Make Way for Cars

So if we are entering a time when oil is becoming increasingly scarce, what would you do?

Well, if you were the government you would build more roads, of course.

Isn't it great to know that the US government and the State of Maryland are all set to move forward with the ICC (Intercounty Connector)? Seems to be a great way to encourage more sprawl and more driving. These are great ways to use more energy, to lead us into crisis even faster!

According to The Washington Post, the costs are projected to be between $2.4 and $3 billion. Who is paying for this? Money doesn't grow on trees (although around here it magically shows up in some people's freezers -- not mine, I keep checking). Gas taxes don't bring in enough to cover transportation building expenses, so some of these costs will be covered non-drivers.

So, when the time comes (in the not too distant future, I suspect) when you are paying $5/gallon, remember to thank the State of Maryland. The faster we can use energy, the faster we can see the prices go up.

Hybrid Choices

Searching for Hybrid vehicle options? Well, it was Japan that got us started, the sluggish American companies failing to take the initiative.

Currently there are no American companies making hybrid cars, the only thing they hybrids they are making are Stupid Useless Vehicles (or is that Stupendously Ugly Vehicles -- I am never quite sure which is the more correct explanation of the acronym).

So, why are American car companies going this route? They are either incredibly stupid, or very smart.

Maybe they suspect that the battery system (and other components that make a car a hybrid) in hybrid cars will not really have a long lifetime. But by the time the battery system fails (5, maybe 8 years, I have no idea what they might suspect*) SUVs will be viewed as archaic monstrosities that people will just be glad to not be associated with the thing -- even if it is a hybrid.

Or maybe they are just stupid.

-- Andy

* see http://www.hybridcars.com/faq.html#battery for the best answer I can find. Sounds fairly promising so far.

I Am Back

I apologize for my horridly long hiatus.

This is one of the great reasons to use an RSS reader (my feed: http://andiaphora.blogspot.com/atom.xml). There is no need to come and constantly check my blog to see if there is a new post, just let your computer check for you. And almost any blog has an RSS feed (even if the blogger does not advertise it). And some websites are going to RSS feeds as well.

Anyway, just an odd tangent. I am good with those.

So yes, I have had other obligations that have consumer my time. And yes there very well could be new activities in life to fill my time -- I certainly hope there are. But you probably won't here about them here. Most bloggers use there blogs to pass on the details of there life. I am not sure that is really the role of my blog. I keep things to myself, thank you very much.

So what am I going to write about? Well, now I am really into the issues peak oil/peak energy. So I want to write about this. I am not sure the concept has made it into public discussion yet. Sure people talk about gas prices (people have some crazy idea that gas is currently expensive -- I don't understand how they have that idea). I also am tempted to talk about my place of employment. Once upon a time I went back and modified many of my posts to remove any appearance of negative comments about the company I work for. But if you look at the positive change that minimicrosoft has been able to create through his blog (http://minimsft.blogspot.com), I think it is only fair that I should be able to create positive change for my organization. On the other hand I think my organization is doing a lot of positive things right now. I just fear that they may want to put an end to positive work and drag us into another strategic plan - I am sure it will happen some day.

Well, enough for now. I need to go clean out the spam that has accumulated in my blog.