A hint of the theme of my first book:

The study of genetic brain function must be conducted along with environmental factors.

Specific environmental accommodations are required for specific genetic brain function. When a suitable environment is not provided it should not be a surprise when dysfunction and often immoral coping/reactive behaviors result!

How is resistance, depression, anxiety, rage and violence not to be expected if a person is forced to live in a way that is psychologically abusive to them? It is much like placing a wild animal in a small cage and punishing it for instinctive behavior by further limiting it's access to a natural way of life? What is to be expected from intelligent humans who are treated as idiots by peers or artists who are not allowed to be creative, or active children who are forced to sit all day... especially when their natural behaviors are scorned, punished and a cause for telling them they are immoral? Why should we be surprised if anyone such individuals grow up hostile?

When we study genetic intelligence we should both take into consideration the environmental affects on DNA as well as hold in our hearts the intrinsic value of every individual regardless of genetics. Only then can mankind resist the past tendency to use science to build more cages for people and further abuse those who are not 'as good' as the rest.

I believe genetic research needs to be done on how we think, but if we are to be moral agents, we must use this knowledge to help those who are wired differently than the norm by not just declaring them unfit for the normal environment but rather, attempting to create environments which suit them best...

Every individual has an inalienable right to freedom and to flourish.

Questioning genetic intelligence is not racism

By JAMES WATSON

*SNIP*

One in three people looking for a job in temporary employment bureaus in Los Angeles is a psychopath or a sociopath. Is this a consequence of their environment or their genetic components? DNA sequencing should give us the answer. The thought that some people are innately wicked disturbs me. But science is not here to make us feel good. It is to answer questions in the

service of knowledge and greater understanding.

In finding out the extent to which genes influence moral behavior, we shall also be able to understand how genes influence intellectual capacities.

Right now, at my institute in the U.S. we are working on gene-caused failures in brain development that frequently lead to autism and schizophrenia. We may also find that differences in these respective brain development genes also lead to differences in our abilities to carry out different mental tasks.

In some cases, how these genes function may help us to understand variations in IQ, or why some people excel at poetry but are terrible at mathematics.

All too often people with high mathematical abilities have autistic traits. The same gene that gives some people such great mathematical abilities may also lead to autistic behavior. This is why, in studying autism and schizophrenia, we believe we shall come very close to a better understanding of intelligence and, therefore, of the differences in intelligence.

We do not yet adequately understand the way in which the different environments in the world have selected over time the genes that determine our capacity to do different things. The overwhelming desire of society today is to assume that equal powers of reason are a universal heritage of humanity. It may well be. But simply wanting this to be the case is not enough. This is not science.

*snip*

Genetic Progress and my novels predictions

In my novel genetic enhancements are very common, and here is an article about research in this area:

Genetic engineer could make doping obsolete

Speed, strength and endurance — the qualities of every athletic competition — could develop on a new front that is virtually undetectable and involves no use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Several experts in genetic engineering told congressional staff members that information on the connections between genes and performance is accumulating so quickly that it will inevitably lead to a day when illegal use of steroids and other strategies are replaced by genetic engineering.

Schemes to install genes that stimulate greater production of red blood cells or greater muscle growth already are being promoted, said University of California, San Diego geneticist Theodore Friedmann.

“They’re clearly hyped, they’re clearly overblown, they’re clearly wrong, in my opinion,” he said, “but this science is inevitable, and it’s not too early to think about public policy in this area.”

My progress

I have spent the last couple of months reading, editing, and organizing chapters. First I formated in a standard I read about on a writers forum I started to go: couriernew, 12 font, double spaced, footer with title, chapter and page...and then I printed it. Over 1000 pages, wordcount: 282,831 And that's with 3 chapters not written.

Then I wrote up a basic outline and printed out a page for each chapter to write notes on as I read through it. I marked what I really liked, crossed through anything that wasn't necessary, checked the bits that needed to be rewritten or condensed and wrote down anything I needed to think about. Just by doing that I was able to cut out nearly 100 full pages, maybe more... which is significant because that's not counting large sections that were marked to dump but left in the pile because I wanted something that was on the page.

It was very interesting reading it from start to end like that, it was the first time I ever did it and I saw very clearly how most of the subplots were just distracting and a few of the secondary characters in them were unnecessary. So they are gone. I also noticed where my main characters weren't coming off as I wanted and some of the backstory was either not needed in the book (but stays in my brain), or was redundant or overly expanded. So a lot of that is gone as well. HOWEVER, I am considering something of an appendix. we'll see.

Reading this straight through also helped me focus on the major theme I have decided on this summer and figure out ways to bring that out more. It does mean rewriting chapters that I thought were complete... but you have to do what you have to do!

Another help of the process was seeing/feeling how long the chapters were and figuring out how to break them up and shuffle them around to a digestible size and logical sequence.

After the preliminary print editing process, I sat down with the outline and revamped it totally... adding in chapters here, moving chapters there... I wrote down the date and time of each chapter and the location of each character. It was time consuming, but I found a few spots that needed to be tweeked, and was glad to see I hadn't painted myself into a corner!

I also mapped out my big bang finish, which was something I had only grasped vaguely.

So, now I am working chapter by chapter again, reading out loud to make sure it flows and captures the mood I am trying to create. I have completed chapters 1 & 2 and am writing a new chapter 3 this week.

For those who are following my progress and interested in the book, I thank you for taking the time to read this!! :)

Schools Starts this Week!!

It's been about 3 months since I wrote anything besides quick notes in my tiny marble pads and while I've done extensive planning and figured out plot angles, character archs and even the titles for my novel trilogy, I am SOOO ready to start full time writing again.

This week I'm going to be printing out all 16 finished chapters and reading them straight through with a big yellow highlighter and a pen for detailed notes. I'm very, very excited. I miss my characters very much...

That said, I came across this article this morning that is pretty much what I'm predicting in my novel, but instead of lamenting the end of cinima, I'm actually coming up with a way to do it better...

http://news.scotsman.com/entertainment.cfm?id=1399142007

Only lifting selected quotes:

Internet 'killing cinema', says director Scott
RAYMOND HAINEY

THE Hollywood director, Ridley Scott, warned yesterday that new technology is killing off the big-screen experience. The Oscar-winning County Durham-born movie mogul said mobile phones and computers threatened movie-making on an epic scale.

*****

He said: "People sit there watching a movie on a tiny screen. You can't beat it, you've got to join it and deal with it and also get competitive with it. But we try to do films which are in support of cinema, in a large room with good sound and a big picture."

However, Scott admitted: "I'm sure we're on a losing wicket, but we're fighting technology. While it has been wonderful in many aspects, it also has some big negative downsides."

Former Edinburgh Film Festival director Mark Cousins said Scott's prognosis was too gloomy.

****

Mr Cousins said: "We still go to big cinemas at weekends collectively, but we also watch movies individually at home with our big TVs and sound systems."

He added that the message was more important than the medium. Mr Cousins said: "I take the view that content is king - it's the story and it's not what format it presented on. That has always been the case."

And he added: "There has been an increase in more specialist movie houses and the types of films which are doing well are documentaries, which never used to be the case, while animation is making a comeback."

Basically, what I predict will likely happen is that there will not only be more specialist movie houses, but genre houses. These will be similar to sports bars, but have mood for the type of 'movies' they show. And to top that off, more entertainment will be interactive like American Idol - and these genre houses will project epic reality TV broadcasts on their mega screens. These shows will have an internet componant where fans can form communities on line and subscribe to archives of the episodes and behind the scenes (like Wrestling) But then people will gladly pay to watch a show they could see at home, only they prefer to be with other fans and an intense 'club' like atmosphere.

This isn't what the entire novel is about, it's just the career of one of the main characters - he's a gladiator in a role playing game and he has fans the world over.

AHHH!!! I only have two more days before I can start working!!! I love my kids, and I've had a great summer with them, but I'm SOO excited I can barely stand it! *L*

Cloned Burgers

In a few posts ago "Genetic Engineering of our Plants" I put up an article that outlined the prospect of losing the variety of genes found in wild plant species because of over breeding and genetic engineering. The idea was that by filtering out 'unwanted' traits in favor of more desirable ones, the genetic pool can get so concentrated with the same DNA that it becomes difficult to find plants that contain traits which are needed when something new happens.

Such as, oh I don't know - climate change? Plants and animals have been evolving on a planet that undergoes ice ages and major changes in climates. The species that have survived contain in them the ability to adapt to these changes so that wild animals will have young with a broad genetic possibilities, increasing the chances that they will have SOMETHING unique in them to help them survive the changes...

When humans muck up the system by breeding out the diversity, they are upping the chances that they will produce plants and animals that require a certain environment to survive. Sure, they may be SUPER plants and animals that will thrive in that environment - but what if it changes? And what happens when we have to go back to the drawing board and find wild animals and plants with diverse genes and they aren't there because we didn't let them survive.

The other problem of creating genetic mutated animals and plants is when they can't breed on their own, or if they do their offspring are mutations. The supply is then controlled not by the owners of said plants and animals who can build an independant business, but rather by the people who own the genetic map - and what happens then if they lose it or, worse, if someone decides they don't want to sell seeds this year, or if the farmer won't pay enough, or they play favorites and shut out free enterprise?

In the following article this process is being taken yet another step further - and again it's all being sold to farmers based on money... you can produce more product (they mean animals and plants) if you use genetically altered.

And of COURSE they say it won't hurt anyone to eat it - though they don't really know this... just like they didn't know that people would get sick and die from eating cows that were eating... cows. (Mad Cow Disease)

Having a large heard of identically tasting, big, meaty, easy to control animals who grow up faster and produce more milk sounds great - but if they are all clones, the diversity is completely gone. COMPLETELY.

If I was a conspiracy theorist I would say there is some underlying plan to do this so that someone can be in control of the food and thus control of the people. But I don't think people are that smart to plan ahead to take over - I think they are instead that stupid to pave the way for some evil oppertunist.

We should farm cloned animals says Dolly expert
By SEAN POULTER - More by this author
Dolly: Next it was pigs and cows


The creator of Dolly the sheep has called for farmers to take up cloning as a way of producing cheap food.

Professor Keith Campbell believes the country's farms should be populated by superstrong, super-sized offspring of clones.

The U.S. expects to be eating clone-farmed burgers, pork and bacon within two years, and supporters of the method say Europe must follow suit.

The Daily Mail revealed earlier this year how the daughter of a U.S. clone cow had been born on a British farm for the first time, making Frankenstein Farming a reality.

The intention is that the cow - Dundee Paradise - will be used to help breed Britain's future milking cow herds.

Professor Campbell said yesterday that this should be the first step to a far wider use of cloned animals to produce food from cattle, pigs, chicken and sheep.

Campaigners insist that meat and milk from cloned offspring is identical to the food in supermarkets and should not be labelled.

However, any attempt to deny families the right to decide whether they want to eat food produced in this way would be highly controversial.

One of the biggest concerns is the high number of clone-animal pregnancies that lead to abnormalities, miscarriages and stillbirths.

Even in the most successful cloning systems, twice as many piglets are born dead - around

20per cent - as with existing breeding. The clones could be created from cells taken from the ears of prized animals or even bodies going through a slaughterhouse.

Clone-offspring cows would be bigger and able to produce more milk than those from current breeding techniques.

Pigs might also be much bigger, leaner or faster growing, so making them easier and cheaper to produce.

Professor Campbell, director of animal bioscience at Nottingham University, said cloning is a useful extension of existing selective breeding, which includes artificial insemination and embryo transfer.

"It is just another technique that we can add to accelerate genetic improvements to farm animal species," he added. "Cloning allows us to multiply elite animals.

"We have achieved the ability to clone a whole variety of animals and animal species. In farm animals, we have got cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and horses.

"In my opinion the ability to integrate cloning into the food production line should be allowed to farmers nowadays."

He said there is 'no conceivable risk' in eating food produced from the off-spring of clones, suggesting the only barrier to the technology is public perception.

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration is expected to give approval for the technology, without a requirement for labelling, later this year.

Dr Simon Best, chairman of the Bioindustry Association, believes labelling is unnecessary saying: "I don't think there is a scientific reason for doing it."

He said: "There is a whole load of things that the public could want to know, but you end up with information overload.

The policy chief of the organic farming group, the Soil Association, dismissed the claims as 'propaganda'.

Peter Melchett said: "The fact that supporters of cloning are not prepared to support labelling and want to keep the whole thing secret says it all. It stinks."

The European Food Safety Authority launched an inquiry into the issue of clone farming following the Daily Mail revelations earlier this year.

But will take 18-24 months to report and there is no effectively system to police the introduction of clone farming.

Organicaly grown spaceships...

I've decided to sadly and disapointingly take the summer off, yet again. The kids go to bed at 8:30 for the younger and 10 for the older, and I can't start writing until too late. It's just too hard to find time to write and it hurts too badly to get to the end of the day and/or week and be too tired to even think straight. I'm still doing research though, and taking notes for ideas I'm having to refine the characters and plot.

On to the article....

In some Sci-fi stories aliens have devised ways to grow space ships - I've seen it on Star Trek and I believe the Taelon ships on Earth Final Conflict were also 'grown'... I know some of the other technology they had was.

According to the article below, genetic engineers are already taking the pieces of different puzzles and putting them together to make a new picture: such as glow in the dark pigs and super meaty cows or combining different types of fruit for new flavors or better resistance to pests and diseases. But now they are on the path to create their own puzzle pieces... the results of which are such extremes as to have an acorn that grows into a house. Synthetic fuel is also mentioned. How cool!

This biological technology is somewhat already incorporated into my novel in that characters are able to grow new arms or the arms/legs/skin/hair/feathers of other creatures should they desire for either cosmetic or utilitarian purposes. I had put in the surgical ability to transplant bionic technology if something inorganic was desired. However, this really opens my mind to other possibilities. Growing a bone and flesh version of an extravigant tool or weapon, for instance. Or growing trees and plants to serve as custome made shelters for the chimera and hybrids living in the kennels... or transportation devices like a sub for underwater traveling.

Of course there is the very exciting plot possibility of genetic mutations that are other than the scientists devised... ;)

>Genetic Engineers Who Don’t Just Tinker

FORGET genetic engineering. The new idea is synthetic biology, an effort by engineers to rewire the genetic circuitry of living organisms.

The ambitious undertaking includes genetic engineering, the now routine insertion of one or two genes into a bacterium or crop plant. But synthetic biologists aim to rearrange genes on a much wider scale, that of a genome, or an organism’s entire genetic code. Their plans include microbes modified to generate cheap petroleum out of plant waste, and, further down the line, designing whole organisms from scratch.

Synthetic biologists can identify a network of useful genes on their computer screens by downloading the gene sequences filed in DNA data banks. But a DNA molecule containing these various genes and their control elements would be a chain of hundreds of thousands of DNA units in length. Though human cells effortlessly duplicate a genome of three billion units, the longest piece of DNA synthesized so far is just 35,000 units long.

Scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Md., hope to take a giant stride in synthetic biology by creating a piece of DNA 580,076 units in length from simple chemicals, chiefly the material that constitutes DNA’s four-letter chemical alphabet. This molecule would be an exact copy of the genome of a small bacterium. Dr. Venter says he then plans to insert it into a bacterial cell. If this man-made genome can take over the cell’s functions, Dr. Venter should be able to claim he has made the first synthetic cell.

Such an achievement could suggest some new plateau has been reached in human control of life and evolution. But Dr. Venter’s synthetic genome will probably be seen to represent a feat of copying evolution’s genetic programming, not of creating new life itself.

Synthetic biologists, as they survey all the new genes and control elements whose DNA sequences are now accumulating in data bases, seem to feel extraordinary power is almost within their grasp.

“Biology will never be the same,” Thomas F. Knight of M.I.T.’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory wrote recently in describing the new engineering discipline he sees as emerging from it.

Adherents of the new discipline held their third annual conference last month in Zurich but their creations are still at the toy rocket stage. A dish of bacteria that generates a bull’s eye pattern in response to the chemicals in its environment. A network of genes that synthesizes the precursor chemical to artemisin, an anti-malaria drug. “The understanding of networks and pathways is really in its infancy and will be a challenge for decades,” says James J. Collins, a biomedical engineer at Boston University.

That hasn’t stopped synthetic biologists from dreaming. “Grow a house” is on the to-do list of the M.I.T. Synthetic Biology Working Group, presumably meaning that an acorn might be reprogrammed to generate walls, oak floors and a roof instead of the usual trunk and branches. “Take over Mars. And then Venus. And then Earth” —the last items on this modest agenda.

Most people in synthetic biology are engineers who have invaded genetics. They have brought with them a vocabulary derived from circuit design and software development that they seek to impose on the softer substance of biology. They talk of modules — meaning networks of genes assembled to perform some standard function — and of “booting up” a cell with new DNA-based instructions, much the way someone gets a computer going.

The first practical applications of synthetic biology may not be so far off. “The real killer app for this field has become bioenergy,” Dr. Collins says. Under the stimulus of high gas prices, synthetic biologists are re-engineering microbes to generate the components of natural gas and petroleum. Whether this can be done economically remains to be seen. But one company, LS9 of San Carlos, Calif., says it is close to that goal. Its re-engineered microbe “produces hydrocarbons that look, smell and function” very similarly to those in petroleum, said Stephen del Cardayre, the company’s vice president for research.

Synthetic biologists are well aware that, like any new technology, theirs can be used for good or ill, and they have encouraged open discussion of possible risks at their annual meetings.

One possible danger is bioterrorism. According to a report in Science, Blue Heron Biotechnology, a DNA synthesis company, has already received requests, which it rejected, for DNA sequences encoding a plant toxin and part of the smallpox virus. Synthetic biologists hope that self-regulation will head off government supervision that could be expected to come in a field that has such potential for mischief.

Evolution continually refines its creations by means of the naturally occurring mutations in DNA that are the raw material of natural selection. This propensity to innovate may not be so welcome to synthetic biologists, who seek stable systems. But they hope to spot mutations with error-detection algorithms and then go back to the original cells. “You can think of it as a re-boot,” said Ron Weiss, a synthetic biologist at Princeton.

Even if the mutation problem can be squelched, it remains to be seen how far synthetic biologists can wrest evolution’s strange system to entirely different purposes and whether the human organism is one they will propose to debug and upgrade.

Local Currency/Credits to encourage local spending...

Just read about a New England town that has convinced people to invest in local currency that isn't good anywhere besides that town.

This is one way the colonies, cities and corporations in my novel keep profits within their borders. Cash is worth more because you can buy anything with it, but some things within borders can't be bought unless you exchange it - for a loss.

New age town embraces dollar alternative
Tue Jun 19, 2007 10:50AM EDT
By Scott Malone

GREAT BARRINGTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) - A walk down Main Street in this New England town calls to mind the pictures of Norman Rockwell, who lived nearby and chronicled small-town American life in the mid-20th Century.

So it is fitting that the artist's face adorns the 50 BerkShares note, one of five denominations in a currency adopted by towns in western Massachusetts to support locally owned businesses over national chains.

"I just love the feel of using a local currency," said Trice Atchison, 43, a teacher who used BerkShares to buy a snack at a cafe in Great Barrington, a town of about 7,400 people. "It keeps the profit within the community."

...

"BerkShares are cash, and so people have transferred their cash habits to BerkShares," said Susan Witt, executive director of the E.F. Schumacher Society, a nonprofit group that set up the program. "They might have 50 in their pocket, but not 150. They're buying their lunch, their coffee, a small birthday present."

The Top of the Economic Food: Chain Oil vs. Corn

Oil is at the top - the highest desired commodity that everyone wants and needs and is scarse enough and hard enough to get that prices can go up and people have very little they can do except pay it... and keeping the prices low has become a huge source of strife for the entire world as nations fight to maintain control over this resource.

And because oil is the top source of energy, when oil prices go up, so does virtually everything else that requires energy to be created or transported.

Corn is closing in on Oil because ethonal made from corn is starting to replace Oil as a means for energy, BUT it's still used for feeding people and the animals who feed people. As people who make ethonal buy up the corn, they can afford to pay higher prices because people are USED to paying more for energy and aren't going to demand lower prices. But the people who feed people are dealing with a comodity that everyone is used to being very low in price, and for which there are alternatives (eating other things) so when they raise their prices, people eat other things.

The result is that our food sources are going to start drying up if ethanol is selected as an alternative to oil.

It's already causing a big problem in China, as their economy is doing better and more people are eating pork, at the same time the prices are rising because of a shortage of pigs as farmers simply can't afford the feed.

And because pigs eat corn and pork is a staple in the diet of Chinese workers who make American goods... well, you get the picture.

Rise in China’s Pork Prices Signals End to Cheap Output

The crisis over pork prices in China, like the jolt many Americans feel when gasoline prices jump, offers one example of how prices can suddenly soar. The Chinese government is struggling to cope — including deliberating whether to sell a snuffling, smelly strategic reserve of hundreds of thousands of live pigs kept at special subsidized farms for precisely the shortage the country is now facing.

Chinese officials offer several reasons for the high pig prices. The cost of animal feed has risen by one-quarter in the last year, partly because more corn is being made into ethanol and partly because more prosperous workers are eating more meat, which requires more animal feed.

Pork is a critical source of protein for Chinese of all incomes, but particularly for low-income workers like those who keep American and European families well supplied with $49 DVD players and other popular consumer products.

If there isn't some sort of top down change (meaning using something besides ethnaol or using something besides corn to make ethanol) there are several different possiblities of how this is all going to play out. People and animals will have to start eating something besides corn, more people will have to start growing corn to meet the supply, the prohibitive cost of trinkets from China will make buying them more expensive and people will stop hording junk and spewing it into landfills, people will stop feeling a need to travel so much and communities will become more inner focused....

Thoser are just a few possibilities. It'll be interesting to see what will really happen, but I know how it's going to happen in my book and I find these kinds of things really fascinating... ;)

Vermont group wants to secede from U.S.

The novel takes place at a time where there are no longer a 'United States' and instead the states operate independantly. I've made this prediction as a possible outcome for the way things are going because of the way Individual State preferences are being overlooked/ignored in favor of cohesive Federal System. Earlier in the blog I pointed out the "Nation within a Nation" in Canada where a city (Quebec) has succeeded in peacefully declaring itself independant from the nation within which it resides. There is still cooperation between Canada and Quebec, but Quebecians get to make up their own rules and don't have to listen to Canada, but they enjoy the protection of Canada (which actually enjoys the protection of the U.S., but that's besides the point)

So when I came across this article this morning, my stomach got a few butterflies... it seems there are people in Vermont who are ready to do things their own way. It's not at all surprising to me, and they are such a small number that I doubt it'll happen anytime soon, BUT the fact that people are thinking about it as an alternative should send up warning flags to Federalists(those who would like to see the U.S. continue on the trend toward a centralized government.)

In Vermont, nascent secession movement gains traction

About 300 people turned out for a 2005 secession convention in the Statehouse, and plans for a second one are in the works. A poll this year by the University of Vermont's Center for Rural Studies found that 13 percent of those surveyed support secession, up from 8 percent a year before.

"The argument for secession is that the U.S. has become an empire that is essentially ungovernable -- it's too big, it's too corrupt and it no longer serves the needs of its citizens," said Rob Williams, editor of Vermont Commons, a quarterly newspaper dedicated to secession.

"Congress and the executive branch are being run by the multinationals. We have electoral fraud, rampant corporate corruption, a culture of militarism and war. If you care about democracy and self-governance and any kind of representative system, the only constitutional way to preserve what's left of the Republic is to peaceably take apart the empire."

Such movements have a long history. Key West, Fla., staged a mock secession from America in the 1980s. The Town of Killington, Vt., tried to break away and join New Hampshire in 2004, and Hawaii, Alaska, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Texas all have some form of secession organizations today.

The Vermont movement, which is being pushed by several different groups, has been bubbling up for years but has gained new traction in the wake of disenchantment over the Iraq war, rising oil prices and the formation of the pro-secession groups

Right now most people are going to think this is a 'cute' idea to get attention and try to push for more local power - the idea that the States could function alone has a lot of problems, economically and militarily...

But our country was founded on an idea, not a rigid method of carrying out that idea. So to change the structure of how democracy is carried out to make it function more alligned to the idea of democracy, IMO doesn't sound like that far of a stretch... it's just getting people to think differently and rationally about what makes the most sense in the modern world.

As this site on global guerrillas points out, modern warfare is changing as larger nations become vulnerable to attack from smaller cells of independant military forces.

Remember: Vulnerability to disruption accelerates with size while the capacity to disrupt (using these methods) is scale-free (based on self-replicating computer resources and thereby within the budget of any state, no matter how small)

The current U.S. strategy of a strong centralized military that fights wars on other lands is starting to not be exactly what we need anymore. And the size of our country requires states and federal police groups to work together to thwart attacks on cities within our borders. If this continues to work, there will be no need for succession based on protection from terror threats. But as soon as a state or city starts to believe they could keep themselves safe with their own way of doing things, the dependance we have on the Federal government to protect us could disolve and there's nothing like fear to drive people to do something to protect themselves.

I should note that I'm not for or against sucession or keeping the U.S. federally oriented, I do think states should be given a bit more leeway in writing their own laws, but that is happening already... Mostly I find the entire situation fascinating, especially considering I created a predicted outcome for an unusual setting in my novel and many of these predictions are starting to come true!

Note on writing: I wrote another chapter on Saturday... and plan to finish it up today. So only 2 more to go for the first book!! very exciting.