the bottleneck years
illconsidered | August 16, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 52
Table of Contents
Chapter 54
Chapter 53
Carillon, March 8, 2057
When I got home that afternoon I discovered that one of my new students had surreptitiously video logged me. Edie met me at the door with, "I watched your whole lecture today."
"What?"
"It's true. You're all over the forums. There have been thousands of downloads."
I shook my head a little dismayed.
"People want to know what's really going on and nobody believes the official reports."
Anna heard my voice and came running into the kitchen. I was hot and tired, so I dropped down…
illconsidered | August 8, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 51
Table of Contents
Chapter 53
Chapter 52
Ecology 550 - Group 5 Overview, March 8, 2057
Notes on a lecture.
Spring term was near the half way point and Ecology 550 was ahead of schedule. I had been fielding a lot of questions about Group 5, so I decided to do an overview lecture on the UNGETF groups and wind up with some details on Group 5.
I made a list to structure the class. I opened a screen with my padd and projected the list.
Group 1 - Reforestation, ongoing, effectiveness minimal.
Group 2 - Stratospheric sulphates, effective but…
illconsidered | August 1, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 50
Table of Contents
Chapter 52
Chapter 51
Soap, February 20, 2057
Anna came down the hall complaining. "Mommy, my tummy hurts." There were bubbles coming out of her mouth.
Edie took one look and yelled, "Luc, call an ambulance!"
I came out of the kitchen and saw Anna down on her hands and knees vomitting on the front room floor. There was a trail of liquid down the hall to the bathroom. Following the trail back, I found a shampoo bottle on the bathroom floor. It was about half full.
"Do you know how much was in this?"
"Oh my god!" exclaimed…
illconsidered | July 26, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 49
Table of Contents
Chapter 51
Chapter 50
Eco 110 - Carrying Capacity, January 15, 2057
Notes on a lecture
It was the first class of the term. I was purposefully late, because I wanted everyone to be present and impatient. I walked in, dropped my case on the wide black presentation desk and turned to face the old theatre style hall.
"Okay, here is the question: Are we collectively smarter than a vat of yeast?"
I let that sink in for a few seconds, then continued with:
"The topic for today is carrying capacity.
"Intuitively, the idea is how…
illconsidered | July 26, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 48
Table of Contents
Chapter 50
Chapter 49
Solstice, December 27, 2056
I have not been writing much, because I have been busy with the lichen. Annoyingly, the symbiotic signalling continues to elude me. A colleague at CCU collaborated with me on a paper. "An examination of the laboratory growth rates of the lichen eFontaine1" by Luc C. Fontaine and George R. Collins. eFontaine1 was the proper name, but we all called it eF1.
Last year by unspoken assent, Edie and I both more or less ignored xmas. This year Anna was old enough that she would…
illconsidered | July 18, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 46
Table of Contents
Chapter 48
Chapter 47
Symbiosis, September 27, 2056
The next time I got into the lab, I started pulling apart lichen just to get a feel for the territory. Lichen is a symbiosis of an algae and a fungus. The fungus in the north is usually an ascomycetes. The algal component is usually a simple green algae, although occasionally a blue-green algae is found. A lot of work had been done on green algae earlier in the century while investigating their suitability for biofuel. It was the fungal component, the ascomycetes, which…
illconsidered | July 14, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 45
Table of Contents
Chapter 47
Chapter 46
Boo-Boo, August 26, 2056
I found myself becoming quite anthropological watching Anna learn to walk and talk over the summer. She is a curious and rambunctious child who is always getting into things we thought out of reach. If it isn't pots and pans, it is the media padd, old shoes -- you name it -- any damned thing we inadvertently leave open. I walked into the kitchen one day and Anna was sitting in the middle of the floor chewing on a mud-covered carrot she had pulled from a pile on the counter.…
illconsidered | April 17, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 35
Table of Contents
Chapter 37
Chapter 36
Neurolin, March 17, 2056
Edie was changing. I didn't know how, but she was no longer the shy retiring mouse of a woman she had been. A week later I happened across a clue.
As a matter of course, we segregate our garbage into compostable, recyclable, paper and junk. I was throwing some paper away, when I noticed a flattened medication box. I picked it up. It was labelled Neurolin. "Clarify, deepen and solidify your thoughts," it said. I knew there were cognitive enhancers on the market, but I had…
illconsidered | April 10, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 34
Table of Contents
Chapter 36
Chapter 35
Prometheus, March 8, 2056
To be honest, the Group 2 debacle was more of a public relations disaster than an ecological one. The damage was dramatic, but relatively restricted. Within 48 hours someone leaked the hazmat team video on the internet and all hell broke loose. The media were all over us.
Rhamaposa survived only with the intervention of the Secretary General and several heads of state, including the Asian Union and the USSA. I have no proof, but I'm sure they knew of the pressure exerted by…
illconsidered | April 4, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 33
Table of Contents
Chapter 35
Chapter 34
Group 2 Disaster, February 17, 2056
At the next UNGETF conference, we were given an interim report on Corella Corporation activities on behalf of Group 2. They were using balloons to hoist tons of sulphur pellets for release in the stratosphere. It was fully automated. No people went aloft. The cargo was dispersed from a series of vents along the bottom of a V-shaped gondola. When the drop was complete, the balloon turned on a transponder and vented hydrogen to drop lower in the atmosphere.
The…
illconsidered | March 28, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 32
Table of Contents
Chapter 34
Chapter 33
Jon Visits, January 27, 2056
On Sunday Jon called to say he would be dropping around to visit next week. The Senator was scheduled to hold a series of meetings with Provincial and First Nation leaders. He didn't know when he would be free, but he would make a point of seeing us.
I felt a little odd being just another scheduling point in my brother's busy life, but I resolved not to let it put me off. Anna was running a fever and Edie was tired, so I didn't have time to dwell on it.
On Tuesday, when I…
illconsidered | March 20, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 31
Table of Contents
Chapter 33
Chapter 32
One Thing After Another, December 14, 2055
The next few days were just one damned thing after another. On Monday, when I walked into Ecology 550, a spontaneous wave of applause broke out.
I held up my hands. "Okay. Okay, listen I'll make you a deal. Hold the applause until after we fix this problem and then we'll all celebrate. We still have a lot of work to do." My statement had just the sobering effect I wanted.
As I looked around the room, I noticed a few faces that didn't belong. Officially the…
illconsidered | March 14, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 30
Table of Contents
Chapter 32
Chapter 31
A Convention of Idiots, December 12, 2055
Reality landed right on my shoulders with a thump that evening. I was at home in the library categorizing and prioritizing the Ecology 550 students' geoengineering ideas, when the phone rang. It was from Sri Lanka.
"I'll get it!" I called out.
"Luc."
"Yes. Hello Peter. What's up?" I turned the lights down and sat back in the half light of the video to talk.
"I'm just trying to get a handle on the big picture. I don't know what to think anymore."
He slurred…
illconsidered | March 6, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 29
Table of Contents
Chapter 31
Chapter 30
Platonic Lust, December 12, 2055
Some women engineer their faces. They have studied celebrity, looked at the beautiful and followed the dictates of fashion. Their faces are uniformly flawless. Eyebrows are perfectly plucked to the prescribed trace. Their eyes are highlighted to take advantage of their natural colouration. Their skin is so smooth it could be plastic. In fact, they have turned themselves into living dolls.
The point of the exercise is to raise their market value in the ceaseless and…
illconsidered | February 27, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 28
Table of Contents
Chapter 30
Chapter 29
On the Home Front, December 8, 2055
When I got home that afternoon, Edie was in a bit of a state.
"Luc, what is going on?"
"What do you mean?"
"There was a phonecall for you a while ago...from the United Nations!"
I had told her nothing of what I was doing. "Oh. It was probably something to do with the Task Force."
No sooner had I said that than the house phone rang again. I checked the caller ID and it was from the UN.
"Mr. Fontaine? Luc Fontaine?" said a female voice. It was audio only.
"Yes."
"…
illconsidered | February 20, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 27
Table of Contents
Chapter 29
Chapter 28
UNGETF, December 8, 2055
I looked forward to the first meeting of Group 7 with some trepidation. According to my email update it was on the seventh floor of the MacDonald building which housed the municipal offices downtown. I had been there to pay taxes and once to attend a city council meeting, but I had never been above the second floor.
I was required to submit to retinal and DNA scans, on top of which my padd told me the elevator had a built in terahertz scanner. I restrained myself from waving…
illconsidered | February 13, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 26
Table of Contents
Chapter 28
Chapter 27
Eco 550 -- Geoengineering, November 29, 2055
When I was a student, it was not unusual to hear that virtual glasses were going to revolutionize education. Veegees, as they came to be called, were internet connected computers that used the spectacle lens to project information directly into the user-wearer's eyes. The 'virtual' came from the fact the glasses allowed the wearer to manipulate objects only they could see.
What do you tell someone who has the internet group mind mediated by supercomputer…
illconsidered | February 7, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 25
Table of Contents
Chapter 27
Chapter 26
A Quiet Sunday, November 28, 2055
Sunday is a day of rest --- theoretically. I had intended to have a quiet day, do some yard work and maybe touch up my Amazon report for Doc Y. I was awakened early by a crying baby. I didn't want to get up, but I was not going to fall asleep again, so I washed up and dragged ass upstairs to the kitchen.
Edie was heating milk in a saucepan and Anna was crying her lungs out. Edie looked like she had not slept all night. She gave me a strained look as I entered the…
illconsidered | January 31, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 24
Table of Contents
Chapter 26
Chapter 25
Rhamaposa, November 21, 2055
Due to the tyranny of digital time, I know it was 3:17 in the morning when the house system woke me to answer an urgent call. Voice only. My first thought was, 'Oh lord, now who has died?' Then I saw it was an overseas number. I sat up on the side of the bed to talk without turning on the lights.
"Yes?"
"Hello Luc. Luc Fontaine?"
"Yes."
"This is Peter Ramaphosa." He spoke quickly with a strong British accent.
"What can I do for you?" I was confused. Why was this UN…
illconsidered | January 23, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 23
Table of Contents
Chapter 25
Chapter 24
The Anvil Breaks, November 20, 2055
As the train approached Centre City, I called Olivia on her personal number. A computerized voice told me the number was discontinued and dumped me into voicemail hell. I hung up and called the house. Edie answered.
"Hi, Edie. Can I talk to Olivia?"
"She's not here."
"Where is she?"
"I don't know." She paused. "She didn't tell me where she was going."
A rising panic momentarily engulfed me. "Ww...What do you mean?"
"I mean, she took all her stuff and left."
"I'll…