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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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Hidden History 17 February 2017...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 17, 2017 at 8:30am
Members of the Kappa Beta Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc perform a step show at the University of Memphis in 1999 Note that the average cane is about knee high (app. 2 feet), image source at site

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

Stepping, like the blues, gospel, grits, jazz, be-bop, soul music, rock & roll and hip hop has its origins in traditions passed down from mother to daughter; father to son. It's originated in the 19th century in the form of South African gumboot dancing. The black miners were forbidden drums and traditional garb by the foremen, so they used as a way to break up the monotony, entertainment and communication with the only instruments they had: their rain boots and their bodies. It evolved from call-and-response sermons in black churches: "the rhythm of clap and tambourine, washboard and kettle drum." You can see certain tribes on the Mother Continent today that the only name you can give their rhythmic stomping, their pirouettes, their sheer expression of joy... is stepping.

It is an American art form, found in all of the Divine Nine, taught to undergrads and in some cases graduate initiates to carry on a tradition that on the outside looks almost stereotypical to the cynical, that usually will make snide and racist remarks out of ignorance because they do not understand.

They obviously haven't read "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley, nor understood the conditions under which he wrote his words:

Henley's literary reputation rests almost entirely upon this single poem.[7] In 1875 one of Henley's legs required amputation due to complications arising from tuberculosis. Immediately after the amputation he was told that his other leg would require a similar procedure. He chose instead to enlist the services of the distinguished English surgeon Joseph Lister, who was able to save Henley's remaining leg after multiple surgical interventions on the foot.[8]

While recovering in the infirmary, he was moved to write the verses that became "Invictus". This period of his life, coupled with recollections of an impoverished childhood, were primary inspirations for the poem, and play a major role in its meaning.[9] A memorable evocation of Victorian stoicism—the "stiff upper lip" self-discipline and fortitude in adversity, which popular culture rendered into a British character trait, "Invictus" remains a cultural touchstone.[6] Source: Wikipedia, see second Invictus link.

Invictus is memorized and recited by initiates to the Divine Nine as well as majority organizations, but not without the cultural backdrop of being and living in America as almost an afterthought. It's about pushing ahead through adversity; fighting against mighty streams of resistance to one's goal.

In a conversation I recounted with Dr. Ronald E. McNair (A&T physics graduate and sadly, Challenger astronaut casualty), "5 weeks before his dissertation defense, someone purged his data (also known as sabotage). Without data, he'd essentially have failed to get his PhD. He said he stayed up for 3 weeks and re-accomplished 5 years of research. He slept for a week after that." He was a proud member of Omega Psi Phi, a member of the Divine Nine. He obviously learned, and LIVED Invictus. I'll wager because he was a jazz saxophonist and an accomplished athlete (part of the Fighting Aggie Karate Team, and 5th Degree Black Belt) he STEPPED as an undergrad, too.

Most of the Founders of African American Fraternities and Sororities were men and women of letters, but also (at least for the initial organizations) as undergraduates servants within dominate frat and sorority houses. Due to segregation, they were not allowed to join majority organizations. It was under these and similar circumstances the germ of an idea: organizations of our own was born.

It is why such organizations step, while others do not.

It is an expression of triumph over adversity from a society designed against you to be at times vindictively cruel and punitive.

It is rising above bigoted circumstances; winning in spite of low expectations and outright, malicious sabotage.

It is, with or without canes, martial arts, break dancing, gymnastics, music and pirouettes the embodiment of Langston Hughes classic poem, I'm Still Here:

been scarred and battered.
My hopes the wind done scattered.
Snow has friz me,
Sun has baked me,

Looks like between 'em they done
Tried to make me

Stop laughin', stop lovin', stop livin'--
But I don't care!
I'm still here!

* * * * *

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

William Earnest Hensley, last stanza of "Invictus"

Still here, unconquered AND stepping to prove it!

Related Links:

Step Afrika: What is Stepping?
The Art of Stepping: History of the Art of Stepping
University of Florida Multicultural Guide: What is Strolling?
Wikipedia: Gumboot dance
Wikipedia: Stepping (African-American)

Kappas on YouTube (Hey, I'm a member, so I'm GOING to be partial):

Howard Homecoming
Maniac Drew Brown (Cane Master)
Southern Province Step Show
The Art of Twirling
University of Miami, TEDx

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Legends Parallel 2

Posted by Bill McCormick on February 16, 2017 at 3:46pm

Imagine an Earth where Africa was never colonized and ended up ruling the world. We did. Legends Parallel issue 2 is coming soon. Pre-order yours via the STORE link at www.LegendsParallel.com

Uzziah is a hero on Earth 2. The problem that Earth has with him is he keeps saving people nobody really wants to save. What will happen to his, and their, worldview when they find out the losers he's saving here are leaders elsewhere?

Read more…

Neutron Stars and Quantum Physics...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 16, 2017 at 6:30am
An electromagnetic wave traveling from left to right (positive x direction).
Image Credit: Supermanu (CC BY-SA 3.0)


Topics: Astrophysics, Electromagnetic Wave, Neutron Stars, Quantum Electrodynamics


Recently, scientists made some impressive measurements of light emitted by an isolated neutron star. The results support an 80-year-old prediction, made during the early days of quantum electrodynamics (QED), of a phenomenon known as vacuum birefringence.

Radio signals, microwaves, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays are all types of electromagnetic waves. All electromagnetic waves travel through empty space at the same speed, the speed of light (~300,000,000 m/s). More energetic electromagnetic waves have higher frequencies and shorter wavelengths.

In the diagram below above, the electric field is shown in blue. It points along the z axis, moving back and forth in the z direction as the wave travels to the right. Similarly, the magnetic field oscillates in the y direction. The changing electric field gives rise to the magnetic field, and the changing magnetic field gives rise to the electric field, so the two travel together.

When scientists say that light is polarized, they are referring to the direction of the electric field, depicted in the above diagram by the blue arrows. In the diagram, the electromagnetic wave is polarized in the z direction. That is to say: all of the electric field vectors are aligned (whether up or down) with the z axis.

When scientists make measurements on electromagnetic waves, they measure many waves. Most light is randomly polarized, so if you try to collect some light headed in the x direction, you’ll find just as many electromagnetic waves on the z axis as on the y axis, and at all angles in between. This type of light would be called unpolarized.

Most typical low- and medium-mass stars (anywhere from 0.1 to 3 times the mass of our Sun) use up their fuel in nuclear fusion then quietly cool off, usually forming a white dwarf. More massive stars have a lot more gravitational pull, so they burn up their fuel faster, resulting in a shorter life span and an explosive finale called a supernova. A supernova spews much of the material of the star outward, but what is left (which again depends on the initial mass of the star) becomes either a neutron star (if the initial mass was between 8 and 24 times the mass of our Sun) or a black hole (initial mass 25 or more times the mass of our Sun).

Although neutrons are neutrally charged, they are composed of charged particles that cause the neutron to have a magnetic dipole—that is, neutrons act like little magnets. Collectively, the number of neutrons that make up a 12- to 20-mile-diameter ball put out an incredible magnetic field. As a neutron star rotates, its rotating magnetic field creates radio waves that are emitted like beacons from the magnetic poles of the star. To our observatories, these signals appear to pulsate. As a result, neutron stars are sometimes called pulsars. Neutron stars don’t emit very much visible light, but they emit some.



 Physics Central: Neutron Stars: Cosmic Laboratories for Quantum Physics, H.M. Doss

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Hidden History 16 February 2017...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 16, 2017 at 6:34am
Replica of Benjamin Banneker's clock at Brookhaven National Laboratory link below

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

Without Benjamin Banneker, our nation's capital would not exist as we know it. After a year of work, the Frenchman hired by George Washington to design the capital, L'Enfant, stormed off the job, taking all the plans. Banneker, placed on the planning committee at Thomas Jefferson's request, saved the project by reproducing from memory, in two days, a complete layout of the streets, parks, and major buildings. Thus Washington, D.C. itself can be considered a monument to the genius of this great man.

Banneker's English grandmother immigrated to the Baltimore area and married one of her slaves, named Bannaky. Later, their daughter did likewise, and gave birth to Benjamin in 1731. Since by law, free/slave status depended on the mother, Banneker, like his mother, was---technically---free.

Banneker attended an elementary school run by Quakers (one of the few "color-blind" communities of that time); in fact, he later adopted many Quaker habits and ideas. As a young man, he was given a pocket-watch by a business associate: this inspired Banneker to create his own clock, made entirely of wood (1753). Famous as the first clock built in the New World, it kept perfect time for forty years.

During the Revolutionary War, wheat grown on a farm designed by Banneker helped save the fledgling U.S. troops from Banneker's clock starving. After the War, Banneker took up astronomy: in 1789, he successfully predicted an eclipse. From 1792 to 1802, Banneker published an annual Farmer's Almanac, for which he did all the calculations himself.

The Almanac won Banneker fame as far away as England and France. He used his reputation to promote social change: namely, to eliminate racism and war. He sent a copy of his first Almanac to Thomas Jefferson, with a letter protesting that the man who declared that "all men are created equal" owned slaves. Jefferson responded with enthusiastic words, but no political reform. Similarly, Banneker's attempts "to inspire a veneration for human life and an horror for war" fell mainly on deaf ears.

But Banneker's reputation was never in doubt. He spent his last years as an internationally known polymath: farmer, engineer, surveyor, city planner, astronomer, mathematician, inventor, author, and social critic. He died on October 25, 1806. Today, Banneker does not have the reputation he should, although the entire world could still learn from his words: "Ah, why will men forget that they are brethren?"

Banneker's life is inspirational. Despite the popular prejudices of his times, the man was quite unwilling to let his race or his age hinder in any way his thirst for intellectual development.

Benjamin Banneker, known as the first African-American man of science, was born in 1731 in Ellicott's Mills, Md. His maternal grandmother was a white Englishwoman who came to this country, bought two slaves and then liberated and married one of them; their daughter, who also married a slave, was Banneker's mother.

From the beginning, Banneker, who was taught reading and religion by his grandmother and who attended one of the first integrated schools, showed a great propensity for mathematics and an astounding mechanical ability. Later, when he was forced to leave school to work the family farm, he continued to be an avid reader.

Although he had no previous training, when he was only 22 he invented a wooden clock that kept accurate time throughout his life. According to "Gay & Lesbian Biography," Banneker "applied his natural mechanical and mathematical abilities to diagrams of wheels and gears, and converted these into three-dimensional wooden clock-parts he carved with a knife." People from all over came to see the clock.

Brookhaven National Laboratory: Benjamin Banneker
Banneker Store: About Benjamin Banneker

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Hidden History 13 February 2017...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 13, 2017 at 7:59am
Paperback book cover, see links below

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

The second recommended book by the inimitable Jane Elliot, though she is indomitable and unique, should at least be imitated.

The semiconductor industry is viewed as rational and logical as it appears to be from the outside: Dr. William Shockley was the co-inventor of the transistor and shared the Nobel Prize for its discovery; we study his diode equation in electronics engineering. He was also a rabid eugenicist (pseudoscience), which goes to show merely an advanced degree nor a Nobel Prize inoculates from racial prejudice. He is mentioned in great detail on pages 235-239; 244, 255 and 276. He has the ignoble distinction of having pages at Biography, Nobel Prize, PBS, the Southern Poverty Law Center and Wikipedia. These are the cracks in the foundation. Nothing, not even science is perfect.

As I have said, the two books were cathartic during a season that made me question my coworkers. I concluded after this pedagogic catharsis, they are the byproduct of forces that shaped them; credible others that impacted and framed them. They have never had "the talk" or had to give it to their children beyond "be respectful," nor do they likely look at their speedometer, registration and inspection at the sight of a police vehicle; they do not wonder if their insurance is current or expired; their hearts do not skip a beat; the rehearsal script of the talk does not form in their minds nor does a long sigh escape their lips when the representative of "law and order" thankfully passes them by.

In my initial read of this important book, this statement stood out on the page (for me). Forgive me that it is from pages 1 - 2 in the Introduction, but as a "hook," it pulled me through the rest of the book:

"Yet as recently as 2010, highly acclaimed journalist Guy Harrison (2010) wrote:

"One day in the 1980s, I sat in the front row in my first undergraduate anthropology class, eager to learn more about this bizarre and fascinating species I was born into. But I got more than I expected that day as I heard for the first time that biological races are not real. After hearing several perfectly sensible reasons why vast biological categories don't work very well, I started to feel betrayed by my society. 'Why am I just hearing about this now? ... Why didn't someone tell me about this in elementary school?' ... I never should have made it through twelve years of schooling before entering a university, without ever hearing the important news that most anthropologist reject the notion of biological races. (27, 30)"

I was an undergraduate at North Carolina A&T in the 1980s. I never had to take a class in anthropology as a physics major, but I think after reading this treatise, I likely would have enjoyed it.

"I never should have made it through twelve years of schooling before entering a university, without ever hearing the important news that most anthropologist reject the notion of biological races."

Anthropologists, biologists, geneticists (and most) physicists I know, yes: political figures manipulating fears and conditioned-from-the-crib society, no.

Biological races do not exist—and never have. This view is shared by all scientists who study variation in human populations. Yet racial prejudice and intolerance based on the myth of race remain deeply ingrained in Western society. In his powerful examination of a persistent, false, and poisonous idea, Robert Sussman explores how race emerged as a social construct from early biblical justifications to the pseudoscientific studies of today.

The Myth of Race traces the origins of modern racist ideology to the Spanish Inquisition, revealing how sixteenth-century theories of racial degeneration became a crucial justification for Western imperialism and slavery. In the nineteenth century, these theories fused with Darwinism to produce the highly influential and pernicious eugenics movement. Believing that traits from cranial shape to raw intelligence were immutable, eugenicists developed hierarchies that classified certain races, especially fair-skinned “Aryans,” as superior to others. These ideologues proposed programs of intelligence testing, selective breeding, and human sterilization—policies that fed straight into Nazi genocide. Sussman examines how opponents of eugenics, guided by the German-American anthropologist Franz Boas’s new, scientifically supported concept of culture, exposed fallacies in racist thinking.

Although eugenics is now widely discredited, some groups and individuals today claim a new scientific basis for old racist assumptions. Pondering the continuing influence of racist research and thought, despite all evidence to the contrary, Sussman explains why—when it comes to race—too many people still mistake bigotry for science.

Most of the martial arts I've studied have oriental origins: Japanese Goju Ryu, Korean Tukong Moosul and Tang Soo Do, Jeet Kune Do (by way of Wing Chun and Bruce Lee proteges), Muay Thai, Silat; Filipino Kali. I discovered Capoeria and African Arts much later.

Robert Wagner (not the actor) was stationed at a base in Japan where he studied Goju Ryu karate. After getting out of the military and going to North Carolina A&T on the GI Bill, he established a Dojo (training hall) well before I matriculated. There were stories of his treatment in Japan not being any different than his treatment in the United States as a black man. His initial students were Attorney, Judge and Sensei McSwain (82nd Airborne Division), Challenger Astronaut Dr. Ronald E. McNair and Dr. Gilbert and Mrs. Patricia Casterlow and Mr. Samuel Casterlow, my karate instructors when I was an undergrad. Dr. Casterlow told us about "rules" like unnecessary redness of the skin resulting in immediate disqualification. It was usually applied to disqualify the predominant African American team members of The Fighting Aggies. Point fighting has always been a subjective pursuit. It's really up to a majority of judges that "saw" your kick or punch score. In many cases it may depend on your studio, not so much your paint job as in the past.

"'Why am I just hearing about this now? ... Why didn't someone tell me about this in elementary school?' ... I never should have made it through twelve years of schooling before entering a university, without ever hearing the important news that most anthropologist reject the notion of biological races."

What indeed would have been the result of a society and a planetary species if such lessons had been learned earlier, and like its dark antithesis, disseminated globally?

"The Myth of Race: The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea," Robert Wald Sussman

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More Bang For Your Bit...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 13, 2017 at 7:55am
Image credits:
Composite image by Yuen Yiu, Staff Writer and Abigail Malate, Staff Illustrator. Fiber-Optic photo by Matthew.nq/Wikimedia , (CC by 4.0)

Topics: Computer Science, Internet, Quantum Computer, Quantum Mechanics

Scientists break the record for data transfer efficiency by using photons and quantum communication techniques.

Scientists from Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee have broken the efficiency record for data transfer. Using a quantum communication process known as superdense coding, they squeezed through an average 1.67 bits of data per qubit. Qubits, which is short for "quantum bits," are units of data that utilize quantum properties to store information.

The result beats the previous record of 1.63 bits per qubit. Even more importantly, the experiment used only simple, off-the-shelf technology, taking quantum communication closer to practical applications in the future. The work will appear in Physical Review Letters.

More bang for your bit

Computers send information in units called bits, which represent either a one or a zero. These bits can be understood as gumballs that one party (Alice) sends to another party (Bob). In a classical system, Bob would register a one if he receives a gumball and a zero for a space between gumballs. However, these gumballs also contain other properties that are not communicated in the classical system, such as color or flavor. The properties are analogous to quantum properties such as polarization or angular momentum, which can be found in the photons and electrons we use to transfer data today.

"We're basically trying to see what quantum abilities there are, and try to see what can we use them for," said Brian Williams, a quantum physicist from Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He is the lead author of the paper.

Inside Science: Same Spark, More Bytes, Yuen Yiu

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Hidden History 10 February 2017...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 10, 2017 at 11:57am
An early book cover at Open Library

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

Good reads has the following summary:

Published to wide controversy, it became the source (acknowledged or unacknowledged) of much of our thinking about race relations and was for many a catalyst for the civil rights movement. It remains the most courageous, insightful, and eloquent critique of the pre-1960s South.

"I began to see racism and its rituals of segregation as a symptom of a grave illness," Smith wrote. "When people think more of their skin color than of their souls, something has happened to them." Today, readers are rediscovering in Smith's writings a forceful analysis of the dynamics of racism, as well as her prophetic understanding of the connections between racial and sexual oppression.

What is now controversial would be considered genre in the 21st Century. We've come so far, and yet have so far to go.

Lillian Smith was herself an enigma: she wrote Killers of the Dream in 1949, six years before Emmett Till would take his faithful trip south ending in his brutal death that would spark more activism and less philosophy in the Civil Rights movement.
Photo of Lillian Smith at the Blog: "stuff white people do" (ahem: by a white guy, on hiatus since 2010)

Lillian was herself a closeted lesbian, during an era where the closet was less for protection from embarrassment or shunning by one's family: being in the south, a noose was likely connected to punishment from a "righteous mob."

An excerpt below I found powerful and poignant. I encourage you at no benefit to myself, to give yourself the treat of this book. This one, along with the other I'll share Monday, was extremely cathartic during a divisive election cycle where I questioned the motivations of my coworkers not from what they did, but what they had the audacity to say in my presence.



From part II, chapter III: Three Ghost Stories, page 123 (paperback):

"Historically, the first Ku Klux Klan originated in Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1866, formed by six ex-Confederate soldiers, half as a lark but used quickly afterward as an impromptu way of meeting an emergency situation in which the South was left without law enforcement agencies. Had it actually been impromptu and accidental, the idea would have been discarded and forgotten when order was restored in the South. But instead, it lived on and spread like an epidemic. Now today, more than eighty years later, the Klan rides in New Jersey as well as in Georgia and Alabama. It no longer limits itself to the revenging of 'raping' and the 'protecting' of womanhood nor is it turned solely against the Negro race. It is used against unions, against middle-class 'deviationists,' against people who 'drink,' against anyone who does or says anything the Klan disapproves of. It is becoming more undisguised and more undifferentiated in its sadism and intolerance, until now it is in the main a ceremonial acting out of men's deeply repressed fantasies and deeply repressed needs for revenge and penance. It gathers under its hood the mentally ill, the haters who have forgotten what it is they hate or who dare not harm their real hate object, and also the bored and confused and ignorant. The Klan is made up of ghosts on the search for ghosts who have haunted the southern soul too long."

"Killers of the Dream," by Lillian Smith

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"If you are south of the Canadian border, you are IN the south!" Malcolm X
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