Monday Link Salad - Now With Actual Content!

So, the great John Scalzi links to a New York Times navel-gazer about the decline and fall of the bachelor pad. We both find this interesting in that, for a fraction of what the young studs in the article were paying for rent, we're paying in mortgages. For nicer places. And in my case, I'm not living out in Lower Slobovia.

I've spoken of the need for nuclear energy if we're really going to get serious about global warming and greenhouse gases. It's one of the few points of agreement I have with the Republicans. However, part of the reason we don't have more nukes in the US is that they are damned expensive to build. But France has a lot, you say. Well, yes - and the Government pays to build them. Hint to the Republicans - not every problem can be fixed with a tax credit.

So, this past weekend was the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Here's proof, if more were needed, that sometimes great things happen due to small accidents. It seems that the initial lifting of travel restrictions to the West was a mistake. Some rather anonymous East German government PR flack Gunter Schabowski, a senior official, was going on TV, and just prior to airtime was handed a note saying "travel restrictions will be revised." He was asked when, and not knowing better, said, "immediately." The floodgates opened that night. (Updated - hat tip bdunbar)

Lastly, presented without comment, how all revolutions end. (Hat tip jaylake)