Pixel Scroll 5/16/18 Ringworlds For Sale or Rent, Moons To Let Fifty Cents

(1) PLANE SPEAKING. CollegeHumor shows what happens when a ticket agent has to deal with the argument that “My Dinosaur Is a Service Animal” (features Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard).

(2) EARLY RETURNS ON 451. Phil Nichols of BradburyMedia saw a preview screener of “HBO’s new Fahrenheit 451” and weighed in on his blog:

…The new Fahrenheit does take many liberties with Bradbury’s story (what, no Millie? Clarisse as a police informant?), but it knows what it’s doing. Specifically, it knows what Guy Montag has to learn, and what he has to become; and it knows what Beatty is in relation to Montag. Most importantly, it knows how to show the relevance of Fahrenheit to today’s world of sound bites, clickbait headlines and fake news. Bradbury said that you don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture; you just have to get people to stop reading. And that’s exactly the world Bahrani has created here….

(3) MORE WORK FOR HOLLYWOOD LAWYERS. “Stan Lee Files $1B Lawsuit Against POW! Entertainment for “Stealing” His Name and Likeness” says The Hollywood Reporter.

The epic battles in Stan Lee’s comics may be nothing compared to the array of legal fights he’s waging — which now includes a billion-dollar lawsuit against the company he co-founded.

Lee is suing POW! Entertainment for fraud and conversion, claiming the company and two of its officers conspired to steal his identity, name and likeness in a “nefarious scheme” involving a “sham” sale to a Chinese company.

POW! was acquired in 2017 by Hong Kong-based Camsing International, and Lee says POW! CEO Shane Duffy and co-founder Gill Champion didn’t disclose the terms of the deal to him before it closed. At the time, Lee claims, he was devastated because his wife was on her deathbed and they took advantage of his despair — and his macular degeneration, which rendered him legally blind in 2015.

Lee says last year Duffy and Champion, along with his ex-business manager Jerardo Olivarez, whom he’s currently suing for fraud, asked him to sign a non-exclusive license with POW! for the use of his name and likeness in connection with creative works owned by the company. Instead, what he purportedly signed was a “fraudulent” intellectual property assignment agreement that granted POW! “the exclusive right to use Lee’s name, identity, image and likeness on a worldwide basis in perpetuity.”

According to the complaint filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Lee has been selective about licensing his name and likeness and will only authorize the use on a non-exclusive basis.

(4) AWARD NOMINEE. Congratulations to Cora Buhlert! Her story “’Baptism of Fire’ is a nominee for the 2018 eFestival of Words Best of the Independent eBook Award”.

The nominations for the 2018 eFestival of Words Best of the Independent eBook Awards, which are run by the small press Bards & Sages, were announced today.

I was going to put the link to the announcement into the weekly link round-ups at the Speculative Fiction Showcase and the Indie Crime Scene respectively, but first I took a gander at the list of nominees and all but fell from my chair, because there, a bit down the page, was my name. For it turns out that “Baptism of Fire”, my contribution to the science fiction anthology The Guardian, edited by Alasdair Shaw, has been nominated in the “Best short story” category. I had absolutely no idea about this, until I saw the nominee list.

(5) BLABBAGE. Derek Stauffer, in “Star Wars Comic May Hint At Leia’s Episode 9 Fate” in ScreenRant, says that Marvel’s Poe Dameron comic may have clues about what will happen to Leia Organa in Episode 9.

Given Leia’s weakened state in the comic, it seems even more obvious that she will end up passing the torch to Poe as leader of The Resistance at some point in the near future. The only real question is if that passing will come with Leia’s retirement, or her death.

(6) ARTISTS TO BE INDUCTED. The Society of Illustrators will honor the following artists at its Hall of Fame Awards Ceremony on June 21.

2018 Hall of Fame Laureates
Robert Crumb
Hilary Knight
Jim McMullan
CF Payne
Kate Greenaway
Rene Gruau
Jack Kirby
Heinrich Kley
Kay Nielsen

(7) NEW TO SHORT FICTION? Lady Business offers a “Short & Sweet Roundtable Discussion: Short Fiction Reading Habits” with A.C. Wise, Bogi Takács, Brandon O’Brien, Vanessa Fogg, and Bridget McKinney.

One thing I’ve learned from talking to people about short fiction is that there are many different styles of reading short fiction. There are people like me who read one story (generally online) and then stop and do something else. There are people who sit down with a print or ebook magazine and read the whole thing cover to cover. There are people who only listen to short fiction in podcast form. So I was thinking about the different ways people read short SFF, and I wanted to find out more about these differences. I also thought that since lots of people have different short fiction reading habits, people who want to try short fiction might find that different pieces of advice are helpful to different people. So I’ve invited several guests to the column to talk about their short fiction reading habits and to share advice for people new to short fiction.

This roundtable features prolific short fiction readers, so they have a lot of great ideas for where to find short fiction, but I know it can be a little intimidating when there’s so much to choose from and people who read so much! I hope this roundtable gives readers a taste of how many ways there are to read short fiction and how many entry points there are, and that there’s no wrong way to read, including how much you read or at what point in life you start reading short fiction.

(8) LEND ME YOUR EARS. From Tested in 2013, “ILM Modelmakers Share Star Wars Stories and Secrets”. News to me — the crowds of the pod races in Star Wars Episode I were half a million painted q-tips.

Don Bies: One of the cool things, whenever we’re working together, is people thinking outside the box, and trying to come up with practical solutions. And in the early days, certainly it was ‘let’s see if we can beat the CG guys at their own game.’ Michael Lynch, one of the modelmakers–he was always really good at looking at things this way–he was looking at the crowds. And when you see a crowd in a stadium you’re really just seeing shapes and colors, you’re not really seeing people or individual faces.

So he came up with the idea…of using q-tips, cotton swabs, colored, in the stands of the Mos Espa arena. So there were something like 450,000 q-tips painted multiple colors, and he even researched it to find out how many reds versus yellows and blues and greens that should be in there.

And it was a process of just days of painting. Think about 450,000 cotton swabs, how you paint them, and then how you put them in. Everyone took turns at one point sticking them into the stands. And by blowing a fan underneath they kind of twinkled, like people moving around. Ultimately they did put some CG people on top of it, but I always thoght it would be funny if they caught to a close-up of the stands and you saw a cotton swab sitting in the stands next to the aliens…

(9) ALFRED THE GREAT. Hollywood Reporter headline: “’Gotham’ Boss Sets New Batman Prequel Series at Epix (Exclusive)”. Premium cable network Epix will air Pennyworth. The series has some behind-the-camera personnel ties to Gotham, but is not a prequel of that Fox series. No cast has been announced.

Epix is getting into the DC Comics business.

The MGM-owned premium cable network has handed out a 10-episode, straight-to-series order for Pennyworth, a drama set in the Batman universe from Gotham showrunner Bruno Heller.

The series will revolve around Alfred Pennyworth, the best friend and butler to Bruce Wayne (aka Batman). The series is not a Gotham spinoff but rather an entirely new story exploring Alfred’s origins as a former British SAS soldier who forms a secret company and goes to work with Thomas Wayne — Bruce’s billionaire father — in 1960s London. Sean Pertwee, who plays Alfred Pennyworth on Fox’s recently renewed Gotham, is not involved. Casting has not yet begun and the series is set in a completely different universe despite hailing from Heller and producers Warner Horizon. (Others who have played the Alfred role include Jeremy Irons, Michael Gough, Michael Caine, Alan Napier and William Austin, among others.)

(10) TRIVIAL TRIVIA

Hershey Kisses were named after the “kissing” sound made by the nozzle that drops the chocolate onto a cooled conveyor belt during their production. Hershey started making its version in 1907 but “kiss” was commonly used as a generic term for candies wrapped with a twist as early as the 1820s. Hershey managed to trademark the term in 2000 after arguing that consumers almost exclusively associated the word “kiss” with their brand versus other candies.

Source: Time

(11) COMICS SECTION.

(12) SCALZI FREE READ. The Electronic Frontier Foundation enlisted John Scalzi to help make their point: “EFF Presents John Scalzi’s Science Fiction Story About Our Right to Repair Petition to the Copyright Office”.

A small bit of good news: Congress designed a largely ornamental escape valve into this system: every three years, the Librarian of Congress can grant exemptions to the law for certain activities. These exemptions make those uses temporarily legal, but (here’s the hilarious part), it’s still not legal to make a tool to enable that use. It’s as though Congress expected you to gnaw open your devices and manually change the software with the sensitive tips of your nimble fingers or something. That said, in many cases it’s easy to download the tools you need anyway. We’re suing the U.S. government to invalidate DMCA 1201, which would eliminate the whole farce. It’s 2018, and that means it’s exemptions time again! EFF and many of our allies have filed for a raft of exemptions to DMCA 1201 this year, and in this series, we’re teaming up with some amazing science fiction writers to explain what’s at stake in these requests.

This week, we’re discussing our right to repair exemption. Did you know the innards of your car are copyrighted?

… The use of DRM to threaten the independent repair sector is a bad deal all-around. Repair is an onshore industry that creates middle-class jobs in local communities, where service technicians help Americans get more value out of the devices they buy. It’s not just cars: everything from tractors to printers, from toys to thermostats have been designed with DRM that stands in the way of your ability to decide who fixes your stuff, or whether it can be fixed at all. That’s why we’ve asked the Copyright Office to create a broad exemption to permit repair technicians to bypass any DRM that gets in the way of their ability to fix your stuff for you.

Our friend John Scalzi was kind enough to write us a science fiction story that illustrates the stakes involved.

(13) HOUSE OF REPUTE. Real estate news site 6sqft profiles a celebrity abode which once housed sf author Robert Silverberg: “Former home of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia lists for $3.5M in Fieldston section of Riverdale”. Numerous photos of the inside and outside.

A stately English Tudor mansion in the historic Fieldston neighborhood of Riverdale, considered one of the city’s best preserved early 20th century suburbs, has just hit the market for $3.5 million, and it’s oozing history filled ghosts, science fiction, New York master politicians, and urban planners. Former Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia moved to 5020 Goodridge Avenue after serving three consecutive terms as mayor and living in Gracie Mansion….

In 1961, Robert Silverberg, a well-known science fiction author – and not as well-known as the prolific writer of erotica novels for quick cash – bought the house. In his 1972 novel, The Book of Skulls, Silverberg mentioned the neighborhood, writing, “How unreal the whole immortality thing seemed to me now, with the jeweled cables of the George Washington Bridge gleaming far to the southwest, and the soaring bourgeois towers of Riverdale hemming us on to the right, and the garlicky realities of Manhattan straight ahead.”

(14) PROBLEM FIXER. Michael Z. Williamson’s advice is to ban the people who complain about a convention GoH.

…Your only rational, immediate response to avoid “controversy” is just to ban the person making the public scene. They’ve already told you by this action that they intend to cause trouble for at least one of your guests and that guest’s followers.

“I wouldn’t feel safe with this person at the con!”
“We’re sorry you feel that way.  Here’s a full refund.* We hope to see you at a future event.”

Then stop responding. You’ll only give attention to an attention whore.

Having seen this happen to guests at least three times, any future guest invitations I accept will involve a signed cancellation clause and a cash penalty for doing so, because once a guest has made arrangements for your event, they can’t schedule something else, and you’re eating up their writing/art/production time. They are there for YOUR benefit, not you for theirs. In my case, I currently have three novels, a collection, an anthology, all contracted, another novel offer, three on spec, an article request, three short stories and a lengthy stack of products to test and review, and an entire summer of professional bookings. I have a not-quite four year old and a teenager. Don’t waste my time then roll over for some worthless whiner….

(15) MAKING PLANS. John Ringo, in a public Facebook post, advises writers —

…With every other convention, assume you’re being set-up at this point and don’t be played for a sucker.

Oh, yeah, and as fans and lovers of liberty, never, ever attend Origins again if you ever have. Or ConCarolinas. (Sorry, Jada.) Or ArchCon. Or WorldCon.

We need a list. They never will be missed. No they never will be missed.

(16) ALTERNATE SPORTS HISTORY. Counterfactual: “Blimps Full Of Money And 30 Other Sports Fantasias In ‘Upon Further Review'”. What if football had stayed boring, or the US had boycotted the Berlin Olympics, or …?

Mike Pesca assembled the new book titled Upon Further Review: The Greatest What-Ifs In Sports History and a companion podcast. In an interview, he explained some of the book’s 31 different scenarios written by 31 sportswriters.

(17) SYMBOLISM. “Henrietta Lacks’ Lasting Impact Detailed In New Portrait” — shoutouts to unwitting donor of a cell line that has been used all over biomedicine.

When Henrietta Lacks was dying of cancer in 1951, her cells were harvested without her knowledge. They became crucial to scientific research and her story became a best-seller. Since then, Lacks has become one of the most powerful symbols for informed consent in the history of science.

On Monday, when the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., honored Lacks by installing a painting of her just inside one of its main entrances, three of Lacks’ grandchildren were there.

(18) BIRD IS THE WORD. “Dinosaur parenting: How the ‘chickens from hell’ nested”. “How do you sit on your nest of eggs when you weigh over 1,500kg?”

Dinosaur parenting has been difficult to study, due to the relatively small number of fossils, but the incubating behaviour of oviraptorosaurs has now been outlined for the first time.

Scientists believe the largest of these dinosaurs arranged their eggs around a central gap in the nest.

This bore the parent’s weight, while allowing them to potentially provide body heat or protection to their developing young, without crushing the delicate eggs.

The feathered ancient relatives of modern birds, oviraptorosaurs lived in the Late Cretaceous period, at least 67 million years ago.

(19) SF TV ARCHEOLOGY. Echo Ishii’s tour of old sf TV leads this time to “SF Obscure: Cosmic Slop.

Cosmic Slop was a 1994 TV anthology series on HBO featuring three short black science fiction movies. (I have also seen the broadcast date listed as 1995.) It features three short “Space Traders” based on the Derrick Bell short story; “The First Commandment” and “Tang”. It’s kind of a Twilight Zone vibe with George Clinton of Parliament Funkadelic during the intros. (It’s as bizarre in the way only George Clinton can be.)

(20) TREK MEDICINE TODAY. The Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination hosts “Star Trek, the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE & the Future of Medicine” on June 2, with Qualcomm XPRIZE Tricorder Prize winner Basil Harris, Robert Picardo (actor, Emergency Medical Hologram, Star Trek: Voyager), and Dr. Rusty Kallenberg, Chairman of Family Medicine and Director of the UCSD XPRIZE Test Program.

June 2, 2018
5:00-7:00pm
Liebow Auditorium
UC San Diego

Artificial intelligence is already impacting healthcare is numerous ways. Are we far from the future portrayed in Star Trek: Voyager, of an AI holographic doctor with encyclopedic medical knowledge? What are the pathways that will yield the most profound results for AI in medicine? And what are the ethical and regulatory issues we need to consider as we develop these technologies?

Hosted by Erik Viirre, associate director of the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination and Medical Director of the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE, The Future of Medicine is an exploration of these questions and more, as they impact the UC San Diego innovation ecosystem and beyond. Our master of ceremonies is Robert Picardo, actor and star of Star Trek: Voyager, where he left a cultural impact as the face of AI medicine as the Emergency Medical Hologram, known as “The Doctor.” Basil Harris, founder of Basil Leaf Technologies and winner of the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE to develop a real-world Tricorder-like medical device, will share his experience developing DextER, an autonomous medical diagnostic device, and the future of this pathway for innovation. And leaders from UC San Diego will join a panel on artificial agents in medical technology development.

[Thanks to Mike Kennedy, Standback, John King Tarpinian, JJ, Martin Morse Wooster, Cat Eldridge, Carl Slaughter, Andrew Porter, Lise Andreasen, Chip Hitchcock, and rcade for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]

319 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 5/16/18 Ringworlds For Sale or Rent, Moons To Let Fifty Cents

  1. @Lurkertype: West got skipped more than other zones, but was not always the one skipped. Firstly, there was a period when a non-NA Worldcon simply slipped the rotation rather than displacing a zone; e.g., Heicon was between St. Louis and Boston rather than erasing an East-zone Worldcon. (The zone order was West, Central, East.) A list of non-NA Worldcon years after slippage was dropped and before no-zone came in:
    1975 (West)
    1979 (Central)
    1985 (Central)
    1987 (West)
    1990 (West)
    1995 (East)
    1999 (West)

  2. @Ctein: “So which theme song do you align with…”

    Caramba! What a choice!

    (If I’m gonna go obscure, I might as well go all-in!)

  3. @Lurkertype

    I’m glad the Helsinki kerfuffles weren’t held against Dublin, though. A lot of people were annoyed by their lack of communication, like not much about accessibility, and them firing the concom person (Jo von something) who thought it was a good idea to mention that you’d have to pay MORE after the fact for the program book, rather than keep that a secret.

    That’s probably because many of those who voted on site in Helsinki were European fans who were only too happy to have another European WorldCon, especially since they only used to happen once every ten years or so.

    And the program book thing probably wasn’t much of a concern for these fans either. For example, I had no idea that a supporting member was even supposed to get a program book until the kerfuffle erupted last year. I was a supporting member of both Spokane and Kansas City and never got a program book and the one I got from Loncon months after the fact was a pleasant surprise.

    Coincidentally, there were only two WorldCons ever that I could have driven to (because the North Sea is in the way for the UK cons and Dublin and the Baltic sea is in the way for Helsinki), Heidelberg and Den Haag. Heidelberg happened before I was even born (and though Heidelberg is in the same country, it’s a pretty long drive) and Den Haag, probably the most accessible WorldCon for me ever, was when I was seventeen and had no idea it existed and no way of finding out.

  4. Cora: And the program book thing probably wasn’t much of a concern for these fans either.

    I think that a far bigger issue for Worldcon 75 than all of their communication problems was the woefully inadequate programming panel space, and the fact that a great many attendees missed out on a lot of panels because of it. The revelation that their Facilities chair had resigned several months before the con because he’d tried repeatedly to get them to engage in capacity planning, and they’d refused to do so, was pretty damning.

    Fortunately — knowing who’s on the concom for Dublin (sorry, I’m still laughing about the DubCon misnomer) — I don’t think that wil be a problem for the 2019 Worldcon.

  5. JJ, I missed that! I was well aware that all the additional memberships did not come in at the end, though, because I was a Reg underling.

    Cora, you are not the first overseas fan to say they did not get a souvenir book from Spokane or KC. I am wondering what happened there. Anyone know?

  6. Dear Ctien,

    I’ll answer with a quote from a movie:

    Stephen is my name. I the most wanted man on my island, except I’m not on my island, of course. More’s the pity.
    Hamish: “Your island”? You mean Ireland?
    Stephen: Yeah. It’s mine.
    Hamish: You’re a madman.
    Stephen: [nods and starts laughing, then Hamish does as well] I’ve come to the right place, then.

  7. @JJ

    I think that a far bigger issue for Worldcon 75 than all of their communication problems was the woefully inadequate programming panel space, and the fact that a great many attendees missed out on a lot of panels because of it. The revelation that their Facilities chair had resigned several months before the con because he’d tried repeatedly to get them to engage in capacity planning, and they’d refused to do so, was pretty damning.

    Fortunately — knowing who’s on the concom for Dublin (sorry, I’m still laughing about the DubCon misnomer) — I don’t think that wil be a problem for the 2019 Worldcon.

    Yes, the insufficient panel space and the problematic layout of the convention centre, including the infamous corridor of death, were indeed a problem that affected everybody on site. Things got better on subsequent days and my interactions with the program ops people were all very pleasant. But the first day was pretty chaotic.

    @Lenore Jones

    Cora, you are not the first overseas fan to say they did not get a souvenir book from Spokane or KC. I am wondering what happened there. Anyone know?

    I’ve also heard from other overseas fans and supporting members that they did not get the souvenir book from Spokane or Kansas City. Like I said, I did not even expect to get one, since I was a supporting member. And Spokane was at the height of the puppy wars and had a huge number of supporting members, so they probably did not have enough books and funds to send one to everybody.

  8. Cora: And Spokane was at the height of the puppy wars and had a huge number of supporting members, so they probably did not have enough books and funds to send one to everybody.

    Both cons would have had almost all those memberships at least a month in advance of the con (because voting deadline), and it was still their responsibility to budget for printing and sending books to them. It’s disappointing to find out that they didn’t, because there’s probably not much hope of getting them now. I guess it would be worth asking if they have a pdf version which they could send to people who didn’t get one. 🙁

  9. I’m wondering if the cons’ mailing systems somehow failed to account for international postage.

  10. Dang it! I put two comments in each other’s posts. So embarrassing. I meant this one to go in the newest scroll, because it was new to me and to the blog.

  11. Strange. I know that the 2002 Worldcon mailed membership materials including souvenir books and even membership badges (even for supporting members) to those who didn’t attend. That’s because I helped stuff the packages. Now not everyone got one because of address issues of one sort or the other (100% coverage is essentially impossible), but I know that ConJosé tried to fulfill our obligations.

    Supporting members are supposed to get souvenir books and other generally distributed publications. I’m surprised at people casually assuming that they won’t get them, and I’m disappointed that there are Worldcons that clearly had the resources to provide them but apparently did not do so. (Unless the people who didn’t get them are among those like we had in 2002 who we couldn’t reach. Seriously, 100% is impossible. I’ve never done a bulk mailing to a convention membership that didn’t have mailing failures and/or for which we didn’t have a valid address for some of them.)

  12. I’m in the same boat as Cora. I didn’t receive souvenir books either despite being a supporting member – not that I particularly desired them.

  13. @Kevin Standalee

    Strange. I know that the 2002 Worldcon mailed membership materials including souvenir books and even membership badges (even for supporting members) to those who didn’t attend. That’s because I helped stuff the packages. Now not everyone got one because of address issues of one sort or the other (100% coverage is essentially impossible), but I know that ConJosé tried to fulfill our obligations.

    Come to think of it, Loncon did send me a badge as well in addition to the souvenir book. However, I had an attending membership for Loncon, but was unable to go. Since I only had a supporting membership for Spokane and Kansas City, I assumed that this did not include the souvenir book and badge.

    Supporting members are supposed to get souvenir books and other generally distributed publications. I’m surprised at people casually assuming that they won’t get them, and I’m disappointed that there are Worldcons that clearly had the resources to provide them but apparently did not do so. (Unless the people who didn’t get them are among those like we had in 2002 who we couldn’t reach. Seriously, 100% is impossible. I’ve never done a bulk mailing to a convention membership that didn’t have mailing failures and/or for which we didn’t have a valid address for some of them.)

    It would certainly be a good idea if WorldCons could specify that the attending membership includes the souvenir book, etc…. since I suspect I’m not the only one who didn’t know about this. Or at least give people the option to check whether they want to receive the souvenir book in print or e-book form, like Dublin did.

    Coincidentally, I still haven’t got my Hugo voting PIN from WorldCon 76 and I never got a mail about the latest progress report either and only saw it when it was linked here. Of course, it’s possible that my e-mail provider has been eating legitimate e-mails again, like it sometimes does.

  14. Dear Steve,

    And if worst comes to worst,

    It’s your island and you can cry if you want to, cry if you want to, cry if you want to…

    pax / lyrical Ctein

  15. Cora on May 19, 2018 at 11:01 am said:

    It would certainly be a good idea if Worldcons could specify that the attending membership includes the souvenir book, etc…

    You mean like how Worldcon 76’s Membership Types page does?

    I still haven’t got my Hugo voting PIN from Worldcon 76 and I never got a mail about the latest progress report either and only saw it when it was linked here. Of course, it’s possible that my e-mail provider has been eating legitimate e-mails again, like it sometimes does.

    I got my own personal e-mail about both of those things. Try using the Hugo PIN Recovery page for Worldcon 76. If you don’t get a reply, it means either Worldcon 76 doesn’t have your e-mail (contact WC 76 Registration to try and diagnose this) or possibly that your e-mail provider is “protecting” you from what it thinks is spam without telling you.

  16. Ctein/Lenore: I didn’t say that mercenaries would be universally disliked, or even that they shouldn’t be discussed. (I was on a panel some years ago defending corporations.) But I suspect that some of the people who didn’t like the idea would have been very vocal about it. Lend me a paratime machine and I’ll be happy to find out, if I can find a line where the concom chose to engage with Moon.

    @Kevin: I wonder whether there was similarly vague text in other conventions’ web sites; to me, “publications” includes the souvenir book, but I don’t know what the non-shipping concoms were thinking (if they had any brain left afterward — we both know how wiped a group can be). And I could see trouble coming with that statement if San Jose published a festschrifft intending to sell it, as several other conventions (N2, N3, Chicon IV, LAcon 2, Bucconeer) did.

  17. @Kevin Standalee
    My bad. I’d forgotten that WorldCon 76 had that wording on their website, too. In my defense, it’s been several months since I registered.

    Regarding the Hugo PIN recovery, I was going to do that, once the packet comes out anyway. And considering that my e-mail provider has a habit of eating legitimate e-mails, particularly e-mails in English, while letting Russian spam through, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what happened here.

  18. @John A Arkansawyer: Thanks for the SNL Star Wars skit link; that was amusing and a new one on me, too.

  19. All —

    Apologies in advance. First, I’m necroposting a little bit because of a relevant news story I read yesterday; and second, I may or may not have time to participate much in any ensuing discussion that might occur — have I mentioned that I now have BOTH of my parents in the hospital? Sigh!

    Anyway!

    For those discussing the mosque-close-to-911-site thing, here’s an interesting-to-me comparison:

    Only a few hours after the Texas school shooting on Friday, a local man showed up near the school with an American flag, a Trump hat, and a pistol strapped to his hip, claiming that he was helping to “Make America Great Again”. Much outrage ensued.

    Questions:

    Was the outrage justified?
    If you believe it was justified, how does this differ from the outrage surrounding the proposed mosque?

  20. @Jayn —

    Thanks!

    I should specify that Dad is actually in a rehab-to-home facility rather than in an actual hospital. He is likely to be there for another month. Mom is hopefully going to be moved from the hospital into the same facility in the next day or two, if the hospital docs can get her antibiotics and heart meds nailed down to everyone’s satisfaction. Interestingly, they are going to be put into the same room at the facility, at my father’s request — which will make my dad feel much better, but which may drive my mother crazy. I live in interesting times!

  21. @Contrarius: I hope your parents improve and can return home soon.

    Re. your question: You don’t see a difference between #1 a jerk showing up out of nowhere to stand around awkwardly and . . . not sure what he’s doing (making light of a tragedy? using a tragedy for political purposes? pissing on other people’s pain?) and #2 rebuilding (close enough; it would’ve replaced a building used for Islamic worship) a community center cum worship space? Huh.

  22. @Contrarius– Best wishes for your parents.

    Difference between the WTC mosque and the guy who brought his gun, his flag, and his MAGA hat to a just-ended school shooting.

    In the Towers there were two, I suspect chapels isn’t the right word, but the same idea, prayer sites that were less than full mosques but which served the community. Nearby, but not in WTC, there was another, larger, but not large enough to serve everyone. In fact, prior to 9/11, things were already a bit tight, and there was some talk about a new community center, to provide space for everyone to pray, as well as operate other community programs.

    After 9/11, this new community center became not just a nice idea, but a necessity, because the prayer and community space available to the Muslims living and working in the immediate area had been significantly reduced.

    Let me say that again, perhaps a bit more clearly. The Muslims weren’t outsiders coming in, intruding on the raw feelings of the locals. They were locals, trying to recover from the damage, loss, and deaths of people they knew and loved.

    The people having hysterics about it, or being “reasonable” in their apparently well-meant suggestion that maybe this wasn’t the time or place, were mainly outsiders, not living anywhere in the Northeast, much less NYC.

    They were also mostly reacting to the lie that the new Muslim community center would be inside the WTC, or at least in plain sight, when in reality it was to be a couple of blocks away, and not in sight of it at all.

    Whereas the guy with the gun, the flag, and the hat had nothing to do with the school, and had no coherent or even incoherent plan to help anyone. He was just there to make an incoherent political statement, utterly oblivious to how a total stranger with a gun and a political agenda might be regarded by the survivors of a mass shooting, in the immediate aftermath–we’re talking a half hour or so–of that shooting, when they still don’t even have a complete count of the dead and wounded.

    Honestly, I don’t see how anyone can see any similarities in the two situations, much less think them equivalent.

  23. Dear Contrarius,

    Huh.

    Huh???

    Some people are outraged by the skyrocketing cost of healthcare. Some people are outraged by Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

    How is there any difference, because looky I could use the word “outrage” in both cases. So, obviously there is a connection that needs to be explored.

    Oh, really.

    I’m calling, “troll,” as in trolling for comments by posting something simultaneously provocative and nonsensical.

    pax / Ctein

  24. @Kendall —

    I think the mechanism behind the outrage is the same or at least similar in both instances.

    A few thoughts in no particular order:

    The Muslims rebuilding the mosque had nothing to do with the WTC bombing; the guy with the gun had nothing to do with the school shooting.

    The Muslims rebuilding the mosque did not see themselves as doing anything offensive; neither did the guy with the gun.

    The vast majority of Muslims never break the law or have any desire to harm people; the vast majority of gun owners never break the law or have any desire to harm people.

    The Muslims rebuilding the mosque thought of themselves as defending principles central to their identity (in this case, their religion); the guy with the gun thought of himself as defending principles central to his identity (in his case, his Constitutional rights).

    In both cases:

    1. A tragedy/horror had just occurred that related to problematic elements within those central principles (Islamist radicals in one case, a crazy with a gun in the other).

    2. Naturally, that tragedy/horror had inflamed a lot of emotions on all sides.

    3. In both cases it was natural that people who were already upset about the tragedy/horror would get even further inflamed when poked. Think PTSD: if one kid with purple hair walks up to you and punches you in the face, you’re likely to be very tense if a second kid with purple hair walks up to you, no matter how nice that second kid may be or how rare it is for kids with purple hair to punch people.

    4. In both cases, I personally believe it would have been much more intelligent to stay away and allow a nice long cooling off period before poking the bear, as it were. It does not require either Islamophobia or gunophobia to see how the mosque and the gun-bearer were both likely to outrage a lot of people, regardless of any rational principles behind either the mosque or the gun.

  25. P.S.

    @Lis —

    Let me say that again, perhaps a bit more clearly. The Muslims weren’t outsiders coming in, intruding on the raw feelings of the locals.

    The gun owner was also a local and not an outsider. He said in a brief interview that his wife works in the school district.

    They were locals, trying to recover from the damage, loss, and deaths of people they knew and loved.

    Ditto the gun owner.

    The people having hysterics about it, or being “reasonable” in their apparently well-meant suggestion that maybe this wasn’t the time or place, were mainly outsiders…

    Ditto the outrage against the gun owner.

    Whereas the guy with the gun, the flag, and the hat had nothing to do with the school

    You are incorrect here. See above.

  26. @Contrarius–

    The Muslims were in their own neighborhood, rebuilding from their 9/11 losses. The outraged were mostly Red State “conservatives,” still resenting the fact that they had to pretend not to hate NYC for awhile. They were intruding, unjustifiably, on the grief and loss of those most directly affected. They weren’t the people who had the right to be whining about their outrage about how NYC chose to rebuild.

    No, they did not have any basis vetoing the local community rebuilding it’s religious facilities.

    The guy with the gun, like the Red Staters outraged over New Yorkers rebuilding what they’d lost, was intruding into a place where those actually affected couldn’t even be sure the threat was over.

    And he wasn’t even there hoping to render any practical help. He just wanted to make a spectacle of himself for incoherent political reasons.

    Are there any other circumstances where you want to privilege the delicate feelings of busybody outsiders over the people who have recently been traumatized?

  27. Contrarius: You said a whole lot of ‘provocative’, borderline offensive things about your handwringing, horrified, accusatory response to a joke about Nazi-punching not too long ago. I, and I believe others, answered at length about why we felt you were wrong as well as being offensively close to trolling. You said you would return to answer our points and…never did.

    If you couldn’t gracefully finish THAT argument you started, maybe it might be prudent to consider you may be doing the same thing now?

  28. @Lis —

    The Muslims were in their own neighborhood, rebuilding from their 9/11 losses.

    Ditto the guy with the gun (with the proviso that there was no physical damage to any facilities — he saw himself as providing emotional support, not physical).

    The outraged were mostly Red State “conservatives,”

    And I dare say that those outraged about the gun guy are similarly likely to be Blue State “liberals”.

    They were intruding, unjustifiably, on the grief and loss of those most directly affected.

    Which is again no different than those outraged about the gun guy.

    No, they did not have any basis vetoing the local community rebuilding it’s religious facilities.

    I agree with you. I’m not talking about whether or not the mosque should have been denied — I’m only talking about public outrage and the advisability of either the quick push for the mosque or the quick appearance of this gun guy.

    The guy with the gun, like the Red Staters outraged over New Yorkers rebuilding what they’d lost, was intruding into a place where those actually affected couldn’t even be sure the threat was over.

    And the same with the mosque — nobody knew whether there was going to be another terrorist attack at any moment.

    And he wasn’t even there hoping to render any practical help.

    So what? Is it an essential difference that the the mosque was a physical building while the gun guy was only there for emotional support?

    Are there any other circumstances where you want to privilege the delicate feelings of busybody outsiders over the people who have recently been traumatized?

    Again — I agree with you that the building permit should not have been blocked. I agree with you that the mosque should be permitted, just as I believe that the gun guy should be permitted. I simply ALSO believe that both the mosque builders and the gun guy made bad decisions to act at the times they did.

  29. @Contrarius: “he saw himself as providing emotional support, not physical).”

    Ah, then he’s a freaking idiot. I’m not sure that helps your proposition that these are similar.

    Some of the outrage may come from similar places, but I still don’t see these as being particularly similar situations. Anyway, thanks for elaborating.

  30. @Jayn —

    Contrarius: You said a whole lot of ‘provocative’, borderline offensive things about your handwringing, horrified, accusatory response to a joke about Nazi-punching not too long ago. I, and I believe others, answered at length about why we felt you were wrong as well as being offensively close to trolling. You said you would return to answer our points and…never did.

    Yes, sorry. I got distracted by other responsibilities, and by the time I got back there were so many additional pages of discussion already added by other people that I thought it would be beating a dead horse to contribute any more.

    (Since you mention dropping out of discussions, though, you might want to go back and examine those additional Jefferson quotes I provided you some time back when you disputed a post of mine referring to Jefferson’s attitudes towards Trinitarian religious beliefs. I never heard your reaction to them. 😉 )

    If you couldn’t gracefully finish THAT argument you started, maybe it might be prudent to consider you may be doing the same thing now?

    Boy, if we had nickels for every time File 770 discussions end “ungracefully”, we’d all be rich.

    (And no, I didn’t start that argument either. Others had been discussing the punching of Nazis before I got involved. Small point, but let’s try to stick to accuracy.)

  31. Contrarius: If you believe it was justified, how does this differ from the outrage surrounding the proposed mosque?

    In one of these situations, people were trying to get bureaucratic approval to rebuild while dealing with their own losses, both of people and of places of worship.

    In the other situation, someone showed up toting a weapon and making a deliberately provocative public demonstration.

    I’m mystified that you think these two events are comparable in any way, apart from the fact that there were people outraged about each of them.

  32. @Contrarius

    Did you not see the video of the extremely angry local parent who was furious about that guy turning up to make a political point?

  33. @Contrarius: “he saw himself as providing emotional support, not physical).”

    [I realized this was too much to add by editing my previous comment.]

    This is tough to even believe, given the blatant political part of it, e.g., wearing a Trump MAGA hat. It sounds more like he just wanted to make a political statement of some incomprehensible nature. Well, a lot of people were outraged when people tried to use 9/11 for their own political ends, too. The blatant politicization really puts the lie to “oh I’m just here to support these poor souls in a tragedy” B.S., IMHO. If that’s what he wanted to do, he’d’ve shown up with a sign saying something like “I’m so sorry for your loss,” or done something actually supportive (maybe with/through his wife, since she works in the school district), versus just showing up with a MAGA hat and a gun.

    NOTE: I haven’t researched this – just going by your retelling – so, apologies if there’s more and more layers to this that you’re leaving out and I’m too lazy/too busy rolling my eyes to look into on my own.

    [ETA: Aaaaaand @Meredith makes the point in one sentence. Damn, I need to work on my writing skills!]

  34. @Contrarius

    Counter question to draw a parallel: Timothy McVeigh is believed to have been involved with the Christian Identity movement. Would it have been offensive, cluelessly or otherwise, for a Christian church to have been built in sight of the Oklahoma City federal building soon after the bombing?

  35. @Kendall —

    Ah, then he’s a freaking idiot. I’m not sure that helps your proposition that these are similar.

    You think he’s an idiot, and I think he’s an idiot, but that does not mean that he objectively is an idiot. A lot of people thought those mosque builders were idiots too.

    Remember, a lot of folks down there in Texas share his views. The locals, as Lis pointed out, are not the same as outsiders like you and me.

    Some of the outrage may come from similar places, but I still don’t see these as being particularly similar situations.

    The biggest differences I see at the moment:

    1. the mosque builders were creating something physical, the building. The gun guy saw himself as providing non-physical support.

    2. the gun guy was acting alone, while the mosque builders were acting in a group.

    3. the gun guy (as Lis also pointed out) was acting hours later, while the mosque builders were acting weeks (months? I don’t recall the exact time frame) later.

    Do these differences make a substantial difference to the wisdom of the acts?

  36. @Contrarius: More recent replies above should add to your list.

    “objectively”

    Well, it’s all opinion, ain’t it. But I’m comfortable with mine that if he really means to be supportive, he’s a freaking idiot; I suspect he’s not just trying to be supportive, however. The cops probably don’t want some idiot with a gun wandering around near the school either, for that matter. Not really the same as Muslims wandering around near the 9/11 site (hint: the weapon used there were airplanes, not an intangible religion…). Hey, there are more differences for you. 😉

  37. @Meredith —

    Did you not see the video of the extremely angry local parent who was furious about that guy turning up to make a political point?

    No, I didn’t see it — but OTOH, I’m sure we could come up with videos of local New Yorkers being outraged about the mosque if we did some digging.

    @Kendall —

    It sounds more like he just wanted to make a political statement of some incomprehensible nature.

    And I think a lot of people believed the same about the mosque builders. It was easy to interpret it as a political act. I personally think it was much more innocent than that, but I also think they should have foreseen the reactions to their proposal.

    Well, a lot of people were outraged when people tried to use 9/11 for their own political ends, too.

    Sure. And that includes some of the outrage against the mosque as well. Note again: I’m not saying that it was actually the mosque builders’ goal to use 9/11 for their own political ends, I’m just saying that they should have foreseen that type of reaction.

  38. @Stoic Cynic —

    Counter question to draw a parallel: Timothy McVeigh is believed to have been involved with the Christian Identity movement. Would it have been offensive, cluelessly or otherwise, for a Christian church to have been built in sight of the Oklahoma City federal building soon after the bombing?

    To me, absolutely! Cross-planting on that lawn? Yeesh!

    And I also agree with your implication that most of the mosque-outraged people wouldn’t have seen the parallel there.

    Just as most of the gun-outraged people aren’t seeing the parallel with the mosque. 😉

  39. Wasn’t the mosque planned around 2009? I suspect it’d be fine if the dude had brought his flag and gun to the school in 2026. By then Grand Emperor Trump will have declared that all White Males (caps required) are required to carry flags and guns at all times, MAGA hats will be surgically grafted onto everyone’s head, and the public school system will have been abolished with the buildings reused as work camps for illegal immigrants.

    https://www.factcheck.org/2010/08/questions-about-the-ground-zero-mosque/

  40. @Contrarius: People can see anything as being parallel or political or not, sure.

    However, wearing a Trump MAGA hat etc. actually seems objectively political, unlike the other. I mean it’s a campaign slogan tied to an actual politician who actually campaigned (and still campaigns, occasionally, e.g., rallies) while in an actual political office.

  41. Contrarius on May 20, 2018 at 1:48 pm said:
    …the guy with the gun… saw himself as providing emotional support, not physical).

    The phrase “talking about rope in the home of the hanged” comes to mind.
    Waving a gun around immediately following multiple fatal shootings of children?
    Same thing.
    When there is a proverb for the clueless and cruel thing you are doing, it is probably a very bad idea.

  42. @Contrarius: I don’t remember a conversation about Jefferson at all, and I’ve searched for it. I’d be happy to look at it again if you can send a link. But I strongly doubt it was as painful as your unsupported declaration that most people who say they are punching Nazis are viciously lying about punching poor, pacifist white supremacists who would never DREAM of stooping to Nazi actions.

    Your walking away from that argument smacked more of reluctance to admit you were wrong than anything else. (And IMO, the appearance of W*** Sh*****ly agreeing with you probably convinced you you really MUST have been wrong).

    1. A tragedy/horror had just occurred that related to problematic elements within those central principles (Islamist radicals in one case, a crazy with a gun in the other).

    Right off the bat, your very first point, shows that you are straining yourself to draw comparisons that simply don’t exist. The decision to build the Muslim community center that caused the ‘scandal’ happened 9 years after 9/11. There was no ‘just occurred’ about it.

    https://www.theawl.com/2015/10/the-sad-true-story-of-the-ground-zero-mosque/

    Maybe back off the shit-stirring? Or at least, if you’re going to do it, maybe research your arguments a little better? Like, for example, look a little further along the actual video to see the local man complaining about the gun wearer invalidating your argument that only ‘outsiders’ objected to his presence?

  43. @Kathodus —

    Thanks for Googling. That’s great info.

    From the article:

    “How far away from ground zero will the proposed center be? About one-tenth of a mile. ”

    Yikes, I had no idea it was that close. That’s only a couple of blocks.

    “Yes. The New York Times profiled two mosques that have been in existence for years not far from ground zero. Masjid Manhattan, founded in 1970, is four blocks away”

    So there was already a mosque very close by.

    “We made the move to buy 45 Park Place in July 2009 ”

    Aha! As you say — they didn’t buy the property until several years after the event. Does that make the difference? How long should that sort of PTSD be accommodated? Would we have been justified in telling the anti-mosque-outraged that it had been long enough, and they should just get over it?

    “Rauf is an adherent of Sufism”

    This is also a good point. The Imam was a Sufi, which has nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism, and had also himself often spoken out against extremism.

    So many things to think about!

    @Kendall —

    However, wearing a Trump MAGA hat etc. actually seems objectively political, unlike the other.

    I think it’s pretty easy to see a Muslim community center/mosque two blocks away from Ground Zero being political as well. It feels like staking out territory.

    @Lauowolf —

    The phrase “talking about rope in the home of the hanged” comes to mind.

    I haven’t heard that before. I like it!

    Waving a gun around immediately following multiple fatal shootings of children? Same thing.

    He wasn’t actually waving it around. But I think the anti-mosque-outraged got the same feeling that they were having the mosque shoved in their aces.

    @jayn —

    I don’t remember a conversation about Jefferson at all, and I’ve searched for it.

    Oh, damn! My abject apologies. The posts took place as I said, but I got my responder confused. It was actually Lis who took issue with my quotes, not you.

    Sorry, sorry, sorry. That’s what I get for thinking I can remember who said what about anything.

    https://file770.com/?p=41820&cpage=2

    I strongly doubt it was as painful as your unsupported declaration that most people who say they are punching Nazis are viciously lying about punching poor, pacifist white supremacists who would never DREAM of stooping to Nazi actions.

    Oooo, talk about forgetting who said what. I never once said anything of the sort. Please stop making things up.

    The decision to build the Muslim community center that caused the ‘scandal’ happened 9 years after 9/11. There was no ‘just occurred’ about it.

    This is a very good point, which Kathodus already brought up. See my response — is there a time limit for PTSD-type outrage?

    Like, for example, look a little further along the actual video to see the local man complaining about the gun wearer invalidating your argument that only ‘outsiders’ objected to his presence?

    Straw man. I never said that “only” outsiders objected. And as I’ve already mentioned in a previous post, we could most likely come up with videos of New Yorkers objecting to that mosque if we did a little digging.

  44. Oooo, talk about forgetting who said what. I never once said anything of the sort. Please stop making things up.

    I’m glad you seem to have changed your mind about what you said. But you did say it.

    Nope — because when people say “Punch a Nazi”, they are actually talking about punching all sorts of people who attend these racist protests — not just Nazis. And their justification doesn’t apply to people who aren’t actually Nazis, even if we accept that it does apply to the Nazis (I don’t, but **even if we do**)…

    Oh, please. I bet very very few people throwing punches at these protests and counterprotests are asking their opponents whether they are actually Nazis or not. If you have evidence to the contrary, please provide it.

    https://file770.com/?p=41405&cpage=4

  45. I’ve had this damned song stuck in my head for FOUR DAYS. Thanks for the earworm Mike and Daniel Dern.

  46. Stoic Cynic: Would it have been offensive, cluelessly or otherwise, for a Christian church to have been built in sight of the Oklahoma City federal building soon after the bombing?

    I think that question is clueless. There was a church across the street from the Oklahoma City Federal Building. It sustained considerable damage. I had the opportunity to visit there not long afterwards.

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