Apparently our rodent friend has struck again.  Despite our
precautions, the fellow managed to get up on the dining room table
and unlawfully appropriate a banana.  I found the banana sticking
out from underneath the dishwasher.  It obviously was trying to pull
the thing into it's hiding place and enjoy.  Since it would not fit
through the opening, the fellow consumed half of it and left the
rest.  Looks like I will be pulling out the dishwasher and plugging
holes in the sub-floor with steel wool as well as performing some of
the inevitable repair work when more damage is found. *sigh*

To continue on the theme from the last post, that the automobile
will, at some point, be relegated to the compost heap of history.
Interestingly there is evidence indicating that the "car-first"
transportation paradigm was foisted upon us in a surreptitious
manner by corporate power interests (duh).  Seemingly, the PTB has
managed to expunge (or at least marginalize) much of the history
underlying the introduction of the automobile culture.

"Hidden History: Lost Cycleway:"

https://tinyurl.com/y7ohtdbm

If the photograph is authentic, then this would be significant
testament to the fact that the public acted on the need for a
cycleway (even in those days) and would certainly be doable today.
The one in the photo is quite impressive.  

I live in a rural remote area where a bicycle is not really a viable
option for shopping since there nearest shopping is 30 minutes
distance by car. There is, however, a bus stop ~ 3 miles distance.
Easily doable either on foot or with a folding bicycle which I could
take with me.  From that point, I could take public transport to the
nearest city (about an hour drive by car) or connect to other public
transport to the San Francisco Bay area.  Perhaps with a folding
bicycle and some careful planning it would be doable if
circumstances require.  In the mean time, its either the Prius or
the Hyundai.  If I had my way, I would do without a car if I could,
but that is the trade off living out in the country.  Right now,
keeping things as simple as possible is the way to go, which is why
I wish there were more cars around like the Citroen CV2...a picture
of simplicity.

Although most have written these vehicles off as relics of hard
times of the past, I suspect these simpler automotive technologies
may witness a resurgence in the coming decades.  As the availability
of cheap fossil fuels continues to decline, there is going to be a
need for more economical vehicles not only to drive and maintain,
but also to produce.  Here is another example of a very cheap East
German vehicle:

https://tinyurl.com/jasc4ga

Not only air cooled, but also it has a two stroke engine.  Makes for
a pretty smokey tail pipe, but it is unparalleled in simplicity.

I'm not sure the future of the much vaunted electric car is as
rosy as everyone predicts.  The electric grid in most countries is
not prepared for an EV boom.  Currently, battery technology is still
in it's infancy, in addition ~ 40% of the cost of an electric
vehicle is the batteries.  Without substantial subsidies, the cost
of an EV is still quite high.  No doubt, there are many advantages
to an EV and perhaps the cost of the batteries may come down in the
future, but I am not holding my breath.  As far as an eco-footprint
is concerned, the train, bus, bicycle or walking are still much
better than the automobile (EV or otherwise).  Another factor to
consider is the cost of asphalt which highly dependent upon
petroleum.  Taking a quick look at the St. Louis Fed Producer Price
Index shows the trend line for asphalt.  One can see where it is
headed and that is just from 2004.  Roads are expensive:

https://tinyurl.com/ychabob6

A bit grainy, but you get the idea.  Shifting the topic Btw, the
original image I downloaded from the St. Louis Fed was 56K, after
processing it with Imagemagick and dithering, the image size was
reduced to a paltry 8K.  The Chromium browser I use has a nifty
developer's tool that allows one to simulate a slow connection.  In
this case, a dial-up connection at 28.8 Kbps (I like to go with the
worst case scenario).  Content download of the above image took 1.68
seconds at the above simulated dial-up speed.  The unconverted png
image:

https://tinyurl.com/yacnc4yt

It obviously is a much clearer image, but on a slow connection like
GPRS or dialup, it took a whopping 17.52 seconds for content
download.  The dithered image loaded ~ 90% faster!  Although this is
a mere fleeting particle compared to the electrical blackhole of the
internet, but the following article is a real eye opener on the
electrical consumption of the internet:

https://tinyurl.com/yb23xhu8

As the article details, running server farms requires gargantuan 
energy inputs.  But also delivery of that data and rendering or
processing on the client side also requires large energy inputs.  It
makes me wonder how much longer communications companies can
continue to externalize these costs.

But I digress...