A gas station in Los Angeles on March 10. Mike Blake/Reuters

Life at $4 a gallon

	By Claire Brown

Average U.S. gasoline prices hit $3.98 per gallon on Tuesday, according to AAA, on the cusp of a level that was last hit when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

The last month has seen the second-largest gas price spike in three decades, with average prices climbing more than 30 percent since the war in Iran effectively shuttered the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that conveys up to a fifth of the world’s oil.

Though there’s no hard and fast rule that dictates exactly what choices consumers make at $4, $5, and $6 per gallon, higher gas prices are already stressing household budgets. At $4 per gallon, more than half of Americans said they’d change their driving behavior, according to a 2022 survey by AAA. More recent data has also shown that Americans are delaying some forms of spending.

The energy shock has hit Asia hardest: The Philippines declared a state of emergency on Tuesday, and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said grounding planes because of a jet fuel shortage was a “distinct possibility.” South Korea is urging citizens to ride bicycles instead of driving.

Transportation, of course, is the single-largest source of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, and a big contributor globally. Here’s what we know about how a long period of high gas prices could change how willing people are to drive gas-powered vehicles, both here and abroad.

Driving less, window-shopping

Already, Americans are looking for ways to cut back. In New Orleans, drivers are lining up at gas stations with the best prices. Michele Tafoya, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota, encouraged people to take “one less trip to Starbucks.” The state of Georgia has implemented a fuel tax holiday, waiving a 33-cent-per-gallon tax.

When gas prices spike, drivers tend to respond by cutting out unnecessary trips, by car-pooling and using public transportation, according to AAA. Spending on discretionary expenses like plane tickets and restaurant meals has fallen, too, as transportation costs eat up a bigger share of household budgets.

Yet while plenty of people who own electric vehicles have been boasting about their fuel savings on social media over the last few weeks, gas prices would have to stay high for a much longer period of time to trigger a broader shift away from gas-powered vehicles, according to Stephanie Valdez Streaty, research and development director at Cox Automotive, a research firm.

Still, the war in Iran appears to have driven a modest uptick in E.V. curiosity among U.S. drivers, according to the car shopping site Edmunds. If high prices persist, more people may feel the urge to hop off what Jessica Caldwell, the head of insights at Edmunds, called the “gas price roller coaster.”

New E.V.s in the U.S. are still more expensive than gas-powered cars, but the gap is closing for used vehicles. In February, the average listing price for a used E.V. was $34,821, about $1,300 more than a gas-powered car, Valdez Streaty said.

Hundreds of thousands more used E.V.s could enter the market this year as leases expire, Valdez Streaty said. “Consumers are going to have a lot of good options at a lower price point,” she said.

The global E.V. tipping point

If you’re curious about buying whether the economics of buying an E.V. are in your favor, The Times has a calculator that can help. The math looks very different abroad, where gas price shocks have been more intense and E.V.s are often far more affordable than in the U.S.

The scales could tip fastest in countries with access to inexpensive Chinese E.V.s, like Brazil, parts of Asia and soon, Canada, wrote David Brown, the director of energy transition research at Wood McKenzie.

In Vietnam, for example, gas prices have risen by around 30 percent since the start of the conflict. But the increase coincides with a rapid increase in the share of electric cars sold each year as government incentives meet affordable options from local manufacturers.

In December, the Vietnamese E.V. maker VinFast broke records when it reported the highest monthly sales volume ever recorded by any automaker in the country. Its best-selling car last year, the VF 3, hit the market in 2024 at just under $13,000.

VinFast has begun offering discounts of 3 to 5 percent to people switching from gas-powered cars and scooters, Reuters reported.

The post Climate: Life at $4 a gallon DO WE NEED GASOLINE??? www.pausetheworldforpeace.org appeared first on Good News!.

by: James Felton

People in the United Kingdom are being urged to place bowls of salt in their windows this winter, in an attempt to prevent damp conditions and mold. But is that really good advice?

When water vapor in your home or vehicle hits a cold surface, such as your windows, it changes back into a liquid state, creating condensation.

“Condensation is not a matter of one particular temperature but of a difference between two temperatures: the air temperature and the dewpoint temperature,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) explains. “The dew point is the temperature at which dew can form – it is the point at which air becomes saturated and can not hold any more water vapor. Any additional cooling causes water vapor to condense.”

You can do all sorts to deal with condensation, which can lead to problems like damp and mold, and can damage your window frames. In a car, you can blast the windows with air to prevent condensation, replace the air with less humid air from outside, and use the air conditioning.

“The most efficient way to remove moisture from the air is to use the vehicle’s air conditioning system,” Toyota explains. “This system draws air from the cabin through an evaporator, which causes moisture in the air to condensate in a controlled way and drain out of the vehicle.”

In your home, condensation buildup can be a little trickier to deal with, but the principles are the same.

One way that has been suggested to deal with condensation is to place a bowl of salt near your window during the colder months.

“Salt has the ability to naturally absorb moisture from the air and essentially dries it out so that when it does come in contact with the glass, there are less droplets of condensation that will form,” Andy Ellis, home and garden expert at Posh.co.uk said in a statement seen by the Mirror.

“It’s a really easy trick that requires no effort at all. Simply fill a shallow bowl or a small jar with some salt – this can be table salt or rock salt. The amount you use will vary depending on the size of the window you’re placing it next to. Of course, generally speaking, the larger the window the more salt you’ll need, though usually one small bowl should be fine.”

So should you start doing this? It is true that salt can remove moisture from the air.

“A particular example of hygroscopic behavior is deliquescence which is exhibited by many water-soluble solids, including inorganic salts (e.g., calcium chloride),” chemical engineer John Francis Richardson explained on Thermopedia.

“At a given temperature, the vapor pressure of a saturated salt solution will be lower than that of pure water and, if it is less than the partial pressure in the atmosphere, moisture will be transferred to the surface of the solids, part of which will dissolve to form a saturated solution. When all the solids have dissolved, the process will continue until the partial pressure of the now unsaturated solution equals that in the atmosphere. In some cases, the formation of a hydrate or higher hydrate of the salt may precede the formation of a liquid phase. Liquids (e.g., sulfuric acid) may also be deliquescent.”

However, it is unclear that this will have much of an effect, especially compared to other methods of preventing condensation build up. This is because salt only begins to absorb water vapor at relatively high humidity.

“At up to 74 percent relative humidity and 20°C [68°F], salt does not absorb any appreciable quantities of water vapor,” the German Transport Information Service explains. “The critical water content of sodium chloride (NaCl) is 0.5 percent at 74 percent relative humidity, which is the flow moisture point at which salt begins readily to absorb water vapor, and increases such that, at 75 percent relative humidity, the salt dissolves.”

Houses in the UK are generally less humid than this, tending to be between 30 and 60 percent humidity, though especially humid houses can go above 70 percent. Different areas of the house can have different humidity levels (think bathrooms or kitchens) so salt may help a little with the situation.

However, to really deal with the problem, like in your vehicle, ventilation is key. In houses, you can use vents often built into windows, or simply open them a crack to deal with the moisture. As well as letting the more humid air out, airflow helps to prevent water vapor from building up on the cold surface, preventing you from needing to put out little bowls of salt by the windows every morning, like some offering to the god of high blood pressure.

All “explainer” articles are confirmed by fact checkers to be correct at time of publishing. Text, images, and links may be edited, removed, or added to at a later date to keep information current.  

The post Why Are People Being Asked To Put Bowls Of Salt In Their Windows This Winter? appeared first on Good News!.

Please join us tomorrow:

Flag Day Opening Reception: Wednesday, June 14, 6-9pm
Featuring diverse cultural clothing demonstrations.

Chashama at 485 Madison Ave (South)
New York, NY
(Between 52nd and 51st)
Space provided by Jack Resnick & Sons

Nearest Trains: 6, E, M

Exhibit: June 14 – July 15, 2017
Open Hours: Monday – Thursday*, 12 – 8pm
(* Except for Monday, July 3rd and Tuesday, July 4th)
Visible through storefront window 24/7.

If you can’t make it tomorrow consider the following:

Independence Day Diversity Celebration: Wednesday, July 5, 6-9pm
Featuring diverse food experiences.

E Pluribus Closing Reception: Thursday, July 13, 6-9pm
Featuring a discussion of sacred cultural symbology.

Thank you Chashama for this opportunity.

The post Celebrate FLAG DAY, How? appeared first on Good News!.

Seat belt broken?

I can fix that! (Is that a neck brace you have on?)

New TV too big for the old cabinet?

I can fix that!

No bottle opener?

I can fix that!

Room too dark using compact fluorescent?

I can fix that!

Electrical problem?

I can fix that!

Car stereo stolen?

I can fix that!

Bookshelf cracking under the weight?

I can fix that!

No ice chest?

I can fix that!

Can’t read the ATM screen?

I can fix that!

Car imported from the wrong country?

I can fix that!

Satellite signal goes out when it rains?

I can fix that!

Electric stove broken & can’t heat coffee?

I fixed that

Wiper motor burned out?

I can fix that!

What the HECK!!!

Display rack falling over?

I can fix that!

Car can’t be ordered with the ‘Wood Trim’ option?

I can fix that!

Exhaust pipe dragging?

I can fix that!

Gotta feed the baby AND do the laundry?

I can fix that!

Cables falling behind the desk?

(Now this is a Good One!)

I can fix that!

No skate park in town?

I can fix that!

And – last but not least – – – –

Out of diapers? I can fix that!

The post I’m a Man. I can fix that! appeared first on Good News!.