Pixel Scroll 2/14/16 Imagine All The Pixels, Living In A World That’s Scrolled

(1) BELIEVE YOUR EYES. “Apparently TARDIS-es are manufactured in NYC’s Brooklyn Navy Yard,” said an incredulous Andrew Porter after seeing this photo in NY Curbed.

Photo by Max Touhey for Curbed

Photo by Max Touhey for Curbed

Capsys, the building manufacturer responsible for modular projects like Carmel Place and the Nehemiah Spring Creek development in East New York, recently announced that it would vacate its factory in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and shutter operations entirely.

(2) JPL GALLERY. The Pasadena Star-News has photo coverage of last week’s NASA event at Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

JPL is hosted a “State of NASA” Social in conjunction with NASA’s federal budget rollout on Tuesday. The tour includes a visit to the Spacecraft Assembly Facility’s clean room, where the heat shield for Mars 2020 is, as well as the testing of some hardware used on the Juno mission, which arrives at Jupiter on the Fourth of July. (Photo by Walt Mancini/Pasadena Star-News)

(3) WHO ROMANCE? “The Doctor will see you now: Jenna Coleman and Matt Smith put on a cosy display as they reunite at pre-BAFTA party” in Daily Mail.

They played on-screen partners in crime for one series

But after Jenna Coleman and Matt Smith both quit Doctor Who to pursue other projects, their friendship was put on the back burner as they were tied up in their various career commitments.

Therefore it was little wonder the former co-stars were so thrilled to be reunited as they attended a pre-BAFTA party in London on Friday evening.

Jenna, 29, and Matt, 33, put on a sweet display as they cosied up to each other while attending Harvey Weinstein’s dinner which was held in partnership with Burberry and Grey Goose at Little House in Mayfair.

The ex Clara Oswald actress gently rested her head on the former Doctor’s chest as they posed inside the venue which was filled with some of the film industry’s biggest talents.

The former BBC One stars couldn’t contain their happiness to be back in each other’s company once again as lapped up the pre-award-ceremony celebration.

(4) READING WHAT YOUR TEA LEAVES. John King Tarpinian found this message inside the cap on his bottle of ice tea —Atwood Cap

 

(5) SCHINDLER OBIT. SF Site News reports Southern California costumer Robin Schindler died January 24.

Schindler led two of the earliest anime tours to Japan. She was an active costumer, presenting her work at many Worldcon masquerades and worked on the early Costume Cons.

(6) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOYS

  • Born February 14, 1920 — Dave Kyle
  • Born February 14, 1970 – Simon Pegg

(7) DEADPOOL’S B.O. Deadpool made some money in its opening weekend reports Deadline.

Fox’s Deadpool is bigger than anyone thought possible. Yes, it has scored the top opening for a February release with $135M over FSS and $150M-$153M over FSSM, beating Fifty Shades of Grey‘s first weekend figures last year.  But, Deadpool also flogged Matrix Reloaded‘s $91.8M opening record to become the highest R-rated debut of all-time, not to mention it’s the biggest opening Fox executives have ever seen, surpassing Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (FSS $108.4M).

(8) BRITISH BASEBALL. I just learned there is minor league baseball in Britain, and one of the teams is called the Bolton Robots of Doom. They play in the British Baseball Federation’s (BBF) AA North division.

Bolton Robots patch

(9) ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, MY DEAR WATSON. President Obama was quizzed on TV by an elementary school student. The next generation of conspiracy theorists is on the way.

Obama was questioned during Thursday night’s taping of The Ellen DeGeneres Show by 6-year-old “presidential expert” Macey Hensley, and she asked the president about the legendary “Book of Secrets.”

“That’s a secret,” the president quipped.

Hensley theorized the “secrets” in the book could include an answer to whether “aliens are real.”

“We haven’t actually made direct contact with aliens yet,” Obama said. “When we do, I’ll let you know.”

The president did not clarify whether indirect contact had been made with aliens through some type of intermediary.

(10) SPIRITUAL WISDOM. Amanda Slaybaugh, in “They’re Already Balloting for the Freakin’ Hugo Awards!”, doesn’t want to read “SEVEN MONTHS OF BITCHING AND MEWLING” and offers her advice:

My advice is this: Don’t be this guy. Remember him, staring into the mystical power and majesty of the ark of the covenant…but then having the whole face melt-y thing happen? This is what happens when you engage in this Hugo nonsense. The Hugos are neither mystical, nor magical, but their bullshit will melt your face clean off.

melting Nazi

Do this instead: Be Indy with his fave alcoholic, adventurous gal pal and look away! Withstand the mighty bullshit storm of bizarre political arguments surrounding a rocket-shaped literary award.  You respect the market power of SF/F, but you choose the wise course and LOOK AWAY!

(11) THUNDERBIRDS. ScienceFiction.com has good news: “Amazon Orders ‘Thunderbirds Are Go’ Starring Rosamund Pike For The U.S.”

‘Thunderbirds Are Go’ for the U.S. thanks to Amazon.  The streaming service has ordered four 13-episode seasons of the series, which combine CGI animation with live action models.  The first two seasons (26 episodes) have already aired on ITV in the UK, where the first series from the 1960s originated.  The third and fourth seasons are expected to air on ITV later this year and will be available to stream on Prime Video after the episodes become available in the U.S.

‘Thunderbirds Are Go’ is an update of ‘Thunderbirds’ a TV series that launched in the UK in 1965, from the minds of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson.  This show combined marionettes and vehicular models in a completely unique form of entertainment.  The series followed the adventures of the Tracy family, with most of the action revolving around the five brothers Scott, John, Virgil, Gordon and Alan, who each piloted their own high tech vehicle.

(12) ABOUT EDITORS. Brad R. Torgersen, in “Editors: the good, the bad, and the ugly” at Mad Genius Club, uses Nick Coles’ well-publicized grievances as the point of departure for a wide-spectrum look at his own experiences with editors.

In my experience, a good editor is not trying to evaluate your story on ideological grounds, nor is a good editor trying to get you to write the story their way. A good editor spots how you yourself are already trying to tell the story, and (s)he will simply make suggestions about how to do that job even more effectively than you’re already doing it. That’s the difference between, “You’re doing it wrong,” and, “You’re doing it right, but here are a few suggestions that should help you do it even better.” Most of the editors I’ve worked with (so far) have edited in this manner. And while some of them have barely touched my manuscripts, others have been so heavily involved in revision, they’re practically co-authors at the end of it. But again, their focus has always been: this story is hitting singles and doubles, let’s change a few things, and get this story hitting triples, or even a home run.

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Martin Morse Wooster, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Steve Davidson.]

184 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 2/14/16 Imagine All The Pixels, Living In A World That’s Scrolled

  1. I rather got the impression that Cole doesn’t really understand what an editor is there for. He thinks he got an uppity copy editor.

  2. @Xtifr, my impression is that Ken White is liberal only when compared to Clark, who left a few months ago. For awhile there, Popehat had new posts nearly every day, but I’ve gotten out of the habit of checking in regularly now that they’re less prolific. I like strict constructionism on First Amendment issues and White is reliable that way.

    I used to do a thing that benefited from legislative support. The most consistently well organized and useful legislator we worked with was somewhere to the right of the Tea Party. I would occasionally be brought up short by an idea I found ridiculous (I’m sure that went both ways), but it wasn’t a barrier to a good working relationship. When people are well intentioned and don’t lead with their egos, it’s not all that difficult to find common ground.

  3. J J

    Sadly, Le Guin’s Birthday of the World isn’t reduced on Amazon UK, but, drumroll The Princess Bride is a daily deal for the princely sum of 99p!

    Simon Bisson

    Thank you for the link to those stunningly beautiful images of our solar system; I urge anyone who hasn’t clicked to do so. It does wonderful things for one’s irritation level with silly stories cloaked in even sillier rhetoric, and I have bookmarked it for beauty and/or the beast.

  4. I read about two-thirds of Freer’s piece before my brain threatened to melt, so I had to stop. But did he really say that he had no idea who Bruce Schneier was? Seriously, google is your friend, and the first link is Bruce’s Wikipedia page.

    The argument that Patrick Nielsen Hayden and Bruce Schneier are in some fannish conspiracy together can only be made in ignorance. Anyone who knows both of them would boggle at the thought. Both of them are friends of mine, and I like them both immoderately well, but their view of fandom and fannish politics are … orthogonal. I know this intimately well, since I was involved in the attempt to down-size Minicon, and so had many, many substantive conversations with both of them on the topic, both about philosophy and pragmatic policy. Honestly, they are both extremely smart and interesting people, but lords would they not be able to agree on either goals or methods in a fannish conspiracy.

    The first several paragraphs were full of lies and bizarre inferences which can only be made if someone doesn’t know any of the people involved and has no particular understanding of either the business of publishing or the academic world. I don’t know which bothers me worse, the out and out lies, or the bizarro-world inferences.

  5. As well as The Princess Bride, which has been up before and I bought a few months back, the generally well received Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge is up for 99p.

  6. It is by Pixels alone I set the Scroll in motion. It is by the emails of contributors that posts acquire comments, the comments acquire trolls, the trolls incite a flamewar. It is by Pixels alone I set my Scroll in motion.

  7. I must not fear the pixels. Pixels are the mind-killer, pixels are the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my pixels. I will permit them to scroll over me and through me. I will turn my mind’s camera to see their path. Where the pixels have gone, there will be nothing. Only the scroll will remain.

  8. @Scott This morning on the radio I learned that not sharing a stage with someone (“no platforming”) is tantamount to censorship as well.

    The Nth Amendment is the right to be listened to.

  9. @Will R.

    @Scott This morning on the radio I learned that not sharing a stage with someone (“no platforming”) is tantamount to censorship as well.

    The Nth Amendment is the right to be listened to.

    My political scieince professors would be appalled at that interpretation.

  10. @Tasha I also find it a strange way to look at things (as I do the allegation that boycotting is in some way unfair–a point that the person being interviewed brought up).

  11. @Phantom: There’s been a lot of reporting on the failure of Ted Cruz to get support from his colleagues even though his views are broadly in tune with theirs. Apparently the problem is that he’s just a huge dick. Nobody likes him.

  12. @Lydy Nickerson:

    Evidence suggests that many in the Puppy camps declare their utter ignorance of the existence of someone as a gambit to attempt to emphasize that person’s insignificance.

    That it only underscores the writers’ willful ignorance hasn’t seemed to sink in yet.

  13. Peace Is My Middle Name: Evidence suggests that many in the Puppy camps declare their utter ignorance of the existence of someone as a gambit to attempt to emphasize that person’s insignificance. That it only underscores the writers’ willful ignorance hasn’t seemed to sink in yet.

    It is pretty hilarious when people have such a high opinion of themselves that they think that anyone of whom they have no awareness must therefore be of no importance.

    It’s similar to when people say “TL;DR” or a similar “I can’t be bothered to educate myself, but I’m going to comment anyway” equivalent — as if admitting that they have the attention span and cognitive skills of a gnat is something about which to brag.

    In both cases, they have no idea just how they are making themselves appear to be unintelligent and oblivious.

  14. @JJ

    It’s similar to when people say “TL;DR” or a similar “I can’t be bothered to educate myself, but I’m going to comment anyway” equivalent — as if admitting that they have the attention span and cognitive skills of a gnat is something about which to brag.

    So your saying I shouldn’t go around bragging about the memory & cognitive damage done when I was hit by a truck? SJWs always taking the fun out of life by doing things like holding me responsible for my own typed statements. Like I should think first and use tools available to help me out. Your as bad as my cognitive therapists. 😉

  15. Cheryl S. on February 16, 2016 at 12:04 am said:

    @Xtifr, my impression is that Ken White is liberal only when compared to Clark, who left a few months ago.

    He’s liberal when compared to Clark or to a whole lot of the regular commenters there. (Although some of that crowd may have left with Clark; I try to avoid the comment sections over there, so I’m not sure). But yeah, only liberal when compared to extreme conservatives may be a fair assessment.

    Clark’s an interesting case too. Despite his friendship with/sympathy for Beale, he had a hate-on for cops that reminded me, more than anything, of some of the old radical lefties in my home town of Berkeley. I suspect he would have hated the comparison, but boy did it fit! 🙂

  16. @Xtifr, Jim Henley’s comment above about White being some flavor of libertarian sounded right so I went looking over at Popehat and, yep:

    “I’m not a Democrat or a Republican. I’m not a big-L Libertarian, although I have small-l libertarian leanings.

    I think one of the things he shares with Clark is a dislike of police, based largely on a few too many encounters with abuse of power by law enforcement, but that is something that transcends political affiliation. Selling Officer Friendly to the people I grew up with* would have been an impossible task. 🙂

    The Popehat comments have usually been pretty good, so long as the Gamergaters aren’t out in force. I suspect they mostly moved away with Clark.

    *I didn’t grow up there, but I was born in Alameda, where my grandparents lived for nearly 40 years.

  17. Tasha Turner: So your saying I shouldn’t go around bragging about the memory & cognitive damage done when I was hit by a truck? 😉

    By all means, feel free to do so! 😀

    I have never seen you dismiss someone else’s post as being too long to bother with. And from my observation, you try very hard to educate (and re-educate, if necessary 😉 ) yourself before opining on a subject.

    It is a strategy which would benefit the Puppies hugely, if they ever chose to adopt it.

  18. @JJ: While tl;dr can be overly dismissive, some people really need to learn how to get to the point and break up paragraphs.

    tl;dr: tl;dr has its place and can be very useful.

  19. Shao Ping: While tl;dr can be overly dismissive, some people really need to learn how to get to the point and break up paragraphs. tl;dr has its place and can be very useful.

    Yes, TL;DR is useful when it is used by the person making the post to say “if you don’t want to read the long version, here’s the summary:”.

    But there is no occasion when TL;DR is used as a response to what someone else has posted that it is anything other than dismissive. “I’d really like to read that, but because it’s really long and has no paragraph breaks, it’s very difficult to read and understand” is a non-dismissive option which might actually yield a positive change in the other person’s behavior.

    I make a real effort to break my longer posts up, use clear language, and avoid superfluous words, so that my posts are readable. Anytime someone posts TL;DR at me, they’re just saying either that they’ve got the attention span of a small child, they’re lazy, or both, and making themselves look like an idiot. I’m not going to be posting a Cliff’s Notes version for them.

  20. @JJ
    Dismiss someone for long posts? No, that’s silly. Dismiss someone for pointless, data less rants? Yes. But you have to carefully read something to know which it is and be aware of your biases while do so.

  21. Furthermore, sometimes things deserve to be treated dismissively.

    “Without the aid of the lizard people, [political party] would never have been able to win the last election. Since lizards become inactive in the cold, all we need to do to take this country back is to follow my forty-seven step plan to secretly build a giant freeze ray and freeze the whole country. Which I will now propound in excruciating detail. Step one…”

    Sorry, dude, TL;DR. 🙂

    As Tasha says, it’s good to check your biases, but if you want to convince me that the lizard folk have taken over, you should open with the evidence for that, rather than jumping right to “now here’s how we defeat them.”

  22. @Xtifr
    OMG lizard people have taken over? Why did no one tell me? LOL

    I think someone believes it and that’s why we’ve had 1F Sunday and 30ishF today. Strange technology to freeze the lizards makes more sense than climate change/global warming. It’s the Koch brothers I bet. Or Mattel testing a new toy. 😉

  23. I think Tuomas Vainio may as well have replaced most of his comments with tl;dr written over and over for all that people were reading them after awhile.

  24. @Rev Bob
    I’d have to give it some thought but in Global Warming vs Izzard people. We probably have a better chance doing something against the second. I think your making a reference to SFF I’m missing and hubby won’t be home from his 18 days in India until Thursday (he’s the household expert). He left on February 1st.

    I haven’t mentioned his being away because it’s the net. It’s not good to let the world know an outspoken woman is home alone.

  25. My only concern is that our Izzard overlords will think that it’s reasonable to expect the average person to live up to our Illustrious Leader’s physical example, whether current or previous.

  26. I can’t think of a science fiction reference to Izzard people, but there is a fannish/fanzine reference. In that conspiracy theory, the Izzard people are the Nielsen Haydens.

    No, really.

  27. @Vicki:

    If the superhero genre counts – which I think is true – then there’s his supervillain turn in My Super Ex-Girlfriend to consider.

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