(no subject)

[drewbear]

Due to my recent antisocial hermitage, I was unaware of the severity of Katrina until I saw the news this morning. At least the damage to NOLA seems to be relatively light, considering what it could've been. My Great-aunt Mary and her husband (I can never remember his name) made it out okay, but the normally 8-hour drive to Houston ended up taking 17 instead, which is hard on an elderly couple.

Of course, it may not be safe to return for some time, since Katrina loosed and spread a lot of pollution.

In related news, the oil rigs and refineries in and around the Gulf were closed all weekend and won't be restarted until any possible damage has been evaluated and repaired. Now, since 25-30% of the oil consumed by the US comes from the Gulf, that's a problem. Crude oil has already topped $70/barrel and I've heard credible speculation that we're gonna see $3/gal gas before the end of the week unless Bush releases some of the oil reserves. Of course, even temporary reductions in the oil supply have far-reaching economic repercussions. In short, time to tighten your belts a little more, people.

::sigh::

In more pleasant news, I have a couple of cute LJ-based webcomics for y'all to enjoy. First is "Get Medieval" (get_medieval), a daily webcomic about 5 remarkably human aliens who crash-land into the Middle Ages. Next is "I &hearts th Darth" (iharthdarth), a cute little comic about Darth Vader: Family Man. Enjoy, and may all your people of NOLA be safe and sound.

Comments

[blufiction.livejournal.com]

Here in NC I passed a gas station selling at 2.98 -- which actually is only about 20 cents higher than normal, so. lol Well eventually there will be no gas for anyone and cars will either need to run on hydrogen or we will need to give up cars. Which do ya think it will be? lol

::sigh::

[drewbeartx.livejournal.com]

Between when I went into work this morning and when I left, the gas prices of the stations I pass jumped an average of 20 cents. That's in 9 hours, and not counted the pre-existing 20 cent jump since Monday morning. Not only will the national average break $3 before Labor Day, I suspect that it'll hit $4 before the end of the year.

Yippee. Skippy.

As for the vehicles, I'd buy a hybrid today if I could afford one, and I suspect that a lot of people are the same way. But when a new hybrid costs several thousand more than a comparable gas-only car... Of course, this doesn't explain a damn thing about why the car makers don't just build better gas-mileage into existing models. The technology is available, proven, and relatively cheap. Just not cheaper than not using it... Hey! I think I figured out why we don't have better gas-mileage!

(The online community really needs to develop a sarcasm tag, similar to bold or italics)