I can not tell you how many times I have to watch people either already in the biz, working their way in or trying to get started have their eyes glaze over when they start talking about making their movie with a 'RED ONE' or some other crazy high-end camera.
Forget the fact that the camera itself whether rented or purchased outright often blows a huge hole in an Indy production budget by itself. Then when you add all the support gear needed to get the full value out of so large a camera sensor, there goes another significant chunk of the budget and you haven't even started shooting yet! On top of that, I've seen folks get such high-end gear and then not have enough money to have the footage properly stored and then edited because most of the money went for the gear. But at least they can say they shot their film on the (blah, blah, blah!)
Of course you don't want to shoot on a rickety PoS camera because a worn out rig will cause you numerous other problems that will also cost money. However, you'd be surprised at how good a film you can shoot visually with some ingenuity, a good eye and lots of creativity! So what if you can't get a RED or a high-end rig from Canon, Sony, Panasonic, etc. All you actually need is one or more smaller rigs that can shoot at 720p and with good production values, good direction and tight storytelling, few people will be able to tell (or care) that you didn't shoot with a 2k+ camera!
Here's a good video by Ken Simpson that breaks down the question of, 'Do I need a high-resolution camera to make my movie?' Whether you're about to go into production or already undergoing principle photography, those of you involved in filmmaking should take a look at this as it may well save you some pain in both the purse and backside!
http://vimeo.com/63404537
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SCI-FI SCHOOL by Odis Chenault
ep.1 the Speed of Light
Hello and welcome to the first installment of Sci-fi School.
The purpose of this school is to help the novice or want to be Sci-fi fans out there become familiar with the strange language we Sci-fi geeks so easily speak amongst ourselves. We take for granted how left out someone who hasn’t seen what we’ve seen or read what we’ve read feels when we get started with another fan.
Before I get into the first lesson, Sci-fi is short for science fiction. That is fiction that has some element of science weaved into the story.
Now let’s talk about a Sci-fi staple, the speed of light or C. The speed of light is just that. It refers to how fast light travels. It’s very, very fast. 186,000 miles PER SECOND! At that speed you could travel around the world over seven times in one second. A light year (6 trillion miles) refers to how far light travels in a year. The speed of light is referred to in math as the symbol C. You’ve probably seen Albert Einstein’s famous equation E=MC2. This reads; Energy equals Mass times the speed of light times the speed of light. We’ll talk about that in another lesson.
The speed of light comes up in science fiction a lot. For instance it’s the speed limit for the universe. The universe is big (future lesson), so big that even at the great speed of light, it would take years to get to another star. In some cases hundreds or millions of years. In Sci-fi, we like to go to other stars and receive visitors from other stars. We don’t have a thousand years to wait. But if the speed of light is the speed limit for our universe, what can we do? Simple! We leave the universe, go where we want and then re-enter the universe. In Sci-fi, we do this in a number of ways. We can push past the light barrier with super powerful engines and enter an alternate universe called Hyperspace where there is no upper speed limit. This is how they do it in Star Wars. If you go slower than the speed of light you drop out of Hyperspace. Hyperspace has a speed minimum. Don’t worry; some so-called Sci-fi experts just learned something.
Another way of getting around the universal speed limit is Warped Space. If your engines are powerful enough, you don’t even have to move to get to your destination. You can take point A and point B and fold them together. When they unfold, you are at point B. This is the way they do it on Star Trek. The engines required to do the work are huge and emit so much harmful radiation that they are extended away from the occupied part of the star ships. Warp 2 requires more energy and completes the above process faster than warp 1.
Then we have wormholes. These are naturally occurring anomalies that appear in various regions of space for various reasons. Wormholes are usually associated with black holes (my work is cut out for me) but can appear randomly as well. Normal laws of time and space do not apply inside a wormhole. To an observer you enter at one end and emerge instantaneously at the other end. Even if the ends are hundreds of light years apart. Read that a few times. Sorry, some things are just that way.
Done! You just learned more than you knew about science fiction. A few more lessons and you’ll find yourself standing in line for Thursday late night screenings of Sci fi block buster movies that open Friday so nobody sees it before you and spoils the ending.
As part of the 19th Annual Black Harvest Film Festival, the Gene Siskel Film Center will be screening Destination: Planet Negro! on August 23 (8:30 pm) and 27 (8:30 pm).
A smart satire that sports a wicked streak of goofball humor, Destination: Planet Negro! has the feel of low-budget 1950s sci-fi, as leaders including W.E.B. DuBois and George Washington Carver kick off a secret plot to solve the “Negro Problem” by way of a rocket ship to Mars. Carrying a crew of three, the spacecraft vaults into a time warp, landing its brave scientists in a present-day Midwestern metropolis, where this comedy takes on the look of a reality show as the astonished adventurers discover unbelievable developments like young men with drooping pants and the election of a black president.
On August 23 the film’s director, Kevin Willmott, as well as actors Tosin Morohunfola and Danielle Cooper will be present for an audience Q&A following the film. Ytasha L. Womack, a filmmaker/screenwriter who is currently working on a book on Afrofuturism, will be in attendance to introduce the film on August 27.
More information about the film as well as the Black Harvest Film Festival can be found on our website at siskelfilmcenter.org/blackharvest2013. Both screenings will be at the Gene Siskel Film Center located on 164 N. State Street, Chicago IL.
Tickets: $11/general admission; $7/students; $6/Film Center members; $4 for students, staff, and faculty of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and staff of the Art Institute of Chicago. All tickets are available at the Gene Siskel Film Center box office. A valid student ID or ARTICard is required for proof of discount. General admission and member tickets are available at all Ticketmaster outlets for a $2.00 surcharge plus a $3.25 handling fee.
Call Ticketmaster 800.982.2787 to purchase tickets and for a list of outlets.
For more information call 312.846.2800 or visit www.siskelfilmcenter.org
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| Credit: Columbia University |
Pulsars are neutron stars—remnants from supernova explosions. Neutron stars have immensely huge magnetic fields (think ~1012 times Earth's magnetic field). These fields accelerate charged particles, and in the course of that acceleration, light is emitted. But because of the nature of the fields, the light is emitted in a rather narrow cone. Because neutron stars rotate, this cone is scanned like a search light across the sky. So we only observe pulsars if the powerful beam happens to sweep across the face of the Earth.
This pasta has a distinctive property: it changes the way energy is dissipated and transported within the star. The magnetic field generates currents in the pasta region, which provides an intermediate step in converting magnetic energy to rotational energy. Hence, the crust changes the way the star spins down. In a series of models that take different neutron star masses, different crust diameters, and differently pasta region sizes, researchers from Spain showed that without a pasta region of some kind, a neutron star continues to spin down indefinitely, and we should observe X-Ray pulsars with periods that extend out past one minute.
The pasta, however, disrupts the magnetic field, stealing energy from it. In the end, that energy is transferred to rotational energy, keeping the spin period up. This is not such an efficient process, though, so for the early stages of the neutron star's life, it rapidly spins down. This continues until the additional energy from the magnetic field counters the losses due to other processes, stabilizing the rotational period at the cost of the magnetic field. The exact period at which this occurs depends on the mass of the star, the thickness of the crust, and the fraction of impurities in the crust.
Ars Technica: X-Ray pulsars boil “nuclear pasta” to keep spinning
A material’s nanostructure is decisive in determining how resistant it is against corrosion
August 08, 2013
Corrosion eats away 75 billion euros of economic output annually in Germany alone. But it may soon be possible to better assess which steels and other alloys will be affected, and how to limit the damage: An international team led by scientists from the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH in Düsseldorf analysed an amorphous steel comprising iron, chromium, molybdenum, boron and carbon. They found that the more ordered a material’s structure is, and the more uneven the distribution of its atoms, the more easily it is corroded by rust. If the elements of the alloy don’t form a regular crystal lattice and are distributed completely uniformly across the material, then, under corrosive conditions, a passivation layer forms on its surface and protects it from rusting. If, in contrast, ordered nanocrystals form that sometimes contain more chromium and sometimes more molybdenum, the corrosion quickly eats away the material because no protective passivation layer forms. These findings give materials scientists clues as to what they should pay attention to regarding the composition and production of materials.
Max Planck-Gesellschaft: Disorder creates rust protection
http://bardsandsages.com/juliedawson/2013/05/01/2013-efestival-of-words-award-nominations/
SCIFI SCHOOL by Odis Chenault
EP.5 Aliens part 3
Hello and welcome to the fifth installment of SciFi School.
To conclude this series on aliens, I thought I would test for aliens at the same time. If you are over 18 and have never heard of any one of these aliens, you might be an alien.
Yoda is the mighty Jedi master from the Star Wars Series. His mastery of the force allows him to sense his surroundings as well as receive glimpses of the future. He can use the force to move objects and is a master with the light saber (laser sword). Yoda’s greatest asset may be his wisdom and cunning. Yoda is proof positive that, “size matters not”.
Kal El, A.K.A. Clark Kent, A.K.A. Superman is one of our favorite aliens. He is such an American staple, that he is thought of more as a man with extraordinary powers than an extraterrestrial. His powers are super speed, flight, strength, memory, invulnerability and sight including telescopic, microscopic, x-ray and heat vision. He can also exhale freezing breath. He can change his body’s weight from lighter than air to immovable. His only weaknesses are kryptonite (pieces of his exploded planet, Krypton), tech from his planet and magic.
E.T. (the extraterrestrial) is the most famous castaway alien of all time. He was stranded on Earth when his crew mates left to evade detection. E.T. was befriended and taken in by a boy and his family. He was finally able to signal his crew for a rescue.
The Aliens in the Alien movie series is an awesome example of what dangerous life forms could and probably do exist in the cosmos. The alien’s ability to adapt to any environment, along with their natural defenses, makes them very hard to handle.
The Predator species is a race of star traveling sports hunters. They are also featured in a series of movies. The Predators are from a planet with more gravity than Earth. They are bigger and stronger than humans. Couple this with high tech weapons and humans don’t stand too much of a chance against them.
Did you score 100%? If not, the M.I.B. will be notified. There are countless other notable aliens that have appeared in movies, comic books, novels and video games. Many of them, as well as those mentioned above, will be featured in future posts.
...as in, using one to detect the other.
PMC stands for "Principle of Maximum Conformality." I'll let you explore it at the article's link.
I am 51 today. And physics is just as exciting to me as it was at 15...or 10...or 5...
"Throughout history, artists and poets, lovers and mystics, have known and written about the 'knowing' that comes from the loss of self - from the state of subjective fusion with the object of knowledge." Evelyn Fox Keller
"The state of feeling which makes one capable of such achievements is akin to that of the religious worshipper or of one who is in love." Albert Einstein
Three theoretical physicists have taken an important step toward eliminating theoretical ambiguities from the staggeringly complicated mathematics used to explore the interactions of quarks, the tiniest known bits of matter inside protons and neutrons, and gluons, the enigmatic particles responsible for keeping them trapped there. Simplifying these calculations can make them easier for other particle theorists to perform and lead to more accurate predictions for experimental particle physicists to test.
The theory describing those interactions is known as quantum chromodynamics (QCD), and is an important component of the Standard Model, the reigning theory of the interactions of subatomic particles.
"An important goal in high energy physics is to make predictions that are as precise as possible," said SLAC theoretical physicist Stan Brodsky. "This makes tests of QCD more rigorous. Most important, if QCD doesn't pass our experimental tests, it could reveal new physics beyond the Standard Model."
Stanford:
SLAC Theorist Helps Sharpen Tests of Fundamental Theory in High Energy Experiments
Oh yeah! Pre-ordered books just arrived. One thing is certain, all the talk about 'I'm writing a book' means nothing until you're holding the finished work in your hands!
'Book of Dragon's Teeth' is done and belongs to its audience now. Of course the drawback of getting a book done is the inevitable question, 'So when's your next book coming out?' Ack!
Tales from the Long Road: Book of Dragon's Teeth is now available at Amazon.com.
Dear Black Science Fiction Society,
Heroes Like Me Entertainment is proud to announce the making of their first movie, The Alien Ambassador.
The movie is based on the creation of Christopher Love author of John Henry 2.0 and the publisher at Heroeslikeme.com, a website which publishes on a monthly basis short stores of superheroes like the The Mysterious Maestro, The Fiery Furnace, Buffalo Soldier and The Human Pearl.
Heroes Like Me Entertainment is a small entertainment company looking to bring ethnic characters to the mainstream public and geekdom.
A prequel novel called The Alien Ambassador:Sticks and Stone is available in paperback and kindle ebook to introduce the characters of The Alien Ambassador.
Sales from the books and donations by Internet viewers will help fund the project.
The movie will be released in July 2014.
Presented is a teaser trailer for the movie.---Click Here.
All who support this project will receive special updates and bonus material as the movie progresses.
FUll Synopsis
Mr Stone, a substitute science teacher, is reflecting on how he came to Earth hoping to stop Earth from being colonized by a warlike galactic armada. He has been trapped on Earth for over one hundred and fifty years. He has been waiting for Earth technology to become advance enough in order to adapt it to his alien technology. He has been working on a formula in order to make all tech work together.
Enter Nathan Turner, a 13 year old, who always stays in trouble. He is sent to afterschool detention for fighting. There he meets Mr. Stone as he is assigned as a detention monitor. All of a sudden, a alien female blast her way into the classroom. She is an alien who is marooned on earth as well and she needs the Power Bolt that Mr. Stone possesses in order to leave Earth.
For Nathan's protection, Mr. Stone takes him to his planeterium. He remodeled it and made it his home away from home. It possesses all the alien technology that survived the crash. Nathan figures out the formula that will activate the Power Bolt and power an alien craft. There destination is beyond Pluto to an relay space station that is used as an homing beacon in order for the alien armada to find Earth. But the dangerous alien female and the defenses of the space station impede Mr. Stone and Nathan from destroying it.
Nathan is forced to don the guise of The Alien Ambassador and use his new found alien super powers and the Power Bolt to destroy the space station and keep Earth from being discovered.
But he learns that once he dons the guise of The Alien Ambassador, he is in an adventure of a lifetime.
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| In this rendering, never-before-seen magnetic excitations ripple through a high-temperature superconductor, revealed for the first time by the Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering technique. By measuring the precise energy change of beams of incident x-rays (blue arrow) as they struck these quantum ripples and bounced off (red arrow), scientists discovered excitations present throughout the entire LSCO [lanthanum, strontium, copper, oxygen] phase diagram. |
UPTON, NY—Intrinsic inefficiencies plague current systems for the generation and delivery of electricity, with significant energy lost in transit. High-temperature superconductors (HTS)—uniquely capable of transmitting electricity with zero loss when chilled to subzero temperatures—could revolutionize the planet's aging and imperfect energy infrastructure, but the remarkable materials remain fundamentally puzzling to physicists. To unlock the true potential of HTS technology, scientists must navigate a quantum-scale labyrinth and pin down the phenomenon's source.
Now, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and other collaborating institutions have discovered a surprising twist in the magnetic properties of HTS, challenging some of the leading theories. In a new study, published online in the journal Nature Materials on August 4, 2013, scientists found that unexpected magnetic excitations—quantum waves believed by many to regulate HTS—exist in both non-superconducting and superconducting materials.
"This is a major experimental clue about which magnetic excitations are important for high-temperature superconductivity," said Mark Dean, a physicist at Brookhaven Lab and lead author on the new paper. "Cutting-edge x-ray scattering techniques allowed us to see excitations in samples previously thought to be essentially non-magnetic."
LightSource.org:
Scientists Discover Hidden Magnetic Waves in High-Temperature Superconductors
This relates to a post that appeared on Friday's anniversary. A date we sadly didn't commemorate more broadly nor recollect its significance.
It was the second bombing on Nagasaki, some say since the Japanese were looking for a path to surrender, completely unnecessary. Possibly a sophomoric display of military might on our part.
It was the beginning of being raised on "duck and cover" drills (as IF that would save anyone!).
It was bomb shelters if you could afford them (suburbia for the most part), stockpiling supplies and perhaps the genesis of people waiting for doomsday rather than solving the problems that could lead to it.
It was the aftermath of the darker side of science: the ability to make academic advances, medical miracles, technological wonders and yet possess within ourselves the ability to commit mass global genocide by the slow moving train wreck of polluting the atmosphere and oceans, or the flash of thermonuclear brilliance followed by its inevitable winter.
It was once considered "scientific" to promote eugenics. A Nobel laureate in physics, William Shockley, and co-founder of the transistor, one of its staunchest advocates.
I am an advocate of all branches of society: art, history, literature, politics, religion, science, etcetera working together rather than pointing fingers, reciting talking points and placing blame on one another.
Or: we may soon discover the other reason the stars of SETI are silent, is the aliens eventually became their own entropy...
Today marks the 68th anniversary of the dropping of an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. The bomb, named “Fat Man,” was the first plutonium bomb ever to be deployed, and followed the Aug. 6 dropping of the uranium bomb “Little Boy” on Hiroshima.
But even after 68 years, both the history of nuclear weapons and their future are still the subject of debate.
Speaking at the memorial ceremony in Nagasaki, Mayor Tomihisa Taue publicly condemned Japan’s government for failing to push nuclear disarmament. Mr. Taue spoke out against the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe – who was present – for failing to sign a UN disarmament agreement in April, according to the Japan Daily Press. Taue said the refusal to sign meant Japan was “betraying the expectations of global society.”
Christian Science Monitor:
Nagasaki bombing: Remembering - and starting to forget - its legacy
Rep. Rush Holt, an astrophysicist, was managing a Princeton University lab trying to harness the power of nuclear fusion when he won a seat in Congress in 1998. He ousted the incumbent, in part, by attacking the Republican’s decision to sing a mock lullaby — “Twinkle, Twinkle, Kenneth Starr” — on the House floor in praise of the special prosecutor investigating President Bill Clinton.
Rush Holt Holt’s supporters display bumper stickers that read, “My congressman is a rocket scientist.”
* On himself:
"I've always been an unusual member of Congress, partly because of my background, partly because of my approach to problems, partly because of my philosophy of governing. … I have a real commitment to the basic principles of equality and liberty."
* On helping the poor:
"The idea that somehow we had to guard so strongly against misuse of food stamps that we will deny hungry children food is not just hardhearted, it's cruel. … We have to get beyond the mentality in Washington that says we're a poor nation. We are not. We are the wealthiest nation in the world. … We have to get beyond the idea that the role of government is to provide ever more privilege for the already fortunate.
* On climate change:
"This is an urgent problem. … Climate change has to be dealt with by removing our emphasis on fossil fuels. … We are ruining our planet and killing people by the millions. … How do we do it? We have to keep presenting the facts. Presenting the evidence. And confronting those who would deny the evidence until they would deny it no more.
North Jersey: Senate Candidate Holt a fusion of physics and politics
PBS: Congressman vs. the Machine: Rocket Scientist Rep. Rush Holt Bests Watson
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| Standard Model (mathematical formulation): Wikipedia |
...this contradicts my post here, but the nature of science is to do research and publish findings. The fact we have null and alternative hypothesis eventually leads to one or the other winning out; a synthesis (Hegelian dialectic), or "back to the drawing board." Keeps the physicists out of after hours bars...
A team of physicists from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the French CNRS have predicted deviations in the probability of one of the B meson decays that have been detected experimentally in the LHC accelerator at CERN. Confirmation of these results would be the first direct evidence of the existence of the 'new physics', a more fundamental theory than the current Standard Model.
The Standard Model, which has given the most complete explanation up to now of the universe, has gaps, and is unable to explain phenomena like dark matter or gravitational interaction between particles. Physicists are therefore seeking a more fundamental theory that they call "New Physics", but up to now there has been no direct proof of its existence, only indirect observation of dark matter, as deduced, among other things, from the movement of the galaxies.
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona:
First experimental signs of a "New Physics" beyond the Standard Model
NSBP Briefs: Letter to the Editor
SCIFI SCHOOL by Odis Chenault
EP.4 the Powers of Aliens
Last time, we looked at Aliens appearance and forms; now let’s discuss the powers and abilities they might possess.
Aliens capable of traveling to the Earth, start out with a huge technological advantage over Earthlings. It follows that they’re technology would allow them to develop their minds and bodies as well. They could have evolved psychic abilities or engineered them into their species. It’s also possible that they could use implanted or external tech to get the job done. Aliens mental powers could include telepathic (accessing someone else’s mind with their own), psychokinetic (moving things), empathic (feeling what another feels) and more.
Aliens could have the ability to fly, project force fields, emit energy blasts and just about anything else you’ve ever seen a super hero or villain do in comics or movies. The level of power could range from the ability to use one of these powers once in a while to any or all of them whenever they choose to. The powers could be natural for a species or a result of some chemical, radiation or mechanical enhancement.
One very tricky alien ability is shape shifting. Aliens with this gift are hard to defend against. They are like living Transformers.
Most of this has pertained to sentient aliens. Unfortunately, even alien animals could have any of these powers. Writers will often create giant alien monsters that behave like dinosaurs from space. On the other hand, I’ve see everything from alien virus type beings to a tiny crew inside a people shaped space ship.
Science fiction is known for fancy invasions by aliens. Whether they come in blasters blazing or steal our bodies while we sleep, the idea of fighting aliens is pretty silly. I keep on saying that if hostile aliens can get here at past light speeds; they can do whatever they want to us from orbit. We would only still be alive if they wanted us that way. Slave labor, host bodies or food.
Hostile aliens make great protagonists in Sci-fi stories, but there’s a 50/50 chance that aliens could be friendly. Hopefully, the direction of evolution is towards more peaceful pursuits.
The people that contribute to Moorsgate Media in general, and I myself in particular, think a lot about world building. Be it the setting of rules for a role playing game, the types of magic and monsters that should lurk in the corners of Urban Fantasy, or the types of FTL technologies available to any one race.
However, there are other considerations that always come up in the scope of world building. What, we wonder, is an author's or designer's obligation to his audience?
Is the writer of a Zombie Apocalypse story required to have his scrappy band of survivors represent, and represent well, every strip and strain of humanity. If he doesn't, has he committed some cardinal sin of fiction? Is a game designer's option to have her female character be a lesbian, mean that she is implicitly writing off the hetrosexual gaming population? Is the reverse true? Is a Gay Male hero saving his boyfriend a "damsel in distress" trope? If not, why?
Recently, GRRM author of the widely successful Song of Fire and Ice series ( and TV Show under the Game of Thrones label) has come into some criticism for both the "ethnic" casting of certain characters, and his depictions of whole (made up, but historically analogous) regions. Anyone interested in the specifics of those arguments can find them on the intertubes. Similarly, feminist critic Anita Sarkeesian, and others, go into great detail the way that gender is construed in mainstream and indie video games. Both sets of criticisms are valid and worth your time. However, there is an uncomfortable vagueness of concern that lurks at the core of the criticism.
Obligation.
What is the author's obligation. Is a straight, white male obligated to create "others" for the benefit of his audience? Do we want him to? Do we want positive role models for underrepresented peoples to be crafted by the over-represented? If a black lesbian writes a novel, is she obligated to have a positive portrayal of straight white men? Should she?
This is not to say that there is an equivalence between those authors who trade is tropes and stereotypes and those who don't, but the question needs to be asked. Who is the arbitrator of your work? If the market is, then the market decides if a story-line is a trope, or a re-invention. If it is society, then society should be able to produce enough voices that one successful GRRM is countered by other depictions of POC in a fantasy setting.
If that's not the case, and I think any cursory reading of widely successful new IP in the sci-fi and fantasy space, says its not. Then we have to ask why? Where are the sweeping Tolkien-esq epics featuring POC characters? Where are the gripping video-games with all female-leads? Do the underrepresented have an obligation to create for themselves, as well as criticize.
Check out my Review of One Nation# 1
The 12th Edition of the National Festival in Popular Astronomy
Year after year since 2001, the National Festival in Popular Astronomy is held for the benefit of the public at large. In this twelfth edition we shall focus on the planet exploration and more particularly the red planet Mars.. From Viking to pathfinder to Opportunity to Curiosity. There is indeed a new momentum to go for Mars which has captured people's imagination. It is a technological endeavor which soon enough will have a human counterpart and already astronauts have been selected to become in due time Mars ready! Many activities will take place during this edition both high level and for the general public has made it throughout the years a much sought astronomical rendezvous. Like usual, this year come with its share of surprises, not the least a portable planetarium which will make great animation with the public....
