I bought my computer parts and systems for my entertainment. Why should the old, mostly useless parts be treated differently?
Hard drives, floppy drives, CD-ROM drives, and expansion cards make great targets at 100 meters.:-) Not to mention AOL/Earthlink/MSN CD-ROMs that show up in EVERYTHING!
Monitors are a great show but messy to clean up afterwards...
And since I just acquired a new toy Monday morning... (I'm now in need of another case of.308NATO)
The really funny thing is that during the "Summer 2000 Gasoline Crisis" in the US, my price never went up...at all!
That's because the EPA couldn't alter the blend in Italy. The gas price hikes that happened in the USA last year, and to a point this year, are a direct result of the EPA requiring many cities to use a different blend of gasoline. The refineries cannot make the "Phase II ReFormulated Gas" as fast, plus they have to flush their entire systems out before starting to make this new gasoline to prevent contamination. The pipelines also have to flush out the pipes before this new gasoline can flow. Both requirements reduce the output, which creates an artificial shortage. Since gasoline is traded on the open market, any reduction in the supply without a corrosponding reduction in the demand will result in price increases.
The Washington Times had an article about this on July 14, 2000. The article even that an internal Energy Department memo dated June 5, 2000 says the Clinton Administration new price increases would result from their policy. I have the original article saved here and have found a link to it at a news archiver here. The link on this page to the full text was broken when I tried it but the 1 paragraph summary is accurate with the full article.
I don't have any hard data about what happened in the ancient lands you mention, but those people probably didn't manage their soil nitrogen correctly. Or maybe the natural changes in the earth's climate altered weather patterns and rainfall went somewhere else.
I have lived in Nebraska most of my life (currently Omaha) and most of my family are dirt farmers. Guess what? Not one lick of topsoil problems here. Nature has a wonderful way of making more. The farmers just have to be bright enough to manage the flux and prevent a major negative swing.
We are growing so much corn the free market price for it is a whopping $1.80 or so. Why? Because the farmers are growing 150+bu./acre corn, sometimes 200+bu./acre. Just 50 years ago irrigated land that produced 120bu./acre was good. Non-irrigated land does better than that now. We grow so much corn in this country now our wonderful government is paying farmers to STOP growing corn. Eat more Corn Nuts, Doritos and Taco Bell, and of course juicy, tasty, beef. Every corn nut/chip/torilla and steak adds to my inheritance.
This last week I spent more than 80 hours hacking. Most weeks I hack for about 65-70.
What else is there to do every day, watch that STUPID crap on TV? Slap the rat? Drink beer and scratch myself? I'd rather hack 12 hours a day, thankyouverymuch.
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I bought my computer parts and systems for my entertainment. Why should the old, mostly useless parts be treated differently?
:-) Not to mention AOL/Earthlink/MSN CD-ROMs that show up in EVERYTHING!
.308NATO)
Hard drives, floppy drives, CD-ROM drives, and expansion cards make great targets at 100 meters.
Monitors are a great show but messy to clean up afterwards...
And since I just acquired a new toy Monday morning... (I'm now in need of another case of
BANG!!
The really funny thing is that during the "Summer 2000 Gasoline Crisis" in the US, my price never went up...at all!
That's because the EPA couldn't alter the blend in Italy. The gas price hikes that happened in the USA last year, and to a point this year, are a direct result of the EPA requiring many cities to use a different blend of gasoline. The refineries cannot make the "Phase II ReFormulated Gas" as fast, plus they have to flush their entire systems out before starting to make this new gasoline to prevent contamination. The pipelines also have to flush out the pipes before this new gasoline can flow. Both requirements reduce the output, which creates an artificial shortage. Since gasoline is traded on the open market, any reduction in the supply without a corrosponding reduction in the demand will result in price increases.
The Washington Times had an article about this on July 14, 2000. The article even that an internal Energy Department memo dated June 5, 2000 says the Clinton Administration new price increases would result from their policy. I have the original article saved here and have found a link to it at a news archiver here. The link on this page to the full text was broken when I tried it but the 1 paragraph summary is accurate with the full article.
I don't have any hard data about what happened in the ancient lands you mention, but those people probably didn't manage their soil nitrogen correctly. Or maybe the natural changes in the earth's climate altered weather patterns and rainfall went somewhere else.
I have lived in Nebraska most of my life (currently Omaha) and most of my family are dirt farmers. Guess what? Not one lick of topsoil problems here. Nature has a wonderful way of making more. The farmers just have to be bright enough to manage the flux and prevent a major negative swing.
We are growing so much corn the free market price for it is a whopping $1.80 or so. Why? Because the farmers are growing 150+bu./acre corn, sometimes 200+bu./acre. Just 50 years ago irrigated land that produced 120bu./acre was good. Non-irrigated land does better than that now. We grow so much corn in this country now our wonderful government is paying farmers to STOP growing corn. Eat more Corn Nuts, Doritos and Taco Bell, and of course juicy, tasty, beef. Every corn nut/chip/torilla and steak adds to my inheritance.
This last week I spent more than 80 hours hacking. Most weeks I hack for about 65-70.
What else is there to do every day, watch that STUPID crap on TV? Slap the rat? Drink beer and scratch myself? I'd rather hack 12 hours a day, thankyouverymuch.