Our Books

I read Mellie’s latest blog about how our house is filled with books and it made me smile.

http://thursday-ish.blogspot.com/

Some of the stories I read (and write) are a little fatalistic. I do wonder from time to time how we would cope if the lights went out. I mean really out. No electricity and no hope of it coming back for a long, long time.

While I was sitting at home eating lunch, casually pondering the end of days, I began to look around me and realized we don’t have a problem. I saw a book on soap making! Then it struck me, we absolutely do have a Library.

Want to know how to paint or draw? Yeah, we have books on that. How to write? Please! A whole section that’s just reference books. Books on aircraft? Check. Chemistry? History? Politics? Check. Space program…Mercury, Gemini, Apollo? Check. Cook books? Pshhht. And I haven’t even gotten to the fiction yet.

Like Shakespeare? We have them broken down by tragedies or comedies or you can borrow the complete collection in one volume if you prefer. I can eye Dickens to Tolstoy to Hemmingway to Twain. Historical fiction, science fiction, romance, mystery and just plain silliness (may Douglas Adams rest in peace, like a Vogon on Pan Galactic Gargleblasters doesn’t.)

I know in my heart that an iPad, or any electronic device like it, will never replace a book. There is something about how a book feels and even how it smells. I have a book in my desk at work. At home I have one by the bed, by the chair where I use the computer, and in my car. Some of you reading this know what I mean. I know you go to Walmart or Costco and you can’t resist cruising down the book isle. And you never get out of Borders or Barnes and Noble without buying something!

One of my best friends complimented me the other day by saying I was one of the smartest people they know. I don’t think I’m all that smart. I think I’m just well read. It’s part of the “using not only all of my own brains, but also all of the brains of those around me” idea. I have a house full of the brains of lots of smart people (and a few smart-alecky ones).

The Mind Machine

What if you could get your mind to do things you had once thought impossible? How would you feel if it took technology to do it? A debate we have had at our writers group is if the technology existed to enhance you mentally or physically, would you use it?

Many of us agree, the majority of people would. Why? Because it’s human nature to want to be better or even as good as we once were.

As you get older your memory starts to go. No ones fault, it just happens. So imagine if you could make an appointment with your doctor and for a fee have the equivalent of computer memory implanted in your brain. You might find your insurance even covers it. The way they see it, if you always remember to take your medicine, you don’t get sick as often. You have perfect recall and the insurance company gets to collect premiums and not pay out as much.

Or, more painfully, a water skiing accident snaps your spine. You live but your body is no longer functional. You can’t even speak. Would it be some kind of miracle to have the technology available that would read your thoughts and through a computer allow you to communicate, perhaps do even more?

In 1982, Clint Eastwood, starred in and directed a movie called Firefox. The movie was about an American pilot who goes to Russia to steal an aircraft that contains a “neural” interface. It allows him to arm and launch weapons with only a series of thought commands. The movie was a bit lame but the idea it presented 28 years ago is quite amazing.

That was then.

What is the possibility of a mind/machine interface? I recently watched a video that sent me down a path of wonder. A woman named Tan Le is part of a company that has developed a Mind/Computer interface. (Look her up on Wikipedia and check out her TED Talk.) She demonstrated a simple headset (one that could read brainwaves -- EEG) and some software, that allowed a person to quickly manipulate objects in a virtual environment using just their mind. Imagine for a moment what that could mean. It starts with computer games where you can move objects and characters just using your thoughts. That’s how they introduce it because that will reach around the world and that is where the money is, but that is not the real power of this invention. In my waterskiing tragedy above, that person could communicate and even use a wheel chair just through mental commands and facial movement.

While watching this short video I imagined a myriad of possibilities (both good and bad) that this technology represents. I need to go now and write them down – since I don’t have that perfect recall implant…yet.

Made the big time!

As a writer you have to celebrate the little victories. I've not won a major award but I did just make the Xomba quote of the day through one of my posts.

Quote of the Day

"If you want to sit around your house in your underwear playing Xbox all day getting high…go for it."

Check it out here: http://www.xomba.com/user/allen_james_100

Grin....

How About That Constitution...

We the people, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

In case you don’t recognize those words, they are the preamble to our Constitution. I wrote this from memory – so by all means check me and see if I missed a word or misplaced a comma…it will do you good.

The Constitution is the document our government should live and breathe. It defines their powers and who we are as a nation. How many of our Congress critters do you think have actually read the Constitution? How many have studied its origins or the people who wrote it?

When I look at their behavior, I can’t imagine many of them have bothered. At one point in my life I took an oath to defend those writings and what they stand for against ALL enemies foreign and domestic. I like to think I know what it is I am protecting…

Some say the out of control government we have today is given that right through the General Welfare clause of the Constitution. Well, anyone who has not read the Constitution or studied its history would say that. Just so you understand, let’s look at what the founding father had to say about “General Welfare.”

From Fedralist 41: Written by James Madison:

“Construe either of these articles [He is talking about the Articles of Confederation.] by the rules which would justify the construction put on the new Constitution, and they vest in the existing Congress a power to legislate in all cases whatsoever. But what would have been thought of that assembly, if, attaching themselves to these general expressions, and disregarding the specifications which ascertain and limit their import, they had exercised an unlimited power of providing for the common defense and general welfare?”

James Madison argued that a General clause is followed by specific restrictions upon the government and always was intended to be that way as seen in the original Articles of Confederation.

Our government has no constitutional authority to dictate our healthcare, education, or environmental conditions. That was always intended to be left to the States.

I recommend that everyone educate themselves on what our governments role should be and think hard about what you should do this coming November. Do your homework!
You can find the Fedralist papers in their entirety here:
http://www.foundingfathers.info/federalistpapers/fedindex.htm




And the next time you are watching MSNBC ask yourself if you really want that to be the sole source upon which you make a decision that will shape our nation.

“A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”
James Madison, letter to W.T. Barry, August 4, 1822

Hypatia - 4th Century Woman Astronomer

Hypatia - 4th Century Woman Astronomer

The death of Hypatia, and the loss of the world's largest collection of scientific and mathematic writings, were factors that contributed to the halt of scientific advances in the West for nearly a thousand years.

The new movie Agora chronicles the life, challenges and death of Hypatia, a 4th Century woman astronomer whose contribution influenced and shaped modern science and our understanding of the world and the universe.

This woman was amazing and I can't wait to see the movie.

I'm an Idea Man

I truly enjoy writing short fiction. It’s usually Science Fiction although I’ve considered branching out. A question I get asked (as most writers do) is “where do you get your ideas from.” That one’s too easy…just take a batch of realty and add imagination to taste.

If you want an interesting story then stir in a little imagination. Or if you want it to get crazy, you can mix it 50/50 and shake it like a mad man!

Here’s an example…I recently read an article about an asteroid that may collide with Earth sometime around 2182. Scientists aren’t too worried because today they calculate there is only a one in a thousand chance of it actually colliding. WHAT! I personally don’t like those odds. But no worries…we’ve got time…they’ll take another look at it in 60 years or so to see what any new calculations have to show.
You can see, with a little imagination, reality makes the movie 2012 tame by comparison.

Check that article here:
Potentially Hazardous Asteroid Might Collide With The Earth In 2182
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Potentially_Hazardous_Asteroid_Might_Collide_With_The_Earth_In_2182_999.html

The funny thing is that NASA typically moves the space station if the odds of a space junk impact are within a 1-in-10,000 chance and there is sufficient time to plan a debris avoidance maneuver. So it’s Ok that a planet killing asteroid has a 1-in-1,000 chance of wiping out civilization but if there is a 1-in-10,000 chance of something hitting the space station…we’ll pack up and move it.

I guess it’s a question of time (the asteroid is still 170 years away) and probability (21,000 pieces of potential disaster floating around in orbit) and capability (you can’t move the Earth out of the way).

To put space junk in perspective…NASA works with the U.S. military's Space Surveillance Network to track potentially dangerous space debris flying in low-Earth orbit. To date, there are more than 21,000 pieces of space junk that are tracked in Earth orbit by the SSN, though a NASA document states that up to 500,000 pieces of debris are currently circling the planet.

Here is that article:
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/space-station-space-debris-threat-100729.html

So now I have ideas for stories about a collision with Earth, or it misses the Earth and hits the Moon, or a collision with the Space Station, or if I want to shake it up – All of them! I could pull many more ideas out of just these two articles so now It’s time to stop reading and add some notes to my “future stories” file.

I'm Baaaaaack

Let’s see…April…May…June…okay! So it’s been a while since I’ve posted. I can’t help it. Life interferes. Things like a housing move, new grandbaby, level 225 in Mafia Wars, you know - important stuff.
What’s motivating me to post again is my lovely spouse. She is a brilliant woman with many talents. Her singing can make you weep (in a good way), she can paint like DaVinci, and she has read more books than anyone I’ve ever known. She is also a writer…and now has a blog.

I’m a relatively bright guy too. I know things like how fast and high the SR-71 spy plane flew, who really invented the internet, “Red Shirts” almost always die, and a Beholder does a 2D4 in damage. As a guy with that kind of knowledge filling his head, I’ll be damned if I will be out-blogged!

That means I’m back and will encourage my sweet loving wife to post every week. Which will force me to post every week…and we’ll see who blogs out first.

You can visit her here: www.thursday-ish.blogspot.com Chances are good that I spelled it correctly. I wouldn’t want you to not be able to find her blog…no, I wouldn’t do that. Really.

US Census - What Ya Gonna Do?

We got our Census in the mail last week. you might want to get the bail money ready. It had a number of interesting questions...I answered one. How many people live in your house - 2. That's it. Let me explain why.

According to the US Census website: "The U.S. Constitution empowers the Congress to carry out the census in "such manner as they shall by Law direct" (Article I, Section 2)."

That's interpreting a little too much. They are taking liberties...not lying to you but not telling you the whole truth.
Let's look at what the Constitution really says: (check clause 3)

Article. I.
Section 1.
All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

Section. 2.
Clause 1: The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

Clause 2: No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

Clause 3: Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.

It talks about enumeration...what is that?

e·nu·mer·ate (ĭ-nōō'mə-rāt', -nyōō'-)
tr.v. e·nu·mer·at·ed, e·nu·mer·at·ing, e·nu·mer·ates

1. To count off or name one by one; list.
2. To determine the number of; count.

You see the Constitution in Article 1, Section 2, is talking about how Representatives are to be determined for each state. That is determined by population. Not race, Not where you work or how much money you make or how much your house is worth. Just how many people. So that's all they get from me.

Humor - It's how I survive

"There is no defense against adverse fortune which is so effectual as an habitual sense of humor."

Thomas W. Higginson
1823-1911, Minister, Abolitionist and Author

Hello

I was at my writers group meeting (www.fsfw.net) the other day and was told "You have to have a blog!" My typical response to something like this is to raise my head high and state, "You're not the boss of me." But when enough smart people that I respect, all agree something should be done....Ok - I caved. I now have a blog. My note to my dear friends is...be careful what you wish for. Now - go back through this post and correct my punctuation. You'll feel better.