Balticon Reactions!

 First of all, I'm not going to talk about the bad stuff. Those who are on my Facebook know what happened.

Instead I'm going to focus on something else.

We need to find a way to do more hybrid conventions. I was able to, in the same day, get vegan lunch at a Hare Krishna festival, hang out in the bar with my friends...and do a panel with a multinational group of people including an amazing man from Nigeria. (Nigerian SF is a thing, people, and it's a thing we need more of). This was a panel on Class Structures in SF & Fantasy and we had a panel who came from places with different class structures.

I got literally the best of both worlds.

Hybrid cons require more volunteer time, they are more expensive, and there is always the risk of technical or technical related issues (The first five minutes of the Doctor Who panel were not streamed out from the hotel because the tech assigned to the room got stuck in a massive traffic jam and was late. Not his fault).

But as we do more of this we'll work out how to do it better.

Those who couldn't afford to travel to Balticon were still able to get a good chunk of the programming; we weren't able to record and stream everything because it costs in volunteers and equipment. Those who could actually got a better experience. (One person talked about how amazing it was to attend a virtual panel in their pajamas while munching breakfast in their hotel room).

Maybe one day I'll be invited to do panels...at a convention in Nigeria. I still have some issues with virtual conventions (associations with lockdown).

But the world is opening up in ways that we would have tried eventually, but were pushed to by recent events.

Let's do more of this, people. The possibilities are just so awesome.

The First Japanese Person on the Moon?

With Russia being, well, Russia, the U.S. is strengthening space alliances with other countries.

Which is going to include at least one seat on an Artemis mission for an astronaut from Japan. JAXA has been doing some good work lately, including an asteroid sample mission, Earth observation work and, of course, robotics.

Will the next ISS be a collaboration with Japan instead? 

Okay, I Just Want Everyone to Check This Out...

 ...this being the images and videos right here.

That is our friendly neighborhood giant fusion reactor, otherwise known as the sun.

We are getting so much data. So much data. The scientists monitoring Solar Orbiter say they are already looking at years of analysis.

A better understanding of the sun will help us more accurately predict space weather, which can be a danger to orbiting technology. Predicting a solar flare lets us put technology in its path into safe mode so it can be rebooted afterwards.

(It also lets skywatchers know when aurora viewing is particularly neat).

For Once, Legit Laughing at the Daily Fail...

 ...for the phrase "Sharkcano' and a discussion of mutant sharks living in an acidic underwater crater.

I want this movie.

Hunting down a more reputable source, it appears the Daily Fail may not have invented it.

But the volcano concerned is Kavachi and it provides habitat to silky sharks and hammerheads...who may or may not be mutants, but are certainly living in a harsh environment. These sharks are not dangerous to humans, but if they're mutants?

It writes itself.

Most likely the sharks will have some kind of ancestral memory of the last eruption and go hang out somewhere else for a bit. Sharks are pretty smart fish.

Why You Should Watch the Nebula Awards This Year

 Yes, you. Why?

Because the MCs are the wonderful Connie Willis and Neil Gaiman. Gaiman is an amazing public speaker and tickets to hear him speak typically start at $60 and go up.

But you can hear him MC the Nebs for free tomorrow. The public access livestream will be on Youtube here. Go live time is 5pm PACIFIC (8pm Eastern).

"Solar" at Night

 Solar doesn't work at night is a huge criticism. But it appears something similar does.

Thermoradiation cells generate power as heat flows out of them, radiating back into the night sky. It's tiny, tiny, tiny, but the potential use case is this:

You put them with your solar panels. Solar panels heat up during the day, generating power. When the sun goes down, that heat leaks back out...and you could capture that power. It's kind of like the energy harnessed from the brakes on a race car. Essentially it would increase the efficiency of solar panels. Kinda neat!

I've Seen This Movie

 Headline: CRISPR Gene Editing Now Possible in Cockroaches.

Yeaaaah.

Let's not?

(Actually, it's so that they can do genetic experimentation without having to inject insect embryos, which is a real pain). But...genetically engineered cockroaches just doesn't seem entirely smart.

Convention Schedules!

 First of all, if you are attending the virtual Nebulas this weekend (so hoping for hybrid next year!), I am moderating a panel on Writing Neurodivergent Stories on Friday May 20 at 1:30 pm EDT (10:30am PDT).

Then I have my probably not 100% final Balticon schedule. Some of these panels are virtual and virtual membership is, I believe, $30 this year.

Friday 5:30pm - Virtual Panel Room 1 - Family Structures in Science Fiction and Fantasy (NOT chosen family. Those at WorldCon understand).

Friday 8:30pm Gibson (onsite) Running RPGs Without Time to Prep

Saturday 10:00am Gibson (onsite) Doctor Who and the Return of Russell T. Davies. And apparently NCUTI GATWA. Not to mention Yasmin Finney!

Saturday 11:30am James (onsite) You Can Start GMing Now: Tips for First-Time GMs

Saturday 2:30pm Virtual Panel Room 2 Class Structures in SF and Fantasy

Saturday 5:30pm Virtual Panel Room 1 We Think We Know The Story, But...

Sun 1:00pm Virtual Consuite Readings (with Karen Osborne)

Sun 5:30pm 5th Floor Lobby Signing (with J.L. Gribble).

(The con runs through Monday so that Sunday slot is not full blown slot of death ;)). I have no programming on Monday...but also will have no hotel room. Anyone willing to let me change in their room so I can cosplay that day? ;)).

Can We Grow Plants on the Moon?

 Any long term manned presence on the moon is going to need food. Growing at least some of that food is really necessary for feasibility.

Many plants can grow in a hydroponic setup. This means that the plants are grown in water alone, no soil. However, growing plants in lunar soil is an open question.

Apollo brought back soil samples, and now we've tried it. The plants used in the experiment were a form of mustard green and cruciferous vegetables. They also sowed some plants in a lunar stimulant.

All of the plants did grow, but the ones in natural lunar soil did not thrive well. Some of them were stunted and, interestingly, they showed "reddish pigmentation." Their RNA was altered in similar ways to harsh environments on Earth.

So the answer to the question is most likely yes. We can grow plants in lunar soil. However, we are probably going to have to add something to the soil to make them grow well...time to talk to some gardeners.

Uh oh...

 ...there may be walls in space. Giant ones that keep the galaxies in order. The theory is that they are created by hypothetical particles called symmetrons.

Sounds like something out of Transformers.

It's all pure physics and math at this point. And the really interesting thing is that symmetrons may not be constant throughout the universe.

Now I wish I had less of a TBR pile so I could re-read some Vinge because I am totally thinking "Zones of thought" here.

Ooh, Pretty Picture...

 ...of Sagitarrius A*!

As some pundits predicted, the Event Horizon team has now released their second image of a black hole, and this time it's Sagitarrius A*.

Most galaxies are held together by a gravitational anchor in the form of an extremely large black hole, at least in theory.

The image confirms it for sure in the case of one galaxy: Ours.

The picture looks very similar to the one of the other black hole, but has some interesting "spikes" extending out from it. This might be because SgR A* is much smaller, which causes the gas to orbit faster and the image is a composite/average.

Follow this link to see the loveliness.

Dear Vice...

 ...it is not an extraterrestrial earthquake. It is a marsquake. By definition, earthquakes can only happen on Earth.

Which is a pedantic battle I know I'm going to lose, but I am pedantic enough to fight it anyway.

It's a whatever planet you're on -quake.

(Bonus points if you have your scientist characters get it right, somebody else use the term earthquake, and some eyerolling).

James Webb is fully aligned!

 And oh boy are we getting some good pictures. NASA actually thinks the performance of the optics is better than spec.

Take a look! That's the Large Magellanic Cloud as we have never seen it before (Image: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScl. All NASA images are automatically public domain). This may be my Zoom background for the Nebs if I can find it in the right format...

Science soon, perhaps?

Ingenuity May Not Last Much Longer

 Our little Martian helicopter, Ingenuity, has way exceeded its mission parameters. However, it is now facing a threat we can only mitigate so much.

Winter.

Winter on Mars gets pretty dark and cold, and this means Ingenuity can't charge its panels. It's already gone into emergency shutdown mode once, and the worry is that it will shut down and freeze solid.

But the little guy has already done far more than we expected, so I suppose we can live with it.

It has proved the concept of powered flight in such a thin atmosphere. And then some.

This Fish Looks Like a Retrofuturistic Rocket

 Check out this beauty.

It's a highfin dragonfish, lives pretty far down. Pretty color, but it totally looks like a rocket.

Black Holes Sing

 Check this out! 

There's a long explanation first. I want NASA to release just the sound so SF writers can use it as background noise, on a loop.

This is the music of the spheres.

Will the Universe Expand Forever?

The consensus of scientists right now is that, thanks to dark energy, the universe will just keep expanding and cooling until there is nothing left.

But what if that's wrong?

There's now a theory circulating that dark energy may have quintessence, which means it decays over time. If this is the case, it will eventually stop pushing the universe outwards, and the universe will begin to collapse. Eek!

Well, it won't happen for at least 100 million years, and after a stable period of about 45 million years. And even then, it would probably contract very slowly.

This would end in the Big Crunch.

Which might or might not trigger another Big Bang. In other words, the cyclical universe is back on the table.

The problem?

There's zero way we can ever prove it without millions of years of observations...by which point we will be extinct and/or have evolved into something else.

It's all math.

Catching rockets?

 The March/April issue of Analog contained a novelette by C. Stuart Hardwick called "Reaction Time," about using some kind of craft to catch a rocket if it aborted.

Turns out that New Zealand is trying something similar for booster retrieval...specifically the booster blows a chute and then is caught by a helicopter.

Unfortunately, they haven't got it to work yet. Catching worked. Holding, on the other hand...apparently they need either a lighter booster or a more powerful helicopter. (Note this is pretty small rockets, of course, and the catching part is the hard part).

I wish them luck solving the issues!

RavenCon Roundup!

RavenCon is back...in a new venue (which is, shall we say, interesting old Virginia architecture), but as strong as ever.

Thank you to everyone involved (and to the hotel staff, who were amazing).

There was a wedding! (I didn't attend because I was paneling at the time, but did scrounge some Star Trek themed cake).

Had some really neat panels. The Mythology panel was well attended (although the one panelist who wasn't white had to cancel. I really want to see that done with an all PoC panel one of these days). The panel on writing better animals degenerated briefly into a Parrot Admiration Society <tm>.

Next year will be even better!