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awake, alone, next?

Simple questions, repeated, but each time the question begs a deeper answer. WHO ARE YOU? Who Are You? who are you? Each time the same question probes deeper into time. In my prescribed country of origin, I got on a boat, but unlike most of soon to be Americans who also came here on a boat, I did not look up with wide-eyed wonder and dreams of hope and glory. That simple question echoed and echoed into the back of my mind. I fell asleep for years, a black Rip van Winkle, dreaming in black-n-white.

Things happen for a reason but if you take the incident as truth, you are stuck there, sleep walking. Means to an end, yes, my control, I don't think so. I was rocked in the arms of a Caucasian Jesus and Moshe kept sticking his brown hand into his bosom, turning it white and back to brown, I noticed. Actually, that simple question from the beginning found a space and wedged itself into a waking moment and started pinging like a sonar. Moshe, why are you brown and Jesus white? I went to ones from the school of dream interpretation. "Hey Joe, we got another one who claims to dream in color." They gave me a little packet with blue pills in it. "It's an anomaly, must be a psychotic aneurysm, watch TV, come back in a week. If it's worse we'll get you free Blockbuster and confine you to a video therapy room."

I threw the blue pills into a hole in the wall, they fell out. Seems I've been doing this for years, the space in the wall is filled up to the hole. I am baffled, every time I see a black face in history I loose them in Africa someplace. Even the mythical Noah's kids were..............well I'll be.......!?! But how........., when did......!?! I wondered into the street in a daze, got busted for looking like I was on drugs. They kept asking me why weren't I watching sports on the tube, or playing basketball, holding down a stool at the club or sweet talking with some ladies? Classic amnesia no, amnesia like a socially induced and perpetuated dream-state. All you have to do is school everybody what they need to know and the charade is maintained indefinitely.

They consoled me, comforted me, then jailed and sentenced me. I was numb from thinking. They brought me into a room, looked like a dentist office. "They care about my teeth?" "Just relax, you are going into relapse." They put me in the chair, strapped me down and began giving me blue pills, I passed out. I awoke in my bed, next to the large hole in the wall, all the blue pills were gone. I feel great, went out to catch some rays. "Hey, man what's up? Been down, ain't seen ya for a while?" I just smiled, stuck my brown hand into my bosom, pulled it out, it turned white, did it again, back to brown. Then I laughed. Next week there was an incident on the street. My friend whom I had spoke to was being carted away. He had that dazed look like doing drugs. A new echo now played in the back of my mind, "You are not the only one!" I asked the echo about the blue pills, he fired back "Placebo!"

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Ouroboros Rising

     “Apprentice.”

     “Yes, master.”

     “It’s time.”

     I help him up and walk him into his study. He is paper-thin, light like a bird, a wisp of the force I remember from my youth. I can feel the fire burning through him, my second sight, even shielded cannot block the visions of his power. I help him to his workbench, a central seat of his gift. It was only as we drew close could I sense it.

     The bracelet. It shimmered in darkness the way his power glowed brightly. A cool black metal that flickered like glass, lit from within with a sinister madness. This was my last time to say no.

     Once he sits, his palsy stops when he picks it up. His eyes harden like flint and his unspoken gaze beckons me to sit across from  him. The light from the power within him dims. “Once you put this on, you will enter our Order. There is no release, no resistance, no rest from Ouroboros, her power is complete and unending. Do you understand?”

     Of course I did. This was what I trained for this last fifteen years. This decision would mark my journey to true power.

     “I know that look, boy. You think, you are getting what you want. Do you think I don’t know what you’re feeling? I sat there once.”

     “Master, I am just eager to begin our work.”

     “Don’t be in such a rush to go out and subjugate the world.”

     “Master…”

     “Spare me. Your lust for power was why you were chosen. Ouroboros requires strong passion, better to harness your gift.”

     “Harness my gift?”

     “Give me your hand, child. This is not a toy, or just a tool. It is a weapon coupled with your intent. Fail to harness your intent and it will kill you.”

     He rubs the bracelet and taps it on his stone workbench. He taps it again. And again. The flat sound echoes across my senses, first a ripple, then a tide. Then a crack appears in the surface of the stone. Ironwood, once was living, now a metallic stone, one of the hardest natural substances, cracks, splinters to dust, with a sound like the world ending.

     He grabs my hand and his grip was as strong as it was weak a moment ago. The bracelet had expanded and my hand slipped into it easily. Then all I could feel was the power. All that I thought I knew about power was now erased. My inner energy was as a candle compared to this burning sun. He was right. I had no idea. The things I would do.

     The metal burned my flesh as it began to close tightly on my wrist. As mine grew darker, I could suddenly see his. It was always there, you only saw it for a second whenever he would transit a window curtain and the light hit it just right. Now it was alive, visible and its energy flew toward me.

     “Yes, you can feel the power of Ouroboros and you think, I can do anything. And you are right. But with light, comes the darkness. Ouroboros is between all things, so I now give unto you the other side of power. Responsibility. The chains that binds this power to your very soul. Each time you partake of her power, you are dying. You will do great things. But whenever you reach beyond what is yours, and ask her for power, your sacrifice will be your time left to live. And you have much to do.”

     The black shadow fell on my bracelet and its light was diminished, flecked with shadows, nuances and shades of grey. My vision returned to normal. His grip loosened and he fell back into his chair, boneless and still. I rushed to him over the remnants of his work desk, its power drained into me.

     He looked at me, then down to the bracelet. He smiled fiercely. “Chained you again. He’s a strong one. Your scourge will be contained, for a time.” He lifted his head, his eyes rheumy with age. “I’m sorry, Kal.” His whisper barely reached me.

     He died slumping forward into my arms.

     “He was a bitter, old man. We will do great things, you and I.”

     I could feel her coiled around my heart. Squeezing and settling down like a snake. Making my power her own.

     All that light. The radiance that dwarfed my own. Those were the lives of mages she'd claimed before me. I am insignificant to her. She thinks to use me up. I am no more than food to her. I may never be able to be free of her, but I certainly don’t have to give her what she wants. She will earn every meal.

     “They all said that. All fell before me. Ambition is a hard taskmaster." She paused to let me think on that. Then she continued. "We have time; there is no rush to get back to taking your world for my own. Let us get to know one other.”

     We conspired deep into the night.


Ouroboros Rising © Thaddeus Howze 2012, All Rights Reserved

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Diaspora, 23 February 2012



Tadias is an online magazine for the Ethiopian-American community. It means "hi," "what's up," or "how are you?"

 

This is about a professor at my alma mater. The text and link will speak for itself:


"WASHINGTON, DC (TADIAS) – When Physicist Solomon Bililign was a young teacher imprisoned in Ethiopia during the “Red Terror” era, he never imagined that he would one day receive a Presidential Award in the United States.

 

Now a professor at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Dr. Bililignis one of nine individuals whom President Obama this week named recipients of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring. The honorees will receive their awards at a White House ceremony later this year. The award recognizes the role that mentoring plays in the academic and personal development of students studying science and engineering. According to the White House, candidates are nominated by colleagues, administrators, and students at their home institutions.

 

“Through their commitment to education and innovation, these individuals are playing a crucial role in the development of our 21st century workforce,” President Obama said. “Our nation owes them a debt of gratitude for helping ensure that America remains the global leader in science and engineering for years to come.”


Dr. Bililign said that success in science, engineering or math is not as glamorous as success in performing arts or sports in the U.S., but the economic competitiveness of the nation, depends on a solid foundation in the sciences. “Young people need to be encouraged, pushed, persuaded to do it,” he said. “Not for the money or fame but for the love of discovery and innovation. I believe every one has a gift, and a mentor’s role is to identify the gift and nurture it.”

TADIAS: Obama Honors Physicist Solomon Bililign With Presidential Award for Excellence

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Hitting That Golden Note...

NASA - Gold Record on Voyager spacecraft

"In the upper left-hand corner is an easily recognized drawing of the phonograph record and the stylus carried with it. The stylus is in the correct position to play the record from the beginning. Written around it in binary arithmetic is the correct time of one rotation of the record, 3.6 seconds, expressed in time units of 0,70 billionths of a second, the time period associated with a fundamental transition of the hydrogen atom. The drawing indicates that the record should be played from the outside in. Below this drawing is a side view of the record and stylus, with a binary number giving the time to play one side of the record - about an hour."

"Things that make you go: hmm..."

That's assuming our aliens still have something like a record player with a stylus. (For me), I'm afraid my father's collection of Nate King Cole albums (to date) remain unplayed. I bought the CD.
 

NASA: Voyager Golden Record

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Diaspora, 22 February 2012

Percy A. Pierre, PhD Electrical Engineering

Percy A. Pierre is Vice President Emeritus and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Michigan State University. He created and directs the Sloan Engineering Program which recruits, helps fund, and mentors domestic engineering doctoral students, with an emphasis on underrepresented groups. Since 1998, he has personally mentored 45 engineering doctoral graduates, including 36 underrepresented minority doctoral graduates.

 

He earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering at The Johns Hopkins University. He is recognized as the first African American to earn a doctorate in electrical engineering (http://blacksuccessfoundation.org/first_science_phd's.htm).


He subsequently published research on stochastic processes in communications systems. His work focused on characterizing non-Gaussian random processes, including commonly used "linear processes". Results in signal detection, central limit theorems, sample function properties, and conditions for stochastic independence were developed.

 

List of papers: Mathematicians of the African Diaspora (bottom of page)

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Metamaterials, Dams and Powerstations...

Physics arXiv - Seismic Metamaterials

In recent years, cloaking technology has taken the world of physics and engineering by storm. The possibility that any object can be hidden from incident waves has numerous applications, both practical and fantastical.

 

One of the more interesting is the possibility of protecting buildings from seismic waves. The idea here is to surround a building, or at least its foundations, with a metamaterial that steers seismic waves around the structure. Various groups have explored ways of doing this.

 

Today, however, Sang-Hoon Kim at the Mokpo National Maritime University in South Korea and Mukunda Das at The Australian National Universityin Canberra, suggest another idea. They point out that while seismic cloaks can protect buildings, they steer waves towards other buildings. "The cloaked seismic waves are still destructive to the buildings behind the cloaked region," they say.

 

Instead, they suggest that metamaterials could instead dissipate the energy in seismic waves by converting them into evanescent waves, which die down exponentially as they travel.


This would have been a good thing for Fukushima Daiichi, or any other reactors in the future...
 

Physics arXiv: Seismic Metamaterials Could Cloak Dams and Power Stations

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A Small, Mighty KABOOM...

Physics arXiv

Carbon nanotubes offer a number of exotic options for therapies. For example, tubes filled with drugs and sealed with biodegradable caps, could work their way inside cells where they deliver their load.

But the worry is that such a scheme may not target the drugs well enough if the caps degrade too quickly or too slowly.

So Vitaly Chaban and Oleg Prezhdo at the University of Rochester in New York state have a suggestion. Their idea is to fill the tubes with a mixture of drugs and water molecules and seal them with a secure cap.

Inside the body, the tubes enter various types of cell. But a treatment would involve illuminating only the cells of interest with an infrared laser which heats the tubes and boils the water they contain. The resulting increase in pressure bursts the cap and forces the water and drug molecules into the cell, like a grenade bursting.

Physics arXiv: Exploding Carbon Nanotubes Could Act as Drug Grenades

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Diaspora, 21 February 2012

Dr. Clifford Johnson
The Road goes ever on and on,
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone
And I must follow if I can.

Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it meets some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
- J.R.R. Tolkien

Education
B.S. Physics, Imperial College, London University, 6/1989
Ph.D. Theoretical Physics, University of Southampton, 6/1992

Postdoctoral Training
Postdoctoral Researcher
Institute for Theoretical Physics, UC Santa Barbara, 09/1995-08/1998

Instructor and Postdoctoral Researcher
Princeton University, 01/1995-08/1995

Member
Institute for Advanced Study
Princeton, 09/1992-12/1994


Dr. Clifford Johnson is a professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department at the University of Southern California. His work involves research and teaching, undergraduates and postgraduates.

He works mainly on superstring theory, quantum gravity, gauge theory, and M-theory, studying objects such as black holes and D-branes, using a variety of techniques from Mathematics and Physics.

Faculty profile: Dr. Clifford V. Johnson

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The Nebula nominations were announced today.

AKATA WITCH (a novel set in present-day Nigeria that follows a young Igbo American girl's initiation into a magical secret society and the daring adventures that follow) is a nominee for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy Book! 

The masquerades will be out today. ;-)


2011 Nebula Awards Nominees Announced
http://www.sfwa.org/2012/02/2011-nebula-awards-nominees-announced/ 

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America is proud to announce the nominees for the 2011 Nebula Awards (presented 2012), the nominees for the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation, and the nominees for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy Book.

Novel

Novella

Novelette

Short Story

Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation

  • Attack the Block, Joe Cornish (writer/director) (Optimum Releasing; Screen Gems)
  • Captain America: The First Avenger, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely (writers), Joe Johnston (director) (Paramount)
  • Doctor Who: “The Doctor’s Wife,” Neil Gaiman (writer), Richard Clark (director) (BBC Wales)
  • Hugo, John Logan (writer), Martin Scorsese (director) (Paramount)
  • Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen (writer/director) (Sony)
  • Source Code, Ben Ripley (writer), Duncan Jones (director) (Summit)
  • The Adjustment Bureau, George Nolfi (writer/director) (Universal)

 Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and FantasyBook

The winners will be announced at SFWA’s 47th Annual Nebula Awards Weekend, to be held Thursday through Sunday, May 17 to May 20, 2012 at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia, near Reagan National Airport. As announced earlier this year, Connie Willis will be the recipient of the 2011 Damon Knight Grand Master Award for her lifetime contributions and achievements in the field. Walter Jon Williams will preside as toastmaster, with Astronaut Michael Fincke as keynote speaker.

The Nebula Awards are voted on, and presented by, active members of  SFWA. Voting will open to SFWA Active members on March 1 and close on March 30.  More information on voting is available here.

Founded in 1965 by the late Damon Knight, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America brings together the most successful and daring writers of speculative fiction throughout the world.

Since its inception, SFWA® has grown in numbers and influence until it is now widely recognized as one of the most effective non-profit writers’ organizations in existence, boasting a membership of approximately 2,000 science fiction and fantasy writers as well as artists, editors and allied professionals.  Each year the organization presents the prestigious Nebula Awards® for the year’s best literary and dramatic works of speculative fiction.

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The Nebula nominations were announced today.

AKATA WITCH (a novel set in present-day Nigeria that follows a young Igbo American girl's initiation into a magical secret society and the daring adventures that follow) is a nominee for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy Book! 

The masquerades will be out today. ;-)


2011 Nebula Awards Nominees Announced
http://www.sfwa.org/2012/02/2011-nebula-awards-nominees-announced/ 

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America is proud to announce the nominees for the 2011 Nebula Awards (presented 2012), the nominees for the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation, and the nominees for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy Book.

Novel

Novella

Novelette

Short Story

Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation

  • Attack the Block, Joe Cornish (writer/director) (Optimum Releasing; Screen Gems)
  • Captain America: The First Avenger, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely (writers), Joe Johnston (director) (Paramount)
  • Doctor Who: “The Doctor’s Wife,” Neil Gaiman (writer), Richard Clark (director) (BBC Wales)
  • Hugo, John Logan (writer), Martin Scorsese (director) (Paramount)
  • Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen (writer/director) (Sony)
  • Source Code, Ben Ripley (writer), Duncan Jones (director) (Summit)
  • The Adjustment Bureau, George Nolfi (writer/director) (Universal)

 Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and FantasyBook

The winners will be announced at SFWA’s 47th Annual Nebula Awards Weekend, to be held Thursday through Sunday, May 17 to May 20, 2012 at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia, near Reagan National Airport. As announced earlier this year, Connie Willis will be the recipient of the 2011 Damon Knight Grand Master Award for her lifetime contributions and achievements in the field. Walter Jon Williams will preside as toastmaster, with Astronaut Michael Fincke as keynote speaker.

The Nebula Awards are voted on, and presented by, active members of  SFWA. Voting will open to SFWA Active members on March 1 and close on March 30.  More information on voting is available here.

Founded in 1965 by the late Damon Knight, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America brings together the most successful and daring writers of speculative fiction throughout the world.

Since its inception, SFWA® has grown in numbers and influence until it is now widely recognized as one of the most effective non-profit writers’ organizations in existence, boasting a membership of approximately 2,000 science fiction and fantasy writers as well as artists, editors and allied professionals.  Each year the organization presents the prestigious Nebula Awards® for the year’s best literary and dramatic works of speculative fiction.

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Diaspora, 20 February 2012

Dr. Derrick Pitts

In Philadelphia, a radio program called Skytalk features a weekly discussion led by astronomer Derrick Pitts, also the chief astronomer at the Franklin Institute of Astronomy. There you can hear Pitts ruminate about astronomical forecasts for 2010, the 400th anniversary of Galileo finding Jupiter's moons with a telescope, and the discovery of new planets in the galaxy.

 

The image of Benjamin Franklin, for whom Pitts' Institute is named, peering out into the universe through a telescope from Philadelphia may have been the prevailing icon of American astronomy since the 18th century, but today it's a black man named Derrick. He's been at the Institute since 1978 and through the years has become a top scientific consultant for entities like Lockheed Martin and NASA.

 

TheGrio's 100: Derrick Pitts, a star among the stars

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Godspeed, John Glenn...

I guess for my mother, it was t-minus six months and counting (I was happily gestating in her womb)...


It took chutzpah, moxie for a human being to consciously strap (at that time) himself to a large lit stick of dynamite with no guarantee that the procedure, though thoroughly calculated and considered, would not end in disaster.

So was this Marine Corp pilot, who confidently climbed into a Mercury rocket - Friendship 7, and took the first flight by an American to orbit the Earth.

Mercury - Gemini - Apollo: it would change our world with semiconductor-manufactured spinoff technologies that we now take for granted. It would change our focus, our nerve on what was possible. We would look to the stars and listen for signs of humanity's cousins.

50 years later: Godspeed, John Glenn

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I highly recommend these books. They were written by members of this site.

 

Haywards Reach by Thaddeus Howze. From rampaging genetic montrosities to made-to-order planets, Hayward's Reach stretches the limits of our perceptions with stories that will amaze and terrify. Thaddeus' short stories are a captivating mix of science fiction and fantasy with forays into realities that straddles both genres. The quality of the stories truly reveals his creative dexterity in conceiving astounding science and high tech concepts with the same ease he applys to crafting gods, goddesses and sorceress spell casting. Hayward's Reach is a must read, featuring a fresh new voice in science fiction and fantasy.

 

Moses: The Chronicles of Harriet Tubman by Balogun. This might be the most unique fantasy tale I've ever read. The imagery this story invokes are breathtaking. Here history and fiction intersect in a story liberally spiced with the fantastic. In our world, Harriet Tubman was an extraordinary, courageous woman who spirited a large number of slaves from the literal shackles of bondage. In Balogun's world, her heroism is magnified in relation to the threats she must face. As a gifted, Tubman is blessed with super human abilites which she uses for good. The villians she battles are also gifted and not at all averse to using their powers for evil. I felt a tremendous sense of being left hanging when this story ended. Fortunately Book Two is on the way, although I don't know if I can wait that long.

 

There you have it, folks. Two books, two sets of quality reading!     

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