Tag Archives: Worldcon 76

Utah Voted 2019 NASFiC

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The unopposed 2019 NASFiC bid for Layton, Utah was officially awarded the con by a site selection vote conducted at Worldcon 76. The bid received 171 votes out of 192 votes cast.

The convention is being called Spikecon and will be held simultaneously with Westercon and will take place in the Davis Convention Center July 4-7, 2019.

The NASFiC bid’s railroad themed emblem is shown and the historic background explained in this announcement:

At this writing both the bid website and the Spikecon site are offline.

2018 Hugo Winners

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The winners of the 2018 Hugo Awards, John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) Award for Best Young Adult Book were announced on Sunday, August 19, 2018, at the 76th World Science Fiction Convention.

The administrators received and counted 2,828 valid ballots (2,810 electronic and 18 paper) from the members of the 2018 World Science Fiction Convention.

The Hugo Awards are the premier award in the science fiction genre, honoring science fiction literature and media as well as the genre’s fans. The Awards were first presented at the 1953 World Science Fiction Convention in Philadelphia (Philcon II), and they have continued to honor science fiction and fantasy notables for well over 60 years.

The winners are:

2018 Associated Awards (not Hugos)

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

  • Rebecca Roanhorse

The World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) Award for Best Young Adult Book

  • Akata Warrior, by Nnedi Okorafor (Viking)

2018 Hugo Awards

Best Fan Artist

  • Geneva Benton

Best Fan Writer

  • Sarah Gailey

Best Fancast

  • Ditch Diggers, presented by Mur Lafferty and Matt Wallace

Best Fanzine

  • File 770, edited by Mike Glyer

Best Semiprozine

  • Uncanny Magazine, edited by Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas, Michi Trota, and Julia Rios; podcast produced by Erika Ensign & Steven Schapansky

Best Professional Artist

  • Sana Takeda

Best Editor – Short Form

  • Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas

Best Editor – Long Form

  • Sheila E. Gilbert

Best Dramatic Presentation – Short Form

  • The Good Place: “The Trolley Problem,” written by Josh Siegal and Dylan Morgan, directed by Dean Holland (Fremulon / 3 Arts Entertainment / Universal Television)

Best Dramatic Presentation – Long Form

  • Wonder Woman, screenplay by Allan Heinberg, story by Zack Snyder & Allan Heinberg and Jason Fuchs, directed by Patty Jenkins (DC Films / Warner Brothers)

Best Graphic Story

  • Monstress, Volume 2: The Blood, written by Marjorie M. Liu, illustrated by Sana Takeda (Image Comics)

Best Related Work

  • No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters, by Ursula K. Le Guin (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Best Series

  • World of the Five Gods, by Lois McMaster Bujold (Harper Voyager / Spectrum Literary Agency)

Best Short Story

  • “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™,” by Rebecca Roanhorse (Apex, August 2017)

Best Novelette

  • “The Secret Life of Bots,” by Suzanne Palmer (Clarkesworld, September 2017)

Best Novella

  • All Systems Red, by Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)

Best Novel

  • The Stone Sky, by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)

Live Coverage of 2018 Hugo Ceremony – Stay Tuned

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The 2018 Hugo Award base, designed by Sara Felix and Vincent Villafranca.

The 2018 Hugo Award base, designed by Sara Felix and Vincent Villafranca.

At the Hugo Awards Web Site, Kevin Standlee has compiled the available information about 2018 Hugo Ceremony coverage:

WHEN: The 2018 Hugo Awards Ceremony begins Sunday, August 19, 2018 at 8:00 p.m. North American Pacific Daylight Time (UTC-7). Master of Ceremonies will be Artist Guest of Honor John Picacio.

WHERE: McEnery Convention Center Grand Ballroom in San Jose, California. The Ceremony will also be simultaneously shown in Callahan’s Place in the Exhibit Hall in a more relaxed environment where attendees can eat, drink, and socialize during the event.

VIDEO: Worldcon 76 San Jose plans to offer live video streaming of the Hugo Awards ceremony via their YouTube channel.

TEXT: The Hugo Awards web site will offer text-based coverage of the Hugo Awards ceremony via CoverItLive. The hosts will be Kevin Standlee, Susan de Guardiola, and Cheryl Morgan. You can sign up at the CoverItLive event site for an e-mail notification before the event starts.

Pixel Scroll 8/18/18 With Pixelled Hide And Scrolly Horn

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Much as I’d like to do more, I’ve got a long day tomorrow…

(1) DAILY NEWZINE. Read the Worldcon 76 daily zine here.

(2) WORLDCON 76. Got to meet Cat Rambo for the first time on Friday. Pics or it didn’t happen!

(3) DEMENTIA DISPUTED. TMZ learned in court papers: “‘Star Trek’ Star Nichelle Nichols, Her Son’s The Problem, Not Dementia, Claims Alleged Friend”:

Nichelle Nichols is spry and lucid, and doesn’t need to be controlled by a bunch of people who don’t have her best interests at heart — including her son– so says a woman claiming to be her close friend.

According to new legal docs filed by Angelique Fawcette … the ‘Star Trek’ icon’s son, Kyle Johnson, doesn’t really care about Nichols’ well-being … she says he’s trying to use her health issues as an excuse to gain possession of her riches.

Fawcette claims Nichelle even wrote a note to her son in March 2017, letting him know she wants to amend her will because he allegedly told her … “I can’t wait to get rid of this sh*t and sell [your] house and property.”

(4) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.

  • Born August 18 – Christian Slater, 49. Genre work includes Tales from the Darkside, Beyond the Stars (an Apollo 11 film), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles and the voice of Deadshot in various animated Justice League productions.
  • Born August 18 – Sarita Choudhury, 52. The alternate history series The Kings noted here before, the Hunger Games film franchise and the Blindspot series.

(5) ARMORED LIVING. Engadget takes a look at a FoMoCo program to equip some of its factory workers with passive exoskeleton vests (“Ford thinks exoskeletons are ready for prime time in its factories”). Though the upper-body machines do not do anything to make the workers stronger, they are said to enhance endurance. Though not entirely clear, part of the intent seems to be to reduce injuries.

The EksoVests (built by Ekso Bionics) are available for employees that have to reach overhead multiple times a day. The exoskeleton vest doesn’t have a motor or battery pack to make its wearer stronger. Instead, it’s a mechanical device that offers passive arm support from five to 15 pounds.

As the person reaches up, the vest offers their arms additional assistance. The higher they reach, the more support the system adds. “It’s not a strength enhancer, it’s an endurance enhancer,” Marty Smets, Ford’s technical expert of human systems and virtual manufacturing, told Engadget.

…Smets was quick to note that those using the vest are only a small portion of the assembly line. The company will issue a total of 75 exoskeletons, which, in the grand scheme of things, isn’t that many. “Today, it’s only the passive upper-arm support skeleton that helps with overhead work,” Smets said. However, it’s just the beginning

[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, Carl Slaughter, Mike Kennedy, Chip Hitchcock, JJ, John King Tarpinian, Martin Morse Wooster, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day ULTRAGOTHA.]

Alt-Right Rally Outside Worldcon 76 Draws About 40

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Stock photo of SJCC plaza.

Erin Sith and some other alt-right Bay Area figures carried on the National March Against Far-Left Violence outside the San Jose Convention Center on Saturday while Worldcon 76 continued inside. In the absence of Jon Del Arroz, who announced yesterday he wouldn’t be at the rally he had instigated due to reasons of family health, it was not apparent whether any of his “anti-pedophilia in sf” agenda was carried out, other than as a sign someone was holding.

Around 12:15 p.m. the first San Jose police officer arrived on sidewalk in front of the SJCC plaza. At 12:30 p.m., when the protestors were scheduled for set-up, a small knot of people, four of them wearing red MAGA hats, walked onto sidewalk beside the plaza (which is also a bus stop), and the cop went and stood next to them.

Although Worldcon members with badges had been crossing the plaza into the Convention Center freely up to that point, security now began controlling the doorways to the plaza, permitting traffic through only one side. And they would not allow to leave the building someone who came downstairs from the main convention area dressed as Ronald McDonald and holding a large sign painted as a Hustler magazine cover with an image of President Trump. However, the clown made his way out another exit and shortly reappeared, displaying himself to the protestors on the sidewalk.

A few minutes later a woman carrying a large image of a UFO alien head (couldn’t tell if it was a sign or simply an exotic purse) walked into the plaza and stood apart watching the proceedings.

Another half-dozen San Jose police arrived shortly before the official starting time of the protest at 1 p.m., plus two motorcycle cops. More protestors began moving up and down the sidewalk, two with Trump banners, one blue, one white, someone in a wheelchair with a big American flag, and a person bearing what looked like a green version of a German military flag except with an unidentifiable image in the center (rather than a Maltese cross or swastika).

That was also when Worldcon members who had volunteered as Pink Shirts came on duty, offering to escort people entering the SJCC.

There was a good vantage point on the second floor of the SJCC for seeing the plaza through several big windows, and that’s where I kept an eye on events, joined at various times by ULTRAGOTHA, Amy Thomson, Kevin Standlee, Marc Schirmeister, Tom Becker and others. I also had a chance to say hello to Alasdair Stuart, who served as one of the pink shirts.

As one might have expected, the rally was one big photo op. Even though there were not very many alt-right protestors at the outset, there were eight or ten people holding up smart phones and a camera to capture video of anything that happened.

More police arrived, and took up positions at intervals along the plaza at the edge of the sidewalk, keeping the action off the SJCC plaza itself.

At this point we’d seen perhaps 10 protestors, counting the flag and banner holders and the four in MAGA hats. There was another infusion of police – at one point, we counted 22 officers in view.

Then, at 2:00 p.m., some more people, a few in MAGA hats, filed down the sidewalk to a spot where police were allowing them to set up on a bank of steps under the eaves of the SJCC just past the plaza. Erin Sith in a pink hat emceed a series of alt-right speakers. The full size of the gathering seemed to be about 40 people, who could be seen energetically applauding after each speaker turned over the mic.

An antifa counter-protest had been called, and some of the video/photography was being done by their people. However, from my vantage I never saw a definable group of antifa protestors, although it was clear that the police were trying to funnel participants in each rally to opposite sides of the plaza. I can’t estimate how many there were. Perhaps more video will come online later with those views.

ULTRAGOTHA shot these photos through the windows:

Another fan sent these, on the suggestion of one of the pink-shirt volunteers:

A side-effect of the rallies was that the alt-right group blocked access to the bloodmobile supporting the traditional Worldcon blood drive:

https://twitter.com/unrealfred/status/1030928854607519744

Bloodmobile is in the background of this photo:

Video of the event shot by Ryoga Vee is on YouTube. Between many closeups of him chewing gum there are shots of the alt-right rally participants, and the police moving them away from the San Jose Convention Center when their time expired around 4 p.m.

Berkeley Antifa tweeted close-up photos and its identifications of speakers at Erin Sith’s rally. The thread starts here .

Jon Del Arroz Says He Won’t Be at His August 18 Rally

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Jon Del Arroz announced on his blog he is “Leaving The Area For The Weekend” [Internet Archive link]. However, he says his protest event at the San Jose Convention Center outside Worldcon 76 “is still on.”

Unfortunately, due to family health reasons, I’ll be unable to attend further Worldcon related events this weekend. I have to leave the area because of the heavy smoke and bad air quality. Health takes priority.

The protest against pedophilia is still on, and will be happening from 1-4 PM tomorrow (Saturday) and there’s expected to be a sizeable turnout. They have my full support…

JDA tweeted this morning:

Erin Sith’s Twitter account has no reaction and the announcement of tomorrow’s event is still a pinned Tweet. Indeed, just half an hour ago the “San Jose National March Against Far-Left Violence” added a Facebook comment to its event to encourage people to turn out.

The counter-protest, “No Hate in San Jose,” also posted on Facebook this afternoon, a FAQ about their reasons for being present tomorrow

(For more information, see “Worldcon 76 Response to Protests Planned Outside SJCC on August 18”)

Update: Corrected to show JDA’s tweet from this morning.

Pixel Scroll 8/16/18 Ralph12FifthC41+

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(1) MUNDANE COVERAGE. The San Jose Mercury-News tells how “WorldCon brings science fiction’s best to San Jose”.

Thousands of fans and creators will celebrate science fiction and fantasy at the “World’s Fair of fandom,” which includes presentation of the prestigious Hugo Awards.

(2) WORLDCON 76 FASHION NOTES. I like these hats.

https://twitter.com/kalanadi/status/1030255619977043968

(3) MEXICANX INITIATIVE. Photo from W76 Opening Ceremonies:

(4) BIG HEART AWARD. Here’s Mike Glyer finding out from Greg Hullender that he won the Big Heart Award – at the File 770 meetup at the Forager. Photo by Eric Wong.

Greg Hullender and Mike Glyer

(5) IT’S ALIVE! Electric Lit features “Jeff VanderMeer and Nick Mamatas on the Death and Rebirth of the Short Story”. The occasion is the release of Nick Mamatas’ latest book, the story collection The People’s Republic of Everything.

Jeff VanderMeer: Short fiction was dead. Then it wasn’t. Let’s assume it’s alive. Why is it alive, if so?

Nick Mamatas: It’s alive for a couple of reasons. One is that just over a decade or so ago, bookstores finally understood that they could sell anthologies of short fiction by treating them as though they were non-fiction. People really do wander into bookstores and say things such as “I love The Walking Dead. Got any books about zombies?” or “I’ve been hearing a lot about steampunk?—?got anything that’ll explain it to me?” and a big anthology with reprints by prominent authors and new or at least obscure material by less well-known authors is basically a textbook designed to answer those questions. Phonebook-sized anthologies by you and Ann VanderMeer, or by John Joseph Adams, really grew a generation of readers.

(6) MARVEL, ESPN TEAM UP. These are pretty good. From CBSSports.com, “Look: ESPN, Marvel create College Football Playoff comic covers”. The headline is misleading. Not playoffs… opening weekend.

(7) COMICS SECTION.

Some cat humor (or is it?) at Maximumble.

(8) POUL ANDERSON ESTATE SALE. Karen Anderson passed away earlier this year, and all of Poul’s and her household items, books, pictures, etc., are on sale this weekend. Public notice on Facebook. Tons of pictures of items on sale here.

ESTATE SALE OF POUL ANDERSON

HUGO & NEBULA AWARD WINNING SCI-FI/FANTASY AUTHOR

SAT. & SUN. AUG 18 & 19

8:00am – 2:00pm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SATURDAY AUGUST 18TH

SUNDAY AUGUST 19TH

8:00AM – 2:00PM

(SUNDAY 1/2 OFF EVERYTHING)

SUNDAY AT 2:00PM I WILL BE TAKING OFFERS FOR THE REST OF THE UNSOLD ITEMS (BUT MUST BE REMOVED BY 3:00PM MONDAY 20TH)

7129 SAMOA PLACE
TUJUNGA CA 91042

(9) TODAY IN THEOLOGY. The Guardian — among other sources — has noted that the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is not recognized as, well, as a church in the Netherlands (“Spaghetti injunction: Pastafarianism is not a religion, Dutch court rules”).

The Dutch council of state has ruled that Pastafarianism is not a religion, denying a follower of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster the right to wear a colander on her head in her passport and driving licence photo.

Mienke de Wilde is now considering taking her case to the European court of human rights.

The Netherlands’ highest court said de Wilde, a law student from Nijmegen, could not be exempted on religious grounds from a ban on headwear in official identity photographs, because Pastfarianism was essentially a satire and not a serious faith.

…De Wilde said the church was humorous but that did not mean it was not “very serious in what it stands for”. She was disappointed by the decision, which backed Nijmegen authorities’ rejection of her ID photos.

“I can imagine that it all looks very odd if you don’t believe,” she told the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper. “But that’s the case with many faiths if you don’t believe in them – people who walk on water or divide themselves in two, for example. I find other religions unbelievable.”

(10) MYSTERY AUTHOR. Wait, we’re not talking to JDA here?

(11) NO, THIS IS WHERE WE’RE HEARING FROM JDA. If you want to see footage of JDA wandering around the San Jose Convention Center today until he found somebody to kick him out, he’s happy to oblige:

(12) GROENING’S NEW SHOW. NPR’s Glen Weldon says: “In Matt Groening’s Fantasy Series ‘Disenchantment,’ The Humor Is Elf-Referential”

Disenchantment, Matt Groening’s new animated series that hits Netflix on Friday, August 17th, does for our mythical past what Futurama did for our imagined future, but it does so in a manner so closely reminiscent of that other show’s wryly cynical sci-fi hi-jinks that it could have just as easily been called Pastarama, if that didn’t sound quite so much like a seasonal promotion at Olive Garden.

(13) ANCIENT MIXOLOGY. Take 2 tbsp. myrrh… “Ancient Egyptian mummification ‘recipe’ revealed”. Major finding: mummification in Egypt is much older than was thought.

Examination of a mummy has revealed the original ancient Egyptian embalming recipe – first used to preserve bodies.

A battery of forensic chemical tests carried out on a mummy that dated from 3,700-3,500 BC revealed the recipe and confirmed that it was developed far earlier and used more widely than previously thought.

The Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy, is now home to the mummy in question.

The findings are published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Dr Stephen Buckley, an archaeologist from the University of York, told BBC News that this mummy “literally embodies the embalming that was at the heart of Egyptian mummification for 4,000 years”.

(14) WINGS OVER PANEGEA. “Winged reptiles thrived before dinosaurs”.

Palaeontologists have found a new species of pterosaur – the family of prehistoric flying reptiles that includes pterodactyl.

It is about 210 millions years old, pre-dating its known relatives by 65 million years.

Named Caelestiventus hanseni, the species’ delicate bones were preserved in the remains of a desert oasis.

The discovery suggests that these animals thrived around the world before the dinosaurs evolved.

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Mike Kennedy, Chip Hitchcock, Cat Eldridge, JJ, Carl Slaughter, Andrew Porter, Martin Morse Wooster, Kendall, and James Davis Nicoll for some of these stories. Lots more material, but I’m tired tonight! Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Andrew.]