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What are the Canopus Awards?
The Canopus Awards for Excellence in Interstellar Writing “recognize the finest fiction and non-fiction works that expand our understanding of the challenges, opportunities, pitfalls, and rewards of interstellar space exploration.” They are awarded by the 100 Year Starship organization. (A, L)
What is the 100 Year Starship (100YSS) Organization?
“Led by former astronaut, engineer, physician, and entrepreneur, Dr. Mae Jemison, together with advocates, researchers, industry experts and everyday people from all walks of life is building a global community capable of realizing this audacious journey.” (A, L)
100YSS was launched by NASA and DARPA in 2011 to advance the goal of humanity traveling beyond our solar system within 100 years. Additional funding comes from the private sector (e.g., Ford and Bayer). 100YSS is based in Houston, TX, which becomes important later.
The 100 Year Starship Nexus
100YSS announced the 4-day Nexus event featuring a reception, workshops, symposia, speeches, a watch party for the last moments of the Cassini spacecraft (before burning up in Saturn’s atmosphere), the 2nd Canopus Awards, and more. (A, L)
Example Events:
Canopus Nominations
There were six award categories: Previously Published Long-Form Fiction (40,000+ words); Previously Published Short-Form Fiction (1,000-40,000 words); Previously Published Non-Fiction (1,000-40,000 words); Original Fiction (1,000-5,000 words); Original Non-Fiction (1,000-5000 words); and Original College Writing (1,000-5,000 words).
Works were nominated by the public using an open online form. From there they were narrowed down to finalists and winners by a panel of 100YSS judges.
Patrick pleaded with his Twitter followers to nominate his books:
And on his site:
Patrick did receive a nomination, meaning someone put his name in a form submitted it, but he was not selected to be a finalist by the judging panel. The finalists were announced on April 11th, 2017.
Presumably leveraging his long history of hosting terrible, nearly always unpaid open-mic comedy shows, Patrick was named the host of the upcoming Canopus Awards, initially to be held August 12th, 2017, but ultimately rescheduled to mid-September because of Hurricane Harvey and resulting flooding, which devastated Houston and the surrounding area.
Later the same day as Patrick’s announcement, the 4-day Nexus was canceled:
However, a single, 3.5-hour Nexus event would still be held:
Patrick had stated he would be a speaker, panelist, and Canopus host, but made no mention of the 25Strong event prior to the Nexus cancellation. It seems that they rolled him (literally?) into the sole surviving event as a “special guest,” since he was already available, and, likely, because it was too late to refund his travel and accommodations.
Patrick claims to be the host of the event.
Patrick even got a slick haircut before his trip to California, seen in this very necessary Twitter squabble:
Note that he considered this important enough to warrant uploading a selfie.
Patrick arrives in Santa Monica late afternoon of the day of the event and immediately begins filling up on complimentary (A) champagne at the hotel. Thanks, United States taxpayers and charity donors!
Patrick’s original Nexus duties were all to take place in the Le Meridien Delfina, where he was staying (A, L). The 25Strong event to which he was added seemingly last-minute took place in Los Angeles at the California Science Center 20 minutes away.
Impressively, Patrick manages to arrive at the venue on time:
Brace yourself for his “insufferable” timeline! It must be packed full of updates and pics from the event!
Huh? That’s odd…nothing on the Facebook or Instagram, either. The guy who posts his bad haircuts, burnt scrambled eggs, stupid t-shirts, every “hand sell,” and other mundane nothings posted zero pics from the $300-$2000 per ticket (A) black-tie event attended by numerous politicians, business leaders, astronauts, and celebrities beneath the Space Shuttle Endeavour.
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