| Electricity | |
October 21, 2014
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| In this society, if you were charged for a light crime such as speeding, you could pay fines; but, another alternative was to 'generate electricity.' He was caught for a traffic sign violation. He didn't think that the road was one way. When he was pulled over by the police, he appealed saying that his navigator on the dashboard didn't show the one way. The police man said triumphantly, "This road has become one way recently. Maybe your cheap navigator system hasn't been updated." This was the reason he chose the generating task: he didn't want to pay any money to the authorities. Another reason was that he often went to the gym so he thought it was not so different. He was running in the downtown area. On both his ankles, there were generators attached, he could check the process of the generation of electricity on the watch-shaped machine on his wrist. The electricity he generates is sent to the government as micro-waves automatically. He checked the gauge on the screen, it showed a 50 percent charge. He had ran
After one hour, he stopped for a rest. Now his gauge showed 58 percent. At this pace, it was clear that he couldn't meet the time. But, he had an idea. He looked around and aimed for the nearest tall building. It was a 5 storied building which had an outer staircase for emergency. He went to the base of the staircase and started to run up. With this strategy, he could generate 1.5 times as much energy as running on a flat surface, he thought. Soon after, he realized somebody was running up in front of him. After a while, he caught up to the person. It was a woman. He found the same type of generating machines on her ankles. He lined up to her. She was in her late 20's, not pretty but somehow attractive. He called to her, "Hey, this is a hard task, huh?" She glanced at the machine on his ankles but didn't even look at him. He asked, "What percentage is yours?" She said nothing. Her pace was not bad, her running was kind of good; but, his pace was a little bit faster though. He passed by her. One hour passed. He was exhausted. Now the gauge was about 70 percent. Another 2 hours left. At this pace, it seemed difficult to make it in time. When he caught up to the woman again, another idea came up to him. He said to her, "I got an idea. I can wear your device for a certain period, for example two or three times around the building, and for that time you can rest. When you start with two sets of machines, you recover energy. These gadgets aren't so heavy so two sets should not be a problem for us." She looked at him for the first time. Her face became bright. They went to the basement and she gave him her set. He attached her set and started to run swiftly. This way worked. They were able to get enough rest by turns, so their running speed increased dramatically. Plus, her cheering gave him power. She thanked him for his good idea. Their generating gauges were almost the same so the two gauge proceeded about the same way. But at 11:30 p.m. when he got to the basement he angrily said, "See. Our gauge are about 90 percent. We can't generate 10 percent in 30 minutes. It's over!" He fell down to the ground angrily. She felt shocked but she took the gadgets from his body and started to run, saying, "You can think of another idea! I'll earn time." He was looking at her back while she was leaving. "What can we do any more?! We're wasting all of our efforts! Oh! I understand the government's idea. They want us to fail and to get more electricity from us!" Soon she returned and said, "I got an idea. I'll drop these sets from the top of the building onto the garbage bags over there. You'll pick them up and attach them to yourself and go up, while I'm going down. Running up must create more electricity." After saying this, she ran up the stairs. He didn't know how efficient going up rather than going down was, but her thoughts seemed logical. He stood up and went to the garbage corner. Soon, her voice sounded, "Are you ready!" He shouted, "I'm ready!" At the end, they ended up generating 100 percent electricity on their machines by 11:56. They high-touched each other and fell down on the ground. They couldn't move for a while. He first got up and asked her, "By the way, what's your violation, speeding?" She replied, "I drove the wrong way on a one way road. My navigator didn't show it. The officer said my navigator was old. I didn't want to pay money for their salaries." "So did yours?!" he laughed. Their laughing voices sounded through the air of the downtown area. |
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*triumphant :feeling very pleased because you have won something or succeeded (C)