SFLIS Minutes - April 16, 2003

- The cool people saw Star Crash last week.
  Not the best SF movie ever made, but possibly one of the silliest, as far
  as plot holes and violations of the laws of physics go.  Like with the
  boarding torpedos.  And the giant floating city which bears a strange
  resemblance to a circuit board viewed from close up.  And the ice planet
  where the temperature drops thousands of degrees when the sun goes down.
- For next month's movie, when does X-Men open?  Looks like May 2.  Ok, that's
  Demicon weekend, so we'll probably go see it the following weekend.  Or
  maybe Wednesday night.  We'll start gathering names of those interested
  at next week's meeting.
- Minicon is this weekend.  The 38th one.
  We spend some time discussing their multi-year downsizing plan and the
  progress they're making on it, and the causes of their implosion.
  And then move on to Convergence, which was formed by some former Minicon
  people.
- RPGA Game Day this weekend in the IMU.  Starts at 9am Saturday.
- We see a demonstration of a new toy.  Actually, a digital camera.  It can
  even do short movie clips with sound.
- Anime show flyers are passed around.
- The 1928 version of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde is really awful but the silent
  one from about 1920 is actually pretty good.
- The SWAMP anniversary show is 2 weeks from last weekend and 1 week from this
  weekend.  There will be prizes.
- Discussion about buying a car on ebay is continued from last week.
  Citrus yellow.
- And now we hear some stories about ways to have fun with a 50,000 watt
  transmitter.  Such as - if you hold a fluorescent tube up to it, it will
  light up.  And how they only allow people to get up close to it for two
  minutes at a time.  There are lots of ways to risk your life with it.
- After the transmitter, we move on to more stories from KCRG, and then,
  what would be involved in constructing a space elevator like a tower
  46,000 miles high (to keep it balanced).  How far into the project could
  we get before the thing collapses?  Maybe we could put this in our next
  SFLIS budget.
  How would an aerosol can work in a vacuum?
  Painting transmitter towers.
  And for a building near the tower, how strong does the roof need to be to
  keep from breaking when huge chunks of ice fall from the tower in the
  winter?
  And towers falling down during ice storms.
  And that's it for this week.