Volume 23, Number 20 - 10/15/20 | Arlington Institute

Volume 23, Number 20 – 10/15/20

FUTURE FACTS – FROM THINK LINKS

DID YOU KNOW THAT–

Researchers have used CRISPR gene-editing technology to come up with a test that detects the pandemic coronavirus in just 5 minutes.
60% of Americans are opposed to the idea of paper money being replaced with digital-only money.
The electric vehicle of tomorrow is basically just a giant skateboard with a customized cabin bolted on top.
Producing a single pair of jeans consumes around 2,000 gallons of water, from growing raw cotton to finished product, according to the United Nations.

PUNCTUATIONS
by John L. Petersen

It’s clear: Every one of the best 17 scientific studies say “Masks don’t work” … not even for surgeons

All of the best scientific studies for the last 45 years have shown conclusively that face masks don’t offer any protection for viruses (or even infections, in the case of surgeons):

As a matter of fact, medical authorities suggest that masks are risky to the healthy and that scientific studies support that claim:

https://accountingweekly.com/face-masks-pose-serious-risks-to-the-healthy-blaylock/.

That is probably why the WHO and CDC and other medical groups have recommended that you NOT wear masks if you are not sick or not caring for someone who is sick.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/30/world/coronavirus-who-masks-recommendation-trnd/index.html

But what about all of the tests that show a rapid increase in the number of “cases”?, you ask. Well, there’s a BIG problem with the tests. To give you an example, the president of Tanzania, who holds a PhD in chemistry, sent blind samples from a goat, a sheep and a pawpaw fruit to laboratories for testing and they all turned up positive for Covid-19:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/05/03/tanzania-president-questions-coronavirus-kits-after-animal-test/.

How can that be, you ask? It’s easy. Not only did the Nobel Prize winning inventor of the PCR test (that is almost universally used), say it should never be used for diagnosis because it was not designed for that, but the NY Times has now reported confirmed studies that show that 90% of the results of the PCR tests are false:

https://principia-scientific.com/ny-times-nine-out-of-ten-covid19-tests-are-wrong/.

But the situation with the tests is worse than that. There are solid, scientific reasons to believe that the test cannot identify Covid accurately at all:

https://jamesfetzer.org/2020/10/ny-times-up-to-90-whove-tested-covid-positive-wrongly-diagnosed-truth-a-whole-lot-worse/.

Now, even the CDC and FDA are admitting that the tests are effectively useless:

https://anthraxvaccine.blogspot.com/2020/10/useless-fda-and-cdc-admit-covid.html.

But they keep talking about the “surge” and “spiking” of “cases”, you say. Well, yes, because they have greatly increased the amount of testing, and the flawed tests are producing inaccurate results in people who have no symptoms at all (they are asymptomatic) … they are not sick:

https://blog.nomorefakenews.com/2020/03/05/coronavirus-the-definition-of-cases-is-producing-a-new-level-of-illusion/.

The CDC officially tells the truth in their numbers if you take the time to analyze them. Of the over 200,000 reported deaths of individuals WITH Covid-19 only about 8,000 – in the whole US – reportedly died FROM Covid, and the average age of those who died WITH Covid was 80 years old and they had on average 2.5 other significant medical conditions, i.e. they were elderly and in poor health:

https://www.zerohedge.com/health/cdc-confirms-remarkably-low-death-rate-media-chooses-ignore-covid-19-realities.

The far bigger problem is not Covid, it is the extraordinary damage that has been done to ordinary people’s lives from the policies that have been implemented by state government officials. Even Dr. Anthony Fauci is now saying that extended lockdowns could cause ‘irreparable damage’:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As4o3SX_90o,

and the CDC and WHO are clear that they don’t recommend lockdowns.

How bad is it? Far worse than is generally reported. Principia Scientific references a groundbreaking new study commissioned by Revolver News which concludes that COVID-19 lockdowns are ten times more deadly than the actual COVID-19 virus in terms of years of life lost by American citizens:

https://principia-scientific.com/study-covid-19-lockdowns-10-times-deadlier-than-pandemic/?utm.

Stanford University researchers did a similar statistical analysis and concluded that more people would die from the effects of the lockdowns, social distancing and face mask usage than reportedly had died from the disease:

https://nypost.com/2020/10/06/medical-experts-lockdowns-do-more-harm-than-good/.

Even the CDC Director now compares rate of suicides and drug overdoses to COVID-19 deaths:

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/micaelaburrow/2020/07/28/redfield-says-more-abovebase-suicides-than-covid-deaths-n2573278.

Maybe all of this scientific gobbldygook is not your cup of tea, and you prefer to get your direction from other authorities, like religious leaders. If that’s the case, listen to Dr. Chuck Baldwin, one of the country’s evangelical protestant leaders on his take of the situation:

https://chuckbaldwinlive.com/Articles/tabid/109/ID/4042/The-Mask-Of-The-Beast.aspx.

These extraordinary impacts on the lives of hundreds of millions of people is generating significant blowback. Now, for example, almost 30,000 doctors and 450,000 others have now signed a declaration in strong opposition to further lockdown:

https://www.collective-evolution.com/2020/10/09/16000-doctors-scientists-sign-declaration-strongly-opposing-a-2nd-covid-lockdown/?vgo_ee=b0ZnS%2FyuqJuOQ5W76NTivnwFoqDlMHNmyq65fGLdufk%3D.

One of the most interesting initiatives is the filing of the largest tort class-action lawsuit in history alleging crimes against humanity by government leaders who knowingly or otherwise precipitated in the edicts and policies (without seriously considering the legitimate alternative points of view about the “pandemic” that were available:

https://www.marktaliano.net/video-crimes-against-humanity-the-german-corona-investigation-the-pcr-pandemic-full-transcript-by-reiner-fuellmich/.

The situation is not simple, it’s complicated, but it is becoming clear that masks don’t work, the “pandemic” is not nearly as bad as its been made to be, tests don’t work … but government officials seem committed to policies that will destroy the lives of hundreds of millions of people.

Our Mysterious Human Origins:
Regina Meredith in Berkeley Springs, October 17th

Always riveting, Regina’s talk brings an alternative view of human origin that touches upon the polarized nature of being Human.

Regina Meredith will discuss an alternative view of human origin that touches upon the polarized nature of being Human. We will explore the subject from a pre-historic vantage point, from the point where highly aware and creative non-physical beings blended with the best version of animal man on the earth in an unintended experiment.

There are hints of Edgar Cayce’s transmissions in this story but it is further fleshed out. This will lead into the implications of how our multi-dimensional mind functions within the 3D context and explains how Humans can be so easily influenced mentally and emotionally.

I spoke with Regina the other day about what she’s been up to and what she will be discussing with us in Berkeley Springs. Click below to watch.

If you can’t make it in person you may enjoy the livestream option. You will also have access to a replay that will be available for two weeks following the event! Click below for full information.

TRANSITION TALKS MAGAZINE

THINK LINKS

COVID-19 Vaccine Could See Half a Million Sharks Killed for Key Oil, Conservationists Say – (National Post – September 28, 2020)
Squalene, an oil found in shark livers, is used in cosmetics and medicines, including potential COVID-19 vaccines which are already being produced. The oil helps to strengthen immune response, which increases the effectiveness of potential vaccines. “Harvesting something from a wild animal is never going to be sustainable, especially if it’s a top predator that doesn’t reproduce in huge numbers,” said Stefanie Brendl, founder and executive director of Shark Allies. “There’s so many unknowns of how big and how long this pandemic might go on, and then how many versions of it we have to go through, that if we continue using sharks, the numbers of sharks taken for this product could be really high, year after year after year.” Roughly 3,000 sharks need to be killed to produce one tonne (1.1 US tons) of squalene. If one dose of the vaccine is required, up to 250,000 sharks could be killed for their oils. That number would double, it has been warned, if two doses are needed for an effective treatment.

New Test Detects Coronavirus in Just 5 Minutes – (Science – October 8, 2020)
Researchers have used CRISPR gene-editing technology to come up with a test that detects the pandemic coronavirus in just 5 minutes. The diagnostic doesn’t require expensive lab equipment to run and could potentially be deployed at doctor’s offices, schools, and office buildings. CRISPR tests work by identifying a sequence of RNA—about 20 RNA bases long—that is unique to SARS-CoV-2. They do so by creating a “guide” RNA that is complementary to the target RNA sequence and, thus, will bind to it in solution. When the guide binds to its target, the CRISPR tool’s Cas13 “scissors” enzyme turns on and cuts apart any nearby single-stranded RNA. These cuts release a separately introduced fluorescent particle in the test solution. When the sample is then hit with a burst of laser light, the released fluorescent particles light up, signaling the presence of the virus. Earlier CRISPR tests, however, required researchers to first amplify any potential viral RNA before running it through the diagnostic to increase their odds of spotting a signal. That added complexity, cost, and time, and put a strain on scarce chemical reagents. Now, researchers led by Jennifer Doudna, who won a share of this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry yesterday for her co-discovery of CRISPR, report creating a novel CRISPR diagnostic that doesn’t amplify coronavirus RNA. Instead, Doudna and her colleagues spent months testing hundreds of guide RNAs to find multiple guides that work in tandem to increase the sensitivity of the test. The new test has another key advantage: quantifying a sample’s amount of virus. When standard coronavirus tests amplify the virus’ genetic material in order to detect it, this changes the amount of genetic material present—and thus wipes out any chance of precisely quantifying just how much virus is in the sample. By contrast, Ott’s and Doudna’s team found that the strength of the fluorescent signal was proportional to the amount of virus in their sample. That revealed not just whether a sample was positive, but also how much virus a patient had. That information can help doctors tailor treatment decisions to each patient’s condition.

Herd Immunity, Herd Mentality, and Heresy: Debating Pandemic Policy in a Public Health House of Cards – (LinkedIn – September 3, 2020)
An important new study in the New England Journal of Medicine had a primary objective of determining the nature of durability of antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2. In other words, the primary questions these researchers were asking were: do people show clear evidence of immunity after a COVID19 infection, and does that immunity last for months? The answers to those questions were yes, and yes. Clear evidence of immunity – in the form of carefully confirmed IgG antibodies – did develop in the majority of those known to have been sick with COVID and recovered, and those antibody levels remained robust four months later. But there is much more to this paper out of Iceland, and even more to the timely importance of this tale when it is placed in the context of other recent COVID-related discoveries and disclosures. The investigators from various universities and government offices in Iceland showed that over 90% of those who had been sick with COVID months prior had stable levels of IgG antibodies against it. These findings also suggest that even among those who get infected, and sick with COVID, some 10% who recover do not have measurable IgG. Since these people did have the infection, and did recover from it, they likely have some level of immunity, even though the assays used in this study did not find it. Based on the numbers they did gather, the researchers suggest that about 1% of the population of Iceland has been infected with SARS-CoV-2 to date. Given what we now know about asymptomatic infection, native resistance, and the failure to make detectable IgG after a mild bout, this number is almost certainly too low by many multiples. A great many more Icelanders have probably had or been exposed to COVID than this paper indicates.

CDC Vindicates Dr. Bukacek, Indicts Itself – (Principia Scientific – September 6, 2020)
At the height of the government’s coronavirus lies and lockdowns, 30-year veteran physician, Dr. Ann Bukacek, stood at the podium of Liberty Fellowship and exposed the gross exaggeration of corona death certificates that were being encouraged by the CDC as a way of manipulating public perception regarding the nature and extent of the virus. She used the CDC’s own statements to prove her assertions. It turns out, Dr. Bukacek was right all along, and her understanding of science and medicine has been vindicated in the latest report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to the CDC, only 6% of deaths originally reported as caused by Coronavirus were deaths exclusively caused by Coronavirus. As Dr. Bukacek warned Montanans from the beginning, the rest of the deaths attributed to COVID-19 were in cases in which patients tested positive, but who had other underlying health conditions that actually caused their death. While news outlets all across the country are pointing out that the CDC has provided this data, showing that COVID-19 is the exclusive or primary cause of death in only 6% of the cases (and has been inflated a whopping 1,567%), it should be noted that it doesn’t mean per se that COVID-19 didn’t have a role to play in the other 94% of deaths. What it does mean is that patients died with or from other ailments that are far more serious. Not only has the CDC lost credibility, so has the U.S. medical establishment. For example, HCA Healthcare is one of the world’s wealthiest hospital chains. It earned more than $7 billion in profits over the past two years. It is worth $36 billion. It paid its chief executive $26 million in 2019. But as the coronavirus swept the country, employees at HCA repeatedly complained that the company was not providing adequate protective gear to nurses, medical technicians and cleaning staff. Last month, HCA executives warned that they would lay off thousands of nurses if they didn’t agree to wage freezes and other concessions. A few weeks earlier, HCA had received about $1 billion in bailout funds from the federal government, part of an effort to stabilize hospitals during the pandemic.

Masking the Truth – (Naturally Healthy News – September 13, 2020)
Arthur Firstenberg on facial masks: “As a person who went to medical school, I was shocked when I read Neil Orr’s study, published in 1981 in the Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, link to full text of the study. Dr. Orr was a surgeon in the Severalls Surgical Unit in Colchester. And for six months, from March through August 1980, the surgeons and staff in that unit decided to see what would happen if they did not wear masks during surgeries. They wore no masks for six months and compared the rate of surgical wound infections from March through August 1980 with the rate of wound infections from March through August of the previous four years. And they discovered, to their amazement, that when nobody wore masks during surgeries, the rate of wound infections was less than half what it was when everyone wore masks. Their conclusion: ‘It would appear that minimum contamination can best be achieved by not wearing a mask at all’ and that wearing a mask during surgery ‘is a standard procedure that could be abandoned.’ I was so amazed that I scoured the medical literature, sure that this was a fluke, and that newer studies must show the utility of masks in preventing the spread of disease. But to my surprise the medical literature for the past forty-five years has been consistent: masks are useless in preventing the spread of disease and, if anything, are unsanitary objects that themselves spread bacteria and viruses. Article then lists 14 articles referencing medical studies which showed similar or related results.

Cashless Future Ahead? Utopian Digital Dream with Dystopian Inequality – (Cointelegraph – October 2, 2020)
In Sweden, cash in circulation represents only 1% of the country’s gross domestic product, and some experts predict the nation will go “totally cashless” by 2023. In China’s largest cities, over 90% of people use WeChat Pay and Alipay as their primary payment method, with cash a distant second. It may seem that the transition to a world without paper banknotes and metal coins is inevitable, but a survey reminded us that reports of hard cash’s death may be greatly exaggerated. The study by Genesis Mining, titled “Perceptions and Understanding of Money 2020,” reports that 60% of Americans are opposed to the idea of paper money being replaced with digital-only money. “Americans are not psyched about parting with their paper money on a permanent basis,” commented Genesis CEO Marco Streng. Jonas Hedman, a professor in the Department of Digitalization at Copenhagen Business School, explained, “There are several reasons for this, including lack of trust in the central government and a poor payment infrastructure at the national level [in the U.S.]” But maybe the United States is not just an outlier, and there are serious reasons why “cashlessness” might not burst forth overnight. A digital-only dollar could be perceived as an incursion on privacy and individual freedoms. A cashless society may also discriminate against the poor, as Vlad Totia, a payments analyst at analytics and consulting firm GlobalData, noted: “A digital society requires people to at least have access to a device and an internet connection in order to manage their personal finances.” But many in the U.S. and other countries still don’t have this access, so eliminating cash risks further disenfranchising society’s least-well-off members — exacerbating income inequality. On the other hand, COVID-19 has given a boost to the cashless trend. Totia observed,“Lockdowns, temporary closure of businesses, people not going out of their homes, ordering groceries at home. […] All of these aspects have pushed people into using online banking and payment methods more because quite simply you can’t use cash much in these times.” Article goes on to reference research that refutes the ideas that going cashless will reduce tax evasion and money laundering.

Inside the Strange New World of Being a Deepfake Actor – (Technology Review – October 9, 2020)
While deepfakes have now been around for a number of years, deepfake casting and acting are relatively new. Early deepfake technologies weren’t very good, used primarily in dark corners of the internet to swap celebrities into porn videos without their consent. But as deepfakes have grown increasingly realistic, more and more artists and filmmakers have begun using them in broadcast-quality productions and TV ads. This means hiring real actors for one aspect of the performance or another. Some jobs require an actor to provide “base” footage; others need a voice. For actors, it opens up exciting creative and professional possibilities. But it also raises a host of ethical questions. While professionalized deepfakes have pushed the boundaries of art and creativity, their existence also raises tricky ethical questions. There are currently no real guidelines on how to label deepfakes, for example, or where the line falls between satire and misinformation. For now, artists and filmmakers rely on a personal sense of right and wrong. One way is to add a disclaimer to the start of the documentary stating that some characters had been “digitally disguised” for their protection. An artist and producer who creates deepfakes for political commentary, similarly marks her videos upfront to make clear they are fake. (Editor’s note: We recommend this very educational article; seeing how deepfake is created is a good beginning for recognizing just how convincing it can be.)

Scientists Find Upper Limit for the Speed of Sound – (PhysOrg – October 9, 2020)
A research collaboration between Queen Mary University of London, the University of Cambridge and the Institute for High Pressure Physics in Troitsk has discovered the fastest possible speed of sound. The result- about 36 km per second—is around twice as fast as the speed of sound in diamond, the hardest known material in the world. Einstein’s theory of special relativity sets the absolute speed limit at which a wave can travel which is the speed of light, and is equal to about 300,000 km per second. However until now it was not known whether sound waves also have an upper speed limit. The study shows that predicting the upper limit of the speed of sound is dependent on two dimensionless fundamental constants: the fine structure constant and the proton-to-electron mass ratio. Their finely-tuned values govern nuclear reactions such as proton decay and nuclear synthesis in stars and the balance between the two numbers provides a narrow ‘habitable zone’ where stars and planets can form and life-supporting molecular structures can emerge. However, the new findings suggest that these two fundamental constants can also influence other scientific fields, such as materials science and condensed matter physics, by setting limits to specific material properties such as the speed of sound. The scientists tested their theoretical prediction on a wide range of materials and addressed one specific prediction of their theory that the speed of sound should decrease with the mass of the atom. This prediction implies that the sound is the fastest in solid atomic hydrogen. However, hydrogen is an atomic solid at very high pressure above 1 million atmospheres only, pressure comparable to those in the core of gas giants like Jupiter. At those pressures, hydrogen becomes a fascinating metallic solid conducting electricity just like copper and is predicted to be a room temperature superconductor. Therefore, researchers performed state-of-the-art quantum mechanical calculations to test this prediction and found that the speed of sound in solid atomic hydrogen is close to the theoretical fundamental limit.

Genetic Factor Discovery Enables Adult Skin to Regenerate Like a Newborn Baby’s – (SciTech Daily – October 5, 2020)
A newly identified genetic factor allows adult skin to repair itself like the skin of a newborn babe. The discovery by Washington State University researchers has implications for better skin wound treatment as well as preventing some of the aging process in skin. In a study, published in the journal eLife, the researchers identified a factor that acts like a molecular switch in the skin of baby mice that controls the formation of hair follicles as they develop during the first week of life. The switch is mostly turned off after skin forms and remains off in adult tissue. When it was activated in specialized cells in adult mice, their skin was able to heal wounds without scarring. The reformed skin even included fur and could make goosebumps, an ability that is lost in adult human scars. Ryan Driskell, an assistant professor in WSU’s School of Molecular Biosciences, and his team used a new technique called single cell RNA sequencing to compare genes and cells in developing and adult skin. In developing skin, they found a transcription factor–proteins that bind to DNA and can influence whether genes are turned on or off. The factor the researchers identified, called Lef1, was associated with papillary fibroblasts which are developing cells in the papillary dermis, a layer of skin just below the surface that gives skin its tension and youthful appearance.

Scientists Say Lithium Should Be Added to Drinking Water to Prevent Suicides – (Vice – August 5, 2020)
Maybe they had the right idea putting lithium in 7 Up when it was first sold in 1929. (It was removed in 1949.) Because, in an era of rising suicide rates especially among young people, a new study from Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) published in the British Journal of Psychiatry has found a strong link between geographical areas with high levels of lithium in public drinking water and lower suicide rates. The study’s lead author Professor Anjum Memon said: “It is promising that higher levels of trace lithium in drinking water may exert an anti-suicidal effect and have the potential to improve community mental health.” Part funded by King’s College London, the study is a meta-analysis of three decades of research in Austria, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, UK, Japan and USA. It concludes that lithium’s “protective” abilities could be further tested by “randomised community trials of lithium supplementation of the water supply” in communities with high prevalence of mental health conditions and risk of suicide. Deliberately lacing the water supply with a mind-altering chemical in some zones might seem like something out of a science fiction novel, but the authors of the report – as other scientists have said before them – think it’s an idea worth trying.

CDC Concedes It Has Never Conducted a Study of Vaccinated vs. Unvaccinated Children – (Informed Consent Action Network – August 3, 2020)
On July 29, 2020, after months of false claims and objections, the CDC finally conceded that it could not find a single study comparing health outcomes between vaccinated and unvaccinated children and that it “has not conducted a study of health outcomes in vaccinated vs unvaccinated populations.” Parents, doctors, and scientists have, for decades, demanded that the CDC compare the health outcomes between vaccinated and unvaccinated children. This is, in part, because as the increase in the CDC’s childhood vaccine schedule over the last 30 years from 8 vaccine injections to 50 vaccine injections (plus 2 injections during pregnancy) has occurred in lockstep with the increase in the rate of autoimmune, developmental and neurological disorders in children from 12.8% to 54%. The demand for this study has grown so great that even the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 2013 issued a report stating that the CDC could and should perform this study, explaining that it “is possible to make this comparison [between vaccinated and unvaccinated children] through analyses of patient information contained in large databases such as VSD [the Vaccine Safety Datalink paid for by the CDC].”

New Super-enzyme Eats Plastic Bottles Six Times Faster – (Guardian – September 28, 2020)
A super-enzyme that degrades plastic bottles six times faster than before has been created by scientists and could be used for recycling within a year or two. The super-enzyme, derived from bacteria that naturally evolved the ability to eat plastic, enables the full recycling of the bottles. Scientists believe combining it with enzymes that break down cotton could also allow mixed-fabric clothing to be recycled. Today, millions of tons of such clothing is either dumped in landfill or incinerated. The super-enzyme was engineered by linking two separate enzymes, both of which were found in the plastic-eating bug discovered at a Japanese waste site in 2016. The researchers revealed an engineered version of the first enzyme in 2018, which started breaking down the plastic in a few days. But the super-enzyme gets to work six times faster. “When we linked the enzymes, rather unexpectedly, we got a dramatic increase in activity,“ said Prof John McGeehan, at the University of Portsmouth, UK. French company Carbios revealed a different enzyme in April, originally discovered in a compost heap of leaves, that degrades 90% of plastic bottles within 10 hours, but requires heating above 70C (148F). The new super-enzyme works at room temperature, and McGeehan said combining different approaches could speed progress towards commercial use: “If we can make better, faster enzymes by linking them together and provide them to companies like Carbios, and work in partnership, we could start doing this within the next year or two.” The 2018 work had determined that the structure of one enzyme, called PETase, can attack the hard, crystalline surface of plastic bottles. They found, by accident, that one mutant version worked 20% faster. The new study analyzed a second enzyme also found in the Japanese bacteria that doubles the speed of the breakdown of the chemical groups liberated by the first enzyme.

Why Biodegradable Isn’t What You Think – (New York Times – October 1, 2020)
Choosing products with packaging that claims to be “biodegradable” or “compostable” might mean that they degrade only under special conditions, and could complicate recycling efforts, said Jason Locklin, the director of the New Materials Institute at the University of Georgia. “It’s tremendously confusing, not just to the consumer, but even to many scientists,” he said. Here are four examples of the kinds of products you might see on supermarket shelves or at the takeout counter. It’s not an exhaustive list, but one that can give you a sense of the issues that people face. 1) Corn-based plastic – It doesn’t come from petroleum. But in a landfill, it might be just as bad. 2) Paper, kind of. It’s actually layered with other materials. 3) Fiber – Looks compostable, but may end up in the landfill anyway. 4) Bacteria do the work. Producing the material economically, however, has been a technical challenge. (Editor’s note: We recommend this article for its careful look at products we use, assuming they are environmentally sound, when the reality is far more complex.)

Asian Rivers Are Turning Black. Our Colorful Clothes Are to Blame – (CNN – September 28, 2020)
The fashion industry uses around 21 trillion gallons of water annually, enough to fill 37 million Olympic swimming pools, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Producing a single pair of jeans consumes around 2,000 gallons of water, from growing raw cotton to finished product, according to the United Nations. Along with finishing, dyeing is the most polluting and energy-intensive processes involved in making our clothes. Finishing is when chemicals or treatments are applied to fabric to give it the desired look or feel — such as bleaching, softening or making the garment water resistant or anti-wrinkle. Large amounts of water and chemicals are also used during dyeing, to ensure vivid colors bind to the fabric and don’t fade or wash out. Bangladesh is the world’s second biggest garment manufacturing hub after China, exporting $34 billion worth of garments in 2019. And clothes made, dyed and finished in the country often end up in main street shops across the United States and Europe. Fashion is responsible for up to one-fifth of industrial water pollution, thanks in part to weak regulation and enforcement in producer countries like Bangladesh, where wastewater is commonly dumped directly into rivers and streams. The discharge is often a cocktail of carcinogenic chemicals, dyes, salts and heavy metals that not only hurt the environment, but pollute essential drinking water sources. Ridwanul Haque, chief executive of the Dhaka-based NGO Agroho, called toxic chemical pollution a “huge problem in a country like Bangladesh.” Haque, whose organization provides clean drinking water and free medical care to marginalized communities, said the rivers and canals that run through Dhaka have turned a “pitch black color” due to the sludge and sewage produced by textile dyeing and processing factories. The water is “very thick … like tar,” and during the winter — when monsoon rain no longer dilutes the wastewater — “you can smell it,” he said. One 55-year-old, who has lived in Savar for the past 18 years and didn’t want to be identified for fear of reprisals, said the polluted waterways are a risk to his family’s health. “The kids get sick if they stay here,” he said, adding that his two children and grandson are unable to live with him “because of the water.”

How Cops Can Secretly Track Your Phone – (The Intercept – July 31, 2020)
As protesters around the country have marched against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, activists have spotted a recurring presence in the skies: mysterious planes and helicopters hovering overhead, apparently conducting surveillance on protesters. A press release from the Justice Department at the end of May revealed that the Drug Enforcement Agency and U.S. Marshals Service were asked by the Justice Department to provide unspecified support to law enforcement during protests. A few days later, a memo obtained by BuzzFeed News offered a little more insight on the matter; it revealed that shortly after protests began in various cities, the DEA had sought special authority from the Justice Department to covertly spy on Black Lives Matter protesters on behalf of law enforcement. Both the DEA and the Marshals possess airplanes outfitted with so-called stingrays or dirtboxes: powerful technologies capable of tracking mobile phones or, depending on how they’re configured, collecting data and communications from mobile phones in bulk. Stingrays have been used on the ground and in the air by law enforcement for years but are highly controversial because they don’t just collect data from targeted phones; they collect data from any phone in the vicinity of a device. That data can be used to identify people — protesters, for example — and track their movements during and after demonstrations, as well as to identify others who associate with them. They also can inject spying software onto specific phones or direct the browser of a phone to a website where malware can be loaded onto it, though it’s not clear if any U.S. law enforcement agencies have used them for this purpose.

Revolutionary Quantum Breakthrough Paves Way for Safer Online Communication – (PhysOrg – September 2, 2020)
The world is one step closer to having a totally secure internet and an answer to the growing threat of cyber-attacks, thanks to a team of international scientists who have created a unique prototype which could transform how we communicate online. Lead author Dr. Siddarth Joshi, who headed the project at the University of Bristol’s Quantum Engineering Technology (QET) Labs, said, “Our solution is scalable, relatively cheap and, most important of all, impregnable. That means it’s an exciting game changer and paves the way for much more rapid development and widespread rollout of this technology.” Physicists have developed a form of secure encryption, known as quantum key distribution, in which particles of light, called photons, are transmitted. The process allows two parties to share, without risk of interception, a secret key used to encrypt and decrypt information. But to date this technique has only been effective between two users. The team created a network for eight users using just eight receiver boxes, whereas a previously used method would need the number of users multiplied many times—in this case, amounting to 56 boxes. As the user numbers grow, the logistics become increasingly unviable—for instance 100 users would take 9,900 receiver boxes. To demonstrate its functionality across distance, the receiver boxes were connected to optical fibers via different locations across Bristol and the ability to transmit messages via quantum communication was tested using the city’s existing optical fiber network.

Texas Company Aims to 3D-print Buildings on the Moon with ‘Project Olympus’ – (Space – October 2, 2020)
A Texas company aims to take its innovative homebuilding approach into the final frontier. Austin-based startup ICON, known for 3D-printing houses here on Earth, just launched Project Olympus, an ambitious effort to develop a space-based construction system. The program will eventually help humanity get a foothold on the moon and Mars, if all goes according to plan. “From the very founding of ICON, we’ve been thinking about off-world construction. It’s a surprisingly natural progression if you are asking about the ways additive construction and 3D printing can create a better future for humanity,” said ICON co-founder and CEO Jason Ballard. ICON will partner with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama to test a variety of processing and printing technologies using simulated lunar soil. The research will build upon tech that ICON demonstrated in 2018 during NASA’s 3D Printed Habitat Challenge, company representatives said. NASA’s interest in ICON’s tech makes sense. The space agency is working, via its Artemis program of crewed lunar exploration, to establish a long-term human presence on and around the moon by the end of the 2020s. Making this happen will require extensive use of lunar resources, including water ice (for life support and rocket fuel) and moon dirt (for building materials), NASA officials have stressed.

Compact Nuclear Fusion Reactor Is ‘Very Likely to Work,’ Studies Suggest – (New York Times – September 29, 2020)
Scientists developing a compact version of a nuclear fusion reactor have shown in a series of research papers that it should work, renewing hopes that the long-elusive goal of mimicking the way the sun produces energy might be achieved and eventually contribute to the fight against climate change. Construction of a reactor, called Sparc, which is being developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a spinoff company, Commonwealth Fusion Systems, is expected to begin next spring and take three or four years, the researchers and company officials said. Although many significant challenges remain, the company said construction would be followed by testing and, if successful, building of a power plant that could use fusion energy to generate electricity, beginning in the next decade. Fusion, in which lightweight atoms are brought together at temperatures of tens of millions of degrees to release energy, has been held out as a way for the world to address the climate-change implications of electricity production. Like a conventional nuclear fission power plant that splits atoms, a fusion plant would not burn fossil fuels and would not produce greenhouse-gas emissions. But its fuel, usually isotopes of hydrogen, would be far more plentiful than the uranium used in most nuclear plants, and fusion would generate less, and less dangerous, radioactivity and waste than fission plants. But the hurdles to building a machine that can create and control a fusion plasma — a roiling ultrahot cloud of atoms that will damage or destroy anything it touches — are enormous. Some scientists who have worked on fusion energy for decades say that while they are enthusiastic about the prospects for Sparc, the timetable may be unrealistic. That might turn out to be true. But in seven peer-reviewed papers published in a special issue of The Journal of Plasma Physics, researchers laid out the evidence that Sparc would succeed and produce as much as 10 times the energy it consumes.

Physicists Build Circuit That Generates Clean, Limitless Power from Grapheme – (PhysOrg – October 2, 2020)
A team of University of Arkansas physicists has successfully developed a circuit capable of capturing graphene’s thermal motion and converting it into an electrical current. “An energy-harvesting circuit based on graphene could be incorporated into a chip to provide clean, limitless, low-voltage power for small devices or sensors,” said Paul Thibado, professor of physics and lead researcher in the discovery. The findings, published in the journal Physical Review E, are proof of a theory the physicists developed at the U of A three years ago that freestanding graphene—a single layer of carbon atoms—ripples and buckles in a way that holds promise for energy harvesting. The idea of harvesting energy from graphene is controversial because it refutes physicist Richard Feynman’s well-known assertion that the thermal motion of atoms, known as Brownian motion, cannot do work. Thibado’s team found that at room temperature the thermal motion of graphene does in fact induce an alternating current (AC) in a circuit, an achievement thought to be impossible. Article explains the process in detail.

Polaris to Make Electric Snowmobiles and Off-road Vehicles – (Axios – September 29, 2020)
Polaris plans to electrify its popular lineup of off-road vehicles and snowmobiles through a new 10-year technology partnership with Zero Motorcycles. Under the exclusive agreement, Polaris will develop, manufacture and sell electrified off-road vehicles and snowmobiles using Zero’s powertrain technology, hardware and software. The company will offer an electric vehicle option within each of its core product segments by 2025, the first of which will debut by the end of 2021. It includes Polaris’ Ranger, RZR, and General side-by-side vehicles, as well as its all-terrain ride-on vehicles (ATVs) and snowmobiles. It turns out ski resorts would like nothing more for their business, said Polaris CEO Scott Wine. And while the power sports industry is typically “a bunch of rednecks” who will likely choose conventional two-stroke and four-stroke engines for some time, Wine said, the pandemic has brought many new customers who are looking for an electric alternative.

Car Design Is About to Change Forever. This Video Encapsulates How – (Fast Company – October 10, 2020)
One of the biggest benefits of EVs is that they are revolutionizing the way cars are built. As this new video from Israeli startup Ree demonstrates, the EV of tomorrow is basically just a giant skateboard. With tiny motors placed inside the wheels, the car can assume any form imaginable; any sort of seating or storage arrangement can be built right on top of this flat base. The smallest base is a nimble EV made for tight turns and small cargo deliveries for last-mile delivery services. The medium is for transporting goods and people short distances. And the largest you see is a full Class 1 vehicle—a typical car or delivery van. With all components of the drivetrain and steering built into this base, a Ree vehicle doesn’t need the metal frame or plush seating of a cabin to drive. (The “skateboards” appear to be operated by a remote control for this demo—they are not self-driving.) But seeing how little an EV needs in terms of hardware to functionally drive really cements just how wild and open the future of electric vehicle design will be. Everything from the wheels up can be reimagined. Ree’s technology has already been licensed by Toyota for the Japanese car maker’s electric truck subsidiary Hino. In a presentation last year, Hino detailed how this platform could power small city buses, sure, but also beauticians and doctor offices on wheels. Hino even went so far as to detail a mount, which would allow these modular “service spaces” to pop on and off the chassis at will. See also the Tokyo Motor Show 2019 Hino Motors press briefing. It’s obviously a sales pitch aimed at a Japanese business audience, but the concepts suggest some interesting transportation directions.

The Army Rolls Out a New Weapon: Strategic Napping – (New York Times – October 1, 2020)
The Army released new guidelines for optimal soldier performance — and they include strategic and aggressive napping. The recommendation is part of an overhaul of the Army’s physical fitness training field manual, which was rebranded this week as the FM 7-22 Holistic Health and Fitness manual. No longer is the guide focused entirely on grueling physical challenges like long ruck marches (10-20 miles with at least 45 lbs in a rucksack) and pull-ups. Now it has chapters on setting goals, visualizing success, “spiritual readiness” and, yes, the art of the nap. “Soldiers can use short, infrequent naps to restore wakefulness and promote performance,” the new manual advises. “When routinely available sleep time is difficult to predict, soldiers might take the longest nap possible as frequently as time is available.” It is the first update to the manual in eight years, and it reflects growing scientific evidence that peak physical performance includes more than just physical training. The manual also has updates on running techniques to avoid injury, and a section on the importance of spirituality, with entries on meditation, journaling and how the “act of serving others” helps some soldiers realize the “interconnectedness of all things and people.”

How Azerbaijan’s Drones Show what the Future War Looks Like – (Newsweek – October 7, 2020)
In the last days of September a conflict broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over a disputed area called Nagorno-Karabakh. The war has been defined by a unique type of fighting: Azerbaijan’s use of armed drones against Armenia’s tanks, artillery and military vehicles. While armed drones have been used for decades by the U.S. in the global war on terror, Baku’s decision to deploy hundreds of new types of drones raises the curtain on the future of war. Azerbaijan’s drones have raised eyebrows in the past. In 2016 the country, situated in the southern Caucuses bordering Iran, used a “suicide drone” against Armenia. This is a new type of drone designed to fly into an enemy position, where the drone itself is the warhead. Defense companies call these drones “loitering munitions.” Azerbaijan has for years been acquiring them from Israel. A sheet put out for its soldiers in the field claims the country destroyed 30 Armenian air defense units. Armenia’s defense ministry says it downed 107 Azeri drones. This is the first time in history so many drones have been allegedly shot down and is probably the largest-ever use of loitering munition drones by a country. Why does this matter? Drones have been around for many years, and while the U.S. has used them to carry out thousands of airstrikes, they alone have not won wars in Afghanistan or elsewhere. However, the war in the Caucuses is showing what the future battlefield looks like. This future includes multiple layers of drones, operating together in a kind of “swarm” to overwhelm enemy defenses. Air defense weapons can’t usually track and neutralize dozens of drones at the same time. Iran knew this when it sent 25 drones and cruise missiles to attack Saudi Arabia in September of last year. The leading drone powers—Washington and Beijing—are undoubtedly watching Azerbaijan and Armenia and learning about how drone swarms and loitering munitions work best.

Techno-Tyranny: How the US National Security State Is Using Coronavirus to Fulfill an Orwellian Vision – (Citizen Truth – May 20, 2020)
Last year, a U.S. government body dedicated to examining how artificial intelligence can “address the national security and defense needs of the United States” discussed in detail the “structural” changes that the American economy and society must undergo in order to ensure a technological advantage over China, according to a recent document acquired through a FOIA request. The FOIA document, obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), was produced by a little-known U.S. government organization called the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI). It was created by the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and its official purpose is “to consider the methods and means necessary to advance the development of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and associated technologies to comprehensively address the national security and defense needs of the United States.” The NSCAI is a key part of the government’s response to what is often referred to as the coming “fourth industrial revolution,” which has been described as “a revolution characterized by discontinuous technological development in areas like artificial intelligence (AI), big data, fifth-generation telecommunications networking (5G), nanotechnology and biotechnology, robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), and quantum computing.” (Editor’s note: If you have time for only one article in this issue of FUTUREdition, choose this one. It explores in detail US military and corporate concerns about losing a technological edge over China and proposals for addressing those concerns – which basically amount to becoming just like China.)

Predicting Civil Unrest – (Armstrong Economics – September 2, 2020)
A study titled “Social Network Structure as a Predictor of Social Behavior: The Case of Protest in the 2016 US Presidential Election” examined the use of all forms of social media from emails to posts in the anti-Trump protests that erupted following the 2016 presidential elections. This study was funded by the US Army Research Laboratory which concluded that post-elections protests could have been predicted by analyzing millions of American citizens’ Twitter posts. This is why the government is now engaged in extensive real-time monitoring of American citizens’ social media. By monitoring all emails, social media posts, and twitter feeds, they believe they can forecast civil unrest. This approach lacks the ability to actually forecast civil unrest which emerges from economic conditions. Even the Black Lives Matter movement grew because of the lockdowns where people lost their jobs. There have been plenty of black men killed wrongly by police. Remember Ferguson? The sustainability of this movement has been directly enabled by rising unemployment. Suddenly, people were off work and were available to join the protests.

US Air Force Issues Contracts for Supersonic Air Force One – (AIN Alerts – September 7, 2020)
Exosonic and Hermeus—relatively unknown developers of faster-than-the-speed-of-sound passenger aircraft—recently were awarded separate contracts by the U.S. Air Force’s Presidential and Executive Airlift Directorate to develop executive transports that could be used as Air Force One. The former company is working on a 70-passenger supersonic airplane, while the latter is developing a 20-seat hypersonic airplane. The contract awarded to Exosonic, which was announced last week, is for the company’s low-boom, Mach 1.8 twinjet that would fly U.S. leaders up to 5,000-nm nonstop, allowing them to more quickly meet with world leaders or react to developing situations. Meanwhile, Hermeus’s USAF award granted in August for its Mach 5 airplane comes under an “other transaction for prototype agreement direct to Phase II contract” after the company successfully tested a hypersonic engine prototype in February. Hermeus claimed the aircraft will be able to fly from New York to London in about 90 minutes. Neither company has yet provided development timelines for these airplanes.

Don’t Forget Trump’s Deal with the CIA on the JFK Records – (Future of Freedom Foundation – August 17, 2020)
In April 2018, President Trump issued an order to the National Archives to continue keeping thousands of CIA records relating to the John Kennedy assassination secret from the American people. The new deadline, which could be extended again by either Trump or a President Biden, was set for October 2021. Given the official narrative of the Kennedy assassination, the massive secrecy in which the Pentagon and the CIA engaged after the assassination has never made any sense. Back in 2018, Trump didn’t have to justify his decision, but now that he’s running for reelection, he should be made to account for what he did by being asked the following questions: 1. How could the release of the CIA’s long-secret JFK-assassination-related records possibly pose a threat to “national security”? 2. Why not order an immediate release of those long-secret records now rather than wait until October of next year? 3. If the CIA has nothing to hide, why is it still hiding it after almost 60 years after the Kennedy assassination? The big problem, of course, is the deep loyalty that the mainstream press, Democrats, Republicans, and even some conservative-oriented libertarians have toward the CIA, not to mention the deep fear of being labeled a “conspiracy theorist.” That is why it is unlikely that Trump will be required to justify his deference to the CIA and its desire for continued secrecy in the Kennedy assassination.

China’s Mealtime Appeal Amid Food Supply Worries: Don’t Take More Than You Can Eat – (Washington Post – October 3, 2020)
On the surface, China’s campaign to encourage mealtime thrift has been a cheerful affair: with soldiers, factory workers and schoolchildren shown polishing off their plates. But behind the drive is a harsh reality. China does not have enough fresh food to go around — and neither does much of the world. The pandemic and extreme weather have disrupted agricultural supply chains, leaving food prices sharply higher in countries as diverse as Yemen, Sudan, Mexico and South Korea. The United Nations warned in June that the world is on the brink of its worst food crisis in 50 years. Arif Husain, chief economist of the United Nations World Food Program, said an estimated 270 million people globally are suffering acute hunger this year, twice last year’s count. This number doesn’t even include China, the United States and European nations traditionally considered food-secure, where the World Food Program doesn’t track such data. In China, the two foods in the tightest spots are pork and corn, with the nation’s pigs hit hard by African swine fever and much of the year’s corn crop ruined by floods. But fresh foods of all stripes are in short supply, too, due to the coronavirus pandemic and flooding — from eggs, to seafood, to leafy green vegetables. Beijing has declared it is not in a food crisis, and says it has enough reserve wheat to help feed its people for a year. Still, China’s leadership has watched uneasily as pork prices soared 135% in February, and floods washed away vegetable crops. Over the past couple decades, the implicit bargain offered by Chinese leaders has been unprecedented economic advancement and opportunities in exchange for political quiescence. That means the ability for regular folk to eat meat regularly instead of as a luxury, as well as having a range of nutritious foods within reach.

How the Government Literally Drives People Insane – (YouTube – September 7, 2020)
It turns out coercion is a serious problem that can lead to mental health issues. Coercion might even cause most of the ills we see in society today. The same thing that makes a teenager lash out and rebel in opposition to strict rules is what makes people do crazy things in a society dominated by arbitrary and oppressive governments. Bruce Levin, PhD, explains this in his article, “Societies With Little Coercion Have Little Mental Illness.” Most of the video clip is the narrator reading excerpts from Levin’s writing.

Galaxies Trapped in the Web of a Supermassive Black Hole – Cosmic “Spider’s Web” of Gas Extends Over 300 Times the Size of the Milky Way – (SciTech Daily – October 1, 2020)
Astronomers have found six galaxies lying around a supermassive black hole when the Universe was less than a billion years old. This is the first time such a close grouping has been seen so soon after the Big Bang and the finding helps us better understand how supermassive black holes, one of which exists at the centre of our Milky Way, formed and grew to their enormous sizes so quickly. It supports the theory that black holes can grow rapidly within large, web-like structures which contain plenty of gas to fuel them. “This research was mainly driven by the desire to understand some of the most challenging astronomical objects — supermassive black holes in the early Universe. These are extreme systems and to date we have had no good explanation for their existence,” said Marco Mignoli, an astronomer at the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) in Bologna, Italy, and lead author of the new research published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics. The very first black holes, thought to have formed from the collapse of the first stars, must have grown very fast to reach masses of a billion suns within the first 0.9 billion years of the Universe’s life. But astronomers have struggled to explain how sufficiently large amounts of “black hole fuel” could have been available to enable these objects to grow to such enormous sizes in such a short time. The new-found structure offers a likely explanation: the “spider’s web” and the galaxies within it contain enough gas to provide the fuel that the central black hole needs to quickly become a supermassive giant. But how did such large web-like structures form in the first place? Astronomers think giant halos of mysterious dark matter are key. These large regions of invisible matter are thought to attract huge amounts of gas in the early Universe; together, the gas and the invisible dark matter form the web-like structures where galaxies and black holes can evolve.

Some Planets May Be Better for Life than Earth – (PhysOrg – October 5, 2020)
Earth is not necessarily the best planet in the universe. Researchers have identified two dozen planets outside our solar system that may have conditions more suitable for life than our own. Some of these orbit stars that may be better than even our sun. A study led by Washington State University scientist Dirk Schulze-Makuch recently published in the journal Astrobiology details characteristics of potential “superhabitable” planets, that include those that are older, a little larger, slightly warmer and possibly wetter than Earth. Life could also more easily thrive on planets that circle more slowly changing stars with longer lifespans than our sun. The 24 top contenders for superhabitable planets are all more than 100 light years away, but Schulze-Makuch said the study could help focus future observation efforts, such as from NASA’s James Web Space Telescope, the LUVIOR space observatory and the European Space Agency’s PLATO space telescope. While the sun is the center of our solar system, it has a relatively short lifespan of less than 10 billion years. Since it took nearly 4 billion years before any form of complex life appeared on Earth, many similar stars to our sun, called G stars, might run out of fuel before complex life can develop. In addition to looking at systems with cooler G stars, the researchers also looked at systems with K dwarf stars, which are somewhat cooler, less massive and less luminous than our sun. K stars have the advantage of long lifespans of 20 billion to 70 billion years. This would allow orbiting planets to be older as well as giving life more time to advance to the complexity currently found on Earth – or beyond.

Strange Precariously Balanced Rocks Provide Earthquake Forecasting Clues – (SciTech – October 1, 2020)
Precariously balanced rocks (PBRs) are formations found throughout the world where a slender boulder is balanced precariously on a pedestal boulder. They form as blocks preserved on cliffs, or when softer rocks erode and leave the harder rocks behind. They can also form when landslides or retreating glaciers deposit them in strange positions. Despite their delicate balancing act, many PBRs — like the Brimham Rocks in Yorkshire, or Chiricahua National Monument in Arizona — have survived earthquake shaking over thousands of years. They can therefore tell us the upper limit of earthquake shaking that has occurred since they were first formed — shaking that, were it strong enough, would have caused them to topple. By tapping into ancient geological data locked within Californian PBRs, Imperial College London researchers have broken ground on a new technique to boost the precision of hazard estimates for large earthquakes by up to 49%. Earthquake hazard models estimate the likelihood of future earthquakes in a given location. They help engineers decide where bridges, dams, and buildings should be built and how robust they should be — as well as informing earthquake insurance prices in high-risk areas. Current earthquake hazard estimates rely largely on observations like proximity to fault lines and how seismically active a region has been in the past. However, estimates for rarer earthquakes that have occurred over periods of 10,000 to 1,000,000 years are extremely uncertain due to the lack of seismic data spanning those timescales and subsequent reliance on rocky assumptions. By counting rare cosmic ray-generated atoms in PBRs and digitally modeling PBR-earthquake interactions, Imperial researchers have created a new method of earthquake hazard validation that could be built into existing models to finetune their precision.

Peter Temple Explains Solar Cycles, Grand Minimums and the Collapse of Man – History Repeats Itself – (YouTube, September 29, 2017)
Peter Temple is a futurist and market analyst whose business is helping executives and entrepreneurs understand cycles and how they affect the economy, specific businesses, climate, social mood, trends, and a host of other important aspects of the economic landscape. In this video clip, he explores the cyclicality of Earth climate and the effect of the gradually increasing cooling of the sun on those cycles. He references the work of various climate researchers who predicted extreme weather starting around the year 2000 followed by a turn colder and extreme drought – accompanied by a major financial collapse.

The Universe Keeps Dying and Being Reborn, Claims Nobel Prize Winner – (Big Think – October 9, 2020)
Sir Roger Penrose, a mathematician and physicist from the University of Oxford, who has just shared this year’s Nobel Prize in physics, claims our universe has gone through multiple Big Bangs, with another one coming in our future. Penrose received the Nobel for his working out mathematical methods that proved and expanded Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity and for his discoveries on black holes, which showed how objects that become too dense undergo gravitational collapse into singularities – points of infinite mass. As he accepted the Prize, Penrose reiterated his belief in what he called “a crazy theory of mine” that the universe will expand until all matter will ultimately decay. And then a new Big Bang will bring a new universe into existence. “The Big Bang was not the beginning,” Penrose said in an interview. “There was something before the Big Bang and that something is what we will have in our future.” What proof does the physicist have for this theory he dubbed “conformal cyclic cosmology” (CCC) that goes against the current Big Bang dogma? He said he discovered six “warm” sky points (called “Hawking Points”) which are all about eight times larger than the diameter of the Moon. The late Professor Stephen Hawking, whose name they bear, proposed that black holes “leak” radiation and would eventually evaporate. As this might take longer than the age of the universe we are currently inhabiting (13.77 billion years old), spotting such holes is very unlikely. Penrose (89), who collaborated with Hawking, thinks that we are, in fact, able to observe “dead” black holes left by previous universes or “aeons.” If proven correct, this would also validate Hawking’s theories.

The Last of Their Kind – (YouTube – September 23, 2016)
The only real constant about the times is the inevitability that they can and do change. Take a peek into the lives of these unique individuals (and one rhino) that are the last of their kind.

It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see.
― Winston Churchill

A special thanks to: Sam Bonasso, Chas Freeman, Ursula Freer, Diane Petersen, Gary Sycalik, Steve Ujvarosy and all of you who have sent us interesting links in the past. If you see something we should know about, do send it along – thanks.

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