Liza Worries....

We’ve got lots of serious issues to worry about…

1)                    ZIKA and before you tell me not to worry just because you are either male or not able or wishing to bear children, let me point out the rational results if zika becomes an epidemic in the U.S.

All sane women will go on birth control and very few will bear any children and those that do may get the Zika virus and if that happens they will likely have damaged children.

Which means until Zika is stopped, we could lose a generation of children. This isn’t just a threat to diaper manufacturers, but a threat to our entire economy. We are already overbalanced on old people due to the baby boomers. Losing a whole generation of children from our future will put us all at economic risk.

There is also the Guillian Barres Syndrome that appears to be strongly related to the Zika virus. (GBS attacks otherwise normal adults' immune systems, thinking it’s a virus.  Zika appears to trigger an aggressive attack on your immune system.) While GBS only impacted 2 in 100,000 in the past, Zika has altered that ratio.  We already have 7 victims of GBS from 2517 cases of Zika in the U.S.

Please note that both these ratios have a different base. The first stat is taken using LARGE populations divided by the number of people who have previously gotten (before Zika) GBS.

The second ratio is based on very small numbers of those who recently have gotten GBS from Zika in the US and that being compared to the total number of US victims of Zika. I expect the number to grow…

UNLESS we get a vaccine. One vaccine maker has already pulled out due to misbehaving again.

So we must wait to see if other pharmaceutical companies will come through with a vaccine at an affordable price.

I am also waiting for the new stats from the CDC. The next batch should show the impact of Americans going to Rio.  I remain worried.

Also, they are now implementing a test to keep Zika out of our blood donations. I would have been happier if they had done this six months ago. But the GOP controlled congress wouldn’t provide the money. They went on vacation instead.

This is definitely an example of: 'save a penny, lose a pound issue' and 'We are the government, we don't have to get out work done before we can vacation'.  

We do NOT want to have Zika in our blood supply. If that happens, I project that the people getting GBS will explode.  On an average day, 36,000 blood bags are needed in our US hospitals. 

Hopefully, they have fixed this boneheaded move early enough to prevent mass contamination.

And just to make sure you understand how perfidious this disease is:

You can get it any of the following ways:

1)          A pregnant mother has a 1 in 28 chance of passing it to her embryo and the results are very serious, life endangering, with long term complications for those unfortunates who survive.

2)          Any mosquito can carry the disease. It does NOT have to be the Brazilian mosquito. Given how often mosquitoes bite, even if only one person initially carries Zika, it can spread quickly.

3) By having unprotected sex. (The virus actually lives longer traveling in this manner.)

4)          By contaminated blood transfusions.

5)    And finally, by lab screw ups. We’ve one case of that happening. So don't sweat #5 right now.

So now you know what I know.  I’ll update you when the CDC updates me.

2. Second worry…

Flying Cars.

 See:

http://multiuniversesoflizao.blogspot.com/2016/08/finally-flying-cars-are-in-works.html

Since I wrote this, matters have worsened…

Turns out this could put 3.5 Million professional drivers out of work AND IF THEY ALLOW THE FLYING CARS TO FLY...Our blood transfusions might increase...so let's hope out blood banks aren't contaminated with Zika.

3. Third Worry: Donald Trump, 

but I won’t even go there. That's just insanity.

I was going to put a pic with Trump having a bad hair day but blogger warned me not to. You should check those out. They are hilarious! Just google Trump Bad Hair.

Sorry for burdening you with all my worries... But I hate fretting alone.

Finally, Flying Cars are in the works

The flying car has arrived.
God Help Us All!

All the time I was driving to and from work in deadly NJ traffic I dreamt of a car that could fly itself out of trouble. 

And now when I stay at home working as an author for 17 hours a day, they finally fulfill my greatest desire:

A CAR THAT FLIES AND DRIVES.

OR

DRIVES UNTIL THE ROAD COMES TO A DEAD STOP THEN IT FLIES ABOVE ALL THE NONSENSE.

When I dreamt of this car, honestly it looked more like this, with small jet engines:

After all, how is a car with wings going to drive on NJ Roads? We can't stay in our lane and not smash things when we have lines drawn on the road.  What hope do we have when we fly in unmarked air space? 

I remember the day I realized it was a fool's dream. I had just gone from 70 miles an hour to a complete stop in less time than my cursing response to the fiasco took. 

My mind went immediately to my dream of being able to simply initiate the jet burns, pull up on the wheel and soar above the smashed cars further up the road.

Then my fabulous dream image turns into a nightmare as EVERYONE tries to escape the road and fly into the sky. 

The result will be worse than the Hindenburg. Oh, the inhumanity! Oh, the days before all the broken bits of human and metal are removed from the highway!

But on the positive side, there might be a lot of job openings soon after.

Still, Airbus is seriously declaring 2017 the year of the flying cars. Looks like Singapore may be first. 

Do you know why our current planes don't crash into each other? No, it's not just the equipment  they have. That helps, but not so much in close proximity, such as when they are landing. They have strange, sometimes demented, but highly trained people staring at the radar equipment advising the pilot of the plane what to do.

I remember when I was on my first solo flight and needed to land at controlled airport. I announced my presence and the air controller speaks so fast and cryptically that I had no clue what he said. So now I'm left pondering what to do. Should I fake it or fess up I had not clue what he'd just said. So I worked through my options. What might happen if I fake it? I imagined a Jet hitting me as we both go for the same runway. So I went for option 2. I confessed, I was on my first solo flight, I hadn't understood a word he said. After a pause, a very slow voice came over the radio. "Hello, 3 Mike Alpha", and then he gave me very clear instructions and which runway I should land upon. 

It turns out commercial pilots can comprehend the rapid abbreviated words that controllers speak, but I don't think normal humans will ever comprehend it. So rule one, is we can't use the control centers that airplanes use. It would be the equivalent of mass murder.

Next problem, they've created a plane/ car with long wings. It looks a bit like the Cessnas I used to fly, except fatter. 
It's not going to fit on our roads. EVER.

And then there is the issue of letting millions of people flying willy-nilly all over the sky.  We aren't great on the roads, but the reason it only kills 40K people a year in the US is because the roads are paved into the ground. You do NOT go driving off into a field because your destiny is in that direction. No. You stay on the road and follow the roads signs.

There are NO roads nor road signs in the air. So the average human would be totally lost in the air. And do not expect Air Control to help you. They expect you to call them and announce your arrival. It does not work out well if you call them declaring you have no idea where you are and can they see you...Yeah, I did that. And no they couldn't help me. Then I flew right over their airport, quickly announced I was landing and got called to control tower to explain what happened.  I didn't get in trouble, but I was grounded until the weather improved.

But what happens if 300 peeps try that at one small airport?

I'm pretty sure we could raise the death knoll to over a million a year if we have flying cars.

I mean seriously, do you know how many times I almost hit another plane in the air? OK, it only happened three times. But that's 3 times too many! And one of them was a fighter jet going so fast I didn't see him in my visual check and the next second he's zipping in front of my nose.

Technically speaking, planes are supposed to work on the rule that the slowest plane gets priority in the air. So I can't fly in front of a glider, and fighter jets aren't supposed to go zipping by in front of me because I had no chance to even say "oh shit!" 

Fortunately, when I flew a plane, the skies were mostly empty. Now we have kids (some being adult kids) flying drones so high they lose sight of them. But out of sight doesn't mean out of trouble.

Could a drone take out a Cessna? I'm sure it could. How about the car/plane above.  Definitely. How about a jetliner? If a goose can take out an engine, then I'm certain a drone can too. Good thing they have more than one engine.

So here's our future:

7 billion little drone planes and about 4 million flying cars crashing about the sky. It'll be a Hindenburg every five seconds.

But what if drone planes just fly you directly to your workplace with you as a passenger? Skyways would need to be charted, but that is possible. Still, you begin on the ground presumably at home. So how do you safely get from the ground into your allocated space in the sky to go to your office without intersecting someone else's path. The plane will no doubt have technology to warn you of other planes flying too close, but will it actually prevent all accidents? Based on our self-driving cars, I think not.

Thus, people in their homes will be at risk from planes crashing on their homes, and unlike our current major airlines and, often times, heroic captains to save the day, you'll just have a plane or maybe two crashing through the roof and catching on fire.

This will never go mainstream. Despite my long dream of a flying car, it's too dangerous...

So let's talk about my next Sci-Fi series instead. While Alisha loves to fly, she flies a windcatcher and if it fails the only person who will die is the SkyRyder, unless its Alisha. She has skills beyond the SkyRyders' imagination and can even survive a chute failure.

Meet Alisha: A young woman who refuses to live the life her parents want.

In a single month, Alisha Kane has gone from a wealthy debutante to street girl to scavenger.  While testing her new flying skills in the Cully Canyon, Alisha incurs a near-death crash landing. She’s “rescued” by a colonel of the SkyRyders and her life changes forever.

Meet Logan: A SkyRyder colonel in charge of a sleepy fort with little to do other than arrest the occasional scavenger.

For the first time in his life, Logan’s attracted to a young woman, only she’s probably a scavenger and he’ll have to arrest her.  But first, he offers her a shower and food while he checks on his crew. His Videographer has captured her extraordinary flight through the Cully and her flying is astounding!

He forgoes arresting her and puts his career at risk by asking MAC to assess her skills and integrity as a potential SkyRyder. If he can get Alisha into the SkyRyders, it will be his greatest contribution to the Corps.

Meet MAC: the Artifical Intelligence that runs the SkyRyders Corps.

Upon seeing her arrival, MAC upgrades Alisha’s test. Her flying skills are not just excellent; they exceed what was previously thought possible. MAC classifies her as its #1 asset and soon she proves her value.  

But…the SkyRyders remain a male-dominated Corps where Alisha’s sense of right and wrong often clashes with her superiors. How long can a rebellious young woman survive in a regimented Corps?

 BUY LINK

The SkyRyder’s Series, Book 1

Scavenger’s Mission

AMAZON

Pre-order your copy now