they are still an oligarchy

9/16/2006 10:19:25 AM

Untrue, but even if it was true it would still be irrelevant because they are not the price setters, OPEC is.

9/16/2006 1:21:13 PM

i wish the us would take over opec so we could get cheap gas

9/16/2006 4:08:08 PM

9/16/2006 4:57:42 PM

^^ Not a big believer in a nation's right to self determination?

Either way, we don't need to conquer OPEC, just manage to get western oil companies drilling rights in one of the mid-east members (such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE, the like).

The problem is not that middle-eastern nations hate the west and hope to keep the price rediculously high, this is true up to $25 a barrel. The reason we are at $65 is because state-run monopolies, as are found in most OPEC countries, are inefficiently run and incapable of effective field management.

9/16/2006 5:15:16 PM

Quote :

"state-run monopolies"

isnt that like communism?

9/16/2006 5:17:35 PM

Yes, so?

9/16/2006 6:35:37 PM

oh i didnt know middle eastern countries were communist..i just thought like china and north korea and a few others were

9/16/2006 6:39:00 PM

You must remember that there is a difference between communist politically and communist economically.

And it is not the entire economy is state-run and thus poorly run, just the ones that matter. Of course, if you look at any third world country in the world you will find a large number of state-run monopolies. How else could nations become so poor but through government efforts? Mexicans are not lazy or stupid, it is just that all the industries that lead to industrialization are either state-run monopolies or state-protected monopolies.

9/16/2006 9:40:38 PM

Quote :

"Wait... so the best case is that oil lasts until 2146 if we don't increase consumption any? That seems pretty dire to me. I think even the worse effects of global warming are farther off than that."

We had better be using fucking fusion power by 2146. That's an amazingly long amount of time. We'll have 00b3r AI well before then, almost for sure. It'll pretty pathetic if we're still worried about oil by then.

Sorry, but I think the enviromentalists got pwnt here.

9/17/2006 12:22:17 AM

Quote :

"yup and the motor companies didn't leave the corvair on the market or the pint on the market after learning about the serious danger those automobiles provided."

Not that any more evidence was needed to show you're wrong, but you made it so easy.

There was NOTHING wrong with the Corvair. It was all a blown out media affair. There's nothing wrong with that car. Nice try though.

9/20/2006 11:06:57 PM

THE FUTURE IS HERE, PART DEUX

(for PART UNO, see /message_topic.aspx?topic=432400

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!!!

Honda demos drivable FCX Concept; gives production timeframe

Quote :

"Honda over the past week held a demonstration drive of a working version of the FCX Concept fuel cell vehicle, which was first previewed nearly a year ago. Initial sales of a totally new fuel cell vehicle based on this concept model is to begin in 2008 in Japan and the U.S., the automaker announced today. The FCX features a newly developed compact, high-efficiency Honda FC Stack as well as a low-floor, low-riding, short-nose body. It has 129 horsepower, 189 pound-feet of torque, a range of 356 miles, and a top speed of 100 mph."

9/26/2006 8:58:54 AM