Get Out Of My Dreams, Get Into My Alternative Transportation.

I was watching a program, and like always, it got me thinking. Ya, I watch Family Guy, Robot Chicken, American Dad, Futurama, Father of the Pride and Star Trek reruns … but for the most part, I watch things like Daily Planet, a myriad of documentaries from the making of CERN’s LHC, The Elegant Universe (one of my favourite series), Nova and lots of stuff generally found on National Geographic, Discovery and yes, PBS.

I am not the typical “tree-huggin’, pot-smokin’, whale-savin’, tie-dyin’” hippie earth-lover … I don’t smoke pot, I am not politically correct, I understand how a lot of things work together in the environment. Yes, there is too much plastic in the ocean. Yes, we need more trees. Burning anything for fuel is bad. Carbon Credits are a complete lie.

*regains original thought*

So, this program got me thinking. In the Netherlands, in order to reduce traffic, they are giving money to people who avoid using their car. In the United Kingdom, they are expanding the Tube, adding busses and charging drivers who venture into the city proper in places like London in order to keep traffic down.

However, in North America (ya, Canada is as guilty… almost) the way in which pollution, stress and traffic in general is being fought is to simply let people know where the gridlock is. Very little is being done to promote public transit, carpooling, telecommuting – instead, some car-lover wants to make sure that instead of fixing the actual problem, it is apparently better to spend a lot of government money on projects that simply tell anyone with a subscription to avoid the ‘rough spots’. Anyone who isn’t a moron will immediately see (notice – the people who have this idea are not morons … they SEE this, but they are going to make money, so they don’t care) that all the system will do is MOVE the problem … just like burying garbage.

 

Have you driven a Ford, lately?

You might as well, since here is what I predict for the automotive industry, globally.

• By the end of this year, Daimler will drop Chrysler, and the name will disappear as a few of its assets are sold off to Ford, Honda and Hyundai.
• General Motors will further split, and two of the divisions – light trucks and the Caddy – will survive past 3 years.  Honda, Toyota and VW will likely pick up some of the assets of that corp.
• Ford will dance around the issues hammering at the other two, and will be able to, and quickly, re-focus it’s core business to electric and hydrogen vehicles, and will dominate the large truck market when Chrysler fails and takes Navistar with it. 
• Toyota will put a brave showing having mostly gas-powered vehicles until it reorients itself around the actual market, not the percieved one.
• Honda will be competing with Hyundai, in the East, and Tesla, VW will be coming from the West.

This is, of course, just my opinion. 

 

Calling All Cars!

I have been seeing a lot of adverts lately – some only in the Great White North - but universally irritating.

Have you seen the Ford commercial? Watch Here 

How about the Chevy commericals with Howie? Watch Here *AND* Watch Here

And Chrysler? I have no idea what Daimler – or whomever is accepting responsibility now – is thinking.

Let me just say one thing, before anything else:  If you are involved in the Auto Industry in any way, on the line, parts and OEM, logistics, management … you have my respect.

That being said, and I have said this before, WHAT THE FUCK?

Where the fuck do these companies get off advertising “2 years” of ANYTHING when they cannot guarentee they will be AROUND next month?  Quality?  Stick your quality up your ass, because it doesn’t mean shit when you are doing a 16 BILLION DOLLAR bait-n-switch.  Two years of OnStar?  OH, that company whose product is based on gas-powered vehicle sales.  I am sure even though there is a REAL possibility that the economy of North America (YES, North America, not just the “America”) is at critical mass and is about to roll over like an iceburg.  You do remember what iceburgs are famous for, don’t you?  Sinking the unsinkable.

Fuel efficiency?  You must be fucking joking?  There was a mandate (thwarted by the oil companies and investors, like George W. Bush) to have vehicles have standard fuel efficiency of more than 50 MPG or less than 3L/100km.  I don’t buy your bullshit “we have 31 Highway”…fuck you.  31 MPG “highway-with-no-a/c-or-lights-windows-up-tires-at-55-PSI…”

Idiots.

I think that Toyota’s North American divisions are influencing its latest direction – in the direction of stupid, that is. 

Honda is at least trying.  So is Hyundai.

Now Tesla – they have been rubbing one out for the world for some time now, and the new S-Series is now available to order, and the first ones are rolling out (OF A PRODUCTION LINE) as of the end of 2011.  If I had the money, I would buy one right now.  And trust me, the $50 K price tag is on par, if not cheaper, than any gas-powered equivalent.

Don’t feel bad about the auto industry failing when you buy an electric or hydrogen vehicle.  Feel bad that the money-grubbing fuckers that choked the last few dollars out of the company you worked for might not get the billions in money-cause-people-won’t-buy-our-shitty-gas-powered-cars.

Oh, and as for the nearly 30 billion dollars that the US of A and Canada are about to give to the “big three”, that is the equivalent of buying 600 thousand cars, at 50K each.  Over 1.3 million “economy” cars.

 

Forgive Me, Father, For I Have Carbon’d

There is a New-Order Religion. This new Faith is just like all those others: You either believe, or you get flayed or beaten or tortured. Those of us who already Believed, we weren’t good enough. Nope. You didn’t splay or prostrate or demonize yourself in a public manner which shows the congregation your level of Committment to the Faith. We already knew all there was to know about the Faith, but we just didn’t whore it out enough.

Welcome to the First Church Of Carbon.

Many of us already believed in the warming of the globe: We also knew, however, that it occurred naturally. As is the nature of all things, there is a cycle. In the morning, the sun “rises”, in the evening, it “sets”. Screaming about “Global Warming” makes as much sense to us as screaming about the “Global Darkening“. Granted, “Global Darkening” happens too quickly to get good press and kick-ass marketing, but “Global Warming“, hell ya. Some people have started and retired already riding this wave.

Being in the sun for extended periods of time is dangerous – even before it was told to us. I believe this same sort of crap was etched into cave walls when fear-mongering about fire first showed up. “Fire is for COOKING” and “When it doubt, put it out” were great catch phrases of our common ancestors. I am almost certain someone came up with a scheme to sell “fireproof rocks”.

The point is … fear-mongering has always been a marketing tool. Speaking of Marketing Tools, Al Gore is a famous one. He had a bunch of people create a PowerPoint presentation. He is now the Carbon Pope. He mechanically mumbles some odd facts, that the faithful simply accept, regardless of interpretation.

In the same manner as the Catholic Church, the Carbon Diety can be appeased by way of Confessional. Like any other tithing, the sinful can appease their new Infinite Power by purchasing “Carbon Credits”. This originally was, like all of the other religions, only something that the devout could do: Now, anyone with a little time can set up a website or other similar scam to sell carbon credits, and the fearful and guilty can buy salvation by the metric tonne.

Before you buy into this (no pun intended) you might want to do a little research. Of course, that applies to any new religion.

 

Corn + Bullshit = Bio Diesel

I remember when the world ended in the 1970’s because we ran out of oil.

I remember when the world ended in the 1990’s because we lost all that oil due to fires set by “someone” in Kuwait.

I will always remember when I first heard that oil, which has been called a ‘fossil fuel’, has more to do with fuel than fossil.   

Have you seen the ‘friends’ of the Bush family, and the countries they come from?  Oil-rich Middle East.  Most of the White House staff at this moment are either sitting on the boards of or major stockholders in oil-based businesses.  There is a channel of funds, largely from North America and Europe travelling through the commissioned hands of those oil-based businesses.  Kuwait could buy Iraq and sell it to Iran at a loss and STILL be rich.

Canada has more oil than the Middle East.  And yet, because Big Brother already owns the rights (the Eagle really bent the Beaver over on that one) to the Oilsands, all of those oil-based businesses are controlling that oil.  I mean, that is more embarassing than that time Petro-Canada was not only purchased as a start-up (1.5 Billion CDN) but then, after a few years, was AGAIN purchased from an interest based in the US of A, and shortly thereafter sold to Pioneer.

With the softwood lumber disputes, the electricity issues, drinking water practices, Alberta beef scares and the oil industry dominating I have serious doubts that the now touted Bio Diesel market is going to help.  Industry ‘experts’ are trying to sell the idea of growing corn for fuel, and yet if all of the US and Canadian farmers ploughed under whatever they have now for corn, less than 15% of demand (for corn used in creating Bio-Diesel) would be met, and that INCLUDES taking production from food-based and feed-based farming.

I have a lot of friends (and readers) in the US of A.  I am not the kind of person who stereotypes a nation for the policy of a few morons.  There are too many of the ‘rich-get-richer’ types in both Canada and the US of A.  As usual, I don’t have an issue with the PEOPLE of the US of A, I am pointing out that the governments (owned by a handful of individuals) of both countries continue to bend over every person they can.  Of course, when all corn is diverted to the fuel industry, and there are no more chickens, turkeys, pigs, cattle, they might have to eat the populace rather than screw us.  (Mr. Bush & Mr. Harper … I’ll give you permission now … Eat Me.)

Far fetched, you say?  Really?  Do you wonder why there is no electric car anymore?  Any idea why hydrogen cars haven’t already fully replaced gas & diesel?  It isn’t really that complicated.  I mean, it probably is for the incredible brain-trust that includes the likes of George W, but I mean really.  Put it this way … why is Imperial “Oil” putting in a H2-based infrastructure?  I mean, we are only talking about liberated Hydrogen atoms, often gleaned from excited separation from H2O.  Oh … right … how does one separate Hydrogen from Oxygen?  Electricity.  How many Oil companies make electricity?  None, you say?  Well, that MIGHT have been true, but look at the portfolio of any of the great Energy providers, like Hydro One, PG & E … Enron…  Yup, everything seems to be owned by that same slice of the human race.

I guess that just like the “fossil” fuels, there will be some big conspiracy machine talking in, say, the 2070’s about how there are “corn shortages” or even “H2 shortages”.  Of course, if we are really that short on food and water (corn and H2O), I doubt that vehicle fuel will really matter.

I’m off to go plant corn in a hydroponics lab.