When I was at the World Science Fiction convention a couple of months ago I had a lot of fun. I got to meet a lot of very cool people, and I was so busy it was hard to find time to blog about it (though I did here and here).
One thing I didn’t mention is that I did a book signing. This made me feel a little weird, as my book is getting a little old (it came out in 2001) and in SF circles I’m not well known. But what the heck, it gave me a chance to sit with some stars who were there to do their signing. I didn’t interact much with most of them (Trek celebs Suzie Plakson and Marina Sirtis were busy and on a tight schedule, for example). But as I sat there, who walks up but an actor I have really liked for a long time: Robert Picardo!
No doubt most BABloggees think of him as the Emergency Medical Hologram from Star Trek: Voyager, but in my heart of hearts he will always be The Cowboy from Inner Space, a most excellent SF comedy. That character was hysterical. So I walked up to him with my Star Trek Concordance (a history of the Trek Universe, a geeky but cool thing for Trekstars to sign) and told him how Mrs. BA and I thought he was terrific as The Cowboy. He laughed, and poo-pooed my book. Instead, he pulls out an 8×10 black-and-white of him as — yes! — The Cowboy, signs it and hands it to me.
That was very cool of him. The stars come to these conventions and sell their wares (pictures, posters, whatever) for $20-$25 a shot, and some of them clean up doing so. Many of them are, um, very strict about such things, and won’t even sign a book unless you pay them. I can understand that, sorta, since collectors can turn around and sell the autographs on eBay.
So like I said, Mr. Picardo was really cool to give me a picture of his. I have it sitting in the pages of the Concordance (next to a picture Chase Masterson gave me of her– and that’s another story, but yowza, and she’s a real sweetie too, and worth her own blog entry here sometime).
In the end, no matter where I am or what I do, I’ll always be a fanboy. I love meeting the celebrities like science fiction actors, and of course the people who create it, too. I’m already looking forward to next year and the next DragonCon!
Tip of the spacesuit helmet to Jack Hagerty for the picture!
November 3rd, 2006 at 4:48 pm
Wow, you meet the coolest of sci-fi people, Phil!
Wonder who else you might meet.
November 3rd, 2006 at 5:39 pm
At first I thought that was Che Guevarra on the T-shirt, but now I think it is Cornelius/Roddy McDowel’s ape from the planet of the apes. I always liked Piccardo too. No big deal stars ask for money for autographs, they have to make a living just like everyone else, contrary to rumors they don’t convert hydrogen to helium and produce a living that way.
November 3rd, 2006 at 8:32 pm
Oh, right, I meant to mention that. The shirt says “Viva la Evolucion!”
November 3rd, 2006 at 8:46 pm
“This isn’t part of my program! I’m a doctor, not a doorstop.”
November 3rd, 2006 at 10:19 pm
It is my understanding that Mr. Picardo is a big fan of “real” science. I often see him at the meetings for the Planetary Society. He seems like a nice guy and I know he goes out of his way to support space exploration.
November 4th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Here’s his website
http://www.robertpicardo.com/
November 4th, 2006 at 9:53 am
Strange. On the day that the NSF announced plans to axe half of its radio astronomy facilities, including America’s only ground-based Nobel Prize winning telescope, and to sack most of the staff at its optical telescopes, the BA seems more concerned about meeting space cowboys!
Come on, BA, you’re always quick off the mark with NASA news – do you really only care about telescopes that fly?
Just in case others also missed the news – Arecibo Observatory (the world’s biggest radio telescope, representing 3/4 of the total collecting area of US radio telescopes) and the VLBA (the worlds highest resolution radio telescope) are both to be shut. The Arecibo Visitor’s Center is (bizarrely) recommended to stay open – although it seems unlikely that 120,000 people will continue driving half an hour into the jungle to look at a hole in the ground that used to contain a telescope!
November 4th, 2006 at 10:58 am
Thank you for a wonderful site. This post may be “off topic”, but I just had to put my two cents in.
November 5th, 2006 at 9:45 am
Rob: I went to the Arecibo site, checking their news and there was no mention of closing the observatory. Where’s the report you’re citing?
GAry 7
November 5th, 2006 at 10:01 am
Upon furthur inspection of the picture I note that, except for the glasses, the two of you are obviously brothers,,,,right???
Gary 7
November 5th, 2006 at 11:51 am
Gary,
Here’s the report that Rob refers to, particularly page 64:
http://www.nsf.gov/mps/ast/seniorreview/sr-report.pdf
It doesn’t exactly say that these facilities are to be shut down. It does warn that funding prioritisation will make closures a real threat within the next few years, unless the managing institutions aggressively seek out co-funding with international sources.
November 5th, 2006 at 11:44 pm
Rob, before you jump all over me, no, I hadn’t heard that — I have been out of town and out of email contact since Saturday morning. Checking my email now I do see several responses from astronomical organizations. I’ll look them over and post my opinion later.
Mark Martin is right– this report is not an official NSF declaration, it is a recommendation by the Senior Review. Also, they say that unless funding is found, then by 2011 VLBA and Arecibo should be shut down. That’s a very different situation that what you said. Although the Senior Review report is taken very seriously, I don’t think the NSF must follow it. And even if they do follow it, I’ll reiterate that the report does not say those facilities must be shut down, only that they should be if more money isn’t found.
And that quip about me only caring about telescopes that fly is unfair, and IMO over the line. I can take a lot of heat from people, obviously, but I’d prefer the discourse here remain civil, whether it’s about me or anyone else.
November 6th, 2006 at 10:27 am
I did a quick read of the Executive Summary and the effected section, and it appears to me that the recommendation to close those facilities is a priority driven choice, to allow building newer, more capable facilities. The statement made is this:
The italics for emphasis. They appear to be saying that the VLA facilities are heavily used by other organizations. Thus, they are footing the overhead for other groups’ use.
Further reading in the section provides the followiing comments:
In other words, the NSF if funding the building of a new larger, steerable, more capable telescope to replace Arecibo. Arecibo would either need to find alternative funding, or they would decommission it because they do not have funding to operate both facilities, so they eliminate the least capable one.
In other words, the NSF mandate is to primarily support American astronomical research. The VLF is being primarily used by researchers from other countries and other agencies. It is, therefore, a reasonable expectation that those organizations take on the overhead of operating the facilities and free up the NSF personnel to staff telescopes that are being used by American researchers. Like their new, more capable facilities in the SKA. Read also section 5.3.1.3.
In other words, their actual recommendation is to upgrade the VLA facilities and continue to operate them, but only if the agencies using the telescopes contribute to their operational costs. Seems fair.
Seems to me, Rob, that because you heard/read about the closure and only saw Phil’s lighter posting, you rushed to the conclusion that Phil wasn’t interested. That doesn’t seem fair. News takes time to spread, especially when one is away from their primary means of getting that information. Try giving people the benefit of the doubt.
November 6th, 2006 at 12:03 pm
I read all that in the original post. There’s only so much money to go around and the responsible agencies seem to be doing the best they can to allocate it. New ’scopes ARE needed and planned. So IF the oldies can’t be supported, they will be superceded and though I would prefer the VLBI remain operational, Arecibo may well have outlived it’s greatest usefulness. So, bash ME if you wish. I don’t care. The BA does the best he can and that’s pretty darn good,,,I probably wouldn’t even have known about the ’scopes were it not for this site.
Gary 7
November 6th, 2006 at 2:15 pm
Sorry about the ‘telescopes that fly’ quip – it was meant to be light hearted, not sarcastic. I’m a keen reader of the Blog and I know he’s very good on a lot of things.
However, the threat to Arecibo and the VLBA should not be underestimated. As far as the report is concerned the NSF should withdraw funding from them. The bit about the SKA and Arecibo doesn’t make much sense – the SKA will not be a single dish, and will not be operating for at least a decade after the proposed closure date of Arecibo. If any of the US telescopes is replaced by the SKA, it is the (E)VLA – which is an interferometer with a smaller area and lower resolution than the proposed SKA.