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OSIRIS-REx...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on April 20, 2015 at 7:14am


NASA's spacecraft to an asteroid – the OSIRIS-REx mission — is being readied for a 2016 liftoff. Gary Napier, Lockheed Martin spokesman (left) and reporter Leonard David (right) stand in front of spacecraft build-up on April 6, 2015 as technicians work on the probe for launch next year. Credit: Leonard David

Topics: Asteroids, Bennu, Clean Room, NASA, Space Exploration, STEM


Ahem: in a lot of STEM fields that are "stimulating" (pun intended), you'll find yourselves in apparel like this, affectionately known as "bunny suits." You can find a brief history of the clean room here and here.

DENVER, Colorado – A fact-filled and incredible day at Lockheed Martin on April 6, visiting ultra-clean room facilities in which NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is coming together for a September 2016 liftoff.

The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) probe is headed for asteroid Bennu, a carbon-rich body that could hold clues to the origin of the solar system and host organic molecules that may have seeded life on Earth.

The spacecraft will collect and return samples of the asteroid, returning the specimens gathered back to Earth for detailed analysis.

Lofted spaceward next year, the probe will reach asteroid Bennu in 2018 and return a sample to Earth in 2023.

In protective garb, this reporter saw assembly, test and launch operations (ATLO) phase technicians hard at work in a critical stage of the program.

Over the next several months, spacecraft handlers will install on the OSIRIS-REx structure its many subsystems, including avionics, power, telecomm, mechanisms, thermal systems, and guidance, navigation and control.

The Bennu is an ancient Egyptian deity linked with the sun, creation, and rebirth. It may have been the inspiration for the phoenix in Greek mythology. Wikipedia

Space.com:
A Reporter's View: NASA's OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Mission Taking Shape, Leonard David

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We Got to Do Better

Posted by G.H. Wright on April 19, 2015 at 8:36pm
Because anything is better than the n word.Urban Resident One: Whatup my Vulcan?Urban Resident Two: It ain't nothing. Keeping it logical.Urban Resident One: Man I ain't had none in so long it's like pon farr up in here.Urban Resident Two: That's some old Romulan bulls@!#.Note: pon farr is a once every seven year mating ritual.
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The Unraveling...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on April 19, 2015 at 9:13am
Image Source: Unraveling Fire II Boy - Art on Fire


Topics: Domestic Terrorism, Oklahoma Bombing, Timothy McVeigh, Xenophobia


According to this online calendar, today was Wednesday 20 years ago.

I remember the boys were with me (my wife was working) and I was off with them, making PB&J sandwiches for lunch. They were 12 and 2 then. The news of the Oklahoma City Bombing sickened me and horrified my oldest son. He wept over the thought some as young as his brother had died; I wept over both of them, and about the world that was coming. [1]

I remember the helplessness I felt when the wreckage of the Alfred P. Murrah building was broadcast on all stations across the world. We were a few months from the midterms and Newton Gingrich's "Contract With (or, some would say on) America." We were a year from the Internet using something we all take for granted now - search engines, first on home pages like AOL and Yahoo; then the very title of it becoming both a noun and verb: Bing and Google. Star Trek Voyager, Boy Meets World, Seinfeld, Friends and X-Files were our national obsessions. We were six years from the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Peace Dividend we've never managed to cash in on.

The seeds of our unraveling/detachment from reality can be found here. As a nation, we've always been prone to fabricating "tall tales," but with the Internet it has made the loudmouth an expert, whether they completed a college degree, or have a wit of evident expertise in anything. The prerequisite seems to be willing to shout "fire" in crowded theaters or the public commons; babble incoherently and be misconstrued as "passionate" instead of insane. When the initial suspects were announced, every authority began looking for [initially] Arabic men; "false flag" became the excuse Du jour for everything we could not initially explain, then and now. Perhaps looking on this quick leap to accusation and judgment inspired a former US-backed Mujaheddin warrior we'd come to know infamously as Osama Bin Laden. Since they didn't care about vilification or leaps of illogical speculations, they literally had "nothing to lose."

Ominously, McVeigh was executed after waving further appeals June 11, 2001, three months to the DAY on the World Trade Center attacks of 9-11. [2]

"And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army." Rev 19:19 ESV

This has sadly been used by forces that would overthrow our democratic republic and establish a dangerous form of theocracy known as dominionism. (Note: all forms of theocratic governance are antithetical to democratic republican ideals.) Whether this is perceived as a literal or figurative event, perhaps it is a realization that peace isn't in our human natures. We have made cartoons and superheros of WWII and the "greatest generation," not having cultural memory of how hard life was here and on the war front, whitewashing what would become the Civil Rights movement as internal struggle from collective memory. "Here be dragons," and if none available, our determined imaginations will manufacture some in our need to slay them.

It was lastly, also the world of black helicopters, "jack-booted thugs" in black camouflage; "New World Order" - first in an address by President George Herbert Walker Bush, then neurosis by conspiracy theorists that would by steady osmosis - find its way into the mainstream. It was two years to the day from the Waco, Texas standoff between the ATF and the Branch Davidians and one day from Adolf Hitler's birthday (also used by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold in their violent attack on Columbine High School in Colorado. In Timothy McVeigh's conspiracy-here-be-dragons literature found at the scene, a guide written sadly by a physics apostate: The Turner Diaries. William Luther Pierce may have earned a PhD in physics, but that did not inoculate him from irrational stances and daft thoughts. His lineage in the Confederacy; his alliance with the John Birch Society (founded by the patriarch of the Koch brothers), his anti-Semitic/anti-gay worldview were the seeds that filled his ink before he put pen to paper; before the Internet was a commercial entity. Hate does not require low IQ's or high tech: simple xenophobia and smoke signals will do. It is a legacy we're still inheriting, like dandelion seeds in the wind.

1. Today: 20 years later, TODAY looks back at the Oklahoma City bombing
2. History.com: Oklahoma City Bombing

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Age of Einstein...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on April 18, 2015 at 7:30am
Image Source: Biography.com


Topics: Einstein, Special Relativity, Space Exploration, Spaceflight, Spacetime


It was Einstein that entered the term "warp" into our lexicon before the notion was popularized on the original Star Trek. That warp was gravity from the mass of objects like planets, suns; wormholes and black holes. It has lived on in the discovery of the intermediate vector boson ("W" and Z0particle), theorized by Dr's Sheldon Lee Glashow, Abdus Salam and Steven Weinberg, meaning his was the "shoulder of [a] giant" these men stood on when they made their discovery. The foundation of the Higgs Boson were courses in special and general relativity as well as quantum mechanics, the root of all things micro and nano electronic. In a way, he's achieved immortality.

The link below is a PDF that goes through a primer of the physics at the high school level, which is appropriate. The more we understand about the physics that is all around us, the less we are frightened by, or put off by it. As we increase our intellectual acumen in STEM fields, is it too much to request such a self-study of those who wish to be our leaders, and possibly possess the nuclear codes?

This brief book is for the inquisitive reader who wishes to gain an understanding of the immortal work of Einstein, the greatest scientist since Newton. The concepts that form the basis of Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity are discussed at a level suitable for Seniors in High School. Special Relativity deals with measurements of space, time and motion in inertial frames of reference (see chapter 4). An introduction to Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, a theory of space, time, and motion in the presence of gravity, is given at a popular level. A more formal account of Special Relativity, that requires a higher level of understanding of Mathematics, is given in an Appendix.

Historians in the future will, no doubt, choose a phrase that best characterizes the 20th-century. Several possible phrases, such as “the Atomic Age”, “the Space Age” and “the Information Age”, come to mind. I believe that a strong case will be made for the phrase “the Age of Einstein”; no other person in the 20th-century advanced our understanding of the physical universe in such a dramatic way. He introduced many original concepts, each one of a profound nature. His discovery of the universal equivalence of energy and mass has had, and continues to have, far-reaching consequences not only in Science and Technology but also in fields as diverse as World Politics, Economics, and Philosophy.

Free Physics Book: The Age of Einstein
Frank W. K. Firk
Professor Emeritus of Physics
Yale University

Tomorrow: The Unraveling

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Blurb from Timeswimmers: Chun Yi

Posted by Stanley Glenn Lewis on April 18, 2015 at 5:19am

I remember it rained a lot in New China. On those days I would hang near the front of the family store, and when my Mother was reading and my Father not in sight, I would silently slip out the front entrance and onto the sidewalk. With my eyes closed, I would lean back against the wall of the store. I could feel the coolness of the wet wind on my face. Above my head the shop signs swayed in the wind and water would begin to fill first the street and then the sidewalk itself. I couldn't wait to get my own spaceship so I could be free!

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YuMi...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on April 17, 2015 at 6:49am
Image Source: ABB Robotics (link below)


Topics: Economy, Futurism, Jobs, Robotics, STEM


We are somewhere on the Kardashev Scale muscling our way from type 0 to type 1, slowly and steadily against a resisting, authoritarian and fearful tide. The future is here. However, to continue its advance will require training young people unabashedly in STEM - science, technology, engineering and mathematics - the bedrock of advancement, economic prosperity, employment, equality and progress. STEM employees eventually retire, and need able replacements in their fields. Regressing, falling back to comforting dogma and superstitions heralds the dark ages. Irreplaceable artifacts from antiquity are being trashed by such forces in Mosul; similar ones here would have us too dumb to continue this important work. Robots at a minimum will need designers to dream them, and human hands to repair them.

The new era of robotic co-workers is here. YuMi is the result of years of research and development, making collaboration between humans and robots a reality, but it is also much more.

ABB has developed a collaborative, dual arm, small parts assembly robot solution that includes flexible hands, parts feeding systems, camera-based part location and state-of-the-art robot control. YuMi is a vision of the future. YuMi will change the way we think about assembly automation. YuMi is “you and me”, working together to create endless possibilities.

ABB Robotics: YuMi

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Erika Alexander (Living Single) and Tony Puryear to release CONCRETE PARK vol. 2 through Dark Horse Comics

Posted by Carles CJ Juzang on April 16, 2015 at 7:00pm

April 29 2015 is the due date for this second volume of CONCRETE PARK. the Sci fi Gang Action/Adventure Comic from husband and wife team of Writer Erika Alexander (Living Single) and Artist Tony Puryear (Screenwriter - Eraser is one of his credits), and Erikas brother is also credited with co-writing. This comic has OUTSTANDING graphics and tight story. Check it out when you can.

 

LINKS:

http://concretepark.com/

 

https://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/Previews/24-155?page=0

 

 

 

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Eric Canete, Jonathan Tsuei, and Leonardo Olea begin RUN LOVE KILL at IMAGE

Posted by Carles CJ Juzang on April 16, 2015 at 6:19pm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

by Kat Salazar

After a brief hiatus from mainstream comics, Blak Boks LLC collaborators Eric Canete (The End League, Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin) and Jon Tsuei (Comic Book Tattoo) are announcing their ambitious take on sci-fi and action-centric storytelling in their book RUN LOVE KILL. They will be joined by designer and color artist Leonardo Olea, with Manu Fernandez providing eye-catching CGI build models for the covers. The series will be published through Image Comics in Spring 2015.

“Speaking personally, it's an incredible opportunity for me to finally get a chance to share this story that Jon and I have been laboring over for a few years now,” said Canete. “Our collaborative process has been open for discussion and always presented with the caveat there's always room for improvement. I believe these reasons are some of the major contributing factors of why we were able to create something we can both be really proud of. From script to final colored image, the story grew and evolved. To add to our momentum and good fortune, we've had the contribution of very capable partners in Leonardo Olea (book designer/color artist) and Manu Fernandez (CG covers)—both of whom understood our way of working and they really bought in early on to our creative process.”

The story follows a wanted woman in hiding named Rain Oshiro. The narrative style will prominently feature two very different but significantly connected moments throughout her life: "The Past"—which will explore her history as an impressionable student, an abiding soldier, and a wanted fugitive; and "The Present"—which will show her as she is now and how she copes with (and runs away from) the decisions made in her past. At its core, the story is an exploration of choices—both good and bad. And now, how her choices have formed her into the person she has and will become. Set against a background of a futuristic world as only artist Canete can imagine, Rain has just 24 hours to escape a barricaded city while trying to evade a military force determined to either capture or kill her.

“I'm excited for the opportunity to have an audience go along for the ride with us,” Canete continued. “While I believe it is some of the best visual work I've done in recent time, it is almost secondary to the effort we put into the characterization and story. We wanted to take our time to let the whole thing unfold without feeling rushed, and we hope the audience will feel that as they read through the issues. That really is the part that has me the most intrigued and excited—how the story will affect your views and opinions about the characters as we reveal more about them.”

Tsuei added: “I hope readers will join us for a story we feel extremely proud of. Run Love Kill has a fantastic setting wrapped in action and explosions, but at it's core, is a story about life and the difficult choices we all face. I loved creating this world with Eric and I'm excited to share it with all those who decide to give it a try.”

"Eric and Jonathan first approached me about this project years ago and it was an immediate 'yes,' so I can't tell you how thrilled I am to finally see Run Love Kill finally coming to fruition,” said Eric Stephenson, Publisher at Image Comics. “It's grown since we originally talked about doing the book at Image, which is all the more exciting, because I think what Eric and Jonathan are doing with this story is really special."

RUN LOVE KILL will launch from Image Comics this month, April 2015.

Links for more info:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/prev_img.php?pid=26695&cover=1

https://imagecomics.com/comics/releases/runlovekill-1

http://thenerdsofcolor.org/2015/04/01/an-interview-with-runlovekill-writer-jonathan-tsuei/

https://instagram.com/ericcanete/

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Quantum Octave...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on April 16, 2015 at 6:34am
Image Source: Technology Review


Topics: Hilbert Space, Modern Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Superposition


Curiouser and curiouser! Alice in Wonderland, Chapter 2: The Pool of Tears

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: One of the features of 20th century art is its increasing level of abstraction from cubism and surrealism in the early years to abstract expressionism and mathematical photography later. So an interesting question is what further abstractions can we look forward to in the 21st century?

Today we get an answer thanks to the work of Karl Svozil, a theoretical physicist at the University of Technology in Vienna and his pal Volkmar Putz. These guys have mapped out a way of representing music using the strange features of quantum theory. The resulting art is the quantum equivalent of music and demonstrates many of the bizarre properties of the quantum world.

Svozil and Putz begin by discussing just how it might be possible to represent a note or octave of notes in quantum form and by developing the mathematical tools for handling quantum music.

They begin by thinking of the seven notes in a quantum octave as independent events whose probabilities add up to one. In this scenario, quantum music can be represented by a mathematical structure known as a seven-dimensional Hilbert space.

A pure quantum musical state would then be made up of a linear combination of the seven notes with a specific probability associated with each. And a quantum melody would be the evolution of such a state over time.

An audience listening to such a melody would have a bizarre experience. In the classical world, every member of the audience hears the same sequence of notes. But when a quantum musical state is observed, it can collapse into any one of the notes that make it up. The note that is formed is entirely random but the probability that it occurs depends on the precise linear makeup of the state.

And since this process is random for all observer, the resulting note will not be the same for each member of the audience.

Abstract:


We consider ways of conceptualizing, rendering and perceiving quantum music, and quantum art in general. Thereby we give particular emphasis to its non-classical aspects, such as coherent superposition and entanglement.

Physics arXiv: Quantum music
Volkmar Putz, Karl Svozil

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The Voice: The thrilling conclusion!

Posted by Ronald T. Jones on April 15, 2015 at 6:47pm

In his spare time, Ship Master Tuo enjoyed perusing through volumes of digitized documents his forces looted in the wake of their invasion of human space. Humans were primitive, but some of their tech displayed flashes of brilliance. Uninterrupted, they may have developed into a power rivaling the Heritin. Of course it was just as well the Heritin shattered the humans when they did. Tuo smirked. The Heritin had enough rivals.

 The next document brought up by the Ship Master was labeled Top Secret. It revealed information about mind transferal experiments. The human agency conducting those experiments went by the name, Special Research.

Tuo perked with interest. These primitives had truly ventured into uncharted territory. According to what he read, at least one mind transferal experiment succeeded. Not even the Heritin could boast an achievement of that magnitude.

His interest, however, turned to a chilling discomfort at the next entry he read, dated five months into the Heritin occupation. According to the entry, typed by a Dr. Gabriel Abimbola, humans had captured a Heritin and subjected the prisoner to a mind transferal. The time and place of capture corresponded to when Tuo sent an expedition to the human home world to collect samples of raw material. The entry ended with no word on the captive’s fate.

Could it be…? Tuo pushed away from his interface console, plagued with worry. No. Not possible. But he was not entirely convinced.

An image of the storage supervisor appeared on Tuo’s interface. “Ship Master, forgive me for disturbing you, but I just completed an armaments inventory. A Class Six detonator is missing.”

Tuo thought hard. A Class Six detonator was a throb of volatile stellar energy bottled inside a dense alloy casing. It could blow a hole in the most powerful battleship…or the largest vessel reactor in space.

Tuo sprang to his feet. Mobile Dock!

Instantly forgetting the storage supervisor, Tuo sent an emergency transmission to the Dock commanding officer. He urged the evacuation of all Dock personnel. Afterward, he beamed messages to his fellow shipmasters advising them to decouple from the docking rings and clear the Dock. As the Ship Master issued a command to Bridge Side to detach the Horuk, a solitary escape craft jettisoned from the Dock’s bulging equator.

Tuo noticed the craft on his sensor and hailed it.

Caretaker Umttor’s visage blazed from Tuo’s interface. The Ship Master gazed at the image. “You are not Umttor, are you?”

“No,” said the image. “Well, most of me at least. How did you know?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Tuo replied resignedly, but with a filament of defiance. “Destroying one Mobile Dock will not cripple us. We are still strong enough to obliterate what remains of your world a thousand times over. In fact, had we not been recalled to the Fleet, we would have finished your species’ annihilation.”

The person Tuo once knew as Umttor spoke in a hard, frigid tone. “My mission was never about crippling you. It was about revenge. We humans are a vindictive lot. Roast in hell, you genocidal son of a bitch.”

Mobile Dock fractured in a blinding boil of light, sending jagged shards of its hull and pieces of battleships hurtling across space.

 

 

***

 

 

 

Draper observed the Dock’s demise through his rear cockpit window and cried out in triumph.

Murderer, the voice condemned. You killed our people.

“Not my people,” Draper retorted. But then he thought of his comrades on the Horuk, and an unborn offspring he would never see. A gut wrenching sorrow seized him.

 “I am not Heritin.” He leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. “My name is Darryl Draper…”

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OK Media Outlets, this is where we stand...

Posted by Clifton McMillan Jr. on April 15, 2015 at 2:00pm

So let me get this straight, mainstream media outlets. Only model citizens have the right to not get killed while being arrested. It's not enough to be unarmed. You have to be perfect as well as unarmed. If you were selling loose cigarettes, got in trouble at school, were behind on child support, had weed in your pocket, had an unpaid parking ticket, or ran then you were a thug who deserved to get shot to death or choked to death or otherwise executed. That's what I'm being told. Man. That's messed up. I'm not condoning these actions, but these are not actions where you should get killed as a result of being arrested. So only certain groups of people get their day in court? 

The man who helped his brother pull off the Boston Marathon bombing got to get captured alive and received a full trial to boot, while an unarmed man who owed child support gets shot in the back. You can close your eyes and pretend that none of this affects you. You can tell yourself you're the right skin color or the right religion or have the right educational background or whatever you want to tell yourself. Keep telling yourself you're better than "those thugs who got killed by the cops." Keep claiming that "it could never happen to me or to anyone I love."  

The cold hard fact is that if you keep silent on what's happening now in some communities, the day will come when you will be completely in a police state with no rights. And then that's it. Demanding that the police are properly trained on the proper use of lethal force and that police officers with a history of unwarranted violence or discrimination or corruption need to be removed from being police officers does not mean that you're for anarchy in society. Standing up and consistently demanding the best from police departments puts the bad cops on notice to find something else to do and helps to give good cops the support needed to do their jobs well. 

There's a lot of other discussions we could have, but this post today is about the police and unarmed suspects. 

 

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Lost Kingdom Review

Posted by Carles CJ Juzang on April 15, 2015 at 1:30pm

 

An Ancient African Game of Thrones Too Big for the Small Stage

16 years ago Creator/Director Shayla Hudson Williams was with her mother at the African History Museum in Washington DC. There she was inspired by the smallest exhibit that made reference to an epic time and story. It was at this moment that she discovered and chose her life’s work, to bring this mostly forgotten and hidden story to life for the world. 

That story is that of the Kush Empire, the darker skinned ancient Africans that overthrew their Egyptian oppressors and ruled for nearly 100 years. The story of the Kush has been shrouded in mystery and mostly hidden for centuries. It is only now that scholars and archeologist are starting to piece together a more accurate picture of these great people. For years Shayla did extensive research pouring through books and archaeological reference to find a story that would make a great feature film. She encountered many dead ends as she would discover one family or story only to have to abandon the concept due to lack of information about them. Finally she uncovered the story of King Piye and his family the subject of The Lost Kings. 

When coming to the stage with her partner Chris Molina and introducing the play, Shayla expresses to the audience that you must use your imagination for what is to come. The Cupcake Theater in Hollywood is a tiny venue.   Most of the action takes place on a small square platform stage with an exit path stage left. There is a curtain back drop where for a few scenes characters enter and exit from the corner stage right. There is also a wooden ladder stage right that leads up to a tiny platform of only a few feet which hangs above the stage. On that platform sits the narrator who is mostly employed to describe the big scale battle sequences and scenes that would require crowds of people to which there are many. 

In the climatic battle of the piece the Kushite city of the protagonists is under siege. I literally needed to close my eyes to picture the epic battle that includes elephants and other wild beasts hidden in underground cages to be unleashed on their unsuspecting attackers. 

Although King Piye played well by Chaim Dunbar is the head of the royal family or House that gives us our point of view in Lost Kingdom, it is really the story of his General and sister Makeda played masterfully by actress Frances Domond. 

At the opening of the story Makeda is wounded in a fierce battle in which she leads the Kushites in a sneak attack against the Egyptians which results in them seizing power and expanding their territory.

A true historical event that one archaeologist in the PBS special entitled “Rise of the Black Pharaohs”, was a real David and Goliath story. 

Returning to the Kush kingdom after the battle Makeda is troubled and considers stepping down as General to settle down with her warrior husband Kibwe, played by Kevin Craig West and start a family. Frances and Kevin have a natural chemistry and this representation of black love and partnership is one of the gems that make up this piece. 

The emotional high point of the play though happens about mid-way through as Makeda confronts her brother Shabaka played by Melvin Ward about his betrayal to the family. I could feel her pain as she confronts the reality of being betrayed by someone she has known and loved her entire life. 

I do think though that the biggest missed opportunity of the work is with the character of Shabaka who turns out to be the villain of the piece. Shabaka is reminiscent of Iago from Othello. It’s a challenging proposition to portray a character who is at once loving brother and scheming traitor at the same time.

It is surmounting this challenge though that I think will unlock some of the greatest potential that lies at the heart of The Lost Kingdom. 

I would be remiss if I did not mention the heart wrenching performance Narlyia Sterling as Subira who is tortured by the loss of her husband Mchumba played by a very entertaining Christian Broussard. 

Also considering the budget they must have had to work with the costumes pretty amazing. Also impressive was the fight choreography which again had to take place in a very limited space. 

I was thoroughly entertained by The Lost Kingdom. The Lost Kingdom in its current integration is very much a work in progress and it was easy for me to see and be excited about it’s potential as a big budget feature film, larger scale stage production or even TV series. 

With the announcement of Disney/Marvels Black Panther Feature and the incredible success of FOX’s Empire I think the time is right for the emergence of projects like The Lost Kingdom. 

#BlackGameofThrones #SwordandSoul #DemThrones

 

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/lost-kingdom-review-eric-t-elder?trk=hb_ntf_MEGAPHONE_ARTICLE_POST

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Alien Minds...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on April 15, 2015 at 7:00am
Image Source: Popular Mechanics


Topics: AI, Aliens, Astrophysics, Existentialism, Exoplanets, Philosophy, SETI

From the write-up in Popular Mechanics last year:


University of Connecticut philosophy professor Susan Schneider certainly thinks so. In her new paper "Alien Minds," she proposes that by the time civilizations are able to communicate by radio, they're a few short steps away from developing artificial intelligence. One they reached that level of advancement, they may have opted to upgrade their biology to something that's a biomechanical hybrid or something entirely synthetic. There could be a whole mess of Borg out there, in other words. [1]

Okay, even in a quote from Dr. Paul Davies at the beginning of the paper: "I think it very likely – in fact, inevitable – that biological intelligence is only a transitory phenomenon... If we ever encounter extraterrestrial intelligence, I believe it is very likely to be post-biological in nature..." [2]

I initially saw this on my Facebook feed from a good friend, and shared it. Then, like an overly "curious cat," I looked up the paper and read it. Ouch.

The link to Dr. Schneider's paper is given below. All our fanciful notions of aliens has always been something before the singularity; developed in similar gravity; Nitrogen-Oxygen atmosphere mixture (similar pressure); something familiar: something like us, that perhaps through panspermia seeded its variants throughout the cosmos. Let's just say her premise is quite sobering, in that ET may not be interested in conquering, communicating with nor destroying us: in this sense, it is likely a technology we cannot fathom ultimately disregarding anthropological beings as insignificant. Presumably, the post-hominid AI's purged some of our most deleterious traits in their antiquity: biology the equivalent of fossils, or an interstellar museum exhibit.

1. Why Superintelligent Machines Are Probably the Dominant Lifeforms in the Universe, John Wenz
2. Chapter 12: Alien Minds, Susan Schneider, PhD

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PENCIL GLADIATORS CANCELLED DUE TO LACK OF ENTRIES

Posted by Carles CJ Juzang on April 14, 2015 at 9:37am

Its so sad but due to insufficient entries to compete in the Comicpanel Pencil Gladiators Competition, we regret to announce that the competition has been cancelled as a stand alone competition. The event had been postponed to give opportunity for more artists to compete in the competition but yet the entries where not enough for a competition to hold. We are very sorry for any inconvinience we may have caused those who sent in their entries.

Check out entries Here

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The Tickled Bird

Posted by Patricia L Graham on April 14, 2015 at 8:06am

Here's an excerpt from a story from my "Flight of Fantasy Collection" which I published in 2013, having drafted the story on first ABCtales.  If you watched this year's Superbowl - you might find the dance sequence rings a bell.

THE TICKLED BIRD

 

 

(Part 1)

 

 

When he later remembered, it had been a night of a supermoon.  Julian had followed her into the car park of a pub called The Tickled Bird.  He was certain when she had entered her vehicle, she had been wearing a dark grey suit.  Under the light of this moon it seemed more green than grey.  Perhaps the nearby street lights also added to the effect.

 

He trailed in the wake of her sleek compact body.  She headed straight for the ladies room.  He approached the bar, ordered a stout on draught.  The pub had an old 1920’s feel which took him back to those black and white movie scenes.  Funny how he’d never spotted the place before, though he had driven around the area on numerous occasions.  He wouldn’t have missed it.  He was certain.  Julian tapped his temple, a habit of his when he’d lost something.

 

The scrawl on the blackboard announced they were serving rhubarb crumble for dessert.  He glanced back at the ladies room and to the clock on the wall.  She was taking her time.  Probably thought the bloke would be worth it.  He knew better of course. 

 

He hadn’t eaten a good rhubarb crumble since his grandmother passed away.  He ordered some, without custard and scanned for a seat.  He paid for the dessert.  Half-way on his beeline for a table, the lights dimmed.  He sat down as music started pounding that big band ragtime sound.  A bunch of bounding dancers appeared in the funnel of a huge spotlight, all dressed in black and white stripes with chess piece headdresses.  It was surreal.  He dropped his spoon of rhubarb, had a swig of stout instead. They wriggled and pranced around to the beat on the square patch: syncopated animal moves; mixed black bottom rooted ragtime.  Then as suddenly as the performance had erupted, it likewise ended.  The lights slammed on and he hadn’t even noticed when the dancers left.

 

She was sat at a table directly opposite him but when he turned to acknowledge the presence of the person standing next to him, she was also there.  Julian wasn’t easily spooked.  She obviously couldn’t be in two places at once, unless she had a twin he didn’t know about.  Maybe the other woman was some sort of decoy?

 

“Mr Mann, I see you were a touch distracted there.”

 

“Ahh, Miss Green.  I hadn’t realised you’d noticed me.  Obviously more going on here than I imagined.  Why don’t you have a seat?  You seem to have me at a disadvantage presently.  Can I get you a drink?”  This could provide him with an opportunity to take a closer look at the other woman.  He stood up, meeting her height and slant almond brown eyes.

 

“You know Mr Mann, you’ve put yourself through an awful lot of trouble to just offer me a drink,” spoken with complete control.

 

“Could be you’re the kind of trouble worth finding Miss Green.  Please, have a seat.  We can both keep an eye out for your friend.”

 

“Tut, tut.  You’re so presumptuous Mr Mann.”  She wagged a verdant polished finger.  “Whatever made you think I’m meeting a friend here?” tilting her head but holding her piercing gaze.  Julian raised both eyebrows.  He twisted the ring on his little finger, idling over his mistake.  It was time for him to raise his game.  She turned and walked away before he could say another word.

 

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