Solar Flare Fun

Today’s Solar Flare emanated from the sunspot called AR1990, which was previously called AR1967. The AR stands for Active Region. Sunspots are renamed if they survive a complete rotation of the sun that is visible to the Earth. The sun is molten, not solid and rotates 14 days faster at its equator than at its poles. Today’s highly intense massive coronal mass ejection (CME) solar flare is an X class; actually X4.9 which ranks as a most powerful solar storm. The coming week is a very active geomagnetic period propelling supercharged plasma particles with a velocity of 4.4 million mph emitting radio shock waves that have the potential to harm satellites, disrupt sensitive equipment and delay space travel; but, upon reaching earth’s magnetosphere will dazzle with aurora in real time.

Black History Month 2014 | Chief Crazy Horse

As the noted preeminent scholar, Egyptologist and Professor of African American Studies at Hunter College, Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan affirms, African Americans are only one-fifth African. The other 80% is Native American, if European lineage is not involved.

February is Black History Month and this is the Year of the Horse. Since Native American and African American ancestry is so closely entwined, Black History Month 2014 is dedicated to Chief Crazy Horse.

Eyewitness accounts of the Chief’s military acumen were that he rode his horse close to his enemies in battle, but he was never hit by their bullets. He rode buck naked and bareback. As a tactical leader at Little Big Horn and the Battle of the Rosebud, Chief Crazy Horse killed General Custer.

There are no official pictures of Chief Crazy Horse; he would not allow himself to be photographed. But, there is a sculpture in his honor eight miles from Mt. Rushmore on Thunderhead Mountain called the Crazy Horse Monument. The likeness of Crazy Horse stands 27 feet larger than the presidents of Mt. Rushmore.

During the time that Mt. Rushmore was being sculpted, the Native Americans asked Gutzon Borglum to remember that the Black Hills belonged to the Lakota ‘Indians’ by the Treaty of Fort Laramie signed in 1868, which granted the natives rights to Mt. Rushmore in perpetuity. A Lakota holy man, John Fire Lame Deer said that the faces on Mt. Rushmore would ‘remain dirty until the treaties concerning the Black Hills are fulfilled’. The Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation rejects offers to be federally funded. The Department of Transportation commemorates Chief Crazy Horse with two memorial highways named in his honor, US-16 and US-38 both run through South Dakota.

A first-ever investigation into the conditions of Native Americans living in the U.S. was conducted by United Nations’ in special report on the rights of indigenous peoples in May 2012 by James Anaya. He recommended that the United States return land to the tribes including Crazy Horse’s home, the South Dakota Black Hills where Mt. Rushmore and Mt. Crazy Horse are seated.

Chinese New Year 2014 Year of the Horse 4712

Today is New Year's Eve

The Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, always coincides with the Lunar New Year’s new moon and ends on the full moon when the moon is at its brightest. Officially beginning at 12:01 a.m. January 31^st, 2014 and extending through February 18^th, 2015.

 

The horse enjoys the limelight and is energetic, intelligent with excellent communication skills. But, can also be hot-blooded; rarely accepting advice. For those who are not born under the sign of the horse, this is an excellent year for travel and exotic dining.

 

The Chinese New Year celebration is so important to Asians that, traditionally, they do not go to work for much of this festive period; banks and essential staff cooperate to work in shifts so that everyone can participate in the festivities. The third day of Chinese New Year is not only Super Bowl Sunday, but it is an important day to those celebrating the New Year.

 

You can read more about each day of the Chinese New Year in the February 2013 HICAP posts.

 

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Chinese Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

Today’s Autumn Moon, known in American as the Harvest Moon and autumnal equinox, marks the second most important date in the Chinese calendar. During this time Moon Cake is shared with friends and family. My Moon Cake arrived yesterday, compliments of the Yang Yu and the Wu Family; former HICAP students, who stay in touch.

I shared the Moon Cakes with my co-workers, who enjoyed the beautifully decorated sweet lotus delights.

Wishing all a Happy Moon Festival!

Space Earth and the Voyagers

I can hardly contain my excitement about Voyager 1’s most recent finding. Launched 16 days apart, Voyagers 2 and Voyager 1 have traveled in space for the past 36 years; blessing earth’s intellects with data plethoric. The Voyagers are the gift that keeps on giving.

This is the first time that humanity has transitioned from our solar system's solar bubble into interstellar space. The plasma wave science team detected increased pressure in the heliosphere. The pitch of electron plasma oscillation confirmed that Voyager entered the Oort Cloud. The shuttle passed through the heliopause; this is the boundary between solar and interstellar plasma.

It is apparent to me that the dark matter of the universe is detectable by its density. And, its density verifies its weight. I theorize that these heavy densely enmeshed charged particles fuse and are so tightly wound that they explode into photon emitting light, thus, star birth.

Konami Code

Konami Command Basic

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A; when A, B are not available 1, 2 are used. Konami Code, to be entered before game demo begins during the title screen, enables the player to beat the game. First used in 1986 for players who found games too difficult to attain higher levels; these codes give a full set of powers usually attained over time.

Konami Code is the gamers' cheat sheet. Enjoy.

QR Codes

QR Codes were created in 1994 to track trucks during manufacting by Denso Wave; which is a subsidiary of Toyota. This pictoral two dimensional matrix barcode is comprised of binary alphanumeric Japanese symbols written in Chinese called Kanji; made up of multiple interwoven error correction blocks where data is placed from right to left in a zigzag pattern. Storage capacity is affected by high error correction. Four bit indicators are used to convey other information and to select the encoding mode. Japanese passports are encoded with a QR Code containing a 56 bit algorithm used for encoding visas.
Discussion D in 2011 was the last HICAP lesson on QR Codes. The author is revisiting this subject because QR is more popular than ever and showing up in magazine ads, on billboards, almost everywhere.
QR means quick response. The way to use these codes is to point your smart phone camera eye at the code to engage and the target url will automatically be uploaded to your device. Fun, right!