Warp drive update

As a stated objective of this blog, I must dutifully report on any notable updates in the United States' development of warp drive.

While I think there is a not insignificant chance Harold "Sonny" White is playing a long con on whoever is listening to and funding him, there's still a chance he at least believes what he's saying:

Warp drive pioneer and former NASA warp drive specialist Dr. Harold G “Sonny” White has reported the discovery of an actual, real-world “Warp Bubble.” And, according to White, this first of its kind breakthrough by his Limitless Space Institute (LSI) team sets a new starting point for those trying to manufacture a full-sized, warp-capable spacecraft.

In an interview, White added that “our detailed numerical analysis of our custom Casimir cavities helped us identify a real and manufacturable nano/microstructure that is predicted to generate a negative vacuum energy density such that it would manifest a real nanoscale warp bubble, not an analog, but the real thing.” In other words, a warp bubble structure will manifest under these specific conditions. White cautioned that this does not mean we are near building a fully functioning warp drive, as much more science needs to be done (Updated 08/12/21).

“To be clear, our finding is not a warp bubble analog, it is a real, albeit humble and tiny, warp bubble,” White told The Debrief, “hence the significance.”

Maybe we can send Covid-19 to Proxima Centauri soon.

[Note: I'm experimenting with text size. I don't know if it's my eyes or something on the blog changed, but the text seems to be too small. Now the above text is a little too big!]

Thursday blend: to boldly go briefly edition

Happy Thursday! I hope you got your Christmas shopping done, because after today they probably won't arrive in time (joking aside, there is a lot of truth to it--get it done early this year!).

Breaking: Evil Mirror Universe William Shatner Returns From Space

Santa Announces That Due To Supply Chain Issues, You Can Now Choose Between A Roasted Chestnut Or A Ball-In-A-Cup

California Orders Police To Arrest Children Who Pick Out Toys Traditionally Associated With Their Biological Gender

Terrifying New Halloween Mask Depicts A Human Face Not Wearing A Mask

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U.S. supply chain too snarled for Biden Christmas fix, experts say

Always be skeptical of 1.) the news media, 2.) "experts", and 3.) any claim involving the federal government. That said, this is likely true despite itself:

Biden brought together powerbrokers from ports, unions and big business on Wednesday to address shipping, labor and warehousing pain in the U.S. supply chain, and announced new around-the-clock port operations in Los Angeles.

As his Republican opposition seizes on possible Christmas shortages to connect Biden's economic policies to inflation, and try to stall a multitrillion-dollar spending bill in Congress in coming weeks, the White House's message Wednesday was that a solution is in sight.

The government isn't fixing this. It's a global problem that largely is due to the pandemic, China being China, and a host of inter-related lesser but complex issues like a lack of empty containers, truckers, & longshoremen.

 
Relatedly: Majority of Americans in new poll says government doing too much

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Schools Group That Urged Attorney General’s Anti-Parent Initiative Has Ties to Democrats, Unions

To paraphrase Glenn, the NEA and school boards are not very popular right now, use that and unseat them.

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Katie Couric omitted Ruth Bader Ginsburg's contempt for the anthem kneelers to spare Ginsburg's reputation:

In new memoir, Going There, Couric writes that she edited out a part where Ginsburg said that those who kneel during the national anthem are showing 'contempt for a government that has made it possible for their parents and grandparents to live a decent life.'

The published story, which Couric wrote for Yahoo! News in 2016, did include quotes from Ginsburg saying refusing to stand for the anthem was 'dumb and disrespectful', but omitted more problematic remarks.

This incident is hardly consequential, but multiplied by dozens of journalists covering more important issues... Tell me why we should trust the media?

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Last but not least,

The list of major Biden administration failures

• The Del Rio Haitian border crisis.
• Don't forget Afghanistan.
• Unity? Every president fails on this, but we should start holding them responsible.
• TBA

Thursday blend: the good with the bad

It's Thursday and I have no time to properly draft this post. So here are some links in no particular order:

SpaceX Now Claims They Might Return Humans to The Moon Even Before 2024

Googlespeak™ – How Google Limits Thought About Antitrust

Previous link via Pixy.

 

New York governor reveals 12,000 more COVID-19 deaths than previously counted

Like many businesses, Ford might require vaccines for its employees.

From the WaPo, the GOP struggles with vaccine mandates (employer mandates). What about the Democrats? Surely they must also be struggling because half of their base is unvaccinated, and likely vaccine-hesitant. We will be lucky to hear about the left's internal struggles.

Speaking of which: Why vaccine mandates for teachers have been a harder sell than mask mandates for kids.

From Reuters, the White House says, about 13,400 people were evacuated from Afghanistan on Wednesday.

However, it is not 'going to be possible' to get all Americans out of Afghanistan, warns ex-advisor to U.S. special operations.

Republicans are "weaponizing Afghanistan Chaos." It's a post-2016 world, people. This kind of language and rhetoric is par for the course. Expect it, and expect it to get worse.

American In Taliban Prison Starting To Worry How This Will Affect Biden's Poll Numbers 

Biden To Make Sure No Americans Are Stranded In Afghanistan By Stripping Citizenship Of Everyone Stranded There

 

Disclaimer: some links may be satire. I think they are obvious, but I know satire is increasingly in competition with reality, so any confusion is understandable. Best click the links if you're not sure. 

A little bit about effective space travel

We can get to the space station, moon, and arguably even Mars in reasonable amounts of time. But if we want to get past what's essentially our front porch and explore the neighborhood, or beyond, we're kind of screwed. Unless you're totally fine with having burning questions you've asked answered several hundreds or thousands of years later.

"Hey doc, this don't look so good. Is it cancer?"

"Let's run some tests. I should have the results back sometime around 3pm, in 2096."

I'm not saying Earth has cancer and we need to jump ship, I'm just saying the sun has cancer and Earth has a ton of other shit going on and we'll need to jump ship within at least the next billion years. But probably a lot sooner because meteors of death and probably other unforeseen calamities. And that's just the stuff we are pretty sure about. The stuff we don't know literally fills a universe.

But also, there's a ton of cool stuff out there we are missing out on, very important questions that could be answered, and a billion other things we didn't even think about.

So here's some videos I thought were interesting/enlightening, and I've wanted to share them for a while.



Another day I might discuss the ideas and ethical concerns the video presented further (like how it uses reproduction strategies from nature--plants and some insects) but for now, this will do.

The next one is much longer and slightly more technical, but still easy enough to follow. It's essentially a kinda-sorta-almost proof of concept Warp Drive presentation by Harold "Sonny" White. According to him, we'll get there soon.

Bending space-time in his garage?

As I understand it, space and time are indivisible. And just by having mass, we are able to bend it, a very, very, insignificantly, virtually unmeasurable, tiny bit. That's not news; that's just what the documentaries and various Wikipedia articles tell me.

What is news, is this guy compressing space in his garage with some kind of motor. I assume, if this is real, the effect is measurable and not insignificant.

[A] strange instrument made up of V-shape panels with fractal arrays on the surfaces. . . is the latest version of what Pares believes is the world’s first low-power warp drive motor.

He turns around and points to the back of his garage door, where a red laser — beamed at the weight and reflected back against the door to demonstrate the movement happening in the case — drifts from its original spot. Slowly, in incremental amounts, the weight is drawn toward the V-shape motor.

I must digress here: unfortunately, those few sentences and one further in are the extent of the 'news' in the article. The other two dozen plus paragraphs are exposition, fluff, filler, and crap.

I really wish journalists would provide a little more detail as to what exactly is happening. If you don't understand it, then please explain what you saw in detail, and if you didn't see it (you shouldn't be writing the article then), try to explain in more than 2 sentences what is occurring with as little technical jargon as possible. Is not that the point of journalism?


If true, this is pretty big news. Compressing space is a key ingredient to any kind of plausible FTL or near light-speed travel. Professor Pares says he should have a "spacecraft" to demonstrate in 6 months.

Again, take this with a cubic light year of salt, because if it's not one thing with Warp Drive scientists, it's another.

Try googling David Pares and you'll run into more than the recommended dose (zero) of UFO idiot sites. This guy has no qualms about being interviewed by quacks. You're not helping reduce the stigma of Warp Drive science by associating with UFO fetishists, Pares.

(I mean come on, at this rate we'll have singularity-level AI robots before we get out of the solar system. They'll be building Warp Drives before we are.)

Then there's NASA's Harold 'Sonny' White, who is apparently working on a Warp Drive, but either smartly, or trollishly, won't say anything useful about it. But hey, at least we got a sweet artist's rendering, so I guess that's something:

Time to close some tabs

I've been wanting to write about most of the stories behind the following links, sometimes starting a draft, sometimes leaving my browser open for days just to avoid extending my already absurdly long list of bookmarks (sleep mode is my new friend).

Hours, days, a week goes by and I just can't force myself to write about something a week old. It's odd how something seemingly so important is considerably less so a week later. But that's the nature of blogging, and news in general (I never claimed to be a great blogger). Also, distraction.

Image from Toolfools

In no particular order, some interesting stuff, even if a few are a bit old:

First, a few links related to what I'm reading. Glenn Greenwald's new book, "No Place to Hide," so far, is okay. I should finish it tonight.

• UPS Insists That It Is Not Helping The NSA 'Interdict' Packages To Install Backdoors
• This review of Greenwald's new book, "No Place to Hide" by the NYT's Michael Kinsley is inept, almost comically so (I will offer a review of the book soon).

'800 dead babies: if it could, the religious right would bury this story in the same septic tank.' Ignore the tactless linkbait phrasing: this is a big and awfully tragic story. Via The Prussian.

'The 'Miracle' Berry That Could Replace Sugar' and help millions effectively fight obesity.

Remember the Gibson Guitar raids? There may be more to that story.

This piece is over a month old, but I remember wanting to discuss it. I just don't remember why, exactly (obviously something to do with the ousting of the Mozilla CEO, Brenden Eich). It's still a good read however.

• But if you read this blog post from Mozilla, it is maddening. What are they talking about? I'm so sick of vague language--it probably was mostly read as an apology for letting Hitler run their business. BUT, because it's so vague, it can just as easily be read to suggest that they are very sorry for their intolerance--evinced by ousting a man for having an opinion. Even though it was a very common opinion, one shared by Barrack Obama at the time.

Three links from Slate Star Codex:

• 'Weak Men Are Superweapons'
• 'Infinite Debt'
• And 'Nerds can be Bees Too,' which led me to this old post by Bryan Caplan, where he is excoriated in the comments (mainly because people freak the hell out over someone wanting open immigration--which wasn't even mentioned in that post).

I always wanted to try something like this. I tend to think I could easily succeed, but if my Thanksgiving experiences are any indication, probably not.

I want to write a post about anonymity on the Internet, which was partly inspired by this post from the Last Psychiatrist. I will write that post one day.

So VA Secretary Eric Shinseki and White House press Secretary Jay Carney resigned. Why does everything feel like it's all heavily scripted, like a bad TV show? Probably because it is.

• Is it just me, or are presidential and senatorial politics are feeling very Orwellian, almost Soviet when it comes to appearances? I know congressional politics is highly susceptible to populism, but at least it's a lot more transparent--which makes me reconsider term lengths for the other two (but that's not about to happen).

Comcast, Netflix, and data caps... If you, like me, have given up watching TV through traditional means, be afraid, be very afraid. Relatedly, I've found if you spend enough time searching for channels you like--and they probably all exist--YouTube can all but replace your entire visual entertainment diet. Some people say YouTube is a bubble about to burst; I say it's just getting warmed up.

Possible blog post spoilers (lol, like anyone cares). Stuff I found in the last day or two I kinda want to write about:

'GOP House Votes To Leave States Alone On Medical Marijuana.' Despite the headline, note that the GOP votes in favor were decidedly a minority of GOP votes. At least they allowed a vote on it.

'Scientists Report Finding Reliable Way to Teleport Data'

'It's Time to Stop Babying Mars'

New Interstellar trailer. And why I dislike many "space movies"

Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine together in a big budget sci-fi, directed by Chris Nolan... What could go wrong?

From the looks of the trailer, it surprisingly seems to be fairly balanced between a character-driven story and one driven by events or the environment.

Although space travel obviously plays a crucial role here, as a sci-fi fan of the Trekkie persuasion--and from what little I can glean out of this--it seems that space, and space travel won't receive the attention it should. Traveling through a wormhole and speeding through space I fear will be an afterthought, compared to the characters and the story (of course the characters and story should come first, but the space aspect should be emphasized, else why bother?). Like space isn't interesting, except as a way to draw in crowds--as if it's a troublesome hurdle to be quickly overcome and forgotten.
 
Oh yeah, and I'm sure it will be a great thriller movie. Because all space movies have to be psychological thrillers, can't have any awestruck adventure with a focus on sci-fi concepts now. I am sick of that Hollywood rule. Because apparently space isn't the fantastical vast sea of beautiful, mysterious, and mind-bending things it truly is. It's a backdrop. It's the thing between point A and point B--no need to explore. Spend a couple minutes in a spaceship and throw some CGI nebulae in the window. Remember Prometheus? Alien? Hell, even the new Star Trek movies have no sense of adventure. Don't have time for space, must kill bad guys.

Why can't we just have a space adventure film? I know I'm probably in the minority on this (likely because I spent way too much time reading Heinlein and watching classic Trek), but I'm tired of space movies that don't care about space. If you can replace outer space with say, the ground, a cruise ship, or a magic portal without affecting the main story, then it's a horrible "space movie." It's just a story that happens to be in space.

I hope I'm wrong. It's clear this movie isn't about space, and that's fine. It's about saving humanity or something, characters maturing. But the name is Interstellar, there better be a lot of time and emphasis devoted to space/space travel and how freaking awesome that is.

We just need a Death Star now

Life imitates art, or something.

Army's new helmet concept

Wookie hunter

Now that we've got laser guns, spaceships, and lightsabers, should we convene and formally establish the Galactic Empire already and build a Death Star? I mean, we've already got the blueprints for it.

Then again, perhaps we should wait till we have hovering cars. And it won't be long until you see the closest thing to a living, breathing Darth Vader on planet Earth.

There isn't much time. We've got to prepare!

XKCD: suggested exoplanet names

Seriously, what's wrong with these? Some of them are actually awesome. Why not let our galactic progeny know we occasionally had a sense of humor?

I understand there are billions and billions of exoplanets out there, but can we sometimes avoid names like HR 8799d, or PSR B1620-26?

Should the next president invest in space exploration?

I'm admittedly torn on the issue, at least regarding government-run space programs that cost billions. Especially during an economic non-recovery.

But Douglas Mackinnon makes a strong case:

Chinese leadership — the same leadership that has made hacking our military and commercial computers a priority — understands that no nation on earth is more dependent for its overall survival on its satellites than the United States... What if they went dark or were destroyed in orbit?

...But preeminence is space is about much more than military advantage. Neil deGrasse Tyson, the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, outlined that argument when he told Popular Science earlier this year:

If China sets up a permanent base on the moon, and tries to explore Mars on a time scale shorter than ours, that will be another space race. I am just certain of it. I am trying to get people to do this without having to view it as an act of war, or an act of a response to an adversary. One way is because of economics; the government could do this, and they could say, “The economic return is the scientists and technologists who invent the new tomorrow.” Space exploration is the carrot that incites people to become scientifically literate. So I view it as an economic development plan.

Maybe it’s time for the president and his Republican opponent to elevate a few issues to the “tangible” list regardless of personal or partisan self-interest. As China launches military satellite after military satellite while declaring its intention to colonize the moon, maybe preeminence in space should be one of them.

If money were no object, I'd be the first pushing for reachable goals within 5-20 years. Like more deep-space and asteroid-bound probes, manned flights to the moon--laying the foundation for a moon base, setting up a new Hubble on the dark side of the moon, gearing up for "robotic colonization" on Mars--setting the stage for manned missions. Further exploration of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. And yes, these are all physically doable with today's technology.

Right now that's just fantasy. I must confess, a part of me wants the Chinese to force our hand. But a much bigger part of me wants the private sector to step it up; profiting off of space is a lot nicer than paying for it.