I was listening to the news yesterday. A report was made on the expected hike in the price of oil, and it's knock on effect for the punters at the pumps. The news people expected (yesterday) that prices could go as high as €1.20 per litre in the coming weeks.
I was listening to the news today. The news people were complaining that certain petrol retailers had hiked the price of petrol to €1.20 already and this was well in advance of expectations.
If I were a petrol salesman, and a national news medium - a radio station - told 250,000 people that a price increase was expected, I think I'd increase the price of petrol.
What irritates is the fact that the news generates an impulse for somebody to increase a price, and then complains about it "in support of the poor, trodden-down public listener" when it happens after they've as good as encouraged it. Oh, this country.
Also, I've got some reasonably regular readers (you know who you are) who won't comment on my stuff. Lots of my stuff is open to comment, and I would like to see some! (though mere spelling/grammar corrections may not be published in all surkumstansses.)
Another thought for today - this might spark some comments! Given that petrol is increasing in price (well that is what happens anyway year on year with bread - it doesn't make headlines) is there space for the point of view that now is the time to splurge on that dream car or motorbike because we won't be driving Ferraris or Imprezas for fun in 20 years time. The electric Lambo might be incredibly slow.....is this a "golden era" for petrol-vehicles?
Imagine what we will be saying to our children/grandchildren. "When I was a youngster I had a car/motorbike that ran on petrol! You had to go to a petrol pump and pump in this liquid that made pistons go up and down in the engine. You think that car out in the drive is fun? (points to a sleek, small electric car, plugged into the nuclear-generated mains socket) We could do 100mph in an ordinary everyday car! Wow, it was brilliant. I'll bring you to the museum some day on the leckotram and we'll see what they used to drive"
Will we ever enjoy driving as much as we can in this generation? Will we ever cop on to ourselves and use more appropriate energy sources for electrical power and heat generation - solar/wind/hydro/nuclear for the former and biomass for the latter - saving the precious oil for the transportation and other demands that need it to go properly (I mean airplanes, trucks, buses, as well as cars and motorbikes, in addition to construction and agricultural plant that would perhaps be really underpowered using batteries, and construction materials - plastics, road binders etc)?
See I meant that to be a short post. Now look what happened.
I was listening to the news today. The news people were complaining that certain petrol retailers had hiked the price of petrol to €1.20 already and this was well in advance of expectations.
If I were a petrol salesman, and a national news medium - a radio station - told 250,000 people that a price increase was expected, I think I'd increase the price of petrol.
What irritates is the fact that the news generates an impulse for somebody to increase a price, and then complains about it "in support of the poor, trodden-down public listener" when it happens after they've as good as encouraged it. Oh, this country.
Also, I've got some reasonably regular readers (you know who you are) who won't comment on my stuff. Lots of my stuff is open to comment, and I would like to see some! (though mere spelling/grammar corrections may not be published in all surkumstansses.)
Another thought for today - this might spark some comments! Given that petrol is increasing in price (well that is what happens anyway year on year with bread - it doesn't make headlines) is there space for the point of view that now is the time to splurge on that dream car or motorbike because we won't be driving Ferraris or Imprezas for fun in 20 years time. The electric Lambo might be incredibly slow.....is this a "golden era" for petrol-vehicles?
Imagine what we will be saying to our children/grandchildren. "When I was a youngster I had a car/motorbike that ran on petrol! You had to go to a petrol pump and pump in this liquid that made pistons go up and down in the engine. You think that car out in the drive is fun? (points to a sleek, small electric car, plugged into the nuclear-generated mains socket) We could do 100mph in an ordinary everyday car! Wow, it was brilliant. I'll bring you to the museum some day on the leckotram and we'll see what they used to drive"
Will we ever enjoy driving as much as we can in this generation? Will we ever cop on to ourselves and use more appropriate energy sources for electrical power and heat generation - solar/wind/hydro/nuclear for the former and biomass for the latter - saving the precious oil for the transportation and other demands that need it to go properly (I mean airplanes, trucks, buses, as well as cars and motorbikes, in addition to construction and agricultural plant that would perhaps be really underpowered using batteries, and construction materials - plastics, road binders etc)?
See I meant that to be a short post. Now look what happened.
Darin's comments made interesting reading...well thought out and informed. But I think this is where Brian and I take a different perspective on the same problem. I speak from the heart, not the mind. I feel passionately about all thinks woth an Internal combustion engine. Electrics have efficency arguments, but can't give the same fun-factor (think Ferrari V-12). BTW an electric motor produces max torque at 0 RPM ie at rest. Torque decreases as it accelerates. I have taken Brian's advice, and bought my sports car while I still can. They may well be a dying breed. Another point often overlooked: electric cars, green? Where do you think they get the electricity from? Renewable power generation: most of these sources are intermittant eg wind, sun, wave etc. You still need good old fashioned fuel burning stations as backup for whan the wind isn't so strong. These stations can't just be swiched on at the flic of a swich, so they must still run continously, in case they are needed. Maybe if fuel prices were uniform throughout the globe, the gas gusslers would have a more realistic opinion about what Fuel-efficency is?
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