Wednesday, August 17, 2005

El Hombre Nuevo Speaks

Hey folks,

I have the pleasure of introducing a new contributor to The Rubber Wall:



Where are you looking?
-El Hombre Nuevo-


Human Destiny and the Truth About Oil

Oil has allowed the greatest economic expansion in all of human history. Our blind dependence upon it might cause the greatest economic collapse in all of human history. Walking the fine balance of irony is part of what it means to be human. If the human brain were a claw, it would be 10 feet long, razor sharp and impossibly nimble. It’s a good thing we have this ‘claw’ because compared with other animals we are not well suited to survival. We are weak, slow, blind, soft and lack sharp implements in our jaws or on our limbs. In the past we learned to build spears, plant crops, and weave fabrics. We learned we could pump a certain black substance out of the Earth, set it on fire and greatly improve our standard of living by doing so. It’s been a great ride but we now need to use our cranial Swiss Army knife to arrange for the next energy disaster. We will be caught with our pants down. The first step to take to prevent this disaster is to gain a proper understanding of the ideas and concepts involved. I hear so many ignorant comments on the subject that it is clear a better understanding is needed.

Price Determines Supply. The Bronze Age did not end for lack of bronze, and the Oil Age will not end for lack of oil. We will never run out of oil. If you are willing to pay $50 per gallon for gas, it will always be available. I hear so many people ask “when will we run out of oil?” The real question should be “when will we run out of oil that can be obtained at a price people are willing to pay?” Our goal here is to determine the magic threshold point. Below this point (price), people are willing to pay. Above this point, people will say ‘screw it.’ Are people willing to pay $5 per gallon? Experience suggests that we are. The Europeans have been paying this price for some time now. However, relative to North America, cars in Europe are small and efficient, ownership rates are low, and distances traveled are short. Would North Americans be willing to pay $5 per gallon? Maybe. We could adopt smaller cars and use more public transportation, but nothing will change the fact that North America is huge and the distances traveled are vast.

The problem with trying to peg down this threshold price is that it is not fixed in stone. It is a moving target. My car gets 30 mpg. At this level, would I be willing to pay $5 per gallon? Basically, no. I would not sell my car, but I would not drive it more than once a week or so (I am lucky, I can walk to work). If my car got 60 miles per gallon, would I be willing to pay $5 per gallon? Sure. The point is clear. The efficiency of our vehicles determines the threshold point. We can greatly expand the supply of affordable oil by increasing the efficiency of our cars and trucks. However, this is not a long term solution. Why? There is an upper limit to the efficiency of the internal combustion engine. Setting something on fire to extract its energy is still cave-man technology, even if it does come in a shiny red package with a satellite navigation system. We can do better. Understanding that a threshold point does exist and that its location depends upon the efficiency of our vehicles is the first bit of information needed to prevent the above-mentioned pants and ankles situation. What lesson does this bit of information teach us?

Build more efficient cars and we will buy ourselves time.

New efficiency laws would speed this process, but the market solves most problems on its own. (Message to Detroit: the Japanese are kicking your butts in this department. Stop investing all your money in developing the newest, biggest, 400 horsepower machine. Market forces will destroy you. You are already losing the quality battle with the Japanese, you cannot afford to lose the efficiency battle too.)

Oil Production. The rate of oil production has been increasing since the first day of production. So has the rate of consumption. The fact that BOTH of these graph lines have been upwardly slopping means that the price of oil has been basically stable for a very long time. The problem we now face is that the production line will not always have an upward slope. There will come a day when production can no longer increase. This does not mean production will decrease right away, only that it can no longer increase. Oil Production will flatten out in the near future, but consumption will continue to increase. One need only attend the first 10 minutes of the first day of Economics 101 to understand what this means. Prices will skyrocket. It is at this point that the Oil Age effectively ends. With the combined populations of China and India (1/3 of humanity) now actively bidding against North America and Europe on the world oil market, the stakes and consequences of this production problem are enormous.

So, why will the production line flatten? Most of the cheaply gotten oil has already been pumped, is already being pumped as you read this, or is already mapped out. Drilling technology will continue to improve and this will delay our day reckoning somewhat. Again, however, this is not a long term solution. Why? There is an upper limit to drilling technology. Pulling things out of holes ripped into the Earth’s crust is still cave-man technology, even if it is aided by ground-penetration radar. We can do better. Understanding that oil production will level off is the second bit of knowledge we need to have. Understanding that this leveling off point is the end of oil for all practical purposes is the third bit of knowledge we need. What lessons do these two bits of information teach us?

If we do not have a replacement in place or near when the Oil Age ends, we will be in serious trouble.

Talk about being caught with our goods hanging in the breeze. The best ‘belt’ in the world will not keep our pants around our emaciated hips. We need to start investing in the replacement NOW…YESTERDAY.

Action. We need a worldwide ‘Manhattan Project.’ We shall build a huge complex somewhere, give the project an unlimited budget, give it the best scientific minds from all over the world and let them work. It doesn’t matter if it costs 500 billion dollars or double that. Whatever it costs, the alternative is worse. Whatever it costs, the investment will be paid back 1000 fold. Why? Oil is and always has been inefficient. However, human ingenuity has allowed us amazing economic expansion, even with this inefficient energy source. The alternative to oil will be vastly more efficient. Imagine the economy we could build with that. So what does this new energy source look like? What is it called? These questions remain to be answered, but for the sake of this discussion, let’s call it: The Free Energy Machine (FEM).

Now, I just lost a certain percentage of readers. These are the naysayers. Now that they are gone, I can say mean things about them. These are the people who said humans will never fly. These are the people who, after the invention of the airplane, said that humans will never fly faster than sound. These are the people who, after the sound barrier was broken, said that humans would never leave the Earth, or walk on the Moon. There are many basic laws of humanity. One of them is: There will always be people who lack the imagination to grasp the true potential of human imagination. Another is: There is no limit to human imagination, creativity, or technological potential. This does not mean that certain technological paths are unlimited (fire, drilling), only that technology, in general, is unlimited. To those who say the FEM is a Star Trek fantasy, I would say that the weight of human history is against you. Could a person from the 18th century imagine a modern laptop computer? Could the Wright brothers have imagined that less than 69 years after their first flimsy flight humans would fly to the Moon? There is an unbroken chain of human ideas and knowledge leading from a roughly chipped stone tool to the remote control robots we have on Mars. Is there any reason to believe this chain is at its end? Another basic law of humanity: With all problems, imaging a solution and believing that it can be done is 90% of the work, actually doing it is only 10%. We are blessed to live in interesting times. We are cursed to live in interesting times. The Oil Age is coming to an end. Humanity either invents the FEM or slips into a nightmare situation. With 90% of the work already done on the FEM it would seem silly to choose the alternative. I understand that getting the international community to agree on anything is difficult. Steadily rising oil prices will spur both the international community and private research dollars to take the problem seriously. It is all a question of timing.

FEM & Human Destiny. Another basic law of humanity: Humans are explorers. Failure to explore results in psychological and physical degeneracy. People are endlessly curious about ideas and places. People need to see what is around the next corner. This is not a human hobby. This a human requirement. For the first 99.999% of human history, the need for exploration was easily satisfied. The Earth was a giant, unexplored wilderness. Humanity has always had a frontier, a place to send our young, restless souls and satisfy our need to see new things. Sometimes this frontier was already occupied and conflict resulted, but this is not the time for that story. Now, in the 21st century, what physical frontier is there? Every square inch of Earth’s surface is satellite mapped and GPS navigated. The limited exploring left is available only to those lucky scientists who can reach the ocean depths or the polar expanses. The rest of humanity is stuck. This problem is not merely an academic curiosity. It is real and must be addressed. It is the paramount crisis of our species. Where do we send our restless souls? Down to the corner for drugs? Drugs have nearly lost their original spiritual applications. They are now an escape device. Where to go to satisfy our human need? We have few things we can do to let off our explorer-steam pressure. We can go backpacking and pretend to explore. We can watch a nature show on TV and pretend even harder to explore. We can explore ideas through science and creative pursuits. These options are only band-aids.

The most basic law of humanity: You cannot change human nature. It is not logical to believe that the human need to explore would simply evaporate once the Earth was filled with our kind. We need space to explore. We need new SPACE. The human path has always led to the stars. Space is the great enzyme of human imagination and has been for all time. Our exploration of the Earth was but practice for the real game. We have made the first tenuous steps. The FEM will mark the real beginning. The FEM will do more than solve our Earth-bound energy needs. It will end our status as Earth-bound. The FEM will exist. The only question is how it comes about. Do we get it the easy way or the hard way? Do we hit the ground running relative to the end of the Oil Age, or do we suffer through harsh and ugly times first?

What do you think? What will you do? What is your part in our destiny?


///
Heehhehe, check this song out too. It musically illustrates the point.
http://toccionline.kizash.com/films/1001/178/index.php

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Any One Got A Spare $100K?

57

Yes, yes, we know. I'm a space freak. I admit it. For reasons in my heart, in my head, and from deep instinct... I believe in space and see the human species there.

ok.

Now to this most recent story on the emerging space-tourism industry.

"""

August 10, 2005

Private Company Plans $100 Million Tour Around the Moon


One day after NASA brought the shuttle Discovery back from low Earth orbit, a private company plans to announce a more audacious venture, a tourist trip around the Moon.

Space Adventures, a company based in Arlington, Va., has already sent two tourists into orbit. Today, it is to unveil an agreement with Russian space officials to send two passengers on a voyage lasting 10 to 21 days, depending partly on its itinerary and whether it includes the International Space Station.

A roundtrip ticket will cost $100 million.

OMG It's full of stars!

The space-faring tourists will travel with a Russian pilot. They will steer clear of the greater technical challenge of landing on the Moon, instead circling it and returning to Earth.

Eric Anderson, the chief executive of Space Adventures, said he believed the trip could be accomplished as early as 2008. Mr. Anderson said he had already received expressions of interest from a few potential clients.

The Soyuz vehicle to be used does not have the power to reach the Moon on its own, so the Russians have devised a plan to send up a booster. The Soyuz would dock with the booster, either in low Earth orbit or at the International Space Station.

The booster would take the passengers the rest of the way. The price of the two tickets, Mr. Anderson said, would pay for the costs of the Moon shot. His company's demographic research, he said, suggests that 500 to 1,000 people in the world can afford to do this.

"It's the same number of people who could afford to buy a $100 million yacht," Mr. Anderson added. Two people who have already paid Space Adventures to go into orbit, at a reported $20 million apiece, applauded the new initiative though they said they were not sure they would try the Moon orbit.

Dennis Tito, a financier who in 2001 became the first space tourist, said that he found the idea fascinating but added that he doubted he would make such a trip. Having just turned 65, and with the Moon orbit at least a few years away, he said he might be too old for the rigors of the voyage.

"I would be considering it if I were younger, and I had that kind of money to spare," Mr. Tito said.

Another Space Adventures client, Greg Olsen, who made millions in the sale of his camera technology company, Sensors Unlimited, is preparing to visit the space station for several days in October. Of the Moon trip, he said, "It's certainly intriguing, and it's something I'd like to do."
Will he buy a ticket, then? "One trip at a time," he replied.

The trip seems feasible, said Dr. John M. Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University. "As a nontechnical person, I don't see any technical showstoppers," Dr. Logsdon said, "if people are crazy enough to do it."

And, he added, it would make "a lot of money for the Russians."

Christopher C. Kraft, a former director of the Johnson Space Center, said his feelings about the enterprise were mixed. "I think it would be a fantastic journey," he said. "I could see why, if I had the price of the ticket and could use the money that way, that it would be tempting to go."

But Mr. Kraft added that the flight would be cramped and probably extremely unpleasant. With three people in a small Soyuz craft for an extended trip, he said, "I imagine that you could endure that, but, man, it would be tough."

Mr. Anderson of Space Adventures said the craft had about as much room as a sport utility vehicle. "Will it be cramped? Yes," he said. "But will it be doable? Yes."

He noted that the Gemini capsule was smaller than the Soyuz, and that the astronauts James A. Lovell and Frank Borman orbited the Earth for 14 days in the Gemini 7 mission in 1965.

But Mr. Kraft, who was the flight director for that mission, recalled that Mr. Lovell and Mr. Borman were miserable. They complained bitterly that the trip was like "14 days in a men's room," and Mr. Kraft said that he had to talk them out of ending the mission early. "They wanted to get out of there," he said.

Mr. Anderson said the timing of the announcement was not meant to tweak the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "We believe private space flight and space exploration can go hand in hand, and can coexist and benefit each other," he said. Government, he said, should focus "on things that private companies cannot do," like exploring other planets. His company's system, he said, could eventually be a subcontractor, offering transportation services to a government Moon base.

my eye! you god damned monkeys!

"I just love the idea of demonstrating that things can be done for less money than people thought, and paradigms can be shifted," he said. "Space flight can be opened up."
"""
Link to original story by some unknown newspaper


Wurd.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Hear The Cliff

Breakin Tradition

If you have two hours, and want to hear something fascinating and kind of scary...

check this:

Mp3 download
Link

or

Windows media (asx file)...this one seemed to have better sound quality though win-annoying
Link



Fast forward the time index to 34:30 or so, where the interview begins.
Play it on your speakers, put it on the mp3 player for the plane flight, whatever.
The interview ranges from computer programing to economics to philosophy, and of course, the predictive qualities of the webbot reports.

Cliff is the genius behind:
HalfPastHumangoto

Monday, August 01, 2005

Mix And Match

man-universe

Hey folks,

Here's an interesting read I found posted at http://urbansurvival.com/week.htm...

enjoy!

and never forget to "watch the skies!"


"""Hi George:
I've been thinking lately about the pull that religion had over people's lives in the past (and continues to do so in many places in the world). How could humans (with no genetic changes) abandon their ancient attraction to religious belief suddenly during the few centuries? Are we really smarter than earlier cultures? Or have we applied our bent to religion to a set of new targets?

My current idea is that widespread belief in often absurd "conspiracy theories" has sopped up people's religious impulses. I'm not talking about rational inquiry into alternative causes, but uncritical belief. Nobody is actually an athiest. We have a new religion - but it is based on the behavior of powerful humans rather than unseen gods. These mysterious "evil" humans have corrupted an initially perfect world of the past for their own ends. Everything bad is caused by them.

I've been driven by this thinking recently by several experiences. First, I teach students at a local college. I teach a lot of entry-level computer classes, as well as a "general studies" Biology class. The reactions of the supposedly sophisticated, non-religious students demonstrate a clear "retargeting" of their religious impulses.

Second, a conversation I overheard in my apartment building a few days ago crystallized my impulse.

Here's the conversation from my apartment: I think it's fair to say that many people in the US today do not see the lightning bolts that struck hapless scoutmasters this week as the result of a specific, conscious decision of an angry god. We all know they are physical phenomena, which operate without intelligence. This is one of the differences between religion and non-religion - intent. If lightning bolts strike due to various tumblings of matter and energy, it isn't religion, despite what the "science as religion" crowd says. The scouts are electrocuted for no reason, which means no human values need be applied to the event.

But, if the lightning bolts happened "for a reason" then religion is involved - there is a moral intent bound with the event.

Imagine my surprise yesterday hearing my neighbor talking with friends about the second scouting electrocution. This neighbor works in the entertainment industry, is frantically anti-Bush, and hates "the religious right."

Speaking to her friends, this neighbor pointed out that said lightning bolts slammed down just prior to a "Bush visit." She noted that "they" - the radical religious right - must be very upset that a lightning bolt hit prior to a Bush visit - I suppose they would interpret it as a bad omen.
But then my neighbor (who normally seems reasonable) broadly hinted to her friends that there was "something behind" this electrical event. A secret, which she did not clarify, was the REAL reason for the lightning bolt. What was it? She didn't quite say - we were left to imagine the CIA manipulating the weather, a secret weapon tested on the American public, a warning to Bush from his "masters" - you name it.

Here's the fascinating part. In the same speech, she made it abundantly clear that she was an "athiest" and hated "religious" people. But here she was imagining hidden causes, meaning, and purpose behind the event. She was doing EXACTLY what she thought "the religious right" would do - ascribe meaning to a random physical event!

Frankly, it doesn't really matter whether the lightning bolt actually from a flying saucer - despite herself, this woman believes in higher powers, and in miracles. I listened for an hour as she darkly hinted at the sinister implications of the lightning strike - never exactly saying that it was "meant" to happen - but implying this very thing over and over.

Who is "god" in her religion? People. Instead of a big thunder-being up in the sky making the rain come, sneaky people are in a vast conspiracy. Like the unseen the god, "they" cannot be touched, uncovered, or even seen by lowly mortals. Yet the believer knows that they are there - no mater what the physical evidence is. In their faith, the believer triumphs over those who have not been enlightened.

I believe (with my degree in Biology) that the religious impulse is partly innate. Rather than moving beyond religion, as Marx, Skinner, and others hoped we would do, we have simply directed our prayers to a different object. Instead of classical gods, our new gods are people - people with vast, mysterious godlike power.

There are several reasons for the change in our civilization from a "god" - worshiping culture that one that worships mysterious humans in conspiracies. These changes challenged the old gods, but replaced them with equally supernatural new ones. These have led to a set of non-rational beliefs about the world which characterize our "conspiracy" religion.

In short, here is a summary:

1. Everything is controlled by a higher power - there are no random events. But this power is human, and human only. 2. Secret groups of people with this power cause everything to happen. 3. They have this vast power because absolutely anything is possible. As long as I imagine it, it can and will happen. There are no limits except human ones. 4. Since there are limits in my life, they can only have been created by humans. 5. If not for the conspiracy, we would be in a Paradise. All bad things in the world were caused by humanity - there is nothing outside humanity. Before humanity had godlike powers, everything was perfect.

wired_science_religion

Below, I've laid out the logical steps that have led to this belief system:

Belief #1 - "Thou shalt accelerate your technology forever faster"

At one time, technological innovation was seen as just that - a better way of doing things. This was characteristic of the 19th and early 20th centuries, in which much of the real "heavy lifting" of technological took place. People celebrated the ability of the human mind to discover things.
But now, technological advance is an unstoppable force int its own right, independent of humanity itself. It isn't that we manage to discover new technology - instead, an unstoppable spiritual force force us to advance technology ever-faster.

One of the clearest examples of this religious belief is the so-called "Moore's Law" which says that computer speeds double every 12-18 months. When Moore originally published his paper in the 1960s on compute speed increase, he presented it as an empirical study of the semiconductor industry. At this point, no religion was evident.

But now we have moved to a new idea - Moore's Law is a rock-solid given and computer makers "must" continue to to speed up computer because Moore's Law requires them to do so. It is moved from a statement of being to a moral law!

Consider the difference in the following statements:

a. Computer speeds are doubling every 18 months due to shrinking transistors (~1965).

b. Computer speeds ALWAYS double every 18 months. Any company that doesn't double the speeds of its computers is "not upholding" Moore's Law. But will someone double those speeds - Moore's Law cannot be stopped (~2000). But never, fear, Moore's Law is being upheld in the latest gadget.

In fact, computers are not following Moore's Law anymore. PC speeds topped out at about 3 GHz clockspeeds a few years ago, and Intel announced in late 2004 that they were NOT going to produce a 4GHz cpu for the indefinite future. True to the religious aspects of Moore's Law, writers in the tech industry ignored this challenge to their faith. They take the rise of 64-bit computing as "proof" that Moore's Law is still active - despite the fact that 64-bit computers are not faster - though they can more RAM.

"Multicore" processing is also taken as proof for Moore's Law "making" something happen just as we can't increase clockspeeds. In other words, Moore's Law "acted" and a new way to increase computer speed automatically appeared. This is despite that fact that for most non-server applications multicore systems give minimal speed boosts. It's similar to the faith that every time humanity use up one energy source (wood, coal) another, better energy source "automatically" appeared.

Even though the tech writers know there are limitations at some level, they remain confident that "somehow" Moore's Law will be upheld and computers will get faster forever.
Their faith that mysterious forces also ignore the fact that the utility of computers (their real value) have not increased with speed. The 2004 Macintosh G5 computer is about 1000 times faster than the 1984 Macintosh in hardware terms. But go back and look at the 1984 Mac. Running at 1/1000 the speed, it sported a useful word processor using full window/mouse/graphical systems. It also had a drawing program that looks very much like Adobe Photoshop today.

True, the word processor didn't have a spell check, and the paint program was in black and white. But are today's word processors and paint programs really 1000 times better than 1984? I would guess they are 10-20 times better. Even if computer speeds are rising, their utility to society is rising at a much slower rate!

Yet, Moore's Law is now a true LAW that all tech companies must uphold or face destruction. Any time there's an announcement of a change in memory, processors, etc, the tech industry assures that the new innovation ensures that they are keeping the faith - that Moore's Law will be kept, no matter what. Today, even though computers are leveling out in speed and utility, a stubborn faith in endless speed increases persists.

This belief system reaches its extreme stage in those beliving in the "singularity" - a sort of technological Rapture. These people believe that Moore's Law is accelerating, and that computer power will literally become infinite about the year 2040. The basis for their belief? "Moore's Law". But it is not a law, it is an observation, at best a hypothesis - not a unstoppable force.
Moore's Law forms one of the new pillars of faith among the general public as well. Outside the techies (hoping to be transported to the divine by the multi-pentahertz machines of 2038), the average person firmly believes that "technology always gets better". Tell someone that technology can halt, even reverse its advance, and you are met with disbelief. You've challenged a tenet of their new religion - the god Technology will always get better despite us.
In my mind, this is why it is so hard for many people to believe that we might have some real problems coming in permanently higher energy prices, loss of oil, degradation of the environment, etc. Try telling someone that computers won't be that much faster in 10 years, and they shake their head. They "know" they will be, even if they know absolutely nothing about how computers work.

A similar faith surrounds economics. People simply won't believe that prosperity always increases - things can only go up. There can be no economic waves or cycles. If they happen, "they" made them happen.

If we aren't richer this year, it must be a conspiracy.

Belief #2 - Anything is possible if you "wish upon a star" I've adapted this idea from James Kunstler's excellent writing. The belief in Moore's Law, along with increasingly detailed fantasies in movies and games has made people believe that "anything" is possible. The fact that technology has improved means it will improve infinitely.

This goes beyond believing that more will be possible in the future - it is the belief that absolutely anything is possible, or will be shortly.

This belief is qualitative, and ties in with the decline in quantative thinking. If someone imagines something in their head, it must therefore be possible. There can be no limits, even quantative, physical ones. It's like the miracle of the loaves and fishes - if I can imagine bread, then it follows that everyone can be fed from one loaf.

Case in point: I've tried repeatedly to explain to my students that a purely solar-powered car can't be like cars today due to the laws of thermodynamics. In full sunlight a few thousand watts fall on a car, and if this was 100% converted to energy the car would have a few horsepower at best.

But even after this discussion, students still insist that "someone will figure something out." The laws of nature aren't relevant - "they" will of course solve it and make a solar car that goes 300 miles an hour. (In fact, they already have and are suppressing it). The students don't reason out of any understanding of physics or technology. When pressed, students essentially say that since we can imagine solar cars and they are neat, they "must" be possible.

There's a similar touching belief in "air cars" beloved of science fiction - despite there being nothing remotely practical in this area. When I ask students why we don't have air cars, they typically say that that the "auto companies" don't want us to have them. No mention of the fact that there is no anti-gravity needed to make a silent, easily driven, Jetson's style machine. If I point this out, they are sure that "they" will discover a way to float air cars.

It's not that we might discover something in the future - it's that it is impossible for us NOT to do so!

This uncritical belief that anything is possible is why nobody seriously believes that energy will become scarce. Anything is possible, so it will happen. Energy might exist, so it will. If I note that oil reserves are dropping, students say that there could be undiscovered oil. That's enough for them - if we can imagine "oil not discovered", it must be there! Again, no knowledge of geology and physics goes into this argment - only a belief that anything is possible.

Belief #4 - There is nothing outside human experience. Humanity is everything, and anything I hear about MUST have been caused by humans.

If you believe that anything is possible, then the reason it hasn't happened yet is not any limits placed by Nature. Instead, any barriers, limits, boundaries to infinite personal freedom and power MUST be due to people. By extension, this means that people are responsible for everything that exists in the world.

True, in the past people might have believed in "anything goes" reality. For example, many believed that immortal beings that could fly. But they would have thought they were a "supernatural" being outside of humanity.

Today, people feel that immortality "must" be possible simply because I can think it. Therefore, it HAS happened, or is about to happen. The only reason it hasn't is due to humanity. Humanity is the only source of boundaries in the world.

This idea has been greatly spurred along by advances in entertainment technology. Movies today have computer-generated characters, objects, and machines that defy physical reality. Advances in animation have allowed us to give these impossible creatures and devices disturbing aspects of realism. The trend is even stronger in videogames, which virtually everyone under age 35 plays today. Today, the typical teenager has replaced outdoors unstructured play with play in virtual worlds, obviously constructed by people. If you belive the videogame is "realistic" then stuff in the videogame could easily happen in our world.

We see the ultimate fusion of virtual worlds, conspiracy, and a belief that anything is possible in "The Matrix" movies.

As a result, adherents of the new religion reject the notion that any barrier to their wants (read consumerism) is due to outside forces. They can only be human-caused.

Belief #5 - Since anything is possible, the only barriers are human will. So, if something has not happened that should, it is due to an evil "conspiracy" of humans.

I recently saw this belief when I asked my students to weight the pros and cons of AIDs virus being created by the US military. I provided evidence from both sides - in particular recent discoveries of AIDs cases reported in the 1930s and 1940s from European sailors visiting West Africa. I asked the students to use the evidence to justify their position, pro or con.

The result? Most completely ignored evidence both for and against. Instead, they assumed a conspiracy, and assumed that all the evidence I provided has been doctored. When they read about old AIDs cases from the 1930s and 1940s, they immediately postulated that the old cases were "planted" to support the conspiracy. When I noted that our ability to engineer viruses was primitive in the 1960s (when AIDs is supposed to have been created), the students immediately postulated that a "secret lab" stumbled on the techniques of advanced genetic manipulation. When I pointed out that plagues have attacked people for thousands of years, one student even suggested that this was "disinformation" - in other words, we were disease-free until the late 20th century.

Only a very few students suggested rational ideas - e.g., that we should look closely at the RNA structure of AIDs for signs of manipulation, check published papers from the 1960s and 1970s, etc. and use this evidence to make a decision on the question. These students were the only ones who are not part of the new religion.

The rest, like all zealots, ignored all the facts to support their belief: anything is possible, so AIDs MUST have been created. Since it is bad, it was created by evil people, since people are responsible for everything. This was not a hypothesis that could be falsified - it was religious certainty impervious to contrary information.

Belief #5 - Everything was perfect until "they" took over In our culture today we have largely isolated ourselves from anything outside the human sphere. We no longer have the direct, daily contact with the natural world that our ancestors did. We have moved from being isolated from the harsh aspects of nature to believing that nothing happens outside the human sphere.
I see this frequently when I ask students about the physical world - they're just as likely to believe that earthquakes are caused by someone with earthquake machines as that physical properties of the Earth cause them. In fact, the latter seems less likely to them - after all, they can imagine an earthquake machine, and they saw a movie with one once.

Because people do admit that humanity had less power in the past, they accept that earthquake machines could not have existed long ago. But, instead of concluding that earthquakes may be natural, they apparently believe that there were no earthquakes back then. In fact, there is a widespread belief that nothing bad happened in the old days - simply because humans couldn't make bad things happen yet.

As an example, I've described to students how we eradicated polio from the US in the 1950s and 1960s. Many students are surprised to discover that diseases existed back then! When asked, they apparently believe that the world used to be disease-free, and all our diseases today are caused by a "drug company" conspiracy.....

So, there you have it - our new religion. This faith even includes local gods and goddesses who cannot be blasphemed - usually entertainment celebrities. People who have no problem mocking conventional religions bristle with anger if you attack a "fallen" celebrity like Kurt Cobain - a depressed musician who killed himself with self-destructive behavior. He cannot be bad-mouthed - it's not allowed... It's amazing what sacred cows entertainment celebrities have become - while some may be mocked, others (e.g. rapper Tupac) cannot be blasphemed under any circumstances. I suspect this results from the lack of physical religious artifacts in the conspiracy religion - one must have something tangible and "good" to worship. The unreal world of entertainment celebrities substitutes for the gods of the past.

==========================
You might be amused by my final demonstration of the new religion, and the credulity of its followers. Last week, I told a class of students that the Atlantic is only 20 feet deep, London is 10 miles away from New York, and ocean liners run on metal tracks between the two cities. The reason? There's a conspiracy by the oil companies to keep plane tickets high - they just fly the planes around for several hours to burn up fuel on so-called "transatlantic" flights. The ocean is 20 feet deep because metal can't float - and the ships are made of metal. Ergo, the ships would sink except that they are on tracks on the ocean bottom.
Within 20 minutes I had several students actually supplying "supporting evidence" for my concept- in particular, the idea that "they" want us to burn oil seemed like "proof" to them, as did their inability to reason out why metal ships do float.
After about 30 minutes I stopped - I was worried that I had spawned a new cult! "
Pete Markiewicz (Web site)

"""

It's all so relative.



There ya go...something to chew on.

Stay conscious of the capital "T"s you put on your "They"s throughout the day.

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Time For A New Spaceship

Hello, fellow space travelers!

Have you heard? The Space Shuttle has been grounded!
Something else fell off it during take off.
Maybe it was the muffler.
Maybe it was that "Darwin" fish-eating-fish symbol.
Or maybe it was our outdated concepts of spaceflight.

No matter what it was, that winnebago is done. Put it up on blocks and watch the grass grow over the hubcaps. It's time to put that bus in the Smithsonian. And time to turn to private enterprise.

Let's see, what do we need? Some kind of space ship company...

Poof! Here we go:
captiveCarry
http://www.space.com/news/050727_branson_rutan.html

British entrepreneur, Sir Richard Branson, has teamed up with aerospace designer, Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites to form a new aerospace production company. The new firm will build a fleet of commercial suborbital spaceships and launch aircraft.

Called The Spaceship Company, the new entity will manufacture launch aircraft, various spacecraft and support equipment and market those products to spaceliner operators. Clients include launch customer, Virgin Galactic—formed by Branson to handle space tourist flights.

The Spaceship Company is jointly owned by Branson’s Virgin Group and Scaled Composites of Mojave, California. Scaled will be contracted for research and development testing and certification of a 9-person SpaceShipTwo (SS2) design, and a White Knight Two (WK2) mothership to be called Eve. Rutan will head up the technical development team for the SS2/WK2 combination.

Drawing from SpaceShipOne technology

The announcement was made today at the Experimental Aircraft Association’s (EAA) AirVenture gathering being held July 25-31 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The yearly event spotlights homebuilt aircraft, antiques, classics, warbirds, ultralights, rotorcraft—as well as the emerging commercial spaceflight business.

Both rocket ship and the carrier aircraft will draw from Rutan’s work on SpaceShipOne and the White Knight mothership. The SS2/WK2 system will adopt the reentry concept and hybrid rocket motor design work hammered out for SpaceShipOne, licensing that technology from Paul Allen’s Mojave Aerospace Company.

SpaceShipOne successfully snagged the $10 million Ansari X Prize last year by staging back-to-back flights of the piloted craft to the edge of space.

Both of the new vehicles, however, are to be twice the size of the earlier designs.

Future operations

“We’re taking the technology of SpaceShipOne and developing it into a usable commercial vehicle to give thousands of people the chance to experience the majesty of space,” said Will Whitehorn, President of Virgin Galactic—the space tourism venture that is a subsidiary of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group.

Branson told the Oshkosh crowd that the commercial spaceship can carry 7 paying passengers, along with a two-person flight crew. “We hope that we can get those spacecraft built roughly two and a half to three years from now,” he said.

Once the fleet of suborbital craft is built, a base from which to operate the spaceships is to be set up within the United States. “We still haven’t decided on which state the base will be,” Branson said, adding that the space tourist-carrying vehicles could rocket spaceward from the Mojave, California desert, Las Vegas, New Mexico, or possibly Florida.

“That’s all to be decided,” Branson said.

Seat price expected to drop

At present, seats onboard Virgin Galactic spaceships are price tagged at $200,000 each.

But Branson hopes that this seat price will drop over time. “Our aim is to bring the price down,” he said.

“Our principal aim behind this is not to make money. The principal aim is to reinvest any money we make into space exploration,” Branson said. “We expect to double, triple, quadruple the number of astronauts in the next few years that have currently experienced space,” he said.

To date, Branson said, about a 100 pioneers have been willing to pay $200,000 to be the first people to go into space via Virgin Galactic. “These are the kinds of people who are going to enable us to bring the cost of space travel down,” he stated.

Charting the investment curve

Whitehorn said that Virgin Galactic has been negotiating with Rutan over the last several months to chart out how best to move forward and create a passenger-carrying rocket ship.

“We have decided that since this is such a new industry -- and so early in this investment curve -- that we are actually going to act as the manufacturer and developer of the ships alongside Rutan, Whitehorn told SPACE.com in a phone interview.

The Spaceship Company will own the intellectual property of the new spaceship design. Furthermore, the company will build spaceships -- not only for Virgin Galactic and its initial order of five spaceships and two carrier craft -- but for other customers as well, Whitehorn added.

Timetable: not hidebound

“We would like to be in development and in experimental test flying by the end of 2007. And we would like to be operating commercially by the end of 2008,” Whitehorn said. “But this is a unique project. We’ve made it very clear…that we are not going to be hidebound to a particular timetable.”

Whitehorn said that the new space tourist passenger vehicle is under design, with a mockup to be unveiled at a future date. No details as yet regarding the interior and exterior of the vehicle, but progress is being made, he said.

At least 50 to perhaps as many as 100 test flights of the new spaceship design may be undertaken at the Mojave, California spaceport. That shakeout test period would stretch out over 9 to 10 months, Whitehorn said. “There’s nothing at the moment holding us up in our tracks,” he concluded.

(thank you www.space.com for supplying my lazy cut-and-paste butt)



The Earth is looking more and more like the couch.

Time to pack a cooler and
goup

Monday, July 25, 2005

Russia Shows The Way To Handle Spam

ameng

Vardan Kushnir, notorious for sending spam to each and every citizen of Russia who appeared to have an e-mail, was found dead in his Moscow apartment on Sunday, Interfax reported Monday. He died after suffering repeated blows to the head...

http://mosnews.com/news/2005/07/25/spammerdead.shtml


Don't mess with Mother Russia.
"Ahhhhhh! MotherLand!!"


Anyways, the heat is easing off this week. Thank every god you ever heard of.


Anyhoooos,
here's something from 'the files':

He walked down the street as if his eyes were closed. His head made no motion, his arms hung limply to the side. People passed him by without notice. Some folks just find it easier not to see what makes them uncomfortable.

Gray skies followed him everywhere, and where he was, he wasn't. I hadn't seen him walk by in quite some time, when one Tuesday morning he shuffled toward me, and he stopped.

He stopped dead in front of where I usually stand as I wait for the local route 13 bus. He just stood there, unmoving, not facing me, as if listening to the sound of his heart beating, or the whistle of an approaching car yet two miles up the road.

I knew something was coming.

You could see his whole body tense. Then he turned to me, and pulled off the cheap, cracked sunglasses that I'd never seen leave his face. His eyes were tight balls of madness. They shined with the electric gleam of psychotic concentration.

I can honestly say I feared for my life.

And he began moving closer. I held my ground and my gaze into his insane, sweating, twisted face. He stopped about six inches from my nose. The smell of his ruined breath washed over me like a cloud of tear gas.

"I've seen you before," he said rubbing his fists into his eyes, and then brought them back to focus deep into my nostrils.

"Yeah," I responded, now averting my eyes from his lighthouse glare, "I've seen you around here before too."

Moments passed after I stopped speaking, and you could see the gears grinding in his head, and almost as if you heard the 'bing!' of completion, his eyes bugged out and he raised his arms above his head, shouting "I'm not here, you fool! I've never been here! I'm not here now!"

Ok, right, I thought to myself. This guy is pure wacko. But something seemed harmless about him. The sense of menace I had felt with his approach was suddenly gone, and I found myself feeling a little sorry this man, who hadn't a clue as to what the real world was. I braced myself for a full blown lunatic display, leaning back against the decaying brick wall behind me, and watched.

He pulled his hair, clawed at his neck, raving about how he wasn't actually here, and how what I was seeing was not him. I asked him several times where he really was then, and he only repeated that I knew why, that I knew him, and that he knew why today was so different...

forget

Thursday, July 21, 2005

PS, It's Hot

MainLine the Freon Man!

News Flash!

In the Great American Southwest, it's hot.

I know this may come as quite a surprise, being that it's mid-July in the bleeding desert or near desert anyway. We're breaking records here in Denver, triple digits every day.

I love the heat so much!

(no wait, no I don't! I can't stand temperatures over 75 degrees!)

(G)od, deliver us from Summer, and its hateful (g)od, Ra.

God I hate that god.

You'd never see me building any pyramids for that blazing bastard.


ok.. heatstroke induced rant...done!


Pps,
Yo Sleepy, when are you coming through this Queen City on the Plains?

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Post

Yep, it's that time again. Lack of imagination saved by a google image search...


fencepost

whatzzit+actuator

waitin4pain

Yellow-post-4303006_FRAMED

diefan-scratch-post

Post comm art aneury

post-77-1098781447

Post-Insomnia

Pony%20Post%20EX-O

guard post

mer_opportunity_rock_elcapitan_guadalupe_sol34_pre-post-rat_525x282

circular existence


ps, Battlefield 2 is rapidly taking over my life,
as I have found it neatly fills my needs for love, accomplishment and spiritual growth...
and I'm close to eliminating the pesky demands of nutrition, hydration, and hygiene too.


likegame

Thursday, June 23, 2005

A Couple Ideas

Larmay3

Hey folks! Here's some light reading I found interesting this morning.

The first piece is a compelling paper on astrophysics by a non-astrophysicist.

And the second is some groovy conjecture lifted from that fun doom/gloom economist over at http://urbansurvival.com/week.htm.



""""
I would welcome comment. This is not my professional field (I paintpaintings for a living,) so please treat the paper as an idea to beexplored rather than a finely honed theory. In particular, I am eager to learn if the neutrino idea is possible, - if there is enough data to 'build the picture'. Look forward to your messages,

Stephen.

CAN_GRAVITY_be_INDUCED?

Verifiable Observational Evidence
for A_Dynamic_Non-Space_Sun

by
Stephen_Goodfellow
1989 (1994 update - See 'Ring Effect' prediction.)

CONTENTS:

Abstract, Introduction, Non Space, Plasma, Observational Evidence;
(Neutrinos, Sunspots, Helioseismology), A Dynamic Non Space Sun,
Neutrino Ring Effect Verification, (Data correlation, Feasibility)
Conclusion, Suggested Reading, Credits, References.

ABSTRACT
Gravity can be induced without a corresponding quantity of mass. This
phenomenon is brought about by a plasma in a magnetically unified state.
Our Sun is such a phenomenon in that it is a magnetically sustained
'non-space', an absolute vacuum held in place by the photospheric plasma
shell.
Specific neutrino observations will verify this hypothesis.

INTRODUCTION
How does the Sun shine? The Victorians believed the Sun was a burning
ball of coal. In the atomic era it is thought to be a nuclear furnace.
Each age reflects its own successful power source and attributes it to
the radiating phenomena in the heavens.

Hydrogen/fusion core theories rest on the assumption that the mutual
gravitational attraction of the Sun's individual atoms override all
other acting forces, thereby causing the Sun's mass to contract. This in
turn creates the internal pressures which inaugurate nuclear fusion
within the Sun's core.

The scenario appears to be reasonably logical at a glance, but when
viewed in the light of available observations, it becomes obvious that
the reasoning upon which the hydrogen/fusion core theories rest is
unsound.

These are some of the numerous inconsistencies that emerge:
Where are the abundant neutrinos that are supposed to radiate from our
sun's core?
Why does the neutrino count drop during sunspot activity?
How does the Sun transfer heat to the Corona without violating the Laws
of thermodynamics?
Why are sunspot depressions lower in temperature and luminosity instead
of the other way round?
If the Sun is a contracted ball of gas, why is its rotation rate so
slow?
How can solar oscillations travel from a violent nuclear core, up
through its inhomogeneous body and still retain precise geometrical
configurations by the time they reach the photosphere?
These are some of the many observational facts that the core models are
at odds with.

NON SPACE
Since this paper is chiefly concerned with the verification of
gravitational induction, only a brief summarization of 'Non Space' will
be presented here.

On a rudimentary level, non-space behavior can be compared to a vortex,
which is a 'low energy' example of this phenomenon.
Milk added to a stirred cup of coffee outlines a vortex, which consists
of a high pressure exterior and a low pressure center. The vortex
behaves in a manner identical to that of the planets orbiting the Sun,
in that both phenomena obey Kepler's Second Law of Planetary Motion(1).
Objects placed closer to the center of the vortex orbit at a greater
speed than objects further out from the center, in accordance with
Kepler's Laws. The depression in the center of the fluid is thus a
relative absence of matter producing an effect characteristic of
gravity.

No observable space in the universe is a vacuum.(2)
It is notable that most dictionaries describe a vacuum as: " A space
devoid of matter." This definition is no longer sufficient description
of a vacuum, since it appears that all known space contains some measure
of mass/energy. Perhaps a more accurate description would be: " A vacuum
is a volume devoid of space."

Since a higher pressure attempts to nullify a lower pressure, a
hypothetical volume of absolute vacuum (non-space) will attract space.

Non-space is an absolute vacuum which induces gravity. This causes the
exterior mass/energy space to gravitationally implode upon non-space.
Any given volume of non-space has a temperature of absolute zero and is
without time.

I believe that a magnetic field can exist in non-space, because it is a
manifestation of of mass/energy, but is not mass/energy in itself.
In the following chapter I shall discuss how Non-space can be brought
about by high energy plasmas in magnetically unified configurations.

PLASMA
To understand how non-space is possible, it is important to consider the
rudiments of plasma behavior.
It was not long ago that physics classified matter into only three
states: Solid, Liquid, and Gas.

Fairly recently (1960's) was it realized that a gas heated to a very
high temperature does not obey the law of gasses; it displays a behavior
unique to its own nature.(3) So different is this state from a regular
gas that it has been classified as a fourth state of matter: a
plasma.(4)

Because all stars consist of this super-hot gas, a large portion of the
known universe exists in a plasma state, a condition of matter that
scientists have only recently begun to understand.(5)

Put simply, plasma is a super-hot gas in which electrons are stripped
away from protons. When placed in the vicinity of a magnetic field,
particles of like polarity interact with, and reinforce the field.
The magnetic force is 1 X 10 to the 39times stronger than the
gravitational force.(6)

The observation that plasmas align and reinforce magnetic fields is at
odds with the fusion/core theories which rest on the assumption that the
mutual gravitational attraction of the Sun's individual atoms override
all other acting forces.

However, the Sun consists of super hot gas, a plasma. If the Sun's
plasma particles mutually interact within a unifying magnetic field,
then it is the Sun's magnetic field and its associated particles that
dominate, not the gravitational contraction of the Sun's mass.
It occurs to me that the disparity between plasma behavior and the
gravitational solar core theory is understandable; the fusion/core
models originated before the nature of plasma configurations were
understood.

Fusion/core reasoning was founded on classical gravitational arguments.
These are incomplete and invalid in a plasma universe.

The following discussion is a thumbnail rendition of how non-space can
be possible in a plasma universe. However, the specific mechanism I
propose here is rudimentary and speculative. It is not crucial to the
overall concept:
Laboratory plasma configurations are truly astounding; they exhibit
behavior bordering on the incredible.
Plasmas which are shot through a plasma gun ( a magnetic field ) and
into a vacuum tube display well defined structures. Unfortunately,
because of the speed (120 miles per second,) with which the plasma makes
its way down the vacuum tube, photos reveal only a glimmering of the
complexity that can be attributed to plasma structure.
Plasma structure can evolve into a helical flow composed of two
separate streams, one consisting of electrons and the other of protons.
The structure maintains a stable shape that can best be described as a
cross between a smoke ring and a coiled spring turned in on itself.(7)
When considering induced gravity, it is significant that electrons and
protons can organize into separate camps, because like particles of the
same charge repel one another.

It is my contention that when plasma particles of the same charge
interact within a unified magnetic field, they fly apart leaving non-
space in their wake. The 'nothing' left behind is a rip in the fabric of
mass/energy/space and gravity is induced without a corresponding
quantity of mass.
In this connection, it is interesting to note that the most advanced
vacuum chambers employ ions - plasma electrons - to sweep the chamber
clear of residual atmosphere.
Nonetheless, the comparison is crude; the best vacuum chambers can
sustain a space fabric which is a 'foggy' 50,000 atoms per cubic
centimeter, a far cry from an absolute vacuum.

OBSERVATIONAL EVIDENCE
Neutrinos
1) Dr. Raymond Davis of the Brookhaven National Laboratory has been
monitoring the emanation of neutrons from the Sun since 1967, and he has
demonstrated that the flow of these neutrinos amounts to less than 1/3
of the amount anticipated by the current hydrogen fusion core
theories.(8)

The deficiency in the neutrino count may be accounted for as follows.:
Neutrinos originate from, or near, the Sun's surface. Since neither mass
nor radiation can travel through the Sun's non-space interior, only the
neutrinos produced on the side of the Sun facing us reach the Earth.
Those neutrinos originating from the opposite side of the Sun cannot
penetrate the Sun's non-space interior and so escape the Earth based
observer.

2) When sunspots occur on the Sun's photosphere, the neutrino count drops.

Neutrinos have little or no charge and so cannot be significantly affected by the magnetic field of sunspots on the Sun's surface. If neutrinos originate from the Sun's core and travel outwards, then sunspots on the photospheric surface should have no effect on the neutrinos. These subatomic particles should pass to the observer unimpeded, yet the neutrino count is diminished during sunspot activity.(9)

Why? I suggest that neutrinos originate near the Sun's photospheric surface. Within sunspots there is decreased temperature and luminosity. Consequently, there is less fusion and therefore a likelihood of a drop in neutrino production; hence a decrease of neutrinos during sunspot activity.

Sunspots
Sunspots are depressions in the Sun's photospheric surface.(10) If the interior of a sunspot is closer to the Sun's supposedly active core, why does it get cooler and darker instead of hotter and brighter in these areas?
I suggest that the temperature and luminosity gradient drop with proximity to the non-space solar interior.

Helioseismology
A whole new science has recently sprung up called Helioseismology. It
can be observed that the Sun vibrates, rather like a bell. It is
presently believed that solar resonances are propagated acoustically
from the Sun's core.(11)

But is this so?
Solar oscillations came as a complete surprise to solar theorists
because one does not usually associate structures that get denser
towards their center as good candidates for effective oscillators.
Hollow structures, such as bells are good oscillators; so too is the
plasma shell of a non-space Sun.

A core sun makes for an inefficient oscillator: how would solar
oscillations travel from a violent nuclear core, up through a somewhat
inhomogeneous body and still retain precise geometrical configurations
by the time they reach the photosphere?

We know from studying the powerful magnetic fields that erupt from
sunspot depressions, that the Sun is capable of propagating interior
magnetic fields reaching thousands of gauss.(12)
I suggest that stable geometrical oscillations occur because the sun's
interior magnetic field causes the Sun's exterior plasma shell to
vibrate on its 'surface', like the oscillations produced by an acoustic
speaker.

A blind-folded person would be hard pressed to tell whether he is being
addressed directly or via a speaker. The same is true for
Helioseismology; the observer is blind to the interior and so the
information is interpreted in the light of present concepts of solar
theory.

Helioseismologists have discovered a condition in the Sun's shallower layers which is at variance with conventional core models: Through frequency splittings resulting from the Sun's rotation, it is observed that the rotation actually decreases with depth. It is hard for any core theory to come to terms with this lack of angular momentum.(13) However, this observation is in tune with a non-space sun; if the vacuum boundary upon which the photosphere rests has the strongest gravitational potential, layers directly below the photosphere would be even more constrained by the Sun's gravitational field and move slower.

A DYNAMIC 'NON-SPACE' SUN
Imagine a rotating gaseous giant, perhaps a little bigger than Jupiter. The gravitational sum of its mass causes intense pressure and so generates atomic fusion at its center. ( Just like the conventional hydrogen/fusion core model.)
The fusion reaction is matter in a plasma state. Rotation creates a dynamo effect producing a magnetic field which unifies the plasma, which in turn strengthens the field. In this state, protons and electrons are forced into like camps, where they repel one another. The proto-Sun undergoes a transformation as its mass exspands into a plasma shell.
However, the plasma can only expand outwards a finite distance, because it has left non-space in its wake. The attraction of mass/energy space towards non space causes a gravitational implosion. The plasma has nowhere to go. It cannot go further inwards, because of the repulsive magnetic field; nor can it expand outwards, due to the gravity holding it back.
The solar hydrogen shell is under intense pressure at the vacuum boundary and this causes fusion reactions. This released energy maintains the plasma. Again, electrons are stripped from protons and the cycle repeats, thereby maintaining the Sun's radiation.

Let us now review the cycle:
1)A rotating primordial proto sun with strong gravitational compression in its core.
2) Pressure inaugurates nuclear fusion.
3) Plasma is created. The dynamo effect of the rotating proto-Sun supplies a unifying magnetic field for the plasma.
4) Stripped Electrons and protons form into camps of like particles.
5) Magnetic repulsion occurs. ( Outward flow of plasma )
6) The proto sun expands.
7) Outward flow leaves non space in it's wake; induced gravitational attraction is brought about, restraining the further outward flow of matter.
8) Magnetic repulsion and Induced gravitational attraction brings the solar shell into equilibrium.
9) The Sun's photospheric shell is heated under pressure from magnetic plasma repulsion and induced gravitational attraction.
10) The sequence then repeats, 2), 4), 5), 7), 8), 9), 10), and back to 2).
1) and 6) are not repeated because the 'solid' proto-Sun has expanded into a shell, maintaining it's equilibrium in this configuration.

This concept is in harmony with the conservation of angular momentum, in that it accounts for the relatively slow rotation of our Sun. Jupiter, the fifth planet from the Sun, has by far the greatest portion of angular momentum of the Solar System.
If the Sun contracted from a cloud of hydrogen and essentially remained so ( as the core theories would have it,) then one would expect the center to rotate the fastest, just as a spinning ice skater will rotate faster if she draws her arms into her side. Yet the Sun completes only one rotation every 28-30 days. Jupiter rotates once in less than eight hours.

The non space scenario suggests that the early proto-Sun's spin was considerable while it was a dense ball of mass, but as it inaugurated nuclear fusion and expanded into a thin shell of plasma, it lost its angular momentum. Like an ice skater spreading her arms out and slowing down, the Sun's rotation is reduced.(14)

NEUTRINO RING EFFECT VARIFICATION
For this solar model to work, it requires that absolutely no mass nor radiation can travel through an absolute vacuum (non-space). If the the Sun's interior is impervious to neutrino penetration, it follows that any neutrinos issuing from the Sun can only come from the surrounding shell of matter.
Since neutrino production on that side of the Sun facing away from us does not penetrate the Sun, the observer sees only neutrinos from that half of the Solar disk which faces the observer.
Because of the Sun's spherical curvature, its horison, or limb, would appear to be the source of highest neutrino production. Thus, an observer capable of 'seeing' neutrinos, would look at the Sun and see a Ring Effect.

When neutrinos collide with atomic nuclei, the scattering pattern from the collision can determine the angle of neutrino approach. It is therefore possible to determine the source of a given neutrino and distinguish it from other neutrinos. In this manner, it would be possible to build a neutrino 'photograph' of the Sun. This would be very desirable, because it would determine the source of solar energy production.

If the majority of the neutrinos arrive from the core of the Sun, then the Hydrogen/Fusion/Core theories are on the right track.
This will not be so.
I predict that the Ring Effect along the lines I have described will be observed, because the Sun's energy production is exterior to the Sun.

Feasibility of data gathering We are entering an era of neutrino detector construction; USA, Russia, Italy, Japan and Australia have, or are in the process of building, neutrino detectors. I am confident that with the increased neutrino data, the results from the above-mentioned program can be determined in the near future.

CONCLUSION
This is the 1992 edition of this paper, the earliest version having been written in 1979. As new data has come to light and improvements for varification occour to me, I have gone about modifying and revising. Since the origional, I have released five modifications of the paper to friends and aquaintences, this being the sixth. Throughout the revisions I have never vered from the origional consept of the paper, namely that the interior of the Sun is non space, and that this non space induces gravity.
The chief change in this edition is the elimination of a somewhat more cumbersome means of varifying that the Sun has a non space interior replacing that abstract with what I believe to be a simpler and more elequent "Ring Effect" observation.( p.8.)

According to Dr. Anthony Peratt, who is involved in plasma research at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Nobel Prize laureate Hannes Alfven believes that gravity results when electromagnetic forces neutralize each other. Dr. Anthony Peratt also informs me that no one, to his knowledge, has pursued plasma/gravity experiments to date.
It is my fervent hope that plasma physicists will perform plasma/gravity experiments in the near future.

In the 'Suggested Reading' section, I make reference to H.E. Puthoff, who puts forward tantalizing evidence for the "Casimir Effect", a phenomenon where vacuum induces gravity. I learned of H.E. Puthoff's papers and articles in 1990, and it is indeed striking ( and gratifying) to find ones own research paralleled.

I suspect that most astrophysicists will initially be reluctant to accept the gravitationally inducing 'non space' concept and I can empathize with that skepticism and reluctance which researchers may feel when asked to embrace such a radical idea. Indeed, if I were reading a paper such as this written by someone else, I would probably have strong reservations myself.
Remember however, that the foundation of the non-space model does not rest upon speculation or conjecture; on the contrary, the hypothesis depends on specific, and achievable means of observational confirmation.

If you have any questions or comments, please direct them to me at:
146 Farrand Park
Highland Park
MI 48203
Phone: (313) 883 4827
E-Mail: llrowla@cms.wayne.edu

SUGGESTED READING
"The Plasma Universe" by Anthony L. Peratt, Sky & Telescope Feb. 1992

"The role of particle beams and electrical currents in the plasma universe" by Anthony L. Peratt; Laser and Particle beams (1988) vol. 6, part 3, pp. 471-491.

"Double Layers and Circuits in Astrophysics" by Hannes Alfven; IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Vo. PS-14, No. 6, December 1986

"Evolution of the Plasma Universe: I. Double Radio Galaxies, Quasars, and Extragalactic Jets." by Anthony L. Peratt, IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Vol. PS-14, No. 6, december 1986.

"Evolution of the Plasma Universe: II. The Formation of Systems of Galaxies." by A. L. Peratt IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Vol. PS-14 No. 6, Dec. 1986.

"Ground state of hydrogen is a zero-point-fluctuation-determined state" by H.E. Puthoff, Physical Review D, Particles and Fields, Vol. 35 No.10, May 15th 1987, published by The American Physical Society.

"Gravity as a zero-point-fluctuation force" by H.E. Puthoff, Physical Review, Vol. 39 No.5, 1st of March, 1989, published by the American Physical Society.

"Source of vacuum electromagnetic zero-point energy" by H.E. Puthoff, Physical Review Vol.40, No.9, 1st Nov., 1989, published by the American Physical Society.

"How the Solar System Was Formed" by Daniel R. Wells; 21st Century, July-August issue, 1988.

http://sci-phys-plasma.caeds.eng.uml.edu/1994/11-94-005.htm
"""

_______
(and the next read...)


mgg_10

"""
Crack in the Earth

I don't want to be an alarmist, but let's review a couple of facts. Whether you have confidence in the web bot technology, which scans huge portions of the public internet and looks for linguistic shift changes in order to predict future events, you'll have to admit that the April 3, 2005 forecast about the "summer shakes" series of earthquakes has been pretty much right on. See http://www.halfpasthuman.com/ for the original work. What's more, we expect that the shakes are far from over.

Point two is that there's a growing body of scientific evidence that suggests that the Pacific Plate is trying to break loose from its moorings to earth at a massive level. That's specifically what has been behind the recent string of quakes around the Pacific ring of fire including the 7+ activity off northern California and Chile in the past 10 days, or so. Moreover, the recent string of smaller quakes in the vicinity of the New Madrid in the mid section of the US is also worrisome.

What a few scientists are now proposing is that the earth is growing and they have developed something called the "fusion core" model. In a nutshell, it suggests that just as the Sun is powered by an ongoing fusion reaction (involving hydrogen and helium) the smaller planets are kept "warm" by ongoing fusion that is fed by waves of intergalactic high energy particles. While it's a bit much to swallow in one bite, the thinking is that just like matter can be turned into energy under Einstein's E=mc² law, just the opposite kind of reaction can take place over time on a planet which wanders around space sucking up high energy particle blasts from all over, not to mention the radiation from the sun. The Einstein reaction flips to become E/c²=m (energy divided by the constant speed of light squared creates a little bit of mass. Simplified even further, the atomic bomb reaction may be a two-way street.

OK, with that to go with the Wheaties as this morning's pop science rap, plug in the notion that if (and it's a big IF) this model of matter creation at the core of the earth is correct. then over geologic time scales, the earth ought to be getting bigger. Now, to support the notion, the researchers into this theory have said "Hey! Look how all the continents fit together if you shrink the world's size - just like you were letting air out of a balloon!" Sure enough, there's something to it.

The other thing that comes into focus is that if the plasma/fusion core of the earth model holds any credence, they we would expect to see some evidence that the earth is cracking in a huge way.

Is is possible that the present spate of EQ activity around the world is part of a normal growth spurt? Maybe.

Whether it is, or isn't, when we see stories developing that support the model, no matter how small they may be to mainstream media (MSM) which is seemingly hypnotized by news which we call Grand Media Distractions (GMD's), we feel an obligation to bring them to your attention because a mega earthquake can really ruin your day.

Done with the foreplay and background; off to check of the huge "Crack in the Earth Story" out of Texas this morning. Here, we read that a huge crack in the earth 30- feet deep or more has developed around halfway between Albuquerque and Oklahoma City, which would put it just east of Amarillo in north central Texas. When you look at such cracks develop, you wonder, are those fringe scientist folks on to something?

Not that we worry about such things, but it is 399 miles northwest from our ranch and might be something to check out on our way back there on our next trip east from Shaker Town. It's certainly something to think about when the next round of quakes shows up in a few days...if it does.
""""

that does it for this post,
thanks for stopping by

catchballyouinfuture

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Oh, It's On!

tank!

Ok.

I'm a gamer. A PC gamer (cause I like my fun a little more complex than plug 'n play).

The demo for Battlefield2 is out. And after discovering that my yet-young(old) cpu can run it, and run it well (with eye-candy and everything... ie, when an explosion occurs next to you, your hearing deadens and your vision goes blurry... very convincingly blurry), I must say.... this game is the Shiii-ot!

I've enjoyed the Battlefield franchise for 2 years now, through three or four permutations. And this one is the best so far. All the football with six inzones--but bullets for a ball--action I have come to love... but now Dice has finally got the details down, the little things that, when done right, make the experience extremely satisfactory. Anyway, it F-ing rocks!

Now, I know the majority of you reading this will have no idea what the heck I'm talking about. That's ok... it all started with Pong, or maybe that little green hand-held football box with the red blinking lights for players. But this is state of the electronic gaming art now... and you can feel it kicking you in the pants.

And for those of you, and you know who you are, who will say: "how can you play such a 'violent' game based on war, especially when there's real heroes out there dying every day?" I say: the thing to remember about these games... to quote my good friend Billy... the only thing that makes this kind of game fun is, IT ISN'T REAL. You put the reality in it, and the fun goes right out.

Alright, enough said.

That is all.

Monday, June 13, 2005

First Rocky Boy Found Outside Sol System

rocky boy

Another hurdle in astronomy passed: they found a rocky boy.

"""
Astronomers announced today the discovery of the smallest planet so far found outside of our solar system. About seven-and-a-half times as massive as Earth, and about twice as wide, this new extrasolar planet may be the first rocky world ever found orbiting a star similar to our own.

"This is the smallest extrasolar planet yet detected and the first of a new class of rocky terrestrial planets," said team member Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. "It's like Earth's bigger cousin."

Currently around 150 extrasolar planets are known, and the number continues to grow. But most of these far-off worlds are large gas giants like Jupiter. Only recently have astronomers started detecting smaller massed objects

"We keep pushing the limits of what we can detect, and we're getting closer and closer to finding Earths," said team member Steven Vogt from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

The discovery of Earth’s distant cousin was announced today at a press conference at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Va.

The new planet orbits Gliese 876, an M dwarf star 15 light years away in the constellation Aquarius. The “super-Earth” is not alone: there are two other planets – both Jupiter-sized – in the same system. This third world was detected by a tiny extra wobble that it caused in the central star.

From this wobble, the researchers measured a minimum mass for the new planet of 5.9 Earth masses. The planet orbits makes a full orbit in a speedy 1.94 days, implying a distance to the central star of 2 million miles – or about 2 percent of the distance between the Earth and the Sun.

Orbiting so close to its star, scientists speculate that the planet’s temperature is a toasty 400 to 750 degrees Fahrenheit (200 to 400 degrees Celsius). This is likely too hot for the planet to retain much gas, like Jupiter does. Therefore, the planet must be mostly solid.

"The planet's mass could easily hold onto an atmosphere," said Gregory Laughlin from UC Santa Cruz. "It would still be considered a rocky planet, probably with an iron core and a silicon mantle. It could even have a dense steamy water layer.”

A paper detailing these results has been submitted to The Astrophysical Journal.
"""

--stolen with a mastermind's precision from: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050613_super_earth.html

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Robot Wish List

hitachi-robots
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050609/ap_on_hi_te/japan_robots_3

Ok folks,

feeling a little intimidated by Sleepy's request for a Music Top Five ...
(per the man is a living, breathing encyclopedia of music knowledge and experience)

so I humbly redirect:

Check out the link above, and let me know just what actions, chores, jobs the robot developers should be working on.

I'll start.

1) Laundro-Robo: it's not good enough we have laundry machines to save us from heading down to the river and beating our blue jeans on a rock... I want an automaton to sort, wash, fold and put away those mondo piles of clothes that count as major landmarks in my bedroom.

2) Robo-Poop: picture your backyard, littered as usual by your beloved dog-food to dog-crap super converter, and you know it's time to get the shovel and clean up, again. But wait! Now, with the flip of a switch, here comes Robo-Poop! This little metal shit digger could take care of all those messes with ease. It could even toss the turds into its "mouth" and cremate those bad brown mountains in its belly.

3) Player-Bot: for all you hip, swinging players out there... this little pocket buddy could help you identify potential mates in a bar who are clean, disease free, not so drunk, or not drunk enough. Just release this little guy on a hunt of eavesdropping, skin sampling and drink testing, as he sneaks under tables and behind cocktail napkins. It's not an invasion of privacy if they never know! (Self-destruct mechanism sold separately.)

4) Scratch-A-Tron: got an itch you just can't reach? Then Scratch-A-Tron could be just what you're looking for! Simply jack "Scratchy" into your neural perception matrix (via nipples, dimples, or other paired nodes on your body), and let it find where you need the most attention. Super tough adjustable fingers and finger nails cater to your personal comfort level. The middle of your back has never known such satisfaction! (Also sold with "round-head" attachment for the ladies.)

5) Drinking Buddy 2000: probably the easiest robot design to attain in this list. DB2K could shoot pool, go bowling, and hang out at the race track with you. The ultimate wingman, DB2K would always take the ugly one. Just don't try to drink him under the table. (Comes with preprogrammed audio phrases such as: "Hell yeah!" "You Right!" and "Man, I told you she was a bitch.")

Bathtubs From The Sky

Serious Wet

"Torrential rains continue to cause widespread flooding across south-central China.

!!! Up to 10 feet of rain fell in some areas in less than nine hours Wednesday. !!!

Rivers, including the Yangtze, are breaking their banks and flooding nearby cities and towns.

The floods have spurred widespread evacuations and major traffic snarls.

One huge landslide blocked traffic for two hours.

No deaths have been reported from the most recent deluge. But seasonal flooding has left more than 200 dead in the hardest-hit areas over the last two weeks.

Relief efforts are underway and health officials are working to prevent outbreaks of disease."

http://khon.com/khon/display.cfm?storyID=5080&sectionID=1163


muchrainhands

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Calling Fireflies Who Cannot See

kelley_backwardsInTime

Perhaps what we say is not today, but tomorrow
Read the book you will be writing, strange worlds unfurl
Anticipation becomes more than a one way street

The future’s a sight to see
Are you there with me?

Initial actions
Pre-umbral attractions
Pieces of the puzzle before the picture is pleased

The future’s a furious fight in me
Are you Locke or key?

A new dimension came years ago
Now our reflections our reflections show
We broke the ice on a shifting sea

The future’s a label maker stuck on E
Are you mouse molesting bourgeoisie?

Buzzing flowers in the field
A cross-pollinating swirl
Genuflect before the savior bee

The future’s a connective tree
Swing together singing shall we?

Machines smaller than the glazing of an eye
Sweetly wait to service you and I
Miracles will become convenient necessity

The future’s a sight to be
Are you there and free?

Some days we’ll live and thrive
Some days we’ll sigh and die
Just another Jesus complex simple in the sky

The future’s a dark marquee
Calling fireflies who cannot see

db_clock1

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Good Golly!

bigcatfish

Jebus! Even American FISH are obese!

In a photo from Tim Pruitt and provided by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Tim Pruitt, of Alton, Ill., holds a 124-pound blue catfish early Sunday morning, May 22, 2005, that he hooked late Saturday on the Mississippi River near Alton. The fish is 58 inches long and 44 inches around. It took Pruitt more than a half-hour to drag the fish into his boat. It is the largest of its kind in state history, and is expected to be certified a world record by the International Game Fish Association. The fish has been kept alive and will be on display in a tank at the Cabela's Outfitter store in Kansas City, Kan., according to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. (AP Photo/Handout photo provided by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050525/ap_on_fe_st/big_fish

Monday, May 23, 2005

Fact? Fiction?...eh, F it... It's Fun!

mtl-ufo5

Major UFO Breakthrough in Brazil 22-May-2005

The nation of Brazil is relaxing its policy of UFO secrecy. It is the first among a number of countries known to be considering the idea of abandoning the secrecy mandate that has been in place worldwide since the phenomenon first began to be publicly known nearly fifty years ago.

A.J. Gevaerd of the Brazilian Committee of UFO Researchers reports that a number of important files have just been released, including a folder containing documents from 1977 that cover dozens of cases of UFOs in the Amazon with over 100 pictures made during Operation Saucer, an official Brazilian military investigation that was carried out between September and December, 1977.

This change in policy means that one of the countries with the most extensive amount of UFO activity is now going to share its previously secret knowledge with the public.

a_gevaerd_brazil

A. J. Gevaerd writes:

Friday, May 20, was a historic day for Ufology in Brazil and in the world as the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), for the very first time in its history, officially receives a committee of top UFO researchers to openly discuss sightings in the country and fully exam classified UFO documents in several military facilities in Brasilia, the Federal Capital.

By doing this very important step, Brazilian Air Force (FAB) has placed Brazil in a very short list of countries whose militaries acknowledge the Ufology as a serious activity and significative effort to fully understand the nature and origin of UFOs. “We want to have all info on the subject, that is withheld by us for some decades, fully released to public, through the UFO community”, declared brigadier Telles Ribeiro, chief of Brazilian Air Force Communication Center.

The Brazilian Government, through the Brazilian Air Force, has finally decided to come forward and recognize the UFO research as a genuine activity as a direct result of the intense pressure made by the campaign UFOs: Freedom of Information Now, a movement started by the Brazilian UFO Magazine in April 2004. The campaign was launched by the Brazilian Committee of UFO Researchers (CBU), composed of 6 UFO civilian researchers: Claudeir Covo, Marco Petit, Rafael Cury, Reginaldo de Athayde, Fernando Ramalho and A. J. Gevaerd (Athayde was sick an replaced by new interim member veteran UFO researcher Roberto Affonso Back)

Details of the campaign both in Portuguese and in English can be consulted at: Ufo.com.br and UFO.com.br/secrecy.

The approach of the Brazilian military by the CBU committee started last February, ten months after the campaign begun, with a phone call from a Brazilian Air Force spokesman, major Antonio Lorenzo, and a formal invitation to a visit and a chat in some Air Force headquarters in Brasilia. Major Lorenzo fully recognized the UFO researchers’ efforts in this field and provided a few details of what kind of reserved files and procedures the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) has about the UFO Phenomena and its detection, recording and investigation in the country.

Two meeting between the civilian UFO researchers and the military took place last Friday, May 20, and firstly happened in the headquarters of the Integrated Center of Air Defense and Air Traffic Control (Centro Integrado de Defesa Aérea e Controle de Trafego Aéreo, Cindacta), a very sensitive facility. During two hours, the researchers were given lectures of the procedures conducted at Cindacta and had the chance to visit air traffic control rooms and understand how UFOs could be detected by the Air Force personnel.

The second and most important meeting took place just after this one at the very reserved facilities of Brazilian Air Defense Command (Comando de Defesa Aerea Brasileiro, Comdabra), an even more sensitive installation that controls the entire air defense situation in the country and surrounding areas of Atlantic Ocean and South America. In this facility the UFO researchers were given full briefing of the top aspects of aerial defense of the country.

It was in this facility that its own commander, brigadier Atheneu Azambuja, admitted to the UFO researchers how concerned the Brazilian military are about the UFO phenomena. Azambuja also gave details of Comdabra procedures and openly admitted that the country has systematically detected and registered UFOs in the country – labeled as “H Traffic” – since 1954. That wasn’t a surprise for the UFO researchers of the Brazilian Committee of UFO Researchers (CBU), but how this registering process took place was.

After detailed explanations of Comdabra activities, brigadier Atheneu Azambuja, for the first time in history, gave full access to the civilian UFO researchers to exam 3 different folders with classified UFO information, cases from specific dates of 1954, 1977 and 1986. The first case was an airplane pursuit of a UFO in the ocean shores of Paraná State.

The second file was much more important. In the folder containing the 1977 docs that could be examined by the UFO researchers were dozens of cases of UFOs in the Amazon with and amazing amount of over 100 pictures made during the so-called Operation Saucer, an official program of UFO investigation by the military that took place from September to December, 1977, and has been fully covered by specialized UFO press over the world.

The third case was the “The Official Night of UFOs in Brazil”, a very significative group of events that happened in May 1986, when 21 objects of over 100 m in diameter jammed Brazilian air traffic control system over Rio de Janeiro, Sao Jose dos Campos and Sao Paulo, mainly, and several jets were sent to intercept – without any success – the intruders.

The Brazilian Air Force (FAB) representatives at those meetings then fully admitted that Ufology is serious business and broadly recognized the activity of UFO research by the civilian UFO community. And also guaranteed that further steps are about to be taken to let the researchers to exam the entire military UFO files in a more comprehensive way. Plus, a committee of military and civilian UFO researchers was promised to start operating very soon, coordinated by the Brazilian Committee of UFO Researchers (CBU). This certainly means that we will start a new era in Ufology in Brazil and in South America. Very good things are about to happen as the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) command, the Brazilian Ministry of Defense and the Brazilian president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva receive the open letters and formal requests for opening for good the documents and start the mentioned committee, as presented to them by their spokesman.

--heard about this on Coast2Coast, and borrowed story text from www.unknowncountry.com.


As usual, draw your own conclusions... I have yet to draw mine.

But everything changes: policies, conclusions, reality... flux flux flux!