(1) WONKA EVENT SCAM, WITH AI ‘HELP’. [Item by Tom Becker.] A Willy Wonka-themed event closed immediately upon opening due to complaints from disappointed customers. UK correspondent Mark Plummer says there is a long-standing tradition of disappointing special experiences. A Christmas show turns out to be a muddy field with a donkey with reindeer horns tied to its head.
The Glasgow Willy Wonka fiasco is interesting because of its use of AI. The AI-generated images used to sell the show include total gibberish. Who would not want to experience a “Twilight Tunnel™” with features like “TWDRDING”, “DODJECTION”, “ENIGEMIC SOUNDS”, “SVIIDE”, and “UKXEPCTED TWITS”? Or “ENCHERINING ENTERTAINMENT” with “exarserdray lollipops, a pasadise of sweet treats”? “Cops called after parents get tricked by AI-generated images of Wonka-like event” at Ars Technica.
Actors were given AI generated scripts that were pathetically bad. They showed the guests responding “with a mix of excitement and trepidation” to the trite lines and meager offerings of candy. “The AI-Generated Script From the Fake Willy Wonka Experience Is Beyond Wild” says The Mary Sue.
And then there was the AI generated character of the Unknown, “an evil chocolate maker who lives in the walls.” At this point the children started crying and ran away. “Willy Wonka Experience Actor Says Event Had AI-Generated Script, Unknown Character, and No Chocolate” reports IGN.
The promoter behind the House of Illuminati also sells AI-generated books on Amazon. “’Willy Wonka’ Huckster Sells AI-Written Vaccine Conspiracy Books” at Rolling Stone.
Scams have always been with us, but now they are glitzier and weirder than ever. Who could possibly have predicted this? (Besides Cory Doctorow and thousands of others.)
(2) VERTLIEB NOMINATED FOR RONDO “BEST ARTICLE OF THE YEAR”. Congratulations to Steve Vertlieb whose File 770 article “Subversion of Innocence: Reflections on ‘The Black Cat’” is a finalist for the 2024 Rondo Hatton Awards. Steve’s article is an analysis of the sumptuous, Grand Guignol, pre-code Gothic decadence of Universal Pictures’ horrific Boris Karloff/Bela Lugosi classic of 1934.
Public voting has begun for the 22nd Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards. You’re invited to vote for your favorites in any or all 28 categories. Click the link for instructions and the complete ballot. The deadline to participate is midnight April 16. Mail Votes (and your name) to David Colton c/o [email protected].
(3) WORMSIGN. Io9 interviews the filmmaker: “Denis Villeneuve Talks Making Dune: Part Two an Epic Theatrical Experience” at Gizmodo.
io9: Got it. I love that both movies have this weird little moment before the studio logo of some kind of Dune language statement. Is that something you have to okay with the studio? Because ultimately it’s their movie and you’re putting your mark before their logo. Was there any pushback and what was your thinking in doing that?
Villeneuve: The first time in Part One, the truth is that as we were doing sound design and developing ideas for sound, we came up with this language that was developed by Hans Zimmer that I absolutely adored. And there was this idea of putting a statement right before the logo to own the space. And maybe it was a reaction at that time, an arrogant reaction by me, but I didn’t get any pushback. Everybody loved the idea. And I love it when you watch a movie and it’s not a slow-down descent, it’s an abrupt start. You put away the parking lot and your concern about dinner. [Slap noise] Right away, it’s like, “Okay, guys, listen.” A bit like in theater when you have the boom at the beginning to say to the audience, “Okay, quiet down, we start right now.” I love that.
(4) CONLANG IN CINEMA. And The New Yorker devotes a whole article to “’Dune’ and the Delicate Art of Making Fictional Languages”.
A trailer for Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two” features the boy prophet Paul Atreides, played by Timothée Chalamet, yelling something foreign and uninterpretable to a horde of desert people. We see Chalamet as the embodiment of charismatic fury: every facial muscle clenched in tension, his voice strained and throaty and commanding. A line at the bottom of the screen translates: “Long live the fighters!”
The scene fills barely a few seconds in a three-minute trailer, yet it establishes the emotional tone of the film and captures the messianic fervor that drives its plot. It also signals the depth of Villeneuve’s world-building. Part of what made his first excursion into the “Dune” universe such an experiential feast was its vivid, immersive quality, combining monumental architectural design with atmospheric soundscapes and ethereal costuming. We could see a few remnants of our world (remember the bit with the bagpipes?), but the over-all effect was transportive, as if the camera were not a piece of equipment but a cyborgian eye live-streaming from a far-flung alien civilization. Chalamet’s strange tongue is part of the franchise’s meticulous set dressing. It’s not gibberish, but part of an intricate linguistic system that was devised for Villeneuve’s adaptations.
Engineered languages such as the one Chalamet speaks represent a new benchmark in imaginative fiction. Twenty years ago, viewers would have struggled to name franchises other than “Star Trek” or “The Lord of the Rings” that bothered to invent new languages. Today, with the budgets of the biggest films and series rivalling the G.D.P.s of small island nations, constructed languages, or conlangs, are becoming a norm, if not an implicit requirement. Breeze through entertainment from the past decade or so, and you’ll find lingos designed for Paleolithic peoples (“Alpha”), spell-casting witches (“Penny Dreadful”), post-apocalyptic survivors (“Into the Badlands”), Superman’s home planet of Krypton (“Man of Steel”), a cross-species alien alliance (“Halo”), time-travelling preteens (“Paper Girls”), the Munja’kin tribe of Oz (“Emerald City”), and Santa Claus and his elves (“The Christmas Chronicles” and its sequel).
A well-executed conlang can bolster a film’s appearance of authenticity. It can deepen the scenic absorption that has long been an obsession for creators and fans of speculative genres such as science fiction and fantasy….
(5) MORE TBR. NPR’s “Here and Now” program recommends “Black genre fiction to pick up this History Month”. There are lists for romance, horror, thriller/mystery and —
Speculative fiction/science fiction/fantasy
- “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia Butler
- “Underground Railroad” by Colson Whitehead
- “PET” by Akwaeke Emezi
- “We Cast a Shadow” by Maurice Carlos Ruffin
- “Conjure Women” by Afia Atakora
- “Black Leopard, Red Wolf” by Marlon James
- “An Unkindness of Ghosts” by Rivers Solomon
- “The Fifth Season” by N. K. Jemisin
- “Binti” by Nnedi Okorafor
- “Brown Girl in the Ring” by Nalo Hopkinson
- “Riot Baby” by Tochi Onyebuchi
- “Rosewater by Tade Thompson
- “Dhalgren” by Samuel R. Delany
- “Chain-Gang All-Stars” by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
(6) EXPERT EYE. In Gabino Iglesias’ column “4 New Horror Novels That Are as Fresh as They Are Terrifying” for the New York Times, the Stoker-winning author reviews new books by Emily Ruth Verona, Jenny Kiefer, Christopher Golden and Tlotlo Tsamaase.
(7) ANIME ART GOING UNDER THE HAMMER. Heritage Auctions will run “The Art of Anime, Dragon Ball, and More Animation Art Showcase Auction” on March 23-24.
Heritage Auctions celebrates the world of anime with its largest showcase sale, “The Art of Anime, Dragon Ball, and More,” on March 23-24. This event features over 700 lots, including an extensive collection from the iconic Dragon Ball series, celebrating its decades-long journey from its inception in Weekly Shonen Jump. The auction spans a wide range of anime titles, offering production art, promotional materials, model kits, and action figures. Highlights include rare items from Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, Pokémon, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and more, alongside unique finds like Akira T-shirt prototypes. This showcase aims to reconnect fans with the unforgettable moments of their favorite anime series.
Here’s an example of what’s up for bid: “Dragon Ball Z Goku, Gohan, Master Roshi, Piccolo, and Cel Ice | Lot #85069”.
Some of Dragon Ball Z‘s most famous characters take a break from training and put on their ice skates in this incredibly rare hand-painted production cel featuring our beloved protagonist Goku, accompanied by his son Gohan, Piccolo, Master Roshi, and even the heinous Cell in his imperfect form! Possibly created for a TV commercial, this four-layer 12-field production cel offers sensational full-figure images of the characters with Gohan and Cell stopping as skillfully as they fight.
(8) “HOMAGE” TO WARD SHELLEY’S HISTORY OF SCIENCE FICTION ON DISPLAY IN THE CHENGDU SF MUSEUM. [Item by Ersatz Culture.] The SF Museum in Chengdu has been re-opened to the public for almost exactly a month now, and whilst I’ve been trawling the likes of Bilibili and Xiaohongshu for any coverage, there hasn’t been much I thought that I thought was worth writing up and submitting to File 770.
However, tonight I encountered the image below in a small XHS gallery. I’d not noticed it before; whether that’s because it has been newly added to the museum, or simply that previous posters didn’t consider it worth taking pictures of, I don’t know. I’ve not tried to read any of the Chinese text, but the English subtitle reads:
Together, let’s write imaginative explorations of the future science fiction world
which I assume relates to the Post-It notes shown on the left of the image.
Readers may well find this image vaguely familiar. For those who don’t, it bears a startling resemblance to Ward Shelley’s “The History of Science Fiction”.
That earlier image was included in a talk that was part of “[the] First Industrial Development Summit of [the] World Science Fiction Convention”, which also had Ben Yalow as a speaker. Whether that earlier presentation was the genesis for this new display, who knows?
(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.
[Written by Cat Eldridge.]
Born February 28, 1909 — Olan Soule. (Died 1994.) Olan Soule, an actor who had at least two hundred and fifty performances in his career. So let’s look at this career that I find so interesting.
First genre role? That’d be Mr. Krull, a boarding house resident in The Day The Earth Stood Still.
Remember Captain Midnight? From the third year on the radio serial, Soule had the role of L. William Kelly, SS-11, the second-in-command of the Secret Squadron. When it became a television series where it was rebranded Jet Jackson, Flying Commando, he was scientist Aristotle “Tut” Jones for the entire series. He was the only actor who performed on both the radio and television shows.
He was in two Twilight Zone episodes, the first as IRS agent in “The Man in Bottle” and then as Mr. Smiles in “Caesar and Me”. The letter was the one with that evil ventriloquist dummy. Brrrr. The former which involves a couple and a genie I just don’t remember.
He was on My Favorite Martian as Daniel Farrow in one of my favorite episodes, “Martin’s Favorite Martian”.
He would appear as a newscaster on Batman in “The Pharaoh’s in a Rut”.
He voiced Mister Taj in the English language version of Fantastic Planet. One seriously effing weird film.
And now for a roll call of his other genre appearances: One Step Beyond, Bewitched, The Addams Family, The Munsters, Mission: Impossible, The Six Million Dollar Man, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and Fantasy Island.
(10) COMICS SECTION.
- F Minus – could this be Pluto’s revenge?
(11) REALLY EDUCATIONAL COMICS. “A Boom in Comics Drawn From Fact” – the New York Times says “One in four books sold in France is a graphic novel. Increasingly, those include nonfiction works by journalists and historians.”
Soon after the journalist and historian Valérie Igounet heard about the killing of Samuel Paty, the schoolteacher whose 2020 murder by an Islamist extremist shocked France, she knew she wanted to write a book about him.
Paty, who had shown caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad to students during a class on freedom of expression, was murdered near the middle school where he taught in a Paris suburb. “I absolutely wanted Samuel Paty’s students to be able to read this book,” Igounet said, “and it was obvious that a 300-page book with footnotes would be reserved for a different kind of readership.”
Instead, Igounet decided to produce a comic book: “Black Pencil: Samuel Paty, the Story of a Teacher,” based on two years of reporting and made with the illustrator Guy Le Besnerais, was published in October. It meticulously reconstructs the events leading up to the murder while also showing Paty’s daily life in the classroom. Le Besnerais’s illustrations are accompanied by Paty’s handwritten notes, newspaper clippings and messages exchanged by his students in the weeks before he was killed.
One in four books sold in France is a comic book, according to the market research company GfK, and a growing number of those are nonfiction works by journalists and historians. In the past year, they have included titles such as “M.B.S.: Saudi Arabia’s Enfant Terrible,” a biography of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman by Antoine Vitkine and Christophe Girard; “What Are the Russians Thinking?” based on the cartoonist Nicolas Wild’s conversations about the war in Ukraine during a 2022 trip to Russia; and “Who Profits From Exile?,” by Taina Tervonen and Jeff Pourquié, which looks at the economics of European immigration….
(12) FANAC FAN HISTORY ZOOM IN MARCH. “The Women Fen Don’t See” is the last FANAC Fan History Zoom for this season. The March 16 event promises to be an exceptionally interesting program on a topic that is often overlooked in fannish annals.
The Women Fen Don’t See
With: Claire Brialey, Kate Heffner, and Leah Zeldes Smith
Saturday, March 16, 2024. Time: 3PM EDT, 2PM CDT, Noon PDT, 7PM London (GMT), and Mar 17 at 6AM AEDT in Melbourne. To attend, send a note to [email protected]
[Click for larger image.]
(13) NEUROMANCER TO TV. “Apple Orders ‘Neuromancer’ Series Based on William Gibson Novel” reports Variety.
Apple TV+ has ordered a series adaptation of the William Gibson novel “Neuromancer,” Variety has learned.
The 10-episode series hails from co-creators Graham Roland and JD Dillard. Roland will also serve as showrunner, while Dillard will direct the pilot. Skydance Television will co-produce with Anonymous Content.
Per the official logline, the series “will follow a damaged, top-rung super-hacker named Case who is thrust into a web of digital espionage and high stakes crime with his partner Molly, a razor-girl assassin with mirrored eyes, aiming to pull a heist on a corporate dynasty with untold secrets.”…
(14) VIDEO OF THE DAY. From The Simpsons several years ago, “What about Ray Bradbury?”
Martin is running for class president, and this is his platform.
[Thanks to Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Ersatz Culture, Tom Becker, Kathy Sullivan, Joe Siclari, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, and Mike Kennedy for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Andrew (not Werdna).]
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There’s a saying that if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. We’d all be better off if we remember that and practiced it more.
Dang, does that mean there will only be our two comments on today’s Scroll?
< snort >
(5) I have half of those in my library.
(8) “First Industrial Development Summit of [the] World Science Fiction Convention” There is so much wrong with that phrase I have no idea where to begin. I would, however, cue Cockburn’s “If I Had A Rocket Launcher”.
(10) Be glad that all they did. They could have sent Mongo, or worse, the planet Porno, into the Solar System…
(13) I don’t know how worried I should be. Not sure about seeing it, given it’s Apple, and I don’t subscribe.
5) Putting Dhalgren on any reading list is a gutsy move.
13) Given the driving force in Neuromancer (no spoiler I guess), no wonder they are putting an adaptation on deck.
Speaking of Mount TBR …
Locus’ Year in Review is full of praise for Nina Allan’s Conquest. I can’t seem to find any ebook version of it for sale in the US. Does anyone know what’s up with that? Am I going to have to ask someone in another country to buy me an epub and send it to me?
(1) They were able to sell tickets with that gibberish?
(5) A good list.
@Cat Eldridge–Cider says I’m not allowed to bite anyone. Not even air snap, which I think is pretty harsh of her.
Lis say Cat Eldridge–Cider says I’m not allowed to bite anyone. Not even air snap, which I think is pretty harsh of her.
Well I do hear that there’s some pretty damn good fudge you can console yourself with for not doing that, and Cider is all wise and knowing, isn’t she?
Mike says Dang, does that mean there will only be our two comments on today’s Scroll?
Nah, I think it’ll relatively quiet tonight.
I once had the displeasure of chairing a Democratic committee where there were three factions that hated each others guts on a personal level. And they had to work together on a campaign. Oh joy. That was a long summer into fall forty years ago.
8) Thank you for these pictures, I believe I’ve said before in comments that I’m a museologist and have been hoping for pictures of the facility in its museum role. Post-its are not a great form of talkback feature, but they are certainly common enough. I agree that’s what this probably is, but it’s unfortunate that they are playing second fiddle to the Shelley-like graphic; making yourself seen in a museum is a powerful statement, but being dwarfed by another image is not motivating to people. I hope they have good folks on board working on the museum.
@Lis Carey
I’ve seen speculation that they kept the misspellings because that’s how scammers weed out people who are less likely to be duped. This is why scammers often have misspellings in their emails and posts. People who notice the errors are less likely to be fooled, so they won’t even reply. That way, the scammers won’t have to waste their time on them.
BTW one of the AI images shared included the words “Catcagating” and “exarserdray lollipops.” Does anyone know what they were trying to say? I was also impressed by the offer of “a pasadise of sweet teats.” Oh myyyyyy!
(1) BTW the sad Wonka event has been the gift that keeps on giving.
There is a Vulture article that interviews Kirsty Paterson — the sad Oompa Loompa actress shown in pictures of the event:
https://www.vulture.com/article/glasgow-sad-oompa-loompa-interview.html
Plus an article from The Independent that interviews her:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/willy-wonka-experience-uk-glasgow-scam-b2504130.html
(2) Yay, Steve!
(6) I have my eyes on some of those books…
(5) So many good books on that list! And a couple that I need to track down, apparently.
OK but what if I can say something nice but also choose to say something not nice?
Scottish comedian Eleanor Morton has an entire series of “Craig, the Scottish Tour Guide Out of F***s” video sketches. Her latest is for the “Willy’s Chocolate Experience” fiasco. YouTube link:
Glasgow Wonka Experience Tourguide Doesn’t Give a F***
@Cat Eldridge–
You’re right about both the excellent fudge, and Cider being all wise and knowing.
And now she’s asking why I’m still awake, so I guess it’s time to sleep.
(11) REALLY EDUCATIONAL COMICS.
I think a pedantic comment is required here. 🙂
In France (and Belgium as well as the rest of Europe), “comics” are distinguished from “BD” (bande dessinée – “drawn strips/panels”). Comics are exclusively American periodicals and almost exclusively devoted to superheroes. BD are usually large format, hard covered and not periodical – published like books. Their content is amazingly broad, covering almost everything except superheroes. The genres of Science Fiction and Fantasy – more often than not original and not adaptations – are very well presented. BD shops are everywhere and those who specialize in comics are more rare. I have noticed, over the last 5 years or so, a definite increase in non-fiction BD, especially biographies.
Camestros Felapton asks OK but what if I can say something nice but also choose to say something not nice?
I’ve known you a very long time and you’ve been a very reasonable individual that whole time, so you I’m not concerned about. Now Timothy…
I tell one of my cats she’s not allowed to bite and it doesn’t work. Ghu help me, she’s months away from being a senior catizen but she’s still a juvenile delinquent.
(13) NEUROMANCER TO TV.
Quietly excited. Apple has deep enough pockets & trust that they allow creatives the freedom to realize their ideas.
@Bruce Arthurs; Excellent! I love Morton’s work.
Thanks for the Title Credit
@Anne Marble:
While it’s possible that the organizer left the ridiculous misspellings in as a clever way to filter for people who don’t pay attention, it is also possible that they simply did not care and simply posted, unedited, whatever garbage their energy-devouring plagiarism machine belched out, knowing that it would work well enough.
After all, that is apparently how they make money on Amazon already with their AI-generated book shaped product. There is no need to do anything as creative and work-intensive as intelligently tailor scams when AI generates profitably usable scam material straight out of the box with the push of a button.
Also, my much beloved cat Sam (who appeared once in Cats Sleep on SFF) died of kidney failure a few weeks ago. He was my boon companion and friend who helped me through some very tough times. There is no way I can tell you how much I miss him.
@Robert Thornton:
I’m so sorry for your loss.
@Cat:
See this story of how that policy can be used very well:
https://notalwaysright.com/this-story-is-about-nothing-at-all/321306/
@Robert Thornton Sincere condolences.
Andrew (not Werdna) says There’s a saying that if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. We’d all be better off if we remember that and practiced it more.
See this story of how that policy can be used very well:
https://notalwaysright.com/this-story-is-about-nothing-at-all/321306/
Nice, nice.
My personal opinion having seen it tear entire groups bitterly apart that any personal attacks have absolutely no place here.
Unfortunately the recent Hugo clusterfrell has caused some Individuals here to think that’s something that they have to do. I’d like to think that we’re better than that.
4: An older movie with a conlang was “Quest for Fire.” My impression, though, was that they just replaced English words with made-up ones, without changing the syntax.
@Meredith re. 8 and the Chengdu SF Museum.
If you can stomach 12 minutes of shaky and wobbly camerawork, this video can maybe give you a better idea of what the exhibits are in the museum. That video was posted at the start of February, a couple of days after the opening, but I only saw it in the past few days. The Shelley-influenced diagram can be seen in context around the 4’20” mark.
There’s another, shorter video that concentrates on the Cixin Liu-related exhibits.
I get the impression the SF Museum (re-)opening in its own right has been a relatively soft launch, with whatever exhibits they could get their hands on or construct in the months since the con. I don’t even think it has a proper website or social media accounts yet, although there have been a couple of youth-focussed events held there.
(5). That’s a nice list, with a few I need to add to my TBR. I was surprised I did not see Steven Barnes.
If there’s a disagreement that is frowned upon for further discussion, people dropping vague lamentations about it doesn’t help.
There are a lot of things I’d like to say in this sentence but they would all further discussion.
The Vulture article on the “Wonka Experience” that Anne Marble linked includes a link to a picture of one of the actresses with a “table covered in so much scientific equipment that countless people online compared it to a ‘meth lab.'” Oddly, some of the glassware there is quite expensive– a separatory funnel, distillation apparatus including the fancy kind of condenser, a bunch of stands and clamps to set it all up in (almost) the correct way… It’s a thousand bucks, easy, right there, possibly several thousand. In the US, it’s not easy for a private individual to obtain (what if yur evading the REVENOOERS?), either.
So, someone had that stuff laying around from a previous endeavor, swiped it all from their employer, or spent a goodly chunk of the budget on fragile, tenously relevant equipment before they ever considered, y’know, some Astroturf or something for the bare concrete floor. One marvels.
(9) Olan Soule is one of the great stock/character actors of TV in my formative years. I first started paying attention to his roles when I was watching North by Northwest, and thought of the auctioneer, “Hey, there’s that lab technician from Dragnet.” The wife and I watch Perry Mason reruns most evenings, and he pops up there all of the time.
He had a full radio career before TV, and in addition to Captain Midnight as Cat mentioned, was a regular on Chandu in the 1930s, where he played the Mystic’s nephew. In 1937, he hosted a show from the Zenith Radio Foundation that explored telepathy over the air, while simultaneously hosting “Science in the News” on NBC Red network. In light of the recent discussion of blackface, I was surprised to see that he was the announcer for Amos ‘n Andy for a while in 1936.
Page 8 of this document has an article by Soule about working as part of Jack Webb’s radio shows.
@Zelda
“In the US, it’s not easy for a private individual to obtain”
Search ebay for “laboratory glassware”. It’s all available.
@bill
You can’t buy it direct from the manufacturers or distributors, though. The science surplus store near me very occasionally has a piece or two, but not the full get-up. You’re no doubt right that it actually is easy, but the stuff on eBay is likely a bit grey-market; somebody lied and told Ace Glass that they were a school or something. The rules may also be different in Scotland.
It’s still a peculiar thing to show up on a flimsy folding table over a concrete floor at an event catering to the under-ten set. They could have gotten a lot of less vulnerable and equally cool-looking stuff for the money.
I’m guessing that they left the spelling as it was because otherwise they’d have to get into Photoshop, fiddle with fonts, match colors, etc, and that’s antithetical to the spirit of using AI to do all the work!
@RedWombat:
You said way more eloquently what I was struggling to try to say above. Thanks.
To out-pedant Michael Buridanyk, in French, les comics perhaps are distinguished from BD, much the way that in English, anime means Japanese animation, while in in Japanese, anime means animation in general. But that BD/comics distinction does not apply in English. Hence to me it sounds near-meaningless to say in the Anglosphere (at least without ponderous predefining of terms), “BD shops are everywhere and those who specialize in comics are more rare.” That said, I’m not sure we have a good term in American English for what the French call BD. Fiction ones like Maus would encompassed by “graphic novel,” but what to call the far from unknown genre of non-periodical, nonfiction books in comic-strip format, such as Kaplan and Weinersmith’s excellent Open Borders? Amazon calls that one “graphic nonfiction,” but that feels to me like groping for a nonexistent term.
@Anna Marble: That approach of using bad writing to filter out people who are likely to see through the scam works better if the con artists have time to disappear with the money, instead of paying refunds. The article says they were “offering refunds,” but I suspect someone decided that would look better than waiting for credit card chargebacks.
Here, I don’t think they left the misspellings in so much as they couldn’t even see them – it’s all flashy advertising, and no one they know reads ads. (Or, likely, much else.)
Robert Thornton: my condolences. Been there, done that, not happy.
Zelda: the one pic I see with labware, other than the condenser tube, nothing looks that expensive. I think the $60 mad scientist glassware kit I got my recent ex’s son, when he was 14 or 15, would have had most of it. And the alcohol burner is Science Kit stuff.
Thanks to the kindness of fen in the antipodes I’m now reading Nina Allan’s Conquest, and I’m now pretty sure why it’s not for sale in the US. One of the major plot points in the story-within-a-story is an alien construction material called masonite. Looks to me as though someone is defending their trademark, and has a pretty good leg to stand on. That’s a serious failure on the part of Allan’s editor & publisher, they’re supposed to check that sort of thing.
@Doctor Science: Wow. I spent part of a summer nailing Masonite onto the floors of the house my family was building (we then moved on to the alien technologies of “sheetrock” and “cement”).
@Andrew (not Werdna)
I remember putting together a beehive for my father, once. The inner lid was Masonite (non-TM “hardboard”), and they didn’t predrill holes for the small-gauge wire nails that were supposed to go through it. Hard, definitely. (The rest of it was pine, and they did predrill those pieces. That was when Sears had a farm and garden catalog.)
5) I highly recommend Rosewater from those I’ve read. Weird aliens, weird humans, no knowing what will happen next
@Doctor Science, they should just rename it “Vegemite” for the American release. It will go completely unnoticed, I’m sure.
@Doctor Science: I own both first editions (sic) of one of Michael McGarrity’s novels, because his researcher cleared a fictitious name that turned out not to be clear after all, so the publisher recalled the first first (sic) edition.
Never thought I’d see Dragon Ball on File770. Perhaps there is hope for anime or manga getting on the Hugo ballot yet.
Patrick McGuire said:
Seems to me that once you write down “graphic nonfiction”, the term exists.
@Doctor Science: It’s very possible that the Masonite reference is what’s tripping it, but what I think is more likely is that Allan’s Conquest doesn’t have an actual US distributor. When I look up the book on Amazon US, it’s listed in such a way that makes it clear that all the hardcover copies are likely imported from the UK (riverrun is a Quercus imprint) as Amazon.com isn’t shipping it in the US but a third-party seller is. So I’m guessing the original book deal was made no US/North American rights (as of yet).