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Weaponized Pseudoscience...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on April 19, 2014 at 8:19am

I've used this photo on a previous post. However, we're in the aftermath of "created realities," and I fear this self-willed ignorance of science is slowly unraveling our nation.

Weaponize (n): to adapt for use as a weapon of war; first known use of Weaponize: 1957 (Merriam-Webster)

A pseudoscience is a belief or process which masquerades as science in an attempt to claim a legitimacy which it would not otherwise be able to achieve on its own terms; it is often known as fringe- or alternative science. The most important of its defects is usually the lack of the carefully controlled and thoughtfully interpreted experiments which provide the foundation of the natural sciences and which contribute to their advancement.

Reference: Pseudoscience: What is it? How can I recognize it?

In "Ode to a Distant Prospect of Eton College," Thomas Gray says a great many things that if you can decipher the old English and British countryside references, (the Thames is mentioned twice), the beginning is essentially the plot of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."

The ending is the origin of "ignorance is bliss":

Yet ah! why should they know their fate?
Since sorrow never comes too late,
And happiness too swiftly flies.
Thought would destroy their paradise.
No more; where ignorance is bliss,
'Tis folly to be wise.

The blissful ignorance is their eventual fate with entropy: aging with associated pains and eventual demise. Ignorance is not a way to run a republic.

Yet lately, I've seen ignorance forged into the weapon of pseudoscience on the anvil of suspicion, anger, rage, huckster-foisted conspiracy theories, division and racial animus.

Bill O'Reilly tried an "old shtick" (quoting Joan Walsh, see Salon link) with basketball coach John Calipari: “I mean, you are a good guy, coach, but, hey, now the culture has coarsened,” said O’Reilly. “I don’t know if you listen to this rap stuff and the hip-hop stuff. Has that changed their attitude? I mean, how do you impose discipline on kids who are pretty much gonna do what they want to do?” (Salon.com) Coach was there to discuss his book; O'Reilly was riling up his base of older, whiter viewers that feel their country slipping away in a deluge of demographics and diversity. If the big-O and the fogies stopped and did the math, most won't be around in 2042 when it does occur. The question is, will the country still be?

Cliven Bundy hasn't paid his cattle grazing fees in 21 years, or $1.2 million dollars of tax payer money. He's lost every court case he's tried to defend himself, saying he doesn't "recognize the sovereignty of the federal government." He just uses their/our land; their/our roads to get his product to market; their/our electricity; their/our power; their/our computer systems to balance his books, in essence: Cliven Bundy is a "taker" supported by the echo chamber that birthed the Tea Party April 15, 2009.

Frazier Glenn Miller, 73, founder of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan murdered three fellow humans opening fire outside a Jewish Community Center and a nearby retirement community. He managed to kill two Methodists: a doctor and his fourteen-year-old grandson and a woman visiting her aged mother.

Tomorrow: "A Nation of Warring Tribes"

Good Friday SALE!!! -- Offering a special rate, specially focused on Steampunk book covers and art.

Posted by Aidana WillowRaven on April 18, 2014 at 2:09pm

I am offering a special rate for all authors this weekend, with an added discount for all steampunk genres.

I wish to incorporate more punk in my portfolio. I have a good bit of fantasy, and a sprinkling of sci-fi, but I want more period and 'Punk' inspired pieces. Not just steampunk, but cyberpunk, dieselpunk, clockwork punk, and all of the sub-genres often grouped with steampunk.

It's a dilemma because many authors won't hire me if they think I can't successfully portray this amazing genre, and all of it's sub-genres, only because there are so few, if any, in my folio.

Since I can't justify taking time away from paid projects to just build my folio, I am offering an automatic 30% off, on top of all of my regular discount incentives to authors specializing in punk.

Along side punk, I also need more ethnic diversity (which will get you an added discount), so why not combine the two needs into some great book cover art at a great discount?

While looking at my VidFolio, keep in mind that I am painfully aware that very little of it could be interpreted as punk.

If you have a project in mind, let's talk about your book cover needs via Live Chat on my website, so we don't need to stress over that little window below, lol.

Onto wrapping up the next book :D

Until next time ...

Aidana WillowRaven
http://WillowRaven.weebly.com

This post edited by*:

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

Micro Robotics...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on April 18, 2014 at 9:18am

Building big: A team of three small, magnetically steered robots worked together to build this structure from toothpick-sized carbon rods.

Someone glancing through the door of Annjoe Wong-Foy’s lab at SRI International might think his equipment is infested by ants. Dark shapes about a centimeter across move to and fro over elevated walkways: they weave around obstacles and carry small sticks.

A closer look makes it clear that these busy critters are in fact man-made. Wong-Foy, a senior research engineer at SRI, has built an army of magnetically steered workers to test the idea that “microrobots” could be a better way to assemble electronics components, or to build other small structures.

Wong-Foy’s robotic workers have already proved capable of building towers 30 centimeters (two feet) long from carbon rods, and other platforms able to support a kilogram of weight. The robots can work with glass, metal, wood, and electronic components. In one demonstration, they made a carbon truss structure with wires and colored LEDs mixed in to serve as the lab’s Christmas tree.

“We can scale to many more robots at low cost,” says Wong-Foy, who thinks his system could develop into a new approach to manufacturing. Many electronic components are the right size to be handled by his microrobots, he says, and teams of them might prove a good way to lay them out onto circuit boards.

MIT Technology Review:

Microrobots, Working Together, Build with Metal, Glass, and Electronics

Tiny robots that work together like ants could lead to a new way to manufacture complex structures and electronics, by Tom Simonite

words

Posted by Arnold L. Johnson on April 17, 2014 at 8:54am

Words, I swear to god the trouble they've caused. I awake every morning with questions that torment me. The who, why, how, when of everything unanswered. They taught me to read and write but were more interested in content and context, what I read or didn't read. They taught me to recognize what the marks on paper meant, actually it was an initiation into the foolishness of words. Starting with children's books I learned to open my mind to the foolishness to come. I didn't know words could lie so unashamedly. Behind the mask of ego and motive, like a magicians slight of hand, the amusing joke, I'm doubled-over in laughter while going to my slaughter. Words can kill, damn, I thought words were innocent, some fool said "if".

Words are coined for schools of thought. The more immersed in the school the more serious the words. For a truth, I tell you this surely must be the truth because I so thoroughly believe it to be true. Others from the first written to the contemporary have verified it to be so and all other words are incarnations of evil set to confuse or destroy the believers of the truth. Why isn't the truth itself is destroyed, why the believers of the truth are destroyed? It is because words for and against must occupy the same space. We don't care about the question in question, we care about the words. Oh, how we revere words.

Words are a formula expressed to convey and communicate to others but in the fact that a person can communicate one thing and think another, words are highly suspect. The alien with a big zipper on his forehead, unzipped to reveal a big honking eye, his jaw automatically locked, the full spectrum of his data stream into my mind and I knew his intent, motive and reason, not a word was spoken. I felt like god had descended and swept away years of nonsense, the years of interpretive equations for every occasion and defensive quips to hide my fears. Oh the elation of pure knowledge that stopped all the human foolishness that has enveloped me. I am sure I must tell others.

Words, just words, like other words. My cousin James was abducted by aliens, he said. Oh, they had something about that on TV the other night. What you been smok'n mon? I am a _______________ and we don't believe in that, if you read the _____________you'd know god's word. God's got a mouth now, has lips, speaks words. His words, even if you repeat them are powerful words.

The mind is powerful in how it perceives and believes, conceives and receives, can also deceive and be deceived. Words themselves are the power. They strike the mind through the eye ports, the ear port, the mouth port. Thus we are mostly blind, deaf and dumb by reason of all the words we are bombarded with and the constructs of their definitions we exist in.

He's well read, is a man of letters, has a way with words, is a word mister, a word smith, is a walking lexicon and a con-artist. He is who said it first, coined the word, defined the word and redefined the expression. It's all about the words. Words are the real weapon. Like in Star Wars and every street fight, you play the dozens, can't settle it, then break out the fisticuffs or light sabers or guns. I see we can't settle this with our knowledge of the force (words), have to use the elegant weapons of a more civil time, bashing with stones, swords, throwing bullets, arrows, rockets, packets of erroneous data and viruses, sanctions, all the other things we do to each other because our words have less power that another's words. And it is because our words do not match our reasons and motives. The same is true for both sides. How in the heck can we move forward if our words were true? Both sides ask the same question. On this planet, words are the problem.

A picture speaks a thousand words. We should all be artist. There would be less need to speak. Oh, I forgot, we don't see eye to eye either.

Proto Tony Stark...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on April 17, 2014 at 5:47am

Robot suit: An exoskeleton on display in Brazil is designed to be worn, and controlled, by a paralyzed person.

I cautiously wish him good luck...

In less than 60 days, Brazil will begin hosting soccer’s 2014 World Cup, even though workers are still hurrying to pour concrete at three unfinished stadiums. At a laboratory in São Paulo, a Duke University neuroscientist is in his own race with the World Cup clock. He is rushing to finish work on a mind-controlled exoskeleton that he says a paralyzed Brazilian volunteer will don, navigate across a soccer pitch using his or her thoughts, and use to make the ceremonial opening kick of the tournament on June 12.

The project, called Walk Again, is led by Miguel Nicolelis, a 53-year-old native of Brazil and one of the biggest names in neuroscience. If it goes as planned, the kick will be a highly public display of research into brain-machine interfaces, a technology that aims to help paralyzed people control machines with their thoughts and restore their ability to get around.

But the Walk Again project is drawing doubters. Saying the demonstration is as much publicity stunt as science, they question whether it will illustrate any real degree of thought control. That’s because it relies on a fairly old, imprecise brain-recording technology called EEG, or electroencephalography.

At least three other research groups have recently published reports of EEG-controlled exoskeletons. Yet so far, none have managed to do much more than send a start or stop signal. They let the robotic harness do the rest of the work on a preset trajectory, with plenty of outside assistance in balancing.

MIT Technology Review:
World Cup Mind-Control Demo Faces Deadlines, Critics
A Brazilian neuroscientist says brain-controlled robotics will let the paralyzed walk again. By Antonio Regalado

Translocation of Nanoparticles...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on April 16, 2014 at 8:09am

Left: Snapshot of the simulation system. The (20, 20) type carbon nanotube (CNT) combined with two graphite sheets (cyan) solved in a periodic water box represents a nanometre water channel, and a polymer-functionalized nanoparticle (NP) is driven through it by an external electric field.
Right: The NP structures with different polymer length and number, and the polymer terminal is charged (green).

As carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are excellent water transporters, the researchers use all-atom molecular dynamics simulations to study the translocation of charged NPs through a fluidic CNT. A series of simulations are conducted for NPs with different polymer length, polymer number, charge amount and charge position. With the increase in polymer length, the NP flux decreases as a whole due to the increase in NP size. The negatively charged NP translocation fails at the smallest polymer length because of the strong binding of Na+.

Nanotech Web: Determining the translocation of nanoparticles

5 Free Hard Copies of American Specter on BSFS

Posted by Rasheedah Prioleau on April 15, 2014 at 6:00pm

List your name here to win a FREE signed copy of American Specter!

Five winners will be chosen at random on May 1, 2014.

Problems and Solutions...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on April 15, 2014 at 7:50am

Ahem: #9 is kind of big, so be careful!

Source: Physics Database (10 Free Physics Problem Books)

Direct link to books:

Vindication of the technology in the 2001-written Discovery: Volume 1 of the Darkside Trilogy

Posted by William Hayashi on April 14, 2014 at 9:30am

Gravitational Waves Mystery May Be Solved Using Powerful Lasers

The ripples from violent cosmic collisions can be felt far across the universe, and thanks to a new, sensitive detector expected to start collecting data next year, scientists might be able to see evidence of those gravitational waves from Earth for the first time.

When two neutron stars (remnants of supernova explosions) merge or when a black hole merges with a neutron star, the reverberations of the merger can extend throughout the cosmos. Light, however, only tells us so much. To learn more about the mass and motion of the collision, astronomers want to use gravitational waves, ripples in space-time created during these massive crashes.

Next year, astrophysicists are set to switch on one of the most sensitive gravitational-wave detectors ever created. The observatory is called the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO, for short). It originally had six observing runs between 2004 and 2010, and has been offline for half a decade to make upgrades. The return, its backers say, will be worth it. [Photos: Hunting Gravitational Waves with LIGO]

"It opens us up to [viewing] a larger number of astrophysical events," said David Reitze, the LIGO Laboratory's principal investigator and director. One improvement will be better sensitivity in lower frequencies, which will let astronomers look for black holes of between 100 and 500 times the mass of the sun if they exist.

A new documentary about LIGO, titled "LIGO, A Passion for Understanding," is set to premiere on Space.com April 15. You can watch it on Space.com or directly from the filmmaker Kai Staats here: http://www.kaistaats.com/film/ligo/.

From the Big Bang to big star explosions

Gravitational waves hit the headlines in March when the scientific instrument BICEP2 (short for Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization) found the first direct evidence of cosmic inflation, or the huge expansion of the cosmos that happened shortly after the Big Bang.

LIGO, however, searches for waves at higher frequencies, in the 10 hertz to 10 kilohertz band. The primordial waves discovered by BICEP2, Reitze said, are 20 orders of magnitude lower in frequency.

While LIGO was not really designed to look for primordial waves, scientists did search for them. Researchers described what was then the most accurate upper limit on the primary gravitational- wave background in high frequencies. The results were published in a 2009 issue of the journal Nature in 2009 (and have since been superseded by BICEP2, Reitze said.)

Another prominent result came when scientists measured how round pulsars — super-dense, tiny, spinning remnants of supernovas — are by tracking asymmetries on their surfaces. "If it has a bump and the bump is big enough, it will generate a gravitational wave," Reitze said.

Measurements of the Crab Nebula's pulsar by LIGO yielded no "mountains" higher than one meter (3.4 feet). "Certain pulsars, are even better, with less than a millimeter high," Reitze added.

Stopping for trains and earthquakes

LIGO originally consisted of two interferometers (telescope receivers that work together) at Hanford (near Richland, Wash.) and one in Livingston, La. The $205 million advanced LIGO has one interferometer in each location, with the third one going somewhere off continent — likely India. The government there is calling this project "one of the hallmark science detectors," Reitze said, and site evaluation is underway.

Wherever the interferometer goes, it has to be a region that is not too prone to earthquakes, lest the sensor get mixed up. Despite advanced stabilization technology, shaking does happen. "And we monitor the shaking to make sure it doesn't corrupt the data," Reitze said. [Watch the trailer for "LIGO, A Passion for Understanding"]

There's a procedure at Hanford and Livingston to stop science work when earthquakes occur. Observations at Livingston also must stop temporarily if a 50-car cargo train rumbles by on a track about 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) away.

"There are automatic protocols (using sensors and software) which monitor earthquakes and take the interferometers out of 'science mode' during seismic disturbances from earthquakes," Reitze said.

Each interferometer works by injecting a laser into a vacuum system, which splits the beam in half to put the resulting beams at right angles to each other. Each beam goes to mirrors about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) away, which reflect back.

The gravitational waves cause tiny but measurable distortions in the laser beams that cause a "changing interference pattern" in the photosensors that read the laser reflections, Reitze said. "In comparative scale, if you take the nucleus of an atom and take its diameter and divide that by 10,000, that's the type of a distance change we're looking at."

LIGO's capabilities will be 10 times more sensitive than before in searching for binary neutron star mergers, and it will be better able to pick up on many other cosmic phenomena as well – such as black holes and supernovas. The principal funder was the National Science Foundation, and the California Institute of Technology leads laboratory operations.

Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

Single-Atom Gates...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on April 14, 2014 at 6:15am

Quantum computers could benefit from the latest breakthrough in atomic physics. (Courtesy: Shutterstock)

A quantum-information analogue of the transistor has been unveiled by two independent groups in Germany and the US. Both devices comprise a single atom that can switch the quantum state of a single photon. The results are a major step towards the development of practical quantum computers.

Unlike conventional computers, which store bits of information in definite values of 0 or 1, quantum computers store information in qubits, which are a superposition of both values. When qubits are entangled, any change in one immediately affects changes in the others. Qubits can therefore work in unison to solve certain complex problems much faster than their classical counterparts.

Qubits can be created from either light or matter, but many researchers believe that the practical quantum computers of the future will have to rely on interactions between both. Unfortunately, light tends only to interact with matter when the light is very intense and the matter is very dense. To make a single photon and a single atom interact is a challenge because the two are much more likely to pass straight through each other.

Physics World: Single-atom gates open the door to quantum computing

Feedback and Response to "BBN: Superhero Movies and Open Casting " Video Rant

Posted by Adalberto "Fonz" McFarlane on April 13, 2014 at 2:01pm

Universal Greetings to everyone on this site:

I watched the brother's rant just now, and my first issue is "Why does it sound like he is stuck on discussing what Hollywood isn't doing and on certain Black characters from the mainstream comics industry?" This topic goes around in circles every day, month, year, whatever. I've been on different sites and I see and read about this same issue. I've made it plain when I respond to these posts: I do not care what Hollywood is or is not doing with their Black characters! I mean c'mon, its been obvious since the beginning of the American film industry in this country that they do not nor have they ever cared about our culture.

We need to do for self as the great Marcus Garvey kept on emphazising during his time in the early 1900s, and we had our own small, yet creative "Black Hollywood" in those times (and I'm talking about more than the great Oscar Micheaux). We already have a large group of Black superheroes of African culture, science fiction, etc. that we can research and get together to collaborate on to produce them. I don't care if it comes out on NetFlix streaming service, straight to DVD, Video on Demand (VOD), whatever format would be viable for folks to view it. You want the best deliverable format with the lowest cost of distribution so that you are not overextending your overall budget. Go to the (small, yet entertaining) various Black comic conventions in this country and meet the creators, talk about their characters, and other future projects or ideas with them.

I am tired of reading posts about only Luke Cage, Black Panther, Storm, etc. My second issue is why do we have to dream cast the same person (s) for a role (I.e. Michael Jai White as either the Black Panther or Luke Cage)? He is not the only male Black actor out there, people! What about Morris Chestnut or Henry Simmons? We have more than Zoe Saldana to act as a comic book-based character, right? It seems to me that television gives more interesting role choices than film is doing. ECBACC, Black Age in Chicago, Motor City in Detroit, etc. are great places to discover our characters and creators. I have a friend and creative partner based in Los Angeles, and for example, he would love to do a massive possibly animated film featuring if not all but those who are willing to contribute based on using the Black Superhero Montage characters. Now wouldn't that be something spectacular? Now maybe folks who are stuck on Hollywood would shut the hell up finally?

It takes a lot of people, a whole lot of money, a definite whole lot of commitment to do for self. Lets stop complaining, stop bringing up racism as a blockade, stop dream casting, lets get off our collective asses and go learn whatever skills we need to have to make these projects become reality. To be continued...

Bad Girl Confidence - Championing The Emerging Creative

Posted by Lady Foxglove on April 13, 2014 at 11:47am

A little under a year ago, I started a side projected called Bad Girl Confidence to showcase a collection of aspiring creatives that I knew. Creatives such as writers, designers, comic book writers, artist, musicians, & entrepreneurs who needed exposure for their work but lacked the resources to drum up support for their work. Find out more here: www.badgirlconfidence.com

This platform is now growing into an online magazine and we will going into print as a result. We will be bringing the website and print magazine at the Northside Festival in June. The print magazine is going to include a variety of artist, all but one are people of color from around the world. There are illustrators, video game designers, graphic artists, fine art creators, and more. If you would like to help us make this magazine a reality, please pledge here: http://igg.me/at/bgcmagazine

Your pledge could earn you a copy of digital and/or print magazine. I am really excited because this is the first step in showing the world the emerging talents coming out from our communities. My main focus is on people of color but I engaged in the spirit of encourage talent full stop! This magazine is here to bring a different perspective and balance the skewed media conversation about what beauty and talent looks like!

Thank you for your help! :)

Percy Julian, PhD...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on April 13, 2014 at 7:51am

Google is honoring chemist Percy Julian with a homepage doodle that celebrates his contributions to the field, particularly his synthesis of a compound found in the African Calabar bean, which was used to treat glaucoma.

The doodle, which celebrates Julian's 115th birthday, features him surrounded by beakers, mathematical equations, and that famous bean.

Julian was born in 1899 in Alabama. As an African-American, segregation laws prevented him from pursuing an education beyond eighth grade, particularly one that was heavy in the sciences. But with some persistence, he was admitted into DePauw University in Indiana, where he graduated with honors in 1920, according to a PBS biography.

Though his white classmates were awarded placement in master's or Ph.D. programs, Julian was not and instead became a chemistry professor at Fisk University in Nashville. Eventually, he secured a fellowship at Harvard, and earned a master's degree in 1923, according to the Chemical Heritage Foundation.

Still, prejudice prevented him from landing a teaching assistant position at Harvard so he left for the West Virginia Collegiate Institute and was later made head of the chemistry department at Howard University, the CHF said. By the 1930s, he relocated to Vienna and earned a Ph.D. in chemistry, only the third to be awarded to an African American at the time.

It was then that his work truly started to pick up. Working with Josef Pikl, Julian synthesized physostigmine within the African Calabar bean, which was used to treat glaucoma. But after a string of racially motivated rejections in academia, Julian made the leap to the private sector and joined The Glidden Paint Company, the CHF noted, to find new uses for soy beans. He excelled, coming up with - among other things - a food supplement, a fire-retardant used during World War II, and a cheap way to produce a substance that allowed for affordable production of human hormones like progesterone. Other accomplishments include a synthetic, and more affordable, version of cortisone.

PBS.org: Forgotten Genius - Percy Julian, PhD
PC Magazine: Chemist Percy Julian Honored With Google Doodle, Chloe Albanesius

Each1Teach Tutorials

Posted by Corey Aaron Burkes on April 12, 2014 at 2:59pm

In an effort to introduce myself to the Black Science Fiction Society, I've decided to offer up a series of tutorials on a regular basis based on my experience and knowledge over the years. In many ways, i feel like I'm hoarding information and after an inspiring podcast by the BSFS last night (regarding Kollege Kids ) and speaking with the producers, everyone here moved me to really help out more.

I've been at this game for a long, long LONG time.The hope is, with these tutorials, I can help you save a lot of time and expense. I've spent years, myself, searching for tutorials over the internet and learned a lot from others and now, I bring that knowledge to you.

For us.

Some of the topics that I will go over:

Animation (3D and 2D)

eBook publishing

Traditional publishing

Photoshop

After Effects tricks

Adobe Audition

Audio engineering

Marketing

Project Management (how to get a project off the ground and execute it cleanly)

Story development

Screenplay writing

Social mining

Arduino development

HTML

Book Cover design

Short Film Production

3DS Max

Maya

That'S QUITE a list, I know. Each and everyone of those topics I've manged, used and found a reasonable amount of success in. All of it has been self-taught over the years in an effort to reduce the cost of getting someone to do it for me. It always ALWAYS started out the same way all the time:

Corey: Hey! I'm working on an animation project. How much for you to animated about a minute of stuff?

Animator: My rate is $45.00 an hour.

Corey: What?!? I can't afford $45.00 an hour!

Animator: Well, you'll never get anyone for anything less.

So the next thing you know, I'm speed learning Anime Studio Pro and other software until, years later, I'm my own studio.

My short list of accomplishments:

Sold my first script 12 years ago for 40k. They still didn't produce it. LOL
Published my first 2007, re-edited it for eBook in 2011 and for ONE DAY ONLY, I surpassed a James Paterson novel. Trust me, that day was quick. LOL
Produced a couple of short films.
On track to release my first web series
Had a successful running audio drama/comedy "The Shyster Club"
Had a successfully running talk show on Blogtalkradio "The indepthYou Show"

Please friend me up at the following links and ask me anything! I'm seriously trying to build my friend/like network so please, please please ... pay a visit, like a little, comment a little. I'll be sure to do the same.

Website: http://www.desktopepics.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/desktopepic

Vine: https://vine.co/u/1055473544861544448

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/desktopepicsfilms

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/desktopepics

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/desktopepics_universe

tumblr: http://www.tumblr.com/desktopepics_universe

Tipping the Scales on Antimatter...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on April 12, 2014 at 8:44am

Holger Müller's interferometry technique will soon join the ALPHA experiment, pictured, at CERN. (Courtesy: Maximilien Brice/CERN)

A new technique for measuring how antimatter falls under gravity has been proposed by researchers in the US. The team says that its device – based on cooling atoms of antimatter and making them interfere – could also help to test Einstein's equivalence principle with antihydrogen – something that could have far-reaching consequences for cosmology. Finding even the smallest of differences between the behaviour of matter and antimatter could shine a light on why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe today, as well as help us to better understand the nature of the dark universe.

Up or down?

First detected at CERN in 1995, physicists have long wondered how antimatter is affected by gravity – does it fall up or down? Most theoretical and experimental work suggests that gravity probably acts in exactly the same way on antimatter as it does on matter. The problem is that antimatter is difficult to produce and study, meaning that no direct experimental measurements of its behaviour under gravity have been made to date.

One big step forward took place last year, when researchers at the ALPHA experiment at CERN measured how long it takes atoms of antihydrogen – made up of a positron surrounding an antiproton – to reach the edges of a magnetic trap after it is switched off. Although ALPHA did not find any evidence of the antihydrogen responding differently to gravity, the team was able to rule out the possibility that antimatter responds much more strongly to gravity than matter.

Physics World: Interferometry tips the scales on antimatter

Graphene One Step Closer...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on April 12, 2014 at 8:35am

Samsung potentially has a head-start in next-gen mobile technology, thanks to its development of a new way of synthesizing graphene.

(CNN) -- No one ever expected the humble pencil to kickstart a revolution. But, by peeling apart pencil graphite into atom-thick layers using regular adhesive tape, two Russian-born scientists, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, earned a Nobel Prize in 2010. With it, they sparked the beginnings of a material that could change the world.

It is no exaggeration to say that graphene, the substance that the two scientists -- along with others -- discovered in 2004, is a miracle material. Now a Korean research lab may have made the leap from theoretical to practical with the development of a new way to synthesize it, potentially on a commercial scale.

The substance, "the perfect atomic lattice," boasts a number of hugely attractive properties, meaning it has the potential to be used in myriad industries, and for a huge range of purposes.

Attractive properties

As well as being super-strong -- 20 times stronger than diamond, 200 stronger than steel and six times lighter -- it is also remarkably conductive, both electrically and thermally.

Graphene: The strongest material on earth

If that wasn't enough, it is also almost perfectly transparent, impermeable to gas, and its properties are, scientists say, easily alterable.

Graphene is one form -- an allotrope -- of carbon, the basis of all life on earth. More familiar carbon allotropes include diamonds and graphite. What makes it unique is its thinness -- at one atom thick it is as good as two-dimensional. Its flexibility means that it could potentially be used for flexible or wearable devices.

"Graphene has a lot of potential, especially in terms of industrial applications for optical and electronic devices," says Ping Sheng, a Professor of Nanoscience at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

"The caveat is really in the quality of the graphene that can be produced on a large scale ... If they can overcome that then it will be a big breakthrough."

CNN: 'Miracle material' graphene one step closer to commercial use, Euan McKirdy

The Beggar's Bowl - New Cover

Posted by Gerald Dean Rice on April 11, 2014 at 8:00pm

I will be revealing the new cover for The Beggar's Bowl on May 21. This short of mine has been free for a few years now and I know it hasn't gotten as many downloads as 30 Minute Plan because the cover is just awful. I'd made it myself. But now it has an honest-to-goodness nice cover and I will be revealing it next month in anticipation of the release of Axe to the Face. TBB will also include an exclusive excerpt of the novella.

Don't forget to download a copy of Where the Monsters Are or join the giveaway over at Brutal Books!

Blacks in Technology Podcast-Techy folks

Posted by Robert Trujillo on April 11, 2014 at 12:30pm

I listened to this podcast a few times and found it very cool to hear. This is where coders, tech experts, and entreprenuers, authors, engineers, etc get on and talk about their experience in the field.

LINK: http://www.spreaker.com/user/blacksintechnology/bittechtalk-ep-53-w-kelsey-hightower?error=access_denied&error_code=200&error_description=Permissions+error&error_reason=user_denied#_=_

Pest Problems...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on April 10, 2014 at 7:30am

A security bug uncovered this week affects an estimated two-thirds of websites and has Internet users scrambling to understand the problem and update their online passwords. But many systems vulnerable to the flaw are out of public view and are unlikely to get fixed.

OpenSSL, in which the bug, known as Heartbleed, was found, is widely used in software that connects devices in homes, offices, and industrial settings to the Internet. The Heartbleed flaw could live on for years in devices like networking hardware, home automation systems, and even critical industrial-control systems, because they are infrequently updated.

Network-connected devices often run a basic Web server to let an administrator access online control panels. In many cases, these servers are secured using OpenSSL and their software will need updating, says Philip Lieberman, president of security company Lieberman Software. However, this is unlikely to be a priority. “The manufacturers of these devices will not release patches for the vast majority of their devices, and consumers will patch an insignificant number of devices.”

Cable boxes and home Internet routers are just two of the major classes of devices likely to be affected, says Lieberman. “ISPs now have millions of these devices with this bug in them,” he says.

MIT Technology Review:
Widespread Bug Will Linger On in Unpatched Devices
Money.CNN.com: Heartbleed bug: What you need to know
LA Times: 'Heartbleed' bug could undermine years of work to build public trust

all of that or nothing at all

Posted by Arnold L. Johnson on April 9, 2014 at 8:47pm

In college I was introduced to the utopian novel, heard much of hippie communes and investigated several religions and such, ultimately getting stuck in one. The weird thing is that for every serious group, there is a vocabulary. That group of words dictates the context of the reality of that group. Outsiders are separated by not knowing the language and/or not participating in the fellowship using that language. What I mean is you have experiences (mostly normal human experiences) and you describe them in the language of the group. The end effect is that you must use the appropriate language with the appropriate group. Mixing groups and languages is for dissing or promoting the one group to the other group.

Now if you spend any length of time in a focus, using a particular language and describe your world through the defines taught to you, you will find your being has been altered accordingly. Take my word for it, when a startling change comes, it is a struggle to deal with it internally.

The one who knows this experience is the traveller. If you've been to another nation where the culture and language is foreign then you have the alien experience. Now let's shift gears and change realities. Now you know very little experientially. You hope if you go through this door you can come back through. Then can you describe what you experience to yourself because you sure as shoot'n will have a hard time describing it to others.

I haven't been there yet, but I sense it in the back ground, where the times and names mean nothing. I wonder if my sense organs and brain are giving me all that is or a narrow spectrum. I heard one say if I rub my hands together, I am ramping up my chi. I don't want to waste energy, I do want to see energy fly from my hands, not just assume. Power of life, what a thought and yet I've been taught not to consider it or develop it. Power of mind, beyond the meanings in words I've been taught, beyond the reality I learned to sense. OR is what is exactly what it is? Perhaps it is imagination after all.

BLOGS

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