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- by Mikkel Hess and Bang Chau. Hess is Danish. Bang is actually Vietnamese-Norwegian.
The French take to the streets , trash the place and blockade fuel supplies. Masked youths (anarchists? huh?) mobilize to scale up violent protest against pension reform and reduced vacation benefits?
The social contract in France is breaking. It seems in the US we continue on very thin ice for upholding our own versions of social contract. It persists on borrowing, increased taxes and sweet ideological promises, none of which are going to be enough for very long. At what point do tea party grandmas and masked youths join to throw the first bricks?
It may work in France but one thing I expect to never see in the US is a blockading of fuel supplies by our own citizens. We’re not into that kind of self-flagellation. Never ever stand between an American and his gasoline unless you want to become swiss cheese, in a hurry.
[ed. note: why are the Frenchies smiling in these protester crowd pics? Is protesting funny? Dave would say yes. Or maybe they are just beaming with heady confidence. Yeah, they probably laughed their asses off when they guillotened Marie Antoinette.]
or… Heroes of America – Part II
“Where a steam engine uses the heat generated by burning coal to create steam pressure and move mechanical elements, the JTEC uses heat (from the sun, for instance) to expand hydrogen atoms in one stack. The expanding atoms, each made up of a proton and an electron, split apart, and the freed electrons travel through an external circuit as electric current, charging a battery or performing some other useful work. Meanwhile the positively charged protons, also known as ions, squeeze through a specially designed proton-exchange membrane (one of the JTEC elements borrowed from fuel cells) and combine with the electrons on the other side, reconstituting the hydrogen, which is compressed and pumped back into the hot stack. As long as heat is supplied, the cycle continues indefinitely. ”
Johnson Thermoelectric Energy Converter…
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/11/shooting-for-the-sun/8268
Great stuff.
[hat tip toward Zappa Remus for the link]
JR foreshadowed it,…
the end of blogging was 2009.
Katya is forever,
4:3 odds says this is a good thing.
Katya in the sky with diamonds.
Thirty-three very lucky bastards.
Post-WWII fallout, and a realization that beneath the surface we are all “irrational and violent drones” - How this emerging Freudian view shaped American public policy (along with corporate strategy) regarding a neccessity to sheppard the masses into desired compliant, orderly and consumptive behavior,… and the birth of public relations.
[Ed. note: The above vid , is part 2 in a 4 part BBC series called "Century of the Self". I haven't watched the other parts. Part 1 can be viewed here.]
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