(1) FREE ON EARTH DAY. Yes, it’s F.O.E. Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination, in honor of Earth Day, has published Everything Change, Volume III, a free digital anthology of climate fiction featuring the winner and finalists of their 2020 global climate fiction contest. Edited by Angie Dell and Joey Eschrich, the book is available in a variety of digital formats. View the 10 original illustrations created by Brazilian artist João Queiroz at the book’s webpage (scroll down).
The title Everything Change is drawn from a quote by Margaret Atwood, our first Imagination and Climate Futures lecturer in 2014. The contest and anthology are presented by the Imagination and Climate Futures Initiative at Arizona State University, a partnership of the Center for Science and the Imagination and the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing.
Stories by: Barakat Akinsiku, Amanda Baldeneaux, J.R. Burgmann, Mason Carr, Scott Dorsch, Sigrid Marianne Gayangos, Kathryn E. Hill, Jules Hogan, Anya Ow, Natasha Seymour
(2) PENNSIC WAR DELAYED AGAIN. The Society for Creative Anachronism’s Pennsic War will not happen again in 2021, however, a non-SCA event called Armistice will be run at the same site. Here are excerpts from the official explanations:
From the Mayor: Pennsic War 49
G’Day Everyone When taking office in the position of Mayor for Pennsic 49 I made a promise to everyone. That promise was that above all else, I would endeavour to run a fiscally responsible and safe Pennsic 49. It was my dear friend and mentor Viscount Sir Edward that said to me “The people that attend this event are Pennsic, take care of them.” I promised him I would. Then COVID 19 hit and the entire world was plunged into a crisis, the like of which we have not witnessed in our lifetimes. Over the past few months, I have been in constant discussions with The Pennsic Seneschals Group (PSG), The President of the SCA Inc, Coopers Lake Management and my Pennsic Senior Executive Group. In addition, I have seen the comments from many of you and listened to the comments from my Deputy Mayors and their staff. I have kept you all updated as much as possible so that you all understand my decision-making process and so that you understand the path I am walking when I make decisions. Although change is happening and things are getting better, I must deal with the now, rather than what I think it may be like in 3 months’ time and unfortunately our vendors needs for commitment and certainty are requiring us to make commitments earlier than we originally intended. As Mayor of Pennsic 49, I was entrusted with, the welfare and safety of the entire Pennsic Family. It is therefore with great sadness that I must inform you today that, I have decided to Postpone Pennsic 49 for another 12 months to 2022. The new dates for Pennsic 49 will be 29 July 2022 – 14 August 2022. This has been an exceedingly difficult decision to make but I trust you understand the reasoning behind it.
…Yours in Service, Sir Gregory of Loch Swan Mayor Pennsic 49To explain a little further, I just want to put a couple of ‘Myths” that are circulating to bed and for people to clearly understand a few things that have and are happening behind the scenes.
Please understand that SCA, Pennsic staff, and Coopers management are jointly working together to find a solution. A separate, non-SCA event Armistice was the best joint solution that solved the issues of liability, allowed the business to survive, and provided an event for folks.
1. We needed to make a decision earlier because as PA (Just talking about our PA based Support services) started to emerge from the pandemic and slowly ramp up their businesses to pre-pandemic levels over the next 6 months, vendors need some certainty about their future commitment for everything from Portaloos to Waste Disposal bookings. We could not commit to that as the Pennsic War considering the current rules the SCA has in place today for SCA events. That was one consideration in our decision.
2. …All these decisions were made in concert with the SCA, the Pennsic Financial Committee, and the Coopers management working together to determine the best path forward for this summer.
3. For the Pennsic War to survive for another 20+ years, we need to support the main business that has supported us over these many years, Cooper’s Lake Campground and many of the smaller businesses and merchants that rely on Pennsic for part of their yearly income. They have survived 18 months of no business income and forced closure. That is tough for any business, let alone one, like Coopers Lake, that solely depends on campers and events. To that end we have been in discussions with the Coopers Lake Management for weeks about their options to survive. Armistice is that option.
4. Armistice “IS NOT” taking over from the Pennsic War. The Coopers Lake Management don’t want that at all. This is a one off event to help them through another tough year and is supported by Pennsic War and many Pennsic staff will be working to make Armistice event successful. It’s an option that gives those that wish to camp and relax with friends in PA, under PA health Guidelines the option to do so in a relaxed medieval environment.
5. We are all adults. Many have asked how to support the Coopers, well I’d suggest that this is a way of doing that, even if you can’t attend the event. I registered even though it is likely I won’t be able to attend, given current international travel rules.
6. This “Is Not” an SCA event. It is a Coopers Lake event run under their rules and insurance.
I hope that clears up some of the questions. Simple language, we knew about this alternate event, were consulted and even offered our expertise to support it. I know, there will be those that want to see some hidden secret SMOF type agenda, but those that know me, know that isn’t the case….
(3) TONY STARK, COME FORTH. “Marvel Fans Rent Billboard Campaigning For Iron Man To Be Brought Back To Life” – CinemaBlend has the story.
…The above image comes to us from a now-deleted Twitter post, which was shared a few hundred times ahead of its mysterious disappearance. Both the social media account and said billboard encourage Marvel fans to use the hashtag #BringBackTonyStarkToLife on April 24th, marks the two-year anniversary of Avengers: Endgame.
…It seems the Marvel fans behind the campaign want to see Iron Man/Tony Stark get a happy ending in the MCU. A number of characters fell throughout Infinity War and Endgame, including Black Widow. But Tony’s death hit especially hard, and his funeral scene was an emotional one considering Pepper Potts and their daughter Morgan.
While both Natasha and Tony died in Avengers: Endgame, Captain America was given a chance at a happy ending. After returning the Infinity Stones to their proper place in the timeline, Steve went back and lived his happy ending with Peggy Carter. It’s likely due to this that fans want to see Iron Man get the same treatment.
Still, it seems unlikely that Tony Stark would somehow be brought back to life in the MCU. The Russo Brothers have spoken about the importance of real stakes, and that includes death scenes. Tony Stark’s death wrapped up the character’s arc, and showed the real sacrifices that come with saving the galaxy.
(4) FIYAHCON PLANS. FIYAHCON 2021, a virtual convention centering the perspectives and celebrating the contributions of BIPOC in speculative fiction, will be held September 16-19.
…The event is hosted by FIYAH Literary Magazine and carries a variety of entertaining and educational content surrounding the business, craft, and community of speculative literature. The inaugural event took place in October of 2020 to great acclaim, and we look forward to doing it all again this year!
Get ready for three-point-five days of dynamic, entertaining content with BIPOC at the center of speculative literature discourse! The event takes place September 16-19, 2021 and includes panels, presentations, games, office hours, write-ins, workshops, kickbacks, and more.
Where the magazine is focused specifically on the elevation of Black voices in short speculative fiction, FIYAHCON seeks to center the perspectives and experiences of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color). The reasoning is that Black voices are not the least represented in the field, and we don’t want to exclude groups who are already systemically excluded from other spaces….
(5) THE THAWED LEFTOVER EQUATIONS. [Item by Cliff.] The premise for this movie sounds strangely familiar…. “Stowaway review – a devastating dilemma drives tense Netflix sci-fi” in the Guardian.
Ever since Sandra Bullock MacGyver’d her way from mid-orbit chaos back down to earth in Alfonso Cuarón’s show-stopping thriller Gravity, we’ve seen a rise in briskly efficient sci-fi competency porn. It’s a subgenre of films working off the thrill of watching high-stakes problem-solving, of professionals using their reality-rooted smarts to deal with fantastical situations. We’ve since seen Matt Damon use botany in The Martian, Amy Adams use linguistics in Arrival, Natalie Portman use cellular biology in Annihilation and Chris Pratt use Jennifer Lawrence in the unintentionally creepy Passengers. Just a few months after Netflix ventured into similar territory with George Clooney’s business first, emotion later drama The Midnight Sky, they’re taking us up into the stars with Stowaway, a late-stage acquisition title that should scratch that itch a little more successfully….
(6) TUBERS. [Item by Martin Morse Wooster.] In the April 21 Financial Times, gaming columnist Tom Faber discusses the rise of virtual YouTubers, or “VTubers.”
CodeMiko is a video game character without a game. The pink-haired avatar lives on Twitch, the live streaming platform owned by Amazon, where she chats with her half-million fans and interviews internet personalities in a signature style marked by absurdist humour and non sequiturs. Her videos are immensely enjoyable, and they might just signal the next frontier of digital entertainment.
Controlling Miko is a human actress and programmer wearing a motion capture suit, known only as ‘The Technician.’ When The Technician moves or speaks, the Miko avatar mimics her precisely on screen. This set up is a variation on the virtual YouTuber, or VTuber, a phenomenon where live streamers host videos as fictional characters, masked behind cutesy anime avatars.. As of last October, VTuber streams on YouTube were wracking up more than 1.5bn views a month. It may seem curious that audiences choose animated figures over real humans, but the VTuber concept offers striking advantages to both streamers and viewers.
(7) THE PRESSURE IS ON. James Wallace Harris asks “Will Climate Change Crush Our Science Fictional Dreams?” at Classics of Science Fiction.
… Elon Musk might get people to Mars but we’ll discover two things. Living on Mars will not be the romantic fantasy that science fiction fans have always dreamed, and leaving Earth won’t save us. We’ll probably also return to the Moon, but we’ll discover trying to colonize it will be nearly impossible and we’ll learn the true value of the Earth and its biosystem that was so perfect for us.
As the years progress and the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere increases and the percentage of habitable land decreases I believe our desire for space travel will wane. We won’t have to wait for dramatic sea level rise for everyone to be convinced, heat waves will start to kill millions. Just read the first chapter of The Ministry for the Future to understand. I expect events like it will come true sometime this decade. We won’t need to see drowned cities to know the disciples of Ayn Rand have doomed us. Increasing weather catastrophes, declining food production, and mass migrations of refuges will make it plain enough we made the wrong decisions and believed the wrong people….
(8) CON WILL REQUIRE ATTENDEES BE VACCINATED. Blerdcon, to be held July 16-18 in Washington, D.C., announced on Facebook they have decided to make Blerdcon 2021 “a vaccine mandated event (even if you HAD covid and recovered).”
…Only those having received their completed vaccine regiment and showing their Covid-19 Vaccination Record Card at registration will be admitted into the convention. This extends to all staff, volunteers, vendors, contractors and sponsors.
The community simply has too much to lose and nothing to gain by taking on any unnecessary risks, even as we anticipate low infection/high vaccination rates for mid-July. So we are adding this to our other anti-covid measures: outdoor parties and events, spaced seating in all panel rooms, mask mandate for all indoor spaces, sanitation stations, nightly cleaning.
(9) CAPTAIN JACK IS IMMORTAL – YOU ARE NOT. Radio Times thinks they have found some Secret Information in the advertising for a comic book: “Doctor Who leaks | Will time windows and Captain Jack be in series 13?” If you don’t want to know a possible spoiler – don’t blink click!
… The synopsis was originally found on the official Penguin Random House website, and while it has since been removed it is still publicly available to view on other sites. When contacted by RadioTimes.com, the BBC declined to comment on “speculation.”
(10) POWELL OBIT. Costume designer Anthony Powell died April 18 at the age of 85 reports Deadline. Powell won multiple awards for non-genre productions — a Tony Award for the costumes of 1963’s School for Scandal, and Oscars in 1972 for Travels with My Aunt 1978 for Death on the Nile and in 1979 for Tess. He received the Costume Designers Guild’s Career Achievement Award in 2000. For genre work he earned Academy Award nominations for Pirates (1986), Hook (1991) and 102 Dalmatians (2000) (for the costumes of Glenn Close’s Cruella de Vil). His other credits included Sorcerer, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, 101 Dalmatians, The Avengers, The Ninth Gate and Miss Potter, the 2006 Beatrix Potter biopic.
(11) MEDIA BIRTHDAY.
- April 22, 2005 — On this day in 2005, Star Trek: Enterprise went where the original series and Deep Space Nine had gone before as they ventured into the Mirror Universe with “In A Mirror Darkly” with the first part of a two-part adventure in the program’s fourth season. (Star Trek: Discovery would later retcon itself into this universe.) It was written by Mike Sussman who got his start on Star Trek: Voyager and wrote nearly thirty Trek episodes across the two series.
(12) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge and John Hertz.]
- Born April 22, 1887 – Kurt Wiese. A score of covers, many interiors for Walter Brooks’ Freddy the Pigbooks. Among much else, here is Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea; Caldecott Honor for You Can Write Chinese. (Died 1974) [JH]
- Born April 22, 1899 – Vladimir Nabokov. Scientist, poet, translator, critic, teacher, fiction author, memoirist. Said he didn’t like SF but wrote some anyway, e.g. “Lance”. Superb treatment of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and “Metamorphosis” in Lectures on Literature. (Died 1977) [JH]
- Born April 21, 1902 — Philip Latham. Name used by Robert Shirley Richardson on his genre work. His novels were largely first published in Astounding starting in the Forties, with the exception of his children’s SF novels that were published in Space Science Fiction Magazine. He also wrote a few scripts for Captain Video, the predecessor of Captain Video and his Video Rangers. His Comback novel starts this way: ‘ When Parkhurst heard the announcement that climaxed the science fiction convention, he found that he’d been right, years ago when he had faith in science-fictionists’ dreams. But, in another way, he’d been wrong . . .’ It’s available at the usual digital suspects for a buck. (Died 1981.) (CE)
- Born April 22, 1928 – Robert Schulz. Two dozen covers. Here is The Sword of Rhiannon. Here is The Caves of Steel. Here is Space Tug. Here is Beyond Time and Space. (Died 1978) [JH]
- Born April 21, 1937 — Jack Nicholson, 84. I think my favorite role for him in a genre film was as Daryl Van Horne in The Witches of Eastwick. Other genre roles include Jack Torrance in The Shining, Wilbur Force in The Little Shop of Horrors, Rexford Bedlo in The Raven, Andre Duvalier in The Terror, (previous three films are all Roger Corman productions), Will Randall in Wolf, President James Dale / Art Land in Mars Attacks! and Jack Napier aka The Joker in Tim Burton’s The Batman. (CE)
- Born April 21, 1977 — Kate Baker, 44. Editor along with with Neil Clarke and Sean Wallace of the last two print issues of Clarkesworld . She won the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine twice, and the World Fantasy Award (Special Award: Non Professional in 2014, all alongside the editorial staff of Clarkesworld . She’s a writer of three short genre stories, the latest of which, “No Matter Where; Of Comfort No One Speak”, you can hear it here. Warning it has as subject matters abuse and suicide. (CE)
- Born April 21, 1984 — Michelle Ryan, 37. She had the odd honor of being a Companion to the Tenth Doctor as Lady Christina de Souza for just one story, “Planet of the Dead”. She had a somewhat longer genre run as the rebooted Bionic Woman that lasted eight episodes, and early in her career, she appeared as the sorceress Nimueh in BBC’s Merlin. Finally I’ll note she played Helena from A Midsummer Night’s Dream in BBC’s Learning project, Off By Heart Shakespeare. (CE)
- Born April 22, 1943 – Louise Glück, age 78. Her poem “Circe’s Power” is anthologized here. In The Wild Iris flowers talk with a gardener and an “unreachable father”. Pulitzer Prize, William Carlos Williams Award, Bollingen Prize, U.S. Poet Laureate 2003-2004, Nat’l Humanities Medal, Nobel Prize. Professor at Yale. [JH]
- Born April 21, 1944 — Damien Broderick, 77. Australian writer of over seventy genre novels. It is said that The Judas Mandala novel contains the first appearance of the term “virtual reality” in SF. He’s won five Ditmar Awards, a remarkable achievement. I know I’ve read several novels by him including Godplayers and K-Machines which are quite good. (CE)
- Born April 22, 1966 – Marie Javins, age 55. Editor-in-chief at DC Comics. Has done Marvel too, e.g. prose adaptation of graphic novel Iron Man: In extremis; with James Gunn, The Art of “Guardians of the Galaxy”. Colorist. Travel writer. Website. [JH]
- Born April 22, 1989 – Catherine Banner, age 32. Three novels for us, the first when she was 19; another outside our field well received. Lives in Turin. “I underwent a shift, as all writers who continue writing beyond adolescence probably do, from thinking ‘What story shall I write?’ to asking, instead, the more pertinent question, the one which can sustain a lifetime of work: ‘How can I do justice to this story I feel I must tell?’” [JH]
(13) COMICS SECTION.
- Bizarro reveals the surprise ending to a crime story.
(14) THE HOSTS WITH THE MOST. “’Jeopardy!’: Robin Roberts, LeVar Burton & George Stephanopoulos To Guest Host” says Deadline. A different source reports LeVar Burton’s episodes will air July 26-30.
Jeopardy! has unveiled the final group of season 37 guest hosts, with Robin Roberts, LeVar Burton and George Stephanopoulous among the TV personalities set to lead the popular trivia game.
Executive producer Mike Richards revealed that David Faber, who is a former Celebrity Jeopardy! champion, and Joe Buck will also step up to the lectern to wrap up the game show’s 37th season. Previous season 37 guest hosts, who have stepped in for the late longtime host Alex Trebek, include Anderson Cooper, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Savannah Guthrie, Bill Whitaker, Mayim Bialik, Katie Couric and Aaron Rodgers.
(15) RITE GUD. Raquel S. Benedict has released more Rite Gud podcast episodes. (Previously identified in this space by her initials, she is now going by her full name.)
What makes a writer? Is it coffee and cats? Is it a good author photo? Is it having a screenname like @JaneDoeWrites? Is it in your soul, in your bones, in your DNA? Is it collecting photos of books and sharing writing memes and penning endless posts about writing (specifically, about how much you hate it)?
In this episode, Carmilla Mary Morrell joins us to talk about the dark secret of being a writer: you have to fucking write. We also discuss the problem of defining people by rigid identities and the Doctrine of Dog Cum.
If you’ve spent any time talking about geek culture, you’ve probably seen one word come up over and over again: gatekeeper. To be a gatekeeper is bad. To be a gatekeeper is exclusionary and harmful and discriminatory.
The internet was supposed to get rid of gatekeepers and usher in a new, democratic era of content, an era free of inequality or bias or those evil old boogeymen called gatekeepers. But is it really? Are we really getting rid of gatekeepers, or are we just replacing the old gatekeepers with new ones?
In this episode, Colin Broadmoor joins us to talk about fandom, The Monk, and why fiction should hurt.
If you’re into science fiction and fantasy, you might have heard of something called hopepunk. Hopepunk, according to its supporters, is a creative movement that believes that producing and consuming optimistic fiction will make the world a better place. But does hopepunk really offer meaningful hope and revolution, or is it just a way to numb yourself and hide from the world?
In this episode, Sid Oozeley gets on the mic to talk about how all fiction is escapist: the only question is, what are you escaping from?
(16) PINBALL WIZARDRY. SYFY Wire tells what players what to expect when “Star Wars Pinball, Resident Evil go VR in Oculus virtual reality gaming showcase”.
With Baby Yoda and Din Djarin as ringside spectators, you might think there’d be galactic levels of pressure not to foul up a task — even if it’s something as casual as a game of Star Wars Pinball. But in Oculus’ big quest (pun intended) to bring the galaxy far, far away and other big-name game franchises to its family of VR platforms, it all actually ends up feeling pretty fun….
For its VR upgrade, Star Wars Pinball isn’t just replaying the classics, it’s also roping in newcomers to Lucasfilm’s ever-expanding galaxy. In addition to familiar tables based on the original films, watch for a pair of new themes created specifically for VR, as well as franchise newcomers straight out of The Mandalorian. While Oculus unveiled the new look, its Quest platforms aren’t the only place you’ll be able to hone your virtual skills; in addition to Oculus Quest 1 & 2, Star Wars Pinball is also headed to Steam VR and PlayStation VR on April 29….
(17) BUTLER RESEARCHER. In “How Octavia Butler Created Her SciFi Worlds” at Jezebel. Joyzel Acevedo interviews Lynell George, author of A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia E. Butler.
Originally, it was Lynell George’s mother who was the Octavia Butler fan. A Los Angeles-based English teacher for 30 years, George’s mother would hand Butler’s books to students who didn’t like reading; “‘What are you interested in? Who are you? Oh, here, this is for you’,” she recalls. Once, she brought George along to a Butler reading in Pasadena, California, and George describes the awe she felt seeing Butler in person for the first time: “There was something very powerful about this tall, Black woman walking to the bookstore and sitting inches away from me—it was a small store—to talk about her work, to talk about writing.”…
(18) ZOOM WITH OKUNGBOWA. Powell’s Books presents Suyi Davies Okungbowa in conversation with S. A. Chakraborty on May 18, at 5:00 PM Pacific. Register for the Zoom webinar here.
From Suyi Davies Okungbowa, one of the most exciting new storytellers in epic fantasy, comes Son of the Storm (Orbit), a sweeping tale of violent conquest and forgotten magic set in a world inspired by the precolonial empires of West Africa. In the ancient city of Bassa, Danso is a clever scholar on the cusp of achieving greatness — only he doesn’t want it. Instead, he prefers to chase forbidden stories about what lies outside the city walls. The Bassai elite claim there is nothing of interest. The city’s immigrants are sworn to secrecy. But when Danso stumbles across a warrior wielding magic that shouldn’t exist, he’s put on a collision course with Bassa’s darkest secrets. Drawn into the city’s hidden history, he sets out on a journey beyond its borders. And the chaos left in the wake of his discovery threatens to destroy the empire. Okungbowa will be joined in conversation by S. A. Chakraborty, author of The Daevabad Trilogy.
(19) CAN’T BEAT THAT. The Guardian’s Alison Flood celebrates a new edition of the author’s first book in “Terry Pratchett’s debut turns 50: ‘At 17 he showed promise of a brilliant mind’”. There’s a 2-minute audio clip at the link.
In November 1971, a debut novel from a young author was published, to a small but not insignificant splash. Set in a world of tiny people who live in a carpet, it was described by the book trade journal Smith’s Trade News as “one of the most original tots’ tomes to hit the bookshops for many a decade”, while Teachers’ News called it a story of “quite extraordinary quality”.
The unknown author was Terry Pratchett, and the book was The Carpet People. This week, publisher Penguin Random House Children’s is releasing a 50th-anniversary edition, with Doctor Who and Good Omens star David Tennant reading the new audiobook.
“Terry would have loved knowing that David was going to do it,” said Rob Wilkins, Pratchett’s former assistant and friend who now manages the Pratchett estate. “David was a Doctor Who that really mattered in the Pratchett household, so he would have been so thrilled.”…
(20) VENISON WITH A VENGEANCE. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert shows what happens when you mess with nature in “Bambi Returns: The Clone Wars”.
(21) VIDEO OF THE DAY. In “How WandaVision Should Have Ended” on YouTube, the How It Should Have Ended Team thinks WandaVision would be better with the addition of several DC superheroes, Mel Gibson, and Keanu Reeves! QUITE POSSIBLY SPOILERS.
[Thanks to Peer, John Hertz, Cat Eldridge, Martin Morse Wooster, N., Andrew Porter, Cliff, John King Tarpinian, Michael Toman, JJ, Raquel S. Benedict, IanP, and Mike Kennedy for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]
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First!
Now reading: Nalo Hopkinson’s Sandman: House of Whispers while eating Trader Joe’s dark chocolate peanut butter cups.
(11) I did like the opening credits for this one (and the reimagined scene from “First Contact”) even though I think the ST universe has gone to the MU well too often.
Andrew (not Werdna) says I did like the opening credits for this one (and the reimagined scene from “First Contact”) even though I think the ST universe has gone to the MU well too often.
The only series that actually went repeatedly to the Mirrior Universe before Discovery decided to deep really deep into was Deep Space Nine. So I hardly say it’s been there all that often. The Enterprise two-parter is still my favorite story set there. I even purchased it once a time.
(I’m ignoring most of the Discovery MU stuff. It’s not bad, just really depressing.)
@CAt I really like that Enterprise episode because it nicely closes the loop on a favorite STTNG episode of mine, the Tholian Web
@Cat: I thought DS9 went to the MU too often and I didn’t like in particular that the DS9 MU stuff implied that the hopeful end of Mirror, Mirror (Mirror Spock considering that not be evil might actually be more productive than being evil) had backfired. The Enterprise episode, being a prequel, didn’t bother me. YMMV
Paul Weimer says I really like that Enterprise episode because it nicely closes the loop on a favorite STTNG episode of mine, the Tholian Web
Yeah that’s one of the nice touches in it. I’ve already watched it at least a half dozen times and it’s a remarkable piece of writing from start to finish. I’d love to have seen the series that could’ve been developed off up of that premise.
But wasn’t the the Tholian Web episode in the original series, not the Next Generation series?
8) I foresee a thriving business in vaccine card holders in the coming months. The cards, at least my card, are a little too big to fit in a wallet, and they will wear out if just carried loose. A quick Google shows that I’m not the first to think of this.
@Cat Eldridge: Certainly the original Tholian Web episode is from the Original Series. I’m not sure whether there is any reappearance in the Next Generation — I’ve only watched that through the end of season 2.
I have spent the last two days doing housekeeping that is, for me, incompatible with breathing properly. Despite this, I am still alive, and am breathing almost normally.
Which is not to say I’m feeling great.
… What’s the date on this Pixel Scroll again? 🙂
David Shallcross says Certainly the original Tholian Web episode is from the Original Series. I’m not sure whether there is any reappearance in the Next Generation — I’ve only watched that through the end of season 2.
I just searched the web and the answer is no. Neither the Next Generation nor Deep Space Nine mention the Tholian Web during their runs. The Enterprise story was the first time it was noted after the original TOS story.
David H: It’s come unstuck in time!!
If anybody has ever gone to a CON and kept their 4×5 badge holder they already have a CDC Covid card protector sitting in a drawer.
@John King Tarpinan
Funny you should mention that…I recycled a badge holder from, I think, a printing show, for my Medicare card. It’s just barely big enough for the vaccine card.
Don’t you have vaccination passports in the US? Cause over here, every vaccination except for the yearly flu shot is entered into a vaccination passport.
It’s a bit of a problem, if you lose it. For example, my Dad’s vaccination passport was stolen several years ago and now he has a brand-new one with one the covid vaccination entry. Meanwhile, mine is from the 1970s and some of the older entries are difficult to make out.
@David H., OGH: I was wondering when I saw the second twenty-first. 😉
John A Arkansawyer: Inflation — because those second fifths don’t go as far as they used to.
Not only do we not have vaccination passports, but some of our Republican governors are actually moving to prohibit them. It may lead to communism or the number of the beast or I’m honestly not sure what. It may surprise you to find out that the same governors are usually in favor of very stringent voter ID laws.
15) Given what I already know about her opinions, those descriptions do not make me want to listen to her podcasts.
Waiting for vaccine eligibility has made me feel very similar to this fic-writing cat.
I did a lot of housework today (by my standards, which would be challenging to limbo under for most) with a not-quite-healed-yet subluxated shoulder, so I am quite uncomfortable, but also very cheerful because one task was rather overdue. And I did give myself some nice chocolate afterwards. 🙂
I am not familiar with Raquel S. Benedict’s previous work, so far as I can recall.
I liked the Enterprise mirrorverse eps – aside from the finale, season 4 in general was very good.
Meredith: I am not familiar with Raquel S. Benedict’s previous work, so far as I can recall.
hav sent u mesige
@JJ
Oh, her.
(Miaow.)
Have we done, “It was a one-Filed, one-Scrolled, flyin’ purple Pixel eater”?
Soon Lee: Nothing quite that flamboyant — just Purple Pixel Eater in 2016.
My local Office Depot was offering to laminate Covid-19 vaccination cards for free. (Not sure if the offer is still in effect, or if it was for a limited time.)
LOL, I am repeating myself, but with embellishments.
@Cora. Kids have them and have to show them frequently. But most people lose track of them after college, I suppose they get boxed up with other childhood stuff.
They are giving separate standalone cards for Covid, as they do for other non routine adult vaccines, eg I have a separate one for yellow fever from when I visited the Amazon.
Meredith moment: Nalo Hopkison’s The Salt Roads which was nominated for a Nebula is available today from the usual suspects for a buck ninety nine. Her Brown Girl in The Ring which won a Locus Award for Best First Novel is similarly priced.
Jack Lint says
Not only do we not have vaccination passports, but some of our Republican governors are actually moving to prohibit them. It may lead to communism or the number of the beast or I’m honestly not sure what. It may surprise you to find out that the same governors are usually in favor of very stringent voter ID laws.
Jack, my vaccination records are kept by my PCP in their digital database. Any medical provider who needs to know if I’m current on them can access that database. I’m not at all convinced that a vaccination passport is needed in most circumstances. Now I know the Pandemic isn’t normal circumstances but generally no one needs to know that I had a flu vaccination this year or that my every ten year tetanus shot is current. So the purpose of a generalised vaccine passport that I would carry isn’t clear to me.
Vaxpport: Some articles/etc’s theorize that laminating will prevent additional stamps in the future, e.g. for boosters or whatever, hence the suggestions like “re-use badgeholders.” I’ve been meaning to a) scan mine, and b) take a picture on my phone, and c) make a hardcopy, laminate that, and carry it.
Speaking of passports, I can’t find my time travelers passport. Perhaps Loki stole it?
Daniel Dern says Vaxpport: Some articles/etc’s theorize that laminating will prevent additional stamps in the future, e.g. for boosters or whatever, hence the suggestions like “re-use badgeholders.” I’ve been meaning to a) scan mine, and b) take a picture on my phone, and c) make a hardcopy, laminate that, and carry it.
Mine doesn’t have any more room for additional stamps anyways as it has only two spaces, both of which are obviously filled as I had the Moderna variant. If there’s booster shots every year like the flu and I’m expecting that there will be, I’m expecting we’re going to treat it just like the flu anyways, just part of our ongoing vaccination process.
(3) Saw that too, but its just a terrible idea. Movies are not comic books, they do have to end sometime. Or else you get Rise of Skywalker.
Mirror Universe: The first two instances of the Mirror Universe in DS9 were imho quite good – not the least, because it was new. But they did it 3 (or 3?) more times and it got to a point were it was just “Who else havent we featured so far?” Discos Mirror universe in the first season was all right, because at least it was a new twist. But the series 3 two parter was just unnecessary.
I don’t normally carry my vaccine passport around either, because normally no one cares whether I’m vaccinated against whatever. I just take it to the doctor when I need a booster shot for tetanus or polio or diphteria. The last time I used it was when I asked my doctor to check if my measles vaccination from the 1970s was still sufficient or if I needed a booster. And when travelling to countries where certain vaccinations are mandatory, you need to show it.
However, over here vaccination passports are treated as vital documents, like birth certificates, so no one boxes them up with their old school stuff, even if you only need it every couple of years.
Cora Buhlert says However, over here vaccination passports are treated as vital documents, like birth certificates, so no one boxes them up with their old school stuff, even if you only need it every couple of years.
Ok, I’m still puzzled. Why isn’t this all digital? Why do you physically carry it with you? My medical care providers store all my records including my vaccinations in a digital database. Given the size of my medical history, no one’s storing it in a paper format!
Cat Eldridge: Ok, I’m still puzzled. Why isn’t this all digital? Why do you physically carry it with you? My medical care providers store all my records including my vaccinations in a digital database. Given the size of my medical history, no one’s storing it in a paper format!
Right, but if you need to board a plane, or cross a border, or attend a conference, or go somewhere where you have to prove that you’ve been immunized, the clerk behind the counter can’t call the doctor and get that information. It’s highly confidential, and the person on the phone could be anyone.
It’s legal for Cora to proffer her documents showing her immunization records to anyone who needs to know. It’s not legal for them to call up her doctor and ask for that information.
@Bruce Arthurs
Mine had that also – the sign explained that they make a copy and laminate that, because it’s illegal to laminate the original.
JJ says Right, but if you need to board a plane, or cross a border, or attend a conference, or go somewhere where you have to prove that you’ve been immunized, the clerk behind the counter can’t call the doctor and get that information. It’s highly confidential, and the person on the phone could be anyone.
So for global travel purposes, they make sense. I’m just curious how they are used within Germany for citizens. And I was never required to produce vaccination papers when entering Canada from the USA, nor do they currently require proof of such though travel there is suspended from here mostly.
P J Evans says Mine had that also – the sign explained that they make a copy and laminate that, because it’s illegal to laminate the original.
I can find nothing on the CDC site that suggests that it’s illegal to laminate the card. Until someone shows me proof of this, I’m going to treat this as an urban legend.
Cat Eldridge: I was never required to produce vaccination papers when entering Canada from the USA, nor do they currently require proof of such though travel there is suspended from here mostly.
This has been Standard Operating Procedure for a lot of European and Asian countries for quite a while now, but it’s only just now that it’s going to start being de rigueur for the U.S. (unless the governor in your state is a Republican).
I took a picture of my VAX card with my phone.
12) Nabakov’s Ada is most definitely ours.
I have taken pictures of both sides of my covid vaccination card. It still has several more lines if we, as seems likely, need boosters. I don’t believe it’s illegal to laminate it, but it’s probably a bad idea, if you still have room on it for potential booster shots.
If you don’t have room for booster shots on it, I don’t think there’s any compelling reason not to laminate it.
I think the blowback over a US “vaccine passport” is mainly branding. Americans are, quite properly, deeply suspicious of the whole “show me your papers” thing. As has already been pointed out, we already have vaccine records, and I happen to know that if proof of a certain vaccine is needed to travel to and fro a certain country, you can get that document from your doctor with little difficulty. And given how infrequently most Americans undertake such travel, the idea of a new, Government issued ID that may potentially at some future point be mandatory for interstate travel or perhaps even to enter a store – well, I’m not surprised that a lot of Americans hate the whole idea. Those governors are just responding to the wishes of their constituents and it seems unfair to criticize a politician for doing such.
Oh, and the Tony Stark thing is both a) a terrible idea and b) something that I would not be surprised in the least if they do once the MCU inevitably begins to slump.
David Shall Ross: 8) I foresee a thriving business in vaccine card holders in the coming months. l
Honestly, I just want a laminated card I can put my “Hero: I am Vaccinated” sticker I got from the clinic I could use it while doing my walking exercises.
Right now I’m our area there’s about fifty-fifty chance the person you see walking around without a mask is either a) vaccinated, or b) a Covid denier. So I don’t feel comfortable coming within six feet of them, even with my hyped-up antibodies.
Oh who an I kidding I’ve never liked passing close to people in any case.
The main vaccination officially required for travel before the current pandemic was yellow fever. I have vague memories of having a yellow vaccination card that included a space for a yellow fever vaccination, but not whether that was actually what was recorded, or it was the smallpox vaccination. It’s been a long time.
@Miles Carter – That isn’t true in a lot of cases. For instance, my doctor has no idea of what vaccinations I have had because I have moved quite a bit through my life and I’ve found it very difficult to get my records transferred in a complete and accurate manner. My mother had a record of my childhood vaccinations, but that got lost in one of my parents’ moves. But I do see that there are fewer reasons for USAmericans to need to show proof of vaccination as we don’t cross national borders nearly as often as people in Europe do.
Given that it’s been more than sixty years since I received my smallpox vaccination, from a small town doctor (who had an amazing resemblance to Groucho Marx), I doubt seriously that the record of that is available in any electronic records nowadays. That’s pretty much the case for other vaccinations I received back then.
About the only vaccinations what would have electronic records now are the COVID shots, the annual flu shot and the shingles vaccine shots I got a couple of years ago.
Another great post where I learn something new that I can pass on to the sci-fi writers I know. Everything Change Climate Fiction Contest sounds like a great opportunity for the cli-fi authors I’m friends with, plus that sub-genre of sci-fi appears to be gaining in popularity. Actually, maybe it’s more of a branch of dystopian fiction more than anything, but it still makes a great topic to read about.
Got my first shot today! For Filers in the Boston area, the mass vaccination site at the Hynes was very well-run and efficient.
John Lorentz says About the only vaccinations what would have electronic records now are the COVID shots, the annual flu shot and the shingles vaccine shots I got a couple of years ago.
Martin’s Point, my Primary Care Provider, converted all of its medical records to digital form so my vaccination history with them goes back to 1992 is in digital form and is available to any medical provider that needs to access it in that format. Same holds true for the rest of my complicated medical history.
My mother had a notebook where she records what shots we got and when, and also when we got things like measles. I have that page – when my primary-care guy wanted my medical history, I handed it to him and he scanned it.
I wouldn’t assume that any doc would be able to access electronic records – AFAIK there’s no standard format or system for them.