It's nearly time for the 74th World Science Fiction Convention, MidAmeriCon II, in Kansas City, Missouri. It runs from the 17th to the 21st of August at the Kansas City Convention Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Here are program items in which I'm participating. "Kansas City, here I come!"


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Over on Twitter today Dr. Katie Mack ( @AstroKatie), astrophysicist at Melbourne University, was waxing enthusiastic about the New Horizons Pluto spacecraft. I ( @MrBeamjockey) responded.


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About a year ago, I borrowed from my local library Denise Kiernan's book The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II. Unfortunately, I hadn't yet finished it by the due date, so I had to take it back to the library ( Read more... )

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Detcon 1 is the name of this year's North American Science Fiction Convention. Detcon will blossom in my old home town, Detroit, Michigan, from Thursday, 17 July, through Sunday the 20th. I've agreed to participate in a bunch of programming.

Physics, Mechanics, & Logistics of Flying Cars
Fri 10:00 AM -- Mackinac East
What would it be like if ( Read more... )

Illinois is not always kind to visitors from California. This van, once owned by physicist Richard Feynman, just arrived at Fermilab.


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I don't know how to explain this. It's multiple things, all tangled up into a ball. But clearly I need to tell you about it.

1. Feynman.

Let's start with Richard Feynman (1918-1988). Perhaps you know of him. Physicist, Caltech teacher, Nobel Prize winner, legendary storyteller. Bongo drums, safecracking, and so forth.

2. The Diagrams.As a ( Read more... )

Recently I found a 1966 account of a brand-new atom smasher. Dr. Gregory A Loew gave a talk to fellow physicists at the International Conference on Instrumentation for High Energy Physics proudly describing his laboratory, which is one of Fermilab's elder sisters.

Take a look at "Report on the Stanford Linear Accelerator CenterAt the bottom of ( Read more... )

The Boskone folks have kindly invited me to Boston for their famous convention on the weekend of Valentine's Day. And now they have put their program schedule online. A list of items sorted by panelist is also available, if there are particular people you are eager to see ( Read more... )

From: "Consolmagno, Guy J - (brotherguyDate: October 28, 2013, 1:19:41 PM GMT+01:00 ( Read more... )