The Japanese lunar lander made the most precise lunar landing in history. The craft was experiencing a problem with its solar panels, but the earth crew may be able to correct that.
We seemed so far out of the blast radius of any 2023 Hugo fallout (did I just mix metaphors there?) that I was shocked when the latest one(s) blew up. It might be two scandals, it might be more, it might be none. It’s hard to tell. When the 2023 Hugo nominating data was released last weekend, hours before the mandated deadline, people discovered that the nominating patterns in several categories were, well, weird. They also learned that several people, and some works, were deemed “ineligible,” with no reason given. Those participants look eligible. Since the data was released, the Chengdu WorldCon committee has acknowledged there were copy-and-paste errors in the data. That only explains a small number of the mysteries here. Many of the usual folks have chimed it. I’m going to link to three: Cora Buhlert, Camestos Felapton and John Scalzi, who has suggested future steps rather than ranting about speculative scenarios. As a palate cleanser, here is Ada Palmer discussing censorship and self-censorship.
Speaking of WorldCon, the Glasgow hotel accommodations are open for this year’s convention.
Oh, and speaking of government censorship, Florida lawmakers are starting to think their book-banning law needs some tweaks. Read the quotes from the various lawmakers carefully and draw your own conclusions.
In the 1960s, “The Avengers” didn’t mean flying folks in suits. It meant dapper British spies. There’s talk of an Avengers reboot. We won’t discuss that movie thing those folks did that one time.
As someone who is eager to read Nisi Shawl’s forthcoming Kinning, let me share an excerpt from her Everfair sequel.
Atlas Obscura explores a ring of stones that are connected, not to the sun, but the moon.
Re “The Avengers” reboot: Good luck recapturing that Patrick Macnee/Diana Rigg chemistry! And yes, Marion, the less said about the film fiasco, the better….
Different can still be good, Sandy, so I’m hopeful.
One thing–we have a solid body of work now with men and women who are partners, trust one another, are friendly, and not lovers, so that should be an easier tightrope to walk with a 21st century version. The sexual attraction can be there, the way it was in the original show, without becoming the default.
Has there been a Hugo award ceremony in the last ten years that has not been dogged by controversy, widely publicized hurt feelings, and rancorous claims of being excluded or picked on by somebody? The fans that go jetting around the globe to these conventions seem to be a morose and persecuted bunch, despite the obvious privilege that allows them to attend year after year. I think at this point the awards are not very important to most prospective readers, although I understand authors may believe that there is some added sales value to winning, or at least getting on the final ballot. I wonder if there are any statistics from recent years that would confirm this belief? The best-selling authors of the 21st century lists include a few fantasy and science fiction authors, but the only ones I see that have won a Hugo or Nebula are George R. R. Martin and current internet unperson J. K. Rowling.
I’m actually questioning whether the Hugos really are that important. After all, there are so many awards now; maybe it’s just one more. People tell me it still sells books but…
On the other hand, if you have a fair and honest system that uses ranking and mathematically determines a “winner,” I do think the mathematics should be correct, and available for people to look at. And, in a contest situation, there should be reasons given for exclusions.
As a Floridian, I’m so embarrassed by my state legislature. We’ve become a laughingstock. And as a faculty member at a Florida university, I can attest that they are causing us a lot of ridiculous and unnecessary extra work (which, of course, they don’t care about). We have trouble hiring new faculty (which, of course, they also don’t care about since they want to discourage “progressive” academics from coming here). It’s a mess. And I doubt it will get better when our humiliated governor leaves office because he’s attracted so many like-minded people to our state that they’ll vote in someone just like him or worse.
About the book-banning: do they realize that their standards makes the Bible “pornographic”?
It breaks my heart, Kat, and lately I’ve interacted with a few Florida college teachers (or former ones) who share your frustration.
The pendulum does swing back eventually.
Doesn’t it seem like our political leadership races would be terrific material for a Marvel or DC superhero comic? Your current governor, GuantanaMan, should have been ideally qualified, based on his previous job in the Imperial Torture Center, to serve in the Empire’s post of Chief Killer Clown and Sabre-Rattler. But, surprise, the voters say NO! Now Cheeto Whisperer and Genocideman will have to duke it out for the Imperial spokesperson job, in what should be a suspenseful climax.
And things are even murkier across the pond, where there’s a nailbiter of a race for our sidekick’s Imperial Boy Wonder and PrimEvil Minister position, with incumbent PseudoPoCMan (with his NHS-gobbling superpower) up against Sir Loathsome LesserEvil (with his promise to be “just like them but better at it”–shades of 1992 over here!). But both here and there, we can celebrate that we voters have a choice. Yay, Democracy!
Honestly, isn’t there some way we could resurrect Stan Lee and put him in charge of these goings-on? Maybe he could get Howard the Duck to jump in at the last-minute as a dark horse, er, dark duck, candidate.
I think the Dark Duck ticket is the answer.
I’m open to an Avengers reboot conceptually, but hoo boy will it be tough to replace those character dynamics
Feel for you Kat! (I just saw they’ve apparently booted “sociology” as a gen-ed course