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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?

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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

Amazon
Barnes and Noble

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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

Amazon
Barnes and Noble


"If you are south of the Canadian border, you are IN the south!" Malcolm X
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Hidden History 6 February 2017...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 6, 2017 at 9:30am
Image Source: Amazon link below


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


A book report and cathartic confession on being "invisible."

Last year, I cheered for Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers because... I grew up in North Carolina, and went to school K-12 and post secondary at North Carolina A&T. How could I NOT cheer for the Panthers?

I am now post another Super Bowl, this one I didn't watch. I considered the Patriots winning a foregone conclusion, and the choke by the Falcons was probably disappointing to classmates that now live in the ATL.

This Bowl is post a very divisive election season that gave us a divisive Chief Executive. His friendship with the owner, the coach and the quarterback only politicized it more than necessary. I watched the original Star Trek episodes on BBC America and checked in on Facebook. I'm disappointed, but not as emotional as last year.

Ralph Ellison does an excellent job of painting a picture of the times through the patronage of public HBCUs by dominant financiers and the political aspects of "The Brotherhood," that I thought was an inference to Red Scare Communism that inspired the government to spy on its own citizens through COINTELPRO. We've obviously recently locked arms with the Kremlin, though such fears still seem extended to brown people.

However, I must go to a "team-building" lunch today, post this game I did not see, for the reason I will publish as having "no dogs in the hunt." It will be true, and hopefully pivot conversations from politics to just work-related issues.

A way of using a superpower of my swagger: invisibility.

Amazon: Invisible Man is a milestone in American literature, a book that has continued to engage readers since its appearance in 1952. A first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century. The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood", and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be. The book is a passionate and witty tour de force of style, strongly influenced by T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, Joyce, and Dostoevsky.

Amazon.com Review

We rely, in this world, on the visual aspects of humanity as a means of learning who we are. This, Ralph Ellison argues convincingly, is a dangerous habit. A classic from the moment it first appeared in 1952, Invisible Man chronicles the travels of its narrator, a young, nameless black man, as he moves through the hellish levels of American intolerance and cultural blindness. Searching for a context in which to know himself, he exists in a very peculiar state. "I am an invisible man," he says in his prologue. "When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination--indeed, everything and anything except me." But this is hard-won self-knowledge, earned over the course of many years.

As the book gets started, the narrator is expelled from his Southern Negro college for inadvertently showing a white trustee the reality of black life in the south, including an incestuous farmer and a rural whorehouse. The college director chastises him: "Why, the dumbest black bastard in the cotton patch knows that the only way to please a white man is to tell him a lie! What kind of an education are you getting around here?" Mystified, the narrator moves north to New York City, where the truth, at least as he perceives it, is dealt another blow when he learns that his former headmaster's recommendation letters are, in fact, letters of condemnation.

What ensues is a search for what truth actually is, which proves to be supremely elusive. The narrator becomes a spokesman for a mixed-race band of social activists called "The Brotherhood" and believes he is fighting for equality. Once again, he realizes he's been duped into believing what he thought was the truth, when in fact it is only another variation. Of the Brothers, he eventually discerns: "They were blind, bat blind, moving only by the echoed sounds of their voices. And because they were blind they would destroy themselves.... Here I thought they accepted me because they felt that color made no difference, when in reality it made no difference because they didn't see either color or men."

Invisible Man is certainly a book about race in America, and sadly enough, few of the problems it chronicles have disappeared even now. But Ellison's first novel transcends such a narrow definition. It's also a book about the human race stumbling down the path to identity, challenged and successful to varying degrees. None of us can ever be sure of the truth beyond ourselves, and possibly not even there. The world is a tricky place, and no one knows this better than the invisible man, who leaves us with these chilling, provocative words: "And it is this which frightens me: Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?" --Melanie Rehak
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New Director...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 6, 2017 at 9:28am
Argonne physicist Kawtar Hafidi has been named the next director of the laboratory’s physics division. (Image by Wes Agresta/Argonne National Laboratory.)


Topics: Experimental Physics, Nuclear Physics, Research, Women in Science


Experimental nuclear physicist Kawtar Hafidi has been named the next director of Physics Division at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory.

Hafidi, who currently serves as the laboratory’s Associate Chief Scientist for Laboratory-Directed Research & Development (LDRD), has 17 years of experience in leading and conducting fundamental research at major accelerator facilities in the United States and Europe.  As Associate Chief Scientist, she established transparent processes aimed at supporting Argonne’s most important scientific priorities and assuring the greatest possible return on early scientific investment.

“Kawtar is an accomplished researcher with a great passion for science,” said Harry Weerts, Argonne Associate Laboratory Director for Physical Sciences and Engineering. “She brings to this role a strong vision for the future.”

As a researcher, Hafidi has focused on studying the structure of nucleons and nuclei in terms of their basic constituents, namely quarks and gluons, within the framework of the theory of strong interactions. Her work encompasses measurements of nuclear modification effects; three-dimensional imaging of nucleons and nuclei, the mechanisms of “vacuum” confinement and tests of charge symmetry violations.

Hafidi has also played a leading role in and received numerous awards for advocacy for increased diversity, both at Argonne and within the broader physics community. She is the author of more than 140 publications and has given more than 40 invited talks at international conferences, universities, and laboratories.

Argonne National Laboratory:
Kawtar Hafidi named director of Physics Division, Jared Sagoff

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Earth in Human Hands...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 3, 2017 at 1:56pm
Image Source: Amazon link


Topics: Climate Change, Global Warming, Greenhouse Gases


Amazon: For the first time in Earth's history, our planet is experiencing a confluence of rapidly accelerating changes prompted by one species: humans. Climate change is only the most visible of the modifications we've made--up until this point, inadvertently--to the planet. And our current behavior threatens not only our own future but that of countless other creatures. By comparing Earth's story to those of other planets, astrobiologist David Grinspoon shows what a strange and novel development it is for a species to evolve to build machines, and ultimately, global societies with world-shaping influence.

Without minimizing the challenges of the next century, Grinspoon suggests that our present moment is not only one of peril, but also great potential, especially when viewed from a 10,000-year perspective. Our species has surmounted the threat of extinction before, thanks to our innate ingenuity and ability to adapt, and there's every reason to believe we can do so again.

Our challenge now is to awaken to our role as a force of planetary change, and to grow into this task. We must become graceful planetary engineers, conscious shapers of our environment and caretakers of Earth's biosphere. This is a perspective that begs us to ask not just what future do we want to avoid, but what do we seek to build? What kind of world do we want? Are humans the worst thing or the best thing to ever happen to our planet? Today we stand at a pivotal juncture, and the answer will depend on the choices we make.
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Hidden History 3 February 2017...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 3, 2017 at 2:41pm
Higher education administrators, students and industry professionals gathered in Washington, D.C., to speak to Congressional staffers and representatives about the need to attract more African-American men to STEM. COURTESY GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY


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


I recall once this observation being made by a new hire (at the time) rotational engineer and fellow Aggie I worked with at Motorola:

Him: "Reg!"

Me: "What?"

Him: "We were the 'only black engineers' in that room," my fellow alumni said.

Me: "And, we were and are the best damn engineers IN that room, or any other!" I shot back. "Do you have a problem with that?"

He gave me a grin and an "Aggie Pride" verbal acknowledgement. I reassured his swagger... his end-of-rotation presentation blew them away. I beamed with pride.

Black men are faulted for swagger, even President Obama received grief for it, although I think it largely pivoted on the southern racial parlance of "being uppity." Urban Dictionary defines swagger as: "How one presents him or her self to the world. Swagger is shown from how the person handles a situation. It can also be shown in the person's walk."

The interaction my younger alumni and I had happened and likely happens quite often. You have to learn the rules of the road rather quickly. Sometimes going to church, or a frat meeting, or a concert, or simply chatting on the phone with a close friend is how you de-stress; unwind.

More often than not, as Paul Lawrence Dunbar eloquently stated (and Dr. Maya Angelou gave her stupendous interpretation) it is a mask. It hides rage and disappointment at ignorant comments made around you, daring you to respond to a shout of "Black Lives Matter," when the discussion - about, you know, work - didn't even CENTER around that (this happened last year, 2016 during the divisive election cycle). When I challenged the individual by simply asking "what did you mean by that?", he slinked away like an Internet troll nervously and quickly changing the subject; suddenly remembering Human Resources exists for a reason. The struggle is no different in complexion or complexity in graduate school, as you are usually "the one," so you better be supremely confident in yourself or convince others you are until you are. Walk with confidence until you're sure you've mastered your situation, putting in the hard work until you do. Don't "fake it till you make it": make it!

Swagger... It covers a multitude of sins that could be committed when you're not in control of your emotions. Thankfully, I have access to a 300 pound heavy bag at my community's gym that takes the abuse instead! At least 37 years of martial arts training and channeled anger keeps me in reasonably good shape.

Swagger... Never let 'em see you sweat unless they see you in the gym!

It's not often that you hear calls for more men to participate in science, technology, engineering and math fields.

Advocates consistently beat the drum to find ways to engage more female and minority students in STEM fields, which are still largely dominated by men. But within that group is perhaps one of the most underrepresented demographics: African-American men.

Among U.S. citizens and permanent residents, the number of black men who earn science and engineering doctorates grew by more than 25 percent in 10 years, according to data from the National Science Foundation. While that appears to be a large growth, the absolute numbers barely budged between 2003 and 2013 – inching up from just 631 of 13,921 recipients to 798 of 16,542 recipients – and the representation has stayed essentially flat, between 4.5 percent and 4.8 percent of all science and engineering doctorates. The number of science and engineering bachelor's degrees awarded to black men increased 45 percent, from 12,484 in 2002 to 18,102 in 2012. But similarly, black men as a proportion of all science and engineering bachelor's degree recipients has remained essentially unchanged, at 6.1 percent in 2002 and 6.2 percent in 2012.

Like women and other minority groups, African-American men are also underrepresented in the workforce. Census data show that in 2010, African-American men made up 6.2 percent of the population between 18 and 64 years old. But in the same year, the NSF reported that black men represented just 3 percent of scientists and engineers working in those fields.

US News: African American Men: The Other STEM Minority, Allie Bidwell

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How Should a Beginner go About Networking?

Posted by Kimani Ali on February 4, 2017 at 1:35pm

So, I am a very green SFF writer in a city--Memphis--that is not very nurturing to my genre. This is due to the fact that there is not a significant amount of established writers here.

Here is what I want to know:

1) How crucial are writing groups to local networking? There are no well-known groups here, so I may have to create my own if need be.

2) What should I seek to accomplish in networking with people in the SFF industry?

3) How crucial are Sci Fi-centered conventions to networking and selling books?

Thanks!

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Doing Another Ad Deal!!!

Posted by Roy M. Eavins II on February 3, 2017 at 12:52pm

Are you just talking about building a black economy or are you serious about doing it? Tag A Black Business Owner!

When Bryan, Steven, Roger and I started JBN - Jericho Broadcast Networks one of our primary goals was to provide Black Owned Business an affordable way to advertise over a long period of time. If you follow our plan we will show you the ROI! Measurable Results are what we can provide!!! I am tagging ALL of my FRIENDS & FAMILY who have businesses in these particular cities with 3 possible upgrades:

We are targeting 7 major metro areas: #1-Atlanta, GA, #2-Orlando-Tampa, FL #3-DMV, #4-Dallas, TX, #5-Chicago, IL, #6-Los Angeles, CA, #7-Palm Beach-Miami, FL

Here are the short versions of the deals and upgrades:

Get 100 ads per month for a year for only $150! 80 radio, 10-30 sec & 10-15 second video ads per month, also get a 30 minute feature done on your business that will air on our network: Click the link to Pay in Full Now: https://www.paypal.me/JBN150for12/150

Upgrade #1: Double Up! Get 200 ads per month for a year for only $300! 160 radio, 30-30 sec & 10-15 second video ads per month, also get a 30 minute feature done on your business as well as a live broadcast done from your business or an hour during the next year. Click Here to Pay In Full Now: https://www.paypal.me/JBN150for12/300

Upgrade #2: Power Up! Get 250 ads per month for a year for only $450! 200 radio, 30-30 sec & 20-15 second BCSN video ads per month, also get a 60 minute feature done on your business as well as 2 live broadcast done from your business for an hour or 1-2 hour broadcast during the next year. Click Here to Pay In Full Now: https://www.paypal.me/JBN150for12/450

Upgrade #3: 45 Days to pay! Take your choice of plans above and take 45 days to pay. Make a first payment of 1/3 of your package cost and you will be billed for the other two payments 15 and 30 days from your first payment Click Here to Pay Now: https://www.paypal.me/JBN150for12/

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filling my sketchbook

Posted by Arnold L. Johnson on February 2, 2017 at 10:21pm

What am I up too....besides working at a grocer, filling another sketchbook. Been hooked on combining quonset huts with shipping containers. Living in big boxes will drive ya nuts so I added quonset huts to get an arched ceiling. Also wondering if all steel structures are a good thing. Plywood and foam sandwich panels, wood post and beam and adobe are much better materials organically, psychologically and economically. I also think about having curved walls so that rooms are not square, art that is not square. I can't imagine too much technology in a personal space. Something about interaction on a base level vs time saving devices. They only save time if you are in a hurry to go to work for someone else. Personal elevators, how ever they function, are very cool. How do you build a place for less stress and distractions. One reason we are not more developed than we are is the intrusive media. We get flooded with ideas and speakings of all kinds, good, bad and real ugly. We need a filter and a flow rate control and an off switch. Personal, it is all personal now yet some of our biggest arguments are when we must choose a social distinction, philosophical, religious, historical label, genetic source vs the government legal code designation. The kool thing is that we can design a concept and live it and if you can train your children in this way.........utopia or the nut house is yours.

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Musing Hydrogen...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on January 31, 2017 at 10:49am
Harvard physicists say they photographed hydrogen in three different forms, from left to right: transparent hydrogen, black hydrogen, and finally, shiny metallic hydrogen. (R. Dias and I.F. Silvera) Source: Forbes.com

Topics: Condensed Matter Physics, Materials Science, Research, Theoretical Physics

Disclaimer: I was just as initially psyched by the reports of Metallic Hydrogen at Harvard. It's been theoretical since I was an undergrad (and that was a long time ago). Then, I remembered all the hype over cold fusion and calmed down. The key to my skepticism is repetition: another lab (several, in fact) will have to repeat the experiment to within an acceptable degree of error to one another. It will have to face grueling peer review that won't be kind, or for the squeamish. It's through this process we can distinguish science from malarkey.



Two physicists say that they have crushed hydrogen under such immense pressures that the gas became a shiny metal — a feat that physicists have been trying to accomplish for more than 80 years.

But other researchers have serious doubts about the claim, the latest in a field with a long history of failed attempts.

Ranga Dias and Isaac Silvera, both physicists at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, first posted a report of their results on the arXiv preprint server last October [1], which attracted immediate criticism. A peer-reviewed version of the report was published on 26 January in Science [2], but sceptics say that it includes little new information.

Five experts told Nature’s news team that they do not yet believe the claim, and need more evidence. “I don’t think the paper is convincing at all,” says Paul Loubeyre, a physicist at France’s Atomic Energy Commission in Bruyères-le-Châtel.

Silvera and Dias say that they wanted to publish their first observation before making further tests on their fragile material.

Nature: Physicists doubt bold report of metallic hydrogen, Davide Castelvecchi

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Red Nova...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 1, 2017 at 10:24am
STSci

Topics: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Cosmology

It's only five years away...

In 2022, there will be a spectacular sky show. Two stars will merge into one, pushing out excess gas into an explosion known as a red nova. At magnitude 2, it will be as bright as Polaris in the sky, and just behind Sirius and Vega in brightness. The collision in the constellation of Cygnus will be visible for up to six months.

That’s pretty impressive. What’s more impressive: we’ve never been able to predict a nova before. But Lawrence Molnar, a professor of astronomy and physics at Calvin College, was able to find a pair of oddly behaving stars giving an indication of what might happen.

The objects, termed KIC 9832227, are currently contact binaries. Contact binary refers to two objects that are so close they are currently touching. The object was discovered by Kepler. The expected outcome is a merger between the two stars that will put on quite a show. Because both are low mass stars, the expected temperature is low, with Molnar terming it a “red nova.”

Astronomy: Two stars will merge in 2022 and explode into red fury, John Wenz

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Hidden History 1 February 2017...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 1, 2017 at 10:28am
Image Source: Emily's Quotes

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

Okay, I lied.

I lied when I said I wasn't going to talk anymore about Hidden Figures. I obviously featured it on #P4TC and that AFTER I bought the book the movie was based on. Congrats to the cast for the Screen Actor's Guild Award for best cast (Denzel Washington and Viola Davis won Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress respectively).

I also lied that I wouldn't do special months again. It's usually a double post of science papers that I've read and a post for the respective history month: I've done posts for African American History Month; Women's History Month and Hispanic Heritage Month. It's enjoyable, but exhausting as a lot of thought goes into the posts so as to not repeat themes/stories/history.

However, lies ("alternative facts") are fast becoming truth and verifiable, factual truth lies. A Federal Republic: "is a type of government made up of smaller areas such as states or provinces where the central government cedes certain powers to the individual areas for self-government purposes. The citizens of the federal republic elect their own representatives to lead them," [1] and only functions well when reality can be judged and fairly reported on by its leadership to the governed.

Even before "alternative facts" recently entered our lexicon, some disturbing tendencies have already been documented:

The Civil War "wasn't about slavery, but about state's rights," a canard continually debunked, but apparently taught in public schools still.

- In Texas, slaves were referred to as "workers," hinting at volition instead of what can properly be termed as a kidnapping. A concerned mother pointed that out in 2015.

- The aforementioned Hidden Figures.

- When you think African American, Black, Negro, what's the first thing that comes to mind: scientists, engineers, or athletes and thugs? Transmitted images, shape narrative and matter in how we interact with one another individually and as a republic.

Truth, and our own thoughts are going to be precious things in days to come. They always have been, and why power tends to spend inordinate money and time to shape narratives of cultures in particular and civilization in general. It is why Dr. Woodson created Negro History Week (as it was originally know) which has evolved into African American History Month. It is not just the Negro mis-educated, but a sizable number within the American electorate that still believe social myths of innate superiority; a faux hierarchy that can only be attributed to racism, pseudoscience and magical thinking. [2]

Our society has always been herded by the powerful through the control of information, from print media to radio; radio to television and now Net Neutrality threatens to alter the Internet commons into a "Ministry of Truth," [3, 4] accessible only on a tiered payment system, bringing back the "information superhighway debates" of the nineties.

Affirming our humanity, truth: precious, manipulable and fleeting is the last real commodity we all have. What will be presented this February roaring like a lion, will be our collective Hidden History; it will be the TRUTH.

1. Reference.com: What is a federal republic?

2. "If you can control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his action. When you determine what a man shall think you do not have to concern yourself about what he will do. If you make a man feel that he is inferior, you do not have to compel him to accept an inferior status, for he will seek it himself. If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door. He will go without being told; and if there is no back door, his very nature will demand one."

Dr. Carter G. Woodson, The Mis-Education of the Negro

3. “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.” George Orwell, 1984

4. Star Trek, The Next Generation: "There...Are...Four...Lights!"
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Flexible Ferroelectrics...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on January 26, 2017 at 7:16am
A scanning electron microscopy image of flexible haloimidazole crystals, which were found to show both ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties. (Image by Seungbum Hong/Argonne National Laboratory.)

Topics: Condensed Matter Physics, Nanotechnology, Materials Science, Metamaterials, Solid State Physics

Until recently, “flexible ferroelectrics” could have been thought of as the same type of oxymoronic phrase. However, thanks to a new discovery by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory in collaboration with researchers at Northwestern University, scientists have pioneered a new class of materials with advanced functionalities that moves the idea from the realm of irony into reality.

Ferroelectrics are a useful type of material that is found in capacitors that are used in sensors, as well as computer memory and RFID cards. Their special properties originate from the fact that they contain charged regions polarized in a specific orientation, which can be controlled with an external electric field. But they’ve also had a big drawback as engineers try to use them in new inventions.

“Ferroelectric materials are known for being quite brittle, and so it has always been a big challenge to make them mechanically flexible,” said Argonne nanoscientist Seungbum Hong, who helped to lead the research. “Because ferroelectricity and this kind of flexibility are relatively rare properties to see on their own, to have both ferroelectricity and flexibility in this new material is basically unprecedented.”

Argonne National Laboratory: Flexible ferroelectrics bring two material worlds together

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