Archon 32

This year was the thirty-second St. Louis Science Fiction Convention. It is named Archon in honor of the St. Louis Arch.

Before getting to the convention, I must pause to review some nomenclature. SF fans (there is a minor disagreement about whether it should be SF [ess eff] or Sci Fi) have a few words of their own. Prime examples are con for convention and fen as the plural of fan. Non SF readers are called mundanes.




The convention is now held the first weekend of October. For a long time, it was held in July. The heat of a St. Louis summer made some of the costumes torture to wear. Costuming is an important part of a con. The weather in October is chancy at best, but this year was delightfully cool, allowing fen to wear an imposing array of the costumer's art.

Science fiction is a genre with many sub-genres. Some of these, like horror, are found in different parts of the book store. Others like fantasy, space opera, hard science fiction, alternate history, cyberpunk, steampunk and military SF are lumped in with the other parts of science fiction. It mostly depends on the management of the store or chain. But all of these can be taken under the mantle of SF.



Science fiction is not something new. Although Jules Verne is the father of modern SF, it goes back at least to the 17th century. During that time, Savien Cyrano de Bergerac (yes, the guy the play was written about) published his "Comic Story of the Countries of the Moon and Sun." If you're not familiar with the play, read it. There are some of the most romantic scenes ever written therein. The films based on the play are very well done and fairly faithful to the original by Rostand. However, there have been claims that science fiction goes all the way back to biblical times. When I was growing up, I read several articles that claimed that the "great wheel" seen by Ezekiel.

Fandom (another SF word) consists of a huge variety of people. There are science fiction clubs and authors all over the Americas, Europe and the Far East. In fact, each year, a world science fiction convention is held. More abut that in the parties section. While many fen are scientists and engineers, a multitude of other folk love the genre or part of it. There are teenagers, literature students, artists, clerks, accountants and policemen that I have met at cons. Fandom is also one of the most accepting, tolerant populations I have met. Almost any foible is acceptable at a con.

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The gentleman in this photo, by the way is running his computer from a solar cell.

The most common question I hear about science fiction conventions (cons is so much easier, but a little repetitive) is "What do you do there?" The answer to that is quite a bit. During the day, there are panel discussions ranging from weapons of the medieval warrior to surgery in space. Experts in writing and publishing talk about both writing and getting what you write published. Artists will talk about how they got into SF art or how they draw imaginary creatures. Astronomers can give lectures on how to make up realistic imaginary worlds or biologists might talk about what sort of aliens might exist. I even managed to give a few panels about my life with big cats.



In the evening, there is more programming, usually there is a continuous science fiction film show and the parties. Parties are an integral part of the con experience. Reasons for hosting parties can vary from the desire to get together with friends and others to a bid for a world science fiction convention (worldcon) location. You see, worldcons are held in a different city every year. There have been a number of repeat visits, to Los Angeles and to Denver, for examples. But the con itself moves each year. Attendees of the worldcon two years before vote on the location and the winner hosts the worldcon two years hence. Believe me, two years are the minimum required to organize a successful worldcon. It is usually the biggest SF con held in the year, hosting memberships from 3,000 to 10,000 in recent years. The parties are to convince fen that a particular locale is ideal for a worldcon. Since some delightful people love to throw parties, there are also fake worldcon bid parties for places like the moon or Mars.

The parties usually serve food typical of their areas and some serve beverages native to their areas. Especially notable among these was the successful Scotland bid party. Glasgow won hands down that year.

Last, but not least, many people ask about the "Trekkies". They are with us, along with fans of Dr. Who and other TV series. But Star Trek was the seminal science fiction television show and brought the medium to the attention of more people than anything until Harry Potter (there are Harry Potter fans too.)




Try Googling "Science Fiction Convention" and attend one in your area.

Arkansas State Fair part III

I see, by reviewing my older blogs on this subject, that I managed to duplicate some pictures. I'll try to get some more in this time, since my last attempt was truncated by schedule and slow upload times.






That's all for that. My next posting shall be about the science fiction convention sponsored by the St. Louis Science Fiction Society. The convention is named Archon and that will be part of the title.

Arkansas State Fair part II

Here are a couple more photos from the fair (as promised yesterday). Unfortunately, the connection is a little too slow for me to be able to post many more before leaving the house today. Perhaps later.



The kids on the rides were marvelous. Along with the very serious tots on the merry-go-round and the usual cheerful screaming as the rides did something that dropped stomachs, there was an informality in their attire that I enjoyed.



I got a kick out of the new teen style. All that extra material reminds me of the pictures of "zoot suits" that were in style before WWII. They went out of style quickly. I suspect it was due to the fact that a lot of young men were drafted or volunteered after Pearl Harbor and the shortage of cloth that came with the war effort.

Arkansas State Fair

It is Sunday evening. The Fair has almost drawn to a close. The livestock
has been taken home by the people showing it. The prizes have been awarded.

And the busy show schedule is over after nine days of hard work.

The fair continues until later tonight. Most of the vendors are doing plenty of business, selling food, junk, and all kinds of things from pots and pans, perfume to cattle panels.

There were the usual rides, carny games and other things like face painting.



There was a terrific tiger show. I love tigers and these were delightful, playful and awesome.


And of course I had a great time, finding pictures to put into this blog.






That seems to be all I can post right now. But I have many more and I will post them another time. I think I still have a con report for Archon 32 to post here as well.

First Days of Autumn

Leaves have begun to color --



and to fall on our garden.



Kids have started school. The temperature has been reasonable and the humidity low (for Arkansas). It's fall, folks. If where you life is anything like Little Rock, get out there now because our autumn usually lasts four days to two weeks. Maybe this year we'll get all four seasons for a change.



There are butterflies flitting around our pineapple sage and zinnnias.



and one, poor, confused wistaria bloomed last week. It's probably the ratio of day to night and the fact that things around here aren't used to having all four seasons. Maybe our crocus will begin to poke their noses out of the ground next.



You may notice that an enterprising bumble bee is buzzily visiting the blossoms.

We chopped the lorupetalum off our creek. It should have been a dwarf variety, but we planted the regular instead. The years we did not prune it back, it topped the roof. Alas, the blooms in spring were lovely. But we did want that space for some smaller flowers.

Sweating in the garden is a welcome break from politics, murder and football. Those are the only things on the minds of local news teams. Very sad. The fall flowers are beginning, but late summer bloomers aren't finished yet. Next month, I'm going to start planting pansies and violas.

Billions, Trillions, Zillions???

The recent news about the US government buying 80% of Lehman Brothers' Bank found me confused. The confusion stemmed, not from the buy out/bail out, but the number of dollars involved.




I have no trouble with thousands and can just about get my head around a million. After all, there are about 32 million seconds in a year and my heart beats an average of 39 million times in that time. Being trained as an engineer gave me a comfort zone with really large numbers, like the number of atoms in a "gram mole" of an element: 6.022 times ten raised to the 23rd power. A "gram mole" or mole is the atomic weight of an element in grams. That is more of a convenience when it comes to figuring out chemistry problems than a reality. Atoms are very small, too small to be seen through even the most powerful optical microscope. Scientists have to use an electron microscope to image atoms. Light is easy too. It travels about 186,000 miles per second. So in one tick of a stop watch, a ray of light will go (assuming you can get it to go around in a circle... it tends to go in a straight line) about seven times around the equator. By the way, light can travel a little less than 6 times ten to the twelfth power (trillion in the US; in Europe, a trillion is ten to the 18th).

Another by the way, there is more than one kind of second. There is the solar second, the one we use in our clocks. But some people in Europe decided that they needed a standard second based on the metric system, the System International (SI) second which is a little more than 99% of a solar second. Astronomers got into the act with the sidereal second. A sidereal second is more than 20 solar seconds. Go figure. I had to. But then I figured that we can't even use the same voltage as they do and there are three or four different kinds of plugs and outlets for electricity. Which one depends on which country you visit.

Very small things seem to make sense... to a point. A centimeter is about four tenths (0.4) of an inch. A millimeter is about four hundredths (0.04) of an inch. A mil is one thousandth of an inch when you're talking paint (my former specialty). When you get down to micrometers (0.001) meters, it gets a little harder. The nanometer is something I can't visualize. Wavelengths of light are measured in nanometers. A nanometer is smaller than an atom. I just can't get my head around that.

So when the media talk about 300 billion dollars a day for the war in Iraq or 400 billion dollars for this and that, my little brain seizes up and refuses to comprehend. When we're talking about something too small to see, there is no problem. But dollars? Not only can I see them and spend them, but when I'm lucky, I have a couple in my wallet. I guess someone like Bill Gates or Warren Buffet can understand a billion. They have several in their bank accounts. But to me, it doesn't make as much sense as the number of atoms in a mole.

Any good physics book will tell you all the prefixes (centi milli, kilo etcetera) in the metric system. You'll probably be able to find things like the mass of the Earth in kilograms or the average distance from the Earth to the moon. But for me, there is a vast difference between being able to spout those huge numbers and actually wrapping my mind around them.

Ocean reefs

In March of this year, it was announced that the World Bank had inaugurated the Year of the Reef. It is a partnership among governments, scientists and other associations. I think it fitting that this post discusses reefs and their current status... THREATENED!!!

I have no thrilling photos of ocean reefs to post with this essay. But I am adding some pictures taken of the Atlantic during my last trip to Scotland.



The health of all oceans is a major concern to the human race. Much of our food comes from them. Some economies are exclusively dependent on the sea. Ocean plants, mostly plankton generate a large part of the oxygen we breathe. To use an overused phrase, reefs are to oceans like the proverbial canary in a coal mine. The way they grow, or do not grow, is a major indicator of the state of water world wide.

At this time, it is estimated that a quarter of those reefs have been destroyed. The reef provides shelter and food for something in the neighborhood of a million different species. To put that number in perspective, it about a quarter of all forms of life in the sea. Many of these are important foods and much of the reef life provides income in the billions of dollars. Additionally, like the rain forest, there are species there which may provide us with life saving medicines. This is just now being investigated.

The major threats to reef life are careless fishing, fishing with explosives, over fishing, pollution, introduced exotic species, acidification of ocean waters and climate change. We humans can do something now to ameliorate the first four of these factors. Most of the acidification is caused by carbon dioxide uptake of sea water. It is theorized that the reduction of CO2 emissions can eliminate this threat. Climate change may or may not be a problem within the ability of the human race to solve. But seeing that corral has survived almost as long as any other life form, it may be the one we do not have to solve.



Corral reefs cover about 200,000 square miles of ocean floor. These amazing structures are built about a millimeter (about an eight of an inch) at a time by tiny animals called polyps. They reproduce a couple of times each year in the same manner as many clams and oysters. That is, the polyps release sperm and eggs into the sea water and some of them combine to form new polyps. These look like tiny jellyfish. They settle on the reef and begin the process of building their "houses" of calcium carbonate.





These photos are of a real jellyfish in an Atlantic harbor and of barnacles that cling to some of the tidal stones on the Scottish isle of Staffa.

It is mostly the developing nations in the Pacific and Caribbean which are the primary causes of bad fishing. Some of the rich nation's fishers use corral damaging drag nets and add to the damage. The sad thing about the developing nations is that the fishermen who kill the reef are destroying their only means of subsistence. We're talking about perhaps one hundred million people who are at risk due to their own ignorance. A few of these nations have begun to use their reefs as tourist attractions. While that helps, over viewing the reef can be as damaging to its environment as can overfishing.

It is essential that we begin speaking to our lawmakers and policy makers and diplomats about the severity of this problem. Polluting nations need to be educated, and in many cases, assisted in reducing the pollution they add to the sea. These nations are not only developing, but some of the richest, including the United States. While China pours raw sewage into their ocean, we dump tons of fertilizer and other agricultural chemicals into ours. Our friends in Europe and Latin America have the same problems.

Reducing pollution is costly. But the saving and reclamation of many of the materials that are dumped can be financially rewarding. What is needed is the political will to put out the initial cost. That can only be done if those in power are convinced they can do something about the problem without causing financial ruin to their countries.