2
for ANZAPA #257 - October 2010 and for display on eFanzines (www.efanzines.com)
If you're being chased by a police dog, try not to go through a tunnel, then on to a little seesaw, then jump through a hoop of fire. They're trained for that. Milton Jones at the Underbelly.
Contents
This Issue‟s Cover ...... 2 LoC from Chris Garcia ...... 6 LoC from Lloyd Penney ...... 7 Those lovely, lovely dinosaur computers ...... 8 Aussiecon 4 ...... 12 Clerihew corner ...... 20 Stefan zone ...... 21 Best dressed fan at Aussiecon 4 ...... 23
Art, etc. credits… Cover: Graphic by Ditmar Page 2 Photos of Bill Wright and Dick Jenssen Page 11 Charles Babbage‟s difference engine Pages 4 & 5 Book covers Pages 13-18 Photos from Aussiecon 4 by Ditmar, Helena Binns and others Page 5 Calibi-Yau shapes Page 18 „Doc Rat‟ cover illustration by Jenner Page 7 Illustration by Ian Gunn Page 19 Photos by Richard Morden
Page 8 John Webster at the ILLIAC computer Page 22 Drawing of actor Robert Mitchum by Dennis Callegari Page 9 UTECOM‟s 50th anniversary plaque Page 22 Photo from 2010 Commonwealth Games at Delhi Page 9 Output from CSIRAC computer Page 23 Ditmar Jenssen and John Hertz at Aussiecon 4, photo by Helena Binns Page 10 Ditmar Jenssen operating the CSIRAC Ctesibius's clepsydra
3
This Issue’s Cover
It’s a Universe, Jim, but not as we know it... Graphic and notes by Dick Jenssen
According to the mathematics of String Theory there are indications that alternative universes could exist – an enormous number of them, in fact, of the order of 10500 – a belief expounded in The Cosmic Landscape by Leonard Susskind. As well, the birth of such universes may be a frequent occurrence – universes budding off from universes quite spontaneously – see, for example Alex Vilenkin‟s book Many Worlds in One. These universes could have, and almost certainly will have, different fundamental physical constants to ours – the value of the coupling constant, strength of the weak force, and so on. Many such universes will be cold, dead, devoid of stars, planets and life. Others may support stars and planets, perhaps even life, but not of a sentient nature. Some, though, could lead to thinking creatures, aware that they are aware. However, if only a miniscule fraction of those universes were favourable to life, they would still constitute a huge range of possibilities (one in a trillion trillion trillion of 10500 is still 10446, even if a „trillion‟ is taken to be a million million million).
Recent advances in the theory, and practical application of string theory, have led to the ability to unilaterally contact a few, a very few, of these other branes, for brief, ephemeral, moments. The transitory nature of such glimpses is a result of the still underdeveloped technology available to researchers. But, fortunately, one or two of the other viewed universes have permitted scientists to piece together a reasonably coherent picture of the life which exists therein. The cover is a photo of such a contact. But, it must be stressed that this „contact‟ is, in effect, just a „peek‟ – there has been, so far, no way in which our scientists can communicate with the other universe.
As far as can be judged, the planet of the cover is either largely deficient in some of Earth‟s basic materials, or the inhabitants of the world have a science somewhat different to ours and have opted for a technology based on metals, solar and steam power, with what appears to be a reasonably heavy reliance on the energy which may be stored in springs. Nonetheless, in spite of this unusual approach, they have, as is clear from the cover, developed a sophisticated science of great practical utility.
But, as in all endeavours – and, it would seem even alien endeavours – there will be unexpected problems. From the small number of visual contacts of the other world, a „story‟ has been pieced together by our researchers of exploration by the aliens, in a submarine, which was caught in a massive hurricane, thrown onto a beach, and left stranded as the tide withdrew. As far as can be determined, the „beach‟ is not sand, but a highly viscous and adhesive substance, which has trapped the submarine. A rescue craft – which looks rather like an aerial bathysphere – is effecting a rescue of the mariners.
If further images are forthcoming, the readers of IRS will, naturally, be among the first to learn of these.
Technical notes
As always, the cover graphic was generated in E-on‟s Vue Complete 8. The submarine and aerial bathysphere were purchased (yes, I spend money quite recklessly for IRS readers) from Cornucopia and imported into Vue. Everything else was generated using that software. Final tweaks, and text, etc, were effected in Photoshop CS5.
More on particles and strings
I have two books to recommend to the Inquisitive Readers of IRS – which have some bearing on the above cover notes – but which, in contrast to those notes, are of real science. They involve the basic forces – in our universe – of the strong, the weak, the electromagnetic and the gravitational forces, as well as some of the basic ideas of String Theory. Let me stress, at the outset, that these two books are in no way difficult, esoteric, or incomprehensible even though they describe some recent ideas in physics and mathematics.
4
First, there is A Zeptospace Odyssey by Gian Francesco Giudice (Oxford University Press). The book is subtitled A Journey into the Physics of the LHC . The LHC is the Large Hadron Collider, and a zeptometre is a length of 10-21 metre, which is the scale which the LHC can explore as it searches for existing, and yet-to-be-discovered, fundamental particles. Of course, if the logistics and use of the LHC are to be made clear, then these particles must also be discussed and clarified. So the book begins with a discussion of these.
I wish every popular science book could be written with Giudice‟s clarity of exposition. The basic building blocks of matter are discussed – along with their discovery and discoverers – and the Standard Model of physics is then described. I have never before come across a more succinct and transparent coverage of this model. And, along with this there are a number of anecdotes which bring life and humanity to the scientists involved. Even the chapter heading quotes are enlightening – for example, A vacuum is a hell of a lot better than some of the stuff that nature replaces it with (from Tennessee Williams‟ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof).
The LHC is then discussed. Now I am not someone who is happy with equipment (I must be one of the very few who failed final year Physics practical work at University), and normally I yawn and flip my way through pages which discuss technical details of machinery. But – again – here was a description so intriguing that I found myself reading every word, and eagerly so. Of course some of the asides helped enormously in sustaining my interest (and amusement): for example Giudice points out that “the material costs of the LHC construction amount(ed) to about 3 billion euros (and) would cost about the same, kilo for kilo, if it were made of premium Swiss chocolate”. The description of the LHC had me in awe of its complexity and size – so much more impressive, as the photos in the book show, than the „Mighty Machines‟ of 30s SF, and even of the Krell technology of Forbidden Planet.
Giudice had pointed out the problems associated with The Standard Model (his terminology is the Sublime Marvel) and continues with a treatment of the vexing question of where does mass come from, thereby introducing the Higgs field and boson. Again, this is the best exposition of that subject I have read. But there are problems with the Higgs, and so there is a follow up with Supersymmetry Theory and String Theory and extra dimensions – the Calibi-Yau compactifications. The book end with a trip into cosmology.
As Giudice points out, LHC will enable many of the vexing questions in the Standard Model, in the theory of the Higgs field and particle, in Supersymmetry and even perhaps in String Theory, to be tested.
All of this is in under 250 pages of main text! The prose is crystal clear and so engrossing that the huge amount of information seems no more difficult to read than an ordinary novel. Highly recommended.
The cover notes above, and Giudice‟s book, both refer to String Theory – which some physicists regard as more philosophy than science, simply because it has made no predictions which can, with contemporary technology, be tested. However, as Giudice points out, the LHC may be able to give some confirmation to its concepts. Besides, as far as I am concerned, just because a theory is not yet testable does not mean it is „unscientific‟. For example, it was not until 1905, when Einstein published his paper on Brownian motion, that the idea of atoms and molecules was accepted by the scientific community. Previously, even someone as respected (then) as Ernest Mach refused to believe in their existence, and so denigrated, rubbished and insulted Ludwig Boltzmann for his insistence on their reality that he drove Boltzmann to suicide. So string 5 theory cannot, in my opinion, be discounted. Besides, it is generally accepted that its mathematics has enriched the field. Edward Witten is a Fields Medallist for his work in string theory. And so is Shing-Tung Yau...
As mentioned above, one of the key elements of string theory is that it involves an extra six dimensions, on top of the four which we experience. These dimensions are „curled up‟ at every point in space into tiny shapes – the Calibi-Yau compactifications. And now the Yau of those spaces has written a book about them. This is an auto-biography of his life and his work, and as with Giudice‟s book, this is a beautifully clear discussion. It does contain mathematical images – like a cube or a dodecahedron – and some graphs, but no equations. Well, not to my recollection, but then I tend to accept simple- and I stress simple - equations (such as 1 + 1 = 2) as part of the text.
If you go to Amazon‟s US site (www.amazon.com) and search for the book – see the illustration of its cover on the right – you will find that you can use the “Search inside this book” feature. You will then have access to dozens and dozens of pages, and can see if the book is of interest. Well, you can also check my opinion that it is transparently clear. It may require a trifle more thought when reading than A Zeptospace Odyssey, if only because books discussing mathematics, for some people and for some inexplicable reason, seem to be more „difficult‟ than popular science.
This book, too, is highly recommended.
Breaking News!
Recent work with the Large Hadron Collider has finally allowed researchers to SEE those tiny, tiny bits of space termed Calibi-Yau compactifications. And they seem to have not only the structure expected, as mathematical objects, but also surface features. The accompanying image is a recently released photo from the LHC. It looks - very vaguely indeed - as though one of the Calibi-Yau spaces has what appears to be multiple images of what may be a human face. The face also - well, to me at least - appears as though it may resemble someone I know.* But that MUST be just fanciful thinking on my part...
(The Calibi-Yau shapes were generated in Mathematica, and imported into Vue, where they were textured and painted).
Ditmar
* in respect of the upper shape, maybe some cat Ditmar has met - of the Cheshire kind perhaps. Ed. 6
LoC from Chris Garcia 1401 North Shoreline Boulevard, Mountain View CA 94943, United States of America First off, that‟s my favorite Ditmar cover to date! An absolute winner of a piece. I still don‟t understand how he failed to end up on the Hugos ballot. It makes no sense as his are the most visually distinctive pieces being done in fandom! This one is particularly striking. The Lovecraft Doc is well-done. I got it from Cinequest, I think, and it was most enjoyable. It really interested me in Ramsey Campbell, who I hate to say I hadn‟t heard of at that point. I‟ve read a few things and enjoyed them since. I do wish they‟d gotten China to talk. I should rewatch it as when I watched it the first time, I fell asleep due to the exhausting of the plane flight! Clark Ashton Smith is one of my all-time faves. His stuff was more Lovecraft than Lovecraft. The Black Diamonds is a personal favorite, and has been for years. I am probably going to end up buying that Nightshade collection, I love Night Shade Books (Woohoo, San Francisco!) and the Collected Fiction of William Hope Hodgson they put out gave me faith that they can give any author an exceptional release. I guess I always liked Smith because of the California collection. There‟s a marker in Auburn that shows where he lived the last years of his life and talked a bit about his fiction. I remember finding it when we stopped on our way up to Yosemite when I was a teenager. It seems so appropriate that he lived in the foothills of the Sierra. There‟s something very dark and somewhat pressing about all that wooded space. Here‟s to Lloyd‟s Best Fan Writer nomination. Sadly, it‟s my greatest hope that he doesn‟t win (thus leaving the door open for me!), though I think we both know that it‟s Fred Pohl who‟s going to walk away with the award. I wish I could be out there for the Hugos Pre-Party. It‟s the best part of being nominated! My birthdate, expressed the proper way (10211974) doesn‟t happen in the first 200000000 digits of pi, but if I put it like a European (21101974) it‟s at the 48,409,921 position. My phone number (2032778) shows up 24 times in the first 200000000 digits! That‟s awesome! I am going to spend a lot of time playing with this! Ditmar is 75? I refuse to believe it! The other day, at ReConstruction in Raleigh, we were talking about Earl Kemp. We couldn‟t remember if he was 75 or 80, but then I realized „My Ghod, he‟s doing stuff that makes me seem old and stodgy!‟. I feel the same way about Ditmar‟s work. I‟m 35 and I feel like I‟m just about worked through to Codger-hood when it comes to the safety and sterility of much of my output. Such is life… Let me echo the sentiments that Claire [Brialey] puts forth of James [Bacon]. He‟s possibly the most generous gentleman I‟ve ever met! James and I hung out quite a bit at Raleigh, he‟s put me up at his home on my non- TAFF UK visit, he dragged me kicking and screaming into doing the one zine that I think surpasses all the others I‟ve ever done [He‟s talking about Exhibition Hall www.efanzines.com/ExhibHall/ExhibHall-12.pdf] and he‟s a generally good guy. We spent a lot of time at the excellent BBQ joint Cooper‟s, enjoying fried chicken, hushpuppies and pork rinds. If you‟ve not met him, go out of your way to find him. I‟d also say that you should introduce yourself to Gail Carriger, author of the Parasol Protectorate books (Soulless, Changeless, Blameless…) and Steampunk. She‟s good people and I‟m hoping she walks away with the Campbell award. Sounds like Badger‟s Dozen is my kind of zine. Must find a way to get a peak at it! It‟s a good batch of Fan Fund winners this year. Hertz is a master of all-things non-electronic. He‟s one of the best writers we‟ve got and is a kind and generous guy who has made Fanzine Lounges a wonderful stop-over. I got to chat with him less than I‟d have liked in Raleigh, but he did introduce me to Juanita Coulson, so that was a nice touch. James Shields is another great guy, and he has an article in the up-coming Journey Planet which is all about Space. I think you‟ve got a piece too! See how these things all fit together? I see Continuum 7 doesn‟t have a GoH listed. I‟ll gladly fill that function! I make that offer with every con that has TBD listed as GoH. Someday, someone‟ll take me up on it! Alastair Reynolds!!! I love that guy‟s stuff, and I am ever so happy that he has an article in the latest Journey Planet as well (largely because James will ask anyone for anything!). I‟ve never got to meet him, which is a shame. I think he‟s one of the most exciting writers on the planet at the moment. Him and Stephen Baxter and China Mieville. MSFC is lucky! Thanks so much for putting this out there! I hope Aussiecon is a blast and I‟m sure I‟ll be reading all about it and cursing my luck that I don‟t get to be there! Chris 7
LoC from Lloyd Penney 1706-24 Eva Rd., Etobicoke, Ontario, CANADA M9C 2B2 August 26th, 2010 Dear Bill: The August version of Interstellar Ramjet Scoop is at hand, and it‟s the next one up for the letter of comment treatment. Here goes with a page of stuff, if I‟m lucky. Something Ditmarish This Way Comes…especially on the front cover, and a wonder to see once more. I get a little tired of the Blu-Ray version of a DVD package having so much more on it than on the general DVD, all in an effort to get us to buy a Blu-Ray DVD player, which is still expensive. My loc…just a couple of weeks to go, and then comes the Hugo ceremonies, which is at 6am local time the morning of September 5. I may just get my sorry carcass out of bed early enough to see if ConReporter.com covers it, and see if there‟s a silver rocket for me. I hope, I hope… After Canada got a minority government, and British got it‟s hung Parliament (basically the same thing), Australia has one, too. Did the public sour on Julia Gillard that quickly? If time and a myriad other interests allowed for it, I would like to read all the books that have been written about J.R.R. Tolkien. I have read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings a number of times, but not lately. What I have read lately is The Children of Húrin, and that brought me back to Middle-Earth amid much nostalgia. This is far from being the happiest novel, but still, it was a great story. I first met James Bacon at L.A.con IV in 2006 in Anaheim, California, and he was helping out in the children‟s activity section of programming. He was also doing extremely rude things to inflatable toys, but I won‟t go into details… He also ran the great British/Irish fandom party in Montréal. To be honest, Claire, I can‟t see him running down. He seems to have endless energy, just like a certain Garcia fellow we know. I must find a way to get some money to Emma Hawkes for her DUFF report. With luck, we might even figure in it. Steve Green‟s TAFF report should see light of day soon; portions have appeared in various fanzines. To go with the conventions list, just a week or so ago, it was announced that the 2012 World Fantasy Convention will be held in Toronto. Bill, I think I am done for the moment. Off this goes to you, and I wish you and all Australian fans a wonderful time at Aussiecon 4. Have fun, all!
Yours, Lloyd Penney.
8
Those lovely, lovely dinosaur computers Dick Jenssen Way back when - in 1959, that is - I was just starting my Ph.D. studies in computer Meteorology and Glaciology, and was looking for a faster computer than CSIRAC which was at the University of Melbourne, and which I had used for previous work. In a way I felt more than a trifle unfaithful in this search, for CSIRAC was, and still is, the first computer love of my life – and such initial love never truly dies. My explorations took me to the computer – home-built, I believe – at the Long Range Weapons Research Establishment (LWRE) outside Adelaide, to the University of Sydney‟s SILLIAC, and to UTECOM at the Kensington Institute of Technology (now known as the University of NSW) in Sydney. Well, the LRWE computer was unattractive partly because of its remoteness, but mainly because I visited it in the blaze of Summer, and I‟m not one who enjoys the heat. The computer at the University of Sydney was a modified version of the US machine ILLIAC and was certainly significantly faster than CSIRAC, but the atmosphere there was cold and unfriendly – in fact, rather bleak – and not, as far as I was concerned, conducive to a happy work place. You see, I like to goof off and relax in between bouts of heavy concentrated work, and goofing off must be done in an understanding environment. So that left UTECOM, which, as it turned out, was exactly what I was looking for. The staff there were extremely helpful – John Webster in particular, and whose expertise at printing the computer‟s outpouring of punched cards was invaluable – the atmosphere was as relaxed as I could wish for - swimming at lunchtime, cards after hours, and playful graphics. (There was a John Webster at the UTECOM control panel large CRT display, and a program to show us a Dancing Hula Girl existed). UTECOM was a British-made computer from the English Electric Company. Input, and output, was in the form of punched cards. Program and data were stored on a rotating magnetic drum, and there was a CRT for visual display. As with most early computers there were a number of quirks. The most appealing (and, yes, that will sound nerdy, I know) was that, because the program was on the magnetic disk, by the time the command had been executed, the disk had rotated, and if the commands were stored sequentially adjacent to each other on the drum, the machine had to wait for an almost complete revolution before it could execute the following command. Fortunately, every command had a „field‟ attached which told UTECOM where the next command was placed on the drum. With a bit of organising, it was therefore possible to have that next command exactly under the read head when the current command had finished execution. Of course – and this is what I found so challenging and exciting – different commands had different times of execution. It was a puzzle to be solved. Wonderful! UTECOM also had a loudspeaker attached, hooked up, to it – and I hope I‟m remembering this correctly – actually to a bit in one of the work registers. Because the forecasting program I was developing was highly repetitive, the sounds from the speaker were also very rhythmic, and had a lilt, a beat, even a musicality to them. In fact I recorded the noise – strike that! – the music which evolved, and christened it the Barotropic Rock. The main advantage to the sounds of computation was that if there was a computer error (remember machines in those days were nowhere near as consistently reliable as the desktops of today – in fact, CSIRAC would make a random error roughly every twenty minutes, or so), then the Barotropic Rock would immediately switch to uglification. Of course, I lost the tape of this early example of computer music. Which was devastating. But, then, about six months ago, John Webster phoned me to say that a portion of this masterwork had come into his possession. John‟s was a voice from the past, one I hadn‟t heard for over forty-five years. I immediately asked for the Rock, and he emailed me the extant portion as a wav file. Memories flooded back... And just a few days ago John reminded me that the date on Sunday was pure binary: 10.10.10. 9
He also emailed me a photo of a plaque which had been erected to commemorate UTECOM‟s fiftieth anniversary…
Ditmar … And next year we can look forward to 11.11.11 which is pure binary too. Ed. -- But that‟s not all. I‟m sure you would like to know more about Ditmar‟s work with CSIRAC which, in addition to being his first love, was the world‟s fourth true computer with internal storage and memory functions. IRS December 2003 contains the following quote from Stephen Jones‟s article „Synthetics: A History of the Electronically Generated Image in Australia‟ in the prestigious journal Leonardo (Vol. 36, No. 3, pp.187-195, 2003)… Techniques for the production of images from electronically encoded data were first developed with the use of the cathode ray tube (CRT) for electronic waveform display, radar and television. In the 1950s and 1960s, scientific data visualisation, computer-aided design (CAD) and mathematical explorations drove early computer-graphic (CG) developments in the U.S.A. and Europe. In Australia (according to Jones) the first computer-calculated CRT-displayed image appeared in Dick Jenssen‟s M Sc thesis of 1959. That image, of a weather map showing atmospheric pressure regions over Australia, was generated on a CRT displaying memory in Australia‟s first computer, CSIRAC, at Melbourne University in 1957. This 16 x 20-dot image was photographed and an outline map of Australia was then drawn over it. 10
Ditmar at work on the CSIRAC…
Indeed, Australia was a leader in the development of Martin James Ditmar Jenssen in 1958 computers post WWII. The CSIR Mark 1 had a memory of initially 512 twenty-bit words and 1024 twenty-bit words magnetic drive capacity. As illustrated on the previous page, Dick Jenssen produced the first computer- generated weather forecast in the Southern Hemisphere in 1958 on Melbourne University‟s CSIRAC. CSIR had changed its name to CSIRO. The event was reported in the Melbourne Sun of Monday, Sept. 22nd, 1958.
In the same article, the Weather Bureau was quick to point out that not even a more advanced computer than Melbourne University‟s CSIRAC can produce perfect weather forecasts. “It is impossible to take the human element and the chance of human error out of forecasting,” a bureau spokesman said. Very true, but nowadays computer-based interpretations of satellite data and ground observations can narrow differences between forecasts and actual weather conditions. Very close to sex as the world’s oldest good idea… If the foregoing has given the impression that the idea of a computing engine is a twentieth century phenomenon, nothing could be further from the truth. At Continuum 2, Melbourne‟s 2004 regional convention, author Sean McMullen gave an electrifying discourse on The Computer Age of the Past. Taking his cue from the convention theme, Gods of Myth and Silicon, Sean took us back to earlier times before silicon was added. According to Sean (who speaks with such authority that one must be very sure of the facts before daring to disagree with him) the Ancient Greeks invented mathematics in order to interpret their astronomical observations. Data entry was on slates. Processing units were water clocks consisting of water timers and gongs to mark the passage of time. A third of the effort was expended on Preparation (ie. getting the data ready), a third on Calculating and the rest on Specialisation (ie. refining the system). Thus did the Greeks invent project management. The Romans perfected it, conquered the world and the rest is history. Medieval culture had all the clues for the invention of a computing engine, viz. astronomy, mathematics, Arabic numerals and reliable calendars, but they had no incentive because the infrastructure needed to develop the required technology was absent. In the early 1800s the idea of a non-specific computing engine that could be re-programmed took hold, but it wasn‟t until 1946 that John Von Neumann* built the first electronic computer ENIAC,
acronym for Electronic Numerator Integrator And Calculator, an An early 19th-century illustration of apt description of what happens in the box of modern computers. Ctesibius's clepsydra from the 3rd century BC Greco-Roman civilisation. (* But Ditmar points out that credit for ENIAC almost certainly The hour indicator ascends as water should be given to John Mauchly and John Presper Eckert. For flows in. Also, a series of gears rotate a more information visit cylinder to correspond to the temporal http://inventors.about.com/od/estartinventions/a/Eniac.htm). hours.
11
Fascinating asides by Sean McMullen included the history of calculating frames like the Abacus and discussion of their European or Chinese origins. Also discussed was the post-Renaissance fascination with robotic brains. The two conceptual extremes were Ghost and Gollum - the former being Spirit without Substance and the latter Substance without Spirit. Dichotomy was the paradigm for intellectual discourse in that Age, as indeed it is in any other
Aussiecon 4 September 2-6, 2010
I had put so much effort preparing for Aussiecon 4 that I let my health run down; so I managed to attend only a few of the scheduled program items. That said, I make a reasonable fist of the things I had to do. Thursday evening, 2-Sep-10 It was a crushing disappointment to find that our play reading group, assembled for a dress rehearsal of a reading from Norma Hemming‟s last play The Matriarchy of Renok (see under Sunday 5-Sep-10) was denied access to audio-visual facilities because of a communications glitch concerning our requirements. In the event we did find a space to have a costumed rehearsal, sans the AV. Friday 3-Sep-10 The main event that day was the Australian awards ceremonies in the evening. At left is Paul Ewins, convenor of Dudcon 3 (the notional convention-within-a-convention incorporating essential features of the Australian national convention such as its business meeting and awards); then, from left to right, Australian Science Fiction Foundation (ASFF) president Bruce Gillespie and ASFF awards administrator Bill Wright. In front of Bruce are the twelve Ditmar awards (Australian achievement awards) presented this year, including a special award for Best Fanish Cat. The Chandler Award Bruce began proceedings by presenting Australia‟s top fan award, the A Bertram Chandler Award honouring lifetime achievement in science fiction. The 2010 recipient is Damien Broderick who has long been at the forefront of Australian science fiction, even since moving to San Antonio, Texas, several years ago. Damien is a distinguished author and academic who has won numerous awards. The first of his several Ditmar awards was for The Dreaming Dragons (1980), which was also runner-up to Gregory Benford‟s Timescape for the John W Campbell Memorial Award. Photograph of the Chandler Award ensemble Pictured below are Russell Blackford, who accepted the Chandler award on behalf of Damien, and Bruce Gillespie toting the massive award plate…
Visit www.home.vicnet.net.au/~asff/ for Chandler award winners since the award was first presented in 1992. 13
Norma K Hemming Award It was my turn next to present the inaugural Norma K. Hemming Award for excellence in the exploration of themes of race, gender class and sexuality in speculative fiction or in related arts and media. Originally suggested by the Western Australian Science Fiction Foundation, the idea was referred to the national body because of the importance of those themes today in the accommodation of diversity in society and the need to encourage their expression in SF. The award which went to Maria Quinn for her novel The Gene Thieves. It was a posthumous award, since she had suddenly died just a few months earlier from leukaemia. It was accepted by her son Hamish. The Norma K Hemming Award trophy, as it will be presented in future years, consists of an etched glass plate mounted on a stand with an attached metal plaque inscribed with the winner‟s name. For this inaugural award only, the plaque was replaced by an engraved crystal plinth. The plate design by graphic artist Sarah Xu, features a boab tree-hydra design motif. The circular design represents the yonic, in contrast to so many phallic award representations. The boab represents the Australian speculative fiction landscape (the boab being uniquely fantastical in itself) and the hydra reminds us of diversity within that. The 2010 award ensemble is pictured at left. An anthology of Norma Hemming‟s stories edited by Dr Toby Burrows, Head of the Scholars Centre at the University of Western Australia, was launched during my presentation speech. The book is called Dwellers in Silence – Stories and Plays by Norma Hemming. It is available online from http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/dwellers-in-silence- stories-and-plays-by-norma-hemming/12032993 Norma Kathleen Hemming (1927-1960) was a pioneer feminist author in the 1950s. She was a British author who migrated to Australia in 1949 and wrote for local pulp magazine Thrills Incorporated and enthusiastically participated in the Australian fan scene. She was a founding member of the femme fan group Vertical Horizons, and wrote and acted for the SF theatrical group The Arcturian Players. Norma returned to international publishing in the late 1950s with stories in Nebula SF and New Worlds, but died at the age of 33 of lung cancer on 4 July 1960. For nearly forty years after her death Norma Hemming was a footnote for magazine bibliographers until, in 1998, Sean McMullen and Russell Blackford produced a detailed biography and analysis of her work in Fantasy Annual No 2, followed a year later by publication of the book „Strange Constellations: A History of Australian Science Fiction (Contributions to the Study of Science Fiction and Fantasy)‟ by Russell Blackford, Van Ikin and Sean McMullen (1999). This important literary reference is a critical survey of the history of Australian science fiction from its nineteenth century origins to the year 1998. The Norma K Hemming Award for excellence in the exploration of themes of race, gender, class and sexuality in science fiction was established by the Australian Science Fiction Foundation in her honour. 14
The Peter McNamara Achievement Award The Peter McNamara Achievement Award is given by Peter‟s widow Mariann McNamara to an Australian who has made an outstanding contribution to Australian speculative fiction. This year the very deserving recipient was Jack Dann‟s wife Dr Janeen Webb (pictured). The trophy was a statuette of a buxom, bronzed woman. Distinguished writer and academic researcher Dr Helen Merrick, author of The Secret Feminist Cabal: A Cultural History of Science Fiction Feminisms (Aqueduct) *, presented the award. * The Secret Feminist Cabal was a Hugo Award nominee and won this year‟s William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review – see below under Ditmar Awards. Ditmar Awards The Ditmars are the Australian science fiction achievement awards named after Dr Martin James Ditmar Jenssen whose cover graphics add distinction to IRS. I‟m particularly pleased with two of this year‟s Ditmar winners. One went to Bruce Gillespie for editorship, along with Janine Stinson, of Steam Engine Time. The other went to Ditmar Jenssen himself for his body of work. In the pictures below, both gentlemen are trying hard to hide their gratification – and not succeeding.
The complete list of the 2010 Ditmar Award winners is: Best Novel: Slights, Kaaron Warren (Angry Robot Books) Best Novella or Novelette: “Wives” Paul Haines (X6/Couer de Lion) Best Short Story: “Seventeen” Cat Sparks (Masques, CSFG) Best Collected Work: Slice Of Life, Paul Haines, edited by Geoffrey Maloney (The Mayne Press) Best Artwork: Cover art, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #42, Lewis Morley Best Fan Writer: Robert Hood for Undead Backbrain (roberthood.net/blog) Best Fan Artist: Dick Jenssen for body of work Best Fan Publication in Any Medium: Steam Engine Time, edited by Bruce Gillespie and Janine Stinson Best Achievement: Gillian Polack et al for the Southern Gothic banquet at Conflux Best New Talent: Peter M. Ball William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review: Helen Merrick for The Secret Feminist Cabal: A Cultural History of Science Fiction Feminisms (Aqueduct) 15
Saturday 4-Sep-10 This was not my best day at Aussiecon 4. Because of confusion occasioned by a change time and venue for the Australian Science Fiction Foundation annual general meeting, only a handful of people showed up. I have only a hazy idea of what went on and I can‟t even remember of which day it was held. I was in not much better condition at the Meteor Incorporated AGM on mid-Saturday afternoon. A respectable number of Aussiecon 4 members attended. We had a wide-ranging discussion of the need for an organisation such as Meteor Inc to save at-risk collections of SF books, pulps, fanzines and other memorabilia and to gather resources to purchase premises to set up a reference and research library to manage those collections. It was explained that publicity via the Internet and at SF clubs, discussion groups and conventions directs people to the Association‟s website www.meteor.org.au for information on who we are, what we‟re about, the tax deductible status of our public fund, how to donate money and general guidelines on how to make a bequest to the fund. Garry Dalrymple (Sydney Futurians) reported that he was shocked to encounter in the Dealers Room a table of 1950s and 1960s SF magazines that were part of the contents of one of the late Kevin Dillon‟s garages. The new owner wanted the contents of the garage „taken away‟, so the material is now in the hands of Kogarah Rotary, possibly some thousands of rare books, magazines and comics etc. These people deal with a truck load of similar bequest books each month and their philosophy is to list and patiently sell what can be readily sold. Garry says that Rotary are willing to make available to appropriate research libraries etc. any material that is „significant‟ or hard to find a buyer for. So, he says, things are pretty much ideal to save the important stuff. Sunday 5-Sep-10 For me, the main event on Sunday was a staged reading from Norma Hemming‟s last play The Matriarchy of Renok, with costumed readers and retro-1950s audio-visuals by New South Wales artist Lewis P Morley, using a précis of Norma Hemming‟s original script by Sean McMullen. Even the Hugo Awards, which was the next program item, ran a close second to that. Following is the text of a summary of the reading that was distributed in a flyer after the performance…
Lost after encountering a magnetic storm, astronaut Paul Carter lands his damaged Norma K Hemming 1927-1960 spacecraft on the planet Renok, where women rule and men are kept as breeding stock to procreate with members of the "mother" class. The cock sure and over-sexed Carter makes advances to every woman he encounters, as well as fomenting rebellion among the males of the population. Told that experiments in breeding female babies artificially have passed their final test, the Queen decrees that Carter will be executed but that the breeding males will be allowed to live out their lives and die of natural causes. Her advisors warn that if one spacecraft can stumble on Renok others will follow. The Queen decides to use Renok's advanced science to organize an underground resistance of women throughout the Galactic Federation and bring female rule to all civilized planets. Using his dubious charms, Carter persuades two women and one man to help him escape, taking the Queen hostage in the process. Unknown to Carter, the 'time shield' in his spacecraft has been tampered with,so that several years have passed in real time by the time he arrives at Earth. He opens the door to his spacecraft, only to be confronted by constabulary, who take him prisoner. The Renok conspiracy has triumphed. The entire galaxy is now ruled by women, and Carter can only look forward to a celibate life in custody until he dies of old age. Although some of the dialogue is dated by today's standards, the play came across as surprisingly modern. The characters are strong and consistent, the stereotypes strident but appropriate, and the science fiction component quite advanced. The suggestion that lesbianism is probably the dominant sexual practice on Renok is avoided by implying that women would be above mere hormonal urges if men were removed - but the play was being performed in the 1950s, after all, when heterosexuality was compulsory. Telling men that they could eventually be dispensed with - and leaving them facing extinction at the end - was daring in 1958, but the play was obviously written as a light-hearted satire on relations between the sexes. 16
Matriarchy of Renok visual material The windows media animation was four minutes long. It was designed to play as a motion picture with paused segments to provide backgrounds for the play action. The title can play as a sequence. Then pauses in the galaxy, with Renok images to back up the narration. Carter's ship in space and touching down is a motion sequence, then paused scenes to provide scene changes. Janice's ship touching down is an added scene to give her a bit of an entrance. Carter's takeoff is a motion sequence before pausing on the ship interiors for leaving Renok and approaching Earth scenes. The landing on Earth at the end of the play is full motion and is paused on the final image of the ship with its ramp down in the background for the final denouement, Lewis Morley – studio photo of the artist at work Below: Sean McMullen with the readers at Hemming play
Opposite: Bill Wright with producer-director Sean McMullen Cast List MALE: FEMALE: Carter: Jetse de Vries (o/seas) Queen: Cat Sparks (Sydney) Halis: Ed McArdle (Melbourne) Freyna: Marilyn Pride (Sydney) Narrator: Lewis Morley (Sydney) Rayna: Catherine McMullen (Melbourne) MACHINE VOICES „enhanced’ by an electronic Keril: Keril: Ann Poore (Melbourne) distorter: Bill Wright (Melbourne). Janice Bryant: Miriam Eisfelder (Melbourne) An early storyboard template… by Lewis P Morley
17
Hugo Awards Visit Locus online http://www.locusmag.com/News/2010/09/2010-hugo-awards-winners/ for a complete list of Hugo Award 2010 nominations and winners. Knowing that all participants had engaged that afternoon in a comprehensive dress rehearsal for the event, I revelled in the Hugo Awards ceremony, enjoying it to the full without even bothering to take notes. It is expected that Worldcons should make a production out of the Hugo Awards. Aussiecon 4 didn‟t disappoint. Go to the official Hugo Awards website http://www.thehugoawards.org/ for an outline of the 2010 Hugo Awards trophy design. The rocket ship design is standard and may not be modified by any Worldcon committee, but the base design for any year is the prerogative of that year‟s Worldcon. The 2010 base, incorporating aboriginal and other Australian themes, was designed by Sydney-based artist Nick Stathopolous with laser etching by Lewis P Morley. It includes the Aussiecon 4 logo by Grant Gittis and sets a high standard for future Worldcon committees. Hugo Award trophies for earlier years were on display in the dealers room. On Monday 6-Sep-10, the last day of the convention, the 2010 trophy was added to the collection and attracted admiring attention from Worldcon members. Nick Stathopolous, take a bow. The Big Heart Award The surprise of the evening was when the 2007 (Yokohama Worldcon) recipient Robin Johnson presented local Melbourne Science Fiction Club stalwart Mervyn Binns with First Fandom‟s Big Heart Award. It is, as Locus states, “the highest service award in the SF community, (and) is one of few presented during the preliminaries of the annual Hugo Awards ceremony”. The award was presented during preliminaries to the Hugo Awards presentations. Mervyn‟s verbal reaction to receiving the Big Heart was to say that he was „gobsmacked‟. He certainly was by his wife Helena, as witness the candid snap at left.
Bruce Gillespie and Bob Silverberg congratulate Mervyn Mervyn with DUFF laureate John Hertz
18
Big Heart Award pictures 2007 winner and Aussiecon 1975 chairman Robin Johnson presents Mervin Binns with the 2010 Big Heart Award after the Hugo Award ceremonies at Aussiecon 4 (Sept 2-6, 2010).
Dealers Room, Art Show and Fan Lounge The dealers and the art show were in sections of the same large room on the third (uppermost) floor of the convention venue. I spent more (in both time and money terms) than I had bargained for in that room because, next door, was the fan lounge where Jean Weber had set up two tables for fan funds promotion and also to showcase the Australian Science Fiction Foundation and the Meteor Fund. I did my share of manning that table to allow the other volunteers to go to scheduled events on the programme. The quality of merchandise for sale in the dealers room was quite high. The better T-shirts were outrageously expensive but I bought a few of them anyway. In contrast, fan artist/physician Jenner of „Doc Rat‟ fame (visit http://www.docrat.com.au/) sold his „Doc Rat‟ comic books and T-shirts rather too cheaply, I thought. I bought at least one of everything on his table and gave away any duplicates by way of swaps with fans.
„Doc Rat‟ is the sort of comedy that should be in everyone‟s medicine chest. GP Review … a combination of clever humour and unique, professional artwork. I‟ve found. Jason Chatfield myself spontaneously guffawing over dozens of Doc Rat strips every week. (Ginger Meggs cartoonist) Well drawn, well written and well worth reading. I prescribe regular doses Phillip Adams AO of Doc Rat. (Late Night Live www.abc.net.au/m/latenightlive)
19
Steampunk Comic Book Sellers
Next to Lewis P Morley‟s displays in the art show, the table showcasing Hugo Awards from past years and Jenner‟s medical misadventure strips, I found Steampunk Comic Book Sellers had the most interesting displays. Nor were they necessarily static displays. They had truly fearsome ray guns on special; also a realistic zombie wandering about, pictured below.
Also pictured are two views of me being targeted by said ray guns, including one where both staff and zombie have drawn a bead on my defenceless bod.
Australian small press was well represented in the dealers room. I renewed subscriptions to some of them.
20
Clerihew corner by Dennis Callegari Clerihews were the invention of Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956). During his lifetime, Bentley published several volumes of clerihews, where each verse was accompanied by a drawing that illustrated the verse. They are humorous biographical four-line verses about a contemporary or historical figure, where the rhyming scheme is AABB and the name of the figure must form part of the first rhyme. A selection of my best clerihews with historical asides and apposite quotations may be found on the website http://clerihews.wordpress.com/. ------John Wayne and Robert Mitchum I admit it. This issue‟s clerihew is just an excuse to circulate a drawing I did the other day of the actor Robert Mitchum (based on an original photo by Terry O'Neill). Wikipedia (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wayne and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mitchum) has quite a bit to say about these two actors -- in essence that Wayne was born to play the all-American hero, and that Mitchum was quite glad to take on the role of anti-hero in film AND in life. Mitchum's life is dotted with episodes of school expulsions, minor legal infractions, and a life-long deprecation of his own talents and achievements. Michael Parkinson has said that his interview with Robert Mitchum was one of his hardest interviews ever -- the actor answered almost all of Parkinson's carefully prepared questions with either 'Nope' or 'Yup'. John Wayne and Robert Mitchum appeared together in only a few films. Of those, the western El Dorado is significant to historians of science fiction because its script was co-written by SF writer Leigh Brackett (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_Brackett). Brackett also co-wrote the scripts for the Bogart classic The Big Sleep, the second Star Wars movie The Empire Strikes Back, and the western Rio Bravo. Rio Bravo and El Dorado share the peculiar distinction of not only having the same scriptwriter (Brackett) but -- almost -- the same script. And so to the clerihew. Maybe Leigh Brackett once said this to an aspiring scriptwriter ...
When Mr John Wayne Treats your scripts with disdain Why not pitch 'em To Robert Mitchum?
------
Care of the IMDB Web site, let's close with two quotes from Robert Mitchum: "[on his acting talents] Listen. I got three expressions: looking left, looking right and looking straight ahead."
"Years ago, I saved up a million dollars from acting, a lot of money in those days, and I spent it all on a horse farm in Tucson. Now when I go down there, I look at that place and I realize my whole acting career adds up to a million dollars worth of horse sh1t." Dennis Callegari 21
Stefan zone ELECTION WINNER
This past month and a bit, I've been putting in a Park the result of Part A for a bit. (Reverse heap of extra hours at work. The company thinks parking not necessary) I've been getting through their work. Fools. All this time I've actually been developing formula Part B - The Economy and Foreign Affairs that will determine the outcome of the Federal st In another column, take the cost of the school Election on Saturday 21 August 2010 and which building rorts and add (the cost of the dodgy way an undecided person will vote. I needed the insulation scheme debacle multiplied by the Super Computer at work (the one with number of house fires caused by the dodgy Minesweeper) to help me find the best way insulation divided by the number of times Labor through to a solution. deflected questions about the scheme). Subtract For the election result, it came up with E = MC from this the savings introduced as a result of Fuel squared. Catchy, I thought, but where have I heard Watch and Grocery Watch and add the amount of it before ? Could it be under copyright ? 'E' stimulus payments made to dead people. obviously stands for Election. Hmm, MC. The Divide the result by (the number of asylum seekers only MC I know of is MC Hammer from the that have reached Australian waters since 2007 1980's, so which of the contestants looks the most less the number sent back) then multiply by the like a hammer ? Julia Gillard's nose looks like a number of people who believed KRuddy's big nail, so maybe Tony Abbott ? I've heard speaking in rusty Mandarin to the Chinese did people refer to him as a tool. anything to improve relations between our For the undecided voter, use the following formula countries. to determine which party you will vote for this Add the result of Part A to the result of Part B and Saturday. You can use the back of a 'How-To- call it result AB Vote' card for your calculations. Part C - Yourself Part A - The campaign and the last 3 years Multiply your lethargy level regarding the election First, take the number of times 'Moving Forward' (on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is least lethargic and was mentioned in the Labor election launch and 10 is most lethargic) and your foolishness level (on divide this by the length of Julia Gillard's nose (in a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is where you think your cm's). Take the result and add the number of times vote won't make a difference to 10 where you Tony Abbott has appeared in Speedo's on the think your vote is vital). Multiply the result by News less the number of times you wanted him to your gullibility level (on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 appear in Speedo's. is where you don't believe political promises and Next, take the result and multiply by the number of 10 is where you believe all political promises) people that stabbed old KRuddy in the back Divide Result AB by the result of Part C. divided by the percentage of people that are going to vote for Julia just because she has red hair and Add the individual numbers in your result together multiply by the number of factions in the Labor (e.g. 1248.65 = 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 6 + 5 = 26). party. If the answer is even, you'll vote Liberal. If the Now divide the result by the number of promises answer is odd, you'll vote Labor. If the answer is Labor has kept in the past 3 years (If you divide by zero, you've obviously stuffed up your calculations the number of broken promises by mistake, you'll and will vote for the Greens. get 3.45 to the power of -1.25 million) Good luck on election day. Stefan
Obviously, many Australians followed the Stefan methodology on election day because voters returned a hung parliament. Labor‟s Julia Gillard, who was Prime Minister going into the election, was able to form a government with the support of the Greens and a majority of five Independents. It will be a change to have a government that is accountable to the lower house of parliament, for a change. Ed. 22
THE DELHI BELLY GAMES
I've decided to swap jobs by the end of this year.
As some of you may have seen in the media, India is currently hosting the Commonwealth Games. As a Special Exclusive Offer for IRS readers, you and 100,000 of your closest friends can be in the running to win free tickets to the Closing Ceremony, all the Swimming and Athletic events, all the ... simply by telling us the answer to this Question:
Where is the 2010 Indian Commonwealth Games being held? Is it : A) India B) India or C) India
On second thoughts, some of you may get it wrong. That's why everyone will get free tickets. There's millions being given away. Ha, ha, in your face, Oprah! What was that pathetic number of people you're bringing out to Australia???
It must be said that many people thought India may not be ready for the games. In fact, when the torch arrived, it took construction workers 3 days to put it together. However, they managed to scrape a few stadiums together in time for the opening ceremony. This was helped by the plea that went with the tickets to the Opening Ceremony: "Ladies, please bring a plate, a broom and some cleaning rags. Gentlemen, please bring some bricks, cement, welding gear..."
Security at these games is very tight. Soldiers are not letting anyone too close to the stadiums, least people find they're just a bunch of Bollywood props thrown together at the last minute.
I sense the work of David Copperfield behind the scenes here. I think that the athletes and visitors are being hypnotised into thinking they're at a top notch stadium when they're actually all sitting or moving around in the middle of a large construction site. Bollywood simply adds the stadium and some old sports action in Post Production. (Watch out for Debbie Flintoff in the hurdles and Robert de Castella in the Marathon and don't forget Neil Brooks and Lisa Curry in the swimming). Stefan
Stefan Zone Exit
23
Best dressed fan at Aussiecon 4
The best-dressed person at the conventions was undoubtedly DUFF 2010 laureate John Hertz. Here he is talking with Ditmar, who is no slouch in the dress department himself.
Hard to say who‟s wearing the more stylish shoes. Ditmar‟s look the most comfortable. Photo by Helena Binns
Prepared in Melbourne for publication in Anzapa #256 August 2010 and for display on eFanzines: http://www.efanzines.com