What is Antimatter?

Antimatter can be thought of as the opposite of matter, or matter that has properties opposite or contra-positive of the normal steady state.  Simplistically, antimatter can have anti-protons that have the same mass as a proton but the charge of an electron, anti-neutrons: neutrons that have no charge but an opposite or -out-of-phase wave associated with it, and anti-electrons which have the same mass as electrons but a positive charge. In a more real and concrete interpretation, antimatter has the same properties as matter but in a 180-degree out-of-phase wave nature associated with it. To quantify these relationships is Albert Einstein’s dream: a unified field theory. The symbol of Tai Chi Chuan, which is two fishes In eight is in reality the sine wave.  Chinese ascetics believed that all matter exists in a wave function. Put another way, an antimatter particle, colliding with a matter particle will annihilate and release energy in the electromagnetic spectrum equivalent to the equation energy equals mass times the speed of light squared.  A gram of hydrogen annihilating another gram of anti-hydrogen could be said to liberate approximately ten to the thirty-ninth power joules of energy as a wave in a microsecond burst. This amount is identified as a wave addition out of phase annihilation. This amount of energy released per unit of time is astounding and cannot be harnessed for useful power because of its extreme magnitude.

Physics of antimatter annihilation

An antiparticle of a given mass can annihilate another particle of matter of the same atomic weight.  To use dissimilar particles of mass and anti-mass reveals a difficult means to bring them together to annihilate.  Using like particles of anti-matter and matter makes bringing the two particles together of the lower quantum threshold for capture and annihilation.  The reaction of plutonium fission can be likened tangentially to reacting antimatter with matter in the sense that the two components of the reaction must be held together for a minimum amount of time for the reaction to ensue or the elements will quickly separate and the reaction quench.  As in a fission bomb, plutonium wedges must be held together to initiate a chain reaction, two particles of matter, anti and real must be collided and maintained in union for annihilation to proceed. This is because the annihilation of matter and antimatter is not a usual or natural event and the forces of God keep them separate.  

Antimatter can be contained in a near vacuum within a magnetic field as long as matter opposite to the antimatter is not brought into proximity.  For example: an atom of hydrogen antimatter under real conditions will not react with an iron atom because of the dissimilarity of mass and the shielding of the nucleus by barrier particles.  These will only react at relativistic conditions found only in nature at the center of a sun or neutron star.

Production of antimatter

Antimatter can be produced on earth by spinning particles or atoms in a tokamak until the particles change nature at the speed of light.  Matter spun in a circle at the speed of light eventually changes character and can be siphoned off with magnets and contained in a vacuum.

Passing energy through various crystal lattices changes the frequency of the energy in the electromagnetic spectrum

Uses of Antimatter

At present no way exists to realize the great amount of energy liberated in a microsecond by the reaction of antimatter.   No other use comes to mind except in weapons of mass destruction. In the future, the energy released by antimatter annihilation will power starships to different galaxies and fuel huge and awesome lasers and particle weapons.  The harnessing of antimatter energy will provide the means to transgress time and the warp as envisioned by Albert Einstein.  Energy can be converted to specific forms such as gravity waves and the essence of time itself.

On a positive note

The universal field equation envisioned by Albert may soon become a plausible reality.

Good morning, Dr. Wracks, how was your breakfast asks Dr. Lector.

Fine says Dr. Wracks, but they only let you have one cup of coffee. They say you will get fat.

Get used to it Says Dr. Lector.   I have a new arrival I want you to work up.  He is very important.

His family is the richest family in New York State and they want him here for evaluation.  Be careful what you say.  The council want to know if the condition is a psychosis, a neurosis or medical, and how to deal with it.   He is a financial genius.   Do you think you can handle it?

I will do my best says Dr, Wracks.

He will be in the interview room at 11 o’clock.  Be sure to look your best. 

It is interview time and Dr. Wracks has gone back to his cell, shaved and brushed his teeth and put on a tie.  His white clinician coat will do.  He precedes to the interview room.  Inside waits the patient.  He sits in a chair, and he is of average height with hair thinning in the calvarium and occipital regions, skin tone normal, slight freckling which might be due to hereditary factors and no odor, mannerisms or automatism.  Dr. Wracks introduces himself.  Good morning Mr. home, I am Dr. Wracks, a fifth pathway intern, sent here to interview you.  How are you today?

His eyes open wide and he says, Buy chock full of nuts.  

Dr. Wracks asks again, what is chock full of nuts?

Dimba, dimba, do says Mr., home

Is Chock full of nuts a stock, an equity or a possession

La la, ga ga, goo says Mr. Home

At this point the interrogator decides that this patient is compos mentis and decides to use Carl Rogers sounding board technique.   The Sounding board technique is designed to elucidate whether the patient is psychotic or not and to elucidate transference which will induce remission if successful.

Yakka yakka bop, says Mr. Home

Yakka yakka bop, says Dr, Wracks

Diddly de diddly does, says Mr. Home

Diddly de diddly does says Dr, Wracks

Bam bam bop says Mr. Ho

Bam bam bop says Dr. Wracker

At this point Mr. Home jumps up on the table and pulls down his pants exposing himself.

Dr. Wracks says.  Now you hear what you are saying.   Do you understand now why you are here

Mr. home pulls up his pants and sits back in his chair and is silent.

Dr. Lector and the council will place you on medication if you so desire to stabilize your condition.  Our interview is concluded.  Do you understand, Mr. Home

Mr. Home nods his head sullenly

Thank you very much for your time, and I hope to see you in the future.  Have an excellent day Mr. Home.  Dr. Wracks stands up, backsteps his way to the door and exits the interview room.  The door shuts and locks with a loud click.

Dr. Wracks adds to his notes.  There exists a possible hebephrenic condition not thought to be psychosis.  These mannerisms exist as possible reaction formation to an aversive situation.  A full blood workup indicates with attention to SGOT and BUN.   Screen for sympathomimetic addiction as people of high intelligence resort to substance abuse to maintain performance levels. The pupils are normal size and reactive to light.  The Patient is cognizant and responds to question and reacts to answer.

Dr. Wracks finishes the report and deposits it in Dr. Lectors office slot.

What ever happened to Mr. Home acts Dr. Wracks

He is better and his family requests he be requisitioned to more favorable and opulent surroundings.  Thank you very much Dr. Wracks.  Good Work says Dr. Lector.  Enjoy the rest of your day.

It is very spartan here at the VA.   Dr. Wracks sits in his cell with his light and his Harrisons principle of Internal Medicine and tries to read.  The Milky Way bar he bought from the prison concessionaire tastes really good and later he might visit the patient canteen and get a Styrofoam cup of rot gut coffee.  It is snowing outside in March and the administration suggests all unnecessary personnel go home before they are snowed in.  Dr. Wracks has no place to go and his cell is his room and the weekend will be long and this VA in upstate has long dark tunnels that connect the units which he will manage this weekend.

How where and when does man build a nuclear reactor that is safe and minimally impacts the community?

The answer is simple, not simplistic, and derives from common sense and good old Yankee ingenuity.

A reactor must be built in a place where an eventual meltdown will not cause a horrendous calamity. Safe places exist.  Because the most long-lived reactors in the world sit near a great body of water, so must water-cooled nuclear reactors reside. Evidence is the San Onofre nuclear reservation.   In a meltdown, huge quantities of water cool the core and bring the reaction back to equilibrium.  In the United States, safe places are on the seashores of coastal states and abutting the Great Lakes area where the lakes hold millions of gallons of extremely cold water benefiting only the Erie Canal and Niagara Falls. 

A reactor can also be built in a remote area where a meltdown has no direct effect on local populations.  In sparsely populated states in the northern forty’s longitude, a meltdown has little consequence and the energy produced by reactors can feed into a grid to serve populated cities and heavy product factories. 

The reality of meltdowns is that the core forms a superheated magma and sinks deep into the earth.   Intervention by man serves no purpose and the core remnants can be fenced off until radiation follows the logarithmic law of extinction.

Reactor shielding

Most current nuclear reactors are poorly shielded because of man’s inhumanity to man.   To shield a nuclear reactor, water serves to moderate small particles like quarks and bosons. Steel stops fast neutrons and eventually becomes radioactive, this is why old reactors are decommissioned.  The next shielding layer stops the most important aspect of nuclear radiation danger.  Bromstrellung is a German word for radiation secondary to the deceleration of basic particles like protons, neutrons, and electrons.  Bromstrellung registers in the gamma and x-ray region of ionizing radiation.  To create bromstrellung, an alkaline earth crystalloid like steel enters a higher energy level after absorbing a particle and then radiates a gamma photon.  This is the bremsstrahlung   Impacting particles generate gamma rays.    A secondary shield of high-mass number elements like lead or other heavy metals turns the bromstrellung into infrared radiation also known as heat utilizing the photoelectric effect.  In addendum, to shield a nuclear reactor emanating fast neutrons, gamma rays, heat, and light, three shields become necessary.  The first is an ionic shield that can be made from water.  The second is a braking radiation shield to be made from steel; the third is a gamma shield that fabricates from the use of any of the heavy metals in the periodic table of elements. This coupled with a calculation of radiation-safe distance employing a Geiger counter forms the parameters and specifics of the shape and size of the containing vessel. When dealing with radiation, length is safe and duration minimized

Breeder reactors

Breeder reactors are thorium breeders or uranium breeders.  Thorium breeds are safer because the core does not go critical as fast as a uranium breeder fired by plutonium.   The birth of uranium 235 or plutonium 239 using thorium or uranium breeders respectively occurs at a logarithmic rate.  The product must be removed concerning a logarithmic calculation based on breeding mass and size of the fissioning bed.   The math is simple; people are complex and amiss to err and behavior change. 

The rate of breeding is directly proportional to the rate of radiation emitting from a core.  New material is added as the product is born and the reactor is safe and fashionable.  In the event of a meltdown, non-reacted raw material pulls from the core and the reactor comes to rest.  Thank God for AI and robots to help us.

Reactor design

A circle of concentric rods seems the safest and most logical picture of a reactor core.  The rods suspend through a chain or wire just as a guillotine blade hangs over the head of a criminal.  If the core overheats, moderator rods can be inserted or the raw material can drop out of the core into a concrete tomb.  The reactor sits safely away from supervising staff and controls occur by action of chains, wires, and levers pulled or guided from a remote location by robots.  Distance is lifesaving

Radioactive waste

Radioactive waste equals strontium ninety, and cesium 137 along with radioactive water.  Strontium 90 mainly emits alpha particles with a half-life of five thousand years and cesium 137 emits gamma rays with a half-life of 120 days.  In the future, man will collect radioactive waste as the positive byproduct of a nuclear reactor and use the waste as a source of heat or a source of electrons forming batteries by the device of the photoelectric effect turning gamma into electron movement in a wire.  Currently, the best way to store radioactive waste is to drop it into a chasm that empties into the center of the earth.

Fission or Fusion Oh My!

Fission reactors tend to overheat and go critical.   Fusion reactors burn at full throttle and can die in an instant.   Fission reactors produce large amounts of gamma-generating waste and fusion reactors generate helium which when it accumulates is one of the most toxic elements to biological life forms. The choice will be made by the next generation.  I, for one, choose fission because fission reactors do not go out, they refuse to die. I exclude fusion because of the generation of huge amounts of helium.  In my mind, fusion reactors will only serve as power for military vehicles because they require less shielding.  However, I am just a dreamer with my hands in my hair and the imagination is a canvas of beauty and optimism.  Others will choose.

Where is everyone, asks Dr. Wracks.   I saw them at breakfast in the cafeteria

They are in the outpatient venue says Dr. Lector.   They have enough to do.

Don’t you think it is dangerous, just you and me in a lockup with twenty-five patients?

There is plenty of staff, and the nurses sit behind bulletproof windows. Says Dr. Lector

I don’t mean them says Dr. Wracks, I mean you and me.

Remember what I said about inappropriate comments, says Dr. Lector.   If you are sick, they can sense it.  Just don’t say anything or make noises and you will be OK.  Stay close to the doors.  You can see it in their faces before they turn.  Be smart.  I have a new admission I want you to work up. Says Dr. Lector.  He is from a wealthy family, and he became a marine and went to Vietnam.    He is one of the few survivors of the Tet Offensive and his superiors don’t know how he survived. He is back in the States now and got into a bit of trouble.  It seems someone gave his sister a venereal infection so he broke into their house in broad daylight and beat them all into unconsciousness, all five of them.   The perpetrator he beat into the ICU with a phone book. He is on a respirator.   He says he did not want to hurt his hands.   His lawyers have commended him into my care until the judiciary decides what to do with him.  He is five feet eight inches tall but he can move very quickly.   Follow me, I will show him to you.  He is in a padded cell.

Dr. Wracks and Dr. Lector move to the holding area of the building.  On a large oak door is a port hole with a door on it.  Dr. Lector opens the port and behind wire bars, a leering face with widely dilated grey eyes stares at the two outside.  

Mr. Carl, it is Dr. Lector.   I have a resident from the general hospital here to evaluate you.  Will you accept his care?   The patient nods his head slightly.   He will see you in the interview room after lunch.  His name is Dr. Wracks.   He will see you in two hours, and he slowly closes the porthole.

What else do you have on him asks Dr. Wracks, so I can be prepared.

He is maintained on 100mg of Thorazine twice a day, with 100 mg of Benadryl to sedate and prevent an extrapyramidal reaction.  He is a middle-aged nourished male with good conduct issued by the military.   His lawyers want to learn whether the attack was provoked and if there is an underlying drug addiction.  If you think there is an underlying physical or metabolic condition please transcribe it to your notes.   On the front lines in Vietnam, often the soldiers would mainline heroin to desensitize themselves from the constant shelling and explosions.  Please note any physical manifestations of addiction.   This man is a decorated soldier.  Put your file in my office and I will peruse it this afternoon and contact his attorney.  Have a good day Dr. Wracks.

Dr. Lector gravitates away and disappears.   He is never around but always appears when needed.

The interview room is well-lit and white, and Mr. Carl sits in a foldout chair, at a foldout desk, facing the door.  Good afternoon, Mr. Carl says Dr. Wracks.   I am an internist doing an internship here at the Veterans’ Administration for eight weeks.   May I interview you?   Yes, says Mr. Carl.     Is the facility giving you adequate care here at the Veterans facility?   Yes, Says Mr. Carl.  The medication you are now receiving is sedating and this means that any anger you still harbor will be abolished and soon eliminated.   How is the medication working for you?  Fine says Mr. Carl, except it makes me slur my words.   That is to be expected says Dr. Wracks.  The medication will make you less angry.   Do you feel like running around or having to walk around, this is called akathisia, and this is a common reaction to the medication.  No, I am fine.   Time passes by with ominous silence.   His pupils are dilatated but not fixed, and he is not salivating, shaking, or exhibiting autonomic mannerisms.  He dresses in denim jeans, sneakers, and a linen, buttoned, plaid shirt, in earth tones.  He is not talkative.   Would you like a cigarette, asks Dr. Wracks.   I don’t smoke says Mr. Carl.   If you have any questions or any other problems, ring the charge nurse and she will call me.   I will be checking in on you.    Wracks turns to the door and a muscular attendant opens the door for him.  Wracks edges out back first keeping his eyes on the patient.  The door closes and then locks.

In his evaluation, Dr. Wracks writes: that the subject is a well-nourished male in mid-life.   He is of average height and build.   He sports brown hair, and grey eyes, and seems of European descent.  Pupils are dilated, sclera not erythematous or injected, and there is no evidence of intravenous drug abuse.  A urine methamphetamine assay ordered.   Order head x-ray, frontal, lateral, and Townes view.    Standard blood profile indicated.   Will monitor for medication side effects.   Acyl phenothiazines are anticholinergic and sedating, and this patient does not manifest overt sedation or drowsiness.  Evaluate for sympathomimetic drug abuse and occult intracerebral neoplasm by the neurologist.  Suggest continued holding and evaluation until stable. The district attorney should be comfortable with these results.  The only psychiatric mannerism noticed by the evaluator is that the subject remains perfectly still but not catatonic.  Continue patient care. 

Dr. Wracks is done for today until afternoon rounds.   He is to sit with the incarcerated schizophrenics and observe their behavior.   He is to inform the pharmacist staff If extrapyramidal side effects manifest in any of the patients or if there is a violent acting out.  Then he will go to dinner and sit in his little room with a bed, a table, and a chair and sleep until tomorrow if it comes.  It is today’s world, one day at a time.

A storm blows into upstate and snow covers the facility with ten feet of snow.   More is on the way, and the radiators are hot, and steam blows out the vent holes in a whisper, night overtakes and the Wracks end the day with a prayer.

The eighteen steps, also known as Shaolin boxing, are the basic exercises of Pakua.   By themselves, these postures stand as a complete martial art, effective against all styles.  All Pa Kua practitioners must learn the eighteen steps before they choose between the circular style or the synthetic style of Sun.   Nobody likes the eighteen steps because it is looping, most humans prefer the parry and punch of Tai Chi or the consecutive step attack of Hsing-I.   The question this author asks is why the most complete and economical system in Chinese boxing is relegated to an esoteric antiquity suitable only for old people.   Is it because only old people get into a fight over money or women? 

The movements of the eighteen steps mimic the movements of insects.   Insects are the most efficient and effective predators and this author delineates why.   The eighteen steps are the static movements of the preying mantis, the grasshopper, and the assassin beetle.  A small insect will play dead or instantly converge and throw circular movements at its adversary,  at something it eats, or battles for a meal.   For the rest of us, human beings, a circle is a long way to get to a straight line, but if an intrepid soul practices the art for twenty years or longer, the circles become faster and eventually approach the speed of a straight line, this fact is easier said than done and most people will not continue the silliness.   The reason the circle is so effective is that a circle produces a strike three times more powerful than a linear blow.  If F=MA, then F= mv squared/r in a circle or stretched out to a Newtonian vector, F=3.14MA.    A circular punch is three times more powerful than a linear strike if the practitioner can swing it very fast.   A bug attacking prey scurries with weight distributed 50/50 into striking range and then throws punches.   The punches happen from horizontal and vertical positions and if done rapidly, are hard to block.  An insect will scurry into position, throw hooks, overhand rights, and hookercuts, until the prey can’t defend itself and the insect begins to eat.

In comparison, the style is like the white crane, flying, bumping, and bending the bow.  Or like phoenix-style Tai Chi, with piercing, flapping, and flying.  However, it is more.  The eighteen steps include three postures of short boxing also known as fighting in the clinch, and a form of circular jiu jitsu that enables practitioners to escape grasps and crane kicks.    The final movement is a kick, called the scooping foot which resembles Thailand boxing in that a person uses a kick to the lower leg when nothing else works.   In Chinese boxing, kicking is denigrated because a big football player will tackle a victim and start punching.  When a person stands on one foot, they are unstable and easily taken down, and this is exactly what grapplers do best.   Never kick a grappler.   If anyone ever has been tackled and taken down and terrorized, they know exactly what I mean.   So let us begin.  Remember everything except the spear hand and the double impact punch moves in a circle. 

1. Deflection attack

This is the defense and attack of the preying mantis.  With the hands up like a mantis a person will hammer fist with the same side a hook strikes.   The Chinese believe that defending a hook opens up an opponent on that side.   The deflection attack can also be used as a double hammer fist to the face of an opponent.

• Double duty hand

This and this alone is the signature movement of Pa Kua.   A person strikes with a hand and when finished uses the same hand to deliver a horizontal back fist to the face.  Classically, a fighter throws an overhand right like brush knee and press in Tai Chi but then loops the hand to the face afterward.   The student can do this with an open hand or closed fist.  Done quickly, this movement looks like two circles in a figure eight.   A student practices this movement until it is lightning quick and when it is, the opponent will never see the back fist come from the side to the face.    The double duty hand is the basis for Pa Kua and all its strikes and maneuvers. 

• The spear hand

The spear hand is the same as drilling in Hsing-I or step up and punch in Tai Chi.  It is known in boxing circles as the one-two.   With the hands up like a mantis in front of the face, a boxer spears outward in two fist bursts.

• The double impact punch.

This movement replicates crushing in Hsing-I or press down, parry, and punch in Tai-chi.  Using the standing fist a person with their torso strikes the midsection in half horse and articulates the thumb downward, creating a double impact.   This movement is designed to beat the midsection of the opponent like a drum.

• Knuckle punch

This is the straight right hand with an upward block against the overhand right.  This is the same as fan penetrate back in tai chi and in Pa Kua it is to the midsection, the punch can also be directed at the head

• Sword hand

This is the second major movement of the eighteen steps.  Moving your hand like a sword, open or closed in a sweeping fashion, or with both hands like a two-handed hook or reverse flying like white crane or crossing in Hsing I or slanting flight in Tai chi.  However a sword moves, this is the way the hand moves also.   This can be with one hand or two, one at a time, or two together like two hands cutting.   Remember always the circle.

• Circle and reverse press

With your hand make a big circle with a fist, scooping upward just like the hooker cut.   This movement works great when your hands are high in the spear hand and you continue the circle and punch them in the groin

These eight movements are the ones a practitioner uses in a boxing match. They are the eight diagrams.   Next, come the four short boxing techniques

•  Circle and inverse press.

Move an arm in a huge circle to the left and push downward to the right and vice versa. The purpose of this movement is a strike where no room or leverage is possible.   This concept is hard for the Western mind to comprehend.  When a boxer has a hand on your clothes and wants to punch you in the side of the head, circle the arm as fast as possible and impact the groin.   This is a punch given where no leverage or strength is possible. 

• Pecking.

When an opponent grabs your collar to prepare a judo throw or wrestling takedown, with your hands shaped like a beak, a fighter gouges their eyes

1. Folding elbow

This is the famous Gracie jiu-jitsu elbow strike.  With thumbs down, fold to the elbow and swing the elbow like a hook.  When an opponent holds the boxer in a two-leg takedown, fold the elbow and pummel the face.

1. Uppercut.

This movement made Rocky Marciano famous.   When an opponent clinches with over-the-shoulder hooks, a boxer punches straight upwards with the fist till he or she connects.  A boxer can also make room with the folding elbow and then punch upwards with the uppercut

1. Reverse the attack

When an opponent shoots in a two-leg take-down, a boxer squats deeply in horse and swings across with a right cross from either side.   When the opponent transitions to a back clinch, a boxer twists to face them then slaps downward with the open hand.   This is the only decent defense a boxer has for the front two-leg shoot. 

1. Clamping

In horse stance, a boxer swings his arms in a big circle counterclockwise with the right hand. This finesse move is best used by an expert.  Making a big circle, he or she can deflect any strike to the midsection, a grab, or a side thrust kick and move the energy outside of the circle.   At this point, after the deflection, the boxer attacks with, a spear hand, sword hand, or big chopping.   The open hand can also be used as a slapping hook to the face like hands build clouds in Tai Chi.

1. Reverse Clamping

Swinging the arm in the exact opposite rotation, in a horse stance, a boxer can block a crane kick to the face or trap a Thai kick to the knee.  Reverse clamping and clamping are a movement a boxer usually discards as looping and slow, or esoteric.   However, when insects meet to fight to the death, they circle their arms as they close and do it religiously. Circling helps them evade the grasp.

1. Cross and Push.

This is the attempt by the boxer to evade a straight arm rush and grab by an opponent so they can infight or take the fight to the ground.  Circle the arm in an inward arc and squat down as you swing.   This movement breaks the grasp.  Then push forward forcefully with both arms in a two-handed strike to the midsection.  This is almost the same as the expansive push in Tai Chi Chuan. 

1. Big Chopping

The ancients leave this movement to last.   Maybe the huge overhand right or left is too slow to be useful in a boxing match.   Maybe it is used like the assassin beetle, to attack a huge grappler.

Pronate one arm and swing the member in a huge circle to impact somewhere in the head.   Fan penetrate back is designed to block this movement, but if it hits, you have won decisively.

1. Scooping foot

This is the only foot movement in the eighteen steps.  A practitioner swings his leg low like a karate roundhouse kick in an attempt to hurt the knee joint or from an oblique angle to take the opponent to the ground.   When the opponent is a Hapkido boxer, or Okinawan karate boxer, or drunken master, and dancing around, kick the leg to make him or her honest.  

1. Corkscrew Punch

This is the movement everyone hates.   No one uses it.   It is the attacking system of Shaolin boxing.   When you scurry up to meet a grappler, a boxer swings the corkscrew punch because it is hard to defend or block it.   This movement doesn’t work against the one-two punch of a prizefighter.   When a boxer confronts a grappler who presents with their hands down, he or she lunges forward with the corkscrew punch and when it connects, swings big chopping to the head.  The corkscrew punch moves like the threads of a screw.   Start with a big circle moving inward, constrict the circle as the fist moves, and punch out to the midsection.  At this junction, a boxer can swing the sword hand or big chopping against a grappler.

This is it.   Practice the eighteen exercises wherever a person goes, in the morning, on trips, by yourself at night.  This exercise will lengthen your life, add vital health, and yield a panacea for boredom that forever dogs your days.  The internal systems are an exercise to promote health foster coordination and increase your lifespan.   If a person wants to fight, go to a boxing gym and show them how tough you are.  

Dr. Lector looks up from the huge brown oak desk in the book-infested office.

Good morning Dr. Wracker, did you have your cup of coffee?

Yes I did Dr. Lector, and a cigarette

You cannot smoke in here, I don’t smoke, it is unhealthful.

A cup and a smoke keep me going for at least four hours, says Wracks

Very Well says Dr. Lector.  I have a new patient for you today.  He is the one who broke the nose of the director of this facility.  He has popsicle sticks protruding from his nose and is on sabbatical. You will inherit his patients for the eight weeks you are here.

I understand Dr. Lector, says the Wracks.

Remember to not let him get closer than arm’s length to you.  He has a mean back fist that moves extremely fast.  It seems he is a Vietnam veteran who is thrown to the front line in all defenses and he doesn’t want to do it anymore.  He wears a dress and tells his commanding officer that he wants to marry him.  Remember what I told you about inappropriate comments?  He is lightning-quick. The board thinks he is an undifferentiated schizophrenic and they want to know what you think of him.  Keep good notes and put them in the slot at the door of my office at the end of the day. Take some time now to compose yourself.  Your interview begins in fifteen minutes.  He is waiting for you.

Dr. Wracker gets up from the leather upholstered hardwood antique chair and exits out the door.  He doesn’t know why it seems dark in Dr. Lector’s office.  Maybe he likes it that way.  He proceeds down the hall to the main interview room, takes his key from his neck, opens the door, and puts the key back onto his neck.   Inside behind an interview table like the kind they use at police stations is a slight, black man, almost six feet in height with slightly pale skin.  The Wracks upon sitting down across from the patient make a note to evaluate the subject for sickle cell disease, trait, and SC variant.  For some reason, the man seems to vibrate at a high frequency but does not move a muscle, gesture, or smile.   He wears a floral blouse and a long blue dress with knee-high stockings like the kind the girls wear in high school.  He wears high-heeled shoes like Dorothy did in the movie The Wizard of Oz.  He sits with his legs crossed without a smile. 

Dr. Wracker says, Good morning, I am a board-certified physician and here to see you today. May I interview you?   Could you tell me about yourself?

Silence, then a wan smile. 

I hear you are a veteran with several tours in Vietnam.   Is this true?

The patient flashes a wan smile.

Do you have a name I can refer to you, sergeant? 

Yes, call me Ann.

Ann, when did you start wearing a dress, asks Dr. Wracks.

Ann leans forward and Dr. Wracker is ready to bolt for the door.

I am tired of fighting says Ann

All the people in this facility are tired of fighting and the Veterans sends all its good people here to get treated.  Dr. Wracker turns slightly and makes sure his path to the door is unobstructed.   He touches the key slung around his neck.   The soldier with tight kinky hair cut short bends his arms and sets his head upon his hands.  His gold earrings look cute and quaint, and his eyes are clear. But his cheeks have multiple freckles upon them which might indicate substance abuse. The incessant fine tremor might herald amphetamine intoxication as the soldiers in Vietnam often were killed in their sleep, so they would take uppers to stay awake. 

Can I have a cigarette asks Ann.

Yes, you can says the Wracks.   I will put it on the table for you.  Ann slowly reaches for the cigarette and inserts the same in his mouth

Will you light it for me asks Ann.

No, I can’t says Dr. Wracker.   The staff are not allowed to participate in games or physical contact with the patients.   Can I slide it to you?

Yes says Ann.  He takes the Bic clic lighter, turns the striker a couple of times, and then lights his cigarette.  He then blows some smoke directly at Dr. Wracker and pushes the lighter back to him.

I hope you enjoy Marlboro Red says Dr. Wracker.   They are my preferred brand. 

Ann smiles and his dark, dark eyes penetrate through Dr. Wracker.

I think the interview is complete says Dr. Wracker.   Is your medication giving you any bad effects?   I see it is haloperidol 5 milligrams twice daily.

Ann smiles and his teeth are capped with gold.

I am going to leave now, says Dr. Wracker.  I will be here for eight weeks and monitor your medication.  I will be circulating the ward.  If you have any questions, tell the charge nurse and he or she will contact me.  Thank you very much for your time.  Have a good day.  Dr. Wracker rises slowly, inserts the key in the lock, turns it, slides out, and pushes the door close.  He thinks to himself that he is getting good at this.

In his notes to Dr. Lector, the Wracks writes:  patient gaunt but well nourished.  Possible amphetamine intoxication with schizophrenic reaction.   Ectomorphic habitus, at this time undifferentiated symptoms with possible progression to paranoid status.  Doing well on haloperidol with no Parkinsonian reaction, suggested continued maintenance on antipsychotics with assay of blood for BUN and creatinine to indicate possible renal failure and symptomatology. Dr. Wracks takes the chart and his notes and slides them into the slot for Dr. Lector to peruse.   He then moves to the canteen where the inmates concentrate, sit, observe, and absorb, the situation of chronic mental patients.  He sits with his back against the wall, with the door in plain view, and does not smoke eat read, or create motion in any way.  The inmates watch a large color TV with the latest movies and run around, gesticulate, and waste time.  These people are veterans or the very upper class and they get the finest of medical treatment as they truly deserve.  The poor get lithium.

It is late now, and this is long ago and stored in the temporal lobe as engrams soon to be erased.  It is winter now and the rains come, and the clouds move and everything is grey except for the light in the Wracks’ room.   The Wracks sits and remembers his life and watches a large QLED with a Windows PC attached to an HDMI cable.  The clock stations on the wall to his right with an unused desk cluttered with debris and the Wracks asks himself this question: Could this man ever be president of the United States? The day moves on and the night slowly, surely, emphatically closes in.

Good morning says Dr. Lector.   The chief of the department is on sabbatical because one of the patients broke his nose in two places.  Refrain from speaking freely in the company of chronic schizophrenics.  Dr. Wracker, you will help me take up the slack while he is gone. 

What about the other interns that came in with me, says Dr. Wracker?    There are about five others.

They will work in outpatient psych where they can do the least amount of damage.  Admitted patients will be triaged by you says Dr. Lector.

What should I do asks Dr. Wracker.

your dossier says you are a board-qualified physician.  You are , aren’t you?

I guess I am Pines Dr.  Wracker.  I guess I am a little too young

A football player is being admitted for attempted murder.  He is well resourced and his lawyer entrusts him to our care.   He is very valuable to his team.  It seems that one of his family crossed him the wrong way and he threw him through a window five stories up.   That family member is in critical condition and hanging on to life.  His lawyer wants us to stabilize him until he can be returned to his team.  Please do not try and upset him and you will soon know why.   Enjoy your day.  I have many things to do.   I will see you tomorrow morning for rounds.

Dr. Lector appears of average height and a slight build and dresses in a suit and tie underneath his lab coat.  He sports dark black hair, possibly dyed, and a mustache and goatee to disguise his looks.  His office is a spacious affair with a big hardwood desk a single chair and multitudes of books shelved all around in every direction.  For some reason, the office seems dark even with the light on.  Dr. Lector moves silently and he appears and disappears without warning.  The Wracks think there must be secret passageways at this veteran’s facility which became reality about the time of the Civil War.  In the nineteenth century, the people built passageways in their large edifices and the White House had them too but few know where they are.   The Wracks takes his notepad, his black pen, and his key which hangs around his neck.  Dr. Lector instructs to never take off the key in the facility because it is the master key and all the locks at this Psychiatric lockup will have to be changed if it is lost. 

The interview room is a clean, well-lighted place with ample space and two doors both opposed to each other.   A large Caucasian attendant who is also a freestyle wrestler waves to the Wracks.  He is informed of the new help.  Very few people have the size, strength, and dedication to work in a facility like this one and they are in short supply.  A large black man sits behind a large Formica table with a lunch chair and it looks like a toy compared to his stature.  Mean Joe is at least six feet four inches high and almost that wide and all muscles.  He wears a football jersey shirt and denim jeans with Adidas basketball sneakers in an extended size.   His eyes are open and orange and the mucosa sags and the Wracks makes a note in his clipboard to have the indirect bilirubin, direct bilirubin, and transaminases assayed.  This might be a resultant of the medication or chronic steroid use.  He seems alert and Dr. Wracker introduces himself.

Hello, I am Dr. Wracker.  I am an intern in Psychiatry at the Veterans and a graduate of the University Autonoma de Guadalajara.   Dr. Lector commissions me to be your doctor while you stay at the facility.  Is this all right by you?

Yes, he says, do you have an extra smoke?

Yes, I do, and a Bic lighter.  Take a cigarette and enjoy yourself.  Mean Joe extracts a Marlboro red cigarette from the pack, lights up, and passes the pack back to the Wracks.  

Mean Joe, do you know why you are here with me today at the Veterans?

Yes, I hurt someone.  I hurt them badly.

He is in the hospital and might die.  Do you understand this?

He asked for it says Joe, and he takes another puff and blows the smoke at the Wracks.

It is not legal for a person to hurt someone they do not like.   Your team wants you back badly and they accessioned the best lawyer in the city to represent you.  Do exactly what he says and nothing more. 

Will you bring me my Loxitane asks Joe.    It keeps me mellow so I don’t get angry.

The court will demand that you continue to take loxitane until the matter is resolved.  They will watch you take it.  It might make you sleepy and you will have to take it until the near future.  I will get you your loxitane and a glass of water.   I would like to see you take it.

I will says Joe. 

Thank you very much for this opportunity to interview and ascertain your mental status.  I will be here for eight weeks and circulating so If you have any questions or complaints feel free to interrupt me. 

See you Doc, says Joe.

Dr. Lector instructs the Wracks never to lose sight of the door when interviewing and if the situation starts to boil over to bolt for the door and shut it behind you.   This intern is entrusted with the master key. The holder can run to any room in the facility and lock themselves in. An acute schizophrenic changes composure without notice rapidly and a clinical physician must be aware and act accordingly. 

The main focus of a clinical Psychiatrist is to delimit the accurate diagnosis of schizophrenia so the appropriate medication can be prescribed to block the offending neuron network.  The Wracks ascribes Joe to be undifferentiated at present and a liver profile and hematology are indicated due to possible drug-induced jaundice.  This person is a chronic steroid abuser, is of immense stature, and is noted for his violent demeanor hence his famous nickname.  He is admitted until a board of physicians ascertains this patient as stable and of no potential harm to society at large.  Then he will be discharged.  The Wracks wipes the perspiration from his brow.  He is sweating.  The concentration needed to evaluate this patient takes a large amount of energy.  Now it is time for a public lunch with the crazies and a moment to observe what society impresses upon the unknowing. 

Until the twentieth century, cancer was a rare disease.  It occurred mainly in chimney sweeps, metal workers, and alchemists.  Now, in modern society, cancer pervades our every consciousness, infects our children, and shortens our life span.   Cancer is completely avoidable and results from exposure to chemicals, radiation, and viruses.   Massive or cumulative accumulation of radiation or infection by rare and usually unknown viruses may induce cancer, but the main culprits are organic chemicals.   In Cotran-Clinical Pathology, a timeline reveals the exponential increase in leukemia during the twentieth century. Cells that divide quickly, like white blood cells seem more prone to developing cancer.

The main offenders in the development of cancer are organic chemicals.   As petroleum and the energy that it confers, the plastics that it makes, and the pharmaceuticals it does convene, use increases, so does the incidence of cancer.  Medical drugs, like heart drugs and anti-hypertensive agents, produced by medical corporations, act as Grignard addition reactants to the DNA and induce cancer.  On a molecular scale, active transcribing DNA in a cell, which makes proteins conferring a cell identity, becomes inoperable due to petroleum chemical addends, the cell reverts to a more primitive gene product in the chromosomes, one that mandates uncontrolled growth like a developing organ in a child.  The proteins a cell makes confer the identity and function of that cell.  Acid proteins and histones strip from the DNA on a chromosome permitting the DNA to translate into protein.  This translatable DNA is chemically reactive, and if destroyed by chemicals, the cell unmasks new genes on new chromosomes, by stripping histones and acid protein, and the cell to survive becomes cancer.  Cancer is uncontrolled growth, a condition resembling primitive embryonic cells in the womb. 

Cells have protein on their surface produced by DNA that reveals the cell’s identity.  As a tangential reference to oncogenesis, a fetus in a womb causes the mother to produce antibodies to the fetus and these antibodies, used in tissue typing are HLA antigens.  The mother produces antibodies to the developing child and when this response becomes paramount, the body induces birth or in an immunologic sense, a rejection of the child by the body.  Similarly with cancer, if a patient fights cancer long enough, the body produces antibodies to the tumor and rejects it.  The HLA antigens found on cancer cells reveal the cancer’s identity and also the chromosomes making the protein HLA antigens.  In Immunology parlance, these antigens refer to onco-fetal antigens.  Carcino-embryonic antigens found in lung tumors and ovarian tumors are onco-fetal antigens.  In Sir Harland Burnett’s theory of immune surveillance, cancer if fought long enough becomes attacked by the immune system and eliminated because it is non-host.  In reality, the drugs used in cancer chemotherapy destroy the immune system along with the tumor, and the patient, if they survive becomes susceptible to infection and dies of sepsis due to an impaired immune response. 

Back to the cell.  The 46 chromosomes in a cell are the product of millions of years of evolution from a single-cell entity, to a metazoan, and finally an intelligent animal.  This is why we have 46.  As carcinogenic agents destroy actively transcribing DNA primitive DNA from eons past starts to work, making protein antigens, and the cell trying  to survive, divides repeatedly.   The antigens present on the cancer cell membranes reveal the chromosome making the onco-fetal antigens.   Cancer cells can be immune-typed like tissue, with HLA antibodies.  The current dogma in Pathology of characterizing neoplastic tissue by chromosome mutation merely is the revelation of stochastic, happenchance destruction of actively transcribing DNA by chemicals.  It is this author’s opinion, that current Molecular Biology techniques used by Pathology are merely instruments used by professionals to bolster their income. 

Chemicals, even household chemicals if ingested produce cancer.  Metals like Chromium, nickel, and arsenic are revealed in Wikipedia as active causal agents.   Gamma radiation and alpha particles used in diagnostic medical research produce leukemia and lymphoma. Viruses seen in lower life forms produce neoplasia but this is a rarity and subject to another book.  Cancer if limited in growth by current antibiotic ribosomal agents or telomeres inhibitors eventually is rejected by the body’s immune system. Again, this is material for another book.  What I am speaking about is relevance.

If a human being does not want to get cancer, maybe they should not ingest chemicals. In modern society, this is more easily said than done as all food is preserved in the supermarket with either chemicals or metals.   Arsenic in pepper shakers happens everywhere.  Benzene, used to preserve hard liquor is everywhere.  Formula 409 and Mister Clean are potent chemicals that cause cancer if ingested, the list is endless and increasing.  The poor agrarian life of a farmer or food producer is probably healthier than an executive position in a skyscraper with lunch at a restaurant.  Please do not relegate this edition as ravings from Rasputin, the mad monk.   Rather, this is a lonely man who wonders how he can get a good buzz by himself of non-adulterated gin at the beach or by a long and winding river.  Maybe pot will do but this author does not like to get high.   Carry on and keep a stiff upper lip and maybe something will break.  HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL!  

A long time ago in Tranquil Hills, darkness prevails and Grandpa is still alive.   He is having a ceremonial dinner with us and his family.   The Wracks doesn’t know if they are related or merely business associates but he calls them his family.   The Chivas are five in number and all men.   They do business with Grandpa and he has invited them all to dinner.  In the early evening, they all pile out of a large domestic sedan and storm into the small Wracks house.  They make themselves at home in the living room, the one with white and green shag carpeting.   The Christmas tree is still up and blinking merrily with five strands of incandescent lights.  The Wracks help Father extend the table so it holds twelve-plus people in the small dining area family room.  The table is set with festive colors and settings and mom calls the family to sit and have an Italian dinner.   The Fonz is here too.   Everyone sits down in the fold-out chairs usually kept in the garage. The Chivas dress in polyester pants with white short-sleeved work shirts.  They are all bald like Grandpa except for one who sits next to the Fonz and wears a blond wig.   They all say they are in the “business” except for the one who wears a wig and works as a manager in a convenience store.  Tonight, New Year’s Day is an Italian feast.  Grandma and mom fix two larger broiler chickens, peppered on top and stuffed in the cavity with garlic cloves and basil.  A large bowl of homemade sauce configured with boiled chicken feet tied in cheesecloth and simmered in tomato puree. A huge colander holds two pounds of rigatoni pasta cooked al dente.   In addition, a large picnic salad bowl holds romaine lettuce doused with olive oil and red vinegar.   Grandpa requests this fare because it is his favorite.  Petite demure Grandma sits next to the Wracks and always has a smile for him.   Dinner is on and the Chivas leap to the passthrough and heaps their plates with tons of food and pour tomato sauce all over it.   The Fonz and the Wracks are last and take what is left over in the Buffett.  At the table, Grandma puts an extra chicken wing on the Wrack’s plate and smiles. 

Father Wracks rings his wine glass with his fork and speaks. “Who is better than us?  Manja”. 

A fine rose in separate bottles passes around and everyone eats the Italian cuisine like ravenous animals.  When everyone has seconds and the buffet pass-through is empty, they sit around with big smiles and pick their teeth with toothpicks. For dessert, they enjoy Italian cannoli.   The youngest one named “Quinto” because he is the fifth-born child shows the Wracks a six-inch switchblade that he carries around with him. 

“When you punch someone, twist your fist in so you cut their flesh and make them bleed”

The Wracks smile and heed his advice. The one with the wig who sits next to the Fonz doesn’t say much but they seem to accept each other just fine.  Quinto shows the Wracks his left hand where his index finger was bit off in a fistfight in a bar with one of the gangs.  

He smiles and says “Omerta”

The Wracks nods his head and smiles sheepishly.   The Wracks’ grandfather grins with a carnivorous smile and goes to sit in the green reclining chair in the family room.   He lights up a foot-long Roi Tan cigar and the room fills with thick wafting smoke.   The Wracks goes to the window and opens the sliding window completely and the smoke drifts out in long strands.   Grandfather picks up the current LA Times reads the financial section and puffs away.  The guests move to the living room and ask for some whiskey.    Father Wracks has some and gives them a full bottle with five shot glasses.   They are all completely sated and amused.  The Wracks cleans up the kitchen and the Fonz disappears out the front door and then he goes and sits in his bedroom and reads.   Father announces that the guests are leaving.  The Wracks picks up the glasses, loads the dishwasher, and then starts it up.   The Chivas file out the front door and pile into the late model sedan, smile, wave goodbye, and are off.   The business deal has gone through and the Wracks will never see them again.  Grandma and Grandpa are the next to leave.  The Wracks retrieves their coats and they enter the white Ford Fairlane that the Fonz will eventually inherit and convert into a surf van.  They slowly motor off.  Once again, the Wracks are alone and he dismantles the big dining room table, Mom and Dad go to their bedroom and New Year’s Day is over.   The Fonz always disappears into one of the neighbor’s houses and the Wracks don’t know where.  The Wracks prepare for bed.

This is a long time ago when the force was weak and the darkness covered the city of Tranquil Hills.   The Wracker house does not exist anymore, the new buyers demolished it and built a two-story edifice to take advantage of the ocean view.  All things come and pass and humanity transforms into nothing more than another grain of sand on the beach.  The eccentric neighbors come and go and the housing tract speculates to the abode of the entertainers and their managers. The green house is still there and like everywhere there stand houses that seem empty but are owned by people that come and go in the night.  The only indication of occupancy is the trash cans set out once a week for Action Rubish to reclaim.   The canyon is there where the Wracks hunted but now is devoid of wildlife except for rodents and reptiles.  Beautiful sunsets remain.  As one looks out to sea, almost every day, the clouds are orange, then turn to red, and then violet and the day ends and the night begins and everyone comes out.    America is God’s country.  

Christmas again in sunny California and the air is brisk, the sky is clear and the day is good.   As darkness closes in at Bacon Way a gold Cadillac Coup de Ville eases towards the brick walkway at the Wracker house. 

Help Sallie out commands Father Wracker and the Wracks walk down to the curb, open the car door, and give a hand to a small, demur blond with her hair in curls.  She gets out of the car and the Wracks assist her to the door of his abode.   Earl. His thick light hair follows her in.

Take her mink off commands Father Wracker and hang it in the front hall closet.

The Wracks oblige. Sallie stands about five feet two inches tall is very slim and dresses in an immaculate evening gown.  Earl sports a dark grey suit and matching cumberbund.    

Merry Christmas says Earl.   Where is my Scotch?

The Wracks saunter to the makeshift dry bar above the family room television and make Earl his favorite: Cutty Sark Scotch Whiskey on the Rocks.  So, Earl is happy, Father Wracks stocks a bottle of personal scotch for Earl if he ever comes over.

I’ll have a Manhattan, says Sallie, whatever whisky you have.

The Wracks hands Sallie her drink, with a maraschino cherry dropped inside.   The guests sit in the living room and savor their beverages.  Father Wracks joins them while Mom is frantically fixing the dinner for the Texans.   As to why they are in California is beyond the Wracks, and they live in the second biggest house in Brentwood, only after the other.   They had a huge Japanese Samoyed, but it became vicious and had to be destroyed.   Now they own a silver German Shepard that is almost as big as a wolf.

Dinner is ready says Mom.  Everyone to the table.

The Texans sit down at the table where the Fonz used to sit but now he lives in his refabricated Volkswagen van somewhere in San Diego.   Grandma is helping Mom in the kitchen prepare the dinner. She had a stroke and her personal physician put her on piroxicam and Indocin she looks pale, swollen, and unkempt but she works in the kitchen tirelessly.   Tonight, the fare is beef Wellington, green beans steamed in olive oil with garlic and butter, baked potatoes with sour cream and chives, and Yorkshire pudding.  Beef Wellington is a large round rump roast, coated with goose liver and enveloped in a bread-like crust designed to keep in the moisture and flavor.   Yorkshire pudding is an English relish, fit for only a king and his court.  It is a quick bread made with meat drippings, flour, and egg and cooked in a pan at a high temperature. The technique must be concise or the pudding will not rise and it is a loss to be discarded.   But tonight, it works and the guests line up at the buffet passthrough and fill their plates.  Grandma sits in her usual place and the Wracks brings her a plate before he fixes his own. Sallie sits opposite the Wracks and a glint that shines through the whole room occupies his attention.  On her right hand is a blue-white solitaire square diamond that must be at least five carats in size.   The square-cut perfect gem dazzles brilliantly and the Wracks estimates that the gem alone is worth more than a whole house. 

Father Wracks raises his glass, filled with a luxuriant red cabaret sauvignon, and toasts, Merry Christmas to all and God bless us”,   

Everyone eats and the Guests have seconds grandma puts her serving of meat on the Wracks’ dish and smiles.  For dessert, a takeout from the House of Pies appears.    Everyone gets a choice of either a blueberry or peach pie with vanilla ice cream.   Father Wracks does not smoke because it bothers the Texans.   The guests move to the living room, where scotch whiskey is served with shot glasses and the Wracks bring back grandma to her room, she sits in her green reclining chair, smiles at the Wracks, and waves goodnight.   Earl talks animatedly about his boat.  He bought a fifty-foot cabin cruiser with twin inboard turbo diesel v8 engines and the yacht outfits to go anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice.   Why anyone would have such an elaborate contrivance lurks behind Wrack’s pecuniary imagination. He moves to the kitchen and as is customary fills the dishwasher, turns it on, and begins to hand wash the sterling silver flatware and custom Mikasa China.  

Wracks, yells his father, “Could you get Sallie her mink, they are leaving soon.”

The Wracks open the hall closet, examine the coat and notice how thick, and opulent it is.   It must truly be very warm he thinks and he helps Sallie put on the coat, opens the front door, and the Texans file out.   They want to get home early because it is Christmas.   The gold Cadillac rolls off.   The seven-foot-tall artificial tree gleams and blinks.  Mother had the Wracks and his father put on five strands of blinking, multicolored lights. The white living room with the green and white shag carpeting and the tree look beautiful.  The Wracks returns to the kitchen and continues cleaning the implements.   He pours himself a cup of coffee from the nearly empty decanter and sits down at the dining room table with the Christmas centerpiece and woven settings.  It is truly nice to have a home to spend the holidays with a family and he hopes that all Americans can share in the bounty afforded by the country.  He didn’t receive many gifts for Christmas but his grandmother pays for his education and the world seems vast open and boundless at this point.  America truly is God’s country and the Wracks hopes he lives long enough to enjoy it.   Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.