An essential part of communication with others is a function of the ability to vocalize sounds, write symbols and use body language. If physical conditions altered radically, we would be forced to adopt new techniques to break the isolation. In such a case a broad imagination could create infinite possibilities if we are able to suspend our disbelief of what can change.

Imagine waking up in a completely underwater existence while all our recollections from living on land are conscious, and we fully remember breathing and speaking. There is no memory of how we got here, nor is an explanation given for the transformation, what it means, or how it could have happened. Then, the challenge is being left alone with others in the same conditions to figure out ways to communicate with each other. Where would you begin?

Considering everything, perception depends on perspective, physically defined as the distance between the observer and what is being observed. Movement in any direction, from a cosmic perspective, reveals a lot of glowing dots we consider stars. Some are brighter than others, different colors and part of clusters that can only be imagined because most of them will always be beyond reach. Speculation about them is limited to the sensitivity of the instruments used to observe their existence which only affirms the vastness of eternity.

When we look at the stars, we see the distant past since it takes thousands of years for the light from them to reach us. So, when we speak about going into the future, we are also approaching the past. Perhaps this supports the notion that the perception of time is relative to speed as the line of sight approaches infinity.

Although space is not empty, we are only beginning to study the sub atomic elements of matter and radiation that permeate space. It is difficult to understand these particles because we cannot see them with the naked eye, and most of them do not exist on Earth and have to be artificially created during high energy collisions in particle accelerators. But, from what we have learned so far, at least two conclusions can be drawn:

The greater the change evidenced by the evolving patterns of stars suggests that even though they are moving very fast, their trajectory can be plotted assuming we know their previous positions in space. But this reveals nothing about the particles between objects that exist on a quantum level that can also effect speed.

No matter how much knowledge we have learned about the Cosmos, most of what is out there will still remain unknown. More of it will reveal itself when the brain evolves its capacity to absorb and contain what is seen.

When Elizabeth Taylor died on March 23, 2011 from congestive heart failure, the pulse of the world quivered as the last living touchstone of the golden age of Hollywood passed from contemporary history. None of the actors who remain from that era have the glitz and glitter she had, first as a child star who made the successful transition to a consummate adult screen actress and goddess, but also as a savvy business woman who used her fame to draw attention to many humanitarian causes when it was politically inconvenient.

Critics were rarely kind when reviewing her performances; they were often influenced by the tabloid fascination with her failed marriages, public scandals and health scares. But through all the turbulence, Taylor always retained public sympathy and remained a magnet for attention. She was ranked as seventh on the AFI’s list of the 50 top screen legends of all time. Only three of the twenty five women on the list remain: Shirley Temple, Lauren Bacall and Sophia Loren.

Some of her best work, on film,  included Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (1958) with Paul Newman, and a strong performance opposite Katherine Hepburn in Suddenly Last Summer (1959). Both were film adaptations of plays written by Tennessee Williams. But, it wasn’t until 1961 and after her fourth nomination did she win her first Best Actress Oscar for BUtterfield 8 (1960), a film she openly detested because she played an out of control nymphomaniac call girl with the line, “Mama, face it, I was the slut of all time.” She always felt the Academy voted her the Oscar out of sympathy for almost dying of pneumonia a few weeks earlier. Another reason was that her co star was Eddie Fisher, who she considered her biggest mistake.

Her second Oscar was in 1966 for Who Is Afraid Of Virginia Woolf, which remains the best of the nine films she made with her fifth husband, Richard Burton who she married and divorced twice. The film, directed by Mike Nichols, seemed to be art imitating life as her vitriolic Martha reflected her marriage to Burton, a volcanic relationship characterized by public spats and alcohol abuse. She received the prestigious Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1992 for her groundbreaking work for creating and raising money for AIDS foundations

My personal favorite of all the fifty films she made is a little known gem called Elephant Walk (1954). It starred Peter Finch and Dana Andrews and was based on the novel by Digby George Gerahty and directed by William Dieterle from a screenplay by John Lee Mahin. It’s an epic story about a colonial plantation owner who cultivates Tea in Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka. On a trip to England, Finch meets and marries Ruth played by Taylor who becomes the mistress of the large manor in what would turn out to be a precursor for her roles in Giant, and then as Cleopatra. The lavish luxury and wealth also served as a reminder of Taylor’s lifelong love affair with diamonds.

A major plot element of the film is that the plantation’s large house was intentionally built in the middle of the migrating path of Indian Elephants. A tense drama, a love triangle and the exciting climax as an epic elephant stampede threatens to stomp Taylor in a heart pumping scene as she tries to escape up a long staircase to avoid being trampled by the large herd of angry elephants with a grudge. Elephant Walk was originally set to star Laurence Olivier and Vivian Leigh who had to back out of the project due to bi polar disease. Taylor and Finch were last minute replacements.

Dame Elizabeth Taylor Hilton Wilder Todd Fisher Burton Burton Warner Fortensky was born on February 27, 1932 in Great Britain to American parents. She became a major star for MGM, popular not only for her films but for her glamorous lifestyle, beauty, public scandals and those violet eyes. Her first real screen success was in 1944 when she made National Velvet as a child star and then matured as Spencer Tracy’s daughter in Father Of The Bride in 1950. In 1963, her much publicised scandal on the set of Cleopatra with Richard Burton sealed her fate as “the other woman.”  Her life has often been compared to a soap opera and Giant (1956) which starred Rock Hudson and James Dean may have been the basis for Dallas, the prime time  soap that dominated television for years.

Taylor, who remained popular throughout her life was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2000. She leaves four children, ten grandchildren and four great grandchildren. Although her glimmer as one of Hollywood’s greatest stars will remain bright, her most important footnote will be the way she used her fame to draw attention to the humanitarian causes that motivated the final chapter of her life. Elizabeth Taylor was seventy nine.

Many comic books have been based on the adventures of hero’s gifted with super powers marked by limitations to illustrate some of their weaknesses that show them mortal; focusing attention on their ingenuity to defeat a foe with moral resolve. Whatever the powers are, one effect on the reader is to imagine that if it were possible to have the same abilities, how could it change their lives; perhaps by creating fantasies about wielding great power or enhancing their observation of existing in an extraordinary reality.

Of all the hero’s of the DC universe, the one no one ever wanted to be was Matter Eating Lad, the fifteenth initiate admitted to The Legion Of Superhero’s, an organization founded in the thirtieth century to protect Earth and the Galaxy. Each member had a power, which had to be innate, and a flight ring, provided by the three original leaders, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl and Cosmic Boy. The ring was allegedly invented by Brainiac 5 who had super intellect, green skin and blond hair.

Matter Eating Lad‘s real name was Tenzil Kern, a son of the planet Bismoll, the only known place where microbes made all native food poisonous to its human inhabitants, provoking mutant genes to adapt their digestive system to eat any known substance at super speed  without harm or weight gain. Although this was considered an evolutionary change consistent with the biological principle of adaptation, it doesn’t explain why the poisonous food remained the exception. Perhaps Tenzil should have come back in time to serve as a representative of Weight Watchers, since his unique ability had little super power significance except to eat his way to save members of the Legion held in jailed captivity. Even his standing in the Legion was challenged by Calorie Queen who had the ability, like him, to eat anything no matter how large but also the power to convert  the calories into super strength. He was rarely featured in adventures and spent a great deal of time in politics on his home world using his membership in the Legion as an advantage to win a seat in the senate.

It was reported by an unknown source that Matter Eating Lad once saved Superboy when he was exposed to Kryptonite by digesting the green glowing meteorite, but the claim has remained unsubstantiated by any reputable source, although Krypto, the Dog Of Steel, had been quoted by the The Future National Enquirer, a highly respected periodical based in the former Great Britain as saying, “These reports are over exaggerated and highly suspect.”Krypto further explained in a separate statement, “since exposed to Red Kryptonite, I am now able to speak English with a German accent.” When pressed by the newspaper for a response, Matter Eating Lad was quoted as saying, “Krypto is still angry because I ate his bone while he was napping.”

When thinking about The Singularity, the image of Astronomy, Astrophysics, Black Holes and Einstein comes to mind, yet another notion defines it as a point on the path of technological acceleration, where convergence of everything is at its fastest, and creating an emergent technology with its own version of sentience to challenge our own appears credible.

Perhaps in a parallel universe synthetic life will be created by humans to serve us as workers or soldiers, an effort supported by the business sector looking to reduce labor costs and maximize profits, or governments with designed warriors at their disposal; empowered with the ability to expand its capabilities by surpassing the intelligence of its creators.

It could also be argued that this has already happened in another reality where imagining this is  leant credence by physics, defining the Cosmos as multi-universes separated only by unique  signatures in the form of vibrations, allowing for all possibilities that can happen do happen in an alternate quantum reality and where an infinite number of potential outcomes are determined not only by our actions, but our thoughts as well.

Science Fiction has been a perfect medium for presenting scientific theories with contemporary social overtones in a format that is more acceptable by society; culturally relevant and easily digestable and yet distant enough to be non-threatening. A form of literature frequently misunderstood, Science Fiction has often had as its basis a future where advancements often begin with developments in medical technology that expand the boundaries of life in unpredictable ways.

Battlestar Gallactia was about the creation of artificial life, a milestone that has already begun in our reality. But, in theirs, the Cylons choose to exterminate their creators and almost succeeds. In yet another popular series, Star Trek – The Next Generation, a seventh season episode Parallels explores the theory of traveling from one reality to another. The events begin when  Lt. Worf, in a shuttle craft, inadvertently causes a spacial rift between quantum alternate universes, tearing the fabric of space, shifting from one reality to the next, experiencing some of the infinite outcomes that were determined by his choices.

The acclaimed series took a metaphysical approach when it explored the legal status of artificial life and the criteria for self awareness in the thought provoking trial of Data in Measure Of A Man, a second season episode that points out that although self awareness has been demonstrated, no one has been able to find a way measure consciousness, let alone judge it.

It has always been easy to dismiss Science Fiction as a fantasy, but it has been hard to ignore the numerous inventions that were first thought by writers that have now become science fact and changed our culture. Who would have thought that in this alternate reality, a computer named Watson would compete and win on Jeopardy as a contestant against Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, two human challengers and all time champions of the show.

Perhaps this is our first step towards realizing The Singularity – a future time when the confluence of  scientific, societal and economic conditions move so fast making it impossible to reflect or even predict what will happen from our current perspective, leaving all possibilities open until someone perceives them from whatever place the source of all possibilities exists and puts them within grasp.

Things disappear easily in unfamiliar surroundings as many thoughtful travelers have found. A night on the town leaving valuables unsecured is an all too familiar experience. A gold watch, 24 carat gold neck chain, platinum, diamond engraved dog tag or perhaps a gold thimble, brought to patch a rip or tear with a stitch or two in time for the paranoia to subside, asking repeatedly in peculiar doubt, “Why did I bring this stuff with me if I knew they wouldn’t be in a ‘safe’ environment at the very same time detectives and criminologists continue working all over the world with scientists to develop new strategies to invent a fool proof safe.

For your consideration is a unique product, a bit basic and somewhat offensive and yet desperate times call for desperate measures, The Brief Safe, featured on Shomer-Tec.com, a site specializing in law enforcement & military equipment. The one aired here “ is an innovative ‘diversion’ safe that can secure your cash, documents, and other small valuables from inquisitive eyes and thieving hands, both at home and when you’re on the go. Items can be hidden right under their noses with these specially-designed briefs which contain a fly-accessed 4″ x 10″ secret compartment with Velcro closure and “special markings” on the appropriate areas.” Priced at $11 a pair, its unclear if it comes in designer brands or women’s wear.

Leave this item near the laundry bag as if it was going to be hand washed or in plain view of the washing machine, perhaps some detergent such as Tide or Wisk and a container of bleach to add the props, a milieu that make a convincing image. When traveling, a clear plastic bag in your suitcase for those business men who often use their frequent flyer miles will suffice. It will certainly cause some crooks to think twice before touching any of your personal valuables.  Made in the USA, one size presumably fits all, two tone white.

My Percepto rating: Hey, it’s disgusting, but anything that will bring thieves to a screeching halt, skidding on their own greed, needs a double take.

“The exploration of reality through Art is very complex. There is no right or wrong. There is both.”
Playwright Harold Pinter

As a creator, any combination capable of evoking an image or emotion, is unique, requiring no justification or approval to validate its existence. Whether the perception is positive or negative, subtle or overt, the reaction should be left for others to make without explanation or apology for its content. Attempting at its best, not only to provoke the audience to think but also to ideate from the perspective of the architect, hopefully tapping into some “classic exemplar” sensibility, simultaneously. A diverse reaction will, ideally, reflect the wide range of listeners whose instincts are affected by a creative insight.

On the other hand, an artist is also an observer, whose work often suggests other meanings than initially envisioned by its creator, molded by other conceptions, adding unanticipated suggestive nuances that exhorts the notion that exploration of art, as Pinter said, however defined, is beyond “right or wrong”, good or bad. Paradoxical in it’s simplicity yet complex to both the trained and untrained eye.

To all those parents out there who thought Comic Books were useless pieces of trash – including my mother who threw out my box of treasured DC classics, this original page from a 1988 Batman story, “The Killing Joke”, reported in a New York Times article dated June 30th, 2008, sold for over $31,000 at auction.

Ha Ha Ha, The Joke(r)’s On You!

On Kandor, The Lost City Of Krypton