About Over the Edge...

The over-arching theme of Over the Edge is the quest for God. Within that is the search for meaning, for unconditional love, for truth, for connection and for redemption.

The first book in the series came out in 2004, Over the Edge: The Beginning. The bottom line: the book wasn't ready--I wasn't a sufficiently good enough writer to pull it off. You can find copies on Amazon and elsewhere--used copies. The book is now out of print, but I'm rewriting it.

Meanwhile, Give Her the Stars was released in 2012. Give Her the Stars is the first in a series written in the Over the Edge universe featuring characters from the series and are stand-alone novels. However these stand-alone novels will add to the reader's understanding of the Over the Edge world. Ostensibly, Give Her the Stars is a romance, and, yes, it is a romance, but more, it is a young woman's story of giving up worry.

Love From the Stars is coming in 2015. It's the story of a young woman who must give up her boyfriend and rent-to-buy home to move in with her demented mother in a far away city to care for her. In the course of her sufferings, Violet is also forced to give up her self-righteous hypocrisy and in so doing, finds Grace and Love. It's also the story of Causey Lindo, a libertine, who finds he's tired of the wastrel lifestyle. Already full of the awareness that he is nothing and can do nothing but sin, he finds Jesus and is transformed. He lives in Romans 5:20 and II Corinthians 12:9-10.

Look for Love From the Stars in 2015!

Science of Over the Edge: The Surveillance State

In Over the Edge surveillance technology exists and is carefully regulated, but in early 2015 we haven't gotten to that point--we don't yet have all the little niggling entry points where corporations and government can gain access to our lives blocked or controlled. We're in danger of finding ourselves living in a country where liberty is paid only lip service, meanwhile corporations and government control us.

In this video Dark Journalist, Daniel Liszt, discusses the hazards of RFID tags, smart phones and the surveillance state:

Science of Over the Edge: Nano-tech Inside the Body

In Over the Edge characters use nanobots to clean and gather forensic evidence. In one scene, nanobots are used to create what will appear to be a heart attack, kill a man and leave his body. Google plans to use nano-technology for a much less nefarious purpose:

Review "Give Her the Stars" and rate the book!

What the future can look like, if we take charge...

The Universe is Finely Tuned for Life

Gerald Schroeder has several books dealing with this topic, my favorite is The Science of God. In that book he explores the evidence supporting the view that God created the universe and uses the Hebrew Scripture to help support his thesis. I recommend that book for anybody serious about the question of whether or not God created the all that there is.

Meanwhile, here's a fine video approaching the question from a simple, logical point of view employing science to back up the thesis:

Science of Over the Edge: Drinking Hot Beverages in the Summer

In Give Her the Stars, Elise, the heroine, like to drink hot tea in the summer. This practice actually has benefits, provided certain conditions are met.

1) all your sweat will evaporate

2) it's not humid

If you drink a hot beverage on a hot day your stomach's thermo-sensors become overactive and send signals to the hypothalamus that you're hot, causing that organ to trigger sweating. So, if it can all evaporate, you'll lose more heat than you took in when you drank the hot drink.

If it's humid and/or you're already soggy with sweat, choose something cold.

Why Your Weird Friends are Drinking Hot Coffee in the Summer...

Warp Drive, Gravity and Passenger Spaceships

If you can create a warp drive that rides a wave of bent time/space, how do you jump start it and more importantly, how do you turn it off? The leading edge of the wave is not in your time. The proposed design places passengers in a time bubble within a large ring. The time bubble operates on home time while the ring rides a wave of space/time. For more, read the article below:

NASA's interplanetary space ship design

photo credit: sploid.gizmodo.com

 In the Over the Edge series Candan Rubeek is the primary inventor of the gravitational drive, a system that employs gravity to propel ships to near light speeds. Admittedly this author has no idea, at this time, precisely how that might work except to say that it pushes against and pulls depending on the chosen direction--like a magnet pushing and pulling against another magnet. If you've ever played with super strong magnets you know you can get quite a bounce when you force the magnets resisting ends toward one another.

Though we can say a lot of things about gravity, we still don't understand it. In this video we come right to the edge of the answer to the big question, "What is gravity?", and then veer back into known territory again. Why? Because we don't know what gravity is! Check it out, it is worth the watch:



Virgin Galactic is the front leader in the creation of passenger spaceships. The most interesting bit of information for me in the clip featured below is how the ships are constructed without rivets or welds:

An insider's look at Virgin Galactic's passenger space ship

Your Jet Pack Coming Soon

I'll admit it. I'm super tired and I don't want to write even an opening paragraph. Just go to the website and read what these guys have to say, it's easier and faster for both of us: The Martin Jetpack

And while we're on the subject, if you don't want to go to the website, here's a video of the Martin Jetpack, but if you're going to ride this thing, you're going to want hearing protectors:

Measuring Time

Recipes From the "Over the Edge" Universe

In the Over the Edge series characters drink wines, "cofaynee," Ephonian "Blizzards" and this Celian drink reformulated for Earthlings by Chris Colman of Las Vegas, Nevada:

Electric Blue Freeze

Hurricane Glass (ice to top of glass)

1 oz Malibu Rum

1 oz Grey Goose Vodka

½ oz Blue Curacao

Almost fill with Sweet & Sour

Splash of 7-up

Blended

"Lagrangian Real Estate: Places in Space," by J.C. Conway

photo credit: J.C. Conway's blog post

In Over the Edge planets establish space ports where trade and passenger traffic can make connections with the too-large-to-land on the planet surface. Mr. Conway has written a blog post about this potentially valuable space real estate. "Lagrangian Real Estate: Places in Space," by J.C. Conway

The Science of Over the Edge: Flying Cars

Slovakian Flying Car Prototype Takes Off

The link above takes you to a story about the flying cars, but which also includes "Ten Wild Ways to Travel in the Future." But given the present regulatory attitude of the United States, is there anyone out there who really believes ordinary Joes will every be permitted to own a flying car? It's just too easy to kill yourself and someone else with one of those suckers and we can't have that! We are all about safety and security, not about risk taking and innovation these days. If the modern automobile were invented today nobody would be allowed to ride it. Heck, horses are dangerous. We probably wouldn't be allowed to ride them either. Everybody walk!

Humans, if allowed to pursue their dreams, will keep on inventing and finding ways around The Man, that is big, intrusive government. The Slovakian Areomobil, pictured below, is the latest development.  And, the US-based Terrafugia's "Transition" flying car, which was featured in an earlier post on this blog (July 1, 2010), plans to introduce their flying car to the market within a year. We may not have our rocket packs, but it looks like we will have our flying cars!

Photo credit: news.discover.com

In Over the Edge characters drive hover cars, which though similar in that they are also equipped with wheels for on-road travel, use an entirely different means of propulsion.

 Image credit: News.Discovery.com

The Science of Over the Edge: Invisibility

The World's first invisible skyscraper

In the Over the Edge series Minan character employ technology called "chameleon battle skin" which makes them invisible to all forms of detection except physical touch. Robo eyes and snooper robos used in "low tech" (places where infra-red and x-ray detection will not be deployed) settings use micro cameras and screens to hide in plain sight. In Seoul, Korea, builders are now at work constructing the first invisible skyscraper which will use this same technology to hide in plain sight. Because the tower will use cameras and screens to create the illusion of invisibility, they can also turn the entire building into a movie screen or add images to the scenes picked up on one side of the building and projected to the other side. Local birds and airplanes might not find this innovation quite so thrilling.

Photo credit: businessinsider.com

Indepth discussion of the invisibile tower click here

Northern Lights...

The Science of Over the Edge: Micro-needles

In Over the Edge when patients in hospitals need medication, rather than using an IV, doctors use micro-needles, which are essentially gelatin pads embedded with tiny needles that feed the medication from the gel into the patient. When the needle embedded pad is applied to the person, a measured amount of medication is contained within the gel pad. The gel pad's outer layer protects the gel and the medication from normal wear and tear, which includes bathing. This article features a similar product, but in this case, the "microneedle patch" is absorbed into the body over time.

Give Yourself the Flu Vaccine

Science of Over the Edge: 3D Designing and Printing

In the Over the Edge series characters use a "facsimile" machine to create everything from documents identical to the original right down to the fibers and oils found in the paper to garments created beginning with generating the fiber on up. Virgin Galactic designers posted this video explaining the innovations they are developing to facilitate design and fabrication:

The Music of the Stars

"...while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy," Job 38:7

Quantum Mechanics: a Primer

Physicists Amir Safavi-Naeini and Oskar Painter describe how they were able to measure quantum motions of 1 femtometer (0.000000000000001 meters) in a micro-scale object.

Space Oddity covered by Astronaut Chris Hadfield

David Bowie wrote and performed "Space Oddity" in 1969. Chris Hadfield improves on it with lyrics from a true astronaut's point of view. Together they've created one awesome tune!