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Heralding Elysium...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on April 10, 2018 at 12:32pm
Artist's illustration of Orion Span's planned orbiting hotel, Aurora Station. Credit: Orion Span

Topics: Economy, Existentialism, Space Travel, Politics

Well-heeled space tourists will have a new orbital destination four years from now, if one company's plans come to fruition.

That startup, called Orion Span, aims to loft its "Aurora Station" in late 2021 and begin accommodating guests in 2022.

"Affordable" is a relative term: A 12-day stay aboard Aurora Station will start at $9.5 million. Still, that's quite a bit less than orbital tourists have paid in the past. From 2001 through 2009, seven private citizens took a total of eight trips to the International Space Station (ISS), paying an estimated $20 million to $40 million each time. (These private missions were brokered by the Virginia-based company Space Adventures and employed Russian Soyuz spacecraft and rockets.)

"There's been innovation around the architecture to make it more modular and more simple to use and have more automation, so we don't have to have EVAs [extravehicular activities] or spacewalks," Bunger said of Aurora Station.

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Elysium or the Elysian Fields (Ancient Greek: Ἠλύσιον πεδίον, Ēlýsion pedíon) is a conception of the afterlife that developed over time and was maintained by some Greek religious and philosophical sects and cults. Initially separate from the realm of Hades, admission was reserved for mortals related to the gods and other heroes. Later, it expanded to include those chosen by the gods, the righteous, and the heroic, where they would remain after death, to live a blessed and happy life, and indulging in whatever employment they had enjoyed in life. Source: Wikipedia

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In the year 2154, the very wealthy live on a man-made space station while the rest of the population resides on a ruined Earth. A man takes on a mission that could bring equality to the polarized worlds. Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, IMDB

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Rockets, moon shots

Spend it on the have-not's

Money, we make it

Before we see it, you take it

[Chorus]

Oh, make you want to holler

The way they do my life

Make me want to holler

The way they do my life

This ain't living, this ain't living

No, no baby, this ain't living

No, no, no

Marvin Gaye, "Inner City Blues," Genius.com/lyrics

"All science and engineering has a moral and philosophical component. It is imperative that as future scientists you pursue your research ethically, thinking also of your impact on society going forward." Quoted from the post "Freedom and Responsibility," October 30, 2017.

'Luxury Space Hotel' to Launch in 2021, Mike Wall, Space.com

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Superconducting Nanotech...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on April 5, 2018 at 8:10pm
Illustration of the device structure: stanene is on top of the lead-tellurium film and bismuth-tellurium substrate. α-tin has a similar crystal structure to diamond.

Topics: Applied Physics, Materials Science, Nanotechnology, Superconductors

Almost a century after Heike Kamerlingh Onnes first discovered superconductivity, the factors that determine whether a system will be superconducting and at what temperature remain hard to pin down. However, advances in nanotechnology have given some good pointers where to look, as well as providing promising systems for exploiting superconductivity in real-world applications.

The fundamental requirement for superconductivity is the coupling of fermionic electrons into Cooper pairs. Theory paints a neat picture of how the resulting bosonic behaviour allows occupation of the same energy levels and leads to a host of exotic behaviour - zero electrical resistance and the expulsion of magnetic flux lines so that superconducting objects levitate on magnets, to name a few. Where the picture grows fuzzy is extrapolating from there what specific aspects a material system needs to become superconducting at a given temperature. While design principles to fabricate a room-temperature superconductor remain elusive, a lot has been learnt in the chase, bringing applications of superconductors in a range of sectors from imaging, testing and quantum cryptography ever closer.

2D materials
Among the material systems where unusual electronic behaviour akin to Cooper pairing might be likely is the interface between perovskite oxides – in particular, LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 – where there is a discontinuity in the polarity of the crystalline lattice. Following the initial discovery of a highly mobile “2D electron gas” at the interface in 2004, Jochen Mannhart and colleagues then identified superconducting properties at the interface in a layer limited to just 20 nm in 2007. The transition temperature was a chilly 200 millikelvin, and the exact origins of the effect were unclear, but oxide interfaces remain a hotbed for exploring electronic and spintronic behaviour.

Since then several 2D structures have revealed superconducting behaviour where it does not exist in the bulk, an example being “grey” tin. The form of tin usually considered most useful is “white” tin, which has a conventional metal crystallographic structure, and was among the first superconducting materials to attract study. However, at low temperatures white tin will gradually transform into grey tin, which has a diamond cubic structure and is sometimes described as “tin pest”. To their surprise, Qi-Kun Xue, Ding Zhang and colleagues at Tsinghua University in China found that when they reduced the dimensions of tin to 2D stanene of just 2-20 layers, they could observe superconducting properties in grey tin too. Going even thinner to monolayers resulted in insulating properties.

"What we found is that the grey tin can be scientifically quite interesting," Zhang told nanotechweb.org. As well as the fundamental science the discovery opens up, it also poses the opportunity to produce circuits from all one material, with superconducting wires of few layer stanene separated by insulating monolayers.

Superconductivity - pairing up with nanotechnology, Anna Demming, Nanotechweb.org

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50 Years,,,

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on April 4, 2018 at 4:00am
Designs Mag - Dr. Martin Luther king Jr. Timeline 2015

Topics: African Americans, Civil Rights, History, Human Rights, Martin Luther King

I believe the little girl with Dr. Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King is Yolanda. She is deceased now along with her parents, but her niece namesake just spoke at the March For Our Lives, looking remarkably like her iconic grandfather. Despite all the reveals of Dr. King as a flawed philanderer as investigative journalists are apt to do, he was at the end of the day a husband, a man and a father. As he said on the previous day, "longevity has its place." His death came year-to-date of his denouncement of his nation's involvement in Vietnam, that would eventually claim the lives of almost 60,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen, affecting survivors with post traumatic stress disorder; drug abuse, alcoholism and suicide. Total deaths numbered in the millions. Had he lived, I'm sure he would have addressed these concerns as part of his vision of "The Beloved Community," which ostensibly included all of humanity.

I would hear my parents cry.

They would still be crying as they tried to get through their daily routine. Getting me ready for kindergarten at Bethlehem Community Center. I had seen my mother cry on occasion - church, funerals - my father's eyes were red and his hands trembled as we drove from our home to school. They were both worried about my older sister - a youth active in the Civil Rights movement. They briefly didn't know here whereabouts. The worry hung over the home like a dark veil. I was too: like every march, every demonstration where it wasn't guaranteed she'd get out of it alive. It was a lot for someone new to the planet sometimes. She turned up, heartbroken. She and my mother hugged each other and cried, inconsolably. 

This was a time of emotions - rough, raw and gut-wrenching. I was five years old. I didn't know what to feel until I arrived at Bethlehem.

I remember seeing this the night before from my father's lap:

But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

I didn't quite understand his eloquence. I asked my father. It was April 3, 1968. He honestly didn't know.

These broadcasts were probably what caused the walls of hope to come crashing around my family:

The preschool and kindergarten teachers at Bethlehem decided to explain our loss to us the next day, partly to process what had just happened themselves. We did all cry, finally - as if we had just lost a favorite uncle or grandfather. Barely on the planet, we were suddenly having to contemplate a loss as tears fell like rainwater in a storm. Dr. King would come on the black radio station WAAA in Winston-Salem, NC as they broadcast a program from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference "Martin Luther King Speaks." I remember hearing his distinguished voice; the pitch and pentameter of a preacher well-rehearsed and natural to him. I remember when it wasn't a recording of a deceased ancestor.

We went to nap early. It was all the energy has to do. We awoke to the blaring sounds of horns, the sight of confederate flags flown from pickup trucks and shotguns, celebratory of his death; the shouts of dark triumph from a sick cadre. That day, we played inside.

Dr. King was the victim of gun violence by a confirmed racist. Despite any theories about who actually performed the deed, what the motivations were, whether or not the government was involved: he was a victim of gun violence, a long line in this country, before breathless pronunciations of ArmaLite 15 rifles. As was Malcolm X. As was Medgar Evers. As were members of the Black Panther Party of self-defense. As would Robert Kennedy follow in the dark shadow of his brother, President John F. Kennedy. From Native American genocide, African kidnappings followed by: lynchings, castrations, body burning, burning crosses, voter intimidation, church bombings, the slaughter of innocents by the police or citizens empowered by fear and bigotry; the "othering" of an African American president by his pathologically lying grifter successor - the red stripes in the flag aren't just those of "Founding Fathers," and patriots (or, revamped psychopaths), but the blood of violence shed by this nation's victims. We were in "the promised land" for eight, short years! We were inexorably pushed by bigotry and birtherism to a nascent nostalgia for mythological white picket fences; economic isolationism, ethno-nationalism, social, sexual and cultural demarcations: "great again" for some, and not for "others." As a nation, we've been at war - externally with enemies and internally, with one another - more than we've ever been at, or encouraged peace.

After every shooting of innocents, we often in naval-gazing fashion say something to the effect of "we're BETTER than this!" In 50 years of violence I've witnessed since in wars, rumors of wars, gang violence, crack and meth addiction, the expansion of the wealth gap; an increase in productivity while wages remain stagnant at 1973 levels (Dr. King was in Memphis campaigning for wage increases for sanitation workers); healthcare debated as privilege or right and the current position we find ourselves in with a demagogue installed by an enemy state in possession of the nuclear codes, I'm not so sure we are any better than what's evidenced. Perhaps...not.
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Quantum of Creation

Posted by Anubis Heru on April 2, 2018 at 10:52am
Happy Spring Equinox everyone! I don't know if you're aware but I've been working diligently on editing Acid of the Godz #1 Comic book series. This issue has been really fun to see and build from the concept pages to the lettering. If you have never heard of Acid of the Godz, you are in for a treat!We have been featured in a few blogs and Magazine articles in 2017. Check out this one all the way in France! https://www.facebook.com/896449163767044/photos/a.896513677093926.1073741829.896449163767044/1483428978402390/?type=3&theaterRespect and HonorAnubis Heruwww.acidofthegodz.com
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MOND on Maundy...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 29, 2018 at 10:10am
The image on the right shows the galaxy, full of "globular clusters." The image on the left shows the measurement the researchers used to track the speed of one such object. Credit: Gemini Observatory / NSF / AURA / W.M. Keck Observatory / Jen Miller / Joy Pollard

Topics: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Cosmology, Dark Matter, Theoretical Physics

Note: I almost didn't blog about this, because the original links at Live Science and Cosmos Magazine lead to "page not found" errors. I was able to find the article on Nature's direct website and provide it here. It's strange both sites had the same bogus links.

Here's a problem: The universe acts like it's a lot more massive than it looks.

Take galaxies, those giant, spinning masses of stars. The laws of motion and gravity tell us how fast these objects should turn given their bulk. But observations through telescopes show them spinning way faster than we'd expect, as if they were actually much more massive than the stars we can see indicate.

Astrophysicists have come up with two main solutions to this problem. Either there's a lot of mass out there in the universe that we can't detect directly, mass scientists call dark matter, or there's no dark matter out there, but there is something missing from our laws of gravity and motion. Researchers call the second proposed solution modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND), which suggests that if the laws are properly tweaked, the universe would make sense without dark matter.

A new paper, published today (March 28) in the journal Nature, provides compelling evidence that there really is dark matter out there and that modifying the laws of physics wouldn't by itself solve the universe's weight problem.

In that study, the researchers found an object that could exist in a universe that has dark matter, but that would be nearly unimaginable in a MOND universe: a totally normal galaxy, one that seems to operate without any dark matter-type forces. [1]

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In a study published in the journal Nature, scientists have found a galaxy that appears to contain no dark matter — the unknown material thought to be common in the universe because of its gravitational effect on normal matter.

It was a startling discovery, because galaxies similar to our own Milky Way generally appear to contain 30 times more of the mysterious substance than normal matter, while smaller galaxies can contain up to 400 times as much.

The dark-matter-free galaxy, called NGC 1052-DF2, lies 65 million light years away in the constellation Cetus. It initially caught the attention of astronomers because, while it’s about the size of the Milky Way, it contains only 0.5% as many stars.

“That makes it very diffuse,” says the study’s lead author, Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University, in Connecticut, US. “You can look straight through it. You can see galaxies behind it.”

It was discovered by a special, low-tech telescope in New Mexico called the Dragonfly Telephoto Array, which consists of a bundle of 400-millimetre camera lenses of the same type used by sports photographers, and can scan the sky for large, dim objects. So far, it’s found 23 of them, but NGC 1052-DF2 (the DF is for “Dragonfly”) stood out because it wasn’t just a big, diffuse blob. [2]

1. Astrophysicists Claim They Found a 'Galaxy Without Dark Matter', Rafi Letzter, Live Science

2. Found: a galaxy devoid of dark matter, Richard A Lovett, Cosmos Magazine

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Single Atom Sensor...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 26, 2018 at 1:04pm
Image Source: Link below

Topics: Atomic Physics, Quantum Computer, Quantum Mechanics, Nanotechnology

Researchers at Griffith University working with Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) have unveiled a stunningly accurate technique for scientific measurements which uses a single atom as the sensor, with sensitivity down to 100 zeptoNewtons.

(Zepto = 10-21, or 0.000000000000000000001.)

Using highly miniaturised segmented-style Fresnel lenses - the same design used in lighthouses for more than a century - which enable exceptionally high-quality images of a single atom, the scientists have been able to detect position displacements with nanometre precision in three dimensions.

"Our atom is missing one electron, so it's very sensitive to electrical fields. By measuring the displacement, we've built a very sensitive tool for measuring electrical forces." Dr Erik Streed, of the Centre for Quantum Dynamics, explained.

"100 zeptoNewtons is a very small force. That's about the same as the force of gravity between a person in Brisbane and a person in Canberra. It can be used to investigate what's occurring on surfaces, which will help miniaturise ion trap type quantum computers and other quantum devices.

Scientists unveil high-sensitivity 3-D technique using single-atom measurements, Griffith University

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Graphic Justice

Posted by Stephen Alexander on March 26, 2018 at 6:55am

Graphic Justice is a blog that covers/studies legality and justice within comics and the comic industry. They run conventions and submit academic papers on topics related to comics every year.

They are always looking for submissions, and so I've decided to submit a legal concept article to their site. In my first book Super Humanity, the characters face a tribunal because they executed a prisoner during the Battle of Cleveland. They won because of legal technicalities. 

If you've ever wanted to write about comics and legalese together, now's your chance. 

You can find submission guidelines at the link here.

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Narcissism and Publicity...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 22, 2018 at 8:00am
Image Source: Learning-Mind.com/malignant-narcissist

Topics: Commentary, Existentialism, Politics

I've been away doing grad work and thinking about how I'm going to fund myself this summer. In our current anti-science era, it's a constant concern.
I have other concerns, most recently the Austin bomber and my family in harm's way. The shame is he didn't expire himself before taking the lives of innocent others.

An excerpt of a post from another blog I manage on this subject:

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Megan Meier thought that "Josh" loved her. The figment of a neighboring mother's imagination broke up with her and resulted in a sweet girl’s suicide.
Now we have Robert A. Hawkins in what is now the Omaha Mall shooting at the Westroads Mall: nine dead, including Robert and five injured at last count.

I'm old enough to remember when CNN debuted in 1980. Prior to that, HBO had limited showings and television shut down (the "snow" screen in the scene of the movie "Poltergeist") around 11 PM. If you were an insomniac, you REALLY had to work at it.

Not to say there weren't shootings: the UT tower incident in the '60s comes to mind. However, with 24-hour news and the Internet on which you read this commentary, becoming "famous" can happen in nanoseconds at near light speed with the voracious need for copy by the media.

Ironically, "Robert" means "bright and shining fame." I wonder if he knew this when he wrote "I'll be famous" in his suicide note?

In 2004, Nebraska ranked 41 out of 50 states in the rate of suicides recorded: 166 deaths reported in the state at a rate of 9.5. I'm getting this from http://www.suicidology.org/.

From the CNN article linked above, his landlord paraphrased: "He basically said how sorry he was for everything," Maruca Kovac said of the note. "He didn't want to be a burden to people and that he was a piece of s--- all of his life and that now he'd be famous."

Mental health in this country is a phobia, a cousin in the attic no one wants to discuss. We've all got our issues, and they can be exacerbated by the economy, social situations and most importantly, lack of treatment.

It would seem silly if someone broke an arm or the femur in their legs and tried to "play it off" as if nothing hurts. Mind you, I've had my share of hairline fractures as a martial artist that I did the same thing with, but as I get older I'm a little more cautious and check out everything, EVERYTHING with my doctor.

When will we have this attitude about mental health?

Could crime rates be the result of desperate people finding themselves in desperate situations where nefarious criminal activity makes "sense" in warped minds?

Would their be a decrease in wars if we had clear-minded leaders that steered their countries towards peace and alternate energy sources so we're not beholding to despots and dictators to drive our SUVs, pay $3 in gas and turn on a light bulb?

*****

I'm not giving an excuse for the bomber. He paraphrased Alfred Pennyworth's line in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight: "some men just want to see the world burn."

Mark Conditt was apparently such a young man. The stereotypical "lone wolf" I'm sure they'll say. "Mental issues" and troubled will be overused metaphors. Never "thug" or terrorism. Never... There's already a stance on "not knowing his motives," despite his initial targets having a distinct hue of Melanin. No word on the motives of the Pulse Nightclub shooter. Not even a word on the motives of the Las Vegas shooter. Nothing...
Perhaps it's simpler than that.
Paul Bloom in 2017 explored it in his New Yorker piece "The Root of all Cruelty?" In it, he comments on the philosopher David Livingstone Smith's book "Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others"; the historian Timothy Snyder "Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning"; "Virtuous Violence: Hurting and Killing to Create, Sustain, End, and Honor Social Relationships" by anthropologist Alan Fiske and psychologist Tage Rai; "Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny," by philosopher Kate Manne, "One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps," Andrea Pitzer and starts his piece with the apropos cultural Netflix series Black Mirror all to come to a single conclusion:

Humans suck.

It is not that the Austin bomber or any other previous to this heinous act lacked an appreciation for the diversity of humanity. It may be that he realized despite his Internet screeds to the contrary, gays, women, minorities are all human...he just didn't care that they are. He "defined his stance" on his personal blog for the world to see. I've noted no news agency, save the Dallas Morning News has reported on it.

Anyone in a free society is free to hold any opinion that s/he wishes as long as it doesn't impact others negatively.

But for a malignant narcissist, that's not good enough. It is the "other" that's responsible for their pain. It is the "other" that must suffer.

Symptoms
Narcissistic personality disorder includes symptoms such as poor self identity, inability to appreciate others, entitlement, lack of authenticity, need for control, intolerance of the views/opinions of others, emotional detachment, grandiosity, lack of awareness or concern regarding the impact of their behavior, minimal emotional reciprocity, and a desperate need for the approval and positive attention of others "How to Recognize a Malignant Narcissist," Rhonda Freeman, PhD, Psychology Today.

Malignant narcissists on a personal level can be associated with physical violence. I'm not sure if it's been correlated with domestic terrorism. However, we have never given one the nuclear codes before, nor investigated them for collusion with a hostile power; nor seen them sued by a former adult film star, an ex-playboy playmate and a former contestant on "The Apprentice" as well as many other women for sexual assault. Nary a peep from the religious right, so animated during the Bill Clinton era.

And some with Napoleonic delusions of grandeur might be willing to burn the house down while standing in it. As the walls close in, he may use his vast powers to rain down nuclear Armageddon on the human species, versus doing a "perp walk." He might kill a cellist that was a model student and hoped to be a medical doctor. Now that dream is dust. Maybe Conditt knew him, and was jealous that the cellist, Draylen Mason was African American and his currency of whiteness only allowed him to take a few classes at Austin Community College. Whether he lived or died (the latter now reality), he'd be "famous." Pflugerville, Texas was shut down after his confirmed death in "an abundance of caution" to a discovered package. The currency of whiteness could historically get you any job in the idealized past free of "others" - the unspoken, underlying id of #MAGA. Maybe Conditt was expecting such luck, and resented it not working out for him. Even one you're hopelessly unqualified for - the US presidency as case-in-point, in probably the last, best example for all time of white male privilege.

This currency is a dividend we're all paying, whether we like it or not.

Sadly, there will be another, as there were over 600 similar threats after the Parkland shooting, that will try to one-up Conditt.

The difference of my youth to now is we're surrounded by a ubiquitous deluge of information: television, radio, satellite radio, Internet, blogs and social media apps, which can be accessed on cell phones, computers and I-pads.
I grew up in an era of ABC, CBS, NBC and a few UHF stations. There was no CNN or HBO. Television stations signed off at midnight. News wasn't instantaneously spread around. It took time. There wasn't a vast stage to visit cruelty on so many innocent "others"; instant fame and infamy for twisted psyches.

We've always had malignant narcissists. They just didn't have as many platforms for amplification and echo of their ego, mayhem and fame... or, the nuclear codes.
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The Pretenders...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 19, 2018 at 7:24am
Credit: NASA, ESA; D. Coe; J. Anderson; R. van der Marel (STScI)

Topics: Astrophysics, Black Holes, Cosmology, General Relativity, Quantum Gravity

New research reveals a possible mechanism allowing “black stars” and “gravastars” to exist

When giant stars die, they don’t just fade away. Instead they collapse in on themselves, leaving behind a compressed stellar remnant, usually a city-size, superdense ball of neutrons appropriately called a neutron star. In extreme cases, however, most theorists believe an expiring giant star will form a black hole—a pointlike “singularity” with effectively infinite density and a gravitational field so powerful that not even light, the fastest thing in the universe, can escape once falling in. Now a new study is reinvigorating an alternate idea, that objects with names such as “black stars,” or “gravastars,” might exist midway between neutron stars and black holes. If real, these exotic stellar corpses should appear nearly identical to black holes save in one key way—they could not irretrievably swallow light.

There are good reasons to seek such alternatives, because black holes raise a host of theoretical problems. For instance, their singularities are supposedly hidden by invisible boundaries known as event horizons. Throw something into a black hole, and once it passes the event horizon it should be gone—forever—with no hope whatsoever of return. But such profound annihilation clashes with other long-cherished laws of physics that suggest the destruction of information is impossible, including information encoded within anything falling into black holes.

Conceived and developed across the past two decades, in part to sidestep such conundrums, models of black stars and gravastars postulate these objects would lack singularities and event horizons. But questions have lingered as to whether such objects could actually form—and remain stable after they did. New research from theoretical physicist Raúl Carballo-Rubio at the International School for Advanced Studies in Italy provides a novel mechanism that might allow black stars and gravastars to exist.

Carballo-Rubio investigated a strange phenomenon known as quantum vacuum polarization. Quantum physics, the best description yet of how all known subatomic particles behave, suggests reality is fuzzy, limiting how precisely one can know the properties of the most basic units of matter—for instance, one can never absolutely know a particle's position and momentum at the same time. One strange consequence of this uncertainty is that a vacuum is never completely empty but instead foams with so-called “virtual particles” that continuously fluctuate into and out of existence.

Black Hole Pretenders Could Really Be Bizarre Quantum Stars, Charles Q. Choi, Scientific American

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17 Minutes...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 16, 2018 at 5:43am

Topics: Commentary, Civics, Civil Rights, Existentialism, Politics

TypeMuzzle VelocityWeb Links
38 pistol       830http://www.ballistics101.com/9mm_vs_.38special.php
9-mm     1150http://www.ballistics101.com/9mm_vs_.38special.php
M-16     2900http://www.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_muzzle_velocity_for_the_m4_carbine
AR-15     3241http://www.epicwilderness.com/best-223-remington-review-ar-15-ammunition/
25-06 Deer     3440https://gunnewsdaily.com/best-caliber-for-deer-hunting/

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
The leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them. Isaiah 11:6

The Excel graph and table compares the muzzle velocities of different firearms in feet per second (FPS). The physics of bullets and bodies can be tremendously horrible, as Gina Kolata and C. J. Chivers in the New York Times attests. Maureen Downey in the Atlantic Journal Constitution reports trained police officers have an 18% accuracy rate in a gunfight. Arming teachers is not a solution towards an "armed and polite society": it is the recipe for future bloodbaths, supplied by young bodies.

In the Y2K scare days (they seem mild in comparison to current events), my oldest son was shouted "WHITE POWER" at from the front of our lawn in Cedar Park, Texas by the occupants of a passing pickup truck. It was 1999, and everyone was getting "Apocalypse crazy." I promptly went to a pawn shop and purchased a Gloc 9 mm to protect my wife and his younger brother. I've since sold it. I admit it was a reaction to what for most African Americans is a real and historical evidence-induced fear of a crazed lynch mob. It is dissimilar completely to the irrational fears chronicled in Scientific American by Jeremy Adam Smith: "Why Are White Men Stockpiling Guns?" I can pretty much guarantee it wasn't because some Panther Party member shouted "BLACK POWER" from their front lawns.

If I said my sister's name, you wouldn't find it in a history book. She, like these youth was a part of a movement. It was the reason we have the Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act (under attack) and the Fair Housing Act. It was the Civil Rights movement in the 1960's. She was and is my hero. It was a time of lambs becoming lions.

It was the youth then that drove the change in laws, first at the Woolworth counter in Greensboro that eventually got rid of the "whites only"; "blacks only" signs ubiquitous at the time. There were nervous days when she was arrested, hosed, beaten...I just become emotional typing it out. The sacrifices were not trivial then, or now.

I also become emotional when children are killed. We failed them as a nation in Sandy Hook. The imbeciles then and now that labeled the parents and now young citizens as "crisis actors" are the vilest of humanity. They are not to be argued with, but pitied.

It appears the youth have found their voice: in organizing this impressive, symbolic walkout; by organizing the March for Our Lives on the 24th of this month. Also by realizing they have another power: voting. They have promised to vote in 2018 when many will first turn 18, 2020 and thereafter.

If there had not been an assault on their peace at a place they once considered safe, they would be sharing ear buds listening to music, gossiping and arguing on social media apps. They would have looked at Civics as antiquated, something their parents concerned themselves with. Nothing about who was president or which party was in power would have mattered. For the children at Parkland, nothing changed their fortunate and quite privileged lives...except the massacre visited on their doorsteps last Valentine's Day. The irony is like the opioid crisis vs. the crack cocaine epidemic, the difference in approach tends to correlate with zip codes. Black Lives Matter was their most recent prototype for the usage of social media to prove a point.

No more. Without specifically mentioning "intersectionality," their online, in-person and grass roots rainbow campaign has remarkably achieved it.

There will be those who tell them unceremoniously to "shut up." There will be threats both frivolous and genuinely deadly. There may be nervous days, hosing, beatings and worse. Don't listen and don't let them kowtow you. You are STRONGER than you know; you are stronger than THEM - and they KNOW it. Reagan won the youth vote 61 - 30 in the 1980's. They can't do that anymore. Jonathan Chait of NY Magazine says you are younger, more diverse, more liberal and know your power. They - the old, ossified fossils - are dying off, and they are TERRIFIED.

Children - then, and now - will lead us. It is always when lambs are slaughtered, lions are eventually stirred, and roar.

Analog signs have been supplemented with websites. Fliers have been updated to Facebook Live and Snap Chat. They are still marching as did their ancestors. That's what lions do.

10:00 am, children walked out en masse on the one month observance of the massacre when people are usually struggling with restaurant invitations, candies given to sweethearts or lamentations of not having one. 17 minutes for 17 lives lost.

The 15th of February, during African American History Month, they became adults; they became LIONS. You've taken "social justice warrior" from pejorative to movement.

#ENOUGH!...and thank you.

Related links:

A generation raised on gun violence sends a clear message to adults: Enough is enough, Holly Yan and Emanuella Grinberg, CNN

Brittany Packnett: This is how we talk about the black victims of gun violence in America, Anthony Smith, MIC

ALABAMA 2-YEAR-OLD KILLS HIS 1-YEAR-OLD BROTHER IN ACCIDENTAL SHOOTING, Ryan Sit, Newsweek (13 March 18)

Three Accidental School Shootings in One Week — the Latest by a Teacher in a Gun Safety Class, Mark Keierleber, The 74 Million (14 March 18)

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Pi Departure...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 15, 2018 at 7:30am
Poker with Data, Einstein, Hawking, and Sir Isaac Newton on the Holodeck

Filming the scene with Professor Hawking

Images from Star Trek tribute to Professor Hawking

Topics: Physics, Physics and Pop Culture, Star Trek, Stephen Hawking

BBC: World renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has died at the age of 76.

He died peacefully at his home in Cambridge in the early hours of Wednesday, his family said.

The British scientist was famed for his work with black holes and relativity, and wrote several popular science books including A Brief History of Time.

There are a myriad of tributes to Professor Hawking from around the world. It is apropos for him, as well as poetic he passed on Pi Day and Albert Einstein's 139th birthday. Both were extraordinary and complicated men.

Less so than the world we live in, where a former campaign manager in France says to a right wing Le Pen crown to where their racism "as a badge of honor." That the president* he helped a foreign government select for us called the nations on the birth continent of the human species as well as Caribbean nations "s--- hole countries."

We are being pushed inexorably from the Age of Enlightenment into the overbearing arms of our lesser angels. Professor Carl Sagan's "candle in the dark" is being snuffed by bigotry, homophobia, misogyny, xenophobia and every "ism" you can modify a noun with. The Dark Ages were about scientific ignorance as well as emotional and irrational fear. Some of us seem determined that those were our "better days."

He wasn't supposed to live beyond his twenties. Perhaps with something like his pluck and determination, we can beat back fascism as he defied the odds of his own existence.

Perhaps...

BBC: Stephen Hawking: Visionary physicist dies aged 76

Nature: Stephen Hawking (1942–2018)

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Si Qubits and Quantum Computers...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on March 14, 2018 at 11:59am
Artist’s impression of the two-qubit logic gate device developed at UNSW. Each of the two electron qubits (red and blue) has a spin, or magnetic field, indicated by the arrow directions. Metal electrodes on the surface are used to manipulate the qubits, which interact to create an entangled quantum state. (credit: Tony Melov/UNSW)

Topics: Computer Science, Quantum Computer, Quantum Mechanics

A new two-qubit quantum processor that is fully programmable and single electron spins that can be coherently coupled to individual microwave-frequency photons are two of the latest advances in the world of solid-state spin-based quantum computing. The breakthroughs could help in the development of large-scale spin-based processors in the future.

While classical computers store and process information as "bits" that can have one of two logic states – "0" or "1" – a quantum computer exploits the ability of quantum particles or bits (qubits) to be in a "superposition" of two or more states at the same time. Such a device could, in principle, outperform a classical computer on certain tasks, such as factoring large prime numbers and sorting large random lists, thanks to it being massively parallel.

In recent years, researchers have succeeded in making qubits from a number of solid-state materials, including semiconducting quantum dots and superconductors. Semiconductor spin qubits appear to be better for a number of reasons. For one, they last for a relatively long time before decohering (interacting with their environment). They can also be controlled electrically and can be integrated with high density on a chip.

The problem, however, is that it is still difficult to control the state of individual spin qubits and intertwine multiple qubits in a controlled way.

Silicon qubits show promise for quantum computers, Belle Dumé, Nanotechweb.org

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The Time Telescope: Season One

Posted by Christopher Love on March 11, 2018 at 8:54pm

CONTACT ME: I am seeking Reviewers. Free Book will be shipped to you.

Historical Bureau of Investigation Agents Tad Jones and Kim Davis research history with 
The Time Telescope in order to reconnect with their history due to the Great Cataclysm. 

They discover individuals such as Sybil Ludington, Squanto and Crispus Attucks and more. 

But what happens when they are TRAPPED in the past. 

Will they ever return to the 23rd Century? 

History and Science meet at The Time Telescope.

https://www.facebook.com/thetimetelescope/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQHJ5T-qLZw

The Graphic Novel and Ebook will be available on June 1st 2018 thru
Amazon, Indyplanet and Comixology.

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Wattpad Journey

Posted by Leah Ashton on March 8, 2018 at 9:53pm

I have been on a site called Wattpad for almost a year now. I like that this website is for undiscovered writers.

I currently have four stories on here. One has a ghost in it, two have Mermaids and one also includes werewolves and witches.

 I feel a little odd writing about witches, as I have never seen any African American Wiccans or witches for that matter. I guess they are out there just like the rest of the supernaturals. I keep running into brief spells of writers block and then suddenly I get an idea.

I have been trying to learn how to finish my ideas instead of stopping and starting again. My main thing with Wattpad is that while I have about 17 followers, only two commented. I use the feedback I get to revise my stories, if I don't get anything then I end up unpublishing the story.

Aside from that I enjoy it. My daughter is a writer on there too.

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I Am Not Your Negro...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 28, 2018 at 1:11pm
James Baldwin, in the new documentary I Am Not Your Negro. Dan Budnik/Magnolia Pictures

Topics: African Americans, Civil Rights, Diaspora, Diversity, Diversity in Science, History, Women in Science

A Facebook post I made responding to some of the president's* supporters wanting a "white history month" (last chance to disengage before the rant):

365 - 28 = 337 freaking days! You freaked out over President Obama when you had 232 years of white male rule that only changed parties. You freaked out on Black Panther, when you had THREE Thor movies. Speaking of which, you freaked out when Idris Elba played Heimdall and Tessa Thompson played Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarök. You lost it when Kate Mulgrew played Captain Janeway on Star Trek Voyager; you had a conniption fit over Avery Brooks as Commander, then Captain Benjamin Sisko on Star Trek Deep Space Nine and you almost had a Grand Mal seizure over Sonequa Martin-Green on Star Trek Discovery! Don’t let me get started on how the sad/rabid puppies attacked NK Jemisin on having the audacity to WIN the Hugo and Nebula Awards for EXCELLENT science fiction that didn't center around gene spliced clones of Buck Rogers, John Wayne, James T Kirk and Han Solo! In other words, how emotionally butt-hurt do you have to be where ANYTHING that doesn’t involve your culture as front-and-center of the plot line is an all-hands-on-deck existential crisis? Get some therapy and switch to Decaf!

Rant over. Read the title and listen to the embed videos. Definition with ramrod straightened back follows. Blog break during spring break next week and the rest of this one to prep for midterms. \\//_

Definition of negritude (Merriam Webster)
1 : a consciousness of and pride in the cultural and physical aspects of the African heritage
2 : the state or condition of being black

The Harlem Renaissance inspired Negritude. Authors such as Claude McKay and Langston Hughes laid groundwork for black expression. Senghor, Damas and Césaire together drew influence from their work. Other artistic influences were jazz and earlier fin-de-siècle poets such as Rimbaud, Mallarmé and Baudelaire.

Negritude responded to the alienated position of blacks in history. The movement asserted an identity for black people around the world that was their own. For Césaire and Damas, from Martinique and French Guiana, the rupture from Africa through the Atlantic Slave Trade was a great part of their cultural understanding. Their work told of the frustration and loss of their motherland. For Senegalese Senghor, his works focused more on African traditionalism. In ways the assertion of each poet diverges from each other, but the combination of different perspectives is also what fueled and fed Negritude. Black Past dot org: Negritude

Fimmaker Raoul Peck's Oscar-nominated documentary I Am Not Your Negro features the work of the late writer, poet, and social critic James Baldwin. Baldwin's writing explored race, class and sexuality in Western society, and at the time of his death in 1987, he was working on a book, Remember This House. It was never completed, but his notes for that project became the foundation for Peck's I Am Not Your Negro.

Among those notes was a letter J Baldwin wrote to his literary agent, Jay Acton, in 1979. In that letter, he wrote that he wanted to explore the lives of three of his civil rights movement contemporaries and close personal friends: Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X. "I want these three lives to bang against and reveal each other as in truth they did," he wrote, "and use their dreadful journey as a means of instructing the people whom they loved so much who betrayed them and for whom they gave their lives."

Peck had been wanting to make a film about Baldwin for years, but he says it felt like an impossible one to make. When he first read Baldwin's letter, he knew he had the basis for that film. "I had access to those notes, which for me was the real opening I needed to address the film I wanted to make — which was how do I make sure that people today come back to Baldwin and the important writer that he was, and the important words that he have written, and [have] this well-needed confrontation with reality today with words that he wrote 40, 50 years ago?"

The Haitian-born filmmaker has been a fan of Baldwin's writing since he was a teenager. "He helped me understand the world I was in," Peck says. "He helped me understand America. He helped me understand the place I was given in this country."

'I Am Not Your Negro' Gives James Baldwin's Words New Relevance

Mallory Yu, NPR, heard on "All Things Considered"

Related link:

Tamron Hall: Unapologetically black and American, Jonathan Capehart, Washington Post

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Dr. Pamela McCauley...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 22, 2018 at 9:00am
Dr. Pamela McCauley Bush

Topics: African Americans, Civil Rights, Diaspora, Diversity, Diversity in Science, History, Women in Science

Engineer, Educator, Leader & Entrepreneur

Dr. Pamela McCauley is an ergonomics and biomechanics expert, an internationally acclaimed keynote speaker, a Professor and Director of the Ergonomics Laboratory in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems at the University of Central Florida where she leads the Human Factors and Ergonomics in Disaster Management Research Team. She previously held the position of Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

She is the author of over 80 technical papers, book chapters, conference proceedings and the best-selling ergonomics textbook, Ergonomics: Foundational Principles, Applications, and Technologies. Many of her leadership, diversity, innovation and STEM education related keynote talks draw from her research-based book; Transforming Your STEM Career Through Leadership and Innovation: Inspiration and Strategies for Women, which examines the growing need for leadership and innovation in America, particularly among women and STEM professionals. To inspire students, particularly minorities and females, to consider careers in STEM, she authored, Winners Don’t Quit…Today they Call Me Doctor, in which she shares her challenging yet inspirational journey to engineering success despite financial, academic and personal difficulties.

Dr. McCauley is an award-winning educator often described as an “outstanding” professor and “enthusiastic” teacher. Her teaching efforts have resulted in the receipt of both the College of Engineering Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the Teaching Incentive Program Award (TIP). She is also the recipient of the National 2015 Black Engineer of the Year Award for Educational Leadership and the Promotion of College-Level Education.

The U.S. State Department awarded Dr. McCauley the prestigious Jefferson Science Fellowship for the 2015-2016 term. Jefferson Science Fellowships are distinguished appointments to senior academics based on their stature, recognition, and experience in the national and international scientific or engineering communities, and their ability to rapidly and accurately understand scientific advancements outside their discipline area to effectively integrate this knowledge into U.S. Department of State/USAID policy discussions.

Dr. McCauley has the distinction of being a 2012 U.S. Fulbright Scholar Specialist Program Awardee for her US-New Zealand Human Engineering and Mobile Technology in High Consequence Emergency Management Research Program. Due to her extensive expertise in biomechanics, human factors, and ergonomic design, Dr. McCauley is a highly sought Certified Professional Ergonomist (C.P.E.) and Expert Witness.

Website: Dr. Pamela McCauley

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