Horton Posts Library 4

by Jeff Hortonon Posted on

 Blog Post #1127

July 30, 2020

Free Flow Thinking: What is Element 115?

Element 115. Moscovium. What is it, and why is it important? Two very good questions. For detailed answers, I recommend you start by using Bing or Google to search for Element 115. Be prepared, however, because what you’ll get is a broad, and most often very confusing answers. Why confusing? Not so much because we’re talking periodic table, and heavy elements. No, it’s confusing because depending on who you talk with, Element 115 is either Moscovium, a new heavy element that was recently added to the periodic table, or it is the fuel source for recovered extraterrestrial spacecraft.

Here is the skeptic’s definition of Element 115, or Moscovium, as listed in Wikipedia:

“Moscovium is a synthetic chemical element with the symbol Mc and atomic number 115. It was first synthesized in 2003 by a joint team of Russian and American scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, Russia. In December 2015, it was recognized as one of four new elements by the Joint Working Party of international scientific bodies IUPAC and IUPAP. On 28 November 2016, it was officially named after the Moscow Oblast, in which the JINR is situated.

Moscovium is an extremely radioactive element: its most stable known isotope, moscovium-290, has a half-life of only 0.65 seconds. In the periodic table, it is a p-block transactinide element. It is a member of the 7th period and is placed in group 15 as the heaviest pnictogen, although it has not been confirmed to behave as a heavier homologue of the pnictogen bismuth. Moscovium is calculated to have some properties similar to its lighter homologues, nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, and bismuth, and to be a post-transition metal, although it should also show several major differences from them. In particular, moscovium should also have significant similarities to thallium, as both have one rather loosely bound electron outside a quasi-closed shell. About 100 atoms of moscovium have been observed to date, all of which have been shown to have mass numbers from 287 to 290…”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscovium

Here is an alternative description of Element 115, according scientist Bob Lazar, the first scientist to ever mention Element 115 in an interview in 1989, some 24 years before it was first synthesized in 2003:

“Famed whistleblower Bob Lazar has recently been in the news with a new documentary about his groundbreaking experiences at Area 51’s highly classified S-4 facility. In his initial TV interviews with George Knapp back in 1989, Lazar first discussed element 115 (Moscovium) and how it was used in the propulsion system of the alien craft hidden at the S-4 facility. He said that aliens had supplied 500 pounds (227 kg) for reverse engineering purposes.

In 2014, Lazar did another interview with Knapp where he discussed Element 115 and how it is created both synthetically and naturally through supernova, which is the cataclysmic explosion of a star…

Lazar further explained in his interviews that bombarding Element 115 with protons leads to it creating Element 116 (Livermorium) which immediately decays and produces antimatter. The antimatter collides with normal particles creating a massive energy burst, which can be used for propulsion. It’s quite likely Element 115 could also be the famed exotic matter that is needed to create traversable wormholes that physicists such as Drs. Kip Thorne and Carl Sagan have speculated, and was the subject of a recently leaked Defense Intelligence Reference Document titled “Traversable Wormholes, Stargates, and Negative Energy” .

My interest is, of course, in the technology, as it is, interestingly enough, for Bob Lazar. In an interview I viewed recently Lazar with regret. of his decision to tell the world what he’d seen. He said he really enjoyed working with such highly advanced technology, and missed it, even after thirty years.

SO which version do you believe to be true? I challenge you to watch the documentary, Bob Lazar: Area 51 & Flying Saucers, on Netflix, streaming, or online clips of other Lazar interviews done over the years. As for me, he comes across as highly intelligent, and credible.

So, which is it? Is Element 115 merely the most recent, curious addition to our periodic table, or is it the secret sauce that will enable humanity to become an interstellar species?

Truly, it boggles the mind to try to imagine the implications if what Bob Lazar claims is true. Just imagine what Elon Musk and Nasa could do with an interstellar propulsion system! I for one, very much want to believe him. See for yourself; perhaps you’ll be amazed, too.

Below are several links to stories about Element 115 and Bob Lazar. There are also some interviews, including one with Joe Rogan.

Joe Rogan Discussion about Lazar and Area 51

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=ununpentium+bob+lazar&&view=detail&mid=23DD76A623B8E95FD05623DD76A623B8E95FD056&&FORM=VDRVRV

Joe Rogan’s Interview of Bob Lazar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmF6RXf6U_A&feature=emb_rel_pause

A great article on recent government revelations and how we owe Bob Lazar an apology:

 

Excellent article on Element 115

https://exopolitics.org/bob-lazar-element-115-massive-stars-and-heavy-metals-repost/

You can find all of Jeff’s published novels here: Works by Jeff W. Horton | The Horton Library

Please follow Jeff:

You might also want to explore Jeff’s website: at www.hortonlibrary.com, or visit him on the

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Barnes & Noble’s Website: https://tinyurl.com/1emwpg16

Blog Post #1126

July 23, 2020

Discussion: First Contact: Are we Ready??

We human beings are curious creatures are we not? We are capable of such extraordinary acts of violence, depravity, and selfishness. Yet, we are also capable of such kindness, warmth, compassion, and self-sacrifice.

Within the last few millennia we’ve gone from living in huts, traveling on foot (and later horseback), hunting for our meals, and taking days to travel between town, to living in homes with swimming pools, large, flat-screen televisions with cable and streaming programming, and wi-fi, ordering our meals online, and using robots to visit every planet in the solar system.

We’ve developed quantum computers, gene-editing, and Velcro and yet we remain trapped by some of the very traits that help define who we are. We are by nature stubborn, arrogant, and defiant, sometimes to the point of violence, whether between individuals or nations.

I sometimes wonder therefore, what an extraterrestrial being would make of humanity. Sometimes, when I’m feeling a little more cynical, I’ll argue that E.T. must believe we are too dangerous a species to let loose among other civilizations in our vast, seemingly endless universe. Some of you may recall a movie along these lines, The Day the Earth Stood Still, the original. Unlike the remake with Keanu Reeves, where global warming and climate change are the catalyst for E.T. involvement, the original centered around the premise that humanity, having entered the atomic age by splitting the atom, is about to be destroyed by E.T. before humanity can bring its penchant for violence and destruction to the other sentient, spacefaring species of life in the galaxy.

In my more optimistic moods, however, (I am a bit moody but then again, I’m a writer), I might feel more inclined to say that E.T. must surely see great hope for humanity. After all, haven’t great men and women like Mozart, Beethoven, and Charlie Daniels, given us such amazing, beautiful, and inspiring music? Haven’t great artists like Picasso, Rembrandt, and Normal Rockwell given us such insightful and amazing art? Haven’t noble human beings, like St. Francis of Assisi and Mother Theresa given us much hope in the way they loved and cared for their fellow human beings.

Yes, I’ve heard the argument from great men like Carl Sagan and others, that E.T. has never visited our planet because it’s just too far. Yet, as some of you may recall from previous posts, I believe they have been here, and they will continue to come here. What they look like and their reasons for being here are likely to vary.

First, I will address why they would want to come here. I believe that while sentient life is likely somewhat widespread throughout the cosmos, though I highly doubt that it’s common. Sentience means intelligence, and intelligence is almost always accompanied by curiosity. Surely such creatures would be curious to learn more about a new species who, having split the atom, will next be venturing into space, and eventually, coming to them.

Secondly, I believe, and often reflect on, what an unbelievably beautiful planet we live on. Just consider every other planet in our solar system for a moment and you’ll see that indeed, Earth is a very, very special place.

Next, we come to the how. As some of you will know, I’m a fervent believer that we must discover a way of traversing the mind-boggling distances that come into play when discussing interstellar travel, that doesn’t involve the level of time dilation that come into play when traveling at or near the speed of light. Unless we do so, we are limited to the confines of our solar system. Now don’t get me wrong, that in itself would be quite amazing, but it is interstellar travel that will change everything for humanity.

“But there are already several sub-light, conventional options being worked on for traveling to other stars,” you might say; and you’d be correct. The most promising, however, involves teeny little cameras and a laser, but no people. Anything traversing space in a linear fashion would take far too long to make it to another star system, and the astronauts would suffer the effects of time dilation upon their return, with everything they knew gone, if they ever made it home that is.

And how many sentient creatures would want to sign-up for such a voyage, abandoning everyone and everything they’ve ever known just to make a trip to another star system. Oh, I’m sure that many would be quick to raise a hand if asked to participate in such a journey. I strongly believe there are few, however, that would actually make it to their assigned seat in such a spacecraft. According to the general and special theories of relativity first proposed by Einstein, with time passing much slower aboard our spacecraft while passing quickly on Earth. By the time he returned, everyone our friend the astronaut once knew would be dead and buried upon his return.

No, I’m convinced the future of space travel lies in discovering a new, exotic means of propulsion, whether it’s a means of traveling through wormholes, a way of warping space as we travel, or a stargate, we must find a means of travel that “bends or skirts the rules” of relativity, allowing us to travel vast interstellar distances and returning home before our child’s next birthday.

So yes, I believe E.T. has been here, perhaps visiting us over many millennia, and in all likelihood, observing us as our civilizations grew and advanced.

So now I’d like to take a moment to reintroduce a man who is rather well known by those like me, who believe we’ve been visited by extraterrestrials; that man is Bob Lazar. What the man contests to be true has supposedly been widely debunked, particularly his claim to have graduated from MIT and CalTech; but have they, or has someone, or some organization, worked overtime to protect something so secret it’s even been withheld from elected officials like congressmen, and possibly even presidents. Such elected officials are viewed by the deep state as temporary employees. Okay, I know, I sound like a serious conspiracy theorist. Yet, just because such discussions sound like conspiracy theories, does it mean they’re not true? Have you ever seen the blacked out documents given to members of congress and others who wanted to now more about events like Roswell?

I say all of this to bring home a point. The federal government denied, of course, that anyone named Bob Lazar ever worked as a contractor for them, much less at Area 51. But Lazar produced a document listing him on a phone list there. Of course, the government also fervently denied that Area 51 even existed, at least until a few years ago. I still recall seeing the base itself on Google Earth (just search for it), as well as the S-4 base mentioned by Lazar, before the government even acknowledged it existed. As a point of interest, the Russians and Chinese have known about Area 51 since at least the 1960s or 1970s, having obtained satellite images of it taken from space. So, consider that point before offhandedly dismissing what Lazar has to say.

So, what were some of the supposedly outlandish claims made by Bob Lazar? He said that E.T. exists, that he’s seen extraterrestrial-built spacecraft (even saw one hovering), and that he was hired to reengineer their technology. According to Lazar, he and other scientists there claimed to have a rudimentary understanding of how the spacecraft operated. As I recall, he stated the propulsion system used gravity waves to maneuver, and was powered by the mysterious Element 115 (Ununpentium), which a team of scientists that included both American and Russians were able to create sometime in the early 2000s. What a coincidence that an element, matching Lazar’s description, which didn’t exist when Lazar went public, has mysterious been created, with the same atomic number? The created element is currently unstable, with a half-life of 220 milliseconds. On a side note, following the addition of Element 115 to the periodic table, Lazar stated that once scientists find the right isotope and stabilize the element, they will find that bombarding it with radiation will cause it to produce gravity waves. And what would be the significance of being able to generate gravity waves? I’m not sure. One thing I am sure of however is that massively large objects, like a planet, have enough gravity to warp space-time. Oh, what was that; warp spacetime? Perhaps something like “Warp 8, please, Mr. Sulu!” A way, perhaps, to develop interstellar travel without time dilation.

There was other alien technology that Lazar claims to have seen, including a device that seemed to repel objects much like two magnets repel one another. Could this be some type of alien force field?

“Get a hold of yourself, Jeff, this is ridiculous!” No, ridiculous is the man or woman who wants to tear apart the best country to ever exist on Planet Earth…darn! There I go crossing the line again, sorry.

Seriously though, why do you imagine these claims to be impossible? We’ve split the atom, we can slice and edit DNA in less than a minute now. We’re on the verge (for better of for worse), of creating true artificial intelligence. We’ve discovered how truly bizarre the world quantum physics is, and we’re on the verge of colonizing Mars. Do you believe for one second, that Orville or Wilbur Wright had any idea that human beings would be walking on the moon some sixty years after their first successful flight at Kitty Hawk? Of course they didn’t. It may seem outlandish, but it truly is not. Whether it’s true or not, who, other than those who know of what is at Area 51, can say? As for me, I believe Lazar was there, and that he saw what he claims to have seen.

Remember Jesse Marcel, the man who found the wreckage at Roswell? Later in his life he said what he saw was not a weather balloon, but an extraterrestrial craft. He also claimed to have recovered some of the material, which was made of material he was sure wasn’t of this earth.

There’s a great documentary that includes some very convincing interviews with Lazar, and about his experience with Area 51, and the constant harassment and threats, even on his life, that resulted from his brief tie at Area 51. I highly recommend you check it out; it’s on Netflix. Just search for Lazar there.

What if someday we discover how to create gravity waves, which enables us to warp space and travel the galaxy. Will humanity receive a warm welcome? Will we be shunned, seen as a threat and destroyed by an alien species with more advanced technology?

I wonder if it’s possible, just possible, for us to grow as a species, to mature to the point that we finally learn how to work together to accomplish great things. “That’s impossible,” you claim, “how can we work with the Russians, or the Chinese?” Guess what, we already are; we’re working with the Russians on both the International Space Station and an experiment designed to harness nuclear fusion energy.

I’m not saying we should go to Moscow and Beijing, sing Kumbaya, and then expect all will be well with the world. I believe we have allowed our hope for peace to blind us to what China was doing behind the scenes to work against and ultimately ruin the United States. Let’s not kid ourselves, the Chinese and the Russians are looking out for what’s in their best interest, not ours. I’m only suggesting we meet, going into this with our eyes open, and work to begin laying the groundwork for cooperation and unity, in a manner that is in the best interest of each respective country. We need to stop fighting amongst ourselves; after all, we’re all members of the same species for goodness sake! Think about it for a moment; how are we going to live and work in peace beside sentient, alien beings, when we can’t even live and work in peace beside ourselves?

Yes, I worry our E.T. brothers would see us as violent, dangerous creatures, because we are. Perhaps, however, if they give us time, listen to some Mozart, some Beethoven, and some Bob Marley, they will see there is more to us than violence, that we are capable of great beauty, sacrifice, compassion, and love, and they will want to get to know us.

Only time will tell.

Jeff W Horton strives to write fun, exciting, revealing, and widely entertaining fiction with a slight Christian flavor.

You can find my novels here if you’d like to peruse them, please do so:

https://www.hortonlibrary.com/home/sample-page

Again, thank you for your support!

You can find all of Jeff’s published novels here: Works by Jeff W. Horton | The Horton Library

Please follow Jeff:

You might also want to explore Jeff’s website: at www.hortonlibrary.com, or visit him on the

Amazon’s Author Website for Jeff: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jeff-W.-Horton/author/B004NK5MJC?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Barnes & Noble’s Website: https://tinyurl.com/1emwpg16

Blog Post #1125

July 8, 2020

Technical Discussion: The Robots are Coming! The Robots are Coming!

The Matrix. Terminator. Blade Runner. I, Robot. 2001: A Space Odyssey. There have been many, many books and films made about man’s mechanical creation revolting against and then trying to kill his creator.

Perhaps we, as frail human beings, fear creating that might quickly grow beyond our control, an artificial intelligence, or A.I., whose intelligence might one day equal or perhaps even exceed our own.

Would such an artificial mind be satisfied with serving humanity, the race of creature that created it? Perhaps it will prove to be a most ardent helper to man as he turns from focusing on labors of the body to performing labors of the mind, with artificial intelligence running our machinery, harvesting our fields, and even helping to achieve fantastic technological breakthroughs? It certainly is possible.

There is an alternate version of how such events might playout, for it is not only our enormously talented novelists and screenwriters who fear the birth of true A.I., when an artificially created being, made by human beings, becomes self-aware, or sentient. Some great thinkers of our day have warned of the birth of a new, super-intelligence, who displaces humanity as it evolves at an exponential rate. What need would it have of humanity at that point, especially once it surpasses us in intellect and cognitive function. It seems the best we could hope for in such a scenario is that this new super-intelligence, evolves to the point it no longer sees us as a threat of any kind to its existence, eventually expanding its reach toward the stars.

Whether A.I. takes on the role of servant or master, whether it enables humanity to prosper, or destroys everyone, it would seem there’s no stopping it, because it is nearly here. A you’ll see in the information below, which I came across on the The American Society of Mechanical Engineers website, the future is here. Ready or not, the robots are coming.

10 Humanoid Robots of 2020

Robots come in many shapes and sizes. But, perhaps, the most intriguing, endearing, and acceptable are the ones that resemble us, humans.

Humanoid robots are used for research and space exploration, personal assistance and caregiving, education and entertainment, search and rescue, manufacturing and maintenance, public relations, and healthcare.

Before the coronavirus pandemic and the economic uncertainty, Stratistics Market Research Consulting expected that the Global Humanoid Robot Market would reach $13 billion by 2026. While future market behavior is now unclear, robot usage is on the rise: Chinese companies were rushing to deploy robots and automation technology, as doctors were grappling with COVID-19.

For example, a field hospital staffed by robots—the Smart Field Hospital—opened in Wuhan, China, in early March. There, humanoid robots—donated by CloudMinds Technology, a Silicon Valley company—disinfect, measure temperatures, deliver food and medicine, and entertain medical staff and patients.

As the virus spreads to the rest of the world, robots are being deployed in many countries. Some robots can help relieve tired nurses in the hospitals, do basic cleaning and deliveries, others can help in the warehouses, while industrial robots can help maintain some production for manufacturing companies while their human co-workers are quarantined.

Here are 10 other humanoids of 2020.
Photo: Toyota

  1. Robotic Avatar

Initially introduced by Toyota in 2017, the T-HR3 is a humanoid robot that mimics the movements of its human operator, like a real-world avatar. Updated for Tokyo Olympics, the T-HR3 has improved controls and can walk more naturally. Envisioned as a mobility service, in the future these humanoids will be able to perform surgeries while their operators, human doctors, will be controlling them from another part of the world. It can also help caregivers to do their work remotely, or those in need of assistance to live a more independent life.

“It is often said that a human shape is useful because the robot can use the same tools and environment as a human, but one more big reason is that humans find it to be easiest to control robots in humanoid form,” explained T-HR3 development team leader Tomohisa Moridaira.
Image: Hanson Robotics

  1. Robotic Ambassador

Perhaps the most recognizable face of humanoids is that of Sophia, a social humanoid developed by Hong Kong based Hanson Robotics.

In 2020, the AI-powered four-year-old robot is going to continue her role as a robotic ambassador, helping to advance research into robotics and human-robot interactions.

Taught by humans, Sophia can move, talk, show some emotions, draw, and sing.
Photo: Agility Robotics

  1. Delivery Robot

In January, it was announced that Ford became the first customer to incorporate Agility Robotics’ Digit into a factory setting. The headless humanoid has nimble limbs and is packed with sensors. It can navigate the stairs, various obstacles, and all kinds of terrains. It can balance on one foot, but usually it walks upright and is strong enough to pick up and stack boxes weighting up to 40 pounds. It can also fold itself for compact storage.

Ford envisions that Digit will ride in a driverless car and deliver packages to customers, automating the whole delivery process. For now, the company will be testing how humans react when meeting this android.
Photo: University of Tehran

  1. Research Humanoid

Mechanical engineers at the Iranian University of Tehran have been working on Surena robots since 2010. Their latest model, Surena IV, is an adult-size humanoid that is reportedly capable of face and object detection, speech recognition and generation, and can walk with a speed of 0.7 kilometers per hour. It has 43 degrees-of-freedom and its dexterous hands can grip many different shapes. Engineers use Surena to research bipedal locomotion, AI, and to attract students to careers in engineering.

Recommended for You: Meet Your Robotic Coworkers
Image: Neon

  1. Digital Humanoids

Digital human beings look and act like humans but are entirely virtual. One example is Samsung Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Labs’ Neons, AI-powered beings with unique personalities and looks. These artificial humans are not designed to answer any questions like Alexa or Siri, but are supposed to show emotions, learn from experiences, and have real conversations. Each Neon is computer-generated and not necessisarly based on real people, and each can be customized for a different role, like a virtual doctor or a yoga instructor.
Image: Macco Robotics

  1. Robotic Bartender

Kime is a food and beverage serving robot, developed by Macco Robotics in Spain. It has a human-like head and torso with two arms inside a kiosk. Tested at gas stations in Europe and in a Spanish brewery, Kime is known to be quite good at pouring beer and can serve up to 300 glasses per hour.

The humanoid features 14 to 20 degrees of freedom, has smart sensors and uses machine learning to improve on its skills.
Photo: Engineered Arts

  1. Robotic Actor

Founded by director Will Jackson in 2004, Engineered Arts is a U.K.-based company that produces different entertainment humanoids through collaboration between artists, mechanical and computer engineers, and animators. For instance, their first humanoid—the well-known RoboThespian—is a robotic actor that comes with a library of impressions, greetings, songs, and gestures.

Several of these can be added together to become a robotic theater, an integrated system of robots, movement tracks, animation software, touchscreen control, lighting, sound, and external device control. The company is working on adding RoboThespian the ability to walk on its own, but for now the movement can be staged through a hidden system of tracks and dollies.

You May Also Like: These Aren’t the Droids You’re Looking For
Photo: NASA

  1. Robonauts

Several countries have been working on humanoids for space exploration. In India, Vyommitra, a female humanoid robot, is set to launch on an uncrewed spaceflight in December 2020. The robot is scheduled to conduct microgravity experiments to help prepare for future crewed missions.

Fedor, or Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research, was a Russian remote-controlled humanoid that flew to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2019, where it simulated repairs during a spacewalk, and later returned back to Earth.

NASA’s Johnson Space Center has worked on several humanoids, including Robonaut 2 (that spent seven years aboard the ISS) and Valkyrie. It’s possible that future spacefaring humanoids will be designed to withstand harsh environments of the Moon or the Mars.
Photo: SoftBank Robotics America

  1. Educational Robot

SoftBank Robotics’ Pepper was designed to be a friendly emotions-reading helper to work as a receptionist, in retail, and, even, as a nanny. Now, Pepper comes with an educational integrated development environment (IDE), called Tethys, that was created to teach students how to code. Using the software, students can program the humanoid to move, talk, gesticulate, and show different messages on its screen, all in real time. The company hopes this initiative will inspire a future generation of engineers and roboticists.
Photo: UBtech Robotics

  1. Collaborative Humanoids

Most humanoids are intrinsically human collaborators. For instance, Nextage from Kawada Robotics is a humanoid research platform for industrial cobots for Industry 4.0. Armar from Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology was developed to perform maintenance tasks alongside human workers in industrial settings.

Walker by UBtech Robotics, on the other hand, is designed to collaborate with humans in their homes. With seven degrees-of-freedom manipulators, the humanoid was developed to perform household tasks and smart home control.

Daria Merkusheva is a technology writer based in New York City.

The world’s most advanced robots for business and home in 2020

https://www.2luxury2.com/worlds-advanced-robots-business-home-2020/

rom a robot butler that makes home life easier to fun and creative robot building kits, the future of robots are on display with UBTECH at CES 2020. At CES 2020 Ubtech will be showing its newest and most innovative robots, including Walker, AIMBOT, Cruzr, JIMU Robot, and more.

Walker robot, a finalist for the Best of CES 2019 award, is back at CES 2020 with new capabilities and functionality improvements including faster motion performance, improved mobility interactions, and enhanced environmental perception.

“This year’s presentation are demonstrating Walker’s faster, human-like walking as well as yoga poses with dynamic stability showing its huge improvement in motion control. Walker is also demonstrating new abilities such as the ability to push a cart, draw pictures, and write characters, showing improved static balance with full-body compliance control,” said Ubtech in a statement.

Aimbot, the autonomous indoor monitoring robot built for intelligent inspection, efficient inventory management, safety and security of data centers, and power distribution rooms. UBTECH is demoing AIMBOT in a data center environment built for CES 2020, showing how AIMBOT can actively monitor indicator lights on server racks, detect readings on digital instruments, assist with inventory management through RFID technology, and more.

Cruzr, the customizable, cloud-based, intelligent humanoid service robot designed for Retail 4.0, exhibitions, hotels, healthcare, finance, and other enterprise service scenarios. Cruzr is where service meets intelligence, creating value for businesses to better attend to their customers’ needs, while allowing human teams to focus on more complex issues requiring human interaction. At CES 2020, UBTECH is demoing Cruzr’s U-SLAM navigation and obstacle avoidance, multi-modal interaction, facial recognition, humanoid design, and more.

JIMU Robot, the award-winning robotic building block system that actively prepares kids for a world in which robotics and STEM knowledge will be essential, while packaging this learning into fun, creative play.

JIMU PRO Mars Expedition Kit, a preview of a new and even more advanced line of robot building kits. This fun and inspiring robotic system allows children to create different types of multi-functional robots using modular parts that form an astronaut, a Mars rover vehicle, or a planetary base. Each robot is designed to inspire children’s imaginations about space exploration while giving them access to advanced, highly programmable technologies such as a new Artificial Intelligence system, a camera with powerful image recognition ability and first-person view, precision steering module, high-resolution LED screen, and more. UBTECH will release JIMU PRO Mars Expedition Kit later in 2020.

You can find all of Jeff’s published novels here: Works by Jeff W. Horton | The Horton Library

Please follow Jeff:

You might also want to explore Jeff’s website: at www.hortonlibrary.com, or visit him on the

Amazon’s Author Website for Jeff: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jeff-W.-Horton/author/B004NK5MJC?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Barnes & Noble’s Website: https://tinyurl.com/1emwpg16

Blog Post #1124

July 8, 2020

Freeflow Thinking: Averting A Second Civil War

As I’ve grown older my interest in history has grown with me. I’m fascinated, for example, to learn some of the amazing technological discoveries made over two-thousand years ago in Ancient Greece and Rome.

Hero of Alexandria invented a working steam engine around 10 AD, over 2,000 years ago. The modern steam engine wasn’t invented until 1705, by Thomas Newcomen and James Watt.

The first doctor in history to attempt to remove a cataract was an Indian physician in the 600-400’s BC named Sushruta. All of what is known of Sushruta and his many surgeries is in Hindu in The Sushruta Samhita, collected by Nagarjuna in the latter part of the 4th century BC.

https://earlychurchhistory.org/medicine/cataract-surgery-in-the-ancient-world/

Instruments used for removing cataracts by Ancient Roman doctors have been discovered, instruments that are eerily similar to modern-day, pre-laser instruments used for removing cataracts. The list goes on and on.

I wonder how some of those ancient roman patients must have felt toward their magnificent Roman Empire; “surely…” they must have thought, “the Roman Empire will ensure forever. Of course as we all know it did not, ending as it did with the defeat and sacking of Rome, the capital of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD.

The same thing can, and perhaps one day will, happen to us.

I believe it is important for us, as Americans, to take a step back from time to time, to appreciate how delicate our fledgling democracy is. It is not infallible, nor is it permanent. Perhaps like the Roman Empire it too will one day collapse or worse, just fade away, along with the freedom and opportunities it offers. The United States of America, that shining city on a hill ushered in by the likes of George Washington, John Adams, Ben Franklin, and the other founding fathers, may one day fall apart, just as the Roman Empire did so long ago, if we’re not united in caring for and nurturing this great experiment called America.

We cannot assume it can take anything and everything culture and the world throws against it. Our country is always only one generation away from destruction. Each generation must take the torch, recalling those past, present, and future, who will die defending it. If each generation does not actively work to strengthen America or worse yet, if they work to tear it apart, than come apart it will. And believe me, a world without America would be a much darker place in which to live. One has to look no further than the current Chinese aggression in the Pacific Rim, the Soviets during the Cold War, or Hitler in World War II. Try for one moment to imagine what the world would be like now had Hitler won, or Stalin, or Mao Tse Tung. It’s not a pretty picture, I assure you.

The second civil war that so many of our young people seem hell-bent on starting, is not inevitable. I believe it is preventable, if only we, as a people, wake-up to the dangers inherent in the continued escalation of the current culture war.

I propose that our country is large enough and our government structured in such a manner that people can find a place to live that aligns, more or less, with their own values. We can’t allow states to secede, or to try to overrule federal law, but within the confines of our constitution there is plenty of room for people to live as they best see fit.

Take one of the most controversial issues of our time. For example, abortion. Now feelings are intense on both sides of this issue, understandably so. But clearly each side has some validity to their view on this issue, whether we agree with it or not. Why not let each state decide the issue for itself? States where most citizens are pro-choice, can make abortion legal. Conversely, states where the majority believe that life begins with conception and that abortion is murder, let them make abortion illegal. While I am strongly pro-life, I don’t believe I need to destroy the other side in order for me to win. We need to remember we are all Americans, and we come from diverse backgrounds. We can coexist without compromising our principals and convictions.

This is only an example. I believe there is room for us to work together and live as we see fit without compromising our core values and beliefs. Remember, there is so much more that unites us, than there is that divides us.

Furthermore, we, as a society, must learn to recognize individuals and organizations who have much to gain by sowing conflict and distrust, so they can line their own pockets or enhance their powerbase. Take race-baiters, for example, who have made a name for themselves, while accumulating power and wealth, by stirring up conflict based on race at every opportunity.

We must also start holding politicians accountable for placing America, and Americans, first, before politics. There are some things more important than rather they are re-elected or not. After all, how many politicians want their children and grandchildren growing up in a world without America?

There is so, so much we can accomplish together, as a nation and as a world. Our technology is reaching the point where some amazing, incredible new adventures will soon become possible.

Space flight. Terraforming alien planets or moons, colonizing and exploring new worlds. Developing new and cleaner energy sources. Genetically engineering human beings to live vastly long lives. There are so, so many causes that can unites us not only as Americans, but as human beings, so many opportunities to grow as a species.

Isn’t it time to replace the combustion engine, which has been powering automobiles, ships, and planes for over a century? We only recently upgraded the tools we use to treat cataracts a few decades ago, after they were invented over 2,000 years ago.

Isn’t it time for humanity to emerge from its dark history of violence and conflict, and embrace peace and exploration of our beautiful universe instead? After all, we’re all in the same boat here; we thrive and prosper, or we sink and die…together.

As a wise man once put it:

“We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Jeff W Horton strives to write fun, exciting, revealing, and widely entertaining fiction with a slight Christian flavor.

You can find my novels here if you’d like to peruse them, please do so:

https://www.hortonlibrary.com/home/sample-page

You can find all of Jeff’s published novels here: Works by Jeff W. Horton | The Horton Library

Please follow Jeff:

You might also want to explore Jeff’s website: at www.hortonlibrary.com, or visit him on the

Amazon’s Author Website for Jeff: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jeff-W.-Horton/author/B004NK5MJC?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Barnes & Noble’s Website: https://tinyurl.com/1emwpg16

Blog Post #1123

July 1, 2020

Freeflow Thinking:

A Second American Civil War – Will Life Imitate Fiction?

Some recent Supreme Court decisions left conservatives cheering and liberals seething, while others pleased liberals, while angering conservatives.

The loosely group alternately known as CHOP and then CHAZ recently took over a major American city, with the mayor of that city cheering them on, at last until they marched on her house, frightening her and her family.

There have been protests in the streets, buildings burnt down, and night after night of rioting and looting across the country that has left this great country reeling. There has even been serious discussion all over the United States of disbanding police departments and replacing them with what, camp counselors sitting around a campfire singing Kumbaya? People are tearing down statues and attacking icons of secular and religious history all over America.

The culture war has been hijacked by the extreme far left, many of whom advocate lawlessness and violence. The effort has begun energizing citizens on both sides of the issues, with some believing it is time for America to go.

America has been growing ever more deeply divided for decades, heading towards what some fear could become a second civil war.

My novel, Future Schism, is about what’s left of America following a Second-Civil War between liberals and conservatives. The novel was released on November 6th, 2017 and is still available. It details increasing rebellion in both the liberal “Blue” province and the conservative “Red” province. Future Schism is a thought experiment about what the United States might look like if each side retired to its own corner, running its own government according to its respective ideology and beliefs.

Future Schism Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdSqc3LmStY

Click here to go to my Amazon web page to order Future Schism:

https://www.amazon.com/Future-Schism-Jeff-W-Horton-ebook/dp/B0776HMDVM/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=future+schism&qid=1593674301&sr=8-2

Future Schism is a dystopian novel set in the future, some one-hundred years after the Second Great American Civil War had finally come to an end.

Incredibly, there has been actual discussion of secession by some liberal politicians, and a possible Second Civil War! The article below from RealPolitics is only one of many hits that came back when I did a search on “Second Civil War.” Try it yourself!

Is it true; could we be headed to a second Civil War?

|https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2017/01/24/americas_second_civil_war_132880.html

Jeff W Horton strives to write fun, exciting, revealing, and widely entertaining fiction with a slight Christian flavor.

You can find all of Jeff’s published novels here: Works by Jeff W. Horton | The Horton Library

Please follow Jeff:

You might also want to explore Jeff’s website: at www.hortonlibrary.com, or visit him on the

Amazon’s Author Website for Jeff: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jeff-W.-Horton/author/B004NK5MJC?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Barnes & Noble’s Website: https://tinyurl.com/1emwpg16

Blog Post #1122

June 26, 2020

Technical Discussion: Air Taxis Post-Wuhan V irus

Hello Peeps!

As we were all distracted by the Zombie Apocalypse (aka the Wuhan Virus), I thought maybe it was time to check-in to see how it’s going with the air taxi market and see what, if any, impact the virus and subsequent shutdown may have had on the developing service.

So what impact has the virus had? None; at least nothing I’ve come across as of yet. I suppose it’s possible there may be some changes made I order to keep better separated and the flying cars sanitized, but I imagine this may well amount to nothing more than a good sanitizing wipe-down while the car refuels between flights.

There were a few interesting developments I came across as I was conducting research for this post:

-Entrants into the Air Taxi Service offerings have started offering models with hydrogen fuel-cells, leading to a much faster turnaround between flights and the ability to travel significantly longer distances.

-A number of these may indeed end-up being totally automated. If something goes wrong with the automated piloting, human pilots could take over, much as drones are remotely controlled today.

-It seems there is considerable redundancy built into most of the air taxis. Multiple props could fail and the taxi continue without missing a beat. If the vehicle is high enough in the event of a catastrophic failure, a parachute would launch, allowing the flying car to land softly. Were the vehicle’s engine fail while under say, 150 ft. or so, the vehicle could be in danger of dropping like a rock. Supposedly the manufacturers and design engineers are working to resolve this. Were I a betting man I’d wager they are working on some sort of Parasail/hang glider type of solution to enable it to continue falling with a gentle landing; something that could deploy faster than a parachute ever could .

-Several air taxi services are still claiming the cost should be roughly equivalent to an Uber ride. I think that fact alone is simply amazing!

Okay, so they are still on track to rollout air taxi service over the next few years, with two hopefully able to carry passengers this calendar year! Below are a few excerpts from posts I found across the Cyberscape. Please peruse them and let me know what you think.

“Eventually, the market seems to agree, they’ll be pilotless automatons, even cheaper and more reliable than the earliest piloted versions. Should the onboard autopilot computers get confused, remote operators will take over and save the day as if they’re flying a Mavic drone, and every pilot gone will be an extra passenger seat in the sky…”

https://newatlas.com/aircraft/evtol-air-taxi-flying-car-market-players/

What’s stopping us from having eVTOL air taxis today, then?

“These machines still have a few major challenges left to overcome.

The first is the same problem that’s holding back high-performance electric motorcycles: current lithium battery technology simply doesn’t allow you to carry enough energy yet. Until energy density is at least doubled, most of these designs don’t offer range endurance long enough to make them commercially viable. These big battery packs will need charging, too, which would ground the aircraft for a significant time.

The second is certification. At this stage, we’re not aware of any eVTOL design that’s certified as a fully commercially operable aircraft, and while some endeavors are finding ways to push forward around the edges of the law, the fact remains that these are entirely new categories of aircraft, and the process of certifying, testing and regulating them is going to be monstrously expensive and time consuming.

The third impacts the second: safety. Electric VTOL aircraft can offer all sorts of redundancy options that no other aircraft can match. Take out a prop, or a motor, or even a few of them, and most of these designs can still fly thanks to distributed propulsion and smart software. Ballistic parachutes can be fired to bring them down gently in the case of total catastrophic failure. In the vast majority of cases, these things should be very, very safe.”

Learn more! https://newatlas.com/aircraft/evtol-air-taxi-flying-car-market-players/

Below are some featured air taxis, a few of which I just today saw for the first time:

CORA

Cora, the world’s first all-electric, self-flying air taxi, resumed testing in both the US and New Zealand after a three-month delay because of Covid-19 concerns. Cora is considered one of the most advanced electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, having gained its flight certificates in 2017. It was designed and is being developed by Wisk, an urban-air-mobility company backed by Boeing and Kitty Hawk.

The 21-foot bumble-bee-colored electric taxi has undergone m

Alakai Skai

Non-transitioning eVTOL with six rotors, five seats, 118 mph top speed, 400 mile range

Turn a 45-minute drive into a 10-minute flight. The safe, convenient Air Taxi is designed to let you make the most of your commute. Its sleek cabin offers a comfortable space for you to relax. Or work. Or socialize. All while saving your most precious resource: time.

Bell Nexus

https://www.bellflight.com/products/bell-nexus

Turn a 45-minute drive into a 10-minute flight. The safe, convenient Air Taxi is designed to let you make the most of your commute. Its sleek cabin offers a comfortable space for you to relax. Or work. Or socialize. All while saving your most precious resource: time.

Newatlas Info

https://newatlas.com/aircraft/evtol-air-taxi-flying-car-market-players/

CityHawk

“CityHawk is a six-seat eVTOL, with a uniquely compact footprint and no external wings or rotors. Its small footprint/high payload configuration is optimized for urban transportation and emergency response. The rotorless, wingless design offers enhanced safety and unrestricted mobility with unique “fly anywhere, land anywhere” door-to-door transportation capability. It features Urban Aeronautics’ groundbreaking internal rotor Fancraft™ technology, which utilizes powerful ducted fans in combination with innovative aerodynamic technologies that result in superior control, stability, speed, safety, noise reduction and sustainability.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=64&v=ur1jAp_Pnws&feature=emb_title

Here’s How Uber Is Designing Skyports for Future Air Taxis

Uber’s Air Taxi

Uber revealed some details about its approach to building ground infrastructure for urban air mobility — which it calls ‘Skyports’ — as the company seeks to make progress despite a dearth of industry standards and regulations.

Through Uber Elevate, the ridesharing giant is working with at least eight developers of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, to be used for urban aviation in concert with cars, scooters and other modes of public transportation.

With the launch of its Uber Air service planned for 2023 in Melbourne, Los Angeles and Dallas, the company — and others planning to be early investors in ground infrastructure for urban air mobility — faces the challenge of building and designing in an uncertain environment.

“Federal, city, state and perhaps county approvals will all be based on regulations yet to come for the most part,” said Chuck Clauser, senior director of architecture at PS&S and head of the company’s UAM task force. “Location will be dependent on zoning, surrounding airspace and aerial routes, aviation approvals, impact on pedestrian and vehicular traffic, parking, energy requirements, firefighting accessibility … there are a whole host of factors that have to be considered.”

https://www.aviationtoday.com/2020/05/11/heres-uber-designing-skyports-future-air-taxis/

There you are. Get ready to call your Uber Air Taxi, coming to a city near you over 2-3 years!

Jeff W Horton strives to write fun, exciting, revealing, and widely entertaining fiction with a slight Christian flavor.

You can find my novels here if you’d like to peruse them, please do so:

Again, thank you for your support!

You can find all of Jeff’s published novels here: Works by Jeff W. Horton | The Horton Library

Please follow Jeff:

You might also want to explore Jeff’s website: at www.hortonlibrary.com, or visit him on the

Amazon’s Author Website for Jeff: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jeff-W.-Horton/author/B004NK5MJC?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Barnes & Noble’s Website: https://tinyurl.com/1emwpg16

Blog Post #111

June 8, 2020

Free Flow Thinking: Genetically-Enhanced Intelligence coming to a maternity ward near you…

Have you ever seen that video, the one where you’re supposed to count the number of times a basketball changes hands? The young people are pretty fast and agile with I had difficulty keeping up with them. Soon the ball-passing came to an end and the narrator of the video asked. How many of you saw the gorilla who came out o stage wityh ius while we we re counting..

Jeff W Horton strives to write fun, exciting, revealing, and widely entertaining fiction with a slight Christian flavor.

You can find my novels here if you’d like to peruse them, please do so:

Again, thank you for your support!

You can find all of Jeff’s published novels here: Works by Jeff W. Horton | The Horton Library

Please follow Jeff:

You might also want to explore Jeff’s website: at www.hortonlibrary.com, or visit him on the

Amazon’s Author Website for Jeff: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jeff-W.-Horton/author/B004NK5MJC?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Barnes & Noble’s Website: https://tinyurl.com/1emwpg16

Blog Post #1118

June 3, 2020

Free Flow Thinking: I want to be black…white…brown…red…yellow…green…purple…

“Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches-

Had bellies with stars.

The Plain-Belly Sneetches-Had none upon thars.

Those stars weren’t so big. They were really so small.

You might think such a thing wouldn’t matter at all.

But, because they had stars, all the Star-Belly Sneetches

Would brag, “We’re the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches.

With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they’d snort

“We’ll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!”

And whenever they met some, when they were out walking,

They’d hike right on past them without even talking.

When the Star-Belly children went out to play ball,

Could a Plain- Belly get in the game…? Not at all.

You only could play if your bellies had stars

And the Plain-Belly children had none upon thars.

When the Star-Belly Sneetches had frankfurter roasts

Or picnics or parties or marshmallow toasts,

They never invited the Plain-Belly Sneetches.

They left them out cold, in the dark of the beaches.

They kept them away. Never let them come near.

And that’s how they treated them year after year.

Then ONE day, seems…while the Plain-Belly Sneetches

Were moping and doping alone on the beaches,

Just sitting there wishing their bellies had stars…

A stranger zipped up in the strangest of cars!
“My friends,” he announced in a voice clear and keen,

“My name is Sylvester McMonkey McBean.

And I’ve heard of your troubles. I’ve heard you’re unhappy.

But I can fix that. I’m the Fix-it-Up Chappie.

I’ve come here to help you. I have what you need.

And my prices are low. And I work at great speed.

And my work is one hundred per cent guaranteed!

Then, quickly Sylvester McMonkey McBean

Put together a very peculiar machine.

And he said, “You want stars like a Star-Belly Sneetch…?

My friends, you can have them for three dollars each!”

“Just pay me your money and hop right aboard!”

So they clambered inside. Then the big machine roared

And it klonked. And it bonked. And it jerked. And it berked

And it bopped them about. But the thing really worked!

When the Plain-Belly Sneetches popped out, they had stars!

They actually did. They had stars upon thars! “

From The Sneetches and Other Stories, by Dr. Seuss

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0394800893?tag=wm-htb-main-20&ie=UTF8

What is CRISPR-Cas9?

CRISPR is an acronym for “Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats.” CRISPR genome engineering technology enables scientists to easily and precisely edit the DNA of any genome.

But for the purpose of this post, it might as well be Sylvester McMonkey McBean’s machine for turning Plain-Belly Sneetches into Star-Belly Sneetches, or vice-versa.

The power of gene editing is, in my humble opinion, the most powerful technological tool ever created by man. This technique enables us to remove certain genetic traits, add specific genetic traits, and much more. Why then would it be such a ridiculous idea to suppose a person could edit the genes responsible for the color of the skin? Human beings shed skin daily and the body is always making more; is it really so outrageous to suppose we could change the color of our skin, say from yellow to brown? Maybe from red to white, or white to yellow. Why can’t Plain-Belly Sneetches become Star-Belly Sneetches, and Star-Belly Sneetches become Plain-Belly Sneetches, on a whim?

What am I suggesting here?

Dr, Seuss wrote The Sneetches and Other Stories to teach children about racism. I hold that most adults stand to learn quite a bit about racism, and perhaps, about themselves, by reading this wonderful book, which I recall reading as a child.

I propose that if we could easily change the color or our skin using CISPR, perhaps it would bring an end to racism once and for all, for and from all sides. After all, at some point we’d lose track of who was black yesterday, and who was red last week? In fact, I’ll go one step further and say I believe would begin experimenting with various colors of skin. Maybe I could try a pleasant, golden-brown, as if perfectly tanned under the UV rays from our sun. Better yet, maybe I’d try that blue skin color, like that of the alien, warrior-race known as the Kree, from Marvel Comics. Of course, some of the alien women I’ve seen on Star Trek certainly were a beautiful emerald green, and they were gorgeous. In my novel, Cybersp@ce: New Beginnings, a beautiful alien race have lavender-colored skin and white hair. Sadly, between Avatar and Marvel, I felt like blue, my first choice, was no longer an option.

Back on Earth, there was a man of color named Alan Keyes, who ran in a presidential race several years ago. I was proud to have voted for him to this day. He seemed like a wonderful, intelligent man of great character. I didn’t vote for the other man, or Keyes, because of the color of his skin; I voted for him because I was impressed with his character.

Of all the words spoke by the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., there are a couple of phrases I find to be the most profound:

‘I Have a Dream’: “I Have a Dream That My Four Little Children Will One Day Live in a Nation Where They Will Not Be Judged by the Color of Their Skin but by the Content of Their Character … and If America Is to Be a Great Nation, This Must Become True”

Martin Luther King Jr, from His Famous Speech at the March on Washington, 28 August 1963.

And another:

“We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

What true words! I fear in America, we have lost track of three fundamental truths:

First:

A person’s character is usually what makes a person a great, strong, and noble leader, or a terrible, untrustworthy, unreliable, evil, and vile human being. A poll some twenty or so years ago reported that a majority of Americans didn’t believe character to be an important trait in a president. This revelation stuns me as much today s it did then; for me, character is the most important trait, as evidenced by a person’s actions.

Second:

America is and always has been described as a great melting pot, with people from all over the globe coming here because they want to be an American. Notice I said American, and not African-American, Italian-American, Irish-American, Indian-American, Japanese-American, etc. When we become Americans we do not abandon the richness of our ethic heritages, but we do, or we should, place a much greater emphasis on what unites us, rather than what divides us. We should ban all hyphens, and be American. God knows we need more unity in this country, and a whole lot less division. Just consider our national motto:

National Motto: e pluribus unum- out of many, one.

Third:

All of us are important, incredible, brilliant beings. We share a common, genetic makeup that enable us to procreate together. We are all of us, human beings and as such, each and every one of us knows suffering, each and every race, creed, and nationality has, at some point, been enslaved by another. We are capable of great, horrific wickedness, as evidenced by men like Charles Manson, members of Al Queada, Hitler and Stalin. Yet we are also capable of great compassion, as demonstrated by Mother Theresa, who served the poorest of the poor in Calcutta, India, and all over the world. And by the Belgian priest Father Damian, who devoted his life to missionary work among the Hawaiian lepers.

Yes, we created nuclear bombs, germ agents, and many other devices for causing death on a global scale. Yet we have also discovered cures for diseases like Polio, the bubonic plague, and smallpox. We have already sent men to the moon, and we’re on the verge of sending men, and women.to Mars, and beyond.

If only people all over this beautiful, amazing planet, could simply remember that we are not many people, we are one; and as such we must start focusing on what unites us, while minimizing what divides us, perhaps we, all of us, will have a bright and amazing future, with all of us, you and I, one day traveling among the stars, exploring this vast, and amazing universe, whether we are Star-Belly Sneetches, Plain-Belly Sneetches, or No-Belly Sneetches.

Jeff W Horton strives to write fun, exciting, revealing, and widely entertaining fiction with a slight Christian flavor.

You can find all of Jeff’s published novels here: Works by Jeff W. Horton | The Horton Library

Please follow Jeff:

You might also want to explore Jeff’s website: at www.hortonlibrary.com, or visit him on the

Amazon’s Author Website for Jeff: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jeff-W.-Horton/author/B004NK5MJC?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Barnes & Noble’s Website: https://tinyurl.com/1emwpg16

 

Blog Post #1117

May 20, 2020

Technical Discussion: The Private-Public Partnership for Space

Good evening.

I’d like to start by offering some extremely valuable advice; when using a laptop computer, SAVE OFTEN! Hey, it’s not to say that I don’t enjoy writing thee blogs, because I do. The problem is I’d rather just write them once, not several times. (I wish I could do the same when writing my novels…<sigh>.

Okay, so starting over….I can only imagine that all of you as bummed as I am about NASA scrubbing today’s launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard. The spacecraft was to carry two American astronauts to the International space station, the first time ever that a private company has built ship and carried men into space. But hey, like I told my son earlier, it’s better they scrub the mission rather than to see another Challenger or Columbia disaster, right? Aside of the precious loss of crews, those two disasters set the American space program back at least a decade.

“Why be in such a rush,” you might say, “let some other country take the lead.” Oh man, I wish everyone wanted to unite the human race as a species, before venturing out into space. I like the idea of a united earth. I even came up with a logo for a previous blog post!

Okay, okay, so I’m a writer, not a graphic artist!

I’ve even written a series of novels (the Cybersp@ce Series), in which incredible, revolutionary new technologies are discovered by Americans. In an effort to share the technologies with other nations, expecting that eventually the technology could be stolen by another country anyway, the United States government, in partnership with other countries, establishes the Earth Space Alliance, or ESA (not to be confused with the European Space Agency, lol.). The technology is owned and managed by the ESA. Only by joining the ESA, as a state might join a country, can the country gain access to these new technologies. Countries that join add to this new “country, governed by a constitution not unlike that if the United States, the idea being that just as states in the USA have autonomy, so too would these countries.

No, I’m afraid if the United States were to step aside, good ole China would step in immediately, asserting itself as the dominant world power in all regards. Based on the way the Chinese government treats its own citizens, and the people in Hong Kong, and Taiwan, I’d say having the Chinese Communist Party tell us how to live would be a real bummer. I want us to come together as a species, we just can’t be impatient about it. If you think it might not be so bad living under Chinese Communism, think again. There was this little thing called “The Great Leap Forward,” an initiative Mao Tse Tung forced on his people.

“Great Leap Forward (Second Five Year Plan) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was an economic and social campaign led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1958 to 1962. Chairman Mao Zedong launched the campaign to reconstruct the country from an agrarian economy into a communist society through the formation of people’s communes. Mao decreed increased efforts to multiply grain yields and bring industry to the countryside. Local officials were fearful of Anti-Rightist Campaigns and competed to fulfill or over-fulfill quotas based on Mao’s exaggerated claims, collecting “surpluses” that in fact did not exist and leaving farmers to starve. Higher officials did not dare to report the economic disaster caused by these policies, and national officials, blaming bad weather for the decline in food output, took little or no action. The Great Leap resulted in tens of millions of deaths,[1] with estimates ranging between 18 million and 45 million deaths..”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward

No, I believe only a free people, like us, can forge the way. We can only hope that in time, others will decide to join us, in our eternal struggle to remain free. I’m afraid Ronald Reagan was correct, peace through strength. We must lead the way, and excel so that others want to join us. Okay, that was my 2 cents; moving on.

Okay, sorry, back to the topic at hand.

So some of you may be pondering whether this new public-private partnership is a good idea or a bad one. Well, I’ll share my opinion with you: I believe it’s perfect. Why? Because as good as NASA is, they have one major, significant disadvantage, they depend on the public, and in the political animals in Congress to fund them. As I’m sure you know, the “public” can be quite fickle at times, and Congress, well, there’s a reason why Congress has a favorable approval rating around 18%. While there are some things we need the government to do (run the government in our stead, the military, the police, fire department, etc., I firmly believe it will be the private enterprise, and the profit motive, that will drive innovation and exploration for space travel. It has always been the future. Remember Edison, Bell, Tesla, and the many other geniuses, driven to success in their technology because they strived for success in their lives. The opportunity to vastly improve one’s fortunes have driven many, many experiments to manufacturing and production.

So, in reading about SpaceX and curious as to what they’re up to now, I came across this interesting (and long) speech by Elon Musk while standing just hundreds of yards from SpaceX’s Starship.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOpMrVnjYeY

I’m so impressed by what he’s doing, and I’m so lad he’s doing it. Musk is a leader in his own right, and is helping to lead America, and the world, forward into space and one day, to the stars.

After learning about the scrubbed launch my thoughts turned to this blog, and to related subjects, and I recalled a long-running question I’ve had for some time; whatever happened to Lockheed Martin’s X-33 Venturestar, the supposed replacement for the space shuttle? It looked to be a truly independent plane-like craft, which took off and landed with no need for the booster rockets. It was truly a revolutionary design. From what I’ve read, it wasn’t the technology that failed so much, it was the people. It seems middle management took a hard stance on a construction issue that in truth, could have been easily rectified by switching from a composite material to a metal one. From the moment the leadership team at Lockheed started listening to management more than engineers, the project was doomed.

Still, according to reports some 90+ % of tested parts were delivered for the spaceplane; yet still it was canceled? I have to believe that maybe, just maybe, the X-33 was put into production, only by the USAF and not NASA. Can I prove it? No. But it sounds so odd to me that what appeared to be such a viable new spaceplane, had the engineers been allowed to make their changes. If they do have it, or an updated version of it by now, that’s great. If there’s a need to keep it secret, I understand. Still, I wonder…

Two videos about the X-33 spaceplane…
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3601/1

The last topic I thought I’d cover is a list of some spaceplanes, past, present, and future, and other means of spaceships currently in development, testing, or available:

Spaceplanes-Past and Present:


Martin X-23 PRIME-1966

The Martin X-23A PRIME (SV-5D) was a small lifting-body re-entry vehicle tested by the United States Air Force in the mid-1960s. Unlike ASSET, primarily used for structural and heating research, the X-23 PRIME was developed to study the effects of maneuvering during re-entry of Earth’s atmosphere, including cross-range maneuvers up to 710 statute miles (1143 km) from the ballistic track.

HOTOL

British Aerospace HOTOL (1988)

Designed as a single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) reusable winged launch vehicle, HOTOL was to be fitted with a unique air-breathing engine, the RB545 or Swallow, that was under development by British engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce. The propellant for the engine technically consisted of a combination of liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen; however, it was to employ a new means of dramatically reducing the amount of oxidizer needed to be carried on board by utilising atmospheric oxygen as the spacecraft climbed through the lower atmosphere. Since the oxidizer typically represents the majority of the takeoff weight of a rocket, HOTOL was to be considerably smaller than normal pure-rocket designs, roughly the size of a medium-haul airliner such as the McDonnell Douglas DC-9/MD-80.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Aerospace_HOTOL

SNC’s Dream Chaser

Known as America’s Spaceplane™, SNC’s Dream Chaser spaceplane is a multi-mission space utility vehicle designed to transport crew and cargo to low-Earth orbit (LEO) destinations such as the International Space Station.

https://www.sncorp.com/what-we-do/dream-chaser-space-vehicle/

Designed as a single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) reusable winged launch vehicle, HOTOL was to be fitted with a unique air-breathing engine, the RB545 or Swallow, that was under development by British engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce.

SpaceShipOne

The future of spaceplanes may lie largely in the private sector. But Rutan’s Scaled Composites company has already successfully flown its SpaceShipOne beyond the Karman line at speeds exceeding Mach 3 and is now testing the much larger SpaceShipTwo capable of lofting a two-man crew and up to six fee-paying passengers on suborbital flights. Virgin Galactic plans to start commercial flights using this innovative craft within a couple of years.

 

The Space RIDER is a planned uncrewed orbital spaceplane aiming to provide the European Space Agency (ESA) with affordable and routine access to space. Its expected maiden flight is 2022.

LockeedX-37B -Current

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-7VNf7DCY8

Jeff W Horton strives to write fun, exciting, revealing, and widely entertaining fiction with a slight Christian flavor.

You can find all of Jeff’s published novels here: Works by Jeff W. Horton | The Horton Library

Please follow Jeff:

You might also want to explore Jeff’s website: at www.hortonlibrary.com, or visit him on the

Amazon’s Author Website for Jeff: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jeff-W.-Horton/author/B004NK5MJC?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Barnes & Noble’s Website: https://tinyurl.com/1emwpg16

Blog Post #1116

May 20, 2020

Free Flow Thinking: Transgenics

His name is Woodgod. He is a genetically-engineered sentient life-form who physically resembles a satyr, created using cloning techniques by combining human and animal DNA. A fictional character, he was created for Marvel Comics in 1976 by Bill Mantlo and Keith Giffen. While he may be fictional I wonder sometimes, is it really fiction, in the age of the genetic engineering tool, CRISPR? Has human and animal DNA already been combined in a lab somewhere by scientists, working for their respective governments, or corporations, pushing the envelope, trying to determine exactly what is possible? I’m not so sure…

In the film, Deep Blue Sea, Scientists combine human DNA with that of a shark, creating sharks with near human-like intelligence. Imagine that, JAWS with a mind like Hannibal Lector? Needless to say it made for an interesting movie.

So, what is this science, and is it real?

It is real, well…the science. It’s called Transgenesis. Here is one definigion I found.

“Transgenesis is the process of introducing a gene (referred to as a transgene) from one organism into the genome of another organism. The aim is that the resulting transgenic organism will express the gene and exhibit some new property or characteristic. This is made possible by the fact that the genetic code is universal for all living things. Steps involved in the process of transgenesis are outlined below.”

https://www.pathwayz.org/Tree/Plain/TRANSGENESIS

Here are some real life examples of transgenic animals created in a lab. Consider this, if these are the experiments the world knows about, what has been done in secret?

  • There is the transgenic BioSteel goat named Freckles, genetically modified to produce spider silk proteins in her milk. Researchers inserted a spiders’ dragline silk gene into the goats’ DNA in such a way that the goats would make the silk protein only in their milk. This “silk milk” could then be used to manufacture a web-like material called Biosteel.
  • A team of scientists in China used CRISPR to knockout two genes that suppress the growth of hair and muscles in goats aiming to boost the income of goat breeders by increasing cashmere and meat production in goats in the future.
  • A team, led by the China Agricultural University, has successfully introduced human genes into 300 cows to produce “human” milk which is known to contain high quantities of key nutrients that can help to boost the immune system of babies…
    Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/content/151042/now-genetically-modified-cows-produce.html
  • Glowing, transgenic lab animals seems to be a fad these days. A quick list of the veritable animal kingdom that has been implanted with glowing jellyfish DNA includes pigs, mice, rhesus monkeys, voles, naked mole rats, and marmosets. But Ruppy the Glowing Puppy, a cloned beagle that glows red under UV light, has gotten the lion’s share of attention, largely because he’s adorable. Scientists are experimenting with transgenics to see how genes are passed down from parent to child

From a Future Science article: Genetically modified humans: the X-Men of scientific research

The power of resistance

When it comes to CRISPR, perhaps the most dramatic and controversial advancement was the birth of the so-called ‘CRISPR twins’. Previously, genome editing had been limited to altering somatic cells, meaning that any edits made would not be heritable. The twin girls, born November 2018, marked the start of germline edits where the effects of the CRISPR edits will not only affect their lives but also those of their future generations.

He Jiankui from the Southern University of Science and Technology (Shenzhen, China) and his research team used CRISPR technology to delete the CCR5 gene, with an overall aim of rendering the resultant offspring resistant to HIV, smallpox, and cholera.

Announcing his results in a YouTube video, Jiankui stated that “gene surgery is another IVF advancement” and emphasized that the research was for the benefit of families who could not have children otherwise and therefore “need this technology” [13]. The positive and wholesome message given by Jiankui did not have the reception intended, with fellow scientists being shocked by the experiment and skeptical of his family-centric approach, many calling the work selfish and fame-driven; the Center for Genetics and Society (CA, USA) labeled the work as “a grave abuse of human rights” [14].

Jiankui first announced the study in a YouTube video [13].

Resistance to some of the world’s deadliest diseases is a significant medical advantage, although in today’s world, seemingly unnecessary. The benefits of treatment options currently available significantly outweigh the risks of the CRISPR procedure. However, further research has shown that immunity to disease is unlikely to be the only power granted by this edit. Aside from the as-yet-unknown off-target effects, the editing of the CCR5 gene may also have enhanced their learning and memory. In murine models, deleting the gene has been shown to significantly improve memory and can make the animals smarter.

The link between CCR5 and cognition has been known since 2016, when a study revealed that it could act as a suppressor for cortical plasticity as well as hippocampal learning and memory [15]. Upon hearing about the twins, author of the 2016 study Alcino J Silva (University of California, Los Angeles; CA, USA) commented, “the simplest interpretation is that those mutations will probably have an impact on cognitive function in the twins”. The question remains as to the extent of the effect which, at this stage, is impossible to predict and, according to Silva, “that is why it should not be done” [16].

In his announcement video, Jiankui agreed that the technique should be used for healing and not for enhancing IQ. Despite this suggestion that there was no initial intent to improve the twin’s cognitive abilities, Jiankui made no attempt to collaborate with experts to discuss the potential effect of CCR5 on cognition and, while admitting he knew of the study, said that it “needs more independent verification” [16].

Since the birth of the twins, new research has once again shown the effect that suppressing CCR5 can have on the brain, this time demonstrating it to be a therapeutic target to improve recovery from stroke or traumatic brain injury [17]. The study also highlighted a link between the gene and everyday intelligence, with those who are missing at least one copy of the gene appearing to go further in school.

The backlash that occurred when Jiankui announced his study has halted the editing of germline cells for the foreseeable future. The view of Jiankui’s work as reckless has led to the formation of a group of experts by the World Health Organization, tasked with setting out guidelines for future CRISPR studies and evaluating the ethics of its use. Scientists from across the world, including CRISPR co-inventor Feng Zhang, have called for a global moratorium on germline editing. This would include a freeze on any ongoing germline editing projects until an international framework for practice can be outlined [18].

However, at the summit where Jiankui first presented his results, there was a consensus that such use for gene editing was inevitable. Dean of Harvard Medical School (MA, USA), George Daley, told the conference, “the fact that the first instance of human germline editing came forward as a misstep should not let us stick our neck in the sand. It’s time to move forward from [debates on] ethical permissibility to outline the path to clinical translation” [19].

It is unknown what the full effect of the gene surgery will be, only time will tell as the twins grow and develop. If predictions hold true, this case will have shown what is possible and will likely be the inspiration for future work; Pandora’s box of potential has been well and truly opened and it may be too late to close it.

Read the full article…

https://www.future-science.com/doi/10.2144/btn-2019-0056

“Genetically modified organisms (GMO) are plants, animals, bacteria or viruses that have been altered through the transfer or deletion of genes into or from the organism under consideration. They have a variety of uses in biological and medical research, safety testing, pharming, agriculture, and xenotransplantation. The foreign gene of interest is prepared by different gene editing techniques like recombinant DNA technology, transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), Zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs), and CRISPR/cas9 (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats). The prepared gene of interest is incorporated through different vectors like bacterial plasmids, cosmids and yeast artificial chromosomes. The gene with the vectors is inserted to the host cell through different gene insertion methods like heat shock, electroporation, viruses, gene gun, microinjection, and liposomes. Transgenesis may be done through the gonads, sperm, fertilized eggs and embryo by DNA microinjection, retroviruses, stem cells, and cloning. To date, the most ideal transgenic marker is green fluorescent protein. The success of transgenesis is checked by incorporation of antibiotic resistance gene, western and southern blot, PCR and ELISA. If the technology alleviates welfare and ethical issues, it becomes the most promising in the future.”

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311932.2019.1686802

What happened to those GM spider goats with the silky milk?

September 2, 2019

Richard Martyn-Hemphill

“This really was an extraordinarily wacky and perhaps controversially ‘Homo Deus’ news story — GM goats who had been transplanted with a spider’s silk-making genes to transform their milk into something much less drinkable and much more silky. Yet this was all years ago now. So did that research ever lead anywhere? And what happened to those goats?

Well, all went a bit quiet. Partly because the Montreal-based company leading the way, Nexia Biotechnologies, a company spun out of McGill University, swiftly went bust and sold its two GM goats — Sugar and Spice — to the Canada Agriculture Museum in Ottawa, which in 2013 removed its genetically-engineered goats from display amid public pressure.

Quiet momentum continues, however, under Dr Randy Lewis of Utah State University and his team. Though he is unaware of the whereabouts of Sugar and Spice today, his lab looks after over twenty goats capable of producing silky milk. This is not just kidding around with mind-bending science experiments for its own sake; dozens of potential applications exist for spider silk, like new ligaments or bullet-proof vests. Yet attempts at farming silk spiders have failed on any scale, mostly because spiders kept in close proximity can turn to in-fighting and cannibalism.

Dr Lewis explained some of these applications by email when contacted by AFN during his trip last week to the International Symposium on Biomedicine and Biomaterials in Xi’an, China — as apt a place as any to discuss the ancient science of sericulture.

“Clearly for quantity the silkworms will always win but for material properties, we are very close or superior in most cases,” Dr Lewis writes. Though he expresses some skepticism about making smart outfits with it, at least for now. “I actually think clothing will be a later product as we can use these proteins to make adhesives, coatings, gels as well as fibers. Those products will be much higher value and thus better to move into for markets.”

https://agfundernews.com/what-happened-to-those-gm-spider-goats-with-the-silky-milk.html

If you think that’s scary…check out the article below, penned by a member of Chinals People’s Liberation Army

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is the armed forces of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and of its founding and ruling political party, the Communist Party of China (CPC). … The PLA is the world’s largest military force and constitutes the second largest defense budget in the world.

Ultramicro, Nonlethal, and Reversible

Looking Ahead to Military Biotechnology

Colonel Guo Ji-wei, The People’s Liberation Army, China, and Xue-sen Yang

Possible Military Uses of Biotechnology

“Modern biotechnology is now in full blossom. Since the 1990s, half of the “Breakthroughs of the Year” selected by Science magazine have been in the biotechnology and life sciences fields. Such innovations (outlined below) are of great medical value and can be of great value in military affairs as well…”

“Transgenic technology. The new transgenic technology currently has limited uses, but its idea of gene control and reconstitution has possibilities for military use. The results from studies in this domain will help the military set goals in command and control.”

“Besides the innovations listed above, many other newly developed biotechnologies lend themselves to military purposes; for example, DNA recombination, gene modification, gene cloning, exogenous gene expression synergy, gene targeting, stem cell technology, tissue engineering, and so on. These biotechnologies will vastly enrich the military’s ability to defend and attack…”

“Direct effects. Direct-effect weapons can be used on human bodies to alter their biological features. Modern biotechnology looks at life in a new way—at the molecular level. Many unknown or unidentified substances of physiological activity have been discovered, and the structure-function relationship of biomacromolecules has been clarified. As a result, we might soon be able to design, control, reconstruct, and simulate molecules in living beings. Methods to change and rebuild biological features and biomolecule functions will soon appear in great number. Genome and proteome technologies can accurately modify living tissues according to precise procedures and conditions. Through the interaction of proteins, we can modify cell functions as needed. In the final analysis, war is simply human behavior that forces enemies to lose the power of resistance. Biotechnological weapons can cause destruction that is both more powerful and more civilized than that caused by conventional killing methods like gunpowder or nuclear weapons…”

“Direct integration. University of Wisconsin scientists have made exogenous, naked DNA and injected it into veins for easy access into muscle cells for gene therapy. By combining this knowledge and particle-gun technology, we could create a microbullet out of a 1-μm tungsten or gold ion, on whose surface plasmid DNA or naked DNA could be precipitated, and deliver the bullet via a gunpowder explosion, electron transmission, or high-pressured gas to penetrate the body surface.10 We could then release DNA molecules to integrate with the host’s cells through blood circulation and cause disease or injury by controlling genes…”

“Ultramicro damage. When attacking an enemy with biotechnological military weapons, we could choose targets from a nucleotide sequence or protein structure. We could cause physiological dysfunction by producing an ultramicro damaging effect to a gene’s or a protein’s structure and functioning. Precision injury and ultramicro damage are two vulnerating methods based on genomics and proteomics. Because they target the primary structure of the gene or protein, they are completely different from traditional weapons of war that directly damage tissues and organs…”

Um, yeah; this from China’s military. I wonder who the enemy is they have in mind to attack by destroying the enemy’s DNA?

Take heart; Americans are as innovative, curious, and capable as any other peoples on the planet. You never deal with a bully out of fear. You must face him head-on, lest you risk emboldening your enemy.

It’s a brave new world, folks. We need not embrace fear, defeat and depression; however, rather we must simply take care that we elect leaders of profound character. We need leaders who are wise and responsible, who Americans first-ahead of politics, leaders who are able to face-down the bullies who would like to see America, and the principals we stand for, stumble and fall.

Food for thought all. Until next week, stay healthy and safe!

Jeff W Horton strives to write fun, exciting, revealing, and widely entertaining fiction with a slight Christian flavor.

You can find all of Jeff’s published novels here: Works by Jeff W. Horton | The Horton Library

Please follow Jeff:

You might also want to explore Jeff’s website: at www.hortonlibrary.com, or visit him on the

Amazon’s Author Website for Jeff: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jeff-W.-Horton/author/B004NK5MJC?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Barnes & Noble’s Website: https://tinyurl.com/1emwpg16

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