FTL (Faster Than Light) is more than just a desired attribute for a pizza delivery service. FTL is the dream of Science Fiction and Spooky Action at a Distance for Einstein. No matter how your slice and dice it, if you can do it its time travel, even if you can’t go back in time and date your Grandmother when she was a hot Young thing in the days when they had a few Model T’s but no wet T’s.
From Space.com we have a report of new developments that bring FTL closer to conception if not closer to realization.
Spaceship Could Fly Faster Than Light
Travel by bubble might seem more appropriate for witches in Oz, but two physicists suggest that a future spaceship could fold a space-time bubble around itself to travel faster than the speed of light.
We’re talking about the very distant future, of course.
The idea involves manipulating dark energy — the mysterious force behind the universe’s ongoing expansion — to propel a spaceship forward without breaking the laws of physics.
“Think of it like a surfer riding a wave,” said Gerald Cleaver, a physicist at Baylor University. “The ship would be pushed by the spatial bubble and the bubble would be traveling faster than the speed of light.”
In theory, the universe grew faster than the speed of light for a very short time after the Big Bang, driven by the dark energy that represents about 74 percent of the total mass-energy budget in the universe. Dark matter constitutes 22 percent of the budget, and normal matter (stars, planets and everything you see) makes up the remaining 4 percent or so.
Strange as it sounds, current evidence supports the notion that the fabric of space-time can expand faster than the speed of light, because the reality in which light travels is itself expanding.
For someone like me who grew up with Science Fiction before Star Trek, when people thought those of us who read it with were just a bunch of weird nerds, this is good news. For writers of Science Fiction, it provides a working model to use when they begin to extrapolate their own universe.
your ads here (468x60) - after 1st post.
I guess I’m in a mood, plagued with scattered thoughts. I thought this would be a roundup, a snapshot, really, of the news as I see it. But I find myself withdrawing from my obsession with what’s happening. I discovered that it is impossible to know what is happening. Yes, I just discovered, or more accurately recognized that fact. The media, at least in my estimation, are not honest enough to tell us the straight dope. There is an eruption of drama. The Clinton’s and Obama’s are at war, American Montagues and Capulets…or are they? Even if I listen to the left wing media (Providing I could find a left wing media, which is like looking for a shrews testicles, those being things so small as to be indistinguishable from the rest of the shrew. If it is impossible to know why try?
Is it bad to withdraw, to turn, to walk away from a world? I could easily surround myself with the pursuit of trivialities, collecting momentary impulse buys, labeling them, and putting them in boxes to be displayed at next years Del Mar Fair. Perhaps I would even collect a blue ribbon for my Thingamawodjits. Imagine how important that would make me feel.
I should be mollified by march of time, the idea that this stage of history is dissolving like one of the living paintings they create at the Laguna Beach Pageant of the Masters. Actors painted like pieces of Masterpieces take their place on the stage providing a moment of Aha recognition before moving on to the next great painting. They create an art gallery before my eyes, full sized. But it is there for only a moment, not like a real painting or stature, that I can appreciate and re-appreciate over the years. And maybe that is why I have scattered…
The writing continues. I’ve deciyded that working without an outline has caused a number of problems that must be fixed with writing and rewriting. I’m now going through the painful process of reading through the manuscript and making changes in red ink.
I suppose it will take about two reads before I enter those changes in the manuscript written in Liquid Story Binder XE from Black Obelisk Software. An incredible program for creating a novel.
I am looking forward to attending the San Diego State University Writer’s Conference in January of 2009. It is the best book I’ve written yet and I will be shopping for an agent.
Meanwhile, I’ve started another process, outlining another novel using “First Draft in 30 Days”by Karen S. Wiesner. Because a good outline would have shortened the writing process, and kept errors at bay, I need to do this for the next novel.
Conveniently Dead? It seems that after years spent “investigating the 2001 anthrax attacks were planning to indict and seek the death penalty against a top Army microbiologist in connection with anthrax mailings that killed five people” and the guy up and whacks himself. Or did he? This is one for the conspiracy buffs.
WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutors investigating the 2001 anthrax attacks were planning to indict and seek the death penalty against a top Army microbiologist in connection with anthrax mailings that killed five people. The scientist, who was developing a vaccine against the deadly toxin, committed suicide this week.
It seems taht Wal-Mart is a little concerned “that if Democrats win power in November, they’ll likely change federal law to make it easier for workers to unionize companies — including Wal-Mart.” Unions built the middle class of this country. Union workers risked their livelihoods and their lives to bring decent wages, 40 hour work weeks, end child labor, improve work place safety, and literally thousands of other things that today’s workers take for granted. If Wal-Mart doesn’t want to pay a living wage they should move to China where most of their goods are made by sweat-shop labor.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is mobilizing its store managers and department supervisors around the country to warn that if Democrats win power in November, they’ll likely change federal law to make it easier for workers to unionize companies — including Wal-Mart.
In recent weeks, thousands of Wal-Mart store managers and department heads have been summoned to mandatory meetings at which the retailer stresses the downside for workers if stores were to be unionized.
According to about a dozen Wal-Mart employees who attended such meetings in seven states, Wal-Mart executives claim that employees at unionized stores would have to pay hefty union dues while getting nothing in return, and may have to go on strike without compensation. Also, unionization could mean fewer jobs as labor costs rise.