THE BRIGHT SIDE
The obtrusively fraudulent world of automotive repairs and maintenance.
Take your car in and have the oil changed. Retail high quality 100% synthetic, like Amsoil or Mobil 1 costs about ten to fourteen dollars a quart. Cheap motor oil available in bulk (not synthetic) sells to shops for about a dollar a quart or less. You need eight quarts or so. Average cost of local oil change is $70-$90
Go ahead, buy a gallon or five-gallon beaker and fill it up at any local station. Oh, it better be red however, or the station people will call the police. Can’t fill up a see-through glass or plastic container. That’s illegal. Safety hazard. That ten percent ethanol you buy in most cases. More than ten percent. That gas you see that says no ethanol. Not. This has been going on for over a hundred years.
In the pre-WWII days gas was pumped at all stations into glass bulbs rising up in the air and metered by marks. Drivers came in and pumped the gas up into the glass containers they could see and measure. Once satisfied that the amount was correct, they then put the nozzle in the filler and gravity poured the gas into the tank. That ornate, and beautiful system was designed because of the kind of cheating that’s going on today.
That part the mechanical shop is charging you for, say an alternator at eight hundred dollars, for the part alone, but the cost to that shop is about two-twenty-five. And so on. The labor is extra. Most shops charge over a hundred dollars an hour for labor, yet the person working on your car is usually not a high school graduate.
Change your own oil, and you’ll know what you get. Buy regular gas only, no matter what the tags put on your car by the manufacturer say about premium. They are paid to put those tags on. Forget buying the parts from eBay, or any of that. Most shops won’t work on a car if you bring in the parts, for obvious reasons. Many tire shops now will only sell and install new tires on your vehicle if you guy all four (for safety!). Forget about them, that’s a scam. Find another shop or order your tires online and get them installed. The only things that are going to truly save the public are electric vehicles and self-driving automobiles and trucks. But the industry will fight those solutions to the bitter end.
This is only a test.
On Wednesday, October 4, a test is planned of the entire nation’s Emergency Alert system, a tryout to ensure everything is working correctly in the event of a big, national disaster or attack. On Wednesday, October 4, at 2:20 p.m. ET, every TV, radio, and cellphone in the United States should blare out the distinctive, jarring electronic warning tone of an emergency alert, accompanied by a notice along these lines: “This is a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System, issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, covering the United States from 14:20 to 14:50 hours ET.
This is only a test. No action is required by the public.” Emergency management coordinators need to make sure the national alert system is still an effective way to warn Americans about emergencies, natural catastrophes, attacks, and accidents at the national level. The message will be heard and seen pretty much everywhere. It’s being conducted with the participation of radio and television broadcasters, cable systems, satellite radio and television providers and wire line video providers. The test is scheduled to last approximately one minute. It will only be broadcast once, and there will be no repeats.
