Duane: Any new discoveries I come across between our interviews should be inclusive in newer versions of the Spirit of Atlantis book project or posted at my SOA website. And, as we speak, no other publisher that I know of has access to my work other than what I publish at my SOA website.
Reporter 2: What would you consider to be the most important scientific view, theoretical or otherwise, within your Spirit of Atlantis book project that could improve our current understanding of global human history?
Duane: Perhaps the most important scientific view I express within my Spirit of Atlantis book project is the unconventional idea that the subject of Atlantis is based on fact and not on fiction. Although many entertainers and misinformed historians continue to use the subject of Atlantis as fictional reading material, certain newly discovered and just published scientific concepts suggest that Plato's Atlantean story was about a real place in time. The two main reasons why Atlantis has always been considered historically fictional is because the location of the capital seaport has never been discovered and the true historical dates of when the Atlantean Maritime Kingdom existed in time is buried under several major historical mistakes within the conventional A.D. dateline of Western History.
Reporter 2: Could you give us another important view from your book project that would help us better understand the social origins of Western Civilization?
Duane: Our social origins are founded on certain democratic values such as the rule of the majority vote - and because Plato was the first writer to document the idea of democracy when he wrote that the Atlantean kings could not take the life of any fellow king - save with "the approval of more than half of the ten kings", the study of global human history should start recording the truth about the lost Atlantean continent of America. And this new understanding of democracy within ancient history should start with a new global timeline project wherein the Atlantean era is inclusive and not left out of recorded history as it is in the conventional A.D. timeline.
Reporter 3: Have you ever considered writing another book project that would focus just on your radical timeline argument with the conventional A.D. dateline of Western History? You do realize that many readers of your SOA website have a hard time in believing your controversial theory that Atlantis existed less than a thousand years ago - and also that, according to your new timeline data, Jesus Christ lived about seven centuries ago.
Duane: Yes, I have wanted to write a new book regarding just my new timeline discoveries about Western History for several years - but, for now, the new timeline data is too closely woven into my Spirit of Atlantis book project to separate the two subjects. Perhaps, some day, I will have the time to create a new book project about how I serendipitously discovered that, while searching when Atlantis existed in time, the conventional A.D. dateline was incorrectly dated by historians and publishers during the early Renaissance. When the greater public comes to realize, like I have, that the dates of recorded ancient history were "first published" in mass print only about five centuries ago by people who lived in an era of very limited scientific overview and knew little about world history, only then can true global history be understood.
Reporter 2: Speaking of new book projects, what is the status of your Lost Fountain book project you released last summer?
Duane: Well, as with my Spirit of Atlantis book project, my Lost Fountain book project is basically - how should I say, slowly cooking on the back burner. I do not have - or never had, the financial resources to substantially market my book projects other than publishing them at my website or creating several hundred paperback copies. Because both book projects have engendered many new scientific discoveries in the field of anthropology and technology, I feel that they will be eventually successful in attracting the attention of important scientific scholars someday. It would be nice to see their greater success in my lifetime. My Lost Fountain book project is projected to have its own website early next year at www.lostfountain.com. The project contains copies of many original nautical chart views of the upper Florida Keys that date to the American civil-war era. These charts document certain changes in how the formative aquifer of the southernmost part of Florida could have once supported mineral springs that contained rare nutritional elements which may have led to the tonic wonders behind the original Fountain of Youth legend.
Reporter 2: So, your Lost Fountain book project should have it's own website early next year at www.lostfountain.com. Will it be similar to your Spirit of Atlantis website in layout and design?
Duane: Yes, but on a smaller scale. I need to modify the text to HTML and choose some graphics. Hopefully, I will have the time to recompile the book project and publish excerpts online using my computers before next summer.
Reporter 1: Your website states in the "about the author" section from the main page that you like working with computers. What kind of computer programs do you use in your work and play?
Duane: I have several computers that run many programs. My Mac system is basically the "hard copy" production tool while my Hewlett-Packard PC runs more internet base programs. I use both computers to post information to my CompuServe homepage websites. The Mac supports the older "ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/duanemccullough" website while the HP-PC supports the newer "ourworld.cs.com/duanekmccullough" website. Adobe Photo Deluxe is my primary art program on both platforms. I use NetScape Navigator on the Mac and Internet Explorer on the PC's. I also use my WinBook XL note book computer for some mobile work. Even my old Atari ST still works with my Yamaha PSR-270 keyboard byway of some old midi software. And should I mention my oldest computer - an '83 Atari 800 XL, still works!
Reporter 1: Do you play or compose much music using your computers?
Duane: I have compiled several small musical works and have recorded them on my Mac using a software program called Sound-Edit 16 by Macromedia. I play better on the guitar than the keyboard and hope to do more music work soon so I can add some sound aspect to by website and book projects.
Reporter 1: Could you give us a quick list of other software programs that keep you occupied on your computers?
Duane: Productivity programs like Play's Amorphium or Metacreations' Ray Dream 3D are great in developing my seaplane models. Flight Simulator programs like FS 2000, FLY! and Flight Unlimited are wonderful learning projects when I have time. Abacus's Aircraft Factory 99 and Airport & Scenery Designer programs work great on my PC's. Kai's Power Show helps in presenting my graphic work in a slide-show format with sound options. Rand McNally New Millennium World Atlas is nice when I want to see the world from above. For views of outer space, nothing is better than the Starry Night astronomical program. Several Encyclopedia programs can be helpful in understanding our universe. Medical programs like Body Works give insight as to how our bodies function. Many games like Civilization 2 and SimCity 3000 can be very educational and fun. Other simulator programs like Jane's Naval Warfare Collection give scientific information about modern military vessels. And speaking of military programs, my brothers enjoy shooting me down online in Combat Flight Simulator when they can. That's the "quick list" of programs - there are many more other software programs that keep me occupied on the computer. Console simulator programs like "1080-Snowboarding" on the Nintendo have also provided many hours of entertainment.
Reporter 1: And how is your seaplane projects coming along? Do you have any working craft yet that can prove your new aeronautical discoveries?
Duane: I have several working kite designs that I believe are capable of demonstrating new aeronautical concepts which could help create a new era in watercraft transportation. A new and entertaining water-sport known as "kite-boarding", which uses kites of all shapes and sizes to pull people on sailboards into the air for short flights, is helping me study certain unique designs that, when added to my aeronautical understanding and sailing experience, suggest some new designs ideas that may prove very successful in this new field. One design uses a very simple para-foil sled layout with flexible floating foam stringers for longitude support. Another design is based on a modified deltoid kite format that I have been working on for several decades. When replicated out of plastic or aluminum, the deltoid design can demonstrate, within a water medium glide, a very efficient particle flow over the foil-wing that leaves no vortices at the wingtip. This unique airfoil action suggest a design that is more efficient than the current high-aspect wing design found on most all modern aircraft. In other words, I believe I have discovered a new and unique foil-wing design concept that directs all lifting drag to the tail portion of the wing which, in turn, allows for a greater glide ratio because no wing-tip wake exist. This new and unique foil-wing design concept can be replicated and seen in a suspended particle cloud of water using the aluminum foil from a soda can cut and shaped into a double arrow deltoid design with a penny taped on the bottom half, just forward of the center, as the payload weight. This little metal foil model can also do perfect loops into the wind and return to hover for a moment if balanced properly. I should also add that the model could damage an eye if not enough care is given. Applying this simple design concept to a larger working watercraft that can carry human payloads takes time and money which I'm currently working on.
Reporter 2: You suggest in your SOA book project that our Atlantean ancestors once used glider aircraft and pilots to carry messages between global outpost of the antediluvian maritime kingdom. Apparently, you believe your unique foil-wing design is based on this lost glider aircraft design. So, according to your aeronautical research projects, you are attempting to rediscover a lost technology rather than invent a new aircraft design. You also suggest that some kind of propulsion device may have once been used by such mythical pilots as Mercury or Hermes. If you believe we are about to enter into a new era in which a revival of this lost aeronautical technology would revolutionize modern aircraft designs and greatly improve global transportation systems, how would you explain the working operation of the necessary propulsion device or "engine" once used by these mythical aircraft to sustain human flight on long distances?
Duane: Well, the idea that you need an engine to stay aloft in an aircraft on long voyages underestimates the efficiency of this lost glider-kite design from antediluvian times. Between a good pilot and the right glider-kite design, I believe the day will come again when we will see sustain human flight on long voyages without an engine. Pilots on small sailboards with high performance kites are almost achieving the quest of sustained human flight now. Perhaps instead of using engines to propel an aircraft, gyroscopic inertial devices could be used instead. Because Mercury was said to have used a twirling wand device called a caduceus with him during his messenger service between outpost, perhaps this motor device or spinning tool apparatus helped in his mythical ability of speedy flight while hanging from his "wondrous ram" hang-glider aircraft. The point is that this lost glider-kite design from yesteryear may have once used a form of controlled inertia as "thrust" - not to overcome "drag", but to overcome gravity. In other words, instead of the four forces of modern flight theory - as in thrust verses drag and lift verses gravity, Mercury's deltoid kite design - which looks similar to modern double arrow-wing hang-gliders, may have used only three forces - as in inertia to create lifting drag to overcome gravity. This ancient craft design employed a very simple and efficient foil-wing concept that streamlined dragging energy toward the tail and away from any wingtip vortices. The inefficient "parasitic drag" caused by non-streamline shapes protruding from the payload was kept minimal in order to increase performance.
Reporter 2: So, what you are saying is that the Atlantean Maritime Kingdom once used kite-like aircraft which needed no engines to sustain flight because of their remarkable efficient design and good piloting techniques. Moreover, you are suggesting modern aeronautical aircraft designers could learn some lessons from your new scientific flight theories which are based on what you believe were once prehistoric kite designs long since forgotten. Are these views correct?
Duane: Why, yes - and perhaps we may see some new flying watercraft based on these flight theories playing along the seashore soon. I am currently designing a "flying kayak" that, when I finally decide on the construction materials, should make aeronautical history. According to legend, the heroic shaman named Quetzalcoatl once used reptilian "serpent skin" - such as crocodile hide, to cover his wooden framed "raft" when he sailed away from Central America long ago. I plan to use modern composite materials on my "raft".
END TWELFTH INTERVIEW 12/00
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