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Perhaps we should have built our new homes closer to where the jobs are?
Answers.com: What is the distance from Detroit Michigan to Beijing China?
The distance between Detroit, Michigan and Beijing, China is 6637 miles (10681 km).
See Also:
Calculated Risk: DOT: Vehicle miles driven increased in October
Source Data:
DOT: Traffic Volume Trends
St. Louis Fed: Population
18 comments:
WTF!!!!!!!!! First snow here in mASSachusetts and I had the pleasure of driving for 3.5 hours to go 29 miles today on the way home! I will not hear anymore of miles driven, goodnight!
The chart on CR that caught my eye was retail sales. It's now higher than it was at the height of the credit bubble!!!
Last week I took my car into the dealer for the 120,000 mile service (2002 Toyota Avalon). They offered me a ride home instead of waiting because there was also a recall repair that needed to be done. I took it.
The driver of the courtesy car was a late 50ish gentleman who had no idea what he was in for when he was confined to a small space with someone who is very inquisitive about what a 50ish gentlemen currently thinks about the economy. lol
The most striking comment he made, after describing how he and his wife were "waiting" for their "investments" to return to where they were before, was that in his view people were growing tired of all the doom and gloom and just wanted to spend again.
Coming in at number 2 on the striking tally was his resignation to the fact that if he and his wife wanted to move to Greenville, S.C. next spring he was going to have to eat the losses on the house he had built in 1995 and simply bear it!
Is it any wonder some people live to fleece others out of their money. This reminds me of a comment made on this blog that I copied and kept:
The experience, however, has confirmed the sage advice of China investment counselors: don't let the money out of your sight or you will turn out to be the fool that the recipients of the money believe you to be.
I felt extraordinarily sorry for this fellow however it didn't last long as he seemed perfectly comfortable to pass his earnings on to the next guy. I just hope he finds the happiness he's searching for as he flows with the retail herd.
GYSC,
Too bad I can't offer a "vehicle time per capita" chart! You'd be pulling up the average!
G.H.,
"The most striking comment he made, after describing how he and his wife were "waiting" for their "investments" to return to where they were before, was that in his view people were growing tired of all the doom and gloom and just wanted to spend again."
Fascinating. I wonder why that mindset doesn't work elsewhere.
My unemployed girlfriend is certainly growing tired of all the doom and gloom and just wants a full time job again. She also wants cheap gasoline. Yet neither job nor cheap gasoline appears no matter how tired she gets. Go figure.
I'm tired of corruption, fraud, and unintended consequences. I've had no luck wishing them away though.
I also wonder if the Japanese are tired of all the doom and gloom yet. They've had an additional decade so far but as we know they can tend towards striving for excellence. I would point out that we both drive Toyotas and I'm using a Sony Playstation and Sony TV to post this. Sigh.
I would point out that we both drive Toyotas...
I helped my dad buy the Avalon. Just off the carrier with 6 miles on the odometer. He had narrowed his choice down to it or a new Chevrolet Impala.
I bought the Avalon from him 15 months ago. I've owned many used Chevrolets and from experience I can say with certainty that I never would have bought the Chevy Impala from him with 107K no matter how well cared for it was.
The Avalon has 118K today and it still has much of the look and feel of the car nearly new. I've never, ever come close to buying a used car quite like it. And the highest mileage car I've bought in the past is 68K.
I expect to own and drive this car for a long, long time (fingers crossed). It was built in KY ;-)
http://clicks.profollow.com/y/ct/?l=DGVY_&m=JP_w3p023gFxft&b=ocCSdUzyIR7_JvL8Nth5Bg
Just think the only true ghost town we have is Detroit.
Forgive my ignorance, but what's "vehicle miles per capita"? I can see that they take the total miles driven and divide by something, but by what? Do they mean per resident of the USA, per adult resident, per person with a driving licence.....?
G.H.,
My 1996 Camry has just 80,000 miles on it. Other than some bumper scuffs the car still feels new to me. What impresses me most is actually the (fake?) leather steering wheel and seats. There's no wear at all. It could all go right into a new Camry and very few would notice.
Collector vehicle plates
Vehicle requirements
To use collector plates, vehicles must be:
* More than 30 years old.
* Capable of operating on the highway.
* Owned and operated as collector vehicles.
14 years to go! Hahaha! :)
Oops. I meant 16 years to go. I can do it though. I think. :)
Anonymous,
It's amazing isn't it? How can anyone be bullish on China after seeing that?
dearieme,
I've used the population as a whole to determine vehicle miles per capita.
That means a family of three (two adults and one child) would on average be driving about 30,000 miles per year.
Good frickin' grief.
That means a family of three (two adults and one child) would on average be driving about 30,000 miles per year.
Need more ghost towns :)
Earth, circumference
The earth has a circumference of approximately 24,900 miles.
We are SO wasteful!
Anonymous,
Need more ghost towns :)
Need more moons!
Distance to the Moon
The average distance from the centre of the Earth to the center of the Moon is 384,403 km (238,857 miles).
238,857 miles is nothing when compared to how much we collectively drive as a society. That's what an average American family of three drives in just 8 years. Go figure.
Heck, collectively we drove roughly 3 trillion miles in the last year. That's half a light-year!
Light-year
about 5,878,625,373,183.608 miles (about 6 trillion miles)
I bet we could cut back slightly if pressed. Just a hunch.
Fascinating.
The Top 10 Most Fascinating Urinals
"In fact, no other urinal in the world or even space can compete with the efforts and loss of life that went into [this fixture's] eventual permanence at the South Pole. What it may lack in beauty it more that makes up for in dignity."
Indeed, the Internet is an extraordinary place.
G.H.,
From your link...
The Urinals of The Felix
In these closeups you can see the brightly lit-up cityscape that unfolds below.
Um, if one can see the brightly lit-up cityscape that unfolds below what's to stop the brightly lit-up cityscape from seeing you?
Two tools of the modern era immediately come to mind.
Telescope
Camera
Just trying to do my part to once again point out an unintended consequence.
I don't know Mark, it was my feeling upon first seeing that that in fact what the designers were trying to accomplish was to give the patrons a sense of self-fulfilling arrogance. As if they were reaching out to those in that country who were well-to-do enough to patronize that establishment and offering them the opportunity to look down upon the "little people" in a truly American kind of way (piss on 'em). Sort of a Wall-Street-Wannabe's place to piss.
That's just the way it struck me anyway.
What's even more stunning is the previous version that simply had the man standing in front of the glass peeing. At least the urinals provide a little protection for the patrons embarrassment. lol
G.H.,
...give the patrons a sense of self-fulfilling arrogance....
Perhaps you are right.
In that case, perhaps the patrons would prefer to have those below taking pictures of them! Heck, why stop there? Picture statues created in their likeness.
Behold The Great Peeing God! Hahaha! :)
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