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This has been going around facebook for a couple of days, so chances are that you’ve seen it already.  If you haven’t,  go there and watch the video.  This is seriously cool.

The problem with solar panels is they take up space.  There’s a massive array that went up recently in  California’s central valley, and it will power a couple of nearby towns, but that’s it.  By using solar panels to pave the roads and parking lots of the world, our energy problem would be solved because there are roads and parking lots and sidewalks everywhere.

It might be a tad more expensive than asphalt, but the asphalt isn’t going to pay for itself.  These tiles are.

The way the roads light up at night is icing on the cake.

Of course, some people will raise technical problems, just trying to be helpful, but playing into the hands of those who do not want this to succeed.  A few engineers and idealists will continue to talk about it for a while, but there will be no government action,no repaving of  just one little interstate highway, just to make sure it works.

No, the government is owned by the oil companies, et alii, and they are scared to death  of cheap, clean energy.  That is why I’m really glad that the people who had this idea took it to facebook, and started a fundraising project on the internet.  They’ve already raised over a million dollars.  That should be enough to cover a couple of parking lots and a short stretch of road somewhere.

Also, that gives them a chance to work out any kinks.  (if they melt snow in the winter, will they melt tires in the  summer?)

Gradually, some of the more progressive municipalities and regions of the world will go for it and the pressure will  grow.

Sort of like what’s happening with marijuana now.  The U.S. government will be the last organization to co-operate.

Well, there’s really nothing new in what Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer at the SETI institute, is saying.  It’s the fact that he put a date on it and said it in front of a congressional committee.  “It’s unproven whether there is any life beyond Earth,”  Shostak said. “I think that situation is going to change within everyone’s lifetime in this room.”

Since he was speaking in front of a congressional committee, some of those old farts are 70,even 80 years old.  He’s saying  we expect to detect alien life in 20 years, tops, maybe ten.

I’m pleased to hear it, I hope he’s right, but I wonder about the methodology.  We really have no clue when we will detect alien life, because we haven’t detected it yet.  It’s like asking “How long are you going to be looking for your phone?”  Since you will look for it until you find it, you have no idea how long that will be.

We might find life in the ice covered Seas of Io – or was that Titan?  Never mind, we’ll check them both.  We might search  for signs of life, but really…we’ve no idea what we’re looking for and, still, despite the miracles of modern science, exoplanets (we ,might find fish on Io, but not a technological civilization) are really, really far away and it’s kind of  miraculous that we can detect their existence at all.

We’ll send out signals.  Many think that would not be wise.  They might be right.  But it’s what we’re going to do, because it’s who we are.  Throughout human  history, curiousity has won out over fear, more often than not.

We’ll colonize the few colonizable worlds in our own Solar System.  We’ll send out multi-generational star colonizing ships.

We are going to keep looking.  20 years would  be really cool, though.

Well, the man on  TV is flying a ‘skybike’ or a’gyro plane, it’s small enough he scoots along country roads like  a motorcycle and now they are talking about jellyfish,     I’m not sure I get the connection.

It’s raining, I can hear the splash on the metal window sill.  It was sunny in the morning, and it was a typical Friday, my days are so routine.  I was going to walk to my first class, along the river, it’s a pleasant, contemplative walk, I’ve actually written a few poems that way, but I left it too late and compromised and only took a tram for a part of the way.

The usual classroom was closed.  Czech elections begin tonight, so it looks like  some of the classrooms have been temporarily converted into polling places.  Nobody  ever tells me shit.  So, I went up to the office to ask where my 5th graders were  and the secretary  was just chatting away with another good old girl about their nails.  When she eventually decided to acknowledge my presence, she just said ‘ they’re out  today.’  I said “Are you sure?,” trying to feign surprise and disappointment.  That was enough to get her to check, though, and they  were just one  floor up.  

Probably the polling place situation explains why I had 6 or 7 kids in  my class who I usually  don’t.  They were the same mix as the rest, though.  One very  bright girl, a couple of boys who thought they were funny using words I’d never teach them, and the majority trying to avoid eye contact and learn as little  English as possible.

I guess my frustration shows.  One  of the boys in the class came up to me and asked if I was all right.

Then I had the classes out in Vinoř.  It was still  sunny.  Actually, it  was a little  bit sauna-like on that bus.  The best moment in those classes came right at the beginning.  The first little girly who came in, the door to the classroom wasn’t even open yet, I have to wait for the designated mother-with-the-key, and started pointing  to things on the wall, little, wooden, cutout figures and saying “Blue fish, red bicycle, pink monkey.  She’s got it.  I really think she’s got it.

Anyway, that class was 3 wild kids, I opened the windows because it was hot and they all spread out and sat on the windowsills.  I suppose I should relax and go with the flow.  They are 4 and 5.  I’m sure if I just played the English speaking teacher  as babysitter for an hour, the kids would be happy, their parents would be happy and I  would, for sure, be happier, except I wouldn’t, and I’m not going to do that.

Then, I had the slightly older class and they were not any more co-operative.

When I finished, I noticed a total change in the weather outside.  The sky was various shades of gray, and there wasn’t a drop of blue in  sight.  Rain was imminent.  It waited until I got on the bus and then Thor swung  his hammer and all the clouds pissed themselves in sudden  terror.

I love the  rain.  It  clears the air.

Today was a good day for me personally.  Both of my classes went well, I taught the German wildekindern outdoors, and it was a much more controlled lesson than usual.  Perhaps because there were some kids in the class who aren’t  usually there, perhapsbecuase some of the regulars were NOT there, and perhaps (most likely) because other teachers were within visual range, everybody behaved themselves.  The  Czechs beat the Americans 4-3 at the world hockey championships in Minsk.  So, we’re in the quarterfinals.  And when I say ‘we’ I mean the Czechs.  When it comes to ice hockey, I’m that assimilated.  The quarterfinals will be an all-European contest, as Canada lost a close one to Finland.

But it was a nasty day in world affairs.  There was a military coup in Thailand.  I don’t know anything about Thai politics.  Maybe it was inevitable, maybe it was necessary, but I  doubt it.  Military coups  are conducted by the military, and military types tend to see things in terms of control.  Thailand is known as the land of smiles and it’s true, the people always seem cheerful and upbeat, but there’s nothing smiley and nice about soldiers with tanks in the streets of the city and a dusk to dawn  curfew, which is undoubtedly making Bangkok’s night life a bit less lively.  I see this as bad news for the people of Thailand, and I feel bad for them.

But I feel worse for the people of Iran. Six young, amateur filmmakers who made a video and uploaded it to YouTube were arrested.*

The video was the Happy song, by Pherrell Williams.  To tell the truth, I think it’s rather an insipid song, and can’t quite understand how it’s become the huge, international sensation that it has.  Still, people from all over the world are putting up their own dance videos to it and that is, no doubt about it, a beautiful phenomenon.  An amazing phenomenon.   It’s like Disney’s “It’s a Small World” but with real people.  Everybody around the world loves music.  Everybody around the world wants to be happy.

I’m bummed because I disapprove of censorship all around, although it comes as no surprise.  What I don’t understand is what the Mullahs objected to.  There’s nothing in the lyrics of the song which should be offensive to Islam.  They did not sing “We are so happy when we  eat pork and drink beer and marry someone of our own choice,”  The dance moves are not  particularly provocative.  There are no crude,offensive or racist lyrics.  The prophet Mohammed isn’t mentioned once.  The girls in the video are attractive, and they are not wearing burkas, but they are modestly  dressed.  By western standards, chastely dressed.  Over all, these performers portrayed Iran, and Iranians, in a totally positive light.

So, it must be the happiness they object to.  Big mistake.  If you object to your people being happy, then they will become miserable.  And from that you go to angry.  From anger, change is born.

Any society which objects to happiness is doomed to fail.  Any ideology which objects to happiness is not a viable ideology.

*this might have happened a few weeks back, but I just heard about it today

p.s. they were all released after a day, fortunately