Airport taxi service has come a long way since they were incorporated as a part of the system and there is hardly an international traveler that can get by without the airport taxi no matter how sporadic their travel.
Airport transfers are meant to bring the journey to a befitting conclusion while heightening the expectation of the impending trip and with our airport taxi transfers the journey has never so comfortable.
In the 20th century taxis to airports were the most beautiful contraptions you ever saw and although these taxi transfers were effective for the period the client may not have experienced anything out of the ordinary except that they got to the destination in one piece.
History aside our modern fleet offers the client convenient airport transfers and the wide array of taxi van services to choose only serves as a reminder that this taxi transfer is the top-notch.
These airport taxi services are also on hand to transport individuals from Gatwick to their final location in a luxurious manner. This gives the punter options that may not have previously been open and with the alternative of a taxi van service at your disposal the client is surely spoiled for choice.
When looking for a taxi transfer the patron is sure to be inundated with copious alternatives but for paramount service our taxis services are the cream of the crop and will move you effortlessly form one locale to the other.
On the other hand there is the Gatwick taxi that is sure to suit your fancy no matter how specific your requirements. All these taxi services are within reach for the discerning client that would like to have a taxi service fit for royals.
This UK airport taxi is the favored option for the first time or repeat visitor to this city and whenever there is the need for a quick trip to or from the aerodrome these taxi transfer services are well worth it both in terms of panache and comfort.
For taxi services that are sure to leave a positive and lasting memory these mini cabs are surely the only way to travel.

If you need a taxi in Mississauga, you have no need to go to a taxi rank or special taxi stop. Taxis roam the streets looking for fares. So if you hail one, it will stop for you. You are permitted to sit in the front or the back, as you choose. If you need to order a taxi to fetch you at a designated place or at a certain time, you can telephone the taxi company and arrange it beforehand.
The taxi driver has the right to refuse to transport you if you are offensive or if you are under the influence of alcohol. He may also choose not to transport an excessive amount of baggage, or more than his allowed quota of passengers for the type of vehicle he has. This is typically up to about four passengers. He will expect you to hire a second taxi as well, if you exceed his limits for passengers or baggage.
Taxi tariffs are standardized in Ontario. In Toronto the initial fee when you get into a taxi is $4-00, and this is $4.25 in Mississauga. Thereafter the meter starts running, and it will cost you 25 cents for every.155 km. That works out at about $1-60 per kilometre.
Mississauga is the home of the Pearson International Airport. At the airport certain rules concerning taxis and limousines apply. You are permitted to use any taxi you like to drive you to the airport and drop you off, but arriving at the airport on a flight, you are allowed to use only the 360 taxis and 276 limos that are already parked there and have the regulation permits to pick up passengers.
Many taxi companies have a flat rate to and from Pearson Airport. These fares are usually a little cheaper than the metered rate per kilometre.
If you have a special preference among taxi or limousine companies you will need to pre-arrange this to allow them time to obtain a temporary permit to fetch you from the airport. If you have special needs, such as a wheelchair enabled taxi or a baby car seat, for instance, you can pre-arrange this with either a taxi company or with the airport itself.
At the airport the taxis and limousines parked there have standard permitted tariffs that they are allowed to charge you, for different destination areas of Greater Toronto, as well as out of town. Sometimes there is a flat rate to certain areas that are a little cheaper than the metered charge. The average tariff for taxis with permits for picking up passengers at the airport is about $1-45 per kilometre for taxis, and $1-55 per kilometre for limousines.
Do remember that in a taxi, as in nearly all road vehicles, you are required by law to wear your safety belt. Your taxi driver ought to warn you about this, but he is not required to do this by law unless you are under age, or need help owing to a disability. So if the taxi is stopped by a traffic officer, you could personally face a fine if you have not buckled up.

California is the third largest state in the United States. It has great appeal for visitor because of its diverse culture and star magnitude. The Golden State is home to Hollywood, Oakland and the capital city of Sacramento. The warm climate and things to do everywhere a visitor goes, it is no surprise that California travel is one of the most popular in the world.
The west coast appeal gives California an environment for great travel. There are many large cities in California. The large amount of attractions are spread out along the state. California travel is so diverse that there is something for everyone in this state.
Los Angeles is located in Southern California and home to the more people than any other city in the state. Los Angeles has great attractions like Hollywood and is very diverse in cultures.
San Francisco Bay is the home of the Golden Gate Bridge, an architectural miracle. Oakland and Silicon Valley can be found in the Bay area. This part of California is known for its liberal views and as home to the respected Stanford University. The great legendary prison Alcatraz can also be found in the Bay area.
Napa Valley offers California’s wine country. Sonoma is also located here north of San Francisco. There are numerous wine tasting establishments to visit here.
Besides the great cities, California travel also offers some great attractions. Disney World, Sea World, Six Flags and the San Diego Zoo are only a few of the popular tourism destinations. There is defiantly no shortage of things to do in California.
California travel means a diverse range of activities and places. Travelers will enjoy everything from wine to art to roller coaster rides when visiting California. California travel is very popular and it isn’t hard to see why.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world

1869-1948, Preeminent leader of Indian nationalism

Trend #1 – The Internet

Everybody knows that the internet has changed virtually everything… especially the Travel Industry. Online giants like Hotels.com, Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz have revolutionized travel. Even Travel Agents & Agencies are booking online while the general public searches and buys their own vacations online. In fact, it’s estimated that 82% of all travel is now being booked online. Travel is one of the most researched topics on the internet… and also the most profitable.

The internet is simple, seamless and the perfect medium for the travel industry. We just point, click, and pack our bags. Before the internet, however, an agent’s bread & butter was commissions earned with business travelers… predominantly flights. American Airlines was the first to pull the plug on paying commissions on flight purchases as the internet started coming into its own and more business travelers were finding better deals online.

Since 1997 well over 200,000 agencies went out of business. Over 1 million travel agents lost their jobs to the internet. That number grew after 9/11. The days of brick & mortar very quickly got taken over by click & order, making for a far more efficient system. However, those very few agents & agencies that could foresee the positive impact the internet could have for them, jumped right into the explosive opportunity that the internet introduced, to maintain as much of their client base as possible. Very few, a decade ago, opted to go with the flow of change. Today, everyone understands that the internet is here to stay. When we are adaptable to change, we flourish… and profit.

Because of the internet, the online travel agent is also home-based. Because of the tremendous opportunity, continuous industry growth, and #1 industry training, today’s travel agent is your mother, cousin, aunt, neighbor, best friend, etc. and earning 60-100% of the vendors commission. It’s for everyone.

Trend #2 – Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Word-of-mouth marketing has been and always will be the best way to market anything. Statistics prove that 80% of all vacations (most anything really) are taken because of a recommendation from a friend, family member or co-worker. Think about the last time you came home from a vacation. Did you keep it a secret? No way! We talk about it for 2 months before leaving and talk about it for 2 months after we get back! And we show everyone pictures and videos! And we recommend the destination and hotel to everyone (or not) and tell them where we bought our terrific deal!

Familiarization trips (FAMs) play a huge part in word-of-mouth marketing. The only way for agents to really learn about what they sell is to experience it first hand. FAMs are put together by cruise lines, hotel chains and destinations worldwide. They usually include accommodation, tours, meals, shows, transportation, etc. Prices are slashed making it affordable for agents to travel multiple times a year… VIP!. The vendors roll out the proverbial red carpet for agents when they arrive. They’re given the most exclusive experience possible because vendors know that when agents return home… they’re going to talk about it!

The average person will purchase his vacation online at retail, once a year.

Agents will travel multiple times a year, all over the world as far and wide as they want to go, for pennies on the dollar. For this, FAMs continue to be one of the major perks today for agents in the industry.

Which takes us to…

Trend #3 – Home Based Business

Travel students, Baby Boomers and everyone in between are bringing travel home!

Leading agencies smart enough to follow the internet trend, have gone online and now offer just about anyone the opportunity to be professionally trained to operate and sell travel from home!! Woohoo!! That’s right! YOU can sell travel from the comfort of your own home and get paid!

Doesn’t it make sense that if you’re going to travel anyway (especially as much as the Boomers), that you buy it from yourself and get paid? Or get paid commissions on the trips your friends, family, neighbors and co-workers are taking already? Of course! Most people will do business with someone they know & trust. You may as well be that person, right?

Agencies quickly caught on to the franchise phenomena online and have opened up the opportunity to just about anyone with a valuable work ethic who is willing to learn. Coupled with word-of-mouth marketing… you’ve got a winning combination! The more knowledgeable you become, the more perks, FAMs, FREE trips, upgrades, etc, become available to you… cha-ching!

I’ve been selling travel for years. Everyone who knows me knows that I’m a travel industry professional. For more than two decades I’ve been asked “How did you come by this work?”

But I also get asked, “What’s the best place to go for our honeymoon?” or “Can you recommend a Caribbean cruise itinerary?” or “What hotel should we stay at in the Mayan Riviera?”

Hey, it’s not rocket science!! If I have the answers and I can get paid for the sale… Hello??

The internet made it possible for me to have my own online agency and benefit even more from the extraordinary perks available to travel professionals! Being online means I don’t really even have to be home. Because my business is online, I am accessible to the world, 365 days of the year, 24/7! Friends and family can book all by themselves while I’m hiking with my dog! I can even book flights or all-inclusive vacations right from my BlackBerry!! WOW! So my home-based travel business is really my mobile travel services!! Super cool!!

We must not forget the amazing benefits that come with owning a business from home as well!

Aside from the obvious travel perks, just about every family vacation now becomes a FAM. As professionals, when we take a few minutes to inspect and ask questions about the accommodations, tours, restaurants that we ourselves are experiencing while on vacation, we’re really educating ourselves for our customers. So our personal vacation now becomes classified as a business trip… and an expense that we can write off! Super cool, again!

On a personal note, I’m only 45 seconds from my bedroom to my office!

It’s a beautiful thing to be able to work from home, anywhere in the world, to have your own business and to qualify for such incredible travel-insider perks. Retirees, at-home-moms, students on the run… it’s available to just about anyone with a can-do attitude, has a strong work ethic, loves to learn, and is highly self-motivated. A few hours a day can earn hundreds to thousands of dollars! No bosses, no limits!

Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity suggests that time travel to the past is possible via rotating wormholes and/or black holes. The actual technical practicality of actually carrying out such journeys need not concern us since this essay is in the realm of the thought experiment. Now Stephen Hawking says time travel to the past is not possible because he proposes that there is such a thing as a yet undiscovered Chronology Protection Conjecture that prevents this and thus makes the world safe for historians. I’ve come up with a unified theory of time travel into the past that incorporates Einstein’s general theory of relativity; Hawking’s Chronology Protection Conjecture, along with other assorted bits like parallel universes that are thrown into the mix.

Time travel is a staple in sci-fi stories, novels, films and TV series. And, time travel is possible – in theory. We all know about journeying to the future which we do at the rate of one second per second whether we like it or not. Apart from that, if one travels at close to light speeds relative to your place of origin then you can travel to the distant future (with respect to that place of origin) without aging an equivalent number of years (the twin paradox). Travel to the past is apparently allowed too, via the weird physics inherent in rotating worm holes and maybe Black Holes which is where Einstein’s general theory of relativity comes into play. The problem there is that relativity theory predicts worm holes, if they exist at all, will exist for nanoseconds and be very tiny to boot, and thus not very useful in the foreseeable future for the purposes of time travel. Because we don’t know exactly what the inside of a Black Hole is, and where it leads, if anywhere, current thinking suggests that jumping into Black Holes are a more useful means for committing suicide than for traveling to the past, but the jury is still out on that one.

Anyway, the fun bit about time travel is the various paradoxes that arise, the most famous one being the grandfather paradox. That is, what if you travel back in time and kill your grandfather before he sired your father (or mother). If you did that it means that you could never have been born, but if you were never born you couldn’t go back in time to kill your ancestor. This is the sort of stuff sci-fi authors (and philosophers) love – ditto physicists! My favorite time travel paradox however is the one where you get something for nothing. Say you have this edition of “Hamlet”, and you want Shakespeare to autograph it. So back you go in time to Shakespeare’s era. You knock on his door, but the housekeeper says he’s out for the day but if you leave the book he’ll autograph it and you can come by and collect it next morning. When Shakespeare comes home, he sees the book, reads it, and is so impressed he spends the night making a copy. You come back the next morning, collect your now autographed edition of “Hamlet”, and return to the present day with your now very valuable book. The question now becomes, where did the original “Hamlet” come from? You didn’t write it; but Shakespeare didn’t either as he plagiarized your copy which he then passed it off as his own work.

Another favorite is you meeting yourself. Say you’re 50 and not all that well off. You get the brilliant idea to travel back in time and convince your younger self to invest in some stocks you know will pay off big time later on down the track. And so it comes to pass that your younger self so invests, and becomes filthy rich, only, in leading such a high life, dies of a heart attack at the age of 45! Or you always regretted not proposing to the love of your life when you were young, and thus go back and convince your younger self to muster up the courage and do so. He does, but as they fly off on their honeymoon, the plane crashes with no survivors. Sometimes you don’t know when you’re well off.

Or if you can travel back in time, then of course others can to. Naturally there’s going to be lots of people interested in particular events, maybe even at the time, seemingly trivial events (yet which turn out in the long run to have had major impact(s)). And so you might have any number of people going back to particular historical focal points, each with their own particular agenda (most of which will be mutually exclusive), and ultimately causing havoc. I mean if person one goes back and influences an event producing a new outcome, then person two might go back and has a go at that result and things get altered again, which will then prompt person three to go back and influence things more to his liking, etc. In other words, history would never be fixed, rather always be fluid. The world is not safe for historians. Since we believe that history (or the past) is fixed, then that what’s written on your history book page today will not alter overnight. Thus, you have probably concluded that time travel cannot happen, will not happen, and has not happened, however much you yourself might wish to go back in time yourself and change something. (Don’t we all really wish some past something, personal and trivial, or perhaps something of major significance could be changed and you’d be that instrument of change?)

Its paradoxes and situations such as the above that prompted Stephen Hawking to postulate that there is as yet an undiscovered law or principle of physics which prohibits time travel to the past – he calls it his ‘Chronology Projection Conjecture’. Since we have never seen, according to Hawking, to the best of our knowledge at least, any time travelers – tourists or historians – from our future, he’s probably right.

So, putting it all together, here’s my theory of time travel: my unified theory of time travel, at least to the past.

Relativity theory has passed every experimental test thrown at it, so the theory isn’t in much doubt and one can have a high degree of confidence in what it predicts, even if that prediction is currently beyond any experimental test. Relativity theory allows for time travel into the past, but, IMHO, only to parallel universes (otherwise known as alternative or mirror or shadow universes) where no paradoxes can happen.

Why only parallel universes? The ways and means by which you can use relativity theory to time travel backwards involves rotating Black Holes or wormholes. There are serious reasons behind the speculation that what’s on the other side of a Black Hole and/or wormhole is another universe. So, therefore it’s relativity’s time travel allowance, but probably to another universe. The Black Hole or wormhole ‘exit’ isn’t within our Universe.

Whatever you do in that parallel universe is predetermined. It’s fate. It’s destiny – all because causality rules. Therefore, there are no unexpected ripple effects other than what was destined to happen. You were meant to be there and do what you do. Therefore, there will be no paradoxes arising.

Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has proposed his Chronology Protection Conjecture that prohibits time travel to the past within your own universe because of the possible paradoxes that could arise. Why can’t you go back in time in your own universe? That would mean that at a specific time and place you both were not (originally) and were (as a result of going back) present. That’s a paradox. And if you were to travel back in time to a set of time and space coordinates you were actually originally at, then there would be two copies of you occupying the same space at the same time – also a paradox.

But take the grandfather paradox. If you go back in time and kill your grandfather, but your grandfather in a parallel universe, then you don’t prevent your existence, just the eventual existence of yourself, your other self, in that parallel universe. In the case of Shakespeare and “Hamlet”, you gave your copy to a parallel universe Shakespeare. In your original (our) Universe, Shakespeare is still the legitimate author.

Once you time travel from your universe A, to parallel universe B, you can’t return again to universe A because of Hawking’s Chronology Protection Conjecture – paradoxes could arise. However, you could go from parallel universe B to parallel universe C, but, hence never return to either universe A or B – Hawking’s Chronology Protection Conjecture again.

Perhaps some people you’ve seen or known or heard about might be time travelers from a parallel universe’s future. If they then time travel to another parallel universe, then that might account for some missing persons’ cases!

In short, we can time travel to other parallel universes but not to our own; entities from other parallel universes can visit our Universe. No paradoxes need arise. Both Einstein (relativity) and Hawking (Chronology Protection Conjecture) are satisfied and happy campers.

Is that right? No, it’s wrong!

There’s still one very nasty loose end here. What’s to prevent those from a parallel universe meddling and altering our time stream? It’s not enough for them to have a Prime Directive against that – we all know Prime Directives are meant to be broken! So, it looks like Hawking’s Chronology Protection Conjecture must apply to those visitors from parallel universes to our Universe as well. I mean what difference does it make to your existence whether you travel back in time within your own universe and kill your mother before you were conceived, or some serial killer escaping from a parallel universe to our Universe who kills your mother before you were conceived – even though in the latter case there’s no paradox, you still wouldn’t have been conceived of here in anyone’s philosophy!

OK, so relativity allows time travel back in time, but only to parallel universes. The Hawking Chronology Protection Conjecture not only prevents time travel paradoxes in general, but it also prevents parallel universe time travelers meddling and altering our timeline; ditto we humans time traveling to someone else’s parallel universe. But how would the Hawking Chronology Protection Conjecture actually accomplish this? My best guess is that parallel universes aren’t in phase – they aren’t polarized or synchronized in-phase like a laser beam, or the light that passes through your polarized sunglasses – otherwise we’d have some rather hard evidence of them; certainly way more than we do now.

So, if we go to parallel universe B or those from parallel universe B visits us, we’ll, or they’d be respectively out of phase with respect to the universe they are now in. Translated, they, or we, could look, but not touch for all practical purposes. I say for all practical purposes as now and again what’s out of phase (high probability – the usual state of affairs) will sync into phase (that’s rare). But the in-phase times are so few and far between, and last for such a brief duration that it’s unlikely to result in any inadvertent or deliberate timeline alterations. That’s my rendering of the Hawking Chronology Protection Conjecture – he could well have other ways and means in mind.

So another way of putting this is that time travelers would be spectral or ghost-like in their host universe, and maybe that’s where our traditions of ghosts and other things that go bump in the night come from! This is much like the parallel universe ghost or shadow photons that are conjectured to explain some highly mysterious aspects or phenomena contained within the famous quantum double slit* experiment. Now an obvious question is how do all the parallel universe ghost photons get into our physics labs where double slit experiments are carried out? I mean there are no local macro Black Hole or wormhole exits present – are there? Yes in fact there are! Not a macro wormhole, but a micro wormhole – actually wormholes. Theoretically, micro wormholes should exist all around you. It’s just that they are at quantum levels – incredible tiny; way subatomic in size. And they exist for just nanoseconds before collapsing. They are just part of the quantum foam** reality at super microscopic levels, a reality at the level where all things exhibit the quantum jitters or quantum fluctuations. Thus, every second of every day, everywhere, there are little quantum gateways – quantum sized wormholes connections between universes which quantum sized particles – like photons – can traverse! From the standpoint of the double slit experiment, it doesn’t matter whether the parallel universe’s ghost photons came from the past, future or present – just as long as they are, indeed, present!

Now you may think it would be easy to detect these ghostly photons. Just put a photon detector in a totally dark and sealed room. Well, not quite so easy. Some photons can pass through ‘solid’ matter. X-Ray photons anyone? Radio wave photons pass through the walls of your home. If you look at a bright light, you’ll still see light even if you close your eyes. So, your photon detector in your dark and sealed room could easily detect our local variety.

The ghostly bits aside, parallel universe time travelers (or even ordinary time travelers from within our Universe assuming Hawking is wrong)) might explain the sometimes uncanny, often incredible look-a-likes that we all seem to have. A long shot to be sure, but something interesting to ponder.

There’s still one more problem on the horizon. Just because a macro Black Hole or wormhole plunks you into a parallel universe (and of course you’ve got to be able to survive the trip itself which might be problematical), doesn’t mean you’re going to be with spitting distance of your ultimate destination(s) – say a parallel Earth(s). So, time travelers might also need more conventional transport – like Flying Saucers (okay, forget the saucers – like spaceships with fins and rocket motors). But then what’s really there to distinguish a visiting time traveler from a parallel universe from say a run-of-the-mill extraterrestrial from within our own Universe? Maybe you could just put out the welcome mat for both options!

One final thought. Could there be a Clayton’s time travel? – Time travel without traveling in time? At the risk of making Einstein turn over in his grave; I’m going to propose a universal NOW across all universes. Now I know that NOW, when it comes to observers, is a relative thing. An observer in Martian orbit sees Mars’ NOW somewhat before you on Planet Earth sees the same Mars’ NOW because the speed of light is finite. And relative motions and velocities complicate what is NOW. But, I propose (a thought experiment remember) to instantaneously freeze-frame the entire collection of universes’ NOW. Everyone and everything everywhere comes to an instant standstill. Right! We now have a universal NOW that we can study at our leisure (the freeze doesn’t apply to you and me – we’re outside the space-time continuum).

Let’s focus on that subset of all parallel universes – all parallel Earths and time travel between them. Now there’s no reason to assume that all parallel Earths are identical in all aspects. Indeed, some parallel universes may not even contain a parallel Earth! There maybe some parallel Earths identical or so close to identical to our Planet Earth as makes no odds – abodes you’d feel right at home in. Other Earths would differ in various ways, some minor, some major. Still others might be really weird and alien, as in having evolved a dinosaur society, civilization and technology. There was no parallel asteroid impact 65 million years ago; thus no human beings around the traps 65 millions later.

Your subset of parallel Earths would show near infinite diversity in infinite combinations. I say ‘near’ because you can only stretch the term ‘Earth’ or ‘Earth-like’ so far and no farther, before it’s not Earth or Earth-like. A 100% oceanic world is not Earth. If a parallel ‘Earth’ has Venus-like temperatures, it is not Earth-like. If it has a density approaching that of a neutron star, it is not Earth-like. If it has no life on it, even though in all other respects it is a near carbon copy of our Earth, it is not Earth-like.

Now it’s back to the NOW subset of parallel Earths and Earth-like abodes. There’s no reason to assume that evolutionary development; that evolutionary development rates would proceed in each and every case in an identical fashion. Some parallel Earths would still be in the dinosaur era (if they had dinosaurs of course). In some parallel Earths, cavemen and saber tooth tigers rule. In others, it’s Biblical times, or Medieval times or the era when Britannia ruled the waves. Others in our absolute NOW, on yet other parallel Earths, or parallel earthlings, might have just invented the wireless or landed on their Moon (if they have one). On some parallel Earths it may already be what to us will be the 23rd or 24th Century with interstellar warp drive capabilities at hand – and even way beyond that. So, you could seemingly travel to the past and future while actually remaining in our NOW. You’ve traveled in time without really traveling in time, or, time travel without the paradoxes – but maybe that spoils all the intellectual fun of contemplating time travel in the first place!

*The problem solved here is how can you get a classic wave interference pattern behind two slits you fire photons through; even when you fire the photons at say a rate of one per hour? Who you gonna call – ghost photons of course to the rescue.

**Quantum foam – the world may look pretty smooth from a distance, but as you keep magnifying the finer details, the micro world gets ever so slightly bumpier. Close in some more and things get rougher still, until at quantum level everything is a seething cauldron of tumultuous activity. It’s like the sea that looks perfectly smooth and tranquil from Earth orbit, but at rowboat level, you’re terrified as that 50 foot wave comes crashing down on you.

The earliest known residents of what is now Miami were the “Tequesta” Indians. Little is known of the Tequesta Indians other than they resided along the banks of the Miami River over twelve hundred years ago. Believe it or not there was a small natural rapid a few miles upriver from where it emptied into Biscayne Bay. The Tequesta Indians hunted and fished along the banks of the River. In the 16th and again in the 18th century the Spanish established a few small missions along the banks of the Miami River. Spain originally possessed the area now called “Florida”, but ceded Florida and of course Miami to the British in later years. The first American Settlers began arriving in Miami Florida sometime in the early to mid 19th century and settled in and around the River. Agriculture in addition to fishing was one of the few economic mainstays of the area. The River’s water source was the Everglades and it was believed that the wetland could be drained by removing the rapids. Thereby providing additional cultivatable land for the new arrivals to settle and develop as farms. I am very sure that real estate sales and potential profits were a motivational factor as well. Real Estate in Miami has been a motivation from the beginning to present. Regardless of the reason(s) a decision to remove falls by dynamiting was made and implemented in mid to late 1800s. Other than during those years of the Seminole Indian wars the population steadily increased as did the real estate industry.

In the beginning Dade County was a huge track of land that extended from the southern tip of Lake Okeechobee (Fort Worth Florida) south to Key West Florida. Indian Key was the the seat of Dade County until sometime between the years 1860 and 1870. Prior to these years residents of the Florida Keys, other than those at Indian Key were counted as residents of Dade County.

MY RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS

Once upon a time there was a little fishing village located in Dade County, towards the southeastern tip of Florida. The name of this village was Miami. Many people living in Miami at the time, pronounced the name “Miama”.

I offer these remembrances’ as one born in the Biltmore Hotel; a land mark hotel in Coral Gables Florida, a town located in Miami-Dade County and a veteran’s administration hospital during the years of WW II. If my stories and recollections seem somewhat disjointed to the reader I beg forgiveness. They are all or at least most inscribed from memories. My only reason for attempting to write this article at all is to impart a few of my impressions/reflections to an interested reader regarding the conception of, development of, metamorphosis of and transformation that has occurred to the area that is today Miami-Dade County and the Florida Keys. My intention is to offer the reader a comparison of sorts to the areas mentioned, the inhabitants, their way of life compared to then and likewise now. I have no intention of smearing of chastising any particular group of people but too simply record the facts as I believe-remember them to be. I will leave it to the discretion of the reader which Miami, Florida Keys he/she prefers to relate. The then version 1945 to 1970 or the now version 2010, in order to provide a comparison between the two I will offer, in addition to my recollections, a few bygone happenings and circumstance conveyed to me by my predecessors on my mother’s side of the family, all residents of the Keys and Key West dating back 150 plus years ago, some still living there. To do this I am going to begin with my earliest recollections following WW II living first in Hamburg Germany, my father was an officer in the Air Force during the war and was at the time stationed there. Since he had not received his discharge my mother and I joined him, I think, sometime in the year 1946.

KEY WEST CONCHS

They Don’t Call Them Conchs For No Good Reason! (yes I know that’s double negative but I use it for emphasis)

Those that have eaten conch can relate to what I mean by this statement. Conk is a very tough marine mollusk. Rumor has it that in the early 1800s the doctors of Key West prescribed for new born babies, that they be set out on the porch to allow mosquito bites. The reason for this was to make the baby immune to the bite of a mosquito. What does this have to do with conch; man those people had to be tough to live in that environment during those very early years. Screens for windows did not happen until late in the 1800s so it is safe to say that these early Keys inhabitants did not have such luxuries. Don’t forget they had no present day amenity such as air conditioning either.

WALTER C MALONEY, JR.-KEY WEST FLORIDA

The Economies of Key West-1800s

It is a fact that at one time Key West was not only the most populated city in Florida but also had the highest per capita income in Florida and rivaled that of many other US cities. The economy was driven by numerous industries during this period of time.

AGRICULTURE

My relatives speak of one, Mr. Walter C. Maloney Jr. (Maloney was my grandmother’s maiden name). The story goes that at some point in time, during the year 1885, Walter left Key West to travel to what was then known as the Gainesville Land Office in Gainesville Florida. There under Grover Cleveland’s land act, I think for the price of fifty cents per acres, he purchased 67 acres of property in what is now known as Marco Island, Collier County Florida. In reality the land he purchased was located on “Horr’s Island”, AKA “Marco Key”, located a mile or two west of Marco Island, Florida. Mr. Maloney’s purpose was to plant, grow, harvest pineapples on this island and sell his produce to the Key West market. To me it’s amazing that a man in his late forty’s’ and then fifty’s would board a sailboat in Key West and navigate his way across one hundred miles of Florida Bay to sell pineapples in Key West. The reader should understand that the waters of Florida Bay are prone to sudden violent storms during much of the year. In addition there were no cell phones or GPSs.

My granddad once told me of a relative, I believe last name “Hart” that would travel from Key West to Chokoloskee Florida to hunt. Chokoloskee is an island located south of Everglades City. This was also a very long boat ride from Key West. Chokoloskee boasts an elevation of 20 feet above sea level. Rumor has it that the reason for its’ elevation was discarded shells of various types deposited by the Indians of the “Ten Thousand Islands”, living in the area many years ago.

Obviously these were a different breed of people during that time in our history.

The Keys and Key West produced other crops in addition to pineapples, tomatoes, I call charcoal another because of the process used to produce it. Hookie-Pokee Ice Cream, made in the shad and sold in the sun, if you aint gotta nickel you cain’t have none. Yes with the heat and humidy ice cream was big in Key West. Cigar factories were also big in Key West.

FISHING INDUSTRY

Like Miami, the fishing industry was and still is a driving economical force. Florida lobster (commonly called crawfish) is still a big ticket industry. In early times turtle and conk were plentiful; today these are for the most part protected throughout the state. I will offer additional experiences I had as youngster with the seemingly unlimited conk and spiny crawfish that could be easily taken from the waters surrounding Key West and Miami Florida.

THE NATURAL SPONGE INDUSTRY

Before the invention of synthetic sponges, sponges were harvested from the sponge beds located in the waters surrounding Key West.

SALVAGE

The waters surrounding Key West also had arguably the most treacherous reefs of any found elsewhere in the world. The history books are full of accounts of ships hitting these reefs and sinking, Spanish galleons loaded with gold taken by force from the natives of North and South America crashed on the reefs and sank with unbelievable regularity.

One of the better known salvage operations of recent times was that of Mel Fisher’s. He and his team of researchers and divers located the long lost “Atocha”. The Atocha crashed and sank on a reef west of Key West in the early 18th century and was loaded with over 400 million dollars worth of gold, silver, precious gems and other valuable artifacts. Most of which stolen by Spanish missionaries and Conquistadors (conquerors) from the Aztecs of Mexico and Incas of South America among many others.

During the 1800s, ships were still crashing on these same reefs. The series of light houses now erected on the reefs were not there during most of the 19th century. This resulted in a very lucrative salvage business during the 1800s. I have heard family members mention that years later, after the warning lights were built on the reefs some residents of the Keys would either allow them to burn out or manually extinguish them for the purpose of causing shipwrecks on the reefs to promote their salvage businesses. All productive salvage operators and operations were required by law to register their salvage ships and any salvaged items with the authorities in Key West which of course served to boost the local economy.

Prior to the erection of light houses on the reefs in an effort to reduce the number and severity of ship wrecks in these waters, the federal government commissioned “light house ships”. These ships and their captains were charged with the task of anchoring on the reefs, 24/7/365 to keep and maintain warning lights. One such ship was captained by another relative of mine Captain Whalton (my mother’s maiden name). Drinking water and other supplies were brought to land locations of these ships and deposited on shore. The crews would then leave the ship in a row boat, get the supplies and row back to their ship. The story goes that one night Captain Whalton and one sailor traveled to shore to transport the supplies back. For some inexplicable reason they traveled ashore unarmed, a war part of Seminole Indians waited, hidden in the bush. Both the captain and the sailor were killed.

FROM HAMBURG GERMANY TO KEY WEST and Back to Miami-THE YEAR 1947-1950 +/-

During my time in Germany but sometime after my Dad was discharged from the Air Force. My Grandfather Whalton called and suggested to Dad that together they should open a hardware store in Key West. At the time Key West did not have a hardware store. Purchasing a “Western Auto” Franchise they opened for business at 515 Duval Street directly across the street from the San Carlos Theater, now a land mark, in Key West Florida. The family remained in Key West for about 2-1/2 years, while Dad and Granddad operated the hardware store. The year was 19850 maybe 1951. The commercial passenger airline industry was stirring-ready to be born in earnest. National Airlines called my Dad and asked him to fly for the airline. Flying being my Dad’s first love, we moved from Key West to Miami, Florida. My parents rented a little house near the main hanger for National. The hanger was located on the east side of Lejune Road but Miami International Airport was located on the west side. We had one car; so when it was time for my Dad to fly, my mother and I would take him to the hanger. There he would board a two engine aircraft renamed for it new purposes a DC 3. The same plane, a C-47, Dad flew during the war with some seats bolted to the floor and some paint applied to the fuselage. A policeman would stop the automobile traffic on Lejune Road and my Dad would taxi his plane across the road and onto the end of the only runway that the airport possessed at the time, which was runway 9. For those of you that have passed through MIA recently I know this seems a bit bizarre, but as was Miami the airline industry was in its infancy. During this time 1950-1955, I would be surprised to learn that Miami Florida’s population exceeded 300 thousand.

After we moved to Miami, I for many years thereafter traveled from Miami to Key West. During summer vacations I worked in the store that my granddad still owned and operated. He had left the Western Auto Franchise and then operated the store as “Walton’s Auto Toys and Hardware.”

Each summer for about 5-6 years my mother would put me on a “Greyhound Bus”. Greyhound ran regularly between Miami and Key West. The bus station as I recall was in Downtown Miami, 8th street, AKA the Trail, AKA US-41. The driver would take a route west on 41 to US-27 or Krome Avenue, turning south on Krome proceeding through Homestead Florida and then left to US-1. Within a few minutes of entering US-1, we would be traveling at rate I believe to be over 80 miles per hour. I feel comfortable that this was so because the land distance from Miami to Key West is 160 miles and the trip never took more than 1 hour and 45 minutes. Folks on a trip today from Miami to Key West by car, you cannot do 35 miles per hour once entering the upper keys.

During the years that I worked in this store, the store would open for business 5-/12 days per week. On Thursdays the merchants of Key West would close at noon. My Granddad, my Grandmother and I would travel out “Overseas Highway”, US-1. With a “four pronged gig” and a bucket walking into the Mangroves that lined both sides of the highway, we could gig enough crawfish (Florida Lobster) for crawfish enchilada to be served at dinner that night, conch style with black beans, rice and fried plantain. During that time, Florida Lobster was plentiful in the Keys; there were no restrictions against harvesting them. Today, first you cannot use a four pronged gig without the risk of incarceration; second harvesting Florida Lobster is restricted to certain times of the year. This is also true of conk that could be taken a few yards off the beaches of Key West and sea turtle cannot be taken at all.

My point is, the quality of life in south Florida has been reduced by the influx of too many people from all over the US, south America and Cuba. I don’t believe that State and Federal authorities have done their jobs in protecting the things that were here when I was young and growing up. I believe that some measure of prudence could have and should have been applied a long time ago. The experiences that I had my children will be denied they will never have the opportunity to know the area the way I knew it.

As one that makes his living as a builder and General Contractor in the State of Florida but has known this area intimately for so many years, I have a number of questions in mind that I deal with on a daily basis, the questions are, 1. What could we have done previously to reduce the impact of uncontrolled influx here and thereby preserve more for future south Florida generations. 2. Is there a possibility of regaining some measure of the resources that were here in the earlier years?

I do believe that these are questions that some of the Florida agencies and law makers now deal with on a daily basis as well. But I’m not certain that the legal vehicle and money resource is available to accomplish the task if so be it possible.

But then with similarity to some higher mathematical problems, I think that the only constant is change and the only variable is time. Is this not also a statement of the development-over development and maybe the resurrection, restoration of south Florida?

Being a traveling nurse has many attractive benefits over regular nursing Firstly, nurses are in demand constantly not only in the US but worldwide. For a nurse that has the desire to travel and earn money, becoming a traveling nurse would be ideal. Of the hospitals and medical facilities rely on traveling nurses to fill roles when staffing levels are lower than normal, but further than that to bring a new level of expertise that may be lacking in the nursing in the respective hospital. So now for the advantages and benefits of becoming a traveling nurse.

Money, like most things in life, would be one of the main reasons someone would choose to become a traveling nurse. Traveling nurses, make considerably more money than their full-time counterparts. For a start the basic wage will be higher for a traveling nurse, when this is combined with overtime or penalty rates such as night shifts- the earnings can become quite substantial. The pay and calculations are performed by the traveling nurse agency and are therefore much more effectively managed. Becoming a traveling nurse is a great way to save money.

Traveling can be a major part of being a traveling nurse. If a nurse wants to see the world- there is no better way than becoming a traveling nurse and seeking work in the areas they want to see. If the traveling nurse is a native English speaker, there will always be a high demand in the US, UK, Canada and Australia (Specifically as they are experiencing a shortage of nurses). Traveling nurse agencies will actively seek nurses, and will assist in organizing visas, accommodation and appropriate work.

Harmony in the work environment for a traveling nurse is not as important as it would be for a full time nurse. The traveling nurse may only be working in the respective environment for a month before moving on to the next assignment. For this reason workplace politics will play a lesser role than in other professions.

The social benefits for a traveling nurse are massive as well. They will get to meet new people regularly and benefit from constant social interaction and communication- which is a large part of being a nurse.

In most cases a traveling nurse will also receive generous health benefits. In most situations agencies that specialize in traveling nurses offer these medical and dental benefits to entice new traveling nurses to them. Some nursing agencies also have 401K plans, which is obviously fantastic.

Working as a traveling nurse, is a fantastic way to quickly build an impressive resume. The experience a traveling nurse receives could be argues that in a shorter period of time the experiences will amount to much more than would be learn via all time position in the one hospital. It will prove to prospective employers that you have life experience, and are mature to deal with all scenarios and situations.

Certain traveling nurse agencies will also offer incentive bonuses for referrals’ to their agencies- recommend a friend and receive a payment. As a traveling nurse is constantly working at new locations with equally new nurses, the opportunities for referrals are high. Further to this, some agencies also offer a completion bonus simply for completing the assignment or placement.

Traveling nurses often travel in pairs or groups. It is a great way to travel obviously, and will also provide a support network for less confident individuals.

Traveling nurses also have the opportunity to assist in the case of natural disaster’s and missionaries where medical attention is urgently required. This may not be for everyone, but the opportunity to be involved tin the rehabilitation of such an event could be considered an honor by some.

As a general rule, travel expenses are deductible as a business expense as long as the expense is considered by the IRS to be an ordinary and necessary business expense under (IRC section 162). But when you incur a travel expense outside the United States, that is when the rules begin to change. Do not assume that 100% of your foreign travel expenses are tax deductible. And better yet, consult with your CPA during the planning phase of your foreign travel in order to maximize your opportunity for a tax deduction.

General Rules Regarding Travel Expenses:

Travel expenses traditionally includes the following categories of expenses associated with at least one overnight stay (i.e. where sleep is required while away from home):

1. Transportation Costs – Transportation includes airplane, train, bus, car, or ship between your home and business destination. It also includes commuter bus, taxi and limousine transportation.

2. Baggage and Shipping Costs- This category includes the cost of sending baggage, samples, display materials between regular and temporary work locations.

3. Lodging Costs – Such costs include overnight hotel stays and temporary housing costs.

4. Meals – Allowable meals expenses include food, beverage, tips and tax. If the meals qualify for a tax deduction they may be 50% or 100% deductible. Meals between employees/employers are generally not deductible unless a business purpose can be substantiated. In cases in which there is a business purpose, the meal is eligible for a 50% tax deduction. Meals also include customer-related meals in which business is discussed (50% deduction).

Also allowed are meals related to business-related travel that includes an overnight stay (50% deductible. If the overnight travel is related to an employer-sponsored social or recreational event the meals are 100% deductible. If the meal is related to promotional activities that are made available by the business to the public such costs are 100% deductible.

5. Cleaning – This category includes dry cleaning and laundry expenses incurred during your travel period.

6. Telephone – Business calls, fax costs or other communication costs associated with the business travel are deductible.

7. Tips paid for any travel expense category are allowed as a tax deduction

8. Other – Other costs related to the business travel might include internet fees, computer rental fees, equipment rental fees, supplies etc.

Travel expenses must be temporary in nature. What this means is that the travel period cannot last more than one year. If the travel lasts more than one year all of the travel expenses become non-deductible.

Special Rules:

1. Conventions – In order for travel costs associated with a convention to be tax deductible, such costs must be directly related to your company’s business and must benefit your company’s business. Conventions outside North America are allowed, however, there is reasonableness test that must be met. Reasonableness is based on the purpose of the meeting, activities taking place at the meeting, activities of any sponsors, homes of sponsors and other material facts and circumstances that the IRS will consider in determining eligibility for the tax deduction.

2. Cruise Ship Conventions – If the convention meets the ordinary and necessary business purpose test and the reasonableness test then the IRS will permit a tax deduction equal to $2,000 per person, per year for travel expenses incurred in connection with the cruise ship convention as long as the ship is a U.S. flagship and all ports of call are located within the United States or its possessions. In order to deduct cruise ship convention travel expenses the business must attach two written statements to their tax return. Statement #1 must be signed by the business owner. This statement specifies the number of hours each day that were devoted to business activities, total days of the trip and the program of business activities on the ship. Statement #2 must be signed by an officer of the cruise ship convention organization and provide detailed schedules of the meetings and the number of hours the taxpayer attended.

3. Travel Outside the United States – Only costs associated with the days in which business was conducted are allowed as a travel tax deduction. Business days include days spent traveling to and from the business destination. Days spent on non-business activities are not counted as business days. Weekends and holidays are considered business days if they fall between the business days. Where part of the foreign travel includes non-business days, travel costs must be prorated by dividing the number of business days by the number of total days. This
percentage is then applied to the total travel costs in arriving at the tax deductible travel expense deduction.

4. Non-Convention Cruise Ship Travel – The travel deduction allowed for this type of travel is determined by the IRS every year, so it changes every year. IRS publication 463 lists the daily deductible amounts allowed(called per diem rates). You multiply the per diem rate by the number of travel days in arriving at your tax deductible travel expense amount. If meals are a separate charge you are allowed to deduct 50% of the meal costs in addition to the per diem amount.

Vacation planning is fun and easy so you don’t need to get overwhelmed. The first thing I want you to do is to take a deep breath and don’t panic. If you’ve never done this before, relax. I am here to help you with some simple steps to plan a great vacation.

1. Determine Your Budget.

There are many ways to go about determining your budget, but I usually set a price of how much I want to spend (per person) and then go from there to determine how to find the best travel deals based on where I want to go on a cheap vacation. You need to be reasonable regarding what the budget will be for your vacation or getaway. A very realistic and reasonable budget for a cheap vacation is between $800-$1200 per person including airfare, hotel, car rental, food, tips, and airport parking. I’ve traveled all over the country on business and the average budget for a two-to-three day business trip is about the same amount so it’s a very reasonable for a cheap vacation for an entire week (especially when it involves air travel and a much longer stay).

2. Choose Your Destination.

Here’s a little insider travel secret. I’ve traveled to some amazing vacation destinations at amazing prices, but I don’t usually choose my destination. The destination chooses me. It can get a little frustrating but I can tell you that if destinations did not chose me, I would never have went to Jamaica and seen a live starfish swimming underwater when I was snorkeling off of a beach in Negril, climbed the Great Wall of China, traveled through the Panama Canal or met a baby sloth at a sloth sanctuary in Costa Rica just for starters. I went to those vacation destinations not because I had a deep desire to travel to Montego Bay, Beijing, Panama City, or Puerto Limon, but because I was chasing a travel deal. Now, vacation planning via chasing a deal is a great way to get cheap vacations and save a lot of money. I have been on some incredible trips and gone to vacation destinations I never would have had at the top of my travel destinations “bucket list,” but I realize chasing the travel deal has prevented me so far from going to Tahiti’s island paradise of Bora, Bora (my life long travel dream) and I still want to do the “Sound of Music” tour in Salzburg, Austria. So you usually have a choice: chase the best travel deal or choose your travel dream.

3. Book Your Airfare, Hotel, and Car Rental.

When you’re vacation planning, the best way to save hundreds of dollars on your vacation is to book everything together as a complete travel package. I don’t have any technological reason as to why this saves you money, but it does. Feel free to experiment with your own online travel booking engine of choice with this concept by making queries separately and then as a package, but it’s been done before and proven to save you money. I do know that Rovia Travel has the best online price 68% of the time as compared to Travelocity and Expedia according to a recent independent survey by Topaz International so you may want to check them out.

4. Research Your Vacation Destination & Plan Your Travel Itinerary.

Researching my vacation destination and planning great itineraries is one of the things that I sort of excel at in vacation planning because I love researching the hot tourist attractions of the vacation destination I’m visiting. I know some people just like to “wing it,” but that lack of vacation planning can really add hundreds of dollars to your trip. There are two great ways to do your research. First, there are so many online tools at the local tourism offices of the areas your visiting that have all the main information at your fingertips, plus many have coupons or travel deals you may not have been able to find in other ways. The second thing I like to do is pick up a great guide book for the destination I’m going to. Frommer’s Travel Guide Books and Rick Steves’ Travel Guide Books for Europe are very well researched and written and these authors update their books almost yearly so you know you have up-to-date information.

5. Make Two Checklists.

Now you need to make two checklists for your vacation planning. One is a list of things to do before you go on vacation. This includes finding a pet sitter, getting a neighbor to pick up the mail, calling your mobile phone service to arrange for a text/email package while you’re away if you’re traveling internationally, secure a passport or visa (if you need them), get medical vaccinations if necessary, call your credit card companies to let them know you’ll be traveling and what cities or countries to expect charges to come up on, and things like that. The second list for your vacation planning is a list of things to pack.

Now that wasn’t so bad, was it? Now you see how simple vacation planning is even for an inexperienced traveler. These are the basics of vacation planning and now that you know how to plan your vacation, we have a lot of extra bonus travel tips my travel website (see below) to help you discover a world of ways to see the world. Bon Voyage and have a fabulous vacation.

Introduction

I said that I would give time travel further consideration in my paper on what Time truly is. My theory of Time dealt with time dimensions and how our concept of time is different from the reality of time. This, true time, includes the motions that we measure with time and my belief that the fourth dimension of time can actually be divided up into the 4th,5th, 6th, and 7th dimensions of time. I had to consider the possibility of time travel in that discussion, but I never made an formal claims. I have now formulated a hypothesis based upon what I believe our concept of time travel is as it relates to true time (All 4 time dimensions).

Hypothesis

It is tempting to believe that time travel is somehow possible. I myself would be lying if I said that I wished there was no such possibility of time travel. The thought is far to tempting to want to believe anything else to the contrary. After giving it much thought, I am 99.9% sure that time travel is not possible and I base this on the following argument.

In order to fully grasp this hypothesis I must first describe how the human race perceives time. It is this perception that has lead to the belief that time travel should or could be possible. I use the analogy of the digital recorder that is so popular with Direct Television or Tivo. This technology simply digitally records a program and then allows you to access that information at any time. You can rewind during the show, fast forward up to a point, or save it to watch at another time. When we eventually watch our show, we are in a sense, traveling back in time. That is to say that a past event, the show, has been recorded and can then be played back later. This allows your mind to experience a segment of time that has already occurred. This is very much the same as how our brain works. The past is nothing more than a collection of our memories. Every event that we have experienced up until the present is stored in our brain whether we can remember it or not. This is the digital recording. Our brain has taken in information and saved it for later use. The future is nothing more than our ability to conceive of future events. I wonder what studies in the area of psychology have been done on this subject. I would have to believe that it is our past that allows our brain to conceive of a future. We know that events have happened so it is reasonable to assume that we can use the creative side of our brain to try and formulate what could happen in the future. This is slightly different from making plans. A person can plan to go to dinner on Saturday with a friend. This is simply a matter of our ability to conceive that another Saturday will come, because we have had reoccurring Saturdays in the past. So, we know that eventually it will be Saturday again. So, we plan to have dinner on that day at some predetermined time. We then commit that appointment to memory, so we can make the date. We can’t exactly count this as foretelling the future, because sometimes we forget the plans we make. By making the plans we increase the likelihood that the event will take place. I guess this leaves us with two ways our brain looks at the future. There is the creative future, where we may dream about or conceive of what events we would like to come about; and there is the Planned future, where we make a plan, commit it to memory, and try to make sure we are there to see the outcome of that future event.

This is how we conceive of our reality. We are born and our brain begins taking in all sorts of information. We commit this to memory for later use. I would assume that memory is merely a remonence of our survival instinct. It used to be that our parents would teach us the things we needed to survive. We also committed as much as we could to memory. If we didn’t then we simply died. Our parents would show us that leopards are bad. If we didn’t have the ability to commit things to memory then we may try to pet the leopard later and get eaten. That is bad. In order to survive we had to rely on our memory so that we could tell what we should or should not do based upon the situation presented to us. Fast forward thousands of years and we come to a point in our history where our standard of living has removed us from those leopard like situations. Now we are faced with a new challenge, surviving in a technological and hectic world. The new lessons are, work to get paid so we can eat and have a home. If you do not do these things then you end up homeless, starve, and die. A new set of survival information that has to be committed to memory. No other species has come as far as we have. They still have to rely on the good old leopard method or True Primal survival instincts.

Our environment and lifestyle has changed but our old abilities remain. Our ability to learn and commit things to memory is still with us. We now find ourselves faced with having to find new and varied things to commit to memory. We have education, and careers, social interactions, entertainment, sports, etc. etc. The list goes on and on. We have so much more to commit to memory and it seems that our memory and brain has adapted to allow us to handle this new life style. Our brains have grown larger and along with it our ability to cram more information in to that brain for storage. Along with all of these new things to commit to memory comes our concept of time. We can conceive of a past, because our past is committed to memory. Whether we can recall it or not, the information is still in our brain. From the day we are born we are storing this information to call upon throughout our life. We draw on these past experiences to conceive of a future or to make plans for the future. All the while the only true reality is the present. This point in time.

What I am saying is that the time line itself is nothing more than a memorized past coupled with an imagined future. That is all. The reality is that the present is all there is. In this present events are occurring all across the universe based upon the laws of physics. Events take place based upon these laws and it is why we see a cup fall to the ground and break instead of the other way around. Can you remember the last time you saw a broken cup fall upward and piece itself back together as it lands upright on the kitchen table? No, just as we have never seen a bunch of leaves fall upward and attach themselves back onto a tree. Events progress in a certain manner. Cause and Effect. If we remove human beings from the equation and look at other animals and objects. No doubt a dog has a concept of time, but do plants? Animals have a concept of time, because they need to call upon past events in order to survive emerging events. Their concept is no where near as developed as ours, I wonder how close an elephants or a dolphins concept of time is? Better still, I wonder how a chimpanzee or a gorilla conceives time? I am sure that their concept is different than ours, less evolved and more primitive. It still serves them for survival. Let us now consider a rock. What is this rocks concept of time? I would have to bet that it has no concept of time. It doesn’t need one, because a rock does not have to survive. No survival means no memory. No memory, means no concept of time let alone anything else. It is that way with any object that has no need for survival, because it is not alive. An asteroid floating through space was set upon a path based upon an interaction. If another body were to come along and strike it then that asteroid would move in some new direction until gravity or another object dictates otherwise. I assure you that the asteroid has no concept of time, of anything for that matter. It is not alive so does time not exist for that asteroid? No, time exists. It exists because the asteroid is in motion. It is undergoing a series of events that are determined by the forces that have acted upon it. Since there is motion then there is time, because the asteroids motions can be measured. I explain this concept further in my paper on my theory of time.

Another analogy I like is this; “If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?” This analogy perfectly illustrates the difference between reality and human conceptions. Does it make a sound? Yes, it does make a sound. What is the definition of sound? Webster’s New World Dictionary defines it as; 1) that which is heard, resulting from stimulation of auditory nerves by vibrations (sound waves) in the air ; 2) the distance within which a sound may be heard ; 3) the mental impression produced /the sound of his report/

The funny thing is that the above definitions are also concepts that fit within what we believe terms to mean. What I am saying is that these words I am typing would not exist if the human race did not exist. The first definition is the most useful, because it points out the difference between reality and conception. “That which is heard, resulting from stimulation of auditory nerves by vibrations” We can conclude from this that the falling tree is not heard. If no one is there to hear, than how can it be heard? What we need to consider here are the facts. A tree falls. The trunk breaking releases energy and the tree hitting the ground and anything on the way down also releases energy. This energy sets the air molecules around it in motion. This sound waves moves outward as the energy is dispersed in all directions. Eventually the sound wave will dissipate, because the energy will be lost along the way. We have to consider these two words, sound, and heard. The falling tree is not heard because no one is there to receive the sound waves. The sound waves still exist based upon how we perceive the travel of sound through the air. So, yes the falling tree makes a sound, but it is not heard.

The 1%

I hope that all you have read up until this point has allowed you to attain a clearer picture of the world around us and how we perceive the world around us. The universe would still go on being the universe whether humans do or do not exist. We know the universe existed before humans so it is reasonable to assume that it would still exist if we did not. So now let us move onto the other 1%. The possibility that time travel is possible. Under what circumstances could we achieve time travel? I will start with the speed of light. The magical notion that by traveling faster than the speed of light then we will somehow be able to travel backwards or forwards in time. Light is a part of the universe, not the master of it. If we were in a ship and traveled faster than the speed of light and we were some how able to maintain our structural integrity then, what? We would get to where we were going a lot faster. We would, however; not pass through time.

I did conceive of this; ” What if we could somehow get every single object in existence to run in reverse?” This is impossible, but just for arguments sake. What if we could get every single object in motion to run in reverse? Nothing would happen, and I will tell you why. We would end up with a universe full of objects violating the laws of physics along with other motions that would simply be occurring in the present. No time travel here. What if we moved towards the sun at faster than the speed of light? Would we then go back in time? Nope, we would simply get to the sun and back again a lot quicker. I say this because even if we travel faster than the light from the sun interacting with objects on the earth, it would not matter to other objects out in the universe. In order to travel back in time all things would have to be involved. You can’t just have a localized event somehow effecting everything in the universe. Just as it takes light millions of years to reach earth from distant parts of our galaxy, events occurring there are different from the picture we are seeing. In fact, much of the universe when we look out into space is different then what we are seeing. So we must look elsewhere for our time travel scenario What if we could somehow punch a whole in the universe, a bridge between two events. Calculate the exact position of the earth on a certain day in the past and then create a bridge between the present and the past? Would this somehow work by calculating the position of the earth in the future? Again, I do not conceive of a way to punch a whole in space leading to the past or future. This scenario would have to include the notion that every single possible event that can occur has occurred. This leads to the creation of new dimensions. Billions upon billions of dimensions and when we punch our hole we are not traveling to the past of this dimension, but the past of one of those alternate dimensions. Perhaps this is not the case. Instead, perhaps; every single moment that has ever occurred exists in separate dimensions. In this case then we could calculate the position of the earth, punch a hole to that dimension and in a sense travel back in time.

This is the one percent that I consider. That the time line is actually a series of universes stretching back through time containing every single second. An infinitesimal division of time that exists in an infinite number of universes that represent the time line Calculate the position of the earth in the past and then travel to that dimension. In reality the time line is composed of nothing but the present, just a present contained in a dimension for every event that has ever taken place on earth or the universe. The only way to travel into the future would have to include the belief that the future has already occurred. Think of it as a long string stretching from the beginning to the end, assuming the universe will end. Take a slice from this line and that is a dimension.

Everything that has happened up to this point and will happen in the future is divided up into dimensions. Each dimension representing the present. We could then conceive of the possibility that we are traveling through dimensions right now. It is always the present, but as events in the universe continue, we move into the next dimension. It would then be possible to travel backwards and forwards in time by somehow bridging the gap between “Dimensions of the Present”. Another unique concept of time travel would be that of the mind. Our bodies are constantly moving forward through “Present Dimensions” . Conceive of our birth to our death as a subdivision of these dimensions.

If we could then somehow transport our consciousness throughout this subdivision of our life then we would, in a sense, be time traveling. In this case our awareness would be moving through our “Present Dimensions”. The film “Butterfly Effect” illustrates this concept nicely. So, the 1% is composed of two possibilities of time travel. 1) Physically creating a bridge between this present dimension and some past or future present dimension. In this case we have to deal with the problem of having two of you in the same dimension. Don’t touch yourself, it could be bad. 2) Instead of transporting our physical being via a bridge, we instead try to move our consciousness back and forth through the “Present Dimensions”. The intriguing thing about number two is this. Our mind could conceivably be connected to the dimension immediately before us and in front of us. The same can be said for the us before that and in the dimension ahead of that. In this case it would be like taking a butter knife and smearing you from birth till your death. This smear represents your life and the sub dimensions of your life. You are, in a sense, connected to your entire past and perhaps your future as well. It would then simply be a matter of transporting your consciousness to some version of you in the past or future. This could possibly be achieved by using energy. Convert your consciousness into data and then try and transport that energy into one of the other present dimensions. It could also be as simple as altering your brain waves in some way to allow for this movement along your time line. In this case though the time traveler could only travel along the length of your own life span.

The beauty of number one is that you are not limited by your life span. You can punch a hole into another present dimension. For as long as the universe has been in existence, events occurring, may have led to the existence of an unlimited number of dimensions contained within our universe. This would represent the “Time Line”, that we like to believe exists.

If this form of time travel is possible we would then have to consider what would happen if we did something to alter the past. This may then lead to branching of the time line. If I travel to an alternate present dimension and change something then a new series of dimensions would be created along with the old time line. This is one possibility The other possibility could lead to the destruction of every dimension from that point forward. Everything you do from that point on would lead to the creation of a new dimensional time line where every event in the universe may occur exactly the same, but includes what you may do differently. Perhaps it is a combination or perhaps all events could occur differently leading to a completely new dimensional time line? I dare not venture any further, because messing around in this manner could lead to any number of outcomes. I shall have to consider these possibilities further.

Conclusion

I still cannot exclude entirely the possibility of time travel. In reality it would be dimensional travel. We would travel to a dimension containing a slice of all of the events that have ever occurred in the universe at one exact moment. Each dimension representing a snapshot of events scoping the entire universe. If such a trip were possible we would then have to consider how smart taking that trip would be. For all we know, the destruction of every dimension from the point you travel back to forward could lead to an explosion that would take out existence as we know it. Then again, maybe nothing would happen. The most important point of this hypothesis is that time does not exist the way we believe it does and time travel is not possible the way we conceive of it. Human conception is the biggest factor. The way we perceive the world may not necessarily be, in fact, reality. What I mean by reality, is the way things exist in the present universe. It is an interesting exercise, but remove humans from the equation and then try and conceive of how events take place in the universe. Events that are independent of our observations. Time exists, because things are in motion in the universe. Humans just are not there to make the appropriate measurements and observations. This is the essence of true reality. The way matter interacts in the universe when humans do not exist. If we can conceive of this, then we can conceive of how the universe truly exists.