The Price of Gas

[David]

I think the price is a couple of things.  They always blame the asian demand, and I think that is part of it.  The rest is the Iraq war, which is very fuel dependant, and inflation.  The speculators, which are always present, when the price is high or low, prolly are worried the war criminal(s) in the white house are gonna do something stupider than before. 
By themselves none of them could prolly force the price very high, but combined they seem to have. 
BTW, on the min wage, the gop, and some libertarians, make a big deal about it.  But it has not kept up with real inflation, which is why most of the worst case scenarios about it being raised have not occured.  It is more than anything else, a monument to just how sick the economy is.  The economy is not a machine, it is the human ecology.  When this ecology is not balenced the way it it was in the past, it is because something has pushed it there. 

[Dylboz]

The military in Iraq alone uses 20.5 gallons per soldier, per day. This doesn't even include Halliburton's "sailboat fuel" convoys done solely for the purpose of over billing the DOD, or Blackwater and other "military contractor's" vehicles and aircraft.

[John Edward Mercier]

Everyone that pre-buys heating oil is speculating.
But most of the professionals base their presumption on the US will be unable to sustain a presence in Iraq. The area would then come under Iranian influence and Iran has deemed that oil should be $200 per barrel.
Futures aren't about present supply/demand, they're about the future...
What will supply/demand look like six months from now, a year, a decade?
If you believe the value of something will be much higher than average inflation in the future, that is a storage of wealth. Oil is the best global consumptive to fit this pattern.

[Tunga]

a small fraction of its oil , does anyone have any clue what is going on?.

The Saudis turned thier tankers around before the Horn of Africa almost 3 months ago now.

Da spigot she about to run dry mon.

Can you say embargo?

Did Peter Jennings / Charlie Gibson forget to tell you that?

Peak oil, if you're familiar with the term appears now to have occured sometime in 2005.

Welcome to the new world.

Eight hundred dollar per barel oil.

"I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike..." - Queen "Fatbottom girls"

[coffeeseven]

Diesel fuel is tickling $5.00 here. I heard a news story last night that gasoline will go to $12-$15 a gallon? Somebody's crystal ball must be wired to a flip switch.

[John Edward Mercier]

I don't know about $12-15 (about $500/brrl)... but it will be interesting to see what happens road maintenance.

[Riddler]

move over polar bears & seals
fuck you anwr
pipe me up, johnny

[Dylboz]

I don't know about $12-15 (about $500/brrl)... but it will be interesting to see what happens road maintenance.

Brick and cobblestone futures lookin' good!

[Pat McCotter]

[Pat McCotter]

The Harlem Speedway is finished

[K. Darien Freeheart]

aluminum + food = alzheimers, dude

I'm a homebrewer, so this matter comes up frequently in a Aluminum vs Stainless kettle debate. There is more aluminum in a single antacid tablet than what is leached into 5 gallons of beer in the brewing process. There is a signifigantly higher amount of aluminum in anti-perspirant than in 5 gallons of beer brewed in an aluminum kettle. I have spoken with metalurgists, biochemists and physicians who brew and will say the same things.

The study that triggered the alzheimer's + aluminum link is over 40 years old and studied dementia, not specifically alzheimers. Since then, despite the fact that it's been tested over and over and over they haven't found any link.

http://www.alz.org/news_and_events_alzheimer_news_02-02-2005.asp

http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=99

[Pat McCotter]

Hey, don't confuse us with the facts, now! Next you'll tell us there's no link between high voltage power lines and cancer. We know better!

[Russell Kanning]

still want to avoid the aluminum ... I also don't eat antacid tabs

[J’raxis 270145]

I'm a homebrewer, so this matter comes up frequently in a Aluminum vs Stainless kettle debate. There is more aluminum in a single antacid tablet than what is leached into 5 gallons of beer in the brewing process. There is a signifigantly higher amount of aluminum in anti-perspirant than in 5 gallons of beer brewed in an aluminum kettle. I have spoken with metalurgists, biochemists and physicians who brew and will say the same things.

How does its presence in other things say anything about its safety in kettles—especially when people who are concerned about the aluminum–Alzheimer's link also avoid standard antiperspirants and antacid tablets?

[NJLiberty]

I think its just a question of dosage at that point. Assuming he is correct, then I could drink 5 gallons of beer and get the same dosage of aluminum as taking one antacid tablet. Regardless of the source, none of it does you any good. Whether it causes harm or not, in the amounts you would ingest in normal day to day life, I don't know. I've seen too much health research speak conclusively about things, only to swing back and contradict itself a few months, years, or decades later to worry too much about any of it.

I have some heavy old cast aluminum pots that I use once in awhile simply because they are better suited for those dishes than my other pots, most of which are cast iron or lined copper. If I contract Alzheimer's from them then so be it. I'm not worried about it though. They were my aunt's before me, and my grandmother's before her. She cooked in them almost every day using metal spoons and no one in the family was ever the worse for wear.

If someone is concerned about it then by all means avoid using aluminum pots, antiperspirants, antacids and baking powders containing it. It certainly can't hurt.

BTW, the gas prices here in NJ have been pretty stable the last couple weeks. Most of the stations I have seen haven't changed at all, the others have only gone up a penny or two. Thankfully I only drive about 7,000 miles per year. Those folks who live in PA and commute every day to New York City must be dying.

George