News Cut: June 10, 2008 Archive

.1

Posted at 11:02 AM on June 10, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)

Gasoline companies, now you're just mocking us.

Maybe at one time, when gasoline was cheaper than the average $4.06 $4.09 it is in Minnesota today (the ramifications of which were discussed on MPR's Midmorning), tacking on that .9 cents to the price fooled drivers into thinking that the price is, say, $4.09 and not $4.10 a gallon. You toyed with us for generations. But now? Can't you just eat the .9? Or just round the price up. We're used to the price going up by 20, 30 cents at a time, do you really think that a .1 increase is going to bother us?

.1 cents. How much is that, really? Let's figure it out.

* A gallon of gasoline weighs about 6.15 pounds. It actually weighs 6.149 pounds, but I'm living my words here.

* At 6.15 pounds that's 1.5003659429129055867284703586241 pounds per $1, or .015003659429 pounds per penny or -- and you saw this coming, didn't you? -- 0.0015003659429 pounds per tenth of a penny.

* Because so many of you dismissed the run-up in gasoline prices with sentences that started with, "You know, in Europe.... " I bow to your desire to be Europe. So, we switch to grams. And there are 453.59 of them in a pound, or 2,789 grams per gallon. (Cool conversion calculator here)

* There are 4,090 tenths of a penny in the current price of gas. And that's .68 grams of gas per tenth of a penny. For us ugly Americans, that's .02 ounces. A little more than a thimble at today's prices.

And how far can that take you?

Assuming 25 miles to the gallon -- 132,000 feet -- then 1/10th of a penny of gas will get you 32 feet. A year ago, it would get you 45.... point 9... feet.

For those of you who opt for bicycles, 32 feet is about 7 pedal rotations (Note: I'm 54 years old and that's the first time I needed a calculation involving π). So for every 7 pedal rotations, you're saving 1/10th of one cent.

In other gasoline news today...

Dispensing hope and -- maybe -- a home

Posted at 3:13 PM on June 10, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

Honk if you ended homelessness today. These three, and many dozens more, did their part today in an extraordinary event in downtown St. Paul. Jim Anderson, is the chair of the Project Homeless Connect, which organized a one-stop spot (at St. Paul's RiverCentre) for the homeless among us to get help.

"Our goal, when people come out the door at the end of the day, that they're leaving either with their solutions in place, or a whole lot of hope that they didn't have before they came in," Anderson told me. (Listen to the entire interview)

For example?

"There was a gentleman needing a Spanish interpreter, who had been homeless about a year now and was able to make some connections that got him some mental health services that he needed and he's gotten an appointment now for a housing opening," Anderson said.

Rebecca Coke, left, from the University of St. Thomas, helped four homeless people and says she learned a lot from one in particular. "Laurie is from the Dorothy Day Center and has been chronically homeless for a long time. She is just so motivated toward going up and out of the rut that she's in right now. She waited in line for dental services, a long time for a haircut. We did some foot care. We made appointments for her to go to, so she's well on her way. It was nice to be a part of that," she said. (Listen to the interview)

Leah Gardner, right, is the project coordinator for Fieldstone Alliance, says volunteers at the event on Tuesday met with each person and then helped them navigate all the service providers ranging from education to employment to health care to legal help. (Listen)

Not a bad day's work.

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