Modem Times 2.0 Read Online Free PDF

Union’s fallen?”
    “I forget. I suppose that in your day so much of this seemed impossible, or at least unlikely. Thirty-five years ago you were talking about zero population growth and the problem of leisure. Here we are at the new Smaller Business Bureau. Lovely, isn’t it? Yes, I know, it smells like Amsterdam. I work here now.” Carefully, he opened the doors of Reception.
13 . OFFSHORE OPERATIONS
    “Carbon neutral” sounds pretty straightforward—simply remove as much carbon from the atmosphere as you put in. The trouble is civilization began emitting CO 2 when humans burned the first lump of coal about 4,000 years ago.
    —Popular Science
, July 2010
    “I THOUGHT YOU were an ally.” Jerry tucked his shirt into his chinos and swung down from the examination couch. No?”
    Dr. Didi Dee looked up from beneath furious brows. “Why should I be now?” She assumed a frozen defence. “Now I’m a missionary? A Christian?”
    Jerry’s mum heard this. She had forced him to keep this appointment and almost forced him to come. She was looking tired, even for her age. “But you were a Christian before, weren’t you, dear? Before poor old Obarmy, I mean.”
    “Don’t refer to our President like that.”
    “Sorry, love. I forgot what gods yer always puttin’ up, you Yanks. No offence. Personally I don’t know wot yer see in ‘im, long streak a piss.”
    “It’s all right, mum.” Jerry didn’t like her timing. “It’s justauthority. They love it. They’re even pre-Biblical sometimes. Poor old Moses. Talk about idolatory.”
    “Now you’re being spiteful.” Dr. Didi Dee was grim again. “I’m the one with the prescription pad. Are you going to do as I tell you or not?”
    “It’s the German influence, I think.” Mrs. Cornelius was trying out the umbrella she had brought with her from Sri Lanka. “It’s not because you’re black, dearie, is it? I had a friend like you. Well, not as pretty, admittedly. But not in this day and age, surely?”
    “Get her out of here.” Didi Dee folded her arms under her breasts. “And I’d get out of town, if I were you.”
    “Oh, bugger.” Jerry rubbed at a small scab on his wrist. “I thought this was too good to be true. So what’s it about?”
    “It’s about Obarmy, dear, isn’t it? We’re all disappointed. It’s not just you.”
    Mrs. Cornelius had become a little spiteful since her recent resurrection, thought Jerry. There were subtleties to American society mysterious to most Europeans. They thought they knew what was going on, but really they had absolutely no idea. They mocked Americans for not knowing where Prague was and didn’t know how to pronounce Houston. Jerry wondered if the country would be any better if the French had beaten the British. Or if Tom Paine’s Parliament had been permitted. Well, there was no point in going to Mississippi now: now that he knew Cathy/Colinda wasn’t there. Maybe Louisiana? And then Texas? He’d like to see the Gulf again, if only to take a gamble on the boats, risk his all at The Terminal Café.
La mer d’huile Mes jolies, mes corazoa, deux pieds assayez langue du gringo, meyenherren
. How can we stop all this?
    He began to laugh at last.
14 . CHASING A CURE
    When it comes to internal rules for the U.S. military, the Obama administration is not going to be wishy-washy. The armed forces will be given, well, marching orders.
    —Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal: A Locally Owned Newspaper Dedicated to the Service of God and Mankind
, June 15, 2010
    I T WON’T BE LONG , Major Nye thought of telling his captors, before the public become confused and bewildered and that’s when they got to be radical activists. So which came first, the golden egg or Mother Goose? But he saw no point in voicing this question. The kidnappers had been courteous to a fault and he had no wish to trouble them with his own problems. Nonetheless, he was beginning to wonder if he shouldn’t have taken them to a French farce