Tootsall

Having been through Sudbury and Timmins Ontario I can tell you that the "dead zone" has been largely rectified and fixed in recent decades. While it is true that at one time "the men grow as tall as the trees...... because no tree is over 4' tall" that is no longer the case. Anyone dragging that old stuff up is grinding their own axe without regard to reality.

Both Sudbury and Timmins are located in an area known as the "Canadian Shield"... a vast expanse of granite rock where not a heck of a lot grows anyway. (this is why they mine nickel there in the first place... that's where it happens to exist!) To draw the kinds of conclusions that author came up with is like trying to blame nomads and their campfires for the lack of greenery in the Sahara Desert!

Toyota and longevity... let's see... I had a Toyota Xtracab truck... 200,000 miles when I foolishly overrevved it one day before warming it up and spun the rod bearings. 220,000 on an old '86 Corolla before my daughter rolled it into a ditch.

Edit: Then my younger daughter ran my 02 Camry into a concrete barrier at 45... we walked away from it... the car was totalled. Replaced it with an 03 Camry. My oldest daughter has an 06 Corolla and my mother is "dealing" on a 98 Corolla with only 40,000 miles on the clock.

I've "driven the rest"... now I'll "buy the best".

stchasking

I am with Tootsall,
There is nothing growing on the Canadian expanse of granite rock and never will be. There isn't enough soil in that windy place to let a tree root take hold.

Nickel is inert. It isn't the nickel but the other stuff in the ground that causes the challenges of mining and smelting. Most of the challenges have been met since the 1970's.

One more point. The batteries in the electric cars can be recycled. The demand for battery materials will eventually level off as recycled material becomes a major player.

This is the case with lead mining in Missouri. Lead is recycled to the extent that only one lead mine operates only to replenish the small percentage needed above the recyling rate.

__________________
"I was performing professionally at age 17 and have never had a real job." Allen Vizzutti

http://cdbaby.com/cd/mcking

Brekelefuw

I am sure they also forget to mention that Sudbury sits on top of the Canadian shield, a sheet of Precambrian rock that covers a huge area in Canada and some of the US. Sudbury is a particularly rocky area, and because of its richness in minerals from the Canadian shield, there are many many mines and quarries. It isn't just the nickel plant that caused the local environment to be like the moon.

"wiki:
During the Apollo manned lunar exploration program, NASA astronauts trained in Sudbury, to become familiar with shatter cones, a rare rock formation connected with meteorite impacts. However, the popular misconception that they were visiting Sudbury because it purportedly resembled the lifeless surface of the moon dogged the city for years. "

I was beaten to posting this, but since I typed it, it's going to get posted again.

Richard Oliver

Trent,

I bought a 2006 Corolla last year. She get's 40 on the highway and in the winter in WY it's about 22+ around town. That number goes up as the weather warms to about 30'ish. Maybe more, but I can't recollect from last year.

Richard

gregc

Well, when the weather is nice enough, I ride this @ 45 MPG:
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c1...es/my_bike.jpg
However, whn I have to carry the subwoofer bins and my 4x12 guitar cabinet, or there's a foot of snow on the ground, it's this:
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c1...r/MyHummer.jpg
.....and if I get one more dirty look from a Prius driver I'm gonna use it to run over em. and then back over em. and then run over em again........

__________________
______________
Greg Condemi

Brekelefuw

I really don't understand why any normal person needs a car as big as a hummer. Especially when they live in the city.

gregc

If I lived in NYC I wouldn't own a car. Move 60 miles from Manhattan and you can't live without one.

__________________
______________
Greg Condemi

40cal

When the clown who's head is buried in their new Tom Tom GPS system while talking on their cell phone and eating taco bell t-bones your car w/their suburban you will know why you want a car as big as a hummer.





Fake cop story


I'm driving along and observe a vehicle sitting in the lane of interstate 94. I stop behind the vehicle while activating my emergency lights. It is about 2100 hrs so it is not rush hour, traffic is cruising by at normal freeway speeds. I approach the passenger side and they tell me that they were having a domestic situation (there are 4 people in the car, a mother and 3 kids ages 7-16) but it has been resolved.

I have to ascertain if a domestic assault occurred because I will most likely be obligated to act, so I instruct the driver, the mother to pull to the side of the road.

I approach the vehicle again on the driver's side. I speak with mom who begins to tell me (from what I can understand) that her son, the 16 yr old "farted" and it stunk. Her son then refused to roll the window down.

So, this warrants stopping your car in the middle of a freeway at night????

Silly me for thinking that mom could have rolled her window down and not created a very dangerous situation for her, her family and everyone else who happened to be on the road.


These are the type of people we share the road with.






PS. She got a ticket.

__________________


“If there must be trouble, let it be in my day so that my child may have peace.”

Thomas Paine 1737-1809

“That’s all the bullets we had, or we would have shot him more,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd

Manny Laureano

I was sitting in my car waiting for the rest of my family to have dinner. My son was with me. We were parked next to some version of Hummer. I looked at it and said "I'd never buy something like that."

"Why not?"

"Well, it's tons bigger than what I need. I don't go offroading, I don't haul stuff around, I don't have a boat to haul, and I don't want to spend so much for gas. We're city dwellers. I would be buying the thing for one reason: because it looks cool, that's pretty much it."

But then, I wouldn't buy a Prius, either. I don't particularly like hauling my family around in small cars. I don't care what kind of acceleration it has, it won't beat either of the cars I own and that's important to me for safety reasons. I think it's too expensive for its size and performance relative to other cars similarly sized and priced. I'd sooner buy the NSX.

I just went to a site and compared a 2007 Malibu and the Prius. Very similar in many ways. There was an almost 6,000 dollar difference.

Gas @$2.50 x 12 gallons = $30

$30 x 52= $1,560 for Malibu
$15 x 52= $780 for Prius based on the fact that Prius gets twice as good a mileage.

So, you save money on the price for about 4 years but you spend twice as much on gas. In four years you buy about $6,000 in gas with the Malibu but with the Prius you buy only $3,000 worth.

But you were smart and invested that $6,000 bucks wisely and made another $3,000 over those four years! The Prius owner had to wait four years to make that $3,000. They only had $780 to invest per year.

Okay, this was mostly in fun. I still wouldn't buy either (nor the Malibu, for that matter).

The bottom line is that if it's street legal and for sale, you should be able to buy whatever you want without explaining yourself to anyone. People will look at your car and shake their heads or gaze admiringly. Just make sure you buy what makes you happy to drive, whatever the reasons.

ML

Vulgano Brother

Back in the day we could buy bumper stickers from Earth First! that said: "If your [insert part of male anatomy that is almost, but not quite, spelled the same as Mr. Wick's first name] was as small as mine, you'd drive a vehicle like this too!"

It was touted as using cheap paper and a real strong adhesive, and designed to be placed on the monster trucks currently in vogue. I wonder how it would look on a Prius?

__________________
www.letsbuildhope.org