Engineers have just as much education as scientists, but the vast majority of engineers I know are heavily tilted to the Republican side. It may just be just the industries that I deal with, but I can't think of a single company that I deal with, whether it be in the power industry, mining or defense, where there isn't a clear conservative bent on the people that work there in general. And some of these people are highly educated. I have a friend who can truly be described as a "rocket scientist" (although he has a Masters in Mechanical Engineering and PhD in Electrical Engineering) and he is about the most religious and conservative person I know.

My boss and two other engineers where I work all use os9 daily. They use a ancient CAD program called Ashlar Vellum (reminds me of a glorified verison of MS Paint) to make engineering drawings all day long. Up until a year ago they even used netscape 4 for www and email and seem to be content in their own little world. They now have PC's sitting next to them for internet use, but they still use their os9 mac's for "real" work...

I wonder what an accident would look like with one of these cars with a semi truck.. I suppose we should consider getting rid of those as well since they are the biggest thing on the road.

Why are you comparing a large station wagon to a small hatchback? My Jetta 2009 TDI sedan has a total area (passenger + cargo) of 107 cu.ft. While the Prius has a slightly higher volume of 115.3 cu.ft. I must say the the Jetta sedan's trunk is bigger than an average car (from my own experience). As for fuel economy, it all depends on how you drive. The EPA admits that their methodology underestimates diesel engine fuel economy. On the highway, or in the mountains, the TDI engine shines. My commute to work (20% city driving & 80% highway driving) I can easily average 55 MPG. Mountain driving I can average 43 MPG. The key is to know that the engine achieves maximum torque at about 1750RPM. I will concede that driving in the city, the Prius may be a better car for fuel efficiency (the regenerative braking is the car's biggest saving grace). Even at that, I can still average high 30's or low 40's in pure city driving in the Jetta. I also think that the driving experience in the Jetta is far superior than in the Prius. The car handles wonderfully, and the interior doesn't seem simply utilitarian, but that is my opinion only. As for batteries, do you not know that lead acid batteries have close to a 95% recycling rate? The infrastructure for handling these batteries is much more extensive than for any NiMH or lithium battery pack. Also, the size of the battery in any hybrid has to be bigger, because the battery has to power the car, not just start it and run all the various electrical systems.

You do have a point, the price has probably changed. The $0.40/lb I quote was about 10 years ago. And while energy costs have increased, other factors are keeping the overall costs down. For instance, while the haul trucks and other movable equipment operate much like a locomotive with a diesel engine running a electrical generator, most of the processing equipment runs on electricity from the grid. In my area, there are at least 2 mines (probably more) that run this equipment from a hydroelectric dam in the area. This electricity runs the mills, SX/EW operations, crushing & conveying, etc which make up the bulk of the machinery at the mine. While $/kWh may have gone up over time, it is probably nowhere near the increase in diesel. Further, a typical copper mine produces more than just copper. There is one mine that produces a significant amount of molybdenum. While the production is nowhere near what it produces in copper, at $40/lb, it pretty much pays for all of the mining operations, and makes the copper production icing on the cake. Thirdly, the costs to process the ore keep dropping with new techniques. My boss laments (he was a mining engineer for one of these mines) that 30 years ago it took 35,000 people to accomplish what it takes 2,500 people to produce 25 times the copper. So even though costs do rise, I don't think it is as bad as you might think.