St. wrote:
>  My electricity and gas prices have soared bigtime recently, as well as many 
> other things like food, petrol, etc.

Our electricity here in the mountains is produced from hydrokinetics, so 
no problems there (apart from the occasional grid fault). Gas on the 
other hand, just keeps getting more expensive. I'd love to just take a 
jaunt into town and get what I need, but alas, doing so costs $5-$8 
round trip :/ I sorely need a book from the library....

>     I think I said this here a few years ago, but something is not going to 
> be good soon. Tighten your seatbelts, and enjoy the ride.
> 
>     If I ever meet any PoVers through the smoke and rubble, don't kill me, 
> ok? I'm on your side.

Kill you, I'd probably hire you to make a wedding ring from mined 
platinum or something :)

Sam

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"St." <dot### [at] dotcom> wrote:
> My electricity and gas prices have soared bigtime recently, as well as many
> other things like food, petrol, etc.
>
>     I think I said this here a few years ago, but something is not going to
> be good soon. Tighten your seatbelts, and enjoy the ride.
>
>     If I ever meet any PoVers through the smoke and rubble, don't kill me,
> ok? I'm on your side.

hey, come to Brazil!  No wars, just poverty and corrupt rulers.  Oh, and
constant price soaring... :)

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St. wrote:
>  My electricity and gas prices have soared bigtime recently, as well as many 
> other things like food, petrol, etc.
> 
>     I think I said this here a few years ago, but something is not going to 
> be good soon. Tighten your seatbelts, and enjoy the ride.
> 
>     If I ever meet any PoVers through the smoke and rubble, don't kill me, 
> ok? I'm on your side.
> 
>      Later...
> 
> 
>         ~Steve~

So, prices are going up.  Things are more expensive than they used to 
be.  How is that any different from any other time in history?

Admittedly the cost of energy is going up quite dramatically, but one 
could argue that's because we've been living lifestyles that aren't 
sustainable.  At least not until we get some better alternative energy 
sources.

But I'll tell you what.  We're working on our emergency supply right 
now, and have more than a month's worth of water, and something like two 
months' worth of food.  If you'd like to stop by after the apocalypse, 
we'll be glad to share with you - as long as you don't kill me for my 
corned beef :)

-- 
...Ben Chambers
www.pacificwebguy.com

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Chambers wrote:

> If you'd like to stop by after the apocalypse, 
> we'll be glad to share with you - as long as you don't kill me for my 
> corned beef :)

Oh great. Now I have that damned some about SPAM in my head! >_<

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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"Chambers" <ben### [at] pacificwebguycom> wrote in message 
news:47e38476$1@news.povray.org...
> St. wrote:
>>  My electricity and gas prices have soared bigtime recently, as well as 
>> many other things like food, petrol, etc.
>>
>>     I think I said this here a few years ago, but something is not going 
>> to be good soon. Tighten your seatbelts, and enjoy the ride.
>>
>>     If I ever meet any PoVers through the smoke and rubble, don't kill 
>> me, ok? I'm on your side.
>>
>>      Later...
>>
>>
>>         ~Steve~
>
> So, prices are going up.  Things are more expensive than they used to be. 
> How is that any different from any other time in history?

     Well, I see it from a different point of view. Not insulting your 
intelligence, but you do know that oil is running out? You do know that when 
it does and transport comes to a standstill, the world will stop? When this 
will happen, I don't know. I also see it from a business sense being in the 
trade that I'm in. Our standard gold over here is a 9ct alloy, and 9ct gold 
is now at 18ct gold prices, and that ain't good because for the first time 
in nearly 25 years, it's threatening my job. I'm not worried about that 
though because I think I have enough nouse to get through it. But we'll see.


>
> Admittedly the cost of energy is going up quite dramatically, but one 
> could argue that's because we've been living lifestyles that aren't 
> sustainable.  At least not until we get some better alternative energy 
> sources.

   The world as we know it now has some of the best scientific and 
engineering brains ever, so they should have had the answer by now, but they 
haven't. Yes, there are green cars and green idea's being developed, but for 
the life of me, I can't see car owners trading in, can you? Imagine this: 
When your government *tells* you that you *have* to trade in your car, (or, 
if you didn't want one of their measly matchboxes on wheels, and they offer 
you 250 bucks for your 18,000 buck car as compensation because you *have* 
to), how will you feel about that? I can see a time that this will happen in 
some way because they will not only need the metal in your car, they will 
also need the OIL from your car. Why? To support the war machine. You can 
bet all your hard-earned wonga that fighter planes, tanks, and ships will 
need that oil. Why the war machine? Because I see that things are going to 
get very nasty in the near future, and I think the signs are there right 
now. The thing is, I think this world actually needs WWIII to clear up the 
grand old mess it's got itself into. Oh yes, it's a mess alright. A serious 
mess. It's a mess that needs sorting out. Over-population, greed, 
corruption, are all things that have been around for ages, but we still 
don't learn do we. The bickering that's going to happen between certain 
countries is what will probably start it off, and once it starts, there will 
be no 'good' ending to it.

 Of course, the other scenario is why bother with that hassle at all? Just 
destroy all countries in one foul swoop and Bob's yer Uncle, the world is 
your oyster.

 There are probably quite a few Rasta's smiling right now.



>
> But I'll tell you what.  We're working on our emergency supply right now, 
> and have more than a month's worth of water, and something like two 
> months' worth of food.  If you'd like to stop by after the apocalypse, 
> we'll be glad to share with you - as long as you don't kill me for my 
> corned beef :)

 I wouldn't kill you, but if I had to, I would. That's what it's going to be 
like one day. But, where you are, if it happens, I'll certainly consider the 
invitation. Just make sure those corned beef sandwiches have pickle too, 
that's all.  :)

       ~Steve~


>
> -- 
> ...Ben Chambers
> www.pacificwebguy.com

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By the way, I think I have the greenest solution to produce a car, but it's 
too late really.

  Laugh if you like, I don't mind, but the solution is clockwork cars.

   Oh, I see that it's been discussed here: 
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060828110406AApPSJA&show=7

   Some good points there, but really, they're missing the point.

   No factory that produces the car would have the user winding it up 
themselves - impossible.

   No, in fact, you wouldn't need to wind it up at all, which also means 
that there would be no 'winding' stations. (And no petrol stations too of 
course).

   The factory produces a clockwork 'engine' with two pre-wound springs in 
the car. You go buy it, and drive it off the forecourt. As you drive it, 
only one spring drives the car, and when that spring winds down enough not 
to work effectively, the other one kicks in to continue the journey. Here's 
the good bit: As the second spring is driving you forward, it re-winds the 
first spring, so this would work in such a way that they would forever be 
swapping over and eliminating any hands on winding up.

    Now, I initially thought that these two springs would be side-by-side, 
but thinking about it more, that would probably cause some significant 
steering imbalance. So, you would have a car version that is both front and 
rear wheel drive. You would have two spring units at the front, (one on each 
front wheel), that both work simultaneously, and the same for the rear 
wheels. The same method applies as above, but the front two swap with the 
back two and so forth. This would eliminate steering imbalance

     Yes, the units would still need lubricating, but the car wouldn't need 
petrol, and it wouldn't burn oil.

      ~Steve~

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St. a écrit :
>   Laugh if you like, I don't mind, but the solution is clockwork cars.
> 
>    The factory produces a clockwork 'engine' with two pre-wound springs in 
> the car. You go buy it, and drive it off the forecourt. As you drive it, 
> only one spring drives the car, and when that spring winds down enough not 
> to work effectively, the other one kicks in to continue the journey. Here's 
> the good bit: As the second spring is driving you forward, it re-winds the 
> first spring, so this would work in such a way that they would forever be 
> swapping over and eliminating any hands on winding up.
> 

But this cannot work... When spring 1 is wound down completely, you have 
only the energy of one fully wound up spring left. If you use it to 
totally wind up spring 1 again, then you cannot use it to move the car. 
So sooner or later, you'll have to wind the car up again, to re-inject 
energy that has been lost while moving. The fact that there is one or 
two or n springs does not change anything...

So we're back to waiting for the Apocalypse again :-)

-- 
Vincent

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"St." <dot### [at] dotcom> wrote in message news:47e3ac88@news.povray.org...

> As the second spring is driving you forward, it re-winds the
> first spring, so this would work in such a way that they would forever be
> swapping over and eliminating any hands on winding up.

What you have there is a perpetual motion machine. Physically impossible
(See laws of thermodynamics) though a lot of people have claimed to create
them over the years.

In any system, the amount of energy is constant. It is theoretically
possible (if there's no friction present) to have 2 springs winding and
rewinding themselves, but you would no be able to extract energy from the
system. Add in friction and, even if the system is completely isolated, it
will wind down (no pun intended) eventually as friction converts the stored
energy into heat

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"Vincent Le Chevalier" <gal### [at] libertyALLsurfSPAMfr> wrote in 
message news:47e3b123$1@news.povray.org...

>>   Laugh if you like, I don't mind, but the solution is clockwork cars.
>>
>>    The factory produces a clockwork 'engine' with two pre-wound springs 
>> in the car. You go buy it, and drive it off the forecourt. As you drive 
>> it, only one spring drives the car, and when that spring winds down 
>> enough not to work effectively, the other one kicks in to continue the 
>> journey. Here's the good bit: As the second spring is driving you 
>> forward, it re-winds the first spring, so this would work in such a way 
>> that they would forever be swapping over and eliminating any hands on 
>> winding up.
>>
>
> But this cannot work... When spring 1 is wound down completely, you have 
> only the energy of one fully wound up spring left. If you use it to 
> totally wind up spring 1 again, then you cannot use it to move the car. So 
> sooner or later, you'll have to wind the car up again, to re-inject energy 
> that has been lost while moving. The fact that there is one or two or n 
> springs does not change anything...

  Well, ok, but what if the back springs were just rewound by the drive of 
forward motion (and not from the front two springs) anyway?

>
> So we're back to waiting for the Apocalypse again :-)

       And 'waiting' is the key word there.  ;)

       ~Steve~



>
> -- 
> Vincent

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"Gail Shaw" <initialsurname@sentech sa dot com> wrote in message 
news:47e3b7d6@news.povray.org...
>
> "St." <dot### [at] dotcom> wrote in message news:47e3ac88@news.povray.org...
>
>> As the second spring is driving you forward, it re-winds the
>> first spring, so this would work in such a way that they would forever be
>> swapping over and eliminating any hands on winding up.
>
> What you have there is a perpetual motion machine. Physically impossible
> (See laws of thermodynamics) though a lot of people have claimed to create
> them over the years.
>
> In any system, the amount of energy is constant. It is theoretically
> possible (if there's no friction present) to have 2 springs winding and
> rewinding themselves, but you would no be able to extract energy from the
> system. Add in friction and, even if the system is completely isolated, it
> will wind down (no pun intended) eventually as friction converts the 
> stored
> energy into heat

      Ah well, that would explain why it hasn't been done yet, but I still 
think that with our great engineering brains, it 'might' be possible. 
Besides, it would never happen because look at all the jobs that would be 
lost. Still, it's nice to imagine. :)

   ~Steve~

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