Artwork, comic books (that's where I come in, :-D. I wrote the "warning" at the very beginning, too), video games, a system to remix music and more- all African science-fiction themed! Watch the video and let it explain everything far better than I can...
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I ran across this very interesting blog post by a white writer whose books feature protagonists of Color. Not only was her perspective interesting, but the comments were quite insightful.
http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/07/22/why-my-protags-arent-white/
It was from 2009. Sadly, I don't think the writing world has changed that much in the last few years...
As many of you know, my Darkside Universe of novels, seven total planned, is centered around the premise that black folks have been secretly living on the backside of the moon since before Neil Armstrong set foot there.
What I'm in the process of doing now is writing a story in that universe from the perspective of a black man, living in American, observing the country's response to the "Discovery."
Where I think you all may help is if you wanted to take the time to write a short piece detailing how your "character" would have responded to the discovery.
So, what I'm looking to do is create a story, written by a group of contributors and submit it as a tale written by various personalities here on BSFS.
If nothing else, I would love to hear your opinions and ideas, everything is on the table.
Here's the beginning of the story's intro:
Scott was born in 1955. The average house cost $10,950. The cost of a new car was $2,000. Disneyland opens in California. Ray Kroc began the McDonalds restaurant chain. Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, setting off the American Civil Rights Movement. And, fourteen year-old Emmett Till is murdered in Money, Mississippi for allegedly disrespecting a white woman. It was quite a year.
He was a middle-aged black man of 46 when the country discovered that African Americans had been living on the moon since a handful of years after his birth, years before Neil Armstrong set foot on the surface.
He lived through an unpopular war in Southeast Asia that ended in ignominy, the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., John’s brother Bobby. Malcolm X, and a host of others, for no better reason than what they said and did angered someone enough to kill.
He watched as blacks were battered and bruised by fire hose and baton, set upon by vicious dogs, and killed for no other reason than the color of their skin giving license to others for such deadly, and inhumane, treatment.
And, throughout his entire life, he observed how an entire industry persecuted, distorted and lied about the humanity of an entire race of people because whites needed a foil in their desperate need to cling to sociological, political and financial power over all persons colored. There was no love in his soul for the fictional tellings of a moneyed, corporate media.
But all that changed when a CIA spy satellite saw unmistakable signs of life on the moon’s surface. At first the US government tried to hide the fact, but too many people at NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratories, and the Pentagon had seen the real-time download of images from the satellite for them to remain secret for long. In fact, it wasn’t more than an hour before the country was informed that the satellite had recorded signs of habitation on the moon.
In a belated effort to forestall panic and further rampant speculation, the President of the United States was forced to make an statement in an effort to calm the citizenry, to try to convey that this new circumstance was one that wasn’t a threat to the nation, and that whatever the challenge, the United States of America would meet it head on, and persevere.
Right. How does that old joke go: “Want to make God laugh? Tell him your plans!”
Thank you for your consideration.
WmH
Phoenix Jones is a young Black man and self-proclaimed crime fighter in a socially progressive city ( Seattle ). He famously has a two-fisted approach to stopping urban crime.
To his credit he’s living proof that all young Black men aren’t what I call “chocolate klanmen” thugging their way through life.
As an older Black man who’s also in what the media calls the ” real life superhero ( RLSH ) ” community I’ve marveled at Jones’ color blind acceptance from the press, liberal and conservative. This argues well for where America is since its most famous costumed crusader is also part of the late Trayvon Martin’s generation.
I’d assume ( thank God ) Phoenix didn’t grow up under Jim Crow-lite like I did. His biography shows challenges in his upbringing which are indicative of our era.
My acute concern as a RLSH while Black is that Phoenix needs to be very, very careful during his interventions. Already arrested once ( case dropped ) local police are not exactly thrilled with his activities. While no racial angle has emerged it’s worth noting nonetheless.
He’s still a Black man using force and detaining White people- even in the liberal Pacific Northwest that’s risky. The same caveat applies to Black suspects he encounters. One biased cop; upset complainants plus one biased prosecutor equals life changing potential trouble for this young man.
My analysis might be a little too Old School for Phoenix reality but is offered anyway. As a Southern RLSH activist who began in progress-challenged Savannah, GA., being Black while wearing a mask ( “superhero” or not ) would have created more problems than it would have solved- like being mistaken for a criminal and shot by police! ( LOL ).
Phoenix Jones is the flip side of the Trayvon Martin tragedy: instead of a victim or too often for young brothers; a suspect, Jones is a self-appointed crime fighter or vigilante depending upon opinion. Should scores of other Black men follow his example will society be so accommadating?
Black while wearing a mask Jones isn’t a ” Black “activist vocally focused upon racial issues. He’s no cowled Al Sharpton and thus accepted much more readily. His brand is simple: red-blooded American male decides to do something about crime beyond fuming or dialing 911.
All I’m saying is, ” Be careful brother. ”
People have mostly accepted you for what you say you are but beware those who can’t accept America’s number one “real life superhero” being Black. Look at the grief President Obama gets in some quarters and learn.
My duty as a fellow anti crime activist while Black and male is to pass this unsolicited advice along to Phoenix Jones.
Phoenix Jones; race and being a real life superhero has yet to become a viral debate topic. Perhaps it never will.
But, you never know what direction this stuff can take- esepcially if people begin plotting against you for whatever reason.
NADRA ENZI AKA CAPT BLACK promotes creative crime prevention and homeless outreach. (504) 214-3082
NADRA ENZI AKA CAPT BLACK
ANTI-CRIME ACTIVIST
CHOCOLATE KLANSMEN ALERT! SPEAKER
http://moveonup.ning.com/profiles/blogs/chocolate-klansmen-alert-speaking-tour
BBC: At meeting today in Geneva, CERN scientists announced that the Large Hadron Collider’s two main detectors, ATLAS and CMS, had collected data that are both statistically significant and consistent with properties of the Higgs boson. ATLAS detected a signal at a mass of 126 GeV/c2 (133 times the mass of the proton). The CMS value was slightly lower at 125.3 GeV/c2. Both signals met the 5σ threshold for a detection—that is, they were at least five times stronger than background fluctuations. Although the particle’s mass is about where Peter Higgs and other theorists predicted it would be, more data are needed to determine whether the particle is fully consistent with the so-called standard model of particle physics or whether it partakes of more exotic physics. Exotic or otherwise, the Higgs is not just another particle. According to those theorists, it’s responsible for giving other particles their masses.
Flee: A Short Story
By ALICIA MCCALLA
Rating: Not yet rated.
Published: June 29, 2012
Words: 5780 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781476479491
Extended description
Flee: A Short Story is the prequel to the Soul Eaters: An African Elemental Novel. After the death of her grandmother, Shania Moore, a 27-year old African-American woman is tormented by her ex-boyfriend and a paranormal serial killer. When Shania falls into a dream realm and connects with an ancient African Goddess, her earth magic awakens. Shania realizes that in order to save her daughter’s magical soul, she must run into the arms of the white man that she lied to about having an abortion and stood up at the altar ten years before.
Here's the direct link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/177278
If you'd like to discuss some of the themes in this short story, join the discussion on www.aliciamccalla.com
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| Credit: Discover Magazine-Bad Astronomy, link follows |
It’s generally said that discoveries in science tend to be at the thin hairy edge of what you can do — always at the faintest limits you can see, the furthest reaches, the lowest signals. That can be trivially true because stuff that’s easy to find has already been discovered. But many times, when you’re looking farther and fainter than you ever have, you find things that really are new… and can (maybe!) be a problem for existing models of how the Universe behaves.
Astronomers ran across just such thing recently. Hubble observations of a distant galaxy cluster revealed an arc of light above it. That’s actually the distorted image of a more distant galaxy, and it’s a common enough sight near foreground clusters. But the thing is, that galaxy shouldn’t be there.
More at: Bad Astronomy, Phil Plait
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| Image: CERN |
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN: Within a sliver of a second after it was born, our universe expanded staggeringly in size, by a factor of at least 10^26. That's what most cosmologists maintain, although it remains a mystery as to what might have begun and ended this wild expansion. Now scientists are increasingly wondering if the most powerful particle collider in history, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Europe, could shed light on this mysterious growth, called inflation, by catching a glimpse of the particle behind it. It could be that the main target of the collider's current experiments, the Higgs boson, which is thought to endow all matter with mass, could also be this inflationary agent.
However...
TECHIE BUZZ:
The Higgs announcement
The announcement is expected to a big one – especially with the predicted discovery of the Higgs by the end of the year. The status of the Higgs will not be changed to ‘discovered’, but we will get to know how far we have actually reached.
I have been composing a Black SF Primer and blogging about Black SF authors here: Black SF Primer.
I am still looking for the names of authors who were publishing before 1970. If you have any names of authors that were writing in the 40s, 50s, and 60s, please leave a response.
Thanks.
A new power has arrived at the gates of the Valley. Will this power turn out to be destructive or beneficial to those who live there? Will the mighty Priestess and her mortal protector, the Valley Knight be able to hold this strange entity at bay? Those questions will be answered and more will be raised when the next Priestess story is told in July!
All Hail the Priestess!
I'm always trying to find more age appropriate books for my website, featuring protagonists of Color.
Maybe I've found a book, or I've found a reference to a book.
I can't find any information on age ranges, young adult, mature theme warnings, nothing! And lets not even get into trying to figure out the protagonist's race, ethnicity, etc. I just need a hint!! Blonde? Warm brown skin? What?
And you can't just judge by the cover. How many books "from the day" had a white hero on the cover, and the inside reveals that the protagonists are POC. (Gods and Androids is a good example. Andre Norton's stories, bind up of two books with Black protagonists, and what's on the cover? The Salariki wingman and a white guy. WHAAAAA???? And one of those books, The Wraiths of Time, the original paperback? Well that woman on the cover looks awfully pale to me. Does anyone even THINK before they design a cover!)
Just today, someone announced in a Linkedin group that his science fiction book was out and you can get a copy for free from Smashwords.
So I look it up. Ok, I don't see sample pages, maybe I missed it. (I do like to read the sample pages.) The synopsis is interesting but I'm wondering as I read it, some signs of maybe not appropriate, but well, I don't know. So I go ahead and get the free copy. THEN I look up the previous book. OH, adult themes, sex addict. JEEZ, so I wasted how much time on this? And it's totally not appropriate for my audience, so....
ARRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!
I'd better go back to my money writing today, I think I've wasted enough time on trying to find good books for one day.
Thank you for listening.
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| Source: Science Daily |
A new study published in Science examined a particular class of high-Tc superconductor, known as an iron pnictide. ("Pnictide" refers to an atom in the same column as nitrogen in the periodic table.) K. Hashimoto et al. found evidence of a quantum critical point (QCP): a place where the material's properties change radically due to quantum fluctuations rather than changes in temperature or pressure. While many physicists suspect the presence of a QCP in high-Tc superconductors, none have found unambiguous evidence for its existence. The current study is still not definitive, but the particular iron pnictide material the researchers used provides far cleaner data—and stronger hints that the QCP is actually there. Its presence would reveal a great deal about the inner workings of high-Tcsuperconductors, perhaps helping lead to even higher temperature superconducting devices.
In the case of high-Tc superconductors, the key parameters are temperature and doping. The iron pnictide superconductor in the recent study was BaFe2(As1-xPx)2, where "x" is the doping fraction. (In this case, the pnictide is the arsenic.) The researchers picked this particular pnictide due to the ease with which pure crystals of the material can be grown and how clean the resulting data is. For x values roughly between 0.2 and 0.7, BaFe2(As1-xPx)2is a superconductor; outside those values, the material isn't superconducting at any temperature.
A QCP—if it is present—marks another type of phase transition [beyond solid-liquid-gas-plasma], where quantum fluctuations at absolute zero change the superconducting behavior of the material. While absolute zero isn't experimentally achievable, the quantum fluctuations start at (relatively) higher temperatures, changing the behavior of the flow of the charge carriers.
Ars Technica:
Quantum fluctuations may uncover a clue to high-temperature superconductivity
Are you ready for me...? Mocha Faeryland Coming 7/8/2012 to 31 Days of Mocha Spotlights!
And you'll want to visit our blog, http://www.mochamemoirspress.blogspot.com by 7/1/2012 to find out about the cool prizes and giveaways :)
It's been done...I am not the one...
Physics Central: Surviving a Plunge From Space
Geez, show one scene in a reboot Trek movie...
Call it "Slippin' Into Darkness," part 2.
Research universities: that means major and Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Historically Hispanic Colleges and Universities, Historically Native American Colleges and Universities - ALL of us.
We've got to get beyond the partisan politics of Animal Farm, and actually, finally SOLVE problems for the long term versus score sound bites! How would it look in history, if we need a martial plan (in reverse): from Europe!?
NPR: "[Professors] are not the beneficiaries of large increases in college spending that has gone on," he says. "In fact, the percentage of all students taught by non-tenure-track professors — adjuncts, teaching assistants — has gone up and up and up."
"I'm sure that most of those people [provost, deans, assistant deans] are working hard at real jobs," he says. "But that doesn't necessarily mean that it's a good idea to increase spending and pass along many of those costs onto students in the form of higher tuition. ...
"And the more the prices go up, the more that these students who are squeezed out of opportunity are middle-income students, low-income students, and the net effect over time is to make our college and university system no longer the engine of economic mobility that it once was."
Rant done...
Hello All, I've created a reader's group on Facebook and expanded it to include Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Paranormal books by Black authors. You are all welcome to join (please note, this group is geared toward readers). We'd love to have you.
I need to update the header for the group and need a sci-fi cover and a paranormal book cover. If you are interested in having your cover on the header for the group, please send it to me at deatrikingbey@yahoo.com I will be changing up the header every now and again and you do not have to join the group for me to use your cover image.
Thanks a bunch for your time and I hope you all decide to join us. The group's genres are Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Horror, Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Paranormal.
https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/127625754040455/
Peace
Dee
I was slippin' into darkness, yeah
When i heard my mother say
You've been slippin' into darkness
Oh oh oh oh
Pretty soon, you're gonna pay.
Yeah, yeah.
WAR, 70s funk band
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| National Research Council |
US research universities face serious decline unless the federal government, states, and industry take action to ensure adequate, stable funding in the next decade, says a new report by the National Research Council. Universities must work harder to contain costs, enhance productivity, and improve educational pathways for students to careers both within and outside academia, the report says.
Written by a 21-member committee chaired by Bank of America chairman Charles Holliday Jr., the report responds to a request from Congress to recommend 10 actions that the nation should take in the next five to 10 years to maintain top-quality US research institutions. Among those steps, the committee urged, was that of doubling the budgets of NSF, the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, and NIST that was called for in the 2007 America Competes Act. But for fiscal 2013, the administration requested just a 4.8% increase for NSF, and a 2.4% increase for DOE’s Office of Science. Only the relatively tiny NIST R&D programs got the magnitude of increase needed to keep it on a doubling trajectory.
While federal funding for research has flattened or declined since onset of the recession, state funding for research universities has plunged by 25% to 50%, the committee found. Tuition increases at both private and public universities are threatening to put college education out of reach for many. At the same time, other countries have increased their R&D funding and are pouring significant resources into developing their own research institutions, patterned after US universities.
Physics Today: US science and technology eminence in trouble, says report
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| Credit @ link below |
TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: A couple of months back, we looked at the notion of time crystals, an idea put forward by Nobel-prize winning physicist Frank Wilczek and his pal Al Shapere.
These guys examined the fundamental properties of ordinary spatial crystals and asked why similar objects couldn't exist in the dimension of time instead.
One of the basic properties of spatial crystals is that they form when a system drops to its lowest possible energy state. They are not the result of adding energy to a system, but of taking it away. All of it.
Another basic property is that when these objects reach their lowest energy configuration, their symmetry breaks down. Instead of being the same in all directions, like the laws of physics, these objects become the same in only a few directions. It is this symmetry-breaking and the periodic structure it produces that defines crystals.
Wilczek and Shapere persuasively argued that there's no reason why similar periodic structures couldn't exist in time. And they said that finding them would give physicists a new way to study the process of symmetry-breaking and the laws of physics behind it.
There was just one problem, however. These guys hadn't worked out how to build a time crystal.
That changes today with the work of Tongcang Li at the University of California, Berkeley and a few buddies who say they've worked out how to do it. These guys say they know how to create an object in its lowest energy state that shows periodic structure both in space and time--a space-time crystal.
I had the pleasure of meeting Tongcang Li just before his PhD dissertation defense under Mark Raizen. This obviously builds on his research with the Raizen Group. This is amazing!
Physics arXiv: Space-time crystals of trapped ions
Writing dialogue can be challenging to new and veteran writers alike. However, if you are new to writing there are a few simple things to keep in mind when constructing dialogue for your short story or novel. Here are some things to keep in mind:
What Not to Do When Writing Dialogue Tip #3: Betraying your character
When writing dialogue, you must keep in mind the character you are talking about. I can’t stress enough the importance of keeping your character ‘in character’ as much as possible. Example: If your character is from the1800s, he will not use today’s slang to describe his thoughts and feelings. Now this may seem obvious to some writers, but I can’t count the times I’ve seen such an obvious mistake when reading a story.
Therefore, in order to keep your character ‘in character’, research, outline, and finalize your characters before you start writing. This may take more or less time depending on the type of story you are writing (if a short story only a skeleton is needed, but if a series – a key character development map is a must) , but it will make your writing a bit easier in the long run.
What Not to Do When Writing Dialogue Tip #4: Betraying your reader
Betraying your reader is one of the big no-no’s in writing! Whether you are writing fictional or non-fictional works, if you betray your reader, you are in big trouble. How can a writer betray their reader when writing dialogue? There is a way and that way is by creating dialogue that does not match your story’s plot procession, theme, or distracts a reader unreadily.
This is a tricky balance a writer must work with and be under no illusions – creating the right piece of dialogue and deploying it at the right moment is tough! Dialogue is a form of action and depending on the story can be the most important action your characters undertake (this is especially true for introspective or observational story pieces). Make sure that your dialogue matches your story’s overall themes; Your reader will notice if it does not.
More on Dialogue in the Next Post
If you have any questions, please post them below in the comment section!
Twilight Time
(an erotic tale)
~Excerpt
He said: “Baby you know what I like, and I love showing you time after time. Let me give you my lips— anywhere I want to put them on you. . . so romantic and very intimate.”
She said: “I love doing what’s right to you— giving you all of me—being freaky and naughty to make you happy...”
Unexpectedly, she lifted up her miniskirt: showing her thick, smooth thighs and fire-engine red panties and boots. She walked slowly over to him, and put her arms around his neck...
Copyright 2012 Quinton Veal all rights reserved
Available at amazon in print and kindle
and Barnes&Noble nook
also from author
