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Things that piss me off (this week)


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[font="Calibri"][size="3"]Feel free to add your own; Things that piss me off (this week)[/size][/font]

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[font="Calibri"][size="3"]1.[/size][/font] [font="Calibri"][size="3"]Power company monopolies that can and do charge whatever they want[/size][/font]

[font="Calibri"][size="3"]2.[/size][/font] [font="Calibri"][size="3"]The US has one of the world’s largest supplies of natural gas, but the use is regulated to death by the government[/size][/font]

[font="Calibri"][size="3"]3.[/size][/font] [font="Calibri"][size="3"]Converting your vehicle to run on natural gas costs more than the vehicle (government regulations)[/size][/font]

[font="Calibri"][size="3"]4.[/size][/font] [font="Calibri"][size="3"]Only a very few places to do the “sanctioned” conversion[/size][/font]

[font="Calibri"][size="3"]5.[/size][/font] [font="Calibri"][size="3"]Power cost so much the elderly don’t use air in heat waves and die to save money (to pay for electricity to live)[/size][/font]

[font="Calibri"][size="3"]6.[/size][/font] [font="Calibri"][size="3"]Gas prices are fluctuating on a daily basis, I would agree if the pump's tanks were filled daily but they pay one price for the gas and change what they charge for it daily sometimes hourly[/size][/font]

[font="Calibri"][size="3"]7.[/size][/font] [font="Calibri"][size="3"]Cheap alternate power IS available (technology wise) but only sold to or allowed to be used by big business.[/size][/font]

[font="Calibri"][size="3"]8.[/size][/font] [size="3"][font="Calibri"] The cost of getting off the “Grid” is more expensive than just staying on it[/font][/size]
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all sad but true....
elmer's glue is the same dang stuff i had when i was a kid.
back then 28 cents a gallon
now 2.49 an ounce.
what changed????
( yes in exadurateing, but you get the point) Edited by Blattu
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[quote name='Mimir' timestamp='1314882875' post='45488']
The US has one of the world’s largest supplies of natural gas, but the use is regulated to death by the government
Converting your vehicle to run on natural gas costs more than the vehicle (government regulations[/quote]

The first one is very true, and not only is the use regulated but everything surrounding it is regulated in such retarded ways you wouldn't even believe. (I blame the tree huggers)

The 2nd is only partially true. You can run a car on drip, just have to loosen the valves a hair. Never tried it on a new model car (all the sensors might cause it to throw engine codes), but an older car that has a carb will run it fine.
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[quote name='Whitelighter' timestamp='1314901443' post='45510']
The first one is very true, and not only is the use regulated but everything surrounding it is regulated in such retarded ways you wouldn't even believe. (I blame the tree huggers)

The 2nd is only partially true. You can run a car on drip, just have to loosen the valves a hair. Never tried it on a new model car (all the sensors might cause it to throw engine codes), but an older car that has a carb will run it fine.
[/quote]


Have you looked into the stupid regulations of a DIY Natural Gas conversion? I think it is something like a 10K fine and actual jail time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"It is actually a federal law.

Section 203(a)(3) of the Clean Air Act prohibits tampering via bypassing the emissions control system (also known as OnBoard Diagnostics or "OBD2"). The manufacturers, of course get their OBD2 computers certified for emissions compliance. Conversion kits by definition tamper with the emissions, so unless you can show the EPA that your kit is compliant with the already-certified OEM OBD2 computer, then the kit cannot be sold or installed legally in the United States.

As for enforcement, I realize that many states have no system in place to check. However, I just heard that Utah sent out a letter to all emissions certification facilities telling them to not pass any converted vehicle that does not have an EPA certification."
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Talking about LPG for car fuel? It's much cleaner than unleaded or diesel.

It does seem the USA is crippled by legislation but aren't there still companies there that can do an LPG conversion that is EPA certified -- what's the problem is it too expensive and thus non-competitive because of legislation? I've noted that some aftermarket ECUs for cars widely sold everywhere else are prohibited from sale in the USA -- legislation again.

Unleaded and diesel in the USA costs about a third of what it costs in the UK if my quick reckoning is correct. Most of that cost in the UK is fuel duty that goes to the government. It's similar in the rest of Europe but I don't think it's as bad compared to the UK. People use their cars less in the UK and do fewer journeys.

Natural gas supplied to homes in the UK for heating and cooking goes up and up and up in the UK. Same for electricity. Rises are always announced right before winter begins accompanied with some BS excuse for putting up the costs (and then proceed to announce huge profits the following year -- have to wonder WTF is going on and why it's allowed). People are giving up on gas for keeping their homes and burning wood instead in fire places to keep themselves warm during winter.
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possibly the unpopular opinion in this thread but if it makes the environment safer (and there's no doubt that a fly by night conversion would most definitely be dangerous) then I'm all for it. If we returned to pre-EPA levels of different types of pollution this planet would likely be uninhabitable in less than a century.

I want us to use new energy sources, sure, but not at the cost of health and lives. Find a better way to handle it so its safe for all of us and the environment and yeh've got a deal. (Reroute CEO bonuses to R&D until such a way is found, seems only fair) Maybe I'm showing a little tree hugger here, but I do want it to be around and still green when my grandkids grow up, ya know. Company profit is just not that damned important to anyone except the folks with the stock options. :rolleyes:
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[quote name='Kyp' timestamp='1314917392' post='45538']
possibly the unpopular opinion in this thread but if it makes the environment safer (and there's no doubt that a fly by night conversion would most definitely be dangerous) then I'm all for it. If we returned to pre-EPA levels of different types of pollution this planet would likely be uninhabitable in less than a century.

[/quote]

Thank you Al Gore...

Natural gas is one of the cleanest burning fuels we have. Regulations are purely political, and they infringe natural property rights. There is neither civil of criminal liability in converting your car, unless you do damage to a third party (civil) or through malice cause harm (criminal).

The control of government over our rights is many times more a threat than a tiny increase in carbon dioxide, which is plant food, and is non exothermic. Photosynthesis is an endothermic chemical reaction. Plants use *energy from the sun* to convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen. This reaction requires 15MJ of energy (sunlight) for every kilogram of glucose that is produced.
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Hey Nixon started the EPA. :rolleyes:

I know that natural gas is relatively safe, its not the gas I'm worried about, its the humans involved in trying to sell it for a bigger profit that worries me.
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The problem is with the cheap DIY conversion kits are that unless they issue an EPA certificate with it, the inspection stations will red flag your vehicle. This means not fit to drive and you (read me) will be walking. Fuel stations are another issue but you can get a home refueling station for about $3500. The bonus is that current prices for the CNG is about a third the price of gas.


[url="http://www.cngprices.com/"]http://www.cngprices.com/[/url]

you will notice on this page service stations are few and far between..well unless you live in California.

52 sites do the conversion in the US, even though I have weeded out most of the fleet only dealers there may be more.
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Something to add...

The world as aawhole should be after major polluters like China, Russia, etc.. -for not better controlling their emissions. The US by comparison is a bed of roses compared to their Cities, and I know they could do better. Remember what the air in Beijing was like before the Olympics? ...and what it was like during because the world gave them grief for it? The Olympic comity threatened to cancel the games unless they cleaned up their act.. And they did during the games, that's it.

Those counties can do better, and the world should pressure them to do so. Instead we try imposing harsher restrictions on in our own countries that do an excellent job by comparison. Complete nonsense. Hell, my brother has an restored 1968 Chev Camaro that I know runs a hell of a lot cleaner than many cars and trucks on the road today (it recently passed with today's standards on with a carburetor). Those people should actually give a crap that their vehicles stink to high hell rolling down the road, smoking out everyone behind them. It all boils down to each owner taking his or her responsibility to maintain their vehicle, and using some common sense.

Example of modern vehicle waste: Those guys who are compensating for something by skyjacking their over-sized Ford diesel's, and feel like they have to floor it at every intersection, leaving a huge cloud of black smoke everywhere they go. There isn't a restriction on exhaust pipe size when it comes to a diesel for some reason here, so it gets pretty bad.

And Mimir, I live in Utah, and my neighbor owns his own shop and does do inspections and emissions. Believe me when I tell you that this state has some real screwed up laws. But they do give perks for clean burning vehicles. I just wish they would get it through their thick heads that ethanol is a horrible idea! our 2 vehicles run like crap on the 10% ethanol blended gas, the emissions are greater, and the millage sucks the big one as we lose about 50 miles per tank. And the drinking laws here are practically draconian. lol..

/end rant... and thanks for reading. :)

(Note: This is a useful thread! I feel a little better about venting a little. :) )
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Hey overtkill...here is one for you. In Nevada (specificly clark county) we are charged a yearly certification fee when licencsing our cars, we must meet emission standards set by the EPA set higher than almost any other state, those rates were based on EPA's testing station data. They every year complained about differing zones in Las Vegas being high smog rates and threatened sanctions, thus Nevada responded with stringent emissions and penalties.

Big problem..EPA's test stations, despite repeatly being told by people surrounding them, that they were misplaced and were taking readings that were misrepresentive, they still took the "party line" of treehuggers, guess what? It was the treehuggers that was causing the misreadings :) pollen from surrounding trees (specificly elms) were falling on the sensors and giving false positives. Even after this was brought to their attention, they STILL put out threats of sanctions to the county and state.

Here is another one, EXEMPTIONS..the county, state and city exempt themselves and other entities from compliance to emission rules, while enforcing ever increasing regulations on the citizenry, some of the government vehicles are so poorly maintained, that they spew pollutants that we citizens would be fined for.

This is the one that REALLY chaps my hide the most: When getting a commercial oil change, the vendor is required to collect for the government a "waste disposal fee" of at a minimun $2 and more for larger amounts of oil. The local trash collection monopoly Republic Waste Services company collects that oil, and a portion of that fee is turned over to them by the government. They then "dispose" of that oil, they are allowed by statuate to add 10% oil to their diesel burning trash collection vehicles. So, the dump trucks that clanks and rattles through our neighborhoods, spew out fumes we have to breath, comprised of oil we PAID them to get rid of. I guess thats "recycling" at its best eh? They save on fuel, get paid to take the item away that saves them on that fuel, and never have to really "recycle' it or refine it.

Utah has vast fields of natural gas, the state of utah would love to develop those fields, use the gas and even "export" it to other states, its a win win if you think it out. Utah would get the revenue from gas sales, the gas being developed would be easier accessed by citizenry and could be encouraged to switch over, thus cleaner air and higher fuel efficiency. States like Nevada that are power producers (we export way more electric power than we use) could then instead use cleaner more efficient gas power plants, rather than coal powered plants (btw the coal comes from utah also, so switching to gas from them wouldn't have to have a negative economic impact).

Did you know that chemical fertizer is made out of either natural gas or crude oil? So if they freed up natural gas...we could make cheaper and more plentiful fertizer, freeing us from enemy controled crude oil, cutting farmers costs, making food cheaper and more plentiful...was that win win? Make that win-win-win-win. And what is stopping all that? Federal laws that are insane! They apply the interstate commerce clause (a law that was suppost to ENCOURAGE interstate cooperation) to INHIBIT commerce.
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[quote name='Tyran' timestamp='1315251369' post='45732']
Thing that pissed me off this week was noticing the lack of an 'african themed' sector, as if africans remain palaeolithic in the 26th century???
[/quote]


african? really? terran,progen,jenquai, choose one of those and darken them up if you feel better. other then that your out of luck
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[quote name='Tyran' timestamp='1315251369' post='45732']
Thing that pissed me off this week was noticing the lack of an 'african themed' sector, as if africans remain palaeolithic in the 26th century???
[/quote]


nice picture btw,
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[quote name='Blacklung' timestamp='1315251849' post='45735']
african? really? terran,progen,jenquai, choose one of those and darken them up if you feel better. other then that your out of luck
[/quote]
Darkening a terran is like darkening a caucasian, you end up with an indo-european (people from india and pakistan).

Darken a Jenquai and you end up with a phillipino...

Darken a Progen and you end up with a papua...

Also it is not a playable character I'm asking for, more a sector kind of thing.

I ask because japanese (jenquai), chinese (red dragon), Israelites (infiniticorp), americans (bogeril), germans (zweihander) and muslims (self-destruct) are already represented. Next logical step should be our african brethren.
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What do you think AGANJU is (cygni 61)? Look at the names of the npc vendors especially trade goods vendor. Look at the gate being constructed right next to Aganju station, Thuguli rift (might have spelled that wrong), think of the references to the psi mining cygni 61..remember nostradamus smithe's references to king solaman's mines? Those were lost diamond mines in sub-contental africa.

BTW..I'm not Israeli nor of hebrewic stock, but that little joke about infinicorp being Israeli...running close to anti-sematism there..be careful. Also be C.A.R.E.ful on the self destruct refrence to muslims...CARE may call a jihad on you :)

If there is a ethnic extraction under represented, I would say Egyptian would be it, all the Norse refrences are factual...odins belt, niff, verin's girdle etc. are current astronomical refrences, as are alpha centari, alpha proxima etc....but there are loads of astronomical sectors of our sky that are named after Egyptian and Phonecian, totally unreferenced. Almost all the progen stuff is greco-roman in homaged. Jenquia is AmerIndian, Asiatic and far eastern in it homage. Most the Terran is Cascaustic and Northern European refrenced, with a small smattering of former UK territories tip of that hatted like Aganju, Australia, Gold coast (chat trees about nommos and its whaling refrences)
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[quote name='Tyran' timestamp='1315252898' post='45739']
I ask because japanese (jenquai), chinese (red dragon), Israelites (infiniticorp), americans (bogeril), germans (zweihander) and muslims (self-destruct) are already represented. Next logical step should be our african brethren.
[/quote]

Lmao! thats so SOOOO funny! best thing i read on here for ages
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A good read Matt... Utah tried the mandated state controlled emission stations a decade or so ago and the whole idea went to hell in a hand basket real fast once the lines and probably the bureaucrats themselves had to wait in them. So they slowly went back to dynometered stations (The stations that require us to pull your car's drive wheels onto those long rollers, and running your vehicle around 30MPH... Those have given way to OBD2 (The computer interface within 12 inches of your steering wheel) reading. Dyno testing I think is still required here for older vehicles. The oil disposal fee seems to be a federal thing as we collect on that well. What you pointed out does indeed suck, since they are not really disposing of anything. I'm really envious of states that have real oil recycling refineries that restore the oil to a usable state. An old mechanic friend of mine waived those recycling fees in winter months because he would use the spent oil in a great way. He had a heater in his shops that ran on the used oil combined with natural gas. Believe it or not the heater had very low emissions, and to be honest I thought the system was a brilliant idea!

Speaking of Vegas... My wife grew up there. Something that grinds my gears there is that they are complaining of a lack of water when they have gold courses, resorts, and lately many homes have grass there. They should be a bit smarter about their water management (especially the Governor), and think of the policies they had over a decade ago that mandated that everyone had to have desert landscaping. I recently had a look at the area in Google Earth, and man, talk about sprawl! I remember when the area between Vegas and Henderson was a barren drive. Now its all medium density residential. It looks very mass produced from that perspective. We've been meaning to take a trip there again. I hope that water project from Vegas to Lake Meade goes well. Its nothing short of amazing! BTW, was the abnormally wet winter here in the Rockies helped refill that lake much? I know Lake Powell has recovered for the most part.

I want to go when Nellis AFB. has their open house to catch the airshow. I've known several pilots that have trained there for Red Flag (the Air Force's equivalent of Top Gun). My Uncle used to be an old F4 Phantom pilot during the Vietnam war, and later converted to fly F-15's, becoming an instructor in aviation battle tactics, often flying as the adversary. Some of his video/cockpit cam footage was pretty awesome to say the least. They even give their planes alternate paint schemes as our real life adversary countries might choose to use on their planes. They flew everything in their group from F-15's, F-16's, A4's, F/A-18's.. Etc.. Pretty cool stuff to watch. I never got sick of watching those videos, and he never gets sick of talking about it. lol... He's a real hoot to be around..

Anyway, back to what you said.... Does Questar manage the natural gas production there? or is it PG&E? Questar is our local energy monopoly... There are big issues here with drilling and production because of the many national parks, monuments, and the uniqueness of the scenery here. Most of the gas underground is near those places so there is always a fight when they talk about drilling. Questar as a company do the 2 steps forward and 1 back game on our bills. So early in the year, they announce a reduction in their billing 1 tick, only to up it in the fall 2 ticks. This shit is getting expensive be it natural gas, which does supply about 85% of our power (rest is imported through Pacificorp), so you'd think our power bills would be lower than they are, but guess again.. Good old Utah "Flicker and Flash" (my adaptation of the old name: Utah Power and Light) still sees fit to up the bill exponentially above certain limits... A limit that is complete BS since running a refrigerator alone for a month would surpass it. Ugh! The insult to injury here is that they always ask for a 15% increase and never seem to go back.. And when the state limits them to say 6% they complain and say that recovery from damaged lines will take longer after bad storms, crying that they wont have enough money to pay for crews on active standby to make those repairs. -Complete B.S. and man what a racket they run.

I also wish they'd really do something about speculative commodities trading in the stock market, which is the main culprit in jacking our gas prices globally. -But that's another post all together.. :)

Again, A very therapeutic thread. :)
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Natural gas in nevada is handled by SouthWest Gas (a bloated and topheavy organization in the extreme) as in all monopolies, poor service and higher prices than if compition was introduced. Our former governor Kenny Guinn was a creature of SW gas, he was COO for 10 yrs. and screwed it up, just before the class action law suits wended their way through the legal hurdles and hit SW gas (and him by extension), he jumped over to another bloated governemt entity--Clark County School district! He then proceeded to F up more of what everyone thought couldn't be messed up more (he led the way with the old tired refrain..Change is Good!, of course the azzklownsz that use that, ignore the ACTUAL reference..Change is Constant!) [not always nessarily for the better].

About water..the first pipeline from lake mead was dubbed "the big straw", they excavated a huge tunnel through the mountains between the lake and Vegas, it was barely on line for 6 months before another huge project was propesed and passed creating dubbed "straw II" 4x bigger than the first pipeline. Once agian it is sort of a boondoggle, they are just barely getting to the capacity of straw I used now, the fear generating straw II is they want to ensure sufficent supply at then growth patterns until 2030 (with the economy the way it is..growth has understandedly decreased), so why the grab of water? POWER..water in the southwest = power, both political, monitarity, and actual electric.

When Hoover Dam was first created (then called boulder dam, renamed after the pres. Hoover) it was created on a Tri-state agreement, Nevada, Arizona and California were to get equal 1/3 shares of electricity generated and water retained. At the time Nevada and Arizona were sparcely populated and didn't use their full 1/3 share of each and sold their excess (at reduced rates) to California. Over the yrs. arizona has come into using their full shares both in water via farming projects, and power for population usage ,(air conditioners use lots of power! :)), Nevada has never used their "share" of the water from agro usage, but can forsee needing it from population expansion.

Nevada has also done its citizens a disservice via NevadaPower (now SierraPower), they have always sold the "excess" power from their share to California at high generation rates, hydopower is cheap, they should be selling that power to nevadans at generation cost plus a small profit, thus blessing us with lower rates. However they have sold us power from Coal plants, a higher generation cost plus a profit, and sold the cheap power based on this rate to california. During the Enron debacle, California was scrambling to scrounge up every power source they could and sort of "nationalize" it on a state scale, they attempted to GRAB nevadas share of power generation, with the specious arguement that Nevada didn't need it, California did, Nevada must give way to the greater need..GIMME! While california eventually lost that rediculous arguement, it did tie up Nevada in litigation, and the outcome was never ensured since it was the 9th cicuit court that heard the case (and they have come out with some doosey disiscions over the yrs!)

So to straw II: Nevada foreseeing California comming up short of water, and Nevada, at that time not "using its full share", figured they might try and pull the same crap over water, inhibiting their growth and expansion plans. so they built straw II on a fast track and sucked up their share to forestall that. So what do they do with the water since its for future use not todays needs? They try and stay silent on the subject, but what they do is a specious practice of "banking" it, they pump it back into the ground! The water table hasn't been this high since the first settlers came here and was startled by artesian wells. Wells that haven't naturally flowed for generation after genaration are now flowing.

This at the same time the Las Vegas Water Authority has instituted "drought rules" of alternate day watering, xerascaping etc. for residence at the same time, as you noted casinos have huge swaths of greenery, golf courses etc. and if they are politically hooked up, they get the water at cut rates, adding insult to injury to citizenry! (I used to marvel how they had water police that could come by your house, and if they saw water running off your property, or you watering off their instituted schedule, they would give you "wasting resources" ticket/fine, when you could walk down 2 blocks to your nearest school or governemnt building and see the sprinklers tick-ticking away. A school closed for the summer...watering vast lawnage..between 7am and 7pm, a feat that earned you a ticket.)

About rates in Nevada, they have set up a specious entity called P.ublic U.tilites C.ommision, its SUPPOST to be a advocate for rate payers, balancing SierraPower,Sw gas, and LVWA's profitability to a slight amount, while monitoring costs vs. rates and seeing that the public don't get hosed. In practice it is more rubberstampish than anything else, its the old dog and pony show of power,gas and water asking for a 15% rate increase, PUC having hearings, "investivation" (read martini lunch with utility execs), then declare no no, PUC is going to be tough and hold utilities to a 10% increase! (and thats what the utilities wanted..they just asked for 15% knowing 10% was going through). This same entity allowed them to put a "cost of fuel defferal" tax on power bills..so if power generators coal rates go up..they pass on the cost to customer without another hasty hearing. This same entity allowed SWgas and LVWA to have a "billing charge" if you use $1 or $1m of gas or water they add a $3.50 billing charge on your bill (SWgas) and a $2 (LVWA) to send you a bill. What other business gets to do that? Thats as bad as companies that make their prfit in "shipping and handling" charges. The "handling" being their hidden profit.

Yes, the heavy snow fall has helped mitigate the excess low levels in the lake, last yr it started to recover and this yr. its almost back to normal level. Of course lake mead would have never been that low if it wasn't for the nut groups that makes them release water when they shouldn't. For power generation, due to efficiency they need way less water release than ever before for higher generation amounts (more turbines, better flow through, multi step gravity fall etc), the whole point of a dam is A. power generation B. retention of water to forstall flooding C. conservation of water resources for times of lean water amounts. Nutso save this bird or save this fish or save that cactus people make them release a steady flow through in excess of whats needed for power generation and irrigation. Thats like filling your bathtub but leaving the plug indone, then marveling "why isn't the tub filling?" :)

As to Nellis AFB's air show..it is freaking SUPREME! Couple of yrs ago we took my nephews and they oohed and aahed for hrs. on the air show portion for a few hrs. and then were tickled pink over the tours of aircraft and interactive displays. The armed services personel are commendable and we all had our hearts race and swell a little in pride for them. The only down side we could say was the food consession, every yr they have added more, and every yr there is a bigger crowd and they are hard pressed to meet demand. But as you weren't prohibited from bringing in water, and if willing to have basket searched a picknet basket, with some planning you weren't slaved to food services. In reality its the crunch of lunch thats the bad time on concessionaires..once lunch is over lines weren't too bad, and the prices weren't TOO excessive, not like some concerts $5 beers..if memory serves beers wre $3ish, and meals were $6ish, single dishes $3.

If your heart races when you hear the national anthem, if you get a tear in your eye when you think about the people who have laid down their lives for your freedoms, if the roar of a huge aircrafts engines sends a thrill up your spine, or even just a day out, on a nice sunny day, with a zillion other fellow americans that enjoy the same thing appeals to you, then it is a truely "must do", while in vegas.
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