Happy 21 October 2015, Everyone!


And now, a word from President Ronald Reagan.

Audio of an interview with Caseen Gaines, author of We Don't Need Roads: Th Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy.

And thanks to msminlr for the hoverboard!

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My Schedule for Sasquan
Sasquan, the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention, starts Wednesday, 19 August, in Spokane, Washington. Here are the program items I'm scheduled to participate in. (Keep an eye out for last-minute changes…) "CC" refers to rooms in the Spokane Convention Center. "M" designates a moderator.

Pluto in Your Rear-View Mirror: News from the New Horizons Mission
Thursday 11:00 - 11:45, 302AB (CC)

Pluto has always been the planet...errhhh...dwarf planet of mystery.  On July 14, the New Horizons spacecraft whizzed past Pluto and its satellites 9 years after blasting off from Earth. Find out what science has learned in 2015 about the worlds on the solar system's frontier, and where the New Horizons will journey next.   This panel will open with a presentation on the New Horizons spacecraft mission by Bill Higgins and will include a discussion among the panelists.

Bill Higgins (M), Alan Boyle, Tony Lewis, Guy Consolmagno, David Clements

What’s New in Astronomy
Thursday 13:00 - 13:45, Bays 111B (CC)

What are the latest astronomical discoveries? What are the upcoming events in the exploration of the solar system? Find out what is happening out there and what we are doing about it.

David Clements (M), Mark L. Olson, Bill Higgins, April Faires, Bobbie Benton Hull

SF/Fantasy Set in Washington & Environs
Thursday 20:00 - 20:45, Bays 111C (CC)

From classics like Hal Clement's Iceworld to Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson books, Washington state has been the setting for many works of SF & fantasy.  

Bill Higgins (M), Helen Gbala

[Hmm, this is looking a bit thin.]

100 Years of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity
Friday 13:00 - 13:45, Bays 111C (CC)

Celebrate the 100th anniversary of the theory of relativity by exploring what physicists have been doing for the last 100 years, the status of the theory today, and what might change in the future.

Mark L. Olson (M) , David Clements, James C. Glass, Bill Higgins, Lori White

[I'm by no means a relativity expert, and can only hope I will be able to add a few remarks to the conversation.]

Pluto Isn't Just a Disney Dog
Friday 19:00 - 19:45, 207 (CC)

Pluto has now been explored! Join scientists to see what NASA has learned about the famous icy world on the edge of our Solar System.

Bill Higgins, Guy Consolmagno

[This is an item in the children's program, so Guy and I will be discussing Pluto with young people.]

Dawn of the Asteroid Belt: Exploring Vesta and Ceres
Saturday 10:00 - 10:45, 207 (CC)

Asteroids are relics of the ancient Solar System. NASA's Dawn spacecraft orbited Vesta for a year. Now its ion thrusters have propelled it across the Asteroid Belt to Ceres, the largest asteroid, where Dawn has again entered orbit. Join Bill Higgins to explore Dawn's findings at Vesta and its plans for doing science at Ceres.

Bill Higgins, Guy Consolmagno

Tech Talk for Teens
Saturday 15:00 - 15:45, 401C (CC)

Join us for a fun discussion that delves into the mysteries of teaching science and technology to kids. What's a good starting point? Does it always have to be "fun"? Which sci-fi concepts might today's teens be turning into reality twenty years from now? We'll discuss all of these things and more!

Torrey Stenmark (M), Bill Higgins, Tim Griffin , E. C. Blake

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Worldcon: Best Way to Seek Roommates?
We're attending Sasquan. K and I have a reservation for a room in the Doubletree from the 19th to the 24th. It has two queen-size beds. It would be nice to share the cost of the room with one or two others.

What's the best way to find potential roommates?

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This Accident Was DEFINITELY Not My Fault
Okay, I was nowhere near the Deepsea Challenger when it caught fire. I was in another state at the time.

And I'll repeat that I had nothing to do with the loss of that other submersible. So quit spreading rumors.

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On the Road to Pluto, Posted Elseweb
Over on the Vatican Observatory Foundation blog: On the Road to Pluto

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Encounter with the Underworld: The Pluto Campaign
Tomorrow, it begins.

I will get in a car and drive various places. On Sunday, I expect to arrive in Laurel, Maryland.



I saw Neptune long ago and I am very glad to have lived long enough to see Pluto explored by a spacecraft.

Over time, I hope to tell a lot of people about it. People at Musecon, Worldcon, and Windycon, to begin with.

See you on the far side.

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In Case You Were Worried about New Horizons
Just ten days away from Pluto, the New Horizons spacecraft had an "anomaly" yesterday and went into "safe-mode." It switched control to its backup computer and tried to establish contact with Earth.

This made a lot of us anxious, despite assurances that the spacecraft was probably fine.

NASA has announced that recovery is going well and New Horizons "remains on track for its July 14 flyby of Pluto:"

Preparations are ongoing to resume the originally planned science operations on July 7 and to conduct the entire close flyby sequence as planned. The mission science team and principal investigator have concluded that the science observations lost during the anomaly recovery do not affect any primary objectives of the mission, with a minimal effect on lesser objectives.

Nothing like a little suspense to make a flyby more exciting. Time to get some sleep.

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Your Nuclear Physics Thought for the Day
Over on Twitter today Dr. Katie Mack (@AstroKatie), astrophysicist at Melbourne University, was waxing enthusiastic about the New Horizons Pluto spacecraft. I (@MrBeamjockey) responded.

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8 July at Ela Area Library: Secret Cities, Secret Jobs: Creating the Atomic Bomb in World War II
About a year ago, I borrowed from my local library Denise Kiernan's book The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II. Unfortunately, I hadn't yet finished it by the due date, so I had to take it back to the library.

Having turned the book in, I strolled over, as is my wont, to the used-book-sale shelf. Because you never know what you might find there. I found this:



Obviously Fate intended me to be united with this book. I'd already read enough of it to know that it was well worth owning. I paid a dollar and went home with my very own copy.

In the course of time, the Ela Area Public Library District chose The Girls of Atomic City as this year's tome in their One Book, One Reading Community program. They've lined up a variety of speakers over the summer weeks. I've agreed to give a talk on Wednesday, 8 July.

Secret Cities, Secret Jobs: Creating the Atomic Bomb in World War II
Wednesday, 8 July, 2015
7:00pm to 8:15pm

Ela Area Public Library
275 Mohawk Trail, Lake Zurich, Illinois 60047

Physicists discovered that uranium fission could be applied to make a devastating weapon--but it would take the help of hundreds of thousands of citizens working under the cloak of secrecy to make nuclear bombs a reality. Join Fermilab physicist William Higgins as he shares insights into this urgent effort...one of many memorable WWII dramas.

Kiernan's book concentrates on the women who worked at Oak Ridge. I'll be giving an overview of the Manhattan Project. Hanford and Los Alamos were two other sites where secret towns employing thousands of workers sprang up to meet the needs of the massive project.

I hope to say a few words about why Kiernan's book is both interesting to the average reader and also to the reader already steeped in Manhattan Project lore.

I'm pleased that the Library District has invited me, and I'm looking forward to my visit.

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Bryan Burrough, Sarah Ellison, and Suzanna Andrews Win 2015 Higgins Award
This year's John M. Higgins Award for Best In-Depth/Enterprise Reporting was given today to Bryan Burrough, Sarah Ellison, and Suzanna Andrews of Vanity Fair for their article "The Snowden Saga: A Shadowland of Secrets and Light."  Congratulations to them.

Today in New York the annual Mirror Awards ceremony, sponsored by Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, honored "the reporters, editors and teams of writers who hold a mirror to their own industry for the public's benefit."

As you may know, the John M. Higgins Award is named for my late brother.

Here's a list of all of today's 2015 Mirror Awards winners.

Here's a list of all the Higgins Award finalists.

I'm always pleased to thank Discovery Communications and Time Warner Cable for their gift establishing the Higgins Award. I am also grateful to the people of the Newhouse School for their work continuing to celebrate journalism about journalism.

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Prediction: In the 21st Century, Flying Cars Will Be Peddled
Interesting video story from CNN Money on the business prospects for several companies now bringing flying cars to market.

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"Quality, Shmality! If I Had a TV Show..."
News that the many-voiced Harry Shearer is leaving the cast of The Simpsons, as the series heads into its 27th season, triggered a discussion around my office.

One colleague wondered why they're still making the show. My position is that they are true to the philosophy Bart expressed back in Season Two, when The Simpsons aired a special tag in tribute to the then-voluntarily-ending Bill Cosby Show (its competitor for ratings on Thursday nights).

My pal had never seen this clip. To Youtube!



And so we see that the producers of The Simpsons are perfectly consistent with the spirit of this 1992 proclamation. This is why I am unsurprised that they continue.

(For the record, I still tune in, because while it's no longer firing on all cylinders, the show can still make me laugh sometimes. But then, given the ravages of time, I have arrived in the demographic slice that is reputed, like Grandpa Simpson, to enjoy Matlock, so why should anybody listen to my opinions about television any more?)

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V-E Day Dissolves into History
Today is the 70th anniversary of V-E Day, when the Allies and Germany ended (part of) World War II. Around lunchtime, I learned that the celebrations included a parade of vintage aircraft over Washington, D.C., and furthermore, the BBC was streaming coverage of it.

So I tuned in to watch an airshow on my desktop.

And I started hitting the screencap keys.



The BBC had a camera watching the Mall, with the Washington Monument prominent in its frame. I saw a pair of Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses cruise into the scene, high above the Monument.



Another camera shot closeups of the aircraft, tracking them as they passed. It was kind of hazy, so lighting was not optimal, but the planes looked pretty good nonetheless.

Finally, in a glorious accident, I commanded a screencap just at the moment of a dissolve between the two cameras.



Thought you'd like to see this.

Images copyright 2015 BBC.

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2015 John M. Higgins Award: The Finalists


The S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University has announced the finalists for their annual Mirror Awards. These awards honor "the reporters, editors and teams of writers who hold a mirror to their own industry for the public’s benefit."

As the John M. Higgins Award for Best In-Depth/Enterprise Reporting is named for my late brother, I am grateful to the Newhouse School and to the award's donors for keeping John's name in the minds of his fellow journalists. And I always take an interest in the Newhouse School's announcements.

The finalists for the 2015 Higgins Award are these:

Bryan Burrough, Sarah Ellison, and Suzanna Andrews, "The Snowden Saga: A Shadowland of Secrets and Light," Vanity Fair

Nicholas Carlson, "What Happened When Marissa Mayer Tried to Be Steve Jobs," The New York Times Magazine

John McDuling, "Why the music industry is trying – and failing – to crush Pandora," Quartz

David Sirota, "The Wolf of Sesame Street: Revealing the secret corruption inside PBS’s news division," PandoDaily

Brandy Zadrozny, "He Bullies Kids and Calls It News," The Daily Beast

Congratulations to the finalists! The award ceremony will take place on Thursday, 11 June, at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York.

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Guess It's Easy to Get Those Renaissance Cities Mixed Up
The Daily Mail ran a picture portraying the shooting of the new Dan Brown movie, Inferno.


Copyright New Press Photo/Splash News
Their caption?

"Delightful sights: Last week, the cast and crew on Inferno were spotted shooting in the city of Venice"

Unless the Uffizi Gallery in Florence has, unbeknownst to me, turned itself into a nationwide franchise with a branch in Venice, including a sculpture gallery of celebrated Florentines, um, I don't think so.


Copyright 2013 by William S. Higgins
Orcagna is disappointed in the Daily Mail.

I wonder if this movie will have any antimatter in it.

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Anticipating AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON
It's hard for me to imagine how it could be entertaining to watch the Avengers sit around for two hours guessing how old Ultron is.

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My Schedule for Minicon 50
K and I are headed for Minicon 50 (yeah, fifty Minicons!) this weekend, 2 through 5 April. I love Minneapolis fandom and I love Minicon-- but this is the first time I've been able to attend in a few years. Here are the program items I'm doing. Can't wait!

Inappropriate (Mis)uses of Astrophysical Matter
FRI 8:30 PM Krushenko's

Forget about using the universe for good! That's not the human way of doing things! Murder by black hole was used as a plot device by Larry Niven in his Hugo award-winning "The Borderland of Sol." Dominic Green postulated using a Penrose accelerator as a waste management "solution" in his Hugo-nominated story, "The Clockwork Atom Bomb." A discussion of the Pandora's Box aspect of particle physics and astrophysics within SF.
Chris Beskar
Bill Higgins
Larry Niven
Michael Kingsley

Almost There
SAT 4:00 PM Veranda 3/4

So, we don't have flying cars. What "technology of the future" is actually right around the corner? A discussion of technologies that we almost have licked including nuclear fusion, anti-gravity, cloaking devices, and teleportation.
Bill Higgins
Bill Thomasson
Chris Beskar
Ctein
Neil Rest
Tyler Tork

Battlefields of Tomorrow
SAT 7:00 PM Veranda 5/6

Powered and unpowered - a discussion of various battle armors in Sci-Fi and the corresponding reality of what is being fielded, under development, and what is to come. Also, find out about the real world development and deployment of lasers, particle beam weapons, rail guns and other directed energy weapons.
Bill Higgins
Chris Beskar
John Stanfield

[Looks like I'll need to get a quick dinner between about 5 and 6:30, or wait and have a late dinner after 8.]

Dawn of the Asteroid Belt: Exploring Vesta and Ceres
SUN 1:00 PM Edina

Asteroids are relics of the ancient Solar System. NASA's Dawn spacecraft orbited Vesta for a year. Now its ion thrusters have propelled it across the Asteroid Belt to Ceres, the largest asteroid, where Dawn has again entered orbit. Join Bill Higgins to explore Dawn's findings at Vesta and its plans for doing science at Ceres.
Bill Higgins

I don't think I've met Chris Beskar, but it looks like I'm going to be seeing a lot of him in the next few days...

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How WINNIE THE POOH Was Translated into Latin & Became a Best-Seller
From the April 21, 1961 issue of Life, page 61: Roman Holiday for a Bashful Bear Named Winnie: Latin Version of Children's Classic Is the Surprise Best-Seller of 1961.

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An Autobiography from the Author of MAKE ROOM! MAKE ROOM!
I have learned that the prominent science fiction author best known for his dystopic overpopulation novel Make Room! Make Room! has posthumously published an autobiography.

I am pleased to inform you that the title of this new book is Harry Harrison! Harry Harrison!

There appears to be a picture of a stainless-steel rat on the cover.

Edited to Add: I'd forgotten the joke I made when Mr. Harrison passed away.

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Found while Googling "Neutron Flux"
I spend much of my time trying to avoid neutron flux, but apparently there are people who feel differently.

Behold, the Addidas ZX Flux Neutron sneaker:



I'm pretty sure these are the kind of sneakers Doctor Manhattan would wear.

I also learned from a sneaker-collector site (this is the first day in my whole life that I have visited a sneaker-collector site) that I need not worry about radioactive contamination, for the same manufacturer offers a ZX Flux Decon sneaker. Much snazzier than the paper booties I usually wear.

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