Gas Prices Will Continue to Climb

You didn't want to know this:

Despite the demand for passenger cars in China, less than four percent of the country's 1.3 billion people have purchased one.

Source: AP

In the U.S., there are 251 million vehicles for 300 million people. That's about 84% (Source: Wikipedia). That means that if they get to half as many cars per capita as us, their need for gas will be more than 10 times as large. That would be 380 million additional cars, about 1.5 times as many as we have in the U.S. today (and yes, we have the most). Obviously, I just picked a number on the "half as many as us." Oh, yeah: India is just about as big as China (actually projected to pass them sometime 2050ish, I think). They don't have a whole lot of cars yet, either, compared to what they could have...

Amplified Bible for Logos (new), 50% off until July 31st

Logos Bible Study Software now offers the Amplified Bible as a single book download (previously only available in some obscure package, and not part of even the GOLD Scholar's library). Until July 31, it can be had at 50% off by typing AMPLIFIED into the coupon area in the checkout process (i.e., $20 instead of $40).

Book Download: http://www.logos.com/ebooks/details/AMP

More Information: http://blog.logos.com/archives/2008/07/amplified_bible_now_available_for_download.html

As you may know, if you don't have it yet, you can download the Logos ["Libronix"] software (no books) for free, and adding a package can be substantially lower if you qualify for a student discount.

Keep Your Mouth Shut

The best time for you to hold your tongue is the time you feel you must say something or bust.

Josh Billings

Lord, have mercy, and help me learn this one.

And I Thought the CD Was Dead

Ha! I thought everyone was saying the CD was dead, and iPods rule the roost. Now here's an interesting statistic:

People who buy CDs as often or more often than digital music:
Age 18-35: 73%
Age 36-50: 88%
Age 51+: 91%

I don't know about the quality of the survey (the percentages don't add up, for instance, and there weren't that many people polled, nor do I know the process). But the numbers sure are very different from where I thought things were supposed to be heading. It does beg the question: what are the teens buying?

Note: I added up "All CDs," "Most are CDs," and "About half and half" to come up with my number. The survey can be found at http://blogs.zdnet.com/ITFacts/?p=14657 .

Worry Warts

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow.

Certainly an interesting quote, though most people who tend to worry may shrug their shoulders - and keep on worrying. What gets me is who said it. When we worry, we may be concerned how long the car will keep on running, or how we're going to "get it all done," or whether our job will be safe for the foreseeable future - and also many smaller things. The person who originated the quote above would have had reason to worry, yet she is essentially saying, "Don't bother worrying. It's no use." 'Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow' was coined by Corrie Ten Boom.

Most likely, the reason she could say this is because she believed what her sister Betsie told her shortly before she died in Ravensbrück concentration camp: "There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still."

Very Likely

Amazon sent me another offer for diapers one size smaller than what I purchased last. This time, they were trying to sell me size 4 pull-ups, remembering that I bought size 5 pull-ups a while back. As a matter of fact, we just ran out, and realized too late. If they had sent me a reminder to buy size 5s a week ago, they might have sold me...

The likelihood of someone who buys size 5 pull-ups buying size 4 pull-ups is about as high as that same person shopping for

• a trip to the Heard and McDonald Islands,
  
• German chocolate, or
  
• guillotine replicas.
  

In other words, it's completely random, and actually rather unlikely since most families have children no more often than every 9 months, usually less often than that...

In my mind, this is elementary marketing. If you try to sell someone on related products, you need to take into account that some things are bought in sequence. Someone who bought an advanced engineering book won't be interested in "Elementary Principles of Engineering." Someone who bought size 4 diapers may be interested in size 4 and 5. You'd think Amazon would have this down.