Monthly Archives: February 2025

Chicagoland: Capricon 45 and St. Luke’s

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Mia and I enjoyed Capricon 45. It was held at the Sheraton Grand Chicago, February 1-4, as it was when we attended last year and three years ago. As on those occasions, we were very happy to be at a con in downtown Chicago again, with an almost infinite supply of places to eat and drink in walking distance of the hotel. As in previous years, some of our Chicagoland fannish friends did not attend, but others did, and we enjoyed seeing them again.

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Mainstream Geekery

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Notes from a panel at Capricon 45, Chicago, Feb. 8, 2024. Any mistakes are mine. The panelists are not responsible for any errors here.

Shaun Duke (moderator), Alia Federow, Janice Gelb, Sarah Hawkins, Will Saddler

Once up on a time, it was a sad and lonely thing to be a geek. Science fiction conventions were started to enable people who might have been considered nerdy outcasts to find each other. But guess what—we won! Science fiction now dominates mainstream media and being a fan, geek, or dork is cool. How has this changed the idea of a geek, and how has this impacted people who otherwise might have fit the mold? Is this change for the better? Where do you see mainstream Geekery winding up?

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Powering the Space Elevator

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Notes from a presentation by Larry Bartoszek at Capricon 45, Chicago, Feb. 8, 2024. Any mistakes are mine. The speaker is not responsible for any errors here.

A recent International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) study showed that a 20 ton Space Elevator climber needs tens of megawatts of electrical power to begin climbing from the surface of the Earth, but the power required falls off as 1/r2, as gravity does. This talk will look at options for delivering the large amount of power to get started and the design of a laser power beaming system to power the climber at higher altitudes. Non-laser options will also be discussed.

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The Folklore of Fandom

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Notes from a panel at Capricon 45, Chicago, Feb. 8, 2024. Any mistakes are mine. The panelists are not responsible for any errors here. I have added a few comments from my own experiences in fandom to this post.

Jeana Jorgensen (moderator), Megen Leigh, Victor Raymond, Wendy Robb

Our panel of fans and academics discuss all the ways in which sci-fi fandom has its own folklore: slang, customs, rituals, stories, material culture (costumes/attire, badge ribbons, etc.), and how these forms of folklore connect back to group identity.

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The Periodic Table & Astronomy

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Notes from a presentation at Capricon 45, Chicago, Feb. 7, 2024. Any mistakes are mine. The speaker is not responsible for any errors here.

Larry Bartozek will describe the intimate relationship between astronomy and the Periodic Table by looking at how everything we learn about the distant universe comes from dissecting starlight, and starlight comes from excited atoms changing their energy states. Topics will include a brief history of the universe, electron shell structure, spectroscopy on starlight and more! All of this comes from an understanding of the unique “fingerprints” of atoms in the light they give off. Larry will also show the work that he did on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Telescope.

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Automatons, Robots, and Other Humanoid Creations

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Notes from a panel at Capricon 45, Chicago, Feb. 7, 2024. Any mistakes are mine. The panelists are not responsible for any errors here.

Brian U. Garrison, Micaiah Johnson, Ada Palmer (moderator)

In the arc of human invention, automatons predate paper. That means before we thought “sure would be nice to write things in a convenient and portable manner” we thought “sure would be nice to have an inhuman creation in our shape that moves.” Why have automatons been with us so long, in reality and in fiction, and what roles and purposes do they fulfill in writing and culture and philosophy?

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