My expression of PRIDE for the BLACK PANTHER MOVIE are the Promotional posters of the characters within the Movie. Soon I am getting each of these enlarged and posted on a wall or two in the crib. Just wish I had a LARGER crib with more walls!
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| Ella Tyree image source: Cliotropic (link below) |
Topics: African Americans, Diaspora, Diversity, Diversity in Science, History, Women in Science
Spelman graduate Ella Tyree worked near Chicago, where she did animal research "to determine the effects of radiation on humans." She managed the lab-animal farm for Argonne National Laboratories before being promoted to a research position. Source: "Atom Scientists'', Ebony, September 1949, 26.
There are some excellent write ups about her. Two of them are in "Related links" below.
Shane Landrum, historian and technologist has a blog called "Cliotropic." Shane's Master's thesis was titled “‘In Los Alamos, I feel like I’m a real citizen’: Black atomic scientists, education, and citizenship, 1945-1960.” The title literally speaks volumes on its own with little commentary. Part of the dearth of African American STEM talent simply boils down to access and exposure. There's also a definite image the American consumer is "sold" of what constitutes the authentic "African/Black American experience." Sports and hoodlum is acceptable; scientists and engineers only in small quantities. That is socially engineered by way of standardized tests, employment bias, negative stereotypes and the unequal application of the American judicial system, specifically the need to fill private prisons with bodies post middle passage, once piled in ships; now cell blocks.
It is repeated formulaic in media and omitted history. If life imitates art, then specifically for us, it's often blaxploitation. "Our place" is drilled into us, and the stratification of society into that part of humanity numerically in the majority in the United States (for now, at least until 2042). For the owners of society that inequality doesn't affect in their pristine, well-guarded enclaves, intentionally-stoked racial strife is a useful cudgel to wield on bewildered herds*.
I'll have more to say about this as we get closer to the premier of Black Panther.
In the meantime, here's the URL to the Facebook group I started for it. Feel free to join us. I have my T-shirt and dashiki. I sadly can only where one to the premiere.
The bewildered herd* is a problem. We've got to prevent their roar and trampling. We've got to distract them. They should be watching the Super bowl or sitcoms or violent movies. Every once in a while you call on them to chant meaningless slogans like "Support our troops" [or, #MAGA - my add] You've got to keep them pretty scared, because unless they’re properly scared and frightened of all kinds of devils that are going to destroy them from outside or inside or somewhere, they may start to think, which is very dangerous, because they’re not competent to think. Therefore it’s important to distract them and marginalize them. Noam Chomsky, "Media Control" (2002), page 27, more at the link.
Related links:
Cliotropic, Shane Landrum
Beyond Tokenistic Inclusion: Science, Citizenship, and Changing the Questions, Ruha Benjamin, Ph.D., HuffPost
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| The g-2 magnet arrives at Fermilab to be installed in the Muon g-2 experiment (Courtesy: Fermilab) |
Topics: Modern Physics, Particle Physics, Quantum Mechanics
Physicists in Japan say they have a solution to a problem that has puzzled particle physicists for nearly two decades – the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon.
Measurements made over several years at the at the g-2 experiment at the US’s Brookhaven National Laboratory suggest that the muon magnetic moment is significantly larger than predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. After careful analysis of data related to the decay of the muon to an electron, the statistical significance of this discrepancy is at 3.6σ – which means that it is extremely unlikely to be a fluke.
One possible explanation is that particles not described by the Standard Model are involved in the muon decay, and their presence affects the measured value of the muon magnetic moment. Finding evidence for such particles would be a colossal achievement, which is why the new Muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab is gathering data this year.
Now, however, Takahiro Morishima of Nagoya University and Toshifumi Futamase of Kyoto Sangyo University have come up with an alternative explanation of the anomaly. In three preprints uploaded to the arXiv server, the duo calculate that effects due the curvature of space-time could result in an increase in the measured value of the magnetic moment. This effect of general relativity is related to the gravitational field of the Earth.
Has the muon magnetic moment mystery been solved? Hamish Johnston, Physics World
CONGRATS to MY peeps in Philly! LOVE Y'all!
Check out this event in ATL the Saturday before the North American premiere of "Black Panther!"
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| Portrait of Katherine Johnson Credits: NASA |
Topics: African Americans, Diaspora, Diversity, Diversity in Science, History, Women in Science
Date of Birth: August 26, 1918 Hometown: White Sulphur Springs, WV Education: B.S., Mathematics and French, West Virginia State College, 1937 Hired by NACA: June 1953 Retired from NASA: 1986 Actress Playing Role in Hidden Figures: Taraji P. Henson
Being handpicked to be one of three black students to integrate West Virginia’s graduate schools is something that many people would consider one of their life’s most notable moments, but it’s just one of several breakthroughs that have marked Katherine Johnson’s long and remarkable life. Born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia in 1918, Katherine Johnson’s intense curiosity and brilliance with numbers vaulted her ahead several grades in school. By thirteen, she was attending the high school on the campus of historically black West Virginia State College. At eighteen, she enrolled in the college itself, where she made quick work of the school’s math curriculum and found a mentor in math professor W. W. Schieffelin Claytor, the third African American to earn a PhD in Mathematics. Katherine graduated with highest honors in 1937 and took a job teaching at a black public school in Virginia.
When West Virginia decided to quietly integrate its graduate schools in 1939, West Virginia State’s president Dr. John W. Davis selected Katherine and two male students as the first black students to be offered spots at the state’s flagship school, West Virginia University. Katherine left her teaching job, and enrolled in the graduate math program. At the end of the first session, however, she decided to leave school to start a family with her husband. She returned to teaching when her three daughters got older, but it wasn’t until 1952 that a relative told her about open positions at the all-black West Area Computing section at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics’ (NACA’s) Langley laboratory, headed by fellow West Virginian Dorothy Vaughan. Katherine and her husband, James Goble, decided to move the family to Newport News to pursue the opportunity, and Katherine began work at Langley in the summer of 1953. Just two weeks into Katherine’s tenure in the office, Dorothy Vaughan assigned her to a project in the Maneuver Loads Branch of the Flight Research Division, and Katherine’s temporary position soon became permanent. She spent the next four years analyzing data from flight test, and worked on the investigation of a plane crash caused by wake turbulence. As she was wrapping up this work her husband died of cancer in December 1956.
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| Image Source: Debate dot org |
Topics: Commentary, Existentialism, Politics
Abstract from Oxford Handbooks:
“Sources and methods” is a term used to describe the practice of intelligence collection and analysis. Intelligence sources and the nature of information obtained vary. Intelligence sources may include information obtained from espionage, images obtained by satellites, intercepted communications, and publicly available media reporting. The nature of information may vary from purloined documents to the “signature” of ship's radar. The term methods, which is synonymous with tradecraft, pertains to the techniques used by operations officers and analysts to carry out their duties. Methods may include social-science methodologies, computer-based analytic tools, maintaining secretive communications and so on. Sources and methods of intelligence agencies are heavily guarded because it comprise of the ways the information is collected and analyzed can give opponents opportunity to assess the capabilities and interests of their enemy. Intelligence agencies surround their sources and methods in a cloak of secrecy because they are significant in the success of ongoing and future operations and analysis. In the advent of globalization, the barriers are dissolved between foreign and domestic violence activities including the way local and national law enforcement and intelligence agencies work. Distinctions between private and public interests and entities are also blurred as activities in the public and private sphere interact to shape domestic and international threats. Apart from globalization, the advent of information revolution also changed the practice and study of intelligence. Policymakers, analysts, and scholars are now confronted with a torrent of data and information as well as the virtual realities of “cyberspace”. New collective workspaces which are empowered by the advancement in communication and computer technologies are also creating new opportunities for collaboration. This article discusses three emerging topics in the study and practice of intelligence in such a way to illustrate the emerging sources and methods of intelligence studies. These new emerging topics are: the intelligence for homeland security, the concept of collective intelligence, and the application of intelligence and warning methodologies to mitigate risk.
We can no longer call them the party of "family values." That title went out the window with the Birther Movement cum Orly Tate cum the 45th occupant-Manchurian-candidate of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. That title went when quite a few of them PROUDLY displayed a bumper sticker quoting Psalms 109: "8 Let his days be few; [and] let another take his office. 9 Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. 10 Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek [their bread] also out of their desolate places." about the p-grabber's black predecessor. That title went with justifying an avalanche of lies that impugns the so-called "faith" of white evangelicals, from the p-grabbing serial adulterer that has his third wife pissed with him at the state of disunion because he paid off a porn star to hide their secret backgammon games! Which is kind of ironic, since she was his affair on his second wife, and his SECOND wife was his affair on his first wife! Talk about not getting-a-clue. Kind of makes you NOT stand on the applause line "family and faith." There's only so much felgercarb even a possibly illegal Slovenian can take. From his warm-up act at the Vice President Debate to the Olympic-level obfuscations we've endured since January 20, 2017, Pence is the physical embodiment of John 8:44. Millennials may be lost for generations for this laid-bare, abject hypocrisy.
We can thoroughly jettison national security as a bona fide of republicanism. It was way before changing the republican platform in 2016. The same political party that went after their president's* opponent for mishandling classified information in the form of emails on a private server is MISHANDLING CLASSIFIED INFORMATION! The sanctions are not being implemented, even after overwhelming, presidential* veto-proof support in congress. Vlad the impaler is hellbent on repealing the Magnitsky Act, and he has the right stooges in our executive and legislative branches in the government of our shredding republic to do it.
With the release of the Nunes memo, likely on Carter Page that's probably being exploited as an asset (my thought) in a "honey pot" trap, the FBI's hands are tied, and the republican* house knows it. They can't say which area in the memo is true or false because THAT would reveal "sources and methods." Methods like those the traitor Edward Snowden revealed on his work in the NSA (he's conveniently in Russia for "protection"). Sources like HUMINT: human intelligence, meaning spies and informants, behind enemy lines in Afghanistan and Iraq, or allied agents in Russia.
As someone who had to go through an excruciating interview with the-then Defense Intelligence Service over my SF-86 form (the same one the first son-in-law has botched ad nauseum without consequences), that the investigator kept me over 2 HOURS because as the only African American in my Air Training Command class, he couldn't believe I had never smoked weed. "Why should I believe you?" he asked. My answer: "because most of my class would likely have driven into my neighborhood to buy it, going back to their pristine suburbs. Just because I lived there, doesn't mean I used anything!" He said they would personally interview five people and "I'd better be telling the truth." I challenged him to interview ten. I passed my security clearance.
"Sources and methods" was drilled into ALL of us the whole time I held a Top Secret SCIF (special compartmental information facility) clearance in the Air Force. I had to in order to work in Communications for COMSEC (Communications Security) and OPSEC (operations security). I was in during the Cold War, when Vladimir was master spy head of the KGB. It was the difference between winning and losing; the difference between agents and informants for the FBI or the CIA living through an operation...or dying.
I'm incensed as a veteran because a lot of people are about to get killed, and that's not hyperbole.
What American would want to serve their nation when its president* is willing to sacrifice their lives to cover up a possible crime, collusion or espionage? What American would want to serve in the Armed Forces when our elected representatives* (I guess I have to use the asterisk for these yahoos, too) would collude to stop an investigation to protect ONE man and a demographically dwindling party, versus our COUNTRY?
The frightening thing that's likely to happen is a lot of good, experienced people are going to start running for the door, or retiring before being put in harms way by traitorous buffoons. #MAGA should mean: morons are governing America. I can't blame them.
However, you can't GO FUND intelligence services. They take years to build in apparatus and infrastructure and apparently, a few months of septuagenarian bowel-movement tweeting incessantly to deconstruct, along with a feckless congress that hasn't read The Constitution they swore to "protect and defend."
And like a hog fattened for the slaughter, that's when our republic (like Rome) will topple over the cliff, pushed over by a master spy...and his orange puppet.
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| The Greensboro Four |
Topics: African Americans, Diaspora, Diversity, Diversity in Science, History, Women in Science
I will be here. It will be an honor to be in their great presence.
Greensboro, N.C. (Jan. 8, 2018) - In continued honor of the legacy of Jibreel Khazan (Ezell Blair Jr.), Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil and David Richmond -- better known collectively as the A&T Four, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University will hold the 58th Annual February One Sit-In Commemorative program “Conscious for the Culture.” The university will welcome White House correspondent and CNN political analyst April Ryan as keynote speaker for the event scheduled for 8 a.m., Thursday, Feb. 1, in the Alumni Foundation Event Center.
Similar to the leadership and courageous acts of the A&T Four’s protest against segregated lunch counters (which ignited a national sit-in movement) and corresponding segregation laws of the 1960s, Ryan has been a leader among her peers. She stands alone as the only black female reporter covering urban issues from the White House, a position she’s held for American Urban Radio Networks since the Clinton era.
Ryan has served on the board of the prestigious White House Correspondents Association, one of only three African Americans to do so in the association’s over 100-year history. Even in the face of often pointed criticism and ostracism, she continues to champion the cause and agenda of minorities.
NC A&T State University to Commemorate 58th Sit-In; Award-Winning Journalist April Ryan to Keynote
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| Graphene-glass bimorphs can be used to fabricate numerous micron-scale 3-D structures. CORNELL UNIVERSITY |
Topics: Biophysics, Chemistry Nanotechnology, Robotics
A team of physicists from Cornell University in the US has developed electricity-conducting, environment-sensing, shape-changing robots the size of a human cell.
The robots – described in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences – are made from atomically thin layers of graphene and glass. Known as biomorphs, the tiny machines bend when exposed to stimuli including heat, chemical reactions or electricity. They can transform in a fraction of a second from two dimensional planes into complex three-dimensional forms such as tetrahedra and cubes.
Team member Paul McEuen says the biomorphs are designed as carriers for even smaller, but potentially very powerful, bits of photonic, electronic or chemical kit.
“We are trying to build what you might call an 'exoskeleton' for electronics,” he says. “Right now, you can make little computer chips that do a lot of information-processing, but they don't know how to move or cause something to bend.”
Super-strong cell-size origami robots are coming, Andrew Masterson, Cosmos Magazine
Glad to see this project being a little less American and more a AFRICAN DIASPORIAN musical project. I cannot wait to hear. So is the BLACK PANTHER movie the catalyst that ignites the SPIRIT toward unitfying the children and lost children of the African continent worldwide? This project drops 2/9/2018
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| Ali Kaya, Nature |
Topics: African Americans, Civil Rights, Commentary, Cosmology, Martin Luther King
As we are juxtaposed between the celebration of Dr. King and the advent of African American History Month, post the (I did not watch) SOTU address from a president* that thinks "hole," not "house" was the insulting part of his epithet, it's healthy to be reminded this dark, fascistic and authoritarian march is global. The world is smaller with more people in it competing for resources, and there are those reptilian brains that wax nostalgic for an idyllic past that never was, but determined to take us all back there, wherever and whatever "there" is in their Gollum minds. It is also sobering to remind ourselves that democratic republics are both fragile and without proper care: fleeting. Dr. Kaya's courage should inspire us all.
Atlantic Journal Constitution: Letter From Birmingham Jail (cultural reference to post title).
Thousands of academics in Turkish universities stand accused of either having supported terrorism or the attempted coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in July 2016. Theoretical physicist Ali Kaya is one of them. He was arrested three months after the failed coup and held for more than a year before his trial took place. On 20 December, a court declared him guilty of being a member of a terrorist organization and sentenced him to six years of imprisonment — but released him early owing to the time he had already served in prison while awaiting trial. Kaya says that he is innocent and is appealing against the verdict. In the meantime, he has been suspended from his academic post, and he has yet to learn whether his university, Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, plans to fire him or to await the outcome of the appeal.
Kaya says that while in prison, he kept his sanity by continuing his work on fundamental topics in cosmology. He wrote three research papers during his incarceration, on topics including inflation theory and cosmological perturbation theory. After his release, he posted the papers on the preprint server arXiv. Each contains a footnote that he dedicates to his friends in jail “who made my stay bearable at hell for 440 days between 7.10.2016 and 20.12.2017. I am also indebted to the colleagues who show support in these difficult times.”
Nature interviewed Kaya by Skype about his experiences.
What access did you have to research materials while in the prison?
Of course there was no Internet. Nothing digital — not even a pocket calculator — was allowed. No books could be brought in. Nothing in a foreign language was allowed in the jail. One of my students Google-translated some research papers for me into Turkish, but they were held back on suspicion that they included secret codes — presumably because they contained so many equations.
I worked up the research ideas I had already in my head before my arrest. Of course, it took much longer than it would have done if I had been at my computer. I had to start from basic formulae and derive things myself.
But time is something you have plenty of in prison. OK, I could not do ground-breaking work, but I think the papers I produced are solid, and I expect to get them published in good journals.
Science behind bars: How a Turkish physicist wrote research papers in prison, Alison Abbott, Nature
Another post Black Panther must see for me is Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, THE DISNEY MOVIE. I must confess that this project has my heart for two reasons. First is the FACT that this book got me to literally READ on the level of pure enjoyment as a elementary school child. It was my FIRST Science Fiction story ever, was relatable as the main character was MY age at the time. A book was assigned to me by a teacher, a black woman named Mrs. Garrett whom at the time was one of the many teachers (Black) at my school in Oakland, Cali whom I believe took her job for teaching young black children SERIOUSLY. She had a reading list to which we were given a choice of many books at 3rd/4th grade level and I out the blue choose this one just to get her off my back. After forcing the first few chapters, my attention begin to focus when the group encountered the tesseract. I read the entire book in a week and it inspired me to begin to WRITE my own Sci Fi story.
SECOND reason I must see this is that it is directed by "QUEEN SUGAR" director Ava DuVernay my film shero. This is her time showing her hand at a pure IMAGINARY direction which looks better than AMAZING YO! I am used to her work with the REAL and the TRUE which has (to me) all been cinematically OUTSTANDING. Now this YO! Is 2018 going to be the year I have to create a budget for MUST SEE movies? At least in the first three month is looks like..... Enjoy
Oh Yeah FYI: "A Wrinkle in Time", the winner of the 1963 Newbery Medal, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2013 and continues to thrive. It holds the ranking by many critics as one of the most frequently banned novels of all time.
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| Minjeong Cha, an author of the research article, holds up a sample of the gel infused with chiromagnetic nanoparticles. Photo: Joseph Xu, Michigan Engineering, Communications & Marketing. |
Topics: Electromagnetism, Optical Physics, Nanotechnology
Magnetic nanoparticles with chiral distortions in their crystal lattice provide an unprecedented degree of control over circularly polarized light. The effect, which was demonstrated by the nanoparticles embedded in a transparent gel and exposed to a magnetic field, can be understood thanks to careful consideration of the magnetic field of the photons, in addition to the familiar electric field.
Where magnetism and chirality (a lack of mirror symmetry) overlap there are often intriguing discoveries. These two concepts are fundamental to the advancement of spintronics, chiral catalysis and magneto-optics. Much of the research in this field aims to enhance the interaction between electrons in matter and the (often ignored) magnetic field of a photon.
A recent and very successful example of such an attempt is the work from Nicholas Kotov and collaborators in the University of Michigan, USA, and the Federal University of São Carlos, Brazil. The researchers created a material comprised of magnetic nanoparticles (NPs) with a chiral or twisted crystal structure encased in a transparent gel. This chiromagnetic gel responds to circularly polarized light with a sensitivity 10 times greater than previously observed in similar non-magnetic composites.
Distorted nano-magnets for agile polarization control
Lauren Barr is a PhD student contributor to nanotechweb.org.
Yeah As you guessed with this posting that I am a MECHA HEAD and Love Monster Movies.. I was a GODZILLA Nerd. Well my favorite NEW movie of all time will hit the screen in March with my boi JOHN BOYEGA, just after get over my BLACK PANTHER fix. Seems like a winner since John is playing the son of IDRIS ELBA's character in PR1.
I have included a few STILLS for the movie so you can see why my nerdy behind is so STOKED! And for ALL you haters... Just keep it pushin Please.
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| Image Source: Movie Pilot. Where's a benevolent Kryptonian when you need him? |
Topics: Existentialism, Nuclear Power, Politics, Star Trek
One of the premises of Star Trek is we'll overcome our technological infancy, our myriad differences with one another, and somewhat Pollyannish: nuclear war. That we'll survive - in the spirit of the Drake Equation - not just long enough to communicate, but to become a space-faring species.
Some of that optimism has a limit: a 280-character limit.
The president* can launch a thermonuclear first strike or counterstrike presently without any consultation with Congress. A relic of the Cold War with the former Soviet Union, speed and efficiency was encouraged when we had more rational actors in possession of the nuclear football. It takes about 5 minutes for ICBMs; 15 minutes for submarine launched missiles to be deployed once the order is given. In the event of negative findings from the Mueller investigation, he could literally have "nothing to lose." There are no calling these "dogs of war" back once they're off-the-porch.
The world moved closer to an existential catastrophe this year as the threat of nuclear warfare escalated, bringing the symbolic Doomsday Clock two minutes away from midnight, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said Thursday.
The move of the Doomsday Clock to two minutes away from midnight, the symbolic time at which the planet meets a world-ending disaster, represents a 30-second jump from last year. It is the closest the planet has been to midnight since 1953 when the U.S. and the Soviet Union were testing hydrogen bombs.
“To call the world’s nuclear situation dire is to understate the danger and its immediacy,” said Rachel Bronson, president of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
The Nuclear 'Doomsday Clock' Is the Closest to Midnight It's Been Since the Cold War, TIME
FYI
http://blackrockcoalition.org/gigs/screening/
Hurry, this invite opens to the public on January 24, 2018
How to get your seats...
We're so excited about the Black Panther movie
that we rented out a theater just for BRC friends & fam.
Before we open the floodgates & invite e'rybody on our e-list,
we're offering 1st shot at seats to BRC members.
The theater only holds 100, so reserve yours today.
$20 per seat (doesn't include $20 food & drink minimum).
Be one of the first 50 to reserve a seat
and get a BRC + BuddhaBug Records Swag Bag.
Followed by a panel moderated by GREG TATE + special guests.
LIMITED SPACE, RESERVE YOUR SEATS NOW.
Click to Reserve
A Collaboration Between the Black Rock Coalition
& BuddhaBug Records Artist Dope Sagittarius
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“What is it Bastet ? It’s too earl…”
Before she could finish her phrase, the rays of the dawning sun going through the window of her bedroom had already dazzled her. Her cat sat on the little place she could find on her mistress’s bed next to the pillow where she laid her head. “Always the same with you, never letting me oversleep a little, but you still get to sleep whenever you like while I have to heal our patients during the day.” Bastet seemed more interested by Bounefer’s locs than her remarks and reached towards them with her paws. Bounefer didn’t give the little creature a chance to get to the prize as she started stretching her arms and was now sitting while still yawning. Bastet’s disappointment was not for long, as she jumped straight on her mistress’ thighs and sat there. Bounefer started caressing the black cat behind her pointy ears. She named her Bastet in honor of the Netjeru Bastet, often represented as a female cat, and who brings joy in one’s home. “You can’t get enough of me carrying you like a baby every morning”, said Bounefer as she stood up to get out of her room, “you must be hungry by now, but first let’s thank the ancestors and the spirits for this new day.”
As she walked through the corridor, with the mewing Bastet on her arms, Bounefer could occasionally hear faint snores from patients of the hospital. “We’ve had a lot of patients lately, far too many”, Bounefer thought. “Keeping the city healthy is our duty, teach the people how to eat well and stay healthy, the less patients we have in this hospital, the better”, she would often tell the nurses working with her. Those above normal numbers of patients were due to the recent troubles made by the rebels of the Tehenu people, whose ancestors were defeated centuries earlier by the great pharaoh Djehutymessou Neferkheperou, who extended the empire of Kemet to its largest size, successfully defending it from the aggression of both the Tehenu of the east and the People of the Sea from North and West. The Tehenu seemed to never have forgotten or forgiven this defeat, and now even though those integrated could do business or own land for many generations, some of them were now attacking innocent civilians, looting and causing insecurity in Denderah, the town of the Netjeru Hathor. The day before, Bounefer and her nurses had to welcome and treat 15 people wounded in an attack caused by bandits. For Bounefer, the claims of the rebels were merely a pretext. She indeed recently treated a lot of innocent Tehenu who were wounded by similar senseless acts of violence, which to her was proof that all this violence was committed for the selfish interest of a few among the Tehenu. Just like many people in Denderah, she suspected Psammetic, a fat rich cupid merchant, as the instigator of those acts, in the shadows of course, as such a man would operate. Psammetic’s wealth made him want more and more, like rising to political power by taking office as governor of Denderah. However the authorities had reasons to believe he had ties with the Assyrians, an enemy kingdom. “Yet they do nothing”, would Bounefer often complain. This and the fact that this man had the nerve to offer money to her in exchange for spending a night together was enough for Bounefer to be filled with disgust at the thought of Psammetic.
“How can the authorities fear one traitorous man so much, the Assyrians are indeed strong, but we are Kemet! Well at least they understand the necessity of maintaining this hospital secure.” At that time she had accepted to take the money from the merchant. “With all his wealth, he must definitely give back to the city!” Bounefer cunningly thought. However the night when Psammetic sent his men to escort his “prize”, those were met by the hospital guards who beat some manners into them so hard that they never dared coming back. Psammetic felt that as a humiliation, but since the hospital was guarded on the governor’s orders, he couldn’t just take Bounefer by force. This daring act gave much satisfaction to Bounefer, but now she felt annoyed by the fact that the guards insisted on accompanying her whenever she went out, either to the market or to get some other business done, or to simply have a walk and get some fresh air. She wasn’t naïve though as she could clearly sense some were attracted to her. “As if the two of us needed security from men who wouldn’t even dare to face a fat cupid merchant and rid our city from those rebels, this is ridiculous, isn’t it Bastet?” said Bounefer while kissing Bastet’s on her tiny head. The cat simply mewed back as to show her agreement with her mistress.
To get to the shrine, Bounefer had to walk across the large courtyard of the hospital under her responsibility, coming from the building where both nurses and patients would sleep. Bounefer took a left detour to get in a smaller building. As she entered through the door, she walked past the medicines room where her assistant Heqet stood, not noticing yet Bounefer’s presence. Bastet dropped from Bounefer’s arms as she continued to get to the kitchen in the next room. There she filled a jar with some milk, then filled a smaller one with water. Taking a filled jar with each hand, she moved back towards the medicines room. Heqet, who had not noticed her at first, was now fully aware of her presence thanks to Bastet sitting next to her feet. The young woman’s hair stood up on her whole head, holding somehow a wooden comb which handle rested on her forehead. She looked at Bounefer with her brown eyes full of excitement.
“Hotep Seba, have you slept well?” Seba is a title of respect given to one’s teacher.
“Shemhotep Heqet, I have, thank you. I could have slept a little more though, but I guess Bastet is the one who decides about that!” Bounefer replied with a chuckle, to which Heqet replied herself with an endearing smile looking at the cat playing with her white linen dress. “I see you’re still working on those plants mixtures, I hope Bastet hasn’t distracted you too much”.
“Oh not at all, I enjoy having her around, besides I finally found the right dosage of bissap and nebeday powders to make the already treated patients recover faster and have their immune system as good as new.”
“You’ll never cease to amaze me, keep up the good work then, is our patients’ breakfast ready?”
“Yes it is, as soon as they wake up, I will take it to them”
“Good, I’m going to the shrine, then I will go check how well our stubborn soldier is doing. If there is anything wrong, don’t hesitate to call me”
“I will, by the way you and Shemai have been rather close lately, that’s unlike you Seba ”, teased Heqet while still smiling.
“Come on don’t be silly”, laughed Bounefer, then turning to Bastet, she whistled, which made the cat follow her.
Heqet was her most reliable and gifted nurse. Bounefer had appointed her as her personal assistant for that reason. Not only was her knowledge of medicinal plants incredible for her young age, her sensitivity and compassion towards patients stood out compared with the others and Bounefer herself. Some former patients came back offering her gifts of gratitude after being cured due to the little things she would help them with like walking around the courtyard and letting them lean on her for those whose legs hurt. Some male patients would even go as far as to suggest something beyond her nursing duties, which she would often take as a joke and laugh about. “You’re sometimes too kind for your own good, don’t encourage patients’ foolishness ” would Bounefer often say to Heqet. Despite these admonitions, Bounefer had great trust in Heqet. Bounefer had received a substantial amount of gifts herself, and those weren’t only to give her credit for putting this hospital in place. Her dazzling beauty was renowned in Denderah, as many men would tell her beauty rivaled that of the Netjeru Hathor herself, which she served. Her smooth and very dark skin and her piercing black eyes had hypnotized many. But still all her suitors were met with a more than clear rejection.
Getting back to the courtyard, Bounefer noticed a black muscular man with bandages on his chest doing what appeared like acrobatic dancing moves. With a sigh, she continued walking towards the shrine while Bastet ran to get near the acrobat.
Once she reached the shrine, she kneeled and placed the jars next to her. She bended over touching the grass with her head thanking the Creator, who had many names such as Atoum, Ptah or Neith for implanting her/his vital force on everything in this universe. She straightened her back, repeating the same movement, this time thanking the spirits or Netjeru as they were called, for their involvement in maintaining balance in the universe, the essential role of Ma’at. She particularly thanked Hathor, Bastet and after some hesitation Sekhmet, those Netjeru who she felt the closest to. While straightening her back yet again, she looked at the little wooden statue of Sekhmet put on the shrine. The Netjeru was depicted as a woman with the head of a lioness, her eyes seemed to penetrate into Bounefer’s soul, which made her feel uneasy. Sekhmet was as much feared for her uncontrollable ferocity and murderous bloodlust as she was praised for her ability to heal diseases. Bounefer knew about this complex duality all to well. “Why me? Why do I have to carry such a curse?” She thought, while looking at Sekhmet. She then proceeded to greet the Ancestors, both from her family and those renowned in Kemet for their wisdom and knowledge of the medicinal art. Among the latter, there was of course Imhotep, the greatest of them all. After properly greeting all those spiritual entities, she then proceeded to pour libations as offerings to them, with the milk and water she had brought in the two jars. She poured all the water and half the milk on the grass just in front of the shrine. As usual, the last drop of milk honored her grandmother, “To you, my protector Nefertari Bounefer!” The other half of the milk would be for Bastet. In a curious way, Bounefer considered this milk for Bastet as an offering to Hathor, in her joyful feline form, due in no small way to the special nature of the cat she had received from her grandmother. “You will endure a lot of hardships, let her be your faithful companion through all of those”, the old lady had told her while putting the tiny black kitten on her little arms when she was still a young girl. The black cat was born on her seventh birthday. Bastet had never left her since, outliving all other normal cats. They were twin souls, their fates tied forever.
Bastet ran in circles around the acrobat. The unusual movements attracted her attention. Shemai had with him a little red ball he threw to the cat for her to play with. Bastet, always ready for a new distraction, started moving the ball back and forth between her paws. Shemai moved left and right, his legs leaving a cross shaped imprint on the sandy, yet hard ground. He moved his hands according to the position of his legs, placing the elbow at the side of his rear leg almost in front of his chin while the other arm would keep him in balance in a guarding stance fashion. He would adapt the rhythm of both his movements and his breathing to the imaginary rhythm of drums that played in his head. From time to time he would launch a kick with a stretched out leg drawing a circle in front of him while changing his stance, and chain it with another similar kick with the other leg and in the same direction. Or he would simply change his stance as to dodge some imaginary attack coming from both sides. As he followed one of those dodge stances with a cartwheel, Bastet’s ball unexpectedly flew towards his head when he already had one leg in the air. Bastet’s overexcitement with her new toy made her throw it towards the intriguing dancer. Shemai skillfully stopped his cartwheel motion, maintaining himself balanced on his hands and with a little headbutt, threw the ball back to his feline playmate. He was now doing pushups with only his hands touching the ground while arching his back and successively bending and stretching his legs.
Bounefer witnessed the whole spectacle while heading to the high statue of Hathor in the middle of the courtyard. The statue represented the Netjeru Hathor with two horns on her head carrying a disc representing Rê, the sun. On her left, the sculptor had placed a tall cat in a sitting position and whose head was at the level of the woman’s generously curvy hips. On her right stood a cobra at the same height as the cat. The cobra probably suggested the role Hathor could take as Ouadjet, protector of Rê and all pharaohs, the latter would always put her on top of their forehead. The cat of course symbolized the two feline aspects of the enigmatic feminine entity, the cute playful and protective Netjeru Bastet, and of course Sekhmet, the dangerous lioness whom, according to the legend, Rê unleashed to punish the unruly men, in the beginnings of humanity. Bounefer took a little bowl at the feet of the cat statue, filled it with the rest of the milk, and went towards her cat, still playing with the red ball. Bastet immediately stopped her little game as soon as she felt her mistress approaching, somehow remembering she had to fill her belly. She already started drinking when Shemai finally stopped his pushups. Crouching next to her cat, Bounefer stared disapprovingly at Shemai, her current patient.
“You haven’t fully recovered yet, I told you to rest, you were barely alive a week ago”
“Hey I can’t help it if you’re a good healer Nefri” replied Shemai with a sardonic smile.
“How did you call me?”
“Nefri, it’s a cool nickname isn’t it?”
“No it’s not, and stop it already with these moves, your breathing is already getting irregular” scolded Bounefer, while Shemai put himself back in his guarding stance.
“I think that may have less to do with my training than your presence, and it’s called ginga by the way” Shemai retorted with a teasing smile. He then walked and sit on the bare ground right next to Bounefer and Bastet.
“Whatever!” Bounefer couldn’t help it as a faint quick smile changed her normally stern looking face. It was barely noticeable and by the time she turned towards her sitting patient, she already shifted back to her serious face.
“Was that the dancing martial art you told me about?”
“Yes, exactly, I usually practice every day, it helps me stay fit, and I feel less nostalgic about being far from Kush.”
“You put too much weight on your front leg whenever you’re doing this ginga thing, that puts too much stress on your knees, practice long enoug and they’ll eventually wear off.”
“Really! It’s true sometimes my knees hurt a little” nodded Shemai, “that’s very perceptive of you, it’s only the first time you saw me practice, and you’re already making remarks just like my former master”
“I can’t help it if I am an experienced healer!” teased back Bounefer.
Shemai chuckled, “Sure you are, I bet there is even more to you, there is something mysterious about you Nefri!”
“Stop calling me that!” sighed Bounefer, and after a brief pause “Let me check your wounds”
She then proceeded to examine his torso. When it came to diagnosing patients through touch, no one could rival Bounefer. Her heightened senses allowed her to even understand internal organs malfunctions. This skill revealed extremely helpful for holistic healing, as she could somehow see through all the connections between the body’s organs. This way she saved many patients, who apparently only had benign symptoms, from potentially very dangerous diseases, as she dialogued with their body to trace the real source of their problem. In the case of Shemai however, it was quite simple, he was in rather good health now as his handsome appearance would suggest. The only reason he was brought to Bounefer is because an arrow had pierced his lung, while he was fighting singlehandedly a group of Tehenu scoundrels threatening to loot and wreak havoc in a near district. One of the locals brought him to her, and Shemai had been very lucky that day, since the arrow pierced merely an inch away from his heart.
“You’re really blessed to have been brought here in time” she told him, while checking his bandages
“Indeed. But things would have turned out differently if I were not the only one fighting though. I think you Kemites are a little too kind with those Tehenu rebels. In Kush they would have been dealt with by now.”
“Well that’s definitely an insult coming from someone who confuses dancing and fighting!” said Bounefer mockingly.
Shemai started laughing heartedly, but a brief pain struck him right on his chest wound, “Ouch!”
“Easy, easy now, breathe calmly”, Bounefer whispered, still checking the lung wound for any possible complication.
“Tsk, don’t be fooled by appearances, this dance as you say can be very useful in real situations”, he said after taking a deep breath. Besides, you of all people should know one thing could be many at the same time, as you are a servant of Hathor of the thousand forms.”
Hearing those last words, a shadow went across Bounefer’s face as unpleasant memories went through her head.
“Did I offend you?” asked Shemai, a little worried.
“What? No, not at all, it’s nothing!”
“Okay, then. Are you done with checking my health, or do you enjoy having your hands on quite a handsome man’s chest. Not that I have any problem with it.”
“You’re impossible” laughed Bounefer, “Go back to your room now, order from your healer. I’ll come back later to change your bandages they are all wet with your sweat.”
“All right, all right! I’m going back.”
Bastet had already finished her milk, and as usual she took the bowl with her mouth and placed it right under the cat statue. Afterwards, the cat ran back to her mistress, mewing happily, and was welcomed with a tender smile. Taking her cat in her arms, Bounefer watched as Shemai walked away from them. “What a brave man, unlike most in this city”, she thought to herself. As she brought Bastet closer to her breasts, facing her, the cat simply started playing with one of her locs. “The two of us can’t have a normal life, can we? No man in this world would be safe with us” Bounefer whispered, “At least I can share the burden of this curse with you, I would have gone insane otherwise.” Bastet didn’t seem to pay attention, focusing on her new game. Bounefer stood there for a while, remembering the words of her now dead grandmother : “You can only be with a man who can stop Sekhmet herself.” “Grandma, there is no such man”, Bounefer thought with a sad look on her face.
***
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| Sacred Cow Disease - JKS Talent Network |
Topics: Civics, Commentary, Existentialism, Politics, Research, STEM
As a species, most of what we have come to know as science and develop its different branches as well as engineering comes from our hunter-gatherer ancestors in Africa or Pangaea, dependent on the state of our sphere's geological evolution.
I'm an anomaly as a graduate student. I'm "non-traditional" in that I started this program on my 55th birthday (my children are adult men). I'm an African American having majored in physics and again majoring in a STEM field (Nanoengineering), which is interesting in a place LIKE America.
America: Where it's important to "debate" the efficacy of creationism vs. evolution; whether the universe is 6,000 or 13.8 billion (at least as far as our telescopes can currently see) years old. Where Bill Nye the Science Guy can have a public "debate" with Ken Ham of the morbidly performing (monetarily) Creation Museum. Where the COSMOS reboot can have online trolls and will likely have them again in March. Where anti-vaccine advocates finally got a president* that will let them affect the CDC notion of herd immunity and might kick off the next pandemic, courtesy of the USA.
AS RESEARCH FOR his latest novel, The Quantum Spy, Washington Post reporter David Ignatius spoke with some of the world’s leading experts on quantum computing, which led him to believe that we may see a working quantum computer in the next five years.
“Initially what I would hear back from technologists was, ‘it’s fascinating if it works,’ and I hear more now ‘fascinating when it works,'” Ignatius says in Episode 291 of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. “There’s a sense that these problems probably can be solved.”
The downside is that a quantum computer would be the cyber warfare equivalent of a nuclear bomb, which means the US government is often reluctant to let foreign scientists work on the most promising research. It’s a system that can slow down progress due the lack of ‘smart Americans,’ as one character in the book puts it.
“The number of American citizens who can do very high-end research who also can easily get security clearances is limited,” Ignatius says. “The ability of our schools to produce American students at a world-class level, that’s an important national challenge.” [1]
...lack of 'smart Americans'...ouch!
I'm a product of Sputnik scaring the bejesus out of America and a slew of money was put in public education...fast, to catch us up with the Russians (you know, back-in-the-day when we weren't colluding with them to topple our federal republic). The country invested in education from a republican president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and continued through successive administrations regardless of party affiliation, the ONE thing at the time we could all agree on as a country.
Now, stupidity is a virtue. To be too smart is a liability, especially if you're female, a minority or other-than white Anglo Saxon Protestant (WASP). It's the equivalent of barring slaves from reading the Bible (the whole "setting the captives free" thing), and some actively discouraging their fellows from the dangers of learning. And just for icing on the cake, the previous year's Doomsday estimate of two one half minutes has been moved up by 30 seconds: it is now two minutes to midnight. As a former high school nerd that used to be terrorized by the football athletes and the Barbie-perfect cheerleaders, it appears the "beautiful people" have won, dangerously dumb as they are.
It also appears fear - a great motivator sales agents, especially in the home security industry use to the HILT - has triumphed. Part of the attraction to Creationism, Intelligent Design and "Alternative Facts" is that actual facts shake strongly held beliefs that humans tend to challenge to right their cognitive dissonance. It never occurs that the text of several cultures was limited by the technology of the times. For example, "cattle on a thousand hills" is a specific reference to enormous size, usually associated with wealth. The etymology of the word "million" did not enter the lexicon until circa the 14th Century. From the link at Etymology online: "The ancient Greeks had no name for a number greater than ten thousand, the Romans for none higher than a hundred thousand. "A million" in Latin would have been decies centena milia, literally "ten hundred thousand." To say to an ancient culture: "King David was a millionaire and his son Solomon was a billionaire" would have had no meaning to the audience at that time.
A great analogy by Joe Madison on Sirius XM used a petri dish to describe culture: when you place a bacterial sample in the petri, a culture usually grows, his point being whatever you encourage will eventually manifest. Again, when you deal in nonsense, you get it. I'd be greatly confused as a young person in public education now. WHAT exactly do you want me to study? based on what our culture currently values: actors, athletes, charlatan ministers fleecing their flocks with promises of spiritual "trickle-down" wealth; not doctors, scientists or engineers. The careers of the future necessarily involves hard, demonstrable FACTS. International industries will follow the brain power - away from us, thus other places will see a rise in their middle classes while ours struggles, stumbles and falters ever downward. The peddling of the alternative type [of facts] is undermining our trust in institutions like our intelligence services and our government. Anarchy only sounds noble, and it doesn't eventually work itself out to Nirvana. It's usually - by the evidence of historical, documented FACTS - a failed state.
"One of the things taken out of the curriculum was civics," Zappa went on to explain. "Civics was a class that used to be required before you could graduate from high school. You were taught what was in the U.S. Constitution. And after all the student rebellions in the Sixties, civics was banished from the student curriculum and was replaced by something called social studies. Here we live in a country that has a fabulous constitution and all these guarantees, a contract between the citizens and the government – nobody knows what's in it...And so, if you don't know what your rights are, how can you stand up for them? And furthermore, if you don't know what's in the document, how can you care if someone is shredding it?" [2], [3]
[1] Why Aren’t There More Smart Americans? Stephen Voss, Wired "Geeks Guide to the Galaxy"
[2] "Notes From the Dangerous Kitchen," a review and a quote from Frank Zappa, Critics at Large
[3] America's Best Selling Pocket Constitution Book, Constitution Facts dot com
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| The image on the left shows the apparatus and the 3D image of a man. The trapping and illumination light emerges from the lens at the left of the man. The image on the right is a close-up of the 3D image of the man. (Courtesy: D E Smalley et al/Nature) |
Topics: Holograms, Optical Physics, Science Fiction, Star Wars
A technique to create multi-coloured 3D images that can share space with physical objects has been developed by researchers in the US. The work is at an early stage, but it offers several potential advantages over currently available techniques for creating 3D images such as holography.
The technology used by the android R2D2 to project the 3D video footage of Princess Leia pleading "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi: you're my only hope" into thin air was never explained in the film Star Wars. Scientists, however, have invented several technologies capable of producing the impression of 3D images. The best known, and most widely used is holography, in which a 2D surface sends light to the eye in such a way that the brain reconstructs this light as having come from a 3D object. Unfortunately, this optical illusion only works for a fairly narrow range of viewing angles: "Holograms and displays like them are based on 2D modulating surfaces that have to be looked at like a TV screen," explains Daniel Smalley of Brigham Young University in Utah, "You always have to be looking into the screen to see it."
In a volumetric display, however, the light originates from where your eye sees the image. Such displays have several advantages over holograms. As the image does not rely on an optical illusion, for example, it is unaffected by the viewing angle. "You can be lying flat on the ground and you can see what's coming up out of the display," says Smalley. Furthermore, it is (at least in principle) possible to wrap the image around the viewer or another physical object.
Display creates 3D images that can be viewed from many angles, Tim Wogan, Physics World
I remember a line from the X-Files. One of the Navajo characters said something like "truth never stays buried. it always finds a way to the surface."
In this news article, literally.
In the summer of 1860, half a century after the United States banned the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Capt. William Foster sneaked 110 African slaves into Mobile, Ala. — and knew that the floating evidence of the illegal deed could get him killed.
The trip was more part of an obscene bet than any sort of profit-making scheme, but the Clotilda, the ship that made the months-long journey, held the telltale signs that it was an illegal slaver: containers for water and food, and the lingering stench of urine and feces and vomit and blood.
If caught, Foster and his crew could be imprisoned or executed, so they found a remote section of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta and torched the ship, igniting a mystery that would endure for a century and a half.
What happened to the Clotilda, the last ship to bring slaves to the United States?
If you're looking for a good ripped-from-the-headlines ghost story to write for Black History Month, here you go.
