The Science That Probably Will Never Occur

There's a curious science article over at Yahoo.....regarding physicists who've built a time-travel simulator.  Nothing to get really hot and excited over.....just that the science guys have taken another step toward this one concept of time-travel.

This group has advanced the idea of the younger "you" could meet up with the older "you" and the fabrics of the universe would not necessarily fall apart.  At least in theory, they think this now.

I've been one of those people who got locked into this whole concept with the old TV series from the 1960s.....The Time Tunnel.  To be honest, it was pretty lame for most of the thirty episodes but when it came to science fiction....it was a four-star series.

The whole jest to the concept of time-travel is that you probably only get one shot at going back, and changing something.....because it'll all shift around and alter the future, which likely changes the creation of your time device, the technology used, and the results around your one mission.  In effect....noting I'm not a scientist but simply a free-thinker....you are on a one-way mission with no hope of a return.

This state of pondering leaves you with only one state of mind.....what one event will you change or solve?

JFK's murder?  Save Martin Luther King?  Shorten the Civil War?  Save Lincoln?  Save Christ?  Stop Napoleon from ever taking charge of France?  Prevent the Norman invasion of England?  Talk Kaiser Wilhelm II out of World War I?  Kill Hitler after he leaves the Munich jail?  Stall the Roman Empire from dissolving?  Stop the bombing of Pearl Harbor?  Help kill Hitler in 1942?  Prevent the sale of the Louisiana Purchase from happening?

One shot at doing something, with zero chance of a return?  That means you have to stay and live with the consequences of what you undid.  So, if you save Lincoln....does his reputation continue to rise as he finishes out eight full years as President.....or does the problems of the handling of the southern states unravel his whole history?

If you talk the Kaiser out of WW I.....does it just stall things for a major war in the 1930s and massive use of chemicals and possibly a nuke weapon being used in Europe?

If you kill Hitler at the beginning of the 1920s.....does it really stop the Nazi rise to power, or does someone else take his place?

If you save JFK, what impact does it have for the remaining five years of his likely presidency?  Positive or negative?

If you did the Roman Empire from dissolving....do they eventually tangle with the Islamic expansion in the Middle East and create a massive war of huge proportions?

If you prevent the Louisiana Purchase....does the US end up as a small empire from the Mississippi River eastward and a French state from the Mississippi River westward?

Fixing something doesn't really mean you actually fixed it....but simply created an alternate outcome, with unknown consequences.

It's like saying Muhammad's killing of two-hundred-fifty-million humans over the past 1,400 years needs to be fixed.....but perhaps someone else comes to replace Muhammad who doubles the results of death.

At some one point, I envision some scientist group coming to this rare moment where they know they can perform this one and only one time-travel event.  The minute that this gets into public knowledge.....thousands of political players will want to control this and ensure nothing happens.  You'd have to kill off the technology and the men who invented it.....all to stop a change in history which worries people.

It's the science that would be terminated because of the impact of one simple act.

It Could Get Worse in Bama

I noticed in yesterday's news from Bama.....some Democratic representative (state-level) from Montgomery had decided to make an open threat against various Republican legislature guys......talking up the idea of exposing their extramarital affairs....IF they don't stop criticizing gay marriage.

Patricia Todd, a representative from Birmingham and Democrat....talked up the suggestion.  She's openly gay (the only one in Bama's political scene doing so).

The whole thing goes to hypocrisy, and she figures the threat will wake folks up.

The problem I see with this type threat is that once you suggest these three guys (or six, or ten) who are having extramarital affairs....may  or may not be having such affairs and it ends up as slander.  This means they hire Bama lawyers, take you into court, and unless you have some evidence (real evidence)....it's not going anywhere and you end up paying damages.

Bama political figures are smart when they finally get into a divorce situation....they make it tough for the wife trying to divorce them to settle up unless there's a form signed that they will never disclose the whole episode.  If they fail on this....the husband brings the form back into court and the wife could lose what she won.  So, I'd question that Representative Todd has real proof....just gossip.  And gossip invites slander episodes, unless you get to absolute facts.

What happens in Bama once you start slanging gossip, slander and political fits?  It just gets the state political mess deeper into mud than when you started.  We barely have six guys in the whole state who could pass a morals test and complete audit of their character and economic situation.  No one wants to be a city mayor, county commission guy, governor, or state representative because they'd get all upset if you found out they were con-artists, three-times married, bankrupt once or twice, into bondage, a swinger, current KKK-member, a Catholic, border-line psycho, a graduate of Auburn, or got arrested in Chattanooga for being drunk and disorderly last year.

Folks in Bama want purity.  You can't drink, swear, or be divorced.....if you intend to run for office.  You need to swear on a dozen Bibles about your character.  Every campaign picture needs to feature your wife, three kids, and dog.  You drive only GM, Ford or Chevy vehicles.  Your front yard condition is in the top ten priorities of appearance.  You must never have tried marijuana, or wasted any time learning a foreign language.  We tend to expect our political folks to stout or a bit heavy....always with a fake smile....and be on a first-name basis with the local minister.

This talk of extramarital affairs?  Maybe Representative Todd thinks you can cure all ills with this type of talk.  But folks get peeved, and basically fire that guy....to bring in the ultra (even more conservative character) candidate to replace the loser who couldn't keep his pants on.   On top of that....these pretender conservatives start to look around and think....well....let's ID all the gay or bondage characters in the Bama statehouse.   A Democrat or two that was thinking they were all safe....then wakes up and realizes that the whole story is out.

So, I'm not really thinking this suggestion by Representative Todd helps matters.  We will simply go to a deeper pit of political turmoil, if you ask me.

This Planet Talk

Over the past week or two, there's been talk by the science guys of two additional planets out there in our solar system.  I should note....there's only talk, no pictures and absolute evidence.  You see, there are some 'bounces' and disturbances a bit beyond Pluto....which leads the science guys to suggest that two planets must exist beyond it and within a reasonable distance.  Size isn't a given, and it's just talk at this moment.

This brings up this topic which will be hotly debated at some point....what do you name the two new planets.

Greek names?  Roman names?  Could we finally name a planet after Socrates?  Might one of the two planets be named just plain "Planet X"?

All of this will transpire into parties and dinners around the astronomy guys....who sit and sip chilled Budweiser and eat peanut butter sandwich while they sip.  In the background, music will be played....Memphis blues, Italian opera, and Johnny Cash epics.  Guys will talk about their failing car transmission one moment, and define comet name listings the next.

Some folks will eventually come to find the two planets....noting that they aren't that big.  Naturally, the number one plan then?  You gotta send a probe out there, and it means a $500 million program, more revenue for the space crowd, and designed to answer the question....what's on this planet?

How long might it take to prove this?  It might take five years for someone to finally solve this.  Maybe it's unsolvable unless we send the probe to prove this.  And we might just discover that it's all bogus and dreamed up by one guy with an agenda to simply get more probe money.  So, you just don't know.

The Park Game Being Played Out

For about a hundred years, there's been this law....the Antiquities Act....which basically said that the Executive Branch (the President and Company) would manage and create national treasures (like the Smokies or Rocky Mountain National Park).   It was a simple act, and folks were enthusiastic back in 1906 that it was the right thing to do.

Now, if you'd asked folks in 1906...just how far this would go....no one would have really been sure about this.  Some would have guessed thirty national parks/monuments.  Some might have figured sixty. Today, we have 184 national parks/monuments.  If you go out to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina....there's a fifty-odd acre park there, just a thousand feet from the beach.  If you go to Russell Cave in Bama....it's a national monument.

What's come up over the last decade or two....folks asking where exactly it stops.

This week, the Republicans in the Senate saw a bill entered....which would require the Executive Branch to consult and have agreement with the House and Senate before declaring a national park or monument.  Folks tend to think....it'll pass easily in the House, and probably pass the Senate with fifty-plus votes.  The President?  No statement yet, but I'd take a guess he'll veto it.  Will the House and Senate have enough votes to over-ride it?  No idea.

At the current pace of things....if nothing hinders expansion....then I'd take a guess by 2100 (85 years away)....we will have three-hundred parks and monuments.  At some point, I'd suspect that the entire coastline of Oregon will be created into five or six national parks.  Central Park of New York City might eventually become a national park.  And it's possible that vast stretch of the Tennessee River might be one day declared a national park by itself.

Each time you add to the inventory....there's more staff hired up....more support required....and more cash involved.  All of this leads to cost.  These days....just an entry fee for one car is $25 for some of the national parks.  

So, as the weeks go by here in the spring and you hear about this effort to pass the bill....you might want to think about the way it was in 1906, and what people were envisioning then.  We are way past that point now.

The Statistic That Seems to Matter

I'm not an engineer or scientist.  Frankly, I'm glad I didn't go off into either such direction as a kid because it'd just be total chaos for me.  But I like both professions greatly today and can appreciate what it takes to be either.  The one key ingredient?  Facts that matter.....numbers that matter.....solid evidence that leads to better conclusions that 'guessing'.

People in the news media and in politics.....come around to tell you things which come mostly out of opinion or just slanted views of life.  I'd prefer facts and statistics....because it might be more truthful.

This week, I noticed a report from the kind folks at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. They put up a simple polling question to thirty-four-thousand American adults.

The poll question was: “Which of the following best represents how you think of yourself?”

You had five possible answers: straight, lesbian/gay, bisexual, “something else” and “I don’t know the answer.”

Now, you can note here.....the transgender folks weren't mentioned.  I don't know the reasoning, or if it was purposely done, or just that the Center didn't know such people existed.

Here's the thing....out of thirty-four thousand folks.....only 1.6 percent said they were lesbian/gay.  Only .7 percent said they were bisexual.

After that point, the "something else" and "I don't know the answer" crowd ended up with a total of 1.1 percent.

Yeah....roughly ninety-four percent were straight....more or less.

What does this say?  There just isn't a large crowd out there who practice anything beyond straight.  They didn't split this off into men or women.....or age groups.....which have told more of the story.

To put this into reality.....you leave work this afternoon and go to Wal-Mart.  You walk in and assume there are six hundred customers in the store.  At best.....seven of those customers are gay/lesbian.  Four are bisexual.  And six folks are "something else".  The other 583 folks are all straight.

The fact is.....there are likely more people in the store who graduated from college with a Master's degree than gay/lesbian.  There's likely more more people in the store who've been to an Indian casino in the last year.....than gay/lesbian.  And there's likely more people in the store who've read War and Peace....than are bisexual.

Now, if you walked across the street.....to the gay bar there next to Wal-Mart, and noted the sixty folks in there.....fifty-eight which are gay/lesbian....well, it's a statistic but it's not really a number you can use for a CNN journalist's article or round-table discussion.  

Bottom line?  It might help to work with facts.