Today’s word for Wednesday is one many of you already know. It’s incunabulum (in-cuh-nab-u-lum), a noun, meaning a printed book that was made before 1501. The word originates from the Latin noun incunabula, which meant swaddling clothes, from the words for “into” and “cradle.” The idea is that the cradle represents infancy, or the beginnings, of a thing. Thanks to the Oxford Dictionary site and Wikipedia.
Yamba Beach sea foam and surfer, 2007
Awards
Sir Terry Pratchett has been awarded the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award by SFWA. The award is given to people who significantly influenced the science fiction or fantasy landscape. SWFA has also changed the award’s name to include Kate Wilhelm in recognition of the influence she has had over the science fiction field. The posthumous award will be given at the Nebula Awards weekend, May 12-15th, 2016. (Via Locus.)
Locus Magazine reports the short list for the Carnegie Medal and the Greenway medal.
MidAmeriCon wants to remind you that nominating for this year’s Hugo awards ends March 31, 2016.
Books and Writing
Ken Liu writes about books and writing, and the scroll and the codex, over at Powell’s. Before incunabula, in other words (via File 770).
SF Signal gives us a red alert… seriously, Red Alert; Marxist Approaches to Science Fiction Cinema is a collection of essays about SF films and Marxism.
Ursula LeGuin shares the history of a mysterious board game, that looks, at first, somewhat familiar.
Internet
Sea foam encroaches on shoreline on Yamba Beach, 2007
South by Southwest (SXSW) held its first summit on online harassment. Originally SXSW canceled two panels that addressed online harassment, stating that they had received threats and promises of disruption. (Insert your own ironic comment here.) Vox.com and Buzzfeed, among others, stated they would not attend the conference if the situation wasn’t rectified. The online panel did go on and was expanded to a full day, but attendance was sparse. Ars Technica covered it as well as CNN. So did the Washington Post. File 770 has pulled together excerpts from several other news sources, covering an array of issues from the summit.
SXSW itself is a large, popular conference event held in Austin, Texas, that covers interactive media, films and music.
Ready to be creeped out? CNBC’s Facebook page has an interview with Sophia, a scarily perky robot, who wants to start a business, make art, have a family of her own, and is okay with destroying humans. Haha! Just kidding… right? Right? This was fascinating, and made me decide I won’t be buying a summer home in Uncanny Valley any time soon. (H/T to Kate.)
Thanks to Kat for the link to this gorgeous stuff; armor designed by an artist and fabricated with a 3-D printer.
TV and Movies
The “Of course Luke Skywalker is gay if you need him to be” discussion continues over at Tor.com, with a slightly different spin.
Another character is cast in American Gods.
D.B. Woodside talks about being the devil’s big brother in his interview about Fox’s Lucifer. (This is three weeks old, so there are no spoilers in his discussion of the episode.) It’s so nice that he still misses his time on Buffy the Vampire Slayer!
The word is that the CW’s Flash spinoff, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, has been renewed for a second season. Then the word was that “it would feature an entirely new cast.” Wait, what? Not so, a spokesperson says. The article clears up the misunderstanding.
By the way, is anyone watching this show? Do you like it? I confess that once the novelty of watching Arthur Darvill (formerly Rory on Doctor Who) playing “a madman with a time machine” wore off, the only thing that keeps me checking in is charismatic criminal Leonard Snart (Wentworth Miller).
Earth
Goats in coats. Because why not?
Three surfers take a cappuccino break, extra foam.
Pictures
They aren’t art. These photos are from “The Cappuccino Coast” of Yamba, in New South Wales, Australia, from 2007, when the last stage of the life cycle of phytoplankton resulted in an avalanche of sea-froth. Phytoplankton had boomed due to heavy rains and an influx of nutrients into the ocean earlier in the year. A by-product of the inevitable die-off was a surfactant (suds), and Yamba Beach was full of them.
Goats in coats! Thank you!!
I think we must all thank Kat for Goats in Coats.
Thanks, Kat!