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Meeting of May 10:  The Cartoons of Tom Gauld

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Looking forward to our May 10th meeting!

 The Cartoons of Tom Gauld: SF, fantasy, literature, and commentary. And books.  

Tom Gauld (born 1976) is an astonishingly prolific Scottish cartoonist. His cartoons cover a wide range: science, science fiction, fantasy, role playing games, classic literature, politics, and more. Gauld happily combines different genres in a single cartoon. Vampire tropes – and modern politics. Classic literature – and science fiction. Fantasy – and the reality of television. Not only does Gauld love books – he also loves booklovers.

He publishes in major newspapers and magazines including The New Scientist, The Guardian, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and more. His work has been collected in more than 20 books.

One of Gauld’s best-known cartoons, showing the eternal struggle between science and science fiction.
Astronomy News, Science and technology

THE STARLINK INCIDENT IS NOT WHAT WE THOUGHT

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THE STARLINK INCIDENT IS NOT WHAT WE THOUGHT: It never made sense. On Feb. 3rd, 2022, SpaceX launched a batch of 49 Starlinks to low-Earth orbit–something they had done many times before. This time was different, though. Almost immediately, dozens of the new satellites began to fall out of the sky.

Above: A Starlink satellite falls from the sky over Puerto Rico on Feb. 7, 2022. [video]
At the time, SpaceX offered this explanation: “Unfortunately, the satellites deployed on Thursday (Feb. 3rd) were significantly impacted by a geomagnetic storm on Friday, (Feb. 4th).”

A more accurate statement might have read “…impacted by a very minor geomagnetic storm.” The satellites flew into a storm that barely registered on NOAA scales: It was a G1, the weakest possible, unlikely to cause a mass decay of satellites. Something about “The Starlink Incident” was not adding up.

Space scientists Scott McIntosh and Robert Leamon of Lynker Space, Inc., have a new and different idea: “The Terminator did it,” says McIntosh.

Not to be confused with the killer robot, McIntosh’s Terminator is an event on the sun that helps explain the mysterious progression of solar cycles. Four centuries after Galileo discovered sunspots, researchers still cannot accurately predict the timing and strength of the sun’s 11-year solar cycle. Even “11 years” isn’t real; observed cycles vary from less than 9 years to more than 14 years long.


Above: Oppositely charged bands of magnetism march toward the sun’s equator where they “terminate” one another, kickstarting the next solar cycle. [more]

McIntosh and Leamon realized that forecasters had been overlooking something. There is a moment that happens every 11 years or so when opposing magnetic fields from the sun’s previous and upcoming solar cycles collide. They called this moment, which signals the death of the old cycle, “The Termination Event.”

After a Termination Event, the sun roars to life–”like a hot stove where someone suddenly turns the burner on,” McIntosh likes to say. Solar ultraviolet radiation abruptly jumps to a higher level, heating the upper atmosphere and dramatically increasing aerodynamic drag on satellites.

This plot supports what McIntosh and Leamon are saying:

The histogram shows the number of objects falling out of Earth orbit each year since 1975. Vertical dashed lines mark Termination Events. There’s an uptick in satellite decay around the time of every Terminator, none bigger than 2022.

As SpaceX was assembling the doomed Starlinks of Group 4-7 in early 2022, they had no idea that the Terminator Event had, in fact, just happened. Unwittingly, they launched the satellites into a radically altered near-space environment. “Some of our satellite partners said it was just pea soup up there,” says Leamon.

SpaceX wasn’t the only company hit hard. Capella Space also struggled in 2022 to keep its constellation of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites in orbit.

“The atmospheric density in low Earth orbit was 2 to 3 times more than expected,” wrote Capella Space’s Scott Shambaugh in a paper entitled Doing Battle With the Sun. “This increase in drag threatened to prematurely de-orbit some of our spacecraft.” Indeed, many did deorbit earlier than their 3-year design lifetimes.

The Terminator did it? It makes more sense than a tiny storm.

Dinosaurs and Company

Ankylosaur footprints from Canada are first of their kind in the world

Three-toed prints from B.C., Alberta fill gap in fossil record

Emily Chung · CBC News ·
Woman with fossil footprints in a rock
Victoria Arbour, curator at the Royal B.C. Museum, with Ruopodosaurus prints (far left for the foot and middle for the hand) in the field at Wolverine River near Tumbler Ridge, B.C., in August 2023. (Royal B.C. Museum)

The new species, which has been named Ruopodosaurus clava, would have been an armoured dinosaur about five to six metres long, reports a new study published this week in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Victoria Arbour, curator of paleontology at the Royal B.C. Museum and lead author of the new study, said Ruopodosaurus would have lumbered through the coastal redwood forests between the Rocky Mountains and an inland sea that covered Saskatchewan and Alberta during the Middle Cretaceous, about 100 million to 94 million years ago. Previously identified footprints suggest the other creatures it lived alongside: giant crocodiles, duck-billed dinosaurs and bird-like dinosaurs — and a related group of four-toed ankylosaurs.

But no bones of three-toed, club-tailed ankylosaurs have ever been found in North America from the Middle Cretaceous, which, until now, suggested they may have gone extinct during this time, before reappearing about 84 million years ago, perhaps by the migration of populations from Asia. The tracks from this new species suggest otherwise.

This species, Arbour said, is “new for North America. It’s new for the world…. And it really helps us fill in this gap in the fossil record.”

Royal B.C. Museum fossil preparator Calla Scott and former University of Victoria MSc student Teague Dickson apply a glue to a slab containing the fossil ankylosaur footprints to prepare it for making a silicone mould of the tracks in August 2024. (Royal B.C. Museum)

More to read: https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/ankylosaurid-footprints-1.7511766

Astronomy News

Scientists find ‘strongest evidence yet’ of life on distant planet

Scientists find ‘strongest evidence yet’ of life on distant planet

Pallab Ghosh, Science Correspondent BBC

Cambridge University The bottom half of the frame shows a large blue planet with a shimmering atmosphere. Above it is space with a small red star above the planet
Cambridge University: Artwork of K2-18b, a faraway world that may be home to life

Scientists have found new but tentative evidence that a faraway world orbiting another star may be home to life.

A Cambridge team studying the atmosphere of a planet called K2-18b has detected signs of molecules which on Earth are only produced by simple organisms.

This is the second, and more promising, time chemicals associated with life have been detected in the planet’s atmosphere by Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

But the team and independent astronomers stress that more data is needed to confirm these results.

The lead researcher, Prof Nikku Madhusudhan, told me at his lab at Cambridge University’s Institute of Astronomy that he hopes to obtain the clinching evidence soon.

“This is the strongest evidence yet there is possibly life out there. I can realistically say that we can confirm this signal within one to two years.”

For more, click the link: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c39jj9vkr34o
Awards

2025 Hugo Award Finalists

To view the full list of nominees, go directly to https://seattlein2025.org/wsfs/hugo-awards/2025-hugo-award-finalists/

2025 Hugo Award Finalists

Seattle Worldcon 2025, the 83rd World Science Fiction Convention, is delighted to announce the finalists for the 2025 Hugo Awards, Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, and Astounding Award for Best New Writer.

1,338* valid electronic nominating ballots were received by the deadline of March 14 at 11:59 p.m. PDT and counted from the members of the 2024 and 2025 World Science Fiction Conventions for the 2025 Hugo Awards. ​​Unfortunately, two mailed ballots were received 2.5 weeks later on April 3 after the deadline of receipt. Voting on the final ballot will open during April 2025.

Only Seattle Worldcon 2025 WSFS members will be able to vote on the final ballot and choose the winners for the 2025 Awards. The 2025 Hugo Awards, the Lodestar Award, and the Astounding Award will be presented on Saturday evening, August 16, 2025, at a formal ceremony at Seattle Worldcon 2025.

Questions about the Hugo Awards process may be directed to hugo-help@seattlein2025.org.

* Initial publication had an error of 1,738 ballots instead of the correct number of 1,338.

Seattle Worldcon 2025 Hugo Award Finalists

Best Novel

  • Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Orbit US, Tor UK)
  • The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Avid Reader Press, Sceptre)
  • Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tordotcom)
  • Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell (DAW)
  • A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher (Tor)
  • The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey, Hodderscape UK)

1078 ballots cast for 554 nominees, finalists range 90 to 157

Best Novella

  • The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo (Tordotcom)
  • The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed (Tordotcom)
  • Navigational Entanglements by Aliette de Bodard (Tordotcom)
  • The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar (Tordotcom)
  • The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler (Tordotcom)
  • What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher (Nightfire)

739 ballots cast for 209 nominees, finalists range 75 to 135

Best Novelette

  • “The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video” by Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld, May 2024)
  • “By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars” by Premee Mohamed (Strange Horizons, Fund Drive 2024)
  • “The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea” by Naomi Kritzer (Asimov’s, September/October 2024)
  • “Lake of Souls” by Ann Leckie in Lake of Souls (Orbit)
  • “Loneliness Universe” by Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 58)
  • “Signs of Life” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 59)

394 ballots cast for 188 nominees, finalists range 36 to 58

Best Short Story

  • “Five Views of the Planet Tartarus” by Rachael K. Jones (Lightspeed Magazine, Jan 2024 (Issue 164))
  • “Marginalia” by Mary Robinette Kowal (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 56)
  • “Stitched to Skin Like Family Is” by Nghi Vo (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 57)
  • “Three Faces of a Beheading” by Arkady Martine (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 58)
  • “We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read” by Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed Magazine, May 2024 (Issue 168))
  • “Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole” by Isabel J. Kim (Clarkesworld, February 2024)

610 ballots cast for 673 nominees, finalists range 32 to 110

Best Series

  • Between Earth and Sky by Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga Press)
  • The Burning Kingdoms by Tasha Suri (Orbit)
  • InCryptid by Seanan McGuire (DAW)
  • Southern Reach by Jeff VanderMeer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
  • The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson (Tor Books)
  • The Tyrant Philosophers by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Ad Astra)

621 ballots cast for 201 nominees, finalists range 57 to 90

Best Graphic Story or Comic

  • The Deep Dark by Molly Knox Ostertag (Graphix)
  • The Hunger and the Dusk: Vol. 1 written by G. Willow Wilson, art by Chris Wildgoose (IDW Publishing)
  • Monstress, Vol. 9: The Possessed written by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda (Image)
  • My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Book 2 by Emil Ferris (Fantagraphics)
  • Star Trek: Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way written by Ryan North, art by Chris Fenoglio (IDW Publishing)
  • We Called Them Giants written by Kieron Gillen, art by Stephanie Hans, lettering by Clayton Cowles (Image)

265 ballots cast for 259 nominees, finalists range 13 to 37

Astronomy News

A STRONG GEOMAGNETIC STORM IS UNDERWAY

https://spaceweather.com/

A STRONG GEOMAGNETIC STORM IS UNDERWAY: A G3-class (Strong) geomagnetic storm is underway on April 16th, with a slight chance of intensifying to category G4 (Severe). This is happening because a CME hit Earth’s magnetic field on April 15th. It may have been a Cannibal CME–a pile-up of two closely-spaced CMEs, in which one overtook the other. Cannibal CMEs contain shock waves and enhanced magnetic fields that do a good job sparking auroras.

“The CME delivered!” reports Sebastian Sainio from Finland. “It sparked a great, although not so long-lasting show on the night between the 15th and 16th of April.”

“The scenic landscape on the island of Raippaluoto in western Finland gave extra vibe to the photos,” he says. “The water was also exceptionally calm that night.”

If today’s storm persists at current levels (a big IF), auroras would appear across Canada and some northern-tier US states during the night of April 16-17. Aurora alerts: SMS Text

more images: from Gregory Ash of Ely, Minnesota; from Kristian Eli Eli Zachariasen of the Faroe Islands; from Thierry Garcia of Fishburn, Durham, England; from Jeff Dykstra of Búðardalur, Iceland

Awards, CSFFA / Aurora Award / Hall of Fame, Reading

2025 AURORA AWARDS BALLOT

2025 AURORA AWARDS BALLOT

This ballot is for works originally done in 2024 by Canadians. The Aurora Awards are nominated by members of the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (CSFFA). The top five nominated works were selected. Additional works were included where there was a tie for fifth place. An online awards ceremony will be held on Sunday, August 10th, 2025, at 5pm EDT, with hosts Mark Leslie Lefebvre and Elizabeth May Anderson. 

BEST NOVEL
Blackheart Man, Nalo Hopkinson, Saga Press
Pale Grey Dot, Don Miasek, Ravenstone
The Siege of Burning Grass, Premee Mohamed, Solaris
The Tapestry of Time, Kate Heartfield, Harper Voyager
Withered, A.G.A. Wilmot, ECW Press

BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL
The Door in Lake Mallion, S.M. Beiko, ECW Press
Heavenly Tyrant, Xiran Jay Zhao, Tundra Books
The Lost Expedition: The Dream Rider Saga, Book 3, Douglas Smith, Spiral Path Books
Misadventures in Ghosthunting, Melissa Yue, Harper Collins
Spaced!, C.L. Carey, Renaissance

BEST NOVELETTE/NOVELLA
The Butcher of the Forest, Premee Mohamed, Tordotcom
“Carter’s Refugio“, Hayden Trenholm, Analog SF&F, Sept/Oct
Countess, Suzan Palumbo, ECW Press
The Dragonfly Gambit, A.D. Sui, Neon Hemlock Press
“Zebra Meridian“,Geoffrey W. Cole, Zebra Meridian and Other Stories, Stelliform Press

BEST SHORT STORY
“A World of Milk and Promises“, R H Wesley, Clarkesworld, Issue 216
“And When She Shatters“, Kerry C. Byrne, Heartlines Spec, Issue 4
“Blood and Desert Dreams“, Y.M. Pang, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue 408
“BUDDY RAYMOND’S NO-BULLSHIT GUIDE TO DRONE HUNTING“, Gillian Secord, Diabolical Plots, #108A
“Desolation Sounds“, Geoffrey W. Cole, Zebra Meridian and Other Stories, Stelliform Press

BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL/COMIC
Cemetery Kids Don’t Die vol. 1 (#1-4), Zac Thompson, illustrated by Daniel Irrizari, Gegé Schall, and Brittany Peer, Oni Press
Into the Goblin Market, Vikki VanSickle, illustrated by Jensine Eckwall, Tundra Books
It Never Rains, Kari Maaren, webcomic
Star Trek Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way, Ryan North, art by Chris Fenoglio, IDW Publishing
Wheetago War: Roth, Richard Van Camp, illustrated by Christopher Shy, Renegade Arts Entertainment
A Witch’s Guide to Burning, Aminder Dhaliwal, Drawn and Quarterly
Zatanna: Bring Down the House, Mariko Tamaki, DC Comics

BEST POEM/SONG
“Angakkuq“, Shantell Powell, On Spec Magazine, Vol 24, Issue 130
“Cthulhu on the Shores of Osaka“, Y.M. Pang, Invitation: A One-shot Anthology of Speculative Fiction
“Her Favourite“, Beth Cato and Rhonda Parrish, Star*Line, Vol 47, Issue 4
“Horizon Events“, J.D. Dresner, Polar Starlight, Issue #15
“A Thirst for Adventure“, Lynne Sargent, Polar Borealis, Issue #28
“Trip Through the Robot“, Carolyn Clink and David Clink, Giant Robot Poems: On Mecha-Human Science, Culture & War

BEST RELATED WORK
Augur Magazine Vol 7, Issues 7.1-7.3, Kerry C. Byrne, Toria Liao, André Geleynse, Frankie Hagg, and Conyer Clayton, Augur Society
Bury Your Gays: An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror, Sofia Ajram, Ghoulish Books
Northern Nights, Michael Kelly, Undertow Publications
On Spec Magazine, Vol 34, Issues 127-130, Diane L. Walton Managing Editor, The Copper Pig Writers’ Society
Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction: Volume Two, Stephen Kotowych, Ansible Press

BEST COVER ART/INTERIOR ILLUSTRATION
Augur Magazine, Issue 7.1,  cover art, Martine Nguyen
Augur Magazine Issue 7.2, cover art, Frances Philip
Augur Magazine, Issue 7.3, cover art, Lorna Antoniazzi
Captains of Black and Brass, cover art, James Beveridge, On Spec Magazine, Vol 34, Issue 129
Northern Nights, cover art, Serena Malyon, Undertow Publications

BEST FAN WRITING AND PUBLICATION
Clubhouse Canadian Speculative Fiction reviews, R. Graeme Cameron, Amazing Stories Magazine
James Nicoll Reviews, James Davis Nicoll, online
Polar Starlight Magazine, Issues 13-16, Rhea E. Rose, editor
SF&F Book Reviews, Robert Runté, Ottawa Review of Books
Speculating Canada, Derek Newman-Stille

BEST FAN RELATED WORK
murmurstations, Sonia Urlando, Augur Society, podcast
Scintillation 2024, co-chairs, Jo Walton and René Walling, Montreal
Two Old Farts Talk Sci-Fi Podcast, Troy Harkin and David Clink
Wizards & Spaceships Podcast, Rachel A. Rosen and David L. Clink
The Worldshapers Podcast, Edward Willett

 

Ver 1.0, April 15, 2024

Astronomy News

TWO CMEs ARE HEADING FOR EARTH

GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH (G2): Geomagnetic storms are likely on April 16th when a pair of closely-spaced CMEs is expected to hit Earth’s magnetic field. NOAA forecasters say storm levels could reach category G2 with auroras across Canada and northern-tier US States. The CMEs were hurled toward Earth by a double eruption on the sun; see below. 

A DOUBLE ERUPTION ON THE SUN: Explosions on the sun do *not* require sunspots. Spotless explosions occurred twice over the weekend when these two magnetic filaments lifted off the sun:

Magnetic filaments are tubes of dense plasma held above the sun’s surface by magnetic forces. The two pictured above are about 400,000 km long–longer than the distance between Earth and the Moon. These massive structures can erupt when their magnetic underpinnings become unstable. That happened twice in quick succession on April 12th and 13th–a rare double blast.

Fragments of the exploding filaments ripped through the sun’s atmosphere to produce a pair of closely-spaced CMEs, now heading for Earth. A one-two punch from these CMEs could spark a G2-class geomagnetic storm on April 16th. CME impact alerts: SMS Text.

MonSFFA Website

APRIL 12, 2025 CLUB MEETING; Post 2 of 2, 5:00PM – Thank You, Wrap-Up

This is Post 2 of 2, marking the conclusion of today’s MonSFFA meeting.

5) THANK YOU

We are grateful to Keith Braithwaite for his efforts on this afternoon’s programming, and thank, too, all of our contributing participants, plus everyone who helped to plan and run today’s meeting. Finally, of course, we thank all of you who joined us, both physically in the meeting hall and here on ZOOM; don’t forget to comment on today’s get-together (www.MonSFFA.ca). 

6) NEXT MONTH’S MEETING: 

The club meets next on Saturday, May 10, from 1:00PM-5:00PM! We hope to see you live and in person at that time, or if you’re from out of town, online via ZOOM. MonSFFA meets downtown regularly at Le Nouvel Hotel, 1740 Rene-Levesque Ouest (corner St-Mathieu), in the “Maisonneuve Room” (unless otherwise indicated).

7) SIGN-OFF

Thank you all for taking part today. We appreciate the enthusiastic involvement of our members, and we hope you will all join us again next month! Thus, with today’s main topic soon to slither into our dreams, we’ll say… sssssso long!

Montreal Science Fiction and Fantasy Association