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Which they could have easily already done had they not stopped making the FJ Cruiser and improving upon it (like its horrible rear visibility). Could have even kept the name going and saved some pennies on new naming rights. "Market adjustment" is just a fancy term for "price gouging". Because everything in Australia wants to kill and/or eat you, that's why. Even the Koalas will give you that look if you're not careful.

I have never had a thing for most of Oceania. Especially when planes got better and they decided to make the trip from LAX or SFO nonstop. I can't sit on a plane, in the economy cabin, for 14 hours. My limit is about 11 or 12. The thought of going somewhat appealed to me when I was younger and they used to do it in 2 segments: Los Angeles to Honolulu, and Honolulu to Australia (SYD, MEL, etc.) However, as far as Oceania goes, I might like to go to places like Bora Bora or Pago Pago. Bora Bora - French Polynesia Pago Pago - American Samoa

Northern ireland... Japan...

Agree completely. Would also punch a Redwings fan in the face any day of the week. Humor to divert from our debate...

1# I trust no large organization... not companies, not governments, not non-profits, not churches, none. Small groups of committed people can do good works, but when they get too large, the mission gets blurred. I think the only way to protect the individual is to have the large groups hold each other accountable and for smaller groups to take shots at the large groups when possible... so government must regulate industry, and industry must report on government largess or corruption. Companies do put profits over people and over people's lives. It is the job of the government to reign that in. On Global climate change, it's been years since they made the realization that it was the oceans that were warming faster than expected and more proof came out in 2019. All of you climate change deniers waving your hands about air temperatures love to ignore the temperature of the water which is taking 90% of the increases and also increasing in acidity, killing ocean life. This is changing weather patterns and causing sea levels to rise. Many coastal cities are already experiencing the effects. So deny it all you want and wave your hands in the air.... that way we'll be able to see you when you slowly slide beneath the water.

So what happened to No Politics rule? ....

I think the reason that people who follow your agenda are so angry all the time is that none of the fact ever support your narrative. You want something to be true, you write these long screeds to support your agenda, but when someone starts looking at facts, you get angry because your whole argument falls apart. A recap on "facts" you've gotten wrong so far: 1. The reason behind the high cost of California energy prices - Plenty of other states have green energy, Pennsylvania included. My power rates are actually below the national average and I use green power at my house. The green energy requirement is not the reason for high California energy costs, a fail experiment with unbridled capitalism is. 2. Passenger usage of High Speed or Medium Speed rail - Where Amtrak has fast and regular service, it generally operates at or near capacity. Passenger rail is good for most trips up to 500 miles. The Europeans and Japan use 400 miles as their standard, but given the horrid hub-and-spoke system we have here in the US, 500 miles is more appropriate. You cannot locate a major metro area anywhere in this country that is not within 500 miles of another major metro. NO ONE is suggesting HSR for transcontinental trips. HSR is for short to medium haul trips where the train can beat an airplane in door to door time. Even on relatively slow routes like Portland - Seattle, Amtrak takes around 40% of all passengers up against ALL THE OTHER AIRLINES THAT HAVE SERVICE. Amtrak moves 811 thousand passengers and all airlines combined move 1.3 million between those two city pairs... the difference is that Amtrak also serves stops in between that the airlines do not. You complain about Amtrak's subsidy, but Airlines get their airports subsidized and we also pay airlines to run nearly empty flights through the Essential Air Services program. For example, we pay Boutique Airlines to run 4 flights daily out of Altoona PA because there is no major airport within a 2 hour drive. Amtrak runs 2 trains daily through Altoona and moves 18,848 riders a year.... Boutique only moves 10,010. In nearby Johnstown, which also has Amtrak service, the Federal government is paying $866 - $966 per passenger to subsidize flights out of Johnstown. The EAS cost $300m in 2013 (the last year I can find data) to move far fewer people than Amtrak does with its $1.9B. 3. Healthcare - Your entire cause and effect is false. You blame it on the government when in fact it is entirely caused by the system the private insurance companies set up for negotiating rates. You're so blinded by your agenda that you can't even see that is not what I even suggested. I said that companies that provide a public utility, like electricity, should be heavily regulated. Furthermore, you've got the socialism boogieman on the brain so much that you don't even know the definition of socialism!!! You just call anything you don't like or don't understand socialism. It's like Joe McCarthy reincarnate. Socialism - a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or by the community as a whole. I suggested that if the grid is not government owned, that it needs to have heavy oversight by the government to make sure reliability standards are met. For something as critical to the health and wellbeing of the general citizenry, it is exactly the governments job to make sure the grid runs well. It wasn't a once in 100 year event! They had a similar event in 2011 and were warned back then about the measures they should have taken to avoid a repeat. I have excess capacity (no one does excess generation, that would be wasteful, generation is kept on standby) AND I'm using green energy AND I'm only paying 13.9c/KwH... more than 50% of that is in grid charges NOT GENERATION CHARGES. And I just got my bill today, so you can see what my rates are: My generation rate is 6.7c/kWh... so lets go to Houston and find a green energy contract... Oh look! It's basically the SAME EXACT PRICE. So, if the generation rates are the same, we can see that the difference between the two rates is entirely in the grid charges... that difference is 2c/kWh... or... $20 a month to not die from the cold during an ice storm. And that is assuming you are correct on the total charges in Texas... considering your track record for getting basic facts correct, even that is suspect. You're sooooo close to the point. We need major election reform to abolish the winner take all system and even better, the electoral college so that third parties can spring up and be competitive. You'll hate this idea because the country is far more liberal than our recent elections would show because of the finger on the scale that the Electoral College and Winner Take All system bring. If those two systems were abolished, suddenly the 40-whatever percent of Republican voters in California would matter, and they would be balanced by the 40-whatever percent of Democratic voters in Texas+Oklahoma+Nebraska (roughly the same population, combined, as California). But you'll fight that push towards fairness because you know in the end that your agenda will lose. TL:DR: Stick to engines and transmissions because on everything else you're

Redwings fan?!? Back when we were in the same division and it was a great rivalry, home games against Detroit were known as "punch a Redwings fan in the face day". ? That's just absurd. It's a cool car and all but there's no reason for a market adjustment on a Mach 1, imo. I just cannot see it holding its value without a Shelby name on it.

For such a know it all, you sure managed to be wrong about Texas power on just about every front. Their grid and alleged "smart" system was proven an absolutely joke just over a month ago and that's just for starters how utterly horrible their entire system was and and still is. And while you talk about not letting the government decide, you seem to have ZERO problem with letting the industry (in this case electric companies) run it for you, which (btw) includes controlling that SAME government you decry via lobbying and dirty politics. My dad (rest his soul) worked for Duke Energy for almost forty years and I could tell you some stories about the horrors that are the Texas Electrical grid and the folks who run it. It is laughable how off base you are and even more laughable that you bitch about Cali yet continue to live there. Not real smart if you ask me but hey, what do I know. In the end, trying to compare CA with TX, at this point, is like trying to compare a dog turd to a pig turd. Who cares? They're both s***.

Phoque off with that shyte There is no place for that kind of talk here. Speak what you need to speak, but if you are proven to be an idiot, then you are an idiot... Dont insult others for your idiocy...

my notification said he quoted me.... i can't see it. awwww loki sad.

Silly. Just bury the problems in the desert instead of dealing with them and actually using it to our advantage.

And that's why none of us can take you seriously when you're not talking about engines or transmissions.

@dwightlooi - I have to ask... what is the motivation of the Global Climate Change cabal? What ends are they trying to reach? Why commit a fraud on a global scale for no reason... there's gotta be a reason.... how will climate scientists and NOAA profit from this?

1) I said large organizations I do not trust. The federal government is a large organization. Right wing wants just as much control over the individual, if not more. 2) You're only counting air temps right? Did you just ignore the whole thing about water temps and water acidity going up? If so, Go buy property on the Miami coast then.... or oceanfront in Virgina Beach.... or any other beach. My parents live on property 9ft above sea level.... I know I'm not inheriting anything.

Oh yea, I was talking about the pebble bed reactors that are self regulating. Breeder reactors are an unfortunate necessity to deal with the waste from traditional reactors. Breeder reactors are extremely expensive, so I would figure out what ratio of traditional reactor to breeder reactor we needed to deal with the waste and only build enough of those to cope with the waste. I do think that hydrogen fusion has potential, but at this point they have only been able to power a single light bulb because it takes almost as much energy to run the thing as it generates.

Don't forget; and with NO outside oversight and almost zero accountability.

I had a hard time following what the point you were trying to make here was, but I'll address the points here that I do understand. There is a difference between the Electric company that services your house and the electric company that generates the electricity and the electric company that operates the grid. The grids are often non-profit entities regulated by the state and fed. The local power utilities are the ones who bill you... they are private companies and they are regulated by the states. The generation companies aren't really regulated by anyone except in terms of pollution control. I am all in favor of nuke power... I think a national program of Nuke, rooftop solar, and wind would make the national grid as green as can be. Use modern breeder reactors and pebble bed reactors that are self regulating and nuke power would be super safe with nearly no waste. The problem is the NIMBYs.... no one wants a reactor in their back yard because of Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima. It is the sad truth about the future of nuke power in the US. It's like how the Olds V8 diesel killed the passenger diesel market in the US. The purpose is to ensure the general welfare. Grids cross state lines (out of necessity, see also: Texas and what happens when you don't), so under the commerce clause, the grids are covered under the federal powers. The Feds were basically powerless during the Texas power outage for that exact reason... the best they could do is send generators and blankets. If it were any other state, there would be federal action at the grid level.

No, the difference between you and I is that you think your beliefs are fact and should be treated as such. So far for you, facts are whatever you want them to be to support your position. Also, as you've consistently misrepresented what I've said, I also have better reading comprehension skills (#1, #2, and #3 are vastly incorrect appraisals of my stance). #4 is disproven by science.... yes climate change can be natural, it can also be man-made, and the more we learn about the climate system the more apparent the irreversible damage is happening. Wow! You DO understand. There has been no mention of a particular political candidate. There is no slurs being used. The closest things to politics we've really discussed are the need for election reform (which while the methods may differ, I think both sides agree on the need for), and even then I balanced both sides. We can make anything political if we want to... conversely, we can take the politics out of philosophical discussions as we have for the past few pages and have genuinely good arguments. But even with that, I will not hesitate to call out falsehoods, lies, and propaganda especially when used to support an agenda.

Do you ask the other the same question...?

I have been at local dealership over the weekend. Saw first Mach 1. Was fully loaded and dealer marked it up another $10k as "market adjustment" up to $70k total. Simply crazy.

Ahhhh! Spring.... and the beautiful sight & smell of Dupli-color Pontiac Blue!

On a similar level, but in the sports world. NHL. The Colorado Avalanche decided to pay homage to the team they inherited in 1996 this year when the NHL decided that all their teams were to create an alternate jersey. The Quebec (City) Nordiques moved to Colorado. Colorado aptly named Avalanche won their first Stanley Cup that very same year they moved to Colorado. Impressive.

Honestly, Dwight does make a few interesting points. Good to hear both sides, even if I don’t agree with it. Good to see a little debate here and there... ?

Yes, it is the point of a forum and, even though this thread was probably designed to be less intense, I can't tell someone how to use it. I don't read your posts because they're just too much. That's because, when I once did a long time ago, it was a heated thread supporting your belief that replacing air filters on cars is unnecessary. We don't need to rehash that and I'm not interested in a regurgitation of the facts you presented. It went on and on and on. All I know is that, for $ 14.99 or less, I go to a chain auto parts store, come back home, take a screwdriver to loosen up the intake assembly, put it in, and I have peace of mind, which is worth a lot more than $14.99 to me. Then, more recently, when we've never really interacted before, you come on to tell me, out of the blue, that you think the QM2 (Queen Mary 2), as seen on my signature photo, is piss poor. And, you were right in that you are entitled to your opinion. However, in your volley, you inserted that you were assigned to either the Princess Grill or the Queen's Grill to dine. And the food was below par? That was a convenient way for you to drop the hint that you popped for among the most expensive cabins on the ship. The vast majority of QM2 travelers are eating in a massive restaurant with a name the likes of the Britannia or the Columbia (or similar names as the ones on the preceding QE2). And, here, I'm saving my pennies to travel on it someday in the shortest and least expensive way just to sample this grand ship. So, what I'm trying to say is that your posting style tries to show that you know it all and also features thinly veiled but noticeable amounts of conspicuous consumption, self-righteous conservatism, and elitism.

Isn't that the whole point of a forum? If you want to just post cat pictures there's Facebook, if you just want to parrot short messages there's Twitter.

Understanding Batteries – Why so many cells? Have you ever wondered why some EV batteries have thousands of cells? Why the Volt’s battery is so big even though it was “only” 16 kWh? Can you actually save about half the money if you have a 50 kWh battery instead of a 100 kWh pack? (1) Cells and batteries: Before we get started, let’s get the terminology right. A “cell” is the smallest element in a chemical charge storage device. A “battery” is a bunch of cells strung together. The 1.5V AA Duracell is a “cell”. A pack with four of them strung together for a total of 6V in your flashlight referred to as a “battery”. (2) EV Batteries: A lithium ion EV battery is typically made up of many individual ~3.65V “cells”. EV batteries string up many of them to achieve their high operating voltage of hundreds of volts. The Tesla Model 3 battery has 2,976 individual #2170 cells as 31 parallel strings with 96 cells a piece to achieve 350.4 volts. The Chevy Bolt strings up 288 individual cells in 3 strings of 96 for 350.4 volts. (3) C-rating: While we hear a quite a bit about battery capacity and voltages, we seldom hear about C-ratings. This is perhaps more important if you are looking to get a set of electric wheels to go fast. The C-rating is a battery’s discharge capability in relation to its capacity. A 1C 1000mAh battery can discharge at discharge its entire 1000mAh capacity in one hour. A 4C battery can discharge its 1000mAh energy in 15 mins. The Tesla Model 3’s 211kW (283 hp) reluctance motor will discharge the base 50kWh battery pack at a maximum rate of 4.22C. (4) Series or Parallel: When you connect multiple cells in a series (end-to-end) the voltage and capacity (kWh) goes up, but the discharge rating does not. Five 1C 1000mAh batteries in a series has 5 times the voltage and five times the energy storage capacity, but it is still a 1000mA battery. When you connect batteries in parallel, the voltage does not go up, but the capacity does and the discharge rating does. (5) Why so many cells in a battery: Put simply, you need enough cells in series to get to the voltage you need for the motor and you need enough of these series in parallel to get the discharge rating require so the battery doesn’t blow up. That Tesla Model 3 draws 211 kW / 0.35 kV = 602.9 A under maximum power. If you put 602.9 Amps through those tiny #2170 lithium ion cells, it’ll boil the electrolyte and set things on fire. That is what happens if you only have 96 tiny lithium ion cells in series to give you the operating voltage of 350.4V. But, if you divide that amongst 31 parallel string of 96 cells, each only has to see 19.4 Amps – tolerable if the battery is liquid cooled. (6) Many little ones or a few big ones: To make EVs go fast you need powerful motors and powerful motors need a lot of Amps. There are two ways to make batteries tolerate a lot of amps. One is to simply make them with larger electrode areas – the D sized cell tolerates more current than the AA cell for instance. The other is to use a lot of small cells in parallel. Tesla is an ardent advocate for lots of small cells, while GM is firmly in the “fewer bigger ones” camp. The Bolt’s 66kWh battery uses only 288 cells in 3 parallel strings of 96 cells. Its 149 kW motor puts 149kW / 0.35kV / 3 = 142 Amps through each of those large, slate like, GM prismatic cells. Boeing is also in the fewer and bigger is better camp with those Boeing 787 batteries that caught fire repeatedly early in the plane’s career. So I guess bigger is not good enough when it’s air cooled while sealed in a box. If you are wondering the good old 12V lead acid battery in your car has six nominally 2-volt cells in series with massive electrode plates to support hundreds of cranking amps. (7) Lower Capacity doesn’t necessarily mean fewer cells: As you can probably deduce by now, lower capacity batteries do not necessary have fewer cells. Why? Because you need a string of about 100 cells to get to 365 volts so you can run the kind of motor you typically need to move 3000 lbs to 5000 lbs worth of car, gays and guys’ stuff. However, unless each cell is capable of running the Amps the motor demands, you also need multiple parallel strings of cells for a high enough C-rating (discharge current tolerance). While total material and weight is certainly down to almost a third, the complexity may not go down that much. This is why batteries a third the capacity are usually not third the price. I hope this helps everyone understand batteries better!

While we are on EVs, I must re-iterate my convictions that a superior EV is not one with a 300 mile range, but one with a 80~100 mile range and an on-board APU capable of sustaining the charge on the freeway or recharging the battery in an hour when parked. (1) Instead of a 100kWh battery use a 32~36 kWh battery. (2) Spend $3000~$5000 on a 30kWe (40hp) turbine electric generator. (3) The total cost is about 2/3rds that of the high capacity battery and the utility of the vehicle will be superior. Think about it... who drives more than 80~100 miles daily? 95% of commuters don't; not even when they take plenty of side trips to lunch, dinner, shopping and the movies. In other words, 80~100 mile is ALL THE RANGE YOU NEED except when you take a long trip (say from SF to LA). The only reason 80~100kWh batteries are being put in EVs is to accommodate long trips. However, these expensive, heavy and space consuming batteries can;t even get you from SF to LA without spending an hour or two in limbo land recharging along the way. A 30kWe turbine electric generator is the size of a carry on suitcase and weighs about 40 lbs. There is no coolant or radiator; you can tuck it where you normally tuck a muffler. They are very simple devices which looks like a turbocharger with a combustor between the compressor and the turbine with a generator on the shaft. Compression from a single stage centrifugal compressor tops out around 4.6:1 but it is since it is operating either at optimal speeds or not at all, the efficiency is not that far off a gasoline engine at low throttle openings where is sucking vacuum through a mostly closed throttle plate. More importantly, who cares if it only gets he equivalent of 25 mpg when you only use it few times a year? That is another 250 miles of electric power on a tiny 10 gallon tank which can be refueled in 2 minutes at any gas station? Why 30KWe? Because it takes about 15kW (20hp) to sustain 75 mph on the freeway. That means that 30KWe is enough to see your battery charge no matter how you drive and it is also enough to fully recharge a 30 kW battery from empty to full in an hour (give or take). A simple way of operating such a device is a three position switch on the dash. OFF - AUTO - ON. OFF = Disabled; turbine never ever runs and the vehicle is purely electric. AUTO = Turbine starts and sends 30kW to the battery when battery drops below 10% usable capacity and stops when the battery gets above 25% capacity. ON = Turbine starts and stops only when the battery is fully charged or until the user switches it to AUTO or OFF. The generator is also the turbine starter, spinning it up to ~80,000 rpm then injecting fuel and igniting the spark igniter. The turbine is then self sustaining and revs up while gradually taking power via the generator until an equilibrum is reached at around 160,000 rpm. It takes about a minute.

Yeah. Its awesome. I know you wanna visit Quebec for other reasons too, but if its ONLY to see the fall colours with the leaves changing, Vermont does it nice too if our borders arent open still by then.

Isnt hockey great? Such a strong emotion that the game gives us, that we want to punch our opponent's fans in the face. I mean, in football, there are some team's fans you wanna clobber. Eagle's fans. Raider's fans. Some say Cowboy's fans. But that is where the hatred ends. In hockey though...EVERYBODY wants to bash in EVERYBODY's face in. Yeah...Hockey is awesome! You could feel the love in the air. Beautiful. Just beautiful. Bora Bora and the big mountain in the background and it looks like King Kong could reside there. Pago Pago and it looks like the calm before a nasty torrential rain storm.

@dwightlooi needs to watch WALL-E a perfect movie of how humanity can mess up the planet for good not caring about it for future generations. WALL·E (2008) - IMDb You can only waste so much before it catches up with us. After all we already have plastic mess in the ocean and along what was once beautiful beaches due to the I careless as the planet has plenty of space. I have a hard time that anyone thinks this is OK to do to our planet as long as private companies make a profit at the ecologies expense. When do we wake up to realize that if we want ourselves as well as our kids and grandkids and future generations after that to live in a clean healthy planet, we have to stop destroying it. That sometimes means making the hard decisions about ease of use, cleaning up and recycling as well as looking at all green energy sources and preparing for both extreme cold and heat to insure humanity can stay alive and be warm. Sad when we see marine life having to struggle due to the I Do Not Care about Society only myself Humans.

Nuclear waste is a Problem and Burying it in the sand will contaminate who knows what lies beneath. There are better ways to deal with it than just pushing it off into an area that you feel is unimportant. As proven in 2015 we can convert the liquid waste into glass and then bury it safely. Turning nuclear waste into glass: Physics Today: Vol 68, No 2 (scitation.org) The other option and yes it costs money but as @Drew Dowdell pointed out, we can build the proper facilities to deal with this waste and generate power also.

Up until about 30 second ago, we had been keeping it civil and philosophical, and then @dwightlooi ruined it again.... he is now under moderation watch... anything he posts will have to be approved by me until his points start expiring.

Why not? When it is not a problem to begin with and doing otherwise is hugely expensive and of minimal benefit? It is in fact silly to choose a vastly more expensive solution to what is essentially a non-problem. Put another way, we can totally clean up nuclear test sites rather than simply make them off limits. But it is a so expensive in exchange for a remote and largely useless plot of land you simply just put up a few signs and call it a day. Not just us, the Russians, the Chinese and everyone else does that. I have no problems with it. I'll rather talk about lead contamination of drinking water or Oxides of Nitrogen in the air than worry about non-issues like nuclear waste or Carbon Emissions.

Must be why 99% of the folks who ACTUALLY study and have degrees in such fields, say the exact opposite of what alleged engineers say.. Are you high? Seriously. (Hand raised all the way up in the back of the classroom) OOOOH! OOOOOH! I KNOW!!!

Drew, quoting definitions like i used to... lol SEMANTICS!!!!!! perhaps dwight is using a different/older def, perhaps like here brittanica "Socialism, social and economic doctrine that calls for public rather than private ownership or control of property and natural resources." Control... if regs basically say they can only do certain things, that's indirect control, no? further down in the entry ......"Meanwhile, the socialist parties of Europe were modifying their positions and enjoying frequent electoral success. The Scandinavian socialists set the example of “mixed economies” that combined largely private ownership with government direction of the economy and substantial welfare programs, and other socialist parties followed suit. Even the SPD, in its Bad Godesberg program of 1959, dropped its Marxist pretenses and committed itself to a “social market economy” involving “as much competition as possible—as much planning as necessary.” Although some welcomed this blurring of boundaries between socialism and welfare-state liberalism as a sign of “the end of ideology,” the more radical student left of the 1960s complained that there was little choice between capitalism, the “obsolete communism” of the Marxist-Leninists, and the bureaucratic socialism of western Europe." furthur down "If socialism has a future, it may well lie in some form of market socialism. Market socialism promises neither the utopia of the early socialists nor the brave new world that Marx and his followers envisioned as the fulfillment of history. But it does promise to promote cooperation and solidarity rather than competitive individualism, and it aims at reducing, if not eliminating, the class divisions that foster exploitation and alienation." BIG POINT Socialism is anti individualist, it is only collectivist, capitalism allows people to act in collectivist ways, but socialism does not allow individualism. like pointed out here in more brittanica "Collectivism has found varying degrees of expression in the 20th century in such movements as socialism, communism, and fascism. The least collectivist of these is social democracy, which seeks to reduce the inequities of unrestrained capitalism by government regulation, redistribution of income, and varying degrees of planning and public ownership. In communist systems collectivism is carried to its furthest extreme, with a minimum of private ownership and a maximum of planned economy. " communism from google "a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs." political.... not economic?! but socialism above was a social and economic, but brittanica calls communism "Communism, political and economic doctrine that aims to replace private property ....." Differences that cause these arguments en masse, for, I know... I've used them for a long time. and doesn't the electric company in california basically have an enforced monopoly on the market? yeah, sure, getting a startup company to push them out is near impossible because of the cost, .... if only nukes were subsidized /kwhr like solar and others, we wouldn't have anything else for base power because of the safety and tech advances since the 50's.... similar to how France's ~70% power is from nukes and waste is near nothing because of recycling, right? ...was this you, or someone else? ...quoting the preamble is the purpose of the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT Constitution ... where does it say that in the state's constitution? also, purpose, not powers. I may have had more in my tank to write here, but i'll check responses later and try to be on point. ...i miss the politics forum. lol

YEAH! I BET! LOL Claude Lemieux...ex Hab player was THE reason for all that heated Detroit/Colorado rivalry. And what a fun ride that was. And now his son is playing with that same dirty shytyness with the Rangers. And Claude would be one of MANY reasons why I say the Habs are such a hypocritical hockey club and why I hate them so. I cheer for the Bruins because the Bruins actually have always played CANADA hockey. Meaning: CANADA hockey IS intimidation. CANADA hockey IS separating the player from the puck (with clean hits) CANADA hockey IS defending your fellow teammate when the refs dont wanna call the right call on the ice. And the Bruins do NOT shy away from that. They wear THAT style of play with pride. Detroit does also. And the many other NHL teams as well. But the HABS hockey club like to say they are above all that...but they aint...

> "And then Australia with just 66"< Yeah, just 66 species... Considering ALL of Canada, let alone Quebec where I reside, has only but a handful of venomous animals and from those maybe 1 or 2 could be deadly. I dont think "just" is a viable descriptive adjective to downplay Australia's rank...

A recurrent random thought based on waking up and opening up my homepages ... Why is it that, when a poisonous snake or other dangerous creature has made its way into someone's supposedly locked home and into the news, it's somewhere in Australia? Ta-da. About 9 out of 10 times.

Good-Bye cannonball tree!

Heart-warming.

Well said. One look at his Facebook page will tell you all you need to know (even if you can only see his "public" stuff).

Totally agree with that as one who went to college @ Kobe University in Japan. I had a motor bike there but found after the first year of exploring that taking trains was far more efficient for me to see the country over driving. If the US invested in proper rail service between all major cities, you could easily reduce auto's on the road. have cleaner air and reduce stress for many people on top of changing personal / family costs. ? Maybe cause his wife wins them all and he thinks he can win more here? ?‍♂️

I will also point out that Amtrak’s annual subsidy is less than the cost of a single highway interchange in a major metro area. Amtrak’s profits on the North East corridor help fund the rest of the system, though that’s a rather large cross for it to bare and that’s why I’d does need subsidies. when Amtrak started offering multiple daily trips to DC from Richmond VA, it quickly reached capacity because suddenly people could do easy day trips to the Capital. It wasn’t even high speed. People will use trains if given good service.

You just love being wrong like a dog loves a good rawhide.... and no amount of bolding will change your false statements into true ones. First, I'm not arguing in favor of socialism. I'm arguing in favor of capitalism with strong regulations, and direct oversight in situations where the company is providing a public good. Private companies should be running grids and health care, but the utilities should be heavily regulated and required to meet certain reliability and resiliency standards. What happened in Texas is exactly why your "ideal" does not work. It puts profits over people in emergencies, it fails to take appropriate measures to prepare for emergencies (Texas/ERCOT was warned of this exact scenario in 2011 in a comprehensive report, they did NOTHING because it would have cut into their profits) , and then it price gouges customers during the emergency. ZERO of the other grids that are heavily regulated (and in my opinion still not regulated enough) had the issues ERCOT had. FALSE - In areas where Amtrak offers high speed (Acela or North East Regional) Amtrak regularly serves more passengers than multiple airlines combined, plus they also serve many intra-trip stations. Not everyone in New Haven wants to drive to NYC to fly to Philly to get to Wilmington. As you point out, there is a whole country between the major metros and those are severely underserved by the airlines. Even here in Pittsburgh, going somewhere is always "Step 1. Fly to Charlotte, Chicago, Philly, or Atlanta. Step 2. Fly where I actually want to go. I can drive faster in under 500 miles than an airline can get me there because of the security waitlines, connections, baggage, etc. Unless I'm traveling directly to a hub, total travel time by car will beat nearly any flight under 500 miles. An Acela can do even better. But even Metro to Metro, the Acela will beat the airlines EVERY TIME. Going from Manhatten to Philly, the Acela will get you from New York Penn to 30th Street Philly before your taxi even pulls up at LaGuardia. Going out of NY, NO ONE, takes a flight if their destination is served by Acela or North East corridor. Amtrak makes a profit on these routes. Amtrak started offering higher speed service (110mph) out of Detroit to Chicago and before Covid, ridership was way up. You are correct that over 500 miles, Amtrak's usefulness starts to wain, but most Metros are within 500 miles of another Metro and those highway connections have a lot of traffic. A Dallas-Houston HSR would do very well because again, it's a 40-50 minute drive just to get from downtown Houston out to IAH to drop off the rental car. HSR could do the trip in 2 hours or less. People will use high speed rail if and when it is offered, and it wouldn't even need a subsidy to operate. (Airports are subsidized by the government, ours has a huge debt issue right now, so don't try to imply that airlines don't operate without a subsidy) False (kinda) - The insurance industry is the cause of the wacked out insurance rates. Further cause is the 30% of people who don't have insurance and defer treatment because of the lack of insurance. That means what starts as a small treatable lump turns into stage 3 cancer because the person is afraid to seek treatment due to costs. So when they get admitted for cancer care on Medicaid or whatever, they cost hundreds of thousands more to treat because they waited too long. An I would much rather pay for someone to go get treated early than pay for a full on cancer treatment. And don't be fooled, you're already paying for those people... that's why your insurance costs so much even if you're healthy. The F-35 program was a political action boondoggle. People in Canada pay around the same total tax that we do and they get healthcare for it while we have to pay extra to have insurance. And don't try to talk about rationed care, people in Canada with an emergency get treated promptly. We ration care also by letting 30% of the population die in the street. Companies are often-times actively your enemy. Texas power producers shut down power during the storm when they realized they weren't going to be able to make a profit. People died in that storm due to lack of power. The number of deplorable schemes companies come up with that actively harm you far exceeds what the government has done. I like the Defenders, but I have only ever gotten 40k out of them at best.... so that's why I keep buying them because I use that treadlife warranty.

You always run to extremes. Private companies have done horrible things in the name of profit and you should be every bit as wary about rampant capitalism as you are socialism. We had an excellent example last month of why letting for-profit companies run essential things like monopoly utilities with close to zero regulation and oversight is a bad idea. We can’t have decent passenger rail in the US, even just regionally, because of private companies. we can’t have decent, low cost healthcare in the US because of private companies. For profit companies aren’t your friends. You are merely something they can extract money from while paying their employees as little as possible. The energy company I worked for added ZERO value to the product they sold. The bought up capacity at low prices and sold it at high prices. It is literally traded like the stock market. All they did was extract money from their customers to pay exorbitant executive salaries and fancy marketing campaigns. They could have shut down over night and nothing of value would have been lost.

Well that's simply, flat out, false. I'm not sure if you're intentionally lying because of your anti-green agenda or if you're simply using data from 15+ years ago. LCOE is the levelized cost of generation after all of the construction, generation, maintenance, and decommissioning of a project is completed. Basically every dollar that goes into building, running, and then tearing down that generation. It's reflected as dollars per megawatt hour. Projected LCOE in the U.S. by 2025 (as of 2020) $/MWh Plant Type Min Simple Average Capacity weighted average Max Solar photovoltaic (PV) 29.75 35.74 32.80 48.09 Geothermal 35.13 37.47 37.47 39.60 Combined cycle 33.35 38.07 36.61 45.31 Wind, onshore 28.72 39.95 34.10 62.72 Hydroelectric 35.37 52.79 39.54 63.24 Combustion Turbine 58.48 66.62 68.71 81.37 Ultra-supercritical coal 65.10 76.44 NB 91.27 Advanced Nuclear 71.90 81.65 NB 92.04 Biomass 86.19 94.83 NB 139.96 Wind, offshore 102.68 122.25 115.04 155.55 Those are 2025 estimated numbers, but they're based on today's numbers and a prediction on the direction of costs. However, this time last year On-Shore Wind and Photovoltaic both fell below fossil fuels in lifetime costs. Solar And Wind Costs Continue To Fall As Power Becomes Cleaner (forbes.com)

Did a small job for the father of a buddy's girlfriend. Buddy was there, asked if I was working on any new car projects. I told them both I started working on my '64 Grand Prix, and the guy said 'That was my first car; my father bought it new then handed it down to me when it was 10 yrs old. It was turquoise with a turquoise interior." I replied 'My '64 is my first car, too.' Came home this afternoon and saw on a FB group a story/link to a very original '64 GP on eBay, turqoise/turquoise.

My brother wants a diesel 1500 Chevy to replace his 2004, 260k mile 5.3 powered Silvy he bought new.