ALTERNATIVE FUELS FOR TRANSPORTATION ~
I was chatting with some acquaintances the other day, about ways to improve our costs of transportation (people movers, commercial transportation, etc.), when I was reminded of something I saw published in the late-1950s in one of the premier technical magazines of the times. I can't recall exactly which one it was now, but it was probably either Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, or Road and Track - or something of that ilk. As I remember it, the article was about something called "electronic injection", which was significantly different from fuel injection, in that it used a standard carburetor that had been modified with an electronically controlled fuel metering device. Fuel vaporization and the fuel:air ratio was supposedly as close to perfect as one could get using the technology of the times. The stated advantage of such a fuel delivery system? Fuel consumption in the range of 90MPG in a V-8 engine! And, yes, that was the last I ever heard of it.
Today's technology is moving more toward the replacement of fossil fuels as our primary source of energy, especially for our ever-increasing transportation needs. Engineers are now looking at the possibility of extracting hydrogen from water, fuel cells, closed system refrigerants (i.e.: air conditioning), electricity, steam, and most recently, compressed air as alternative sources of fuel for our vehicles.
Now, everybody that believes that Mobil-Exxon (et al) will allow anything that they can't control the availability - or price - of to become a viable alternative to fossil fuels, raise your hand. I see a few hands raised ... but, the short bus is here to pick them up now. We're talking about tens of billions of dollars in profits!
How many of those billions of dollars (that's one of these -> $ followed by a positive integer and 9 zeros) of profits do you think the American Oil Cartel will spend to defeat such efforts? How much would YOU spend, if your $36,000,000,000 in profits were being threatened? One hundred million dollars ($100,000,000) is a pittance when you're looking at the potential loss of billions of dollars. (Granted, the concept of a million of anything is extremely difficult for "Joe Average" to get his head around. It's a number for which most of us have no frame of reference. And a billion? Fuggeddaboudit! Simply counting to one million would take about 11 days, 24/7, and counting to one billion - roughly 30 years! A billion seconds ago it was 1959, and a billion minutes ago it was 193AD ... so, yes, these are unrealistically large numbers for the vast majority of us to try to realize.) And we revel in our complacency - trusting that our government, our elected officials, our neighbors will insure that we are treated fairly by our multi-national corporations. We don't mind that our government is leasing our roadways to foreign entities, who are charging us money to use the roads that our taxes built! Swiss cheese borders are of little to no concern to many of us. It is time for the "silent majority" to break its silence, and let the world know that we are fed up with what they've been feeding us. We aren't mushrooms! Remember the words of Edmund Burke, who said:
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

I'm Gil, and I approve this blog!