CULTURE/SOCIETY and SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY: Oh Baby That Prius Turns Me On Sooooo Much

Well, here are two pieces that I saw on the same topic. - OlderMusicGeek

The Science Friday Blog: New Teen Idol: Hybrid Cars
posted by Ira Flatow on Thursday, May 22 2008

My teenage daughter blew me away last week. She told me that the car that she drives to school has become the "must ride" car in the parking lot, the sexiest, hottest car in the school. The car kids all wanted to jump into.

What was that car? Some souped up, high torque convertible? Nope. It was our three year old Prius hybrid. The car that gets 40 miles per gallon.

As I say, I couldn't believe it. Wow. "Are you kidding your old dad?" "Nope. We drive the hottest car."

If there was any sign of a genuine paradigm shift, it must be this one. Teens and their cars are legendary indicators of national trends and moods. And if the depth of the growing energy crisis is reaching down to the teen/car level, the problem must be even more serious than we thought. Or, we are not giving our kids enough credit for being savvy consumers, who are ahead of us on the energy curve.

I choose to believe it is the latter. It's a ray of hope in this energy morass.

A link to the original post in The Science Friday Blog
A link to The Science Friday Blog itself


EcoGeek: EcoGeeks get all the girls
By Hank Green
Posted Wed May 28, 2008 1:59am PDT

Just in case you needed another reason to care about the environment: It turns out girls dig guys who dig environmental technology.

According to a study conducted by GM as part of this year's Challenge X competition:

• Nearly 9 in 10 women (88 percent) say they'd rather chat up someone who owns the latest fuel-efficient car versus the latest sports car.

• Eighty percent of American car buyers would find someone with the latest fuel-efficient car more interesting to talk to at a party than someone with the latest sports car.

• More than 4 out of 10 (45 percent) 18- to 43-year-olds say it's a fashion faux pas nowadays to have a car that's not green or environmentally friendly.

Little did we know we've been fashionable all along! (OK, maybe not me - I'm still tooling around in my old Sentra.) No one seems to have told 80 percent of America that it's actually greener to keep driving your current car than to invest in buying a new one.

Nonetheless, this study is good news. And when I buy my first new car (never!), I'll be sure to let everyone know how green it is.

GM's Challenge X is a yearly competition among college students to make GM vehicles more efficient. This year's competition had students from 17 universities "re-engineering" Chevy's Equinox to make it more efficient and reduce its greenhouse impact, while retaining consumer appeal.

Solutions the students put together included using alternative propulsion systems like fuel cells and hybrid technologies, and using alternative fuels like biodiesel and ethanol.

This year's winners are from Mississippi State. They increased the fuel economy of the Equinox by almost 40 percent with a hybrid-electric biodiesel engine.

That's hot.

Via press release

A link to the original article

POLITICS: What To Do With Our Rebate Checks

Well, I already put the text up 3 months ago, but Ernest T Spoon sent me some cartoons that go well with it, so I posting it again with the cartoons! Plus, I figured I better put them up while they're still topical! - OlderMusicGeek

How to use the rebate

As you may have heard the Bush Administration said each and every one of us would now get a nice rebate.

If we spend that money at Wal-Mart, all the money will go to China.

If we spend it on gasoline, it will all go to the Middle East.

If we purchase a computer, it will all go to India.

If we purchase fruit and vegetables, it will all go to Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala.

If we purchase a good car, it will all go to Japan.

If we purchase useless crap, it will all go to Taiwan and none of it will help the American economy.

We need to keep that money here in America, so the only way to keep that money here at home is to buy prostitutes and beer, since those are the only businesses still in the U.S.

HUMOR and POLITICS: How to Use the Rebate

Another email forwarded to me from Ernest T Spoon. - OlderMusicGeek

How to use the rebate

As you may have heard the Bush Administration said each and every one of us would now get a nice rebate.

If we spend that money at Wal-Mart, all the money will go to China.

If we spend it on gasoline, it will all go to the Middle East.

If we purchase a computer, it will all go to India.

If we purchase fruit and vegetables, it will all go to Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala.

If we purchase a good car, it will all go to Japan.

If we purchase useless crap, it will all go to Taiwan and none of it will help the American economy.

We need to keep that money here in America, so the only way to keep that money here at home is to buy prostitutes and beer, since those are the only businesses still in the U.S.

HUMOR and CULTURE/SOCIETY: Suck It Up and Fill Your Tank

This is another excerpt from the weekly suplement that our newspaper puts out for 20- and 30-somethings. I found it pretty funny. Figured you might too. :) - OlderMusicGeek

QUESTION: Recently my girlfriend of two years has been talking on the phone late at night, going out more and acting strange. I started to suspect that maybe she's cheating on me. A few nights ago, she said she was going out. I know this sounds bad, but I decided to follow her. Sure enough, she met with a guy I had never seen at a nice restaurant. It looked intimate to me. When they left, I was going to follow them further, but ran out of gas. I think they probably went back to his place or to a hotel. I guess what I was wondering was, do you ever think the price of gas is going to go down?

SARAH: Oftentimes, back in my stalking days, I would lament the price of gas and my tendency to procrastinate filling my tank when it got down there. The dinging noise was really annoying. Since then, I've decided to accept that gas is expensive and just fill the tank when I need it. It is a pride-swallowing siege but now I'm able to stalk more efficiently. On another note, you should dump your girlfriend as she is cheating on you with somebody who willingly spends his money on gas, nice dinners and hotel rooms.

A link to the article