Two days before the opening of the largest solar conference in the world, a series of panels and workshops was held for women only. Angered that the solar-energy movement is being dominated by men... ...a film called X-Rated Solar M.E.O.W....was explained by...a "free-lance philosopher and artist of ideas"... "Please," she pleaded with the women on the stage, her voice choking with emotion, "tell me about different ways to organize women around truth, respect, security, and the earth." But rather than plot solar strategy, the opening speakers paid homage to their sister-in-the-sky. In one address the speaker took hold of the microphone and...emitted loud chawnking noises. "I'm trying to chew up the bullshit I've been fed all my life about the limitations I have just because I am a woman." "Uh-oh," cautioned...a member of Mid-American Solar Energy, "we're talking to ourselves again." "There we were," said...a director of the Western Solar Utilization Network, in Oregon, "the earth mothers in one group, and the men, the builders, in another." Women will never make a real impact on the solar energy movement, she said, until they work through their feelings of socialized inferiority "and become solar professionals." ...a "burned-out" teacher turned puppeteer, told how she delivers the solar message to schoolchildren from a theater she carries on her back. One panel...was called "lesbians and Grass-roots Solar Organizing." "Eighty percent of the women in solar building are lesbians. We must recognize our witching powers."
Manifest Destiny, by J. A. Michner
And Americans, men and women alike, will once again be voyaging in space after a period of six years during which we surrendered leadership to the Russians. If it fails, and some ultracautious experts are suggesting that it could, Congress and the public might be tempted to close down major space efforts for several decades. "With this machine we can accomplish miracles. When it becomes functional, the world will experience a surge of excitement." I judge that by the time Flight 17 blasts off on January 31, 1984, it would be practical for the shuttle to carry fare-paying passengers. "Civilian passengers would wear business suits."
Fiction
The Hitmaker, by Cynthia Morgan
The town was perfect. Despite the contract stipulations that no essential changes were to be made in life-style or environment during the year of the contract, locals were always trying to improve their image. ...new furniture, home repairs, painting... Ten years from now, Jordan thought, locals would be running the show. ...that first year's success had been due to the novelty of continuous viewing.
Interview/Peter Glaser, by Douglas Colligan
The NASA people are working with a sixty-satellite scenario for the United States.
...we would not be allowed to create a monopoly with SPS [Solar Power Satellite]. ...we would be the true global superpower. That would be a cause for war. ...we will have to work with other nations.
More and more satellites are being put up in geosychronous orbit. Should we be reserving space for the SPS now?
...satellite functions will have to be amalgamated in satellite platforms.
Some of the equatorial countries are suing for space rights over their land.
...SPS technology will allow us to extend civilization beyond the earth... I picture a scene where the...chief engineer...may say..."We think it will be more economical to use lunar materials to construct the SPS." ...to capture asteroids: we could...use the material there as well.
Transformations, by R. Sheckley
Transformation - its prediction, its control, its meaning - has always been the province of the priest, the shaman, and the artist. Magic...is...the control of changes. Visionary artists increasingly...deal with inner experience... Fantasy thinking...contact with the oldest layers of the human brain...metamorphic references for...psychological states...
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