GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH (G2-CLASS)

Space Weather News for March 11, 2022
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GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH (G2-CLASS): Earlier today the sun launched a full halo CME into space. The storm cloud is expected to hit Venus on March 13th followed by Earth later the same day. NOAA forecasters say that G2-class geomagnetic storms are possible when the CME arrives. Full story @ Spaceweather.com.

Aurora Alerts: Sign up for Space Weather Alerts and get instant text notifications when geomagnetic storms are underway.
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Above: A full halo CME is heading for Earth. Image credit: the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).

Aurora Awards: Nominations open

Join the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association, to nominate and vote for the Aurora Awards. Also, you get a great deal in reading material when the nominations are announced! https://prixaurorawards.ca/   CPL

Aurora Awards
Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association

NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN FOR 2022 AURORAS

Nominations are now open to CSFFA members and will close on March 26th at 11:59 pm EDT. You may select/change/remove items at any time until nominations close.

All twelve categories are open this year and members may select up to five different works in each category. Select works from the dropdown lists, which are sorted by title. If you want to remove an item that you have chosen, select the blank line at the top of the dropdown list. You must click the Update button at the bottom of each nomination form to save your selections. Your choices will be displayed on your nomination central page.

You don’t have to nominate in all categories. Nominate those works that you enjoyed, because this is your chance to have your favorite works from 2021 on this year’s Aurora Awards final ballot. The top five most-nominated works in each category will be selected to be on the final ballot.

Items on our eligibility lists have been submitted by publishers, authors, and fans, and verified by a team of CSFFA volunteers. To review what is eligible for this year’s awards you can go to our public eligibility page. Unlike our dropdown lists, these lists are sorted by author’s or creator’s first name.

NASA ROCKET PLUNGES INTO PULSATING AURORAS

Space Weather News for March 7, 2022
https://spaceweather.com
https://www.spaceweatheralerts.comNASA ROCKET PLUNGES INTO PULSATING AURORAS: Over the weekend, NASA launched a rocket from Alaska into an expanse of mysterious pulsating auroras. This type of aurora, which is a bit like a strobing checkerboard, is a favorite among tour guides because it is so unusual and mesmerizing. Researchers are just beginning to understand what makes it tick. Full story @ Spaceweather.com.

Solar Flare Alerts: Sign up for Space Weather Alerts and get instant text notifications when solar flares are underway.

Above: A NASA sounding rocket launches into pulsating auroras over the University of Alaska’s Poker Flat Research Range on March 5th. Photo credit: Marketa S. Murray of The Aurora Chasers.

Mysterious new substance possibly discovered inside Earth’s core

Mysterious new substance possibly discovered inside Earth’s core

https://www.space.com/

Earth's core is weirder than first thought.
Earth’s core is weirder than first thought. (Image credit: Shutterstock)

Earth’s inner core may be filled with a weird substance that is neither solid nor liquid, according to a new study.

For more than half a century, scientists believed that Earth‘s deepest recesses consist of a molten outer core surrounding a densely compressed ball of solid iron alloy. But new research, published Feb. 9 in the journal Nature, offers a rare insight into the inner structure of the planet — and it’s far weirder than previously thought.

New computer simulations suggest that Earth’s hot and highly pressurized inner core could exist in a “superionic state” — a whirling mix of hydrogenoxygen and carbon molecules, continuously sloshing through a grid-like lattice of iron.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

Sea Monkeys and Other Wonders

Order Yours Today: Sea-Monkeys and Other Fantastic Wonders From the Back Pages of Comic Books!

Remember those crazy, wild, and amazing novelty products advertised on the back pages of comic books in the 1960s and ’70s? From the inveterate Sea-Monkeys to X-Ray Specs to a one-man submarine, we’ll look at what was advertised, and what you actually received in the mail if you ordered!

Don’t miss Keith’s presentation March 12th, 13:30h, right here on  http://www.monsffa.ca

Or join us on Zoom. For the link, please contact president@monsffa.ca.

Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror

Nosferatu: The monster who still terrifies, 100 years on

From the BBC: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220303-nosferatu-the-monster-who-still-terrifies-100-years-on
From his shadow to his gaunt face, the vampire Count Orlok in 1922’s Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror remains one of film’s most spine-tingling creations. Nicholas Barber examines why.

It was exactly 100 years ago, in March 1922, that Berlin’s movers and shakers attended the premiere of FW Murnau’s Nosferatu: A Symphony Of Horror, and saw the nightmarish Count Orlok springing bolt upright from his coffin. Those unsuspecting viewers could well have witnessed the first great jump scare in the history of horror movies. They had certainly witnessed its first great monster. An unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula – hence the Count’s name-change from Dracula to Orlok – this silent masterpiece pioneered techniques and established horror tropes that have been used ever since. But the creation of the iconic Orlok, played by Max Schreck, is its supreme achievement. He is, says Cristina Massaccesi, in her guide to Nosferatu for the Devil’s Advocates horror history series, “the Ur-Vampire, the father of all undead creatures lurking in the darkest recesses of a cinema screen”.

 He is also one of the few monsters to be instantly recognisable, even in silhouette. Murnau makes spine-tingling use of his shadow – and once you see the outline of Orlok’s domed, bald head, his pointed ears, his hunched shoulders, his stick-thin body and his snaking talons, you know who’s on the prowl. Then you see his gaunt, chalk-white face. More animal than human, Orlok has huge bushy eyebrows, sunken eyes, a beaky nose, and a rodent’s incisors in the centre of his mouth (far odder than the sharp canines possessed by later screen vampires). As Kevin Jackson says in Constellation of Genius, his survey of 1922 in the arts, Orlok “must be the strangest and most hideous leading man in all cinema”.

Count Orlok was the distinctive vision of producer Albin Grau – and his original sketches are even creepier than in the finished film (Credit: Getty Images)
Count Orlok was the distinctive vision of producer Albin Grau – and his original sketches are even creepier than in the finished film (Credit: Getty Images)

Much of the credit for this strangeness should go to the producer of Nosferatu, Albin Grau. A student of the occult, he wrote an article claiming that, during World War One, a Serbian peasant had told him of his own encounters with vampires: “Before this wretched war, I was over in Romania,” said the peasant, allegedly. “You can laugh about this superstition, but I swear on the mother of God, that I myself knew that horrible thing of seeing an undead… or Nosferatu, as vampires are called over there.” In 1921, Grau set up an independent studio, Prana Film, but he also worked closely with Murnau as the designer of Nosferatu. With no earlier vampire films to copy or to react against, Grau had to dream up something new – and his sketches of Orlok, a spindly, demonic alien with glowing eyes, are even creepier than the version in the finished film.

READ the full article: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220303-nosferatu-the-monster-who-still-terrifies-100-years-on

 Still creepy, after all these years! Watch it on Youtube:

Montreal Science Fiction and Fantasy Association