JohnDBarrow

Well, it sounds American to me, you wiggy old goat. Nobody twisted your arm to read my material, brother.

Until the likes of Barrow automobiles are ever produced, it will have to be Toyota for me. My '95 Corolla is sensible, dependable and good on gas still. It just isn't as plush as a 1970's Lincoln Town Car over bumps or as roomy as one in the driver seat. The street potholes of Iowa, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado and Wyoming are even worse than the city cobblestones of Germany. Back in 1994, I was in the American army overseas and drove my Corvette over the streets of Nurnberg, so I can attest to that level of roughness. The Autobahn was worlds smoother. I hope tomorrow's EV's will actually be a joy to drive as well as be friendly toward Mother Earth. Middle American states don't like to invest money in baby-bottom-smooth roads.

How am I scorning the move away from fossil fuels? I hate paying $3 something (American dollars) a gallon for gasoline in Iowa with 10% Ethanol. It even hit $four-something last summer here. I think solid-state batteries as Toyota is now developing and hopefully perfecting will soon be the biggest boon to the automobile industry since Henry Ford's mass-produced Model T. I am not stupid enough to believe that fossil fuels' days are not numbered and that gasoline will be available to burn forever more.

Since I'm indeed not operating a blog here, I will pose questions to the automotive technology pundits here. Is what I wish for feasibly possible from an engineering standpoint? My dream is not a 1997 Honda Civic. I want the roominess and comfort level of a 1970's Lincoln Town Car as part of my criteria. I want green renewable energy to power it as well. Is there any EV on the market today that YOU know of that offers the roominess and ride comfort of the typical large American luxury car of the 20th century? Does an earth-friendly automobile running on renewable energy have to necessarily not be fun and/or enjoyable to own and drive? Must sensible EV's be strictly cramped rough-riding econoboxes? Basically, I want a "carbon-footprint-less" 1965 Cadillac or 1979 Lincoln Continental built with Toyota reliability and longevity and Mercedes-Benz solidity combined with the level of safety and crashworthiness Volvo has long been renowned for. Sound like a very tall order? Yes, I am an American of pride and would indeed want my dreamy-but-sensible cars to be produced upon American soil with an American Anglo-Saxon name like BARROW attached to their bodies. I absolutely hate the Detroit Big Three. FORD, DODGE, CHRYSLER, PLYMOUTH, OLDS and LINCOLN are typical Anglo-Saxon names. There is nothing elegant that rings in my ears about the name TESLA. MERCEDES and ROLLS ROYCE sound even more elegant.

If I were to have my way, I would build 1. safe 2. affordable 3. energy-efficient 4. green-renewable-energy-using 5. practical 6. comfortable 7. neatly-constructed 8. long-lasting 9. mechanically reliable 10. roomy 11. good-looking 12. solid 13. quiet 14. convenient-to-drive 15. American-built 16. low-maintenance automobiles, light-duty trucks, vans and sport-utility wagons for Americans mainly.

Here is my 5x5 version to boot.

It was from my mother to him as a Christmas present. It had plastic pieces on a peg board with a hard plastic clear case. Here is that puzzle for you to solve in digital form. Moreover, how many possible solutions are there to this puzzle?

People seem totally different today than they did in the 20th century. It's as if I can plainly see evolution in action. It's as if the human species has turned into some weird creatures. Instead of presenting oneself like a well-dressed, well-groomed, proper-speaking, polite and educated lady or a gentleman, we have become a culture that looks, sounds, smells and acts like homeless bums, stupid idiots, zombies, winos, circus freaks, degenerates, convicts, gangsters, mentally retarded folks and bikers.

Thank you, Mr. S. My worries about future lubrication are now over! The future worries me over lots of things, but you've solved the long-term future of lubing guns and door hinges! I use Vaseline (petroleum-based) for my hemorrhoids. You must have future sore behinds covered too!

I meant to say HIGH SCHOOL teacher for my JUNIOR year, 11th grade. Sorry for the misunderstanding. Mr. Saint, my physics teacher in 1980, claimed in class that hydrogen-powered automobiles would be used someday. I was just curious as to what in THEORY could be used in place of petroleum products altogether for the purposes of machine lubrication and medicine. It is not a doomsday prediction on my part. I don't see how man will be able to continue to use crude oil on planet Earth for any purposes much longer unless he soon reduces crude oil use to strictly non-fuel purposes as oil for lubrication and medicine. There might be enough crude oil left for man to harvest for lubrication and medicine only for many thousands of years to come if not until the day the sun burns out. I am concerned about man's ability to continue to function on planet Earth with the availbilty of machinery (in terms of both lubrication and energy for the said machinery) until: he becomes extinct altogether, the planet Earth is ended by nature (or man himself) as a place for man to even inhabit, the sun burns out, man somehow moves to some other habitible planet to possibly screw up as he did Earth, whichever comes first. Does anybody here predict how much longer the planet Earth will even be habitable for the human species? I read somewhere that sun still has about another 5 billion years left. Perhaps, man will have evolved into something else before then.

What could be used in its place entirely for the lubrication of automobiles (presumably electric) and other machinery? How will we ever lubricate things like door hinges, locks, motor bearings, guns, sewing machines and fishing reels whenever crude oil becomes available no more for man's use someday? What can be used in place of petroleum products for medicine? Is there a good non-petroleum alternative to Vaseline petroleum jelly? In 1981, Mr. Thompson, my junior high school English teacher in Woodside, California lectured in class that man should find petroleum alternatives for powering automobiles even way back then. He said the remainder of crude oil in the earth (that man could feasibly harvest) should be reserved for lubrication purposes.

I want the RICH to pay for all the public goodies the common people use like baby-butt-smooth roads, sound bridges, sewers, clean running water, dams, sanitation, locks, levees and flood control. The public works should be funded by the fat cats. Think of how this would stimulate the jobs economy by employing all those hard hats.

I live in a tax-credits subsidized apartment for seniors built in 2022. There is an exhaust fan in the bathroom already which runs constantly. No switch to shut the damned thing off. I can't modify all this crap on this rented property. Iowa does not strike me as one of the more sophisticated parts of America in nutshell. I was raised and educated in California's San Francisco Bay Area and graduated from high school there in 1982. My apologies. Somebody got me started here on that. I was provoked. Anyway, there are 8+ some billion people on this entire globe. I'm but one individual. There is not much I can do or say at age 60 that is going to make much difference. Perhaps, I should stop worrying about the energy future of the world and other pressing issues. The hand of fate has it in for all of us. What will be, will be and what can we do about it? If I could start all over again young, I think I would have liked to have pursued a career in civil engineering, ecology and/or some occupation concerned with "safe, practical and green energy" as fossil fuels alternatives. I say possibly civil engineering because the roads in states like Iowa, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Texas and Colorado are horribly bumpy as a motorist and I like roads that are smooth as a baby's bottom. America needs glass-smooth city streets and highways. Our infrastructure is embarrassingly primitive.

Ignorance persists in red states and states whose number one industry is agriculture if not insurance. In Polk County, Iowa, the seat of which is the state capital, Des Moines, there is not a single PUBLIC college or university, ironically, since this is the most populated metro area of the state. About every hospital and every private college or university here is under some "Christian" guise. Many men here wear mustache-less beards like Amish. Women here often have the girth of milk cows. There are more so-called "churches" and "kingdom halls" here than public schools and supermarkets combined. The most exciting thing here ever is thunderstorms and local storm sirens warning of tornadoes.

Why is my home state of Iowa so high for energy costs according to the chart above? There is a ton of wind here and the state is carpeted with cornfields wall to wall. I don't use natural gas here. Home heating for me comes off the electric grid. According to this link, Iowa has the 12th lowest residential electric rate of the states at 11.85 cents per KWH. California is damned near 30 cents per KWH, OUCH! Electricity Rates by State (July 2024) (usatoday.com) Since it is summertime in Iowa, Midamerica Energy is actually charging me 13.72 cents per KWH out of pocket as a residential customer when I add all the tax and crap on the bill total. Summer rates go up considerably along with fossil fuels prices. My electric bill for December was only $82. The lowest it has been since was $65. It was $109 something on June 3 and $129.01 on July 3. Iowa has high humidity this time of year and I am forced to run the dehumidifier along with the air conditioner in my bedroom. The dehumidifier, with a Freon compressor inside, sucks up about 550 watts. Iowa and Georgia are tied at 15th place for states with lowest gasoline prices at $3.31/gallon. I use 10% Ethanol grade. California is a horrible $4.79/gallon. U.S. gasoline prices by state 2024 | Statista

I'm more of a brainstormer.

I'm not here to analyze anything. I'm no energy expert. I'm throwing out ideas onto the open table to see what YOU all think of them. The real solution might be to combine the number of energy sources we have available. Oh, I did throw out sea wave power above. If people are dying from starvation, perhaps we need less people on earth to begin with. Once we figure out how much clean/renewable energy, clean water and food we can produce in a practical manner that is not substantially environmentally harmful and is long-term sustainable/renewable, then we can probably figure out what a healthy world population is from there on. You can't feed thousands of people with a single fish regardless of what the bible says otherwise. My grandfather's wise words before his death were, "Nothing is for nothing." Everything comes with a price. We have to determine the overall scalability of producing clean/green energy. Proposition: could we one day soon produce all the world electricity we ever need in all practicality with one third solar, one third wind and one third combined tidal/river power each and every method making their own contribution to the sum total energy pot of gold? I took nuclear off the table because it's poisonous and uranium is finite as a fuel source. We could also produce biofuels to a level that is feasible too, that is not make so much that it deprives us and our livestock of food.

No, but we can use fuels from corn to power jet planes, or even, steam locomotives, however. WOOD COULD STILL BE BURNED IN STEAM LOCOMOTIVES. People still burn wood inside homes for wintertime heat. Coal is a finite resource unlike wood harvested from trees. Corn crops are also renewable. I'm not trying to mock any form of energy. I'm trying to find a practical approach to the issues. People should be practical about things. The best energy bets for the future might be: solar, wind, waterpower (hydroelectric) and biofuels in no particular order. Biological energy is still employed to some extent: animals as horses, mules, humans, dogs and oxen are still used to do work: manual labor. That is the whole point of energy in the first place, to accomplish work. PS - Please don't forget the ocean which covers 70% of our planet! The sea's waves are rich with future kilowatt-hour possibilities! The ocean is the last frontier on earth for clean energy.

Everybody thought the horse and the steam locomotive was the peak of travel perfection until crude oil and internal combustion was discovered. Time to reinvent the energy wheel again. I would favor biofuels for aviation use. The first steam locomotives ran off wood, not coal or oil. Wood is a biofuel man has used since he first made a fire for camp or cooking 1000's of years ago.

I wish mankind would have some serious Energy Master Plan for the Future if he hasn't already.

What I am looking for is for the answer to the question: How can Man best use and manage energy from this day onward into the future? If you were to have YOUR way, how would our species use and manage energy? It sounds like energy is one of those things that involve many compromises. As far as wind and solar go, can't the electricity produced from these be stored in batteries for those times the wind is not blowing and the sun is not shining? I made the squirrel remark to be sarcastic.

Well, I've heard people bad-mouth electric automobiles too. What are we going to use to charge them one day without fossil fuels involved anywhere in the energy chain? Nukes? Wind? Solar? Hydroelectric? Sea tides? Biofuels including wood? Hydrogen? A squirrel running in a squirrel cage to charge the batteries? If I were to buy an electric car in Iowa right now and plug it in at home, the power to charge it would be off the local grid which has generators run by fossil fuels. There is no place to plug in an electric automobile in my apartment complex anyway. I have an all-gas-powered '95 Toyota Corolla which gets 30 MPG highway still. The purchase price of an EV is out of the question for me. I use 10% Ethanol at the pump. 15% will ruin the fuel lines. My fears aren't that we need more fossil fuels. My fears WERE that fossil fuels won't last forever. My fears are that there might not ever be any fossil fuels alternatives that are feasible. Modern industrial society will someday fold. It's back the bible life of shepherds again, maybe? Every alternative to fossil fuels put on the open table for discussion is going to be criticized by some people. There are many naysayers.

Ok, then what have people in the scientific community taught us about energy? Let's hear YOUR analyses of the current total global energy situation and what the future means to humanity in terms of energy. What are the known facts regarding energy on earth and man's reliance upon it, not the emotions? After all, the human body itself cannot live without some form of energy. Energy is life. Period. I know some folks here hate video postings, but this video poses the question regarding running out of fossil fuels in the near future: What might happen if all fossil fuels totally ran out from planet Earth 50 years from now?

Ok, will there be plenty of affordable energy for many years to come? The CRISIS might even be that there won't be (enough if any) future energy for people years from now. Do you personally feel there is any kind of energy crisis? As far as I can tell, every form of energy has pros and cons: agree or disagree? I personally have a problem with gasoline's being in exceess of $3.00 per gallon where I live and that my June electric bill was $130 for a mere 940 KWH used. Does anybody here have any present or future ENERGY concerns of any kind? Concerns about obtaining energy today and tomorrow. Concerns about affording energy today and tomorrow. Concerns about any negative consequences of using any form or manmade method of producing energy today and tomorrow. What are the pros and cons of: -EV's? -nuclear? -wind? -sea tide energy? -river (hydroelectric dam) power? -solar? -hydrogen? -fossil fuels? -geothermal energy? -synthetic fuels? -biofuels? How can man use energy in such ways that the postives outweigh any negatives? -biofuels?

My understanding of Energy Crises: -high gasoline prices -high electric bills -limited supply of energy resources -some forms of energy are supposedly dangerous or unhealthy: nuclear energy might pose a cancer risk, EV batteries might be a serious fire hazard -fossil fuels won't last forever -power outages -pollution from some forms of energy as fossil fuels -there might someday not be enough energy to keep a modern industrialized civilization afloat -every form of energy as an alternative to fossil fuels supposedly has shortcomings, there is no perfect form or source of manmade energy as far as I know If I suggest escalating global nuclear power, people (including some here) will always have negative things to say about it. If I throw out wind power, solar power, biofuels, hydroelectric power or hydrogen, there will be negative remarks made by some about each and every one of those too. Most folks (the drill, baby, drill crowd) are so in love with fossil fuels but few fossil fuels fans realize that that fossil fuels can't possibly last forever at the rate man uses them. When solar energy was mentioned to my grandfather back in the the 1970's he remarked, "You can't pump the sun!"