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[Büge]

Gunpowder is an explosive.

Actually, gunpowder's still only combustible, Kazz. That's why they recommend against rubbing it or exposing it to hair dryers.

TNT and Nitroglycerin are explosives. But like you said, semantics.

[Brentai]

It's the difference between being gibbed all over the interior of your car and being instantly burned to death in it.  Which is pretty much academic to the poor sap who managed to blow his engine in either case.

I'm completely unsurprised that there's a hydrogen car out there right now, staring us all in the face, and nobody seems to car.

[Royal☭]

Well, once there are hydrogen stations all over the country and the thing is actually on the market for us regular folk to enjoy, then maybe I'll care.  Right now, though, it's GM's Electric Car.

[Cthulhu-chan]

I'll only care about hydrogen cars once they aren't making the hydrogen from petrol.   

[Bongo Bill]

Which can happen once nuclear power replaces coal and petroleum.

I once had a person tell me that nuclear power was not clean because in order to refine Uranium to a usable state you had to use energy taken from the grid, which mostly runs on coal.

[Cthulhu-chan]

It also takes quite a bit of oil to mine, as well.  I haven't really heard any solution to remote site energy needs post-petrol.  Hydrogen could work, but the energy needs of heavy equipment are pretty high, and the energy density of hydrogen is a bit low.

[Brentai]

Right now, though, it's GM's Electric Car.

...which was extremely successful and GM had to kill it by force.

[Shinra]

Which can happen once nuclear power replaces coal and petroleum.

I once had a person tell me that nuclear power was not clean because in order to refine Uranium to a usable state you had to use energy taken from the grid, which mostly runs on coal.

Not happening in the united states until we stop being pussies about nuclear power.

[Bongo Bill]

Which can happen once nuclear power replaces coal and petroleum.

I once had a person tell me that nuclear power was not clean because in order to refine Uranium to a usable state you had to use energy taken from the grid, which mostly runs on coal.

Not happening in the united states until we stop being pussies about nuclear power.

The joke is that his opinion creates a completely unnecessary catch-22. Can't switch to nuclear power because it's powered by unclean energy! Can't power nuclear energy with clean stuff because we haven't switched to nuclear!

[Thad]

And what happens if you set fire to the gas tank of a car, Kazz?

It catches on fire.

Cars don't work like they do in the movies, dude.

He's right.  I saw it on Mythbusters.

[James Edward Smith]

I saw a REALLY informative local news cast today that hit me with some VERY SOBERING facts from my local area that I could never have foreseen. Apparently, the price of gas has gone up and businesses are having to spend way more money on gas which is hurting their bottom lines. In fact, this one airline said that even if prices stay where they are now they will still end up paying way more for gas than they did last year! Amazing, what an informative news cast.

But that's not all, right after this report they had an other report saying that people who get training in a trade at colleges can end up making way more money than if they just enter the work force as an unskilled laborer! Again I was astounded by the useful knowledge bestowed upon me by my local news team.

But back to the previous report. How long do you guys think that news programs can keep reporting on how gas prices are rising until it becomes ridiculous enough for even them to realize it's pointless to report on and it's not going to go away? I think we should start a pool.

[Royal☭]

You know, there's an interesting thing I've noticed about reporting of gas on the news lately, actually.  It's the repetition of the words along the lines of "And there is nothing we can do about it."  I hear this a lot, news anchors exclaiming frustration about the rising cost of gas, then reminding the audience that there is "nothing you can do about it".  As if trying to beat home the idea that nothing can be done to halt the price.  This was a weird juxtaposition in a story I was watching about how the actual cost of extracting a barrel of oil was $50, but the price gets inflated to $140 before it is refined.

[Brentai]

But back to the previous report. How long do you guys think that news programs can keep reporting on how gas prices are rising until it becomes ridiculous enough for even them to realize it's pointless to report on and it's not going to go away? I think we should start a pool.

I don't have a problem with this.  I'd have a far greater problem with everyone quietly accepting the rapidly engorging penis crawling up their asses and feeding more money to the gigantic Lee Raymond monster the Tillersonaurus Rex INSATIABLE-OIL-EXECUTIVE-NORG, BLARG-BLARG.

[Rico]

I was thinking about leaving the car at home today and taking the bus, and then I remembered why I don't ever do that.  Taking the bus means I have to leave an extra 15 minutes early, arrive 10 minutes earlier (on one of the most frequent and reliable Seattle busses), and bus fare is roughly $1.67 more than driving even with gas at $4 a gallon.

I know there's a limit to how much money public transportation can lose, but seriously, if we're supposed to be getting out of our cars anytime soon I think we're going to need some better incentives than way less convenience and more money.

[Fredward]

Wow, how much is bus fare down there? The more I hear about other transit systems, the more I grow to like ours. For a student like myself, fare ranges from $1.75 to $3.50 for a 90-minute transferable ticket. Regular fare is something like $2.25-$5.00 for the same.

[Royal☭]

It's .50 for a bus ride here, though it'll be going up to $1 soon enough.

[Rico]

1.25 off times, 1.50 peak.

[Thad]

But back to the previous report. How long do you guys think that news programs can keep reporting on how gas prices are rising until it becomes ridiculous enough for even them to realize it's pointless to report on and it's not going to go away? I think we should start a pool.

Well first of all, I think the "there's nothing we can do about it" angle is a little fatalistic.  And precisely what the price-fixing oligarchs WANT us to resign to.

Second: when we had this conversation on the old board, a number of people contended that Americans are more concerned about gas prices than people dying in Iraq, because it hits closer to home.  Gas prices affect the way people live their lives day-to-day; the war, in most cases, doesn't.  (Previous wars, where the public actually had to make sacrifices, were a different story.)

Leaving aside that I was actually the guy arguing AGAINST that point of view in that conversation, it has its merits, and is directly applicable here: something that directly affects everybody (as your newscasters so wisely noted, even the ones without cars) is going to be harder for the news media to stop talking about than a little thing like how many people die in Iraq each day.

But I'm talking about the States here; can't vouch for you guys.  Michael Moore has led me to believe that Canadian news is mostly about speed bumps?

[Mongrel]

Transit fares are almost $3 here. It's fucking embarassment how far the Toronto Transit systenm has sunk. In the 1970's Toronto had the finest public transit system in all of North America. The problem is that Toronto City Council hasn't done anything for transit* since the early 80's so we rode our laurels to FAILURELAND.

*actually this stagnation is true of pretty much everything City Council touches. This city has been rotting away for about 25 years now.

[James Edward Smith]

My point was more that rising gas prices should not surprise anyone anymore at this point and the fact that it is still on the news being presented like it's a shock or something should get people to fucking wake up and realized that oil companies need to be combated and that we need to seriously start using other sources of energy. Gasoline's day as the king of transportation has to come to a close and it needs to be relegated to situations where remoteness or emergency circumstances make its use a necessity.

But yes, I was also just making fun of them for pointing out the obvious. They seriously said "Prices have risen and keep rising BUT EVEN IF THEY STAY WHERE THEY ARE NOW we'll still be paying more than ever!" The fact that this was followed by a report that said that post secondary education of some kind can often lead to better paying jobs made me laugh a little.