Pixel Scroll 8/26/18 Pixels Of Unusual Size? I Don’t Think They Exist

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(1) ALL SYSTEMS WIN. Martha Wells posted a Worldcon 76 report including her experiences at the Hugo Awards ceremony —

Then we got to novella, and I was extremely nervous. I felt like I had a strong chance and was hopeful, but it was still awesome to win. I managed to get up the stairs to the stage, give my speech without crying (After the Nebula Awards I didn’t want to be the author who cries all the time.) (I saved it all up for Monday, when every time anyone said anything nice to me, I would start crying.) Managed to get down the Stairs of Doom backstage with the help of about four people, got stopped to get a photo outside the auditorium in the reception area, went back in the wrong door and could not get it open and had to thump on it until the backstage people heard me, and then got back to my seat in time to see Nnedi Okorafor win for Best YA novel and N.K. Jemisin win for Best Novel!

And she has some Worldcon photos on her Tumblr.

(2) DIGBY IN ONE PLACE. The Golds reminded readers today about the extended electronic edition of Tom Digby’s amazing fanwriting that’s available online, “Along Fantasy Way”. Originally produced for the 1993 Worldcon where Tom was a guest of honor, the collection was expanded in its 2014 digital version. What a treasure trove of wonderfully creative idea-tripping. Delightful poetry, too – for example:

…OR MINERAL(2/07/76)

Pet rocks are OK, but some people prefer more variety.
The guy upstairs from me
Has a 1947 Chevrolet engine block.
I think his apartment is too small for it,
But there it is.
And the family down the street
With the goldfish pond in the yard
Has an old ship’s anchor
To keep the fish company.

But of all the inorganic pets in the neighborhood,
The happiest is an old beer can
Belonging to a small boy.
It would never win a prize at a show:
Too many dents
And spots of rust
And paint flaking off.
And besides, it’s a brand of beer
Most people don’t like.
But that doesn’t really matter.
What matters is FUN
Like afternoons when they go for a walk:
The can leaps joyously ahead
CLATTERDY RATTLEDY CLANG BANG!
Then lies quietly waiting for its master to catch up
Before leaping ahead again.
I may get a beer can myself some day.

But I still don’t think it’s right
To keep a 1947 Chevrolet engine block
Cooped up in such a small apartment.

The collection is illustrated by Phil and Kaja Foglio.

(3) ALL BRADBURY ALL THE TIME. A very nice set of Bradbury quotes at Blackwing666: “Ray Bradbury – Born August 22, 1920”

(4) GUNNED DOWN. You could see this coming. The Hollywood Reporter says “‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ Production Put on Hold”. The studio still expects to make the movie later on.

Sources say that crewmembers, which is, at this stage, a small group that was prepping for preproduction, are being dismissed and are free to look for new work.

The Marvel project was originally to have been directed by James Gunn and was to have begun principal photography in the winter, either in January or February. The project was crewing up and was to have gone into full preproduction mode in the fall.

But Gunn was let go as the director in July when old tweets were resurfaced in response to his vocal political posts. While some held out hope that the director would be given a reprieve by Disney, a mid-August meeting with Disney chairman Alan Horn closed the door on that.

(5) LAST DAYS OF BANG ON EARTH. Big Bang Theory has started production of its final season.

Let What Culture tell you Why The Big Bang Theory Just Got Cancelled.

(6) HUGO STATISTIC. I don’t have time to check. Could be….

https://twitter.com/thedesirina/status/1033055204508401664

(7) HOW THEY STACK UP. Rocket Stack Rank’s Eric Wong writes:

With the recent release of the TOC for the Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy 2018 (BASFF), I’ve updated RSR’s 2017 Best SF/F Anthologies article with the 20 stories in that anthology plus their honorable mentions.

The grand total from five 2017 “year’s best” SF/F anthologies is 114 stories by 91 authors, from which we can make the following observations:

o   Magazines: Asimov’s (12), Clarkesworld (9), Lightspeed (9)

o   Anthologies: Visions, Ventures, Escape Velocities (3/7), Extrasolar(5/14), Infinity Wars (5/15)

o   Nancy Kress (3), Rich Larson (3), Robert Reed (3), Alastair Reynolds(3)

To see other outstanding stories that didn’t make it into the five “year’s best” SF/F anthologies, go to RSR’s 2017 Best SF/F article, which has also been updated with the BASFF stories for a total of 256 stories by 201 authors.

(8) TODAY IN HISTORY

  • August 26, 1953 — The War of the Worlds premiered. (“Welcome to California!”)

(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

[Compiled by Cat Eldridge]

  • Born August 26 — Katherine Johnson, 100. NASA mathematician and physicist awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom by Obama in 2015. Her work made space travel possible. And yes she’s African-American as well! (Makers has a post celebrating her birthday.)
  • Born August 26 — Barbara Ehrenreich, 77. Social activist and author of one genre novel, Kipper’s Game which gets compared to the works of Connie Willis.
  • Born August 26 — Stephen Fry, 61. Narrator, all of the Harry Potter audiobook recordings, Col. K. In the animated Dangermouse series and any number of other delightfully interesting genre related undertakings.
  • Born August 26 — Wanda De Jesus, 60. Genre work includes Robocop 2, SeaQuest 2032, Tales from The Darkside, Babylon 5, and Ghosts of Mars
  • Born August 26 — Melissa McCarthy, 48. Now starring in The Happytime Murders which apparently is the first film from the adult division of Jim Henson Productions. Also Ghostbusters: Answer the Call.
  • Born August 26 — Chris Pine, 38. James T. Kirk in the current Trek film franchise; also Steve Trevor in the Wonder Woman film franchise as well as A Wrinkle in Time and Rise Of The Guardians.

(10) COMICS SECTION.

  • Brevity shows some movie dinosaurs who keep comic back.

(11) SPACE ANNIVERSARY. JPL celebrates “15 Years in Space for NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope”, an instrument that has far outlasted its predicted useful life.

Launched into a solar orbit on Aug. 25, 2003, Spitzer was the final of NASA’s four Great Observatories to reach space. The space telescope has illuminated some of the oldest galaxies in the universe, revealed a new ring around Saturn, and peered through shrouds of dust to study newborn stars and black holes. Spitzer assisted in the discovery of planets beyond our solar system, including the detection of seven Earth-size planets orbiting the star TRAPPIST-1, among other accomplishments.

 

(12) OH NO, WHERE CAN THE MATTER BE. Gizmodo reports “Scientists Will Soon Drop Antimatter to See How It Behaves in Gravity”.

In a new study, physicists attempted to find differences between matter and antimatter—confusingly, also a kind of matter, but with the opposite charge and other differences. It’s like an evil twin. Confusingly, the universe has way more matter than antimatter, for no clear reason. Physicists haven’t found the specific differences they were looking for when studying the antimatter version of hydrogen, called antihydrogen, but they have demonstrated a way to study antimatter better than ever before.

Mike Kennedy forwarded the link with the note, “It’s a complicated story, and mostly about recent measurements of the Lyman-? emission lines of anti-hydrogen… in particular it being the same wavelength as for hydrogen <http://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0435-1>. The bit about laser cooling anti-hydrogen and dropping it to observe how it reacts to gravity is IIUC speculative at this point.”

(13) MORE ON NEXT SHATNER RECORD. SYFY Wire brings us news that William Shatner is releasing a holiday album (“William Shatner teases Christmas cover record: Shatner Claus”):

Set phasers to jolly.

The legendary actor and musician William Shatner is giving us another reason to be excited about the holiday season. Shatner tweeted the Amazon link to pre-order his first upcoming record: Shatner Claus The Christmas Album. You can add the self-described godfather of dramatic musical interpretation’s album digital audio, CD, or vinyl in your letter to the North Pole. With vinyl record sales on the constant rise, it’s exciting to see if this will find Shatner Claus’ sleigh riding its way to the top of the Billboard charts.

(14) JURASSIC BLETCHLEY PARK. In “Dinosaur DNA clues unpicked by researchers at University of Kent”, scientists are theorizing-from-clues that dinosaur DNA, like birds’, had many chromosomes, making mix-and-match easier.

Researchers at the University of Kent say their work uncovers the genetic secret behind why dinosaurs came in such a variety of shapes and sizes.

This variation helped the creatures evolve quickly in response to a changing environment – helping them to dominate Earth for 180 million years.

But the researchers behind the DNA work say they have no plans to recreate dinosaurs, Jurassic Park style.

(15) FLAME OFF. BBC assures us, “Yes, Antarctica has a fire department”.

But fighting fires in freezing temperatures also calls for some specialist equipment.

Surprisingly, water is still an option. McMurdo’s fire engine has a pump, which cycles water constantly through the vehicle to prevent it from freezing.

Remembering to set the pump going is, says Branson, a lesson quickly learned.

“You do not want to be the person who freezes all the water in the fire engine. Then you’re stuck with a 500 gallon engine with an ice block in it… and nobody on base is going to like you.”

(16) BEARLY VISIBLE. BBC has video: “Bear roams ‘The Shining’ hotel in Colorado”. It’s a good thing Jack Nicholson didn’t try swinging an axe at this guest….

A bear was filmed going through the lobby of the hotel that inspired Stephen King’s classic horror novel in Colorado.

(17) YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY. While excavating on YouTube, Carl Slaughter found Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster (1965): “Frankenstein, ie, Frank the android, does battle with a Martian beast to prevent a Martian princess from replenishing Mars with voluptuous and sometimes bikini-clad Earth women.  The Pentagon monitors the situation and tries to lend Frank a hand.  Turns out Frank wears an Air Force uniform and holds military rank  – like Data.  This is in the so bad it’s good category.”

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

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59 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 8/26/18 Pixels Of Unusual Size? I Don’t Think They Exist”

  4. I get 9% (6/67), or 11% (8/73) if you include Retro Hugos. In either case, all but two of them were Robert Heinlein. The other two were Robert J. Sawyer and Robert Charles Wilson.

  5. I got the same thing as Dan B. One possibly-interesting tidbit is that most Hugo Novel winners have unique first names among the entire list; other than the Roberts mentioned above, the only disambiguations I noticed were Frank (Herbert and Riley) and Philip (Dick and Farmer). (I counted Jo/Joanne/Joe all separately.)

  6. You also get five more Roberts in the short fiction categories. Three of those are Robert Silverberg plus Robert Bloch and Robert Reed.

    You also have a surprisingly high number of Fritzes across all the fiction categories. And they’re all Fritz Leiber.

  7. (13) MORE ON NEXT SHATNER RECORD.

    Please no. Last night I stumbled across “Best Celebrity Pop Songs” or some such thing on TV and watched with a mix of bemusement and/or horror. In amongst the footballers trying to rap and so on was Shatner dramatically speaking his way through a song, cigarette in hand. Oddly enough there was also Terry Savalas pulling a similar performance.
    The winner was of course David “weirdly popular in Germany” Hasslehoff.

  8. (6) HUGO STATISTIC

    Also, being named Robinson seems to help you do quite well in the Hugos (Spider, Jeanne, Kim, Frank).

    BRB, registering my pen name as “Robert Robinson”. Catchy, huh?

  10. So here’s to you Robert Robinson
    Hugo loves you more than you will know,
    Wo wo wo
    Awards you heaps Robert Robinson
    Rockets coming out your ears all day
    Hey hey hey, hey hey hey

  12. We’d like to know a little bit about you for our files
    We’d like to help you learn to stalk yourself
    Look around you all you see are social justice eyes
    Scroll around the grounds until you feel at home

  14. Among his genre-related activities, Stephen Fry wrote an alternate history novel called Making History.

  15. (6) As previously established, in the fan categories, being named David is a big help.

    @Cath: Nice!

  16. 16) I used to ride my bike over to the Stanley to practice on their grand piano. It had Sousa’s autograph on the sound board (from 1936, I think).

    The hotel was owned by the brother of the inventor of the Stanley Steamer, by the way. Once a year, they would drive the Steamers down from Estes Park to Fort Collins, and our local radio station would describe the excitement.

  17. @6: I foolishly went off and did my own research on awards before reading the comments; what I found matches other reports here. Big surprise was that I’d forgotten Silverberg never got a novel Hugo; plenty of nominations, including two in the same year (which probably didn’t help — these days I think many authors would pick one work) and a Nebula, and three shorter-fiction wins, but not “the big one”.

    @9: An edge case for Stephen Fry: Cold Comfort Farm. As Langford(?) has pointed out, the novel is clearly SF as it mentions videophones, but I don’t recall anything genre in the movie beyond the generally snarky attitude.

    @Soon Lee: you don’t know Bob?

  20. Meredith Moment:

    Five volumes in the Redwall series by Brian Jacques (the first three, 17 and 21) are part of the KDD at Amazon US for $1.99 each.

    6) Given that Robert Heinlein won four himself, this didn’t surprise me.

    Here in 1225, our feline overlords plot to win their own Hugo by taking various forms of the name “Robert”.

  22. @Lis Carey:

    I just got off litter box detail! I’m not questioning our feline overlords’ methods again any time soon!

    Here in 1692, we are keeping an eye on Salem MA with a growing sense of perplexity and sorrow, watching insanity in full bloom.

  24. And my own medical update: The first of 20 radiation treatments was this morning (at way-the-heck-too-early) and they assure me that I will not glow in the dark, much to my disappointment. And the mammogram from Friday-before-last came back as normal and I can go back to my previous (nonexistent) schedule.

    Here in 4061, you can get the results you want, if you arrange them in advance.

  25. Also, my mouse is dying, and it was the only pointing device of four I tried that Win7 could see.
    Suggestions for dealing with this cr*ppy behavior are welcome.

  26. @P J Evans, that’s great on the mammo result. Further good luck on the radiation.

    (1) Martha Wells’ report mentioned “they showed a hilarious video about how the Hugos were made.” When I clicked through, I found it unavailable due to a copyright takedown by WMG, whoever that is. I’m in the U.S.; not sure how widespread the takedown is.

  27. @PJ Evans.
    Glad to hear about the good mammography results. As for the mouse, my old Windows 7 laptop uses a Logitech wireless optical mouse that works with it. I’ve replaced it a few times and never had a problem.

    4)
    I’m still stunned that Disney is willing to kill a multi-million dollar movie over a few years old offensive tweets.

    I also don’t buy the often cited “But Disney is a family brand and must protect their image” excuse. First of all, it’s a Marvel film, not a core Disney film. And besides, the target audience for Guardians of the Galaxy are people between 35 and 50, hence all the 1980s references. Plenty of children watch and enjoy the films, but they’re not the main target demogrpahic.

  28. @Cora Buhlert:

    I’m not at all surprised. The Mouse is typically very cautious when it comes to its product (and Guardians of the Galaxy is under their umbrella). The main thing for them is protecting their brand and image. Delaying or killing a film would be preferable in this instance from their viewpoint, as everything they do reflects on the core image.

    Here in 2050, our feline overlords have flying cars, but we are still not trusted with them (for good reasons).

  29. @Chip:

    Having two nominees on the ballot doesn’t hurt you in the Hugos — as the stats for The Good Place this year show.

    In a previous year, Silverberg had two nominees and withdrew The World Inside to avoid conflicting with A Time of Changes. When we (especially we who preferred World) pointed out that this was unnecessary, he left the two in next time. Didn’t win either time, but…

  30. @ Soon Lee re (6)
    This is your fault. The only way I could exorcise the earworm was to finish the filk.

    Hide your rockets in the hiding place where no cat ever goes
    Put them on your bookcase with your cupcakes
    It’s a little secret just the Robinsons’ affair
    Most of all you’ve got to hide it from the pups

    Sitting in the green room on a Sunday afternoon
    Feasting from the finalists’ cheese plate
    Laugh about it, shout about it
    When Hugo’s got to choose
    There’s no way that you can lose

    Where have you gone, John Picacio
    A Worldcon turns its lonely eyes to you
    Wu wu wu
    What’s that you say, Robert Robinson?
    Diversity shall never go away

  31. Cath: Love that finish, and for some reason I especially liked the detail “Feasting from the finalists’ cheese plate”.

  32. 5) Re: The BBT video: You can’t really call a show “cancelled” when the network wanted to keep it going, and a lead actor and the creator voluntarily decided to end the show so they could go out on top.
    While I didn’t watch THE BIG BANG THEORY regularly, my experience writing for L.A. Beer showed me just how hard it is to write a multicam well, so hats off to them.

  33. (1) What a good report! That lady ought to win an award for her writing. I particularly like her description of the therapy dog as “like a gentle kraken rising from the sea”.

    (6) Probably true. @Soon Lee: bravo! for both original comment and filk.

    (10) comic = coming? Autocorrect, I’m guessing. I’ll appertain me some of that blood orange cider. (Was it ACE? Does anyone remember or know GRRM/Parris well enough to ask what they had available for the party?)

    I do like the Comics Section.

    (14) My snarky thought “Duh, because birds are dinosaurs?”

    (17) I remember my brother and I hooting at that during Creature Features. I think I’ll pass on it this time, without him to help me mock it.

    @Kip: I remember that. It’s how I knew what a Stanley Steamer car was. I see the hotel is going all-out (hopefully minus bears) for Halloween:
    https://stanleylive.com/event/the-shining-ball-2/

    @PJ: I am disappoint. Not at the news that health things are going well, but that you won’t glow in the dark or get superpowers.

    @Cath: applause! Esp. for the cheese plate.

  34. Sudden random faannish thought: were the Hogus presented this year?

    (by which I mean 2018, not 3931, in which the credentials have finally conquered the galaxy — you always knew they could teleport small distances, and now they can do it across light-years.)

  35. Lenore Jones / jonesnori: Martha Wells’ report mentioned “they showed a hilarious video about how the Hugos were made.” When I clicked through, I found it unavailable due to a copyright takedown by WMG, whoever that is. I’m in the U.S.; not sure how widespread the takedown is.

    You can see the video as part of the Hugo Ceremony video here (I’ve got it cued to start at the correct place). After a minute or so, my browser auto-muted the video and I could not turn the sound on again, even after the music part had stopped, and had to open the video in a new window past the “making of” part in order to be able to hear the rest of the ceremony.

  36. @Lurkertype
    I really wanted to glow in the dark for my 50-year HS reunion in October. (You have to understand: it’s in Livermore. That Livermore.)

  37. Lurkertype: Sudden random faannish thought: were the Hogus presented this year?

    Not that I heard of. And I’d like to think I’d hear if they were….

  38. @Jeff Smith: 1 case is anecdote; OTOH, there’s no real test (unless that’s a paratime transporter in your pocket), just authors who think multiple works bleed support (possibly with less reason than artists thinking they get better prices by setting starting prices so low that pieces go from silent to live auction, back when live auctions were substantial (or existed at all)). Unfortunately, the statistics for the year I was looking at are probably unfindable.

  39. Women who use the middle initial K. have won six times as many Hugo Awards for Best Novel as men who use the middle initial K.

  40. Off-topic filer report: Skater and coach both home from Omaha. Good derby was played. The Boulder County Bombers lost to a team ranked above them and won against a team ranked below them. Fleur de Beast is mildly bruised but unbroken. Footage is not yet in WFTDA.tv archives, but it’s super early days still.

    Ob SFF content: Since Coach Papa Whiskey had too sore a throat to read me Murderbot #2 while I drove, I played us the audiobook of Midnight Riot (“Rivers of London” Book 1). It’s a re-listen for me, but a new one for him. He likes it! We still have about two hours left to listen to. Tentative plan is to do this tomorrow when we would have had derby practice except we’re all taking the night off probably.

    Next derby headliner of note: Boulder County Bombers and Denver Roller Derby to partner in hosting the Thin Air Throwdown tournament at the Boulder County Fairgrounds over the weekend of September 14. The event comprises a B-team tournament track as well as a track showcasing three of the four highest-ranked teams in the world. It’s rumored there will be livestreaming. But obviously if you’re in the area you should come on up and watch it live in person. It’s going to be like a partial preview of WFTDA Champs.

    Off to collapse, or possibly to play video games until I collapse. Collapsing will be involved in the evening plans, anyway.

  41. I was confused at the listing of Stephen Fry as the narrator for the HP books, because I’ve had those for quite a while, and the narrator is Jim Dale (had to double check my audible account to be sure I wasn’t losing my mind). So, off to google, where I find that Stephen Fry is the narrator for the books in the UK, and now I’m really curious to hear what they sound like. My mother-in-law is in the UK at the moment; I may have to ask if she can find the first audio book on CD and bring it back with her for me. I didn’t love Dale’s narration at first, though it did grow on me.

  42. @Chip—
    I don’t understand how Hugo voting relates to art auctions.

    In Hugo voting, do you not think that the way votes flow upward as works are eliminated negates the concern of split votes? Look at all the times episodes of Doctor Who have won even when multiple episodes are nominated. I just don’t see it as a problem at all.

  43. (11) SPACE ANNIVERSARY. Way cool! 😀

    (12) OH NO, WHERE CAN THE MATTER BE. Uh, please be careful with this antimatter stuff. Not that I have any science paranoia, nosirreebob, not me.

    – – – – – –

    As others sing us: Tom Bailey of Thompson Twins fame has a new album and song called “Science Fiction.” 🙂 I like the song, though I’ll probably only buy it and not the album, which is fine but doesn’t grab me.

  44. @P J Evans: Yay for the good mammogram result and best wishes for future success, with or without glowing.

    @Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little: Welcome back! I love the “Peter Grant” series and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith does a superb job narrating, or as he would say, “narrATE-ing.” He does speak a bit fast occasionally; coupled with his accent, there were a few times over the books when I had to hit the 15-second-rewind*, but I’m not complaining. I could listen to him read the proverbial grocery list. I hope the new book coming this fall has a corresponding audiobook with him.

    * ETA: Once or twice, I’m pretty sure I remember giving up on trying to understand a slightly-mumbled phrase.

    @Avilyn: I loved Dale’s narration of “Harry Potter.” I found a weird sample someone made (not liking how Fry pronounced “pocketed it”). It’s a bit odd hearing someone other than Dale, for me. 😉

    Here in the year of our Cyborg 5831, audiobooks are read directly into our brains. OUR BRAINS!

  47. @Cora Buhlert
    4)I’m still stunned that Disney is willing to kill a multi-million dollar movie over a few years old offensive tweets.

    I also don’t buy the often cited “But Disney is a family brand and must protect their image” excuse. First of all, it’s a Marvel film, not a core Disney film. And besides, the target audience for Guardians of the Galaxy are people between 35 and 50, hence all the 1980s references. Plenty of children watch and enjoy the films, but they’re not the main target demogrpahic.

    I doubt it is killed so much as it is put off until another director is selected.

    Disney caught hell over Powder, a youth-oriented film whom they hired Victor Salva to direct. Salva had been convicted and served time for child molestation. The fallout from that probably informs their decision to fire Gunn.

  48. @Jeff Smith: both are examples of beliefs I’ve run into; neither is truly testable — as is an independent upward effect; ISTM that two nominees could blur together for a reader (especially two Silverberg nominees back then — his world-weariness may have been a bit advanced (or retro?) for the late 1960’s), letting other works ahead. Here we argue specifics of nominees a lot — but there are also points of “this just doesn’t do it for me”; judging one’s votes is not a universally rational experience.

    @bill: the question for Disney is how many of the actors they’ll lose if they pick another director; IIRC, some of the stars (maybe just one, cf above re Drax?) have said they won’t come back if Gunn doesn’t. I suspect all the actors are under contract, but ISTM that enforcing a contract against an actor who doesn’t want to be there is asking for a performance bad enough to hurt the movie without being bad enough to convince a jury that the actor is in breach of contract.

  49. @Chip Hitchcock
    the question for Disney is . . .
    And apparently Disney has answered the question by firing Gunn. I can see arguments for and against, but it’s not my $100 million at stake. I’m surprised that Disney let itself get surprised by the situation; at least one of Gunn’s problematic tweets was after the press had said that he was in talks to direct the first one, six years ago. (also surprised that Gunn would continue such “jokes” after entering conversations with Disney).

    I suspect all the actors are under contract, but ISTM that enforcing a contract against an actor who doesn’t want to be there is asking for a performance bad enough to hurt the movie without being bad enough to convince a jury that the actor is in breach of contract.

    For an actor to deliberately give a bad performance under such circumstances would be, I’d imagine, career suicide.

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