I was at a panel discussion for JPL’s Planetfest ‘81 (done for ABC’s Nightline) with Carl Sagan, Ray Bradbury, Bruce Murray, Gene Rodenbury, and Ted Koppel moderating (Koppel told a wicked funny joke about a “golden urinal” – punchline: “Hey Clarence! I think we found the guy that p!ssed in your saxaphone.”). Bradbury told a story about how anti-nuclear activists outside the fence of a nuclear plant were hypocrites or Luddites or something as we would eventually solve all the problems associated with nuclear power and that anyway it was wrong to stall progress. My brother let out a loud and solitary “Boo!” in back of the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. Bradbury said some sort of comeback resulting in wild applause (including my own). Bradbury then quipped, “I can tell by your reaction that you get it…and that the rest of you @ssholes don’t know what I’m talking about.” I from then on referred to it as “the night Ray Bradbury called my brother an @sshole.” It’s almost three decades later and I know a little more about the lies told in defense of the nuclear power industry (remember the phrase “Power too cheap to meter”?). I think I owe my brother an apology. This doesn't change how much I love(d) Ray, just that his optimism regarding technology could also be misplaced.