SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Amazon is once again shaking up traditional publishing models. This time, it's giving fans a chance to add their own personal touches to their favorite fiction - and get paid in the process.
This week, Amazon.com Inc announced "Kindle Worlds," which offers aspiring writers an opportunity to pen their own takes on franchises in books, TV, movies, even games and comics. The world's largest Internet retailer plans to license content, then accept submissions online that may then be sold through its Kindle ebook store.
Things will kick off with Amazon licensing three teen TV series - "Gossip Girl", "Pretty Little Liars" and "The Vampire Diaries" - from Warner Bros Television Group's Alloy Entertainment, Amazon said on its website. More content deals will be announced in coming weeks.
Amazon has in the past decade emerged as the most disruptive force in publishing. It popularized digital books with its Kindle store and e-reader, contributing to the demise of traditional bookstores such as Borders.
In its effort to legitimize fan fiction, the company is establishing a model under which it acts as publisher and pays fan-writers between 20 and 35 percent of sales, depending on length.
"There's probably not an author/fangirl alive who hasn't fantasized about being able to write about her favorite show," budding novelist Trish Milburn enthused on Amazon's website. "The fact that you can earn royalties doing so makes it even better."
(Reporting by Edwin Chan; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)
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| Physicist Na Young Kim, at the optical bench |
Stanford physicists have created a new method of producing coherent matter beams. The new laser system would use a hundredth the power of conventional lasers and could one day be used in many places from consumer goods to quantum computers.
BY THOMAS SUMNER
Lasers are an unseen backbone of modern society. They're integral to technologies ranging from high-speed Internet services to Blu-ray players.
The physics powering lasers, however, has remained relatively unchanged through 50 years of use. Now, an international research team led by Stanford's Yoshihisa Yamamoto, a professor of electrical engineering and of applied physics, has demonstrated a revolutionary electrically driven polariton laser that could significantly improve the efficiency of lasers.
The system makes use of the unique physical properties of bosons, subatomic particles that scientists have attempted to incorporate into lasers for decades.
"We've solidified our physical understanding, and now it's time we think about how to put these lasers into practice," said physicist Na Young Kim, a member of the Stanford team. "This is an exciting era to imagine how this new physics can lead to novel engineering."
Electrically driven polariton lasers, Kim said, would operate using one-hundredth of the power of conventional lasers and could one day be used in many places from consumer goods to quantum computers.
Stanford News Service:
Stanford physicists develop revolutionary low-power polariton laser
Dern Lowtower is a passenger on board a sleeper ship, headed to a planet where he'll begin a new job and a new life. A group of ruthless hijackers have different plans, forcing Dern to fight for his life on a journey that takes a bloody turn for the worse!
Interrupted Journey: Part One
Bio displays inside the stasis tube registered an increase in the subject’s heart rate, breathing and neural activity. Dern Lowtower opened his eyes. Fluorescent patches covering his arms and legs vibrated, transmitting soothing muscle regenerative electrical stimulation. Nutrition IVs embedded in his right arm retracted, and the tube’s plas-glass cover slid open.
Dern breathed in deeply, exercising lungs that had not been exerted in quite some time. He sat up, his body bare save for a pair of black shorts. There were six other tubes around him. Covers opened and their occupants rose. Murmurs of greeting resonated throughout the stasis chamber.
An elderly man named Cyril hopped out of his tube.
Dern recalled the retired engineer’s energy and vitality before the voyage. It didn’t surprise him that the man was first in the chamber to set foot on the ship’s rubbery deck.
Their eyes met and Cyril grinned vibrantly. “Did you sleep well young fella?”
Dern climbed out of his tube much less nimbly than the older man. He wasn’t entirely sure that his electrically stimulated legs would hold him up after so much inactivity. He stepped lightly, cautiously to test his limbs sturdiness. “I suppose.”
“It’s your first time in extended stasis. As you can see it’s no different than if you were under for six months,” said Cyril.
“Which, by the way was close to my longest voyage,” Dern replied, heading to the locker room. “I guess five and a years isn’t so bad after all.”
“Except it hasn’t been five and a half years,” a woman named Ura said. She was three tubes to the right of Dern. He didn’t know her history. She had been quiet to the point of withdrawn at the beginning of the journey. Now, her round face radiated concern. “Check your tube chronos, see if the date accords with the reading on mine.”
Dern peeked inside his tube at the chrono display next to the bio-monitor. June 5, 2565. Four years three months. He frowned. “Strange. Our tubes revived us ahead of schedule. There must be a malfunction.”
“Could be faulty programming,” Cyril speculated, or a glitch in the hardware operating the tubes. “I think I’ll take a look.”
His wife, Theresa, gently grabbed his arm and tugged playfully. “The captain has a full staff of capable engineers to handle such matters, honey.”
Cyril looked crestfallen until his wife planted a peck on his cheek. “Let the professionals who aren’t retired deal with this.”
Dern darted into the locker room and hurriedly donned coveralls and soft soled boots. When he stepped out, he headed for the chamber exit. “I’m going to see the captain.”
The section housing the stasis chambers was beginning to fill with newly awakened passengers. The realization that they had been revived prematurely shown vividly on their faces. A few looked to Dern for an explanation, but he was as much in the dark as anyone. On his way to the elevator he met Alita, a ship technician assigned to astrogation. He and the tech went way back, from his days serving on board a system patrol boat.
“Good morning…I guess,” Alita greeted with a gruff air.
Dern understood the sentiment. “We’ve certainly been thrown off. Any idea what caused it?”
“Not a clue. I’m hoping the captain will have answers. I’m anxious to get back to my ‘nap’.”
The two stepped into a lift leading to bridge level and rode in silence. When the door opened rough hands reached into the lift, grabbed Alita and Dern and hustled them onto the bridge.
Dern took quick measure of the situation. Six gunmen, four wielding RI 4 assault rifles, two with semi-automatic Viper pistols, all donning carbon lamellar flak vests and boot-sheathed combat knives. Nine bridge crewmembers, including the captain lay sprawled on the deck, their hands clasped behind their heads.
Dern raised his hands.
“What the hell!” Alita was not so level headed. A spurt of resistance earned her a rifle butt to the base of the skull.
The gunman who issued the blow watched his victim crumple to the deck, then pointed his rifle at her head and snarled. “Bitch.”
Dern stood poised to disarm the criminal before he could get a shot off.
“Stand down, Josik. I don’t think she’ll be a problem from this point on.”
A gunman Dern presumed to be the leader of this gang stepped forward. His blond close-cropped hair was as sharply cut as the angled contour of his jawline. Ice blue eyes cut deeply into Dern, assessing, dissecting. “You won’t be a problem either, will you?”
Dern put on his most passive face. “No. Not at all.”
The leader’s gaze lingered on Dern like a toxic fog for a few more seconds. Finally, he turned away, gesturing. “Get them on their feet.”
The criminals grabbed crewmembers, hoisting them upright.
The leader approached the captain. “Turn on the monitors. I want everyone here to see video feeds of the stasis level.”
Dern glimpsed the bruises on the captain’s face.
Evidently, these criminals were as impatient with the captain as they were with Alita.
The captain flicked a look at an officer and nodded.
The officer moved nervously to a console and tapped a control.
Display screens above the console flashed to life, showing harrowing images of armed thugs terrorizing passengers.
Dern’s jaw clenched.
“My name is Tunnal,” the leader announced. “As you can see, my associates and I have taken control of this ship. You were scheduled to arrive at Ceres 3 in little over a year’s time. There’s been a change of destination.”
“Impossible,” the captain snapped. “The coordinates to Ceres 3 were programmed into the guidance computer at the beginning of this journey and locked in. No one can alter the destination once a ship of this class is in motion.”
Tunnal shot a hard, but mirthful gaze at the captain. “And yet here we are. Check for yourself.”
The captain brushed past a criminal and pulled up a star chart on the locator screen. His face went slack. He stepped back, looking at the leader with wary eyes. “What do you want?”
“Your cooperation first of all. After that we’ll settle for your ship.” Tunnal pointed to a star shaped icon on the chart. “This is where we’re going. System 382.”
The captain’s brow knitted, befuddled. “There’s nothing there.”
“That’s the problem with you ship captains,” Tunnel said in a tone dripping contempt. “Nothing exists unless you say it does.”
Alita stirred and Dern, disregarding the guns on him, knelt down to her. “You alright?”
Alita squinted in pain, rubbing the soreness on the back of her head. “Dern…?”
“Shhh…don’t try to talk…”
“That’s right,” Tunnal interjected coldly. “Don’t try to talk. Whatever your duty is on this ship, get to it. That goes for the rest of you. We’re going to the 4th planet in that system. Do what you’re trained to do to get us there as quickly as possible.” He focused on Dern. “You’re not dressed like a crew member.”
Dern forced an amicable grin. “Oh…I just came here to see what was going on. I’m a passenger.”
“Well, now you know.” Tunnal beckoned a large brute of a gunman forward. “Welch, escort our curious passenger back to the stasis level.”
The brute nodded a granite head. “No problem, boss.”
“What are you going to do with us?” The captain asked.
“Nothing as long you’re well behaved. We’re going to make a stop on the planet, drop you off and borrow your ship. Don’t worry. You won’t be stranded. We’ll leave you with a long range transmitter so you can contact a rescue patrol.”
The large gunman prodded Dern with the muzzle of his rifle. Dern walked toward the lift, suppressing an aching urge to glare at Tunnel. Stay calm, don’t piss the bastard off and we may all get through this alive. He wasn’t entirely convinced of that.
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| LIGO Hanford Observatory |
Over the past several months, Congress has gotten rather upset by some of the research funded by arms of the federal government, such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. That displeasure eventually prompted the House Science Committee's chair, Lamar Smith (R-TX), to float a bill that would require the head of the NSF to certify that every single grant its organization funded was either in the national interest or groundbreaking.
As we pointed out, the mission of the NSF is to fund research in fundamental questions in science (typically called "basic" research). As such, the research isn't intended to have immediate commercial or military applications; those would come decades down the line, if ever. And it's generally considered impossible to predict which areas of research will eventually be viewed as groundbreaking at some point in the future.
Now, scientists who have served in the NSF are saying the same things. In a letter to Smith obtained by Science magazine, they point out that the draft bill "frankly requires the Director [of the NSF] to accurately predict the future." And they point to a technology that's currently having a huge commercial impact—the laser—that grew out of basic research using microwaves. In fact, in their view, "many basic research projects in every field supported by the NSF would likely not qualify for certification under this bill."
"You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make them drink. You can send your rep to congress, but you cannot make them think!" (Old chemistry professor's sign outside his office: his wording was "child" for rep; "college" for congress - same concept.)
Arguably, this is "market as deity," i.e. using market-driven motivations in research, education, government and all other aspects of life, liberty; the pursuit of happiness. Question: what market forces still have our military larger than anyone else's: 41% of the world total? Some estimates put the total number of countries between 189 - 196. Let's round down to 192: we have more military might than 53 nations combined. Even with the best intelligence in the world, 9-11-01 and now 9-11-12 was a complete surprise to two administrations, except to conspiracy theorists that manage on the most part to not have formal degrees or command of critical thinking skills, but dangerous influence on our elected officials that parrot their nonsense. Science makes decisions in probabilities, so even a 90% assurance will not be "sure enough" and stymied bill passage; filibuster is more likely. Terrorism is a method, needing counterterrorism, i.e. Special Forces, not forces for the Battle of the Bulge. What's "market driven" about that?
My own "conspiracy theory": this is designed to put us effectively and efficiently in last place on the globe in science. Else, this is flat-out, Chiroptera-excrement crazy (and will result in the same fate)!
"There are also Idols formed by the intercourse and association of men with each other, which I call Idols of the Market Place, on account of the commerce and consort of men there. For it is by discourse that men associate, and words are imposed according to the apprehension of the vulgar. And therefore the ill and unfit choice of words wonderfully obstructs the understanding. Nor do the definitions or explanations wherewith in some things learned men are wont to guard and defend themselves, by any means set the matter right. But words plainly force and overrule the understanding, and throw all into confusion, and lead men away into numberless empty controversies and idle fancies." Sir Francis Bacon, Aphorism 43.
Ars Technica:
Proposed bill that would regulate NSF research funding faces backlash
Scientists not amused, bill's backers appear confused.
by John Timmer
Hello again!
Sorry I don't have anything too political to talk about today. I have a mental backlog of stories. I've been working on the gold part of "The Bride" chapter for Ruins of the Fall. You can find that still on a couple blog sites blacksciencefictionsociety.com and blackbloggers.com as well as my own. I'll be submitting a short story to BlackLiteraryMagazine.com for the BLM shorts feature. I think it will be political and strange enough for them to publish. :)
I'll still be going to Ancient City Con in Jacksonville, FL, June 21-23rd. I'll also be at the National Black Book Festival in Houston, TX this August 25th and 26th. Hopefully, I'll be a guest next year at the Alabama Phoenix Festival. Thanks for all your support! God bless...
Don't forget "Squirrels & Puppies" in paperback or ebook format!
LEMONT, Ill. – Sometimes, all it takes is an extremely small amount of material to make a big difference.
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have recently discovered that they could substitute one-atom-thick graphene layers for either solid- or oil-based lubricants on sliding steel surfaces, enabling a dramatic reduction in the amount of wear and friction.
Graphite is a commonly used solid lubricant. However, it works best in moist air and does not protect the surface from tribo-corrosion. New studies led by Argonne materials scientists Anirudha Sumant and Ali Erdemir show that single sheets of graphite, called graphene, work equally well in humid and dry environments. Furthermore, the graphene is able to drastically reduce the wear rate and the coefficient of friction (COF) of steel. The marked reductions in friction and wear are attributed to the low shear and highly protective nature of graphene, which also prevents oxidation (tribo-corrosion) of the steel surfaces when present at sliding contact interfaces.
Argonne National Laboratory:
Graphene layers dramatically reduce wear and friction on sliding steel surfaces
May 12th, 2013
For Immediate Release
Contact
Justin Martin, creator, writer
rsquaredcomicz@gmail.com
Justin Martin of R-Squared Comicz
Announces the Release of Lightweightz: The Anthology Part Two
Justin Martin, educator, writer and founder of R-Squared-Comicz is proud to release Lightweightz: The Anthology Part Two, available today for purchase as a pdf on www.rsquaredcomicz.com. It is drawn and colored by Przemyslaw R. Dedelis and Lya, respectively. “Przemyslaw and Lya did an amazing job for [Lightweightz: The Anthology] Part One, and...are blowing my mind in new ways [with] Part Two,” says creator and writer Justin Martin.
Based on 1 Corinthians 12:7 ("Now to each one the manifestation of the spirit is given for the common good"), Part Two introduces readers to the remaining four Lightweightz, teenagers who discover they have unique abilities. As with Part One, Part Two focuses on the impact these abilities have on their lives, and their struggles in making sense of them. Each struggle is unique, and holds significant implications for who they will become.
It begins with Ayden the pusher, who begins to see just how much control he has over his situation. Next is Qasim the revealer, who's determined to use his ability to help others, despite the toll it takes on his personal life. There's Emi the adapter, who learns the hard way that it’s not about the ability, but about what you do with it. And finally there’s Gabriel the inscriber, whose ability makes him one of the most hunted and important characters for the events to come. “This time around, I wanted their abilities to be more central to their story, and for the stories to be a little more action-oriented,” says creator and writer Justin Martin. “Hopefully I’ve achieved these goals, and more importantly, convinced [readers] to care about each character.”
With Ayden's desire for significance, Qasim's commitment to doing the right thing, Emi's need to belong, and Gabriel's renewed purpose, Part Two gives readers a look into what motivates each character, and what lies ahead. And with a diverse group of characters and experiences, there’s something for everyone. So grab your copy, and let your light shine!
R-Squared Comicz was founded in 2010 by Justin Martin with the purpose of creating quality comics from a Christian worldview. Justin has a Master's in Education, and is currently pursuing his PhD in Education. His research involves the social and moral judgments of adolescents and college students. In addition to Lightweightz, he is working on other comics, which you can learn more about on his website.
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| Credit: Wikimedia Commons |
City College of New York Assistant Professor of Physics Cory Dean, who recently arrived from Columbia University where he was a post-doctoral researcher, and research teams from Columbia and three other institutions have definitively proven the existence of an effect known as Hofstadter’s Butterfly.
The phenomenon, a complex pattern of the energy states of electrons that resembles a butterfly, has appeared in physics textbooks as a theoretical concept of quantum mechanics for nearly 40 years. However, it had never been directly observed until now. Confirming its existence may open the door for researchers to uncover completely unknown electrical properties of materials.
“We are now standing at the edge of an entirely new frontier in terms of exploring properties of a system that have never before been realized,” said Professor Dean, who developed the material that allowed the observation. "The ability to generate this effect could possibly be exploited to design new electronic and optoelectronic devices."
I honestly had another story planned. Issues in Oklahoma pushed it, and all others up by one day. A feature in BSFS I appreciate. Apocalypse means "uncovering"; "to reveal."
We should, as in Hurricanes Katrina, Rita; Irene, Sandy (albeit politicized and reluctantly) pull together because of E Pluribus Unum: we are "out of many, one." We should start acting like it, and stop treating climate disaster -- whether in Florida/Louisiana/Texas/New York/New Jersey, or now in Oklahoma -- as a regional problem; their problem! Whether we can affect it positively (or not), this is our "new normal." Montgomery Scott is not going to "beam us up." We can bury our heads in the sand and respond (to continued rising costs), or choose to [p]respond: prep for the next inevitable one - flood, hurricane, tornado, wildfire - reducing costs and its aftermath.
Teachers were again the unsung heroes: whether they throw their bodies in front of a hail of bullets in Connecticut; whether they throw their bodies over frightened children during an EF-5 tornado in Oklahoma, they deserve pay comparable to other professions; and for pol trolls to BACK OFF demonizing them as the problem; reducing them to interchangeable parts in a landscape Lego set. The problem is the pols that have all the answers and few with experience - mostly NONE, in front of any level of American classrooms.
I am understandably disappointed when politicians look at tragedy as an "angle" to forward their agendas: disaster relief should not be regional nor demanded concurrent with cuts elsewhere; universal background checks were once supported by the NRA, and now >80% of gun owners. I point these dichotomous events out because the intersecting sets are: they must be voted on. Sandy relief was sadly, initially denied: their problem; not mine.
We are bereft of critical thinking skills since the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine. We've succumbed to the loudest, shrillest common denominator as the purveyor of "facts" and "news," which I use in quotes, as for some markets, either description is oxymoron. And the shrill influence our legislators not to Jeffersonian heights, but to Sir Francis Bacon's "opinion of the vulgar":
"The human understanding is of no dry light, but receives an infusion from the will and affections; whence proceed sciences which may be called 'sciences as one would.' For what a man had rather were true he more readily believes. Therefore he rejects difficult things from impatience of research; sober things, because they narrow hope; the deeper things of nature, from superstition; the light of experience, from arrogance and pride, lest his mind should seem to be occupied with things mean and transitory; things not commonly believed, out of deference to the opinion of the vulgar. Numberless in short are the ways, and sometimes imperceptible, in which the affections color and infect the understanding." The Interpretation of Nature, XLIX
We are BETTER than this!
Disaster Relief
American Red Cross: Find Shelters
American Red Cross: Donations; 1-800-REDCROSS
USA Today: Tornado Alley: It could be anywhere
Didn't know what else to title it, other than the previous commentary's tongue-in-cheek jab. I do make a serious point (with Gene again) at the end. 
Visit my blog where I discuss the white savior syndrome in Hollywood movies and media images at www.blacknerdfilms.blogspot.com
I am working my way through the Mass Effect Trilogy. I know, a bit late to the party. While the story so far is great (i am in the middle of ME2) I am aware that there is some disappointment coming in the form of multiple shady endings in ME3. From what I hear, this has been compounded by Bioware's attempt to correct the problem by asking people to buy a better ending.
Outrage at customer gouging aside, this is all besides the point. Right now, my Shepard, who happens to be black-ish, is having a great time working for the Illusive Man and whipping the Normandy-2 around with Miranda and Jacob. What struck me was that this was the first time I had ever experienced a Space-Opera with Non-white males as the leads. Sure, some Sci-fi (Avery Brooks and DS9 is the gold standard) feature non-white leads. However, that is baritone exception to the rule. Space Opera, as a genera, is consistently homogeneous is its heroes.
However, in ME I am able to change the dynamic. Between myself, Miranda and Jacob; the majority of the speaking roles in ME2 main are taken by non-traditional voices. This would be even more the case if I had decided to play as female Shepard. (Lesbian space commander FTW!). What really struck me was that this situation is not explicitly called for by the game designers. Alternatively, the selection of ethnic identity and gender is not forbidden or frowned upon. There is no downside for a dark-skinned Shepard, Reapers are equal opportunity villains.
This all begs a question. If interactive story telling is the wave of the future, does it matter who is telling the story and what their point of view is? Is it even important to worry about the background of major and minor characters. For instance, there was a dust up with certain fans of the Hunger Games reacting negatively to the character of Rue. While I thought it was clear that she was a person of color (even a bit heavy-handed ) a great number of readers were shocked (and sadly) disappointed when they went to the movie and saw Amandla Stenberg. If the future, authors might try to obscure the ethnicity of their characters so as to avoid the problem altogether. This works even better if your hope is to have a movie made. Let the director decide what the characters look like.
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people got mad I was accurately depicted as I was described in the book |
Alternatively, interactive media reduces, if someone wanted to, these unpleasant circumstances. The writer merely tells a universal story; the hero's journey; the fight against the evil empire; the war against the un-dead, and then lets the recipient pick the look of the character.
This creates a frame work for the user/reader to import their own ideas of the character.
final thoughts at Moorsgate Media
Moorsgate media
Scientists have discovered how to measure greenhouse gases 200,000 times faster as the result research by an award-winning PhD student from The University of Western Australia and a US team.
The discovery - which is already being used by NASA scientists in Space - has major implications for global warming research, breath analysis (to detect illness), explosives detection, chemical process monitoring and a range of other applications, including fundamental quantum theory.
UWA physics graduate Gar-Wing Truong used highly-sensitive rapid laser scanning technology to help lead US scientists from National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Maryland to build new gas measurement equipment with unparalleled speed, accuracy, precision and spectral coverage.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California has begun using data from Mr Truong's research to calibrate carbon monitoring satellites in orbit around Earth and better understand carbon dioxide molecules.
University of Western Australia:
High-speed discovery helps measure greenhouse gases from space.
Hey everyone I am new to black science fiction society, I am a young black film maker and would love if many of you would support me and my blog where I talk about the lack of black male and black images in Hollywood and the media! Fell free to check it out, leave comments and visit my YouTube channel that goes along with it at https://www.youtube.com/user/AsarFilms!
Star Trek Into Darkness opened this week. My review in a nutshell is that it's essentially alternate-timeline Wrath of Khan, for anyone who has seen it and is familiar with the character of Khan from the Star Trek universe. The main villain is a mysterious super-man named John Harrison, portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch, who then reveals himself to be Khan.
If he really is Khan Noonien Singh, then I am not laughing. Khan, the Khan, is of Sikh/East Indian heritage. In Star Trek: the original series (1966-1969), he's portrayed by Ricardo Montalban, a Spanish-Mexican actor, who also portrayed him in Star Trek 2: Wrath of Khan. Montalban, as talented as he was, was a white actor in brownface.
Fast forward to this movie, and the same Indian character is being portrayed Cumberbatch, a white, pale-skinned, British actor. We have a classic case of brownface on our hands here. Brownface, for those who don't know, is the brother of Blackface, which involves casting an actor, usually white, to portray a "brown" character (South Asian, Native American, etc).
Why did director J.J. Abrams and his team not cast an Indian actor for the role of Khan? Off the top of my head, I can come up with these Indian actors: Naveen Andrews, formerly Sayeed on ABC's Lost. There's the Maori actor (not South Asian), Cliff Curtis, and even the Pakistani actor, Faran Tahir who played the captain in the first sequence in Star Trek 2009.
On the Star Trek movie board, Damon Lindeloff, the head writer for the movie, left a message saying he'll be back to discuss Khan's race-change, but so far, he's been quiet. I am curious about the bogus excuses he'll use if he ever gets around to addressing the issue. Will he try to say Northern Indians are/were white, like the director of The Prince of Persia, after he was confronted about casting Jake Gyllenhaal? There are too many excuses being passed around already. On IMDb, the excuses range from, "Ricardo Montalban was white, so Khan is white" to "it doesn't matter. Only the actor matters."
The only excuse that's remotely plausible is that it's not the same Khan. He's simply using the title, Khan, as homage to Noonien Singh. Yet, this is without explanation in the movie, as Harrison simply says he's "Khan." It's obvious that we're supposed to accept that he's Khan Noonien Singh of "Space Seed" and "Wrath of Khan." Why would J.J. Abrams and his writing crew of Lindeloff, Kurtzman and Orci purposely mislead people by referring to the character as "Khan"? And why would they use the Spock Prime (Leonard Nimoy) cameo to confirm/discuss Khan?
In this day and age, they still don't care that people don't like brownface or blackface, etc.
Dark matter...dark energy...dark lightning...dark flow: I feel somewhat like a Sith Lord...
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| Credit: Nature |
National Geographic: New Proof Unknown "Structures" Tug at Our Universe
New Scientist: Blow for 'dark flow' in Planck's new view of the cosmos
The zombies are coming—and 13-year old Kendra and her grandpa Joe are in the woods fighting for survival in the midst of an apocalypse. Husband-and-wife team writers and producers: Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes are creators of the horror film, Danger Word. The short is based on the original story The Living Dead 2 written by John Joseph Adams and has snagged veteran actor Frankie Faison and young thespian, Saoirse Scott.
The creative pair raises the question: when is a horror movie more than a horror movie? Is it when a community pulls together to escape, a teenage girl learns her strength, or when the heroes and heroines are black? The aim of the film is to highlight African-Americans in science fiction and fantasy, and to serve as a road map for children and adults who are ready to fulfill their artistic dreams.
A dense sheet of electrons accelerated to close to the speed of light can act as a tuneable mirror that can generate bursts of laser-like radiation in the short wavelength range via reflection. A team of physicists from the Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) in Garching, the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) München, the Queens University Belfast (QUB) and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) near Oxford created such a mirror in a recent experiment. The scientists used an intense laser pulse to accelerate a dense sheet of electrons from a nanometre-thin foil to close to the speed of light and reflected a counter-propagating laser pulse from this relativistic mirror. With this experiment, the physicists managed to carry out a Gedankenexperiment (thought experiment) formulated in 1905 by Albert Einstein stating that the reflection from a mirror moving close to the speed of light could in principle result in bright light pulses in the short wavelength range. The researchers report on their results in Nature Communications, 23. April, 2013.
In everyday life, reflections of light are usually observed from surfaces that are at rest such as the reflection from a piece of glass or a smooth surface of water. But, what happens if one creates a mirror moving incredibly fast, close to the speed of light? This question was answered more than a century ago by Albert Einstein in 1905 in his theory of special relativity. Now, an international team of researchers investigated that question in an experiment.
Max Planck Institute: Light bursts out of a flying mirror
Black Speculative Fiction Contest
RAGAZINE.CC
“Speculative Fiction by People of Color”
COMPETITION
$1000.00 First Prize.
Entry Fee just $15.00 per story.
Final judge Sheree Renée Thomas will provide a critique of the 2nd and 3rd place
entries. Honorable mentions will be made to the 4th and 5th place entries.
First prize $1,000.00 for the best piece
of speculative fiction completed
by a person of color in 2013.
Read More: http://ragazine.cc/2013/04/contest/
