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...most singular activity was "filksinging," the science fiction fan's answer to oral literature. A filksong--the name's origin is unknown--is a series of humorous lyrics based on science fiction or fantasy themes, sung to familiar tunes in a disorganized but spirited way. As the night wears on, the singing often degenerates to more widely know, bawdy lyrics, such as "Barnacle Bill the Sailor." But the most creative songs, including "Smaug, the Magic Dragon," "Cthulhu's Days Are Here Again," "Our Space Opera Goes Rolling Along," and "Bouncing Potatoes," circulate in different versions from convention to convention...
Although Wands guessed that the disease may be hormonal or genetic in its origin, he added that it has been linked neither to use of oral contraceptives nor to excessive drinking...
...past year or so the U.S. steel industry has resembled an aging boxing champ, once invincible but now hobbled by old bones and slow reflexes. The young contender has been imported steel, largely of Japanese origin, which in some months has seized a fifth of the domestic market. Late last fall the White House pledged to help salve the champ's wounds by toughening up U.S. sanctions against dumping-that is, selling foreign steel in the U.S. for less than it costs to make, or is sold for, in its home country. Last week the Administration announced details...
...Oceanography, the British Museum and a London-based group of scuba divers. Profusely illustrated with color photographs and specially prepared maps and charts, the book is also a visual delight. But the best feature of this large-format look at aqueous zones is its arrangement. Starting with the origin of the oceans some 4 billion years ago, it moves on through the formation and movement of the continents and proceeds to a discussion of the composition of the seas today. In the course of the trip it discusses, briefly but lucidly, explorations from the time of Columbus and Magellan...
Seventy years ago, in The Secret Agent, Joseph Conrad described an act of anarchist terrorism as "a blood-stained inanity of so fatuous a kind that it was impossible to fathom its origin by any reasonable or even unreasonable process of thought." Today West Germans, in ordeals of introspection and defensive truculence, are trying to understand the almost autistic fury of their own terrorists. Why should their country-its political system stable and democratic, its wealth distributed reasonably well, its society open and obsessively moderate -have produced the murderous young of the Baader-Meinhof gang and the Red Army Faction...