Raymond Gaynor's Blog, page 60
August 14, 2020
TIME FOR A DEEP BREATH
With gun sales and COVID-19 approaching, if not already, out-of-control, food prices rising, traditional work declining, and another month of ruthless political propaganda looming, maybe it’s time to take a deep breath. Zazen-style. Deep in-breath through the nose, slow complete exhale while mentally focusing on nothing. A couple more times until the body relaxes and the mind starts to feel washed clean. Like after the briefest, comfy bout of Hawaiian sunshine-rain. It’s all about stress, but these days, I’m not talking about acute stress. That relinquished its control a long time ago to chronic stress, and chronic stress is the real “killer.”
In Dr. Daniel S. Janik’s UNLOCK THE GENIUS WITHIN: Neurobiological Trauma, Teaching, and Transformative Learning (Rowman & Littlefied Education 2005) he makes a clear distinction between the two kinds of stress. The former, acute stress, is the “fight or flight” state emotionally controlled by the body’s release of “natural” epinepherine. The latter, chronic stress” is the “preparing for death” state emotionally controlled by by the body’s release of “natural” cortisol.
According to Janik and Medical News Today, it results in irritability (which can be extreme to the point of aggressive impulsivity); fatigue; headache; difficulty concentrating, disorganized thinking; difficulty sleeping; digestive problems; feeling helpless; a perceived loss of control; loss of self-esteem and sexual desire; nervousness; and frequent infections or illnesses, including chronic illnesses, cancer and dementia. Sound familiar?
Chronic stress can contribute to the development of a range of physical and mental disorders, including high blood pressure; heart disease; diabetes; obesity; a weakened immune system; sexual dysfunction; gastrointestinal disorders; skin irritation; respiratory infections; autoimmune diseases; insomnia; work and family “burnout”; depression; anxiety disorders; post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and schizophrenia. Remind you of our political leaders today?
What to do? Well, I find starting with taking regular breaks throughout the day and deep breathing is a good start. Infants, young children and the elderly respond well to attention and physical stroking (often called “relaxation massage” by everyone in between), stretching and exercising. Yawning helps, too. Self-help techniques also include identifying and avoiding specific triggers, acknowledging and accepting chronic stress; developing effective personal coping and mitigation strategies (e.g. my partner and I trade weekly massages), reaching out to friends and family by distance, and practicing zazen-styule mindfulness. If these don’t seem to work, or if stress becomes overwhelming, consulting a healthcare professional by distance may help. However, the most important thing for me is to look to the future and never lose hope. Oh, and don’t forget to pick up a good book…
Raymond Gaynor
Author of THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020)
Co-author with A. G. Hayes of QUANTUM DEATH (Savant 2016) and with William Maltese of TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009)
Author website at https://garymartine.yolasite.com/raym...
Author Facebook site at https://www.facebook.com/raymond.gayn...
Author Twitter site at https://www.savantbooksandpublication...
Amazon author page at https://www.amazon.com/Raymond-Gaynor...
Amazon Goodreads author page at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
NetGallery Link –https://www.netgalley.com/widget/2689...
The Edge of Madness
In Dr. Daniel S. Janik’s UNLOCK THE GENIUS WITHIN: Neurobiological Trauma, Teaching, and Transformative Learning (Rowman & Littlefied Education 2005) he makes a clear distinction between the two kinds of stress. The former, acute stress, is the “fight or flight” state emotionally controlled by the body’s release of “natural” epinepherine. The latter, chronic stress” is the “preparing for death” state emotionally controlled by by the body’s release of “natural” cortisol.
According to Janik and Medical News Today, it results in irritability (which can be extreme to the point of aggressive impulsivity); fatigue; headache; difficulty concentrating, disorganized thinking; difficulty sleeping; digestive problems; feeling helpless; a perceived loss of control; loss of self-esteem and sexual desire; nervousness; and frequent infections or illnesses, including chronic illnesses, cancer and dementia. Sound familiar?
Chronic stress can contribute to the development of a range of physical and mental disorders, including high blood pressure; heart disease; diabetes; obesity; a weakened immune system; sexual dysfunction; gastrointestinal disorders; skin irritation; respiratory infections; autoimmune diseases; insomnia; work and family “burnout”; depression; anxiety disorders; post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and schizophrenia. Remind you of our political leaders today?
What to do? Well, I find starting with taking regular breaks throughout the day and deep breathing is a good start. Infants, young children and the elderly respond well to attention and physical stroking (often called “relaxation massage” by everyone in between), stretching and exercising. Yawning helps, too. Self-help techniques also include identifying and avoiding specific triggers, acknowledging and accepting chronic stress; developing effective personal coping and mitigation strategies (e.g. my partner and I trade weekly massages), reaching out to friends and family by distance, and practicing zazen-styule mindfulness. If these don’t seem to work, or if stress becomes overwhelming, consulting a healthcare professional by distance may help. However, the most important thing for me is to look to the future and never lose hope. Oh, and don’t forget to pick up a good book…
Raymond Gaynor
Author of THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020)
Co-author with A. G. Hayes of QUANTUM DEATH (Savant 2016) and with William Maltese of TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009)
Author website at https://garymartine.yolasite.com/raym...
Author Facebook site at https://www.facebook.com/raymond.gayn...
Author Twitter site at https://www.savantbooksandpublication...
Amazon author page at https://www.amazon.com/Raymond-Gaynor...
Amazon Goodreads author page at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
NetGallery Link –https://www.netgalley.com/widget/2689...
The Edge of Madness
August 12, 2020
WHAT THE HECK IS A QUANTUM FANKLE?
In a 5 August 2020 article in BBC News, a team of Scottish-based scientists delved into the “spooky” nether that connects entangled quanta. The title of the article refers to a “quantum fankle.” Having never heard that word in my quantum lexicon, I ran it down to a Scottish word that means “entangled.” But what intrigued me was that its meaning goes well beyond entanglement falling into the realm of a muddle, implying to me the entanglement itself is, or at least has been up to now, quite inexplicable. Well, good word, “fankle,” because I believe that it reflects an important aspect of entanglement: one that goes beyond the bond and opens the door to how that bond or entanglement happens over distance, whether they’re Angstroms or light-years apart. As I said, there’s something important there.
Getting back to the article, the scientists are said to have managed to transport entangled particles through a complex media…”the entangled particles and the medium they travel through can be treated as one and the same…” Rather like a Bose-Einstein Condensate, I imagine. Or like a fold in space-time where the entangled particles act like they’re located so close to each other as to act like twin or at least coherent light waves, at the same time acting like identical particles. The “new” part of this announcement is that the medium separating two entangled particles is one and the same as the two entangled particles. So what is this medium? Is it part of normal space-time or separate and incidental to it? How does it exist within the reality of “normal” space-time? Is it more like a statistical electron cloud or an “aether” unique to the entangled particles? An Einsteinean gravitational field or a Quantum Vacuum? Whatever it is, it certainly is fankle.
I’m already thinking of how a quantum fankle might help elucidate the nature of the “soul,” one of the many cogent topics I have planned for the sequel to THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor.
The Edge of Madness
Getting back to the article, the scientists are said to have managed to transport entangled particles through a complex media…”the entangled particles and the medium they travel through can be treated as one and the same…” Rather like a Bose-Einstein Condensate, I imagine. Or like a fold in space-time where the entangled particles act like they’re located so close to each other as to act like twin or at least coherent light waves, at the same time acting like identical particles. The “new” part of this announcement is that the medium separating two entangled particles is one and the same as the two entangled particles. So what is this medium? Is it part of normal space-time or separate and incidental to it? How does it exist within the reality of “normal” space-time? Is it more like a statistical electron cloud or an “aether” unique to the entangled particles? An Einsteinean gravitational field or a Quantum Vacuum? Whatever it is, it certainly is fankle.
I’m already thinking of how a quantum fankle might help elucidate the nature of the “soul,” one of the many cogent topics I have planned for the sequel to THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor.
The Edge of Madness
August 11, 2020
CHAT WITH RAYMOND GAYNOR
Saturday, 15 August 2020 I’ll be part of the Savant/Aignos Online Realtime Chat from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Hawaii Standard Time (that’s 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Pacific/San Francisco time). Exclusively a realtime text chat, it’s open to the public and so I’d like to invite any interested Raymond Gaynor readers and fans to join me. I’ll be there the whole three hours answering questions and elaborating on my newest release, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020).
https://www.savantbooksandpublication...
Be sure to read the chat guidelines BEFORE the day of the chat, paying special attention to the following:
Register BEFORE the day of the chat; check your email box and confirm your identity so you can not only lurk, but post. I want to hear from you!
Be sure to refresh your browser every minute or so, so you can see the latest posts. If you don’t it will seem like no one’s there, and, believe me, there’ll be folks there.
Don’t be shy.
Don’t despair if you don’t see an immediate reply. Remember that it can take five minutes or so for participants to read the posts and post a reply.
If you’re a writer, poet, author, recording artist or audio-video producer, don’t hesitate to mention your work(s). Everyone else will be doing exactly that!
Or purchase a printed copy at 10% off Suggested Retail Price with free shipping within the USA including Alaska and Hawaii using “ONLINE” discount code at checkout from
Savant Bookstore Atlantic (www.savantbookstoreatlantic.com)
Savant Bookstore Midwest (www.savantbookstoremidwest.com)
Savant Bookstore Pacific (www.savantbookstorepacific.com)
Savant Bookstore Honolulu (www.savantbookstorehonolulu.com)
The Edge of Madness
https://www.savantbooksandpublication...
Be sure to read the chat guidelines BEFORE the day of the chat, paying special attention to the following:
Register BEFORE the day of the chat; check your email box and confirm your identity so you can not only lurk, but post. I want to hear from you!
Be sure to refresh your browser every minute or so, so you can see the latest posts. If you don’t it will seem like no one’s there, and, believe me, there’ll be folks there.
Don’t be shy.
Don’t despair if you don’t see an immediate reply. Remember that it can take five minutes or so for participants to read the posts and post a reply.
If you’re a writer, poet, author, recording artist or audio-video producer, don’t hesitate to mention your work(s). Everyone else will be doing exactly that!
Or purchase a printed copy at 10% off Suggested Retail Price with free shipping within the USA including Alaska and Hawaii using “ONLINE” discount code at checkout from
Savant Bookstore Atlantic (www.savantbookstoreatlantic.com)
Savant Bookstore Midwest (www.savantbookstoremidwest.com)
Savant Bookstore Pacific (www.savantbookstorepacific.com)
Savant Bookstore Honolulu (www.savantbookstorehonolulu.com)
The Edge of Madness
August 10, 2020
CLASSROOM CRISIS
August 17, 2020 is looming. Many school districts must decide whether to offer face-to-face classroom, distance learning or some blend all within the maze of city, county, state and federal agencies guidelines. Without a mandate, humans tend to what is familiar, and classroom education is by far what school districts, teachers, students and family are most familiar. Distance learning, especially curiosity-based, discovery-driven, mentor-assisted, wisdom-oriented (“transformative”) learning, is still relatively new and therefore not familiar.
I’ve said in posts that, in my opinion, COVID-19 is not the cause of our chaos. It’s the spark that lit the fire, the dry tinder being the lack of forward-looking infrastructure. In this case, transformative learning as mentioned above. Dr. Brent Cameron PhD championed the idea, which he called “Self Design (Sentient 2005)” provided a practical infrastructure and for years demonstrated the usefulness, advantages and disadvantages of this approach at the secondary (“WonderTree”) and high school (“Virtual High”) levels. Perhaps the most innovative part is the introduction of a new way to assess “student performance” based on “knowledge” (ability to apply what is learned to other situations) and “wisdom” (knowing when to apply knowledge in order to minimize duress).
Dr. Daniel S. Janik MD PhD, in his groundbreaking book UNLOCK THE GENIUS WITHIN: Neurobiological Trauma, Teaching, and Transformative Learning: Neurobiological Trauma, Teaching, and Transformative Learning (Rowman and Littlefield Education 2005), provided the theoretical and applied underpinnings to this powerful, unique and field-proven educational approach.
What’s missing is an improved delivery infrastructure, which I discuss extensively in THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020). And you thought it was just a sci-fu novel, right? I consider interactive holographic learning a technical challenge more than a pure reading entertainment. Difficult? Yes. Impossible. No. In fact, it’s the next logical extension to Stephen Spielberg’s attempts to normalize three-dimensional cinema. Think about it: a keiretsu (Japanese: 系列 – a group of governmental and private company enterprises with interlocking objectives formed to develop the infrastructure portrayed in my, Janik’s and Cameron’s books, an infrastructure that would fling education into the future and open the door to safer, more meaningful, less traumatic education.
The Edge of Madness
I’ve said in posts that, in my opinion, COVID-19 is not the cause of our chaos. It’s the spark that lit the fire, the dry tinder being the lack of forward-looking infrastructure. In this case, transformative learning as mentioned above. Dr. Brent Cameron PhD championed the idea, which he called “Self Design (Sentient 2005)” provided a practical infrastructure and for years demonstrated the usefulness, advantages and disadvantages of this approach at the secondary (“WonderTree”) and high school (“Virtual High”) levels. Perhaps the most innovative part is the introduction of a new way to assess “student performance” based on “knowledge” (ability to apply what is learned to other situations) and “wisdom” (knowing when to apply knowledge in order to minimize duress).
Dr. Daniel S. Janik MD PhD, in his groundbreaking book UNLOCK THE GENIUS WITHIN: Neurobiological Trauma, Teaching, and Transformative Learning: Neurobiological Trauma, Teaching, and Transformative Learning (Rowman and Littlefield Education 2005), provided the theoretical and applied underpinnings to this powerful, unique and field-proven educational approach.
What’s missing is an improved delivery infrastructure, which I discuss extensively in THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020). And you thought it was just a sci-fu novel, right? I consider interactive holographic learning a technical challenge more than a pure reading entertainment. Difficult? Yes. Impossible. No. In fact, it’s the next logical extension to Stephen Spielberg’s attempts to normalize three-dimensional cinema. Think about it: a keiretsu (Japanese: 系列 – a group of governmental and private company enterprises with interlocking objectives formed to develop the infrastructure portrayed in my, Janik’s and Cameron’s books, an infrastructure that would fling education into the future and open the door to safer, more meaningful, less traumatic education.
The Edge of Madness
August 9, 2020
OUR NEW “NO CONTACT” WORLD
COVID-19! SOCIAL DISTANCING (6 FEET – HEY, THATS MINIMUM)! MASKS EVERYWHERE! I’m often surprised how a new social approach, like a virus, can infect other aspects of society, mostly unconsciously, often in concert with other new social approaches. Take our absolutely necessary approach to controlling the spread of COVID-19 until we have an effective, safe, affordable vaccine. But that same approach, when coupled with THE-ART-OF-THE-DEAL-style social disruption, misinformation and disintegration in government and politics seems to me to be reflected in a new approach to customer service: Don’t call. Don’t ask. Don’t bother. At best, email us and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours, or days, or months, well, never really. Just spend money and trust that we always have your best interests in mind. In effect, no government. Nobody home. Just a place to drop money.
This isn’t a Big Brother like in Orwell’s 1984. It’s not a New World Order. It’s more like today’s QAnon. This style of elective, coerced or forced isolation with implied dependency (you’re with “everyone” or your alone), is hard to describe, but easy to understand when placed in a future (sci-fu) context as in THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aigons 2020). Huxley’s Brave New World on steroids. The importance of THE EDGE OF MADNESS, I believe, goes far beyond being shockingly good entertainment. It’s a mirror to our future, should humans continue to progress as we are today.
Isn’t it time you crept up to the edge of madness and peered over the precipice? Before it’s too late.
https://checkout.square.site/buy/4MI5... – use “ONLINE” discount code at checkout and receive a complementary 10% off the suggested retail price AND free shipping anywhere within the USA!
Prefer Amazon? https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
The Book Depository? https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Ed...
Video Book Preview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je6CC...
This isn’t a Big Brother like in Orwell’s 1984. It’s not a New World Order. It’s more like today’s QAnon. This style of elective, coerced or forced isolation with implied dependency (you’re with “everyone” or your alone), is hard to describe, but easy to understand when placed in a future (sci-fu) context as in THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aigons 2020). Huxley’s Brave New World on steroids. The importance of THE EDGE OF MADNESS, I believe, goes far beyond being shockingly good entertainment. It’s a mirror to our future, should humans continue to progress as we are today.
Isn’t it time you crept up to the edge of madness and peered over the precipice? Before it’s too late.
https://checkout.square.site/buy/4MI5... – use “ONLINE” discount code at checkout and receive a complementary 10% off the suggested retail price AND free shipping anywhere within the USA!
Prefer Amazon? https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
The Book Depository? https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Ed...
Video Book Preview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je6CC...
August 8, 2020
THE RAREST ELEMENT IN THE UNIVERSE
Aha! You thought I would say Astatine (At; Atomic Number 85), right? It is the rarest naturally occurring element as it exists only as a decay product of heavier elements. Nope. I think right now, in this era, it’s got to be Empathy (Em; Atomic Number, well, who knows, though it probably should be #1 in Social Number).
If there’s one thing that I believe makes humans something other than a short-lived, angry, aggressive beast, it’s empathy. And it’s something is shorter supply in todays world than Astatine. Empathy (the ability to “feel another’s feelings and emotions”) is what allows mortal enemies to put down their weapons and, hopefully, “beat their swords into plowshares.” It’s something so fragile, that it barely exists if at all in an intensely competitive world always striving for the greatest possible increase in profit. It’s something that THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) explores indirectly though in great detail at the individual, family, “mob,” group, foray, community, national, planetary and interplanetary universe level. It’s the “glue” that elevates this sci-fu (science-based futuring) novel from a ho-hum to an epic read. Epic, because behind almost everything in NewAmerica and NewTerra including the myriad blatant “get-rich-quick” businesses lurks a thread of empathy, and it is the interconnection of these threads that weaves into existence a hopeful background story.
Take a walk to “the edge of madness,” look behind the screen that separates the edge from reality and for a moment, allow yourself to touch empathy. Directly. One-on-one. That which, I believe, is behind any better new world.
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859 in printed or eBook versions.
The Book Depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Ed... with free shipping anywhere in the world
YouTube Video Book Preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je6CC...
The Edge of Madness
If there’s one thing that I believe makes humans something other than a short-lived, angry, aggressive beast, it’s empathy. And it’s something is shorter supply in todays world than Astatine. Empathy (the ability to “feel another’s feelings and emotions”) is what allows mortal enemies to put down their weapons and, hopefully, “beat their swords into plowshares.” It’s something so fragile, that it barely exists if at all in an intensely competitive world always striving for the greatest possible increase in profit. It’s something that THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) explores indirectly though in great detail at the individual, family, “mob,” group, foray, community, national, planetary and interplanetary universe level. It’s the “glue” that elevates this sci-fu (science-based futuring) novel from a ho-hum to an epic read. Epic, because behind almost everything in NewAmerica and NewTerra including the myriad blatant “get-rich-quick” businesses lurks a thread of empathy, and it is the interconnection of these threads that weaves into existence a hopeful background story.
Take a walk to “the edge of madness,” look behind the screen that separates the edge from reality and for a moment, allow yourself to touch empathy. Directly. One-on-one. That which, I believe, is behind any better new world.
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859 in printed or eBook versions.
The Book Depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Ed... with free shipping anywhere in the world
YouTube Video Book Preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je6CC...
The Edge of Madness
August 7, 2020
JOBS GALORE
In this increasingly difficult COVID-19 world, with people losing their jobs en masse, it may seem insulting to title a blog post “Jobs Galore” but, in my opinion, that’s today’s real situation. And I don’t mean more menial chain-store jobs. I mean “real” jobs that begin with cleaning up the environment we’ve been busy trashing for money these last three years. Instead of unemployment, I’d gladly accept a decent wage for helping rebuild our devastated environment, be it hiking/biking trails, car-camping sites, wilderness preserves, beaches, or walking trails. The precedent is the old CCC – Civilian Conservation Corps — from FRD’s time. The states and nations should get something for their unemployment money, and participants should get a renewed sense of self-dignity.
In THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020), there are numerous examples of future essential infrastructure rebuilt after the TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009). An example:
“Encouraged by their government, NewAmericans slowly began to re-define what recreation meant. It soon became ‘in’ to take one hour or even one or more days off work to tour formerly ravaged byways, officially renaming in the vernacular the animals and plants they noted while walking or Bwheeling.
Naming the animals and plants after themselves…?
“The idea was to inspire feelings of environmental stewardship through government established and funded official Naming Ceremonies—N-Cares—whereby human caretakers and the animal or plant names of their now ‘cultivated natural’ darlings would be publicly announced, ceremoniously celebrated, then recorded digitally in ever-expanding governmental N-Cares information vaults called I-Cares.”
The honor caught on and the practical result was immediate: I-Cares, in essence governmental genetic diversity repositories, sprang up everywhere, and awardees gladly paid for public recognition, contractually committing themselves to husbanding the animals or plants which they had name-recognized for the duration of the human’s life. As a further honorific, caretakers were permitted to wear a light blue colored armband. At the same time, the government inserted a tiny, inert, bioluminescent DNA tag into the now protected entity, identifying it as under the care and protection of the government by way of that particular human caretaker.
“This program singularly changed the surface of NewAmerica into one citizen-tended, cultivated-natural paradise.”
Sick and tired of today’s world. Talk a walk to “the edge of madness,” look about, breathe in deeply and either sit and relax or run like hell!
THE EDGE OF MADNESS
by Raymond Gaynor
257 pp – 5.25″ x 8″ Softcover Pocket Book
ISBN 978-0-9996938-5-8
Taking up where TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese left off, NewAmerica, a shadow of its former United States of America, provides a challenging and dangerous future place for three young firebrands to live.
The Edge of Madness
In THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020), there are numerous examples of future essential infrastructure rebuilt after the TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009). An example:
“Encouraged by their government, NewAmericans slowly began to re-define what recreation meant. It soon became ‘in’ to take one hour or even one or more days off work to tour formerly ravaged byways, officially renaming in the vernacular the animals and plants they noted while walking or Bwheeling.
Naming the animals and plants after themselves…?
“The idea was to inspire feelings of environmental stewardship through government established and funded official Naming Ceremonies—N-Cares—whereby human caretakers and the animal or plant names of their now ‘cultivated natural’ darlings would be publicly announced, ceremoniously celebrated, then recorded digitally in ever-expanding governmental N-Cares information vaults called I-Cares.”
The honor caught on and the practical result was immediate: I-Cares, in essence governmental genetic diversity repositories, sprang up everywhere, and awardees gladly paid for public recognition, contractually committing themselves to husbanding the animals or plants which they had name-recognized for the duration of the human’s life. As a further honorific, caretakers were permitted to wear a light blue colored armband. At the same time, the government inserted a tiny, inert, bioluminescent DNA tag into the now protected entity, identifying it as under the care and protection of the government by way of that particular human caretaker.
“This program singularly changed the surface of NewAmerica into one citizen-tended, cultivated-natural paradise.”
Sick and tired of today’s world. Talk a walk to “the edge of madness,” look about, breathe in deeply and either sit and relax or run like hell!
THE EDGE OF MADNESS
by Raymond Gaynor
257 pp – 5.25″ x 8″ Softcover Pocket Book
ISBN 978-0-9996938-5-8
Taking up where TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese left off, NewAmerica, a shadow of its former United States of America, provides a challenging and dangerous future place for three young firebrands to live.
The Edge of Madness
August 6, 2020
NO GOVERNMENT COULD DO BETTER
Hey, a little humor. That should say our current USA “no government” government certainly could do better! Get it? Actually, in TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside) by William Maltese and Raymond Gaynor, the event precipitating the Total Meltdown of the United States was when President Brown, on election day, abdicated with everything he could in government securities, essentially, a state of “no government” given that the just elected new president wasn’t even to get a congratulatory phone call. In the book, it is several days before the newly elected president knows that there is no government, and when that happens, he’s not the only one who learns of this. Abused former allies and hostile enemy governments, when they hear the news initiate their own plans…sounds a lot to me like a twist on the “what are we going to do if Trump loses the 2020 election and refuses to leave office” or “What are we going to do if we can’t successfully fight COVID?” The main difference is that during these last few months, we really haven’t had a federal government, anyway.
My new book, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor is all about the aftermath. Call it science-based futuring (sci-fu or scifu) if you like, it’s a sometimes comical, sometimes scary look into a future mirror, whether you’re thinking an interesting literary work or the political restructuring of the paUSA starting in November 2020. Don’t like what you see? That’s the beauty of sci-fu. Start making changes now. Shift the paradigm. Insert missing and new infrastructures, and seize the future, making it what you need, want and desire. I’m not advocating chaos or anarchy but careful, thoughtful preparation. That’s what the transfer of power is supposed to be about in a democratic nation. If the USA is still a democratic nation. If there’s a transfer of power. If…
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
The Book Depository https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Ed... with free shipping worldwide
Savant Bookstores (Atlantic, Midwest, Pacific, Honolulu) https://savant-bookstore-honolulu.squ... at 10% off Suggested Retail Price using “ONLINE” discount code at checkout AND free shipping within the USA including Alaska and Hawaii.
YouTube Video Book Preview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je6CC...
The Edge of Madness
My new book, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor is all about the aftermath. Call it science-based futuring (sci-fu or scifu) if you like, it’s a sometimes comical, sometimes scary look into a future mirror, whether you’re thinking an interesting literary work or the political restructuring of the paUSA starting in November 2020. Don’t like what you see? That’s the beauty of sci-fu. Start making changes now. Shift the paradigm. Insert missing and new infrastructures, and seize the future, making it what you need, want and desire. I’m not advocating chaos or anarchy but careful, thoughtful preparation. That’s what the transfer of power is supposed to be about in a democratic nation. If the USA is still a democratic nation. If there’s a transfer of power. If…
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
The Book Depository https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Ed... with free shipping worldwide
Savant Bookstores (Atlantic, Midwest, Pacific, Honolulu) https://savant-bookstore-honolulu.squ... at 10% off Suggested Retail Price using “ONLINE” discount code at checkout AND free shipping within the USA including Alaska and Hawaii.
YouTube Video Book Preview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je6CC...
The Edge of Madness
August 5, 2020
WORKATIONS
Not everything about COVID-19 is negative. Alongside self-directed learning groups (“mobs” in THE EDGE OF MADNESS by Raymond Gaynor, or TEOM), and Zoomentors (“custodians” in TEOM), we have another new word-idea concatonation (“NewSpeak” in TEOM): Workation. Work + Vacation, i.e. working by distance in an inspiring, relaxing or rejuvinating, healthful, safe environment.
Actually, I proposed something like this years ago, suggesting that hospitalizations for routine recovery be directed to resort locations (with a private duty hospital nurse). It would be paid for by insurance. The cost would be astronomically lower and the healing environment much more conducive. Now, it’s Workation. Why not? Working in a common physical location never really was cost effective, given today’s computers and the internet. In THE EDGE OF MADNESS, I add that while located distantly, using interactive holography, one could, in fact, attend group meetings in person, adding health and safety to the list of advantages.
More specifically, my three protagonists in THE EDGE OF MADNESS study “in school” mostly by interactive holography, at the end of their formal 12 years of education, experiencing a “Mind Butt” to collate all that was acquired and reassemble it in their minds into a cogent whole.
Video Book Preview at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je6CC...
Get it now in book or eBook format from Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
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Actually, I proposed something like this years ago, suggesting that hospitalizations for routine recovery be directed to resort locations (with a private duty hospital nurse). It would be paid for by insurance. The cost would be astronomically lower and the healing environment much more conducive. Now, it’s Workation. Why not? Working in a common physical location never really was cost effective, given today’s computers and the internet. In THE EDGE OF MADNESS, I add that while located distantly, using interactive holography, one could, in fact, attend group meetings in person, adding health and safety to the list of advantages.
More specifically, my three protagonists in THE EDGE OF MADNESS study “in school” mostly by interactive holography, at the end of their formal 12 years of education, experiencing a “Mind Butt” to collate all that was acquired and reassemble it in their minds into a cogent whole.
Video Book Preview at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je6CC...
Get it now in book or eBook format from Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
Buy internationally with free shipping worldwide from The Book Depository at https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Ed...
Read and Review on Net Gallery at http://netgal.ly/7GXa50
August 4, 2020
AT LAST EDUCATION IS BEGINNING TO GET IT RIGHT
Like the world in THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor (“The Edge of Madness Gaynor” in browser and Amazon search), recovering from the TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) of the USA, education is one of the key areas that required a complete infrastructure remake. In THE EDGE OF MADNESS, the protagonists learn in small learning groups (“mobs”) via interactive holography from instructors, but with the aid of custodians (“mentors”) who work with and demonstrate the discovery process. In the post-COVID-19 world, I noted several news articles mentioning self-selected learner groups (aka “mobs”) and Zoomentors (aka “custodians”).
Both of these and more are discussed at length in Dr. Daniel S. Janik’s groundbreaking non-fiction work, UNLOCK THE GENIUS WITHIN: Neurobiological Trauma, Teaching, and Transformative Learning (Rowman & Littlefied Education 2015). An “answer” to how to restructure today’s failing educational infrastructure, Janik’s book describes the need for a fundamental shift from teaching to learning, emphasizing individual curiosity, discovery and “meaningful” non-traumatic learning.
But take care: Today’s world is besot with “Fast Eddies” and at least some of today’s Zoomentors are in it solely for the money rather than education. That’s the way of the world, today and at THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor. Want a peek into NewEducation?
Read and post your review comments on NetGallery at http://netgal.ly/7GXa50
The Edge of Madness
Both of these and more are discussed at length in Dr. Daniel S. Janik’s groundbreaking non-fiction work, UNLOCK THE GENIUS WITHIN: Neurobiological Trauma, Teaching, and Transformative Learning (Rowman & Littlefied Education 2015). An “answer” to how to restructure today’s failing educational infrastructure, Janik’s book describes the need for a fundamental shift from teaching to learning, emphasizing individual curiosity, discovery and “meaningful” non-traumatic learning.
But take care: Today’s world is besot with “Fast Eddies” and at least some of today’s Zoomentors are in it solely for the money rather than education. That’s the way of the world, today and at THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor. Want a peek into NewEducation?
Read and post your review comments on NetGallery at http://netgal.ly/7GXa50
The Edge of Madness
