Review: The Flash (2015)

OMG: Ep 5 has The Kurgan! Hah! I watched Earth2 despite it mostly sucking because it has The Kurgan. The Kurgan was the villain in Highlander (the only movie because there were no sequels because "there can be only ONE"). I read his bio on IMDB. I'm impressed that he's totally working class and finds work where he can. I totally respect that. Taking jobs to keep working and look after your family is a very respectable approach. In Unseeen Academicals the night kitchen cook says "careers are for people who can't hold down jobs". And you do, really, have to respect that.

Also, its new years eve and there's been some adult beverages and I've been watching episode of The Flash. Sorry.

International Drunk Driving Day (Or Stay Home)

It is New Years Eve, aka "International Drunk Driving Day". Tomorrow is international vomiting day. And the Rose Parade.

It was crystal clear at dawn, with frost on the ground, but promising a bright sunshiney day. The visibility was fantastic, showing the stark and brilliant snowfields both on the Sierra Buttes, above Downieville, and the snow capped Mount Lassen far to my North, as well as the snowy mountains north of Clearlake, sometimes called the Escalante, or staircase. It was really a bit cold for a down vest over a fleece, and I did wish I had sleeves for it today. I did my walk listening to "Snuff" by Terry Pratchett, staring at the brilliant view and breathing the frozen and very dry air, knowing this is what the Ice Age is like, and came back resolved to do some digital driving with my Xbox. When you wreck in a game, you aren't arrested. And there's a button to press to get back the last 10 seconds of terrible mistake you just made. Simulators are wonderful teaching tools for proper driving skills in the real world. A pity my Brother does not feel the same.

The TVR, which I just drove in the Forza 3 Xbox 360 Game has some interesting flaws. The biggest flaw is it is too fast. It would genuinely be improved by slowing the hell down with a much smaller engine and race in a slower class rather than the GP it is designed for. Its a beautiful car. But it has a big engine which gets a surge of power, late, making it something that throws you into a ditch on many corners. Managing the power, and timing the boost, is really hard to do. Its around 2400 pounds, but has 380 HP and 350 lb-ft of torque, which is enough to break the tires loose. This is a bad combination in a front engine rear wheel drive car. I do recommend, when driving arcade simulators like this, to use the cockpit view since that allows you to react like you would in a real car and drastically improves you reaction times to loose tires and braking for corners properly, because you can judge your speed and the distance.

I have noticed, living as I do in the mountains, that torque is your friend. Turbos have to be kept revved high to stabilize the boost pressure and if you spin up and down with lots of corners you boost will try to break your tires free around the apex, and then the car will try to kill you. Most people consider that a bad thing. I think Dad was really smart not to get a turbo version of his car. In most cases that turbo will kill you here.

My alcohol of choice this holiday is a mix of stout, hard cider (carbonated), and Zinfandel. Some of each, I think. No liquor, no scotch. Scotch sneaks up on me, and its a little too easy to drink too much, and regret it later. I won't be driving anywhere, except on the simulator, so that's just fine. And I've got cheesy poofs.

Not that kind. These are fancy puff pastry you bake in the oven. Healthier than pizza, that is certain. It is amazing how we are having brilliant sunny days yet as warm as the sun feels, the shady side of you is so COLD it actually hurts. I'm telling you, you can feel the warning of the coming ice age this time of year.

Anyway. Yeah. Bring it.

Scifi Technology For the Next Decade

Despite my grouchy doominess, there are technologies that can bring a brighter future, once the govt gets out of the way.






Billiard-ball nuclear reactor. A few grams of uranium wrapped in carbon fiber the size and shape of a billiard ball. Invented at MIT by a team of Chinese and American scientists. Physically impossible to melt down because the uranium can't get close enough together to overheat and burn through the carbon fiber. Handling is automated by robots. Construction time for reactors is seven years instead of ten-plus for standard reactor designs. Expect these everywhere in the world. Oh, and the largest pile of uranium ore? It's under Tennessee.
Fracking is a thing. Thanks to fracking, the USA is the largest oil exporting nation again. We export more than the USSR. Side effect of fracking is the release of natural gas along with oil and tar droplets. The gas can't really be exported, so that's going to end up a major fuel for domestic use for the next 40 years or so. Fracking is going to last around 40 years, rough estimate. Possibly longer, but probably about that long. Cleanup of the benzene will probably take longer. To be fair, fracking liquids generally go quite a bit deeper than drinking water wells. But some deposits are closer to the surface, and it IS possible to snag the benzene from your own well with carbon filters.

Silica fiber (SiF) is like carbon fiber (CF), but costs a tiny fraction as much to make, which is most of the cost of carbon fiber parts. Silica fiber can be made in a kitchen or garage with common household chemicals you can buy at home depot. No kidding. I don't have the exact process temps and but I have a pretty good idea you start with sand, dissolve it with Drano (NaOH) and alcohol (not sure which one), then add tri sodium phosphate for elasticity and flexibility, then balance the pH with muriatic acid (HCl). Then you draw the threat out of the gelatin that results. 

The gelatin is the same stuff you make aerogels from, one of the lightest and best insulators known, and the thread is so strong you can't cut it with shears. It damages steel blades. You have to cut it with a torch. Silica fiber can be woven or knitted for greater strength and the fabric can be used for bulletproof vests, or more importantly, car parts. Car parts that weigh like carbon fiber but doesn't shatter on impact and resists the cracking problem so it actually lasts properly. Silica fiber would revolutionize manufacturing since you don't need steel or aluminum to make it, avoiding the energy costs of those heavy materials. No mining required. You start with sand. And drop vehicle weights by half, so they need half as much engine to go just as fast, or go twice as fast with the same engine. This is a big deal.

3D printing doesn't have to be limited to ABS plastic. ABS is brittle. Attempts have been made to add slivers of carbon fiber to the plastic-resin which is heated by a 3D printer, however the CF damages the nozzle because it is sharp. The tip can also get plugged, ruining the part and the printer nozzle. A better solution is needed, perhaps a printer that weaves spools of silica fiber and deposits epoxy as it goes. That gets around the need for vacuum molds, the other big cost of CF construction. Right now, 3D printers are toys, but every iteration gets better. Eventually they'll get reliable enough to matter in industrial applications. And when that happens they change our world. We won't need China anymore. We can make it here instead. And owning one that's being run by a paid expert would be income generating. A proper business investment with dividends.

Most 3D printers use a heated nozzle. This is not the only way. It is possible to 3D print with metal powder and a laser to melt the metal in place. This is best done in an Argon chamber with a vacuum pump, to avoid oxidation contamination and to recapture the gas. Argon isn't expensive, at $25/cylinder, and is recaptured in a simple process from super-cooling air, however you don't want to waste it. A laser sintered part won't be strong, not at first. Sintering doesn't develop the big metal crystals that are strong in their interlacing. To get those you need to heat treat the part, generally after machining the part to size. 3D printing isn't accurate enough to avoid machining. It might be necessary to heat treat twice, once to make big enough crystals to take the stress of machining, and final for full strength. But the upside there is you can treat in batches, and its simple technology. So imagine you've got an old car part that's broken. You can either weld it together to get a map of the broken part, then correct it back to a working spec and recreate the part with laser sintering, machining and heat treat into proper hardness, or you can repair, machine, and heat treat. A laser sintering 3D printer should be in every modern machine shop, much like a CNC able to do up to engine blocks in size. Put a big V8 or V10 in there to fix it up after adding metal to worn areas via welding or laser sintering. Make new pistons. Replace broken rods. No more centralized auto industry in Detroit's ruins. 

RVs and trailers can be made much lighter and stronger with SiF. This reduces the size of the engine needed, improving fuel economy and reducing costs to the point they are cheaper than an apartment, which also justifies more parks for these vehicles and running those parks properly for working couples in careers that justify more mobility. Mobility frees you from a bad boss. Bosses have forgotten how to be decent, probably some kind of human nature flaw. We can't fix people, but we don't have to stand still for abuse. Mobility enabled by RVs and Trailers is justified with the modern economy. Running a good trailer park will be a proper career. 

Arsenic-Selenium (AsSe) based solar cells are 44% efficient, compared to around 18% with the best Osmium based panels from China. Naturally, this upsets China, so try and find references to this compound on the internet. I know it exists. I have read white papers on it. Most homes are getting cheap Chinese panels with 12-16% efficiency, and no cooling loop to protect them from heat-degradation. The AsSe panels DO need a cooling loop, sometimes called a hybrid panel, since the waste heat is captured and used to preheat cold water going to your house water heater, reducing heating costs. The raw materials for AsSe are in the San Joaquin River, as runoff from the Sierras and farming waste water from the San Joaquin Valley. And you clean up the environment as you pull the ions out of the water. Being over twice as efficient, you only need half as many panels... or you get twice as much power to use. But wait! There's more.

Georgia Tech science labs discovered that you can use quantum well design to make solar panels absorb more energy if you physically make them "taller" or "spiky". Spiky panels absorb the same photon up to 4 times, increasing efficiency drastically in the same physical area. Again, you need cooling for this to work properly and not overheat, but combine spiky with AsSe and a cooling loop and you SHOULD be able to power a whole house on the standard set of roof panels, dumping the excess energy into a battery bank, and the excess from that into a water heater (heat sink). You'd be looking at 75% efficiency. And you could also be charging up an electric car or motorcycle/bike/scooter. Without needing connection to the grid, which is falling apart.

There is no particular reason you couldn't use a pellet stove to heat a trailer, particularly if you run it off a battery bank. They do require some electricity. Excess heat would heat the hot water for bathing and dishes. You still need to buy pellets, but those are cheap and sold at hardware and grocery stores. And they're automated, so long as you fill the hopper. Less work than a big wood stove, and much lighter weight.

Refrigerators work by using a compressor to remove heat from the box and shoving it outside the box. Special kinds of refrigerators run their propane supply through the fridge to absorb the heat, making the compressor more efficient. Since most people are opening the fridge to cook, this makes both items more effective. Now imagine shoving that fridge heat into your hot water heater, or into the heating system rather than dumping it into the kitchen air. Putting heat into the right places is important. A really brilliant trailer/RV would do this with heat sinks and good insulation to take advantage of ambient heat for max comfort in the trailer. This whole idea needs more study.

The basic rounded shape of an Airstream is iconic, but is also very efficient and strong. The curves are strong yet flex. Imagine replacing the aluminum with SiF in the same shape, and then covering the SiF with fake wood trim decals and window covers/awnings so you can secure it while working or travelling. The upside is SiF will also allow for cheaper and more efficient aerogel insulation and removing aluminum from the skin will reduce heat transfer. 

Tar is being mined, so asphalt is getting expensive. Eventually only rich communities will have asphalt roads. Most will switch to cast concrete, using natural gas to make the concrete. This is an okay road surface, though bumpy and brittle. Concrete breaks under the pounding of heavy semi trailers with 100 PSI tires. It has to be replaced every 4-6 years. A modern car will need more suspension travel to deal with post-asphalt roads, and all wheel drive to avoid getting stuck. Non-essential roads in poor areas will revert to gravel and dirt roads. Crossing those will get expensive and dusty. Variable ride-height suspension will become important in both vehicles and trailers. Keep that in mind. We have already had the most pavement we will ever have. That's a fact of economics, until such time as a self-maintaining pavement nanite can be created which won't overrun the earth and merely sticks to road surfaces, perhaps fed with a sprayer from a water truck? Something like that. Imagine a really strong and durable mold that binds rocks together. We don't have that yet, but in 40 years? Who knows. Getting that stuff on your car paint might become a maintenance hassle. The Law of Unintended Consequences is not a strongly worded suggestion. 

Eventually this "global warming" fad will die. Americans already think its hooey. And politicians which support it are getting abused over their religion. Eventually climate will shift again, as the El Nino provides flooding, such as we're seeing in the Midwest this week. We might get flooding here. I'm getting snow every three days, despite it being "clear" in the daytime. We already passed the warm-maximum over 4000 years ago, and its been generally cooling ever since. The ice is going to come back. That means the glaciers will start growing again, and the ice sheet will gradually descent from the northern Rocky mountains in Canada and flow down into Canada and into the Great Lakes, which should probably experience more summer ice again. And that also means ice on the shores in Maine and possibly Cape Cod and Long Island. That means icebergs down to Scotland and Ireland. That means ice in the Baltic much later in the year. The ice is going to come back, as it does. We're pretty well due for that. Whether this happens in 40 years or 4000 I don't know till we get snow on the dry northern rockies. That's how it starts. When enough water is on the mountains in the form of ice, sea levels fall, which requires ports to dredge to keep up. That's not terribly difficult, but it does take effort. 

In coastal areas, sailboats are a completely viable RV. Most of the technology for living in an RV also works on a boat. And you still need hookups to remove the waste water. The modern designs made from bent plywood are amazingly clever use of materials, and very strong as well as light. The picture below is under 20 feet long, and will sleep a couple people. I suspect this design would work well in the Gulf and Atlantic, as well as lakes, since its under 500 pounds. You'd want something much larger for the Pacific, since the waves here are huge. I rarely saw swells less than 3 feet, so a 30 foot plus boat would be a good idea. That also gives you more space for galley, sleeping, bathroom and shower, and your water purification system, as well as solar panels on the hull to power everything. Imagine that, designed for two crew, with berths for more people. This is more than just mobility, this is a vessel that opens up the PNW properly, as well as Baja's port-potential, and shipping up and down the coast all the way to Chile and up to Alaska, Siberia, and Japan. 

Siberia has a lot to offer the world, starting with its mechanical engineers and to archaeology. It has a river valley that did not freeze during the last ice age, and is known to contain occupied sites dating back 40K years. That's a big deal in science. Siberia is a long way from Moscow, and really deserves its own govt. Its been ruled by distant and largely indifferent czars who only look West. California has more in common with Siberia than it does with most of Europe or New York City. 

Baja California and the western coast of Africa are the next big areas for population expansion, when cheap water desalination happens. As much as I like the fantasy of the DeKa solution, its not very efficient and demands a lot of heat, when it really should be using vacuum decompression to lower the boiling point and extract water with less effort and energy. If you could make it more efficient, enough to generate cheap desalinated water you could be piping drinking water for irrigation purposes inland. That only happens with a scalable solution. Deka isn't that solution. 

The NE corner of Brazil, near the equator, is flooded half the year, and dry half the year. Its largely unusable land. If you did a LOT of civil engineering, especially soils engineering and drainage, you could probably get 1/3 of it useful growing crops, which would support human settlement. If you can capture the rains into ponds for use in the dry half of the year, this would work. Brazil is mostly rich people exploiting poor people, and poor people murdering each other. Communism was tried and failed. A military junta killed most of them. Brazil is a huge country and would benefit from a trading partner that can help them raise living standards while still making a profit. 

Mexico is hopelessly corrupt. Perhaps this can be used. Selling off patches of coastal land might work, provided the owners can be assured it won't be seized like Mexico did to Standard Oil in 1925, a big reason few companies invest in Mexico. They did it before so they'd do it again. If rich companies or families could buy up a few hundred square miles of Baja's coast at a time, and develop the port and land into a city, and keep it, that's employment and improvement Mexico can't do itself. Semi-autonomous cities like Monaco has worked for the Cote D'Azur, and would work in Baja. Club Med already operates like that, with armed guards on the perimeter, keeping out the kidnapping gangs. Repeat this design-autonomy idea in Africa and you get development from the coasts, and trading between those an inland, with a port to provide the secure transit from civilized countries. We are going to have to deal with Mexico in the next few years, and hopefully it will benefit both nations. And maybe stop the illegals. 

Retro Cool VW Bus

Some people are a little mean when it comes to cars. I live in California and we do not put salt on the roads. For most of my state it isn't necessary. The lack of salt means our cars don't rust, so classic cars are still around decades later. This is, essentially, heaven for hot rods and classic car associations. Also for motorcycles since we are dry 330 days a year (it rains around 35 days a year). We are the opposite of England.

Old Mini Cooper

So when I see a modern version of the Mini Cooper, with working AC and proper sized tires and airbags and high probability of survival in a car crash? Yeah, I think that's perfectly okay, even if its mostly looks rather than performance. I feel similarly towards the Fiat 500. And the modern Porsche 911 only looks like the old ones. I drove an old one 3300 miles on a trip and it wasn't comfortable, or quiet, or terribly fast either. The new ones are. And they're safer.

New Mini Cooper

So I feel like retro cars with modern comforts and underpinnings are a good thing. When I was a kid we'd had several VW buses. Those were built to be light, with the engine in the back, rear wheel drive, and very light front, with the driver sitting above the front wheel. That made going around corners really interesting because you swung over the front. Their transmission was terrible. You hunted for a gear. Double clutching was sometimes necessary. It also tended to overheat, being air cooled and carbureted, so was a terrible car on mountain passes. As we used them for vacations, this was a common problem. But it doesn't have to be that way.

Clasic VW Camper Bus

Imagine the subaru Legacy with the body replaced by a VW bus. It would be all wheel drive, water cooled, turbo charged, more fuel efficient than the VW actually was, and still be roomy and light inside. Give it a couple airscoops to draw air across the engine, some crashbars to protect the driver's legs in a head-on, and then retro the instruments back to look like a real bus again. Oh, and make sure its got the multi-pane windows. I always liked those. And possibly the pop-top for the camper model. Use bamboo wood for the furniture rather than press-board and plastic. Its stronger and lighter. Class B campers are too small for a bathroom or shower, but you can sleep in them and heat your dinner or breakfast. With all wheel drive they'd work better than the real ones did, and use less gas than a big GM or Ford version. A little van doesn't need a V8 gas hog. Do this better than VW's Eurovan, the Westphalia, famously unreliable engines and terrible fuel economy and crap fuel injection. I spent hours stuck in a boring town when the one I was riding in broke down after 20 minutes of driving a load of boy scouts up 101. It wasn't ours, but it was annoying. I missed my chance for a fun train ride because of that.

Why Subaru? Because their engine was based on the VW and Porsche horizontally opposed (boxer engine), but they added water cooling and proper fuel injection. Those things are reliable and make best use of torque, which wins races and climbs mountains. The VW's strength is that the weight was on the wheels that were driving it. Apply similar approach to a modern remake, with a paddle shifter and smooth 6-speed transmission, and mind you keep the weight under control, and you could build a van worth having and still looks like a classic.

Wouldn't that be cool?

Top Gear Eps on Netflix

Top Gear has put its final season onto Netflix in case you didn't know. The Patagonia Special has beautiful scenery in the first half. Its the second half that gets all political because the communist president of Argentina was about to announce the country was defaulting on its loan payments to the IMF and USA, and the USA and UK are the same to ignorant communists in South America. All the mess over the car was merely distraction. Oh, and they DID default, btw. If you loan money to Argentina, you deserve what you get. A pity because its beautiful in the Andes, very like the Alps or the meadows of the high Sierras or PNW. They filmed in the early summer and its constantly raining and terribly wet. I suspect there's a lot of snow there much of the time.

In the meantime, I've been following Clarkson and Hammond on Twitter, as they film their new materials for Amazon.com, their new boss. Their runabouts at their new studio, after spending a month filming across the USA, back in the UK are Reliant Robins, the car that flips over on every corner. The Robin was a clown car, but they're road legal and were popular in the mining country where Clarkson grew up. Hammond posted that his wife bought a full sized John Deer tractor with the front shovel attachment, to use on their farm. Hammond seemed a little perturbed, but he does live on a farm in Wales so why not?

In any case, the episodes are there and they're beautifully put together and you can see them now in proper format rather than pirated on YouTube. I am looking forward to seeing the Outback Special, which is next. Its great that the guys can continue to work together despite being older men with cranky personalities, bad backs, and aches and pains from those long days that makes them cantankerous.

Scalability

There's a documentary on Netflix called "Slingshot". It needs editing into a short film, maybe 20 minutes from the nearly two hours it currently runs. It is about an inventor, the guy who created the Segway, a famously useless toy for people who live in flat places and are too lazy to walk. Dean Kamen is a weirdo, but his electronics and machinery are interesting, although expensive. He invented the major patent for my insulin pump, which is good. It works great. Most of his successes are with medical technology. The segway started as a powered wheelchair that can stand up and balance on two wheels, and climb stairs. That's a great invention... but why aren't those everywhere? Weight and cost. The was one of the problems with the Segway. It was $5K. That's a lot of money for a 10 mph electric toy that can't navigate slopes and is illegal on the sidewalks in most cities and an obstacle to traffic when on the road. Useless, despite being clever in other ways. There's already a solution in place for this kind of use, and its both healthy and cheap, called a bicycle. Kamen invented something that is both more expensive and less useful.

So Dean Kamen built a relatively efficient water distiller. Its not revolutionary. He called it the same energy drag as a hair dryer, which he doesn't mention is one of the highest energy drains in the household. And since the people he made this for, poor Africans, don't have the energy grid to run something like that, his solution doesn't work. I could see these getting used out on the California coast, for isolated mansions, distilling drinking water from sea water. It still takes a lot of energy to run, and a mansion uses a lot more water than a regular house. If you run a co-generation plant you could certainly use the waste heat for this process, which would be fine, but then you need to produce even more water, and this solution doesn't scale up well. Its not revolutionary.

Also, the hand slapping thing? That's really annoying. That says "CRAZY!!" with the two exclamation points. I suspect Dean Kamen was a very spoiled child, and that's why he grew up to be a spoiled weirdo of an adult with a helicopter in his living room. He constantly compares himself to Einstein and Newton and Galileo, but he's just good with electronics and owns a machine shop. That's not genius. That's hard work.

Don't Mock Motorcycle Mechanics

Reading the news you'd think that the people in charge of America are taking the good drugs. They responded to the Paris attacks with "but the real danger is climate change." That does wonders for scaring people. Even the liberals are buying guns now. I am told that mainstream muslims consider ISIS to be genocidal wing working their way through a suicide cult prophecy where they all plan to die somewhere in Eastern Syria. I wish they'd hurry up and die, already. Apparently, the mainstream muslims will step in if things get worse, and put them down like mad dogs. Well? Get on with it.

Buying guns and not practicing with them is pointless and expensive. Fifteen years ago I put in several years of practice, enough to get good at rifles but then what? It is smarter to not be in places that get home invaded is far more valuable than having a gun.

Squaw Valley resort, created for millionaires.
Housing on top, shops on the bottom. 

Inner Cities could be turned into ultrarich compounds, with heavily armed cops on every corner to keep out the trash and the terrorists, but most rich people don't want that. They move far away from the thugs and crime and build beautiful and remote villages of mansions, though they sometimes experiment with resort settings like Squaw Valley (above). Good for visiting, probably not full time living though.

The Middle East only has about 10% of the world's oil production, rather than the 70% they used to claim. They aren't as important as they used to be, and this is the underlying cause of their panic and madness. Their population expanded with oil-for-food trading over the last 70 years. Without the oil, they won't have the food, and they will die. ISIS is killing them in advance of the famine, more or less. In the real world, the USA is the largest oil exporting nation at this time. Russia is second. People still think that the middle east is the biggest producer but that is no longer true, however Perception matters for people panic-buying oil and fuel after some atrocity happens.

• Please note that yesterday's terrorist attack in San Bernardino was committed by Muslims from Saudi Arabia, not Syria, but this does not preclude an ISIS connection. The FBI is investigating. Whether they will report any ISIS connection publicly..? I do not know.  

Many people skeptical of govt efficiency are taking out the Prepper Insurance Policy. Instead of trust in Popes and Presidents, these survivalist/preppers are working at Plan B also known as Beans, Bandaids and Bullets. Beans (food), bandaids (first aid), and bullets are relatively easy to stockpile, but I personally consider finding a safer neighborhood worth more, even if you end up spending money on your commute. Not getting shot in your bed or at the local grocery store because YOUR community doesn't have Muslims is worth a lot.

$80K+ Tesla S. Battery-electric. 

This leads to a different problem. The work commute. Your average car gets 25-30 mpg. You can buy a new car that gets 45 mpg, but then you still use fuel and have to pay a car payment in a world where muslims have nuclear weapons. This is a bad thing, and a pretty big risk financially. If the fuel is rationed (this has happened 3 times in the past), you might not get enough to get to work. What are your options, assuming the business you work in still has any value when transportation is strictly controlled? You could spend $80K to buy a Tesla S, but that's a motive for carjacking on wheels. It says you can afford $80K for a car, and that you're willing to drive when nobody else can. This is very unwise if you wish to avoid trouble. You'd be better off staying home than risk ambush on your commute, or at the very least angry neighbors with matches. Don't flaunt your wealth in times of trouble. It's more than rude.

Many preppers buy a bicycle, but that limits you to a 20 mile daily commute, and you're at risk the entire route. It's better than walking, and offers a sort of egalitarian approach, especially if your bike and old, used, and not showy. Just be prepared for flats, so plan ahead and remember that wider tires and lower pressure, while a little slower, also suffer fewer flats and are more comfortable on bumpy roads.

A better option is motorized, with a personal fuel stockpile. A cheap used 250cc motorcycle gets around 80 mpg, nearly double what a Prius gets and able to use bike paths and trails through the woods, uncommon sites for ambush if you're smart about it. Preppers know this and are struggling to learn how to be a motorcycle mechanic after doing the basic stockpiles. This is personally expensive, but useful if things go sideways. While I LIKE the looks and charm of a motor scooter, and their fuel efficiency is unquestioned (100+ mpg), unless you live in town and commute in town (which you could do by bicycle), they aren't great on rough roads and have poor suspensions. A taller dirt bike like the above "dual sport/enduro" motorcycle is better. You trade a little fuel economy for a vehicle than can deal with rough roads, gravel, dirt, potholes, etc, and still manage to get onto the freeway in a pinch. Not a great way to ride, but you can do it. Experienced riders use these for adventure rides over mountains, carrying camping equipment and a credit card for gas stops and bed and breakfast inns with good cuisine nearby. This is a sane response to an uncertain world.

Keeping these running, and figuring out any upgrades to expand/improve performance or ride quality (progressive shocks, larger fuel tank, better seat, heated grips, better headlight, slick tires) are better done now, while the parts are available, than later when they aren't. Whichever model of motorcycle ends up most popular will also have the cheapest and most available replacement parts. Keep that in mind if you don't own your own personal machining tools. There is considerable variety out there. I do not recommend the Harley, however, because they are low-riders, too close to the pavement to make turns at speed, and lack the ground clearance and balance to deal with gravel roads. Don't laugh. Asphalt is made out of tar, and we're mining tar to turn into oil in Canada and the USA (fracking?). This caused the price of roads to go way up, and any troubles which shut off Middle Eastern supply are likely to drive the price much higher, to the point that many roads will only be paved in city limits. Not joking. That may be 10 years away, but 10 years passes pretty quickly. And it might be faster than 10 years. It is hard to predict when dealing with Muslim terrorists with nuclear weapons. After an attack, anybody who forced Tolerance about Muslims on the public? They're looking at a Blacklist. The issue is contentious, certainly, and deserves due consideration as a likely outcome from the Paris attacks. Things escalate, and there are many BAD people involved on both sides.

As American citizens, it is not our job to correct Islam. We can best serve our own security by staying out of the way of the extremists and hopefully live through this ugly chapter of history. Keep going to work, keep paying your bills, but don't take stupid risks or drive yourself crazy with worry. If the motorcycle is too much money, buy a bicycle and ride it once a month. If terrible things happen, see if your boss can work with you from home, or come up with alternative housing during your work week. People have done this before. It's not very comfortable, but you can get by this way. If that doesn't work, can your skills find you work closer to home, and if you need different skills for that, can you learn them? Give it serious thought.