Big Oil could be profitable at $35 a barrel.

At a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil, the U.S. arm of Royal Dutch Shell, said his company could be successful with oil prices at $35 to $65 a barrel. "I think in a range — somewhere between 35 and 65 dollars a barrel — is what has been consistent in our ability to run a successful company," Hofmeister said.

That does rather make a mockery of the $135-a-barrel price today. The Big 5 are in front of the senate judiciary committee again today. They've been sworn in which means a high chance that they're going to commit perjury. The excuses so far today have included the same old "it's supply and demand" scratched record along with the usual lies. The simple truth of course is that it's mostly profiteering.

Exxon's compensation for it's CEO is $12.5M annually and they turned over $40.6bn profit last year. That's an increase of 400% in 5 years. Exxon still maintain that their profits are down and that the current price at the pump is nothing to do with their profits.

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Rain-X Latitude wipers

So the 42°C summer and -20°C winter finally got the better of my wiper blades today. My wife and a colleague of mine had both mentioned seeing ads for Rain-X Latitude blades so I thought I'd give them a go. They're different to normal wiper blade replacements in that they don't have the usual steel frame with all the hinges and pinch points. Instead they have a solid but flexible frame with the blade attached to it, and the whole thing is pre-bowed into a curve. That means (they say) no pressure points and a better contact all across the blade. From my point of view it means no snow and ice jammed into the hinges to freeze the blade into a useless shape at low temperatures. But being May, I'll have to wait a few months to see if that works out. They also have a small aerodynamic widget on them too which will allegedly prevent aero lift at speeds.

They snapped into place with the standard 'J' connector with no problem. I tried them on a dry windscreen - a good test for new blades - and they swished back and forth without a skitter or twitch. Trying them with the washers worked nicely too. We're expecting rain for the next few days so hopefully I'll get a chance to try them in anger.

We'll see how well they last and perform but they certainly look the part. They cost about $6 more than regular replacements.

Rain-X Latitude wiper blades

From a motorcyclist to car drivers - thank you.

I'm the first in line to have a go at blind car drivers who cause 90% of motorcycle fatalities and accidents. But there are those who do see us - as rare as it seems - the alert ones who compensate for the occasional idiotic maneuver.

Ask any motorcyclists - we all do stupid things from time to time whether intentional or not. And once in a blue moon, we're saved from certain injury or death not by our skill, judgment or luck, not by some miracle of engineering or clever bit of technology, but by an alert car driver who saw us coming and got out of the way. If you've had this happen to you, I understand how angry you probably are at having been presented with an over-zealous motorcyclist who took a corner too wide and ended up in your lane coming towards you - but thank you for being alert. We all really do appreciate it even though to you we're "just a bunch of bikers".