Black and white image. Patrick McNee and diana Rigg, in their costumes as Steed and Peel, stand back to back, faced turned toward camera. The handle of Steed's umbrella can be seen, and Mrs. Peel wears his bowler hat. Image from AlamyThe 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.

Author

  • Marion Deeds

    Marion Deeds, with us since March, 2011, is the author of the fantasy novella ALUMINUM LEAVES. Her short fiction has appeared in the anthologies BEYOND THE STARS, THE WAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE, STRANGE CALIFORNIA, and in Podcastle, The Noyo River Review, Daily Science Fiction and Flash Fiction Online. She’s retired from 35 years in county government, and spends some of her free time volunteering at a second-hand bookstore in her home town.

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