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Cover art and design by Quinton Veal.
“You cold?” the young woman shook her head. “Are you finished eating?”
“Yes ma’am.”
Annabelle pushed her chair back from the table, rose and walked back out into the hallway, Sonya followed. They stood before the door. “Don’t ever try to open this door or any of the doors in this by yourself. Understand?”
Sonya nodded impatiently, now in a hurry to be off. “Cle-Menti, she’s ready,” called Annabelle.
The words were barely out of her mouth, before he blurred alongside her. “You wish to go out princess?”
“Uh-huh,” Sonya stammered. Boy, I sound brain dead. But he is so fine!
He took her hand and they faced the door. “We wish to go to the beach,” he commanded. It swung open, to reveal golden sands and foaming turquoise waters; under an unbelievably bright orange-blue sky.
They strolled around the corner of the mansion, to find the two centaurs now racing each other up and down the sand; one Bronze, with green eyes, reddish-brown hair that curled about her shoulders, and a dark red mare’s hindquarters. The other was Amber with slanted, almond eyes, and black hair that flowed to her waist—a waist that ended in black horse’s body. Each wore silver brassieres covering their torsos.
“Can I get a closer look?”
Cle-Menti smiled indulgently, “Of course!” He shouted in a booming voice that echoed along the beach: “This is Sonya and she’d like to play with you; but behave yourselves! None of your
tricks—you hear?”
Sonya approached the centaurs slowly, twisting her hands in front of her like a child. “Hi…” she said softly.
They regarded her with open curiosity. “I’m Lui and this is Juliana,” the Amber centaur lisped. “Would you like a ride?”
“Oh yes!” Sonya breathed.
“Well, climb on my back then! We’re going to race!”
“And I’m going to win!” Juliana pronounced.
“Hold on tight!” Lui warned. She galloped down the beach—with Sonya holding on for dear life— then back again. The Indigo girl glanced over her shoulder, and glimpsed mermen and women looking on with great interest.
A crowd of aquatic folk had gathered near the ocean’s edge, and were bobbing up and down in the waves, smiling and pointing: waiting for their chance to play with this newcomer.
As Sonya slid off Lui’s back, she whispered: “You would make a lovely centaur! Wouldn’t you like to be one of us?”
Sonya frowned “Oh no!”
“And why not?” Juliana chipped in petulantly. “Are we not beautiful?” Beside her Lui pouted.
Sonya’s face split in a wide grin, flattered beyond measure that these magical equines wanted her to join their family. “You’re the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen!” Mollified they smiled back.
“Well?” said Lui expectantly.
“I have a family,” Sonya explained. “If I stayed with you, they’d miss me.”
For a moment Juliana and Lui seemed to seriously consider. “We could be your family,” Juliana offered, smiling openly as if this solved everything.
Sonya looked distressed. I don’t want to make them mad! “But I’d miss them too!” she stammered, “I love them!”
“What is… love?” asked Lui, looking confused.
Sonya’s jaw dropped. “You miss a person when they’re gone,” she groped for words, “you don’t ever want to be without them; and when they hurt, you hurt too.”
They listened intently. “Oh. . .!” said Juliana nodding; beside her Lui bobbed her head in agreement.
But it was obvious they still didn’t understand. Another small almost imperceptible shiver of fear coursed through Sonya. “Could we ride to the water?” she asked.
“Oh yes!” Lui smiled brightly, “We can do whatever we want!”
“Ride me this time!” chirped Juliana.
At the ocean’s edge Sonya scrambled off the centaur’s back—thankful to be rid of them—and into the warm water. She swam into the mere folks’ midst, marveling at their lustrous emerald, golden, brown, ebony, purple, sepia and pinks skins; and joined them in a game of tag.
Sonya began diving under the waves with them. A purple mermaid, with long ropy hair to match her skin, laughed at how playful the girl was; and pulled Sonya under the water, swimming alongside her. At this, they took turns dragging her down with them. Sonya couldn’t remember when she’d had so much fun.
She paddled into the depths marveling at the sea blooms and geometric coral; and at how long she was holding her breath. A slender, pink-skinned merman with golden hair, sea green eyes, and a matching tail, bobbed alongside her grinning. Without warning, he reached out and pulled her into his arms; his body even warmer than the sea.
How do they do it? thought Sonya, Like us?
The merman bubbled laughter in her ear, as if he could hear her thoughts, and pressed himself even more tightly against her. She could feel the maleness hidden beneath his scales.
They swam deeper and deeper still entering cobalt blue waters, bedded by stalks of coral growing from an unseen ocean floor. He paused with Sonya still in his arms and kissed her, pushing his strange bumpy tongue into her mouth. And she wondered how it would feel to have him take her right there, beneath the oceans depths.
“ENOUGH!” Cle-Menti’s booming voice echoed beneath the waves. “BRING HER BACK DEMETRI!”
Demetri lifted his mouth from hers. Frowning, he stared up; then swam to the surface, holding her in his arms. They burst above the foam, and for an instant she couldn’t breathe.
I’ve been breathing water –!
It passed. Her lungs accepted the air, and Demetri was moving to the shallows to release her. Sonya stood in thigh length water… and felt a curious longing. He held her eyes, his lips curving upward in a smile as if they shared a secret. With a flip of his tail he was gone.
Cle-Menti was sitting on the beach waiting for her. “Time to go princess.”
Sonya pouted. “Why’d you make me come back? I was having fun!”
He rose, his full lips spreading into a smile. “Not so innocent after all,” he said, almost to himself, and Sonya blushed. He put an arm about her shoulder guiding her to the door. “You couldn’t breathe when you first came out of the water,” the Indigo man said. “Don’t you wonder why?” Sonya nodded.
“Demetri changed you because he wanted you.” There was no trace of humor in Cle-Menti’s voice now. “If you’d made love to him, you would have become a creature of the sea. And you would have to stay here. Forever.”
He dipped his head toward the beach. “Many of them were human once,” he continued, “but once transformed, they forgot all about their past lives.” Now his gaze was direct, penetrating. Looking into those eyes, Sonya felt nauseous with fear. “They wouldn’t make suitable playmates, you see, if they missed their families.”
The door swung open and she rushed past him, back to the safety of the castle.
Copyright 2010, 2014 Valjeanne Jeffers
Available at www.vjeffersandqveal.com
I had it again last night, went to bed around 12:30, awoke at 3:00, tired and dislocated. Then came the restful sleep. Thought about a new hotel, The SOMA. A huge cube of sleeping rooms, no beds, no amenities. a closet, a big chair in a dim room, a bathroom. I went in, sat, pressing my backside and ribcage into the plush. The street sounds were replaced by ones of my choice interspersed with the sweet voice of the SOMA's concierge attendant. When I responded, I moved thru a dream space. I couldn't tell if it was real or what. I met with people, did business, smooth talked and jived, chilled out and closed a deal.
I awoke, the taste of rum on my lips, the scents of the evenings, a few selfie photos, a stack of business cards, a thank you note on a napkin with a cell number. Drove home, wife kissed me, asked how was my night, had breakfast, sent the kids out to play. We had our time together, a sweet time, seems the days never end. Hey hon, time to go to work. Yeah I know. Working nights, who came up with that idea? I pulled into The SOMA tired from the day as usual, the big comfy chair welcoming and the calming voice saying message this time. The chair hummed and stroked. Drifting off I responded, received a margarita, chatted with my clan of business colleagues.....
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| Source: Biology of Reproduction |
Research Interests & Projects
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Birth Outcomes in Mexico City. We will investigate how air pollution and the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) component of particles can influence the outcome of pregnancy, and whether certain periods of gestation represent critical time windows and opportunities for preventive intervention.
Air Pollution, Inflammation and Preterm Birth: A Mechanistic Study in Mexico City. We will advance understanding of prematurity by investigating how air pollution and inflammation may act together to influence the outcome of pregnancy, and whether certain periods of gestation represent critical time windows and opportunities for preventive interventions, both clinical and environmental.
Professional Affiliations
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM)
School of Public Health
University of Michigan: Felipe Vadillo-Ortega, M.D., PhD
Monday October 13th, H. Wolfgang Porter's 'Dark God's Gift: The E.R.O.S. Device' debuts! Travel 65,000 years into humanity's future to a Corporate Weapons Development and Testing Facility hidden within a Dark Matter Cloud. An incredibly ancient artifact has been found and it could be a weapon of devastating power! A team of researchers is assigned to examine the find, but will it be the financial breakthrough believed or just another old piece of junk?
With a former Korean War Era Soldier as guide, Dr. Sybil Perth venture's forth towards the strange tower relic of the Atomic Age! Will the source of the sicknesses and disappearances of the townsfolk be found within the foreboding radioactive structure? Can even she, a Nuclear Physicist unravel and undo the mysterious force holding the town in thrall? If the good Dr. Perth's efforts fall short, is she prepared for the eternal consequences of her failure? All shall be revealed in the exciting conclusion!
José Hernandez-Rebollar -- Electrical Engineer
Inventor of the AcceleGlove, a glove-like device that translates sign language into written words for deaf individuals.
Born in the state of Puebla, Mexico, Jose Hernandez-Rebollar is a young scientist whose made a reputation for himself as a young innovator with big ideas. Long before this electrical engineer moved to the U.S. from Mexico on a Fulbright scholarship to complete work for his Ph.D at Georgetown University, he had dreamed of the possibility of creating a way for deaf people to translate sign language into text and sound by electronic means. Through persistence and the power of engineering, he has achieved that goal.
In His Own Words: Commenting on future applications of his invention, he says: “The idea is not to fix deafness. The idea is to provide an instrument that can translate ASL [American Sign Language] to other languages.”
USA Science Festival: José Hernandez-Rebollar, PhD
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| The cryostat for the XENON1T experiment. Image credit: The XENON1T Collaboration. |
The US Department of Energy Office of High Energy Physics and the National Science Foundation Physics Division have announced their joint programme for second-generation dark-matter experiments, aiming at direct detection of the elusive dark-matter particles in Earth-based detectors. It will include ADMX-Gen2 – a microwave cavity searching for axions – and the LUX-Zeplin (LZ) and SuperCDMS-SNOLAB experiments targeted at weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). These selections were partially in response to recommendations of the P5 subpanel of the US High-Energy Physics Advisory Panel for a broad second-generation dark-matter direct-detection programme at a funding level significantly above that originally planned.
CERN Courier: A bright future for dark-matter searches
“500 million people worldwide suffer from invasive amebiasis, the disease kills 110,000 people per year.”
Born on Sept. 10, 1955 in San Buenaventura, Coahuila, Mexico. Dr. González won the MEXWII 2006 award for her work on diagnostic methods for invasive amebiasis. María González patented the processes to diagnose invasive amebiasis, a parasitic disease that kills over 100,000 people each year.
Her parents are Maria del Socorro Garcia Gonzalez and Humberto Flores Flores. She is the first of 5 siblings from her family and is now married to Federico Castaneda and has a daughter Ana Cecilia and son Juan Jorge. Dr. González grew up in a home where everyone was treated equally and her parents always instilled the importance of a good education. She was raised to help people study and get ahead. Dr. Gonzalez’s parents had a very open relationship with their children and always had open dialoge during dinner. Dr. Gonzalez’s Grandmother was a very strong willed woman that inspired Dr. Gonzalez to excel.
She studied her bachelor’s degree in Chemistry as a drug biologist at the Faculty of Chemical Sciences at the Autonomous University of Coahuila (1976). Master’s and doctorate of Science specializing in immunology (1986) at the National School of Biological Sciences of the National Polytechnic Institute (1982). Conducted a post-doctoral in the Unité d, Immunohematopatologie. Institute in Paris Paris (1985). Dr. Gonzalez is the author of 21 articles published in national and international journals and 17 popular articles.
Amazing Mexicans: Dr. María del Socorro Flores González
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| Image Credit: ESA - Planck Collaboration |
(Inside Science) -- "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." This phrase, popularized by the late Carl Sagan, kept going through my head on March 17, the day that researchers involved with BICEP2, a telescope in Antarctica, made a big announcement at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The researchers reported that BICEP2 detected gravitational waves from the first moments after the big bang, a feat, which if confirmed, would open up a new field of study and would surely be recognized in a future Nobel Prize.
On the day of the BICEP2 announcement, and for many days afterward, people were largely accepting the results as correct and already jumping to the implications of the BICEP2 results for what appeared to be a new era of gravitational-wave cosmology.
In writing my (the author's) story for Inside Science News Service, I was fortunate to get an early voice of skepticism from David Spergel, a theoretical cosmologist at Princeton University in New Jersey. He commented:
"Given the importance of this result, my starting point is to be skeptical. Most importantly, there are several independent experimental groups that will test this result in the next year."
Sure enough, in the weeks that followed, other researchers pointed out that the signal that BICEP2 detected may have been attributable to the polarization of light caused by dust in our galaxy. The BICEP2 team certainly knew that dust could also polarize light in a similar way to gravitational waves, but they used a model, based on the data that was available from the Planck satellite, that, the other researchers pointed out, may have underestimated the amount of dust in the part of the sky they were studying.
The biggest lesson, to me (the author), is that no one should rush to make announcements and pronouncements, whether big or small, even in the face of intense competition and the alluring prospects of launching a new field of study and winning a Nobel Prize. Scientists, and the rest of the public, should follow the time-tested scientific practice of subjecting claims to sufficient levels of scrutiny, and waiting for other groups to validate results, before making bold statements. At the very least, there have been major caveats and qualifiers in announcing new data with potentially huge implications.
Inside Science: You Cannot Ignore Dust
Ben P. Stein, Director of Inside Science
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| Source: Link below |
Music is an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner, and one true bloodied Filipino have it’s own share of this kind of fashion. He is the inventor of the one-man band.
Roberto del Rosario is the president of the Trebel Music Corporation and the inventor of the Karaoke Sing Along System in 1975. Roberto del Rosario has patented more than twenty inventions making him one of the most prolific Filipino inventor. Besides his famous Karaoke Sing Along System Roberto del Rosario has also invented:
•Trebel Voice Color Code (VCC)
•piano tuner’s guide
•piano keyboard stressing device
•voice color tape
Roberto del Rosario – Noted Patents:
•Patent No. UM-5269 dated 2 June 1983 for audio equipment and improved audio equipment commonly known as the sing-along system or karaoke
•Patent No. UM-6237 dated 14 November 1986 audio equipment and improved audio equipment commonly known as the sing-along system or karaoke
Roberto del Rosario – Karaoke Sing Along System:
Karaoke is a Japanese expression for singing along to a famous record with the vocals removed. Roberto del Rosario described his sing-along system as a handy multi-purpose compact machine which incorporates an amplifier speaker, one or two tape mechanisms, optional tuner or radio and microphone mixer with features to enhance one’s voice, such as the echo or reverb to stimulate an opera hall or a studio sound, with the whole system enclosed in one cabinet casing.
Del Rosario, 71, died peacefully in August 2003.
Pinoy Achievers Blog: Roberto del Rosario, one-man band inventor
When I first posted my futuristic home drawings, one asked what kind of people would live in them. I could not answer well at that time because I didn't know what the future beings would be like. Since then some light has come to me in the face of all the changes going on.
We will go back to nature, not hanging out in the woods or being a farmer. We will get in touch with our inner consciousness. According to some folks we have entered the Aquarian Age by reason of two events, the procession of the equinoxes and the types of changes Uranus it's ruler has brought, invention, electricity and the scientific overtake of religion and superstition. Long established social, religious and political traditions are disrupted. Institutions are being affected, the cause is of course the inward consciousness of people being redirected. In other words, a new vibration is hammering our planet via the new position of things in our universe, new harmonics.
We are struggling to find ourselves, still don't know what to call ourselves. We can't find a definitive answer from our past associations and affiliations. We turn within, the place the major religions told us not to go or where we don't have time to go for being so busy with everything else. We as a people need to not live in our minds on the level of base desires nor be seduced by emotionalized religious fervor. Being spiritual is more internal (experienced) and scientific (documented) but not at all religious (dogma, fear and guilt) or based on faith (not knowing). Materialism is being demolished as a economic incentive and the personal gratification motive. The reason less is more is because the inner awareness becomes more important than the outward accumulation of things and our preoccupation with how we appear to others via those things. Life becomes simpler.
We need a place to shelter us, to gather family, receive friends and allow us to bathe and poop to our hearts content, to cook and store our food. Then we need to see the morning and setting sun and see a green world around us, the night sky. This can not be had if we don't change on the inside. When the secret insides are changed the outward world changes to match us (not the other way around). The evidence is the things around us now and the world around us now, it matches us. We change, it all changes. We elevate, it all improves. Education only improves us does not elevate us. Religion puts us in stasis, spirituality lifts us, elevates us, causes things to change because we have inwardly changed.
So in my homes, a bedroom is a sleeping chamber. I see large open living spaces, places for reflection and for horsing around, a small dark meditation room. Keep TV's connected to the outside world small (a laptop), perhaps large video for personal programming, art, music. Food gardens are a must, meat and cheese from a local market. Our people should let go (death grip) of heavily marketed sports, entertainment and other cotton fields. We should invent technologies that take us off the energy plantations be it solar or a self contained quantum quark psytronic generator (heats/cools air and water, refrigerates and supplies electricity. We learn to grow/eat fresh food year around and perfect food storage methods which means change what we eat also. Our kitchens don't need every appliance for every day cooking, besides catering is a good business. We have diversity or options in so many areas that we can't concentrate on anything that benefits us. Diversity, options, abundance coupled with ego gratification, concern for appearance and lack of resources, why the hell does competition and a stigma have to be attached to everything and for a higher price?
My homes will be inhabited by a people with an elevated mind and spirit. That is more needful than high education or high finance or high status. Just everyday dark peoples who by turning within themselves are restored to all the power and dignity that we were legendary known to possess and then some.
Gregorio Zara — Filipino physicist and aeronautical engineer
Creator of the first videophone (a forerunner of such video telecommunication applications as Skype, Webcam and videoconferencing) and discoverer of the physical law known as the “Zara Effect.”
Back in the 1950′s, the videophone — a telephone device that allows you to see the individual you are speaking with in real (or near-real) time — was a mere dream of science fiction. But physicist and aeronautical engineer Gregorio Zara, one of the Philippines’ most celebrated inventors, began to change all that in 1955 when he introduced the first videophone. Gregorio, the creator of other early models of futuristic technology ( including a solar battery, a talking robot, and an airplane engine powered by biofuel), was born in 1902 in Lipa City, Batangas, a province in the Philippines. After graduating as valedictorian of his high school class, he enrolled at the University of the Philippines, and later went on the U.S. and France to complete his training in engineering and physics. Already he was formulating innovative ideas of the future that would hallmark his career.
Why He’s Important: Gregorio is perhaps best known as the inventor of the videophone, which he patented in 1955 as a “photo phone signal separator network.” Five years after he invented the instrument, AT&T began work on commercial application of a video phone (or “picturephone”). The company introduced the video phone to the public in 1964 at the New York World’s Fair, but the device did not become a viable marketable item until about 30 years later when it was integrated with the internet as the digital revolution took off. Video phones are especially popular today with the hearing impaired, in addition to being rooted in such familiar technologies as cell phones, telemedicine, Skype, distant learning and videoconferencing.
Other Achievements: In 1930, Gregorio discovered the physical law of electrical kinetic resistance (called the Zara Effect). “Kinetic electrical resistance is the resistance to the passage of electric current when contacts are in motion. Permanent electrical resistance manifests itself when contacts are at rest,” according to the online library Scribd.com in describing the Zara Effect.
Education: Gregorio earned his Bachelor’s of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1926 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), his Master’s of Science in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Michigan (graduating summa cum laude), and his Ph.D. in Physics from the Sorbonne University in Paris (again, graduating summa cum laude, or “Tres Honorable” — the first Filipino given that honor from the university).
USA Science and Engineering Festival: Gregorio Zara, PhD
In the second installment of the 'Dark God's Gift: A Great Uncle's Legacy; Dr. Sybil Perth's unexpected car trouble in the middle of the Nevada Desert has met with good fortune. Her vehicle is being looked after and a kindly couple has taken her in for the night, but the solemn warning by one of her hosts to leave has fallen on deaf ears. The growing mystery surrounding the tiny community is far too intriguing for Dr. Perth to ignore....
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| The full Moon as seen from the Earth, with the Procellarum border structure superimposed in red |
Scientists have identified a huge rectangular feature on the Moon that is buried just below the surface.
The 2,500km-wide structure is believed to be the remains of old rift valleys that later became filled with lava.
Centered on the Moon's Procellarum region, the feature is really only evident in gravity maps acquired by Nasa's Grail mission in 2012.
But knowing now of its existence, it is possible to trace the giant rectangle's subtle outline even in ordinary photos.
Mare Frigoris, for example, a long-recognized dark stripe on the lunar surface, is evidently an edge to the ancient rift system.
"It's really amazing how big this feature is," says Prof Jeffery Andrews-Hanna.
"It covers about 17% of the surface of the Moon. And if you think about that in terms relative to the size of the Earth, it covers an area equivalent to North America, Europe and Asia combined," the Colorado School of Mines scientist told BBC News.
BBC News: Moon's hidden valley system revealed, Jonathan Amos
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| Source: Famous Scientists link below |
Filipino scientist Benjamin Cabrera is one person that really deserves a pat on the back because not only is he a physician but he is also known for his works on public health and medical parasitology. He is a scientist that never seems to run out of ideas and uses his brain to bring advances solutions to problems. He has had a lot of achievements and while most of the have been significant, there are some works of his that just really stand out and are still significant and in use up until today. He boasts more than a hundred scientific publications to his name. His specialties were focused on public health and parasitology and this is where he did a lot of work and introduced a lot of breakthroughs in. It is important to note that he made his discoveries and breakthroughs during a time when technology wasn't yet too advanced and yet he managed and excelled and made some of the most ground-breaking breakthroughs and innovations in his chosen field and specialty.
Dr. Cabrera was quite prolific and published more than a hundred studies that on medical parasitology and public health. Not only did he write and publish his findings but he also made some very important innovations that changed the way diseases from mosquitoes were treated. He also made headway into developing treatments for parasite-infested agricultural soil. Seeing as his native country relied heavily in agriculture, his findings and innovations brought a lot of benefits to his homeland and alleviate a lot of their problems with land and parasites.
11 years after he graduated with his Master’s Degree, he and a certain Lee M. Howard conducted the very first study that focused on simian malaria. The study was conducted in the Philippines where they found that 8.6% of the animals they tested had malaria. The study was admittedly somewhat limited but it did show significant findings and suggested that the cases of simian malaria weren’t really all that significant and didn’t pose a real threat to the Filipino population.
His works were all significant but one stood out above the rest and it was about the study he conducted on filariasis which is an infectious and parasitic tropical disease that is brought about by infestations of thread-like nematode worms that belong to the Filariodea family. Dr, Cabrera’s work on this tropical disease is what garnered him the Philippine Legion of Honor which was a Presidential Award back in the year 1996.
Famous Scientists: Benjamin Cabrera, PhD
Print Books Outsold Ebooks the First Half of 2014
Fans of print books, who have long lived in fear that their neighborhood bookstore will be rendered obsolete by the ubiquity of ebooks in a matter of years, can take comfort in new numbers from Nielsen Books & Consumer showing that ebooks were outsold by both hardcovers and paperbacks in the first half of 2014.
According to Nielsen’s survey, ebooks constituted only 23 percent of unit sales for the first six months of the year, while hardcovers made up 25 percent and paperback 42 percent of sales. In other words, not only did overall print book sales, at 67 percent of the market, outpace ebook sales, both hardcovers and paperbacks individually outsold ebooks.
Given the explosive growth of ebook sales since the launch of the Kindle in 2007, with increases in the triple digits for several years, many expected the paper book industry to remain in retreat for the foreseeable future. Recently, however, ebook gains seem to have stabilized with hardcover and paperback books still comfortably dominant. In 2013, sales growth for ebooks slowed to single digits, and the new numbers from Nielsen suggest the leveling off was no anomaly.
At Electric Literature, Lincoln Michel theorizes that this anticipates a future in which paper books and ebooks will coexist peacefully. This hope was also expressed to Publishers Weekly last year by industry insiders, including Perseus Books Group CEO David Steinberger, who commented that: "A healthy, diverse marketplace with multiple format, price point, and channel choices for the consumer is generally a positive for readers, authors, and publishers overall.”
Author Stephen King told HuffPost Live recently that he also believes print books have a long and bright future ahead of them, saying, "I think books are going to be there for a long, long time to come." King compares books' prospects positively with those of CDs and vinyl."[A]udio recordings of music have only been around for, I'm going to say, 120 years at the most," he said. "Books have been around for three, four centuries ... There's a deeply implanted desire and understanding and wanting of books that isn't there with music."
This continuing variety in format doesn’t only appeal to choice-conscious consumers. It may be a boon for those worried about the possible downsides of ereading, given growing, though still preliminary, evidence that print books may allow for deeper reading and stronger understanding and memory than digital books. Advocates of more engaged reading have often warned that the increasing omnipresence of ereading might erode our capacity to read deeply.
If the new trends continue, such warnings of the death of print books, and their potential benefits, may prove to have been greatly exaggerated.
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| Source: Technology Review link immediately follows |
TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: Hydrogen is a potential renewable fuel because it can easily be generated from water using electrolysis. It also burns cleanly to produce water vapour. The hope is that it could also be distributed using the same global network of liquid fuel transport that moves petrol around the planet.
But there numerous problems with this dream of a hydrogen-based economy. One of them is that hydrogen is difficult to store efficiently. Hydrogen gas has a poor energy density by volume compared to petrol. In fact, there is at least 60 percent more hydrogen in a litre of gasoline then there is in a litre of pure liquid hydrogen. In other words, hydrogen will always require bigger tanks.
So finding ways to store more of it is a huge challenge. One option is to store it as a liquid but hydrogen boils temperatures above -250 degrees centigrade and so requires bulky insulation to keep it in this state.
Another idea is to compress it. But this raises issues of safety should a hydrogen-fuelled car be involved in a collision.
That is why much of the material science research in this area has focused on chemical storage: finding materials that adsorb hydrogen efficiently and then release it again when it is required.
Now Viney Dixit and buddies at the Hydrogen Energy Center of Banaras Hindu University in India say they have discovered that carbonised coconut flesh is particularly good at this task. Today, they show that it outperforms a number of other hydrogen storage materials, particularly in its ability to work over many charging cycles.
Physics arXiv:
Hydrogen Storage In Carbon Derived From Solid Endosperm Of Coconut
Viney Dixit, Ashish Bhatnagar, R. R. Shahi, T. P. Yadav, O. N. Srivastava
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| "Buy N Earn." More about the company logo, mission, vision and core beliefs here. |
Almedah Food Machineries Corporation has its humble beginnings in 1954 when Mr. Benjamin G. Almeda, Sr., founded the Almeda Cottage Industry which manufactured then his basic food processing inventions like Rice Grinder, Meat Grinder and Coconut Grater. Aside from Mr. Almeda’s inherent talent for original designs and inventions, he has the social driving vision of putting up a business which puts other people in business. For all of these he earned the title of Father of the Filipino Inventors and other prestigious awards.
Almeda Cottage Industry products could be found in the entire stretch of our nation from north to south. In the public markets, restaurants, school canteens, food stalls and even in households further attesting to its social motto of “OUR BUSINESS PUTS PEOPLE IN BUSINESS”. This time, most visible are the Ice Crushers, Grinders, Shredders, Hamburger Grills, Hotdog Rollers, Waffle Cookers and Bibingka Ovens.\r\n\r\nWith the boom of Food Industry in the latter part of 80’s and the subsequent change in the eating habits of the Filipinos, it became imperative that new strategies and more efficient approach to processing and preparation of food derivatives be employed. This saw the influx of foreign based food companies bringing in the latest and technologically advance food machineries. As a natural consequence, the local entrepreneurs in food business sourced their equipments from these foreign companies notwithstanding the high cost of the equipments, the duties and taxes of importation and the problem of post sales service and availability of parts. This natural phenomenon happened not because of prejudice for equipments that are locally made but because there is just no manufacturing company in the Philippines that is technologically capable of the more demanding needs of these boom in Food Industry.
As a consequence, Carlos, the youngest son of Mr. Almeda, came in the forefront of the family business to meet the demands and challenges of the modern technologies, proving once more that a Filipino can compete in the global demands of Food Industry. In October 1986, Mr. Benjamin G. Almeda who was 76 years old by then, finally relinquished full control of Almeda Cottage Industry to Carlos, who was by then a young physician by profession. He was given preference over his older brothers who were all engineers by profession because he showed sincere concern for the family business and his natural and inborn technological talents and marketing savvy inspite of the demands of his profession as a physician. With his assumption, possessing an uncanny ability for designing equipment that would put professional engineers to shame and coupled with a passion for excellence and a natural feel for market forces, he embued in the company a spirit of dynamism and unflinching competitiveness. In order to attain accuracy and precision, he bought computerized machineries for design and manufacturing, the same kind that were used by his foreign based competitors. These bold and ambitious steps and undertakings propelled the company back on the road to regaining the lead in the manufacture of food processing equipments which ALMEDAH FOOD MACHINERIES CORP. is today. Without discarding any of its original products and equipments, he added not only new line of specialty equipments but also complete manufacturing system for food industry. What used to be a monopoly of foreign based companies found an unwavering local competition.
Almedah Food Machineries: Benjamin Almedah, inventor and founder
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Federico Cantero Villamil (Madrid, 22 June 1874 - 1946) was a Spanish civil engineer known for the dams he constructed and planned along the river Duero and for his research on the aeronautical field, which is summarized in the Libélula española, a helicopter constructed by him.
His parents were the civil engineer Federico Cantero Seirullo and Isabel Villamil Olivares. He married Tránsito Cid, and they had two children. A few years later she died. Later, Cantero married Concepción García-Arenal Winter, a granddaughter of Concepción Arenal, and they had six children.
He became an engineer 30 September 1896, with the first mark. He did his working practice during 1897 in Zamora, and in 1900 he began to work at the "Jefatura de Obras Públicas de Zamora". In May 1900 he asked and obtained a leave in order to work in hydraulics. At that moment, the governments of Spain and Portugal were planning how to exploit the hydroelectric potential of the river Duero.
In 1899 founds the society "El porvenir de Zamora" (The Prospect of Zamora), with the aim of funding and exploiting the dam of San Roman, near Zamora. Its construction lasted until 1903. This dam took profit of a "hoz" (meander) of river Duero that was 11.2 km. long. He opened a tunnel 1.5 km. long and built up the turbines and engines at the other side. By means of this, the unevenness from the reservoir to the turbines measured 14 meters, while the height of the dam was only 5 meters.
Although Cantero's main work was that of the dams, since 1908 he was patenting other inventions in the field of aeronautics. His main interest was the problem of flight. It is in 1910 when he patented an ...idea to hold bodies in the air, and, if wanted, propulsion. Thirty-four patents followed the first one, being the last ones devoted to the helicopter he constructed: the Libélula española.
Wikipedia: Federico Cantero Villamil, inventor
