Known to fans of Dr Who as Donna’s grandfather, he’s also responsible for, “Right, Said Fred”, my favourite silly song. You may also remember him from an episode of Faulty Towers in which he played the part of a spoon salesman whom Basil mistakes for a hotel inspector. –cpl
There’s an extensive obituary on the BBC.
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-13099773
Astronomers have discovered a star that orbits the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy every four years. That’s the shortest orbit ever observed around a supermassive black hole.
The newly discovered star, called S4716, is about four times more massive than our Sun and twice as hot. It survives extraordinary conditions, orbiting this black hole at a distance as close as 100 astronomical units, less than three times the distance of Pluto from the Sun.
The discovery should help astrophysicists better understand conditions near this gravitational behemoth at the center of the Milky Way and to better calculate its mass and radius.
July 29 – 31, 2022 – CanFURence, Ottawa, ON https://www.canfurence.ca
*August 5 – 7, 2022 – MONTREAL, QC, A convention for readers of SF, https://crossingscon.org/
*August 5 – 7, 2022-MONTREAL, QC, Otakuthon, https://www.otakuthon.com/2022/home/
August 12-14 – When Words Collide & Canvention 42 – ONLINE This year the festival is once again online and free to attend, including the Aurora Awards ceremony. Registration via Eventbrite is required. https://www.whenwordscollide.org/
August 25-28, 2022 – Fan Expo, Toronto, ON, https://fanexpohq.com/fanexpocanada/
On Saturday, August 13, starting at 5pm MDT, we invite everyone to join us for the Aurora Awards ceremony. Our Master of Ceremonies, author Mark Leslie Lefebvre, will be live streaming the ceremony on both his YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkPw6Cu3P1c) and our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO7p4geRW6k). The event will also be streamed live on Facebook, with the URL becoming available here about one week prior to the event. This event is open to everyone and is free to watch.
About the Auroras and the Hall of Fame, from the When Words Collide website:
Each year a Canadian convention or festival hosts the floating convention known as Canvention. This year Canvention is being organized by the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (CSFFA), a national non-profit society along with a host convention. CSFFA’s mandate is to give out the Aurora awards and induct people into CSFFA’s Hall of the Fame.
There are twelve different Aurora awards. They are given out for both professional and volunteer (unpaid) work in the genres of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. Works are nominated by members of CSFFA which all Canadians are welcome to join. The top nominated works are shortlisted for the Aurora ballot and voted on by CSFFA members. Through the generosity of the nominees and their publishers, CSFFA members also get to download electronic versions of almost all of the published nominated works.
The Hall of Fame inductees are determined by a jury of four experts and one coordinator from CSFFA.
For full details about CSFFA go to their site at: prixaurorawards.ca