Older Gas Pumps Don't Go Above $4; But Don't Expect To Get Cheap Gas Out Of Them
from the oops dept
With gas prices across the country soaring to over $4/gallon, you may want to track down one of those (now mostly rural) gas stations that still uses really old gas pumps. It turns out that many of them were not designed to handle prices over $4. They go right up to $3.99 9/10... and that's it. While there aren't that many gas stations left that still have these pumps, it's causing a bit of a mess for them. The article highlights one station that has huge signs everywhere explaining that the price on the pump is inaccurate, and the station will apply a multiplier to the final amount to get the price right. While operating a gas pump with the incorrect price being shown is illegal, it sounds like (at least in Washington, where the story was written), state officials are making exceptions -- though it wants the stations to have plans in place to upgrade the pumps. I guess this is sort of the gas station industry's version of Y2K.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: $4 gas, gas pumps, old technology
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Deja vu all over again
Bonus points to those who remember gasoline sold by the liter in the USA.
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Cost of gas delivery
But many, many of the oilcompany-owned locations had upgraded to digital systems in the past two years.
One entrepreneur-owned station with digital Gilbarco pump recently closed and I thought it was odd that the pumps had been removed before they had removed all the product from the store.
$8500 retrofit kit. That's incredible!
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"Gas industry's version of Y2K..."
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Up Yours Peons
and pay - and pay
Ha Ha Ha
I'm soo rich
Ha Ha Ha
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Re: Up Yours Peons
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They will find a way ....
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Wow... and the last time I remember too....
It was okay to wait in lines for the gas back then, the Exxon Stations were always giving away cool promo stuff with that cool very Kellogg-like Tiger on them... worthless gadgetry to soothe the brain.
When will people realize that there are greater, less expensive options available to most people? Look what we are doing to the planet. How much will gas have to be before we say, wow - the price of gas is killing me!? Realize the gas you use combined with everyone else is killing not only you - but the entire planet.
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Forget cars... walk
Don't be a slave to oil, change your life.
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screw the planet. Save my wallet
I think he's right. When will they finally find a way to power cars with freshly squeezed kitten juice? kittens are every where, over populated, cheap AND self replenishing.
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Re: Forget cars... walk
Great plan.
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I honestly beleive that people will still drive, and drive what they want no matter what the cost of fuel is.
Just like people still eat at McDonalds. Even though the hamburgers taste like crap, they cost a fortune and will eventually kill you.
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Re:
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planned obsolescence
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Re: screw the planet. Save my wallet
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Hang on to this article
Probably, though, with the coming hyperinflation we will have to adopt some of the tricks that they used in Germany in 1923. Everyone will just have a chalkboard (OK, it will be a plasma screen) in the front of the store with the multiplier on it. It will make it a lot easier to change the prices when they go up by the hour.
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Re: Forget cars... walk
Jeez, do you think people actually go out of their way to live far from stores, and businesses? Sometimes, it's what one can afford. Maybe it's the desire to stay away from seedy and dangerous neighborhoods.
You're right, we shouldn't be a slave to oil, but we shouldn't be held at knife point by it either.
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gas prices
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Oil and Gas Prices
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Re: Wow... and the last time I remember too....
I'm sorry to tell you this but we ARE NOT killing the planet. We are only killing ourselves on the planet. As soon as the planet is sick of us it will destroy us in some way or another. Humans are a virus with shoes. The Earth has been through a lot more devastating things than humans. Astroids, Ice Ages, Volcanos, etc.... and Earth will die eventually as soon as its gets close enough to the Sun, the Earth will be dead.
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Re: Re: Up Yours Peons
For example - Oil exec calls refinery and suggests that it should be shutdown for maintenance thus causing a shortage of refined gasoline and an associated increase in the price.
This should sound familiar. Remember Enron ?
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A European Perspective
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Re: Oil and Gas Prices
I have made a personal choice to use less energy by consolidating trips to town and biking to places. Its all about lifestyle. I know that in some areas it is hard to walk/bike or mass transit but there are ways to save your wallet you just have to work at it.
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Re: Deja vu all over again
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Re: A European Perspective
As for transit solutions in general, a recent conversation comes to mind- I was talking with a neighbor about her job, and the topic came up of an employers new benefit addition- Bus service with WiFi.
'I can put in a few hours of work while going home.' "What do you mean?" I asked with a hit of jealousy. She continued and said she leaves work at 4:00 and still be online and getting things done until I gets home around 5:15, 'It's like rolling travel time into work time. I get a few hours of extra productivity.'
So the idea of transit solutions is interesting nonetheless, especially now that gas prices have out paced young thirteen-year old delivery infrastructure (pumps)!
Maybe it's a sign of the times, and transit should be re-evaluated.
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Re: Wow... and the last time I remember too....
We can't very well run our SUV's on Pot, Granola, and Rainbows.
Mother nature started this fight with hurricanes, drought, and tsumani's... and now that she's loosing she wants a favor from us?
Not bloody likely!
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Re: Deja vu all over again
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Re: A European Perspective
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Re: gas prices
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I only buy gas at gas stations now, the rest I go elsewhere for.
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I drive a V8, but don't drive far, and skip almost all unnecessary trip. Heck, I just recently went from a super efficient 4 cylinder to a V8. The 4 cylinder small car thing - is over hyped, I think. It's ok, but no freakin' power and always have someone right up on my tail.
If nothing else, the higher prices just make alternative fuel possibilities much more lucrative ventures. It may be the best thing that could happen for ending our reliance on Oil.
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Re: Deja vu all over again
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Re:
I only buy gas at gas stations now, the rest I go elsewhere for.
Eh, I agree, but as the cost of gas goes up, many of the smaller independents are having have trouble competeing. I saw this a few years ago in a test market.
Company-owned stores, being under the auspice of their parent, have additional flexibility that independents lack. For example, they could lower retail gas prices to match, or be below an independent's cost, which forces an independent to focus on value-add. Company-owned locations may leverage economies of scale and single distribution strategy. (Similar to a WalMart Strategy- Own as many pieces of the business inhouse as possible.) If pricing is longstanding, it could potetially drive an independent out of business.
You can typically tell if you're at a company-owned store if they ask for a Zip code at the pump when you fill up. An "ask" like this usually is driven by a lower credit card processing rate, which an independent usually doesn't usually pursue.
It becomes very tough to compete with a large refinery like Exxon, Shell, et al, who can discount last-mile sale for inflated refinery margins.
This is especially true if you're wholesaler isn't say, Valero or Amoco/BP which lacks a last-mile strategy.
Personally, I only buy from Costco.
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Re: Oil and Gas Prices
What we really need to do is build more nuclear power plants. Yes, there is fear of another Chernobyl...but that only happened because the Russian philosophy was 'they say nothing can go wrong, so we don't have to worry about it'...while ours in the US is 'everything can go wrong. plan on it.'. Sure, we had three mile island...but nothing actually happened there. No radiation even escaped the plant. The people living nearby weren't even really aware that anything had happened at all...it just got blown up the further away you went. In other states, it was a major catastrophe...and in other countries,some people heard that the entire state of Pennsylvania had been wiped off the map. But nothing happened.
Anyways, point I'm trying to get to here is that we have enough oil to last maybe a hundred or two hundred years...assuming we drill every known oil deposit. We have enough Uranium _already mined and sitting in warehouses_ to power the US for three _thousand_ years. Possibly more if we legalize breeder reactors. Yes, there's some waste, but if we were smart that could be easily taken care of. It's not that dangerous. It's a hell of a lot safer than the waste from oil.
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ARC0, BP/Phillips, Sunoco, Diamond Shamrock, Conoco, Sinclair, Valero, and Hess.
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Re: Re: Up Yours Peons
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Re: gas prices
We would have to go for over a week to get any attention, 1 day is not even going to phase the big oil companies.
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Gas Pricing
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Re: Re: Oil and Gas Prices
I saw a documentary on National Geographic Channel recently on this project- "Man-Made: Super Roads" where the Sierra Club blocked the I355 South-expansion due to a dragonfly.
It ended up adding possibly billions of dollars to the project because the road needed to be 25-feet above the marshlands to protect an endangered spiecies.
I imagine Sierra lobbied Congress to get a dragonfly added to the list after the plans were announced (originally published in 1970s) And litigation ensued until 1990s.
Until people realize that Sierra's real goal is that they hate people, it's nuts. I'm married to a Sierra club member. So I can say that you guys come up with the most crazy ideas at your meetings. I have to bring her back to reality. What the hell do you talk about? Sometimes I think I am crazy, but that's another post. I just hope our children turn out okay.
Aagh! Thanks for letting me vent.
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Thank you!
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Advertising that they have new pumps!, now there prices are twenty cents above the average. The only people around here making money are the company's selling gas pumps and Haliburton.
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Re: Re: Re: Oil and Gas Prices
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Re:
Dubai? Surely that's a misprint.
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Re: Re:
Haliburtons is The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500
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Re: Re: Forget cars... walk
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Re: Re: Deja vu all over again
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Re:
Are you pissed off because you are so fuckin retarded? How old are you? If you're 6, I apologize but I seriously doubt a 6 year old is reading techdirt. You seriously don't know how to spell Iraq!! You can't even figure out that doubt is spelled with a "B" & much doesn't need a "T". Seriously I'm far from perfect, I almost failed English every year in school. I would be completely embarrassed if I didn't know how to spell Iraq. Its only been in the news everyday for about 6 years now, plus if you also include Bush #1 add in another 2 or 3 years.
TIP: Download Firefox in has a spell checker built into the browser.
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Dominos next to Chevron
What an awesome system. Try it out for yourself!
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Re: Wow... and the last time I remember too....
Please people, stop listening to all these environmentalists tree hugging wackos like Al Gore who server nothing but themselves and their own pocketbooks. Use common sense. You want cheaper gas? Drill in Anwar, slowly move oil production from mostly foreign sources to mostly american sources like Texas , the Gulf and Alaska. Put in strict controls on tankers to make them safer and stronger and be thankful God has provided nearly every corner of the globe with oil reserves. And also don't fall into this BS that oil supplies are running out. The earth itself produces oil. There are wells drilled over 50 years ago that were supposed to be empty by now, and they are just a full today as they were when the well was drilled. Explain that. There are areas in the ocean where scientists have recorded oil seeping from the ocean floor for dozens of years. Oil is not the enemy, it's gullable human beings who are hell bent on controlling others for sake of wealth and power that are the reason we have 4,5 and 6 dollar a gallon gas.
There - There''s my rant.
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Re: A European Perspective
Mean-spiritedness isn't becoming. It renders your whole point moot (however valid it might be) and only makes you seem uneducated. I doubt this is the case, but the fact remains. If you want to say something, make sure it has just an ounce of worth.
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Gas Prices
Ex.. Cut Saturday mail delivery everywhere the mailman or mailwoman can still get paid for saturday just no mail add the dollars and reduction of fuel for that day. Sure it is along the lines of the earlier post however this is practical do we really need to get junk mail and bills on Saturday and will the mail carriers really get upset having Saturdays off with pay not likely.
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Re:
What the car manufacturers should do is sell electric cars... Extra Bonus Points if they plug into nuclear power!
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Re: Re: Wow... and the last time I remember too....
That stuff makes for bad gas!
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Re: Re: Up Yours Peons
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Re: Re: Wow... and the last time I remember too....
And I love to see the research you found regarding he Earth's planetary rotation around the sun indicating that we are actually collapsing INTO the sun. Laughable. If anything, the sun will burn out and go supernova before we'll fall into a blazing descent.
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Re: Forget cars... walk
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Re: Re: Wow... and the last time I remember too....
You're so fucking stupid, it's funny.
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The funny part is that the article scoffed at the idea saying it was horrible.
Well if that company still exist today, I bet all their customers are just sitting back and laughing their asses off!
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Re: Forget cars... walk
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Re:
As for Gas, it worked well, but I had to fill up at some real obscure places. Then one day *pop* the whole thing dissappeared.
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Re: Re:
"Do you know how much electricity is needed to create hydrogen from water?"
Quite a bit I understand ... but I did not suggest that did I ?
There are many ways to obtain hydrogen, the trick is to do it efficiently and store it in a manner that does not explode upon container failure.
The brainiacs are closer than you think. For example:
http://www.wired.com/cars/energy/news/2007/11/hydrogen_bacteria
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Re: Re: gas prices
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Re: Re: Re: gas prices
What would help is to concienciously choose not to frequent those that import from middle east-- If oil is sourced, and refined fully in the US, all the money stays in the US- even providing Americans with jobs. What a concept!
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Re: Re: Re:
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Re: Re: Re: Re:
"Well genius, that article isn't even about getting hydrogen from WATER."
Ummm, what ?
Of course not. That is the whole point now isn't it.
Let's recap:
1) 1st guy - where is my hydrogen car
2) 2nd guy - it cost a lot to get hydrogen from water
3) 1st guy - I never said anything about water, here is a link about getting hydrogen from elsewhere.
4) 3rd guy - Well genius, that article isn't even about getting hydrogen from WATER
Obvious troll, but I had to respond ...
I still want my hydrogen car, and an economical means of obtaining hydrogen. There are ways to accomplish this.
But I suspect that big oil will try and stop it.
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Buy a Prius
I bought a prius back in november. I'm getting about 45mpg which certainly helps.
I wrote a blog about my prius adventure:
http://tenasillahe.wordpress.com/
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Re: Re: screw the planet. Save my wallet
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Screwing Gas Companies?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
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Re: Re: Re: screw the planet. Save my wallet
Used to do that, But showing up wet and smelly to work doesn't score points with the bosses or coworkers.
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Re: Re: Re: Wow... and the last time I remember too....
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Re: Dominos next to Chevron
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Re: Re: Dominos next to Chevron
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Re: Re: Re: Dominos next to Chevron
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/11/technology/11fast.html
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Re: Re: Re: Oil and Gas Prices
Naw, they just hate people named Scott Halvorsen.
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Re: Re: Wow... and the last time I remember too....
>>>No it's not.... The planet is killing the planet. To believe that cars are having any significant on the climate of the entire planet shows how absolutely gullible and stupid you are. The earth, like all living things, goes through cycles. Ebbs and flows, ups and downs, hot periods and cool periods. This is true whether mankind exists or not. Remember the last ice age? There were no factories, no cars, no man-made greenhouse gases to speak of, just volcanoes, the earth and nature. Remember a few years ago when they talked about the "hole in the ozone layer"? They tried to dupe you all into believing that was our fault as well and it turns out that the 'hole' is a naturally occurring phenomena.
Please people, stop listening to all these environmentalists tree hugging wackos like Al Gore who server nothing but themselves and their own pocketbooks. Use common sense. You want cheaper gas? Drill in Anwar, slowly move oil production from mostly foreign sources to mostly American sources like Texas , the Gulf and Alaska. Put in strict controls on tankers to make them safer and stronger and be thankful God has provided nearly every corner of the globe with oil reserves. And also don't fall into this BS that oil supplies are running out. The earth itself produces oil. There are wells drilled over 50 years ago that were supposed to be empty by now, and they are just a full today as they were when the well was drilled. Explain that. There are areas in the ocean where scientists have recorded oil seeping from the ocean floor for dozens of years. Oil is not the enemy, it's gullible human beings who are hell bent on controlling others for sake of wealth and power that are the reason we have 4,5 and 6 dollar a gallon gas.
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Re: Buy a Prius
Good job genius. I'm sure you'll be making up for that $10,000 you wasted in short order with your extra 6 MPG. That goes for all the other Prius drivers too, good choice. I guess at least you can sniff your own farts now.
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RE: Re: Up Yours Peons by david
It's only a matter of time until the Gov't steps in and puts price controls in place, and I, for one, can't wait!
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Re: planned obsolescence
It's all about you isn't it.
So what you've got an 8 yr old vcr that won't go past 2007.
LOL..so it's someone else's fault that it won't go past 2007?
You should be grateful that your vcr lasted that long, instead of whining.
Either deal with it or get another one, either way just grow up.
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Re: Deja vu all over again
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Re:
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Re: Re: Deja vu all over again
As memory serves, that station changed to gallons long before the mile/kilometer signs disappeared on the local highways.
Pete (used to working with most any units, including Angstroms)
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Re: Re: Re: Deja vu all over again
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Re: Re: Re: Wow... and the last time I remember too....
Methane's a greenhouse gas.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: screw the planet. Save my wallet
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Re: Re: Re: gas prices
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Re: Wow... and the last time I remember too....
Ah yes, the Esso tiger. Put a tiger in your tank!
They were called Esso back then. Changed the name to Exxon after they got rid of the tiger.
I LIKED the tiger. Always regretted them getting rid of him.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: screw the planet. Save my wallet
Naah, I'll just make you work harder. It's good to be the king.
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Re comment #83
I remember the PDP8 days when you had a position for maybe a year or more. Now it's 3 months max. My analysis leads to purchasing paralysis.
Having said that... Technology has been very good to me over the years.
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For the tree huggers: You should be happier than a pig in slop over these high gas prices. Why wag your finger at the masses about how we are killing the earth? High gas prices means less consumption. Think of how many millions of third worlders have gotten priced out of their cars in the last year. Hell, think of how many first worlders have voluntarily cut back on their driving over higher gas prices. High gas prices lead to high food prices which leads to consumers looking to more localized sources of food which leads to less oil consumption.
These should be the salad days for hippies, yet they are screeching louder than ever. Enjoy your day in the sun for a change.
And to the dude/soccer mom driving their 4x4 gas guzzlin' suv two blocks to get a latte, wtf did you expect from globalization? All the benefits and none of the sacrifices? Did you think the third world countries accepting all our manufacturing jobs would be happy remaining in third world squalor and wouldn't imagine ever emulating our lifestyle? Well, all those cheap imported chickens are coming home to roost. The bill has come due and it's time to pay up. So you can either pay by continuing to drive your SUV and have less disposable income, or you can pay by getting on the bus and being inconvenienced a helluva lot more.
And to the rest of you that want the government to save us from ourselves and protect us from big oil, be careful what you wish for. Congestion toll pricing and the national 55 mph speed limit are the types of solutions the government comes up with.
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You cant trust certain people witha terreble secret.
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don't drive this sunday
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don't drive this sunday
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Your heart knows loves somewhere
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