A research team from Harvard University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has demonstrated the ability to 3D print a battery. This image shows the interlaced stack of electrodes that were printed layer by layer to create the working anode and cathode of a microbattery. (SEM image courtesy of Jennifer A. Lewis.)

Harvard SEAS: Printing tiny batteries, Dan Ferber, Wyss Institute

By Chaz Ebert, wife of the Late Roger Ebert

Roger was writing reviews right until the very end. One day in the hospital I suggested that he take a break from work-related writing and write something creative that made him feel like he did when he was writing science fiction articles for fanzines when he was a boy. He began writing "The Thinking Molecules of Titan", a story about space exploration set in part at his beloved University of Illinois. 

He never got a chance to finish it.  

In the spirit of Roger's belief in crowd participation, we're having a contest to help complete the story.

Write your own ending and email it to us at contests@ebertdigital.com, with the subject header "TITAN ENDING", followed by your FULL NAME. 

We'll gather the submissions and narrow it down to a select group of finalists, solicit your votes on which is the best, and announce the winner on the site. -- Chaz

The story so far:

The Thinking Molecules Of Titan

Physics World: Graphene circuit breaks the gigahertz barrier

Physics arXiv:
Biologically inspired graphene-chlorophyll phototransistors with high gain

I just got a message from someone who thinks that I should change the page name from "Black" to "African Heritage".

She feels that everyone else is identified by their ethnicity, but that page is identified by color and so she doesn't feel comfortable recommending the website to children and young people because she doesn't feel that the label is suitable.

One of the reasons I have "Black" is that not all those who are called "Black" are African or of (recent) African heritage. The indigenous people of Australia are considered Black, as are the native peoples of the Philippines.

Also, honestly, I am U.S. based and Black is how most of my brothers and sisters refer to themselves.

Please be super honest with me. If you need to rip a hole because I'm wrong, wrong, wrong, then please do tell me. I'm a big girl, I can handle it.

Thanks so much, Ruth

http://www.alienstarbooks.com

July, the Priestess Returns!
Many new questions rose at the end of Season Two as the now grown Little Fish set out from the protection of Valley Realm as he learned to control the power of the mystical Fishscale! Who is the mortal threat to the life of the Priestess the Valley Knight was warned of by the Dark God Qatula? Can the 'truth within lies' from Qatula be trusted? What unseen consequences from the Aesir Chief's breaking of the conditions for his return to the Valley set down by the 'Future Little Fish' will come to pass? What role will the new Goddess Okavanga protector of the Delta Boundary play in the coming events foreseen by the Priestess? And, what great power will come forth to challenge the Mighty Priestess and bring the shadow of destruction to the Valley? Much will be revealed and risked by all in Season Three of 'The Priestess!'

When looking at this picture I was initially amazed, since I believed it to be something that it is not.

What it is, is a group of businessmen looking at the hull of a larger early 20th century cruise liner. Possibly the Titanic, but it could be anything from the Lusitania to some unknown ship that was sunk during the Battle of the Atlantic.

However, what it looked to me at first glance, was the undercarriage of a great Airship. These gentlemen, these Aeronauts, were proudly embarking on a circumnavigation of the globe in their floating dreadnought. Armed with wits and guns and inevitable communicable diseases, they would venture into the dense jungles of Amazonia . On their journeys, they would encounter the fabled lost cities described by defrocked Jesuit Francisco DeOriana, fight dangerous Air-Pirates and commit wanton acts of Derring-Do.

Of course, none of this happened, but it is an important lesson for any story teller or historian. Context matters. Context told me I was looking at the ribs of a giant inflatable balloon, not the walkways to a ship deck.

Context matters to story tellers because we can slant stories in a certain way. Make certain people the heroes or the villains, depending on the context, depending on the point of view.

In fiction, it used to be that POCs were typically the enemy, or if not worthy of fear, then contempt.

(See Armageddon 2419AD for a pretty racist view of both Asians and Africans)

POC and depictions of them have changed in the 80 years since 2419 published. Partly that is because of context. Consumers and their tastes have changed. While POC have not achieved parity in terms of "hero" status, actors such as Will Smith and Vin Diesel have proven that there is a commercial market for a POC as the heroic lead.  In order to see greater representation in both interactive and static entertainment, authors have to continue to shift the context.

However, context shifting has to be more than preaching to some POC choir. It has to involve moving the context of what a hero does, what he or she looks like, and what is the nature of heroism. If you are fighting on someone else's ground, you will always be seen in their context.

It would like to say that we at MM are doing that, but the honest truth is that we haven't done it well enough.

Amazon.com: Ender's Game Box Set

Dern initated a sequence, opening the stasis lid’s cover.

            Alita rose and hopped out of the tube. She gave Dern a quick appraisal. “Are you all right?”

            “It was a rough landing,” Dern commented.

            “I barely felt it. Great idea throwing me in one of these.” Alita patted the side of the stasis tube in amused gratitude. What’s next?”

            “There’s an emergency hatch in the ship’s rear compartment. That’s where we’re headed. Once outside I’m going to do everything I can to rescue the crew.”

            “We’ll go out together.” Alita checked her rifle’s round clip.

            Dern shook his head. “No. This is what I need you to do…”

The hijackers prodded crewmembers down the protruding ramp leading from the forward exit hatch. Tunnal was the last to emerge from the ship. He breathed in a lungful of warm, crisp, clean planetary air and with uplifted spirits proceeded down the ramp.

            The TVVs assembled in a semi-circular laager twenty yards from the ship. Their desert camouflage colors perfectly blended into the desert backdrop.

            Armed men in gray one piece active garb, black helmets and flak vests poured out of the vehicles’ side doors. There were anywhere from fifteen to twenty men per TVV. They carried duel purpose Venom 12 assault rifles with directed energy emission capability. A smaller segment wielded portable fusion launchers. Clearly they knew what they were up against and equipped themselves accordingly.

            A large black bearded man strode toward Tunnal with a launcher cradled in his arms. Scowl lines wrinkled his forehead highlighting his displeasure. “You should make a habit of checking passenger manifests before you steal sleeper ships.”

            “That wouldn’t make a difference,” Tunnal retorted in his defense. “You can’t expect ex-military to announce themselves as such. I don’t. Let’s just get rid of this fly in our soup and call it a day.”

            Hooper thumbed a control on the fusion launcher, activating its scope. “I would hardly refer to a person with an SD background as a fly. But as you say, let’s get to it.”

            A commotion rang out among Hooper’s enforcers and the hijackers.

            Tunnal and Hooper pivoted at the same instant to see a person in armor standing at the rear of the ship.

            Tunnal instinctively reached for his sidearm, but Hooper raised a hand. “Wait.” He elevated his voice to everyone. “Hold your fire!”

            “What are you doing?” Tunnal demanded.

            TVV turrets whirred ominously in figure’s direction.

            “I think he wants to talk,” Hooper replied.

            Tunnal’s face reddened with fury. “I say let our guns do the talking. Blast the son of a bitch!”

            “Relax,” the crime lord said wryly “We can at least hear him out.”

            “Who’s the leader here?” Dern called out, using his suit’s voice amplifier.

            “That would be me,” a large, bearded man next to the exit ramp responded. “My name is Urias Hooper, Administrator of Routh Settlement.”

            Dern observed the vehicles and the armed men, taking their measure like a hawk studying its prey. The fifteen crew members sat huddled on the ground with hijacker guns trained on them.

He began walking toward the procession and could not only see the armed men tensing, but felt their disquiet.

A rush of Flare tickled his senses, heightening his urge to shed blood. He reveled in these criminals’ fear.

“I have no quarrel with you,” Dern explained, though it made him queasy to say those words. This so-called administrator’s association with a group of murdering thugs made him every bit as much a target for Dern’s contempt as the hijackers themselves. “Since you are an administrator that means the prisoners taken by that man…” Dern indicated Tunnal with a raised chin. Any hand gesture was likely to provoke a response from nervous men with itchy trigger fingers. “…have fallen under your custody.”

“They have,” replied Hooper.

Tunnal shifted, hissing a virulent whisper. “Like hell.”

“Shut up,” Hooper ordered. “This is my show now.”

“You also have the power to release them,” Dern reminded.

“Is that what you want? The prisoners?” Hooper asked.

Dern nodded. “Yes. I also want you turn the hijackers over to me so that they can be punished for their crimes. You can keep the ship.”

“You’ve clearly lost your mind, Lowtower!” Tunnal mocked with a burst of scathing laughter. “I’ll tell you what you can do. You can kiss my ass and walk away. We’ll keep the prisoners!”

Hooper favored the hijack leader with a long suffering glance. He returned his attention to Dern. “You can have the prisoners. As to your other request, no deal. I reside over a sound and effective judicial system. Tunnal and his people will be tried before a judge and jury. If found guilty, they will be punished in accordance with our laws.”

Dern wasn’t surprised that Hooper turned down the second part of his demand. But he figured it didn’t hurt to make the demand. As for Hooper’s claim that Tunnal and his minions would be tried…well he chose not to justify that fiction with a response.

“There are three crew persons aboard doing repairs,” Tunnal protested. “They can’t go anywhere until those repairs are complete…at least two of them can’t go. The engineer is with us.”

Dern bristled. The engineer. He was the traitor, the hijackers’ inside man. It would have taken a crew person with intimate knowledge of ship operations to change the ship’s coordinates, redirecting it and everyone on board to this godforsaken corner of the Coalition frontier. Reprehensible as the hijackers were, Dern reserved special enmity for the person who betrayed his own.

“Agreed,” he bit off. Dern sent a signal.

Seconds later the top of the sleeper ship retracted. A small globular craft with a flat bottom rose from the ship.

“That’s an evacuation pod,” Dern said, allaying Hooper’s concern. “The pod will pick up the prisoners.” Through the pod’s mildly tinted panoramic window, Dern saw Alita at the control. The facility with she handled the craft demonstrated her better than average proficiency as a pilot.

The pod made a gentle touchdown a few short yards from the crewmembers. The hijackers looked to Tunnal who offered a reluctant nod. The prisoners were ushered to their feet by their captors and practically shoved into the pod.

Dern accessed a private link. “Alita, as soon as the crew are onboard and secured I need you to get out of here at maximum acceleration.”

“I’ll push this thing as hard as I can,” Alita replied.

The last crew person stepped inside the pod and its hatch hummed shut. A few seconds later, the small craft shot into the air at full power.

Hooper tapped his subdermal. “Open fire, open fire!”

Turrets on half the TVVs redirected on the fleeing evac pod and spat searing bursts of tungsten shells. Flocks of rockets followed, screaming in pursuit of the pod like a horde of rabid insects.

Alita wrenched the control lever, forcing the pod into a tight swerve that it barely possessed the tolerances to withstand. The maneuver enabled her to avoid a cluster of rockets. Fortunately, the rockets were dumb munitions so she didn’t have to worry about shaking target locks. Tungten shells were a different matter, being far more numerous.

The smaller projectiles peppered the pod’s hull, striking seven crew members. Three died instantly as shells turned their bodies to bloody tatters.

A shell swished inches past Alita’s head, exiting through the window just left of her view. Alita tried to gain altitude, but the control lever seized up. Damage alarms clamored and the acrid stench of burnt relays filled the pod. Through a spider webbed view Alita saw a rocky plain below give way to a maze of deep canyons. The pod was going down, and she struggled mightily to control its descent…

Space.Com: First Trailer for Sci-Fi Thriller 'Europa Report' Unveiled
Man of Steel: GlyphCreator.ManofSteel.com

Since I reposted for mom...Happy Father's Day Pop. (Chief)

First conceive of a story bigger than any other story about white and black America previously written. Set it in an alternative present so that the actions, characters and story line are all as plausible a reality as the world we live in today.

Next, populate the story with characters as completely realistic as possible; characters we know as friends and family in our own lives.

Finally, craft a story so compelling, so realistic that readers need do little to suspend disbelief, to become so completely absorbed in the story that the events they read about are as real as those they see in the news or read about in print or online.

The Darkside Universe is an alternate past, present and future history where four black high school students, whose bond is closer than that of family, turn a chance discovery in the physics of gravity into the most closely held secret in the history of man. These four, along with a number of like-minded recruits along the way, build earth’s first interplanetary spacecraft, travel to the moon prior to NASA’s expeditions, and create a hidden colony on its backside.

Discovery is, at its heart, a mystery. How did the FBI overlook over two thousand missing African Americans for over four decades? How did these four friends acquire the technical expertise to design, build and launch the most advanced spacecraft in history? And finally, how did they keep their secret in the midst of recruiting several thousand like-minded Blacks to join in their adventure?

This is the basis for the seven volume Darkside Universe, two trilogies and a concluding seventh volume that tells a story as real as the lives we’re all leading right now.

The final question asked by the Darkside Universe is: if you were offered the opportunity to leave Earth and immigrate to the moon to live with the most advanced technology and medical care in the known universe, but were forbidden to tell anyone of your plans including family, you would just disappear from your daily life, would you go and live in this extraordinary all Black community?

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!!!