Category Archives: New Utopia

As we head toward the 2022 elections, it is a safe bet that few Americans can identify the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, even though its one of the most significant amendments. Ratified on April 8, 1913, it completely changed the balance of power in our federal system.

The amendment provided for the direct popular election of U.S. senators. That sounds non-controversial now, but it meant taking the power away from state legislatures that were originally given the authority to choose the senators representing their state in Section 3 of Article I of the Constitution.

If you took civics in high school or you look up the definition of checks and balances, it is always referred to as the system that provides our three branches of the federal governmentthe legislative, judicial and executivewith separate powers that can be used to check the power of the other branches, ensuring that no one branch becomes too powerful. This is a horizontal balance of power that applies within the federal government.

But what civics teachers and others seem to have forgotten in the more than 100 years that the 17th Amendment has been in place is that the original design of the Constitution in Article I gave state governments an essential, second vertical check on the power of the federal governmentthe authority of state legislatures to pick the senators representing their states.

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As the Heritage Guide to the Constitution explains, the Framers intended to protect the interests of states as states and the mode of election impelled senators to preserve the original federal design and to protect the interests not only of their own states, but, concomitantly, of the states as political and legal entities within the federal system.

Alexander Hamilton emphasized this at the New York ratifying convention in 1788 when he said that senators will constantly look up to the state governments with an eye of dependance and, if they wanted to be reelected by state legislators, they, would have a uniform attachment to the interests of their several states. In other words, they would be wary of imposing unfunded mandates on state governments or taking other actions that extended the power of the federal government into areas traditionally within the authority of the states.

As Mark Levin succinctly explained in The Liberty Amendments, the original method of electing U.S. senators that provided state governments with direct input in the national government was not only an essential check on the new federal governments power, but also a means by which the states could influence congressional lawmaking.

Despite all of this, the amendment was ratified in fewer than 11 months and in overwhelming numbersin the 36 states that ratified it, only 191 opposing votes were cast.

The 17th Amendment was the result of the rise of Progressivism, pushed by intellectuals and social reformers who believed that our constitutional system of government was outdated and needed to be reformed. It was designed to enhance the authority of the central government and expand the size and power of a federal bureaucracy that could orchestrate the changes they believed would lead to a new utopia, while diminishing the power of state governments to contest those changes.

When the 17th Amendment was combined with the 16th Amendment, which gave Congress the power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, and which was ratified earlier that same year, the federal government had the ability to drastically increase its spending and power without considering the interests of the states or the effects on the sovereign authority of the states.

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The 17th Amendment critically altered the balance of power between state governments and the federal government, to the detriment of the states. States no longer had a legislative venue, or any venue, to influence directly the course of the federal government, Mr. Levin says.

It is impossible to conceive that the Constitution would have been ratified without this essential feature preserving the balance of power between the states and the federal government. With direct elections, senators have no incentive to protect state governments and state budgets at the expense of the enormous, bloated volume of federal programs and spending that is leading us down the road to financial insolvency.

Could this be changed? Should it be changed back? These are questions that prompt vigorous debate. But the likelihood that American voters would support going back to the original system and losing their ability to directly elect U.S. senators seems very slim. So, while we can recognize the structural damage this amendment has caused, what happened more than a century ago will probably remain unaltered.

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17th Amendment Weakened Balance of Power Between States, Federal Government - Heritage.org

The following is an excerpt from the authors new book, The Weaponization of Loneliness: How Tyrants Stoke Our Terror of Isolation to Silence, Divide, and Conquer. (Bombardier Books, Post Hill Press.)

When Jung Chang went on her first house raid as a member of Mao Zedongs Red Guard, she was not prepared to see a middle-aged, disheveled, half-naked woman kneeling in a dimly lit ransacked room, shrieking Red Guard masters! I do not have a portrait of Chiang Kai-shek! I swear I do not!

The victims back was filled with bloody cuts from beating, and she banged her head so hard on the floor that blood oozed from her forehead. Jung further reported: When she lifted her bottom in a kowtow, murky patches were visible and the smell of excrement filled the air.

Jung feebly asked the womans torturer why they were using violent struggle instead of the verbal struggle Chairman Mao was said to prescribe. Others in the room agreed with her, but the tormentor immediately shut them down as potential class enemies: Mercy to the enemy is cruelty to the people! If you are afraid of blood, dont be Red Guards!

The struggle session is a feature of totalitarianism widely practiced during Mao Zedongs Cultural Revolution in China (19661976.) It is a public exercise in ritual humiliation that serves to break down a persons sense of self. Struggle sessions are intended to enforce compliance in a persons thought processes as well as in speech and are therefore a weapon in the war against independent thought. They typically involve forced confessions, mob persecution, and violence. The Red Guards were Maos shock troops to enforce purity of thought and rid society of class enemies.

Mao was a founding member of the Chinese communist party in 1921. From then until the founding of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949, he played all the roles that led to his rise through the ranks: local party agitator, insurrection leader at the Autumn Harvest Uprising of 1927, founding member of the Red Army, and guerrilla fighter and strategist. By 1934, while he led the 5,600-mile Long March to escape and regroup after being outmaneuvered by Kuomintang forces during the Chinese Civil War, Mao was chosen to lead both the Party and the Red Army. His fortitude during the march became legendary.

Like so many totalitarian leaders before and after him, Mao and the Chinese Communist Party diligently cultivated a cult of personality around him. During the 1930s, the world communist movement hailed Mao as a standard bearer of the movement. Portraits of him were everywhere in China by his conquest in 1949. By the time he mobilized millions of young Red Guards in 1966, he was a virtual god.

Perhaps the utopian vision of the Chinese Communist revolution can be best described as a utopia of pure Maoist thought. It culminated in the Little Red Book of Maos quotations. His sayings were committed to memory throughout society the way Bible verses might be memorized by Sunday school children, but with the fanaticism of the most destructive religious inquisitions.

However, by the time Mao launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in 1966, his star was fading. A power struggle was brewing within the Chinese Communist Party because of the utter failure of Maos push to industrialize the countryside and increase grain production. His Great Leap Forward program (195862) was so riddled with short-sightedness and fake science that it caused the largest famine in human history. The estimated death toll is upwards of forty million.*

Some scholars believe Mao also launched the Cultural Revolution because he was unprepared for the level of honest criticism that came out of his Hundred Flowers Campaign during 195657. He had invited intellectuals to freely air any grievances by famously announcing: Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend! Many quickly took him up on that offer. He cracked down on them mercilessly and said later that he intentionally used the program to entice the snakes out of their dens.

But that experience also clarified to Mao that the more intense fight was on the cultural front, not economic. He came to believe that the enemy of the revolution was found within each individual. He saw independent thought as the enemy, as a threat to his hold on power. So, the goal was to get inside of each person, to break down their defenses and their individuality in order to enforce conformity. The struggle session was the perfect instrument for doing so.

Mao kicked off the Great Cultural Revolution in August 1966 with the first of several mass rallies in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Over a million frenzied Red Guards were at the ready to answer his call. These energetic youthled by students from elite collegeshad already been indoctrinated and swept up in the hype of Maos cult of personality. They were eager to prove their mettle and win their heros favor.

As with all mobs, Red Guards came to look and act just like one another: waving the recently published Little Red Book, wearing signature Red Guard armbands and Mao jackets, and chanting all the approved slogans that served as shibboleths to prove their revolutionary credentials.

Mao unleashed their destructive passions and gave them free rein to confront anyone they perceived to be a counterrevolutionary or simply born into the wrong class. Their mission was to destroy any sign of the four olds: old habits, old customs, old ideas, and old culture they could detect among neighbors, associates, families, or passersby. Red Guards ransacked homes, burned books, toppled monuments of the old order, and desecrated graves, including the tomb of the 16th-century Ming emperor. They used dynamite to blow up the gravesite of the Chinese philosopher Confucius.

The idea was to wipe the slate clean for Maos new utopian order. His battle cry was to rebel is justified! He ordered police to stand down on arresting Red Guards for any activities, no matter how violent. So, throughout China, Red Guard youth spread a reign of terror meant to suppress any disloyalty to Mao, not only in the general population but also within the highest ranks of the Communist Party, where doubts about Maos policies had been looming.

The central weapon was the struggle session. It would begin when the mobs hunted down and surrounded a suspect, shouting slogans at him or her for being bourgeois, a rightist, running dog of capitalism, counterrevolutionary, or any other slur. They handled victims roughly, often placing on them a placard of denunciation or a dunce cap indicating stupidity and backwardness. Meanwhile, the mob spat at the victim, often beating and tormenting him. Sometimes theyd tie people up like animals and smear foul substances on their bodies and faces. Well-known victims were often paraded in stadiums so that larger crowds could jeer.

Bystanders were not safe. Any witness who did not join in denouncing the person was also at risk of being accused of counterrevolutionary thought and thus isolated and shamed. The psychological pressure was intense for friends, neighbors, and families of victims to participate in these rituals of shaming.

Maos first targets were teachers. At the outset, he warned of counterrevolutionary elements in education. He egged on the Red Guards to confront their teachers, guaranteeing them immunity and excusing them from attending classes. The first victim of that Red August of 1966 was an assistant high school principal in Beijing. When Red Guards mobbed Bian Zhongyun, they tortured and beat her to death while accusing her of being an enemy of the revolution. Teachers were victimized in droves by students who subjected them to struggle sessions and wrote character posters that defamed them publicly.

Official sources put the death toll of that first month at 1,772, but its likely higher. These were not official executions but deaths due to Red Guard killing sprees. The Cultural Revolution era overall accounted for 7.731 million deaths in China, according to professor of political science R.J. Rummel. We dont know the portion related to struggle sessions, though there are estimates of about a million killed due to such mob activity.

Many victims committed suicide after the degradations. Some killed themselves if they merely anticipated a struggle session was imminent. Much of the terror was due to the arbitrary nature of the accusations. The violence was random, and the victim need not be guilty of anything. A simple suspicion uttered by a mob member would do.

Mao adapted the idea of struggle sessions from the Soviet Union. Known initially as sessions of criticism and self-criticism, they were used to test the commitment of communists. According to Oxford historian David Priestland, academics were worked over or subjected to aggressive questioning in public meetings; if they were discovered to be in error, they had to confess their sins.

A lot of the ground was laid for struggle sessions prior to the Cultural Revolution during a previous campaign called Fulfillment of the New Marriage Law, unveiled in 1950. Some women welcomed its ban on polygamy. However, communist cadres destroyed millions of families by inciting wives to complain against their husbands, instilling enormous tensions among family members and in-laws. Children were also compelled to report on their parents. Neighbor surveillance was also a factor. Public struggle meetings would follow and exaggerate family squabbles.

The stated goal was to eliminate the class character of marriage. But the real goal was to break up family cohesion and abolish any relationship that might compete with the government. This was done retroactively by breaking up and annulling millions of marriages that had been arranged or that involved dowries prior to the Communist revolution in China. And if spouses came from two different class backgrounds, the lower-class spouse was pressured to divorce.

One report stated that many wives hanged themselves after coming back from struggle meetings where they were forced to complain against their husbands. Others who sought divorce came back and were killed by their husbands. According to Rummel, a conservative estimate of deaths from the enforcement of the new marriage law in the 1950s and the struggle sessions associated with it is from five hundred thousand to a million.

Mao emphasized the process of the struggle session in a chapter of the Little Red Book of his quotations titled Criticism and Self-Criticism. He stated that such struggles are a never-ending process because communists must continuously purify their thoughts and demand purity in the thoughts of their comrades. Minds need regular sweeping and washing in order to prevent inroads of germs and other organisms.

This process is a critical part of what Mao referred to as molding the revolutionary by subjecting the individual personality to the collectivist framework. The purpose was to expose mistakes of the past without sparing anyones sensibilities, according to Mao. He compared thought-policing to a surgeon who saves a patient by removing an infected appendix. This spin on the struggle session is that its simply medicine to strengthen comrades and unify the Party. But the effect is to induce compliance by breaking down a victims sense of self and to induce conformity in bystanders who witness the process.

We can reasonably ask if the cancel culture of the early 21st century is much different from Maoist struggle sessions. Today we have high-tech lynchings, to borrow an apt phrase applied in 1991 by then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. The core features are the same: public smears, ridicule, along with a mob chorus intended to force the victim to recant the sin of dissenting against the enforced narrative.

We may not see the same level of beatings and street thuggery to give the same picture of barbarity that the Red Guard presented. But social media mobs swarm to the tune of the current propaganda, calling for the deplatforming of those who dont comply. One neednt be in the streets to get the message: comply, or you will lose your livelihood and your status in society.

In addition, the appearance of growing disregard for due process by American government officials compounds the chilling effect of media-led smear campaigns. For example, several average Americans who thought they were peacefully protesting election fraud at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 ended up imprisoned without a trial date, some even placed indefinitely in solitary confinement.

Nothing really has changed in terms of the methods and the effects of struggle sessions enforced by mobs. What has changed is their global reach and technological scope, which, in effect, amplifies the sameness of the methods.

*The Chinese Communist Partys adoption of the pseudoscientific theories of Soviet agronomist Trofim Lysenko was in large part responsible for the famine. Other fake science practices, such as plowing ten feet down and Maos war on sparrows, as well as a demand that peasants engage in manufacturing steel, also led to the massive famine, causing tens of millions of deaths from starvation. For more on the fallout of the Great Leap Forward, see Rummel, R.J. Chinas Bloody Century: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1991. For more on Lysenkoism, see Medvedev, Zhores A. The Rise and Fall of T.D. Lysenko, New York: Columbia University Press, 1969.

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How Mao's Cultural Revolution Made War On The Private Mind - The Federalist

In 1904, Halford John Mackinder submitted his theory on The Geographical Pivot of History. Therein, he would essentially spell out the ingredients a nation needs in its pantry to become a superpower. Inadvertently his recipe for world domination has proved to be an underpinning factor of politics in the modern reckoning ever since, and it includes pop culture.

Aside from a large army, plentiful food supplies, and economic prowess, there is a rather more fiddly element to ruling the world that boils down to how favourably your cultural tenets are viewed. This soft-power seasoning is essential because, in short, it has your enemies munching McDonalds, listening to Elvis Presley and eyeballing Marilyn Monroe, the ultimate rags-to-riches heroine who bedded a rather cool president no less, thinking, Can these really be the baddies? This is known as cultural hegemony.

America were the kings of this global extension of influence during the Cold War and its long-drawn preamble. The notion of freedom, fast food, fast cars, fast fun, and a fast track to the American Dream for anyone who had the cajones to clutch it was a romantic ideal that the shrinking globe bought into. However, the sort of bougie, classical lifestyle of Russia didnt really catch on as a cultural boom. Simply put, stoicism and stark winters have never really beguiled the imagination with the same joyous immediacy of The Beach Boys.

Russia rolled out literary masterpieces aplenty and was brimming with wonderful absurdism and oddities but stifled by censors and served up in a rapidly changing zeitgeist that didnt seem to suit it, it stalled and seemed stilted while American culture was dropping Golden arches all over the globe. The Russians struggled to spread hegemony beyond its sizeable borders, but the Red, White and Blue of the Land of the Free was cropping up in every fridge, on every high street, and in the dreamy minds of millions as progress dawned.

However, it is not without irony that technological progress and ingenuity were where the Soviet Union excelled. In the 1920s, as powers vied from prominence, they invented the worlds first electronic instrument purely by chance. They might not seem like the masters of modern pop music, but without one obscure instrument, the notion of swinging in the nuddy on a wrecking ball or songs written on laptops about the latest TikTok trend might never have happened. Welcome to the wonderful, weird world of the Theremin.

The Theremin might not have had the sex appeal of a crooning Ol Blue Eyes, but making music magically appear from thin air is always going to titillate the inner nerd in all of us. The 1920s were a time when we were interested in anything alien. Europe had just suffered the bloody scourge of a war that claimed tens of millions of lives. Technology was paradoxically behind this death toll, but surely it could also illuminate a brighter future. In other words, technology was a curse if it was used badly, but if it was applied with ethics, then it could propel us to a bright new utopia. A ground-breaking musical contraption was surely a harmless sign of the latter.

It was invented by Lev Sergeyevich Termen, or as he is known, your friend and mine, Lon Theremin. In the early 1920s, this young engineer was hoping to measure the properties of gasses. However, when his two antennas were up and running, he found that his machine made a peculiar sound. As a trained cellist, this sound startled his ear, and suddenly the idea of gasses went out of the window. The first electronic instrument was born, and it would escape the boundaries of our mechanical way of life.

He proudly toured his invention around Europe. After a show at the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Musical Standard wrote: The human voice, the violin, viola, cello, bass and double-bass, the cornet, horn, trombone, saxophone, organ, and almost every instrument you can think of, are all beaten at their own game by this one simple little apparatus. The Russians had won the musical space racea huge boost to their cultural stock. They were geniuses rendering the dastardly trombone old hat.

The Americans simply couldnt keep it at baythat would be, frankly, very un-American. Thus, it made its way to New York City, where musicians and scientists alike marvelled at its magic and the master behind it. It was a perfect example of the progressive technological age that they aimed to bring to the world. Art and electronics had collidedoh, the joys!

However, like all pioneering technologies, the Theremin had teething problems. In fact, its Achilles heel is the same one it still suffers from: its exceptionally hard to play well. For Theremin himself, this meant that, sadly, his great post-modernist moment before the fact was never going to prove overly profitable. This left him open to advances of alternative income. His creations place in the USA was no longer just a show of Soviet technology and a tool of cultural hegemony, but seeing as though it was a marvel among great and good of art and science, it was the perfect weapon for espionage.

During his time in the States alongside his machine, Theremin would report on other pending industrial patents. He spent 11 years and reportedly unofficially informed soft knowledge throughout. However, he was never fully behind the cause, and eventually, the Soviets recalled Theremin, imprisoned him for being a counterrevolutionary, and sent him off to a special scientific camp where he was instructed to come up with a bugging device.

Thus, he came up with another way to work with radio waves. U.S. Ambassador Averell Harriman was gifted a beautiful ornate carving of the Great Seal of the United States. He hung it proudly on his wall without knowing that Theremin had bugged it with another of his magical antenna. The Americans never uncovered The Thing until seven years later. It had been eavesdropping the whole time. Proving that even harmless signs of progressive advancement can oft go awry. You never know what intent lies beneath an innocuous pop song; the first electronic instrument heralded that from the very start.

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The Russian musical instrument that infiltrated pop culture and aided espionage - Far Out Magazine

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On The Handmaids Tale, Commander Lawrence has been talking a lot about New Bethlehem. Heres what we know about it so far, along with top theories from fans about what it means and a closer look at that New Bethlehem map they showed briefly.

Its not entirely clear what New Bethlehem is, but we do know that Commander Putnam was strongly opposed to it. Which means that its likely a good thing in some way!

One Handmaids Twitter account describes New Bethlehem this way: [it] will allow a haven for refugees and Gilead escapees to safely return to and reside within Gilead

But why would theywantto safely return?

This is obviously a different plan than the fertility center type of situation that Aunt Lydia had proposed for the Handmaids. Instead, New Bethlehem is somehow going to open up Gilead more to the world, which Putnam thought was a bad idea. He argued that it would allow terrorists and others back into Gilead. So is it an amnesty program of some sort?

Which once again, leads me to wonder why anyone who escaped would evenwantto come back.

Heres a closer look at that map that was in the scene while they were talking about New Bethlehem.

Its fascinating, but its also tough to make heads or tails out of it.

Heres what fans are theorizing that New Bethlehem will be.

On Twitter, Mellie wrote in reply to the tweet in the section above: It seems to me like it might be some kind of DMZ within Gilead borders perhaps people can come back and somehow contribute to Gilead economy without as much persecution or as harsh treatment of women. I dunno just a wild guess on my part.

Utopia #1 suggested: this will relocate those of like gilead mind into one area and not scattered around in the free worldthey will be able to gilead togetherbonus points its easier to extinguish ..js

On Reddit, u/DeepDownUnderground asked brought up that Bethlehem is the location where Jesus was born. So the idea of a New Bethlehem must be connected with fertility and births.

OrganizationLower286 replied, suggesting that this will be some kind of gentler looking Gilead to fool people into thinking Gilead is something nicer than it is. They wrote, I think New Bethlehem is going to be a tourist destination. Opening up the rogue state of Gilead to the world and spreading their message. Only happy Handmaids and Marthas.

Others think that Serenas baby will somehow be central to New Bethlehem, but at this point, Im kind of doubting that theory.

In a different discussion, FictionLover21 suggested: I think New Bethlehem is meant to be Gilead 2.0, like a reform. Lawrence can see (like many others) that Gilead works as far as producing children but because its so inhumane people & more importantly, governments dont want to support them. This is keeping them from being a bigger player on the world stage. So, they need government reform.

But in a different discussion, Tersaldi had a completely different theory that I kind of like. They wrote: The actual city of Bethlehem was destroyed by Emperor Hadrian during the Bar Kokhba revolt, where the Jews rebelled against the Roman Empire. Two centuries later, Empress Helena, mother of Constantine I (first Christian emperor), had the entire city rebuilt. So Im guessing the New Bethlehem idea is to rebuild the cities that were destroyed during the US/Gilead civil war and have American refugees move back into the country.

Whatever it is, its an idea for helping Gilead sustain itself better, and perhaps gain better PR worldwide.

The big question, I think, is Lawrences involvement. Hes trying to either reform Gilead from the inside or take Gilead down from the inside, Im not really sure which. So either New Bethlehem is a way to get the world more involved, which he hopes will be detrimental to Gilead Or its a way to try to create a gentler Gilead with more freedoms, by starting a slightly different reformed version that might ultimately expand into all of Gilead. Those are my two guesses, but either could be wrong.

What do you think?

Want to chat about all things post-apocalyptic? Join our Discord serverhere. You can also follow us by emailhere, onFacebook, orTwitter. Oh, andTikTok, too! (And dont forget ourHandmaids Tale FB pagefor show-only news.)

Stephanie Dwilson started Post Apocalyptic Media with her husband Derek. Her favorite shows of all-time are Attack on Titan, Battlestar Galactica and Lost, and she's always happy to talk about her cats. She's a licensed attorney (currently not-practicing) and has a master's in science and technology journalism.

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The Handmaid's Tale: What Is New Bethlehem? Map & Theories - Post Apocalyptic Media

What makes this market-beating engine so efficient? What innovations help it slash operational costs and emissions? Let's take a peek under the hood of the Wrtsil 46TS-DF to discover what makes it tick so many boxes.

Decarbonisation means cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and the two most effective ways to achieve this are to reduce fuel consumption and to use low-carbon fuels. The Wrtsil 46TS-DF is bursting with innovations that support decarbonisation and deliver many more benefits besides.

Here are five innovations in Wrtsil 46TS-DF that help save fuel and cut emissions:

A critical feature of the engine is the two-stage turbocharger. A turbocharger is nothing new for a large-bore medium-speed engine - it's what helps increase power and minimise fuel consumption and emissions. But single-stage turbochargers have essentially reached their limit when it comes to improving performance. By including both a low-pressure and a high-pressure turbocharger, Wrtsil has taken engine performance to new heights, cutting fuel consumption and therefore emissions.

The Wrtsil 46TS-DF has a fully electronic fuel injection system, controlled cylinder by cylinder. This means that, from start-up to shut-down, diesel operations are smoke-free. It's also highly efficient at partial loads and smoke-free at heavy loads.

The timing of the valves in a reciprocating engine has a huge impact on performance, but engines have different air intake needs at different loads. This is why the Wrtsil 46TS-DF has Variable Inlet Valve Closing (VIC), which can change the timing based on the load. Performance is further optimised with a variable exhaust valve. Both innovations help to reduce the vessel's fuel consumption and, of course, emissions.

Even the most innovative engine in the world won't perform as expected without proper automation control. The Wrtsil 46TS-DF uses Wrtsil's automation system, which monitors and optimises every cylinder cycle in real time to get the best out of the engine.

Another important way the Wrtsil 46TS-DF promotes decarbonisation is its modular design, which means every part of the engine is a module that can be replaced as needed. This approach also makes it more cost-effective and straightforward to upgrade to run on carbon-neutral fuels like green methanol in the future.

"Our target was to raise the bar in terms of performance in order to help our customers achieve the highest possible efficiency and the lowest operational costs and emissions," says Federico Bottos, Product Manager, Large Bore Marine Engines at Wrtsil. "This meant completely redesigning the engine to introduce new technology and create a modular design."

The design process began in 2016, and by 2017 the first demo engine was in the lab with new technologies integrated to boost performance and reduce emissions. In 2019 the first test engine was ready, and soon after two more test engines were added, allowing the team to really finetune the performance. "This approach means we can guarantee a reliable and proven engine from the beginning," says Bottos.

Our target was to raise the bar in terms of performance in order to help our customers achieve the highest possible efficiency and the lowest operational costs and emissions

The first customer to take delivery of a Wrtsil 46TS-DF is US cruise company Royal Caribbean Cruises. The engine will be installed onboard its new vessel, Utopia of the Seas.

The Wrtsil 46TS-DF is an engine that's far greater than the sum of its parts. Its innovations work together to create an engine with high power and low emissions in a compact design, perfect for cruise ships and ferries, as well as other applications like gas carriers and merchant vessels. "The Wrtsil 46TS-DF can reach 52% efficiency, which is the highest on the market for an engine of this size," says Bottos. "This is the best solution out there for guaranteeing both low greenhouse gas emissions and low local emissions."

The Wrtsil 46TS-DF can reach 52% efficiency - the highest on the market for an engine of this size.

Game-changing features like the five mentioned in this article will be used more widely on Wrtsil engines in the future and can already be seen on the Wrtsil 25 and the Wrtsil 31.

Learn more: download the Wrtsil 46TS-DF brochure now

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Wrtsil Oyj : Five ways the Wrtsil 46TS-DF helps you decarbonise now and in the future - Marketscreener.com

Way back in June, something crystallized for me as we covered the Colombian elections: Tech alone is never enough. Candidate Rodolfo Hernndez bet everything on an innovative system of social media campaigning; it got him past the first round, but he got crushed in the second. There are many factors behind his loss, but I am still astounded that the man would not go out and press the flesh shake hands, kiss babies or whatever politicians do as they knock on doors. The same is true of companies that have prioritized tech over the human touch.

Ever since, Ive been slightly obsessed with solutions that shun tech or rather, the standard practices associated with the industry over the past decade. Practices that go from cringeworthy, company-sinking gimmicks to the received wisdom of tech bros and VCs that some of the worlds greatest startups have ignored, and thrived without.

Start with the tech ecosystems received knowledge.

In 2019, a panel of Latin American fintech gurus, there to extol the virtues of all-digital finance, sat alongside a top official from the Bank of Mexico. The fintech mantra of cash is the competition was already beginning to get clichd, so the panel and audience were duly unsettled when the official argued that his priority was to facilitate the installation of ATMs in the more rural parts of the country. To be openly supporting the continuation and shock expansion of cash solutions was seen as a step away from the digitalized utopia that fintech fans had in mind.

Years later, adoption of fintech solutions, payment options, and digital banking has been spotty at best (including the Mexican governments own digital payments solution, CoDi). I hope those cash points were actually installed in those remote towns in the meantime.

I always harken back to this story because it so clearly illustrates the obsession with the high-level ideology of capital-f Fintech, which gets in the way of entrepreneurs pondering what people actually want or need.

The issue can be solved by going out and talking to the people youre meant to be serving in person. Unfortunately, the Latin American tech bubble is a pretty closed affair, so I worry when its members use language like democratize or revolutionize, since it often reveals companies and investors who are more interested in speaking to their in-crowd than their customers.

This obsession with in-group approval can lead down some dark roads. The most infamous case in Latin America was that of disgraced Mexican edtech startup, Yogome, whose founder was accused of inflating user numbers to entice further investments, but less catastrophic examples also abound. A closed-off tech community also results in the gimmick-loving herd mentality that gave us the rise and fall of dozens of scooter companies that, ultimately, made little economic sense.

Meanwhile, people dissatisfied with gimmicky tech offerings have started to skip over slick revolutionary new apps for tried-and-tested digital services. Community-led solutions like Venezuelan WhatsApp-run taxis and neighborhood last-mile delivery group chats in Mexico have sprung up across the region, each being eyed lustfully by entrepreneurs keen on turning them into monetizable products. Some, like Brazils neighborhood produce-delivery service, have succeeded at this, but only after others did the hard bit: building up a community of real people and thoroughly testing the product on the ground.

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Ditching tech is the new tech fad - Rest of World

Martin Scorsese onstage at the this years New York Film Festival

Wake up, babe: new Martin Scorsese hot take just dropped. The notorious Marvel-hater strayed dangerously close to reigniting 2019's biggest and dumbest Hollywood controversy on Wednesday night by taking on the thing superhero fans love most: spending a ton of money at the box office to see movies about superheroes.

The New York, New York director took a moment to praise cinema-with-a-capital-C from the very heart of it: the stage at the New York Film Festival, which he lauded as a rare, award-free utopia where you just have to love cinema.

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Cinema is devalued, demeaned, belittled from all sides, not necessarily the business side but certainly the art, he said while introducing his new David Johansen documentary, Personality Crisis: One Night Only (via IndieWire).

He continued:

Since the 80s, theres been a focus on numbers. Its kind of repulsive. The cost of a movie is one thing. Understand that a film costs a certain amount, they expect to at least get the amount back, plus, again. The emphasis is now on numbers, cost, the opening weekend, how much it made in the U.S.A., how much it made in England, how much it made in Asia, how much it made in the entire world, how many viewers it got... As a filmmaker, and as a person who cant imagine life without cinema, I always find it really insulting.

So, what is Scorsese doing with all that time hes spending not focusing on the numbers (other than searching for a new director and star for the Hulu adaptation of The Devil In The White City that hesproducing)? Perhaps rewatching Ti Wests Pearl, which in his eyes represents a pure, undiluted love for cinema. Soon, we may have to add a new metric to our /film/... excuse us, cinema rating scale: does Martin Scorsese approve? Audiences have to know!

You can watch Scorseses full NYFF speech below:

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Martin Scorsese feels that box office obsession is "insulting" to cinema - Yahoo Entertainment

Welcome, X-Fans, to the 175th edition of X-Men Monday at AIPT!

How do you recognize 175 installments of X-Men Monday and celebrate this marvelous mutant milestone? You do a special edition of X Me Anything and see what X-Men Senior Editor Jordan D. White and the rest of the X-Office have to say!

So grab a snack or beverage of choice and get comfortable next stop

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

AIPT: Welcome to X-Men Monday #175, everybody! Lets kick off this special anniversary edition with an introspective question from X-Fan Scott Redmond, who said with A.X.E.: Judgment Day almost complete and some titles already wrapped, there are for sure some changes in store for the X-line as a whole. While status quo changes in comics can often fade or change quickly, to what do you attribute the longevity of the House of X/Powers of X/Krakoan status quo, which is still going strong over three years later?

Kieron Gillen: Weve decided as a group to not move on from the status quo until I can reliably spell Arakiii correctly.

Jordan D. White: It is taking everything in my power to not correct that spelling. Deep breaths.

Kieron: Really, as a latecomer, I was watching it from the outside for the majority of it, and it does what any status quo should do give a lot of unique possibilities made possible by it. As there were so many, its not a surprise that one wants to explore them. On a personal level, I admire the set-ups ability to have people who actively hate each other forced to be in the same room, so they can do scenes together. Thats golden.

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Jordan: Yeah I think its a really successful status quo in every sense in that audiences have really responded to it and also the creators really feel like the stories theyve been able to tell in this status are working out well. The other thing to think of is to ask what counts as a status quo I know some would argue that the X-Men Disassembled status quo and the Blue & Gold status quo and the Extraordinary status quo and the New X-Men and Jean Grey School and Utopia and O*N*E overseers that all those are different status quos. And I can understand why but from another point of view, I think everything after Decimation was all so affected by that that to me those are all phases of one long status quo that we only moved out of by making the seismic shift of House of X.

So I think there is a question to be asked about what actually defines this era. Is it that there are a lot of plants around? Is it the gates? Is it the island? Is it resurrection? Or is it more about how the mutants position themselves in the world and their attitudes towards what theyve been through? I think only time can tell.

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Si Spurrier: One of the really genius aspects of this eras setup is that it exponentially broadens the scope of the metaphors we can play with. Mutantism has been used over the years to speak to a whole gamut of profoundly important social issues: race, sexuality, gender, class, mental health, and so on. Incredible and moving stories that dont preach, but do punch.

Sidenote: The keep politics out of comics! crowd have not been paying attention for [checks notes] 60 freaking years. In the Krakoan era, those possibilities are still very much on the table they always will be, so long as there are fascinating mutant characters doing fascinating things. But now we also have access to a far grander and more abstract canon of metaphors. Now we can speak to civilizations, cultures, polities, policies, faiths, and fates. Its an extraordinarily clever widening of the micro to the macro.

Al Ewing: Theres a richness of potential to Krakoa. The fact that so many stories have burst forth from the concept, blasting off in so many different directions, really speaks to how much bigger the horizons are now and really, it was just tweaking the dial marked mutants survive and thrive up a couple of notches. That alone sparked so much, in-world and out of it. At the time House of X and Powers of X hit, I remember doing some to-camera for marketing, talking about how this was the dawn of a new era of the X-Men and it really was. I dont believe the genies weve unleashed will go meekly back to their bottles.

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

AIPT: They better not! Now, X-Fan Robert Furey said X-Men is often described as a never-ending soap opera, and sometimes storylines last for years before coming to a definitive conclusion, if at all. As writers and editors, what are some of the challenges of both creating stories without an ending and managing characters who have so much history?

Steve Orlando: I think the key is that while the story doesnt end, the characters and their arcs can still reach satisfying resolutions again and again. Kate Prydes story may never be OVER, but the core of her character tells us what types of situations challenge, and thus teach her. Thats where arcs can be drawn from, where characters can struggle, overcome, learn, change, and sacrifice to come out the other side a little different just like us in our own lives! And just like life is always challenging us as we think weve got it all figured out, the next character, or concept, to challenge your cast is always on the horizon. The story of the X-Men may never definitively end, but its characters are constantly evolving and changing theyre not who they were 60 years ago when they debuted.

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Kieron: Everything above is true, but I actually dont try to think about it too much almost the opposite. I just do a story with a start, beginning, and end, and leave the before and after to other people. As I hope Immortal X-Men shows, I take character history seriously, but I view that as actually a historical record Im using to develop a character. I tell a meaningful, closed story with them, and then get out. This is part of my aesthetic, but also part of how I try to make my stories accessible. If Immortal is the only X-story you ever read, I want you to be cared for. I want everything else to be additive.

Gerry Duggan: The Marvel Universe may never end, but our orbits through these books are finite. Since Deadpool, Ive been pitching stories that have beginnings, middles, and ends. Its very sweet to write and end, and not everyone in comics gets to enjoy getting to that finish line. Well be privileged to get to our end someday.

Victor LaValle: In the case of my very specific little sandbox, I found Sabretooths history (and that of many of the other mutants who ended up in the Pit) to be a treasure chest of intriguing, exasperating, and inspirational choices by the writers who came before me. Its amazing, in fact, to imagine that any of these lives have as many twists and turns, highs and lows as they do. Its freeing as well though because, in the end, youre just adding to that long history, to be enjoyed and forgotten, like all life is eventually.

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Jordan: Yeah exactly. Its really interesting how comics as a medium has changed. Its gone from something that was undeniably thought of as a disposable medium by everyone involved to a huge part of culture whose beginnings are lovingly restored and put out in gorgeous high-end hardcovers. I doubt anyone involved in creating X-Men #1 in 1963 thought we would still be reading about the concept of the X-Men 60 years later, let alone still reading and republishing that specific issue. So now, here we are with 60 years of history and its all we can do to make the best stories we can possibly make and hope that they resonate in that long tradition of the series and that someone will be excited to reference it in the future the way were excited to refer back to the rich past weve loved.

AIPT: These answers have been so thoughtful so far time to get silly. X-Fan Chuck wanted to know, X-writers: Whats the funniest editorial note youve received about your X-work you can talk about at this time?

Steve: We did discuss the right color for Somnuss underwear in the broken baths for a while in Marauders Annual #1

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Kieron: The early teething experiences with Nick Lowe in my first time in the X-Office were a joy. BRITISHISM ALERT! just splattered all over the document whenever I let my stiff upper lip show. My favorite is when I had to spend time finding pictures of a rockery to mail him so he could tell me what the U.S. word for it is (rock garden).

The most embarrassing was my second script, which was a Sabertooth story, which I had entitled SABERWULF. Kieron, asks Nick, Is there a reason why its called Saberwulf? To which I had to answer No.

Also the time that I spelled Hepzibah as Hezbollah. That may have been an autocorrect though. I hope it was.

In short, my brain is rubbish. Its lucky Ive got blackmail information on all the editors, or Id be in trouble.

Al: Im drawing a blank on getting notes that arent Britishisms, but I did fail to give an editorial note at the right moment and thats why Nova is wearing a shirt in X-Men Red. My original intention was to have him topless except for the jacket. (In a different world where I was slightly more on the ball than I am, hed be getting a lot of beefcake shots and the X-fandom would like him more as a result.)

Leah Williams:

Courtesy of Leah Williams

Jordan: I cannot believe we are showing this.

Gerry: I read the question and couldnt see this yet, but thought to myself, if Leah didnt chime in on this, I should go rally her. Perfect. I recall one of my first emails from Tom Brevoort way back when I was on Deadpool was very short and simple: We will not humiliate Kang in this way and I cant even remember what it was we asked to do. Its been a decade since Marvel Now. Woof.

Tini Howard: It was the phone call where Jordan had to explain to me that the very cool name Id given to a recent character was also the name of an adult performer, for sure. I had no idea! Just two cool names put together! Zeitgeist, I guess.

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Victor: In the first issue of Sabretooth, when he ruled his own personal Hell, I remember we had to throw some shadows over a few of the X-Mens torn limbs. A little too much bone and sinew was showing.

Si: Most of mine are to do with trying to sneak curse words into print, because Im extremely grown up and not at all immature. There was an issue recently where Banshee says feck a whole lot. It was quite fun watching Jordans margin-notes go from I dont think we can say this to again, no to eventually just a bunch of unhappy emojis.

Jordan: When we discussed it later and Si was surprised because feck was so much more of a problem to Americans, I told him to us it just sounds like saying f--k with an accent. To which he replied that was fair because thats what it is.

Si: I did once get an email that just said SI, STOP TRYING TO USE GRAWLIX SO THEY LOOK LIKE RUDE WORDS. I cant even remember which @$$#0! sent that.

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

AIPT: Amazing. OK, were several months into Destiny of X X-Fan Rasputin IV Fan Ben wanted to know how its decided to change from one Krakoan era to another. For example, from Reign of X to Destiny of X.

Jordan: So far, its been when a big X-story happens and shifts things in the world. We had House of X/Powers of X start things, then we kicked off Dawn of X. That ended when X of Swords broke out and youll notice that XOS is not in either the Dawn or Reign trades, it exists between them. Then Reign of X runs until both Inferno and X Lives/Deaths of Wolverine, which again are collected separately. Then we pick up with Destiny of X and where that will end remains to be shown.

Gerry: Tho we did announce Fall of X at NYCC or did I hallucinate that?

Al: We find ourselves in fall, Gerry. And I fear winter.

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

AIPT: X-Fan Minnie said the X-Office has been really great with connectivity across the line and finding ways to use all of Krakoa across X-series. What is your favorite concept or world that another X-writer has introduced?

Steve: For me, its been Sis work on THE SPARK, which the group knows, I recently raved about not only has it given us a really clear motivator for Captain Prydes grand actions coming up in Marauders #11-12, but its also formed a nice prism with which to challenge any characters actions is this mutant thinking? Or is this latent human socialization? Am I reacting to something like a mutant, or like my life among humans taught me to? And its all the more challenging as a writer since, of course, spoilers were human, too!

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Charlie Jane Anders: Theres so much! Not to jump on the Si praise train, but I love the holodeck inside Legions head, the Altar, that Si created in Legion of X. Its such a cool concept and a weird setting to have things happen in, and a really neat use of Legions longstanding ability to contain multitudes. Love it. Also, so much of the stuff that KG and the others have been doing with Sinister has been so fun to watch.

Si: The Si Praise Train sounds like a really mopey session at a megachurch. Im here for it. (Thanks, guys.) To speak to the general stuff thats going on here, I think were all reacting to the sheer fertility of the Krakoan experiment. Jons genius was to simultaneously reduce mutants and mutantkind to units of utility uniquely tooled cogs in a beautiful hard-sci-fi machine and to let them express their characters and hearts as explorative beings within that new context, all at once. The first part of that paradigm throws up some incredible ideas to do with mutant powers behaving as technologies (I think of Kierons recontextualization of Moiras abilities, Gerrys plans with Darwin, Leah and the Waiting Room, Victor and the Hole) while the latter part cracks open endless possibilities to do with characters exploring new social dynamics Vitas work in particular stands out there or creating incredible new cultures from tabula rasa, where Al, Tini, and Steve have all made big, beautiful swings.

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Kieron: Its not a specific, singular idea, but as a body of work, what Al has done to make Arakko a credible and coherent place with its own philosophy is a hell of a thing.

Al: Ta! That was something I felt strongly about. For me to speak a little selfishly there are almost too many things to count, its such a big soup. Weaponless Zsen is a fascinating character who dovetails well with the Fisher King I think that started as me and Si having a conversation about how Arakko would treat those without powers or without useful powers, implementing our thoughts on the page and then connecting the dots in a way thats built a fun side-story in the background. I hope I do her justice in X-Men Red #8-10. Similarly, Leahs Waiting Room is very fertile soil to tell the kind of story I love to tell way down the road, and what Tini did with Apocalypse was a great bit of character growth that I cant wait to build on.

Gerry: Honestly, were crushing it.

Victor: Agree with all that was said above and I would add Vita Ayalas arc in New Mutants, particularly the nuanced and surprising twists and turns in the Amahl Farouk/Shadow King storyline. The story of Amahls eventual freedom and the start on the path to recovery/redemption was beautiful.

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

AIPT: And all that just scratches the surface. Next up, X-Fan Dave (Comic Book Herald) said that some of his favorite X-potential is from all the Powers of X sci-fi. Dominions. Phalanx. Rasputin IV. Concerningly cute Nimrods. Without spoiling anything, how eager is the X-Office to take the Krakoa era into the distant future?

Steve: Distant future? Distant past perhaps

Kieron: Three words. Sins of Sinister. Three more words. Will Include This.

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Al: I think about this a lot. I think about all the moving parts a lot. I think about crashing them together. I even think about them when Im writing other books sometimes

Gerry: Same. And Im not the only one that is thinking, Forge is also thinking. And tinkering in his shop in fact.

AIPT: Well, we just got some teases so lets get a few more. X-Fan TheMidNightKing17 asked, which characters will have a big 2023?

Kieron: Rasputin. Also, now that I think about it, Emma Frost will be big in Sins of Sinister.

Al: A lot of fans were upset when Storm moved from the seat of Peel Me A Grape While I Tell You How To Run Your Planet to the seat of Come To Me When The Crap Really Hits The Fan. And theyre right shes only going to have a big 2023 now if the crap absolutely hits the fan for Arakko in a spectacular way. And what are the chances of that?

Anyway, Genesis is going to have a big 2023.

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Gerry: Forge, Synch, and Bring On The Bad Guys. 2023 is a big year for Black Hats. Stasis has a revelation that I cant wait to get to. Firestar burns bright.

Si: Silver Sable.

Jordan: There are some Kate Pryde plans that I am both excited and scared by.

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

AIPT: Speaking of fear, youd be surprised how often nervous X-Fans submit questions about this next topic so Im going to do them a solid one last time. X-Fan Mr. Shoebill said, with Gerry Duggan taking over Iron Man, has there been any discussion regarding the Tony Stark/Emma Frost wedding? Mr. Shoebill pointed out that the last time this was mentioned was X-Men Monday #104 in May 2021.

Gerry: I remember that being a late addition to that book? Maybe Im crazy, but I dont think anybody was asked? It was just Oh, yeah, future s--t? Okay, have fun. I think its a terrible idea and I think fans would rightly be all over me for it.

AIPT: And thats the last time well ever talk about that in X-Men Monday. Thank you, Gerry. Now to the big screen X-Fan Wilberd Gijzel wanted to know, what was everybodys first reaction to the news Wolverine will be in Deadpool 3 and finally in the MCU?

Charlie Jane: I love it! I think Deadpool always needs a straight man to drive to distraction, and it cant always be Cable. Plus, I can already tell that Hugh Jackman will be having a lot of fun cutting loose. But Im waiting until we can see the whole Wolverine family in live action.

Kieron: I laughed a lot. What a way to announce it, right? Beautiful. Applause.

Al: Great, now I have to watch X-Men Origins: Wolverine so I can get all the X-Men Origins: Wolverine jokes.

Alyssa Wong: WOLVERINE! WOLVERINE! WOLVERIIIINE!!!

Mark Basso: Im hyped! And hey, if they want any inspiration, Ben Percy wrote Deadpool into a bunch of the last years Wolverine issues

AIPT: Weve officially entered the #SeriousComicsJournalism portion of the interview (are you paying attention, Eisner judges?). X-Fan Ensign Ro said, from Mister Sinister to Forge to Fred Dukes, the Krakoan mustache appears to signify salient members of the national infrastructure. Who will be the next mutant to have this honor bestowed upon their lips?

Mark: Wolverines had it a bunch, he just keeps shaving with his claws between panels.

Steve: I think the closest we got is Horsepowers powerful beard, hmm

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Al: Theres a certain mutant I very much want to grow a beard, but I warn you now, it will be the most traumatic beard ever grown in X-history. Mustache only I mean, is it time Roberto grew his own Tom Selleck in honor of his TV hero, Magnum P.I.? Or is that too dangerous? I mean, Ive seen Stefanos art from X-Men Red #9. Putting a mustache on that could kill someone.

Jordan: I am sold.

Si: Covid lockdown ie, mask-wearing combined with zero barbershops being open made me wonder what Juggernaut would look like if we went the full Alan Moore. Like would the beard jut out of his mouth- and eye-slits? Would he look like some sort of creepy hairy smoke-breathing diving-bell? Would there be an audible pop sound, like a champagne cork leaving the bottle, every time he takes off the helmet? We need to explore this. We could have something to rival SNIKT and BAMF on our hands here.

AIPT: X-Fan mole the morlock said Judgment Day has all this action at the North Pole. But where is the magical merry mutant Santa Claus? Someone should tell him the Progenitor is trying to steal his thunder! This guy even made a naughty-or-nice list!

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Kieron: Im not sure who leaked the team-up that ends Judgment Day to you, but we will hunt them down and punish them. This kind of spoiler ruins stories for everyone. Im outraged.

Gerry: As an aside, I saw Harbour as Santa in Violent Night and its really fun and a lot more brutal than I thought theyd swing for.

Jordan: Now I am sad its too late to do a Holiday Judgment Day parody of all the heroes getting visions from Santa about whether they deserve presents or not.

AIPT: Its never too late for an idea that good, Jordan. OK, as we wrap up, lets say Mister Sinister gets his hands on the X-Offices DNA. What are some of the X-Office chimeras he whips up in his lab?

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Steve: Just imagine how deep the cuts would go on a book written by Stephal Ewingdo.

Kieron: My mutant abilities are my appendix was on the wrong side of the body and I have acidic enough skin to slowly melt metal glasses. I hope that other people in the X-Office are bringing more to the gene-party than I am.

Al: Im shoe size 12 in the U.K., I wear glasses, and Ive listened to Stevie Wonder in a bedsit, so in some ways you could say I have all of Beasts mutant powers.

Gerry: Im really adept at finding parking.

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X-Men Monday #175 - X Me Anything With the X-Office AIPT - AIPT

Hypercars are discussed in hushed tones among car aficionados. Sightings are treated with the same amount of excitement and incredulity of a sasquatch spotting. A hypercar is one that can liquify a Toyota Corolla just by parking next to it. Hypercars laugh in the face of automotive superlatives of rarity and performance extremes. To be considered a hypercar, a vehicle has to be excessively fast, incredibly rare, and come with a price tag of over $1 million. The sixteen-cylinder and 250+ miles per hour Bugatti Veyron has been cited as the first car to truly earn the title of hypercar (via Peterson Automotive Museum).

Pagani, maker of cars like the Zonda, Huayra and new Utopia, is considered a hypercar brand. No one would consider a Pagani Huayra a "normal" car by any means, and with only six official dealerships in the entirety of the Western Hemisphere, it's safe to say it's an exclusive brand. Cars like the Bugatti Chiron and Ferrari LaFerrari are among the few brands to hold the hypercar title. They represent the absolute best Bugatti and Ferrari have to offer. The word "compromise"doesn't even exist in the hypercar lexicon.

Anyone with the right finances can theoretically buy a supercar today. A hypercar requires all the planets to align, an act of God, and then immense wealth to even be considered for the privilege of owning one.

Link:

The Difference Between A Supercar And A Hypercar - SlashGear

For more than a century, the idea of linking the two sides of the Strait of Gibraltar has been on the table for both Morocco and Spain, although it was not since the 1979 declaration that both countries conceived the idea of building a railway linking the two continents.

On the Moroccan side, the work that SECEGSA has been carrying out in Spain for more than 40 years has been entrusted to the Socit Nationale d'tudes du Dtroit de Gibraltar (SNED). On the Spanish side, the project has been "relaunched", according to the state company that is promoting it, which is going to receive a new allocation in the 2023 Budget to take the definitive step towards the start of the works, according to the Executive in the public accounts that have just been presented.

The project will involve the construction of a tunnel through the underwater seabed at the junction of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, while the government is trying to revive, with the support of Germany, the MidCat gas pipeline project, which was rejected by France during the emergency caused by the European energy crisis.

The Spanish company in charge of carrying out feasibility studies for the project is the Sociedad Espaola de Estudios para la Comunicacin Fija a travs del Estrecho de Gibraltar (SECEGSA), which is attached to the Ministry of Transport. This public company has recently revealed that in 2021 it was included in one of the European funds of the Spanish Recovery Plan to undertake new studies on this infrastructure, despite the tense relations between Spain and Morocco at that time.

In the 2022 budgets, another appropriation for that amount was already allocated to update the preliminary project for the so-called Europe-Africa Fixed Link in the Strait of Gibraltar. This transfer was made available after the approval in April 2021 of the Recovery Plan.

Following Pedro Snchez's recent change of position on Western Sahara, and in a political context marked by the progressive normalisation of relations with the Alaouite regime, the government has included an allocation of 750,000 euros for research into the feasibility of the project in the State Budget for 2023. A modest endowment, which is contemplated in the actions destined for the Trans-European Transport Network. The funds will be used to update a preliminary project that was drawn up more than fifteen years ago, incorporating the technical advances accumulated in recent years.

The latest SECEGSA accounts, recently published, correspond to the financial year closed in December 2021 and were formulated in March 2022, when Snchez's change of course on the Sahara came to light. In them, SECEGSA points out that "the most relevant event" of the 2021 financial year was the inclusion in the Spanish Recovery Plan of the update of the preliminary connection project drawn up in 2007, "with the consequent financing through European funds of the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism (RRM)". There are 2.3 million committed, subject to "strict deadlines" that SECEGSA does not detail, according to ElDiario.es.

The update of this preliminary project is justified by the fact that "the technical and technological advances registered in the last 15 years in the field of construction, management, operation and maintenance of underground and underwater works represent a spectacular leap". According to the state-owned company, the meeting with the world's leading German company in tunnel boring equipment, Herrenknecht, opened the door to the acceptance of the project, which is no longer a utopia. According to SECEGSA, the various differences between the Spanish and Moroccan kingdoms over the medical care of Polisario Front leader Brahim Ghali did not create a deadlock, and the relationship with SNED remained fruitful.

Due to the geostrategic nature of the Strait of Gibraltar, the EU pays close attention to the relationship between Europe and Africa. Although Brussels is interested in further developing the Europe-Africa rail network, it is not one of the EU's priorities.

Haizam Amirah Fernndez, Senior Researcher for the Mediterranean and the Arab World at the Elcano Royal Institute, is sceptical about such a Euro-African connection, saying that it is not the most favourable context, as the reality is that today, despite the years that have passed, these two societies are still active. The biggest problem "is to match political wills and create the conditions for opinions" on the part of two states "with relations of ups and downs".

The rest is here:

The Spanish government reactivates the tunnel project to link Morocco with Spain - Atalayar