Star Trek - predicting the future

 Today we boldly go where no man has gone before to tell you that Star Trek technology predicted today's devices. Don't believe me? Well, go ask Cortana or Siri to search for Star Trek and think about the fact that a computer just obeyed your voice command.

A picture of Transparent Aluminum

Here comes your crash course in Star Trek plot, in case you clicked this and never watched the old or new Star Trek movies and TV shows. Captain James Kirk is the captain of the starship Enterprise in the mid 22nd to late 24th century, where the plot then features Captain Picard. Their mission is to explore space. The introduction says it all. Read the narrated introduction below and you pretty much have the gist of the show and movies, give or take smaller plot points. It started with very little budget, and now we still love it, only now it has a budget that makes the costumes look less like the cast all went to goodwill. 

"Space, the final frontier

These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise

Its five-year mission

To explore strange new worlds

To seek out new life

And new civilizations

To boldly go where no man has gone before"

The Technology

The characters on the show communicated with flip phone communicators, talked to their computers to command them to compute, used portable memory discs, used wireless headsets, used Ultrasound technology, walked through automatic doors, communicated with facetime-like systems to other ships, consulted their GPS, and used biometrics to track health. That isn't even all they did that we can do today. I forgot to add tablet computers, tractor beams, transparent aluminum, and bionic eyes for the blind. Oh, and did I mention tricorders, badge communicators, hyposprays, replicators, cloaking devices, Google glass, universal real-time translators, and diagnostic beds? 

This could be explained by the inspired scientists that loved this show and took it as an invitation to make these devices. Sometimes, though, we didn't even realize we could replicate an older dream, like when transparent aluminum happened. This TV show started in the 1960s, around 1966. We walk around with cell phones and touch screens today and think nothing of it, but in 1960 we were far from touch screens. 

Real Gadgets

Some of the ones you might not know, the less obvious ones that don't have homes in our pockets, will now be explained. Captain Picard could order his earl grey tea hot with a food replicator. While it may not be up to tea, we can print other food. 

Another thing that may be a little foreign, but only a bit, is that alien languages were translated in real-time, without a human translator. This is why all the audience ever heard was English, despite several races of aliens being on the show. There is an app for this now.

Tricorders scan for geological, biological, or meteorological anomalies. These do exist today, and one was built at McMaster University in Ontario. 

In this vein of thinking, I also introduce you to the holodeck, also known as virtual reality in one room. Project Holodeck created a fictional world through VR goggles. 

Tractor beams, which are invisible and pull a ship, are actually in progress and may be used in a NASA mission if successful. NASA has also suggested that warp drive is possible. 

This one may "stun" (yeah, bad pun, I know) you, but there is a gun similar to a phaser that has existed since the Iraq War. It is called a dazzler and it sends electromagnetic radiation in pulses to stop anyone in their tracks. 

Unfortunately, you can't beam out and into work, and for good reason. They have only tried anything close to it with small cells, which copy to the other place but kill the original cells. Safely beaming is not an option, not yet. 

Do you hate needles? We have a solution for you! Hypospray, which sprays medication into the skin. It is jet-injection and is less painful than needles. 

Transparent aluminum requires some explanation. It is lighter than armor and stronger than bullet-proof glass. It is known as ALON. The Airforce is testing it for windows and canopies. It is the first picture you see in this blog, in case you wanted a visual of it. 

There is a VISOR that allows one of the characters, Geordi, to see, though he is blind. VISOR stands for "visual instrument and sensory organ replacement". It is possible to get close to this in medical times today. Similar things do exist. You could not pass a driving test, but you could avoid the use of a seeing-eye dog. They are called bionic eyes. 

Geordi and his VISOR

So, if you truly want a Spock funeral, you could have one. Torpedo-coffins, like the one Spock was torpedoed from, have been invented. You may not be able to buy one yet, but it is real. 

Today teleconferences (no, not Zoom) are possible. You can legitimately have the illusion of being in the room with all your coworkers while all being separate in your own spaces. (Given the world right now, this is kind of useful for those who opt-out of in-person meetings, but I'd imagine it might be just as exhausting as Zoom calls are.)

Conclusion

Is your mind sufficiently blown? Feel free to correct me if I got anything wrong, in case I did so. I'd rather be able to know if I got it wrong. Dig into my research below and have fun rewatching old favorites with a new perspective.

Sources:

https://genius.com/Star-trek-star-trek-opening-lyrics

https://qz.com/766831/star-trek-real-life-technology/

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/31876/12-star-trek-gadgets-now-exist

https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/10-star-trek-technologies.htm

Pictures:

CNN Business

SF Gate

Star Trek

Spies with fabric and string

I was going to do this topic a while back, but I'm doing it now instead. Let's talk about knitting morse code and the role of art in espionage. 

Morse Code Shawl example

Some think the arts are only for children, others don't, but the spy trade takes all forms. Wars produce espionage. Having to send messages to the other side and infiltrate for information takes unusual methods and unusual people, some of which look perfectly ordinary to the average human. Put simply, a spy should blend into the environment. What is more common than knitting during a World War when women are told to knit gloves and hats for the troops? 

Knitting

No surprise here, women were a prominent force in the spy world, mostly because knitting for the troops and sitting in the domestic sphere knitting was a social norm. Female spies could blend in and knit knots of morse code into their sweaters for days, all under the enemy's constant view. It was perfect. You give the sweater to your lovable, soldier fiance and he passes it on to intelligence, who unravel it and hold it against a marked door frame to reveal a message. It is a form of Steganography, which physically hides messages in plain sight. Men and women could both do this method of code, since morse code and knot patterns worked so well in, not only knitting, but embroidery and all string arts. Drop stitches here, add stitches there, tie a few extra knots here, and no one is the wiser. British, Soviet Union, and United States have all used this method of hiding messages in yarn.

That doesn't mean it was fool-proof, especially since the US caught on to this method and banned the sharing of knitting patterns internationally in case an innocent pattern wasn't so innocent. The UK, at one point, banned knitting because of a growing paranoia about secret messages in knitting. Foolproof? No. Smart? Yes. 

Some cases of this code aren't in stitching. In some situations watching someone under a cover of knitting or embroidery is a better cover than holding a newspaper. It makes you look preoccupied, so people ignore you. A woman knitting in front of a window, or several women around train stations (all recording train movement in their knitting for Belgian Resistance) is subtle enough to work. Also, smuggling messages, plans for aircraft, and anything else can be done in a knitting bag or disguised as a ball of yarn. Below I include the brief descriptions of real spies who did what I have described in this section.

UK - Madame Levengle - She sat knitting in front of window, tapping messages with her heels for her kids to record (while pretending it was homework) in the floor below, all while living with a German Marshal. The German suspected nothing.

Soviet Union (WWII) - Elizabeth Bently - She ran two spy rings sending damaging information about the US to the Soviet Union. She also smuggled out early plans for the B-29 and other aircraft in her knitting bag. 

United States (Revolutionary War) - Molly Rinker - She spied for George Washington while knitting, putting scraps of paper in a ball of yarn, then throwing the yarn off a cliff down to a soldier below.

Britain (WWII) - Phyllis Latour Doyle - She parachuted into Normandy, was friendly and unthreatening, and knitted morse code messages to Britain.

Phylis Latour Doyle

Art on Canvas

Welcome to the 1950's. This is Cold War territory - no physical fighting, just a couple of countries verbally sparring. Think psychological warfare. Canvas art for the use of government intelligence included propaganda posters, as well as abstract art shows. The US' thoughts on how art could change and form the country wasn't wrong logically, but it was manipulation. The success of these artists made intelligence services want them. Abstract art shows also allowed some artists to defect across the Iron Curtain. Eventually, the government lost control of these artists, after the 1950's ended, and they made their views on Vietnam very, very clear. They couldn't be held back or controlled for long. Art to portray an ideology or view on the current events continues even today. Psychological warfare is probably still happening, especially with political tensions high and a health crisis going on that gives government more control than before. I would encourage you, my readers, to keep this in mind.

Underground Railroad Quilts

This is not proven, but some think and fully believe that safe houses on the Underground Railroad had quilts on clotheslines and windowsills that were encoded with visual cues about the area slaves were in. Anything from a bowtie meaning to dress in disguise and in high status to a log cabin meaning people were safe to speak to and seek shelter from to a zigzag pattern that means to zig zag because you might be stalked by hounds. The problem is that some patterns weren't even around then. Also, concrete evidence of these quilts is either slim or none. If a quilt that supports this theory is found it is generally in bad shape, been through a flood for example. 

Another point was also made; as this does count as espionage, most probably won't spill their secrets so easily. Bottom line, if it happened the quilts are gone and secrets get buried with the dead. Southern ways are pretty unyielding and racism is still here - especially southern racism. It didn't die so quickly, and not as quickly as we'd like. If you supported abolition as a family back then you could die doing this Underground Railroad. Would you flaunt these quilts soon after, or even ten years after? No. Abolitionists in the south weren't popular, so you could still be seriously hurt or blackballed, even murdered for it. My point? The concrete evidence of this practice is probably destroyed by time or the owners themselves, in order to save their own lives. 

With the current racism even today there is also a consideration of who will tell whom what. Back then the climate was even worse, so do you as a reader think a former black slave, or relative of one, would tell a white man or woman all the details of their escape from slavery and give up the codes that saved so many lives? It is possible they don't feel comfortable doing so, whether you are for abolition or not. If abused by a person who is white for a long time, one doesn't just sit back and spill their beans. A black interviewer is more likely to get more information. 

Sources:

https://blogsofwar.com/julia-tatiana-bailey-art-as-espionage-in-cold-war-america/

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/knitting-spies-wwi-wwii

https://handwovenmagazine.com/knitting-war-spies-history/

https://folklife.si.edu/magazine/underground-railroad-quilt-codes

Pictures:

Fringe Association

Daily Mail

Spring Hill Historic Home

ghost hunting and Christianity

Ghosthunting and curiosity toward the supernatural are getting more and more popular lately. Is it biblical? Let's dive into that. 

First of all, I'd like to define the term "ghost". The Bible does not use it how we do. It is mostly "giving up" the ghost that you see. Short answer, it doesn't refer to a ghost as a being lingering on earth as a soul without a body. The Bible does not support our use of the word "ghost". It is used only to show someone giving up the ghost, or the name Holy Ghost. Christian belief says that no souls linger on earth - there is only Heaven or Hell after we die. So, we do not seek ghosts in ghost hunting. 

What are you seeking when you hunt "ghosts"? I hate to tell you all this, but you might be seeking contact with a demon. The use of seances and ouija boards as party games is not anything new to our society - look up the victorian period parties for proof - and it was a dangerous thing to do. It never should be entertainment to seek the supernatural or the dead. "Parlour tricks" was a fascination that the victorian era took to like a child to a cookie. (My last source can tell you more about it.) Today this is replaced by ghosthunter shows, that much like parlour games, are often fraudulent and fake. To keep ratings up there are faked hauntings as well as possibly, but not likely, real ones. No ratings and no shows equal no money, so you can understand why they'd fake it, but it is still not okay. 

But I Saw the Haunting On TV!

Ghosthunter shows tend to be fake, and so do hauntings on youtube or TV. If you can rig it, it can be faked. Houdini the magician debunked so many seances that he became famous for it. No one could prove they were a medium to him. What you see often are frauds, frauds making money on the gullible, curious, and desperate. If you are going to go to a medium out of desperation you'll believe anything you want to hear. The psychic on the phone will cost you by the minute to tell you sweet lies and whatever your little heart desires to hear. My point? It is often a false paranormal experience you see on TV. 

"But I experienced one myself!", you say. Well, so have I, but the difference is that I didn't seek it. I just happened to be living in a house that was probably haunted (with three other women who can support that claim). Real experiences are rare, to be completely honest with you. I can tell you all about my awful experiences in that house, truly, and it would be no lie, but you couldn't pay me enough to go do it again. I don't understand why you'd seek communication with the dead or go ghost hunting for fun when it was utterly terrifying to live in a possibly haunted house for one semester. I do have a point to this paragraph and it is this; real experiences do happen whether we invited them in or not. Not all is fraud, but most of the TV shows are fake. 

I will say one more thing on ghost hunting shows. Even I am curious about it. With that, please note that some watch the shows to laugh at ghosthunters and prove they are fakes. I may be one of those people depending on the youtube video and how dumb the ghosthunter acts. If it is clearly fake it is now a comedy in some of our eyes. It may still mess with your head though, so be careful. I have to curb that curiosity, too, so you are not alone.

Side Affects

As said before, a soul doesn't linger on earth, so you may be confronting or seeking demons. This leads to and has a history of messing with ghost hunters long after they stop. Fear issues, demons following you home, possession (should you not have Jesus), oppression by demons, and altogether bad times for all. It is not a healthy obsession. You contact demons and it is nearly impossible to lose them. If you don't want a spirit to follow you home don't go hunting for it. The only exception to the rule is if God told you to confront something and authorized you to do it, thus giving you His umbrella of protection. If unauthorized you can find some nasty surprises in store for you. Do you like being attacked until you are on the verge of suicide or suicidal behavior (it happened to someone)? Then don't open the door, because it has happened to some ghosthunters. 

God has gifted some who are called to exorcise demons and save the demon-afflicted. This is God-authorized. The gift of discerning whether a spirit is of or not of God is given by God. Dive into God's Word for more proof of it. Paul did this. Jesus did this. We are supposed to help and pray over those who need our help, as Christians. God does not say to leave the afflicted to suffer. This is the one loophole you have. God does not say "go see if demons will speak to you for fun" or "go ahead, experiment in the occult"! Read that sentence again and remember it well. 

Spiritual Warfare

In case you don't know and weren't taught what spiritual warfare was, here's a crash course in it. Satan was thrown from Heaven, with all the angels who followed him instead of God, after he tried to take on God. Satan and his demons were angels of God that became fallen angels. Fallen angels are demons now. The goal of Satan is to turn us away from God and thus far, demons are the most likely explanation for "hauntings". 

They wage war in our minds and there are battles we never see, but make no mistake, they happen often. Demons can possess those that don't have the Holy Spirit, oppress any human, and mess with our dreams and perspectives. We fight as Christians with God's truth at every showing of evil. We wear the armor of God (eph. 6:10-18) and call out for and praise God at every opportunity. God has won the war. God fights for us every day, protecting us. Satan has lost and God has won. Read that sentence as many times as you need to. 

Conclusion

All this may have you laughing at me (should you think I'm a looney), or you may be nodding with vigor. Either way, don't mess with the supernatural and never seek it out for fun. If you have opened that door you may not be able to close it. Any contact with the supernatural has to be God authorized, no joke. Fight back against the spiritual warfare you face, absolutely, but don't go where God says you shouldn't. You will be experiencing some unpleasant consequences should you do so. There are several former ghosthunters that can confirm that. 

Pictures:

A&E

Medium

Deliverance Church Kasarani Zimmerman

Sources:

 https://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/3323/christians-and-ghost-hunting

https://yorknewstimes.com/editorial/guest-opinion-paranormal-investigations-and-christianity-not-two-peas-in-a-pod/article_cc240d58-d546-11e1-b1de-001a4bcf887a.html

https://www.sandiegohaunted.com/is-ghost-hunting-against-christian-values/

https://www.compellingtruth.org/paranormal-activity.html

https://answersingenesis.org/angels-and-demons/do-you-believe-in-ghosts/

https://www.bible-knowledge.com/the-dangers-of-ghost-hunting/

https://www.allinallchurch.com/teachings/2016/7/25/spiritual-warfare-basics

https://www.epm.org/blog/2019/Jun/24/spiritual-warfare-demons-angels

https://credomag.com/2020/07/angels-demons-and-spiritual-warfare/

https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-victorian-supernatural

Kansas Jayhawkers

Jayhawkers are not just a Kansas sports team. They wreaked havoc in the name of abolition in Kansas and hated Missouri with a passion. Let me introduce you to the Kansas-Missouri border wars. In case you were curious, this was both pre and during the Civil War. 

To give you a snapshot of what the border war was, here's a brief history lesson. Kansas is for abolition, Missouri is not. For some, there is still animosity over this period of time, mostly due to the damage done to both states and the number of innocent people killed in the process. The Civil War led people to join a side to repay the other side for its actions during the border war. 

The Jayhawkers would use the term "Jayhawker" happily, and the term "redlegs", since they wear red uniforms sometimes. Since some didn't have uniforms early on, it was unknown if they were civilian or military. Jayhawks in verbiage is a cross between hawks and bluejays (so noisy predators). This military abolitionist group was also known as thieves and murderers. To Jayhawk something is to steal something. This whole situation didn't end when Kansas was declared a free state, so after the Civil War it was referred to as "bleeding Kansas". Missouri was known as bushwhackers or border ruffians. A true Jayhawker or redleg wouldn't likely join the US army, but both bushwhackers and Jayhawkers received government backing.

Raids

These groups, whether they were trying to further freedom for slaves or not, did atrocities that were extremely violent. Jayhawkers sacked the town of Osceola for two days. 2500 people lived there at the time. It has never achieved that number again. Less than 200 survived. That was September 22, 1861. They freed every slave they found and let them hitch a ride to freedom with them. The words below can tell you clearly how the people of Osceolo, Missouri feel about it in the 2000s.

IT IS FURTHER RESOLVED that citizens of the City of Osceola, Missouri requests the University of Missouri to educate the above-named Defendants on the FULL historical origins of the “Border War.”

IT IS FURTHER RESOLVED that no citizen of the City of Osceola or the alumni of the University of Missouri shall ever capitalize the “k” in “kansas” or “kU,” as neither is a proper name or a proper place.

With those words, I present you with the fact that Osceola contested the use of the Jayhawker as Kansas University's image. I'm pretty sure they still hold a grudge. To be fair to this town, they did have one million worth of goods stolen, their whole town drunkenly insulted for two days, and the whole town burned down. Not to mention the "court-martial" of 9 men that led to their execution-style deaths. I think maybe you'd hold a grudge, too. 

Osceola, Missouri was not the only town that suffered. The raid of Lawrence, Kansas by Missouri Bushwhackers (led by William Quantrill) was nearly as bad. The shouts of "remember Osceola" were clearly heard in this attack. It was spurred on by an incident where a jailhouse of  5 Missouri's women were killed in a collapse. They had been jailed by Kansas, I believe. Quantrill's sister died there (at age 14) and he led all these angry people to take revenge for their loss and Osceola. The raid they conducted killed 200 men and boys. The Osceola raid had a price. 

The War

The Jayhawkers were led by James Lane (who spearheaded the Osceola raid), but also by Charles R. Jennison and James Montgomery. As the Civil War began raids dropped lower in number. People could take sides and take revenge for all the violence towards them. There were three reasons to join the Jayhawker side: taking advantage of chaos to be a marauder, sincere abolitionism, or being a devout unionist defending a home. Old scores were prepared to be settled. They became the Independent Mounted Kansas Jayhawks. They had a lot to do with Kansas being a free state.

Their technical orders were to protect the border from General Sterling Price. They decided to use it as an excuse to raid pro-slavery homes, which extended to all Missourians no matter their beliefs on slavery. They were the Seventh Volunteer Cavalry that lived off of looting and stealing from these people they deemed enemies. They would gather adult men in public squares, put them at bayonet point, and make them swear allegiance to the Union. As expected, some of these men who were in this Cavalry were previous slaves in Union uniforms. This actually spurred recruitment to Confederate forces, just so they could defend themselves from Jayhawks.

A border wars raid

No Saints Here

I'll end by showing you both sides of this border war weren't saints. Jesse and Frank James learned from William Quantrill and both sides of the border war bred those seeking violence. It churned out men who sought blood and chaos. There were no real heroes here, even if slavery did end for some blacks due to Jayhawk raids. The damage was too over the top to be justified. They had orders and chose to use them as excuses to cause pain to others. The border war was nasty, much like most of the Civil War, but it lasted longer and left painful imprints on the memories of Kansas and Missouri alike.

Pictures:

Pinterest

Wikipedia

Legends of America

Sources:

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/kansas-jayhawkers/

https://civilwaronthewesternborder.org/encyclopedia/jayhawkers

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/bushwhackers-and-jayhawks

https://www.espn.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/35412/the-dark-side-of-the-jayhawks-nickname