tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4336192488762623632024-03-13T04:41:21.677-07:00In My Humble OpinionErik Norman Swigerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00157413778435387811noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-433619248876262363.post-25895299102818695252012-10-23T18:00:00.000-07:002012-10-23T22:06:22.162-07:00Favorite Manipulations IV<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Erik Norman Swigerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00157413778435387811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-433619248876262363.post-30547164891855500982012-10-23T17:36:00.000-07:002012-10-23T17:36:23.099-07:00Even MORE Favorite Manipulations<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Erik Norman Swigerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00157413778435387811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-433619248876262363.post-15507265179643353722012-04-21T21:26:00.001-07:002012-04-21T21:50:08.427-07:00More Favorite Manipulations<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Erik Norman Swigerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00157413778435387811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-433619248876262363.post-51063711981913000372012-04-20T23:43:00.000-07:002012-04-22T17:51:46.804-07:00My Favorite Manipulations<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I decided to take some of the images I've made (or modified, or captioned) and put them all in one place, in case people should want to see them. Hope you enjoy!</span>Erik Norman Swigerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00157413778435387811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-433619248876262363.post-52702318118733370322011-11-14T03:02:00.000-08:002011-11-18T02:28:41.737-08:00Why Is Star Trek So Popular?<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">People have asked: Why does Star Trek remain such a popular TV show after all these years? I'm talking about the original series in this posting. It's getting new fans all the time</span>, and the people that always loved it, still do. <br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Some have commented occasionally that it's a mystery why the show appears to be enjoyed in some sort of iconic, almost religious way. </span> Some point to the stories that are told, or the writing of certain episodes. Of course everybody mentions the acting, and there's no doubt that was a major factor.<br />
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Is that all? That doesn't sound like much to set Star Trek apart from any other production. Those features could be said of any really good show. <br />
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What else do we see when we watch an episode of the original series of Star Trek? <br />
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I'm remembering an image. I can't recall the name of the show, but really, it could be one of many if you think about it. Sick Bay. A camera shot of Bones in his characteristic blue medical shirt, standing against a gray background lit with a red light. Next camera shot is Kirk in his yellow captain's shirt, and Spock in his uniform blue, and in the back is a red-shirt standing guard. Again, they are in front of gray walls, but these walls are now lit in magenta and lime green. The colors of the actor's shirts are deliberately played against the colors in the background to give the greatest effect, to make the colors "pop" or stand out. <br />
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So what? You might say. Art direction, what of it?<br />
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I'm a big fan of cartoons. What I see is a cartoon. And I mean that as a very great compliment. <br />
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Let me jump ahead several shows to the last series (so far?), Star Trek: Enterprise. Now I'm just enough of a Star Trek junkie whore to say, I like this series. Truthfully, I have something I like about all the series. I consider each of them separately, in their own right. They all are facets of the Star Trek Universe as far as I'm concerned. As the incarnations of the TV shows progressed, there was an increasing attempt to make the show more "real." Uniforms, sets, use of machines was all made more "realistic." <br />
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I put "real" in quotes, because the show is NOT supposed to be about being real. <br />
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I think it's called melodrama. <br />
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Slightly larger than life. Just out of the reach of believable. Enough to propel you into your suspension of belief. Not realistic, surrealistic. Real, but in a dreamy way that captivates your attention. <br />
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Real life is not a cartoon, not for most people anyway. When I tune in to Star Trek, however, I'm greeted with bright, vibrant colors. Aliens, planets, various sets dressed in all the colors of the rainbow. As I monitor an episode out of the corner of my eye, I'm impressed with the constantly changing colors, colors, colors. <br />
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How does that compare to the last of the shows in the series? Pick an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, any episode, and how does it appear on the screen? <br />
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The backgrounds are dark, full of infinite little details, in grays and silvers and black. The uniforms of the characters are all dark blue. It all looks so...real.<br />
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I DON'T WANT REAL. <br />
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I want a show to be just cartoon-y enough, just exaggerated enough to take me out of my real reality, and place me in theirs. <br />
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If I understand my terms correctly, I think it's called melodrama. It's what you see in a stage play. Exaggerated hand, arm, and body movements. Facial expressions made large and simple and easy to see and feel. Characters don't walk, they SWEEP across the stage in a dramatic gesture while throwing out their lines in equally exaggerated effort. Shakespearian drama, perhaps? I don't know acting, I just know what I like. I think it's cartoon-y, and I like it.<br />
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I'm going to go out on a limb here, to finish. For a long, long time a great many people have had their fun with William Shatner's performance in Star Trek. Everybody recognizes the parody of Shatner's Captain Kirk when they see it. And why is that? What is it that people are recognizing? <br />
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They are seeing melodrama, in my humble opinion. Acting that is just slightly exaggerated, just slightly out-of-reach of reality. The dramatic turn, the obvious look of horror, as the music swells...you've seen that, haven't you? In more than one episode. It wasn't that the actors believed in their characters, it's that they believed their characters were larger than life, larger than themselves. <br />
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Star Trek is a stage play that happened to get filmed. The later incarnations were TV shows, like all TV shows.<br />
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And that is what makes Star Trek different, and lasting, for all these years.Erik Norman Swigerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00157413778435387811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-433619248876262363.post-49945057568576372112011-08-04T03:12:00.000-07:002011-08-04T03:33:56.241-07:00Why God Hates Me<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This will be the first of several blog posts with the same theme. These are stories of examples of the bizarre, the unlikely, the unbelievably-coincident that prove to me that God has a conspiracy to embarrass, humiliate, and confuse me. I will begin with an email I wrote to my sister. She and my niece found it funny, and suggested I post it on Facebook, which I did. Here now is I Don't Have Socks Anymore:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I wanted to send you a little note to let you know what my morning's been like, and you'll see just how much God hates me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I have clothes set aside for trimming the yard. They get covered in grass so they're a pain to deal with. After trimming the yard, I throw the T-shirt, shorts, and socks in the washer. I have to wash them once, and rinse them 2-3 times to get rid of all the grass. So I went through the cycles as usual, and when the rinse water was clear enough, I spun them dry and removed them from the washer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I couldn't find one of the socks. I looked, and looked, and I began to wonder if this was going to be one of those stories you hear about disappearing clothes. I finally found the sock. It had managed to work its way into one of the pockets of the pair of shorts. The sock was essentially unwashed, as it had remained wadded-up in the pocket, and it was still covered in grass.</span><br />
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I <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">put the clothes in the dryer anyway, socks and all. The end. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The following is my second example of why God hates me, and the timing is heavenly hell. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Yesterday for the first time in weeks, I posted two blogs. In one blog I attempted to prove the existence of God with the observation that my cat Jerri could have bowel movements and yet not get a single bit of feces on her very long, all-white fur. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today, for some reason I still can't explain, Jerri is having a bout of diarrhea. Once again it's time for me to don the disposable rubber gloves and grab the cat-poop-only scissors. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If God exists, he wishes for me to be humble. Score on both points, God. </span> <br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span>Erik Norman Swigerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00157413778435387811noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-433619248876262363.post-82430651099630782212011-08-03T05:43:00.000-07:002011-08-03T05:48:42.229-07:00Proof of God<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">People have always asked the question, is there a God? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">For centuries it's been argued. Whether you believe, or disbelieve, whether you are for, or against, there has never been a clear-cut, definitive answer. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">UNTIL NOW! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I carefully observe the world around me. I have the ability to think, and to reason, and to imagine. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Here is what I see:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I have a pretty, fluffy white cat named Jerri. She is all-white with pink skin. I like to say, she looks like a cotton ball that got splashed with a strawberry milkshake. She is of a long-hair breed, and even around her rear end, the fur is full Because she is all, pure white, everything that gets on her fur shows up clearly. Everything, and of course that includes poo. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">When Jerri walks away from me, she looks like she's wearing furry jodhpurs. The fur around her rear legs is extraordinarily long, and it goes in all directions. Yet, despite this abundance of fur, that you just know is in search of something sticky to get caught in it, Jerri can empty her adorable little bowels, and she doesn't get one speck of poo on her furry jodhpurs. Not one speck, anywhere. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This cat, this animal, has no toilet paper, and no moistened towelettes to help her clean up with. All she can do, is do her business, and then bury it and walk away. And yet, despite this lack of concern on her part, and the fact that her poop-chute is surrounded by fur, she manages to poop and "wipe" all in one natural motion, and she doesn't even have a mess to clean up afterward.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">That such an animal can exist....</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This is my Proof of God.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Why couldn't I be so lucky, God? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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</span>Erik Norman Swigerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00157413778435387811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-433619248876262363.post-21500054703477244652011-08-03T03:53:00.000-07:002011-08-03T03:53:08.265-07:00Guess What Happened to the Cat that Came to Dinner?<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I'm always looking for new ways to make my cats happy. One of those ways is grooming them with a brush. I bought a new tub-and-sink scrub brush from the local mega-mart because it was big, easy to grab, cheap, and had stiff bristles on it. Both Stig and Jerri like their brushing time, which doesn't come too often, sadly. When I do brush them, I get mountains of hair, and getting the hair out out of the brush isn't easy. At least, it wasn't until I hit upon an idea. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I took an old dinner fork, and committed it to use as a brush-cleaner-outer. Now, after a heavy petting and brushing session, I have a way to rid my big brush of its load of hair. That would be good enough if the story stopped there, but it doesn't. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I soon turned my fork on my cats. First Stig got a taste. He had just got into something, I shudder to think what, and he had a patch of foul-smelling fur that was stuck together just in front of the base of his tail. As he walked about, it stuck up in the air like a cowlick. I trimmed off the biggest share of it with scissors (and left him with a nice bald patch!). Afterward, I still had some small areas to get un-matted and I used the fork for it. He sure was glad I did! He cooed and cackled with delight as I gently worked-out the matts with my fork. Soon jealousy came by, namely Jerri, and of course she had to have some, too. The forking didn't seem to impress Jerri as much as Stig. That's all right, though. Stig has had a hard life, and he doesn't have too many joys other than eating. It's always nice when I can find something to make his world a little brighter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So now you know what happened to the cat that came to dinner. He got forked. And now I fork my cat on a regular basis. Some days, I'm tired, and other days, it's hard to find the time. I try, however, to fork my cat at least once a day. It's my way of saying, I love you. </span>Erik Norman Swigerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00157413778435387811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-433619248876262363.post-50056732101489966892011-07-06T18:51:00.000-07:002011-07-06T18:51:29.199-07:00More Ultimate Recycling<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A thought occurred to me after my post about recycling. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I proposed a system where rockets, fueled by hydrogen and oxygen, would take our trash into orbit, to be processed into new materials, and then returned to Earth for us to use. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">It would be easier, cheaper, and faster to use a rail-gun instead. Sometimes called a linear accelerator, a linear electric motor, or another name that escapes me at the moment, it works on the same principle as a magnetic-levitation train. Essentially, it's a long, flat electric motor, with rails like those used for trains, and the payload is accelerated along its length, until at the end, the rails turns upward, and the payload is shot into the air, and if powerful enough, into Earth orbit. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">To recap the concept, solar and/or wind power, which is basically free to use after installation, makes electricity, which is then stored in a giant mega-capacitor, until a launch is scheduled. At launch time, the capacitor is discharged into the rail-gun, and the payload of trash is accelerated down its length, and then upward into orbit, where the solar furnace and plasma printer are located. Then, in a manner resembling our current space shuttle, the launch vehicle glides to Earth with the newly-made materials on-board. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">So much easier than rocket launches. A much cleaner method of getting stuff into orbit. </span>Erik Norman Swigerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00157413778435387811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-433619248876262363.post-66336885164988068112011-07-06T18:25:00.000-07:002011-07-06T18:25:44.482-07:00What Do You Want?<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm looking around at other people's blogs, and a question occurs to me. What do you want? You, the reader. Most of the blogs I see resemble someone's vacation photo albums or something like that. Honestly, I am hoping to post a few blogs of some relevance. That is, I want to express ideas that I think are important, that have meaning to more than just me. I'm probably taking the whole thing too seriously. Do you want to see pictures of my cats, and stuff like that? Or do you want more substance from my blogs? Someone let me know, please. </span>Erik Norman Swigerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00157413778435387811noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-433619248876262363.post-32846281354446640742011-07-05T19:31:00.000-07:002011-07-05T19:31:14.488-07:00The Ultimate in Recycling<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I put a few ideas together to form a new technology. It's my hope that someday we as a planet will actually do this. It would literally transform the world we live in. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">In various places around the world, experiments have been performed where solar power is used to boil water to make electricity. They call it a solar furnace. Generally, the way it's done is to use thousands of mirrors to focus sunlight onto one spot. This causes an incredible amount of heat to build up in a small area. This heat is then used to boil water, to make steam, to run steam turbines in the usual way of making power. The technology works, however, it still suffers from problems like intermittent sunlight causing interruptions in operation. But the important point here is, it works. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Solar furnaces easily generate enough heat to boil water. If the furnaces are designed properly, they can get hot enough to do more than that. In fact, solar furnaces can be made so that they reach temperatures of thousands of degrees, far more than is needed to boil water. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">All matter, all material things, will vaporize if they are heated sufficiently. This is called ionization. Any physical thing can be vaporized with enough heat. Solar furnaces can get hot enough to vaporize any material thing on Earth.</span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> Imagine it. A large array of mirrors, all aimed at one focal point, can generate so much heat that anything, ANYTHING AT ALL, that is put in that focal point will turn into a hot gas, a vapor. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Here is the beginning of true recycling. Take anything that you consider trash, and feed it into a solar furnace, and that item of trash will be totally vaporized by the power of the sun, which means essentially that it happens for free. By that I mean that it doesn't use any kind of fuel to make the intense heat, only sunlight. Obviously there is infrastructure to be maintained, so that nothing is completely free. But my point is clear. Pure sunlight can turn all our trash into a vapor. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">This is the first step. Collect the trash, get it to a solar furnace, and all the trash will disappear into a gaseous cloud. You may think, well that's great, but what about the toxic cloud that is caused by all that trash? It's not toxic anymore, you see. When matter is heated sufficiently, all chemical bonds break down. In other words, all chemicals that go into the solar furnace are broken down into their individual atomic elements. If you put paper into the furnace, what comes out is carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. If you put plastics into the furnace, the plastics are reduced to their atomic constituents, typically hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen. Dangerous, poisonous chemicals put into the solar furnace come out the same way. They are no longer dangerous, because they are completely broken down by the incredible heat, and all that comes out the other end are elemental atomic gasses.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">So far, what we have a very hot furnace, that can take any THING and turn it into a gas. At the very least, it is a clean method of getting rid of all trash, including toxic waste products. Now comes the question, what do we do with all these clean, hot, atomically-pure gasses? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The development of the computer led to the development of the computer printer. That technology is almost old now. It's as commonplace as water. Recently this idea of the printer has been used for other applications. Most remarkable are two innovations. One, the so-called 3-D printer, uses plaster or clay instead of ink. These 3-D printers can literally print physical matter. Complex shapes are manufactured, one thin layer at a time. Some units even use plastic resins, that are sprayed out in a mix that hardens almost instantly. It is a small miracle to watch a physical form emerge from nothing but a fast-drying liquid and a handful of programming. THINGS can be printed-out. As well as inanimate matter, new designs of printers actually spray-out living tissue. That's right, special printers are able to print-out skin tissue. They can even print more complex living things, like organs. We live in an age where it is possible to use computers to PRINT human organs. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Let's bring it all together. We have tons and tons of hot gasses, from all the tons of trash being fed into our solar furnace. These gasses are so hot, in fact, that something special happens to them. If gasses are heated enough, the electrons are stripped-off the nucleus of the atom. What this means in layman's terms is that the gasses can be thought of as a sort-of magnetic gas. Because the gasses are IONIZED, they can be affected by electrical and magnetic forces. If you take a stream of hot, ionized gas, a superheated gas, and hold a magnet near it, the gas stream will bend because of the influence of magnetism. Ionized gasses can be "steered" by magnets. Because ionized gasses can be directed by magnets, the gasses can be put where you want them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I've already described three types of printers that exist right now. One, the computer printer. Two, the 3-D printer. Three, the human-tissue printer. The point is, printer technology can be used in many different ways. I'm proposing a new way to use printer technology. Design a printer that can use hot gasses, ionized gasses, controlled by magnets, to print matter from the rapidly-cooling gasses. In other words, take the hot gasses, "print" them out, and as they cool, they take the shape determined by the printer. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Do you see what we've done? We tore apart an automobile, and we ended up printing out sheets and rods of pure iron. We gasified the plastic seats and dashboard, and printed out atomically-pure carbon. We collected the elements that remain gaseous when cool, and we now have pure hydrogen, pure oxygen, and pure nitrogen. We vaporized the windshield, and we printed out pure silicon from it. We took a whole car, shredded it, fed it into the furnace, and we printed-out atomically-pure raw materials, to be used again for another purpose. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I find this concept remarkable, and revolutionary. The idea of taking any and all things we call trash, putting that trash into a magical furnace/printer assembly, and receiving on the other end pure, raw materials, of better quality than can be made today. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Problems solved! From this point on, there is no such thing as trash or garbage as we have traditionally known it. ALL THINGS can be recycled this way, completely. There is no waste anymore. You don't throw out your trash as you've always done, to be forgotten in a landfill until it poisons the water supply. Instead, you decide what you want, and what you don't want, and send the unwanted things to The Furnace to be recycled. If you plan ahead a little bit, you can have a network in place to print-out materials in shapes that are known to be needed. So, you put trash into the furnace, and what comes out the other end are new items, ready-made to be put to work. Complete, total recycling. An end to waste. No more trash. The word "recycle" now comes to mean trash removal AND manufacturing, in one step. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Only one more thing remains to be done. As I said earlier, solar power operates only when the sun shines (duh!). If a Furnace in Arizona suddenly gets cloud cover, the Furnace shuts down momentarily. This is more than inconvenient, it's impractical. You can't operate a 10,000 degree furnace on-and-off that way. It wouldn't work efficiently. The only thing to be done is to secure a source of solar power that's available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. That only happens in one place- space. To complete the picture, we need a space-transport system to get the raw material (trash) into Earth orbit, where the furnace would be located, and to get the finished products (or recycled stock materials) back to Earth for use and consumption. This would seem to be insurmountable, but of course, I have an answer for that, too. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Much has been said about hydrogen power. Typically, the argument is made to use water as the source of hydrogen. Often it's said that hydrogen-from-water is not efficient. What's not often said, is that the reason for this is that the oxygen from splitting the water is thrown away (that is, vented to the atmosphere). This represents a tremendous waste of the electricity that's used to split the water into hydrogen and oxygen. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The solution is, use the oxygen, too. Start with an array of solar- and wind-power, essentially making free electricity, and use that electricity to split water. Save the hydrogen AND the oxygen, and later, re-combine them. Many people know that hydrogen and oxygen together are called ROCKET FUEL. Here's your answer. Use sun and wind, to split water, and use the H2 and O2 together, as rocket fuel, to send rockets loaded with trash into orbit, where the trash is reconverted into usable materials. The rocket exhaust is, of course, water, which disperses into the air, to fall as rain and be used again in another rocket launch. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Some day we will have a new job title. I don't know exactly what it will be. Trash man, garbage man, recycler, manufacturer, printer, rocket scientist. Combine them all into one, and I don't know what you'd call it. Maybe World Savior would be the appropriate title. As far-out as these ideas seem, they are do-able nonetheless. I don't think I've talked about any technologies that are impossible, or even really that challenging, except for bringing it all together as one. Material things still would not be free, for there is always costs involved in any business endeavor. But I would be willing to pay for a clean planet, with no trash (because it's all in orbit!), and real, true recycling of all the things we use every day. Ready-made products would glide to Earth from the Orbiting Furnace, to the department store of the future, for us to buy and use and recycle again and again. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">What are we waiting for?</span>Erik Norman Swigerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00157413778435387811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-433619248876262363.post-57755378115447763242011-07-05T00:27:00.000-07:002011-07-05T00:27:11.425-07:00Coast to Coast AM<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From the City of Angels, this is Coast to Coast AM, with George Noory.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">From the High Desert, this is Coast to Coast AM, with Art Bell.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">This show has gone through changes, but it's more the same than ever. Coast to Coast AM is the most addicting radio show ever conceived. Many years ago Art Bell began the program. Now George Noory is at the helm. On the weekends, Ian Punnett and George Knapp take over. Seven nights a week, someone is there, filling the air waves with bizarre ideas. Ideas like ghosts, UFO's, bigfoot, alien grays, out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, conspiracies, poisons in our food, extraterrestrials in our government, demons in our bodies. Coast is the show that talks about the taboo. Everything you ever wanted to know but were afraid to ask, that is their motto. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I discovered Coast to Coast AM by accident, in 1999. (I wonder if anybody discovers it on purpose?) I was working as an electrician, on the night shift, at a satellite-TV company. One of my fellow co-workers was listening to the show. Art Bell was the host of the show then, and the guest was talking about human origins. He had the idea that we were created by an alien race of beings, and that we were made to be slave workers to mine gold. I had never heard such a thing, and it shook me to my core. And strangely, I suddenly felt the most overwhelming sense of connection to all the other people on the face of the earth. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">And that began my love affair with Coast. Now I listen seven nights a week to the live show. I also listen to many of the repeats of the show, both before and after the live show. As if that isn't enough, there is a once-a-week sister-show called Unknown Country, formerly known as Dreamland, that I hear through my computer. Finally, older shows featuring the legendary Art Bell are played once a week in a show called Art Bell: Somewhere in Time. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I spend a lot of time listening to Coast. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Of course, I take it all with a giant grain of salt. I believe that there is a great deal of highly important information coming through Coast. I also think there is a lot of silliness and distraction on the show, if you listen carefully and with discernment. It's up to each of us to take away from the show what we think is important. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">But there is nothing else like Coast. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Usually they don't talk about politics. I don't think they <u>ever</u> talk about sports, much to my relief. They do have science shows, and I just love that. I grew up being a big fan of science. Only later in life did I start to turn away from it. When I ran into the wall of what science didn't know, I began looking elsewhere for answers. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">That's why Coast is so dear to my heart. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Ultimately, what Coast has taught me, is that many of the answers I seek are actually inside me. I never knew I was so big inside. As I listen to my cosmic-college education each night, I put another piece of the puzzle in place, and I step back to look at the big picture. At this point, what seems most important to me is to laugh. Laugh at everything, laugh at it all. Laughter is next to a loving heart. Laughter means you have a light heart, that you have laid down your cares. The ancient Egyptians taught the importance of having a light heart to gain access to the afterlife. I'll bet the ancient Egyptians laughed. I'll bet they laughed a lot. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I love Coast. I laugh with Coast. I live for Coast. Coast is my salvation. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">So become a member of our family in Coast. Sure, it's on late-at-night, but it's on so many radio stations, that surely there's one near you that fits your schedule. Of course, you can record the show for later, if you must. Or you can do as I have, and get a night job and listen to the show while you work. (Alright, if you don't want to quit your job, you can also listen on your computer.) We are 10-20 million listeners strong, every night of the week. You can call in to the show, too, if you have something to say. They offer open phone lines at some point in almost every show. I myself have called in many times over the years. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I hope to hear you on Coast!</span>Erik Norman Swigerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00157413778435387811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-433619248876262363.post-50039615305610317252011-07-04T22:59:00.000-07:002011-07-04T22:59:49.711-07:00Love to Mother<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is my first blog, and where shall I start? I'll start with beginning, and ending. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Mom gave me a beginning in 1964. Mom's life ended just a few weeks ago. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">On June 16, 2011, Ruth Enid Swiger left this world. W</span><span style="font-family: Arial;">e can only speculate about where she is now, if she is anywhere at all. I've spent most of the last twenty years thinking about what happens to us when we die, and after all I've heard, I've concluded that in some form or fashion we continue to exist somewhere else. I think we have another body that co-exists with our physical body. That body is called a soul. It can mirror our physical form, but it is not made of matter as we know it. I don't know what it's made of, it may be only the "idea" of us, a mental construct, just a memory. I imagine that the soul resembles a Fourth-of-July sparkler, a point of light radiating in all directions, and when that soul is in a body, it "expands" to fill the body, as air expands in a balloon. And when the balloon pops, at the time of Death, the soul keeps the shape of the body, at least for awhile thereafter. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">What then? I ask. So she goes on from here, what does that mean, just where is she? Another dimension, a new life ahead? I've concluded she has a new body, so she must have a life to go with it. That's all I've got, really, anything more and I'm guessing about where she might be now. All I can do is take solace from this, that she lives and she's happy and healthy. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">When my father died, more than twenty years ago, all I could feel then was anger and confusion. Because of his death, I have dwelt on the subject, so I've spent time preparing for Mom's death. Now that she's gone, I'm not angry, nor confused nor wishing that things had been different. We did all we could to make use of our time, on the phone, and in person, and by mail. In the end, I just miss her, and all I feel now is a sadness that we'll never talk again. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">And this brings me now to this moment in time, in the life that I find myself living. After all that has happened, I must ask myself, what's important, what lessons do I take from this? The important thing is, that I'm not all alone, and I must be with my family while we still have time. Since we're all going to die, let us not waste our time, and let's talk while the phone lines are still open. Maybe we live after Death, as I feel, but we still must not squander this moment. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">While my family's important, I've also come to see that a new "family" is waiting to be born. It's a family of friends, and of colleagues and neighbors, and it's just as real as my kin is. Thank God I was born here, where we all can be family, even though we all have different parents. From my mother's passing, I take with me this lesson, that here-and-now I'm in a family called American. Thank you, Mother, for the gift of my life, and for your life, given in sacrifice. Know this, then, that you have succeeded, that you've taught me the best lesson of them all. That by giving away myself, I will find myself, and more, I'll find family, and they're all around me, everywhere. </span>Erik Norman Swigerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00157413778435387811noreply@blogger.com0