http://www.justaguything.com/the-top-ten-gas-guzzlers-of-2010/
I don’t know what I expected in a story about the top 10 gas guzzling cars but … this wasn’t it. Let’s just say that I don’t think any of us are in danger of sitting in traffic and having one of these bad boys sitting there next to us so we can point and laugh about what they’re doing to the environment. :)
When the BMW M6, Porsche Cayenne and Ashton Martin are tied for *last*, what the heck is at the top?
I no longer have enough of a commute to read anything, but I’m still curious. The NYTimes did a survey (specifically asking “…on the subway”) and posted a very nice interface to their results:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/09/07/nyregion/nyc-subway-reading.html
The Bible shows up, but no Shakespeare. I do keep seeing that “Infinite Jest” one spoken of highly, which is a Hamlet reference for those that don’t recognize it. I’ll have to check that out. The top books are rounded out by classics – Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, and War and Peace. I wonder if that’s a statement about the current political climate?
They also track newspapers and magazines, but that feels so … old to me. I haven’t meaningfully read a newspaper, or carried around a magazine, for years.
[ Link found courtesy RandomHouse on Twitter ]
http://www.mint.com/blog/saving/can-you-live-without-a-car/
Mint.com (awesome financial management site , which you should be using) breaks down just how much you “need” a car.
Personally I could probably live without one. During the good weather I can bike to work, and at only 5-10 minutes away, my wife could pack the kids in the car and zip me over there / pick me up when it’s really needed. It’d be annoying to spend the whole winter doing that, to be sure, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world.
However, here’s where my big advantage lies – I own that one. No car payment. So other than the insurance on the thing, occasional gas and very occasional maintenance, it’s not that big of a money sink.
What about you?
http://www.motorists.org/blog/gm-4000-dollar-car-we-will-not-get/
Not so fast. GM is apparently quite capable of producing a car for $4000, and indeed plans to sell them … just not in the U.S. It seems that our government has these things called “standards” for stuff like, I dunno, safety. Costs money to make sure a car lives up to those standards.
Just not in other countries.
I suppose it’s an interesting economic idea. Do I want to buy a cheap car with no air bags? Nope, I’ll pay the extra for the safety. But if some 19yr old with little income wants to buy the only car he can afford, and is willing to take that gamble, tell me why I should stop him? All I care about is whether he can afford the insurance if he hits me. If he damages himself because he’s driving a death trap that’s his choice.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125079911572147367.html
According to the Wall Street Journal, the program, which gives owners up to $4500 to trade in their “clunker” for a new car with better mileage, is coming to an end. No real detail in the article other than that they’ve got to do all the paperwork to make sure the dealers get reimbursed before the money runs out.
I was thinking about it, I have to admit. I drive a 2004 Ford Freestar which is definitely on the “clunkers” list. But I also own it outright, no car payment, and it runs fine. So even the apparent deal of saving $4500 right now I could offset by simply driving the car for another year and half or so (figuring with some research that a new car payment is gonna come in somewhere around $300/month).
But for other folks, particularly those driving even older cars that are now costing you more to maintain than you might like, why not do some shopping this weekend? The overall idea behind the program – to get more fuel efficient cars on the road – is certainly a good one.
http://www.universalhub.com/node/27123
When I took the Boston Commuter Rail, I paid over $150/month for my monthly pass – and that was for a Zone 2, when there’s something like 5 zones, so I was getting off easy. There’s no automatic system on our trains – the conductor comes by, you show him your ticket which has a big 2 on it and if I remember correctly was color coded for month, and that’s that.
I never thought about it, but how hard would that have been to fake? Half the time people either flash the ticket quickly, or else stick it in the little holder on the seat. It’s not like the conductor actually touches and examines most of them, he just doesn’t have the time.
Apparently this is indeed a problem, as the linked article discusses. Looks like they’ve adopted little UV flashlights to check for the authenticity markers to weed out the fake tickets.
But that got me wondering, what happens if you’re busted? Do you get kicked off the train, or do you just have to flash a real ticket (or pay the fare some other way)? Is it a crime? What sort? You could ride 100 times on your fake ticket but it’s not like they could prove you defrauded them out of 100 rides. You only technically got caught faking it once. I wonder if you could make the case that you didn’t know it was fake, like you could do with cash?
A friend of mine, who was up in the $200+/month zones, used a different and more ethical trick over the hot summer months. He’d stop buying the monthly pass and instead get a “12 ride” ticket. The trick was that on hot and nasty days with broken air conditioning and standing room only, more than half the time the conductors would never check all the tickets, and thus every time his ticket did not get punched, he got a free ride. That 12 ride ticket would sometimes last him all season.
http://kdka.com/local/iphone.iburgh.application.2.1131909.html
Pittsburgh announces their new app that allows people to take a picture of a pothole, write up a description, and then send it on to City Hall (GPS stamped along the way) so they can take care of it.
Great idea. Want all cities to have this. I could have sworn that Boston had something similar but I can’t find it.
http://gas2.org/2009/08/15/6-alternative-fuel-vehicles-built-by-teenagers/
8th Grader Builds Solar-Powered Bike With GPS, iPod Dock
Eighth-grader David S. Dixon built this street-legal quadricycle powered by a solar-charged electric motor. The bike not only carries his dog and three friends, but it has also has an iPod dock and GPS. Ya, it’s that cool!
Some neat ideas in there!
