Why After Earth is Important

By Keith D. Young

I was born in 1976 and outside of “Blaxploitation” movies, there were no African American action or science fiction stars. My favorite movies included Tron, Superman, The Last Star Fighter, and Dune. The heroes in those movies had super powers, super intelligence, and had to dig deep to overcome extra-ordinarily difficult situations, often at great personal cost. It is worth noting here that the stars of these movies were all Caucasian males, and none of them looked like me. Hell, in most of the movies with a futuristic theme there was not even a Black person cast as an extra! As if, as Richard Pryor so eloquently put it, white people were not expecting us to be in the future.

It is no secret that many action, fantasy and science fiction movies contain ancient magical and mythological elements incorporated into the fabric of their stories; to see titans, gods, goddesses and fairies as characters in modern day cinema is a fairly commonplace occurrence – with one caveat, these characters almost never appear in movies written or directed by Blacks, or with an all Black cast.

When it comes to Black cinema we have few choices for our movie going pleasure. We have comedies, action comedies, the all important “Jesus Will Fix It” film and “Hot Ghetto Mess Drama,” (usually not the good kind), and last but not least is the “Catharsis Drama” – movies about profound suffering and abuse and how the characters where able to somehow carry on after being both victimized and traumatized. Few Black writers explore the realm of science fiction, fantasy, or create movies with a magical or mythological theme.

To add levels of depth and subtle complexity to their stories, adept writers and directors are able to use the archetypical and symbolic elements of the heroes and heroines of ancient mythological stories and folk and fairy tales. Many times these elements are used so skillfully as to be hardly recognized by the majority of the movie going public, but to the trained eye, these elements are obvious. However it does take a study of classical literature, world mythology and symbology in order to use these elements with any level of effectiveness. Study that many burgeoning African American film makers seem all too willing to ignore in their movie making process, as these elements are often sorely lacking in the plots and storylines of Black cinema.

But it seems like all that is changing with Will and Jaden Smith’s Sci-Fi epic “After Earth”. The After Earth screenplay was written by Gary Whitta and M. Night Shyamalan, with the story by Will Smith, tells the type of story that Black entertainment hasn’t seen the likes of in a very, very long time.

Critics dislike this movie because they know what Mr. Smith is trying to accomplish with this type of movie, and they don’t like it. While Smith’s traditional audience may be slow to co-sign this movie for two reasons, one is they are not used to seeing African Americans play these types of roles, (although they will pay top dollar to watch Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Keanu Reaves play these roles over and over again,) and two, they don’t really understand the themes portrayed in this movie due to the fact that as a culture, we were stripped of our initiatory practices and our stories, and as a result we are used to seeing these types of roles played by White or Asian actors and actresses. Our legends and folklore have been demonized through religion and western culture, and so it seems we shun the magical and fantastical images of ourselves as sorcerers, demigods and heroes.

Below I will outline various elements of the movie “After Earth” that make this movie worth seeing over and over again. Fathers, if you have been looking for a movie to take your sons to that will help you to begin a profound conversation about rites of passage and growing into a man, you’ll want to check this out.

!!!SPOILER ALERT!!! – We are going to be discussing the story and plotline from this movie and by doing so parts of the actual story are going to be revealed. If you don’t want to spoil the movie before you’ve seen it, STOP NOW, and then come back after you’ve seen it to participate in this analysis.

Initiation

Let’s begin by taking a look at the theme of initiation that runs throughout “After Earth”.

Initiation was important in indigenous tribes because it was a system by which the young boys and girls of a given culture or tribe were guided through in order to educate, prepare and move them through the phase of childhood into adulthood and all the attendant rites and responsibilities which adulthood entailed.

Training

Initiation always begins with education and training, and in the movie we begin with the main character training with his military academy class. Readers will take note that cadets in the military go through a process of initiation designed to strip them of their life as a civilian to remold them as a soldier, and make no mistake, this system of initiation was taken from the ancient indigenous cultures of Africa and passed down through other cultures and societies throughout the world.

Training involves physical and mental exercise and tests designed to give initiates/cadets control over their bodies, their emotions and their minds.
It is at this point in the movie that we find that young Kitai, while exhibiting impressive physical abilities is lacking in emotional and mental control, issues which he will be forced to deal with later on in the movie.

Below is an outline of initiatory steps as experienced by the ancients and portrayed in “After Earth”

• Trek Through Nature in Solitude With a Mission to Complete
• Initiate Versus Nature, Beasts, and Self (FEAR)
• Initiate must face and overcome several trials in order to reach their goal (manhood)
• Endurance (Breathing linked to inhalers)
• Initiate must protect and ration limited amount of supplies, ie; food, water, medical
• Handling confrontation with potential danger.

It is worth noting here that Kitai failed his first encounter with danger (the monkeys)spectacularly! His Father told him to take control of his Power and watch what he creates. Kitai could not control his fear and anxiety and thus created a scenario where his life was in danger and forcing him to flee from the confrontation he created out of fear. In initiation, this is to be expected. The initiate must fail in order to understand what can result from recklessness and unchecked fear.

This same scenario played itself out in the movie Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, when Luke was sent into the "Cave of Darkness" by Yoda. Luke took FEAR into the cave with him and was confronted by it in the form of his Father, Darth Vader – though this Vader was purely a creation of Luke’s fearful thoughts.

• Facing medical emergency – poisoning by river leach and self administration of anti-venom.
• Surviving the elements – finding thermal heat vents and shelter to keep warm during cold spells.
• Defying Authority or “The System” in order to do what is right.
• Leap of Faith – Jumping off a cliff in the hopes that his brash act will carry him to his goal.
• Surviving a predator – The Raptor or Hawk representing Heru*
• Assisting Mother Nature to defend her children – fighting for the lives of the baby hawks against the attacks of the feline predators.
• Divine Aid – Initiate is pushed to his physical limits and thus transcends and is able to make contact with the spirit world where he is able to make peace with his dead sister and is given the aid and the protection of his spirit totem, the hawk.
• Initiate reaches physical goal but must still go higher in order to reconnect spiritually with his Father – Kitai finds the beacon however it does not send the signal. Out of anger and frustration he hears the spiritual voice of his Father telling him to take a knee, (lower his physical nature so that he may listen to his higher “spirit” nature) - his father then tells him that he must go higher, to the top of a nearby mountain so that he can send their beacon signal (plea for assistance) into the heavens.
• Initiate must face and overcome his fear here symbolized by the “Ursa” monster. Note here that "Ursa" is another name for a Bear which in some native tribes had to be faced and overcome by the young teens of the tribe in order for them to become men.
• Initiate has to enter the Cave of Darkness/Fear. It is here that the monster reveals itself to the initiate and must be fought to the death.
• Initiate is hurled into the abyss and must experience death. This death is not a physical one usually, but represents the death of the childish nature of the boy and the birth of the man. Fear, doubt and disbelief dies here , and the man, the warrior is able to be born. Initiate is put in mortal danger in order to force a change of mind and heart.
• Upon reaching the mountaintop, the initiate is able to completely conquer himself and as a result his own fear and is thus able to destroy the monster and send a beacon into the heavens to receive a rescue and a return to his heavenly home.
• By completing his task, the initiate is able to return home and redeem (save) his Father who was symbolically dead and in the underworld or in a deep soul sleep from which only the sons sacrifice could save him. **

Archetypes

The makers of “After Earth” also make use of archetypes to help them tell their story. According to the Concise Encyclopedia an “archetype” is “Primordial image, character, or pattern of circumstances that recurs throughout literature and thought consistently enough to be considered universal. Literary critics adopted the term from Carl Gustav Jung's theory of the collective unconscious. Because archetypes originate in pre-logical thought, they are held to evoke startlingly similar feelings in reader and author. Examples of archetypal symbols include the snake, whale, eagle, and vulture. An archetypal theme is the passage from innocence to experience; archetypal characters include the blood brother, rebel, wise grandparent, and prostitute with a heart of gold.”

Some of the archetypes that “After Earth” makes use of include, the “Father,” wise and valiant, yet fundamentally separated from his son, due to some perceived weakness or character flaw within the Son. The Son has let his Father down in a profound way, which has caused emotional and physical detachment.

The archetype of the "Son/Sun" in movies has the son following in his Father’s footsteps, while at the same time trying to make his own mark. He loves his Father but is resentful of him because he knows that he has fallen short of his Father’s expectations and/or achievements and he yearns to be like his Father and even to surpass him, in order to gain his love and respect. It is the Son’s job ultimately to redeem or save his Father, which makes him a suitable replacement for his Father, and which earns him the right to become a Father in his own right.

The steps that the Father and Son archetype takes in the movie “After Earth” are listed below.

• Son in search of Father
• Son fails to achieve an expected goal, and is judged by Father to be a failure. In After Earth this is unspoken, though in some stories the Father tells the Son outright that he is a failure.
• Father and Son embark on journey to attempt to mend the rift between them. (This is a mask for the beginning of the initiatory journey.)
• Father and Son encounter disaster, which only the two of them survive, leaving the Father severely wounded and having to rely on the Son for salvation.
• Father demands absolute obedience and adherence to his rules and commands as he does not fully trust the mental and physical abilities of the Son.
• Son is sent out to face the elements and enemies alone, but with the “spiritual guidance” of the Father. In After Earth, the spiritual guidance of the Father is represented by the com-link that keeps them in voice communication, and the “All Seeing Eyes” or cameras that the Father deploys in order to observe his Son’s progress and to watch out for danger.
• Son VS Father – The Son begins to question his Father’s authority when his Father exhibits a lack of faith that the Son can accomplish his goals. This is perhaps the MOST important part of the movie when Kitai chooses to outright disobey the direct order of his Father. The lesson is this: when authority is wrong or becomes oppressive, it must be disobeyed by the hero in order for justice to be done.
• Son Disobeys Father and is Cutoff, Cast Out or Cast Down. Being cut off from communication with the Father is symbolic of being cast down from heaven, which was shown literally as Kitai took a leap off the top of a waterfall in disobedience to his Father’s order that he return home. This event caused his communication link to his Father to be broken, leaving the Son alone and without guidance at a critical stage of the mission/initiation.
• Son Forced to Face Enemy (FEAR) Alone – In the movie fear is represented by the Ursa, which is a monster that tracks its enemies through pheromones released when its prey is afraid. This creature can literally smell your fear. It is only when the Son has mastered himself that he can overcome the fear inside him, which the Ursa beast in the movie symbolizes.
• Son Redeems (SAVES) Father, Returns Home a Man, Understands and Becomes Father.

The Heru Mythos

Every hero story you have ever read or saw played out on the silver screen is based on the mythos of Heru. Heru was an ancient African deity or Neter (force or aspect of nature) and the template for all good kings. You can read about his exploits in “The Passion of Osiris (Ausar)” and “A Tale of Two Brothers”. These tales come down to us from the land of ancient Kemet, now called Egypt.

In the myth Heru’s Father Ausar (Osiris) is betrayed and murdered by his jealous brother Set. Ausar is resurrected as the spiritual ruler of the underworld or afterlife. As a ruler, he is perpetually made to sit on a throne and cast his judgment on those who have recently passed on. [This is shown symbolically as Kitai’s Father Cipher was stuck in the chair inside the ship and using the ships camera’s (spiritual eyes) and the comm. Link (spiritual communication) to watch over and provide guidance to Kitai]
This throne motif is important as it was foreshadowed in After Earth by the soldier in the wheelchair, who approached the General and his Son. Upon approaching the General, the soldier declared that the General had saved his life and asked to be “stood up,” or in Biblical terms, “made upright”, by his companions so that he could make a proper salute to his hero (savior). This theme would play itself out again as the General would make the request “stand me up”, so that he could salute his son. This symbol represents the son redeeming or saving his Father.

Getting back to the mythos of Heru… after his father Ausar (Osiris) is murdered and his brother takes over the kingdom of Kemet, it becomes the mission of Heru and is Mother Auset (Isis) to get Heru on the throne as the rightful ruler of the land. Heru has to go through years of training under the auspices of his Mother Auset, His Aunt Nebhet (Nephtys) and the diminutive Bes who is the Neter of child birth, happiness and war. It is Bes who trains Heru to be a warrior. In the movie Star Wars Yoda played the part of the trainer (Bes) to Luke Skywalker (Heru).

The symbol of Heru was the Hawk. He was often depicted with wings and having the head or mask of a hawk. In the movie After Earth we see the relationship of the Hero to the Hawk in the “Leap of Faith” sequence where the hawk chases Kitai down and then carries him off to her nest to be food for her baby chicks. Kitai awakes while being nibbled on by the newborn chicks, but finds that the hawk nest is under attack by feline predators intent on eating the chicks. Kitai helps the hawk to defend the nest but fails to keep the predators from killing all of the baby birds.
The hawk mourns the loss of her baby chicks with a screech of rage and begins to follow Kitai in the air, which seems menacing in the beginning, but we find out later that the Hawk has bonded with Kitai and she later drags him to safety and protects him from the cold by using her own body heat to keep him from freezing. This is an obvious symbol of Kitai’s mythic relationship to Heru the Neter** of the Sun and the Sky… the original sky – walker.
After many contentious battles and adventures, Heru, with the help of his Mother would go on to gain rulership of the land of Kemet (Egypt) and thereby redeem his Father Ausar (Osirus).

It is important that you know that the story of Ausar (Osiris) and Heru (Horus) has been told and retold across the world and can be found in many variations, the names and characters and even some of the circumstances may change, but the root of the story remains the same. It is the duty of the Son to succeed his Father as ruler of the land or EARTH, but only AFTER he has proven himself worthy to do so. So you can see that the movie After Earth has a lot more depth to it than meets the casual eye.

There are many other examples of the mythological and archetypal symbolism that are incorporated into the movie After Earth that I was not able to touch on like the Mother as the “Queen of Heaven,” or the Sister as the “Spiritual Guardian” of her Brother. This movie is chock full of all the elements that make a great story and I for one feel that the story of After Earth was masterfully told. I’m looking forward to more of this type of movie from not only Will Smith and crew, but from other Black film-makers as well.

*Also known as Horus, Heru wan an ancient Kemetic (Egyptian) Neter (Deity) of the Sun and Sky, his symbol was the hawk. Heru was often depicted with the head of a hawk and the body of a man.

**Kitai’s Father Cipher being trapped in the innards of a spaceship evokes the symbolism of Jonah in the belly of the fish as well as the Ausarian (Osiris) mythos of Ausar sitting on a throne and providing spiritual guidance to Heru from the spirit world.

*** Neter means aspect of nature or divine nature. Neter has been translated as God and Goddess.

All rights reserved. Copyright 2013 Keith D. Young | www.AfroPerspectives.com

Udo and the Seeds of Change is a Children's book written and illustrated by Daniel Ebhodaghe. It's his first attempt at getting published, but I really liked the story so here it is. You can find out more about it here on Amazon.com 

Finally Launched my 400 page Graphic novel and you get it here on Drivethrucomics!!!

I think this TED presentation has the kernel of a great story:

Theo Jansen: An Artist Creates A New Lifeform

"In my talk, I mentioned that the Strandbeest would develop a digital brain. But it turns out that working with an analogue brain is much simpler and weighs far less. The "brain" of the animal, which is actually a digital step counter, works -- but is a lot of work to make, and it uses up extra walking units simply to carry the brain itself."

Happy FriYay, MOSS fans!

READER REVIEWS FOR AMAZON WANTED: If you've finished reading part I of Murder on Second Street, please do me a favor and head on over to http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D9X5T6A and leave a review. Help this Sy Sanford series reach the masses, and get ready for part II (release date is July 1).

Happy Father's Day weekend!!!

The pilot gripped the control levers as if they were attached to a lifeline. Air friction rocked the ship as it knifed into rapid deceleration. Bridge crew members were strapped to their chairs…except the captain, whose chair was occupied by Tunnal. The other hijackers held onto whatever they could to maintain their balance through the heavy jostling of a high-speed descent.
“We’re losing the central turbine,” announced the pilot.
“Compensate!” The captain held on tight to the back of his chair while Tunnal looked on stone-faced.
“32 percent deceleration,” said the engineer. “Increasing reverse boosters.”
“Initiate flank attitude thrusts,” ordered the captain. “That should aid our decel.”
Alita sat at the astrogation station observing the hijackers. She noticed how focused they were on the forward display screen, their faces wrought with trepidation. Her gaze slid to the bridge exit less than twelve feet from where she sat.
“Central turbine output is reducing.” The engineer paused to check a reading. “Damn! It’s shutting down…”
The ship took a gut churning dip, knocking most of the hijackers off their feet.
Alita seized her opportunity. She quickly unstrapped herself and shot out of her chair toward the exit. The door slid open and shut behind her.
One of the hijackers tried to go after her, but was upended by the ship’s wobbly motion.
“Forget about her,” Tunnal ordered the hijackers, forestalling their pursuit. “She’s on borrowed time.”

Alita made her way to the engine room, deftly maintaining her footing on a quaking ship. As she advanced further into the room a huge hole in the bulkhead brought her up short. The floor was littered with debris and smoke spiraled from a pair of severely damaged generators. Half the engine room lay in ruin.
Alita looked around, moving tentatively toward the hole. Was Dern down here?
A faint noise caught her ear. She whirled about, finding herself in the shadow of a towering figure in scorched armor. A mirrored faceplate retracted, revealing a familiar dark skinned visage.
“Dern…thank God!” She brushed over his armor. “What happened to you?”
Dern placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Let’s just say I was on the wrong end of a very powerful explosive. Are you all right? How’d you get away?”
Alita grinned in spite of herself. “I ran…as fast as I could.” Horror displaced the grin. “Dern, this Tunnal is an animal…a murderer. He killed our comm officer. Shot him down like it was nothing!”
“They’re all murderers,” Dern stated harshly. “The passengers are dead. They were massacred.”
Alita stepped back, her mouth and eyes agape. “No…”
An alarm blared from a status board above the nearest generator. Alita looked up at the board, skimming its data. “We’ve got less than five minutes of airborne time. It might be a hard landing!”
“Then we need to get you to safety.” Dern lifted the woman and draped her over his shoulder.
“Wait! Where are we going?”
“The stasis level. The tubes are crash fortified. I’m putting you in one.”
“What about you?”
Dern moved swiftly through the hole in the bulkhead and sprinted toward the cargo section exit. “I’m sure I’ll be able to withstand a hard landing.”

Alita gasped when she saw the stasis level corridor clogged with bodies. “Put me down!
Dern zeroed in on the first stasis room. “No time.”
“Put me down,” the technician repeated insistently.
The former SD soldier huffed impatiently but acceded to Alita’s request.
She slid off his shoulder and eyed the corpses around her in stunned, horrified silence. “I thought we left this behind.” Alita struggled to hold down her bile.
“I did too,” Dern said soberly. He tapped her elbow. “Come on, we’ve got to get you in a tube.”
Alita started forward, but paused. She bent and plucked an RI4 rifle from the cold, grip of a dead hijacker. She looked up at Dern with a sordid gleam in her eye. “Been a while since I held one of these. I’m going to enjoy this reunion.”

The sleeper ship screamed past a jagged mountain peak, avoiding a collision by inches.
That was expert maneuvering on the pilot’s part. The rest lay in the hands of fate as the ship lost power and fell into a perilous glide toward a rocky valley. It touched the ground, bouncing once, twice then sliding a half mile, dredging up a gusher of dirt and gravel, pulverizing rock outcroppings in its path. Finally it slowed to a grinding halt.
The crew faired well enough in the landing since they were strapped into chairs. A few hijackers were sprawled on the deck, having suffered minor injuries from falls or collisions. The captain held tight as he could to his chair, almost losing his grip on the ship’s second bounce. He let go, massaging a right that felt as if it had been pulled from its socket and reattached.
Tunnal released the chair straps holding him in place and rose. “Not a bad landing,” he remarked to the pilot in a tone more mocking than complimentary. To the engineer: “What’s the status? How banged up is this bucket?”
The engineer examined damage readings on his console screen. “Four generators and two turbines are down. Five coils, fractured…”
The hijack leader waved a hand impatiently. “I don’t need details just tell me if the ship can be fixed.”
The engineer shrugged. “It’ll take time since this planet likely lacks the fully equipped maintenance facility a ship of this class requires. I’ll need spare parts assembled to specs.”
“Routh’s maintenance accommodations may not be first class,” said Tunnal. “But the man running it’ll have whatever you need to make decent repairs.” The forward display caught his attention. “Speaking of which…”

Twenty-five Terrain Variable Vehicles sped toward the downed space vessel, whipping up voluminous clouds of dust in their wake. TVVs were large, thickly armored personnel transports, equipped with forward turrets, and flank mounted rocket pods. These were essentially discard vehicles, distributed throughout the colonies after their replacement by upgrades. They were not intended for illegal settlements. And yet, here they were, in the hands of a crime lord with the resources and tenacity to acquire the very best hardware that he possibly could.
Tunnal smiled admiringly. That’s why he enjoyed doing business with Hooper. And with Hooper’s added muscle, this Dern Lowtower’s chances of survival just decreased drastically, armor or no armor.
Tunnal turned to the engineer. “Get your techs together and get started on the repairs.”
The captain stepped in front of Tunnal, anger radiating from his eyes. “We have done what you wanted, yet the price we paid for our cooperation resulted in the death of my officer, a good man. The very least you can do is release us immediately so we can figure out a way to reach our original destination.”
Tunnal’s arm whipped out with expert precision, delivering a vicious chop to the side of the captain’s head.
The captain stumbled sideways, plopping on the deck when he tripped over his feet.
Several outraged crew members rose from their chairs, but guns thrust in their faces curtailed further movement.
The hijack leader stood over the groggy captain. “The passengers are dead, Captain. So don’t you dare presume to make demands of me. I’m already pissed off about the condition of this ship. Maybe I’ll let you and your miserable crew live after I have this Lowtower’s head in my clutches. If that be the case then you will spend the rest of your lives as Hooper’s slaves. That may or may not be a merciful outcome for you. Either way you’ll be in no position to report us to Coalition authorities.”
The shock in the captain’s eyes appeared to have accelerated his recovery from Tunnal’s abuse. “You killed the passengers?”
“End of discussion,” Tunnel growled, pointing his Viper at the captain’s head. “Open the emergency exit doors. We’re all leaving, except the engineer and his techs.”
“What about Lowtower?” Welch queried with bloodthirsty relish.
“Hooper’s people will handle him. And we’re going to help.”

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Arthur C. Clarke

Physics arXiv:
Hide The Interior Region of Core-Shell Nanoparticles With Quantum Invisible Cloaks

So you won't think I just pulled the title out of...well, you know. Almost sounds like an old George Carlin skit...

R&D: Life on Earth comes from out of this world

Space.com: Rover Finds New Evidence That Ancient Mars Was Habitable

I've not written much since January of this year.  The only writing that I've been doing is for my sim. I'm trying to change that.  Not sure what to write but I want to get something out; if I ever plan on finish my stories (even one of them) I need to be more diligent. 

Get's kind of lively...

From: Moorsgatemedia.blogspot.com

Every so often, we come across works that are incomplete but compelling. Some combination of tone, world, and voice conspires to make us want to know more. However, due to deadlines, budgets and other commitments, some concepts get left to wither. Short Visual Fiction posts attempt to reconcile some of the art work we have laying around with some text that never went any where. 

-The Bear-Men of Kodiac Island:

Jonah pulled the handle. As he did, orange flames shot from the top of the central stack. The quilted frame of the Aeypher expanded, pulling the guide line tight.

"More!" Captain Bluenose shouted from behind the giant steering gear. "We need more altitude if we are to catch the Prince of Crystal River."

Jonah took the iron handle and yanked with both hands, laughing as he did. Slowly, the Aeypher began to rise.

Below them, in the wilds of Kodiac Island, the Bear-Men called in loud grunts and hollers.

"The Bear-Men hold no love of the Prince!", Bluenose called through the wind. 

"Why?" Jonah asked as he peered over the side railing. Below the wisps of sooty smoke wafted from the Wigwams of the Bear-Men.

"The Prince and the Bear-Men both love the Salmon of the Crystal River. The Prince pays a handsome price for any fish brought to his cooks. Knowing his appetite, the Red Catchers swarm the River and catch as much as they can. This leaves the Bear-Men very hungry. Very hungry indeed."

"Hungry enough to eat people?" Jonah stepped back from the abyss. A breeze caught his school coat and flung his tartan tie around his neck like a scarf.

"Silly boy!", tall Captain Bluenose laughed as he tucked long braids under the Gold trimmed Tri-corner hat; "Bear-Men will always eat a tasty man...or boy...hungry or not."

Jonah stared, trying to decipher if the statement held a hidden jest. If not, there was a lot he had to learn about being a Pirate of the Western Sky.

-An excerpt and artwork from the unfinished and unloved  "Pirates of the Western Sky" by Grant Chambers - If you want more "Short Visual Fiction" - drop us a line.

Not mad at you, though...

R&D: Record-breaking high-energy particles detected by telescope buried in Antarctic

I find most of my cable provided music channels to be mostly worthless. So using the excellent technology provided by WorldTV -- unless you can do your own coding which I can't, yet -- I created two channels. The channels are called "The Acid Jazz Channel" and "More Acid Jazz". I really think this is the personalized television of the future. I also think the channel is politically conscious, always nice. You can embed the channel anywhere. So here it is:

If you like some trad jazz, mostly acid jazz, some alt rock and left wing politics, then its the best music channel ever. There's also a steady diet of science fiction and political trailers. I'm curious about what people here think. Related: You can find my sites embedded here and here just in case the embed here doesn't work. More Related: The Acid Jazz Channel has 1000 videos in full rotation. Every single video I've ever played is at the More Acid Jazz channel which has around 5000 videos. So if you need something to watch for the rest of your life...The theory behind the channel is that you should always find something new to listen to. You can find the "More Acid Jazz" embed here. Not Related: Still upset about Gidas Flowers and the somewhat sloppy work of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC).

Man is the only animal that deals in that atrocity of atrocities, War. He is the only one that gathers his brethren about him and goes forth in cold blood and calm pulse to exterminate his kind. He is the only animal that for sordid wages will march out... and help to slaughter strangers of his own species who have done him no harm and with whom he has no quarrel... And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood off his hands and works for 'the universal brotherhood of man' - with his mouth. Mark Twain

 
Manifest destiny: 1.historical expansionist doctrine: the doctrine or belief prevalent in the 19th century that the United States had the God-given right to expand into and possess the whole of the North American continent.

 
We are children of this sense of destiny/entitlement (if ever truly used in its correct application), and a reflection of this mechanized distancing through technology of mankind from itself.

Graphene SEP

Physics World: Redefining the ampere with the help of graphene?

SETTING FOR MURDER ON SECOND STREET: So where is Jackson Ward and what's its link to American History?

"Richmond's Jackson Ward neighborhood is located on the northern edge of the downtown district. It was originally built by European immigrants attracted to and made prosperous by Richmond's status as a central retail hub. Freed slaves began moving into the neighborhood during Reconstruction, and by 1920 Jackson Ward was one of the most active and well-known centers of African-American life in the country.

Jackson Ward hosted a thriving entertainment district centered on the famed Hippodrome theatre. Among the names that appeared regularly were Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, and Richmond's own Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. The neighborhood was the home of a number of large and well-known African-American churches, including the Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church, founded by famous orator John Jasper. It also hosted a strong retail and business community in which Maggie L. Walker became the first woman in America to found and lead a bank in the United States when she opened the St. Luke Penny Savings. Jackson Ward was also the home and headquarters for civil rights advocate John Mitchell, Jr., editor of the Richmond Planet, which crusaded against the discrimination and persecution of African-Americans in the South."

To learn more about Jackson Ward in Richmond, VA, visit http://dig.library.vcu.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/jwh. Or, order your very own piece of African American and America History with Murder on Second Street, part 1 (see additional posts for order link).

Hugens saw something…or thought he did twenty yards ahead. Shelves stacked with bags and crates extended as high as thirty feet. Hugens opened up, flaying shelves and everything on them in a fiery torrent of flechettes.

Chain and Josik directed their rifles in the same direction, joining their fire to Hugens’.

“He’s over there somewhere!” Hugens shouted. He ran toward the first aisle.

Josik followed, but Chain hung back. “You sure you’re not chasing shadows?”

“Shadows my ass!” Hugens retorted, infused with fresh courage. “I swear to the devil himself I’ll turn the bastard into one before this day is…”

A beam of deadly coherent light ripped from the darkness of the aisle, slicing through Hugens’ left side. His body burst into flame like dry kindling touched by fire. A second light beam ripped what was left of him apart in a blinding explosion.

“Before this day is done, to complete your sentence,” Dern taunted, briefly gazing at pieces of the dead criminal before turning his HIE on the second hijacker to dart into view.

A blaze of plasma surged from the bracelet, torching the man just as his finger depressed the RI4’s trigger. A spray of flachettes sparked across the ceiling before the  hijacker’s melting weapon tumbled out of his grasp

Chain didn’t bother to stick around to see what turned her comrades into bonfires. She hurled the CX charge and sprinted on panic-fueled legs out of the cargo section.

Dern leapt out of the aisle in time to spot the 3^rd hijacker racing for the exit. His suit’s warning censor flagged the airborne explosive. He caught a glimpse of the object and attempted to dive out of its path. The CX exploded and Dern absorbed its impact like a giant mallet to the body.

A CX charge was designed to breach the hardest material through the rapid release of hyper-condensed pressure. Limited strictly to military use because of its sheer devastating output, a CX had no business in the hands of a criminal. The sleeper ship possessed none of the external or internal impregnability of a military vessel; which is why it was so easy for the CX blast to punch through the bulkhead like a boulder through glass. Dern was pulled into a flaming pressure current that torpedoed him through a blast-gouged aperture into the adjoining engine room.

Hot glowing agony afflicted Dern when he collided with a thruster control generator, putting a deep dent in its titanium-layered surface. There was no specific area of discomfort he could pinpoint. The pain was all over, smothering him in a cruel throb. Dern heaved himself out of the dent and dropped to his knees, waiting for a fresh infusion of Flare to melt away the pain. In seconds, he felt refreshed and than ready to resume the fight.

The floor tilted sharply beneath his feet, toppling him off balance. Again, he crashed into the generator.

Status boards were mounted on every major piece of equipment in the engine room.

Dern didn’t need to check the data on any of those boards to tell him that the ship was going down.

Tunnal listened to Chain’s report after the woman’s near frantic arrival on the bridge.

Two more of his people dead! Whether Tunnal was aware of it or not, he bore an unsettling resemblance to a rabid wolf with his bared teeth and wide-eyed stare.

“Captain,” the pilot called out. “Controls are sluggish. I won’t be able to keep us in the in the air for long.”

“Generator conduits are bleeding fuel at a dangerously rapid rate,” Said the engineer. “If we don’t land within the next fifteen minutes we will definitely crash. What the hell is going on?”

“We’ve got a hero running around on this ship killing my people, that’s what’s going on.” Tunnal gazed coldly at captain. “Someone is going to tell who I’m dealing with or I’m going to be extremely upset.”

The captain spread his hands in an appeasing gesture. “Mr…Tunnel…I…”

Tunnal unholstered his Viper, walked over to a communications officer and shot the man in the back of the head. The officer slumped forward, blood and brain matter spilling out of a massive exit wound in his forehead, pooling on his console.

Bridge crew members cowered in terror at their stations. The captain stared at his fallen subordinate, pale with shock.

“I want answers!” Tunnal yelled, holding up his pistol. “Or I’ll be forced to express my displeasure a second time.”

“Lowtower, damn you,” said Alita. “His name is Dern Lowtower. He’s former SD.”

Tunnal lowered his weapon, pinning Alita with a baleful gaze. “Special Deployment?”

Mention of the Coalition’s ultra elite soldiers had a sudden and very sobering effect on the hijackers. They tightened their grips on their weapons as if expecting this Lowtower apparition to come bursting on the bridge at any second.

“What is he doing on this ship?” Tunnal asked.

“He accepted a job on Ceres 3 as a settlement patrol officer.”

“Does he have a suit?”

“Yes.”

“That’s crap!” The big hijacker, Welch, disputed. “You said former. How can he have a suit if he ain’t SD anymore?”

“Ex SDs are allowed to keep their suits if they go into a law enforcement capacity,” Alita explained. “But the suits are drastically reduced in capability to fit within a civilian context. His suit has been stripped of battle mode.”

Tunnal rubbed his chin. “Battle mode. Now that’s a sight to see.” He turned to Welch. “I served on Yuttrol during the Ish Insurgency. My brigade was tasked with taking out this huge ass mobile artillery platform. We launched so many attacks against that thing I lost count. Armored units were decimated, aerial bombardment couldn’t put a dent in the thing. A thousand troops, scrubbed out of existence in the first half hour of the first assault. Thousands more in the second and third. I don’t know how I survived that meat grinder.” Tunnal gave a twisted, humorless grin. “Somebody eventually came to their senses and sent in the SDs. Twenty of them. Twenty. They got inside the platform, eliminated the operators and disabled it in less than an hour. That’s Battle Mode for you.”

“But like she said, Boss,” Welch cut in, pointing at Alita. “He don’t have Battle Mode. He’s weak.”

“SDs are never weak,” Alita countered with a defiant edge. “Even without their armor.”

“But I get Welch’s point,” said the hijack leader. He looked at Alita. “Your friend may be formidable, but without a full suit, he’s not what he was.” He turned to Chain. “Do you think the CX did any damage to him?”

Chain lowered her eyes as if embarrassed. “I don’t know…I didn’t check.”

“That’s all right.” Tunnal thought for a second. “Captain, open a channel to Routh.”

The captain looked at the body of his communication officer. Since he had no backup officer to fill that capacity, he went to the blood smeared console and performed the task himself.

“What are we going to do, Boss?” Asked Welch with a jittery gaze.

            “We’re going to make Hooper earn this ship.”