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Trick or Treat! Free Kindle Books!

Posted by A. Jarrell Hayes on October 31, 2012 at 9:40am

Greetings and salutations!

In the spirit of Halloween, I’m giving readers a treat without the trick. During today and tomorrow, I will have three of my titles for free on the Kindle. These books are:

The Laroarian Conflict - An adventure fantasy set in the kingdom of Laroar, which is in a civil war over control of the vacant throne. When two teens, Logan and Mary Wallace, help one of the injured combatants, they embark upon a quest that will take them across the land and make them targets for the opposing armies. Logan and Mary soon discover that no good deed goes unpunished. (Free Days: 10/31/12 – 11/1/12)

“Swordbreaker” - ”He had believed peace only lived at the tip of a sword.” A warlord turned pacifist must face the consequences of his bloody past. *This is a short story. Included in the e-book are extended excerpts of the novelsCrowning of the Good King and The Laroraian Conflict.* (Free Day: 10/31/12)

Heart and Soul of a Thinker - This collection is full of poems chronicling the triumph and tragedy of humanity. In a world where differences are emphasized, this collection is universal because it simplistically relates the common threads that bind us as a species. The collection as a whole connects life, poetry, dreams, love, space, and time into one circle. There are speculative poems in this collection, featuring poems about sea monsters, dragons, and space travel. (Free Day: 11/1/12)

These ebooks are free on the days listed. Don’t hesitate to download them. Please share with family, friends, co-workers and on social media. Thanks! And enjoy.

Words = Life,

A. Jarrell Hayes

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Meet Dalziel the "Mystique"

Posted by Taj Sonchai on October 30, 2012 at 10:30pm

Dalziel is an ally if the Black Mau and Bast. Dalziel has telekinetic powers much like Jean Gray of the X-Men, but Dalziel can also manipulate the molecules in her body to shape shift. Dalziel is one force to be reckoned with. 

You'll meet her along with the other characters in the Black Mau Chronicles 12.12.12. Stay tuned!

Dalziel is illustrated by Jing Dizon

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A difinitive list of Sci-fi Cliche's to avoid or at least manage....

Posted by H. Wolfgang Porter on October 30, 2012 at 6:56pm

By the Galactic Core! Now that I've started my own sci-fi short story series, I have to do all this research on feasible science and tech to make a believable tale. One bit of useful info I turned up is a comprehensive list of Sci-fi Cliche's. When I initially saw the long list of symbolic nomenclature to mark the level of cliche' I thought it was overdoing it. I was incorrect. Not only are the cliche's brought up but the symbols marking them are like badges by which the more there are, the more heinous and 'cliche'' the cliche' is! Be advised: this isn't your typical 5-10 list of cliche's. This thing is deep and will take more than one reading to get through. So far, my new story is guilty of 4 however, since I've adapted it from an ancient Greek Myth I may be able to get a 'waiver'....

http://www.cthreepo.com/writing/cliche/

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Cost Of Denial...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 30, 2012 at 4:20am

Hurricane Rita: estimated 4-5 billion.

Hurricane Irene: estimated 7-10 billion.

Hurricane Sandy: To Be Determined.

We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.

Carl Sagan

We've received a lot of calls: my sister and best friend from NC; my mother-in-law; my oldest son and my daughter-in-law from Oklahoma and Texas respectively. I've answered more than my share of thoughtful and appreciated Facebook updates. We're OK.

 

My youngest son called at 3:15 EST, which prompted me to ask why he was UP (2:15 CST). The news disturbed him and he was concerned about his parents. A price he has already paid, and now I pay as his concerns kept me awake.

 

As I blog this, 7.1 million people are without power on the east coast, 2.2 million in New Jersey. An explosion and fire at ConEdison has left downtown Manhattan dark. Sixteen people have lost their lives. Schools are closed all over NY state. The NYU Medical Center is being evacuated after backup generators failed. The Metro Transit Authority is saying this is the worst disaster in the 108 year history of the New York City subway system. Seven tunnels are flooded and the New York Stock Exchange remains closed for a second day.


We must be cunning, discerning on our choice in one week of Head of State. I have my opinion and my vote already decided. It has not been decided by dogma, prejudice or melanin: I self-identify politically as a logician, a proud member of the reality-based community.

The Venn diagram intersecting set between prophecy and predictive modeling is both are warnings: given for the listeners to take heed and change their course of action before probable disaster becomes all the more real and credible.

However, denial of reality has an associated cost as I've listed above. We cannot long afford this cost. We cannot on the one hand want to compete toe-to-toe with countries that don't have our internal struggles, our inane politics, our sound bite attention spans; dogma and sloganeering, and expect in the end to be successful for very long. Empires after all, have lifespans.

Science, to further quote Carl Sagan "is a way of thinking," and so is believing the earth is 9,000 years old while holding a position in the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. One works towards a solution to real-world problems; the other an associated, ever-inflating cost.

 

Whatever your choice next Tuesday, we'll all live in the real aftermath (and price) of that choice.

 

"What's past is prologue." Tempest, Act 2, Scene I

 

Site: Ready.gov
The Nation John Nichols: Disaster Relief

 
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This Is What It Looks Like...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 29, 2012 at 6:30am

 

In Austin, Texas I witnessed the caravans from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: Interstates 10 and 45 packed headed towards Austin and Dallas respectively.


Houston received the first wave of fleeing masses of humanity from Louisiana. Churches and shelters in the three cities put up cots and sleeping bags as fast as they could; clothing and canned foods were donated; homes opened. We were brothers, sisters, cousins, friends: suddenly any differences were rendered utterly meaningless: "Vanity of vanities" said Solomon. I became used to life in "tornado alley," and the Texas colloquial phrase of "hunkering down," but nothing like shelves emptied at the grocery stores; sudden influxes of students from 9th Ward NOLA.

Moving from Texas to New York last year, my wife and I experienced Hurricane Irene, which was described at the time a once-in-a-lifetime event as far as its power (hurricanes and tropical storms have affected NY before). Sandy has now proven that comforting logic wrong, coupling winds, flooding, rain, and possibly tornadoes and snowstorms. Last year, the one and only snowstorm happened on Halloween, downing powerlines made heavy by wet snow caught on autumn leaves and tree branches that snapped under the great unexpected weight, leaving families without lights; heat. We took in friends that lived in Hyde Park due to that: their children had an increased commute to school when it started again. In Irene's aftermath: Insect populations flourished that in times past should have passed on in seasonal death. Our power blinked in and out before it settled then, but I'm not so sure we'll be as lucky. I hope we are.

WE WILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH THIS: soberly using critial thinking skills, (which, as a nation we show ourselves remarkably bereft), not sound bites and slogans. We have lawyers as administrators of the republic: lawyers argue. Eight of the top nine government posts in China are held by engineers and scientists according to Forbes. Accordingly, they will move to economic prominence, no dominence in 2016, or at least by the 2020s. Narry a tax exempt creation museum on the Sino land mass.

Perhaps it's too late to solve it, and the carbon producers can revel in their profits merrily, having obfuscated truth and fact in our elected officials on science committees; literally running out the clock until...we are here.

 

And, great wealth only matters: when you have a functional planet to spend it on.


Site: Climate Change Refugees

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Alcubierre Drive...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 28, 2012 at 6:08am


"… [it] is shown how, within the framework of general relativity and without the introduction of wormholes, it is possible to modify a spacetime in a way that allows a spaceship to travel with an arbitrarily large speed. By a purely local expansion of spacetime behind the spaceship and an opposite contraction in front of it, motion faster than the speed of light as seen by observers outside the disturbed region is possible. The resulting distortion is reminiscent of the ‘warp drive’ of science fiction." (Alcubierre paper abstract)

By placing a spheroid object between two regions of space-time — one expanding, the other contracting — Alcubierre theorized you could create a “warp bubble” that moves space-time around the object, effectively re-positioning it. In essence, you’d have the end result of faster-than-light travel without the object itself having to move (with respect to its local frame of reference) at light-speed or faster.

The only catch: Alcubierre says that, “just as happens with wormholes,” you’d need “exotic matter” (matter with “strange properties”) to distort space-time. And the amount of energy necessary to power that would be on par with — wait for it — the mass-energy of the planet Jupiter.

So we’re back to “fuhgeddaboudit,” right?


Maybe not. According to NASA physicist Harold White, the energy problem may actually be surmountable by simply tweaking the warp drive’s geometry.

 

White, who just shared his latest ideas at the 100 Year Starship 2012 Public Symposium, says that if you adjust the shape of the ring surrounding the object, from something that looks like a flat halo into something thicker and curvier, you could power Alcubierre’s warp drive with a mass roughly the size of NASA’s Voyager 1 probe.

 

In other words: reduction in energy requirements from a planet with a mass equivalent to over 300 Earths, down to an object that weighs just under 1,600 pounds.

 

Time Tech: NASA Actually Working on Faster-than-Light Warp Drive

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Post CMOS...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 27, 2012 at 7:31am
One nanoelectronics approach studied by the NRI MIND center is nanomagnet logic (NML)--logic circuits that work by magnetic coupling between neighboring nanoscale magnets. Here, SEM (l) and magnetic force microscope (r) images show an NML circuit that adds binary numbers.
Credit: Courtesy SRC-NRI Midwest Institute for Nanoelectronics Discovery (MIND)

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced today the selection of the Nanoelectronics Research Initiative (NRI), a collaboration of several key firms in the semiconductor industry, to support university-centered research for the development of after-the-next-generation “nanoelectronics” technology. NRI is made up of participants from the semiconductor industry, including GLOBALFOUNDRIES, IBM, Intel, Micron Technology and Texas Instruments.

 

“The NRI is a model for industry-driven consortia,” said NIST Director Patrick Gallagher. “It funds a highly leveraged, coordinated nanoelectronics research program centered at leading universities in partnership with federal and state government agencies. The innovation stemming from this NIST award will enable the United States to keep our current leadership in nanoelectronics that stimulates the economy and creates high-paying jobs.”

 

NIST: NRI to Lead New Five-Year Effort to Develop Post-CMOS Electronics

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Slip-Sliding Away...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 26, 2012 at 8:11am

If you ease up on a pencil, does it slide more easily? Sure. But maybe not if the tip is sharpened down to nanoscale dimensions. A team of researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has discovered that if graphite (the material in pencil "lead") is sticky enough, as measured by a nanoscale probe, it actually becomes harder to slide a tip across the material's surface as you decrease pressure—the exact opposite of our everyday experience.

 

Technically, this leads to an effectively "negative coefficient of friction," something that has not been previously seen, according to team leader Rachel Cannara. Graphite, Cannara explains, is one of a special class of solids called "lamellar" materials, which are formed from stacks of two-dimensional sheets of atoms. The sheets are graphene, a single-atom-thick plane of carbon atoms that are arranged in a hexagonal pattern. Graphene has a number of exotic electrical and material properties that make it attractive for micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems with applications ranging from gas sensors and accelerometers to resonators and optical switches.

 

NIST:
Slip Sliding Our Way: At the Nanoscale, Graphite Can Turn Friction Upside Down

Had to. SmileyIt's Friday to boot:

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PAnd0RA is here!

Posted by H. Wolfgang Porter on October 26, 2012 at 7:32am

Hey everyone! It's been a busy month and a half getting the first two full episodes and cover art ready for the debut of The PAnd0RA Ultimatum. This is my first foray into sci-fi and I believe it's good as any of my fantasy/adventure stories. 65,000 years after humans made the Galaxy their home, the problem of loneliness is still prevalent. One lucky winner will receive ZEUS INTERSTELLAR INDUSTRIES prototype Personal Android series Zero Romeo Alpha (PAnd0RA) for Beta Testing as his companion. However, powerful forces within the Milky Way Galaxy will pit the lucky winner and his new companion will be pitted against woes mankind hasn't faced for tens of millennia. To survive and prevent the destruction of the Galaxy, they must willingly accept... The PAnd0RA Ultimatum!

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I Am An AFROFuturist

Posted by Stafford Battle on October 24, 2012 at 11:30pm

I am an AFROFuturist. And, I boldly state that I make my own definitions. I can define myself and the conditions that I thrive in.  It does not bother me if other people describe the term differently or take offense at what I choose to believe and promote. In fact, I welcome and embrace the diversity of definitions.

I am an AFROFuturist.  Don't label me as a Moslem, Hindu, Jew, Christian or Atheist. Organized belief systems that are rigid and unable to adapt can be  dangerous and lead us down the path of extinction. Ask T-Rex. However, true AFROFuturists can open our minds to new paths of survival and life satisfaction and the perpetuation of our kind. Therefore, the AFROFuturistic vision is wide and welcomes multiple interpretations and new pathways of thought. It is not imprisoned by words or canvas or song or movement.

As an AFROFuturist, I believe that racism is insanity. Social classes are a wicked delusion. We all are born naked and at the end of our lives we leave accumulated earthly riches behind for others to fight over.  Our truth wealth are the contributions that we offered to society during our sojourn that will hopefully enrich the lives of others. We are all one race, one species, one culture, subject to the whims of a Universe that could eradicate us all in a bright solar moment. No one survives a Super Nova. It merely recreates us into new forms to start over again. But until that event we must strive to be the best that we can.

I am an AFROFuturist. This is what I believe:

1) We must mold a future that embraces all of us
2) Education and learning is "cradle to grave" and critical to our survival
3) Our greatest wealth resides in the people who have the least
4) We have the knowledge and the power to protect the planet and all the creatures that live on it
5) God is not above us, God grows within us, if we allow and listen!

I am an AFROFuturist. Join me!!

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Boldly Go...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 24, 2012 at 7:57am
Image from site

Roddenberry unwittingly unleashed a phenomenon in which Star Trek enthusiasts became a veritable cult, numbering physicists, aerospace engineers, housewives, senators, children, teachers and intellectuals among its devotees (affectionately known as "Trekkies," and later, "Trekkers"). The show went outside television to win science fiction's coveted Hugo Award and then spawned an animated spin-off, as well as a series of feature films.

 

While making Star Trek, Roddenberry's reputation as a futurist began to grow. His papers and lectures earned him high professional regard as a visionary. He spoke on the subject at NASA meetings, the Smithsonian Institution, Library of Congress gatherings, and top universities.

 

Star Trek was so wildly popular that it has since become the first television series to have an episode preserved in the Smithsonian, where an 11-foot model of the U.S.S. Enterprise is also exhibited on the same floor as the Wright brother's original airplane and Lindbergh's "Spirit of St. Louis." In addition to the Smithsonian honors, NASA's first space shuttle was named Enterprise, in response to hundreds of thousands of letters from fans demanding that the shuttle be named after the beloved starship.

 

Site: Gene Roddenberry bio

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Due to Hulk-Smash, Dr. Banner kindly asks for donations.

Posted by Djadja N Medjay on October 23, 2012 at 11:38pm

Due to Hulk-Smash, Dr. Banner kindly asks for donations of .99 cents to his paypal account (skhmnb@yahoo.com) so that he may continue his Afro-Futuristic experiments and repair his laptop screen. Doing so will prevent possible Gamma Ray leakage from his old Emac. Only 60 kind hearted individuals are needed. In return, Hulk promise to take anger-management classes, drink Kava Kava and smash Loki. SHARE, TAG and RE-POST.

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Re-imagining Black Bodies in Contemporary Visual Culture

Posted by NettieB on October 23, 2012 at 6:04pm

Michele P. Beverly recently got her Ph.D. at Georgia State University and her topic is, Phenomenal Bodies: The Metaphysical Possibilities of Post-Black Film and Visual Culture:

 

In recent years, film, art, new media, and music video works created by black makers have demonstrated an increasingly “post-black” impulse. The term “post-black” was originally coined in response to innovative practices and works created by a generation of black artists who were shaped by hip-hop culture and Afro-modernist thinking. I use the term as a theoretical tool to discuss what lies beyond the racial character of a work, image, or body. Using a post-black theoretical methodology I examine a range of works by black filmmakers Kathleen Collins Prettyman and Lee Daniels, visual artists Wangechi Mutu and Jean-Michel Basquiat, new media artist Nettrice Gaskins, and music video works of hip-hop artists and performer Erykah Badu.

 

I also blogged about one chapter here:

 

Re-Imagining Black Bodies in Contemporary Visual Culture.

 

 

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Contradiction In Terms...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 23, 2012 at 1:30pm

Contradiction in terms - (noun: logic) a statement that is necessarily false; "the statement `he is brave and he is not brave' is a contradiction." *

A post to confirm I'm not the only one saying this...Smiley

 

In general, we only become aware of a politician's position on scientific issues during the campaign season. And, with a few exceptions like energy and climate policy, they rarely become campaign issues for anyone other than presidential candidates. So for the most part, it's rare to have a good picture of what our elected representatives think about science and technology.

 

If only that were true this year.

 

Missouri's Todd Akin, a Representative running for Senator, made headlines through his bizarre misunderstanding of biology, specifically that of the female reproductive system. Overcome by his desire to believe that pregnancy (and thus abortion) shouldn't be an issue for rape victims, he infamously claimed that the female body could somehow block pregnancy in the case of "legitimate rape."


Aside from their political affiliations, what do Akin and Broun have in common? Membership on the House's Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. And they're in good company there. Take the Committee's chair, Texas' Ralph Hall. When asked about the evidence that humans were altering the climate, Hall replied, "I don't think we can control what God controls." When it was pointed out to him that the National Academies of Science disagreed with his position, Hall basically accused them of being in it for the money. "They each get $5,000 for every report like that they give out."

 

His evidence? "That's just my guess. I don't have any proof of that." *

 

These are the people who are helping to set our country's science policy. The committee is currently considering bills on nuclear energy, rare earth metals, biofuels, cybersecurity, and a response to the current drought. It's also responsible for the budgets of groups like NASA and the National Science Foundation. Recent hearings have focused on tech transfers from universities, as well as NASA's commercial crew efforts.

In short, the committee can play a key role in setting the science and technology agenda, and help inform the entire House about key technological issues.

 

Ars Technica: Editorial: Meet a science committee that doesn't get science

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Missing In Action...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on October 22, 2012 at 8:12am
TeachtheFacts.org

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN: It is hard to know exactly when it became acceptable for U.S. politicians to be antiscience. For some two centuries science was a preeminent force in American politics, and scientific innovation has been the leading driver of U.S. economic growth since World War II. Kids in the 1960s gathered in school cafeterias to watch moon launches and landings on televisions wheeled in on carts. Breakthroughs in the 1970s and 1980s sparked the computer revolution and a new information economy. Advances in biology, based on evolutionary theory, created the biotech industry. New research in genetics is poised to transform the understanding of disease and the practice of medicine, agriculture and other fields.

 

The Founding Fathers were science enthusiasts. Thomas Jefferson, a lawyer and scientist, built the primary justification for the nation's independence on the thinking of Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon and John Locke—the creators of physics, inductive reasoning and empiricism. He called them his “trinity of three greatest men.” If anyone can discover the truth by using reason and science, Jefferson reasoned, then no one is naturally closer to the truth than anyone else. Consequently, those in positions of authority do not have the right to impose their beliefs on other people. The people themselves retain this inalienable right. Based on this foundation of science—of knowledge gained by systematic study and testing instead of by the assertions of ideology—the argument for a new, democratic form of government was self-evident.


I was one of those kids in the 1960s. To much credit, I still am "in spirit" (no longer chronologically). As I read this article, two quotes come to mind from Isaac Asimov:

“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”

“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”

"What [indeed] is the matter with Kansas?"

We went from a nation of science enthusiasts hopeful for a bright future, to a neurotic herd anticipating (some gladly) the apocalypse. A generation later in the 21st Century, kids that love STEM are still nerds and outcasts. I hear the loudest, shrillest voices saying the most inane things about women's reproductive issues and pregnancy, a bubblegum so-called understanding of "scientific knowledge," evolution, the age of the earth and the universe, climate change, social issues. Debates are won not on facts, but "style points" like American Idol despite numerous fact-checked obfuscations. The President of the United States started his administration wanting to address school children, encouraging them to study and work hard for a successful school year - not a novel notion at all as history bears witness - yet we allowed whole school districts to ignore the message entirely, offer excuses for children to skip the speech in the lunchroom. Some called it "a socialist agenda."

"Magical thinking" rules the day when we cannot see the precipitous drop in of our once preeminence in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and our own behaviors antithetical to its achievement.
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"Meet Illustrator Jing Dizon"

Posted by Taj Sonchai on October 21, 2012 at 12:06pm

Meet Jing Dizon: Illustrator for The Black Mau Chronicles and I.G.L.E.A.^RE by EL Harvey

Jing Dizon agreed to take on the challenge of working with Tiger Taj Sonchai about a year ago. She was a fan of Taj’s music client Desert Dream Records recording artist LiTaL. Taj was a fan of Jing’s art. The correspondence turned into a working relationship. Together via the computer the two developed the visual likenesses for the characters of  ”The Black Mau Chronicles” and “I.G.L.E.A.^RE”. 

So, we’d like for you to meet the woman who gave the Black Mau his face.  Who is this woman Jing Dizon?

I’m a self taught artist and a God fearing woman, though I don’t consider myself a professional illustrator, or artist for that matter yet. I’m still a work in progress. Ever since I was a child, I never dreamed of anything but being an artist.

In my heart I want to share my talent with the world and use my talent to glorify God.  God has given me the seed and it has blossomed. I want to take it to the next level.

I have always been passionate about the arts and entertainment. I like being behind the scenes. I’m not a people pleaser. I believe that in order for you to create things and make things happen from a creative perspective you have to have influence and the respect of the people you work with. I know how to take sound advice and follow the lead when necessary. But when I know what I know, I take the ball and run with it. I think that’s what Taj likes about me. He has ideas awesome, even some of them brilliant. I help make those ideas pop! We are a team. 

I’m from Manila, Philippines, born and raised and I’ve been drawing since I was seven years old. Back then it was a hobby that I enjoyed. It was an on again off again thing. Even now I don’t have a lot of time to draw, but I steal my moments to do it.

I met Taj through Talent House. Taj is better known from the music business endeavors. But It was actually LiTaL, his client through Talent House, who brought us together. She liked my work and she said that her manager was a science fiction writer and he was looking for an illustrator. Now the rest is history and here we are.

The Black Mau project is very challenging for me. I’m not a comic illustrator really, but I’m up for the challenge. Most of my work will be in the comic book I.G.L.E.A.^RE.  I believe I’ll have a few Illustrations in the novel, but It’s just another facet of art for my arsenal. I don’t want to limit myself, thus I am a work in progress. Taj told me once that what makes me unique is that there is only one me. Be the best me I can be. I love him like a  big brother!

The Black Mau and I.G.L.E.A.^RE is very unique science fiction and will appeal to sci~fi and comic book fanatics everywhere! I want to go to Comicon!

I think opportunities are growing for people in the arts in the Philippines, but like anywhere else you have to be tenacious. 

I’m trying to master what I call “Semi~Realism”. I don’t know what else to call it. But I want to master it. Maybe I can use it in the comics? I’d like to work with other comic writers I think it would be a great opportunity and fun.

I’m answering questions from a list of questions El Harvey sent to me. This final one asks if I’m married? No, not yet but I hope to be one day. If This certain guy I know would ask…Who knows?

Thank you for letting me take a little of your time. -Jing

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