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Spain is in the news.
Spain has now become the fourth Eurozone country, after Greece, Ireland and Portugal, to get bailout funds in the growing crisis gripping the Euro.
Unemployment is high and services are being cut to reduce debt and bring budgets into balance. Some economists doubt this is possible within the context of a single currency shared with Germany and France. There have been violent but futile street demonstrations.
The fellow sitting beside me slammed his book closed and sat looking pensive.
The bus was approaching Cremorne junction. I like the M30. It starts where I get on so I’m assured of a seat and it goes all the way to Sydenham in the inner West, past Sydney University. Part of the trip is particularly scenic, approaching and crossing the Harbour Bridge. We’d be in The City soon.
My fellow passenger sat there just staring blankly into space. I was intrigued. So I asked what he had been reading that evoked such deep thought. He smiled broadly, aroused from his reverie. “Oh it’s just Inferno the latest Dan Brown,” he said.
With the invention of the first practical steam engines at the turn of the seventeenth century, and mechanical energy’s increasing utility to replace the physical labour of humans and animals, human civilisation took a new turn.
Now when a contemporary human catches public transport to work; drives the car to socialise with friends or family; washes and dries their clothes or the dishes; cooks their food; mows their lawn; uses a power tool; phones a friend or associate; or makes almost anything; they use power once provided by slaves, servants or animals.