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Speculative Futures #8...



Topics: Diaspora, Speculative Fiction


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

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

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

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Rise of the Taikonauts...

Image Source: http://aragec.com/taikonauts.html


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

Image Source: Oklahoma State University Faculty Page [2] 


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

Estella Atekwana, PhD
Geophysicist
Oklahoma State University


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

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

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

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Quantum Random Walks...



In the experimental test by Robens et al., the caesium atom moves in one of two possible optical fields, here indicated in red and blue. The fields have a periodic "egg-carton"-like potential. The authors prepared the atom in a superposition of two atomic states, which was equivalent to the atom simultaneously sitting in the red optical carton and the blue optical carton, and determined the atom's position by detecting its fluorescence as the two cartons were slid apart. (Courtesy: Phys. Rev. X 5 011003)

Topics: Cesium, Macrorealism, Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Random Walks, Quantum Superposition, Superposition

Is there a limit on how large a quantum superposition can be or can macroscopic objects, such as humans or say cats, also exist in a superposition of quantum states? Our daily experience seems to suggest that large objects do not obey the rules of quantum mechanics and are said to behave classically. This suggests that there could be a fundamental boundary between the quantum and classical worlds.

To try and nail down exactly where this boundary lies, researchers in Germany have tracked the motion of a large atom in an optical lattice. They found that the atom moves in a non-classical way, behaving as a quantum superposition that occupies more than one location at any given time.

Boundary conditions


Probing the classical–quantum boundary is currently of great interest to physicists, with a variety of different experiments trying to work out where such a cut-off may lie. Indeed, in the past few years, physicists have been placing ever-larger objects into states of quantum superposition. These are often interference experiments, whereby large molecules are sent through a double slit and made to interfere with themselves.

But in 1985 Anthony Leggett and Anupam Garg took a decidedly different approach to the quest by developing a theory known as "macrorealism". Instead of showing that quantum theory holds, they aimed to show that anything apart from a quantum description would disagree with experimental observations. In explicit contrast with quantum theory, the theorists posited that in the worldview of macroscopic realism, large objects must be in one determinate macroscopic state at any given time, allowing for no superposition or blurriness in the system. Macrorealism has two main criteria: that macroscopic superpositions are not allowed and that it is possible to make a measurement of the system without influencing the system in any way, meaning that you can always measure, say, the location of a large object without disturbing it.

If macrorealism were true, repeated measurements, at different times, of a single macroscopic system would only be statistically correlated up to a certain degree, giving what they called the Leggett–Garg (LG) inequality. The aim then was to violate the inequality with experimental evidence. This is similar to the Bell inequalities, which set out to show that another basic quantum effect, known as entanglement, is indeed possible. The difference is that for Bell's inequalities, the measurements are made at different points in space, while for the LG inequality, the experiments take place at different times. Over the years, a number of experiments on photons, nuclear spins and superconducting circuits have been carried out to violate the LG inequality.

Physics World: Quantum random walks put a limit on superposition
Tushna Commissariat is a reporter for physicsworld.com
Quantum random walks - an introductory overview, Julia Kempe

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From where does the future come?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Speculative Futures #7...



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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

io9.com The Black Fantastic, Jess Nevins

Light Ahead for the Negro, Edward A. Johnson

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But a Whimper...

Image Source: Technology Review


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Abstract


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

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

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How Naps Do Your Brain (And Body) Good

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

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

Click here for the full story

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Dr. Patricia Bath...

Image Source: Link belo

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

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

Source: Dr. Patricia Bath, Wikipedia

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Cooling Light...



Schematic of the Michelson–Sagnac interferometer used in the cooling experiment. Laser light enters from the left and is split into two beams that make their way round a triangular path and create an optical cavity. The mirror to be cooled is the square object that breaks the beams in the middle of the cavity. The output port is at the bottom of diagram where the light encounters a signal-recycling mirror before travelling to a detector (not shown). (Courtesy: Andreas Sawadsky and Roman Schnabel/Leibniz University of Hannover)

Topics: Laser, Modern Physics, Optics, Quantum Computer, Quantum Mechanics


A new technique for cooling a macroscopic object with laser light has been demonstrated by a team of physicists in Germany and Russia. Making clever use of the noise in an optical cavity, which normally heats an object up, the technique could lead to the development of "stable optical springs" that would boost the sensitivity of gravitational-wave detectors. It could also be used to create large quantum-mechanical oscillators for studying the quantum properties of macroscopic objects or to create components for quantum computers.

Physicists already have ways of cooling tiny mirrors by placing them in an optical cavity containing laser light. When the mirror is warm, it vibrates – creating a series of "sidebands" that resonate with light at certain frequencies. The first lower sideband has a frequency equal to the difference between the resonant frequency of the cavity and the vibrational frequency of the mirror. So when a photon at that frequency enters the cavity, it can be absorbed and re-emitted with an extra quantum of vibrational energy. As a result of this "dispersive coupling" process, the mirror cools because energy from it is removed.

Dispersive coupling works best when the bandwidth of the cavity is much smaller than the vibrational frequency of the mirror. This is possible for relatively small mirrors with vibrational frequencies in the hundreds of megahertz. However, for more massive mirrors with vibrational frequencies in the hundreds of kilohertz, optical cavities with sufficiently narrow bandwidths are simply not available.

Physics World:
Physicists reveal new way of cooling large objects with light
Hamish Johnston, editor of physicsworld.com

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Hello All

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

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

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

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

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

can be a juggernaut in the entertainment business too.

Nothing can happen until we make it happen.

Thanks,

-Chris Love

Heroeslikeme.com 

Synopsis:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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Speculative Futures #6...



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

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Reductio ad absurdum...



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!
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Dr. Marguerite Thomas Williams...

Image Source: a slide show here


Topics: History, Diversity in Science, Women in Science

Marguerite Thomas Williams
Born: December 24, 1895
Birthplace: Washington, D.C.

Marguerite Thomas Williams: Geologist, Geographer


Marguerite Thomas Williams was born in Washington, D.C. on December 24, 1895. She received her Bachelor of Arts degreee from Howard University in 1923 and a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University in 1930. Marguerite Thomas Williams earned a Ph.D. in Geology from Catholic University of America in 1942, as the first African American (male or female) to earn a doctorate in geology in the United States.




Dr. Williams was employed as a teacher in Miner Teachers College (now part of the University of the District of Columbia) from 1923-29. Dr. Williams served as Chairman of the Division of Geography (1923-33) and served from Assistant Professor to full Professor in the Department of Social Sciences, Miner Teachers College, from 1943 to 1955. Marguerite Williams also served as an Instructor for the Evening School at Howard University, 1944.



Dissertation Title: A History of Erosion in the Anacostia Drainage Basin.

Memberships:

Association of American Geographers
Academy of Political and Social Science
First African American Female Ph.D. in Geology

Source: https://webfiles.uci.edu/mcbrown/display/marguerite_williams.html

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HERStories...

Image Source: see link below


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


I found this embed utterly fascinating, and completely worth the viewing! It reminded me of a coworker at Manor High School that labored tirelessly (though, she'd probably disagree on the assessment) to teach the sheer joy of physics: Ms. Marisa Nicole Ramos. To Mari and all women in STEM fields, I hope you enjoy this humble tribute...

AWIS: Association for Women in Science
University of Michigan: Women In Science and Engineering
Nuclear Undone blog: Women in Engineering

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Speculative Futures #5...



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

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