New 96 Back on CPU Records Review

       96 Back has quickly become one of my favorite Electro artists. Check out this review of their new release on Central Processing Unit I wrote for Electric Kingdom.

https://www.electric-kingdom.net/post/96-back-set-to-return-to-cpu-recordings-in-november-with-issue-is-surreal

A Time Travel Problem

     While reading ", A Man in His Time, the Best of Brian W. Aldes" I came across one of the most perplexing time travel problems I've ever encountered. Of course my first real exposure to time travel was "Back to the Future" starring Michael J. Fox. I'm sure I'd heard of, and maybe had read it, the famous story "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells by that time, but the DeLorean  ripping through space time to save Doc was bigger than life up on the silver screen. Since then, I've read 100's time travel stories and probably heard of just as many movies, but the title story of "A Man in His Time" proposes a time travel problem that is really hard to wrap your mind around. A quick set up of the plot and then I'm going to post the last part of the story I found on Archive.org.  

       In the story Captain Jack Westermark just returned from Mars. On the return, the capsule crashed on Earth, killing seven other astronauts. Jack survives, but has a big problem. He is living 3.077 minutes in the future. Apparently , stuck on "Mars time". The story involves Jack's mom, wife and counselor, Mr. Stackpole trying to understand how to interact with Jack. Here is the final scene in the story. If this doesn't melt your mind, I don't' know what will.

     "The sun had broken through, sucking moisture from the

damp garden. It was now unmistakably autumn. She rounded

the corner of the house, stepped round the rose bed, and

looked into her husband’s study.

Shaken, she saw he leaned half over the table. His hands

were over his face, blood ran between his fingers and dripped

on to an open magazine on the table top. She was aware of

Stackpole sitting indifferently beside the electric fire.

She gave a small cry and ran round the house again, to be

met at the back door by Mrs. Westermark.

‘‘Oh, I was just — Janet, what is it?”

“Jack, Mother! He’s had a stroke or something terrible!”

“But how do you know?”

“Quick, we must phone the hospital — I must go to him,”

Mrs. Westermark took Janet’s arm. “Perhaps we’d better

leave it to Mr. Stackpole, hadn’t we? I’m afraid ”

“Mother, we must do what we can. I know we’re amateurs.

Please let me go.”

“No, Janet, we’re — it’s their world. I’m frightened. They’ll

come if they want us.” She was gripping Janet in her fright.

Their wild eyes stared momentarily at each other as if seeing

something else, and then Janet snatched herself away. “I must

go to him,” she said.

She hurried down the hall and pushed open the study door.

Her husband stood now at the far end of the room by the

window, while blood streamed from his nose.

“Jack!” she exclaimed. As she ran towards him, a blow from

the empty air struck her on the forehead, so that she staggered

aside, falling against a bookcase. A shower of smaller volumes

from the upper shelf fell on her and round her. Exclaiming,

Stackpole dropped his notebook and ran round the table to

her. Even as he went to her aid, he noted the time from his

watch: 10*24.

Aid after 10*24 tidiness of bed

Westermark’s mother appeared in the doorway.

‘‘Stay where you are,’* Stackpole shouted, “or there will be

more trouble! Janet, you see what you’ve done. Get out of

here, will you? Jack, I’m right with you — God knows what

you’ve felt, isolated without aid for three and a third minutes 1”

Angrily, he went across and stood within arm’s length of his

patient. He threw his handkerchief down on to the table.

“Mr. Stackpole ” Westermark’s mother said tenta-

tively from the door, an arm round Janet’s waist.

He looked back over his shoulder only long enough to say,

“Get towels! Phone the Research Hospital for an ambulance

and tell them to be here right away.”

By midday, Westermark was tidily in bed upstairs and the

ambulance staff, who had treated him for what after all was

only nosebleed, had left. Stackpole, as he turned from closing

the front door, eyed the two women.

“I feel it is my duty to warn you,” he said heavily, “that

another incident such as this might well prove fatal. This time

we escaped very lightly. If an5rthing else of this sort happens, I

shall feel obliged to recommend to the board that Mr. Wester-

mark is moved back to the hospital.”

Current way to define accidents

“He wouldn’t want to go,” Janet said. “Besides, you are

being absurd; it was entirely an accident. Now I wish to go

upstairs and see how he is.”

“Just before you go, may I point out that what happened

was not an accident — or not as we generally define accidents,

since you saw the results of your interference through the

study window before you entered. Where you were to

blame ”

‘‘But that’s absurd ” both women began at once. Janet

went on to say, “I never would have rushed into the room as I

did had I not seen through the window that he was in

trouble.”

“What you saw was the result on your husband of your later

interference.”

In something like a wail, Westermark’s mother said, “I

don’t understand any of this. What did Janet bump into when

she ran in?”

“She ran, Mrs. Westermark, into the spot where her hus-

band had been standing 3*3077 minutes earlier. Surely by now

you have grasped this elementary business of time inertia?”

When they both started speaking at once, he stared at them

until they stopped and looked at him. Then he said, “We had

better go into the living-room. Speaking for myself, I would

like a drink.”

He helped himself, and not until his hand was round a glass

of whisky did he say, “Now, without wishing to lecture to you

ladies, I think it is high time you both realized that you are

not living in the old safe world of classical mechanics ruled

over by a god invented by eighteenth-century enlightenment.

All that has happened here is perfectly rational, but if you are

going to pretend it is beyond your female understandings ”

“Mr. Stackpole,” Janet said sharply. “Can you please keep

to the point without being insulting? Will you tell me why

what happened was not an accident? I understand now that

when I looked through the study window I saw my husband

suffering from a collision that to him had happened three and

something minutes before and to me would not happen for

another three and something minutes, but at that moment I

was so startled that I forgot ”

“No, no, your figures are wrong. The total time lapse is only

3*3077 minutes. When you saw your husband, he had been

hit half that time — 1*65385 minutes — ago, and there was

another 1*65385 minutes to go before you completed the

action by bursting into the room and striking him.”

“But she didn't strike him!” the older woman cried.

Firmly, Stackpole diverted his attention long enough to

reply. ‘‘She struck him at 10*24 Earth time, which equals io*20

plus about 36 seconds Mars or his time, which equals 9*59 or

whatever Neptune time, which equals 1 56 and a half Sirius

time. It’s a big universe, Mrs. Westermark! You will remain

confused as long as you continue to confuse event with time.

May I suggest you sit down and have a drink?^’"

       I don't drink, but I may sit down and have one myself. The half time part makes no sense and just thinking about living 3.077 minutes in the future while the rest of the world goes on around you is very difficult. Drop a comment if you'd like to explain this last scene in the story.  

Transparent Sound - Gently Evil Review

     One of my first Electro records I was able to get was "Florida Electro Classics V 1." One of the tunes was by Transparent Sound. Now all these years later, TS is still putting out great Electro music. Here's a review I did of TS's latest LP, "Gently Evil." 

https://www.electric-kingdom.net/post/transparent-sound-gently-evil

WA Dems Raise Confederate Flag Incident to discipline State Committee Person

      Jason Call’s six months suspension from the Washington State Democratic Central Committee due to a "code of conduct" violation after he cut down a confederate flag reeks of dirty politics and calls into question the WA State Democrats’ commitment to fighting white supremacy. Each legislative district in the state elects two people to serve on the Washington State Democratic Central Committee (WSDCC). Mr. Call was elected to be one of the State Committee Persons for the 44th LD and proudly represents the Bernie wing of the Party, a fact he feels is the underlying issue in his current tussle with the WA State Democrats. The lifelong Democrat and former Math teacher spoke with me via telephone and tells a tale hard to believe, especially in these times of rising white nationalism where the Democratic Party claims to be the counter balance to this disturbing trend.

     Jason is the first to tell you, when it comes to his politics, he is passionate and out spoken. He says he holds elected officials accountable. He believes his passion has often been misconstrued as confrontational and this passion has even been described more than once as bullying.  " If elected officials don't' answer my questions, I'm going to ask them again and make sure I get an answer. Me putting elected officials on the spot has made me a problem for the WA Dem establishment," Jason says. "I've had people of color say they appreciate me speaking out to the party insiders, something they feel they can't always do."      

The current kerfuffle stems from two incidents, both strangely enough having to do with flags. The first incident cited in a leaked document entitled "Summary of Call Complaint" occurred at a 44th District meeting in June 2018. It involved the United States flag, a pissed Precinct Committee Officer, and Mr. Call. Jason says he hasn't been standing for the flag since 2003 in response to the Iraq War. At the meeting in question, as usual he didn't stand for the flag. A fellow Democrat, who is a prison guard at the Monroe State Penitentiary and someone Jason had just helped get removed from a leadership position within the LD due to his ineffectiveness, turned around and stared him down as he sat for the Pledge. This interaction set the stage for a mild confrontation at the end of the meeting. As the defender of the flag left the building, Jason leaned in and said, "Hey Mike, you do know turning your back to the flag during the Pledge is disrespectful." The offended officer went off in response, calling him an "obnoxious asshole," and reaffirming his disdain for the flag demonstration, according to Call.

     Not letting the slight pass, Jason countered "Fuck off with your Nazi bullshit" which set off a heated volley of "Fuck you's" from both men, stunning the room of polite Democrats. Things calmed down, but as another member of the 44th left, she shouted "This is my party." According to Jason, this incident was handled within the district and he admitted such altercations "could not happen again."

Don't Act Like a Nazi, Don't Get Called a Nazi!

      For those a little rusty on their history, I was, it may seem a little out of place to equate such Flag fervor with "Nazi bullshit." However, it is perfectly reasonable to call someone who insists you stand for a flag a Nazi. In the 1930's Nazi's arrested thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses for not standing for the Nazi Flag. Shockingly, similar injustices happened throughout the twenties and thirties to Jehovah's   Witnesses' children who would not stand for the Pledge in school here in the US. The Supreme Court upheld the barbaric practice in 1940 in Minersville School District v. Gobitis. This case stood until in 1943, the Supreme Court ruled in " West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette someone could not be compelled to stand for the flag as it was a violation of their 1st Amendment rights, a decision crafted in direct response to what was going on in Nazi Germany. The court wrote, "If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein." 

"Your Flag's Coming Down"

     After this incident seemingly blew over, another chance to make a statement over a different flag presented itself to Jason. Call remembers, "I was taking my kid to school in March. As I was dropping my daughter off at her high school, I noticed a truck flying the confederate flag. I had a talk with my kids about what the flag stood for and promised I'd talk to the principal, but if it was still up there in a week, I told them I was going to cut it down." He did talk to the principal who said she couldn't do anything about the flag because it was off campus. Jason asked if she could at least speak with the kid and offered resources via email to help with the conversation.

     "I don't' know if the conversation happened, but the Flag was still up the next week, so I cut it down and tossed it in the back of the truck. "I live streamed cutting it down, because I'm not a coward and I wanted to show people what was going on in my neighborhood. The video was up for a while and there were some great conversations had about what I did, but Facebook eventually took the video down without my knowledge." Jason revealed that while he was cutting the Flag down, he noticed other racist messages dotting the back window of the truck, including a sticker with an outline of the US with the words "Fuck off, we're full!" written within the border.

       About ten days after the video, Jason says his LD chair started getting emails from centrist Democrats, saying they thought the video was inappropriate. The LD chair disagreed chalking it up to an act of civil disobedience, Jason says. "Remember the person who chased me outside after the other flag incident, well she went and complained to the chair of a neighboring LD about the video, which led to the "code of conduct" violation. On April 12, 2019, I got an email saying I was being reprimanded for violating the WA Democratic Party "code of conduct’, but they didn't tell me what it was until two months later when I was notified that I was to appear before a hearing to tell my side of the story.

Really, the Confederate Flag Democrats?

The Confederate flag is a symbol raised by traitors to the United States who chose to die fighting for the ability to own people, and worse to die to prove the supremacy of the white race. Today, many people have been misled to believe it has something to do with a positive Southern heritage and therefore is an impotent symbol in 2019. This has led to a sort of complacency toward the flag within the ranks of white society and institutions like the Democratic Party. A fact put on full display in the suspension of Jason Call from his position as a State Committee man after he unapologetically cut the symbol of hate down. 

      The Southern Poverty Law Center has this to say about the confederate flag. "But the argument that the Confederate flag and other displays represent “heritage, not hate” ignores the near-universal heritage of African Americans whose ancestors were enslaved by the millions in the South. It trivializes their pain, their history and their concerns about racism — whether it’s the racism of the past or that of today. And it conceals the true history of the Confederate States of America and the seven decades of Jim Crow segregation and oppression that followed the Reconstruction era."

      Jason was eventually allowed to tell his side of the story to an Executive Committee subcommittee manned and womanned by DNC representatives David McDonald and Sharon Mast.  However, the accused was not allowed to see any of the so-called evidence against him.  Furthermore, Jason and his two witnesses were permitted to answer questions only. After deliberating, the subcommittee offered up a resolution to the entire Executive Committee recommending he be suspended for six months.

     The WSDCC Executive Committee voted on August 20, 2019 to suspend Jason for six months with a vote of 14 - 7. Here is an excerpt from the "Resolution and Reprimand of Jason Call”. 

     "Mr. Call has failed to treat colleagues with the respect expected by the Code when they disagree with him and failed to assume that others have good intent; he has attacked colleagues who hold differing views from his with ad hominem or belittling labeling including, in at least one instance, calling a colleague a Nazi; in his capacity as a state committee member he has endorsed (rhetorically), if not advocated, on social media punching people with whose politics he disagrees (including but not limited to anyone labeled as a “Nazi”); in his capacity as a state committee person he has promoted on social media that his act of personal vandalism is an example of civil disobedience that should be emulated by others and potentially extended to destroying personal displays of support for Trump. Mr. Call exhibited no concern for the impact his conduct may have on others and has repeatedly stated his intent to repeat his acts and conduct. “

Dirty Politics?

         Jason strongly feels the first confrontation with the pissed PCO prison guard started in response to Jason pushing to have him removed from a key leadership position in the LD.  Additionally, now that he is suspended, his fellow State Committee person gets to cast his vote. "All of a sudden I have this come up. They've basically taken away my ability to vote on the new DNC members coming up in January. Furthermore, by taking me off the Central Committee, my counterpart in the 44th, someone who opposes many of my views, now has two votes for our LD. I've been silenced for the next six months and the Executive Committee has given the establishment another vote for the duration of my suspension."

      The suspension has also forced him to step away from his Separation of Church and State Committee chairmanship on the WSDCC, but the suspension has not slowed his activism down. Jason is running for Congress in the 2nd Congressional District against establishment candidate Rick Larsen. He has no appeal against the decision, but his supporters have vowed to fight the suspension. The Democratic Party continues to push the issue with state chair, Tina Podlodowski, saying the matter has to do with " "Misinformation, bullying, intimidation and harassment" in a recent hastily written email to the WSDCC Executive Committee. Jason says he did see the flag flying again on the truck, but he wasn't able to take action at that time.

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!