SF-LOVERS Digest V3 #140
JPM@mit-ai
SF-LOVERS AM Digest Thursday, 4 Jun 1981 Volume 3 : Issue 140
Today's Topics:
SF Fandom - Convention Change (this weekend) & Awards,
SF Books - Cyber-SF, SF Radio - HHGttG,
SF TV - The Champions & The Protectors & Superhero High,
SF Topics - Children's stories (The Mad Scientists Club and
Rick Brandt) & Children's TV (Rocky and Bullwinkle and
Secret Squirl and Underdog and Road Runner) &
Physics Today (Moons of Jupiter)
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From: MCB@MIT-MC
Date: 06/03/81 05:47:03
Subject: FilkCon Change
I got a phone call this evening from Bjo Trimble who has been
organizing FilkCon West, scheduled for this coming weekend. She told
me that because of a lack of needed support, the Hotel originally
designated for the convention had to be ruled out. There were six
others besides myself who had reserved rooms for the con, and I
imagine Bjo called them too.
Bjo told me that arrangements have been made to have the Con at the
LASFS buildings, which have been rented for the same weekend, instead.
Also, The cost will now be 5.00 instead of 12.00.
The LASFS is at:
11513 Burbank Blvd.
North Hollywood, Ca.
Phone for those who call during the filking is: 760-9234.
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From: DP@MIT-ML
Date: 06/03/81 22:38:52
Subject: New hugo/other category.
first a few points.
1. SF Fan politics is truly a thing unto itself. It is amazing the
amount of time consumed by the topic.
2. Hugo awards are somewhat at the whim of the con committee. At
various times differing committees have added additional awards.
(that is how Asimov got his)
To add an award, simply propose it as an amendment to the WSFS
(World Science Fiction Society) constitution. This can be done at the
business meeting that occurs at all Worldcon's. (All members of the
current World SF convention are members of WSFS, and eligible to
propose amendments, vote at the business meeting,etc.) I have some
doubts as to possible success, but it will generate *LOTS* of
impassioned debate.
Some advance campaigning is in order. This would include letters to
fanzines concerned with running conventions ( Avenging Aardvark aerie,
File 770 [general fannish news zine], Rocky Mountain Oysters
[published by the Denvention concom], or to the Chicon committee).
This will (if nothing else) make your name known to fandom.
As to the nebula, contact your friendly swfa member and ask heesh
to sponsor it. If the pro in question likes the idea, it may happen.
Jeff
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Date: 2 Jun 1981 1507-PDT
From: OR.TOVEY at SU-SCORE
Subject: animals
With the book criterion in mind: The mice, fleas, etc. I mentioned
before from The Martian Chronicles. (The Silver Locusts is another
name for the Martian Chronicles).
The robot vulture in Goulart's Quest of the Gypsy, a story in volume I
of Weird Heroes, also appears (and is a major character) in the full
length novel Quest of the Gypsy which is volume IV of Weird Heroes.
One of the robots made by Smythe and Tinker, (the OZ folks who made
Tik-Tok,) appears in Volume VI of Weird Heroes, Doc Phoenix: The Oz
Encounter.
The robot birds appear in Web of the Witch World (second in the
series), and possibly in Witch World, as well.
--cat
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Date: 3 Jun 1981 18:21:03-PDT
From: decvax!duke!unc!smb at Berkeley
Subject: animal robots
The Norton novel with a robot bird is "Witch World", the first one in
the series.
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Date: 3 June 1981 12:34 edt
From: Roach at MIT-Multics (Roger A. Roach)
Subject: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Sender: Roach.SysMaint at MIT-Multics
Schedule in the Boston area:
Sunday at 7:30pm on WBUR (90.9). June 7th will be episode 8.
Monday at 10:30pm on WGBH (89.7). June 8th will be episode 1
(2nd time thru).
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Date: 3 Jun 1981 1052-PDT
From: Friedland at SUMEX-AIM
Subject: champions and protectors
As others have stated, the two shows were indeed separate. The
Protectors starred Robert Vaughn and a well known English actress
whose name escapes me at the moment. The champions starred Stuard
Damon, Richard Gaunt, Alexandra Bastedo, with Anthony Quayle as their
boss, the head of Nemesis (headquartered in Geneva). Their super
powers included telepathy and the ability to run faster than runaway
delivery trucks.
Peter
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Date: 3 JUN 1981 2345-PDT
From: RODOF at USC-ECL
Subject: Superhero High, etc...
Having recently begun working at Filmation, I was interested to
note that Superhero High is already mentioned here in SFL. The first
drafts of the characterization sheets just came out in the office
yesterday.
It is, as mentioned, about a high school for young superheros, who
usually haven't gotten the hang of their powers yet. There are a
number of them --- Captain California (nuclear flying surfboard, a
"Mega Smile" that can stop a train in its tracks) Glorious Gal (the
superstrong sex interest) Rex Ruthless (aspiring arch-villain) plus
such as Awol, Trixie, Bratman, Punk Rocky, et. al...
Speaking of the old and the new, cartoon wise, it's interesting
to be trying to storyboard the new cartoons so they'll be at least
interesting, especially as compared to the old stuff. We're hampered
by a few restrictive rules -- and oddly enough, it isn't really money
that makes Saturday cartoons so blase (accent grav). It's simply that
it is hard to make an action program like the Lone Ranger or Zorro
real exciting when you realize that not only is it a no-no for the
Lone Ranger to shoot people, he also cannot hit or kick them, or
shoot, hit or kick anything higher on the evolutionary scale than
photosynthesis. They were even afraid to give Zorro a sword, though
they finally did. And not only is personal violence out, but the Lone
Ranger, wishing to stop a train, for instance, would not be allowed to
roll a boulder across the tracks. Too imitatable. Might give the
kids ideas.
So remember, next time you see the Saturday morning cartoons and
wonder where all the excitement went, remember that the guys in the
company probably sweated blood to make what you're seeing as exciting
as it is -- without blood. But at least the kids are saved from the
corrupting influence that ruined US, and the studios are safe from
lawsuits.
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Date: 22 May 1981 14:07:39-PDT
From: ARPAVAX.ghb at Berkeley
Subject: Nostalgia (Rick Brandt and The Mad Scientists Club)
Ah, what memories keep flowing out under the prodding of this
discussion. Two books (or series) were recently mentioned, and I
can't resist adding my little bit.
Rick Brandt: I have actually only read the first of what I
gather was quite a large series, but as I recall it concerned the
teen-age son of a famous scientist, who gets involved in all sorts of
adventures. The first book (published ~1949 (I know it was soon after
WWII, as Rick meets up with a friend who has just gotten out of the
Marines, and fought on Guadalcanal)), involves firing an (unmanned)
rocket to the moon. From our current position, it is a bit out of
date (I remember Rick racing around the city trying to buy replacement
tubes for the launch console), and some of the science is silly (the
rocket took 2 minutes (!!!) to fly to the moon, and Rick's father
explained to a reporter, "We could have made it in 30 seconds.").
The Mad Scientists Club was one of my prime delights. They
were a bunch of high school students who used all sorts of
(non-science- fictional) gadgets in interesting ways. In one, they
built a Loch Ness style monster on a canoe hull and, with radio
control, sailed it around the lake, giving tourists a scare. Another
time they took a mannequin and outfitted him with all sorts of
gadgetry, such as a speaker, and some helium balloons in a backpack,
all radio controlled. They put the dummy on a monument in the center
of their little town (somewhere in Illinois, I think) on the day
before the towns founders day celebration (they constantly harassed
the poor mayor). So this dummy stands up on top of the monument and
threatens to jump, and generally ruins the mayor's day, and then flies
away on balloons just as the fire department runs a ladder up to
rescue him. I used to love the stories.
Sorry, folks, I don't know the authors of either book.
--george bray
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Date: 1 Jun 1981 1651-PDT
Sender: GEOFF at SRI-CSL
Subject: Secret Squirl & Friends.
From: the tty of Geoffrey S. Goodfellow
Re: Jeff Sharger's message on 'Secret Squirl'... I literally think
of good old 'Secret' (even in the voice that his chauffeur 'mole' used
to say his name in) every time I go out of town and wished that my BMW
would be able to fold up into a briefcase like his Limousine did, so I
could take it with me!
Speaking of such classics's, let's not forget "Underdog"! ...Another
one of my favorites of the time. Anyone remember the news paper
reports name and the name of that evil scientist 'Simon(?)' something
or other who was always menacing the city. (What was the city's
name?).
Lastly, another one of the "Kiddy-type-shows" you get to appreciate
the humor in more the older you get was BATMAN (& Robin)... "Stately
Wayne Manor" and all... What a gas.
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Date: 3 Jun 1981 (Wednesday) 1451-PST
From: DWS at LLL-MFE
Subject: Trivia time ...
For 17 trivia points, what was Natasha's (of R&B fame) last name?
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Date: 2 Jun 1981 (Tuesday) 0111-EDT
From: SHRAGE at WHARTON-10 (Jeffrey Shrager)
Subject: Official ACME SF-Lover's entry --- This side up --->
My absolute favorite kids TV show...probably still my favorite cartoon
of all time was certainly the road runner. I think that its visual
jokes were probably on par with the verbal ones in Rockie (I've now
repelt that name 6 times and can't get it right) et al. Although more
like engineering than sci-fi, the coyote had some truely marvelous
Rube-Goldbergs. I remember one scene where he got an "ACME Univac
Electronic Brain." I wanted to write for a copy of the frame since
our engineering main machine is a Univac. Everything was of ACME
origin. The chain reactions and visual puns were really well
conceived -- always to the detriment of Wiley E. Coyote (Fendishis
Hungrius!). The other great Warner Brothers set was the Daffy Duck
series featuring Space Duck (or something like that) -- Oh, I
remember!
DUCK DODGERS -- in the 25th Century!!!!!!!
... and the little martian man. I think WB was (were?) the greatest
cartoonist (s?) alive -- are they (he?) still?
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Date: 3 Jun 1981 12:23:32-EDT
From: cjh at CCA-UNIX (Chip Hitchcock)
Subject: Jupiter's moons vs the asteroids
I have read that Jerry Pournelle publicly retracted most of the
suggestions made in the article quoted by Ken after the first close
fly-by of Jupiter discovered, among other things, that Jupiter's
magnetic field would make life extremely difficult on any of the
moons. Saturn's moons (e.g. Enceladus) could be less unlivable (I
don't recall anyone specifically determining this from the Voyager
data) but Saturn is also much further away---a set of colonies based
on its moons would be fundamentally isolated (by time if not by
delta-vee) even if somebody faxed them up-to-date editions of the New
York TIMES, PRAVDA, SCIENCE, etc.
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Date: 2 June 1981 10:42-EDT
From: James M. Turner <JMTURN at MIT-AI>
Shade and Sweet water,
Doesn't the idea of mining Iota seem just a little far
fetched? I haven't seen Outland, but Jupiter is a little far off to
be an economically feasible.
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Date: 4 June 1981 01:36 edt
From: Schauble.Multics at MIT-Multics
Subject: Shotguns in *Outland*
I can't think of any reason why a shotgun shouldn't work in a vacuum.
You would need to use special grease so that the lubricant doesn't
evaporate and parts seize. And perhaps some of the critical parts
would need a bonded layer lubricant, but those differences would be
strictly internal and not visible. Seems like a very useful weapon to
me.
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End of SF-LOVERS Digest
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