Latest Reader Question (Sept. 28, 2017)

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Here’s the latest reader question, along with my reply:

Ray asks: Do know anything about Carvanna? Are they reliable and reasonable? For someone who is an extreme introvert who hates wasting time on salesmen and the loan approval waiting game, it sounds appealing. Thanks, and hope to hear you on Tom Woods’ podcast again soon.

My reply: As a fellow extreme introvert, I feel your pain! To answer your question… I don’t have any personal experience with Carvanna, so can’t say anything pro or con. What I will suggest is this:

Determine how much you are comfortable spending; the actual total sum as well as the monthly payment.

Use this to narrow down your search to specific makes/models.

If you are going to finance, email your bank/credit union and request  a loan application.

Note that – so far – all of this can be done via computer, online – without having to deal with anyone in person.

Okay, next step:

Having lined up your financing, email dealers that sell the make/model you are interested in. Tell them you are seriously interested in buying (list the make/model with the equipment you want) and and make them an offer that’s in the neighborhood of 3 percent over the invoice price. Send this email to several dealers; you can “haggle” via email until you have a firm offer that is acceptable to you. Then you just show up to sign the papers and drive your new car home.

I detail this stuff in my ebook, Don’t Get Taken for a Ride – which you can download here for free.

Please let me know how it goes!

Hope this helps…

. . .

Got a question about cars – or anything else? Click on the “ask Eric” link and send ’em in!

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3 COMMENTS

  1. The wealth of the world is always changing. Take cooking and eating as one example. If the master elec tech race has their way, we’ll all be eating edible pixels of food approximations that emerge from food printers. Here is a recap of cooking and food up til 1742. Learn it before the commies ban it all with fatwas and make everyone lease a food printer from Amazon to feed themselves.

    History of Cooking
    Cooking is the art and science of preparing food for eating by the application of heat. The term also includes the full range of culinary techniques: preparing raw and cooked foods for the table; final dressing of meats, fish, and fowl; cleaning and cutting fruits and vegetables; preparing salads; garnishing dishes; decorating desserts; and planning meals.

    EARLIEST TYPES OF COOKING
    Primitive humans may first have savoured roast meat by chance, when the flesh of a beast killed in a forest fire was found to be more palatable and easier to chew and digest than the customary raw meat. They probably did not deliberately cook food, though, until long after they had learned to use fire for light and warmth.

    Peking man roasted meats 680,00-780,000 years ago. Roasting spitted meats over fires remained virtually the sole culinary technique until the the Aurignacian people of southern France began to steam their food over hot embers by wrapping it in wet leaves.

    Aside from such crude procedures as toasting wild grains on flat rocks and using shells, skulls, or hollowed stones to heat liquids, no further culinary advances were made until the introduction of pottery.

    The earliest compound dish was a crude paste (the prototype of the pulmentum of the Roman legions and the polenta of later Italians) made by mixing water with the cracked kernels of wild grasses. This paste, toasted to crustiness when dropped on a hot stone, made the first bread.

    ADVANCES IN COOKING TECHNIQUES
    Culinary techniques improved with the introduction of earthenware and, concomitantly, the development of settled communities; the domestication of livestock, and the cultivation of edible plants. A more dependable supply of foodstuffs, including milk and its derivatives, was now assured.

    The roasting spit was augmented by a variety of fired-clay vessels, and the cooking techniques of boiling, stewing, braising, and even forms of pickling, frying, and oven baking were added. Early cooks had already learned to preserve meats and fish by smoking, salting, air-drying, or chilling. New utensils made it possible to prepare these foods in new ways, and such dishes as bacalao a la vizcaina (“dried cod”) and finnan haddie (smoked haddock) are still eaten.

    B.C.
    The cultivation of soybeans in China predates recorded history and spread from there to other countries in eastern Asia before the modern period. So essential was the soybean to Chinese civilization that it was considered one of the five sacred grains (the others being rice, barley, wheat, and millet). The popularity of soybeans in the Orient was due to their wide use as food.

    11000 B.C.
    Flint-edged wooden sickles are used to gather wild grains.

    Bronze Age
    Lentils from this period have been discovered at a settlement site found near Lake Biel in Switzerland
    Almonds dating from this period have been found on the Island of Crete

    9000 B.C.
    Plant cultivation begins in the Fertile Crescent region of the Middle East.
    Sheep are domesticated in the Middle East.

    7000 B.C.
    Mesoamerican – Mexico and Central America – peoples begin domesticating plants –gourds, peppers, avocados, and a grain, amaranth.

    6000 B.C.
    Cattle are domesticated.

    5000 B.C.
    The Egyptians begin irrigating crops. Sumerians using the herbs thyme and laurel as medicine
    Dates cultivated in the Middle East. Evidence of avocado use in Mexico.

    4000 B.C.
    Egyptians using yeast as a leavening agent

    3500 B.C.
    Bread making probably originates in Egypt about this time. Sumerians using wild mushrooms as food.
    Olives known to have been grown on the island of Crete

    3000 B.C.
    Farmers of Mesapotomia were growing crops of turnips, onions, broad beans, peas, lentils, leeks, radishes and maybe garlic. Are breeding ducks at this time.

    The Chinese Emperor; Sung Loong Sze ‘discovers’ the medicinal properties of herbs.

    Turkey from this era has been found in American Indian refuse sites.

    2737 B.C.
    The tea plant originated in a region encompassing Tibet, western China, and northern India. According to ancient Chinese legend, the emperor Shen-Nung learned how to brew the beverage in 2737 BC when a few leaves from the plant accidentally fell into water he was boiling.

    2700 B.C.
    The Chinese had a herbal listing of 365 plants.

    2500 B.C.
    Corn (zea mays) is domesticated in Mesoamerica.

    2000 B.C.
    Water-treatment knowledge dates from 2000 BC, when Sanskrit writings indicate that methods for purification of foul water consisted of boiling in copper vessels, exposing to sunlight, filtering through charcoal, and cooling in earthen vessels

    Onions are mentioned as a food source by Sumerian Scribes

    1500 BC
    Coriander being used as a culinary herb in Egypt.

    1450 BC
    Egyptians using cinnamon as a spice.

    1100 B.C.
    Chinese making soy sauce.

    1000 B.C.
    The Incas were freezing potatoes in the snow for preservation. Geese known to have been popular in Germany. Chinese are producing a type of alcohol spirit from rice.

    800 BC
    Cultivated tomatoes used in Mexico.

    500 B.C.
    Sugar cane cultivated in India and bananas.

    206 B.C.
    Flour milling introduced into China during the Han era, thus allowing the onset of Chinese noodle making.

    200 B.C.
    The concept of a vending machine was invented about 200 BC when Hero of Alexandria described a coin-operated device designed to vend holy water in an Egyptian temple.

    5 B.C.
    Palm sugar being used by the Chinese. Woks being used in China. Tofu being used in China.

    Broccoli being cultivated in Europe, Pepper (corns) introduced to Java by Hindu settlers and into Europe by Arab Traders.

    4 B.C.
    Archestratus, a Greek, wrote the first cookbook, Hedypathia (Pleasant Living), in the 4th century BC.
    As early as the 4th century BC, the Chinese had codified the five basic taste sensations: sweet, sour, briny, spicy, and bitter. Around these elementary sensations, they built a cuisine of subtlety, variety, and sophistication.

    3 B.C.
    Athenaeus described the well-equipped Greek kitchen, which included such sophisticated utensils as a specially constructed dish in which the eggs of peacocks, geese, and chickens could be boiled together in graduated concavities.

    Although the diets of peoples of the ancient world are well documented, little is known about their cooking techniques. In the Sumerian capital of Ur, street vendors hawked fried fish and grilled meats to passers by.

    In Egypt, small, raw birds were pickled in brine and eaten cold in the 3rd millennium BC, but excavations from the same period indicate that more sophisticated cooking methods were in use and that the rich particularly liked elaborate stews. Leavened BREAD seems to have first appeared in Egypt, although the time and place are uncertain.

    1 – 1000 A.D.
    Oranges appear in India in the first century A.D. from China

    25 to 200 AD
    One of the first applications of metals was to build a stove. Cast iron was used for this purpose in China, through a process in which melted iron was poured into sand moulds.

    97 A.D.
    The most notable ancient water-supply and waste-disposal systems were those of Rome. In AD 97, Sextus Julius FRONTINUS, then water commissioner of Rome, reported the existence of 9 aqueducts of lengths varying from 16 to more than 80 km (10 to 50 ml), with cross sections of 0.5 to 4.5 sq m (7 to 50 sq ft). Such a system had an estimated aggregate capacity of 84 million gallons per day. In addition to this system, Rome had a great sewer known as the Cloaca Maxima, which drained the Roman Forum, and which is still in service.

    3rd Century A.D.
    Mary or Marianne an alchemist of Alexandria lived. She is credited with the discovery of the properties of the bain marie, from whom the name is derived: Mary’s bath.

    575
    The coffee aribica first cultivated about this time.

    600
    Windmills are in use in Persia for irrigation.

    15th Century
    Europe begin to use cast-iron stoves several hundred years after the Chinese. Haricots beans introduced into Europe from South America. In the middle of the 15th century chillies are being grown and used in Europe after being introduced from the Americas.

    1432
    Caviar is first mentioned as an hors d’oeuvres in Rabelais’ work; Pantagruel. It was not to become famous in France for another 500 years.

    1488
    Portuguese vessels reached South Africa by 1488 for purpose of spice trading.

    1489
    Portuguese vessels reached Calicut in India by 1498 for purpose of spice trading.

    1493
    Christopher Columbus introduces sugar cane into Hispaniola (Haiti-Dominion Republic).

    1498
    The toothbrush is invented by a Chinese dentist.

    16th Century
    Celery cultivated from the wild and poisonous variety in Italy sometime in the 16th century. Kidney beans, and vanilla pods introduced into Europe from the Americas. Rice and limes introduced to Mexico by Spanish Traders Avocadoes discovered and by the Spanish in Mexico. Cashew and peanuts were introduced into Europe by Portuguese Traders from the Americas. Cauliflower is introduced to France from Italy in the middle of the 16th century.

    1509
    The first sugar cane mill is established in the Americas.

    1513
    Portuguese vessels reached Canton, China, by 1513 for purpose of spice trading

    1519
    Chocolate is introduced into Spain as a beverage. The term “chocolate” was originally applied to a drink similar to today’s hot chocolate. The Spanish Conquistador; Hernan Cortes introduced the drink to Spain upon returning from his Mexican expedition, during which he was given some by the Aztec King Montezuma II. Gradually spreading from Spain through Europe and into England, the chocolate drink became increasingly popular.

    1520
    Corn (Zea mays) is imported into Spain from the West Indies by Hernan Cortes and Christopher Columbus

    1524
    The Spanish Conquistador; Hernan Cortes introduces the cocao beans to Europe

    1533
    Catherine de Medicis arrived in France from Florence with a retinue of master chefs. She brought Italian staples: milk-fed veal, baby peas, artichokes, broccoli, and various pastas. The French court tasted, for the first time, such delicacies as quenelles (fish dumplings), zabaglione (a rich egg yolk and wine custard), and scaloppine. With her arrival, French cookery embarked on a course that produced the most complex and refined cuisine in the Western world.

    1554
    Tomatoes from South America are cultivated in Europe.

    1550
    The worlds first Café was opened in Constantinople.

    1569
    A law in France is passed, forbidding Bakers to wear breeches other than on Sundays. Which meant they could not go out in public without being immediately identified, this law was passed to force them to stay at the oven all day. They were also forbidden to gather in groups, carry a sword or any other weapon. So was the Baker enslaved since those days.

    1573
    The potato is brought back from the Americas and cultivated in Spain.

    1586: July 28th
    First potatoes arrive in England from Colombia, brought by Sir Thomas Harriot.

    17th Century
    In the 17th century, chocolate houses were the social meeting places of the day

    First made in 17th-century Holland, the manufacture and popularity of gin spread quickly throughout Europe, and variations of the Dutch formula began to appear. Gin is an alcoholic beverage made by distilling fermented mixtures of grains and flavouring the resulting alcohol with juniper berries. The name is derived from the French word genievre (juniper).

    Jerusalem artichoke introduced to Europe from its native North America early this century

    Parsley introduced to America by British colonists.

    1600
    British merchants formed the East India Company (1600-1858) and introduced teas into England and the American colonies

    1602
    The Dutch East India Company is founded. The Massachusetts Bay colonist are introduced to clams by the native Indians.

    1610
    The first inn built in the original American colonies was the Jamestown Inn in Virginia, established about 1610. Lodging houses–called inns or taverns in the north, and ordinaries in the south–were soon established near seaports, canals, river landings, and post roads. An 18th-century Massachusetts law provided penalties for any town that did not offer lodging for travellers

    1620
    Wild turkeys found by the Pilgrims in the New World

    1627
    Last known specimen of ‘aurochs’ (ancient breed from where domestic cattle were bred) recorded in Poland.

    1634
    Dijon in France granted the exclusive rights to make mustard.

    1644
    The drink; COFFEE, was introduced into Europe in the mid-17th century, by a traveller named La Royne.

    1647
    A blast furnace at Saugus, Mass., was casting iron stoves. Many of these early stoves were jamb stoves, which were intended to make a fireplace more efficient and distribute its heat more effectively. The most common was the five-plate stove, made of five flat iron plates that formed a rectangular box with one open side. A hole was cut in the back of the fireplace completely through the wall to the room behind it, and the stove was inserted into the opening with the open end of the stove being flush against the rear wall of the fireplace. The remainder of the stove protruded into the room to be heated. When a fire was built in the stove, it served to heat both areas. Designers of these early stoves delighted in casting intricate designs into the visible portions.

    1651
    Le Vrai Cuisinier published, the first cookbook to summarise the French Nobilities cooking practices. Written by Pierre Francoise de la Varenne.

    1654
    French writer; Nicolas de Bonnefons publishes a work called, ‘Les delices de la campagne’, it was to prove a turning point in French cuisine. The book was responsible in the French turning away from the practices from the Middle ages of spice overuse and being concerned with the natural flavour of food.

    1660
    American cultivated strawberries introduced to Europe from the New World.

    1668
    Coffee introduced to the Americas.

    1678
    French botanist M. Marchant demonstrated that mushrooms grew from spawn, thus starting the cultivation of the vegetable

    1683
    The croissant was created in Vienna, Austria in celebration of defeating the Turks. The shape mirrors the Turkish crescent symbol.

    1718
    John Montagu, 4th earl of Sandwich’s butler/cook is credited with the invention of the sandwich.

    1723
    The first glasswork to specialise in bottles for wine is set up Bordeaux, france by an Irishman.

    1742
    Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius invents the Celsius scale for temperature. The Franklin stove, invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1742, was made of cast iron, originally with a partially open front, and was designed to fit into a fireplace. It radiated more heat and burned less fuel than an ordinary fireplace and was widely used for heating.

  2. The Australian Government funded the Matrix movies. The movies would have never happened if it wasn’t for Ghost In The Shell, which they heavily “borrowed” from.

    All the core ideas you saw there were the product of a single man’s mind. These products were then interpreted by another man’s mind and made into the Japanese Movie “Mobile Armored Riot Police.”

    Everything we talk about here has already been laid out in a detailed philosophical manner in 1989. This is always the case. The Western elite kick into overtime gear and supplant things with their own Poison Pill Version of what should be liberating art and philosophy.

    When something unique and great is released. Something greater but sinister and flawed is also released. Monkey Planet gets you Planet of the Apes. Mobile Armored Riot Police gets you The Matrix.

    GITS Philosophy
    http://eddie.rcalias.me/eddie/Publish_files/Ghost_In_The_Shells_Philosophy.pdf

    Stand Alone Complex is actually an amazing social commentary on emergent resistance movements among a group of marginalized people in the era of “fake news” or “false memories”. It was way ahead of its time — and even more relevant today than it was a decade ago.

    Trump is basically the galvanizing “cult of personality” figure who was able to connect with a paleo conservative, economically nationalist, libertarian populist population that was marginalized by both the government and the media — much like Hideo Kuze was to the refugees. In the case of Trump, he energized the people, but also similar to Kuze, he can’t really control every aspect of the emergent behavior.

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14417629

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