Pixel Scroll 1/30/17 There Are Studies Underway To Fluoridate Pixels. Children’s Pixels!

(1) CAPALDI MAKES IT OFFICIAL. Not unexpectedly, the Twelfth Doctor is leaving Doctor Who as new showrunner Chris Chibnall gets ready to take the reins.

“Doctor Who” star Peter Capaldi has announced he’ll step down from the role at the end of the year.

Capaldi has starred in the long-running sci-fi series as the titular Twelfth Doctor since 2013, following the departure of Matt Smith.

“One of the greatest privileges of being Doctor Who is to see the world at its best. From our brilliant crew and creative team working for the best broadcaster on the planet, to the viewers and fans whose endless creativity, generosity and inclusiveness points to a brighter future ahead,” Capaldi said in a statement. “I can’t thank everyone enough. It’s been cosmic.”

Capaldi will conclude his time as the Doctor with the 2017 Christmas special.

The actor’s departure will correspond with the exit of executive producer Steven Moffat, who previously announced his intention to leave his post.

(2) BURN OF THE DAY. J. K. Rowling knows how to deal with fantastical creatures, like frogs that tweet.

(3) DECOLONIZING SF. Strange Horizons has posted an Indigenous SF special issue.

It’s our second special of the month, and showcases fiction, poetry, and non-fiction by native and indigenous writers.

We have Drew Hayden Taylor’s story “Take Us To Your Chief” (from his collection of the same name); we have three poems apiece by poets Halee Kirkwood and Tanaya Winder; we have a round-table moderated by Rebecca Roanhorse; and of course reviews, including a double-feature look at Moana.

(4) THE HARP THAT ONCE OR TWICE. R. Graeme Cameron wrote a superlative column based on Walt Willis’ 1952 U.S. Trip report for Amazing Stories that combines his analysis with the old master’s storytelling.

Walt actually had a good time aboard ship. When asked what he did for a living he said he was a pulp fiction author going to America to pick up his earnings. The “Greenwich Village” pseudo-intellectuals on board coming back from bumming around Europe stood in awe of this creative type who actually earned money. Late in the voyage he was asked if anyone was meeting him in New York and he replied (more or less honestly) “Just a few fans.” This only increased his reputation. Sometimes fannish ploys work very well on Mundanes.

QUOTE

At last we docked, and hordes of officials swarmed on board … I had a whole stack of documents in an old Galaxy envelope and every time I came to an official I would shuffle them and deal him a hand. If I’d won I’d be allowed to go on to the next table, like a bridge tournament. I’d had some practice in this game already and at last I won the first prize, a clear view of the gangway. I found to my shocked surprise that suddenly there was absolutely nothing to stop me walking ashore. I promptly walked ashore.

Someone in a blue suit came up and shook my hand … It was Dave Kyle … Joe Gibson came along in a few seconds. After a few minutes chat the two revealed conspiratorially that Will Sykora and his henchman Calvin Thomas Beck were lurking outside to meet me. They suggested a cloak and dagger scheme by which they would go out and wait for me a couple of hundred yards outside the shed, while I strolled out by myself past Sykora and Beck, who wouldn’t recognise me.

I was thrilled. Nobody could have arranged a more fannish welcome. Not two minutes in the country and already I was up to my neck in New York fan feuds. However I temporized; I had nothing personally against Sykora … I had never been able to sort out New York fandom anyway … and I rather wanted to meet such a legendary figure. Besides, I knew Shelby had in his innocence asked Beck to meet me …

Outside, in the fresh clean smog of Hoboken … I had my first hamburger, closely followed by my second. As far as I was concerned, the food problem in America was now solved …

END QUOTE

(5) RECOMMENDATIONS. There are a bunch of sites whose Hugo picks I’m interested in hearing, and Nerds of a Feather is high on that list — “2017 Nerds of a Feather Hugo Award Longlist, Part 1: Fiction Categories”.

Given the vast number of Hugo categories, we’ve also made the decision to split the longlist up into multiple posts. Today we look at the fiction categories (Best Novel, Best Novella, Best Novelette and Best Short Story). For fiction that is available free of charge, we’ve embedded a direct link to the story. For novels and works of short fiction that are not available for free, the embedded link redirects to a review.

(6) TODAY IN HISTORY

  • January 30, 1933The Lone Ranger made its radio debut.

(7) GAME WRITING. “Guest Post: On Representation in RPGs, from Monica Valentinelli” on Jim C. Hines’ blog.

Why does representation in RPGs matter? The answer is simple: players play games so they can be the hero in their own stories. The characters they choose (or build) allow players to perform heroic acts with their group, and they’re crucial to a player’s ability to have fun. There’s even a joke told about this at conventions. What’s the best way to get a player excited to talk about their game? Ask them about their beloved character!

Characters are important, and I feel it’s a game designer’s job to acknowledge different styles of play to offer a broad range for players to choose from; the other side of that coin, however, is to remember that players also possess different identities. In order to consider both in the games we make, developers, designers, writers, and artists address inclusivity through the lens of representation.

(8) MOVIN’ ON. I had forgotten that James Cameron did Aliens, but that explains why someone asked his opinion about Ridley Scott’s upcoming trilogy that begins with Alien: Covenant “James Cameron On The ‘Alien’ Franchise: ‘I Don’t Think It’s Worked Out Terribly Well. I Think We’ve Moved On’” at ScienceFiction.com.

“The franchise has kind of wandered all over the map. Ridley [Scott] did the first film, and he inspired an entire generation of filmmakers and science-fiction fans with that one movie and there have been so many films that stylistically have derived from it, including my own Aliens, which was the legitimate sequel and, I think, the proper heir to his film. I sort of did it as a fanboy. I wanted to honor his film, but also say what I needed to say. After that, I don’t take any responsibility.

I don’t think it’s worked out terribly well. I think we’ve moved on beyond it. It’s like, okay, we’ve got it, we’ve got the whole Freudian biomechanoid meme. I’ve seen it in 100 horror films since. I think both of those films stand at a certain point in time, as a reference point. But is there any validity to doing another one now? I don’t know. Maybe. Let’s see, jury’s out. Let’s see what Ridley comes up with. Let me just add to that — and don’t cut this part off, please — I will stand in line for any Ridley Scott movie, even a not-so-great one, because he is such an artist, he’s such a filmmaker. I always learn from him.

(9) CASSINI ALWAYS RINGS TWICE. Dr. Linda Spilker, Cassini Project Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who was recently interviewed by Starship Sofa, appeared on Cassini’s Ring-Grazing Orbits Facebook Live today. You can view the half-hour video recording at the link.

NASA’s Cassini Mission to Saturn Project Scientist Linda Spilker and mission planner Molly Bittner are taking questions about these exciting orbits, the closest look ever at Saturn’s moons and ring particles — what we’ve learned so far and what we can expect to see as they continue.

(10) OPEN THE PILL BAY DOORS HAL. In our future, robots as care companions: “Robots could help solve social care crisis, say academics” at the BBC.

Humanoid robots, with cultural awareness and a good bedside manner, could help solve the crisis over care for the elderly, academics say.

An international team is working on a £2m project to develop versatile robots to help look after older people in care homes or sheltered accommodation.

The robots will offer support with everyday tasks, like taking tablets, as well as offering companionship.

(11) A BLACK AND WHITE ANSWER. Opus would be proud: penguins used as models for better software: “Hungry penguins keep car code safe”.

The communal, co-ordinated action helps the penguins get the most out of a hunting expedition. Groups of birds are regularly reconfigured to match the shoals of fish and squid they find. It helps the colony as a whole optimise the amount of energy they have to expend to catch food.

“This solution has generic elements which can be abstracted and be used to solve other problems,” he said, “such as determining the integrity of software components needed to reach the high safety requirements of a modern car.”

Integrity in this sense means ensuring the software does what is intended, handles data well, and does not introduce errors or crash.

By mimicking penguin behaviour in a testing system which seeks the safest ways to arrange code instead of shoals of fish, it becomes possible to slowly zero in on the best way for that software to be structured.

(12) THE RIVALS OF 1984. The BBC has hard data on dystopia sales surge.

It Can’t Happen Here – Sinclair Lewis

Sales: As of Friday, the eighth best-selling book on Amazon. It was out of print in the UK but publishers Penguin launched a new edition following the inauguration – promoting it as the book that predicted Trump – and has so far ordered three print runs, totalling 11,000 copies, a spokeswoman said.

Plot: A charismatic demagogue, Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip, runs for president on a promise to restore American greatness, dragging the country into fascism.

The Trump factor: Sales of this relatively obscure 1935 satirical novel took off when critics began claiming it was essentially the Donald Trump story. Sally Parry, of the Sinclair Lewis Society, claims there are parallels with Trump in the way that Windrip targets his message at disaffected white working class males – The League of Forgotten Men in the book – sweeping to victory on a wave of anti-immigrant, nationalistic sentiment.

But she adds: “Some of his satire is not necessarily towards Buzz Windrip, the fascist character, but towards the lazy intellectuals, the lazy liberals who say ‘well, things will go along’ and the constant refrain of ‘it can’t happen here’, this is America, we are exceptional.”

(13) MAKING LEMONADE. Someone has a plan for putting a contaminated area to use: “How solar may save Ukraine’s nuclear wasteland”.

Earlier this year Ostap Semerak, the minister for ecology and natural resources in Ukraine, announced plans to build a large-scale solar farm in Chernobyl’s Exclusion Zone. “The first phase will install solar panels with a total capacity of one gigawatt,” says a ministry spokesperson. “In the future [there] are plans for capacity increase.”

A large field of 25 acres, filled with solar panels, generates approximately 5MW. To put this into perspective, the football pitch at Manchester United’s Old Trafford ground is 1.75 acres and would only generate 0.35MW. So, for a solar farm to generate a gigawatt of power, it will need an area of 5,000 acres, which is nearly eight square miles. There is, fortunately, a lot of available land in the Exclusion Zone.

(14) BRUCE WAYNE’S ROOMMATE. Lego Batman explains why his movie is awesome.

Lego Batman hypes up his own upcoming Lego Batman Movie in a new behind-the-bricks featurette that breaks the fourth wall.

“Obviously after I made The Lego Movie, a monster hit $468 million worldwide, not that I’m counting of course, it seemed clear to everyone that the world needed more of me,” Will Arnett says as Lego Batman in the clip released Thursday.

 

[Thanks to Chip Hitchcock, JJ, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Steve “Dr. Strangelove” Davidson.]

141 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 1/30/17 There Are Studies Underway To Fluoridate Pixels. Children’s Pixels!

  1. @Greg – Fun comparison in your opening paragraph! Heck of a strawman comparison.

    @Dann – A lot of leftists believe in a lot more State control of the economy in many, many ways.

    A big confusion in the USA between Right/Left are the people who want to be left alone. Left along from the government in mind altering substances, in sex, taxes, and a lot of other things. The “leave me alone” people will ally sometimes with the left and other times with the right when their “leave me alone” idea is positive.

    IMHO the changes during the Obama years that will probably stick everywhere are the “leave me alone” ones with some drugs and with gays. Let the government be neutral in both of these areas.

  2. Don’t forget C.S. Lewis and Lewis Carroll

    I knew Lewis D. Carroll was over a barrel when Jabberwocky took to the hills

  3. One of the things to notice in political ideaologies is that they often see the same words as positive (justice, equality, liberty, the right to be free) or negative (conformism, unequality). It is just that they fill the words with different meaning.

    When someone from the right talks about freedom, they talk about the absence of restrictions on the individual. When a leftist talks about freedom, he talks about the practical means to be able to choose. But both are about individual freedom.

    To ignore that is to skip out of the discussion.

  4. @Greg and @Bonnie: Sorry to hear you didn’t like A Taste of Honey. I just heard a review of it on Cabbages and Kings (review text) which actually made me pretty excited about it.

    I honestly don’t know yet what I will and won’t get to before the nomming deadline, but I hope I’ll manage to pack in some more good ones 🙂

  5. @Dann

    Everyone looks at the outliers as exemplars in the “other group”. It weirds things all around

    And of course the weird outliers are often more visible and more entertaining, so they get exposure and stick in people’s minds. (Which is why the media used to focus on Spock ears and propeller beanies in the days before fandom was fashionable.)

    This isn’t the place for a political conversation but you might find left-wing anarchism has some interesting perspectives, given your views on freedom and individualism. If I was being properly SFnal I’d recommend “The Dispossessed”, but I don’t think it’s your kind of thing and it’s likely you’ve read it already. Maybe try Colin Ward’s “Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction” if you’re bored one day and spot it in the library?

  6. When someone from the right talks about freedom, they talk about the absence of restrictions on the individual.

    Unless it’s stuff like marriage, in which case they may decide marriage is one man and one women and nothing else, or owning people (despite a particular person’s loud arguments on soc.history.what-if, I don’t see banning slavery as an infringement on property rights. I do understand how someone could, provided that person was a terrible, terrible person).

  7. @Dann: First of all: Thank you for your explanation. At the very least I understand the statement now 🙂
    I do have to say that I have met a lot of feminsts, from all parts of the spektrum (I did study education 😉 and I have never come across a similiar view. I strongly suspect that is a prejudice against feminists and not something you really find in “real Life”.

    Now Left/Right are difficult to define, since they are so relative. They depend on political structures and cultural and historical subtexts: The German “Liberal Party” for example is considered mid to right in Germany and among her goals is to establish a free market society without interfering from the state. Which is what your Republican Party wants, I believe? Yet I assume you would define “Liberal” as left. So a “Left” in one country is not necessary a “Left” in another and vice versa, especially when the poeple are considering themselve as moderate (as I think more than a few of the people writing here would)

    So what you usually look at are the extreme positions. But then it gets more muddled, because there is no One extreme Left position. Saying “Leftists seek to undermine the concept of the individual because they are always seeking to undermine capitalism” is as ´right or wrong as saying all right are basiccly Nazis, that want to extinguish all other races safe their own.

    Nazis are ONE position of extreme rights, but Right anarchists that want to dissolve the state (Im not sure but I think Timothy McVeigh fits this bill) is another one, so would be an religious extremist of the Lafferty-kind. All of those would fit “conservative/Right extremist” but they all wouldnt necessary agree to a policy with each other (there are some things they would agree on, but I guess it would be surprisingly difficult to define them).

    The same is of course true for the other side as well. From my personal point of view I believe the left is even more fragmented than the right. I would say very few Lefts would want to destroy Capitalism per se. Only communists -and even within that group only few fundamentals – would want to give up on the “concept of the inidividual”. For many Left the Individual is the most important concept – Everybody regardless of gender, sexual preference, religion and “race” should be able to fulfull their individual needs and dreams!
    If there is something that would define the Left, it might be that there should be a system in place, protecting the weak (Left anarchists disagree), while on the right its more of “the individuals should fight for themselves” (Christian Fundamentalists disagree).
    So all in all, to come back to your “common ground” : There is as much common ground between most moderate Left and most moderate right as there is between moderate and Extremist Left (or right) – perhaps even more. Perhaps its good to remember that sometimes. And dont revert to cardboard figures.

  8. However, one of the other themes existing within American feminism seems to be that a woman that is a virgin is a woman that is responding to “the patriarchy” and therefore is not in control of her own body. Ergo, a woman who is a virgin cannot be a “real feminist”.

    Speaking as an American feminist who both has a certificate in gender studies and taught Introduction to WMST for a number of years….this is not accurate.

    Also, Lovecraft Country made me miss my bus stop the other day. I highly recommend it.

  9. in pure form, the right is about maintaining the status quo: what was good enough for grandpappy – who owned slaves, believed there was an international jewish conspiracy, believed that Kennedy was a tool of the Pope, that women are emotionally unstable and that heterosexuality is the god given right of men to have sex with women without consequence -, is good enough for me.
    The left is focused on expanding the concepts of human rights: everyone is entitled to respect, equality under the law, to move freely, to express themselves freely, and that some “special classes” need additional protections until they have been fully accepted.

    I personally believe that tradition/status quo is valuable and should be checked – BEFORE taking what works from it and then continuously modifying it as we learn to be better to each other. And I am absolutely against just about anything that privileges corporate concerns over the individual. (You can’t drill for oil without negatively impacting the environment? Then don’t drill.)

  10. And sorry for the long rant…
    My tropetrap says that Americans forget sometimes that “Left” and “Right” is just a shorthand for “I have a long lists of complex issues and how I rate each item correspond more often with people that call themselve X instead of Y”
    I sometimes forgot that this a trope and I am sorry for that…

    Is it a scroll? Is it a file? No, its Super-Pixel!

  11. @airboy: Monica Valentinelli is a tabletop RPG designer, not a video game designer, so your comment is wildly off-target. In fact, if you’d read the article, it’s made very clear that they are discussing tabletop games.

    If done well, corebooks, supplements, and adventures will place a player in that world, entice them, and get them excited to play.

    You don’t see many “corebooks” and “supplements” for video games.

    Tabletop RPGs are 100% about the characters (with rare exceptions).

  12. Ergo, a woman who is a virgin cannot be a “real feminist”

    Whaaaaa? I have never seen this opinion in the wild and I’ve read some pretty rad radfem positions.

    My take on virgin shaming is that it is neither left or right. It’s some kind of awful social default where you are a freak or a loser if you haven’t fucked another person by a certain age. When I was in high school said age was about 18. If you were a girl, you weren’t supposed to like sex, that would make you a slut, but you were still supposed to have had it.

    Things have changed somewhat, and imho a virgin woman has always been a little more acceptable than a virgin man. But Rowling’s Tweet says that the idea that a male virgin over a certain age is a loser who lives in their parents’ basement is still going strong.

  13. @Eric Franklin – I did read the article. It is not clear they are talking about anything other than RPGs in general. And RPGs as a group are amazingly open-ended.

    And there are a bunch of “supplements” to videogames. Both released by the company and released by modders. It is a big thing, and has been since the 1980s.

    I’ve been playing RPGs since the 1970s. I’ve been playing computer RPGs since Rogue on mainframes with punch cards. And I’ve written quite a few published reviews of RPGs both in paper and pencil and on video.

    The “bias” against groups in RPGs in general is minor unless it is a game in a fixed historical context that is changing one aspect of society. Call of Cthulhu has many scenarios in the 1920s (but many in recent decades in the 1940s, 50s, 70s and modern day). You can either game in the 1920s and how people of that time treated specific groups and how the police worked, or you can ignore it.

    And tabletop RPGs are usually about the character, but not always. There are a bunch of tabletop RPGs that come out of Napoleonatics and Naval games traditions that are close to pure combat wargames. Some RPGs get very close to pure wargames, and others are very far away from that and focus more on characters.

  14. Jason on January 30, 2017 at 8:05 pm said:
    10) OPEN THE PILL BAY DOORS HAL: More short fiction on the brain. If there’s anyone in the world who hasn’t read “Today I Am Paul” about a robot caretaker, then please do so. Yet another sign that awards aren’t on the ball these days – nominated but didn’t win. Didn’t even make the shortlist of the Hugos, apparently. Bah. Great story.

    Then Aaron said:

    “You can thank the Pups for that.”

    It’s true!

    Finalists for Short Story (Nominations received, “Title”, Author) in bold:

    452 “Asymmetrical Warfare” S. R. Algernon
    424 “Seven Kill Tiger” Charles Shao
    398 “If You Were an Award, My Love” Juan Tabo and S. Harris
    387 “Space Raptor Butt Invasion” Chuck Tingle

    387 “The Commuter” Thomas Mays * Declined nomination
    367 “Cat Pictures Please” Naomi Kritzer

    Just missed out:

    253 “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” Alyssa Wong
    200 “Wooden Feathers” Ursula Vernon
    189 “Today I Am Paul” Martin L. Shoemaker

    The five most nominated works were all Rabid Puppy picks.

    rob_matic on January 31, 2017 at 6:46 am said:
    Good story. It’s available in the Longlist Anthology so must have had some love from non-Puppy Worldcon nominators.

    David Steffen put together a successful Kickstarter (I backed it too) to collect the ones that just missed out. You can buy the “The Long List Anthology Volume 2: More Stories From the Hugo Award Nomination List” from the usual sellers.

  15. I read this part from Dann again…

    “However, one of the other themes existing within American feminism seems to be that a woman that is a virgin is a woman that is responding to “the patriarchy” and therefore is not in control of her own body. Ergo, a woman who is a virgin cannot be a “real feminist”.”

    …and I think I understand what was meant. But it is a garbled version, that is why I didn’t recognize the argument at first.

    There is from some feminists a critique, not against virgins per se, but against the phenomena of women who actively choose to remain virgins until they are married.The reasoning is that this is a social pressure on females that does not exist on males in the same way. The critique is not against the individual women, but against the social pressure, but of course there will always be some people who can’t differ between critizising individuals and structures.

    Is this what you meant, Dann?

  16. @Hampus – interesting view of freedom from the left. Unfortunately, the only way individuals can obtain what the left views as these “freedoms” is taking the property of others at gunpoint. But I appreciate the clear explanation.

  17. 10) Just think of what these systems will be capable of 50 years from now!

    Picture a bedridden invalid with his loyal carebot by his side. Though he is too weak to lift a finger, the robot will use advanced face recognition and learning algorithms to interpret the merest whisper of breath, fulfilling his final request to send an email to a long defunct website, saying that a woman who died years previously is a fake geek girl.

  18. @James Davis Nicoll – your view of the right made me laugh.

    @Cat Rambo – “Speaking as an American feminist who both has a certificate in gender studies and taught Introduction to WMST for a number of years” – explains so much about the SFWA.

    @Steve Davidson – you could not pass a political Turing Test. Your belief that the left is different from the right in the USA about “equality under the law, to move freely, to express themselves freely” is hilarious! Especially in terms of freedom of expression! The Left in the USA wants to amend the Constitution because of horrible, horrible ideas from those they disagree with.

  19. @Hampus – “There is from some feminists a critique, not against virgins per se, but against the phenomena of women who actively choose to remain virgins until they are married.The reasoning is that this is a social pressure on females that does not exist on males in the same way.”

    Can’t speak of society, but for Christians adultery is the same for Men and Women. If you are Catholic going through pre-marital counseling there is no difference between men and women.

  20. (10) Open the pill bar doors, Hal—

    Anybody see the movie “Robot and Frank”? Frank Langella is a retired burglar who’s slowly developing Alzheimers, and his son gives him a robot to take care of them. And then they start committing burglaries again Good film.

  21. However, one of the other themes existing within American feminism seems to be that a woman that is a virgin is a woman that is responding to “the patriarchy” and therefore is not in control of her own body. Ergo, a woman who is a virgin cannot be a “real feminist”
    Here’s the answer–Dann’s from an alternate universe. Because I’ve never seen that anywhere and while I haven’t extensively read feminism writings, I’ve read quite a bit. Especially back in the 70s in my wilder, more radical days. And I don’t remember reading that even in the writings from lesbian separatists.

  22. Airboy, it wouldbe nice if you would stop telling lies about me. I never stole property at gunpoint.
    I could say, that lying is what “you right ” do and find an eloborate argument why this is true, but I know better than to invent things in the pretext of “knowing the other side”. You are an individual, and one that I judge by his words and actions.

  23. @Ghost Bird

    Thanks for the recommendation. I added it to my Goodreads TBR pile. My survey of Le Guin’s work is nowhere near where it should be.

    To the extent that I encounter it, I find left-wing anarchism to be a paradox.

    @Hampus (and everyone else focused on this point)

    There is from some feminists a critique, not against virgins per se, but against the phenomena of women who actively choose to remain virgins until they are married.The reasoning is that this is a social pressure on females that does not exist on males in the same way. The critique is not against the individual women, but against the social pressure, but of course there will always be some people who can’t differ between criticizing individuals and structures.

    Is this what you meant, Dann?

    I would also include the dismissal of women to choose to pursue a career as mother and homemaker over a career in the paid workforce. And I think you are correct in that I may be responding to criticism of individuals (i.e. those that choose virginity and/or mother/homemaker) rather than criticism of structures on this issue. Although the individuals end up getting lumped together…as one does.

    Thank you for filling in the spaces charitably. 🙂

    @Peer

    Thank you for the longer response. I grokked all that some time ago, but appreciate where it comes from and your effort in laying it out.

    @Cat

    I was looking forward to your visit to Rob and Philip from the moment it was announced a couple weeks back. Unfortunately, they also announced that they were scaling back towards being a twice a month podcast instead of a once a week affair. I’m glad you had fun.

    Regards,
    Dann

  24. Rose Embolism: Picture a bedridden invalid with his loyal carebot by his side. Though he is too weak to lift a finger, the robot will use advanced face recognition and learning algorithms to interpret the merest whisper of breath, fulfilling his final request to send an email to a long defunct website, saying that a woman who died years previously is a fake geek girl.

    Tragically likely. And the carebot’s name will be “Rosebud.”

  25. Hampus Eckerman: When someone from the right talks about freedom, they talk about the absence of restrictions on the individual.

    James Davis Nicoll: Unless it’s stuff like marriage, in which case they may decide marriage is one man and one women and nothing else, or owning people.

    Also unless it’s stuff like telling women what they are or are not allowed to do with their own bodies, and telling doctors which treatments they are or are not allowed to give, in which case the right looooooves Big Government and restrictions on the individual. 🙄

  26. (4) THE HARP THAT ONCE OR TWICE. R. Graeme Cameron wrote a superlative column based on Walt Willis’ 1952 TAFF Trip report for Amazing Stories that combines his analysis with the old master’s storytelling.

    Correction: The Walt Willis 1952 fan fund trip to Chicon II was not a TAFF trip – it was a one-off thing that was organized by several U.S. fans. TAFF began a couple of years later, no doubt inspired by the Willis trip.

  27. Peer Sylvester: Thou ancient, Thou free, Thou Pixels north

    There’s a reference I’m missing — what’s it from?

  28. Dann: I remember Charles Wilson defining Left wing anarchy, as anarchy were people are starting to work together (in small groups) aand right wing anarchy that its everyone for himself.

    But i think extremists are fundamentally all alike…

  29. @Peer on January 31, 2017 at 12:40 pm said:
    “Airboy, it wouldbe nice if you would stop telling lies about me. I never stole property at gunpoint.
    I could say, that lying is what “you right ” do and find an eloborate argument why this is true, but I know better than to invent things in the pretext of “knowing the other side”. You are an individual, and one that I judge by his words and actions.”

    Peer – I reread everything I posted today, twice. I responded to Hampus, not you. I’ve not commented on anything you said all day.

    I “did not tell lies about you.”

    We all make mistakes and I’ll make the assumption that you misread what I wrote when you accused me of lying about you. But if I did “lie about you” I would apologize if what I said was untrue.

  30. Standback: With Asimov’s and Analog going bimonthly (joining F&SF, which has great novellas) we might actually get that.

    …although these days, anything online is easier to buzz about than anything in print, and novellas have a harder time online. System dynamics are weird.

    Bimonthly: yep. Silver lining to an ominous cloud. Hopefully this is just the new order of things but such changes often mark the terminal decline. But more novellas should be a definite plus either way. System dynamics: for real. It’s how you get the unlikely result of a strong print-devotee and anti-ebook person madly reading and discussing the near-allied webzines.

    Aaron: You can thank the Pups for that.; rob_matic: Good story. It’s available in the Longlist Anthology so must have had some love from non-Puppy Worldcon nominators.; Soon Lee: Just missed out

    Except this isn’t necessarily correct. Just so no one thinks I’m a fifth columnist, in addition to participating here at File 770, I also participated at SP4. (And I see now I’m not the only one.) I recommended “Paul” and “Asymmetrical Warfare.” (I recommended “Cat Pictures” at my old site but it was one that didn’t make my cutoff.) Both are on the SP4 final list. Only “Warfare” made it to the Hugo finals and “Cat Pictures” won (also an SP4 finalist). So I don’t see how the Puppies are responsible for “Paul” losing unless they’re also responsible for “Cat Pictures” winning. Rather, it’s simply a case that the majority of folks didn’t agree with me on “Paul.” (And the majority of folks not agreeing with me is nothing new. :))

    Greg Hullender: During the 19th and 20th Centuries, we learned that pure capitalism doesn’t work, but neither does pure socialism. All advanced economies today–without exception–are mixed, and these mixed economies have proven to be enormously successful and enormously stable. The left-right distinction, in an economic sense, is merely about the details of the composition of the mix.

    I was trying to tiptoe around the politics but this kinda makes me want to say something. I’m not so sure “we” did “learn” anything and I wouldn’t call something that funnels all the wealth of the world into so few hands (tiny or otherwise) “successful” and wouldn’t call 2008 “stable.” Especially since everything seems to be moving towards returning to the world of The Jungle (try especially the third paragraph for why you never want to see sausage (or legislation) being made) with the evisceration of consumer protection, the FDA, the march of GMO, a new round of deregulation, etc. There is a constant pull back to the 19th century robber barons and laissez faire. I mean, your point that there’s no pure socialism or (currently) pure capitalism is true, but I’m less convinced about the working, stable, learning parts.

  31. Listening to all of you talk about how feminism has nothing bad to say about women who are, for whatever reason, virgins is like listening to men talk about how there can’t possibly be a sexual harassment problem at cons because they’ve never seen it. I could go on, but I only have lived experience and Cat Ranbo has a degree, so the conclusion is predecided.

    But I am amused at how few people are interested in engaging in Rowling’s clear use of the “You aren’t having sex, so clearly you are incapable of having friends” logic. Because friends only exist as a pool of potential sex partners, I guess.

  32. @JJ – Yes, many Christians and conservatives are bothered that women are allowed to kill unborn children for economic convenience. I also don’t think individuals should be able to murder children after they are born or murder other people. I support laws against murder.

    And don’t think this applies to contraception. Everyone has a couple of choices. Have sex, or not. Use contraception, or not. Almost nobody quibbles about these choices.

    According to the research arm of the abortionists, the Guttmacher institute (www.guttmacher.org), almost all abortions are done for economic convenience of the mother. And people who are otherwise leftists economically in the USA cannot stomach the abortion laws in the USA. The USA abortion laws are much more lax than in the rest of the developed world.

    A large proportion of the US Population thinks that killing people for economic convenience, whether unborn, retarded, or aged is wrong.

    But JJ – you seem to think this is a great thing. I think that treating human life in a cavalier manner is barbaric. When Rome started to become officially Christian the West started ending killing people for sport. As Western ideas spread, the value of human life increased.

    Without life there are no other liberties possible.

  33. There’s a reference I’m missing — what’s it from?

    Google says [English version of] the Swedish national anthem.

  34. @Jason,

    To clarify, it’s the Rabid Puppies that resulted in “Today I Am Paul” missing out. I thought it was clear from my linking to the page.

    If “Seven Kill Tiger”, “If You Were an Award, My Love”, “Space Raptor Butt Invasion”, “The Commuter” (all on the Rabid list and not on the Sad list) hadn’t been gamed onto the final ballot, “Today I Am Paul” would have been in.

  35. airboy: almost all abortions are done for economic convenience of the mother

    What you refer to as “economic convenience” is, in practical terms, known as “not being able to provide financially and/or emotionally for a child”. This is not a casual thing. This is not “convenience”. It is absolutely critical that every child be born into circumstances which provide for their wellbeing.

    I think that children being born into extreme poverty and/or abusive conditions is horrendous. The right generally believes in forcing women to carry pregnancies to term and then tells the “precious babies” that they are out of luck, because they’re not going to get any taxpayer money for food or healthcare or anything else they need. And the term “murder” only applies to sentient individuals. I disagree with your claim about where sentience begins.

    You say “I think that treating human life in a cavalier manner is barbaric” — and yet you have no problem with the cavalierism and barbarism of forcing sentient human women to bear children against their will. So your claims about valuing human life are, at best, dubious, and at worst, completely spurious.

  36. Mark: Their choice of Hurricane Heels by Isabel Yap in novel is very interesting as it’s a set of five linked novelettes. I really enjoyed it but I’m not sure how well it stands up against other contenders in novel.

    Even stranger is their — and several other people’s — attempt to nominate Olivia Cade’s The Convergence of Fairy Tales, a collection of 5 unconnected short stories, as a “Novella”.

  37. Rich Lynch: Correction: The Walt Willis 1952 fan fund trip to Chicon II was not a TAFF trip – it was a one-off thing that was organized by several U.S. fans.

    Did my fingers type that? I know better(supposedly). Thanks for catching that mistake. I’ve changed it now.

  38. Soon Lee: oh, sorry, I read the line (without following the link) but somehow missed the word “rabid” there. Aaron and rob just said “Pups” or the like. I try not to think about the Rabids and regard the two as completely separate. I took the first two as talking about the Sads and guess I just slipped your post in with that. Maybe they meant Rabids, too, and just didn’t specify.

    Still can’t blame even them. Somehow “Cat Pictures” (which wasn’t an RP pick) got on the list after the declined nom rather than “Paul” and neither were RP picks. The one non-RP pick won. If that’d been “Paul” it would have won. So it’s more like the non-RP folks supported “Cat” more than “Paul” in the early stages of nominating and that was the difference.

  39. Nancy Sauer: But I am amused at how few people are interested in engaging in Rowling’s clear use of the “You aren’t having sex, so clearly you are incapable of having friends” logic.

    There seems little more to say — it’s not logic, it’s a canard. After all, Rowling doesn’t know the true state of the frog’s romantic life, she just knows that her phrasing will be understood by everyone to be a sexual insult.

  40. Nancy Sauer:

    “Listening to all of you talk about how feminism has nothing bad to say about women who are, for whatever reason, virgins is like listening to men talk about how there can’t possibly be a sexual harassment problem at cons because they’ve never seen it.”

    Reading that comment is like reading James Joyce backwards while blindfolded.

    P J Evans:

    “Google says [English version of] the Swedish national anthem.”

    *smacks head*

  41. @JJ said “You say “I think that treating human life in a cavalier manner is barbaric” — and yet you have no problem with the cavalierism and barbarism of forcing sentient human women to bear children against their will. So your claims about valuing human life are, at best, dubious, and at worst, completely spurious.”

    JJ – you are an evil jackass.

    As to my “claims” of “valuing human life.” – I give thousands of dollars annually to orphanages and adoption agencies. I sent multiple relatives to school (including college) who could not economically afford to do so because their Mom was poor, but did not kill them. I currently have a nephew in my home that I’m supporting 100% who would either be dead or abandoned otherwise. Sort of an inconvenience to spend $1000s annually and to support another human being in your home for several years, but better than the alternative of letting them die.

    JJ – you are an evil jackass for having contempt for those who value human life. You are a jackass for assuming that those who are pro-life are not inconvenienced by their decisions.

    A woman can choose to have sex. A woman can choose contraception. If the choice was forced, it is rape and that is another matter entirely. If the woman chooses sex and does not choose contraception, then the inconvenience of bearing the child is minor compared to the death of a human being.

    JJ – a woman can always put a child up for adoption in the USA. There is no law stating that the Mom either must have the kid and stick with it for life, or kill it.

    JJ – I also don’t think it should be legal to kill Grandma if she is economically inconvenient to their family. Killing babies and killing Grandma is pretty much the same thing in my mind.

    And yes JJ, it is inconvenient to have a child and put it up for adoption due to a mistake. But it is a better choice than killing the child.

    And JJ – I give my time and my money to support the poor voluntarily. Do you spend your time to help the poor? How about your money to help the poor? According to statistics (since I don’t know you), the left in the USA is much less likely to volunteer either time or money to the less fortunate. This is especially true for the USA left who are not Black Christians.

    But the biggest reason that you are an evil Jackass JJ is that you assume that you know everything about any person who disagrees with you. That everyone who disagrees with you has dubious claims, insincere claims, or is stupid. Many people who do not believe as you do have thought through their reasons.

    I pity you. Hopefully you will come to your senses before your life is over. I will pray that this will occur.

  42. @Cat Rambo – “Speaking as an American feminist who both has a certificate in gender studies and taught Introduction to WMST for a number of years” – explains so much about the SFWA.

    Yup! And the approach’s worked great so far, leading to more members, more cool programs aimed at helping members promote books, grants supporting the genre community, and all sorts of other niftiness for the org. You’re going to have to do better than that.

  43. By my calculations, “Today I am Paul” wouldn’t have made the final ballot without the Puppies because I estimate it picked up 17 votes from the folks who voted a straight Sad Puppies ticket. It definitely would have made it without the Rabid Puppies though.

  44. Airboy said:

    A woman can choose to have sex. A woman can choose contraception. If the choice was forced, it is rape and that is another matter entirely. If the woman chooses sex and does not choose contraception, then the inconvenience of bearing the child is minor compared to the death of a human being.

    Exceptions for Abortion based on circumstances are something that I find curious. I can understand people that say, nope, no abortions ever, that’s murder, disallow it. Conception is a sacred act. I don’t agree with that stand, but I understand it.

    I understand people who say “Abortion isn’t murder until “xxx time”. Define it as reaching a threshold of sentience, viability, or what have you. That’s where my position is, by the way.

    I can understand, but don’t agree with those who say that any abortion short of actual birth should be legal, giving maximum autonomy to the mother and none to the fetus. That’s a logically consistent position–but I think that does go too far. But I say that being a man, so, pound of salt and all that.

    I don’t get this position, though Airboy. So, if it wasn’t rape or forced, then its murder of a human being, and should not be allowed because the woman could have used contraception or not engaged in sexual activity. ” the inconvenience of bearing the child is minor compared to the death of a human being.”

    “If the choice was forced, it is rape and that is another matter entirely”
    But how is a pregnancy via rape terminated by an abortion different enough to not call that murder, too? The only difference is the consent of the mother. How does the lack of consent of the mother in the sexual act change it from murder to not murder?

  45. It’s good to see Lewis’ It Can’t Happen Here getting more attention. In some ways it’s dated, but it has an important difference when compared to 1984 or Brave New World: it’s about the actual descent into fascism starting from roughly where we are today. 1984 is scary as hell because Winston Smith et. al. are in the hands of system they’ll never be able to overturn. It Can’t Happen Here shows things going down the tubes one step at a time.

  46. @airboy

    JJ – you are an evil jackass.

    One of the biggest complaints I’ve made about the Puppies is that you guys indulge in name calling. If you want to be taken seriously, it’s something you guys really, really need to stop doing.

  47. @airboy

    JJ – you are an evil jackass

    I don’t know when I’ll have time for the other folks, but this one can’t wait.

    No. Just no.

    There is no way that this helps with anything. It isn’t persuasive. It isn’t kind. I can’t think of any religion where that level of vitriol is acceptable.

    While we probably agree on many other topics, on this one you have fallen short. By a wide margin.

    Dann.

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