Archive for the ‘economy’ Category

Bitcoin Values Tank

Friday, September 9th, 2011

Bitcoins are heading down along with the stockmarket. Which lends credence to the bitcoin supply currently involving a lot of speculation.

Something to note, though, is that the number of available bitcoins is still in flux while people are mining them. It doesn’t feel like it’s leveled one way or another on exchanges just yet.

Also, mining itself hasn’t tanked to nearly the extent that the price of bitcoins has.. which would lead one to believe that the mining portion of bitcoin creating isn’t driven entirely by speculation on the future value. Even when prices went from ~30$ to ~6$ the amount of mining going on increased slightly.

But we’ll see how that washes out in the coming weeks if values stay depressed.

Sources: http://mtgox.com http://virwox.com

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More Bang for the Buck with Gasoline

Friday, July 6th, 2007

Not wanting to invest in a new car (and seeing the hybrids as something of a boondoggle) I’ve started saving a bit on Gas.

How? Driving efficiently. Basically, when I did a quick number crunch I could either reduce my speed by 5mph or loose money on a new car.

It was pretty much a no-brainer. And the fuel economy’s gone up a good 15% or so on average (really good on some fillups, not so good on others). So instead of getting 27 miles to the gallon I’m up to, say, a solid 31~32.

Why’s that better than just buying a hybrid. Lessee…

First off, there’s the new car. It’s expensive. Really expensive. Which you might think doesn’t mean much in terms of economy.

But.

See, the issue there is that the economy of making those beasts doesn’t really work out. Lots of Nickel in the Nickel-Metal Hydride or Nickel-Metal Cadmium batteries. On top of a whole lot of crappy production runoff. It’s really not a feasible replacement for a gas burner. Also, it’s very complex.

Plus it’d be a new car. Which means I’d no longer be using my old Focus while it runs perfectly well. Since I can’t be sure someone else would be using it, all the production that went into my current car’s now a waste while it’s still pretty efficient and clean-running.

Those are my thoughts on the subject.

Posted in Auto, car, economy, Journalism, MPG, op/ed | No Comments »