Client 03 "Hope Repeater" is out Now!

       This is one of my favorite releases of 2019. Five tunes that take Electro to the next level. Check my review out here.

https://www.electric-kingdom.net/post/client-03-releases-massive-bundle-pack-on-astrophonica

Science Fiction Predicted a no Deal Brexit in 2005

       Sometimes science fiction stories offer alarmingly accurate predictions of future events, attitudes and gadgets. Written in 2005, Peter F. Hamilton's short story "Foot Vote is just such a story. Another example is George R.R. Martin's "Unsound Variations," published in January 1982, which mentions how the house of an obsessed and time traveling evil chess genius is outfitted with a voice-activated stereo that plays all the songs you could desire. There are countless other examples of foreshadowing  in the vast expanse of SF writing, including the famous Star Trek communicators, which inspired flip phone technology, and the many SF stories that mention "slates," apparent models for touch tablets.  

      In the case of Peter F. Hamilton's "Foot Vote," it's downright scary — and arguably humorous, depending on which side of the issue you fall on — how close the story comes to predicting one of the most politically disruptive events of the twenty-first century: Brexit. In this story, however, instead of leaving the EU by means of a vote and prolonged parliamentary process, UK citizens leave via a wormhole in this short but climactic story.

Stranger than (science) fiction

      When Hamilton wrote "Foot Vote" in 2005, the idea that a large portion of the UK population would want to pick up and leave their relatively safe reality in a dramatic, globe-rattling fashion was so far out there it was science fiction, literally.

      But the UK did it. Voters passed Brexit. They went to the polls in 2016 and were so angry, frustrated and disillusioned by their state of affairs that they voted to leave the European Union, to cut their umbilical to the European mainland, to undock the UK escape pod from the enflamed EU mothership, to ride a time machine back to a better — or let's say "greater" — UK, to create a giant dimension ripping wormhole and travel to an unknown alien planet.

      Wow, that last one is extreme, but when you really listen to pro-Brexit Brits, it is not hard to believe that many would prefer trying their luck in an interdimensional wormhole than sticking to the status quo.

     In "Foot Vote" — featured in "The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, Volume 22", compiled by legendary editor Gardner Dozois — Bradley Ethan Murray opens a wormhole in downtown London on January 1, 2003 for two years so all "the decent people" still living in the UK can leave to a better home known as "New Suffolk." The quick, engaging story jumps between an afternoon narrative about a recently divorced couple and long diatribes from Bradley Ethan regarding who and what is allowed on his new world.

     After picking up the kids from mom Janette for what she thinks is a regular parent exchange, the dad, Collin, scoops up his girlfriend Zoë, loads his new BMW and horse trailer with all the supplies they'll need on their new planet and drives straight to the wormhole. In the meantime, Mom meets up with a protestor friend and heads to the “racist fascist wormhole" to protest all her fellow country people leaving. Sorry, no spoilers, but the piece comes to an unexpected climax at the base of this giant rip in space time. 

       Meanwhile, expressing his disillusionment with modern society, Bradley Ethan Murray — the creator of London’s three-hundred-yard wide spherical, shimmering white wormhole — declares unequivocally that New Suffolk will be based on an "English ethnicity." The quantum colony would have socialized medicine and universal education, but no unemployment, he said. If unemployed, you'd be given five acres and crop seed to become self-sufficient.

       There would be no metric system or traffic tickets. Members of "extreme political parties" like the Labor, Conservative, and Communist parties would not be allowed on New Suffolk. Trade unionists, tabloid journalists, EU bureaucrats, traffic wardens, stock brokers, weapons manufacturers and TV soap stars all need not apply to join Murray's new home, where things like prisons and frivolous lawsuits are banned, and filing a frivolous lawsuit would get you five years in a "penal colony.” If one did run afoul of the law, you would only get access to a public defender three times in your life. Luckily, you’d be able to choose when you use your get out of jail free cards. No "compensation culture" or death tax would be tolerated on New Suffolk. Lastly, there would be no religion allowed in this UK interdimensional “paradise” — perhaps it's greatest saving grace.

Actual wormholes?

       "Wormhole Theory" was first proposed in 1916 by Ludwig Flamm while reviewing Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Flamm noticed different solutions to Einstein's equations that hinted at the existence of "white holes," a time reversal of a black hole. Later, Einstein and physicist Nathan Rosen used the theory to explain that it was possible such holes could be opened in space time. These "holes” could theoretically be opened in different locations and could be connected by "bridges," allowing travel between places that are extremely far away from each other. Despite Einstein's theories pointing to the possibility of wormholes, scientists haven’t found one yet. Many believe if wormholes did exist, they'd be very small and short-lived, and it would be impossible for humans to travel through such an orifice due to the enormous pressures found in such space time locations.

Sorry UK friends, you're stuck with Brexit for now

      It’s looking like at this point in our own space time, it may be easier for Boris Johnson and the rest of the UK to create a wormhole than come to an agreement on Brexit. In the recent EU elections, the Brexit Party picked up thirty-two percent of the UK’s seats (the largest chunk held by a single party). However, three parties supporting a second referendum — Green, Liberal Democrat and Scottish National Party — add up to thirty-six percent. Throw in the non-committal Jeremy Corbyn's Labor Party and the embattled pro-Brexit Conservative Party, who both lost seats in the election, and we have a political concoction more complicated than any exotic matter needed to create a wormhole.

      Time will only tell if the United Kingdom leaves the EU via a "no Deal Brexit," but Peter F. Hamilton offered up another option years ago for the UK to consider in his fortuitous story "Foot Vote" — just as soon as quantum physics catches up.

In Memory of Anny the Cat (2003 - 2019)

      On Thursday of last week, our long time pet Anny "the cat" passed away from what we believe was congestive heart failure. My wife was at work and I was at the gym when she first became ill, so many thanks to my son for handling the situation in a mature and compassionate way. Anny was a great pet. She rarely had any health issues, only starting to be a bit more hairball prone in the last year of her life. She was never super lovy, but would give purrs and love from time to time. She was a bit crazy for the first half of her life, but settled down in her old age. Some of my favorite memories are of her zooming up and down the stairs in our townhouse apartment in Kent, WA when we first found her and later at our house in East Tacoma she would zoom into the living room and up the Christmas tree. It was a fake tree so she could fit  right up to the top. Crazy cat!

      We found Anny, or she found us more like it, one cold Fall, or late Summer night, in 2003. It was right when I first moved to WA, and at that time, we hadn't really gotten around to talking about if we wanted a pet or not. We were out back on our little patio doing our weekend thing when we heard a little "MEOW' "oh look" a kitten. We didn't have any cat food, so I remember we fed her some bologna. "yeah cat's love packaged packed pig parts I've heard." A day or so went by like this when we heard a friend of our son's cat had some kittens. Wanting to do the right thing and find this cat a home, I scooped up the little gray and white kitten and marched down to the neighbors, hoping they would take the kitten back. They said it wasn't there cat, so even though I didn't know it, I now was holding our cat we would love for the next 16 years. We named her "Anny" for "Orphan Anny" of course and invited her in. Where she would stay, except that one time she escaped through an old drier vent to visit the neighbors male cat or she'd take a hasty tour of the yard, until this past Thursday.

      We miss Anny now that she is gone. There is a missing person in our house. We are slowly adjusting, but our other cat is having trouble figuring out where her part time friend and sometime enemy has gone. Rest in Peace Anny! We love you!

Tacoma Libraries Install Blind Accessible Software

      In early June, I needed to print some documents for my work. I teach a Continuing Ed class at Tacoma Community College and they needed my contract for the quarter. My printer is out of ink as usual, so I needed to go to the South Tacoma Public Library to print the documents. In the couple times I've done this, I've brought one of my kids with me to help me use the inaccessible computer.  My kids, being teens or near teen, find trips with ol’ dad less and less palatable over the years. And, I don't blame them. I should be able to go over to the library and print a document without dragging them off whatever video game they're playing at the time. So, this day I decided I was going to get the print job done on my own. I tapped my way over to the South Tacoma branch of the Tacoma Library system, which is about a block from my house. 

"Hi", a friendly voice said as I walked up to the counter. "Can I help you?"

"Yes", I said. "I need to get some documents printed for work, but I can't use your computers. They aren't accessible."

"Oh, ok, I'm sorry, is there no one who can help you print it?"

       I knew this was going to happen! I knew this question would come up.  I believe this canned response to people with disabilities asking for help is based in the belief that most activities a disabled person does requires help from an able-bodied person. This is far from the case. "Yes", we get help from able-bodied people. "Yes", we need help from able bodied people, but most people I know with a disability want to do things for themselves. There are a variety of reasons, I believe.

      First, we want to be independent. We want to feel like we can come and go as we please, do what we want: print a document, read a menu, go to a movie, make it up to the second floor, take our partners out on a date, see a show, follow a ball game with closed captioning, whatever it is.  People with disabilities want to participate in all the amazing experiences this world has to offer just like everyone else. Second, we don't want to burden other people. Any disabled person who is lucky enough to have able bodied allies will tell you, those allies can get tired of helping. And, that's OK. It's human nature to feel this way. We understand, and are independent every chance we get. And, thank you btw. Finally, whatever we do, we want to be low key. I don't want to have to walk into the library and announce "Hey, the blind guy is here. Can you help me?" Accessibility should be seamless. We should get to do our everyday activities incognito just like able bodied individuals.

      The librarian then explained she couldn't help me because she couldn't use my USB due to privacy concerns. I explained there wasn't' any sensitive information on the USB, and it wouldn't be a problem to open it. She still refused. So, I turned up the heat a little. 

"You mean to tell me a sighted person can come and print something here, and I can't? This is for my work. I'm a teacher at TCC and need to print this for a meeting tomorrow. What do you mean, you can't print it?" I expounded. "You have to be kidding me. I really need to get this done."

      Here she turned to the other librarian who had been in a discussion with someone else and asked if she could help. Before she spoke, the man she was talking to offered me a handy dandy magnifying glass he had in his pocket.  "Sorry" I said, "Magnifiers won't work for me." As I held up my blind cane. Low key, see what I mean.  After I explained the situation again, the second librarian then said she would help me. She walked with me over to the row of computers nearby and we printed the three pages.

     As I paid for the pages I said, "Hey thanks, but if you could, tell your superiors that the library needs to have accessible computers, tell them there is a free program called NVDA you can use. So, maybe look into it."

      I went home and immediately sent an email to the library’s "Contact" email. I also posted on Facebook asking any blind friends or otherwise to send the library an email asking them why they didn't have accessible computers.  Within about a week, to their credit, someone at the library contacted me to say they were looking into the problem.  They would be installing NVDA on all their ADA computers. She said that they even committed to installing NVDA on all the computers throughout the library system later this year when system wide updates occurred.

To date they have followed up and are going forward with their plan. I received this email last week confirming the installations were complete. Here is their letter: 

"Lukas,

My name is Zack Matthews, and I’m the IT Manager at the Tacoma Public Library.

I would like to echo Amita’s thanks to you for reaching out to us with your suggestion as well as offer my sincere apologies for the experience you had with us.

I am writing you today to provide an update on our progress, as we have finished the installation of NVDA on all of the ADA computer stations at each of the Library’s 8 locations. In addition to making the software available, Amita and I worked with the Library’s Branch Managers to make sure that the Library can supply ear buds (free of charge) to anyone wishing using NVDA at our ADA computer stations. All of the Library’s public computers are due to be replaced within the next 18 months, and we plan to make accessibility software and features available on all of the computers when they are configured for use.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me in the future with any comments, suggestions, or concerns regarding Library technology and accessibility!"

     I, and all the other blind people in the Tacoma area, would like to thank the Tacoma Public Library system for taking care of this problem so quickly. I could go on about how it's 2019 and they should have done this already, but I won't. Sometimes businesses don't know they are in error until you tell them. Some companies like Microsoft are trying with their embedded accessibility software, but these fall short at times. More State and Federal regulations are needed to avoid these problems in the future. Starting with a law to make all computers and websites disability accessible right out of the box.