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Thursday, October 21, 2010

No wonder people ride bikes in France

First of all I’m going to promote my twitter here, www.twitter.com/mrmoment.  I would really like to be able to use this as a form of communication between myself and all of you who check out the blog.  Would make it much easier for me to network with all of you as well!

The post can be seen after the jump!



             With that taken care of, let’s check out some cool stories coming out today.  One that I find to be rather staggering is that France is currently in a state of great upheaval.  So for those of you who haven’t followed it, their workers have great luxuries and basically the government is trying to work it so that way state pensions start a few years later amongst other issues like holidays.  Certainly the unions have a duty to their members to try and keep as many of these benefits as possible; unfortunately, what has happened is essentially a national meltdown of key industries.  You think bus strikes, teacher strikes, and other strikes we tend to be burdened with are bad (or annoying), imagine if multiple key industries did this at the same time… nationwide.  Basically what has happened is that petrol refineries, nuclear power plants, and natural gas power plants, have all been either shut down because of the strike, or blockaded by citizens.  This has caused a massive petrol and energy shortage.  France has had to use riot police to gain access to some of the petrol depots just to keep enough fuel to keep the transportation sectors running at near normal.  Also France (a country known for its electrical generating independence) has had to start importing electricity to make up for the closed facilities. 



           Imagine if something of this scale were to happen in the U.S. over a span of time.  Really think about it.  No fuel would mean much more than not being able to drive the car with low fuel.  We are talking about no airfreight, no semi-truck deliveries, and limited public transit.  Think of the oil crisis back in the 70’s.  But now factor in something even more enjoyable… power plants getting locked out and the U.S. being forced to try and arrange agreements with two countries that don’t consume nearly as much power in order to cover those deficits or face rolling blackouts.  Make’s you think about how flat and interconnected everyone’s life really is, really, it is almost a miracle anything happens.

            On a slightly happier note, smart people drink more!  Which is good because, quite frankly, this will just make me a great punching bag when I cruise up to the bar and say, “Hey, can I get a <insert good craft brew here> and did you know that, because I am regarded as an intelligent fellow, I am also more inclined to drink alcoholic beverages!”  but in all seriousness check out the article, even has some cool pre-civilization decision making processes to justify the historical argument.  


Gonna go help myself if you don’t mind….

          Finally Bill gates made a generous contribution towards keeping California from backing out of a very aggressive environmental bill.  My hat is off to him and all those who are giving to keep fighting the good fight.  Hopefully this will pass so that industries will get the message that they need to do better, not less, just build it right. Billy G throwing out them Big Bills


So remember, hit up my twitter and remember to always keep the moment positive!


Also your cool read of the day (at least for those of us on the west side of the Atlantic) is a link to the "Chunnel". The tunnel that ruins all zombie outbreaks in England for the rest of us.


57 comments:

  1. I've always wanted to go to France...

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  2. not to sound like an ass, but whats your source on the 'more intelligent people drink' thing?

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  3. wooo I'm your 100th follower, nice blog you got goin. I'll definitely be back.

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  4. I linked the source in the article, just check it out there

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  5. :P my bad i didn't notice the shade change hahah [:

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  6. Followed your twitter, also nice blog by the way! Interesting points you posted there. :)

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  7. i think that the bike riding thing in france is awesome

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  9. Glad I didnt decide to vacation in France this year lol

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  10. thats some pretty serious shit. ppl shpuld do the same in the US

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  11. France is literally blowing up, very exciting! Can't wait to see how it all turns out.

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  12. the French women also don't shave their pits

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  13. I cheer what they're doing. If you don't like what your government is doing (for a rational, thought out reason) it's your duty to fight back.
    I'd miss some school over the gas shortages and whatnot, but I'd probably get some cash out of the looting ;)

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  14. too bad that protesting is apparently the only thing French are good at :)

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  15. ^They are good at eating snails/cheese as well!

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  16. Come now, the French have, throughout history, done many important things, its just that rioting happens to be one of their specialties lately...

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  17. awesome stuff, keep it up!

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  18. That's crazy, I hope France ends up alright.

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  19. Nice to see people really giving a crap and standing up for what they believe.

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  20. France will never live past the second coming of The Flying Spaghetti Monster

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  21. I hate France


    haha kidding just TROLLING you

    ;)

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  23. French people hate cars.
    Btw why isn't there an edit button? :|

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  24. Well.. I don't see why people are going mad because of 2 years..

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  25. Wow thats crazy stuff. if that happened here I could see it escalating to there being riots everywhere. well not everywhere, some of the people here are so lazy theyd be angry but do nothing about it.

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  26. I thought France was lovely this time of the year

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  27. Following you on twitter, that's a shame about France..

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  28. followed your twitter, and i'd bike if I was in France too.

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  29. great post, thanks for visiting my blog!

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  30. Ahh nothing is going to get better. In fact it's all going to get much much worse, England is going to be next. Unless Eu chip in, which they might... but no one likes france so thats why they are in such big trouble!

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  31. Kudos to Bill Gates for his contribution! On a side note this is a quality blog you got here :) Following, I will be back for more!

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  32. I still don't get the French riots all that much. I think most Americans in that same age range would think it was probably a good idea to bump up the retirement age for Social Security benefits another 2 years, if not more, if it meant making sure the system would be there for them when they reach that age.

    /tipping my hat to the discussion/

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  33. I agree Lazy, I don't think people would riot about that exact issue, however lets look at something like... rationing of gasoline to lower out environmental footprint. Something way out there admittedly but you could argue was a "worthy" cause

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  34. the french are quite a strange people huh??

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  35. It is no wonder theyride bikes, pfft.

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  36. didn't realize that is why they love bikes

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  37. I wish rioting and whatnot began over here, i mean the french are going ballistic over 2 years added to their working lives while we have billions in debt, trillions actually!

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  38. Wow, stuff is really starting to get out of control over there. Calm down, frenchmen!

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