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other. It is obvious that they had lived in a world that while austere, is stable and provided for it citizenry.
    Shrill voices brought their gaze back to the screen. A long parade of examples illustrated the problem. Self-described beacons of brilliance from the extremes of both sides flooded the airwaves with their own brand of distortions, innuendo and out of context sound bites. They would impugn callers who had a cogent idea with a statement intended to imply that they stumbled upon the truth or shout them down, refusing fruitful dialogue. Show hosts on both sides ridiculed those with differing viewpoints. It is a circus atmosphere, a ten-in-one sideshow with a loud mouth barker hawking for each event. It did not seem productive or fair to Taylor and Christine as they are used to a certain civility in political dialogue. The closest a modern program came to that level of dissent is one that featured a host named Donovan who had a sidekick named Danny. He claims to be the opposition to Leader Burnsom. A watchdog for the masses he would proclaim that they could rest easy with him on watch. “Donovan would mildly chastise the leader on one issue while at the same time singing his praises in other areas. All the while Danny exhausted a vocabulary book saying nothing about anything. You felt that the words just popped into his head and he repeated them in random order. Then Donovan would remind you of his brilliance and benevolence in being the guardian for the masses. It all seemed self-serving. Is it Leader Burnsom behind the stage decorations pulling the levers of their strings with smoke effects? One could imagine it being so.
    The narrator captures their attention once again. “With no solutions, the country searched everywhere for someone who could solve the problem. That someone is Ira Burnsom.” Treating the viewer to a photomontage of Burnsom, the narrator continues, “Burnsom rose through the ranks from local to regional to state and finally national politics. Recognized as a consensus builder amongst factions, he had the respect and admiration of the people. One who got things done by giving each party a little here and a little there, creating winners for both sides of the aisle. Whether you believed in the legislation or not, it is progress in some direction. ”Burnsom, with national recognition, wins the election for President on the platform of building bridges to all parties, making government work for all with the checks and balances that would minimize and eliminate fraud and abuse. He achieved some stability in a volatile world by promising peace through mutual benefit rather than conflict. The stage is set for the world we live in today.” With that last statement, the first part of the program is over.
    Their schedule full, Christine retires for the night. Taylor sees her to the door and watches as she drives off in her electric car. He listens as the whirr of the electric vehicle fades in the distance. The project, Christine and the revelations in the documentary stirs the emotions and the mind. His sleep is restless that night.
    Arriving at the lab, Taylor pours over the logs generated by the instrument, looking for any problems that might endanger the project. Sleepy, he guzzles coffee in an effort to overcome his lack of sleep. Trent walks in the break room and lets Taylor know that electronically, everything is performing well. “No glitches have popped up.”
    “So far so good,” Taylor announced, “The long preparation time is paying off on the real experiment.”
    Christine comes in and heads for the coffee pot. It is getting a workout this morning. Taylor asked, “How did you sleep?”
    She rolled her eyes. “Not well given the circumstances.”
    Taylor smiled. “Ditto.” Devin comes in and looks like his night was not that restful either. “Problems?”
    “Not now,” Devin shot back while leaving the break room with a giant cup of coffee. Taylor wondered what that was about, but