The ABQ Correspondent

THE ABQ CORRESPONDENT

ISSN 1087-2302 Online Edition Number 369.....September 2026

Published since 1985 for clients and contacts of ABQ Communications Corporation, the fuzzy focus of The ABQ Correspondent is "the impact of new technology on society." If you'd like to receive email notification when each monthly issue is posted, please let us know. correspo at swcp dot com

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LIFTING, MOVING, AND FITTING…OR?

There’s endless debate about how huge stones (notably at Sacsayhuamán in Peru) were shaped and fitted together in structures so carefully that not even fine blades, can be slid between them. The phenomenon is not limited to Peru, but appears here and there around the world, remaining from times long ago. It seems improbable that the folks who built these structures carved immense blocks out of quarries, moved those blocks around (at altitudes exceeding 12,000 feet), and put the somewhat irregularly shaped blocks together in useful formations precisely with the tools we’re aware of. They must really have done it it (whatever “it” is), because there the structures are, not asking our expert approval to exist. One suggestion that’s widely pooh-poohed is that they were cast in place. That would answer a lot of the questions about their construction, but the art of creating the soft stone material, and pouring it or patting it into place to solidify in the desired form is not commonly known, if at all. Well, a chap named a chap named Marcell Fóti not only says he can do it, but he demonstrates the process in considerable detail, making all his information public. He’s not in your face while doing it, just matter-of-fact. That’s nice, and maybe he’s even really doing what he says he is. The takeaway from this can be summed up in a line: Ancients who built things with these techniques wouldn’t have needed huge cranes and power sources and hordes of workers; they had only to carry a bucket of stuff from one place to another.

The discussion about why we gave up using such a

helpful technique is another matter, quite apart from

its practicality. It recalls my reading in high school

about Benvenuto Celllini’s casting his big statue of

Perseus with the Head of Medusa in the mid -1500s.

It was a wild, nerve-wracking affair, using the Lost

Wax Process on a large scale. For years I wondered

how we had managed to lose that process in a mere

400 years. It was a relief to learn finally that it’s the

wax that’s lost, not the process. Oh.

GROUNDING AGAIN

Last month’s Correspo commented on the normal-at-one-time dragging of iron chains by vehicles with the intention of draining off the static electricity the moving vehicles accumulate, so that the person in the vehicle doesn’t receive an unwelcome shock when getting out of it. I had seen the bouncing chains long ago, but not recently, and remarked that I don’t know how the problem is currently handled. WELL! Readers did let me know that while “The grounding straps that once adorned the undersides of cars have largely fallen out of favor due to the advancements in tire technology and the electrical systems of modern vehicles,” they are still generally available in many forms. Instead of chains, the devices tend to be strips of rubber or rubber-like material with embedded copper wire that serves as the conductor without sparking. Surprisingly (to me, anyway) these things are considered by many to relieve not only electrical shocks, but “sickness.” Lots of folks suffer from motion sickness, and must be careful when traveling in cars and airplanes, but this is the first we’ve heard such queasiness linked to static electricity…and by multiple commentators. One Amazon customer is pleased that his grounding strap relieves the sickness of his dogs in the car. He says that the nuisance of being stopped occasionally by cops pointing out helpfully that he’s dragging something under his car is a modest price to pay for keeping the dogs from woopsing on the upholstery. What? Authorities (well, the internet) point out that there’s no scientific evidence relating static and upset stomach, but if the grounding strap helps the dogs, good for them.

The internet authorities tend to be very firm on declaring that the static shocks, though annoying, are very mild. This recalls some time spent in Las Vegas many years ago, stage managing industrial conventions. It’s DRY in Vegas, and there are many long, carpeted corridors to walk through while picking up significant personal static charges.

If, on encountering a door, one reaches out with a bare hand, the ensuing shock may be substantial, not fatal, but WOW! One learned to touch the door handle first with the hotel key, which would achieve grounding without knocking your glasses off. It was common to see a person or two lurking quietly near the door. Those were people who didn’t have their hotel keys with them, waiting for somebody else to open the door, so they could rush through unscathed before it closed. This brings us to another question of modern times; now that hotel room keys are typically plastic cards instead of pieces of metal…what’s the handiest way to avoid being zapped?

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NELS MUSES

Item:

The Correspo has commented more than once on the use of real human brain cells (again…not excised from anybody’s brain, but grown from stem cells that might be taken from a bit of cuticle) linked with input/output hardware to do fast, large-scale computing. Lots of challenges …see somebody’s worry about cells not developing in the right order.

Item:

The web is displaying reports of progress in the restoration of the first Air Force One. On a late afternoon in the Fall of 1956 at San Francisco International Airport, I had parked and was walking to the terminal for an evening flight when I noticed a small crowd gathered near the low fence separating the employee parking lot from the airport proper. I stopped to watch as a Lockheed Constellation (of which we have spoken admiringly before) pulled up to a gate in that fence …unusually, not at a gate at a terminal concourse…and a stairway was quickly wheeled out to it. The door soon opened, and President Eisenhower emerged, waving casually to the crowd. He came down the steps, and was driven away without ceremony. What I recall most sharply was that the plane was shiny. A whole troupe of people must have polished that thing at every opportunity. The late afternoon sun was behind us, and the airplane was blindingly SHINY. Startlingly, that’s the very plane now being restored, the Columbine 2, which will be one of only three flying Constellations when they complete the work. I saw the first Air Force One with my own eyes. It wasn’t an event of importance, but, gee.

Item:

One recalls hearing about the predictable fate of the Micronesian island and world’s third-smallest country, Nauru as long ago as the 1960s. They had something of significant value: large deposits of easily accessible phosphates…and they were mining it so aggressively that the island itself would eventually be unlivable, eaten up. Since then, sea levels have been rising and fast food has come to Nauru. Not much good is happening to those folks. The current approach to solving their problems is political; their government has announced that the country’s name is formally being changed to its more traditional form “Naoero.” Maybe that will help.

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ITEM FROM THE PAST

We used this item from 2006 as a “Past” piece

as recently as 2020, which doesn’t seem long enough

to give it a fresh “Past” sheen, but what the heck.

Item:

Actor Dennis Weaver died recently, reminding some of us of a situation that has for years made us laugh every time we heard his name. When he played in the long-running television series McCloud, as a colorful Wild West lawman working in New York, he once explained to another character that he was from Taos (which he pronounced as TAYoss) in Sandoval (which he pronounced as Sand OH vle) County in New Mexico. The residents of Taos (which they pronounce as TAH-ohss), which is in Taos County, not Sandoval (which is locally pronounced SAND oh val) were much aggrieved. He apologized, and visited Taos in a blare of publicity to make amends. The forgiving citizens were greatly pleased, and slaughtered a buffalo for a grand barbecue on the occasion. Mr. Weaver proved to be a vegetarian.

This comes to mind because we often cringe when

Ross Coulthart, the prominent Aussie commentator

on Unidentified Autonomous Phenomena (UAPs),

refers to events here in New Mexico, which he does

frequently because we have so much UFO/UAP

activity here. He typically pronounces “Bernalillo,”

(locally pronounced Bernal-eeyo) as Bernal-illo,

which makes even us transplanted Midwesterners

uneasy. Mind you, this doesn’t indicate a character

flaw in Mr. Coulthart any more than TAYoss showed

bad character in Mr. Weaver.

How would an auslander know how to pronounce Taos

any more than I know whether the Opal Capital of the

Universe, Coober Pedy in Australia, is Coober Peddy

or Coober Peedy? …and for that matter, harking

back to Milwaukee, I’d pronounce the “r” in Coober

like the “r” in ring.

Despite all the UFO/UAP activity reported here,

including the recent disappearance of General

McCasland, a reportedly high-level insider in Non-

Human-Intelligence affairs, I’ve never seen any of

it. Before the trees got so big out back, we had a

good view of the sky over Sandia Laboratories at

Kirtland Air Force Base, ostensibly a hotbed of

NHI activity…but nothing. One heard a story, for

example, that a barrel-shaped UFO had landed

inside the Sandia Tech Area, sat on the ground for

a few minutes in full view of high managerial people

involved in our nuclear weapons program, and had

then departed quietly. Nobody reported this officially

…it was just gossip from seventy years ago. It’s

disappointing not to have seen anything personally.

Another landing did get quite a lot of publicity.

During one of the early Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

events (I was at the very first one with three of our

kids when thirteen, count them thirteen, balloons

launched in a mass ascension from the parking lot at

the Coronado Shopping Center) a pilot who had

brought his balloon all the way from Finland found

himself unable to maintain altitude…reportedly, his

balloon was extensively patched with Scotch Tape…

so he landed in a clear spot, and was surprised to see

heavily armed people running at him from several

directions. He had landed in the same Tech Area inside

the Atomic Bomb Works that the officially unreported

UFO had some years earlier. This poor fellow had

more official attention than he really felt a need for.

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This book was written, richly illustrated, and published by excellent grandkid Malia. At 7 (gosh, twelve years ago) she was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes… suddenly, of course; “Get her to the hospital NOW!” and things have been nip and tuck since then with many scary crises. She’s taken control of her life…played and sang at Whisky A Go-Go on the Sunset Strip at 15, put out an album at 16, published this book at 17, and is off to college hundreds of miles from home. She has been videoed reading the book at a kids’ hospital, and every incoming T1D patient there from now on will see that video. Some of us are rather proud of her.

ISBN‎ 979-8320821917

See on Amazon

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