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

Why After Earth is Important

By Keith D. Young

I was born in 1976 and outside of “Blaxploitation” movies, there were no African American action or science fiction stars. My favorite movies included Tron, Superman, The Last Star Fighter, and Dune. The heroes in those movies had super powers, super intelligence, and had to dig deep to overcome extra-ordinarily difficult situations, often at great personal cost. It is worth noting here that the stars of these movies were all Caucasian males, and none of them looked like me. Hell, in most of the movies with a futuristic theme there was not even a Black person cast as an extra! As if, as Richard Pryor so eloquently put it, white people were not expecting us to be in the future.

It is no secret that many action, fantasy and science fiction movies contain ancient magical and mythological elements incorporated into the fabric of their stories; to see titans, gods, goddesses and fairies as characters in modern day cinema is a fairly commonplace occurrence – with one caveat, these characters almost never appear in movies written or directed by Blacks, or with an all Black cast.

When it comes to Black cinema we have few choices for our movie going pleasure. We have comedies, action comedies, the all important “Jesus Will Fix It” film and “Hot Ghetto Mess Drama,” (usually not the good kind), and last but not least is the “Catharsis Drama” – movies about profound suffering and abuse and how the characters where able to somehow carry on after being both victimized and traumatized. Few Black writers explore the realm of science fiction, fantasy, or create movies with a magical or mythological theme.

To add levels of depth and subtle complexity to their stories, adept writers and directors are able to use the archetypical and symbolic elements of the heroes and heroines of ancient mythological stories and folk and fairy tales. Many times these elements are used so skillfully as to be hardly recognized by the majority of the movie going public, but to the trained eye, these elements are obvious. However it does take a study of classical literature, world mythology and symbology in order to use these elements with any level of effectiveness. Study that many burgeoning African American film makers seem all too willing to ignore in their movie making process, as these elements are often sorely lacking in the plots and storylines of Black cinema.

But it seems like all that is changing with Will and Jaden Smith’s Sci-Fi epic “After Earth”. The After Earth screenplay was written by Gary Whitta and M. Night Shyamalan, with the story by Will Smith, tells the type of story that Black entertainment hasn’t seen the likes of in a very, very long time.

Critics dislike this movie because they know what Mr. Smith is trying to accomplish with this type of movie, and they don’t like it. While Smith’s traditional audience may be slow to co-sign this movie for two reasons, one is they are not used to seeing African Americans play these types of roles, (although they will pay top dollar to watch Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Keanu Reaves play these roles over and over again,) and two, they don’t really understand the themes portrayed in this movie due to the fact that as a culture, we were stripped of our initiatory practices and our stories, and as a result we are used to seeing these types of roles played by White or Asian actors and actresses. Our legends and folklore have been demonized through religion and western culture, and so it seems we shun the magical and fantastical images of ourselves as sorcerers, demigods and heroes.

Below I will outline various elements of the movie “After Earth” that make this movie worth seeing over and over again. Fathers, if you have been looking for a movie to take your sons to that will help you to begin a profound conversation about rites of passage and growing into a man, you’ll want to check this out.

!!!SPOILER ALERT!!! – We are going to be discussing the story and plotline from this movie and by doing so parts of the actual story are going to be revealed. If you don’t want to spoil the movie before you’ve seen it, STOP NOW, and then come back after you’ve seen it to participate in this analysis.

Initiation

Let’s begin by taking a look at the theme of initiation that runs throughout “After Earth”.

Initiation was important in indigenous tribes because it was a system by which the young boys and girls of a given culture or tribe were guided through in order to educate, prepare and move them through the phase of childhood into adulthood and all the attendant rites and responsibilities which adulthood entailed.

Training

Initiation always begins with education and training, and in the movie we begin with the main character training with his military academy class. Readers will take note that cadets in the military go through a process of initiation designed to strip them of their life as a civilian to remold them as a soldier, and make no mistake, this system of initiation was taken from the ancient indigenous cultures of Africa and passed down through other cultures and societies throughout the world.

Training involves physical and mental exercise and tests designed to give initiates/cadets control over their bodies, their emotions and their minds.
It is at this point in the movie that we find that young Kitai, while exhibiting impressive physical abilities is lacking in emotional and mental control, issues which he will be forced to deal with later on in the movie.

Below is an outline of initiatory steps as experienced by the ancients and portrayed in “After Earth”

• Trek Through Nature in Solitude With a Mission to Complete
• Initiate Versus Nature, Beasts, and Self (FEAR)
• Initiate must face and overcome several trials in order to reach their goal (manhood)
• Endurance (Breathing linked to inhalers)
• Initiate must protect and ration limited amount of supplies, ie; food, water, medical
• Handling confrontation with potential danger.

It is worth noting here that Kitai failed his first encounter with danger (the monkeys)spectacularly! His Father told him to take control of his Power and watch what he creates. Kitai could not control his fear and anxiety and thus created a scenario where his life was in danger and forcing him to flee from the confrontation he created out of fear. In initiation, this is to be expected. The initiate must fail in order to understand what can result from recklessness and unchecked fear.

This same scenario played itself out in the movie Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, when Luke was sent into the "Cave of Darkness" by Yoda. Luke took FEAR into the cave with him and was confronted by it in the form of his Father, Darth Vader – though this Vader was purely a creation of Luke’s fearful thoughts.

• Facing medical emergency – poisoning by river leach and self administration of anti-venom.
• Surviving the elements – finding thermal heat vents and shelter to keep warm during cold spells.
• Defying Authority or “The System” in order to do what is right.
• Leap of Faith – Jumping off a cliff in the hopes that his brash act will carry him to his goal.
• Surviving a predator – The Raptor or Hawk representing Heru*
• Assisting Mother Nature to defend her children – fighting for the lives of the baby hawks against the attacks of the feline predators.
• Divine Aid – Initiate is pushed to his physical limits and thus transcends and is able to make contact with the spirit world where he is able to make peace with his dead sister and is given the aid and the protection of his spirit totem, the hawk.
• Initiate reaches physical goal but must still go higher in order to reconnect spiritually with his Father – Kitai finds the beacon however it does not send the signal. Out of anger and frustration he hears the spiritual voice of his Father telling him to take a knee, (lower his physical nature so that he may listen to his higher “spirit” nature) - his father then tells him that he must go higher, to the top of a nearby mountain so that he can send their beacon signal (plea for assistance) into the heavens.
• Initiate must face and overcome his fear here symbolized by the “Ursa” monster. Note here that "Ursa" is another name for a Bear which in some native tribes had to be faced and overcome by the young teens of the tribe in order for them to become men.
• Initiate has to enter the Cave of Darkness/Fear. It is here that the monster reveals itself to the initiate and must be fought to the death.
• Initiate is hurled into the abyss and must experience death. This death is not a physical one usually, but represents the death of the childish nature of the boy and the birth of the man. Fear, doubt and disbelief dies here , and the man, the warrior is able to be born. Initiate is put in mortal danger in order to force a change of mind and heart.
• Upon reaching the mountaintop, the initiate is able to completely conquer himself and as a result his own fear and is thus able to destroy the monster and send a beacon into the heavens to receive a rescue and a return to his heavenly home.
• By completing his task, the initiate is able to return home and redeem (save) his Father who was symbolically dead and in the underworld or in a deep soul sleep from which only the sons sacrifice could save him. **

Archetypes

The makers of “After Earth” also make use of archetypes to help them tell their story. According to the Concise Encyclopedia an “archetype” is “Primordial image, character, or pattern of circumstances that recurs throughout literature and thought consistently enough to be considered universal. Literary critics adopted the term from Carl Gustav Jung's theory of the collective unconscious. Because archetypes originate in pre-logical thought, they are held to evoke startlingly similar feelings in reader and author. Examples of archetypal symbols include the snake, whale, eagle, and vulture. An archetypal theme is the passage from innocence to experience; archetypal characters include the blood brother, rebel, wise grandparent, and prostitute with a heart of gold.”

Some of the archetypes that “After Earth” makes use of include, the “Father,” wise and valiant, yet fundamentally separated from his son, due to some perceived weakness or character flaw within the Son. The Son has let his Father down in a profound way, which has caused emotional and physical detachment.

The archetype of the "Son/Sun" in movies has the son following in his Father’s footsteps, while at the same time trying to make his own mark. He loves his Father but is resentful of him because he knows that he has fallen short of his Father’s expectations and/or achievements and he yearns to be like his Father and even to surpass him, in order to gain his love and respect. It is the Son’s job ultimately to redeem or save his Father, which makes him a suitable replacement for his Father, and which earns him the right to become a Father in his own right.

The steps that the Father and Son archetype takes in the movie “After Earth” are listed below.

• Son in search of Father
• Son fails to achieve an expected goal, and is judged by Father to be a failure. In After Earth this is unspoken, though in some stories the Father tells the Son outright that he is a failure.
• Father and Son embark on journey to attempt to mend the rift between them. (This is a mask for the beginning of the initiatory journey.)
• Father and Son encounter disaster, which only the two of them survive, leaving the Father severely wounded and having to rely on the Son for salvation.
• Father demands absolute obedience and adherence to his rules and commands as he does not fully trust the mental and physical abilities of the Son.
• Son is sent out to face the elements and enemies alone, but with the “spiritual guidance” of the Father. In After Earth, the spiritual guidance of the Father is represented by the com-link that keeps them in voice communication, and the “All Seeing Eyes” or cameras that the Father deploys in order to observe his Son’s progress and to watch out for danger.
• Son VS Father – The Son begins to question his Father’s authority when his Father exhibits a lack of faith that the Son can accomplish his goals. This is perhaps the MOST important part of the movie when Kitai chooses to outright disobey the direct order of his Father. The lesson is this: when authority is wrong or becomes oppressive, it must be disobeyed by the hero in order for justice to be done.
• Son Disobeys Father and is Cutoff, Cast Out or Cast Down. Being cut off from communication with the Father is symbolic of being cast down from heaven, which was shown literally as Kitai took a leap off the top of a waterfall in disobedience to his Father’s order that he return home. This event caused his communication link to his Father to be broken, leaving the Son alone and without guidance at a critical stage of the mission/initiation.
• Son Forced to Face Enemy (FEAR) Alone – In the movie fear is represented by the Ursa, which is a monster that tracks its enemies through pheromones released when its prey is afraid. This creature can literally smell your fear. It is only when the Son has mastered himself that he can overcome the fear inside him, which the Ursa beast in the movie symbolizes.
• Son Redeems (SAVES) Father, Returns Home a Man, Understands and Becomes Father.

The Heru Mythos

Every hero story you have ever read or saw played out on the silver screen is based on the mythos of Heru. Heru was an ancient African deity or Neter (force or aspect of nature) and the template for all good kings. You can read about his exploits in “The Passion of Osiris (Ausar)” and “A Tale of Two Brothers”. These tales come down to us from the land of ancient Kemet, now called Egypt.

In the myth Heru’s Father Ausar (Osiris) is betrayed and murdered by his jealous brother Set. Ausar is resurrected as the spiritual ruler of the underworld or afterlife. As a ruler, he is perpetually made to sit on a throne and cast his judgment on those who have recently passed on. [This is shown symbolically as Kitai’s Father Cipher was stuck in the chair inside the ship and using the ships camera’s (spiritual eyes) and the comm. Link (spiritual communication) to watch over and provide guidance to Kitai]
This throne motif is important as it was foreshadowed in After Earth by the soldier in the wheelchair, who approached the General and his Son. Upon approaching the General, the soldier declared that the General had saved his life and asked to be “stood up,” or in Biblical terms, “made upright”, by his companions so that he could make a proper salute to his hero (savior). This theme would play itself out again as the General would make the request “stand me up”, so that he could salute his son. This symbol represents the son redeeming or saving his Father.

Getting back to the mythos of Heru… after his father Ausar (Osiris) is murdered and his brother takes over the kingdom of Kemet, it becomes the mission of Heru and is Mother Auset (Isis) to get Heru on the throne as the rightful ruler of the land. Heru has to go through years of training under the auspices of his Mother Auset, His Aunt Nebhet (Nephtys) and the diminutive Bes who is the Neter of child birth, happiness and war. It is Bes who trains Heru to be a warrior. In the movie Star Wars Yoda played the part of the trainer (Bes) to Luke Skywalker (Heru).

The symbol of Heru was the Hawk. He was often depicted with wings and having the head or mask of a hawk. In the movie After Earth we see the relationship of the Hero to the Hawk in the “Leap of Faith” sequence where the hawk chases Kitai down and then carries him off to her nest to be food for her baby chicks. Kitai awakes while being nibbled on by the newborn chicks, but finds that the hawk nest is under attack by feline predators intent on eating the chicks. Kitai helps the hawk to defend the nest but fails to keep the predators from killing all of the baby birds.
The hawk mourns the loss of her baby chicks with a screech of rage and begins to follow Kitai in the air, which seems menacing in the beginning, but we find out later that the Hawk has bonded with Kitai and she later drags him to safety and protects him from the cold by using her own body heat to keep him from freezing. This is an obvious symbol of Kitai’s mythic relationship to Heru the Neter** of the Sun and the Sky… the original sky – walker.
After many contentious battles and adventures, Heru, with the help of his Mother would go on to gain rulership of the land of Kemet (Egypt) and thereby redeem his Father Ausar (Osirus).

It is important that you know that the story of Ausar (Osiris) and Heru (Horus) has been told and retold across the world and can be found in many variations, the names and characters and even some of the circumstances may change, but the root of the story remains the same. It is the duty of the Son to succeed his Father as ruler of the land or EARTH, but only AFTER he has proven himself worthy to do so. So you can see that the movie After Earth has a lot more depth to it than meets the casual eye.

There are many other examples of the mythological and archetypal symbolism that are incorporated into the movie After Earth that I was not able to touch on like the Mother as the “Queen of Heaven,” or the Sister as the “Spiritual Guardian” of her Brother. This movie is chock full of all the elements that make a great story and I for one feel that the story of After Earth was masterfully told. I’m looking forward to more of this type of movie from not only Will Smith and crew, but from other Black film-makers as well.

*Also known as Horus, Heru wan an ancient Kemetic (Egyptian) Neter (Deity) of the Sun and Sky, his symbol was the hawk. Heru was often depicted with the head of a hawk and the body of a man.

**Kitai’s Father Cipher being trapped in the innards of a spaceship evokes the symbolism of Jonah in the belly of the fish as well as the Ausarian (Osiris) mythos of Ausar sitting on a throne and providing spiritual guidance to Heru from the spirit world.

*** Neter means aspect of nature or divine nature. Neter has been translated as God and Goddess.

All rights reserved. Copyright 2013 Keith D. Young | www.AfroPerspectives.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I think this TED presentation has the kernel of a great story:

Theo Jansen: An Artist Creates A New Lifeform

"In my talk, I mentioned that the Strandbeest would develop a digital brain. But it turns out that working with an analogue brain is much simpler and weighs far less. The "brain" of the animal, which is actually a digital step counter, works -- but is a lot of work to make, and it uses up extra walking units simply to carry the brain itself."

Finally Launched my 400 page Graphic novel and you get it here on Drivethrucomics!!!

Happy FriYay, MOSS fans!

READER REVIEWS FOR AMAZON WANTED: If you've finished reading part I of Murder on Second Street, please do me a favor and head on over to http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D9X5T6A and leave a review. Help this Sy Sanford series reach the masses, and get ready for part II (release date is July 1).

Happy Father's Day weekend!!!

Graphene SEP

Physics World: Redefining the ampere with the help of graphene?

R&D: On board Mars Express, in orbit around the Red Planet

"It's 1929 and a local Negro neighborhood called Jackson Ward in Richmond, Virginia is booming. In fact, it's called "The Black Wall Street of America" by economists of the day. Things are booming financially and socially for the Negro community, but then a series of what appears to be random murders of poor working class Negro women begins to happen and everyone is on edge, especially the Negro business owners. The Ward is a very tight community – strangers cannot move freely about in this segregated town. They hire haunted World War I veteran and alcoholic Sy Sanford to catch the cold-blooded murderer, but murder is not the only thing threatening to destroy "The Black Wall Street of America." The real Wall Street is about to come tumbling down and plunge Jackson Ward and its infamous 2nd Street into a debilitative financial and social state it may never recover from."

Murder, race, sex and money run wild in this soon to be American classic featuring an African American WWI veteran, Sy Sanford. Available for $1.99, get your copy of part I today, and then join the fan page for Murder on Second Street on Facebook to get updates, book signing information and to share your comments with other fans. Part II will be released July 1.

So click on the LuLu link below and order part I of this six part novel, Murder on Second Street, at http://www.lulu.com/shop/rebekah-l-pierce/murder-on-second-street-the-jackson-ward-murders-part-1/ebook/product-21048846.html?mid=social_facebook_pubsharefb.

I could see a precursor to a laser pistol, but I don't think any aspiring Jedi should duel with a pair of them any time soon!

LARES

Physics arXiv:
LARES Successfully Launched Into Orbit: Satellite and Mission Description
Read more: The Extraordinary "Disco Ball" Now Orbiting Earth
From MIT Technology Review
Follow us: @techreview on Twitter | technologyreview on Facebook

http://allknightz.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/all-knightz-embark-on-kickstarter-crowd-funding-campaign/?preview=true&preview_id=52&preview_nonce=b7e6369fb4

Hey guys, check out the all knightz blog page, we are working on a kickstarter campaign that we shall be dropping in October but we have started the pre production for this project early.  Its going to be an animated 25 to 30 minute animated short.  

The tattooed hijacker Dern dubbed Five Star paused in the middle of pacing and touched an area next to his right ear to activate a sub-dermal communicator. He nodded and turned in a slow circle. “Good news, people. We’re a few minutes out from our destination. This will all be over soon and you can get back to whatever mundane lives you were leading before you met us.”

            Ura flashed a relieved look at Dern.

            Theresa clenched Cyril’s hand tightly. “Now we have to worry about how we’ll get to Ceres 3.”

            “Cyril nuzzled closer to his wife. “Don’t worry your pretty little head about that. We’ll find a way.”

            Dern said nothing. He watched the hijackers, unable to shake the nagging voice in the back of his head telling him that the resolution to this crisis was all too easy, all too reassuring.

            Annually, thousands of deep space sleeper ships cruised to the farthest parts of known space and quite often beyond. Such journeys had become routine and safe enough for the most risk averse traveler to undertake with minimal concern. But they were not entirely void of hazards. A ship’s shielding could degrade, exposing passengers and crew to lethal radiation. A defective stasis system could fail in its IV delivery of nutrients to sleeping passengers, subsequently starving them to death. Engines might shut down, stranding ships or a faulty astrogation computer could veer a ship off course by years, perhaps centuries.

            Thankfully, those problems were rare to nonexistent in an age when the major wrinkles initially hobbling deep space travel were ironed out.

            And then there were occasional stories of sleeper ships disappearing enroute to their destinations never to be seen again.

Dern had heard of such occurrences over the years, but like most citizens paid little to no heed to them. Now, he had to wonder if those vanished ships had fallen into the hands of bandits and if so, what of the occupants? What was their fate? What would be the fate of he and his fellow passengers?

            Dern’s fears bounded to full fruition when Five Star and his comrades suddenly leveled their weapons on the sitting passengers and opened up. Diamond-tipped, carbon-jacketed flechettes ripped from nearly a dozen assault rifles and pistols, buzz sawing across rows of flesh. Dozens of men and women crumpled beneath jack hammering rounds. A few passengers tried to scramble away only to be riddled to shreds, their bodies twisting in mid flight and crashing to the deck in contorted positions.         

            Blood and gore splashed across polished white surfaces, mingling with flachette- gouged pack marks.

            Dern had enjoyed a relationship with violence that was disturbingly deep and abiding. But that was long ago, relegated to another life. To be so unexpectedly reunited with a specter from his past was so jarring, he could only sit, frozen in place watching death unfold around him as if he were outside his body.

A hijacker ten feet away pointed his RI4 at Dern and smiled. Dern peered into the weapon’s muzzle and saw his imminent demise, yet he still could not move.

            Ura jumped up screaming.

            The muzzle flashed.

            A spatter of flachttes punched through her body, exploding against the bulkhead. One flachette caught Dern in the collar bone. Another one grazed his head after passing through Ura’s lower back. She collapsed on top of Dern as he lapsed into anguished darkness.

            The ship entered the planet’s atmosphere, descending toward a settlement called Routh. Neither the Coalition nor the other five polities comprising the human Diaspora was aware of this settlement’s very unsanctioned existence. That was sure to change in time. The Coalition dispatched regular patrols to search for and dissolve rogue settlements on the planets it laid claim to. Most unsanctioned settlers accepted dissolution. If they were upstanding, law-abiding types, Coalition patrols, acting on the discretion of commanding officers, opted not to deport them.

Criminal settlements were another matter entirely. Routh’s unsavory inhabitants knew they lived on borrowed time. Until a patrol did discover them, they intended to squeeze as much profit from their varied criminal enterprises as possible. After that, it was on to another uncharted world… provided they escaped arrest and imprisonment.

            Tunnal slouched in the captain’s chair, his fingers drumming a delightful rhythm on the armrest. A place like Routh needed all the ships it could get, since it lacked the industry and skilled labor to build them from scratch. The latest model sleeper ship, with cutting edge propulsion, state-of-the-art spatialonics and high yield multi-range weaponry to fend off pirates (Tunnal smirked) was guaranteed to net him and his associates their biggest payday.

            His subdermal com buzzed. Tunnal sat up straight and pressed next to his ear to receive. “Go ahead.”

            An enthused voice responded. “The passengers have been liquidated, Boss.”

            Tunnal gazed surreptitiously around the bridge. Crew members sat at their stations, stupidly oblivious to the slaughter he green lighted below. Their turn would soon come…but not before they landed the ship. He lowered his voice to a near whisper. “Good job. Check the bodies. Confirm that they’re all dead.”

            “Will do, Boss. We’ll make damn sure there are no witnesses.”

I'm failry new to this particular site and have found it to be interesting so far. In due process, I am currently working on homework assignment and since my favorite topics involves Sci-fi/ fantasy/Comic art, I have decided to post a series of questions for my homework assignment here.They are as follows:In the past, or during your childhood, was there a particular work, theme or image in the category of science fiction/fantasy artwork or films that you favored but was considered “wrong or “demonic” by either : your relatives, friends religious groups? Why was that particular piece of art your favorite? Why would the others that you knew view it as “bad” or “demonic”? If misunderstood as being “bad” what was your explanation or evidence to clarify the image to being harmless or just a misunderstanding? If you came to the conclusion that the image was bad as a final result what is your reason? How is it looked upon today?How do you compare some of the sci-fi works that are created today in comparison with what you have experienced in the past? What do you think would cause society to look at that particular type of art/film differently and/ or change their way of looking at it? Is the controversy still evident today as it is in the past? And what reasons do those individuals (or yourself) have to back up those reasons?Just to give a brief example, during my childhood, I grew up in the south (Central Florida) and I had a fascination for drawing dragons anthros and mythical creatures. I was condemned and judged by church members and a few folks in my family because their hypothesis is based on just a few scriptures in the Bible, giving them circular reasoning as to why all dragons are evil. Not only that, I was always pestered with questions such as, "why can't I draw landscape sceneries, or people?" Grant it, I can draw people and just about anything I lay my eyes across, I just find it boring to draw. Since at that particular time I was at a very young age, I had difficulty explaining my intended purpose for drawing mythical creatures and that my art had no evil intentions behind them. Besides,the dragons I created doesn't look like anything that the scriptures describes.

I don't normally rant about consumer electronics.  I don't like cell phones.  Computers are slow, and there's nothing genuinely new under the sun.  However, I'm a gamer, and I've just been insulted.  About a week ago, Microsoft told the world about its upcoming game console, the XBox ONE.  They spoke extensively about all the new features, which were cool, but weren't enough to allay disdain at the "not-so-cool" features, features like it won't play used games. 

For non-gamers, I'll let you know the secret to gaming in poor communities.  It's called GameStop.  It's a retail store dedicated to video games.  It also functions as a pseudo-pawn shop.  When you're tired of playing a video game, you can bring it to them and you'll get store credit towards another video game.  The game you turn in is then sold again as a used game for a slightly lower price.  So if you wonder why Pookie doesn't have a job, but he's knee-deep in video games, this is why. 

What Microsoft is trying to do is stop this practice because, quite frankly, they hate GameStop.  Oh, and poor people.  They obviously hate poor people too.  But this isn't the insult for me, the poor, Black gamer.  No, it isn't.  Even though the XBox ONE has a camera that's ALWAYS on and watching you, in a time where every American can rightly assume that Big Brother is watching them through their Twitter and Facebook accounts; this is not Microsoft's insult to me. 

I can tell you how Microsoft tried to impress me with a Blu-Ray drive in their new machine, even though no one cares about Blu-Ray.  If someone had the excess cash to care about extra sharp pictures on their DVDs, they would wisely buy a Blu-Ray player or an HD TV for this effect.  They would not buy a new game system.  The PS2 and PS3 game systems tried similar tactics, but the DVD drives in those systems were more of a bane than a boon. 

I'll even push aside the fact that the new XBox ONE will not play old XBox 360 games, even though those games were published by the same company for a system that uses the exact same programming language.  Thus if you buy an XBox ONE, you'll have to wait a couple months before you can play more than just one game.  To put this in perspective, a gamer with no spouse or children can finish one video game in 2 days.  I'm married with a kid, so it takes me longer, i.e.,  a week.  It will be MONTHS before you can play more than ONE game on the XBox ONE. 

None of these things alone can compare to the insult Microsoft has tossed in my direction.  What is the insult, you say?  At their press conference, they refused to mention the price of the system.  They said that the price for the XBox ONE would be released at a later date.  Excuse me, Microsoft?  Do you think I'm stupid?  I've been playing video games since 1982.  It's 2013 right now.  That's right.  I've been into games for 31 YEARS, and I'm a young gamer.  You think I, and gamers like myself, don't pay attention to market trends in the video game industry?  Your system is going to cost $600.  You know it.  I know it.  Stop playing games with grown men. 

The average gamer is 35 and is married with kids.  The PS3 was a paperweight with a Blu-Ray drive and wouldn't play old PS2 games.  It cost $600 at launch.  Why is Microsoft pretending that they're not about to make the same mistake?  They're not going under $600 because they want to offset development costs.  They're not going over $600 because they're not completely insane.  Only ignorant children, who have not seen the rise and fall of Sega or the political firestorm set by Mortal Kombat, would sit idly by wondering how much Microsoft's new system is going to cost.  So before they launch their system, (which should be in August or September) let me tell you what's going to happen if they don't want their stock price to fall

1.  They're going to make the system play used games.

2.  It WILL be backwards-compatible (play games from their older systems).

3.  The camera on the system will turn off when I turn off the system. 

These things will happen or the XBox ONE will join the ranks of TurboGraphX 16, Atari Jaguar, 3DO, Sega CD, and the Sega Saturn.  If Microsoft doesn't remember these systems, that's fine.  I've been playing games longer than they've been making them.  I know a paperweight when I see one. 

Buy my new book "Squirrels & Puppies"!! 

Yeah, right

1. USA Today: Second Earth Will Soon Be Needed
2. Bloomberg: Another Earth Needed to Meet Humans' Demand for Resources

...realizing, upon original transmission, it should have been "Earl Grey," I just went for it. Too many links to correct now.

Space.com: NASA Funds 3D Pizza Printer Denise Chow, SPACE.com Staff Writer