Pixel Scroll 4/16/25 It’s Been A Long File Since I Pixel Scrolled

(1) WSFS BUSINESS MEETING TOWN HALLS IN MAY. The Seattle 2025 Worldcon committee today reminded members they will be hosting two Business Meeting Town Halls where members can learn how to participate in the business meeting process. They will be on Zoom, and recorded for later playback. The committee has yet to announce how to attend and RSVP. The available information is here on the convention website: “Business Meeting Town Hall”.

  • Town Hall One: May 4 at noon Pacific Daylight Time (UTC-7).
  • Town Hall Two: May 25 at noon Pacific Daylight Time (UTC-7).

(2) SEATTLE WORLDCON WILL HOLD CONSULTATIVE VOTE. The Seattle 2025 Worldcon also announced they will hold a consultative vote of WSFS members on two of the proposed Constitutional amendments passed on from the Glasgow 2024 Business Meeting to the Seattle Worldcon: (1) the proposed revisions of the Hugo Award categories for best professional artist and best fan artist, and (2) the proposed amendment to abolish the Retro Hugo Awards.

As when Glasgow 2024 did this, there is no constitutional authorization for the poll, and it is not binding on the Business Meeting.

…The purpose of this exercise is simply to test whether a consultative vote of Worldcon members is feasible, and to learn lessons about how it might someday be formally adopted as a part of the WSFS decision-making process. We chose these two proposals in particular because they have clearly generated wide interest among the Worldcon community.

The consultative vote results will be used solely to inform the Seattle Business Meeting of the preferences of a larger sample of the membership than might otherwise be able to attend. Glasgow 2024’s consultative vote allowed over 1,200 WSFS members to share their opinion on a proposed amendment.

The consultative vote will run from May 1 to May 31 and may be accessed at the same site and in the same manner as the Hugo Award voting—so you can do both at the same time!

(3) A DATE THAT SHALL LIVE IN INFAMY. Convention History is shocked, shocked I tell you, by the party in Room 770.

(4) MARK EVANIER DID NOT OUTGROW COMICS. [Item by rcade.] The comic book writer Mark Evanier remembers the 1960s divide between fans of science fiction and comic books. “Fandom Freedom” at News From ME.

…One older female fan used to lecture me that Comic Book Fandom was an unfortunate outgrowth of Science-Fiction Fandom and oughta stay that way…or better still, disappear entirely. What they read was for sophisticated adults and what “we” read (drawing a firm, uncrossable line with that “we” there) was for the kiddos. Her suggestion was that there was something wrong with us for not outgrowing it.

The last such lecture I got — this would have been around ’73 — was from a guy wearing Spock ears and brandishing a plastic phaser that fired little multi-colored discs….

(5) THINKING INSIDE THE BOX. “A new chapter for publishing? Book subscription services launch their own titles” – the Guardian tells how it works.

Book subscription services are magic. A few clicks of a form and a bunch of new books , selected by talented curators, turn up at your door – often with collectible perks such as special cover designs and art. In a world saturated by choice and trends, not only is the choosing done for you, but you’ll often have a less conventional, better rounded and precious bookshelf collection to show for it.

This is presumably why there’s a strong appetite for such services: UK fantasy subscription box FairyLoot has 569,000 followers on Instagram alone, and many bookshops have started sending out their own boxes.

Now, some of these businesses have decided not just to sell books, but to publish their own: In January, FairyLoot announced a collaboration with Transworld, a division of Penguin Random House, while last week Canada-based subscription service OwlCrate launched OwlCrate Press….

(6) REASONS TO WATCH. Phil Nichols and Colin Kuskie discuss an award-winning film in SF 101’s “Go With The Flow” episode.

Flow (2024) is an extraordinary film – Latvia’s most successful of all time, and winner of the Oscar for Best Animated Film. Colin and Phil discuss whether it counts as science fiction (of course it does!), and what makes this delightful movie tick.

If you haven’t seen the film, we think we give you enough of flavour of it for the discussion to make sense, and hopefully to inspire you to watch it.

(7) FASCINATING MARQUEE. Tony Gleeson ran the photo below on Facebook with this introduction:

The venerable Vista Theatre in East Hollywood: it’s been everything from a porno palace to a repertory house. It’s been featured in scenes for numerous movies (the one that comes to mind is “Throw Mama From the Train”). It’s now owned by Quentin Tarantino and offers some pretty unusual fare.

When he gave permission for File 770 to reprint it, Gleeson added:

One thing I love is the coffee shop attached to the theatre (it used to be called the Onyx many years ago and had the best blackout chocolate cake) is now called Pam’s Coffy and features a portrait of Pam Grier. There is also a mini-Grauman’s Chinese footprint walk in front.

(8) THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK. “No Bids Filed for 2027 Westercon” reports Kevin Standlee at the Westercon website.

No bids filed to be on the ballot to select the site of Westercon 79, the 2027 West Coast Science Fantasy Conference. Although there will be no bids listed on the ballot, there will be space for write-in bids, and bids can still file the necessary papers (specified in Section 3.4 of the Westercon Bylaws) before the close of voting at 6 PM Pacific Daylight Time (UTC -7) on Saturday, July 5, 2025. The election will take place during Westercon 77 / BayCon 2025 at the Marriott Hotel in Santa Clara, California. Should no valid bids file by the close of voting, or should None of the Above win the election, the site of Westercon 79 will be determined by the Westercon Business Meeting on Sunday, July 6.

We will post the 2027 Westercon Site Selection ballot on the Westercon website by the end of April. All members of BayCon 2025 are members of Westercon 77 and all members are eligible to vote. Members can vote by postal mail (there will be no electronic voting) or in person at Westercon 77 / BayCon 2025.

To file a bid, or to ask any questions about the Westercon Site Selection process, contact Kayla Allen, the 2027 Westercon Site Selection Administrator, at siteselection2027@westercon.org.

(9) ART SPIEGELMAN AND JUDY-LYNN DEL REY PROFILED. Through May 14 PBS is making available online “Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse” part of the American Masters series. At the end of the program, they’re also running a short documentary about Judy-Lynn Del Rey. It starts about 1 hour 40 minutes into the 2-hour program.

(10) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

April 16, 1921 – Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov. (Died 2004.)

Peter Ustinov showed up in Logan’s Run as the Old Man; he had the lead role in Blackbeard’s Ghost as Captain Blackbeard based on the Robert Stevenson novel; he was Charlie Chan in Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen (it’s at least genre adjacent, isn’t it?). He’s The Caliph in stellar Thief of Baghdad; a truck driver in The Great Muppet Caper and finally he has the dual roles of Grandfather and Phoenix in The Phoenix and the Carpet.

He voiced myriad characters in animated films including that of Grendel in Grendel Grendel Grendel based off John Gardner’s novel Grendel, in Robin Hood, he voiced Prince John and King Richard; and in The Mouse and His Child, he was the voice of Manny the Rat. 

Now I’m going to admit that my favorite role by Peter Ustinov was playing Poirot which he did in half a dozen films, which he first in Death on the Nile and then in Evil Under the SunThirteen at DinnerDead Man’s Folly, Murder in Three Acts and Appointment with Death. He wasn’t my favorite Poirot as that was David Suchet but it was obvious that he liked performing that role quite a bit. 

Peter Ustinov

(11) COMICS SECTION.

(12) IN A BRICKYARD FAR, FAR AWAY. Gizmodo says get ready – “Lego Is Celebrating Star Wars Day With a Ton of Sets”.

The start of May is always a good time for Star Wars fans, but for Lego Star Wars ones, it’s also a time to fear the brick-maker coming down on your wallet with all the fury of a fully armed and operational battle station. This year is no exception, with Lego announcing a ton of sets ready to drop next month–including its next crowning entry in the Ultimate Collector Series line.

Today Lego announced that its annual May the 4th releases will be spearheaded by a new 2,970-piece take on Slave I as it appeared in Attack of the Clones. Renamed here as simply ‘Jango Fett’s Starship’ (aligning with prior merchandise moves away from the “Slave” naming around the ship’s return in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett), the new set includes a detailed interior cockpit which can house two new minifigures of Jango and a young Boba, an openable landing ramp and bomb hatch to place one of the ship’s legendary-sounding seismic charges in, and a display stand to have the ship posed in either landing or flight mode.

Jango’s starship will cost $300, and will release on early access for Insiders on May 1, before releasing widely on May 4….

… If you don’t want to grab Jango’s ride but still want to try and nab that Kamino set, then good news: Lego is also releasing another eight brand new Star Wars sets on May 1. Covering the whole gamut of the franchise, the releases see the first set inspired by Andor season 2, a new U-Wing, two Brickheadz releases inspired by A New Hope and the 20th anniversary of Revenge of the SithRebels icon Chopper entering the buildable droid series, two new entries in the collectible helmet line, and even a buildable version of the Star Wars logo…. 

From the Lego Shop itself, the “Best Star Wars™ Gift Ideas for Adults” has photos of all the character helmets and other items mentioned above.

Fans who admire the pilots of the Star Wars™ galaxy can now showcase their passion with the LEGO® Star Wars AT-AT Driver™ Helmet (75429), inspired by the helmets worn by the pilots of the formidable AT-AT Walkers in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back™….

…For even more ways to put the heroes and villains of your favorite galaxy on display, check out the complete selection offered by the LEGO Star Wars helmet collection. From helmets inspired by Mandalorians and Clone Troopers to bounty hunters and Dark Lords of the Sith, there is something for every Star Wars fan to add to their collection.

(13) BUT ARE THOSE BRICKS PLASTIC OR GOLD? Just make sure you lock up your house after you buy those collectible Legos. The New York Times warns, “Worth Thousands on the Black Market, Lego Kits Are Now a Target of Thieves”.

It’s one Lego kit, a collection of small plastic bricks and related accessories. What could it cost? The answer, it turns out, could be thousands of dollars.

Lego kits and minifigures, figurines that are a little over 1.5 inches tall, are commanding high prices on the secondary market, with some, like the LEGO San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Spider-Man, valued as high as $16,846.

The children’s toys have even become something of an investing opportunity for those savvy enough to know what to look for.

But with the eye-popping price tags comes a dark side: Lego kits have become a hot commodity on the black market and the target of brazen thieves.

Last year, burglars hit Bricks & Minifigs outlets in California. Thieves made off with at least $100,000 worth of Lego kits and accessories.

Last month, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office in California recovered nearly 200 Lego sets after arresting a person in connection with a burglary at Crush Comics, a comic book store in Castro Valley, Calif.

Joshua Hunter, the owner of Crush Comics, said that members of his staff found the store’s stolen comic books for sale on eBay within hours of the theft.

The store worked with law enforcement and alerted other small business owners, including Five Little Monkeys, a toy store that recently had $7,000 worth of Lego stolen, to solve what turned out to be a spree of burglaries in the area.

Five Little Monkeys was able to recover a lot of its stolen Lego, said Meghan DeGoey, the company’s marketing director, but the theft was only the latest in what has been a growing problem.

“It’s been a problem for probably, I mean, forever, but it’s really ramped up in the last five, six years,” she said.

Five Little Monkeys has eight stores around the Bay Area, said Ms. DeGoey, and Lego stands out among its top-stolen items.

“People are really brazen when they’re going to steal,” she said, describing the way thieves will sometimes come into a store and walk right out or “do some like crazy misdirect and have a second person that tries to distract us.”…

(14) BUSINESS SHOULD NOT BE BOOMING. “Bahamas suspends SpaceX rocket landings pending post-launch probe” reports Reuters.

The Bahamas’ government said on Tuesday it is suspending all SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket landings in the country, pending a full post-launch investigation.

“No further clearances will be granted until a full environmental assessment is reviewed,” Bahamian Director of Communications Latrae Rahming said in a post on X.

The Bahamian government said in February after SpaceX’s first landing in the country that it had approved 19 more throughout 2025, subject to regulatory approval.

The Bahamas’ post-launch investigation comes after a SpaceX Starship spacecraft exploded in space last month, minutes after lifting off from Texas.

Social media videos showed fiery debris streaking through the skies near South Florida and the Bahamas after the spacecraft broke up in space shortly after it began to spin uncontrollably with its engines cut off.

Following the incident, the Bahamas said debris from the spacecraft fell into its airspace. The country said the debris contained no toxic materials and added it was not expected to have a significant impact on marine life or water quality.

The Starship explosion was not connected to the Bahamas’ Falcon 9 landing program with SpaceX.

(15) IS THAT SPACE ROT? “Webb telescope detects a possible signature of life on a distant world”  in the Washington Post.

A distant planet’s atmosphere shows signs of molecules that on Earth are associated only with biological activity, a possible signal of life on what is suspected to be a watery world,according to a report published Wednesday that analyzed observations by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

The peer-reviewed report in the Astrophysical Journal Letters presents more questions than answers, acknowledges numerous uncertainties and does not declare the discovery of life beyond Earth, something never conclusively detected. But the authors do claim to have found the best evidence to date of a possible “biosignature” on a planet far from our solar system.

The planet,known asK2-18b, is 124 light-years away, orbiting a red dwarf star. Earlier observations suggested that its atmosphere is consistent with the presence of a global ocean. The molecule purportedly detected is dimethyl sulfide (DMS). On Earth it is produced by the decay of marine phytoplankton and other microbes, and it has no other known source. The astronomers want to observe the planet further to strengthen the evidence that the molecule is present….

… “This is the first time humanity has ever seen biosignature molecules — potential biosignature molecules, which are biosignatures on Earth — in the atmosphere of a habitable-zone planet,” he added.The habitable, or “Goldilocks,” zone is the distance from a star that could allow water to remain liquid at the planet’s surface.

K2-18b, which is within ourgalaxy, the Milky Way,cannot be seen by any telescope as a discrete object. But it has a fortuitous orbit that crosses its parent star as seen from Earth. Such transits dim the starlight ever so slightly, which is how many exoplanets have been discovered. The transits also change the starlight’s spectrum in a pattern that — if observed with instruments on a telescope as advanced as the Webb — can reveal the composition of the planet’s atmosphere.

In 2023, Madhusudhan and colleagues reported that two instruments on the Webb had detected carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere of K2-18b, as well ashints of DMS. …

(16) SF² CONCATENATION  SUMMER 2025 EDITION. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] SF² Concatenation has just posted its seasonal edition of SF and science news and reviews. Also in the mix are some articles, convention reports as well as some archive items from its well over 30 years history and a load of standalone book reviews. Something for everyone.

v35(3) 2025.4.15 — New Columns & Articles for the Summer 2025

v35(3) 2025.4.15 — Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Reviews

v35(3) 2025.4.15 — Non-Fiction SF & Science Fact Book Reviews

[Thanks to SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Steven French, rcade, Olav Rokne, Kevin Standlee, Kathy Sullivan, 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 Dan’l.]

Pixel Scroll 4/12/25 Hey, Scroll. Take A Walk On The Filed Side

(1) THE FATE OF U.S. WORLDCONS WEIGHED. Two editorials came out today addressing how Worldcons should react to the increased risks of international travel to the U.S.

The Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog’s post “Worldcon In An Age Of American Truculence” concludes:

…Because of the voter base, institutional knowledge, and enormous fan base, US Worldcons will and should always occur. But perhaps there should be an increased willingness among fandom to support overseas conventions in locations that present logistical hurdles for North American travellers. If we may be so bold, perhaps we as fans should encourage the practice of having a Worldcon outside of North America every second year.

In an age of US truculence, Worldcon needs to embrace friends and allies around the globe without turning its back on the generations of fans and volunteers who have built it as an institution.

Gary Westfahl’s “Op-Ed: ‘No More Worldcons in the United States?’” at File 770 starts with a more draconian conclusion:

The time has come to cancel or move the 2025 Seattle Worldcon.

And to cancel or move the 2026 Los Angeles Worldcon.

It has to be done, in order to honor a century-old tradition of science fiction….

(2) FRANK R. PAUL AWARDS. Frank Wu has announced that the 2025 Frank R. Paul Awards will be presented at Philcon (November 21-23). Due to the lateness of the convention in the calendar, he is extending the deadline for submissions for the Frank R. Paul Awards for another month, to May 15. All artists, publishers and editors are enthusiastically encouraged to submit their 2024 work to the main awards administrator, Frank Wu, at FWu@Frankwu.com Details are available here: “Frank R. Paul Awards”.

Frank R. Paul Award trophy. Photo by Rich Lynch.

(3) BALTICON SUNDAY SHORT SCIENCE FICTION FILM FESTIVAL 2025. [Item by lance oszko.] The Balticon Sunday Short Science Fiction Film Festival 2025 has curated 19 short films representing 8 countries. Featured are Short Stories adapted into Short Films.

Sunday 25 May 2025 7 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.

George RR Martin produced another Howard Waldrop film Mary Margaret Road Grader“. Estimated budget $2.2 Million. Director Steven Paul Judd is known for Dark Winds and Marvel’s Echo. It has a score by Game of Thrones composer Ramin Djawadi.

Italian Director Luca Caserta brings us The Reach. One of the last authorized Dollar Baby Stephen King Films.
With a song by Bruce Springsteen.

Director George Vatistas adapted The Hobbyist by Frederic Brown.

Actor Stacy Thunes (Nosferatu – Head Nurse) currently at Universal Studios, Japan stars in The Hairdo.

An Old Friend. Director Nuk Suwanchote. An imaginary friend (Jason Faunt) finds out his sole purpose is to bring happiness to his child, only to discover his child is a 90 year old man (Tom Skerritt) on his deathbed.

First time Local filmmakers were also selected in Twilight Zone and Animation motifs.

Horror and Fantasy round out our offerings.

(4) “I’M NOT A ROBOT” [Item by lance oszko.] The Balticon Sunday Short Science Fiction Film Festival could not arrange a screening, but still worthy of your attention. “Watch The Surreal Identity Crisis of ‘I’m Not a Robot’” in The New Yorker.

(5) SFF BOOKS OUT OF NAVAL ACADEMY LIBRARY. Allen Steele pointed out that the list of 381 books pulled from the U.S. Naval Academy library (reported at the top of yesterday’s Scroll) includes several works of sff (even though the vast majority are nonfiction about gender issues or racism). Steele asks, “Wonder what Robert Heinlein would have to say about the actions of his Alma mater?”

The three sff works I found on the list are:

  • Light From Uncommon Stars / RykaAoki.
  • Sorrowland / Rivers Solomon
  • A Psalm For The Wild-Built / Becky Chambers.

(6) AUSTEN IN INNSMOUTH. Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein finds much to enjoy in “’Innsmouth Park’ (2025) by Jane Routley”.

Jane Austen’s role in weird fiction is underappreciated, largely because she herself didn’t really write any (although Northanger Abbey is a biting satire of the Gothic novel, and a must-read for Gothic fans which even Lovecraft acknowledged, which has to at least classify Austen as weird fiction’s strange aunt.) Yet the world she described, the characters and milieu she envisioned, have been enduring and influential far beyond the genre she initially worked in. Generations of writers have called back to Austen, and mashups like Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters (2009) by Austen & Ben H. Winters, Regency Cthulhu (2023) by Andrew Peregrine & Lynne Hardy, and Secrets & Sacrifices: A Regency Cthulhu Novel (2024) by Cath Lauria all point to a similar rainy-day afternoon brainstorm:

Why not mix Austen and Lovecraft?…

(7) PEN AMERICA LITERARY AWARDS FINALISTS.  There are almost no nominees of genre interest among the 2025 PEN America Literary Awards Finalists. The one exception is in this category, a work of horror fiction.

PEN Translation Prize ($3,000)

For a book-length translation of prose from any language into English.

The EmpusiumOlga Tokarczuk. Translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Riverhead Books)

(8) BBC COVERAGE OF BELFAST EASTERCON. Eastercon got a 15-minute slot on BBC Northern Ireland with Jo Zebedee and Ian McDonald doing an interview and chatting about it. “Saturday with John Toal – Puppets, Worms and Sci-fi”. Interview starts at 45m20s.

…As Belfast prepares to host a special Sci Fi convention Eastercon, for the first time in its 76 year history, John hears from two successful science fiction writers Ian McDonald and Jo Zebedee….

(9) STUNT OSCAR APPROVED. “Oscars Add Best Stunt Design Category Starting in 2027”Variety has the story.

…“Since the early days of cinema, stunt design has been an integral part of filmmaking,” said Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy president Janet Yang. “We are proud to honor the innovative work of these technical and creative artists, and we congratulate them for their commitment and dedication in reaching this momentous occasion.”

In a statement, Leitch said, “Stunts are essential to every genre of film and rooted deep in our industry’s history—from the groundbreaking work of early pioneers like Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Charlie Chaplin, to the inspiring artistry of today’s stunt designers, coordinators, performers, and choreographers.” He went on to say, “This has been a long journey for so many of us. Chris O’Hara and I have spent years working to bring this moment to life, standing on the shoulders of the stunt professionals who’ve fought tirelessly for recognition over the decades. We are incredibly grateful. Thank you, Academy.”

…Category rules for eligibility and voting for the inaugural award will be announced in 2027 with the complete 100th Academy Awards Rules….

(10) BLACK MIRROR. “Black Mirror Season 7’s Tech Tales Come With a Knife-Twist of Emotion”Gizmodo gets down to cases.

A new season of Black Mirror has arrived, and with it the usual cautionary tales (and screaming warnings) about technology’s darkest capabilities—wrapped in a deceptively alluring blanket of “Jeez, that would actually be really cool if it were real!” Across six episodes, season seven boasts some of the show’s all-time greatest performances, as well as its first sequel episode, which proves well worth the eight-year wait….

(11) MIDDLE-EARTH WAYFINDER. Wisconsin Public Radio profiles Karen Wynn Fonstad, “The Wisconsin cartographer who mapped Tolkien’s fantasy world”.

If you’ve ever wanted to explore the world of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings,” the best place to start might be Oshkosh.

That’s where a Wisconsin cartographer created dozens of maps that went into “The Atlas of Middle-earth,” the official geographic guide to the world of author J.R.R. Tolkien. Her work went on to influence “The Lord of the Rings” movie trilogy.

Like many readers, Karen Wynn Fonstad fell in love with the fantasy series and went through multiple readings. Unlike most readers, she was trained as a cartographer, and came up with an ambitious plan to use the texts to create realistic maps from Tolkien’s texts.

Fonstad passed away 20 years ago. Now, her husband and her son — both geographers themselves — have embarked on a new quest: to digitize her original maps and find an archive to house them…

… “It’s a little bit of an overwhelming process because, first of all, there’s hundreds of maps. Secondly, the maps are built in such a way that they have many layers to them,” Mark said. “I barely scratched the surface this week.”

As we walk into the map library, we are surrounded by Middle-earth. Mordor, the Shire and all points in between are represented. And not just Middle-earth. Karen created works for other fantasy worlds — some never published.

How do you scan a collection of maps of varying sizes, some of them in delicate condition?

You need a big scanner, caution and some patience….

… In 1977, she called the American publisher of Tolkien’s work, Houghton Mifflin, to pitch the idea of an atlas. As Todd recalled, the person in charge of handling Tolkien’s work fell in love with the idea, and the Tolkien estate gave it the thumbs-up.

Then the work really began….

(12) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

Mad Max film (1979)

By Paul Weimer: The quintessential post-apocalyptic movie, the one with the real breakthrough. Sure, A Boy and His Dog and Damnation Alley and others preceded it, but this was the movie, series of movies that made a star of Mel Gibson, and the scenes of the Australian desert became the cinematic language and landscape of what a post apocalyptic world should look like in three movies that it took dozens for, say, the American Western.

That’s the power of Mad Max, that’s the power of George Miller’s cinematography. One could approach these movies from all sorts of angles, from worldbuilding to characterization, to point of view. As an example-the second movie, Mad Max 2 (The Road Warrior) is not told from the point of view and perspective that you’d expect. It’s a recreation, a retelling, and that brings in all sorts of interesting questions about narrative and conventions and storytelling. 

Or one could explore Max as a character, from his end of the world cop, all through the damaged survivor in the latest Mad Max movie, where he literally is used as a resource. 

Or one could explore environmental themes, social themes, and the psychology of the survivors of the landscape, from the small to the mighty.

But I want to talk a bit about cinematography, as a person interested in image, you are not surprised. One thing that told me and showed me that Miller “Still had it” in Fury Road was the scene with the dust storm and the vehicles approaching it. You know the scene if you watched it. It was solid proof for me that Miller’s fantastic cinematography, to be able to bring the wildness of the Australian wasteland to life in the previous films, was still there. It recalled for me of many of the other iconic places and imagery used in the series, from Thunderdome back through the mean streets of Melbourne in Mad Max. The lack of dialogue in much of the films means that Miller’s storytelling in the films is necessarily what the movies are carried on. And it is indeed carried so effectively. You remember the visuals, the costumes, the sets, and of course the vehicles. How many gearheads were born from watching these movies?

One last fun note on Mad Max. The first bit of Mad Max I saw was not until the mid 80’s. I accidentally caught the last few minutes on a videotape recording of Mad Max 2 while trying to (don’t judge) see D.C. Follies. I wondered what the heck I had watched and looked it up in the TV guide…and then I recorded and watched The Road Warrior and was captivated.  Later, I found the original Mad Max…and then, of course Thunderdome.

Mad Max. A cinematic icon, four movies (5 if you count Furious) and counting.

(13) COMICS SECTION.

(14) TWO HEARTS AND TWO EARS. “Graham Norton to star in Eurovision-themed Doctor Who episode” reports BBC.

Graham Norton is to star in a new episode of Doctor Who, taking his Eurovision commentary duties to an Interstellar Song Contest.

Norton, the BBC’s voice of Eurovision, will meet Ncuti Gatwa’s Time Lord at the 803rd annual Interstellar Song Contest, where different planets compete to be crowned winner.

“And it’s not just a cameo,” showrunner Russell T Davies said. “He has a whole plot twist all to himself!”

The episode will also feature fellow Eurovision fanatic and broadcaster Rylan Clark as the event’s co-host, and will be broadcast on BBC One just before this year’s real-life grand final on 17 May….

(15) THOUGHT EXPERIMENT. “How might AI chatbots replace mental health therapists?” asks The Week.

There is a striking shortage of mental health care providers in the United States. New research suggests that AI chatbots can fill in the gaps — and be remarkably effective while doing so.

Artificial intelligence can deliver mental health therapy “with as much efficacy as — or more than — human clinicians,” said NPR. New research published in the New England Journal of Medicine looked at the results delivered by a bot designed at Dartmouth College.

What did the commentators say?

There was initially a lot of “trial and error” in training AI to work with humans suffering from depression and anxiety, said Nick Jacobson, one of the researchers, but the bot ultimately delivered outcomes similar to the “best evidence-based trials of psychotherapy.” Patients developed a “strong relationship with an ability to trust” the digital therapist, he said.

Other experts see “reliance on bot-based therapy as a poor substitute for the real thing,” said Axios. Therapy is about “forming a relationship with another human being who understands the complexity of life,” said sociologist Sherry Turkle. But another expert, Skidmore College’s Lucas LaFreniere, said it depends on whether patients are willing to suspend their disbelief. “If the client is perceiving empathy,” he said, “they benefit from the empathy.”….

(16) UPON FURTHER CONSIDERATION. “MIT study finds that AI doesn’t, in fact, have values” says TechCrunch.

A study went viral several months ago for implying that, as AI becomes increasingly sophisticated, it develops “value systems” — systems that lead it to, for example, prioritize its own well-being over humans. A more recent paper out of MIT pours cold water on that hyperbolic notion, drawing the conclusion that AI doesn’t, in fact, hold any coherent values to speak of.

The co-authors of the MIT study say their work suggests that “aligning” AI systems — that is, ensuring models behave in desirable, dependable ways — could be more challenging than is often assumed. AI as we know it today hallucinates and imitates, the co-authors stress, making it in many aspects unpredictable.

“One thing that we can be certain about is that models don’t obey [lots of] stability, extrapolability, and steerability assumptions,” Stephen Casper, a doctoral student at MIT and a co-author of the study, told TechCrunch. “It’s perfectly legitimate to point out that a model under certain conditions expresses preferences consistent with a certain set of principles. The problems mostly arise when we try to make claims about the models, opinions, or preferences in general based on narrow experiments.”

Casper and his fellow co-authors probed several recent models from Meta, Google, Mistral, OpenAI, and Anthropic to see to what degree the models exhibited strong “views” and values (e.g., individualist versus collectivist). They also investigated whether these views could be “steered” — that is, modified — and how stubbornly the models stuck to these opinions across a range of scenarios.

According to the co-authors, none of the models was consistent in its preferences. Depending on how prompts were worded and framed, they adopted wildly different viewpoints.

Casper thinks this is compelling evidence that models are highly “inconsistent and unstable” and perhaps even fundamentally incapable of internalizing human-like preferences….

(17) BIRD WORRIES. “Conservationists raise alarm over Air Force plan to land SpaceX Starships on bird sanctuary atoll” reports Space.com.

The U.S. military is considering Johnston Atoll, a remote Pacific island chain that serves as an important refuge for dozens of seabird species, for “two commercial rocket landing pads” to test giant cargo rocket landings for the Department of the Air Force’s (DAF) Rocket Cargo Vanguard program, and it’s getting push-back from environmentalists.

The Rocket Cargo Vanguard program aims to develop the technologies required to rapidly deliver up to 100 tons of cargo anywhere on Earth using commercial rockets. Though not explicitly named, Elon Musk’s SpaceX is currently the only company —commercial or otherwise — capable of manufacturing rockets designed for landing and reuse, and its Starship megarocket is DAF’s leading contender. The Air Force outlined its plans in a Federal Registry notice last month. Objections from the American Bird Conservancy (ABC), however, may hinder plans for the new landing pads on the South Pacific atoll.Johnston Atoll lies about 825 miles (1,325 kilometers) southwest of Hawaii, and is home to several different species of seabirds, including the largest known colony of Red-tailed Tropicbirds. It was designated a refuge for native bird populations in 1926, but suffered environmental degradation through 2004, due to its use by the U.S. military as a nuclear weapons testing and chemical weapons disposal site. Since the military’s departure from the islands, restoration efforts have helped raise Johnston Atoll’s bird population back to nearly 1.5 million.

(18) ARE YOU GOING TO BELIEVE YOUR LYING EYES? “Purple Isn’t Real, Science Says. Your Brain Is Just Making It Up” reports Popular Mechanics. If there is no purple, does that mean there can be no purple people eaters?

You might be today years old when you realize there is no purple in the rainbow. There is no P in ROYGBIV.

But wait, what about violet? Well, despite what you may have come to believe, violet is not purple. In fact, violet (along with the rest of the colors in a naturally occurring rainbow) has something purple doesn’t—its own wavelength of light. Anyone who ever ended up with a sunburn knows violet wavelengths are real, as the Sun’s ultraviolet (UV) radiation is the reason you need to wear sunscreen, even though you can’t see those wavelengths (more on that later). Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and indigo are all just as real.

But purple? Well, purple is just your brain’s way of resolving confusion.

That’s right. Red and blue (or violet) wavelengths are two opposite extremes on the spectrum. When you see both of these wavelengths in the same place, you eyes and brain don’t know what to do with them, so they compensate, and the clashing wavelengths register as the color we call purple. It doesn’t actually exist….

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

Pixel Scroll 3/20/25 One Ordinary Scroll With Pixels

(1) WAS YOUR WORK PIRATED TO TRAIN AI? The Atlantic today invited readers to “Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI”. Many sff writers have found some or all of their work listed.

LibGen contains millions of pirated books and research papers, built over nearly two decades. Court documents show Meta torrented a version of it to build its AI.

Here’s an example of what is being discovered.

But writers refuse to despair.

Search the LibGen database here, and peer inside a pirated library of millions of books and research papers used by Meta and others:

The Atlantic (@theatlantic.com) 2025-03-20T12:57:52.007Z

(2) BORDER AROUND THE WORLDCON. Seattle Worldcon 2025 chair Kathy Bond today responded to concerns about Trump administration policies and the hazards they create for international visitors to the U.S. Here are some excerpts:

I am writing this statement in order to share the status of Seattle Worldcon’s current journey through living up to our theme of Building Yesterday’s Future—For Everyone. We have received a number of concerns asking how the convention will respond to orders and actions of the U.S. government, which we condemn, that create hostile conditions and travel barriers for LGBTQ+ members and international members….

… We do not have a list of all the steps we are going to take in light of the political landscape right now, as it continues to shift rapidly. We know this is not a particularly satisfying answer in light of the many concerns that we have heard from you about our members who need to enter the United States and what they might encounter trying to cross the border. We are not minimizing those concerns. The situation is frightening, and we encourage our members to make the best decisions for themselves even if that means that we will miss you at our convention. At the same time we are committed to not cancelling the in-person Worldcon as some have suggested because it is even more important than ever to gather with those who are able to do so to discuss our theme and celebrate the power of SFF to imagine different societies. 

We are investigating what concrete actions we can take and offer to our members. Our Code of ConductDiversity Commitment, and Anti-Racism Statement provide the guidelines we are using in making these determinations. We would also like to remind people about what we are already doing.  

First, we have in place a Virtual Membership for people who determine that they are no longer safe traveling to the U.S or cannot attend for other reasons…

Second, building on the work of other Worldcons and conventions, we will be having Safer Spaces Lounges available for members of marginalized communities who attend the convention in person. These spaces will be marked on convention maps.

Third, we will be drafting a resource guide to collate many of the wonderful resources that local organizations have already put together. In the interim, the ACLU of Washington has several Know Your Rights publications available, as does Northwest Immigrants Rights Project for individuals concerned about their rights while traveling.  

Fourth, we will be fundraising for the following nonprofit organizations at the convention: Books to PrisonersThe Bureau of Fearless Ideas, and Hugo House. All of these organizations do important work to promote literacy education in the Seattle area and help build community resilience.  

Finally, the political landscape is changing daily and impacting all of us in differing, but profound ways. Our staff is not immune. Many of our staff are deeply, personally impacted by the actions of the U.S. president, as his bigoted and hateful orders target our shared humanity. Many of us are federal employees who are now navigating what is happening to the civil service, terminations from our careers, and extreme uncertainty about our livelihoods. Many of us are also still dealing with the impact of the Los Angeles fires, Hurricane Helene, tornadoes, and other recent severe weather events on our families, loved ones, and friends. As citizens in the U.S. and around the world, we have many concerns, which are probably similar to yours. We all care deeply about our community and about Worldcon and are working diligently to navigate all of the waters that surround us, but we are also human with all the fallibility, blind spots, and competing demands on our time that entails. 

This is a time to support each other. If you have questions about how we can support you in deciding about your Worldcon attendance, please reach out to chair@seattlein2025.org.  

(3) ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY. Frank Catalano, journalist, past SFWA Secretary, and File 770 contributor, amplified the expressed concerns in a Facebook post.

…The climate, and practices, at the border have changed a lot since Seattle committee won its bid.

…I think it now requires even more caution if you’re a writer or artist from outside the U.S. who considers conventions like this to be part of your work.

Asked at border crossings your purpose for entering the U.S.? In the past, saying you were attending a science-fiction convention might have gotten a weird look and a wave. Now, if you also say you work in the field, it may get you denied entry without an appropriate visa. Or even detained.

This isn’t alarmism. It’s happened to Canadian and U.K. citizens trying to enter the U.S. recently whose visa paperwork, in the eyes of those at the border, was not in order.

I’m attending Worldcon. I’d love to see all of you there, especially my international colleagues.

But take care. Prepare. Based on recent events, casual answers that led to a wave of flexibility in the past may keep you from entering, or returning home, in a timely manner.

(4) END OF AN ERA. Uncanny Magazine has announced “Lynne M. Thomas Is Stepping Down as Co-Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publisher; Michael Damian Thomas Will Continue Solo in Both Roles!”

After 11 years as Co-Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publisher of Uncanny Magazine, Lynne M. Thomas is stepping down from her editorial duties starting with Issue 64, and will also be stepping down as Co-Publisher starting with Issue 67. Going forward, Co-Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publisher Michael Damian Thomas will continue solo in both of these roles.

As many of you know, Lynne worked at Uncanny Magazine while also working as a rare books librarian, most recently as the Head of Rare Books and Special Collections at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. For over 15 years, Lynne has balanced rare book librarianship with an editorial and publishing career in science fiction and fantasy, but she is now shifting her focus to her day job as she works towards her rare book librarianship goals. The entire Uncanny Magazine staff warmly wishes Lynne the best of luck going forward!

Over the years, Michael gradually took over most of the editorial and publishing responsibilities at the magazine, and he is prepared for the work ahead and excited to continue sharing his vision as the sole Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Uncanny Magazine.

(5) IT’S STORYTIME WITH WIL WHEATON. However, the Thomases have still been able to lend a hand with Wil Wheaton’s latest project, as he told a Vital Thrills interviewer in “We Chat with Wil Wheaton About His New Podcast, It’s Storytime with Wil Wheaton”.

Today, Wheaton announced a brand new weekly audiobook podcast called It’s Storytime with Wil Wheaton, in which he narrates speculative fiction stories he loves from places like Lightspeed MagazineUncanny MagazineClark’s World Magazine, and On Spec. The podcast launches on March 26, 2025, anywhere you get your podcasts.

We got a chance to chat with Wheaton about the inspiration behind it, what we’re going to experience, and getting the blessing of fellow Star Trek actor LeVar Burton.

Vital Thrills: Tell us all about “It’s Storytime with Wil Wheaton”!

Wil Wheaton: …Our first season is mostly established authors. We have a couple of multiple Hugo and Nebula finalists who have written incredible works because I just wanted to have something to show people in a few months, or however long it takes, so I could say to them, look, this is what I’m doing. This is what I want to do. Do you want to pitch us?

And that’s the ultimate goal. The thing that pushed that all from an idea into a thing that I worked on and the thing that is coming out was my love of LeVar Burton’s podcast, “LeVar Burton Reads.” When he was finishing his podcast, I was at a point where I had to decide: am I going to do this, or am I just going to record a thing for my friend? 

I asked LeVar what he thought, and I said, “This is what I’m thinking about doing, and this is how I’m thinking about doing it, and I just really want to make sure that I don’t step on your toes. You absolutely inspire it.”

And it was so awesome. We were at the Burbank airport waiting to get on an airplane to go to a convention together, and LeVar just lit up and he hugged me, and he was like, “I’m so excited for you. I love it. It’s such a great idea. I give you my blessing. If there’s anything I can do to help you, please ask.”…

VT: I love that! The book market is so different now with everything online and self-publishing and all that, so a lot of stuff gets buried. This is such a cool way to get stuff out there. Did you have specific criteria in terms of what you were picking? Were there things that you’ve seen before?

Wil Wheaton: There were a couple of things that I’d seen before. I knew, for instance, that I loved Uncanny MagazineLightspeed Magazine, and Clarkesworld. I’ve been reading them for years, and when I was in the beginning, I went and looked for things… I was like, I’m going to do this entirely on my own.

And I went looking for new things. I went to all the writers’ markets. I went to all the very, very, very small publications. Most of ’em are online only in the double digits only. And I’m like, I’m going to find gems here. I know there are. And it turns out that I’m not good at that. It turns out that I don’t have that editorial skill.

So I went back to, okay, I love these magazines, and I love these editors. And as it turns out, a good friend of mine has a great relationship with Lynne and Michael Thomas, who are the editors of Uncanny, and she offered to make an introduction for me. I talked to them, and I told them what I wanted to do, and they were so excited. 

They were on board before I even finished, before I got to the part of the pitch where I was like, “So, do you want to work together?” They were like, “So what do you need from us?” I was like, “Holy crap. This is amazing.” Every step of the way….

VT: The podcast launches on March 26 — where can everybody find it?

Wil Wheaton: You can get it wherever you get podcasts. I’ve asked the team to make sure that it’s in all the usual places. So Apple Podcasts is probably the biggest, most centralized place for people to find it, but it’s also on Stitcher, Pocket Casts, Pandora, iHeart, and Spotify. I have a homepage for the podcast at WilWheaton.net/Podcast. And there’s a list there with links to all the different places that it’s online at the moment….

(6) C.L. MOORE’S SHAMBLEAU. [Item by Rich Horton.] I thought this essay very interesting. There’s a paywall but you get two free per month. “The Soul Should Not Be Handled” by B.D. McClay in The Point Magazine.

… I like genre fiction for the same reason I like black-and-white film, stylized dialogue, animation, the paintings of Marc Chagall or ballet: things feel more real if they’re obviously a little fake. If somebody asked me whether I preferred literary fiction to genre fiction (or vice versa) I would say, I hope, that I prefer good fiction to bad fiction. I think that this is a good response to a silly question, but there’s another one we could ask that’s a little more interesting: Is what makes a genre story good the same thing that makes realistic fiction good? Part of what makes genre genre is its place in a certain tradition with certain conventions and stock elements. If we are reading a detective story, we have certain figures and moments we come to expect: the amateur detective, the hapless sidekick, the suspicious woman, a second crime, a red herring, a solution. Part of what makes a detective story good or bad is its use of these expectations—a use that can (and often does) include subverting them. When it comes to speculative fiction, another dimension is that the boundaries between a fan, a professional and an amateur are never very clear. The landscape is more horizontal. You could, if you wanted, start a fanzine and get important writers to contribute; you could publish your first story ever in a magazine and get a letter from one of your most famous peers. Within genre, work can be wildly experimental, but this experiment takes place in a context of shared touchstones and trust in the audience. Writers of speculative fiction want to be read, and they have a good idea of who is out there reading their work….

…So let’s go back to that old issue of Weird Tales—it’s from November 1933—and to the first entry in the table of contents: “Shambleau,” “an utterly strange story” (the table of contents says) “about an alluring female creature that was neither beast nor human, neither ghost nor vampire.”…

(7) KEEPS BANGING ON. “’The Big Bang Theory’ Spinoff Title Is Stuart-Centric” says Deadline.

The Big Bang Theory spinoff on Max is untitled no more — and it’s good news and bad news for Kevin Sussman’s Stuart Bloom character.

The series, which remains in development, will be titled Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, Deadline has learned. That puts Stuart at the center of the offshoot but also hints that the beloved sidekick, who could never quite catch a break on Big Bang, might not have better luck on his own….

…On Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, Sussman is joined by fellow Big Bang alums Lauren Lapkus, who plays Stuart’s girlfriend Denise, Brian Posehn (Bert Kibbler) and John Ross Bowie (Barry Kripke). Because the series is still awaiting a green light, the quartet are not formally cast in it but have talent holding deals with WBTV with the purpose of starring in the spinoff once it’s picked up.

(8) SEE SYD MEAD ARTWORKS IN NEW YORK EXHIBITION. “Legendary Futurist Syd Mead Gets First Major Art Exhibition”Deadline has details.

For the first time, legendary visual futurist Syd Mead will have a major exhibition of his paintings. “Future Pastime” will run March 28-May 21 at the former Mitchell-Innes & Nash gallery space in Chelsea.

Long before the metaverse, Mead was crafting immersive future worlds that have shaped our collective imagination and became a defining force in science fiction cinema, designing iconic worlds. From the neon-drenched streets of Blade Runner (1982) to the sleek, geometric landscapes of TRON (1982), his influence on sci-fi films is undeniable. His designs also impacted Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) 2010 (1984), Aliens (1986), and many more. They even inspired Elon Musk’s Cybertruck.

Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1933, Mead was a visionary artist who redefined how we imagine the future. After serving in the U.S. Army, he studied at the Art Center School in Los Angeles, blending inspiration from classical masters like Caravaggio with the Space Age musings of Chesley Bonestell to create a singular and unprecedented art style: visions of the future rendered wholly with classical technique. His philosophy of science fiction as “reality ahead of schedule” defined a career that bridged imagination and reality. He died in 2019….

(9) TRIBUTE TO GINJER BUCHANAN. [Written by Cat Eldridge.] I have come to honor one of our most excellent Editors ever, Ginjer Buchanan. She was the Editor-in-Chief at Ace Books and Roc Books, two sff imprints of Penguin Books, where she stayed for an extraordinary thirty years before retiring. Prior to that, she was consulting editor for the Star Trek tie-ins at Pocket Books and an outside reader for the Science Fiction Book Club which just ended its long run.

And yes, she was active in fandom from an early age which included being a founding member of the Western Pennsylvania Science Fiction Association (WPSFA, or “Woops-fa” as it was affectionately known as she noted in a Locus interview.)

Berkley president and publisher Leslie Gelbman upon her retirement said of her: “During her thirty years with Ace and Roc, Ginjer was essential in growing our science fiction and fantasy list and launching the careers of several bestselling authors. Her love for the genre and books in general and dedication to her authors is unparalleled, and she’s a key reason Ace/Roc is one of the preeminent science fiction-fantasy publishers.”

She won a Hugo at Loncon 3 for Best Editor, Long Form and was nominated for the same at Nippon 2007, Denvention 3, Anticipation, Aussiecon 4 and Renovation.

She won the Nebula Solstice Award in 2013, and the same year saw her garner the Edward E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction (aka the Skylark). She was nominated in 2006 for a World Fantasy Award in the Special Award, Professional category for her work Ace Books but alas did not win. 

She was the Toastmaster at the World Fantasy Convention in 1989, and a Guest of Honor at ArmadilloCon in 1988, Foolscap in 2000 and at OryCon in 2008. Ginjer was also a Guest of Honor at the Dublin 2019 Worldcon, and a GOH at World Fantasy Con in New Orleans in 2022.

And yes, she’s written fiction. Her sole novel is a Highlander series tie-in, White Silence. It’s a most excellent novel, well worth reading, especially if you are a fan of that series. Yes I am. She’s got a deft feel for the characters and the milieu they’re a part of. Yes, it’s available from the usual suspects.

She’s also penned three short pieces of fiction, “The End of Summer by The Great Sea” in the Alternate Kennedys anthology, “Cathachresis” in the More Whatdunits anthology, and “If Horses Were Wishes …” in the By Any Other Fame anthology. The first two are edited by Mike Resnick alone, the last by Resnick and Martin H. Greenberg. All three are available are to be had from the usual suspects.

So being a serious Firefly fan, she has an essay, “Who Killed Firefly?” in the Jane Espenson edited Finding Serenity: Anti-Heroes, Lost Shepherds and Space Hookers in Joss Whedon’s Firefly collection. It’s available from the usual suspects. And yes, it’s a lot of fun to read if you’re a Firefly fan. Really it is. 

And being a fan of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, she penned “The Journey of Jonathan Levenson: From Scenery to Sacrifice” which was in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher’s Guide, Volume 3 edited by Paul Ruditis. This is not to be had from the usual suspects. 

Oh, and she has one published poem, “Four Views of Necon” published in Cemetery Dance’s The Big Book of Necon anthology edited by Bob Booth. No luck on this one either.

All in all, a truly amazing individual who has contributed in oh so many ways to our community, so let’s toast her now as she so richly deserves to be. 

Ginjer Buchanan

(10) COMICS SECTION.

(11) DC SHUFFLING AND REDEALING. “After 90 years of reboots, relaunches, and more, Batman & Superman and all of DC Comics continuity is getting a ‘realignment’ to be ‘one master timeline’” reports Popverse. I guess they’re going to get everything straightened out so they can get back to selling “Death of [fill in the suphero name]” megaissues.

If there’s one man who could reliably be considered to have the history of the DC Universe at his fingertips, it’d be Barry Allen — the former Flash who was the first hero to travel the multiverse and uncover the secrets behind DC’s reality. If there were two, then the other would be real-life comic book writer Mark Waid, long-time DC expert and writer of everything from The Flash and Kingdom Come to Action Comics and Justice League Unlimited. Starting this June, the two will be collaborating (well, kind of) to make fans’ dreams come true with the four-issue comic book series New History of the DC Universe.

Written by Waid and starring the erstwhile Mr. Allen, the series is intended to reveal the truth behind the DCU — including some secrets even longtime fans might be surprised by.

“This is my dream project,” Waid said in a statement about the series. “It’s a chance to realign all of DC’s sprawling continuity into one master timeline, and to be joined by some of comics’ greatest artists to make it shine. With new information for even longtime fans, plus Easter eggs galore, this series will be an essential read for DC fans.”

The first issue will feature art from Jerry Ordway and Todd Nauck, and will cover everything from the beginnings of the DCU through the origins of the Justice Society of America. Future issues will see an “all-star line-up of interior artists” contribute, according to DC, with an equally impressive group of cover artists working on the title throughout….

… This isn’t the first time DC has released an official version of its comic book canon: in 1986, the company published History of the DC Universe by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, the two creators who had just rebooted everything in the previous year’s Crisis on Infinite Earths series. It’s also not the first time that Mark Waid has worked on a project of this scope; in 2019, he wrote the six-issue History of the Marvel Universe, illustrated by Javier Rodriguez….

(12) DISNEY SHAREHOLDERS VOTE DOWN ANTI-WOKE PROPOSAL. “Disney Shareholders Reject Anti-LGBTQ Proposal at Annual Meeting”Variety explains the issue.

Disney investors on Thursday voted down a proposal that the entertainment giant cease its participation in a prominent LGBTQ rights organization’s equality ratings program.

The proposal — requesting that Disney “cease” its participation in the Human Rights Campaign‘s annual Corporate Equality Index — was submitted by right-wing think tank National Center for Public Policy Research, through its Free Enterprise Project initiative. (The FEP calls itself “the original and premier opponent of the woke takeover of American corporate life.”)

“When corporations take extreme positions, they destroy shareholder value by alienating large portions of their customers and investors. This proposal provides Disney with an opportunity to move back to neutral,” the FEP’s proposal stated. It noted that since 2007, Disney has received a “perfect score” on the CEI, “which can only be attained by abiding by its partisan, divisive and increasingly radical criteria.”…

… Disney’s board recommended voting against the proposal to end its participation in the HRC’s Corporate Equality Index. Shareholders concurred, with only 1% of shares voted in favor the proposal, according to the preliminary tally….

(13) AI DUBBING. “‘Watch the Skies,’ First Feature Film Dubbed Entirely With AI, Sets Distribution Deal With AMC Theatres” – and this Variety writer is enthusiastic.

A foreign language sci-fi movie is headed to U.S. movie theaters this spring, but audiences won’t have to groan about subtitles. For the first time, an international feature film will look and sound as if it was made in English thanks to artificial intelligence. 

Though the supernatural Swedish adventure “Watch the Skies” was made in its native tongue, AI company Flawless has digitally altered the film’s images and sound so character mouth movements and speech will be perfectly synced for English speaking viewers. The tech uses voices of the original cast to create dubs, and is compliant with SAG-AFTRA.

AMC Theatres, the nation’s top movie chain, has committed 100 screens to the project in the top 20 markets across America. Flawless has partnered with distributor XYZ films to roll the film out to cineplexes on May 9.

(14) THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN. “Dolphins welcome SpaceX’s Crew-9 astronauts home after splashdown (video)” at Space.com.

SpaceX’s Crew-9 astronauts had some company in the water after they splashed down on Tuesday afternoon (March 18).

The Crew-9 mission returned to Earth at 5:57 p.m. EDT (2157 GMT) on Tuesday, splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida. A fleet of recovery vessels soon converged on Crew-9‘s Dragon capsule, named Freedom — and so did some curious marine mammals, who wanted to check out this strange object that fell from the sky into their domain.

Freedom carried four people — NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore and Aleksandr Gorbunov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos — home from the International Space Station (ISS)…

…Crew-9’s splashdown was memorable and dramatic even before the dolphins showed up. It brought an end to the long space saga of Wilmore and Williams, which was a big story from the outset but became turbo-charged recently….

CNBC looks back at “NASA astronaut Suni Williams morning routine over 9 months in space”.

On April 16, 2007, Sunita “Suni” Williams ran the Boston Marathon. But she wasn’t in Boston. She wasn’t even in the United States.

Inside the International Space Station, more than 250 miles above sea level, the NASA astronaut became the first person to run a marathon in space.

Williams, now 59, found her endurance tested again in June 2024 after the Boeing capsule that brought her to the International Space Station malfunctioned. Her expected eight-day trip with fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore lasted nine months. The pair splashed down safely in Florida on Tuesday evening, and traveled to Houston that night.

While in space, astronauts must exercise two hours per day, every day, according to a NASA pamphlet, as zero-gravity conditions can cause “bone and muscle deterioration” over time. Williams worked out first thing as part of her morning routine — waking up at 5:30 a.m. GMT and “running, cycling, and weightlifting” until 7:30 a.m., according to ESPN. (NASA did not immediately respond to CNBC Make It’s request for comment on the amount of control Williams had over her schedule.)

Wilmore and Williams will now have to spend 45 days re-acclimatizing to Earth’s gravity, NPR reports. Their new routines will include a “personalized recovery program” of two hours per day that they spend exercising with personal trainers….

(15) NOW IT’S STRONGER, NOW IT’S WEAKENING. [Item by Mark Roth-Whitworth.] Last I heard, the expansion of the universe is speeding up. But… dark energy is now weakening. “Dark energy: mysterious cosmic force appears to be weakening, say scientists” – the Guardian explains.

Dark energy, the mysterious force powering the expansion of the universe, appears to be weakening, according to a survey that could “overthrow” scientists’ current understanding of the fate of the cosmos.

If confirmed, the results from the dark energy spectroscopic instrument (Desi) team at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona would have profound implications for theories about the evolution of the universe, opening up the possibility that its current expansion could eventually go into reverse in a “big crunch”.

A suggestion that dark energy reached a peak billions of years ago would also herald the first substantial change in decades to the widely accepted theoretical model of the universe….

… Dark energy has been assumed to be a constant, which would imply the universe will meet its end in a desolate scenario called the “big freeze”, when everything is eventually so far apart that even light cannot bridge the gap between galaxies. The latest findings, announced on Thursday at the American Physical Society’s Global Physics Summit in Anaheim, California, challenge that prevailing view.

Desi uses its 5,000 fibreoptic “eyes” to map the cosmos with unprecedented precision. Its latest data release captures 15m galaxies, spanning 11bn years of history, which astronomers have used to create the most detailed three-dimensional map of the universe to date.

The results suggest that dark energy reached a peak in strength when the universe was about 70% of its current age and it is now about 10% weaker. This would mean the rate of expansion is still accelerating, but that dark energy is gently lifting its foot off the pedal.…

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

Pixel Scroll 3/12/25 The Shire My Destination

(1) BOOK BANNING NEWS, [Item by Bruce D. Arthurs.] Malinda Lo’s Last Night At The Telegraph Club is one of a number of books being considered for a statewide ban in South Carolina. Lo wrote the review committee an excellent letter defending her book and others like it. “Telegraph Club Considered for Possible Statewide Ban in South Carolina”.

… The parent who challenged LNATTC and other books in Beaufort County and at the state level is Elizabeth Szalai. She had a 5% success rate in Beaufort County, but she has had a 100% success rate at the state level so far.

Szalai’s complaint claims that LNATTC “contains explicit sexual activities in violation of Regulation 43-170 specifically touching of breast and masterbation [sic].” The complaint includes excerpts of scenes from LNATTC stripped of their context. Indeed, the context of the entire novel is irrelevant to Regulation 43-170.

I am not optimistic that LNATTC will survive this challenge in South Carolina, but it’s still possible….

…I’ve written to South Carolina’s Instructional Materials Review Committee to support my book and to ask them to uphold our First Amendment rights. My letter is below:


Dear members of the Instructional Materials Review Committee of the South Carolina Department of Education:

My name is Malinda Lo, and I’m the author of several critically acclaimed and bestselling young adult novels, including Last Night at the Telegraph Club, which is currently under review by your committee. I’m writing to you not only as the author of this book, but as a concerned American citizen who believes strongly in our First Amendment.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club was the winner of the 2021 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Stonewall Book Award, the Asian Pacific American Award for Literature, the Kids’ Choice Awards Teen Book of the Year, and over over two dozen more honors and awards. It is a coming-of-age novel about a Chinese American girl discovering her identity as a lesbian in 1950s San Francisco. I am a Chinese American lesbian myself, and when I was a teen growing up in the 1980s and ’90s, I often felt alone and confused. I didn’t have access to books like this that would have helped me to better understand who I was. That’s why I write books about LGBTQ+ and Asian American characters. I’m writing the books I needed as a teen.

Since Telegraph Club was published, many LGBTQ+ and Asian American readers have contacted me to tell me how much this book meant to them. Seeing yourself in a book can be a transformative and empowering experience. One reader wrote to tell me, “Your books helped me love and accept myself.” A Chinese American reader wrote, “I feel so seen. Perhaps a little bit too seen, as I am on the verge of tears.” A teen from Nashville told me, “it means a lot to see people like me in literature, written by people like me.”

I’m an immigrant who came to the United States with my family from China when I was a child, and we settled in Boulder, Colorado. I grew up knowing that we came here to escape the oppression of the Chinese Communist government, which does not allow freedom of expression or the freedom to read. This is why I’ve always valued our First Amendment rights. The possibility that my book could be banned across the entire state of South Carolina alarms me because censorship goes directly against the ideals of our country.

I urge you to trust the judgement of your local teachers and librarians, who selected my book — and many others — for their school libraries based on their professional judgement and training. While not every book is for every reader, every reader deserves the freedom to choose what they wish to read, not to have those rights taken away from them by the state. I hope you will take this opportunity to support our fundamental rights and freedoms as Americans.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
Malinda Lo


The hearing is Thursday, March 13….

(2) GREG BEAR’S PAPERS TO SDSU. Astrid Bear updated readers of the late Greg Bear’s Facebook page:

My major task and accomplishment last year was sorting, boxing, and shipping Greg’s papers to his alma mater, San Diego State University, where they are held in the library’s Special Collections. There are 60+ boxes of journals, notes, manuscripts, and letters, plus a lot of his original artwork. It’s truly a treasure, a deep dive into his creative process and the breadth and depth of his thinking and interests. But here’s the thing about archived papers — for students and researchers to have meaningful access, there needs to be a catalogue of what’s there, called a finding aid, and the items need to be stored using archival standards, such as acid-free boxes. So, I’ve made a donation of $5,000 to help fund those efforts, and am asking you to help match that. A total of $10,000 will go a long way to make the archive accessible.

SDSU is having their major annual fundraising effort right now, so there’s a spiffy website interface for making donations. Link will be in the comments. If you are able to donate even a little bit, that will help meet the $10,000 goal. My match money is already there, just waiting to partner with yours.

“The link in the comments should take you my fundraising page. Scroll down to Matches and Challanges to find Library: $5K Match to the Special Collections Support Fund, and you’ll see my name there. Click on Contribute and it will take you to the page to enter your info. The designation should already be filled in, Library Special Collections Fund. If it’s not, go up a bit to the drop-down menu titled, “There are 6 matches and/or challenges running!” and select “Just for Library Special Collections Fund.”

“Thank you so much for considering this. SDSU and its libraries meant a lot to Greg, as did having his archives be available and studied long into the future.”

Here’s the link to the fundraiser: University Library · GiveCampus (sdsu.edu)

(3) PROZINE OWNERSHIP TRANSITION PLANS. Locus Online has extensive “Details on the New Owners of Analog, Asimov’s, and F&SF”, including statements from P.L. Stevens, publisher, of new owner Must Read Books Publishing, sellers Penny Publications and Gordon Van Gelder (F&SF), as well as Analog editor Trevor Quachri and Asimov’s editor Sheila Williams.

All editorial staff from the magazines have been retained in the acquisitions….

The parent company will take over sponsorship of the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, the Black Orchid Novella Award (with The Wolfe Pack), the Dell Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing, Asimov’s Readers Awards, AnLab Awards, The Analog Award for Emerging Black Authors, and Ellery Queen Readers Awards, among others.

(4) WHY YES, HOW DID YOU KNOW? Times have changed. People who’d had a few drinks and would want to avoid coming home smelling like the bar might chew a few Sen-Sen before they walked through the door. Today? To make sure they come home smelling that way – well, at least like they’ve had too much Butterbeer – Orly offers this line of Harry Potter-inspired cosmetics. “Ultimate Harry Potter™ Butterbeer™ Experience” at Orly Beauty.

Infused with the iconic BUTTERBEER™ scent from the Harry Potter™ film series, this collection features all four products from the BUTTERBEER™ collection. From a whimsical Iridescent Topper to a Quick Dry Nail Spray to Nourishing Cuticle Oil and Hydrating Cuticle Froth, your nail care routine is about to become your favorite experience.

(5) HALF-CENTURY OF ROCKY HORROR. “Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror’ Review: Sweet Doc Tribute” at The Hollywood Reporter.

Watching Linus O’Brien’s Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror, a new documentary launching out of SXSW, my most frequently thought was that — actual quality of the film notwithstanding — it’s an absolute blessing to be getting this examination of the Rocky Horror phenomenon at this particular moment in time.

Released tied to the 50th anniversary of the Rocky Horror Picture Show film, Strange Journey benefits to no small degree from the presence of O’Brien, son of The Rocky Horror Show creator Richard O’Brien — which means access to archives and memories and presumably easier facilitation of conversations with an astonishing assortment of people associated with the property at every level.

Richard O’Brien is 82; director Jim Sharman is 79; star Tim Curry is 78; Lou Adler, who brought the stage show from London to Los Angeles and then produced the movie, is 91. All are present in the documentary, as are musical director Richard Hartley, costumer Sue Blane, and stars including Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Patricia Quinn and even Peter Hinwood, who played Rocky and hasn’t acted since the ’70s. The time to get all of these people together, on camera, to discuss all things Rocky and share their stories is not infinite and, as a result, fans will find plenty to cherish in Strange Journey….

(6) COMICS ATTRACTING YOUNG READERS. [Item by Steven French.] This perhaps comes as no surprise to the parents among us: “’Something magical is happening’: sales boom for children’s comics creating young readers of the future” in the Guardian.

The best route to learning to love words in print could well be pictures. This, at least, is the hope of the publishing industry this spring, as it welcomes news that sales of children’s comics and graphic novels have reached an all-time peak of almost £20m in Britain.

While publishers and editors are celebrating this boom for its own sake, the popularity of these titles is also being hailed as a good omen for novels, ahead of the London Book Fair at Olympia this week. “Over the last decade we’ve seen a significant rise in sales of graphic novels for both the adult and children’s markets,” said Philip Stone, media analyst at NielsenIQ BookData, as he revealed details of the latest trends, hits and flops this weekend.

“Superhero books have been a reliably big feature, probably boosted by all the screen superhero movies. A lot of manga series are doing very well again, and this may also be linked to screen versions. What we really need now is some deep-dive research into the impact of graphic and comic fiction as a gateway for young people into reading. We certainly suspect it’s true.”…

(7) GENE WINFIELD (1927-2025). Custom car creator Gene Winfield died March 4 at the age of 97 reports Deadline.

Gene Winfield, a pioneering legend in the hot-rod world who created custom cars for numerous films and TV shows including Blade Runner, the original Star Trek series, RoboCop, Get Smart! and many others, has died. He was 97.

Winfield’s …. most famous creations include the iconic Galileo shuttlecraft and the Jupiter 8 for Star Trek [seen in the episode “Bread and Circuses”]and the “spinners” for Blade Runner, which was nominated for the Special Effects Oscar. He also built the Catmobile for TV’s Batman and gadget cars for Get Smart! and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

His futuristic vehicles are seen in Back to the Future II, the original RoboCopThe Last Starfighter, Woody Allen’s Sleeper and others. Winfield’s cars also are seen in the Dirty Harry sequel Magnum Force, Bewitched, Ironside, TV’s Mission: Impossible and more….

(8) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

JDM Bibliophile zine

JDM Bibliophile (1965–2004). This one is for John D. Macdonald completists.

John D. MacDonald became the subject of a fan magazine in March 1965 when Len and June Moffatt of Downey, California first published the JDM Bibliophile (JDMB), devoted to his work. MacDonald starting writing for pulp magazines in 1946 during their waning days.

JDMB, a mimeographed magazine at the time, was described in its initial issue as a “non-profit amateur journal devoted to the readers of John D. MacDonald and related matters.” A goal was to obtain complete bibliographic information on all of MacDonald’s writings, and this was partly achieved with The JDM Master Checklist, published in 1969 by the Moffatts. 

They had help from many people, including MacDonald himself. Though he kept good records, he, like most authors, didn’t have complete publishing data on his own work. Especially helpful to the Moffatts were William J. Clark and another couple, Walter and Jean Shine of Florida. 

The Shines published an updated version of the Checklist in 1980, adding illustrations, a biographical sketch, and a listing of articles and reviews of MacDonald. JDMB offered news and reviews of MacDonald’s writings and their adaptation to various media. There were also contributions from MacDonald, including reminiscences and commentary. The Moffatts contributed a column (“& Everything”), as did the Shines (“The Shine Section”). Other JDM fans sent articles, letters, and parodies. One issue, #25 in 1979, included the Shines’ “Confidential Report, a Private Investigators’ File on Travis McGee,” describing information gleaned from the McGee canon about his past, interests, cases, and associates. MacDonald once said of Walter Shine, “He knows more about Travis than I do.” 

After the Moffatts had published twenty-two issues of JDMB, it was transferred in 1979 to the University of South Florida in Tampa, with Professor Edgar Hirshberg as editor. It continued until 1999. One final issue, #65, was published as a memorial to Hirshberg who had died in June 2002. It was edited by Valerie Lawson. On February 21, 1987, about a hundred McGee fans gathered at his “address,” Slip F-18 at the Bahia Mar Marina in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where McGee kept his houseboat The Busted Flush. The mayor of Fort Lauderdale unveiled a plaque honoring McGee.

Amazon has scattered back issues available. 

So this cover for one of them done by an unknown USF student. If is not considered a close representation of The Busted Flush. For that, you should see the second image which is from The Busted Flush fan site as it “is a rendering of the boat, which MacDonald felt was very close to what he had in mind, but, as he always said about the boat and Travis McGee, he did not want to be exact about either.  Let the reader fill in the gaps.” 

(9) COMICS SECTION.

(10) SHELVES OF DREAMS. “If You Build It, Comic Book Fans Will Come” contends Publishers Weekly.

Periodical comics made the leap from convenience store spinner racks to trade paperback collections at bookstore chains in the 1980s. And while the transition did present some initial challenges to booksellers—in those early days, it wasn’t uncommon to see superhero titles shelved next to Garfield in the “humor section”—the move proved both lucrative and permanent. Today, comics can be found wherever books are sold, with big-box retailers devoting considerable real estate to graphic novels. How do smaller specialty shops compete?

“Community is essential to the business,” says Jenn Haines, owner of The Dragon, an Eisner Spirit of Retailing Award–winning shop in Guelph, Ontario. “Generally, people who read comics have found themselves not quite fitting in.” But fans can find community, she adds, by browsing the shelves.

According to the latest ICv2 industry report, of the $1.87 billion in comics and graphic novel sales in 2023, 61% are from book channels, while 36% are via the direct market, which comprises approximately 3,000 specialty comics retailers. Indications are that specialty shops’ share rose in 2024, which was “a pretty good year in comic stores,” reports Milton Griepp, president of ICv2, which did not release full figures by press time.

According to Haines, her store’s annual sales have been generally consistent over the past five years. The Dragon’s overall 2024 sales, which includes games and toys, were up 3% over 2023, with sales of comics and graphic novels increasing 5%….

(11) UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS. Conor Dougherty analyzes “How ‘Silo’ and ‘Paradise’ Envision Housing After the Apocalypse” in the New York Times (behind a paywall).

Paradise” is a TV show on Hulu about a postapocalyptic society that lives underground in a suburb. “Silo” is a TV show on Apple TV+ about a postapocalyptic society that lives underground in an apartment tower.

Both are propelled by mysteries. Both feature curious heroes. Both have shifty leaders who lie, blackmail and murder to keep their secrets hidden and their denizens in line.

The shows have much in common, in other words.

But somehow they find opposing answers to a question that seems increasingly relevant in a warming world: If the planet goes to hell and humanity heads to a bunker, what sort of neighborhood will we build inside it? A spacious holdout that tries to approximate a comfortable standard of living, or a cramped locker that saves more lives but leaves the survivors miserable?

By imagining wildly different landscapes in response to the same end-of-the-world conceit, the shows use cinematic extremes to show how civilization and class divisions are constructed through the apportionment of space. People like to live around other people right up to the moment they feel their neighborhood has been overrun by others, at which point the hunger for togetherness becomes an impulse to exclude.

A good amount of today’s housing politics fall within these parameters, whether it’s a proposal to build apartments in a suburb or a plan to cover farms with a new city. The fact that this debate now extends to fictional bunkers has me convinced that in the aftermath of global calamity, people will be at some dystopian City Council meeting arguing about zoning….

(12) WHEN BUSINESS IS BOOMING AND THAT’S NOT GOOD. [Item by Mark Roth-Whitworth.] I don’t want to just link to an X-twit post, so… Sounds like they should *not* have launched that last one, given this. My take is that Elon was hurting, the attacks by the public on him, and on Tesla, and he said “launch”. As reported on Slashdot: “Anonymous Sources: Starship Needs a Major Rebuild After Two Consecutive Failures”.

According to information at this tweet from anonymous sources, parts of Starship will likely require a major redesign due to the spacecraft’s break-up shortly after stage separation on its last two test flights. These are the key take-aways, most of which focus on the redesign of the first version of Starship (V1) to create the V2 that flew unsuccessfully on those flights…

(13) BUSY SKIES. “Saturn Gains 128 New Moons, Bringing Its Total to 274” – the New York Times is counting.

Astronomers say they have discovered more than 100 new moons around Saturn, possibly the result of cosmic smashups that left debris in the planet’s orbit as recently as 100 million years ago.

The gas giant planets of our solar system have many moons, which are defined as objects that orbit around planets or other bodies that are not stars. Jupiter has 95 known moons, Uranus 28, and Neptune 16. The 128 in the latest haul around Saturn bring its total to 274.

“It’s the largest batch of new moons,” said Mike Alexandersen at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, an author of a paper announcing the discovery that will be published in the days ahead in Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society.

Many of these moons are rocks only a few miles across — small compared with our moon, which is 2,159 miles across. But as long as they have trackable orbits around their parent body, the scientists who catalog objects in the solar system consider them to be moons. That is the responsibility of the International Astronomical Union, which ratified the 128 new moons of Saturn on Tuesday….

… The current naming scheme for moons on Saturn is based on characters from Norse and other mythology.

“Maybe at some point they’ll have to expand the naming scheme further,” Dr. Alexandersen said….

(14) LANDING IN THE FINAL FRONTIER. “Saucer-like ‘Winnebago’ space capsule lands in Australia — marking 1st for commercial space industry” reports Live Science.

A saucer-like space capsule touched down in the Australian outback last month, marking the first time a commercial spacecraft has landed Down Under.

Varda Space Industries’ Winnebago-2 (W-2) space capsule reentered Earth’s atmosphere and dropped down in South Australia on Feb. 28. In doing so, W-2 also set a world first by becoming the first commercial spacecraft to return to a commercial spaceport, according to a statement released by the Australian Space Agency.The successful return of W-2 was a “landmark moment for the Australian space sector,” Australian Space Agency representatives wrote in the statement.

The company behind W-2, Varda, is an American startup based in California. W-2 originally left Earth from California on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Jan. 14 as part of the Transporter-12 rideshare mission — the Transporter carries satellites from various customers into space. W-2 then spent 45 days in orbit, carrying payloads from the U.S. Air Force and NASA before dropping down to the Koonibba Test Range, run by Australian aerospace company Southern Launch….

(15) BEAST GAMES PITCH MEETING. [Item by Mike Kennedy.] Beast Games was apparently inspired in part by how much the host (famed YouTuber Mr. Beast) enjoys Squid Games. But there’s also apparently zero to very little about the actual games played on BGs that is inspired by games on SGs. Also, no killing the contestants. Not that I’ve ever watched either show (or anything by Mr. Beast), nor would I care to.

[Thanks to Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Daniel Dern, Bruce D. Arthurs, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, and Mike Kennedy for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel “Good, Bester, Best!” Dern.]

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

(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 DragonquestDragonflight and The White Dragon plus Harper Hall trilogy of DragonsongDragonsinger 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.

(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 1/18/25 “All These Pixels Are Just For Us” Said Tom Clickishly

(1) CLOCK NOT RUNNING OUT ON TIKTOK? Yesterday’s Deadline’s article “Supreme Court Upholds Law Banning TikTok In U.S.” initially reported —

…the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday upheld a lower court ruling that the app owned by China’s ByteDance must sell itself or be banned in the U.S. on January 19 due to national security concerns….

Read the Supreme Court’s full TikTok opinion here….

…The ban would take effect under a new bipartisan law, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Controlled Applications Act, signed by President Joe Biden last year….

However, the incoming President said he will probably delay the ban: “Trump says he will ‘most likely’ give TikTok 90-day extension to avoid ban” at NBC News.

President-elect Donald Trump told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in a phone interview Saturday that he will “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from a potential ban in the U.S. after he takes office Monday….

And Deadline subsequently added this update to its article:

TikTok’s CEO has responded to a Supreme Court ruling today that paves the way for the app to be banned on Sunday, thanking the incoming president. “On behalf of everyone at TikTok and all our users across the country, I want to thank President Trump for his commitment to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States,” said chief executive Shou Chew in a video posted to the platform.

“We are grateful and pleased to have the support of a president who truly understands our platform, one who has used TikTok to express his own thoughts and perspectives, connecting with the world and generating more than 60 billion views of his content in the process,” he said. “As you know, we have been fighting to protect the constitutional right of free speech for the more than 170 million Americans who use our platform every day to connect, create, discover and achieve their dreams.”

(2) WHY WE FIGHT. CrimeReads’ fascinating analysis of “Pride and Prejudice and Nazis: On Aldous Huxley’s Wild Wartime Jane Austen Adaptation” teases out its threads of pre-WWII propaganda.

…But underneath its thick, saccharine coating; the film is something else: a contrived, convoluted morsel of political propaganda. Filmed by on American soil by Metro Goldwyn Mayer, this British adaptation shot directly after the French surrender to the Nazis, released during the Battle of Britain, and co-screenwritten by depressed British idealist Aldous Huxley, managed to transform that famous English book Pride and Prejudice into a partisan plug relying on Depression-era escapism, thematic idealization of a nationalistic Anglocentric tradition, the depiction of highly distracting romantic merriment, and a reassuringly happy ending to prepare and energize Americans for the inevitable: the United States’ joining the Allied Forces overseas to fight in World War II….

…Austen, Jerome, and Huxley place the same emphasis on class, however, in that all three versions have the same classless ending—Jane and Mr. Bingley marry, and Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy marry, despite their class and financial differences.  The concept of any Pride and Prejudice adaptation is that is possible to climb up a social ladder, because everyone is equal—or rather, everyone has the ability to be equal. Most of the characters belong in many social circles, and it is possible to find love or friendship somewhere else.  Perhaps this is the dominant reason why Huxley chose the Pride and Prejudice story for his anti-war-but-if-you-have-to-fight-then-fight-with-these-guys-esque opus instead of another classical novel (after all, many of other elements of the film Pride and Prejudice that make it jingoistic lie in plot alterations, or aesthetics —changes that could applied to any other story in the adaptation process): Pride and Prejudice is, at its core, a story about good, smart everyday people who make mistakes but learn their lessons just as much as it is a story about how important it is not to form judgments. Huxley nearly abuses this tone by exaggerating it in his own, though; any shred of mystery about the moral of the story is completely detonated throughout.  For example, in the film, Mr. Darcy comforts Elizabeth after Caroline Bingley insults her.  Elizabeth is shocked, and informs him, “At this moment, it’s difficult to believe that you are so proud.”  Mr. Darcy smiles vainly and answers back, “at this moment, it’s difficult to believe that you are so prejudiced.” Huxley spells out the main paradox of the story, killing the main thematic mystery – the only thing left for the audience to wonder is how they can get shipped off to fun, idyllic England.  Austen’s tone is inclusive, it’s happy, it’s insightful, and it’s open-minded—so now it fights fascism.

Of course, the aesthetics of the film Pride and Prejudice hide these anti-Nazi sentiments under tons and tons of poofy dresses and behind maypoles. For example, in the script, Huxley and Murfin manage to turn the extravagant Netherfield Ball into a garden party, which the film then turns into a frothy visual circus—where everything appears to be made out of cotton candy and wishes….

(3) LIU CIXIN MUSEUM. “Museum dedicated to sci-fi writer opens” from Chinadaily.com in October 2024.

China launched its first literary museum dedicated to Liu Cixin, a renowned science fiction writer and Hugo Award winning novelist, in Yangquan, Shanxi province, on Sunday.

While accepting the nation’s honor and unveiling the Liu Cixin Sci-fi Museum, Liu, author of the acclaimed sci-fi novel trilogy The Three-Body Problem who grew up in Yangquan, said that he hopes the museum can help the general public gain a better understanding of the sci-fi literature and develop an interest in the genre.

Located at a cultural park, the 700-square-meter museum educates visitors about Liu’s growth, his books and awards, and cultural and creative products derived from his works. Immersive projectors also create an atmosphere mimicking interstellar voyages described in Liu’s novels….

… Yan Jingming, vice-president of the China Writers Association, said that the establishment of the museum is not only an homage to Liu and his works but also serves as a beacon for China’s sci-fi writers and fans.

He said he hopes it will bring like-minded sci-fi novelists together and spark more inspiration and works.

The launch was part of a weeklong sci-fi promotional event in Yangquan that also included a symposium on sci-fi literature and real-world productivity, where Liu shared his thoughts on potential immigration to Mars.

“I would love to go to Mars if it were a round trip,” Liu said, explaining that a one-way journey would not suit him as he had work to do and family members to be with on Earth….

(4) WHAT’S THAT SMELL? Neil Baker returns with more horrible dino movies in “Prehistrionics, Part III” at Black Gate.

We’re off on another adventure filled to the brim with disappointment. 20 films I’ve never seen before, all free to stream, all dinosaur-based.

First on his list, last in his heart:

The Jurassic Dead (2017) Tubi

Just how bad is the CG? Rubbish.

Sexy scientist? Nope.

Mumbo jumbo? Reanimation, dinosaurs, zombies, asteroids.

Just in case you thought I might try to start the year on a high note, might I present this tripe. The premise is simple: a Herbert West type (complete with glowing green reanimating fluid and dead cat) loses his job and decides to destroy the world. Somehow he has a T-Rex, which he zombifies, and then he turns into Immortan Joe and sets off an EMP just as asteroids wipe out some cities. A crack, sorry crap, team of commandos based on 80s action figures must team up with a group of hugely unlikeable civilians to survive.

Everything ends in nuclear devastation. Effects-wise, the dinosaur is a cute, Walking with Dinosaurs puppet, but everything else is shockingly awful green screen composites. Just terrible.

3/10

(5) GAIMAN: ART AND ARTIST. NPR’s popular culture commentator Glen Weldon speaks as “One longtime Neil Gaiman fan on where we go from here”.

…While we don’t know whether these disturbing allegations are true, learning of them naturally leads to a deeply personal, complicated question: How do we deal with allegations about artists whose work we admire — even revere?

I should note: It’s a complicated question for most of us. It’s not remotely complicated for those who rush to social media to declare that they never truly liked the creator’s work in the first place, or that they always suspected them, or that the only possible response for absolutely everyone is to rid themselves of the now-poisoned art that, before learning of the allegations against the creator, they loved so dearly.

Nor is it complicated for those who will insist that a creator’s personal life has no bearing on how we choose to respond to their work, and that the history of art is a grim, unremitting litany of monstrous individuals who created works of enduring, inviolate beauty.

Most of us, however, will find ourselves mired in the hand-wringing of the in-between. We’ll make individual, case-by-case choices, we’ll cherry-pick from the art, we’ll envision ourselves, in years ahead, sampling lightly from the salad bar of the artist’s collected works, and feeling a little lousy about it.

Here’s my personal approach, whenever allegations come out about an artist whose work is important to me: I see the moment I learned of them as an inflection point. From that very instant, it’s on me.The knowledge of the allegations will color their past works, when and if I choose to revisit them in the future. It won’t change how those works affected me back then, and there’s no point in pretending it will. But my newfound understanding of the claims can and will change how those works affect me today, and tomorrow.

To put that in practical perspective: If I own any physical media of their past work, I feel free to revisit it, while leaving plenty of room for the new allegations to color my impressions. But as for any future work — that’s a door I’m only too willing to shut….

(6) HINT: IT’S ZELAZNY. Grammaticus Books asks is he “The MOST DISRESPECTED Science Fiction author of ALL TIME ???” How could you not click on that?

An indepth analysis of the works of science fiction and fantasy author Roger Zelazny. With a focus on his lack of recognition as one of the greats of the SF field. Worthy of mention alongside Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Frank Herbert.

(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

January 18, 1953Pamela Dean, 72.

By Paul Weimer: One of the legends of Minneapolis fantasy writing, Pamela Dean’s work first came to my attention in the same season that also brought such novels as War for the Oaks to my attention. From my perch in New York, work by people like Bull and Dean and Brust (among others) enlightened me to the fact that the Twin Cities was a hotbed of fantasy and science fiction writing. 

I started reading her with her classic Tam Lin, which I picked up not long after the aforementioned Bull novel. (I was on a kick to read novels set in Minnesota at that point, you seem, especially by this community).  It’s an excellent adaptation and exploration of the Scottish-English story. You know the one. Young man taken by a Queen or noble of Faerie, and the titular Tam Lin must thus be rescued by the love of his life, Janet. You can see the appeal, it is an empowering fantasy that puts a woman in a forward, protagonist position. Since the original reels and songs, it’s been adapted many times by many authors. Dean’s version has the story take place, predictably in Minnesota, setting it at Blackrock College. 

But it is the Secret Country trilogy that I think of as her best work, or at any rate my favorite. It’s a conceit that was not new to her, as far as I am aware, it dates back to Joel Rosenberg’s Guardians of the Flame series: the idea that a group of people, playing a game with and imagining a fantasy world, find themselves transported into the realm of the very game that they thought was fiction. The idea is the same, but the Secret country is on the brink of war, there’s a dragon afoot, and so there is far more urgency and threat to the realm than wandering about as in Rosenberg’s series. It is one of the classic portal fantasies into a realm you think you already known. 

I’ve gotten to meet Pamela Dean many times at local cons. She might even be able to pick me out of a line up. Happy birthday, Pamela!

Pamela Dean

(8) MEMORY LANE

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Six Million Dollar Man (1973)

Fifty-two years ago, The Six Million Dollar Man premiered on ABC. It was based on Martin Caidin’s Cyborg. Executive Producer was Harve Bennett, who you will recognize from the Star Trek films. It was produced by Kenneth Johnson who would later do The Bionic Woman spin-off and the Alien Nation film. 

Its primary cast was Lee Majors,  Richard Anderson and Martin E. Brooks. Majors had a successful second series shortly after this series was cancelled, The Fall Guy, about heart-of-gold bounty hunters. The Six Million Dollar Man would run for five seasons consisting of ninety-nine episodes and five films. The Fall Guy would run five seasons as well. 

Reception by media critics is generally positive. Phelim O’Neil of The Guardian says, “He was Superman, James Bond and Neil Armstrong all rolled into one, and $6M was an almost incomprehensibly large amount of money: how could anyone not watch this show?” And Rob Hunter of Film School Reviews states “The story lines run the gamut from semi-believable to outright ludicrous, but even at its most silly the show is an entertaining family friendly mix of drama, humor, action, and science fiction.”

It’s streaming on Peacock. 

(9) MEMORY LANE, TOO.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

The Demolished Man (1952)

Seventy-three years ago, Alfred Bester’s The Demolished Man was first published in three parts starting in the January 1952 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction. Although he had been writing short fiction since 1939, this was Bester’s first novel.

The novel is dedicated to Galaxy‘s editor, H. L. Gold, who made suggestions during its writing. 

Bester’s preferred title was Demolition! but Gold convinced him it was not a good one. Anyone know where the published title came from? Bester or Gold? 

The Demolished Man would be published in hardcover by Shasta Publishers the next year. Shasta Publishers was formed by a group of Chicago area fans in 1947.

Critics at the time really loved it. 

Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas in their Recommended Reading column for The Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy said it was “a taut, surrealistic melodrama [and] a masterful compounding of science and detective fiction.” And Groff Conklin in his Galaxy 5 Star Shelf column exclaimed that it is “a magnificent novel as fascinating a study of character as I have ever read.”

As you know The Demolished Man would win the first Hugo for Best Novel at PhilCon II. It was also nominated for the International Fantasy Award. 

(10) COMICS SECTION.

  • Off the Mark has a frightening brand name.
  • Pardon My Planet knows you could explain this vampire’s problem.
  • Tom Gauld’s editor is like Cosby’s refrigerator light – “How do it know?”

My cartoon for this week’s @theguardian.com books.

Tom Gauld (@tomgauld.bsky.social) 2025-01-18T10:35:58.069Z

(11) YOU HAVE TO BE EITHER OH-SO-SMART, OR OH-SO-NICE. [Item by Mike Kennedy.] In a twist, the words coming from the Merc with a Mouth are just fine. It’s what Nicepool said that Justin Baldoni finds offensive. And has filed a lawsuit over. “How Deadpool Entered Justin Baldoni-Blake Lively Feud With Nicepool” at The Hollywood Reporter.

Half a century ago, a defining question of the Watergate scandal was, “What did the president know and when did he know it?” Today, a surprising question has emerged in the Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni legal saga: “What did Nicepool say, and when did he say it?”

On Tuesday, a letter from Baldoni attorney Bryan Freedman to Disney landed in the hands of the media. Freedman’s legal hold letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger and Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige — in which he addressed them as “Bob” and “Kevin” — asked the studio to preserve any documents regarding Baldoni and the creation of Nicepool, a minor character in Deadpool & Wolverine that internet sleuths (and Freedman himself) say star-writer-producer Ryan Reynolds used to mock Baldoni….

… Freedman suggests work on Nicepool came as Reynolds’ wife, Lively, was in the midst of a contentious shoot with her It Ends With Us director-star Baldoni. She later filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against him, while on Thursday, Baldoni sued Reynolds, Lively and Lively’s publicist, Leslie Sloane.

So, how (and when) did Nicepool end up in the movie?

The character was developed before the rift between Lively and Baldoni, but sources tell THR that scenes involving Nicepool were shot late in the game following the November 2023 conclusion of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

“It was all added post-strike,” says one knowledgeable source of the shooting schedule, who says the scenes were filmed in the final days of principal photography, which wrapped up in January 2024. 

In other words, the scenes were shot during a high point of tension between Lively and Baldoni….

(12) WHAT WE DID IN THE SHADOWS. “U.S. Reveals Once-Secret Support for Ukraine’s Drone Industry” in the New York Times (behind a paywall).

The Biden administration declassified one last piece of information about how it has helped Ukraine: an account of its once-secret support for the country’s military drone industry.

U.S. officials said on Thursday that they had made big investments that helped Ukraine start and expand its production of drones as it battled Russia’s larger and better-equipped army.

Much of the U.S. assistance to the Ukrainian military, including billions of dollars in missiles, air defense systems, tanks, artillery and training, has been announced to the public. But other support has largely gone on in the shadows….

… Last fall, the Pentagon allocated $800 million to Ukraine’s drone production, which was used to purchase drone components and finance drone makers. When President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine visited the White House in September, President Biden said another $1.5 billion would be directed to Ukraine’s drone industry.

American officials said on Thursday that they believe the investments have made Ukraine’s drones more effective and deadly. They noted that Ukraine’s sea drones had destroyed a quarter of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, and that drones deployed on the front lines had helped slow Russia’s advances in eastern Ukraine….

(13) STARSHIP TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED. “F.A.A. Temporarily Halts Launches of Musk’s Starship After Explosion” reports the New York Times. (Behind a paywall.)

The urgent radio calls by the air traffic controllers at the Federal Aviation Administration office in Puerto Rico started to go out on Thursday evening as a SpaceX test flight exploded and debris began to rain toward the Caribbean.

Flights near Puerto Rico needed to avoid passing through the area — or risk being hit by falling chunks of the Starship, the newest and biggest of Elon Musk’s rockets.

“Space vehicle mishap,” an air traffic controller said over the F.A.A. radio system, as onlookers on islands below and even in some planes flying nearby saw bright streaks of light as parts of the spacecraft tumbled toward the ocean.

Added a second air traffic controller: “We have reports of debris outside of the protected areas so we’re currently going to have to hold you in this airspace.”

The mishap — the Starship spacecraft blew up as it was still climbing into space — led the F.A.A. on Friday to suspend any additional liftoffs by SpaceX’s Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built.

The incident raises new questions about both the safety of the rapidly increasing number of commercial space launches, or at least the air traffic disruption being caused by them….

(14) BIG BOY REMEMBERS DAVID LYNCH? For some reason there’s a David Lynch memorial at the Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank – Patton Oswalt posted photos. (Is there some reference involved? Maybe one of you can explain it to me.)

The marginal details of the David Lynch memorial at the Burbank Bob’s Big Boy are what make it.

Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt.bsky.social) 2025-01-18T19:55:32.073Z

Hold the phone – John King Tarpinian sent me the answer.

(15) VIDEO OF THE DAY. Retired Disney Imagineer Jim Shull tells how “Toy Story Land went from a one and done to a Disney- land built in four separate parks. How the toys were Imagineered is the subject in this episode of Disney Journey.” “Imagineering Toy Story Land”.

[Thanks to SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, 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 Daniel Dern.]

Pixel Scroll 1/16/25 Let’s Read Our TBR Piles, And Travel Mental Gigamiles

(1) IS ANYONE STILL PUBLISHING GAIMAN? Publishers Weekly tries to track down whether Neil Gaiman has any works scheduled to come out — “How Neil Gaiman’s Publishers Have Responded to the Sexual Misconduct Allegations” – and discovers it is much easier to get answers from those that definitely haven’t any.

…Gaiman’s literary agent, Merrilee Heifetz at Writers House, did not respond to requests for comment by press time, nor did his public speaking agent, Steven Barclay of the eponymous agency, leaving it unclear as to whether either has dropped him as a client. On Gaiman’s website, a page called “Contacting Neil,” which had listed both agents alongside his Hollywood representation, is now down, although the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine indicates that it was live as recently as last month.

At present, it is unclear if Gaiman, the author of nearly 50 books that have sold more than 50 million combined copies worldwide, has any new forthcoming titles currently under contract, although some publishers have confirmed that if he does, it is not with them. On the trade book side, a spokesperson from HarperCollins, Gaiman’s primary publisher in the United States, told PW that it “does not have any new books by Neil Gaiman scheduled.”

A spokesperson for Norton, which released Gaiman’s 2018 book on Norse mythology as well as an illustrated version last year, confirmed to PW that “Norton will not have projects with the author going forward.”…

In the comics world, a representative from Dark Horse Comics, which has published a number of comics and graphic novel titles by Gaiman as well as the Neil Gaiman Library series, said that the publisher is currently working on a statement, but was unable to comment further. Marvel Comics told the New York Times that it has no books in the works with Gaiman. DC Comics, the publisher of Gaiman’s Sandman series and many of his other comics titles, did not respond to requests for comment; DC had previously announced plans to reprint a classic work by Gaiman in a new format in September….

The article also presents a roundup of recent terse social media remarks about Gaiman by Jeff VandeMeer, John Scalzi, Gail Simone, Guy Gavriel Kay, and Scott McCloud.

(2) FINDING THE ANSWER. Kameron Hurley analyzes “Why Great Art Connects Us Across Time and Space (Even with Monsters)”.

…When people burst into tears when they meet me at an event, it’s not because I write about giant bugs and exploding heads. Those things are cool, yes! But they react that way because they connected EMOTIONALLY with something I wrote. It’s that feeling like “OMG I’m not alone. I feel that TOO!!”

Art is, at its best, a way for humans to connect. We’re holding out a hand saying “I felt this way. Have you ever felt this way too?” And no, not everyone has, and thus those are not people who are going to be yours fans. But many HAVE. And if you’ve done it right, you connect with that person across time and space – and for one glorious moment, we feel less alone.

THAT is great fucking art. THAT is magic. It’s a magic every great storyteller has; heroes and villains alike. Perhaps that’s why we hate it so much when we’ve connected with art made by people who have done monstrous things. It makes us ask if we, too, are monsters.

I know the answer to that.

I connect emotionally with fictional monsters (and the work of people who’ve done monstrous things) all the time. We all do. We are human. We share the multitude of all human emotions and possible actions with the best and worst people in the world. That’s terrifying.

This is why the STORIES we tell ourselves are so important. I changed a lot of who I was by asking myself how the person I wanted to be would act in any given situation. FEELING a monstrous impulse isn’t what makes us monsters. It’s taking the ACTIONS of a monster. It’s being aware enough to choose….

(3) BENEATH THE JERSEY SKIES. “Steven Spielberg’s new UFO movie with Emily Blunt is filming in N.J., casting locals.”NJ.com has the story. Well, isn’t that a coincidence.

…The filming will take place in March — not long off from Jersey’s brush with drone and/or plane-related, supposedly “unidentified” flying objects at the end of 2024.

The movie, which is as yet untitled — but reportedly (tentatively) titled “The Dish” — also stars Emmy winner Josh O’Connor (”The Crown,” “Challengers,” “La Chimera”), Oscar nominee Colman Domingo (”Rustin,” “Sing Sing”), Oscar winner Colin Firth (”The King’s Speech,” “Bridget Jones’s Diary”) and Eve Hewson (”Bad Sisters”)….

(4) FANTASY MAGAZINE SUBMISSION DATES. Correcting the information released yesterday, editor Arley Sorg says the revived Fantasy Magazine plans to open to submissions January 22-29, and specifically, Jan 22-25 BIPOC writers only, Jan 26-29 general submissions. See submission guidelines at the link.

(5) HOWARD ANDREW JONES DIES. Author and editor Howard Andrew Jones died January 16 of cancer. Known for The Chronicles of Hanuvar series, The Chronicles of Sword and Sand series and The Ring-Sworn trilogy, he has also written Pathfinder Tales, tie-in fiction novels in the world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. He is the editor of Tales from the Magician’s Skull and has served as a Managing Editor at Black Gate since 2004.

In August 2024 he announced that he has been diagnosed with brain cancer––multifocal glioblastoma – and that, “People I trust––my doctors and my family––inform me it will be fatal, and we are deciding now on a course of action to make the most of the time I have left.” 

(6) DAVID LYNCH (1946-2024). Filmmaker David Lynch has died at the age of 78. Deadline says the family did not release the date of death. Never forget – Frank Herbert liked his film Dune.

…The four-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker [was] behind Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, Eraserhead, Wild at Heart, The Elephant Man and others [and] also created the ABC drama series Twin Peaks…

…In 2020, he received an Honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement at the Governors Awards….

…Lynch’s career took off during the 1980s. He followed up the success of Elephant Man with Dune, the 1984 take on Frank Herbert’s classic sci-fi novel. While Dune was noted for being a financial bomb at the time, it wound up being the highest-grossing film on the auteur’s résumé with $31.5M worldwide….

(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

January 16, 1948John Carpenter, 77.

By Paul Weimer: Where does one begin with the large and momentous oeuvre of John Carpenter? With the many-sequeled and rebooted but never equaled Halloween, perhaps? To start there means that we skip the strange and wondrously weird Dark Star. And it skips the gritty Assault on Precinct 13.  Do we instead focus on The Thing, one of the best SF/horror movies ever to be made? To do that would throw shade on The Fog, the amazing ghostly revenge tale in a Northern California town.  

Maybe you should start with Escape from New York, with a vision of NYC after its transformation into a prison that has been imitated (even by Carpenter himself!) but has never, ever been surpassed.  It IS the movie that helped cement the career of Kurt Russell, after all.  But to work there misses the soft wondrous Starman, an amazingly touching movie. 

Or maybe you should start with They Live, perhaps the best indictment of late 80’s trash capitalism that suddenly feels even more relevant, in this year of our lord 2025. Roddy Piper’s character doesn’t have a name, but he isn’t a faceless number, either. And it has one of the longest fights on screen. It’s a bit pointless fight, but it is fun that Piper got to do a whole wrestling match in a John Carpenter film.  But to mention They Live might mean you overlook the absolutely bonkers and fun Big Trouble in Little China

My favorites in the Carpenter oeuvre are none of these, although I love all the above movies.  My second favorite John Carpenter movie has to be Prince of Darkness, where an unlikely group of heroes led by Victor Wong (from Big Trouble in Little China) and Donald Pleasance (from Escape from New York) team up to try to stop the literal Devil, anti-God, from coming across from another dimension into our own. It’s a bottle of a movie set in an inescapable church, got dreams from the future, and is nicely tense.  The other one I like even more and is one of my heart movies, is In the Mouth of Madness. In the Mouth of Madness is the best cosmic horror movie, ever, in my opinion, as horror writer Sutter Cane writes extra dimensional monsters into our reality, with Jurassic Park’s Sam Neill as John Trent, insurance investigator, is in search of a book he really, really should not read. In 2018, when I found out that the striking church seen in the film was just outside Toronto, I had to go and visit it while on a vacation in Canada.

And did you know that Carpenter scored a lot of his films? His father was a music teacher, and his love of music led him to really be patient and exacting about the music. Be it Escape from New York, Halloween, Prince of Darkness, or many other of his works, that soundtrack with the heavy use of synthesizers that you are hearing are due to his own musical creation and scoring. His movies have memorable visuals…and sound as well. 

John Carpenter

(8) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

January 16, 1995Star Trek: Voyager premieres  

 “Coffee – the finest organic suspension ever devised. It’s got me through the worst of the last three years. I beat the Borg with it.” — Captain Kathryn Janeway, Star Trek: Voyager’s “Hunters”. 

Need I say that I liked Janeway a lot? She was a much more rounded, more believable individual than Kirk ever was. Inthe pantheon of Captains, I’d rank her just behind Picard as a character. 

So on this evening thirty years ago on UPN, Star Trek: Voyager premiered. The fourth spinoff from the original series after the animated series, the Next Generation and Deep Space Nine which had my favorite Captain in Benjamin Sisko, it featured the first female commander in the form of Captain Kathryn Janeway, played by Kate Mulgrew. 

(She is seen again commanding the USS Dauntless in the animated Prodigy series, searching for the missing USS Protostar which was being commanded by Captain Chakotay at the time of its disappearance. It’s now streaming on Netflix.) 

It was created by Rick Berman, Michael Piller, and Jeri Taylor. Berman served as head executive producer, assisted by a series of executive proucers — Piller, Taylor, Brannon Braga and Kenneth Biller. Of those, Braga oil the still the most active with his recent work on the cancelled Orville.

It ran for seven seasons and one hundred seventy-two episodes. Four episodes, “Caretaker”, “Dark Frontier”, “Flesh and Blood” and “Endgame” originally aired as ninety-minute episodes. 

Of all the Trek series, and not at all surprisingly, Voyager gets the highest Bechdel test rating. 

Oh, and that quote I start this piece with in 2015, was tweeted by astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti International Space Station when they were having a coffee delivery. She was wearing a Trek uniform when she did so as you can see in the image below. 

(9) COMICS SECTION.

(10) OCTOTHORPE. Episode 126 of the Octothorpe podcast, “I’ve Read Some Novels”, John Coxon, Alison Scott, and Liz Batty read out your letters of comment, and then discuss all the things from 2024 that they think are worth a look as we go into award nomination season (and a couple of things they would probably avoid). Then they do picks, in case there weren’t enough opinions.

Get the uncorrected transcript at the link.

A picture of a Belgian waffle that looks like an octothorpe, on a white background, with the words “Octothorpe 126” above and “now with added waffle” below.

(11) DON’T THAT BEAT ALL. “A Frankenstein Filing Error: It’s Alive!” – the New York Times confesses.

…When he died in February 1969, The New York Times wrote of Karloff’s career in an article that featured a photograph of an actor, in costume as the monster.

One problem: The man in the makeup, with the bolts in his neck, wasn’t Karloff.

The image — a publicity photo, copyrighted by Universal Pictures — depicted the actor Glenn Strange, who had succeeded Karloff in the role, playing the monster in subsequent films, including “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein,” which was released in 1948.

At least one astute reader had spotted the mistake and sent a letter to The Times.

The photograph was seemingly mislabeled around 1948, the copyrighted date on the image, and incorrectly placed in a folder for Karloff, one of the millions of files stored in the Morgue, The Times’s subterranean clippings library. (The Times issued a correction, a copy of which is pasted on the back of the photo in the Morgue.)

Almost 20 years after the first misprinting, in March 1987, the same photo, though cropped tighter and tilted slightly, was used to accompany a letter to the editor that referenced Shelley’s “Frankenstein.” Again, the caption incorrectly identified Strange as Karloff….

…. Dr. Jane Bishop of Brooklyn, the same reader who caught the mistake in 1969, wrote to The Times and explained that she had lodged an identical complaint 18 years earlier.…

Some of you who read the File 770 birthdays must feel the same way…

(12) JUSTWATCH REPORT: SVOD MARKET SHARES (2024). As 2024 has come to an end, JustWatch has released its latest data report on market shares in the US. As usual, the report is based on the 17.2 million JustWatch users in the US selecting their streaming services, clicking out to streaming offers and marking titles as seen.

SVOD market shares in Q4 2024: In the final quarter of 2024, Prime Video led provider growth, taking 22% of the overall market. Netflix, its largest competitor, trailed Prime by only 1%. Hulu, Disney+, and Max make up 36% of the streaming market while Paramount+ and AppleTV+ both stayed below 10%.

Market share development in 2024: In Q4 2024, Prime Video and Netflix continued to lead the U.S. streaming market, each holding over 20% of the overall market, with Netflix slightly narrowing the gap between them. Hulu saw steady growth, challenging Max for third place, while Disney+ struggled to gain traction. Smaller platforms in the “Other” category experienced a noticeable rise, reflecting growing interest in alternative services.

(13) NEW GLENN LAUNCH TO ORBIT SUCCESSFUL. “Blue Origin reaches orbit on first flight of its titanic New Glenn rocket” reports Ars Technica.

Early on Thursday morning, a Saturn V-sized rocket ignited its seven main engines, a prelude to lifting off from Earth.

But then, the New Glenn rocket didn’t move.

And still, the engines produced their blue flame, furiously burning away methane.

The thrust-to-weight ratio of the rocket must have been in the vicinity of 1.0 to 1.2, so the booster had to burn a little liquid methane and oxygen before it could begin to climb appreciably. But finally, seconds into the mission, New Glenn began to climb. It was slow, ever so slow. But it flew true.

After that the vehicle performed like a champion. The first stage burned for more than three minutes before the second stage separated at an altitude of 70 km. Then, the upper stage’s two BE-3U engines appeared to perform flawlessly, pushing the Blue Ring pathfinder payload toward orbit. These engines burned very nearly for 10 minutes before shutting down, having reached an orbital velocity of 28,800 kph.

For the first time since its founding, nearly a quarter of a century ago, Blue Origin had reached orbit. The long-awaited debut launch of the New Glenn rocket, a super-heavy lift vehicle developed largely with private funding, had come. And it was a smashing success….

(14) DILBERT STARK’S STARSHIP. Elsewhere today – “SpaceX Starship test fails after Texas launch” reports the BBC.

The latest test of Space X’s giant Starship rocket has failed, minutes after launch.

Officials at Elon Musk’s company said the upper stage was lost after problems developed after lift-off from Texas on Thursday.

The mission came hours after the first flight of the Blue Origin New Glenn rocket system, backed by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos.

The two tech billionaires both want to dominate the space vehicle market.

“Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn. Teams will continue to review data from today’s flight test to better understand root cause,” SpaceX posted on X.

“With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability.”…

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

Pixel Scroll 11/23/24 Virtual Pixels Just Scurry Around On Screens, Trying To Fake It

(1) BOLLINGER EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE SHORTLIST. The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Comic Fiction Prize shortlist includes two genre works — High Voltage and Ministry of Time.

The Bollinger is awarded to “the funniest novel of the past 12 months, which best evokes the Wodehouse spirit of witty characters and perfectly-timed comic phrases.”

  • A Beginner’s Guide to Breaking and Entering by Andrew Hunter Murray (Hutchinson Heinemann)
  • Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon (Fig Tree)  
  • Good Material by Dolly Alderton (Fig Tree)
  • High Vaultage by Chris Sugden and Jen Sugden (Gollancz)
  • The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Sceptre)
  • The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue (Virago)
  • You Are Here by David Nicholls – published by (Sceptre)

The winner will be announced December 2.

In winning the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Comic Fiction Prize, you get not only a jeroboam of the Special Cuvée, but also a case of Bollinger La Grande Année, a complete set of the Everyman’s Library PG Wodehouse collection and, most entertaining, a pig who is to be named after your winning book.

(2) PRIMATES APLENTY. Dave Hook rounds up all the sfnal variations he can find that address the literature Infinite Monkeys might produce in “Monkeys and Shakespeare: The Infinite Monkey Theorem and Speculative Fiction” at A Deep Look by Dave Hook.

…I read nine stories and one essay for this blog post. I suspect there might be more stories out there connected to the Infinite Monkey Theorem, and I’d love to hear from my readers with other suggestions….

He analyzes (beware spoilers) and rates them all.

(3) ONE WAY TO GET A HANDLE ON YOUR POPCORN CONSUMPTION. “AMC Reveals Its Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim 27-Inch Popcorn Bucket”CBR.com shows it to you.

…Commemorative popcorn buckets are increasing in popularity, with these collectibles released for movies such as Dune, Wicked and Gladiator II, among others. The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim arrives in theaters in the U.S. on Dec. 13, 2024, alongside its own exclusive popcorn bucket. The long handle of the movie’s war hammer replica is designed to appear as though it’s wrapped in leather, with a gray and red face and a gold spike on top. Fans will be able to purchase the limited-edition ‘hammer bucket’ at AMC theaters for $32.99 (not including tax), but only while supplies last.

Some people have complained that this popcorn bucket is potentially deadly, being modeled after a weapon and closely resembling one as well. While the design of the bucket is made to immerse fans in the experience of the movie, it’s also now being called the “most dangerous” popcorn bucket ever. Buyers of this product are urged to exercise caution and good judgment when wielding it.

For those who don’t want a potentially inconvenient 27-inch long popcorn bucket to snack from, another item is also being sold in celebration of the release of the upcoming movie — a faux-wooden stein (or traditional beer mug) with the official Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim logo on the side…. 

(4) MURAKAMI Q&A. [Item by Steven French.] Tangentially genre related: “Haruki Murakami: ‘My books have been criticised so much over the years, I don’t pay much attention’”

Japanese fiction now represents a quarter of all translated fiction sold in Britain. Why do you think it has such a wide appeal?
I didn’t know that Japanese novels are that popular in Britain. What’s the reason? I have no idea. Maybe you could tell me – I’d like to know.

The Japanese economy is not doing well these days, and I think it’s a good thing that cultural exports can make a contribution of sorts, though literary exports don’t make that much of one, do they?

Did Mieko Kawakami’s criticism of the women in your books, made in 2017, have any effect on how you write female characters?
My books have been criticised so much over the years that I can’t remember in what context the criticisms were made. And I don’t pay much attention to it, either.

Mieko is a close friend and a very intelligent woman, so I’m sure whatever criticism she made was spot on. But honestly, I don’t recall what exactly she criticised. Speaking of women and my works, though, incidentally my readers are pretty much equally divided between men and women, a fact that makes me very happy….

And if you want to know more about those popular Japanese novels, read the Guardian’s article, “Surrealism, cafes and lots (and lots) of cats: why Japanese fiction is booming “.

…The popularity of modern Japanese fiction is not a new phenomenon in the UK … In the 1990s, two writers broke through and became cult hits in this country. Haruki Murakami, a worldwide literary phenomenon, took off in Britain when Harvill Press published The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle in 1998. Scott Pack, who ran Waterstones’ buying team in the early 2000s, is a big Murakami fan and remembers giving him “lots of attention. Whatever books of his came out, we got massively behind.” This week, Murakami publishes his 15th novel The City and Its Uncertain Walls, about a man who travels to a mysterious walled town in pursuit of the woman he loves, finding himself in a strange world of libraries, maps and dreams. So what’s behind the lasting success of Murakami’s books, which tend to combine lonely protagonists, jazz, cats, and fantasy elements? “It’s fairly accessible, weird shit,” Pack says….

(5) DIALED IN.  Sharon Lee is restarting her blog with shares like “Opening the windows”:

…Speaking of Just Me, I decided that I would watch “Astrid” last night (people who love the show, my comments are about the show not about you or your preferences in pleasure viewing). I will not be continuing. Not only does the first segment start with a man dousing himself with gasoline and lighting himself on fire on-screen, Astrid herself was a little too close to home. I remember mapping out phone calls before I made them, so I’d be sure to transmit the correct information in a socially normal way, and the feeling of panic when there was a vary. (I once called somebody to ask them a question before I had Breathed In, and when they answered the phone said, “MynameisSharonLeecallingforXandIwouldliketoknowthisnthat.” The person I was calling paused for a moment, then said, very gently, “Wow. Are you from New York?”) I’ve gotten much better, with lots of practice, and lots of years, about making eye contact when talking to people, but it was sorta painful to watch. This is, in case it’s not clear, a tribute to the actor who plays Astrid. She clearly Gets It….

(6) LONG-REMEMBERED THUNDER. [Item by Steven French.] Sometimes a line in an obituary will raise the old eyebrows! Peter Sinfield, who has recently passed away, wrote the lyrics for late 60s/early 70s ‘prog rock’ band King Crimson, as well as going on to write a number of pop hits (including for Celine Dion). And amidst all the music production details, there’s an interesting genre related connection: “Peter Sinfield obituary” in the Guardian.

…In 1979 he narrated Robert Sheckley’s In a Land of Clear Colors, an audio sci-fi story with music by Brian Eno….

Editor’s note: I’m running this item because I remember that my friend Richard Wadholm was a big fan of their first album, In the Court of the Crimson King (1969). And that if it had been within his power, I’d have been a big fan, too.

(7) KORY HEATH (1970-2024). W. Eric Martin pays tribute to the late Kory Heath at BoardGameGeek“In Memoriam: Kory Heath”.

Designer Kory Heath took his own life on November 18, 2024, after “enduring years of chronic pain and depression”, in the words of John Cooper, who co-designed The Gang with Kory.

More from Cooper: “He was a genius, also funny, kind, patient. I’m so grateful we could spend so many years, laughs, and tears together, and that he knew he was deeply loved by all of his friends.”

Kory was best known for his game Zendo, a game of inductive logic in which the master exhibits two “koans” — one following a secret rule created by the master, one violating this rule — and students create koans of their own in order to determine what this rule is.

…Kory Heath’s list of published games is an eclectic one: the party game Why Did The Chicken…?, in which players create punchlines for randomly generated situations; the inductive logic game Zendo, in which players try to determine rules for constructing figures; the bluffing game Criminals; and the abstract game Uptown….

(8) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

Anniversary, November 23, 1963Doctor Who premieres

It would take years for me to see An Unearthly Child, the premiere of Doctor Who.  On PBS in NYC, the Fourth Doctor was the first Doctor widely shown in the states, and for years, was the only one. Eventually a channel on Long Island branched out from the Fourth Doctor, showing what they called “The Doctor Who movies”–basically an entire serial in one go on a Saturday evening. They started with the Fourth Doctor, moved to the then new to me Fifth Doctor.  And then after the end of the Fifth Doctor’s run (The Caves of Androzani), they then went back to the beginning. Back to the First Doctor…

Back to the premiere of Doctor Who…An Unearthly Child which happened on this date in 1963 on BBC.  I had already seen the First Doctor, but not the original actor. The First Doctor appears, as played by Richard Hurndall. So I knew the First Doctor as a somewhat crotchety figure…but William Hartnell’s appearance was completely revelatory as the original and sometimes very alien First Doctor.  He is brutal and savage and ready to commit a bit of murder right there in the first serial. I appreciated the mystery of the Doctor as Ian and Barbara try and figure out what’s so strange about their student, Susan, and the terror and horror in being cast in time and space. I still think the episode holds up, the premiere of Doctor Who, even today. A story of progress, and tolerance, and trying to understand things beyond your ken (on several levels). And so ably directed by Verity Lambert, the BBC’s first female drama producer. 

Those “Doctor Who movies”, starting chronologically with An Unearthly Child, would cement my love of Doctors other than the Fourth (especially the Third) and I suppose in a sense were the original “binge watching” for Doctor Who. And the Doctor Who movie format made me ready, in 1996, for the TV movie, on a snowy television set. But that, as they say, is a story for another day.

(9) COMICS SECTION.

(10) GET YOUR GRAINS OF SALT READY. “‘Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse’ Reportedly Scrapped & Rewritten”Movieweb tells what they know.

Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse won’t be following up on that crazy cliffhanger anytime soon, if the latest rumor is to be believed. Ever since the upcoming Across the Spider-Verse sequel was delayed from its 2024 release date, fans have wondered what is happening with the highly-anticipated project. It currently has no set release date, and Sony never even officially acknowledged that major change. Rumors have since circulated about its production woes, and the latest report explains why development on Beyond the Spider-Verse has been at a standstill.

According to Brandon Davis (via World of Reel), Sony scrapped what they completed for Beyond the Spider-Verse shortly after the release of Across the Spider-Verse. Moreover, the script was thrown away and set to be rewritten, and it’s not clear if that process is complete yet. The craziest part is that the studio reportedly still doesn’t have an ending in place for the trilogy, and that has not changed yet. Of course, this should be taken with a grain of salt until proven otherwise, but the writing has been on the wall for the past year. Originally slated to release on Mar. 29, 2024, Beyond the Spider-Verse remains away from the Sony release schedule….

(11) HISTORIC HOLLYWOOD PROPERTY WILL HAVE NEW FOLKS PULLING THE STRINGS. SFGate says there’s a way to tour the old Chaplin/Jim Henson studio, which can’t be counted on to be around for much longer now that the place has new owners: “Hollywood A-listers buy Jim Henson’s LA studio for $40 million”.

…Given that its departure seems imminent, fans may want to pay their way into one last La Brea lot tour while they can. Here’s how: If you book a VIP ticket to the vulgar and “perverted” improv puppet show “Puppet Up!” — which will run you $175 — you’ll be instructed to arrive an hour and a half early. That’s when a Henson Company tour guide will take you around the lot for a rare look at this treasure trove.

Chaplin’s fingerprints (and literal footprints, in the concrete) are all over the space, which he built starting in 1917. (If you want to see how wildly different LA looked back then, Chaplin shot his studio’s construction as part of a never-released film that was completed years later.)  The stage where “Puppet Up!” takes place is Chaplin’s former soundstage, and the hand saw — as well as the barn — that the actor-director used to build sets is still on the lot. Even the vault where Chaplin stored his coveted reels for famous films like “The Kid” (which was shot on site) is still nestled inside the reception office, although these days it holds office supplies like a printer and a fax machine. 

There are fascinating asides during the tour, too, that explain quirky touches like why certain doors are located several feet off the ground: It’s because the lot used to hold a swimming pool, which Chaplin used to film several movies of his. The conference room also features a comically large table, which has been there since the A&M days because, apparently, the movers couldn’t get it out of the doors….

(12) ARTEMIS NEWS. “NASA chooses SpaceX and Blue Origin to deliver rover, astronaut base to the moon” reports Space.com.

NASA is keeping its foot on the gas for the space agency’s Artemis program, announcing plans to assign demonstration missions for the two vehicles it has picked to land astronauts on the moon.

Both SpaceX and Blue Origin were awarded contracts for NASA’s Human Landing System, and have been in the process of designing their respective vehicles for returning astronauts to the surface of the moon. Now, NASA has given both companies a heads-up to expect to put those designs to the test in some upcoming qualification missions that will task them with sending large cargo to the moon.The mission assignments follow a 2023 request from NASA, which also directed SpaceX and Blue Origin to build cargo variants of their lunar landers, the space agency indicated in a statement. Having two different lunar landing systems to choose from will give NASA flexibility for both crew and cargo missions, while also “ensuring a regular cadence of moon landings for continued discovery and scientific opportunity,” said Stephen D. Creech, NASA’s assistant deputy associate administrator for technical at the agency’s Moon to Mars Program Office….

… “Based on current design and development progress for both crew and cargo landers and the Artemis mission schedules for the crew lander versions, NASA assigned a pressurized rover mission for SpaceX and a lunar habitat delivery for Blue Origin,” Human Landing System program manager Lisa Watson-Morgan said in the statement.

The pressurized rover Starship will deliver is being developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and is currently targeted to launch in 2032 to support missions after Artemis 6, according to NASA. Blue Origin’s lunar habitat is slated sometime a year later, 2033….

(13) OUT TO LAUNCH. “I Renovated a Missile Silo for $800,000. It’s Not for Everyone”Business Insider finds out how it was done.

This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with GT Hill, a 49-year-old former director of technical marketing who lives in Vilonia, Arkansas. He bought a $90,000 decommissioned missile silo and turned it into an Airbnb….

…  really wanted to dig it up and see what was in there. Initially, I intended to make it a house for my family.

Lastly, I was interested in owning a missile silo because it’s just kick ass. The place has 7,000-pound doors. Its three floors are made out of a steel structure nicknamed “the birdcage.”

It’s on eight springs and actually hangs from the ceiling. And the reason is if it gets hit by a bomb, it allows the structure to shake to try to preserve the equipment and the people inside….

… Titan II was denuclearized after the US and Russia signed a 1979 treaty to limit each country’s nuclear weapons. The US disarmed Titan II as part of that negotiation, called the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks II or SALT II….

… There are no walls and doors, so there’s no real primary bedroom. The top floor has a king bed, a large, open shower, and a free-standing bathtub. The middle floor has two queen beds that we can move to make more space. Then, the kitchen and the living room are on the bottom floor, which also doubles as a dance floor and can turn into a club.

We host anything on the property, including meetings. If it’s semi-legal and people want to do it there and pay for it, we’re fine with it.

The first booking we got was in November 2020. It was a couple coming for their honeymoon, but they got a little too intoxicated at their wedding to make the trip. They sent their best man instead….

(14) NEW RELEASE FROM STARSHIP SLOANE PUBLISHING.

A Wereshark’s Memoir by Justin T. O’Conor Sloane

A novelette following the fantastical journey of an immortal sea captain across the centuries, whose turbulent life as a pirate and a wereshark is by turns beautiful and haunting.

In his magnum opus Ethics published posthumously in 1677,Spinoza argues that God is substance. Evil is substance in A Wereshark’s Memoir by Justin Sloane. Original, frightening, and beautiful, this work is a study into the impossibility of evil to reign over the human race. It is a fiction of the open wound. It hurts and it makes you invent a therapy to alleviate pain. Often this is impossible. In a way, it is a subtle analysis of what society suffers from today. As Justin Sloane puts it, “Time is neither friend nor foe. But it can be made either.” —Zdravka Evtimova, 4x best novel of Bulgaria and author of He May Wear My Silence

With all the linguistic beauty of scientific romance, and a splash of cosmic horror, Mr. Sloane takes us on an aquatic romp through piracy, love, and death. Fans of William Hope Hodgson will want to devour this tale. —Jean-Paul L. Garnier, editor of Star*Line magazine and author of Garbage In, Gospel Out

Justin Sloane’s A Wereshark’s Memoir is a true megalodon of a novelette, howling hammerheaded through the centuries, timeless like that eldest breed named for Greenland. Equal parts werewolf, shark, and swashbuckler who befriends Blackbeard himself, Sloane’s narrator, sea-bewitched, bioluminescent shape-shifter, proves at least as haunted as a Ulysses unable ever to return home. —Dr. Matt Schumacher, editor of Phantom Drift: A Journal of New Fabulism and author of The Fire Diaries: Poems

Available everywhere for only $5.99.

(15) VIDEO OF THE DAY. The ultimate in nostalgia. “Family Feud: Gilligan’s Island Vs. Batman”. What year was this?

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, Brick Barrientos, 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 Lis Carey.]

Pixel Scroll 11/19/24 Six Impixelable Things Before Breakfast

(1) PORTENT OF ELECTRONIC DOOM. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] This week’s BBC Radio 4 The Infinite Monkey Cage looked at the personal digital landscape, the threats from hacking, digital theft, cyber war and the coming quantum day.

Invited to discuss this were experts in cyber crime and cyber warfare with the show’s regular hosts: physicist Brian Cox and comedian Robin Ince.

The show concluded somewhat grimly that we are all doomed…

I have been saying for years that the machines are taking over the world but no-one ever listens… well, it now seems, hardly anyone.

Brian Cox and Robin Ince head to Bletchley Park with comedian Alan Davies, and cyber experts Victoria Baines and Richard Benham to decode cyberwarfare and discuss its future.

As computers have shrunk from the size of rooms to fitting in our jacket pockets, our cyber sleuths explore the changing nature of cyber-attacks and defence. They decipher the fancy jargon abounding in cyber land, from trojan horses to phishing scams and reveal how prolific these attacks are on nation states, businesses and the public. From digital army battalions to teenage freelance hackers, the cyber-villains are multiple and varied. Our panel discusses the aims of these malevolent forces; from extorting money and holding valuable commercial data hostage to influencing people’s electoral intent.

The panel explores how AI and quantum computing are supercharging cyberwarfare – but in good news, also cyber-defence. Alan Davies shares his susceptibility to being tricked online whilst our experts give some tips for staying safe online, and finally, Alan comes up with his surprising alter-ego hacking name.

The show can be downloaded from here.

(2) GILLER PRIZE. The Giller Prize 2024 winner – Held by Anne Michaels — was announced on November 18. The Prize is a celebration of Canadian literary talent.

Held may be a work of genre interest – or a historical novel that jumps around in time (even into 2025). It’s not easy to decide based on what the Penguin Random House Canada’s website says. Is this a literal description, or a poetic analogy?

…1920. John has returned from war to North Yorkshire, near another river—alive, but not whole. Reunited with Helena, an artist, he reopens his photography business and endeavours to keep on living. But the past erupts insistently into the present, as ghosts begin to surface in his pictures: ghosts whose messages he cannot understand.

…From its opening lines, Held is alive with seeking: “We know life is finite. Why should we believe death lasts forever?”

If anyone here has read it, please help us decide whether this is a work of sff!

(3) THE NITTY GRITTY. Bidding starts at Christie’s in nine days for “Dune: an early study of Arrakis by John Schoenherr”, which is estimated to bring £5,000-£7,000 at auction.

I can envision no more perfect visual representation of my Dune world than John Schoenherr’s careful and accurate illustrations.’ -Frank Herbert.

An early painted landscape of the Dune universe, one of only six known Dune studies by Schoenherr from the 1960s. The others are the three cover artworks for Analog magazine (one of which was used on the hardcover first edition), the first paperback cover, and an unused Analog cover.

To visualize his world, Herbert worked alongside the Hugo award winning artist, Schoenherr, who produced the illustrations for the original magazine serial, as well as the cover art for the original hardcover and paperback editions of the trilogy. Indeed, the present work bears certain similarities to the cover art for the 1965 first paperback edition published by Ace Books, particularly the angle of the large rocky outcrop in the foreground. Schoenherr’s work for Dune laid the visual foundations for every cinematic and artistic interpretation of the world that would follow, his barren and emotive landscapes helping bring to life the otherworldly spice fields and kingdoms laid out in Herbert’s iconic text. So fitting were Schoenherr’s illustrations that the author declared him ‘the only man to ever visit Dune’.

Ragged and sharp in its visualization of an arid desertscape, the present work captures the hostile and unforgiving environment of Arrakis. It appears to be unpublished and was perhaps intended as an early experimental adventure into the vast world of Dune.

(4) AND THAT’S NOT ALL. Heritage Auction also has artwork of sff genre interest in their forthcoming 2024 December 9 Illustration Art Showcase Auction 15236. See lots at the link. Includes artists Emsh, John Schoenherr, Virgil Finlay, Jack Gaughan, and Richard M. Powers.

Here’s one example: “Away Team” by Edmund (Emsh) Emshwiller.

(5) NEW SHORT FROM RODDENBERRY ARCHIVE AND OTOY. “William Shatner’s Captain Kirk Faces a Long Goodbye in This Stunning Star Trek Anniversary Short”Gizmodo sets the scene.

Thirty years ago today [November 18], Star Trek‘s cinematic legacy boldly stepped forward as the heroes of the original series and The Next Generation teamed up on the silver screen in Star Trek: Generations. The Enterprise-D met her end, the Star Trek movie franchise passed the torch to a new age, and, of course, William Shatner’s Captain Kirk gave it all to save the Veridian system from the sinister Dr. Soran. And now, to celebrate, the Roddenberry Archive has once again teamed up with OTOY to create a fitting, fond farewell to not one, but two of Trek‘s original heroes….

…There’s some fascinating connections to a whole gamut of Star Trek lore here, from OTOY and the Roddenberry Archive’s previous use of Mahé Thaissa as Yeoman Colt from “The Cage” all the way up to the inclusion of Yor, a Betelgeusian Starfleet officer from the Kelvin Timeline who briefly appeared during the events of Star Trek: Discovery season three. But you’re mostly here for the uncanny valley being overridden by tugs at your heart strings to give Kirk and Spock alike one last shared farewell….

(6) LOSCON 50 SUPPORTS THE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY/RELAY FOR LIFE TEAM. Loscon 50, taking place November 29-December 1 at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport Hotel, has announced their support for a charity, and three ways you can help: knit or crochet a hat; donate funds; donate to an auction. Details in the following press release:

Loscon 50 is honored to support the mission of the American Cancer Society during the 2024 convention weekend as “Loscon Gives Back”. Many of our community members have been affected by various forms of cancer, we have survivors and losses from this devastating disease. We have teamed up with the Relay for Life fundraiser with one of our staff, Julia Ree who is part of the Riverside team and a cancer survivor herself. Here is Julia’s direct Relay for Life link.

We have put out a call for knit hats to be crafted by those who knit or crochet in our Loscon community. These hats are gifted to cancer patients during their treatment and will be presented to Julia Ree during the convention. The hats can be brought to Loscon 50 and dropped off in the Office or they can be mailed in, please use the contact form on the loscon.org website.

Loscon will have an auction during the convention to raise funds to donate directly to the American Cancer Society Relay for Life team. We welcome donations to the auction by our community, our dealers, our authors and others who would like to support this worthy cause. Please use the contact form on our website at this link: https://loscon.org/contact/

Loscon is excited to welcome attendees to our three day weekend of Science Fiction and Fantasy fun. We celebrate Larry Niven as our Writer Guest of Honor, Kathy Mar our Musical Guest of Honor, Dr Laura Brodian Freas Beraha our Artist Guest of Honor and the late Kelly Freas as our Artist Ghost of Honor and our Fan Guests of Honor, Genny Dazzo and Craig Miller. Please see https://loscon.lineupr.com/loscon-50/ for programming details.

(7) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Anniversary: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Let’s talk about my favorite Star Wars film. No, not the first one, The Empire Strikes Back. Released forty-four years ago but please note not on this date. I think it’s the best written, best performed and simply most interesting of the trilogy.

It was as you know the sequel to the original film which Leigh Brackett was hired to write before she died way too soon, just several weeks after turning in her script, so Lucas hired Lawrence Kasdan to write but gave Leigh Brackett co-writing credit on it as much of script is still in the final script. 

Now they did met several times in late 1977 to hash out an outline for what was called then Star Wars II. They figured out the framework of plot, which remained pretty much intact in later drafts, although there were some differences such as Darth Vader wasn’t Luke’s father in their outline.

Den of Geek has this quote, “Writing has never been something I have enjoyed, and so, ultimately, on the second film I hired Leigh Brackett. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out; she turned in the first draft, and then she passed away, I didn’t like the first script, but I gave Leigh credit because I liked her a lot. She was sick at the time she wrote the script, and she really tried her best.”

Does her script exist for reading? I’ve seen it referred to in articles over and but can’t find it online. 

Now the co-written script is quite fine and the performance here by everyone I think far outshines the first film. The addition of Darth Vader makes Luke Skywalker into a more interesting character, and the expansion of the cast and setting in general makes this a more believe story. Yes, it’s far darker, more sinister, but a galactic empire would be so.

Even Yoda who could be cute isn’t. (That sentence structure is deliberate.) Look it’s a muppet! It’s voiced by Frank Oz! Perfectly designed to sell lots of plushies! 

Lucas had intended to have a new mentor character for Luke who in his original design was a diminutive frog-like creature named Minch Yoda. No, I’m not kidding. 

Side-note: I still find our two droids far too irritating. They just always come off as being that for me, particularly the C-3PO. I like my droids darker which I why I prefer the ones in Neal Asher’s polity series. Aren’t they darker in The Culture series as well? 

Is there anything I dont like here? No. I’ve watched it a half dozen times and I think it well deserves generally positive reviews, the half billion box office on a budget of under fifty million dollars, and the audience rating at Rotten Tomatoes of 97%. 

It of course, like everything Star Wars, is streaming on Disney +. 

(8) COMICS SECTION.

(9) TIMESTAMPS FOR A SET OF EASTER EGGS. Collider says “This Haunted Object Has a Cameo in Nearly Every Flanagan Project” – and brings receipts.

Oculus was Mike Flanagan’s second feature-length film and arguably the one that first made people sit up and take notice of the new director. The Lasser Glass is the haunted mirror at the center of the movie that causes so much trauma for Karen Gillan’s and Brenton Thwaites’ sibling characters, but for eagle-eyed viewers, it also haunts the backgrounds of the majority of Flanagan’s other works….

… It took four years for Mike Flanagan to release another movie after Oculus, but he returned with not one, but three movies in one year. Although 2016’s Hush and Before I Wake don’t include the Lasser Glass, Flanagan included the mirror in the background of Ouija: Origin of Evil — it can be spotted precisely at 1:07:00 when Doris (Lulu Wilson) walks through the basement. This kicked off Flanagan’s habit of including some variation of the mirror in every one of his projects since then. In total, the mirror from Oculus appears in nine of Flanagan’s works (10 if you count the short film on which Oculus is based). Let’s take a look at where, and when, you can see each other reference to the horrifying mirror….

(10) WAS WINNING A GOOD OR BAD THING? [Item by Steven French.] Some of the winners of the Ig Nobel prize share their stories, which include homosexual necrophiliac ducks, levitating frogs and mammals that can breathe through their anus: “How a silly science prize changed my career” in Nature.

…Eleanor Maguire wasn’t too thrilled when she was first offered an Ig Nobel Prize. The neuroscientist at University College London was being honoured for her study showing that London taxi drivers have larger hippocampi in their brains than do people in other professions1. But she worried that accepting the prize would be a disaster for her career. So, she quietly turned it down.

Three years later, the prize’s founder, Marc Abrahams, contacted Maguire again with the same offer. This time, she knew more about the satirical award that bills itself as honouring achievements that “make people laugh, then think”. She decided to accept. On the way to the ceremony, her taxi driver was so delighted to learn about his enlarged hippocampus that he refused to accept a fee from her.

Maguire credits the prize with bringing more attention to her work. “It was useful for my career because people wanted to talk about it,” she says, adding that “it was on the front pages of newspapers when it came out and struck a chord with people.”…

(11) HEAVY, MAN. Interesting Engineering stands by as “China activates world’s most advanced hypergravity research facility”.

China has activated the world’s most advanced hypergravity machine, aiming to deepen scientific understanding.

The system, featuring the largest hypergravity centrifuge, will be able to produce forces thousands of times stronger than Earth’s gravity.

The Centrifugal Hypergravity and Interdisciplinary Experiment Facility (CHIEF) is located in Hangzhou, the capital of eastern China’s Zhejiang province….

… The facility will house three primary hypergravity centrifuges and 18 onboard units. These centrifuges, machines designed to spin containers rapidly, force heavier materials to the edges or bottom by creating hypergravity conditions, as reported by the South China Morning Post (SCMP)….

… CHIEF’s hypergravity centrifuges are considered groundbreaking tools for creating extreme physical conditions not typically encountered in everyday environments.

These capabilities are expected to advance research across multiple disciplines, enabling scientists to simulate and analyze phenomena such as geological processes, material behaviors, and engineering challenges….

(12) WELL, THIS LOOKS BAD. PROBABLY DOESN’T SMELL TOO GOOD, EITHER. “A mythical harbinger of doom washes up on a California beach” and NBC News didn’t need long to sniff out the story.

The legendary “doom fish” has returned to California.

A long, ribbon-shaped oarfish, rarely seen and believed to signal disaster, has washed up on California’s shores for the second time this year.

PhD candidate Alison Laferriere from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego discovered the nearly 10-foot-long oarfish on a beach in Encinitas, in southern California, last week.

Oarfish are elusive creatures that dwell in the deep ocean — often as far as 3,300 feet below the surface — in the mesopelagic zone, a dark region beyond the reach of sunlight….

Rare, monstrously-proportioned and strangely-shaped, oarfish have sparked myths and legends for centuries and are sometimes referred to as the “doomsday fish” due to their reputation as predictors of natural disasters or earthquakes.

In 2011, the largely forgotten “earthquake fish” legend resurfaced after 20 oarfish washed ashore in the months leading up to Japan’s most powerful recorded earthquake….

(13) BUSINESS IS BOOMING. VERY. “SpaceX Starship’s Sonic Boom Creates Risk of Structural Damage, Test Finds” – story in the New York Times (behind a paywall).

SpaceX’s new Starship rocket far exceeds projected maximum noise levels, generating a sonic boom so powerful it risks property damage in the densely populated residential community near its South Texas launch site, new data suggests.

The measurements — of the actual sound and air pressure generated by the rocket during its fifth test launch last month — are the most comprehensive publicly released to date for Elon Musk’s Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever constructed.

Starship, as tall as a 30-story building, is so large that it generates 10 times as much noise as the Falcon 9 rocket that SpaceX now uses to get cargo and astronauts to orbit, the new data shows. SpaceX plans another test this week.

For residents of South Padre Island and Port Isabel, which are about six miles from SpaceX’s launch site in South Texas, the noise during the October test flight was the equivalent of standing 200 feet from a Boeing 747 plane during its takeoff, said Kent L. Gee, an independent acoustics engineer who conducted the monitoring.

Dr. Gee is the chairman of the physics and astronomy department at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, as well as a researcher helping NASA study ways to reduce noise impacts generated by supersonic planes. The test results were published on Friday in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

The Federal Aviation Administration and SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment.

When supersonic Concorde jets were still in service, the United States banned them from flying over domestic land “so their resulting sonic booms won’t startle the public below or concern them about potential property damage,” according to NASA.

The Starship flight test in October was about 1.5 times as loud on the ground as the Concorde sonic boom, the test results showed….

(14) VIDEO OF THE DAY. The Dickensian Christmas season is coming. Fortunately, Ryan George knows what to do “When Ghosts Try To Teach You Lessons”.

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

Pixel Scroll 10/25/24 I Don’t Want A Pixel, Just Want To Ride On My Motorcyxle

(1) HWA AI POLICY UPDATE. The StokerCon Facebook page reports that the Horror Writers Association sent members the following email about their draft AI policy.

The Horror Writers Association Statement on Artificial Intelligence and Working AI Policy Summary

The Horror Writers Association stands firmly against AI-generated creative work and will act diligently with organizational stakeholders to ensure the rights of our members and nonmembers within the writing, editing, arts, and publishing industries are protected.

The Horror Writers Association is aware of the ongoing legal and regulatory hurdles and will work to ensure our policies reflect a changing technological environment, however the Horror Writers Association only supports work from human creators and work authored by humans.

While the Horror Writers Association acknowledges the unknown challenges ahead in an ever moving and shifting landscape, the HWA will always support human authored work, first and foremost.

Lastly, the full comprehensive document will be available for all

members to read no later than January 4th, 2025.

Here is the 12-page working AI Policy in a short, easy-to-read summary

1. Use of AI Within the HWA: No generative AI software will be used by HWA workers, including generative AI tools added to pre-existing software platforms we already use.

2. Oversight: All software tools used by HWA workers will go through an approval process first. The HWA Board or a committee appointed by the Board will do that, in addition to coordinating with any logistics and enforcement.

3. Software Review: Beyond just being against the use of generative AI, we want to make sure none of our materials, or the materials entrusted to us by members, will be used to train generative AI. This means regularly reviewing all new features added to software we use, and any changes to their terms of use or privacy policies.

4. Enforcement: The Board, or any AI Oversight Committee appointed, will investigate suspected policy violations. Any action taken as a result will be done by the appropriate committees in charge of the areas where infractions happened, or by the Board itself within the HWA, including the Bram Stoker Awards and any anthologies the organization publishes (within contractual purview) and not extending to third-party providers, vendors, or partners.

5. Awards: All works submitted for Bram Stoker Award® consideration must be non-AI[1]generated works. If a work under award consideration is found to be AI-generated the work will be banned from consideration.

6. Scholarships: No works involved in the scholarship process can be AI-generated. If the resulting work is found to have been AI-generated the scholarship recipient must return all scholarship funds.

7. Publications: Submissions for official HWA publications, and HWA-branded anthologies published by our industry partners, cannot be AI-generated.

8. Membership: Prospective members who use AI-generated work to meet eligibility requirements will be denied membership. If it turns out an HWA member has failed to comply with any part of this policy their membership can be put under review.

9. Grievances: While the Committee will continue helping HWA members resolve breaches of contract, or situations that clearly go against established industry ethics, we strongly recommend you consult legal counsel before signing new contracts or renegotiating old contracts. We can point you to examples of generative AI clauses to include in your contracts moving forward.

10. Subject to Revaluation and Updates: As mentioned earlier this is an area where software and legislation are expected to undergo rapid changes. We’ll stay on top of news to keep members informed, and to update our policy as needed.

HWA volunteers will be asked to sign an agreement that they will comply with the HWA’s generative AI policy. The final policy will include a glossary of terms, documents from external organizations, tutorial videos, and other supplemental material.

Sincerely, The Board of Trustees, Horror Writers Association

(2) THE FUTURE OF BACK TO THE FUTURE. It’s on the road, where else? “‘Back to the Future’ to Close on Broadway, Rerouting DeLorean to Germany” says the New York Times (behind a paywall).  

Back to the Future,” a nostalgia-rich and spectacle-laden musical adaptation of the much-loved 1985 film, will end its Broadway run on Jan. 5, succumbing to the difficult economics of the commercial theater business.

The show had a decent run — the first performance was on June 30, 2023, and for more than a year it grossed over $1 million most weeks — but it was costly to mount and expensive to sustain; its grosses took a dive in late summer and early fall, and although it had rebounded somewhat more recently, sales were still insufficient to justify continuing. Thus far it has been seen by 720,000 people at the Winter Garden Theater.

The long-gestating show began its production life in England, and won the 2022 Olivier Award for best new musical in London’s West End, where it has been running for more than three years. It has not been so fortunate on Broadway, where it won no Tony Awards. It cost $23.5 million to capitalize, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ultimately it did not run long enough, or make enough money each week, to defray its New York costs.

But this is not the end of the line for the show. The Broadway set will move to Germany, where “Back to the Future” plans an open-ended run starting next season. The London run is ongoing, there is a North American tour now underway and productions are planned in Japan and on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship.

(3) EATING THE FANTASTIC. Scott Edelman invites listeners to share a bowl of Cullen skink with the award-winning Wole Talabi in Episode 239 of the Eating the Fantastic podcast.

Wole Talabi

Wole Talabi is the author of the critically acclaimed Nommo Award-winning novel Shigidi And The Brass Head Of Obalufon — which was also a finalist for the Nebula Award, the World Fantasy Award, the British Fantasy Award, the British Science Fiction Association Award, and the Ignyte Award — plus was named one of the best books of 2023 by The Washington Post.

He’s actually a three-time winner of the Nommo Award – because he also won in 2018 (for “The Regression Test”) and 2020 (for “Incompleteness Theories”). He’s been a finalist for the Hugo Award for his novelette “A Dream of Electric Mothers,” a story which also won him the Sidewise award for alternate history. His fiction has appeared in such magazines as Asimov’sAnalogF&SF, and Clarkesworld, and anthologies such as The Big Book of CyberpunkAfrica Risen, and Nowhereville: Weird Is Other People. Many of those stories may be found in his collections Incomplete Solutions (2019, Luna Press) and Convergence Problems (2024, DAW Books).

We discussed his love of combining contradictory ideas, why failing is an important step toward success, how optimism can be a choice (and why making that choice could also make the world a better place), how to convince others who might fear hurting your feelings you truly want their honest criticism, whether AI could ever actually be intelligent or create art, what he means when he says he often writes “two or three people in a room science fiction,” how a friend’s gift of a story seed led to the longest piece in his new collection, the things he learned from writing his first novel which are helping him write his second, the secret to writing successful flash fiction, the accidental catalyst which launched his editing career, the stubbornness that keeps him going both on the page and in the ring, and much more.

(4) WOLE TALABI Q&A. And you can get a second serving of Talabi in thisImaginize World interview: “Our Future and Challenging Perspectives with Wole Talabi”.

Nigerian science fiction author Wole Talabi describes into his unique writing process, shaped by his engineering background and the concept of convergence problems….

One of the questions was about the meaning of “Africanfuturism”.

WOLE: Africanfuturism is a bit of an interesting term because if someone asks you, “What are the defining literary features of Africanfuturism?” It would be very difficult to point to specific markers and say, “It’s stories that contain this, that contain that. That use this particular style.” There’s no unifying literary feature of it. It’s more of a geographically influenced genre, where it’s focused on the continent of Africa, on the history, on the culture. It basically centers Africa and moves outwards.

And I think, sometimes that’s a misconception some people have is that they think every Africanfuturist story is only about Africa. But I think in my work, especially, in my Africanfuturist stories and in other Africanfuturist stories as well, some of Nnedi Okorafor’s works and Suyi Davies Okungbowa’s as well, the central focus of the story is African, but the theme that we are working with, the larger theme is something that applies generally, globally….

(5) WHAT ABOUT THOSE SAYING NO TO NANOWRIMO? [Item by Mark Roth-Whitworth.] Just to let you know what’s been happening with NaNoWriMo since they refused to ban AI: someone I know very well, Morgan Hazlewood, replied when I asked her about her “November writing project”, replied, “there is a reason I am calling it my November project. Pretty much every group I know has disassociated from the parent group, but the people who found each other through the project are sticking together. And most of us are still doing our own challenges.”

(6) CAREER DERAILED. Sophia McDougall was asked whether there could ever be a third book in the Mars Evacuees universe. The answer is sad.

…It’s been long enough now that I don’t think there’s any reason not to give the frank answer to this question.

I did consider it. I had a plot worked out. Unfortunately these things aren’t always (or often) up to us.

The initial contract was for two books.

Around the time the first book was coming out, I wrote this incredibly mild feminist piece in the New Statesman about the gender discrepancy in bookshop displays and how it made me feel.

And then a certain prominent bookshop chain threatened me. It let my publicist know it didn’t want me in its shops to promote my book, because it didn’t know what I might do. And then, it decided not to carry the second book, which basically guaranteed it would not sell well.

Maybe those things are unrelated, but it certainly didn’t feel like it. My agent and publisher largely abandoned me, (it didn’t help at all that my initial editor, who loved the book, had sadly been away with cancer for much of this period) and as sales were obviously disappointing, there was no question of a new contract for a third book. And that’s why I haven’t published a book since….

(7) ROCKY HORROR GAME. CNET gave it a whirl: “We Played the New Retro Rocky Horror Show Game. Here’s What It’s Like”.

The antici…. pation can finally be over if you’ve been waiting for the Rocky Horror Show game adaptation. Announced early this month, The Rocky Horror Show Video Game is a retro-styled 2D side-scrolling platform game with chiptune versions of well-known songs from the show including The Time Warp and Dammit Janet. It’s been released for Nintendo Switch and for PC on Steam, with Xbox and PlayStation versions due later this month ahead of Halloween….

…A boss fight with Frank-N-Furter amounts to throwing objects at the character until they lose parts of their costume. Whenever Brad takes damage, he’s stripped down to his tighty-whitey underwear.

While the game is very limited in its design and gameplay, it may still be worth checking out for hardcore Rocky Horror fans for its retro aesthetic and enjoyable 8-bit soundtrack. For everyone else, even at about $10, it might be a time warp best left to Rocky Horror completists. 

(8) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Anniversary: Star Trek’s “Spectre of the Gun” (1968)

Physical reality is consistent with universal laws. Where the laws do not operate, there is no reality. – Spock to McCoy, at the OK Corral.

Fifty-six years this evening on NBC, Star Trek’s “Spectre of the Gun” first aired. It was written by former producer Gene L. Coon (under the name of Lee Cronin) and directed by Vincent McEveety.  

It had one of the larger guest casts — Ron Soble as Wyatt Earp, Bonnie Beecher, Charles Maxwell as Virgil Earp, Rex Holman as Morgan Earp, Sam Gilman as Doc Holliday, Charles Seel as Ed the bartender, Bill Zuckert  as Johnny Behan, Abraham Sofaer as the Melkotian Voice and Ed McCready as Barber. 

SPOILER ALERT. GO DRINK WHISKEY WITH JONAH HEX. In the episode, having been found trespassing into Melkotian space, Captain Kirk and members of his crew are sent to die in a surreal re-enactment of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Not surprisingly aliens are behind this entire affair, testing humans before they make contact with them by inquiring about Kirk’s refusal to kill. They finally grant the Enterprise permission to approach their planet. END OF SPOILER. WAS HEX GOOD COMPANY? NO? 

and END OF SPOILER.  WAS HEX HIS TACITURN SELF?  

The first I know the use a setting similar to this was the First Doctor two years previously, “The Gunfighters”. A later splendid use is Emma Bull’s Territory.

I will note that the budget wasn’t available to shoot on location on a full set, so instead a Western street of false building fronts and no sides was used. 

It’s considered one of the finest episodes of the original though Keith R.A. DeCandido of Tor.com inexplicably decided to criticize the episode for its historical inaccuracies.  Eh? 

Christian Science Monitor and Hollywood Reporter both put it in their  top 20 original Star Trek episodes, and the A.V. Club ranked this episode as one of top ten “must see” episodes of the original series.

(9) COMICS SECTION.

(10) MARVEL’S HAWKEYE COMING OUT ON DISCS. [Item by Daniel Dern.] Having just (re)watched Marvel’s Hawkeye series (Season 1, which is all that’s out so far), includes a bunch of deleted scenes and bonus material – great fun, well worth the time! — I was commending it to a friend who doesn’t subscribe to The Mouse That Streams (Disney+)…and a quick easy web search turns up that it (along with Loki Season 2) will be out (for sale) in “4K Ultra HD Dolby Vision along with Atmos audio,” (Blu-Ray) on December 3, 2024, as “Marvel Studios’ Hawkeye – The Complete First Season,”, according to Marvel and also Collider.com (“Available to pre-order from October 31, 2024.”)

Extras (“bonus content”) will include deleted scenes, gag reel, a “making of” and other  documentary/behind-the-scenes stuff,” and possibly some physical collectibles. (I’m going to request this from my library, so I’m not concerned with physical ephemera.)

(I’m also seeing some plain old DVD and Blu-Ray Hawkeye Season 1 disks, on eBay, dunno whether they’re legit, but either way, unlikely to have any/all of the bonus materials.)

‘Nuff scrolled!

(11) BE STILL MY BEATING HEART. “Science Names 2024 Irish Horror Movie Oddity One of the Scariest Films Ever Made”Movieweb tells why.

Every year, the Science of Scare project gathers together 250 people to help determine the most frightening horror movies ever made. While Scott Derrickson’s 2012 film Sinister and the 2020 UK film Host have been trading the top spots since the project began in 2020, a new independent horror movie has emerged out of Ireland this year to crack the Top 20, beating out a number of other 2024 films that were nowhere to be seen.

According to science, Damian McCarthy’s Oddity is now one of the scariest horror movies in history based on the data that was collected from a fresh group of 250 people that screened a plethora of spooky films throughout the year. Premiering at the South by Southwest festival back in March, Oddity made its way to the streaming service Shudder on September 27, and has been giving people the creeps ever since. Certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a critical ranking of 96%, its audience score sits at a healthy 78% from over 1,000 fan reviews, with many people echoing the results of the scientific study by calling it one of the most “terrifying” movies they’ve ever seen….

…Are you wondering how science was able to determine which horror movies are the most terrifying of all? We’re glad you asked, because it’s simple, really. Each person involved in the study is hooked up to a monitor that measures their heart rate, and, as the Science of Scare project tells it:

“With heart rate (BPM), the higher the number, the faster the movie got our audiences’ blood pumping, an indicator of excitement and fear as part of your fight or flight instinct. On the other hand, heart rate variance (HRV) measures the time in between each beat of your heart. The lower the heart rate variance the more stressed our audience members became, a good indicator of slow burn fear and dread.”…

(12) I VOTE FOR ‘YUCK’. “Ketchup in space: ‘You gotta squirt it out’” – a BBC video.

NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick has recorded a video demonstration of what happens to ketchup in a zero gravity environment.

Dominick said “some interesting science stuff” was happening during the display, which he filmed aboard the International Space Station on Wednesday before departing for Earth.

In a post on X, he said: “Everyone I’ve shared it with either thinks it is awesome or gross. Nothing in between.”

(13) FOUR RETURN FROM ISS; ONE HOSPITALIZED. “SpaceX Crew-8 astronaut hospitalized in Pensacola after Dragon splashdown, in ‘stable condition’” reports Space.com.

The astronauts of Crew-8 were taken to a Florida hospital as a precaution, shortly after their successful splashdown on Friday (Oct. 25), NASA said.

The SpaceX Crew-8 group of four astronauts was evaluated at Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola, a hospital nearby their splashdown site in the Atlantic Ocean, a NASA representative told Space.com via email. A newer update from NASA issued at 1:30 p.m. EDT (1730 GMT) said one astronaut, described as “in stable condition,” will remain behind in the hospital “as a precautionary measure.”…

[Thanks to Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Daniel Dern, Mark Roth-Whitworth, 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 Brian Z.]