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DSR and Gravity's Rainbow...



Dr. Stephen Hawking of Cambridge University alongside illustrations of a black hole and an event horizon with Hawking Radiation. He continues to engage his grey matter to uncover the secrets of the Universe while others attempt to confirm his existing theories. Credit: Photo: BBC, Illus.: T.Reyes

Topics: Big Bang, Black Holes, Einstein, DSR, Gravity, Spacetime, Special Relativity


We've come a long way in 13.8 billion years; but despite our impressively extensive understanding of the Universe, there are still a few strings left untied. For one, there is the oft-cited disconnect between general relativity, the physics of the very large, and quantum mechanics, the physics of the very small. Then there is problematic fate of a particle's intrinsic information after it falls into a black hole. Now, a new interpretation of fundamental physics attempts to solve both of these conundrums by making a daring claim: at certain scales, space and time simply do not exist.

Let's start with something that is not in question. Thanks to Einstein's theory of special relativity, we can all agree that the speed of light is constant for all observers. We can also agree that, if you're not a photon, approaching light speed comes with some pretty funky rules – namely, anyone watching you will see your length compress and your watch slow down.

But the slowing of time also occurs near gravitationally potent objects, which are described by general relativity. So if you happen to be sight-seeing in the center of the Milky Way and you make the regrettable decision to get too close to our supermassive black hole's event horizon (more sinisterly known as its point-of-no-return), anyone observing you will also see your watch slow down. In fact, he or she will witness your motion toward the event horizon slow dramatically over an infinite amount of time; that is, from your now-traumatized friend's perspective, you never actually cross the event horizon. You, however, will feel no difference in the progression of time as you fall past this invisible barrier, soon to be spaghettified by the black hole's immense gravity.

So, who is "correct"? Relativity dictates that each observer's point of view is equally valid; but in this situation, you can't both be right. Do you face your demise in the heart of a black hole, or don't you? (Note: This isn't strictly a paradox, but intuitively, it feels a little sticky.)

And there is an additional, bigger problem. A black hole's event horizon is thought to give rise to Hawking radiation, a kind of escaping energy that will eventually lead to both the evaporation of the black hole and the destruction of all of the matter and energy that was once held inside of it. This concept has black hole physicists scratching their heads. Because according to the laws of physics, all of the intrinsic information about a particle or system (namely, the quantum wavefunction) must be conserved. It cannot just disappear.

Why all of these bizarre paradoxes? Because black holes exist in the nebulous space where a singularity meets general relativity – fertile, yet untapped ground for the elusive theory of everything.

Enter two interesting, yet controversial concepts: doubly special relativity and gravity's rainbow.

Phys.org:
Space-time theory may reconcile black hole conundrum
Vanessa Janek, Universe Today

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Speculative Futures #11...



Topics: Diaspora, Space Exploration, Speculative Fiction

Conception, Volume Two of the Darkside Trilogy
by William Hayashi


Conception, Volume Two of the Darkside Trilogy tells the story of the extraordinary people who built their lunar secret habitat (chronicled in Discovery: Volume 1 of the Darkside Trilogy) and how they came together. These people, exclusively Black, conceive of, design and construct technological marvels that the collective scientific minds of the entire world cannot duplicate. And how, one might ask, did they manage to do what no one had ever done before, over and over and over again in so many disciplines, and in so many ways?



More at:
http://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/page/book-of-the-month
http://www.thedarksidetrilogy.com/

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Warp Drives and Wormholes...


Topics: FTL, Space Exploration, Spacetime, Star Trek, Wormholes


Since the 1994 paper by Miguel Alcubierre (and the physics caveats to attaining it), there has been some interest in this area just because of the vastness of interstellar space and the limitations since the Mercury Space Program of Newtonian Space Travel.

Also, it is unlikely we will come in contact with 5-dimensional hyper-humans that want to see to their ancestors' survival by popping up a wormhole next to Saturn (note: not a spoiler to "Interstellar" by now).

The problem being addressed is species survival - dinosaurs were animals with small brains that had a really BAD day 65 million years ago. We homo sapiens (Latin: "wise man") are not. With our demand for energy and resources going unabated, and the fact that our neighboring planets are so far uninhabitable, we are reduced to several options:

1. Conservation and resource restrictions: This has proven untenable as our economy at this point in history has been based on scarcity and charging a premium for that scarcity.

2. Plus, we'd have to forgo our Victorian compunctions regarding birth control, and stop encouraging both large families and early teen motherhood by ignorance of the same.

3. Terra-forming other planets: Which, I guess is the attraction to Mars and the four presumed volunteers to a one-way mission to the Red Planet (good luck). Mars has no breathable oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere; it is roughly 1/3 g, so bones would lose calcium and muscles would atrophy; temperatures can dip below -87 degrees Celsius (or, -124.6 degrees Fahrenheit). Getting there would take 150-300 days unless the VASIMR plasma rocket is available by 2020.

4. Conversion to non-fossil fuels based energy infrastructure: see #1.

Alpha Centauri is 4.367 light years away, that's if we had a craft that could attain 99.9999% of c, the speed of light. It sounds ideal until you take into account the affects of time dilation: that would be roughly 3,088 years for any twins our astronauts had back on Earth. The "right stuff" would be similar to those embarking on Mars One - not just the vastness of space, but of time itself as a gulf.

That's also if there's a habitable but largely uninhabited planet around its twin or triple star system. It would take our Newtonian conventional rockets 165,000 years to reach it (75,000 by Dr. White's comparison to Voyager), enough time and 6,600 generations in the first case for our descendants to forget WHY they were sent there in the first place. If they survive at all, humanity would be decidedly different than the breed that left the cradle of Sol and Earth Millennium ago. What is now us, would be a distant or forgotten memory.

Whether eventually warp or non-causality impacting relativistic speeds, humanity will have to decide it wants to travel to another world, and try not to replicate the mistakes we've made on this one on the next.
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Dr. Agnes A. Day...

Image Source: History Makers [link below]


Topics: Biology, Breast Cancer, Microbiology, Research, STEM


Microbiologist Agnes A. Day was born on July 20, 1952 in Plains, Georgia to Annie Lee Laster and David Laster. The youngest of thirteen children, Day was raised by her third-grade teacher, Reverend Mrs. Rose Marie Bryon. Day’s interest in science began when she and her older brother would walk through the woods catching insects and animals. After graduating from Mainland Sr. High School, Day attended Bethune-Cookman College in Florida where she received her B.S. degree in biology. Day then attended Howard University, graduating with her Ph.D. degree in microbiology in 1984.

After obtaining her graduate degree, Day became a research fellow in the Bone Research Branch at the National Institute of Dental Research, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She left in 1988 to join the faculty at Howard University as an assistant professor. Since 1992, Day has served as a tenured associate professor of microbiology in the College of Medicine at Howard University. She also has held the position of chair of the department of microbiology. In addition to instructing students in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and coordinating graduate courses, Day is known for her research on drug-resistant fungi and breast cancer health disparities. She serves as a Scientific Reviewer for research grants submitted to the National Institutes of Health, The National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense Cancer Research Initiatives. Day is in demand as a science expert, having been interviewed as part of a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) special and TheGrio’s Black History series. In addition, she has served on numerous panels as a scientific expert in microbiology and breast cancer research.

History Makers: Agnes A. Day, PhD

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The Inner, Inner Core...

Image Source: Link Below


Topics: Earth, Inner Core, Geology, Geophysics, Research


There appears to be more to Earth's inner core than previously thought. Researchers at the University of Illinois and Nanjing University in China have determined that there is a mystery material at our planet's inner core. The researchers say they founded a distinct inner-inner core in the Earth using seismic waves.

Xiaodong Song, a professor of geology at the University of Illinois, says in a statement, "Even though the inner core is small - smaller than the moon - it has some really interesting features. It may tell us about how our planet formed, its history, and other dynamic processes of the Earth. It shapes our understanding of what's going on deep inside the Earth."

Science, Space and Robots: Scientists Find Earth's Inner Core has an Inner Core

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Speculative Futures #10...



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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War On Science



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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Dr. Warren M. Washington...

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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STEM and Other Biases...

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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Speculative Futures #9...



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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Self Caricature...

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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I am really enjoying working with author, Rachel Neumeier. This is our second project together, and we're already planning one other, Pure Magic. Rachel is a hybrid-author, publishing books through both traditional houses and indie formats; and she's not the only author I work with following this trend.

For the cover of Black Dog Short Stories, which is a soon-to-be available companion publication to her Black Dog novel, published through Strange Chemistry, we chose a hypothetical scene from one of the four short stories contained within.

Blurb:

Natividad is delighted when the Master of Dimilioc gives her permission to go Christmas shopping in a real town, since she definitely needs to find gifts for her brothers. But did Grayson have to assign Keziah to go with her?

Étienne Lumondiere has annoyed Miguel once too often, throwing his weight around and belittling ordinary humans. But Miguel’s going to fix that. He just needs to work out a few more details of his clever plan.

It’s tough for a black dog raised outside Dimilioc to adjust to being a team player. But Thaddeus is determined to impress Grayson . . . until he is unexpectedly confronted by a black dog kid who reminds him a little too much of himself.

The Dimilioc executioner is the mainstay of the Master’s authority, as Ezekiel knows better than anyone. He has never questioned his role in Dimilioc . . . until now.

“Christmas Shopping,” “Library Work,” and “A Learning Experience” all take place between Black Dog and Pure Magic. “The Master of Dimilioc” is a prequel story that takes place several years before the events of Black Dog.


Be sure to visit Rachel's website and follow her on Twitter. :D



Onto wrapping up the next book :-D


Until next time ...


This post edited by Grammarly*


*Blurbs and quotes provided are not edited by WillowRaven, but posted as provided by author/publisher. 


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Dr. William M. Jackson...

Image Source: History Makers [link below]


Topics: Astrophysics, Astrochemistry, Lasers, Mentoring, Photochemistry, Research


Chemist and academic administrator William M. Jackson was born on September 24, 1936 in Birmingham, Alabama. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry from Morehouse College in 1956 and Catholic University of America, CUA in 1961, respectively. His expertise is in photochemistry, lasers chemistry, and astrochemistry.

Jackson has been a research scientist in industry at Martin Co (now Lockheed-Martin) and the government at the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology) and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). He has been an academician at the University of Pittsburgh (1969-1970), Howard University (1974-1985), and the University of California, Davis (UCD). He joined the faculty at UCD as a chemistry professor in 1985. He then became a distinguished professor in 1998, and chair of the chemistry department from 2000 to 2005. He was awarded millions of dollars in research and education grants and has taught and mentored under representative minority students at Howard University and UCD. Under his direction, the minority student population of the UCD chemistry graduate students increased. He continues to do research, as well as, recruiting and mentoring minority students in chemistry, even though he is officially retired.

History Makers: William M. Jackson, PhD

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NuSTAR...



Supermassive black holes at the cores of galaxies blast out radiation and ultra-fast winds, as illustrated in this artist's conception. NASA's NuSTAR and ESA's XMM-Newton telescopes show that these winds, containing highly ionized atoms, blow in a nearly spherical fashion. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Topics: Black Holes, Einstein, General Relativity, NASA, Space Exploration


NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and ESA’s (European Space Agency) XMM-Newton telescope are showing that fierce winds from a supermassive black hole blow outward in all directions -- a phenomenon that had been suspected, but difficult to prove until now.

This discovery has given astronomers their first opportunity to measure the strength of these ultra-fast winds and prove they are powerful enough to inhibit the host galaxy’s ability to make new stars.

"We know black holes in the centers of galaxies can feed on matter, and this process can produce winds. This is thought to regulate the growth of the galaxies," said Fiona Harrison of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, California. Harrison is the principal investigator of NuSTAR and a co-author on a new paper about these results appearing in the journal Science. "Knowing the speed, shape and size of the winds, we can now figure out how powerful they are."

Supermassive black holes blast matter into their host galaxies, with X-ray-emitting winds traveling at up to one-third the speed of light. In the new study, astronomers determined PDS 456, an extremely bright black hole known as a quasar more than 2 billion light-years away, sustains winds that carry more energy every second than is emitted by more than a trillion suns.

NASA: NASA, ESA Telescopes Give Shape to Furious Black Hole Winds

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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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