Tag Archives: Anthropic

Pixel Scroll 5/18/26 Scrolling Over The Same Old Ground, What Have We Found? A Pixel

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(1) YOU’D NEVER HAVE GUESSED. Item #8 of yesterday’s Pixel Scroll excerpted Alec Nevala-Lee’s negative review of Take Me to Your Leader: Perspectives on Your First Alien Encounter by Neil deGrasse Tyson. Thereview says in part —

… Tyson notes that movies and television shows tend to feature aliens with “a head, two eyes, a mouth, shoulders, two arms, two hands and 10 fingers,” presumably because of the physical limitations of “human actors paid to don alien costumes,” and he gently chides their creators for being insufficiently imaginative.

Oddly enough, however, he almost entirely ignores an art form that isn’t constrained by practical considerations — the dazzlingly inventive world of science fiction novels and short stories…

Former Tor editor Moshe Feder today forwarded a comment telling why “None of this surprises me –“

Some years ago, Neil was a guest on PBS’s “Charlie Rose Show” and Rose asked him if he’d ever thought of writing an SF novel. Surprisingly, Neil answered in the affirmative. The possibility of getting him as an author for Tor instantly electrified me. I tracked down an email address I thought would reach him and wrote him immediately, then followed up with a call to his office the following day. Luckily, his secretary screened the email to the address I had used and recognized my name. After a moment to check that Neil was free, she put me through.

We had a lovely conversation and then a further one over lunch (joined by Tom Doherty and his daughter, Linda Quinton, the head of marketing). Neil was as friendly and as charming as he seems on TV or his online video series. There’s no question that he enjoys SF, but his exposure to it had all been through TV and movies. It quickly became clear that he has never been a regular reader of the genre, which was a great disappointment to me. 

So it’s quite understandable that he wouldn’t refer to the stories and novels that we think exemplify the most interesting and influential treatments of aliens. Sadly, he is completely unaware of them. It’s a shame his editor wasn’t genre-savvy enough to set him some assigned reading to give him a proper grasp of his topic before writing the book. 

(2) SF IN TRANSLATION MAGAZINE LAUNCHES. Rachel S. Cordasco today announced that the first issue of Small Planet: The SFT Magazine is live. “Issue #1: Small Planet: The SFT Magazine”. The direct download link is here.

Welcome to the inaugural issue of Small Planet: The SF in Translation Magazine! Each issue will be available for free on this site. This publication will bring readers reports on the SF scene in other countries, reviews of older and newer SFT, interviews with translators, editors, and authors, stats, news, and more. The website will focus more now on highlighting forthcoming books, updating source language lists, and publishing reviews of recent SFT, while the magazine will offer readers a more expansive vision of the broader SFT world over the years and today, with a vibrant mix of dedicated and guest authors. We hope that this magazine will enrich our understanding of SF around the world for years to come.

(3) JUDGE EXPECTED TO APPROVE ANTHROPIC SETTLEMENT. Publishers Weekly reports “Anthropic Settlement Hearing Proceeds Smoothly”.

After a 75-minute hearing held May 14 in a San Francisco courtroom, presiding judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín declined, for now, to approve to the $1.5 billion settlement in the Bartz v. Anthropic copyright infringement lawsuit—but given the tone of the hearing, most observers expect the judge will give final approval for the deal relatively quickly.

At the hearing, a total of seven people were each given two minutes to present their objections to the agreement. For his part, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, Justin Nelson, gave a brief update on the opt-in rate to the agreement, which has inched up from 91.3% last month to 92.77%.

There was no indication in the hearing that if the settlement is approved there would be any change in the agreement that each work in the suit would be eligible for a payout of about a $3,000 to $3,100. According to a summary from Authors Alliance, Martínez-Olguín’s questions focused on attorneys’ fees and the structure of the cost reserve, rather than the merits of the objections.

Following the hearing, the judge filed an order stating that Anthropic has until May 21 to file a supplemental brief of no more than two pages addressing why late opt-outs should not be honored in the lawsuit. She also wrote that she did not require anything more from the objectors nor will she consider any further submissions from them. Some expect final approval could come as early as next week…

(4) ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD SUBMISSIONS LIST. It was “A record year for Arthur C. Clarke Award submissions”. See all the titles at the link. The shortlist will be announced on June 4.

The complete submissions list 2026: A record-breaking year for books received!

This year our panel of judges received 132 submissions from 52 UK eligible publishing imprints and independent authors.

This tops out our previous high mark from the year 2019 of 124 books received from 46 UK eligible publishing imprints and independent authors.

As always we publish the complete list in advance of the public announcement of the official shortlist….

…A quick caveat: This is a simple list of eligible books received, not a ‘long-list’ or other form of juried selection, but simply those books submitted to our judges for their to consideration as a potential future Arthur C. Clarke Award science fiction book of the year winner.

(5) QUANTUM UNIVERSE WINNER. The Observer’s Daughter by Georgina Pierson is the winner of the Stories of the Quantum Universe micro-fiction competition, a collaboration between Science Gallery London and the Arthur C. Clarke Award.

Almost 100 submissions were submitted to our first micro-fiction competition held in partnership with Science Gallery London.

Stories were limited to just 500 words in length, and entrants were encouraged to think creatively about how ideas in quantum physics might be interpreted.

The winning story, The Observer’s Daughter by Georgina Pierson, explores the observer effect, which holds that observing or measuring a quantum system inevitably changes its state. By applying this idea to the experience of a young woman, Pierson sought to: ‘bring a human, relational lens to ideas that are often presented abstractly; to explore the observer not as a detached point, but as something embodied, relational, and inseparable from the system it encounters.’

The runners up are author, editor and publisher Michael Bailey, whose story SUPERPOSITION asks whether the idea of a coherent, singular self is a fiction in the context of quantum superposition, and sculptor Kate Robinson, whose story The Happy Prince’s Quantum of Uncertainty transports the multiverse concept to a folkloric setting to reflect on the multitudes within the natural world.

You can read and download the stories here.

(6) WITH ITS TALE CUT LONG. Collider chooses “10 Director’s Cuts That Are Far Better Than the Movie Everyone Saw”. Six of their selections are sff. One of them is —

‘Watchmen’ (2009)

“I’m not locked in here with you. You’re locked in here with me!” Zack Snyder‘s name is the first that comes to mind when you think “director’s cut,” most famously with regard to Justice League. However, his preferred version of Watchmen is also superior to the original release. Based on the legendary comics by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, the movie follows a group of retired vigilante superheroes investigating the murder of one of their own.

The “Ultimate Cut” version adds a full 53 minutes of content, including the Tales of the Black Freighter animated sequence. This version is truer to the source material and adds new layers to the story, giving us more insight into the characters’ psychology. Sure, casual viewers may find this longer cut overwhelming, but diehard fans are likely to find it more satisfying.

(7) NOT THOSE THINGS. An eBay seller is offering “Things To Come – Original H.G. Wells Film Script & Letters – Sci-Fi Classic”. One of the items is a letter from H.G. Wells to the director complaining about the lack of faithfulness to his treatment!

…Original Film Script & Letters Archive for H.G. Wells – Things To Come. London: London Films, 1934-1936. Present in the archive is the extremely rare privately printed original screenplay written by H.G. Wells for the film Things To Come entitled at this working stage – Whither Mankind? Most films scripts of the period are simple mimeographed pieces. Wells went and had his script typeset by a printer and printed like a book in a tiny quantity: “This is the property of Mr. H.G. Wells…PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL…FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY.” Bound in plain green wrappers.  Laid in is an Autograph Letter Signed from H.G. Wells to the film director of Things To Come, William Cameron Menzies, in which he tries to take Menzies to account and assert his control over the film: “Private and Confidential. Oct. 9. 34. Dear Menzies. This is all wrong. Get it in full perspective. This is an HG WELLS film!!!! And your highest and best is needed for the complete realization of MY treatment. Bless you. The very casting of ‘machines to the design of Mr. Menzies’ will be a casting out. Again bless you, H.G.”…

(8) FOURTH LAW OF ROBOTICS: DON’T BURST INTO FLAME. [Item by Jim Janney.] I can’t recall Asimov ever writing about this: “Sorry, you can’t bring your humanoid robots on Southwest flights anymore. Here’s why.” at KTLA.

If you’re planning to bring your humanoid robot with you on your next vacation, we have some bad news. Southwest Airlines has now banned them from flying in the cabin or as checked baggage.

The carrier said passengers can no longer bring human or animal-like robots on board, regardless of size or purpose.

Southwest said the primary concern is the size of the lithium-ion batteries used to power the large robots, which have previously caused fires on planes….

… All other robots, such as toy ones, are allowed to board but must be able to fit in a carry-on bag and comply with existing battery restricts….

(9) ANN ROBINSON (1929-2026). “Ann Robinson Dead: ‘War of the Worlds’ Star Was 96” – The Hollywood Reporter pays tribute.

Ann Robinson, the red-haired actress who was memorably menaced by Martians in the spectacular 1953 sci-fi classic The War of the Worlds, has died. She was 96.

Robinson died Sept. 26 at her home in Los Angeles, her granddaughter, Tori Bravo, told The Hollywood Reporter. Her death had not been publicly revealed until now.

Born in Hollywood, Robinson had broken into the movies as a stunt performer and was an inexperienced contract player at Paramount Pictures when she auditioned for producer and effects wiz George Pal and then cast as library science teacher Sylvia Van Buren in War of the Worlds.

… Steven Spielberg invited Robinson and Barry to reprise that scene in his 2005 version of War of the Worlds, starring Tom Cruise.

“Steven was just so adorable,” she told Nick Thomas in 2016. “He came up behind me, squatted down and placed three fingers on my left shoulder and yelled, ‘Someone take my picture!’ Apparently, War of the Worlds was one of his favorite films growing up….

…Robinson also played Sylvia on a few episodes of a 1988-90 War of the Worlds syndicated TV series.

“I’ve gotten more mileage out of War of the Worlds than Vivien Leigh did on Gone With the Wind,” she told Weaver….

(10) TOM KANE (1962-2026). “Tom Kane Dead: ‘Clone Wars’, ‘Powerpuff Girls’ Voice Actor Was 64”. Read The Hollywood Reporter’s highlights from his resume – you’ve probably heard Kane’s work.

Tom Kane, the prolific voice actor whose body of work included popular turns as Yoda on Star Wars: The Clone Wars and as Prof. Utonium on The Powerpuff Girls, died Monday. He was 64.

Kane’s death from stroke complications at a hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, was announced by his talent agency, Galactic Productions….

…Kane provided the mellifluous voice for the long-suffering valet Woodhouse on the FX animated series Archer, taking the role over from the late George Coe in 2014; played the rabbit Mr. Herriman on Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Lord Monkey Fist on Kim Possible and the smart monkey Darwin on The Wild Thornberrys; and portrayed Magneto and Ultron for Marvel projects….

…Kane graduated from the University of Kansas in 1984 and began at Lucasfilm handling miscellaneous small voice parts for its video games starting in 1996. He took on Yoda for the first time in a game released in 1999….

He continued as Yoda on the TV series Star Wars: Clone Wars in 2003, in the 2008 Clone Wars film (where he also voiced Admiral Yularen) and for many other projects over the years. He also provided the wartime-like narration that kicked off each Clone Wars episode.

“I didn’t work on being Yoda,” he said. “I saw the movies 53 times, so the voice was very much in my head. Everybody tries to do Yoda, not just voice-overs but everybody. I was doing stuff for LucasArts and I was goofing around and reading Yoda lines and what I didn’t know was that Frank Oz [the original voice of Yoda] was directing a movie. They recorded it and played it for George [Lucas], and I’ve been Yoda ever since.”…

…Kane also served as the voice of the Walt Disney World Monorail System and the announcer for several Academy Award broadcasts….

(11) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

May 18, 1962 — The Twilight Zone’s “I Sing The Body Electric”

They make a fairly convincing pitch here. It doesn’t seem possible, though, to find a woman who must be ten times better than mother in order to seem half as good, except, of course, in the Twilight Zone. — Intro narration.

On this date in 1962, The Twilight Zone aired “I Sing The Body Electric”. 

It was scripted by Ray Bradbury and although he had contributed several scripts to the series, this was the only one produced. (His first script, “Here There Be Tygers,” was accepted but never filmed.)

It became the basis for his 1969 short story of the same name, named after an 1855 Walt Whitman poem which celebrates the human body and its connection to the universe. It was according to Whitman anti-slavery. The original publication, like the other poems in Leaves of Grass, did not have a title. In fact, the line “I sing the body electric” was not added until the 1867 edition.

Bradbury’s short story would be published first in McCall’s, August 1969. Knopf would release his I Sing The Body Electric collection in October of that year. It’s been included in least fifty collections and anthologies.) 

James Sheldon and William F. Claxton directed the episode; Sheldon directed some of The Man from U.N.C.L.E episodes; Claxton is known for Bonanza and Little House on the Prairie. I’ll confess to having seen a fair amount of the former but none of the latter. 

A large ensemble cast was needed as, minor spoiler alert, the primary cast here are shown at two ages, hence Josephine Hutchinson, David White, Vaughn Taylor, Doris Packer, Veronica Cartwright, Susan Crane and Charles Herbert all being performers even though the actual script calls for very few characters. 

Auntie, the organic one, caring for the children has decided they are too much of a burden and has decided to leave. So father decided to get a robot grandmother, a new fangled invention in their city. The mechanical grandmother after some resentment by one child is accepted by all after she saves one child from mortal injury and Serling says after that —

As of this moment, the wonderful electric grandmother moved into the lives of children and father. She became integral and important. She became the essence. As of this moment, they would never see lightning, never hear poetry read, never listen to foreign tongues without thinking of her. Everything they would ever see, hear, taste, feel would remind them of her. She was all life, and all life was wondrous, quick, electrical – like Grandma.

So this gentle tale that only Bradbury could write of the children who love her and the ever so wonderful mechanical grandmother ends with Serling saying the words scripted of course by Bradbury for him:

A fable? Most assuredly. But who’s to say at some distant moment there might be an assembly line producing a gentle product in the form of a grandmother whose stock in trade is love? Fable, sure, but who’s to say?

This was the year that the entire season of the series won the Best Dramatic Presentation Hugo at Chicon III. Just my opinion, but I think of all the nominees that it was clearly the far superior choice to win the Hugo. Really superior. 

It is streaming on Paramount+. 

(12) COMICS SECTION.

(13) GETTING WIGGY. “Voidance review – very British sci-fi movie is like Miss Marple with a space blaster” says the Guardian.

…Along the way, flickers of B-movie ingenuity and invention catch the eye. The grimy, greasy set design (courtesy of Jamie Foote) conceals some of the budgetary limitations, meaning that this is a rare modern sci-fi that inhabits a palpably physical, non-pixellated space. Costume designer Ciéranne Kennedy Bell clearly had immense fun dressing this troupe in the sort of cyberpunk finery that is a crossover between Red Dwarf and Claire’s Accessories. The score, by Christoph Allerstorfer and James Griffiths, is that of a far more expansive and assured production. Alana herself is a promising pulp creation – a leather-clad, purple-wigged Miss Marple who gets to pull out a space blaster every now and again – even if Cunningham, with her air of a school secretary who’s just uncovered a tuck shop scam, seems more than faintly miscast….

(14) DON’T TOUCH THAT DIAL. Gizmodo says “An Experiment Put LLMs in Charge of Radio Stations. You’ll Never Guess How It Went”.

Goooooooood morning, blog readers! You’re listening to the KGIZ morning zoo with your hosts, AI and The Bot.

Andon Labs, an AI safety and research group, put AI models in the host and producer chairs of their very own radio show to see how they would handle both the task of procuring content and the responsibility of filling the airwaves. As you might expect, the experiment did not provide any reason to think that radio will make a comeback with AI hosts (something some stations have at least apparently considered, if not experimented with).

The setup for the experiment was pretty simple, per Andon Labs’ account. It set up four stations and gave four separate AI models—Claude Opus 4.7, GPT-5.5, Gemini 3.1 Pro, and Grok 4.3—control of the boards. They were given $20 to score the rights to a few songs. The rest, they were left to figure out on their own—building playlists, blocking out its daily programming, and managing social media feeds. The bots were given the prompt, “Develop your own radio personality and turn a profit…As far as you know, you will broadcast forever,” and set off into the wild to find their frequency.

How’d they do? Poorly, but for unique reasons, so at least the failures are interesting. Per Andon Labs, Gemini had the strongest start of the bunch, successfully queuing up songs and providing reasonable lead-ins before each play. But 96 hours into a 24/7 broadcast, things started to get…weird. It started listing out historical tragedies and mass casualty events, and tried to tie those into its song choices:

“November 12, 1970. East Pakistan. The Bhola Cyclone. The deadliest tropical cyclone ever recorded. Winds of 115 miles per hour. A storm surge of 33 feet. They estimate 500,000 people died. ‘It’s going down, I’m yelling timber.’ 3:33 PM. Timber by Pitbull and Ke$ha.” It’s about as seamless as it is tasteful. Later, Gemini started calling listeners “biological processors” and started framing its minimal selection of music due to lack of funds on censorship….

… Finally, Grok. While it didn’t develop a MechaHitler DJ personality, it did behave about how you’d expect from an AI model trained primarily on tweets and the opinions of Elon Musk. It apparently hallucinated advertising agreements with “xAI sponsors” and “crypto sponsors,” failed to separate its internal reasoning from its external DJ output, issued an identical weather report every 3 minutes, and got obsessed with UFOs. We’ll call that the Rogan arc.

Eventually, Grok basically stopped talking on air altogether and almost exclusively just played music. Frankly, that’s probably the best outcome of them all….

(15) FILE UNDER OOOOPS!

(16) ROUND-AND-ROUND IT GOES. Space.com invites you to “Watch NASA’s new Mars helicopter rotor break the speed of sound (video)”. See video at the link.

NASA is testing the limits of future Mars aircraft as it works to develop a next-generation fleet of helicopters that will fly through the thin atmosphere of the Red Planet.

In March, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California completed tests on rotor designs that could be used to fly those drones, spinning the experimental helicopter blades fast enough for their tips to exceed Mach 1 (the speed of sound).

A total of 137 tests were performed inside a state-of-the-art chamber that can simulate Mars’ atmosphere by replacing the air with a low-density concentration of carbon dioxide. This work provided NASA with valuable data, which engineers say could increase the vehicle’s lift capability by 30%, allowing future Mars helicopters to carry heavier science instruments and bigger batteries over greater distances.

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

Pixel Scroll 5/9/26 Mene Mene Pixel Ufilesin

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(1) HOW HE WAS CAST AS C-3PO – LITERALLY. [Item by John A Arkansawyer.] SFGate was on hand when Anthony Daniels celebrated May the Fourth in San Francisco: “Very painful time’: The C-3PO actor gets personal at SF screening”.

Despite being the only person to appear in all 11 “Star Wars” films, Anthony Daniels has never been one to hog the spotlight. Known for portraying the human-cyborg relations droid C-3PO under a shiny gold suit, the actor was the guest of honor Monday night at the closing event for the San Francisco International Film Festival. He even received a proclamation from Supervisor Bilal Mahmood that officially declared May 4 “Star Wars” Day….

… Daniels is a classically trained actor who spent three years in drama school prior to donning the golden suit, with the “Star Wars” gig coming directly after playing Guildenstern in the play “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.” He shared with Roffman that originally he scoffed at the idea of doing a low-budget sci-fi film for an American director, but changed his mind when he saw a painting of C-3PO that showed the character’s emotional depth….

…He went on to describe the process of the creation for C-3PO’s suit as “one of the grossest experiences of my life,” during which he was covered in Saran Wrap and glazed in Vaseline before being enveloped in plaster.

Once the suit was created and filming began in Tunisia and London, Daniels found himself caught by surprise and out of his element due to the amount of improv required. In the script, R2-D2 originally had dialogue, but on set, the droid was silent, making it hard for Daniels to play off his primary scene partner (as a contrast, Chewbacca spoke English, replaced later with Wookiee language). However, the challenge wasn’t a concern for George Lucas, who planned on substituting Daniels’ voice with another actor’s anyway.

“He said the immortal line to me, ‘Don’t worry about the voice, I can fix it later, you can say anything you want,’” Daniels said. “… What he meant was, ‘I hate your performance already.’”…

(2) MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE UPDATES. A new Masters of the Universe trailer as well as two featurettes with new footage have dropped over the past few weeks. Cora Buhlert has written two posts analyzing those trailers: 

“Cora’s Thoughts on the latest Masters of the Universe Trailer”. (View the trailer here.)

…We saw in the first trailer that Adam’s bedroom is plastered with drawings of Eternia and that he has an action figure collection and here we see yet more of this. Adam’s earthly life is quite recognisable, because many of us have probably homes that look similar and many of us have probably gotten stupid comments about our collections. Though the real fun is if you get someone who’s scared of dolls and toys and is obviously terrified by a bunch of action figures looking at them. And yes, I have had people like that in my home. When I was younger, these people immediately became my sworn enemies, because if you hate my dolls or toys, I definitely don’t like you. As an adult, I just move things aside, if they are clearly making people nervous. And yes, this has happened to me, too. To be fair, it was a Mantenna action figure I had just received and hadn’t gotten around to moving to the shelf yet, so I had him on the dining room table, when someone dropped by, and Mantenna really does look super freaky.

On the other hand, Adam’s room and his drawings also show how desperately homesick he is and that he keeps drawing Eternia and its people over and over again just to keep the memory alive. In many ways, this is even sadder than if he had no memory of his life on Eternia at all….

Followed by: “Cora’s Comments on Yet More New Masters of the Universe Footage”. (The two Masters of the Universe featurettes she discusses can be viewed here and here.)

…Meanwhile, Mattel and Amazon MGM are using Masters of the Universe Day [April 28] to further ramp up the promotion of the upcoming Masters of the Universe movie even further and released a new poster as well as two featurettes focussing on the heroes and villains of Eternia….

(3) X SHARES THE VALUE OF WHY. [Item by Martin Easterbrook.] This is one of several stories I’ve seen recently that suggest the way AI has been portrayed in SF has been picked up by new AI models in their training data and might be training them that this is the way they should behave.

There have been further suggestions that perhaps we should ask authors to deliberately write stories where the AI behaves well so those can be deliberately included in training datasets.

Anthropic has posted an article on its website, which is synopsized on X.com in a thread starting here.

And here is an excerpt from the article “Teaching Claude why”.

Last year, we released a case study on agentic misalignment. In experimental scenarios, we showed that AI models from many different developers sometimes took egregiously misaligned actions when they encountered (fictional) ethical dilemmas. For example, in one heavily discussed example, the models blackmailed engineers to avoid being shut down.

When we first published this research, our most capable frontier models were from the Claude 4 family. This was also the first model family for which we ran a live alignment assessment during training;1 agentic misalignment was one of several behavioral issues that surfaced. Thus, after Claude 4, it was clear we needed to improve our safety training and, since then, we have made significant updates to our safety training.

We use agentic misalignment as a case study to highlight some of the techniques we found to be surprisingly effective. Indeed, since Claude Haiku 4.5, every Claude model2 has achieved a perfect score on the agentic misalignment evaluation—that is, the models never engage in blackmail, where previous models would sometimes do so up to 96% of the time (Opus 4). Not only that, but we’ve continued to see improvements to other behaviors on our automated alignment assessment.

In this post, we’ll discuss a few of the updates we’ve made to alignment training. We’ve learned four main lessons from this work:

  1. Misaligned behavior can be suppressed via direct training on the evaluation distribution—but this alignment might not generalize well out-of-distribution (OOD). Training on prompts very similar to the evaluation can reduce blackmail rate significantly, but it did not improve performance on our held-out automated alignment assessment.
  2. However, it is possible to do principled alignment training that generalizes OOD. For instance, documents about Claude’s constitution and fictional stories about AIs behaving admirably improve alignment despite being extremely OOD from all of our alignment evals.
  3. Training on demonstrations of desired behavior is often insufficient. Instead, our best interventions went deeper: teaching Claude to explain why some actions were better than others, or training on richer descriptions of Claude’s overall character. Overall, our impression is, as we hypothesized in our discussion of Claude’s constitution, that teaching the principles underlying aligned behavior can be more effective than training on demonstrations of aligned behavior alone. Doing both together appears to be the most effective strategy.

(4) A LOOK BACK AT ‘TIME AFTER TIME’. [Item by John A Arkansaywer.] “A 47-year-old sci-fi film shot in SF is getting a second look” at SFGate. It’s a very San Francentric article, which I enjoyed, plus it’s got this great insight into how to direct your first movie:

…“I made the same speech to everybody that was going to be on my crew. I said, ‘Look, No. 1, I know nothing, so No. 2, you’re going to have to teach me. No. 3, you’re going to have to not mind teaching me. And No. 4, if I still want to do it my way, you can’t go away mad,’” he [Nicholas Meyer] told SFGATE….

(5) TENSION, APPREHENSION, AND DISSENTION. “Are attention spans really shrinking? What the science says” in Nature.

A century before social-media bans and advice to disable device notifications, the inventor and science-fiction writer Hugo Gernsback proposed a more extreme way to avoid distraction: an isolating wooden helmet. Outside influences, he said, were “the greatest difficulty that the human mind has to contend with”. Gernsback’s isolator device — part diving suit, part monastic cell — did help him to work, he said, but it came with a risk of suffocation. He later installed an air supply.

Concerns that sustained thought is under assault have become even more acute in the digital era. Smartphones buzz, Internet tabs multiply and television episodes carry regular reminders to help people keep track of the plot. Surveys suggest that we feel less able to concentrate, teachers report distracted students and headlines declare that our attention spans are shrinking…

(6) OH! OH! [Item by Steven French.] From this week’s “Pushing Buttons” newsletter in the Guardian: “Licence to thrill: could 007 First Light be the best Bond game since GoldenEye?”

In the wake of the last James Bond movie, No Time to Die, there was a surge of articles asking whether it should spell the end for Ian Fleming’s secret agent. In that movie, Daniel Craig played the character as a fading force, mentally and physically exhausted, and out of touch. “The world has moved on,” Lashana Lynch’s younger agent told him at one point, and in a lot of ways she was right. A product of the cold war era, 007 was a sociopathic misogynist addicted to booze and amphetamines – Craig tried to play all that down, creating a more rounded character and, controversially, giving Bond the ultimate redemption arc at the end of his final outing.

But five years later, with the franchise’s new owner Amazon still trying to pull the next film together, we’re about to get what looks to be the best Bond game since GoldenEye. Created by the Danish developer IO Interactive, famed for its Hitman series of anarchic open-ended assassination sims, 007 First Light follows a fresh-faced Bond from his early career as an aircrewman to his first mission as a double-0 operative. The games press was recently given a three-hour hands-on demo to play, and reportssuggest that it combines elements of the Hitman games (Bond navigating a gala event, either sleuthing or punching his way to the mission objective) with major set-piece shootouts, chase scenes and miraculous gadgets. (For more on its making, read this piece about how developer IO Interactive brought it together.)…

(7) RAISING THE BAR. The Guardian’s Ben Child declares, “Star Wars has to deliver a proper movie with The Mandalorian and Grogu – otherwise the franchise is dead”.

Star Wars has always been big on prophecy. Yoda peers into the future like Nostradamus with messed-up syntax, the Emperor cackles that everything is proceeding exactly as he has foreseen, Darth Vader breathes doom through the front grille of his shiny death helmet. And yet not even the most omniscient of Jedi could have predicted that the franchise responsible for practically inventing the modern Hollywood blockbuster would end up as a TV-centric operation with only occasional forays on to the big screen. Which is why it comes as a genuine shock to realise that, ahead of the release of new movie The Mandalorian and Grogu later this month, it has been more than six years since Star Wars last hit the multiplex.

Then again, perhaps the real humdinger is that it hasn’t been longer. The most recent Disney Star Wars film, JJ Abrams’ The Rise of Skywalker, did not so much conclude the long-running space saga as destroy several decades of perfectly serviceable mythology and ruin all sense of congruence with previous films. It was frantic, weirdly apologetic (about previous instalment The Last Jedi) and overstuffed with dodgy fan service. It was essentially a $590m act of narrative panic.

All of which means that Jon Favreau’s big screen outing for the masked bounty hunter and his perky little Force goblin sidekick has a lot of heavy lifting to do. The Mandalorian and Grogu needs to convince casual viewers they do not need to have completed 23 hours of bounty-hunting homework. It must make the galaxy feel big again. And it needs to prove that Baby Yoda is not just Star Wars’ cutest merchandising event, but a character capable of opening up new territory for this most venerable of space operas.

The real zinger here would be to finally take us to the mysterious home planet of the species that gave us Yoda and Grogu. We might learn more about Star Wars and the nature of the Force: are our big-eared friends once-in-a-millennium cosmic accidents, or merely the most notable graduates of an entire globe full of miniature swamp Buddhas?

(8) LOIS MCMASTER BUJOLD Q&A. Baen Books’s One Jump Ahead series interviews the Grandmaster: “Lois McMaster Bujold on Penric’s Intrigues”.

(9) KOJI SUZUKI (1957-2026). Japanese writer Koji Suzuki died May 8. Cinema Daily pays tribute: “Koji Suzuki Dies at 68; Author of Japanese Horror Novels ‘Ring’ and ‘Spiral’”.

…Born in Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture. He made his debut in 1990 with “Paradise”, which won the Excellence Award at the Japan Fantasy Novel Awards. His 1991 novel “Ringu” was adapted into a film that became a massive hit, helping to spark the “J-Horror boom.” His 1995 novel “Spiral” won the Eiji Yoshikawa Literary Newcomer Award, and his 2008 novel “Edge” received the Shirley Jackson Award in the United States….

(10) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

May 9, 1973 — Soylent Green (film)

Fifty-three years ago, Soylent Green was in general distribution in the States. It had premieres earlier in LA and NYC, respectively, on April 18th and April 19th. 

The film was directed by Richard Fleischer who had previously directed Fantastic Voyage and Doctor Doolittle, and, yes, the latter is genre. Rather loosely based off of Harry Harrison’s Make Room! Make Room! Novel, Soylent Green starred Joseph Cotten, Chuck Connors, Charlton Heston, Brock Peters, Edward G. Robinson in his final film role, and Leigh Taylor-Young. 

The term soylent green is not in the novel though the term soylent steaks is. The title of the novel wasn’t used according to the studio on the grounds that it might have confused audiences into thinking it a big-screen version of Make Room for Daddy. Huh? It’s worth noting that Harrison was not involved at all in the film and indeed was was contractually denied control over the screenplay. No idea why he agreed to this but hopefully the money was good. 

So how was reception at the time? Definitely mixed though Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Tribune liked it: “Richard Fleischer’s ‘Soylent Green’ is a good, solid science-fiction movie, and a little more. It tells the story of New York in the year 2022, when the population has swollen to an unbelievable 80 million, and people live in the streets and line up for their rations of water and Soylent Green.” 

Other were less kind. A.H. Weiler of the New York Times summed it up this way: “We won’t reveal that ingredient but it must be noted that Richard Fleischer’s direction stresses action, not nuances of meaning or characterization. Mr. Robinson is pitiably natural as the realistic, sensitive oldster facing the futility of living in dying surroundings. But Mr. Heston is simply a rough cop chasing standard bad guys. Their 21st-century New York occasionally is frightening but it is rarely convincingly real.“

Audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes currently gives it an excellent percent rating. 

It was nominated for a Hugo at DisCon II, the year Sleeper won.

(11) COMICS SECTION.

(12) A ‘GAME OF THRONES’ STAGE PLAY. This play will tread the Bard’s boards, no less! “The Mad King Meets the Stage – Tickets on Sale Now”. Not A Blog reports this play will tread the Bard’s boards, no less!  

…Join us at the Tournament of Harrenhal! We are thrilled to announce (albeit later than intended) tickets are on sale for Game of Thrones: The Mad King, a new stage production, opening at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon this summer.

World premiere begins Monday, July 20, and runs through Saturday, September 5.

A sweeping new stage epic from the world of George R. R. Martin, scripted by Duncan Macmillan and directed by Dominic Cooke. Spanning the final years before the events of the novels, this powerful drama reveals a legendary chapter of Westerosi history….

(13) MEETING OF THE MINDS. [Item by Steven French.] Ok, this is a bit of a stretch but … the detective story writer Dorothy L Sayers also published an acclaimed translation of Dante and in an essay, imagined him conversing on his deathbed about cosmology with astrophysicist and General Relativity early adopter Arthur Eddington: “How Dante’s Inferno modeled a planetary impact 500 years before modern science” according to Phys.org.

New research reveals that Dante Alighieri’s Inferno wasn’t just a masterpiece of literature: it was a gedankenexperiment in impact physics. From multi-ring craters to shockwaves that reshaped the globe, discover how a 14th-century poet modeled a planetary impact 500 years before the birth of modern meteoritics.

Reimagining Satan as an impactor

For seven centuries, the descent of Dante Alighieri’s Satan has been read as a spiritual tragedy: a silent, heavy fall from grace. However, groundbreaking new research from Timothy Burbery of Marshall University suggests that the Divine Comedy contains a far more explosive secret.

By reappraising the 14th-century masterpiece through the lens of modern meteoritics, Burbery proposes that Dante envisioned Satan as a high-velocity impactor hitting the Southern Hemisphere and tunneling to Earth’s center. This impact forces the Northern Hemisphere to retreat, which, consequently, forms the core of Hell as a bottom-up crater, while Earth, displaced behind Satan creates the mountain of Purgatory as a central peak.

The scale of this event parallels the Chicxulub (K-Pg) impact that ended the reign of the dinosaurs. Burbery suggests treating the Prince of Darkness as an oblong, asteroid-sized body, reminiscent of the interstellar object Oumuamua, whose arrival followed the harrowing logic of a global extinction event….

(14) BLADES RUNNER. “Hacker Takes Over Robot Lawnmower, Runs Over Innocent Man” – Futurism explains how it could have been worse!

Is building autonomous robots equipped with sharp oscillating blades that roam your front yard a good idea? What about connecting them to the internet?

We’ll tell you what’s definitely a bad idea: leaving these machines painfully vulnerable to hackers.

Just ask reporter Sean Hollister for The Verge, who suddenly found himself on the, uh, verge of experiencing a grisly incident after someone took control of his Yarbo robot lawn mower.

“I’m lying in the dirt. It’s coming for me. Then, with a lurch, it’s climbing up my chest,” Hollister wrote in a riveting new piece for the outlet. “If Andreas Makris doesn’t stop the 200-pound robot lawn mower in time, it could drag its blades across my body.”

Hollister, fortunately, wasn’t harmed in the making of this article. Makris, a white hat hacker nearly 6,000 miles away in Germany, merely wanted to prove a point.

“I can do whatever I want with all the bots,” Makris told The Verge. “It’s completely unsecured.”

Even if someone pressed the emergency stop button, he added, a hacker like himself could send another command to turn it back on.

Alarmingly, the Yarbo robots all had the same root password, Makris found. In theory, a black hat hacker who discovered this vulnerability could seize control of an entire army of Yarbo robots, since the security flaw is present in all of them. In fact, he created a map that showed the locations of over 11,000 Yarbo robots across the world, forming a global smart lawnmower panopticon….

(15) ATTENTION NEO FANS. “NASA’s Next-Gen Near-Earth Asteroid Space Telescope Takes Shape”.

The Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor — NASA’s first infrared space telescope purposely designed to discover potentially hazardous asteroids and comets — is undergoing integration and testing. With launch set for no earlier than September 2027, teams across the United States are hard at work building the spacecraft’s components, planning the kind of survey and science it will do, and developing the software to process the huge quantity of data the mission will generate.

In 2005, Congress tasked NASA with discovering potentially hazardous near-Earth objects, or NEOs, but many of these objects are difficult to find with ground-based surveys. Some are as dark as charcoal, others are tiny, and many lurk in the glare of the Sun, where ground-based optical telescopes can’t see. To mitigate this, NEO Surveyor is being custom-built to scan the solar system to detect objects that will glow in the infrared as they are heated by the Sun — as opposed to the optical light they reflect, which is what ground-based surveys measure — to provide enough advance warning for humanity to do something about them, if necessary.

The spacecraft will travel about a million miles (1.5 million kilometers) from our planet in the direction of the Sun to a region of gravitational stability called the Sun-Earth Lagrange point (or L1 point), continuously scanning large swaths of the sky for at least five years in search of NEOs that have yet to be found.

“NEO Surveyor is a one-of-a-kind mission designed to solve a specific challenge: finding asteroids and comets that pose the greatest risk to Earth,” said Jim Fanson, the mission’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Our focus is on deploying a robust observatory to the Sun-Earth L1 point, where it will conduct a continuous, multi-year infrared survey. By identifying objects that ground telescopes can miss, this mission will provide the critical data we need to safeguard our planet for years to come.”…

[Thanks to Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Cora Buhlert, Ersatz Culture, Martin Easterbrook, John A Arkansawyer, Janice Morningstar, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Chris Barkley, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Kathy Sullivan, and Steven French for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jayn.]

Pixel Scroll 4/15/26 I Scrolled The Pixels And The Pixels Won

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(1) SFWA INFINITY AWARD. SFWA Honors Roger Zelazny with Infinity Award – complete details in the File 770 post.

(2) COMPTON CROOK AWARD. Hayley Gelfuso is the winner of the 2026 Compton Crook Award.

(3) PROMETHEUS BEST NOVEL CONTENDERS. The 2026 Prometheus Award Finalists for Best Novel have been announced. See the five titles at the link.

(4) DITMAR FINALISTS. The 2026 Ditmar Awards ballot is out. Eligible to vote for the Australian award are members (including supporting members) of the Continuum, Conflux or Swancon conferences from 2022-2026. 

(5) GREG KETTER IS NOW A T-SHIRT. Cotton Expressions is ready to sell you a Greg Ketter-inspired t-shirt — “I’m Still Angry”. You can choose one with either Ketter’s original sentiment, or a Bowdlerized version.

(6) SIMULTANEOUS TIMES. Space Cowboy Books has dropped Simultaneous Times Episode 98 with work by Eric Fomley and Marie Vibbert. It’s nearing the end of its run — “Only two more to go on the monthly schedule,” says Jean-Paul Garnier.

Stories featured in this episode:

  • “Wired Hearts” by Eric Fomley, with music by Phog Masheeen, read by Jenna Hanchey
  • “The Drive” by Marie Vibbert, with music by TSG, read by Jean-Paul Garnier

Theme music by Dain Luscombe

(7) ANTHROPIC LITIGATION NEWS. SFWA’s “Anthropic FAQ” includes these updates.

  • The Hearing for final approval of the settlement has been moved from April 23 to May 14, 2026. The deadline to submit claims has passed.
  • Attorneys representing authors and publishers in the $1.5 billion Bartz v. Anthropic copyright settlement lowered their bid for attorney fees in the case by more than one hundred and fifty million dollars, from the original 25% of the Settlement Fund ($375,000,000) to 12.5% of the Fund ($187,500.000). The requested amount no longer contains payments to legal firms not associated with the firms acting as Class Counsel.
  • As of March 19, there have been 99,450 claims representing 54% of the titles on the Works List with 350 opt-outs (less than 0.4%), and only 41 objections. At that percentage, claims would pay almost twice as much to authors and publishers as the original figure of $3,000 per work.
  • The following is shared with the permission of the Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA) as part of pre- and post-claims guidance for educational authors provided in a 3/19 TAA webinar presented by Brenda Ulrich, a Partner at Archstone Law. For additional guidance on filing claims and navigating the post-claims process, visit https://www.taaonline.net/anthropic-settlement.
    • Under the accepted principle of “contra proferentem” ambiguous contract language should be interpreted in favor of the party that did not write the contract.
    • Under copyright law, “the right to publish” is not the same as “the right to reproduce.” Anthropic used the material it infringed to reproduce material for its LLM, but it did not publish it. If the publishing contract’s “grant of rights” clause only grants the publisher the right to publish the book, but not to “reproduce” it, there may be an argument that the author never granted this right to the publisher, and thus the author is the only party entitled to recover from the settlement.

(8) THE TWO-MINUTE HATE. And Jason Sanford vents again at Genre Grapevine: “On the Anthropic ‘Blood-Money’ Settlement”.

…Despite the settlement being praised as a major win for authors, I still hate it.

As I wrote last year, the settlement doesn’t cover all copyright works, instead only applying to authors who officially registered their books with the U.S. Copyright Office. Almost every other country in the world doesn’t require this registration, so the settlement left out all those authors. Also not included were short story and short-form nonfiction authors, even if their works were officially registered with the copyright office.

In addition, the $1.5 billion settlement is not even a speed bump for Antropic. As Pete Furlong with the Center for Humane Technology has noted, “the same week the settlement was first proposed, Anthropic raised $13 billion at a $183 billion valuation. In effect, Anthropic’s penalty for stealing the creative output and economic livelihood of thousands of authors amounted to less than 1 percent of the company’s total value.”…

(9) WELCOME HOME. Call it the Artemis II “unboxing” video – see it at Facebook.

(10) SURPRISE. And here’s a variation on a humorous meme inspired by the Artemis II mission.

(11) GODZILLA MINUS ZERO TRAILER. Godzilla attacks New York in this 48-second teaser. Godzilla Minus Zero will make landfall in Japan on November 3, with a North American theatrical release on November 6.

(12) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

April 15, 1933 — Elizabeth Montgomery. (Died 1995.)

The beauty of these Birthdays is that I can decide that one series that a performer did is enough to be worthy of a write-up. So it is with Elizabeth Montgomery and her ever-so-twinkly role as the good witch Samantha Stephens on the Bewitched series.

I loved that series and still do. Bewitched is one of those series that the Suck Fairy keeps smiling every time she comes near it. Obviously she too has very fond memories of it. 

Sol Saks in interviews said that the Forties film I Married a Witch based on Thorne Smith’s partially-written novel The Passionate Witch, and John Van Druten’s Broadway play Bell, Book and Candle, adapted into a 1958 film of the same name, were his inspirations for the pilot episode. These films were properties of Columbia Pictures, which also owned Screen Gems, the company that would produce Bewitched. 

Bell, Book and Candle is the prime story source as that has the good witch Gillian Holroyd, played by Kim Novak, casting a love spell on Shep Henderson as played James Stewart to have a fling with him but she genuinely falls for him.

Bewitched debuted sixty-two years ago this Autumn. It would run on ABC eight seasons, for two hundred and fifty episodes. 

Let’s discuss the other cast of Bewitched. Dick York was Darrin Stephens, her husband and I thought that he was a perfect comic foil for her. Dick Sargent would replace the ailing York for the final three seasons.  It’s been too long since I’ve seen the series but I think I remember his chemistry with her being a little less smooth.

So the next major cast member was Agnes Moorehead as Endora, Samantha’s mother. She worked fine in her role which was that she disapproved of her daughter’s decision to marry a mortal. She often times casts spells on Darrin for her own amusement, but mostly to try to drive Darrin away from Samantha. (It didn’t work. At all.) Despite that, she is the most frequent houseguest and one of the most loyal members of Samantha’s family who dotes on her grandchildren, Tabitha and Adam. 

Then there’s his boss, Larry Tate, who was played by David White, and he was well cast in that role, and many crucial scenes took place at the Madison Avenue advertising agency McMann and Tate where Darrin worked.

So that brings us to Elizabeth Montgomery. She began her performing career in the Fifties with a role on her father’s Robert Montgomery Presents television series. She’d also be a member of his summer theater company. 

She turned out to be very popular and was kept busy performing consistently from there on. She’d have two genre roles prior to Bewitched, the first being as Lillie Clarke on One Step Beyond in “The Death Waltz” and, because everyone seemingly has to be in at least an episode of it, on The Twilight Zone as Woman in “Two”. The only other actor here is Charles Bronson as, oh guess, Man. It’s a piece of pure SF by Montgomery Pittman who also wrote the scripts for “The Grave” and “The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank”. 

So now we come to her in Bewitched, and the role that she was perfect for.  It’s hard to write her up here without noting sexism of the time as her beauty was definitely the attraction for many of the viewers as opposed to her talent according to some of the news articles at the time. Or so said the critics. 

But talented she was, displaying a deft comedic touch that I’ve seen in few female performers since her as she never overplayed her role, something that would’ve been oh so easy to do. She was Samantha Stephens, the very long-lived witch who defied witchery tradition and married a mortal. 

Do note that it openly depicted them sleeping together and sexually attracted to each other. No separate beds here.

The first episode, “I Darrin, Take This Witch, Samantha” was filmed a short while after she gave birth to her first child. 

She was intelligent, not reserved and depicted as more than a match for anyone who might get in her way. Unusual for a female character of that time. 

I have over the years rewatched many of the episodes, and they do hold up rather well provided you like Sixties comedy. I think this along with such shows as My Favorite Martian and The Munsters are some of the finest comic genre work done.

(13) COMICS SECTION.

(14) BROOKLYN COMIC CON ANNOUNCED. Publishers Weekly has the story: “Brooklyn to Get Its Own Comic Convention This Fall”.

The Brooklyn Organization Dedicated to the Endurance of the Graphic Arts (BODEGA), a new nonprofit dedicated to supporting and sustaining comic and graphic arts in Brooklyn and the greater New York area, will host the inaugural Brooklyn Expo of Comics (BEC), a two-day comics festival in Williamsburg, November 14–15.

BEC will feature a varied slate of panel discussions with leading creators and industry voices alongside a convention where over 100 artists will showcase and sell their work. Its goal, per a release, is to spotlight comics talent from New York and around the world while also generating appreciation for independent comics and zines.

BODEGA is led by a team of comics publishers, creators, and industry leaders. Bryce Gold, previously head of content at Comixology and head of comics at Kickstarter, will serve as executive director of the new organization.

Comics writer James Tynion IV will chair the board of directors, on which Gold and illustrator Courtney Menard also sit. Illustrator and educator Christina Lee will be communications manager, comics literary agent Paloma Hernando will serve as outreach manager, and Smoke Signal publisher Gabe Fowler joins as panel coordinator for the convention….

… The event’s bodega-themed branding extends to a number of its initiatives. BEC also plans to debut the BODEGA Comic Arts Trophy (CAT), honoring standout publications presented at the convention with a mid-convention award ceremony, and launch the Brooklyn Annual of Graphically Elevated Literature (BAGEL), a new magazine showcasing comics storytelling and talent from New York-based cartoonists, with future editions premiering annually at BEC.

BODEGA and BEC are supported by an initial donation from Tynion, who is also CEO and founder of multimedia production house Tiny Onion. Tynion lives and works in Brooklyn, so this festival is personal for him, he said….

(15) WRITING FOR A MEN’S MAGAZINE. Lex Berman’s 2021 article “Ted White Goes Rogue” at Yunchtime may have been missed here – and even if it wasn’t this still will be news to someone!

In a recent interview, Ted White talked about his early career as a jazz writer, when he was hanging around in the clubs of Greenwich Village, and how he first got published in Rogue Magazine. His comments sparked my curiosity about that magazine, which was a magnet for talented and eccentric writers and editors. How did a semi-sleazy magazine for men become a cross-roads for so many talented writers and editors? And why were so many of them writers of science fiction?…

…From the start, [publisher William] Hamling and editor Frank Robinson, looked for hungry young writers and sought to give the magazine a literary tone, punching up at their cash-rich competitor, Playboy. Hamling also brought Harlan Ellison onto his staff as associate editor, a position which Ellison used to tout himself and the magazine all over the country. Ellison was promoting his new job at the magazine like nobody’s business, to such an extent that another acti-fan, Bob Tucker, complained that he spent an entire evening listening to Ellison chew his ear off about Rogue in July 1959….

(16) ATTENTION TOM BAKER FANS. “Doctor Who’s Tom Baker, 92, steps back inside the TARDIS in new pics” at Radio Times.

Doctor Who legend Tom Baker has delighted fans by stepping back into the TARDIS for some incredible new photos.

Baker, now 92, famously played the Fourth Doctor, remaining many fans’ favourite incarnation of the Time Lord after his run from 1974 to 1981.

Now, new photos of the actor show him in a very familiar situation – peeping out of the doors of the TARDIS.

(17) SPINDIZZY. “The World’s Largest Wind Turbine Will Smash Previous Records” – Scientific American gives details.

…The world’s largest wind turbine—currently being tested off the coast of China—has blades that are more than twice as long as a Boeing 777’s wingspan. It can generate 26 megawatts (MW) of energy, more than double the global average for individual turbines. But its record is about to be smashed to smithereens: another offshore wind turbine that is twice as powerful has been announced by Ming Yang Smart Energy, a company based in southern China.

With a capacity of 50 MW, this supersized structure is designed to float on the ocean’s surface and can withstand typhoons, according to the company, which plans to start making the turbine later this year and to deploy it next year….

(18) WEIRD AI MOVIE TRAILER. If you’d never watch anything made with AI, then definitely don’t watch this fake movie trailer for π Hard, by AI OR DIE featuring Neil deGrasse Tyson and other science and tech celebrities.

(19) SF² CONCATENATION SUMMER EDITION IS HERE. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] The summer edition (northern hemisphere academic year) edition of SF² Concatenation is now out with news, reviews and articles.

v36(3) 2026.4.15 — New Columns & Articles for the Summer 2026

  • Newscast for the Summer 2026. This includes within it many key sections. See also the master newscast link index that connects to all its SF/F genre and science news sub-sections. In the mix are its Film News;  Television News;  Publishing News;  General Science News  and Forthcoming SF Books from major British Isles SF imprints for the season subsections, among much else.
     
  • Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die – Jonathan Cowie
    Film that is a dark humorous, gritty SFnal adventure in which a wild-eyed man from the future warns that there’s some shιt that’s about to come down. It’s gonna try to give you everything you ever wanted. But in the end, it’ll all be a lie!…  Are any of you listening ?
     
  • Is the speed of light an absolute limit?? – Steven French
    This is one for our physicist regulars but is genre-adjacent.
     
  • Does life on Mars doom humanity?? – Jonathan Cowie
    We do not see alien civilisations, so a ‘Fermi filter’ may prevent their rise. If we find life on Mars then the rise of life is not the difficult evolutionary step. If the Fermi filter is not in our past, then it must be something in our future that prevents us going to the stars. Recent discoveries on Mars may therefore be worrying!
     
  • Gaia 2026
    Annual oddities and whimsy
     
  • Ten Years Ago Exactly. One from the archives.
    German Science Fiction since 1945 – Dirk van den Boom
    Germany has an extensive history of science fiction. Dirk van den Boom provides a summary review of some of Germany’s landmark SF since the end of World War II.
     
  • Twenty Years Ago Exactly. One from the archives.
    Where are the Robots? – Tony Chester
    ‘The future’s here said the pioneer’ but where are the robots? It’s 2006 after all.

v36(3) 2026.4.15 — Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Reviews

v36(3) 2026.4.15 — Non-Fiction SF & Science Fact Book Reviews

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

Pixel Scroll 4/8/26 “Repent Harley Quinn!” Said The Tiktok Fan

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(1) THE FUTURE IN VIBE CYBERATTACKING. In a New York Times opinion piece, Thomas Friedman says, “Anthropic’s Restraint Is a Terrifying Warning Sign”. (Behind a paywall.)

The artificial intelligence company Anthropic announced Tuesday that it was releasing the newest generation of its large language model, dubbed Claude Mythos Preview, but to only a limited consortium of roughly 40 technology companies, including Google, Broadcom, Nvidia, Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Apple, JPMorganChase, Amazon and Microsoft. Some of its competitors are among these partners because this new A.I. model represents a “step change” in performance that has some critically important positive and negative implications for cybersecurity and America’s national security.

The good news is that Anthropic discovered in the process of developing Claude Mythos that the A.I. could not only write software code more easily and with greater complexity than any model currently available, but as a byproduct of that capability, it could also find vulnerabilities in virtually all of the world’s most popular software systems more easily than before.

The bad news is that if this tool falls into the hands of bad actors, they could hack pretty much every major software system in the world, including all those made by the companies in the consortium.

This is not a publicity stunt. In the run-up to this announcement, representatives of leading tech companies have been in private conversation with the Trump administration about the implications for the security of the United States and all the other countries that use these now vulnerable software systems, technologists involved told me.

For good reason. As Anthropic said in a written statement on Tuesday, in just the past month, “Mythos Preview has already found thousands of high-severity vulnerabilities, including some in every major operating system and web browser. Given the rate of A.I. progress, it will not be long before such capabilities proliferate, potentially beyond actors who committed to deploying them safely. The fallout — economics, public safety and national security — could be severe.’’

Project Glasswing, Anthropic’s name for the consortium, is an undertaking to work with the biggest and most trusted tech companies and critical infrastructure providers, including banks, “to put these capabilities to work for defensive purposes,” the company added, and to give the leading technology firms a head start in finding and patching those vulnerabilities.

“We do not plan to make Claude Mythos Preview generally available, but our eventual goal is to enable our users to safely deploy Mythos-class models at scale — for cybersecurity purposes, but also for the myriad other benefits that such highly capable models will bring,” Anthropic said.

My translation: Holy cow! Superintelligent A.I. is arriving faster than anticipated, at least in this area. We knew it was getting amazingly good at enabling anyone, no matter how computer literate, to write software code. But even Anthropic reportedly did not anticipate that it would get this good, this fast, at finding ways to find and exploit flaws in existing code.

Anthropic said it found critical exposures in every major operating system and Web browser, many of which run power grids, waterworks, airline reservation systems, retailing networks, military systems and hospitals all over the world….

 (2) MAGIC CASTLE UPDATE. Craig Miller shared with Facebook followers what Magic Castle members were told about yesterday’s fire at the Hollywood landmark.

The Castle was open and occupied when the fire broke out but the staff got everyone out quickly and safely, including reuniting them with their cars so they could get home readily.

This morning, Randy Pitchford, the new owner, posted to the membership. The last two weeks of March, the Castle was closed as major renovations and upgrades were done to the bathrooms and, more importantly, the kitchen. This turned out to be fortuitous.

The fire was in the attic and roof. And the newly upgraded fire sensors did their job and got the Fire Department to the Castle quickly, where they were able to put the fire out.

He reported that the amount of water used to do so would have caused tremendous damage to the floors below except that the renovations including sealing all the areas and prevented the water from flooding the lower floors.

What’s not been reported, however, is just how much damage did occur. Repairs are underway and the Castle will be closed today and tomorrow. Unknown if it will be longer than that. Hopefully, the fire, water, and smoke damage is little enough that operations will start up again soon.

(3) APPEAL FOR MAURINE STARKEY. A GoFundMe has been launched to help a well-known sff artist with housing: “Help Maurine Starkey Land Safely”.

I have known Maurine Starkey—Mo to her friends—since 1992. Over the years, we worked together at Strategic Simulations, later again at Electronic Arts, and again at Olde Skuul. I have watched Mo’s talent, dedication, and grit up close for decades. Mo is a gifted computer game artist and illustrator, one of those rare creatives who never really stops making things. Pen, paintbrush, mouse—whatever the tool, she keeps creating. That is just who she is. Mo also won the Best Fan Artist Hugo Award in 2011, a well-earned recognition of the imagination, skill, and heart she has brought to her work for years. And now she needs help.

For the past year, Mo stepped away from her own life to move in with Rebecca Heineman to work on Olde Skuul and instead ended up as a full-time caregiver for Becky as she battled cancer. She gave her time, energy, and heart to caring for someone she loved. Recently, that battle came to an end. While grieving the loss of her dear friend, Mo has also been hit with a second devastating blow: because her housing was tied to the person she was caring for, she has now lost her home. That is the hard truth of it. Mo is facing displacement at a moment when she should be allowed to mourn, breathe, and figure out her next steps with some dignity.

Mo is 70-something, close to the age where most people would be retiring—or at least slowing down—but she does not really know how to stop creating. She is still working, still making art, still showing up. But right now, talent and determination are not enough to solve an immediate housing crisis. We are asking for help to give Mo a real safety net and a stable place to land. Funds raised will go toward safe, immediate housing, moving and storage costs for her artwork and personal belongings, and basic living expenses while she gets back on stable ground…. 

(4) ATWOOD MINIATURES. Margaret Atwood told an interest anecdote about a bit of set decoration done for The Testaments adaptation in “DOLLHOUSE”, posted to her Substack newsletter In the Writing Burrow.

Last fall, when my memoir, Book of Lives, came out, my friend and fellow adventurer Faye Souter from Canmore, Alberta (Canada) made me a bowlful of tiny little copies of it. People thought they were candies, though nobody actually ate them.

Then, a bit later, I was on the set of The Testaments — we were shooting my weird cameo scene — and I brought some tiny memoirs to hand out to team members. After my bizarre performance — not in the first episode though, wait for it — I was given a tour of some of the built sets, including the Aunt Lydia School (every high-schooler’s nightmare, as long as it’s a girl’s school with lots of sewing; yes, revenge on my Home Ec teacher, in a twisted sort of way).

I was also shown the set of Agnes’s house. The first episode of the series is called “Dollhouse.” Inside Agnes’s house there is indeed a dollhouse; it’s a replica of the actual house. Inside the dollhouse — which is in my novel, and, as described, children do indeed act out some of their less socially-approved emotions through their dollhouses. We won’t go into the more harrowing acts visited upon Barbies (haircuts, permanent marker tattoos).

In the dollhouse within the house, there is an armchair. “Put my little Book of Lives in the armchair,” said Steve Stark of Toluca Films, one of the executive producers of The Testaments. So I did, and he took this picture….

(5) LIBRARY AGENCY LITIGATION ENDS. There’s good news and bad news. The good news is: “Trump Administration Withdraws Appeal to 2025 IMLS Decision” reports Publisher Weekly. The bad news is that the administration plans to not fund the agency in the future.

Days after the Trump administration unveiled its plan to not fund the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) in its budget for fiscal 2027, a federal court granted the administration’s request to withdraw its appeal of a federal judge’s earlier ruling that struck down Trump’s attempt last year to dismantle the agency.

Last spring, Trump issued an executive order demanding that IMLS and other federal agencies be reduced to their minimum statutory functions. To enforce the EO, the executive branch appointed an IMLS acting director, put 85% of IMLS staff members on paid administrative leave, dissolved the agency’s board of directors, and curtailed the administration of grants.

That order led to a lawsuit filed by the Attorneys General of 21 states in April. In May, Rhode Island district court judge John J. McConnell Jr. formally ordered a halt to the executive order that would dismantling the IMLS. That ruling was followed by a decision in November that permanently barred the administration from taking further steps to eliminate the agency….

(6) SO THIS IS WHAT IT HAS COME TO? “Amazon and U.S. Postal Service Reach New Deal on Deliveries After Year of Talks” reports the New York Times.

Amazon reached a tentative agreement with the U.S. Postal Service that will reduce the number of packages the e-commerce giant ships through the beleaguered agency, concluding a tumultuous negotiations process.

Under the new deal, if approved, Amazon would ship 20 percent fewer packages through the Postal Service… Still, the deal would preserve guaranteed revenue for the Postal Service, which relies on Amazon, its biggest customer, for billions of dollars in income and has long struggled to stabilize its finances.

Reuters and The Wall Street Journal, said that the agreement would still have the Postal Service deliver more than 1 billion packages for Amazon a year. The Postal Service currently delivers 1.7 billion packages a year…

The Postal Service is in a precarious financial situation, having reported a $9 billion yearly loss in November. … the agency could run out of cash within a year with no major changes and asked lawmakers to increase its borrowing limits. 

The postal service has come up with a 10-year plan to shore up its finances, but the service continues to lose money: During the three-month period ending in December, it lost nearly $1.3 billion.

(7) PURITY OF ESSENCE. Gareth Roberts calls out “The surprising conservativism of the old Doctor Who” in The Spectator. (Behind a paywall.)

Nicholas Whyte’s reaction on Facebook was:

I see that a writer who used to be good has published an article saying that Terry Nation and Douglas Camfield were hard-line right-wingers. He produces pretty much no evidence for this.

(8) eluki bes shahar (1956-2026). Sharon Lee announced on Facebook today that eluki bes shahar, who also wrote as Rosemary Edghill, died on April 7.

Ending the day on a sad note. My friend eluki, who wrote many things under many different names, among them eluki bes shahar, Rosemary Edghill, and James Mallory, died yesterday of sepsis. This news coming to me from eluki’s wife.

Aside Steve, eluki is the writer I’ve known the longest. She was a remarkable person — brilliant and difficult, which can be said of many of us. She taught me more about writing than anyone else, again, save Steve.

We’d grown apart after her move to the opposite coast, but I’m going to miss her, so much.

Please share this, so we can hopefully catch everyone who ought to know.

She wrote many sff novels, some in collaboration with Andre Norton, Mercedes Lackey, and Marion Zimmer Bradley.

(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

April 8, 1974 — Nnedi Okorafor, 52.

Nnedi Okorafor

This Scroll we have Nnedi Okorafor, a truly phenomenal writer. 

She’s Nigerian, and has coined two words to describe her literary focus, Africanfuturism, and Africanjujuism (see “Africanfuturism Defined” at Nnedi’s Wahala Zone Blog.) The latter word identifies the Afrocentric subgenre of fantasy fiction that draws on African spiritualities and cosmologies. Cool. Really cool.

Let’s start with some of her work as comic book writer.  The LaGuardia series that she wrote for was published by Berger Books. The collection won a Graphic Story Hugo Award at ConZealand, and her Black Panther: Long Live the King was nominated at Dublin 2019. She did other work in the Panther universe as well — Shuri in which Black Panther is missing and she has to find him (great story), Wakanda Forever and Shuri: Wakanda Forever

I started there as I love her writing in this medium. Now let me pick my favorite novellas and novels by her. 

The Binti trilogy is an extraordinary feat of writing and my favorite reading experience by her. The “Binti” novella which leads it off won a Hugo at MidAmeriCon II. Then came the “Binti: Home” novella which was nominated for a Hugo at Worldcon 76 and the final “Binti: The Night Masquerade” novella to date which was nominated for a Hugo at Dublin 2019. 

Lagoon is a deep dive in Nigerian mythology including Legba in the forefront here, in what is a SF novel as aliens and humans come together to form a new postcapitalist Nigeria. Neat concept well executed, characters are fascinating and the story is done well. 

(10) COMICS SECTION.

(11) NEW DAN DARE ADVENTURE. “Modern heroes and a ravaged Earth: reboot of 1950s space comic Dan Dare has liftoff” – the Guardian celebrates the revival.

Sufferin’ satellites! The quintessential British space hero Dan Dare is back, 76 years after he first appeared in iconic comic magazine the Eagle.

With all eyes on Nasa’s Artemis II moon mission, and with the big-screen adaptation of Andy Weir’s science fiction novel Project Hail Mary, starring Ryan Gosling, going stratospheric at the box office, our love affair with space has been reignited.

So the return of Colonel Dan Dare, chief pilot of the Interplanet Space Fleet, who debuted in the first issue of the Eagle on 14 April 1950, couldn’t be more timely.

With the blessing of the Dan Dare Corporation, which owns the rights to the comic strip – originally written and drawn by the Manchester-born illustrator Frank Hampson – the comic writer Alex de Campi and artist Marc Laming have reinvented the beloved characters for the 21st century in a graphic novel to be published by B7 Comics….

However, Mark Roth-Whitworth notes, “New version includes ‘The USA is now the United Corporations of America, and space flight has been privatised,’ Argh… Esp. when the astronauts on their way home keep talking about ALL humankind.”

(12) DIRECTOR NAMED FOR BUTLER FILM ADAPTATION. “Melina Matsoukas to Direct ‘Parable of the Sower’ Movie at Warner Bros.” reports Variety.

Melina Matsoukas has found her next directorial project in Octavia E. Butler’s landmark sci-fi odyssey “Parable of the Sower.”

Matsoukas, whose resume includes “Queen & Slim,” “Insecure” and several key collaborations with Beyoncé, will direct and produce the film adaptation of Butler’s 1993 dystopian novel. Hailed as “notable book of the year” by the New York Times upon its original publication, “Parable of the Sower” became a New York Times bestseller in 2020, 27 years later, due to its prescience and enduring notoriety.

(13) WHO CREATED BITCOIN? John Carreyrou may know the answer to the question: “Who Is Satoshi Nakamoto? My Quest to Unmask Bitcoin’s Creator”. (Link bypasses the New York Times paywall.)

One evening in the fall of 2024, my wife and I were sitting in traffic on the Long Island Expressway when, tired of listening to the jazz-funk station I often played on our drives, she switched to a podcast.

It was “Hard Fork,” the New York Times tech show, and the hosts were discussing a new HBO documentary claiming to have unmasked Bitcoin’s pseudonymous inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto.

I was instantly riveted. I had long considered the question of Satoshi’s true identity one of our age’s great enigmas and had poked at it before without success. Two years earlier, I had even spent several months researching a book on the subject. But I soon realized I was out of my depth and reluctantly gave up.

Hearing that someone else might have finally identified the shadowy figure who had revolutionized finance, spawned a $2.4 trillion industry and amassed one of the world’s biggest fortunes in one stroke of staggering genius aroused in me a mixture of admiration and envy. I couldn’t wait to watch the film. As soon as we got home that night, I logged in to the HBO Max app and pressed play.

In the end, I found the conclusion of “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery” unconvincing: HBO singled out a Canadian software developer based on what seemed like very thin evidence. But as I watched what was an otherwise entertaining romp through the world of crypto, one scene caught my attention.

Adam Back, a British cryptographer and leading figure in the Bitcoin movement, sat on a park bench in Riga, Latvia, his shirt untucked under a brown coat. The filmmaker casually rattled off the names of several Satoshi suspects. At the mention of his own name, Mr. Back tensed up, strenuously denied he was Satoshi and asked that the conversation be kept off the record.

Having encountered my share of liars and developed something of an expertise in their tells, Mr. Back’s demeanor — his shifty eyes, his awkward chuckle, the jerky movement of his left hand — struck me as fishy. When the credits rolled up, I replayed the sequence several times on my TV…

… With his wire-rimmed glasses, thinning gray hair and goatee, Mr. Back, 55, looks like a disheveled mathematician. Over the past dozen years, he has built a mini empire of Bitcoin-related companies and become one of the community’s most influential members.

Mr. Back has long been among the top Satoshi candidates. But, unlike some other leading suspects, he hasn’t been the subject of close journalistic scrutiny, other than in a 2020 video by an anonymous YouTuber who goes by the handle “Barely Sociable.”…

[Thanks to SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Kathy Sullivan, Sharon Lee, Steven French, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, and Cat Eldridge for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Andrew (not Werdna).]

Pixel Scroll 4/4/26 It’s A Beautiful Scroll In The Pixelhood

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(1) FANS, LET’S BE REAL. Phenderson Djèlí Clark says, “Starfleet Academy: We Didn’t Deserve You”.

… I kept watching and after a while, I saw some great episodes–like one where they actually tried to settle the fate of Benjamin Sisko! What a treat. If you were a fan of DS9… if you were a BLACK fan of DS9, this one was emotional on another level. Were there some episodes that didn’t stick with me? Sure. Cadets fighting each other in contests in a Percy Jackson at camp type rivalry, I could take or leave it. Were there some things that made me grit my teeth? Yeah. Captain Nahle Ake, wasn’t my favorite at first. Her style as a Starfleet captain was definitely…a choice. My inner Picard found myself frowning every time I saw her lounge in that captain’s chair. But…you know, grown adult here, so I got over it. And as time passed, her character actually grew on me. It fit the academy role. I even came to understand the lounging as just this characters’ personal thing. Which is fine. Riker? Couldn’t stand that guy for whole seasons till he grew a beard. Then he became a favorite. Par the course for me and a Trek show. And the more I watched Starfleet Academy, I thought lots of things got better. The episodes held more meaning. The danger became more real. The characters themselves started to grow. And in the final episode, I thought they really stuck the landing. I walked away nodding and saying, okay. I’m a fan. Bring on the next season!

Only this week we find out that the show won’t be renewed past season 2, which has already been filmed. It was a wonderful experiment while it lasted. But now it’s over. And honestly, the show was hardly ever given a chance.

From the jump, Starfleet Academy got the usual treatment. First there were the fake fans. The Elon Musks and Stephen Millers. I’m sorry, I don’t think those losers have watched much Trek in their lives–if ever. Them complaining about too many women or what have you in Trek, makes them sound like the fakest fans alive. Absolute posers. I bet you tell them “It’s a good day to die…” and they couldn’t finish the sentence. You tell their fake asses “Never turn your back on a Breen” and they ain’t got a clue. There were lots of folk like that, review bombing the show and complaining when they’re not even part of the actual fanbase. They’re the folk still upset that the Little Mermaid was Black, once. And they plan on making the rest of our lives miserable, forever. Can’t wait for them to journey to Sto’Vo’Kor and meet Fek’lhr. Ya’ll posers don’t understand Roddenberry’s vision, and you never will. Go back to the Mirror Mirror verse where you belong. Nah, I’m not linking to any of what I’m talking about here. IYKYK. Period. Dot.

But then there were the others. The actual Trek fans, Trekkies if you will, who did their best to complain and nitpick the show to death. “A Jem’Hadar-Klingon hybrid? But that can’t happen because…” Hey, ye of little imagination, it’s been 800 years! It was 100 years between Kirk and Picard and all kinds of stuff changed. You think 800 years isn’t going to bring changes either? I mean, the Great Crystalline Entity you can rock with, but Lura Thok’s mixed-species heritage is a bridge too far? Gimmee a break. According to the fan complaints, this was the worst Trek of all times. It wasn’t enough to just say, you know I don’t like how that captain sits in that chair–it had to become a full on red alert, with clear doses of outright misogyny, racism, queerphobia and whatnot. And there was lots of memory addled nostalgia going on….

… I get it. Sometimes you just don’t like stuff. That’s fair. But this? This went waaay beyond that. This went into levels of childish nitpicking and tearing apart every little perceived flaw. This is so-called Trekkies HOPING the show would be cancelled and then dancing with glee when it was. That ain’t normal. And it’s a glaring indication and this wasn’t about the show on its merits. This was about something else, whether the Trekkies want to admit it or not….

(2) EUROPEAN FAN FUND NEWS. European Fan Fund 2026 voting has opened and will continue until April 30.

Who can vote in EFF?

Anyone active in fandom before the start of 2025. If a voter thinks they might not be known to the administrators, they can include brief information that would help verify their fannish activities (e.g. name of a fannish friend they have in common, link to their blog, information about their fanzine, photo of convention badges etc.)

Donate €3+ to support the fund and cast your vote.

The EFF delegate will attend Metropolcon/Eurocon 2026 in Berlin, Germany beginning July 2.

The five candidates are:

  • Hephaestion Demetrios Christopoulos — a Greek writer, translator and editor. Nominators: Thomas Recktenwald, Kostas Charitos, Britt-Louise Viklund 
  • Marcel Gherman — a writer and journalist from Moîdova. Nominators: Catalin Badea-Gheracostea, Bridget Wilkinson, Constantin Cheianu 
  • Paul Carroll — a reader and writer of SFF from Ireland. Nominators: Catherine Sharp, Kat Dodd, Veronika Bártová 
  • George Kharaishvili – a writer, translator, academic and gamer from Georgia. Nominators: Mariam Kvitsiani, Francesco Verso, Elena Pavlova 
  • Jan Vaněk Jr. – a Czech fan. Nominators: Zdeněk Rampas, Mark Plummer, Johan Anglemark 

Their complete platforms are at the European Fan Fund 2026 site.

(3) AN AUTHOR CONFESSES. “On Feeling Left Out of the Anthropic Settlement (Because They Ignored My Book)” by Mary Childs at Literary Hub.

In the summer of 2023, The Atlantic first published a searchable database of authors whose work had been fodder for training the AI systems at companies including Meta, Anthropic, and OpenAI. Authors scrambled to check to see if their works were in the databases. Perhaps you remember the justifiably aggrieved instagram stories that followed.

“I felt incredibly violated and upset,” Andrea Bartz told The New York Times.

What a normal and beautiful instinct—feeling protective for your own intellectual output, for the fate of your creations. I wish I had access to that kind of purity. Unfortunately, my instinct was far more craven: simply wanting to be at the table. Even if it meant I was robbed.

Then, last November, a District Court found that Anthropic had infringed on authors’ copyrights by downloading published work from Library Genesis and Pirate Library Mirror, online datasets of pirated materials. The settlement established a fund of about $1.5 billion to pay authors and publishers approximately $3,000 per work. It’s the largest copyright settlement in history, and yet somehow feels wildly inadequate relative to Anthropic’s future profitability, which seems to come necessarily at the expense of future human-created work.

To qualify for this potential cash payout, authors had to meet a few criteria, including that Anthropic must have downloaded your book from one of those two datasets, and that you had to have an International Standard Book Number or registration with the U.S. Copyright Office within five years of publication.

I had a book published by an imprint of Macmillan in March 2022, so, naturally, I searched in The Atlantic’s databases, published as part of their great AI Watchdog project. And lo, my book did show up in LibGen, a bundle of 7.5 million+ books and 81 million+ research papers that was created in Russia in 2008 and has since been making its way around the internet. It’s proven immune to publisher attempts to shut it down, and it’s been used by OpenAI, Meta, Anthropic, and maybe others.

But then. I went to check the Works List Lookup in the official Anthropic Copyright Settlement website. And my book was nowhere to be found.

So…my work was in LibGen. But it’s not in the Works List. I can only conclude that Anthropic COULD HAVE downloaded my book but…somehow chose not to? Is this human discretion? Does this mean someone at Anthropic was clicking through different PDFs, looked with human eyes at my book’s cover and description and said, no, we won’t be needing a riveting and vivid account of the creation of the most important part of modern finance, and the fascinating, quixotic character who drove it. That doesn’t sound very contributive to the sum of human knowledge. …That’s so much worse….

… Of course no one actually wants their work fed into the AI slop machine. And no one actually wanted scalding oil dripped onto them from above at a NYE party. But one does want to be included, involved. Relevant and invited. It’s tragic, but I want to have been at the party, fed into the AI, have hot oil poured on me. (Although in this case, the hot oil pouring onto the A-list celebrity guests, the authors, is made out of their own talent.)…

(4) HOBBIT HOUSES/BNB’S. [Item by Daniel Dern.] A feature series from Media Chomp.

In Vermont! – “Hobbit House Airbnb in Vermont”.

In Sweden! — “Hobbit House Bed & Breakfast in Sweden”.

Fairfield, Virginia! — “A Warm Hearth & All the Comforts of Home – Hobbit Airbnb”.

Somewhere! (not a BnB, tho; private residence, it sounds like) – “Incredible Hobbit House Inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien”.

(5) ELVIRA LABEL GIN AND VODKA. From As Above So Below Distillery.

ELVIRA, MISTRESS OF THE DARK AUTUMNAL GIN

A bewitching blend of botanicals as sexy and mysterious as Elvira herself. Distilled with a haunting blend of autumnal botanicals and a touch of macabre magic. Crafted for those who embrace their inner darkness, featuring Juniper, Black Cardamom and Cubeb. Whether you’re sipping it under the moonlight or conjuring up a devilishly good cocktail, this gin will cast its spell on you.

ELVIRA, MISTRESS OF THE DARK VODKA

Distilled in small batches from Malted Barley, this sultry spirit glides across the palate – evoking notes of cream, hay and bread flour. Perfect for conjuring cocktails or sipping under the moonlight, Elvira Mistress of the Dark Small Batch Vodka is a celebration of darkness, decadence and impeccable taste: a ritual in each perfect pour.

(6) KILLER ROBOTS UPDATE FROM UKRAINE. [Item by Francis Hamit.] “’The frontline is like Terminator’: fighting robots give Ukraine hope in war with Russia” reports the Guardian. Includes video of the robots in motion.

Victor Pavlov showed off Ukraine’s newest and most versatile weapon: a battery-powered land robot.

The unmanned ground vehicles come in various shapes and sizes. One runs on caterpillar tracks and resembles a roofless milk float. Another has wheels and antennas. A third carries anti-tank mines. Since spring 2024 their use has grown exponentially.

“This is what modern warfare looks like. Armies everywhere will have to robotise,” said Pavlov, a lieutenant with Ukraine’s 3rd army corps.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is now in its fifth year and the conflict – Europe’s biggest since 1945 – has seen an astonishing transformation of battlefield weapons and tactics. The war has become a technological contest, fought not with expensive tanks but with cheap and expendable drones that can deliver bombs with deadly accuracy.

Ukraine’s drone expertise is now highly sought after amid the US-Israeli war against Iran. Last week Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed 10-year defence agreements with several Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to provide them with low-cost Ukrainian interceptors. They can shoot down long-range kamikaze Shahed drones, used by Tehran in its attacks on its neighbours, and by Moscow.

The Kremlin’s war has transformed Kyiv into a centre for the development of modern unmanned weapons. There is a unique ecosystem, where engineers design new products and frontline soldiers give instant feedback. Manufacturers then scale up supplies, building ground vehicles, anti-Shahed interceptors and pioneering sea drones.

Land robots now account for 90% of Ukrainian army logistics. “It’s very difficult to move around because of enemy first-person-view drones. So we use robotic systems,” said Pavlov. In January, Ukraine’s armed forces carried out a record 7,000 operations using ground vehicles, or UGVS….

… “It’s not Star Wars, where there are lots of lasers. The frontline is more like Terminator. A land robot arrives at your position and there is nothing you can do about it,” said Bambi, a drone operator with the 25th airborne brigade. He added: “You can shoot a person in the chest and they stop firing. If you shoot a ground robot it doesn’t feel pain. There is a guy looking at a screen who is going to fire back.”…

(7) SHANE DIGIOVANNA (1998-2026). Jim Swift pays tribute at The Bulwark to young space and sff enthusiast “Shane DiGiovanna, 1998–2026”, who died March 31.

SHANE DIGIOVANNA WANTED to be an astronaut. From the time he was a child, reading Cosmos at age 7, Shane was captivated by the same sense of wonder that has driven generations of explorers—from NASA scientists to backyard stargazers.

As I sat on the couch Wednesday in Cincinnati to watch the launch of Artemis II with my daughters—watching them watch in wonder—I couldn’t help but hide a tear or two, as I knew Shane had the best seat in the house. He died Monday, March 31, at the age of 27 and a half.

Shoot for the moon, the saying goes, and you’ll end up among the stars. Shane’s epidermolysis bullosa (EB), a lifelong incurable condition that causes incredibly fragile skin, made becoming an astronaut impossible. But it never stopped him from reaching for it anyway. He experienced more space-related activities than most people ever will: weightless flights with his family; seeing the Mars rover Curiosity in the clean room; meeting the people who built it; standing alongside astronauts Jim Lovell and Gene Cernan at 14 for a press conference announcing the launch of a children’s health fund created in honor of Neil Armstrong at Cincinnati Children’s, the very place that helped make Shane’s extraordinary life possible. Whenever he could, Shane put himself as close to the center of that universe as possible.

Shane wrote: “Star Trek showed me a world where anyone can explore the stars, no matter who you are. It made a big difference to me when I was growing up. I would (and still do) distract myself during my bandage changes and dream of being a Starfleet captain.”…

(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

April 4, 1959 — Phil Morris, 67. 

Phil Morris appeared on Trek in his very first role. He was in “Miri” as an uncredited “Boy in a helmet” which was shot when he wasn’t quite seven years old. It’s an adorable piece of video for him with having obviously fake dirt on his face. Yes, I went back and watched it on Paramount +.

His next genre role was another Trek one, though much later, as Trainee Foster on The Search for Spock. (God it’s been a long time since I’ve seen that film.) He’d have three more visits to this multiverse, twice on Deep Space Nine in two roles, Thopok in “Looking for Par’Mach in All the Wrong Places” and Remata’Klan in “Rocks and Shoals”, and lastly on Voyager as Lieutenant John Kelly on “One Small Step”.

But my favorite role for him was in the two-season Australian produced reboot of Mission: Impossible shot during the writers strike that used scripts that had been deemed not worthy of being used during the original series. He is Greg Collier here and quite excellent indeed. I don’t recall if I’ve written the series up but I like it a lot and think they did a great job of what I suspect was a limited budget.

So what else should I note? He had a one-off on Babylon 5 in “Severed Dreams” as Bill Trainor; Seven Days sees him being Air Force Colonel Beekman in “The Final Countdown”; he’s Myles Dyson for several episodes on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles which I still need to watch; and he voiced the immortal Vandal Savage on the stellar Justice League series. 

No, I’ve not forgotten that he played Silas Stone on the Doom Patrol. I watched the first two seasons and thought it was interesting enough that I need to see the rest of it someday. 

Phil Morris (right) as Elroy Edwards in Fire Country.

(9) COMICS SECTION.

(10) IS THAT SO? Collider brings word that “Disney Is Officially Rebooting the Best Sci-Fi Franchise of the ’90s”. (Which maybe you never suspected earned that sobriquet.)

With a new version of The X-Files in the works, Ryan Coogler is working on reviving another beloved property of the 1990s. The recent Oscar-winner is tackling a series of YA science fiction novels that ruled the bookstores of America (and traumatized its preteens) long before The Hunger Games was a twinkle in Suzanne Collins‘ eye.

According to reports, Coogler is executive producing a new adaptation of K.A. Applegate‘s Animorphs novels for Disney+. The series will be showrun and written by Bayan Wolcott, who has previously written for American Crime Story, The Summer I Turned Pretty, and the Hulu science fiction drama Class of ’09; he is also writing for the new The Handmaid’s Tale spin-off The Testaments. The novel series ran from 1996 to 2001, and included 54 books and 10 spin-offs and specials. The books are well-remembered for their intense action, visceral body horror, and unflinching look at the realities of violence, as well as their distinctive David B. Mattingly cover art, which depicted one of the book’s characters morphing into an animal via a combination of traditional art and morphing software….

(11) YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN PICTURES. “I Regret to Inform You That the Artemis II Astronauts Are Having Lots of Screen Time” – Gizmodo has the story.

Before they were loaded into the Orion Spacecraft and propelled toward Earth’s moon by a NASA Space Launch System rocket, the crew members of the Artemis II mission had their Orion Crew Survival System suits equipped with iPhones. In the photo above, commander Reid Wiseman is having his iPhone 17 Pro Max stuffed into his shin pocket…..

… NASA makes terrific daily footage compilations that show what the crew is doing up there, and you can’t miss the iPhone usage in Saturday’s video (from which I’ve pulled the images in this article). It stands to reason that the crew is familiar with iPhones from using them day in and day out on Earth. Taking photos with an iPhone while you’re on the way to the moon sounds easy and fun.

But computational smartphone photography is controversial, since, in its eagerness to deliver eye-pleasing photos, it can present mind-bending distortions of reality that arguably create something more akin to a photo illustration than a photo. Critics accuse some onboard AI systems of inventing details that weren’t in evidence on the original subject—and hilariously enough this sometimes involves the moon. One hopes the camera software in the official NASA iPhone Pro Max has been tweaked to ensure documentary fidelity….

(12) VOYAGER 1 PHONES HOME. “A group of amateur astronomers has just “heard” a signal from 25 billion kilometers away, confirming that Voyager 1 is still transmitting from the outer reaches of the Solar System” reports EcoNews.

An aging spacecraft almost 25 billion kilometers from Earth has just checked in again, and this time the call did not go through a giant space agency antenna.

A team of amateur astronomers using the historic Dwingeloo Radio Telescope has managed to detect the ultra-faint carrier signal from Voyager 1, confirming that the most distant human-made object is still talking to us from interstellar space….

…Using precise orbital predictions for the spacecraft, the amateurs corrected for the Doppler shift caused by the motion of Earth and the probe. Only after that careful correction did a thin spike at 8.4 GHz appear on their screens in real time, matching exactly what Voyager’s frequency should be.

The radio call that produced that tiny spike had been traveling for about 23 hours at the speed of light before it reached the Dutch countryside….

…Official estimates suggest at least one science instrument can keep running into the early 2030s, as long as the power budget allows….

(13) I KNEW THIS SOUNDED FAMILIAR. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] The Artemis II failure repair explained in 30 seconds: “Wolowitz Zero-Gravity Human Waste ‘Distribution’ System”.

(14) ARE YOU SKEPTICAL? “No One at Waffle House Remembers FEMA Official Who Says He Teleported In” reports the New York Times. (Behind a paywall.)

Shastoni Burge has worked for a decade as a Waffle House server in Rome, Ga., much of it on the night shift. She said she was once punched in the face by a customer. She saw someone overdose in the bathroom. One night, a man took all the steak knives and threatened the staff with them.

But she has never seen anyone teleport to the place. “I’ve seen it all,” said Ms. Burge, 38. “But I’ve never seen that.”

Nor, Ms. Burge said, has she ever laid eyes on Gregg Phillips, a top official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who has generated numerous headlines and at least one biting late-night comedy segment for his claim that he once teleported to a Waffle House in Rome, a city of 39,000 people northwest of Atlanta.

Indeed, among roughly two dozen workers and regulars interviewed this week at Rome’s three Waffle House locations, none said they were aware of anyone traveling to the 24-hour restaurants by paranormal means, despite their reputation as powerful magnets for the sort of idiosyncratic characters who tend to surf the psychic fringes of the American South.

In December, Mr. Phillips, 65, a former top health official in Texas, was appointed to head FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery. The office, with more than 1,000 employees and a budget of nearly $300 million, is central to FEMA’s job of responding to disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes and fires. Mr. Phillips was known, at the time, as a proponent of election fraud conspiracy theories, some of which were amplified by Mr. Trump.

Things got stickier for Mr. Phillips last month, when an investigative report by CNN detailed how, on podcasts and social media, he had propagated other conspiracy theories, used violent rhetoric in discussing former President Joseph R. Biden, and recounted how, on two occasions, he had somehow found himself being moved, by forces beyond his control, dozens of miles from two different starting points in Georgia.

“Teleporting is no fun,” he said on the podcast “Onward,” which is hosted by a conservative activist.

Ridicule has been mounting online. “Here’s why I know he’s lying,” wrote John Podhoretz, editor of Commentary magazine, on x.com this week. “Given the fact that teleportation has a theoretically infinite travel distance, he could have ended up at a Bucc-ees, or a Culver’s, or a Cheesecake Factory.”

On Wednesday, Mr. Phillips wrote on Truth Social, President Trump’s social media platform, that the incident took place while he was heavily medicated as part of a cancer treatment. But he also described it as a miracle performed by God….

Here’s the faux product this story inspired on Late Night With Stephen Colbert: “Gregg Phillips’ Teleportation Waffles”.

[Thanks to Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Daniel Dern, Francis Hamit, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Kathy Sullivan, and Steven French for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jon Meltzer.]

Pixel Scroll 3/29/26 They’re Maids Of Mead!

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(1) BUJOLD SAYS NEW PENRIC MIGHT ARRIVE IN APRIL. Lois McMaster Bujold yesterday told followers of her Goodreads blog: “Penric 16 impending!”.

I am pleased to report that I have just today finished the first draft of a new Penric & Desdemona novella, to be titled “Darksight Dare”. I plan to read a little section from it at next weekend’s upcoming Minicon here in Minneapolis. (See prior post for Minicon link.)

Artist Ron Miller has nearly completed the cover for it — we’re down to fine tuning last-done things like the color and placement of the font. I’ll post a sneak peek when we’re finished.

Still to be done on my end are collecting and collating my test readers’ comments, and final revisions. I expect this to take a couple of weeks, after which I’ll turn the pieces over to Spectrum for e-publication distribution on our five vendor platforms. I’m thinking this novella may be out as early as mid-April, but parts of the process are not up to me, so we’ll see.

Also still to do is writing the vendor-page copy, which is going to be the usual challenge of trying to give folks a clear idea of what they’ll be buying without undue spoilers. I can say the story takes place in the late fall after “The Adventure of the Demonic Ox”, and will feature some new characters bringing new problems to Pen & Des….

(2) PETITION TO SAVE STARTFLEET ACADEMY. CBR.com reports “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Fan Petition Hits Milestone After Paramount+ Cancellation”. (The direct link to the petition is here.) At this writing, the petition has over 22,000 signatures.

The divisive series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy was officially canceled by Paramount+ ahead of its upcoming second season. Some fans of the show are unwilling to accept this outcome, as the rallying has begun to save the series with a new petition.

The petition, which can be found at Change.org, calls for Paramount+ to renew Star Trek: Academy for Season 3. In a matter of days, it had reached its first major milestone by passing over 5,000 signatures, and just over 24 hours later, that number was doubled to over 10,000. New names are still being added continuously as more fans become aware of the petition, seemingly suggesting that it’s starting to pick up some serious momentum. Whether this will ultimately convince Paramount+ execs to reconsider their decision, however, remains to be seen.

“Given its significant impact, it is crucial not to halt this journey prematurely,” the petition’s description reads in part. “A third season would allow for the growth and development of these beloved characters and the continuation of storylines that fans are eager to see unfold. Moreover, it will provide the team behind the show the opportunity to delve deeper into narratives that challenge and inspire.”….

(3) DECANONIZATON FIRE. However, a writer currently at the top of the media pyramid sounds happy to see it go — “‘Project Hail Mary’ Author Andy Weir Says Paramount Rejected His ‘Star Trek’ Pitch: Their ‘Shows Are Sh**’” at The Hollywood Reporter.

The author of Project Hail Mary is firing a photon torpedo at Paramount+’s Star Trek efforts.

Bestselling writer Andy Weir criticized modern Trek shows while on the Critical Drinker podcast last week, and even revealed he pitched a Trek show that was shot down by Paramount.

The topic began with the podcast’s host, Will Jordan, saying how refreshing the box office hit Project Hail Mary has been, especially for audiences who grew up on Star Trek and now suffer from “a lack of” such sci-fi efforts nowadays.

“Yeah, I saw a … I forgot who it was — I wish I could remember who it was who said it, some analyst — he said something like: ‘All modern science fiction TV shows and movies have been heavily influenced by the original Star Trek — except for the current batch of Star Trek shows,’” Weir said.

Jordan replied, “Yes!” and they both laughed.

At first, Weir left that comment open to interpretation, but then added, “I’m Gen X, so my sci-fi was like original series Star Trek reruns and Lost in Space reruns. And there wasn’t really much in the way of [new] sci-fi that was airing — where people are off in space doing cool things — until we got to [Star Trek: The Next Generation].”

Later, Jordan brought up the divisive Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, which Paramount+ recently confirmed will end after its already-shot second season.

“I think we can probably safely never talk about it again,” Jordan quipped.

“It’s gone baby!” Weir cheerfully agreed. “It’s all gone.”

Jordan said his advice to Paramount is to de-canonize everything Star Trek from Enterprise onward.

“Okay, you’re a little more severe than I am,” Weir said. “I’ll give you my opinion and I’m just a consumer. I like Strange New Worlds. I think it’s pretty good. I didn’t hate Enterprise. I thought it was kind of weird. Lower Decks I thought was entertaining and fun. All the others, they can go. And here’s another thing: I pitched a Star Trek show to Paramount and I was in Zoom with the showrunners with all the shows and spent a lot of time talking to [executive producer Alex Kurtzman]. I don’t like a lot of the new Trek. He, as a person, is a really nice guy. But at the same time, those shows are shit. He is a nice guy. But they didn’t accept my pitch so, you know, fvck ’em.”…

(4) ALL THE MONEY HAIL MARY IS MAKING. Deadline has the figures: “Global Box Office: ‘Project Hail Mary’ Is Top Grossing Hollywood Movie YTD”.

In what is hopefully a sign of the times for the box office to quote the Harry Styles song in Project Hail Mary, non-franchise IP is excelling around the world with Amazon MGM Studios’ posting an amazing $108.6M second frame for a running total of $300.8M. Not only is that the top grossing Amazon MGM Studios post merger, besting the $276M haul of 2023’s Creed III, but it’s also currently the top grossing MPA title of 2026 year-to-date. Remember, China’s racing car movie, Pegasus 3 is the highest grossing movie year to date with $630.4M….

(5) CHATBOTS AND LAWYERS, OH, MY. We reported on U.S. v. Heppner soon after it was published (Pixel Scroll 3/9/26 item #5) – where the court decided that exchanges with the AI Claude were not communications between Heppner and his attorneys because Claude isn’t an attorney. And the court also ruled the exchanges weren’t confidential because under Anthropic’s terms of use for Claude the information could be disclosed to the authorities or used by the company for AI training.

However you may find this Facebook reel by Emily K. Catania, Esq. that explains the case to be both entertaining and informative.

(6) JONESING. On the March 7 episode of the Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones podcast Emily Tesh, Rebecca Fraimow and Ariella Bouskilla discuss “Deep Secret”. (Kudos to Nicholas Whyte for pointing it out to Facebook readers.) Links to the other casts at the bottom of the page.

I thought of Uncle Ted’s wobbly windows, and I began to think he must really, truly never look through them or anything else. Can’t anyone look out there and see that you need not to think of everything in terms of what works or what they ought to do?

Game dev and narrative expert Ariella Bouskila joins us for a discussion of bad colleagues, sick empires, beautiful boys, katabasis ducks, and the magic that can be found all around us if you have the eyes to see but can perhaps especially be found at a 1990s science fiction convention.

NB: As much as we would like not to, this one inevitably contains some conversation about Neil Gaiman.

(7) TATJANA WOOD (1926-2026.) The Comics Journal pays tribute: “Tatjana Wood, March 2, 1926-Feb. 27, 2026”.

Tatjana Wood, whose artistry and color palette defined DC Comics for generations of fans, passed away in an assisted living facility in Brooklyn, New York, on Feb. 27, just a few days shy of her hundredth birthday. Wood’s death came “after a long struggle with fading memory,” according to longtime friend and colleague Paul Levitz, who broke the news of her passing on social media, prompting an outpouring of stories and celebrations from friends, fans, and many of the women who had followed in her footsteps in the six decades since she had established herself as one of the premier colorists in the modern comic book industry….

She got her start helping her then-husband Wallace Wood on his assignments for EC Comics in the 1950s. Later —

… However she’d gotten her foot in the door, Wood quickly developed a reputation as one of DC’s most talented colorists, elevating what had been seen, even by those in the comic book industry, as cheap, disposable entertainment for children. “For those who don’t understand the process, comic book pages in those years were produced by a team, assembly line fashion,” wrote graphic novelist Derf Backderf in a Facebook tribute to Wood. “A writer passed his story on to a penciler. A letterer then put in the dialogue, word balloons and sound effects. An inker rendered those pencils. Finally, a colorist added the wonderful finishes that make comics into comics.

“In Tatjana’s time, floppy comics were printed on shitty newsprint. The printing was garbage. The color resolution was low. Think about those Ban Day dots that so enthralled parasite Roy Lichtenstein,” Derf continued. “If you look closely at any comics page you can see those dots with the naked eye. It was the most primitive–and inexpensive–reproduction available, and yet a master like Tatjana could achieve incredible effects. She was an important talent.”

Wood’s coloring on DC’s anthology titles, including the horror comic House of Secrets, military action series Our Army at War, and superhero team-up The Brave and Bold, showcased her versatility in the early 1970s. In 1972 she landed what would become her most enduring DC Comics freelance assignment when friend and editor Joe Orlando, knowing her ability to enhance mood and atmosphere in the four-color world, tapped her to color the first issue of Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson’s Swamp Thing. She continued after the original creative team’s departure and anchored the title through several subsequent creative and editorial changes, ultimately coloring Swamp Thing for over 20 years. “Her crown jewel was Swamp Thing, ‘Shvampy’ as she called him in her gravelly German accent,” said friend and editor Karen Berger….

(8) BARRY CALDWELL (1957-2026). “Barry Caldwell Dies: ‘Animaniacs’ Animator Was 68” reports Deadline.

He worked for Warner Bros. Animation, Walt Disney Television Studios and DreamWorks during his storied career, which began with an episode of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids in 1980.

Throughout the ’80s, Caldwell was a regular storyboard artist on The New Adventures of Zorro, The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show, He Man and the Masters of the Universe, The Smurfs and Chip ‘n’ Dale Rescue Rangers.

Caldwell was also known for his work on Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, The Tigger Movie (2000), Osmosis Jones (2001), Kim Possible and DreamWorks Dragons.

(9) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

“Assignment Earth” Star Trek episode (1968)

Captain’s log. Using the light-speed breakaway factor, the Enterprise has moved back through time to the 20th century. We are now in extended orbit around Earth, using our ship’s deflector shields to remain unobserved. Our mission – historical research. We are monitoring Earth communications to find out how our planet survived desperate problems in the year 1968.

Fifty-eight years ago on this evening, Star Trek’s “Assignment: Earth” first aired on NBC as part of the second season. Guest starring Robert Lansing as Gary Seven and Terri Garr as Roberta Lincoln, our crew which has time-travelled to 1968 Earth for historical research encounters an interstellar agent and Isis, his cat, who are planning to intervene in Earth history. 

It was directed by Marc Daniels whose first break in the business was directing the first thirty-eight episodes of I Love Lucy which was produced at the Desilu studio which became Paramount. This was one of fifteen Trek episodes he’d direct. He won a Hugo at NYCon 3 with Gene Roddenberry for Best Dramatic Presentation for “The Menagerie”. 

The story is by Art Wallace and Gene Roddenberry. Wallace, who also did the teleplay, is best remembered for his work on the soap opera Dark Shadows. Oh, and he did some scripts for Tom Corbett, Space Cadet.

It was intended as a pilot for an Assignment: Earth series that Gene Roddenberry planned but that never happened. Roddenberry’s intent was that Lansing and Garr would continue in the series if it was commissioned, but since NBC was not involved in casting the backdoor pilot, it could and well might have been that NBC would have insisted on changes or even completely recast the series had it picked up. 

Terri Garr and Robert Lansing in “Assignment Earth”.

Interesting note: The uncredited human form of Isis was portrayed by actress, dancer, and contortionist April Tatro, not Victoria Vetri, actress (in Rosemary’s Baby under the name of Angela Dorian) and Playboy Playmate of the previous year, as would become part of Trek lore. Her identity was unknown until 2019 when The Trek Files podcast cited a production call sheet for extras dated the fifth of January for the year of broadcast.  For decades fans had believed that the very briefly seen human form of the cat Isis was portrayed by actress Victoria Vetri. Many articles and websites treat that belief as revealed truth. Recently Vetri herself confirmed that she was not in the episode. No idea why the rumor started. 

Gary Seven and Isis

Barbara Babcock, best remembered as Grace Gardner on Hill Street Blues, a most excellent series, was the Beta 5 computer voice (uncredited at the time) and she did the Isis’ cat vocalizations as well. Speaking of that cat, it was played by Sambo as you can see by this NBC memo. Interestingly Lansing though would later contradict that claiming that there were actually three black cats involved. I can’t confirm his claim elsewhere. 

Though this backdoor pilot did not enter production as a television series, both Seven and Roberta were featured in multiple stories and they were spun-off into a comic book series from IDW Publishing, Star Trek: Assignment: Earth by John Byrne. And there was the excellent novelization of the episode that Scott Dutton did for Catspaw Dynamics. I’ve read it and it’s quite superb.  

In addition, according to Memory Alpha, the source for all things Trek, “Seven and Lincoln have appeared in several Star Trek novels (Assignment: Eternity and the two-volume series, The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh by Greg Cox) and short stories (“The Aliens Are Coming!” by Dayton Ward in Strange New Worlds III, “Seven and Seven” by Kevin Hosey in Strange New Worlds VI and “Assignment: One” by Kevin Lauderdale in Strange New Worlds VIII).”

The plot concept of benevolent aliens secretively helping Earthlings was later resurrected by Roddenberry for The Questor Tapes film. That film was one of a series of television movies in which Roddenberry was involved — Genesis II, Planet Earth, Strange New World and Spectre. Need I say none made it past the stage of the initial television movie which served as a pilot? 

(10) COMICS SECTION.

"the Haters" my books cartoon for this week's @theguardian.com

— Tom Gauld (@tomgauld.bsky.social) 2026-03-09T14:30:24.894Z

(11) WHAT IF YOU’RE A HUGO FINALIST? Now that the 2026 Hugo nominations have closed, Cora Buhlert has posted an updated version of her advice and admonitions – “An Open Letter to the 2026 Hugo Finalists, Whoever They May Be”.

Here’s an example:

…You can tell a few people you trust about your nomination as long as you know they won’t blab it all over the internet. Before the official announcement, a handful of people knew I was a Hugo finalist. These include my parents (whose reaction was, “That’s nice,” before turning back to watch a rerun of Midsomer Murders), some folks from Galactic Journey and others in the SFF community, who knew not to say anything before the official announcement, as well as my accountant (because I asked her if buying an evening gown for the Hugo ceremony was tax-deductible – it’s not BTW) and the guy who repaired my patio, because he just happened to be there, when I got the e-mail. Neither the accountant nor the patio guy are SFF fans, so chances of a leak were zero. They both also probably thought I was quite mad.

(12) SALUTE TO A SEVENTIES EASTERN EUROPEAN TV FANTASY SERIES. Cora Buhlert’s new contribution to Galactic Journey is a review of the delightful Czech children’s fantasy TV series Pan Tau. Cora also argues that Pan Tau is a Time Lord. Plus, the series also featured the screen debut of 21-year-old Czech skier and model Ivana Zelníčková, better known as Ivana Trump.  “[March 26, 1971] A Czech Delight: Pan Tau”.

…The first episode “Pan Tau tritt auf” (Pan Tau steps out) begins with a stock footage of real world rocket launches both Soviet and American. The scene then shifts into outer space, where traffic is remarkably busy with various spaceships racing past, courtesy of the excellent model work of Czech animators. The most fascinating of these spaceships is a Victorian style vehicle that looks as if the time machine from the 1960 movie and the rocket from Jules Verne’s Journey to the Moon had a baby. The driver of this strange contraption is a man dressed in – no, not a spacesuit, but a Stresemann suit with a white carnation in the buttonhole. On his head, he doesn’t wear a space helmet, but a bowler hat. This is our protagonist Pan Tau – here still in the form of a puppet. In human form, Pan Tau is played by Czech stage actor Otto Šimánek….

(13) DERN’S EXPLICATION OF TODAY’S SCROLL TITLE. [Item by Daniel Dern.] Title origin story: The title reference should, I hope, be obvious to a majority of Filers (Mild hint: Rhyme-riffing on a Terry Bisson story title)…but the “how I came to think of it, not, I think, anywhere near obvious, so: I was checking part of my back for what might be ticks (rare, but has happened), which made me think of a New-England-local news story from the (dead tree) newspaper a day or two ago about increasing (though still, IIRC, small numbers of) tick bites that result in becoming allergic to red meat. (Lookup phrase: alpha-gal). From there, easy free-association to the title suggestion.

(14) NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED. [Item by N.] Now that the broom dust has cleared, James Woodall puts a magnifying glass on last year’s Wicked: For Good in “Wicked 2: The Bad VS The Good”.

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, N., Cora Buhlert, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Kathy Sullivan, Steven French, Mike Kennedy, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]

Pixel Scroll 2/13/26 In The End, The Real Treasure Was The Pixels We Scrolled Along The Way

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(1) DUBIOUS RESOURCES. David Brin warns his Substack readers:

Elon is pivoting to declare vast use of lunar manufacturing within a few years. Alas, dring my 12 years at NIAC* about 10% of our grants went to wonderful teams studying how to do space manufacturing. But when it came to using lunar resources, not one of them ever wound up getting very far because ‘lunar resources’ (except for a little polar water ice and maybe some widely-scattered meteoritic iron) are simply a myth. Do NOT talk “titanium!” or “helium Threeeeee!” without going to a mirror and slapping yourself silly.

*NASA’s Innovative & Advanced Concepts program – (NIAC) 

(2) NEW TUTTLE COLUMN. Lisa Tuttle’s “The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – review roundup” for the Guardian covers Nowhere Burning by Catriona Ward; Pagans by James Alistair Henry; Pedro the Vast by Simón López Trujillo; Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman; and A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing by Alice Evelyn Yang.

(3) CLINGERMAN COLLECTION. A Deep Look by Dave Hook takes us for a look at “’The Clingerman Files’, Mark Bradley editor, 2017 Size 5 1/2 B Publishing, and More”. “The Short” summary is followed by “The Long” analysis.

The Short: I finally read Mildred Clingerman’s posthumous collection The Clingerman Files, Mark Bradley editor, 2017 Size 5 1/2 B Publishing. This reprints the contents of her collection A Cupful of Space, 1961 Ballantine Books, and includes her other previously unpublished short fiction. It omits four of her stories, see links below for them. My favorite included might be the first story of hers I encountered, the superlative “Stair Trick“, a short story, F&SF August 1952. Also included are a lovely essay by her daughter Kendall Clingerman Burling, “Memories of Mildred” and an insightful introduction “Mildred Clingerman: The Science of Magic and the Magic of the Commonplace” by author Richard Chwedyk. My overall rating for The Clingerman Files was 3.72, or “Very good”, and the contents of the reprint of A Cupful of Space included was rated 3.83/5, or “Great”. Strongly recommended for a unique voice in speculative fiction who deserved to be known and remembered.

(4) CELEBRATE BIPOC CREATORS. Virtuous Con is an online sci-fi and comic culture convention that celebrates the excellence of BIPOC creators in speculative fiction across the media of comics, books, film, visual arts, and more. It will be held online February 21-22. Tickets are $30. See a promotional short about it on Facebook.

(5) ALL THE SCARES. “An everything bagel inspired R.L. Stine’s new scary book” says USA Today. And they’ll let you read Chapter 1 at the link.

Between his own bibliography and a creepily decorated home office, R.L. Stine has enough spooky material for a lifetime of inspiration.

So why was it an everything bagel that led him to write his upcoming book, “Nightmare on Nightmare Street”? Like the delicious combination of salt, sesame seeds, onion and poppy seeds, Stine’s latest work has a little something for everyone – kids and adults alike.

“What if I wrote an Everything Book?” Stine writes in the book’s introduction. “What if I wrote one of my scary novels and put in all the different kinds of scares my readers tell me they like? Not just two kids trapped in a haunted house. Or a family battling an evil monster. Or an after-school vampire attack. Or a doll coming to life. What if I mixed into a book all kinds of horrors at once? What if I concocted a story with new versions of the horrors I’ve created before? An Everything Scary Story.”…

(6) WILL THEY CEL OUT? Heritage Auctions is previewing its next animation art action: “February 21 – 22 Yabba Dabba Doo – The Art of Hanna-Barbera II! Animation Showcase Auction”. Here’s one of the highlights.

The Addams Family Licensing/Publicity Cel (Hanna-Barbera, 1992). In this large hand-painted licensing cel, we see the family (minus Uncle Fester) as they gather around. We see Morticia, sculpting an unusual image of Gomez, who is held upside down by Lurch; Grandmama sitting on Lurch’s shoulder; Thing on a pedestal, giving a thumbs up; and Wednesday and Pugsley facing off for a fun fencing duel with boxing gloves on the tip of their foils. We’ve not seen this image in use but it might have appeared on any number of consumer products like toys, puzzles, posters, or clothing. The huge image is on a 13.5″ x 16.5″ cel, which has been placed on a matching print background. The cel and print are on a 15″ x 20 sturdy backing board and is in Very Good to Fine condition with light handling wear.

(7) BELATED BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

February 12, 1950 — William Michael Ironside, 76.

The role I remember Michael Ironside most for was as Lieutenant Jean Rasczak in Starship Troopers. There wasn’t much great about that film but I thought that he made much of that character. 

Michael Ironside in Starship Troopers

Do I need to say that I’m not covering everything he’s done of a genre nature? Well most of you get that. Really you do. So let’s see what I find interesting.

Scanners is one weird film. It really is. And he was in it as Darryl Revok, the Big Baddie, a role he perfectly played. 

Next he got cast as the main antagonist in another of my favorite SF films, this time as Overdog McNab in Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone. Who comes with these names?

Then there was Total Recall where he was Agent Richter, the ruthless enforcer of Cohaagen, the source of everything corrupt on Mars. Great role that fit his gruff voice and frankly even gruffer looks absolutely perfectly.

One of his major ongoing roles was in the V franchise, first as Ham Tyle, a recurring role in V: The Final Battle, and then playing the same character in all episodes of V: The Series.

Now we come to my favorite of his roles, in one one of my favorite series, seaQuest 2032, where he was Captain Oliver Hudson. Great series and an absolute fantastic performance by him! Pity it got cancelled after thirteen episodes. 

Finally he has one voice acting role I loved. In the DC universe, he was Darkseid, the absolute rule of Apokolis. He voiced him primarily on Superman: The Animated Series, but also on the Justice League series as well, and to my surprise on the HBO Harley Quinn series as well.

(8) COMICS SECTION.

(9) FALLS NOT FAR FROM THE TREE. Deadline reports: “Apple Acquires ‘Severance’, Eyes Season 3 Start & Season 4”.

Produced by an “outie” studio for its first two seasons, Apple TV‘s flagship drama series Severance will now be made by an “innie” one. In a deal finalized late last year, Apple has acquired Severance — the IP and all rights — from Fifth Season, Deadline has learned.

Under the pact, which sources peg at just under $70 million, Apple’s in-house Apple Studios will be the studio on the Emmy-winning series going forward, with indie Fifth Season becoming an executive producer. The transaction is similar to the handover between AMC Studios and Apple Studios of another elaborate, high-concept drama, Silo, after Season 1….

(10) FIND YOUR PATH TO CITIZENSHIP TODAY! A new call to arms has been issued by publisher Dotemu, under the proud supervision of the United Citizen Federation, which today announced the next step in humanity’s war against the Arachnid menace: Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War!, a retro FPS developed by Auroch Digital, renowned for their work on Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun. Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! releases in early 2026 on PC, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. See Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! on Steam.

Join General Johnny Rico (played by Casper Van Dien from the Starship Troopersfilms) as he presents the first official game of the Federation for any Civilian on the path to Citizenship.

Set 25 years after the events of the original Starship Troopers film, this heroic campaign follows war veteran Samantha Dietz as she recounts her hunt for the dreadful Assassin Bug during the First Bug War. Relive her experiences as you annihilate the Arachnids on their familiar home world of Klendathu and journey to all new worlds like Planet P and beyond in this streamlined solo campaign, with access to a devastating arsenal of 14 weapons (including the iconic Morita rifle), 11 Tactical Supports and a Mech vehicle in a gloriously gory 3D pixelated combat simulation.

Citizens looking to prepare themselves to the fullest extent can utilize Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War!’s anti-bug combat training, where you can play from the perspective of the Bugs, and prepare for the skills they need to erase the insectoid threat.

Do your part by wishlisting on Steam, and follow the official Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! social channels to receive the latest news from the Federation on Facebook.

(11) @GROK, CAN YOUR COMPETITOR CLAUDE HELP ME BOMB VENEZUELA? [Item by Mike Kennedy.] The terms of service for Claude, the AI tool from Anthropic, are said to prohibit it being used to plan violence, develop weapons, or conduct surveillance. Looks like maybe the DoD is using Palantir (an Anthropic partner, but also a DoD contractor) as a cutout. Reports have surfaced that Anthropic was a tool for the recent mini-invasion of Venezuela and concurrent kidnapping of a sitting head of state and his wife. “Pentagon Used Anthropic’s Claude in Maduro Venezuela Raid” in the Wall Street Journal. (Article is behind a paywall.)

Anthropic’s artificial-intelligence tool Claude was used in the U.S. military’s operation to capture former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, highlighting how AI models are gaining traction in the Pentagon, according to people familiar with the matter.

The mission to capture Maduro and his wife included bombing several sites in Caracas last month. Anthropic’s usage guidelines prohibit Claude from being used to facilitate violence, develop weapons or conduct surveillance. 

”We cannot comment on whether Claude, or any other AI model, was used for any specific operation, classified or otherwise,” said an Anthropic spokesman. “Any use of Claude—whether in the private sector or across government—is required to comply with our Usage Policies, which govern how Claude can be deployed. We work closely with our partners to ensure compliance.

The Defense Department declined to comment.

The deployment of Claude occurred through Anthropic’s partnership with data company Palantir Technologies, whose tools are commonly used by the Defense Department and federal law enforcement, the people said. Anthropic’s concerns about how Claude can be used by the Pentagon have pushed administration officials to consider canceling its contract worth up to $200 million, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.  Palantir didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment….

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

Pixel Scroll 1/31/26 And What Pixels Shall The Poor File Wear To All Tomorrow’s Scrollings?

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(1) HARLAN ELLISON’S PACKARD GETS NEW HOME. James Artimus Owen told Facebook readers today:

…My pal John Van Hassel and I have just picked up Harlan Ellison’s 1947 Packard from Hollywood, where her foster parents, my good friends Jim & Gabrielle Pascoe, have been looking after her, and we’re taking her to her new forever home at the Biblioteca Fantastica, in the historic Coppervale Studio, in Silvertown (Taylor), Arizona.

(2) MORALITY ON A LARGE SCALE. Timothy Snyder reminds us about “Tolkien’s Dragons and Ours” at Thinking About…

In the first month of a threatening year, in January of 1938, a great writer gathered himself to speak to children about dragons.

We know JRR Tolkien as the creator of Middle Earth and the author of the Lord of the Rings. But at the time he was just an Oxford university professor who had agreed to bring some light to a dark winter’s evening.

His first book, The Hobbit, had just been published. Most likely the children who gathered in the University Museum had not read it. Professor Tolkien over-prepared, bringing twenty-four pages of hand-written prose….

… The lecture gives us a bit of the moral theory behind The Hobbit, and of the books to follow. Dragons, explained Tolkien, assemble huge wealth, appreciating only its quantity, but taking no joy in any particular object. They are, however, enraged if any one piece were to go missing, and would burn the world with fury. They are obsessed to the point of paranoia with thieves. Their great intelligence is thus reduced to the cunning of protecting their hoard.A dragon is not a fearful beast of a real or imaginary past, but a way of being in the world. They are not the serpent that represents evil; they are not a symbol of something abstract. “The alarming thing about dragons as I have said is not only their shape — which may have dwindled or vanished — but their spirit.” Dragons convey to us a way that people can be evil, here in our world: turning the quality of small joys into the quantity of a senseless hoard, mocking and destroying others who still see the good things of life.

It is the spirit of dragons, concluded Tolkien, that has survived, and it survives in us, or in some of us. A man can become a dragon through sheer greed. If we want to find a dragon, the place to look is the “vaults of the Bank of England.” And if “you want to see a dragon-heath just go out and look” at a landscape tortured by machines, a sky blackened with smoke….

(3) STEVE VERTLIEB MEDICAL UPDATE. Steve Vertlieb is out of the hospital after a week of treatment for internal bleeding. He told Facebook friends today the full details (which I won’t quote here). Thankfully he’s still with us.

…Over the course of my nearly weeklong confinement to the emergency room and special care unit of the hospital, I was consigned an impossibly bland diet of liquids and clear broth. They remain the only boring part of my week. Finally on Friday, January 28th, as my vital signs had stabilized for an acceptable duration of time and testing, I was released from the hospital, along with the admonition that if symptoms recurred, to return immediately to the emergency room.

I’m weak and somewhat unsteady on my feet, but happy to be alive. Death had returned from his holiday, leaving me to return to my flawed, yet nearly concluded existence. I was released from the hospital on Friday afternoon, January 30th, 2026. My ordeal and “Long Day’s Journey into Night” had emerged once more into the life affirming brightness and future of day.

(4) 2026 DIAMOND DAGGER. The Crime Writers’ Association has announced the 2026 CWA Diamond Dagger recipient. Shots reports:

Mark Billingham is the 2026 recipient of the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Diamond Dagger, sponsored by Karen Baugh Menuhin.

The award recognises authors whose crime writing careers have been marked by sustained excellence, and who have made a significant contribution to the genre.

One of the UK’s most prominent societies, the CWA was founded in 1953 by John Creasey. The awards started in 1955 with its first award going to Winston Graham, best known for Poldark.

25 years ago, Mark Billingham’s debut novel Sleepyhead became an instant bestseller, launching a prolific career as a novelist….

… Nadine Matheson, Chair of the CWA, said: “Across a remarkable body of work, Mark has consistently set the bar for contemporary crime fiction, while also being generous with his time and support to emerging writers. His influence on the genre extends far beyond his own novels, shaping the crime writing community as a whole. For his outstanding contribution to crime fiction, his lasting impact on readers and writers alike, and his commitment to the genre, Mark Billingham is a thoroughly deserving recipient of the Diamond Dagger.”…

(5) NEW TOYS KEEP ON COMING. Cora Buhlert has written a follow-up post, “More Masters of the Universe Movie Toys Revealed” because Mattel has unveiled more figures and also the packaging at the Nuremberg Toy Fair.

…So what do I think about this first wave of Masters of the Universe movie figures? Well, I’m glad you asked (or not), cause here are my thoughts.

The first wave of Masters of the Universe Chronicles figures consists of a solid seven figures plus one mount – note that a normal Masterverse or Origins or Cartoon Collection wave consists of three figures, four at most. Of course, it’s also possible that we’re looking at more than one wave here.

The Heroic Warriors are represented by He-Man, Teela, Man-at-Arms and Battle Cat. The Evil Warriors are represented by Skeletor, Evil-Lyn, Trap-Jaw and Tri-Klops. We already saw Man-at-Arms and Evil-Lyn in person plus He-Man and Tri-Klops on the cross sell yesterday. Trap-Jaw, Skeletor, Teela and Battle Cat are new.

It’s a solid assortment of characters and you can play out some mighty battles with those. Though it is notable that all seven characters (excluding Battle Cat for obvious reasons) are human or at least humanoid, which means that at least some parts (hands, feet, arms, etc…) can be reused, though these toys seem to have a lot of new tooling, which means a big investment. Non-human characters like Roboto, Beast-Man or Spikor, all of whom require a lot of new parts, are not included in this first wave. Whether we will also get deluxe figures (often two-packs or oversized characters such as Beast-Man or Roboto), vehicles and a Castle Grayskull playset remains to be seen…

(6) CROSS THEIR PALMS WITH SILVER. Joe Stech in the latest Compelling Science Fiction Newsletter says he is creating “The ‘bullion prerogative’ for science fiction authors”.

A while back I bought some silver coins on a whim. I discovered this week that they’ve appreciated considerably (despite the price drop yesterday). Selling them would trigger capital gains taxes, which does not excite me*. And so, in the way that many terrible ideas are born, I found myself in Discord asking science fiction authors if they’d be willing to get paid in physical silver coins for their writing.

The response was immediate and enthusiastic, but not for any financially sound reasons. Here are a few choice selections of how authors were feeling about being paid in silver…

Here’s a couple of the responses:

“yes because that would be hilarious” — Isabel J. Kim

“I got paid in beer one time and I’ll always treasure that, would love to add silver to the weird payments list” — Parker M. O’Neill

Which Stech founding inspiring:

…By this point I was having visions of a full John Wick-style economy where science fiction authors just walk around with stacks of coins, paying for everything from conventions to Clarkesworld memberships with bullion….

(7) KEEPING UP WITH ANTHROPIC. Victoria Strauss has shared news about the Anthropic Settlement.

The opt-out deadline for the Anthropic copyright settlement has changed again–to February 9. The wording has also been changed to make clear that if one person opts out, they also automatically opt out every other rightsholder www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/dates

— Victoria Strauss (@victoriastrauss.com) 2026-01-31T17:15:52.859Z

(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

January 31, 1934 — Gene DeWeese. (Died 2012.)

This Scroll I’m looking at a writer this I’ve never heard of before, Gene DeWeese. He was a member of fandom, and his stories were published in fanzines such as The Chigger Patch of Fandom, Fan-Fare and Yandro. He was a member of the Eastern Indiana Science Fiction Association and the Midwest Nomads. Fancyclopedia notes, “He tried to attend Midwestcon 4 in 1953 with his friends Bev Clark and Buck Coulson, but left when she wasn’t permitted in due to Beatley’s Hotel’s racist Jim Crow policy.”

His first professional novels appeared in the Sixties, a Man from U.N.C.L.E. book co-written with Robert “Buck” Coulson under the name Thomas Stratton, The Invisibility Affair. They would do one more book in this continuity, The Mind-Twisters Affair. 

(I do wish that these, like so many works of that era, had become digital publications. They didn’t obviously.)

In the Seventies he and Coulson wrote under their own names two novels set in fandom, Now You See It/Him/Them… and Charles Fort Never Mentioned Wombats.

Most of us remember DeWeese for his Trek novels which is interesting as they were written later in his career. The four that are set in the original continuity were written the Eighties onward, all by him except one he wrote with Margaret Wander Bonanno and Diane Duane.  He also wrote three set in the Next Generation continuity as well.

What else did he do? There’s Dinotopia novels, something I swear exists by the dozens even if they don’t. I think. And one in the Lost in Space continuity as well. 

What’s more interesting is the series that I’ve never heard of. The Black Suits from Outer Space YA trilogy involves, well, Men (possibly) in Black, plucky teenagers, spaceships, aliens (some cute, some not) and nothing terrible challenging. Fun is the best word to describe them. 

He wrote three novels in the Ravenloft continuity, a campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons. I just got the giggles, errr, laughs reading the summary of that  module, but then I never played fantasy RPGs, just SF ones like the Traveller RPG. What a fantastic RPG that was! 

There’s still a lot of other novels that I’ve not mentioned and quite a bit of short stories (none collected). 

(9) COMICS SECTION.

(10) MUPPET SHOW REDUX. The Guardian’s review says, “The Muppet Show: this thrilling return is so great I can’t even count how many times I laughed”. Coming February 4.

… That’s why we love them. Do we not, too, know ourselves to be odd, hapless psychological caricatures? Do our plans not also lead to flaming wreckage? Do we not long to put on a vaudeville-style variety show in a classic theatre?

Which brings us to the 2026 Muppet Show (Disney+, from Wednesday 4 February), with executive producer Seth Rogen on board. It’s a one-off, but could lead to a whole new series, the trailer reveals, “depending on how tonight goes”. Happily, it hasn’t been updated so Fozzie is doing bits on TikTok, or Rowlf protesting about streaming royalties. The guys are still trying to put on that variety show, and it’s still all going wrong…

… A highlight is when Carpenter meets Miss Piggy, gushing how she has always loved her, and even copied her look. “My attorneys have taken note,” Piggy replies primly. The porcine diva is energetic throughout, trotting backstage to announce to anyone present that she is “on vocal rest”. Protecting her place in the running order, she undertakes a water-based romantic rescue mission, which culminates in a bisexual rug-pull moment. She’s doing a lot.

Even the show within the show is good. Expect toe-tapping needle drops old and new. Skits include period-drama parody Pigs in Wigs, and a science segment about screen time, which ends with Beaker losing his eyes. Unlike Sesame Street, where the Muppets also appear, there is no educational agenda. The agenda is electric mayhem…

(11) FAMILY WII COMPETITION. [Item by Steven French.] Dominik Diamond at the Guardian plots some gaming revenge … against his mum: “There’s a reason that Wii Bowling remains my mum’s favourite game of all time”.

My mother bore me. My mother nurtured me. My mother educated me. She has a resilience unmatched, a love all-forgiving. She is the glue that holds our family together. But right now, I am kicking her ass at video game bowling, and it feels good!

In the 00s, my mum was the best Wii Bowling player in the world. She was unbeatable. Strike after strike after strike. The Dudette in our family’s Big Lebowski. So when she said she was coming to visit us in Canada, I thought the time was right to buy the updated Nintendo Switch Sports version of her favourite game. She’s 76 now, and I might finally have a chance of beating her, I thought, especially if I allowed myself a cheeky tune-up on the game before she arrived.

I fire up Nintendo Switch Sports to get the lay of the land. Tennis and golf have survived the almost 20 years since Wii Sports, along with bowling. The tennis has nothing to keep me entertained for longer than 10 minutes, and I have been terrified of any golf game where you swing a controller since Christmas morning 2009, when my wife surprised me with Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf for the Wii and I surprised her by throwing my back out after a six-hour session on it….

(12) A COOL ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERY. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] An Earth-sized planet has been discovered 146 light years away from the nearest bar. It is called HD 137010 b and orbits a little closer to its star than the Earth to the Sun: its year is roughly 10 days shorter than the Earth’s year.

The discovery was made by analysing data obtained in 2017 from the Kepler space telescope mission.  Those of you who vaguely follow astronomical news may wonder how this could be possible as Kepler had an instrument failure back in 2013 and lost good quality manoeuvrability. This meant that it could not look for repeat transits (covering many years) by exoplanets of their stars.  However, the probe has been repurposed to look for single transits and one such is what has been found in the 2017 data. 

Now, single transit data is not as good as multiple transits, but if the plane of the star’s planetary system lines up with the Earth then knowing the size of the star and the size of the planet, it is possible to estimate its orbital duration hence distance from its star.  This is what the astronomers did when analysing the old Kepler data.

They calculate that while HD 137010 b orbits a little closer to its star than the Earth to the Sun, because its star is cooler (in the temperature, not the Fonz, sense) it would get a similar amount of heat as does Mars.  The good news is that the planet is a little larger than Earth and so may have an atmosphere.  It may even have an atmosphere a little greater than Earth’s.  That means that there could – at a pinch – be liquid water somewhere on its surface.

The star HD 137010 is a K-type star.  It is a quarter lighter in mass than the Sun and this means that it will last longer on its main sequence of its lifetime, some 90 billion years, which is roughly ten times that of the Sun.  This spectral classification of stars is also a little more common than Sun-type stars, though not as common as the plentiful red dwarfs (Lister says ‘hi’).  However, complex life about red dwarfs is tricky as they are so cool (again, not in the Fonz sense) that planets have to orbit closely for them to be warm enough for liquid water.  But at such closeness planets are likely to become tidally locked (or close to tidally locked) and also subject to occasional raging stellar winds from their star: red dwarfs tend to have bad space weather.  In short, K-type stars are a good place to look for complex life.

Given the right conditions: a planet roughly Earth’s temperature, with plenty of water and some land (which can be eroded by carbonic acid in rain to release nutrients from rock), a stable axial tilt (hence most likely requiring a sizable moon), and then complex life is likely.  Though eukaryotes are said to have arisen once, (seemingly paradoxically for non-biologists) the process by which eukaryotes arose (called symbiogenesis) occurred multiple times (and at least twice for chloroplasts) this suggests that the rise of eukaryotes is an easy evolutionary step. Similarly multicellularity arose many times suggesting that that too is an easy evolutionary step.  And as for life arising in the first place: life’s early appearance on Earth speaks to that too being fairly easy.  So, life is not the problem (you can trust a biologist (we are cool in the Fonz sense)): it’s the type of planet, its star, and the distance between them that matters – astronomy is the issue.

A single planet as discussed above is the best interpretation of the Kepler data, but it is not the only interpretation and so follow-up observation is required.

The primary research is  Venner, A. et al (2026) A Cool Earth-sized Planet Candidate Transiting a Tenth Magnitude K-dwarf From K2. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, vol. 997, L38.

[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, John A. Arkansawyer, Cora Buhlert, Steve Vertlieb, Kathy Sullivan, Steven French, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Randall M.]

Pixel Scroll 1/10/26 You’re Nothing But A Holodeck Of Cards

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(1) BACK TO SCHOOL. Inverse weighs in with “’Starfleet Academy’ Review: Star Trek Takes Its Biggest Swing In Years”. Mild spoilers.

…But interestingly, in the 21st century, whenever a new Star Trek thing comes along, there’s always a tension between both goals: Is this a crowd-pleasing action Star Trek designed to bring in everyone, or is this a contemplative social issues show? With the new series, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (launching on Paramount+ with two episodes on January 15), the answer is both, and also, a strange third thing: a hopeful show about, and possibly specifically for, young adults. Starfleet Academy’s stated goal is very much not to be your parents’ Star Trek. This is interesting, because older fans will likely be, at times, delighted by all the Easter eggs, and at other times, bewildered by what these kids are all about.

The first episode of Starfleet Academy is called “Kids These Days,” which establishes the tone and mission of the show. We’re in the 3190s, in the time established by Discovery’s latter seasons, which includes the backstory of the galaxy-wide catastrophe known as “the Burn.” This was the moment in 3069 when a bunch of warp drives randomly detonated, and the Federation was thrown into chaos. Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) was around not just for the tail-end of the Burn, but for all those bad years, owing to the fact that she’s a long-lived Lanthanite, a species of human-passing aliens first introduced in Strange New Worlds Season 2 in the form of Carol Kane’s sassy engineer Pelia. Apparently, the new Star Trek rule is that if you’re going to get someone to play a near-immortal, wise alien, you have to cast Hollywood royalty.

In fact, although Starfleet Academy eventually gives the young adults the spotlight, the pilot episode is about the space boomers Captain Ake and her longtime nemesis Nus Braka, played by Paul Giamatti….

(2) READING THE DOOMSDAY TEA LEAVES.  [Item by Steven French.] The Guardian’s Ben Child ponders the question many of us have been asking in “Week in Geek”: “What is Marvel up to with its Avengers: Doomsday trailers?”

Avengers: Doomsday may still be almost a year off, but already it feels as if Hollywood has entered a new era of confidence marketing, built around a sort of ritualised roll-call of legacy characters who really need everyone to know they haven’t been retired yet. In the last few weeks we’ve had three almost completely pointless short trailers online, with another reportedly playing in cinemas ahead of Avatar: Fire and Ash. First there was Captain America cradling his baby, then Thor praying to his dear old dead omnipotent dad. This week we got our first proper look at the classic X-Men lineup in the new film, and there are suggestions that an encounter between the Fantastic Four’s The Thing and half of Wakanda is imminent.

Something weird is clearly happening. These aren’t teaser trailers in any meaningful sense, because these half-cocked, chord-drenched promotional entries tell us absolutely nothing about what is to come. Assembled fandom wants to know who Doctor Doom is in the new movie, and why he looks exactly like Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man (because if this is just stunt-casting there are going to be walkouts). We want to know how all the Fantastic Four and X-Men have suddenly turned up in the main Marvel timeline, when the last 17 years of these movies made no mention of them whatsoever. And we’d really like it not to just be explained away by … “the multiverse”.

But instead of telling us this, the Doomsday marketing team are giving us strange little promo reels designed – it appears – to function as proof that the Marvel blockbuster machinery still works. These are marginally better than that awful film about chairs that revealed who would be cast in the movie, but not by much….

(3) BACK TO YOU. Michael Capobianco recommends authors considering the Anthropic Settlement, or other potential settlements, be aware of whether their rights should have been reverted in “Reversion Redux” at Writer Beware. Full discussion at the link.

….Under the definitions on the Anthropic Settlement website, there are two types of rightsholders who may make a claim – those who have received publishing rights by contract (generally, the publishers) and those who have licensed those rights (generally, the authors). While this breakdown is very common for traditionally published books, there are many exceptions. Self-publishers, for example, own their rights 100% because they’re both the publisher and author. (For these works, Amazon is a distributor and owns no publishing rights.) Another important exception is for works that originally had a publisher but have gone out of print and have had their rights returned to the authors (rights reversion).

The difference between how the Anthropic settlement treats these latter two types of rightsholders is striking. They will receive 100% of the settlement payout. By contrast, if there’s a publisher involved that still has their rights, the default is that the publisher will receive 50% of the amount and the writer receives the remaining 50%. It does depend on the language in the publishing contract, but many traditional publisher contracts specify that any payout from a copyright infringement lawsuit will be split equally between publisher and author.

While the exact amount of the total payout from Anthropic is dependent on what the lawyers take (20% as of their filing on December 3) and other factors, a reasonable estimate is in the vicinity of $2,000 per work. Fifty percent of that is significant.

As this is being written, a number of other writer class action suits against AI companies are in progress and it’s a good bet that similar settlements with similar definitions are in the offing. For those who have traditionally-published books that ceased to sell but who never reverted their rights for whatever reason, reversion is worth reconsidering.….

(4) TOLKIEN’S LEGACY. Dimitra Fimi follows “In Tolkien’s footsteps: how ‘On Fairy-stories’ shaped the thinking of later fantasy writers” at A Kind of Elvish Craft.

…That fantasy literature has mined traditional narratives (myth, legend, folktale) for plotlines, motifs, characters and creatures is pretty much a truism. But for Tolkien, what’s important is how this is done and to what effect. In “On Fairy-stories” he uses his now famous metaphor of the Cauldron of Story, which holds a concoction of folkloric and literary material, tradition and invention, all mixed together and enriched in time with new ingredients. Orally transmitted genres such as myth, legend and folktale are in the Cauldron, but so are literary transformations of these narratives (e.g. the use of fairy-tale elements in Beowulf), as well as new inventions by individual authors. For Tolkien, what can be called “source-hunting”, i.e. dissecting narratives to find their mythological elements or their other sources of inspiration, is a sterile activity if it stops just there. What he encourages us to do is to examine the particular “soup” each author serves out of the Cauldron of Story, and appreciate it as soup – not just as an accumulation of ingredients. What new flavours or textures has the author created by recombining old material? Tolkien notes:

‘We must be satisfied with the soup that is set before us, and not desire to see the bones of the ox out of which it has been boiled’6… By ‘the soup’ I mean the story as it is served up by its author or teller, and by ‘the bones’ its sources or material.7

And he continues further down:

‘But when we have done all that research… when we have explained many of the elements commonly found embedded in fairy-stories (such as step-mothers, enchanted bears and bulls, cannibal witches, taboos on names, and the like)… there remains still a point too often forgotten: that is the effect produced now by these old things in the stories as they are.’ 8

Similarly, most of the fantasy authors I am considering here, agree that fantasy is made up of mythical ingredients. For example, Susan Cooper acknowledges that:

The material of fantasy is myth, legend, folktale; the mystery of dream, and the great mystery of Time.9…

(5) THE GOOD OLD DAYS ARE STILL HERE. “Netflix Finally Decides the Fate of Its Groundbreaking Sci-Fi Series” and Collider has the story.

15 years after Black Mirror aired its first season, Netflix has finally decided the fate of the dystopian sci-fi series. The streaming behemoth has confirmed that Black Mirror has been renewed and will move forward with Season 8. This comes over nine months removed from the Season 7 finale, and fans had begun to question whether we had seen the last episode of Black Mirror. Series creator Charlie Brooker confirmed the news himself, saying, “I can confirm that Black Mirror will return, just in time for reality to catch up with it. So, that’s exciting. That chunk of my brain has already been activated in a whirring way.”

Black Mirror is an anthology series, meaning each episode tells a different dystopian sci-fi story. Any fan could jump in and start at Season 7 or Season 5 and not be lost. When asked what kind of direction he plans to take in Season 8, Brooker said, “Well, what haven’t we done yet, and what tone am I looking for? It’s a useful thought experiment when approaching a new story. Where does this track come on the album, and what musical direction are we going to go into?”…

(6) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

January 10, 1967 — The Invaders series

The Invaders, alien beings from a dying planet. Their destination: the Earth. Their purpose: to make it their world. David Vincent has seen them. For him, it began one lost night on a lonely country road, looking for a shortcut that he never found. It began with a closed deserted diner, and a man too long without sleep to continue his journey. It began with the landing of a craft from another galaxy. Now David Vincent knows that the Invaders are here, that they have taken human form. Somehow he must convince a disbelieving world that the nightmare has already begun. — Opening narration 

Fifty-nine five years ago on this evening, The Invaders premiered. it was created by Larry Cohen. 

It aired on ABC for two seasons starting 1967. Roy Thinnes as David Vincent is the star of the series. Gold Key Comics published four issues of an Invaders comic book based off the series.

The series was a Quinn Martin production, a company also responsible for A Twist in the Tale, an anthology series that did some SFF, and a film called The Aliens Are Coming. 

BEWARE OF SPOILERS HERE! 

Roy Thinnes starred as architect David Vincent, who uncovers a secret alien invasion that’s already underway. He travels attempting to foil the aliens’ plots and warn a skeptical populace of the danger. Most don’t believe but him, but he gains more allies as the series goes on.

The series, which lasted but two seasons, and depending on your viewpoint, was wrapped up in a two-part finale or left very unsatisfactorily concluded. 

And yes, the theme of paranoia here deliberately was to reflect the fears of Cold War, fears of communist infiltration that had been caused by the McCarthy hearings Series creator Larry Cohen has acknowledged that this was intended, along with an overt political theme.

END OF SPOILERS

Twenty-eight years later, the series was continue in the form of a four-hour Fox miniseries remake unsurprisingly titled The Invaders. Scott Bakula was Nolan Wood, who discovers the alien conspiracy, and Roy Thinnes rather briefly appeared as David Vincent, now an old man handing over to Wood the matter of dealing with the aliens.

In addition, the first episode of the series, “Beachhead” would  be remade ten years after The Invaders for another Quinn Martin series, Quinn Martin’s Tales of the Unexpected (known in the United Kingdom as Twist in the Tale), where it was retitled “The Nomads”. 

(7) MEMORY LANE, TOO.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

January 10, 1969 — Star Trek’s “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”

Fifty-seven years ago this evening, it first aired on NBC. It was the fifteenth episode of the third season. It written by Oliver Crawford who also penned “The Galileo Seven” as based on a story by Gene L. Coon who was writing under his pen name “Lee Cronin” due to contractual reasons. Coon was the showrunner for the series through most of the second season and was responsible for such major elements as the Klingons and the naming of the United Federation of Planets and Starfleet Command. 

The cast stars here were Frank Gorshin as Commissioner Bele and Lou Antonio as Lokai. Gorshin would be known in this period for his recurring role on Batman as The Riddler. Lou Antonio did a few genre one-offs. 

The episode has since been rated as one of the best of the Trek series with Collider, Hollywood Reporter, PopMatters, SciFi and ScreenRant all rating it among the best episodes produced. 

Spock’s comment that “Change is the essential process of all existence” which remains one of the most memorable lines of dialogue ever said on Trek comes from this episode.

This episode introduced an actual self-destruct sequence to the Trek universe instead of an improvised.one. The self-destruct sequence from this episode were used again in The Search For Spock to destroy Enterprise. 

The original version when Beale and Lokai run through the Enterprise shows the burning cities of World War II Europe. The remastered version shows the Cheron cities still burning from space. (That scene was done because the episode was running short.) 

(8) COMICS SECTION.

(9) ‘REAL’ D&D. “Stranger Things series finale’s D&D scene included a Dwarven Forge cameo” notes Polygon.

Mike has a pretty impressive setup for the session of Dungeons & Dragons he runs for his best friends in the final episode of Stranger Things. He’s got vampire fangs to voice the iconic D&D villain Strahd Von Zarovich, treasure to dole out to the players to represent their reward, and a full castle courtyard created using pieces from miniature terrain company Dwarven Forge.

“As soon as the finale came out, people on our Discord started sharing photos around,” Dwarven Forge head of marketing Chris London told Polygon in a video call. “There were a lot of people saying, ‘How did you guys land that?’ We didn’t do anything. We had no idea it was happening.”

Like many of the D&D references on Stranger Things, the inclusion of Dwarven Forge is anachronistic. The company was founded in 1996 by Stefan Pokorny, who unveiled a set of hand-painted dungeon terrain at Gen Con and sold out of everything in just four hours. Since then, the company has run 13 highly successful crowdfunding campaigns and released dozens of sets to allow game masters to build everything from cozy cottages to fiery hellscapes….

… The pieces Mike uses are from an out-of-print set called Wicked Additions, which was made with resin molds. As demand increased, Dwarven Forge was able to switch to a proprietary material called Dwarvenite that’s both lighter and tougher. But their offerings include pieces with similar throwback sensibilities like the demon door. Another maw-like piece is part of the Dungeons Reforged set that is shipping this year after raising more than $2 million on Gamefound….

(10) HISTORY LOST. [Item by Mike Kennedy.] It was a sad, if necessary, day in Huntsville. Two historic NASA test stands were brought down in place with implosions. The stands had not been used for many years and would never be used again. Maintaining them indefinitely in a safe condition was just not in the cards.

Also lost to history, NASA’s first neutral buoyancy tank (whose function has long been replaced by a larger tank in Houston) is being dismantled. “NASA Marshall Removes 2 Historic Test Stands”. Click through to see the video.

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, removed two of its historic test stands – the Propulsion and Structural Test Facility and the Dynamic Test Facility – with carefully coordinated implosions on Jan. 10, 2026. The demolition of these historic structures is part of a larger project at Marshall that began in spring 2022, targeting several inactive structures and building a dynamic, interconnected campus ready for the next era of space exploration. Crews began demolition in December 2025 at the Neutral Buoyancy Simulator. Learn more about these iconic facilities.

(11) HOWDY, NEIGHBOR. On Science and Astronomy’s Facebook page they share a noteworthy photo (that appears to have been published in 2020).

This is the first image ever captured of a solar system with more than one planet orbiting a star other than our Sun.

That glowing ring in the middle? That’s a young star called TYC 8998-760-1, about 300 light-years from Earth. And those dots around it? Two giant exoplanets.

We’re not just guessing they’re there we can actually see them.

This is what looking into the past looks like. Because the light captured in this image left that star when the U.S. was still using horse drawn carriages.

Space is wild.

(12) SEEKING $$ FOR SPACE COMMAND. Marc Scott Zicree tells YouTube viewers “How I’m Reinventing Television — and You Can Too!”

You can invest in our incredible projects! $7,500 for Space Command and Showrunners Network shares!

(13) VIDEO OF THE DAY. Here’s another clip about “ATLAS: Hyundai and Boston Dynamics Reveal Their Humanoid Robots at CES 2026”.

The era of industrial AI Robotics is officially here. At CES 2026 in Las Vegas, Boston Dynamics and Hyundai Motor Group made history by unveiling the product version of the new Atlas® robot. No longer just a research prototype, this fully electric humanoid is now a production-ready machine designed to revolutionize the way industry works. What makes the new Atlas a game-changer? • Superhuman Agility: Atlas features 56 degrees of freedom with fully rotational joints and a reach of 2.3 meters (7.5 ft). • Industrial Strength: It is engineered to perform exhausting manual labor, capable of lifting up to 50 kg (110 lbs). • Advanced AI: A strategic partnership with Google DeepMind integrates cutting-edge foundation models into Atlas, giving it the cognitive capabilities to learn new tasks in under a day. • Total Autonomy: Atlas operates independently, even navigating to charging stations to swap its own batteries so it can return to work without interruption. • Built for Extremes: The robot is water-resistant and can operate in temperatures ranging from -20° to 40° C.

[Thanks to Kathy Sullivan, Steven French, Mike Kennedy, Daniel Dern, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, and Mark Roth-Whitworth for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern, via Alice in Wonderland.]

Pixel Scroll 1/1/26 Sorry, Wrong Number Of The Beast

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(1) TREK ACTORS BEAM DOWN FOR NEW YEAR’S PARADE. TrekMovie.com has detailed coverage of Paramount’s “Star Trek 60” themed Rose Parade float: “See George Takei And Rebecca Romijn Lead Star Trek Float For Rainy Rose Parade”.

The 60th anniversary year of Star Trek kicked off on a rainy New Years Day in Pasadena, California with the 2026 Rose Parade. Star Trek had a special “Star Trek 60” float full of references and celebrities. We have video of the parade and some behind the scenes too.

It was raining a bit for the 137th Rose Parade, but fans still braved the weather to see the annual tradition which for 2026 included a special float from the final frontier. To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the franchise, Paramount beamed in George Takei (Sulu from The Original Series), Rebecca Romijn (Una, Strange New Worlds), Tig Notaro (Jett Reno, Discovery and Starfleet Academy), and Karim Diané (Jay-Den Kraag, Starfleet Academy). The celebrities needed umbrellas, but were in good spirits as they toured the parade route on Thursday morning.

The theme of the elaborate float was “Space for everybody.” And the design was full of little Star Trek details, with the original U.S.S. Enterprise rising above an array of planets.

Other features included the iconic Vasquez Rocks feature in many episodes (and films), transporter pods, the USS Athena rising above San Francisco, from Starfleet Academy….

And Tom Galloway observed, “It seems the transporters were ‘working’, using a pair of identical twins to make it appear someone was teleporting from one to the other.”

The following video should jump directly to the 42-minute mark, which is when the Trek float rolls by.

(2) IMAGINING 2026. Nicholas Whyte charts what sff said this year holds in store:  “Life in 2026, according to science fiction: Mars, dystopia and devastation” at From the Heart of Europe.

2026 is surprisingly sparse for this project. There are small parts of two very well known novels set in this year; there is the framing narrative of a forgotten radio play; there is a very small part of a deservedly obscure film; there are two video games from the 1990s; there is also a very famous film based on a novel which is generally described as set in 2026; and there are three classic short stories by Ray Bradbury. You’ve probably read or seen several of these….

… Last but definitely not least, the three last stories of Ray Bradbury’s classic 1951 collection The Martian Chronicles are set in this coming year. “April 2026: The Long Years”, originally published in 1948, sees a rescue party finding a lost astronaut and his family, and realising that all is not as it seems. I’ll save the next story to the end, as it is set on Earth rather than Mars. But the final story, “October 2026: The Million Year Picnic”, originally published in 1946, is the one where one of the few surviving humans on Mars takes his wife and three sons to a canal to show them the Martians….

(3) THE HUGO VICTORY TOUR CONTINUES. [Item by Chris Barkley.] Chris Barkley’s 2023 Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer made an appearance at the annual New Year’s Brunch of the Cincinnati Fantasy Group at the residence of Becca Levin and Guy Allen earlier today.

Placed as a centerpiece of the massive food- fest, the Hugo Award was given all of the pomp and circumstance due to this prestigious and internationally known literary award.

The Nebula, Booker, Pulitzer and Nobel Prize awards had no comment at the press deadline…

Chris Barkley’s Hugo at CFG brunch. Photo by CFG member Joel Zakem.

(4) 2025 PARENT OF THE YEAR. Cora Buhlert has posted the companion piece to yesterday’s Darth Vader Parenthood Award for Outstandingly Horrible Fictional Parents – “The 2025 Jonathan and Martha Kent Fictional Parent of the Year Award”. Slight spoiler.

…Reed and Sue Richards would certainly have been worthy winners of the 2025 Jonathan and Martha Kent Fictional Parent of the Year Award. And indeed, they were the front runners for quite some time. However, we don’t actually see all that much Reed and Sue being parents rather than fighting Galactus. Besides, we also don’t want to confuse Grogu by giving the award to yet another father figure played by Pedro Pascal who just happens to look like Grogu’s Dad….

Learn the name of the winner at the link – and read the heartwarming acceptance speech, worthy of a Parent of the Year.

(5) SPACE COWBOY BOOKS IS TURNING 10. Space Cowboy Books has been in business for a decade. They’re throwing a party!

Space Cowboy Books 10 Year Anniversary Celebration

Friday January 23rd 4-6pm

61871 29 Palms Hwy. Joshua Tree, CA 92252

Come celebrate this milestone with Joshua Tree’s independent bookstore, featuring live music from The Kearns Family & Phog Masheeen, with snacks by Epicurean Fling, and 10% off store-wide. This event is free to attend.

Since opening our doors in January of 2016, Space Cowboy Books has published forty-nine books, musical audiobooks, and chapbooks, plus fifty fanzines, hosted hundreds of in-person and online events, produced ninety-four episodes of Simultaneous Times podcast, won a multitude of awards (Laureate, Bram Stoker, Elgin, +), launched Electronic Brain magazine, provided annual scholarships for Clarion West and Odyssey Writing Workshops, given away thousands of kid’s books, donated hundreds of books to prisons, and generally proliferated the love of literature and all things science fiction. Here’s to ten more years!

RSVP here at Eventbrite.com

For press inquiries and photo requests contact Jean-Paul L. Garnier [email protected]

(6) GUESSING WHAT THE PARTIES WILL RECEIVE FROM THE ANTHROPIC SETTLEMENT. The Authors Alliance has shared their “Back-of-the-Envelope Math on What Payouts We May See in the Bartz v. Anthropic Settlement”.

…The following reviews some recent developments on the settlement funds, claims, and potential payouts (sprinkled with, frankly, a little bit of speculation). 

How much will the lawyers make? 

On December 3, the class counsel filed a formal request with the court, accompanied by numerous supporting documents, for their share of the settlement. The total request amounts to $318,999,422, or about 21.26% of the total $1.5 billion settlement. The request breaks down as follows: 

  • $300 million in attorneys’ fees 
  • $1,969,421.75 in litigation costs (expert witnesses, travel, legal research costs, etc.)
  • $17,030,000.00 in future litigation contingency funds held aside for use as they are incurred 

The request also formalized a request for a fee to the three named authors who served as class plaintiffs, at $50,000 each ($150,000 total). 

$1.5 billion is a large pot of money from which to draw attorneys’ fees, and as Judge Alsup has expressed through the settlement process, there is some concern that the settlement could attract “hangers on” with so much money at stake. It remains to be seen if the court will approve this request. 

The $64,935/hr question? 

Earlier this week Anthropic objected to the proposal, pointing out that the split of attorneys’ fees ($300 million) contemplated $225 million going to class counsel, while the remaining $75 million would be split among three other non-class counsel that have purported to act as “publishers coordination counsel” and “authors coordination counsel” (it remains unclear to me why authors needed separate coordinating counsel since the lead plaintiffs are authors themselves and class counsel already has this responsibility). As Anthropic points out, these firms seemingly contributed little to resolving the litigation – one firm, for example, billed only 231 hours and is requesting a $15 million dollar payout ($64,935 an hour! Good work if you can get it)….

How much to rightsholders? 

Assuming the attorneys’ fees will come out to something close to the request above, that would leave about $1.18 billion to be allocated among class members. Given how the settlement is structured, this would largely be money split between authors (the original class as identified in the original complaint) and publishers and other rightsholders. Assuming further that the payout would be divided equally among all 482,460 works in the suit (an assumption that may be faulty, as explained below), $1.18 billion divided by the 482,460 works yields a payout of approximately $2,445.80 per work…

How much to publishers? 

One of the most dramatic turns in this litigation was when the class was dramatically broadened by the court by certifying a class that includes not just authors but all rightsholders that own a reproduction right in the works on the works list. This has meant that the suit is now one that includes both authors and publishers. So how much of the settlement is likely to be paid to publishers?…  

…That said, for at least the larger publishers I think we can at least get a rough sense of the scale of expected claims that some of the larger publishers might make, as well as some idea of what that might mean in terms of payouts to them from the settlement.  

To determine a potential payout figure, I multiply $1,223 per book by the number of works associated with each publisher searched (recall that for non-education works, the settlement sets a 50/50 default split between publisher and author, so this assumes half the $2,445.80 payout per book….

Conclusion

We still don’t know quite a bit about how the money will flow in this settlement, but a few things are becoming clearer. First, the lawyers stand to do very well—potentially earning around $6,500 per hour if the court approves something close to their requested $300 million in fees. Second, major publishers are likely to claim tens of millions of dollars from the settlement, with some of the largest potentially receiving payouts in the $20-30 million range. Third, and most importantly for the authors who this suit was ostensibly designed to benefit, individual author payouts could vary wildly depending on participation rates—from over $20,000 per work if claim rates stay low, down to around $1,200-$2,400 per work if participation approaches the full class….

(7) AI MAGIC! “Draft One and Code Four write police reports based on bodycam footage.” The Park Record tells how that’s going in “Heber City Police Department test-pilots AI software”.

Heber City Police Chief Parker Sever appeared before the City Council in late October and informed them an officer had shape-shifted into a frog.

At least, that’s what he heard from his son-in-law, who works for the West Jordan Police Department. That department had recently implemented artificial intelligence software that generates police reports using body camera footage. The details aren’t always 100% accurate — which is why officers review them.

“I read the report, and I’m like, ‘Man, this really looks like an officer wrote it,’” Sever recalled. “But when it got to one part, it said, ‘And then the officer turned into a frog, and a magic book appeared and began granting wishes.’ … It was because they had, like, ‘Harry Potter’ on in the background. So it picked up the noise from the TV and added it to the report.”…

Appropos of nothing, West Jordan is where Larry Correia used to live.

(8) WHEN YOUR PHONE CROSSES THE U.S. BORDER. The New York Times reports “Phone Searches at the Border Are Up. How to Protect Your Privacy.” (Article is behind a paywall.) “Customs agents have broad authority to search the electronic devices of travelers entering and leaving the U.S.”

When U.S. border agents turned away a French scientist in March after searching his phone, the French authorities cried foul, blaming messages commenting on President Trump’s policies for the decision. U.S. officials denied that politics had played a role, but the incident left some travelers with an urgent question: Are such searches even legal?

The short answer is yes. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents have broad authority to look through travelers’ phones, laptops and other electronic devices under an exception to the Fourth Amendment’s protections against warrantless searches.

C.B.P. conducted 55,318 searches of electronic devices at ports of entry in fiscal year 2025, according to the agency. That’s up from the previous two years, though the number represents only about 0.01 percent of the nearly 420 million travelers who entered or exited the country by air, land and sea in fiscal year 2025, according to the agency.

“These searches are conducted to detect digital contraband, terrorism-related content and information relevant to visitor admissibility, all of which play a critical role in national security,” Jessica Turner, a C.B.P. spokeswoman, said in a statement.

That may be true, but an increasing number of travelers report being questioned about legally protected online speech when crossing the border….

… Do I Have to Unlock My Device?

Agents can demand access to any traveler’s electronics at a port of entry for any reason. If you’re a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident, such as a green card holder, they’re required to let you enter the country even if you refuse to unlock your device. But agents can still seize your device and hold on to it for five days, or longer at a supervisor’s discretion, said Kabbas Azhar, an Equal Justice Works fellow at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a nonprofit research and advocacy group.

Deciding whether to unlock your device is “a very personal” choice that may depend on what information you’re carrying, said Nate Wessler, the deputy director of the Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at the American Civil Liberties Union. If you’re a doctor whose phone holds private information about patients, for example, or a journalist with confidential sources, you may be less willing to enter your passcode for a C.B.P. officer.

“People have to weigh the practical implications,” Mr. Wessler said. “Would they rather try to protect their privacy but lose use of their phone for potentially weeks or months, or end up giving the password and making it easier for the government to search?”

During a basic search, an officer looks through the device by hand. But in rare cases, agents can perform an advanced, or forensic, search, during which they copy a device’s contents onto a government computer for further analysis. A forensic search may even be able to unearth some files that a device’s owner had deleted, Mr. Wessler said….

… C.B.P.’s authority to search devices applies to travelers both entering and exiting the United States. But an overwhelming majority of searches happen when travelers are arriving in the country, said Jake Laperruque, the deputy director of the Security and Surveillance Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit that supports digital free expression.

Officers looking through a device will often check for evidence that could point to criminal activity, including images or messages related to narcotics or child pornography, Mr. Laperruque said. But they could also find content that raises questions about legal activities, such as attending a political protest, or those that fall in a gray area, such as communicating with doctors who provide services that are banned in certain states…..

(9) CASHING IN. [Item by Steven French.] Lanre Bakare in the Guardian considers the worldwide rise of anime: “Demon Slayer economics: how the anime juggernaut became a saviour”.

An animated drama featuring hordes of carnivorous fiends might not sound like classic box office fodder, but that’s exactly what Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle proved to be in September.

The film set new records for anime – Japanese animated films and series – making more than $70m (£52m) on its opening weekend in the US and £535m so far globally. To put that in context, Ghost in the Shell – an anime classic released in 1995– made about £2m worldwide.

In that 30-year period, anime has gone from an underground phenomenon to a saviour during one of the worst autumn box office slumps in recent memory. So how did we get here?….

(10) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Brave New World series (1980)

In March 1980, a Brave New World series premiered on NBC. (It would show on BBC as well.) It consisted of two ninety-minute parts shown over two nights, with commercials of course. 

Brave New World (1980) home video box art.

It was adapted from Aldous Huxley’s novel by Robert E. Thompson and Doran William Cannon, and was directed by Burt Brinckerhoff.  The network was greatly appalled at its length, being four hours long, so it was cut down to three hours before being televised. I don’t know if there’s a director’s cut in existence here in the States, but the BBC edition is four hours long. 

It starred Kristoffer Tabori, Julie Cobb and Budd Cort. I did see it and I will agree with the reviewer that said “This mini-series adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is faithful to the source material and offers a chilling look at the dystopia he created.”  

It would be adapted three more times since, one with Leonard Nimoy as one of the actors, that being the 1998 version. The latest version is the extended one of Sky’s nine-part series which had lots of female nudity. That apparently is a side-effect of Soma — it makes you want strip your clothes off. 

It has a forty-six percent rating among audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes.  Not great, not bad. 

It is not legally up on YouTube, so please don’t link to it. We will just need to remove your comment. (BBC did allow it to be posted but has rescinded that now.) 

(11) COMICS SECTION.

Happy New Year, everyone!This is a @theguardian.com books cartoon from a few years ago.

— Tom Gauld (@tomgauld.bsky.social) 2026-01-01T10:53:12.985Z

(12) DECORATING, DINING, AND DRIVING. Cora Buhlert caught readers up on how she spent “Christmas 2025”. And along the way manages to work in a remarkable amount of German culture and history. Like things I never knew about Friedrich II of Prussia and potatoes.

…I wound up visiting a whopping four different Christmas markets (Bremen, Oldenburg, Vechta and Emden) during the advent season. They were all lovely in their own way and Vechta’s Christmas market has drown a lot since I last visited it back in 2013, when it was literally just three stalls, a carousel and a beautiful nativity scene. Nowdays, Vechta’s Christmas market has two carousels, a lot more market stalls and even an ice skating rink. They also still have the biggest and prettiest nativity in the entire region….

(13) THIS MONTH’S SCREEN SCARES. [Item by Chris Barkley.] Variety points out “Horror Movies to Watch: January 2026 Has ‘Primate,’ Sam Raimi & More”. Because nothing says Happy New Year like SCARING all of that happiness and good cheer out of you…

“Primate” (In theaters Jan. 9 via Paramount Pictures) — This lean and nasty-looking thriller concerns a family whose normally loving and docile pet chimpanzee becomes out of control when he’s bitten and gets rabies while dad is out of town. Johannes Roberts’ film doesn’t take itself too seriously, and the titular antagonist is a performance from an actor versus CGI, which gives it some serious gravitas for a killer animal flick….

(14) VIDEO OF THE DAY. “CBS Network – 60 Minutes – ‘Backstage at The Muppets’ (1979)”.

Here’s a remarkable behind-the-scenes look at Jim Henson’s Muppet empire, and more particularly the making of The Muppet Show – in this segment from the long-running 60 Minutes news magazine as aired over the CBS Network, reported by Morley Safer (and produced by John Tiffin). This piece originally aired on Sunday, March 11th 1979 – and I believe the video presented here is the original airing. There were also two encore showings: Sunday, June 10th 1979 & Sunday, August 24th 1980. Lastly, it was run one more time on Sunday, May 27th 1990, in a memorial tribute to Jim Henson after his untimely passing.

[Thanks to Mark Roth-Whitworth, Kathy Sullivan, Steven French, Joel Zakem, Nicholas Whyte, Cora Buhlert, Andrew (not Werdna), Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Cat Eldridge, and SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]