Not much else. Nerd movie trip 2013!
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I voted, and will be elated when the spectacle is over.
Whomever winds up as Chief Executive, they have a mess to clean up in New York and New Jersey, and the responsibility to prepare for the next climate change event. We can argue the semantics of whether man-made or natural later. One impact I can forecast is the willingness (or lack thereof) for insurance companies to cover damages with respect to super storms like Sandy. It could become too expensive to guarantee, thereby changing where we as humans choose to live.
Here are each candidates' answers ranging from Climate Change, Education, NASA and Research support:
Real Clear Politics: Greatest Scientific Experiment on Earth - Democracy
I am quite human.
So, it's understandable with work, graduate school and cold-calling swing states, I can get distracted. Coupled with the reality of Hurricane Sandy, campus closures in Hoboken, New Jersey, contacting my classmates via email and tempering my calls with "how are you since the storm?" distraction from the tenor of this blog I hope is understandable.
The following essays will explain:
This blog champions science and diversity, a reality that is fast approaching this nation in 2042. I'm a Sputnik Child, post October 4, 1957 when America entered the Space Race. Despite our differences and social problems, to compete, we had to educate the entire population. We still do.
I was a beneficiary of that focus. I saw myself and others like me study science and engineering. I and my classmates have traveled all over the world, as our college song: "from Dare to Cherokee." I am concerned; we are concerned about the future: for our sons and daughters, for which we wish in the words of Jeremiah "a future...and a hope."
And as I'm apt to say: my older sister was one of those young adults, teenagers that secured the right to vote for all Americans, braving harrowing resistance to change like this:
I've been distracted, but trust me: I've been working hard!
It is for her and others like her, I've been understandibly distracted.
I'm a little late. I've been preoccupied. I'll explain tomorrow.
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| p-Pb collision event display, CMS |
The first data from proton–lead collisions at the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN include a "ridge" structure in correlations between newly generated particles. According to theorists in the US, the ridge may represent a new form of matter known as a "colour glass condensate".
This is not the first time such correlations have been seen in collision remnants – in 2005, physicists working on the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York found that the particles generated in collisions of gold nuclei had a tendency to spread transversely from the beam at very small relative angles, close to zero.
Physics World: Unexpected 'ridge' seen in CMS collision data again
"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It's not."
Dr. Seuss, The Lorax
How prescient his advice was in what's deemed a simple children's story. Doc was deep.
As members of humanity, we have the same opposing thumbs as apes.
Yet, we can think, reason, dream, drive, design dresses and microchips, plan, raise families and skyscrapers, go to the moon, build space stations, launch probes on Mars, manufacture clothing, baby carriages, semiconductors, atomic bombs and massively affect the climate.
Ironically, the similar one thing between both the three presidential and vice presidential debates is neither of them discussed climate change or what either party would do about what has now asserted itself in the current disaster.
Octavia Butler advocated for space travel in her dystopian novels Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. It took her characters a long time - two novels - to get to that point. The main character was the female Moses that didn't see the promised land beyond earth.
Sadly, we currently have only one starship: terra firma beneath our feet and an atmosphere steadily warming in our greenhouse life support system. We also have a dysfunctional political system that won't allow us to address real problems, only red herrings to "fire up the base."
In an interview I read at the conclusion of "Sower," Butler used the term "smooth dinosaurs" referring to humanity and the possibility of it becoming extinct. Her apocalyptic world was post climate change resulting in violent weather patterns, rising tides, eroded coastlines, societal stratification, human migration, hyper inflation, a small and dwindling middle class (just not in the sense we currently esteem it), the haves in walled-off cities with their own private armies; for the rest of us: privatized police, fire and emergency services (no money; no service) and...cannibalism as means of survival for the "have-nots." There seemed to be some religiousity, primarily used by the haves to control the shrinking middle class that had banned together in their own walled cities and posted themselves as sentries from cannibals and bandits.
I hate putting things in such graphic detail. However, I fear we're reaching or maybe have already reached the "tipping point," at which time the Texas colloquialism of "hunkering down" will become a lifestyle...as mole men underground. The date of the link from The Guardian provided in this paragraph: 9 November 2011, predicting then we had five years to make drastic changes. We now have four. Just enough to begin healing the earth, or for deregulation to push us all towards the inevitable.
Unless...
I've found something on Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors. It's an old idea in nuclear reactors, but since its byproducts have less of a half-life than Uranium or Plutonium (and one can't make bombs from it, my guess) it's not as well known or promoted.
Unless...
Christian Science Monitor: Earth's ecosystems nearing catastropic 'tipping point'
http://www.myspace.com/drocksouljah/blog/546426885
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a little free audio book action for those who like something creepy with their holiday.
Greetings and salutations!
In the spirit of Halloween, I’m giving readers a treat without the trick. During today and tomorrow, I will have three of my titles for free on the Kindle. These books are:
The Laroarian Conflict - An adventure fantasy set in the kingdom of Laroar, which is in a civil war over control of the vacant throne. When two teens, Logan and Mary Wallace, help one of the injured combatants, they embark upon a quest that will take them across the land and make them targets for the opposing armies. Logan and Mary soon discover that no good deed goes unpunished. (Free Days: 10/31/12 – 11/1/12)
“Swordbreaker” - ”He had believed peace only lived at the tip of a sword.” A warlord turned pacifist must face the consequences of his bloody past. *This is a short story. Included in the e-book are extended excerpts of the novelsCrowning of the Good King and The Laroraian Conflict.* (Free Day: 10/31/12)
Heart and Soul of a Thinker - This collection is full of poems chronicling the triumph and tragedy of humanity. In a world where differences are emphasized, this collection is universal because it simplistically relates the common threads that bind us as a species. The collection as a whole connects life, poetry, dreams, love, space, and time into one circle. There are speculative poems in this collection, featuring poems about sea monsters, dragons, and space travel. (Free Day: 11/1/12)
These ebooks are free on the days listed. Don’t hesitate to download them. Please share with family, friends, co-workers and on social media. Thanks! And enjoy.
Words = Life,
A. Jarrell Hayes
"Discovery" Volume I of Wiliam Hayashi's Darkside Trilogy is a riveting, even-paced Science Fiction mystery novel that opens on a young scientist's discovery of a previously unidentified asteroid hurtling toward earth. At the same time the FBI is made aware of several unsolved missing persons cases beginning as far back as the 1960's where nearly 2000 U.S. citizens have simply vanished. Half-way across the globe an advanced aircraft of unknown origin is shot down over the Middle East. The story follows the threads that tie these people and incidents together as they become the focus of government power-brokers, and where national security concerns seek to compel the commodification of scientific discovery to serve military, political and/or industrial purposes. Set against the backdrop of a period 40-some odd years after the Civil Rights movement in a fictionalized alternate U.S., the novel pointedly addresses issues of race, class, gender and educational stereotypes as they relate to career, loyalty, friendship, love, the pursuit of happiness and freedom in the burgeoning Space Age.
The novel is steeped in science and scientific terminology but gratefully made accessible to those who have long forgotten their last physics course. The author, William Hayashi's style is methodical and procedural. He writes with exacting detail which is either a minus or a plus depending upon the reader's preferences. Because this is a mystery novel, early on I found myself sometimes thrown off-track by the author's focus on mundane details wondering whether these were important to the storyline. It became clear, however, as I read on that the details were simply atmospheric and not relevant to the plot which allowed me to consume the 500 plus pages in about 3 days. The book contains some "adult" situations. The sexual depictions are intense, somewhat graphic but written in the vein of adult modern romance which was infinitely suitable for the characters and the plotline.
The final section of the book is a sneak peek of Chapter 1 of Volume II of the Darkside Trilogy entitled, "Conception." "Conception" appears to be a prequel to "Discovery" providing the reader with historical reference and introducing the reader to the players who created the technology behind the first novel. I look forward to its release and enthusiastically recommend "Discovery."
I was taught this outline at North Carolina A & T and still use it to set up problems.
I actually do it before I've read any chapter. It's almost a mental prep: I assume the problems are solvable, then I tackle them.
Some problems are almost unbearable: I opted not to go to our homecoming due the impending Hurricane Sandy, which from previous experience with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita I could tell from Weather.com was going to be formidable.
I was concerned with my fraternity brother (our alumni chapter Polemarch) who was stalled in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania coming back from GHOE due to Sandy's wrath. He eventually made it to New York.
Stevens University is in Hoboken, NJ. It's where I'm taking my online class in Microelectronics and Photonics. I am attempting to contact the other registrants -- my "classmates" and the instructor. We're all professionals, working at full time jobs pursuing a Masters of Science degree. None of us imagined experiencing science - or, the ignorance thereof - in such harsh, graphic violence.
GIVEN: The most significant display of climate change and its dangers to date
WANTED: Your help
SOLUTION: Click the link below the logo
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| Donations: click here |
I will get nothing from this, NOTHING, and canned goods are logistically impossible. As John Donne is often quoted, "I am involved with mankind." It is my hope as reader of this blog, you are too.
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| New Jersey News |
Hopefully, all my classmates will check in. As soon as it is safe and clear, I will visit the campus; we will meet face-to-face, students and professor.
I have given, I'd appreciate those of you who read my postings give what you feel led to give. Thank you.
Site: Ready.gov
Dalziel is an ally if the Black Mau and Bast. Dalziel has telekinetic powers much like Jean Gray of the X-Men, but Dalziel can also manipulate the molecules in her body to shape shift. Dalziel is one force to be reckoned with.
You'll meet her along with the other characters in the Black Mau Chronicles 12.12.12. Stay tuned!
Dalziel is illustrated by Jing Dizon
Hurricane Rita: estimated 4-5 billion.
Hurricane Irene: estimated 7-10 billion.
Hurricane Sandy: To Be Determined.
We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.
Carl Sagan
We've received a lot of calls: my sister and best friend from NC; my mother-in-law; my oldest son and my daughter-in-law from Oklahoma and Texas respectively. I've answered more than my share of thoughtful and appreciated Facebook updates. We're OK.
My youngest son called at 3:15 EST, which prompted me to ask why he was UP (2:15 CST). The news disturbed him and he was concerned about his parents. A price he has already paid, and now I pay as his concerns kept me awake.
As I blog this, 7.1 million people are without power on the east coast, 2.2 million in New Jersey. An explosion and fire at ConEdison has left downtown Manhattan dark. Sixteen people have lost their lives. Schools are closed all over NY state. The NYU Medical Center is being evacuated after backup generators failed. The Metro Transit Authority is saying this is the worst disaster in the 108 year history of the New York City subway system. Seven tunnels are flooded and the New York Stock Exchange remains closed for a second day.
We must be cunning, discerning on our choice in one week of Head of State. I have my opinion and my vote already decided. It has not been decided by dogma, prejudice or melanin: I self-identify politically as a logician, a proud member of the reality-based community.
The Venn diagram intersecting set between prophecy and predictive modeling is both are warnings: given for the listeners to take heed and change their course of action before probable disaster becomes all the more real and credible.
However, denial of reality has an associated cost as I've listed above. We cannot long afford this cost. We cannot on the one hand want to compete toe-to-toe with countries that don't have our internal struggles, our inane politics, our sound bite attention spans; dogma and sloganeering, and expect in the end to be successful for very long. Empires after all, have lifespans.
Science, to further quote Carl Sagan "is a way of thinking," and so is believing the earth is 9,000 years old while holding a position in the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. One works towards a solution to real-world problems; the other an associated, ever-inflating cost.
Whatever your choice next Tuesday, we'll all live in the real aftermath (and price) of that choice.
"What's past is prologue." Tempest, Act 2, Scene I
Site: Ready.gov
The Nation John Nichols: Disaster Relief
In Austin, Texas I witnessed the caravans from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: Interstates 10 and 45 packed headed towards Austin and Dallas respectively.
Houston received the first wave of fleeing masses of humanity from Louisiana. Churches and shelters in the three cities put up cots and sleeping bags as fast as they could; clothing and canned foods were donated; homes opened. We were brothers, sisters, cousins, friends: suddenly any differences were rendered utterly meaningless: "Vanity of vanities" said Solomon. I became used to life in "tornado alley," and the Texas colloquial phrase of "hunkering down," but nothing like shelves emptied at the grocery stores; sudden influxes of students from 9th Ward NOLA.
Moving from Texas to New York last year, my wife and I experienced Hurricane Irene, which was described at the time a once-in-a-lifetime event as far as its power (hurricanes and tropical storms have affected NY before). Sandy has now proven that comforting logic wrong, coupling winds, flooding, rain, and possibly tornadoes and snowstorms. Last year, the one and only snowstorm happened on Halloween, downing powerlines made heavy by wet snow caught on autumn leaves and tree branches that snapped under the great unexpected weight, leaving families without lights; heat. We took in friends that lived in Hyde Park due to that: their children had an increased commute to school when it started again. In Irene's aftermath: Insect populations flourished that in times past should have passed on in seasonal death. Our power blinked in and out before it settled then, but I'm not so sure we'll be as lucky. I hope we are.
WE WILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH THIS: soberly using critial thinking skills, (which, as a nation we show ourselves remarkably bereft), not sound bites and slogans. We have lawyers as administrators of the republic: lawyers argue. Eight of the top nine government posts in China are held by engineers and scientists according to Forbes. Accordingly, they will move to economic prominence, no dominence in 2016, or at least by the 2020s. Narry a tax exempt creation museum on the Sino land mass.
Perhaps it's too late to solve it, and the carbon producers can revel in their profits merrily, having obfuscated truth and fact in our elected officials on science committees; literally running out the clock until...we are here.
And, great wealth only matters: when you have a functional planet to spend it on.
Site: Climate Change Refugees
I am an AFROFuturist. And, I boldly state that I make my own definitions. I can define myself and the conditions that I thrive in. It does not bother me if other people describe the term differently or take offense at what I choose to believe and promote. In fact, I welcome and embrace the diversity of definitions.
I am an AFROFuturist. Don't label me as a Moslem, Hindu, Jew, Christian or Atheist. Organized belief systems that are rigid and unable to adapt can be dangerous and lead us down the path of extinction. Ask T-Rex. However, true AFROFuturists can open our minds to new paths of survival and life satisfaction and the perpetuation of our kind. Therefore, the AFROFuturistic vision is wide and welcomes multiple interpretations and new pathways of thought. It is not imprisoned by words or canvas or song or movement.
As an AFROFuturist, I believe that racism is insanity. Social classes are a wicked delusion. We all are born naked and at the end of our lives we leave accumulated earthly riches behind for others to fight over. Our truth wealth are the contributions that we offered to society during our sojourn that will hopefully enrich the lives of others. We are all one race, one species, one culture, subject to the whims of a Universe that could eradicate us all in a bright solar moment. No one survives a Super Nova. It merely recreates us into new forms to start over again. But until that event we must strive to be the best that we can.
I am an AFROFuturist. This is what I believe:
1) We must mold a future that embraces all of us
2) Education and learning is "cradle to grave" and critical to our survival
3) Our greatest wealth resides in the people who have the least
4) We have the knowledge and the power to protect the planet and all the creatures that live on it
5) God is not above us, God grows within us, if we allow and listen!
I am an AFROFuturist. Join me!!
New afronerdradio.com show starts this Sunday at 6pm. Call the hosts live at 646-915-9620: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/afronerd/2012/10/28/double-shows-interview-w-13-comic-creator-david-walker
If you ease up on a pencil, does it slide more easily? Sure. But maybe not if the tip is sharpened down to nanoscale dimensions. A team of researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has discovered that if graphite (the material in pencil "lead") is sticky enough, as measured by a nanoscale probe, it actually becomes harder to slide a tip across the material's surface as you decrease pressure—the exact opposite of our everyday experience.
Technically, this leads to an effectively "negative coefficient of friction," something that has not been previously seen, according to team leader Rachel Cannara. Graphite, Cannara explains, is one of a special class of solids called "lamellar" materials, which are formed from stacks of two-dimensional sheets of atoms. The sheets are graphene, a single-atom-thick plane of carbon atoms that are arranged in a hexagonal pattern. Graphene has a number of exotic electrical and material properties that make it attractive for micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems with applications ranging from gas sensors and accelerometers to resonators and optical switches.
NIST:
Slip Sliding Our Way: At the Nanoscale, Graphite Can Turn Friction Upside Down
Had to. 
It's Friday to boot:
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| Image from site |
Roddenberry unwittingly unleashed a phenomenon in which Star Trek enthusiasts became a veritable cult, numbering physicists, aerospace engineers, housewives, senators, children, teachers and intellectuals among its devotees (affectionately known as "Trekkies," and later, "Trekkers"). The show went outside television to win science fiction's coveted Hugo Award and then spawned an animated spin-off, as well as a series of feature films.
While making Star Trek, Roddenberry's reputation as a futurist began to grow. His papers and lectures earned him high professional regard as a visionary. He spoke on the subject at NASA meetings, the Smithsonian Institution, Library of Congress gatherings, and top universities.
Star Trek was so wildly popular that it has since become the first television series to have an episode preserved in the Smithsonian, where an 11-foot model of the U.S.S. Enterprise is also exhibited on the same floor as the Wright brother's original airplane and Lindbergh's "Spirit of St. Louis." In addition to the Smithsonian honors, NASA's first space shuttle was named Enterprise, in response to hundreds of thousands of letters from fans demanding that the shuttle be named after the beloved starship.
Site: Gene Roddenberry bio
Due to Hulk-Smash, Dr. Banner kindly asks for donations of .99 cents to his paypal account (skhmnb@yahoo.com) so that he may continue his Afro-Futuristic experiments and repair his laptop screen. Doing so will prevent possible Gamma Ray leakage from his old Emac. Only 60 kind hearted individuals are needed. In return, Hulk promise to take anger-management classes, drink Kava Kava and smash Loki. SHARE, TAG and RE-POST.
This has been a great year! I have so much I want to reveal to you but I can't, not just yet. Contracts. Lawyers. Etc. So, please take advantage of this offer now, b4 it changes. Download "Rage of the Mamba". Be sure to comment and review with links to your books and web sites. We need to support each other. I will add links to you all on my websites. I will mention you at my speaking engagements.
I really appreciate my Black speculative fiction family for helping me to get this far. And I really appreciate the Black Science Fiction Society for promoting our works. We need this!! We must support this.
Hollywood, Hot tubs, limos!!! Everybody is welcome to join in. But I digress.
On November 5, 2012; they will probably tell me to stop this offer :<(
Go to:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/236580
Promotional price: $0.00
Coupon Code: RY87Q
Expires: November 3, 2012
This will be a blast!!!
...a black hole is, after all: a sun.
HubbleSite.org: Explore Astronomy
NASA: What Is A Black Hole?
World Science Festival: Icarus at the Edge of Time
