Minnapolis fan Ericka Johnson died January 11 after a long illness. She was 53.
Ericka is survived by Peter Hentges, her partner of several decades, as well as her mother and three brothers
She got a shout out in Pam Wells 1991 DUFF trip report for guiding Pam on a Minneapolis shopping expedition.
An obituary is posted here at Legacy.com.
The unveiling of a Beijing in 2016 Worldcon bid webpage has sparked a great deal of discussion among conrunners, divided between those who wonder if it should be taken seriously and those who hope it can.
Imprinted with the cleverly designed logo of the “Future Affairs Administration,” the webpage is hosted on the www.guokr.com domain. Guokr.com is owned by Guoke Media, whose CEO Ji Shisan was profiled in China Pictorial this month. He told the interviewer —
“Our team will make an appearance at this year’s Worldcon [World Science Fiction Convention] in London, and we hope to win a bid to host the event in the near future,” Ji reveals. The 72nd Worldcon is scheduled for August 14 to 18.
Ji and his team are also big fans of science fiction, which they believe to be not only prophetic, but also a designer and engineer of humanity’s future. Guokr Media has already begun organizing the fifth Xingyun Awards, an international awards ceremony for Chinese-language science-fiction writers, to be held this summer in Beijing. In Ji’s opinion, the power of sci-fi inspiration is significant in terms of changing the fate of all humans.
Ji Shisan, who holds a Ph.D. in neurobiology, spent five years working as a science journalist and in 2008 founded an association for scientific writers that now has over 100 members worldwide. Shisan describes Guokr.com as an extension of his work to popularize science.
“Guokr.com creates a shortcut for scientific communication, making otherwise heavy, dense, dry scientific information much more accessible to ordinary people,” Ji explains. “From my understanding, science should be part of mainstream culture since scientific information plays a role in business, music, performance, sci-fi work and TV programs. At the end of the day, I want people to realize that science can be fun.”
Information about the bid on the Beijing in 2016 website is sparse. The bottom-line menu on the homepage links to several other pages but Google Translate shows these are all promotions of Guokr.com or its hosted content. The webpage discloses nothing about the proposed facilities or the members of the bid committee.
Bids for 2016 must be filed with Loncon 3 by February 15 to get on the ballot.
Those of us depending on English-language journalism cannot accurately estimate how many large sf events have been hosted in China over the years, the connections between them, and what it takes to run a large convention or conference there. But we know there have been such events. There was a 97 Beijing International Conference for Science Fiction. And in 2007, prior to the Worldcon in Nippon, thousands of fans attended the Chengdu International SF/F Conference to meet Neil Gaiman, Robert Sawyer and other international authors. After the Chengdu conference an associate of China’s Science Fiction World magazine wrote: “SFW learned more about how to hold an international SF/F conference and aspires at some stage to host the Worldcon in China.” Whether SFW is connected with the 2016 bid is not known at this time.
[Via Martin Easterbrook and Liz Batty.]
James H. Burns had this comment about a recent development in international diplomacy:
I find it curious that within relative hours of our government announcing that accords have been reached with Iran over their nuclear program(s), Iran reemphasized their rocket launching capability… As well as the perhaps unrelated fact that one of their more powerful launch vehicles is named “Simorgh,” after a giant avian mythological creature from Persian lore…
He presumes if it’s armed with a nuke then wherever it lands becomes — the Desolation of Simorgh.
Jay Lake begins a new phase of his battle against cancer in a National Institutes of Health trial this week, having volunteered as a subject for untested new immunotherapy technologies that might extend his life. Although the treatments are funded by the NIH, Jay still needs help with some other steep expenses that NIH doesn’t cover, as he recently explained on his blog:
I’m back off to NIH on Tuesday for surgery followed by some extensive and fairly brutal immunotherapy. As recently discussed, this is a very expensive process for me and my family. Not the treatments themselves, which are covered by NIH at no cost to me, but the expense of having my caregivers in Maryland for five weeks while I am being treated. Not to mention the expense already incurred during our two-week visit for enrollment.
Jay’s fans and friends can help by contributing to an online fundraiser to defray the costs of travel, hotel, and support. The appeal has brought in $8,799 of the $15,000 goal at this writing
[Via SF Site News.]
By John King Tarpinian: Today, January 18, Harlan Ellison, Paul Chadwick and Ken Steacy helped celebrate Blastoff Comics 2nd Anniversary by signing their graphic novel, 7 Against Chaos .
Harlan was in good spirits as was the gaggle of fans lined up outside in the 85 degree California sunshine. The store made sure everybody was properly hydrated by passing out water, not to mention feeding the parking meters for customers.
Being that I am a collector of fountain pens I was pleased to see that Harlan bought his case of pens and ink to sign the books with. A class act indeed.
Since She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed decided we’d take the dogs on a hike from Ferndale Park to the Griffith Observatory, and having stood outside interacting with the attendees, I did not stick around much after that so this is a short-and-sweet report.
Ken Steacy, Paul Chadwick and The Growler.
Steacy, Chadwick and Harlan Ellison signing.
Autograph line.
The Avatar-themed Disney World attraction first announced in 2011 began construction this month, part of an estimated $800 million renovation and expansion of the park’s Animal Kingdom.
The Animal Kingdom work is a personal priority of Tom Staggs, chairman of Disney’s global theme-park division reports the Orlando Sentinel. Staggs helped negotiate Disney’s Avatar licensing deal with filmmaker James Cameron and 20th Century Fox.
Animal Kingdom is home to three of Disney World’s 10 highest-rated attractions: Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safaris and Festival of the Lion King. The Themed Entertainment Association says Animal Kingdom already outdraws Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Universal’s Harry Potter-powered Islands of Adventure. What Disney is really looking for is to elevate Animal Kingdom into a full-day destination. According to the Sentinel:
The park’s struggle to keep guests for a full day has become a hard-to-ignore flaw because it has exacerbated overcrowding problems elsewhere at Disney World. Many of the visitors checking out of Animal Kingdom in midafternoon head for the Magic Kingdom, which is bursting with more than 17 million annual visitors, or the Downtown Disney retail area, which struggles with parking shortages in the evenings.
It’s hoped the luminescent night-time environment shown in Avatar will translate to something that keeps tourists in Animal Kingdom after dark.
The Avatar area will open in 2017, replete with floating mountains, lush jungle scenery and a ride on a “banshee,” the flying predator seen in the movie.
[Thanks to Petréa Mitchell for the story.]
Norwegian SF writer Jon Bing died January 14 at the age of 69.
Bing authored over 30 books, many in collaboration with Tor Åge Bringsværd. He also translated American and British SF and co-edited around 20 anthologies.
He was a professor of law at the Norwegian Research Center for Computers and Law, and the University of Oslo. Bing was a popular figure, often called upon by the media for his opinions about copyright, sf, technology and the future.
While students at Oslo University in 1965, Bing and Oddvar Foss founded the Aniara science fiction club, which is still going strong. In 1978 the first contingent of Norwegian fans went to the Worldcon.
Bing and Bringsværd are credited by John Henri-Holmberg with creating “the thriving Norwegian fandom of the last four-and-a-half decades.”
Jon Bing
On this date in history:
1644: John Winthrop documented the first known unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings in North America.
The lights were initially sighted by a resident of the hamlet of Muddy River — later incorporated into Brookline, MA, a town that should be familiar to any File 770 reader due to all the stories I’ve run here about of one of its elected officials, sf writer Michael A. Burstein. Mind you, Michael is not to be held responsible for any mysterious lights appearing hundreds of years before he arrived in Brookline.
Born 1882: A. A. Milne
A. A. Milne in 1922.
The author of Winnie-the-Pooh, like Tolkien, served in the British Army in World War I. Their wartime experiences involve some interesting coincidences.
Both A. A. Milne and J. R. R. Tolkien were trained as signals officers.
Both Milne and Tolkien participated in the Somme offensive of 1916. That was not such a great coincidence in itself. The campaign lasted several months, spanned perhaps 15 or 20 miles of trenches, and the British casualties alone exceeded 400,000, so no telling how many troops were involved altogether.
And both Milne and Tolkien contracted trench fever in November 1916 and were returned to England. Tolkien was invalided to England on November 8. That was the date Milne contracted trench fever and was sent back from the front lines. Ten days later Milne was in Southampton, on his way to a hospital in Oxford. He wrote in his autobiography —
I had my men out on a little hill one morning and was walking, as usual, from station (he was a signalling officer) to station to see how the messages were coming through. It was a warm November day, so warm that each station seemed a mile rather than a few hundred yards from the next, and I wondered how I could drag my legs there. At lunch in the HQ mess I went to sleep; spent the afternoon and evening sleeping in front of the stove; and when I went to bed was given the usual couple of aspirins by the M.O. Next morning my temperature was 103. The M.O. went off to arrange for an ambulance to take me to the clearing station. By the time I was introduced to it again the thermometer was soaring to 105. Next day the battalion got the order to move; the attack was to begin. My sergeant came to say goodbye to me. I handed over my maps, commended the section to his care, wished him luck, and went to sleep again. He was lucky. He only lost a leg. Ten days later I was at Southampton. Some kind woman offered to write a telegram for me. It was to [my wife] Daphne, saying that she would find me in hospital at Oxford. I woke up one afternoon and saw her at the end of the bed, crying.
These “How It Should Have Ended” videos are addictive. Fortunately there are plenty of targets.
Next on the firing range is — How The Desolation of Smaug Should Have Ended.
David Klaus sent me the link with his observation: “I really don’t like that the book was so padded with enough material to make three movies.” He thinks the limit should be, “One moderately long film or two mid-length movies as Rankin-Bass did.”