The ultracold atom reservoir. The 3D MOT is located in the centre of the region of cross-hatched copper pipes at the bottom left of the L-shape. Atoms are then guided to the right along the middle pipe in the trio of pipes, which dips into the differential pumping stage (in the U-bend) before rising upwards. The reservoir of ultracold atoms is at the centre of the region of cross-hatched copper pipes at the top of the L-shape. (Courtesy: Jan Mahnke)

Physics World: Reservoir of ultracold atoms is filled continuously, Hamish Johnston

Did you know that if only 10% of the members of BSFS participated in this deal that we could create a black owned and operated network that would be dedicated to giving black sci fi writers a platform to promote their work AND create a Black SciFi event that could travel to at least 3 major cities??? We are trying to get as many people as possible to make this one time advertising deal! You could be physically in front of at least 20,000+ people weekly and many more streaming LIVE 24/7 on our digital platform!!! 

Are you ready to be a part of the solution?

Image Source: IMDb

Topics: Democracy, Exceptionalism, Internet, Oligarchy, Republic

Image source: Super Mario Wiki and this blog

The US military is developing a new non-lethal weapon that uses an incredibly loud sound to startle an enemy into retreating.

The Laser-Induced Plasma Effect (LIPE) weapon was designed by the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program (JNLWP), which is part of the US Department of Defense. It works by making use of plasma, a type of matter that isn't a liquid, solid or gas.

In the plasma stage, high doses of energy have pulled electrons from their atomic nuclei, creating ions, and this produces a type of matter that has both electrical and magnetic properties and can take on the form of light.

The idea is for the LIPE weapon's lasers to fire directed high energy in extremely short bursts that last for only a nanosecond (a billionth of a second). The energy creates a blue ball of plasma and further blasts of energy from the lasers manipulate the ball to make a super loud, 130-decibel sound that sounds like a fighter jet has come out of nowhere next to the target.

Continued...

On the left is a paper model of the kirigami-inspired graphene pyramid, which is the square object in the microscope image on the right. Also shown in the microscope image are a spiral spring (top) and a number of cantilevers (right). The scale bar in the microscope image is 10 μm long. (Courtesy: McEuen Group, Cornell University)

Physics World: Stretchable graphene transistors inspired by kirigami, Tim Wogan

Image Source: American Association for the Advancement of Science (link below)

Topics: Diversity, Diversity in Science, Economy, Education, Science, STEM, Research

From Forbes: "Why You Can't Ignore Millennials," Dan Schawbel

AAAS: Collaborative Spirit of Millennial Generation May Benefit Big Science, Earl Lane

This is the first part of our effort to build a base of Black Businesses who are willing to work with a Black Owned and Operated Media outlet dedicated to building the Black Community!!! Please tag and share it with anyone you know who has a book to promote!

So here is the deal we will offer to Authors in order to promote their books via our Black College Sports Network. Starting the weekend of Sept. 5th we will be broadcasting live from some of the top HBCU football games in the country. What do you do: Pay $100 and provide a standing banner to the network. What do you get: 100 60 second radio ads on the V108 radio network of your choice (Gospel, Urban or Talk) for one month (Sept-Nov), interviewed on one of the network talk shows and your banner posted at 3 games of your choice. Game choice is on a first come first serve basis. Game schedule will be released on Saturday August 22nd at our BCSN GameTime season kick off broadcast!

       If you guys read my previous blog on File Organization. You will clearly see how unorganized and scattered my files were. I had 133 Transportation  graphics. I did the file and pile method where I will pile my files and look for it later. That is okay for an amateur who is doing personal projects for friends and family members. It is not an okay practice when working among professionals and corporate clients.  

     If you are in the creative field where you are a producer; writer; graphic, and motion designer; animator; video editor; website builder,etc. This blog is for you. I had 864 files of Illustrator Vectors that were scattered out in just one folder that were not identifiable. Out of 864 were the 133 Transportation graphics you seen in the previous blog.  I finally got it organized where I can quickly identify and find what I am looking for. Putting these files in categories makes a big difference.

     In this picture you can see the preview pane in the left showing the folders I created. Next to the preview pane you can see how I put the 133 Transportation graphics in categories.  The folder I created was VEHICLE EXT. Under that category I created sub categories and folders.  With vehicles you have to be specific according to their model and weight. 

       The problem was I was naming them common names such as Cars and Trucks.  When file naming the vehicles Cars 1; Car 2; Car 95; Luxury Super Car;  I was  doing a keyword shortcut so I can search easily search it. When I was trying to find a specific car model. I went from Arkansas to Japan to find it. It took at 10 minutes or more to go find  the right car model I wanted to use in a design.

     It was frustrating going through a pile of files with the name Car at the end of it to find the right one. I realized it was time to put this vehicle models in categories and be as descriptive as possible. I created 11 folders with their sub categories within that folder. The key to better computer file organization for creative people is the method Category and Find.

       The Category and Find method will help you to identify your files easily. You can find the folder associated with those files easily than to find scattered files with no categories.  Take an extra three to four hours to organize your files using this method.  You don't want to wait to get on team projects and not being able to deliver because of files disorganization. 

        In my next blog if you are working on multiple projects and you have more than 6,000 files.  Be sure to check out my next blog called Projects and Non Projects.

Technology Review: A piece of pig skin glows with laser light after being stimulated by an optical fiber.

MIT Technology Review: Making Pig Fat into a Laser, Karen Weintraub

Image Source: Fig 2, CERN Courier article

Abstract

Physics arXiv: How to Recover a Qubit That Has Fallen Into a Black Hole
Aidan Chatwin-Davies, Adam S. Jermyn, Sean M. Carroll

   If you are looking at this picture and wondering what the hell is this; these are my transportation graphics dealing with airplanes, boats, bus, compact cars, ships, semi trucks,etc. Since I am a graphic designer and working on an animation show; I need my graphics to do these things. I have a total of 133 transportation  graphics and I pile it up in one folder called VEHICLE EXT.

      Looking at this was a nightmare because it was so unorganized and all over the place. How am I going to quickly find what I am looking for? The method I used was pile and find method.. I piled my items in one group and typed keywords to help me find what I was looking for. I did this method for years until I realized I am working with a team of professionals critiquing my organization skills. I realized time will not be on my side when I do professional work for clients.

       I read several article that talks about how amateurs are poor  when it comes to file organization.  They gave me insight how to file organize the professional way. The Pile and Find method is the way I used for a while. This picture is an example of the Pile and Find method. The method I am implementing is Category and Quick Access. I will explain that in the next blog. Don't let your files pile up on you. Start organizing your files ASAP.

Why The Warrior from Monde? What motivated me to write such a story?

Well, I won’t spoil the novel by going into details, but I’ll hint at things through covering the themes I used to guide my writing. These themes inspired me to write the story in the first place, and they’re the road map for my entire astral warrior series.

Theme one – Physical strength; the joys and struggles of it:

I never played sports as a kid. Well, not for long. I was in ballet for a few months, and I did well. But for some reason, my mother took me out of the classes. That was when I was around eight years old. From then on, I did no sports. I loved physical activity, but I was too shy to perform in front of an audience. I recall going to volleyball tryouts when I was in 9th grade. As I watched the bleachers fill up with spectators, I grew nervous. At some point, before the tryouts even started, I walked out of the gymnasium and went home. I mean, who knew there’d be so many people interested in volleyball?

It turns out, a few years later, I learned that I was a pretty damn good athlete. But, by then, I was a mother.

The moment I left the hospital after having my son, I started working out. I had formulated a game plan while he was still in my womb. I would eat healthy and workout every other day. I did that. And fitness grew on me. When the idea came to me to join the military, I decided that I wanted to be part of The Few and The Proud, The Marines. So, I looked into their fitness standards, binged on military basic training videos, Navy Seal training footage, war movies and books, and I trained hard. I figured that I might as well torture myself at home, so the training instructors wouldn’t have to torture me too much during basic training (BMT). I was right. But it took time for me to reap the benefits.

In 2004, I joined the Air Force. I ditched the idea of the Marines, because as a mother, it was a selfish dream. When I first stepped foot on the concrete training block of one of Lackland’s training squadron buildings, I was singled out. I was nerdy-looking with my black, plastic-framed glasses, and corn-rolled hair. I’m five foot nothing as well. My training instructor loved to pick on me, “Petro, Petro”. Yeah, well, that did not last. Cause I kicked ass on the training field. I beat all the women within the first minute of every run. And I passed more than half of the men. This was standard for me each training day. I did more push ups than the other girls, the same with pull ups. Here I was, a new mom, and I was beating girls who never had a child, and were in sports for years; girls who I expected to surpass me athletically. By week three, my training instructor held off on picking on me. And by week four, the fittest male and I, were separated from our peers. We were placed on a platform with the training instructors, where we performed exercises for the trainees on the cold, concrete below. At the mess hall, training instructors offered me cake and extra food. In the end, I was awarded Top Physical Readiness Female and Warhawk. Yeah, I looked nerdy, but among those in the military, physical strength was well-respected.

So what does all of this have to do with my novel? Read more: http://snpetro.com/2015/07/27/why-this-book/

The surface of the double-gyroid photonic crystal used by Marin Soljačić and colleagues. A US dime is shown for scale. (Courtesy: Ling Lu)

Physics World: Weyl fermions are spotted at long last, Hamish Johnston

Topics: Astrobiology, Biology, Existentialism, Philosophy, Science, Research

About Quanta Magazine:

The artistic concept shows NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft operating in a new mission profile called K2. Using publicly available data, astronomers may have confirmed K2's first discovery of star with more than one planet. Image Credit: NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T Pyle

JPL: NASA Hosts Media Telecon About Latest Kepler Discoveries