The Circular of Janus

Vol. 18, Issue 7 July 1st, 1998
Copyright 1998

The Electronic Edition
David Henninger, Editor
Robin R. Brunner, Publisher
The Circular of Janus is a publication of the Circle of Janus Science Fiction Club of Central Indiana. Subscription is included with membership, $10/year. For information, write to Circle of Janus, P.O. Box 68514, Indianapolis, IN 46268-0514 or e-mail davidhenninger@cs.com

IN THIS EDITION:

MEETING INFO
LINDA DUNN ELECTED TO SFWA POST
IN THE BEGINNING
STURGEON AWARD FINALISTS
BOOKS
CARLOS CASTANEDA IS DEAD
ONE LAST SHOT

MEETING INFO

With InConJunction coming there will be no meeting in July. The next meeting of The Circle of Janus Science Fiction Club will be at The Children's Museum, Saturday August 1, 1998.

LINDA DUNN ELECTED TO SFWA POST

Linda Dunn has been elected South Central Regional Director of the Science Fiction Writers of America. This makes Linda the chief officer for the Midwestern United States. The northern regions are in Canada. This new post will require Linda to represent the SFWA at Midwestern conventions and represent writers in the Midwest at the SFWA meetings such s the upcoming one at the Worldcon.

Linda has been an SF writer for several years now. Her most recent writing sale was a short story in an upcoming issue of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorcery. She is also, of course, treasurer of The Circle of Janus SF Club and inConJunction.

IN THE BEGINNING
Contributed by Cheryl Miller

For my introduction of the paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson, the keynote speaker at the Skeptics Society's 1998 Caltech conference, I wrote the following story just for fun. The audience seemed to think it was funny and suggested I post it on the SkepticMag hotline and put it in Skeptic magazine, so here it is. Hope it is worth a couple of chuckles.
Michael Shermer

GENESIS REVISITED A SCIENTIFIC CREATION STORY
By Michael Shermer, Redactor Revisionist

In the beginning--specifically on October 23, 4004 B.C., at noon--out of quantum foam fluctuation God created the Big Bang out of inflationary cosmology. He saw that the Big Bang was VERY big, too big for creatures that could worship him, so He created the earth. And darkness was upon the face of the deep, so He commanded hydrogen atoms (which He created out of Quarks and other subatomic goodies) to fuse and become helium atoms and in the process release energy in the form of light. And the light maker he called the sun, and the process He called fusion. And He saw the light was good because now He could see what he was doing. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

And God said, Let there be lots of fusion light makers in the sky. Some of these fusion makers appear to be more than 4004 light years from Earth. In fact, some of the fusion makers He grouped into collections He called galaxies, and these appeared to be millions and even billions of light years from Earth, so He created tired light so that the 4004 B.C. creation would be preserved. And created He many wondrous spendors such as Red Giants, White Dwarfs, Quasars, Pulsars, Nova and Supernova, worm holes, and even Black Holes out of which nothing can escape. But since God cannot be constrained by nothing, He created Hawking radiation through which information can escape from Black Holes. This made God even more tired than tired light, and the evening and the morning were the second day.

And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the continents drift apart by plate tectonics. He decreed sea floor spreading would create zones of emergence, and He caused subduction zones to build mountains and cause earthquakes. In weak points in the crust God created volcanic islands, where the next day He would place organisms that were similar to but different from their relatives on the mainlands so that still later created creatures called humans would mistake them for evolved descendants. And in the land God placed fossil fuels, natural gas, and other natural resources for humans to exploit, but not until after Day Six. And the evening and the morning were the third day.

And God saw that the land was lonely, so he created animals bearing their own kind, declaring Thou shalt not evolve into new species, and thou equilibrium shall not be punctuated. And God placed into the land's strata, fossils that appeared older than 4004 B.C. And the sequence resembled descent with modification. And the evening and morning were the fourth day.

And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that hath life, the fishes. And God created great whales whose skeletal structure and physiology were homologous with the land mammals he would create later that day. Since this caused confusion in the valley of the shadow of a doubt God brought forth abundantly all creatures, great and small, declaring that microevolution was permitted, but not macroevolution. And God said, Natura non facit saltum--Nature shall not make leaps. And the evening and morning were the fifth day.

And God created the pongidids and hominids with 98% genetic similarity, naming two of them Adam and Eve, who were anatomically fully modern humans. And in the ground placed He in abundance teeth, jaws, skulls, and pelvises of transitional fossils from pre-Adamite creatures. One he chose as his special creation He named Lucy. And God realized this was confusing, so he created paleoanthropologists to sort it out. And just as He was finishing up the loose ends of the creation, such as putting the pit in avocados, God realized that Adam's immediate descendants would not understand inflationary cosmology, global general relativity, quantum mechanics, astrophysics, biochemistry, paleontology, and the other ologies, so he created creation myths. But there were so many creation stories throughout the world God realized this was confusing, so he created anthropologists, folklorists, and mythologists to sort it out. But confusion reigned in the valley of the shadow of doubt, so God became angry, so angry God lost his temper and cursed the first humans, telling them to go forth and multiply themselves. But they took God literally and 6,000 years later there are six billion humans. And the evening and morning were the sixth day. So God said, Thank me its Friday, and He made the weekend. It was a good idea.

STUGEON AWARD FINALISTS

Lawrence, Kansas, June 4, 1998--James Gunn, director of the J. Wayne and Elsie M. Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction, announced today the list of finalists for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for the Best Short SF of the Year. The award will be presented at an Award dinner held at the University of Kansas on July 10, along with the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for the Best SF Novel of the Year and four inductions into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame inductions are presented by the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society in association with the Center. The Award dinner will be followed by the two-day Campbell Conference, which this year will discuss the science-fiction novel.

The finalists were selected from a large number of nominations by a group of writers, editors, and reviewers organized by Christopher McKitterick and David Truesdale. This year Sturgeon's son Robin helped choose the top twelve.

The winner and two runners up will be chosen from the finalist list by a committee composed of James Gunn, Kij Johnson, and Frederik Pohl.

The 1998 Sturgeon Award finalists:

BOOKS:
SCIENCE AND NATURE From Amazon.com

A Field Guide to the Invisible
by Wayne Biddle

Take a deep breath--and hold it--because you'll never want to inhale again after reading A Field Guide to the Invisible You'll discover what the Zeitgeist and dust mites have in common. Find out what's in the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the pollutants we produce--if you dare.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805050698

Darwin's Dreampond: Drama in Lake Victoria
by Tijs Goldschmidt

One of the best places on earth to study evolution is Africa's Lake Victoria, where fish of the genus Haplochromis have differentiated into new species faster than any other vertebrates. Biologist Tijs Goldschmidt documents the precipitous downfall of these cichlids as fishing pressure and introduced species threaten to destroy this reservoir of diversity.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262571218

Great Feuds in Science: Ten of the Liveliest Disputes Ever
by Hal Hellman

The process of science--as opposed to its products--is by definition a bit combative. Scientists argue among themselves over assumptions underlying their research; additionally, a new theory's conflict with societal mores sometimes results in intense and heated debate. Great Feuds in Science documents 10 scientific conflagrations, from the 17th century (Pope Urban versus Galileo) to the 20th (Derek Freeman versus Margaret Mead), and how these great arguments may have affected our lives.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471169803

SCIENCE & NATURE TOP TITLES

The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity
by Roy Porter

A long and fascinating tour of the history of medicine, from traditional Chinese healing methods to the Black Plague to psychiatry.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393046346

The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist
by Richard P. Feynman

A series of three lost lectures by the brilliant Feynman, on science and religion, uncertainty, and the age of science.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201360802

Becoming Human: Evolution and Human Uniqueness
by Ian Tattersall

Paleontologist Tattersall examines how and why humans developed tricks like bipedal locomotion and spoken language.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0151003408

NEW IN PAPERBACK

Dinosaur Lives
by John Horner

Paleontologist John Horner reveals the dusty but exciting world of dino digging.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0156006073

Comets: Creators and Destroyers
by David H. Levy

A codiscoverer of comet Shoemaker-Levy describes the facts and legends surrounding these astronomical visitors.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684852551

Rattler: A Natural History of Rattlesnakes
by Chris Mattison

This overview of the 30 known rattlesnake species will help you conquer your fears and learn to appreciate these extraordinary animals.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0713727314

And one mention of SF

A GREAT NON-DINNER

John Casti's The Cambridge Quintet tells the story of a fictional 1949 dinner hosted by Britain's science adviser C.P. Snow, with guests mathematician Alan Turing, geneticist J.B.S. Haldane, physicist Erwin Schroedinger, and philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein discussing the possibility of artificial intelligence. Casti talks with Amazon.com's Therese Littleton about scientific fiction and how he described this important nonevent.

http://www.amazon.com/john-casti-interview

CARLOS CASTANEDA IS DEAD
by Dave Henninger

Carlos Castaneda has died. He is reputed to be 72 years old and has died of liver cancer. Castaneda is a new age spiritualist who has written ten books about a path to spiritual enlightenment as taught to him by a Yaqui Indian shaman he called Don Juan. Castaneda's first book was originally a bachelor's thesis for UCLA. It described Castaneda's journey into the Arizona desert where he was taught by Don Juan to, among other things, fly and speak with animals. At one point in his journey he reported growing a bird's beak.

Carlos Castaneda's writings have been called by skeptics both science fiction and fantasy in a not very complimentary fashion. His life, it seems, has been as mysterious as the origins of his philosophy. He appeared to lie casually and regularly about the most mundane of subjects. His exact age is unknown. He has reported several birth dates. He said he wasn't married when in fact he was. He denied having children but is known to have at least a stepson. He was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil or in Cajamarca, Peru depending on which of his accounts you are reading.

If indeed his ten books were fiction it is unclear what his motives for beginning this hoax would have been. Since his first book was originally a bachelors thesis he could have never have guessed it would be popularly published and received as enthusiastically as it was. It is easier as a modern Baron Munchhausen than as an enlightened spiritual leader.

Keeping with the inconsistencies of his life, Castaneda's death was not reported until more than a month after the fact. Actual cause of death is uncertain and his body was cremated. To explain the delay of the death announcement, entertainment lawyer Deborah Drooz stated "He always made sure people didn't take his picture or record His voice. He didn't like the spotlight. Knowing that I didn't take it upon myself to issue a press release."

ONE LAST SHOT
Contributed by Pam Barker

Subject: Plane Crash

A small two-seater Cessna 152 plane crashed into a cemetery early this afternoon in central Poland. Polish Search and Rescue workers have recovered 300 bodies so far and expect that number to climb as digging continues into the evening.