(as seen on the Discovery Family channel, 10/17/2015)
The “Back to the Future” movies were a trilogy named I, II and III and released in 1985, 1989 and 1990.1 As fans of the series remember, BTF II was the only one which portrayed a look at the future twenty-six years later. The actual date used in the movie, October 21, 2015 – has arrived!
As with other movies attempting to predict the future, it’s interesting to compare the creativity of the past with what actually came to be. Such is the case with Back to the Future II. Following is a comparison of the predicted future created in the late 1980’s with what we have today.
1) FLYING AUTOMOBILES: In the 1960’s, the year 2000 was thought of with much imagination, as if it would represent a threshold where our lives would be so fantastic that they would have little resemblance with the early years of the Space Age. While flying automobiles in 1989 might have been viewed as merely an extension of that unrealistic vision, it came much closer to reality after all.
AeroMobil had prototypes since at least 2007 and its AeroMobil 3.0 “is now finalised and has been in regular flight-testing program in real flight conditions since October 2014.”2
Terrafugia also began its prototyping in 2007. Its second generation prototype made its “debut outside of the aviation world at the New York International Auto Show in April 2012 for a crowd of over a million attendees and continues to attend EAA AirVenture annually.”3
2) SLEEP INDUCING ALPHA RHYTHM GENERATOR: In the movie, Doc Brown, Marty and his girlfriend Jennifer travelled to 10/21/2015 to prevent a future family crisis. Doc had not planned on bringing her along, but he stated he couldn’t leave her behind with the knowledge of the flying DeLorean/ time machine. In addition, her curiosity about her future could lead to dangerous attempts at intervention upon her return. Therefore, he used the sleep generator to make her unconscious and when she would awaken, would have no conscious knowledge of what happened – it would seem as a dream.
Well, in 1999, someone posted that he had heard about a supposed invention of the Russians in the 1950’s which reportedly accomplished this. Unfortunately, “My exhaustive Internet research has turned up a schematic of the device, but no solid information as to whether it actually worked. Larry Niven, who has used the concept in several of his stories, swears that he’s seen research proving that it performed as advertised.”4
Current technology hasn’t produced such a device yet. However, we do have: “Aiming a little lower than instant-sleep-inducing technology, we find ourselves among a range of devices that won’t make you fall asleep, but might make you sleep better.”5
3) WEATHER PREDICTION TO THE MINUTE: BTF II had the full range of prognostication from “since when can weathermen predict weather” by Marty in 1955 when the radio predicted clear weather hours before the storm to when Doc Brown noted that the rain ended exactly as predicted to the minute in 2015.
Of course, we aren’t there yet, although rain delayed major league baseball games are often given a 5-10 minute window for bad weather to start or end based on radar scans. We have come a long way from the early days of satellite meteorology when the newest available forecast was relatively accurate only for the day after next.
4) SELF-LACING SHOES: Ah, they’re here! “Adding to the fact that year 2015 marks the 30th anniversary of Back to The Future franchise, this makes it the perfect time to officially release the Nike Mag powerlace shoes, which should be more improved than the former version, considering it took Nike almost four years to come up with the final product.”6
5) SELF-ADJUSTING or SELF-DRYING JACKETS: Not quite here yet. “The self-drying jacket doesn’t really exist at this moment,” says Pailes-Friedman, who has worked on wearable technology for NASA and is a fellow at the Brooklyn Fashion and Design Accelerator. “I think that there are really exciting technologies that are happening—technologies where water will just be repelled by the fabric and never really absorbed, so the jacket will never actually get wet.”7
6) KIDS WEAR THEIR PANTS POCKETS INSIDE-OUT IN 2015: This was found to be rather amusing when this movie was released in 1989 and many probably find it just as strange today. But why? After all, it has been fashionable for several year years to buy new jeans with slashes and rips throughout. Inside-out pockets can be fixed, but “distressed” is forever.
7) “The justice system works swiftly in the future now that they’ve abolished all lawyers.”:
The closest we have in this regard is the “three strikes and you’re out” laws. By 2012, twenty-seven states had implemented the modern version of statute by which it “significantly increases the prison sentences of persons convicted of a felony who have been previously convicted of two or more violent crimes or serious felonies, and limits the ability of these offenders to receive a punishment other than a life sentence.” It’s considered “modern” because New York has had a habitual felon law since 1797.8 There continue to be individuals and organizations with some justifiable concern over the well-meaning, but restrictive laws potentially in conflict with the first section of the 14th Amendment (due process).9
More dangerous, and somehow disregarded by most on the Left, are the current trends to neutralize the 1st and 2nd Amendments. Many are trying to demote freedom of religion to “freedom of worship.”10 In other words, one may practice his faith— just keep it inside the church’s walls (even though this right does not originate with the state which, therefore, has no authority to limit it). The most recent example is the Obama Administration’s actions against the Little Sisters of the Poor. To date, lower courts have upheld the validity of the President’s “accommodation” for religious objections to the abortion, contraception and sterilization provisions of “Obamacare.” The misnamed accommodation requires the nuns and other faithful to sign over the legal right to a third party to carry out the objectionable aspects of the law. It’s as if the government says, “OK, you don’t want to drive your car as the get-away vehicle in a crime, so just sign this which allows someone else to use your car for the purpose you are strongly opposed to.”
The 2nd Amendment isn’t doing so well either and it’s not the sanctuary cities which are paradise for gun-carrying criminals. In January 2014, John Stossel of Fox News attempted to purchase a gun legally in New York City. The hoops he was told to jump through were sadly reminiscent of the unfair tactics southern states often used to prevent African-Americans from their right to vote. The net result was that he was unable to exercise his constitutional right because he was unable to satisfy Big Brother Apple that he needed a gun (death threats didn’t count). 11
8) BINOCULARS with COORDINATES and DATA: When Doc was looking at Marty, Jr. from a distance, his binoculars appeared to give data on the subject’s travel. Maybe not binoculars, but we do have StatCast which gives data on replays of home runs, great defensive plays and baserunning such as distance, speed, route efficiency, etc .
9) TAKE A $50 BILL TO BUY A PEPSI?: In all fairness, Doc didn’t tell Marty that he would need most of that $50 to get a Pepsi. The implication was that prices would accelerate as they had been throughout the early part of the decade of the 1980’s so that a lot more would be needed for such a purchase in our time.
Inflation ranged from a monthly annualized rate of 14.8% (during the last year of the Carter Administration when the prime rate hit 20%) to 1.1% in late 1986.12 Using the median inflation rate of 4.3% for that decade, the 2-liter of Pepsi priced at 89 cents13 would be about $3.15 today. With the median inflation taken from 1980 (13.5%), we arrive at a 2-liter price of $21.10. So, it’s a combination of leftover fear of high inflation (just ask Baby Boomers) and a little Hollywood license.
10) “He has a few short-circuits in his bionic implants”: This was likely inspired by the earlier television series, “The Six Million Dollar Man” which aired on ABC for five seasons, 1974-78, after three television movies in 1973. The Bionic Woman ran from 1976-78.14
What about reality? More good news, a “first” was carried out in the U.K. Eighty-year old Ray Flynn had suffered the total loss of central vision caused by dry age-related macular degeneration. The four-hour surgery was led by Paulo Stanga, consultant ophthalmologist and vitreo-retinal surgeon at the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital. Here’s how it works:
“The bionic eye implant receives its visual information from a miniature camera mounted on glasses worn by the patient. The images are converted into electrical pulses and transmitted wirelessly to an array of electrodes attached to the retina. The electrodes stimulate the remaining retina’s remaining cells which send the information to the brain.”15
Other technologies which help those with disabilities include the 220,000 worldwide who have cochlear implants to reduce hearing loss. Tens of thousands have deep brain stimulators which help to control the effects of Parkinson’s disease and are now showing results in tests with those suffering from severe depression and obsessive compulsive disorders. An Iraq war veteran has had a nerve-controlled bionic hand replace his hand lost in combat. Experiments with monkeys have reached the point where a brain implant can control a robot arm 7,000 miles away.16
As wondrous as these inventions are, how soon before some attempt to use electronics to create the super-humans Hitler could only dream about? It’s an ethical and moral dilemma. The use of medication and technology to cure or minimize a disability is not the same as attempting to gain “an edge” on other humans by going beyond the natural boundaries of human capability.
Why are there objections to ‘transhumanism”? Ray Kurzwell wrote in his book, The Singularity is Near, that the “human body 2.0” will be mostly “non-biological” with nanobots replacing our heart, lungs, nervous and digestive systems. The new human would be ultra-strong and fast and be able to create virtual realities, including a virtual lover, inside ourselves. – This new human would also never die.17
Trouble with that? Absolutely. We can start with the “logo of the Second International Congress of Eugenics (which) proudly proclaimed, ‘Eugenics is the self-direction of human evolution.’… In Dignitas Personae, published in 2008 by the Catholic Church’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, it said ‘such manipulation would promote a eugenic mentality and would lead to indirect social stigma with regard to people who lack certain qualities,’ which ‘would be in contrast with the fundamental truth of the equality of all human beings’… ‘that in the attempt to create a new type of human being one can recognize an ideological element in which man tried to take the place of his Creator.’”17 For those of faith who acknowledge the existence of an eternal after-life, trying to live forever is contrary is thumbing our noses at God and His creation.
11) “CAFÉ ‘80’s”: Returning to a lighter topic, we certainly have much interest in “vintage” items, styles and practices today! Sadly, no one envisioned that the Michael Jackson on the café’s screens would not be with us on this day.
12) FULLY AUTOMATED GASOLINE STATIONS: Self-service gas stations begin springing up in the 1970’s when the gasoline shortages began raising prices and people wanted ways to save a little on their gas costs. But now, a Swedish based company, Fuelmatic Systems AB, is testing a robotic fueling method. It is being tested and fine-tuned at the Husky Corp. factory near St. Louis. The system operates in this way:
“The robotic machine operates along a track and is designed for installation at a traditional gas station fueling bay by taking the place of a stationary pump. As the driver pulls up to the bay, an infrared scanner on the robot casts a light to locate the vehicle’s fuel door by identifying the shadow that is created by the gap between the fuel door and the vehicle’s body panel.
A suction cup attached to an adjustable arm on the robot opens the vehicle’s fuel door. The system works with a pull-out, push-in or latch-release fuel door. If the fuel door is locked, the driver will be alerted to spring the latch, officials at Husky demonstrated during the run-through at the plant using a mock-up of the driver’s side panel of a Ford Mustang.
The driver, meanwhile, rolls down his or her window and, using a touch screen, selects the grade of fuel and how much to purchase, paying with a credit or debit card.”18
Regarding automobile on-board diagnostics (OBD), they have been more common since the early 1980’s usually with the limitation of “idiot lights” glowing and no additional information. The first instance of an on-board computer with scanning capability was in 1968 with Volkswagen’s fuelinjected Type 3 models.19
13) “Jaws 19”: Fortunately, we have not been subjected to that number of its sequels. But what movies have had the most? It comes down to a matter of how it’s counted. If it’s by the main character, then there were eighty-nine in the Wong Fei Hung series about a Chinese folk hero (Hopalong Cassidy had sixty-six and The Durango Kid sixty-four.) For non-sexually explicit films, the greatest numerical series was The Land Before Time which will release “XIV” next year.20
14) “CUBS WIN THE WORLD SERIES — OVER MIAMI?”: A little future shock for baseball fans in 1989. At the movie’s release, the Cubs hadn’t been to the World Series since 1945. (And the MLB team based in southern Florida didn’t arrive until 1993.) That forty-four year drought is now seventy years with a little help from manager Dusty Baker allowing the Steve Bartman foul ball incident in 2003 to overshadow the game and produce the managerial brain-freeze which cost the Cubs a shot at the World Series… Ironically against the Florida Marlins who are now designated “Miami”! Unfortunately, the 2015 New York Mets didn’t follow the script and eliminated the Cubs in the NLCS last evening.
15) NO-HANDS VIDEO GAMES: After Marty shows off his shooting expertise on a vintage game machine, the young boys scoff at the notion of a video game so primitive that hands are required to operate it.
Of course, telepathic games are nowhere to be found yet. However,“in a recent experiment, a person in India said ‘hola’ and ‘ciao’ to three other people in France. Today, the Web, smartphones and international calling might make that not seem like an impressive feat, but it was. The greetings were not spoken, typed or texted. The communication in question happened between the brains of a set of study subjects, marking one of the first instances of brain-to-brain communication on record.”21 The process was a very slow one (see the accompanying footnote), but gives reason for optimism.
Those of us in 2015 are much more familiar with “touch-screens.” It was surprising to learn that the first article describing research on capacitive touchscreens was published by E.A.Johnson in 1965! George Samuel Hurst developed a resistive touchscreen. His patent was granted in 1975 and first produced in 1982.22
16) “Gramps, what the hell am I paying you for?”: This was Biff’s grandson, Griff, being disrespectful. It’s not possible to know exactly to what extent this nonsense is common in families today. But if misbehavior in our schools is any indication:
“In my 41 years of teaching I have not seen such an avalanche of bad behavior, disrespectful like behavior, mob like behavior of children in schools,” said Memphis Education Association President Keith Williams. “It is to the point of teachers are leaving this profession in droves. “23
“A record 209,800 primary and secondary school teachers reported being physically attacked by a student during the 2011-2012 school year, according to new data released… by the federal government. The data was published in “Indicators of School Crime and Safety,” which was released yesterday by the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics.
The 209,800 teachers who were attacked by students in 2011-2012 outnumber the population of Salt Lake City, Utah, which is 189,384.
On average, 1,175 teachers were physically attacked each day of the school year, according to data, which is derived from the NCES’ Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS).”24
17) HOVER-BOARDS: Where are we on creating this levitating skateboard? The good news is that this technology has advanced from the Stone Age! Before we become too excited, we must remember that something of this magnitude will take a lot more time and $. As it stands, or rather floats, the “Hendo hoverboard” (named by Arx Pax founders, Greg and Jill Henderson) is noisy and lasts for just seven minutes. Still, this is a breakthrough.
The company Arx Pax was started initially to figure out a way to make buildings more earthquake-proof by lifting them off the ground in a way similar to technology used in bullet trains. So, the founders reasoned it made sense to prove the technology on a small scale before advancing. Thus, we have the Hendo, priced at $10,000.25 Stay tuned.
18) “DOOR LOCK ENTRY USING FINGERPRINT”: A subdued Jennifer of 1985, brought to her home of the future by the policewomen who found her, was able to unlock the door to her home because it was fingerprint sensitive, which does not change with age. BTF II nailed this one, too! There more technologies than just this one.26 (see the accompanying footnote)
19) “LITHIUM MODE ‘ON’”: So said the intelligent home climate control when the Marty of the future arrived after work. “Intelligent” homes can control many facets of the house, but not the mood of ourselves yet. Modern technology makes hvac and lighting more efficient by adjusting usage to actual needs. Parameters can be programmed by the homeowner or sensors which can determine whether someone is in a particular room or even at home. Cost-saving “yes” – security and privacy “NO.” Something to consider.
20) “THE ATROCITY CHANNEL”: Marty Jr. referred to this during some friendly parent/teenager banter at dinner. With the proliferation of television channels currently available and the increasing interest in degenerate forms of “reality” shows, can this be far off?
21) “I monitored that scan you just interfaced. YOU ARE TERMINATED!”:
This was spoken by the boss future Marty seconds after he used a card scanner to enter into an illegal deal with a fellow worker. Two things here. One, the large phone television screen, known today as “Skype,” was first available in 2003.27 Two, it shows the interconnectedness of our Electronic Age. Many things can be done “seamlessly.” As with any advancing technology, we need to be on our guard that the basic respect for human dignity (security, privacy) is not compromised. The need-to-be-connected-at-all-times mentality has become more prevalent due to the increased impersonal nature of our jobs, communications and lives.
22) $174 CAB RIDE AND FINGERPRINT PAYMENT: Biff had been following the DeLorean to where the policewomen took the Jennifer of 1985 to her home in 2015. The cab ride was paid for by Biff using his fingerprint on a payment machine. The cab fare isn’t far off. A friend of mine recently paid $90 for a ride from the Nashville airport to Murfreesboro.
Now as for the payment, yep, PayPal has a way: fingerprint and a Samsung Galaxie S5, Tab S, Note 4 or Alpha device.28 Or, one can take the Nexus route: “With Nexus Smart Pay you can pay with just your finger, for free!… At any merchant that accepts Nexus Smart Pay, all you need is you. We’ll e-mail you a receipt after your purchase and we draft the original payment automatically.”29
23) “The school burned down six years ago.”: This came from the Mr. Strickland of the distorted 1985 in response to Marty’s “Don’t you remember you gave me detention last week?” Well, the social deterioration in schools as noted in item #16 hasn’t reached this stage yet. However, unless the well-being of the family and timeless values are re-established in our communities, we can be sure this current trend joined with recent Supreme Court decisions and implementation of social engineering promoted by Common Core will produce this inevitable chaos.
24) Destroyed Library: Marty and Doc Brown find the Hill Valley library is a complete wreck. Knowledge is no longer a priority in this time. For those who criticize skeptics of Common Core, please see the 5-part series on the subject at the http://www.ohioconservativereview.com.
And free speech is being discouraged on college campuses as “Brandeis University officials were intimidated into rescinding their invitation to Somali writer and American Enterprise Institute scholar Ayaan Hirsi Ali, whose criticisms of radical Islam were said to have violated the school’s ‘core values.’ Brandeis decided that allowing her to speak would be hurtful to Muslim students. I take it that Brandeis students and officials would see criticism of deadly Islamist terrorist gang Boko Haram’s kidnapping of nearly 300 Nigerian girls, some of whom have been sold off as brides, as unacceptable and violative of the university’s core values.“ 30
And, “Azusa Pacific University, a private Christian university, canceled a planned address by distinguished libertarian scholar Charles Murray out of fear that his lecture might upset ‘faculty and students of color.’ In response to the cancellation, Murray wrote an open letter to the students, which in part read: ‘The task of the scholar is to present a case for his or her position based on evidence and logic. Another task of the scholar is to do so in a way that invites everybody into the discussion rather than demonize those who disagree. Try to find anything under my name that is not written in that spirit. Try to find even a paragraph that is written in anger, takes a cheap shot, or attacks women, African Americans, Latinos, Asians, or anyone else.’ Unfortunately, such a scholarly vision is greeted with hostility at some universities.”30
25) “CRACKPOT INVENTOR DECLARED LEGALLY INSANE”: Such was the headline in a newspaper in the distorted 1985. This was clearly a libelous, smear campaign getting back at people who did not consent to the new society which the greedy, future Biff had created. We wouldn’t have that now, would we?
Not to that extent – yet. It starts with misusing the language to imply that those who don’t fall in line with politically correct thinking are made to appear unstable psychologically. “Islamophobia” may be correct if the individual has an unfounded fear of all who practice that faith. However, it is now a favorite label given to anyone who believes that we are in a religious war, which we are.31 Then, there’s the favorite of the Left: “homophobia” (which actually means an irrational fear of human beings). Those who understand that marriage does not come from the state and that even the Church cannot change the requirement that it must be between one man and one woman are not fearful of those who have homosexual tendencies as the fabricated term implies.
This brings up another future possibility. It is clear that Natural Law and common sense are being discarded in favor of relativism.32 It would also be logical, then, for advocates of stricter requirements for gun ownership to distort what is considered legally insane to make it essentially impossible for any law-abiding citizen to own one.
26) THE RICHEST AND MOST POWERFUL MAN IN HILL VALLEY: Here is a town which is run and over-burdened by the guy with the casino who’s in it for himself. Could that happen on the Presidential level?…..
27) “Kid, I OWN the police.”: Except for a few stray, rural communities, this practice is all but dead. But what is the state of our local law enforcements across the nation?
From 2-1/2 years ago to now, we have from: “”Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago… His remarks, which lasted about 20 minutes, escalated a nationwide debate on the verdict that has prompted protests, including some that turned violent.”33
To this: “While we tried to make sure that they were protected from the cars and the other things that were going on. We also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well. And we work very hard to keep that balance and to put ourselves in the best position to deescalate, and that’s what you saw… Let them loot, it’s only property.”34
Perhaps no one “owns” the police. Nevertheless, their induced reluctance to enforce the law has led to a 104% increase in Baltimore shootings for the three months starting in May of this year and a 97% increase in robbery/ car jacking, etc.35 Meanwhile, for the nation as a whole, the greatest increase in murders for the first eight months of the year occurred in these cities: Milwaukee (76%), St. Louis (60%), Baltimore (56%), Washington D.C. (44%) and New Orleans (22%). “The equilibrium has changed between police and offenders,” said Alfred Blumstein, a professor and a criminologist at Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University.36
… Much has changed since the actual 1985. The question remains: Are we experiencing the progression from the actual 1985, or from Biff’s 1985? And is “Brave New World” far off? Becoming a butthead will be the least of our worries.
1 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back_to_the_Future_(franchise)
2 — http://www.aeromobil.com/#s-about
3 — http://www.terrafugia.com/company
4 — http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=2426
5 – “Why There’s Still No Electronic Technology That Can Put You To Sleep,” by Meg Cramer, http://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/technology-cant-make-you-fall-asleep-1681121140, 1/22/2015
6 – “Brace Yourselves, Nike Self-Lacing Shoes Might Arrive in October, by Azalea Pena, http://www.psfk.com/2015/09/nike-mag-self-lacing-shoes-back-to-the-future.html, 9/11/2015
7 – “’Back to the Future’s’ self-drying coat? Not yet.” By Ben Johnson, http://www.marketplace.org/topics/tech/back-futures-self-drying-coat-not-yet, 2/12/2015
8 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-strikes_law, also has a reference to the New York statute: Arrigo, Bruce A. (2014). Encyclopedia of Criminal Justice Ethics in addition to footnotes for the other states
9 – text of the entire Amendment can be found in https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv
10 — “Why ‘Freedom of Worship’ is Not Enough,” by Ashley E. Samelson, http://www.firstthings.com,
2/22/2010
11 – “The 50-page procedure required Stossel to answer questions which included obscure weapons terms which had no relevance to the application (e.g.”dirk,”stiletto,” and “gravity knife”)… Stossel on the required fee: “I can afford the $430 application fee, but there are poor people who can’t afford that and can’t afford to take the time off from work to apply… Stossel was denied a gun because he could not present a “special need” for having one. He produced copies of death threats against him, but they were discounted because he had not reported them to the police. ” from https://cartaremi.wordpress.com/2014/01/16/anti-second-amendment-proponents-simulate-tactics-from-minority-voter-discrimination-days/, taken from the 1/14/2014 edition of “the O’Reilly Factor.
12 — http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/historical-inflation-rates/
13 – http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq5.html#cocacola
14 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Six_Million_Dollar_Man
15 – “Bionic implant world’s first,” by Fergus Walsh, http://www.bbc.com/news/health-33571412, 7/21/2015
16 – “Are bionic superhumans on the horizon,” by Ramez Naam, http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/24/opinion/bionic-superhumans-ramez-naam/, updated 4/23/2013
17 – “Tranhumanism: Taking the Place of Our Creator,” by Rebecca Taylor, 11/18/2012 edition of the National Catholic Register.”
18 – “Full-service gas with a robot attendant?,” by Jon Hilkevitch, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-03-03/news/ct-getting-around-robot-vehicle-fueling-met-0224-20140303_1_gas-station-full-service-gas-own-gas, 3/3/2014
19 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-board_diagnostics
20 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_film_series_with_more_than_ten_entries
21 – “First, the team had to establish binary-code equivalents of letters; for example “h” is “0-0-1-1-1.” Then, with EEG (electroencephalography) sensors attached to the scalp, the sender moved either his hands or feet to indicate a 1 or a 0. The code then passed to the recipient over email. On the other end, the receiver was blindfolded with a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) system on his head. (TMS is a non-invasive method of stimulating neurons in the brain; it’s most commonly used to treat depression.) The TMS headset stimulated the recipient’s brain, causing him to see quick flashes of light. A flash was equivalent to a “1” and a blank was a “0.” From there, the code was translated back into text. It took about 70 minutes to relay the message.” From “Scientists Prove That Telepathic Communication Is Within Reach,” by Corinne Iozzio, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/scientists-prove-that-telepathic-communication-is-within-reach-180952868/?no-ist, 10/2/2014
22 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touchscreen, with footnotes A) Johnson, E.A. (1965). “Touch Display – A novel input/output device for computers”. Electronics Letters 1 (8): 219-220. doi:10.1049/el:19650200, B) USPTO. “DISCRIMINATING CONTACT SENSOR”. Google. Retrieved6 April 2013 and C) oakridger.com, “G. Samuel Hurst — the ‘Tom Edison’ of ORNL”, December 14 2010.
23 – “Teachers under attack in their own classrooms,” by April Thompson, http://wreg.com/2015/05/18/teachers-under-attack-in-their-own-classrooms/, 5/18/2015
24 – “Student Attacks on Teachers Up34.5%; Record 209,800 in 2011-12 School Year,” by Lauretta Brown, http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/lauretta-brown/student-attacks-teachers-345-record-209800-2011-12-school-year, 6/10/2014
25 – “Architect’s Dream Of Levitating Houses Turns Into A Hoverboard,” by Aaron Tilley, http://www.forbes.com/sites/aarontilley/2014/10/21/hendo-hoverboard/, 10/21/2014
26 – “As biometrics become more and more prominent as a recognized means of positive identification, their use in security systems increases. Some new electronic locks take advantage of technologies such as fingerprint scanning, retinal scanning, iris scanning and voice print identification to authenticate users.” From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_lock
27 – “Skype was created in 2003 at a company founded by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis. Originally called Skyper, it was later shortened to Skype when it was discovered that Skyper wasn’t available with all Internet domains… Basically, Skype converts voice signals into data, sends that over the Internet from the host computer, and then restores the audio on the receiving computer. You might hear people refer to it as “VoIP” which stands for “Voice over IP”. The system is free between two Skype-linked computers, and has only a small fee if the person on one end is using a conventional phone.” From “A Brief History of Skype,” by Rob Whent, http://www.itbusiness.ca/blog/a-brief-history-of-skype/20750, 6/21/2012.
28 — https://www.paypal-pages.com/samsunggalaxys5/us/index.html
29 — https://www.nexussmartpay.com/Home.aspx
30 – “America’s budding tyrants on university campuses,” by Walter Williams, http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/americas-budding-tyrants-on-university-campuses/article/2548643, 5/20/2014
32 – “Relativism is the philosophical position that all points of view are equally valid and that all truth is relative to the individual… Our pluralistic society wants to avoid the idea that there really is a right and wrong.” from “What is Relativism?” by Matt Slick, https://carm.org/what-relativism
33 – remark by President Obama as reported in “Obama: ‘Trayvon Martin could have been me,” by Tom Cohen, http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/19/politics/obama-zimmerman/, 7/19/2013.
34 – remark from Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake as reported in “Baltimore Officials Admit They Gave Police Stand Down Order During Violent Riots,” by Jim Hoft, http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/07/baltimore-officials-admit-they-gave-police-stand-down-order-during-violent-riots/, 7/1/2015.
35 – “Police Departments Walk Fine Line After Shootings,” by Scott Calvert and Zusha Elinson, The Wall Street Journal, 8/7/2015.
36 – “Murder Rates Rising Sharply in Many U.S. Cities,” by Monica Davey and Mitch Smith, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/01/us/murder-rates-rising-sharply-in-many-us-cities.html?_r=0, 8/31/2015.
CartaRemi 