Antipodean Areopagus an Australasian agora where the meek shall inherit the earth. But they‟d better be meek. Issue number 3 – June 2011 PREPARED IN MELBOURNE BY BILL WRIGHT UNIT 4, 1 PARK STREET, ST KILDA WEST, VICTORIA 3182 FOR PUBLICATION IN: ANZAPA MAILING # 261 JUNE 2011 AND FOR DISPLAY ON: eFanzines: http://www.efanzines.com 2 Antipodean Areopagus Issue number 3 for ANZAPA #261 - June 2011 and for display on eFanzines (www.efanzines.com) edited by Bill Wright Pamela Boal wrote this poem in Fibonacci 1-1-2-3-5-8 syllables: When Comes Darkness, Call up light, Thus banish the stress Of things that go bump in the night. It was first published by John Hertz in Vanamonde 787 on 24 June 2008 and recently brought to my attention by Yvonne Rousseau. This issue’s cover David Russell, who hails from Warrnambool in Western Victoria, sent me this issue‟s cover graphic in May 2011, It was untitled and with nary a clue as to what it might represent. To me it conveys a sense of menace that fits my mood of the moment engendered by lugubrious introspection. I‟ve noticed that prolonged illness causes sadness in other people. It seems I‟m no exception.. Contents Conventions on the horizon ................................................................................................................................ 3 Letters from (North) America ............................................................................................................................ 4 From the cabinet of Dennis Callegari ................................................................................................................. 6 David Cake wins the 2011 DUFF race ............................................................................................................... 7 About fan funds .................................................................................................................................................. 7 Swancon 36 / Natcon 50 ..................................................................................................................................... 8 Paul Collins (2011 Chandler Award winner) feted in Melbourne.................................................................... 11 Exploring Badgerdom with Tim Train ............................................................................................................. 13 Alcochock ......................................................................................................................................................... 15 History of ASFR ............................................................................................................................................... 16 Floods – February 2011 .................................................................................................................................... 17 Stefan zone ....................................................................................................................................................... 18 From Great Grandmother‟s Medicine Chest .................................................................................................... 22 Photos on pages 9 & 10 by Cat Sparks. Photos on pages 11 &12 by Helena Binns Illustrations on cover and on page 19 by Rotsler 3 Conventions on the horizon CONTINUUM 7 will be held 10-13 June, 2011. International Guest of Honour is SF author Richard Morgan (Glasgow). Australian Guest of Honour is Dave Freer, co-author with Eric Flint of the Rats, Bats and Vats series and other stories published by Baen Books. Memberships are available from the Continuum Foundation website: http://www.continuum.org.au/. RENOVATION is the Worldcon in Reno, Nevada, USA August 17-21, 2011. GoH's: Tim Powers, Ellen Asher, fantasy artist Boris Vallejo/ Venue: Reno-Sparks Convention Centre & The Atlantis Hotel main venues. Australian Agent: Jean Weber. For more details see http://renovationsf.org/. CONFLUX 7. Friday 30 September to Monday 3 October 2011. Marque Hotel, 102 Northbourne Avenue, Canberra, ACT. See Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflux_%28convention%29 for details of the six Conflux conventions held in Canberra since 2004. The site also outlines plans for Conflux 7. CONTINUUM 8 will be Australia‟s 51st Natcon in Melbourne on 8-11 June, 2012. Venue and guests of honour have still to be announced. -- Hyatt Regency (Perth) Lobby Bar Fan Lounge at Swancon 36/Natcon 50 4 Letters from (North) America Loc from Lloyd Penney 1706-24 Eva Rd., Etobicoke, Ontario, CANADA M9C 2B2 Monday May 2nd, 2011 Dear Bill: I hope I‟m not too late for this letter of comment on Antipodean Areopagus 2… Ah, yes, that Prince Charming. He gets around, doesn‟t he? Love „em and leave „em… My letter…when I wrote that too many friends were suffering from serious diseases and syndromes, I did have Mike Glicksohn in mind. Mike passed away about six weeks or so ago, from a stroke, while suffering from bladder cancer. I also mentioned Professor Elemental…we got to see the Professor in action this past weekend in Toronto, demonstrating chap hop, and enjoying a cup of brown joy, namely a fine cuppa. I nominated and voted for TAFF…congratulations to John Coxon! Coming up soon is the name of the winner of this year‟s CUFF, to send a fan from the western part of Canada to the CanVention at SFContario in Toronto this coming November. The candidates are Danielle Stephens of Vancouver, and Kent Pollard of Saskatoon. I am not sure when the winner will be announced, but it should be soon. You say that the word for stranger in Thai is farang. I believe the word for stranger in Farsi/Persian is the same, or close to it, something like ferengi. This is where Star Trek got the term Ferenghi. Historically, farang or ferengi has the same root as the Franks of Europe, and the French of modern-day France. I‟d also read that farang or ferengi was the way those in Thailand or Persia pronounced French or Frenchie. I have always liked the idea of artificial intelligence and the stories that discuss that idea. I must wonder though that if all aspects of intelligence were to be catalogued, listed and programmed, with parameters of response, logical or otherwise, the actual programme for an AI would be an untold number of terabytes or exabytes in size. What could store a programme that size? I expect that AI will always be a trope of science fiction. When it comes to mind transfer, we would like whatever a mind is to be organized into files that can be moved from one location to another. I can‟t think of anything more disorganized. Great ideas, and honoured by the number of times they are used, but it may take a quantum leap in technology to make this fiction fact. Give it a decade or so? If nothing else, discussing these ideas, no matter how unlikely or impossible they may sound, exercises the grey matter, and allows us, as Douglas Adams and Lewis Carroll once wrote, to do six impossible things before breakfast. Or, at least contemplate them. Many thanks, Bill, hope everything is good down where you are. Spring arrives here as autumn visits you. See you with the next issue. Yours, Lloyd Penney The Thai word for stranger, „farang‟, is pronounced „fallang‟ by the locals. They also have trouble pronouncing polysyllabic words in English. It amused us when we asked for separate bills in an up-market restaurant in Pattaya, to have the waitress nod understandingly and repeat, “zebellin bills.” One tries not to laugh in such situations, but Aussie expatriates at the table did raise our eyebrows at each other. Ed. 5 -- Loc from Eric Mayer Pennsylvania USA Eric Mayer discovered fandom in 1972. From 1978 to 1995 he published Groggy, a mostly dittoed perzine that often featured hectographed covers. His current e-zine is E-Ditto available at eFanzines: http://efanzines.com. Thursday May 12nd, 2011 Dear Bill: Antipodean Areopagus #2 April 2011 was a great read. Interesting stuff. You'll never know what you'll learn when you open up a fanzine. I would never have expected to read that a soul weighs, on average, 21 grams. The fact that that was reported as an average must mean that some have bigger souls than others. Well, heavier souls. But 21 grams of what? And where does it go? Occam's Razor has always struck me as more aesthetic or philosophical than scientific but admittedly, I have read about its application but not about its genesis or the rational behind it. I agree that we are our memories. In fact we may be nothing but the past. By the time our mind processes whatever sensations are impinging on us and alerts us to them they are in the past. By the time we consciously are aware of sensations aren't we analyzing them and already remembering them? Or now that I am past sixty does it just amuse me to argue that never mind if I dwell on the past, we all live in the past perpetually. My mom and her sister both have Alzheimer's. Mom can't remember what you said to her two minutes ago, but she definitely retains her sense of identity. My aunt now resides in a nursing home and although she is in pretty much the same state as my mom, there are many residents in the home who obviously have at some point lost their sense of identity. I probably used to be a dualist. I would guess most people, just thinking generally about things are. Because, as is often pointed out, our consciousness seems so much different from the physical objects it perceives. Whereas the chair I'm sitting on can be weighed and measured and seen by others, my consciousness -- myself -- is mysterious, not