(1) END OF PERIOD. As John Hertz said in his report on the dedication of Forrest J Ackerman Square, the city promised to replace the original sign with the erroneous period after the initial “J” – erroneous, because Forry spelled his name without one. And as you can see in this photo by Robert Kerr, the city has installed the corrected sign above the intersection.
(2) BIG ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION. Greg Ketter’s Minneapolis bookstore is featured in “Wi12: Busman’s Holiday Possibilities” at Shelf Awareness.
DreamHaven Books & Comics
Since opening on April 1, 1977, DreamHaven Books & Comics has moved 10 times and even had multiple locations open at once. Today it’s located in an approximately 3,300-square-foot storefront at 2301 East 38th street, the store’s home for the last eight and a half years, in a neighborhood around five miles southeast of downtown Minneapolis. According to owner Greg Ketter, despite various changes over the years, DreamHaven’s specialization in science fiction, fantasy, horror and comic books has remained constant. The book inventory is a mix of used and new, with a higher proportion of used, rare and collectible books than in years past; Ketter also carries a great deal of movie and comic memorabilia. One of the store’s centerpieces is a towering model of Robby the Robot from the film Forbidden Planet. Throughout the store other models and statues abound.
DreamHaven is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a party on April 1. Ketter has author appearances and a sale planned for the day, and is working in concert with Once Upon a Crime, a mystery bookstore in Minneapolis celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.
(3) BROUGHT TEARS TO MY EYES. Randy Byers, co-editor of Chunga, has promising news about the progress of his cancer treatment.
Again, the discussion is too technical for me to follow, but it all sounds pretty hopeful, which I assume is why Dr. Taylor was willing to be so optimistic right to my face. I feel torn between wild optimism on my own part and cautious skepticism. No doubt I’ll need to read and discuss it further, but damn if I didn’t immediately start thinking, “Maybe I *will* get to see Celine grow up!”
(4) INCONSTANT MOON. A little birdie told us that Larry Niven’s award-winning story may be filmed — “’Arrival’ Producer Developing ‘Inconstant Moon’ Sci-Fi Movie for Fox”.
Fox 2000 is launching development on a movie based on Larry Niven’s science-fiction story “Inconstant Moon” with Oscar-nominated “Arrival” producer Shawn Levy and his 21 Laps company on board.
“The Specatcular Now” director James Ponsoldt is attached from a script by Daniel Casey. Levy and 21 Laps’ Dan Cohen will produce along with Ponsoldt through his 1978 Pictures company and Vince Gerardis through his Created By company.
“Inconstant Moon,” which first appeared in the 1971 short story collection “All the Myriad Ways,” begins with the moon glowing much brighter than ever before, leading the narrator to presume that the sun has gone nova and that this is the last night of his life. He spends the night with his girlfriend but then discovers that the reality is that the Earth has been hit by massive solar flare that kills most the inhabitants of the Eastern Hemisphere.
Levy received an Oscar nomination Tuesday for producing “Arrival” along with Dan Levine, Aaron Ryder and David Linde. “Arrival” was nominated for eight Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for Denis Villeneuve.
(5) A REALLY BAD MAN. Atlas Obscura reminds us about a forgotten fictional character who had a major influence on genre fiction over the years: “The Criminal History of Fant?mas, France’s Favorite Fictional Villain”.
As villains go, Fantômas is a nasty one. Created in 1911, he is a gentleman criminal who perpetrates gruesome, elaborate crimes with no clear motivation. He hangs a victim inside a church bell so that when it rings blood rains on the congregation below. He attempts to kill Juve, the detective on his trail, by trapping the man in a room that slowly fills with sand. He skins a victim and makes gloves from the dead man’s hands in order to leave the corpse’s fingerprints all over the scene of a new crime.
His creators called him the “Genius of Evil” and the “Lord of Terror,” but he remained a cipher with so many identities that often only Jove would recognize him. The book that first introduces him begins with a voice asking: Who is Fantômas?
(6) TODAY IN HISTORY
- January 26, 1934 — One of America’s best-loved movie projects gets underway as producer Samuel Goldwyn buys the film rights to The Wizard of Oz.
(7) FAUX FACTS FOR SALE. Chuck Tingle’s Buttbart has opened an Alternative Fact Warehouse where you can purchase such alternative facts as “JOM HAMM IS YOUR HANDSOME ONLINE BUD WHO LIKES TO SKYPE” for a few dollars, with the proceeds going to Planned Parenthood.
GET YOUR FACTS HERE! 100 PERCENT FACT BASED ALTERNATE FACTS FROM THE DEEPEST TIMELINES FOR YOUR HARDEST BUDS https://t.co/8FtqllWdrd pic.twitter.com/yV1qyCnqqj
— Chuck Tingle (@ChuckTingle) January 24, 2017
(8) HE SAID ILK. Milo is scheduled to speak at UC Berkeley on February 1. He was prevented by protestors from speaking at another UC campus a few weeks ago. UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks has issued a statement reminding the university community that theirs is the home of the Free Speech Movement.
Mr. Yiannopoulos is not the first of his ilk to speak at Berkeley and he will not be the last. In our view, Mr. Yiannopoulos is a troll and provocateur who uses odious behavior in part to “entertain,” but also to deflect any serious engagement with ideas. He has been widely and rightly condemned for engaging in hate speech directed at a wide range of groups and individuals, as well as for disparaging and ridiculing individual audience members, particularly members of the LGBTQ community….
Berkeley is the home of the Free Speech Movement, and the commitment to free expression is embedded in our Principles of Community as the commitment “to ensur(e) freedom of expression and dialogue that elicits the full spectrum of views held by our varied communities.” As a campus administration, we have honored this principle by defending the right of community members who abide by our campus rules to express a wide range of often-conflicting points of view. We have gone so far as to defend in court the constitutional rights of students of all political persuasions to engage in unpopular expression on campus. Moreover, we are defending the right to free expression at an historic moment for our nation, when this right is once again of paramount importance. In this context, we cannot afford to undermine those rights, and feel a need to make a spirited defense of the principle of tolerance, even when it means we tolerate that which may appear to us as intolerant.
As part of the defense of this crucial right, we have treated the [Berkeley College Republicans’] efforts to hold the Yiannopoulos event exactly as we would that of any other student group. Since the event was announced, staff from our Student Affairs office, as well as officers from the University of California Police Department (UCPD), have worked, as per policy and standard practice, with the BCR to ensure the event goes as planned, and to provide for the safety and security of those who attend, as well as those who will choose to protest Yiannopoulos’s appearance in a lawful manner.
(9) EARLY WARNING. Declan Finn, in “Live and Let Bite, Best Horror at the Dragon Awards”, shows a photo of a Dragon Award trophy and declares —
In 2017, I’m going to be getting one of these.
Nice, huh? They look nifty, right? Here, let’s pull back a bit.
Yeah, I’m pretty much going to lay my cards on the table and say this is going to win the second annual Dragon Awards in 2017. This is not actually a boast. It’s just logical. No, seriously. Follow me around the windmills of my mind. Live and Let Bite is everything you loved in Honor at Stake and Murphy’s Law of Vampires, and then doubles down.
(10) THE MAGIC NUMBER. Dan Koboldt gives “5 Reasons to Vote for the Hugo Awards”.
2. Expose Yourself to Other Forms of SF/F
Most of us read enough novels to know how we want to vote in that category. Novels and series are the bread-and-butter of the SF/F genre. Furthermore, after the commercial success of Game of Thrones, Westworld, and other franchises, there are arguably more people reading SF/F novels than ever before. Thousand of people vote for the “best novel” Hugo Award.
I wish we could say the same about short stories, novelettes, and novellas.
Short fiction is a critical form of SF/F literature, and indeed is how many of us learned how to write. There are some wonderful markets that publish it — Clarkesworld, Galaxy’s Edge, and Nature, just to name a few — but the readership is much, much smaller. The Hugo Awards are a great opportunity to discover, read, and reward outstanding works in these briefer formats.
(11) AN ICE TOUR. Val and Ron Ontell are organizing pre- and post-Worldcon tours designed for those heading to Helsinki. Before the con there is a tour of Scandinavia, Talinn and St. Petersburg, and afterwards a tour of Iceland. Itineraries for both are at the site.
(12) FISHING WITH BAIT. John Joseph Adams has posted Hugo-eligible items and from Lightspeed, Nightmare and anthologies, and is offering to e-mail additional material to Hugo nominators with proof of voting eligibility.
If you are planning and eligible to vote for the Hugos this year, if you email me proof of your Worldcon membership (i.e., your name is listed on the Worldcon website as an attending member, or the email confirmation or receipt you received when you purchased your membership, etc.) I would be happy to make some additional 2016 material I edited available to you in digital format.
(13) ANOTHER FISHERMAN. Jameson Quinn wrote in a comment here today —
The paper on E Pluribus Hugo by Bruce Schneier and I had made it through peer review when the journal that had accepted it (Voting Matters) suddenly lost its funding and retroactively folded. We were trying to pressure the editor who had accepted it to help us find another place for it, but it looks as if that’s not happening. We’re still planning to publish it in another journal, but sadly we’ll probably have to repeat the whole peer review process. However, it is our belief that the paper is still eligible to be nominated for Best Related Work.
(14) TICKY. The Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists make it out to be two-and-a-half minutes til Midnight — “Doomsday Click Moves Closer to Midnight, Signaling Concern Among Scientists” in the New York Times.
Ms. Bronson, in a post-announcement interview, explained why the board had included the 30-second mark in the measurement. She said that it was an attention-catching signal that was meant to acknowledge “what a dangerous moment we’re in, and how important it is for people to take note.”
“We’re so concerned about the rhetoric, and the lack of respect for expertise, that we moved it 30 seconds,” she said. “Rather than create panic, we’re hoping that this drives action.”
In an op-ed for The New York Times, Dr. Titley and Dr. Krauss elaborated on their concerns, citing the increasing threats of nuclear weapons and climate change, as well as President Trump’s pledges to impede what they see as progress on both fronts, as reasons for moving the clock closer to midnight.
“Never before has the Bulletin decided to advance the clock largely because of the statements of a single person,” they wrote. “But when that person is the new president of the United States, his words matter.”
[Thanks to JJ, Cat Eldridge, Howard Osler, Van Ontell, David K.M.Klaus, Michael J. Walsh, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Kip W and Yours Truly.]
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(14) Without need of modesty, Donald J Trump is the most presidential president presidenting today. These atomic scientists clearly recognise the awesome power of his tiny hands to shift time itelf.
1) Nicholas Dirks is a jackass. Providing a podium to fascists and hatemongers does nothing but legitimize their position.
14) It’s a sad state of affairs that I read Ken’s post and initially thought he was serious.
So Finn wants to put the final stake in the heart of the Dragon Awards? Horror McHorrorface.
I never thought of Fantomas as “Forgotten” – I was a big Loui de Funés-Fan and he did a Fantomas-triology.
9) Lets see. I guess it means the Dragon Awards are already decided? By a secret cabal perhaps?
Ken: After serious consideration I came to the conclusion that Trump came here from the Mirror Universe of Star Trek.
The unticked box was the color of a file, tuned to a scrolled pixel.
Godstalk?
2) Dreamhaven is nice, but I’ve always preferred the selection (especially of used books) over at Uncle Hugo’s.
Living in the MSP metro area, I am spoiled for choice. And in fact the two, by car, are not far apart, if one wants to go from one to the other to compare. And then have some tasty Mexican food (Lake Street, with lots of Mexican restaurants is right there for you, to say nothing of Midtown Global Market.
I don’t know of any liquor stores in the area, so one cannot have a Fifth, as well, in such a journey.
(14) Doomsday Click?
re: 9
I think its extremely poor form to declare that your book is going to win a particular award,no matter how wonderful your book is.
(9) EARLY WARNING
“Live and Let Bite?” So it’s James Bond-meets-vampire titles now is it?
GoldenFang
ThunderClaws
The Man With The Golden Overbite
Never Say Daytime Again
Dr Nosferatu.
Quantum of Plasma
For your Fangs Only
Brendan:
Re: your comment, assuming it was genuinely stated.
“Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.” – Thomas Jefferson
Now that was a president. Who agitated for a Bill of Rights. Which includes the very first amendment. “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech.”
I suppose when Trump’s minions tell the press to shut up and when the PMRC was trying to ban “offensive” music and when people were getting blacklisted in Hollywood, that was all to the good, right? Anything anyone doesn’t like, they just suppress.
Nicholas Dirks understands what this country and his university is supposed to be about, at least in this regard.
I’m not sure I really understand where this is coming from. All over the damned internet, especially, I see people attacking the very foundation of freedom in this country under the guise of protecting people from “hatemongers” and from being “offended” when there’s little so hateful and offensive to me as the suppression of speech and ideas and the curtailing of reason’s freedom to combat error. Letting someone speak doesn’t “legitimize” anything not legitimized by reason – it merely vouches for the fairness and reasonableness of the person providing the platform. It shows that they aren’t afraid of the other position and don’t have to resort to coercion and deceit to defend their own untenable position. Why should they (or you) be afraid if they (or you) have the right of it and it’s perfectly tenable? We should have learned from the Inquisition: allowing people to think freely and speak what others may view as heresy may result in some “backwards” speech but is also the only way to advance. Trying to suppress it doesn’t keep the earth from moving. People who advocate such suppression don’t want to increase knowledge and advance the human race – they only want to acquire or maintain power over others through ignorance and coercion. Whether the cloak is “defeating Satan” or “saving the children” or “being an enlightened proponent of diversity and liberalism” suppression of free speech is suppression of free speech and is illiberal and unenlightened. If you get the power and define them as hatemongers and suppress “them,” don’t complain when “they” get the power and define and suppress you.
(Sorry for the seemingly disproportionate rant but I guess I’ve just seen this one too many times.)
[godstalk]
[We don’t need to change the title “You Only Live Twice,” right?]
@ Rob, no we dont, but we would have to include an asterix:
You only live twice *
*Although “Live” is not a 100% correct term.
How does a journal “retroactively fold.” Have past issues been snipped from our timeline?
2) Greg Ketter’s Minneapolis bookstore is fetured
Featured, surely?
Jason:
To provide a platform for hatemongers is just stupid. Especially when one of the hatemongers fans actually shot a guy in the stomach last time there was a meeting.
To give someone freedom of speech is not the same thing as giving them a platform for their hate, so the Bill of Rights is totally irrelevant for this case. And it is plainly ridiculous of you to mention “and yet it moves” as support for “gay rights have made us dumber”.
8:
so provide a link page to some of his bullshit on the university website and schedule some other speaker….
I think a decision to forego the presence of Mr. Yiannopoulos is sufficient to satisfy the need for “Freedom of Expression”.
Apparently not even the Dean gets that those Freedoms are extended by the government – not private institutions and individuals. I don’t have to listen to the country music station on the car radio; I don’t like it, nothing is going to change that attitude towards it and giving it “equal time” just makes for an unpleasant drive.
It is NOT intolerant to refuse to listen to the voice of intolerance.
(7) I’m grateful to Mr Beale for bringing Chuck Tingle to my attention and giving him such a platform for mischief, on which Tingle is ably building. Will wonders never cease.
(8) agree with the description of MY as a troll and provocateur. So would the best response be DNF?
@Jason
In general, I think “reason will always win out” is the argument of someone who’s never ever had to worry that they might be a victim of hate. But there are plenty of better discussions of this issue elsewhere online – I’m happy to recommend a few if that would be helpful?
@Msb
Blocking is the most effective way to stop trolls from ruining a conversation or a community – particularly if it can be done before they start to swarm. Safe spaces, no platform policies, and protest are the closest IRL equivalents.
Check it out! I collaborated with Mike. Mike collaborated with me. We’re collaborators!
[3] I’m very glad to hear Randy Byers’ promising news. Long may he Chunga!
[5] “Juve” is spelled “Jove” in one place. Google says it should be “Juve.”
[9] Not at all surprised to hear that someone knows (or ‘knows’) that his Dragon Award is in the bag. How nice for him that it’s not one of those unreliable Hugos, depending on the kindness of a bunch of strangers, and less than certain.
[3] Seriously, great news on Randy Byers. WOLVERINES!
[14] I expect the nuclear clock by now is halfway out of its casing, and Harold Lloyd is dangling precariously from its hands.
Peer Sylvester
Comrade! Whilst standing at the kitchen sink the other day, I was envying the mirror universe Trump is supposed to be President of, and thinking of how much they probably disliked the fairness, patience, humility, intellect, and long fingers of the one they ended up with.
Mark
GOLDFANGER
Look Back in Amber
Not strictly on the topic furnished, but then, what is? Here’s a filk from the long-ago days when I was a regular on rec.music.filk (filking).
Mike Connors, who starred in DAY THE WORLD ENDED, has passed on.
It is amusing that some 770 people back the cultural revolution of using violence and force to prevent people from expressing opposing points of view. I guess the Maoist reflex is just too strong.
Snowflakes melt when they hear something they disagree with.
@Hampus so the Bill of Rights is totally irrelevant for this case.
UC Berkeley is a state run, government funded university. The Bill of Rights is absolutely relevant. If UCB allows any outside speakers to come in, it cannot discriminate on the basis of what they say. This is well settled law in the United States.
The only way they can block MY is to not allow any outside speakers at all.
Milos fans bring guns and someone is going to get killed at one of these things eventually, I hoped we’re all clear on that. It came close at UW.
@Airboy
I’m assuming you’re referring to the person who shot someone at the UW protest? Oh, but he was supporting Milo so I guess he couldn’t possible be trying to use violence to prevent opposing points of view.
airboy:
Who is the maoist you are talking about? Does the maoist know they are a maoist?
Bill:
Of course they can stop an invitation to a person whose supporters shoot people. Your comment that they would have to stop everyone then is just ridiculous.
UC “Tolerating Intolerance” Subject Schedule
Cannibalism Solves World Hunger
Slavery: Why Not?
NAMBLA Round Table (only under 18 allowed)
Necrophiliac Beastality: A How To Guide
It’s really amazing how RWAs insist that they’re special and the whole world is supposed to be their safe space, and the whining they do when they don’t get their way is EPIC.
And lets remember that Yiannopoulos used one of his events to start harassing a trans student, shaming them for their looks.
If you, after that, still think that Yiannopoulos should have a place to talk at the university, it makes you a harasser yourself.
Keep telling yourself that you think harassment is important for free speech. Maybe it can remove some guilt.
Cassy B. “Featured” is right. Pour yourself your favorite breakfast!
@Hampus — you simply don’t know what you are talking about.
First, you said that he should be barred because he is a hatemonger. There is a ton of case law that says government entities must have viewpoint-neutral polices with respect to speech (Rosenberger v. UVA is particularly on point). He cannot be barred because of the offensiveness of what he says.
Now, you are saying that he could be barred because of what one of his supporters did at another event. By that logic, the rioters on inauguration day would be justification to block future parades by liberals.
I’ll admit to being a meow-ist, does that count?
@Mark. Dang, you got there first.
Bill:
No, it is actually you who don’t seem to know anything about Yiannopoulos. He is a hatemonger that has forced staff to directly apologize to students after he has harassed them. Any university can block events from a known hatemonger after that.
@airboy
Oh and thank you for demonstrating to me yet again why my attempts at engaging and being thoughtful and polite to the Puppies for so long was one of the STUPIDEST things I’ve done in the last few years.
Paging the other Doctor: physicists create time crystals.
@Hampus — you keep saying this, as if repetition will make it so.
“Hate” is not a category of speech that can be restricted by the government. Full stop.
@steve davidson
I used to be into S&M, necrophilia, and bestiality, but my friends told me I was beating a dead horse.
@Bill
Just in case you didn’t know, the US commitment to free speech is very unusual, even in the free world. Most other democratic governments allow a lot more restrictions than we do. Hampus is in Sweden, so it’s not a surprise if our willingness to support someone’s right to hate speech seems strange to him.
@airboy
I think there are plenty of people on your side who can’t tolerate hearing anything that contradicts their beliefs and who want to use the power of the government to shut those people down, so you’re on pretty thin ice trying to accuse anyone else of it.
I dislike people who think free speech is a manner to dispense hatred by using falsehoods, lies and distorted facts to subject minorities to harassment. Only airheads see nothing wrong with this.
Even a public university is not ‘the government’, Bill. They are able – indeed required – to exercise discretion over what will be presented to the students as educational and what may be harmful to them and their safety.
BTW, IIRC, aren’t you the one that said that a white man wearing an overtly racist costume of a gorilla wasn’t doing anything threatening when he waved a looped rope in POC’s faces during a BLM demonstration, because the rope wasn’t actually knotted in a noose? You never did answer my subsequent question asking whether you thought it was simply free speech if someone burns a cross every day in front of his neighbor’s house as long as he stays off his property, doesn’t damage his lawn and observes all local fire ordinances.
Your participation in that discussion did convince me that your sense of both threats and equivalencies is a little…off.
https://file770.com/?p=31491
@Paul – I’m sorry that you decided not to engage and listen to people who do not share your point of view of SF literature. But if it makes you happy, go for it.
@others – preventing an invited speaker from speaking is using Maoist tactics. Welcome to the new cultural revolution! I could provide chapter and verse of leftists preventing people they disagree with from speaking on campus – including assault and battery. Do a google search and examples are easy to find. Should an “anointed group” prevent others from assembling and speaking? That is illiberal in a country that has similar rights to the First Amendment in the USA.
In contrast, how many leftist speakers are hounded off campus? Spat upon? Prevented from speaking? Having their speech drowned out by chants or tantrums? Having their signs destroyed? Answer – pretty much none.
Remember Bernie Sanders spoke at Liberty University without the listeners trying to prevent him from speaking. Would Trump, Cruz, McConnell or any other prominent republican get the same treatment at a liberal university today? – probably not. Special snowflakes melt when they hear opposing points of view.
I would not go hear Milo speak. I would not go hear Angela Davis speak. But preventing either from speaking when invited is just repressing opposing points of view. A lot of US colleges have been successfully sued by FIRE and other organizations for being illegal thought police.
@ Bill
Read this and call me in the morning:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/how-federal-law-draws-a-line-between-free-speech-and-hate-crimes/
Has there ever been a point in time where “No platforming is violating my freeze peach!” not been a fucking tedious argument?
Jason:
I’m not saying that MY doesn’t have a right to spew his hateful screed, I’m saying the president of Berkeley is an idiot for providing him a platform to do it. And no, he’s not “required” to provide that platform. It’s frigging Berkeley, I cannot believe that they can’t find other speakers to fill that slot (or any other) for years to come.
I also note that Airboy has oh so conveniently forgotten about the Gamergate movement, which did use violence and abuse to prevent people from speaking. Huh, it was such a big movement too, I wonder how he possibly could have forgotten it. I’m guessing he was afraid of melting in the opposing views.
preventing an invited speaker from speaking is using Maoist tactics.
Whereas preventing a comfortable human from standing up is using meowist tactics?
@Schnookums Von Fancypants – When have I ever supported gamersgate?
But don’t let facts stand in the way of your opinions! Snowflakes love to make up things to help their hurt feelings!