Have you ever wondered about the mystery of the human race and the so called evolution of people in according to movies? I have seen many movies and love the science fiction genre but i always tend to wonder how i don't know how many times where in the blazes black people went. Did we all die off first? Were we like the game show the Weakest link? Did we all die off first like in every movie if so the animal kingdom is prejudiced and seriously love them some dark meat. Did white people turn into cannibals and eat us all like chicken? Exactly what happens to us in all of the movies and shows television shows alike. Did we all turn on each other and tear each other apart? Somebody has got to have an answer out there or am i just tripping. And lets talk superheroes.....Really??? Does everyone have to have Black in front of their name?? Black Lightning!Black Goliath! The Black Panther!!!! Dun dun dun!!!!! Hello where are the Latino heroes? No where in every movie they are either dirt poor in the hood or drug dealers for some cartel with a cliche background of drugs or gang raised. And not a father figure to be found Really???? Why are all of the portrayals negative? So what did they catch that disease too and die off with us in the future? Last week i saw a post on FB of a 14 year old black student graduating from college the youngest ever! Where are all of these bright stars now like him. Did somebody just tuck them away somewhere and experiment on them in a lab or something? Why haven't we changed things yet? Why are we the most of the homeless in america? Why are we the most unemployed in America? Why are we not more successful in business and life then we are. And why is it that when we think we have arrived we shut the door on where we came from and pretend we don't belong to our past by not helping anyone else to get there? It's not really that difficult to see when you step away and think about it. I thought about this for a long time as i traveled the world in the military. Being away makes you think about home a lot and reflect on your experiences and life while away. Things like why someone like Terry Crews hasn't even been considered for a superhero role i mean seriously everyone in Hollywood has to go through hell in training to look like that and he is that way everyday of the year. What about Michael Jai White? Have you seen Blood and Bone turn that man loose and give him a suit! He could actually kick everybody else's butt without breaking a sweat! So tell me why hasn't anyone written something that he could take on and own? Its simple because the people who own Hollywood don't want it so what do we do? Why hasn't anyone done anything about it yet? Producers? Black producers and heavyweights in Hollywood?? Why do we mistrust each other so much that we cant pull this off? Its laughably easy to do so why haven't we? Is everyone that jaded that they wont work as a team for not even one thing to work? Is our pride that bad that we cant support each other? Did we forget where we came from like our moms used to say? My mom died a couple of years ago and her words of wisdom are like gold to me now. Things haven't changed a bit if they only knew and understood that the money they spent on those new shoes would buy stock in the same companies and the long term would get them the credit and cash they need to live by. There is a way.... to be continued tomorrow.
Featured Posts (3478)
Sort by
Excerpt from Terror on Telderan
"Walls of the great chamber where alliance meetings were held were covered with fine priceless art gathered from various galaxies through the years. Soft blue lighting emanating from the oval table lit the room.
Lazon’s Apex was the first to arrive, his long tan robe fluttered behind him as he briskly approached his seat at the head of the oval glass table. Shortly after his arrival the Emperor of Natropi entered the chamber, he was followed by King Ashnar of Deltor, Elder Manook from the planet Tygalon, King Zerlious of Xanar, and the Supreme Ruler of the water planet Nep’o. One by one the members entered the room, greeted each other and sat down on one of the gray high back chairs. Each chair was equipped with a panel concealing buttons and switches allowing members to vote or view images on the glass table in front of them. When the sixteenth member took his seat the Apex glanced over at the empty chair once occupied by the ruler of Otar and began the meeting."
- Free
- Available on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac.
- https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/terror-on-telderan/id365937820?mt=11
Smashwords
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/9290
Barnes and Knoble
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/terror-on-telderan-lawrence-johnson-sr/1020987242?type=eBook
Amazon Kindle
Terror on Telderan: Prequel to Escape 2 Earth (Escape 2 Earth Short Story Series)
Greetings everyone!
My short story, Kingdom of Lethe is FREE to download from amazon.com for the next three days only.
STORY DETAILS
Title: Kingdom of Lethe
Author: Tonya R. Moore
Genre: Science Fiction (futuristic, steampunk)
Blurb: a new case drags a detective into the strange world of a woman claims her beautiful memories have been stolen.
Click the link below to Download :
The regular price for this Kindle ebook is $2.99, so please try to download a copy while it's still free.
About the Author
'm a Jamaican writer of speculative fiction–short stories, web serials, and novelettes. Currently living in Florida, I'm pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing and English with a concentration in Fiction.
Homepage: https://tonyarmoore.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tonya_writes
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tonya.writer
 |
| "Plasma Stingray" Leaving on a plasma plane Future Workshop Electrofluidsystems TU Berlin |
Topics: Aeronautical Engineering, Green Tech, Plasma Physics
Plasma jet engines were initially the fanfare of science fiction, and in theory quite practical. In the weightless and vacuum of space, it could propel astronauts to Mars in a little over a month, as in the case of the VASIMR project by NASA.
The caveat to this is that electrical plants are in and of themselves massive affairs, and typically not flight worthy or aerodynamic.
This will require thought, creativity, engineering miniaturization (likely exploiting nanotechnology designs yet dreamed or drafted) and above all: national will. It would be thrilling to work on such a project and bring such devices into existence. The roar of jet engines at airports and service shows could be reduced (in my imagination) to a hum and a distant memory. This could be the beginning of shuttle designs for ascending to orbital space stations or decent from mother ships on distant worlds.
Sadly, since traditional jet engines use fossil fuels, I can foresee armies of lobbyists and current industries invested in keeping the status quo allied against this endeavor.
As the oft stated colloquialism goes: "This is why we can't have nice things."
FORGET fuel-powered jet engines. We’re on the verge of having aircraft that can fly from the ground up to the edge of space using air and electricity alone.
Traditional jet engines create thrust by mixing compressed air with fuel and igniting it. The burning mixture expands rapidly and is blasted out of the back of the engine, pushing it forwards.
Instead of fuel, plasma jet engines use electricity to generate electromagnetic fields. These compress and excite a gas, such as air or argon, into a plasma – a hot, dense ionised state similar to that inside a fusion reactor or star.
Plasma engines have been stuck in the lab for the past decade or so. And research on them has largely been limited to the idea of propelling satellites once in space.
Berkant Göksel at the Technical University of Berlin and his team now want to fit plasma engines to planes. “We want to develop a system that can operate above an altitude of 30 kilometres where standard jet engines cannot go,” he says. These could even take passengers to the edge of the atmosphere and beyond.
The challenge was to develop an air-breathing plasma propulsion engine that could be used for take-off as well as high-altitude flying.
New Scientist:
Plasma jet engines that could take you from the ground to space
Sandrine Ceurstemont
Related link
Scientific American:
Young Scientist Makes Jet Engines Leaner and Cleaner with Plasma
Melissa C. Lott
 |
| Computer virus bomb. Credit: Hiroshi Watanabe Getty Images |
Topics: Biology, Computer Science, Medical Physics, Politics, Research
I use Opera almost exclusively because it allows me to surf with a personal VPN I've set up. I don't know what measures mobile phone providers are coming up with countermeasures for the malware that makes the Internet the wild west. As a nation, we have the self-inflicted wound of a "healthcare" system that is oxymoron, less geared towards service than profitability. The dollars swimming in their stock portfolios makes the greedy inadvertently along with all of us targets.
My father's advice still rings true: "locks are made for honest people."
Hospitals and medical devices in the U.S. are extremely vulnerable to the type of massive cyber attack that tore through more than 150 countries Friday, and some health care providers here may have already been—or soon will be—hit, cybersecurity analysts warn.
The attack relied on a type of malicious software called ransomware, which keeps users from accessing their computer systems until they pay a ransom. The pernicious new strain, aptly named WannaCry, froze or slowed business and health care computer systems around the world, including several within the U.K.’s National Health Service.
The malware exploits a vulnerability in the Windows operating system that many system administrators have not yet patched—including at many U.S. hospitals, experts warn. Moreover, WannaCry does not distinguish between a computer, smartphone or medical device. And, unlike the case with many other cyber attacks, a user need not click a link to unknowingly install it; if a health care system is connected to the internet and using an outdated system, the malware can find it and infect it.
Scientific American: U.S. Hospitals Not Immune to Crippling Cyber Attacks
Dina Fine Maron
 |
| Image Source: Link below |
IBM Research has built its most powerful quantum chips yet, and is putting them up for use by researchers via the cloud.
The most impressive of its new chips is a prototype that uses 17 of the quantum equivalent of digital bits known as qubits. That’s up from five last year, and more than the nine that were featured in a device recently tested by Google. Like some of Google’s other latest quantum chips, IBM is starting to lay out qubits in orientations where they sit side by side. In the past it’s been hard to do that and ensure that the hardware still works, but the fact that it’s now achievable suggests that scaling up the devices even further will be plausible in the future.
The second of the new chips, pictured above, features 16 qubits, which makes it less powerful than the larger chip. But this device is robust enough that IBM is using it to upgrade its online service, which allows any researcher to test algorithms on quantum chips. The previous version of the service, which was part of the first-ever head-to-head quantum computer race, used the firm’s five-qubit chip. Meanwhile, the 17-qubit device will be opened up to just a handful of specific researchers to test.
MIT Technology Review:IBM Nudges Ahead in the Race for Quantum Supremacy, Jamie Condliffe
 |
| A photographer takes a picture of the inside of a prototype of a drift tube of the new linear accelerator Linac 4, the newest accelerator acquisition since the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which is due to feed the CERN accelerator complex with particle beams of higher energy, during its inauguration at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Meyrin near Geneva, Switzerland, May 9, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse |
Topics: Cancer, CERN, High Energy Physics, Particle Physics, Quantum Mechanics
A new particle accelerator unveiled at CERN, the European physics research center, is expected to spawn portable accelerators that could help doctors treat cancer patients and experts analyze artwork.
CERN is gradually upgrading its hardware to get more data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), its 27-km (17-mile) circular accelerator that smashes protons together at almost the speed of light to probe basic questions about the universe.
Its latest upgrade, resembling a 90-metre oil pipeline hooked up to a life support machine, replaces the 39-year-old injector that produces the flow of particles for the LHC.
Standing by the new Linac 4 machine, which cost 93 million Swiss francs ($93 million) and took 10 years to build, project leader Maurizio Vretenar said CERN had miniaturized the technology and saw many potential uses.
"It's a brave new world of applications," he told Reuters in Linac 4's tunnel 12 meters under Geneva.
CERN has already built a version to treat tumors with particle beams and licensed the patent to ADAM, a CERN spin-off owned by Advanced Oncotherapy.
Another medical use is to create isotopes for diagnosing cancers. Since they decay rapidly, they normally have to be rushed to patients just in time to be used.
Reuters Science: New CERN particle accelerator may help both doctors and art sleuthsTom Miles
 |
| Image Source: Poem Hunter |
This is not just the power of comedy, it is the arts in particular: acting, miming, music, painting, poetry, sculpture: during the <="" a="">, it is the arts that usually the first to rise up in opposition to tyranny. It is unique that science has left the labs and taken to the streets. STEM adds to it STEAM; we are all part of the nine muses.
The FCC is leading a faux investigation into the late night comedian Stephen Colbert using the bleeped "cock holster," yet apparently silent about the current resident of the country's seat of power using the phrase "grab 'em by the p----" in a Hollywood Access hot mic moment (they'll say he was a candidate then, and it didn't count). The bar for acceptable presidential behavior has obviously been substantially lowered.
Comics in particular, from court jesters, Bill Maher and Jon Stewart have a knack to point out the absurd under the cover of levity. We laugh as we are informed, meanwhile the much maligned mainstream media is always in the hunt for Nielsen Ratings, in a precarious balancing act between financial viability and Constitutional duties.
Some, like Al Franken put down the shtick long enough to run for public office and become effective in the senate, perhaps replacing Ted Kennedy as its "lion."
Democratic republics are not like microwave popcorn: they don't just "work" when you set the timer and walk away. They require a vigilant citizenry and engagement in every election that occurs in your municipality. Otherwise, the horror vacui will be filled by dark money and not in line with the goals of the citizens of a republic.
Whether this one survives is not exactly a laughing matter.
This is the fun story of a man, his mom, and her girlfriend who have to save the multiverse. It may be the only story you ever read that makes quantum physics both violent and sexy. Click the link to get issues 1 & 2 of Legends Parallel for free. The link will be taken offline Sunday night at Midnight (CT/US).
A Tale of Cats versus Evil
A haughty woman festooned in heavy brass jewelry, the tacky kind, loud, banging and discordant, stands looking at a rhyming dragon who is gazing into a viewing pool with her.
The dragon is an unextraordinary member of his species. His scales are dull, coated in coal dust, his musculature, once mighty has the look of an athlete past his prime; a bit pudgy in the middle and soft overall. His wings, while still mighty from lifting his massive bulk, droop whenever he is on the ground too long and the flesh between the skeletal frame, flap loosely, like poorly hung drapes.
His countenance is one of supreme unhappiness, his fanged head hanging low, nearly dipping in the viewing pool. It would not take much imagination to see him drowning himself. Their hellish surrounds sizzle with fiery tendrils that rise up from the molten earth, a part of the Stygian underworld, rife with the screams of the damned, their cries an unending concerto adding to the misery flowing through the air; surely an unpleasant place, at best.
The woman’s mouth is tight and she speaks through clenched teeth, her displeasure evident as she points her finger directly into the dragon’s smoking visage. He winces and responds. “‘Where the sun touches the Earth.’ That was such a vague clue.” He whimpers. “How was I supposed to know the answer to the riddle was in the Arctic Circle and it mean the aurora borealis?”
Her answer sizzles like a hand on a griddle; a hand held there against its will. “You are supposed to be a Rhyming Dragon, one of the riddle-masters of Stygia. Supposedly one of the finest minds of daemon-kind. Answers are supposed to be your stock in trade.”
“We don’t get National Geographic in Hell. No auroras either. Until last month, we didn’t even get the Internet. Until I checked Wikipedia, I didn’t even know what an aurora was.” He turns his head away looking at an imaginary bit of lint on his tail.
“No matter, the Conjunction of Worlds is already taking place. Can you take me to where the Goddess will arrive?”
“Yes, I can, but we may already be too late.”
“Hope for your sake, we’re not.” She climbs onto the neck of the dragon and he wheels away into the Stygian sky. The Woman in Brass, gestures and a portal begins to form in the distance. The demon climbs before diving through the portal into the Harrowing, the voidway between worlds.
Semii jumps up onto the desk of the Man and surveys his work. With his tail waving back and forth, his posture spoke eloquently of impatience, hinting anxiety, his tail stiff with the very tip flickering back and forth.
The digital representation of the goddess Bas-Tet on the widescreen monitor is sublime perfection. Semii presses his cheek against the screen, basking in the bliss that is Bas-Tet. Meanwhile his brothers are outside standing watch, just in case the Evil is able to detect what they were doing before they were ready. Fat Boy positively glows with power and Big Red looks as menacing as Semii has ever seen him. The two of them are outside watching the Ways hoping to see anyone approaching. But the most dangerous task of freeing the goddess would still fall to him.
“Man, will this work? We don’t have much time.” The Man was a genius with computers, but revealing to him the secrets of magic may have been too much. The battle against the forces of Evil was supposed to remain part of the Secret Lives of Cats.
“You know I have a name?” The Man looks at the Cat he believed was HIS pet only to discover their roles were actually reversed and it was he who is being guarded and protected from an unknown threat, his cat does not deem him important enough to know about.
“Yes, you have a name and we are forbidden to use it. Names have power. We never use yours to prevent Evil from gaining control over you. Have you finished the task at hand?”
“Semii, this digital representation is an exact reproduction of the piece of wall at the museum. I have used over fifty high resolution images. If your magic is as good as you say, this image will be perfect.”
Walking across the keyboard as he had done so many times in the past, Semii stood and nuzzled the man under the chin. “You know I can’t let you remember any of this. She would never forgive me if she knew you were aware of our Secret.”
“If you erase my memory, how will I know if this works?”
“If you look up at sunrise and the chariot of the Sun God Ra does not appear, you will know something is wrong.”
“No pressure, huh?”
“No. Not a bit. You may pet me now. Mmmm. You will forget this when I am gone. Life will return to what it was before. My brothers will keep you safe while I am gone.”
“So you guys are doing things like this all the time? Saving the world and preventing Evil?”
“Yes. Of course. We have done this for your entire existence. Without Cats, Humanity would not even exist. You would have starved to death overcome by Rats, Ignorance or some other dreaded catastrophe. You may thank me with an extra treat from the special stash on the top of the refrigerator when I return.”
“Have I ever helped you before?”
“No. But if this works, I may call upon you again. But it will remain our secret.”
“Good luck, Cat.”
Semii jumps up into the lap of his Man and waves his tail creating the sigil of Horus in the air. “Thank you, Man.” With a bounding leap, he jumps directly toward the monitor and passes through the glass with only the tiniest of ripples. The Man smiles, shakes his head and falls asleep.
The cat lands on the tundra grass and flexes his toes into the tough permafrost. Nasty place. Glad I don’t live here. He looks up and sees the moon already deeply in eclipse. With his legs flashing in the fading moonlight he runs forward into the night. The aurora forms in the distance, first tiny wisps, growing stronger with each passing minute.
“Hurry, my champion, the time draws near, I need you to anchor my passage.”
“I am coming, my Goddess. As fast as my frozen body will allow. Was there no other point you could have come through? Someplace with a tropical climate? You do remember we are descended from desert dwellers.”
“Yes, my child, I do. Please forgive my imposition. If we escape, I promise we will go somewhere warm. Beware, two Stygians approach.”
“I sense them, but they will not stop me from arriving in time.” The night lit up as an explosion of fiery venom shook the ground near the running cat.
The dragon swooped out of the night sky, his passenger clinging tight to his neck. “You missed.”
“Mistress, I am a Rhymer, not a fighter. My venom glands don’t get much use.”
“Then perhaps you would make a better floor covering than Rhyming dragon.” A second and more accurate burst of venom flies from the dragon’s mouth. Only a split-second bound saves Semii from disintegration. The shockwave from the exploding venom sends him flying into the frozen grass, inert and still.
“Land there.” The dragon lands and his body glows with heat. His feet sink into the permafrost as he melts the ground around him. His passenger, wearing the skin of a human woman, rises from his prostrated neck and lightly floats just above the icy ground. As she walks across the ice, the aurora grows brighter and the sky sizzles with electrical energy.
She find Semii lying on the ground with smoke rising from his tiny body. “I found you, you little bastard. Your trick was good, but it wasn’t enough. I will stop your goddess and her kin from returning. This is the ascendancy of daemons, no gods need apply.”
She picked his tiny body and looked into his one open eye as she began to squeeze his neck, choking him. She rejoices inwardly as his lifeforce slowly fades away. He spasms one last time and then hangs still in her hand. Curiosity overwhelms her and she brings his tiny body close to her face, amazed that something so tiny could be so much trouble.
Semii suddenly struck out, slashing the arm, face and the eye of the woman, flipping about and landing on his feet to streak away into the tundra grass. The woman screams and clutches her face with one hand. With the other she sends forth bolts of power that landed wildly onto the tundra.
“You don’t know much about Cats do you?” The dragon’s voice was quiet. “You know they have nine lives, right? Do they even brief you guys before they send you into the world anymore?”
“That’s a myth.”
“So are we. That’s gonna leave a nasty scar. Wounds from Cats never heal.”
A furious scream rises up from the tundra as the moon darkened completely and the aurora lit up the sky, swirling and crackling and off in the distance touches the Earth, just for a moment. Leaping into the arms of his goddess, a cat rejoices.
Where the Sun Touches the Earth (Cats versus Evil) © Thaddeus Howze 2012, All Rights Reserved
 |
| Battle of Puebla - Wikipedia |
If you do a search on the words "Cinco de Mayo" on the blog, this post as well as many others come up celebrating Hispanic/Latino Heritage and diversity. I re-post last year's entry as it was during the divisive campaign that as I say in this rendering, now "has us here" with the same xenophobia that is sweeping across Europe with Russian assistance, ushering in (as Chris Hedges writes) a Reign of Idiots.
Now...they have repealed the Affordable Care Act in the House (originally a republican idea), mostly as a reaction to their own pejorative "Obamacare," not caring that if it had a snowball's chance of passing the Senate, their own constituents will bear the brunt of losing healthcare coverage. As with the former president, it is image of brown people dancing in their heads as they take a "victory lap." Apparently being a woman, rape or domestic violence is a "preexisting condition." The definitions for dystopia and sadomasochism are more descriptive and accurate for what happened yesterday. Other nations have universal healthcare, some of them not exactly our friends. This is essentially a tax break poorly disguised as healthcare reform.
Today is Cinco de Mayo. Dreamers told to "rest easy" are being deported. Hispanic/Latino culture is appropriated and commercialized in the USA from foods, fashion and Mariachi Bands. Like other contributions from people of color: Jazz, Rock and Roll, Hip Hop; the BANJO - America is willing to appropriate their traditions, claiming them as their own, and disrespect the people that originated them.
November 6, 2018 is the date of US midterms. Silence or apathy is compliance.
Important link: Indivisible Guide. Last year's post past the asterisks.
Note: Blog vacation. Back in a week.
*****The presumptive nominee of one of our major political parties used a xenophobic attack against Hispanics/Latinos - he called them drug dealers and rapists; he'll build a wall, and make Mexico pay for it; Muslims are barred at the border; African Americans have been injured and denigrated at his rallies; Women and LGBT have been insulted; Native Americans were burned by him in a bad casino deal. He's stirred the melting pot and bigots have bubbled out of the cauldron, the 2012 autopsy all but ignored. Someone commented to me that their father "didn't leave the Democratic Party in 1967; it left him." I bit my own tongue at the political dodge: the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act may have had something to do with his father's exodus, as it did many others. The hashtag movement to oppose the rise of the presumptive nominee has fallen to dust.
It is befitting today I repost this reminder of our diversity. I make no predictions and take nothing for granted. 538 and a lot of pundits predicted demises that didn't materialize. All the models were based on typical political science rules in elective politics. He is not following the rules: he's wrestling, WWE style.
I was 18 in 1980. I could at that time, drink as well as vote; the drinking age was raised to 21 when I turned 21 three years later, so it didn't impact me as much as generations afterwards. I voted along the party lines of my parents, affected by a party that championed the '64 and '65 acts my sister put her life on the line in demonstration lines for. The "Gipper" posed at his first rally in Philadelphia, Mississippi near the site of three murdered Civil Rights workers. It was an understood "wink and nod" at a group of disgruntled, disappointed and bigoted voters soon known as "Reagan Democrats." Using the dark machinations of the "Southern Strategy," so clearly elucidated by Lee Atwater, you will eventually get what you want: take from "them" because "they" didn't earn anything, despite a holocaust born of a mass continental kidnapping, rape, hangings, cross burning, domestic terrorism in the form of poll taxes and other voter suppression, castrations and reparations deferred forever. You did it with subtle, verbal Jujitsu; not openly as now: Moochers...Welfare Queens...Takers...Thugs...Rapists...all with a distinct hue in the gradient of Melanin. This has been one long backlash to the "established order" since January 20, 2009, when things got so terrible for many that bought into the myth of their inherit superiority. The president's main sin is the destruction of a narrative as long as the republic.
I make no predictions, but I give a sharp warning: Reagan was joked about in "Back To The Future" (Doc Brown: Who's president in 1985? Marty: Ronald Reagan. Doc Brown: The actor?), because as a B-Movie star, his only notable film was "Bedtime for Bonzo." Biff Tannen, the antagonist to Marty McFly's father - is based off the same real estate mogul, the Birther-in-Chief and reality TV star that is his party's presumptive nominee.
B-Movie actor...reality TV star... "What's past is prologue." William Shakespeare.
Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for "fifth of May") is a celebration held on May 5. It is celebrated nationwide in the United States and regionally in Mexico, primarily in the state of Puebla, where the holiday is called El Dia de la Batalla de Puebla (English: The Day of the Battle of Puebla). The date is observed in the United States as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride, and to commemorate the cause of freedom and democracy during the first years of the American Civil War. In the state of Puebla, the date is observed to commemorate the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín. Contrary to widespread popular belief, Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico's Independence Day—the most important national patriotic holiday in Mexico—which is actually celebrated on September 16. (Wikipedia)
The National Society of Hispanic Physicists has a recognition page of Hispanic Americans in Physics - Past, Present and Future. Similar to what I posted during the month of February, my intention is to give the same attention to Hispanic Scientists and Engineers during the celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month.
Almost 10 years before "Brown vs. Board of Education," Sylvia Mendez and her parents helped end school segregation in California. An American citizen of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage who spoke and wrote perfect English, Mendez was denied enrollment to a "Whites only" school. Her parents took action by organizing the Hispanic community and filing a lawsuit in federal district court. Their success eventually brought an end to the era of segregated education in California.Praise for "Separate is Never Equal" by Duncan TonatiuhSTARRED REVIEWS"Tonatiuh masterfully combines text and folk-inspired art to add an important piece to the mosaic of U.S. civil rights history."--"Kirkus Reviews," starred review"Younger children will be outraged by the injustice of the Mendez family story but pleased by its successful resolution. Older children will understand the importance of the 1947 ruling that desegregated California schools, paving the way for Brown v. Board of Education seven years later."--"School Library Journal," starred review"Tonatiuh ("Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote") offers an illuminating account of a family's hard-fought legal battle to desegregate California schools in the years before "Brown" v. "Board of Education.""--"Publishers Weekly""Pura Belpre Award-winning Tonatiuh makes excellent use of picture-book storytelling to bring attention to the 1947 California ruling against public-school segregation."--"Booklist"
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
 |
| Teaching for Change: Book link here |
|
 |
| Ricardo Bessa for Quanta Magazine |
Topics: Black Holes, Information, Quantum Mechanics, Theoretical Physics, Thermodynamics
Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics1st Law of Thermodynamics2nd Law of Thermodynamics3rd Law of ThermodynamicsDicebat Bernardus Carnotensis nos esse quasi nanos gigantium humeris insidentes, ut possimus plura eis et remotiora videre, non utique proprii visus acumine, aut eminentia corporis, sed quia in altum subvehimur et extollimur magnitudine gigantea - Bernard of Chartres used to say that we were like dwarfs seated on the shoulders of giants. If we see more and further than they, it is not due to our own clear eyes or tall bodies, but because we are raised on high and upborne by their gigantic bigness. Source: Wikiquote, John of Salisbury.
In his 1824 book, Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire, the 28-year-old French engineer Sadi Carnot worked out a formula for how efficiently steam engines can convert heat — now known to be a random, diffuse kind of energy — into work, an orderly kind of energy that might push a piston or turn a wheel. To Carnot’s surprise, he discovered that a perfect engine’s efficiency depends only on the difference in temperature between the engine’s heat source (typically a fire) and its heat sink (typically the outside air). Work is a byproduct, Carnot realized, of heat naturally passing to a colder body from a warmer one.
Carnot died of cholera eight years later, before he could see his efficiency formula develop over the 19th century into the theory of thermodynamics: a set of universal laws dictating the interplay among temperature, heat, work, energy and entropy — a measure of energy’s incessant spreading from more- to less-energetic bodies. The laws of thermodynamics apply not only to steam engines but also to everything else: the sun, black holes, living beings and the entire universe. The theory is so simple and general that Albert Einstein deemed it likely to “never be overthrown.”
Yet since the beginning, thermodynamics has held a singularly strange status among the theories of nature.
“If physical theories were people, thermodynamics would be the village witch,” the physicist Lídia del Rio and co-authors wrote last year in Journal of Physics A. “The other theories find her somewhat odd, somehow different in nature from the rest, yet everyone comes to her for advice, and no one dares to contradict her.”
Quanta Magazine: The Quantum Thermodynamics Revolution, Natalie Wolchover Related linkPhysics arXiv: Quantum ThermodynamicsSai Vinjanampathy, Janet Anders
 |
| Screen shot from the Genius series on Nat Geo: Einstein on Ars Technica |
I'm obviously a fan of Einstein for his stance on Civil Rights for African Americans, his views on women's rights, his friendship with Paul Robeson and his views that were decades ahead of his time on social issues that were just percolating in the political cauldron of the day. Above all, he shows the positive impact of an immigrant in our American "melting pot."
I often read biographies of the people we consider giants in science and engineering. What I find disarming and charming is the discovery they, like us, were quite flawed and human with their own eccentricities and foibles. It's easy to deify heroes with the distance of time.
Like most young people, the young Einstein was amorous and prolific in his couplings. He was also indifferent to the emotional impact many of his romantic betrayals had on his many partners, Elsa Einstein acknowledging as much in the first chapter of the Nat Geo series: Genius (ahem: he's sober shtoofing his secretary in one of the first scenes, right before a class. I don't know if that's actual history or hyperbole, but I've read he took off for weeks at a time in full knowledge - and disrespect - of his second spouse).
Excerpt of an interview with Ron Howard at SXSW (South by Southwest) by Ars Technica:
AUSTIN, Texas—Writer, director, and actor Ron Howard is very careful when considering his place in the geek-media universe. Over 20 years ago, his film Apollo 13 kicked off a trajectory of major science-and-heart storytelling, which recently crystallized as an ongoing series-development deal with National Geographic's TV channel.
Apollo 13 convinced Howard that audiences had more hunger for science stories than he'd assumed. "It surprised me pleasantly how interested people were in the science of it. The irony that there were virtually no computers then, and they had to use slide rules... I realized that none of these things were lost on the audience. In fact, it was very engaging. I learned that it wasn't just the adventure or the emotion. There was an intellectual component to what was entertaining and engaging the audiences." He then quoted Neil Degrasse Tyson to remind me that TV's CSI broke the dam open for an even wider audience given the series had major characters applying scientific thought, as opposed to "odd characters hidden away in a room somewhere with a lab coat on."
The pilot episode sees these distinct Einstein eras explored chronologically, and for older Einstein, that means facing the changing political climate in Germany and taking steps toward immigrating to the United States. (Rush, I should add, is absolutely masterful in his performance as the older Einstein, with snark, wit, and charm rolled together in a delightfully light German accent.) Howard insists that the entire sequence, which includes a rise of German nationalism and public hatred for immigrants and scientific thought, had already been locked down before the last American Presidential election concluded.
"It's suddenly politically prescient, which we were... aware of this as we were shooting," Howard says. "Of course, it's not just the United States. There's a call to conservative nationalism [worldwide]. Closing borders, blocking immigrants, imposing controls. That's been going on around the world for some years now—but one of the pressures, the surprises for me, in reading Walter's book, that we really depict episode after episode, are the times when institutional thinkers would impose a barrier to Einstein. And sometimes a threat. Imagine how close we came to not benefiting from his genius! That's shocking. If there's a cautionary element to this story, I hope it's that."
It's also a reminder of the maxim: “History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes,” as Mark Twain is often reputed to have said. Quote investigator sites several possible sources other than the witty writer.
“Good morning, children.”
Ms. Tanaka swiveled into the command console of her living room class station and turned on the holographic display. The room flickered momentarily as the display connections were routed through the house’s main computer grid.
The console lights for each section of her class lit serially as their students appeared in the classroom behind her.
“Singapore. Five. Online.”
“New York. Three. Online”
“London. One. Online.” Tanaka shook her head sadly. Her student base had dropped off significantly since the Accident.
Her internal Image sensing a change in her blood pressure activated its search mode and related it to recent infonews. “Would you like me to provide search data for the Accident for class today?”
Snapping back to the present, she waved her hand. “No Mei, I don’t need it, today. I may do something on it to commemorate the anniversary but today, we celebrate.”
Each of the children snapped into high resolution focus, most with smiles of anticipation. “Good morning, Ms. Tanaka.” The network adjusted as the bandwidth required for translation was properly allocated. Each child learned in their native language during routine class operation.
“Happy SALT Day.”
Mei adjusted the translation matrices based on her morning downloads with any language updates, regional dialects or specialized phenom databases.
“I guess I don’t have to ask you if you’re ready for today, do I? So, tell me who knows what SALT Day is and why we celebrate it?”
Abayomi, a Nigerian living in the outskirts of London whispered, “We celebrate the day Humaniti was first fully aware and could confirm the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence.”
“Why do we call it SALT Day?”
“It’s named after the South African Large Telescope, where the first confirmation of alien intelligence occurred and remains until today.” Yi Ling chirped up in an extremely professional tone. Her parents were also teachers. Her additional exposure to the infogrid meant she was always searching for new things of interest, likely she had been studying the curriculum in advance.
Mei, brought up the infonet images for the SALT and provided the age appropriate data infographics on the specifications of the telescope and its associated satellites. Each of the children received the information they could assimilate based on their intellectual capacity. This particular class was rated mid-tier though their ages varied from eight to eleven.
“I assume you all received your Fragment in the last drone-drops in your region.” Each student held out a sliver of shiny, but impossibly hard glass.
The electronic voice intentionally left quite robotic signaled Marcus’ entrance into the conversation. “Not sure why we should be celebrating extraterrestrials we’re never going to meet?” He was the only student not sitting. He lay back in a medical support pod.
Marcus was borne with a rare bone disease, he was only rarely able to enter the gravity well of a planet for an brief period. Normally, he lived on L2 Station. He returned to Earth to receive his Fragment and to be connected to the SALT. He floated in his biosphere, his gills flicking gentle in support solution. His radiotelepathic implant meant he never spoke verbally.
“No, we won’t ever get to meet the Precursors, Marcus. But what we have learned has given us many opportunities to understand who they were, what they accomplished and if one of us or all of us can further decypher the SALT we have a chance to travel to where the Precursors came from one day.”
Ms. Tanaka picked up her crystalline prop, she was already connected to the SALT, and placed it across her hand. “This is the SALT interface. You have all been selected to interface with our alien benefactors because you have all shown unique intellectual aptitudes. Art, writing, creativity, scientific, exploratory and other learning styles, each allowing you a potentially unique experience into the mind of the SALT.”
“Will it hurt?” Abayomi looked tentatively at the Fragment. “It seems very sharp.”
“No, you won’t feel a thing. I promise.” Ms Tanaka modified her datastream to send comforting subliminals to ease the children’s anxieties. Each of their comm centers triggered each child’s conditioned pheremonal nootropic.
“Stand it on the top of your head. You will feel a tingle when you are near the perfect spot for you. Each of you will have a different emphasis so your location may be slightly different.”
The children each place their Fragment on their heads aided by the feedback system they were assigned while they were growing. Once they were connected to the SALT their previous system would be repurposed by the implant.
Ms. Tanaka checked the data retrieved from each of the children. Her own Image, Mei coordinated the data between Tanaka and the children.
“Okay, let the crystal go and imagine your favorite avatar.” The children each let go tentatively, looking over at the other children to see what was happening by proxy. They saw the crystal stand straight up and then slowly melt into the heads of their classmates. Then each turned back and put their heads down as they thought of one of their favorite interweb avatars.
Each had been told this would become their first Image, their first connection to SALT. It would look and act just like their previous avatars but now when a connection was good, they would be allowed to enter the Flow.
Mei adjusted several of the children’s life signs remotely ensuring the integration into the cerebellum of the students was smooth.
Avatars popped into existence as the children settled on their favorites. Marcus was the last to choose and his was a hyperrealistic horse. No one had seen a horse in fifty years. His avatar was one of the last simulations ever taken from a living specimen.
The others chose more historical visual icons from games they enjoyed. Once icons were chosen, Ms. Tanaka gave an information burst-loaded, “Sleep.”
For twenty four minutes, they dreamed of electric sheep. Fantastic vistas as their neural cortex was rewritten by a technology Humanti in all its varied intellectual forms, still did not truly understand.
“Okay, children. Open your eyes. Welcome to the Flow.” Each child stood up from the ground or the desert they each thought they were standing in.
“This is not like your game virtualities. This is a seamless environment completely integrated into your nervous system. You can experience life here. Hot, cold, wet, dry.”
Mei connected to the children, something new, a part of a network they had never known before. Each child felt it, the strangeness, the scent of something unknown. Never known. Their faces wrinkled.
“That is the smell of the SALT. The air of this place. Look over there.” As if the desert had been filled with a fog, suddenly a towering black line appeared in the distance. It shot from behind what now appeared to be a sky, a mountain range, a treeline, meadows all fading into the distance terminating where the children stood on what they now see as a beach, not a desert.
“What is that?” Marcus was still adjusting to riding his avatar.
Tanaka looked wistfully into the distance. “That is SALT. The Archive of the Precursors. That’s where you will be going. You won’t be going all at once. You will be traveling toward the Black Tower in the distance. We don’t know what you will see. We won’t know what you experience. Each of us sees the journey differently. That’s why when you come back, you have to write down your experience in class. You have to teach us what you learn while you’re in the Flow.”
“We’re the teachers?” Yi Ling looked as if she was suddenly understanding something.
“Everyday you’re able, you will enter the Flow and experience something. As you become more acclimated you will slowly move toward the Tower. Maybe one day you will reach the Archive?”
Abayomi looked back at the shore walked over to and touched the water. “Have you ever been to the Archive, Ms. Tanaka?”
Tanaka bent down next to Abayomi and whispered into her ear. “Can I tell you a secret?”
The child face lit up with the chance to hold a secret from an adult. “Yes, ma’am.”
“No one has. It’s been a hundred years and we have never reached it. We feel it call to us, but no one has ever made it.”
Marcus, ever-listening caused his avatar to rear up and he shouted, “Well, I’ll be the first,” his horse tearing into the beach sand and he fell away into the distance.
“Take notes!”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Abayomi watched the others as they made their way toward the Tower. “You still have a question, don’t you?"
“If that tower is the destination, what is this shore we’re starting from?”
“That dear child, is the rest of Humaniti, the ones who simply don’t have what it takes to make this journey. This ocean is the best we could do. It is the sum of everything we have ever learned and created on our own. Our singularity.”
“We’re the teachers.”
“Yes, now hurry along. Humaniti’s waiting to learn what you discover. Remember…”
“I know. Take good notes.”
SALT © Thaddeus Howze, 2017, All Rights Reserved
After almost five years of development and production, the new project from Jericho Projects critically acclaimed director\writer Adrian "Asia" Petty has finally come to life, "Who is Darius Key?"
Darius Key is a demon hunter with a shameful past who has been handling his tasks for an interminable time. He blurs the lines between a historical figure, a spiritual master, a paranormal adventurer and an arrogant jerk. The time has come for Darius to pass his mantle to a new protégé, Maxwell Lightfoot. Will Darius' student be able to handle it or will Darius' obnoxious attitude bring everything to a deadly halt?
"Who is Darius Key?" is done in an innovative 52 page photo novel format featuring actors, Wanda, from the truTV reality show "South Beach Tow" as Freda Eves and nationally known heavy metal musician, Spidy Womack, who is featured in the upcoming film, "Pitch Perfect 3", as Maxwell Lightfoot. Get your copy, available now on Amazon.com!
“This isn’t the way to the police station, Jack. You said we would go straight there and tell them what we know.”
“I’ve got something I have to do first. It’s important.”
“What’s so important all of a sudden?”
“You’ll see. We’re almost there, and it won’t take long.”
“What about Hillary? She’s being framed. We have to get her out before something bad happens. She doesn’t belong in a jail cell. You know she won’t last long in there.”
“Don’t you worry about Hillary. She’ll be fine. I promise.”
Jack wasn’t making sense. He and Hillary started getting serious in college. They were going to get married right after she had finished the bar exam. The three of them had known each other since high school. They were so close people joked that they should move to Portland and join the polys. Jack graduated a year before Hillary, and was already enjoying the life of an overpaid associate in a high profile law firm in Beverley Hills catering to Hollywood stars.
Why was he being so nonchalant? Ben thought about what had occurred the night before. The Times Online had reported that Hillary was found unconscious in the living room of her parent’s house. They were found dead in the kitchen, stabbed in the side of their necks, clean through their carotid arteries. Whoever was killed last was probably too shocked to move before the killer got to them. But there was a scream. A neighbor overheard and went to the door. He told the reporter the lights went out as he approached. He tried to peer through the living room window, but the curtains were closed. He ran home and called the police. The cops found a bloody knife lying next to Hillary.
Ben arrived around 10 pm, just after the murders. They were all going out to give Hillary a break from her grueling studies, which went on for nearly twelve hours a day. The California bar was no joke, and she was determined to pass on the first try. He was parking in the driveway in the back when Jack came running out of the house. He said, “Did you see the guy?” He was panting, but Ben didn’t recall that he was sweating.
Ben asked, “Who are you talking about?”
Jack leaned into the car and said, “The guy who just killed Hillary’s parents.”
The strange thing was he didn’t look like someone who had just seen the dead bodies of the people who were about to become his parents-in-law.
Before Ben could respond, Jack said, “C’mon. We might be able to catch him. He ran that way,” pointing down the dark alley, lit only by the moonlight.
“What about Hillary? Where is she?”
“I didn’t see her. Look, we need to get out of here and find this guy. If the police show up, they’ll think we did it.”
“How? We don’t have a motive.”
“LA cops don’t need a motive. They’ll make one up.”
They drove around the area but did not spot anyone. The next morning, the news of the murder popped up on Ben’s ‘Breaking News’ feed. He called Jack while the story unfolded on his laptop screen.
“Have you seen the news? They arrested Hillary.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“We need to tell the police what you saw.”
“You mean what we saw. The story will be more credible if we both say we saw someone. Cops love corroborating evidence.”
“You’re right. You’re the lawyer.”
“Cool. I’ll come over and pick you up.”
As Jack drove, Ben noticed he had the same vacant stare he had seen last night. There was a deadness in his eyes that he had chalked up to shock and probably lack of sleep. Then Jack’s nose began to bleed.
“Not again,” he complained.
“What do you mean? You don’t get nosebleeds”
“Just happened recently. How can I help it?”
He wiped the trickling blood away with his sleeve before turning into an empty industrial parking lot. That was not something Jack would normally do. He was meticulous about his clothes, which were expensive, as was his car and the apartment that he bragged overlooked Laurel Canyon but was actually in boring Studio City.
“Here we are,” Jack announced in a flat monotone.
“Are you alright Jack? You’ve been acting strange since last night. You don’t seem concerned about Hillary at all. You didn’t even want to go back to the house to check on her. Did you even call?”
Jack looked at Ben as if he hadn’t heard him at all. Suddenly his eyes became snakelike, turning red and green. Strange bluish spikes appeared on his arms. Ben recoiled and clutched at the door handle, but the locks engaged, trapping him inside. Jack leaned toward him, his eyes glowing with hunger. Ben tried to fend him off, holding his arms in front of his face. He screamed, “What are you? You’re not Jack! Get away from me!”
Jack calmly responded, “No. I’m not.” He slashed Ben’s neck and drained the blood from his convulsing body. He pushed the corpse out the car and drove away. In the fading recesses of its mind, the creature felt sorrow for someone named Hillary.
Photo credit: David Nunuk
 |
| An artistic rendition of the experimental setup for a quantum sensing experiment. The diamond quantum sensor is controlled by lasers. Graphene (a single layer of carbon atoms) sits atop the sensor. Red lines represent the path of the electrons as they move through the graphene. Credit: David A. Broadway/cqc2t.org |
Graphene, a sheet of carbon just one atom thick, has a number of unique electronic properties, so it is ideal for fundamental studies in condensed matter physics and for making novel electronics and sensing devices. Researchers normally study the electron transport properties of graphene by measuring the material’s resistivity but this approach cannot make out variations in electronic properties caused by local structures, such as defects, which are very important in nanomaterials. Now, a team at the University of Melbourne in Australia has overcome this problem with their new technique based on quantum probes made from nitrogen-vacancy centres to image the flow of electric current in 2D nanomaterials like the carbon sheet - and has found that it is indeed disrupted by minute cracks and defects.
“Our technique is non-invasive, offers high sub-micron spatial resolution and works under ambient conditions,” explains lead author of the new study Jean-Philippe Tetienne. “It could be used to study electron transport in any atomically-thin materials and structures, which are especially vulnerable to imperfections like defects. This is important because it will allow us to see how electric currents are affected by these imperfections and so ultimately help us improve the reliability and performance of existing and emerging technologies.”
The new technique is based on a quantum sensing platform that consists of a diamond chip engineered with an array of atomic defects, known as nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres. These centres, which form when a nitrogen impurity finds itself next to a missing carbon atom in the diamond lattice, are essentially tiny magnets and can be used as sensors for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at the nanoscale. This is because the spin of an electron associated with the NV is relatively insensitive to its environment thanks to the fact that diamond does not have a net nuclear spin.
Nanotechweb: NV-quantum probes measure electron flow in graphene, Belle Dumé
 |
| Figure 1: Doyle and colleagues [2] have cooled SrOH molecules using Sisyphus cooling. In this type of cooling, the SrOH molecules are made to climb a potential energy hill, only to be transported back to the bottom, much like their Greek eponym who was doomed to roll a boulder up a hill over and over again. The energy lost in climbing the hill cools the SrOH molecules to ultracold temperatures. Show less |
Topics: Bose-Einstein Condensate, Laser, Modern Physics, Nobel Prize, Quantum Mechanics
Only because of the illustration and the myth, but the process of laser cooling is quite sound, as the article describes below.
Physicists considering a foray into the study of molecules are often warned that “a diatomic molecule is one atom too many!” [1]. Now John Doyle and colleagues [2] at Harvard University have thrown this caution to the wind and tackled laser cooling of a triatomic molecule with success, opening the door to the study of ultracold polyatomic molecules.
The technique of laser cooling [3], which uses the scattering of laser photons and the concomitant momentum transfer to bring atoms to a near halt, has revolutionized atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics. Laser cooling and an important variant known as Sisyphus cooling [4] underpin three Nobel prizes in physics—for magneto-optical trapping (1997), Bose-Einstein condensation (2001), and the manipulation of individual quantum systems (2012)—and are crucial to a host of quantum-assisted technologies and fundamental physics measurements.
Since photons carry very little momentum and therefore reduce an atom’s velocity by just a small amount, a prerequisite for effective laser cooling is the ability to scatter thousands of photons. Thus laser cooling has predominantly been used only to cool simple atoms, whose electronic structure dictates that after a photon is absorbed, spontaneous emission places the atomic electron back into its original state, allowing the process to repeat nearly ad infinitum.
Spurred on by the possibility of another revolution in AMO physics when ultracold molecules become available [5], a brave group of researchers recently began work to achieve laser cooling of diatomic molecules, guided by a new proposal for how to deal with their complex structure [6]. Diatomic molecules, or “diatoms,” are challenging targets for laser cooling as their electronic structure is complicated by their rotational and vibrational degrees of freedom. When a diatom absorbs a photon from the laser, spontaneous emission can place it in any of a multitude of these rotational and vibrational states, whose transition frequencies no longer match that of the cooling laser. These so-called dark states are the bane of laser cooling, bringing the cooling process to a stop. Nonetheless, by carefully choosing molecules with unique properties—for example, those which contain an optically active electron that does not strongly participate in the molecular bonding—laser cooling of molecules has been successful, and it has culminated in the demonstration of magneto-optical trapping of SrF molecules [7].
APS Viewpoint: A Diatomic Molecule is One Atom too FewPaul Hamilton, Eric Hudson, University of California, Los Angeles
A member of the expat group I'm in posted a humongous list of remote jobs.
Sites similar to Fiverr and online teaching gigs, things like that.
Some of the sites are free, some are paid, and some are a combination (pay for greater access, pay to post a gig, etc)
The idea for you, the budding writer/artist, would be to join one of the 58 sites and see if you can attract any work for whatever price you want to set.
I live overseas, so this is the sort of thing I look for when I want to make a little extra on the side, or to find artists for my book projects. Click here for the list.
