***OT - oil*** Just a sidebar, but an expensive one. The Texaco, Pennzoil, Getty Oil fiasco happened at a time of heavily falling oil prices. So the damages awarded far exceeded the value of the disputed property in the end, which added insult to injury!
Texaco in cavalier manner said they'd foot the bill over a hugely expensive takeover default. Hoping there wouldn't be one because everyone knows that Big Oil runs the government of the USA though the impact of them is mellowed a little these days and oil bosses are serious big noters. Saddam is about to find out that Big Oil is still influential. The low oil price is not conducive to Saddam and Iraq exporting oil any time soon.
The Hicksville court probably rightly found breach of contract and were not disposed to sympathy given the arrogant Texaco manner, so damages were full. Then the price of oil fell heavily and Texaco was left to sell Texaco Canada Limited [my old company] and their European interests.
One day somebody is going to realize that the lead in gasoline caused about a 0.25 point IQ loss in people who grew up in the high lead era and there is going to be a class action suit against oil companies which sold lead in gasoline when they knew or should have that they were damaging the public. Any bored lawyers out there? You can make a lot of money and do the public a favour by getting compensation for the neglectful attitude of big oil.
Most of you will think that 0.25 loss in IQ is nothing, after all, you've got a hundred or so. The same as you might think that another hour of talk time isn't much. But wait until your yacht is sinking and you just happen to need that last little increment of ability to send a mayday call to Globalstar Rescue. Or you are pondering whether to sell those Q.com stocks BEFORE the crash and you just needed that little extra increment of thinking to get the RIGHT answer.
If you compare lifetime incomes of those with IQs around 130 and those with incomes around 100 and divide the difference up into 120 pieces [=30 x 4], you'll find those missing IQ points are a LOT of money.
Also think of the difference between a person with IQ 80 and IQ 100 to show the value of an IQ point. Another way to look at it; how much would I have to give you to remove quarter of an IQ point from you? How much for the next one? And the next? The next? Etc. Big Oil valued your IQ points in the $100s rather than the thousands or millions. You'd be stupid before you got much money at their pay rate for IQ points.
The advantage of lead was always dodgy as it polluted your oil, [old timers will remember 'gray paint' deposits in the rocker cover] spark plugs, gooped up the combustion chamber, making your engine knock, thereby negating the benefit of the higher octane number conferred on low octane fuel, it needed lead scavengers which are carcinogenic, your exhausts corroded, mechanics and exhaust workers got damaged, engine efficiency was reduced.
Alternatively, for another class action, 1 nitro pyrene, a very active carcinogen, is produced from diesel engines, [as are other carcinogens] especially when low cetane number fuels which have higher aromatic contents are used. These are cheaper fuels, so cetane numbers are usually as low as can be. A class action suit on diesel emissions against the State authorities who allow air pollution and the oil companies who supply high aromatic diesel fuel should yield a good cash flow for the long suffering citizens of downtown USA.
Zero emission vehicles is a dumb idea. Well, it's a good idea, but too expensive. I met an engineer in California who was going to buy an electric car at great expense. I pointed out that he'd be better off to buy a couple of nice Lexus type vehicles or a better still a small-engined car, then find some young guy in an old heap and offer a swap - one of the new cars for the old banger.
After the young guy realized he'd found a sucker here, the engineer would be able to scrap the old car, keep the other new car and have less air pollution and a lot more convenient motoring than if he'd bought the electric car and the young guy was still cruising around in the bomb. Old cars emit more muck. Though I believe there are some smog control tests in USA which probably ameliorates that problem somewhat. But I bet the limits are reasonably slack as you don't want to ditch perfectly good cars too soon. The young guys would get cheesed off.
Well, that's my pre-earnings rant! Hope some of you find it interesting.
Maurice@cdmacellular.co.nz
[I wonder if there is time for a quick raid on Saddam before Congressional elections are over. Now THAT would get the electorate wagging. Nothing like a few Tomahawks into a couple of Presidential Palaces to get the votes rolling in for All-American Bill C. As long as there weren't any gory photos of dead and injured children, women and obviously innocent men. Things are bit boring in Kosovo for the Nato pilots on standby.
Come to think of it, did Ghaddafi hand over his terrorist crew for crimes against humanity yet. He could get a dose too. Remember Yvonne Fletcher] |
