Opinions

After 45 years in the business, Motel 6 is renovating their rooms and making a move to go Upscale in Decor.  New-age furniture fills the room now, with solid, bold colors and contemporary wall architecture.  The old floral bedspreads, dingy carpet, and plain white countertops are now being replaced with contrasting vivid colored bedding, wood-style flooring, and black granite.The look is definitely upscale, as you can see with a mere glance at the stunning pictures of the decor concept to the right.  Even more surprising, Motel 6 plans on offering 32-inch flat-screen TVs recessed in dark wood tv armoires, an industry first for a budget motel chain.Guests can also expect docking compatibility for their MP3 players and laptops, as well as free WiFi in every room.The most amazing thing yet is that Motel 6 anticipates no change in their price point average, which was $45.26 in 2007.  The geniuses at Motel 6 are going to have Super 8, Best Western, and all the other motel chains scrambling to respond.  Book me a room.  At 45 bucks, it’s almost worth it just to check out the upscale decor at Motel 6 and enjoy it for a day.

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Take a look at these Stylish Garage Doors by Coplay.  A garage door is one of the biggest components on the front of your house, and because of that, you probably want it to look halfway decent and fitting.  Coplay is one garage door designer that offers styles beyond the typical door, as shown on the right.These styles can help complete a house, or creatively improve the overall theme of your home exterior and decor.Included styles are Cottage, French Country, Colonial, Contemporary, Tudor, Victorian, Ranch, Mediterranean, Cape Cod, Split Level, and Spanish.

Coplay is the world’s largest garage door manufacturer.  To see more, be sure to visit stylish garage doors by Coplay.

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Recently the barrel of crude oil has reached all time highs. As of 3/14/2008, the price of a barrel of crude oil is $110.21 (one of the highest cost of oil in history). Not many people understand the break down and the cost to produce gasoline from crude oil, but it’s fairly simple.

When your local news channel reports the cost of crude oil per barrel, all you need to do is divide that dollar amount by 42, and you will have the price per gallon. As of today, the cost of crude oil is ~$110, so $110/42 is ~$2.62 per gallon. After taking into account the applicable taxes and costs to get the gasoline to your local gas station, you will see that final value at the pump.

Unlike most middle men, it is the producers of crude oil that benefits from this type of cost rally that we have seen in the past few weeks. The cost to produce gasoline is composed of four major points:

1. Cost of Crude Oil,~$2.62
2. Refining Cost, ~$0.24
3. Taxes, ~$0.33
4. Cost to Ship and Sell, ~$0.40

You will be paying: $3.59 for regular unleaded.

The cost of refining the crude oil (to make it usable for automobile consumption), taxes, and the cost to ship and sell are all relatively normal costs of supplying gas to the general public. However, it is the cost of oil that keeps fluctuating and changing as our economy changes and our supply of crude oil changes.

How will people cope with the surge of gasoline prices? Well, we could use that $600 “economic stimulus” the government promised us, or we can find better means of doing our daily activites and try to control our consumption of gasoline.

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I picked up a recent copy of The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper at my local news stand and I decided to give it a read. Normally, I am not very impressed by news sources that are not the Los Angeles Times (or the New York Times) because I typically try to stick with a few view points that I am familiar with. So, this time around I decided to venture into the Philadelphia Inquirer and here are my thoughts.

For starters, I will be comparing only two articles about a single subject, not necessarily discussing the same topic, but I am simply giving an extremely biased opinion on the styles and abilities of the authors who wrote these articles. The subject I chose was oil. Since oil prices have been soaring all across the nation (Monday 3/3/2008, the cost for crude oil was just over $103), this subject has been the focus of many peoples concern because it is something that everyone needs.

The LA Times article seemed a lot more casual and more readable to the casual reader. The author laid out some historical facts and numbers but stayed away from throwing too many analytical information for the reader. Instead, the author painted a picture that seems more reasonable and less “to the point”.

The Philadelphia Inquirer article was very straight and to the point. As you read each fact and and opinions by analysts, I felt unsure exactly what opinion I should be forming about our subject. From a strictly analytical point of view, the article was very solid and to the point, but without some actual opinion (stated or otherwise deduced) it was hard for me to differentiate between the authors words and the facts being provided.

I completely understand that news articles are suppose to be written without biasness and opinion, but let us face the facts; every word you read has a tone and opinion that speaks for itself. Whether the glass is half empty or half full it would be difficult to completely write without any biasness, so in retrospect, the Inquirer did a much better job reporting on “Oil price: Salt in a wounded economy,Record high will sting every sector and all people“, where as the Times painted a better picture of “Oil touches an all-time high“.

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