The 5th 'Hip Hop' Element: Sound Science Emceeing = mc²

While it is accurate to say that 'rap' is 'hip-hop' it is not entirely accurate to say that 'hip-hop' is 'rap' because hip-hop is more of a cultural movement that has intercepted urban communities in recent years.

Hip-Hop or 'rapping' is also known as Emceeing, spitting bars or 'chanting rhyming lyrics'.

Copyright © 2011 Tomitheos Photography - All Rights Reserved

This flowing word content of the rap art form can be broken down into three different components:

(a) rhyme
(b) rhythm
and (c) delivery.

Rapping is distinct from spoken word poetry in that its delivery is performed in time to a beat.

However, even though rapping is a primary ingredient in hip-hop music, excerpts of the poetic word content of rap can be delivered without a beat or any music accompaniment.

There are four elements of Hip-Hop:

(1) Tagging (graffiti art)
(2) B-boying (break dancing)
(3) Emceeing (MCing)
(4) Rapping (poetic lyrics)

Most recently there be may be a 5th element incorporated to this list of hip-hop elements:

(5) Sound Science
(improving memory with rhyming word association).

When students expressed that they find Science subjects like Chemistry and Biology difficult to memorize, Educators looked at other courses students were good at, like Shakespeare, Poetry & Creative Composition and collectively concluded that the 'story telling' incorporated in these courses was serving as a 'mental marker' which helped the brain remember the summary of the subject.

As a result, hip-hop based 'Sound Science' programs are being introduced to young students whereby the students have to create a rap with scientific words as a means in helping them remember difficult definitions by stimulating the memory center of their brain with rhyme.

This modern hip-hop based collaboration makes the approach to Science more fun and current which may help encourage students to foster a new zeal when it comes to choosing science-based courses in school.

Sound Science hip-hop inspired teaching method approaches for chemistry and biology may also inspire new ways of reaching out and connecting with the young urban art student.

Stroke of Genius - Drawing from Memory

A Man of Both Worlds:
___ 'Leonardo Da Vinci bridged the gap between Art and Science.'

Copyright © 2011 Tomitheos Photography - All Rights Reserved

Leonardo da Vinci's was very controversial in his time but today his art as well as his scientific observations, his inventions, and interesting facts about his life make him nothing less than a genius which, in return, have earned him a permanent place in our history.


Art in History:

In the Middle Ages 'the artist' had an immutable purpose to his life accompanied by an obligation to his society to serve the gift of divinity. This was because Art was nothing more nor less than a representation of the World of God, and the artist, the medium through which this Universe becomes visible. Therefore the artist, like God was a creator: a manufacturer of physical things of beauty from thought, and the artist was a well respected 'craftsperson' that was perceived at a much higher level than a blacksmith or a shoemaker that also had important roles in societies of that time.

As we analyze an artist's talent we come to understand that the greatest gift to an artist is visual memory with the talent to convey and replicate that on a physical medium. To understand this one must understand how neuron networks store and retrieve memories, how synapse molecules change to define a network path and, hence, how information flows through the brain to the extremities like the hand and fingers.


How Memory Works:

Information flows from the outside physical world through our sight, hearing smelling, tasting and touch sensors. Memory is simply the way we store and recall things we have sensed.

Recalling memories sparks many of the same neural paths we originally used to sense the experience and, therefore, almost re-creates the event. For an artist, the key is to articulate that imagery with detailed dexterity.

Our brain will store, for fractions of a second, sensory information in areas located throughout the cortex. Then some data moves into short-term memory. Finally, some of that information goes in long-term storage in various parts of the cortex, much of it returning to the sensory cortex areas where we originally received it.

Only the data that catches our attention, like a red light while driving or an important street name, will go into short-term memory. We can hold short-term data for about a half minute.

We use the hippocampus to consolidate new memories. An event creates temporary links among cortex neurons. For example, in seeing a red apple the color 'red' will get stored in the visual area of the cortex, and the sound of eating a red apple gets stored in the auditory area. When a new fact is remembered like 'fresh apple,' the new memory data converges on the hippocampus, which then sends the information along a path several times over to strengthen the links.

Perhaps that is why artists tend to draw and paint multi colored fruit on a tabletop setting, because in their fruitful simplicity, fruit can be the ideal drawing exercise of how the brain can remember a familiar color and its associated shape.


The Science of Drawing:

The memory information follows a path which is called the 'Papez Circuit' which starts at the hippocampus and then circulates through more of the limbic system which in return evokes emotion in the brain. For an artist, emotion would allow for inspiration to set in which in return can physically manifest into an art form. Inspiration is key in motivating an artistic individual to draw-out the thought and/or memory that is in mind onto a blank canvas, thus in conclusion, creating a visually artful masterpiece.

Pringles Planetarium

The Canadian Humble space telescope is the world's smallest space telescope measuring at about the diameter of a pie plate and is packed in the MOST microsatellite which has the size and mass of a carry-on suitcase.

As a fun Science project, you can make your own world's smallest space telescope!

You can create a planetarium projector and space telescope with interchangeable star chart slides for your room.

© Copyright 2010 Tomitheos Photography, All Rights Reserved.

What you need:

transparent paper for tracing
black construction paper
Maxwell house coffee can cylinder
Pringles chips cylinder can
a collection of Pringles lids
star constellation for Pringels lids: space wall star chart graphics
star chart template for Maxwell house lid: large lid star graphics
a pin
a nail and hammer
scissors
led flashlight
laser pointer


Step 1. How to make your own Pringles space chart telescope:

Click here: space wall star chart graphics to access the star constellation template and trace all the points on the transparent sheet of paper. Using a pin poke thru the transparent sheet of paper transferring the constellation design with holes on the black construction sheet of paper. Using the transparent Pringles lids that you have collected, cut out exact circular templates from the completed construction paper, cut slowly and precisely and insert to each Pringles lid, carefully trim the paper borders for a perfect inset fit to the lid. Using your nail and hammer, punch a hole big enough to look through on the adjacent metallic end side of the Pringles cylinder (be sure there are no sharp ends, to ensure this punch it from the outside inwards).

You can now look thru the interchangeable lids with star constellations to recognize and identify them in the real night sky to get more out of your star gazing or on your own planetarium projector - see Step 2 below.


Step 2. How to make your own Maxwell House cylinder can planetarium:

Click here: large lid star graphics to access the Maxwell House star constellation template for your lid and trace all the points on the transparent sheet of paper. Using a pin poke thru the transparent sheet of paper transferring the constellation design with holes on the black construction sheet of paper. Cut out an exact circular template from the completed construction paper with star constellation holes, cut slowly and precisely and insert to the large blue Maxwell House lid, carefully trim the paper borders for a perfect inset fit to the large plastic lid. This time, use the pin to poke the holes right through the large blue plastic Maxwell House lid transferring the same holes from the paper to the large plastic lid. Insert the led flashlight inside the empty can facing up by having a flashlight that can be made to stand upright (glue in place if necessary).


In a darkened room, turn on the flashlight, place it in the Maxwell House can, put the planetarium cylinder on the floor and place the plastic lid with holes on in order to project your constellations onto the ceiling.

By using your laser pointer, you can quiz your friends or family to see if they can identify the different constellations.

Use the Pringles telescope lid slides to match and find where the constellation are located on the projected ceiling star map to get more out of your planetarium game.

The Maxwell House planetarium projection cylinder can be stripped-off of its label and showcased as a hi-tech looking silver cylinder.

The Pringles' space telescope can be decorated with a space drawing or with a paper size print of Van Gogh's famous 'Starry Night' artwork, simply wrap it around the perimeter of the long cylinder and tape it.

Your space telescope with interchangeable star slide constellations and planetarium are now complete.

How to make New Year's resolutions work for you!

Every year millions of people commence new work out regiments, alter their diets and make ritualistic changes in bad behavior just in time for New Year's Day.



Studies show that guilty feelings from holiday spending, prolonged lack of exercise and overindulgence with festive treats leads to a guilt-ridden need for change.


© Copyright 2009-2010 Tomitheos Photography - All Rights Reserved.

These feelings seem to coincide with the beginning of the New Year marking a psychological timeline to start fresh with the underlined goal of becoming a better person in the future, inside and out. However, by the first week of February most New Year's resolutions are a distant memory for most..

So how does one make the leap to a new beginning work for them?

The shift for change may be a difficult one but psychologists claim that with a few pointers, success is possible.

Firstly, something to watch for is that most people fail in their attempt for change because the human mind will rationalize with excuses that are rooted deep inside individualistic psyches so that the physical discomfort can end.

Learn how to overcome this obstacle before you even get started by examining your motivation for change. Be realistic and be vocal to your friends and family about the changes you are ready to make so that they can support you, stay away from negative people that would like to see you fail at least until you are confident in your success and strong in your lifestyle change.

Make your tasks non-negotiable and do not rationalize with yourself, for example do not rationalize that it is too early to get up for exercise, yet if it was a work related obligation it would be a non-issue. Do it regardless of how you feel about it, be aware that one can almost always find an excuse not to do something. However, if you make a non-negotiable decision that is based on a sound realistic goal you set in the first place rather than on how you feel at the moment, you will be successful.

Write down your goals, studies show that University graduates have a higher success rate of accomplishing their career goals if they had written them down. Because of our educational system's training of reading and writing, the brain retains the information better and has a better memory when the time is taken to write it down. Focus on the positive changes as a result of your behavioral shift, for example with quitting smoking, focus on the improved breathing, a smoker feels bodily sensations when the nicotine levels drop but it is a choice as to how this symptom is interpreted: symptoms can be defined as extremely unpleasant and curable by reverting back to smoking or alternatively they can be interpreted as the physical discomfort of being permanently cleansed from the drug.

Do not quit your program for change for a minor set back. If you give in to temptation, do not further the damage by using this as an excuse to abandon the whole program. Allow yourself to be imperfect, perhaps you can make it a secondary goal to learn from your mistakes and move on as this will undoubtedly ensure your success.

Start now! If you are waiting for a better time to start a behavioral change, that in itself is a behavioral change that needs to be addressed. Procrastination means it likely will not happen. It is almost never convenient to change mentally fused habits. But your need for change is the mind's own cry for help that is usually heard very late in the game. Now is just as convenient as any time. Plan your resolution(s) in advance, instead of waiting until New Year's Eve.

If you begin today rather than later, you will have a better chance of maintaining your goal and sustaining your discipline in the new year. If you cannot find a reliable friend for support at your times of weakness, use a simple CD related to your goal that will talk you through your temporary set-back and you will find success in whatever you set your mind to.

Best of L.U.C.K. (Labor Under Correct Knowledge); successfully accomplishing your goals is not by chance, it is a Science.

Remember To:

Have a strong commitment for change.
Write down a program that will help to achieve your goal(s).
Have a coping strategy to deal with set-backs that will come up.
Tell your friends, the more monitoring and feedback you have the better you will do.

Atom Supernova

The name atom comes from the Greek (ἄτομος) which means something that is undivided. Photography by Tomitheos©
All rights reserved

Although the name means 'one of' or something that cannot be divided further, very recently in the modern 20th century age with the principles of Quantum Mechanics physicists and scientists discovered the subatomic components / structure inside the atom and from this demonstrated that the atom was in fact divisible!

The atom is surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons and is fundamentally a basic unit of matter consisting of a dense, central nucleus . Bound with electromagnetic force to the nucleus are the electrons of an atom, forming together what is called a molecule. If an atom contains an equal number of protons and electrons it is electrically neutral, otherwise it is an ion that has either a positive or negative charge depending on the balance.


ART GRAPHICS ABOVE
My attempt to mimic the popnetic art graphics to resemble a degenerating dwarf star (that is very densely composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter with mass comparable to the Sun and its volume comparable to that of the Earth) expanding to a red giant, resonating thermal energy luminosity while approaching its mass transfer limit and going supernova via a process known as carbon detonation as its shedding its outer nebula energy layers from its collapsing hydrogen infused core.

Our theories on our Universe may be full of holes..

Photo Credit / Graphics by Tomitheos©


Astronomers have claimed to have found an enormous hole in the Universe, nearly a billion light-years across, empty of both normal matter such as stars, galaxies, and gas, and the mysterious, unseen "dark matter." Which has become a questionable presence, while earlier studies have shown holes, or voids, in the large-scale structure of the Universe, this relatively new discovery dwarfs them all.

"Not only has no one ever found a void this big, but we never even expected to find one this size," said Lawrence Rudnick of the University of Minnesota. Rudnick, along with Shea Brown and Liliya R. Williams, also of the University of Minnesota, reported their findings in a paper accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.

Astronomers have known for years that, on large scales, the Universe has voids largely empty of matter. However, most of these voids are much smaller than the one found by Rudnick and his colleagues. In addition, the number of discovered voids decreases as the size increases.

"What we've found is not normal, based on either observational studies or on computer simulations of the large-scale evolution of the Universe," Williams said.

The astronomers drew their conclusion by studying data from the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS), a project that imaged the entire sky visible to the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope, part of the National Science Foundation's National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). Their careful study of the NVSS data showed a remarkable drop in the number of galaxies in a region of sky in the constellation Eridanus.

"We already knew there was something different about this spot in the sky," Rudnick said. The region had been dubbed the "WMAP Cold Spot," because it stood out in a map of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation made by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotopy Probe (WMAP) satellite, launched by NASA in 2001. The CMB, faint radio waves that are the remnant radiation from the Big Bang, is the earliest "baby picture" available of the Universe. Irregularities in the CMB show structures that existed only a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang.

The WMAP satellite measured temperature differences in the CMB that are only millionths of a degree. The cold region in Eridanus was discovered in 2004.

Astronomers wondered if the cold spot was intrinsic to the CMB, and thus indicated some structure in the very early Universe, or whether it could be caused by something more nearby through which the CMB had to pass on its way to Earth. Finding the dearth of galaxies in that region by studying NVSS data resolved that question.

"Although our surprising results need independent confirmation, the slightly colder temperature of the CMB in this region appears to be caused by a huge hole devoid of nearly all matter roughly 6-10 billion light-years from Earth," Rudnick said.

How does a lack of matter cause a cooler temperature in the Big Bang's remnant radiation as seen from Earth?

Photons of the CMB gain a small amount of energy when they pass through a region of space populated by matter. This effect is caused by the enigmatic "dark energy" that is accelerating the expansion of the Universe. This gain in photon energy makes the CMB appear slightly warmer in that direction. When the photons pass through an empty void, they lose a small amount of energy from this effect, and so the CMB radiation passing through such a region appears cooler.

The acceleration of the Universe's expansion, and thus dark energy, were discovered less than a decade ago. The physical properties of dark energy are unknown, though it is by far the most abundant form of energy in the Universe today. Learning its nature is one of the most fundamental current problems in astrophysics.

Mathematician Claims Black Holes are the Result of Bad Math..

............... Image Credit: Max Camenzindand ....................

Mathematician Stephen J. Crothers seems to be spoiling all my astrophysics solutions! Crothers claims that the equations used to justify the existence of "black holes" are themselves either incorrect (with 3D versus 4D space inconsistencies and inapplicable radius curvatures) thus meaningless, in error and just plain 'wrong' ..


Crothers claims to have mathematically, meticulously and rigorously demonstrated that the math behind black holes has been incorrectly applied and in some cases incorrectly attributed (meaning that the wrong scientists have been given credit for particular valid or invalid mathematical contributions).

Referral: cyber-friend Michael Gmirkin (University of Oregon Graduate) - Plasma Cosmology and the Electric Universe -

Needless to say, Crothers' assertions are rubbing astronomers and astrophysicists the wrong way. However, if Crothers' assertions are accurate, then a vast portion of current astronomy may be predicated upon a patently false concept.

To briefly summarize some of Stephen J. Crothers' research regarding the history of black hole theory, you can review his papers below:


www.sjcrothers.plasmaresources.com

www.sjcrothers.plasmaresources.com/article-1-1.pdf

www.sjcrothers.plasmaresources.com/papers.html