麻豆传媒

So much for the brave new world of the e-economy. Across Europe, protesters
blockading oil refineries and distribution depots have dramatically demonstrated
that we are still well and truly dependent on petroleum, that stalwart of the 鈥榦ld鈥� economy. In
Britain, a few days of blockades led to filling stations running dry, resulting
in job lay-offs, food rationing by supermarkets and cancelled hospital
operations. What鈥檚 the betting that some enterprising e-hype merchant is busy
planning www.panicbuying.com?

One protester boasted on BBC radio that mobile phones had been key to
coordinating action across Britain. But the Web also played a part. The
anonymous group that set up
http://petrolcrisis.latest-info.com publicised police radio frequencies,
and even asked for tip-offs if anyone saw 鈥渁rmy personnel dressed as police鈥�.
Information on radio channels was also being swapped on www.frequencyuk.co.uk.
When the Web goes truly mobile, rather than half-heartedly as with today鈥檚
impoverished WAP technology (www.wapland.com/art/355.html), the pace of
protests could accelerate even further.

While Europe鈥檚 governments wonder what to make of this novel political
phenomenon, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
(www.opec.org), the cartel which has its hand on the oil tap, is boosting crude
production in a bid to lower pump prices. But this wasn鈥檛 enough for one hacker,
who added this to OPEC鈥檚 home page last week: 鈥淚 think I speak for everyone out
there (the entire planet) when I say to you guys to get your collective asses in
gear with the crude price. We really need to focus on the poverty-stricken
countries, who don鈥檛 even have enough money for aspirin鈥︹��

Roll on the hydrogen economy, in which much cleaner fuel cells will
(allegedly) do all the work. At http://h2fc.com/news.html, you can check the
latest news on fuel cell technology and see how the nascent sector is responding
to the oil crisis.