The Michigan Daily-Tuesday, January 1, 1978-Page 7

S. African forum announced

(Continued from Page 1)
and
-Jan van Rooyn, Office of the
Economic Councillor, Embasy of the
Republic of South Africa to the United
States.
The committee hopes to round out the
bill with several local personalities,
possibly to include Business School
Prof. Paul. McCracken, former chair-
man of the Council of Economic Ad-
visors under Nixon, and Political
\Science Prof. Joel Samoff.
AN EFFORT IS also being made to
engage Ambassador Donald McHenry,
U.S. mission to the U.N.; and Donald
Woods, the anti-apartheid South
Farmers
shut down.
exchange
(Continued from Page 1)
withholding livestock (from the mar-
ket) is not the answer," he said.
PASCOE SAID his office warned
livestock farmers of the protest and
most decided to avoid it. But the
protesters on the street said most
livestock men they turned away
sympathized with them.
According to Pascoe the protest
hurt the exchange. "We lose business
that we will never get again," he
said.
The protest forced livestock farm-
ers to sell their animals at other ex-
changes in the area. Pascoe said
trucks were "lined up down the
road" at a livestock exchange north
of here.
"We are going to take all steps to
avoid shutdowns in the future," he
said.

African newspaper editor who last
week escaped from his home to seek
asylum in England.
"I think it's encouraging," said Ema,
but he added, "It's unfortunate that
they left out some of the African
professors here."
Ema also expressed dismay that no
black South Africans were invited.
"That's what shocks me a great deal.
He said it was necessary to have people
who have experienced life in South
Africa "to get the true picture."
AFTER CUTLER was told of Ema's
concern about equal representation he
said, "To the list of people. . . I would
be open to and willing to add."

The forum planned for the end of this
month fulfills one aspect of the function
of the committee according to Cutler.
The forum will provide "a channel of
communication from the community to
the decision makers," said Cutler.
Bedbugs can survive for a year
without a meal if necessary, while
waiting for a warm-blooded victim.
While their bites are painful, the
sting of their Latin American rela-
tive, the kissing bug, is excruciating,
and the disease it carries, known as
Chagas, can be fatal.

Daily Photo by PETER SERLING
An entire galaxy of unearthly delights descended upon the Ann Arbor Inn Sunday for a national Sci-Fi convention-where
the only rule was non-convention. Above, two bug-eyed visitors from an unknown planet ask to be taken to our leader.
Sci-f fans escape 'mundanes';
ock to monstrous convention

Creative Opportunities
UNIVERSITY ACTIVITIES CENTER (UAC) is now
accepting applications for the positions of President,
Personnel Vice President, Financial Vice President
and Public Relations Vice President for the 1978-79
academic year. UAC provides cultural programming
and entertainment for students at the U. of M. Four
energetic and responsible individuals are needed
to coordinate this totally student run organization.
Application, job descriptions, and more infor-
motion available at the UAC offices, second
floor, Michigan Union, or by calling 763-1107.
Applications due January 20, 5:00 p.m. p

By R. J. SMITH
Late Saturday night at the Ann
Arbor Inn, worlds collided. As a
:seemingly endless parade of yellow
and green caterpillars, Darth, Va-
'ders, various menacing aliens and a
five-foot-tall bright red extra-terres-
trial feline descended the stairs to the
lobby, onlookers gaped in disbelief.
"What on earth is going on here?"
.a guest asked no one in particular.
'The answer, he was finally told, was
"Confusion Pi," a weekend of activi-
ties, some more unearthly than
others, for Ann Arbor's science
.fiction fans.
DAVID INNES, chief pilot for the
Stylyagi Air Corps, the local science
fiction group which sponsored the
event, called this year's "con" the
best ever in its four-year history. The
convention, he said, drew 450 people.
In addition to people from a wide
range of age groups, regions, and
occupations, the convention also
drew a handful of notable science fic-
tion authors, including Gene Wolfe,
Lloyd Biggle, and Kate Wilhelm.
While participants gave a variety
of reasons for their attendance, most
seemed to agree that-it was partly to
.escape the everyday world of non-
science fiction readers - referred to
by the fans as the world of "mun-
danes"-
"A convention is a place we can
feed up, pop a beer in our hand, and
talk our damn heads off," explained
cdnventioneer Roger Olson.
OLSON, in one world a group
:therapist from Walled Lake, roamed
throughout much of the convention in
a bright red monk's robe. Gesturing
'dangerously with a five-inch dagger
- "I usually have a sword with
me"-Olson'pointed around the room
to various accountants, engineers,
and students, and explained what he
thought brought the diverse group
together.
"You can come to a 'con', and no
matter who you are you can do just
what you want witlhin limits," Olson
said. "You can talk to anyone .. .

these are people who read about
bug-eyed monsters and laser beams,
people who know what outer space is
like. So, anything that has two legs
and a head is friend."
There was an almost monstrous
schedule of events for the "fen" -
the sci-fi plural of fan - to engage in,
including a room for sci-fi hucksters,
as they are called. Thousands of
books and bric-a-brac filled rows of,
tables. Star Wars merchandise was
predictably hot, and trinkets suchfas
Darth Vader belt buckles and Death
Star boarding passes - signed by the
Grand Moff Tarkin himself - were
extremely popular.
A TABLE for selling records was
set up, but it's doubtful any will make
the top ten. Boxes were filled with
selections like "Dracula's Greatest
Hits", and the soundtrack to "Where
the Boys Meet the Girls! ".
Another popular convention con-
vention is the art of "filksinging,"
only roughly comparable to that of
folksinging. "Filk songs" are quite
diverse, running the gamut from,
sci-fi parodies to lyrical pastorals.
One fan commented that a fine
filksinger is as "transcendental" as a
good sci-fi story.
Most of the filksinging was done
late at night, when if one was lucky
he might have caught award-winning
sci-fi author Joe Haldeman perform-
ing [I've got those] Locked Up in a
Spaceship for a Year Without No
Women Blues, or the Ballad of
Orbital Hubris.

Present at thisyear's convention
was the famous Filthy Pierre.
Pierre, known to mundanes as Erwin
Strauss, a Washington, D.C. comput-
er programmer, has gained notoriety
in sci-fi circles for hopscotching
across the country at the rate of
about twenty "cons" a year.
SOUTHERN conventioneers like to
play Hearts a lot . . ." said Filthy.
"The east coast people tend to be
more organized. The Midwestern
cons usually are more relaxed -
there's not as much drinking and
carousing.
"West coast fandom is peculiar.
There's really only two cities - L.A.
and San Francisco - with a great
void in between . . . although some-
one wrote a filksong called I Wish
They All Could be Californian Fans,
so that tells you something," he said.
Sci-fi fans say they have an unfair
image - big kids, misfits and
oddballs. Man may have walked on
the moon, but Star Wars is still
fantasy with a capital "F".
What was evident at the Ann Arbor
Inn last weekend, besides the mas-
sive quantity of liquor consumed, and
the walking felines from outer space,
was an unabashed, uninhibited ex-
change of ideas one rarely gets in the
everyday world.
As Christopher Winter, a student
from South Bend, Indiana, said,
"Man wouldn't be anywhere if people
didn't say 'what if?' . . . just, what
if?".

u+aw k.«noafor .

Good Management is Creative.


The No. 1 Rock-n-Roll Disco
737N. Huron
(atLowelljust east of the E.M.U. Campus)
WED., Jan. 18th & THURS., Jan. 19th
SALEM WITCHCRAFT
The Tops in Rock and Roll
WED: Haiy Hourprices until bond starts playing
rmR: Rock-befom drink w drown prices until a band starts playing
See Our NEW, EXPANDED Dynamite Light ShowS

T/*;
NIGf
SPECIAL PRICES
South University near Washtenaw " 769-1744


Still Room on the Ground Hoor for
Computer Careers at Amdahl-

TODAY ONLY

Computer professionals are aware that
today's most advanced large-system
technology was developed by a company
that, not too long ago, was virtually
unknown. It was during late 1975-
when Amdahl delivered its first multi-
million-dollar 470V/6 system follow-
ing a 5-year, $50,000,000 effort-that
the company first attracted wide-
spread industry attention. Now, Amdahl
is the most talked about company in
the industry: a compact group of highly.,
talented high technologists producing
the world's highest performing general
purpose computers, the V/5, V/6 and
V/7. Over a quarter billion dollars
worth of Amdahl systems is now
working worldwide in every industry
sector using large-scale computers.
The original design team is still vir-
tually intact and working on future
systems. Although we are growing at

an extremely rapid pace, we are com-
mitted'to retaining the same creative
environment that yielded the V/5,
V/6,and V/7. We are still small by com-
puter industry comparisons. We are
still friendly. We still enjoy attacking
tasks because we think it's fun. And
we still reward personal efforts with
personal recognition.
We think Amdahl is a great place
to work. There's still room on the
ground floor for you if you are about
to receive a BS or advanced degree
in electrical engineering or computer
sciences, and consider yourself a cut
above your classmates in competence,
enthusiasm and potential.
Amdahl Corporation, 1250 East
Arques Avenue, Sunnyvale, California
94086. We are an equal opportunity
employer.

Traliwise Manitoba
14 ozs. High Loft Down
65/35 Shell

We are coming to campus to fill
positions in hardware, firm-
ware and hardware-related soft-
ware. We are specifically
interviewingfor logic and firm-
ulnr d eirol "Vf 42'(')~4~ '"d'~C

hardware-related, software
diagnostic engineers, design
automation programmers, and
control programmers for our
mini-based console.

-S 1A i5

ennnn

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