see?

i posted earlier (i'll find the post later. or maybe not.) that people would start buying hybrids when it became a cost effective alternative to pure gasoline vehicles. most people just don't care about arguments like "we're funding terrorists," or "we're ruining the environment." to political blog / current events junkies who surround themselves with like people, this apathy might seem foreign. but most people - yes, even educated people - don't really care about anything that doesn't hit them right in the face. and even then, they remain skeptical. but it appears that "shit, gas is fucking expensive!" is enough to light a fire under their butts. it's too bad that it took two hurricanes to wake people up. but hey, that's the way it goes.

there is a link on the bottom about ford whining that the japanese are monopolizing hybrid technology. (from a brief skimming over that article, it appears that the japanese license out their patented inventions to ford.) cry me a river. that's business. and patent law. if you snooze you lose. it's like if microsoft were to complain about apple's ipod/itunes patents. yawn. the good news is: patents don't last forever. the bad news is: they last a couple of decades. but the other good news is: if you put a bunch of smarty pants scientists together, they can think up their own technology, and then you can own the rights to whatever they come up. so start crackin'.