by Eric Flint
You may be surprised to learn that some of these places actually do exist on planet Earth. With a little time and financial planning, you can visit them yourself and have a terrific day trip, or entire vacation. And you don't even need an FTL drive.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade—Petra, Jordan
Indiana Jones's exploits led him to many exotic destinations, but none so breathtaking as the city of Petra, Jordan, the stand-in site of the Canyon of the Crescent Moon. Built within a valley and cut into a 100-meter deep gorge around 200 BCE, Petra is a history buff's delight, with its Greek, Egyptian, Assyrian, and Roman influences.
You need a minimum of four days to explore the spread-out city, which contains such ancient necessities as churches, a theater, a treasury, and "The High Place of Sacrifice." The Nabataeans who built Petra even cut channels into the rocks to drain away the blood of sacrificed animals.
There are no hotels within several miles of Petra, but the better ones provide shuttle service to the city. Local Bedouins act as tour guides, and they can point out Petra's treasures in English. Exploring the city involves steep climbs, some of which can be alleviated by renting a donkey, camel, or horse.
Jordan is a moderate Muslim country, so women can wear their Western clothes (no tight shorts or bikini tops, however). Dress comfortably and wear sensible shoes because you can expect a lot of walking. But more importantly, expect a sense of wonder imparted by the remnants of ancient civilization.
As far as we know, there are no wizened Crusaders guarding the Holy Grail. Still, you would choose wisely to vacation in Petra.
For more information:
http://www.visitjordan.com/
Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones—Villa Balbianello, Tremezzo, Italy
According to my tour guide, who acted as liaison between the town of Tremezzo and the Star Wars film crew, a visiting George Lucas was so taken with Villa Balbianello that he wrote the love scenes between Anakin and Padmé specifically with the villa in mind.
The villa is a half-day destination, but the surrounding towns on the lake, including Bellagio, make this vacation well worth a three-day journey. Built in late 18th century, Balbianello was the second home of a wealthy cardinal. However, its interiors were informed by its last owner, Guido Monzino. Monzino, a wealthy explorer who climbed Mount Everest in 1973, had an entire room dedicated to his maps and research material.
Balbianello's exteriors are limited by its sloping promontory, but what is there makes an impact: cherubs carved into banisters, a loggia decorated with interwoven vines. But Villa Balbianello's biggest pull is its view of Lake Como, a lake so beautiful it's practically ethereal.
My husband and I rented a paddleboat in a nearby village and paddled out to the middle of the lake. Surrounded by blue water and snow-capped mountains, we didn't need a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. We had right then, right there.
For more information:
http://www.fondoambiente.it/english/Properties/Balbianell/index.htm
Star Trek: The Original Series—Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park, California
Star Trek was mostly shot on set, but the crew occasionally ventured outside the Paramount lot. For the episode "Arena," they chose to film in the Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park for its jagged red terrain and geometric beauty. And despite its seemingly remote location, it's a mere forty-five minutes away from Los Angeles.
The episode, with its hissing alien Gorn, became a cult classic. (The silhouette of the rocks became so iconic, it was even lampooned in Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey.) Now fans flock to "Gorn rock." But what do they see when they get there?
The park is best enjoyed by people who like a rugged environment and all of the activity it requires. Hiking and biking are great draws here. No need to bring a picnic basket, as the park has an American café, a Mexican restaurant, and a pizzeria.
The park is a day-trip for visiting fans, but its most appealing activities take place at night: the Astronomy Club of Santa Clara occasionally sets up telescopes for public viewings, and every other month a park ranger leads a one-hour nature hike by the light of the full moon.
Visitors also have to take the necessary precautions against heat, dehydration, and rattlesnakes (and presumably, alien gladiators). But that doesn't stop some people from climbing the mountain in full-body Gorn gear. "We have a lot of Trekkies, and they'll take pictures of one another and reenact the episode," says Sandy Dininger, Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation.
For more information:
Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park
661-268-0840
The Prisoner—Portmeirion, Wales
Who is Number One? I don't know, but I know where I'm staying when I visit Wales: Portmeirion, the film site of the cult classic TV show, The Prisoner. Number Six, a spy who had given up the service, found himself trapped in an eerily pleasant village. With flower gardens and a view of Cardigan Bay, this is a wonderful place for people to escape to, not from.
Portmeirion, a small Italian-influenced resort, consists of greenery not native to the British Isles, along with salvaged statuary and masonry. The estate is assembled in sucha way that a pink pavilion, a shrine to Buddha, and a building that is half Spanish villa/half log cabin look surprisingly perfect together. The result isa fanciful jigsaw puzzle.
The architect, Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, obviously reveled in a sense of whimsy. He scattered trompe l'oiel, such as a boat moored into stone, among perfectly real objects. Try to spot them as you wend your way to the beach or the nearby woods. You will need a day or two to enjoy Portmeirion and its charms.
Activities include tennis and golf (at a nearby green), but no human chessboard. An exception is made in March, when the board comes out for the annual Prisoner convention. Swimming is restricted to an indoor pool (mid-May through September only); unless you're an Estonian bronze-medal Olympic swimmer, the currents are too strong to swim in the sea.
When you enter Portmeirion, a statue of St. Peter greets you at the gate. But unlike the entrants of heaven and poor Number Six, you can leave the village whenever you want. But with such a delight to the eyes, why would you?
For more information:
http://www.portmeirion-village.com/
Lord of the Rings—various locations, New Zealand
One Ring to Bring Them All? You betcha. Lord of the Rings tourism brings visitors to New Zealand from all over the world; it may actually be responsible for a staggering 40% increase of tourists since December 1999. So you wouldn't be alone if you decided to spend your vacation passing through Hobbiton, known locally as Matamata. Seventeen of the original thirty-seven hobbit holes still remain, tucked into a picturesque valley.
With over 150 shooting locations, Peter Jackson made use of New Zealand's North and South Islands, and there are over a dozen package tours to prove it. In fact, you can have a Lord of the Rings driving tour, a helicopter tour, and a horse-riding tour—one of which allows you to meet the horses used in the movie..
You can talk with the locals, too. According to Bruce La Hood, regional manager of Tourism New Zealand, the best source of Lord of the Rings information comes from the Kiwis themselves. "With so many years in the making, so many horsemen and extras were needed that everyone has a little story."
You will need at least five days to follow in the hobbits' furry footsteps, but take ten or more to enjoy the cities and countryside. Eighty percent of all New Zealand flora do not exist elsewhere; there, it really is simple to imagine yourself in another world.
"Middle Earth is a real place," says Sir Ian McKellan on the Lord of the Rings tourism website, "and it's New Zealand."
For more information:
http://www.newzealand.com/travel/about-nz/culture/lotr-2003/introduction.cfm
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Thanks to Linda Bushyager and Michael Willems.
Photography credits:
New Zealand photo by Ian Brodie. Reprinted with the permission of Tourism New Zeal
and
Villa Balbaniello photo by Carol Pinchefsky
Portmeirion picture is reprinted with the permission of Portmeirion Hotel
Petra, Jordan photo by Michael Willems
Gorn Rock photo by Sandra Dininger. Reprinted with the permission of the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation.
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My Father's Watch
Written by Stephen Euin Cobb
If you thumb through a new and freshly printed physics textbook from any university on Earth, you will be looking at the culmination of centuries of careful work by thousands of dedicated scientists; such a book is a treasure beyond description, easily comparable to the lost library of Alexandria. If you doubt this valuation, imagine what price it would bring if you could take it back in time a hundred years. Or conversely, what would the large governments of the world pay right now for a similar book published a hundred years in the future?
But as wonderful as is the information in a new physics textbook, someday it will all have to be rewritten. Some chapters will be rewritten within decades, some may take millennia, but all will require change.
This is because every scientific explanation of the physical world, whether we call it a theory or a law, eventually has to be modified to remain accurate under conditions that were not foreseen by its original creator. Newton's laws of motion were correct until we applied them to velocities near that of light or within a powerful gravitational field. Under those conditions, Newton's laws are now superseded by Relativity. And Relativity also was correct, until we discovered such things as the wave nature of particles and instantaneous action at a distance which is where quantum mechanics now supersedes Relativity.
Because we are continually applying them to new and untested situations, every law and every theory must eventually be adjusted. So while it would be comforting to pretend, for example, that the laws of thermodynamics are greater than the laws of Isaac Newton and will never need adjustment as his did, it would also be naive. Eventually we will discover places and situations where they do not apply as we understand them today.
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When I was in my early twenties, during the second half of the nineteen seventies, my father got a new watch and gave me his old one. Thrift is a concept that runs strong in my family. An item no longer needed is not thrown away; instead, you look around and find someone who can use it and you give it to them. I suppose this is a form of recycling, but that's not the point.
The point is that old watch, with its two tiny bits of welding spatter melted permanently into the glass which covered its dial, never needed winding. The natural movements of the wearer's wrist during the course of a day would wind the mainspring.
This was done by a simple device hidden inside: just a little weight mounted on a rocker arm. When the rocker arm pivoted to the left a spur caught one of the gears of the mainspring and rotated it, tightening the mainspring a very tiny amount. When it pivoted in the opposite direction the spur slid across the gear without catching and so did not rotate it in the opposite direction which would have loosened the mainspring.
That these ratcheted back-and-forth pivotings of the rocker arm occurred at random did not matter. By pivoting thousands of times during a day, the rocker arm tightened the mainspring to its limit and kept it there.
For centuries, simple devices like that have sparked the minds of naive inventors with the dream of designing a magical machine that would run forever. Usually this dream machine was powered by the very same momentum which it produced. Technically, this would make it the mechanical equivalent of an audio feedback loop, a physical manifestation of a vicious circle.
The designer's naivety was, of course, displayed in the failure to understand that all machines are subject to friction. Usually this friction is created as surfaces rub against one another in bearings or gears, and sometimes it is a product of electromagnetic induction, in which the free electrons (those not bound in atoms) within wires or other metal parts are shoved around within those wires and metal parts and, by being shoved, rub against the substance of the metal itself, producing the form of friction we call electrical resistance. In cases where metal parts have an irregular geometry, free electrons are sometimes shoved into a corner or narrow place within the part from which they cannot escape, and by being squeezed together, produce a static electric resistance as well.
Friction is universal. Human beings have never made any device that was not subject to friction.
Even on the nanoscale, friction is universal. But while some things are the same down there, some things are very different.
For example, on the scale at which we human beings experience things—sometimes called the macroscale—"temperature" is a mysterious quality of substances that we can feel, but which usually remains invisible. If, however, you could see things on the nanoscale "temperature" would be neither invisible nor mysterious. On that scale it is the obvious and random physical motion of individual objects and/or the vibration of their parts.
Only by reducing temperature to absolute zero will things actually stop moving and vibrating. This is because temperature is defined as the amount of movement or vibration on a molecular, atomic or subatomic level. Temperature and movement are not similar or somehow related; they are the same thing exactly.
On the nanoscale, random motion and vibration are universal and unending. On this scale there is never a pause and never a rest; which brings me back to my father's old watch. If it could be shrunk so small that it too was of the nanoscale—so small that its component gears and screws and housing might each be composed of a single large molecule—I wouldn't have to wear it for it to wind itself. Its molecular-sized rocker arm would rock of its own. Not with a uniform beat, of course, but with a frequency both random and perpetual, driven by the thermal vibrations within the rocker arm itself.
Yes, you read that correctly. And yes, you know what it means. There may be thousands of ways to design a patentable machine on the nanoscale which will convert the endless parade of random vibrations which we call "room temperature" into usable energy: not just nano-spring winders, but nano-fluid pumps or even nano-piezoelectric generators coupled to nano-diodes for shoving electricity along a wire or squeezing it tightly into a battery. (Piezoelectrics are those materials which produce an electrical voltage when squeezed or flexed. And diodes are a type of resistor with a high electrical resistance in one direction and a low electrical resistance in the other—thus allowing electrons to flow in only one direction.)
I suppose all this is analogous to extracting energy from the random up and down movement of ocean waves. They too are random, universal and never stop. The difference being that ocean waves are large while the vibrations within molecules are small. (There are those who might protest that waves are driven by wind, but it seems unlikely that a rocker arm will care if it is rocked by big wind-driven waves or by tiny heat-driven molecular vibrations.)
Imagine, if you will, an integrated circuit chip which, instead of containing a CPU or the circuits for random access memory, contains nano-piezoelectric generators driven by their individual molecular vibrations and arranged in a thousand layers of a million generators per layer. Or imagine a grid work of nano-fluid pumps driven by their molecular vibrations built into a sheet of Mylar plastic making it a self-powered filter through which fluids could pass in only one direction. Or maybe build these pumps into the rubber of toy balloons: you buy them at the store, take them out of the bag, set them on the table and watch as they inflate themselves, sucking air straight in through the rubber—or toss them in the tub and let them become water balloons.
Do you fancy yourself an inventor? With very little effort you can probably work out three or four much better designs in an hour. Now, multiply yourself by thousands of other people who will also read this article. Feeling crowded? It gets worse.
U.S. patent law has a clause which states that no patent may be granted for a device described in any publication which
has been publicly available for more than one year. Thus the publication of this article has set a deadline for all those who wish to patent a device based on the description I have just provided you. This means you'd better get moving. You have less than one year.
During the next decade or two we will enter a new era of endless, nonpolluting energy. Welcome to the future. Tag. You're it.
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While I first thought these thoughts in the late seventies, others have from time to time thought them too. Unfortunately, because so much enthusiastic quackery has been put forth by those who mean well but who are, shall we say, innocent of any rigorous scientific understanding, there rests upon this subject a terrible stigma. Snake oil is given greater credence.