Reginald L. Goodwin's Posts

From Emma Lazarus to Dred Scott...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on June 22, 2018 at 5:30am

US CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION Image caption This image from the US Customs and Border Protection shows the foil blankets given to children - BBC News

Topics: Civics, Civil Rights, Existentialism, Human Rights

Ephesians 6:12 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” See also Pastor John Palovitz's statements.

AMANDA VOISARD/AP Demonstrators gather to protest against the separation of immigrant families at the border in Austin.

Presidential historian Jon Meacham on MSNBC alluded to "we've gone from Emma Lazarus to Dred Scott," ironically on Tuesday, the annual African American celebration of Juneteenth.

We are housing hundreds of babies and toddlers in internment camps titled by the Orwellian term "tender age shelters." There are apparently children changing the diapers of other children because there are not enough caregivers to do it. The Attorney General announced this president's* zero-tolerance policy in April. Children and babies are being separated from their mothers with NO plans or procedures to return them to their parents. Stephen Miller - the 21st-century dead ringer for Joseph Goebbels - along with this administration* was apparently gleeful of the mayhem and chaos they'd caused. He couldn't sign an executive order until he signed an executive order. Top this with Melanie's IDGAF jacket at the Texas gulag! (Question: why is a so-called billionaire's wife in a $39 jacket on the FIRST day of summer in Texas?)

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

The New Colossus, Emma Lazarus

"In the opinion of the court, the legislation and histories of the times, and the language used in the Declaration of Independence, show, that neither the class of persons who had been imported as slaves, nor their descendants, whether they had become free or not, were then acknowledged as a part of the people, nor intended to be included in the general words used in that memorable instrument...They had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit."

The Dred Scott decision - March 6, 1857, Chief Justice Taft's opinion of record. Mr. Scott's grave and remains are buried, coincidentally outside of Ferguson, Missouri.

We are the monsters now...

My father would have been 93 years old on Tuesday. (It was also my sister's birthday.) He, like a lot of young men, got his draft card during the conflict with the Fascists in Europe. He was assigned to the United States Navy. He was a Third Class Petty Officer and became a Heavy Gunner, a Naval Boxer, and Cook. Like a lot of African American men, he thought to excel at war would "win the peace" of Civil Rights at home.

Hitler was defeated. He came home to a still-segregated America. He met my mother and married. I followed in 1962 in a still quite segregated society.

In the 21st century, at 55, I am still existing in a segregated society. Bigotry, birtherism, sexism, and xenophobia were weaponized into an effective presidential* campaign with hostile foreign assistance. We now have what amounts to concentration camps on American soil. We have a campaign chairman that openly mocks Down syndrome children. "When they go low, we go high" by First Lady Michelle Obama has been replaced by the daily, exasperated refrain: "How low can they go?"

We are the monsters now...

The Central American janitor in our facility at JSNN is distraught by the news of children screaming for their mothers. She relayed she's been threatened by some in maintenance, the same who's former member hung a noose in a lab in a school that has more diversity than the UN. The idiot was immediately fired, but his fellows threaten my Latino friend: "the president's going to send you home soon." She defiantly asks "why"? since she's a naturalized US citizen. She works just as hard as them, if not harder since their services are called when something breaks: she cleans toilets and overrunning trashcans from the second floor to the basement in every classroom; every bathroom, every lab. They have pictures of their orange god at their workstations; they wear MAGA hats.

We are the monsters now...

This is the backlash for having the "Audacity of Hope" to elect the first and so far, only African American to sit on the seat of power in 232 years of the republic. This is a continuation of the backlash that was seen at the border with wild-eyed citizens screaming at busloads of children from Central America. These are the voters of Orange Julius that wear MAGA hats and are emboldened by his bigotry. These are the modern brown shirts/red hats gang that are deathly afraid of becoming a numerical minority that the interference of a foreign power in their federal election process is of no consequence...as long as the outcome maintains white supremacy.

The site Blavity points out that separation of children from families is an American tradition, started with slavery to this current moment where brown immigrant children whose parents are seeking legal asylum have no rights the AG, nor this present darkness respects. Hoovervilles have seen a resurgence in the form of tent cities, and a government shutdown in September if there's no border wall might drive us...into an actual Hoover depression. It is a matter of time before we're not sobbing over children in cages...but wailing like Rachael's over children in graves, as tent cities in deserts - greater than 100 degrees Fahrenheit; 38 degrees Celsius - might as well be ovens at Auschwitz. Only sociopaths would cheer this vile assault on humanity.

We are the monsters now...

...or, we are the citizens that fix this November 6, 2018, Russian interference be DAMNED! The continued sovereignty of our republic is at stake. We will either be remembered as a good example or warning proverb. We will either be Winthrop's "city on a hill"... or, a shit pile (more superfluous than a "hole," that epithet itself projection)!

*The usage of the asterisk (*) next to president* I borrow from and attribute to Charles P. Pierce, a writer for Esquire magazine and frequent media commentator on MSNBC. He's also the author of the prescient book: "Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free." And so, despite his and other authors' warnings to the contrary, our republic is at the stage-edge of this cliff...

"Tender Age" Children...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on June 21, 2018 at 5:05am

Topics: Civics, Civil Rights, Diversity, Existentialism, Human Rights, Politics

I will get back to posting normally...one day. Each day is an extended nightmare; each day is not "normal." We're either in the middle or the edge of a whirlwind. No one remembers Paul Manafort was arrested last Friday. I guess that was the point of this madness. He manipulates the media just as he did in New York.

I can't even remember when I've posted something with a measure of humor.

I would like to...

A Step Closer...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on June 20, 2018 at 5:24pm

Laser preamplifiers at the National Ignition Facility. (Courtesy: CC BY-SA 3.0/Damien Jemison/LLNL)

Topics: Alternative Energy, Nuclear Fusion, Nuclear Power

Physicists working at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in the US say they have passed another important milestone in their quest for nuclear fusion energy. They have shown that the fusion energy generated by the laser implosion of a deuterium-tritium fuel capsule is twice that of the kinetic energy of the implosion. By further trebling the fusion energy, they say they will be close to the long-sought goal of an overall net energy gain.

The $3.5bn NIF trains 192 pulsed laser beams on to the inner surface of a centimetre-long hollow metal cylinder known as a hohlraum. Inside is a fuel capsule, which is a roughly 2 mm-diameter hollow sphere containing a thin deuterium-tritium layer. Each pulse lasts just a few nanoseconds and the lasers can deliver about 1.8 MJ of energy. This powerful blast causes the capsule to implode rapidly, creating immense temperatures and pressures inside a central “hot spot”, where fusion reactions occur.

The long-term goal is that the energy of neutrons given off by fusion can generate electricity. Before this is possible, NIF must show that it is possible to achieve ignition – the point at which fusion reactions generate at least as much energy delivered by the laser system. This involves self-sustaining reactions, in which the alpha particles that are also emitted during fusion give off enough heat to initiate further fusion.

Giant lasers pass new milestone towards fusion energy, Edwin Cartlidge (science writer based in Rome), Physics World

#P4TC related links:

Laser Fusion...December 19, 2017

Nanowire Fusion...April 9, 2018

General Order Number 3...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on June 19, 2018 at 8:49am

Image source: My Plain View dot com

Topics: Africa, African Americans, Civil Rights, History, Human Rights

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. Note that this was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation - which had become official January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on the Texans due to the minimal number of Union troops to enforce the new Executive Order. However, with the surrender of General Lee in April of 1865, and the arrival of General Granger’s regiment, the forces were finally strong enough to influence and overcome the resistance.

Later attempts to explain this two and a half year delay in the receipt of this important news have yielded several versions that have been handed down through the years. Often told is the story of a messenger who was murdered on his way to Texas with the news of freedom. Another, is that the news was deliberately withheld by the enslavers to maintain the labor force on the plantations. And still another, is that federal troops actually waited for the slave owners to reap the benefits of one last cotton harvest before going to Texas to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation. All of which, or neither of these version could be true. Certainly, for some, President Lincoln's authority over the rebellious states was in question For whatever the reasons, conditions in Texas remained status quo well beyond what was statutory.

General Order Number 3

One of General Granger’s first orders of business was to read to the people of Texas, General Order Number 3 which began most significantly with:

"The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and free laborer."

The reactions to this profound news ranged from pure shock to immediate jubilation. While many lingered to learn of this new employer to employee relationship, many left before these offers were completely off the lips of their former 'masters' - attesting to the varying conditions on the plantations and the realization of freedom. Even with nowhere to go, many felt that leaving the plantation would be their first grasp of freedom. North was a logical destination and for many it represented true freedom, while the desire to reach family members in neighboring states drove the some into Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Settling into these new areas as free men and women brought on new realities and the challenges of establishing a heretofore non-existent status for black people in America. Recounting the memories of that great day in June of 1865 and its festivities would serve as motivation as well as a release from the growing pressures encountered in their new territory. The celebration of June 19th was coined "Juneteenth" and grew with more participation from descendants. The Juneteenth celebration was a time for reassuring each other, for praying and for gathering remaining family members. Juneteenth continued to be highly revered in Texas decades later, with many former slaves and descendants making an annual pilgrimage back to Galveston on this date. [1]

*****

In all the non-slave-holding States, in violation of that good faith and comity which should exist between entirely distinct nations, the people have formed themselves into a great sectional party, now strong enough in numbers to control the affairs of each of those States, based upon the unnatural feeling of hostility to these Southern States and their beneficent and patriarchal system of African slavery, proclaiming the debasing doctrine of the equality of all men, irrespective of race or color--a doctrine at war with nature, in opposition to the experience of mankind, and in violation of the plainest revelations of the Divine Law. They demand the abolition of negro slavery throughout the confederacy, the recognition of political equality between the white and the negro races, and avow their determination to press on their crusade against us, so long as a negro slave remains in these States.

For years past this abolition organization has been actively sowing the seeds of discord through the Union, and has rendered the federal congress the arena for spreading firebrands and hatred between the slave-holding and non-slave-holding States. [2]

1. History of Juneteenth, Juneteenth dot com

2. DECLARATION OF CAUSES: February 2, 1861

A declaration of the causes which impel the State of Texas to secede from the Federal Union.

Texas State Library and Archive Commission

Note: A search for "slave" finds 21 references to "slave", "slave-holding" and "slavery." A search for African yields "African", "African race" and "African slavery", for which are the following associated, clear expressions that had nothing at all to do with the nebulous "states rights" dodge:

We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable.

Tears for the Baobab...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on June 18, 2018 at 5:16am

GIF image from Nature. The African baobab is one of the continent’s most recognizable tree species. Credit: Hougaard Malan/naturepl.com

Topics: Biology, Climate Change, Ecology, Existentialism

Africa’s iconic baobab trees are dying, and scientists don’t know why. In a study intended to examine why the trees are so long-living, researchers made the unexpected finding that many of the oldest and largest of the trees have died in the past decade or so.

The African baobab tree (Adansonia digitata) is the oldest living flowering plant, or angiosperm, and is found in the continent’s tropical regions. Individual trees — which can contain up to 500 cubic metres of wood — can live for more than 2,000 years. Their wide trunks often have hollow cavities, and their high branches resemble roots sticking up into the air.

The researchers — who published their findings in Nature Plants on 11 June — set out to use a newly developed radiocarbon-dating technique to study the age and architecture of the species. Usual tree-ring dating methods are not suitable for baobabs, because their trunks do not necessarily grow annual rings.

The trees’ ages were previously attributed to their size, and in local folklore, baobabs are often described as being old, says study author Adrian Patrut, a radiochemist at Babeş-Bolyai University in Romania.

Africa’s majestic baobab trees are mysteriously dying, Sarah Wild, Nature

Nanomaterials and the Final Frontier...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on June 14, 2018 at 5:00am

Nanomaterials take on the many extremes of space. Courtesy: Shutterstock/Sergey Nivens

Topics: Applied Physics, Nanotechnology, NASA, Space Exploration, Spaceflight

Rocket science often seems to typify state-of-the-art technology. The extreme conditions of take-off, landing and space itself, the exacting specifications of the instrumentation required for rocket control and scientific data collection, and the costs per unit mass for launching the rocket would seem to leave no room for mediocrity. With their enhanced multifunctional properties nanomaterials offer a lot of bang per kilo for missions. Physics World Materials looks at what nanomaterials can offer to protect against the elements in space.

To merit incorporation in a billion-dollar space mission, new technologies need to deliver more than just a promise of enhanced functionality. The properties of new materials and the impact of their use on all other aspects of the space equipment need to be reliably defined. As Jamshid A Samareh and Emilie J Siochi from NASA’s Langley Research Center emphasize in a recent review, a key factor preventing greater uptake of nanomaterials in space missions has been a lack of a deep understanding of their behaviour within the complex and sophisticated systems of spacecraft. “The barrier is understanding the measurable benefits over materials that are currently being used – especially when you have to trade risk and cost with current paradigms,” says Emilie Siochi, senior materials scientist in the Advanced Materials and Processing Branch at NASA Langley Research Center in Virginia, USA. As for the electronics used, Meyya Meyyappan Chief Scientist for Exploration Technology at Ames Research Center points out that making sure the radiation tolerance and packaging meet requirements can preclude adoption of “the state-of-the-art”. Scaling up production from lab levels to the volumes needed for a rocket can also compromise the nanomaterial properties that recommended their use in the first place, deterring uptake.

Despite the overarching caution in space technology the lure remains for harnessing nanomaterials to take on the challenges of blasting free from Earth intact, facing the furnace of take-off and the chill of outer space, as well as the cosmic cocktail of radiation exposure. And there are a growing number of nanomaterials whose manufacture and device application has reached a level of maturity that allows for a valuable contribution in aerospace missions.

Can nanomaterials take on the extremes of space? Anna Demming, Physics World

MiniBooNe...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on June 13, 2018 at 7:23am

Inside the MiniBooNE tank, photodetectors capture the light created when a neutrino interacts with an atomic nucleus. Reidar Hahn / Fermilab

Topics: Neutrinos, Particle Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Theoretical Physics

Physicists are both thrilled and baffled by a new report from a neutrino experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago. The MiniBooNE experiment has detected far more neutrinos of a particular type than expected, a finding that is most easily explained by the existence of a new elementary particle: a “sterile” neutrino that’s even stranger and more reclusive than the three known neutrino types. The result appears to confirm the anomalous results of a decades-old experiment that MiniBooNE was built specifically to double-check.

The persistence of the neutrino anomaly is extremely exciting, said the physicist Scott Dodelson of Carnegie Mellon University. It “would indicate that something is indeed going on,” added Anže Slosar of Brookhaven National Laboratory.

As for what, no one can say.

The existence of a sterile neutrino would revolutionize physics from the smallest to the largest scales. It would finally break the Standard Model of particle physics that has reigned since the 1970s. It would also demand “a new standard model of cosmology,” Dodelson said. “There are other potential cracks in the standard picture,” he added. “The neutrino paradox could point our way to a new, better model.”

Neutrinos are tiny particles that pass through our bodies by the billions each second but seldom interact. They constantly oscillate between three known types, or “flavors,” called electron, muon and tau. The MiniBooNE experiment shoots a beam of muon neutrinos toward a giant oil tank. On the way to the tank, some of these muon neutrinos should transform into electron neutrinos at a rate determined by the difference in mass between the two. MiniBooNE then monitors the arrival of electron neutrinos, which produce characteristic flashes of radiation on the rare occasions when they interact with oil molecules. In its 15-year run, MiniBooNE has registered a few hundred more electron neutrinos than expected.

The simplest explanation for the surprisingly high number is that some muon neutrinos are oscillating into a different, heavier, fourth kind of neutrino — a sterile one, meaning it never interacts with anything that isn’t a neutrino — and that some of these heavy sterile neutrinos then oscillate into electron neutrinos. The greater mass difference prescribes a higher rate of oscillations and more detections.

Evidence Found for a New Fundamental Particle, Natalie Wolchover, Quanta Magazine

Martian Molecules...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on June 12, 2018 at 5:30am

Self portrait of Curiosity Rover at a drilling site on Mars. The drilled hole can be seen on the Martian surface. This location was not part of this latest study. (Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

Topics: Biology, Exoplanet, Mars, NASA, Space Exploration, Spaceflight

Organic molecules have been found in ancient rocks under the surface of Mars. The discovery was made by NASA’s Curiosity Rover by drilling into mudstone that was laid down 3.5 bn years ago at the bottom of a Martian lake. The molecules found include sulphur-rich thiophenes, aromatic hydrocarbons, such as benzene, and aliphatic hydrocarbons such as propane.

While the presence of these molecules does not prove that life once existed on the red planet, the discovery suggests that conditions on Mars could have been like those here on Earth when life first emerged more than 3 bn years ago.

The discovery is reported in the journal Science by NASA’s Jennifer Eigenbrode and an international team of scientists. They used Discovery’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument to examine samples that had been gathered from Mars’ Gale crater using a drill that can probe 5 cm below the surface.

SAM works by heating rock samples to release any organic compounds that may be present. The emitted gases are then analysed using a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer and a laser spectrometer.

This is not the first time that Curiosity has detected organic molecules, but previous measurements were considered unreliable because of possible sample contamination and unwanted chemical reactions.

Organic molecules found in ancient Martian rocks, Hamish Johnston, Physics World

#P4TC links:

Martian Blueberries...September 17, 2012

Yesterday, on Mars...December 10, 2013

Mars, Molecules and Methane...December 17, 2014

This Fascism...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on June 8, 2018 at 5:54pm

Topics: Commentary, Existentialism, History, Politics

Note: Originally planned for next Friday. Due to current circumstance, this post was moved up.

Fascism, political ideology and mass movement that dominated many parts of central, southern, and eastern Europe between 1919 and 1945 and that also had adherents in western Europe, the United States, South Africa, Japan, Latin America, and the Middle East. Europe’s first fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, took the name of his party from the Latin word fasces, which referred to a bundle of elm or birch rods (usually containing an ax) used as a symbol of penal authority in ancient Rome. Although fascist parties and movements differed significantly from one another, they had many characteristics in common, including extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the rule of elites, and the desire to create a Volksgemeinschaft (German: “people’s community”), in which individual interests would be subordinated to the good of the nation. At the end of World War II, the major European fascist parties were broken up, and in some countries (such as Italy and West Germany) they were officially banned. Beginning in the late 1940s, however, many fascist-oriented parties and movements were founded in Europe as well as in Latin America and South Africa. Although some European “neofascist” groups attracted large followings, especially in Italy and France, none were as influential as the major fascist parties of the interwar period. Source: Britannica dot com/fascism

“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.”

― Benito Mussolini (attributed with dispute) Good reads

In his dystopian novel, "The Man in the High Castle," Philip K. Dick (1962 book and current Amazon series) envisioned a world where the Axis powers won WWII. The only mention of Italy is Germany helped them conquest most of North Africa. The new world order seventeen years after the war divided what was America into territories dominated by Germany on the east coast, Japan on the pacific west coast and a lawless, Midwest "no man's land." Each dominant group considers itself the "master race," and contests over possession of "the Heisenberg device," what the atomic bomb might have been called had America not succeeded at the Manhattan Project. Except for a lot of chutzpah and good luck, this was almost the case. The Normandy Invasion almost didn't happen, or could have been a disastrous failure. It shaped the current world that through tweet and tariffs on our allies we see crumbling around us.

Highly esteemed corporations like International Business Machines, Charles and David Koch's father, Fred did business directly with Germany and Russia during and after the conflict. African Americans, Asians, Hispanic/Latinos and Native American "code talkers" fought and died along with their segregated, dominated fellows not for "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," but a choice of evils: for people of color, the Second World War was no different than the first. Two racist nations were at war with each other, and POC made a "choice": lynchings, or ovens. Eugenics was born on these shores, and inspired Adolf Hitler and the National Socialists' darkest imaginations. Before the 2016 elections, the US right had given up on democracy and lauded Vladimir Putin. Their fears of being numerically irrelevant circa 2042 might plant the seeds in a fresh soil of feces and collusion. All prior pretense of piety and "values" are gone now.

Ironically, Charlie Chaplin thought Adolf Hitler was one of the greatest actors he’d ever seen.

In 1940, Charlie wrote, directed, and produced The Great Dictator, his first talking movie. Producers didn’t want to rock the boat with Germany and Italy; they tried to keep the movie from being released. Hollywood producers were also afraid Chaplin’s movie might damage foreign relations and hurt the Jewish population in Europe.

On the other hand, President Franklin D. Roosevelt thought it was a very important movie and assured Charlie that he’d see to it that the movie was released.

Chaplin produced the movie entirely with his own money. He created The Great Dictator to instigate laughter at Hitler–to show the world the Nazi party didn’t count. Chaplin discounted the Nazi party while challenging Hitler’s dictatorship, not knowing the atrocities taking place at the hands of Hitler and the Nazi party.

When Chaplin became aware of the death and destruction in Europe, he edited his movie to reflect on issues that were more serious. Charlie thought if he could talk from his heart in his movie, he might have an effect on shortening the war; therefore, he was constantly rewriting the script in order to be able to develop something profound to say to his motion picture viewers.

The Nazi party thought Charlie Chaplin was Jewish though there wasn’t any record that he was, or wasn’t. They created anti-Jewish newsreels based on Chaplin’s visit to Berlin. They called him a ‘disgusting Jewish acrobat.’ Source: Healthy Habits, George Zapo

Sometime monsters are first seen as jokes.

They may master the current medium of the times (radio, Twitter) and gain the attention of millions. Through celebrity, brashness and blatant racism, they may command a cult following. For fear of being numerical minorities, globalization and supposed mediocrity, some have sold their souls to a Russian devil. Election parties post a questionable "election" may include colorful mob characters named Joey No Socks. Democratic norms whither under their ceaseless attacks on the rule of law, PRETENDING to be the rule of law while daily breaking many, along with crimes against humanity.

Sometimes monsters are first seen as jokes.

Before the ovens were fired, the undesirable are sequestered in ghettos, segregated from the rest of "us"; children locked away in an abandoned Walmart.

Sometime monsters are first seen as jokes...until the first ovens are fired.

The only product hate can ultimately produce...is death.

Apropos...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 28, 2018 at 1:42pm

Topics: Civil Rights, History, Human Rights, Memorial Day

Memorial Day is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May, honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Memorial Day 2018 occurs on Monday, May 28. Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings and participating in parades. Unofficially, it marks the beginning of the summer season. Link: History.com

I am a United States Air Force veteran, and a proud member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. as is Colin Kaepernick. A leaked audio revealed why my fraternity brother has effectively been black-balled by NFL owners, cowards all from a charlatan tweeter who's net worth any ONE of them eclipses, the living epitome of a studio gangster.

It is befitting to remember why Colin "took a knee." It has nothing to do with disrespect for a flag, itself a symbol of a nation that has disrespected our contributions as citizens from its inception, when we weren't considered full citizens at all:

I'm going to be offline, a week or two to get together a review paper. I will go back online either 5 or 12 June, both Tuesdays, depending on how well my paper progresses.

La Cosa Nostra...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 25, 2018 at 7:47am

CBS News Almanac: Al Capone

Topics: Commentary, Existentialism, Politics

Cosa nostra is an Italian phrase for 'our thing'. It is exclusively used to describe Italian and Italian-American Mafia organization. It can sometimes be described as La Cosa Nostra. See: Answers.com

The Sopranos was a ground-breaking series about an Italian-American crime family. Played flawlessly by the late James Gandolfini and set in New Jersey, Tony Soprano tried to be a "good family man" while running "his [Mafia] thing." Unlike our draft-dodging, wimp wanna-be-gangster-in-chief, Tony had the presence of mind to seek psychiatric help to deal with..."job-related stress."

"Our thing"...it's the only thing that explains the wise-guy tactics, the implicit loyalty pledges (denied, or not), paying off Playboy centerfolds, adult film stars and 81% of morally righteous, tell-everyone-else-how-to-live white evangelicals (or, evil-gelicals) being OK with "grab 'em by the p." Every "presidential* address" - if you want to call it that - is an intellectual incubus/succubus assault, draining the life out of any modicum of rationality, or common sense you may possess. DNA telomeres and thus human lifespans dwindle by the time he's finished a complete sentence...which is rare!

The last night of the RNC was like “The Dark Knight Returns”: the world was essentially a shit show like Gotham, and Batman screamed for 75 minutes incoherent, semi form, hand-tossed Word Salad anointing himself Bruce-Wayne-Almighty-Cheetos-Jesus savior of the planet by the strength of his will alone (no cool gadgets – just a Galaxy Smart Phone and a twitter handle he misspells as he jacks off on almost daily). The Bat’s bravery was previously demonstrated during his selfless sacrificed Vietnam five deferments to let others more worthy die in his place. See: Party of Apocalypse

His business failures are myriad, but that doesn't stop a good conman, seemingly determined to enter the Guinness Book of World Records for Olympic-level lying. Truth is as flexible as his bowels are loose, the muse for most of his twitter postings, as that can be the only valid reason a septuagenarian is up at wee hours of the morning to electronically defecate his first thoughts from tiny hands and fingers into a cyberspace toilet. The epitome of double entendre.

The North Korean summit - after commemorative plaque, self-congratulation and chants of "Nobel" by his bewildered herd cult following - was canceled. The "Libyan model" was touted by those in his cabinet that have never seen a war they didn't like OTHER people's children fighting for profit. I guess those vast negotiation skills of being a rude prick in New York City doesn't play well on the world stage. Some of his Reddit cult considered him "god emperor" once-upon-a-time. I wonder if they've sobered up now?

This is a buffoon. His narcissism doesn't allow him to admit his ineptitude or incompetence. In his twisted mind, he's a big boss on the level of Al Capone; a dark, political genius equivalent to Hitler or Pol Pot. He's more like a lapdog underling salivating at the Kingpin in Russia he'd one day like to be (and never will). Fredo Corleone has the nuclear codes, and apparently is unraveling from what little grip on sanity he ever had. He's more a poor man's idea of what a rich man looks like after a night chugging Mad Dog 20/20, followed by shots of Tequila. He's only genius on spreading lies, innuendo and birther racist nonsense. His signature "semi form, hand-tossed" signaling of balsa wood stick planes to runways between the Propecia strands on his toupee doesn't make him anymore "tough" looking than his five military deferments. His staffer's crass denigration of Senator John McCain's brush with cancer and wartime sacrifice goes un-apologized, or fired for.

On this auspicious occasion of our "reality TV" president*, with the controversy over NFL players now being fined for kneeling at games - violating their First Amendment Rights to free speech, may I suggest a new, more apropos National Anthem, since the old one does talk about slavery in the third stanza, along with the second, we don't sing? (Hey - it's "our thing"):

Space, Time and Quanta...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 24, 2018 at 9:29pm

Credit: Chris Gash

Topics: Astrophysics, Black Holes, Einstein, Quantum Mechanics, Relativity

Physicists believe that at the tiniest scales, space emerges from quanta. What might these building blocks look like?

People have always taken space for granted. It is just emptiness, after all—a backdrop to everything else. Time, likewise, simply ticks on incessantly. But if physicists have learned anything from the long slog to unify their theories, it is that space and time form a system of such staggering complexity that it may defy our most ardent efforts to understand.

Albert Einstein saw what was coming as early as November 1916. A year earlier he had formulated his general theory of relativity, which postulates that gravity is not a force that propagates through space but a feature of spacetime itself. When you throw a ball high into the air, it arcs back to the ground because Earth distorts the spacetime around it, so that the paths of the ball and the ground intersect again. In a letter to a friend, Einstein contemplated the challenge of merging general relativity with his other brainchild, the nascent theory of quantum mechanics. That would not merely distort space but dismantle it. Mathematically, he hardly knew where to begin. “How much have I already plagued myself in this way!” he wrote.

Einstein never got very far. Even today there are almost as many contending ideas for a quantum theory of gravity as scientists working on the topic. The disputes obscure an important truth: the competing approaches all say space is derived from something deeper—an idea that breaks with 2,500 years of scientific and philosophical understanding.

A kitchen magnet neatly demonstrates the problem that physicists face. It can grip a paper clip against the gravity of the entire Earth. Gravity is weaker than magnetism or than electric or nuclear forces. Whatever quantum effects it has are weaker still. The only tangible evidence that these processes occur at all is the mottled pattern of matter in the very early universe—thought to be caused, in part, by quantum fluctuations of the gravitational field.

Black holes are the best test case for quantum gravity. “It's the closest thing we have to experiments,” says Ted Jacobson of the University of Maryland, College Park. He and other theorists study black holes as theoretical fulcrums. What happens when you take equations that work perfectly well under laboratory conditions and extrapolate them to the most extreme conceivable situation? Will some subtle flaw manifest itself?

What Is Spacetime? George Musser, Scientific American

Tea Leaves and Quantum Dots...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 23, 2018 at 10:05am

Image Source: EurekAlert!

Topics: Biology, Biomedicine, Cancer, Nanotechnology, Quantum Dots

We now have a clean, cheap way of manufacturing quantum dots, an advanced, microscopic tool that scientists are learning how to use to enhance everything from solar panels to cancer treatments. All they needed was green tea leaf extract, along with a couple other chemicals.

But let’s back up, because that’s a lot to take in. Quantum dots are a kind of nanoparticle that span from two to five nanometers.

In the past, synthesizing these quantum dots was cost and waste-intensive, but a team out of Wales’ Swansea University found a way to create quantum dots from Camellia sinensis leaf extract, which is the same plant from which green and black tea are brewed. Using tea leaf extract instead of conventional ingredients meant the manufacturing process was non-toxic and cost effective. The same team also found that their quantum dots could penetrate the tiny pores on the outer membrane of skin cancer cells and stopped the growth of 80 percent of the cancerous cells in a lab sample.

Quantum Dots Synthesized From Tea Leaves Could Be The Future Of Nanomedicine

Dan Robitzski, Futurism

Graphene Mirabilis...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 22, 2018 at 12:40pm

Illustration: Nanotools Bioscience

Topics: Biology, Cancer, Graphene, Nanotechnology, Research

See: "Annus mirabilis" at Wikipedia for the cultural reference.

Shine light on human heart cells cultured on graphene and they beat faster. Shine light on zebrafish embryos with graphene flakes injected in their hearts, and the contraction of that organ speeds up.

That’s what scientists at the University of California San Diego reported today in the journal Science Advances, in a discovery they say has implications for everything from drug testing to pacemakers.

“Sometimes discoveries happen due to serendipity,” says Alex Savchenko, a biophysics researcher at the university, who led the discovery with Elena Molokanova at the San Diego-based startup Nanotools Bioscience. “In this case we were controlling what we wanted to achieve all the way through the experiment.”

Graphene, the wonder material composed of single atom-thick sheets of carbon, has been a focus of excitement and feverish development ever since some of its properties were first demonstrated, in 2004, by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, both now at the University of Manchester.

One of graphene’s many talents is that it can convert light into electricity. Savchenko and his colleagues hypothesized that the electricity generated by graphene could also stimulate human cells.

After honing the graphene formulation and trying out different types of light, Savchenko’s team managed to do what they set out to do: They built a gentle remote control for cell growth. Call it an opto-graphene stimulator.

Gif: Nanotools Bioscience This video shows heart cells being manipulated by an optical graphene stimulator.

Graphene Stimulator Paves Way for Optical Pacemakers, Smart Opioids, and Electronic Cancer Killers

Emily Waltz, Spectrum IEEE

Kilauea Prognostication...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 21, 2018 at 8:05am

Debris came rocketing out of Kilauea during the steam eruption on 17 May.Credit: USGS-HVO

Topics: Geophysics, Earthquake, Research, Stochastic Modeling

After weeks of unleashing earthquakes and lava flows that have forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes, Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano has finally blown its top. Because Kilauea is one of the best-monitored volcanoes in the world, scientists hope that data on the event will help them to better predict when similar volcanoes are about to erupt.

“We’ll be working on this set of data for our careers,” says Michael Poland, a geophysicist at the US Geological Survey (USGS) Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Washington.

The USGS says that the eruption began at 4:15 am local time on 17 May, when the volcano sent a plume of ash and steam more than 9,100 metres into the air.

The many instruments on and around Kilauea were watching. The volcano bristles with equipment that continuously measures signs of geological activity, such as ground movement, lava chemistry and seismic vibrations.

The first hint of an impending eruption came with a series of earthquakes on 3 May. Soon after, fissures opened up in the ground as far as 40 kilometres away from the volcano’s rim — oozing lava that forced about 2,000 people to evacuate. The openings also depressurized the network of underground channels beneath Kilauea, including its lava chamber. As a result, the lava level within the volcano's crater quickly dropped by more than 30 metres. It was, Poland says, “like someone pulled the plug in a bathtub”.

Hawaii volcano eruption holds clues to predicting similar events elsewhere

Sara Reardon, Nature

A Dark Calculus...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 18, 2018 at 6:30am

Comic Book dot com: Infinity War, Slide 9/11 (ominously)

Topics: Civil Rights, Commentary, Existentialism, History, Human Rights, Science Fiction

If you haven't read the comic, or seen Avengers: Infinity War, disengage now...

Thanos

Thanos is a fictional villain in the Marvel Universe. He's a Titan, he apparently has an Infinity Gauntlet to harness the power of magic stones that thankfully don't exist, and from his making Hulk hide in his Bruce Banner persona (as in, not coming out after the EPIC beat down), he's one bad dude, especially with the whole snapping 50% of all life everywhere out of existence (you were warned).

Have no fear: some kismet gumbo-jumbo will bring most of the heroes back (especially the ones without expiring contracts and pending movies on the docks).

He's also apparently an intergalactic economist, as his beef is there are too many people in the universe (HOW he would come to know this is a mystery), and too few resources. It reminded me of a chap in our own terrestrial history.

Malthus

Thomas Robert Malthus was an English cleric and scholar, influential in the fields of political economy and demography. In his 1798 book An Essay on the Principle of Population, Malthus observed that an increase in a nation's food production improved the well-being of the populace, but the improvement was temporary because it led to population growth, which in turn restored the original per capita production level. In other words, mankind had a propensity to utilize abundance for population growth rather than for maintaining a high standard of living, a view that has become known as the "Malthusian trap" or the "Malthusian spectre". Populations had a tendency to grow until the lower class suffered hardship and want and greater susceptibility to famine and disease, a view that is sometimes referred to as a Malthusian catastrophe. Malthus wrote in opposition to the popular view in 18th-century Europe that saw society as improving and in principle as perfectible. He saw population growth as being inevitable whenever conditions improved, thereby precluding real progress towards a Utopian society: "The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man". As an Anglican cleric, Malthus saw this situation as divinely imposed to teach virtuous behaviour. From Wikipedia

Now note National Security Study Memorandum 200, often cited by anti-abortion rights activists as evidence of a global cabal to sacrifice children on Moloch's altar:

National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests (NSSM200) was completed on December 10, 1974 by the United States National Security Council under the direction of Henry Kissinger.

It was adopted as official US policy by US President Gerald Ford in November 1975. It was classified for a while but was obtained by researchers in the early 1990s.

The basic thesis of the memorandum was that population growth in the least developed countries (LDCs) is a concern to US national security, because it would tend to risk civil unrest and political instability in countries that had a high potential for economic development. The policy gives "paramount importance" to population control measures and the promotion of contraception among 13 populous countries to control rapid population growth which the US deems inimical to the socio-political and economic growth of these countries and to the national interests of the United States since the "U.S. economy will require large and increasing amounts of minerals from abroad" and the countries can produce destabilizing opposition forces against the US.

It recommends for US leadership to "influence national leaders" and that "improved world-wide support for population-related efforts should be sought through increased emphasis on mass media and other population education and motivation programs by the UN, USIA, and USAID."

Thirteen countries are named in the report as particularly problematic with respect to US security interests: India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Turkey, Nigeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil. The countries are projected to create 47 percent of all world population growth. Wikipedia

We have winnowed down from: too many people in the universe, to too many of lower classes - a "Malthusian catastrophe" - to finally, too many of a "certain type" of people (blessed with an abundance of Melanin). And when you've created a canopy economical system, you have to somehow differentiate yourselves from the riffraff on the forest floors of the world, especially when your group has all the diamonds, rubies, gold and land. Physical characteristics are a no-brainer: that gets the bewildered herds acting tribal, and not thinking about how the "system is [actually] rigged"...against them. Infighting, bickering; shouting slogans are all to the benefit of the uber-class that purchase politicians like we do laundry detergent pods, and comfortably get insanely richer than any caricature we've ever had of Scrooge McDuck.

"Occam’s razor, also spelled Ockham’s razor, also called law of economy or law of parsimony, principle stated by the Scholastic philosopher William of Ockham (1285–1347/49) that pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate, “plurality should not be posited without necessity.” The principle gives precedence to simplicity: of two competing theories, the simpler explanation of an entity is to be preferred. The principle is also expressed as “Entities are not to be multiplied beyond necessity.”" Britannica online/Occam's razor

It may be why sensible gun control in the US is so elusive, and gun violence in Chicago is thrown in our faces, while gun violence at Parkland et al though tragic, only solicits "thoughts and prayers." It may be why the US invests in for-profit prisons; or now sees opioid dependence as crisis, and crack cocaine as criminal. It may be as simple as faux societal demarcations generated by a psychotic Politburo to manipulate a powerless Proletariat. It may be as simple as a crass, Malthusian distribution of resources upwards, not caring about the rest of the species, and no clear plan "B" when the ecosystem the selfish ones are also a part of, comes apart and reduces their wealth from the Law of Entropy, to meaningless rubble...

** ..."Snap"... **

The Fruits of Their Labors...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 17, 2018 at 7:51am

Topics: Civics, Commentary, Existentialism, Research

It has finally happened. The inevitable was likely to come. As we've celebrated stupidity as a virtue (hell, we somehow let a foreign power put an imbecile with the attention span of a gnat, and has taken pathological lying to Olympic levels in charge of the nuclear codes), it was most assuredly going to be reflected in the data:

The US’s dominance in scooping Nobel prizes for work in the natural sciences could be nearing an end, according to a new analysis of previous winners. Carried out by physicist Claudius Gros from the Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, it also finds that the UK has won the most Nobel prizes per capita, with Germany coming second and the US a close third (R. Soc. Open Sci. 5 180167).

Since they were first awarded in 1901, scientists who are nationals of the US, the UK, Germany and France have won the most Nobel prizes in physics, chemistry, and physiology or medicine. Around 120 laureates have been American, 40 British, 40 German and 20 French. To determine Nobel-prize productivity, however, Gros factored out population size, particularly given that the US population has more than quadrupled from 76 million in 1901 to 327 million today.

Of course, the laborers will deny it, pious and humble in their efforts to denigrate science, scandalize research, question reality, facts, data: try to morally equivocate between evolution and (not) "intelligent design." We have been on this anti-intellectual Primrose Path since the Scopes Monkey trials. A select segment of the species here in America made denial of facts a staple of membership to the cult, and find they have a political voice in a bipolar tweeting, carnival-barking avatar. As Dr. Gros continues:

Gros found that the US’s productivity peaked in 1972 at 0.83 Nobel prizes per year and per 100 million inhabitants. He says that the most striking element of the US data is the continued downward trend. Since 1972 its success rate has fallen by 60% to 0.34 Nobel prizes per year and per 100 million inhabitants, and it is still dropping. “On a per capita basis, the US’s era is definitively coming to an end,” Gros told Physics World. “Within 12 years the US science Nobel prizes productivity should fall by another 50%.”

That will put us down to 0.17 per 100 million inhabitants by 2030, when the population should be: 327,000,000*e^(0.02*18) = 468,698,719 (from the Growth Formula: N = N_0*e^rt, r = growth/death rate of 0.02, t = time).

That's going to be a lot of mouths to feed and employ with fewer and fewer minds to generate new ideas, industries and thus, employment of the masses. Our slide from "exceptionalism" will inevitably follow.

Is the end in sight for US Nobel prize dominance? Culture, History and Society

Michael Allen, Physics World, Bristol, UK

58 Years to the Blue Ray...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 16, 2018 at 9:54am

Bright prospect: the first International Day of Light will be celebrated on 16 May. (Courtesy: iStock/RichLegg)

Topics: Applied Physics, Laser, Optical Physics, Photonics

This month sees the first International Day of Light. Wednesday 16 May was chosen because it is the anniversary of the first successful operation of the laser, as demonstrated by the American engineer and physicist Ted Maiman in 1960.

It’s a good choice, because the laser is a perfect example of how a scientific discovery can yield revolutionary benefits to society in all sorts of areas, including communications, healthcare and manufacturing. However, when I read the words “first successful operation of the laser” on the International Day of Light website (lightday.org), I had to look further, as it sounded like there might be more to the story.

I have spent most of my career working in photonics, optical communications and lighting, so I was already somewhat familiar with the laser’s history. However, the details still interested me. It turns out that although Maiman did indeed demonstrate the first working laser on 16 May 1960, he is not the only person with a reasonable claim to have “invented” the laser. The other is Gordon Gould, another US physicist who described “Some rough calculations on the feasibility of a LASER: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation” in his lab notebook in November 1957.

A day of light, James McKenzie, Physics World

A Clash of Theories...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 15, 2018 at 8:04am

Each universe in a multiverse contains different levels of dark energy, according to the dominant theory. STOLK/GETTY IMAGES

Topics: Astrophysics, Cosmology, Dark Energy, Multiverses, Theoretical Physics

A hypothetical multiverse seems less likely after modeling by researchers in Australia and the UK threw one of its key assumptions into doubt.

The multiverse concept suggests that our universe is but one of many. It finds support among some of the world’s most accomplished physicists, including Brian Greene, Max Tegmark, Neil deGrasse Tyson and the late Stephen Hawking.

One of the prime attractions of the idea is that it potentially accounts for an anomaly in calculations for dark energy.

The mysterious force is thought to be responsible for the accelerating expansion of our own universe. Current theories, however, predict there should be rather more of it around than there appears to be. This throws up another set of problems: if the amount of dark energy around was as much as equations require – and that is many trillions of times the level that seems to exist – the universe would expand so rapidly that stars and planets would not form – and life, thus, would not be possible.

The multiverse idea to an extent accounts for and accommodates this oddly small – but life-permitting – dark energy quotient. Essentially it permits a curiously self-serving explanation: there are a vast number of universes all with differing amounts of dark energy. We exist in one that has an amount low enough to permit stars and so on to form, and thus life to exist. (And we find ourselves here, runs the logic, because we couldn’t find ourselves anywhere else.)

So far, so anthropic. But now a group of astronomers, including Luke Barnes from the University of Sydney in Australia and Jaime Salcido from Durham University in the UK, has published two papers in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society that show the dark energy and star formation balance isn’t quite as fine as previous estimates have suggested.

Multiverse theory cops a blow after dark energy findings

Andrew Masterson, Cosmos Magazine

Induced Seismicity...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 14, 2018 at 8:07am

Mechanisms of induced seismicity Both wastewater injection and gas extraction can cause induced earthquakes. Detailed observations from the Midwestern United States and Groningen, Netherlands, show that in both cases, preexisting conditions in Earth's crust are of central importance

Topics: Alternative Energy, Earthquake, Geophysics, Green Energy

Since 2009, the Midwestern United States has seen a dramatic rise in earthquakes induced by human activities. Most of these events were caused by massive reinjection of wastewater produced during oil and gas extraction (1, 2). In February 2016, regulators in Oklahoma called for an injection rate reduction after several major events up to moment magnitude 5.8 (Mw 5.8) occurred. On the other side of the Atlantic, an unprecedented number of earthquakes has followed gas extraction from the Groningen field in the Netherlands (3). The Dutch government imposed production cuts after a Mw 3.6 event in August 2012 caused structural damage to houses. Intensive research of these two instances of induced seismicity points to contrasting mechanisms, but in both cases, the natural conditions prior to subsurface activities play a dominant part.

Fifty years ago, Healy et al. determined that fluid injection at depth causes the pore pressure to rise in a preexisting fault, reducing its strength and potentially leading to its failure (4). In contrast, fluid extraction at depth reduces the pore pressure, leading to compaction of the rock mass; the increased rock stress can drive a preexisting fault to failure. In both settings, the two factors that control induced earthquakes are operational parameters, such as the volume that is injected or produced, and natural conditions, such as the presence of preexisting faults and their ambient stress level. Operational parameters are often assumed to dominate, but that notion may reflect limited knowledge of the locations of preexisting faults and their ambient stress level. For regulatory measures to be effective in mitigating induced seismicity, it is crucial to understand the role of the natural conditions that existed before human activities.

How earthquakes are induced

Thibault Candela, Brecht Wassing, Jan ter Heege, Loes Buijze

Science