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Light Star Investigations
The office is easy to get to.
Nestled in a studio by the docks – in a neighborhood cops won’t travel without back up – Light Star isn’t hard to find. It’s also a name the rich, famous and influential look up when things hit the fan and the rule of law might prove … inconvenient.
Established (in name) over 30 years ago by a disgraced cop named Foster Graves , violent ex-con Attila Sa’id, and an outcast gossip columnist with shady contacts named Durinda Gage. Together they worked “off the books” to black mail, silence, discredit, compromise or eliminate any circumstance a client deemed threatening. Death, betrayal and other factors split the original team after some 10 years together.
Foster stayed on with a rotating, equally ruthless, cast of colleagues to perform suspect acts. He was well past burn out – but in desperate need of cash – when pursuit of a fugitive, wanted by law and outlaw alike, brought him in contact with Jay and Randy (who didn’t know each other at the time). After things settled he struck up a relationship with Jay that was part adversarial part friendship.
To this day it is a mystery to all save Jay and Foster if he sold Light Star and his contact list to her voluntarily or was forced to. Still, even though it’s Jay’s show – and has been for some time – he still works with Light Star (now a five person operation) on occasion putting his brand of “efficient nasty” to use.
Blind Corners is available online everywhere books are sold.
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| Composite image of the remnant of SN1987A. Can James Franson's theory explain why the supernova appears to have emitted two bursts of neutrinos? (Courtesy: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/A Angelich) |
The effect of gravity on virtual electron–positron pairs as they propagate through space could lead to a violation of Einstein's equivalence principle, according to calculations by James Franson at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. While the effect would be too tiny to be measured directly using current experimental techniques, it could explain a puzzling anomaly observed during the famous SN1987 supernova of 1987.
In modern theoretical physics, three of the four fundamental forces – electromagnetism, the weak nuclear force and the strong nuclear force – are described by quantum mechanics. The fourth force, gravity, does not currently have a quantum formulation and is best described by Einstein's general theory of relativity. Reconciling relativity with quantum mechanics is therefore an important and active area of physics.
An open question for theoretical physicists is how gravity acts on a quantum object such as a photon. Astronomical observations have shown repeatedly that light is attracted by a gravitational field. Traditionally, this is described using general relativity: the gravitational field bends space–time, and the light is slowed down (and slightly deflected) as it passes through the curved region. In quantum electrodynamics, a photon propagating through space can occasionally annihilate with itself, creating a virtual electron–positron pair. Soon after, the electron and positron recombine to recreate the photon. If they are in a gravitational potential then, for the short time they exist as massive particles, they feel the effect of gravity. When they recombine, they will create a photon with an energy that is shifted slightly and that travels slightly slower than if there was no gravitational potential.
Physics World:
New correction to speed of light could explain SN1987 neutrino burst
This will be the fourth installment to the Enter Cypher Team Series which will be the first group of comic books to come out under the Cypher Team title from SoveReign Comics. If you read it, thank you very much for doing so! Also, I really hope that you enjoy. All pointers and advice are welcome.
Cypher Team i03 (c) 2009-2015
Battlefield
Dry crackles echo into naught while fiery embers dance through the air. The sky is gray washed, complimentary of the blissful quiet that is the urban jungle. Feline's claws are unsheathed and ready to dig into her prey as she inhales deeply. Her meal lay, unknowingly, to her readiness to strike.
“Pucha…I expected more from you." She remarked, sighing disappointedly. She continued her stalk on all fours, circling Alchemy and PyreBlade as they crawled to one another. "You were created to stop us, si o' no?"
"The great balancer...the one team that could keep us on your toes." She laughed but slowly began to growl deeply, as she continued her stalk. “Que roche..."
Jordan looked to his wife and then over to "buster," his weapon. No longer in sword mode but in its powerless state of no longer being in sync with its user…a scarab. It lay there, no longer enflamed, no longer…"alive."
"Jordan." Alchemy spoke to her husband, "I'm sorry, I got us into this mess. You're always telling me not to be so bloody hot~"
He interrupted her, "~Akana, don't apologize, I was the one that messed up, not you." He smiled to her, in an attempt to reassure her as he watched the molten steel melt away from her body.
They were both out of power and quickly too. Feline knew how to hit them and just where. Angering and distracting Alchemy being the number one objective on her list. It was the easiest way to tear them apart. That is how the Singletons worked, together, as one and when they worked as one, nothing could defeat them. Feline knew that, she had studied them before the fight and unbeknownst to the team, Tarot had devised the perfect plan prior to it all. With Alchemy and PyreBlade both laid out, cut deeply and weakened, her plan proved to be flawless. Or, was it?
Feline continued the stalk, smiling as she flashed fang at the two while listening to their apologies to one another. Despite the fact that this show of remorse would make some people think twice about their next move; Feline, while sick and twisted in her thought process, became aroused by it. The idea that a husband and wife would no longer get to see their children grow, would no longer move amongst the living and show love again towards one another; all this, in the palm of her hand and controlled only by the decision she would make, strengthened her mentally and in the end, got her off.
Feline purred, licking her lips as she continued to smile. She began to speak to her prey, this time fully in her native tongue. “Mmmm….eres jale y ahora estoy arrecha.”
The jaguar-like spots that covered her body faded as the thin layer of fur that concealed her silhouette began to change to a golden brown, morphing from the form characteristics that she once held to that of a Lion, once again. She unsheathed her massive claws as her fur-tipped tail whipped about in delight signaling, that she was prepared to give the final blow. This time, she planned to use full force.
"Don' worry...I'll make sure your ninos can still recognize your bodies," she laughed as she lunged in the direction of Alchemy and PyreBlade as they held each others hand, exhausted, preparing for the end.
"Kishu Wind Style! Cyclones Rage!" Sanjera yelled out, appearing between the cat and her friends in an up drift of tight spiraling wind.
Feline let out a hurtful roar as Sanjera connected with her, the wind from her fist spiraled between the two as it began to push the cat away, cutting at her body as it cast her away from the group, launching her about 40 yards down the broken street.
Feline hit the ground in a thunderous clamor, cracking the concrete on impact,breaking through about two or three inches of it, and after her head banged off the ground, her body skipped across the demolished street about another 25 to 30 yards.
Alchemy laughed to herself, rolling to her back as blood began to trickle out the side of her mouth. The only thoughts, at the time, that went through her mind were how close she was to death and how she had treated Sanjera so badly prior to this. Here, she and her husband lay, saved by the one girl that she had been jealous of and angry at for so long. She wiped the blood from her cheek and looked at it, quickly placing her crimson colored thumb into her mouth as her mind broke from Sanjera back into the direction of Feline…smiling, she thought, ”That bitch made me bleed."
Jordan chuckled to himself as the dust from the wind began to settle a bit. He thought it amazing how Sanjera was able to do so much, how she could generate so much power without having a Zenith chromosome or magical ability. He wondered, was the human spirit really that strong?
"Akana!?" He moaned out.
"What?" She answered.
"You alive babe?"
"I'm answering you, right?" She snickered in retort.
"Well then, looks like you owe someone an apology." He begun to laugh followed by a cough.
"Might want to shut it you...before you keel over!" she smiled and then turned her head to Sanjera as she stood between the two of them and Feline, her incredibly long pony tail danced on the remnants of wind blowing as gusts of it spiraled around her fist and arm. It wasn't everyday the vets got rescued by the rookies but, this girl has been proving her worth every since she got on the team. Whether she was Colonel Reign's first cousin or not, she sure as hell earned her way onto the team.
"You two ok?" Sanjera asked, keeping her back to them as she continued to look into the direction of Feline.
"For the most part rook," Jordan answered. "And thanks...I know Alchemy's not saying much but, she feels the same."
Akana turned her head away from the both of them failing in her attempt to ignore what he had said. Still not fully acknowledging Sanjera, her pride filling her even more.
"Its fine...and, sorry I took so long. I was watching, studying the feline...and gaining my strength back." She spoke, this time looking back over her shoulder at them, "the lightning elements take a lot out of me...I still have not mastered it."
"Its fine Sanjera," Alchemy finally spoke, "We're just glad that you came when you did. Thank you..."
Sanjera smiled, under her wrapped mask but, it could slightly be seen as creases formed into the cloth of it. She didn't smile because Alchemy thanked her but, because that was the first time that she spoke to her using her first name. She held both of her hands out to them, "Stay still, please. While I'm not as good as The Madame at this...I can heal your wounds slightly. Just enough so we can finish this.”
Jordan sighed, “I don’t think we’re gonna be doing too much moving, rook.”
"So, you can heal also?" Alchemy asked.
"A little. Humans can do anything when they learn patience and balance. Mastering ones spirit energy can open all sorts of doors. More than that, when one unlocks the chains wrapped around their heart and mind, they can fully unleash what it is that we are really meant to be. Our true power.” A blueish green aura began to radiate from her hands into the direction of Alchemy and PyreBlade; kicking a little more wind as she spoke. It encased them forming a transparent, cocoon like chamber. Their wounds began to rapidly heal, sending steam from each cut and hissing slightly as they closed.
Akana looked over her body and smiled. Her muscles, she began to gain control over again and her strength came flooding back into her. Now, she finally saw why Sanjera got the spot of infiltrator, she could do anything and at that moment Alchemy decided to let her have the top spot. She was better teamed with her husband anyway.
"Well, aren't you just full of surprises," she joked, while thinking to herself, that maybe she too should unlock those chains as well.
~~~~~
Colonel Reign and The General looked over to their former teammate and friend as her dress and hair danced in the wind. Shots of her thigh revealed itself from the split of the lower part of her dress that flipped about, catching itself on the armor of her left boot.
This was something that they both weren't prepared for. They had a packet on The Angels of Anarchy but, no where in that packet did it mention anything about Mona Villa-Rodriguez. The cousin and lifelong best friend of Sara Villa-Blair.
Not only did this put a tactical stint on the plans The Madame had for beating the angels, the angels she had intel on that is; it also, cut her deeper than any wound would and emotionally, caused her to break down…internally. She held it together though, one thing she couldn’t do was show her team that her will was wavering. That she, just like them, was hit to hard and couldn’t find a way to recover. If she panicked, who would lead the team strategically and heal all the injuries that she was so sure would happen? There was no denying it now, now that Tarot was here.
The Colonel looked to Sara as she stayed in her constant trance, eyes locked on Mona. Tears began to fill them as she continued her gaze. Hurt, question and unknowingness read on her face. Emotions clamored in one after another to fuse to one. Unsure of how she could and should handle the situation that was presenting itself to them, she closed her eyes, the tears that once gathered, fell down her greenish blue cheeks.
Colonel Reign knew how close the two of them were. He remembered in the early days of the original team in The Black Lions, how you wouldn't see one without the other. If it weren't for the obvious visual and verbal accents of the two, one would have thought that they were twins. They would finish one another's sentences, feel one another's pain and when one wasn't there, the other would clam up and become this shy, reclusive version of themselves. This showed itself when everyone thought that Sara died in the Miami catastrophe. Everyone took in the facts, or what they thought were facts, of Sara's death hard, especially Elias. He and Sara became good friends as well. Their old leader, General George Stine aka Cypher Hawk, left the Lions after Sara's “Death." She being the first death he'd had under is command in battle, he really didn’t know how to rebound from it and this he thought, made him less of a leader especially since there was nothing he could do to save her. No one however, took it as hard as Mona. It was literally as though someone took half of her away, emotionally, mentally, physically and most of all, power wise. She was off, her control was neither here and there and fortunately for the rest of the team, it showed a lot during training. Because of that, she was stopped from going on missions.
Eventually, she stopped leaving her quarters, and sometimes at night you could hear her…crying. Not low quiet sobs but, deep, agonizing cries. Cries that a person would release while in deep pain or… when the harrowing torture of a thing left them with no where to turn. Eventually, she was asked to take a leave of absence, to go home, clear her head and most importantly, spend time with family. With that though, she had to look into the eyes of her family and tell Sara's mom, who was her aunt, how she couldn't keep her promise to her, how she couldn’t bring her little girl home.
They never saw Mona again after she left. She was marked as UA but, it didn't matter much since a couple weeks later, The Black Lions and the Original Team were both put to rest. The organization, TEMPLE, had agreed with the American Government and NATO that the team responsible, would be deactivated. The President saw it as domestic terrorism and by all accounts and definition, had the right to see it as such. However, the main question being…what could any military member in the American Military or NATO do to stop them, if one of them had the power to blow up a city?
Everything was packed away and put in the “basement,” that one alienated and abused child from a dark story that the fiendish parents didn't want anyone to know about. Unfortunately, before all that happened, word got back to the unit that Mona was found dead; a tragic end as the coroners’ outline reported that inflictions around her neck suggested that she’d taken her own life. Looking at it all now, that was a lie; an illusion. Just like Sara dying in the nuke that she and Obsidian created during their fight. Either that or, these two girls didn't know what being dead and staying dead meant.
"I got it Sara," The Colonel spoke, stepping forward towards Tarot. This caused the two, Tarot and Breather, to go on alert. Breather, took a defensive stance. Stepping in front of Tarot, readying herself to take short breaths to exhale rapidly as energy blasts. Something she caught on to when she was in high school as a quick offensive technique she could use to attack on the move.
A card appeared between the finger tips of Tarot, causing Colonel Reign to stop in his tracks. He had no idea which card she picked and he knew death was in there somewhere. She never liked using the card but he was unsure if that feeling still lingered. She was a different woman now. Maybe now, she would have no issue letting the cloaked ender swing her scythe on the field. Ripping the soul from each member of Cypher Team and anyone else for that matter. Anyone but Tarot. He saw her use that card one time and after using it, she cried. Her heart broken from all the deaths left on the battle field that day due to her not knowing how to stop it. Her blood-curling screams to "stop" didn't work like she wished. From that day on, she vowed never to use the card again, and in most cases would leave it at the compound before leaving for a mission but weirdly enough...it would find its way into her deck. It was though it had a mind of its own.
"No," The Madame finally spoke up, placing a hand to the shoulder of Elias. "She's my cousin, my blood, my friend. Let me talk to her...that's really the only way we can get her to stop and...you know that." She spoke stepping in front of Elias.
Breather made a sharp inhale and let out a quick bullet in the direction of The Madame. Elias quickly moved into the way, slapping the energy bullet from the sky with his right hand and releasing an energy pulse back at Breather with his left. This one not as powerful as the one he released earlier but it did let out a low bass drum like boom as it broke away from the palm of his hand.
Tarot turned the card around that she held between her finger tips. Revealing "The Fool" again. It made his energy orb disappear, causing him to gnash his teeth as he let out a curse.
At the same time, The Madame and Tarot spoke, “Enough…”
The two women looked at one another, a smirk coming to both of their faces as they both remembered the days when they used to say things at the same time.
"You're supposed to be dead Sara...," Tarot spoke as as the card disappeared from her hand.
"You too, Mona." The Madame answered back.
"I saw you die, you blew up, you and Obsidian in Miami that day. Do you know what that did to me?"
"And Elias told me when I got back that you took your own life," She answered almost instantly, "So...where does that leave us? Huh? On the opposite side of the power struggle now? You on the side of evil and me on the side of good?"
Tarot stepped back, anger covering her face. There was so much going through her mind and she wanted to just rage out and tell The Madame exactly how she felt. Which is exactly what she did.
"You left me here!" she screamed as black fog began to move around her, "They did nothing for you prima, NADA! They kept going, with their missions, no funerals. No one could know. I had to lie to your mom and dad!! They couldn't know that it was their little nina that died in Miami that day...that Sara, was indeed Madame Neutron."
Her anger began to build a little more raising the earth from the ground her eyes turning black in the process. "You were my sister, mi hermana...and do you know how I had to find out you were alive, huh? When we got new intel on Cypher Team. My cards told me that you were alive but...I didn't want to believe it. Why didn't you come to me?! Why didn't you tell me you were alive?! ME!? You let me suffer!" she roared sending a telekinetic push towards The Madame and Colonel Reign.
Quickly Colonel Reign set up to block and absorb the energy but, it was to no avail as it knocked him from his feet, sending him past The Madame. Quickly, The Madame threw up a hand catching him telepathically and turned him upright, sitting him on the ground.
"Well, that's new." He laughed with a slight cough.
"Turmoil causes ones powers to grow and change on many different levels, cabron. I've studied different types of magic after I left and, I plan to use it all. on. you. I hate Cypher Team, The Black Lions, TEMPLE, these governments that fear us and in turn want us dead...and most of all, I hate you Sara...for forcing me to suffer." She said with pure distaste in her voice.
Tarot caused her entire deck to appear in the palm of her right hand and with a flick of her left hand, the cards left the deck simultaneously, until ever card was spiraling around her.
"Shall we start now..."
"Shit." remarked Elias.
~~~
"So, how are you both feeling?" Sanjera asked, pulling her power back from Alchemy and Pyreblabe.
"Better" PyreBlade answered, walking over to his scarab, fist engulfed in flames. He picked it up and then looked over to his wife, who was now making fists, looking herself over. Her skin no longer the color of Mercury but back to her original tone, a deep mahogany.
"Oh yea," Alchemy answered, looking to Sanjera. "A hell of a lot better, thank you." And with a snap she opened her hands, the mercury colored liquid quickly moving from her hands up her arms, to her head and then down to her feet. She changed her hands and arms over through a couple of different weapon types and then grinned.
"Seems we have two medics, who would have thought." PyreBlade chimes in, walking back into the direction of Sanjera as his liquid metal spewed from the hand he held the scarab in, forming itself into a blade.
"I'm no medic, it is not my main focus. Infiltration is, I will only use this if you need it." she nodded in hopes that they understood.
"Even still, if it weren't for you, we would be dead. The Madame and The Colonel seem to be very, very busy at the moment. So, having an additional medic comes in handy."
"Maybe." Sanjera agreed.
"So, Lieutenant Reign, how hard did you hit her...is she dead?" Alchemy asked
"I don't think so tai-" in the middle of her answer, a loud roar echoes through the air. "-cho"
"Guess that answers the question, be on guard...remember she has~"
"~four cat forms; Tiger, Lion, Jaguar and Cheetah. Each one has its own ability; Invisibility, Super Strength, Super Agility and Super speed." Sanjera smiled again under her mask, looking between the two of them. "I told you, I paid attention."
Alchemy smiled, "Seems like you did."
"You two, just keep in mind. Don't let her split you up. You both fight at your strongest together, as one.” Sanjera added.
Alchemy and PyreBlade looked to one another, they knew that she was right. They did fight better as one. It was something they both forgot about in the initial fight with Feline. They let Feline infiltrate the phalanx and when she did, she ripped them apart. That was something that they weren't going to let happen again. This time, they were going to give it their all, this time, they were going to win.
Translation~Glossary
Pucha- Peruvian slang used to show an expression of disgust, distaste, surprise, relief, etc. Not Literal and not in reference to a person. Derives from the spanish word Puta for bitch or whore.
Que Roche- Peruvian slang meaning “What a shame.” Roche meaning shame.
Jale- Peruvian slang meaning a persons attractiveness.
Arrecho (a)- Peruvian slang meaning “horny” or turned on.
Full name: Randall Michael Preston (why he goes by Randy Michaels if “Preston” is part of his name or an alias is unknown)
“I’m paid to do things even my clients hate me for.”
Bio: Randy was once a special forces operative for a classified branch of the United Nations.
Randy is a mercenary with an infamous rep he wants to atone for.
Randy was a burglar who stole from high income targets to support a drug habit.
One of these things are true.
Some of these things are true.
None of them are true.
No one knows, no one can say and that’s just how Randy likes it. He’s a con man plain and simple. He met Jay by chance pursuing the same “target of interest” she sought back when she was a bounty hunter. They found a respect that became a friendship and morphed into a brother and sister type of relationship. In Randy Jay has an ally that will go to the wall and beyond for her. He’s also armed with a cunning mind and combat training fit for settings where bullets and violence are tools of necessity.
http://www.amazon.com/Blind-Corners-Jemir-Johnson/dp/0981827837/ref=tmm_pap_title_0
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| Quantum pigeons do not roost in pairs. (Courtesy: iStock/slobo) |
Because a Cheshire-like cat just wasn't clarifying/confusing enough...
First there was Schrödinger's cat, now an international team of physicists has come up with a new animal-related paradox involving "quantum pigeons".
For nearly a century students have struggled to understand the many counter-intuitive implications of quantum physics. Perhaps the most famous paradox is Schrödinger's cat, whereby a cat being both dead and alive at the same time illustrates the fact that a particle can exist simultaneously in two quantum states.
Now, Jeff Tollaksen of Chapman University in California and colleagues in Israel, Italy and the UK have proposed an equally bizarre scenario dubbed the "quantum-pigeonhole effect". The paradox begins with the observation that when you put three pigeons in two pigeonholes, there will always be at least two pigeons in the same hole. But according to the team's quantum analysis, it is possible for none of the pigeons to share a hole.
"It's one of those things that seem to be impossible," says Tollaksen. But it is a direct consequence of quantum mechanics and, he adds, "It really has immense implications."
Classical physics is deterministic. This means that measuring the initial state of a system will, in principle, tell you everything you need to determine the final state. But in 1964 Yakir Aharonov of Chapman University and Tel Aviv University helped discover that in quantum mechanics, you can choose initial and final states that are entirely independent, Tollaksen says.
Now Aharonov has teamed up with Tollaksen and colleagues to use this and other concepts of quantum mechanics to postulate the quantum-pigeonhole effect. They reckon that the effect will arise when an observer makes a sequence of measurements while trying to fit three particles in two boxes.
Physics World: Paradoxical pigeons are the latest quantum conundrum
Lucy: Why I'm Tired of Seeing White People on the Big Screen
I'm tired of seeing white people on the silver screen.
First, let me note that I am white. I am a white woman who goes to the theater to see probably a dozen films (if not more) in a given year, a white woman who readily consumes TV shows and series and often blogs/tweets about them. I love film. I love what Hollywood could be, but I must say that I don't love what it is, and that is a machine generating story after story in which the audience is asked to root for a white (usually male) hero over and over and over (and over) again. I'm tired. I'm tired of directors pretending that white actors are the default and that people of color are a distraction when it comes to filmmaking. I'm tired of black women in Hollywood being relegated to roles of slaves and "the help" over and over again. I'm tired of films convincing themselves that they are taking on something fresh and new, the likes of which the world has never seen, but in actuality adhering to tired tropes and stereotypes.
One example that comes to mind is Avatar, a "groundbreaking" film about aliens and humanity, which, underneath it all, is the same old White Savior story. But more recently is Lucy, the film starring Scarlett Johansson in which a woman named Lucy evolves and is able to use 100 percent of her brain's capacity after she unwittingly ingests a massive amount of drugs.
Lucy is about what humankind could be -- it's about possibilities. As Lucy's brainpower grows stronger and the volume of knowledge she is able to access increases, she delivers monologues about how little humans understand about death, existence, and the universe, mediating on time and history. The film likes to think of itself as reimagining everything that we think we know about humanity, and presents to us their vision of what the most evolved woman on earth looks like:
A blonde white woman.
See, I just can't get right with that.
You see, I was an anthropology major in high school and by the time I was 16 I'd learned all about Lucy (Australopithecus), the collection of bones found in Hadar and thought to have lived 3.2 million years ago, one of the oldest hominids we know of. Lucy the film doesn't try to hide how cute they thought they were being by naming the supreme evolved being in their film "Lucy" -- they show an ape-like creature crouched by a stream to illustrate just how far human beings have come, and say as much in the opening lines, depicting vast cities built up to show our progress. The original Lucy was not really an ape, though. She had small skull capacity like apes, but her skeleton shows she was bipedal and walked upright like humans. Hadar, by the way, is in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia.
So I guess what's sticking in my craw is the assertion that while human life originated in Africa -- a detail the film neatly skims over, placing the ape-like Lucy that Johansson sees in North America -- somehow the way we imagine the most evolved human being is blonde and white. Even more, when Lucy gets surges of knowledge in the film, her eyes flash brightly blue. Because blue eyes, we all know, are the universal symbol of superiority, right?
How is it that in a film whose premise rests on the idea of reimagining the past, present and future, we still end up with a blonde white woman with flashing blue eyes as the stand-in for what personifies evolution and supremely fulfilled human potential? At one point the Ape-like Lucy and Evolved Lucy meet face-to-face as Evolved Lucy does a bit of time-traveling. Their fingers touch, and we see them deliberately posed to mimic the famous Creation of Adam painting, and in that moment I saw what I suppose we were supposed to see: humanity at its beginning, and then humanity at its end, at its most perfect. Blonde, white and blue-eyed.
I can't accept that. I can't accept that there was only one black woman in the entire film, who delivered one line and who we never saw again. I can't accept that the bad guys were Asian and that although in China, Lucy's roommate says, "I mean, who speaks Chinese? I don't speak Chinese!" I can't accept that in Hercules, which I also saw this weekend, there were no people of color except for Dwayne Johnson himself and his mixed-race wife, whose skin was almost alabaster. I can't accept that she got maybe two lines and was then murdered. I can't accept that the "primitive tribe" in Hercules consisted of dark-haired men painted heavily, blackish green, to give their skin (head-to-toe) a darker appearance, so the audience could easily differentiate between good and bad guys by the white vs. dark skin. I can't accept that during the previews, Exodus: Gods and Kings, a story about Moses leading the Israelite slaves out of Egypt, where not a single person of color is represented, casts Sigourney Weaver and Joel Edgerton to play Egyptians. I can't accept that in the preview for Kingsman: The Secret Service, which takes place in London, features a cast of white boys and not a single person of Indian descent, which make up the largest non-white ethnic group in London. I can't accept that in stories about the end of the world and the apocalypse, that somehow only white people survive. I can't accept that while my daily life is filled with black and brown women, they are completely absent, erased, when I look at a TV or movie screen.
I can't accept that. And I can't accept that when we think about the potential of humankind and what our brains are capable of doing and thinking and feeling, that people of color would be absent from that imagining. I can't accept that. And I won't. I'm tired of seeing people that look like me crowding screens both big and small: I am not what the world looks like. Hollywood, stop whitewashing characters. Give us more films like this year's Annie. I'm no Lucy -- like everyone else I'm only using a tiny amount of my brain's capacity. But you don't need to be a superhuman logic-machine to see that Hollywood has a major problem with depicting people of color, and it's time to actually reimagine what the world can and should be.
--
Olivia Cole writes a blog at oliviaacole.wordpress.com and published her novel, Panther in the Hive, in 2014.
People are always saying to me: “Hey, Handsome. (My legal name. I let people call me “Jemir” because … well, that “alias” doesn’t owe a metric ton in back taxes {lol}) What’s your book about”? I tell them: “104 pages.” They then reply with a side eye, head shake and cobra swift karate chop to the throat. To avoid these kind of mishaps in the future I’m going to post some info about my female sleuth/”fixer” Jay Nova and the book itself that can enhance your enjoyment if you choose to look into it.
Question: “Blind Corners” what’s it about (don’t karate chop me in the throat when I answer it, though {lol})?
Answer: What you do in the dark is your business. Keeping it buried is hers. Jay Nova is a private eye with a razor sharp mind, dangerous connections and a ready gun to help the desperate (usually the rich, famous and “influential”) out of time sensitive predicaments they can’t go to the law with: the right woman to call when things go wrong. “Blind Corners” is an illustrated four-story, crime-noir, collection about her dark alley, back room deal, days and nights at the “office”.
Q: Who is Jay Nova?
A: Jay is a woman that came up rough and spent a lot of time on the other side of the law … even when she was a cop. Having quit the force and the hard-nosed anti-gang task force she was an integral part of for reasons she won’t discuss she’s now an on-the-books private eye using her business as cover to bend or break laws on a client’s behalf.
Jay also has a hidden (known only to her apparently) ability to read minds. But there’s a catch. Jay doesn’t control the ability … when it works, how it works or what it will reveal. Having to look directly into a “target’s” eyes to use it she doesn’t know if she was born with the “gift” or not. For this reason
Jay relies on nothing but her cunning and toughness to get the job done.
Then there’s the pain.
Hours after her ability is used jay is attacked by a series of painful “headaches”. Headaches she’s not always sure she’ll live through. She rarely makes an effort to activate “the gift” on her own.
Q: Does Jay work alone?
A: Though she’s self sufficient Jay has a small group of informants, goons and colleagues on different sides of the law she’ll round-up at any given time. Still, there’s only one person she trusts enough to partner with.
Randy Michaels Preston (“Randy Michaels”) is a con man that may or may not be what he claims when he claims it but is – without doubt – an enforcer you want by your side when things get tight.
Q: Is this the first Jay Nova collection?
A: No. That distinction goes to “5 Shots” which came out some years back. You don’t need to read “5 Shots” to get into ‘Blind Corners” as every book and Jay Nova tale is built to stand on its own. For those that do purchase both there are subtle continuity bits that will add layers to Jay’s journey. That said every collection or long form graphic novel will be designed to be enjoyed with no prior knowledge needed or presumed (but rewarded if there).
So if you’ve read ‘Blind Corners” (or “5 Shots”) I hope you enjoyed it. If you haven’t I hope you (or someone you know) will give it a shot. Either way, thanks for sharing a few minutes of your time and happy reading to you no matter what you grab or download.
http://www.amazon.com/Blind-Corners-Jemir-Johnson/dp/0981827837/ref=tmm_pap_title_0
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| Life Quote Tumblr page: Richard Feynman |
We entered the nanoscale world officially 25 years ago. The distinction is primarily gate feature size: we were in the microelectronics era due to printing gate features 10-6 meters; "nano" is 10-9 meters as far as electronics goes. There are two distinct branches now: "nanoscience," which I'm not as familiar with, but tends to involve medicine and biology, specifically focused delivery systems for medicinal treatments, and "nanoengineering" where I now find my career has evolved. What we now take for granted: flat screens TVs and pads; cell phones with photographic and video capability we take and upload to social media that have now become a part of how we gather news and hold authority accountable. A few things to highlight how far we've come:
Nanotechnology: Highlights From 25 Years (PDF).
One of the most cited and downloaded papers in Nanotechnology is 'Comparison of calibration methods for atomic-force microscopy cantilevers'. Published in 2003, it presented a detailed comparison of the calibration methods of several atomic-force microscopy cantilevers.
Nancy A Burnham, from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, talks about some aspects of the paper, highlighting some of the contributions that have now, 10 years later, become commonplace among AFM manufacturers.
Dr. Burnham below:
We can never forget the character who who contributed greatly to the idea it all (some would say he started it with this lecture). Initially given in 1959, he repeated it in 1984. What he referred to then as "tiny machines," we now call MEMS - microelectromechanical systems, 1st coined by DARPA in 1986. As we get perilously (in a good way) towards the Moore's Law limit, there is indeed "plenty of room at the bottom" (Richard Feynman):
Original Lecture Transcript: Plenty of Room at the Bottom (1959)
The Priestess returns in season 3! With the disappearance of her 'Mortal-Son' Little Fish, unrest has been growing in the Valley Realm. A great and powerful army has risen in the desert and the Priestess is in their path to domination. Though the Priestess has sworn not to interfere in the affairs of mortal men, can she allow so great a threat to go unchallenged?
The task of defending the Priestess falls to her mortal protector, the 'Invincible Valley Knight'! But even so mighty a warrior beloved by Death, will need help against a legion vast! See events unfold in the upcoming and exciting season 3 of 'The Priestess!'
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| Slide 4 of 50 on Slide Player, Rainer Waser* |
A novel type of computer memory could, in theory, let you to store tens or even hundreds of times as much data on your smartphone. Researchers at Rice University have demonstrated a more practical way to manufacture it.
The type of memory in question, resistive random access memory (RRAM), is being developed by several companies, but fabrication usually requires high-temperatures or voltages, making production difficult and expensive. The Rice researchers have shown a way to make RRAM at room temperature and with far lower voltages.
Like flash memory, RRAM can store data without a constant supply of power. Whereas flash memory stores bits of information in the form of charge in transistors, RRAM stores bits using resistance. Each bit requires less space, increasing the amount of information that can be stored in a given area.
MIT Technology Review: Super-Dense Computer Memory, Kevin Bullis
* Rainer Waser JARA-FIT @ FZJ Forschungszentrum Jülich & RWTH Aachen University Outline Forschungszentrum Jülich Center of Nanoelectronic Systems for Information Technology Scaling Projections for Resistive Switching Memories
Tomorrow: Fromm and Roddenberry
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| Source |
Seeing patterns in my previous posts Trek Musings and Resources and Refugees (and possibly some others), I was led to reexamine the works of Eric Fromm, a sociologist best known for his seminal work after WWII on the Nazi party: "Escape From Freedom," also known as originally "Fear of Freedom" outside of North America.
If you read through the Dystopian "1984," Fromm gives an Afterword, found here in whole at this PDF.
I quote the beginning of the fourth paragraph:
One of the most important ones is a new form of writing which developed since the Renaissance, the first expression of which was Thomas More's Utopia (literally: "Nowhere"), a name which was then generically applied to all other similar works. Thomas More's Utopia combined a most penetrating criticism of his own society, its irrationality and its injustice, with the picture of a society which, though perhaps not perfect, had solved most of the human problems which sounded insoluble to his own contemporaries. He also sites "Italian friar Campanella's 'City of the Sun', and the German humanist Andreae's 'Christianopolis'" as three seminal works in the emergent genre.
Sounds vaguely familiar...almost "Trekkie," which I'm sure it's part of the many sources where Gene got the idea.
Fromm goes on to relate this longing for perfection in the great philosophers of the Enlightenment. Its modern epitome - I submit - was Star Trek.
Dr. Fromm also lists the Trifecta of "negative-Utopian" i.e. Dystopian novels: "We" by the Russian Yevgeny Zamyatin; "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley and "1984" by Eric Blair (George Orwell was a pen name). It is from these three, all modern science fiction descends.
Going back to Roddenberry, the societal "hiccup" was as I've mentioned a neo-fascist "Optimum Movement" that was the catalyst for Trek's version of WWIII, which I'm happy to say we have not fought (and don't want to).
The current resistance to change, the mantra cry: "I want my country back," or at one of the border national embarrassments (if the meme is genuine), a woman yelling at fleeing refugee children stands beneath a sign she held up stating: "Make English America's Offical Language" (I think the holder meant "official"). The sad part is whoever authored it, double-underlined the misspelling. That's not what our Constitution says, and it would help if someone invested in a good civics class and a spell checker.
From the Amazon Kindle book description for "Escape From Freedom":
The pursuit of freedom has indelibly marked Western culture since Renaissance humanism and Protestantism began the fight for individualism and self-determination. This freedom, however, can make people feel unmoored, and is often accompanied by feelings of isolation, fear, and the loss of self, all leading to a desire for authoritarianism, conformity, or destructiveness.
It is not only the question of freedom that makes Fromm’s debut book a timeless classic. In this examination of the roots of Nazism and fascism in Europe, Fromm also explains how economic and social constraints can also lead to authoritarianism.
Fromm's definitions:
Authoritarianism: Fromm characterizes the authoritarian personality as containing a sadist element and a masochist element. The authoritarian wishes to gain control over other people in a bid to impose some kind of order on the world, they also wish to submit to the control of some superior force which may come in the guise of a person or an abstract idea.
Destructiveness: Although this bears a similarity to sadism, Fromm argues that the sadist wishes to gain control over something. A destructive personality wishes to destroy something it cannot bring under its control.
Conformity: This process is seen when people unconsciously incorporate the normative beliefs and thought processes of their society and experience them as their own. This allows them to avoid genuine free thinking, which is likely to provoke anxiety. Wikipedia
These all sound frightening and familiar in the modern context. The John Birch Society and inspired modern clones never went away. Like a bad rash or foot fungi, the slightest moisture and warmth rebirths them in familiar, parroted talking-points. It's like watching a slow-motion psychological operation designed by a commercial version of the Creel Commission, made to look like "grass roots" when it's actually financed AstroTurfing.
It was Roddenberry's "hope" during the turbulence of the 1960's with its Vietnam conflict; struggle for Civil Rights that branched into Women's Rights, Human Rights and modernly LGBT rights that we all "learned to get along," and not quite blow the planet to smithereens! This of course, hinged on matter replicators and the willful, "magical thinking" dismantling of a scarcity economy and pre-Trek fictional social order.
Since this scarcity has made a very small part of humanity - 1% to 0.001% - wildly rich beyond Solomon's dreams, I think that dismantlement, if ever, will be resisted - as is any change beyond the current status quo is being resisted, quite vigorously - until it hurts them (and ultimately, us).
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| Source: Fermilab link below |
The first step: accelerators
The collision of particles at high energy, either with other particles or with a stationary target, allows physicists not only to look at what's inside these particles, but also to use the energy of their collisions to create different, more massive and more exotic particles of matter. To create such high-energy collisions, scientists must use very powerful particle accelerators.
The second step: detectors
Unveiling the tiniest constituents of matter with accelerators is only half the battle. Physicists also need extraordinary particle detectors to observe what happens in high-energy collisions.
Detectors are instruments that count particles, visualize tracks, measure particle energies, record time of flight and identify different particles. Detectors can be as tiny as computer chips or as big as apartment houses, containing thousands of tons of steel and other material.
The third step: data analysis
Detectors are the product of international collaborations of physicists, all contributing their own expertise and the support of their home institutions. In return, each physicist receives access to the data recorded. To simplify the networking and data exchange within these worldwide collaborations, scientists at the European research laboratory CERN invented the World Wide Web. High-energy physics laboratories such as DESY, SLAC and Fermilab were among the first to offer Web pages in their home countries.
To analyze the enormous amount of data, particle physicists have always relied on some of the most powerful computers in the world, quickly adopting new computing technologies. The analysis of particle physics data takes place on powerful and cost-effective PC farms. Comparing simulated collision events with experimental results, sophisticated computer programs can identify the processes that took place in each collision, whether it takes place when two beams collide or at a fixed target. Physicists use the results to test theoretical predictions, improving our knowledge of crucial parameters, contradicting theoretical expectations and discovering new phenomena.
Fermilab: Particle Physics 101
Physics4Kids.com: Modern Physics Introduction
Greetings, BSFS!
I'm here to announce the release of "The Fantasy Portal," a collection of four intriguing fantasy stories by myself, BSFS author Rasheedah Prioleau, Colby R. Rice, and DeVaun Saunders.
From Slate to Crimson, by Brandon Hill (Paranormal Romance)
Talante, for 10,000 years has governed his clan like a father in the endless war with their hated enemy over the fate of humankind. One winter's night, he chances to meet Amelia Grayson, a human whose blood arouses his desire, and whose presence arouses his compassion in a way no mortal ever has before. Distracted and terrified by all but alien emotions and instincts by this burgeoning bond in a prelude to what may be his clan's most desperate hour, Talante is caught between duty and desire, until he is forced by choice and circumstance to decide whether to hold to the one he has grown to love more than his immortal life, or in spite of the cost, let go for the sake of his people and Amelia's safety, in spite of twofold danger: one from a ravenous enemy that has hunted her kind for millennia ... and the other from the seductive bond that would make her forever his, body and soul.
Ghosts of Koa, Volume I of II, by Colby R Rice (Urban Fantasy)
For over one hundred years the Civic Order and the Alchemic Order have held a shaky truce, peppered by violence and mistrust. But when Koa, a Civilian-born insurgency, bombs an Alchemist summit, the truce is shattered. Now, Koa is rising. War is coming. And all sixteen-year-old Zeika Anon can do is keep moving as she watches the lords of alchemy slowly overtake her home. But when clashes between Koa and the Alchemic Order put a final, deadly squeeze on the remaining Civilian territories, Zeika finds herself in the crosshairs of fate. She must walk the line between survival and rebellion against the Alchemists. On one side of the line awaits death. On the other, the betrayal of her civilization, her loyalties, and herself. CONTENT WARNING - Contains coarse language, intense violence, suggestive themes, and aberrant behavior.
The Seedbearing Prince: Part I, by DaVaun Sanders (Epic Fantasy)
Dayn Ro'Halan is a farmer's son sworn to a life of plowing on his homeworld, Shard. After finding a lost artifact called a Seed, he's thrust into an ancient conflict between voidwalkers of the hated world Thar'Kur, and Defenders from a floating fortress called the Ring. Dayn must become a Seedbearer and learn to use the Seed's power to shape worlds before the entire World Belt is lost.
American Specter: The Seven Sisters, by Rasheedah Prioleau (Paranormal Mystery)
Audra Wheeler has been haunted for the last thirteen years by a paranormal attack that left her adopted sister, Kendra, in a coma. Mentored by FBI Assistant Director Jonathan Cordero to investigate specter crimes, Audra believes she's on the trail of a serial killing specter with a mode of operation much like her sister's attacker. The trail leads her to a small town in Georgia called Specter. Specter has become a haven to ghosts who have crossed back over and exist among the living. For better or worse she also finds herself working with the town's Sheriff, Ethan Cole, her ex-partner and old flame. With a chip on her shoulder and a strong dislike of specters, Agent Wheeler has a hard time adjusting to the ever-present state of specters until the latest victim, Gwyneth Miller, comes back as one. When specter Gwyneth Miller is adamant that it was not a specter that killed her, Audra Wheeler finds herself opening up the twenty-five year old cold case of the town's most notorious unsolved homicide, the murder of Abigail Stevens, who just happens to be Gwyneth Miller's biological mother.
It is currently available for Amazon Kindle:
From Slate to Crimson, by Brandon Hill (Paranormal Romance)
Talante, for 10,000 years has governed his clan like a father in the endless war with their hated enemy over the fate of humankind. One winter's night, he chances to meet Amelia Grayson, a human whose blood arouses his desire, and whose presence arouses his compassion in a way no mortal ever has before. Distracted and terrified by all but alien emotions and instincts by this burgeoning bond in a prelude to what may be his clan's most desperate hour, Talante is caught between duty and desire, until he is forced by choice and circumstance to decide whether to hold to the one he has grown to love more than his immortal life, or in spite of the cost, let go for the sake of his people and Amelia's safety, in spite of twofold danger: one from a ravenous enemy that has hunted her kind for millennia ... and the other from the seductive bond that would make her forever his, body and soul.
Ghosts of Koa, Volume I of II, by Colby R Rice (Urban Fantasy)
For over one hundred years the Civic Order and the Alchemic Order have held a shaky truce, peppered by violence and mistrust. But when Koa, a Civilian-born insurgency, bombs an Alchemist summit, the truce is shattered. Now, Koa is rising. War is coming. And all sixteen-year-old Zeika Anon can do is keep moving as she watches the lords of alchemy slowly overtake her home. But when clashes between Koa and the Alchemic Order put a final, deadly squeeze on the remaining Civilian territories, Zeika finds herself in the crosshairs of fate. She must walk the line between survival and rebellion against the Alchemists. On one side of the line awaits death. On the other, the betrayal of her civilization, her loyalties, and herself. CONTENT WARNING - Contains coarse language, intense violence, suggestive themes, and aberrant behavior.
The Seedbearing Prince: Part I, by DaVaun Sanders (Epic Fantasy)
Dayn Ro'Halan is a farmer's son sworn to a life of plowing on his homeworld, Shard. After finding a lost artifact called a Seed, he's thrust into an ancient conflict between voidwalkers of the hated world Thar'Kur, and Defenders from a floating fortress called the Ring. Dayn must become a Seedbearer and learn to use the Seed's power to shape worlds before the entire World Belt is lost.
American Specter: The Seven Sisters, by Rasheedah Prioleau (Paranormal Mystery)
Audra Wheeler has been haunted for the last thirteen years by a paranormal attack that left her adopted sister, Kendra, in a coma. Mentored by FBI Assistant Director Jonathan Cordero to investigate specter crimes, Audra believes she's on the trail of a serial killing specter with a mode of operation much like her sister's attacker. The trail leads her to a small town in Georgia called Specter. Specter has become a haven to ghosts who have crossed back over and exist among the living. For better or worse she also finds herself working with the town's Sheriff, Ethan Cole, her ex-partner and old flame. With a chip on her shoulder and a strong dislike of specters, Agent Wheeler has a hard time adjusting to the ever-present state of specters until the latest victim, Gwyneth Miller, comes back as one. When specter Gwyneth Miller is adamant that it was not a specter that killed her, Audra Wheeler finds herself opening up the twenty-five year old cold case of the town's most notorious unsolved homicide, the murder of Abigail Stevens, who just happens to be Gwyneth Miller's biological mother.
It is currently available for Amazon Kindle here:
The Fantasy Poral - Kindle
And for Kobo here:
I hope you all will show your support for our endeavors and purchase our work. Currently, the Kindle version is only $1.99, and the Kobo version is only $0.99. Other versions will soon be available, and I will keep you all posted. If you enjoy fantasy, I think you will find something to delight you in this bundle. And be sure to write a review. Thanks a lot, and I hope you enjoy our work! Happy reading!
-Brandon
Time to have a good laugh... and time to reflect on the joy of being a parent who truly cares about their children. Allow me to introduce to you, The WindowSill Children Books Series... a special line of Black Children books that are unique in many ways.
Written by Donna Matthews and all art chores done by yours truly... me.
For now I have two to show... but there are a bunch of other goodies on my author's page that many of you should check out. It won't be a waste of your time.
Jello Pudding Pops is an awesome story of Mother and Son...
While, My Father found Bin Laden is a wild ride of innocent humor from a child's perspective. A little girl misses her heroic father and misunderstands the information given her about what is keeping her father overseas.
All of this and more at... the link below.
http://amazon.com/author/winstonblakely
Enjoy.
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| Ping! In this event, two W bosons collide and then decay into particles called muons (red) while the quarks that emitted the W’s produce sprays of other particles (yellow). |
Ever wonder what particle physicists would have done had the Higgs boson not existed? Even before they fired up the atom smasher that 2 years ago blasted out the Higgs—the $5.5 billion Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European particle physics lab, CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland—researchers said that if they didn't find that coveted quarry, it wouldn't be a total disaster. If there were no Higgs, they said, then a particular ordinary particle interaction should instead go haywire and hint at whatever nature was doing to get by without the Higgs. Now, physicists at the LHC have spotted the rare interaction in that "no-lose" theorem, which is known as WW scattering.
"I am thrilled," says Barbara Jäger, a theorist at the University of Tübingen in Germany who was not involved in the work. Of course, now that physicists know the Higgs exists, they don't expect WW scattering to go bonkers. But it could still play an important role in the hunt for new physics, as scientists look for deviations from the predictions of the field’s prevailing standard model. That approach would complement studies of the Higgs itself, Jäger says.
The Higgs boson is key to physicists' explanation of how all elementary particles—such as electrons and the quarks that make up protons and neutrons—get their masses. Theorists assume that otherwise massless particles interact with a quantum field a bit like an electric field that consists of Higgs bosons lurking "virtually" in the vacuum. Those interactions give each type of particle a certain amount of energy and, thanks to Einstein's famous equation E = mc2, mass.
Science Mag:
Had there been no Higgs boson, this observation would have been the bomb, Adrian Cho
"Of Fear and Faith" is the first book in my Death and Destiny Trilogy (paranormal romance). If interested, check it out at http://www.bookstrand.com/of-fear-and-faith
Before trust and love can take hold, grow solid roots, and blossom into a reality larger than self, fear must be conquered and faith embraced. Yet fear of an ancient prophecy, of burning magical power, and a broken heart, Sanura Williams, psychology professor, is unprepared when Special Agent Assefa Berber enters her life, hunting a preternatural serial killer. Assefa’s intelligent, chocolate eyes and intoxicating aura signature stirs her fire spirit but frightens the woman.
In a world where all is not as it seems, Sanura and Assefa must battle the gods’ first creations – vile predators who threaten the safety of humans. Each confrontation, each bloody clash, will bring Sanura and Assefa closer to fulfilling the prophecy of being the Fire Witch and Cat of Legend - the ones who will save humanity from the Water Witch of Legend.
Death, godly magic, and physical attraction draw Sanura and Assefa to each other, but fear and faith will determine their destiny.
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| MIT visualization of Faraday's Law |
"Virtual prototyping of superconducting devices," Jeremy Howard-Knight PhD
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| Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory |
Protons have a constant spin that is an intrinsic particle property like mass or charge. Yet where this spin comes from is such a mystery it’s dubbed the “proton spin crisis.” Initially physicists thought a proton’s spin was the sum of the spins of its three constituent quarks. But a 1987 experiment showed that quarks can account for only a small portion of a proton’s spin, raising the question of where the rest arises. The quarks inside a proton are held together by gluons, so scientists suggested perhaps they contribute spin. That idea now has support from a pair of studies analyzing the results of proton collisions inside the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y.
Physicists often explain spin as a particle’s rotation, but that description is more metaphorical than literal. In fact, spin is a quantum quantity that cannot be described in classical terms. Just as a proton is not really a tiny marble but rather a jumble of phantom particles appearing and disappearing continuously, its spin is a complex probabilistic property. Yet it is always equal to one half.
Scientific American: Proton Spin Mystery Gains a New Clue, Clara Moskowitz
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| Image Source: KQED.org |
Today is the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Despite what the naysayers and conspiracy theorists insist on with You Tube embed videos ad nauseum, I counter that with the memory of initially disappointed 6-year-old eyes as my Saturday cartoons had been preempted. Those eyes - mine - were soon delighted, sitting on my father's lap filled with wonder and hope. Post Dr. King's assassination, our continued involvement in the Vietnam conflict (of which I had several older friends fighting) and the turbulence of the 1960's, nationally we all needed a lift of our collective spirits.
2014: We appear to be losing it - spirit, mind, wonder...hope.
Ground forces advance in Gaza...The Malaysian airlines downed in the Ukraine...Fires raging in Washington State and drought in California...The border crisis of Central American refugees fleeing the drug wars and violence we helped foster...
Mutually Assured Destruction (M.A.D.): born when the former Soviet Union achieved parity with the US in nuclear weapons. The research of the weapons of our extinction was birthed during the Second World War, and the fear Nazi scientists would beat the Americans to the atomic bomb punch. Destructiveness became measured in "Hiroshima's": ~ 100,000 souls perished in a flash of nightmare, an instant of atomizing. We comforted, compensated and deluded ourselves with moribund, useless drills of "duck and cover." The follow-on "improvement" - thermonuclear bombs - generated the following gradients:
- 1 November 1952 ("Mike" - US): 800 Hiroshima's.
- 12 August 1953 ("Joe-4" - USSR): 30 Hiroshima's.
- 1 March 1954 ("Bravo" - US): 1,300 Hiroshima's.
- 23 November 1955 (No code name - USSR): 300 Hiroshima's.
- No date given ("Behemoth" - USSR): 5,000 Hiroshima's.
Most US and Russian yields are around 30 Hiroshima's currently. (Source: "Black Holes and Time Warps-Einstein's Outrageous Legacy," Kip Thorne, pages 231-232, paperback).
Science and power
Unfortunately, it would be naive to say science has been strictly harnessed for the benefit of mankind. Part of the reason you have 3% of climate scientists "doubt" the conclusions of 97% of their colleagues on climate change is science costs money. Money comes from benefactors who typically have agendas; those being obviously amassing more power and wealth to themselves. A large part of the tools developed to analyse the density, mass and electric charge of black holes were developed during the Manhattan Project; many things we take for granted were developed initially for the Apollo program. This is called "spin-off": a peaceful commercial application to an otherwise warfare-born idea. The Internet is another example.
We are at a tinderbox moment of history. Our publicly elected political leaders parrot apocalyptic worldviews from the once extreme, now mainstreamed portions of society. Our motivations as a species must change if we are to solve difficult problems and survive our own hubris. Our current understanding of five previous mass extinction events makes our balance in the Drake Equation not look so favorably for us. The world will keep spinning, and it's instructive to note dinosaurs are "technically" still around us (counter to creationists' envision): as fossil fuels, lower reptiles and consumed chickens. J. Robert Oppenheimer - America's Prometheus - is an example of what happens when genius is employed in the service of sociopaths.
M.A.D. is the acronym of the unthinkable; the "doomsday scenario," the outcome succinctly summed in the 80's classic "War Games" and that life sadly, doesn't always conclude in the neatly-packaged Hollywood ending:
