June 10, 2008

FLASH: OilPANIC UK-style as British government urges citizens not to panic buy at the gas pumps today as oil tank drivers go on strike...


And you know what happens when the government tells people not to panic...

Oh, the lines at the pumps will be interesting to watch. Kind of like the lines outside of Northern Rock locations last year. And the lines at the gas pumps in Phoenix a few years back when they had a pipeline bust.

Anyone feeling 1970's right about now? Got a little Iran problem building too just to make it fun...

Drivers urged not to panic buy fuel

A planned four day strike by 500 oil tanker drivers has been attacked by Downing Street as the Government urged motorists not to panic buy fuel amid fears of petrol shortages.

Talks aimed at resolving the row are due to be held at a secret location under the chairmanship of the conciliation service Acas, but time is running out to break the deadlocked row.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokesman said contingency plans were in hand to minimise disruption using new measures put in place last week. He told reporters: "We believe that this strike is unnecessary and we would want to ensure that nothing was done that inconvenienced the public. But the most responsible thing the public can do is to continue to buy as normal."

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think I'll go out and buy a Pet Rock. Maybe some bell-bottoms and platform shoes.

It's the Seventies Show, starring George W Bush and Ben 'Bubbles' Bernanke.

Anonymous said...


Oh, the lines at the pumps will be interesting to watch. Kind of like the lines outside of Northern Rock locations last year. And the lines at the gas pumps in Phoenix a few years back when they had a pipeline bust.


No, this is what happens when a socialist Obama type government imposes windfall taxes on energy companies, price controls and restrictions on increasing the supply...

Anonymous said...

Q: What happens if a 4 day strike becomes 8 or more days?

Anonymous said...

Shortages come with price controls and government intervention. Bring on the higher prices and people will be forced to conserve and stop driving gas guzzlers. GM was forced to shut down all but one of its SUV assembly plants because of high gas prices. Record numbers of people are carpooling and using mass transit. T Boone Pickens is building a $10B windfarm in Texas. Hybrids are becoming more popular than ever while SUV and truck sales have crashed.

If the socialists like Obama and Clinton get in power, they will artificially lower gas prices and SUVs will be back in style and all of the conservation will go away as people always look for convenience and comfort.

Anonymous said...

Gas lines will ony occur if price controls are implemented. The 1970's lines were from Nixon's attempts to fight inflation with price controls.

In the very short run (days) lines can occur when people panic. Since most people have on average a little over a half a tank, when an event occurs (ex: hurricane) shortages will ensue as people rush to fill their tanks.

Anonymous said...

Wow. They still got unions over in Europe.

Anonymous said...

1970s? I already come with long hair. Time for the bell bottoms and tie-dye shirts. Don't bogart that gas!

In the mean time, keep tanks topped off and live a short distance to work even if that means renting so you can use a bike in a pinch - whether you grow your hair or not.

Anonymous said...

Buh buh but I thought that Europeans were proud of their high price gasoline and diesel. What happened?

Let me guess, you lazy arse socialists are waiting for America to invent some revolutionary alternative energy so you can all get a ride off our backs, as usual. Just like you did with the Internet, Laser, Fiber Optics, Microchips, etc, etc, etc...ad infinitum.

Anonymous said...

No, this is what happens when a socialist Obama type government imposes windfall taxes on energy companies, price controls and restrictions on increasing the supply...

Not only that, the Stimulus Check was a Bush idea that now Obama is trying to copy and expand to the tune of $50 billion. Oh my, Obama is Bush 2, or just Obushma for intimates like Larry Sinclair.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
America to invent some revolutionary alternative energy so you can all get a ride off our backs, as usual. Just like you did with the Internet, Laser

America did not invent fiber optics. Also America apparently did not teach you how to read Wikipedia - they say that fiber optics was invented by French and first used by Irish. Also laser invention has to be shared by Russians.

Drbungis

Anonymous said...

America did not invent fiber optics. Also America apparently did not teach you how to read Wikipedia - they say that fiber optics was invented by French and first used by Irish. Also laser invention has to be shared by Russians.

Oh my, and the lazy a$$ Europeans are still trying to get credit for American inventions. Read this you socialist buffoon:

In 1970, one team of researchers began experimenting with fused silica, a material capable of extreme purity with a high melting point and a low refractive index. Corning Glass researchers Robert Maurer, Donald Keck and Peter Schultz invented fiber optic wire or "Optical Waveguide Fibers" (patent #3,711,262) capable of carrying 65,000 times more information than copper wire, through which information carried by a pattern of light waves could be decoded at a destination even a thousand miles away. The team had solved the problems presented by Dr. Kao.

In 1975, the United States Government decided to link the computers in the NORAD headquarters at Cheyenne Mountain using fiber optics to reduce interference.

In 1977, the first optical telephone communication system was installed about 1.5 miles under downtown Chicago, and each optical fiber carried the equivalent of 672 voice channels.

Today more than 80 percent of the world's long-distance traffic is carried over optical fiber cables, 25 million kilometers of the cable Maurer, Keck and Schultz designed has been installed world wide.



See that patent number up there? Show us your European patent for fiber optics. What what the cat caught your tongue?

Now go sit in a cafe to pose as intellectual while badmouthing Americans, medieval socialist. We'll be here in the US, working on the next technological revolution so you guys can get a ride off our backs, as usual.

Anonymous said...

Wiki shows UK gas prices at 8.56
a gallon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_usage_and_pricing

Keith, how are people taking it over there?

Anonymous said...

"Guiding of light by refraction, the principle that makes fiber optics possible, was first demonstrated by Daniel Colladon and Jacques Babinet in Paris in the 1840s, with Irish inventor John Tyndall offering public displays using water-fountains ten years later"

apparently you think that Paris is in the US which shows the wonders of your (lack of) education

And what about laser - is Einstein who wrote "Zur Quantentheorie der Strahlung" which is the basis for laser also American?
What about Nobel prize for lasers which went to Townes, Basov, and Prokhorov in 1964? Are Basov and Prokhorov also Americans?

Please research the subject before talking about things you have no idea about. And no, I am neither liberal nor socialist. In fact, I am pretty right-wing Ron Paul supporter, and, by the way, a scientist in exact sciences. I just do not like when people babble about subjects they have no idea about.

Dr. Bungis

Anonymous said...

"We'll be here in the US, working on the next technological revolution so you guys can get a ride off our backs, as usual."

We need more R&D in America for the next economic cycle. Right now, corporate America is pushing R&D overseas at a rapid pace. And financial services isn't really an industry, simply a money shuffler. What that'll do is effectively turn Europe in a petting zoo for wealthy tourists (from east Asia) and the US, a welfare state for displaced workers who can't find work in the minerals industries.

Anonymous said...

Ok folks, here's a radical thought... the most culturally sophisticated place in North America is Montreal.

Now, here's the catch, salaries are 3/4 of that of any comparable US job market like Chicago, Houston, or Boston.

So, what's the solution? Work in Chicago but party, once a month in Mtl.