MonSFFA is moving back downtown to a new meeting hall!
We’ll be meeting in “Salle Maisonneuve” of Le Nouvel Hotel! Le Nouvel is located on a major bus line, and is just a short walk from either Metro Guy/Concordia or Lucien-L’Allier.
Note that this new locale is only one block west of our pre-pandemic meeting place, the Hôtel Espresso (corner Guy and René-Lévesque)! We’re returning to our old, familiar neighbourhood, folks! And we hope to welcome home both current and former club members; see you all on the 9th!
Meeting Theme: Our March 2024 meeting precedes St. Patrick’s Day by about a week. The city’s Irish heritage has long been a part of Montreal’s cultural mosaic. MonSFFen are encouraged to wear something green to the meeting, perhaps a shamrock!
MARCH AGENDA INCLUDES:
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE FAN KIND!—We share our experiences meeting SF/F celebrities! Come prepared with your stories of having met famous SF/F stars—writers, actors, artists, etc.—especially if said encounter was a tad unusual! And, show off any autographs and unique mementos you consequently obtained, or photos of your meeting!
SCIENCE FICTION BEFORE IT WAS CALLED SCIENCE FICTION—We look at works of proto-SF. Tales of travel to other worlds, of alien beings and robots, and of interplanetary war date back decades and centuries prior to the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, often cited as the first true science fiction story. Well before the term “science fiction” was coined, works such as Johanne Kepler’s Somnium and Lucian of Samosata’s satire True History included elements of what, today, we define as SF! We’ll examine these and other works of science fiction before it was called science fiction.
NOW SHOWING—Join us for a fun and challenging game. We’ll show you a movie poster advertising a SF/F motion picture, but with the film’s title and stars masked off or blurred out; will you be able to provide the title of the film?
Subsequent Meetings:Saturday, April 13 and Saturday, May 11!
Scientists have revealed a new, remarkably complete fossil – a 16ft (5m)-long aquatic reptile from the Triassic period.
The creature dates back 240 million years and has been dubbed a “dragon” because of its extremely long neck.
It is called Dinocephalosaurus orientalis, a species that was originally identified back in 2003.
This spectacular new fossil has allowed scientists to see the full anatomy of this bizarre prehistoric beast.
Dr Nick Fraser, from National Museums Scotland, who was part of the international team that studied the fossil, said this was the first time scientists had been able to see it in full. He described it as “a very strange animal”.
“It had flipper-like limbs and its neck is longer than its body and tail combined,” he said.
The researcher speculated that a “long, bendy and flexible neck”, with its 32 separate vertebrae, might have provided a hunting advantage – allowing Dinocephalosaurus orientalis to search for food in crevices under the water.
The fossil was discovered in ancient limestone deposits in southern China.
“This discovery just adds to the weirdness of the Triassic,” Dr Fraser told BBC News. “And every time we look in these deposits, we find something new.”
Marlene Donelly
Artist Marlene Donelly recreated a scene of Dinocephalosaurus orientalis swimming with prehistoric fish.
The paper describing a set of new fossils of the animal is published in the journal Earth and Environmental Science: Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Space Weather News for Feb. 22, 2024 https://spaceweather.com https://www.spaceweatheralerts.com
Giant sunspot AR3590 just unleashed two major X-class solar flares. The double blast approximately coincided with a widely-reported outage of cell phone service; however, experts agree that the flares were probably not responsible. More flares are in the offing. The sunspot has an unstable ‘delta-class’ magnetic field, and it is turning toward Earth. Full story @ Spaceweather.com.
Above: An X1.8-class solar flare on Feb. 21st (2307 UT) observed at multiple wavelengths by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory
SOLAR ECLIPSE COMET: A comet is approaching the sun for a rare appearance during this April’s total solar eclipse. Cryovolcanic comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is expected to be at least faintly visible inside the Moon’s shadow with a more dramatic display possible if one of its ice geysers erupts at the right moment. Full story & sky maps @ Spaceweather.com.
Above: Venus, Jupiter and possibly Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks will be visible during this April’s total solar eclipse
An update regarding the Aurora Awards, received from the CSFFA
Winter is almost over (we hope) and with it the first stage of 2024’s Aurora Awards process. Please see below for specific updates.
In this newsletter:
Aurora Award Updates for February 2024
An Aurora Awards History Tidbit
Aurora Awards Updates for February 2024Eligibility Lists Close Soon
Depending on when you read this, the lists for this year’s works eligible to be nominated for the 2024 Aurora Awards closes soon. The lists will be closed at 11:59 pm EST on Saturday, February 24th.
Over the following week our eligibility team of volunteers will review all works that are still pending. If you see something that was missed, please email us. If it is not too late, we will try to add it.
Nominations Open in March
Nominations will open on Saturday, March 2nd. CSFFA members have until Saturday, April 6th at 11:59 pm EST to enter your choices. One special feature of the nomination process is that you can return as many times as you wish to add or modify your choices. After our deadline our webmaster will lock all nominations that members have entered.
For those new to the awards, you may enter up to five choices in each category. Each entry in a category must be unique. If you submit the same work more than once ALL of them will be voided. If you accidentally duplicate one you can always use the “blank” record that it at the top of each dropdown list. Please be careful and review your choices before you submit them. Nominate what you know and enjoyed.
Special request when you nominate or ask others to nominate
Please do NOT ask friends or family to get a membership to just nominate or vote (later) for your works if they are not SF/Fantasy fans. Members are encouraged to nominate in multiple categories. The awards are for fans of the genre. This is not a popularity contest to see who has the largest family.
We want people to get memberships who read Science Fiction, Fantasy, and/or Horror to help us determine the best works that were done last year.
LEAKED EMAILS AND FILES REVEAL POLITICAL CONCERNS RESULTED IN INELIGIBILITY ISSUES WITH 2023 HUGO AWARDS
By Chris M. Barkley and Jason Sanford: Emails and files released by one of the administrators of the 2023 Hugo Awards indicate that authors and works deemed “not eligible” for the awards were removed due to political considerations. In particular, administrators of the awards from the United States and Canada researched political concerns related to Hugo-eligible authors and works and discussed removing certain ones from the ballot for those reasons, revealing they were active participants in the censorship that took place.
When the Hugo Award voting and nomination statistics were released, no detailed explanation was given for why multiple authors and works were deemed “not eligible” even though they had enough nominations to make the award’s final ballot. The only official explanation came from overall Hugo Awards administrator Dave McCarty, who said “After reviewing the Constitution and the rules we must follow, the administration team determined those works/persons were not eligible.”
However, emails and files released by another member of that Hugo administration team, Diane Lacey, shows that the rules “we must follow” were in relation to Chinese laws related to content and censorship.
Never fails, these storms hit just when we have cloudy skies. But in case we get a clearing, watch for auroras around 13th, 14th. Also, if you have solar observing glasses such as the ones MonSFFA was given by the RASC MOntreal Centre at the January meeting, keep an eye on the sun anytime it peeks through the clouds. Lots of visible sunspots!
GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH: A forecast model from NOAA shows multiple CMEs striking Earth on Feb. 13th. Their impacts could cause G2-class (Moderate) geomagnetic storms with auroras across northern-tier US States. Also, there’s a slim chance they might combine to form a more potent “Cannibal CME.” Full story @ Spaceweather.com.
CME impact alerts: Sign up for Space Weather Alerts to receive instant text messages when the CMEs strike.
Above: A NOAA forecast model shows multiple CMEs en route to Earth.
BODHISATTVA CHATTOPADHYAY, ED. • Inhumans and Other Stories: A Se¬lection of Bengali Science Fiction • MIT Press, Mar 2024 (oa, tp, eb)
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