Christopher Golde

Nanotechnology

Nano manufactured products are made from atoms. The properties of those products depend on how those atoms are arranged. If we rearrange the atoms in coal we can make diamond. If we rearrange the atoms in sand (and add a few other trace elements) we can make computer chips. If we rearrange the atoms in dirt, water and air we can make potatoes.

Today’s manufacturing methods are very crude at the molecular level. Casting, grinding, milling and even lithography move atoms in great thundering statistical herds. It's like trying to make things out of LEGO blocks with boxing gloves on your hands.

In the future, nanotechnology will let us take off the boxing gloves. We'll be able to snap together the fundamental building blocks of nature easily, inexpensively and in most of the ways permitted by the laws of physics. This will be essential if we are to continue the revolution in computer hardware beyond about the next decade, and will also let us fabricate an entire new generation of products that are cleaner, stronger, lighter, and more precise.

The recent launch, from a Californian airbase, of a pair of 'picosatellites', the size of a pack of cards, is a critical test of nano engineering in space, and presages a future of nano satellites.

The tethered pair of "picosatellites," designed by The Aerospace Corporation under a project funded by the MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) Technology Office of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), were launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The tiny satellites are the smallest, with active capabilities, ever to be launched.

In addition to validating MEMS technology, the picosats are able to communicate with each other and a third picosatellite at the ground station. The use of patch antennas which allow for omnidirectional signals between the picosats and limit the 'envelope' of space they occupy.

String theorist Michio Kaku suggests molecular nanotechnology as one way to deal with the heat death of the universe: "There is nothing in the rules of science to prevent the regeneration of an advanced civilisation from the molecular level. For a dying civilisation trapped in a freezing universe, this may be the last hope."

Kaku also said, “Using wormholes which would normally be too small, too unstable, or the radiation effects too intense, we could send only atom-sized particles through a wormhole. In this case, a civilisation may embark upon the ultimate solution: passing an atomic-sized "seed" through the wormhole capable of regenerating the civilisation on the other side. This process is commonly found in nature. The seed of an oak tree, for example, is compact, rugged and designed to survive a long journey and live off the land. It also contains all the genetic information needed to regenerate the tree.

“An advanced civilisation might want to send enough information through the wormhole to create a "nanobot," a self-replicating atomic-sized machine, built with nanotechnology. It would be able to travel at near the speed of light because it would be only the size of a molecule. It would land on a barren moon, and then use the raw materials to create a chemical factory, which could create millions of copies of itself. A horde of these robots would then travel to other moons in other solar systems and create new chemical factories. This whole process would be repeated over and over again, making millions upon millions of copies of the original robot. Starting from a single robot, there will be a sphere of trillions of such robot probes expanding at near the speed of light, colonising the entire galaxy”.

Based on these theories it is feasible even now to imagine assembling space craft using nanotechnology that can self build on reaching a destination. It is also theoretically feasible that once we know more about wormholes in space that these nano-space vessels will be able to enter these holes to traverse enormous distances in both time and space.

Hieroglyphics

Over the centuries there has been many spectacular cultures with their own unique symbols and alphabets but there has been none as spectacular as the Egyptians with their hieroglyphics.

Hieroglyphics were used as a written language. Each of the symbols stood for a sound, unlike English, hieroglyphics were used phonetically. 

Numbers were written as many times as was necessary to make up the full number. Emphasis was always on laying them out as neatly as possible.

The Egyptians only used addition and subtraction and didn't use abstract theorems to calculate their numbers, instead they used tangible everyday objects - such as the number of bricks that will be needed, how much will be needed to fill a jar, etc. These objects were standardize at a very early date so would supply accurate results for the Egyptians.

They had no concept of zero but did use fractions (written by using an 'R' with a number under it i.e. 1/... )

For more Facts and Definitions go to Part 2..

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was born on March 14th, 1879, in Ulm, Württembert, Germany. He will probably always be remembered as the greatest mathematical genius of the modern world. He opened the door to quantum physics and the development of his ‘Theory of relativity’ allowed scientists to view the universe in a completely new light An ever curious mind, Einstein developed theories that still form the basis of modern cosmology to this day. Among many other things he made it possible for modern man to consider that time travel and multiple dimensions were possibly not just the stuff of comic books.  Honours he has received for his works include the Nobel Prize, which he was awarded in 1921, the Royal Society Copley Medal, which he was awarded in 1925, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1921, and he became an AMS Gibbs Lecturer in 1934.

He personally felt very responsible for the development of the atomic weapons that ended World War II and as a result he became a vocal advocate against nuclear weapons, and spoke out for international peace. Fittingly, a letter asking that his name be put on a manifesto urging all nations to give up their nuclear weapons was the last he wrote before his death. He passed away on April 17th 1955 at 1.30 am.

Ramesses II

Ramesses II (also known as Ramesses the Great and alternatively anglicised as Ramses and Rameses) was an Egyptian pharaoh. He lived from c. 1314 BC to 1224 BC and reigned from 1290 BC to 1224 BC, He ruled for a total of 66 years, becoming pharaoh at the age of 24 and dying in his 90th year. Ancient Greek writers (such as Herodotus) ascribed his accomplishments to the semi-mythical Sesostris.

He was the third king of the 19th dynasty, and the son of Seti I and his Queen Tuya. The most memorable of Ramesses' wives was Nefertari. Others among his wives were Isisnofret and Maetnefrure, Princess of Hatti. The writer Terence Gray stated in 1923 that Ramesses II had as many as 200 sons and 200 daughters; more recent scholars, however, believe his offspring, while numerous, were far fewer. His children include Bintah (Bintanath) (princess and her father's wife), Setakht (Sethnakhte), the Pharaoh Merneptah (who succeeded him), and prince Kha'emweset.

It is widely believed that it was Ramesses II that was the Pharaoh depicted in the fables of Moses.

This part of the novel outlines some of the facts and definitions that the premise of the novel is based on. Some are well known and some are not.

It makes good reference while and after you read 'The Darkness'.

Aswan High Dam

The town of Aswan in Upper Egypt marked the southern boundary of Ancient Egypt. It is one of the most beautiful places in the country with the town located on the east bank and the desert coming right to the Nile on the west bank.

The river is dotted with islands. Near the town, the two main ones are Elephantine and Kitchener. Kitchener's Island is the site of a botanic gardens, whilst Elephantine has ruins, a museum and an Oberoi hotel. Unfortunately, hotels are sprouting on a number of islands in the area.

The best view of Aswan is from the Aga Khan's Mausoleum on the west bank. For total relaxation, take a felucca around the islands.

Just south of Aswan is the Old Dam built around the turn of the century and later increased in height. Just south of the dam is the beautiful island temple complex of Philae. Even further to the south is the mighty Aswan High Dam built in the 1960s. Behind it have amassed the waters of Lake Nasser, which extend some 500 kilometres south along the old course of the Nile. The lake is often referred to as the Nubian Sea by tour operators who now operate cruise boats on the lake visiting old re-located sites.

The building of the High Dam at Aswan had grave implications. Much of Lower Nubia was submerged under the reservoir created by the dam, destroying monuments and archaeological sites from the First to the Third Cataracts of the Nile River. Ambitious rescue operations were begun in 1960, after an appeal was issued by UNESCO, (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization

Twenty monuments from the Egyptian part of Nubia and four monuments from the Sudan were dismantled, relocated and re-erected. Many others were identified during the survey, and were documented before their subsequent inundation. Many artefacts and archaeological treasures were lost forever.

ADS

An atmospheric diving suit or ADS is a small one-man articulated submersible of anthropomorphic 

form which resembles a suit of armour, with elaborate pressure joints to allow articulation while maintaining an internal pressure of one atmosphere.

The ADS can be used for very deep dives of up to 2300 feet (700m) for many hours, and eliminates the majority of physiological dangers associated with deep diving; the occupant need not decompress, there is no need for special gas mixtures, and there is no danger of decompression sickness or nitrogen narcosis. Divers do not even need to be skilled swimmers.

The ADS has variously been referred to as a Winnie the Pooh suit because of its large head, armored diving skirt, articulated diving suit, Iron Duke, Iron Mike, and 'deep-sea diving robot'. The term 'atmospheric diving suit' itself did not come into widespread use until the invention of the  JIM suit in the early 1970s.

Atmospheric Diving Suits in current use include the Newt suit/Hardsuit, and the WASP, both of which are self-contained and incorporate propulsion units. The Newtsuit/Hardsuit is constructed from cast aluminum (forged aluminum in version constructed for the US Navy for submarine rescue), while the WASP is of glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) body tube construction. The upper hull is made from cast aluminum. The bottom dome is machined aluminum. 

The Exosuit Diving Suit Stays Flexible Underwater

In the Exosuit, divers are surrounded by air, 80% nitrogen, 20% oxygen, at atmospheric pressure; they don’t need mouthpieces or oral-nasal masks to breathe.

Abu Simbel

Not only are the two temples at Abu Simbel among the most magnificent monuments in the world but their removal and reconstruction was an historic event in itself. When the temples (280 km from Aswan) were threatened by submersion in Lake Nasser, due to the construction of the High Dam, the Egyptian Government secured the support of UNESCO and launched a worldwide appeal. During the salvage operation, which began in 1964 and continued until 1968, the two temples were dismantled and raised over 60 meters up the sandstone cliff where they had been built more than 3,000 years before. Here they were reassembled, in the exact same relationship to each other and the sun, and covered with an artificial mountain. Antiquity experts have now filled most of the joins in the stone, but inside the temples it is still possible to see where the blocks were cut. You can also go inside the man-made dome and see an exhibition of photographs showing the different stages of the massive removal project.

Abu Simbel was first reported by J. L. Burckhardt in 1813, when he came over the mountain and only saw the facade of the great temple as he was preparing to leave that area via the Nile. The two temples, that of Ramesses II primarily dedicated to Re-Harakhte, and that of his wife, Nefertari dedicated to Hathor, became a must-see for Victorians visiting Egypt, even though it required a trip up the Nile, and often they were covered deeply in sand, as they were when Burckhardt found them.

Planetary Alignment

Some people have suggested that the combined gravity of various planets lined up could tug at Earth and create colossal tides or even earthquakes. Scientists say there is no basis for this. Many (most?) people believe that, when the planets align, they have an effect on the earth. People assume that somehow their gravity is focused and magnified, increasing their tidal forces and triggering an earthquake. To a person who doesn't understand tides (or gravity, or science), it must be easy to imagine that this is so.

The total pull of all the planets combined is 0.017 (the unit 1 being the gravitational constant of the moon to the Earth), not even 2% of the Moon's pull. There is no question that na allighnment exerts a gravitational force but not enough to do the Earth any damage.

Inevitably when discussing a planetary alignment, someone asks, "How often does this happen?" or "When will it happen again?"

It is hard to give a short and satisfying answer if more than two objects are involved. Of course, no series of alignments repeats exactly, but simply saying it that way is interpreted as avoiding answering the question. People have the instinctive feeling that even if a particular alignment doesn't repeat exactly, it repeats in a general way and there must be a way of putting a number to its rarity. This is certainly true of eclipses (the most interesting alignments), and its true of planetary alignments too. If the alignment is a simple conjunction of two planets, the answer is easy. But if it's several planets massed together, perhaps with the moon, and if they need to be in one of the "water" signs of the zodiac, for example, the answer is not obvious.

An analogy I like to use is to compare a complex series of alignments or a massing of planets to a baseball game. Many games end with the same score, but no game is ever repeated--just as no alignment is ever repeated. Another short answer, which is an over-simplification but which might be useful when time is short, is that all nine planets will never "line up" for the same reason you'll never flip an honest coin and get heads a million times in a row--the solar system won't last long enough for such an unlikely event to occur.

On May 5, 2000 the five classical planets plus the sun and moon spanned 26°, their closest separation since 1962 and their closest until 2675. Only Venus in the morning and Mars and the crescent moon in the evening were visible and the ecliptic grids are 5° apart.

From a vantage point high above the sun the planets did indeed look aligned. From bottom to top they are the earth, sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. The moon is near new and also aligned.

This was as seen from the earth whereas seen from the sun, the five planets, which in order from left to right are Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury, and Venus, span 50°. The earth is in the opposite direction. As seen from far above the sun they did indeed look aligned - as they actually were.

Facts and Definitions 1

Moses the prophet

Hebrew liberator, leader, lawgiver, prophet, and historian, lived in the thirteenth and early part of the twelfth century, B. C.

Of Levitic extraction, and born at a time when by kingly edict it had been decreed that every new male offspring among the Israelites  be drowned he the "goodly child" Moses, was concealed for three months in a basket on the banks of the Nile.

An elder brother and sister, Aaron and Mary, had already graced the union of Jochabed and Amram. The second of these kept watch by the river, and was instrumental in inducing Pharaoh's daughter, who rescued the child, to entrust him to a Hebrew nurse. The one she summoned for the charge was Jochabed, who, when her "son had grown up", delivered him to the princess. In his new surroundings Moses was schooled "in all the wisdom of the Egyptians".

Moses next appears in the bloom of sturdy manhood, resolute with sympathies for his degraded brethren. Inadvertently he hews down an Egyptian who was trying to appease the wrath of two compatriots who were quarrelling. He is misunderstood, however, and, when upbraided with the murder of the previous day, he fears his life is in jeopardy. Pharaoh has heard the news and seeks to kill him.

Moses flees to Madian. An act of rustic gallantry there secures for him a home with Raguel, the priest. Sephora, one of Raguel's seven daughters, eventually becomes his wife and Gersam his first-born. His second son, Eliezer, is named in commemoration of his successful flight from Pharaoh.

After forty years of shepherd life, Moses speaks with God. To Horeb in the heart of the mountainous Sinaitic peninsula, he drives the flocks of Raguel for the last time. A bush there flaming unburned attracts him, but a miraculous voice forbids his approach and declares the ground so holy that to approach he must remove his shoes. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob designates him to deliver the Hebrews from the Egyptian yoke, and to conduct them into the "land of milk and honey", the region long since promised to the seed of Abraham, the Palestine of later years.

During later years he confronts the Egyptians and supposedly infests them with three plagues before leading his people to the promised land with pharaoh in pursuit. The pharaoh is believed to be Ramesses II.

From Mount Nebo -- on "the top of Phasga" -- Moses views for the last time the Promised Land, and then dies at the age of 120 years. He is buried "in the valley of Moab over against Phogor", but no man "knows his sepulchre". (His burial place is unknown)

 

Trans Pacific Submarine cable

 
TPC-5CN or Trans-Pacific Cable 5 Cable Network is a submarine telecommunications cable system linking Japan, Guam, Hawaii and mainland USA.

It has landing points in:

Ninomiya, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan
Bandon, Coos County, Oregon, USA
San Luis Obispo, San Luis Obispo County, California, USA
Keawaula/Yokohama Beach, Wai'anae, Honolulu County, Oahu, Hawaii, USA
Tumon Bay, Tumon, Tamuning, Guam
Miyazaki, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan

It has a transmission capacity of 5 Gbit/s, and a total cable length of 22,500 km. It started operation on 31 December 1996.

Note: The information included in this section has been taken and edited from various online and hard copy journals. Although, the assembling of the information and its presentation is original the content is not.

It has been provided to offer the reader information about aspects of this novel that might not be commonly known. Some of the information is factual and some theoretical and every attempt has been made by the writer to identify for the reader the difference.

Scientific factual evidence provided is summarized and condensed to offer the reader a brief explanation and it has been researched to be as accurate a depiction of the subject as possible.

Uluru - Katja Tjuta National Park

 
The Anangu people have lived in the area for thousands of years. Some records suggest they may have been there for more than 10,000 years. On an expedition in 1872, the explorer Ernest Giles saw the rock formation from a considerable distance, although he did not reach the base. Giles described it as "the remarkable pebble". In 1873, the surveyor William Gosse followed his footsteps and reached the rock. He chose to name it in honor of the Chief Secretary of South Australia, Sir Henry Ayers. Giles himself chose to name the domes nearby for Olga, the Queen of Württemberg. 

The names Uluru and Kata Tjuta come from the local Anangu (Aboriginal) people and respectively mean "Earth Mother" and "Many Heads". In the Anangu language they are written as Uluru and Kata Tjuta, the letters with underscores indicating that they are pronounced with the tongue curled upwards and touching the upper part of the palate instead of the front part or the teeth. 

Eventually, the Australian government moved to a dual-naming policy - initially "Ayers Rock / Uluru", and then "Uluru / Ayers Rock". Both names are still in frequent use. Although most official materials use the Anangu names, the European names may be more familiar to outsiders (and some Australians).

Both Uluru and Kata Tjuta are considered sacred places by the Anangu people, the Aboriginal tribes that have lived there for thousands of years. The Australian government formally returned control of the area to the Anangu in 1985 under the condition that the land be jointly managed by the Anangu and the Australian parks and management services.

Visitors will notice efforts throughout the area to include and encourage respect for the Anangu perspective on the land. Much of Kata Tjuta is off-limits, for example, and climbing Uluru is strongly discouraged by sign-posts. (A few areas around the base of Uluru are intended to be off-limits for photography, although there is no problem with it throughout most of the park.) In practice, however, the daily management of the parks is handled by members of the Australian parks department.

 

The Great Fire of London

[The Great Fire of London, 1666]

The Great Fire of London began on the night of September 2, 1666, as a small fire on Pudding Lane, in the bakeshop of Thomas Farynor, baker to King Charles II. At one o'clock in the morning, a servant woke to find the house aflame, and the baker and his family escaped, but a fear-struck maid perished in the blaze.

     At this time, most London houses were of wood and pitch construction, dangerously flammable, and it did not take long for the fire to expand. The fire leapt to the hay and feed piles on the yard of the Star Inn at Fish Street Hill, and spread to the Inn. The strong wind that blew that night sent sparks that next ignited the Church of St. Margaret, and then spread to Thames Street, with its riverside warehouses and wharves filled with food for the flames: hemp, oil, tallow, hay, timber, coal and spirits along with other combustibles. The citizen firefighting brigades had little success in containing the fire with their buckets of water from the river. By eight o'clock in the morning, the fire had spread halfway across London Bridge. The only thing that stopped the fire from spreading to Southwark, on the other side of the river, was the gap that had been caused by the fire of 1633.

     The standard procedure to stop a fire from spreading had always been to destroy the houses on the path of the flames, creating “fire-breaks”, to deprive a fire from fuel. Lord Mayor Bludworth, however, was hesitant, worrying about the cost of rebuilding. By the time a Royal command came down, carried by Samuel Pepys, the fire was too out of control to stop. The Trained Bands of London were called in to demolish houses by gunpowder, but often the rubble was too much to be cleared before the fire was at hand, and only eased the fire's way onward. The fire blazed unchecked for another three days, until it halted near Temple Church. Then, it suddenly sprang to life again, continuing towards Westminster. The Duke of York had the presence of mind to order the Paper House demolished to create a fire break, and the fire finally died down.