SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Amazon is once again shaking up traditional publishing models. This time, it's giving fans a chance to add their own personal touches to their favorite fiction - and get paid in the process.
This week, Amazon.com Inc announced "Kindle Worlds," which offers aspiring writers an opportunity to pen their own takes on franchises in books, TV, movies, even games and comics. The world's largest Internet retailer plans to license content, then accept submissions online that may then be sold through its Kindle ebook store.
Things will kick off with Amazon licensing three teen TV series - "Gossip Girl", "Pretty Little Liars" and "The Vampire Diaries" - from Warner Bros Television Group's Alloy Entertainment, Amazon said on its website. More content deals will be announced in coming weeks.
Amazon has in the past decade emerged as the most disruptive force in publishing. It popularized digital books with its Kindle store and e-reader, contributing to the demise of traditional bookstores such as Borders.
In its effort to legitimize fan fiction, the company is establishing a model under which it acts as publisher and pays fan-writers between 20 and 35 percent of sales, depending on length.
"There's probably not an author/fangirl alive who hasn't fantasized about being able to write about her favorite show," budding novelist Trish Milburn enthused on Amazon's website. "The fact that you can earn royalties doing so makes it even better."
(Reporting by Edwin Chan; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)
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Dern Lowtower is a passenger on board a sleeper ship, headed to a planet where he'll begin a new job and a new life. A group of ruthless hijackers have different plans, forcing Dern to fight for his life on a journey that takes a bloody turn for the worse!
Interrupted Journey: Part One
Bio displays inside the stasis tube registered an increase in the subject’s heart rate, breathing and neural activity. Dern Lowtower opened his eyes. Fluorescent patches covering his arms and legs vibrated, transmitting soothing muscle regenerative electrical stimulation. Nutrition IVs embedded in his right arm retracted, and the tube’s plas-glass cover slid open.
Dern breathed in deeply, exercising lungs that had not been exerted in quite some time. He sat up, his body bare save for a pair of black shorts. There were six other tubes around him. Covers opened and their occupants rose. Murmurs of greeting resonated throughout the stasis chamber.
An elderly man named Cyril hopped out of his tube.
Dern recalled the retired engineer’s energy and vitality before the voyage. It didn’t surprise him that the man was first in the chamber to set foot on the ship’s rubbery deck.
Their eyes met and Cyril grinned vibrantly. “Did you sleep well young fella?”
Dern climbed out of his tube much less nimbly than the older man. He wasn’t entirely sure that his electrically stimulated legs would hold him up after so much inactivity. He stepped lightly, cautiously to test his limbs sturdiness. “I suppose.”
“It’s your first time in extended stasis. As you can see it’s no different than if you were under for six months,” said Cyril.
“Which, by the way was close to my longest voyage,” Dern replied, heading to the locker room. “I guess five and a years isn’t so bad after all.”
“Except it hasn’t been five and a half years,” a woman named Ura said. She was three tubes to the right of Dern. He didn’t know her history. She had been quiet to the point of withdrawn at the beginning of the journey. Now, her round face radiated concern. “Check your tube chronos, see if the date accords with the reading on mine.”
Dern peeked inside his tube at the chrono display next to the bio-monitor. June 5, 2565. Four years three months. He frowned. “Strange. Our tubes revived us ahead of schedule. There must be a malfunction.”
“Could be faulty programming,” Cyril speculated, or a glitch in the hardware operating the tubes. “I think I’ll take a look.”
His wife, Theresa, gently grabbed his arm and tugged playfully. “The captain has a full staff of capable engineers to handle such matters, honey.”
Cyril looked crestfallen until his wife planted a peck on his cheek. “Let the professionals who aren’t retired deal with this.”
Dern darted into the locker room and hurriedly donned coveralls and soft soled boots. When he stepped out, he headed for the chamber exit. “I’m going to see the captain.”
The section housing the stasis chambers was beginning to fill with newly awakened passengers. The realization that they had been revived prematurely shown vividly on their faces. A few looked to Dern for an explanation, but he was as much in the dark as anyone. On his way to the elevator he met Alita, a ship technician assigned to astrogation. He and the tech went way back, from his days serving on board a system patrol boat.
“Good morning…I guess,” Alita greeted with a gruff air.
Dern understood the sentiment. “We’ve certainly been thrown off. Any idea what caused it?”
“Not a clue. I’m hoping the captain will have answers. I’m anxious to get back to my ‘nap’.”
The two stepped into a lift leading to bridge level and rode in silence. When the door opened rough hands reached into the lift, grabbed Alita and Dern and hustled them onto the bridge.
Dern took quick measure of the situation. Six gunmen, four wielding RI 4 assault rifles, two with semi-automatic Viper pistols, all donning carbon lamellar flak vests and boot-sheathed combat knives. Nine bridge crewmembers, including the captain lay sprawled on the deck, their hands clasped behind their heads.
Dern raised his hands.
“What the hell!” Alita was not so level headed. A spurt of resistance earned her a rifle butt to the base of the skull.
The gunman who issued the blow watched his victim crumple to the deck, then pointed his rifle at her head and snarled. “Bitch.”
Dern stood poised to disarm the criminal before he could get a shot off.
“Stand down, Josik. I don’t think she’ll be a problem from this point on.”
A gunman Dern presumed to be the leader of this gang stepped forward. His blond close-cropped hair was as sharply cut as the angled contour of his jawline. Ice blue eyes cut deeply into Dern, assessing, dissecting. “You won’t be a problem either, will you?”
Dern put on his most passive face. “No. Not at all.”
The leader’s gaze lingered on Dern like a toxic fog for a few more seconds. Finally, he turned away, gesturing. “Get them on their feet.”
The criminals grabbed crewmembers, hoisting them upright.
The leader approached the captain. “Turn on the monitors. I want everyone here to see video feeds of the stasis level.”
Dern glimpsed the bruises on the captain’s face.
Evidently, these criminals were as impatient with the captain as they were with Alita.
The captain flicked a look at an officer and nodded.
The officer moved nervously to a console and tapped a control.
Display screens above the console flashed to life, showing harrowing images of armed thugs terrorizing passengers.
Dern’s jaw clenched.
“My name is Tunnal,” the leader announced. “As you can see, my associates and I have taken control of this ship. You were scheduled to arrive at Ceres 3 in little over a year’s time. There’s been a change of destination.”
“Impossible,” the captain snapped. “The coordinates to Ceres 3 were programmed into the guidance computer at the beginning of this journey and locked in. No one can alter the destination once a ship of this class is in motion.”
Tunnal shot a hard, but mirthful gaze at the captain. “And yet here we are. Check for yourself.”
The captain brushed past a criminal and pulled up a star chart on the locator screen. His face went slack. He stepped back, looking at the leader with wary eyes. “What do you want?”
“Your cooperation first of all. After that we’ll settle for your ship.” Tunnal pointed to a star shaped icon on the chart. “This is where we’re going. System 382.”
The captain’s brow knitted, befuddled. “There’s nothing there.”
“That’s the problem with you ship captains,” Tunnel said in a tone dripping contempt. “Nothing exists unless you say it does.”
Alita stirred and Dern, disregarding the guns on him, knelt down to her. “You alright?”
Alita squinted in pain, rubbing the soreness on the back of her head. “Dern…?”
“Shhh…don’t try to talk…”
“That’s right,” Tunnal interjected coldly. “Don’t try to talk. Whatever your duty is on this ship, get to it. That goes for the rest of you. We’re going to the 4th planet in that system. Do what you’re trained to do to get us there as quickly as possible.” He focused on Dern. “You’re not dressed like a crew member.”
Dern forced an amicable grin. “Oh…I just came here to see what was going on. I’m a passenger.”
“Well, now you know.” Tunnal beckoned a large brute of a gunman forward. “Welch, escort our curious passenger back to the stasis level.”
The brute nodded a granite head. “No problem, boss.”
“What are you going to do with us?” The captain asked.
“Nothing as long you’re well behaved. We’re going to make a stop on the planet, drop you off and borrow your ship. Don’t worry. You won’t be stranded. We’ll leave you with a long range transmitter so you can contact a rescue patrol.”
The large gunman prodded Dern with the muzzle of his rifle. Dern walked toward the lift, suppressing an aching urge to glare at Tunnel. Stay calm, don’t piss the bastard off and we may all get through this alive. He wasn’t entirely convinced of that.
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| LIGO Hanford Observatory |
Over the past several months, Congress has gotten rather upset by some of the research funded by arms of the federal government, such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. That displeasure eventually prompted the House Science Committee's chair, Lamar Smith (R-TX), to float a bill that would require the head of the NSF to certify that every single grant its organization funded was either in the national interest or groundbreaking.
As we pointed out, the mission of the NSF is to fund research in fundamental questions in science (typically called "basic" research). As such, the research isn't intended to have immediate commercial or military applications; those would come decades down the line, if ever. And it's generally considered impossible to predict which areas of research will eventually be viewed as groundbreaking at some point in the future.
Now, scientists who have served in the NSF are saying the same things. In a letter to Smith obtained by Science magazine, they point out that the draft bill "frankly requires the Director [of the NSF] to accurately predict the future." And they point to a technology that's currently having a huge commercial impact—the laser—that grew out of basic research using microwaves. In fact, in their view, "many basic research projects in every field supported by the NSF would likely not qualify for certification under this bill."
"You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make them drink. You can send your rep to congress, but you cannot make them think!" (Old chemistry professor's sign outside his office: his wording was "child" for rep; "college" for congress - same concept.)
Arguably, this is "market as deity," i.e. using market-driven motivations in research, education, government and all other aspects of life, liberty; the pursuit of happiness. Question: what market forces still have our military larger than anyone else's: 41% of the world total? Some estimates put the total number of countries between 189 - 196. Let's round down to 192: we have more military might than 53 nations combined. Even with the best intelligence in the world, 9-11-01 and now 9-11-12 was a complete surprise to two administrations, except to conspiracy theorists that manage on the most part to not have formal degrees or command of critical thinking skills, but dangerous influence on our elected officials that parrot their nonsense. Science makes decisions in probabilities, so even a 90% assurance will not be "sure enough" and stymied bill passage; filibuster is more likely. Terrorism is a method, needing counterterrorism, i.e. Special Forces, not forces for the Battle of the Bulge. What's "market driven" about that?
My own "conspiracy theory": this is designed to put us effectively and efficiently in last place on the globe in science. Else, this is flat-out, Chiroptera-excrement crazy (and will result in the same fate)!
"There are also Idols formed by the intercourse and association of men with each other, which I call Idols of the Market Place, on account of the commerce and consort of men there. For it is by discourse that men associate, and words are imposed according to the apprehension of the vulgar. And therefore the ill and unfit choice of words wonderfully obstructs the understanding. Nor do the definitions or explanations wherewith in some things learned men are wont to guard and defend themselves, by any means set the matter right. But words plainly force and overrule the understanding, and throw all into confusion, and lead men away into numberless empty controversies and idle fancies." Sir Francis Bacon, Aphorism 43.
Ars Technica:
Proposed bill that would regulate NSF research funding faces backlash
Scientists not amused, bill's backers appear confused.
by John Timmer
LEMONT, Ill. – Sometimes, all it takes is an extremely small amount of material to make a big difference.
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have recently discovered that they could substitute one-atom-thick graphene layers for either solid- or oil-based lubricants on sliding steel surfaces, enabling a dramatic reduction in the amount of wear and friction.
Graphite is a commonly used solid lubricant. However, it works best in moist air and does not protect the surface from tribo-corrosion. New studies led by Argonne materials scientists Anirudha Sumant and Ali Erdemir show that single sheets of graphite, called graphene, work equally well in humid and dry environments. Furthermore, the graphene is able to drastically reduce the wear rate and the coefficient of friction (COF) of steel. The marked reductions in friction and wear are attributed to the low shear and highly protective nature of graphene, which also prevents oxidation (tribo-corrosion) of the steel surfaces when present at sliding contact interfaces.
Argonne National Laboratory:
Graphene layers dramatically reduce wear and friction on sliding steel surfaces
I am working my way through the Mass Effect Trilogy. I know, a bit late to the party. While the story so far is great (i am in the middle of ME2) I am aware that there is some disappointment coming in the form of multiple shady endings in ME3. From what I hear, this has been compounded by Bioware's attempt to correct the problem by asking people to buy a better ending.
Outrage at customer gouging aside, this is all besides the point. Right now, my Shepard, who happens to be black-ish, is having a great time working for the Illusive Man and whipping the Normandy-2 around with Miranda and Jacob. What struck me was that this was the first time I had ever experienced a Space-Opera with Non-white males as the leads. Sure, some Sci-fi (Avery Brooks and DS9 is the gold standard) feature non-white leads. However, that is baritone exception to the rule. Space Opera, as a genera, is consistently homogeneous is its heroes.
However, in ME I am able to change the dynamic. Between myself, Miranda and Jacob; the majority of the speaking roles in ME2 main are taken by non-traditional voices. This would be even more the case if I had decided to play as female Shepard. (Lesbian space commander FTW!). What really struck me was that this situation is not explicitly called for by the game designers. Alternatively, the selection of ethnic identity and gender is not forbidden or frowned upon. There is no downside for a dark-skinned Shepard, Reapers are equal opportunity villains.
This all begs a question. If interactive story telling is the wave of the future, does it matter who is telling the story and what their point of view is? Is it even important to worry about the background of major and minor characters. For instance, there was a dust up with certain fans of the Hunger Games reacting negatively to the character of Rue. While I thought it was clear that she was a person of color (even a bit heavy-handed ) a great number of readers were shocked (and sadly) disappointed when they went to the movie and saw Amandla Stenberg. If the future, authors might try to obscure the ethnicity of their characters so as to avoid the problem altogether. This works even better if your hope is to have a movie made. Let the director decide what the characters look like.
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people got mad I was accurately depicted as I was described in the book |
Alternatively, interactive media reduces, if someone wanted to, these unpleasant circumstances. The writer merely tells a universal story; the hero's journey; the fight against the evil empire; the war against the un-dead, and then lets the recipient pick the look of the character.
This creates a frame work for the user/reader to import their own ideas of the character.
final thoughts at Moorsgate Media
Moorsgate media
Scientists have discovered how to measure greenhouse gases 200,000 times faster as the result research by an award-winning PhD student from The University of Western Australia and a US team.
The discovery - which is already being used by NASA scientists in Space - has major implications for global warming research, breath analysis (to detect illness), explosives detection, chemical process monitoring and a range of other applications, including fundamental quantum theory.
UWA physics graduate Gar-Wing Truong used highly-sensitive rapid laser scanning technology to help lead US scientists from National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Maryland to build new gas measurement equipment with unparalleled speed, accuracy, precision and spectral coverage.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California has begun using data from Mr Truong's research to calibrate carbon monitoring satellites in orbit around Earth and better understand carbon dioxide molecules.
University of Western Australia:
High-speed discovery helps measure greenhouse gases from space.
Star Trek Into Darkness opened this week. My review in a nutshell is that it's essentially alternate-timeline Wrath of Khan, for anyone who has seen it and is familiar with the character of Khan from the Star Trek universe. The main villain is a mysterious super-man named John Harrison, portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch, who then reveals himself to be Khan.
If he really is Khan Noonien Singh, then I am not laughing. Khan, the Khan, is of Sikh/East Indian heritage. In Star Trek: the original series (1966-1969), he's portrayed by Ricardo Montalban, a Spanish-Mexican actor, who also portrayed him in Star Trek 2: Wrath of Khan. Montalban, as talented as he was, was a white actor in brownface.
Fast forward to this movie, and the same Indian character is being portrayed Cumberbatch, a white, pale-skinned, British actor. We have a classic case of brownface on our hands here. Brownface, for those who don't know, is the brother of Blackface, which involves casting an actor, usually white, to portray a "brown" character (South Asian, Native American, etc).
Why did director J.J. Abrams and his team not cast an Indian actor for the role of Khan? Off the top of my head, I can come up with these Indian actors: Naveen Andrews, formerly Sayeed on ABC's Lost. There's the Maori actor (not South Asian), Cliff Curtis, and even the Pakistani actor, Faran Tahir who played the captain in the first sequence in Star Trek 2009.
On the Star Trek movie board, Damon Lindeloff, the head writer for the movie, left a message saying he'll be back to discuss Khan's race-change, but so far, he's been quiet. I am curious about the bogus excuses he'll use if he ever gets around to addressing the issue. Will he try to say Northern Indians are/were white, like the director of The Prince of Persia, after he was confronted about casting Jake Gyllenhaal? There are too many excuses being passed around already. On IMDb, the excuses range from, "Ricardo Montalban was white, so Khan is white" to "it doesn't matter. Only the actor matters."
The only excuse that's remotely plausible is that it's not the same Khan. He's simply using the title, Khan, as homage to Noonien Singh. Yet, this is without explanation in the movie, as Harrison simply says he's "Khan." It's obvious that we're supposed to accept that he's Khan Noonien Singh of "Space Seed" and "Wrath of Khan." Why would J.J. Abrams and his writing crew of Lindeloff, Kurtzman and Orci purposely mislead people by referring to the character as "Khan"? And why would they use the Spock Prime (Leonard Nimoy) cameo to confirm/discuss Khan?
In this day and age, they still don't care that people don't like brownface or blackface, etc.
The zombies are coming—and 13-year old Kendra and her grandpa Joe are in the woods fighting for survival in the midst of an apocalypse. Husband-and-wife team writers and producers: Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes are creators of the horror film, Danger Word. The short is based on the original story The Living Dead 2 written by John Joseph Adams and has snagged veteran actor Frankie Faison and young thespian, Saoirse Scott.
The creative pair raises the question: when is a horror movie more than a horror movie? Is it when a community pulls together to escape, a teenage girl learns her strength, or when the heroes and heroines are black? The aim of the film is to highlight African-Americans in science fiction and fantasy, and to serve as a road map for children and adults who are ready to fulfill their artistic dreams.
Dark matter...dark energy...dark lightning...dark flow: I feel somewhat like a Sith Lord...
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| Credit: Nature |
National Geographic: New Proof Unknown "Structures" Tug at Our Universe
New Scientist: Blow for 'dark flow' in Planck's new view of the cosmos
Black Speculative Fiction Contest
RAGAZINE.CC
“Speculative Fiction by People of Color”
COMPETITION
$1000.00 First Prize.
Entry Fee just $15.00 per story.
Final judge Sheree Renée Thomas will provide a critique of the 2nd and 3rd place
entries. Honorable mentions will be made to the 4th and 5th place entries.
First prize $1,000.00 for the best piece
of speculative fiction completed
by a person of color in 2013.
Read More: http://ragazine.cc/2013/04/contest/
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| This artist's concept shows the huge, scorching-hot "Einstein's planet," formally known as Kepler-76b, orbiting its host star, which has been tidally distorted into a slight football shape (exaggerated here for effect). The planet was detected when astronomers spotted brightness changes in the star induced by the planet due to relativistic effects. CREDIT: David A. Aguilar (CfA) |
Einstein's special relativity has proven more useful than ever, as scientists have now used it to discover an alien planet around another star.
The newfound world — nicknamed "Einstein's planet" by the astronomers who discovered it — is the latest of more than 800 planets known to exist beyond our solar system, and the first to be found through this method.
The planet, officially known as Kepler-76b, is 25 percent larger than Jupiter and weighs about twice as much, putting it in a class known as "hot Jupiters." The world orbits a star located about 2,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.
Note: I reproduced the text verbatim, but I think that General Theory - i.e., gravitational lensing - is probably how the planet was discovered, and it is not a new or unique method. RG
Space.com: 'Einstein's Planet': New Alien World Revealed by Relativity
by Clara Moskowitz, SPACE.com Assistant Managing Editor
That I am thankful for, really.
Christopher Emdin, professor of science and education writes "5 Ways to Stop a Black Scientist - Kiera Wilmot's Arrest" and I have to say something not just for clarity, but for sanity. The five ways are thus:
Criminalize curiosity - needed for scientific research.
Sending student to "expulsion schools" - see my comments below.
Stifling innovation.
Putting outdated rules over education.
Prison-type policies.
We keep observing like the proverbial deer in headlights an oncoming global train wreck with the smug arrogance that "America" is somehow a magical chant; an incantation that inoculates us from slipping from preeminence in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Our global competitors do NOT have tax-funded "creation museums"; our global competitors do NOT make political litmus tests involving a litany of science denial (The Big Bang, Climate Change, Evolution, Relativity - the MOON landing!); our global competitors do NOT have draconian standardized tests converting their students into the equivalent of Pavlov's canines: their teachers TEACH, and the profession is rightly revered. Finland, for example has not resorted to for-profit charter schools that will enrich a few and serve no one, and they are whipping our intellectual assets in an academic smackdown across Terra Firma!
We're not a "post-racial" society: if anything, 2008 and 2012 showed the rising political power of so-called minorities and much maligned millennials; their ability to make themselves known at the ballet box. We're still sectioning ourselves into "proper" career pursuits, and societal positions - note the diversity in AP classes at any high school campus; note the celebration of athletic or musical prowess and which groups are targeted in advertising it.
Blocking their wishes, rigging the system, changing "times and laws," making it harder to vote only will encourage them to wait - 5, 10 15 hours or more - to make their desires heard, as they do not have unlimited amounts of monies to pour and and purchase a politician. They/We naively believe democracy was based on Jefferson's trinity of three greatest men, and is worth participating in and preserving. Lessening access to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and knowledge is the opposite of John Donne's wisdom: it lessens America from chant to sad historical footnote.
This is far beyond Kiera and race: it is what we want to eventually be as a nation going forward, or in the words of the Bard: "not to be!"
The charges have been dropped, thankfully. Kiera is currently at an "expulsion school," waiting to see if she can return to her campus in the fall, hopefully with her scientific curiosity safely intact.
Orlando Sentinel:
Kiera Wilmot, student who caused small explosion won't face charges
George Clinton, musician, actor, sci-fi funk evangelist is known and loved the world over as the front man for Fuck Super Group Parliament - Funkadelic.
Originally a "doo-wap" group founded in the late 50's, Parliament would later be converted by George Clinton to atmospheric funk super-stardom
Around the same time that Parliment was being retrofitted for the glories of the 70's, Clinton also started the band "Funkadelic."
In reality, the two groups were always related. Funkadelic was mainly a vehicle for showcasing artists of Parliament. At the time, Clinton was involved in a contractual dispute that left him without the use of the name Parliament." Over time, both groups were marketed as displaying variations on the theme of Funk, even though the same musicians were rotating between the two.
Eventually, Clinton combined the groups into the Afro-futurist super group Parliament-Funkadelic, or as it is more commonly known, "P-Funk."
What follows is the solid gold awesome which are some Parliament / Funkadelic Album covers.
See more at The Moorsgate Media Blog
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| View of the main solenoid of the CMS detector at CERN: is new physics lurking in the vast amounts of data acquired by the experiment? (Courtesy: CERN/Samuel Morier-Genoud) |
After discovering the Higgs boson last year, researchers at the Large Hadron Collider are now trawling through the data as the collider undergoes an 18-month shutdown for repairs and upgrades. The goal is to discover hints of physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics – but tantalizing glimpses of new physics have been harder to spot than many physicists had expected.
But while the public has largely taken the discovery of the Higgs boson as mission accomplished for the €3.8bn collider, many particle physicists have been shaking their heads in disappointment. Since it started collecting data, the LHC has exposed few – if any – traces of physics beyond the Standard Model, a framework that is now some 40 years old. There has been no solid evidence for dark matter, supersymmetry, miniature black holes, extra dimensions or any of the other exotic phenomena that theorists excitedly talked about prior to the machine's switch-on. If there is new physics still waiting to be found, the question is: where? And will it turn up in the current shutdown period from an analysis of existing data or in the next, higher energy run?
Physics World: Higgs hunters look beyond the Standard Model
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| Structure of superionic ice in (left) the bcc phase and (right) the newly discovered and more stable fcc phase. Credit: Hugh F. Wilson, et al. ©2013 American Physical Society bcc = body-centered cubic; fcc = face-centered cubic |
(Phys.org) —While everyone is familiar with water in the liquid, ice, and gas phases, water can also exist in many other phases over a vast range of temperature and pressure conditions. One lesser known phase of water is the superionic phase, which is considered an "ice" but exists somewhere between a solid and a liquid: while the oxygen atoms occupy fixed lattice positions as in a solid, the hydrogen atoms migrate through the lattice as in a fluid. Until now, scientists have thought that there was only one phase of superionic ice, but scientists in a new study have discovered a second phase that is more stable than the original. The new phase of superionic ice could make up a large component of the interiors of giant icy planets such as Uranus and Neptune.
The scientists, Hugh F. Wilson (now at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation [CSIRO] in Australia), Michael L. Wong, and Burkhard Militzer at the University of California, Berkeley, have published a paper on the new phase of superionic ice in a recent issue of Physical Review Letters.
Phys.org:
New phase of water could dominate the interiors of Uranus and Neptune
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New NIST Reference Materials for MEMS devices are micromachined and further processed to contain miniature cantilevers, beams, stair-like step heights, microscale rulers and test structures for measuring surface-layer thickness. On the left is RM 8096, which was manufactured with an integrated circuit process; on the left is RM 8097, made with a MEMS process. Credit: NIST |
As markets for miniature, hybrid machines known as MEMS grow and diversify, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has introduced a long-awaited measurement tool that will help growing numbers of device designers, manufacturers and customers to see eye to eye on eight dimensional and material property measurements that are key to device performance.
The NIST-developed test chips (Reference Materials 8096 and 8097) are quality assurance tools that enable accurate, reliable comparisons of measurements on MEMS (MicroElectroMechanical Systems) devices made with different equipment and by different labs or companies. These capabilities will make it easier to characterize and troubleshoot processes, calibrate instruments and communicate among partners.
MEMS were once considered a stepchild of the semiconductor industry and largely confined to automotive uses—primarily as accelerometers in airbag systems. But the devices have branched out into an array of applications, especially in consumer electronics markets. A high-end smart phone, for example, contains about 10 such devices, including microphones, accelerometers and gyroscopes. MEMS devices also are important components of tablet computers, game consoles, lab-on-a-chip diagnostic systems, displays and implantable medical devices.
NIST: New NIST Measurement Tool Is On Target for the Fast-Growing MEMS Industry
"Somewhere within the fractional confines of the Multiverse, Agents for the Office of Theoretical Cognition are optimizing your hypothetical self. The problem has been, as it always will be, 'what happens to you, when you are better then you'?
You, you're gonna be in for a world of hurt; that's what. The theoretical you...man...the optimal potential you made corporeal... Sucker, he is better than you on your best day. Theoretical You is about to kick Actual You's ass."
-The Ballad of Brolic Jones
www.moorsgatemedia.blogspot.com
twitter: Moorsgate
Well, Readers, I'm from South Carolina. What is South Carolina, you ask? It's a state in the U.S.A. in the region commonly known as "The South". It was the state that sparked our nation's civil war. It's a state that clings to this rebellious heritage. One of its senators, Strom Thurmond, was the guy who spoke loudest against civil rights for Black Americans. With all this being said, South Carolina is well-known for racism. Everyone can agree on this. What disturbs me today is that it is now about to be known for political stupidity. Not idealistic stupidity, where I ramble on about values and the principles of the Founding Fathers. South Carolina will now be known as the capital of just plain stupid in America.
Why? Because they just elected Mark Sanford to Congress. Mark Sanford is the former governor of South Carolina, but he's more well-known for his illicit extra-marital affair with an Argentinian national. Am I saying that cheaters shouldn't be elected to office? No. Politicians cheat. I'm a cynic. I am a firm believer in cheating politicians. They'll cheat on their taxes, their constituents, and their wives. None of that is any surprise to me. Former president Bill Clinton was a cheater, so was former California governor Arnold Scharzenegger. Eliot Spitzer liked high-class hookers. Their infidelities are well-known and I, personally, do not judge their politics by their family affairs. Sex is sex. Politics is politics.
What makes electing Mark Sanford such a stupid move is the WAY that he cheated on his wife. For those of you who don't know, Mark Sanford went missing for six days back in 2009. Now you might be in another country reading this, so I want to explain that a state governor turning up missing for six days is not a good thing. No one knew where he was, including the state law division which is supposed to provide security for him. Of course, his wife didn't know where he was either. Before his disappearance, he told his staff that he would be hiking in the mountains for a few days. That's okay. South Carolina has mountains that you can hike. Lots of them. Unfortunately, no one knew which mountain he was supposed to be hiking on. For six days, the entire state of South Carolina, a place roughly the size of Portugal, did not know where its leader was. For six days, 4.7 million people were leaderless.
Where was governor Mark Sanford? In a word: Argentina. For those of you unfamiliar with the geography of South Carolina, I will let you know that Argentina is not in the mountains of South Carolina. In fact, it's not in South Carolina at all. The governor left the state without telling anyone. Oh, but it gets worse. Argentina is not only not in South Carolina, it's not in the U.S. It's a country in South America. For six days, the governor wasn't even on the same CONTINENT as South Carolina, and he told NO ONE, not even the people who are supposed to protect him.
Yes, he was cheating on his wife. Whoop-dee-doo! That's not an excuse to abandon your post and leave the country. Had he been a member of our military he would have been imprisoned without question. If he'd been a member of another country's military, he would've been branded a deserter and killed. In case of an emergency, like a natural disaster, an American governor has to be be there to declare a state-of-emergency so that evacuations can be planned, federal money can be freed up to help the needy; and to mobilize the state militia. Being a state governor is actually a pretty important job to have in this country. However, you need to be IN THE STATE or at the very least, IN THE COUNTRY, to do it.
Yes, Bill Clinton cheated on his wife too...with a White House intern. How is that better? Simple.
"Aliens are attacking! Where's the President?"
"In his office."
That's where the President's supposed to be. In his office. Arnold Scharzenegger cheated on his wife with the maid while he was governor of California. How is that better?
"Zombies are attacking Los Angeles. Where's the governor?
"At home."
That's okay. His house is guarded and they have his home phone on record. Eliot Spitzer was an attorney general (very important lawyer) for the state of New York. He was cheating on his wife with a hooker. Where was he? A hotel down the street from his office with his staff's FULL knowledge. Let's try this with Mark Sanford:
"A category 5 hurricane is heading for South Carolina. Where's the governor?"
"Uh, the mountains..."
"Which mountain?"
"He didn't say."
"Did you call him?"
"He's not answering his phone."
He wouldn't be able to answer his cell phone since Argentina is WELL outside the calling plans of most cell phone companies in the U.S. This is bad. Very bad. I understand that South Carolinians respect his political views and hope that he will express them in Congress. However, a congressman's power comes from voting on issues, and, yes, that requires that he actually be in the room, in the country, and on the continent to do it. Of course, when he turns up missing next time, he won't be in Argentina because he's imported his booty-call to the U.S. She's here now. The next time he comes up missing (because cheating is an addiction), he'll more than likely be in Siberia with some Russian heifer. He'll still have his conservative views though, but what good are conservative ideals when you're not IN THE COUNTRY to express them? Thus, congratulations, South Carolina! You are now the center of stupid.
My new book "Squirrels & Puppies" is out now!
