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Memorials, and Directions...

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Topics: African Americans, Civics, Civil Rights, Democracy, Existentialism, Human Rights

It's been a while since I've posted.

I've been busy at my federal work, a large part of it after rescinding all previous telework agreements. I am now commuting an hour and ten minutes to and from my work site five days a week, in good traffic. Some of my coworkers drive two and two-and-a-half hours one way, five days a week, four to five hours daily. It could be worse than it is.

Regardless, I'm exhausted, and that, per the OMB director, seems to be the point. However, recalling the sage wisdom of our ancestor, General Colin Powell:

"You need to understand, if you take out a government, take out a regime, guess who becomes the government and regime and is responsible for the country? You are. So if you break it, you own it."

Meaning (to me at least), the consequences of "traumatizing federal workers" will be felt in myriad ways. We are experiencing some of that ownership in how flights are no longer routine, safe, and guaranteed to land without spectacular crashes. Foreign countries and private entities are soliciting fired federal workers with Master's and PhDs with the assurance that their work will continue. There are legions of federal workers between your FEMA relief, your Social Security checks, and your VA benefits. Once this delicate balance of competency and bureaucracy is broken, it will take a generation to convince the best and brightest to consider federal work. For those who complain that federal workers are lazy or stupid, it may become a self-fulfilling prophecy as only the stupid will dare apply.

"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to a size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." Grover Norquist, Interview on NPR's Morning Edition, May 25, 2001. "Mission accomplished."

1865 to 1945 is 80 years, as is 1945 to 2025. At the end of the Second World War, my father was still a second-class citizen. Soldiers and sailors of color were offered "trade school," while their Anglo-Saxon counterparts were given the full GI Bill for education through their doctorates, VA loans to purchase homes, and build wealth. The inequality was built into the system my father had to endure, but he, and African American veterans like him, from Crispus Attucks to Colin Powell, have endured time and again, save this republic for the promissory note written in the Declaration of Independence: if "all men are [not] created equal," they should have stated so clearly from the nation's beginning. In 80 years of Civil Rights, led initially by African American veterans like Medgar Evers, we still struggle with this false hierarchy created in this country when Europeans became "white."

I have decided to limit posts to weekends, off the clock, as I am on this federal holiday.

I am still proud to be the son of Robert Harrison Goodwin. I am still proud of his service.

Happy Memorial Day, Pop.

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  • "Sinners" is a cinematic masterpiece that effortlessly blends humor, emotion, and music into an unforgettable experience. From start to finish, the film captivates with its superb acting and engaging performances. The plot is a rollercoaster of unexpected twists and turns, keeping the audience on their toes and eagerly anticipating what comes next. The soundtrack is nothing short of amazing, perfectly complementing the film's emotional highs and lows. Both the director and actors have done a phenomenal job in bringing this story to life. It's not often that a film makes you want to laugh, cry, rejoice and dance in one sitting. I wholeheartedly recommend watching "Sinners" for yourself to witness its brilliance firsthand.
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I am extremely honored that our blog Black Science Fiction Society Blog - https://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blogshas been selected as one of the Top 20 African American Book Blogs on the web. Currently we are number eight!

https://bloggers.feedspot.com/african_american_book_blogs/ This is the most comprehensive list of Top 20 African American Book Blogs on the internet and I'm honored to be a part of this! 1000 thanks for your gracious support! It is sincerely appreciated.

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Algebraic Analysis...

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Masaki Kashiwara—Abel Prize Laureate 2025. Peter Badge/Typos1/The Abel Prize

Topics: Abel Prize, Mathematics, Modern Physics, Research

Masaki Kashiwara, this year’s Abel Prize winner, co-founded a new field of mathematics called algebraic analysis.

One of the landmarks of Kyoto, the home of mathematician Masaki Kashiwara, is the Kamo River. At certain points, there are stepping stones that allow residents to cross the river away from the bridges. If you take a closer look at these stones, you can see how the water forms swirls and small eddies around them. Describing this flow of a liquid is not easy. You have to solve complicated equations that have been known for centuries but still pose many mysteries today: Do the equations always have a solution? How can they be calculated? And what properties do they have? It seems that mathematicians have reached a limit with the tools of their trade. To make progress, a new toolbox is needed. The Japanese mathematician Masaki Kashiwara developed such a toolbox for similarly difficult questions in the 1970s.

Kashiwara introduced proven methods from algebra into analysis—the theory underlying calculus that explores functions, limits, and other concepts—and, together with his colleagues, founded an entirely new branch of mathematics: algebraic analysis. This led to significant advances in various fields. For example, Kashiwara succeeded in solving one of the problems posed by mathematician David Hilbert in the early 20th century and developed new techniques that are now used in modern physics.

Kashiwara “has proved astonishing theorems with methods no one had imagined. He has been a true mathematical visionary,” read a recent press release from the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters, which honored him with this year’s Abel Prize—one of the highest honors in mathematics.

Kashiwara was born near Tokyo in 1947. He discovered his passion for mathematics at an early age through traditional Japanese puzzles known as tsurukamezan. These puzzles involve correctly calculating the number of cranes and turtles: Suppose x heads and y legs are visible. How many cranes and turtles are there? Kashiwara’s parents didn’t have much exposure to the abstract subject, but the young Masaki enjoyed solving this problem using algebraic methods.

Abel Prize Goes to Pioneer Whose ‘Math Toolbox’ Can Be Used to Describe the Natural World, Manon Bischoff, Gary Stix (Editor), Scientific American

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# Exciting News: We've Made the Top 100 Science Fiction Blogs!
Dear Readers,
I am thrilled to share some fantastic news with all of you! Our blog, **Black Science Fiction Society Blog**, has been recognized as one of the **Top 100 Science Fiction Blogs on the web** by FeedSpot! 🎉
This honor reflects our dedication to promoting diverse voices and stories within the science fiction community. We are incredibly grateful to the panelists at FeedSpot for this recognition and to all of you for your unwavering support.
You can check out the complete list of the **Top 100 Science Fiction Blogs** (https://bloggers.feedspot.com/science_fiction_blogs/).
### What This Means for Us
- **Increased Visibility**: Being featured on this list will help us reach a wider audience and connect with more fans of science fiction.
- **Collaboration Opportunities**: We are excited about the potential for new partnerships and collaborations that this recognition may bring.
Thank you for being a part of our journey. Stay tuned for more exciting content, and let’s continue to explore the vast universe of science fiction together!
Sincerely,
Dr. Jarvis Sheffield
Founder/Administrator
Black Science Fiction Society
info@BlackScienceFictionSociety.com
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I woke up this morning to find out that
AYELE NUBIAN WARRIOR #3 has been NOMINATED for the
East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention (ECBACC)
Glyph Award for BEST COMIC STRIP OR WEBCOMIC for 2025.

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Yo STIFF competition this season and not just in the category I am nominated for.
Best of Care to everyone nominated this year.
VOTE For ME Here:
https://www.ecbacc.com/gca-fan-award-voting.html

Then CHECK OUT my competition>>>


https://www.ecbacc.com/gcanominees2025.html

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Follow the link below and get the DIGITAL DOWNLOAD of AYELE NUBIAN WARRIOR #1
Comic Book for the Discounted price of $1.50 and immediately download to your Computer,
Phone or favorite Digital Device. SALE Ends MARCH 31, 2025
 
Purchase the Fantasy Sword and Soul DIGITAL Comic book that
introduces the LAND OF NUBIA and the people who reside in it.
ENJOY

Kiswahili Translations courtesy of Wanjiku Ngũgĩ.
Written and illustrated By CJ JUZANG
Lettering by AMG® FONTCRAFTERZ
Edited by JAY R. SCOTT
 
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Abyssinia Media Group®

is taking applications for Colorist/Moodologist for their title THE CONQUERING LION.
Follow the link below, fill out and submit your application.
THANKS for your love and patronage.

Applications found at the link below:

https://forms.gle/acj6QMrvQffMNrQm8

(POSTER ABOVE ILLUSTRATED BY CJ JUZANG, COLORED BY DAMALI BEATTY)

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MARCH MADNESS BRINGS

AMG® DIGITAL BOOK SALE!

 


Follow the link below and get the DIGITAL DOWNLOAD of AYELE NUBIAN WARRIOR #2 Comic Book for
the Discounted price of $1.50 and immediately download to your Computer, Phone or favorite Digital
Device. SALE Ends MARCH 31, 2025

Continuing the Fantasy Sword and Soul DIGITAL Comic book. Woman Warrior NJERI CHASIKU and twin
bodyguards MWANDO and NJONDO advance against the city-state of MAHOMA with a large force of TAJI
WARLORDS. Meanwhile, the hunt for BABU KARUME is continued by warrior wizard KAMBUI-BOMANI.
He has alot in his cape.
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ENJOY!

Written and illustrated By CJ JUZANG
Lettering by AMG® FONTCRAFTERZ
Edited by JAY R. SCOTT

https://amgmarket.etsy.com/listing/931115478

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Scaffolding and Gallium...

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A branching blood vessel network fabricated using the ESCAPE process to form complex tissues. This image shows the cell nuclei color-coded based on height.

Credit: Subramanian Sundaram, Boston University and Wyss Institute, Harvard University

Topics: 3D Printing, Additive Manufacturing, Biology, Tissue Engineering

The manufacturing technique known as 3D printing, now being used everywhere, from aircraft manufacturers to public libraries, has never been more affordable or accessible. Biomedical engineering has particularly benefited from 3D printing as prosthetic devices can be produced and tested more rapidly than ever before. However, 3D printing still faces challenges when printing living tissues, partly due to their complexity and fragility.

Now, with support from the U.S. National Science Foundation, a research team at Boston University (BU) and the Wyss Institute at Harvard University has pioneered the use of gallium, a metal that can be molded at room temperature, to create tissue structures in various shapes and sizes.

This innovative approach to fabrication, engineered sacrificial capillary pumps for evacuation (ESCAPE), was highlighted in a recent study published in Nature, where the team used gallium casts to mold biomaterials. The scaffolds left behind by these casts are then filled with cells cultured to form tissue structures. Vascular structures were some of the first produced using ESCAPE, particularly because of the challenges faced due to blood vessel complexity. Few techniques exist to build large (millimeter-scale) and small (micrometer-scale) structures in scaffolds made of natural materials, making this multiscale fabrication capability a novel approach.

"ESCAPE can be used on several tissue architectures, but we started with vascular forms because blood vessel networks feature many different length scales," said Christopher Chen, director of BU's Biological Design Center and senior author on the study. Chen is also the deputy director of CELL-MET, an NSF Engineering Research Center at BU funded by a $34 million award from NSF, and co-principal investigator on the award for the NSF Science and Technology Center for Engineering MechanoBiology at the University of Pennsylvania. "Our blood vessel demonstrations include trees with many branches, including dead ends and portions that experience fluid flow. This allows us to model a range of healthy structures as well as diseased abnormalities."

Biofabricating human tissues enhanced through use of gallium, National Science Foundation

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AMG MARCH MADNESS DIGITAL BOOK SALES!

MARCH MADNESS BRINGS

AMG® DIGITAL BOOK SALE!

 

Follow the link below and get the
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD of AYELE NUBIAN WARRIOR #3 Comic Book
for the Discounted price of $1.50 and immediately download
to your Computer, Phone or favorite Digital Device. SALE Ends MARCH 31, 2025


Continuing the Fantasy Sword and Soul Comic book. GIZA MGANGA has ruled for 4,000 seasons... nothing escapes his reach. Not even BABU KARUME, or AYELE NUBIAN WARRIOR. In MAHOMA, interruptions of a religious ceremony by TAJI WARLORDS begin to cause major problems within the MAHOMAN community.
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ENJOY!

Written and illustrated By CJ JUZANG

Lettering by AMG® FONTCRAFTERZ

Edited by JAY R. SCOTT

https://amgmarket.etsy.com/listing/1665526216

 

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March Madness...

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In 2012 the 1895 pastel-on-cardboard version fetched almost $120 million (£75 million) at Sotheby’s in New York (Credit: The Scream 1895/Edvard Munch)

Topics: Civics, Civil Rights, Civilization, Democracy, Existentialism, Fascism

An entry in Munch’s diary, dated 22 January 1892, recorded the inspiration for The Scream: “I was walking along the road with two friends – the sun went down – I felt a gust of melancholy – suddenly the sky turned a bloody red. I stopped, leaned against the railing, tired to death – as the flaming skies hung like blood and sword over the blue-black fjord and the city – my friends went on – I stood there trembling with anxiety – and I felt a vast infinite scream through nature.” -- What is the meaning of The Scream? Alastair Sooke, BBC, 3 March 2016

If you feel exhaustion from the weeks of nonsense, let me give you some perspective.

In my family, I've experienced two members of my family who had mental health issues. Both were older than me, so by age and station I wanted to afford them respect. One in particular had substance abuse issues. The other was my direct caretaker, as I was too young to have a key to our home. This person did the most bizarre things, like eating chips all day on a couch that attracted mice, the ones I could see scurrying under the couch. Asking why they would do that would engender a defensive argument where no cogent points of logic were used, just emotion, irrationality, and hutzpah. My substance abuse relative was my father's nephew, who couldn't live on his own, so when he got back from Vietnam, he retired to his old bedroom and abused alcohol. When he needed money to get more liquor, he would attack my aunt, and my father often had to intervene.

When you deal with individuals who have mental health issues, they exhaust you because you're constantly trying to get to a modicum of normalcy. You exhaust a considerable amount of brain power trying to come up with the argument, the "zinger" that will put the matter to rest, that will "win" an argument with a sociopath. You'd have better luck playing chess with Hannibal Lecter, hoping not to be in his next pâté.

It always comes to a head.

My cousin decided it was a great idea to break a beer bottle over my father's head. My cousin had the sudden, painful reminder (the hard way) that Pop was ranked Middle Weight Golden Gloves in the United States Navy in World War Two. It wasn't pretty.

My caretaker, in an argument with my mom and me, found a wooden mallet in an old toy tool chest I had and tried to hit my mother! I was big enough to put her in a "full Nelson" like I saw on the National Wrestling Federation. My caretaker was fired, and put on a bus to relatives in Washington. My mother gave me a key with the pronouncement "You're GROWN!" The next day, I opened the house to peaceful, and studious solitude.

Everything in this insanity will come to a head. Reality, whether beer bottle, mallet, new pandemic, war, recession, or depression, will have to be confronted. Gaslighting is the tool of an abuser, but it has zero effects on financial markets, or physics.

"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." -- James Baldwin

It will be exhausting, like the storm that hit North Carolina Wednesday: a small tornado touched down in Winston-Salem, there was a watch in Greensboro, and torrential rain where I was sitting in Durham. My three friends and I decided to stay inside and have lunch in the cafeteria. It was a wise choice. After the storms: sunlight and clear skies. As the BBC article eludes in bold and quotes, "We all scream." In confronting insanity, this is normal.

There will be a price for confrontation, and always a prize for confrontation.

Push to sunlight, clear skies past the storm, and off-year elections and midterms.

That is the meaning of "The Scream." We all scream, before sunlight, and clearer skies.

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Nano and Quantum...

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Topics: Materials Science, Nanomaterials, Phonons, Quantum Computers, Quantum Mechanics, Superconductors

Argonne researchers have developed a cutting-edge technique to study atomic vibrations near material interfaces, opening doors to new quantum applications in computing and sensing.

Scientists are racing to develop new materials for quantum technologies in computing and sensing for ultraprecise measurements. For these future technologies to transition from the laboratory to real-world applications, a much deeper understanding is needed of the behavior near surfaces, especially those at interfaces between materials. 

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have unveiled a new technique that could help advance the development of quantum technology. Their innovation, surface-sensitive spintronic terahertz spectroscopy (SSTS), provides an unprecedented look at how quantum materials behave at interfaces.

“This technique allows us to study surface phonons — the collective vibrations of atoms at a material’s surface or interface between materials,” said Zhaodong Chu, a postdoctoral researcher at Argonne and first author of the study. ​“Our findings reveal striking differences between surface phonons and those in the bulk material, opening new avenues for research and applications.”

In materials such as crystals, atoms form repeating patterns called lattices, which can vibrate in waves known as phonons. While much is understood about phonons in the bulk material, little is known about surface phonons — those occurring within nanometers of an interface. The team’s research reveals that surface phonons behave differently, enabling unique quantum behaviors such as interfacial superconductivity.

New nanoscale technique unlocks quantum material secrets, Joseph E. Harmon, Argonne National Laboratories

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Woolly Mouse...

The "woolly mouse" was developed by Colossal Biosciences by editing genes to give the mouse a bushier, thicker coat, akin to that of the extinct woolly mammoth. Colossal

Topics: Biology, Biotechnology, Research

Note: I had a pet hamster named "Woolly," that looked remarkably like this one. I'm sure cloning wasn't at this point decades ago. He sadly only lasted a little over a year.

The biotech company Colossal Biosciences has long aspired to bring back the extinct woolly mammoth, which roamed the Northern Hemisphere thousands of years ago, during the last ice age. But for now, as a step along the way, the company has come up with something decidedly less mammoth: meet the woolly mouse.

On Tuesday Colossal announced this lab-born animal, which features shaggy, mammothlike fur and has cold-adapted traits such as the way in which it stores and burns fat. Researchers retrieved and sequenced ancient mammoth DNA from preserved skin, bone and hair to learn which genes controlled traits such as coat color and cold tolerance. They altered the corresponding genes in lab mice and made other alterations in the rodents’ genome.

What was the purpose of this feat of genetic engineering? Colossal’s pitch is that, with biodiversity going the way of the dodo (which the company also hopes to resurrect), saving existing species will require tweaking their DNA to make them more resilient. The researchers at the company also claim that bringing back extinct species can help the environment. For example, they say mammoths can help fight climate change by tamping down Arctic permafrost, reducing how much of it is thawing and releasing methane into the atmosphere. Company co-founder and CEO Ben Lamm puts the approach in startling terms: “Why leave nature to chance?” In pursuit of such “de-extinction” goals, Colossal has raised hundreds of millions of dollars from celebrities to the CIA.

Company Seeking to Resurrect the Woolly Mammoth Creates a 'Woolly Mouse', Adam Popescu, Andrea Thompson, Scientific American


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Capturing Carbon...

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Climeworks’ Mammoth plant in Iceland, which began operations in May 2024. The plant removes carbon dioxide with direct air capture — one of the methods examined in APS’ latest report.

Topics: Applied Physics, Climate Change, Global Warming, Green Tech

Anthropologists believe our ancestors first used fire as a tool nearly two million years ago. Eventually, fire became a necessity for cooking and warmth. Then, 4,000 years ago, dwellers in modern-day northern China discovered a black rock that burned better than wood: coal.

Today, we mine and consume an estimated 8.8 billion metric tons (tons) of coal every year, among other fossil fuels, releasing into Earth’s atmosphere billions of tons of carbon that had been locked away in Earth’s crust for hundreds of millions of years. That carbon dioxide, we now know, is blanketing our planet — trapping heat, supercharging hurricanes and heat waves, and melting vast expanses of sea ice and glaciers.

As countries race to drive their annual greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, some are contemplating a different question: What can we do about the 1.5 trillion tons of carbon dioxide we’ve already added to our atmosphere?

On Jan. 27, APS released a new report, “Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Removal: A Physical Science Perspective,” that aims to answer this question. The four authors of the report — which was commissioned by the APS Panel on Public Affairs — are Washington Taylor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Jonathan Wurtele of the University of California, Berkeley, APS Past President Bob Rosner of the University of Chicago, and APS President-elect Brad Marston of Brown University.

The report summarizes the current state of available carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies and outlines recommendations for policymakers. Above all, the report emphasizes that in most cases, cutting current carbon emissions is easier and less costly than large-scale, engineered carbon dioxide removal efforts may ever be.

The daunting physics of carbon removal, American Physical Society, Liz Boatman

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