From the Editors: Paper, Rock, Scissors!
A hearty congratulations to those members and friends of Spaced Out who were able to participate in our entry for Melbourne's Annual Gay and Lesbian Pride March on 20 January 2002! We had a street audience of sixty thousand people (so we are told) and our involvement was enthusiastically received by all. A special thank you to members who turned up in costumes, representing a variety of generic aliens and characters from popular science fiction (special audience applause went to the gay dalek who cried "exfoliate!"). It should be pointed out that no-one in the audience would have felt that we were seriously suggesting that any specific SF media character was actually gay, but they all understood our implied message that any such character could be gay and that it would not detract from the mass audience's enjoyment of their favourite SF media programs.
In effect, we refuted Hollywood's self-censorship of gays and lesbians - we blunted the censor's scissors.
Rock
It was reported in the mass media that the world nearly ended in January. No, we are not promoting some form of religious view here, but simply stating the scientific facts. An earth-grazing asteroid passed us by at a distance of a mere 600,000 km - barely twice as far away our Moon. Had it deviated by a cosmic fraction, Earth could have suffered a cataclysm.
Our concern was heightened by the news that no Skywatch-type program is currently underway, particularly in Australia, which has the scientific capability - and the moral responsibility - to spearhead the southern hemisphere's Skywatch program. We ask concerned Spaced Out members to write to their local Federal MPs and ask that Australia commit a few paltry million dollars to such a valuable program.
The dinosaurs had a good excuse to become extinct - they didn't have the intelligence to look up and evolve. Will humans go out the same way?
Paper
On a completely different note, we remind members that the 2001 Annual General Meeting took place last November - and that copies of the new club Constitution and the Annual Reports which were tabled at that AGM are available to any member who does not already have them. Please contact the club and we will be happy to forward them to you.
We also remind all creative members and friends that the deadline for the next anthology (Solar Spectrum) is 31st March 2002 so that we can compile the finished production in time for the Convergence National SF Convention in June. The deadline for the next club newsletter (Diverse Universe #12) is 1st May 2002. Please get writing, drawing or otherwise creating!
- The Editors.