the record labels, and produced, for the purpose of showing to record store owners and radio station owners and whatnot, to give them exposure to a band beyond the simple audio recording experience.
And they became popular and hip, because only the music industry insiders got to see them mostly, in the 60's and 70's.
Then when MTV came around - curiously, it was on Cable TV networks. You pay your Monthly Cable Fee to get access to the channel. You watch content, which is basically a commercial. In between the videos, you watch more commercials.
So exectly what's in it for the consumer? It's a Win-Win for the Cable company, Video Producer, MTV channel, and a Lose-Lose for the watcher.
. . . and the popularity climbed and climbed. I wont say I never spent a 6 hour stretch vegging on the couch to MTV. But I'm also saying that there wasn't that feeling, in the back of my mind, that I was paying for the privilege of watching commercials. Most of which ceased being remotely entertaining sometime after 1985.
If it is played 40 times a week people are going to hear it and *believe* that it is popular. When it gets artificially vaulted to the top of the charts more people are going to *believe* that it is popular.
Whose fault is that? Who gives a crap if the radio-listenting-public at large are gullible sheep? (Rush Limbaugh listeners, I'm talking to you too!).
Who tells these people that radio is "entertainment" or some bastion of cultural greatness. It's a business, made for making money and nothing else.
If the free market is going to work to eliminate shoddy products (crap music and radio stations which play only advertisement, and no actual content) - then the listening public at large needs to wise up.
It's June, 2004, and I can't believe we're STILL arguing the BASICS of this complicated issue on Slashdot. Go to the archives and re-read all the previous threads on outsourcing. We've discussed these issues to death. It's offtopic.
The TOPIC here, is that the Bush Administration produced a report, which includes demonstrably false, and intentionally misleading information, which distorts the magnatude of the problem that this poses for America and our economy. Gee, Bush has never done anything like that before, has he?
You forget that most of the people to whom you allude have gone to PRISON for doing that, or they're on trial now, and in either case, doing so has cost them nearly everything they once had.
I call BULLSHIT. Bush, Cheney, Schwartzenegger and Ashcroft, Ken Lay, etc. None of them are even on the radar screen for prosecution. Suitable scapegoats have been found, instead.
Don't be too sure about the "oil-for-food" scandal yet.
While almost nobody I'm aware of disputes the fact that there was some degree of fraud going on, the degree of the fraud, and the people involved, is in great dispute. Much of the recent claims actually originated from a member of Ahmed Chalabi's staff (also a cousin) - who claims that "a hacker broke in to his computer and destroyed all of the evidence, AND the backup copy." While that's possible; it's not plausible. Especially when Chalabi himself was convicted of $300 Million embezzlement of a bank in Jordan, other members of his staff (also relatives) were caught in a scheme to recycle the obsolete Saddam bills - basically another fraud scheme, and Chalabi was also caught passing classified intelligence to spies working for the Iranian government - while on the US Pentagon's payroll.
I fully agree that ALL unaccountable organizations are corrupt. That includes the Civilian leadership of the Pentagon, the INC, and the Bush Administration, especially. And ClearChannel and Enron, while I'm listing em off. . .
That said - the difference between Republicans and Democrats is an illusion. No, third parties are not a viable option. In short - America is screwed, and there's nothing anyone can do about it short of trying to relax and enjoy the assraping.
You don't have to be a Socialist to not be a fan of Big Business.
Big Business gets lots of perks and handouts from the Government. (patents, limited liability, public resources, free roads, free educated workers, free military action, tax breaks, government funded R&D, protective regulation, tarrifs, etc, the list goes on and on).
There's also the very real issue that the rich and powerful and well connected will still find ways to avoid having bills sent to them every time they speed, or have one of their henchmen run someone over, or sign memos giving the wink-nudge to breaking international laws on treatment of prisoners, or meet with energy company executives to take a check and give them head. ..
Even bonobos (chimpanzees) engage in prostitution. This was documented in Scientific American a couple of years back, where female chimps would trade sex for an orange.
Couldn't happen to a nicer, more deserving bunch of jerkwads.
(/former field-support rep for a vendor, who got *burned* by the incompetence and mendacity of RBC IT personnel who lied to their manager, and my manager, when THEY screwed up their evaluation of our product - AFTER they had dragged the evaluation out past the 12-month mark. . . how the hell do you justify evaluating a product for 12 months?).
These regs were meant to strongarm the oil undustry into supplying low sulfur fuel. The effect was to kill diesel auto sales/market, and it will actually lower the probability that we'll ever see low sulfur diesel in the US.
In fact, I think we're more likely to see successful commercially viable Fusion long before we see low-sulfur diesel in the US.
Slashdot Mirror
A cab ride to pretty much anywhere in Vegas is a MINIMUM of $3. If you get into the cab queue at a hotel, they start the meter at $3.
On my last trip, of about a half dozen cab rides, all of them were around $10 + tip. Considering the limited reach of the monorail, I'm not sure it would be a better deal. But if where you're going is on the monorail system (or near enough)- then it's golden, baby.
the guy most likely chipped it (tdiclub.com).
The question here is - do you buy your cars with cash?
Typically, you can get a loan for a $17630 car with a much lower interest rate than for a $10870 car. That's simply the mechanics of car loans -
The important bit here, is that the gas milage improvement is going to reduce your monthly payment to the gas-station charge card.
But if your monthly car payment is higher - though the actual PRICE of the car is lower (and perhaps the terms of the loan are shorter) - a cheaper car price doesn't always necessarily mean a lower payment. Seems the car-loan industry is rigged up like this to force a payment in the $250-$350 range, no matter what (unless you're talking about a car in the $35,000+ range).
It's the monthly payment+operating costs which have the impact on your standard of living. That's the true cost of a car. So what I'm saying is that a cheaper car, with equal gas milage, in the short term, may not give you that much of an improvement in monthly transportation expenses. If you're buying with a car-loan.
The lesson:
NEVER get a "car-loan". Maybe buy a car on a home-equity line if necessary. Otherwise - cash is best.
I don't get a ton of torque in my 03 Jetta TDI. I get about 200 ft/lbs.
not true. My 91 Volvo 240 has a timing belt that must be changed every 40k miles.
Frankly, it's a pretty simple task given the proper tools (autozone), knowledge (tdiclub.com), and chutzpah (dad).
I guarantee you that ULSD will NEVER arrive in the US. It may become available in limited quantities in certain areas, at like double the price. But it should be obvious to you that the Oil companies do not want to have to provide ULSD. They won't do it if they don't have to. And as Operation Iraqi Liberation has proven, they're willing to go quite far to get what they want.
The only reason I'm pro-Diesel is because #1; I don't give a crap about the environment - I just want protection from Gasoline price spikes, and #2; Diesel is how the gasoline industry moves their product - they won't fark with the diesel supply to fix prices. Not to the degree they do with gasoline.
Hell - gimmie a diesel hybrid while we're at it. If I could make my 40 mile/day commute any other cheaper way, I would. It pisses me off that I have to pay my daily "Transportation Tax" to Ken Lay and his buddies, just so I can work and provide for my family. I will minimize it as much as possible - it's my Duty as a Consumer in a Free Market to do so. It would be even better if we had a truly Free Market, and not one rigged by the Oil Oligopoly.
Haven't we been squirting sub-launched ICBMs out of launch tubes using compressed air for like 20 years?
Isn't this what we, at the dawn of the information age, called "Information Overload" - I guess we forgot about that one, didn't we? (too much else going on I guess)
Absolutely true.
And different drivers will handle different car configurations differently. Give a driver inexperienced with a rear-weight-biased car a rear-weight-biased car, and after the first hairpin, he's going to be flying off the course backwards, and wondering why.
Give a driver inexperienced with a front-weight-biased car, a front-weight-biased car, and he'll wonder why you put a front-weight-biased car on a racetrack.
. . . in other news;
Former Oil Company Halliburton executive, now US Vice President lobbies to start a destabilizing war causing oil markets to fluctuate.
Extremely Wealthy President pushes through tax cuts which disproportionately reward the extremely wealthy.
. . . ah, screw it. I could go on all day about these two, but I just don't have the heart anymore.
It's not that IR is more abundant at night (of course) - it's the fact that it's LESS abundant, especially in the atmosphere - so that heat sources, like human soldiers under exertion, or tank motors, aircraft engines, or campfires, show up better (more contrast). .. . Light is actually a better medium for "seeing" - but since there's less light around at night (along with less IR) and there's more IR contrast because things you're likely to be looking for radiate it, while it's absent from the background, IR turns out to be handy for looking for things at night.
Did you know that the US Navy built a few Zeppelin Aircraft Carriers in the 1930s?
Yes, and they were ALL lost with all-hands in different bad-weather situations. That's why we don't use these things today. It was more than the Hindenburg disaster. There were many others. The Hindenburg was just the most famoust (because the Germans accused the Americans of sabotage - this was an issue of national pride for the Germans at the time).
I've wondered about this since the first days of MTV.
Prior to MTV - music videos were PROMOTIONAL - that is, they were paid for by the record labels, and produced, for the purpose of showing to record store owners and radio station owners and whatnot, to give them exposure to a band beyond the simple audio recording experience.
And they became popular and hip, because only the music industry insiders got to see them mostly, in the 60's and 70's.
Then when MTV came around - curiously, it was on Cable TV networks.
You pay your Monthly Cable Fee to get access to the channel.
You watch content, which is basically a commercial.
In between the videos, you watch more commercials.
So exectly what's in it for the consumer? It's a Win-Win for the Cable company, Video Producer, MTV channel, and a Lose-Lose for the watcher.
. . . and the popularity climbed and climbed.
I wont say I never spent a 6 hour stretch vegging on the couch to MTV. But I'm also saying that there wasn't that feeling, in the back of my mind, that I was paying for the privilege of watching commercials. Most of which ceased being remotely entertaining sometime after 1985.
If it is played 40 times a week people are going to hear it and *believe* that it is popular. When it gets artificially vaulted to the top of the charts more people are going to *believe* that it is popular.
Whose fault is that? Who gives a crap if the radio-listenting-public at large are gullible sheep? (Rush Limbaugh listeners, I'm talking to you too!).
Who tells these people that radio is "entertainment" or some bastion of cultural greatness. It's a business, made for making money and nothing else.
If the free market is going to work to eliminate shoddy products (crap music and radio stations which play only advertisement, and no actual content) - then the listening public at large needs to wise up.
Hell yeah!
WHy not? In fact, let's hand it all over to Enron. And Microsoft. And De Beers too, they really know how to make a great product!
It's June, 2004, and I can't believe we're STILL arguing the BASICS of this complicated issue on Slashdot. Go to the archives and re-read all the previous threads on outsourcing. We've discussed these issues to death. It's offtopic.
The TOPIC here, is that the Bush Administration produced a report, which includes demonstrably false, and intentionally misleading information, which distorts the magnatude of the problem that this poses for America and our economy. Gee, Bush has never done anything like that before, has he?
You forget that most of the people to whom you allude have gone to PRISON for doing that, or they're on trial now, and in either case, doing so has cost them nearly everything they once had.
I call BULLSHIT.
Bush, Cheney, Schwartzenegger and Ashcroft, Ken Lay, etc. None of them are even on the radar screen for prosecution. Suitable scapegoats have been found, instead.
Don't be too sure about the "oil-for-food" scandal yet.
While almost nobody I'm aware of disputes the fact that there was some degree of fraud going on, the degree of the fraud, and the people involved, is in great dispute. Much of the recent claims actually originated from a member of Ahmed Chalabi's staff (also a cousin) - who claims that "a hacker broke in to his computer and destroyed all of the evidence, AND the backup copy." While that's possible; it's not plausible. Especially when Chalabi himself was convicted of $300 Million embezzlement of a bank in Jordan, other members of his staff (also relatives) were caught in a scheme to recycle the obsolete Saddam bills - basically another fraud scheme, and Chalabi was also caught passing classified intelligence to spies working for the Iranian government - while on the US Pentagon's payroll.
I fully agree that ALL unaccountable organizations are corrupt. That includes the Civilian leadership of the Pentagon, the INC, and the Bush Administration, especially. And ClearChannel and Enron, while I'm listing em off. . .
The Constitution describes PRECISELY what the Spirit of Patent Law is:
". . . To promote the useful arts and sciences. . "
Anything more than that is influence peddling, and corporate welfare. Plain and simple.
Al Gore is irrelevant.
That said - the difference between Republicans and Democrats is an illusion. No, third parties are not a viable option. In short - America is screwed, and there's nothing anyone can do about it short of trying to relax and enjoy the assraping.
You don't have to be a Socialist to not be a fan of Big Business.
Big Business gets lots of perks and handouts from the Government. (patents, limited liability, public resources, free roads, free educated workers, free military action, tax breaks, government funded R&D, protective regulation, tarrifs, etc, the list goes on and on).
There's also the very real issue that the rich and powerful and well connected will still find ways to avoid having bills sent to them every time they speed, or have one of their henchmen run someone over, or sign memos giving the wink-nudge to breaking international laws on treatment of prisoners, or meet with energy company executives to take a check and give them head. . .
But the law applies to the rest of us.
Doubtful.
Even bonobos (chimpanzees) engage in prostitution. This was documented in Scientific American a couple of years back, where female chimps would trade sex for an orange.
I doubt there are any chimp shamans.
Couldn't happen to a nicer, more deserving bunch of jerkwads.
(/former field-support rep for a vendor, who got *burned* by the incompetence and mendacity of RBC IT personnel who lied to their manager, and my manager, when THEY screwed up their evaluation of our product - AFTER they had dragged the evaluation out past the 12-month mark. . . how the hell do you justify evaluating a product for 12 months?).
These regs were meant to strongarm the oil undustry into supplying low sulfur fuel. The effect was to kill diesel auto sales/market, and it will actually lower the probability that we'll ever see low sulfur diesel in the US.
In fact, I think we're more likely to see successful commercially viable Fusion long before we see low-sulfur diesel in the US.