Eponymously Yours, W. Skeffington Higgins

Just ten days away from Pluto, the New Horizons spacecraft had an "anomaly" yesterday and went into "safe-mode." It switched control to its backup computer and tried to establish contact with Earth.

This made a lot of us anxious, despite assurances that the spacecraft was probably fine.

NASA has announced that recovery is going well and New Horizons "remains on track for its July 14 flyby of Pluto:"

Preparations are ongoing to resume the originally planned science operations on July 7 and to conduct the entire close flyby sequence as planned. The mission science team and principal investigator have concluded that the science observations lost during the anomaly recovery do not affect any primary objectives of the mission, with a minimal effect on lesser objectives.

Nothing like a little suspense to make a flyby more exciting. Time to get some sleep.

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.

Having turned the book in, I strolled over, as is my wont, to the used-book-sale shelf. Because you never know what you might find there. I found this:



Obviously Fate intended me to be united with this book. I'd already read enough of it to know that it was well worth owning. I paid a dollar and went home with my very own copy.

In the course of time, the Ela Area Public Library District chose The Girls of Atomic City as this year's tome in their One Book, One Reading Community program. They've lined up a variety of speakers over the summer weeks. I've agreed to give a talk on Wednesday, 8 July.

Secret Cities, Secret Jobs: Creating the Atomic Bomb in World War II
Wednesday, 8 July, 2015
7:00pm to 8:15pm

Ela Area Public Library
275 Mohawk Trail, Lake Zurich, Illinois 60047

Physicists discovered that uranium fission could be applied to make a devastating weapon--but it would take the help of hundreds of thousands of citizens working under the cloak of secrecy to make nuclear bombs a reality. Join Fermilab physicist William Higgins as he shares insights into this urgent effort...one of many memorable WWII dramas.

Kiernan's book concentrates on the women who worked at Oak Ridge. I'll be giving an overview of the Manhattan Project. Hanford and Los Alamos were two other sites where secret towns employing thousands of workers sprang up to meet the needs of the massive project.

I hope to say a few words about why Kiernan's book is both interesting to the average reader and also to the reader already steeped in Manhattan Project lore.

I'm pleased that the Library District has invited me, and I'm looking forward to my visit.

Interesting video story from CNN Money on the business prospects for several companies now bringing flying cars to market.

Today is the 70th anniversary of V-E Day, when the Allies and Germany ended (part of) World War II. Around lunchtime, I learned that the celebrations included a parade of vintage aircraft over Washington, D.C., and furthermore, the BBC was streaming coverage of it.

So I tuned in to watch an airshow on my desktop.

And I started hitting the screencap keys.



The BBC had a camera watching the Mall, with the Washington Monument prominent in its frame. I saw a pair of Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses cruise into the scene, high above the Monument.



Another camera shot closeups of the aircraft, tracking them as they passed. It was kind of hazy, so lighting was not optimal, but the planes looked pretty good nonetheless.

Finally, in a glorious accident, I commanded a screencap just at the moment of a dissolve between the two cameras.



Thought you'd like to see this.

Images copyright 2015 BBC.

The Daily Mail ran a picture portraying the shooting of the new Dan Brown movie, Inferno.


Copyright New Press Photo/Splash News
Their caption?

"Delightful sights: Last week, the cast and crew on Inferno were spotted shooting in the city of Venice"

Unless the Uffizi Gallery in Florence has, unbeknownst to me, turned itself into a nationwide franchise with a branch in Venice, including a sculpture gallery of celebrated Florentines, um, I don't think so.


Copyright 2013 by William S. Higgins
Orcagna is disappointed in the Daily Mail.

I wonder if this movie will have any antimatter in it.

K and I are headed for Minicon 50 (yeah, fifty Minicons!) this weekend, 2 through 5 April. I love Minneapolis fandom and I love Minicon-- but this is the first time I've been able to attend in a few years. Here are the program items I'm doing. Can't wait!

Inappropriate (Mis)uses of Astrophysical Matter
FRI 8:30 PM Krushenko's

Forget about using the universe for good! That's not the human way of doing things! Murder by black hole was used as a plot device by Larry Niven in his Hugo award-winning "The Borderland of Sol." Dominic Green postulated using a Penrose accelerator as a waste management "solution" in his Hugo-nominated story, "The Clockwork Atom Bomb." A discussion of the Pandora's Box aspect of particle physics and astrophysics within SF.
Chris Beskar
Bill Higgins
Larry Niven
Michael Kingsley

Almost There
SAT 4:00 PM Veranda 3/4

So, we don't have flying cars. What "technology of the future" is actually right around the corner? A discussion of technologies that we almost have licked including nuclear fusion, anti-gravity, cloaking devices, and teleportation.
Bill Higgins
Bill Thomasson
Chris Beskar
Ctein
Neil Rest
Tyler Tork

Battlefields of Tomorrow
SAT 7:00 PM Veranda 5/6

Powered and unpowered - a discussion of various battle armors in Sci-Fi and the corresponding reality of what is being fielded, under development, and what is to come. Also, find out about the real world development and deployment of lasers, particle beam weapons, rail guns and other directed energy weapons.
Bill Higgins
Chris Beskar
John Stanfield

[Looks like I'll need to get a quick dinner between about 5 and 6:30, or wait and have a late dinner after 8.]

Dawn of the Asteroid Belt: Exploring Vesta and Ceres
SUN 1:00 PM Edina

Asteroids are relics of the ancient Solar System. NASA's Dawn spacecraft orbited Vesta for a year. Now its ion thrusters have propelled it across the Asteroid Belt to Ceres, the largest asteroid, where Dawn has again entered orbit. Join Bill Higgins to explore Dawn's findings at Vesta and its plans for doing science at Ceres.
Bill Higgins

I don't think I've met Chris Beskar, but it looks like I'm going to be seeing a lot of him in the next few days...

I have learned that the prominent science fiction author best known for his dystopic overpopulation novel Make Room! Make Room! has posthumously published an autobiography.

I am pleased to inform you that the title of this new book is Harry Harrison! Harry Harrison!

There appears to be a picture of a stainless-steel rat on the cover.

Edited to Add: I'd forgotten the joke I made when Mr. Harrison passed away.

To minnehaha K, on your birthday: May you continue to be fabulous, and to inspire others to reach toward fabulousness, for many fabulous years to come!

Quoting from an announcement from Sasquan, the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention, to be held this August in Spokane, Washington:

From: Marah Searle-Kovacevic
Subject: Announcing new Special Guest!
Date: March 14, 2015 5:07:42 PM CDT

We are proud to announce that NASA Astronaut Dr. Kjell Lindgren is a Special Guest of Sasquan!

Dr. Lindgren will be participating in Sasquan while serving as a flight engineer on the International Space Station during NASA Expeditions 44 and 45. Yes, for the first time in Worldcon history, we will be in direct communication with a member of our community - out of this world!

[Full announcement here.]

Marah Searle-Kovacevic

Hospitality Division Head, Sasquan
Social Media Head, Sasquan



As one of the Usual Suspects where Worldcon space programming is concerned, I welcome Dr. Lindgren to the conversation. May he find his participation in our 76-year-long tradition as rewarding as we do!

Remember that time when meteors clobbered Chicagoland? Remember that other time?

The Chicago Council on Science & Technology does a variety of things to encourage public engagement with science in our city. Including holding scientific talks in a tavern.


I'm appearing in C2ST's Speakeasy series next Tuesday, 3 March, at 7 PM. The venue is exciting: the new Geek Bar Beta in Chicago. It's near the triple corner of North Avenue, Damen, and Milwaukee. The topic:

Vandals of the Void: Damaging Meteors from Chelyabinsk to Chicago
Two years ago, a window-shattering shock wave injured 1400 Russians, and startled the world, as a small asteroid hit Chelyabinsk. Violent meteors are rare, but they can be devastating—and meteors have assaulted Chicagoland at least twice. Join William S. Higgins for a look at the science behind the Chelyabinsk blast. And hear the story of Chicago's own local impacts: one smaller than Chelyabinsk, one MUCH bigger.

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2015 7:00pm
Geek Bar Chicago
1941 West North Avenue
Chicago IL 60622
Twitter: @geekbarchicago

Geek Bar Chicago is handy to the El.

Damage to the Park Forest firehouse, 2003.

Deep strata shaken up by cosmic impact, a very long time ago.


I'm very pleased that C2ST invited me, and I am eager to meet the sort of people who would come out to see a talk like this. Because they've got to be cool.