Or, Rage, rage against the passing of the Light?efanzines.com/TBSE/TBSE-56.pdf · Or, Rage, rage...

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TBS&E Number 56 1 1 Time to stop and smell the Flowers? Or, Rage, rage against the passing of the Light? Produced by Garry Dalrymple as a contribution to the Australian and NZ Amateur Press Association’s October 2013 mailing. Postal Address: P. O. Box 4152, Bexley North, NSW 2207 Home ph. (after 7 pm) 02 9718- 5827 Email; [email protected] Index Page 1 – Index and Editorial Pages 2 to 4 – Travellers’ Tales, Helping Police with their inquiries Pages 4 to 9 – Astronomy, Our Black hole and Garry discovers an 1878 Death Star! Pages 9 and 10 – The JREF / TAM Challenge. Pages 10 to 14 – Sydney SF&F meetings of August, Parramatta and Sydney Futurian. Pages 14 and 15 – Travellers’ Tales, part 2. Page 16 – 2013/2014 Sydney Futurian Dates and Topics, Back Page Index What’s up with Garry? Well you might ask. The matter of leaving full time employment behind is very much on my mind, so much to do prior to graduation when my access to some opportunities will terminate and others, hopefully, will blossom. As for after August 29, my last day of service, I do hope, in future to live by the evocative final statement by Obi Wan Kenobi – If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine”. I have completed (all but issues #31 and #32) the ‘Boxed set of TBS&E issues, and even managed to squeeze out one last ‘at-work’ issue, which you have in front of you. For weeks I have been deeply irritated by the promotions run on SBS TV, about a convicted Australian Vietnamese trafficker who finds ‘peace’ and a degree of redemption before his execution. I have felt as though I too face a form of death, and I’m feeling no sense of peace and redemption, just a lack of time to make adjustments in the days left to me at work. So to explain some of how I feel, to misquote a Red headed Australian political identity, to the effect that ‘If you are reading this now, then I have been assassinated by my political opponents’. I’m feeling many things, triumph, regret, a sense of things left incomplete. The best way I have to explain it to you is for you to look up and listen to Ennio Morricone’s The Ecstasy of Gold’ the music of the graveside climax to the movie ‘The Good, The Bad and the Ugly’ . Try it, please and you might get

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Time to stop and smell the Flowers? Or, Rage, rage against the passing of the Light?

Produced by Garry Dalrymple as a contribution to the Australian and NZ Amateur Press Association’s October 2013 mailing.

Postal Address: P. O. Box 4152, Bexley North, NSW 2207 Home ph. (after 7 pm) 02 9718-5827

Email; [email protected] Index

Page 1 – Index and Editorial Pages 2 to 4 – Travellers’ Tales, Helping Police with their inquiries Pages 4 to 9 – Astronomy, Our Black hole and Garry discovers an 1878 Death Star! Pages 9 and 10 – The JREF / TAM Challenge. Pages 10 to 14 – Sydney SF&F meetings of

August, Parramatta and Sydney Futurian.

Pages 14 and 15 – Travellers’ Tales, part 2. Page 16 – 2013/2014 Sydney Futurian Dates and Topics, Back Page Index

What’s up with Garry?

Well you might ask. The matter of leaving full time employment behind is very much on my mind, so much to do prior to graduation when my access to some opportunities will terminate and others, hopefully, will blossom.

As for after August 29, my last day of service, I do hope, in future to live by the evocative final statement by Obi Wan Kenobi – “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine”.

I have completed (all but issues #31 and #32) the ‘Boxed set of TBS&E issues, and even managed to squeeze out one last ‘at-work’ issue, which you have in front of you.

For weeks I have been deeply irritated by the promotions run on SBS TV, about a convicted Australian Vietnamese trafficker who finds ‘peace’ and a degree of redemption before his execution. I have felt as though I too face a form of death, and I’m feeling no sense of peace and redemption, just a lack of time to make adjustments in the days left to me at work. So to explain some of how I feel, to misquote a Red headed Australian political identity, to the effect that ‘If you are reading this now, then I have been assassinated by my political opponents’. I’m feeling many things, triumph, regret, a sense of things left incomplete. The best way I have to explain it to you is for you to look up and listen to Ennio Morricone’s ‘The Ecstasy of Gold’ the music of the graveside climax to the movie ‘The Good, The Bad and the Ugly’. Try it, please and you might get

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some sense of strength and mix of feelings I am going through at this time. Garry Dalrymple August 19, 2013.

Helping Police with their enquiries (1).

This is my report to Ashfield Police. Attention Detective Sgt. Cipolla C/I, Ashfield Police

Following the Eulabah Avenue police visit of around 11pm on Sunday August, 2013

On Sunday night I spoke to Constable (Jones?) and given the lateness of the hour I fear that I may not have been as helpful as I could have been about the events of that night and possibly useful background material. I expect you are used to the reverse narrative of events, people telling you ‘what happened last’ and then gradually telling you what happened before this. I hope that the following will prove to be of some help.

Background - Eulabah Avenue being a dead end street, with a curve in it that blocks evidence that it is a dead end, occasionally receives late night, high speed traffic caused by drivers who believe they have entered a traffic light free ‘through’ road to Earlwood. This resulted in sounds of; an acceleration up the hill, jammed on brakes and an equally hasty retreat at speed to re-join Bexley Road. In addition to this, some nights a car followed by a motorbike will arrive, stop, and a few minutes later leave the street. In recent years there have been a number of nocturnal heated arguments, with raised voices and loud departures similar to the events of Sunday night. They seem to start further up the hill (no. 8 to 16 Eulabah Ave.?) and conclude in the

‘Visitors car park’ that the flat area around the small park occasionally resembles. I.e. they would seem not to be residents of this street, but associates of some residents of this street. Sunday August 4, 2013 - This morning, to the sound of much car door slamming, that I could hear from where I was working in the Garage, at about 10 am the Bexley road end of Eulabah Avenue filled up with people who were arriving dressed in black. They headed up the street to a house on the even side of the street. Presumably they had come from a funeral or church service. Most of these cars were gone by midday or 1 pm. However, there was a white late model Ute parked more or less over the drain on the park side of the street. I believe it had been there Friday night to at least 9.10 pm on Sunday night, when I returned home from walking the dogs. This car was not present on Monday morning, and I believe that this car was absent when Constable (Jones?) called at ~11 pm. It could not have been the car that left the black rubber marks, unless it had backed up the hill several car lengths first. Timing I put the dogs out at about 9.10-9.15 and watched the ‘Squizzy’ TV program which started at or just after 9.15 by my lounge room clock (I had to endure a few minutes of the preceding program after putting the dogs to bed). I watched this program to its end ~10.15 and then watched a DVD till shortly before constable XX arrived at my front door. During ‘Squizzy’ there were two car arrivals, both using the driveways of No 1, and No 2, with headlights and tail lights lighting up the lounge room. There may have been conversation between the cars, as they were not just in and out. Later, towards the end of ‘Squizzy’ there was another sound of a car movement and several door slam type noises that shook the house, coming from ‘up the street’, I chose not to get up and investigate this at this time, as our neighbour at number 3’s late night comings and goings are usually announced by such noises, but there were a few more than slams (boot closings?) than usual. At the time I thought that they might be people leaving from having spent the day with the bereaved family further up the street. I had the feeling that they had walked down from

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further up the street. Some minutes later, possibly in front of the park, near the taxi without rego plates, there was some sound of argument, a sound of running up the street, banging as in someone slapping a car hood or boot (possibly even the drum like PVC cover of the back of the white ute?), more argument and the sound of squealing tyres, as if a car were being revved but prevented from going forward. I think I heard someone screaming briefly (at the time I thought has someone standing in front of a car had their foot run over?). My guess is that there must have been at least three or four men involved, as I heard two voices arguing (Not in English, or not distinct enough to make out) and a third voice (by tone?) possibly urging restraint, possibly to ‘Mo’ as I head a phrase including this repeated several times with some urgency. I heard no women’s voices.

I heard two loud cars leave, but there may have been a third leaving less ostentatiously. One sounded like it might have been the red Ferrari/Maserati which occasionally visits the street. This all concluded at 10.30 / 10.31 or very shortly after by my lounge room clock. Their leaving was climactic, causing me to especially note the time. Shortly after there were sirens at some distance, and then another set of sirens further away. I was preparing to go to bed before the front door bell rang.

The impression that I had of the whole incident was that someone had received alarming advice to the group, some wanted to flee immediately / deal with the matter urgently, with others urging a less immediate / active response, but this is just an impression based on the argument partly overheard not sounding like ‘He Said, She Said’ type post party argument. Also, I have recently noticed a blue Subaru registration ‘ASIFIRE’ parked in Eulabah Avenue, usually parked further towards Bexley Road, but this may belong to the residents of the Bexley Road corner house.

Qualification – Most of the above is true to the best of my recollection, but I heard, rather than saw most of what is described above, so I doubt that it qualifies as ‘evidence’. Please keep in mind that living at the bottom of Eulabah Avenue and with sound able to echoing off the School building at the head of the street and two story houses around the park it is rarely possible

to say with certainty whether the noise you here is coming from the Park or the Hill or the Bexley Road ends of Eulabah Avenue.

My Mother (86 years old this year) also lives at No. I Eulabah Avenue and would have, to some degree, overheard some of these events, being in her bedroom at the time. Unfortunately for corroborative purposes, my Mother has a frontal lobe injury, which affects her short term memory and she is prone to confabulation, creating ‘memories of events of no objective reality.

Wishing you well in all things

Garry P Dalrymple, 1 Eulabah Avenue EARLWOOD NSW 2206, BH 02-9266-8350 (until September) AH 02-9718-5827

This is the story in the local paper -

Page 2, Cooks River Valley Times of Thursday August 8, 2013

Find man stabbed after shot fired Police from Ashfield Local Area Command, are investigating how a man came to be stabbed in Sydney’s southwest on Sunday night. Police were called to Bexley Road Earlwood, shortly after 10.30 pm on Sunday, responding to reports that shots had been fired. Police arrived to find a Nissan SS sedan with its windows smashed, but were unable to find any evidence of gunshots. A 20-year-old man was spoken to at the scene and taken to Canterbury Hospital where he was treated for a cut to his right hand before being released. He told police he was injured in a fight in the street involving several men. A short time later, police were alerted to a 28 year-old man who had arrived at Canterbury Hospital suffering stab wounds. He was transferred to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital where he has been treated and is expected to be released later today. Police hope to interview the man once he’s deemed fit. Four men have been arrested but have since been released pending further investigation. Detectives have spoken with a number of witnesses and the damaged sedan and a second car have been seized for forensic examination.

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Comment – I did not hear any gunshots. The car hood thumping was probably the car windows being smashed and the screaming I heard was probably a result of the stabbing that followed.

August 5, 2013, meeting of the Sydney City Skywatchers, Topic; The Massive Black Hole at the Centre of our Galaxy, Speaker: Mark Wardle, Macquarie University

Who was there? – Twenty Eight members and visitors were present at tonight, a standing room only, ‘Full House’ 17 M and 11 F.

The Massive Black Hole at the

Centre of our Galaxy, by Mark Wardle

What – There is a massive Black Hole at the centre of our Galaxy, known to have a mass 4 Million times that of our sun. Other Galaxies are known to house Black Holes, their accretion discs being seen as Quasars. Mark started us on o journey towards this black hole, using observations at different frequencies that allowed ever greater image resolution and hence finer detail of the Black Hole and its immediate vicinity. Our Galaxy’s Black Hole is modest sized compared to most such galaxy centred Black Holes. Observations to date have been restricted by the amount of matter between us and it, for example in the optical there is a 30 magnitude dimming of stars in the vicinity of the galactic centre, but for longer wavelengths, typically at Infrared and Radar frequencies this dimming effect is ‘only’ 3 or 4 magnitudes, relatively clear skies. Observing the Black Holes of other Galaxies is frequently easier, as they can be strong radio sources. Our own id such a source, very close to the

position occupied by the Lagoon Nebula, but some satellite images of the galactic bulge at 30 microns give a much clearer. At a 90 cm wavelength a number of features of the region visible, due to an electron emitting ionization zone around the Event Horizon and polar jets. Further, the Sagittarius A region, at 6 cm some confused detail emerges, with the event horizon an overexposed spot. Progress in understanding the shape and character of items associated with this Black Hole have developed along with the growth of Radio Astronomy and its ability using larger instruments to resolve the features of ever smaller regions. At a 10 micron wavelength it is possible to see some stars surrounded by hot dust, but this wavelength reveals nothing where the Black Hole is known to be located, it could be surrounded by colder gas, or it could imply that it has emptied it’s immediate vicinity of matter capable of radiating. The rise of Infra Red astronomy and adaptive optics allow still closer views of the region, including the resolution of a number of stars which over time can be seen to be in orbit around an unseen mass, the Black Hole itself, allowing calculation of its position and mass. It is perhaps interesting to speculate why these stars persist, over numerous orbits of a Black Hole, are they stars drawn in from elsewhere, or does the mass of the Black Hole draw in sufficiently large disc of dust and gas that the formation of orbiting stars naturally follows, as in a giant solar system? The energy output of matter associated with the Black Hole is in the order of 100 suns, not much by comparable standards, 0.0001 of a solar mass is on the accretion disc and available to be radiated or to fall in. There is also a torus of charged particles around the Black Hole, initially a ‘do nut’, but this is greatly distorted into a ragged whirlpool by the region’s magnetic fields. Seeing a Black Hole and its region is complicated by the distortional gravitational lens effects of its mass, resulting in multiple and distorted images of items behind it, so this ragged whirlpool will be distorted even further, with false bright spots and smeared out structures.

The Cloud – In addition to these 20 to 40 stars, it is known that an Earth mass sized cloud of hot radiating matter is in the vicinity

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and in an orbit likely to graze the Black Hole circa 2013 to 2015. Its nearly circular orbit indicates that it cannot be expected to repeat this grazing process many more times before it is all used up. This event is eagerly anticipated by observers for what detail it might disclose as some of its matter will cascade down onto the accretion disc or event horizon, creating a shockwave event which is likely to be bright indeed! An international, multi frequency observation program has been proposed, but may prove difficult to organise as the frequencies where meaningful observations may be taken and the exact timing of the cloud’s interaction are not yet known with any precision. It would require the coordination of multiple instruments, institutions and spacecraft. The Black Hole’s event horizon is believed to be about 0.1 AU across (the sun if collapsed would create a 2 km event horizon).

NB – With all this immediacy, it is useful to keep in mind that the Centre of our Galaxy is 25,000 light years away, so consequently all this actually happened 25,000 years ago and we are just now waiting for the light from this event to reach us!

The Fermi Bubble – processed images from the Fermi sky survey spacecraft suggest emission lobes at Gamma Ray frequencies above and below the central mass / hub of our Galaxy, suggestive of an explosion producing this relatively recent (100 million years) and possibly repeatable event. The Black Hole described is not the ‘centre’ of our galaxy, but the mathematics of gravitational attraction requires that any such mass would inevitably tend towards the centre of its galaxy fairly soon given the known duration of the Universe. So one Black Hole per Galaxy is likely, but ours is relatively small compared to the Black Holes of 1,000 solar masses disclosed by colliding Galaxies. Black Holes do not organise the Galaxy, but as the Fermi Bubble suggests, they might be indicative frequent and significant influence over star and galaxy formation.

Conclusion – this Black Hole’s, our Black Hole’s may not be impressive, but because it is near and relatively easy to observe it is useful to study in search of insights to the lives of the larger and more important ones. Also, it is possible that Black Hole powered active

Galaxies are required to account for the formation and abundance of Heavy elements (Gold, Uranium etc.) for which even Supernovae are inadequate to form. NB – I was tempted to ask whether these ‘Black Holes’ were available in any other colours, but I decided not to.

Association Business – In recognition of their long and meritorious service to the association (and observations) well deserved Life Membership status has been conferred on Monty Leventhal and Harry Roberts. Harry is about to re-locate to the darker South Coast skies of Nowra, a two hour drive from Sydney.

Away Missions - An ‘Away mission’ on the weekend just passed saw association members visit sites associated with early Radio Astronomy and WW2 Radar on a walking tour that also included additional highlights of seeing Whales and a boat burning to the waterline. A future excursion to the Linden Observatory, in the Blue Mountains, is planned for the night of August 24, 2013, or possibly September 28. Both nights are moon free. Association Member Alan Plummer is in residence at this observatory ant its attractions include Ken Beames’ 24 inch telescope and Dark Skies. Ken, was a member of the BAA NSW Branch, the predecessor to our own association, and he did a great deal of wartime optical work on site during WW2, building searchlights and such. Sydney City Skywatchers’ Fridge Magnets, caps and business cards are now available to members interested in showing the flag and visibly promoting our association.

Member’s Observations Monty Leventhal – reported his observations of Sunspots, Flares and Prominences for the month of July, noting that in addition to Solar activity still being generally – LOW – over the past month bad weather curtailed observing (Wettest July for some years). Seven days observations were lost to Rain or Overcast conditions. The Sunspots that he had been able to observe were weak and in smaller groups than usual. Symptomatic of the current malaise is that the one Surge observed this month, usually lasting 10 to 20 minutes, only lasted for a bare 10 minutes, and no Flare was observed. Comment - It would seem that the level of

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Solar activity deemed ‘average’ over the last century was in fact greatly above the long term and projected future levels of activity. Harry Roberts – Family Portraits on the Moon, the Herschel family’s craters, Caroline, John and William Herschel. The Mare or darker ‘Seas’ of the moon are named after moods, hence Sinus Iridum (Bay of Rainbows) is frequently miss-named Sinus _Iridium_ (after the metallic element). The convention is that Craters are named after Science / Astronomical figures, consequently ‘Ladies’ are rarely encountered on the Moon. Caroline Herschel, sister and co-observer of William, Aunt of John being an exception. She came over from Germany at her brother’s request as a singer / housekeeper and as her brother evolved from being a Musician with an interest in Astronomy to being a builder of world record breaking Reflecting Telescopes and ‘The King’s Astronomer’, she became an astronomical observer with her brother and then after his marriage, in her own right, discovering the ‘Silver Dollar’ Nebula, NGC 2993 and winning a Gold medal for her Comet discoveries. Her crater is in Imbrium, sinus Iridum, named after fairly recently, and it features an interesting wrinkle ridge. John Herschel, Son of William, continuer of the ‘family business’, fatuous explorer of the Southern Skies etc. His crater is 200 km in diameter and is a very old feature, with a mostly filled in crater, with upwelling basalt and overlaid ejecta from subsequent impacts. It is very messed up, a near polar feature and its crater wall includes a ‘broken teeth’ rampart. William Herschel, from a family of musicians he originally came to England to be resident composer / conductor at the resort town of Bath. Astronomically obsessed, he started building telescopes, from 150 mm to 1200 mm in a few years, building one for the King and his family and pioneering the possibilities of the speculum metal reflecting telescope. He discovered 2400 Nebula and the ‘Royal Planet’ (to suck up to the King), Uranus. His crater is 30 km in diameter, relatively new / fresh with central ridges and collapsing crater walls that are more rounded in older craters. It sits near to a major Lunar Canyon feature, caused by crustal shrinkage. Garry Dalrymple – I handed out a four page version of the Biographical sketch of James

Dunlop by his Great Nephew Dr Service and made available to the association a number of copies of the full 24 page version. This booklet in some degree explains the ‘white -anting’ of James Dunlop’s reputation, both figuratively and literally, as much of the results of the Parramatta Observatory and Dunlop’s other papers were in fact eaten by White ants! The importance of Dunlop at the time and to some degree his eclipse was a result of a ‘Space Race’ mentality at the time, to be first to discover the distance to stars by the parallax method. Thinking at the time was that ‘all stars are equal’ so that discovering the positions of Double star pairs of different brightness meant that it might be possible to observe the annual shift in location of the bright one (close) in respect to the distant (dimmer) one, an assumption that proved to be false. Just after James Dunlop went out to NSW far more accurate equipment became available due to this ‘Space Race’ between English and German instrument makers for ever more accurate instruments, resulting in Dunlop’s observations, no matter how meticulous, no longer being ‘cutting edge’. John Herschel, with better more up to date instruments visited South Africa to make his own Southern star observations and attempted to burnish his reputation, by running down Dunlop’s.

Garry Discovers a Victorian era

‘Death Star’?

The following is a trail of correspondence about something I noticed while troving John Tebbutt items in the Sydney Morning Herald. The First item is an email I posted to the ABC Science Matters List and the earlier two I sent to people connected with Sydney Observatory.

(Sent to the ABC Science Matters List) Dear All

I'm about to be 'terminated' from the NSW Education Department (Aug 29), as I've been

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deemed 'excess' (OK I have put on a bit of weight) and 'redundant' for a fair while. Consequently this may be the last posting you receive from this email address.

During this time, out of an unfashionable sense of obligation to 'do something' while waiting to graduate from the Department, I have been doing a bit of Trove Editing of newspaper items by / about various NSW 1800s and 1900s Astronomers. I.e. I've done James Dunlop, (mostly finished) John Tebbutt and Walter F. Gale - all good clean fun that might make a difference to someone with a sense of intellectual curiosity some time hence.

Most recently I encountered an exchange between John Tebbutt and H. C. Russell, NSW Government Astronomer (and Observatory Gun Powder Plot survivor, another Trove story) about a most curious observation, one that features in a paper delivered to the NSW Royal Society.

The circumstances are this - H. C. Russell, assisted by Mr Hirst, went up to Woodford in the (NSW) Blue Mountains to evaluate the 'seeing' qualities of the air, 1,000 m Vs near sea level air at the Sydney Observatory. Taking advantage of the piers left behind by the Venus Transit observation program, for three days in October 1878 they sighted daylight stars and used a spectrometer to detect the then new dark lines in the Solar Spectrum.

On the morning of October 21, at 9.5 am (9.30 AEST or nearly midnight the previous day Greenwich time) having done most of the survey type work that they could, using the 'spare' instrument Mr Hirst sighted a large shadow on the Moon (est. 2/3 or 3/4 the Diameter of the Moon), which was confirmed by H.C. Russell _and it persisted for three hours_, until observation was discontinued by clouds.

This was presented at the November 1878 NSW Royal Society meeting, with H.C. Russell and John Tebbutt later writing to the Sydney Morning Herald about it during November 1878.

Now the thing you need to know about this observation, which racks up the 'improbability' factor is that the Moon was due to be 'New' on the 19th of October, i.e. on the 21 st. the Moon was up in front of the Sun, washed out in broad daylight, a phase that hardly any Astronomer would care to observe and would only be above

the horizon across a zone ranging from the Mid Pacific to Mid Indian Ocean, so what chance of other observers?

So What was it, a Victorian Era Death Star sized object cruising between the Sun and the Earth's orbit, to account for the duration of the event, or the shadow of a Comet, along the length of Coma and Tail, or perhaps the shadow of a sizeable Near Earth Orbit body temporarily resident at L5 / L4. Both the size and the duration of this shadow are _very_ difficult to account for?

Makes you think doesn't it?

Whatever it was it stumped John Tebbutt and H.C. Russell, both hands-on Astronomers of renown who were clued up on Comets and other Solar System identities.

Has anyone _ever_ heard of any other observations of similar Moon shadows?

Patrick Moore, with his knowledge of Transient Lunar Phenomena might have known something on this, but he's no longer with us.

I'm rather hoping that someone on this list can do the Maths / run some projections and give the object responsible a name.

Not a bad afternoon's work for a 'redundant' public service officer, discovering an Asteroid or whatever during my lunch break and from my work desk?

Wishing you well in all things

Garry Dalrymple (This email I sent to Sydney Observatory)

Dear Andrew, Nick and Toner

Found this this afternoon while troving (page 13 of 38 pages of 20 SMH, John Tebbutt references) and it rather caught my eye. See the text below.

‘Zounds what on Earth is this?’

It reads like an eclipse of the moon by an unknown Earth Crossing Asteroid.

LUNAR PHENOMENON.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD.

Sir,-- I have read with, no small degree of

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interest an account of a very remarkable lunar phenomenon given by the Government Astronomer in his paper read before the last meeting of the Royal Society. He records that both himself and Mr. Hirst observed the moon at 9 h. 6 m. on the morning of the 21st ultimo to be partly covered with a dark shade, quite as dark as the shadow of the earth during an eclipse of the moon. Mr. Russell rightly states that it could not have been the shadow of any known body, and that if it were produced by a comet the comet must have been one of extraordinary density. It would be interesting to know if any search was made at the time for the body which in all probability was projecting this shadow on the moon. The search need only have been very limited in its extent, for the body must have been on very near the line joining the sun and moon, and this line itself, it will be observed, was nearly coincident with the ecliptic, for the moon had only shortly before passed her descending node. The search might have been made during the forenoon of the 21st, and, in the event of its failure, it might have been renewed on the following morning, during the interval between the rising of the moon and the sun. A body not far from the earth and of the density requisite to produce such a shadow, must have made itself conspicuous by reflected sunlight. If, on the other hand, it were at a great distance from the earth it would be so nearly in the direction of the sun, and the versed sine of the illuminated portion of its disc would be --- so small as to render it invisible JOHN TEBBUTT

Are there any at the Observatory records of the extent and duration of Russell and Hirst’s observation?

Surely Tebbutt would have been aware of any comet substantial enough to cause Any shadow on the Moon, or perhaps it was some sort of Starwarz sized ‘Death Star’ pootling around the solar System in Victorian times

(This is what I did to follow up on the comments by John Tebbutt. It was also sent off to the people at Sydney Observatory)

Dear All

This is what is reported in the SMH, it refers to a

paper delivered to the NSW Royal Society;

"During the daylight hours ... , until the morning of the 21st, at 9.5, when, on looking at the moon, he found that a large part of it was covered with a dark shade, quite as dark as the shadow of the earth during an eclipse of the moon. Its outline was generally circular, and it seemed to be fainter near its edges. Conspicuous bright spots on the moon could be seen through it, but it quite obliterated the view of about half of the moon's terminator (or that part where the sunlight ends), while those parts of the terminator not in the shadow could be very distinctly seen. I should estimate the diameter of the shadow from the part we could see on the moon at about three-fourths that of the moon.

"This is one of those remarkable facts which, being seen, should be recorded, although no explanation can at present be offered. One can hardly resist the conviction that it was a shadow, yet it could not be the shadow of any known body, and if produced by a comet it must be one of more than ordinary density, although dark bodies have been seen crossing the sun, which were doubtless comets. No change in the position of the shade could be detected after three hours' watching. Mr. Hirst has faithfully copied on this paper what he saw.

Notes from the Aug. 1, 2013 Skeptics

at the Pub meeting, Mezzo Bar, Coronation Hotel, Park street Sydney.

Speaker; Richard Saunders, Topic –

The 2013 JREF Challenge at TAM. Who was there? About 30 people; 6 F

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Richard had just returned to Australian from a world tour connected with TAM 2013 and the James Randi Education Foundation’s $1Million Challenge (JREF). During a round of encounters with overseas Skeptic groups, Richard reported that the Australian group and its activities are a role model. Richard explained that one of the features of TAM, an annual gathering for Skeptics at Las Vegas (cheap and available convention space / hotel accommodation) is that you get to meet a lot of interesting people, but unfortunately going to TAM is usually the only occasion you get to meet them. Last year’s unsuccessful JREF Challenger was a Mr Needles who proposed that he could tell who was and who was not wearing his Magnetic wristbands. This year’s challenger, an Algerian gentleman, working through a local agent ‘Mustafa’, who claimed an ability to remotely view objects. This presented an large number of new of challenges in devising test protocols and running the test, to the mutual satisfaction of JREF and the challenger. Richard flew into Las Vegas on the eve of TAM, straight into a series of meetings to organise the JREF challenge.

The Challenge - They collected 25 objects, they had to be sufficiently large and different from each other to be able to be ‘seen’ and told apart from a reasonable distance. Locating 25 such objects at the last minute proved to be something of a chore. The 25 chosen were shown to the contestant, resulting in a few being discarded, i.e. a book and a writing pad and one or two out of respect for Islamic sensibilities. Each was to be placed on an A4 sheet with a number on it.

This reliance on showing the contestant the (20 ea) objects and their corresponding numbers, was done to avoid equivocal response, such as ‘it’s white-ish and square–ish’ serving equally as a ‘hit’ for a writing pad, a book, a serviette or closed PC etc. Everything was a bit hurried, as the JREF organisers wanted to give the contestant the full 3 days of the TAM for him to ‘see’ the 3 objects which were smuggled into a small room (to prevent the items being seen via the hotel’s security cameras) which was locked and sealed jointly by the JREF organizers and ‘Mustafa’.

Incidentally, the challenger specified that the three objects be placed on a table in a triangle formation around his T-shirt, a request that the JREF committee acceded to. The door of this closed room, and its intact seals were just outside the entrance to the TAM function rooms and passed daily by all attending the convention. Mr Banachek arrived late at TAM (he had been involved in the previous year’s JREF challenge) and suggested some protocol revisions, which were taken on board. With everything agreed between JREF and the challenger, it proceeded.

On the third day, the intention was for the challenger to be skyped in, but at the appropriate moment – nothing – phone calls (in Arabic) resulted in a claim that the internet was down in Algeria, a reasonable excuse, so eventually Mustafa and the challenger, speaking in French, which was understood and independently translatable by a significant number of TAM attendees, called in the three objects and numbers ‘seen’ by remote viewing, then a videoed ‘walkabout’ to the still sealed door, opened in the presence of Mustafa, who confirmed that both his and the JREF seals were intact – to reveal – Zero out of three named impossible.

Conclusion - Richard stressed that this year’s candidate and his agent conducted themselves well during the challenge and afterward, Mustafa even praising the challenge organisers for their conduct of the event. This is unlike the previous year’s challenger, who has put up on the internet a highly edited version of the challenge’s video footage ‘proving’ that the TAM / JREF challenge really affirmed his claimed powers. Although this year’s challenger had suggested at an early stage in the process that his powers might be ‘under par’ because the challenge would be taking place during Ramadan, the Islamic daylight fasting festival, after failing the challenge he did not raise this excuse, and accepted that it had he had been treated fairly.

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Parramatta’s Underground SF&F Book

Review discussion meeting, Thursday August 15, 2013 (Formerly the Infinitas Bookshop SF&F Book review, ‘Book Club’ meeting), in the Basement, Mars Hill Café, 331 Church Street (two doors back from the Parramatta River Bridge), Parramatta, 6.30 to 8.30 pm.

Discussion Topic: A book / any

book you like by SF author Lois

Mc Master Bujold

Who was there? Amanda, Anthony, April, Bethany, Garry, Geoff, Graeme, Len, Matthew (at the end), Michael, Sandra and Tim. (Matthew Morgan showed up after the most had left, something to do with taping the ducks!)

While not exactly ‘renovated’ the basement area had been tidies up a bit since the last meeting I had attended. The under the footpath chamber looked almost inviting.

News – Len Claims to possess a Golden

Ass! Or possibly has plans to read Apulius’ ancient classic. -I (GD) have been engaged in reviewing my issues of TBS&E with a view of presenting a ‘Boxed set’ of copies of issues 1 to 55 etc. to a few depository and research libraries. These issues of TBS&E have covered ‘The Sydney Science Fiction Scene’ since 2002 to the present and already, sadly, some of the voices of those not so long ago nights are already

stilled, and the pages of issues of TBS&E may be the only place that they may still be heard. Makes you think doesn’t it, who is it that _might_ be looking over your shoulder generations hence trying to figure out what went on in the minds of Sydney SF fans 2002 – 2013, via the cuneiform writings of yours truly? -The entire body of E.E. Doc Smith’s ‘Lensmen’ series (written in the 1930s?) is now public domain and up there on the web for downloading. Share and enjoy. It was observed that Australian Primary school children frequently have American accents, as a result of growing up with US TV and Movies, but then again, UK school children are growing up with Australian accents due to watching ‘Home and Away’, thus the Universe ins balanced? -Chinese corporations are buying up Australian Agricultural land and letting it lie fallow for ‘space’ or for future food security (at least they aren’t coming in boats). I believe that Cordwainer Smith’s ‘Norstrilla’ Saga started off this way. -All Terry Pratchett books apparently include Nun jokes? I’m not sure about this, and neither is Terry these days as his Alzheimers’ continues to progress.

Lois McMaster Bujold, multi Hugo winning Author etc. apparently sold her first book in the late 1970s, at a SF convention at the end of a machinegun delivery, corridor ambush conversation with Jim Baen (of Baens Books) receiving an on the spot verbal contract. She was unable to meet all the requirements of the contract (three books a year etc.), but they liked her work so much they kept her on, and so it goes.

Much of her body of work centres on the multi-generational adventures of the Vor Kosigan family of Barrayar, a previously colonised and nuked planet that was previously cut off from the human settled worlds, which is now emerging into space and galactic politics. Its space opera, Russian mythology and at times romance as the books feature the extending family. It contains Romance, but romance where mature adults negotiate issues, marry and still remain romantically engaged, head

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and shoulder above Rightful Princess Quest Fantasies. The Character of Miles Vor Kosigan is a focus of much of the books. In ‘Borders of Infinity’ he manages to liberate an entire Prisoner of war camp, under a dome on the surface of a toxic planet, while nude except for a hat!

‘Mirror Dance’ is the first Lois McMaster Bujold book that Bethany read and it features the gloriously insane Mark, a clone / brother of Miles who had a tortured upbringing as an intended Miles impersonator and assassin. To cope with an extremely unpleasant life, Mark has four sub personas. Tim disliked the initial con job of the introduction of this book, dealing with the entry of the Miles impersonating Mark into the Vor Kosigan family orbit, before ‘Mark’ emerged as his own man, achieved a degree of redemption and a family role of Miles’ new and unexpected younger brother. The book ‘A civil Campaign is a Lois McMaster Bujold book that pays homage to Jane Austen, The Bronte Sisters and Georgette Heyer et al., as it is a comedy of manners.

In ‘Cetagenda’ Lois McMaster Bujold presents a ‘Buddy’ movie type story, where two 22 year old cousins affectionately bicker and bitch their way through a road trip type adventure.

Most Lois McMaster Bujold stories seem to be different in style, the only constants we could detect are; an abiding respect for Engineering concerns and an ability to describe as fully formed characters the many ‘odd’ people encountered among the different Societies running the different planets of the Barrayar Universe. I.e. Lois McMaster Bujold is a good mirror on societies and at social commentary, particularly split characters, such as Miles Vorkosigan who has to operate within the still largely feudal Barrayar society of his father and the high tech/advanced socially Betan culture of his Mother’s family. Tim relates that he was ‘engaged’ by Mark’s disturbed sexuality (not even going to think about explaining why), and, the Bug Butter (tastes like honey?) issue came up, but I choose not to look too closely into that either, as Lois McMaster Bujold’s characters at one point recommend.

The Ethics of the characters in Lois McMaster Bujold stories. Some diverge from what you would expect, but most are rational and sincere

about what seems to them to be consistent and ethical by their milieu. Few if any are ‘Evil’, they just have a different worldview by which to judge their actions as being ‘honourable’. Lois McMaster Bujold’s fantasy works were also acknowledged and discussed, but the following event was typical - The Curse of Challon’ was on the table, but I was assured that it wasn’t the book with the Lions in it, in fact it was so good that it is worth a re-read.

Deviations

J.K. Rowling deviation - ‘A Casual Vacancy’ has been read and considered to be ‘OK’ but not blazingly brilliant. Well mixed and described characters. Her Harry Potter series was explained thus ‘It’s about dealing with Death and related personal Growth issues,’ as it follows a line that inevitably must lead to darker things. It was claimed that she altered the trajectory of the series by the final book, to end up where she wanted the story to go. Other praise for her work included her accuracy in depicting the ‘sulky teenager’ phase of growing up, from a father who had ‘sulky teenagers’ around at the time.

The Council of Trent – The defining moment of the Catholic counter-reformation was the declaration of the Council of Trent, anathemising Protestants and attempting to make some belated reforms of Catholic policy. Michael has a relative who is a Protestant Minister who currently lives / works in Italy, based in Trent. All this was explained to allow a single pun – that he is an Italian Pastor (Pasta – get it?)

Good SF sex? – Where has the sex gone in SF? Used to be lots of it around in the 1970s, sex that made you think, sex in the service of exploring other points of view in a Science Fictional way, now we’ve got ‘Fifty shades of Grey’ and its imitators, single idea slash SF flogged beyond any sense of novelty. How about Zombies that could be brought back to life by sex magic? This conversation was the more enlightening side of what resulted from mentioning Tony Rabbitt’s ‘Suppository of all knowledge’ miss-speak.

GD – Having read many, if not most of Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vor Kosigan stories, I really

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had intended to read the latest one, but failed to do so, due to this month’s many career ending distractions.

Next month’s Author will be the UK writer Richard Morgan

Notes from the Sydney Futurian

SF Discussion meeting of Friday

August 16 – Open Mike, Your

choice of book (with a bit of science in it?)

Present were – Garry Dalrymple, Diane Fox, John Fox, Ann Rankins and Dean

Wheatley

What we have been reading recently; GD - Currently Reading, ‘The Hominid Gang,’ by Delta Willis (US) (Non-Fiction) about the guys that find the bits of fossils that make up our evidence of human origins and ‘Madd Addam,’ by Margaret Atwood (Can), imperfect SF, dealing oddly with ideas previously explored more fully by SF writers decades ago. DF - Currently Reading, ‘Book of Cthulu II,’ Edited by Ross E Lockhart (US)(Short stories, Fantasy),’Andy Warhol and the Can,’ by Gary Indiana (US) (Art and Pop Culture) and ‘Tampa,’ by Allissa Nutting (US), the shocking story of a female school teacher paedophile JF - Currently Reading, ‘Standing on the Platform,’ by Frank Brennan, (Aust) a book about people preparing for death, and a ‘Book of Wisdom,’ by the (current) Dalai Lama (Tib.) AR - Currently Reading, ‘Leviathans of Jupiter,’ by Ben Bova (US), about Manta Rays inhabiting the world of the upper atmosphere of Jupiter. Saw Pacific Rim, found it good. A Special Effects movie with a story, special effects in service of the story! Anticipates seeing Ellysium.

DW - Currently Reading, ‘Engines of War,’ by Christian Wolmar (UK?) is about all the wonderful machines that have contributed to the story of ‘Modern’ warfare. This book features the massive WW2 ‘Dora’ gun on the books cover.

News

Fannish - No news on the current condition of Graham Stone, vegetative or showing signs of improvement? GD made several unsuccessful efforts to find out more details. DF and JF will be celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary by an afternoon tea at The Paragon, Sunday September 1, $33 a head, no present required, RSVP to John Fox by August 25. A 2013 Freecon is looking increasingly unlikely. Animania a big Animation ‘Festival’ will take place during September.

Movies - One of the Sydney SF&F Meet-up groups has organised an IMAX Ellysium outing.

TV - The new Dr Who will be that %&*#@

speaking Mr Capaldi . Dr Who-ish like, a 15 tonne Fatberg has been terrorising the drains of London. It took three weeks to clear with hot water hoses, apparently a ‘breathtaking’ smell The frequently surreal / Science Fiction referring TV program, ‘Community’ is about to be repeated at 11.30 pm on SBS1, from episode 1. The DVD for season 4 will be released ~September, will appear before the televised series reaches this point? Grimm, the supernatural police procedural has returned, 11 pm Thursdays, too late to sustain interest, a good show to doze off to? Concern was expressed at the TV programming practice of starting shows 15 minutes _after_ advertised times, to thwart home recording, a counter-productive step as it stops you watching a 8.30 then 9.30 program?

Science – Australian researchers have developed an antibody that only affects cancerous cells. On August 6, Curiosity has been exploring active for one year on Mars. Tepko (Japan) admits that its Fukoshima reactor is still emitting radiation. The death toll from this Radiation – still none yet, those crushed or burnt by oil tanks during the

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tsunami – lots. Dead Chinese Coal miners – some thousands per year. Homer Simpson to be brought in as a safety officer / consultant?

Books - August’s New ‘Science Fiction’ books at the Library of the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts, level 2, 280 Pitt Street Sydney ($15 for full membership, $10 for a reader’s ticket) are; ‘The City’, by Stella Gemmell ‘Valley of Shields; Book 2’, by Duncan Lay ‘The Long War’, by Terry Pratchett ‘Black Sun Light My Way’, by Jo Spurrier

We discussed and decided on the following new discussion topics;

Sydney Futurian Meeting Dates

and Topics for 2013/2014

September 20 – SF stories about cloned people, Good and Bad stories. October 18 – First Contact stories with Intelligent or un-intelligent life. November 15 – SF&F stories about Immortality, Natural or Man-made. December 13 (or 20) – Stories about ‘Perfect’ people, Augmented Minds and bodies. January 17 – Your Best and Worst SF&F Books, Events, Movies and TV of 2013. February 22 – Stories involving intelligent inanimate objects like pets, furniture, toasters a toothbrushes etc. March 22 – Near the Spring Equinox, so an ‘Open Mike’ meeting, bring along and talk about any memorable SF&F / Non Fiction book you have read recently. April 18 – SF stories about Space Stations / Bases, in orbit or on Planets May 16 – Stories about Robots and A.I.s at War or as Soldiers June 20 – SF Stories about Terra-forming and Terra-formed worlds

Our choices; GD – I chose to talk about the palindromic Atwood book, Madd Addam which I read out of a sense of duty to try to understand what it is about ‘Not SF’ books that borrow extensively from SF tropes. My point of complaint about much of the content of this book is ‘Done Better elsewhere’, frequently by SF writers of previous generations, and some of the borrowed SF elements are presented without explanation of

function and consequence, and yet this ‘fudging’ is presented as ‘new and insightful Literature,’ as long as it’s not SF. As a final (or at least third) in the series, I found much in this story to be left unresolved, so it’s not a ‘complete’ novel is it? DF – Although she has just started it, Diane chose ‘Tampa’, a book about a female schoolteacher who takes sexual advantage of her male students, as it is quite over the top, has a very dis-likable Main Character, whose behaviour, page after page is infamous. Diane believes that you do not have to like a book’s Main Character to enjoy a book, but the Main Character _has_ to be memorable. JF – Hasn’t read any memorable Fiction recently, mostly reading non-fiction books about Photography and ‘Telephony Porn’, i.e. collections of pictures of desirable and collectible old phones. AR – Prevented from discussing ‘Dune’ (been there done that), Ann chose to discuss ‘The Winged Boy’ and the (Bullock Free) ‘Lake House’ and ‘When the Wind Blows’ books by Pattison and discussed at previous months meetings. DW – Introduced two books, The Dog Star, by Peter Heller, a post apocalypse, unlikely buddy story, where a plague survivor has to choose between a known friend and a one-way trip across a deserted America to visit a pocket of survivors. The writer is at times poetic and has split his own personality to provide the two main characters in the book, the pilot poet and the survivalist outdoorsman. This book was on sale at Abbeys, not Galaxy, so it was not marketed as being SF. The other book Dean discussed was ‘The Airloom Gang,’ which is about the life and madness of a French Revolution era Tea Merchant / Diplomat, who was convinced that his mind was being tampered with by a newfangled ‘Air Loom’. It’s a ‘Science Fictional’ story, which documents a person’s descent into Schizophrenia, a mental illness not then recognised or diagnosed.

Deviation – This emerged during conversation, a thesis was that the universal availability of cameras would translate to more footage evidence of UFO incidents, beyond the claims of ‘it happened to me but no-one else saw it’. The Universal spread of Mobile phones, mostly equipped with internal cameras

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has resulted in ... well No flood of spontaneously snapped UFO pictures. Conjecture – perhaps these mobile phones are equipped with a specific UFO repelling app., so do Americans with Android / Iphones still get alienlly abducted and ‘probed’ more or less than similar Americans without such phones? Also, does this App. extend to US Military Drones, or is this one app that ‘they’ can turn off at will ahead of a strike.

Saturday August 10. – Mother declined to get up out of bed this morning, delaying till 10.30 am my departure for Campsie to do some food shopping and some pre-retirement market research. I was that upset that I neglected to take any credit cards with me, limiting any purchases to on-hand cash. Discoveries of the day – The local Big W has no computer printers for sale, at all! It sells printer cartridges and document shredders, but no printers, so I guess its Office Works or Nothing! One issue resolved I guess. At Campsie Library I discovered a local paper referring to the events of the previous Sunday.

Page 2 news in our part of the world! A Librarian I spoke to has moved from Earlwood to somewhere safer, the inner city! Also, the Library has computers / monitors officially available for 1 hour bookings, that is, one hour per day and that’s it, go home! Shortly this is going to be altered to allow 2 hour bookings, and generally, this rule may be relaxed except for the 3 to 5 pm post school rush hour. Demand for this in-library has declined greatly in recent years, due to the rollout of laptops to High School children. The Library also offers password free Wi-Fi, so mark down Campsie Library as another potential on-the-move office space post September. From home, it will be a 30 minute walk to and from the library. Lastly, I asked about starting a SF&F Book discussion group at Campsie Library, after September, as a post employment maintain human contact thing. No reason why it shouldn’t be possible to start one (with the Futurian-Freecon meet-up group thing) possibly second Wednesday? Vodafone – My modem has expired, my 12 months of home internet access is at an end. I went to the Vodaphone shop and received contradictory advice as to whether the service / modem is ‘kaput’ or not, will have to look into this. While at the local St Vinney’s browsing the bookshelf (I bought four books for $8) an asian boy brushed past me (unusual, most are _very_ polite) reached for a Garth Nix book (Good, this might be a pint sized SF fan), then held it to his ear fanning through the pages (!) then dropped the book and reached for another. A concerned mother appeared and tried to re-place the books, distract the boy with some other items. This was near the speaker for some rather distracting in-store music. I think that what was happening was that the boy was autistic and was suffering from an ‘overload’ of stimuli during the incident.

Helping Police with their enquiries (2). At about 6 pm a police woman (plain clothed detective?) to ask if we had seen / heard anything last night (Friday), as there had been a fight ‘round the corner’. Mother and I had both retired early that night, before the time of

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the incident, so we were unable to help much, other than to admit that yes we had heard comings and goings and possibly raised voices at about the time in question. The police officer was noncommittal, but said that they are looking into whether the two incidents might be linked. So, Earlwood is becoming a dangerous place to live! Just as well I live at Clemton Park!

A postscript to these two incidents is that Mother had a brief conversation with the not-so-nice neighbour (of the truck movements outside my bedroom window each morning before 7 am) about the events of Sunday night, and has now convinced herself that the Police told her that someone had run down the side of our house, seeking to get through to the next street, which I would have clearly heard had it been the case. For all I know the neighbour’s statement could have been intentionally untrue and intended to emotionally destabilise my Mother. Friday August 9 – Earlier this week an attractively built young lady, without being asked spontaneously stood up in front of me to give up her seat to the fat-old-bloke with the shopping. Kind of nice gesture, but slightly devastating to the self-image. I’m not ‘old’, am I?. On Friday morning I got on the bus to Bexley North with a young miss, now out of school uniform, who was a year behind my niece Janene at St George Girls High. The boys of Sydney Technical High School, gave up their seats for her and retreated up the back of the bus, where their cohort were having teenage boy mobile phone calls. A Bit worrying, they totally ignored the real live Beverley Hills Girls students who were also on the bus. So you don’t have to be that old to receive the giving up seats for an adult, and this courtesy might be catching on! Flying Sofas! – Late one night at work as I was about to depart I was engaged by a fairly senior colleague about my post employment plans. Lifting a home office shed, by crane into my backyard was discussed and this lead to the disclosure of the following incident. She currently lives at the top of a small block of flats near Oxford Street, proverbially between two brothels and just round the corner from the local needle exchange (the process of gentrification still has some way to go here!). She and her husband were set on the big pre-retirement renovation, and as part of this, after years of make do, they were decided on getting a Big

and Comfortable Sofa, instead of one that just fitted in. So off on a suburb crossing trek they went, in search of the Big and Comfortable Sofa eventually, after a search not unlike a fairytale Prince’s search for Cinderella they found their three-seater sofa and delivery was arranged. On delivery they found it could not be fitted into the Lift!, so into the garage it went ‘temporarily’. They tried the stairs, OK until the last corner again. They engaged Metaphors (Look up your Greek) who said they could. But couldn’t. A block and tackle, pulley it up, was proposed but failed. Next it was suggested that a crane truck _could_ do the job, but it would cost ~$3000 a day for the truck, and take months to complete the Council paperwork (OH&S issues) to close the street to get the truck in place, rather more than the cost of the sofa! Last throw of the dice was to call the Lift Company to see if it would be possible to temporarily take the top off the lift? They sent a team out to have a look, Management said ‘Sorry, but no way,’ but later they got a call from the blokes, they said that _they_ could do it, off the books. And do it they did. They gimmicked the lift to stop between two floors, opened the lift well doors, and the sofa rode up _on the roof of the lift_ and it emerged that this is how they used to routinely shift oversized furniture, but no longer these days apparently.

Backpage Index for TBS&E #56

Page 1 – Index and Editorial Pages 2 to 4 – Travellers’ Tales, Helping Police with their

inquiries Pages 4 to 9 – Astronomy, Our Black hole and Garry discovers an 1878 Death Star!

Pages 9 and 10 – The JREF / TAM Challenge.

Pages 10 to 14 – Sydney SF&F meetings of August, Parramatta

and Sydney Futurian.

Pages 14 and 15 – Travellers’ Tales, part 2.

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Page 16 – 2013/2014 Sydney Futurian Dates and Topics,

Back Page Index

Election Month issue!

Sydney Futurian Meeting

Dates and Topics for 2013/14

September 20 – SF stories about cloned people, Good and Bad stories.

October 18 – First Contact stories with Intelligent or un-intelligent life.

November 15 – SF&F stories about Immortality, Natural or Man-made.

December 13 (or 20) – Stories about ‘Perfect’ people, Augmented Minds and bodies.

2014 January 17 – Your Best and Worst SF&F Books, Events, Movies and TV of 2013.

February 22 – Stories involving intelligent inanimate objects like pets, furniture, toasters a toothbrushes etc.

March 22 – Near the Spring Equinox, so an ‘Open Mike’ meeting, bring along and talk about any memorable SF&F / Non Fiction book you have read recently.

April 18 – SF stories about Space Stations / Bases, in orbit or on Planets

May 16 – Stories about Robots and A.I.s at War or as Soldiers

June 20 – SF Stories about Terra-forming and Terra-formed worlds

Transcendental Basenjis Sermons and

Enlightenment #56. © Garry Dalrymple August 2013