Category Archives: Transhuman News

While covering the LoyolaMARS initiatives, Loyolan copy editor Brynn Shaffer sat down with some of the members of the team to talk about the club, their aspirations and the future of aerospace.

Troy Womack-Henderson, freshman computer science major

What inspired you to join LoyolaMARS? How did you first hear about it and how long have you been a part of it? How active are you in the team?

LMARS is actually one of the reasons that I decided to apply to, and attend, LMU. When I first heard about it, when I was applying around this time last year, I just saw that they were really involved in aerospace research, not just building rockets, but also just teaching about the aerospace industry and rocketry which was really cool When I was researching schools and I was considering LMU, since I knew it was in this aerospace hub of Southern California, I remember seeing an article I believe done by Seaver News, and it did a special back in 2018 on the current team. It had their website, and it basically just introduced me to what they were doing, their group and their society and everything. It all sounded really, really interesting and I hadnt seen other clubs similar to it at any other universities, so that definitely motivated my decision to apply to LMU.

Are you interested in space exploration at all, like being an astronaut yourself, or are you more interested in the behind the scenes/mechanical part of aerospace engineering?

I would definitely say a little bit of everything. I think that the aerospace industry, especially now with the industry in the U.S. trying to make space flight commercial and accessible to everyone, [is] a really exciting industry, and its something Ive always wanted to do since I was little. I really want to be an astronaut because I love space and I love rockets, and I think to do scientific research in space and help space exploration and humanity would be a really great thing for me to do for my career.

Marina Aziz, sophomore, electrical engineering with an emphasis in computer engineering major

Can you name a role model of yours? Maybe you have one within the aerospace industry?

Within people I know, definitely Dr. [Claire] Leon. I could talk about her for literally days. I love her. I admire her so much, shes such an incredible person. And the fact that she did the things she did before women in STEM was really even a thing. She worked for Boeing for 35 years, and then the AirForce for five and now shes a professor at LMU, so can you imagine like 45 years ago, she was working at Boeing, she stayed at Boeing for 35 years, was a manager, big-baller, shes just really cool.

With COVID-19 and the transition to Zoom, what has that looked like for you and the team? Has it been an easy or hard transition? Maybe discouraging?

The e-board people, like the president Matt, they havent made it very public if theyre struggling or not, but I think they have definitely had a good transition in terms of shifting from more hands-on projects to more like focusing on our careers. Which I think is really cool, I think they definitely made the most out of the situation that we were put in. The whole point of the club is to build rockets. So, you would expect that when we go online, were not going to be doing anything, right? But, if anything, I think that I feel more involved in the club now than I did before just because you always have like a speaker to look forward to or like a CAD workshop. Theres just always something to do now, and its like right at your fingertips. They definitely made the most out of it.

Sabrina Colet-Ruiz, senior mechanical engineering major

Are you interested in space exploration at all, like being an astronaut yourself, or are you more interested in the behind the scenes/mechanical part of aerospace engineering?

Definitely more like behind the scenes, for sure. I like space applications for satellites and for studying the Earth, but Im actually not really keen on Elon Musk, like colonization of Mars and stuff, I think its kind of a little ridiculous. I just think theres a lot of money going into it, and I think its so weird that people would rather move to Mars and colonize Mars, than just take care of what we have here. So I totally like the idea of satellites and rocketry and stuff to study Earth and to help improve the Earth, but I just think its a little weird that you would want to start another world on another planet.

What is your favorite thing about LoyolaMARS? Could be anything.

Right now I really like our speakers that come in to talk to us. So like speakers or more opportunities to talk to professionals in a smaller context than if you went to a big presentation at LMU, which they do sometimes, like the Seaver spotlights.

Clare Galvin, junior mechanical engineering major, computer science minor

What inspired you to join LoyolaMARS? How did you first hear about it and how long have you been a part of it? How active are you in the team?

I joined LMARS freshman year because I heard it would be a good idea to join a project as an engineering major and be working on it. And I chose LMARS because they came to speak to all the freshmen and caught my eye. First semester, freshman year, all of the project leaders came to talk to us and I was the most interested in rocket club. Since then, Ive been on the team, so three years and now I am the treasurer, so Im trying to be a little more of a leader in the club. Were now participating in this dollar per foot challenge.

Can you name a role model of yours? Maybe you have one within the aerospace industry?

One of our professors actually is our club advisor, Dr. Leon, Dr. Claire Leon. And we share a first name so thats fun. She is really cool. She was, I think, a VP, or at least a manager, at Boeing and then went to lead a division at the AirForce as a civilian. And she helped me get my connections that led to my internship last summer, so shes just been a really helpful mentor and shes just really cool.

How do you think being a part of LoyolaMARS is benefiting you individually? Maybe in either personal or professional aspects of life, or maybe just to fulfill a hobby of yours?

Its definitely helpful professionally. Its hard to know what to talk about in a job interview, but a project is the best thing to talk about for an engineering student, especially one that can apply so directly to a lot of the companies that are around us since we are in such an aerospace-heavy part of the world. Its been super helpful for interviews for me.

Jesus Arzapalo, sophomore philosophy major

Can you name a role model of yours? Maybe you have one within the aerospace industry?

Theres this astronaut who used to be a navy seal and also a doctor, his name is Johnny King. Its pretty crazy to be a navy seal and then go to med school and then become an astronaut, a really difficult career.

Professor Leon told me about the weekly speaker series. What are your thoughts on them? Are they inspiring? Who has been one of your favorite speakers thus far?

Yeah, they are inspiring. Its great to hear from people in the industry in engineering; just right now I came from one, her name was Candace Givens, she works at Northrop Grumman. She was describing her career as she started as a systems engineer and then she went to LMU to get a masters and now shes been working there for a while. Its really interesting to hear how people find different career paths. So that is inspiring.

Jose Garcia, senior mechanical engineering major

What are your duties and responsibilities as VP of LoyolaMARS?

I do a lot of outreach. I work with the president to figure out what speakers we should have. I also teach a class through the club, so I use it as a platform to help give back to the community, the LMU community as much as possible.

How does aerospace and medicine fit together, since it seems like a very unconventional path?

Its very common for astronauts to be doctors because they have different missions that are required, depending on what the budget is, to do specific research. So very often, youll find astronauts who have a medical degree or they have a PhD in something, but theyll bring along a whole team with different strengths, and with that, Ill just have more strengths allocated.

Is there anything you think the team is lacking/could be improved upon?

Members! I feel like there are a lot of tools and opportunities that I feel that we provide that I wish more people took advantage of.

This article is part of a three-part package series on LoyolaMARS, in which Loyolan copy editor Brynn Shaffer investigates the club in-depth. Read more coverage with a news story on everything you should know about the club,and anopinion pieceon why space exploration is fundamental to societal advancement.

Read more:
Meet the team behind the brains: LoyolaMARS students talk all things aerospace - Los Angeles Loyolan

Who:Elon Musk

Location: West Hollywood.

What he's wearing: A black tee celebrating the Apollo XIs 50th anniversary, black jeans, a leather jacket, and a black and white bandana.

Editors Notes: Don't be an idiot. It was only a couple of weeks ago that we saw a mask-less Musk getting up-close with Joe Rogan and Dave Chappelle (shortly before the comedian contracted Covid). Yet even with all the money andscientificknowledge at his disposal, Musk hasn't learned to mask-up properly.

Over the last year, the bandana has emerged as theface-covering of choice for celebrities who haven't quite got the memo (Johnny Depp, Bruce Willis et al). Sure, guidance on masks from authorities has been confusing and sometimes contradictory, with health officials previously urging the public not to buy masks, due to a major shortage in crucial protective gear. But surely if you cancolonize Mars you can put on an N95 respirator especially if you're going to eat out in a pandemic.

According to theCenters for Disease Control, a bandana is useful, but only if youve used the material as a base to make your own tight-fitting mask. Tying one around your face is not going to do a huge amount to protect you or others, and communicates a boomer, "IDGF" attitude to those in your vicinity.

Thankfully,the mask gamehas come a long way in the last year which means you can protect yourself and others while looking good. PPE gear is now firmly woven into the fabric of everyday life and it's being produced by the likes of Marine Serre and Off-White.

Check out some of our favorite protective gearincluding face masks you can work out in.

See the rest here:
Someone Tell Elon Musk That Bandanas Aren't Face Masks - Highsnobiety

Oh, you tapped out early, filmmaker Rodney Ascher joked with me after his newest documentary, A Glitch in the Matrix, had its virtual Sundance premiere.

Id explained to him that I was so disturbed by an early scene in which an eyewitnessa.k.a. a person who believes we live in a simulated realityvividly describes a dissociative episode that I had to close my laptop and take a Klonopin. (A few days later, I watched the film againthis time beneath a number of comforting afghans.) For a filmmaker devoted to making work about irrational fears, there could be no higher compliment.

In the film, eyewitness Paul Gude tells his story of descending into the Null while rendered (as all eyewitnesses are) as a computerized avatar. He looks sort of like a ThunderCat but with a trick up his sleeve. His terrifying tale comes amid a barrage of wacko talk that shreds the fabric of existence, and the way Ascher slowly lets the pretzel logic buildmoving beyond online denizens with handles like Brother Lo Mystwood to include thinkers like Plato, Ren Descartes, Philip K. Dick, Elon Musk, and Neil deGrasse Tysonhas a cumulative effect. After watching the film, I am not entirely ready to say that we live inside an enormous high-powered computer program. But we all live somewhere, and that place is still pretty weird.

Aschers films, like the books of Philip K. Dick, have a tremendous knack for seeding playful paranoia. His first feature, Room 237, used different interpretations of The Shining to investigate obsessive behavior. The Nightmare, which explored sleep paralysis, had an unforgettable midnight Sundance premiere in which an audience member (who later explained she suffered from the condition) caused a kerfuffle that spread through the crowd, much to the directors glee.

A Glitch in the Matrix, which debuts at virtual cinemas and VOD this Friday, is a serious film about an enormous topic, and includes testimony from the so-called Matrix murderer Joshua Cooke. But its also a movie about nutcases who think we live in a microchip and the planet is inhabited by NPCs (i.e. non-player characters, a term imported from video games). It takes a special kind of filmmaker to make this story work; Ascher is that filmmaker.

Vanity Fair: So you do the research, you have conversations, you replay them 100 times as you edit, you create the trippy visuals. At what point did A Glitch in the Matrix really start to fuck with your head?

Rodney Ascher: It would be a better story to say that it did. But even having conversations with Joshua Cooke about the murder of his parents, I would go home and play with my kid, then fall asleep in front of the TV. Its a day at the office. I like to think that my movies are crazier than I am in person.

What affected me was being in the mix roomwatching it big, hearing the sound design and music that Jonathan Snipes made. Hearing that existential dread at a loud volume does start to work through your lower intestines.

Your movies are always funny, but you seem to go to great lengths to never make fun of your subjects.

I dont have a Dogme 95type list of rules, but its a matter of watching, rewatching, and revising. There are jokes in there, but I hope were never mocking the people were talking to. There are plenty of things people say that I dont necessarily agree with.

Anyone doing a close read of your work would probably never think these are your points of view. There are inconsistencies throughout, anyway. Some of these characters accept that we live in a computer simulation, and are coping with that. Joshua, from prison, is denouncing it.

Both cant be true!

Most of the time you watch and think, Well, this guys nuts. Then someone floats an idea and its Oh, yes, well obviously. This happens time and again in your films. Its your special trick to make something bananas seem palatable. Is this something you do in life? Do you live to make strange arguments?

See the original post here:
Is Our Whole World Just a Simulation? Enter A Glitch in the Matrix - Vanity Fair

Cleveland Cavaliers big man Andre Drummond seems to support one of the latest trends in economics.

He retweeted a post by Elon Musk to show his support for Dogecoin.

Dogecoin is an emerging type of cryptocurrency started by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer.

Last month, its value jumped by 800 percent in just 24 hours, thanks in part to Musks encouragement and the short squeeze of video game retailer GameStop.

Musk is best known as the CEO of auto manufacturer Tesla, Inc. and the CEO of SpaceX, a company that is looking to colonize the planet of Mars.

Drummond has been a key part of the Cavs promising start. He has always been one of the NBAs most ferocious rebounders, and he hasnt let up in that department since joining the team.

However, he may soon be on the move. There are persistent rumors that the Cavs will either trade or buy out Drummond in the coming weeks.

The hot rumor is that if he is indeed bought out, he would join the Brooklyn Nets to bolster their thin frontcourt.

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Andre Drummond backs Elon Musk, campaigning Dogecoin to pump to the moon - Cavaliers Nation