Wednesday, August 27, 2003
I should hope that, by now, most of you know that this evening Mars will be the closest it's been to Earth since 57,670 B.C., and that it will not pass this close again (a scant 34.65 million miles, or 55.76 km) for about 60,000 years. Mars is one of my passions, and tonight Spooky and Jennifer and I will drive out of Atlanta, until we are clear of the city lights, to get the best view possible. Mars rises at 9:56 p.m. (ET), in the southeast. Moonrise isn't until 11 p.m., so Mars will be the brightest object in the sky for more than an hour. Actually, as tonight is the New Moon, it may remain the brightest object until it sets (in the southwest). To put this whole 60,000-year-cycle thing in perspective, the last time Mars was this close to earth, Neanderthals coexisted with Cro-Magnon man in Europe. There were not yet humans in North America, and they were only just reaching China and Australia. Mastodons, mammoths, sabre-toothed cats, cave bears, and the rest of the Pleistocene megafauna had yet to fall to extinction. That's how long it's been since Mars was this close. And it is impossible to guess where humanity, and Earth, will be the next time it passes this near.
I wrote nothing on Chapter Eight yesterday, as Spooky and I ventured out in the heat and the smog running errands, mostly related to costuming at Dragon*Con. The air in Atlanta is a nightmare. I've spent almost all the summer shut away in this room and I honestly wasn't aware just how bad it is. Bad. A gray-brown haze everywhere. I shudder to think at the state of our air in another decade, if nothing drastic is done. Obviously, current pollution control measures are nowhere near adequate. Anyway, we ran our errands, breathing as little as possible, and got most everything done. Today, and hopefully tomorrow, I'll write. I should finish Chapter Eight sometime very soon after Dragon*Con.
I believe that I am beginning to care for this novel. That may seem strange, that I've written some 70K+ words on it and I'm only just now starting to feel for it. Threshold was like that for me, too. But I do fear for it at the hands of editors, reviewers, and readers. It's a whole different flavour for me.
Last night we watched Contact on DVD, which reminded me to plug SETI@home. I run it on my iBook and I urge everyone to look into the programme. It's a grand example of how everyone can take part in scientific research and, in the process, help to offset the enormous costs of pure research. And yes, SETI is a long shot, but can you think of a more worthwhile gamble, so little invested for such an astounding potential pay-off? Anyway, check it out. It's worth your time. I say so.
Finally, someone wrote to ask if I was really going to auction Neil's name badge from NeCon 2000. The answer is yes. I may even try to get it up tonight. Meanwhile, there's lots of other, um, cool stuff available in the "Save Us From August 8th" auction.
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