The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
21.5
There is a figure, one of a disturbing visage, that makes his way through London. Mr. Utterson has seen this Mr. Hyde and the name makes him concerned about the wellbeing of Dr. Jekyll because his friend has tied himself to this noxious other. Hyde is a slippery individual and the more Utterson looks, the less he likes and yet he cannot seem to discover the truth. Startling allegations of violence surround the unkempt man and yet he remains at large. Utterson doggedly pursues his case, questioning Jekyll’s friends to no avail and spying on Hyde’s home. His attempts at questioning Jekyll about the mysterious other also fail as his friend becomes more erratic and secretive. Can Utterson discover the truth before further violence is committed at Hyde’s hands or Jekyll’s health declines too far?
-June’s meeting is on the 16th via ZOOM and the book of the month is Written in Red by Anne Bishop -Cover art by Eric V. Hardenbrook
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NEW RELEASES
June 2021
KATHERINE ADDISON - The Witness for the Dead STEPHEN ARYAN - The Coward NEAL ASHER - Jack Four MILES CAMERON - Artifact Space SEBASTIEN DE CASTELL - Play of Shadows SARAH BETH DURST - Even and Odd ANDREW FOX - Hunt the Fat White Vampire W. MICHAEL GEAR - Adrift ALLAN KASTER, ED. - The Year’s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 5 CASSANDRA KHAW - The All-Consuming World MERCEDES LACKEY - Beyond SILVIA MORENO-GARCIA - The Return of the Sorceress NAOMI NOVIK - The Last Graduate K.J. PARKER - Inside Man LUCIUS SHEPARD - The Best of Lucius Shepard, Vol. 2 STEVE RASNIC TEM - Thanatrauma J.R.R. TOLKIEN - The Nature of Middle-earth HARRY TURTLEDOVE - Three Miles Down CARRIE VAUGHN - Questland RICK WILBER - Alien Day FRAN WILDE - The Ship of Stolen Words TAD WILLIAMS - Brothers of the Wind
You Should Be Watching Space Sweepers
In the year 2092 the Earth is suffering. The planet is distressed to the point that humans are looking for a way out. Some lucky (or chosen) few get to ascend and become UTS citizens living in orbiting homes around the planet. The UTS corporation sets strict controls and financial arrangements for citizens and non-citizens alike. This is the where the crew of the salvage ship Victory scrounges out a living. This movie is filled with action, suspense, comedy and even heart. It clocks in around two hours and fifteen minutes, but it really didn't feel that long. Watching the crew of misfit scavengers attempt to make ends meet while dealing with their own issues would have been interesting enough, but then Dorothy gets thrown into the mix. Dorothy looks and acts like a child, but the UTS has declared her a weapon of mass destruction and has set off an all-out hunt to get her back. The Victory crew just happen to pick her up as part of one of their salvage missions. As a South Korean film, I was fully prepared to read subtitles the entire time I watched this movie. I did, but not in the way I expected. I found it wonderful that the film makers included a quick bit about universal translators and then proceeded to allow everyone to speak in whatever language was their own. Space, and all the humans from all over the planet could just speak their own language. Yes, there were subtitles, but there was as much in English as there was in any other language. I could identify five different languages through the course of the film. This is wonderful and we need more of this in our science fiction. People will find a way to communicate, then language and background become less of an issue. Beyond the language aspect, this film had well done special effects. I'm not going to claim they've got some kind of mastery or that the effects shots disappeared in a seamless way. You could tell there were special effects in this movie, but they didn't get in the way. I never had a moment when I thought, 'well that wasn't very well done'. I just sat and enjoyed the action. The action likely works out the way you'd expect, but even that didn't hurt the enjoyment of this story. This was a movie that has less of a dystopian downer feel and something a little more refreshing and hopeful. If you've got access to Netflix, grab your popcorn and go check this movie out. The trailer is here:
https://youtu.be/H1WYnJF1Pwo By Eric V. Hardenbrook VIRTUAL BALTICON 55
Once again Balticon will be conducted online. You can still find many of the same activities, but in a new format. Discover what’s happening this year at: https://www.balticon.org/wp55/. Check out the schedule (Subject to change – so check back often) - https://www.balticon.org/wp55/program-schedule/. Links will be added as the scheduled times approach. Zoom sessions will require a pre-registration and you can find the link to sign up to the right of each panel title. Most panels are listed as Zoom sessions, however Balticon is going to be using multiple platforms in order to facilitate as many presentations as possible. Other platforms include: Discord, YouTube, Second Life, and Gather. To properly enjoy yourself, you need to ensure you are set up in advance before viewing. You can find instructions here: https://www.balticon.org/wp55/platforms/. Planning on visiting the Virtual Con-Suite? You’ll definitely want to hit the link above since it is hosted in Second Life. If you need some help preparing to use or familiarizing yourself with Discord – here is a YouTube video to bring you up to speed - www.youtube.com/watch?v=le_CE--Mnvs. There will be two art show receptions this year in Zoom and Second Life for more information visit here - https://www.balticon.org/wp55/art-show-attendees/. Don’t forget to check out the Dealers room link here - https://www.balticon.org/wp55/dealer-room- attendees/ to find all the fun stuff to order. The Masquerade will also continue online composed of videos from participants – watch this space for more information - https://www.balticon.org/wp55/masquerade/. The Film Festival is also online, more information here: https://www.balticon.org/wp55/sunday- film-festival/. Virtual Gaming is available here: https://www.balticon.org/wp55/gaming/ and covers a wide variety of platforms. Finally, if you want to toss a coin to your Virtual Balticon providers, you can here - https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/balticon-55-go- fund-me. Every bit helps.
Robert Heinlein Award Congratulations to C.J. Cherryh, the winner of the 2020 Robert Heinlein Award for works of Science Fiction and Technical writings that inspire the exploration of Outer Space. The award will be presented at Virtual Balticon, Friday May 8th at the opening ceremonies, 8:00PM.
B
CONGRATULATIONS TO MICAIAH JOHNSON WINNER OF THE 2021 COMPTON CROOK AWARD PRESENTED BY THE BALTIMORE SCIENCE FICTION SOCIETY
Attacks of Opportunity
Join friend of the group and fabulous fantasy author Jon Sprunk as he discusses his passion for Dungeons & Dragons tabletop gaming! Hear about starting adventures, shared world building, wiping out parties of characters, and much more!
CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE VIDEOS DEAR CRABBY
Dear Crabby, I saw an article about disagreements at the beginning of the pandemic between aerosol scientists and the WHO about what constitutes an aerosol vs an airborne droplet. Apparently, there was some disagreement based on the measurement of the size of the liquid being above or below 5 microns and the factors that could make the size less a set determination based on other factors that could vary such as humidity, air speed, heat, etc. Is it possible that such a small thing could really have made such a big difference in not only the two factions' ability to communicate and come to an agreement but, also on how the virus spread and what damage it did? Measured Breaths
Dear Measured, Look, anything can be a big deal in how people communicate when they get stuck on semantics to avoid "being wrong" in some way, shape or form. Since people are inherently stupid, they do that a lot. The truth of the matter is as much as we'd like to make it otherwise very little in life is completely exact and our control over anything is far more limited than we seem to be comfortable admitting. Remember that their inability to agree on what the difference was between aerosol and airborne droplets means they then couldn't agree on what were the best practices to mitigate transmission which in turn affected how many people spread and therefore got the disease. A cycle that repeated ad nauseum throughout dealing with what we knew and didn't and what we told who, how, and when which in turn contributed to what people believed and who they believed. Basically, a goat rope. However, there were many factors, not just the fight over the definitions and properties of aerosol vs airborne droplets. Our biggest challenge, it seems, will always be human nature. That being said is what you are really asking me is "Does size really matter"? Because that is a totally different question for a different forum. Some problems are smaller than others, Crabby https://www.wired.com/story/the-teeny-tiny-scientific-screwup-that- helped-covid-kill/
COMING JUNE 2ND Sciency Stuff -Pasta innovation? Isn’t pasta something that one is supposed to follow Aunt So&So’s recipe and any deviation creates something that sticks to just about anything instead of the wall when you throw it at it to see if it’s done? Maybe not. The problem with pasta is its shape. Some pastas like spaghetti or fettucine are perfect for boxing. Move up to some more complex pasta topography like bowties, rotini, farfalle, and fusilli and suddenly there more space involved in bulk packaging. But what if you could make them flat to begin with? Enter the scientists. By using a semolina flour and then creating grooves on the flat pastas created, the experimenters were able to cause certain familiar shapes to occur when the pasta was boiled. Computer modeling assisted in determining the perfect groove structure. Now, you can stack the flat pastas to your content, save packaging material that might have ended up in a landfill making you more environmentally friendly, and maybe, just maybe, even get a little more pasta per package as a consumer. -A wolf by any other name – is the dire wolf really a wolf? Suddenly, scientists aren’t so sure after a DNA assay discovers that their evolutionary path diverged from the wolf family much earlier than previously believed. Contemporaries of mammoths and sabretooth cats, dire wolves were natives of North America from 13,000 – 250,000 years ago. Researchers looking at their DNA now know that are different from what were previously believed to be relatives like wolves, dogs, and coyotes. Different enough that it means rearranging their classification. Quite a few of the dire wolf remains found were recovered from the La Brea Tar pits, a location which unfortunately cooks off quite a bit of the DNA in the recovered bones. After a hunt through other found remains, scientists were able to recover enough DNA to do the research that led them to their discovery. The dire wolf line diverged 6 million years ago. Since they occupy a similar niche in the ecosystem, they developed in similar ways to gray wolves, but their size was typically 20% larger. There are a number of skeletal similarities as well that once again points to a parallel evolution. Scientists are recommending that dire wolves be taken out of the Canis genus and renamed Aeocyon Dirus. It’s likely that only a dire wolf historian would recognize that name, but it was actually proposed for the species in 1918. Now that we are thinking of dire wolves in a different way in related to their ancestors, we should also reconsider the images we have in our heads. Paleontologists are beginning to believe that unlike an amped up gray wolf, dire wolfs may have instead had more rounded ears, a reddish instead of gray coloration, and even a bushier tail. In fact, they may have looked more like a super coyote instead of an extra-large wolf. The DNA that led to these discoveries was unfortunately not a complete genome, so there is obviously still more work to be done. As for their disappearance, paleontologists look to the climactic change that killed off their larger prey animals like the mammoths, competition with smaller species like the wolf and coyote, and even hunting by humans, who were contemporaries. Hopefully, a full review of the genome will provide even more clues about Aeocyon Dirus.
AVAILABLE NOW Tillyer’s News of the High Frontier May 2021 With the loss of the Arecibo Radio Telescope, NASA may want to reconsider an idea that was highlighted in the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program – using a crater on the far side of the Moon as a replacement. The Lunar Crater Radio Telescope or LCRT is the brainchild of Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay, scientist with an interest in robotics. Chosen for phase one of the NIAC program, Saptarshi received $120,000 to work on developing the concept. Why the far side of the Moon? Well, we humans are a bit noisy, the ionosphere of Earth, and even Solar radio interference makes it difficult to measure radio waves with longer wavelengths – the type necessary to see far back into the early days of the universe. With a crater one already has a shape similar to the Arecibo Telescope in order to gather and focus incoming radio waves. But how do you construct something like this on the Moon and deal with the fact that the surface of the crater will never be perfectly smooth? That’s where Saptarshi’s robotics background comes into play. He’s designed a set of robots called DuAxels who can string up a giant spider’s web to catch signals. The LCRT is expected to be 3-5 kilometers in diameter created from a mesh of cables strung by the DuAxels. Unsurprisingly, the robots consist of a two axels and tires of a ribbed open construction that will about it traverse rough terrain. The mission would play out something like this: first, after identifying an appropriate crater, two landers would be sent to the Moon; the telescope bearing lander is sent to the center of the target crater; the second lands bearing the DuAxels lands outside of the crater and then deploys the robots; the telescope lander opens to release guide wires; DuAxels move to appropriate positions, anchor and then send one of their axel assemblies into the crater to the telescope lander; these axels attach themselves to the guide wires and are then hoisted by the anchored axel above, all the while playing out the wire mesh of the telescope from inside the lander. Concept versions of the DuAxels are already being tested and improved. Several other obstacles need to be overcome as the project moves forward. The identification of a suitable target crater means scouring maps of the Lunar surface trying to not only find a well-situated crater, but one with the classic rounded shape and if possible, less internal structure and smoother terrain. The telescope itself will be about the size of a solar sail. What would be the best construction material to achieve the maximum sensitivity? Also, how can the telescope be placed inside the lander so that it can be pulled out and deployed by simultaneous towing from the DuAxels, while avoiding tangles and damage? Obviously, this is why the LCRT is only at the Phase one of the selection process by the NIAC board, but the idea is exciting and could provide unique scientific observations.
LOCAL AUTHOR, AVAILABLE NOW