25 How Many Files To Pixelscroll? Three Score Files And Ten

Posted on March 7, 2025 by Mike Glyer

(1) FRANK R. PAUL AWARDS TAKING ENTRIES. Administrator Frank Wu has announced the Frank R. Paul Awards are open for submissions until April 15. Full details are available here.

There are two categories: Best Magazine Cover Art, and Best Book Cover Art. Prizes include a trophy (with a 3D-printed recreation of FRP’s tiger-robot-monster from the Sept. 1935 Wonder Stories) plus $500 in each category.

Artwork for any publication (pro, semi-pro, fanzine or online) is eligible, as long as the art was first published anywhere in 2024.

Artists are encouraged to submit (to me, Frank Wu, at FWu@FrankWu.com) on their own behalf up to 5 items they had published last year, with a note that the art was NOT generated using an AI program.

Authors and publishers are also encouraged to submit on behalf of artists they’ve worked with, and anyone else can submit on behalf of any artwork that pleased them in the last year.

(2) BOOK CURATION AS FREE SPEECH. “ABA Goes Into Damage Control After Contentious WI2025 Community Forum” reports Publishers Weekly.

A week after Winter Institute 2025 wrapped up in Denver on February 26, the American Booksellers Association dedicated Thursday’s issue of its weekly Bookselling This Week newsletter to respond to criticisms raised at a contentious WI2025 community forum. During that forum, booksellers criticized the ABA leadership and board for their refusal for more than a year to take a clear stand in support of indie booksellers who have been attacked for selling books about Palestine, as well as authors who are Palestinian and/or have spoken out against the Israeli military campaign in Gaza. Other speakers raised concerns about double standards, some related to compensation, in the organization’s treatment of its members. Booksellers had raised similar concerns at the community forum at WI2024 in Cincinnati.

Perhaps John Evans, a past ABA board member who currently owns Camino Books in a San Diego suburb, summed it up best, when he said at the WI2025 community forum: “We aren’t asking you to come out with a stance on the Israeli war. We are asking you to support booksellers in a censorious environment by making this statement publicly that it is not antisemitic to provide books to people who want them. All of this falls within the framework of a bookselling organization. This is not a political statement. This is a consensual, understood, fundamental principle of what we all do, and it’s hurting us. You not supporting that. It’s offending us.”

In a letter signed by all 12 ABA board members that appeared in BTW, the board emphasized that it, “along with the staff of American Booksellers for Free Expression and ABA, condemns all attacks on bookstores, in particular the targeting of bookstores who have chosen to highlight Palestinian books and authors in their stores. Each bookstore’s curation is their own expression of their freedom of speech, and verbal attacks, demands to carry or not carry certain titles, and threats to stores are not acceptable.” The board also promised to support any booksellers “during times of persecution, harassment, curation challenges, and other attacks on booksellers and stores.”

The ABA wrote in a separate statement, which also appeared in BTW, that booksellers have been offered support, resources, education, crisis counseling, and provided with a hotline by ABA staff. “This is the work that ABA is empowered to do by our ends policies and allowed to do as a 501(c)(6) nonprofit trade association,” the ABA declared. “We cannot make a political statement on behalf of our members, but we can and do support our members in their right to express those views.” The organization added: “Book curation is a form of speech, and it must remain free. We condemn any harassment or threat to our members that aims to abridge this freedom.”…

(3) STATE DEPARTMENT’S LATEST CULTURAL DAMAGE. The University of Iowa’s International Writing Program shared some bad news with Facebook readers:

Dear Friends: We write today with a difficult update. On Wednesday, Feb. 26, the International Writing Program (IWP) learned that its grants with the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, were being terminated. This notification explained that the IWP’s awards “no longer effectuate agency priorities,” nor align “with agency priorities and national interest.” The immediate result was the cancellation of Between the Lines (the IWP’s summer youth program), and the dissolution of Lines and Spaces Exchanges, Distance Learning courses, and Emerging Voices programs. The overall Fall Residency cohort will be reduced by around half due to the loss of federally funded participants; the IWP’s other long-time funding partners, including a combination of donors, grants, foreign ministries of culture, and NGOs, will continue to support writers.

We are devastated by the abrupt end of this 58-year partnership and are working closely with University of Iowa General Counsel and Grant Accounting to review the terminations, understand their full impact, and respond in the best interest of the organization. Despite this disappointing turn of events, the IWP’s mission to promote mutual understanding through creative writing and literature remains unchanged; with the help of a limited number of other partners, we will still hold a 2025 Fall Residency even while pursuing new sources of funding. To support the IWP as we begin to rebuild, please visit this website: bit.ly/support-iwp

(4) TUTTLE ON FIVE NEW BOOKS. Lisa Tuttle’s “The best recent science fiction and fantasy – review roundup” for the Guardian covers The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica; Dissolution by Nicholas Binge; The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar; When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi; and The Foot on the Crown by Christopher Fowler.

(5) BOOKLESS IN BLIGHTY. But the Guardian immediately leaves you wondering who in Britain might take advantage of Tuttle’s recommendations: “New poll finds 40% of Britons have not read a book in the past year”.

According to new a polling by YouGov 40% of Britons have not read or listened to a book in the past year.

The median British adult has read or listened to three books in the past year, the survey found.

Women seem to be bigger readers than men, with 66% of women reading at least one book in the last year, compared with 53% of men.

There was a political split: while 72% of remain voters said they’d picked up a book in the past 12 months, 54% of leave voters reported doing so. Labour voters were most likely to have read in the last year (70%) when compared with Lib Dem (64%), Conservative (63%) and Reform (51%) voters.

A class divide also emerged, with 66% of respondents in middle-class households reporting having recently read a book compared with 52% of those in working-class households.

(6) EYE ON GUY. Andrew Porter has shared the photo he took of Brother Guy Consolmagno at Boskone.

Brother Guy Consolmagno, right, and Kielan Donahue at Boskone. Photo by and (c) Andrew Porter.

(7) JEOPARDY! Then, Andrew Porter relayed the results of genre interest from tonight’s episode of Jeopardy!

Final Jeopardy: Category: Science Fiction

Answer: Name shared by a groundbreaking magazine launched in April 1926 & a TV anthology series that premiered in September 1985

Wrong questions: What is Popular Science (crossed out; no actual question).

What is Outer Limits?

What is Unsolved Mysteries?

Correct question (obviously) is Amazing Stories.

(8) GENE HACKMAN FOLLOW-UP. Authorities in Santa Fe, NM held a press conference today where they revealed — “Gene Hackman Died From Alzheimer’s & Heart Disease; Wife Died Days Before” – Deadline has the story.

A February 27 autopsy of Gene Hackman reveals the 95-year-old Oscar winner died of a combination of “advanced Alzheimer’s disease” and severe heart disease, the New Mexico Chief Medical Examiner announced today.

“It is reasonable to conclude that Mr. Hackman died on February 18,” Dr. Heather Jarrell said in a press conference with Santa Fe Sheriff Adan Mendoza and other county officials. “He was in very poor health,” Dr. Jarrell also noted of Hackman, adding that there was evidence that he hadn’t eaten for a number of days. Ms. Arakawa is assumed to have died on or around February 11, officials estimated….

(9) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Weyr Search (1967) and Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series

Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series has a fascinating Hugo history.

She won a Hugo the first time she was nominated, for the novella “Weyr Search”, in 1968 at Baycon (tied with Philip José Farmer’s “Riders of the Purple Wage”.) It was published in Analog Science Fiction / Science Fact, October 1967.

It’s in A Dragon-Lover’s Treasury of the Fantastic anthology which was edited by Margaret Weis, available from the usual suspects at a very reasonable price.

It would be the only win for the Dragonriders of Pern series but by far is not the only nomination for the series.

Next up would be the “Dragonrider” novella which was nominated a year later at St. Louiscon. Three years later, her Dragonquest novel would get a nod at the first L.A. Con showing that con had impeccable taste. Are you surprised they did? I’m certainly not.

At Seacon ‘79, The White Dragon was nominated. (I really love that novel.)

The next L.A. Con (1984) would see another novel be nominated, Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern. The final nomination, also for a novel, was at MagiCon (1992), for All the Weyrs of Pern.

The series did win a number of other awards including a Nebula for Dragonrider, a Ditmar and Gandalf for The White Dragon, a Balrog for Dragondrums and The Science Fiction Book Club’s Book of the Year Award for The Renegades of Pern. It is, after all, an expansive series. Really expansive.

Personal note: I really wanted to enjoy this series all the way through as I came to it later. They were great, they really were, but something happened in the stories early on for me that I can say but I won’t as it’s a MAJOR SPOILER.

I read the first trilogy of Dragonquest, Dragonflight and The White Dragon plus Harper Hall trilogy of Dragonsong, Dragonsinger and Dragondrums, and I did read on through maybe, let me check ISFDB, through All the Weyrs of Pern, That’s when that MAJOR SPOILER occurs which makes me say why McCaffrey, oh why?

(10) COMICS SECTION.

Bizarro compares favorite tunes.
Carpe Diem makes a hygiene suggestion.
Dog Eat Doug argues over Pan’s Labyrinth.
Tom the Dancing Bug provides a fun pack.
Wallace the Brave almost reveals someone’s powers.

(11) HAPPY DEMENTED BIRTHDAY. Dr. Demento (Barry Hansen) turns 84 on April 2 and will celebrate his birthday at the LA Breakfast Club. Dr. Demento will take the audience through his 55 year career as America’s most unusual disc jockey and play some of his favorite songs. Tickets available here: “Celebrate The Doctor’s Career & 84th Birthday!”

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Dr. Demento has been celebrating “mad music and crazy comedy” on the airwaves playing everything from Spike Jones to Frank Zappa for over five decades. He is responsible for introducing the world to the Dr. Demento Show’s #1 most requested song of all time, “Fish Heads”, and launching the career of “Weird Al” Yankovic. Throughout the years, the world-famous Doctor’s influence on pop culture has earned him induction into the National Radio Hall of Fame, an hour long Anniversary special on Comedy Central, featured guest appearances on Late Night with David Letterman, Larry King Live, and countless others including The Simpsons.

(12) A BIGGER SLICE OF THE CHEESE, PLEASE. “Disney Animation Production Management Workers Ratify First Union Contract” reports Animation Magazine.

After two years of determined effort, the production management workers at Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS) have officially ratified their first union contract with the studio, The Animation Guild announced today. This landmark agreement comes after an intense organizing effort that saw a supermajority of production workers vote to unionize in February 2023, a move that was initially met with resistance from studio leadership.

The organizing effort proceeded to a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) hearing, culminating in a decisive ruling on September 27, 2023. The ruling affirmed the eligibility of full-time production coordinators, production supervisors and production managers to unionize with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) and The Animation Guild, IATSE Local 839 (TAG).

“It’s been an uphill journey, but at long last, we’ve reached the mountaintop. We are standing in our breakthrough — stronger, bolder, and united,” says production coordinator Tamara Lee….

(13) DOOM WITHOUT END, AMEN. The Guardian’s Stuart Jeffries adds to our amusement in “A Brief History of the End of the F*cking World by Tom Phillips review – apocalypse not”.

…The serious purpose of Phillips’s jolly doomscroll through the apocalyptic sex cults, pandemics, nuclear armageddons, rapture-fetishising fruitloops, numerologically obsessed nincompoops, swivel-eyed preppers waiting out zombie apocalypses in their Utah silos, not to mention the Bible’s (spoiler alert!) troubling last act, is to work out quite why, after so many failed prophesies, doom-mongery still thrives….

(14) SPACEX “STARSHIP” #GOBOOMFALLDOWN…AGAIN. [Item by Mike Kennedy.] “SpaceX’s Starship explodes in space, which Musk calls a ‘minor setback’” – Reuters has details.

SpaceX’s massive Starship spacecraft exploded in space on Thursday minutes after lifting off from Texas, prompting the FAA to halt air traffic in parts of Florida, in the second straight failure this year for Elon Musk’s Mars rocket program.

Several videos on social media showed fiery debris streaking through the dusk skies near south Florida and the Bahamas after Starship broke up in space shortly after it began to spin uncontrollably with its engines cut off, a SpaceX live stream of the mission showed.

The failure of the eighth Starship test comes just over a month after the seventh also ended in an explosive failure. The back-to-back mishaps occurred in early mission phases that SpaceX has easily surpassed previously, a setback for a program Musk had sought to speed up this year….

… The Federal Aviation Administration briefly issued ground stops at the Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and Orlando airports because of “space launch debris.” It said it had opened a mishap investigation into the incident…

(15) VIDEO OF THE DAY. Ryan George smuggles us inside “The Gorge Pitch Meeting”.

[Thanks to Mark Roth-Whitworth, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, and SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Dan’l.]

Pixel Scroll 1/3/25 Never Send A Pixel To Do A Scroll’s Job

Posted on January 3, 2025 by Mike Glyer

(1) EATING THE FANTASTIC. Scott Edelman invites listeners to split a pastrami sandwich with Martha Thomases in Episode 244 of the Eating the Fantastic podcast. Edelman adds, “Those not interested in my conversation with a comics guest because they only care about science fiction should know I devoted seven minutes of the intro to eulogizing Barry Malzberg.”

Martha Thomases is a freelance journalist who has been published in the Village Voice, the New York Daily News, High Times, Spy, the National Lampoon, and more. She’s a VP of Corporate Communications at ComicMix.com as well as a weekly contributor there. From 1990-1999 she was Publicity Manager at DC Comics. She also worked as a researcher and assistant for author Norman Mailer on several of his books, including the Pulitzer-Prize-winning Executioner’s Song, On Women and Their Elegance, and Harlot’s Ghost. She created Dakota North with Tony Salmons for Marvel. Next year, A Wave Blue World will publish Second-Hand Rose, her graphic novel with Richard Case.

We discussed her theory that your popularity in high school determines whether you’ll move to New York, why she was into DC rather than Marvel at the start of her comics fandom, Denny O’Neil’s explanation of the true difference between Metropolis and Gotham City, the realization she had at 35 as to the true reason her parents allowed her to read comics, the weirdness of Little Lotta and Baby Huey, why she was more nervous meeting Denny O’Neil than she was meeting Norman Mailer, how Dakota North was born, our mutual love for the She-Hulk TV series, selling comics to comics fans vs. selling them to potential readers who don’t yet know they’d like comics, and much more.

(2) WRITER BEWARE. Victoria Strauss has full details of legal charges against scammers and what they did in “Karma’s a Bitch: The Law Catches Up With PageTurner Press and Media” at Writer Beware.

…The CEO and VP of one of the worst publishing scams of the past few years have been arrested in California.

Some background. The scam in question is PageTurner Press and Media, one of the biggest and most brazen of the vast array of publishing/marketing/fake literary agency/impersonation scams operating out of the Philippines….

…PageTurner operates as a type of pig butchering scam (where victims are tricked into handing over their assets via escalating demands for money). The most elaborate of its schemes involve multiple false identities and company names, with victims handed around between them. Most writers I’ve heard from were fleeced to the tune of low- to mid-four figures, but many lost substantially more–tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands in some cases. The largest payout I know of was extracted from an author who was recruited to buy costly re-publishing packages, then pressured into paying for hugely expensive marketing schemes, and ultimately targeted by one of PageTurner’s fake film companies and convinced to purchase a screenplay, treatment, PR campaign, and more, all for eye-popping amounts of money. All told, this author lost in excess of $600,000….

…On December 9, 2024, Sordilla was arrested in California, along with Innocentrix VP Bryan Navales Tarosa (who, like many individuals involved in these scams, started his career as a sales rep for Author Solutions). Sordilla and Tarosa are both residents of the Philippines, but were visiting the USA at the time.

One day later, authorities arrested Gemma Traya Austin, a US resident and PageTurner’s registered agent, who according to an August indictment in the US Court of the Southern District of California of all three individuals on charges of mail and wire fraud, was responsible for PageTurner’s US bank accounts. (These have been seized; they reportedly contained nearly $5 million.)…

(3) MORE RICHARD MORGAN. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] Having got through to the semi-finals of the BBC’s Christmas University Challenge a few days ago, SF author, Richard Morgan’s Queen’s College Cambridge team last night (2nd January) faced Churchill College Cambridge (that’s twice they have faced a fellow Cambridge college). This time they did not get it so easy as the two teams of alumni (the regular University Challenge has teams of current students) were more even matched. Indeed, Richard’s performance was not so sure-footed. There was even one SF/F book related question on horror to which Richard gave the answer ‘Arthur Machen’ when in fact it should have been M. R. James….

And the competition was close, ending in an almost nail-biting-down-to-the-elbows 95-95 draw. This necessitated a tie-breaker question and Queen’s won! This means that we will see Richard and his team in the finals tonight. “University Challenge Christmas 2024 E09 – Churchill, Cambridge v. Queens’ Cambridge”.

(4) DIGITAL D&D SLOT MACHINE ON THE WAY. “Wizards of the Coast Goes All In On New D&D Gambling Game” at Dungeons and Dragons Fanatics.

In news which came as a surprise to many Dungeons & Dragons fans, Hasbro recently announced a licensing deal with the gambling company Global Games to produce a number of new products. This includes an upcoming digital slot machine entitled Dungeons & Dragons: Tales of Riches, which will be hitting casinos and online iGaming platforms sometime in early 2025.

It’s a somewhat controversial move for Hasbro given the often negative connotation of gambling among many consumers, but also speaks to some of the growing financial pressures Hasbro is facing and the value of licensing global intellectual properties like D&D….

… It’s not entirely clear why Hasbro has decided to license out the Dungeons & Dragons brand to a global online casino distributor, but like many business decisions it likely comes down to dollars and cents. Global gambling is a highly lucrative market and the potential licensing revenue could be significant (although neither Games Global or Hasbro has provided any information on the financial details)….

(5) TOUR DE FORCE. Visit another writer’s bookshelves in “Shelfies #17: David Agranoff”. (Shelfies is edited by Lavie Tidhar and Jared Shurin.)

…My office is designed so that when I am sitting at the desk I can reach and grab any resource material or actual Philip K. Dick novel without getting up.

You can see that I have the books in three stacks. Between the stacks, I have the seven books I most often use or reference. (Pot-Healer, Time Slip, Scanner Darkly, Eye in the Sky, High Castle, Do Androids, and my favorite, Three Stigmata)….

(6) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

Born January 3, 1892 — J.R.R. Tolkien. (Died 1973.)

By Paul Weimer: If Isaac Asimov (see January 2nd’s scroll) was one of the two midwives of getting me into science fiction. J.R.R. Tolkien was one of the two midwives of getting me into fantasy (the other, absolutely no surprise to any of you, was Roger Zelazny). I think I’ve told the story before of how I got into his work. The next weekend, the newest issue of TV proclaimed that they were going to show all three Tolkien movies — The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Return of the King. I had a week, friends as a ten-year-old reader of genre to read the extant Tolkien canon.

I read The Hobbit, and then blitzed through The Lord of the Rings in short order. I bounced off of The Silmarillion and would not try it again for another decade. But I felt armed and ready for the animated movies.

Lord, I was not ready for “Where there’s a Whip, there’s a Way”. But, then, no one really is.

But back to Tolkien himself, he was in fact, my ur-Epic Fantasy as well as being the ur-Epic Fantasy for most of modern fiction. I measured a lot of the epic fantasy of the 80’s and 90’s by the roads of Middle Earth. His worldbuilding, his prose, his iconic and mythic writing draws me in again, and again, and again.

(7) COMICS SECTION.

xkcd teaches us how to fold an Origami Black Hole. (Don’t miss the note that appears when you mouse over the cartoon.)
Bizarro knows late night thoughts.
Candorville bridges the generational divide.
Curses did everything but the work.
Heart of the City learns about fanfiction.
Thatababy has a strangely logical explanation.
Brewster Rockit finds out who replaced Baby New Year.

(8) SFF ON JEOPARDY! [Item by David Goldfarb.] This was the final of the “Second Chance” tournament, in which 9 players who had come in second in regular play were brought back to compete for a spot in the upcoming Wild Card tournament. The first round of play had a category “Sci-Fi Fill In”. The players took it in reverse order.

$1000: Richard K. Morgan’s tale of cyberwarriors: “Altered ___ “

Kaitlin Tarr responded correctly: “What’s ‘Carbon’?”

$800: By Ursula K. Le Guin: “The Left Hand of ___ “

Colleen Matthews gave us “What is ‘Darkness’?”

$600: Rick Deckard is on the hunt: “Do Androids Dream of ___ ___ “

Colleen knew it was ‘Electric Sheep’.

$400: A Harlan Ellison classic: “I Have No Mouth & I Must ___ “

Will Yancey tried “What is ‘Speak’?” but of course this was wrong. Colleen and Kaitlin didn’t know this either, so it was a triple stumper. (Honestly I think this was a misstep by the clue-setters in terms of difficulty.)

$200: A full-course meal available from Douglas Adams: “The Restaurant at the End of the ___ “

Colleen got it: “What is ‘the Universe’?”

(9) KEEPING DOCTORS AWAY. [Item by Daniel Dern.] Apple+ is free this weekend (Jan 3-5):

https://www.apple.com/tv-pr/news/2024/12/get-a-free-all-access-pass-to-apple-tv-the-first-weekend-of-2025

And this article covers a bunch of other (all legit) ways to get Apple+ free. (We’re currently halfway through the free-with-Roku 3-month deal.)

https://www.tomsguide.com/news/apple-tv-plus-free-trials

Here’s the BestBuy URL, which I suspect is (non-Roku-users) best bet (other than Apple’s 1-week free trial):

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/apple-free-apple-tv-for-3-months-new-or-qualified-returning-subscribers-only/6484512.p?skuId=6484512

My A+ rec’s include Ted Lasso; Shrinking (with Harrison Ford), Slow Horses. (None of which are sf, FWIW).

BTW, Apple offers the first episode of each series free, without having to subscribe first.

(10) HADFIELD Q&A. “Business Daily meets: Astronaut Chris Hadfield” – hear the interview at BBC Sounds.

Colonel Chris Hadfield is a former fighter pilot who became an astronaut and served as a commander of the International Space Station (ISS). While in orbit he became a social media star, posting breath-taking pictures of earth, as well as videos demonstrating practical science and playing his guitar.

These days, the Canadian invests in businesses and has written several best-selling fiction and non-fiction books.

In this programme, Chris Hadfield tells Russell Padmore how he was influenced by Star Trek, and the Apollo missions to the moon, as a child. He outlines why he welcomes private investment in space and he explains how he has become known for being the musical star in orbit.

(11) I TAKE MY T. REX ON ROUTE 66. “How did dinosaurs travel millions of years ago? Prehistoric highway may hold answers” on NPR’s “Morning Edition”. (Linking to this story again as an excuse to use Dern’s title.)

The discovery of a “prehistoric highway” in the United Kingdom could reveal more about how dinosaurs traveled millions of years ago.

(12) WHY WASN’T I TOLD? The New York Times says there’s Broadway production of Our Town with Jim Parsons as the Stage Manager, and it’s closing January 19. The supporting cast includes some other notables from TV like Richard Thomas and Katie Holmes.

Kenny Leon brings Thornton Wilder’s microcosmic drama back to Broadway, starring Jim Parsons (“The Big Bang Theory”) as the Stage Manager. Zoey Deutch and Ephraim Sykes play the young lovers, Emily Webb and George Gibbs, with Richard Thomas and Katie Holmes as Mr. and Mrs. Webb; Billy Eugene Jones and Michelle Wilson as Dr. and Mrs. Gibbs; Donald Webber Jr. as Simon Stimson and Julie Halston as Mrs. Soames. (Through Jan. 19 at the Barrymore Theater.) Read the review.

[Thanks to Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, Daniel Dern, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Nancy Lebovitz, Nickpheas, David Goldfarb, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, and Kathy Sullivan for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Patrick Morris Miller.]

Pixel Scroll 12/19/24 Credentially Centigrade

Posted on December 19, 2024 by Mike Glyer

(0) I opened a ticket with Jetpack customer service yesterday after the eighth consecutive post without a subscriber notification. They’re looking into it.

(1) UP, UP AND AWAY. The ‘full length’ Superman Official Teaser Trailer dropped today.

(2) A SUPERBOY AND HIS DOG. Deadline follows up the trailer with: “’Superman’: James Gunn On Superhero’s ‘Complicated’ Relationship With Krypto; ‘He’s Not Nearly The Best Dog’”.

In a moving moment in the trailer, a bloodied Superman who has fallen to a snowy Earth suddenly whistles and out of the blue we see a storm in the distance as Krypto the dog comes to some form of a rescue.

Said Gunn at a presser for the trailer about including the canine in this live-action version of Superman: “I think we’re seeing that from the beginning we’re seeing a little bit of a different side of Superman than what we’ve seen.”

“This movie at the end of the day is not about power. This movie is about a loose term of the word a human being and who he is as a person and virtually struggling in his day-to-day life, and we see a different aspect of him in the beginning.” [says James Gunn]

“His relationship with Krypto is complicated. He’s not nearly the best dog. There’s a lot more to Krypto than you see in this trailer.”…

(3) YOUR FACE BELONGS TO US. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] Your Face Belongs to Us by Kashmir Hill is BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week.

What if you could be identified by anyone with just a blurry photo..? Now, we (SF fans) are surely all aware of the Orwellian nightmare of social control and identity. In Your Face Belongs to Us Kashmir Hill looks at the ClearView AI… and it’s not really that good…

Today ClearView AI declares that it has a database of 50 billion facial images sourced “from public-only web sources, including news media, mugshot websites, public social media, and many other open sources.” Your face may well belong to them.

Your Face Belongs To Us was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science book prize 2024 and described by the Financial Times as “A parable for our times”. According to The Economist, “A walk down the street will not quite feel the same again.”

You can download the following episodes: Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, and Episode 5.

(4) JEOPARDY! [Item by David Goldfarb.] I started taking notes when the Jeopardy round had a clue about a File 770 favorite:

That’s Weird, $600: Weird Tales magazine published his story “The Black Ferris”, which formed the basis for “Something Wicked This Way Comes”

Challenger Eric Weldon-Schilling was up on his Bradbury.

That’s Weird, $1000: It’s the formal & familial, though maybe not terribly polite way to address the trio of witches in “Macbeth”

After a noticeable pause, challenger Sarah Rosenthal rang in and tried, “What are ‘The Weird Sisters’?” and this was right.

The Jeopardy! round had a category “Poli Sci”. Double Jeopardy had “Poli Sci-Fi”.

There was a little bit of SFF content elsewhere, too.

Victorian Verse, $400: The Victorians loved these supernatural little creatures, often spelled with an “E” in place of an “I”, as in Yeats’ “The Stolen Child”

Eric got it: “What are faeries?”

Poli Sci-Fi, $400: Located somewhere in the Rockies, the capitol of this country dominates its 12 surrounding districts.

Champion Ashley Chan had read her “Hunger Games” and responded, “What is Panem?”

$800: George Lucas said of this “Return of the Jedi” guy, “Richard M. Nixon was his name. He subverted the Senate & finally took over”

Eric knew it: “Who is Emperor Palpatine?”

$1200: Secretary of Education Laura Roslin suddenly ascends to the presidency of the 12 colonies on this series

Eric, perhaps a fan, got this too: “What is ‘Battlestar Galactica’?”

$1600: This “Star Trek” organization, the UFP for short, has a president, a federal council & a supreme court

Eric again: “What is the United Federation of Planets?” And he then went to the last question in the category.

$2000: A prominent member of the Ape National Assembly, this doctor is both Minister of Science & Chief Defender of the Faith

Ashley came in here with “Who is Caesar?” but this cost her $2000.

Sarah and Eric didn’t try it — it was Dr. Zaius.

(5) JUDGE SIGNALS A LOSING CASE. “Florida Court Urges School District To Settle In Book Banning Case” reports Publishers Lunch.

A federal judge in Florida has urged the Escambia County School Board to settle a book-banning case brought by PEN, PRH, and others, mindful that it has cost local taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. As of last September, the school board had already spent more than $440,000 on attorneys’ fees. District Judge T. Kent Wetherell II wrote in the footnote of a court order that a settlement, “should be particularly important to (the school board) because it is spending taxpayer money to defend this suit and it could end up having to pay all or part of Plaintiffs’ attorney’s fees on top of its own attorneys’ fees if Plaintiffs prevail in this case.”

Escambia County banned 1,600 titles from school libraries, including dictionaries and encyclopedias. In December, the parties attempted mediation but came to an impasse after eight hours. Additionally, the Tallahassee Democrat reports that Escambia County school officials have spent almost $200,000 in another lawsuit over the removal of picture book And Tango Makes Three. (Nassau County was also sued over the removal of this book and it was restored to shelves in September.)

Last January, Wetherell wrote, “The Court simply fails to see how any reasonable person would view the contents of the school library (or any library for that matter) as the government’s endorsement of the views expressed in the books on the library’s shelves.”

(6) FORTY WHACKS. Camestros Felapton continues to map out his plan for cashing in on a literary trend in “Dahrk Snarl II: The Romantasy of the Blood-Axe”.

[Simon Goquickly] Dear Mr Snarl, or may I call you Dahrk? So lovely to have you back.
[Snarl] You said you had a job for me.
[Simon Goquickly] I do, I do!
[Snarl] It had better not be one of them barbarianistas that make hot mud drinks. If I wanted to drink hot mud I’d fight the geyser golems of Gahst.
[Simon Goquickly] My, my, you fought the geyser golems of Gahst?
[Snarl] It was a misunderstanding see? I thought they said it was a “geezer” and I thought how hard could it be to fight some regular geezer? Turned out it was a ‘omonid.
[Simon Goquickly] A homonym?
[Snarl] That as well….

(7) BARRY MALZBERG (1939-2024). Author and editor Barry Malzberg died December 19. Following a series of medical problems, of which the last were pneumonia and a bacterial infection, a few days ago he was moved into hospice care. His daughter, Erika, informed friends today: “ My dad passed away this evening, around 4:30pm. My sister had been with him for a few hours and I was just getting back after having visited with my mother. He took his last breath almost the moment I arrived. It was very, very peaceful and we are so grateful.”

His first science fiction story, “We’re Coming Through the Window”, was published in the August 1967 issue of Galaxy.

Many of his science short stories and novels in the late 1960s were published under the pseudonym “K. M. O’Donnell”.

His novel Beyond Apollo won the inaugural John W. Campbell Memorial Award (1973).

His nonfiction works won two Locus Awards: The Engines of the Night (1983), and Breakfast in the Ruins: Science Fiction in the Last Millennium (2008).

Malzberg collaborated with Mike Resnick on more than 50 advice columns for the SFWA Bulletin. They have been collected as The Business of Science Fiction.

Barry Malzberg and Edward Ferman. Photo by and (c) Andrew Porter.

(8) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

A Clockwork Orange

By Paul Weimer:

…or, Paul gets snakebit by looking at acclaimed films.

I’ve mentioned in earlier columns how I started to in the early to mid 90’s to read SFF books that had been nominated and won awards. I did the same thing for a while with films as well. Although I was not and would not be interested in photography as something for me to do for another decade, in retrospect, my interest in image started earlier, even more subconsciously, than I realized.

Anyway, I had heard of the brilliance of A Clockwork Orange, and I had been watching a number of 70’s films, and so a trip to the video store (remember those?) meant that it was time for me to engage with Kubrick’s film. I had already seen Dr. Strangelove (I had won a copy in an early online contest) and of course, 2001. So I thought I knew what I was in for when I watched A Clockwork Orange.

Reader, I was not and did not.

Much of the film I was enthralled by. I had not yet read the Burgess book, but the worldbuilding, the dark future of Britain was enthralling. The movie is well acted, even if it is hard to take (poor, poor Alex’s reconditioning). The score, even if I was and am not a music fan, was memorable (and I bought the soundtrack on CD). It’s a dark future but an enthralling one.

But that scene. You know the scene. The imagery. Alex’s break-in, his deadly sexual assault with that gigantic sculpture of a helpless woman. THAT I had not signed up for. That was hard to take. That I had not been warned about. I’ve only watched the movie a few times since, as brilliant as it is…and I skip that scene. Every single time after the second time, where I stopped and froze the cascade of images that we see in the height of the assault. But I don’t need to see this scene anymore. So it goes.

But I still do use the phrase a “bit of the old ultraviolence” now and again. The movie is unforgettable, and revolutionary.

(9) COMICS SECTION.

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal extrapolates (or interpolates) whole new vistas for the English language.
Free Range notes that discovery means taking the risk of standing in the right spot.
Ink Pen plays ‘guess the hair piece’.
Non Sequitur reveals an eleventh commandment.
Spectickles features reindeer physics.
Strange Brew looks at the chart.

(10) LONDON CRITICS’ CIRCLE. [Item by Steven French.] Feminist body-horror movie The Substance is nominated in the London Critics’ Circle awards. “Anora and The Brutalist lead London film critics’ award nominations” – the Guardian has details. It appears this is the only film of genre interest in contention, except for the Technical Achievement category:

Film of the year

The Substance

Director of the year

Coralie Fargeat – The Substance

Screenwriter of the year

Coralie Fargeat – The Substance

Actress of the year

Demi Moore – The Substance

Supporting actress of the year

Margaret Qualley – The Substance

Technical achievement award

The Substance – makeup, Stéphanie Guillon & Pierre-Olivier Persin
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice – visual effects, Angus Bickerton

Also worth mentioning is the animated feature category.

Animated feature of the year

Flow
Inside Out 2
Memoir of a Snail
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The Wild Robot

(11) LIKE SANDS THROUGH AN HOURGLASS. Didn’t you predict this? “’Dune: Prophecy’ Getting Season 2” reports Deadline.

HBO‘s Dune: Prophecy will be returning for a second season. The news was announced today during a virtual press conference with showrunner EP Alison Schapker, and stars Emily Watson and Olivia Williams.

The prequel series to Legendary’s Denis Villeneuve-directed Dune movies will air its Season 1 finale on Sunday….

(12) WHAT IF AI WAKES UP? [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] In today’s Christmas Nature: “What should we do if AI becomes conscious? These scientists say it’s time for a plan”.

Look, I keep on telling folk that the machines are taking over, but no-one ever listens! Indeed, some say we should be concerned for any putative, war-mongering AIs welfare….

We all know what happened with the Forbin Project and younger fans will be well aware of issues with Skynet. Well now someone is calling us to have AI care policies….

Researchers call on technology companies to test their systems for consciousness and create AI welfare policies.

A group of philosophers and computer scientists are arguing that AI welfare should be taken seriously. In a report posted last month on the preprint server at arXiv, ahead of peer review, they call for AI companies not only to assess their systems for evidence of consciousness and the capacity to make autonomous decisions, but also to put in place policies for how to treat the systems if these scenarios become reality.

(13) MOON’S BIRTHDAY QUESTIONED. “You don’t look a day over 4.35 billion! Here’s the moon’s anti-aging secret” – Laist shares a theory.

The Moon has long been the Earth’s close companion, but researchers have struggled to understand exactly when the moon formed, because tiny crystals in the moon rocks brought home by astronauts suggested two different ages.

Now, a study in the journal Nature argues for the earlier age, saying that the ancient Moon also went through a period when it got hot and partially remelted, producing new rocks about 4.35 billion years ago.

The rock-melting heat came from early gravitational interactions with the Earth, which stretched and squeezed the Moon, warming it up.

This process is called “tidal heating.” It is how Jupiter currently heats up its moon Io, the most volcanically active spot in the solar system….

… Nimmo says that lab workers have analyzed moon rocks brought back by the Apollo astronauts and found that almost all of the samples were 4.35 billion years old, suggesting they formed around 200 million years after the solar system started.

The trouble is, he says, simulations of the solar system’s evolution suggest the Moon had to have emerged earlier than that-–because at 200 million years, pretty much all of the material winging around had already been swept up into planets….

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, David Goldfarb, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]

Pixel Scroll 12/13/24 Friday The Thirteenth Part 770

Posted on December 13, 2024 by Mike Glyer

(1) SUNSET ON DARKOVER. Deborah J. Ross told Facebook readers yesterday her novel Arilinn, released in November, concludes the Darkover series.

Farewell and Adelandeyo, Darkover

I fell in love with the Darkover series, created by the late Marion Zimmer Bradley, when becoming a professional author was still my dream. I loved the world, the characters, and the insightful and compassionate treatment of themes. Many of my early short fiction sales were to the Darkover anthology series, which I eventually had the honor of continuing as editor, beginning with Stars of Darkover. Around 1999, Mrs. Bradley asked if I would consider collaborating with her on one or more Darkover novels. She passed away just as we began work on The Fall of Neskaya (DAW, 2000), which I completed. Since then, I have written eight more Darkover novels under the supervision of her Literary Works Trust. The final volume, Arilinn, was released in hardcover and ebook formats on November 12, 2024.

Darkover is one of the longest-running and best-loved series, straddling the border between science fiction, romance, and fantasy. For decades, it has touched the hearts and fired the imaginations of generations of fans. The earliest published stories date back over half a century to the publication of The Planet Savers in Amazing magazine, then the first version of The Sword of Aldones in 1962 and The Bloody Sun in 1964. You can find the list, both in order of publication and Darkover chronology, here.

For the last quarter-century, I have striven to tell the best stories I could, always staying true to the spirit of Darkover and its amazing people. Now the Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust and I have agreed to bring the saga to a close with Arilinn, a heartfelt love letter and farewell to the series and its fans. I hope that if you have enjoyed my Darkover stories, you will check out my original work.

(2) MORE KUDOS. The Wild Robot won Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score: “African American Film Critics Association 2024 Winners List” at Deadline. The winner for Best Picture, while not sff, is based on a book by a writer well-known to fans:

The African American Film Critics Association on Friday said that it has selected Orion Pictures and Amazon MGM Studios’ Nickel Boys as its Best Picture of 2024 to lead the 16th annual AAFCA Awards. Its writer-director RaMell Ross also won Best Director for his work adapting Colson Whitehead’s novel….

(3) COSTUME DESIGNERS GUILD NOMINATIONS. The 2025 Costume Designers Guild Awards include two categories devoted to sff, below. (However, there are also works of genre interest in some of the other categories.)

Excellence in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice; Colleen Atwood, CDG
Borderlands; Daniel Orlandi, CDG
Dune: Part Two; Jacqueline West, CDG
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga; Jenny Beavan, CDG
Wicked; Paul Tazewell, CDG

Excellence in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Television

Agatha All Along; “If I Can’t Reach You/Let My Song Teach You”; Daniel Selon, CDG
Dune: Prophecy; “The Hidden Hand”; Bojana Nikitovic
Fallout; “The Target”; Amy Westcott, CDG
House of the Dragon; “The Red Dragon and the Gold”; Caroline McCall
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power; “Doomed to Die”; Luca Mosca, CDG & Katherine Burchill & Libby Dempster

(4) SALUTE TO FAMOUS AUSTRALIAN COMPOSER. “Doctor Who theme added to national sound archive” – The Register explains why.

The theme music to iconic British sci-fi TV show Doctor Who has been immortalized by Australia’s National Film and Sound Archive.

Wait? What? Why is music from the UK’s most substantial contribution to broadcast sci-fi worthy of inclusion in an Australian archive?

Because, as explained by the Archive (NFSA), it was written by an Aussie.

“While the theme for the long-running BBC series, with its otherworldly pulsing bassline, was recorded by English musician Delia Derbyshire, it was written by Australian composer Ron Grainer,” the NFSA explained, before going on to remind us all that the theme is thought to have been the first piece of electronic music used as a TV theme – and remains in use to this day, albeit modernized….

(5) JEOPARDY! ON FRIDAY THE 13TH. [Item by David Goldfarb.] Final Jeopardy in today’s episode had the category “Authors”. Here was the clue:

Following his unexpected death in 2001, he was referred to as the “Monty Python of science fiction”.

Challenger Carla Winston responded “Who is Terry Pratchett?” — but she crossed that out and scribbled in “Adams” underneath. A good choice!

Challenger Ram Murali tried ‘Who is Isaac Asimov?” which, of course, was not correct.

Returning champion Ashley Chan said “Who is Frank Herbert?” which feels like a desperation move; Herbert certainly wasn’t known for comedy. But she made only a small wager, and since Carla had not doubled up, she kept the lead she had had going into the final.

(6) LOST TO WAR. Publishers Weekly assesses the damage in “War Leaves Scars on Lebanese Publishing”.

On November 27, 2024, a fragile ceasefire took effect in Lebanon following two months of intense Israeli bombardment mostly in southern Lebanon and Dahiyeh, Beirut’s southern suburb. Dahiyeh, where Hezbollah’s party headquarters is located, is composed of multiple neighborhoods with varied social, economic, and urban histories, and is also home to numerous warehouses, printers, and bookbinders on which the Lebanese book industry relies.

On the evening of October 20, Mohamed Hadi, of Dar al Rafidain publishing house, saw one of his five branches destroyed. The second floor of the building in Dahiyeh housed his bookstore and publishing house offices where management, editing, layout, accounting, and marketing were centralized. “We must rebuild all our work and archives, and our employees are scattered throughout Lebanon without homes,” Mohamed Hadi said.

A few weeks earlier, on September 28, Jihad Baydoun of Dar al Kotob al Ilmiyah, saw his 7,500-square-meter (80,729.3 sq-ft.) warehouse spanning two underground floors destroyed by an airstrike. The warehouse lies buried under four collapsed buildings. Of his 7,500 titles, Jihad Baydoun lost stock of 1,500 titles in all — or an estimated 2,520,000 bound books….

(7) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

December 13, 1985 — Clue

On this date thirty-nine years ago, Clue premiered. It was directed by Jonathan Lynn from his screenplay. The story was based off the Clue game created in 1943 by British board game designer Anthony E. Pratt, which is called Cluedo or Murder at Tudor Close in Britain.

It was produced by Debra Hill, best known for producing various works of John Carpenter.

It had a stellar cast of Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull. Lesley Ann Warren, Colleen Camp and Eileen Brennan.

Tim Curry played The Butler. And what a role what was for him. Possibly his best role. Though his Cardinal Richelieu in The Four Musketeers is magnificent as well.

Speaking of endings, if for no other reason to watch it, a fourth ending of it was filmed but exists only in the vaults of Paramount. So, it says the documentary recreates the fourth ending through animation and narration from the Clue storybook. I’ve not seen it yet but definitely want to see how they did this. I can say this much without giving anything away — let me quote director Lynn in a Dark Horizons interview: “It wasn’t funny enough, it wasn’t surprising enough. It ended the film on an anti-climax. So I just took it out. Three was enough.”

The mansion which was supposed to in Connecticut never existed. It, like so many such places, exists only in the imagination. It was stitched together out of exterior shots and film stages as it is documented lovingly here.

Critics did not like it, with both Siskel and Ebert harshly dissing it. They particularly hated the three alternative endings. No idea why, I myself am fond of them.

It didn’t break even at the Box Office despite costing only fifteen million to make, losing a half million dollars.

It was novelized as Clue The Novel, written by Michael McDowell who would write the Beettlejuice screenplay which was nominated for a Hugo at Noreascon 3. And yes it has all four endings. I’d love to heard a full cast audiobook version!

It however has a stellar rating among audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes of eighty-six percent. Clue is currently airing on Paramount+. You can purchase it at Amazon and iTunes for six dollars right now.

I think an excellent film to watch any time of year.

We will not speak of the rumors that a new version is the works. No we won’t. Even The Butler won’t.

(8) COMICS SECTION.

Eek! tries jobhunting.
Frank and Ernest attempts the fast track.
Loose Parts visits a medical specialist.
Rubes cross-examines a giant.
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal introduces a robotic bestseller.

(9) A PLAY STATION AT THE AIRPORT. “Gaming meets travel: JFK Terminal 8 debuts Gameway lounge in time for holiday travelers” – QNS spotlights the opening.

Holiday travel just leveled up at JFK Airport.

Travelers passing through John F. Kennedy International Airport’s Terminal 8 can now enjoy a cutting-edge gaming experience starting on Monday, Dec. 16, as Gameway opens its first New York location.

The Gameway Ultra lounge, part of a $125 million investment in Terminal 8 by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and American Airlines, is designed to elevate the airport experience.

The new modern space will feature luxury console and PC gaming stations alongside the RetroZone® bar, where travelers can relax with craft beers and classic video games….

… The Gameway Ultra lounge will offer nine individual gaming stations, each equipped with a PlayStation or Xbox console, a 43″ 4K TV, premium gaming headphones, charging ports, and luggage space. The lounge also includes eight high-performance gaming PCs paired with Corbeau gaming chairs and high-speed internet.

Open daily from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m., 365 days a year, the lounge ensures travelers can enjoy its amenities regardless of their schedules. Operating hours may adjust slightly during seasonal holidays or based on flight times. Pricing starts at $17.99 for up to 30 minutes of play, $27.99 for up to an hour, and $45.99 for unlimited sessions. A 10% military discount is also available….

(10) THE WRITER’S OBJECTIVE. To me this sounded spot on.

Seems there are a bunch of writers who think differently.

(11) REVERSE THE CHARGES. “Fortnite Players Get Millions in Refunds for Unwanted Purchases” – the New York Times has the story. (Behind a paywall.)

Fortnite players who were charged for unwanted purchases in the game where cartoony characters battle on a virtual island are starting to receive what could be $245 million in refunds from Epic Games for what the federal government called manipulative online practices.

Denver Wills, a 20-year-old college student near Anniston, Ala., who has been playing Fortnite since middle school, said that a friend had received $350 and that he hoped to get a similar amount. It would help him cover the costs of building a new computer.

“Any money’s good money at this point,” said Wills, who is waiting for his check in the mail.

Fortnite’s in-game currency, V-Bucks, can be spent on cosmetics, weapons and outfits — known as skins — that enable players to make their avatars look like celebrities and fictional characters. To appear as John Wick, a player must spend about $19; the rapper Juice WRLD, who died in 2019, is about $14. When it is not on sale, a bundle of Spider-Man outfits and paraphernalia costs almost $50….

Epic agreed in December 2022 to a $520 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission that sent a strong signal that federal officials were taking a more assertive stance toward regulating the tech industry. Customers could ultimately receive $245 million for what the agency called Epic’s use of “dark patterns” to trick millions of players into unwanted purchases. Another $275 million will settle accusations that the studio violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

… Wills said that his claims form, which he filed in September 2023, asked him how many V-Bucks he had mistakenly spent in the game. “I went through my Fortnite locker and picked out the stuff I had bought on accident,” he said.

Wills said that he continued to play Fortnite after the accusations against Epic emerged, but that he was pleased it was compensating players.

“It’s pretty obvious,” he said, “that there were probably children spending their parents’ debit cards and credit cards on skins in the game because it was so easy to do that.”…

(12) DRY VENUS. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] Venus has probably been dry, both inside and on its surface, for all of its history according to a new research paper…

The planet has no water now, making it inhospitable to life, but is at a distance from the Sun that might allow liquid water to exist on its surface. One theory holds that Venus once had watery oceans, but that these desiccated early in the planet’s history, leaving a dry, uninhabitable world.

To investigate this scenario, Tereza Constantinou at the University of Cambridge, UK, and colleagues used the amounts and proportions of gases such as water and carbon dioxide in Venus’s atmosphere to model the composition of gases that trickle out of the planet’s interior during volcanic eruptions, ultimately replenishing the atmosphere. The results suggest that Venus’s interior contains relatively little hydrogen and therefore little water. The authors also found that the molten rock that erupts from Venus is much drier than the lava from similar eruptions on Earth.

If early Venus had water, it was probably in the form of steam floating above a fiery surface — not life-friendly oceans, the scientists conclude.

Primary research paper: “A dry Venusian interior constrained by atmospheric chemistry” in Nature.

And the astronomers have a half hour discussion about the work here: “Was Ancient Venus Wet or Dry?”

[Thanks to SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Jim Janney, David Goldfarb, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, and Cat Eldridge for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day OGH.]

Pixel Scroll 11/30/24 Dead Pixels Don’t Scroll Plaid

Posted on November 30, 2024 by Mike Glyer

(1) WHEN THE ‘NEW WAVE’ WAS CONTROVERSIAL. Joachim Boaz’ new Simak-related post about the author’s Worldcon 1971 Guest of Honor speech contains a timeless message: “Exploration Log 6: Clifford D. Simak’s 1971 Worldcon Guest of Honor Speech” at Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations.

In an August 1967 editorial in Galaxy titled “S.F. as a Stepping Stone”, Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) voiced his extreme disapproval of the New Wave movement as “‘mainstream’ with just enough of a tang of the not-quite-now and the not-quite-here to qualify it for inclusion in the genre” (4). He concludes: “I hope that when the New Wave has deposited its froth and receded, the vast and solid shore of science fiction will appear once more and continue to serve the good of humanity” (6). The implication is clear: there is a Platonic science fiction form that exists (and that he writes) that must be rediscovered.

Fellow “classic” author Clifford D. Simak (1904-1988) offered a different, and far more inclusive, take at his Guest of Honor speech at Norescon 1 (Worldcon 1971). In an environment of “shrill” disagreement between various New Wave and anti-New Wave camps, Simak celebrated science fiction as a “forum of ideas” open to all voices (148)….

Fanac.org has posted an audio recording of Simak’s speech on YouTube. He begins speaking at the 28:00-minute mark: “Noreascon (1971) Worldcon – Guest of Honor Speeches – Clifford Simak and Harry Warner, Jr.”

(2) BITE ME. At Black Gate, Neil Baker happily tells readers what’s lacking in this bunch of simply jaw-ful movies: “Jumping the Shark, Part I”. First on his list:

Apex Predators (2021) Prime

What kind of shark? Stock footage and a rubber dorsal fin.

How deep is the plot? There is no plot.

Anyone famous get eaten? No

Let me preface this by saying I have a lot of respect for anyone who tries to make a feature film (having tried myself), however, I have not one ounce of respect for Dustin Ferguson, who wrote, directed and edited this utter shit show.

Everything about it is dire, an utter waste of time, and let’s talk about that time. It has a run time of 74 mins. I like a film that keeps its runtime down and packs it full of action and plot. However, this film contains approximately 18 minutes of action and/or ‘plot’. The rest of the time is padded out with stock footage of fish, or shots of characters walking along doing fuck all….

(3) MURDERBOT GIVES CHARITY A BOOST. Martha Wells has pointed readers at the sale of authored Murderbot merch from Worldbuilders, which raises funds for charities like Heifer International, Mercy Corps, First Book etc. Here’s the link: Worldbuilders Market. Wells says, “This is the ONLY licensed Murderbot seller.” The things available include Murderbot pins, a Sanctuary Moon t-shirt, and signed books.

Here’s one of the pins available ($16).

(4) CURSED CHOW? Eater commentator Jaya Saxena, in “We Don’t Have to Do a Harry Potter Baking Show”, contends that “By creating ‘Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking,’ Food Network is condoning its creator’s transphobia. It’s also just plain lazy.”

The Food Network has produced yet another formulaic competition show, but this is not news. This is what the channel has been reduced to at this point — for every Chopped, which still holds its charm, there seem to be dozens of one-off holiday challenges and pumpkin carving competitions to serve as background noise for whoever fell asleep while Netflix was running.

But Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking is different. Premiering last week, the competition features all things Harry Potter. It’s hosted by James and Oliver Phelps, who played the Weasley twins in the films, and features cameos by a host of other secondary characters. It’s shot on the original sets of the films. And competitors are expected to make fantastical creations inspired by the series, for the opportunity to win a Wizards of Baking Cup and appear in a forthcoming Harry Potter cookbook. Carla Hall is there too.

This sucks.

Food Network could have made a generic wizard-themed baking show — no one owns the concept of magic. But being an official Harry Potter property means the show was licensed in some way by its creator, J.K. Rowling, a woman who has so thoroughly dedicated her public persona to promoting transphobia that even Elon Musk is telling her to cool it….

(5) JEOPARDY! [Item by David Goldfarb.] Wednesday’s episode of Jeopardy! had a whole SFF category in the Double Jeopardy round, entitled “The Worlds of TV”. The contestants went through the category in order, top to bottom:

$400: Even though it sounds like the Ewok planet, this show is named for Diego Luna’s character
Challenger Drew Wheeler was able to come up with “What is Andor?”

$800 (accompanied by a picture all filtered in red of a hazy figure among frightening spikes, with a jet of fire in the background): It’s the name of the menacing dimension on Stranger Things
Returning champion Kevin Laskowski replied, “What is the Upside Down?”

$1200: According to Gene Roddenberry, this home planet of a USS Enterprise officer orbits a star called 40 Eridani A
Drew knew it was Vulcan.

$1600: On a SyFy miniseries, James Hook finds a magical orb that takes him, Peter, and the Lost Boys to this one-word title world
Julia Schan guessed “What is Neverland?” and was correct.

$2000: Geralt of Rivia travels across a landmass simply known as The Continent on this show
Kevin got “What is The Witcher?”

(6) BIRD IS THE WORD. George R.R. Martin reports “Dodos Take Pittsburgh” at Not A Blog.

Winners have just been announced for this year’s Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival (November 21-24), and we’re pleased and proud to announce that THE UGLY CHICKENS took home the Jury Award for Best Live Action Short Film.

Mark Raso was in Pittsburgh to represent us, and accept the prize of behalf of our cast and crew and dodo lovers everywhere. Felicia Day starred in the film, while Mark directed. Michael Cassutt wrote the script, adapted from Howard Waldrop’s classic short story, winner of the Nebula and World Fantasy Award in 1980-1981.

Pittsburgh Shorts is one of the premiere short film venues in the country, and the competition is always tough. It is a real honor take home the trophy, and I know Howard would have been thrilled as well.

(7) WHY NOT SAY WHAT HAPPENED? Scott Edelman tells “Why Captain Marvel Caused Me to Reach Out to Robert De Niro” in episode 9 of the Why Not Say What Happened podcast. (Here’s the link to the whole series.)

Mulling over whether 2024 me agrees with what 1984 me thought about 1974 me reminded me getting the gig to write Marvel’s Bullpen Bulletins Page was both the best and worst thing that ever could have happened, why my willingness to burn bridges by writing an Ethics column for The Comics Journal shouldn’t be confused with bravery, which comic book art recently caused me to reach out to Robert De Niro, Stan Lee’s all-caps cover critique, the day Larry Hama verified Tony Isabella was right and I was wrong, and more.

Below is an installment of Scott’s ethics column. (Click for larger images.)

(8) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Anniversary: Nutcracker: The Motion Picture (1986)

Christmas long ago was the memory of a dream that seemed never to end. But somewhere in the middle of that dream, I always did wake up, just in time to attend the Christmas party. — Opening lines as said by the adult Clara in E.T. Hoffman’s The Nutcracker

So let’s talk about a most unusual Nutcracker that had the blessing to get filmed. Nutcracker: The Motion Picture, also known as Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Nutcracker or simply Nutcracker, it was produced thirty-eight years ago by the Pacific Northwest Ballet.

What makes this one worth knowing about? Two words that form an oh-so-wonderful name: Maurice Sendak.

Choreographer Kent Stowell, the artistic director of the Pacific Northwest Ballet, had invited author-illustrator Maurice Sendak to collaborate on a Nutcracker production in 1979 after his wife and another colleague had seen a Sendak design for a performance of Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

(I saw those his creations when they were stored away when I was in Seattle. Quite amazing even just there.)

Sendak initially rejected Stowell’s invitation, later explaining why he did so:

The Nutcrackers I’ve seen have all been dull. You have a simpering little girl, a Christmas party, a tree that gets big. Then you have a variety of people who do dances that seem to go on and on ad nauseam. Technically it’s a mess, too; Acts I and II have practically nothing to do with each other. … What you don’t have is plot. No logic. You have lots of very pretty music, but I don’t enjoy it because I’m a very pedantic, logical person. I want to know why things happen.

He later accepted provided that he could write it so it was in tune with the themes in Hoffmann’s original story. It was extremely popular and it was the annual Christmas show for thirty-one years.

For reasons too complicated to explain here, I got invited on a personal tour of the backstage area of the Pacific Northwest Ballet building where the scenery and other materials that Sendak had designed for this were stored. To say these were magical is an understatement. And just a tad scary up close.

Two Disney executives attended the premiere and suggested it’d make a splendid film. Sendak and the Director of the Ballet resisted at first preferring to just film the ballet. But both finally decided to adapt it to a film. That meant Clara’s dream had to be clarified; large portions of the choreography were changed; some of the original designs underwent revision, and Sendak created additional ones from scratch.

It was shot in ten days on the cheap and critics weren’t particularly kind about the result as they could see the necessary shortcuts taken. Ballard, the Director here as well, responded to criticism about the editing in a later The New York Times interview, noting that the editing was not what he had initially planned, but was because of the tight filming schedule.

(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by JJ.]

Born November 30, 1952 — Jill Eastlake, 72.

By JJ: Jill Eastlake is an IT Manager, Costumer, Conrunner, and Fan who is known for her elaborate and fantastical costume designs; her costume group won “Best in Show” at the 2004 Worldcon.

A member of fandom for more than 50 years, she belonged to her high school’s SF club, then became an early member of NESFA, the Boston-area fan club, and served as its president for 4 years.

She has served on the committees for numerous Worldcons and regional conventions, co-chaired a Costume-Con, and chaired two Boskones.

She was the Hugo Award ceremony coordinator for the 1992 Worldcon, and has run the Masquerade for numerous conventions.

Her extensive contributions were honored when she was named a Fellow of NESFA in 1976, and in 2011 the International Costumer’s Guild presented her with their Lifetime Achievement Award.

She and her fan husband Don (who is irrationally fond of running WSFS Business Meetings) were Fan Guests of Honor at Rivercon.

(9b) TODAY’S OTHER BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Born November 30, 1906 — John Dickson Carr. (Died 1977.)

As you know, we don’t do just sff genre Birthdays here and so it is that we have here one of my favorite mystery writers, John Dickson Carr. Indeed, I’ve listened to The Hollow Man, one of his Gideon Fell mysteries, and it’s quite superb.

He who wrote some of the best British mysteries ever done was not British himself, being American. Oh the horror. He did live there for much of the Thirties and Forties, marrying a British woman.

Dr. Fell, an Englishman, lived in the London suburbs. Carr wrote twenty-seven novels with him as the detective. I’m listening to The Hollow Man because it’s considered one of the best locked room mysteries ever done. Indeed, Dr. Fell’s discourse on locked room mysteries in a chapter has been reprinted as a stand-alone essay in its own right.

All of the Fell novels are wonderful mysteries. The detective himself? Think of a beer-drinking Nero Wolfe who’s a lot more outgoing. Almost all of the novels concern his unraveling of locked room mysteries or what he calls impossible crimes. Of these novels, I’ve read quite a number and they’re all excellent.

Now let’s talk about Sir Henry Merrivale, created by “Carter Dickson”, a pen name of John Dickson Carr. (Not sure why he bothered with such a thinly-veiled pen name though.) Merrivale was like Fell an amateur detective who started who being serious but, and I’m not fond of the later novels for this, became terribly comic in the later novels. Let me note that Carr was really prolific as there were twenty-two novels with him starting in the Thirties over a thirty-year period. One of the finest is The White Priory Murders which was a Wodehousian country weekend with yet another locked room mystery in it.

He also, as did other writers of British mysteries, created a French detective, one by the name of Henri Bencolin, a magistrate in the Paris judicial system. (Though I’ve not mentioned it, all of his mysteries are set in the Twenties onward.) Carr interestingly has an American writer Jeff Marle narrating the stories here and he describes Bencolin as looking and feeling Satanic. His methods are certainly not those of the other two detectives as he’s quite rough when need be to get a case solved.

There are but four short stories and five novels of which I think The Last Gallows is the best.

With Adrian Conan Doyle, the youngest son of Arthur Conan Doyle, Carr wrote some Sherlock Holmes stories that were published in The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes collection. Not in-print but used copies available reasonably from the usual suspects.

He was also chosen by the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1949 to write the biography of the writer. That work, The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is in-print in a trade paper edition.

(10) COMICS SECTION.

Dog Eat Doug finds more than one team on a planet leads to a dramatic problem.
Free Range discovers the relatives of Edvard Munch’s subject.
Rhymes with Orange chooses the wrong brand.

(11) TOP COVERS. GamesRadar+ calls these “The 25 Best Marvel Comics covers ever”.

The best Marvel Comics covers of all time may be a matter of personal taste – but there are all-time classic illustrations which are instantly recognizable, and which evoke a specific time and place in the Marvel Universe.

We’ve pored over decades of covers dating back to the ’30s, and while it’s impossible to include every great and memorable cover in Marvel Comics history, these are the 25 that we feel best represent the Marvel Universe.Our criteria include a cover’s quality, its recognizability, and its influence, including how many other covers and artists have paid homage to it, like with these recent Fantastic Four variant covers that recreate other classic Marvel images….

In first place is –

1. X-Men #1 – Jim Lee and Scott Williams

If there’s one single cover, one magnum opus image that sums up everything Marvel Comics is about, it has to be Jim Lee’s timeless cover for 1991’s X-Men #1, which draws on classic influences going all the way back to Jack Kirby’s Uncanny X-Men #1 cover and pulls them into a thoroughly modern piece of superhero art. This cover not only sums up decades of previous art and storytelling into one evocative drawing, it has become so definitive that it has itself informed decades of covers since – including more recreations and homages than you can shake your adamantium claws at.

(12) TO GET KIDS READING. [Item by Steven French.] Includes a number of genre related recommendations such as Steve Jackson’s House of Hell! Advice from the Guardian: “’Relax your rules, let them pick what they want’: 10 page-turners to get kids reading”.

The news from the National Literacy Trust this month was bleak. Their annual report revealed that just one in three eight- to 18-year-olds enjoy reading in their free time – the lowest level in almost two decades of research. Boys and young people in secondary school in particular are turning away from books, with steep declines in reading recorded for both groups….

…So, how do we get children back to books and turning those pages again? We have to give them ways to discover the joy of reading in ways that matter to them. Let your children read what they want – within reason, without pressure. Please don’t tell them you were reading weighty tomes at their age, it’s not helping. Resist that urge, relax your rules, let them read….

(13) BEWARE OF NUCLEAR WASTE. It’s going to be around for a long time. One group wants to learn “HOW TO SEND A MESSAGE 10,000 YEARS INTO THE FUTURE” that will warn people long after our languages and cultures have expired.

This is The Ray Cat Solution:

1. Engineer cats that change colour in response to radiation.

2. Create the culture/legend/history that if your cat changes colour, you should move some place else.

At the link view The Ray Cat Solution video (2015) on Vimeo.

And, of course, buy the merch for everyone you know. For example, one of these t-shirts.

Fascinated by the problem of designing warnings for people 10,000 years in the future, New Hampshire Institute of Art’s Type 1 class has joined forces with Bricobio and The Raycat Solution to help insert Raycats into the cultural vocabulary. While Bricobio works towards genetically altering cats so they change color when in the presence of radioactive material, the NHIA Type 1 class is working to insert the idea that if a cat changes color, that space might be dangerous to others.

(14) GAMING BUSINESS. [Item by Steven French.] From this week’s gaming newsletter in the Guardian:“How Sony could reclaim handheld gaming from Nintendo and the smartphone”.

A report from Bloomberg this week suggests that Sony is working on a new portable PlayStation device. As someone who still has a PlayStation Vita languishing in my desk drawer because I can’t quite bear to put it in the attic, this is an exciting prospect. It has been almost 13 years since Sony released the Vita, its last portable console, and it’s such a wonder of a thing, with its big crisp screen and dinky little sticks. I wish more people had made games for it – paper-craft adventure Tearaway and topsy-turvy platform-puzzler Gravity Rush remain underrated.

Actually, apart from the lovely and extremely niche Playdate, nobody has bothered to release a dedicated handheld games console in over a decade. Both the Nintendo Switch and Valve’s Steam Deck are hybrids that can be played handheld and connected to a big screen.

There’s a reason for this: firstly, smartphones have snapped up almost the entire market for portable games, offering endless free or cheap games on a device that everybody already has. And secondly: having handheld and home consoles on the market once would split development resources. Only Nintendo was successful enough at selling handhelds to weather several generations of splitting its talent between creating games for the DS and the Wii, or the 3DS and Wii U, which has led to the Switch being a contender for the cleverest business decision of its history.

(15) STEP BACK IN TIME. Gizmodo reports “Remarkable Fossil Footprints Show Two Hominin Species Coexisting 1.5 Million Years Ago”. See a photo of the fossilized marks at the link.

Approximately 1.5 million years ago, two human relatives belonging to two distinct species made their way along the shore of an ancient lake. Researchers know this because the hominins’ footprints fossilized in the mud, alongside the prints of giant birds that occupied the paleoenvironment….

…The footprints were made by Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei, long-extinct species that shared eastern Africa in the ancient past. Together, the footprints are a remarkable window into the lives of our nearest relatives and ancestors. The prints show how hominins overlapped as they eked out existence in ancient Africa; according to the research team, if the hominins who made the prints didn’t overlap at the site, they crossed it within hours of one another. The team’s research was published today in Science….

(16) A BOOST FOR THE HOLIDAYS. NASA has created the “Rocket Engine Fireplace” to give you warm holiday thoughts – for eight hours!

Just what you need for the holidays… the coziness of a crackling and roaring rocket engine! Technically, this fireplace packs the heat of the SLS rocket’s four RS-25 engines and a pair of solid rocket boosters – just enough to get you to the Moon! (And get through the holidays with your in-laws.) This glowing mood-setter is brought to you by the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket that launched Artemis I on its mission around the Moon and back on Nov. 16, 2022. 8.8 million pounds of total thrust – and a couple glasses of eggnog – might just be enough to make your holidays merry.

[Thanks to Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Lise Andreasen, David Goldfarb, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, and Teddy Harvia for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jim Janney.]

Pixel Scroll 10/16/24 Under The Ticketied Pixel Scroll, The Verbose Filer Posts

Posted on October 16, 2024 by Mike Glyer

(1) LITERATURE FOR $800. Nnedi Okorafor was pleased to be namechecked on Jeopardy!

I was mentioned on Jeopardy! yesterday, ????. He pronounced my name perfectly AND the contestant knew the answer. So cool!! ????????????And yay for the huge shoutout to BINTI! #Africanfuturism represented. pic.twitter.com/q8HuerCylH
— Nnedi Okorafor, PhD????? (@Nnedi) October 16, 2024

(2) DON’T GET IN AN UPROAR. “The BBC Didn’t Censor Ncuti Gatwa Over ‘Doctor Who’ Being Renewed, But Says His Comment About Season 3 Was Wide Of The Mark” according to Deadline.

When Ncuti Gatwa recorded The Graham Norton Show last Thursday, he delivered what appeared to be good news for Doctor Who fans: his third season as the Time Lord would shoot next year.

Gatwa’s comments were briefed to the press by The Graham Norton Show‘s publicity team on Friday morning, but his quote mysteriously changed when the chat show broadcast on BBC1 later that evening.

Speaking to Norton on the famous red sofa, Gatwa originally revealed: “We did the second series this year, the Christmas special is coming up, and we are filming a third series next year.”

But when the show aired, this was edited to: “We finished the second season earlier this year, we’ve got the Christmas episode coming out … at Christmas … But it’s been amazing.”

The Graham Norton Show warns journalists that it is not unusual for certain quotes fail to make the final cut, but the switch led some Whovians to question whether Gatwa’s remarks had been censored by the BBC amid uncertainty over Doctor Who’s future.

The truth is rather more mundane. Deadline understands that The Graham Norton Show made the edit to liven up Gatwa’s answer and was not obeying a “sinister” request from BBC bosses.

Indeed, the Doctor Who team was not involved in brokering the interview, given the Sex Education star was promoting his appearance in The Importance of Being Earnest at the National Theatre.

The BBC has, however, distanced itself from Gatwa’s remarks, restating that Doctor Who will not be renewed until the actor’s second season has premiered next year on BBC1 and Disney+.

“As we’ve said previously, the decision on season three will be made after season two transmits and as always we don’t comment on speculation,” a spokesperson said. Season 2 will likely launch next spring….

(3) YES, GLASGOW DID IT RIGHT. When Jo Van Ekeren accepted File 770’s Hugo in 2018 she included my announcement that both the fanzine and I were permanently withdrawing from Hugo consideration. Awareness of this may have been dulled by the passage of time because sometimes the blog still receives nominating votes – 14 this year. Someone who thinks of me as “Brother Glyer” asked Glasgow’s Hugo Administrator Nicholas Whyte why he didn’t discard those votes at the start of the EPH process rather than continuing to count them til eliminated. Whyte’s handling of the situation was correct as he explains in “Hugo question, answered” at From the Heart of Europe.

(4) RAMPING UP TO WATCHMEN. Inverse remembers: “39 Years Ago, an Iconic Duo Made a Shockingly Dark Superman Story — And Changed Superheroes Forever”.

…But before Gibbons and Moore could deconstruct the entire superhero genre with Watchmen and change comics forever, they had to take on the most iconic superhero of them all.

Released in 1985, “For the Man Who Has Everything,” is a Superman story unlike anything that came before (or after). The comic traps its hero in an alternate universe where his home planet of Krypton was never destroyed and he never left for Earth. Instead, Kal-El (aka Superman) lives a simple, fulfilling life with his wife and children, but what should feel like a utopia quickly gives way to social upheaval and violence. Moore and Gibbons imagine a version of Krypton that reflects the worst of our own society: crime, drugs, riots, xenophobia, police brutality, and a Ku Klux Klan-esque rally all quickly overwhelm Superman’s vision of a perfect life.

In just 40 pages — while also fitting in a B-plot where Wonder Woman, Batman, and Robin fight an evil alien — “For the Man Who Has Everything” tells a powerful allegorical story that still resonates.

“It was showing the effect of fascist thinking,” Gibbons says.

“For the Man Who Has Everything” paved the way for the sort of social and political commentary we now take for granted in mainstream superhero stories. Without this one comic (and the deluge of instant classics that followed a year later) today’s superheroes would be a lot less interesting. But to understand how this shift was even possible, we have to go back to a time when a generation that grew up on comic books finally got a chance to make some of their own….

(5) FROM AI TO DC (DISTRICT COURT). [Item by Chris Barkley.] Shades of Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine anyone? “Parents Sue School That Gave Bad Grade to Student Who Used AI to Complete Assignment” at Gizmodo.

An old and powerful force has entered the fraught debate over generative AI in schools: litigious parents angry that their child may not be accepted into a prestigious university.

In what appears to be the first case of its kind, at least in Massachusetts, a couple has sued their local school district after it disciplined their son for using generative AI tools on a history project. Dale and Jennifer Harris allege that the Hingham High School student handbook did not explicitly prohibit the use of AI to complete assignments and that the punishment visited upon their son for using an AI tool—he received Saturday detention and a grade of 65 out of 100 on the assignment—has harmed his chances of getting into Stanford University and other elite schools.

“The defendants continued on a pervasive, destructive and merciless path of threats, intimidation and coercion to impact and derail [our son’s] future and his exemplary record,” the Harris family alleges in its lawsuit, which was initially filed in state superior court before being removed to a federal district court.

Hingham Public Schools, however, claims that its student handbook prohibited the use of “unauthorized technology” and “unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own work.”

The district said in a recent motion to dismiss that the discipline administered to the Harris’ son was “relatively lenient” and that a ruling to the contrary would “invite dissatisfied parents and students to challenge day-to-day discipline, even grading of students, in state and federal courts.”…

(6) HORROR AUTHORS RALLY. “Scare Up the Vote: a Horror Community event for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz” was held on October 15 and can be viewed on YouTube. (Via Todd Mason.)

Scare Up the Vote [was] a grass roots event by the horror community to raise funds and awareness to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. This live online event included appearances from Stephen King, Joe Hill, Mike Flanagan, Tananarive Due, Stephen Graham Jones, Cynthia Pelayo, Paul Tremblay, Gabino Iglesias, Victor LaValle, Alma Katsu, Bryan Fuller (Hannibal), Scott Derrickson (The Black Phone), Don Mancini (creator of Chucky), Akela Cooper (M3GAN), and many more!

(7) ROLE PLAYING FICTION. “LitRPG Goes Mainstream” – Publishers Weekly explains what that means.

The term litRPG, which stands for literary role-playing game, has been around for more than a decade, but even avid genre fiction readers may be unfamiliar with it or have trouble defining it.

“A lot of people think it’s interactive or choose-your-own-adventure style books, and that’s absolutely not it,” says Matt Dinniman, author of the popular Dungeon Crawler Carl series. In litRPG, he explains, “The characters are aware of some aspect of the world being gamified.” Moreover, as he wrote in a recent Writer’s Digest article, “game-like elements, such as player stats, are an essential part of the story.”

Dungeon Crawler Carl, like most litRPG series, was originally self-published. Ace picked up print rights to books one through six—it’s the imprint’s first litRPG acquisition—and a TV adaptation from Universal and Seth MacFarlane is in the works. As the litRPG world begins to attract more mainstream attention, PW spoke with Dinniman and other authors and editors about the format’s appeal.

On the website of Level Up, the imprint that U.K. publisher Ockham Books launched in 2019 as a home for litRPG and its cousin, game lit (think: books like Ready Player One), Conor Kostick, who heads up the imprint, explains litRPG’s origins. EKSMO, Russia’s largest publishing house, coined the term in 2013 while developing a series of books inspired by MMORPGs, or massively multiplayer online role-playing games. In English, RPG lit would make more sense, but the name litRPG stuck.

LitRPG titles, he writes, share “an explicit attention to the game mechanics of their respective worlds. Seeing the workings of the game—the amount of damage done, the experience gained, the choices after leveling up—all proves very entertaining. What is LitRPG? Well, it’s often the reading equivalent of watching someone playing a game on Twitch or Youtube.”…

(8) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Anniversary: The Twilight Zone’s “Mr. Denton On Doomsday” (October 16th, 1959)

Portrait of a town drunk named Al Denton. This is a man who’s begun his dying early—a long, agonizing route through a maze of bottles. Al Denton, who would probably give an arm or a leg or a part of his soul to have another chance, to be able to rise up and shake the dirt from his body and the bad dreams that infest his consciousness. In the parlance of the times, this is a peddler, a rather fanciful-looking little man in a black frock coat. And this is the third principal character of our story. Its function: perhaps to give Mr. Al Denton his second chance. — Opening narration

Rod Serling was, if I must say so, bloody brilliant. And “Mr. Denton On Doomsday”, just the third episode of the series, shows this. (If you’ve not seen it of late, the series it is airing on Paramount +.) A Western, it’s also really look at how a man, two in fact can be redeemed.

SPOILERS LIKE WHISKEY IN A FICTIONAL WESTERN BAR FLOW NOW, SO GO AWAY!

Denton, our lead here played by Dan Duryea, was once known as the quickest draw in town, but riddled with increasing guilt over the dead in his gun fights, one just a teenager, he became drunk and the derision of everyone in this Western town.

(There’s an animated Jonah Hex where this very storyline comes up. It’s called DC Showcase: Jonah Hex and Jonah, when the way-too-young male draws on him, hits with his rifle and knocks him quite unconscious. Right now, I think the only place you can see that is now called the MAX streaming service.)

A stranger offers him redemption. But he knows gunslingers come from miles around to seek him out and, inevitably, kill him. Or so he fervently hopes. The stranger named Fate (HA!) offers him and another gunfighter each a bottle of the potion.

They fight, do not kill each other, but wound their shooting hand, thus ending their days as gunslingers.

Fate tips his hat to Denton and rides quietly out of town.

DRINK THAT ROT GUT WHISKEY NOW, I’M DONE WITH SPOILERS. REALLY, I AM.

Martin Landau who played Dan Hotaling (the younger gunslinger) here would return to play Major Ivan Kuchenko in “The Jeopardy Room”. He would also appear in two more Twilight Zone episodes, “The Beacon” and “One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty”.

The harmonica music you hear in the background is an old Cossack folksong known as “Stenka Razin”. It’s often labeled as a Russian one but given that’s the name of a Cossack military leader who led a major rebellion against the Russian Empire, I think not.

(9) COMICS SECTION.

Loose Parts shows the fix is in.
Wizard of Id and early product placement.

(10) FUN WITH YOUR OLD HEAD. The Los Angeles County Natural History Museum is sharing “Lon Chaney’s Hidden Makeup Secret”. Photos at the link.

Lon Chaney, Sr. was an actor during the silent film era. Renowned for his application of makeup and versatility in film, Chaney became known as “A Man of a Thousand Faces.” Furthermore, there is an object that is frequently overlooked, yet integral to Lon Chaney’s makeup technique. Chaney’s hidden makeup secret was a spine-chilling wax head cast from life.

The wax head was donated by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and is made from two different wax materials. One was commonly used to make movie props during the time period and the other is composed of the ingredients similar to Crayola crayons. Chaney used the wax head to practice his application of facial sideburns and hairlines and cotton and collodion build-ups to create a fuller look on his cheeks….

(11) THE MONKEY. “Longlegs Director’s New Stephen King Movie Gets First Trailer” and CBR has a summary.

A new Stephen King adaptation is coming to theaters early next year. Neon has released the first teaser trailer for The Monkey, the latest movie from Longlegs writer/director Osgood Perkins.

“For the longest time, there was nothing. But then it appeared. A beast not from this earth. Smiting the ones who deserved it, the ones who didn’t, and everyone in between. Whoever controls it, controls life and death. And those deaths are really fucked up,” the trailer’s narration states, as close-up shots of the vintage toy monkey are shown, spliced between shots of various gruesome accidents….

(12) FUNGAL ALIENS. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] Last weekend over at Isaac Arthur it was Sci-Fi Sunday. This month he took a look at fungal aliens. Remember, this is a Sci-Fi Sunday video, so biologists should not expect much rigour: no mention of Unikonts (which youngsters these days like to call Amorphea). Unikonts, during the so-called boring billion (roughly between one to two billion years ago), gave rise to animals and fungi, whereas Bikonts led to plants: yes, you are closer related to fungi than you are plants. Also, you can see that the ‘boring billion’ wasn’t really that boring… Anyway, leaving biology behind, Isaac goes into SFnal speculative mode to look at the concept of fungi like alien life…

Fungi and protists are ancient and diverse—so could alien fungi be more common across the galaxy? Join us as we explore the possibility of fungal life spreading through space via spores.?

[Thanks to Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Todd Mason, Joshua J. Friedman, Dan Bloch, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, and Teddy Harvia for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Bill.]

Pixel Scroll 7/24/24 Be Careful Of The Tale You Scroll, Pixels Will Listen

Posted on July 24, 2024 by Mike Glyer

(1) SURVIVING THE TIMES. N.K. Jemisin tells Esquire readers “We Need Speculative Fiction Now More Than Ever” in this commentary excerpted from her introduction to Authority, by Jeff VanderMeer.

…Enter the Southern Reach books. At the time I first read Annihilation—during the run-up to the 2016 election—it was a welcome breath of fungal, fetid air. Other fiction of the time seemed determined to suggest there was no need for alarm, things couldn’t be so bad, anything broken could be fixed. Could it, though? As I watched my country embrace a stupid, incompetent, and blatantly criminal fascist while insisting that his spiteful, privileged sycophants somehow had a point…well. When you’re already queasy, sweet smells make the feeling worse.

It helped to read instead about the smells—and sights, and horrors, and haunting beauty—of Area X. It helped me to imagine that creeping, transformative infection, warping body and mind and environment and institution, because that was the world I was living in. It helped to meet the twelfth expedition’s nameless women, who were simultaneously individuals with selfish motivations and archetypes trapped in their roles: the biologist, driven by the loss of her mate and the need to integrate into a new ecosystem; the psychologist, a human-subjects ethics violation in human(?) flesh. We are dropped into danger with these women, immediately forced to confront an existential threat with courage and perseverance…and this, this, was what I needed from my fiction. The second book, Authority, was even more of what I needed. As we watched Control slowly realize he’s never been in control, and that things were a lot worse than his complacency allowed him to see, it just resonated so powerfully. His over-reliance on procedure and the assumed wisdom of his predecessor, his dogged refusal to see the undying plant in his office as a sign of something wrong… There was nothing of 2014’s politics overtly visible in the book, yet they were all over it, like mold….

(2) ALEX TREBEK FOREVER. “Late ‘Jeopardy!’ host Alex Trebek memorialized on new stamp”. The USPS issued the stamp on July 22. Good Morning America has the story.

The U.S. Postal Service is honoring late “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek with a new forever stamp and celebrated the pop culture icon in a dedication ceremony Monday.

The new stamps will be available in a set of 20 designed to resemble a “Jeopardy!” game board with its eye-catching, signature blue video screens. Each stamp features a clue, prompting collectors and letter-senders with the query, “This naturalized U.S. citizen hosted the quiz show ‘Jeopardy!’ for 37 seasons.” Its answer, “Who is Alex Trebek?” also appears underneath the clue in upside-down print….

(3) THE ATOMIC WAY. [Item by Jim Janney.] Ars Technica has a long article on the new NASA/DARPA combined research project for nuclear powered space ships, and includes a history of previous efforts starting in the 1950s. “We’re building nuclear spaceships again—this time for real”.

One of the plot points of Miss Pickerell Goes To Mars is that the crew member responsible for navigating the ship, and doing the essential calculations, gets left behind. They muddle through anyway, with the help of some sensible advice from Miss Pickerell and because, as one of the crew cheerfully says, “Don’t have to worry about that. Using atomic fuel.” Reading that in 2024 caused me to roll my eyes a little (and the question of reaction mass is never discussed), but it’s more plausible than I realized.

Phoebus 2A, the most powerful space nuclear reactor ever made, was fired up at Nevada Test Site on June 26, 1968. The test lasted 750 seconds and confirmed it could carry first humans to Mars. But Phoebus 2A did not take anyone to Mars. It was too large, it cost too much, and it didn’t mesh with Nixon’s idea that we had no business going anywhere further than low-Earth orbit.

But it wasn’t NASA that first called for rockets with nuclear engines. It was the military that wanted to use them for intercontinental ballistic missiles. And now, the military wants them again….

…DARPA’s website says it has always held to a singular mission of making investments in breakthrough technologies for national security. What does a nuclear-powered spaceship have to do with national security? The military’s perspective was hinted at by General James Dickinson, a US Space Command officer, in his testimony before Congress in April 2021.

He said that “Beijing is seeking space superiority through space attack systems” and mentioned intelligence gathered on the Shijian-17, a Chinese satellite fitted with a robotic arm that could be used for “grappling other satellites.” That may sound like a ridiculous stretch, but it was enough get a go-ahead for a nuclear spaceship.

And the apparent concern regarding hypothetical threats has continued. The purpose of the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) project, stated in its environmental assessment, was to “provide space-based assets to deter strategic attacks by adversaries.” Dickinson’s worries about China were quoted in there as well.

“Let’s say you have a time-critical mission where you need to quickly go from A to B in cislunar space or you need to keep an eye on another country that is doing something near or around the Moon, and you need to move in very fast. With a platform like DRACO, you can do that,” said DARPA’s Dodson….

(4) OFFENSIVE CHOICE? [Item by Ersatz Culture.] The Bookseller’s article “Hugo awards disqualifies hundreds of ‘fake votes’ cast for finalist” is essentially a rerun of Glasgow 2024’s press release, but the image they used to represent the Hugos may raise some eyebrows —

(5) HISTORIC BLOCH PHOTOS. The Robert Bloch Official Website has announced a big update: an entirely new, second gallery page. All photos supplied courtesy of Robert Unik, Elly Bloch’s great nephew. “Gallery 2”.

(6) FOR THE COAL BITERS AMONG US. [Item by Danny Sichel.] When he was in graduate school, earning his doctorate in Scandinavian Studies, Jackson Crawford took the time to compile a work called “Tattúínárdǿla saga”: Star Wars as an Icelandic saga. True, this was in 2010, but if you haven’t seen it, then it might as well be new.

…Tattúínárdǿla saga tells of the youth of Anakinn himingangari, beginning with his childhood as a slave in Tattúínárdalr, notably lacking the prolonged racing scene of the MHG version, and referring to the character of “Jarjari inn heimski” only as a local fool slain by Anakinn in a childhood berserker rage (whereas in the MHG version, “Jarjare” is one of “Anacen’s” marshals and his constant companion; Cochrane 2010 suggests that this may be because the MHG text is Frankish in origin, and “Jarjare” was identified with a Frankish culture hero with a similar name). After this killing, for which Anakinn’s owner (and implied father) refuses to pay compensation, Anakinn’s mother, an enslaved Irish princess, foresees a great future for Anakinn as a “jeði” (the exact provenance of this word is unknown but perhaps represents an intentionally humorous Irish mispronunciation of “goði”). This compels Anakinn to recite his first verse…

[Translation] “My mother said/ That they should buy me/ A warship and fair oars,/ That I should go abroad with Jedis,/ Stand up in the ship’s stern,/ Steer a magnificent X-Wing,/ Hold my course till the harbor,/ Kill one man after another.”

The etymology of “xwingi” (nom. *xwingr?) is unknown; numerous editors have proposed emendations, but none is considered particularly plausible. It is likely to be another humorous Irish mispronunciation of a Norse word….

(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

July 24, 1895 – Robert Graves. (Died 1985).

By Paul Weimer: Graves for me has always sat at the intersection of myth, mythology and ancient (secret) history. I first came across his work, although I didn’t know that he was the ultimate author of it, when I watched the BBC adaptation of his novel I, Claudius, which purports to tell the “True” story of Claudius and his ancestors from the perspective of the titular character. It gave me a somewhat distorted opinion, as well as a great appreciation, of the strangeness and wild nature of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and helped cement my interest in Ancient Rome for good. It would be a decade before I read the actual novel It took me years, after reading the book, to come to a better and more balanced opinion of Livia than what Graves inadvertently taught me. In similar fashion, his Count Belisarius gave me a skewed but interesting perspective on the titular Byzantine General. This novel once again (a bad theme in his work) gave me a skewed opinion and view of Belisarius’ wife Antonia. It’s well written (just like I, Claudius and Claudius the God) but is it good history? No, no it is absolutely not. The novels (all of them) should be taken with a huge heaping of salt.

Where Graves hits science fiction circles more directly is The White Goddess and his interest in Celtic spiritualism, myth and mythology. It’s most certainly a response and extension of Frazer’s The Golden Bough. By the time I came across The White Goddess (when I was studying all sorts of myth and mythology), I had had enough grounding in Graves and his work to be able to read it critically. Is it history? Is it at all accurate and represents real belief systems and systems of thought?

No.

Instead, The White Goddess, I felt, is an individualistic and idiosyncratic, and poetic and mythopoetic point of view on this Celtic flavored belief and spirituality. It has no actual value in exploring the real belief systems of the past, it’s not quite a fantasy so much as a demonstration of how one can construct and use belief systems. In that sense, it functions to show how one could go about worldbuilding a belief system for a secondary world fantasy setting based on iconography and interpretation and imagery. In that sense, as a tool for thinking about spirituality and how it might be created, The White Goddess is far more successful, and is on far firmer ground, than an actual depiction of ancient beliefs in any way whatsoever. I think the strong poetic writing of Graves, the keenness of word choice and imagery, here and elsewhere, gives his work a power that still resonates.

(8) COMICS SECTION.

Eek! reminds us that Star Wars is no Field of Dreams.
Speed Bump has a job applicant with a preference.
The Argyle Sweater lists more unwanted TV shows.
Bizarro introduces a post-graduate action figure.
Pat Bagley’s political cartoon compares the Harris campaign launch to an iconic genre moment.

(9) MARS IN POPULAR CULTURE ONE-DAY SPECIAL. [Item by David Goldfarb.] LearnedLeague is at it again, with a One-Day Special quiz about “Mars in Popular Culture”. You can find the questions by following this link. As you might expect from the subject, it has a great deal of SFF content. I got 9 of the 12 questions right, and somewhat unusually for me, managed to pick the five questions that would play the toughest and so got the best possible score given those 9.

(10) KEEP THOSE DOGIES ROLLING. [Item by Daniel Dern.] (With a tip of the hat to the Firesign Theatre), “And there’s hot dogs [or perhaps, for scansion, “frankfurters”] all over the highway!” “Oscar Mayer Wienermobile rolls in crash on Chicago-area highway” at AP News.

An Oscar Mayer Wienermobile got into a pickle on a Chicago highway.

The hot-dog shaped Wienermobile hit a car Monday morning along Interstate 294 and its driver lost control and overcorrected, causing it to roll onto its side near the Chicago suburb of Oak Brook, Illinois State Police said.

No injuries were reported after the crash, which prompted the closure of the right lane of northbound I-294 for more than an hour, officials said.

(11) DOPEST SHARKS IN THE WORLD. “Sharks test positive for cocaine near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil” says NPR.

Scientists in Brazil have come up with the first evidence that sharks are being exposed to cocaine.

Rachel Ann Hauser Davis, a biologist who worked on the study at Brazil’s Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, told NPR that they dissected 13 wild sharpnose sharks caught near Rio de Janeiro. All tested positive for cocaine in their muscles and livers.

“The key findings of the study are the presence of cocaine in sharks,” Hauser Davis says. “The actual high levels of cocaine detected in muscle is indicative of chronic exposure.”

Narcotraffickers being chased in the high seas often toss bales of cocaine overboard. But Hauser Davis says it’s more likely the sharks in the study were exposed to Rio de Janeiro wastewater contaminated with the drug.

“Probably the main source would be human use of cocaine and metabolization and urine and feces discharge, and the second source would be from illegal refining labs,” she says….

(12) WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE. [Item by Steven French.] “Inventors on hunt for way to make clean water on moon” says the Guardian. One of the ‘contestants’ is the British Interplanetary Society whose former Chair was of course the inimitable Arthur C!

Inventors hope to crack how to create a reliable clean water supply on the moon – and it may involve a microwave oven from Tesco.

The goal to set up a crewed lunar base was launched many moons ago but has yet to come to fruition. With reliance on water supplies from Earth risky and expensive, one of the many challenges is how to extract and purify water from ice lying in craters at the lunar south pole.

Such a supply would not only provide a resource for drinking and growing crops, but the water could also be split into hydrogen, for use as rocket fuel, and oxygen for residents to breathe.

Now the UK Space Agency has announced that it is awarding £30,000 in seed funding, with expert support, to each of 10 UK teams who are vying to solve the problem….

(13) ABOUT THAT DEBRIS. “NASA Sponsors New Research on Orbital Debris, Lunar Sustainability” – a NASA announcement.

As part of NASA’s commitment to foster responsible exploration of the universe for the benefit of humanity, the Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy (OTPS) is funding space sustainability research proposals from five university-based teams to analyze critical economic, social, and policy issues related to Earth’s orbit and cislunar space.

The new research awards reflect the agency’s commitment identified in NASA’s Space Sustainability Strategy to ensure safe, peaceful, and responsible space exploration for future generations, and encourage sustainable behaviors in cislunar space and on the lunar surface by ensuring that current operations do not impact those yet to come.

Three of the five awards will fund research that addresses the growing problem of orbital debris, human-made objects in Earth’s orbit that no longer serve a purpose. This debris can endanger spacecraft, jeopardize access to space, and impede the development of a low-Earth orbit economy.

The remaining two awards focus on lunar surface sustainability and will address key policy questions such as the protection of valuable locations and human heritage sites as well as other technical, economic, or cultural considerations that may factor into mission planning. ….

A panel of NASA experts selected the following proposals, awarding a total of about $550,000 to fund them:

Lunar surface sustainability

“A RAD Framework for the Moon: Applying Resist-Accept-Direct Decision-Making,” submitted by Dr. Caitlin Ahrens of the University of Maryland, College Park
“Synthesizing Frameworks of Sustainability for Futures on the Moon,” submitted by research scientist Afreen Siddiqi of Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Orbital Debris and Space Sustainability

“Integrated Economic-Debris Modeling of Active Debris Removal to Inform Space Sustainability and Policy,” submitted by researcher Mark Moretto of the University of Colorado, Boulder
“Avoiding the Kessler Syndrome Through Policy Intervention,” submitted by aeronautics and astronautics researcher Richard Linares of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“Analysis of Cislunar Space Environment Scenarios, Enabling Deterrence and Incentive-Based Policy,” submitted by mechanical and aerospace engineering researcher Ryne Beeson of Princeton University

[Thanks to Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Jim Janney, Ersatz Culture, Rich Lynch, Danny SIchel, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, and Steven French for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Thomas the Red.]

Pixel Scroll 5/23/24 Shhhh. The Pixels Are Sleeping, Let’s Not Disturb Them

Posted on May 23, 2024 by Mike Glyer

(1) ELLEN KLAGES ON JEOPARDY! [Item by Steven H Silver and David Goldfarb.] One of the contestants on Wednesday’s episode was World Fantasy Award-winning, Hugo- and Nebula-shortlisted author Ellen Klages. Ellen came in third. She was against a couple of guys who had strong buzzer abilities. The game recap can be found on J! Archive. At the break, she began the story of the scary ham story that she told at the Nebula Award Ceremony in San Jose in 2014.

David Goldfarb took notes on the episode’s sff references.

In the Double Jeopardy round, there was some SFF content in the clues.

Books From the Last Few Years, $1200: There are an infinite number of books in “The Midnight” this, a 2020 bestseller by Matt Haig

Amar Kakirde knew it was a library.

Books From the Last Few Years, $1600: This 2021 Andy Weir book about a plucky astronaut sounds like it may be a long shot

A triple stumper. (This was “Project Hail Mary”.)

Books From the Last Few Years, $800: Author Curtis Sittenfeld wonders what would’ve happened in Hillary never married Bill in the novel titled with this maiden name.

Returning champion Chris D’Amico knew Hillary’s maiden name: “What is ‘Rodham’?”

Not SF but amusing to note:

Already in the Form of a Question, $1600. A Daily Double, with $6000 on the line: In a relatively famous play, this 4-word question precedes “Deny thy father & refuse thy name”

Chris didn’t know it: he tried, “What is, ‘How now, brown cow?’”

(It was actually “Wherefore art thou Romeo?”)

(2) DANGER IN THE REAR VIEW MIRROR. At A Deep Look by Dave Hook the author is “Revisiting ‘Dangerous Visions’”. He still finds 19 of the 33 stories in the volume are “great” or “superlative”.

… With all of the circus and controversy over whether Dangerous Visions was ever as good or as important as its reputation, or whether it was overrated, or whether the Suck Fairy had visited, I approached the reread with interest, hope and no small amount of trepidation….

… I am very glad I reread Dangerous Visions, although my reactions are mixed….

Hook shares ratings and comments about the 19 stories he feels are still remarkable.

It’s worth remembering that four stories in the anthology became finalists for the Hugo and/or Nebula, and of those, three won at least one of the awards:

“Riders of the Purple Wage” by Philip José Farmer (tied for Hugo Award Best Novella, and a Nebula finalist)
“Gonna Roll the Bones” by Fritz Leiber (won the Hugo and Nebula Award for Novelette)
“Aye, and Gomorrah…” by Samuel R. Delany (Hugo Best Short Story finalist, and Nebula Award Short Story winner)
“The Jigsaw Man” by Larry Niven (Hugo Best Short Story finalist)
“If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister?” by Theodore Sturgeon (Nebula Award Novella finalist)

However, Hook points out a definite shortcoming in the anthology:

…I also observe that only three out of 33 stories (9%) were by women. I don’t know how this came to be, but it is unfortunate. It may be that Ellison heard criticism on this point for Dangerous Visions. Looking at Ellison’s 1972 anthology Again, Dangerous Visions, there is a modest improvement, with nine out of 55 stories (16%) that feature women writers….

(3) WEN-YI LEE Q&A. With “Asian Heritage in Horror Month: An Interview with Wen-yi Lee” the Horror Writers Association blog continues its thematic series.

What draws you to the horror genre?

Well, I kind of like twisted things, as a baseline. As a writer, I like that horror as a genre lets you take an abstract fear and make it tangible, and confront and take apart all its angles. I also like the big, raw feelings; I like the transportive strangeness and the sense of confrontation and catharsis. Horror and romance are Barbenheimer genre sisters, really; they’re both rooted in these big vulnerable core feelings. I love romance in my horror, or horror in my romance.

Do you include Asian and/or Pacific Islander characters and themes in your writing with purpose, and if so, what do you want to portray?

I do! The protagonist in my debut novel is Chinese American, but more often than not I write from my being Southeast Asian Chinese–specifically Singaporean–which is very different from the Asian American identity but shares enough here and there that I do resonate with Asian American work. In The Dark We Know there are elements of being unrooted compared to the white families in town that can trace their lines back generations on the land, and familial language barriers and cultural isolation are factors in the main character’s loneliness. Other times, I’m not trying to write something “cultural” and “meaningful”, but just tell a good story that happens to be rooted in a particular ethnic/cultural environment, with characters that look and sound familiar instead of the blonde/blue-eyed girls that my main characters used to be. I’m still working on putting out a true love letter to Southeast Asia’s shared iconic female ghosts…

(4) MESS CALL AT REDWALL. James Folta confesses to Literary Hub readers, “I think about the food in the Redwall books way too often.”

…Before we go any further with Redwall, an important clarification: the characters are animal-sized and their world is scaled down. Some poor, misguided folks will tell you that these books are filled with human-sized animals, but the issue has been settled by scientific polling. We’re talking about a world of whimsy here, not a freak show where some rodents fell into the Toxic Avenger ooze. And yes, I know Jacques said in a Q&A that, “the creatures in my stories are as big or small as your imagination wants them to be.” We can all agree that this is a polite smokescreen for younger readers. But we’re all adults here—the characters are small.

What seems to be most enduring about Jacques’ books for me and other readers, though, are his descriptions of food and drink. If you’ve read the books, you know what I’m talking about—no one ever just eats food in Redwall. The descriptions of food unfurl in long lists, cataloged here in impressive detail. The mice food has inspired memes, a Twitter bot, a drinking game, and a cookbook.

Jacques is sumptuous, even gratuitous in his descriptions of food and drink. In the first book, Jacques writes of “tender freshwater shrimp garnished with cream and rose leaves, devilled barley pearls in acorn puree, apple and carrot chews, marinated cabbage stalks steeped in creamed white turnip with nutmeg.” The Bellmaker has dishes of “turnovers, trifles, breads, fondants, salads, pasties, and cheeses alternated with beakers of greensap milk, mint tea, rosehip cup and elderberry wine.” Even a simple breakfast at the cave of a mouse named Bobbo in Mariel of Redwall is lavished with description: “Now, you will find a small rockpool outside to wash in, and I will prepare wild oatcakes, small fish, and gorseflower honey to break your fast.”…

(5) BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE TRAILER. The official trailer for the Beetlejuice sequel dropped today.

Beetlejuice is back! After an unexpected family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River. Still haunted by Beetlejuice, Lydia’s life is turned upside down when her rebellious teenage daughter, Astrid, discovers the mysterious model of the town in the attic and the portal to the Afterlife is accidentally opened. With trouble brewing in both realms, it’s only a matter of time until someone says Beetlejuice’s name three times and the mischievous demon returns to unleash his very own brand of mayhem.

(6) CASTLE Q&A. The Chicago Tribune reports on the previously announced career honor: “Crete resident Mort Castle to get horror writers award”.

Mort Castle remembers being frightened when his third-grade teacher played Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Pit and the Pendulum” on a phonograph.

“I was one of the weird kids who liked being scared. I dug nightmares,” said Castle of Crete.

The Horror Writers Association will present him with a Lifetime Achievement Award on June 1 during the Bram Stoker Awards ceremony at StokerCon 2024 in San Diego.

The award honors individuals whose work has influenced the horror genre substantially….

(7) FAMILY TIES. Rich Horton is working his way through the 2024 finalists: “Hugo Nominee Review: The Saint of Bright Doors, by Vajra Chandrasekera” at Strange at Ecbatan.

… The story is told primarily from the point of view of Fetter. Fetter’s mother tore his shadow from him at birth, and as a consequence, besides not casting a shadow, he is not tightly rooted to the ground: he will float into the air if he doesn’t take care. His mother also teaches him to be an assassin, from an early age, and she prepares him to commit the Five Unforgivables, as defined by his absent father’s theology — for his father is a “saint”, the Perfect and Kind. These crimes are matricide, heresy, killing of saints, patricide, and killing the Perfect and Kind. Nice family!…

(8) WHAT’S THAT RINGING? The New York Times has done an in-depth article about a controversy recently mentioned in the Scroll: “’The Hunt for Gollum’ Is Announced, Then ‘Lord of the Rings’ Fan Film Disappears”. (The link is not paywalled.)

… In 2009, Chris Bouchard, a recent film school graduate, uploaded his 39-minute “Lord of the Rings” fan film, “The Hunt for Gollum,” to YouTube. At the time, the platform was still, in his words, full of “five-minute videos of people’s cats.”

The site promoted Bouchard’s movie on its homepage, and within 24 hours, he had more than one million views. Today more than 13 million have watched the film, cementing it as a fan favorite.

So it came as a surprise recently when Bouchard received a text from an old friend saying that Warner Bros. had announced a planned addition to its growing “Lord of the Rings” franchise. The name of the movie? “The Hunt for Gollum.”…

… After getting the text, “at first I thought he was pulling my leg,” Bouchard said of his friend. Soon, online articles were embedding the fan film in their coverage of the Warner Bros. announcement, leading younger fans to it for the first time while older ones relived its lo-fi magic.

But by the next morning, Bouchard’s 15-year-old work had disappeared from YouTube. Viewers clicking on the link were shown a message stating, “This video contains content from Warner Bros. Entertainment, who has blocked it on copyright grounds.”…

… But YouTube denied the appeal. So, like eagles over Mordor, the Ringers, as the fans are known, swooped in. They wrote articles and posted heated comments on Reddit and other sites, calling the removal “deplorable” and “despicable.” Bouchard noted his disappointment on X.

Bouchard quickly received a follow-up email from YouTube: The movie had been reinstated. In an email, Warner Bros. said it had no official comment. YouTube did not reply to requests for comment….

(9) H. BRUCE FRANKLIN (1934-2024). Black Gate reports that scholar H. Bruce Franklin died May 19 at the age of 90. He was the emeritus John Cotton Dana endowed Professor of English and American Studies at Rutgers University-Newark and author of numerous books, essays, and exhibitions related to science fiction.

During the 1960s, Dr. Franklin was fired from Stanford despite being tenured supposedly for inciting student anti-Vietnam war protests. A former Air Force navigator and intelligence office in the Strategic Air Command, he also resigned his commission in protest of that war.

He won the Science Fiction Research Association’s Pioneer Award for his article “The Vietnam War as American SF and Fantasy” (Science Fiction Studies Nov 1990). He also received SFRA’s Pilgrim Award, an Eaton Award, and was named a Distinguished Scholar for the International Association for Fantastic in the Arts.

(10) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

May 23, 1921 — James Blish. (Died 1975.)

By Paul Weimer. For me, my reading of James Blish revolves around two axes.

The first is Star Trek. I’ve not read a ton of Star Trek novels and stories. I don’t consider myself that well read in them, even as I remember at one point it seemed the SFF section of Borders and B Dalton were half Star Trek novels and the like. But when you, reader, having watched lots of repeats of the original series are confronted with a book with the title Spock Must Die, reading it becomes a moral imperative. It’s a clever book, even if I don’t like the (now distinctly non-canonical) fate of the Klingon Commander, Koloth. I’ve also read a couple of his adaptations of episodes that he turned into short stories, which is a pretty unique way to go about things. Has anyone else done that, turning tv episodes of a series into short stories?

James Blish on his Vespa in the Sixties.

But what I remember Blish for the most is Cities in Flight. I came across this one by accident. Somewhere along the line, I had read Oswald Spengler, whose racial theories are pants, but I was fascinated for a long while (and still am) with his attempts to systemize history into cycles. One really can’t, and he does a lot of plates spinning to make his formulations work. (and yet, seeing that he sees the West in a period headed toward “Caesarism” and the rise of fascism in Europe and America, I still wonder). But somewhere along the line, I came across a reference that Blish had used a Spenglerian type of history for his Cities in Flight in sequence.

And so I had to go read it. The idea is bonkers, outfitting whole cities to go out into space is an idea that simply should not work. (And yet, it’s an idea which has come time and again ever since). But the idea of the Okies culture rising, changing, growing as the cities of Earth explore the galaxy and try to make a living is a compelling one. Characters? Plots? I really don’t remember either for the novel sequence. But the basic ideas (including a devastating nuclear weapon type), especially the spindizzy drive itself, stuck with me. And of course, the fact that the head of the migrating cities is the city of New York, of course, warmed and warms my ex-pat New Yorker’s heart. And a novel sequence that concludes with the end (or is it the beginning of a new one?) universe is as big a stakes as you can possibly ever get.

I’ve also read A Case of Conscience, which I feel is a prelude or an overture to the work of Mary Doria Russell, and maybe in another vein, Walter M Miller Jr.

(11) COMICS SECTION.

With Wallace the Brave it’s easy to detect cheaters.
Carpe Diem introduces the first mass weapon of destruction.
Rhymes with Orange illustrates extra sensitivity.

(12) EYE-OPENING GAMES. In Nature, Sam Illingworth discusses “Why role-playing games can spur climate action”.

… Imagine you are the mayor of a coastal city. How high would you build a sea wall, for example, to offer protection from future flooding? The decision involves balancing the risks of breaches against the cost of construction, without knowing how fast seas might rise or what the wider consequences of building it might be.

It is hard to anticipate the complexity of the decisions that we will all face as the world warms. But, as a game designer and education researcher, I know that games — and, in particular, role-playing games — can be an invaluable tool for helping us think through scenarios. By getting players to deal with situations in a simulated environment, games can help us to explore options in a risk-free way.

For example, I’ve used the board game Terraforming Mars to introduce young adults to the ethics of space colonization. Players control corporations competing to transform Mars into a habitable planet by extracting resources, building cities and creating green spaces. Nearly every session evolves into a heated debate about diverting resources to make a new ‘Earth’ instead of fixing the one we have….

(13) STRANGER WILL STAY ON STAGE. “‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow’ Trailer Teases Horrific Rise of Henry Creel as West End Play Extends Into 2025” – Variety tells where to find the trailer and the stage show.

“Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” the stage play based on Netflix‘s hit sci-fi drama of the same name, will extend its run on London’s West End into 2025. Previously, shows were only scheduled through Dec. 14, but tickets are now available through Feb. 16.

The news comes as Netflix debuts an official trailer for “The First Shadow,” which serves as a “Stranger Things” prequel. Set in 1959 Hawkins, Ind., “The First Shadow” tells the origin story of Henry Creel, a new kid in town who later goes on to become Vecna, the villain introduced in “Stranger Things” Season 4….

(14) KEEPING TIME. Here’s another reverential look at “John Williams and the Music of ‘Star Wars’” at Take Note.

…John Williams’s neoclassical approach combines elements of classic Hollywood composers (Max Steiner’s leitmotifs and physical action, Alfred Newman’s lush string writing, Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s heroic fanfares, and Bernard Herrmann’s suspenseful ostinati) as well as Americana concert composers (such as Aaron Copland and Howard Hanson), and even some of the jazzy piano-based scores of Henry Mancini.

He is a product of his time, and he found the right collaborator in Steven Spielberg; the two represent one of the most productive director/composer relationships in history….

(15) ON THE LOOSE. [Item by Mark Roth-Whitworth.] Be on the watch for Mongo (or maybe, if we’re lucky, the planet Porno…) “Euclid telescope spies rogue planets floating free in Milky Way” in the Guardian.

Astronomers have spotted dozens of rogue planets floating free from their stars after turning the Euclid space telescope to look at a distant region of the Milky Way.

The wandering worlds were seen deep inside the Orion nebula, a giant cloud of dust and gas 1,500 light years away, and described in the first scientific results announced by Euclid mission researchers.

The European Space Agency (Esa) launched the €1bn (£851m) observatory last summer on a six-year mission to create a 3D map of the cosmos. Armed with its images, scientists hope to understand more about the mysterious 95% of the universe that is unexplained….

(16) MOMENT IN THE SUN. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] Today’s Nature cover is quite nifty. Link to cover and contents here.

The Sun undergoes an 11-year cycle that results in a variation of its magnetic field, readily seen in the creation and movement of sunspots. Conventional models assert that the origins of this solar dynamo lie deep within the star, but in this week’s issue, Geoffrey Vasil and colleagues present a model that suggests the opposite is true. The researchers identify that instabilities very close to the Sun’s surface provide a better explanation of the various features of the solar dynamo. The cover is a composite of some 150 images of the Sun taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory between 2010 and 2020, capturing variations in the Sun’s magnetic field over nearly a full sunspot cycle.

There is an “Instability could explain the Sun’s curious cycle” short review item on this here (paywalled).

The primary research paper is at the link.

(17) URANUS PROBE. And in this edition there is a comment piece…. “Why the European Space Agency should join the US mission to Uranus”

Without international partnerships, NASA’s ground-breaking mission could fail to be ready in time for its optimal launch window.

This week, space and planetary scientists are meeting at the Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland, to scope out a new flagship NASA mission — the Uranus Orbiter and Probe. Still on the drawing board, the project would entail sending a spacecraft to orbit Uranus and drop a probe into the planet’s atmosphere. The spacecraft, which could be built and launched within a decade, would investigate the nature of Uranus, including its unusual tilt and magnetic field. It would also search the planet’s moons for signs of hidden oceans and other potentially habitable environments.

Such a mission would be ground-breaking — the first to orbit an ‘ice giant’ planet. Thought to be made mostly of ices, or perhaps dominated by rocks, ice giants Uranus and Neptune have more exotic chemistry than do Jupiter and Saturn, which as ‘gas giants’ consist mainly of hydrogen and helium gas^1,2. Ice giants are also the most common type of exoplanet in the Milky Way³. With characteristics that lie between those of gas giants and of Earth and other terrestrial planets, it’s crucial to learn how such systems formed and evolved.

That’s why the Uranus Orbiter and Probe was given priority status in the 2022 US Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey. And NASA is set to lead it. At the Goddard workshop, scientists will scope out the mission and consider its design, technologies and costs.

The mission has been under discussion for some time, and it will be exciting to see it begin to take shape. But, to make sure it is successful and happens as quickly and cost-effectively as possible, we would like to see others involved in its design, too. As a first step, we call for the European Space Agency (ESA) to join the project by, for example, building the entry probe — a possibility that was foreseen in the decadal report and has been assessed by ESA but has not yet been agreed.

[Thanks to Kathy Sullivan, Mike Kennedy, Steven H Silver, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, and Teddy Harvia for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Cat Eldridge.]

Pixel Scroll 5/22/24 Ice Cream Covered With Pixels Served In A Scroll, The Dessert Of Young Filers Everywhere

Posted on May 22, 2024 by Mike Glyer

(1) 2024 WORLD FANTASY AWARDS NOMINATIONS DEADLINE ALMOST HERE. Members of the 2022, 2023, and 2024 World Fantasy Cons have until Friday, May 31 to nominate material for the 2024 World Fantasy Awards^SM. Five nominees will be selected in each category. Three of those are selected by a panel of judges, and two will be chosen by popular vote of World Fantasy Convention members from 2022, 2023, and 2024. Eligible works will have a 2023 publication date. See full instructions at the link.

The World Fantasy Awards^SM recognize the best in fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year, and also honor those individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the fantasy and horror genres during that same time period. The awards are given each year at the annual World Fantasy Convention. They were first given in 1975, at the organization’s initial gathering. This year marks the 50^th World Fantasy Convention, which will be held October 17-20 in Niagara Falls, New York. The World Fantasy Awards^SM will be presented at a banquet on Sunday, October 20th at the conclusion of the convention.

For information or to register for this year’s World Fantasy Convention in Niagara Falls, visit the convention website.

(2) SFF AUTHOR ON JEOPARDY! Writer Ellen Klages appeared as a contestant on tonight’s aired episode of Jeopardy! Screencap courtesy of Steven H Silver. As Lenore Jean Jones described her attire, “She’s wearing a cool overshirt covered with space designs.” How did she do? We’ll report that tomorrow, since this Scroll will post before the show airs on the West Coast.

(3) TUNES FOR GAIMAN BOOK. The Guardian foreshadows that “Neil Gaiman’s Coraline to become ‘dark, spangly’ stage musical”.

Neil Gaiman’s award-winning novella Coraline is to be turned into a musical that will tour the UK in 2025. The children’s fable, which found a new audience 15 years ago as a stop-motion animation by Henry Selick, has been adapted by playwright Zinnie Harris and composer Louis Barabbas….

[Director Brining] said this is what prompted them to collaborate with Barabbas: “His music has got a gothic quality. It’s got creepiness and wit, he can write lyrics that hold rich imagery and themes that respond to the novel. The gothic is a key characteristic of Gaiman’s work and the music will help define that atmosphere on stage.”…

(4) NOT WHERE YOU’D EXPECT. The Ozarks at Large program on NPR affiliate KUAF in Fayetteville, Arkansas recently devoted a segment to “Books from this year’s Hugo Awards”. The guest was Pastor Clint Schnekloth, whose DisCon III report we linked to in a 2021 Pixel Scroll. And he is remarkably well-informed.

Pastor Clint Schnekloth of Good Shepherd of the Ozarks joins Ozarks at Large’s Kyle Kellams to discuss another round of books. This week, they talk about the 2024 Hugo Awards and the controversy that plagued last year’s contest.

(5) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

May 22, 1981 — Anniversary of the release of Outland.

I decided to do something different today which is look at a film which was released to today that got a Hugo nomination, that being Outland and the nomination being at Chicon IV. Unfortunately that was the year that Raiders of the Lost Ark was on the ballot…

Outland premiered forty-three years ago this date in the States in select cities, but everywhere that following weekend.

Now let’s go back to the creation of this film. This original title of the film was Io as it’s set on Jupiter’s moon Io, but audience testing showed that wasn’t an understandable at all so test audiences thought it was the number ten, or, at least to me quite puzzlingly, low. So in homage to the Western genre, it became Outland.

Which was appropriate as the writer Peter Hyams wanted to do one: “I wanted to do a Western. Everybody said, ‘You can’t do a Western; Westerns are dead; nobody will do a Western’. I remember thinking it was weird that this genre that had endured for so long was just gone. But then I woke up and came to the conclusion – obviously after other people – that it was actually alive and well, but in outer space.”

So they had a script that they really liked, now they need their actor. They wanted and got Sean Connery to be in their version in High Noon. Connery’s career had been in a nose dive as of late then, so this was a golden chance for him, so he took the role.

Law enforcement officers are faced with the nature of right and wrong, and duty versus keeping themselves safe, but while Will Kane in High Noon is played as an archetypal hero who discovers the world isn’t black and white as he was led to believe, Will O’Niel already exists firmly in the gray where things are always messy when we meet him.

Connery was magnificent in this role. In addition to Sean Connery, the movie includes performances by Peter Boyle, Frances Sternhagen, and James Sikking, who deliver memorable portrayals of complex characters.

So they’ve got the lead and the rest of an excellent core cast, now they had to film a movie. They had a very tight budget, just seventeen million dollars. The quite amazing sets were enhanced by the use of a new filming process called Introvision which allowed the director to mix a combination of sets, mattes and a generous use of miniatures in-camera, avoiding the then-lengthy process of extensive use with green screen.

Critics were mixed on it. Gary Arnold at the Washington Post thought it was “trite and dinky” whereas Desmond Ryan at the Philadelphia Inquirer called it: “A brilliant sci-fi Western.”

I said it cost seventeen million to make, and it made, errr, just about seventeen million dollars. That likely means that it actually lost money for the studio. Not that the studio would admit that.

Now I liked the film. I saw it on some theater screen not long after it came out and thought it worked rather well, but then I think it is police drama rather than a SF film.

(6) COMICS SECTION.

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal breaks down what is and isn’t a myth.
Close to Home witnesses a waiter’s gaffe.

(7) DO YOU ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE? GiantFreakinRobot asks “Can You Name Every Film In The Ultimate Sci-Fi Movie Supercut?” P.S. The video was released in 2012, so it’s missing references to a bunch of films you might expect to see included.

When it comes to sci-fi fandom, everyone wants to think they are the consummate expert on the subject, all-knowing and all-powerful in this movie universe. And many of you probably are. You are reading this article after all, one that posed something of a challenge at the jump.

Well, there is one movie fan out there that wants to challenge your fandom and expertise in the best possible way. That’s by putting a ton of movies together in one awesome sci-fi supercut to see if you can name them all. It’s six-plus minutes of greatness, with some of the most iconic scenes from some of the biggest franchises.

(8) LOSING FAITH. In “Buffy The Vampire Slayer Fans Still Think About This ‘What-If’”, CBR.com wiles away the hours with a thought experiment.

In a series with as many moving parts as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, changing the outcome of any major event has massive repercussions on everything that comes afterward. Of all the Buffy “What ifs?” few are as tantalizing as the notion of “What if Faith never turned evil?” Faith Lehane, the fan-favorite hero turned villain turned anti-hero, is among the most powerful and dynamic characters in the series, and her continued presence in the main cast beyond Season 3 would change the way the story played out.

Nothing about Buffy the Vampire Slayer would be the same if Faith had remained with the Scoobies instead of joining forces with Mayor Richard Wilkins III. With two united Slayers growing stronger together, and able to support each other, the forces of good would be stronger than ever, and the chaotic presence of Faith would shift the group dynamic among the heroes. With additional information gained about the characters post-series, it’s even possible that Buffy’s romantic life would take a sharp turn….

(9) SCROLL SING-ALONG. Meanwhile, another great piece of literature tickled someone’s muse today. Applause to Randall M. for his File 770-inspired filk, posted in comments.

Everybody’s talkin’ bout free speech
Out in the public square,
But when the Pixel Scroll gets here
Everybody’s gonna comment there.

Come all who file,
Come all who lol
You’ll not see nothing like the Pixel Scroll…

(10) WHAT TRICK-OR-TREATERS CAN EXPECT. Get a Halloween head start at Food and Wine. “Mars Wrigley Reveals Its Halloween 2024 Candy Lineup”.

…That lineup includes the brand-new M&M’s Milk Chocolate Pumpkin Pie, which is set to hit store shelves soon to give people a taste of the “sweater weather” to come. The company is also bringing back fan favorites like Twix Ghoulish Green, M&M’s Ghouls in Milk Chocolate, and Snickers Pumpkins, which are also coming with a brand-new look. And it also announced it’s expanding its variety bag offerings this year, going “even bigger with its blends of fruity and chocolate candies to meet shifting consumer preferences.”…

(11) FIRST AMERICAN BOARD GAME. Smithsonian Magazine studies “What America’s First Board Game Tells Us About the Aspirations of a Young Nation”.

…As I sat in that archive… I beheld another first in American printing: a board game called the Travelers’ Tour Through the United States.

This forgotten game, printed in 1822, the year after Missouri became a state, has a lot to say about America’s nascent board game industry, as well as how the young country saw itself….

…Since the Travelers’ Tour was the first board game to employ a map of the U.S., it might have been an especially interesting gift for American consumers.

It’s difficult, however, to gauge just how popular the Travelers’ Tour was in its time. No sales records are known to exist, and since so few copies remain, it likely wasn’t a big seller.

A global database of library holdings shows only a few copies of the Travelers’ Tour in institutions around the U.S. And while a handful of additional copies are housed in museums and private archives, the game is certainly a rarity.

Teetotums and travelers

Announcing itself as a “pleasing and instructive pastime,” the Travelers’ Tour consists of a hand-colored map of the then-24 states and a numbered list of 139 towns and cities, ranging from New York City to New Madrid, Missouri. Beside each number is the name and description of the corresponding town.

Using a variant spelling for the device, the instructions stipulate that the game should be “performed with a Tetotum.” Small top-like devices with numbers around their sides, teetotums functioned as alternatives to dice, which were associated with immoral games of chance.

Once spun, the teetotum landed with a random side up, revealing a number. The player looked ahead that number of spaces on the map. If they could recite from memory the name of the town or city, they moved their token, or traveler, to that space. Whoever got to New Orleans first won….

(12) BAD TIME TO BE A THRIP. “Sticky trick: new glue spray kills plant pests without chemicals” – the Guardian tells how it works.

Tiny sticky droplets sprayed on crops to trap pests could be a green alternative to chemical pesticides, research has shown.

The insect glue, produced from edible oils, was inspired by plants such as sundews that use the strategy to capture their prey. A key advantage of physical pesticides over toxic pesticides is that pests are highly unlikely to evolve resistance, as this would require them to develop much larger and stronger bodies, while bigger beneficial insects, like bees, are not trapped by the drops.

Pests destroy large amounts of food and chemical pesticide use has risen by 50% in the past three decades, as the growing global population demands more food. But increasing evidence of great harm to nature and wildlife, and sometimes humans, has led to a rising number of pesticides being banned.

Some farmers already use alternatives to chemical pesticides, such as introducing other insects that kill the pests, but the new sticky drops are thought to be the first such biodegradable pesticide to be demonstrated.

The drops were tested on the western flower thrip, which are known to attack more than 500 species of vegetable, fruit and ornamental crops. More than 60% of the thrips were captured within the two days of the test, and the drops remained sticky for weeks.

Work on the sticky pesticide is continuing, but Dr Thomas Kodger at Wageningen University & Research, in the Netherlands, who is part of the self defence project doing the work, said: “We hope it will have not nearly as disastrous side-effects on the local environment or on accidental poisonings of humans. And the alternatives are much worse, which are potential starvation due to crop loss or the overuse of chemical pesticides, which are a known hazard.”

The research, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, took an edible plant oil and oxidised it to make it as sticky as duct tape, a process similar to deep frying. The oil was then blitzed in a “glorified blender” along with water and a little soap to stop the droplets sticking together.

This solution was then sprayed on to the leaves of chrysanthemum plants, the thrips’ favourite food and a huge commercial crop in the Netherlands. It was also tested on strawberries. The sprayers used are the same design as those already used by farmers and field trials this summer will test the process at scale.

Fly paper already exists but obviously cannot be sprayed and Kodger said: “Fly traps are extremely effective against pests but they’re also extremely effective against pollinators.” He said bees were too big and strong to get stuck in the millimetre-size drops.

(13) VIDEO OF THE DAY. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] Physicist Matt O’Dowd over at PBS Space Time takes a look at interstellar travel without Faster Than Light (FTL).

FTL is a common SF trope as it gets around plot difficulties of having protagonists travel vast distances over many lifetimes. However, there is an SF trope that is fairly commonly used that does not require FTL for interstellar travel and that is that of the generation ship…

Matt takes a deep dive…

“In the far future we may have advanced propulsion technologies like matter-antimatter engines and compact fusion drives that allow humans to travel to other stars on timescales shorter than their own lives. But what if those technologies never materialize? Are we imprisoned by the vastness of space—doomed to remain in the solar system of our origin? Perhaps not. A possible path to a contemporary cosmic dream may just be to build a ship which can support human life for several generations; a so-called generation ship.”

[Thanks to Teddy Harvia, Kathy Sullivan, Mike Kennedy, Steven H Silver, Lenore Jean Jones, Lise Andreasen, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, and Steven French for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Cat Eldridge.]

Pixel Scroll 5/17/24 You Can’t Plant Me In Your Pixel, I’m Going Back To My Scroll

Posted on May 17, 2024 by Mike Glyer

(1) THREAT ASSESSMENT. The U.S. State Department issued a “Worldwide Caution” for Americans overseas today, warning about potential threats to LGBTQ+ travelers and other violence.

Location: Worldwide

Event: Due to the potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations, or violent actions against U.S. citizens and interests, the Department of State advises U.S. citizens overseas to exercise increased caution. The Department of State is aware of the increased potential for foreign terrorist organization-inspired violence against LGBTQI+ persons and events and advises U.S. citizens overseas to exercise increased caution. U.S. citizens should:

Stay alert in locations frequented by tourists, including Pride celebrations and venues frequented by LGBTQI+ persons.
Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive information and alerts and make it easier to locate you in an emergency overseas.

(2) HELP RETURN AN ITEM. Is this yours? Marcia Kelly Illingworth would like to return an item that was given to her at the 1996 Worldcon.

Sorry to call on you for something so insignificant, but it’s important to me, and to at least one other fan out there. In order to be sure this gets in the right hands, there will be some detail left out.

My first Worldcon dealing experience was in 1996 in Anaheim/Los Angeles. I was beginning to make my own jewelry at that time, and felt very flattered when a woman came to me with a treasured memento of a beloved pet, and asked me to make it into a piece of jewelry for her. I agreed, and dutifully took her details and the item.

This was all during the time that I was burning up the airways, back and forth between Tennessee and London, which eventually turned into a happily ever after, and a long term move. During all of this, the details became separated from the item, and I didn’t know how to contact the owner. I hoped every year that she would return to a table where I was dealing. That hasn’t happened.

Some of you may be aware that after the 2016 MidAmericon, I had a catastrophic illness, which landed me in emergency surgery to remove my colon, during which I arrested and had to be resuscitated, and in critical condition on a ventilator. I’m apparently too stubborn to even stay dead, but I digress. I went on to survive breast cancer and a bilateral mastectomy four years later.

What I haven’t been as open about is the toll it has taken on my life. My lungs were damaged, leaving me with ongoing breathing issues. My brain was affected, more than I was willing to admit, leaving me with memory deficits and personality changes. These appear to be progressing, unfortunately, so I’m trying to tie up as many loose ends as possible.

I have intentionally not said what the sentimental item is, so that the right person is the one who contacts me for its return. You can reach me through Facebook Messenger. I’m still, as far as I can ascertain, the only Marcia Kelly Illingworth there is. Please help me finish this task.

(3) EATING THE FANTASTIC. Scott Edelman invites listeners to chow down on cryptid pizza with Lesley Conner in Episode 225 of the Eating the Fantastic podcast.

Longtime listeners will have heard Lesley’s voice way back in 2017 on Episode 53 when she took part in a Horror 101 roundtable. Back then, she shared the microphone with five other creators, but a lot has changed for her over the past seven years, and now that she’s the Chief Editor at Apex magazine, I thought she deserved a spotlight of her own.

You’ll understand why Lesley was the right dining companion for such a place just from the titles of the anthologies in which her fiction has appeared — all horror-focussed such as Mountain Dead, Dark Tales of Terror, Big Book of New Short Horror, Ruthless, and A Hacked-Up Holiday Massacre. Her horror novel The Weight of Chains was released in 2015. In addition to being the Chief Editor over at Apex magazine, she’s also co-editor of the anthologies Do Not Go Quietly and Robotic Ambitions, as well as of the upcoming The Map of Lost Places.

We discussed why horror is where she feels the most comfortable as a writer, how her role at Apex magazine grew from Social Media Manager to Chief Editor, her “Price is Right” method of filling out an issue’s word count, why she hardly ever reads cover letters, the trends she’s seen in the slush pile and what they mean, the key difference between editing magazines vs. anthologies, her longtime obsession with serial killers, how to go on writing after one’s writing mentor passes away, and much more.

(4) ONLINE FLASH SCIENCE FICTION NIGHT. Space Cowboy Books will host an online Flash Science Fiction Night with KC Grifant, Laura Blackwell, and Denise Dumars on Tuesday May 21 at 6:00 p.m. Pacific.

Join us online for an evening of short science fiction readings (1000 words or less) with authors KC Grifant, Laura Blackwell, and Denise Dumars. Flash Science Fiction Nights run 30 minutes or less, and are a fun and great way to learn about new authors from around the world.

(5) GETTING AHEAD. Kathryn Adams is working through this year’s finalists a piece at a time. Here’s an excerpt from the first of her very good reviews of “Three More Novelettes” at Pixelated Geek.

The last three of the 2024 Hugo-nominated novelettes go from dystopian to near-utopian (with a lot of work from devoted neighbors), to a fantasy set in the outskirts of the jazz area.

I AM AI – Ai Jiang

…AI has found a surprising niche in order to make a living as a writer and pay off her parents’ and aunt’s debt: pretending to be an AI herself. Working anonymously in an internet cafe on the outskirts of the city, she scrapes together paying jobs by undercutting the fees that actual AI’s charge and churning out content that has the “surprisingly human for an AI” feel that AI subscribers are looking for.

Ai has to keep up a relentless pace, and she’s been gradually replacing parts of herself with tech so she can work a little faster, keep writing for a little longer into the night….

(6) BACK TO THE STACKS. “’The Librarians’ Spinoff on The CW: First Look at ‘Next Chapter’ Team” at TVLine.

The Librarians are ready to make some noise again, by way of a spinoff coming to The CW — and TVLine has your exclusive first look at the brand-new team, above.

A spinoff of TNT’s three movies-and-four seasons franchise, The CW’s The Librarians: The Next Chapter centers on Vikram Chamberlin (played by Jamestown‘s Callum McGowan), a protean genius, swashbuckler and Librarian from the year 1847 who accidentally time-travels to present-day Central Europe and now finds himself stuck here. When Vikram returns to his castle, which is now a museum, he inadvertently releases magic across the continent. He in turn is given a team of talented young people to help him clean up the mess he made by reclaiming magical artifacts from those who would abuse them.

The Librarians are ready to make some noise again, by way of a spinoff coming to The CW — and TVLine has your exclusive first look at the brand-new team, above.

A spinoff of TNT’s three movies-and-four seasons franchise, The CW’s The Librarians: The Next Chapter centers on Vikram Chamberlin (played by Jamestown‘s Callum McGowan), a protean genius, swashbuckler and Librarian from the year 1847 who accidentally time-travels to present-day Central Europe and now finds himself stuck here. When Vikram returns to his castle, which is now a museum, he inadvertently releases magic across the continent. He in turn is given a team of talented young people to help him clean up the mess he made by reclaiming magical artifacts from those who would abuse them.

The question is: Will Vikram keep his oath to the Library (and his new team), or will he attempt to travel back to his own time where unfinished business — and his heart — remain?…

(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Born May 17, 1955 — Bill Paxton. (Died 2017.) Let’s talk about Bill Paxton. He worked with Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando, The Terminator and True Lies. I know only The Terminator is genre but I actually like the other films as well. He’s also in Predator 2 but Schwarzenegger went walkabout by then on hunting those aliens.

Bill Paxton at Wondercon in 2014. Photo by Gage Skidmore.

None of those roles were as major as the next role I’m going to mention which is his Alien one as Hudson, a boastful but ever so panicky Colonial Marine private. He’s known for this choice piece of dialogue, after the team’s dropship is destroyed, he exclaims, “That’s it, man! Game over, man! Game over! What the fuck are we gonna do now? What are we gonna do?”

He’s Chet Donnelly in John Hughes’ wonderfully offbeat Weird Science. Of course everything John Hughes does is either offbeat or just plain weird. This film I think stayed on this side of the former.

Slipstream has him co-starring with Mark Hamill in post-global apocalypse bounty hunter thriller. It gets a decent rating at Rotten Tomatoes at forty-three percent audience approval rating.

Yes, he had a lead role in Ron Howard’s Apollo 13 as Lunar Module Pilot Fred Haise. It’s a really stellar film.

Finally he had a recurring role in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as John Garret. He was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who was left for dead, only to survive as he became the first Deathlok. Let’s just say his story becomes even more complicated from there.

No, I forgot one role, though it’s definitely not genre. He was in my beloved Tombstone as Morgan Earp, the Tombstone Special Policeman present at that gunfight where he helped his brothers Virgil and Wyatt, as well as Doc Holliday, confront the outlaw Cochise County Cowboys.

(8) BONUS BIRTHDAY. [Item by Lis Carey.]

Born May 17 — Mark Leeper.

Avid and active sf fan Mark Leeper became enraptured by TV’s Commando Cody at the age of six, and never looked back. He’s been publishing movie reviews online since 1984, and began attending conventions with Boskone VI in 1969. In the years since, he has been on panels and conducted popular origami workshops at many conventions. Mark and his wife Evelyn founded a science fiction club at Bell Labs in New Jersey in 1978, and maintained it until their retirement in 2001. Their fanzine, the MT VOID, also began in 1978, and is still being published—pretty impressive for a zine published weekly. Along with Mark’s editorials and reviews, it also features reviews and comments by others.

Mark has been an active fan for decades, and is still contributing to our community. Wish him a happy birthday!

(9) COMICS SECTION.

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal predicts the rise and departure of AI.
Bliss covers mental care in the Hundred Acre Woods.
Speedbump asks the question.

(10) END AT THE BEGINNING. Camestros Felapton’s review concludes “X-Men97 is a good argument against new X-Men movies”. But that doesn’t mean you should skip his review!

I only got around to watching the X-Men97 finale yesterday. It was tremendous and ridiculous fun. Lots of angst, weird morality and piles of people fighting each other with mutant and techno-virus super-powers. As a series, it just got better and better but so much of it was weaponising nostalgia as its mutant superpower. The story morphed from nostalgia about the original cartoon to nostalgia for how the comics at the time felt but using the same chopping up of comic plot lines into its own story….

(11) ORDER IN THE FOOD COURT. [Item by Mike Kennedy.] Sfnal it aint…but it does address certain aspects of one of the major burning issues of our time. Just what is a sandwich? “Are tacos and burritos sandwiches? A judge in Indiana ruled yes.” reports the Washington Post.

… Are tacos considered sandwiches?

According to one judge in Fort Wayne, Ind., the answer is yes. And he says burritos are sandwiches, too.

Allen County Superior Court Judge Craig J. Bobay wrote in a ruling Monday that tacos and burritos are “Mexican-style sandwiches.” Bobay made the decision in a case reviewing whether a restaurant, “Famous Taco,” could open a new location at a Fort Wayne shopping center.

The zoning policy for the property prohibits fast food, but allows exceptions for restaurants whose primary business is to sell “made-to-order” or Subway-style sandwiches. A city commission denied the request.

But Famous Taco, Bobay ruled, is allowed at the shopping center because it would serve “Mexican-style sandwiches,” and the zoning policy “does not restrict potential restaurants to only American cuisine-style sandwiches.” Hypothetically, other restaurants that serve made-to-order items, including “Greek gyros, Indian naan wraps or Vietnamese banh mi,” would also be allowed, Bobay wrote in his decision….

…With that, at least for now, the judge seems to have wrapped up the sandwich beef in Fort Wayne.

(12) JEOPARDY! [Item by David Goldfarb.]. Another day, another round of reporting on SFF on Jeopardy! and Jeopardy! Masters. I’m covering the regular game on Thursday, May 16, and Masters for Wednesday the 15th, and there was a fair amount.

Jeopardy! 5/16/2024

Single Jeopardy round:

Here Be Monsters, $1000: 1939’s “Son of Frankenstein” was the third in the series to feature the monster, and the last with this actor playing the role

Returning champion Grant DeYoung asked: “What’s Karloff?” (Like Matt Amodio, he seemed to just use “What’s” for all responses.)

Here Be Monsters, $200: In one of his many big-screen battles for Earth’s survival, he fought against Hedorah, the smog monster

Grant got it again: “What’s Godzilla?”

Anagrammed Authors, $400: Author born Eric Blair: gore lower leg

Grant was in again with “What’s George Orwell?”

Double Jeopardy round:

TV “Q”, $1200: On “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”, this Ferengi bar owner was up, then down as his flavorful crew unionized

Still Grant! “What’s Quark?”

TV “Q”, $800: This NBC reboot tapped Raymond Lee to play time-traveling physicist Ben Song

Other contestants did buzz in sometimes, but you wouldn’t know it from reading this: Grant responded, “What’s ‘Quantum Leap’?”

Jeopardy! Masters 5/15/2024

In Game 1, the Double Jeopardy round:

Music in Books, $2000: The sinfonietta by Czech composer Leos Janaček features prominently in this Murakami book partly set in a world with 2 moons

Yogesh Raut came up with, “What is ‘1Q84’?”

Movie Memes: Who Said It, $2000: 2001: “One does not simply walk into Mordor”

Matt Amodio got it right: “What’s Boromir?” Ken noted, “Lord of the Rings!”

In Conceivable (i.e., words you can make using the letters in the word “conceivable”), $1200: In “Foundation” Isaac Asimov pithily wrote that this “is the last refuge of the incompetent”

This was a triple stumper! I’d expect most Filers to know this, but just in case I’ll say that the “this” is violence.

Movie Memes: Who Said It, $1200: 2002: “I don’t like sand”

Yogesh knew that it was gritty and gets everywhere: “Who is Anakin?”

Ken Jennings expanded on this: “Yes, in Star Wars!”

Movie Memes: Who Said It, $400: 1993: “Life finds a way”

Yogesh: “Who is Dr. Ian Malcolm?” Ken Jennings: “In ‘Jurassic Park’. You got it.”

Game 2:

The Single Jeopardy round had a whole “Science Fiction” category. I’ll present the clues in the order they were encountered.

Science Fiction, $600: Takeshi Kovacs has his consciousness downloaded into a new body in this “organic” Richard K. Morgan book from 2002

Victoria Groce successfully responded, “What is ‘Altered Carbon’?”

Science Fiction, $800. The Daily Double in the round, which went to Victoria, who bet all of the $1400 she had amassed. In novels by Dan Simmons, the planet Hyperion has a capital named for this poet who wrote an epic about the sun god Hyperion.

Victoria got it right: John Keats.

Science Fiction, $1000: The title virus in this Neal Stephenson cyberpunk classic affects users offline & online, but Hiro Protagonist is on the case

Amy Schneider got in ahead of Victoria with, “What is ‘Snow Crash’?”

There was one bit of SF-adjacent content in another category:

Floating on a Stream of TV, $600: We’d watch this Netflix title character deal with life and death(s) at Nevermore Academy any day of the week

Victoria asked, “Who is Wednesday?”

Science Fiction, $400: The title hero of this 1985 novel is a boy genius (last name Wiggin) on his way to Battle School & who might just be Earth’s savior

Amy got this one: “What is ‘Ender’s Game’?” (Which technically is not the response to the clue, but was accepted.)

Science Fiction, $200: In an 1897 H.G. Wells tale, these invaders were killed by “disease bacteria against which their systems were unprepared”

Mattea Roach got in on this one. I wondered whether “What is ‘The War of the Worlds?” would be accepted, but in the event she responded to the clue as given with “Who are the Martians?”

(13) LEFT ON THE DRAWING BOARD. “A mega egg in Paris, a hovering hotel in Machu Picchu, an hourglass tower in New York, a pleasure island in Baghdad … we reveal the architectural visions that were just too costly – or too weird.” “How the world could have looked: the most spectacular buildings that were never made” – an architecture commentary in the Guardian.

…Did you know that, if things had gone differently, the Pompidou Centre could have been an egg? In the 1969 competition for the Paris art centre – ultimately won by Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, with their inside-out symphony of pipework – a radical French architect called André Bruyère submitted a proposal for a gigantic ovoid tower. His bulbous building would have risen 100 metres above the city’s streets, clad in shimmering scales of alabaster, glass and concrete, its walls swelling out in a curvaceous riposte to the tyranny of the straight line.

“Time,” Bruyère declared, “instead of being linear, like the straight streets and vertical skyscrapers, will become oval, in tune with the egg.” His hallowed Oeuf would be held aloft on three chunky legs, while a monorail would pierce the facade and circle through the structure along a sinuous floating ribbon. The atrium was to take the form of an enclosed globe, like a yolk.

“Between the hard geometries,” Bruyère added, “comes the sweetness of a volume [with] curves in all directions, in contrast to these facades where the angle always falls right from the sky, always similar. So, the egg.” Sadly, it wasn’t to be. His ovular poetry didn’t impress the judges and Paris got its high-tech hymn to plumbing instead.

L’Oeuf de Pompidou is one of many astonishing schemes to feature in Atlas of Never Built Architecture, a bulging compendium of dashed hopes and broken dreams that charts a fascinating alternative universe of “what ifs”. It is a world of runners-up and second bests, an encyclopaedia of hubristic plans that were too big, expensive or weird to make it off the drawing board….

(14) TYRANNOSAURUS FLASH MOB. Yahoo! invites everyone to “Watch: High turnout turns dino record attempt into Tyrannosaurus wreck”.

A Canadian city’s attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people dressed as dinosaurs was disqualified due to the unexpectedly high turnout.

Travel Drumheller, the tourism organization for the Town of Drumheller, Alberta, said in a Facebook post that the April 27 record attempt in the city’s downtown attracted more than 3,000 people in dino-dress, but officials “could not obtain an exact measurement” of participants.

Keri Looijen, marketing manager for Travel Drumheller, said a Guinness World Records adjudicator was present during the attempt.

“He recorded 3,000 people through numbered bracelets or wristbands, which far exceeded what we had originally thought,” Looijen told CBC News.

She said photos and videos from the attempt indicate there may have been “close to double” that number of people, but an accurate count could not be obtained due to officials being unprepared for such a massive turnout.

“We weren’t entirely prepared for that many people to come,” Looijen said. “Guinness said that there were people that they had witnessed leaving the area after they had been wrist-banded, so they weren’t following what the volunteers had told them by staying in the space. They had to be all together in the area for one solid minute.”

The attempt was disqualified, despite very handily beating the current record of 252 people, which was set in Los Angeles in 2019.

Looijen said the city is hoping to make the “Jurassic Jamboree” an annual event, and it will be better prepared for the next official world record attempt.

(15) CONTINUED PROGRESS IN LONG MARCH TO FUSION POWER. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] Abundant, clean energy is something of an SF trope powering civilizations of the future and a post-scarcity society….

This week’s Nature sees a rather dry paper but one that is still of importance as progress continues to be made in the long march to develop fusion power.

A group of largely US-based researchers have theoretically created tokamak plasmas with a line-averaged density approximately 20% above the Greenwald density and an energy confinement quality of approximately 50% better than the standard high-confinement mode.

Human made fusion power works by confining a plasma, creating such high plasma densities that atoms fuse to release energy with the creation of helium.

The confinement is done through a magnetic bottle. The very simplest confinement would be a tube with electric coils creating a magnetic field. However, such a simple arrangement would see the plasma leak out of each of the tube’s ends.

To get around this you can turn the linear tube into a circular tube joining the former tube’s ends together, which gets rid of end-of-tube leakage as there are now no ends from which leakage can take place.

Such a circular ring, or donut-shaped ring, is the basis of the Tokamak design, which is what the researchers used.

Fusion power is oft ridiculed because it has long been predicted to be available to us in a few decades time but never seems to happen: tomorrow never comes. This is a little unfair as in the last decades of the 20th century a road map to commercial fusion was created and funding pledges made by various nations. However, successive governments from various nations were repeatedly slow to provide this funding. Further, there were bureaucratic, administrative hurdles. I recall around the turn of the millennium, that while the land in France for the US$22-billion ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) – scheduled to be operational next year – had been slated, the current landowners refused surveyor access!). This reactor will be the world’s largest Tokamak: it will weigh 23,000 tonnes and is designed to generate 10 times the power that it consumes.

We are getting there, albeit slower than we all had hoped. Meanwhile, this is another milestone.

OK, so we are not there yet. The researchers themselves point out that their experimental theory does not take into account the metal walls to carry away the heat used for electricity generation. Nor can it deal with the helium waste. But it is still a significant progress that should help ITER operation.

The researchers themselves say: “The operating regime we report supports some critical requirements in many fusion reactor designs all over the world and opens a potential avenue to an operating point for producing economically attractive fusion energy.”

Their paper itself concludes with: “The experimental achievement and the increased understanding reported in this paper may open a potential avenue to an operating point for producing economically attractive fusion energy.”

You can see the primary research paper here. Though no-one seems to have picked up on this paper, Nature has made it open access (most research papers in Nature are not open access.)

(16) BILL AND NEIL’S EXCELLENT CONVERSATION. On Star Talk, “William Shatner Has Questions for Neil deGrasse Tyson”.

What is the value of curiosity? Neil deGrasse Tyson sits down with William Shatner to explore the nature of spacetime, Star Trek, human curiosity, loneliness, and more. How would warp drive work? What is William Shanter’s favorite Star Trek episode? Learn about the question Stephen Hawking had for Bill and the secret power of science fiction. Bill talks about what it was like to watch Neil Armstrong walk on the moon after Star Trek was originally canceled. We discuss Artemis, our return to the moon, and how we can create a base there. Will there be enough water on the moon for people to use? Neil breaks down how water can be used for fuel and how humans have harnessed the power of physics. We discuss Bill’s new documentary You Can Call Me Bill and some philosophical points about science. Are electrons lonely? We explore the difference between being lonely and being alone and the nature of curiosity. Is human curiosity a double-edged sword? Is there anything left on Bill’s bucket list? Plus, Bill asks if living beings like mycelia could be analogs for the universe’s structure. Why is it spacetime and not space and time separately? What is the vacuum of space made of? Discover virtual particles and how the fabric of spacetime may be a web made of wormholes. We break down dark energy and dark matter, and why their names may be misleading. To end, we discuss old age and wisdom: do they go together?

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, David Goldfarb, Lis Carey, Marcia Kelly Illingworth, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Teddy Harvia, Kathy Sullivan, Mike Kennedy, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Soon Lee.]

File 770

Mike Glyer's news of science fiction fandom

Tag Archives: Jeopardy!

Pixel Scroll 3/7/25 How Many Files To Pixelscroll? Three Score Files And Ten

Pixel Scroll 1/3/25 Never Send A Pixel To Do A Scroll’s Job

Pixel Scroll 12/19/24 Credentially Centigrade

Pixel Scroll 12/13/24 Friday The Thirteenth Part 770

Pixel Scroll 11/30/24 Dead Pixels Don’t Scroll Plaid

Pixel Scroll 10/16/24 Under The Ticketied Pixel Scroll, The Verbose Filer Posts

Pixel Scroll 7/24/24 Be Careful Of The Tale You Scroll, Pixels Will Listen

Pixel Scroll 5/23/24 Shhhh. The Pixels Are Sleeping, Let’s Not Disturb Them

Pixel Scroll 5/22/24 Ice Cream Covered With Pixels Served In A Scroll, The Dessert Of Young Filers Everywhere

Pixel Scroll 5/17/24 You Can’t Plant Me In Your Pixel, I’m Going Back To My Scroll