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All Representation Matters or Nah

Posted by Tywon Terrell on March 1, 2017 at 1:19am

 

         Now you may be wondering exactly where I’m going with this and I will touch upon two issues that I’m combining.  I have noticed the need for positive imagery for young black women and girls, a few forward thinking women have decided to tackle the issue and they have made me very proud. Black Girls Rock, which was founded by Beverly Bond, has been instrumental in putting various individuals in the public eye.  Ms. Bond has filled a space at a time when there seems to be concerted attacks upon the esteem of black women not only from outside the community, but some of my very own brothers, that is another issue that I will jump into at another time.  Also as I look at the latest controversy online brought to us by the casting of the movie “Ghost In The Shell”, this topic really makes sense.  The casting of Scarlett Johansson as the lead protagonist Major Motoko Kusanagi, (who for the movie is simply titled the Major) had caused others to speak out about the pick. The Asian American actresses Ming-Na Wen and Constance Wu were some of the more vocal in opposition to the casting, coincidentally actress and director Joan Chen looked at it as a situation where the filmmaker had the right to cast their movie as they saw fit.  Strangely some in Japan had no issues with the pick either because they stated that they had expected someone white to take the role. Sam Yoshiba, director of the international business division at Kodansha's Tokyo headquarters (the company that holds the rights to the series and its characters), had this to say, "Looking at her career so far, I think Scarlett Johansson is well cast. She has the cyberpunk feel. And we never imagined it would be a Japanese actress in the first place... this is a chance for a Japanese property to be seen around the world." Of course the director Rupert Sanders has justified his decision. Johansson has recently given an interview in Marie Claire where she stated that she approached the role with a focus on gender not race.  She made a claim of doing it for feminism.  Interesting.  I would like her to really explain that in detail to we can better understand where she’s coming from.  The role is only possible because a Japanese man, Masamune Shirow, created this storyline.  From what I can recall “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” did just fine with Michelle Yeoh as the warrior Yu Shu Lien. So does all representation matter or nah? 

I do not hope to offend but to create a dialogue, from my vantage point, it seems as if defeat has been accepted with the “Ghost In The Shell” matter from some.  Anytime you come out and say that you did not expect one of your own to portray imagery that came from your own, that to me is conceding. I could be wrong.  That perception of mine, which I admit could be wrong, is why I feel that imagery of one’s self is all-important.  

For myself from historical matters to fictional portrayals, we must make sure that the imagery we project is one that our children as well as fellow adults can relate too on a visual level.  The positive reinforcement that you can get from seeing yourself is a tremendous boost to one’s self esteem.  Talk with those who saw Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Uhura for the first time on screen for clarity, Astronaut Mae Jemison, i.e. The feedback and responses from the movie Hidden Figures is more proof that representation matters.  The proof was seen all across social media platforms. As Gabby Douglas and Simone Biles captured the attention of the nation during the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, our young were inspired.  As the live broadcast of the Wiz highlighted, representation truly does matter. 

Very soon a show that I enjoy despite the reservation of some, Underground, (which airs on WGN by the way), will return to the airwaves.  This season they introduce Harriet Tubman, I have no issue with this new mythologizing of her. Just as I see nothing wrong with the new comic book series by David Crownson, “Harriet Tubman Demon Slayer.” Others have taken their historical figures and made them even bigger in life than they already were, why shouldn’t we.  The new myth making of Harriet can open the door for others who have not been discovered by the vast populace of black people not only here in the good ole US of A, but globally.  From Spartacus to 300, the Tudors, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, etc, these stories have been given to us repeatedly.  Now it’s our turn to give representation for our people.  If Milla Jovovich can appear in “The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc”, surely Nicole Beharie, Danai Gurira, Sonequa Martin-Green, Florence Kasumba, Lupita Nyong’o, Kerri Washington, Sana Lathan, Viola Davis, Zoe Saldana, Tessa Thompson, and a few others that I could name who have shown that they can take on roles where action are required could play the people I will name.  I could very well see Kerri Washington or Liya Kebede as Queen Yodit/Gudit/Judith who is known for her war against the Axumite Empire.  Queen Latifah could pull off Stagecoach Mary Fields, Sonequa Martin-Green or Sana Lathan as Cathay Williams.  A whole series could be done on the Kushite Queens and their battles with Rome as well as the Hausa warrior queens. Just as the Game of Thrones has become must watch TV, why not the Rain Queens of South Africa? The possible shoots in South Africa alone would sell that story. If JK Rowling could include the Mountains of the Moon and the Uagadou School of Magic in her Harry Potter universe, we definitely could do the same with creating a unique space.  Imagery does matter right? From Africa to America the history is rife with women whose stories could be mythologized.  From scholars to warriors, the stories are there for us to tell.

In 2017 we have no reason for our young women in training to have issues with the imagery that they see.  What mainstream media won’t provide to fill the vacuum, we should with glee.  I have witnessed Beyoncé open the door to those that don’t know or aren’t familiar with Yoruba traditions. That’s a whole another pantheon with images that can be used in the same way that those of the Greeks have been. Out of them we have the iconic Wonder Woman, which has been used as an empowerment tool.  Why couldn’t a character based off of Oshun, Yemaya, or Oya serve the same purpose?  Especially Oya the warrior goddess, with the climate of these perilous times, one based off of her could serve a much-needed purpose. Coincidentally DC Comics Wonder Woman is linked to Athena who was originally a black goddess.

         Fortunately a few have already decided to take matters into their own hands and produce work that can be our very own propaganda that empowers.  Where those who brought us all of the various anime images failed, we can succeed. Those individuals may look at my words as being misguided, but the fact that I look at the characters and see blonde haired blue eyed drawings consistently means that I’m right. When I look at the art of anime I’m often confused because from my bird eye’s view the heroes often do not resemble those within the culture that the artwork comes out of.  I could be wrong I must say once again. The reasons given as to why the protagonist often favor outsiders to the Japanese culture really do not hold much weight with me, but they like it and I love it. If they want us to believe that Disney is the reason for the look of the various anime characters and that they see them as Japanese, I’m not one to argue with them.  There are enough articles littering the web with admonishments and denials on the topic.  I’m pretty sure that if anyone from Japan were to see my thoughts they would have a swift reply about my lack of understanding. I’m ready for it.  With that being said, although my curiosity has led to my becoming informed on various matters, my concern is about the establishment of representations of our own for years down the line.  I want us to get to a point whereas whatever looks of ours graces the screen we are the ones to craft it so that we embrace it, be it from the lightest to the darkest among us, a matter that must be dealt with. However our women chose to wear their hair, another issue of contention that needs to be solved because it has caused another unnecessary divide.  Once we’re at a point where we fully embrace us and write our own narrative, those on the outside influence will wane because of the options that we present to counter them.  This powerful tool that is the Internet has changed the paradigm considerably.  The Grammys that was just broadcast showed us this with Chance the Rapper being awarded on there. The ball is in our hands now, it has been for a while, we’ve just been slow to pick it up and run with it.  Anyone that has a desire to embrace the world of art or literature and they’re not sure of what subject matter to tackle, they can go to their search engine and find inspiration.  If fiction is the lane that they want to fill, social media can definitely provide source material.  A lot of our folks have very vivid imaginations and are missing their callings as becoming our very own James Cameron, George Lucas or Stephen Spielberg.  I’m prone to embrace stories told from the historical aspect.  The pride that the stories of the past instill can’t be measured at all. As they say when you know better you do better.  I very much desire to see a Queen Nzinga on screen; a Dahia Al-Kahina (another historical giant hijacked from our illustrious past) in all her gloriousness, dark skinned with her “mass” of hair (afro or locs perhaps) and big eyes as the Arabs described her in their seventh century writings.  I want to see Marie Maynard Daly or Latanya Sweeney…who you say…I just gave your daughters and son’s individuals to do a book report on.  Do not just read this, look up some of my talking points and discuss them among yourselves.  Pass the word of what you find so that we can plant the seeds for the next wave of possible artist, authors, filmmakers, painters, sculptors, and tastemakers who push our image out to the world.  This conversation is just the beginning…

http://carbon-ar.squarespace.com/blog/2017/2/22/all-representation-matters-or-nah

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Inside the Alien: Bolaji Badejo

Posted by Floyd Webb on February 28, 2017 at 2:04pm

When I was in Nigeria in 1989. My friend and employer Precious Benson told me she wanted to introduce me to this guy, Bolaji Badejo, who said he was the creature in the film E.T. and he was very very tall. She did not know her sci-fi films. I blew it off.

We saw him several times in the market from a distance, because he was really tall and she kept promising to get us together to talk. I am so regretful I did not pudh hr harder so he could tell me the title of the film he was in. Little did I imagine ALIEN was the film he was really in.

Badejo had been diagnosed with sickle cell anaemia when he was a kid. When he was 39, Bolaji got sick and he died December 22, 1992 in St. Stephen Hospital in Ebute Metta, Lagos.

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Why It Matters...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 28, 2017 at 7:04am
Distinguished University Professor, Regents Professor & Director
Topics: African Americans, Diaspora, Diversity in Science, Higgs Boson, Quarks, STEM, Theoretical Physics, Quantum Mechanics
Why this post matters: Part of the reason for this post and all the others this month is to change perceptions, first in ourselves to think of life and things beyond programmed stereotypes, and for those outside the culture if receptive. I cannot change blatant racism or willful ignorance. I can present information such that it makes it less certain persons "just didn't know" to it's their choice to be uninformed, myopic and bigoted.

You may not work in the semiconductor industry. You may not get a PhD in theoretical physics. A STEM education has one other added benefit beyond just careers: citizenship. You will develop critical thinking and reasoning skills that will allow you to discern fact from "alternative facts" (i.e. lies, obfuscations, malarkey). You be able to pose cogent questions to our nation's representatives: With coal on the decline, why not forge ahead with solar, wind and geothermal jobs? (You can even understand the caveats.) The previous administration tried to pass a jobs training bill for infrastructure: did you oppose it, and why? With 13,950 peer-reviewed papers on Climate Change, only 24 reject it outright: what is your take on the subject? You can and should demand how and where your tax dollars are spent, and ultimately for whose "common good." Showing up at Town Hall meetings for a 1st Amendment "redress of grievances" is your right, but the best argument is always an informed one.

"At the end of the day, observation is what rules our paradigms. And this is a lesson that Einstein claims that Galileo drummed into us, and therefore it makes Galileo the father not only of physics, but of all of science, that observation rules the day. Pure thought alone cannot be the arbiter by which we come to understand nature."

Dr. Sylvester James Gates Jr., quote from the video below.

Bio: Sylvester James Gates Jr. is a Distinguished University Professor, University System of Maryland Regents Professor and John S. Toll Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland. Also an affiliate mathematics professor, Gates is known for his pioneering work in supersymmetry and supergravity, areas closely related to string theory. Gates earned two Bachelor of Science degrees in physics and mathematics and his Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1984, Gates co-authored Superspace, or One thousand and one lessons in supersymmetry, the first comprehensive book on supersymmetry, and joined the faculty at Maryland as an associate professor. Four years later, he became the first African American to hold an endowed chair in physics at a major U.S. research university.

The author of more than 200 research papers and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Gates has been featured in dozens of video documentaries, including five in 2015. For his contribution to science and research, he received the National Medal of Science from President Obama in 2013. Gates serves on the U.S. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, the National Commission on Forensic Science, and the Maryland State Board of Education. He is a strong advocate for science, technology, engineering and mathematics education.

University of Maryland Department of Physics: Dr. Sylvester J. Gates Jr.
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Modern Figures 28 February 2017...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 28, 2017 at 7:10am
Science Magazine: Presidential Medal of Freedom Honors a NASA 'computer'
Topics: African Americans, History, Diaspora, Diversity in Science, Women in Science

NASA: The film "Hidden Figures," based on the book by Margot Lee Shetterly, focuses on the stories of Katherine Johnson (above), after receiving the Medal of Freedom in 2015), Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan, African-American women who were essential to the success of early spaceflight. Today, NASA embraces their legacy and strives to include everyone who wants to participate in its ongoing exploration. "Progress is driven by questioning our assumptions and cultural assumptions," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden says in a new video. "Embracing diversity and inclusion is how we as a nation will take the next giant leap in exploration."

I salute Women's History Month (starting tomorrow). This month spawned Women's History, Asian Heritage, LGBT History, and Hispanic Heritage observances. "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," Oscar Wilde.

I met Dr. Barry Johnson coordinating a traveling display of African American Civil Rights History with his and the eight other African American corporate vice presidents at Motorola. He asked me two questions off-topic: "Where's a good barbershop?" (I sent him to Joel Mason - my barber in Austin); "Where's a good black art and bookstore?" (I suggested Mitchie's Fine Black Art and Frame Gallery, which was a combo of both). He often had the same feeling I did and still do as the "only one in the room," and reading our history and literature; looking at our art and sculpture was... as I've used quite often in these postings, cathartic. Did I tell you that three coworkers called me the n-word (to my face, in front of witnesses)?

Don't be discouraged by blatant hurled epithets, or if you're the "only one in the room," be the best damn one in the room!

The purpose of cultural heritage celebrations has been obscured unfortunately by well meaning human resource departments on teaching diversity and inclusiveness, which I don't have a problem with and is all important. Just as a rowing team has to synchronize strokes, it's best when everyone - in a company or a country - is not out to sabotage each other. Nothing gets done.

For yourselves, for myself: Carter G. Woodson wanted to empower his people with a sense of confidence, a strut in their step with what we now call... swagger!

If your swagger has stumbled, may these posts reassure it and the confidence within.

NASA: Modern Figures
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The Talk...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 27, 2017 at 9:30am
Topics: African Americans, History, Diaspora, Diversity in Science, Women in Science

Call it a Black History Month Twofer. Tomorrow will be a twofer with a slight twist for the month and physics. You'll see what I mean.

The talk is painful to do and painful still to recall. My talk was based on being slammed into a wall of plastic model cars and toys at King's Department Store (see: "Old Tapes" below).

My boys... didn't take the story well. Though ten years apart, their reactions were the same: they were angry, hurt, confused as to why such a thing could happen to their "Pop." Watching this again, in the modern context brought back painful memories:

Despite there and my tears, I had to deliver "the talk," the speech that transcends political party affiliations that every black parent has to relay to their children: fathers to sons; mothers to daughters; uncles and aunts to nieces and nephews; "Big Mommas," and Paw-Paws to grand and great-grandchildren.

The Preamble to the US Constitution:

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Posterity (noun): 1: the offspring of one progenitor to the furthest generation, 2: all future generations. Merriam-Webster

That's what "the talk" is about. It's probably the purist act of citizenship since 1865, as well as love. It says our children matter to "us"; that like most parents of any generation, we'd like to see them grow, mature and have a life of meaning and children themselves if they want. It does not sound like the realm, attitude or philosophy of thugs: it sounds like the realm of citizens. If indeed "all lives mattered," it would not be necessary.

This is the darker history of American exceptionalism. A segment of citizenry - be they democrats or republicans - must give a safety brief to their children for walking out the door into the dominant society to ensure their safe return. Because apparently, that's not guaranteed due to a preponderance of Melanin and an equal preponderance of the assumption guilty-while-black.

When the talk becomes a thing we discuss in history books, we'll be a free nation; we'll be America, the Beautiful, definitively.

I will consider my life a blessing to have my sons live full lives, and be allowed to do what I had to do with their Grandpa after August 26, 1999 (and their Grandma Mildred Dean Goodwin after May 7, 2009):

To Robert Harrison Goodwin (Pop/Grandpa), United States Navy Veteran, World War II -my first martial arts instructor (boxing). I hope you like what your daughter-in-law and I have done with your grandsons (Real Estate/Civil Engineering). They are, after all, your posterity. I love you and mom always, "Chief."

Robert H. Goodwin is kneeling, lower left.

Griot Poet blog: "Old Tapes"
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Hidden History 27 February 2017...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 27, 2017 at 10:00am
Image Source: The (former) Winston-Salem Sentinel

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

This photo originally appeared in what used to be called The Winston-Salem Sentinel, an evening subscription that used to accompany The Winston-Salem Journal, now the primary commercial local newspaper (can't forget The Chronicle). As far as I know, I was the first African American to occupy this position. My best friend, Milton Murray was the Brigade Supply Officer, a Cadet Lieutenant Colonel.

I was also threatened by the local Klan, or at least by frequent planted notes at or in my school locker. My sin was "being uppity" in southern parlance; I was out of my place in the southern social pecking order. I - to the note writers - obviously didn't qualify for the ceremonial position and that it was given to me unfairly. I was warned not to "show up" for the annual Brigade Review as its commanding officer, ominously warned "or else" (which they managed to misspell - "elz"). This was a serious concern with the Greensboro Massacre prominently on everyone's minds at the time. I didn't worry my parents and kept mum about it until well after I graduated college. Courage had nothing to do with it: both well-versed in "the talk," I'm pretty sure they could have talked me out of the Brigade Review had they known of the threats against me.

This was originally a Father's Day post (hence the last sentence), but it does tell a considerable amount of history about black churches, black culture and black people, and hopefully - though sad I have to say this - fellow Americans. It's the birthplace of gospel music, soul and by extension blues and hip hop. It was the first place of community after slavery, the place meetings could happen discretely, from abolitionists to Civil Rights. It's why they were the targets of arson, bombs and quite recently, bullets.

I still marvel that I have all my life, stood "on the shoulders of giants," the broad shoulders of my parents, my sister and my ancestors.

“New Light Beulah was organized in December of 1867 when some 565 African Americans opted to withdraw and worship on alternate Sundays from the white members of Beulah Baptist Church. Both congregations worshipped in the same sanctuary. The eleven-member White Beulah Baptist Church worshipped on the first and third Sundays. The Black congregation of New Light Beulah worshipped on the second and fourth Sundays of each month. Prior to the organization of New Light Beulah, one other Black congregation had been organized out of Beulah Baptist. That congregation was Shiloh Baptist Church when 40 Black members withdrew on May 14, 1866. Shiloh's pastor was Reverend William Weston Adams, a former slave and member of Beulah Baptist who had been ordained November 12, 1865. Reverend Adams along with two other former slaves were ordained by Beulah's Pastor James Lawrence Reynolds shortly after the Civil War. 

“New Light Beulah Baptist Church extended the call to Reverend William Weston Adams to serve as her first pastor in 1867. Reverend Adams accepted the leadership of the church as a supply pastor initially. Within one year, Reverend Adams became the permanent pastor on New Light Beulah Baptist Church, about the same time that Reverend James Lawrence Reynolds resigned as the pastor of the small Beulah Baptist Church. The Beulah Baptist Church elected Reverend Thomas Mellichamp as pastor who had a cordial relationship with Reverend William W. Adams. 

“The two congregations continued to share the same sanctuary for three years until the White congregation dispersed in 1870. The Black congregation continued to flourish. Spiritual leaders of the church included Preston & Eliza Moody Richardson, John & Ann Reese Dinkins, Pharoah & Racheal Ward Smith, Robert & Hagar Green Jones, Lewis & Suckey Smith Tucker, Paul & Matilda Hopkins Sims, Simon & Mariah Tucker Jenkins, Charles & Leah Reese Howell, Ned & Phyllis Brevard Middleton and James & Tansy Smith Taylor. These leaders guided the church through its transitional period. Beulah's Black congregation desiring to assert its independence, changed it's name to New Light Beulah Baptist in 1870. 

“Shortly after the White members ceased using the sanctuary, questions about legal ownership of the church property began. The members of the New Light Beulah claimed ownership, as well as former white members of Beulah Baptist Church. The continuing dispute and the distance traveled by some members resulted in more than half of the membership securing letters of dismission in 1871 to organize the Zion Benevolent Baptist Church, Hopkins, S. C. Complicating the issue of ownership even more was a dispute between Anthony Morris (Black), a member of New Light Beulah and Jesse Reese (White), a former member of Beulah Baptist Church. December 2, 1871, apparently Brother Anthony Morris purchased a cow from Mr. Reese for $34.00 placing $21.00 down with a promise of possession with payment of the balance. Brother Morris later came prepared to pay the balance, but was told by Mr. Reese that the cow was sold and there would be no refund. Consequently, conflict arose between Reese and Morris, along with several members of the New Light Beulah Baptist Church who supported Morris. Subsequently, one of Mr. Reese's cows was maimed resulting in accusations of several New Light Beulah members who were eventually tried in General Sessions Court. Tense relationships developed in the Grovewood-Congaree community between Black and White citizens. 

“Animosity within the community intensified when Mr. Jesse Reese's nephew Jesse Reese Adams moved himself and family into the sanctuary formerly shared by Beulah and New Light Beulah. This was the same sanctuary that was being used by the Black members of New Light Beulah Baptist at that time. The following Sunday when New Light Beulah members arrived for worship, they found Jesse Reese Adams armed and were forced to leave the premises. The land that the sanctuary sat on was originally purchased from the Reese family in 1832. 

“New Light Beulah elected Nazareth's Reverend Isom William Simons as her third pastor. Just prior to Reverend Simons arrival, the church had elected Brother Frank Smith as church clerk to replace Andrew Richbourg. However, Brother Richbourg was reelected church clerk in 1885 for 1 year. Burrell J. Goodson was elected church clerk in 1886. Isom Harrison Goodwin was then elected clerk in 1887. Frank Smith served as clerk again in 1887. New Light Beulah's clerks Smith, Goodson and Goodwin were all at one time students of Benedict Institute. 

“The church purchased two acres of land from the Kaminer brothers on December 26, 1886 for $25.00. Trustees signing the deed were Abram Weston, Jacob Gallman, Pompey Smith, Thomas Stocker, Warwick Howell, Hampton Jamison and Julius Goodwin.”

Julius Goodwin was my great-grandfather. He and his brothers would take the name of Goodwin after emancipation in 1865, giving it to his wife Epsy and his children, one of which Moses Pickett Goodwin: my grandfather.

Robert Harrison Goodwin was born June 19, 1925, on the same day celebrated in Texas, nationally and internationally as Juneteenth.

Robert lost his father Moses, a sharecropper and school teacher, at the age of three. From all descripts, a voracious reader, and that desire to learn transferred to his son. Raised by his “village” at the time, Robert would quit formal education in the 6th grade to work, bringing home money for his mother, Estelle. He would be drafted in the US Navy in a segregated squadron. He was a ship weapons expert, a cook and a Navy boxer: my first martial arts instructor. He took and passed a college entrance exam, despite his lack of formal education. He opted sadly, not to go, the challenge of the times and the need to make money for his mother, which he dutifully sent home from his meager enlisted check of $92.00.

On his departure after World War II from the Navy, he brought his clothing to a dry cleaning business in Winston-Salem, NC, where a young woman named Mildred would see him. Impressed with his looks and muscles (he was a boxer), she convinced her manager to give the person she’d eventually call “Boot” Goodwin a job. They married April 8, 1950 and Robert became an immediate father to my sister Mamie, who was 8 at the time. I came along 12 years later.

Nanos gigantium humeris insidentes – I stand on the shoulders of giants. I am here because of them. I studied physics because my great-grandfather and his brothers in their own way were fighters, and did not let challenges of violence defeat their dream; my grandfather Moses was an educator and sharecropper who provided mightily for his family; having friendships that endured after his passing and men to raise his son, and my father (Pop) mechanically gifted, brilliant and kind: enduring years of discrimination to bring home money for his family, passed over for promotions and did not let bitterness poison the dreams of his son: me.

He and my mother would help me achieve the rank of Brigade Commander of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools: the highest rank in the city, and the first African American. He was instrumental in my learning the fine art of military drill with a rifle, and how to shoot both rifle and pistol, orienteering and public speaking. He and my mother were Deacon and Deaconess at Galilee Missionary Baptist Church.

In college on my initial troubles with Calculus, Pop purchased a book on the subject; studied it for two weeks and tutored me! Problems solved.

(I attended coincidentally, New Light Church when I lived in Austin, Texas before I knew this history or its significance.)

Happy Father’s Day, gentlemen: I thank you all.
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Octavia Spencer Stars as GOD in "The Shack!"

Posted by AL Bey on February 23, 2017 at 8:30pm

This is an incredible breakthrough role!

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Octavia-Spencer-Play-God-Shack-Get-Details-70193.html

Over the years we've seen many actors portray God on the big screen, from George Burns to Morgan Freeman, but now it is apparently Octavia Spencer's time toe become omnipotent and all-powerful. This is because she is now in final negotiations to play God in an adaptation of the novel The Shack, which is now in the works over at Lionsgate. 

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Detective X...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 24, 2017 at 7:08am
Wilmer Souder, Physicist, National Bureau of Standards (precursor to NIST)
Topics: Forensics, History, NIST, Physics, Research

An almost quaint alliteration to Malcolm X by one letter and several years before he  would make the Algebraic symbol for unknown famous, this previously unknown history is proof of the usefulness of science in the public sphere for evaluating factual data to precise, legal conclusions, ultimately finding the truth, which has no alternatives.

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32, also prominently displayed at CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

In the gangster era of Prohibition and the Great Depression, a physicist at the National Bureau of Standards, now NIST, brought modern ideas to the then-emerging field of forensic science.

It was called the Trial of the Century, and it ended on February 13, 1935. On that winter night, the Hunterdon County Courthouse in Flemington, New Jersey, was surrounded by thousands of people awaiting the verdict. When it came, camera operators on the newsreel trucks launched flares that lit up the night sky and illuminated for their cameras the jeering crowd below. The defendant, Bruno Richard Hauptmann, was found guilty of kidnapping and killing the 20-month-old son of aviator Charles Lindbergh. Hauptmann would die in the electric chair the following year.

The ransom notes helped seal Hauptmann’s fate. Eight experts testified that the handwriting on the notes matched Hauptmann’s. In the media frenzy that was the Lindbergh trial, one of those experts made a point of avoiding the spotlight, something he did throughout his long career. Years later, when he was nearing retirement, a profile in Reader’s Digest would refer to him as Detective X.

His name was Wilmer Souder. A physicist at the National Bureau of Standards, now known as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Souder played an important role in the early days of forensic science. He helped send countless murderers, bootleggers, gangsters and thieves to prison, and he kept such a low profile partly out of concern for his and his family’s safety. Perhaps as a result, he was not long remembered for his forensic work, and his influence on the developing field of forensic science was not as great as it might have been.

A scientist and a historian at NIST team up to discover the mostly forgotten history of Wilmer Souder, a scientist who worked at the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST) from 1911 to 1954. Souder was an early expert in the field of forensic science. His careful analysis of evidence and his expert testimony sent to prison countless murderers, bootleggers, gangsters, and thieves. The most famous case he worked on was the Lindbergh kidnapping case, and this video reveals that his involvement in that case was much greater than previously known.

NIST: Who was Detective X? Rich Press
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Hidden History 24 February 2017...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 24, 2017 at 7:15am
Image Source: AzQuotes.com
Topics: African Americans, History, Diaspora, Diversity in Science, Women in Science

I present to you two, and by association several "enemies of the state" that addressed their particular eras with the facts, and not the alternative variety.

Synopsis

A daughter of slaves, Ida B. Wells was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, on July 16, 1862. A journalist, Wells led an anti-lynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s, and went on to found and become integral in groups striving for African-American justice. She died in 1931 in Chicago, Illinois.

Early Life

Born a slave in 1862, Ida Bell Wells was the oldest daughter of James and Lizzie Wells. The Wells family, as well as the rest of the slaves of the Confederate states, were decreed free by the Union, about six months after Ida's birth, thanks to the Emancipation Proclamation. However, living in Mississippi as African Americans, they faced racial prejudices and were restricted by discriminatory rules and practices.

Ida B. Wells's parents were active in the Republican Party during Reconstruction. Her father, James, was involved with the Freedman’s Aid Society and helped start Shaw University, a school for the newly freed slaves (now Rust College) and served on the first board of trustees. It was there that Ida B. Wells received her early schooling, but she had to drop out at the age of 16, when tragedy struck her family. Both of her parents and one of her siblings died in a yellow fever outbreak, leaving Wells to care for her other siblings. Ever resourceful, she convinced a nearby country school administrator that she was 18, and landed a job as a teacher.

Journalist and Activist

On one fateful train ride from Memphis to Nashville, in May 1884, Wells reached a personal turning point. Having bought a first-class train ticket to Nashville, she was outraged when the train crew ordered her to move to the car for African Americans, and refused on principle. As she was forcibly removed from the train, she bit one of the men on the hand. Wells sued the railroad, winning a $500 settlement in a circuit court case. However, the decision was later overturned by the Tennessee Supreme Court.

This injustice led Ida B. Wells to pick up a pen to write about issues of race and politics in the South. Using the moniker "Iola," a number of her articles were published in black newspapers and periodicals. Wells eventually became an owner of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight, and, later, of the Free Speech.

While working as a journalist and publisher, Wells also held a position as a teacher in a segregated public school in Memphis. She became a vocal critic of the condition of blacks only schools in the city. In 1891, she was fired from her job for these attacks. She championed another cause after the murder of a friend and his two business associates.

In 1892, three African-American men—Tom Moss, Calvin McDowell and Will Stewart—set up a grocery store in Memphis. Their new business drew customers away from a white-owned store in the neighborhood, and the white store owner and his supporters clashed with the three men on a few occasions. One night, Moss and the others guarded their store against attack and ended up shooting several of the white vandals. They were arrested and brought to jail, but they didn't have a chance to defend themselves against the charges—a lynch mob took them from their cells and murdered them. [1]

* * * * *

Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl disappeared in the Pakistani port city of Karachi on Jan 23, 2002 after telling his wife he was going to interview an Islamic group leader. AFP/Getty Images

Bret Stephens delivered the Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture this week at the University of California, Los Angeles. Read the full text of his remarks below:

I’m profoundly honored to have this opportunity to celebrate the legacy of Danny Pearl, my colleague at The Wall Street Journal.

My topic this evening is intellectual integrity in the age of Donald Trump. I suspect this is a theme that would have resonated with Danny.

When you work at The Wall Street Journal, the coins of the realm are truth and trust — the latter flowing exclusively from the former. When you read a story in the Journal, you do so with the assurance that immense reportorial and editorial effort has been expended to ensure that what you read is factual.

Not probably factual. Not partially factual. Not alternatively factual. I mean fundamentally, comprehensively and exclusively factual. And therefore trustworthy.

This is how we operate. This is how Danny operated. This is how he died, losing his life in an effort to nail down a story.

In the 15 years since Danny’s death, the list of murdered journalists has grown long.

Paul Klebnikov and Anna Politkovskaya in Russia.

Zahra Kazemi and Sattar Behesti in Iran.

Jim Foley and Steve Sotloff in Syria.

Five journalists in Turkey. Twenty-six in Mexico. More than 100 in Iraq.
When we honor Danny, we honor them, too.

We do more than that. [2]

Truth and its pursuit will always be an enemy of the state if that state means ill will to a particular constituency or to violate the precepts of a republic with impunity.

"Ignorance is [not] bliss." [3]
"Ignorance is [not] strength." [4]

Without a free press, the modifier "banana" goes in front of the form of government we enjoy. Despots and demagogues can only accomplish this when a citizenry is either uninformed, lazy, disinterested or nonchalant about the responsibilities of citizenship.

It's really "We The People" ... of the UNITED STATES: To support them, buy a subscription to your local newspaper, a cultural newspaper and a national one. Investigative journalism function well like you and I do, with an infusion of money, lacking in an era of free "point-and-click" and low advertising dollars as print has dwindled to the Internet. Notice I didn't name anyone. That's going to depend on where you are and what your personality leads you to. News feeds on social media don't cut it. You need to sit, digest and question every line. Then, call or write your representatives. Don't TWEET them. They are not part of the generation that reacts to such things (and those social media updates are done in their name by someone on their staffs). They respond to the tied-up switchboard; the mountain of postcards and letters; your physical appearance at Town Halls will eventually move them to action.

It's really "We The People"... it's really up to "US."

1. Biography.com: Ida B. Wells2. Time.com: Brett Stephens' remarks, Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture3. Thomas Gray: Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College4. Spark Notes: "1984," by George Orwell
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TRAPPIST-1...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 23, 2017 at 6:00am
This artist's illustration of the TRAPPIST-1 system depicts the ultracool dwarf star and its seven small planets. The potential for water throughout the system is also shown as notional clouds of steam, pools of water, and flakes of frost surrounding the planets, in accordance with their distance from the star. Credit: NASA, R. Hurt, T. Pyle
Topics: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Exoplanets, James Webb, Planetary Science, Space Exploration

For planet-hunting astronomers seeking twins or even cousins of Earth around other stars, the universe has just become much less lonely.

To qualify as close planetary kin, another world must be rocky and reside in the not-too-hot, not-too-cold “habitable zone” of its star, bathed in approximately as much starlight as Earth. There—if it possesses an atmosphere neither crushingly thick nor vanishingly thin—such a world could harbor a temperate climate where life-giving liquid water might pool in lakes, seas and oceans. Statistics from ongoing planet surveys suggest billions of worlds in our galaxy could meet these meager criteria, but so far less than a dozen candidates have been found that merit spine-tingling speculations about mirror Earths.

At least, that was the case until today. Writing in Nature, an international group of researchers details the discovery of seven worlds comparable with our own, orbiting a star 40 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius called TRAPPIST-1. Three of the planets orbit in TRAPPIST-1’s habitable zone and the other four could also conceivably sustain liquid water and life under certain atmospheric conditions. All appear to be roughly the same size, mass and composition as Earth.

For now the planets of TRAPPIST-1 are known only by their catalogue notations—TRAPPIST-1 b, c, d, e, f, g and h, labeled in order of their distance from their star. Soon that may change—the worlds will cry out for names as astronomers revel in their study and come to know them. TRAPPIST-1 is so cosmically close to us, so rich with promising worlds, that it is destined to be a touchstone for all future searches for habitable planets. And within a decade, some optimists say, studies of TRAPPIST-1 could provide compelling evidence for the existence of life beyond our solar system.

Scientific American: Nearby Star Hosts 7 Earth-Size Planets [Video], Lee Billings
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Hidden History 23 February 2017...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 23, 2017 at 7:00am
Sadly, an apropos meme I've used before.

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

It's strange I admit, including this social commentary in a Black History Month blog entry. As I said on the 1st of February, I feel compelled to address the era we're in right now of "alternative facts" (lies) that permeate our zeitgeist, quite literally by force of a certain spastic will with the power of Armageddon, bigotry and a twitter handle.

A related and prescient entry from a blog I follow "Very Smart Brothas":

That the Obama family is America’s official first family will never not be absurd. Not because they’re Black but because they’re so damn perfect. They’re each impossibly smart and tall, and the kids are ridiculously cute and talented and well mannered, and they all appear to adore one another. Oh, and they’re Black. Beautifully and unambiguously Black. So Black that they actually have a “Big Momma” (Michelle’s mother) living with them. And the names of their daughters could very easily also be the names of days in Kwanzaa. It is literally not possible to have a more perfect first family. We will never do better than them.

And we? Well... We are a country full of idiots, sociopaths, gun nuts, homophobes, hoteps, chicken hawks, chicken thieves, racists, Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood cast members and Cowboys fans. A year from now, we might actually elect the monkey squirrel who hosts The Celebrity Apprentice as our actual president. Our national pastimes are Netflix and chill and eating bacon.

Who knew his words would be so prophetic?

The last election pivoted on two things: racism and anti-intellectualism.

For the "Bernie or Bust" crowd, you have to understand the oppo research was already prepped for the anointed-by-tweety-bird-grandpa to get the full treatment, because anyone following the 44th president was going to be inexorably tied to him. Any party member or independent-tangential member, male or female; insider or socialist was by extension: him... the black guy they hated. I would have voted for Senator Sanders if he had been the nominee, as I would have Governor Martin O'Malley or Senator Jim Webb (remember them?). The taint of the Kenyan usurper were upon them all, every candidate painted with the broad, racist brush, and any candidate - presumably even Lucifer himself - with the Bill Maher magic (R) was going to get evangelical justification, publicly laid hands and scripture. The spate of racist incidents since WINNING the election has only escalated and shown the world that America hasn't progressed much since the 1960s, despite our self-deluded, oft-broadcast mythology.

First the racism was creative - witch doctor signs with bones through the nose, memes with chimpanzees, gorillas and the inevitable Godwin's Law comparisons to Hitler. Since the n-word was never used, that's what the regular right (?) calls "clever and subtle."

On alt-right/racist/storm front websites, it was full-on blatant racism. Even though a lot of racists have low IQs, a lot of them don't (like Nobel laureates in physics), so we can't use that to fully explain it, unfortunately. Racism is like mashed potatoes: comfort food that's bad for your waistline, but you eat it anyway with plenty of butter and brown gravy (dark pun intended), or an old set of shoes that you know you should get rid of except for the fact they're "broken in." For the pleasure of the Linus blanket of whiteness, our sovereignty as a nation is apparently a small price...for comfort.

The kissing cousin to racism is anti-intellectualism, the strain of which science fiction writer Isaac Asimov opined upon (oft-repeated meme above). The average US citizen probably knows more about the Kardashians than they do Civics or Science. Simon Sinek dropped the science on this: 45 is a reflection (of at least some) of us. It's quite suitable that the subtitle to Postman's book highlights the words show business. When Nielsen Ratings originated, there were three channels to measure. Now literally thousands of channels compete for our attention, some with only music; now online streaming shows are getting Emmy's. It's a wonder a poor network CEO wouldn't go for the semi-form, fast-twitching guy with a 4th grade vocabulary and a Propecia ferret on his head as long as eyeball traffic veered in their directions. Theirs is a pitiful plight indeed. But now, the fourth grader isn't pulling Susie's hair: he has the nuclear biscuit.

Amazon sold out of "1984" on the public apotheosis of "alternative facts."

Might I suggest Aldous Huxley and Neil Postman?

“We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn't, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.

But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell's dark vision, there was another - slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley's vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions". In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.” *

Amazon:

* Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business,
Neil Postman
Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, Richard Hofstrader

Related Links:

Bill Moyers: The GOP and the Rise of Anti-Knowledge, Mike Lofgren
Ohio Central History: The Know-Nothing Party

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3 unusual secrets for studying smarter not harder

Posted by Adam Turner on February 22, 2017 at 4:39am

The major role for the student is to well-study, work smarter not harder is a very common phrase which every student have to listen and also tried to follow that too. Every student has crowded schedule to complete their works, college, assignments, projects, social events and some other activates such make them too tired for study at home. For the smarter study, you need a perfect schedule including your all activities of the day which you have to follow strictly to cover up your studies. Instead of studying longer and harder, scientific research has proven ways on how the brain can process and learn information smarter and within shorter time spans. To study smarter UK Dissertation Help provider suggest some assure tips which help you

Concentrate on studies
Before the one or two months of exams students decide to study hard with the proper schedule, and that time they need more concentration towards their studies. Prepare a complete schedule and to-do list for a day and also to solve the previous year question paper which will help you to understand the pattern and also the efforts you have to give for that subject.

Create milestones
During exam time there is a lot of pressure and we have to manage all the things in the same time. Before starting any topic or subject just divide it into different parts which will help you complete your target and also have your own progress report that how much time taken to complete one task. Take a break of 5 min after every 30 min which will help you to get a refresh. Discipline yourself to study your toughest subject for 20-30 minutes a day or to solve 5-10 problems of your textbook every single day. A small daily effort piles up – after 30 days, just 5 problems a day pile up to 150 problems solved.

Smart study, instead of hard
Always study according to the timetable and when you study just completely concentrate on your subject avoiding all the destruction, keeping them and study for the whole day will never give you a positive result. Make sure before leaving the topic each and every concept should be clear, make proper and understanding notes with highlighting important points which help you during revision.


Keep track of your progress
Check you’re to do list daily before sleeping and make sure that have you completed your task of the day and it helps also to manage the time that which subject need more time to complete. Stay focus till your exams end it will help you to score more result.

Never give up
Practice, practice, practice until you don’t achieve your goal, never try to give up and remained focused on your goal. Never distract from any other thing until you achieve your goal.

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Imaging Neurotransmitters...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 22, 2017 at 7:53am
The nanosensor array is composed of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) deposited on a microscope slide. These nanotubes fluoresce in the near infrared when excited with laser light and are wrapped in single-stranded DNA to make them fluoresce brightly in the presence of dopamine. Courtesy: D Salem
Topics: Carbon Nanotubes, Biology, Nanotechnology

Chemical signalling between biological cells is the very essence of life, but it is difficult to measure such signals using existing techniques – such as those that rely on microfabricated electrodes, for example. A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have now succeeded in imaging how the neurotransmitter dopamine is released from a single cell using an array of 20,000 individually addressable sensors. The spatiotemporal resolution of the new technique is several orders of magnitude larger than that of previously reported electrode-based approaches.

Cells communicate with each other using waves of chemical concentrations that change in both direction and time. However, unlike electrical potentials, measuring this chemical signalling between cells and within cellular networks is more difficult – and especially at the spatial resolutions required to find out exactly from where on a cell chemicals are released.

Michael Strano and colleagues have now taken an important step forward to overcoming this problem. The researchers have developed fluorescent nanosensors based on single carbon nanotubes that can be placed under and around neuroprogenitor cells and image how the neurotransmitter dopamine is released from these cells. Thanks to their small size, as many as 20,000 sensors can be placed around an individual cell.

SWCNTs fluoresce brightly in the presence of dopamine
“The nanosensor array is composed of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) deposited on a microscope slide,” explains team member Daniel Salem. “These nanotubes fluoresce in the near-infrared (nIR) part of the electromagnetic spectrum when they are excited with laser light and we wrap them in single-stranded DNA to make them fluoresce brightly in the presence of dopamine.

“By imaging the surface beneath a cell with these sensors and making a movie of the nIR fluorescence, we are able to observe turn-on responses of individual pixels and correlate these with dopamine release from the cell.”

SWCNTs are versatile building blocks for biosensors, he says, and can detect down to the single-molecule level. The researchers chose to study dopamine in their work because it plays a central role in reward control and learning in humans.

Nanotechweb: Nanotube array images neurotransmitter signals, Belle Dumé
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Hidden History 22 February 2017...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 22, 2017 at 7:57am
Image Source: Ironically, The Wharton School of Business
Topics: African Americans, History, Diaspora, Diversity in Science, Women in Science

In the era of "alternative facts" (i.e. lies), it's good to go over the actual history of how we got a lot of the free trade agreements that did affect directly our labor force. However, the other thing that has and will continue to dwindle the amount of jobs Americans without a college degree can attain: automation, computer science and robotics. Not being "college material" is beginning to have slimmer and slimmer options.

Our representatives simply haven't thought much beyond their next election cycle how to resolve these problems. It's the blatant, political equivalent of "magical thinking," which makes you feel good for a moment and ultimately produces nothing. Demonizing people of color is far easier than working, apparently.

The impetus for NAFTA began with President Ronald Reagan, who proposed a North American common market in his campaign.

In 1984, Congress passed the Trade and Tariff Act. That gave the president "fast-track" authority to negotiate free trade agreements. It removes Congressional authority to change negotiating points. Instead, it allows Congress only the ability to approve or disapprove the entire agreement. That makes negotiation much easier for the administration. Trade partners don't have to worry that Congress will nitpick specific elements.

Canadian Prime Minister Mulroney agreed with Reagan to begin negotiations for the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. It was signed 1988 and went into effect 1989. NAFTA has now replaced it. (Source: "NAFTA Timeline," NaFina.)

Reagan’s successor, President H.W. Bush, began negotiations with Mexican President Salinas for a liberalized trade agreement between the two countries. Before NAFTA, Mexican tariffs on U.S. imports were 250 percent higher than U.S. tariffs on Mexican imports.

In 1991, Canada requested a trilateral agreement, which then led to NAFTA. In 1993, concerns about the liberalization of labor and environmental regulations led to the adoption of two addendums.

In 1992, NAFTA was signed by President George H.W. Bush, Mexican President Salinas and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

It was ratified by the legislatures of the three countries 1993. The U.S. House of Representatives approved it by 234 to 200 on November 17, 1993. The U.S. Senate approved it by 60 to 38 on November 20, three days later.

President Bill Clinton signed it into law December 8, 1993. It entered force January 1, 1994. It was a priority of President Clinton's, and its passage is considered one of his first successes. (Source: "NAFTA Signed Into Law," History.com, December 8, 1993.)

The Balance: The History of NAFTA and Its Purpose, Kimberly Amadeo
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Aliens, Us...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 21, 2017 at 10:00am
Image Source: Futurism

Topics: Biology, Exobiology, Exoplanets, Futurism, Mars, Space Exploration

What would likely happen is Mars and any interplanetary missions to it and the outer planets would be a one-way trip. Science Fiction shows like The Expanse kind of hit the nail-on-the-head, so to speak. They mention the effect of less than 1 g on humans that lived in say, the asteroid mining belts a few centuries and how Earth's gravity could be as daunting to such beings as Jupiter's would be on us now. The Expanse is a space opera with actual science: momentum, thrust, gravity wells and absolutely not a single warp drive. The Trekkie in me mourns, of course.

This is a good Gedanken (Thought Experiment), but I could see if and when evolution started asserting itself a "Genesis Prime" group on Earth would start a counter assertion to maintain the cosmic "status quo." Think of a few scenes in "Contact" by Carl Sagan.

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Godspeed, John Glenn...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 20, 2017 at 11:00am

It would literally be decades before we found out this was a part of African American History, as the book and movie "Hidden Figures" reveals. We have been, and always will be a part of the fabric of this nation's progress forward. Regarding us as lazy, stupid, useless can only lead to the United States regression into third world status. It has the logic of shooting oneself in the foot and expecting "the other" to feel the pain.

I guess for my mother, it was t-minus six months and counting (I was happily gestating in her womb)...


It took chutzpah, moxie for a human being to consciously strap (at that time) himself to a large lit stick of dynamite with no guarantee that the procedure, though thoroughly calculated and considered, would not end in disaster.

So was this Marine Corp pilot, who confidently climbed into a Mercury rocket - Friendship 7, and took the first flight by an American to orbit the Earth.

Mercury - Gemini - Apollo: it would change our world with semiconductor-manufactured spinoff technologies that we now take for granted. It would change our focus, our nerve on what was possible. We would look to the stars and listen for signs of humanity's cousins.

50 years later: Godspeed, John Glenn

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Grace Under Pressure...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 20, 2017 at 11:34am
The sample appears as a dark area near the center of this micrograph of the diamond-anvil cell.
Credit: X. Dong et al. Nat. Chem. 2017

Topics: Chemistry, Chemical Physics, Materials Science


Helium doesn’t play well with others. Beyond its noble gas designation on the periodic table, it has the lowest electron affinity—zero—among the elements, and the highest ionization energy. Scientists have managed to mechanically pack He atoms with other elements, but the He has little effect on those compounds’ characteristics.

Now an international team has presented evidence for a compound whose electronic structure and thus its physical properties are influenced by its He components. Researchers led by Artem Oganov ran a crystal structure prediction algorithm to play matchmaker for He and found that the compound Na2He should form at high pressures. The researchers shared their prediction with Alexander Goncharov and colleagues, who loaded He gas and solid sodium into a diamond-anvil cell at the Carnegie Institution for Science. After increasing the pressure to 140 GPa and heating the sample, Goncharov’s team noticed a marked shift in material properties. New peaks appeared in x-ray diffraction patterns, and the sample’s melting point rose to more than 1500 K; pure Na melts at about 550 K.

Scientific American: Helium compound may form under pressure, Andrew Grant

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Hidden History 20 February 2017...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 20, 2017 at 11:40am
A memorial plaque at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Addie Mae Collins and Carole Robertson were killed in a bombing at the church in 1963 [AP/File]

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

I've seen this photo numerous times, but the date always grabs me: September 15, 1963 would have been my mother's 38th birthday. I would have been a budding toddler with Linus blanket and binky, a year an a month old. On this day in 1962, John Glenn would become the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth, thanks largely to African American female "computers," truly "Hidden Figures," since it would be decades before their courageous stories would be told.

In October of 1962, when I was two months old, we skated on the precipice of Armageddon with the Cuban Missile Crisis, when (ahem) Communists and Russians were considered the "bad hombres."

Two months later in 1963, President Kennedy would be assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

I understand why my mother said these were the years... she prayed a lot.

There will never be an acceptable explanation for what happened between Michael Brown and Darren Wilson in Ferguson but we will never fully grasp why the stage was set for such an encounter unless we know American history.

We cannot fully comprehend why Dylan Roof murdered nine parishioners at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston unless we study the Civil War and the Confederacy.

We cannot truly fathom how a minor traffic stop in Cincinnati could result in a white campus police officer blowing out the brains of an unarmed black man unless we delve into the role race has played in law enforcement from the enactment of the federal Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 to today's mandatory minimum sentencing statutes.

Examining American history provides us with the tools to analyse how the death of Michael Brown and the demonstrations on Florrisant Avenue became a tipping point and sparked a movement. Connecting the dots between the past and the present helps us to see the origins of our current national debate - about race, police misconduct, white supremacy, white privilege, inequality, incarceration and the unfinished equal rights agenda.

The Pendulum

The history of people of African descent in America - which is to say the history of America - is a pendulum of progress and setbacks, of resilience and retaliation, of protest and backlash. There have been allies and there have been opponents. There have been demagogues, who would divide Americans on the basis of colour and class, and visionaries who would seek to lead us to common ground.

The quest for "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" has been an American aspiration since the Declaration of Independence, but black Americans, Native Americans and women were not at the table in 1776. Forty of the 56 signers owned other people.

Lest there be any doubt about where the young nation's sentiments lay, the Supreme Court's 1857 Dred Scott decision made clear that people of African descent - whether enslaved or free - would not be considered American citizens and had no legal standing in the courts. It mattered not that some of their grandfathers had served in George Washington's Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.

Al Jazeera: Know your history: Understanding Racism in the US, A'Lelia Bundles
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