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Physics of Collective Consciousness. Part 4
The Physics of Collective Consciousness. Part 4
by Attila Grandpierre
Attila Grandpierre, Ph.D. Konkoly Observatory of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
H-1525 Budapest P. O. Box 67., Hungary
From: http://www.mediastorm.hu/grandpierre/200201/pcc.htm
20. The Common Field of Consciousness
Emile Durkheim (1899) showed the existence of collective psychical fields. He showed that the reality of the collective psychical fields is of the same degree as that of the physical fields, since it is measurable (through social indexes), and its relations and consequences show the same rate of stability. The collective psychical field generates a remarkably stable rate of suicides in a given nation. Individuals forming the society change from year to year, but the rate of suicides remains stable. This rate is different in different nations, and seems to be determined by moral factors. Moral life is per se a collective phenomenon, and the collective psychical field is an expression of the background moral fields of individuals. Our moral convictions are a certain kind of concerted brain activities, formed from our common characteristics. This is expressed also in the changes of the social indexes of e.g. suicide. Durkheim observed, that the activity of the society follows a seasonal rhythm, its intensity grows from January to July, and then decreases. Durkheim pointed out, that the suicidal index of the people living in marriage shows the same ratio to that of people of the same social class being widows, indifferently from the selected class. The simple reason for this is that the judgement of the society is of a general character, independent of the actual group of the society, although the social conditions of life sensitively change from group to group, therefore becoming widow would show a larger relative loss in the lower classes. Moral judgements are closely related to emotions, therefore we are led to the inference that common field of consciousness consists of emotions.
The rate of suicides is observed to grow with the age, and shows a tenfold increase from the young to old age. Accepting the plausible view that the social environment of the people does not show necessarily a more and more hostile face as they grow older, but remains more-or-less the same during a lifetime, we observe the existence of an effect independent from the immediate social environment. This effect is probably mostly of subjective character indicating the growing sensitivity of the people to the accumulating social influences. This effect lays an emphasis on the 'tuning' of individuals to the different influences, to the weakening of their 'psychic immune system' because of manipulation.
The 'everyday consciousness' of the people is the expression of useful informations, beliefs, habits and traditions. The basic behaviour, the modus vivendi and the actual activity is mostly determined also by the world-view of the person, which directs her/his system of values and conscious decisions. Determining factors of the world-view are the religious faith and the cohesion to the nation. Analysing these factors, we may observe that beliefs, habits, religions, traditions are related to the prehistory of the nation and mankind. The fundamental influence of the world-view to our activity is certainly explained by the still surviving factors of Nature and Cosmos within our psychic life. In this way, the everyday consciousness seems to be determined by the Universe, Mankind and nation - therefore, by the common fields of consciousness.
I know that emotions are a certain kind of taboo in the western civilisation. Emotions and thoughts should be separated forever - a principle almost generally accepted, in scientific circles as well. Nevertheless, thoughts are closely related to emotions, they may be regarded as the expression of them, as two stages of the same process. Our brain is made up as a community of 4* 1010 neurones. From this enormous number of neurones, only ten-fifteen million is waiting for stimuli. The time-period of the building up and decay of the activation potential is around 10-3 s. It means that our brain activates 1010 neurones in a second. This data is consequent with the data given above (Sect. V.) for the information processing speed of the whole brain in forms of neurones, 1010 bits/s. Only a millionth or less is the speed of the conscious information processing, less than 103 bits/s. The process in which the 'unconscious' becomes 'conscious', is based on a certain selectivity, which may be paralleled with the process of the development of a conscious thought from an unconscious emotion. Blocking the emotions involves blocking the basis of consciousness, while keeping emotions does not lead necessarily to uncritical decision, since it is the normal way of the brain's activity to select the information by their content and choose which should be involved in aware consciousness. The large territories of unused neurones sign that our emotional world is poor as compared to its original capacity in a rate of 1/4 000. There is not any other part of the body which would work with such a low efficiency. The electric work made by the heart, e.g., is 40-60 times of that of the brain's as a whole (Rein, G., 1995, personal communication), although it also participates in the general atrophy of the organism. It is important to note here, that the decrease of the basic level of the EM activity of the brain decrease of health of the whole organism (Oldfield, Coghill, 1988). The organ which is not used, dies. It is known in medicine that a whole range of illnesses is related to the anomalously low activity of brain, between cerebral innoculation and subsequent cellular malfunction of the body (Oldfield, Coghill, 1988). Psychosis, neurosis seems also to be related to undervitality of the brain. The brain's activity is largely parallel to the emotional intensity, when we feel that something important is happening to us. The brain may conquer back its lost territories, long-forgotten vast fields of untouched neurones, at a rate of 4 000 times, and million times of that value, when the activity of the brain is at full speed. Compared to that state, our present use of the brain is something when we see through a small tube which shows one-millionth of the field of vision without the tube. Since the under-utilisation of the brain leads to the self-destruction of the organism, psychic and somatic illnesses, emotions can not be exiled from the centre of the brain to its highly controlled peripheries. Elevation of the consciousness of mankind is unimaginable without the elevation of its basic level of activity, without a significant role of emotions.
After coining the term 'primary perception', I became aware of the same term already introduced into science. The phenomenon of 'primary perception' is known in child psychology (Pearce, 1977) denoting the extrasensory perception of children. Eloise Shields presents an evidence that telepathic ability peaks at age four, at which time their parents may begin to be aware of such activity (Peterson, 1974). The term 'primary perception' surfaces in electromagnetic context, as well, denoting the perceptions of plants through EM fields (Backster, 1968). Primary extrasensory perception was known in ancient cultures, such as 'seeing' (látás) in the magic world-experience of ancient Hungarians (Vekerdy, 1974).
The 'merged consciousness' within proper conditions, by the help of a careful attention, represents a higher expression of human existence, as in cases of entering a new era of mankind, like the origin of natural sciences at the Greeks or the renaissance, or at the formation and enlargement of collectives or groups. If we to develop a more evolved form of consciousness, we have to live with emotionally driven states of consciousness. The more the consciousness will be filled up with human, natural and cosmic motives, love, eagerness to act and desire to fulfil our destination, the more it will open up, and the more it will be active, powerful and intense. Consciousness when finding its natural field of action, its natural roots and natural harmony, is able to regain its cosmic power again.
It is important to point out that the suggested inductive model for the generation of consciousness offers a way for the 'freedom of thought'. The laws of the complete, original electromagnetism of Maxwell (1892) are richer and more correct than their simplified forms presented by Heaviside and Gibbs, known as Maxwell-equations, valid only within special conditions. Recently, Cornille (1995) pointed out that " the presence of the Ampere-force in the complete EM implies that a charged capacitor can accelerate its centre of mass without external help if it has an absolute motion with respect to ether." One can expect that spontaneous effects may be induced by the Lorentz force. I suggest that this spontaneity may be related to the observed spontaneous phenomena in the inorganic and organic world, especially in the collective fields of consciousness, where spontaneous induction may regularly occur.
21. On the Destination of the Universe
There are experiences for reaching the completion of our personal lives, for recognising our special talents and working on their developments. Nevertheless, when we reach a special emotional state, filled with galvanising powers, sometimes we experience a one-to-one correspondence to the genuine, original content of our personal life, when whole worlds being born inside us and getting flame with the lights of Eternity. Cosmic pathways open up in us only when our motivations are alive in a rate behind a certain threshold, and when a natural force develops them into a higher form of existence. Emotions are at the core of the existence, and behind their accepted role of colouring the fixed forms of reality, they have the power to shoot up the reality into a much more complete, fresh, nascent, creative and natural state. Emotions are creative, and creative imagination is the basic principle which forms and drives our lives, as well as the Universe as a whole (Petocz, 1838; Froschammer, 1878). Emotions, like a field, have a nature to be shared by others, to extend to landscapes and enter into other consciousness. When emotions are alive and vital, they driving us to share them with the others. The material universe is only a skin of a much more alive, filled Universe, the body of which is constituted of emotions which are much more real than the known forms of reality. This reality is an intense, free, sparkling river of natural forces of emotions. We can conceive that the known material Universe is only a far side-descendant of the core Reality, of the real Universe, of which the fundamental nature is emotional, therefore much more free, inductive, self-fulfilling and human. Losing this real Universe generates a schism and an emotional emptiness, and the void is filled - as history teaches us - with brutality, hate, power and destruction.
To illustrate the occasions of free emotional inspirations, I present here an example.
" Shortly before her 17th birthday, Rosalyn Tureck was playing the Bach fugue in A minor from Book 1 of the Well-Tempered Clavier when she lost all awareness of her own existence. As she came to, she recalls, she saw Bach's music revealed in a completely new light, with a new structure that required the development of a novel piano technique. Over the next two days she worked out this technique on four lines of the fugue and then played it at her lesson. Her teacher told her it was marvellous, but impossible, that it couldn't be done.
" All I knew" , says Tureck, " was that I had gone through a small door into an immense living, green universe, and the impossibility for me lay in returning through that door to the world I had known."
Tureck went on to become a renowned concert artist, the first women invited to conduct the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and author of several books, including one in the works that links the structure of Bach's music to two physical theories." (S. Weisburg, 1987).
The experience of the deeper, alive Universe still survives on the rare occasions of the sparks of inspirations. Regarding the fact that social influences have a propensity to accumulate and amplify each other, high forms of states of consciousness, if widespread, could serve as a basis of a more human reality. If we have a realistic picture of the present, it helps in maintaining this reality, but the exploration of a deeper, more real reality is easily able to surface and resurrect when more and more people and collective shares the proper experiences and attitudes. When awakening the alive green universes within us, mankind may reach a stage in its evolution when above a critical threshold, these alive green universes become interactive, and begin to form a basis of a new type of reality, a much more human and much more conscious one.
22. The Deformation of Consciousness in the Western Civilisation
The well-known historian, Collingwood (1938) remarks, that "the art is the treatment of the community to the most horrible illness of the mind, the degeneration of consciousness". Tamas Vekerdy (1974) makes an attempt to solve the schism of our mind: "Consciousness, when turning against its roots, becomes an idol destructing and degenerating every life; but, when connected with the unconscious, becomes a vital factor. Intensifying consciousness may liberate almost the whole range of the unconscious". As Allport (1961) observed, "the self of the western people sticks out (from its inner world) as a thumb put up." The roots of this rectangular dysfunction go back to the absolutization of the self from the selves of the others, from the environment, Nature and the Universe. None can count as 'normal adult', or 'full-right warrior', if he/she does not accept the dogma of perfect alienation of men from each other.
Western culture, in aiming to domesticate consciousness, assumes the a priori degeneration of the human mind, which if undomesticated, shows an evil, rotten, natural born killer face. This way western culture degraded consciousness with a terror to a largely inert, practical, narrow-minded slave, full of fear (Endre K. Grandpierre, this volume). This is why consciousness compensates itself also with his own terror and domination over every other factor of life, including the 'unconscious mind' and the other fellow people, generating hostility, criminality and down-to-hell thinking.
23. Super-Organisms and Planetary Consciousness
The evolution of consciousness is related to the social co-operation, to the collective consciousness. Collective consciousness itself may reach its completion through a co-operation supra-social. In this context, it is important to consider that the existence of super-colonies in Nature has been studied recently (Higashi, Yamauchi, 1979). They observed super-colonies of red Japanese ants Formica yessensis. Their super-colonies consists of 45 000 colonies occupying 270 hectares, with 300 millions of workers and 1.1 million queens. These colonies are interconnected with a web of 100 km long paths. There is a permanent exchange of workers and queens between the groups. There is no aggression between the members of the super-colonies.
According to my theory outlined above, larger aggregates of individual units, when forming a group, with a global organisation background, may turn to be more sensitive to subtle outer, natural and cosmic influences. This result is consistent with the view of Goldberg, who points out that nations are not products of a lately evolution, but are primary facts of life. It is a universal, spiritual form of life to form a community (Hamvas, 1943). Interactions between the members of a healthy, well-organised society involve the possibility to easily reach information from all the members of the society. In optimal case, when the organisational activity of the society is well developed, all the information is processed and exchanged, shared and 'sacred' by sharing, therefore forming a Common Field of Consciousness of the society. Perceiving the nature of the Common Field of Consciousness of the society is a substantial part of a healthy society, as being a condition of the individual participation in the life functions of the society as a whole. Perceiving the natural and cosmic informations is again a substantial function, which is a condition of the harmonious relation of the society to its immediate and cosmic environment. The physical conditions to this refined sensing are given just by the cohered tuning and co-operation of individuals, acting as a larger whole, sensitive to radiation with larger wavelengths. Planetary consciousness may be approached when global-scale activity is in development. The presence of Schumann waves, and their direct interaction with the individual's brain activity give an additional, natural basis for the development of consciousness of mankind into a planetary consciousness.
24. Healing of the Collective Consciousness Field of Mankind
The formation of a group is not automatic at humans. Spontaneous targeting - e.g. when finding the proper members of a group to form - seems to be sporadic. The 'group' as a higher level entity is the envelop which keeps together the individuals. Until this envelope is not formed, one can find the peoples to be an aggregate and not in a group. But what is the nature of this 'envelop'? As Didier Anzieu expresses, the most important factors are the network of implicit and explicit rules, the established habits, the rites, the facts and actions with accepted values, which contribute to the formation of an inner space and a proper timeliness (Anzieu, 1984). I have to add as a substantial characteristic of any group a similar sensitivity, sharing some basic elevating or interest-expressing ideas, conceptions and motives to act, and propensity to similar emotional states and emotional drives. Being in a faceless mass, in an atomised society, in the absence of communities, without emotions to be shared, sooner or later will generate stress, anxiousness and tension, deforming the natural states of consciousness, degenerating our mind, which may enhance aggression and destruction. The formation of a real community, giving the frame to a meaningful life, is the task of the present societies.
To do this, it would be helpful to explore the physical conditions and physical forms of consciousness, and determine the proper conditions of the natural states of consciousness fields, therefore being able to create physical conditions which may generate favourable conditions to regain our physical and mental health. Learning that consciousness is basically an EM field (which is resonantly coupled to the vacuum field), and its sources are the cosmic systems of Sun, Earth and the Moon (Grandpierre, 1996d), together with the natural sources of the biosphere, especially the natural fields into which we can tune most easily, the physical field emitted by the human organisms, we may be able to measure and broadcast wave fields which heal the stress, intensify, galvanise, correcting the distortions of the natural fields, like stress and alienation, and then to broadcast fields which induce in us urge to participate in the collective forms of consciousness. Measuring the healing spectra of special sites like water-springs, nascent forests, solar and lunar oscillations of the earthly magnetosphere, we may be able to sample them and re-radiate them in forms of Schumann-waves.
Searching the conditions of the tuning of the individuals to the natural healing EM fields has the same importance as the possible explorations of changes in our EM environment, which do have a healing effect. Psychological research shows that the efficiency of tuning in between different people is determined largely by emotional connections, i.e. transpersonal connections are the most effective between lovers, parents and children, friends tuned to each other. This result suggests that mankind may heal itself if we are able to tune us more effectively to the natural sources of consciousness, to the natural powers living in us, revealing the natural beings behind the manipulated masks which are developed by an unnatural society's norms, and when our emotional bounds are strengthened towards the wider ranges of our personal existence, towards Nature and the Universe.
It is suggested that new types of mental techniques may be developed to explore the subjective effects of mental intensification (Grandpierre, 1995c). If Vekerdy (1974) is right and the cathartic effect of the theatre is based on the extrasensory transference of the emotions generated in the actors, we can imagine a theatre in which everybody participates simultaneously. The idea of the 'telepathic theatre' suggests a play in total darkness and silence. The actors play the real drama on stage, intensifying their emotions and consciousness, and the participants are measured simultaneously through EM detectors positioned in the performance hall. The facilitation effect of the large number of harmoniously tuned participants could be detected directly.
Moreover, in recognising the hidden social drives of human beings, we could mobilise these immense inner natural forces, and as a new form of art, we may invent socio-mental group therapy, when people meet and form a community to inspire each other not with de-intensifying meditation, but strengthening the opposite tendency, the vitality, flexibility, mental intensity and freshness. Certainly, the whole society could got a vital lightning by becoming aware of its real, socio-natural-cosmical nature.
Neural mind is connected to executive functions of bodily changes, an already fixed form of the mental processes. Consciousness, as understood by mainstream science, is an extremely small part of this executive neural mind. Our calculations and arguments strongly suggest, that consciousness may be and, by nature, has to be of a much wider range. Beside the quantitative intensification of the neural mind, we can develop and improve the quality of our brains' activity, spontaneity, tuning in to the much faster and subtler electronic, EM and quantum-vacuum minds. Consciousness may regain its natural functions only when finding a partnership with his parental, subtler minds, with human communities, with Nature and the Universe.
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Tart, C. T. 1969, Psychedelic Experiences Associated with a Novel Hypnotic Procedure, Mutual Hypnosis, in Altered States of Consciousness, ed. C. T. Tart, New York, John Wiley and Sons, 291-308
Tepperwein, K., 1977, Die Hohe-Schule der Hypnose, Ariston Verlag, Geneve, p. 112
Thomas, L. 1974, The Lives of a Cell. Notes of a Biology Watcher. Bantam Books, Toronto
Triplett, N. (1898) The Dynamogenetic Factors in Pacemaking and Competition, Amer. J. Psychol. 9, 507-533
Turner, R. H. and Killian, L. M. (1972) Collective Behavior (2nd ed.), Prentice Hall:Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Vekerdy, Tamás, 1974, "Tools of the Effect of Theatre - by the Teaching of Master Zeami. Psychological Analysis." Magveto Kiadó, Budapest, in Hungarian.
Völgyesi, Ferenc, 1962, Medical Hypnosis, Medicina, Budapest, 71 ( in Hungarian).
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The Series 1000 range of copper vented calorifiers is available in capacities from 250 to 3000L. With standard working pressures up to 1.5 bar, the Series 1000 calorifier range is available in both direct and indirect variants. Bespoke products are available, together with replacements for older Santon Industrial cylinders.


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Military Enlistment of Hispanic Youth: Obstacles and Opportunities
Beth J. Asch
Christopher Buck
Jacob Alex Klerman
Meredith Kleykamp
David S. Loughran
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7249/mg773osd
Military Enlistment of Hispanic Youth
Although polls of Hispanic youth show a strong propensity to serve in the military, Hispanics are nonetheless underrepresented among military recruits. The authors discuss the major characteristics that disproportionately disqualify Hispanic youth and explore actions that could be taken to increase Hispanic enlistments.
Subjects: Technology, Management & Organizational Behavior
(pp. xi-xiv)
(pp. xv-xxiv)
(pp. xxvii-xxviii)
CHAPTER ONE Introduction: Hispanic Enlistments in Perspective
The representation of Hispanics and other minorities in the military is an ongoing concern of policymakers in Congress and in the military. At the beginning of the All-Volunteer Force (AVF), in 1974, the Senate Armed Services Committee mandated that the Department of Defense (DoD) publish statistics annually on the social representation of the armed forces in terms of such characteristics as race, ethnicity, marital status, and age (Senate Committee on Armed Services, 1974). This concern grew out of the social representation of the draft force during the Vietnam War and criticism that the burden of military service, and especially war...
CHAPTER TWO Overview of Service Enlistment Standards
In fiscal year (FY) 2007, DoD enlisted 181,170 individuals. To ensure that these individuals were qualified for the rigors of military service, the services applied a range of standards. This chapter provides an overview of the qualifications for enlisting in active duty service established by DoD. Since individual service branches can impose more restrictive standards, this chapter also provides a summary of those standards. A more detailed listing of the qualifications is provided in Appendix A, and supporting material about qualifications is provided in Appendix B. The chapter provides input to the analyses presented in later chapters of the report....
CHAPTER THREE Enlistment Qualifications
In Chapter One, we learned that Hispanics are underrepresented among military accessions. Historically, the military services have pointed to relatively low rates of high school completion among Hispanics as the principal reason for this underrepresentation, but a number of other factors may also be at play. This chapter focuses on the importance of five enlistment standards in limiting the pool of eligible Hispanics. We consider the effect on eligibility of these five enlistment standards, compliance with which we can measure reasonably well in survey data. The standards are (1) the Armed Forces Qualifying Test (AFQT) score, (2) body weight, (3)...
CHAPTER FOUR Health Obstacles to the Enlistment of Hispanic Youth
Health is a major criterion for both enlisting in the military and continuing to serve. As discussed in Chapter Two and Appendixes A and B, the screening process considers a large number of health factors. In this chapter, we discuss why we might expect health factors to screen out Hispanics disproportionately. The analysis supplements the analysis in Chapter Three. The purpose of health standards is to ensure that service men and women are medically able to carry out their responsibilities, not likely to be absent from duty because of a serious health problem, and not likely to compromise the health...
CHAPTER FIVE Analysis of Hispanic Military Career Outcomes
The services screen applicants to ensure that recruits meet enlistment standards and that enlistees are productive members of the military. Yet these standards can be obstacles to entry for many youth, particularly minorities. As discussed in earlier chapters, high school graduation, AFQT, and weight are the key standards that disproportionately screen out Hispanic and black youth relative to white youth.
Several types of policy changes would have the effect of increasing minority recruitment and representation in the military. Chapter Six presents analysis relevant to the topic of recruiting more intensively among minorities who already meet the military's entry requirements. This...
CHAPTER SIX Increasing Hispanic Enlistments: Evaluating Education and Career Choices
Increasing the supply of Hispanics in the military would require (1) increasing the pool of Hispanics eligible for military enlistment, (2) recruiting more eligible Hispanics, or (3) relaxing current standards so that a larger percent of Hispanic youth qualifies for enlistment.
With regard to the first approach, DoD could actively seek to increase eligibility given current enlistment standards by encouraging greater rates of high school graduation and educational achievement, perhaps by supporting educational and community service programs or by directly coaching and training potential recruits to pass existing standards. The second approach entails increasing efforts to recruit Hispanics who qualify...
CHAPTER SEVEN Policy Implications
Hispanics are a growing segment of the youth population, yet are underrepresented among military recruits. Hispanic underrepresentation is puzzling, considering that Hispanic young people are more likely than other groups to express a positive attitude toward the military.
A widely cited reason is Hispanics' below-average rate of graduation from high school, combined with the services' preference for recruits with high school diplomas. But other, less studied, factors may also contribute. This project was designed to analyze the factors that lead to the underrepresentation of Hispanic youth among military enlistments. Then, to help policymakers evaluate the feasibility of improving Hispanic enlistments...
APPENDIX A Detailed Information on Enlistment Standards
APPENDIX B Service Waiver Policy
APPENDIX C Estimates of Prevalence of Health Conditions, by Race and Ethnicity
APPENDIX D Tests of Statistical Significance in Medical Disqualification Rates

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


1 . ‡aMulligan, Francis M., ‡eauthor.
1 0. ‡aSwamp boat / ‡cFrancis M. Mulligan.
1 . ‡a[United States] : ‡b[Francis M. Mulligan], ‡c2016.
. ‡aSelf-published using Amazon's CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
. ‡a"In the autumn of her life, Rose insisted on going to Norleans to help a troubled soul. McCready had to go with her. She insisted on it. In a weekend of chaos and confrontation played out on a visit to a televangelist's home and a trip through the St. Tammany Parish bayou, Rose, a clairvoyant, helps a former Tulane dropout, Pearce Meachem, confront the demons haunting him since he and three fraternity brothers picked-up a young woman on Bourbon Street after a Tulane football game"--Back cover.
0. ‡aCollege students ‡xCrimes against ‡vFiction.


text:
STEM education focus of congressional hearing at Madison's Bob Jones High
Huntsville may be ahead of the curve when it comes to science education, but plenty of work remains to ensure that the education system adequately fills an increasingly technology-based workforce.
That was the gist of a congressional hearing held Monday morning at Bob Jones High School to discuss the future of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in the Rocket City and beyond.
The hearing was hosted by U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, who chairs the subcommittee on Research and Science Education for the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
Brooks was joined by Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Chicago, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee. Lipinski told those present that fewer than 40 percent of college students who start out in a STEM-related field follow through and get a degree in that field.
That leads to a shortage of qualified employees to fill positions in science and technology fields, which are experiencing an increasing demand for workers, Lipinski said.
"We need to do a better job at training our students," Lipinski said.
For ideas on how that should be done, the congressmen turned to a panel of local education and industry leaders, who testified about the status of STEM education in Huntsville. Panelists spoke repeatedly of improved communication and collaboration between education and industry.
Andrew Partynski, chief technology officer for SAIC, told the congressmen that there is a lack of communication about what type of students the industry is seeking.
"We still have a lot to do with the universities to communicate the kind of needs we have," Partynski said.
Dr. Neil Lamb, director of educational outreach for HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, agreed. Lamb said the industry needs students whose book-based learning is supplemented by hands-on experience. (more…)
Tags:Education, School, STEM


A look back at some of the emotional highs and lows of this unpredictable Worlds.
One. The first was held at DreamHack Sweden in 2011. It was not in Phreak's basement, but rather at the Elmia Exhibition and Convention Centre in Jonkoping. "Worlds" is a funny word for a tournament with only four regions, only two of which exist today in the same form, and "championship" is a funny title for a tournament that wasn't even the biggest on the scene. But it was still a Riot-organized tournament, and still we call it Worlds.
Two. There are only two players who were at Worlds 2011 who are still playing professionally. They are both at this year's Worlds. One of them is sOAZ. The other is Doublelift.
Three. In the eight years in which Riot has held a World Championship, an NA team has yet to bring home a title.
Four. Which means, of course, that for all eight years in which Doublelift has been playing professionally, he has never won Worlds.
When you are a fan of an NA LCS team at Worlds, your journey is the five stages of grief, but backwards: first, acceptance that they will never win, and eventually, denial that this is all they will achieve. These steps are not stations along a subway line of emotions, but rather a cycle doubling back on itself each year. So we might believe that TSM would have made it out of Groups in 2016, only to make peace with the reality that they did not. We might believe that Cloud9 with their rookies would not make it out of Groups this year, only to be proven very, very wrong.
We might, for a little while, believe that Team Liquid can make it across the finish line, even when we know better.
TL played through Groups so timidly it was like they were holding their breaths, like this was all a dress rehearsal and they were waiting for a sign to tell them that the real Worlds had begun. And when that sign came, it was, of course, in the form of defeat: KT Rolster losing to Edward Gaming and leaving TL without a way to advance to Quarterfinals. Finally, they were set free. And finally, they won against EDG.
To be a fan is to be resurrected time and time again in faith. I think of that final TL match as a prayer, one that all NA LCS fans know well: see what we could have done, if we had been given just one more chance. You hear it as Doublelift takes his headset off, a small wry smile on his face as EDG's Nexus falls: we can be strong, as strong as anyone, stronger even. He gets up and hugs Olleh, sad and slow: so believe in us one more time, for one more game. The rest of the team envelops Doublelift, and he puts his arms around his teammates, and for a brief second they bow their heads.
In 2012, the Taipei Assassins came in like a storm, sweeping the local Garena competition in multiple events before storming their way through Worlds. And, like a hundred-year storm, once they left, they never came back. They would never go on to achieve such great heights ever again. They didn't even make it back to Worlds in 2013. But for a moment, they were the best team in the world.
Hindsight loves to downplay the teams that have one brilliant moment only to disappear. It says TPA weren't really that good, they were dependent on the meta, look at how they were murdered by Moscow 5 at IEM a few months later. Or last year's Misfits, yeah sure they took SK Telecom to five games, but SKT was in historically poor form—did it mean anything at all?
And maybe all those things are true. But what is also true is how we felt at those moments. I can only imagine how it must have felt to see TPA on every local newspaper and TV channel after they returned victorious from Los Angeles in 2012, but I can tell you how it felt last year watching MSF play against SKT. I was on my honeymoon in Hong Kong, and we were in a hotel room so small it was basically just a bed. From the bathroom windows, you could almost see Lan Kwai Fong, a small cluster of noisy bars and clubs, the hottest night spot in Central. But the only thing that mattered to me that afternoon was ten young men playing a video game just a few hours train ride away in Guangzhou. The only thing I could think about was the possibility, however small, of MSF going the distance.
I never expected to feel that way again. And then Vitality played Gen.G on the first day of the Group Stage.
Later, we would all realize this Worlds belonged to the underdog and it was being the favorite that was dangerous. The mighty LCK would drop team by team. Gen.G was just the first. But when VIT took the stage to play against Gen.G for the first time, we didn't know that Gen.G would finish with a 1-5 record, that no LCK team would make it past Quarterfinals. G2 had beat Afreeca Freecs just two hours earlier, but they were the old kings of Europe. Maybe it was a fluke. Certainly no one expected VIT, with three players who at this time last year were still playing in promotions, to take down last year's World Champion.
VIT didn't turn out to be the next TPA. They didn't even make it as far as MSF, who at least got the chance to play in the Quarterfinals. But like the joyful, fist-pumping TPA that won the hearts of the world in 2012, and like the 2017 "straight outta Challengers" MSF with the out-of-meta Leona pick, there was a moment when all the world's eyes were on VIT. It felt like Jiizuke on Ekko, juking and dodging and stunning up Cuvee in the Gen.G base, had shattered this timeline. Untargetable, invulnerable, he made the world all his own, and we had front-row seats to watch it happen.
Nature abhors a vacuum. So, too, do esport narratives. Without SKT this year, we grabbed onto the next best thing, and that was and may always be Uzi. Uzi could be a world champion if not for SKT's royal road. Uzi could be the most talented and most famous player to have ever touched League of Legends if not for Faker. Uzi the second place finisher. Uzi the uncrowned king.
2018 was supposed to finally be Uzi's year: he captured the spring and summer split titles, MSI, and even a win for China at the Asia Games. He was supposed to usher in a new generation of LPL dominance. And that may happen -- but not by him. Never mind that RNG didn't stomp through Group B the way we expected, dropping games to VIT and C9. Never mind that Uzi even during the first day of groups talked about being nervous with all the pressure of being the "final boss."
Why are we so eager to find the next dynasty? Maybe this was the original sin of SKT, who made us believe in dominance that may never again be replicated. We don't want our winners to be merely strong or merely better at the game than their opponent. We expect all our winning teams to be superhuman gods descending from the Mount Olympus of League of Legends. Was Uzi always meant to be a demigod felled by his hubris? Or is it that after three years of SKT, this was the only way we knew how to tell a hero's journey?
A part of me mourns for the future that RNG had promised: a new dynasty with Uzi sat upon the throne. But if RNG gave us anything with their defeat, it was a chance at something new. When they fell to G2, they ushered us into a world with no gods, no kings, and no favorites. A new world full of uncertainty -- open for anyone's taking.
On the blue side, we have Afreeca Freecs. In 2018, they booted their top laner for a 19-year-old nobody from Challengers Korea, added four players (mostly rookies), almost won the Spring Split, and finally made it to Worlds. No one knew when they entered that they would be Korea's last hope or that they would lose to C9 to give Korea its worst finish ever at Worlds.
And on the red (or rather, sky blue) side, we have Cloud9. In 2018, they booted both of their top laners for a 21-year-old nobody from the Challengers Series, added four players from their academy team, and climbed from tenth place to winning the gauntlet. It was a joke everyone liked to tell—that C9 was the NA LCS' only hope. It wasn't until they beat AFS, giving North America its best finish in the entire history of Worlds, that we realized how true that joke really was.
The Korean sister team officially died in 2014, but its spirit lives on in fits and bursts in NA and Korea both. AFS coach iloveoov has been talking about it as far back as March 2017, telling Inven that he wanted "a constant and repetitive practice with double squads, consisting of at least 10 players and 3 or 4 backups for each team." And though C9 was more of a seven-man squad with subs in the jungle and mid lane, Jack Etienne as late as September told ESPN's Emily Rand that the players "really saw themselves as a 10-man squad." The academy team was an integral part of C9—a place where players could "reset and come back stronger."
You know that old adage about how it takes a village to raise a child. Though only five men from AFS and C9 were on the stage at any one time, each time they were carrying the hopes and dreams of many more. After AFS won against Kingzone in the LCK Regional Playoffs, its three coaches and five subs came flooding into the booth. Spirit and Mowgli embraced, while Aiming contentedly planted himself in TusiN's lap. I thought of it when C9 won against AFS in Quarterfinals more than two months later. It wasn't quite thirteen people, but there in the huddle were Goldenglue and Blaber, the latter rocking a backwards C9 snapback. They couldn't go with the others across the stage to shake hands, but Goldenglue held onto Svenskeren for as long as he could. Rubbed his shoulders, grinning, as if to say I've got your back.
In the words of Mark Twain, "History doesn't repeat itself. It rhymes." When Fnatic and Edward Gaming were chosen to face each other once more in the Quarterfinals, it felt like the beginning—or the end—of an epic poem.
As Kelsey Moser wrote on the eve of Quarterfinals, the similarities between 2015 and 2018 are eerie. In 2015 EDG won the very first MSI by beating the LCK representatives SKT; in 2018, it would be RNG and Kingzone. In 2015, Fnatic left Group B as its first seed, after soundly beating Rookie and Invictus Gaming; in 2018, Fnatic would do the same, though IG would advance as the group's second seed. In 2015, FNC and EDG faced off to see who would advance to the Semifinals, and FNC swept EDG 3-0.
In 2018, they would meet again, and FNC would win again, 3-1.
The human brain is molded by pattern recognition. We mistake it in machines for intelligence, just like we mistake a line drawn between two dots to be meaning. Symmetry is the most basic sleight of hand in a writer's bag of tricks, a way we fake meaning to get you to keep reading. So it's tempting for me to tell you that we should have seen it coming. FNC was always going to stomp EDG at Quarterfinals. After all, it's all happened before.
But what symmetry doesn't tell you is how much professional League of Legends has changed so much since 2015. No one would ever say that in 2015 League of Legends was still a newcomer. 2014 was its coming out party; 2015 just cemented its place in the esports scene. But in 2018, League of Legends has had to do something much harder than just show up: it's had to mature. Franchising, the first generation retiring, players becoming coaches, new sponsors and millions of dollars in investment—it's still learning how to make sense of it all, how to go from an interesting endeavor into an establishment.
And what symmetry can't quite capture is how much EDG and FNC have had to grow along with the scene. The EDG and FNC that faced off in 2015 are no more. In 2015 Meiko was the youngest on his team, a substitute support suddenly playing his first real LPL game, untested. In 2018, Meiko is the EDG starter with the longest tenure on the team, a star in his own right, trying to shepherd a young EDG roster as it casts off the stars like Aaron and Clearlove who brought EDG into being. In 2015 Rekkles was fresh off his rumspringa on Alliance and Elements, trying to prove that Fnatic hadn't made a mistake taking him back. In 2018, Alliance and Elements have long since dissolved, and Rekkles is the elder statesman of Fnatic, its face and its brand, placed on the bench if only to usher in new talent like Bwipo.
Symmetry is a coincidence, not a curse. There was nothing predetermined about FNC's success or EDG's loss. This year's Quarterfinals was a reflection of three years of change, three years of doubt, three years of fine-tuning and nurturing and refining, three years of hard work. EDG vs. FNC is a testament to how much we all can change. Maybe, if you're FNC, 2018 is the chance to show how much you have changed for the better. And maybe, if you're EDG, 2018 is a sign that there is still so much more you can do, so much better that you can become.
In sports, we love the effortless players, the ones that make a caster croon, he makes it look so easy. We love the aggressive junglers, the carry top laners, the mid lane duel, the ADC caught out in a sideline who suddenly reverses a 1v2, and the play-making support with a nifty hook. It's hard to love the team with a good draft, the ward in the right place, the mid laner on Malzahar. It's hard to love the team that quietly does its job.
Maybe that's why it has been so hard for people to love Gen.G. From a group of scrappy Solo Queue players almost relegated in 2015 to the World Champions that struggled on their home turf through all of 2018, they've worked hard every step of the way. Yet still they are only our almost-ran team, always sidelined for something flashier. We remember the ROX vs. SKT Semifinals in 2016, not the full Best-of-5 Finals between SKT and Samsung Galaxy; Faker crying in his chair and not Ambition finally lifting the Summoner's Cup. If we remember Crown at all, it is mostly negative: his frustrated face as he storms off the stage in 2016, or him sobbing uncontrollably at his computer after losing to Kingzone Dragon X in the spring.
For every rookie VIT team popping off, there is a Gen.G dynasty falling away, and they crossed paths for one perfect and terrible game on Day 5 of the Group Stage. At around 33 minutes, VIT picked off Crown and Cuvee in the mid lane, leaving the rest of Gen.G scattered. "I think [for] Europe, it was always about this 'chase,' catching up to Korea," VIT Coach YamatoCannon would say later in a stirring post-game interview. And if you could have brought that chase to life, it might look like this one: Ambition and CoreJJ fleeing into the top-side red jungle and VIT running after them like a pack of bloodhounds catching the scent. It's Attila that sees the chance to end it all. He snipes down CoreJJ, then sets his sights on Ambition.
He is on Tristana, and his jump forward is effortless.
Less then a minute later, Gen.G's chances at advancing crumble with their Nexus.
It is hard to love something that is not easy, and League of Legends has never been easy for Gen.G. They've had to make the hard climb up the unyielding mountain face, struggling through depression and meta changes and roster decisions as they try to reach the top. I cannot imagine how hard the journey has been for them, how much it would have broken me down, how many more times than Crown I would have cried. As VIT took a bow, Crown walked off, snapping his jacket just a little. I imagine him fading into the fog that fills the stage, fading out of view—as if he is drowning, the effort he put in to get this far weighing him down like an anchor. There are no easy words of comfort to give him, and there is nothing waiting for him but more hard work and pain. Because sometimes the things we love are effortless. But sometimes, love is just hard.
There is always one LMS team that makes your heart race, that makes you think this could be the one. If TPA was the unexpected meet-cute that swept you off your feet, then ahq is that beautiful first date that never quite delivered on its promise. In 2015, we dumped ahq for Flash Wolves, the most eligible bachelor around. And for the last three years, we've gone steady. FW have been good to us with Semifinals finishes in every MSI, the IEM Katowice performance in 2017, dominance in the LMS split after split. But at some point, the relationship became stale. At some point, we started to settle for each other.
In 2017, the new Worlds format gave the LMS three seeds, and Hong Kong Attitude rose to the occasion, then immediately fell on its face. Thanks to a dominant showing by G-Rex in the Play-in Stage, all three of the LMS' seeds made it to the Group Stage this year. But the high of that performance faded in the days following. FW gave themselves a disappointing third-place finish in their group, and both MAD Team and GRX finished 0-6—the worst ever for any LMS team at Worlds.
By now, surely you've noticed how many of these moments I have picked are of loss. I am afraid that by carrying on this way, I am making you think there are only two things in League of Legends—victory or agonizing defeat. What team doesn't want to win? What team isn't sad when they lose? But at the end of Worlds, there is only one winner. Everyone else has to lose.
So let me catalog something about loss that is not suffering. Let me say instead that this is a transition time for LMS. That FW are learning how to play without Karsa, that MAD is learning how to step out of ahq's shadow, and that this is G-Rex's first year in the LMS after acquiring most of the Raise Gaming roster, who incidentally never made it to Worlds. Let me point to the first game EDG played against MAD, those moments where K's Rakan had me on the edge of my seat and made me think that this team had a chance—if not this year, then next. Let me reminisce on how hard Empt2y has worked, giving out interviews in English like candy and sending out love calls to the NA LCS as if to say pick me, pick me, pick me up.
I don't think GRX or MAD came to Worlds believing they would win. For GRX, even making it into Groups was a pleasant outcome. But if LMS has taught me anything, it's that FW isn't our forever. There will come a day when the LMS torch will pass on from them too. And who knows, maybe what we're really missing is a LMS team who started at the bottom. Maybe GRX or MAD can teach us a thing or two about earning our love.
Sometimes when everything comes to an end, we circle right back to the beginning. Standing on the precipice of the final match between IG and FNC, my mind goes back to the last day of the Play-in Stage and a video of Detonation FocusMe's Evi posted by ESPN's Tyler Erzberger on his Twitter. "After the interview," Erzberger wrote, "we walked by the empty LCK Arena and [Evi] ran in to take some parting photos to remember."
In the video, Evi is a black shadow, indistinguishable from his surroundings. The screens of the new LoL Park arena glow behind him -- images of the Summoner's Cup like a holy grail suspended in blue and silver. Though you can't see his face, the way he swings his phone in a wide arc around him, trying to capture as much of the arena as possible, is instantly recognizable: awe and excitement and nostalgia already for DFM's victory over KaBUM, which was at the time just hours old.
"A Look Back to Move Forward" -- this is the title of a Lolesports video of Piglet (then on Team Liquid) and Impact (then on Impulse) revisiting the Staples Center. In the video, Piglet and Impact walk shoulder-to-shoulder through the empty arena, commenting on how much smaller it looks without all the people. They squint at the stage from the stadium seating, the ghosts of the players they used to be two years ago, and the ghosts of the audience watching their younger selves play. They raise their arms up in the air, a little mockingly, as the footage cuts to 2013 Bengi and Faker in the same position right after their win.
Impact has always been forward-looking, the kind of person perpetually planning for the end. In 2014, when he was still on SKT, he sent a message to his future self, matter-of-factly noting that in ten years, his pro-gaming career would be over. He hoped that by the grand "old" age of 30, he'd be studying English, finished with a world tour, become a DJ, and gotten a tattoo. Even in 2013, he was already looking towards the end. "For me, I was thinking it could be my last time playing in a place like this," he tells Piglet.
He's been right so far -- 2013 was the last time he played in the Staples Center. It's Piglet who's prone to getting lost in the game, who looks backwards, who sounds the most wistful. "T1," he muses, looking at where he had struck the infamous pose, with one finger raised in the air. "That's all a dream now."
The best and cruelest thing about time is its forward progression: tomorrow will always come, and you can never stop it from coming. So, Janus-like, we are at every second being split in two: always leaving behind the past and being left behind by the future. Even if Evi didn't know it, when he stood in that empty arena taking it all in one last time, he was channeling the likes of Piglet and Impact, looking backwards to make sense of how to move on. I think of him peering out on the darkened stage, imagining what it would have been like to be in the audience, watching himself celebrate DFM's first time getting to the Play-in Knockout Stage. Maybe he was seeing himself in two or three or ten years, coming back to reminisce about this moment. Maybe he thought of how DFM had been around for almost seven years, how his teammate Ceros had been there for all of them. Maybe he dreamed for just an instant about the next stage, if DFM could make it. And maybe, at the same time, he wondered how much longer he would have in this career.
Or maybe he was just thinking about how late it was. Past midnight, everything shutting down. Time to go back to his hotel and go to sleep. Then wake up tomorrow, boot up the computer, load up the client, and play some League of Legends. Maybe he might even win some games. And in a little while, there would be a tournament. And win or lose there would be another one. And more games, and more tournaments, and on and on. As it has been for eight years. As it will be, we pray, for more.


Bloom Description: Masses of white cloud-like flowers hang down to give an airy appearance. Not only are the blooms beautiful, but also sweetly fragrant. Prodigy Fringetree is a variety that was spotted growing in a test plot at Select Trees in Georgia.
Trail/Garden Location: Planted at East Terrace, North Lawn, and Art Trail.
Garden Uses: Prodigy Fringetree can be grown as a specimen tree or in small group plantings. The white flowers are a great contrast to a dark, wooded background. It likes average to moist soil in sunny locations, but can take light shade. This is one of the better drought-tolerant species on site.
Wildlife Benefits: Used as a source of nectar for pollinators.
Leaf Type: Dark green, glossy leaves turn dull yellow in fall.