STSF Jami

Academy Roster: CO - TMir XO - STSF Jami HOPS - Fletcher Jackson CSCI - Kaspian Mission Brief: USS Serenity (post-Voy Danube-class runabout) is currently approaching planet BB61, to conduct a survey while the Avenger is taking care of other issues. Before landing the runabout encounters giant wasps, one of which splatters the viewscreen. After landing a "ginormous" T-Rex dukes it out with a "ginormous" dragon-like creature. And we made it out alive!! 130723.txt

=/\=Starfleet Academy Roster =/\= =/\=7/16/2013 =/\= Game Master (GM) - TMir Game Master (GM) - STSF Jami Mission Commanding Officer (MCO) - TMir Helm/ Operations Officer (XO/HOPS) - STSF Jami Chief Science Officer (CSCI) - Kaspian Assistant Science Officer (ASCI) - Fletcher Jackson Chief of Engineering (CENG) - Nijil tr'Korjata Assistant Engineer (AENG) - Annisha Chief Security Officer/Tactical Officer (CSEC) - Chirakis Mission Brief: The USS Avenger (post-Voy Miranda-class frigate) is currently cruising through deep space when it comes across a very large ship minus lifesigns and power. The lettering on the ship is Tauron BSG 149. 130716.txt

Sorry for the lack of academy tonight, folks. Circumstances beyond our control made it impossible. Hope to see everyone who wanted to attend either next week or Saturday night at midnight ET.

The submarine? I decided long ago that if the ship can go into space it certainly can survive under water. Kind of makes sense, yanno? Tribble, yes! Makes me wonder if that was the cause of the multiplicity of the little darlin's. All great comments, Crash. Enjoyed the read!

Roster: CO: Wes Roberts XO: STSF Jami HELM: Michael Hill TOPS: taehjae USS Serenity (post-Voy Danube-class runabout) is currently approaching planet DKM537, to conduct a survey while the Revenge is taking care of other issues 130528.txt

Happy Birthday USS Manticore ~Fifteen Glorious Years~ as ~Tugboat for the Galaxy~ Don't Panic and Don't Forget Your Towel!

From the Penn State Daily Newswire: Astronomers, including Penn State Behrend alumnus, discover five new planets Two planets possess habitable characteristics April 18, 2013 A NASA-led team of astronomers has discovered five new planets, two of which are a habitable distance from their star. “It’s the system that most resembles the Earth’s,” said Justin R. Crepp, assistant professor of physics at the University of Notre Dame and a 2003 alumnus of Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. “These are the smallest planets we have found so far in a habitable zone.” Size is a key factor in determining a planet’s potential for sustaining life. A planet two or three times the size of Earth is almost certain to be rocky, Crepp said. Larger planets are a mixture of rock and gas, or mostly gas. A planet is within a system’s “habitable zone” when it is solid, with the possibility of water on its surface. One of the new planets is 1.41 times larger than the earth’s radii, according to the new study, which was published in Science magazine. The other is 1.61 times larger than earth. The planets were detected by astronomers using the Kepler space telescope. Kepler’s lens is focused on the Cygnus and Lyra constellations; it watches for variations in brightness in more than 100,000 stars. A star’s intensity dims when a planet passes in front of it, casting a shadow. It’s difficult to see – NASA compares it to the brightness of a car headlight when a fruit fly passes by – but if the dimming repeats at regular intervals, astronomers have good reason to believe a planet is orbiting the star. The star in this particular study is called Kepler-62. It’s roughly 1,000 light years from Earth. One of the new planets transits, or passes in front of, Kepler-62 every 5.7 days. Others transit every 122 and 266 days. Crepp studied the K-62 system from the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, eliminating any other factors – a binary star, for example – that could mimic the signatures of planets in transit. The Kepler team has found planets before: 115 have been confirmed since the satellite launched in 2009. Most are far larger than Earth, and are made entirely of ice or gas. Smaller planets are more difficult to see. But astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics now believe that 6 percent of red dwarf stars – the most common in our galaxy – have habitable, Earth-sized planets. Any one of them could fundamentally upend our view of the universe. “Fifty years ago, you couldn’t imagine that this would ever happen,” Crepp said. “They are literally rewriting the textbooks as we speak.”

[it sounds a bit strange and quite comical at first, but the implications are interesting. This article has been abridged and links removed. - J] Rats' brains are more like ours than scientists previously thought By Seth Palmer March 26, 2013 UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Neuroscientists face a multitude of challenges in their efforts to better understand the human brain. If not for model organisms such as the rat, they might never know what really goes on inside our heads. The brain is a phenomenal processor that in a year's time can generate roughly 300,000 petabytes of data -- 30,000 times the amount generated by the Large Hadron Collider. Trying to decipher its signals is a daunting prospect. But particularly for individuals who have lost a limb or been partially or fully paralyzed, such research has potentially life-changing results because it can enable such biotechnological advances as the development of a brain-computer interface for controlling prosthetic limbs. Such devices require a detailed understanding of the motor cortex, a part of the brain that is crucial in issuing the neural commands that execute behavioral movements. A recent paper published in the journal Frontiers in Neural Circuits by Jared Smith and Kevin Alloway, researchers at the Penn State Center for Neural Engineering and affiliates of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, details their discovery of a parallel between the motor cortices of rats and humans that signifies a greater relevance of the rat model to studies of the human brain than scientists had previously known. "The motor cortex in primates is subdivided into multiple regions, each of which receives unique inputs that allow it to perform a specific motor function," said Alloway, professor of neural and behavioral sciences. "In the rat brain, the motor cortex is small and it appeared that all of it received the same type of input. We know now that sensory inputs to the rat motor cortex terminate in a small region of the motor cortex that is distinct from the larger region that issues the motor commands. Our work demonstrates that the rat motor cortex is parcellated into distinct subregions that perform specific functions, and this result appears to be similar to what is seen in the primate brain." "You have to take into account the animal's natural behaviors to best understand how its brain is structured for sensory and motor processing," said Jared Smith, graduate student in the Huck Institutes' neuroscience program and the first author of the paper. "For primates like us, that means a strong reliance on visual information from the eyes, but for rats it's more about the somatosensory inputs from their whiskers." In fact, nearly a third of the rat's sensorimotor cortex is devoted to processing whisker-related information, even though the whiskers' occupy only one-third of one percent of the rat's total body surface. In humans, nearly 40 percent of the entire cortex is devoted to processing visual information even though the eyes occupy a very tiny portion of our body's surface. [abridged] "This study opens up avenues for studying some very complex neural processes in rodents that are more like our own than we had previously thought," said Smith. "The tools now available for studying activity in the rodent brain are improving at a remarkable pace, and the findings are even more interesting as we discover just how similar these mammalian relatives are to us. This is a very exciting time in neuroscience."

That is awesome, Lawliet! So glad you had a chance to meet him!

=/\==/\= STSF ACADEMY =/\==/\= =/\==/\= 12/18/2012=/\==/\= Game Master (GM) - TMir Game Master (GM) - STSF Jami Mission Commanding Officer (MCO) - TMir Mission Executive Officer (MXO) - Arizhel Helm/Operations Officer (HOPS) - Ian Johnson Chief Medical Officer (CMO) - TKAR Chief Science Officer (CSCI) - STSF Jami Mission Brief: USS Avenger (post-Voy Miranda-class frigate) is currently cruising through deep space. Chat log will be posted when available.

=/\==/\= STSF ACADEMY =/\==/\= =/\==/\= 11/20/2012=/\==/\= . Game Master (GM) - TMir Game Master (GM) - STSF Jami . Mission Commanding Officer (MCO) - TMir Mission Executive Officer (MXO) - STSF Jami Helm/Operations Officer (HOPS) - Thau'Shir Mrkath Tactical Officer (TAC) - Arizhel Mission Brief: USS Serenity (post-Voy Danube-class runabout) is currently approaching planet DKM537 to conduct a planetary survey. USS Avenger is elsewhere. 121120.txt

The Tuesday 9pm academy has been cancelled as well.

=/\==/\= STSF ACADEMY =/\==/\= =/\==/\= 10/23/2012=/\==/\= Game Master (GM) - TMir Game Master (GM) - STSF Jami Mission Commanding Officer (MCO) - TMir Helm/ Operations Officer (Helm/Ops) - Ens Red Shurt Chief Security Officer (CSEC) - STSF Jami Assistant Security Officer (ASEC) - Ehecatl1906 Chief Medical Officer (CMO) - TKAR Mission Brief: USS Serenity (post-Voy Danube-class runabout) is currently approaching planet DKM537, to conduct a planetary survey while the USS Avenger is taken care of a small border matter. 121023.txt

=/\==/\= STSF ACADEMY =/\==/\= =/\==/\= 10/16/2012=/\==/\= Game Master (GM) - TMir Game Master (GM) - STSF Jami Commanding Officer (CO) - TMir Helm (HELM) - Ens Shurt (NPC) Chief Engineering Officer (CENG) - Lucien Tremblay Assistant Engineering Officer (AENG1) - STSF Jami Assistant Engineering Officer (AENG2) - TKAR Mission Briefing: USS Serenity (post-Voy Danube-class runabout) is returning to the Avenger after a command conference at SB 248. 121016.txt

According to NBC news, Neil Armstrong died at 2:45 PM from complications following cardiac bypass surgery. Those of you old enough to remember his first step on the moon on July 20, 1969, will remember, also, his historic words: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Sorely missed but never forgotten. Neil Alden Armstrong, shortly before he set off for the Moon with fellow astronauts Michael Collins and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images) Neil Alden Armstrong August 5, 1930 - August 25, 2012

From the Penn State Newswire:

=/\==/\= STSF ACADEMY =/\==/\= =/\==/\= 8/7/2012=/\==/\= Game Master (GM) - TMir Game Master (GM) - STSF Jami Mission Commanding Officer (MCO) - TMir Mission Executive Officer (MXO) - Ehecatl Helm/Operations Officer (HOPS) - Capt "Crash" Calestorm Chief Science Officer (CSCI) - Lerak tr'Pexil Assistant Science Officer (ASCI) - STSF Jami Chief Engineering Officer (CENG) - Wx Murray Assistant Engineering Officer (AENG) - Jaroninul Mission Brief: USS Avenger (post-Voy Miranda-class frigate) is currently cruising through deep space. 120807.txt

=/\==/\= STSF ACADEMY =/\==/\= =/\==/\= 7/31/2012=/\==/\= Game Master (GM) - TMir Game Master (GM) - STSF Jami Mission Commanding Officer (MCO) - TMir Executive Officer (XO) - STSF Jami Chief Security Officer (CSEC) - Arizhel Assistant Security Officer (ASEC1) - Ehecatl Assistant Security Officer (ASEC2) - Capt Calestorm Assistant Security Officer (ASEC3) - Nijil tr'Korjata Chief Medical Officer (CMO) - TKAR Mission Brief: USS Avenger (post-Voy Miranda-class frigate) is currently over DKM-573. During negotiations, extremists broke into the conference and abducted several personnel, including the executive officer. A Security team has been dispatched to the last known location of the XO's comm, a cave complex in an obscure mountain range. 120731.txt

Atragon, I want to be the first to thank you for keeping the dream alive! You, the GM Council, the GMs, and especially the players make this forum a place to live the dream! So keep on keepin' on, and Happy Anniversary to Us!

=/\==/\= STSF ACADEMY =/\==/\= =/\==/\= 7/24/2012=/\==/\= Game Master (GM) - TMir Game Master (GM) - STSF Jami Mission Commanding Officer (MCO) - TMir Helm Officer (Helm) - JM Ramos Operations Officer (OPS) - STSF Jami Chief Security Officer (CSEC) - Nijil tr’Korjata Chief Science Officer (CSCI) - Arizhel Assistant Science Officer (ASCI) - WxMurray Chief Medical Officer (CMO) - TKAR USS Avenger (post-Voy Miranda-class frigate) is cruising deep space. It's deep in the middle of the third watch. Helm, Ops, and Science are the only stations currently manned. Ops is currently the Watch officer, and has command of the ship. 120724.txt

=/\==/\= STSF ACADEMY =/\==/\= =/\==/\= 7/17/2012=/\==/\= Game Master (GM) - TMir Game Master (GM) - STSF Jami Mission Commanding Officer (MCO) - TMir Helm Officer (Helm) - JM Ramos Operations & Tactical Officer (TOPS) - Capt Calestorm Chief Science Officer (CSCI) - STSF Jami Assistant Science Officer (ASCI1) - TKAR Assistant Science Officer (ASCI2) - Nijil tr'Korjata Mission Briefing: USS Avenger (post-Voy Mirana-class frigate) is entering the DKM537 system. The system is a "young" star system, less than 50 million years old. The Avenger is doing a full survey of the system, and to leave buoys to monitor. 120717.txt

=/\==/\= STSF ACADEMY =/\==/\= =/\==/\= 7/10/2012=/\==/\= Game Master (GM) - TMir Game Master (GM) - STSF Jami Mission Commanding Officer (MCO) - TMir Chief Engineering Officer (CENG) - STSF Jami Assistant Engineering Officer (AENG1) - Arizhel Assistant Engineering Officer (AENG2) - TKAR Assistant Engineering Officer (AENG3) - JM Ramos Assistant Engineering Officer (AENG4) - WxMurray Mission Brief: USS Avenger is currently dead in space, having been attacked by an unidentified, mile long wedge-shaped ship. Most of the saucer is holed, engines are off-line. 120710.txt

=/\==/\= STSF ACADEMY =/\==/\= =/\==/\= 7/3/2012=/\==/\= Game Master (GM) - TMir Game Master (GM) - STSF Jami Special Guest (SG) - Ethan Neufeld Mission Commanding Officer (MCO) - TMir Chief Security Officer (CSEC) - Capt Calestorm Assistant Security Officer (1ASEC) - JM Ramos Assistant Security Officer (2ASEC) - STSF Jami Assistant Security Officer (3ASEC) - TKAR Mission Briefing: USS Avenger (post-Voy Miranda-class frigate) is currently orbiting planet DKM-537. The Captain, and a Security Detail, have been invited down to meet with the leaders in this First Contact situation. The Captain and detail have just finished beaming down. 120703.txt

Hello Everyone, I'm sure that by now most of you have heard of the severe storms that hit the east coast of the United States this past week. Unfortunately the storms left 2+ million people without power (including air conditioning, refrigeration, and other things needed to combat the 100+ deg heat). Several of those affected happen to be STSF GMs. Your patience is appreciated during this time as we shuffle around personnel for advanced games, academies, and the posting of logs. Thanks. J

=/\==/\= STSF ACADEMY =/\==/\= =/\==/\= 6/26/2012=/\==/\= Game Master (GM) - TMir Game Master (GM) - STSF Jami Mission Commanding Officer (MCO) - TMir Mission Executive Officer (MXO) - STSF Jami Special Guest Visitor (SGV) - Ethan Neufeld Chief Security Officer (CSEC) - Arizhel Assistant Security Officer (1ASEC) - JMRamos Assistant Security Officer (2ASEC) - Pat Stewart Assistant Security Officer (3ASEC) - TKAR Mission Briefing: USS Avenger (post-Voy Miranda-class frigate) is currently orbiting planet DKM-537. During a routine away team mission, the Captain was abducted by persons unknown. No ransom demands have been transmitted, but Vulcan life signs have been detected in a coastal fortress on the eastern seaboard of the main continent. Security has dispatched an assault team to rescue her. 120626.txt