• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join freeLog in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

just paid $3.85 a gallon

Keeaumoku said:
Hey! Now just hold on a second, pal. How can a car hit a reindeer? They fly... don't they???

Jumpramps. You think we'd actually build a bridge across every tiny stream in Lapland now that every car is capable of reaching speeds of 100mph? So when the reindeer get low for a sip from the crystal clear, ice cold springwater running below and don't watch where they are going.. bam!

The second best fun in Lapland - after getting pissed drunk and trying to lasso a flying reindeer, of course - is watching a german tourists expression when he starts to understand that now there is 400 pounds of formerly weightless reindeer meat buried into his Völkswögen's passenger compartment.
 
Tsal said:
I'm actually located in Oulu, couple hundred km's south,

My wife's grandmother was from Oulu. I never made it that
far North when we went to Suomiland 8 years ago. Great
trip though.

The Finns are fun, as long as you don't cross them. Never
seen anyone hold a grudge longer than a Finn. (Especially
a Suomalainen.)



Paid 2.89/ US Gallon today.
 
Tsal said:
Jumpramps. You think we'd actually build a bridge across every tiny stream in Lapland now that every car is capable of reaching speeds of 100mph? So when the reindeer get low for a sip from the crystal clear, ice cold springwater running below and don't watch where they are going.. bam!

The second best fun in Lapland - after getting pissed drunk and trying to lasso a flying reindeer, of course - is watching a german tourists expression when he starts to understand that now there is 400 pounds of formerly weightless reindeer meat buried into his Völkswögen's passenger compartment.

:D :D :D

You one funny guy... look me up if you ever make it out here to Paradise to thaw out... :cool:
 
to add an international point of view -

I live in singapore. its 697.2 square kilometres (269.1 sq mi) yup, thats the whole country. 4 million people live here, thats about 15,000 people to the square mile.

petrol recently hit 2 SGD to the litre at the pump. this is 4.82 USD per gallon. our cars are taxed 141% of the open market value. which means a car that costs $20,000, costs $48,400 after tax. this is just car tax. COE (needed for every car) hit SGD12,000 for a small car and is still climbing. road tax is a factor of engine capacity, its SGD3000 (USD1900) for a car with a 3000cc engine + SGD2 (USD1.27) for each cc above that. which is why you rarely see big cars or guzzlers here, its impractical.

then again, singapore's only 40km across. it takes about half an hour, to 45 minutes tops to drive across the country. we have 48 electric train stations dotted around the country, and a whole lot more under construction. those in the city are underground. new ones are underground too. wait time is average 3-4 mins. buses go from the train stations to almost every part of the country. wait time? 5 - 10 minutes.

we dont really need to drive, and its really expensive for us to do so. remember we dont earn american wages. YET we have to have a COE system (you bid for the right to own a car, and there's a quota set by the government), as well as insanely high car prices.
 
ehque said:
I live in singapore.

we dont really need to drive,

This coment, and ones like it in reference to places like London and NY get me thinking. Someone asked the question earlier but it wasn't really answered.......

OK it's It's hard for me to imagine living with a workable public transport system, but I've taken a moment to pretend I do. This doesn't change the fact that I'm a working bassist who uses gigs as a means to produce an income. Even with a great train network, how would I get myself, my 4x10, plus my 2x10, plus my bass and an amp to gigs? Even my "small/portable" rig (a lightweight 2x12) would be too much for a train, and I couldn't possibly downsize any further (I've tried).

Anyone?
 
Petebass said:
This coment, and ones like it in reference to places like London and NY get me thinking. Someone asked the question earlier but it wasn't really answered.......

OK it's It's hard for me to imagine living with a workable public transport system, but I've taken a moment to pretend I do. This doesn't change the fact that I'm a working bassist who uses gigs as a means to produce an income. Even with a great train network, how would I get myself, my 4x10, plus my 2x10, plus my bass and an amp to gigs? Even my "small/portable" rig (a lightweight 2x12) would be too much for a train, and I couldn't possibly downsize any further (I've tried).

Anyone?

You can't, really.

Plus, if you look at the possibility of natural (or non-natural) disasters, I think it is a good idea to have your own way to get the heck out of Dodge if SHTF. Look at 9/11. NOLA. And, now they are warning NYC about threats from hurricanes.

Myself, I prefer to live in a more rural setting and commute to the outer boundaries of the city for my job. I could never live in a city. I need a house, yard, etc, and the fewer neighbors the better.
 
Researchers warn that ethanol is not cure-all for energy needs

H. Josef Hebert
Associated Press
Jul. 11, 2006

WASHINGTON - Ethanol is far from a cure-all for the nation's energy problems. It's not as environmentally friendly as some supporters claim and would supply only 12 percent of U.S. motoring fuel if every acre of corn were used.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]



Growing Demand for Gasoline Keeps Pump Prices Climbing http://www.latimes.com/business/la-...coll=la-headlines-business&ctrack=1&cset=true


Despite the fuel-pump sticker shock, gasoline demand — the estimated volume sold at the wholesale level — was robust during the week ended June 30 at more than 9.6 million barrels a day, the Energy Department said Thursday.

"Gasoline demand has been this high less than a half dozen times, and the record high of just over 9.7 million barrels a day may well be topped in July or August," according to an analysis of the data by Oil Price Information Service, a Wall, N.J., company that tracks fuel markets.

Gasoline inventories grew by 700,000 barrels to 213.1 million barrels, about a 22-day supply.

Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for Oil Price Information Service, said Americans were paying $279 million more a day for gasoline than they did a year ago but still were buying more fuel.

"It proves the threshold of whining and evoking misery is much different from the threshold of changing behavior," Kloza said.

But analysts warned that it wouldn't take much to send gasoline and oil prices sharply higher. A hurricane near key oil and gasoline production facilities, problems at refineries or new unrest in oil-producing countries would do the trick, they said.
 
Thor said:
SMASH, yeah, I bought Valero in December. Nothing like owning a microscopic share in a refinery to ease my pain at the pump. I have been avoiding the fad TV as well.

But let's face it, there isn't much in the way of competition
there among the good 'ole Texarse bourbon and branch
water crowd, is there?

One interesting polemic satire on corporate states is
'The Space Merchants' by Fred Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth
published in 1953. Quite radical for then. "The Senator from
DuPont Chemicals has the floor". Not far off the mark in my mind.


Forgot to congratulate you on [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] and thank you for the book recommendation. Sounds like a good read.

Some will know I've been raving about investing in uranium (and energy in general but especially uranium) for a couple years now, most stocks of which have already returned 100%+ gains in the past year alone. This is totally tied into gas and energy pricing, in case some think it's only automobile use that drives gas prices :

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

"The brokerage firm Merrill Lynch predicted that uranium prices could double in the next five years amid growing demand from nuclear power plant operators. "

If they're right, then shares should rise 5-10x FWIW I think they're typically late and incorrect meaning I think urnaium will more than double in the next 5-10 years.
 
Well the story doing the rounds on our media is that the number of people driving away from gas stations without paying has increased by 130% in the last 12 months. We've now got the gas stations pleading with the oil companies to be more reasonable in their fuel pricing. To me that says that they know something about the oil companies deliberately profiteering.
 
Petebass said:
Well the story doing the rounds on our media is that the number of people driving away from gas stations without paying has increased by 130% in the last 12 months. ....

It's been on the rise and in the news here too. Also copper piping being stolen from job sites and older buildings.

In today's news, how do y'all think the start of WWIII today will affect gas prices?
 
Tim Cole said:
? You think?

Actually, no.

I think it started a few years ago, as partly evidenced by this thread, and that it is chiefly an economic war but that some countries did not get the memo.

Those countries will blow each other up and go bankrupt while doing so while a country like China keeps lending them the money to do it, then exchanges the buildup of the borrowers' increasingly worthless currencies for land and resource assets such as oil fields, uranium properties, land in Manhattan and Hawaii, etc.

It's just like what we did to the Natives over here, exchanging junk for land and resources. The Chinese sold us a bunch of junk, lent us the money to buy it with, and now are buying our future and assets out from under us both physically and by the process of speeding the dollar devaluation - a large part of the appearonce of oil/gas prices going up as discussed previously in this thread.

This is in no way a racist view, if anything I'm giving them full credit for figuring out how to obtain our land and resources with our own money and without having to destroy the land and resources with bombs first in a "conventional" war or killing/angering the people who will in the future be their manufacturing workers.

History repeats, and the new wealth/empires have always emerged to the West of the old.

It's a theory, anyway. They might not view it as a war but the end result for us is the same and we will likely lose. For them, it might just be ensuring their future prosperity by not holding collapsing currencies and by securing their future energy and resource supplies. For all the smoke about "homeland security" over here, the debates during last elections in Niorth America made no mention of such issues. Instead we argued about gays and which boogeymen to bomb with borrowed Billion$.

Stupid is as stupid does ... or something. Either way, current events won't make for cheaper oil/gas/etc and so I am not thinking of selling my holdings any time soon. As a human and a citizen I think it's sad and pathetic. As an investor and even as a daily commuter, I am laughing all the way to the bank.

Vorago said:
Have you been watching LOTR again??? :D

Never seen it, why? I'm guessing they used that line? It didn't come from there.


Seriously, 75$ a barrel in London, and it doesn't look like it's gonna lower any time soon.

Agreed. $76 now. Link Removed

"Light, sweet crude for August delivery shot up $1.30 to $76.25 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, surpassing the previous high of $75.78 set during trading last Friday.

The surge in oil prices rattled stock market investors, sending the Dow Jones industrials sharply lower for the second straight day. Shares of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, slumped 3 percent on the New York Stock Exchange on concerns that high energy prices are cutting into consumers' discretionary income.

"The economy took $50 oil in stride," Yergin said. "It's clearly not taking $70 or $75 a barrel in stride. This is a rougher adjustment.""

I've been adamant for a couple years now that nuclear is the only option. Typically, the worlds "leaders" are slower than even your average dozer posting on a message board.

G-8 Gives Some Support to Nuclear Energy

"ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) -- With high demand and worries about supply driving oil near $80 a barrel, the Group of Eight offered cautious support Sunday for nuclear energy as an alternative."

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060716/russia_g8_energy.html?.v=2

Gas Prices Move Past $3 to All-Time High

Monday July 24, 1:57 am ET

U.S. Gas Prices Hit All-Time High, Rising Nearly 2 Cents Over 2 Weeks to Just Over $3 a Gallon

CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) -- Nationwide gas prices hit an all-time high in the last two weeks, rising nearly 2 cents to just over $3 per gallon, according to a survey released Sunday.
The national average for self-serve regular stood at $3.0150 a gallon Friday, up 1.98 cents in the last two weeks, according to the Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations across the country.

The price exceed the previous high of $3.0117 set in September last year, analyst Trilby Lundberg said.

A gallon of mid-grade gasoline averaged around $3.12, and premium at nearly $3.22.

Nationwide, the lowest price for regular was $2.77 a gallon in Charleston, S.C., while the highest -- $3.28 a gallon -- was in San Diego.

canopener said:
Check out some of SMASH's posts about "beating" high gas prices (I think there may be some on earlier pages in this thread). As soon as I get a decent bankroll, I might follow suit.


Thanks for the reference. Article from today's news. This guy has the rant down pat and does a much better job than me of outlining the thinking simply :
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

It's quite short and easily read. IMO, a must-read for anyone serious about understanding the symbiosis between commodity prices and the dollar (de)valuation ... what the *real* costs are, of interest rates, oil, whatever.

Ignorance can be bliss, and knowledge is power. Everyone has that choice to make when it comes to their "Economic Security".

You'd think something's gotta give, but so far nothing is giving.

http://www.prudentbear.com/archive_comm_article.asp?category=Random+Walk&content_idx=56630


"Speaking of mysteries, humans in America haven’t changed their driving habits much even though gas prices keep going up, up, up. According to the Department of Energy, U.S. gasoline prices rose 1.6 cents last week to an average $2.99 per gallon. That’s the third week in a row of rising prices, and the highest weekly average gas price since September 5, 2005. Already this summer, demand for gasoline in certain weeks has been near record highs. That’s amazing human behavior given that a year ago gas prices were 67 cents lower. As recently as July 2004, gas prices were below $2.00. And three short summers ago, gas sold for $1.55, back when a human could drive a Hummer across America without stopping to apply for a higher credit card limit. "

Check the graph in the article. Yowza !

I agree totally, and often say so myself. That's the beauty of it - people, and nations, are currently utterly dependent on oil & gas. And it's not just for driving that we're so in need of it, so in other words a drastic reduction in driving would still make little difference especially given that supplies are declining and those supplies are increasingly more expensive to extract and refine.

Energy is the last thing people will, or really can, give up. We need to get around, heat our homes (or cool them in Summer as recent news from California illustrates), and cook our food.

Then factor the problem of global warming and pollution.

Nuclear is the only solution, and I bet accordingly on gold, silver, platinum, oil & gas, and best of all uranium.

Wow. 135 MPG car -> Invalid Link Removed

http://news.com.com/2300-11386_3-6096355-1.html?tag=ne.gall.pg

720Tesla-051_550x367.png