"We are the world's fastest scaredy cats."

The stoves are burning around the clock in Germany. You'll never guess why.

We're afraid of the atom, so the government has agreed to shut down its nuclear power plants. At the same time, we're afraid of global warming, so coal-fired plants are also unpopular. That's why we've built nearly 20,000 windmills. They provide electricity when the wind blows, but not necessarily when it's needed. And they are, logically, located in places where it storms, but not generally where industry and consumers live. For both reasons, new high-tension power lines are urgently needed to transport the energy. In northern Germany, every fifth windmill is now turned off when the wind is strong because the electricity grid can't deal with the sudden power surge.

I'm going to try to remember the author, Dirk Maxeiner, he has a delightful style.

espresso beans to in the agora