Pixel Scroll 7/25 – A Pixel in Time

Five stories, two videos and a tweet in today’s Scroll. Now with extra subtitle goodness.

(1) What’s that sound? Everybody look what’s goin’ down…. Aaron Reese writes audio history in “From vrrrramp to snikt: exploring sci-fi’s most iconic movie sound effects”.

This is also the decade of the Wilhelm Scream, which is perhaps the most ubiquitous sound effect on this list. Appearing in over 300 films, big blockbuster and indie alike, you’ve more than likely heard the Wilhelm Scream.

 

 

The Wilhelm Scream originated in a 1951 Warner Brothers western called The Distant Drums, recorded for a scene in the movie in which a character gets attacked by an alligator (the sample is aptly named “”man getting bit by an alligator, and he screamed”). The name, however, comes from the sound sample’s use in 1954 western The Charge at Feather River, when the character Private Wilhelm, well… screams after being shot by an arrow.

While studying film at USC, friends Ben Burtt, Richard Anderson, and Rick Mitchell noticed the pervasive stock sound in a number of favorite flicks, and would jokingly use it for school projects. A few years later, however, Burtt would take the joke to Hollywood when asked by George Lucas to direct sound for Star Wars: A New Hope, using the Wilhelm Scream when a stormtrooper is shot by Luke Skywalker and falls into oblivion in the Death Star. Anderson would follow suit, sneaking it into the truck chase scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

(2) After I ran a Star Wars themed parody of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly in yesterday’s Scroll, Michael J. Walsh suggested people might be interested in a Western-themed instrumental cover of the Game of Thrones theme music. “There’s the awesome ability of a guitar with no speakers to be playing so many instruments,” says Mike. “Anyway, the idea of a spaghetti Westeros is amusing.”

(3) Ray Blank – “one of several identities deployed by a confused cosmopolitan” – tells Superversive SF readers that the Hugos want to be free! Or at least a lot cheaper. And not run by the Worldcon. And have Korean and Indian films as nominees.

Worldcon members can vote for the Hugos online. But why should the “premier awards in the science fiction field” still be associated with a physical meet-up? That approach was optimal in the 1950’s, and for a long while after. It is no longer a good way to serve your goal, if the goal is to promote an art form, and to engage with the greatest number of fans. The internet has changed what is possible. The internet connects us to millions, when we used to be satisfied with reaching thousands.

It appears that Worldcon2015 will have more non-attending members than attending members. The disproportionate growth in Worldcon supporting memberships demonstrates an inconvenient truth. The awards could be managed separately from the event. There are only two reasons to connect the two: marketing, and a subsidy for the physical convention. By connecting the two, the legitimacy of the award is undermined. This is supposedly an award given by all fans, wherever they are. So why confuse a voting electorate with a membership system that prefers some fans to others?

Associating an internet-based vote with a convention inevitably skews the vote towards the population who live near to the convention’s location. If the organizers of a ‘world’ event really wanted to maximize the diversity of participation in SF, they would separate the convention from the award, and lower the cost of voting.

You may not have been aware of Superversive SF’s commitment to diversity, a word Blank uses 10 times in his post. But yes, they support it just as strongly as Michael Z. Williamson.

(4) George R.R. Martin opposes the “nuclear option,” nevertheless will be voting No Award in several Hugo categories.

I favor reading the work, and voting for the stories, books, and writers you feel are worthy of a Hugo. Those you do NOT feel are worthy of the Hugo can and should be ranked below No Award or left off your ballot entirely.

This does not mean I am entirely opposed to voting No Award in all cases. Far from it. Having now finished most (not quite all) of my Hugo reading, I can say that I will probably be voting No Award myself in… hmmm… at least three categories, maybe four, maybe even five. These are categories where in my judgement none of the nominated work is worthy of a rocket.

But in those categories where I do find one or more nominees to be of sufficient quality, I will be voting for him or her or them, regardless of whether or not they were on a slate. And yes, this is true even if only one nominee is worthy. To throw out that one worthy nominee because they “had no real competition” (as some have suggested) seems wrong-headed to me. If it is worthy of a Hugo, give it a Hugo, that’s what I say.

Let me be specific here. Short Form Editor, Long Form Editor are all slate, but there are nominees in both who deserve a Hugo, and I’ll be voting for them. The Puppies liked a lot (though not all) of the nominees in the two Dramatic Presentation categories as well… but you know, so did I, so I’ll be voting for those as well. Sorry, but IMNSHO, only an idiot would want to “no award” GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY or INTERSTELLAR because the Puppies slated them. I am not going to tell you which movie or TV show or editor or novel I am voting for. I’ve mentioned some that I liked in older blog posts. Your mileage may vary; read, watch, consider, vote.

(5) I felt like I hadn’t seen Natalie Luhr’s name for a long time so I looked her up – darned if people aren’t still paying her money to tweet her way through Vox Day’s book.

(6) Will Baird on The Dragon’s Tales linked to an abstract that may show the origins of agriculture can be traced back to the Pleistocene – “The Origin of Cultivation and Proto-Weeds, Long Before Neolithic”. Farming. Yes, people have been raising weed(s) for a long time.

Authors: Snir et al

Abstract: Weeds are currently present in a wide range of ecosystems worldwide. Although the beginning of their evolution is largely unknown, researchers assumed that they developed in tandem with cultivation since the appearance of agricultural habitats some 12,000 years ago. These rapidly-evolving plants invaded the human disturbed areas and thrived in the new habitat. Here we present unprecedented new findings of the presence of “proto-weeds” and small-scale trial cultivation in Ohalo II, a 23,000-year-old hunter-gatherers’ sedentary camp on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Israel. We examined the plant remains retrieved from the site (ca. 150,000 specimens), placing particular emphasis on the search for evidence of plant cultivation by Ohalo II people and the presence of weed species. The archaeobotanically-rich plant assemblage demonstrates extensive human gathering of over 140 plant species and food preparation by grinding wild wheat and barley. Among these, we identified 13 well-known current weeds mixed with numerous seeds of wild emmer, barley, and oat. This collection provides the earliest evidence of a human-disturbed environment—at least 11 millennia before the onset of agriculture—that provided the conditions for the development of “proto-weeds”, a prerequisite for weed evolution. Finally, we suggest that their presence indicates the earliest, small-scale attempt to cultivate wild cereals seen in the archaeological record.

[Thanks to Michael J. Walsh, John King Tarpinian, James Davis Nicoll, and Will Baird for these stories, or at least for leaving them in plain sight.]

151 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 7/25 – A Pixel in Time

  1. On side selection as a path to ongoing Supporting Member status —

    Let me just ask some dumb questions to clarify things in my own head. I’m a supporting member of Sasquan. (Filled out my Hugo ballot and everything.) Now, if I vote in Site Selection (due, what, August 10 or so?) by sending in a check on Monday for $40 with the Site that I’ve Selected (probably “No Preference”), then I will automagically get a 2017 Supporting Membership no matter where the con is actually held. But I’ll still need to buy a 2016 Supporting Membership, right? But then with my 2016 Supporting Membership I’d vote on site selection, to get the 2018 Supporting Membership… and from 2017 on I just keep voting on Site Selection, without needing to buy any additional Supporting Memberships, because the Site Selection vote takes care of that.

    Am I right, or do I have something tangled up, here? (It’s the two-year lead time that has me worried I’ve missed something, I think.)

  2. @Mark: If we’re going to talk about sound effects that are inextricably associated with SF franchises, surely we must include the sound of the TARDIS landing.

  3. @Aaron

    Ah yes, I remember that now. It certainly gives the impression he was receiving a fee, or at least hoping to receive one.

    @David Goldfarb

    How could I have forgotten the TARDIS sound, you are quite right. In a episode where the Doctor has yet to appear, it creates this wonderful sense of anticipation.

  4. Cassy B that’s right. Vote in Site Selection this year, get a Supporting membership for 2017.

    Pay to join MidAmeriCon II, and then also pay to vote next year, get a Supporting membership for 2018.

    Vote in 2017 (with the membership you get this year) and get a Supporting membership for 2019.

  5. Thanks, Ultragotha and Kevin. Appreciate the clarification. Sounds like the way for me to go; if I mail a check tomorrow it’ll get in under the wire.

  6. It appears what Blank is planning is to run a WorldCon *bid* for Quatar in 2022 “and to reach out to Arab SF fans to see if they have the appetite for such an event.”

    Anyone can do that. If fans in Quatar want a WorldCon in 2022, more power to them. There are traditions and regulations they’ll need to become familiar with. I look forward to attending bid parties and learning about their plans.

  7. How many of you guys are voting for some site for 2017?

    Pretty sure I’ll be voting for Helsinki, and hoping to attend.

  8. ULTRAGOTHA on July 26, 2015 at 1:39 pm said:
    It appears what Blank is planning is to run a WorldCon *bid* for Quatar in 2022 “and to reach out to Arab SF fans to see if they have the appetite for such an event.”

    Anyone can do that. If fans in Quatar want a WorldCon in 2022, more power to them. There are traditions and regulations they’ll need to become familiar with. I look forward to attending bid parties and learning about their plans.

    I would have expected the “reaching out to to Arab SF fans” part to have come before the “making a bid” part…

  9. “and to reach out to Arab SF fans to see if they have the appetite for such an event.”

    Has he figured out yet that they’ll need to be the ones doing the work, or does he still think it’s some corporate-style event and the only thing he needs to worry about is whether enough people will show up?

  10. Blank is not, as far as I can tell, “making” a bid yet. He appears to be planning to make a bid. AFAICT he hasn’t collected any money from anyone and he hasn’t run a bid party at a con, etc. He doesn’t even appear to be a “they” yet, still just a “he”.

    If so, that’s about right. “Making” a bid–collecting money, getting a web site and Twitter account, getting the bid on the WSFS page, and telling people about the facilities and plans–really ought to happen after one has found out if there are fans in Quatar interested in bidding.

    .

    Jamoche on July 26, 2015 at 1:48 pm said:

    Has he figured out yet that they’ll need to be the ones doing the work, or does he still think it’s some corporate-style event and the only thing he needs to worry about is whether enough people will show up?

    I can’t tell. He seems to interpret anyone telling him how this works as people shooting him down.

  11. Msb on July 26, 2015 at 11:20 am said:

    Where does one sign up to vote for the 2017 Worldcon? One site’s in my neighbourhood and 2 others sound like fun.

    To vote for the 2017 Worldcon, you first must be at least a Supporting member of the 2015 Worldcon. Then you cast your 2017 Site Selection ballot. When you vote, you have to pay a fee called the Advance Supporting Membership Fee. Voting makes you a supporting member of the 2017 Worldcon (regardless of which bid wins or how you voted).

    Step 1: Buy a 2015 Worldcon Supporting membership

    Step 2: Go to the 2017 Worldcon Site Selection page, download the ballot, and follow the directions there.

    Cassy B. on July 26, 2015 at 12:48 pm said:

    Let me just ask some dumb questions to clarify things in my own head. I’m a supporting member of Sasquan. (Filled out my Hugo ballot and everything.) Now, if I vote in Site Selection (due, what, August 10 or so?) by sending in a check on Monday for $40 with the Site that I’ve Selected (probably “No Preference”), then I will automagically get a 2017 Supporting Membership no matter where the con is actually held. But I’ll still need to buy a 2016 Supporting Membership, right? But then with my 2016 Supporting Membership I’d vote on site selection, to get the 2018 Supporting Membership… and from 2017 on I just keep voting on Site Selection, without needing to buy any additional Supporting Memberships, because the Site Selection vote takes care of that.

    Exactly right. You’re in the process of “getting on the horse,” so to speak. Once you’re up and running with two Worldcons in a row, you pay only once a year, and that’s for two years hence. I’ve been doing this since the 1980s myself.

    ULTRAGOTHA on July 26, 2015 at 1:39 pm said:

    It appears what Blank is planning is to run a WorldCon *bid* for Quatar in 2022 “and to reach out to Arab SF fans to see if they have the appetite for such an event.”

    I’ll believe it when I see it. What I think he wants is for other people to do what he wants, at their expense, and with their donated labor.

  12. Kevin Standlee –

    Well, yes. Unless he already has good contacts with SF fans in Quatar *and* they really want to run a WorldCon I suspect this effort will fizzle.

    But don’t harsh his mellow so soon, man.

  13. Can I hitch a ride in your luggage?

    I travel light.

    But if I can convince Ann to go too, who knows?

  14. Has anyone told Ray Blank that there are a number of proposed bids in the pipeline for non-US Worldcons prior to 2022? Or that last year’s con wasn’t in the US?

    He also perhaps doesn’t realise that not all of us File770 commenters are USians. For example, I live in the Middle East and I responded fairly critically to his idea of hosting a commercial-style Worldcon in Qatar (I would have a tough time persuading my Muslim wife to go spend her leisure time in one of the Gulf States).

  15. Has anyone told Ray Blank that there are a number of proposed bids in the pipeline for non-US Worldcons prior to 2022? Or that last year’s con wasn’t in the US?

    His interpretation of the data seems to be limited to looking at the geographic distribution of members this year and wondering why so many are from Washington and California. Checking the distribution for a different year and comparing is apparently the kind of step only nasty haters would suggest.

  16. Kurt Busiek on July 26, 2015 at 2:19 pm said:

    But if I can convince Ann to go too, who knows?

    We often room with a costumer. In the days before weight limits on luggage, she once brought two footlockers, a suitcase, a carry on and her purse to a con. There was a reeeeeaaaallllyyy small path from the door to our bed between it all.

  17. Blank is at best “planning to have a plan”. In effect, he’s sent off for the brochure.

    His ploy of being deeply concerned about the diversity of WorldCon as a justification for his desire to take the Hugos away from World Con is quite clever, although still entirely transparent.

  18. nickpheas on July 26, 2015 at 10:58 am said:
    The north of England. I’d quite like to get a bit of riding in north Germany/Denmark.

    I’m impressed. I moved from the Midlands to East Anglia and lost all ability to deal with hills.

  19. Many thanks for the recommendation for Charles Sheffield; I have abandoned the 13th century murder mystery, which I was reading in conjunction with rereading the Three Body Problem, on the grounds that it was altogether far too depressing, and am now thoroughly enjoying the start of the Converging series.

    There are few things more delightful than embarking on a prolific author whose works you enjoy, and I am grateful…

  20. Mark: Ray Blank has been reading and responding. Makes me feel like it’s June again

    I’m just shaking my head and laughing at that response. Instead of taking our criticisms of his glaringly-apparent lack of knowledge about Worldcon and the Hugos on board and educating himself, he assumes that those criticisms are due to racism and protectionism and that he knows what he’s talking about, and declines to educate himself.

    You can lead a Puppy to the water dish, but you can’t make him drink.

  21. Personally I motion for an Antarctic WorldCon. It’s all well and good for Mr. Standlee to show his airs with his tuxedo avatar and Emperor of the Business Meeting title, or some such nonsense, but an Emperor Penguin he is NOT. BirdFin are fans too I say.

    (Yes, yes they’re flippers but that is merely technicality)

  22. Ultragotha

    I’m surprised there was any space on the floor; cases are there to be clambered over, unless it damages the costume, of course.

    Back in the mists of time I attended World Costume Con in Chicago, and my luggage raised some eyebrows at the airport. Fortunately they didn’t open it up, because it’s very difficult to explain to a non-costumer why you feel the need to transport 21 pieces of fur across the Atlantic when Chicago no doubt has lots of fur of its own.

    I was saved by a Klingon…

  23. Question for anyone with Sasquan-specific clues: Someone commented on my G+ stream, in response to me remarking on last-minute Hugo voting, “You don’t want anything below No Award for the system to record it right.?” If this is so, it’s the first I’ve heard of it. But is it so?

  24. But is it so?

    As I understand it, no, it’s not so.

    If your ballot goes like this:

    1 – Fabulous Work
    2 – No Award
    3 – Adequate Work
    No Vote – Dire Piece of Tripe
    No Vote – Lousy Piece of Junk
    No Vote – Crazy-Ass Awful Piece of Crap

    …then if there aren’t enough votes for either your first or second choice to win, you’re at least registering a preference that if the award’s going to go to one of the others, you’d prefer it be AW, rather than one of the fabled PIECE OF series.

    Your No Award vote will count as a No Award vote just fine. Your third-place vote won’t matter unless No Award is eliminated.

  25. Whether or not you put an entry below No Award on your Ballot, or leave the rest of the Ballot blank, depends on what you want to do.

    Kevin Standlee, the Emperor Penguin of WSFS, has this explanation:
    http://kevin-standlee.livejournal.com/1440530.html

    ETA:
    Speaking of Emperors, here is an ad for “March of the Penguins” in French, where the movie was called “March of the Emperors”.

  26. If you do not want the slate items to appear on your ballot -do not rank them at all.-

  27. Ultragotha, I linked to that very post in response. The reference to “the system” made me wonder if there might be a problem with Sasquan’s software, which is why I asked, just to make sure I hadn’t missed anything.

  28. @Doctor Science:

    A question of genre: an e-friend is writing a novel set in an imagined world (different continents, cities) with a modern level of technology and no supernatural elements. Ze is trying to figure out what genre or marketing category to call it: literary fiction? speculative fiction? fantasy? science fiction?

    I’m getting more info from them, but it sounds not unlike A Handmaid’s Tale or A Stranger in Olandria. Can any of you think of anything else of this nature?

    Ruritanian, as said above, but I’d rather see it called Islandian fiction after Austin Tappan Wright’s marvelous imaginary continent.

  29. ::reads Roy Blank’s whaaaambulance post on how people are meeean to him::

    ::reads comments on that post;;

    ::Grabs popcorn::

    Oh this will be good. I especially like how the point that Kevin Standlee was trying to make to him regarding the usage of World in things like Worldcon/ World Series seems to have sailed COMPLETELY over him. I’m not any flavour of American, nor do I watch baseball, but *I* know the provenance of those terms.

    I believe that the apropriate parlance here is that Mr Blank is “showing his arse”, and quite prominently too.

  30. With respect to item 1: Ben Burtt’s marvelously creative work appeared in a film called simply Star Wars. Retrospective renaming (or subtitling in this case) should not be represented as the original title. C’mon, guys and gals, stay factual.

  31. snowcrash on July 26, 2015 at 6:21 pm said:

    ::reads Roy Blank’s whaaaambulance post on how people are meeean to him::

    ::reads comments on that post;;

    ::Grabs popcorn::

    I’m in danger of becoming a sea lion, so I’m going to back away at this point. Maybe eat some penguins.

  32. I’m not sufficiently interested in the issue to go as far as “registering” at Superversive, or even bothering to continue reading the conversation over there, but if anyone finds out whether Ray Blank has ever actually attended a Worldcon, or indeed has attended any sf convention, I’d greatly appreciate having the results reported here.

  33. @Camestros Felapton
    Maybe eat some penguins

    You, sir, are an anti-finnist and likely a closet hand-ist.

    Antarctica 2022! Who’ll stand with me?!?

    (You there! Yes, you with the egg on your feet! Do try to look more interested. We have a Con to sell here!)

  34. Morris Keesan: if anyone finds out whether Ray Blank has ever actually attended a Worldcon, or indeed has attended any sf convention, I’d greatly appreciate having the results reported here.

    In the post linked above, he quotes rob_matic’s comment:

    I got the impression from Ray Blank’s previous ideas about Worldcon that he’s never actually been to one.

    Now he has these ideas about the Hugos without seemingly being aware of what the Hugos are or that there are a plethora of other awards already on offer in the field of SFF.

    Then he says: All of these ‘facts’ are wrong.

    But he does not actually come out and say that he has been to a Worldcon — and honestly, based on several of the things he’s said, it’s incredibly difficult to believe that he’s been to a Worldcon, because if he had, he wouldn’t have said those things.

    Likewise, I don’t see how rob_matic’s point that Blank is “not aware of what the Hugos are” can possibly be “wrong” — because if Blank was aware of what the Hugos are, he wouldn’t have said a number of the things that he’s said.

  35. Stoic Cynic: Antarctica 2022! Who’ll stand with me?!?

    Have you talked to the penguins and sea lions about this? How many of them are SFF fans? Are there enough of them to staff a con? Have any of them attended or worked on other cons? Will they be bringing krill to their con bid promo parties?

  36. Likewise, I don’t see how rob_matic’s point that Blank is “not aware of what the Hugos are” can possibly be “wrong” — because if Blank was aware of what the Hugos are, he wouldn’t have said a number of the things that he’s said.

    I suspect that Blank’s aware of the Hugos, but his awareness is limited to ‘award that must be important because people are arguing about it’. I don’t think he’s been to any convention that was fan-run, though, because he really doesn’t seem to understand conventions that aren’t trade shows. (I used to go to a printing trade show for fun.)

  37. “Have you talked to the penguins and sea lions about this? ”

    That’s just like you man, to *completely* ignore the proud SF-fandom traditions of the polar bears denizens. Granted, it all went to hell over the ending to LOST (another instance of “disappearing” the polar bears after their contribution to the earlier seasons), but they’re still there!

    I suggest Phillip Pullman for GoH!

  38. @JJ

    ‘a krill in every pot’ thats our motto. Well that and: ‘if it ain’t the sea leopards it’s the orcas, always the bloody orcas…’.

    I can only say that we are organizing a march to the sea to show our support for a WorldCon. I believe it is currently scheduled for December or January.

    Otherwise, as an ideas kind of bird, I state ‘Bah!’ and hand wave your technicalities.

  39. Thinking of that poor penguin, Werner Herzog would be a great choice to document this year’s Hugo awards. Call it Sad Puppies: A Year of the Hugos.

  40. At times one of the penguins does not go to the sea to feed. These birds go out into the snow, and walk the snowfields alone. They keep walking, and walk straight out of the colony, past the nesting grounds. They keep walking away from the open water. Each one goes alone, chick, male, female. Night falls; the traveler must pass through sleeping birds and on out into the darkness of the waste. Each alone, they go south, towards the mountains. They go on. They leave the colony, they walk ahead into the darkness, and they do not come back. The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the snowfields of happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible that it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from the colony.

  41. @David W.: I think Herzog would be my first choice to document pretty much anything. The doc that penguin footage is from and Cave of Forgotten Dreams are just incredible. Also Into the Abyss, now that I’m thinking about Herzog docs.

  42. @Abi

    +1

    Let me tell you how it is. You’ve had a rough week, right?!? So it’s off to the ice bar for a little blow off. And this cute hen, she’s giving you the eye and chatting you up with these lurve-ly lines. And what’s the next thing you know but you’re on the Shelf warming her sprogs with your feet. And it’s to a wee night with the girls she’s popping out to. And never mind your needs. And it’s 3 months have gone by. And she comes reeling in, REEKING of fish, and the open sea. And all that you’re thinking is

    Where is my Janey Wayne
    Where is my ice shelf song
    Where is my happy ending
    Where have all the cowhens gone ?

    It’s enough to make a bird go walkabout it is.

  43. @Stoic Cynic:

    Nice.

    Call me Opus. Some years ago – never mind how long precisely – having little or no stone about my nest, and nothing particular to interest me in the water, I thought I would walk about a little and see the rocky part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the beak; whenever it is an icy, blizzarding November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before walruses; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately waddling off of the ice, and methodically pecking at leopard seals – then, I account it high time to get to the mountains as soon as I can.

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