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Topic: Existentialism
1 : disproof of a proposition by showing an absurdity to which it leads when carried to its logical conclusion
2 : the carrying of something to an absurd extreme Meridian-Webster
Sigh...
When a member of a gang wrecks havoc, if that gang member is African American or Hispanic, the entire community is expected to condemn the act. Part of it is a self-defensive posture so as to not allow the label to define the entire culture.
When a terrorist attack happens in the world, the entire Muslim community worldwide reflexively condemns the act in the strongest terms for the same reason.
Never mind no such reflexive posturing occurs when the sins of the inquisition or American slavery/Jim Crow/lynching is pointed out during a prayer breakfast, or the killing of Dr. George Tiller by Scott Roeder (his ex-wife accounts when he went over the edge in an interview); the bombings of abortion clinics and gay nightclubs by Eric Rudolph (another stable looking fellow). No, those were "bad actors"; aberrations; individuals, similar to the NRA legal dodge: "guns don't kill people, people kill people" (with acid, knives, screwdrivers, ice picks, bombs, hammers, wars...and sometimes guns). Lest we forget the still-existent (somewhat) Buddhist doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo.
Now, another "winner" from my home state: Craig Stephen Hicks has murdered in cold blood three Muslim students - two of which recently married to each other and the sister-in-law - students at UNC Chapel Hill, over a parking lot dispute. How does one dispute a parking space in a rental property (that the apartment manager already resolved as not his)? The caveat: he's admittedly an atheist. Perhaps he listened to Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Bill Mahr, or perhaps not. I doubt either man supports his actions. I covered on them last in my Other-ing post in October last year. There were shots fired in a free speech rally in Copenhagen, similar to the reasoning for the Paris massacre of admittedly controversial and purposely aggravating cartoonists.
I'm a proponent of free speech, but many of our number can't and don't do nuance; they can't read or hear it, disagree with it and go on with their lives since prior to their instant fame, it was probably insignificant in their minds. As I alluded to in Terms of Indifference, certain groups of humanity have a Utopian notion of perfection in their minds, and when your other fellow humans feel we've violated that perfection, like weeds in a garden, there is no compunction whatsoever apparently in mowing us down like grass (or, weeds). Many of them are unstable, unlucky and looking for meaning to their predicament. Any slight can be taken as personal; any cause can suddenly become a crusade. Adrenalin is within us all; it is intoxicating, "runner's high"; it is a euphoric rush that can lead down dark paths some would justify as "God's will" and others simply because of prejudice, xenophobia and the want of a parking space.
I know an Atheist married to a Catholic; I know a Christian married to a Muslim; a republican to a democrat. On small scales, we seem perfectly capable of this detente, it is when the weight of unemployment or under-employment, under-education, limited support and opportunities, it brews in a dark cauldron without incantation destined to cast its spell of destruction on us all. I am reluctant I have to agree with the NRA artful legal dodge, and paraphrase:
Agnostics/Atheists don't kill people;
Buddhists don't kill people;
Christians don't kill people;
Muslims don't kill people;
BUT...certain groups within those subsets with mental health issues can and DO kill people in a myriad of ways. We will never achieve this Nirvana that only exists in their minds. It is intellectually lazy to expect anyone in any group to apologize for the aberrations of a diminutive, destructive fraction. We are suffering as a species en mass from mental disorders that erupt too often in the public sphere.
The prelude to war is usually words spoken or transmitted, offense taken and action. War is mental illness writ large. On a planetary scale, this could lead to a mass extinction event, sadly and likely, the sixth and the last. We are arrogant to think ourselves of value to any alien at this juncture in our history - they are perhaps keeping a safe parsecs distance from the insane asylum!
Topics: Indy Publishing, Speculative Fiction
God Cell: Gate of the Gods Paperback
by Arthur Bellfield, Ra'Chaun Rogers, Vince White, Tony Kittrell, Cloves Rodrigues, Rachel Rodrigues,and Eric Battle
God Cell: Gate of the Gods is a mini-series from the creative minds behind some of the hottest independent comics (The Legend of Will Power, Titan The Ultra Man, War's Chosen and Hierophants) chronicling an epic story that couldn't be told until now! Four visionaries (Vince White, RaChaun Rogers, Arthur Bellfield and Tony Kittrell) came together with this special tale to create an entertaining, well-crafted story that will fascinate ALL readers! The end result was the creation of GOD CELL: Gate of the Gods!
More at:
http://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/page/featured-comic-book
Amazon: God Cell: Gate of the Gods
Dern’s eyes snapped open.
…we’ll make damn sure there are no witnesses.
Those words drifted into his awareness as the Flare surged throughout his body, mending wounds, stimulating muscles, clearing the fog from his head. Pain diminished, aggression heightened, and a burning rage that had nothing to do with the Flare roared through his rejuvenated body like a whirlwind.
He shut his eyes, feigning the dead.
Heightened hearing picked up footfalls moving his way
Someone moaned…a plea for mercy…an assault rifle’s deafening report…no more pleas. Footfalls resumed, getting closer.
The weight of Ura’s corpse was draped across his chest.
Dern kept his eyes closed, ‘observing’ the hijacker’s movement through hearing, smell, the ever-subtle caress of air displacement.
The footfalls stopped in front of him. Dern opened his eyes. Five Star stood over him, but the hijacker’s attention was elsewhere.
Dern threw off Ura’s body and hopped to his feet, lightning fast. He knocked Five Star’s rifle aside with one hand and gripped the hijacker’s neck with the other. Powerful fingers sunk into flesh. Dern snatched his arm back, tearing a bloody chunk out of Five Star’s throat. The hijacker emitted a death gurgle, blood pumping from his fatal wound like water from a busted pipe.
Dern grabbed the dead man’s RI4 and turned it on the next nearest hijacker. He triggered the weapon once, sending a round drilling through the man’s left eye. He fired twice more, taking down two additional foes. He swung the rifle around and ducked. A hijacker twenty yards on his opposite side had opened fire. Dern timed the reaction perfectly and unleashed two shots even as a stream of flachettes whisked inches above him. The hijacker flailed backwards with a pair holes in his heart. Two men behind him received headshots before they could raise their weapons.
Three hijackers were left standing at the far end of the corridor. They opened fire.
Dern dove forward, his weapon spitting rapid fury.
A hijacker was lifted off his feet as bullets cleaved diagonally across his torso.
The remaining hijackers turned tail, firing wildly behind them.
One did not make it far. Dern planted a round in the back of his neck, pulverizing the spine. The criminal dropped like a bag of rocks.
The last hijacker turned a corner at the corridor junction before Dern could target him. He considered giving chase, but thought better of it. He needed to get to the cargo section.
But first…
Dern checked Ura, Cyril and Theresa for life signs. He needn’t have bothered. Jagged holes riddled their bodies. He surveyed the corridor. Every passenger…dead. Teeth gritted, he massaged his head in anguish. All dead. He looked into Ura’s lifeless eyes. “I was too optimistic.” He reached down, applied a feather light touch to her eyelids and closed them.
He backed away, taking a final, sweeping glance at the carnage before him. The sight boiled away anything inside him that could have…would have remotely inclined him to mercy toward the rest of this vicious gang. He turned and headed for the nearest elevator with purpose branded into his soul.
Turbines revved to life as the sleeper ship’s propulsion transitioned from vacuum to an atmospheric environment. Routh’s ramshackle arrangement of squat non-descript buildings appeared like rusted ornaments on the view screen. With the close of distance, the settlement buildings took on more distinctness.
Tunnal beamed. Routh wasn’t pretty by any standard or stretch of the imagination, but it represented the conclusion to a very profitable venture. That alone made the place glow bright as a sun reflective gem in the hijacker’s avaricious perception.
“Come in, Tunnal!”
The hijack leader winced at the blaring transmission through his subdermal. He pressed the implant, his whispered response weighted with irritation. “What are you trying to do, blast my ear off? What is it?”
“This is Hugens, Boss. We have a situation!”
Hugens sounded breathless.
“What kind of situation?” Tunnal prodded, his irritation heating to anger.
“It’s…it’s one of the passengers…the one who was on the bridge…he somehow grabbed a weapon, shot us up to hell. Everybody’s down ‘cept me.”
It took every ounce of self-control for Tunnal to contain his reaction. He clenched a fist as red rage tinted his vision. “What about the passenger. Is he dead? Tell me one of you fuckups took him down!”
A heavy pause. Tunnal could almost hear Hugens rattling in his worthless boots. “Boss…we tried. He moved so fast. And the way he handled a weapon…it was as if we were facing a demon instead of a man!”
Tunnal breathed in deep, letting out a slow, calming breath. He dared not call up display footage of the stasis level for fear of panicking the crew. The ship needed to land first. This could still be contained. “Standby,” he ordered.
He called two other hijackers over, Josik and a bald, sinewy woman called Chain.
“One of the passengers laid our people out,” he told them in a low voice.
Chain and Josik’s eyes widened. They exchanged glances, but otherwise kept cool.
“Hook up with Hugens, comb this ship, find that loose end. If you can capture him alive do it. If not burn him and burn him good!”
The pair nodded resolutely and walked away.
He’ll get his due, Tunnal thought. The deaths of his comrades rankled him, dashed his pride. He’d built up quite a rep as a person to be feared. And those who worked for him were to be equally feared. Anyone who could so easily erase half his force threatened to seriously undercut that reputation. I hope you can be captured alive. I’ll make such an example of you, that you’ll beg me to cut your throat and be done with it!
Dern stepped off the elevator four levels below. He kept his acquired RI4 raised to firing position, though he was reasonably certain no hijackers would be lurking about in this area…yet. The cargo hold was vast, cavernous, easily the largest section in the ship. Passengers relocating to another world typically never traveled light. On this trip, Dern was an exception.
After a minute or two of moving through the section’s aisles, checking storage shelves, he spotted his possessions. A small duffel bag stuffed with clothing, mementos, and a few old fashioned books, and a larger two-wheeled metal container with an extendable handle. The container held an item essential for his employment on Ceres 3. It could not be replaced like the contents of his smaller bag.
He slid the container off a waist high shelf and set it on the deck. On the container’s side were a keypad and a display strip. Dern tapped a string of numerals on the pad and corresponding numbers flashed on the strip. A clicking sound emanated from the container followed by a low hiss. The container’s lid opened automatically. Dern reached inside and pulled out a garment that felt like an odd meld of rubber and velvet.
He unfurled the garment, laying it out on the deck and then stripped down to his shorts. Dern put on the garment and waited briefly as it conformed snuggly to every contour of his physique. The garment covered him from head-to-toe, leaving only the front of his face visible. Dern pressed a wrist tab and the garment instantly solidified to a metal hard density. Yet it was elastic enough to be of no hindrance to the wearer’s movements. Layers of interlocking plates unraveled across the armor. A smoke-gray visor slid over his face connecting to a throat guard. He breathed in a lungful of the suit’s artificial air and flexed his arms testing its articulation.
Twelve IV nodes located at various points on the suit from chest to thighs punctured his skin. A testosterone solution, referred to as the Flare flowed through the nodes into his bloodstream, boosting the amount of Flare already present in his body.
He hadn’t felt this strong, this powerful in so long. The feeling bordered on intoxicating. And that was where Dern had to temper himself. It was all too easy to succumb to the rapturous headiness generated by the Flare. It could produce overconfidence in one’s abilities and overconfidence led to recklessness, which inevitably led to ruin.
Dern intended to wield his vengeance with a steadiness and discipline forged by brutally intensive training. Very few human beings could successfully fend off the strain the Flare inflicted on their psyches. As Dern managed to clear his mind, he demonstrated why he was among that tiny number chosen to wear the suit.
Josik and Chain met Hugens at a section of the ship near the engine regulators. Hugens bore the shaken look of a man who’d seen too many ghosts. That had Josik concerned. He knew Hugens to be ruthless and fearless, not afraid to plunge into a fight. Unlike a whole lot of lowlifes who could be guaranteed to exhibit bravery only when their foes were unarmed, preferably bound and gagged.
Chain threw an openly contemptuous glance Hugen’s way.
Josik caught the look and hid a smile. He liked a woman with balls.
“He sent just you two?” Hugens said with a discouraged frown.
“Yeah, just us,” Josik replied impatiently. “Let’s not waste time. There’s one area of the ship where this passenger is likely to go, the cargo section. It’s a great place to hide. That’s where we’ll flush him out.”
“That’s quite some speculating,” Hugens remarked skeptically. “This guy could be anywhere.”
“Well wherever he is,” said Chain, holding up a black palm size cube. “He’ll get a dose of this.”
Hugens eyed the CX charge in the woman’s hand and smiled. “Now we’re talking.”
Josik brushed past the pair. “Let’s get to the cargo hold and end this.”
Dern linked into Interface mode, activating the suit’s sensory enhancements. Suddenly the dimly lit cargo section appeared bright and vivid, as if someone had wiped a coating of grime from his face plate. He reached into the suit container and pulled out a gold colored metal bracelet. He wrapped the bracelet around his right wrist, clicking latches in place to secure it and then flexed his forearm. The bracelet sent a tingle of vibration racing through Dern’s arm up to his shoulder. He gave a tiny nod of satisfaction.
Hostile Interdiction Emitter. Ready. Dern had never ruled out having to use the weapon at some point in his new career. Ceres 3 was a largely crime free colony (emphasis on largely). He just never imagined having to deploy it so soon, before he even reached the planet. Now the question remained: would he ever get there?
Low beeping interrupted his musing. He had company. Dern snapped shut his container and darted swiftly down the aisle. A sensor display over his left eye revealed three sources of body heat moving into the cargo section.
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| Five starlike images appear when light from a single quasar passes through a gravitational lens. Image credit: Hubble Telescope/NASA |
Topics: Astrophysics, Cosmology, Dark Energy, Dark Matter
For the first 150 million years after the Big Bang, there were no galaxies or stars or planets. The universe was featureless.
As time passed, the first stars formed. Stars collected into galaxies. Galaxies began to cluster together. Those clusters are made up of the galaxies and all the material between the galaxies. Clumps of matter smashed into each other, and the planets in our solar system began to form around the sun.
Something must hold our solar system, galaxies and clusters of galaxies together. And gravity is that "glue."
In some clusters, the space between galaxies is filled with gas so hot, scientists cannot see it using visible light telescopes. The gas only can be seen as X-rays or gamma rays. Scientists look at that gas and measure how much there is between galaxies in clusters. By doing this, they discovered that there must be five times more material in the clusters than we can detect. The invisible matter that we can't detect is called "dark matter."
The Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky first used the term "dark matter" in the 1930s. He studied the so-called Coma galaxy cluster and, specifically, how fast it revolves. Clusters are like merry-go-rounds: Their speed of revolution depends on the weight and position of the objects in the clusters, like the weight of the objects and their positions on a merry-go-round. The speed he measured implied the cluster had much more mass than the observable light suggested. *
* NASA: What Is Dark Matter?
Topics: Afrofuturism, Space Travel, Speculative Fiction
Future Shock Vol.1 Issue 1
By Chandar Wilson
An epic tale spanning millennia. From biblical times, and even earlier, to the future labs and boardrooms of seemingly all-powerful corporations where superhumans are manufactured for a price, Future Shock chronicles the evolution of humanity; biologically, socially, and politically. In this high-tech world most people have lost what it truly means to be human; sending much of humanity into a dark spiral. Can one man not born of this Earth turn the tide?
More at:
http://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/page/featured-comic-book
https://gumroad.com/chandarwilson
Thanks for making our first day of sales a resounding success. This being comic book release day, try some thing new. Try Imaginos Plus for only .99 cent at Drive Thru Comics.
http://comics.drivethrustuff.com/product/144039/Imaginos-Plus
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| NOAA's DSCOVR satellite launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Feb. 11, 2015. DSCOVR will provide NOAA space weather forecasters more reliable measurements of solar wind conditions, improving their ability to monitor potentially harmful solar activity. Image Credit: NASA |
Topics: Climate Change, Department of Defense, Global Warming, NASA, NOAA
A new mission to monitor solar activity is now making its way to an orbit one million miles from Earth. The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 6:03 p.m. EST Wednesday from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
DSCOVR, a partnership among the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA and the U.S. Air Force, will provide NOAA space weather forecasters more reliable measurements of solar wind conditions, improving their ability to monitor potentially harmful solar activity.
NASA received funding from NOAA to refurbish the DSCOVR spacecraft and its solar wind instruments for this mission. The work was completed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, where a team developed the command and control portion of the spacecraft’s ground segment, and manages the launch and activation of the satellite.
Following successful activation of the satellite and check-out approximately 150 days after launch, NASA will hand over operations of DSCOVR to NOAA.
NASA: NOAA’s New Deep Space Solar Monitoring Satellite Launched
Related Links:
An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security
October 2003
By Peter Schwartz and Doug Randall
Quadrennial Defense Review 2014
Department of Defense
Topics: Diversity, Engineering, HBCU, NASA, STEM, Women in Science
Aerospace Engineer
NASA
Aprille Ericsson was the first female (and the first African-American female) to receive a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Howard University and the first African-American female to receive a Ph.D. in Engineering at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. She was born and raised in the Bedford Styvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, and earned her bachelor’s in aeronautical/astronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
As a NASA engineer, Ericsson has worked on many projects, including the Microwave Anisotropy Probe, the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission, the James Webb Space Telescope, and in the Integrated Mission Design Center. Currently she is the instrument manager for a proposed mission to bring dust from the Martian lower atmosphere back to Earth.
Ericsson has won many awards, including the 1997 “Women in Science and Engineering” award for the best female engineer in the federal government, and has been profiled by NBC Nightly News, Essence Magazine, and other media outlets. She is a member of the NASA GSFC Speakers Bureau and the Women of NASA Group. Ericsson also teaches at Howard University at the collegiate and middle school level and is a member of their Board of Trustees.
Info and Image Source: ScienceUpdate.com
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| Credit: ESA/J. Huart, 2011 |
Topics: European Space Agency, Space Exploration, Spaceflight
The European Space Agency (ESA) plans to launch an experimental space plane this Wednesday to test out technologies needed for vehicles to survive the return to Earth from space.
The unmanned space plane, called the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV), is slated to blast off Wednesday (Feb. 11) at 8 a.m. EST (1300 GMT) from French Guiana. Its suborbital flight will last 100 minutes.
Space.com: Europe's Experimental Mini-Space Shuttle to Launch Wednesday, by Elizabeth Howell, Space.com contributor
Topics: Diaspora, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction
KEMESTRY THE BRIGHT LIGHT
By Seta Aset
Out of the ashes of time, it was said in the universe a very long time ago by the Olmecs that a young Nubian woman would be born when the clock struck midnight on Friday, 12-21-12. While growing up as a child, she was knowledgeable many, many years before her time and there werethings she could do that frightened her parents and everyone else who were close to her, for they didn’t understand at the time why she had the gifts. The older she became, the more knowledge and power grew stronger in her. After turning eighteen, she joined the Air Force and was stationed in Minot, North Dakota so she could be nearer to her beloved mysterious crafts.
More at:
http://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/page/book-of-the-month
Amazon: Kemestry-Bright Light, Seta Aset
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| The quickest way to solve a maze exploits both quantum and classical processes, say physicists who have demonstrated the effect for the first time. |
Topics: Biology, Photonics, Quantum Biology, Quantum Mechanics
TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: The emerging discipline of quantum biology is attempting to understand the role quantum mechanics plays in the processes of life, such as photosynthesis—the capture of sunlight by plants and its conversion into stored energy.
One phenomenon that physicists have observed is the transfer of energy across giant protein matrices that appears to occur extremely rapidly with close to 100 percent efficiency. These matrices are like giant mazes so the question is how energy can find its way across the structures before it dissipates.
The classical solution to this problem is to explore the maze with a series of random hops. But this process would take so long that most of the energy would be lost.
That’s why physicists think that quantum processes must somehow be involved. Their initial thinking was that the quantum process of energy transfer might work by exploring many routes through the maze at the same time. This superposition of states would then collapse when the solution was found. In this way, the maze can be solved rapidly and the energy transferred efficiently.
Abstract
Escaping from a complex maze, by exploring different paths with several decision-making branches in order to reach the exit, has always been a very challenging and fascinating task. Wave field and quantum objects may explore a complex structure in parallel by interference effects, but without necessarily leading to more efficient transport. Here, inspired by recent observations in biological energy transport phenomena, we demonstrate how a quantum walker can efficiently reach the output of a maze by partially suppressing the presence of interference. In particular, we show theoretically an unprecedented improvement in transport efficiency for increasing maze size with respect to purely quantum and classical approaches. In addition, we investigate experimentally these hybrid transport phenomena, by mapping the maze problem in an integrated waveguide array, probed by coherent light, hence successfully testing our theoretical results. These achievements may lead towards future bio-inspired photonics technologies for more efficient transport and computation.
Physics arXiv: Fast Escape from Quantum Mazes in Integrated Photonics
Filippo Caruso, Andrea Crespi, Anna Gabriella Ciriolo, Fabio Sciarrino, Roberto Osellame
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| Image source: National Academy of Sciences - African American History Program |
Topics: Biology, Cells, Diversity, Fraternity, History, Diversity in Science
Earnest Everett Just was an African-American biologist and educator best known for his pioneering work in the physiology of development, especially in fertilization.
“We feel the beauty of nature because we are part of nature and because we know that however much in our separate domains we abstract from the unity of nature, this unity remains. Although we may deal with particulars, we return finally to the whole pattern woven out of these.”
—Ernest Everett Just
Synopsis
Born on August 14, 1883, in Charleston, South Carolina, Earnest Everett Just was an African-American biologist and educator who pioneered many areas on the physiology of development, including fertilization, experimental parthenogenesis, hydration, cell division, dehydration in living cells and ultraviolet carcinogenic radiation effects on cells. Just's legacy of accomplishments followed him long after his death, on October 27, 1941.
Early Life
Earnest Everett Just was born on August 14, 1883, in Charleston, South Carolina, to Charles Frazier and Mary Matthews Just. Known as an intelligent and inquisitive student, Just studied at Kimball Hall Academy in New Hampshire before enrolling at Dartmouth College.
It was during his university years that Just discovered an interest in biology after reading a paper on fertilization and egg development. This bright young man earned the highest grades in Greek during his freshman year, and was selected as a Rufus Choate scholar for two years. He graduated as the sole magna cum laude student in 1907, also receiving honors in botany, sociology and history.
Career Success
Just's first job out of college was as a teacher and researcher at the traditionally all-black Howard University. Later, in 1909, he worked in research at Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts. Just furthered his education by obtaining a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Chicago, where he studied experimental embryology and graduated magna cum laude.
If that wasn't enough:
When Just graduated from Dartmouth, he was immediately offered a job as an English teacher at Howard University. Two years later, he accepted an appointment as an instructor in biology, and eventually devoted all of his time to teaching biology. In 1912, he established and became the head of Howard's Department of Zoology.
While at Howard, Just was approached by Edgar A. Love, Oscar J. Cooper, and Frank Coleman about starting a fraternity on Howard's campus. Fearful of the political threat a secret organization of young blacks might pose to Howard's white administration, the university's faculty and administration opposed the whole idea. Just worked at mediating the controversy. And on 15 December 1911, the Alpha chapter of Omega Psi Phi was organized at Howard University.
Because of the difficulty black scientist at that time had obtaining appointments, Just's first inquiries into the possibility of conducting basic research were not initially encouraged. Eventually Frank Lillie, Director of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Wood's Hole, MA, noticed his determination, brought him to the MBL to study and act as a lab assistant. Just became fascinated with problems of fertilization and development. In 1912, he published his first paper in the Biological Bulletin. In 1915, the NAACP awarded Just the first Springarn Medal. After many delays and obstacles, he obtained his PhD, in 1916, summa cum laude, from the University of Chicago.
1. Ernest Everett Just. (2015). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 03:26, Jan 27, 2015, from http://www.biography.com/people/ernest-everett-just-9359195.
2. Lambda Gamma Gamma, Omega Psi Phi: Dr. Ernest Everett Just
Hi there!!!
I am new here (2015) but hope to share and looking forward to participating on this site! Lots here to get acquainted with.
In 2013 I self-published a short story compilation called "Flight of Fantasy Collection" which I hope to republish (long story). I also published a novella - "First Lost Risen" (2013) - which is currently only available in ebook format on Amazon. I had some time on my hands and went through various stuff I'd written over the years and found I had quite a few stories in the sci/fantasy genre so I decided to do something about it.
I'm currently putting a programme together for here in the UK to get out and about again following a series of setbacks. I also write stories around female related issues, so there's a lot that I draw from around the challenges life throws at us! I'm basically a spiritual type of person and I think that comes through in some of my work. I've given away loads of books and mostly people of African descent, tell me that before they read my work, they'd never read any science fiction but would certainly read more. Well, I don't represent the whole of sci/fantasy writing so I hope they get on well with the diversity that's out there!!!
One Love
Patricia
{Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun was one of the many works the FBI reviewed before publication.}
Newly declassified documents from the FBI reveal how the US federal agency under J Edgar Hoover monitored the activities of dozens of prominent African American writers for decades, devoting thousands of pages to detailing their activities and critiquing their work.
Topics: Indy Publishing, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction
Tori #1
Written & Illustrated by Alfonza Lee Hobbie
Captain Tori Anderson’s life just keeps on getting better! Ten years ago a mob hit squad known as the Maddox Clan tried to kill Captain Anderson and her brother. They failed. Tori and her brother were saved by some passing monks. The Maddox Clan wants desperately to finish the job. It’s a matter of reputation. On a planet light-years away from known space. There is a very powerful and deadly Witch. She, the Mob, and the Federation wants Captain Anderson in pieces.
More at:
http://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/page/featured-comic-book
http://www.indyplanet.com/front/product/103860/
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| Image Source: Link below |
Topics: ATP, Astronaut, Biology, GI Bill, Mars, NASA, Environmental Management
Chappelle was drafted into the U.S. Army, right after graduating from the Phoenix Union Colored High School in 1942. He was assigned to the Army Specialized Training Program, where he was able to take some engineering courses. Chappelle was later reassigned to the all-Black 92nd Infantry Division and served in Italy. After returning to the U.S., Chappelle went on to earn his A.A. degree from Phoenix College. With the help provided by the GI Bill of Rights, Chappelle was able to receive his B.S. degree in biology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1950.
Chappelle went on to serve as an instructor at the Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee from 1950 to 1953, where he was also able to conduct his own research. Chappelle’s work was noticed by the scientific community, and he accepted an offer to study at the University of Washington, where he received his M.S. degree in biology in 1954. Chappelle continued his graduate studies at Stanford University, though he did not complete a Ph.D. degree. In 1958 Chappelle joined the Research Institute for Advanced Studies in Baltimore, where his research aided in the creation of a safe oxygen supply for astronauts. He went on to work for Hazelton Laboratories in 1963. In 1966, Chappelle joined the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as a part of the Goddard Space Flight Center. Chappelle’s research has focused in the area of luminescence, which is light without heat. He has been involved in a number of projects, including the Viking space craft. Chappelle used chemicals from fireflies as well as adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to develop a method of detecting life on Mars. He used this research in bioluminescence, light produced by living organisms, to detect bacteria in water, as well as in improving environmental management.
The History Makers: Emmett Chappelle
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| Source: Princeton.edu |
Topics: Nobel Prize, Particle Physics, Passage, K-meson, Symmetry
I mourn again the loss of another Nobel Laureate, one week from Dr. Townes. As elders inevitably leave the planet, they will be replaced, obviously. The impressive achievements of giants like Townes and Fitch is they did it before an Internet; search engines or laptops. They did their work most likely with primitive mainframes, logarithm tables, CRC handbooks and slide rules. There's a certain romanticism to that.
I really don't know if this is recent info, but I found this description from his Professor Emeritus page at Princeton quite intriguing:
Most recently I have been pursuing the question of the existence of the H particle ("H" for hexaquark). This particle was first proposed by Robert Jaffe who noted that the special symmetry of two u, two d, and two s quarks should lead to a stable particle (stable with respect to the strong interactions) with the quark content of two lambdas. He estimated that the mass should be about 80 MeV below the sum of the masses of two lambda particles. Subsequent calculations using a wide variety of models have given mass estimates ranging from values less than the deuteron to unbound states. The existence of the H remains an experimental question. The driving interest in the particle lies in its being a new state of matter (six quarks in one bag). In addition, if the mass is near the deuteron, it could have a lifetime sufficiently long to have cosmological significance.
From NobelPrize.org:
A Small but Clear Lack of Symmetry
For a long time, physicists assumed that different types of symmetries characterise nature. In a kind of mirror-world the physical laws should be the same if right and left are exchanged and if matter is replaced by antimatter. The left-right symmetry had already been shown to be violated when Val Fitch and James Cronin in 1964 discovered that in the decay of the neutral K-meson the matter-antimatter symmetry is also violated. They could also show that symmetry under time-reversal is not valid: reactions going backward in time are not identical to those going forward.
Nobel Prize in Physics 1980:
James Watson Cronin (student), Val Logsdon Fitch (professor)
News at Princeton:
Nobel Laureate and Princeton physicist Val Fitch dies at age 91
Catherine Zandonella
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| Image Source: CBSNEWS link below |
Topics: Commentary, Economy, Futurism, Money
noun
a current medium of exchange in the form of coins and banknotes; coins and banknotes collectively.
"I counted the money before putting it in my wallet"
synonyms: cash, hard cash, ready money; More
formal
sums of money.
plural noun: moneys; plural noun: monies
"a statement of all moneys paid into and out of the account"
the assets, property, and resources owned by someone or something; wealth.
"the college is very short of money"
synonyms: wealth, riches, fortune, affluence, assets, liquid assets, resources, means
"she married him for his money"
Money means more than the coin, paper or plastic to acquire goods and services. Money is linked to complex emotions, feelings and behaviors. Each person has "money messages" that are based on past experiences, what you observed and what you were taught. These money messages reflect the attitudes, perceptions and expectations that influence your financial behaviors today.
Money, money, money, money, money [6x]
Some people got to have it
Some people really need it
Listen to me y'all, do things
Do things, do bad things with it
You wanna do things, do things
Do things, good things with it
Talk about cash money, money
Talk about cash money
Dollar bills, yall
The O'Jays: "For the Love of Money"
One of the more preposterous things Trekkies/Trekkers accept is the notion put forth that humankind somehow evolved beyond the need for money (noted exception given to the fictional Feringi). That would solve a myriad of problems: greed, hierarchy, the military-industrial-complex, outsourcing, the prison-industrial-complex, poverty, etc.
A large part of that stems from one of the key the faux technologies: teleportation and matter replication. A propulsion method like Warp Drive wouldn't change minds and hearts, neither would the advent of Vulcans (as the initial motivations of the fictional Dr. Zefram Cochrane were hardly altruistic). The ability to speak to what amounts to either a Genie or 3D printer on steroids and get what you want (see: "Tea, Earl Grey") would put us immediately beyond our paltry rating by Carl Sagan as a 0.7 rating on the Kardashev scale. Any such liberating technology - like green tech, solar energy and wind - would likely be opposed vigorously by the "powers that be" whose progenitors made their family wealth on the fossilized deaths of ancient rain forests and dinosaurs.
Rather than violating the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (a quote: "How do your Heisenberg Compensators work?" Answer from script writer: "very well, I might add"), we should demand and give new meaning to this replacement for barter; this representation for resource; this excuse for hierarchy and presumed omnipotent powers to humans that put their skirts and pants on with the same physics we all do: just with servants that have also bought into the myth of their divinity. I'm sure with dinosaurs, their economy had to do with size, muscle and teeth, all reduced by meteor to another form of their energy we pay for at the pump.
Rather than alchemical transmutations of matter, we all need to change what we've given so important a meaning in our lives as a species.
CBSNEWS: The Secret Meaning of Money, Mark Jaffe
Money Ed: The Meaning of Money
Topics: Biology, Medicine, Diversity, Diversity in Science
Daniel Hale Williams was a physician who performed the first known open-heart surgery in the United States and who founded a hospital with an interracial staff.
Synopsis
Born on January 18, 1856, in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, Daniel Hale Williams pursued a pioneering career in medicine. An African-American doctor, in 1893, Williams opened Provident Hospital, the first medical facility to have an interracial staff. He was also the first physician to successfully complete open-heart surgery on a patient. Williams later became chief surgeon of the Freedmen’s Hospital.
Early Life
Daniel Hale Williams III was born on January 18, 1856, in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, to Sarah Price Williams and Daniel Hale Williams II. The couple had several children, with the elder Daniel H. Williams inheriting a barber business. He also worked with the Equal Rights League, a black civil rights organization active during the Reconstruction era.
After the elder Williams died, a 10-year-old Daniel was sent to live in Baltimore, Maryland, with family friends. He became a shoemaker’s apprentice but disliked the work and decided to return to his family, who had moved to Illinois. Like his father, he took up barbering, but ultimately decided he wanted to pursue his education. He worked as an apprentice with Dr. Henry Palmer, a highly accomplished surgeon, and then completed further training at Chicago Medical College.
Daniel Hale Williams. (2015). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 03:05, Jan 26, 2015, from http://www.biography.com/people/daniel-hale-williams-9532269.
