Kayak

 

40 Years Ago A Sci Fi Movie Prediction

Douglas Trumbull is best known as Hollywood’s special effects guru. From 1968’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and 1982’s Blade Runner, he brought the fantastical visions of other writers and directors life. But in 1983, Trumbull tried making a movie of his own — and stumbled upon a bizarre branch of science that’s just now coming to fruition.

Brainstorm revolves around a pair of scientists — Drs. Michael Brace (Christopher Walken) and Lillian Reynolds (Louis Fletcher) — who engineer a revolutionary technology capable of recording someone’s thoughts, emotions, and sensations.

In what would likely raise eyebrows to an internal review board, the scientists and their lab members test the new technology among themselves. Brace, Reynolds, and others (including silver screen darling Natalie Wood, who plays Brace’s estranged wife Karen) share experiences and past memories, which are captured on something akin to a VHS tape and played through a headset to the recipient’s brain. 

Later in Brainstorm, Reynolds dies from a heart attack while in the lab but manages to don the headset in the nick of time, leaving behind a recording of the moment she dies — and the afterlife — for others to experience.

Brainstorm plays fast and loose with its reductive portrayal of how the brain works. However, the movie’s mind-sharing technology isn’t far from the truth, necessarily. Four decades later, with the rise of brain-computer interfaces (or BCIs) melding the mind with machines, we may be closer to making thoughts tangible, if not to others but to devices like prosthetic limbs and speech synthesizers.

CAN SCIENCE DECODE OUR THOUGHTS INTO ACTIONS?

READ MORE...

Poem For Hard Times

 

About Stupid

 

Batteries and Hydrogen Fuel Cells Are Needed

Though it may seem that the world is dividing between these clean energies, it’s not either/or.

Often when there are discussions about hydrogen fuel cells or battery electric engines, the conversation will focus on which one is the best clean energy option to power our future. Increasingly, experts are agreeing that it won’t be one or the other, and that it is likely that they will not be the only clean power options as we move forward in the battle against climate change.

There are advantages to both types of carbon emission-free power and they each have their place.

Proponents of each technology have been vocal in spotlighting the benefits that they have to provide. Often, they will compare battery electric to hydrogen fuel cell performances, particularly when it comes to vehicles. 

However, experts are now coming to the conclusion that it’s not really a matter of deciding which technology will win out and which will disappear. Instead, each form of clean power will find its place, as each has strengths in their own areas.

It’s true that battery electric passenger vehicles have taken a tremendous head start over hydrogen cars, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for both. Geography, use, cost, climate and other factors all play a role in determining which option is best suited.

Even in passenger vehicles hydrogen fuel cars are expected to play a supporting role in coming years.

According to Toyota’s fuel cell integration group senior engineering manager Jackie Birdsall and McKinsey & Co senior partner Bernd Heid, as zero-carbon transportation continues to advance, it is likely that fuel cell vehicles and electric cars will play complementary roles to each other.  READ MORE...

Comic Samples

 

America The Beautiful - Tongue in cheek

There is a writer's strike in Hollywood.  There is UAW strike that impacts the major US auto makers.  Porn books read to 8 year olds.  CRT (the thesis) being taught in schools indicating a BAD white dominating class referred to as White Supremacy.  Illegal immigrants streaming over our southern border like a bad case of diarrhea.  Inflation eating away at our incomes because of stupid over spending by the government.  The liberals are trying to censor free speech from the conservatives.  WOKE nonsense wanting to do away with our history because they (whoever they are) don't like it. There is a TWO TIER justice system in America.  President Biden is corrupt due to influencing peddling...

What is still beautiful about America?

The United States of America has some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world.

• Niagra Falls - shared with the Canadians
• Jockey's Ridge - the largest natural sand dune in the world
• The Great Smoky Mountains
• The Rockies
• The Grand Canyon
• The Great Lakes
• The Finger Lakes
• The Mississippi River
• The Tennessee Valley
• The Great Plains

The USA produces more food than any other country in the world

The USA has so much available oil underground that it will never have to buy oil from anyone

The USA has more colleges and universities than any other country in the world

The USA has the BILL OF RIGHTS

The USA has country music and bluegrass music

The USA has a better quality of life than any other country in the world

The USA has the most powerful military in the world

The USA has only been in existence for 247 years

BUT...

The USA is divided in many ways:

• Political
• Religious
• Education
• Race
• Gender
• Financial

If you are paying attention, you will see that very little of this beauty has to do with the people.  Most of what I am talking about are the natural resources that were here when Columbus landed here in 1492.

As we grew in numbers, power, and wealth...  the American people not only became arrogant in its dealings with the rest of the world, we became arrogant in our dealings with each other.

MONEY --  POWER  --  GREED

This is the trinity that allowed us to grow and this will be the trinity that destroys us.  

The billionaires of this country could share 2/3 of their money with the rest of us and still live like they are currently living.  Instead, they want to build buildings with their name on it that no one will remember in 25 years.  They want to build spacecrafts and be the first to get there so that they can make even more money.  They never want to retire because they cannot stop making money.

These billionaires and their programs are killing Americans and are destroying the very system that made them wealthy in the first place.  It makes no sense.

BECAUSE OF ITS PEOPLE, AMERICA IS NO LONGER BEAUTIFUL

 

Condor

 

Blobs of Dark Matter

Dark matter fluctuations in the lens system MG J0414+0534. The whitish blue color represents the gravitationally lensed images observed by ALMA. The calculated distribution of dark matter is shown in orange; brighter regions indicate higher concentrations of dark matter and dark orange regions indicate lower concentrations.  Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), K. T. Inoue et al.

Astronomers Observe Blobs of Dark Matter Down to a Scale of 30,000 Light-Years Across

Dark matter remains mysterious and… well… dark. While we don’t yet have a definite idea of what this cosmic “stuff” is made of, astronomers are learning more about its distribution throughout the Universe. 

,

Since we can’t see it directly, observers need to use indirect methods to detect it. One way is through gravitational lensing. Another is by looking for emissions from hydrogen gas associated with small-scale dark matter structures in the Universe.

A group of astronomers led by Kaiki Taro Inoue of Kindai University in Japan used the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile to study a distant gravitational lens system called MG J0414+534. A massive foreground galaxy is bending and distorting the light from a distant quasar that lies some 11 billion light-years away. 

The result is four images of the quasar. When they looked at the data, the team found some strange anomalies in the images. They are actually variations in the distribution of dark matter along the line of sight between us and the quasar. 

The gravitational lens magnified the fluctuations and analysis of the data allowed them to map the fluctuations down to a scale of 30,000 light-years.

What The Blobs of Dark Matter Mean
Throughout the universe, dark matter is associated with massive galaxies and galaxy clusters. However, small-scale clumps and distributions aren’t as well understood. So, astronomers want to find ways to map the smaller concentrations of it. Gravitational lensing provides one way to do that. 

In the case of MG J0414+0534, the positions and shapes of the lensed quasar images look a little strange. They don’t fit the model of gravitational lensing predicted when you plug in the numbers for the galaxy and its associated dark matter component.  READ MORE...

A Shift in Reality

 

New Discovery

 

Management Versus Labor

Believe it or not but in the US of A there is a huge war going on between management and labor.  Granted there are a few companies where this does not happen but for a majority of our companies it does.

Management does not trust labor to do the job correctly and uses lower management supervisors to point out everything that the worker is doing wrong in their work.  These supervisors make sure that the workers do not take more than a 10-minute break twice a day and no more than a 30-minute lunch break every day.

Some of these supervisors make sure that these workers do not go to the bathroom unless it is on their break; however, this unwritten rule is broken if the employee can convince the supervisor that he really has to go...  however, production quotes still have to be met.

Labor, on the other hand, tries its best to break all those rules when the supervisor is not watching...  just for spite in many cases because of the behavior the supervisor exhibits.

Over the years this resentment has built up, especially when the supervisor claims responsibility for an adopted suggestion that was offered by the worker to the supervisor.  The supervisor taking credit for the idea and in some cases is given a promotion or a bonus.

In one automotive factory, workers slashed the leather seats of over 150 vehicles just to get back at management.  In other cases, the workers have formed unions and now there are worker strikes when management berates too many workers.  Or, if there has not been a wage increase in a long time, even though management has recorded record profits.

Most of our American companies are publicly traded companies that sell stock.  Management then has to do things it may not like in order to increase the dividends paid to the stockholders.  In other words, the stockholders are more valued than labor who builds or assembles their quality products.

This is one of the reasons why I no longer buy American vehicles.  Japanese vehicles are better made and there is not animosity between management and labor.  Japanese companies see this as a partnership.

Additionally, in addition to the quality issue, American products usually cost more than foreign products because of the wages and benefits those American workers have demanded.  After checking around and making comparisons, one can easily make the determination that these other cheaper products are just as good and, in some cases, better.

It is sad to see this division in the US of A but it is real and it exists and is really no different than our division we are currently experiencing in politics.

 

Galaxy Inside a Cosmic Ribbon

A composite image in radio and optical of NGC 4632. (J. English (U.Manitoba), with support of T. Jarrett (UCT) and the WALLABY team: ATNF/ASKAP:Suburu/Hyper Suprime Camera)





What we thought was a pretty normal spiral galaxy not far from the Milky Way has revealed a hidden surprise.

NGC 4632, some 56 million light-years away, is circled by a huge ring of gas that wraps around the galaxy at a highly inclined angle to its galactic plane. Why didn't we see it until now? It's invisible in most of the electromagnetic spectrum, appearing only when we stare at the sky with radio telescopes.

The discovery could put NGC 4632 in a class of extremely rare galaxies known as polar ring galaxies – but also suggests that these galaxies might not be as rare as we thought. Rather, NGC 4632 could mean that we've just been looking at them in the wrong light.


"The findings suggest that one to three per cent of nearby galaxies may have gaseous polar rings, which is much higher than suggested by optical telescopes. Polar ring galaxies might be more common than previously thought," says astrophysicist Nathan Deg of Queens University in Canada.


"While this is not the first time astronomers have observed polar ring galaxies, NGC 4632 is the first observed with ASKAP and there may be many more to come."

Polar ring galaxies are pretty much what they sound like: galaxies with a ring of material – dust, gas, and stars – that orbits around, or close to, the galaxy's poles; that is, perpendicular to the galactic plane.     READ MORE...

Rule of 72

The Rule of 72 is a simplified formula that calculates how long it'll take for an investment to double in value, based on its rate of return. The Rule of 72 applies to compounded interest rates and is reasonably accurate for interest rates that fall in the range of 6% and 10%.

This rules states that if you divide the interest rate into 72, the resulting number approximates the number of years it takes for that money to double in value.  So, if your interest rate is 8%, then your money will double ever NINE YEARS.

Let's take $50,000 in 2020 and use 10 years for convenience and say you are 20 years old...

$100,000 in 2030 - 30 years old

$200,000 in 2040 - 40 years old

$400,000 in 2050 - 50 years old

$800,000 in 2060 - 60 years old

$1,600,000 in 2070 - 70 years old

Today, people are retiring at 67 years of age and by the time a 20 year old retires, the retirement age will be 70 years of age.  And, you can see by the above calculations that your money will have substantially grown.

Where do you get $50,000?

Well, for one, you could ask your parents for it instead of paying for college...  Then, you could work and pay for college yourself.  

If that is not an option, then save $2.50/day for 40 years and at the end of each month put that money in a mutual fund.  At the end of 40 years, you will have $500,000.  Now, if you are 20 years old and are just married and both you and your spouse are working then, each of you can save $2.50/day and reach age 60 with $1,000,000.

If this sounds too good to be true, then do research on the Rule of 72 and do research on Mutual Funds.  You will find that Mutual Funds for the last 50-75 years have generated an annual interest rate of 10% when money is left in the account for 20 years.

This simple investing knowledge should be taught in high school, but it is not...

Wave

 

Atlantic Ocean Reflections

After having spent a week at Myrtle Beach, SC, watching and being mesmerized by the Atlantic Ocean and its consistent movements towards the shore, I am able to reflect upon my reflections there...

Sitting under an umbrella on the shoreline is an incredible experience and it is not just watching the beach walkers passing by, or the lifeguards doing their jobs, or all the seminude bodies lying around trying to tan their hides...  it is the enormity of the ocean itself and its incredible power...  a power that never subsides although it might slow down at low tide... but it never quits.

There is a sense of FREEDOM at the beach that is not like the freedom where you live.  It is a seagull type of freedom that allows you to float and drift on the currents of the wind as if you have no cares or worries in the world, other than relaxing and enjoying nature's warmth and beauty.

There is a sense that time itself slows down and even though it moves just as fast as any time before, it just seems to take it time passing by.  Sometimes you think that time is being pushed by the wind that oftentimes is still so that we can feel what the heat and humidity really feels like.

If you are a body surfer, there is a sense that the best waves are yet to come but the ones so far have been worth the ride.  There is no sense of heat, no sense of currents, and no sense of danger that might be lurking around under the water.  There is only you and the water and your tired, salty eyes looking for the next wave to ride. You are oblivious to everything else.

There is a sense of serene relaxation as you recline your seat back as far as it can go and just lay there, letting the sounds around you flow in and around and through you as if you were some specter and not a solid being.  The moving sand stings your skin, but you feel nothing except the sounds of the waves and their rhythms as the water hits and creeps up the sand.

There is no sense of urgency at all during the entire day that you are out under your umbrella...  or, in the shower you take as you get cleaned up to go out to dinner.  I mean, you are on vacation, so why cook?  However, once you leave your condo and your resort and enter the street trying to blend into the traffic, reality hits you...  and the calmness turns to gentle anxiety because you know how to get to the restaurant you have selected and you know what lane you need to be in and how long you have to put up with this nonsense.

This has been your routine for over 30 years and each of those years, you have managed to spend at least one week at Myrtle Beach, and more often than not two weeks.  There was only one year that you spent no time at the beach and that was due to COVID...  even when they warned against it the second year you went anyway.

There is something MAGICAL about being at Myrtle Beach during the summer months.

Mandarin Duck

 

Shaping the Future of Machine Learning

Few challenges are as formidable as building a quantum computer. It’s not just about wiring its components but also making them work together to produce accurate computation results despite the presence of noise that can introduce errors in quantum computations.

While you can write down a quantum computation as an abstract mathematical model, implementing it practically still means adjusting certain parameters, such as microwave pulses or lasers, which you can only do with limited precision. Thus, there would inevitably be a gap between the model you intended to implement and the actual outcome.

Qruise leverages machine learning to narrow this gap. By building a physical model from a quantum computer’s experimental data and comparing it to the intended behavior, Qruise helps physicists and engineers to improve their quantum computers. This also works for other quantum devices, such as quantum sensors, and other fields like photonics.

Founded as a spinoff from Forschungszentrum Jülich in late 2021 by Shai Machnes, Frank Wilhelm-Mauch, Tommaso Calarco, and Simone Montangero, Qruise raised funding from Constructor Capital and went through the Creative Destruction Lab startup program.

Learn more about the future of machine learning for quantum computing and beyond from our interview with the co-founder and CEO, Shai Machnes:    Why Did You Start Qruise?

Even before Qruise, my co-founders and I were researching how to control quantum systems. At some point, more academic groups than we could handle as researchers wanted to collaborate with us, so we decided to found a company in late 2021.

Our initial focus was just quantum control, but we soon realized that the very same tools could be applied to quantum sensing or even other domains, like photonics.

When I think of Qruise today, we’re actually building a “machine learning physicist”—a system that can predict and control all kinds of physical processes. I already had this vision more than 15 years ago as a researcher, but I wasn’t able to realize it. With recent advances in computing power and data availability, machine learning has greatly improved, making it possible for us to pursue this vision.  READ MORE...

Homeless Man

 

Somewhat Political

 

Death Over Life

 I am listening to an Audible book entitled CONFESSOR by Terry Goodkind.  The book is about ancient times, somewhere on earth is implied with magic, war wizards, everyday wizards, Sisters of Light, Sisters of Dark, Sorcerers,and Witches.  These people are the good guys.

The bad guys are the Imperial Order that believe in a Creator and an afterlife and want to bring and end to the world of magic.  The Imperial Order is cruel, brutal, and does not value life because the afterlife is more important than life wherever it is that they live.

This is the last book in a trilogy about the Imperial Order and the so called Sword of Truth.  I did not listen to the other two, but after listening to this book, it was written in such a way that it is not contingent upon the other two.  Although, I wish that I had listened to the other two first.

Not only is the plot of this novel turning the concept of religion upside down, but it also nonetheless poses some interesting questions and creates some interesting scenarios relative to one's faith...  and the concept of caring more about life after death than living life here on earth.

I think there is a creator because it is logical to think that way...  and, it is logical because of how complex the human body and mind are...  it seem a tad illogical that this happened as a result of evolution over thousands of years.

The Bible which is the basis for most religions claims that earth is only 6,000 years old.  That is impossible according to the carbon dating techniques of Science.  Therefore, at least that part of the Bible is in error which makes me wonder about all the other parts.

What I think is that our Creator (God if you will) is an extraterrestrial and monkeyed with our DNA to create the kind of human being that we are today...  allowing evolution to take us there once the tinkering had been done.

Now, back to CONFESSOR.  Can or will we ever reach a state in our existence where we value DEATH more than LIFE?  And, if that happens, will we not care about inflicting torture or death on our fellow man because we are sending them to a better place?

HOWEVER...  if the Bible is wrong, then there is no heaven, there is no better place after death...  dead is simply dead and that is all there is.

BUT THAT TOO IS ILLOGICAL...  Why do we simply live for 80-100 years and then we are done...  no more...  caput...  finished...  Does that even make sense?   If we are only going to live for that many years, then why give us life in the first place?

THERE MUST BE MORE...

OWL

 

Using WD-40

Odds are, you already have a can of WD-40 in the pantry or under the sink. If you only break it out once in a blue moon though, then you’re missing out on this super product’s full potential. This multi-use must-have is a cleaning and home maintenance power house.


The “WD” in the product’s name stands for “Water Displacement,” and at its core, that’s what WD-40 does. However, it is also effective at degreasing and can act as a solvent. It’s taken 40 iterations to get the formula just right (hence WD-40), but like a magician, the company behind this miracle product won’t reveal their secrets and tell the world exactly what’s in WD-40. It’s a bit of a mystery, but it works like a dream.


Even though she’s not completely sure what’s in it, chemist Alexis Rochester says that WD-40 is one of her “favorite chemistry inventions of all time.” It comes in handy, she says, all around the house and even out into the yard. However, there are some instances when WD-40 should not be used. Keep this spray away from appliances with heat and from coming in contact with food, as it is flammable and non-edible. Other than that, the home is WD-40’s oyster. From the product’s most well-known functions to surprising applications, here’s how to use WD-40 around your home.

Eliminate Squeaks
WD-40’s signature function is lubricating creaky hinges. Spray it on a squeaking door hinge, drawer, or otherwise to make opening and closing it go smoother, and quieter. If the problem at hand is that the hinge is caked with dirt or dust, WD-40 can fix that, too.

Remove Stickiness
Duct-tape, stickers, labels, and stepped-on gum are no match for WD-40. Spritz on some to de-gunk any sticky residues or make it easier to detach something that has been stuck on.

Make Stainless Steel Shine
Stainless steel can’t be cleaned with any old cleanser. Follow our steps here to clean your appliances or go in with WD-40 which can clean, polish, and protect stainless steel. All those pesky fingerprints will simply vanish.     READ MORE...

Shaolin Master

 

Somewhat Political

 

Capitalism

For the most part, we extol the value of capitalism and all the companies that are part of it.  Capitalism allows us to pay for our social programs, continue medical research and development, and create programs that will result in this country becoming wealthier than it already is.

YES...  it does create billionaires

YES...  there is a pay gap between management and labor

YES...  there are some corrupt CEOs who care only about their financial growth

YES...  companies make decisions based upon feedback from stockholders which are not always in the best interest of the company or the employees

While those problems are manageable and regulated (to some degree), the biggest problem with Capitalism are BUYOUTS...

What do I mean by that?

BUYOUTS is when a large company decides it want to buy another company.  It could be because that company is in financial trouble or it could be because that company has a lot of cash on hand.

Years ago, there were several large companies that wanted to buy BURLINGTON INDUSTRIES.  As soon as the company was sold, the new owners sold all the divisions of the company to other companies because all they wanted was BI's blue jean division.

What was the end result?

When one company buys another company, there are many jobs that are duplicated, so there is no need to keep both jobs...  so, they layoff people from the company that was purchased.  It also possible that the purchasing company would rather have its people work at the company than those people who were working at the purchased company.  Consequently, more layoffs.

Burlington Industries had over 5,000 employees and 80% of those employees were layoff.  Without that income, families lost their homes, there was divorce, and the community lost the economic impact of wages being spent in the local economy.

Additionally, small stores like beauty salons, flower shops, gas stations, grocery stores, shoe stores, hardware stores, etc., had to also close their doors because of all the lost revenue.

Burlington Industries was located in the city of Burlington, North Carolina and that community was forever changed when BI was purchased.

I am not saying that there is a system out there that should replace Capitalism, but that Capitalism does have its flaws and those flaws should be recognized.

At The Beach

 

High Speed Train

On a recent test run, China’s high-speed maglev train, a technological masterpiece, clocked an astonishing speed of 281 miles per hour. (CREDIT: Creative Commons)




China, a nation long-famed for its groundbreaking technological feats, is once again in the limelight. This time, it’s not a skyscraper, a bridge, or a quantum computer, but a train. Not just any train, but the fastest train in the world.


On a recent test run, China’s high-speed maglev train, a technological masterpiece, clocked an astonishing speed of 281 miles per hour. This blistering pace not only sets the maglev as the fastest train globally, but it also begins to challenge the domain of commercial air travel.


As it stands, commercial flights maintain a cruising speed ranging between 545 mph and 574 mph. Yet, once fully developed and optimized, the engineers behind this incredible feat believe the maglev could soar to speeds of up to 621 mph.


The secret behind this prowess? A term that seems to have sprung from science fiction: "magnetic levitation" or maglev. The maglev system allows the train to almost float, as if by magic, minimizing the friction traditionally experienced with standard train tracks.


But this isn’t magic—it’s science. The heart of this system lies in its superconducting magnets, kept at bone-chilling temperatures to augment their magnetic strength. These magnets, stationed on the train, engage with metallic components on the walls of a specially designed low-vacuum pipeline.


The resultant interaction creates both levitation and propulsion, meaning the train rides on a cushion of air rather than traditional tracks. The outcome is not just heightened speed but also a reduction in noise pollution.  READ MORE...

Too Quick

 

Living Off the Grid