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Austin Comic Con and Writing Comics

Posted by Lady Foxglove on November 24, 2013 at 10:16pm

So you want to write comics! Well Austin Comic Con had a panel on that with Daniel O'Neil (Batman; Iron Man), Danny Fingeroth (Spiderman; Darkhawk), and Paul Benjamin (Pantheon High; Spiderman). So what did these veterans have to say about delving into comic book writing?

1. Do not be afraid to add details to your characters that may seems unimportant, especially if it adds to the plot because it shows how important that detail is to the character

2. Everything should stick to the spin of the story. Every scene or panel should move the plot along.

3. Don't get hung up on a title. It can always change. Give the story a title and move on; spend more time on developing the story. Finish the story as good as you can get it and then focus on naming it. Sometimes you find a title that inspires a story but usually the story comes first.

4. Establish conflict no later than the page 2. This is an archaic rule but it basically just means you need to establish conflict as early as possible in the story. This will hold your audience's attention.

5. You also want to keep ramping up the conflict as you go through the book. You should constantly be building and building. 

6. Cliff hangers are good!

7. Get characters talking as soon as possible to hold the audience's attention.

8. You've got to be ruthless! If it is not pertinent to the plot, cut it! If you are not attached to the character and they don't move the plot along, cut them out!!

9. Sometimes dialogue comes first before you figure out the action and that's fine.

Sounds good right?! What would you add?

Read more…

Austin Comic Con Panel: No Budget Filmmaking Summary

Posted by Lady Foxglove on November 24, 2013 at 10:01pm

One of the more interesting panels that I attended involved Jus Riddick, an actor, independent director, writer, and producer from Atlanta (now in L.A.) who is known for his feature length film Only in L.A. He provided some interesting tidbits for budding filmmakers who wanted to create but did not have the budget to do so! Here is what I gathered from the short panel:

1. Most important positions on screen to have apart from actors, writers, and director is

  • DP/Director of Photography (even better if he has his/her own camera)
  • Make up! More important that people think - go to film/make-up school to get free/low cost help
  • Sound guy!!! People will forgive grainy images but not bad sound!
  • Gaffer (I think I spelt this wrong) - Person who directs the lighting. 
  • First AD - This is the mum on set making sure everyone is where they need to be. he/she is extremely organized.
  • Visual effects depending on what you are filming
  • Production assistant

One person can play one or more of the roles listed above. Teaching yourself to do certain things will save you money!

2. Feed your crew home cooked meals - cheaper and they will thank you for it. People are willing to work for free if they are fed.

3. Never take budget into consideration during the writing stage. Write what you want to make! Someone may like it and fund it but if not, you can figured out what you need after you detail what you would like to do.

4. Location. Location. Location!! Use friend’s houses, use social media and emailing to find locations. You may get hits from people who want to help you.

Another a great source is craigslists. Even if your post gets removed, keep posting till you get what you need!

5. Interview people before you put them on your team! The more people you get the more you need to trust them. Make sure you gel with them creatively. Make sure they are friendly and humble! Don’t hire anyone blindly.

6. Resources: Mndy or Mandy.com; craigslist, staffmeup.com, shortfilmstexas.com << use these to find crew work, post what you are looking for, get actors etc.

7. Cameras: Canon, DSLR, Black magic camera - new one coming out that may be cheaper.

8. Highlighted this the most! Spend most of your time on pre-production! 

  • Plan everything out in detail!
  • First AD is involved in this process from the beginning
  • set list figured out, finding locations.

The more work you do at this stage, the less things can go wrong, the less money you will end up spending!

9. Utilize people from film school and film students. Some resources are available to them for free i.e. locations (they are fill out forms for you so you can get free locations), equipments, and knowledge.

10. Production Stage: Remember that something will always go wrong! You can’t do anything about this. This is why it is important to pick good people and plan in post production stage to avoid these issues!

For those seasoned filmmakers, what else would you add to this list?

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Sciences As One Would...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on November 24, 2013 at 10:30am

"The human understanding is no dry light, but receives infusion from the will and affections; whence proceed sciences which may be called 'sciences as one would.' For what a man had rather were true he more readily believes. Therefore he rejects difficult things from impatience of research; sober things, because they narrow hope; the deeper things of nature, from superstition; the light of experience, from arrogance and pride; things not commonly believed, out of the deference to the opinion of the vulgar. Numberless in short are the ways, and sometimes imperceptible, in which the affections color and infect the understanding." Sir Francis Bacon, NOVUM ORGANON (1620)

"A clairvoyance gap with adversary nations is announced, and the Central Intelligence Agency, under Congressional prodding, spends tax money to find out whether submarines in the ocean depths can be located by *thinking hard* at them."






Both quotes from "The Demon-Haunted World: Science As A Candle in the Dark," chapter 12 - "The Fine Art of Baloney Detection," Sir Francis Bacon's quote is in the chapter intro.



Sciences as one would: Sir Francis Bacon was part of Thomas Jefferson's "Trinity of Three Greatest Men." That simple fact of history is clouded by the David Barton's of the world that would have history as they would; science as they would and magical thinking as salvation.






This is the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. It's larger than I remember as a young boy. My elementary class visited it. It was a lot different then than this current photo. I'm not sure it was the faux conservative Steven Colbert referring to North Carolinian's as bumpkins or the documentary on climate change that caused its censor - or both.



This is Alayna Wyland:




The tumor on her innocent and beautiful 18-month-old face with its remainder of an eye, the result of zealous parents, apparently so invested in faith healing they put their child in jeopardy. Cosmetic surgery will reconstruct her face. She'll have to adjust her depth of focus; lateral vision for the rest of her days; a prosthetic versus a genetically-generated eye. Numerous other parents have similarly endangered their offspring as well (see the link).



For what a man had rather were true he more readily believes. Therefore he rejects difficult things from impatience of research; sober things, because they narrow hope; the deeper things of nature, from superstition; the light of experience, from arrogance and pride; things not commonly believed, out of the deference to the opinion of the vulgar.



There should be no need to rearrange recorded history for one's authoritarian whims. There should be no departure of critical thinking skills and science reason to push an agenda. There should be no endangerment of the environment, the planet, children, the geopolitical balance of nations...but, there appears to be a danger in this charade, essentially this "science as one would." An actual fabrication of facts appears to have addled a few of us; the casualties are young, old, all of us. Pray...and take your medicine. Pray...and go to the doctor. Bedouins had not the advantage of professionals certified by the AMA; priests gave up prognosticating weather conditions long ago. Learn real, not pseudoscience because its conclusions challenge your beliefs. A great many questions and motivations science is bereft of talents to handle: abolition, birth ceremonies, charity to the needy, last rites, The Underground Railroad, the March on Washington. I'm frustrated with modern-day Charlatans encouraging us all to chase chimeras outside of their lane of expertise, usually to sell a product of snake oil. 

 I've come to the sad conclusion from some exchanges with trolls on the Internet, firm residents in the dimension of the fantasy-based community that facts - those pesky things - don't really matter. This willful ignorance appears corporately and individually to affect us all as a species. We're in the life-threatening danger of "sciences as one would" and the "opinion of the vulgar," our common sense lost near the cereal box next to the AM talk radio blathering nonsensically nostalgic utopia.

 We've lost our baloney detection kits to our own peril.
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UCreateComics.com : Resource for Comic Book/Graphic Novel Writers & Artists

Posted by Lady Foxglove on November 23, 2013 at 11:46pm

Comic Con can be a mind bender in itself, with rows upon rows of artists, promoters, writers, creatives, and more! Not to mention the programming that is non-stop. I was lucky enough to be invited to listen to Donald Lanouette, a Canadian entrepreneur that has been working in the comic book industry for a long time. His most recent incarnation is as the founder of UCreateComics, an online platform that hopes to help writers and artists find an opportunity to build, grow, and promote their talent.

UCreateComics is a place for fans, writers, artists, and freelancers; and with 7,000 members it's a growing resources. It also clocks roughly 100,000 hits in traffic. Not bad for an independent endeavor. Donald had managed to raise a capital of around $1,000,000 to kickstart this company. His vision was simple: give artist a chance to get their first opportunity. UCreateComics has built relationships with independent publishing houses like Valiant and once they develop volume hope to connect with Marvel and DC Comics. They help distribute the created work in comic book stores all across the country.

So how does it work? Well there are monthly opportunities for artist to pitch their story via UCreateComics. Pitch100 is for graphic novels that are at least 90 pages but there are other non-graphic novel pitches. Donald stressed that graphic novels had longevity and allows artist to take their time with the creative process compared to monthly comic books. Candidates who pitch then garner a fanbase on the website and the most votes receive the opportunity of a $5,000 funding. For those who are writers not artists, UCreateComics helps the writer find an artist by creating a competition for artist to apply to. The winner is paired with a writer to help them develop the work.

Once the comic/novel starts selling, there is a 60-40 split between the artist and UCreateComics. This is because UCreate makes the product, help the writer refine the script, solicits artist bids, films, promotes/markets the item, and distributes. Freelancers are encouraged to join the platform for $70 a year, which allows them to enter competitions and build a fanbase. There is also a pay per pitch model where members can pitch their stories as many times as they want for $15 a pitch. This is an interesting platform and funding model, and may just be what the independent comic world needs in order to launch raw and relatively unknown talent.

https://www.ucreatecomics.com/

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Breaking The Rules...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on November 23, 2013 at 9:11am
UNUSUAL BONDS: Chemical bonds between cesium (Cs) and fluorine (F) might form with not just valence electrons, but inner-shell electrons as well under very high pressures, new calculations suggest.
Image: Maosheng Miao

A study suggests atoms can bond not only with electrons in their outer shells, but also via those in their supposedly sacrosanct inner shells






By Clara Moskowitz



Most of us learned in high school chemistry class that chemical bonds can only form when electrons are shared or given away from one atom’s outer shell to another’s. But this may not be strictly true. A chemist has calculated that under very high pressure not just the outer electrons but the inner ones, too, could form bonds.



Inside atoms, electrons are organized into energy levels, called shells, which can be thought of as buckets of increasing size that can each hold only a fixed number of electrons. Atoms prefer to have filled buckets, so if their outer shell is missing just one or two electrons, they are eager borrow form another atom that might have one or two to spare. But sometimes, a new study suggests, atoms can be incited to share not just their outer valence electrons, but those from their full inner shells. “It breaks our doctrine that the inner-shell electrons never react, never enter the chemistry domain,” says Mao-sheng Miao, a chemist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Beijing Computational Science Research Center in China. Miao predicted such bonds using so-called first-principles calculations, which rely purely on the known laws of physics, and reported his findings in a paper published September 23 in Nature Chemistry. Such bonding has yet to be demonstrated in a lab. Nevertheless, “I’m very confident that this is real,” he says. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.)
Scientific American: A Basic Rule of Chemistry Can Be Broken

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We Chose To Go...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on November 22, 2013 at 1:51pm

Mr. President,



We chose to go because you challenged us. I was barely a month on the planet when you spoke this dandelion seed into the wind. It culminated with a chemistry set, science kits, interrupted cartoons and "one small step for mankind." That seed of science made its landing on me in an urban neighborhood in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, a degree in physics and a career in science.

 Sadly, you didn't live to see its fulfillment, as is equally sad those that have reduced this technological achievement that set the modern electronics age; an accomplishment that riveted the WORLD'S attention into conspiracy theory in line with your own assassination, UFOs, the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot.

 Sadly, your successors have looked at science as anathema to national prosperity; they have clouded facts; created faux "controversies" tainting K-12 education to cater to the myopic view of a dwindling few who's choice of living in the darkness of ignorance is threatened by Darwin, Einstein, Feynman, Galileo, Hawking, Hubble, Krauss, Raizen, Sagan, Susskind, Tyson, Weinberg. Depressingly, this ignorance is foisted upon us by elected officials more interested in their personal enrichment and retirements than doing the business of the nation.

 I will always remember you for this...when your words, your vision for this nation's science sagacity was so clearly set.

 You...are...missed...



From the You Tube page this embed originates (part of the speech):



"Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, 'Because it is there.' Well, space is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked."



-John F. Kennedy, Rice University, Sept. 12, 1962

Dallas News: JFK50

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Quantum Dot Chains...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on November 21, 2013 at 4:57pm
FIG. 2.
(a) 5×5 μm 2 AFM topography image of QDC sample C. The chains are aligned along the [1¯10] crystallographic direction; (b) 1×1 μm 2 AFM image of the same sample; statistical distribution with Gaussian fits of the (c) QD height; (d) distance between QDs, d in , within the chains (peak-to-peak) measured along [1¯10] direction; and (e) distance between neighboring chains, d bc , measured peak-to-peak; (f) hall bar structure used for electrical characterization with a channel width of 25  μm.

ABSTRACT






Detailed experimental and theoretical studies of lateral electron transport in a system of quantum dot chains demonstrate the complicated character of the conductance within the chain structure due to the interaction of conduction channels with different dimensionalities. The one-dimensional character of states in the wetting layer results in an anisotropic mobility, while the presence of the zero-dimensional states of the quantum dots leads to enhanced hopping conductance, which affects the low-temperature mobility and demonstrates an anisotropy in the conductance. These phenomena were probed by considering a one-dimensional model of hopping along with band filling effects. Differences between the model and the experimental results indicate that this system does not obey the simple one-dimensional Mott's law of hopping and deserves further experimental and theoretical considerations.




 


Journal of Applied Physics: Electron Transport in Quantum Dot Chains
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Octavia Butler Papers at the Huntington Library-now open for research

Posted by Rebecca Hankins on November 20, 2013 at 12:13pm

Issue #2 of The Eaton Journal of Archival Research in Science Fiction has been published online at eatonjournal.ucr.edu. This issue was edited by English PhD students here are UC Riverside (Josh Pearson, Jeff Hicks, Richard Hunt, Mark Young, Anne Sullivan, and Stina Attebery). Check it out--and do consider submitting material for subsequent issues! It is a refereed journal with a particular interest in archival issues and questions. For submission guidelines, consult this page: http://eatonjournal.ucr.edu/guidelines.html.  The Butler papers write up is on page 119.

Rebecca

Associate Professor

Texas A&M University

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Quantum Cheshire Cat...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on November 20, 2013 at 6:37am
Physics World: see link below

"It's the most curious thing I ever saw in my life!" Alice thought to herself when she saw a Cheshire cat disappear and leave only its grin behind. It is not only in Wonderland, however, that properties of objects can exist independently of the objects themselves. That is the conclusion of a group of physicists from Israel and the UK, which has shown how the strange laws of quantum mechanics permit a photon to be in one place and its circular polarization in another.

This counterintuitive result was achieved thanks to the quantum-mechanical concept of post-selection. In classical physics, the initial conditions of a set of particles and the rules governing the behaviour of those particles are in principle enough to determine the properties of the particles at any arbitrary point in the future. That is not the case in quantum mechanics, in which a particle's evolution is inherently probabilistic. So while the results of a measurement carried out on a set of particles will have a known probability distribution, individual results cannot be predicted.
Source: Ibid

Post-selection, pioneered by Yakir Aharonov of Tel Aviv University, involves preparing a group of particles in some initial state, measuring each of the particles at a certain point in time, and then making a second set of measurements at a slightly later time. The results of the intermediate measurements will, on average, imply certain results for the later measurements but will not determine them. If the group is then split into sub-groups according to these later results, the identity of the members of those various sub-groups is information that can only be obtained after the final measurements, and not before.

The devices are chosen and arranged so that the first of the detectors only clicks when the photon is in a specific superposition state, and it is this state that is post-selected. The researchers then consider what happens to the photon – the Cheshire cat – and its polarization – the grin – in that post-selected state. They find that while any photon detector would reveal the photon to always travel along the left-hand arm, a polarization detector would occasionally measure angular momentum in the right-hand one. "We seem to see what Alice saw," the researchers write, "a grin without a cat!"

Rabbit-in-hat: yes. Jaffar: yes. So far, no Cheshire cat, quantum or otherwise (ABC needs to step up its game):

Physics World: Physicists reveal a quantum Cheshire cat

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Single Photon Detection...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on November 19, 2013 at 6:54am
Source: Photonics.com

Quantum physicist Stephan Ritter and his colleagues at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany, wanted to follow up on a 2004 proposal of a nondestructive method for detecting photons. Instead of capturing photons, this instrument would sense their presence, taking advantage of the eccentric realm of quantum mechanics in which particles can exist in multiple states and roam in multiple places simultaneously.



The trick was manipulating the rubidium so that it was in a so-called quantum superposition of these two states, allowing one atom to be an overachiever and a slacker at the same time. Consequently, each incoming photon took multiple paths simultaneously, both slipping into the cavity undetected and being stopped at the door and reflected away. Each time the attentive state of the rubidium turned away a photon, a measurable property of the atom called its phase changed. If the phases of the two states of the rubidium atom differed, the researchers knew that the atom had encountered a photon.



 Science News: Single photon detected but not destroyed
Quantum Dynamics Homepage: Dr. Stephan Ritter

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'Necessary Evil'....

Posted by H. Wolfgang Porter on November 18, 2013 at 9:00pm

Villains make or break any story especially those in the Sci-fi, Fantasy and Horror genres. The old adage of 'The Hero is only as strong as their Villain' is gospel when writing your stories.

In my latest work 'Dark God's Gift', stories are spawned from the creation of an implacable extra-cosmic evil bent on gaining ultimate knowledge so it may one day destroy its creator. In the process of doing so, heroes and villains from many universes and realities will confront entity's terrible powers in unimaginable ways. Those that survive find that is bare compensation for that which they endured!

Villains must always be 'strong' in that whatever their motivation, it must overpower the Hero's own abilities and cause them to rise above their nemesis' comfort zone. All in order to draw the hero in to either be defeated or thwart the villain's goals. Villains when written well can be vastly superior to the hero or vice versa, but there must always be a 'chink' that allows either gain the upperhand to force the conflict to its ultimate resolution.

The main thing that makes a great villain is believability. The villain does not have to be 100% 'reality based'. Instead, there needs to be credible reasons for why they exist, what their motivation is and why they are a genuine threat. Not much more aggravating than reading an 'oh-by-the-way' villain (or hero) who no matter what comes up, they can't be outmatched by any means (you hear that Japanese Battle Anime' writers?) Just as there must be a chink which allows a villain to gain the upperhand, there must be an equal one which may allow them to fail.

The best stories always leaves an 'open door' by which either the villain or hero will win. How it is 'closed' decides the impact of the tale written. Villains and Heroes justify their existences. If your villains are nothing more than 'meatballs' tossed into the open maw of the hero to be devoured, that gets old quick and your hero becomes more of a 'beat cop' or even a bully. Same goes with Villains. A villain can be imposing or overwhelming, but if they cannot be defeated or at least be made to pause then there wasn't much point to them being there.

Here's a really good look at the discussion and analysis of Villains in the DC Universe:
"Necessary Evil: Villains of the DC Universe"

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Physics' Top 10...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on November 18, 2013 at 7:28am
Source: AAAS (see #9)


  1. Neutrino Mass
  2. Shor's Algorithm
  3. Accelerating universe
  4. Extrasolar planets
  5. Higgs Boson
  6. Quantum Error Correction
  7. Topological Insulators (TI)
  8. AdS/CFT
  9. Bose-Einstein Condensate
  10. Quantum Teleportation




Neutrino Mass - surprisingly, neutrinos have a nonzero mass, which provides a window into particle physics beyond the standard model. THE STANDARD MODEL has been getting a lot of attention recently. This is well deserved in my opinion, considering that the vast majority of its predictions have come true, most of which were made by the end of the 1960s. Last year’s discovery of the Higgs Boson is the feather in its cap.







Shor's Algorithm - a quantum computer can factor N=1433301577 into 37811*37907 exponentially faster than a classical computer. This result from Peter Shor in 1994 is near and dear to our quantum hearts. It opened the floodgates showing that there are tasks a quantum computer could perform exponentially faster than a classical computer.






Accelerating universe - the universe is expanding, and the rate of this expansion is increasing. This result has been the source of an incredible number of misconceptions. First, how do we know this is happening? In the 1920s astronomers discovered that some of the really faint ‘stars’ that we see in the night sky are actually distant galaxies. Shortly thereafter, it was discovered that these galaxies are actually moving away from us, and away from each other. The question becomes: how did this happen?


Extrasolar planets - over the past two decades, we have detected ~1000 planets outside of our own solar system. As a prerequisite for finding extrasolar life–unless they find us first–we need to discover candidate homes.

Higgs Boson - The Higgs “field” permeates all of space; excitations in this field are interpreted as particles (Higgs bosons); these particles give other particles mass.

Quantum Error Correction - we want to protect quantum information from noise. We also face this challenge with classical computers. It also turns out that our enemy is formidable: we are battling decoherence. One way to think about decoherence is that every quantum system interacts with its environment, creating entanglement between the two – since we can’t control the environment (it both large and unknown), we lost control of our quantum system.

Topological Insulators (TI) - we’ve known for a long time that solids, liquids, gases and plasmas aren’t the only phases of matter; but only recently, we’ve unexpectedly discovered a huge new class of phases. Before topological phases, we classified phases based upon their local symmetries. In the early 1980s, experimentalists discovered quantum hall systems, which were the first materials whose ground states couldn’t be differentiated by only using a local description. The ‘phases of matter can’ had a few dents in it, but the lid was blown sky-high when topological Insulators were discovered in 2006. These materials have bizarre properties; they provide the foundation for a multitude of cousin systems; they are shedding light on questions from fundamental physics; and they will probably be widely utilized in the electronics of the 21st century.

AdS/CFT - AdS/CFT, which sometimes gets called the holographic principle, is basically a mathematical toolkit which says that in certain situations, there is an exact correspondence between gravity problems in n+1-dimensions and strongly correlated electron systems in n-dimensions.

Bose-Einstein Condensate - One of the original BEC experiments involved cooling thousands of Rubidium atoms to extremely low temperatures (a few nanokelvin above absolute zero), at which point their behavior is described by quantum mechanics. The Rubidium atoms behave as predicted, where the thousands of atoms coalesce into a very small area.

Quantum Teleportation - Why is this amazing? Well, teleportation would certainly be amazing, but that’s a bit of a misnomer, and a point I tried to clarify in my posts. Quantum teleportation IS NOT an all-purpose teleportation protocol. But it is incredibly awesome, and will undoubtedly have major technological significance someday. Basically, it’s easy to send photons all over the universe (we are very good at building and operating lasers), but it’s very hard to send more exotic forms of matter, especially when the matter is supposed to stay in a specific quantum state. Quantum teleportation allows us to first spread entangled matter throughout space. Then, at a later time, we can exploit this resource to move delicate quantum states to the location of our entangled matter.




 Quantum Frontiers:
The 10 biggest breakthroughs in physics over the past 25 years according to us

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Unknown Unknowns II...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on November 17, 2013 at 9:47am

Original link here.

No Child Left Behind mandates that states use standardized tests to determine if schools are succeeding. (Photograph: Image Source/Rex Features)

Having been briefly a high school math/physics teacher, and personally experiencing the Herculean requirements placed on all of my fellow educators, this article by Erika Sanchez (link below) is a poignant observation and quite sad when you read it. I'd often mused about my students at the time “they don’t know WHAT they don’t know,” meaning our nation's youth have only a bottom-line obsession with “is THAT the answer?” (a byproduct of a-b-c-d and "drill baby, drill") rather than falling in love with the process of actually finding the answer, the sheer joy of learning something you pressed hard to discover; presenting proudly to fellow students on what you initially didn't know. From cell phones to Facebook, Twitter, reality TV, fashion web sites, glorified sporting events et al, they are becoming perfect consumers, narcissistic "ditto heads," automatons that will not question the world around them: they’ll just “Google it.”




In my admittedly fanciful utopia, there are no standardized tests and K-12 teachers are allowed free reign to instruct, be creative and be as close to Robin Williams in “Dead Poets Society” or Denzel Washington in “The Great Debaters” as possible. It only works in Star Trek apparently: post warp drive, world peace, matter replicators, ending world hunger, the dissolution of money (at least in politics) and hierarchical society. Yep, only Star Trek and Friday night mind blitzes with colorful drinks after several bar hops could fantasize this. No wonder there is such turnover in the profession (low pay also a factor). Idealistic enthusiasm smacks hard into the wall of reality.




In reality: teachers are hemmed by state-mandated test regimens; they are chained to performance evaluations based on unrealistic percentage passing rates in both said tests and classrooms. Greater than the unrealistic 10 – 15% failure rate can get you terminated, or in education parlance “contract not renewed,” a fancy way of not having to pay you unemployment benefits; a legal way to lie through your teeth at the next high school, i.e. you can say you weren't “fired.” The passing rate ironically mimics a manufacturing line's “bell curve,” usually more stringent on the floor (about < 5%); a failure rate there is considered and labeled: “waste.” We are Pavlov’s canines, conditioned and salivating writ large for our sensual drugs of pleasure, knowledge mastery not being one of them. A glimmer of hope: some parents are opting out of standardized testing, a "bathwater immersion" I hope gains broader support.

 [Meanwhile, back at the ranch]: Apparently, it requires 40 armed gun enthusiasts to thwart 4 moms against gun violence, as every tragic shooting, the Boston Marathon bombing is quickly defined a "false flag" operation designed to "take our freedoms." Neither Sandy Hook nor Chicago, both offered as false equivalencies will sway this addled crowd from infantile attachment to their metallic "binkies." There can be no sensible legislation in an environment like this that protects everyone's 2nd amendment rights and damns all others (like, education for example) because the gun manufacturers would lose profits. Any mental health screen prior to purchase would probably fail a large percentage of the 40 demonstrably low-esteemed (and possibly libido challenged) enthusiasts, but no such passions to educate our citizenry to be good citizens and compete against a global workforce that is so much better prepared than we. For those that pant after “conspiracy theories” and every word of the post-Fairness Doctrine talk radio circuit, this is a huge, in-your-face social engineering experiment – well designed to our national detriment, and largely quite successful – that the screaming numb skulls are missing... 




Whether it be No Child Left Behind or Common Core, the problem lies in manufactured learning. In teaching English at the university level, I have noticed that students are often ill prepared for the demands of higher education. Students who are used to multiple choice tests lack the skills and the confidence to formulate their own complex opinions and interpretations. It is irresponsible to have these students graduate without the proper skills to succeed.




Rigid curriculum's that focus on right and wrong answers teach children to see the world in binaries. These methods don't encourage creativity or innovation. I fear that our deeply flawed education system will produce generations of people who lack critical thinking skills.




What kind of choices will they make in their adult lives when they have never been taught how to look at the nuances and complexities of situations? Who will have the tools to question authority? Who will question the status quo?



 Common Dreams:
America's Dumbest Idea: Creating a Multiple-Choice Test Generation

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Superconducting Stripes...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on November 16, 2013 at 7:44am
APS - Superconductivity Explained

The physics of low-temperature superconductivity is fairly well understood, but the ultimate goal of achieving the phenomenon at much higher temperatures remains tantalizingly elusive. The most promising high-temperature superconductor candidates are generally considered to be cuprates with perovskite structures, but it is unclear what mechanisms allow these materials to become superconducting — and how the superconducting temperatures (Tc) can be increased.






By examining the stripe phase-ordering in La1.875Ba0.125CuO4 (LBCO) under high pressure at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory, a team of researchers from Argonne, Washington University in St. Louis, and Brookhaven National Laboratory probed those questions, specifically, the relationship between stripe ordering and superconductivity. Their work reveals the interplay between stripes, lattice structure, and the superconductivity of LBCO in unprecedented detail and is an important step in understanding high-Tc superconductivity and eventually achieving practical room-temperature superconductors.


Argonne National Laboratory: Superconductivity with stripes

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Another Use for BMI...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on November 13, 2013 at 7:34am



Researchers have developed a brain-machine interface (BMI) that allows monkeys to move two virtual arms just by thinking. A separate team of scientists has designed a device that mimics bladder function in paralyzed rats. Both technologies are wedded to the nervous system in a way that could potentially produce more natural, personalized control of sensory and motor function in paralyzed patients. The studies, which appear in the 6 November issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine, highlight the future of neuroprosthetic and robotic technologies in human health. The idea behind BMIs is to link the brain activity from imagined movements to a computerized device that enables actual movement. A person with a spinal cord injury can still think about moving his or her limbs, but because the spinal cord is disconnected from the brain, these actions cannot be carried out. BMIs aim to bypass the spinal cord to regain control of limb movement.

AAAS: Technologies Seek to Bypass Nerve Damage in Paralyzed Patients

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Inter-racial relationships mean disaster!

Posted by Moorsgate Media on November 12, 2013 at 12:13pm

The recent election for mayor of New York City was remarkable for a number of reasons. For one, it was an election where the right to "Sext" became a front page issue. More importantly, it was an election where one candidate running for mayor is married to a woman of a different race, and no one made a big deal about that relationship. In fact, most political observers believe that the Mayor-Elect owes much of his success TO his bi-racial family.  

One of the ways that science fiction has sought to portray "the future" is through the use of non-typical character positions and relationships. This is a polite way of saying "you know it is the future because of X", where X could be anything that would't happen today ( i.e. Black President, to well....female president). Basically, any time (prior to 2008 ) you saw a non-white, non-male president, chances were that you were dealing with some sort of speculative fiction. See Freeman, Morgan;

Another tip off to the fact that you were dealing with dire straights was the taboo of interracial relationships. 

Anti-miscegenation laws were still on the books in southern states until 1967. However, even when certain relationships were illegal, science fiction authors used them to demonstrate either the scope of the catastrophic fall of humanity, or the blinding pace of "otherness" of the future. The 1959 film, The World, the Flesh and the Devil, explores this premise with the sort of rye humor one expects from a sci-fi film starring Harry Belafonte.  In it, Belafonte plays Ralph an educated, technical savvy individual who spends most of his post-apocalyptic free time avoiding the sexual advances of Inger Stevens [ed: What ?]. The movie sets the audience up with an "unusual" tale with the threat and hope of interracial love in the face of total devastation. Modesty on Ralph's part keeps the action from getting into pearl clutching territory (remember it is 1959).

By the 1970's, audiences were more tolerant of "inter-racial" relationships taking the next step. As shown, 1971's The Omega Man (the second remake of I Am Legend)  features Heston and Rosalind Cash in all their leisure suit meets Afro in plague ravaged mutant Los Angeles {Ed - this differs from present day Los Angeles how ?]

Unlike Belafonte, Heston has no qualms about romantic entanglements that might make some uncomfortable.

Even in present day media (see current season of Walking Dead, and past episodes of Firefly, Caprica, BattleStar Galactia, Star Trek,  Terra Nova,  the remake of I am Legend, Hancock, 28 Days Later, etc., ( Ed. we could have a separate discussion on Wil Smith and depictions of his love interests )  interracial relationships are sometimes used as a short hand to demonstrate the dire straights of humanity or a wild future where the uncommon is common.

The reason that this trope work[ed] is because historically, interracial relationships were unrecognized, if more common than conventional wisdom dictated. By showing "uncommon pairings" the world builder is telling us something about the underlying social strata in which the work takes place. Humans are social animals, and prize companionship over all else. These relationships are meant, in part, to tell us that human nature is to seek companionship, even in the face of societal (or because of societal) collapse or advancement.

However , it also takes the subversive position that social structure, miscegenation laws and the like are not natural to human condition. The world builder is winking at us, telling us that social mores are artificial constructs which float on top of a simpler society, one of individual choices and preferences, of a freedom of relationships which is not possible while the trains run and the Man punches your time card. The relationships in these pieces of fiction are simplified, there are no walks past disapproving peers, awkward family dinners; but they are also presented as partnerships. Survivors, regardless of social strata and ethnicity, make a good fit together.

As time and progress marches on, the rate of interracial relationships are on a steady rise. What does that mean for this short hand, this short cut, when these types of relationships are common. I would love to see this trope get taken in different directions. Humanity is varied, so should our future disastrous relationships. With a Bi-racial president and a biracial family in the Mayor's residence of the largest city in on the continent, it is time we updated what the future looks like. 

www.moorsgatemedia.blogspot.com

Twitter: Moorsgate

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a thought character sketch

Posted by Arnold L. Johnson on November 12, 2013 at 9:43am

Can't fathom his strange life strutting about in platform shoes. Dang man didn't that go out in the 70's. I was born in the heavens above the earth (inches), never touched it, never, but I'm tied here by gravity. My shoes insulate and weigh me down so I can live among other men. It was normal to me as a kid to jump and glide with the wind across the plains. They captured me and tied me with leaded boots but made the mistake of throwing me off a cliff not knowing my power exponentially increases the further I am from the surface. I kicked off the hindrances and rode the wind to this place.I can glide in silence and kick thunder, I harness and release a skill like Aikido, Geomancy and Alchemy combined.

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Once Again...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on November 12, 2013 at 8:00am

...we are imperiled by our own inanity, our inability to separate willful ignorance from governance; science fact from misapplied faith.


Katrina, Rita, Irene, Sandy...Typhoon Haiyan. The list increases, one domino falls after the other; each block more powerful than the last; not the geopolitical spread of communism as personified by Kissinger: These dominoes are costing treasure, human and capital. An estimated 10,000 casualties - fellow travelers - have departed our planet. We cannot keep rebuilding forever. This is moral and literal bankruptcy by bloodletting.

Once again we are here...
Philippine Red Cross volunteers throughout the region are reporting significant damage and a growing death toll from Typhoon Haiyan. Photo: Romulo Godinez/PRC

The denials will begin as loud and as shrill as they always are. My post from two days ago eluding to emphasizing the Scientific Method will be called into question; trolls I willfully ignore, having limited science training to appreciate the research of expert others; clearly no agenda other than an authoritarian need to police "THOUGHTCRIME" as I assume I will be seen as violating some Orwellian dogma.


Links are provided below. Give to humanity and our human family in need. It doesn't have to be much, but a little from many has impact. I await an eclipse of real acts of charity. "Pay it forward"...

You never know when karma will choose us next, and we are in need of "love in action"...

(donate button at link)
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