Thursday, October 17, 2019

"To The Stars" Seeking Government Grants to Warp Space-Time, and do other Remarkable Things [Updated 10-21]



On October 17, 2019, To The Stars Academy (which has sucked the air out of all other UFO discussions recently) announced a partnership with "The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command to Advance Materiel and Technology Innovations."

It says,
SAN DIEGO — Oct. 17, 2019 — To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science (TTSA) announced today a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command to advance TTSA’s materiel and technology innovations in order to develop enhanced capabilities for Army ground vehicles.
TTSA's technology solutions, which leverage developments in material science, space-time metric engineering, quantum physics, beamed energy propulsion, and active camouflage, have the potential to enhance survivability and effectiveness of multiple Army systems. TTSA will share its discoveries with Ground Vehicle System Center (GVSC) and Ground Vehicle Survivability and Protection (GVSP) and the U.S. Army shall provide laboratories, expertise, support, and resources to help characterize the technologies and its applications.
It conveniently provides an "invest now" button for those who actually believe this ridiculous stuff. 

TTSA is apparently saying that they will help the Army develop devices that can warp space-time and use quantum physics and all that. This makes me wonder - are there any adults in charge of the U.S. Army CCDC?? Do they seriously believe A), that space-warping devices made out of exotic "metamaterials" can actually be built, and B), that these clowns can do it? 

People were soon asking, does this make TTSA a government contractor? It looks like it does, but actually, it's more complicated than that. Some insight came from astrophysicist Dr. Eric Davis, who is not officially affiliated with TTSA but has a long association with TTSA researchers. He has worked extensively with Bob Bigelow, Hal Puthoff, and others on far-out research. He also spent a long time doing on-site investigations at the so-called "Skinwalker Ranch." (Davis told reporter George Knapp that a poltergeist apparently followed him home from that haunted ranch.) Davis  posted the following explanation of the recent TTSA announcement on Erica Luke's Facebook page:


What in the world is an SBIR? I had to look it up
The Small Business Innovation Research (or SBIR) program is a United States Government program, coordinated by the Small Business Administration, intended to help certain small businesses conduct research and development (R&D). Funding takes the form of contracts or grants. The recipient projects must have the potential for commercialization and must meet specific U.S. government R&D needs.
The SBIR program was created to support scientific excellence and technological innovation through the investment of federal research funds in critical American priorities to build a strong national economy ... one business at a time.[1] In the words of program founder Roland Tibbetts: "to provide funding for some of the best early-stage innovation ideas -- ideas that, however promising, are still too high risk for private investors, including venture capital firms."
Davis adds that
the physics and engineering already exist for most of topics, but not for FTL propulsion. I’ve developed the incremental theory and experimental steps toward FTL propulsion at EarthTech. The DoD was ordered by law to fund by grants any disruptive sci-tech research that will benefit the military and commercial tech markets.
So TTSA isn't going to actually make anything for the Army or other government agency (although their press release seems to be written to make one think so). But they're basically fishing for government funds. TTSA wants your taxpayer dollars in the form of a Small Business grant to support their "scientific excellence,"  such as
  • material science. Presumably this refers to their "metamaterials" that supposedly come from the "Roswell UFO crash" (Art's Parts).
  • space-time metric engineering. In other words, warping space and time as desired. That part is easy - all you have to do is grab a Black Hole, and drag it around.
  • quantum physics - WHAT exactly does TTSA propose to do using Quantum Physics in the way of developing a useful technology?
  • beamed energy propulsion - The concept is well-known, but is TTSA going to be able to actually develop any useful technology using these ideas?
  • active camouflage -a modest term for what might be called "invisibility."
Presumably, after Dr. Davis completes his FTL research with Dr. Puthoff at EarthTech, "faster-then-light propulsion" will be added to the list of TTSA's unique technological capabilities.

How much of the taxpayers' money will Tom and Lu get from this? Time will tell.

                                                        [Update Oct. 21, 2019]

The indefatigable John Greenewald of The Black Vault has once again scored a coup by being the first to publish a copy of the actual agreement between TTSA and the Army. It reveals that the Army's interest lies not in TTSA's reputed anbilties to warp space-time, to control quantum mechanics, to make something invisible, or to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Instead, it is TTSA's possession of so-called "metamaterials": supposedly anomalous metal samples that had earlier been sent anonymously to Art Bell, and sometimes known as "Art's Parts." These were claimed to be fragments of the supposed saucer crash at Roswell. From the Army's initial statement:
Specific to the To The Stars Academy CRADA, TTSA has a set of different materials, the properties of which they’re interested in investigating the properties.  As materials research in general is of key interest to Army research, the Army is interested in any insights gained from investigating the properties of these materials, too.  In this case, the Army is providing the expertise and facilities to analyze the materials, and TTSA is providing the materials themselves; both parties receive the results of the analysis.  Just as there is no financial compensation to TTSA for the use of the materials, there is no financial compensation to the Army for the use of the facilities.
Dr. Doug Halleaux,  Public Affairs Officer for the Army’s CCDC GVSC, told the Black Vault,
As far as the materials– the Army’s interest is in the potential for novel materials and exploring the edges of materials science, any speculation as to their origin is (pardon the pun) immaterial. Our team is always excited to look at something new, whether it’s materials or technologies, capabilities or processes,” said Dr. Halleaux. “As materials research in general is of key interest to Army research, the Army is interested in any insights gained from investigating the properties of these materials, too. In this case, the Army is providing the expertise and facilities to analyze the materials, and TTSA is providing the materials themselves; both parties receive the results of the analysis.
It has been pointed out by several sources that the use of a CRADA precludes the transfer of funds in either direction. This seems to contradict what Eric Davis said above, about the CRADA involving the submission of SBIRs, which are grant requests. So far it is not clear whether or not TTSA will be submitting SBIRs, or has already done so.

One big benefit of this arrangement for TTSA is obvious: now they don't need to pay any lab to analyze those "metamaterials" for them. Pretty clever!






9 comments:

  1. They will get 0 dollars of taxpayer money. I personally work for the US Government and have reviewed SBIR proposals.

    A SBIR proposal must show technical merit before any progressing any further in the process (i.e. being awarded funds). We have reviewed many half-baked, nebulous proposals promising "revolutionary" results and rejected them immediately.

    Also, a CRADA is specifically created so that taxpayer money is NOT spent. A CRADA ensures that the vendor (TTSA this case) funds their own research so they can (doubtful in this case) come to the table with actual proof of progress.

    So you are correct. It's fishing for funds. The only loss to taxpayers is CCDC productivity; I empathize with acquisition professionals having to actually field phone calls and emails from charlatans like this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I see that TTSA is VERY creative and innovative in trying to get OPs money(other peoples' money)from ANY sector of our society. IF the army has any intelligent soldiers, etc., in its ranks, they s/find out what a crock of crap TTSA ideas are in short order. From UFOs to tanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. What? According to ufologists, the us military has been reverse engineering alien technology for over 70 years. Including figuring out what an alien transistor was several decades before a powerful enough scanning electron microscope was produced. The fuck they now need tom delongs BS for?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Space-time cannot be "warped" or changed in any manner. Government grants for scientific work should only go to the military, not civilians.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In the interest of accuracy, if we associate "warping" with local changes in the spacetime curvature then of course that can be done deliberately - you're generating small amounts of gravitational waves as you move around during the day even. I think what you're trying to say is that it likely cannot practically be done in certain specific ways such as that described by the 'Alcubierre' warp drive.

      Delete
    2. Space and time are discretized into units. If they were to have "curvature" then we would not have ray optics! The whole notion of "warping" space is utter nonsense. Besides, if speeds do go above the speed of light, the velocity equation flips: instead of v = s/t (coordinate space divided by clock time), the equation becomes v = t/s (coordinate time divided by clock space). Out ward in coordinate time is inward in coordinate space. Study the Reciprocal System and prove it for yourself. www.reciprocalsystem.guru

      Delete
  5. [What] The fuck [do] they now need tom delongs BS for?

    Hahaha!

    Exactly. I even said this recently to some believer: All these competing "flying saucer" conspiracies are self defeating. All of our technology has been created by ETs but this great ET presence is only soon to be revealed? What?

    Where are all those old flying saucers? I've seen lots of old airplanes in desert junkyards but there were no old saucers.

    Conspiracies in plain sight. And then they disappear. It must be a time-continuum thing--the "UFO" mystery widens.

    There has always been a deceptive "ET" presence that controls the world but that presence has been hidden from us. Huh? Come again?

    Flying saucers are real ET spacecraft but not really because they're messengers of deception from the ancient future. A not so alien presence but a non-human intelligence that has been present and has influenced the world all throughout human history?

    Geesh! This is starting to sound like "2001: A Space Odyssey" or a certain episode of the "Outer Limits!"

    "They" are not aliens, but they sound very much like aliens, or what we've imagined aliens to be.

    Is there any evidence of this? This is all becoming non-falsifiable, so wishy-washy that it has no meaning. And it's certainly no explanation for why people make "UFO" reports.

    But, Oh Yes! This is pseudo-science. It's fiction. It's beyond science and reason!

    What was I thinking....

    Oh yeah, believers will believe anything, if not the full-blown ETH then some substitute, however ambiguous and non-scientific.

    ReplyDelete
  6. If Tom DeLonge stares at a goat long enough, it'll eventually drop dead...

    ReplyDelete
  7. One GOOD thing can come out of the Army testing those metals: If it is just metal junk from here (earthly), THEN, they would have been exposed by a reliable, impartial Army lab, and THAT should end this con game once and for all. However, once the final report is done, you can bet that TTSA will not reveal it - we're have to get it directly from the army.

    ReplyDelete

Keep your comments relevant, and keep them civil! That means no personal attacks will be allowed, by anyone, on anyone. Commenters are welcome to disagree with me, or with other comments, but state your arguments using logic, and with a civil tone. Comments in violation of these rules will be deleted, and offenders banned.

Comments should be in English, although quotes from foreign-language sources are fine as long as they're relevant, and you explain them. Anonymous postings are not permitted. If you don't want to use your real name, then make up a name for yourself, and use it consistently.