Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Happy Halloween - new short story


Happy Halloween!
Come, enter my sanctum sanctorum....

I'm hoping you are finding this from a safe and secure location, considering the storm Sandy along our east coast. 

Just for today I'm going almost all out. I'm offering several of my works for free, including my latest and popular, EarVu that went up to #6 on Amazon on Monday. But also there is another popular short story of mine, Simon's Beautiful Thought, about a man and his smart phone's AI. Japheth, Ishvi and The Light, is a short Zombie story about a religious commune, a Decon squad of soldiers and the Zombie Apocalypse. I tried last night, but I'm afraid that I didn't get that one published soon enough for a free promotion day on Amazon, so it's available but for 99 cents. However, drop by tomorrow and I'll have it available then.

Andrew, my horror novella about a young child and some horrific and powerful events in his life which leads to, (and finally) my full length horror book (not for the faint of heart), Death of Heaven (see also, DeathOfHeaven.com). Finally, my Anthology of Evil, a collection of some of my more vintage short stories (I'm currently compiling a new, Anthology of Evil II, also). Hey, go nuts!

We've also just sold our first iPod cover available with the Ear Vu cover design on it!

If you are being inconvenienced by that wicked wench Sandy blowing the hell out of your life, and you can access this blog, then perhaps it will offer you some free relief in readings to subvert your attention until things get back to normal in your life. And if you're not going through some horrendous storm, enjoy. Either way, please feel free to share.

All the best to everyone and do avoid the more scary spirits (though some of the liquid ones might just be called for in this weather....)!

For now, here is a short-short story that I won a little award for earlier this year, called....

The Regent's Daughter
_-^-_
She rode in on a steed of excessive grandeur. She came to an abrupt stop, slipping off the beast with no consideration for who was around. An attendant rushed to her and handed her a goblet of Royal mead. She took the cup and the attendant rushed off to alert the Regent, Her Father.

Sipping, she smiled. Who wouldn’t? For what it cost that drink could feed me for an entire week of Sundays. A brace of Men-at-Arms rushed to surround her as all shrunk back. Even to approach her could mean death, were she in a bad mood; be it lunar inspired or elsewise.

She turned, looking around her and taking in the area. The market surrounded the entrance of her Father’s castle while a moat hugged the castle walls below the drawbridge she stood nearby. Between her family’s army and their wealth, no one in the country would ever attempt an attack.

But paranoia, is for the powerful.

I wasn’t paranoid. I had nothing anyone would want. But then my life was worthless. I had no family, belongings, or money. Just, a skill. I could outshoot anyone with bow or blade. Yes, blade. But that was neither here nor there. So, I just stood and stared at her. God, she was incredible. I would give my left arm for one night with such a woman. If she let me, I would….

She snapped her head around and stared directly at me, locking eyes with me as she sipped. The soldiers around her snapped to as if she had exclaimed a warning. But there hadn’t been a word, just a blink of her left eye. I began to sweat. It was hot out but that wasn’t it. Her eyes drilled into and through me. I had heard tales, stories of what had happened to her lovers. I heard she was like a black widow. You tasted her love, then you didn’t live to tell about it.

I backed away and she nodded slightly at me. I froze. She had indeed noticed me. It wasn’t just my imagination. That imagination that had gotten me beaten repeatedly as a child. My father hated inattention. One time I wasn’t paying enough attention to pumping the bellows on his fire as he was heating metal to make a sword and….

She stepped toward me.

My thoughts froze. I took another step back.

“Here,” she said, grinning.

I started to back away but her men started toward me. I stopped. They stopped. I sighed. She smiled. So, I walked forward. Twenty paces later, I stopped directly before her.

“M’Lady,” I said.

“Name?”

“Harcurt,” I replied.

“Harcurt,” she retorted. “What is that you have there?”

I had a bow strung over my back, a quiver over my shoulder. But that was nothing to someone such as, She.
“Nothing, M’Lady,” I said, confused.

“You looked at me,” she said, confidently.

“I-I, yes, M’Lady. I am sorry. I looked, but what man could not behold such beauty when it dismounts right before a man.” I broke further into a sweat. She smiled. It was a horrific smile to behold on such a beautiful face.

“Yesss, I know,” she said, smirking in a fearsome way. “Not to worry,” she said, “here, drink.”

“No, M’Lady, I couldn’t presume, surely. I….”

“Here, drink,” she commanded. No one had ever felt more uncomfortable, ever, I was sure. I took the goblet from her. Nervously, I lifted it to my lips and sipped. It was delicious and it burned my lips, my tongue. I swallowed and I could feel it fluidly seeking my belly. Suddenly, I felt a burst of energy, sexuality and confidence. I smiled and handed it back. She took it and smiled back, knowingly at me.

“You see, it was worth is. Yes?” I smiled at her.

“Yes, M’Lady. ‘Twas in deed,” I said.

“Now, you must pay for it.”

“M’Lady?”

“Your eye.” She nonchalantly snapped her head to a soldier and within seconds, my right eye was looking at my left on the ground. The pain was immense. But I could only think of how I was still alive, and what a story this would make in any public house, anywhere.

Smiling, reading my mind, she nodded and walked off.

###

Some Ladies are just, evil. Know what I mean? Remind you of anyone you know? Here's hoping not.

Once again, hoping all you on the East US coast are safe and comfortable today and that any scares or fears you may have are planned, entertaining, and lacking any true sense of reality.

Wishing you a safe and sane, fun and comfortable, and a very, very Happy Halloween!
Cheers!

Monday, October 29, 2012

EarVu up to #6 on Amazon


EarVu has made it up to #6 on the Amazon Kindle Science Fiction / High Tech list. Which I think is pretty awesome. But what does it mean that numbers 1-5 are all novels? 

So to all of you that have downloaded it, Thanks so much!

Cheers!

I hope you have a great week and a happy and safe Halloween.

And to all of you on the East Coast today, I sincerely wish you all the best on weathering Sandy through to the end. May it blow out quickly.

Ear Vu - The Original story notes


First, EarVu hit #33 on Amazon Kindle Science Fiction, High Tech ebooks today. Thanks for that! :)

Before we get into it, I now have EarVu on Amazon.com which includes the original posted below and is free for download, Today Only! Okay, I'm lying, I'll also put it up for free on Halloween.
Also, starting for Halloween I have lowered the price on my epic Horror novel, Death of Heaven down to $3.99. Tell your friends!

And apparently there is now an iPod cover available for Ear Vu too!


Okay, as I had said last week I am posting here today the original story that I found and wrote last weeks posting from. The original notes for this were from about twenty years ago and I'm still looking for those. The date on this file below was 2007, so I must have updated it at some point. Also, the caps are the from the 2007 version as I found it.

The non caps below are my more recent additions, and then last week's postings are the very latest version that I am in the process of releasing as an ebook on Amazon.com. I indicate in the text below where the original stops and the newer material begins ("day 10 (later)"). The last few paragraphs of the old text, I had started to retype in lowercase, then simply started typing a continuing new story after that; and so not in caps from then on.

So I am posting it here just how I saw it last month when I had opened it for the first time in a long time. So you can see exactly what I was working with. You may find it an interesting juxtaposition between this and the released version of last week. I am still looking for the most "original", original notes and the rewrite I had done for a novel that I had never finished, some years ago. So there are actually several versions of this story. The "original" original, being mostly about industrial espionage.

And so, here you go....

                       EARVIEW RESEARCH JOURNAL
                         Dr. James Michaelson

                                day 1

         WE BEGIN STUDIES OF VIDEO VIEWING FROM AUDIO TAPES.

                                day 2

     AS AUDIO TAPES WORK THROUGH THE RECORDING OF SOUNDS WAVES,
(FORCES OF PRESSURE AGAINST A MICROPHONE), TURNING PHYSICAL MOVEMENTS
INTO ELECTRICAL IMPULSES, PLAYBACK PRODUCES AUDIO TONES WHICH, WITH A
SOPHISTICATED ENOUGH SYSTEM, CAN "SHOW" THE DIMENSION OF SOUND
QUALITY, DEPTH OF FIELD, ETC., (I.E., EACH INSTRUMENT IN AN ORCHESTRA).  WHAT WAS ONLY RECENTLY REALIZED WAS THAT THE MAGNETIC SUBSTANCES ON THE SILICON RECORDING TAPE, CAN RECORD AMAZING AMOUNTS OF INFORMATION, WHICH WHEN LINKED TOGETHER WITH A GOOD COMPUTER, CAN REPRODUCE MORE THAN SIMPLY DUPLICATED RADIO WAVES OF LIMITED RANGE.

OUR NEW CRAY SUPER MINI-COMPUTER, WHEN LINKED TOGETHER WITH THE "EARVU
TAPE PLAYER", CAN REPRODUCE VISUALLY, AS WELL AS AURALLY, NEARLY THE
ENTIRE MUSIC HALL, OR DEFINITELY, THE ENTIRE RECORDING STUDIO, WHERE
THE MUSIC WAS PLAYED AT THE TIME OF RECORDING.

                                day 3

     ANY RECORDING MACHINE CAN MAKE GOOD ENOUGH TAPES THAT WILL
REPRODUCE THE VIDEO SCENE AT THE TIME OF RECORDING.  HOWEVER, THE
BETTER THE EQUIPMENT, THE BETTER THE QUALITY OF THE VISUALS SEEN, AND
THE DEEPER ONE CAN TRAVEL...INTO THAT MOMENT.

                                day 4

     THE SCREEN IS VAGUE AT THE DISTANCES AND LOOKS MUCH LIKE A FILMED
DREAM SEQUENCE.  BUT, THE NEWER COMPUTER PROGRAMS ARE CORRECTING MUCH
OF THAT.  BREAKTHROUGHS ARE HAPPENING FASTER THAN WE HAVE TIME AND
MANPOWER TO HANDLE THE NEW DIRECTIONS IN WHICH TO GO.  OF THE 3
SCIENTISTS WORKING HERE WITH ME, WE ALL ARE SEARCHING SEPARATE
DIRECTIONS BEYOND THE SCOPE OF OUR DAILY, SCHEDULED PURSUITS.  IT IS
BELIEVED THAT IN THIS WAY, WE WILL BE ABLE EVENTUALLY TO MAP THE
IMPLICATIONS OF THIS FIND.

                                day 5

     THE METAL PARTICLES ON THE MAGNETIC TAPE HAVE MORE RECORDING
CAPABILITIES THAN WAS EVER CONCEIVED TO HAVE BEEN THE CASE.  JUST AS A
PHOTOGRAPH CAN NOW BE USED TO "LOOK AROUND CORNERS", WITHIN THE FRAME
OF THE SCENE TAKEN, "MOVING PICTURES", NO, THAT IS NOT QUITE CORRECT;
CONTINUOUS MOTION PICTURES, CAN NOW BE MADE FROM THE AUDIO RECORDINGS
OF MAGNETIC AUDIO TAPE.  IT IS POSSIBLE THAT ANY RECORDING MEDIUM WILL
SUFFICE, NOT JUST MAGNETIC TAPE.  IT IS MERELY THE MEDIUM OF THE
MOMENT.  THIS BRINGS UP EXCITING POSSIBILITIES FOR MOVIES AND SUCH
SHOT USING CONTINUOUS PICTURE DEVICES (I.E., VIDEO CAMERAS).

                                day 6

     CD'S HAVEN'T WORKED TOO WELL, DO I IMAGINE, TO THE
DIGITALIZATION. BUT EFFORTS DO HAVE THAT, JUST AROUND THE CORNER, AS
THE NEXT MEDIUM OF CHOICE.  CONTINUOUS MEDIUM IS THE EASIEST TO HANDLE
AT THIS MOMENT IN TIME.  THERE IS A CERTAIN CHOPPINESS TO THE CD AT
THE HIGHER SPEEDS, AND THE MAGNETIC TAPE HAS A BUILT IN BUFFER.  A
SIMPLER, BUT MORE COMPLICATED MEANS OF JOINING THE MOMENTS OF SOUNDS
TOGETHER WAS THE ANSWER AND SHOULD BE AVAILABLE BY THE COMING SPRING.

                                day 7

     HAVE TALKED TO THE SONY PEOPLE, AND BY THIS NEXT WINTER, IT IS
BELIEVED THAT COLOR WILL BE AVAILABLE IN FAIRLY ACCEPTABLE FORMS FOR
THE "EAR VU HOME ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM".  THE COLOR WILL AT FIRST BE
THAT OF WHAT THE SHORT LIVED, OLD COLORIZATION TREND OF THE MID 80'S
GAVE A WISELY UNIMPRESSED PUBLIC.  BUT ONCE AGAIN, IT IS ALREADY IN
THE WORKS TO COMPLETE THE COLOR MODULE.  PIXEL THEORY GIVES US THE
REALIZATION AND LATER THE ABILITY TO SEE THROUGH THINGS, VIEW
HEARTBEATS OF PEOPLE IN AN AUDIENCE, AND MUCH, MUCH MORE.  THE SUB-
ATOMIC THEORY PROJECTIONS WILL BOGGLE THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY.

     THIS MEANS THAT ANY RECORDING MADE, CAN BE STUDIED IN DETAIL OF
EXACTLY WHAT WAS GOING ON IN THE AUDIO RANGE OF THE MACHINES RECORDING
THE SOUND WAVES.  THE TECHNICIANS IN A SOUND PROOF CONTROL ROOM IN A
SOUND STUDIO CAN NOT BE SEEN, BUT FRINGE EDGE TECHNOLOGY HAS RECENTLY
SHOWN SHADOWS OF IMAGES BELIEVED TO BE THOSE VERY SAME TECHNICIANS!
SOMETHING TO DO WITH HEAT, SOUND AND LIGHT RAYS ALL BEING THE SAME
THING, ONLY VARYING DEGREES OF THE SAME SCALE.  ALTHOUGH THESE ARE
RATHER INTENSE VARIATIONS IN SCOPE, COMPUTERS CAN FAIRLY EASILY BRING
THESE NUMBERS DOWN INTO MANAGEABLE FORM THROUGH A TYPE OF DIMENSIONAL
FRACTAL REPLACEMENT THEORY.  I AM ABOUT TO ATTEMPT TO DO JUST THIS.

                                day 8

     One has to remember not to, say, have sex, when dubbing a tape
for a friend, else he shall have the ability to play it through the
processor and see everything that you did while dubbing it.  Research
shows that sometime in the future, it may be possible to view
everything in range of the recording device whether or not microphones
were used.  This does not work with old vinyl records however.  It is
in the magnetic recording that the data is stored.

                                day 9

     I had a tape sent over from the University of a man having a
heart attack at the Hospital.  When I played it back I discovered that
those shadows ALWAYS seem to fade as they get near a human being.  I
must study this further.

                                day 10

     I wonder what happened to Garrison and the others?  No one is at
home.  They haven't called in.  If no word by tomorrow, I must assume
foul play.  Could this be some kind of industrial espionage?
Certainly, this research is important enough.  But for murder?  I have
begun to look over my shoulder when I am alone.  I took a nap.

                            day 10 (p.m.)

     Woke up late.  Empty building except for guards.  I was talking
with them when they came by for security checks and they said that the
others never signed out.  Yet they are not here.
     I am going to try to check out those shadows tonight.

                            day 10 (later)

     If one were to wire a processor up with a microphone and play
back the visuals you can see "creatures", perhaps the technicians
behind sound proofed glass, standing around watching the recording
taking place.
   
                            day 10 (later)

     On the shadows paradox:  they are not the technicians at the
recording studio.  I have viewed many tapes and nearly all show these
shadows.  I am going to try to sharpen these images using the
institutions mainframe when it is not being used by everyone.

[end of original story line - from here on it is all new material written within the last month]

                                  *

     James put down his pen and looked around the empty lab.  `Where
the hell is everybody?'

     Gently, he picked up the small processor which allowed them to
view scenes off of the audio tapes.  A small collection had begun to
grow in the lab.  Each man with his own preference for they type of
music or subject.  The most popular tape had been one taken of bird
calls out in the wild.  The hologram it produced was tranquil and
extremely beautiful.  One could almost smell the scents of the fall
season mountain meadow.

     He picked up a pack of Garrison's cigarettes and removed one
absent mindedly.  He scouted around for a lighter, found none, and
suddenly realized that he had quite smoking two weeks ago.  His temper
flared momentarily until he remembered that it had been his decision
to quit.  He picked up his pen, once more trying to write the thoughts
which these past few hours had continually eluded him.  He dropped the
pen once again.  The lab grew more empty.

     James wondered what this new technology would bring upon the
world.  He found himself staring at the lab door.  He looked around
himself at the scattered bits of hardware and wires, fiber optics and
LS-LSIC boards and all the other junk which they found easy to play
inventor with.

     "Hello?"

     No one answered him.  He went to his office door, grabbed the
knob and turned and looked around the lab again.  There were seven
doors in the rather large laboratory.  Four of the doors were offices
for the scientists themselves.  One door lead to the hallway, another
to the storeroom and a final door lead to the utility room.  The
windows looked out on the square in the center of the complex which
was sealed off from the rest of the center.  Security as well as
beauty.  The effect was dramatic.  Rats in a cage they called it
amongst themselves.  Dynamic designing the architects had called it.

     James opened his door, hesitated, then went to Garrison's office
door.  He tried the knob.  It was unlocked as it usually would be.
There was no sense locking doors around here.  Anyone wanting anything
would simply pick the lock or safe and take what they wanted, what
they needed and then simply return it and relock the security device.
Occasionally someone would introduce a new style of lock simply for
the others to try.  But it never lasted more than a few hours.
Besides, if any of them needed anything and the others weren't
around, they saved time by having simple access to the offices.

     He opened the door and entered a plush office with electronic
debris scattered everywhere, typical of all the other offices.  He
walked over to the desk and plopped down in Garrison's chair.  There
was a diary on the desk in the middle of all the confusion.  James
looked it over closely.  The last entry was for Saturday night.  All
it said was:  "Will make a tape of the thing for all to see.
Interaction is affirmative.  Harrison and Johnson said they would try
tonight at Harrison's.  We'll see."

     That was all it said.  He closed the book and exited the office.
He got up and went out to what they called the Wall, a heavy
assemblage of stereo and processor equipment at the back of the lab
covering the whole wall.  He popped it into the deck.  Near the center
of the room was a low table where the hologram would be projected.
Built into the wall of electronics was also a large screen monitor
where they could scan items while viewing them in the hologram.
Johnson had actually been able to find that a man had heart problems
be playing the tape and focusing into the chest, then further into the
man's heart.  Every day they were falling deeper and deeper into
amazing things which could be done with the Earvu processor.  He
pulled the tape out of the deck.

     It was one of the new cassette sized, laser tapes and it had been
in the new deck which he hadn't known had come in as of yet.  The tape
was made of a similar substance as the tapes used in the movie
"Brainstorm".  It was very dense and quite acclimated to research of
this type, using a laser instead of magnetic realignment.  It was
thought that light would carry more information and therefore would
yield more bizarre reproductions.

     On the flip side of the tape was a date indicating that the tape
had been made on Saturday night last.  James tapped the cassette on
the back of his left hand.

     "Well, I've got nothing else to go on."

     The amazing thing was that it was inexpensive to produce.  It
simply called upon technology which has been around for years.  It was
how it was all put together that counted.

     James walked around the hologram table checking data panels,
warming things up, when something caught his eye.  Down near the
cables on the ground was a dark brown spot.  It almost looked like...

     He bent down to touch it.  It was rough to the touch.  He
scrapped a few flakes off with his fingernail, spit into his palm and
suddenly realized that he was reconstituting a small sample of blood.
He stared at it for a moment, then looked around the lab, searching
the floor for anymore.  The maintenance people came through only once
every few days and were watched whenever they were in the lab.
Tonight they would be here, but they hadn't been in since...James
looked at the calendar, realizing that he was probably the first to
have seen this.

     He pushed aside the hologram table, exposing more dried blood
until, to his dismay, he discovered that a great deal of blood was
lost here.  Someone had tried to clean it up, but had missed under the
table.  He stood up, backing up as he did.  He wiped the blood stain
in his palm on his white lab coat and adjusted his hornrim glasses.
He picked up the phone and called for security.
   
                                  *
     James came in the next day early.  The four hours of questions
the day before had been grueling for him and he had lost enough time
on the project as it was.  And now it would seem that he was working
alone since his fellow scientists had all disappeared.  He was just
finishing his coffee when the phone rang.

     "Dr. Michaelson."

     "Dr. Michaelson?  This is Thomas from security.  The Director
wanted me to tell you that we found blood at the home of one of your
co-workers, at least two of them as there was two blood types matching
the types of Dr.s Harrison and Johnson.  They were found at Dr.
Johnson's house.   The Director wanted to know if there would be any
important papers here at Dr. Johnson's house that should be brought
back to the lab...before we called the police."

     "No.  Nothing that I know of.  The police will give us what is
ours if there is anything laying around, but nothing imperative at
this time.  Anything else Mr. Thomas?"  James had little need for the
bulky security types kept around the institute for security due to
military application reasons.

     "Yes, Sir.  Thank you.  I am truly sorry Dr. Michaelson.  Sir?"

     "Yes?  Umm...sorry.  What was that?"

     "Sir, do you have any idea what..."

     "No.  But I am sure that the police will talk with me anyway,
correct?"

     "No, Sir.  Military Intelligence.  Have to go now, sir.  Thank
you very much."

     James hung the phone up.  Military Intelligence.  He had to laugh
at the dichotomy.  When will they learn?  He turned his attention back
to the problem at hand.  Today he had to check resonant duplication
from the sine wave function generated by using stereo microphones.  He
grabbed a tape almost angrily from the tape storage shelf and went to
the Wall.  He popped out a cassette and inserted the new one.  He
flipped on the computer, called up the program and watched as the
hologram displayed the entire colony of black army ants.  He panned
down through solid matter into the nest.  Needing both hands for
adjustments he started to put the tape in his had into his pocket and
remembered what the tape was.

     "Oh, shit.  The tape!"  His hands began to tremble with the
realization of what the tape could be.  Then he calmed down as he
realized that chances were that it was nothing.  He tapped it on the
back of his hand, wondering what had happened to everyone.  And
whether it might happen to him.  The thought struck him for the first
time.  He was sure that the security people had thought of it long
ago, however.  He switched the tapes, threw the ant tape on the
counter and went to the front door.  He opened the door and...no one
there.

     He had thought that there might be a guard for his protection.
As he closed the door he noticed the camera in the hall turn to look
at him and watched as it zoomed in at him.  He slowly closed the door
and stood hesitantly, considering the possibilities.  Was this a
military project they had been working on?  He couldn't accept this
and ignored the implications for the time being.  He headed for the
Wall.

     His hand went for the switch, but he found that he couldn't throw
it.  He tried again.  It was as if something was keeping him from
activating the computer.  But why?

     "COME ON," he screamed at himself.  This seemed to break the
spell.  Three of his colleagues had been killed and he needed to know,
for his own safety, what the hell happened.  He "threw the switch".

     The hologram lit up.  It was the lab.  The laser idea had worked.
The images were crisp and clear.  A phrase Garrison had used to
describe the system popped into his mind.  "A picture so sharp it will
make your eyes bleeed."  Garrison had been right.  The image was hard
to look at, it was so sharp.  Laser light can be dangerous if your not
careful.  There were some glasses hanging on a hook by the tape deck,
so he put them on.  The side of them said they were from the same
manufacturer as the laser deck and tapes.  The image became more
defined and not so affecting.

     Quadrophonic microphones already set up, James could see
Garrison's face pale as he watched himself in "real time" within the
hologram.  The illusion was very strange.  James realized that
watching Garrison would get him no where, so he adjusted the controls
to show only what the hologram in the hologram showed.  Things then
changed rapidly.

     The shadows were no longer just shadows.  They were now real
beings, possessing real form.  He stopped the tape, ran it forward and
returned it to play.  As the holo came alive James watched sickened
and stunned by Garrison being torn in two.  Blood dropped immediately
to the floor and nearly as instantly was sucked up as if by an
invisible mouth.  He hit the keyboard with his fist and the tape
stopped, frozen with Garrison floating in mid air, left side separated
from right; blood suspended below the corpse.  James turned around and
keyed the three proper keystrokes, fighting not to vomit.  He knelt
down on the floor and began to shudder, shock overcoming him.

     After the trembles began to leave, James forced himself to his
feet and he staggered into Garrison's office once again.  He sat at
the desk and put his head in his hands, rubbing his eyes deeply.  He
began to feel in control once again, but found that his eyes were
weeping while he didn't feel any emotion.  He looked around the room.

     Pictures of Jack Garrison were everywhere.  His fishing trip to
Bermuda, the symposium in Geneva, his receiving awards, Doctorates,
endowments, etc.  He had had quit a career.  They were lucky to have
gotten him.

     James picked up the phone and dialed the Director.  The phone
toned at the other end and he quickly hung up.  James hung up the
phone and picked up the diary again.  He turned the page back to
Saturday morning.

                               Saturday

     I awoke with a hangover.  What should I do?  Of course, we should
share our findings with our team leader and perhaps security,
immediately, but then what.  Panic will ensue if the general public
discovers this.

     Little work got done yesterday because of it.  I will try the
test tonight.  Then break the news.

     Fascinated, James turned the page back once again.  Under the
heading of Friday it read:

                                Friday

     I have done the same thing as before.  Next time I will play back
the recording in real time.  Immediately, and with no delay.  I know
what to expect.  You can see these creatures standing there watching
you, "in the moment".  Will we be able to interact with them?  Can
they interact with us?  Have they?  So now what do we do?  Especially,
when the creatures realize that for the first time ever, Man is
watching Them?  It would appear that they are quite used to watching
us and knowing that we are ignorant of them.  What will they do?
Harrison and Johnson will try to make them take notice of them this
weekend.  I will try to interact with them tomorrow night.  If results
are positive, we will surprise Michaelson with it on Monday.

     "What the hell!"  James stood in anger.  "They didn't tell me!"

     The adrenalin in his body was running out.  He sat down, his
knees trembling.  "What the Hell, now?"

     Dr. Michaelson stood and headed out to the tape deck.  He rewound
it and began to play it from beginning to end for the first time.  The
creatures, tampering with time as usual, tampered with it once more.
As the tape went back to a time once present, so this incident became
once more in the past.

                                day 10
   
     WE BEGIN STUDIES OF VIDEO VIEWING FROM AUDIO TAPES....

---

Well, that's it...for now.

And again, remember that you can pick this up anytime on Amazon.com, but for today and on Halloween, it's free! And don't forget, starting for Halloween I have lowered the price on my epic Horror novel, Death of Heaven down to $3.99. Even if I do say so myself, it is one of the most aggressive stories I know of.

Thanks for stopping by!
Cheers!


Sunday, October 28, 2012

A New Fracking Documentary - FrackNation

In a previous blog article I posted on 11/13/2011, I mention fracking. New information, or at least contentions of new information, have led me to add a note to that article, and so I am also posting it here:


On Fareed Zakaria GPS today, Ann McElhinney, director of the upcoming documentary, "FrackNation" pointed out several interesting contentions that we didn't hear in the notorious documentary  "Gasland". She indicated that fracking has been going on sice 1948, and that there are literally millions of these fracking sites around the US. Opposing her on the debate was Amrahm Lustgarten, Environmental reporter for ProPublica, who said that the fracking that has been going on recently, in the last ten years is different than historical drilling. McElhinney said that the EPA has pointed out there is not a single incident of fracking causing methane leakage to people's water. Well, you can take that with a grain of salt, or not. I tend to give official sources credence until proven, or credibly indicated, to be otherwise.

The primary source of the documentary film "Gasland" that stirred up all this controversy was based in Dimock, PA. McElhinney went back there and said that reporters always seemed to interview the eleven litigants in the methane in the water issue; but McElhinney then also found 1500 families who said that the water there had always been "appalling" and had always had methane in the water. So the residents have started an organization called, "Enough Already" to have their voices heard and their side of the controversy heard. McElhinney also said, we're talking about 1% of the people there and the 99% want to have their voices heard. 

McElhinney also said when you consider the "truth" which her upcoming documentary is to point out, when put next to the need America has for the products of fracking, and the need to remove ourselves from buying energy products such as oil and gas from countries who seem to hate us, that it is a great benefit to be able to frack in our own country. Finally she said of course regulations are important and need to be there, and they are there now. Lustgarten returned that there is not enough known about this and there needs to be more research and attention paid to just what this can do to our environment

Is there anything more important than our drinking water?

The other day a scientist was on the news talking about how there is one other element that is very important and being ignored. That being the effect of pumping all this water and chemicals, especially as there is so much of this being done now, and the effects this has on plate tectonics, the shifting of plates of land that cause earthquakes. There has been speculation for years about actually starting earthquakes using this kind of method, in proactively alleviating bad earthquakes . Bad earthquakes happen when two plates have too much friction to allow the pressure to be released more gradually, over time. When they get stuck, sooner or later they release that pressure with devastating results to human, living populations including animals and structures.

So there are things about fracking that we need to examine and continue to examine. Even though, in some cases it may already be too late. We just don't know enough yet. But, we will. Hopefully we will find out ahead of time, through research and not through some kind of environmental catastrophe. Fracking may indeed be the answer we need for the here and now, but we also need to expend the money for research to properly and scientifically evaluate the result of this much fracking.

Something we are not always so good at doing. There are many examples of our being lax in paying for services we don't really value highly as needing to be carried out. For instance, one prime example in another area entirely, is with our war veterans. We seem to be all for going to war when we deem it necessary, but when it comes to taking care in the aftermath or even during, to pay for our veterans to be properly integrated back into our society, to get the proper mental and physical healthcare they so sorely need, we tend to shy away from our responsibilities.

Let's do the right things, even if that means fracking, or going to war. But let's also spend the money we need to be spending, to protect ourselves and properly take care of our citizens whom we have or may have, put in harms way for our benefit.

Friday, October 26, 2012

EarVu, a Sci Fi Horror story - Part 10 - The End

Continuing with the final Part 10 of Ear Vu....
Image by Marvin Hayes


Slowly the beings looked at one another, a shudder seeming to pass over them. Then they froze, as if in realization of something. One of the beings lifted his hand and motioned in an odd sort of way. Both then began to shift into a fractal kind of amorphous mass. “Unnerving”, wasn't quite the right word for it. Disturbing? Terrifying? Then, the scene began again, everything having backed up and replaying… except for the shadow beings who remained in “normal” real time, resolidifying as things returned to “normal”. What? I looked at the remote. It wasn't me.

As if they were trying to rectify a wrong, they had backed up time as easily as Garrison or I had backed up a tape. But it worked about as well for them as it had for us. Each replay only served to replay a scene that was already set. Were they looking for something? Or hoping to change the outcome? But that would be, ridiculous.

Again, Garrison in the hologram was watching the beings in the hologram.

 Then as one they turned their heads to look back at Garrison as if some decision had been made. I knew what was coming next and couldn't take seeing it again. But instead the other being duplicated what the first had done and time again slipped backward and restarted. But that was impossible!

The scene replayed, but nothing changed. It was then that I realized what was happening. These were very powerful beings, but obviously not very bright. They seemed agitated, perhaps in their realization that nothing had changed? Then they seemed to commune together again. And now I knew what was coming next.

As Garrison’s hand went up to his head, his face grimacing in pain, I took it as a queue and hit the “Skip” button and suddenly I was at a point on the tape just after Garrison had been killed. I watched as the beings reconstituted and stood there, facing one another. I watched as they stood there for what seemed a very long time. Then it dawned on me. Something after all, had changed; but what? Leaning in, I continued watching, trying to see what was going to happen next.

The scene was silent. It was then that I remembered that I had the mute on, so I disengaged it; but the scene remained silent. The beings looked down at the floor. Then they continued on around until they were staring right at, me!

A cold shock blasted through my body. But I relaxed when I realized that it was just a coincidence and that they must have heard something coming from the position I was now standing in. So they can hear? Or, feel energy vibrations? Well, same thing, I suppose. I looked behind me, searching for any evidence that may have been left from the other night. Except that there was nothing. So I looked back to see what they did next. And that was when the beings began moving toward me, and growing in size. Spooky.

It was then that I noticed that there was an area near the hologram table that was darkening, for no apparent reason. As if something were moving toward the table here in the lab. As I watched, the dark area turned into a pair of low shadows that vertically grew in size there in the room with me. They seemed to be drawn to the hologram, growing in size until they were equal in width to their counterparts within the hologram which could no longer contain those shadow beings; as if the beings within the hologram and within my room were being drawn together like slow magnets.

The two sets of entities drew together and joined. Blending together they became one and with that motion they stepped suddenly out of the hologram and into the room. My room! It was so smooth and sudden that it took me a few seconds before I realized that we were all now standing there in the same room, together!

So they can make themselves known without our technology!

In the silence of the room I heard the LASER reach the End of Tape sensor and it clicked to a stop. It then automatically started to wind back to its earliest most time as the shadow beings stepped toward me. It seemed obvious to me that they were about to tamper with time as they had before. Perhaps trying once again, but this time pushing far harder than before? Evoking change, but how? And, how could I know all this?

I looked back and they were now only inches away from me. Before I could react, they reached out toward me. I put my hand to my head; pain was growing there, intense pain. A cold sweat broke out on my forehead as one of the beings put his “hand” upon my face and then the room turned dark; dark with energy. I could feel immense power pouring into and around me and then, there was nothing--

#

Ear Vu Research Journal of Dr. Verne Garrison

Day 1

Today begins our studies of visually viewing from audio mag tapes.

----

I hope you enjoyed, Ear Vu.

I have just published it on Amazon.com. I just published it, so if you do not see it yet, it should be available within 24 hours. And if that's the case (or not), come on back on Monday, when I will be publishing the original story which is just a bit different. The published version will also contain the original. As I said on Monday, Death of Heaven will be today free today in celebration of the release of this latest of my macabre tales, and Halloween. You can also see my other works there on Smashwords.

I also said my novella, Andrew  would be free on Amazon for today and Saturday. Andrew is a kind of prequel to Death of Heaven, but they are two very different kinds of stories.

More of my writings are available on Amazon.com.

Apparently there is now an iPod cover available for Ear Vu too!

For a listing of all of my Fiction, nonFiction, Screenplays and Social Media links see my web page at JZMurdock.com.

I hope you enjoyed this week long story as much as I enjoyed sharing it.
Have a fun, safe and creepy Halloween!
Thanks and come again....anytime.
Cheers!

By the way, that last line in the story? It's key.

EarVu, a Sci Fi Horror story - Part 9

Continuing with Part 9 of Ear Vu....
Image by Marvin Hayes

I began to realize that those shadows we've been seeing were no longer just shadows. What we had thought were glitches, or “aural smudges”, I now came to realize were some kind of solid beings, possessing real form and substance. I paused the tape. I sat there, staring at the frozen hologram. Cold sweat trickled down my spine under my shirt.

My God! What was I seeing?

Regaining my composure, with not a little effort I hit the Play button. As the holo came alive again I watched as one of the beings put out what would be its “hand” toward Garrison’s face, obviously causing him pain. Garrison put his hand to his head. I zoomed out to better see the scene.

I became stunned and sickened as I watched Garrison suddenly lifted off the ground and literally torn in two between two rapidly moving, “fractalating” shadows, as parts of them alternately and repeatedly solidified, pixelated and vaporized. The intensity of the moment hit me like an explosion. I jumped back hitting another table, accidentally triggering slow motion while dropping the remote, losing the ability to freeze the scene, or stop it. Blood was dropping to the floor as it was nearly instantly sucked up into nothingness; as if by an invisible mouth, leaving no puddles, no splatter, no evidence.

I hit a nearby keyboard with my fist and the tape paused, frozen there with Garrison, what was left of the two halves of him anyway, floating there, suspended in mid-air; his left side separated from his right; some blood still suspended in the air below his soon to be corpse. I took a couple of breaths in frozen time. I closed my eyes and slowed my breathing. When I again opened them, I ticked Play forward a “frame at a time. My hands trembled.

The “beings” were melded together by a thin line. They continued their undulations, absorbing a melting Garrison out of the air till there was nothing left of him. Strangely, the effort seemed to drain, not energize them as they faded into nothing, until finally there was nothing left in the lab but, the lab. Nothing looked out of place.

“Shadows that melt the flesh,” came to my mind for some reason. I hit Stop.

I turned around fighting not to heave my guts out. I knelt down on the floor and began to shudder, the shock overcoming me. After the trembles began to ease off, I forced myself to my feet and staggered into Garrison's office. I sat at the desk and put my head in my hands, rubbing my eyes deeply. Slowly, I began to feel in control once again. My eyes were weeping but I wasn't feeling any emotion and realized I must be in shock. Hesitantly, I looked around the room.

Pictures of Verne Garrison were everywhere. His fishing trip to Bermuda, the symposium in Geneva, his receiving various awards, some Doctorates, endowments, etc. He’d had quite a career. We knew we were lucky to be working with him.

I picked up the phone and dialed the Director. The phone toned at the other end but I quickly hung up. I picked up the journal and turned the page back to one of its last entries; one I had missed.

 “I awoke with a hangover today. What should I do? Of course, we should share our findings, and perhaps even with security, but what then? Little work got done yesterday because of it. Panic will ensue if the general public ever discovers these beings exist. I will try a test tonight. Then break the news tomorrow if it works.”

Fascinated, I turned the page back once again. How had I missed this? It read:

 “I have done the same thing as before. Next time I will playback the recording in real time; immediately and with no delays. But I know now what to expect. You can see the creatures, standing there, just watching; being "in the moment" with you, yet not existing for us. Will we be able to interact with them? Can they interact with us? Have they before? It would explain so much.

“They appear curious, benign, but what do we do now? Especially, when the creatures realize that for the first time ever, someone is watching them? It would appear that they are quite used to watching us and knowing quite well that we are ignorant of them. What will they do if that changes? If results are positive, maybe then we should tell Michaelson. Where is Johnson?”

"What the hell!" I stood in anger. "They should have told me!" I thought about that for a moment.

Without thinking or looking, I rifled through the journal. Something I had noticed before but had paid no attention to, was a part harder than the rest. Finally curious, I opened to that far back page and a card fell out. I picked it up. There was a name on it with an FBI shield. I turned the FBI Agent’s card over. On the back someone, most likely the Agent, had written my name and beneath it was the offending acronym, "NSA". So that was it. I wonder how long they have known who I really worked for? Great. Just, great.

The adrenalin in my body was running out. I sat down, my knees trembling.

"What the Hell, now?"

I stood and headed back out into the lab to the wall. I rewound the tape and prepared to play it from beginning to end for the first time. I grimaced and then hit Play, waiting for the beings to reappear in the hologram. After a while they were once again watching Garrison, just as they were the first time.
I picked up the remote and walked closer to the hologram table. I stood there watching, and then dialed in the zoom. The imagery within the hologram grew in size as I zoomed into the scene, centering on the beings. It almost looked as if those dark forms were conversing as they watched Garrison.

I stared. With the mute on, except for the hum of the LASER player, it was completely silent in both the real and the hologram labs. I zoomed in more on the shadow beings. They were facing Garrison from behind as he stared quite oblivious, watching the shadow beings within his hologram as the beings watched him and I, watched them all. Garrison was obviously fascinated, finally seeing what he had so long been searching for. He stopped, backed up and replayed the hologram as the beings continued to observe him. It was unnerving to watch him, knowing he was ignorant of his being spied upon and, what was to come. 

Later today, the conclusion in Part 10 of Ear Vu.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

EarVu, a Sci Fi Horror story - Part 8

Continuing with Part 8 of Ear Vu....
Image by Marvin Hayes
*


The next day came too early. After a grueling four hours of questions the night before, I figured I had already lost enough time on the project as it was. And coworkers. And it would seem that for now I would be working alone as my fellow scientists had all--disappeared. Or, died? Nothing seemed to be missing from the lab, though. There appeared to be no other evidence of a kidnapping, or a robbery; well, maybe. And considering there was no indication that Garrison had ever left the building, or Johnson--

I was just finishing my coffee when the phone rang.

“Yes. Dr. Michaelson," I said.

"Dr. Michaelson? This is Thomas, head of security? We spoke yesterday? The Director wanted me to tell you that we have found nothing else. He wanted to know if you knew of any important papers or equipment at Dr. Johnson's house that should be brought back to the lab--before we do anything else.

Also, you will be given armed protection to your home and back and more, if you so desire."

"Thank you, and no,” I thought about it, “we didn’t usually take things home, not that I know of. I assume the police will give us what is ours if there is anything lying about? Is there anything else, Mr. Thomas?" Due to various proprietary applications being worked on elsewhere in the facility, security was always tight around here. None of us would have taken secret anything home.

"No, Sir. Thank you. I truly am sorry Dr. Michaelson, about the, situation. Sir?"

"Thanks? Oh, yes?"

"Sir, do you have any idea what--"

"No, sorry. But I am sure you will be talking with me again soon, correct?"

"No, Sir. `SMIC’, Sonni Military Intelligence Contracting, will take over. I have to go now, sir. Please feel free to call me if you have any questions or think of anything you believe that we should know. Thank you very much, sir. Have a good night."

I hung up the phone. Military Intelligence. I had to laugh at that well-worn, clichéd contradiction in terms. When will they learn? I turned my attention back to the problem at hand. Today I was scheduled to check resonant duplication from the sine wave functions generated by using multiple microphones as it related to EarVu.

I grabbed a random tape almost angrily from the tape storage shelf and went to the “wall”. Popping out the cassette in the deck I inserted a new one. I logged onto the network, called up EarVu and watched as the tape fed it’s audio to be translated into the hologram which displayed an entire colony of black army ants in and around an ant hill. I adjusted to “pan” down through semi-solid matter deep into the nest. Needing both hands for adjustments, I put the tape I had in my hand into my pocket and lifted out the other tape, suddenly realizing what it was!

"Oh, Hell. Test 2 tape?" My hands began to tremble with the realization of what the tape could be. I calmed down as I realized that chances were that it was really nothing. I tapped it on my cheek, considering what happened to Garrison and Johnson, and whether it might yet happen to me. That thought struck home for the first time. I was sure that the security people had thought of it long ago; still—I swapped the tapes out, threw the ant tape on the counter and went to the front door of the lab. I opened the door and, good--no one was there.

I had thought that there might be a Guard nearby for my protection, but apparently not. But as I closed the door I noticed the camera in the hall turn to look toward me. I watched as it zoomed in. Slowly, nonchalantly, I closed the door and hesitantly considered the possibilities. Was there some kind of military project related to what we had been working on? Easily, I supposed. I ignored the implications--for the time being and headed back to the wall. There were cameras in the lab, but not connected externally for purposes of security containment. No camera moved. Good.

I grabbed the remote control. My finger went for the button to initiate the tape but, I found I couldn't press it. I tried again. It was as if something were keeping me from activating the system. But what? Fear?

‘Come on,’ I screamed at myself deep within my mind. And that seemed to break the spell. Both of my colleagues may have been killed and I needed to know. I needed to know for my own safety, what the hell had happened. Finally, I hit the button and the tape initiated.

A few moments later the hologram lit up and I found I was looking at a mini version of the lab reproduced there on the low hologram table. The LASER idea had worked well. Images came out crisp and clear. A phrase Garrison had used to describe the playback popped into my mind.

"A visual so sharp it will make your eyes bleed." And Garrison had been right. The images were hard to look at, they were so sharp. After all, LASER light can be dangerous if you’re not careful. Some glasses hung on a hook by the tape deck, so I put them on. The side of them said they were from the same manufacturer as the LASER deck and tapes: Sonni. With the glasses, the image became even more defined and not so affecting; or dangerous.

Multiple microphones had been set up in the lab so I could clearly see Garrison's face in the recording made in this lab, night before last. He was drawn and pale as he watched himself in "real time" within the hologram from a tape he’d made of himself in the lab. It was a surreal illusion. I thought of the artist, Escher. I realized that just watching Garrison would get me nowhere, so I adjusted the controls to show only what the hologram within the hologram showed.

That was when things changed, rapidly.

Tomorrow, Part 9

EarVu, a Sci Fi Horror story - Part 7

Continuing with Part 7 of Ear Vu....
Image by Marvin Hayes

Day 100



Michaelson must have installed the latest version of the Nano Transduction Module. Playback of the visuals using the NTM show, seemingly with purpose, shadow forms moving around. But perhaps it’s a situation like the studio technicians behind sound proofed glass who are just standing around watching and manipulating the recording process taking place?
Or perhaps we are seeing through multiple walls?

Day 101

On the shadow paradox: I have now proved that they are not the technicians at the recording site but in another room. What I am seeing is in the same room with the recording mics. I have viewed many tapes now and nearly all show these shadows when I use the NTM.

I have sharpened the images. A test tape is now ready to record.

#

I flipped through the diary but that was all it said about the test tape; in fact, that was all there was. I closed the book, got up and exited the office. I walked over to what we called, “the Wall”, a heavy assemblage of stereo and processor equipment covering an entire wall of the lab. Near the center of the room there was a low table where the hologram would be projected.

Built into this great wall of electronics were also several monitors where we could more closely scan various elements of the process while viewing the hologram. We used them a lot for commercially produced audio tapes so that we could separate out the various spliced sections and tracks.

Johnson had actually been able to find that a man had heart problems by playing a tape and focusing into the man’s chest, then focusing deep into his heart. Every day we were falling ever deeper into amazing things that we could do with this EarVu technology. There is no doubt about it, Garrison is a genius. The CIA had tried to do this for years and always failed to do what we have done in less than a year.

I examined the test tape more closely. It was one of the cassette-sized LASER tapes. These tapes were made of a similar substance as the tapes used in the old 80s film, "Brainstorm". Using a multi-colored LASER rather than magnetic realignment, they were fast, very dense, could store immense amounts of data and were well acclimated to this type of research. The theory went, since light could carry far more information, using this type of storage would yield much more complicated (and bizarre?) reproductions.

The amazing thing about these tapes was that they were relatively inexpensive to produce. It simply called upon technology which had been around for many years. It was how it was all put together that counted.

On the flip side of the tape was a date indicating that it had been made last week. I tapped the cassette on the back of my left hand, thinking. Opening the deck, another tape was in the LASER deck. It had “test 2” written on it. I swapped them, dropped the other into my pocket, then closed the deck and hit rewind. I walked around the hologram table checking data panels as things warmed up. Then something caught my eye. Down near the cables on the ground, there was a dark brown spot. It almost looked like--

I bent down to touch it. It was tacky and rough to the touch. I scraped a few flakes off with my fingernail. I spit into my palm and rubbed my finger in it, suddenly realizing that I was reconstituting a small sample of-- blood.

For a moment, I just stared at it. I looked around the lab again. I searched the floor for more--evidence. But evidence of, what? The maintenance people came through once every few days and were monitored whenever they were allowed in the lab. Tonight I knew they would be here. But that means they hadn't been in since—

I looked at the calendar, realizing that I was probably the first to have seen this.

I pushed the heavy hologram table slightly to the side, exposing more dried blood until, to my dismay, I saw wet, bloody smears. A great deal of blood had been lost here. Someone it seemed, had tried to clean it up, but they had missed some under the table. I stood back up and away, a bit stunned, wiping the blood stain in my palm on my blue shirt, leaving a purplish stain. I touched my forehead only to realize I was sweating.

I picked up the phone and called for security.

Later today, Part 8

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

EarVu, a Sci Fi Horror story - Part 6

Continuing with Part 6 of Ear Vu....
Image by Marvin Hayes

Day 81

81
A rather large collection of audio tapes has grown around the lab. Each researcher has their own preference for the type of music or subject they use as research media. The most popular tape has actually been one of bird calls recorded out in the wild. We have worked out a LASER hologram record/projection unit and the scene it produced is tranquil and extremely beautiful. One could almost smell the scents of the fall season in the mountain meadow. We have discovered some tapes of a less “pristine” nature that are also popular and probably wouldn't get so much attention if we had a more mixed gender type of team.


Today we discovered that one has to remember not to, let’s say, have sex, when recording a tape; else others at a later playback will have the ability to run it through the Ear Vu processors and see everything that happened while the audio was recording. How many tapes of this type are out there in the world? What will this do to considerations of privacy?

The thought of the things we will see in reviewing old audio tapes is both disquieting and a little mind boggling. I’ve begun auditing my own personal audio recordings at home and have put several into my personal safe. There are two that I’m considering destroying.

Anyone having any thoughts that the desire of privacy will lead to actual privacy, already rapidly becoming a thing of the past, with Ear Vu technology there will now no longer be any grounds of expecting it whatsoever. Our research shows that sometime in the future it may be possible to view everything within a wide range of the recording device, whether or not the microphones were even accessible.

So far this technology does not work very well with old vinyl recordings. So for now, it is in magnetic media where the wealth of data is being collected and analyzed. We received the enhancement chip prototype today around noon and will have to install it when we have time.

EarVu technology will throw intelligence agencies the world over into chaos. Certain aspects of this frankly, terrify me.

#

I smiled. I remember that day. Not thinking, Johnson had scanned us a tape he’d made at home years ago. Suddenly, he and his wife were naked and having sex in a hologram in the lab. I chuckled and continued on to--

Day 98

I had some tapes sent over from the University Medical Center of a man having a heart attack, dying patients, and so forth. When I played it back I discovered there are shadows nearby that always seem to fade as a person gets closer to death. That is the opposite of the behavior I might expect to see by de-energizing? Are we seeing the sprit or soul dissipating? I must study this further.
#
That stopped me dead in my tracks. What the hell was going on? Why was Garrison holding back so much from us? What if intelligence agencies hear of this? What if they have? 

Tomorrow, Part 7

EarVu, a Sci Fi Horror story - Part 5

Continuing with Part 5 of Ear Vu....
Image by Marvin Hayes

Day 66

Digital compression codecs such as those used on CDs and DVDs haven’t worked too well due to the digitalization which “clips” ranges; even “lossless” formats aren’t working well and when they do, they’re slow and their storage requirements are massive. But these efforts do have that possibility just around the corner; perhaps as the next medium of choice; though there is some concern about losing data. Multi-chromatic DVDs do show some promising behaviors but still, continuous analog medium is the easiest to manipulate at this time.

There is a certain, “choppiness” to the digital mediums at higher speeds, even with massive built in buffers. A simpler format, using a more complicated method of assembly, seems to be the answer and could be available by the coming spring.

We should receive a completed model of the new enhancement chips any day now. We are now connected to the University’s super computer. We can use it now in the non-peak hours for our more simple processing tasks.

Day 72

Quantum Pixel theory gives the best realizations and eventually will also supply us with the ability to see through things; able to view heartbeats of people in an audience near the recorder; and so much more. Ear Vu related M2-brane theory projections will disorientate the scientific community as it did us, at first.

Application of these theories have now allowed us to use any analog recording to study in detail  exactly what was going on in the audio range of the mics that were recording. For instance, the technicians in a sound studio cannot be seen as they are in a sound proofed room; but a recent breakthrough by Michaelson has shown us shadows of images believed to be those very same technicians! We are still unsure how we are seeing what could not have been recorded.

Perhaps something to do with heat, sound and light waves all being so similar but of varying degrees of the same scale. Although these are rather intense variations in scope, computers can fairly easily bring these numbers down into manageable form through a type of dimensional fractal replacement theory that we are currently working on. The significance of this is Nobel Prize level. There is simply no telling how much these discoveries will advance technology in general.

#

“Awesome,” I said aloud. He’s certainly not much of one for letting us in on these things. But a Nobel would be nice. I thought about that for a moment, then realized that it was actually all pretty obvious. I just hadn’t considered it. I scanned the lab through the glass wall, almost hoping no one would show up yet. This was getting interesting. I flipped forward much more earnestly. I had to smile when I read the opening of the next section, as I remembered well, that day.

Later today, Part 6

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

EarVu, a Sci Fi Horror story - Part 4

Continuing with part 4 of Ear Vu....
Image by Marvin Hayes

Day 41

The reproduced scenes, our “Ear Vu scenes”, are still vague at distances but are now beginning to look much more like a filmed dream sequence. New compression algorithms of my formulas by Johnson are beginning to refine that. So, it’s only a matter of time.

Breakthroughs are happening faster than we have the time and manpower to run down those many possible directions in which we can go. Of the two scientists here working with me, we are also searching our own personal directions beyond the scope of our daily, scheduled research. In this way we will be able to more quickly map the many implications of practical applications that our discoveries are pointing out. Obvious alternate areas of research initially include: medical, nanotechnology, criminal sciences, and then so many others.

Really, the possible applications are limitless.

Day 57

The metal particles on magnetic tape have more recording capabilities than was ever before conceived. Just as it was recently found that pixels on photographic paper in an exposed photograph can be used to “look around corners” within the frame of any photographed scene, “moving pictures”-- no, that is not quite correct; “continuous motion pictures”, can now be made from analog audio recordings on mag tape.

This brings up some exciting possibilities for movies and such that are shot using continuous filmic devices (i.e., analog magnetic video cameras). From audio tape, we have now successfully reproduced a scene that was actually taking place in the room, next to the room, that the recording was made in.

Fascinating!

It is possible that any recording medium will suffice, not just magnetic tape, which is merely the medium of the moment. I have successfully used Ear Vu technology on an antique wire recorder with great success and viewed a scene from 1898 of its Danish inventor Valdemar Poulsen using his "Telegraphone wire recorder device”.

The implications of this seem hard to comprehend. We will actually be able to watch holographic video of scenes from the turn of the last century! Adding to that, we can excise more audio than was previously believed to be stored in this or any other medium.

Today there was a strange amorphous mass that floated through the scene. I fear it’s a glitch or media damage, and will have to examine it more closely.

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I sat there annoyed, wondering. Why didn’t he tell us about that? I paged forward.

Tomorrow, Part 5

EarVu, a Sci Fi Horror story - Part 3

Continuing with Part 3 of Ear Vu....
Image by Marvin Hayes

Day 23



Our new CPUs have now incorporated my EarVu formulas on an integrated farm of Centip3De chips, a near-threshold 7-layer 3D system that contains 128 ARM Cortex-M3 cores and 256MB of stacked DRAM. Most of this building outside our main lab is used up with this farm of CPUs and servers. These can visually (and of course, aurally) reproduce nearly an entire music hall; or most definitely, an entire (and discretely smaller) recording studio where the music would originally have been played at the time of recording.

Due to the piecemeal method of producing commercially recorded music by splicing together snippets of different tracks and “voices”, the most cohesive format for playback of Ear Vu technology is a single track, continuously recorded session.

Ear Vu visual imagery at this time appears more like what a partially blind person would see on LSD. Consider elements of a drum beat as the number one, as it enters the microphone then its echo as number “-1”; then those numbers keep trailing off in a diminishing form. The processors eliminate reverberations and shadow sounds and add contrast and brightness, etc. This will become more “fleshed out” as the coding becomes more refined. Between incorporating Mandelbrot set / fractal theory with translation software and the new super-cooled, next generation processors, we are seeing the quality getting rapidly better, almost by the hour.

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“Blah, blah, blah,” I said and flipped forward--

Day 36

We have found that any analog recording machine can make good enough audio tape recordings to reproduce the visuals at the time of recording. However, the better the equipment, the better the quality of the visuals reproduced, and the deeper that one can travel into that moment. It quickly became obvious that the "mysterious duality" proposed by Cumrun Vafa, Amer Iqbal, and Andrew Neitzke in 2001, with its set of mathematical similarities between objects and laws describing M-theory on k-dimensional tori, play a big role in this technology and explains how the data can encompass magnetic particles on mag tape. The process is similar for old LASER tape technology from 1967, substituting photonic elements for magnetic.

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“No, kidding,” I said aloud. Bored I tapped on the desk and looked around. Where the Hell did they go? I thought about getting something to eat, but I really wasn't that hungry, so I flipped forward some more.


Later today, Part 4

Monday, October 22, 2012

EarVu, a Sci Fi Horror story - Part 2

Part 2 of Ear Vu
Image by Marvin Hayes

Ear Vu Research Journal of Dr. Verne Garrison

Day 1

Today begins our “Ear Vu” technology studies of visually viewing from magnetic audio tape recordings. After having worked on this myself for several years, I successfully presented a proposal to the Sonni Corporation and have been given a private lab and a handpicked staff to pursue this new technology. They're an odd company, but they have deep pockets. Everyone knows their logo of the rogue elephant; they go their own way.

They've already drawn up a logo for Ear Vu, their famous rogue elephant looking out an ear with the words: "Remember like an elephant. Ear Vu recalls everything!"

Certainly, no one can say they don't get right on top of things. They are one of those conglomerates that seem to be everywhere and yet no one notices. A powerful organization. Maybe, too powerful.

Now, what exactly is Ear Vu?

The easiest way to understand this is to think of bats, whales or dolphins. Bats have the ability for echolocation using their biosonar, so that they can easily fly while avoiding things in their way. They draw within their minds a kind of sonarscape. One could imagine (incorrectly) that they "see" through sound. Ear Vu technology draws upon that theory and process, enhancing it to quite unbelievable degrees.

As magnetic audio tapes work through the recording of sound waves, forces of pressure rebound against the internals of a microphone, typically of either dynamic, condenser, ribbon or crystal types. Vibrations are transduced into electrical signals which are then stored on an analog medium such as magnetic tape; or digitally, but for this technology, only if there are enough discrete breakdowns and available storage. Typically, digital doesn't work for this in real time as nothing is yet fast enough to convert and record. It is best if done in bulk , using analog formats.

Thus, in turning physical movements into electrical impulses, playback can reproduce audio tones, and with a sophisticated enough system, recreate the dimensions of the original sound quality, depth of field, etc. That is, you can hear each instrument recorded in an orchestra, played back so that you can spatially “see” in your mind where each instrument would have been located, within that setting via the reproduced sound spectrum. It’s more amazing than it sounds.

What I only recently realized was that the recordings on magnetic analog tape, produced by magnetizing particles of either Iron or Chromium oxides, can record astonishing amounts of information. If then linked together with a good processor, it can reproduce far more than sound waves of limited range. We can enhance this in a variety of ways for example, by using analog video; or with LASER tapes, but not in the standard, digital way.

As noted, this is not yet workable using digital formats of storage as the speed of transfer and the amount of bytes required for storage are still quite limited. Whereas on analog recordings, magnetic storage medium is nearly unlimited in the amount of data it can store, “dimensionally”. This is something that was to a degree previously known, though access to retrieving the data was simply unavailable.

Ear Vu technology has drastically changed this retrieval limitation.

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I lowered the journal and thought about that. Interesting to hear it put that way, but nothing I didn't really already know. I flipped forward a bit.

Tomorrow, Part 3