>I'd never underestimate the chief honchos bein quite well versed in one-upping our standard bizness droids, while playin dumb. Natch.

::bitter chuckle:: That's a safe bet. Yer typical biznessdroid is outsmarted by rabbits, fleas, and (especially) cockroaches.

As for the web site, try [link|http://www.irna.com/index_old.shtml|http://www.irna.com/index_old.shtml] -- a *gasp* *shudder* mostly-HTML version of the above, without the flash. One rather suspects that not all the people IRNA tries to reach have all the latest goodies.

>Last time vs est. annual usage IIRC: we had 23 years left. That's a bit short of aleph-null, no?

Well, considering that we've had roughly 25 years of oil left since about 1950... of course, the entire planet can't be made of the stuff, and even if it was, that is a finite supply. And, overall, if we're gonna use the stuff up, might as well use up other people's first. If whether or not to buy a Ford Excessive was the only question, not much objection here to $5 gas; I can figure ways to get by, maybe even run the '74 Ford pickup with 390CID on alternate weekends. But at the moment, that's a trivial byproduct. Inexpensive oil lets us keep lots of games going -- fresh vegetables in Michigan winter comes to mind.

It occasionally burns me to see trivialities blown out of proportion when it isn't me doing it ;-) Our economy is founded on cheap power [word chosen -- I hate the mealymouthism "energy"] and as it stands, oil is where it's at. 7000-lb "SUVs" are the economic equivalent of friction in that scenario -- try to minimize where possible, but you ain't gettin' rid of it. In just the same way, the right wing was able to successfully demonize assistance to poor people by waving "welfare Cadillacs" and similar in everyone's face. Don't fall for the same tactic; better yet, don't promote it.