Your Feedback July 30, 2003January 22, 2017 BEWARE THURSDAY’S MENTION OF FREE CREDIT REPORT Janos Geller: ‘I just wanted to warn you that a quick search on freecreditreport.com (alias consumerinfo.com) on the Better Business Bureau website turned up [a very bad report]. I hope not too many of your readers get burned by this.’ HYDROGEN CARS Robert Brewer: ‘You probably got a ton of responses to Jake’s letter about hydrogen. First, hydrogen has been exonerated in the Hindenburg Disaster (click here or here or here). Second, hydrogen isn’t ‘unstable.’ From what I have read, the danger of explosions from hydrogen-powered vehicles is roughly comparable to that of gasoline-powered vehicles. The problems with hydrogen-powered vehicles are that you need to get the hydrogen from fossil fuels, and that there aren’t zillions of hydrogen stations where you can fuel up your car. This is one reason why hybrid vehicles are so popular: you can use the existing infrastructure.’ ☞ Well, yes – and, soon, fill their tanks with processed turkey offal! (I told one of my more heavily medicated friends about this, describing how you put garbage in at one end and out the other end come oil and distilled water and fertilizer – ‘and M&M’s!’ he interrupted happily, getting into the spirit of it. ‘Yes,’ I confirmed, making a snap decision to go with his flow, ‘and peanut M&M’s.’) Dan Pritts: ‘By focusing on fuel cells to the exclusion of making existing vehicles more efficient (think gasoline/electric hybrids like the Honda Insight or Toyota Prius), our friends in the Bush administration are prolonging our dependence on oil. Hybrids can achieve very significantly better fuel economy than gasoline-only vehicles, TODAY.’ CHEAP SLEEP Sanjeev: ‘Have you people never heard of youth hostels? $8 to $15 a night. Shared common areas with a few amenities and you meet a LOT more, and a lot more interesting people than hotel-ing. The ‘youth’ is not enforced, and this is obviously NOT for everyone.’ THE TRULY FRUGAL TRAVELER Craig: ‘I talked to a man last night who had hiked through Mongolia, who told me the locals take offense if you pitch a tent and prepare a meal. They insist you stay in their homes and eat their meals, free of charge. If you even attempt to set up camp, they’ll come over and wag their fingers and take you to their “ger” (hut) to feed you and give you a place to sleep. Hard to beat for frugal traveling!’ YOUNG REPUBLICANS (from yesterday) Hank Gillette: ‘It must be tough to be a conservative and know that you’ve been on the wrong side of nearly every issue throughout history. As Charles Kuralt said, ‘I think liberalism lives. We have promises to keep. It is liberalism which has animated all the years of my life. What on earth did conservatism ever accomplish for our country?”