...it was fun...perfect thing to accompany a drink in the other hand.

Something to do while talking to folks...

Great excuse for a break, and when they made us go outside....it actually was a chance to hang with upper upper management quite often and get their ear when you otherwise would never see or meet them...that was always helpful in business.

I'm a bit of a firebug too, so lighting them was always the best part.

It also mean you always had a REAL lighter to hold up at concerts when cheering for encores....people holding phones up now...ugh.

Too bad they can't some up with a healthy way to do it....but oh well, at this point in my life, I'd rather do what I can to extend what I have left....but man, I sure do miss it.

Also, for the most part...a degree is MOSTLY to get your foot in the door right out of school and starting out.

After a few years....you then are dependent upon experience and contacts you've made to get better jobs that pay significantly more.

Why would you think you want to work for someone with arbitrary hiring criteria irrelevant to your actual abilities?

Money.

I mean, that IS the reason people work...right?

I mean hell, if they paid me $300K/yr to scrape dead cats off the road, I'd switch careers in a New York minute...

College is about learning to think.

Partially.....but in these modern times, college isn't JUST about the higher eschelons of thought....it is also training for jobs.

You learn chemistry to doing chemistry things, you learn engineering to learn engineering things ...you learn biochemical lab work to learn biochemistry.

Sure, you need to learn to reason, etc....but it is far from a pure form of education for education's sake and learning to think, you ARE there to learn real skills...at least the ones hoping to actually earn top $$ when they graduate.

That's why the majoring in non-binary trans Eskimo communism studies really isn't the best idea of how to spend your hard earned $ for school.

I'm pretty certain an electric motorcycle will be at least as dangerous as a gas one.

That just wouldn't cut it.

Part of the motorcycle experience is the visceral feeling you get with the engine rumbling beneath you....the sound, the smells. Also, the connection to the machine with the gear changing, engine braking...clutch, etc.

You feel connected to the road more....

There is a lot of things that make riding an ICE motorcycle enjoyable and a true experience for the rider today....a motorcycle is NOT just about transportation from A to B.

Hell, some days I get up early on Sunday morning before traffic hits (In the New Orleans area...on Sundays you can often have the roads to your till about 11am.

But I'll get up early, gear up and just "ride".....with no set destination in mind. I'll ride familiar roads....I may veer off and explore roads unknown...I just ride.

I saw your reply to someone else and no....adding "speakers" to simulate the sound just isn't going to cut it.

If the only choices I was was an electric "motorcycle"...I'd like not bother anymore...at least half the experience that makes it fun and give one a zen feeling, would be gone.

I think I've got an excellent chance of being able to ride my normal motorcycle till I'm too old to do so...gas isn't likely to disappear in my lifetime, nor will ICE transportation....especially not in the US.

But if it does happen, I do feel sorry for those in the future that can never experience it.

Ok this part does it for me:

""Underpricing for local air pollution costs is the largest contributor to global fossil fuel subsidies, accounting for 42 percent, followed by global warming costs (29 percent), other local externalities such as congestion and road accidents (15 percent), explicit subsidies (8 percent) and foregone consumption tax revenue (6 percent)."[3

This "externalities" and "cost" for pollution, etc...that's not a subsidy!?!?

A subsidy is where the govt gives you DIRECT money or tax breaks solely because you, in this case, dig, mine or drill for fossil fuels.

The govt isn't supposed to charge you for perceived "externalities".

So, yeah...based on this, I don't see any subsidies to the fossil fuel industry....nothing implemented by law for direct monies given or tax credits earned for being a fossil fuel producer.

That's like saying smokers are subsidized because they don't have to pay for the effects of second hand smoke on their neighbors or children in their homes....??

One can make up "externalities" for almost any activity if you look hard enough or want to bitch about something you don't like the someone else does...but that's not subsidizing anything.

Hell if nothing else at all..the part complaining about congestion and accidents....if that's the case, EVs cause those same externalities, but no ones complaining about them being subsidized due to that....no, they are directly being subsidized by tax money, by law/statute with real money moving about or being credited.

It's neither thing. It's lagging because we give subsidies to fossil fuel corporations instead of spending the same money on infrastructure that doesn't destroy the biosphere we depend upon for life.

I have a hard time buying all this "subsidies" to fossil fuel companies....at least in the US.

If that were indeed the case, I'd have long expected the people and organizations against this to be pointing out specific bills/laws that had been passed to enact these "subsidies".

I mean, the only thing I know that these corporations take advantage of of the tax deductions that any and all other corporations take advantage of.....?

Can you point out any specific ones that are carved out only for fossil fuel corporations?

A smoke and a drink go great together. Sadly a smoke and ladies do not, the clinging smell is a problem.

Having made out with a lady who was a smoker before I get it too. It was kind of gross.

Back in the day...when both parties were smoking AND drinking enough....it didn't bother anyone much to make out and more after...

;)

Also the Senate and House are cutting billions in funding to fight AIDS because of religious lunatics who think it's a punishment from God for homosexuals.

I thought I saw on the news the other day, that they found and have released a new drug that prevents (and maybe also cures?) AIDS.....

So, it would appear the solution to banging your butt buddy is already here now.....so, why keep spending more money on it?

Why not direct that money to a disease that really touches everyone no matter your choice of sexual friction, like cancer?

On the "con" side of all this....

People do not look nearly as cool as they once did when smoking cigarettes was the norm.

Hell, even today in movies...while not as prevalent as it was in the past...they have folks on screen smoking to look cool, and well....it works.

Damn...I miss smoking.

I mean, when you had a cocktail or beer in your left hand and a smoke in your right hand, the world just felt right. Oh well, in order to still have some danger in my life, I still have my motorcycle to ride....

Hopefully this EV thing won't make gas disappear during my lifetime so I can still enjoy that past time and have some bit of adventure and risk in my life.

Everyone one today is SO risk adverse....dunno when that happened, but wow....it really is strong in the youngest amongst us.

The U.S. is somewhat lagging behind, because right now, it's some kind of anti-virtue signalling to go fossil despite the advantages of electric.

No...it's lagging because compared to ICE, EVs for many people is a royal pain in the ass and inconvenient.

For many people, charging at home over night, is not an option.

EVs are significantly more $$$ to purchase.

Insurance rates on EVs are more $$$.

They take way too long to recharge (a major sticking point if you cannot charge at home every night).

And used EVs have horrible resale value....

In the US, EVs have a lot of strikes against them....and until they are made more attractive to buy/own...and at least as convenient as ICE vehicles are currently, they're not going to overtake the ICE vehicle market.

They have to be made to compete on the market with ICE...not be "mandated".

If I had the choice between: an EV I could charge up at home or indeed anywhere that has electricity, even via my own solar panels - or a Hydrogen car where I'm dependent on stations owned by a billionaire cartel + taxed heavily by my authoritarian government - why would I want hydrogen ?? Even if the two had identical performance?

Me?

I'll just stick with ICE until they work out the "kinks" in the systems and make it just as convenient to fuel and depend on an EV as it is for my ICE vehicles....

Nope, can't charge at home really (same boat many Americans are in)...so, EV is just not practical to me an public recharging takes too long.

Do you really think they would have 12 chargers will be running constantly all together?

I can't think of a reason why they would not?

I mean, if you look at the typical US gas station, at most any given time of day, you can see most pumps are being used for filling cars.

And, considering that many folks do not and will not have the capability of charging at home, or may at any time be out on a long trip, sure I can see the need for multiple chargers refueling at a "gas" station simultaneously.

We have a lot of people with a LOT of cars here in the US. We drive everywhere to do everything, so, there's a lot of people on the roads here 24/7.

BYD's new electric vehicles can add around 250 miles of charge in 5 minutes now. Of course we're not allowed to buy them in the US, hooray for our "free trade" economy, right?

Fuck China.

One of the appeals of the IMAX experience is that they're showing films that are filmed on a special VERY LARGE format film, I believe it is 70mm.....at least twice the resolution of the common 35mm movie.

Unless these new "large" theaters are doing to develop their own large format film, or extremely large digital sensors....they will be showing 35mm on a larger screen...which will result mostly in lost resolution, no?

Just having a big screen doesn't cut it...