A man in California wants to build a “hydrokinetic wave farm” that would bring hydroelectric power ashore near the San Onofre nuclear power plant. Another California developer has received a $3m grant from the US Department of Energy, The Washington Post informs us, to generate energy from kites. And then there is President Barack Obama, who on Wednesday gave an address about the future of energy, promising to use a “critical, renewable resource the rest of the world cannot match: American ingenuity”. Mr Obama, like his boffin compatriots, was laying claim to one archetypically American trait (self-confidence) while exhibiting signs of another (self-delusion).
一個加利福尼亞人想要在聖奧諾弗雷(San Onofre)核電廠附近建造一座「潮汐水力發電場」，將水電引上岸來。據《華盛頓郵報》報導，加州還有一家開發商從美國能源部(Department of Energy)得到了300萬美元資助，用於利用風箏發電。還有就是美國總統巴拉克•歐巴馬(Barack Obama)，他在上週就能源的未來發表演說，承諾要利用「世界上其他國家難以匹敵的一項關鍵的可再生資源：美國的才智」。就像他的書呆子同胞一樣，歐巴馬號稱彰顯一種典型的美國特質（自信），而實際上表露出另一種特質（自欺）的跡象。