Report on Bartow Con

I knew Bartow Con was coming long before it got here. But for a long time, I didn’t think I would be going to it. They had no more vendor’s tables, and the word was that the Klingon table would be outside. I burn at the drop of a sunbeam and don’t handle heat well, so I saw no reason for me to go.

 

But then I was reminded that I was navigator for my husband’s shuttle. I couldn’t get my own costume done in time, so I borrowed a TOS (the original series) costume and got myself ready to navigate. By then, thank goodness, the ‘club’ tables had been moved to a room inside the building. So we loaded up the shuttle with cargo and a passenger and headed out.

 

The event was held on Saturday, Oct 14, at the Bartow Civic Center in Bartow FL. We had to have our area set up and ready by 9:30 AM on the 14^th, or we could arrive Friday afternoon and set it up. We opted to set up on Friday, so we left our home about noon, picked up our passenger about 1, and headed for Bartow using highways and some local roads. We thought about using I4 to get us about halfway there, but it was several miles north of our position, and would have taken us longer.

 

The trip was uneventful except we accidentally turned a little early before we actually reached Bartow City Limits. Luckily, that road dumped us onto Old Bartow Road, which we followed south and came right to the hotel we had booked. So we checked in, unloaded things not needed at our table, and had a very late lunch before we went to the Civic Center.

 

It took us maybe an hour to unload our shuttle and set up our area. Other Klingons were already there, helping the Federation set up their area, but they were mostly done with that and were very helpful in getting us set up. Having accomplished that, we went back to the hotel, had supper and settled in for the night.

 

In the morning on Saturday, hubby was a bit under the weather, so I drove our passenger to the Civic Center and dropped him off. On the way back, I stopped and got some basic meds to treat my hubby. He was mostly garbed when I got to the hotel room, so I helped him finish up, and we were off, arriving at the Civic Center a few minutes before 10, which was when the even began. I dropped Hubby off at the door, then parked the shuttle in the grass with the other shuttles.

 

Our space was in a room with 4 ‘clubs’ having space, and half the room was set up as a panel room. It took some time for people to find this room, but by the time the first panel took place about noon, visitors were pretty common. Two more Klingons showed up about 10:30, meaning we had 8 Klingons in uniform for this event.

 

I spent most of the day at the table space, handing out brochures, business cards and keychains. That allowed the others to wander about the con, seeing what was where and who was there. About 4 times, hubby came back with a cup of flavored shaved ice, which we shared between us. One time, he sent me to get a shaved ice, so I could get whatever flavor I wanted. On my way, I picked up a bag of popcorn, which turned out to be very salty. And another time, one of the Klingons was enjoying some Birthday Cake-flavored cotton candy. I had never heard of that flavor, so she offered me a taste. I pulled off a tiny fluff, and it very definitely tasted like birthday cake!

 

Three times, we gathered all the Klingons together to get some group photos taken at various photo opportunities. The photos were fun, but the process of getting everybody gathered together in one place was like herding cats!

 

Let me describe the venue. The civic center has 2 ‘main entrances’, both of which open into a large room with a stage. This room was filled with vendors selling books, patches, uniforms, foodstuffs, craft items, retro toys… Lots of stuff! There was a smaller room to the south of the west entrance, and this seemed to be full of artists selling their wares. If you turn north before you come in the west entrance, there is another room with more vendors and a guy with 4 or 5 backdrops for photo ops. Now, back through the main room. On the north side of the stage, there was a short hallway that led to the VIP room, where the media guests were selling photos and autographs. There were also other VIPs, such as best-selling authors and the like. If you go through this room and out the other side, you come to an open-air hallway and you find the room where we were located.

Several food trucks were in the parking lot outside the west entrance. If it sounds confusing, it was; there was at least one room I wasn’t aware of before we went to it to have photos taken.

I think we were all agreed that Bartow Con 2023 was not a bad effort for a first con. I don’t know what kind of meeting rooms the local hotels might offer, but they might deserve a look. If the committee finds the Civic Center is their only choice, they might make maps of the facility available, either on the wall near doorways or in a brochure that also lists the panels and where they are located. And if they can find another room, they might consider offering gaming, which is generally pretty popular at these types of gatherings. I wasn’t able to watch it, but I understand their costume call was popular, and in front of the stage was crowded as people waited to hear who won what prize in which category.

 

After the last panel in our room ended about 5:30, 5 or 6 of us started tearing down our display. I walked to the shuttle and brought it around to the closest entrance so we could load up.

 

Five of us were staying at the same hotel, so we all went to supper together and enjoyed ourselves before returning to our rooms for the night.

 

In the morning, we piled our suitcases in the shuttle and headed out a little after 9. I was a little foggy-headed this morning and found myself confused about what direction we would turn as we tried to follow the instructions backwards. Once I confessed that, our passenger got out his Google Maps and took over navigating, sending us cross country on county roads and local streets until we finally got to his house. We helped him unload his stuff, and then headed home, arriving about 11:30.

 

We feel the journey was a success.

Tractor Beams!

Hey, remember the tractor beam used in every Star Trek version, in Star Wars, in - heck - probably hundreds of science fiction movies? Well, they are here!

I read about it a couple days ago. Scientists have figured out how to move things either towards them or away from them using a circular laser. They called it as a doughnut laser, because the middle was empty (of laser light).

With less than 400 words in the article, there wasn’t a lot of information for me to gather, but it also involves putting tiny (microscopic) hollow glass beads coated in gold in the ‘hole’ of the doughnut. Heat from the laser light transfers to the gold of the beads and creates hot spots. When air molecules hit the hot spot, they bounce and speed off, and the bead recoils in the opposite direction. By careful manipulation of the laser’s polarization, the tractor beam operator can decide if the item they’ve grabbed is pulled closer or pushed away.

Okay, Scotty, push that missile away from us and make it fast!

I kinna doo it, Cap’t! There isna enough molecules in space to make that kind o’ tractor beam work!

Yes, I was excited about this announcement until that bit of reality crashed the party. Then I reread the article.

It turns out that what they’ve managed to beam around their lab is an item 2 mm in diameter, which is pretty small. And they moved it not quite 8 inches. Well, it’s a start.

Not sure how they’re going to overcome that ‘not enough molecules in space’ problem, though.

Fact Follows Fiction

Hey, remember that last Star Trek tv show? The one that was a ‘predecessor’ to the Original Series, and thus to all of the Star Trek shows? Earth had just built its first warp-drive spaceship, and sent Capt Archer out to explore the galaxy with a Vulcan First Officer.

I recently stumbled across a news article that pretty much blew my mind and made me think of that show. It seems NASA scientists are designing a warp-drive space ship. Yes, the disk-shape that is so familiar to Trek fans is part of the design. And yes, it is called Enterprise. The IXS Enterprise, to be exact.

I’m not sure how well they can design a warp-drive ship when they haven’t figured out warp drive yet. How much room will they need for engines / warp drive, and how will that equipment need to be distributed around the ship?

In the meantime, scientists are working on warp drive. They think they’ve found a possible ‘loophole’ in the Law of Relativity (which says you can’t go faster than light.) I can’t really explain this ‘loophole’ because the physics are way over my head, but just the thought that they are exploring the possibility is exciting!

Of course, this isn’t the first time that the fiction of Star Trek has become real life fact. If the first ST show hadn’t had those cute flip-top communicators, we might not have cell phones. Their electronic ‘clip-boards’ might well be a predecessor of ipads and ereaders. Cloaking devices? Almost perfected, although not yet ready to be used on starships. And 3-d printers could be a step toward replicators.

Next week - or maybe next month - I expect to hear that some scientist thinks he can make transporter beams. Although, I’m kind of with Dr McCoy on that one. I’m not sure I want my atoms ripped asunder and then reassembled in a new place.

How about you? What science fiction technology would you like to see them start on?

When Science Catches Up with Science Fiction

When I was young and first started exploring the universe through reading, science fiction was considered far more fiction than science. In those stories, ships routinely traveled throughout our own solar system and to planets far away that were either colonized by humans, had its own intelligent population, or both.

By now, people are aware that cell phones were inspired - at least in part - by the communication devices portrayed on the original Star Trek series. We also now have a space station orbiting Earth, as imagined by so many sf authors last century. And thanks to the Kepler telescope, we are becoming aware that our planetary system is not the only one.

In fact, the Kepler telescope has only examined a tiny fraction of our galaxy, and has already discovered thousands of planets, including some that are possibly earth-like, of the proper size in the ‘Golden Zone’, within the distance range from their star to support liquid water. They could be suitable for colonization. Or they might already have an intelligent species we could trade with. Whether we trade artwork and merchandise or bullet-equivalents remains to be seen.

It appears that when we are ready to start exploring outside our own solar system, there will be plenty of places for us to go, just like there were in all those sf books I read as a kid. Science is catching up with science fiction.

At the same time, science has created new branches to explore, which today’s sf writers are using as a springboard to create their futuristic tales. In a few more decades, we get to see science catch up with some of those stories.

I can’t wait.