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Birmingham Science Fiction Group
The Birmingham Science Fiction Group (BSFG), also known as the "Brum Group", held its first meeting on 25 June 1971. It runs regular meetings in Birmingham, England, where SF fans can meet one another and professionals in the field in a friendly environment, and has organised the annual SF convention Novacon since 1972. History There were at least two previous versions of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group prior to the launch of the current incarnation in 1971 (many of those involved had been members of the 1960s fan scene, described in Peter Weston's hardback memoir ''With Stars in My Eyes''). Initially, it shared Britain's second city with the Aston Science Fiction Group, which hosted the first Novacon that same year; by 1972, the Brum Group had become the dominant SF gathering in the region and took over Novacon from that year onwards. In contrast to many of its contemporaries, the BSFG had a formal constitution (copied in part from a local branch of the Young Conservative ...
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Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West Midlands metropolitan county, and approximately 4.3 million in the wider metropolitan area. It is the largest UK metropolitan area outside of London. Birmingham is known as the second city of the United Kingdom. Located in the West Midlands region of England, approximately from London, Birmingham is considered to be the social, cultural, financial and commercial centre of the Midlands. Distinctively, Birmingham only has small rivers flowing through it, mainly the River Tame and its tributaries River Rea and River Cole – one of the closest main rivers is the Severn, approximately west of the city centre. Historically a market town in Warwickshire in the medieval period, Birmingham grew during the 18th century during the M ...
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David A
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the third king of the United Kingdom of Israel. In the Books of Samuel, he is described as a young shepherd and harpist who gains fame by slaying Goliath, a champion of the Philistines, in southern Canaan. David becomes a favourite of Saul, the first king of Israel; he also forges a notably close friendship with Jonathan, a son of Saul. However, under the paranoia that David is seeking to usurp the throne, Saul attempts to kill David, forcing the latter to go into hiding and effectively operate as a fugitive for several years. After Saul and Jonathan are both killed in battle against the Philistines, a 30-year-old David is anointed king over all of Israel and Judah. Following his rise to power, Dav ...
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Culture In Birmingham, West Midlands
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tylor, Edward. (1871). Primitive Culture. Vol 1. New York: J.P. Putnam's Son Culture is often originated from or attributed to a specific region or location. Humans acquire culture through the learning processes of enculturation and socialization, which is shown by the diversity of cultures across societies. A cultural norm codifies acceptable conduct in society; it serves as a guideline for behavior, dress, language, and demeanor in a situation, which serves as a template for expectations in a social group. Accepting only a monoculture in a social group can bear risks, just as a single species can wither in the face of environmental change, for lack of functional responses to the change. Thus in military culture, valor is counted a typ ...
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British Science Fiction
British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, the English language as spoken and written in the United Kingdom or, more broadly, throughout the British Isles * Celtic Britons, an ancient ethno-linguistic group * Brittonic languages, a branch of the Insular Celtic language family (formerly called British) ** Common Brittonic, an ancient language Other uses *'' Brit(ish)'', a 2018 memoir by Afua Hirsch *People or things associated with: ** Great Britain, an island ** United Kingdom, a sovereign state ** Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1800) ** United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1922) See also * Terminology of the British Isles * Alternative names for the British * English (other) * Britannic (other) * British Isles * Brit (other) * ...
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Science Fiction Organizations
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for scientific reasoning is tens of thousands of years old. The earliest written records in the history of science come from Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in around 3000 to 1200 BCE. Their contributions to mathematics, astronomy, and medicine entered and shaped Greek natural philosophy of classical antiquity, whereby formal attempts were made to provide explanations of events in the physical world based on natural causes. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, knowledge of Greek conceptions of the world deteriorated in Western Europe during the early centuries (400 to 1000 CE) of the Middle Ages, but was preserved in the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age and later by the efforts of Byzantine Greek scholars who brought Greek m ...
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NESFA
The New England Science Fiction Association, or NESFA, is a science fiction club centered in the New England area. It was founded in 1967, "by fans who wanted to ''do'' things in addition to socializing". NESFA is currently registered as a non-profit literary organization under IRS section 501(c)(3). The organization holds regular meetings (at their dedicated site, the NESFA Clubhouse) of and for members and other interested parties. A weekly meeting is held most Wednesday evenings, for socializing, projects, and miscellaneous business. Two weekend meetings are held every month: a Business Meeting (for administration), and the Other Meeting. The club also publishes a regular newsletter, ''Instant Message''. There are two book groups that meet on a monthly basis, as well as a monthly Game Day, and a monthly Game Night. In addition, there is a monthly Media day. This involves showings of two episodes of an anime series, two TV series episodes and a movie choice. All are scienc ...
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Martin Tudor (science Fiction Activist)
Martin Tudor is an active British science fiction fan, editor or co-editor of several science fiction fanzines (''Empties'' and the semi-professional ''Critical Wave''), and a member of various convention committees, most notably Novacon (he has chaired more of these than anyone else). He ran the fan programme at the 1987 worldcon in Brighton. In addition, during the early 1990s, he freelanced as a book reviewer for the magazine publisher Pegasus. Tudor was the 1996 TransAtlantic Fan Fund winner, having stood unsuccessfully in 1988. A collection of his articles for ''Empties'' and other fanzines, ''The Tudor Dynasty'', was edited by Bernie Evans and published during the 1996 campaign; his TAFF trip across the United States was later chronicled in ''Have Bag, Will Travel'', sections of which had actually been published in the UK whilst he was still in the US. Following Tudor's return to the UK, both he and Dan Steffan (the North American TAFF administrator ) were criticised by ...
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Rog Peyton
Roger "Rog" Peyton (born 1942) is an English science fiction fan, bookseller, editor and publisher from Birmingham. Peyton has been an active member of science fiction fandom since 1961, when he co-founded the Birmingham Science Fiction Group. From 1964 to 1966, he served as editor for the British Science Fiction Association's critical magazine '' Vector''. He also started the British Science Fiction Association's fiction magazine Tangent. He began a long tradition of working on science fiction convention organizing committees with work for Brumcon 2, the 1965 Eastercon. Since then he has attended over 150 science fiction conventions including being one of only six (The Magnificent Six) who have attended all 45 Novacons and in 1979 won the Doc Weir Award for his services to fandom. In 1971 Peyton and business partner Rod Milner launched a part-time bookselling business, Andromeda Book Company, in Old Hill, a few miles outside of Birmingham. Moving into the city centre ...
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Bob Shaw
Robert Shaw (31 December 1931 – 11 February 1996) was a science fiction writer and fan from Northern Ireland, noted for his originality and wit. He won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 1979 and 1980. His short story " Light of Other Days" was a Hugo Award nominee in 1967, as was his novel ''The Ragged Astronauts'' in 1987. Life Shaw was born and raised in Belfast, the eldest of three sons of a policeman. He learned of science fiction at about 11 years old when he read an A. E. van Vogt short story in an early edition of ''Astounding Science-Fiction'' magazine. During the Second World War American troops passed through Northern Ireland and often left their used SF magazines behind at Smithfield Market, where they were available for locals. He later described the experience as being more significant and long-lasting than taking LSD. He attended Belfast College of Technology. In 1950 he joined the group Irish Fandom, which also included another Northern Irish science fic ...
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Science Fiction Fandom
Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or fandom of people interested in science fiction in contact with one another based upon that interest. SF fandom has a life of its own, but not much in the way of formal organization (although formal clubs such as the Futurians (1937–1945) and the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (1934–present) are recognized examples of organized fandom). Most often called simply "fandom" within the community, it can be viewed as a distinct subculture, with its own literature and jargon; marriages and other relationships among fans are common, as are multi-generational fan families. Origins and history Science fiction fandom started through the letter column of Hugo Gernsback's fiction magazines. Not only did fans write comments about the stories—they sent their addresses, and Gernsback published them. Soon, fans were writing letters directly to each other, and meeting in person when they lived close together, or when one o ...
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Harry Harrison (writer)
Harry Max Harrison (born Henry Maxwell Dempsey; March 12, 1925 – August 15, 2012) was an American science fiction author, known mostly for his character The Stainless Steel Rat and for his novel '' Make Room! Make Room!'' (1966). The latter was the rough basis for the motion picture '' Soylent Green'' (1973). Long resident in both Ireland and the United Kingdom, Harrison was involved in the foundation of the Irish Science Fiction Association, and was, with Brian Aldiss, co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group. Aldiss called him "a constant peer and great family friend". His friend Michael Carroll said of Harrison's work: "Imagine ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' or ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'', and picture them as science-fiction novels. They're rip-roaring adventures, but they're stories with a lot of heart." Novelist Christopher Priest wrote in an obituary Career Before becoming an editor and writer, Harrison started in the science fiction field as an illus ...
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Brian Aldiss
Brian Wilson Aldiss (; 18 August 1925 – 19 August 2017) was an English writer, artist, and anthology editor, best known for science fiction novels and short stories. His byline reads either Brian W. Aldiss or simply Brian Aldiss, except for occasional pseudonyms during the mid-1960s. Greatly influenced by science fiction pioneer H. G. Wells, Aldiss was a vice-president of the international H. G. Wells Society. He was (with Harry Harrison) co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group. Aldiss was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America in 2000 and inducted by the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2004. He received two Hugo Awards, one Nebula Award, and one John W. Campbell Memorial Award. He wrote the short story " Supertoys Last All Summer Long" (1969), the basis for the Stanley Kubrick–developed Steven Spielberg film '' A.I. Artificial Intelligence'' (2001). Aldiss was associated with the British New Wave of science fiction. Life and ca ...
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