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War On Science

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 23, 2015 at 7:30am


Topics: Economy, Education, Politics, STEM, NASA, Space Exploration


This has always fascinated me in the intensity, and frankly the audience it comes from. I saw this cover in the grocery store and bought the magazine. I got the image above from the NatGeo site, and provide the link below. The title of the post came from the magazine cover. As a "hook," it did its job.

I got into an exchange twice individually with two younger men (I presume don't still) believe the moon landing occurred, i.e. it was faked. Even my testimony as a living eyewitness was not enough to dismay or sway their confidence in the Oracle of You Tube. They are in their thirties, and showed considerable sophistication in accessing and using technology otherwise.

The democratization of information has diminished what used to be the arbiters of what is true: The Encyclopedia Britannica; Colleges and Universities; Clergy; Civics; Congress; Engineering; Global Knowledge; Mathematics; Public Discourse; The Public Library, The Military; Professors; Science; Teachers; Technology and NASA. We now confuse "armchair quarterbacks" with actual trained professionals; conspiracy theorists with theoreticians; "millions-of-hits" online with peer review.


We are in the throws of hunted-for confirmation bias and willful (or, willed) ignorance. There is a disdain for deep expertise in any subject area, as if the "University of Google"  - with noted "graduate" Jenny McCarthy - equips one fully for any rigorous endeavor. (Experiment: Use the same credentials on a mother giving birth, and see how far that gets you!) We now have Measles in Disneyland, a resurgence of Whooping Cough and Meningitis at Princeton. As we advance technologically, regressive minds in the U.S. and the world over reach back for the "good old days" whose date they can never quite pin down, nor explain with clarity why backwards time travel - a violation of causality and the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics - is a rational path to pursue. To quote a part of the article:

In this bewildering world we have to decide what to believe and how to act on that. In principle that’s what science is for. “Science is not a body of facts,” says geophysicist Marcia McNutt, who once headed the U.S. Geological Survey and is now editor of Science, the prestigious journal. “Science is a method for deciding whether what we choose to believe has a basis in the laws of nature or not.” But that method doesn’t come naturally to most of us. And so we run into trouble, again and again.

* * * * *


"We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology."

"Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge."

"Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense."

Carl Sagan

National Geographic:
Why Do Many Reasonable People Doubt Science? Joel Achenbach

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Speculative Futures #10...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 23, 2015 at 7:41am


Topics: Diaspora, Historical Fiction, Speculative Fiction


The Last King
By A. Yamina Collins

Twenty-eight year Emmy Hughes has never quite fit in---she's six feet tall, dark-skinned, and daydreams of being Galadriel from Lord of the Rings. But when she is badly injured in a car accident that kills her mother, Emmy does not dream of fantastical worlds anymore---she just wants her shattered life to be normal again. Unfortunately, normalcy is the last thing in store for her once she meets Lake George's newest arrival, Dr. Gilead Knightly. Granted immortality from a line of people whose Great Ancestor marched into the Garden of Eden and ate from the Tree of Life, Gilead has been alive for centuries and has met everyone from Nubian kings to Napoleon.

More at:
http://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/page/book-of-the-month
Amazon.com Author Page: The Last King, A. Yamina Collins

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STEM and Other Biases...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 22, 2015 at 10:48am
Image Source: eGFI


Topics: Diversity, Diversity in Science, Education, STEM, Women in Science


Related: The Columbia Law School and African American Policy Forum just published - "Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced and Underprotected." The young "sassy" African American female in school is typically on track to become the "angry black woman," or the favorite racial dog whistle of Ronald Reagan: "welfare queens," lamenting they are not "pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps" and irresponsibly pregnant as teens when we are making education a privilege of the elite and a burden to the poor; preferring "abstinence only" as sex education in many municipalities - like Texas - with exploding teen pregnancy rates. The ability to control when and what time one can and wants to get pregnant is the first stage of empowerment in women, regardless of culture; the second is an education that is affordable, meaningful and doesn't put the young in crushing debt. I lament the sex education we got in the 1970's that I used to laugh at - is far in advance of what happens now. My undergraduate degree was paid by my parents until an AFROTC scholarship picked up the rest and I served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Air Force. We will no longer be Winthrop's "shining city on a hill" making it difficult for women in general to be more independent, and African American women in particular. This is cutting off our noses to spite our faces to our own national peril. This is the way you create a third world country. 

At a time when organizations urgently need workers with backgrounds in science, technology, engineering, and math, new research suggests that women, and especially women of color, might be leaving STEM fields thanks to pervasive gender and racial bias.

Organizations today face a dilemma: Thanks to the growth in technology, they urgently need workers with backgrounds in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), but the number of qualified individuals with these skills isn’t keeping pace. What’s worse, it’s possible the growth in supply is actually being hampered by destructive workplace conditions.

That’s because women, and especially women of color, might be exiting the STEM fields thanks to pervasive gender and racial bias at work, according to a report by Joan C. Williams of the University of California, Hastings College of Law; Katherine Phillips of Columbia Business School; and Erika Hall of Emory University’s Gouizueta Business School.

Columbia Business School:
Workplace Bias Could Be Alienating Valuable STEM Talent

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Dr. Warren M. Washington...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 22, 2015 at 10:51am
Image Source: NOBCChE (below)


Topics: Climate Change, Global Warming, Meteorology, Nobel Prize


Following the rousing opening luncheon at the 2011 NOBCChE National Meeting, Dr. Warren M. Washington, a renowned climate-change scientist who received a National Medal of Science from President Barack Obama in 2010 and who was one of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winners, gave the Henry A. Hill Lecture, entitled, “Present and Future Climate Change: Grand Challenges for the Science, Engineering, and Society.” The Henry A. Hill Lecture honors the first black president of the American Chemical Society, and was co-sponsored by the ACS Northeast Section and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Chemistry Department.

Dr. Washington is a senior scientist and Chief Scientist of the DOE/UCAR Cooperative Agreement at National Center for Atmospheric Research in the Climate Change Research Section of the center's Climate and Global Dynamics Division. The Climate Change Research Section (CCR) is part of the Climate and Global Dynamics (CGD) Division at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado. Dr. Washington became one of the first developers of groundbreaking atmospheric computer models in collaboration with Akira Kasahara when he joined NCAR in the early 1960s. These models, which use fundamental laws of physics to predict future states of the atmosphere, have helped scientists understand climate change. As his research developed, Dr. Washington worked to incorporate the oceans and sea ice into climate models. Such models now include components that depict surface hydrology and vegetation as well as the atmosphere, oceans, and sea ice. His current research involves using the Community Earth System Model (CESM) to study the impacts of climate change in the 21st century. His models were used extensively in the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment, for which NCAR scientists, including Washington, and colleagues around the world shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. *

As the second African-American to earn a doctorate in the atmospheric sciences, Washington has served as a role model for generations of young researchers from many backgrounds. He has mentored dozens of graduate students, as well as undergraduates in the UCAR-based SOARS program (Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science).

National Organization for the Professional Advancement of
Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE): Dr. Warren M. Washington


* Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change"

"The Nobel Peace Prize 2007". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 8 Feb 2015. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2007/

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Self Caricature...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 21, 2015 at 9:30am
Image source: [4] below


Topics: Commentary, Disrespect, Dog Whistle Politics, President


To the (never-once) honorable former Mayor Rudy Giuliani:

The legacy of your reign of terror in New York is evident in the malcontent police and their disrespect for your current successor. If Europeans abroad, as you've said, lament the racism of New York City's police force, perhaps supporting the cavalier and violent enforcement of "broken windows" (an ironic analogy of the movie "Minority Report") is a reason why.

CNN has opined your fall as America's Mayor; you've deemed yourself non-racist because you share the same culture as the president's deceased mother. Your excuse was amateurish; sophomoric. Perhaps before you cast stones at glass houses, you should patch up the damages in your own.

“I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America,” Mr. Giuliani said at the event. “He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up, through love of this country.”

1. 300,000,000+ Americans and their various demarcations: African, African American, Asian, European, Hindi, Hispanic, Muslim, Sikh...were not brought up the way either you or I, or anyone else were brought up with respect to each other. This is the meaning of diversity, and a refute of the "melting pot" we tout so often in our ideals we seem never capable of living up to. At the base of the Statue of Liberty is the poem "New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus. Midway it says:

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles.

You would do well sir, if you've ever read these words, to read them again in their entirety.


2. Neither your son or daughter wanted anything to do with your campaign in 2008. Perhaps it was the callous way you treated their mother as you romanced your mistress (who became your third wife, and presumably First Lady had you won the presidency).

3. "The rebellious daughter of former law-and-order Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was busted today for allegedly stealing makeup from an upscale beauty and skin care shop near her Upper East Side home, officials said.

"Cops said Caroline Giuliani, 20, a student at Harvard University, was arrested after security cameras caugh her stuffing makeup into her jacket pocket at a Sephora store at E. 86th Street and Lexinton Avenue shortly before 2 p.m." The New York Post used to be kinder to you.

4. An entire page is devoted to you, generated in the background of the aforementioned 2008 campaign, detailing your father and uncle's ties to the mob; your sexual and marital improprieties; the corruption in your administration and the source of the photo above.

So I conclude and say again: Perhaps before you cast stones at glass houses, you should patch up the damages in your own.

You are a sad caricature, a fallen icon, self-deluded in your own importance. If you had a career beyond mayor of New York City - a "noun, a verb and 9-11" (Vice President Joe Biden), it is now hopelessly gone, lost in the seams of your drag queen dress. Your only audience that you now soak callously and annually for million dollar speaking engagements are the declining rabid, toothless canines you dog whistle to.
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Speculative Futures #9...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 21, 2015 at 9:33am


Topics: Crime, History, Horror, Speculative Fiction

Blind Corners
Written by Jemir Johnson

Art by Luis Sierra & Winston Blakely

This comic-book stars Jemir Johnson’s seminal character Jay Nova, a tough female Private Investigator who has a secret power to read minds. And while you’d think that would be an extremely useful ability in that line of work, it also has the unfortunate side-effect of causing her massive pain, therefor she only tries to use it as a last resort. There are 4 short stories in this book, the first three illustrated by Luis Sierra and the fourth and final story is illustrated by Winston Blakely.



 More at:
http://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/page/featured-comic-book
Amazon.com Kindle: Blind Corners, (W) Jemir Johnson, (A) Luis Sierra, Winston Blakely

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Rise of the Taikonauts...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 19, 2015 at 7:44am
Image Source: http://aragec.com/taikonauts.html


Topics: Astronaut, China, Economy, NASA, Space Program, STEM, Taikonaut


(Reuters) - China's space program is catching up with that of the United States and Washington must invest in military and civilian programs if it is to remain the world's dominant space power, a congressional hearing heard on Wednesday.

Experts speaking to Congress's U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said China's fast advances in military and civilian space technology were part of a long-term strategy to shape the international geopolitical system to its interests and achieve strategic dominance in the Asia-Pacific.

They also reflect an enthusiasm for space exploration which in the United States has faded since the Apollo Program which landed Americans on the moon in 1969, they said.

"China right now is experiencing its Apollo years," Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College, told the hearing. "China gets the funding its needs."

Meanwhile (literally, "back at the ranch")...

Slate: Texas Public Schools Are Teaching Creationism
An investigation into charter schools’ dishonest and unconstitutional science, history, and “values” lessons.
Zack Kopplin

Scientific American: 15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense
Opponents of evolution want to make a place for creationism by tearing down real science, but their arguments don't hold up
John Rennie


For clarification: I am very happy China has the clarity and sense of mission to expand their knowledge of STEM fields, thus their economy and cultivate a pool of candidates for their expanding space program. That, like the Apollo program, will have spin off dividends in their economy.

I only say this tongue-in-cheek because Texas is not only a big state: it's a big education book market affecting the buying decisions and curriculum outside their borders, and so the nations'. Thus, other states are taking their lead in the curriculum - charter or public - they decide to expose their students to. China is apparently disabused of such illusions. Sadly...

KING HENRY V:
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;...

'Cry God for Harry, England, and Saint George!' speech of Shakespeare's Henry V, Act III, 1598.


Meaning: let's try this one more time (see link).
Though, we seem to be trying and doing, over and over, all the wrong things!
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Speculative Futures #8...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 19, 2015 at 7:47am


Topics: Diaspora, Speculative Fiction


Dumisai And The Covenant Of The Ancestors
by Christopher R. Obie

Dumisai, a first-generation American child born of African immigrants, discovers that he has been chosen to wield an awesome power. He soon realizes however, that with his new-found power comes a tremendous responsibility. If he is to keep this power known as the Gift of Great Consequence, he must use it for the betterment of the world. In his search to understand the meaning of the Gift, Dumisai is told by the village elders that he represents the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy and has been chosen to help rescue the world from its deliberate path toward disaster.

More at:
http://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/page/book-of-the-month
Amazon: Dumisai And The Covenant Of The Ancestors. by Christopher R. Obie

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Black Superheroes Re-imagined in Movie Posters by Digital Artist

Posted by LN Gibson on February 19, 2015 at 10:59am

Source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2015/02/prweb12525243.htm

I was combing the web when I stumbled upon this article about an artist who was re-creating Superhero movie posters into African-American Superheroes. The talented digital artist is African-American and seems to have promise. The concept is great and the artwork is beautiful. I would like to see actual movies with these types of characters made. We need to be control of our imagine and represent ourselves in the media more.

Check out more graphics from this artist here: http://alijahvillian.com/portfolio/black-superheroes-reimagined-pt-2

What do you think about this artist's work?

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Dr. Estella Atekwana...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 18, 2015 at 8:31am
Image Source: Oklahoma State University Faculty Page [2] 


Topics: Biogeophysics, Geophysics, Research, Tectonics, Women in Science

Estella Atekwana, PhD
Geophysicist
Oklahoma State University


Estella Atekwana grew up in Cameroon. “My parents very much wanted me to do medicine,” she writes. “So I got into sciences with that intention. However, I took a course in geology in high school and the teacher indicated that geology was not for girls. I was challenged then to demonstrate that girls could do geology and perform the same as boys or even better. I ended up with the science award that year in chemistry, biology, and geology.” She moved to North America to study the geosciences, earning a bachelor’s and master’s in geology from Howard University and a Ph.D. from Dalhousie University in Canada. “Today, they call me Doctor and that’s fine with my parents.”

She is now Sun Chair at Oklahoma State University, where she is a leader in the new field of biogeophysics. [1]

1. Science Update: Estella Atekwana, PhD
2. Oklahoma State University: Estella Atekwana Faculty Page

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From where does the future come?

Posted by Arnold L. Johnson on February 17, 2015 at 2:30pm

Every day I live in my thoughts and compare them with the thoughts of others I see on TV and movies and Internet and people I live with and people I know and people I don't. Where does the future come from. Why do I crave for things not realized yet and set myself as a critic of all that pass before my desire. No, that is not the future, I say and yet again can not define what I mean by future.

It is not the next instance in time I crave. The next breath or next incident in time will come even if I am expired. Where is that higher mind and the associated objects. What good is vehicle powered by starlight if it is a conquest of ego, or a reward or status over one whose heart is true and drives an ox cart. Does shoes make the feet more blessed if the logo on them is backed by the multimedia campaign of a multimillion dollar conglomerate? The future is an equation of elevated souls and material things not at the expense of ones not so elevated. Perhaps we shall all arrive at some epiphany due to cosmic light called angels or god in the ancient vernacular. Super novas explode in the pre-dawn and visionaries tract the light across centuries. They write down what it might mean, the ideas come too fast, they encapsulate it in dreams, fairy tales, legends, myths, rhymes.

When the light reaches us all will be revealed, they say. In the mean time we build and destroy civilizations based on misinterpreted symbols, conjecture, power, greed, tradition. Teachers transcribe one myth with a literal history or bury truth by effacing. Souls die before bodies, walking dead trample the earth searching for brains to eat. Minds to eat. Like cattle for slaughter. Like humans lowered to the rank of animals.

There are no minds without brains, none. No brains that work without a consciousness inside effected by the push and pull of cosmic forces and microcosm forces. Nature is the villain, you hate and despise nature, call it names: tree, sky, dog, deer, imperfection of family trait. You never look inside of yourself. Don't go in there, there's demons and darkness, fear and God's awful lies. Yet under all the muck taught to us and we have heaped upon the corner, is a spark so feeble and weak from our own ignorance, lies the future. 

The spark in the corner is often passed on to the next generation unrealized by the present generation. We simply adore the covering mess we've accumulated or are consumed by fear from others. Don't go in there, have faith, it will come out on it's own, sweet by and by. A supernova has exploded in the corner of our universe. It was us being made conscious. It's light travels across the expanse desiring to be realized in our understanding and reality. Often by the time it reaches us, we are counting our breaths no longer caring wither or the next generation will get it.

Hey God I'm ready to do it again! What did you do with the last bang I gave you! Don't know, forget! You know if you nail it you'll retain it on the next go around, rumour has it. Oh, God has rumours now? I speak in parables, they tend not to change for eons. I hate repeating myself so I embed everything in patterns, rhythms, cycles, the variations are endless yet the modes are the same. I fashioned you to pick up on it, give you signs, intuition, reason. You will forget and come up with all kinds of funny stuff on your own, but I will leave the spark in side you. If you find it, I'll see you on the flip side. If not we'll do this again till you do. duh! Here's your spark, try not to bury it this time. Later G...........wah, wah, wah!   Damn, should have sent backup! Hey Star, when he comes to the age of reason send him light so he'll remember to look where I told him. Dang that sweet by and by, I wish I never said that!

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But a Whimper...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 17, 2015 at 8:15am
Image Source: Technology Review


Topics: Ebola, Biology, Mathematical Models, R0 ("r naught"), Research, STEM


This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

The last, easily remembered and often quoted stanza of T.S. Elliot's poem "The Hollow Men." It bears reading (link provided) in light of current events.

A simple search on this site for Ebola will likely now bring up this article and others written during the faux panic. Due to the "medical expertise" of now infamous anti-vaccination activists (who have been previously mentioned), measles has made a resurgence, and if not shut down, at least exacerbated the profits of the Magic Kingdom.

Presented here is what will likely not make the local or national news with exception of braver souls that take their duty to inform (not entertain) the citizenry seriously over the altar sacrifice to the Moloch of Nielsen:

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: On March 17, 2014, doctors diagnosed a single case of Ebola in the county of Lofa in Liberia, West Africa. This was the first, patient zero, in an epidemic that has so far infected more than 20,000 people and killed almost 8000.

On August 15, the World Health Organization and other bodies began a major drive in Liberia to halt the epidemic. The strategy has two parts. The first aims to limit the spread of the disease from people who have been infected by ensuring that everyone with symptoms goes to an official treatment center.

The second is to prevent the spread of the disease after death by ensuring that every Ebola victim is buried in a way that prevents further infection. That means wearing protective clothing to place the body in a body bag and then in a coffin before transporting it to a grave. Finally, the aid workers must disinfect the victim’s home and ensure appropriate washing for all those involved in the disposal of the body.

Together, these measures appear to have had a significant effect on the spread of the disease. But an important question remains: when will the epidemic end?

Today, we get an answer thanks to the work of Lucas Valdez from the National University of Mar del Plata in Argentina and a few pals. These guys have created a mathematical model of the way the disease spreads that predicts an end to the epidemic for the first time.

Abstract


The Ebola virus is spreading throughout West Africa, causing thousands of deaths. When developing strategies to slow or halt the epidemic, mathematical models that reproduce the spread of this virus are essential for understanding which variables are relevant. We study the propagation of the Ebola virus through Liberia by using a model in which people travel from one county to another in order to quantify the effectiveness of different strategies. For the initial months in which the Ebola virus spreads, we find that the arrival times of the disease into the counties predicted by our model are in good agreement with World Health Organization data. We also find that reducing mobility delays the arrival of Ebola virus in each county by only a few weeks, and as a consequence, is insufficient to contain the epidemic. Finally we study the effect of a strategy focused on increasing safe burials and hospitalization under two scenarios: (i) one implemented in mid-July 2014 and (ii) one in mid-August, which was the actual time that strong interventions began in Liberia. We find that if scenario (i) had been pursued the lifetime of the epidemic would have been reduced by three months and the total number of infected individuals reduced by 80\%, when compared to scenario (ii). Our projection under scenario (ii) is that the spreading will cease by mid-spring 2015.

Physics arXiv: Predicting the extinction of Ebola spreading in Liberia due to mitigation strategies
L. D. Valdez, H. H. A. Rêgo, H. E. Stanley, L. A. Braunstein

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Speculative Futures #7...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 17, 2015 at 8:19am


Topics: Afrofuturism, Diaspora, Diversity, Diversity in Science, Speculative Fiction

Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture
By YTASHA L. WOMACK


In this hip, accessible primer to the music, literature, and art of Afrofuturism, author Ytasha Womack introduces readers to the burgeoning community of artists creating Afrofuturist works, the innovators from the past, and the wide range of subjects they explore. From the sci-fi literature of Samuel Delany, Octavia Butler, and N. K. Jemisin to the musical cosmos of Sun Ra, George Clinton, and the Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am, to the visual and multimedia artists inspired by African Dogon myths and Egyptian deities, the book’s topics range from the “alien” experience of blacks in America to the “wake up” cry that peppers sci-fi literature, sermons, and activism. With a twofold aim to entertain and enlighten, Afrofuturists strive to break down racial, ethnic, and social limitations to empower and free individuals to be themselves.

More at: http://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/page/book-of-the-month
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Afrofuturism-World-Sci-Fi-Fantasy-Culture/dp/1613747969

"The Day We Surrender to the Air" by Antonio Jose Guzman

An article that appears on io9.com by Jess Nevins, 9/27/12. I include a link below to a remarkable, mentioned and available book "Light Ahead for the Negro," by Edward A. Johnson

Africans, and those of African descent, have not been treated well by speculative fiction, both inside its texts and in real life. Anti-African racism is a fact of life in Western culture, and was even more pronounced before 1945. Not surprisingly, the number of works of speculative fiction written by black writers is low. But that number is not zero, and it's worth taking a look at the fantasy and science fiction stories that black writers produced before 1945.

Top image: "The Day We Surrender to the Air" by Antonio Jose Guzman

io9.com The Black Fantastic, Jess Nevins

Light Ahead for the Negro, Edward A. Johnson

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How Naps Do Your Brain (And Body) Good

Posted by William Hayashi on February 16, 2015 at 3:03pm

Running seriously low on sleep? A nap can not only make you feel better, but can reverse the effects of poor sleep by restoring hormones and proteins involved in stress and immune health.

The fact that poor sleep can increase stress levels and suppress immune system activity is well-established. But according to a new small study, napping can be an effective antidote by creating measurable hormone changes.

Click here for the full story

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Dr. Patricia Bath...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 16, 2015 at 8:46am
Image Source: Link belo

Topics: Diaspora, Diversity, Diversity in Science, Inventor, Ophthalmology, Patents, Women in Science

Patricia Era Bath (born November 4, 1942, Harlem, Manhattan, NY) is an American ophthalmologist, inventor and academic. She has broken ground for women and African Americans in a number of areas. Prior to Bath, no woman had served on the staff of the Jules Stein Eye Institute, headed a post-graduate training program in ophthalmology, or been elected to the honorary staff of the UCLA Medical Center (an honor bestowed on her after her retirement). Before Bath, no black person had served as a resident in ophthalmology at New York University and no black woman had ever served on staff as a surgeon at the UCLA Medical Center. Bath is the first African-American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical purpose. Her Laserphaco Probe is used to treat cataracts. The holder of four patents, she is also the founder of the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness in Washington, D.C.

Source: Dr. Patricia Bath, Wikipedia

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The Flying Bullet-a black sci-fi series under review by Amazon Studios.

Posted by Christopher Love on February 15, 2015 at 6:16pm

Hello All

I have submitted a proposal to Amazon Studios. It is a scripted episodic series called The Flying Bullet.

The link to the project is here at:  http://studios.amazon.com/projects/70413#.

On the project page, viewers can download a PDF pilot script and watch a 4 minute promo video.

I need to show the executives at Amazon Studios that their can be room for a black sci-fi series that everyone can enjoy.

Please view the material and leave a review. Let Amazon Studios see that we

can be a juggernaut in the entertainment business too.

Nothing can happen until we make it happen.

Thanks,

-Chris Love

Heroeslikeme.com 

Synopsis:

In the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese on December 07 1941, the United States joined the war that will define a world. Back home, pressure mounts from the black community for black citizens to be able to fight for their country. One of the goals is for black citizens to be trained as pilots. From all over the country, black men travel to Tuskegee Institute to become the first black pilots called the Tuskegee Airman.

Here we meet CURT MASTERS from Alabama in his P-51 Mustang fighting Nazi planes over Germany and Italy. During one these confrontation, he encounters an unknown vessel. Curt believes it is a new Nazi vessel. When he attack the unknown flying object, a tractor beam envelopes him and suddenly he mysteriously disappears. 

Suddenly he awakens on the Planet Ambracon and is informed that he is being charged with Obstruction of Intergalactic 
Operations. Later, he learns that he has been found innocent of the crime, but he learns that Earth must be destroyed in fear
that Earth will bring its warlike tendencies to the stars. 

While he is being flown back to Earth, they fly into a asteroid field and their ship is damaged. He meets ALIENA, a galactic police officer and ARC, a robotic man. They make it to an abandoned old space station. They attempt to salvage parts to repair their
ship when they encounter SUTTER. Sutter is a career criminal who helps them to fix their ship. They make repairs and leave
when their ship runs out of power and they crash lands on an unknown world. 

They look for an element called zurillian which can power their ship and return Curt to Earth. While Curt wanders around the 
strange world, he encounters a large monument. Something activates the structure and he learns that the Warlord, which the 
Galactic Protector has been hunted was actually the First Galactic Protector called ROM VEGA. Curt learns that Rom Vega 
became a villain in order for the various worlds to work together and form a peace alliance by having common enemy. Soon
the planet begins to break apart. They manage to make the ship a "lightning rod" which can channel the energy from the 
exploding planet into their ship. 

They arrive in Earth's solar system and Curt is home.

Curt makes the decision to stay with the Galactic Protectors since his membership will spare Earth from destruction.

Thus Curt Masters aka The Flying Bullet becomes a Galactic Protector and here his troubles begins. 

 

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