Monthly Archives: July 2024

MonSFFA Website

Three Months Until the Return of the Super Sci-Fi Book Sale!

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Coming in the Fall…

THE RETURN OF THE SUPER SCI-FI BOOK SALE!

Attention all SF&F readers! MonSFFA is pleased to announce the post-pandemic re-launch of our popular, fund-raising SF&F used book sale!

In just three months, the club’s Super Sci-Fi Book Sale will return! Mark Saturday, October 19 in your calendars! The sale opens to the public from 12:00PM to 3:30PM!

Tell All of Your Friends!

Amazing prices on thousands of amazing stories by science fiction and fantasy authors from Asimov to Zelazny!

We’ve got plenty of inventory left over from past sales, plus lots of fresh stock, including items from the legacy of our late friend, collector, and club member Sylvain St-Pierre! And we’re clearing it all at our astonishingly low prices!

Piles of Paperbacks! Boxes of Books! An Astounding Assortment Available, Including…

Trade Paperbacks and Hardcovers! Anthologies and Specialty Books! Magazines and Comics! Plus DVDs! UNIMAGINABLE, UNBELIEVEABLE, UNBEATABLE BARGAINS!

Publications en Français Aussi!

The Lowest Prices In the Galaxy! Bulk Book Bargains; the More you Buy, the More you Save!

EVERYTHING! MUST! GO!

Club's Summer BBQ, MonSFFA special event

Picnic in the Park!

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On the 14th,  we convened at Maisonneuve Park near the Insectarium for our annual BBQ in the park. Dan Kenney took the following photos of the event. Click to view full size.

Something to keep in mind for next year: While the Viau metro is the closest to the site, it involves a fairly long walk uphill, which is a bit rough in the extreme weather. If you get off at Frontenac, you can get a bus, 185, that runs along Sherbrooke and will deposit you right in front of the park.

MonSFFA Website

Club’s e-Picnic 2024 Will Take Place in Two Weeks!

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MonSFFA’s Summer BBQ was held earlier today; our next event, an online “e-Picnic” on ZOOM, will follow in two weeks time, on Sunday, July 28!

(Click on Images to view Full-Size)

SUNDAY, JULY 28, 1:00PM: e-Picnic 2024

In particular for our out-of-town members and friends, and any who couldn’t make it to the Summer BBQ, MonSFFA will host an “e-Picnic” via ZOOM (www.MonSFFA.ca) on Sunday, July 28, beginning at 1:00PM—have your favourite summer snacks and libations on hand!

In addition to talking with friends online about any and all topics SF/F and fannish, we’ll have opportunity to view an album of photographs snapped by those MonSFFen who took part in our field trip to the Montreal Biodome last month.

Plus, we’ll invite folk to “show-and-tell” the group about any cool sci-fi destinations or events they’ve enjoyed on vacation during this first half of summer—conventions, museums, theme parks, shows! Share your experiences, and any photos, with the group!

SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP (ART)

And, we’ll take the opportunity to hold our very first meeting of the club’s Special-Interest Group (SIG) for Art. If you’re interested in sci-fi art, be sure to take part!

Host Keith Braithwaite will give a talk/workshop on “How to Create Sci-Fi Art Without Knowing How to Draw!”

See You On ZOOM in Two Weeks!

MonSFFA Website

No Rain in Forecast; Club’s Summer BBQ Today is a “Go!”

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TODAY’S MonSFFA SUMMER BBQ IS A “GO!”

TODAY, July 14, Beginning 10:00AM, Parc Maisonneuve (Next to Olympic Stadium and Botanical Gardens)

Today’s weather forecast remains excellent: sunny and hot; no rain! The club’s Summer BBQ will, therefore, proceed as planned.

(Click on Image to view Full-Size)

MonSFFen and their families, as well as  friends of the club, are invited to gather beginning at about 10:00AM today in Parc Maisonneuve for the club’s 2024 Summer BBQ!

Parc Maisonneuve, easily accessible by Metro (Viau, Pie-IX) or bus, is located in the city’s East End, adjacent the Olympic Stadium and the Botanical Gardens. Parking is available on site, or on nearby streets.

Our intention is to claim a picnic spot somewhere along one of the lines of trees in the park, not too far from the parking lot and the Chalet; our “Preferred Picnic Area” is indicated on the map (above; click on image to enlarge). Look for us within roughly that area.

So join MonSFFA for a relaxing day in the park! Friends, fun, food, and fire, the latter provided by the club’s new propane barbecue, which we’ll have on site for those who may wish to grill up a couple of burgers, sausages, and such! Bring your own refreshments, snacks, and any meats you may wish to barbecue. And don’t forget your sunscreen and a sun hat! Note that proper washroom facilities are located a short stroll away in the park’s Chalet.

We hope to see all of you later today…

MonSFFA Website

Club’s Summer BBQ Set for this Sunday, July 14!

MonSFFA’s SUMMER BBQ!

SUNDAY, July 14, Beginning 10:00AM, Parc Maisonneuve (Next to Olympic Stadium and Botanical Gardens)

(Click on Image to view Full-Size)

MonSFFen and their families, as well as  friends of the club, are invited to gather beginning at about 10:00AM in Parc Maisonneuve on Sunday,  July 14, for the club’s 2024 Summer BBQ!

Parc Maisonneuve, easily accessible by Metro (Viau, Pie-IX) or bus, is located in the city’s East End, adjacent the Olympic Stadium and the Botanical Gardens. Parking is available on site, or on nearby streets.

Our intention is to claim a picnic spot somewhere along one of the lines of trees in the park, not too far from the parking lot and the Chalet; our “Preferred Picnic Area” is indicated on the map (above; click on image to enlarge). Look for us within roughly that area.

The weather forecast for the 14th is promising: sunny and hot! So join MonSFFA for a relaxing day in the park! Friends, fun, food, and fire, the latter provided by the club’s new propane barbecue, which we’ll have on site for those who may wish to grill up a couple of burgers, sausages, and such! Bring your own refreshments, snacks, and any meats you may wish to barbecue. And don’t forget your sunscreen and a sun hat! Note that proper washroom facilities are located a short stroll away in the park’s Chalet.

RAIN DATE: Sunday, July 21

NOTE: Should the weather prove inclement on the 14th, and rains fall, the event will be shifted one week forward, to Sunday, July 21. If necessary, we will post a notice on the club’s Website of any change in the schedule by no later than 9:00AM, Sunday morning, the 14th.

MonSFFA Website

July 2024 Issue of Impulse Now Available for Viewing or Download

ATTENTION MonSFFA Club Members!

The latest issue of the club’s news bulletin, Impulse, is now available for viewing or download! The issue covers the club’s upcoming July/Summer events.

Click here to enjoy Impulse‘s July 2024 edition: ImpulseJuly2024(OnlineVersion)PDF

You may also visit the Impulse page of this Website to access this latest, as well as past issues of our club news bulletin.

Space Travel / Exploration

Star Trek’s food replicators may soon be reality!

Star Trek’s food replicators may soon be reality!

I have extracted the paragraphs that are relevant to SF/F fans, the full article is available here: https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240525-what-will-we-eat-on-the-moon-the-food-is-literally-out-of-this-world

The Moon may be the final frontier for mankind, but what will we eat when we get there? Pasta and protein bars made out of thin air are just the beginning.

In 2021, Nasa launched a Deep Space Food Challenge to discover new ways to create food in space with limited resources producing minimal waste, while also providing safe, nutritious and tasty food that can perform on a long-term deep space mission.

We make food out of thin air, quite literally – Artuu Luukanen

Solar Foods, based in Helsinki, is one of the eight companies that has reached the challenge’s final phase. Their remarkable concept: using space waste to create protein.

“We make food out of thin air, quite literally,” says Artuu Luukanen, Solar Foods’ senior vice president in Space and Defence. His company discovered an edible microbe in the Finnish countryside that grows by feeding on a mixture of carbon dioxide, hydrogen and oxygen. The result is a source of protein from bacteria. The protein can be blended with a range of flavours or textures to create various kinds of nutritious food, such as pasta, protein bars, alternative meats and even an egg replacement

“We started thinking about space food because in any space habitat, you have two key waste gases available: hydrogen and carbon dioxide,” Luukanen said. “So what we are talking about here is really not just a food manufacturing technology for space, but something that will be an integral part of the environmental control and life support system.”

Solar Foods’ protein can be turned into a paste or powder and blended with flour and more typical food ingredients to create protein enriched foods such as pasta, protein bars and even chocolate. Experiments are continuing to discover whether it can be mixed with oils and turned into something with a texture of a steak, using a 3D printer.

“””””””””””””

One thing that seems likely is that the future of space food will include fungi. Three of the six finalists in the Nasa Deep Space Food Challenge are working on ideas around fungi, including Mycorena of Gothenburg, Sweden, which has developed a system that uses a combination of microalgae and fungi to produce a mycoprotein (a type of protein that comes from a fungus, often used in alternative meat products).

“Fungi is very versatile,” explains Carlos Otero, who works in the R&D team at Mycorena. “It can grow on different substrates, it grows fast and you can design a small and efficient system capable of producing enough food for the crew. It is also very robust, resistant to radiation and easy to store and transport.”

This space food is all in a closed loop circular system, with an end product that can be 3D printed to create a food a little like the texture of a chicken fillet. An added benefit is that their protein source contains all the essential amino acids the human body needs to function.