BLOGS

Discovery: The Case for Building a Death Star

More at: The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain, Langston Hughes
1926, The Nation, Courtesy of University of Illinois English Department

Tommie Smith, John Carlos, '68 Olympic Games

The African Pledge and photo from: Black Science Fiction Society

The Precision Measurement Laboratory at the NIST facility in Boulder, Colo., has been awarded LEED Gold certification. Credit: Copyright Christina Kiffney Photography

NIST: Green and Gold: NIST Boulder’s New Laboratory Achieves LEED Gold Certification

Site: Black Inventor Museum Online

“Zuri, the flesh must be divided evenly.” instructed Leena, pointing to her too generous cuts of the meat given to them by the recently returned warriors. 

“You mean less the largest portion which goes to the Queen.” The young woman stopped cutting the flesh in front of her, took a deep breath and started dividing the portions already cut into smaller pieces.

“I hear she doesn't even eat it.” said another.

“She doesn't. She says the meat from wild beasts smells bad. I tell her that it's all of the meat we have now. She just drinks the muthi and makes me take the stew away most days– I give it to the those in need of it.” said Olufemi. 

“You give it to Wasswa.” teased Nia as she walked by Olufemi carrying a basket full of fruit that somehow she had to divide between so many. 

“We give the best to the King's family while the people are starving. It isn't enough and it never is.” said Olufemi. 

“You can ignore me all you want Olufemi but I see the way he looks at you...and you he.”

“He is a warrior and I am a servant, bound to the king and his family. These eyes wander no further than the Queen's izindlu.” said Olufemi without looking up from her task.

“We do as we are told and we are lucky to have this much meat. The days of hunger will end and we will have rain again. King Nkosana has shared this from the ancestors, that we will suffer for a short time and the Kishnu will kneel at our feet. It is prophesy!”

"Yes, Leena of course." said Olufemi, nodding her head in agreement.

“Leena, you are old and sound just like the King. Do you have any thoughts that are your own? I'm tired of the prophesy and I want to eat everyday. I'm tired of hearing about the ancestors, what about the living? Why can't we till the soil or go fishing in the sea for ourselves? Why must only Nkosana provide?!” asked Nia for the third time since the last rain.

Without a warning, the elder cook rushed to the girl, raised her right hand up above her, landing it across her left cheek with so much force the girl staggered backwards. All of the others stood where they were, speechless. The young cook's pride alone was enough of a dam to keep tears from her face. She raised her hands to the left side of her face for a moment, then dropped them and faced Leena as if she was ready to strike her back. 

“Nkosana comes from a line of kings too great in number for you to count, child. He has always provided us with food even when the land refuses. We don't have to sweat in the hot sun or suffer the dangers at sea like Kishnu women – faces painted black, climbing trees,weapons in hand like men, with not a trace of themselves left recognizable, except for bosoms. Your tongue is a young child running ahead, beyond the reach of your father's spear, into the jaws of a lion. Our duty is to prepare the food given to us by our king. Never again let Nkosana's name pass your lips unless followed by praise or gratitude.”

Copyright 2012 All Rights Reserved.

By binding to an immune system cell's receptor (grey), a man-made component (yellow) of a protein could prevent the body from getting rid of a therapeutic nanoparticle. DIEGO PANTANO

Small man-made peptides can help to sneak drug-bearing nanobeads past the ever-vigilant immune system, a group of US researchers has found.

To work effectively, drugs and imaging agents need to get to the diseased cells or tumours where they’re needed most. Although scientists are developing nanoparticles that help to deliver drugs to the right place, all therapeutic molecules face a deadly foe — the immune system. Its macrophages are designed to spot any intruding molecules in the blood and destroy them in a process called phagocytosis.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia have now found a way to stop macrophages from destroying drug-bearing nanoparticles. They have designed and made a small segment of a crucial membrane protein called CD47, which is recognized by macrophages as being safe. This means that molecules that contain CD47 can get past macrophages and into blood cells.

Nature: Stealth nanoparticles sneak past immune system’s defences

For some reason I cant get the video to appear, but heres the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WThSnniic2s

To generate a buzz for my upcoming novel COLONY I'm offering my erotic space opera shorts COLONY and PROBE free on smashwords.

The full length novel Colony will be released near the end of the year :)!

PROBE

COLONY

To celebrate my week as the Spotlight Author on Reading in Black, I decided that I'd give away free ebooks of my little cookbook. TODAY ONLY! "The Soul of California - Cooking for the Holidays" - https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/272176. Use coupon code YE85Y for a free copy.

Don't forget to pick up your free copy of The Closet all weekend on Kindle.  It's the start of the Returned series about two versions of Earth and the link between them.  It also includes an extended excerpt of The Prophet, available next Tuesday.

Students participating in the Mars Student Imaging Project work directly with data they requested from the THEMIS instrument on board NASA's Mars Odyssey satellite. CREDIT: Arizona State University Mars Education Program

Post title inspired and courtesy of the Watts Prophets.

Space.com: Students Get Satellite Time: Inside the Mars Student Imaging Project

1. 
   Time and propulsion technologies: at current rates of speed, let's pick the average to obtain LEO - low earth orbit ~ 17,000 mph (27358.8 kph).
2. 
   The average distance between Earth and Mars is 140 million miles (225 million km).
3. 
   Thus, your trip would take roughly 8,235 hours, or 343 days. These are of course, my "back of the envelope calculations."
4. 
   Human frailty: we tend to like gravity, and lose muscle mass as well as bone density just in LEO on the ISS.

Scientific American: Millionaire Plans Mission to Mars in 2018

Global Integration Consulting

Creative Learning Systems: STEM for All Students: Beyond the Silos

The 18-year-old who built a nuclear reactor
Editor's note: Taylor Wilson is the subject of CNN's "The Next List" on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET.
By The Next List Staff, CNN

(CNN) - At 18, Taylor Wilson has probably accomplished more than most people will in a lifetime.
He is the youngest person in the world to build a nuclear fusion reactor. And he won national acclaim for a counter terror device that sniffs out nuclear material in cargo containers. If that’s not enough, he built a prototype for a device that generates medical isotopes - a feat that could make diagnosing and treating cancer cheaper and more widely accessible to patients.
Wilson has won a dozen awards at the prestigious Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the Super Bowl of science fairs, over the course of his high school career. Not to mention tens of thousands of dollars in prize money.

“Some people wonder if he’s for real,” said Bill Brinsmead, one of Wilson's mentors, and a Senior Technician in the Physics Department at the University of Nevada, Reno. Brinsmead and others who know him are sure that he is. The director of The Davidson Academy, Wilson's high school, calls him “larger than life.”
It would be easy to conclude that what sets Taylor apart is his rare intellect, something only a tiny fraction of the world possesses.
But ask Wilson why he’s successful and the answer might surprise you.
“I think it’s mainly passion. We all have a similar intellectual capacity within reason but the people who really change the world, the Steve Jobs of the world, have always had that passion, that drive," he said. "They have that unique image of how the world should be and I have that. And I think that’s what sets me apart. You know my brain does work differently, but it’s the passion that really makes me successful."
And where passion is concerned, it seems Wilson has a nearly inexhaustible supply.
That and, as his father, Kenneth Wilson, points out: “He never takes no for an answer.”
Wilson started building the nuclear fusion reactor in his garage but finished it at the University of Nevada, Reno. He did it initially because he was amazed by the power contained within the atom and obsessed with making things radioactive.
Here's what he had to say on that subject:
"I had this obsession with radioactivity, and short of contaminating something, to make something radioactive, you had to have a source of neutrons. And I don’t have weapons-grade plutonium around the house, or at least not at that time. But anyway, to make things radioactive, I would need a neutron source, so I decided to build this fusion reactor, but kind of with that came this interest in fusion."
Subsequently, he used his reactor as a basis for the devices he invented.
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Hello BSFS Graphic Artists, Artists,

This series of conferences specifically examines the intersection of Astronomy/Sky and the Arts. In the past this has included musical compositions, paintings, literature, you can see the range. 

Unfortunately I will not be attending! But I encourage BSFS members to submit their inspired works for consideration. Sending in an abstract or a sample is free! 

See http://www.amnh.org/insap-viii

INSAP VIII "City of Stars"
The Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena Conference, July 7–12, 2013
All the ways our exploration of the cosmos has inspired communities and cultures that would not otherwise do so, to think about the universe.

Hayden Planetarium
Rose Center for Earth and Space
American Museum of Natural History 
Central Park West at 79th Street
New York, NY 10024
USA