Altimexis

“We’re here today with Dr. J.J. Jeffries, the infamous, brilliant, boy billionaire and CEO of Applazon’s super­conducting-ceramics group,” the CNN reporter began. “As you can see, we’re in front of a long row of what were previously vacant storefronts that are coming back to life. Bright yellow logos are being painted on the windows, proclaiming the new tenant to be the Applazon Emporium. Inside, everything is being painted, new lighting, shelving and displays are being installed, along with new

“It’s always fascinated me how different cultures have such different mores,” Verona remarked as I regaled them with my Japanese shower story. Franklin had already heard it, but he seemed to enjoy hearing it from a slightly different perspective as I retold it to a different group of people. We were sitting out on the terrace, which I thought was more conducive to informal discussion than was the formal dining room. “In Japan,” I continued, “It’s considered polite to slurp your soup directl

I use DuckDuckGo, but it's clear that even so, the results are contaminated by Google's pay to play scheme. The very mechanism that made Google's search engine so successful - a search based on the number of sites that link back to each result - has been so distorted by the profit motive that the very premise of search by citation has become fatally flawed. I can remember when Google's approach was revelatory. I can remember when Alta Vista represented the state of the art. Perhaps we're going to need J.J.'s quantum computers, just to conduct a legitimate search.

Yeah, it’s going to be a HUGE wedding… almost like a royal wedding, but JJ feels obligated. At a time when most of us weren’t even leaving our homes to buy toilet paper - not that there was any to be had - JJ was traveling all over the world, supervising server upgrades so that kids could continue their schooling online. Most hotels had closed and public transportation was nonexistent. The only practical solution was to stay with the families of his Applazon colleagues. Many of them had never had a houseguest in their lives, when corporate notified them they’d have an American teenager coming to supervise them for a few weeks, and by the way, he’d be staying with them. JJ was taller than most of them, but he looked more like he was twelve and was cute enough to hug. He spoke their native language fluently by the end of the first week and clearly knew what he was doing. How could he have not gotten close to all of them and their families? How could he invite even one of them without inviting all of them? And as a CEO, he had to invite all the other CEOs and their families, not to mention all the families of his senior support staff. The current story arc ends just before the actual wedding itself, and when it comes to who will provide the musical entertainment, I’m not telling. The planning for the wedding serves as an important backdrop as the boys get a peek beneath the mask of corporate America. Something tells me it will not be pretty. Finally, things will fall into place and we’ll be ready to begin the final story arc of BBB, thirteen years hence. BTW, when it came to the shortage of toilet paper, my wife had the brilliant idea to try Staples - after all, offices have toilets too - and she bought a case before they ran out of it. We still have rolls stacked on top of our bookcases, and you can probably imagine what office supply toilet paper feels like, but we never ran out of it, nor did we pay scalper’s prices for it.

We returned to New York. The summer was upon us, and with so many loose ends to tie up, taking a summer vacation was just about the furthest thing from our minds. With some excellent real-world data from our motors, thanks to our paranoia and all the sensors I added to the race cars in Indy, Henry had the real makings of a Ph.D. dissertation. He already had the simulations he’d generated from when he conceived of using layers of iron sandwiched between layers of cyanosilicate to create standing

Wow! How am I supposed to respond to that? I do appreciate constructive criticism - it makes me a better writer. My first story, Love in a Chair, is an embarrassment to me now. At the time, I got a lot of positive feedback, but the characters were one-dimensional and the story was way over the top. That it was written for Nifty in the style of Nifty had much to do with it - GA was very young back then. I did get one constructive critique of the story and from that one critique, I learned how to make a story seem real. Billhorn, I'm not sure what you were trying to tell me with such a long rant! If the intent was to demonstrate how much verbosity detracts from the message, you succeeded in spades. The thing is, although there are undoubtedly things that could have been dropped from BBB that might have made it better, it doesn't go off on tangents the way your critique did. I did cut out a lot of material as I always do. Every plot and subplot serves a purpose in BBB - nothing was wasted. I do have editors - one of whom has been with me for more than a decade and a new one who's a well-known author at GA and who was merciless. I'm well aware that my teens don't sound like kids. J.J. in particular never did have a real childhood, being thrust from elementary school to high school, but even then, he spent all of his time in the library reading adult material. I've known kids like that and they don't sound like kids. Their biggest problem is that have the knowledge of an adult, but the maturity of someone half their real age. It creates an interesting mix of reactions and far too often leads to a dysfunctional human being. The fact that J.J. seems incapable of discussing his ideas at a level others can understand is a reflection of his never having been with other kids his age. Thanks for your suggestions, but if your rant was any indication of your editing skills, then thanks, but no thanks. I don't need your pointers.

Actually, there’s a reason the company spells it that way. Magen David is a transliteration of the Hebrew words for Shield of David. Magen is the Sephardic transliteration, whereas Mogen represents the Ashkenazi pronunciation. The decision to standardize on Sephardic Hebrew, as it’s spoken in Israel, happened in the early-sixties - at least it did in Indy. I vividly remember having to relearn to speak Hebrew, roughly at the same time I began going to Hebrew School. It’s quite likely Zach’s grandparents pronounced it as Mogen and his father probably still did. David in Hebrew, of course, is pronounced Dah-VEED, either way. This being an anthology story, I can’t correct the spelling directly myself, or I would, so I’m going to stick with the story that Zach’s grandparents pronounced it that way. BTW, I’m not sure if this will always be visible, but I designed a visual of the pendant using Affinity Designer:

Does Jeff Bezos wear a bulletproof vest in public? I don’t think so. He does have a personal security staff, however, including a personal bodyguard who’s with him whenever he goes out in public. Even his family members need protection in public, lest they be kidnapped for ransom. I would have thought he’d have made sure JJ and Henry had similar security. Keep in mind, though, that Manhattan is full of celebrities, most of whom would balk at such security measures. I’ve attended Off-Broadway theater where incredibly famous actors were in the audience, much less on stage, and they walked out after the play with everyone else and then took the subway! New Yorkers tend to be fiercely independent, although even the not famous are avoiding the subway these days. Regarding Henry’s family, you’re assuming JJ even notified them after Henry was shot. Remember that even the sniper attack was kept quiet until after the race. Fran didn’t even find out until after the second attempt on Henry’s life, and she found out from the media reports after it was all over. In retrospect, she’d have probably been in the hospital room along with JJ when Henry woke up. Certainly, she must have had some choice words for JJ when she found out, but that happened ‘off-camera’. I wonder who slashed the tires? Perhaps we’ll find out later, or maybe not. In real life, not every loose end has a resolution. You’ll just have to wait and see.

“What the fuck happened?” Henry asked in a somewhat thick voice. I put my phone down, nearly dropping it on the floor as I rose out of the chair at Henry’s bedside. I grabbed a glass of water with a straw so he could take a sip to clear his throat and mouth. I took hold of my boyfriend’s hand and looked down into his face. When I still hadn’t answered, he repeated in a clearer voice, “Well, what the fuck happened, and why am I back in the hospital?” “Don’t you remember being shot?” I asked.

Here’s a major hint: “…we had to have our suits and formalwear altered to fit over the vests…”

I'd learned much about the history of the Indy 500, since becoming involved in the sport just over a year ago. The heyday of auto racing began at the end of World War II when Tony Hulman, a businessman from Terre Haute, Indiana, bought the racetrack and rescued it from the threat of redevelopment. The ‘greatest spectacle in racing’ reigned supreme until the mid-1960s, when a driver named Parnelli Jones stuck a gas turbine engine from an airplane into an Indy car and blew everyone else out of the

The reason you haven’t heard of the dry ice option for carbon sequestration is that with current technology, it’s not economically feasible. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if more CO2 was generated than removed from the atmosphere in the manufacture of dry ice. Even with JJ’s approach, the heat extracted in the process has to be dumped into space or used to replace other existing sources of heat for their to be a net loss of carbon from the environment. We’re already past the point of no return when it comes to glacial retreat, thawing of the permafrost and sea level rise. Short of global thermonuclear war, it’s doubtful we’ll find a way to reverse it, but the worst strategy is to do nothing. With a concerted effort to switch to renewable energy, combined with reforestation and perhaps seeding clouds to increase snowfall, there’s still hope for humanity. It never ceases to amaze me that even with irrefutable evidence of climate change that even a novice can see, there are still deniers. One of my editors turned out to be a climate change skeptic, but as an economist, he’s focused on the negative economic impact of mitigation measures. He also has real world experience with incorporating wind farms into the grid, but that’s based on small demonstration projects in which fossil fuel plants have to take up the slack when the wind isn’t blowing. With enough wind farms, the wind is always blowing somewhere. To me, the more significant issue is the need for rare earth metals - niobium in motors and windmills, and cobalt in lithium batteries. These are mined in the third world, mostly subjecting people, many of them children, to horribly unsafe conditions. Saving the planet shouldn’t be contingent on looking the other way.

I was sitting by Henry’s bedside in the observation wing of Emergency at Sidney and Lois Ezkenazi Hospital on the campus of Indiana University Medical Center. As the closest Level I Adult Trauma Center, it was the logical place for Henry to be taken after being felled by a sniper. We’d been lucky, at least as far as being shot by a sniper could go. The four of us had been bunched together, making a clear shot very difficult. More than likely, I had been the primary target, but without a cle

Don't worry - they'll get the shooter, after the second attempt on Henry's life. The outcome will certainly surprise you.

For the first time in history, the pole position at the Indy 500 would be occupied by a woman. Angie Brae had turned in a stellar performance with speeds of 252.81 on lap one, 269.34 on lap two, 273.33 on lap three and 274.84 on lap four for an average qualifying run of 267.58 mph. The time trials were still going on, but it was unlikely that anyone in a conventional, ethanol-powered race car could catch us. Already, there was talk of restricting the power output of electric vehicles in future r

If any of you have access to The NY Times, you might be interested in this article: Tiny Chips, Big Headaches. This is exactly the sort of problem J.J. was trying to address when he designed his first nitrogen-cooled server. How nice of the Times to support my story!

James, that is one of the nicest things anyone has ever said about my writing. Thanks so much for your feedback and your thoughts!

Since you've all asked, there's a bit of background on the science behind the story in the intro, where I specifically list the things that have been exaggerated or are unlikely. I also will have more to say in the afterword, at the end of the story. For the most part, the technology is plausible, but dependent on a breakthrough on the order of what J.J. discovered. Metallic superconductors have been around a while. but they require temperatures close to absolute zero (-273°C), which is only achievable with liquid helium and at considerable expense. The only major application in which the cost is justified is in MRI - Magnetic Resonance Imaging, where it can literally save lives. These remarkable machines do in fact use a perpetual current to generate an incredibly strong magnetic field that's stable for months. Ceramic superconductors were discovered in the 1980s, but the mechanism remains unsolved to this day, and in spite of intensive research, there has yet to be one that's superconducting even at temperatures achievable with liquid nitrogen - but they're getting close. Electron tunneling is a well-known phenomenon in semiconductors, but has never been demonstrated in ceramics. However, it's perfectly logical that it could be a mechanism in superconductivity and the possibility of electron resonance as an underlying mechanism, although a bit far fetched, is reasonable. Good sci-fi should have at least some basis in reality, after all. Regarding the reporter, J.J. didn't tell her anything that wouldn't have been public knowledge, as required to enter a car in the Indy 500. How do I know all this technical stuff? I do have an extensive background in the sciences and pursued a career in biomedical engineering. I have a Ph.D. in electrical engineering as well as an M.D., and retired a few years ago. I've always been fascinated by interdisciplinary studies, because very few people are capable of being proficient in multiple fields at the same time. The downside is that being proficient in more than one field doesn't make one an expert in any of them. I know more about my area of expertise than anyone, but was unable to convince the related NIH study sections that the work would lead anywhere. That's the problem with cross-disciplinary research - it's hard to get people in either field interested in anything that crosses over into a field they don't understand. I'm not sure I'd call my knowledge brilliance or rather brain clutter. Having worked across disciplines for so long, its easy for me to absorb the basics of just about everything I read, and I read a lot. That doesn't make me an expert in anything, but I like to write and and my background gives me plenty to write about. One of my readers accused me of showing off, but that isn't what this is about at all. Most of my writing is not at all so technical, but I do like to write character-driven stories and in creating the character of J.J. Jeffries - well, he thinks on a level well beyond anything most any of us can understand. The technical details in the story are my feeble attempt to relate the way J.J. thinks to a wider audience. It's not the details that are important, but that the details are plausible to anyone capable of understanding them. That was probably more than you wanted to know, but it does explain how and why I wrote the story as such.

J.J. would agree with you, 100%, but he's not about to forego taking advantage of legal tax breaks, just because they're immoral. Later, he'll comment about maybe running for Congress someday so he can do something about it, but if he does so, that will be well after the story ends. That said, he will find himself in a position to do something about it later on - just not in the way he thought.

I suppose after traveling the globe, J.J. ought to be sick and tired of traveling, but no sooner did he settle in back in Omaha, than he had to interview in NYC. I think perhaps Jitendra suggested J.J. take a road trip to take his mind off of what was bound to happen after the interview. Major job hires are never a quick process and for those being considered for the position, the endless waiting can seem interminable. The road trip was a way to take J.J. away from all of that. It was a really clever strategy. It turns out this road trip is important as well because of the people he meets and the things that happen along the way. Meeting the Walters in St. Louis was crucial to the story, and you can count on seeing them again and again, all the way through. Discovering Formula e racing was equally important, because it will build an interest in far more than auto racing that will define J.J.'s career. Until now, J.J. has focused on the development of better servers - better computers and even quantum computing, which we'll get to later. Now, however, he recognizes the true potential of his discovery of superconducting ceramics in the energy sector, and that will have lasting repercussions. J.J. will indeed return to Omaha, where he'll find he's already met the love of his life. Believe me, Omaha will remain his home, even after he moves to NYC.

Henry and I worked together on the design for a super­conducting ceramic battery, but we were hampered by the lack of facilities for actually building a prototype. We felt it important to start with the design of the battery; a working prototype might give us enough additional power over current designs to allow us to finish the Indy 500 car race. In some ways, the lack of access to hardware forced us to be more careful and methodical, testing simulations using mathematical models and computers

I think J.J. and Henry might agree with you there. The Kennedy Center is in Washington, D.C., which is at best a seven-hour round trip on the Amtrak Acela Express, and nearly ten hours by car. Someday they'll be able to walk to the Kennedy Center, but that's well in the future, in another phase of their lives. The tickets J.J. gave Henry were for the Jazz at Lincoln Centre series, in New York, which is renowned. For what it's worth, as with classical music, or rock, or rap and hip hop, for that matter, jazz is a very diverse form of music that includes everything from Sinatra to Hancock. It can be mellow, or loud and dissonant. Some acid jazz can make even gangsta rap sound like a lullaby by comparison. I get that jazz isn't for everyone, but just as I can hate most rap and hip-hop, but yet love Hamilton, it's very likely that if you take the time to explore the genre, you'll find something in jazz that you really like.

Henry and I weren’t shown to our suite in the embassy until it was nearly midnight. At least, the press conference wasn’t until 11:00 AM, so we could sleep until 9:00 and still have plenty of time to get dressed and have breakfast first. Of course, as tired as we were from the day’s events, we went right to bed. Yeah, sure we did. It had been nearly half a year since we’d last made love, and we practically tore each other’s clothes off. At least, Henry had had the good sense to bring lube.

Actually, I think that C. James' Circumnavigation holds the title of the longest story, with 158 chapters and just over a million words. By contrast, BBB will have 84 chapters, plus the intro and an afterward, and it will top out at under a half-million words. With only 17 chapters to go, as you can see, a lot of things are going to happen as we approach the end. I've recently moved up to being the sixth most prolific author at GA and by the time I finish posting BBB, I'll be the fifth most prolific, although still along way from catching up with the fourth-most prolific, dkstories, and his 3.3 million words.

When I wrote BBB, I contemplated having J.J. kidnapped by the U.S. government, but then the events around the 2020 election, the conspiracy theories, and ultimately the insurrection put the kibosh on that. The last thing I wanted was for the story to feed into the myth of the Deep State. Anyone who has ever worked for the Federal government can attest to the fact that the bureaucracy is disorganized and dysfunctional. More than anything, it's highly territorial and there's no way there could ever be an overreaching conspiracy involving the entire government. Trust me, jumping through all the hoops necessary to procure anything is an art form in and of itself. Take it from one who's been there. That said, the CIA has a history of using unconventional methods to recruit geniuses, particularly those that have difficulty in social situations and with integrating into normal society. Eric Snowden is a perfect example. The KGB had a history of this as well, as exemplified by the story behind The Falcon and the Snowman. Undoubtedly, that didn't change with the demise of the Soviet Union. However, if the Russians wanted the technology behind ceramic superconductors, they'd more than likely try to hack into Applazon's computers, or to go after it obliquely through people who were involved in the work, but not directly. The conversation between J.J. and Boris was telling, in that it was obvious that the operation had been planned for some time. Boris' comments that their psychologists had concluded that J.J. wouldn't respond to threats to person or family, nor to actual torture suggests that those things had actually been considered. Friends, there is a lot more going on behind the scenes than meets the eye here, and the fact that the whole thing has been kept quiet is much more than a curiosity. J.J. had assumed that his disappearance had been big news, yet only Jeff and Henry, and perhaps some of his immediate family, had been privy to what was going on, and even then, only to the extent of what they needed to know. Did you notice the abrupt turn of events, once J.J. managed to hack into Applazon's streaming servers? The Russians seemed to be in this for the long haul, but something must have happened in order for them to release J.J. so suddenly. There's a much bigger story there, but we won't be getting back to it for quite some time. In the meantime, there's so much more coming you way. Yes, J.J. has done work that will likely earn him a Nobel Prize, but he's not done, and neither are Henry and Nithya, whom you're about to meet. There are two Nobel-worthy discoveries that have yet to be made, and there's an Indy 500 that has to be won. Becoming a corporate executive is probably not the best use of J.J.'s abilities, and at such a young age, not in his own best interests, but more on that later. First, we must come face-to-face with the sinister underbelly of those who's interests are threatened by the new technology. I promised that J.J. and Henry will be OK in the end, but there will be some cliffhangers that will make you wonder…