For the eco-friendly multi-millionaire. (NanoFlowcell)
OK, this is not a technology blog.
And yet. As an engineer I have a ‘natural knack’ for this kind of things.
Where most people see a really beautiful car I see a huge breakthrough in energy storage.
These guys at NanoFlowcell AG have invented a technology that stores electric energy in two tanks filled with a ‘salty’ solution. The way I see it very soon, as soon as prices will make sense, each of us will have a solar panel mounted on the roof and a device in our basement that will store the electricity produced during the day into those two liquids developed by NanoFlowcell AG so that we’ll be able to light up the house (and refill the car) when we come home in the evening.
“Portrayed like this things start to make sense.
The artist who had put this together deserves an Oscar for lucidity and synthesis.
This picture says it all!
One type of civilization advances behind a mask while the other refuses to see what is going on.”
That’s one way to interpret this image.
Another one, among many others, could be:
‘Those who do not feel free are actively looking for a way out of their predicament while those who have grown careless are no longer aware of what is going on around them.
And, dear reader, when considering any of these interpretations, please bear in your mind mind that each of them has been put forward by a human being, animated by a specific set of beliefs and convictions which have been heavily influenced by his personal set of life experiences.
Modern politics used to be about dialog. People talked to each other and when a conclusion was accepted by a majority it became a policy and was put into practice.
Contemporary politics seem to be about hiding behind ideological smoke screens – values, rights, political correctness, platforms, you name them – while scheming about how to implement usually self serving and too often very short sighted policies.
I’ve spent the first 30 years of my life – practically my entire youth – under communist rule. The worst thing was the complete lack of alternatives. One ruler, one party, only one opinion that automatically became law. No way to escape the mistakes made by whomever happened to be in power and who, unfailingly, ‘lost it’ gradually as he spent more time at the top precisely because there were no ‘checks and balances’, no real dialogue between the various sections of the society.
The Western part of Europe – the area currently known as the EU and which was the starting place for the most destructive wars in human history – is crisscrossed by water filled channels. Some of natural origin and some build by the people living nearby. In peaceful times they were used as shipping lanes, in wars as trenches.
Political parties evolved as public platforms. Virtual places where likely minded people got together and discussed their opinions before proposing them to the society at large. Now-a-days they seem to have become fortresses where ‘frightened’ individuals congregate so tightly that no outside influence penetrates to their ears.
Bona fide negotiations have all but disappeared and have been replaced by ‘pork barrel’ laced with veiled threats.
What are we going to do from now on? Resume trading in good faith or prepare for war?
And no matter what the ‘talking heads’ are babbling incessantly IT’S UP TO US. After all it’s our own lives that are at stake.
If you think I’m exaggerating click here and read some of the comments. They were posted by regular people, the likes of you and me. For now they are still willing to share their feelings but don’t you think the atmosphere is just a little too tense for our own good and that nobody really listens anymore?
In Romania we have a saying that goes like this: ‘A fish rots from the head and should be scaled/gutted from the tail’.
We need to clean up our own, individual, act first. Only this way we’ll be able to convince the powerful-s of the day that we really mean it.
We can start by paying attention, real attention, to the persons living next to us. To our colleagues, to our employees… Of course we pay attention to our bosses and to our families, that’s how we survive in the short term.
Time has come to pay attention to the rest of the people. If we want to thrive in the long run.
The answer depends heavily on which side of the fence you are when considering the problem.
If one looks from the inside of his conscience and is aware of his own limitations – nobody ever had at his disposal all pertinent information about anything and, anyway, nobody is able to use ‘perfectly’ whatever meager information he is able to amass, for various reasons – one realizes that his representation of the universe, his universe that is, is indeed dependent on ‘observation’.
If, instead, one mentally transports himself on the outside of his conscience – assuming that there actually is anything outside his conscience – then the universe becomes somewhat independent of observation. I say ‘somewhat’ because any action performed on something, and ‘observation’ is an action, transforms – no matter how minutely but it does – the object on which that action has been performed.
So my answer would be ‘Both yes and no depending on which side you are when considering the matter‘ but we have to keep in mind that the (relative) independence that becomes apparent when looking from the outside of our individual conscience (?!?, 🙂 ) ‘depends’ heavily on the huge disproportion between each of us and the Universe.
Cineva mi-a trimis un link catre un montaj din Actorul si Salbaticii.
Cel care a pus laolalta mesajul a identificat doi destinatari. Prima parte este adresata politicienilor iar cea de a doua intregului popor.
Si are mare dreptate. Amandoi destinatarii au, fiecare dintre ei, cate o mare responsabilitate. Problema este ca n-au inteles inca necesitatea imperioasa de a lucra impreuna.
Politicienii nu pot face nimic, nu pot implementa nici un fel de politica, daca nu sunt ajutati de cei care pun in practica aceste politici. Ca atare politicienii initiaza si promoveaza exact acele politici pentru care reusesc, cat mai usor, sa mobilizeze suficient de mult sprijin popular astfel incat acestea sa fie aduse la indeplinire.
Populatia, cetatenii cu drept de vot, nu pot sa actioneze haotic, fara nici un fel de reglementare. Chiar daca ar schimba, cumva, intreaga clasa politica actuala tot ar trebui sa puna ceva in loc. Adica o alta clasa politica. Si am ajunge in exact acelasi loc.
Ca sa iesim din cercul asta vicios ar trebui ca intreg electoratul sa fie extrem de atent tot timpul, nu doar in momentele electorale, si sa dea continuu semnale catre clasa politica: ‘suntem cu ochii pe voi’. In acelasi timp el trebuie sa sprijine activ politicile care li se par bune si sa-si manifeste, civilizat dar ferm, opozitia fata de cele care i se par proaste sau neconvingatoare.
Pe de alta parte este imperios necesar ca si intreaga clasa politica sa inteleaga odata precaritatea in care se zbate intregul sistem si ca daca mai continuam mult in directia asta se alege praful de tot si de toate.
Altfel spus, ar trebui ca ambele ‘jumatati’ ale organismului social sa invete sa-si tina in frau “Oportunistii Fanatici”
God! Some relate to it as if it were separated from this world. The God from ‘Deus ex Machina’. The Creator who remains outside its Creation.
This benediction is about something totally different.
Here God IS the world itself.
This way each of us is no longer alone but a part of something that is both bigger than the sum of the individuals that compose it and meaningful.
As most of the kids my parents sent me to a public school, it was pretty exciting for me at the beginning to learn new stuffs about different subjects and meet new people… yeah new people…
I remember my years at the middle school where I was the most fat and the tallest girl of my class! yeah I was that BIG …
One of the greatest things that made me a target for those kids was being that BIG for them and everyone was like: LOSE WEIGHT FAT COW!! I have to admit that in the past it hurt me a lot to hear something similar from those I spent eight hours per a day with, and the most hurtful thing was when we were having a team work or a sport activity most of them avoided me….
I kept trying to interact with them at first but I failed
hours per a day with, and the most hurtful thing was when we were having a team work or a sport activity most of them avoided me…. 
nicichiarasa 