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| Source: Fold Ed Fun |
With its own soundtrack no less...
And yes, I got nostalgic as life imitates comic art (intro)...
Science Mag: Robot folds itself - and walks away, Jia You
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| Source: Link below |
In his Allegory of the Cave, the Greek philosopher Plato described prisoners who have spent their entire lives chained to the wall of a dark cavern. Behind the prisoners lies a flame, and between the flame and prisoners parade objects that cast shadows onto a wall in the prisoners' field of view. These two-dimensional shadows are the only things that the prisoners have ever seen—their only reality. Their shackles have prevented them from perceiving the true world, a realm with one additional dimension to the world that they know, a dimension rich with complexity and—unbeknownst to the prisoners—capable of explaining all that they see. [1]
It could be time to bid the Big Bang bye-bye. Cosmologists have speculated that the Universe formed from the debris ejected when a four-dimensional star collapsed into a black hole — a scenario that would help to explain why the cosmos seems to be so uniform in all directions.
The standard Big Bang model tells us that the Universe exploded out of an infinitely dense point, or singularity. But nobody knows what would have triggered this outburst: the known laws of physics cannot tell us what happened at that moment.
In our Universe, a black hole is bounded by a spherical surface called an event horizon. Whereas in ordinary three-dimensional space it takes a two-dimensional object (a surface) to create a boundary inside a black hole, in the bulk universe the event horizon of a 4D black hole would be a 3D object — a shape called a hypersphere. When Afshordi’s team modelled the death of a 4D star, they found that the ejected material would form a 3D brane surrounding that 3D event horizon, and slowly expand.
The authors postulate that the 3D Universe we live in might be just such a brane — and that we detect the brane’s growth as cosmic expansion. “Astronomers measured that expansion and extrapolated back that the Universe must have begun with a Big Bang — but that is just a mirage,” says Afshordi. [2]
1. Scientific American: The Black Hole That Birthed the Big Bang
2. Nature: Did a hyper-black hole spawn the Universe?
Florida July 2014 Black Bed Sheet Publishing announces the release of the streetlit horror story It Happened on Negro Mountain by Jeff Carroll. It Happened on Negro Mountain is a real place located in Maryland. It Happened on Negro Mountain is available everywhere books are sold.
Negro Mountain is located in west Maryland, on the West Virginia boarder, which divided the Colonial North and South most popularly known as the Mason Dixon Line. The Mountain was named “Negro” because of a heroic Africa Slave who single handedly fought off the Confederate Army soldiers and Native Americans. Now, Negro Mountain is said to be protected by the spirit of the African. The saying is Negro Mountain is a place where bad things happen to bad people. So, when negative energy meets with the energy resting in Negro Mountain the outcome is always the same, The Mountain wins.
“After having success with my first horror story Thug Angel Rebirth of a Gargoyle I wanted to craft another story where I could send chills down the spins of the hardest street thug. No one has ever met a vampire and werewolf but Negro Mountain is real, you can visit it and that makes it ever more scary,” said Jeff Carroll of his work.
It Happened on Negro Mountain (Black Bed Sheet Publishing Paperback, July 25, 2014, ISBN: 978-0692255650-7$16.00 and $3.99 ebook) set to change the face of Streetlit and Horror with author Jeff Carroll. Jeff Carroll a lover of good old fashion horror stories with a creepy origins and not lots of special effects. He found Negro Mountain while road managing a trip to West Virginia. After seeing the highway sign for Negro Mountain he and his partner quickly jumped out of their cars and took picture. Jeff came home a google Negro Mountain and the rest is history.
It Happened on Negro Mountain is a story about a Drug Dealer who has been forced out of his empire. Rather than just submitting he decides to destroy his empire instead of agreeing to the demands of the younger drug dealers whom he started off. His plans to leave his neighborhood turf with his babymother and seven year old daughter for a year. This will allow chaos to erupt and let the young dealers kill each other before he returns to reclaim his post. The place he chooses to hide out is NEGRO MOUNTAIN.
Jeff Carroll lives in South Florida, with his wife and son. He is a writer, a filmmaker and owner of Hip Hop Comix N Flix. He enjoys writing Sci/fi, Horror and fantasy stories with lots of action and a social edge. He has written and produced 2 films, his second film was Gold Digger Killer won 3 film awards including BEST Picture at the International Hip Hop film festival. Jeff Carroll is the author of the non-fiction book The Hip Hop Dating Guide. When he is not writing horror stories he enjoys speaking on Healthy Dating to college and high school students everywhere and goes by Yo Jeff.
http://www.amazon.com/Happened-Negro-Mountain-Jeff-Carroll-ebook/dp/B00LWXBDRI
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| Image Source: Women in Planetary Science |
Dr. Alexander is the Project Scientist for the U.S. portion of the international Rosetta mission. She has also been the Cassini Project Staff Scientist and as the final project manager of the Galileo mission, overseeing its fiery crash into Jupiter. Her scientific interests include gaskinetic theory, theory of gaseous escape from planetary and cometary regoliths, theory of surface bound exospheres, magnetospheric plasma theory (terrestrial and planetary), exobiology, interdiciplinary science, and oxidation / reduction potential of planetary and cometary regoliths. Source: see #P4TC links below.
Space.com: Rosetta Probe Arrives at Comet
#P4TC links:
Rosetta...
Rosetta's Stone...
Done as a promo piece for an afrocentric all genre novel of
short stories by Melvin Carter. In his book is Sword and
Soul, Afro- Futurist Sci Fi , 1930's Mystic Pulp and other
cool entries. Coming soon is Aura - the art of Winston
Blakely, showcasing all selected art from the archives
of Blakelyworks Studio. This book will be released in
October.... and yes, the above is in the book with more
art done for the above mentioned volume and beyond.
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| Mom's book of "me" |
Education
What does research reveal about how people learn and which educational methods and policies are most effective? An evidence-based approach can provide valuable input into often-controversial debates about educational methods and policy. Our reports have examined and synthesized the evidence on a broad range of questions, from how to accurately measure high-school dropout rates, to the effects of incentives on student learning, to how adults learn to read. Given our affiliation with the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering, one area of emphasis is studying how children most effectively learn about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. [1]
OK, that's the official tag line. Coming up with the "most effective" method, as if the previous methods were moribund or ineffective. We got to the moon with slide rules, trig and memorized time tables; not on-board computers, laptops or calculators. Also from personal experience, it helps when your parents think it's important that you learn the material, and help or get help for you when you have struggles. It also helps that adults have an appreciation for lifelong learning and respect the preparation and training STEM fields requires, and how to integrate that into the administration of a democratic republic.
The title of this post is obviously Japanese, and it literally translates to "lesson study," a set of practices that Japanese teachers use to hone their craft. [2] This is not a "bash American Education" post, nor does it attempt to elevate Japanese pedagogy. We can however, learn from other successful models (Finland comes to mind).
The National Academy of Sciences speaks on this concern (see "official tag line" paragraph). One of the links at the article "Climate Change Education Roundtable" (this is the actual link) has by its title, an uphill battle with a well-heeled fossil fuels industry that finances obfuscation to keep the status quo (and, thus the money flow upward *). The tobacco industry exemplī grātiā.
I would just like to do something different than our current flirtation with pseudoscience for political expediency. A false science produces false results. Faux results - assertions not based in reality - are typically in the long run for the wealth of nation states neither sustainable nor profitable.
1. National Academy of Sciences: Topics>Education
2. New York Times: Why Do Americans Stink at Math?
* Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward. Job 5:7
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| Source: Technology Review |
If you find yourself with an old 30 meter satellite communication antenna, what should you do with it? One option is to convert it into a radio telescope, which is exactly what astronomers at the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand have done with an old dish lying around in the northernmost reaches of the country.
So what exactly do you have to do to convert a communications antenna into a radio telescope? Today, Lewis Woodburn at the Auckland University of Technology and a few pals, answer this question by detailing the process they have gone through to make the conversion.
The old satellite communications dish in question was built in 1984 for the New Zealand Post Office and transferred to Telecom New Zealand in 1987. By 2010, the dish had become obsolete and the company stopped maintenance with the intention of demolishing it. That’s when the Auckland University of Technology stepped in.
Abstract:
We describe our approach to the conversion of a former 100-foot (30-m) telecommunication antenna in New Zealand into a radio telescope. We provide the specifications of the Earth Station and identify the priorities for the conversion. We describe implementation of this plan with regards to mechanical and electrical components, as well as design of the telescope control system, telescope networking for VLBI, and telescope maintenance. Plans for RF, front-end and back-end developments based on radio astronomical priorities are outlined.
Physics arXiv:
Conversion of New Zealand's 30m Telecommunication Antenna into a Radio Telescope
Lewis Woodburn, Tim Natusch, Stuart Weston, Peter Thomasson, Mark Godwin, Sergei Gulyaev
"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." Plato
Political science is the study of governments, public policies and political processes, systems, and political behavior. Political science subfields include political theory, political philosophy, political ideology, political economy, policy studies and analysis, comparative politics, international relations, and a host of related fields. (For a good cross section of the areas of study, see the list of APSA Organized Sections.) Political scientists use both humanistic and scientific perspectives and tools and a variety of methodological approaches to examine the process, systems, and political dynamics of all countries and regions of the world. American Political Science Association, What is Political Science?
Nihilism (n):
1 a : a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless; b : a doctrine that denies any objective ground of truth and especially of moral truths
2 a : a doctrine or belief that conditions in the social organization are so bad as to make destruction desirable for its own sake independent of any constructive program or possibility; b capitalized : the program of a 19th century Russian party advocating revolutionary reform and using terrorism and assassination Webster
Narcissism (n):
1 : egoism, egocentrism
2 : love of or sexual desire for one's own body
— nar·cis·sist noun or adjective
— nar·cis·sis·tic adjective
Examples of NARCISSISM
Origin of NARCISSISM
German Narzissismus, from Narziss Narcissus, from Latin Narcissus
First Known Use: 1822, also Webster and Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Lastly, Egoism
1 a : a doctrine that individual self-interest is the actual motive of all conscious action, b : a doctrine that individual self-interest is the valid end of all actions; 2 : excessive concern for oneself with or without exaggerated feelings of self-importance — compare egotism 2 Ibid
C-Span feeds it; 24-hour news cycles and "gothca" soundbite politics cultivates it; well-heeled dark money encourages it. The "science" has been removed from the definition and "cult" would be more appropriate.
We should not be surprised one iota that a cult sect that says they're for "limited government" would wish it diminished: "small enough to drown it in the bathtub" to paraphrase Grover Norquist. The apotheosis of "The Gipper" has resulted in a "Facebook for patriots." Despite his deification, The Gipper didn't attend church on a regular basis. Despite his tax-cutting legend, he wasn't above negotiations that meant raising taxes. Even David Stockman - no pinko commie - has pretty much disavowed "trickle-down economics." Today, there is a love of the products of science by the cult and a disdain for its report on Climate Change. Corporate news that has the legal right to lie to the electorate; still lying to itself after its "predictions of the Romney landslide" fell to dried fecal dust. Facts are the bereft antithesis to dogma when your sect disdains the "reality-based community."
550,000 children were sacrificed on Moloch altars; "crematoriums of care" (or, don't care). Their dreams have become nightmares as this political stunt is similar to lemmings in suicide vests for any leverage in the nation's changing demographics. A paired-down "bill" that demands deportation back to the humanitarian crisis meat grinder some of these recent kids escaped; a result of our trade polices, a moribund, oxymoron "war on drugs" and an appetite for the same sorcery. There is 1 death every 74 minutes in Honduras. So much for the "war." Suing the president for using executive powers expanded under his predecessor; then demanding he use the same to "solve the crisis at the border." It would be an SNL skit or an "Onion" faux story, but it sadly, is a part of our congress that is clearly psychotic.
I don't use the word "cult" lightly. Mike Lofgren - previous life as a GOP operative - takes his former party to task in his op-ed: "Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult."
Two poignant excerpts:
"It should have been evident to clear-eyed observers that the Republican Party is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe. This trend has several implications, none of them pleasant.
"Far from being a rarity, virtually every bill, every nominee for Senate confirmation and every routine procedural motion is now subject to a Republican filibuster. Under the circumstances, it is no wonder that Washington is gridlocked: legislating has now become war minus the shooting, something one could have observed 80 years ago in the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic. As Hannah Arendt observed, a disciplined minority of totalitarians can use the instruments of democratic government to undermine democracy itself."
We are being held hostage by nihilistic narcissists/domestic terrorists: more intent on wrecking "collectivism"-cum-Koch rebuke, deliberately sabotaging the very idea of democratic republics, holding off scrutiny from many well-meaning peoples with a few biblical verses and babble on the "sanctity of the unborn." We can't solve the crisis at the border; the crisis in the Near East; Ebola virus containment; Climate Change; education reform minus standardized testing idiocy; global competitiveness in science and technology; jobs; keeping the government open: we can't pass laws in a governing body where part of it doesn't believe in government. When the Earth and entire universe is only 6,000 years old and "the end is nigh," there is no reason - as it, and logic have left the House of Representatives - and there is no possibility of solving complex problems. That is a ship of state teetering the narrow edge of self-extinction. It is arrogant to think the global powers would not change the world currency of commerce from the Dollar to the Yuan or Euro overnight.
Meanwhile, the now-born on the border fleeing violence are destined to be stillborn on their fleeing feet; as an esteemed member of congress and Civil Rights icon John Lewis has stated, "history will judge us harshly." More also for not demanding the one litmus test prior to running for public office that should matter for our leaders: a psychological evaluation on the fitness to serve.
Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?
Ok all you knowledge knowers here is the enigma in my mind. What time is it? In the reasoning of the astro- enthusiast, that's astronomers and astrologers and history pattern recogs, we are near the Age of Aquarius. Hold your anti-hype weapons we are talking constellational time. Reports are scattered, some say we be in it and some say it is still coming.
A Great year, it has been said, is 25920 years. The sun and our solar systems does the sidereal progression (backwards) thru the 12 somewhat fixed constellations. That's 25920 years divided by 12 to equal 2160 years in each constellation or sign. Some people looked long and hard to write this pattern down.
Against this calc is the Roman Empire's Gregorian calendar calcs which overwrote the Egyptian calc we all know and love, several times.
Some arguments said they couldn't decide which fixed star in any fixed constellation was used to base calculations on. I'd say Sirius but who am I? Was reading a Hermetic book "The Light of Egypt", vol 2. It mentioned many in the occult realm considered 1881 as the pivotal year for crossing into the Aquarian age.
Many rock-n-roll songs say different, so what happened in 1881 to make it so outstanding? Before 1881 believers of all sorts, especially religious ones. After 1881 reason and science exploded and Thomas Edison and Tesla. Aquarius is air, reason, invention and ruled by Uranus governs the occult, electricity, aviation, science.
Is there an out of sync public knowledge and an in-sync hidden knowledge? Or are we all screwed up?
There is a biblical angle too.
It is said that Christianity is characteristic of the Piscean Age. Jesus told the disciples to find a man with a water jug to prepare for that last supper. Aquarius the symbol is a man and water jug. Using the formula 1 day is as a thousand years, Jesus was buried and rose in 3 days (tradition). The biblical account is actually 2 to 2-1/2 days. 3 days would be 3000 years counting from his death. 2 days to 2-1/2 days is 2000 to 2500 years.
If an "Age" is 1/12th of a great year (25920) or 2160 years and the age started with Jesus (assuming), that is 0ad (ad = year of domination) and it's 2014ad now, we got 146 years till kingdom come, a new world order, the Aquarian age and or god comes back. Oh wait, he did say he'd be with us till the end of the age. What he mean by that? Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care? and who is the lady with the broken diamond watch? I can't believe we fell for that one.
I am really thinking the most important thing Africans (Egyptians) did was track time, clocks, calendars, celestial rhythms. They put us in sync with the all.
Now we got computers and cranes, can't build pyramids, can't tell time! huh! or is it that some know the time and it is hidden from the rest of us?
NASA: New "impossible" engine works, could change space travel forever
Shawyer's engine is extremely light and simple. It provides a thrust by "bouncing microwaves around in a closed container." The microwaves are generated using electricity that can be provided by solar energy. No propellant is necessary, which means that this thrusters can work forever unless a hardware failure occurs. If real, this would be a major breakthrough in space propulsion technology.
Obviously, the entire thing sounded preposterous to everyone. In theory, this thing shouldn't work at all. So people laughed and laughed and ignored him. Everyone except a team of Chinese scientists. They built one in 2009 and it worked: They claimed they were able to produce 720 millinewton, which is reportedly enough to build a satellite thruster. And still, nobody else believed it.
Now, American scientist Guido Fetta and a team at NASA Eagleworks—the advanced propulsion skunkworks led by Dr Harold "Sonny" White at the Johnson Space Center—have published a new paper that demonstrates that a similar engine working on the same principles does indeed produce thrust. Their model, however, produces much less thrust—just 30 to 50 micronewtons. But it works, which is amazing on its own. They haven't explained why their engine works, but it does work:
Test results indicate that the RF resonant cavity thruster design, which is unique as an electric propulsion device, is producing a force that is not attributable to any classical electromagnetic phenomenon and therefore is potentially demonstrating an interaction with the quantum vacuum virtual plasma.
The entire idea that we have found something that seems to go against the the principle of conservation of momentum just seems crazy to me. But the fact that it has worked for two independent parties can't be denied. That's the laboratory speaking. Then again, perhaps both labs made a mistake. I'm sure this will be tested by the Russians and the Europeans too, but at least I'm glad we are working on it.
But the fact that we may be witnessing something completely new, something that may push us forward into sci-fi territory once again, is very exciting.
http://sploid.gizmodo.com/nasa-reveals-new-impossible-engine-can-change-space-t-1614549987/
Jesus Diaz
http://yul.kinja.com/absorption-apocalypse-rises-this-movie-tells-a-story-1615137086
NASA's next Mars rover will feature lasers, ground-penetrating radar and other high-tech science gear designed to help it snag samples of the most interesting Martian rocks for eventual return to Earth.
The U.S. space agency announced today (July 31) that the new car-size rover will carry seven instruments when it launches toward the Red Planet in 2020. The different parts of the science payload are designed to work together to identify rocks that have the best chance of preserving evidence of past life on Mars, if it ever existed, officials said. 1
2Space.com:
1. NASA's Next Mars Rover to Collect Martian Samples, Carry Lasers
2. How NASA's Mars 2020 Rover Will Work (Infographic)
Tomorrow: Nihilistic Narcissists
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.
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Olivia Cole writes a blog at oliviaacole.wordpress.com and published her novel, Panther in the Hive, in 2014.
