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Character Customization and Diversity in games

Posted by Moorsgate Media on May 20, 2013 at 10:28am

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.

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

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High-Speed Measurements...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 19, 2013 at 2:41pm


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.

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Star Trek Into Darkness and BrownFace

Posted by MckenzieM on May 18, 2013 at 3:00pm

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.

 

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Danger Word Film

Posted by Danger Word Film on May 17, 2013 at 6:00pm

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.

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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

Posted by Michael Foldes on May 16, 2013 at 8:32am

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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Einstein's Planet...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 15, 2013 at 8:00am
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

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Brief Moments of Clarity...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 16, 2013 at 7:02am

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:

  1. Criminalize curiosity - needed for scientific research.

  2. Sending student to "expulsion schools" - see my comments below.

  3. Stifling innovation.

  4. Putting outdated rules over education.

  5. 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

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The Awesome Sci-fi Styling of Afro-Futurism Album Covers: Parliament Edition

Posted by Moorsgate Media on May 14, 2013 at 9:27am

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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Hunt Beyond Higgs...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 13, 2013 at 10:30am
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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Thank You Black Science Fiction Society

Posted by Hisani DuBose on May 12, 2013 at 11:45pm
On May 10th I was interviewed on the Black Science Fiction Society Radio show. I have done quite a few telephone interviews for radio. This was the best one. Jarvis and Hayashi are incredible! I enjoyed the interview, the humor and the people calling in asked thoughtful questions and shared meaningful information!This site and the radio program are very important. Both give artists a voice. Thank You and don't ever stop!Hisani DuBose
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Superionic Ice...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 8, 2013 at 7:52am
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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MEMS Measurement Tool...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 9, 2013 at 7:30am

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

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The Ballad of Brolic Jones

Posted by Moorsgate Media on May 9, 2013 at 10:38am

"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

www.moorsgatemedia.com

twitter: Moorsgate

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Sanford, South Carolina, and Stupidity!

Posted by Russell A. Mebane on May 8, 2013 at 6:30pm
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!

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3-Devolution...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 7, 2013 at 6:53am

MCOR Technologies White Paper: How 3D printing works.



Entertainment:



Last year’s blockbuster sci-fi thriller, Prometheus, owes some of its success to the visionary work of FBFX Ltd, a film industry model company, and to the 3D printers that brought their creations to life.



Set on a, shall we say, unhospitable planet, the characters in Prometheus are constantly wearing spacesuits. While the fabric portions of these spacesuits can be mocked up by costume designers, the high-tech, LED-filled helmets had to be created using 3D models. That job fell to Grant Pearmain, FBFX’s managing director, and his team.

Engineering:



One of the most difficult parts of integrating electronics with biological tissue is getting the numerous tissues and materials to meld. At a lab in Princeton, New Jersey scientists are making progress on this effort using 3D printing.


According to Michael McAlpine, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton, “In general, there are mechanical and thermal challenges with interfacing electronic materials with biological materials.” In the past, researchers have attempted to overcome this hurdle by binding a piece of “seed” tissue to an electronic component.



But at McAlpine’s lab, that un-artful solution is being challenged with new state of the art techniques. “[O]ur work suggests a new approach -- to build and grow the biology up with the electronics synergistically and in a 3D interwoven format."



To do this, the Princeton team used 3D printing to create the complex topography of the human ear with a matrix of hydrogel and calf cells. Silver nano particles, which made up the structure of the antenna, were added to the ear's form to create a new audio receiver.



Anarchy:



Nearly a year ago the founder of Defense Distributed, Cody Wilson, announced his plans to create the world’s first 3D printed gun. In the coming days, Wilson plans to release his 3D Printed gun. Its name: “The Liberator”.



Over the course of the last year, Wilson and his team at Defense Distributed have made remarkable strides in creating 3D printed components like a magazine and lower receiver for the much maligned AR-15 assault rifle.

However, Wilson’s newest design is a complete departure from their previous work in that The Liberator is a standalone, fully functional 3D printed handgun. In fact, according to Wilson the only functional component in the gun that isn’t 3D printed is the weapon’s firing pin. To comply with the US Undetectable Firearms Act, The Liberator also contains a 6 oz. piece of steel to make it detectable by metal detectors, however, anyone who prints the weapon could simply decide not to add this component to their model.

Ironically: conservative icon near-demigod Ronald Reagan banned plastic weapons, so I expect the introduction of a single nail or cube of metal into the fuselage will be challenged in courts, as no such modification can be regulated, hence anarchy (both the domestic and international terrorist kind). Mike Weisser drops the science in an open letter to Wayne LaPierre. And, the gun industry will soon realize that 3D printing can be as detrimental to bottom-line capitalism as gun sales without selling paranoia that the government is going to take them: why walk in a gun store when you ARE the gun store?
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Bootstraps...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 4, 2013 at 7:00am
Kiera Wilmot

Thomas Edison was known for explosions.

Throughout his childhood, Thomas Edison was full of curiosity about how things worked and always asked a lot of questions. He didn't do very well in a traditional school setting, and often got punished for annoying the teacher with too many questions. As a result, after the age of twelve, he was home-schooled by his mother. His interest in science was first sparked when his mother bought him his first scientific book, The School of Natural Philosophy. He thoroughly studied the book and performed all the experiments described in it at home. He soon set up his own laboratory in his room and began performing original experiments. After a few disasters, he was asked by his parents to move his laboratory to the basement. The explosions from the basement constantly shook the house, often upsetting his father.

But...the experiments did NOT stop.

A motivational speaker once used Edison as an example of perseverance.

Lab Assistant (exasperated after an explosion):

When are you going to give up this STUPID idea? That was the 9,999th time you have NOT invented this light bulb! You could have gotten us killed!

Edison:

That's right. This is the 9,999th trial. But, please make note of the explosive application that might prove useful later...

I've referenced my own 1st experiment as a spectacular explosion. It was my parents' support that carried me through some rough times in science, one of which my middle school science teacher called me "a big dummy" in front of class. I LAUGHED in his face! Did he want me to kowtow to his lowered expectations? Did he not know Lewis Latimer aided Edison in his "stupid idea"? Who DID he think he was? When you have confidence and support from loved ones, you automatically have chutzpah. As I did, this young queen should do so as well: hold your head high.

 

Sometimes, science can be dramatic, dangerous, and if you survive the adventure: thrilling and invigorating. Not de-emphasizing safety here, just access...to knowledge, and ultimately power and self-determination.


News of Kiera Wilmot’s arrest has seriously unnerved me. She is the Florida high school student who was experimenting with common household chemicals in science class that resulted in a minor explosion. There were no injuries and no damage to school property; however, she was taken away in handcuffs, formally arrested and expelled from school.1

 

A 16 year old Florida student with good grades, who is described by her principal as a “good kid”, is now facing felony charges for a science experiment gone wrong.2


Really?

A few probing questions...

  • Where was the teacher? Answered: this was done before classes began.

  • Who was harmed? Answered: no one.

  • What do we do with white collar computer hacks? Answered: we tend to hire them to IT firms.

  • What are we doing to give the next generation enthusiasm towards STEM careers in a globe increasingly complex, defined by science advancing at light speed, needing this kind of adventurous wonder, when life-and-death decisions are going to be predicated on how deep their critical thinking skills are, their sense of wonder is developed?

...Nothing!

And lastly: which side of the criminal justice system would you rather see Kiera on?

Answer: I'd prefer her in a research lab, or working at an engineering firm, personally.

Smiley

1. SciAm The Urban Scientist: Florida teen charged with felony for trying science
2. Your Black World: 16 Year Old Charged With Felony After Science Project Goes Wrong
Change.org:
Bartow Police Chief, Tammy Glofelty - State PA: Drop Felony Charges and Release Kiera Wilmot

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400 km Above...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on May 3, 2013 at 8:07am
Perched on the International Space Station around 400 km above the Earth, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) collects data from primary cosmic rays before they can interact with the atmosphere.
Image credit: NASA.

The international team running the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) has announced the first results in its search for dark matter. They indicate the observation of an excess of positrons in the cosmic-ray flux. The results were presented by Samuel Ting, the spokesperson of AMS, in a seminar at CERN on 3 April, the date of publication in Physical Review Letters.

 

The AMS results are based on an analysis of some 2.5 × 1010 events, recorded over a year and a half. Cuts to reject protons, as well as electrons and positrons produced in the interactions of cosmic rays in the Earth’s atmosphere, reduce this to around 6.8 × 106 positron and electron events, including 400,000 positrons with energies between 0.5 GeV and 350 GeV. This represents the largest collection of antimatter particles detected in space.

 

CERN Courier: AMS measures antimatter excess in space

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Mothers Day Card-send it digitally to a mama u know

Posted by Robert Trujillo on May 2, 2013 at 11:30am

Peace BSFS family, I had the chance to create some artwork for this campaign. Its aim is to create beautiful images of families you dont get to see at Cvs or Walgreens. These cards celebrate women of color, queer families, and the one I worked on celebrates fathers of color. These are easily shareable online, and customizable and they're free. Spread the word, another world is possible.

Feel free to use these images if you feel them. And check out this video

Strong Families "Mamas Day" Cards

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