Opining Online

Could it be simply the ability to play?

My father, age 85:

My father, age 85

My granddaughter, age 18 months.

I’m driving slow, and that’s most certainly not an efficient use of my time (or energy) considering the vast improvements in technology since 1974. I’m not using any off-label or illegal drugs, so I should relatively safe.

Social Policy Hindsight: is it merely a thought experiment or should we actively analyze and use such information. Would driving 55 today have the impact it did in 1974? Why or why not? Would limiting physician’s ability to prescribe off-label impact patient care adversely? I wonder if prescribing birth control pills as a fertililty treatment might not now be considered off-label.

Obama goes out of his way not to plainly say… anything. Consider Obama in charge of freeway exits signs. ::shudder:: (via Amba) Now is the time to merge together and exit, for it is this spirit that leads you… somewhere.

Be sure to use the proper fuel and good maintenance for greatest efficiency, in your car and in your body.

We’re winning the Iraq war and Bush drove us to it! If you hit a bump in the road today, rest assured that it’s Bush’s fault.

Of course reading on the internet counts as reading. Just don’t engage with text while driving, but if you do, at least make it interesting.

It’s Sunday. Take the scenic route. However, Monday will come, and this device might be handy for the commute and at least until Friday.

Should your drive take you near any summer camps, watch out for hovering helicopters. Drive carefully around full-blown addicts too. Most of them will probably be on a trail somewhere, but I’ve seen them on the side of the road.

I’m stopping at the Carnival of Cars. See ya!

I hate it when my husband or father asks me to look for car or truck information on the internet. It’s not so bad when they have a part number. I can find dealers and prices with no problem with that information.

But when they want information on… say… how to improve gas mileage on an ‘84 Mazda b2000, the internet is not so friendly. In part, I know it’s because I do not understand exactly what information they want well enough to define good search terms.

What’s really frustrating is their “man on the moon” attitude. Just because we can put a man on the moon doesn’t mean somebody has written and posted on the internet a way to increase gas mileage in a specific vehicle.

Sure, I can find plenty of site that will tell me how to make that truck run on water. That just screams SCAM to me. The idea that the hydrogen can be separated from the oxygen and used as a fuel doesn’t sound nearly as far-fetched as the idea that somebody is going to sell me that knowledge for $49.  For only double that amount I can learn how to make a fortune in real estate.

Eric at Classical Values posts about IBM’s using chip cooling technology and lenses to amplify the power of the sun that a photo voltaic cell can produce. It doesn’t sound like technology that would work well (at its present stage) because, as his co-blogger and commenter, M. Simon, points out, of water vapor.

I could see maybe Phoenix working with this, but I suspect Louisiana’s humidity and rainfall might be a bit of a disadvantage.

However, at the end of the post, Eric points out that E-Fuel Corporation is marketing a home distillation unit that can produce up to 25 gallons of ethanol per week at a price of $1.00/gal. Considering the unit is going for about $10,000, it’s not economically feasible except for those much richer than I am.

However, I seem to remember some relatives in the not so distant past that knew all about the distillation process and obviously knew how to set it up for less. Much less. Dad, you remember how? I think there may be some copper tubing in our storage shed.

That techology is very suited to the South, where the technology has been understood for generations.