Suborbital Flights Coming to a Caribbean Island Near You

In their press release dated October 5^th, 2010 Space Experience Curacao (SXC) and XCOR Aerospace, Inc. announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for the wet lease of the Lynx suborbital spacecraft. What exactly is a wet lease? A wet lease is a leasing arrangement whereby one airline (the lessor) provides the aircraft, the complete crew, all maintenance, and necessary insurance (ACMI) to another airline (the lessee), which pays by hours operated. So providing they can get the necessary U.S. Governmental approvals to station the Lynx on the island of Curacao, SXC plans to begin space tourism flight from Space Port Curacao by January 2014.

In a statement as to why XCOR was chosen, SXC Co-founder and Managing Partner Ben Droste said "SXC has chosen the Lynx due to its innovative but straightforward and robust design, as well as its enormous commercial potential and competitive viability. The combination of the Lynx experience with the beautiful and highly suitable location of the Caribbean Island of Curacao is a winning experience in our book. Spaceflight participants will not only have the incredible experience of flying in XCOR's Lynx spacecraft beyond Earth's atmosphere, they will have the added benefit of taking off from and returning to one of the world's best vacation destinations."

It may be time to start saving up for a real adventurous vacation.

XCOR Aerospace is a California corporation based in Mojave, CA. The company is in the business of developing and producing safe, reliable and reusable rocket powered vehicles, propulsion systems, advanced non-flammable composites and other enabling technologies. This is the company that OSFest 3's Science Guest of Honor; Art Bozlee is a part of and offering us looks into what they have been doing at the last two conventions.

Space Experience Curacao (SXC) was founded in 2008 to lead the world changing trend in providing commercial space launch facilities and suborbital flight services from the Caribbean island of Curacao in the Netherlands Antilles, and soon to be an independent governing entity as part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. SXC intends to offer suborbital space tourism flights and scientific research missions out of Space Port Curacao.

Five Million Years to Earth

It was a long and pleasant night last Friday. I hope those of you who are interested in old horror movies, not the slasher films of today but the classic monster movies, were able to catch the entire collection of Hammer Films mummy movies.

This Friday, Turner Classic Movies is showing a different breed of Hammer films. They have more of a science fiction edge to them than the traditional Hammer films of this period. The 8:30 PM (CT) movie is an adaption of the third BBC serial in the Quatermass series; Quatermass and the Pit. It is the first of the Quatermass adaptions that was filmed in color and released in America in 1967 as Five Million Years to Earth. The film was directed by Roy Ward Baker from a script by Nigel Kneale (the man who created Professor Bernard Quatermass for the BBC) and finally replaced the American actor Brian Donlevy in the title role with Scottish actor Andrew Keir. Watch for a very young Julian Glover (General Veers from THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and Walter Donovan from Indy 3) as Col. Breen.

Professor Bernard Quatermass is the head of the British Experimental Rocket Group in the 1950's and 60's. So while digging a new subway line under London an object suspected to be an unexploded bomb from World War 2 is discovered to have very unusual properties, Professor Quatermass is called in for consultation. Of course he believes it is a rocket though not a German one. So where did it come from and why?

The movie version of this story had a much larger special effects budget than the serial and it sets out to show us the answer to this question with disastrous results until Quatermass and his colleagues combine science and superstition to save London. Click here for the trailer.

There were four serials made, three for the BBC and one with Thames Television. THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT and QUATERMASS II have both been lost and the only versions of them available are the Hammer Films versions; THE QUATERMASS XPERMENT and QUATERMASS 2. Both were filmed in black and white ATARRING American actor Brian Donlevy. They are both characteristic genre films of that period. QUARTERMASS AND THE PIT still exists as a serial and movie, FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH. The final entry in the Quatermass collection was a television serial simply named QUARTERMASS starring John Mills that was later released as a film by Euston Films as THE QUATERMASS CONCLUSION. If you follow Doctor Who really close, this is the character referred to in Remembrance of the Daleks (Sylvester McCoy) and Planet of the Dead (David Tennant).

As a kid, this movie gave me a great scare. Today it still holds its own as a well crafted tale. If you have the time on Friday night I believe you will enjoy a voyage that was Five Million Miles to Earth.

Star Wars Celebration V Analysis Part 3

This was a very big convention, with a lot of fans in attendance. That means the security staff had a lot of headaches controlling crowds for special events. Yet the absolutely worst line that I was in the whole time there was the line just to get into the convention area each morning.

Staffers had set aside an entire hall of the Orange County Convention Center just to house that line. First this seems to me, as a convention organizer, a waste of resources. Why rent an entire room whose sole function is to run a line of people arriving at the facility, and only first thing in the morning. Okay, they were expecting, and I understand they got, a tremendously long line for fans wanting to attend the "Main Event". This was the interview of George Lucas by John Stewart. Since my wife and I could not stand in a line overnight to get into the live auditorium, we arrived at the usual opening time for the convention and were able to get into one of the several simulcast rooms. Yes it was a good interview, yes I would have loved to attend in person instead of watching on a theatre style screen, but as was pointed out to us in a panel the first day: would it have been worth the single hour's entertainment to lose the rest of that day to exhaustion from trying to stay in the overnight line. There was too much to do to lose a day like that.

So why did security have to run everyone arriving before 10:30 AM through a line every morning. Your first thought would be badge check. At Megacon (which was held in the same wing of the Orange County Convention Center) in March, they were using a wristband system to control who should be in the convention areas and so ran everyone through a narrow check point to view those wristbands. But Celebration V had a large, colorful badge that you were required to wear that had different Star Wars characters on them for the types of badges they were (Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 4-Day, etc.). This made them very easy to spot and interpret. I didn't notice security checking badges as the line filed in each morning and after the first arrivals had all entered the area, that room was not used again the rest of the day. After that I only noticed security checking badges when people entered the exhibits area. That is not to say they weren't checking them elsewhere, as the best security goes unnoticed.

Finally on this front was the closing of the back entrance to the convention center. The parking lots are behind the center and have an entrance with walkway (they have to go over the loading areas to get the front of the building and the exhibit halls). My wife and I used this entrance extensively at Megacon. She had limited mobility and the elevators and escalators helped her get to the walkway. We arrived the first day assuming that we would have no trouble using this method to get to the center's West Wing, where the convention was held, paid for parking, parked and found we were not allowed to enter this way. In fact we were routed around the entire center. Not a very handicapped friendly greeting for fans. Subsequent days there was a bus to shuttle people from the parking lot to the front, but even then the buses were not allowed to drop people off at the convention entrance. Fortunately, I was able to drop my wife off at the door, then park and take the shuttle myself, as I have not had to have one of my knees replaced. At the end of the day we were able to use the walkway and not have to walk again around the building. But it made for some tension to start off each day.

So what can we learn from this? Imagine yourself handicapped and limited in your mobility as you look at the facilities. Decide how you can overcome the limitations it imposes and don't add security procedures that aggravates those conditions for your attendees.

The Usual Suspects - Nov - Dec. Movie Schedule

The Usual Suspects, a group of movie buffs that meet weekly for the newest (or as close as they can get when you have a double release) genre film. Join them at the Westroads Rave Theatre every Saturday for the last matinee showing of the day. It will be a great time and a wonderful chance to talk about the film you have just seen and others you may or may not have enjoyed. Below is their November and December schedule:

November 6, 2010 – Megamind (Animation, Comedy, Family)
Director: Tom McGrath
Screenwriter: Alan Schoolcraft, Brent Simons
Starring: Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, Ben Stiller
When super villain Megamind defeats his archrival Metro Man , the world should be his oyster. But instead, Megamind falls into total despair. It turns out that life without a rival is life without a point for him. So, he creates a new superhero rival, Titan. Unfortunately, the new hero wants to be a super villain, too.

November 13, 2010 – Unstoppable (Action, Drama, Thriller)
Director: Tony Scott
Screenwriter: Mark Bomback
Starring: Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson, Kevin Chapman
Unstoppable, a 20th Century Fox drama about a runaway train carrying a cargo of toxic chemicals. Pits an engineer and his conductor in a race against time. They're chasing the runaway train in a separate locomotive and need to bring it under control before it derails on a curve and causes a toxic spill that will decimate a town.

November 20, 2010 – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (Adventure, Fantasy)
Director: David Yates
Screenwriter: Steve Kloves
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Jason Isaacs, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, Brendan Gleeson, David Thewlis, Julie Walters, Tom Felton, Bonnie Wright, Jamie Campbell Bower, Richard Griffiths, Matthew Lewis, Evanna Lynch, Fiona Shaw, Helen McCrory, David O'Hara, Natalia Tena
The final chapter of the "Harry Potter" film series begins as Harry, Ron and Hermione leave Hogwarts behind and set out to find and destroy the Horcruxes--the secret to Voldemort's power and immortality.

November 27, 2010 – Faster (Action, Drama) (Note: This movie goes into wide release on the 19th)
Director: George Tillman Jr.
Screenwriter: Joe Gayton, Tony Gayton
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton
An ex-con is bent on avenging the death of his brother murdered 10 years earlier when double-crossed during a heist.

December 4, 2010 – Open

December 11, 2010 – The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Adventure, Fantasy)
Director: Michael Apted
Screenwriter: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, Richard LaGravenese, Michael Petroni
Starring: Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, Ben Barnes, Will Poulter, Gary Sweet, Bruce Spence, Arthur Angel, Shane Rangi, Liam Neeson
This time around – Edmund and Lucy Pevensie, along with their pesky cousin Eustace Scrubb – find themselves swallowed into a painting and on to a fantastic Narnian ship headed for the very edges of the world. Joining forces once again with their royal friend Prince Caspian and the warrior mouse Reepicheep, they are whisked away on a mysterious mission to the Lone Islands, and beyond. On this bewitching voyage that will test their hearts and spirits, the trio will face magical Dufflepuds, sinister slave traders, roaring dragons and enchanted merfolk. Only an entirely uncharted journey to Aslan's Country – a voyage of destiny and transformation for each of those aboard the Dawn Treader – can save Narnia, and all the astonishing creatures in it, from an unfathomable fate.

December 18, 2010 – Tron Legacy (Adventure, Sci-Fi)
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Screenwriter: Eddy Kitsis, Adam Horowitz
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Bruce Boxleitner, James Frain, Beau Garrett, Michael Sheen
"Tron Legacy" is a 3D high-tech adventure set in a digital world that's unlike anything ever captured on the big screen. Sam Flynn, the tech-savvy 27-year-old son of Kevin Flynn, looks into his father's disappearance and finds himself pulled into the same world of fierce programs and gladiatorial games where his father has been living for 25 years. Along with Kevin's loyal confidant, father and son embark on a life-and-death journey across a visually-stunning cyber universe that has become far more advanced and exceedingly dangerous.

December 26, 2010 – True Grit (Drama, Western)
Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Screenwriter: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Hailee Steinfeld, Barry Pepper, Paul Rae
Charles Portis' novel is about a 14-year-old girl who, along with an aging U.S. marshal and another lawman, tracks her father's killer in hostile Indian territory. While the original film was a showcase for John Wayne, the Coens' version will tell the tale from the girl's point of view.

NERDTRON DANCE PARTY: MONSTERS VS ROBOTS

They're at it again. Those overly energetic DJs from Nerdtron are sponsoring another Rave/dance this Saturday at the Comfort Inn & Suites on 72^nd & Grover. On October 16th the living dead, the blood sucking, fire breathing, tomb crushing Monsters will go heads up against the Transforming, laser blasting, binary coding, combining, mighty morphing robots.

Since they have the facility all day they are planning a variety of activities. From 1-9 PM you are invited to come and hang out with the Nerdtron family (free of charge) for DJ meet up & open decks, hula-hoop, break dancing & poi (the art of spinning glow sticks) instruction/exhibitions, along with tabletop, board, & card gaming in the hotels common area.

There will an official photo shoot from 8 PM until Midnight with roving still and video cameras later.

The main event, for which there is a $5 charge, is from 10 PM until 2 AM in the Main Ballroom of the Comfort Inn. The Nerdtron DJs; Kid Dynamite and 2600, will be launching a full on robotic assault, giant robots and all, as they go heads on against: the Monsters of Re-animated, The Knights of Slam-A-Lot (from Kansas City), The Kandi Kid Assassin, and Willis Voodoo. (Sounds like one of the movies TCM is running over Halloween weekend – see my earlier blog.) All this and free glow sticks – remember the poi lessons?

This event is a benefit for the Omaha Science Fiction and Fantasy Festival, so come out and have a good time knowing that you are helping to keep a great SF convention in Omaha.

Hammer Films Festival

I can go for months monitoring the schedule of Turner Classic Movies and not find anything I would like at a reasonable time of day. Earlier this year they ran a retrospective of Akira Kurosawa films and the ones I really wanted to see were on well past my ability to stay awake for. Then I let my eye wonder from the schedule and something like the Hammer Films Festival comes to the channel. So I missed the first two Fridays worth of movies but I (and you) still have three left.

Friday, October 15^th, they will be running the entire Mummy series of Hammer Films beginning at 7PM Central Time. THE MUMMY, the first in the series reunites Peter Cushing (as John Banning) and Christopher Lee (as the Mummy, Kharis) with direction by Terence Fisher (a name to watch for when viewing Hammer Films). It will be followed by THE CURSE OF THE MUMMY'S TOMB, THE MUMMY'S SHROUD, and BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY'S TOMB which is the order they were released in. If you can keep going, TCM is following those up with the 1984 film REPO MAN. This is a classic film well worth watching right up to the ending when they find out what is in the trunk of the car they have repossessed. With the SyFy Channel going to wrestling on Friday nights – this is a great alternative.

Friday, October 22^nd, we get four of the lesser known Hammer entries. X THE UNKNOWN, FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH (a film adaption of the BBC miniseries Quatermass and the Pit. It scared the pants off me when I was a kid), THESE ARE THE DAMNED, and THE STRANGLERS OF BOMBAY. While Hammer films actually adapted the first three Quartermass miniseries into movies, which at that time was the only way American audiences could get to see them, FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH was the best known and the only one filmed in color. It was directed by another directorial name to watch for Roy Ward Baker. It was written by Nigel Kneale, who wrote the script for both the movie and the TV miniseries. Have fun, be scared, but think nice thoughts about your neighbors – even if they are Martians.

Finally on Friday, October 29^th, after a full day of classic monster movies, TCM will be showing about half of the Frankenstein movies Hammer created. THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN, FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN, and FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED all star Peter Cushing as the good doctor as he prefects his reanimating techniques through 19^th century Europe. Terence Fisher is again the director of all these films. And the classic horror movies don't stop there. Right up through Halloween night TCM will keep the chills going with the horror movies we all grew up with. It's going to be a tough weekend to get through but it will be great fun.

Comp bra ti tion

[komp-brah-tish-uhn]
noun~ the act or process of competing to make the most fabulous, awe-inspiring, funniest, or fanciest bra to raise money & awareness for the American Cancer Society.

 

Hello Everyone,

I think the majority of you who receive this email know me. My name is Chris Edmunds and I am a local costumer, seamstress, sci-fi fan and a cancer survivor. I am putting out a challenge to anyone who would like to participate, to help decorate bras for the local (Omaha) American Cancer Society. Locally some ladies have been decorating bras for a number of years and selling them at the Relay for Life every June. Now that I have become involved, I am hoping you all can help me get them more (and crazier) bras that they can either sell or auction at next year's event. The Relay for Life will be the second Saturday of June (11^TH) in 2011 at the new Elkhorn High School (Elkhorn South). The Relay starts at 5pm and goes all night (why? Because cancer never sleeps so the relay teams walk all night).

Since I am also new to this I asked a few questions and here are the answers:

1. We have found that padded bras are the easiest to paint/draw on.  Most people that buy them at the event usually want them for souvenirs.  But a whole bunch of people buy them and wear them over their clothes most of the night.  It's really, really funny.  Guys buy them and wear them too.  (Everybody has fun with that).
   
2. We usually get the bigger bras (36-40 and C cup) but we are not picky.   We hot glue anything and everything on them and when we paint we usually just use fabric paints
   
3. 
   Nothing vulgar. This is a family friendly event and the bras must be the same way. But that doesn't mean you can't have fun with this.
   

 

I have attached some photos of what the local ladies have done in the past plus some ideas from other events across the country. I want to thank everyone who is willing to help donate and/or decorate these bras. Please email me if you are interested in helping with this project and I will keep you up to date on how this challenge is going.

My love to you all and here's hoping that cancer never touches your life.

 

Chris Edmunds

cedmunds@cox.net

 

HISTORY OF THE RELAY FOR LIFE

The American Cancer Society Relay For Life is a life-changing event that gives everyone in communities across the globe a chance to celebrate the lives of people who have battled cancer, remember loved ones lost, and fight back against the disease. At Relay, teams of people camp out at a local high school, park, or fairground and take turns walking or running around a track or path. Each team is asked to have a representative on the track at all times during the event. Because cancer never sleeps, Relays are overnight events up to 24 hours in length.

Relay began in 1985 when Dr. Gordy Klatt, a colorectal surgeon in Tacoma, Washington, ran and walked around a track for 24 hours to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Since then, Relay has grown from a single man's passion to fight cancer into the world's largest movement to end the disease. Each year, more than 3.5 million people in 5,000 communities in the United States, along with additional communities in 19 other countries, gather to take part in this global phenomenon and raise much-needed funds and awareness to save lives from cancer. Thanks to Relay participants, we are creating a world with more birthdays, a world where cancer can't claim another year of anyone's life.