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Evil - for dummies

What you do is you start a bank, then by sleight of hand you convince everyone that while you only have 10 units of coin in your coffers y...

Sunday, December 27, 2015

imagine 1


Imagine the earth is round and flat. Imagine you are sitting on a landmass so extensive that you cannot see its edge, and its edges are so inhospitable that even the most intrepid among us could venture far within them: an endless expanse of ice with no refuelling stations and temperatures of forty or fifty below zero. And imagine that from this circular edge extends up and around a vast dome made of a material as unyielding and impenetrable as diamond. And imagine that within this capsule all the activities and happenstance of life transpires. Imagine that you are sitting at terrace on a sunny day on a Parisian boulevard minding your own business. Imagine that you are looking up at a crystal clear sky when you see in the far far distance a speck rising up to the heavens. The distance makes it appear that it is not rising fast, but you can easily surmise that it is probably barrelling up at Mach 3 or 4. As you bring your espresso to your lips, keeping your eye on the projectile, you suddenly see it stop and explode. The explosion is a mere blip from where you are sitting, but when the flash dies the projectile is no more.

It is the new year. Your head is pounding. Most of the previous night was spent imbibing alcohol of all kinds with strangers you will never see again. You do not give this any more thought, at least not until later this day when you walk back to your hotel and catch a newsflash on CNN in the corner of your eye. An experimental commercial spaceship funded by a French billionaire exploded a minute after take-off. It was an unmanned flight.

Ha! This correlates with what you observed. You pat yourself on the back for your keen eye, and then think of it no more. After all, you have another party to go to that night and you wouldn't miss it for the world.Tickets are three thousands euros apiece. It’s held in a place called  Le Dome, a large glass structure the size of half a football field set atop the highest skyscraper in the world.