Matthew S. Williams's Blog, page 151

The White House’s Death Star Petition

Remember a few weeks back when the White House was petitioned to conduct a feasibility study on the building of the USS Enterprise? Well, as it turns out, it received another petition at that time, similar in theme, but bolder by several orders of magnitude. The petition, which was filed in November of 2012 and got 34,435 signatures, was for the White House to build a real-life Death Star by 2016.

You read that right, a real-life Death Star. Yes, the petitioners seemed to think that the USS Enterprise wasn’t a big enough project, and the 20 year window for completing it too long. So instead, they recommend the Obama administration commit to building a massive, planet-destroying space station and to do it within the next four years.

And as it turns out, the petition got a response. Since it met the minimum requirement of 24,000 signatures, the White House was obliged to let the petitioners know exactly what they thought of their idea. Their answer came in the form of a cheekily titled document entitled “This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For”, and listed some of many, many reasons why the US couldn’t commit to such a program. Here is the opening section of the reply, as made by Paul Shawcross, chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget:

“The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn’t on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:

The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We’re working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?”

Not the cheekiness of the reply. He then went on to tout NASA’s accomplishments in the last few years, drawing attention to recent advances in robotics, the International Space Station, Curiosity’s Mission to Mars, commercial space flight, and the possibility of building an outpost on the moon. This, he claims, are evidence that “we are living in the future!”, after which he urges the petitioners to “Enjoy it,” and even encourages them to consider a career in science and space.

What’s more, the report was filled with many tongue-in-cheek Star Wars references. For example, at one point he states “Even though the United States doesn’t have anything that can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, we’ve got two spacecraft leaving the Solar System and we’re building a probe that will fly to the exterior layers of the Sun.” Clever. If you ever want to draw attention to the Voyager spacecraft or the Solar Probe, just compared it to the Millennium Falcon.

He also mentioned President Obama’s hosting of the White House science fairs and astronomy events, where he playfully danced around with a toy lightsaber to the delight of the crowd, and how the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency work on robotics and bionic limbs would lead to the creation of “Luke’s arm”. And the sign-off line left no doubts as to the tone of this response, playful, yet stalwart and optimistic:

“If you do pursue a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field, the Force will be with us! Remember, the Death Star’s power to destroy a planet, or even a whole star system, is insignificant next to the power of the Force.”

Take that, frivolous petitioners! You just got poned! To read the entire response (trust me, its worth your time!), click on the following link and be glad there are civil servants like this out there!

Source: blastr.com, petitions.whitehouse.gov

The Future is Here: Paper-Thin Computers

Score one for Canadian researchers and ingenuity! Oh, and Intel and Plastic Logic helped out a little bit It’s known as the PaperTab, a revolutionary concept which builds on the paper-thin smartphone and recent advances in AMOLED flexible displays. The design made the rounds at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and it turned quite a few heads!

As already noted, the PaperTab incorporates the latest in display and flexible technology to create a 10.7-inch e-ink touchscreen display, powered by a Core i5 processor. Users control it by bending and flexing, touching the screen, and tapping one tab to the next. But instead of using it like a normal tablet, the idea is that you have lots of PaperTabs, with each tablet representing a different app – such as email, a typeface, a browser, a and so on.

This might sound like a bit of a downgrade, but the coolest thing about this new computing paradigm is that each PaperTab is aware of other PaperTabs in its proximity. You might push two PaperTabs together to extend an app onto two screens, or you could attach a file to an email by simply tapping one PaperTab on another. In this way, a PaperTab functions like an ordinary document, but with the added benefit of being electronic and transferable.

As it stands, the concept is merely a tech demo being put on by researchers from Queen’s University and corporate reps from Intel and Plastic Logic. No other information is currently available from any of these sources, but it’s likely more will trickle down to the market now that CES 2013 has wrapped up and they don’t need to keep us guessing anymore. And if I were a betting man, I’d say they’ll be available in packs of five or ten, for roughly the same price as an IPad 7 since they’ll probably be coming out at the same time.

Check out the video below of the PaperTab on display at CES 2013 and the demo the team provided:

Pappa Zulu – Chapter 44

“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason? Why if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”

-John Harrington

The door slid shut behind him. Many faces sat in the middle of the room, the same look painted on their features. They all looked up the moment Ross walked in, their expressions changing suddenly to admit a ray of hope. Their voices raise as one, a million questions coming to them at once.

“Doctor, what’s happening?”

“Are you okay?”

“Did they say what they wanted?”

“What’s going to happen to us?”

He raised his hands and pleaded with them for quiet. It took a moment of urging and he needed to raise his voice, but soon they were listening, even sitting again on the room’s couches. He had done his best to arrange for a chance of scenery for them. In the last few hours, they had gone from a holding cell to the floor’s main rec room. The least they could do was take advantage of it.

“Everything’s going to be fine,” he said calmly. “We’ve had a very rough day, but it’s going to get better from here.”

“What are you talking about?” Watts asked. He looked Ross up and down, no doubt noticing the clean gown he wore. As one of the perks of Graph and his discussion, he had been permitted the chance to change his clothes and don a more fitting outfit. He was glad they noticed, as they also needed to change their vestments from the looks of them.

“I mean, you can expect better treatment at the hands of your captors. They don’t want to hurt us; in fact, they want our help. It’s only because of a simple misunderstanding that you were all placed in holding cells to begin with. But you can thank me and a certain somebody else for clearing that up.”

They began to look at each other, looks of confusion barely concealed on their faces.

“Doctor… who are these men?” asked Sykes. Ross crossed his arms and took a deep breath. Yes, this seemed as appropriate a spot as any to begin from.

“Ladies, gentlemen… I regret to inform you of this, but it seems that the Mage, or Major General Thur, as some of us know him, is a fraud. He’s been running this base and this part of the country with an iron fist for some time, and as it turns out, he never had leave to do so. Whatever air of authority he’s been putting on for the last few years has been entirely false. These men merely came here to reign him in.”

That didn’t seem to clear up their confusion. If anything, it made it worse.

“You see, the General was sent here some time ago to take charge of the situation. That much is true. However, just about everything he’s told us since then has been a lie. He said the government had essentially fallen, that was a lie. He said this outpost that we had created was one of the last vestiges of civilization left in the country. That too was a lie. As it turns out, the capitol is still intact, the government is up and running, but since he didn’t like taking his orders from the center, he decided to carve out his own little empire out here. And now his time is up.”

“That’s impossible,” Watts replied. “We all know Thur, he’s not the kind of man to lie like this. He’s not some sociopath, he’s a soldier. His kind takes orders, they don’t try to carve out their own empires. We – ” he began looking at the others for some signs of agreement. He got only muddled looks in response and began to stutter wildly.

“I know, its difficult to accept,” Ross said. “But I think if you consider it fairly, you’ll find it makes perfect sense. All this time he was in struggle with the people back east, the ones who’ve been running the government since the First Wave hit. He came out this way to oversee this base and to protect people in the region, but he got it in his head that he could take over the whole country if he wanted to and he chose to do just that.”

“Yeah, but-” Amaru began. Ross cut him off.

“Why else would he have us working so tirelessly on a vaccine? Why did he send people into LA to find this “patient zero” when there were plenty of other bases and commanders closer to the city? It’s because he wanted to beat others to the punch. He knew that whoever had the vaccine would be in a position of strength and would likely be the person who started rebuilding the country once all the infected were removed.” He shook his head and spread his arms wide. “He wanted it all for himself. It’s the only explanation.”

He let that sit with them for a moment. As it stood, they still seemed to want to cling to their denials, continue to pretend the man was their friend and looking out for them. But he could see in their eyes that they were considering it, just as he had when Graph had put it to him.

“Sir, there is one other possibility” Amaru said finally.

Ross looked at him plainly. “Oh?”

“Have you considered the possibility that these men are the ones making a play here? What if Thur was in a hurry to make sure the vaccine didn’t fall into the wrong hands?”

Ross shook his head. “That’s ridiculous.”

“Is it?” Sykes said. “What do we even know about these people? They come here, they attack us, kill our friends and colleagues, and we’re going to just embrace what they tell us? Where’s the sense in that?”

Ross raised his hands and continued to shake his head. Amaru’s logic seemed to be spreading, and they were quickly falling back into their denials.

“No, you’re not listen-”

“Sir, the only thing you’ve got to go on here is the word of some man… what’s his name?”

“Graph,” Ross said angrily. “He-”

“Is telling you what you want to hear!” Sykes shouted. “Seriously, Doctor, how stupid are you?”

Ross’ face flushed and his eyes went wide. “What did you say?”

“She’s saying you’ve been played,” Amaru said plainly. “He told you what you wanted to hear and now you’re prepared to jump ship because of it. It’s what you’ve wanted, right?”

“Everybody knows you hate the Mage,” Watts said before Ross could object. “You and he have been butting heads since day one. You’re just believing this guy because he’s given you a reason.”

“A reason that goes beyond mere ego, you mean,” Sykes said to Watts. Watts laughed.

Ross’ face was now burning with rage. All at once, they had risen up against him. He tried in vain to find the words that could encapsulate his rage right now, but none came. He continued to shake his head, his face becoming hotter with every passing second.

He looked at each of them in turn, at Sykes, the woman he had brought aboard because of her comely appearance and long legs but who continuously spurned his advances. What the hell was she avoiding it for? Everyone knew her qualifications included her appearance and she couldn’t expect to be taken seriously otherwise.

He looked at Amaru, the plain face and even planer spoken man who was talented where cellular biology was concerned, but who he knew suffered from some form of ASD. No one would have given him a chance, not with the discomfort he was known to engender in people.

And finally he looked at Watts, the biggest disappointment of them all. Who the hell was he to bring up ego? That petty sonofabitch just couldn’t stand not being the alpha male of the group! His talents were limited and his misgivings nothing but the result of his own insecurity. He was a patent example of someone who did not suffer from an inferiority complex, but was simply inferior.

He had made them, and now they were turning on him. His voice caught in his throat, but he managed to force it out in increments.

“You stupid… ungrateful… useless people!” he bellowed finally. “I brought you into this group, I made you a part of something greater than you could ever imagine, and this is how you repay me? With accusations and second-guessing?!”

There was quiet for a moment. No one said anything. Instead, they all just glared at him knowingly. He wasn’t sure why, but that only made him angrier.

“I come to you bringing truth and you’d spurn it and turn against me? Well fine, I guess that’s what a weak mind does when it’s faced with something it can’t handle! But you know what, it really doesn’t matter! I was going to take you with me, but as far as I’m concerned, you can all rot here with the Mage!”

“Wha- take us with you?” Sykes asked. Ross turned his baleful eyes at her. Of all that he had said, it was strange that she was focusing on that. He would have imagined the prospect of being left behind would have been more noteworthy.

“Yes! I’m going back to the capitol with these men here. You didn’t think they’d be staying did you? Once they’ve taken care of the Mage, they are heading back east and I’ve been asked to come with them.”

“Taken care of the Mage?” Watts echoed. Ross grunted loudly. Why did they continue to focus on the irrelevant parts of what he was saying?

“Yes, and as I said-”

It was no use. They had raised their voices again and were all demanding to know the same thing. He tried to shut them up, to yell over them, but their voices were far too insistent.

“What are they going to do to the Mage?”

“Are they going to kill him?”

“Why are you helping them?”

“Do you hate him that much?”

“They’re going to kill him, just like they did Li!”

That stopped everyone in their tracks. Ross looked wide-eyed at the source, which just happened to Sykes, standing in the middle of them.

“What did you say?” he asked.

“They killed Li,” she repeated. “They shot him after they took you away.”

“No, that’s impossible. Graph insisted that he was being -”

“They shot him in the face!” Watts yelled. “He moved or something so they shot him. Right there on the ground, like he was some rabid fucking animal!”

Another moment of quiet, terrible and long. Ross felt a sickly feeling coming over him. All eyes were on him and he could feel the bale being directed at him now. His face, which had been burning hot until now, suddenly felt very cold.

“No… they said…”

“These are the people you want to help, doc,” Sykes repeated. “They killed one of your people, now they want to kill the Mage, and they’ll say whatever they have to to make you cooperate with them.”

“And its obvious why, they need you,” added Amaru. Watts scoffed.

“Yeah, but we all know they didn’t have to lie, right? Everybody knows the doc here would have helped them for free.”

Ross looked at him angrily. He wanted to let loose on him again, but once more, no words would come. What was more, the fires that were raging inside him were dead too. His entire body had gone cold, chilled by the united front he was now facing and the prospect that the only one of his helpers he had ever liked in the slightest was indeed dead at the hands of his new found friends.

For the next few seconds, he looked back and forth between them, not knowing what to say. He eventually stopped trying and turned away. He made for the door as fast as his feet would carry him and departed the rec room, leaving the three helpers he had left behind.

Pappa Zulu – Chapter 43

“In order to properly understand the big picture, everyone should fear becoming mentally clouded and obsessed with one small section of truth.”

-Xun Zi

A cold wind was beginning to whip through the building. The large hole in the north-facing facade had seen to that. At this height, on the second story, all the cold northerly winds that were blowing into the valley were focused and funneled into the command building. Graph stood as close as he dared to the edge and watched, letting the seasonal winds push past him and cool him in his dress uniform.

In the next room, the gents were pouring over the Major General’s maps, hoping to gleam something of the man’s larger strategies. Though he was safely tucked away, they knew he still had many elements deployed that could harry their forces in the days and weeks that were to come. He hadn’t exactly left notes, but any indication of what his troops considered to be strong points and safe havens was being assessed.

He took the moment to be by himself before he would need to join them.

What did it for you, Thur? He asked himself, looking out at the peeks and forested hills in the distance. What does it take to make a man turn?

He could picture with little effort what it must have been like, arriving here those many months ago to a land being overrun by monsters. It was no secret why he had established his base of operations here, tucked away in the valley between the major highways and cities. Graph knew from all the records of note that Thur had arrived to find the state in complete disarray.

East and West were already being overrun by the infected, and the major cities to the south were already succumbing due to their positions at the crossroads. To make matters worse, more waves were pushing up from Mexico, the infected having scoured the major cities of Chihuahua and Ciudad Juarez and moving north in search of more food.

With all points of intersection under siege, he had had no choice but to fall back and create a fortress, a secured presence from which to protect those that were still salvageable and then begin pushing out again. But in that, he knew, the treason had already been borne.

The communiques between himself and Washington attested to the fact that he refused to simply dig in and wait for a cure. In his own words, fortifying and waiting were acts of “defeatism”, the kind of thing one did when they had resigned themselves to defeat. From that, his adventurism only grew, from sending his men and women in uniform out to fight the infected where they now lived, to trying to seek a cure for himself.

And that, Graph knew, had been the last straw. There were others, he knew, that seemed to think that Thur was on the right page, who wanted to follow his lead and adopt a bolder strategy. Hopefully, they would see the error in this soon. One thing the First Wave had not destroyed, contrary to what men like Thur insisted, was the chain of command. If they did intend to win this war outright, order needed to preserved, otherwise they were truly lost…

“Colonel?” a voice called to him from the adjoining room. Graph looked over and spotted the roundtable discussion, Montag standing prominently in the middle. All eyes were now upon him, his private moment now over. “Care to join us, sir?”

“Gladly,” Graph replied, stepping from the aperture in the north wall and heading into the side room to join them. The cool wind was immediately gone, the stifling sense of contained air and the musk of soldiers standing in close quarters. He looked down at the table they were standing around, the large map in the center marked up in various places. Montag’s hands were resting against several points on interest, his fingers tracing the features beneath them.

“Our best intel places the 2nd Battalion’s BCT here,” he said, pointing to Albuquerque. “The city was recently cleared, according to the General’s own records. It has an airport facility, so we can expect air defenses to be put up, and the soldiers have had the run of it for a few weeks, so we can expect them to be dug in. Their supply trains, however, will be compromised if we focus here,” he pointed to Santa Fe. “All our intel points towards this city as their main source of food, fuel and ammunition, since much of their stores were moved here in the last year. Mopping up will require that we hit both cities simultaneously, thus removing the chance of a counter-attack.”

“Sir,” said one of the Battalion commanders. “What about the vaccine we were told about? What’s our intel on that?”

Montag stood up and crossed his hands behind his back. He looked to his left, to where Bracho was standing in the background. A testament to the man’s training, he was even able to disappear in a crowded room. Some of the men looked surprised when he stepped forward.

“My men scoured the basement level, there was no sign of the patient. The only infected person on the premises was dead, and image recognition indicated that it was not him.”

“What’s more,” Montag added. “We have it on good authority that the patient were looking for stands about…” he put his hand to his neck, raised it to the top of his head, “this tall. A head, and nothing more.”

A quiet murmur went through the room. Even amongst hardened soldiers, some things could still be expected to cause disquiet.

“So then…” the same man asked. “If it’s not here, where they could have moved it?”

Montag looked at Graph expectantly. He stepped forward and made himself a place between two Captain’s.

“My conversations with the doctor are proceeding apace. However, he insists he doesn’t know where the General moved it to, just that he had personnel take it with them when the base came under attack.”

“There weren’t any evacuations taking place in the course of our offensive,” Montag added decisively. He leaned forward and placed his hands back on the map. “But our forces did not a number of vehicles moving from this location to the west end of town. What’s more, all resistance has been concentrated in that sector since our ground forces began to roll.” He looked up again, a glint in his eyes. “Which means it’s still here.”

Graph smiled too, though he didn’t share the Colonel’s optimistic appraisal of the situation. And he was not the only one given the question that came next. Another Battalion CO was the one to ask.

“Sir? What if they disposed of it, or it’s just not useable. What then?”

“Then, gentlemen, we had best hope that Doctor Ross is fit for travel.” He looked at Graph again, the message in his eyes coming through quite clearly. Yes, if indeed they found no trace of Pappa Zulu, there orders were quite clear.

Prep the doctor for travel to the capitol. Bring whatever resources and materials that he deems fit and prepare to star over on the vaccine.

As for the rest, well… As Graph had been told many times before by his own commanders, treason could not be tolerated. The war was not just with the infected, but with chaos, panic and disorder itself. Men who disobeyed, men who went rogue and sought their own agendas, they would not be suffered in the company of such pandemonium. If they were to win, no one could be allowed to break their oaths and take matters into their own hands.

Yes, on that, their orders were quite clear. The Mage, as his men called him, could not be allowed to survive this offensive. He would not being coming back to the capitol.

The Return of the Walking Dead

Season Three’s mid-season finale of the Walking Dead aired back in early December, and quite the cliffhanger it was! First, you had the tense standoff between Rick’s people and the Governor’s, the near-death scrape between Michonne and the Governor himself, and the capture of Daryle Dixon and his less-than-rosy reunification with his brother.

The first episode of the second half will be airing on February 10th, and AMC has released some promotional materials to stoke the fans and wet their appetites! The first is the poster featured at top. The second is the small blurb featured below:

“With his group in tatters, his sanity in question, and his own son questioning his every move, Rick (Andrew Lincoln) must somehow pull everyone together to face their greatest challenge — the Governor (David Morrissey).  In order to survive, he must risk everything, including the group’s very humanity.”

Yeah, that about covers it. Rick did go a little nutter-butters there after his wife, Lori, died giving birth to their daughter (nee “Little Ass Kicker”). And fans weren’t exactly led to believe he had pulled himself all the way back from the brink, had they? And after their little tete a tete with the Governor, things are kind of poised on the edge of a knife, with said Governor vowing vengeance to his people. No telling where things are going from here, but the smart money says its going to be ugly!

Man, I love this show! One month to go? Okay!

Pappa Zulu – Chapter 42

“All the business of war, and indeed all the business of life, is to endeavor to find out what you don’t know by what you do; that’s what I called ‘guessing what was at the other side of the hill.’”

-Arthur Wellesly, 1st Duke of Wellington

Another loud thud. Plumes of flame and black smoke shot up less than fifty meters from their position. The marauding Apaches had hit another car that had been abandoned by the roadside, igniting its fuel tanks and sending everybody veering.

The bumpers ahead slanted sharply right, then disappeared through the hail of smoke. Whitman pulled them through it and broke hard left again. He swore several times as he struggled to get their wheels righted, praying they didn’t stop suddenly or get hit by the hail of bullets that were falling around them.

“Watch out!” she yelled, as another explosion landed against the median to their left. A cloud of dirt and concrete was thrown up in front of them and Whitman couldn’t turn away in time. The windshield was peppered with chunks of both and cracked, and the force threw them to the right again.

“Shit, hang on!” Whitman cried, cranking their wheel to left. It was no use. Every crank of the wheel failed to change their course in time, and they jumped from the road and mounted the sidewalk. Somewhere beyond the curb, they came to a stop…

Dust rose all around them. Saunders put her hands to her helmet and tried to still the pounding inside her skull. She looked up to see what lay directly in front of them. A storefront window loomed large, a dusty nude mannequin staring back at her from behind the glass, flanked by display stands with no display items to speak of.

Was she suffering from head trauma and imaging things? Because at the moment, the eyes on the mannequin seemed to be following her even though they were no longer moving…

“Cocksucker! I think we broke the axle!”

Saunders looked over at Whitman, his face all hazy and distorted. He did look to be stroking the wheel, lamentably, as if mourning the loss of his baby. She snapped to when the leg beside her kicked and grazed her shoulder. Her head cleared further when she realized that their last maneuver may have very well have taken their gunner’s head off.

“Batista? You still okay?”

He moaned loudly. “Yeah. Good thing we stopped. A few more feet, I’d be-”

“Heads up!” Majorca yelled from the back. Saunders looked to his sector, did not see the choppers coming, but heard the rotors.

“Where are they?”

“They’re coming for another pass! I think they got us locked!”

Saunders looked at the storefront window, grabbed her SCAR. “Everybody, into the building now!”

Majorca’s door was open first, followed shortly behind by her and Morris. Batista was out of the gun well and jumping the roof when she noticed Whitman still inside.

“Billy! Get the fuck out!”

“I’m sorry,” he said, kissing his hand and pressing it to the wheel. Saunders didn’t have time to chastise him for the overly masculine display. What was it with boys and their machines?

“Into the store,” she yelled. The front door was directly in front of her and she took hold of the handle. The damn thing wouldn’t budge. The rotors sounded like they were getting a hell of a lot closer too…

“Stand back!” She raised her SCAR and popped off three rounds. The window shattered, the mannequin following over as thousands of shards descended upon it.

“Inside!” she yelled, gesturing with her gun. One by one, they jumped through, Majorca tucking and rolling as he rolled over the little stand that was holding the mannequin and other display tables aloft. She was the last in, and flew into the storefront just as the shrieking noise of rockets sounded a few hundred meters away.

Majorca and Batista grabbed her arms and pulled her towards them. With the added force of the explosion, she and her entire squad went flying halfway through the store and landed face first or head first on the store room floor. The last thing she remembered before temporarily blacking out was the smell of moldy carpet…

 

“Eyes front!” he yelled, as another explosions towards their rear and the driver tried to straighten them out again. Behind them, just about everything seemed to be engulfed by flames thanks to the enemy chopper’s rockets. And up ahead, there were plenty of clouds of flying dirt and exploding rounds sent up from the automatic fire.

Braun was had been thrown sideways in his seat several times now and tried to get steady, propping his rifle up on his leg with one hand while grabbing the roof mounted handle with the other. He looked ahead and counted their bumpers to make sure they still had everyone.

He counted two. Third was in the lead, and the one directly ahead was second.

He turned to their gunner and slapped his leg. The repeated rounds he was squeezing off made hitting necessary just to get his attention. “Francesco! You got eyes on Viper One One’s Victor?”

The drumming of the gun and the jingling of brass cases on the roof stopped momentarily. He looked down a second later to shout back.

“They’ve crashed, sir! And ditched! The second chopper’s firing on them.”

Braun would have cursed aloud, but there was no time. He grabbed the wheel from Vasquez and began turning it for him. The young driver quickly objected.

“Whoa, sir! What are you doing?”

“Turn us around! First Squad’s trapped back there!”

“Sir, I-” he was saying, but quickly found resistance to be futile. Adding his strength to Braun’s, they cranked the wheel around as he slammed on the brakes. Everyone in the cab was thrown to their right and Francesco was nearly thrown from the roof. Somehow, they had turned a full one-eighty and were now facing back towards the turn they had fled seconds earlier. The destroyed gun nest was smoking on the little traffic island up ahead to their left, and on to their right, 1st squad’s Humvee was burning in the store front window.

“Gun it!” Braun ordered Vasquez. The driver hesitated a second, but pushed the gas when the chopper’s bullets began to kick up asphalt around them again. Francesco’s gun began thrumming again too, .50 cal rounds getting off and zipping directly for the enemy chopper’s nose. They had made it a few dozen meters when Braun realized they were just driving into the maelstrom and he didn’t even know why. Running to pull Saunders and her squad out of harm, obviously. But he needed a plan.

Given the look of terror on his face, Vasquez was clearly worried about the same thing.

“Sir, what do I do?” he asked.

Braun looked around hastily. From the sheltered turnoff on their left to the hedged lot on their right. None of them would provide any cover should the choppers open up with their rockets again. And given that they the pilots had IR displays to go by, trees and hedgerows would even conceal them from plain sight. Right now, the only thing not plainly visible on their scopes was all the flaming wreckage that lay between them.

That’s when it hit him. He pointed ahead to first squad’s vehicle and the shop front it had crashed into.

“Put us next to first’s Victor. Bring us under that overhang. The smoke and flame out to confuse their gunner.”

“Right, sir!” Vasquez replied, gunning the gas harder and aiming for the storefront. Braun had just enough time to get on the horn and order his vehicles to turn around and give them the new order.

“All Vipers, this is One Actual. Come about and move your Victors to the flaming spots on the roadside. Turn off your IR beacons, and deploy on foot to covered positions, over.”

He got only one reply before everything in the cab began to get intensely noisy.

In the distance, the nearest chopper began to lower itself to get a better sight on them. Nearing the storefront, smoke and flames began to get between them and made a mess of sighting. More rounds impacted around them and sent pieces of road up and through their windows. Vasquez yelled as some came through his window and cut his face.

“Private!” Braun yelled, reaching across to grab the wheel. He heard Francesco scream next and looked up. But in his case, his yells were coming in the form of words.

“Look out! Look out!” he screamed.

Braun looked at the road ahead and saw the wreck of One One’s Victor. He saw the storefront they had just smashed through. He saw how close they were to them now, and how they weren’t slowing down.

“Shit! Hang on!” he cried.

Francesco’s knees hit him in the back of the head and sent him forward. Then the vehicle was rocked by a massive shock that sent everyone else in the cab forward too. A second, smaller thud hit them next, and everyone was thrown back into their seats.

Braun slowly became aware of moaning and groaning going on around him. His eyes began to register things too, albeit through a thick haze. Everything looked incredibly bright, and the dancing colors were both spectacular to behold and menacing. He tried moving his head and experienced a sharp pain. His world went dark for a second as his eyes clenched shut and his complaints were added to those of the men around him. His next experience was that of the Platoon Sergeant tapping him from behind.

“Sir… sir, we gotta move! They’re still firing sir!”

He opened his eyes again and steadied himself with one arm against the dashboard. He could see the dancing lights now, the flames of 1st squad’s vehicle and how they had buried their front bumper into them. He looked back and saw Grayson, urging him on with anxious-looking eyes. He saw Francesco too, who had fallen sideways into Gorman but was alive and moving, and trying his best to get off Gorman’s lap and out the back door.

Even Vasquez seemed okay. His face was lacerated, but he nothing vital looked hit. At the moment, he was struggling with his seat belts and fighting to get himself free.

“Sir, we gotta go!” Grayson repeated.

“Ugh, yeah!” Braun replied, reaching for his own restraints. “Get the others to cover now, Sergeant! I’m right behind you!”

He pressed at the buckle release on his straps, and nothing happened. Braun looked left and saw that Vasquez was now free and getting out on the driver’s side. Gorman and Francesco were already to the storefront and appeared to be jumping through the front window, which was shattered all to the hell. Only Grayson remained, staring at him from just a few feet from the passenger window.

He ducked as an explosion erupted in the middle of the street. Braun struggled harder but nothing was happening. Grayson pleaded him with some more, his voice becoming desperate and most annoying.

“Sir! You have to get out! You’ll die here!”

Braun yelled in frustration, partly to shut him up but mainly because of the damn belts that wouldn’t obliged him. Grabbing his knife, he turned the serrated edge up and dragged it under the chest strap. It snapped away quickly, and he got to the one around his waist.

“Sir -!” Grayson’s pleads were drowned out by another explosion. Behind him, the others were yelling too now.

“Get inside!” he yelled, and snapped the belt strap. Next thing he knew, he was running as fast as he could and nearly bowled Grayson over. Multiple explosions came from the street now and threw up chunks of hot asphalt, rock, and even glass. Braun ducked and rolled and landed inside, Grayson laying by his side and several more lined up at his feet.

When he got his wits about him, he was staring up at a strange, yellowing ceiling, and a friendly hand that was reaching down to help him.

“LT,” she said, smiling faintly. “Glad you came back for us. I was starting to think you forgot…”

 

Idle No More: A Mobilization of People and Information

For years, I have been pondering how the information age has affected society, particularly with regards to politics and social change. Many would argue that it has simply amplified the tendencies Neil Postman spoke of in Amusing Ourselves to Death, where the truth would drowned in a sea of irrelevance and mindless entertainment would keep us pacified and inert. However, others, including myself, have been the type to notice how access to information and the ability to connect the world over has helped activists and reform movements mobilize and overcome, in ways that might have been impossible in previous ages.

And Idle No More, a new reform movement here in Canada that seeks to address injustice the status of Canada’s First Nations, is a perfect example. Initially, it was a small but committed protest movements that had emerged in response to our current government and the Omnibus Bill C-45 that was passed back in 2011. But in just a few short months, thanks largely to social media, it has become a nation-wide phenomena joining countless groups and encompassing many outstanding issues, not the least of which are matters of Native sovereignty and the enduring and outdated government document known as the “Indian Act”.

The movement officially began in November of 2012 as a series of teach-ins by activists Nina Wilson, Sheelah Mclean, Sylvia McAdam and Jessica Gordon in Saskatoon. This led to a series of teach-ins, rallies and protests that were planned by the founders in a National Day Of Action on Dec. 10th, which coincided with Amnesty Internationals Human Rights Day and similar protests already underway in British Columbia over the Northern Gateway and Pacific Trails pipelines – two other issues effecting First Nations, but which are being pushed ahead by the Conservative Government.

At about the same time, Chief Theresa Spence, leader of the Attawapiskat Nation, announced that she was going on a hunger strike (limiting herself to water and broth) until Prime Minister Stephen Harper agreed to a meeting to discuss these and other issues relating to First Nations. Idle No More timed its protests with her announcement and declared their support for her cause. And of course, Facebook became the principal means of coordinating and connecting people all over the country.

In addition to the many changes to the Indian Act that Bill C-45 contained, specifically with regards to land held by First Nations People, Idle No More’s grievances extend to the following government bills. These and other acts initiated by the Conservatives and other governments weaken environmental protection laws, effect Canada’s waterways (many of which pass through First Nations territory and are intrinsic to the health and well being of the communities), and are believed to have a negative impact on native people and native sovereignty:

Bill C-38 (Budget Omnibus Bill #1)
Bill C-45 (Budget Omnibus Bill #2)
Bill C-27 First Nations Financial Transparency Act
Bill S-2 Family Homes on Reserve and Matrimonial Interests or Right Act
Bill S-6 First Nations Elections Act
Bill S-8 Safe Drinking Water for First Nations
Bill C-428 Indian Act Amendment and Replacement Act
Bill S-207 An Act to amend the Interpretation Act
Bill S-212 First Nations Self-Government Recognition Bill
“First Nations” Private Ownership Act

Taken together, they are seen as part of a larger agenda on behalf of the Harper government to run rough-shod over environmental and First Nation interests, to ignore the harm caused by the implementation of one or many economic projects, and to streamline the legal process to make it easier for them to push their projects through. On top of that, they seek to redress hundreds of years of abuse, neglect and genocide that remain a stumbling block to a healthy relationship between the Canadian government and its First Nation people, and an embarrassment to the world.

Naturally, the Harper government was intransigent about having a meeting, but finally agreed when it became clear that Spence meant business and the Assembly of First Nations, Canada’s many Aboriginal peoples, and a hell of a lot of its non-Aboriginal citizens (myself included) stood in solidarity with Spence. As of January 2013, his government and the Govern General of Canada both agreed to hold a meeting to discuss all outstanding issues.

To many, this is a hard-won victory, even though the greatest battles may be yet to come. And as far as I am concerned, it is demonstration of what social media and the internet can do when used for positive political change. Much like the Arab Spring, the Wisconsin Protests, and the 2008 and 2012 elections, having the means to connect with people far and wide and share in a common goal, all the while circumventing traditional media and official procedures, may mean the difference between victory and defeat.

As we all know, sometimes it’s necessary to “wag the dog” when the system fails. More and more, we see this happening today and it gives me hope. If people the world over can rise up and bring an end to ongoing abuse and oppression, then it demonstrates that we might actually be moving towards this thing called a global community after all, and one that is united in its commitment to human rights and social justice, not just a globalized economy and cheap electronics!

You go Spence! Give Harper and his cronies hell, and don’t let them give you any crap either! Chances are, they won’t be in office much longer. Oh, how I hope and pray…

Source: CBC.ca, Huffington Post.ca, Facebook, idlenomore.ca

Big News in Quantum Science!

Welcome all to my 800th post! Woot woot! I couldn’t possibly think of anything to special to write about to mark the occasion, as I seem to acknowledge far too many of these occasions. So instead I thought I’d wait for a much bigger milestone which is on the way and simply due a regular article. Hope you enjoy it, it is the 800th one I’ve written

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2012 saw quite a few technical developments and first being made; so many in fact that I dedicate two full posts to them! However, one story which didn’t make many news cycles, but may prove to be no less significant, was the  advances made in the field of quantum science. In fact, the strides made in this field during the past year were the first indication that a global, quantum internet might actually be possible.

For some time now, scientists and researchers have been toying with the concept of machinery that relies on quantum mechanics. Basically, the idea revolves around “quantum teleportation”, a process where quantum states of matter, rather than matter itself, is beamed from one location to another. Currently, this involves using a high-powered laser to fire entangled photons from one location to another. When the photons at the receiving end take on the properties of the photon sent, a quantum teleportation has occurred, a process which is faster than the speed of light since matter is not moving.

Two years ago, scientists set the record for the longest teleportation by beaming a photon some 16 km. However, last year, a team of international researchers was able to beam the properties of a photon from their lab in La Palma to another lab in Tenerife, some 143 km away. Not only was this a new record, it was significant because 143 km happens to be just far enough to reach low Earth orbit satellites, thus proving that a world-spanning quantum network could be built.

Shortly thereafter, China struck back with its own advance, conducting the first teleportation of quantum states between two rubidium atoms. Naturally, atoms are several orders larger than a quantum qubit, which qualifies them as “macroscopic objects” – i.e. visible to the naked eye. This in turn has led many to believe that large quantities of information could be teleported from one location to the next using this technique in the near future.

And then came another breakthrough from England, where researchers managed to transmit qubits and binary data down the same piece of optic fiber, which laid the groundwork for a conventional internet that runs via optic cable instead of satellites, and which could be secured using quantum cryptography, a secured means of information transfer which remains (in theory) unbreakable.

And finally, the companies of IBM and the University of Southern California (USC) reported big advances in the field of quantum computing during 2012. The year began with IBM announcing that it had created a 3-qubit computer chip (video below) capable of performing controlled logic functions. USC could only manage a 2-qubit chip — but it was fashioned out of diamond (pictured at left). Both advances strongly point to a future where your PC is either completely quantum, or where you have a few quantum chips to aid with specific tasks.

As it stands, quantum computing, networking, and cryptography remain in the research and development phase. IBM’s current estimates place the completion of a fully-working quantum computer at roughly ten to fifteen years away. And as it stands, the machinery needed to conduct any of these processes remains large, bulky and very expensive. But miniaturization and a drop in prices are too things you can always count on in the tech world!

So as it stands, we may be looking at a worldwide, quantum internet by 2025 or 2030. We’re talking about a world in which information transfers faster than the speed of light, all connections are secure, and computing happens at unheard of speeds. Sounds impressive, but the real effect of this “quantum revolution” will be the exponential rate at which progress increases. With worldwide information sharing and computing happening so much faster, we can expect further advances in every field to take less time, and breakthroughs happening on a regular basis.

Yes, this technology could very well be the harbinger of John von Neumann “Technological Singularity”. I know some of you might be feeling nervous at the moment, but somewhere, Ray Kurzweil is doing a happy dance! Just a few more decades before he and others like him can start downloading their brains or getting those long-awaited cybernetic enhancements!

Source: extremetech.com

The Future is Here: NASA’s Ion Drive!

Well, it seems Star Trek might have gotten another one right. In addition to warp travel, computer pads, and the possibility of a real-life star ship Enterprise being built by 2030, it seems that ion engines that can propel ships on interplanetary missions are also possible. As a staple of many science fiction franchises, many have wondered whether or not the technology would ever be truly feasible.

For years, NASA has been experimenting with various ionic propulsion drives. But with this latest announcement, they’ve not only indicated success, but broke a world record. On Dec 28th, in one of the last news stories of the year, NASA announced that their Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) has operated continually for over 43,000 hours (just shy of five years). Since ion thrusters are believed to be one of the best ways to power long-term deep-space missions, this is a big step towards powering NASA’s next-gen spacecraft.

As the name suggests, ion thrusters work by firing ions (charged atoms or molecules) out of a nozzle at high speed. In the case of NEXT, Xenon (a noble gas) is squirted into a chamber where its molecules are charged via an electron gun, creating a plasma of negative and positive ions. The positive ions diffuse to the back of the chamber, where high-charged accelerator grids grabs them and propel them out of the engine, creating thrust.

The upside of such a thruster lies in its fuel efficiency, in that it uses 10-12 times less fuel than a regular chemical thruster. Unfortunately, the downside lies in the thrust, again relative to its chemical counterparts. Due to this, NASA scientists calculated that an ion engine needs to operate continuously for a minimum of 10,000 hours (roughly a year) to slowly accelerate a spacecraft to speeds necessary to reach the asteroid belt or beyond.

With this test, NASA proved that their new ion thruster would not only be able to propel a spaceship to the asteroid belt, but to the outer planets and their moons as well. That’s good news for people looking forward to visiting Ganymede, Europa, Titan, and maybe even the Kuiper Belt. What’s more, the maximum speed of the spacecraft would be in the region of  321,000 km/h (200,000 mph).

Back in 2011, NASA put out a request-for-proposals for a test mission that will likely use a NEXT engine. Presumably, following this successful engine test, we might be hearing more about this in the near future. And, now that the proof in the pudding, other space agencies are likely to unveil their own prototypes for ion engines, and even equipping the next generation of space craft with them.

Asteroid mining? Mars colonization? Off-world resource and manufacturing allocation? Looks like we got ourselves the means to get us there! Oh, and Star Trek nerds? Looks like you guys got your nacelles! Full impulse ahead!

Source: Extremtech.com, NASA.org

Introducing the “Bazinga” Bee!

Well, it seems that science and pop culture are coming together once again thanks to the hit show Big Bang Theory. Only this time, it seems things are flowing in the other direction, with scientists paying an homage to the show that has made being a geek cool in the eyes of so many. And it all began recently when a Brazilian biologist discovered a new species of bee that had been eluding scientists for years.

According to Andre Nemesio of the Universidade Federal de Uberlandia, this new species closely resembles the Euglossa ignita, a more common Western Brazilian orchid bee. Because of this, it remained unrecognized as a seperate species by biologists until very recently. In essence, the bee managed to trick scientists, which is why Nemesio decided to name it “Euglossa bazinga”, in honor of Sheldon Cooper.

In a recent paper, he explained his decision: “The specific epithet honors the clever, funny, captivating ‘nerd’ character Sheldon Cooper… Sheldon Cooper’s favorite comic word ‘bazinga,’ used by him when tricking somebody, was here chosen to represent the character. Euglossa bazinga sp. n. has tricked us for some time due to its similarity to E. ignita, what led us to use ‘bazinga.’”

In response, Steven Molaro – an executive producer of “The Big Bang Theory” – said “we are always extremely flattered when the science community embraces our show. Sheldon would be honored to know that Euglossa bazinga was inspired by him. In fact, after ‘Mothra’ and griffins, bees are his third-favorite flying creatures.”

Kudos Sheldon, you weird, annoying, but always entertaining and brilliantly acted nerd! I do hope they write this into the show, it would be comical to see his reaction to the news! And while we’re at it, here’s some of his greatest hits from over the years:

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