CHAMPS

Courtesy Google Images

I missed this … it’s an item from October 2012. Boeing and the USAF are developing a missile that will disable all the electronic circuits in a building. The CHAMP (Counter-electronics High-powered Advanced Missile Project) emits a microwave pulse that causes electronics to stop working.

DVICE reports that CHAMP was test flown over a building chock full of electronic equipment at a Utah testing range. The missile fired a microwave beam at the structure and disabled all the electronics in the building, including the cameras monitoring the test.

Courtesy Google Images

It’s intriguing to think the military has the ability to disable an enemy’s response capability without a loss of life or destruction of a building’s infrastructure. It certainly seems much cleaner than say a bunker buster.

The U.S has always had the ability to jam an enemy’s electronic equipment. When I was stationed at MCAS Cherry Point my A4 squadron, VMA-223, was situated next to an EA-6B Prowler squadron. According to joebaugher.com Marines flew the Northrop Grumman A6 Intruder in Vietnam. The Intruder Association states the A6 was developed to meet the Navy’s need for an all-weather aircraft that could attack land and sea targets.

Courtesy Google Images

The EA-6B was the electronic jamming counterpart to the Intruder. Instead of a bevy of bombs, it carried an array of electronic jamming equipment. Many of us in VMA-223 were led to believe (but I had no way of confirming) that it was capable of causing a blackout in New York City.

I think if the U.S. is able to deploy this technology it could be a huge game changer for the U.S. in terms of how our country conducts combat operations. Assume an enemy doesn’t figure out how to defend against the CHAMP, then anything they have that uses electronics could be rendered useless leaving them virtually defenseless.

Does anyone else think CHAMP will have a profound effect on modern warfare?

Please follow the link to view a simulation on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=O-BukbpkOd8

A Circle of Life

You know how when you’re contemplating purchasing a new vehicle, or you’ve just bought that new car and every other car on the road seems to be that car? Well, that’s akin to the situation my wife and I find ourselves.

My 94-year-old mother lives with us (she’s currently in rehab after taking a fall before Christmas). Roughly three years ago, we entered a fall down/rehab cycle with her. She gets sick, doesn’t tell us she’s not feeling well, she falls, gets transported to the ER, and enters rehab.

It’s been stressful. Caring for an elder is almost like having a child with a couple notable exceptions. When your child doesn’t do what you tell them you can send them to their room. Try doing that with a recalcitrant elder. Also, most kids will learn which behaviors are acceptable verses unacceptable. Elders (at least in our case) don’t – they’ve been doing it (whatever “it” may be) for “this” long; why should they change?

I’ve learned over the past year that our situation is not unique. I’ve lost count of the number of friends and acquaintances that are in a similar boat. As we grow older, so do our parents, and there comes a time when we have to do for them what they once did for us, as our children will probably have to do for us (Are you listening, boys?).

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining; someone needs to do it and my mother was always there to help us when we needed her, so I’m happy that we can reciprocate at this stage of her life. What makes me sad is to witness her regression from good health. It doesn’t seem like the decline was gradual in comparison to the rest of her life; more like a precipitous drop off a cliff.

And … I suppose it’s a bit unnerving to realize there may be a time when I might not be able to care for myself. I can’t imagine what it must feel like to require help for life’s basic needs like bathing and bathroom, especially when for nearly 90 years it wasn’t an issue.

But (I’m shrugging), so it goes. I guess it doesn’t help to dwell on what-might-be.

If anyone would like to share an elder care tale, please comment below.

Robo Sally

According to IMDB, 1986’s Short Circuit is a movie about a robot, Number 5 (Johnny Five), that is electrocuted, suddenly becomes intelligent, and escapes. I thought it was a cute movie. I also think its physical appearance is eerily similar to Robo Sally.

Robo Sally is a robot designed by Applied Physics Laboratory at John Hopkins University in Maryland. Its creators believe the robot will enable technicians to perform a variety of jobs remotely, such as disarming bombs. Its design allows the dexterity needed to finish complex tasks that require fine motor skills.

According to 60 Minutes, by tasking Robo Sally with dangerous missions, like diffusing bombs or manning checkpoints, soldiers can operate her remotely from a position of safety—which could, one day, dramatically decrease the numbers of soldiers who suffer devastating limb injuries and amputations.

In the movie, Johnny Five was being developed for use by the United States military. Funding for Robo Sally is courtesy of the United States Defense Department. Does anyone else think that science fiction is becoming science fact?

Finis?

Done, finis, complete … okay, not done done but done. I finished my novel Refuge this week. It is a complete rewrite; 58,627 words.

I know I’m not finished … there’s still a lot of work ahead. (I accumulated pages of notes as I slogged through this latest iteration.) I’ve learned that writing the book is but a fraction of the work involved in the journey to publication.

I still need to polish the bible and refine definitions, write a multi-page summary, a one paragraph summary and a single sentence summary and oh … find an agent (I’ve decided I’m going to follow the “traditional” route to publication).

It’ a daunting task. The agent thing is probably going to be the hardest part of the whole journey. I have to do a ton of research to locate someone who works with science fiction authors, accepts new clients, makes a good match, and likes what I’ve produced.

What agents like seems so hard to quantify.

Last year, I attended a conference and sat in on a panel discussion that featured four agents critiquing first pages from a variety of attendee manuscripts. A page was read, then each agent explained what she liked (or disliked) regarding the submission. One author’s first page spent a paragraph describing Victorian wallpaper in a study room. One of the agents suggested that this page caught her attention because she liked wallpaper. Wallpaper? Really? But, that may have been enough to get this person to read beyond the first page. Isn’t that what authors strive for? Another agent did not like the submission because it had too much detail for a first page.

Regardless of what lies ahead, I’m up to the task. I started this journey a number of years past and I’ve come too far to quit.

Have a suggestion or agent/submission story you’d like to share? Leave a comment below.

A Game of Thrones

Courtesy Google Images

A Game of Thrones is a Home Box Office (HBO) series based on George R.R. Martin’s books in his A Song of Ice and Fire series. I have not watched the show, but Dwight Schrute, Rainn Wilson’s character in NBC’s The Office, describes it thusly, “The superb Home Box Office series A Game of Thrones; it has a lot of nudity which I fast forward through to get to the chopped off heads.”

I saw an interview with Mr. Martin where he indicated the total volumes in the series would be seven, possibly eight, books. To date, five are complete and number six is scheduled for a 2014 release.

I don’t know what rock I’ve been living under; but until my son gave me a copy of A Game of Thrones, the first book in the series, I had never heard of George R. R. Martin. According to the Houston Chronicle, he’s been writing genre fiction since 1970. He has written for television (Twilight Zone and Beauty and the Beast) and A Game of Thrones was published in 1996.

Courtesy Google Images

I was pleasantly surprised. I haven’t read much fantasy so at first blush, A Game of Thrones looked to be a ponderous read. That couldn’t be farther from the truth.

The book is set in a fantasy realm that has the feel of feudal England; it reads like historical fiction. There are knights and lords but the element of fantasy is strong, as there are dragons and the undead. Martin also weaves in the hint of magic.

Each chapter is named for a different character and all the characters have interdependency— what happens to one will eventually affect another. And don’t get too enamored with any one character. Martin has demonstrated they are mortal … they die.

The main players are the Lannisters and the Starks. The struggles of, and between, these two families may decide who will rule Martin’s fantasy realm.

I’ve started book two, A Clash of Kings, and so far I like it as much as book one. If the HBO series is as well-crafted as the books (it won eight Emmys in 2012), it must be good viewing.

I’m curious to know the opinion of those who’ve read the books or seen the television series. Leave comments below.

Season 2 Recap

Christmas Eels

Back in the day when there were only three networks and subsequently only three channels to watch, I’d get up on a Saturday morning and settle in for a morning of cartoon watching. I have a recollection of a character’s body going rigid and translucent as electric current coursed through his frame when he grabbed hold of an electric eel.

Courtesy Google Images

As funny as this was to a preteen, apparently it’s not so farfetched. According to tvtropes.org  an electric eel (which isn’t really an eel but rather a species of knife fish) is capable of delivering a jolt capable of killing an ungrounded adult. When you consider that less than one tenth (1/10) of one (1) amp can prove fatal if it travels through the heart, you can understand the plausibility of meeting your demise if you were to encounter an electric eel.

However, the current emitted by electric eels is capable of more than incapacitating other life forms. Turns out their power can be harnessed for good. Currently (pun intended), the folks at the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy, Utah have illuminated Christmas lights that they attached to an eel tank. As the eel swims through the water, it generates a current necessary to power the lights.

How cool is that? It’s not a new idea but that doesn’t diminish its interest factor.

Anyone have any idea how many eels it would take to power a house?

Watch

Good Baby?

Nature versus nurture— it’s an age old argument. Is a person’s personality determined by heredity or is it shaped by the environment? Are babies born good or is behavior learned?

On Sunday, November 18, 2012 CBS’ 60 Minutes aired a segment detailing a study that leads researchers to believe children as young as six months old know the difference between good and bad.

Lead by Paul Bloom and Karen Wynn, husband and wife psychologists at Yale University, the study explores a variety of tests created to determine if children could identify a “good” puppet versus a “bad” puppet. The test subjects were babies, six-months of age, of both sexes and varying races.

Out of the multitude of tests, two piqued my curiosity.

1. A puppet attempted to open the lid of a box. A second puppet (good), offered assistance. A third puppet (bad) prevented the first puppet from opening the box. Next, a different researcher, one who didn’t know which puppets had been presented as good or bad, held the good and bad puppets at arm’s length in front of a baby. A majority of the children reached for the good puppet.

Courtesy CBS 60 Minutes

2. A puppet played with a ball. A second puppet came into play and “stole” the ball away. In most cases, the baby would pick the puppet that didn’t “steal” the ball.

The research results seem to indicate that people are born with an innate sense of what is good behavior and what is bad. As a parent, I find this fascinating because I wonder why some aspects of my kids’ personalities are so varied, yet others are similar. Did we raise them that differently or were they just wired that way from birth?

I suppose there are a number of factors that determine a person’s personality. But, I’d like to think we’re all born with our moral compass intact; that we possess a basic sense of right and wrong.

What do you think has the greatest impact – heredity or environment?