Please follow, and share with us!
Dark Matters Project at Wordpress.com
Also, find us at:
All Posts (6495)
Sort by
 |
| Credit: JPL/NASA |
They're doing the testing at high altitudes to simulate thin atmospheric conditions on Mars. In a twist, the flying saucer isn't coming from the Red Planet...we're sending our own.
NASA did not conduct the flight test of the agency's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) from the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range in Kauai, Hawaii, during its designated launch period. The project's reserved time at the range will expire Saturday without NASA being able to fly the test because of continuing unfavorable weather conditions.
NASA will hold a media teleconference at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT) on Thursday, June 12 to discuss what this delay in the LDSD testing means and possible next steps for the project.
Speakers will be:
--Mark Adler, LDSD Project Manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California
--Ian Clark, LDSD Principal Investigator at JPL
The teleconference will be streamed live on NASA's website at: http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio
Coming Soon in the fall of this year is an artbook that I think most of bsfs members will enjoy.
From my own personal archives of Blakelyworks Studio I have picked what I think is the best
of my work, with new features and chapters included. Take special note that Jarvis Sheffield,
creator of this very same site you are chatting on and networking to get your most creative
projects done, did the introduction to Aura, The Art of Winston Blakely. And a profound
tip of the hat to William Hayashi for the suggestion of this idea which is about to be
available soon.
Please, stay tune for further announcements about this deluxe coffee table artbook.
Thank You
Winston Blakely
 |
| (a) Top view of the crystal structure of monolayer phosphorene, and side views of the occupied orbitals, corresponding to (b) bonding orbitals and (c) lone pairs. Courtesy: Phys. Rev. B |
Single electrons hopping between individual atomic layers are responsible for opening up a bandgap in multilayer black phosphorus (or phosphorene) – a new technologically important 2D material. This unexpected finding, from researchers at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands, is very different to what happens in other 2D materials like graphene and the transition-metal dichalcogenides.
Like other 2D materials, such as graphene and the transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), black phosphorus has dramatically different electronic and mechanical properties from its bulk, 3D, parent and so may find use in a host of novel device applications. And just like graphene (which is a sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice), black phosphorus is a layered material containing individual phosphorus atoms that are arranged hexagonally. Each atomic layer is held together by weak van der Waals forces. However, in phosphorene, the surface is puckered, and this seems to make all the difference when it comes to bandgap behaviour.
Bulk phosphorene is a semiconductor with a moderate bandgap of between 0.31 and 0.35 eV, but the monolayer material is predicted to be an insulator with a much larger bandgap that varies with the number of phosphorus layers. Although such predictions have already been confirmed in laboratory experiments, researchers are still unsure as to where this considerable bandgap broadening comes from as the material is scaled down to monolayers.
Nano Tech Web: Hopping to open up a bandgap in phosphorene, Belle Dumé
 |
| The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli. . |
Sound arguments for a more inclusive universe of fiction are legion. There exits, beyond the compelling arguments about diversity of subject, arguments to be made about diversity of authorship.
Obviously, a talented writer of any background, can tell a gripping story about a culture different for her own. However, is something lost in experiential translation when the rich and comfortable tells stories of the poor and oppressed? Should we assume that the meritocracy of talent operates with an invisible hand and just hope that the privileged operate in a world without blinders?
We could debate this topic for years and never get to a satisfactory resolution. Instead, the issue raises an interesting thought experiment about the usefulness of criticism. Specifically, what obligation does a critical consumer of fiction have as its creator? Do consumers of media featuring or authored by POCs have an obligation to view the work with a less critical eye, least they discourage the telling these stories? (This isn't necessarily a question grammar, structure and pacing, but one of reason, weight and intent.)
Or should those tales featuring the least represented carry the dual weight of being entertaining and profound? If they don't, have they failed in some respect. Is it not enough to tell a good, fun story? Does it need to shatter preconceptions, subvert tropes, and open minds? Can POC fiction ever exist outside of itself, telling tales of pulpy mages and wisecracking aliens, without the necessity to parse the hidden meaning, the social commentary of a people's agenda.
It is often true that POC are judged twice as harsh (illumination here) when it comes to critical analysis of their work, is this the same standard that must be applied to works that feature their likenesses?
Do reviewers have to look at a work and demand it be something that it isn't? Of course, the one argument is that there are so very few works that feature POCs, anyone who undertakes the effort should be given the benefit of the doubt. We shouldn't demand that works be complete realizations of social commentary mixed in with compelling narratives. Sometimes, it is okay to not require sub-text with our text. On the other, literary gatekeepers can and do demand certain shibboleths to be tackled when POCs feature heavily in the plot synopsis or author page. Recognition, even when bounded by expectations, can solve problems of access. Should a reviewer stand in the stead of the literary community and demand that every self-published vampire vs robot novel also speak to the eternal existential struggle for justice and equality?
Our thoughts are mixed. The role of criticism to should be to lift all boats; each review challenging the author to rise and make his colleagues rise. But criticism also should function as an iceberg to the hull of ego. Shouting that you are tackling hard issues does not give you a waiver to actually tackle them. Voices need to be heard, and be heard well.
Moorsgate Media
Do reviewers have to look at a work and demand it be something that it isn't? Of course, the one argument is that there are so very few works that feature POCs, anyone who undertakes the effort should be given the benefit of the doubt. We shouldn't demand that works be complete realizations of social commentary mixed in with compelling narratives. Sometimes, it is okay to not require sub-text with our text. On the other, literary gatekeepers can and do demand certain shibboleths to be tackled when POCs feature heavily in the plot synopsis or author page. Recognition, even when bounded by expectations, can solve problems of access. Should a reviewer stand in the stead of the literary community and demand that every self-published vampire vs robot novel also speak to the eternal existential struggle for justice and equality?
Our thoughts are mixed. The role of criticism to should be to lift all boats; each review challenging the author to rise and make his colleagues rise. But criticism also should function as an iceberg to the hull of ego. Shouting that you are tackling hard issues does not give you a waiver to actually tackle them. Voices need to be heard, and be heard well.
Moorsgate Media
 |
| Credit: The Telegraph - UK |
A ''super computer'' has duped humans into thinking it is a 13-year-old boy, becoming the first machine to pass the ''iconic'' Turing Test, experts say
Hannah Furness, and agencies
A ''super computer'' has duped humans into thinking it is a 13-year-old boy to become the first machine to pass the ''iconic'' Turing Test, experts have said.
Five machines were tested at the Royal Society in central London to see if they could fool people into thinking they were humans during text-based conversations.
The test was devised in 1950 by computer science pioneer and Second World War codebreaker Alan Turing, who said that if a machine was indistinguishable from a human, then it was ''thinking''.
No computer had ever previously passed the Turing Test, which requires 30 per cent of human interrogators to be duped during a series of five-minute keyboard conversations, organisers from the University of Reading said.
But ''Eugene Goostman'', a computer programme developed to simulate a 13-year-old boy, managed to convince 33 per cent of the judges that it was human, the university said. 1
A chatterbot named Eugene Goostman has become the first to pass the Turing Test.
“Eugene” and four other contenders participated in the Turing Test 2014 Competition at the Royal Society in London. Each chatterbox was required to engage in a series of five-minute text-based conversations with a panel of judges. A computer passes the test if it is mistaken for a human more than 30% of the time. Eugene convinced 33% of the judges it was human– the only machine in history to do so.
The competition was held on the 60th anniversary of the death of Alan Turing, the great British mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst , computer scientist and philosopher.
During World War II, Turing worked for the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park, Britain’s code breaking center. He led Hut 8, the section responsible for German naval cryptanalysis. He devised a number of techniques for breaking German ciphers, and improved the pre-war Polish bombe method, an electromechanical machine that could find settings for the Enigma machine.
The great Alan Turing was highly influential in the development of computer science, providing a formalization of the concepts of “algorithm” and “computation”. Turing is widely considered the “father” of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence.
The shameful British government prosecuted Turing for being gay, showing no respect for a man whose contributions to Britain and the world were enormous. He accepted treatment with estrogen injections (chemical castration) as an alternative to prison, and later committed suicide. 2
 |
| Credit: ApplySci blog |
"Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty - a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture." Bertrand Russell
1. The Telegraph: Computer passes 'Turing Test' for the first time after convincing users it is human, Hannah Furness, and agencies
2. ApplySci Blog: CHATBOT PASSES TURING TEST, Lisa Weiner
Peace, everybody this is my first self published children's book which I will be promoting majorly over the next 28 days through kickstarter. Please check it out and pass it along when you get a chance.
You can keep up with the campaign here at http://bit.ly/FurqansFirst and here at http://Robdontstop.com for updates as well.
 |
| Source: Technology Review |
TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: Here’s how mathematicians might define the sport of wrestling. A system composed of two mechanical agents coupled via mechanical actions such as contact and collision. The aim of the contest is for one agent to floor the other while maintaining its own balance. The rest is just show business.
That’s more or less exactly how Katsutoshi Yoshida and pals at Utsunomiya University in Japan describe the sport in developing a mathematical model of wrestling which they go on to test in a numerical simulation.
The end result is a pair of autonomous mechanical wrestlers that compete to topple each other.
Physics arXiv:
Artificial Wrestling: A Dynamical Formulation of Autonomous Agents Fighting in a Coupled Inverted Pendula Framework
Katsutoshi Yoshida, Shigeki Matsumoto, Yoichi Matsue
It all started about 10 years ago. Build your own drone, you know those 4 rotor mini-helicopters. There were groups of kids and garage tinkerer clubs all abuzz with radio controlled copters. Then it hit, a big security firm offered "the package". First they came out and wired your house and yard, then the package came. A large box with a slide open door. I was thrilled and scared. Pushing the button the door rolled open and the Sentinel came forth, a 4 rotor copter with spot lights, infra red, low light and sunlight cameras. I could set it for patrol, it could take off and scan the yard, alert you of intrusions and summon police if you set it up.
I went to a user's group meeting hoping to get some tips. I got upgrade plans to add tazer weapons and laser pointers and a pellet gun. I laughed it off, you guys are nuts. Reports started coming in on the news, sniper drones, disgrunted neighbors having aerial battles, the paparazzi spy drones getting shot down by the security drones of the famous, virtual gangs who attacked via swarms of drones and the thief whose drone strikes to distract then carries off unattended items. I rush to arm my drone and acquire drone attack deterrents.
In my hood, nobody comes out much. There are more drones than mosquitoes buzzing the sky. All contact is online, most are friends. Some internet mayhem artist writes a program for facebook, if you unfriend a person some drones are routed to their house to besiege it, sometimes selecting unfriends at random, but leaving a digital paper trail to you. Spy drones, mercenary drones, bomb drones. I start my own company, the big red button device company. Push this and it disables every energy thing in a small area. Here we go again. Folks hot wire the device to ramp up its power to take out a yard, a block, a city.
Hi there, welcome to the stoneage of the future. We survived just fine. There is a law enforced by death. No one is allowed to pick up a stone to throw, you must set it down the way you picked it up. Cops carry slingshots but not allowed to hand throw a stone. A man wanted to commit suicide shot himself with an unlicensed slingshot, it was not fatal. The ridicule from his friends calling him stupid finally killed him. I started a decorative rock garden, was arrested for stockpiling weapons. I'm not bothered, I fashioned a pea shooter out of a soda straw. I've learned we have an ingrown fear of objects flying at us. See you soon.
 |
| okami.buzznet.com |
Cognitive dissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors.
This produces a feeling of discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance etc.
For example, when people smoke (behavior) and they know that smoking causes cancer (cognition).
Festinger's (1957) cognitive dissonance theory suggests that we have an inner drive to hold all our attitudes and beliefs in harmony and avoid disharmony (or dissonance).
The season finale of COSMOS airs tonight.
Dr. Tyson interviewed Steven Soter on his Internet Star Talk Radio show, who along with Anne Druyan (and Carl), was one of the original writers of COSMOS:
I have a naive hope that with the right information, human beings tend to respond to it and make logical decisions. Even in the fictional Star Trek timeline, it took a while before the humans actually "got it," and started behaving in a civilized manner towards one another (it only took several millennium of ignorance and cruelty, after all).
Like Big Bang/climate change/science denial; like mythologized faked-moon-landing-conspiracies; like fraud creation science versus actual, I have been sadly mistaken. Similar to the debate on evolution at the creation museum between Bill Nye and Ken Ham, it did little more than fill the airwaves and social media posts with something novel to view. In Ham's case, he was literally "preaching to the choir" of the sternly-resistant-to-new-information-congregation. From the link heading the first paragraph:
Leon Festinger (1957) proposed cognitive dissonance theory, which states that a powerful motive to maintain cognitive consistency can give rise to irrational and sometimes maladaptive behavior.
According to Festinger, we hold many cognitions about the world and ourselves; when they clash, a discrepancy is evoked, resulting in a state of tension known as cognitive dissonance. As the experience of dissonance is unpleasant, we are motivated to reduce or eliminate it, and achieve consonance (i.e. agreement).
"Boldly going where no one has gone before" sounds like almost a daily/weekly inoculation against dissonance. You must record the new findings in your captain's log, dismiss what you previously believed, and move on.
Cognitive dissonance inoculates one from taking in new information and forming new modes of thinking from it, the equivalent of placing index fingers in ears to sing-song "la-la" nauseatingly. It's been heartbreaking to see some of the comments on Facebook or Twitter from trolls that have a loud opinion and memorized talking points from bamboozle artists, but no actual experience in science or facts. [Thankfully, to the benefit of my blood pressure] I've learned to read and not engage: dissonance tends toward excited, incoherent, twisted-logic responses. Inevitably when I did engage previously, my goal would be sharing knowledge; their goal is authoritarian compliance to a quite twisted worldview. It's as if the criteria for winning a debate is how loudly one group or another can howl at the moon.
For better or worse (hint: I lean towards better), the 13 disk DVD will go on sale Tuesday. I'll likely buy it to support the show and its advocacy of science.
Just as likely as - despite the evidence before them - some will continue, at self-disillusioned disadvantage, to howl at the moon.
Related link: Logical fallacy poster
National Center for Science Education: "Scientific" Creationism
I posted this information on Facebook during a discussion in the Reading in Black group, but I should share it with you all.
My sister is a middle school science teacher, so she filled me in on this and HIGHLY recommended that you authors who are writing children, teen or YA books submit your books, or have the teachers who are using your books in the classroom request that your books have quizzes developed and added to the Accelerated Reading Program AND Scholastic Reading Inventory.
School libraries specifically order books from these lists for the students' Language Arts classes. A student MUST select books from one of these two lists (depending on which one the school uses). Also, just so you know, the schools buy the quizzes from these companies, so they order the books that match the quizzes.
There is a huge push on literacy and language arts, to the point of ridiculousness when they want science teachers to incorporate language arts into the science classroom to the point where it interferes with teaching science and the language of science. (Don't get me started!)
So, let me encourage you to work on getting your books into these two systems so you can (hopefully) start getting some sales into school libraries and classrooms.
AR - http://www.renaissance.com/customer-center/suggest-quizzes or to contact them directly - http://www.renaissance.com/Contact-Us
 |
| Source: see "here" after Type IV and V below |
I used a reference to the Kardashev Scale to answer the following question (proposed to me by a friend on Facebook):
"Do you think mankind will ever master time travel?"
Short answer: no, with caveats.
I did qualify my "no" also with the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, and gave a link on Entropy. I also pointed out that every moment of our existence, we are time travelers - the motion of course, traveling forward.
In the series "Hannibal," the infamous Dr. Lecter discusses his longing for Mischa, his sister (you'll have to read "Hannibal Rising" by Thomas Harris to get the back story). In a nod to "Rising," he spoke of dropping a teacup in one scene of the season finale (most of which as someone who read the book series I did NOT predict coming), and hoped to see it reassemble, presumably witnessing the flow of time going in reverse, thus he would see his beloved sister again. That is a longing for something Entropy doesn't allow - backwards time travel.
I also pointed out as a species, we're not even at Type I on the Kardashev Scale:
Type I: able to marshal energy resources for communications on a planet-wide scale, equivalent to the entire present power consumption of the human race, or about 1016 watts. Here, Carl Sagan begged to differ, due to power gradation, we're more like (on his measure) a 0.7 civilization, or 7 x 1015 watts. We have pockets of deployed resources, but definitely not "planet-wide," else there would be no economic distinctions: east/south side to west side; 1st and 3rd worlds. Perhaps we could edge up our score with renewable alternatives?
Type II: surpasses this by a factor of approximately ten billion, making available 1026 watts, by exploiting the total energy output of its central star, using a Dyson sphere.
Type III: evolved enough to tap the energy resources of an entire galaxy, ~ 1036 watts.
Type IV and V here (along with the source of the shway photo above)
Let's take Chris Pine - the current Captain James T. Kirk. He weighs 175 lbs or 80 kg.
The Trek transporter converts humans into pure energy, ignores Heisenberg Uncertainty (via a Heisenberg compensator, of course...o_9), and somehow miraculously reassembles them perfectly, managing not to create horribly misshapen"Kirk-copies."
Utilizing the famous (Special Relativity) E = mc2:
80 kg x (3 x 108 m/s)2 = 7,200,000,000,000,000,000 N-m = 7.2 x 1018 Joules, or 7.2 x 1018 Joules per second (watts), clearly putting 23rd Century Warp Tech somewhere between a Type I and a II (I'm calling it "1.12"), at least to accomplish "scattering a man's atoms" about the universe (gotta love Bones McCoy's wordplay).
However, Wormholes are theorized to exist, as were once Black Holes (see Kip Thorne's "Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy"). I was astonished to find out that Einstein and other physicists of his day did-not-want Black Holes to exist (at that time, they were called Schwarzschild singularities). It was pointed out in Kip's book that the solutions in General Relativity predicting Black Holes were initially themselves astonishing.
Wormholes, if detected, are probably very tiny and would take some kind of "exotic matter" to stabilize it for anything like the Enterprise, Defiant or Voyager to traverse it safely. That would put us squarely in Type II and out of the fossil fuel choke hold, plenty of food, world peace; "tea: Earl Grey - hot." A Wormhole would be a bridge in time as well as space, (Heimdall! Open the Bifrost!), but I think your time travel would be limited to the manufacture date of your Star Gate, i.e., if you made it 7 June 2014, this is as far backwards that one could travel (no reverse-breaking teacups or grandfather paradoxes).
So in essence: like any good Trekkie, or the mourning Dr. Lecter: I'd love to see it, but I don't think I will in my lifetime. We'd have to get smarter as a species than we've currently demonstrated in science.
 |
| This 1961 photograph shows a young Carl Sagan shortly after he received in PhD. in astronomy and astrophysics. © Bettmann/CORBIS |
Before Neil deGrasse Tyson, there was Carl Sagan. Handsome, articulate and witty, Sagan wasn't a man about town. He was a man about the cosmos. A tireless proponent of the universe, he was a pioneer in bridging the gap between science and nonscientists.
He was a giant among his peers, too. Sagan received 22 honorary degrees from colleges and universities throughout the U.S., published more than 600 scientific papers and articles, authored best-selling books and hosted a record-breaking public television series, "Cosmos: A Personal Voyage." He discovered how Venus was heated -- through the greenhouse effect (something scientists later learned also happened on Earth) and that the red color of Mars came from windstorm dust rather than vegetation. NASA explorations eventually proved he was right [source: Kiger].
Sagan was born in 1934 and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from the University of Chicago in 1960 with a doctorate in astronomy and astrophysics, then taught at Harvard and Cornell, where he became the director of Cornell's Laboratory for Planetary Studies and the David Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences.
Some of Sagan's most memorable contributions occurred outside the classroom. During the 1950s and 1960s, he was NASA's astronaut whisperer. He offered advice to the Apollo crew before their journeys to the moon and conceived experiments for other planetary expeditions, including an interstellar record designed to greet the unknown inhabitants of deep space [source: Center for Inquiry]. And that's just one cool thing on our list.
How Stuff Works: 10 Coolest Things About Carl Sagan
Emma rushed to the hatch and descended a twelve-foot ladder to the ground below. A cool, comfortable breeze provided a soothing contrast to the heavy humidity of the transit tube. She drew in a deep breath, inhaling the freshness of a Persian countryside. A full moon hung in the sky like a giant Christmas ornament, bathing a grass-covered landscape in a soft veneer of light. She spotted movement in the distance…rapid movement. Someone running. She didn’t have to guess who that someone was.
She started to pursue, but figures emerging from the transit tube captured her attention.
Emma drew her sword and a throwing knife as she settled on a decision. She could go after Mao and contend with this new, presumed threat later…or deal with it now. She counted nine possible adversaries, masked and dressed in dark, close fitting attire, all armed with bladed weapons.
The figures fanned out around her, all but one whose proportions and gait was unmistakably female.
The woman halted seven feet in front of Emma, with hands spread to show that she did not intend to unsheathe either one of the four swords hanging from both hips. Slowly, the woman lifted a hand to her face and pulled off her black mask.
Emma’s brow rose in recognition at the sight of Sachini Udal, the Sri Lankan. “Professor…or is that really your vocation?” She queried with a cynical lilt.
“Funny you should ask,” Sachini replied with matching dryness. “Are you and your traveling companion really brother and sister?”
Emma’s silence spoke loudly and the Sri Lankan’s face broadened to a reptilian smile. “On to more important matters. We want the Chinese. Step aside.”
Emma shook her head. “He’s mine. I think you should be the one to step aside.”
Sachini’s smile vanished like a doused candle. “I’m giving you an opportunity to walk away, to live. That’s not a courtesy I render often, especially to enemy agents.”
“I appreciate the courtesy.” Emma positioned her feet in a fight stance. “But I don’t abandon my assignments so easily.”
The Sri Lankan regarded Emma with a warm blend of pity and respect. “Such an implacable dedication to duty is to be admired. I will mourn your demise.”
Emma’s eye darted to her opponent’s four swords. “A little over equipped aren’t we?”
Sachini’s smile returned. She spread both arms, elevating them until they were level with her shoulders.
Emma watched the display with curiosity.
Beneath Sachini’s raised arms another pair of arms sprouted through gaps in her uniform. Flexing the hands of her newly emerged limbs, the Sri Lankan drew all four swords simultaneously.
Emma gaped at the four-armed woman. “Well…that answered my question.”
Sachini extended her swords toward Emma and charged.
The Mandinka’s lips pressed tightly as she braced for a new round of combat. The thought of how she was going to fend off a four-armed opponent, shared easy space with the thrill of meeting a new challenge.
The thumping of propellers filled the air, followed by a glare of light from above.
Sachini stopped short and looked up to see an airship descending from the sky.
Search lights from bow to stern spotlit Emma and her Sri Lankan foes.
Emma recognized the airship’s distinctive horizontal oval configuration as a Mandinka model. The Mandinka extraction force had arrived in timely fashion, but Mao Li remained at large.
“Get the Chinese!” Sachini yelled to her soldiers before arrows launched from archers in the airship’s wardeck showered groundward.
Sachini became a whirling blur of precision. Her four swords sparked brightly in the night as she deflected a torrent of arrows. Six of her soldiers fell, perforated by arrow fire.
Emma’s sword carved across the chest of the seventh one, fatally striking him down. She sprinted into the darkness, going after Mao Li. Minutes later, she spotted the silhouette of one of Mao’s pursuers up ahead.
Sensing he was being followed, the soldier stopped and turned. Emma was already on him, the point of her blade thrusting out of her victim’s back. She withdrew her sword from the man’s body and kept running without so much as a rearward glimpse.
********
Mao Li’s lungs burned. His legs felt like slabs of stone. He slowed his run to a brisk walk. Finally, he halted next to a gnarled tree and leaned exhaustedly against its trunk. Here he was, stranded somewhere in Persia, hounded by a lurid assortment of international rogues and manhunters he would have willingly cooperated with for the right price. But no one offered him the right price. At least not enough to dissuade him from going to North America with his knowledge. Somehow, he would reach his destination…
His ears picked up a faint rustle. Mao looked about and his heart nearly popped out of his chest. A black clad figure wielding a wicked looking scimitar stood before him, his face concealed beneath a mask that hid all but a pair of piercingly focused eyes.
Dammit. So much for his trek to North America. Mao Li held up both hands. “I don’t know who you are, but I surrender.”
The masked man suddenly seized up and pitched forward flat on his face.
Mao saw a multi-bladed weapon poking out of the man’s back.
A short distance away, the person who flung that weapon approached him. The African woman.
Mao let out a weary sigh. “You again?”
Emma ignored the remark, retrieving her throwing knife from the Sri Lankan’s back.
“Sorry I have to do this,” she said.
“No need to apologize for doing your duty,” Mao replied sourly. “With insanely determined individuals like you in its service, your nation deserves the formula.”
“That’s the problem, Mao. I don’t want my nation to have your formula. I don’t want the world to have it. Your formula is anathema. It will only inflict greater misery upon humanity. War in its current form is terrible enough. We don’t need newer ways to maximize wholesale slaughter.”
“Noble sentiment,” said Mao in a bored tone. “But what you want is irrelevant. What makes you think there can be progress in peace without progress in war making?”
Emma picked up the dead Sri Lankan soldier’s scimitar. “I have a secret which I’ve revealed to no one up to this point. I’m a latent telepath. It took some effort, but I managed to pry the ingredients of your formula out of your head. 75 parts saltpeter, fifteen parts charcoal, ten parts sulfur. Correct?”
Mao’s face went white, his eyes widening. “Im…possible…!
That was all the confirmation Emma needed. She swung the scimitar. Its tip opened a gash in Mao’s throat.
The Chinese engineer slid down the tree trunk, blood pumping from a severed jugular, his features frozen in shock.
“I’m not apologizing for kidnapping you. I apologize for killing you.” Emma carefully placed the scimitar back in the fallen Sri Lankan’s grasp and waited.
A minute later, the Mandinka airship arrived…
********
Emma and Oduwa returned to Niani, the Mandinka Republic’s capitol, three days later. They reported to Ali Toure, Director of the NIS (National Intelligence Service).
In his spacious office overlooking Niani’s sprawling splendor, Director Toure’ listened to Emma’s report in grim silence.
“By the time I reached Mao Li he was dying, struck down by the Sri Lankan operative. I eliminated the operative. I tried to render what first aid I could to Mao Li…but…” Emma shook her head in a display of dejection. “He was too far gone. I’m sorry, Director.”
Toure frowned, bitter disappointment etched into his features. “Don’t worry about it, Emma. You and Oduwa did your best to secure what would have been a vital asset. Why the Sri Lankans would want this man dead is beyond me.”
“Agreed sir, but if you’ll permit me to point out the bright side, at least the Sri Lankans don’t have the formula. Neither do the French, the Arabs or the Zulus. The balance of power remains unaltered.”
The rotund director nodded slowly, trying, with effort, to squeeze a drop of consolation from those words. “You’re right. Although I can’t say I’m satisfied with that arrangement. We Mandinkas ruled a mighty empire long ago. We were lions among prey.”
“We remain lions, Director,” Emma insisted.
“Yes, but now we’re lions among lions. This power balance irks me. It leaves us with no advantage over anyone. The formula would have changed our standing in the world.”
Emma nodded soberly. Toure’ could not have been more right.
********
Emma emerged from the director’s office to find Oduwa waiting for her.
“Ah, my dear Emma. A source sent me a dispatch stating that the Sri Lankans never wanted Mao Li dead, at least according to the woman who led the mission to supposedly capture him.”
Emma looked appropriately puzzled. “Strange Sachini would make that claim.”
Oduwa gazed intently at his partner. “Yes. Strange indeed.”
Emma shrugged. “Maybe the operative that killed Mao Li was a rogue.”
“You may be right. He may very well have been killed by a rogue.” Oduwa’s emphatic stare didn’t waver.
Emma smiled. “I’ll save that mystery for another day. I’m taking a nap.”
“Sweet dreams,” Oduwa offered in wry amusement.
The snow mountains at the end of my driveway have been gone about a month. Much snow descended on my village this winter, much-needed water to replenish underground aquifers in the area. With the increase in sunshine, my depression has again faded back; more smiles and laughter is always a good thing. :-)
Trying to decide whether Camp NaNoWriMo (April & July) is something I can do this year. I've got Scrivener (demo) and yWriter5 (much less complicated than Scrivener), so I can't use being disorganized as an excuse. [grin] Anyone else @BSFS considering either Camp or the November NaNoWriMo?
 |
| Your very own robot shopper? Dream on (Image: EPA/Corbis/SergeiI Ilinitsky) |
...the only apocalypse we might see is the one we stupidly bring about.
So long, robot pals – and robot overlords. Sentient machines may never exist, according to a variation on a leading mathematical model of how our brains create consciousness.
Over the past decade, Giulio Tononi at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his colleagues have developed a mathematical framework for consciousness that has become one of the most influential theories in the field. According to their model, the ability to integrate information is a key property of consciousness. They argue that in conscious minds, integrated information cannot be reduced into smaller components. For instance, when a human perceives a red triangle, the brain cannot register the object as a colourless triangle plus a shapeless patch of red.
But there is a catch, argues Phil Maguire at the National University of Ireland in Maynooth. He points to a computational device called the XOR logic gate, which involves two inputs, A and B. The output of the gate is "0" if A and B are the same and "1" if A and B are different. In this scenario, it is impossible to predict the output based on A or B alone – you need both.
New Scientist: Sentient Robots? Not possible if you do the maths
Terminator Wiki: Sky-Net
Just yesterday I talked to a lady who told me, "Talk about what you know." So that's what I'll do here today. I'll talk about what I know.
When I'm not doing graphic design work for the nonprofit that work for part time, I write and draw. At the moment I am finishing up two book projects, an adventure story about a honeybee, which is my favorite insect, and a fantasy novella that I will dedicate to my favorite musical artist. I have been making art ever since I could hold a crayon, which is still one of my favorite drawing tools. You'd be amazed what you can do with a box of crayons. I am just about finished with my website and can't wait to share it with you.
It's been tough juggling art and writing with getting a new job, networking, and learning everything I can about self-publishing, conferences, and what-not. That's why I joined The Black Science Fiction Society. I just knew there had to be a place where people like me congregate. I just knew there had to be more black authors out there writing sci-fi and fantasy besides The Grande Dame, Octavia E. Butler. So here I am, in hopes that I've found a place to spread my wings and share my skills.
I know I've given a very small tidbit about myself, but as I get comfy cozy here within the society and get to know more people, I'll share more details.
 |
| Illustration showing a proton (red) confined by magnetic-field lines (green) running down the centre of a Penning trap (yellow). (Courtesy: G Schneider, University of Mainz) |
The most precise measurement ever of the proton's magnetic moment has been made by an international group of physicists. The new result – combined with a similar measurement planned for the proton's doppelganger, the antiproton – could help explain one of the deepest mysteries of physics – why the universe's matter seems to vastly outweigh its antimatter.
Every fundamental particle has a nearly identical antiparticle with opposite electric charge. Physicists' leading theories indicate that particles and their antiparticles were created in equal amounts during the Big Bang and should have annihilated each other long ago. But the universe is full of matter and lacks antimatter, suggesting that an undetected difference might exist between the two.
Physics World: Physicists lock in on proton's magnetic moment, Gabriel Popkin
 |
| Scientific American: see link "Casimir-like interactions" in Abstract |
Abstract:
We show that it is possible to use a massless field in the vacuum to communicate in such a way that the signal travels slower than the speed of light and such that no energy is transmitted from the sender to the receiver. Instead, the receiver has to supply a signal-dependent amount of work to switch his detector on and off. This type of signalling is related to Casimir-like interactions and it is made possible by dimension ---and curvature--- dependent subtleties of Huygens' principle.
Physics arXiv: Quantum Collect Calling
Robert H. Jonsson, Eduardo Martin-Martinez, Achim Kempf
Not really sci-fi, but who doesn't like horse-drawn carriages and majick?
Rumspringa ...
I grew up among the Pennsylvania Dutch folk, complete with horse-drawn buggies, covered bridges, and hex signs on barns, and still find this Amish rite of passage mysterious and somewhat romantic.
Rumspringa, sometimes spelled Rumschpringe or Rumshpringa, means running or jumping around and is used to describe the time of adolescence in the Amish community. It begins around fourteen and ends around sixteen or seventeen, when the teen makes the ultimate decision as to whether to be baptised into the faith or choose to 'live among the English.'
During this period, teens are permitted to date (with the intent of finding a spouse), and the average rigid life of the Amish is a bit more relaxed. Offenses that would usually result in shunning are likely to be overlooked or treated with less severity, at this time. Defying one's parents, 'dressing English,' smoking, drinking alcohol, even owning a car and traveling outside the community for a year is common.
A small percentage of teens decide never to return to Amish life.
With such an exotic tradition within such a secretive community in this modern age, it's not hard to understand how Shakuita Johnson could spin a supernatural tale of fantasy focused around Rumspringa ... A ceremony where teens, instead of leaving for a year to sow their oats, come together to be tested in their abilities to control the natural elements, earth, air, fire, and water, and have their lead element declared on their 16th birthday.
As happens with some of my favorite projects, the cover for Rumspringa started with a project outline and morphed into something completely different before it was done. My favorite part? It's hard to say. I was a real challenge to represent the basic elements in a way no one has seen in a movie or on a book before. I also spent a lot of time on the horse and buggy. Maybe it was the moon? lol. What's your favorite part?
Shakuita tells me release has been delayed because her story has taken on a life of its own, as did its cover. Maybe the two are connected? lol
Once she gets me a blurb, I'll share it :D
Onto wrapping up the next book :D
Until next time ...
Aidana WillowRaven
This post edited by*:
*Blurbs and quotes provided are not edited by WillowRaven, but posted as provided by author/publisher.
