This month, we welcome Todd Neff. A former Boulder Daily Camera staff writer (2003-2007) who focused on science and the environment, his book From Jars to the Stars: How Ball Came to Build a Comet-Hunting Machine was published last year. The novel tells the story of how Ball Aerospace—an organization evolved from the Ball Brothers Company of Muncie, Indiana and a group of students in a University of Colorado basement—managed to blast a sizable crater in the comet 9P/Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005.

Don’t miss this program looking at the story about science, engineering, politics and business combining to bring success in the brutal business of space. Copies of the book should be available for purchase/signing as well! For more information, check out www.toddneff.com

On another note, Dave and I went to see Robots At Play last month in Lafayette, along with Fred & Wendy and Owen. The evening of one-act plays was a lot of fun and very different from seeing, say, R.U.R. I especially enjoyed The Uncanny Valley Girl (which included zombies at the end), The Upgrade (in which a household robot develops a verbal glitch and needs a software patch) and the wryly romantic tale of a woman who falls for the perfect man in the park—even if she does have to feed coins into him to get him to move! Two thumbs up.

Sadly, I missed John & Bonnie’s Sci-Fi Film Festival Alternate—got back only that night from New York City and was too fried to make it there. Hope someone will share word on how it went—it’s always a good time,

Dave and I are hosting the Dead Dog party after the meeting this month, I believe—come on by for snacks and conversation!

One topic--either at the Dead Dog or the meeting--needs to be if the club wants to run a fan or dealer's table at MileHiCon. It's a great place to recruit members, but we need people willing to commit to taking a turn sitting the table. Unfortunately, because of my programming duties, I usually can't do much in that line.Please give this some thought before the meeting.
Yours in fandom,
Rose