Reality Factory

Oil companies suck. They raise prices for gas and say that they need to cause theres a shortage. There a shortage cause they arent makeing more so they can charge more. Found this article on how to get even and help lower prices.

This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certain day"
campaign that was going around last April or May!

The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't
continue to "hurt" ourselves by refusing to buy gas. It was more of an
inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever
thought
of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work.

Please read it and join with us!

By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about $1.50 is super
cheap. Me too! It is currently $2.75 for regular unleaded in my town.

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to
think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $1.50-$1.75, we need
to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the
marketplace.... not sellers.

With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to
take action. The only way we are going to see the price of gas come
down
is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas!

And we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.

How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying gas. But
we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a
price war.

Here's the idea:

For the rest of this year, DON"T purchase ANY gasoline from the two
biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not
selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they
reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit.

But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and
Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do!! Now, don't whimp (sic) out
on me at this point... keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is
to
reach millions of people!!

I am sending this note to about thirty people. If each of you send it
to
at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)... and those 300 send it to at least
ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) ... and so on, by the time the message
reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE
MILLION consumers!

If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends
each,
then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level
further, you guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!! Again, all
you have to do is send this to 10 people and DON"T purchase ANY
gasoline
from EXXON and MOBIL. That's all.

How long would all that take? If each of us sends this email out to ten
more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could
conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!! I'll bet you didn't
think you and I had that much potential, did you! Acting together we
can
make a difference.

If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on.

i've seen something like this before and i believe it actually worked in NZ, it forced BP, and MOBIL to decrease prices, only marginally and once everyone forgot, Boom! price hike again!

gallon of gas is CHEAP at $1.50

ha!, that's nothing, i pay $1.50 for a bloody litre!!!! now that's ludicrous

1 US gallon = 3.7854118 litre so your getting 3 times what i get.

pertol prices in NZ have become an election issue, it is sooo out of controll over here they're consisdering car less day's and for someone like me who live out of the city centre this is just not gonna cut it,

i seriously hope the world wakes up one day and decides to go with a
re-newable or unlimited engery (such as hydrogen cells) sollutions and screw over the oil companies who have been ripping the world of now for nearly half a centery! many many invention have been brought by the oil companies that are a free scource of energy, only to be crushed and never to be used so that oil companies can maintain a healthy monopoly!

JUST PISSES ME OFF~!!

http://www.free-energy.ws/background.html

this is what we could have but ....no the scientific communtiy decides what they will proceed with and what is important.....too bad free energy is not a solution many want to proceed with, which is a shame considering it effects us all, and with free energy reserves, this will allow us to grow and spend time on research bigger and better things and 9/10 will also help us have a much cleanering environment


such a damn shame

The thing is that, sure the Oil companies are charging alot of money for gas right now, but the truth is that Oil should cost probably 500% more than what it does, if you compare it to the true value of it, balanced against the size of the world's oil supply that remains.

The world is running out of oil rapidly. The phenomena is called 'Peak Oil'.

Essentially global oil usage has continued to rise over the past hundred years to the point where we have used up the remaining oil deposits left.

To coincide with this, countries like India and China are just starting to become technologically advanced, and have massively increasing demands for oil - everything that a modern, technological society requires requires a huge amount of oil.

This is why we are hearing stories about Chinese companies buying oil companies, never-ending oil prices, and so on. This is a trend that is not going away and will only continue to rise throughout the next forseeable future, unless humanity figures out a way to reduce and remove our subsistence on oil and very quickly.

Here are a few sites if you wish to read more about this - it is very serious and something worth looking into if you want to know more about the core cause of the rising gas prices. This is alot more than just gas companies trying to rip off customers. Oil is seriously becoming a rare commodity, and like gold or diamonds, will continue to become more and more valuable as we have less and less of it.

http://www.peakoil.net/

http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/

It is not just in north america, it is a global phenomena and is something that everyone needs to be concerned about.

anyways

or a more general 'search' on the peak oil issue, for those looking for more info:

Google Search for 'Peak Oil'

"We now find one barrel of oil for every four we consume. The general situation seems so obvious.
...How can governments be oblivious of the realities of discovery and their implications...given the critical importance of oil to our entire economy.
Dr. Colin Campbell, ASPO president, in his testimony to the British house of Commons

from www.peakoil.org

bah. thats horrible. i hope we do find a renewable or unlimited resource in mass production soon... i see three options, each with suboptions... i know very little about two of them, and quite a bit about one of them, so bear with me...

1. Hydrogen. It sounds perfect. I know very little more.
2. Fuel cell technology - a combination of fuel and rechargeable batteries. Currently in development for laptops, etc. to get incredible run times on methane i believe it is.
3. Rechargeable batteries. The technology is already here. currently, however, we have a few problems with it...
A. Weight. Batteries are heavy. In some cases it could take about 1,000 pounds of batteries to power a car for ~50 miles; it may be less with nickel metal hydride and lithium ion, from what i hear.
B. Bulk. The brother of weight, what are we going to sacrifice in our car to make room for hoardes of batteries?
C. Individual cell (part of battery, when you put two 1.5 volt batteries in your walkman, you are making a 3.0 volt battery with two cells) failure. How would you like to have to rip apart all the batteries trying to find ONE that failed with a voltage meter? Ugh. This can be partly solved by using multiple ~20 cell battery packs, and measuring the voltage individually when the battery behaves strangely; the one with the lowest voltage has the bad cell inside.
D. Charge time. Currently, nickel-cadmium batteries can be charged at a rate of 1C, in other words, they can always be charged in about an hour and ten minutes. However, nickel cadmium batteries are about twice the wieght of nickel metal hydride batteries, and almost 2.5 times the weight of lithium ion batteries, for the same amount of energy. I know little about lithium ion charging time, although i know most laptop,s etc. use it and charge in about 2 - 3 hours, so they can be safely charged at about a 1/3C (one third total capacity; 3000 mah battery = 1000 ma charge rate) rate. Another option is nickel metal hydride; it has been known to be able to take charge rates of in some cases 4C, which is incredible, but only with constant fans on them and monitoring in them. The closest you could get in an enclosed, hot battery sleeve like would be used would i would guess be about 1/2C which would yield about a 2.2 hour charge time; however, most cars take the safe route and take 8 hours to charge. However, the faster you charge them, lower is the...

E. Life of battery. Im gonna give mostly only straight numbers here. A cycle is a full drain of the battery then a full recharge; they will last longer if not drained dead before charged (and your unlikely to drain a car bettery dead, its a bit unwise )

Nickel cadmium: ~1000 Cycles if taken care of well
Nickel metal hydride: ~1000 Cycles if taken care of extremely well; more likely ~500
Lithium Ion: reports indicate ~400 Cycles or 2-3 Years, whichever comes first

As you can see, battery is a viable solution, but still is heave, expensive (possibly as much as $20,000 - $30,000 us dollars for nickel metal hydride!!! cheaper would be lead acid, which i know extremely little of, which would oddly be only $2,000), heavy, and hard to diagnose problems on. Maybe in the future it will be better, im not saying its not a viable ooption today, its just a bit more of a dream than practicasl reality for most people (referring to batteries)

references and extended reading: http://auto.howstuffworks.com/electric-car.htm

Back in 8th grade i did a report on hybrid and fuel cell cars. Currently the best solution is the hybrid. However in states like california the state will keep track of who has one and will charge you some kind of monthly fee since you arent buying as much gas.

Also public tranportation is better in most cases. Not saying dont have a car but if you can take a bus or train.

Everyone has to understand that politicans are funded by companies and in most cases oil companies and after elections they help raise prices of gas. I understand that oil is becoming delpleted. But when people in iraq only pay 5 cents for a gallon and we pay more makes you wonder whats up. Again i understand that the oil needs to be shipped over to us but they ship in bulk so it costs less.

Also we in america have oil wells and we produce oil. Well for some reason we sell that oil to other countries and then import more to make up for that. This goes into political stupidity and corruption so i wont delve to far in. Unless you want to hear the 7ru7h?

Something has to be done about fuel and there are many ideas. In new york there is a building that uses recycled water and efficent means for energy conservation. I imagine they have a heating system that is also efficent. Home heating is another way to cut back on oil.

My first post sounds like a good plan but like Spyrewolf points out once we start buying again they raise prices. Seems everyone is stuck in this loop or cycle of getting them to lower prices then them raising them.

exactly. we would not buy from them for the pourpose of buying from them at lower prices; as soon as we reap the rewards of our efforts it would go up again.

The biggest issue that we are seeing with the potential rise of 'Alternative Fuels' - is that there is such a huge infrastructure that has been setup to support the petroleum industry and the trickle down effect from it.

So, great, we move to hydrogen or alternative fuel-powered cars...

But, how many thousands (millions?) of cars need to be produced world-wide every year? How are we going to build these factories? By using Oil-based products such as Plastic or synthetic materials.

Just about everything that you see around you required massive amounts of Oil to produce.

Oil is NOT just 'gas for your car' by any stretch of the imagination - almost everything that our entire society has been built on uses oil in one way, shape or form, from our manufacturing processes (creating plastics which are used by nearly everything) to our Food production and everything in-between.

"Big deal. If gas prices get high, I’ll just drive less. Why should I give a damn?"


Because petrochemicals are key components to much more than just the gas in your car. As geologist Dale Allen Pfeiffer points out in his article entitled, "Eating Fossil Fuels," approximately 10 calories of fossil fuels are required to produce every 1 calorie of food eaten in the US.

The size of this ratio stems from the fact that every step of modern food production is fossil fuel and petrochemical powered:

1. Pesticides are made from oil;

2. Commercial fertilizers are made from ammonia, which is
made from natural gas, which will peak about 10 years
after oil peaks;

3. With the exception of a few experimental prototypes, all
farming implements such as tractors and trailers are
constructed and powered using oil;

4. Food storage systems such as refrigerators are
manufactured in oil-powered plants, distributed across
oil-powered transportation networks and usually run on
electricity, which most often comes from natural gas or
coal;

5. In the US, the average piece of food is transported
almost 1,500 miles before it gets to your plate. In
Canada, the average piece of food is transported 5,000
miles from where it is produced to where it is consumed.

The coming oil shocks won't be so short-lived. They represent the onset of a new, permanent condition. Once the decline gets under way, production will drop (conservatively) by 3% per year, every year.

That estimate comes from numerous sources, not the least of which is Vice President Dick Cheney himself. In a 1999 speech he gave while still CEO of Halliburton, Cheney stated:

"By some estimates, there will be an average of two-percent
annual growth in global oil demand over the years ahead,
along with, conservatively, a three-percent natural decline
in production from existing reserves.That means by 2010 we
will need on the order of anadditional 50 million barrels a
day. "

Cheney's assesement is supported by the estimates of numerous non-political, retired, and now disinterested scientists, many of whom believe global oil production will peak and go into terminal decline within the next five years.

People wonder why the US is at war in Iraq? This, put very bluntly, is the reason.

I once wrote a paper on the world oil crisis for school. I learned that hydrogen isn't very dangerous if you take care of it and store it properly. Besides, if fuel stations had solar panels on them so they could make their own fuel, part of the problem would be solvable. I should find some info on it.

>>Unless you want to hear the 7ru7h?<<
Ahhh! misuse of leet! It burns!!!!!
::melts into puddle::

-psychopath

>>Unless you want to hear the 7ru7h?<<
Ahhh! misuse of leet! It burns!!!!!
::melts into puddle::

Something wrong reclaimer. It appears you turned into a puddle. Odd that wasnt supposed to happen.

1) what is leet
2)what is this ahh you speak of?

Hydrogen fuel cells are bad and here's why...
For one to reasonable fuel say a minivan the fuel cell size pretty much takes up the entire underside of the car, and is very heavy.
Also how do you make Hydrogen? Basically it takes more energy to make hydrogen than hydrogen produces. Thus it's not very usefull unless someone discovers cold fusion or something.

Electric motorcyles already get 50+ miles on a charge with performance comparable with a gas powered motorcycle. The same goes for cars. There are homebuilt kit cars using common parts that will make an electric car capable of up to 125 miles on a charge. Which is more than enough to go to and from work for 90% of people.

The problem is it takes oil to make electricity. Even with those hydroelectric dams they have to run turbines in order to change the energy produced from DC to AC which takes gas to do. Which is why on a good day they run at maybe 40%.
However there is solar but that depends on where you live to be effective. There are wind farms too but very expensive for the amount of power they generate.

Hey here's an idea! Lets run cars off of soybean oil? Why? It's renuable because it's a plant that can be grown. Also it takes no drastic change in vehicles because ANY diesel engine can be converted to run off of the oil. Whether the oil is fresh or used doesn't matter. Also the mileage is only slightly less than what the car or truck would normally get with actual diesel.

Also bio-diesel is a diesel fuel made of both petroleum and soybeans which is just like regular diesel.

So let look at the perks...
Renewable fuel source? Yes
Clean burning? Yes
Efficient? Yes
Amount per car to convert to soybean oil? Around $800
Technology already tested and in place? Yes

Now all we have to do is start growing a ton of soybeans.

Oh, I know! We could use the waste from liposuction clinics to run our vehicles! Or maybe insert tubes in our midsections so that we can use gut fat to power our cars! (When I get my own motorcycle and grow older, my metabolism will slow down, enabling me to do the same thing)

I'm just kidding, people. But using old fast-food grease would work just as well.