``War is the ultimate tool of politics. Political leaders look out only for their own side. Politicians are always realistically maneuvering for the next election. They are obsolete as fundamental problem-solvers."

      The privately owned "public" utilities always keep more than enough juice in the electric lines so their large industrial customers never run short. And the excess is always burning away in the wires -- a pure loss. In the 1930s they found that when electricity-generating networks of neighbouring localities were interconnected, each region's peaks and valleys of power use would be staggered somewhat. So an excess generated during one member's minimum, that would have gone to waste, now would be drawn during another region's max -- pure profit. Hook up different time zones, with inherently time-shifted use patterns, and the savings multiply.

      Were we to join the grids of two continents, one that may be partly in daytime while the other is in night, and the efficiency swiftly doubles. So say we string USA's wires across the Bering Straits and connect with Russia? And Russia with China? Any region could easily reap these staggering energy savings simply by putting aside ethnic, national, or ideological differences long enough to join this cross-cultural, world-around, cheap-power network.