If I Did Own a Car

I hope I would be as creative as this. Unfortunately I fear I am not that creative.

Warren Brown Gets it right, as usual

I am not an expert on the issues of gasoline. It might help is I were to post more, force me to better keep track of the facts and stats. But that is neither here nor there.

On a day when many Americans watch cars going around in circles, for 1,100 miles averaging around 5 mpg (I believe, needs more fact checking)

It was interesting to see that we finally surpassed the better measure of highest gas prices for the US -- adjusted for inflation. I heard (but do not have the details to back this up) that the income of Americans has increased faster than inflation, which means that gasoline prices are still not at record levels in terms of impact on our wallets.

Anyway, I am writing to point out Warren Brown's latest article A Gas Crisis 30 Years in the Making. While Americans are complaining about high gasoline prices, "U.S. consumers are a long way from dealing with the truth." It is always easier to place the blame on someone else (in this case: the oil companies, the car companies, the government) but it often better to accept that we ourselves need to correct the mistake.

Pogo got it right, too.

-- Andy

(Notice how I used the word gasoline, instead of gas. That is because I would not want to confuse you by using an abbreviation. After all the product I am referencing is a liquid at STP)

Quote of the Day

Actually, earlier in the week, but it is new to me. From an online discussion hosted by The Washington Post

And what about people, like me, who find it "unconscionable" how cheap gas STILL is?

The person who wrote this was from Texas (I had a preconceived notion that no one in the state of Texas thought that way)

The Andy Weaver Jeopardy Question of the Day

Categories: Land Trusts, Blogs

Answer: The Author of the Massachusetts Land Trust Blog

(Please post (in the form of a question, would really keep with the spirit). I really want to find out, and honestly have no clue)

Optimus Pre-orders!

They are now taking pre-orders for the Optimus Keyboard. Well beyond my price range, but maybe others will replicate the idea.

Semi-Silent Spring

I am sorry to say that I have seen more dead birds this Spring then I have ever seen before.

I have no explainations.

Have you experienced this as well?

Speaking of Criminals...

...any member of Congress that thinks repealing or suspending the federal gas tax, should be considered a criminal.

(Sorry for the odd title, I was just working on an email about crime/criminals)

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 58 D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

Yes I am a pathetic blogger who is a week late on posting this.

My organization moved offices last week you will have to forgive my tardiness.

And, yes, I am posting this in part because everyone else is.

Blogging About Blogging

Yes, I have created a tag for my blog labeled "Blogging"

Is this meta-data gone awry?

Blogging for an Intern

I understand that some organizations are hiring interns to blog for them for the Summer. I have mixed feeling on this.

I can see that the benefits could be great for the Intern -- great exposure. And if done well could be great for the organization*

But there are serious downsides. How can this be an authentic voice from the organization if it is not someone who has worked there? If the intern has been tightly connected to the organization or its products, then this could help, but is still not really a blog from the inside.

How much of a chance will the intern have to get inside the organization? If they don't already have a blogger, then will they be ready to hand power over to an intern? Or will the intern be forced to rely on the press releases and over-polished messages that come down from marketing? that wouldn't be good for either organization or intern.

Will someone in the position of intern really be able to call the organization out when it screws up? After all he or she wants to leave a good impression for the sake of job searching after the internship/graduation. And it is hard for an organization to deal with a newbie telling them they screwed up. I about had a fit when a new staff person told me an IT policy we had was bad, and other coworkers have been stressed by criticism of new colleagues as well.

What are your thoughts

-- Andy

*The organization I work for unfortunately is almost absent from Technorati searches (the organization my previous boss went to work for fares better)

Cheap Gasoline

It seems like every day on the news they show someone filling up their not-so-fuel-efficient car complaining about how horrible it is that gas prices are so unacceptably high*.

Yet they never show a chart like this which shows the price in Europe is at least double.

Why not put it in perspective?

-- Andy

*Today they actually showed some guy who commutes an hour and a half each way in his car. I bet he wins the good parenting award for that!