IRS for ANZAPA

- 2 for ANZAPA #267 - J u n e 2012 and for display on eFanzines (www.efanzines.com) o-o-o Contents This issue’s cover .......................................................................................................................................................... 3 The Lady Varnishes ...................................................................................................................................................... 4 Vale Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) ................................................................................................................................... 5 Letters from (North) America....................................................................................................................................... 7 Conventions held and on the horizon ............................................................................................................................ 9 Awards at the Natcon – Sunday evening 10th June 2012 .......................................................................................... 12 Hugo Awards - 2012 nominations ............................................................................................................................. 16 Fan Funds represented or commented on at Continuum 8 ...................................................................................... 19 Surinam Turtles - trade paperbacks online for US$18.00 from Ramble House: http://www.ramblehouse.com..... 21 Book review – ‘A Kingdom Besieged’ by Raymond E Feist (in his Riftwar Cycle) ...................................................... 22 Going Down on the Espy............................................................................................................................................ 23 Stefan zone ................................................................................................................................................................ 24 The Planets – a journey in music and film with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra ............................................. 25 Art, etc. credits… Cover: Graphic by Ditmar Page 2 Photos of Bill Wright and Dick Jenssen Page 20 Advertisement for Gin Pills Page 3 „The Benthic Florae‟ illo by Ditmar Pages 21 Surinam Turtle Press book titles Page 4 „The Lady Varnishes‟ illo by Tim Train Astounding Stories April 1935 cover Page 7 Illustration by Ian Gunn Page 22 Raymond Feist book cover Pages 9-11 Convention logos Page 23 Photo of Alfred Felton (1831-1904) Page 12 Photo of Dick Jenssen . Photograph of „The Espy‟ hotel Page 16 Photo of Mervyn Binns Page 24 „The Planets‟ concert book cover NASA images of the Planets 3 This issue’s cover The Entelechy Graphic and notes by Dick Jenssen As exclusively reported in the cover notes for the previous issue of Interstellar Ramjet Scoop, a major research effort – Project Frangible – is underway at the Large Hadron Collider, initiated by a serendipitous computer glitch which allowed a momentary glimpse into another universe (that is, another brane). Thanks to the efforts of the scientists and technicians involved, these transitory glimpses can be stored in great detail and thereby investigated thoroughly. As IRS pointed out, although the rifts into the other brane are spatially and temporally random, one complete thread of events has been pieced together – the first view was the cover graphic of the previous IRS. The last image is this issue‟s cover. A paper, by Dr. Martin James, fully detailing the events between these two images is published in the June 2012 issue of The Journal of Reproducible Results under the title: “Evolution: an Alien Vivification”. The physics, chemistry, biology, geology, etc., are covered as completely as possible. Although IRS was aware of these results, it was also agreed that publication of the final outcome by us would not be made until Dr. James‟ paper was available. On the alien planet, in the alien universe, an attempt at creating life was observed by Project Frangible: the initial seeding of the oceans of the lifeless world by robots was the subject of the last cover of this journal. As is obvious from this issue‟s cover graphic, the experiment was spectacularly successful, and life is abundant. The investigation into how life was generated revealed that the „seed‟ sown was almost identical to DNA as we know it on our world. Amazingly, the biologists of Project Frangible were able to determine not only that fact, but also some, though not all, of the major differences between the two forms of DNA. It is this similarity, and also that dissimilarity, which apparently accounts for the life displayed in the cover photo to be almost identical to life on our planet, and yet to take forms which, here on Earth, were millions of years apart in evolutionary terms. There are alien trilobytes (extinct here for 250 million years) coexisting with alien liopleurodon (the “shark‟ - extinct some 160 million years ago), and alien diplodocus (vanished 150 million years past), and alien jellyfish akin to Aequorea, Chrysaora, and Cyanea (here still flourishing). What is completely alien, with no Earthly counterpart, are the benthic florae. The benthic florae 4 The landscape depicted is the same for both this and the previous covers‟ graphics. The ocean is now seen to be but a shallow sea, as is obvious from the background „diplodocus‟, whose neck and head are above the water surface. The mineral „cucumbers‟ on the ocean floor have vanished – it is hypothesised that the early vegetation fed on these deposits before adapting to what is available in the ocean floor. Further research is, of course, ongoing. As new results are forthcoming, they will be exclusively reported on in the pages of Interstellar Ramjet Scoop. The most urgent area of study concerns the alien DNA. It has so many features in common with the structure and architecture of Earth DNA that it raises a plethora of questions. Is the similarity simply a coincidence? Or does life, as we know it, depend critically on DNA, as we know it, throughout all branes? Is carbon crucial? And – most importantly – does alien RNA exist? If so, what is the evidence, and what of its structure, behavior and properties? If alien RNA is not present, then how does life exist? DISCLAIMER I notice from Roger Ebert's (June 7th) enthusiastic review of "Prometheus" that part of the plot deals with "Alien humanoids, in suspended animation, [who] incredibly have DNA that's a perfect match for our own". Please note that this issue's cover, and notes, were created many moons ago (and on Earth, not under those of Mars). Clearly, either this is another quotidian example confirming Jung's concept of synchronicity, or an amazing coincidence, or is validation of involuntary telepathic communication. Perhaps I should get in touch with Harlan Ellison to explore litigation? Improve your word power. The sequence of events depicted in this and the previous IRS cover images – the alpha and the omega, as it were – show the progress from the potentiality of life to the actuality of life. That is, they are a visual representation of that entelechy. The complete Oxford English Dictionary – the 20-plus volumes of it – defines: Entelechy In Aristotle's use: The realization or complete expression of some function; the condition in which a potentiality has become an actuality. Ditmar The Lady Varnishes from Badgers Dozen (March 2012) edited by Tim Train Tim Train is a popular Melbourne pub poet. His fanzine is called „Badger‟s Dozen‟ and, unless you are lucky enough to meet him, it is obtainable only from a wall rack in the Sticky Institute, a State-sponsored underground cave haunted by paper fanzine editors, in a subway under Flinders Street railway station. Reprinted here is Tim‟s review of an apocryphal motion picture.* BORN HEIRESS TO A VAST FORTUNE, the Lady Mary Worthington Upperleigh-Upperleigh was cheated of her inheritance, whilst still at school, by her dastardly Uncle Houndstooth. Forced to live on her wits, Lady Mary becomes indentured to a local carpenter, and eventually starts her own business. This autumn, enjoy Director Alfina Pitchfork‟s thrilling historical epic, The Lady Varnishes . Tim Train * .. in fealty, perhaps, to George Sand, the gay companion of carpenter Frédéric François Chopin Ed. 5 Vale Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) Master storyteller Ray Bradbury died on June 5, 2012, at the age of 91. His most famous novel is “Fahrenheit 451, a dystopian classic published in 1953. Named for the temperature at which paper ignites, the novel depicts a near-future society in which firemen don‟t extinguish fires but instead burn books, and where the complacent populace, numbed by nonstop television and advertising, seems all too eager to embrace enforced ignorance. Many of his early stories, first published in science fiction magazines, were gathered together and published under two titles, The Martian Chronicles (1950) and The Illustrated Man (1951). The former is a fix-up novel tying together loosely connected tales inspired by childhood reading and experience. The latter volume consists of eighteen stories that explore the nature of mankind. Whilst each is a complete story in itself with no plot or character connections with the others, a recurring theme is how the cold mechanics of technology affect the human condition. Bradbury, Heinlein and Asimov were the three twentieth century science fiction authors who most made it into the literary mainstream. During Bradbury‟s prodigious writing career more than eighteen

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