Conventional wisdom suggests that President Carter’s requests of his citizens to conserve was a political negative because people just don’t like to be told what to do. I guess maybe the argument is that Japanese culture is different from ours. We’re rugged individualists while they’re conformists, yada, yada, yada (our rugged individualism apparently being defined by mass consumption – the irony perennially lost). Or perhaps it’s merely the exigency of circumstances – no doubt part of the truth. We did make consumption sacrifices during World War II, but that was a different generation addressing a different world. The point is, Japan has now proved that it’s possible to address energy shortages with reductions in energy consumption.
From A Different Kind of Luxury:
The best news however, is that through conservation and the reduction in electricity use in Japan since the disaster there have been no power outages. Oizumi said, “By turning down air conditioners and reducing power usage, Japan has had enough power. And that means that we do not need any more nuclear power stations, and that we do not need to restart any of the closed ones. We have enough.”
Imagine that.
You’d think that something like this might warrant at least a human interest story after the sports report or something, right? Too much to ask?
44 comments
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September 29, 2011 at 5:54 am
Mitch
At the risk of overgeneralizing, it seems to me that Americans are far more interested in grand gestures than in continuing efforts at the margins.
Japanese culture may have more of an interest in minor but continuous improvement.
The electric car rebates are a good thing, but we’d save a lot more gas if specific energy efficiency improvements to the existing gas powered fleet could be made free, or if people could get a discount on their insurance for installing a speed monitor that kept them at 55 except in emergencies.
September 29, 2011 at 6:46 am
Anonymous
Gee whiz Eric (and flock)! How much energy do you think is wasted growing weed indoors?!!! Everyone should turn their AC down but the guy next door or down the street has a 30 light grow going in his garage! A bunch of hypocrites!
An industrial nation can, should, and will reduce as technoligy improves. BUT
Just here in Humboldt. Just think of how many millions of megawatts of electricity is used to grow weed from a house or a commercial building? Then of course the gas, oil, and diesel used for the gorows in the rural area. Oh yes the fuel for all the lifted diesel trucks the dope growers drive.
r
September 29, 2011 at 6:48 am
Anonymous
But of course Eric will not post anything critical of pot growers anymore.
September 29, 2011 at 7:34 am
Bruce Ross
I recall reading — long before the nuclear accident — that the Japanese were almost religiously frugal when it came to energy use.
Indeed, it seems to be a nearly annual feature in the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/04/world/asia/04japan.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/06/business/worldbusiness/06japanfuel.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/04/business/worldbusiness/04energy.html?
September 29, 2011 at 8:25 am
Eric Kirk
Bruce – thanks for the links. I’ll read those articles later on.
Mitch – I don’t know. The hybrid has really taken off. We just bought a Prius, but we were on a waiting list with Midland Motors because they’re gone as soon as they reach the lot. It took a couple of months, and they aren’t dealing with price on any of the sales. We called everywhere, including the Bay Area and Redding. Nobody keeps them in stock for very long. It seems that there is a huge demand not yet being met.
I read an article, though I cannot vouch for its accuracy, in which it was claimed that if every individual or family replaced just one of his/her/their vehicles with one of several hybrid models now available, current domestic oil production would meet our needs – meaning no more offshore or North Slope Alaska drilling. If true, that’s a profound statement.
September 29, 2011 at 11:52 am
Ernie's Place
Eric
I wouldn’t ordinarily criticize you, but you seem to have bought into the current wave of environmental insanity. Worse you are advocating saving the word with your Prius, and recommending that everybody buy one. “claimed that if every individual or family replaced just one of his/her/their vehicles with one of several hybrid models now available, current domestic oil production would meet our needs
“
Prius is naive spelled backwards…
I am happy for you that you got a nice new car and I hope that you absolutely love it. But, to think that you are saving the environment is false. The cost of manufacturing the car, and the pollution from the batteries is nothing short of phenomenal.
Please read the following link before anybody else decides to save the world by buying a Prius.
Prius Outdoes Hummer in Environmental Damage
September 29, 2011 at 12:40 pm
Mitch
Eric,
Congratulations on your Prius. But that’s an example of what I’m (perhaps incorrectly) calling “the grand gesture.” BTW, Ernie, people love them for their quiet, and they’re replacing the new car someone would have bought anyway, so to complain about the resources used in manufacturing them seems off-target. I doubt the pollution from the battery pack is anywhere near as substantial as the pollution from the gas use offset.
If, instead of funding rebates for Prius owners, the government instead offered to pay 80% to 90% of the cost of replacing the 50 pound battery in every driver’s car with a ten to fifteen pound lithium battery replacement, there’d be an immediate reduction of something like 1/2% in our fleet’s gas usage, it would create short term employment, and it would jump-start the electric car battery industry. But it doesn’t have the glamour of a new car. it just doesn’t fit in with our way of thinking as Americans.
Cash for clunkers was an exception to the rule. I don’t know how it ended up working out.
September 29, 2011 at 6:38 pm
Eric Kirk
Ernie – I’m aware of that report, and Rush’s popularization of it. Slate and others have also apparently debunked it.
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/the_green_lantern/2008/03/tank_vs_hybrid.html#page_start
I researched the question before we bought it, and found a few articles which convinced me that the CNW Marketing Research report is faulty right from its premises, including the 100,000 mile “lifetime” of the batteries, which is dated in that the clinical tests have rated the lifetime at 180,000 miles minimum, and there are anecdotal accounts of batteries well over 400,000 miles and still going strong.
What is kind of interesting also is that these media sources, Rush included, don’t bother to ask a basic question – if the Hummer was so much cheaper to make, why was it priced so much higher than the Prius? That certainly brings into question which set of consumers is “naive.”
September 29, 2011 at 6:53 pm
Eric Kirk
I found the article I referenced a few posts above, although I remembered it wrong.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-franklin/rush-on-hybrids_b_17006.html
Perhaps if it was put another way it would be easier for Rush to grasp the cold hard logic behind what hybrids can do for this nation; “If every privately owned vehicle in America was traded in today for a Prius, it would reduce the amount of oil our nation requires to a level that could be fully supported by our own resources!”
Let me say that again in case it didn’t sink in fully the first time; “If every privately owned vehicle in America was traded in today for a Prius, it would reduce the amount of oil our nation requires to a level that could be fully supported by our own resources!” (and that’s without having to drill in Alaska!)
The article also contains some further criticism of the CNW study.
In the meantime, we’re getting 48 to 51 miles per gallon, and yes, we do get better mileage in the city as weird as that is.
September 29, 2011 at 6:58 pm
merrymount
I wonder how many nuclear power plants we could do without if everybody stopped watching television, plus we then might get back some brains and maybe even some imagination.
A possible revolution could be if we just took back freeways with bicycles, pedestrians, skateboards, scooters, skates…There could still be cars, they’d just have to go in one lane and really slowly. It could be fun. Things are often not nearly as far by foot or bike as they seem in a car, I’ve found. Kind of an american form of the blockades that are fairly effective in Paris, if I understand it correctly.
I do not agree that technology will save us.
“I don’t know if anything we do will really change things, you guys, but I do know this – throwing yourself at the machine is really fun.”
– Remedy
September 29, 2011 at 7:55 pm
Jim
While I am sure the Japanese are all good with sacrificing this much for a long, but temporary period, I doubt they will continue indefinitely, unless the disaster took that much of a personal tool on the country.
I highly recommend that everyone watch the recent Nova piece on survivors of the tsunami. Key lessons for us all to stay alive in any type of disaster:
http://video.pbs.org/video/2145229025
September 29, 2011 at 8:39 pm
Ernie's Place
Eric
I don’t much believe Rush Limbaugh, nor hacks like… David Franklin
Independent Hybrid/Electric Vehicle Consultant.
I got my information from Snopes, and I only believe scientific analysis.
But, I do hope you enjoy your new car. I just don’t like the more-environmentalist-than-thou-crap. Just say you have a nice new car…
I know that it doesn’t sound like it but a AM happy for you!
September 29, 2011 at 9:07 pm
Eric Kirk
Well, you should be aware that CNW, which is Snopes only cited source, is GM-funded, and GM has of course faced huge PR detriment for their abandonment of their initial electrical car experiment, and their destruction of all of the cars which they forced the leasee’s to return despite high monetary offers. They were left in the dust, and now they have to account for it.
And the science of the CNW analysis has been called into question all over the place.
I’m all for science as well, and I trust MIT and Argonne National Laboratories more than an industry-funded think tank, and both give the Prius high praise – on the environmental issue.
September 29, 2011 at 9:37 pm
Eric Kirk
I think I posted the Slate article, but here it is.
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/the_green_lantern/2008/03/tank_vs_hybrid.html
Then the Chronicle cited a “counter-study”:
Enter the Pacific Institute, an Oakland-based environmental think-tank, with a counter-report alleging that the CNW report is based on “faulty methods of analysis, untenable assumptions, selective use and presentation of data, and a complete lack of peer review.” Among its most flawed assumption: the average H1 Hummer is assumed to last 35 years, and travel 379,000 miles, while the average Prius is assumed to last only 109,000 miles over 12 years.
Change these “assumptions” and you end up with an opposite result — that the Prius and others like it consume far less “lifetime energy” than monster vehicles such as the Hummer.
The lesson here is to beware of junk science. If you want to do your part to fight global warming, it probably doesn’t make sense to trade in your Prius for a Hummer.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/04/EDGI7Q63U01.DTL#ixzz1ZPXupBpJ
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/04/EDGI7Q63U01.DTL#ixzz1ZPXezM9u
And then from the Straight Dope:
What about the Prius and its allegedly grim environmental impact? The cause of the controversy seems to be a report called “Dust to Dust” by Oregon-based CNW Marketing Research. The report claims a Prius has a higher lifetime energy cost than a Hummer, an assertion cited by George Will in 2007 in his syndicated newspaper column. But the report is ludicrous. It evidently was self-published, lists no authors, quotes no technical literature, never explains its methodology, and contains numerous unsupported and often bizarre assertions. (Sample: a Prius will have a life span of only 109,000 miles whereas an H1 will last for 379,000 miles, apparently the basis for the contention that the Hummer’s per-mile costs are lower.) Only a fool or a commentator with an ax to grind would take such nonsense seriously.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2759/are-electric-cars-really-more-energy-efficient
When CNW is willing to put their findings to a peer-reviewed forum, and win some adherents other than George Will, Rush Limbaugh, and a sloppy moment from Snopes, I’ll take it more seriously as science.
Oh, and one more point. Do you know why CNW gives the Prius a 109,000 mile lifetime? Check out the link below. It isn’t because the car can’t make more miles. It’s because Prius drivers drive less, and therefor they won’t travel that far in 10 years or so, and because technology will advance the car will be obsolete, and so owners like me will ditch the car for another.
Seriously! That’s their own explanation.
http://www.cnwmr.com/nss-folder/automotiveenergy/Response%20to%20Pacific%20Institute.pdf
And if you don’t think they have an agenda, read the language of their response to the Slate article. Does it seem objective and scientifically detached to you?
http://www.cnwmr.com/nss-folder/automotiveenergy/Response%20Slate%20March%202008.pdf
September 30, 2011 at 5:59 am
Anonymous
Another example of junk science journalism funded by corporations, echoed through the right wing media and dripped into the brains of their readers without critical thought.
September 30, 2011 at 7:08 am
Anonymous
Did you have a suburu station wagon before the Prius?
September 30, 2011 at 7:10 am
Eric Kirk
Well, we’ll never know junkie the science is because unlike MIT and Argonne, which are completely transparent with their methodologies, CNW refuses to disclose it’s own citing proprietary concerns (they’re a business after all). But they made the mistake of disclosing their basis for the 109,000 mile “lifetime” of the Prius. Even if we accepted the driving patterns of the demographic consumer as a valid measure of a car’s lifespan, CNW clearly doesn’t understand the demographic in particular, which is still driving the 1980s boxy Volvos to date. Prius owners aren’t going to dump a perfectly healthy car just to buy the latest thing, and the Microsoft Office comparison is patently ridiculous. They might have conducted a survey to find out that the first models of Prius are still being driven around today despite the massive movement in the technology, which has even led CNW to revise it’s evaluation (now more cost-efficient than SUVs, but still less than GM and Ford economy models by their criteria).
As one of the articles pointed out, CNW is completely arbitrary in their criteria of expense per mile, excluding the fact that the Prius transmission has five movable parts, as opposed to the average of 3000 for an automatic transmission. This means that barring a manufacturing defect, there will be NO transmission maintenance for the life of the car. None.
What was the clincher for me in researching the question was the responses to the Slate article I linked above (and there were additional postings). When you are a research entity and you feel compelled to defend your work on an Internet forum, all I can think of is the line from MacBeth, “Methinks the Lady doth protest too much.”
September 30, 2011 at 7:31 am
Mitch
All true, Eric, but did MIT or Argonne use 3,000 (undisclosed) data points, like CNW? That’s a lot of data. Far more, for example, than just 2,500 data points.
September 30, 2011 at 8:51 am
Erasmus
The line about the lady protesting too much is spoken by Hamlet’s mother, and it is her response to her son’s question about the play that was staged for her and her spouse.
September 30, 2011 at 10:11 am
Ernie's Place
I had breakfast with Eric this morning. He gave me facts and figures that, in his particular case, the world will be a far better place since he bought a Prius. Just as with any new technology, there will be bumps in the road, obvious to most and smooth to others. I still have strong reservations about the battery pollution, as Eric himself agreed, but progress will move us away from environmentally destructive Nickel mining. They are already talking about replacing the nickel battery with the more light-weight Lithium battery. Now I have to go research “lithium”. At least Eric will keep me busy researching while he is enjoying his spiffy new ride.
I have to admit, I love the technology in the Prius. Stuff like that is right up my alley. We discussed the possibility of converting the energy wasted as heat into more power for the vehicle and would it be cool if they could make the skin of the car into solar energy receptors.
All-in-all Eric won the debate, which only proves my long standing philosophy… Never argue with a lawyer! Even when you win they will point out all the facts on their side. But, I fairly-and-squarely concede to Eric. That is why he bought his OWN breakfast.
September 30, 2011 at 10:49 am
Eric Kirk
Oh Ernie. You cited a report from an impeccable source. I just think Snopes didn’t follow through on it enough.
The nickel-based battery is a big issue, and it may very well be that other non-hybrid economy cars perform better with everything considered. But the technology is moving forward pretty quickly, and smug liberals like me like to feel like our consumption choices are a progressive part of history and all.
Thing is, whether CNW is right and most Prius owners will trade their cars after 100,000 miles, I can guarantee that my personal economics are different. I am commuting to and from Eureka often, and will be doing more so in the future. This purchase will save me thousands of dollars in gas over the year. Whether it makes sense for everyone, it makes huge sense to my personal situation.
September 30, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Anonymous
And even IF a lot of Prius owners trade their cars in at 100,000 miles, as long as they’re still running it’s not like they’ll go right on the scrap heap. It just means some used-car buyers will be able to get a used Prius instead of a used non-hybrid. Meanwhile some of those who traded in their Prius will probably trade up to a newer, even more efficient hybrid, or electric car.
I just don’t see how this “they’ll trade it in at 100,000 miles” thing is supposed to mean that people buying existing hybrids is a bad thing.
And if gas prices hit $6 or $7 per gallon in the coming years, I think it’s the owners of Hummers who will be looking to trade in their ridiculous gas-guzzlers — if anyone will take them. $8 or $9 per gallon? They’ll be melted down for scrap. Perhaps the steel made from junked Hummers can be used to construct a Monument to Stupidity.
September 30, 2011 at 12:05 pm
tra
If they’re traded in at 100,000 miles but are still in reasonably good condition, they’ll be bought by used-car buyers. Meanwhile, many of the folks who traded them in will get a newer, even more fuel-efficient hybrid.
I just don’t see how this “but they’ll trade it in at 100,000 miles” thing is supposed to show us that buying a hybrid is a bad thing.
Maybe when gas hits $6 pr $7 per hour, and most of the Hummers are melted into scrap metal, we can use some of that recycled steel to construct a Monument to Stupidity.
September 30, 2011 at 12:13 pm
Eric Kirk
I guess the argument is that the technology will be outdated so nobody will want them.
I would also note that it’s almost impossible to find a used Prius for sale, and plenty of the early models are still being driven around.
September 30, 2011 at 12:51 pm
Ernie's Place
Tra said: “Maybe when gas hits $6 pr $7 per hour, and most of the Hummers are melted into scrap metal, we can use some of that recycled steel to construct a Monument to Stupidity.”
Actually that is already happening, they are being scrapped and shipped to China and being melted into rebar to built The Three Gorges dam. China is building the dam for free hydro-energy to build trinkets to sell to foolish Americans.
Just the other day it looked like America was going to be able to compete on a few manufacturing levels, so China devalued their money, which will actually make everything they sell cheaper. That way they don’t have to subsidize anything. All of their products are cheaper.
Talk about a monument to American stupidity.
September 30, 2011 at 1:22 pm
tra
I guess the argument is that the technology will be outdated so nobody will want them.
Yeah, I understand the argument, but I think it’s a pretty weak one. If hybrid technology has moved forward so much that nobody wants a used Prius because it’s “outdated,” imagine how “outdated” the Hummers will seem.
September 30, 2011 at 1:23 pm
tra
Oh, and obviously that was me at 12:00. I guess I needed to fill out the e-mail box and hadn’t, because it didn’t post right away, and came up as “anonymous.” Oops.
September 30, 2011 at 1:49 pm
Not A Native
Fact: The Yuan(Renminbi) is rising
Ernie, you’re dumb as a box of rocks. And persistent in your dumbness. Sorry, but you’re prima facia evidence that the people raised and who remain in HumCo are the stupidest ones, unable to make it anywhere else(and a lot can’t even make it here, hence the large amount of dysfunction and poverty among homegrowns). And please, don’t confuse that with a moral assessment. IMO, your moral value is equal to everyone else.
HumCo is rural place, of which the US has many, where performance is low and competance and ability aren’t in general high demand or well rewarded. The best and brightest leave to realize their ambitions and potential elsewhere, where it will be appreciated. While the rest remain to hobble the local ethos.
September 30, 2011 at 3:56 pm
suzy blah blah
oh Nan yuo are sooooo wrong, I was born and raised right in sohum and am living proof that the culture here raises up some of the most creative and radicle kids anywhere. And we are more peaceful by far. We may have our little disagreements but we understand that we are all one. One big family. We understand that we are children of the Earth. We call eachother brother and sister most of the time. And think of each other that way. What you don’t understand it that that is a big part of the culture here and we live it, we don’t just talk about it. We may grow a lot of pot but the professionalism in the business going on on a daily basis here makes the peeps in the city look like armatures. Old timer rednecks (like Ernie) have taught us many of theS old ways of homesteading and mechanics and about how to use a gun the right way, build a garden fence the right way, tips on putting up food for thw winter, secure a good roof on the drying shed, and other valuable stuff in the real world of “making it”. Not just looking at statistics and graphs like you do while your waiting for your burger at the drive thru and calling that real life. LOL!
NO, soHumis the real thing. And just because we don’t have any snooty bigh faluting universities is no reason to assume that Humboldt is behing the curve when it comes to being bright and intelligence. Old timers like Ernie, who on the surface are just common redneck cowboy types are actually when you get to know them steeped in Shakespear, Cervanties and other deep cultural influences that most of the people out there in the cities mostly don’t have a clue as to because they dont’ have the time. Even Eric who is basically a big city transplant is cultural enought to want to slow the frantic pace of his life down and live nere amoungst the redwoods and get into the scene, rubbing shoulders with hippys and having breakfast with old timers and temporing his city intellect with the common sense of the commoner. Thats our “university on the streets”. Something a person like you can’t understand without having experienced it’ Yes were outside of the box. But thats because were on the cutting edge. Not to mention the many spiritual retreats and workshops available where I have intensly studied everything from Kundalini yoga to the mystical kabala. We are unique and way ahead of the curve on many many things like this becausse the unique circumstances in this little corner of the planet that have given us to have a special kind of intelligence that comes from the crossing of the redneck practical common sense with the hippy spiritual wisdom which is why we are espeacially remarkable when it comes to “making it somewhere esle” also. No problem there at all, but itls just that we don’t want to, except for a few who try, they find out that they could make it there, or anywhere, but usally come running back cause they found out its better here … i am not naive, I have spent time in the bay area and New Mexico, as well as other places. I have seen plenty of the world out there and am not in the least unworldly. And let me tell you dude, YOU could NEVER make it here because you are far to negative to get along.
September 30, 2011 at 8:27 pm
Eric Kirk
NAN – that’s really unnecessary.
September 30, 2011 at 9:15 pm
Ernie's Place
Gee thanks Eric, but I can handle it.
Dang, turn my back for a while and I come back to find I have a knife in it. My old friend “Not a Native”. Et tu Brute.
Thanks for the support Suzy. NAN should change his name to “Not an Economist”.
The reason that America is just about able to compete against China is that the value of the yuan compared to the dollar is rising. Even though China has revalued the yuan to be more competitive against the rupee and the dollar. The value of the dollar is dropping faster than the value of the yuan. Thus your charts.
China has and will continue to devalue is currency to be competitive on the world market. I tried to keep this simple enough for even NAN.
Maybe this will help Maybe this will help
September 30, 2011 at 9:22 pm
Ernie's Place
Here’s the whole article, so you won’t have to subscribe
BY TOM ORLIK
Is the yuan on the move? After a year of dragging its heels on the exchange rate, there are signs that China is allowing the pace of appreciation to accelerate.
Authorities fixed the yuan on Wednesday at 6.4167 against the dollar, representing a 0.2% gain on the previous day—more sizeable than the usual diminutive ups and downs. It was the second record for the week. The move that ended the yuan’s two-year peg to the dollar in June 2010 was only 0.4%.
Why so aggressive? The optimistic response is that China is acting to support a fragile global recovery. The U.S. is faltering and financial markets are in turmoil. A $31 billion trade surplus for China in July is the largest since January 2009, a reminder that the yuan remains undervalued, and a lightning rod for criticism from the U.S. and others. Japan and Switzerland are intervening to manage the value of their currency downward, aiming to support their own exporters. If China is moving in the other direction, more rapid appreciation will drive imports higher and support growth in its trade partners.
But a more realistic answer is that a combination of inflation fears and dollar weakness is forcing China’s hand, and yuan gains against the dollar will do little to support growth in the rest of the world. The dollar took a beating in the markets Tuesday, after the U.S. Federal Open Markets Committee suggested interest rates could be held near zero till 2013.
A falling dollar presents China’s policy makers with an unpalatable choice: Follow the dollar down, earning the ire of other trade partners and importing higher levels of inflationary pressure, or pick up the pace of appreciation, against the interests of the export lobby.
Fear of inflation tips China’s policy makers toward appreciation. The Fed’s promise to keep rates low, and the increased chance of a third round of quantitative easing, puts pressure on the People’s Bank of China to move faster than it otherwise would. The fear for China’s policy makers is that low returns in the U.S., and a surfeit of funds, will drive capital into emerging markets, fueling asset price bubbles. With the consumer price index already at a three-year high of 6.5% year-to-year, Beijing isn’t in a position to take chances on inflation.
As important, the impact on China’s trade partners will be limited. Appreciation against a falling dollar leaves the yuan little changed on a trade-weighted basis. In that respect, more aggressive moves this week don’t represent a departure from China’s strategy for the last year, when the yuan gained 5.2% in nominal terms against the dollar but fell slightly on a real trade-weighted basis.
For investors, the prospect of sustained falls in the dollar means that there is money to be made by betting on more aggressive bilateral appreciation, including by buying other Asia currencies that will likely follow the yuan up. But gains against the dollar that don’t have much impact on the trade-weighted exchange rate will do little to support a flagging global recovery.
September 30, 2011 at 9:31 pm
Ernie's Place
Go back to about 2000 and follow the value of the dollar to the yuan, it will be easy to see how China took over the world in sales of goods. Now that they own the market they don’t have to hold down the value of the yuan, but they are about to lower it’s value again. Hopefully the value of the dollar won’t beat it to the bottom.
September 30, 2011 at 9:33 pm
Anonymous
NAN may not understand Chinese monetary policy, but he does manage to pack more hatred and prejudice into his angry rants than just about any other blog commenter in Humboldt. I guess that’s something.
September 30, 2011 at 9:42 pm
Anonymous
I think you guys are missing the point: The NAN character is obviously just a brilliant parody of a conceited newcomer to Humboldt who thinks they’re so much smarter than all the “local yokels.”
The NAN character is apparently designed to lampoon how ignorant, prejudiced, and self-inportant some of these more recent transplants can be. It’s working like a charm. So congrats to whoever created this NAN character, it’s the best faux-ignoramus act I’ve seen since Stephen Colbert!
September 30, 2011 at 10:38 pm
Ernie's Place
The mud-in-your-eye “newcomer” had long ago occurred to me, however, “brilliant” is a new concept for me. I would have left it at “mean spirited”.
October 1, 2011 at 9:49 am
anon
I haven’t been here for quite awhile. I see that NAN is still ranting from his/her resentful/hateful perch. Assuming you live here, why. I can’t see why you would like to waste your life living with a bunch of losers like us.
On a less emotional subject, as I see it the transition to the all electric car will eventually lead to an excuse to build lots of new nuke plants. As it is now, the idea of charging electric cars at night utilizing un-used generating capacity sounds good. But, what will happen with the next million or ten million all electric cars. Both daytime and nighttime capacity will be consumed and we will need to build more capacity. Yes, solar and wind would be a good idea, but somehow I’m not seeing that level of wisdom from the corporate leaders.
That said, the hybrid car concept has always been a transitional step toward changing our oil use habits. Think back to the early 20th century. The transition from horse drawn transport was to put gasoline engines on horse buggies. This idea was not an end in itself, but merely the first step in transition, like the electric/gasoline hybrid.
One important problem that is being overlooked with the current hybrids is the EMF shielding problem. For instance, the Prius has a very high EMF reading in the drivers side rear seat position, the favored spot for baby seats.
October 1, 2011 at 1:58 pm
Not A Native
Its funny that the article Ernie cites actually says the opposite of his interpretation. In fact, the article gives investment advice that projects that because of concerns about domestic inflation, Chinese bankers will likely continue policies that lower the Yuan against the USD. And as my reference shows, the Yuan has been falling against the USD for some time.
Just shows you can’t fix dumb, but more importantly it demonstrates the corrosive effect that low capability people can have when their ignorance and mental inability isn’t identified and refuted. Giving ignorance credibility ultimately harms most the very people responsible, the ignorant themselves..
October 1, 2011 at 2:34 pm
Ernie's Place
…..sigh….
October 1, 2011 at 3:35 pm
Anonymous
Having a hard day, are we NAN?
October 1, 2011 at 4:14 pm
Not A Native
Is that your best attempt at forming a coherent and cogent thought, anon? Not doing well even in the slow group at school has consequences.
Still dumb Ernie. The USD to EURO exchange rate is where it was 4 1/2 years ago, while the Yuan has appreciated 17% relative to both. The charts are available, but they can’t create comprehension.
October 1, 2011 at 4:55 pm
Eric Kirk
How is it that a thread on whether the Yuan has been devalued draws such anger and insults?
What does this have to do with the price of rice in China?
October 1, 2011 at 6:09 pm
Anonymous
“How is it that a thread on whether the Yuan has been devalued draws such anger and insults?”
Because NAN apparently has an obsessive need to use any and every excuse to spew a load of vitriolic bile in the general direction of anyone from SoHum. Is this really the first time you’ve noticed it, Eric?
October 1, 2011 at 6:52 pm
Bolithio
NAN is an expert in everything. He told me once that I know nothing about forestry, which was rad!, not because Ive spent over 15 years studying forests, but because like one poster said, its with a certain truthyness he drives his on-line character which makes his posts ironic and funny. He accuses others of “trying” to be intellectual (as if there is anything wrong with that) while posting ridiculous pseudo-poetic rants doing his best to try to not be the hypocrite he is. If you are here to share ideas and learn from others, dont bother arguing with him.
Kill all people ‘dumber’ than you NAN? What a lonely world you live in.