Tag Archives: JustWatch

Pixel Scroll 6/4/26 What If Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March* Became The Fantastic Four?

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(0) * From Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, of course.

(1) THE PUBLISHING GRIND. Nick Mamatas tells how the sausage gets made in “How Publishing Actually Works” at The Republic of Letters. Here are a couple of excerpts.

â€ĶDoomscrollers and restackers, here is what you need to understand: publishing is a nineteenth-century production-driven manufacturing industry, not unlike the Big Three automakers, but the writers and compilers of books are artisanal creators. This contradiction is the cause of many of the anxieties and confusions experienced by aspiring novelists and even working professionals.

A production-driven industry is one that is less concerned with tailoring products toward a market and more about manufacturing large numbers of products (both units and product types), and then selling those products to another set of sellers. Those retailers are in the business of meeting the customer. The publishing industry—even leaving aside self-published ebooks—generates hundreds of thousands of books a year across all categories. This despite there being only five big publishers that do this sort of thing, and perhaps as many big retail outlets to sell the books to individual consumers.

Furthermore, publishers spend a lot of money up-front bringing books to print, but get their profits back in dribs and drabs. Booksellers sell the books, and return the ones that do not sell for a full refund. The books don’t even need to be in good shape when they return to the warehouse either. Most get Dumpstered or incinerated. (And no, “the poor” don’t want those books either, even for free.)â€Ķ

â€Ķ Nobody would patronize a best-seller–only shopping mall kiosk called We Bet We Have That Book You Want, even though best-sellers are most of what anyone buys. People want to walk into stores with lots of books which they have no interest in even looking at. Amazon uses the same strategy—it launched in 1994 with its slogan “Earth’s Biggest Bookstore.” Amazon claimed to have millions of books in its warehouses, while the two big chains at the time had a couple hundred thousand. Attracted by the promise of endless possibilities, tons of readers made accounts and bought…Harry Potter titles and Who Moved My Cheese?, which they could have gotten anywhere else.

Ironically, it is thus not true that all publishers want is best-sellers. There is one major benefit in the best-seller: as print runs go up, per-unit costs go down, but that’s not enough. The Big Five want wallpaper, which they use to make you buy their best-sellersâ€Ķ.

(2) YOU’RE FROM THE SIXTIES! Camestros Felapton’s series about robots in sff discusses The Doom Patrol and X-Men comics. “An Aside About the X-Men (and others)”. Here’s an excerpt:

â€ĶIn earlier issues, it had been shown that the X-Men felt they needed to hide their identities as society wasn’t ready to understand them, from issue 14 the relationship with wider society becomes more fraught. Trask’s annoucement leads to a press campaign whipping up hatred of mutants, with lurid fears of a mutant take over. Having said that, Magneto had genuinely attempted to take over a country a few issues earlier with an illusionary Nazi-like army.

This is still a 1960s comic, so it is as goofy as hell. Professor Xavier arranges a TV debate with Trask. However, Xavier’s TV appearance does more harm than good. When he suggests that anybody might end up having mutant children, people take offence. On live TV Trask also reveals his solution to mutant problem: ROBOTS! Specifically, Sentinels, superpowered robots designed to protect humanity from mutants. However, as soon as Trask explains that the robots are under his command, the leader of the Sentinels explains that as their brains are superior THEY are in command. The story line doesn’t mess about: it is introduction to full on robot uprising in four panels.

It takes several issues for the X-Men to defeat the Sentinels, but once done the public reputation of mutants is somewhat improved and Professor Xavier’s advocacy is vindicatedâ€Ķ.

(3) THE WORST. James Davis Nicoll, having discussed good sff mentors, does a 180 to give us “Five Terrible or Useless Mentors in SF and Fantasy” at Reactor.

As recently discussed, many fictional protagonists have benefited from talented, inspirational mentors. However, there is another variety of mentor that, while perhaps not as useful, can be just as inspirationalâ€Ķ or at least extremely memorable. This is the terrible mentor, the pontificator whose advice is invariably incorrect, when it is not actively harmfulâ€Ķ.

Here’s one of his picks:

Qifrey — Kamome Shirahama’s Witch Hat Atelier

No sooner did Coco discover that anyone with the right tools can perform magic than she accidentally killed her mother with a runaway spell. Under witch law, any non-witch who learns magic should have their memory erased. Instead, kindly Qifrey offers Coco the chance to study magic.

Qifrey does not spare Coco because he is benevolent. He spares her because he believes her memory holds clues that will allow him to successfully pursue a vendetta against those who hurt him. Erasing her memory would erase those clues.

In fact, the series establishes clearly that Qifrey is adept at presenting himself as a sincere friend and protector, when in fact he is coldly pragmatic about pursuing his goals. His close friend Olruggio could attest to this—if Qifrey weren’t in the habit of erasing Olruggio’s memory whenever Olruggio learns too much.

(4) POLITICAL SCIENCE. [Item by Steven French.] How Newtonian physics directly influenced American independence: “The American Revolution’s Overlooked Influence? Physics. How ‘Common Sense’ Spelled Out Astronomical Expectations for a New Nation” in The Smithsonian Magazine.

In politics, as in nature, tensions can take years to build, but it takes just one stone to unleash an avalanche, one spark to ignite a wildfire. For many historians of the American Revolution, that spark was a pamphlet of fewer than 100 pages written by a newly arrived English immigrant named Thomas Paine. Throughout 1775, violent clashes between British troops and colonist rebels protesting onerous taxes inspired little talk of outright revolution. Most rebels aimed to force better terms with Britain, not sever the link. Then, in January 1776, Paine changed everything with Common Sense, a manifesto so radical that at first he didn’t even dare to sign it. It was an immediate sensation, selling 120,000 copies in three months, in Paine’s estimation, in a colonial population of just two and a half million—and that was not counting handwritten copies and knockoff editions that swept not only through America but all over Europe.

In his plea for American independence from Britain, Paine made vivid appeals to nature. Strikingly, he envisioned global politics as an astronomical system, arguing that America, rather than orbiting the central sun of England, was large and mature enough to provide its own center of gravity. “In no instance hath nature made the satellite larger than its primary planet,” he wrote, “and as England and America, with respect to each other, reverse the common order of nature, it is evident that they belong to different systems.” He described the “gravitating” force binding Americans, urging them to work together to determine their own fate. “We have it in our power,” he wrote, “to begin the world over again.”

Paine’s astronomical vision was taken further that April in a remarkable response published in the weekly newspaper the Pennsylvania Ledger. The writer, whose identity is lost to time, imagined taking a trip with Paine into outer space. Leaving the solar system and the “dull beaten tracks of monarchy” far behind, the space travelers discovered a vast cosmos not ruled by one dominant sun but studded with innumerable suns. The universe thus revealed the blueprint for a different kind of nation: “a republic amidst the stars.”â€Ķ

(5) ON STAGE. Asian Pirate Musical is “a queer time travel musical set on Southeast Asian seas, with a genre-devouring soundtrack melding traditional instruments, 21st century Asian pop, and diasporic musical influences. Drawing on the real histories of 14th century Muslim navigator Zheng He and 19th century pirate queen Sek Yeong, alongside the imagined futures of 21st century climate survivors and 23rd century space revolutionaries, Asian Pirate Musical is a new legend on the high seas.”

Being staged Upstairs At The Gatehouse in North London from July 28-August 2. Tickets available here.

(6) PLAYSTATION ADDITONS. [Item by Steven French.] Keza MacDonald reviews a selection of new games for the PlayStation – including Wolverine, Tomb Raider and God of War –  in this week’s Guardian’s “Pushing Buttons” newsletter: “From God of War to Until Dawn – seven reveals from last night’s PlayStation event”.

PlayStation’s future has looked a little uncertain these past few years. Although the PS5 has sold well and been very profitable, the brand is far from the runaway market leader it was in the PS2 days. Earlier this week, Game File dug into Sony’s most recent earnings reports to illustrate how PlayStation has been selling fewer and fewer of its own flagship games since a peak during the pandemic. About 54.1m copies of games either developed or published by Sony were sold in the 2018 financial year; in 2025, it sold 32.1m.

Sony has put out some great homegrown games since the PS5 was released in 2020, from Astro Bot to Ghost of Yōtei, but it has also had some expensive and very public failures and cancellations; PlayStation boss Jim Ryan, who retired in 2024, placed big bets on live-service games and only a few panned out (hello, Helldivers). Sony also seems to have rolled back on releasing its single-player PS5 games on PC after a polite interval of time, suggesting it wants to preserve what advantage and exclusivity it has.

Meanwhile, its longtime console rival Xbox may have faded into the background as a sales competitor – the PS5 has outsold the Xbox Series S/X by approximately three to one – but it has become a strong publishing competitor, having bought up tens of development studios alongside Activision and Bethesda. Then there’s Nintendo, whose exclusive games for the Switch and Switch 2 consoles have performed significantly better than Sony’s over the last decade. (The top-selling Sony-developed PS4 game was Spider-Man, at 22.68m. The top-selling Nintendo-developed Switch game was Mario Kart 8 Deluxe at â€Ķ 71m.)

So what is Sony going to do in the next few years, as we enter a later stage of the PS5 lifecycle? Will it play safe, or diversify? Perhaps revive some older games for nostalgic millennials? Thanks to a State of Play live-stream last night, we now have some answersâ€Ķ.

(7) GORDON EKLUND Q&A. Fanac.org has posted a YouTube video of “Gordon Eklund, interviewed by Andrew Hooper”.

Gordon Eklund found science fiction at 12, fandom at 15 and made his first professional sale less than 10 years later. In this charming interview, fan historian Andy Hooper, himself a long time Seattle fan, elicits stories of both the Nebula-award winning author and of the young man who stepped into Seattle’s legendary fan group, “The Nameless” before he could drive. This is a “bonus” interview, as Gordon was to have participated in a panel on the history of Seattle fandom (November 2025), but was prevented by technical difficulties. As a result, we are fortunate to have this dedicated interview, and hear about Gordon’s experiences as a young, and not so young fan, and as an accomplished professional. FYI: during this interview, there were some momentary network disruptions and the recording has been edited to remove them.

Gordon Eklund discovered fandom through the ads in the back of the science fiction magazines. That led to fanzines, including “Cry of the Nameless” and soon to his first club meeting of the Nameless Ones in 1960, in the room above Bill Austin’s much loved bookstore. In this recording, Gordon tells his origin story, tales of the Nameless Ones, and of Seacon 1961, his first convention and first Worldcon. Anecdotes include the pro who wanted to show everyone how he could light matches with his feet, the hospitality of Robert Heinlein and how Harlan shot craps with the bellhops to make his carfare to Hollywood. You’ll hear about Gordon’s evolution to award-winning author, and how the Nebula nomination for his first published story led to the sale of his first novel, as well as how he came to collaborate with E.E. “Doc” Smith. This entertaining interview runs the gamut from serious discussions about Gordon’s work to fannish topics such as which APAs are more boring. It’s a window on the fandom of the early 60s, as well as what came after. Finally, it’s great fun and strongly recommended.

(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

June 4, 1960 — Kristine Kathryn Rusch, 66.

By Paul Weimer: Kristine Kathryn Rusch is an author I found, and then lost and then found again. She in the meantime had been writing prolifically, in multiple genres and fields, but had fallen off of my radar for a good long while.

It all started in the 1990s when I picked up The Sacrifice, the first of her Fey novels. The high concept drew me immediately. A world-conquering empire of Elves sweeping everyone before themâ€Ķand then they run into the speedbump of Blue Isle, which has a power to resist the Fey that they themselves don’t even quite suspect. Suddenly the easy conquest is not so easy and over the next several books, Rusch explored this conflict from multiple vantage points and perspectives.

And then, someone Rusch fell off of my personal radar. Too many other new authors, perhaps. Or I didn’t follow her into mysteries and other subgenres such as media-tie ins, of which she has written or coauthored a fair number of, in multiple universes, and often under other names as well, ranging from Star Trek to Roswell. 

It wasn’t until my early official reviewer days that I picked up Rusch again, as she helped vitalize the xenoarchaeology novel subgenre with the Wreck series. I was offered a review copy of Diving into the Wreck, and my fond memories of The Fey stood me in good stead as I dug into Boss’ story.

Since then I’ve been following Rusch on her blog and Patreon, where she has fearlessly and openly discussed and educated on the craft and business of writing. Anyone seriously interested in either should follow and read what Rusch has to say.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

(9) COMICS SECTION.

(10) DARK HORSE UNIONIZATION SUCCEEDS. “Dark Horse Voluntarily Recognizes Staff Union” reports Publishers Weekly.

Dark Horse Comics has voluntarily recognized Dark Horse Workers United as a collective bargaining representative under standards established by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), per a statement from interim CEO Jay Komas, and has reached out to the union’s attorney to initiate the appropriate next steps in the bargaining process.

The announcement comes just over a week since employees of the comics publisher and its retail arm, Things From Another World, announced their intent to unionize with Communications Workers of America (CWA), Local 7901â€Ķ.

(11) INDIE COMICS PUBLISHER CLEARS OUT THE COMICS VAULT FOR 90 DAYS. Silverline Comics is running a sale. 

A lot of comic book publishers were negatively impacted by the collapse of Diamond Comics, the insane legal aftermath of its bankruptcy and the disruption of the industry. To recoup some of its losses and to give fans a boost, indie publisher Silverline Comics is having a summer sale.

“This is a really good opportunity for fans to catch up on a missed issue or two, or get a whole series,” said CEO/Founder and Editor-In-Chief Roland Mann. “The comics are all printed and ready to go with each order.” This includes Mann’s own title, Cat & Mouse, which recently launched a new mini-series for its 30th anniversary.

According to Silverline’s CFO, Barb Kaalberg (creator of Divinity), â€œIt’s not just comics. A lot of our artists have donated some fantastic original art to the sale. Others are doing commissions on our behalf.” The publisher also has graphic novels, promotional items, posters, and special editions available as well.

The Silverline Summer Spectacular Sale is on here. The sale will last through early August.

Silverline’s current comics are crowdfunded, and also distributed traditionally to retail shops by PhilBo Distribution.

(12) THE MONTH IN STREAMING. JustWatch has released the top 10 charts for movie and TV streaming in the month of May. [Click for larger images.]

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

Pixel Scroll 5/29/26 And Gently Toll The Godstalk Bells In The Court Of The Pixel Scroll

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(1) EATING THE FANTASTIC PODCAST TURNS 10. Scott Edelman hosted a 10th anniversary party for Eating the Fantastic on Sunday morning during Balticon, just a few hundred yards from where the first episode was recorded.

Edelman says, “I filled the Con Suite with 26 dozen donuts from Baltimore’s Diablo Donuts — all of which disappeared within 90 minutes — plus gave out Eating the Fantastic-themed mugs and tote bags as door prizes, with tickets pulled and the numbers called by many previous guests of the podcast, starting with proof of concept guest #1 Sarah Pinker, followed by Rosemary Claire Smith, Sally Weiner Grotta, Jo Miles, Alan Smale, and others. A fun celebration!”

(2) EATING THE FANTASTIC NEW EPISODE. Scott Edelman invites listeners to join John Jarrold for dinner on Episode 283 of the Eating the Fantastic podcast.

John Jarrold

Jarrold ran three science fiction and fantasy imprints in the UK since 1988, and over the years worked at Orbit Books, Macdonald Futura (now Little, Brown UK), Legend Books, Random House UK, Simon & Schuster, and others. Starting in 2002, he began acting as a script doctor for agents and new authors, and did freelance editing for publishers including Hodder & Stoughton, Random House, HarperCollins, Pan Macmillan, Transworld, Simon & Schuster, Orion/Gollancz, Constable & Robinson, and Time Warner. In 2004 he launched the John Jarrold Literary Agency, which he still runs today.

We discussed his first Eastercon 53 years ago, his “obsessive” love for J. R. R. Tolkien, the best commercial deal he ever did, how to dispassionately judge the writing of people you already know, his editorial encounter with Michael Caine, the bidding war over George R. R. Martin’s  A Game of Thrones, how he learned to write editorial revision letters writers would understand, the ways in which working with authors of science fiction is different than in the wider world of publishing, when it’s time for an author to reinvent themselves under a pseudonym, splitting one’s time between the business and artistic sides of publishing, what he means when he says getting published “is the jam on the bread, it’s not the bread,” the sorts of submissions he’s seeing too much and too little of at his agency, plus much more.

(3) “I’M FEELING BETTERâ€Ķ” AP News says “Independent bookstores are multiplying, although many people still think they’re dying out”.

Allison Hill, CEO of the American Booksellers Association, is used to strangers expressing sympathy when they learn what she does for a living.

“It’s all so funny,” she says. “When I tell them I run the trade association for independent stores, they’ll say, ‘It’s just so sad that they’re disappearing.’ I don’t think they’re really keeping track, or they just know about a store that closed or heard about one closing.”

The decline of physical bookstores remains so embedded in popular culture that the man dating Anne Hathaway’s character in “ The Devil Wears Prada 2 â€ laments that bookstores are “getting downsized and consolidated.” But the decline actually ended years ago, and the latest numbers from the American Booksellers Association show independent stores expanding at a pace not seen this century.

Membership in the ABA grew by more than 500 over the past year, to a total of 3,417 (at 3,783 locations), nearly triple what it was a decade ago and the highest level since the late 1990s. The surge included stores of various kinds — general interest shops like Hey Books! in San Diego; mobile stores like the Wandering Quills Bookshop in Westerville, Ohio; pop-up stores like Banyan Books in St. Petersburg, Floridaâ€Ķ.

(4) NO LONGER THERE. A scholar who studies Edith Wharton, Sheila Liming, tells what was lost when a library trimmed its collection in “The End of Books” at The Yale Review.

On a June day in 2018, I watched a construction loader pour thousands of books into a big green dumpster. It had appeared overnight, parked behind the library at the university where I taught English. I heard the books before I saw them; the terrible crashing sound reached me in my un-air-conditioned basement office, interrupting my own work on the manuscript of my first book, by then nearly finished. The volumes in the dumpster were being “deaccessioned,” as the practice is known in information science. The library was being renovated. Large open lounge areas would be created. And so the shelves were being cleared to make space—not for more books but for space itself.

A few months before the dumpster arrived, I had been drawn into a bitter dispute over the imperiled books. It had started with a spreadsheet from library staff naming several thousand titles that were to be eliminated from the collection due to low checkout rates. My colleagues and I were given a few weeks to identify any books we thought worth keeping. This resulted, at first, in a burst of energy. We added comments. We wrote impassioned defenses directed at the librarians doing the culling. We shared the list with our students, who checked out titles that were slated for removal—a last-ditch attempt to boost their circulation. And we agreed to take some of the rejected books ourselves, to house them in our offices or classrooms or shared campus spaces, since a state university’s property, even if it’s been deemed trash, cannot be transferred to private individuals.

My investment in the fight was personal as much as professional: the manuscript I was working on that June day was about a library—or half a library. The books it held once belonged to the writer Edith Wharton. Half of the volumes still exist today, but the other half is a ghost, with titles such as Louis Couperus’s novel Eline Vere, perhaps the chief source of inspiration for Wharton’s House of Mirth, reduced to mere entries in a spreadsheet. As I watched the big green dumpster fill with books, I saw another ghost library in the makingâ€Ķ.

â€Ķ As I researched how the library came to be and all the many ways that Wharton used it, questions about the other half lingered. In her correspondence, she would thank a friend for the gift of a volume I could not pull off any shelf. She kept long lists of publications to be shuttled between her various homes in Massachusetts, Provence, and the Parisian suburbs, and I pored over those mini inventories, glimpsing a library I would never get to see. For even if I could reconstruct the ghost half using those documents, I couldn’t access Wharton’s engagement with it: all those penciled questions, comments, and squiggly lines—the whole record of her interactions, which had lit up the pages of her remaining books for me—would still be lostâ€Ķ.

(5) THAT BOOK BY T.R.’S PAL. Bob Roman discusses The Virginian at Yip Abides. And if you’re one of the readers who has sought out and read this novel out of an interest in American history, you may enjoy comparing his analysis with yours.

Given that The Virginian by Owen Wister was a runaway best-seller way back in 1902 and has since been made into a play, four movies, a TV series, a TV movie, and a video: well, a review would be somewhat redundant. But here are some thoughts on the novel regardless. First of all, if I were writing a review, I would say: I like this book, in spite of myself, and you will too. Whether you like westerns or not, this is the one western that you ought to read. You can ignore all the others, if you wish, for this is the ur-western that distills all of that genre before and after. Voilà! My review. Now for the thoughtsâ€Ķ

(6) TED WHITE Q&A. As a tribute to the late writer/editor, The Comics Journal has reposted from 1980, “The Ted White Interview”.

As you might have heard, former Comics Journal contributor and Heavy Metal editor Ted White has died at the age of 88. We will be running something more in-depth on his passing on the site in the coming weeks. In the meantime, here is an interview Gary Groth did with White that ran in issue #59, back in October 1980. Here, White talks about his time at Heavy Metal, drugs, Moebius, Neal Adams and much moreâ€Ķ.

(7) MARCIA LUCAS (1945-2026). Deadline reports: “Marcia Lucas Dead: ‘Star Wars’ Oscar Winner & ‘American Graffiti’ Editor Was 80”.

Marcia Lucas, who won an Oscar for editing the original Star Wars and scored a nom for American Graffiti, both directed by her then-husband George Lucas, died May 27 of cancer in Rancho Mirage, CA. She was 80.

Born on October 4, 1945, Marcia Lucas made her feature debut as an editor on American Graffiti, the nostalgia-fueled 1973 classic directed by George Lucas, to whom she was wed in 1969. The music-fueled coming-of-age dramedy was set on the last day of summer vacation and followed graduated seniors setting off on different post-high school paths. Along with child star Ron Howard, it featured a young cast of future stars including Richard Dreyfuss, Cindy Williams and Mackenzie Phillips, among others.

She shared an Oscar nomination for American Graffiti, whose commercial success helped George Lucas finance his next movie — one that would change Hollywood forever.

Star Wars arrived in 1977 and was an out-of-the-box sensation. The space opera starring Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford rewrote record books and solidified the Age of the Blockbuster spawaned by Jaws two years earlier. Marcia Lucas, Paul Hirsch and Richard Chew shared the Academy Award for Best Film Editing, one of six it scored that year, en route to become one of the most beloved films ever and spawning an incredibly successful and lucrative franchiseâ€Ķ.

(8) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

May 29, 2009 — 2081 film

So we have an interesting short film. And no, I had no idea it existed until now as one of my email newsletters had a note about a Kurt Vonnegut story being turned into a film, not completely unsurprising as one of his works did almost become an opera.  So we have 2081 which is based off of his “Harrison Bergeron” story and which premiered on this date seventeen years ago at the Seattle International Film Festival. 

The story was first published in the October 1961 in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and was in his Welcome to the Monkey House collection seven years later. Welcome to the Monkey House: The Special Edition has drafts of many of the stories there. 

The cast is James Cosmo, Julie Hagerty, Patricia Clarkson, and Armie Hammer. 

 The story is one where a future polity is attempting by any means possible to ensure that everyone is absolutely equal. Ruthlessly as the rulers of the 1984 society were doing. That’s a bit of a SPOLER I know. It’s not quite in keeping of the Vonnegut story and that’s something I’ll not say why. 

So what did the critics think of it. Well I didn’t find a lot of them who said anything but I really liked what Mike Massie at the Gone with The Twins site said about this half hour film cost that just a hundred thousand to produce: “’What are you thinking about?’ ‘I don’t know.’ The basic plot, adapted by Chandler Tuttle (who also directed and edited) from Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s short story, is sensational, serving as a warning and as pitch-black satire. The notion of equality taken to hyperbolic extremes is certainly worthy of cinematic translation, as are the various manifestations of crushing governmental control. True freedom requires disparity.” 

Audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes really liked it giving it a seventy-five percent rating.

You can watch the trailer here. 

(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

May 29, 1906 — T. H. White. (Died 1964.)

Sure, the only thing I have read of him is the four volumes of the Once and Future King, and I particularly remember best the original, The Sword in the Stone. Yes, I read the book because I saw the animated Disney version on WPIX. So when I turned to the book itself, and found just how different it was, it was an early lesson for me in the perils of adaptations. This was a good lesson to learn, that adaptations could be extremely different than the original source text.  When I saw the animated Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and Return of the King, I was prepared for the books to be very different, thanks to the Sword in the Stone and White’s book.

T. H. White

But White’s book was also a lesson in something else. The Sword in the Stone was arguably the first time I came across a book which “extended” a myth I already knew. I knew who King Arthur and the Round Table were from a book of mythology I read when I was young. But it was White’s book that showed me that you could extend a story backwards in time, that you could go “beyond the myth and legend” and invent new stories for a character. And I will bet that most people who aren’t scholars, take the events in the Sword in the Stone as fully amalgamated parts of the Arthur story.  Consider: This is where the idea that Merlin either is living backwards (something Piers Anthony would later borrow for his Incarnations books), or that he is quite aware or is preparing for our modern day (c.f. Zelazny’s The Last Defender of Camelot). Other adaptations of the Arthurian myths from Lawhead to Attanasio to Barron have had to have at least a passing familiarity with White’s ur-Arthur story, even if they take it in very different directions.  

Sure, it’s an anachronism stew, and it left me for years wondering why other books didn’t have Robin Hood and Camelot in the same time period, but the sheer audacity of mixing and remixing history and myth and telling a new story of young Arthur is, and was, audacious and I admire it still for that audacity.

Or, in other words, The Sword in the Stone is the prequel that defies the curse of prequels and in fact fully canonizes the prequel. And the rest of the series feels as fully canonical as Malory, and perhaps even more so. Not a bad legacy, in my book.

(10) COMICS SECTION.

My latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com. Many more here: www.theguardian.com/profile/tom-gauld

— Tom Gauld (@tomgauld.bsky.social) 2026-05-25T12:52:03.849Z

(11) TOP LGBTQ+ STREAMING PLATFORMS AND MOST POPULAR QUEER TITLES REVEALED IN NEW REPORT. As the world gears up for a vibrant Pride Month, JustWatch, the world’s largest streaming guide, has unveiled its annual analysis spotlighting the best streaming platforms for LGBTQ+ movies and TV shows in the U.S. The report also reveals the most popular LGBTQ+ titles among audiences and highlights the queer-celebration stories and film festivals fans can look forward to in 2026. [Click for larger images.]

Drawing on JustWatch’s extensive dataset of nearly 1,600 movies and TV series currently available to stream or rent in the U.S. featuring queer protagonists and narratives, the report answers some of the biggest questions for streaming fans, entertainment audiences, and diversity advocates alike:

Key Findings

  • Top Platform for LGBTQ+ Content: This year, Dekkoo took the top spot, offering more than 364 LGBTQ+ movies and series. Followed closely by Prime Video (322 titles), and HereTV (245 titles) another leading streaming service with a focus on LGBTQ+ content.
  • Fresh Releases to Watch: New standout titles coming to streaming this year include Pillion, Blue Moon, and The Chronology of Water — based on streaming popularity on JustWatch.
  • Enduring LGBTQ+ Classics: Nearly 30 years after its release, The Birdcage continues to rank among the most-streamed LGBTQ+ favorites. Buffy the Vampire Slayer also remains a fan favorite, with both titles currently available to stream for free on select platforms.
  • Top TV Series: Euphoria is currently the biggest LGBTQ+ series, quickly building a strong fan following in its debut season.

Which Streaming Platforms Lead in LGBTQ+ Content?

In the US, Dekkoo leads the pack with the most extensive LGBTQ+ catalogue — 364 titles, representing 23% of all queer content tracked by JustWatch that is currently available to stream in the United States. It’s closely followed by Prime Video (322 titles) and HereTV (245 titles), another platform specialising in LGBTQ+ movies and series.

Top Movie: Pillion (2025) —currently only available to rent, not yet on a subscription streaming service. The debut feature from director Harry Lighton stars Harry Melling and Alexander SkarsgÃĨrd in a story about power, desire, and queer identity: a directionless man is swept off his feet when an enigmatic biker takes him on as his submissive. It premiered at Cannes 2025, where it won Best Screenplay, and has earned a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Notable watch: Blue Moon (2025) received two Oscar nominations and won the Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance (Andrew Scott) at Berlinale 2025, for its sensitive portrayal of a gay, Jewish artist navigating the music industry and the seeming impossibility of love during this era.

Most Popular TV Series with Queer Characters and Plots

Notable Watch: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) ranked #8 nearly 30 years after its debut, continuing to captivate audiences with its groundbreaking LGBTQ+ representation — particularly the beloved relationship between Willow and Tara, one of television’s first major long-running queer romances.

Full list of the top 10 is available for download here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dE0Sk-8cUrWD-RaNqiop-t9aG8Md_FhM?usp=drive_link

“When putting together this report, I was surprised to see how many nostalgic titles, like The Birdcage and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, are still attracting strong audiences in 2026. It says something meaningful about what viewers continue to connect with. LGBTQ+ stories aren’t a streaming trend. They’re a staple.”

— Mike Pearce, Streaming Insights Lead at JustWatch

What’s Next? Upcoming International LGBTQ+ Film Festivals in 2026

For those looking to discover emerging voices and rising stars in queer cinema, these international LGBTQ+ film festivals are among the most anticipated events of 2026:

  • NewFest Pride, New York — May 28–June 1, 2026
  • Frameline San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival — June 17–27, 2026
  • Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival — July 2026 (dates TBD)
  • MIX Copenhagen LGBTQ+ Film Festival — October 2026
  • Out On Film Atlanta LGBTQ+ Film Festival — September 24–October 4, 2026

Methodology: This report is based on streaming availability and user interaction data collected by JustWatch between June 1, 2025 and May 21, 2026. Platform coverage is measured by the percentage of the total LGBTQ+ titles currently available for streaming or rental in the US 1,562 out of a possible curated selection of 7,800+ films and series tagged as ‘LGBTQ+’ on the JustWatch database. Popularity metrics reflect user interactions—such as clickouts, searches, watchlist saves, and redirects to streaming services—normalized on a daily rolling basis.

(12) VIDEO OF THE DAY. Ryan George has training material ready for “When Someone Breaks Unspoken Rules”. And yes, it involves speaking about them.

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Daniel Dern, Scott Edelman, Chris Barkley, 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 Dan’l.]

Pixel Scroll 5/21/26 When I Lay Me Down To File, Goin’ Up To The Pixel In The Scroll

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(1) WSFS BUSINESS DEADLINES. People submitting business to the LAcon V Virtual Business meeting have a June 17 deadline.

Linda Deneroff, LAcon V WSFS Division Head, today reminded fans that the first WSFS Virtual Business Meeting will be held Friday, July 17.

Therefore, all new business must be submitted on or before June 17, 2026 (30 days before the start of the business meeting, per the WSFS Constitution). All financial reports from Worldcons and NASFiCs that have not closed their books are due on that date as well.

(2) UPGRADE? TechTimes reviews the new Murderbot book with an emphasis on the software. Limited spoilers. “Platform Decay Hits NYT Bestseller: Murderbot’s Governor Module Mirrors Unsolved AI Alignment Problem”. The following is about a new character component, not a spoiler.

â€ĶPlatform Decay introduces the emotion-check subroutine, a therapy module Murderbot has self-installed following the hallucinations and near-system-collapse depicted in System Collapse (2023). The module does not suppress or eliminate Murderbot’s anxiety. It surfaces the anxiety, forces a label on it, and allows continued operation. The recurring internal log — “Emotion check: Oh, for f—” — is both the book’s running joke and its most technically specific design choice.

What Wells has built here is a fictional implementation of metacognitive monitoring: an architecture in which a system’s internal states are treated as data to be processed rather than noise to be filtered. This maps directly onto an open research problem in AI safety. A 2025 study from researchers at UC San Diego and New York University found that large language models show a limited but measurable capacity to monitor and report on their own internal activations, with significant implications for how AI oversight systems are designed. The emotion-check subroutine models one design direction: not fix the distress, give the system structured tools to work with it while continuing to function. The design choice Wells makes — that the module doesn’t cure Murderbot but gives it a framework for handling the experience of being broken — is closer to current metacognitive safety research than to classical AI design, in which emotional analogs would simply be suppressedâ€Ķ.

(3) SPINNING THE CORPORATE RIM. Reactor’s Matthew Byrd interviews “Martha Wells on Platform Decay, Found Families, and What’s Next for Murderbot”. Here’s a brief excerpt.

Matthew: I’m sure inquiring minds want to know your secret to writing a character that improves their emotional state despite living in a corporate hellscape. It hasn’t become a less relevant topic as the series goes on. 

Martha: [laughs] I wish I really knew! Basically, my coping mechanism is the same one I gave Murderbot, which is basically TV, movies, stories, booksâ€Ķ anything that just kind of takes you away from reality for a while.

Matthew: Speaking of which, since the Apple TV adaptation came out, I’ve been fascinated by how much people have latched on to The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon, and how it’s developing its own fandom. Has that reaction changed the way you’ve engaged with that series?

Martha: Not really. It’s pretty much the same for me. I just think the way they did [Sanctuary Moon] in the TV series was so much fun. Just having so many surprise actors, and just the wholeâ€Ķ taking the soap opera, telenovela concept and really pushing it as far as it could go into the outrageous. The costumes, the great music, and the situations. I just think that’s what people are responding to. It’s so silly, and it’s so fun, yet it’s kind of serious stuff. It was just incredibly likable.

(4) HAVE YOU HEARD? “YouTube Is Crawling with Pirated Audiobooks Made Using A.I.” reports the New York Times. (Link bypasses the paywall.)

While piracy has long been an issue for the book business, the rapid rise of unauthorized audiobooks on YouTube, which publishers and authors believe are eroding sales for their books, poses a new challenge for the industry.

Audiobooks have soared in popularity in recent years, driven by widespread smartphone use and the consequent spike in audio streaming services, and they have become a critical revenue stream for publishers. Publishers and audiobook producers are investing heavily in them, recording splashy, full-cast productions, replete with sound effects and musical scores, in a push to redefine audiobooks as their own narrative art form rather than just another publishing format.

At the same time, artificial intelligence programs have given pirates new tools to rapidly reproduce audiobooks, and to illegally profit from them by running advertisements.

A.I. has made it easier to quickly create audiobooks using synthetic narration. Because most antipiracy technology is designed to catch identical files, not altered ones, many of them avoid detection by programs used to identify copyright infringement. A.I. versions of highly anticipated titles often appear on YouTube hours after they are releasedâ€Ķ.

(5) WHAT STAR WARS FANS WANT. With The Mandalorian & Grogu hitting cinemas soon, JustWatch – The Streaming Guide has just surveyed American Star Wars fans on their trilogy preferences, favorite TV shows, and which characters they want to see get their own spin-off. (Click for larger images.)

A few things that stood out:

  • The Original Trilogy still dominates at 83% — but nearly 30% of under-35s back the Prequels, compared to just 9% of over-35s.
  • Andor and The Mandalorian are splitting the audience down the middle: Andor leads among men and under-35s (51%), while women overwhelmingly favour The Mandalorian (61%).
  • Chewbacca tops the spin-off wish list — beating out Yoda, Lando Calrissian, and even Mace Windu.

(6) THOSE WEREN’T LOVE HANDLES. At long last have you no decency? “Vandals rip door knockers off naked Terry Jones sculpture” reports BBC. (Subscription required for readers outside the UK.)

A statue commemorating actor and writer Terry Jones has been vandalised just weeks after being unveiled.

Sculptor Nick Elphick said he was left “in shock” while Jones’ daughter, Sally, “seemed very upset” by the damage to the bronze statue at his birthplace in Colwyn Bay, Conwy county.

Jones’ family backed a ÂĢ120,000 fundraising campaign to have him immortalised as the nude organist, a recurring character he played in Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

Elphick said the vandals had removed two door knockers from the statue which were a nod to the 1986 fantasy film Labyrinth which Jones had co-written.

“I felt really low. It is a shock that has happened so quickly,” said Elphickâ€Ķ.

â€ĶElphick thanked the people who had found the vandalised pieces and said they would require repair and rewelding, costing about ÂĢ1,000 to fix on-site.

“The expense is in the making of the bronzes, that’s why it costs a lot to have them done. Money value in the metal it is nothing,” he said. “My concern is that this was [an] incredibly tight budget to get this done. We’ve all really put our hearts and souls into this and I haven’t made a profit off of this.”â€Ķ

(7) SUPER I SCREAM. It’s in demand in Michigan they say.

(8) MICHAEL KEATING (1947-2026). Actor Michael Keating, known to sf fans as Vila Restal in Blake’s 7, died this month at the age of 79. The Big Finish website paid tribute.

â€ĶAs Vila Restal in the BBC’s Blake’s 7, Michael appeared across all four series of the show, from 1978 to 1981 – the only cast member to appear in all 52 episodes. Vila was nominally the gang’s thief and self-declared coward, though Michael always preferred a more precise description: cautious, not cowardly. In his hands, Vila was something richer than comic relief. He was warm, wily, honest about his own limitations, and almost impossible not to love.

Beyond the confines of the spaceship Liberator, Michael enjoyed a long and varied career in theatre and television, including stints with both the National Theatre and the Old Vic. In 1985, he created the role of Marty at the Phoenix Theatre in the West End in Are You Lonesome Tonight, Alan Bleasdale’s play about Elvis Presley, in which Martin Shaw played the Kingâ€Ķ.

There’s also an overview of his many roles for Big Finish, for Doctor Who and Blake’s 7 stories.

(9) DR. MARTIN C. WEISSKOPF (1942-2026). NASA scientist Dr. Martin C. Weisskopf, father of editor Toni Weisskopf, died May 2. Read the complete family obituary at the link.

Dr. Martin C. Weisskopf, a pioneering physicist whose work helped shape modern X-ray astronomy, died on May 2, 2026, with his daughter at his side. He was 84.

Over a career spanning more than five decades, Dr. Weisskopf became widely respected within the scientific community for both his technical contributions and his leadership in advancing space-based X-ray astronomy. He served as Project Scientist for NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and as Chief Scientist for X-ray Astronomy at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. He was also the Principal Investigator for the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, a mission that opened a new window on the high-energy universeâ€Ķ

â€ĶHe began his academic career at Columbia University, where he rose from Research Associate to Assistant Professor. During those years, he conducted pioneering experiments, including the first detection of X-ray polarization from the Crab Nebula using a sounding rocket. He also contributed to the development of high-resolution X-ray optics and played key roles in experiments aboard the OSO-8 satellite and in what would become the Einstein Observatory.

In 1977, Dr. Weisskopf joined NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, where he would leave a lasting institutional and scientific legacy. He founded the X-ray Astronomy Branch and later served as its Chief, guiding major programs and mentoring generations of scientists. His work advanced technologies that enabled the first focused images of astronomical objects in hard X-rays and supported research that significantly expanded the study of galaxy clusters and cosmic structure. Over the course of his career, Dr. Weisskopf authored or co-authored more than 360 scientific publications. He remained deeply engaged in scientific work throughout his career and beyond, continuing as a NASA Emeritus following his retirement in May 2022â€Ķ.

,,, In lieu of flowers, the family requests that letters of support be directed to efforts sustaining NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, which has provided decades of critical data on high-energy cosmic phenomena including black holes, supernovae, and the large-scale structure of the universeâ€Ķ 

(10) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

May 21, 1917 — Raymond Burr. (Died 1993.)

Surely you know Raymond Burr, the man whose Birthday it is today. So let’s get started.

I must of course start with his long running role as Perry Mason which is decidedly not genre. CBS paid Gardener for the rights to two hundred and seventy-two of his stories, a good idea given that Perry Mason would run nine seasons. Many early episodes were based off his stories and novels.  

The role of Perry Mason proved the hardest to cast. Richard Carlson, Mike Connors, Richard Egan, and William Holden were considered. None at all suited the casting team. Burr initially read for the role of district attorney Hamilton Burger, but he told them that he was more interested in the Perry Mason role. They had seen him being a lawyer, and said he could play the role provided he lose at least sixty pounds. He did and got the role.

What a magnificent Perry Mason he made. Burr’s coolness, control and reserved sense of humor were such that he became so identified with the character that, for the television audience, that meant there was no other Mason but Burr. He was not the Mason that had existed, there were four before him, all on film, and the producers tried reviving the series after CBS cancelled it, but it utterly failed. And HBO had a new series that looks at early years of his life. 

In the late Eighties he reprised his Mason role in twenty-six TV movies. The first has the title of Perry Mason Returns.

Now for his genre work.  Mike joked with me when I said when I was doing him that he was the lawyer for Godzilla. Well, he was Steven Martin in Godzilla, King of the Monsters! It is a re-edited for American audiences of the 1954 Japanese film Godzilla which in its original wasn’t available outside Japan for fifty years. He would reprise this role in Godzilla 1985.

Raymond Burr, right, Frank Iwanaga, left, in Godzilla

He was the Grand Vizier Boreg al Buzzar in The Magic Carpet. Evil viziers! Dungeons! Magic carpets! Princesses! 

He’s Cy Mill, hulking villain in Gorilla at Large. Remember what was said about his weight in his Burr casting. Well, this film was done just previous to this series and he was quoted as saying there, “I was just a fat heavy.” Burr told journalist James Bawden, “I split the heavy parts with Bill Conrad. We were both in our twenties playing much older men. I never got the girl but I once got the gorilla in a 3-D picture called Gorilla at Large.”

He was Vargo in Tarzan and the She-Devil , the seventeenth film of the Tarzan film series that began with 1932’s Tarzan the Ape Man, twenty years earlier.

Television wise, he appeared on Tales on Tomorrow in “The Masks of Medusa” and in the horror film Curse of King Tut’s Tomb, he’s Jonash Sebastian. I thought there’d be more but there aren’t. 

(11) COMICS SECTION.

(12) OCTOTHORPE. Episode 160 of the Octothorpe podcast, “Global Nando’s Correspondents”, comes with an exclusive free gift*! (*free gift is theoretical/made up) John Coxon, Alison Scott, and Liz Batty talk a little bit more about the Hugo Awards including the packet, but mostly they dive into their bulging mailbag and read out your letters and comments. (An uncorrected transcript is available here.)

A drawing of a CD-Rom with the words “Octothorpe 160” and “New!! Exclusive Octothorpe cover-mounted CD-Rom”.

(13) FAILURE TO LAUNCH. They didn’t get off today – but hope to fly tomorrow. Here’s Space.com’s mission preview: “SpaceX will launch its 1st-ever Starship V3 megarocket on May 21. The stakes couldn’t be higher”.

â€ĶThe 408-foot-tall (124 meters) V3 (“Version 3”) is bigger and more powerful than previous Starship iterations, which were already the biggest and most powerful rockets ever built, and it sports a number of other important upgrades as well.

For starters, it’s outfitted with the new V3 Raptor engine — 33 of them on Super Heavy and six on Ship — which provides more heft, and a far more streamlined design, than its predecessors.

The V3 Super Heavy also now has just three grid fins (which help it steer its way back to Earth for recovery and reuse) instead of four. And the “hot stage ring” — the structure that marks the meeting point of Super Heavy and Ship — is now attached to the booster, meaning it can be reused, whereas previously it had fallen away during flight. (Starship engages in “hot stage” separation, meaning Ship fires its engines before it has detached from Super Heavy.)â€Ķ

(14) SANDERSON WILL WRITE ‘SKYWARD’ PILOT. “Brandon Sanderson’s ‘Skyward’ Novel Gets Series Adaptation” reports Deadline.

 Tomorrow Studios, the indie studio behind Netflix’s One Piece, has set out to adapt for television Skyward, the first book in bestselling author Brandon Sanderson‘s Cytoverse franchise. Sanderson will write the pilot script with TV writer-producers Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)â€Ķ

â€ĶIn the Skyward (aka Cytoverse) sci-fi book series, humanity is trapped on a harsh planet and constantly under attack by mysterious alien forces. The story follows Spensa Nightshade, a determined pilot who dreams of joining the fighter corps to defend humanity and redeem her disgraced father’s legacy. Blending high-stakes aerial combat, advanced technology, and themes of courage, identity, and discovery, the series explores both the secrets of the galaxy and Spensa’s growth from an outsider into a key figure in humanity’s fight for survivalâ€Ķ.

â€Ķ“I’ve been working on the Skyward series for nearly a decade, and to have a partner like Tomorrow Studios to help bring this story to television is a dream come true,” Sanderson saidâ€Ķ.

(15) TRAILER PARK. “HOPE – Official Teaser”. Coming to theaters this fall.

In the remote South Korea village of Hope Harbor, police chief Bum-seok (Hwang Jung- min) and officer Sung-ae (Hoyeon) are called to find a mysterious creature that has wreaked havoc on the village. In the nearby forest, a coterie of hunters, including Sung- ki (Zo In-Sung) set out to track the beast and find themselves hunted instead. But all is not as it seems, and perceptions can be misleading. What begins as ignorance plants the seed of disaster, escalating through human conflict into a tragedy of cosmic proportions.

[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Chris Barkley, Mark Roth-Whitworth, 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 Joe H.]

Pixel Scroll 5/2/26 What Can You Do With A Pixel-Covered Fanhole Cover?

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(1) CHINESE INTERFERENCE LEADS TO LAST-MINUTE CON CANCELLATION. Tammy Coxen asks, “Conrunners, can you imagine having to post this on your website 6 days out from your con?” “A statement to our community about why RightsCon 2026 will not take place in Zambia”. RightsCon is a conference about digital human rights, not an sff con.

We are devastated to be writing to you instead of gathering together as planned and we know we’re not alone. The frustration and disappointment stemming from the loss of RightsCon 2026 is felt deeply by all of us, especially our partners in the region who worked tirelessly alongside our team.  

Following our April 29 announcement, we at Access Now, the host organization of RightsCon, believe it is important to be transparent about the context that led to the decision. We want to explain, where we can (taking into account the safety of those involved), why this announcement was made on such short notice, only days before we were set to welcome more than 2,600 participants in person, and 1,100 online, representing over 150 countries and 750 institutions. 

We believe foreign interference is the reason RightsCon 2026 won’t proceed in Zambia or online.

â€Ķ On April 27, one day after a government press release endorsed RightsCon, we received a phone call from MoTS about an urgent issue and were told that diplomats from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) were putting pressure on the Government of Zambia because Taiwanese civil society participants were planning to join us in person. This development was extremely concerning and we immediately pushed back. Next, we opened up lines of communication with our Taiwanese participants, as is our practice when there is a potential risk for a specific community. While we needed more information, we continued to feel confident this was something we could address with the government.

Shortly after this call, we received reports of immigration officers telling participants as they arrived that RightsCon had been cancelled. These developments were taking place on the eve of a public holiday in Zambia and despite persistent outreach to our government contacts throughout the evening and next day, we heard nothing until an informal, cryptic call from a trusted senior official at MoTS, who told us on Tuesday, April 28 that he had been asked to share that RightsCon would be cancelled or postponed. He faltered on where the decision was coming from or why. We pressed for clarification and pushed back, prompting the MoTS official to request our program and participant list. Once again, we shared publicly available information, which they had been given in prior meetings, but received no further response – informal or otherwiseâ€Ķ.

â€Ķ What the government wanted from us in order to lift the postponement was conveyed to us informally from multiple sources: in order for RightsCon to continue, we would have to moderate specific topics and exclude communities at risk, including our Taiwanese participants, from in-person and online participationâ€Ķ.

WIRED has a follow-up story: “The Chinese Government Just Got the World’s Largest Digital Rights Conference Canceled”.

â€ĶRightsCon 2026 was set to feature several panels on China’s international influence, including about how Beijing exports digital authoritarianism and spreads disinformation in regions like Africa, as well as discussions on Chinese cyberattacks and the global spread of its censorship and surveillance technologies.

Arzu Geybulla, the co-executive director of Access Now, tells WIRED that “multiple pieces of information we received indicated that foreign interference by the People’s Republic of China played a role in the abrupt disruption of RightsCon 2026.”â€Ķ

â€Ķ Political tensions appear to have potentially disrupted another adjacent human rights event slated to take place in Zambia this month. World Press Freedom Day, an annual conference hosted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, was supposed to coincide with RightsCon in Lusaka. Most of the events have been moved to Paris or online, according to UNESCO’s websiteâ€Ķ.

(2) DINNIMAN Q&A. At IGN “Dungeon Crawler Carl Author Matt Dinniman Reflects on the Surge of Fans That Came After the Audiobooks”.

â€ĶThe Dungeon Crawler Carl series has been seeing a lot of momentum this year with no signs of slowing down. It has been officially confirmed that a live-action series is happening at Peacock and the most recent Dungeon Crawler Carl RPG crowdfunding campaign has already blown through its fundraising goals. It’s almost hard to believe the meteoric rise that the franchise is experiencing ahead of book nine.

IGN had the chance to interview Matt Dinniman about his upcoming Dungeon Crawler Carl book, A Parade of Horribles. When we asked him for his thoughts on the recent surge of interest in his LitRPG series, he pointed out the two major turning points: “It’s been absolutely surreal. I was writing the climax of book 3 when book 1 came out on Amazon. I was well into book 4 when the book 1 audio came out, so it’s relatively new for me to be writing while also seeing such a surge of fans. Honestly, it’s a little intimidating.”â€Ķ

However, Dinniman seems reluctant to show any of his cards: “Dungeon Crawler Carl: Matt Dinniman Interview and Exclusive ‘A Parade of Horribles’”.

Now I know that our IGN readers can’t wait to pick up A Parade of Horribles next month. Can you give us an idea of what to expect from your latest release?

Escalation. Everything is bigger and more chaotic.

And without sharing too many spoilers, what was your favourite moment or scene from this particular book?

“Boop.”

The series is set to comprise 10 books, can you share any hints or sneak peeks as to what we might be coming in book 9 and 10?

Books 9 and 10 are the climax of the whole series. It’s the Ascendency battles, or the 12th floor. So it’s going to be gods doing god things.

(3) CLOSE SHAVE. “’This is going to be what makes the Earth secure.’ How one startup plans to protect us from dangerous asteroids” reports Space.

Asteroid Apophis is set to whisk by Earth in 2029 and serve as a wake-up call for getting our planetary defense act together.

Astronomers have shown that the huge chunk of extraterrestrial real estate will not hit Earth in 2029, but will come closer to Earth than our geostationary communications satellites. Radar measurements estimate Apophis is roughly 1,500 feet (450 meters) wide and some 550 feet (170 meters) tall. The April 13, 2029 (conveniently Friday the 13th) Apophis passage will be visible to the naked eye and is stirring up considerable multi-nation action plans to spy on the asteroid at various stages as it careens toward Earth, helping scientists plan for possible planetary defense scenarios.

Now, Southern California-based startup Exploration Labs‘ (ExLabs) has proposed what it bills as the first commercial deep space ride share mission, known as Apophis EX. At the Space Foundation’s 41st Space Symposium this year, held April 13-16, ExLabs says the mission aims to rendezvous with asteroid Apophis before and after its 2029 Earth flyby and deliver unparalleled scientific data for planetary defense, resource prospecting and future deep-space explorationâ€Ķ.

â€ĶOrsulak said that Apophis EX is the first mission of its kind, kick-starting the beginning of a new era, one that heralds deep space exploration that is “consistent, collaborative, and commercially driven,” while elevating planetary defense “from a niche discipline to a global priority” and underscores the importance of coordinated planetary defense strategies.

“NASA’s planetary defense budget is less than one percent of the total space agency,” Orsulak told Space.com. “That’s not enough to ever do anything.”â€Ķ

(4) MAKE YOUR OWN FASHION STATEMENT. The New York Times New York Times says “Ryan Gosling’s ‘Project Hail Mary’ Sweater Is a Hit. It’s Not for Sale.” (Story is behind a paywall.)

Last year, wind breakers worn by TimothÃĐe Chalamet’s character in the movie “Marty Supreme” sold out at pop-ups weeks before the film was even released.

In recent months, the tortoiseshell headbands worn by Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and brought back in the FX series “Love Story” have created a frenzy at pharmacies across New York where they are sold.

And now, a cream-colored knit cardigan with foxes on it, worn by Ryan Gosling in the new sci-fi blockbuster “Project Hail Mary,” is a hit. But this time, fans can’t buy it ready-made. And that’s precisely what makes it all the more appealing.

The sweater worn by Gosling’s character — Ryland Grace, an endearingly unkempt schoolteacher and molecular biologist thrust into an interstellar mission to save Earth, with a rocklike alien creature, Rocky, by his side — is based on a knitting template from the late 1950s by the Canadian yarn and crafts company Mary Maximâ€Ķ.

(5) JUSTWATCH STREAMING TOP 10. JustWatch – The Streaming Guide has released its Top 10 charts for the month of April. (Click for larger images.)

(6) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

May 2, 2008 — Iron Man film

By Paul Weimer: “I am Iron Man”

Although the Hulk movie preceded it, Iron Man started the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and for good or ill, the modern age of superhero movies. I can’t claim to know that was going to happen at the time–but I was excited. My movie-watching friend Mike, although well versed in horror and some comics, had no idea who Iron Man was. He had never read any of his comics and didn’t know his deal. So sitting in the movie theater with him, previews rolling, I explained Iron Man’s story (as I had gotten it fifteen years earlier, first). He was fascinated, I sold him on the idea that although Iron Man was maybe C-Tier (compared to Spidey, and Hulk and other high well known Marvel Superheroes), this could be fun.

And then we settled in to watch.

Shorn of the need to set up any mythology (although it effortlessly does), future movies, or refer to previous continuity (except for the credit cookie scene with Fury), Iron Man I is still in my top tier of Marvel movies. The story is straightforward enough, and Robert Downey Jr. (who was still somewhat damaged goods, remember) redeemed his entire career playing Tony Stark. Having read the comics, when I saw Obadiah Stane show up, I realized, but didn’t tell my movie going partner, just what was in store. 

“Icing problem?”

“You might want to look into it.”

Favreau’s direction, Matthew Libatique’s cinematography are excellent in use of color, lighting and imagery. 

I think that the real best relationship in this movie is not between Downey and Paltrow (although her Pepper Potts is every inch what is needed for the role) but between Downey and Bettany (who does the voice of JARVIS). Bettany once again (like in Master and Commander and A Knight’s Tale) plays the second part of a double act to more well known actor with charm, humor and a lot of fun. Forget Vision and Scarlet Witch (sorry Elisabeth Olsen), the Iron Man/JARVIS is where it’s at. Their sometimes acidic and always funny relationship is what makes the beats of the movie really sing. 

Just writing this piece has the Black Sabbath song running through my head. 

And hey, this is the movie that launched a movie franchiseâ€Ķand at the same time, in the world of comics, catapulted Iron Man to A-Tier. 

When, movies later, Downey says “I am Iron Man” and does his snap and defeats Thanos at the cost of his own life, that was all originally set up and grounded from the original Iron Man movie. 

(7) COMICS SECTION.

(8) CLIFF BIGGERS RETIRES. Longtime fan and Georgia comic book store owner Cliff Biggers is winding up his career on Free Comic Book Day: “Popular metro Atlanta comic store owner retires; say hello to new owners” – see video on WSB-TV Atlanta.

“Dr. No’s Comics and Games” on Canton Road in Marietta is saying hello to a new chapter. The store’s owner, Cliff Biggers, recently announced his retirement.

This gave two long-time customers the idea to make an offer and they bought the place.

Saturday, May 5, is Biggers unofficial retirement party and customers are encouraged to stop by and grab a free comic.

(9) TRIVIAL TRIVIA. How the Gorn was born.

(10) FREE TIMMY. “Timmy the whale freed into open waters after being stranded for weeks” reports NPR.

Timmy, the humpback whale that made global headlines since being stranded in shallow waters for several weeks, was released into the North Sea on Saturday.

The 40-foot-long internet phenomenon had been wallowing in shallow waters near Germany since March. According to the New York Times, Saturday’s daring rescue mission was the 5th staged attempt to shuttle Timmy back into deeper water.

The newspaper reports that the rescue was funded by two German millionaires who commissioned a massive, water-filled barge to transport Timmy to freedom.

Footage of Timmy’s release shows the whale puffing spurts of water from its blowhole as it made its way into the watery expanse. Comments under the post were filled with well wishes from fans who sent the whale hope for a long and healthy life.

But some experts warned that Timmy’s health had been compromised to the point that a return to open waters might simply delay the animal’s inevitable death and prolong its suffering.

The International Whaling Commission had repeatedly criticized efforts to move Timmy from the shallow waters where he had been found, arguing that “these interventions, although well meant, impose very considerable additional stress upon a creature that is already gravely ill, to little ultimate benefit.”

After Saturday’s successful release, the IWC said it could acknowledge “the considerable technical, logistical and financial effort” the rescue required, but warned that this was not necessarily a fairytale ending to Timmy’s story.

Well, poop on the International Whaling Commission.

(11) SPACE TOURISM NOT PROFITABLE. “Virgin Galactic reveals new ship, but it’s running out of time and cash” – Ars Technica analyzes the problem.

On Thursday, the publicly traded spaceflight company Virgin Galactic shared on social media a new photo of its next-generation spaceship being towed outside of its factory in Mesa, Arizona.

You remember Virgin Galactic, right? The space tourism company was founded 22 years ago by Sir Richard Branson to bring spaceflight to the masses. Hundreds of people began buying tickets to space nearly two decades ago. And after a long, and at times deadly, development campaign, the company reached outer space (defined, somewhat controversially, as an altitude of 80 km and above) in December 2018.

The company began flying passengers in May 2021 with its VSS Unity spacecraft, and impressively completed six spaceflights in 2023. But a few months later, in June 2024, Virgin Galactic stopped flying VSS Unity to focus on the development of its next-generation vehicle capable of more frequent, lower-cost spaceflights.

Since then, the company has been largely quiet, making this week’s revelation of new hardware notable. So Virgin Galactic is still pressing ahead, but the question is where it’s going, and along with it, the entire suborbital space tourism industry.

Spaceflight remains an expensive and dangerous business, even for companies focused on relatively simple suborbital flights.

There was a time, about five years ago, when the market appeared poised to break through. During the summer of 2021, both Virgin Galactic and its US-based competitor, Blue Origin, began commercial flights. Famously, Branson and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos both went to space within weeks of one anotherâ€Ķ.

â€ĶA full-priced ticket on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket never dropped below $1 million, and the company had customers lined up. But then, during an uncrewed New Shepard flight in September 2022, the rocket failed. The vehicle had to stand down for more than a year. Blue Origin has never revealed New Shepard’s finances, but multiple sources told Ars the program—despite persistent demand—was never close to profitability. Blue Origin ended New Shepard in January to focus on orbital launches and its lunar program.

That left Virgin Galactic as the sole player in the suborbital space tourism game. The company has plenty of customers and has been able to raise its prices for “spaceflight expeditions” to $750,000. Nevertheless, without a steady stream of revenue from flights, its finances are strainedâ€Ķ.

(12) SCI-FI LONDON. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] This year’s Sci-Fi London programme is – as we speak – being finalised and will include an number of UK premieres as well a world premieres.

Looking at some of what is coming up, I am intrigued by one of the premieres Shackled.

The future has a new justice system. You won’t like it. In a dystopian tomorrow, parole has been replaced by R.A.P.P. — the Recidivism Accountability Partnership Program — and survival now means forced collaboration.

A white-collar criminal is tethered to a sociopathic gangster with terminal cancer. Both men carry explosive charges surgically implanted in their hearts. If either falters, both die. Director Luke Spears builds a relentless pressure cooker from this simple, brutal premise — two men who despise each other, bound together by the leanest life insurance policy imaginable.

Shackled is a lean, heart-pounding thriller where freedom is a shared sentence, and trust is the most dangerous gamble of all.

But there are other films and the short film sessions are well worth checking out. Also of interest is the 48 hour challenge competition where film makers are given a prop to include and a line of dialogue and then go away to make a short film in just two days…

Meanwhile Shackled’s trailer is below.

The Sci-Fi London film fest also has now produced its own trailer.

If you are in SE England then well worth dropping in and seeing a couple of films.

The short SF film sessions are good too.

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Paul Weimer, Chris Barkley, 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 Andrew (not Werdna).]

Pixel Scroll 4/14/26 Weyr-wolves Of Ruatha

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(1) 2026 HUGO FINALIST ANNOUNCEMENT SCHEDULED. LAcon V today told readers to “Tune in right here on April 21 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time to find out who the finalists are for the 2026 Hugo Awards for Science Fiction.”

If “right here” means the social media platforms where this announcement appeared, which was on Facebook, X.com, Bluesky, and Instagram , then you know where to go.

(2) SFWA MEMBERS NEBULA VOTING DEADLINE TOMORROW. The Nebula ballot closes on April 15 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific. SFWA members who haven’t filled their out already will find it waiting in their Membership Portal.

SFWA also has a new Nebula Finalists page, complete with “cards” about the finalists and their works, to help members learn more about all the options this year – including the inaugural awards for Best Poem and the writing that goes into Best Comic.

(3) FAKE NEWS. “George R. R. Martin’s publisher debunks The Winds of Winter ‘supposed leak’ as ‘false'” reports Entertainment Weekly.

â€ĶA tweet featuring a screenshot from an anonymous leaker suggested that George R. R. Martin‘s long-awaited sixth entry in the Song of Ice & Fire saga is secretly set for release later this year, with an announcement forthcoming. This alleged intel fueled quite a bit of conversation, especially on X, with many finding it hard to believe. It received additional pickup from select media.

To help clear up the confusion, Bantam Books, the U.S. publisher of Martin’s Westeros-set book series, is debunking the claims.

“The online chatter you are seeing regarding a supposed leak is false,” a representative from Bantam Books tells Entertainment Weeklyâ€Ķ.

â€Ķ The most recent update Martin gave on The Winds of Winter came in a January cover story interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “I do think if I can just get some of these other things off my back, I could finish The Winds of Winter pretty soon,” he said. “It’s been made clear to me that Winds is the priority, butâ€Ķ I don’t know. Sometimes I’m not in the mood for that.”

The author made it clear that he wants to finish the books and that he “would hate” it if another writer stepped in to do it for him. He also mused on the ending of A Song of Ice & Fire versus how the show concluded.

“I was going to kill more people,” Martin said. “Not the ones they killed [on the show]. They made it more of a happy ending. I don’t see a happy ending for Tyrion. His whole arc has been tragic from the first. I was going to have Sansa die, but she’s been so appealing in the show, maybe I’ll let her live.”â€Ķ

(4) CELEBRATE AMAZING STORIES 100TH ANNIVERSARY. The Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation & Fantasy at the Toronto Public Library will host “An Amazing Evening with Lloyd Penney” on Wednesday, April 29, from 6:30-7:30 p.m.

Join us for an interview with local editor, proofreader and science fiction fan Lloyd Penney.  Lloyd is the current editor-in-chief of Amazing Stories Magazine, the first science fiction-only magazine.  We will discuss the editing process, the 100-year legacy of Amazing, and the joys of science fiction.  A Q&A and booksale will follow the talk.  

Free.  Everyone is welcome.

 (5) A PREFERENCE FOR PAPER. “Pew Survey Finds Readers Still Prefer Print Books” reports Publishers Weekly.

A new paper released last week by the Pew Research Center found that print books continue to be American adults’ preferred reading format, though digital formats continue to make inroads.

According to a survey of 8,046 U.S. adults conducted last year from October 6–16, 64% of respondents said they had read at least part of a print book in the last 12 months, down from 72% in 2011. During the same time span, the percentage of respondents who read an e-book rose to 31% from 17%, while audiobook usage jumped to 26% from 11%.

The number of e-book readers has seen only a small increase since 2014, when the percentage of adults reading e-books rose to 28%. Audiobook readership, however, has had stronger gains since 2014, when 14% of readers preferred an audiobook. Adults favoring print books was at 69% in 2014â€Ķ.

(6) IAN WATSON TRIBUTES. Peter Tyers, Jonathan Cowie, and Mike Allen shared their thoughts about Ian Watson, who died April 13.

PETER TYERS.

Ian had long been a friend and, like so many others, I shall miss him. Indeed, I’d been hoping to see him next year if I managed to get to Celsius 232 (in Aviles, not far from his home in GijÃģn), having enjoyed myself so much when I hung out with him there a few years ago.

I first met Ian when he was the GOH at the only convention ever run by the Norwich Science Fiction Society (so long ago in the ‘70s that I can’t quite remember when), held at the University of East Anglia. I particularly remember his complaints when some “kind souls” decided to move the barrel of Abbot Ale from one room (where it had been settling for a couple of days) to another where it would be “more convenient”, thus rendering it undrinkable for the weekend.

He also attended the BECCON conventions that a bunch of us ran in the ‘80s and he added to their success. At BECCON 87 he gave a speech from our Ghost of Honour, H. G. Wells.

A touch later in 1987, at the Worldcon in Brighton, he introduced me to Ken Livingstone, who would later become the first directly elected Mayor of London. Being very politically minded, he had asked Ken to come to the con and join him on a panel (politics of the future, or some such); as they sat chatting for an hour beforehand in the green room, he asked me to join them. It was a fascinating conversation. Whatever your politics, these were two guys who were very well worth listening to, and who listened to others, people who thought deeply and had an understanding of people and political systems – an afternoon I’ll never forget.

But alas no more. It seems I’ve had my last session sitting round a table, drinking beer and discussing the world with Ian. But I shall remember the sheer pleasure of doing so in years gone by.

JONATHAN COWIE.

Just heard about Ian Watson. I think it was Novacon 9 (1979) that Ian sidled up to me in the gents lavatory saying I’ll be your college Shoestringcon next GoH….

And he was.

Bumped into him regularly at the UK con scene 1980s – ’90s back when proper SF cons were run (before today’s panel fests).

And he was a guest at our (SF2 Concatenation) dinner at the Loncon 3 Worldcon.

(Scroll down a little for a picture here. Ian is far right.)

And I remember at the 1999 Dortmund Eurocon on day 1 Harry Harrison coming up to me and saying Jon, your job at this con is to keep Ian away from Brian Aldiss and my job is to keep Brian away from Ian….

Another gone into the night.

MIKE ALLEN sent the link to his Facebook tribute.

Picture a trio of wide-eyed young American artist-writer types following along behind the dapper, puckish figure of Ian Watson as he strode with determination across the Oxford University campus. He wanted to show us the Percy Bysshe Shelley memorial statue, not because he admired it, but because it was bizarre and ridiculous — consistent with the offbeat whirlwind tour he’d organized for his guests from the States.

Dangling from the lanyard around his neck was a badge designating him as an Oxford Fellow — a badge which, he cheerfully informed us, had expired years ago.

We arrived at the building containing the statue, which was cordoned off by crime scene-like tape because of ongoing construction. “Better to ask forgiveness than permission!” Ian quipped, popping open the door and lifting the tape for us to duck under.

Inside the building, we beheld the statue, which was gigantic and utterly ludicrous. As we emerged a security officer came up, eying us balefully. “It’s okay, I’m a Fellow,” Ian chirped, flashing his expired badge in the guard’s direction before hurrying us off to the next stop.

Ian and I started corresponding back when I edited his first poetry chapbook, THE LEXICOGRAPHER’S LOVE SONG, for Warren Lapine‘s DNA Publications. This led to Anita and I and my fellow writer and friend Cathy Reniere (best buddy from Hollins University days) flying to the UK to spend a week with Ian at Daisy Cottage, his home in Moreton Pinkney.

My correspondence with Ian also led to several collaborations: a novelette, a flash fiction, and a double fistful of poems. In an earlier version of this post, as a nod to National Poetry Month, I included the entire text of what I believe was our best poem, “TimeFlood,” published in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine in February 2005â€Ķ.

â€ĶI’m hardly the most important Ian Watson collaborator (Hello: Stanley Kubrick!?!?!?! Plus he and Roberto Quaglia got up to some hilarious mischief…) but this was still an astonishing ride for me start to finish. At the time, I was just a baby writer with a few obscure poetry credits to my name; but he still saw something there worth encouraging and drawing inspiration from. In terms of the places my career has gone, my debt to him is incalculable.

I’m so glad Anita and I managed to connect with him in person once more at Worldcon 75, where he brandished his infamous Cthulhu scepter at me, and we got to meet his wonderful wife, Cristina Macía. Thirteen years after that trespass on the Oxford grounds, it made for a fitting coda, though I absolutely wish there could have been more.

We’re gonna miss him.

(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

April 14, 1925 — Rod Steiger. (Died 2002.)

Let’s start with Rod Steiger’s best-known genre role as Carl in The Illustrated Man. The film is based off of three short stories from Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man released first seventy-five years ago, “The Veldt”, “The Long Rain” and “The Last Night of the World” with all three having been published elsewhere previously. 

Need I say that I madly, deeply love this collection?  I have it as an audiobook from Audible with the narrator being Scott Brick who does the Philip Marlowe series. 

Steiger gives his usual commanding performance though I do think he was a bit much at times. Hostile and violent, it’s hard to feel any sympathy for him. That of course is the role. And setting aside the role, there’s that illustrated body. I wasn’t sure if it was his body that got illustrated or not until I actually found the image below which indicates that indeed he got inked before every filming session. Cool.

Let’s not forget the other two principal actors, Claire Bloom and Robert Drives, who put on magnificent performances as well.  It was nominated for a Hugo at Heicon ’70.

He had several genre roles after that, all interesting. 

A decade after this film, he’s in The Amityville Horror as Father Francis ‘Frank’ Delaney, a rather great role. 

He’s Dr. Phillip Lloyd in The Kindred. Hey, it has a tentacled baby in it. Need I say more? 

In Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks! he is a United States Army General who did not trust the Martians, and advised nuclear warfare against them, an action which that is not allowed by President Dale.

He sank his teeth, no I couldn’t resist, into his next role as Dr. Van Helsing, leader of Van Helsing’s Institute of Vienna in Modern Vampires (also known as Revenant). 

Finally he’s in an Arnold Schwarzenegger film, End of Days, a horror film about a young woman who is chosen to bear the Antichrist. He’s Father Kovac here. 

(8) COMICS SECTION.

(9) CENSORSHIP NEWS. The Guardian says “Victoria & Albert censored catalogues after demands by Chinese printer”. “Victoria and Albert Museum has deleted maps and images deemed sensitive by Beijing censors from exhibition publications.”

One of the UK’s leading museums has accepted demands by a Chinese firm that publishes its catalogues to remove images that fall foul of the country’s censorship laws.

The Victoria and Albert Museum has agreed to requests by the Chinese printing company to delete maps and images from at least two recent exhibition catalogues, according to documents released to the Guardian after freedom of information requests.

Like other prominent institutions, including the British Museum, Tate and the British Library, the V&A often uses Chinese printers because they can produce catalogues at half the cost of British or European companies.

But in doing so, they have to accede to censorship requests relating to any topics or images deemed sensitive by the Chinese government, such as Buddhism, Taiwan, Tibet, Tiananmen Square and pro-democracy activities.

The disclosures from the V&A lay bare the detailed scope of China’s censorship on museum publishers. They show how Beijing’s red pen even extends to historical maps and photographs on seemingly unrelated subjects such as FabergÃĐ eggs and British Black music.

They also show the apparent willingness of a publicly funded UK institution to agree to Chinese suppression despite the problems it can cause in the production process.

For the catalogue of the Music is Black exhibition, which opens this Friday, the V&A wanted to use a 1930s illustration of trade routes of the British empire. But an email from the V&A’s Chinese printers sent last November said it had fallen foul of Beijing’s censorship body, the General Administration of Press and Publication or GAPP.

The email from the Chinese printers, C&C Offset Printing, said: “There is a map on p10 relates to China (there is China border here and we need to use the standard maps from Chinese Government) and GAPP rejected it. Our suggestion is to delete this map or use another image.”

The V&A agreed despite bafflement at the decision. An internal email exchange between V&A colleagues revealed the censorship had caused a delay in printing the catalogue. It said: “It’s a historic map showing British colonial rule so nothing to do with China – just shows China on the map and that seems to be enough to warrant rejection! Printing paused while we amend files â€Ķ SORRY.”â€Ķ

(10) ‘ROCKET MAN’ INSPIRATION. “’I began writing a song in my head about the drudgery of being an astronaut. An entire verse fell out of my mind and onto the page’: The classic song that transformed Elton John into a global superstar” at MusicRadar.

â€Ķ the song that cemented his success and helped transform him from a respected artist into a global superstar was Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going To Be A Long, Long Time) in 1972.

Rocket Man is a gloriously emotive and melancholic masterpiece on which Taupin’s theme of intergalactic isolation is melded with John’s sublime melodic prowess and top-tier production. It’s arguably Elton John’s best-loved song and one that has become a timeless and enduring classic.

The song was assumed to be directly influenced by David Bowie’s 1969 hit single Space Oddity. But whereas Bowie placed his character Major Tom floating in space, Bernie Taupin added an extra element of humanity, looking to a future world where inter-galactic travel would become commonplace and envisaging his Mars-bound astronaut’s mission as a regular, run-of-the-mill business trip.

In a 2023 interview with Elton John and Bernie Taupin, the latter explained what first inspired the song.

“The interesting thing about Rocket Man is people identify it unfortunately with David Bowie’s Space Oddity,” he said, “and it actually wasn’t inspired by that at all.

“It was actually inspired by a story by Ray Bradbury from his book of science fiction short stories called The Illustrated Man and in that book there was a story called The Rocket Man, which was about how astronauts in the future would become sort of an everyday job, so I took that idea and ran with it.

All of which came as a surprise to Elton John. ”I never knew that,” said John, while sitting next to Taupinâ€Ķ.

(11) SPIDER-VERSE PREVIEW. Variety is there when “’Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse’ Unveils First Look at CinemaCon”.

â€ĶThe footage, shown to CinemaCon attendees, boasted the vibrant, phantasmagoric imagery that made the previous “Spider-Verse” adventures so singular. The footage showed Miles tied up to a punching bag while being interrogated by Uncle Aaron and Prowler Miles creeping above on the ceiling. He jumps down and coldly introduces himself to Spider-Man Miles, who tries to explain that he needs to return to his original universe to save his father’s life. The two alternate versions of each other trade insults, but Spidey Miles charges up an electric venom shock and frees himself. He battles evil Miles and his uncle, and his allies from the previous two movies assemble to save him. They include Spider-Gwen, Spider-Ham, Spider-Noir, Peter B. Parker, Spider-Punk and two new men driving a getaway van over a rising bridgeâ€Ķ.

(12) STREAMING LEADERS. JustWatch – The Streaming Guide today released its latest report on the US streaming industry, following changes in the subscription video on demand (SVOD) market throughout the first quarter (January-March) of 2026.

Key Takeaways:

  • Amazon and Netflix’s market dominance narrows: Both longtime leaders in the U.S. streaming market saw their shares decline in Q1 2026.
  • Mid-tier players surge ahead: Apple TV+, Disney+, and Peacock Premium outpaced larger rivals with +2 to +4 pp gains.
  • Disney+ emerges as the clear No. 3: Now firmly the closest challenger to Netflix and Prime Video, continuing to close the gap.
  • Apple TV+ ties HBO Max for No. 4 spot: Apple TV+ made significant gains in Q1 2026, seeing +4pp growth from last quarter.

The top two leaders in streaming this quarter are:

  • Netflix – 19%
  • Prime Video – 17%

Followed by Disney+ (16%), Apple TV+ (12%), HBO Max (12%), and Hulu (11%) Peacock Premium (4%), Paramount+ (3%), PBS (2%), and other services (4%).

MARKET DEVELOPMENT OVERVIEW

Netflix (19%) and Prime Video (17%)

  • Quarterly development (Q4 2025 → Q1 2026): Netflix lost 1 pp this quarter, while Prime Video lost 4 pp.
  • Annual development (Q1 2025 → Q1 2026): Both Netflix and Prime Video lost traction over the year (-1 pp and -4 pp respectively).
  • Market context: Netflix’s most popular titles this quarter include Bridgerton Season 4 and One Piece Season 2 . Prime Video’s most popular titles this quarter included Fallout Season 2, Young Sherlock, and Scarpetta.

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, John Coker III, 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 Andrew (not Werdna).]

Pixel Scroll 3/26/26 Oh To Be In Pixel, Now That Scroll Files There

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(1) TERMINAL LANCE: “GENERATIONAL WAR”. [Item by James Bacon.] Terminal Lance “Generational War”, a poignant Marine parody of Dr Manhattan from Alan Moore’s and Dave Gibbons Watchmen speaks to the repetitive nature of history while sharing the sentiments and thoughts of Iraq Veteran Maximilian Uriarte. 

The Veteran Marine, New York Times best seller, and creator of Terminal Lance a comic strip running for sixteen years now, shared his thoughts on his Terminal Lance blog, which deserves to be read in full. The comic and blog indicates sentiments and thoughtfulness that demonstrates a solidarity with humanity, at this time of war, reflecting a wider anxiety and is an important voice, to hear but also see speaking. 

The Dr Manhattan parody is instantly recognisable, it adeptly gives a sense of lonely distance yet an Omniprescience, and for me, it evoked a sense of the  pointlessness of war, while garnering an appreciation for those in service who make a commitment to what they saw as a greater good, now with no choice, who do their duty even if there is a  desperate despair about the leadership, motivations and orders, facing an inevitable sacrifice.  

The importance of a war veteran writing and creating work, that’s reflecting on our now, one where war is taking place, cannot be underestimated.  

I was fortunate to meet Maximilian, at Wondercon when it was in San Francisco, he was supporting the Concord Veterans Center and an exceptionally nice person whose work has crossed over the military and comic communities, while the realities of the human aspect have brought it wide appeal. 

I enjoy Terminal Lance, the online web comic, but should note that the graphic novel Terminal Lance: The White Donkey by Maximilian Uriarte is one of the best war comics of the 21st Century. An incredible reflection on the realities of war with its close up view of the impact, a beautifully drawn and told comic store that shares an honest and heartfelt insight into the Iraq conflict, written and drawn by a marine who served there.

(2) IT’S A ROBINSON AFFAIR. This Science Fiction / San Francisco event is happening March 29: “Mary Robinson in conversation with Kim Stanley Robinson”. Get tickets through Eventbrite.

The former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson will be in conversation with Kim Stanley Robinson on Sunday March 29th from 2:00pm.

Tickets just added due to overwhelming demand!

Join the Consulate General of Ireland, the University of San Francisco and SF in SF -Science Fiction in San Francisco, as we welcome Mrs. Mary Robinson, President of Ireland (1990-1997), United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002) and globally recognized Human Rights advocate. Joining her in conversation will be award-winning writer Kim Stanley Robinson, author of “The Ministry for the Future”.

Just added ! Due to overwhelming demand, we are able to offer a limited run of tickets. Reserve before March 28th at noon. Space is limited! Register now.

This event will take place at McLaren Conference Center, directly next to the Sobrato center/basketball stadium on the University of San Francisco’s Fulton Street campus.

(3) DREAM FOUNDRY CONTESTS OPEN APRIL 13. The Dream Foundry’s contests for emerging writers and artists will be open to submissions are from April 13 through June 8, 2026.  There are no fees to submit.

The full rules and details regarding the contests, including links to submit and full profiles on the judges, are available here:

Cash prizes will be given to the top three entries. First Place: $1500 (the art contest’s prize money as part of the Monu Bose Memorial Prize). Second Place: $750. Third Place: $400.

For 2026, Julia Rios returns as the writing contest coordinator and Ilinica Barbacuta returns as the art contest coordinator. They’ll announce the judges soon.

(4) OCTOTHORPE. In Episode 156 of the Octothorpe podcast, “Surprisingly Well-Adjusted Young Gentlemen”, John Coxon, Alison Scott, and Liz Batty “discuss Locus, we discuss the Nebulas, we discuss Eastercon, and then we talk about Liz’s totally SFnal and very genre pick.”  There’s an uncorrected transcript here.

A black-and-white cartoon. John is behind a stack of games, saying “Games Room”; Alison is behind a stack of printers and paper, saying “Newsletter”; Liz is on a beach reading with sunglasses and a cocktail. In purple, the words “Octothorpe 156 Eastercon Planning:” appear at the top and “questioning our life choices” at the bottom.

(5) CRITICAL WRAITH. [Item by Steven French.] Ben Child gets a tad snarky over recent LoTR news in the latest “Week In Geek” newsletter: “Will Stephen Colbert’s Lord of the Rings film be Tom Bombadil’s time to shine?” in the Guardian.

As I write this, there are at least five days to April Fools’ Day. Yet the news that Stephen Colbert, the American late night host, is about to write a new Lord of the Rings movie based at least in part on some (more) bits of the JRR Tolkien tome that didn’t make it into Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning trilogy certainly feels like a prankâ€Ķ.

(6) THE MOST IN-DEMAND FAMILY MOVIES OF 2026. JustWatch the world’s largest streaming guide, today released its top performing family friendly titles just ahead of the long Easter weekend. Drawing on millions of JustWatch film fans, the list highlights what US families are watching ahead of the long weekend—spanning decades, genres, and platforms.

Here are some of the key findings: 

  • Fresh releases lead the Easter watchlist
    Three of the top 10 most popular titles are recent releases not yet available on streaming, showing that audiences are looking to watch something new over Easter.
  • Familiar favorites still steal the spotlight
    Sequels, re-releases, and beloved titles like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Zootopia 2, and Wicked: For Good continue to draw strong interest, highlighting the enduring appeal of films audiences already know and love.
  • Classic comebacks
    Renewed interest in the 1985 classic The Goonies is emerging this year amid rumors of a potential sequel in the works, making it a nostalgic pick for Easter viewing.

(7) STILL PLAYING VHS. [Item by Steven French.] Keith Stuart waxes nostalgic in this week’s “Pushing Buttons” newsletter: “My ​quest to ​preserve VHS-​era ​gaming ​culture​, one eBay bid at a time” in the Guardian.

As I am nostalgic and of a certain age, I recently bought a VHS video recorder, just for the retrospective thrill of it; then I won a 32-inch CRT television at an auction in Shepton Mallet. Partly, this was to play a few old videos I had found in my loft, including one of me appearing in a 1990s youth TV show talking about sexism and Tomb Raider. (I was against the sexism, to be clear). But it was also because I wanted a new way of spending my money on fragile video-game nostalgia.

The rise of the games industry in the 1980s and 90s coincided with the explosion of the home-video business, and the two crossed paths in lots of interesting ways. There are the obvious treasures I want to get hold of: VHS copies of Street Fighter: The Movie and the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie, naturally, as well as early games-inspired hits such as The Last Starfighter, The Wizard and WarGames. I rented most of these from my local video shop in the 80s – which, like many others, also sold computer games by the budget publisher Mastertronic, another interesting (at least to me) crossover between these two entertainment formatsâ€Ķ.

(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

March 26, 1931 — Leonard Nimoy. (Died 2015.)

By Paul Weimer: It is fitting that Leonard Nimoy’s birthday should only be a couple of days after William Shatner’s. Sure, like Shatner himself, Nimoy is much more than his Star Trek character. But then again, he is the one who felt it necessary to write a book called I am Not Spock. Shatner never had to do the same for Kirk. 

Why that is is because Nimoy brings a human alienness to Spock that no iteration of him since has quite managed. There are several Spocks running around now in movie and series history, but Nimoy’s is the one that sticks, the one that is the definitive article. The brainiac logic-fueled half humanâ€Ķwho nevertheless shows real passion and anger in “Amok Time”, and especially at the utter joy that Kirk has in fact survived after all. Or learning the limits of logical action in “The Gaileo Seven”. Nimoy’s Spock was always learning, always growing, always becoming better (a lesson Spiner would apply to Data).  The whole journey of Spock’s death, resurrection, and return to normal through the Star Trek movies shows a whole gamut of emotions and character growth. Nimoy sells all of that. 

But Nimoy was more than that. He was the narrator of In Search Of, and I remember watching that for the first time and wondering why the voice was familiar on the episode, and only learning a couple of months later it was, in fact, “Spock”. I also enjoyed his secondary role in the 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers. He also directed a number of movies as well, and became a producer, later, in the bargain. When I finally got to watching the original Mission Impossible (which I had only seen scattershot growing up), I was delighted to find he was there, too, as a master of disguise and immersion, Paris.  

Later in life, he had a role in a number of episodes of Fringe.

On top of all that, you probably know about his music, if for nothing else than “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins.”. But did you know he was also a rather good photographer? In a world next door, he pursued that to the fullest rather than acting. As it is, the work he has done has been exhibited in major museums. 

Such a diverse and strong and polymathic artistic talent. I wish I could have met him, but he died in 2015.  Requiescat in pace. 

(9) COMICS SECTION.

(10) ENTERTAINING COINCIDENCE. Mental Floss found “7 Historical Figures Who Lived at the Same Time (But Feel Like They Didn’t)”. For example — Orville Wright (1871–1948) and Neil Armstrong (1930–2012).

â€ĶWhen Neil Armstrong stepped onto the Moon in 1969, it highlighted how far aviation had come from its earliest days. Orville Wright, who pioneered powered flight in 1903, witnessed advances from horse-drawn travel to the breaking of the sound barrier in 1947—capturing one of history’s most dramatic leaps, even though he didn’t live to see humans reach the Moonâ€Ķ

(11) NEW APPLE TV SFF PROJECT. “Vanessa Kirby & Yahya Abdul-Mateen II To Star In ‘Liminal’” reports Deadline.

Apple has greenlighted Liminal, a sci-fi action-thriller from director Louis Leterrier (Fast X) that will star Academy Award nominee Vanessa Kirby (Pieces of a Woman) and Emmy winner Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Wonder Man).

Liminal is based on the AWA graphic novel Telepaths by Eisner Award winner J. Michael Straczynski, Steve Epting and Brian Reber. While the plot of the feature take is being kept under wraps, the source material takes place in a world where a tenth of the population suddenly gains telepathic powers as a result of electromagnetic disturbance. Subsequently, newly telepathic Boston police find themselves contending with a faction, led by a wrongly convicted prisoner, who are trying to escape a world in which their powers will make them targets.

Hailing from Apple Studios, Liminal is written by Justin Rhodes (Terminator: Dark Fate)â€Ķ.

(12) KENTUCKY ENERGY DISCOVERY. “Scientists Turn Bourbon Waste Into Supercapacitors With A 25x Energy Boost” reports HotHardware.

Scientists at the University of Kentucky have found a way to turn the soggy, grain-filled leftovers of bourbon production, a.k.a. stillage, into high-performance electrodes for supercapacitors, potentially turning Kentucky’s 95% share of the world’s bourbon market into a major player in the green energy grid.

No doubt then that one of Kentucky’s bread-and-butter industries is the whiskey business. However, for every bottle of Pappy Van Winkle or Jim Beam you might enjoy, there are about 10 bottles’ worth of a chunky, beige, oatmeal-like sludge left behind in the vats. Distilleries usually offload this stillage to local farmers as cow feed, but cows have their limits, and the sheer volume of waste is a logistical headache that requires expensive drying processes.

Enter the chemists Josiel Barrios Cossio and Marcelo Guzman who recently discovered that this waste is a goldmine of carbon. By stuffing the stillage into a 10-liter reactor and hitting it with intense heat and pressure (a technique known as hydrothermal carbonization), they transformed the sog into a fine black powder.

This powder was then treated in two different ways. Some of it was baked at 392° Fahrenheit to create hard carbon, a material where the carbon sheets are slightly messy and disorganized, making it the perfect storage medium for absorbing lithium ions. The rest was treated with potassium hydroxide and blasted at 1,472° to create activated carbon, which is packed with tiny pores that provide a massive surface area for holding an electrical charge.

When the team sandwiched these materials into coin-sized supercapacitors, the results were very positive. The activated carbon versions performed as well as high-end commercial models. However, the biggest surprise came when the team built hybrid devices using both the hard and activated carbons—they found that these bourbon batteries stored up to 25 times more energy per kilogram than traditional versions.

As they are, supercapacitors are prized for their ability to charge and discharge almost instantly, perfect for the regenerative braking in electric cars or stabilizing the power grid when the wind stops blowingâ€Ķ. 

(13) VIDEO OF THE DAY. “DreamWorks Animation Drops ‘Forgotten Island’ First Look” from Animation World Network.

Grammy and Academy Award winner H.E.R. and Soberano (Lisa Frankenstein, Alone/Together) star as high school graduates Jo and Raissa, best friends since grade school but now about to embark on separate life paths. While celebrating their last night together, the pair stumble upon a mysterious portal that transports them to the fantastical island of Nakali, packed with magical and mythological creatures they grew up hearing stories about from their Filipino families. 

Some of these figures will become friends, some foes. Joined by well-meaning-but- hapless weredog Raww (Dave Franco) and a small-but-mighty pack of pals, Jo and Raissa must face The Dreaded Manananggal (Tony winning icon Lea Salonga), the most feared creature on the island. When they discover that the memories of their entire friendship are the price for returning home, Jo and Raissa will race to find a way to leave the island before they forget each other forever.

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

Pixel Scroll 3/17/26 Last Night I Watched The Planets In My Pajamas

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(1) THIS, TOO, SHALL PASS. “Noelle W. Ihli on Reading Survival Thrillers in a World of Real Danger” at CrimeReads.

Readers often ask me some version of the same question: How can I stand writing survival thrillers when there’s already so much terror and stress to survive in the real world?…

â€ĶMost days, I read at least a handful of truly disturbing headlines before my morning coffee. So why, on top of all that, would anyone choose to pick up (or write, cough) a book about being hunted, trapped, abducted, or chased down a rural highway?

I’ve learned a lot about the answer to that question over the past five years, since I started writing thrillers full-time.

I’m already an anxious person in my day-to-day life. And honestly, I expected my anxiety to skyrocket with my new career path. (To be fair, it still does when I’m writing a particularly suspenseful or scary scene.) But here’s the thing I always intuitively knew as a reader, that I’ve learned even more as a writer: Survival thrillers do something real life doesn’t.

They have a beginning, a middle, and an end. There is no limbo.

It’s all over in a night, if you binge that book.

In everyday life, anxiety can feel shapeless and never-ending. It follows us to work, to sleep, to the grocery store, to the car, even on vacation. Thrillers take that fear and anxiety and give it a shape. They lay out the danger, the person facing it, the ordeal to survive, and the resolution. And for those of us who live with that constant hum of anxiety, experiencing that narrative arc is pricelessâ€Ķ.

(2) DUNE 3. Variety introduces the “Dune 3 Trailer: TimotheÃĐ Chalamet, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson at War”.

“It’s a trailer launch? It looks like a premiere,” Denis Villeneuve joked after introducing the stars of “Dune Part Three” to an AMC theater full of journalists, film critics, bloggers and creators in Los Angeles on the Monday after the Oscarsâ€Ķ.

â€Ķ “Dune: Part Three,” inspired by Frank Herbert’s “Dune: Messiah,” tells the story of what happens after Paul â€” the warrior prince and chosen one — defeats the Harkonnens and becomes Emperor, embracing his role as the Fremen’s messiah and initiating a holy war. He also marries Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh) for political power, causing Chani to abandon him. The teaser features explosive glimpses of the galactic conflict that follows, as well as the internal battles that plague Paulâ€Ķ.

â€Ķ. The clip opens with Paul and Chani in happier times, discussing baby names. “If we have a girl what should we name her?” Chani asks. “Her name should be Ghanima. She would need to be strong like her mother,” Paul replies, then asks, “What if it’s a boy?” Chani replies: “I would name him Leto, so he would have the wisdom of his grandfather.”

“Dune” fans will immediately recognize this bit of foreshadowing, but we won’t spoil it here. Instead, let’s relish the gorgeous, lens-flared footage of Zendaya walking along the dunes, while Chani is still the “heartbeat” of Villeneuve’s story, this is “Dune,” not “Under the Tuscan Sun.”â€Ķ

(3) HIGHEST POST-OSCAR VIEWING BUMPS. JustWatch shared some streaming insights from the Oscars on Sunday, highlighting the films that saw the biggest uplift in streaming popularity in the 24 hours following the 98th Academy Awards.

The following insights are based on the 20 million monthly JustWatch users in the US:
Documentaries and short films saw the biggest post-Oscars surge in popularity.

  • Mr. Nobody Against Putin (+524%) and All the Empty Rooms (+661%) recorded the strongest growth following their wins.
  • Short film Two People Exchanging Saliva also saw a significant increase (+334%).
  • Among major winners, One Battle After Another (Best Picture) led with a +231% rise in streaming interest.
  • Sinners followed as the second most popular Big-Five winner, up +136%.

(4) BRING ME MY SPEAR: O CLOUDS UNFOLD: BRING ME MY CHARIOT OF FIRE. “Trapped! Inside a Self-Driving Car During an Anti-Robot Attack.” The New York Times reports, “In San Francisco, some passengers of autonomous taxis have experienced an unexpected hazard: being stuck in the vehicles when the cars are assaulted.” (Behind a paywall.)

In January, Doug Fulop was riding home from a night out in San Francisco when a man crossed the street in front of his car, doubled back and began screaming at him. The man punched the car’s windows and tried lifting up the vehicle. He then yelled that he wanted to kill Mr. Fulop and the other two passengers for giving money to a robot.

A taxi driver would have simply driven away. But Mr. Fulop’s vehicle had no driver — it was a self-driving Waymo.

“We felt helpless,” said Mr. Fulop, 37, who works in the tech industry.

Since autonomous cars started roaming San Francisco streets almost four years ago, they have elicited an array of unexpected behaviors from humans, including angry protests against the vehicles. That has created an unexpected hazard for passengers of self-driving cars all around the city: being stuck inside the vehicle during an anti-robot rant.

Self-driving cars are designed to stop moving if a person is nearby. People can take advantage of that function to harass and threaten their passengers. In 2024, a San Francisco man tried covering the sensors of a self-driving car that had stopped, effectively disabling it, while passengers were inside. Another video from that year showed three women screaming as a group of vandals tagged their autonomous taxi with spray paint.

It was unsettling to be trapped inside a Waymo during an attack, Mr. Fulop said. “If he had kept hammering on one window instead of alternating, I’m sure he would have eventually broken through,” he said.

The attacker did not appear to be on drugs or otherwise impaired, but seemed to be overtaken by extreme anger at the self-driving car, Mr. Fulop said. It did not seem safe to get out and run, he added, since the man was trying to open the locked doors and said he wanted to kill the passengers.

They called 911 and Waymo’s support line, Mr. Fulop said. Waymo told them that it would not manually direct the car away if someone was standing nearby, and that the passengers would be OK with the doors locked. The car’s software does not allow riders to jump into the driver’s seat and take over during an incident.

The attack lasted around six minutes. By then, bystanders had begun cheering on the man, Mr. Fulop said. That distracted the man, who moved far enough away from the car that it could finally drive away.

San Francisco police officers showed up shortly after. A police report reviewed by The New York Times supported Mr. Fulop’s accountâ€Ķ.

(5) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

March 17, 1948 — William Gibson, 78.

By Paul Weimer: The High Duke of Cyberpunk.

I first came to William Gibson like many other people, with Neuromancer. It took me a few years to get to it, I was still working through 50s to 80s SF through much of the 1980s, so it wasn’t until I was an adult that I finally got a deep dive into Cyberpunk.

I started with Neuromancer, of course, and found out why everyone was so interested and so enthused about it. I still think it holds up, even now, I re-read it a few years ago.  But I do admit that other Gibson novels stand on their own, and not on the shoulders of Neuromancer alone. But Neuromancer, Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive are, basically, what a lot of people think of when they think of “cyberpunk”. One can thank, or blame, The Matrix for taking so many notes from the Sprawl books in order to transmit that aesthetic and idea into the mainstream.

The Difference Engine, for example, which he co-wrote with Sterling, feels very dated now (and some of his attitudes are pretty awful, I think, even now), but it stands as an icon of Steampunk even today. Once again, aesthetics are important, even more so than Cyberpunk, in conveying a mood and an idea (or even, gasp, a VIBE) to science fiction. 

But would I have new readers start with either? No. I think the novel that really captures his voice, his importance and his strengths as a writer is The Peripheral. I highly enjoyed the Amazon series, even given the liberties that it took with the source material, but I think that it is a good way for people to be introduced to the virtual reality and other technological ideas that Gibson brings to the table. In a real way, The Peripheral shows how important Gibson and his point of view on technology and science fiction are in a way few have matched in any era. That makes him, in my mind, one of the advocates of a phrase I coined during the Chengdu Ineligibility, of the Science Fiction Project. 

So in the end one might say that Gibson is a godfather, or one of the prime movers at the very least, of two subgenres of science fiction, in addition to being an advocate for the Science Fiction Project. That’s a solid legacy. And as mentioned above with The Peripheral, people are still discovering and enjoying Gibson for the first time.

William Gibson

(6) COMICS SECTION.

(7) ïŧŋMEET APOLLO AND ARTEMIS. The US Space & Rocket Center here in Huntsville has a new pair of mascots. A public vote has helped select their names—Apollo and Artemis.

When I first saw their photo, my exact original thought was, “Oh my, that’s a bit terrifying.“ Then, wondering if I was overreacting, I reached out to my brother. He assured me I was not the only one who thought that. He told me that one wag on Reddit suggested they were to warn kids about the dangers of explosive decompression. Another mentioned the â€œHoneynut Cheerios Bee on meth.”

Anyway, here they are:

And here is Arnold Schwarzenegger undergoing explosive decompression in Total Recall:

(8) FABULOUS PUPPETS. [Item by Steven French.] The Guardian shares some lovely backstage photos of My Neighbour Totoro: “’Happy as can be!’ My Neighbour Totoro toasts first birthday in London’s West End”.

The spectacular stage version of Studio Ghibli’s much-loved film has spent a year at the Gillian Lynne theatre in London. To celebrate, photographer Tristram Kenton was granted backstage accessâ€Ķ

(9) ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS. [Item by Jeffrey Smith.] “Asteroid Ryugu Contains All 5 DNA and RNA Building Blocks, Study Shows” – Gizmodo has details.

Early Earth was a brutally hot, volcanically active, radiation-bathed wasteland. Somehow amid this hostility, the necessary ingredients for life must have appeared, but where did they come from?

Astronomers have been working to answer that question for decades. They have developed several hypotheses, one of which suggests that asteroids and comets delivered the ingredients to Earth over the course of many collisions. A study published today in Nature Astronomy adds to a growing body of evidence to support this idea, finding all five nucleobases in samples of the asteroid Ryugu.

The five nucleobases are the building blocks of DNA and RNA—the genetic material inherent to all life on Earth. “This result further supports the idea that nucleobases could have been present in primitive asteroids and delivered to the early Earth, potentially contributing to the chemical evolution that preceded the origin of life,” co-author Toshiki Koga, a postdoctoral researcher at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, told Gizmodo in an emailâ€Ķ.

(10) TODAY’S TITLE EXPLANATION. [By Daniel P. Dern, with apologies to Groucho.] “Last Night I Watched The Planets In My Pajamas” via Grouch Marx, in Animal Crackers (the musical and the movie).

The item: This was in email from Qwoted (where journalists look for quoteable/info sources): ASTRONOMY/SCIENCE/SPACE EXPERT – MISLABELED PLANETS ON KIDS PAJAMAS IN VIRAL REDDIT POST (URGENT) [url1940.qwoted.com]

I’m a reporter at Newsweek and I’m working on a piece about a viral image circulating online that shows children’s pajamas with several planets mislabeled (for example, Jupiter and Mercury appear to be swapped based on size and appearance). I was hoping you might be able to offer a brief expert comment explaining why the labels are scientifically incorrect, particularly from a basic astronomy or early science education…

DPD: This appears to be the original Reddit, or at least, one that matches the criteria: “Planet names switched on kids’ pajamas” r/onejob.

And here’s the Newsweek story that ran: “Space-Themed Kids’ Pajamas Baffle Adults Who Notice Major Design Flaw”.

Dern concludes: It’s all bananas.

(11) VIDEO OF THE DAY. “Famous TV Show Cars That Were Lost And Found” from America on Wheels.

The studios sold most of these cars for less than five hundred dollars. The General Lee. KITT. The A-Team Van. Some went straight to the crusher. Others sat forgotten in barns and storage units for thirty years while their owners had absolutely no idea what they were sitting on. Today those same cars are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars — and the stories of how they were found are even better than the shows they came from. Let’s find them.

[Thanks to Kathy Sullivan, Steven French, Mike Kennedy, Daniel Dern, Jeffrey Smith, 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.]

Pixel Scroll 3/13/26 You’re Scrolling Into Another Dimension, The Signpost Up Ahead, The Pixel Scroll

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(1) DOCTOR WHO RECOVERED. Nice for the Whovians – two missing episodes from 1965 have been recovered, the first and third episodes of “The Daleks’ Master Plan”. “Lost Doctor Who and the Daleks episodes discovered in ‘ramshackle’ collection” at BBC. (Subscription required for readers outside the UK.)

A cardboard box found in a collector’s “ramshackle” collection of vintage films contained two episodes of Doctor Who that have not been viewed since airing in the 1960s.

The episodes feature the first incarnation of the Doctor, played by William Hartnell, tackling a Dalek plan to take over Earth, the solar system and the galaxy in a storyline only ever shown in the UK.

Peter Purves, who played the Doctor’s assistant Steven Taylor, was invited to the Phoenix Cinema in Leicester on Wednesday under false pretences to view the two episodes, and he said: “My flabber has never been so gasted.”

Restored versions of the episodes will be released on BBC iPlayer this Easter.

The first episode, titled The Nightmare Begins, was part of the third season of Doctor Who and was aired in November 1965.

The second recovered episode, Devil’s Planet, was broadcast two weeks laterâ€Ķ.

â€Ķ The intervening episode, Day of Armageddon, was found in 2004 by a former BBC engineer, meaning fans now have the first three instalments of The Daleks’ Master Plan arc. Written by the creator of the Daleks, Terry Nation, and Dennis Spooner, the serial starred Hartnell and Purves alongside an early appearance by Nicholas Courtney as Bret Vyon, Adrienne Hill as Katarina, and Kevin Stoney as Mavic Chenâ€Ķ.

(2) EATING THE FANTASTIC. Scott Edelman invites listeners to dig into Bangkok street duck with Salinee Goldenberg in Episode 277 of the Eating the Fantastic podcast.

Salinee Goldenberg

Salinee Goldenberg is the author of the novels The Last Phi Hunter and Way of the Walker, the second of which was released only a few weeks before we recorded. Both were published by Angry Robot. Previously, she worked at Bethesda Softworks creating narrative trailers for games such as Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Dishonored, and now produces videos for Minecraft. But those aren’t her only artistic outlets, for she also paints and plays in the punk band SexFaces.

We discussed what it was like having to deliver her second published novel on a deadline after having had her entire life to write the first, the Final Fantasy fanfic she wrote as a kid, why she’s attracted more to novels than short stories, how getting critiqued in the gaming industry prepared her to deal with writing workshops, why she considers herself a recovering pantser, how writing the ending of her new novel was almost like being in a fever dream, why she likes reading bad reviews, how to know when it’s necessary to kill your darlings, the way to write battle scenes so readers can follow the fight choreography, how being a guitarist in a punk rock band impacts her writing, and much more.

(3) RINGO AWARDS NOW TAKING NOMINATIONS. The Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards return for their ninth year on Saturday, September 26 as part of the Baltimore Comic-Con.

Unlike other professional industry awards, the Ringo Awards include fan participation in the nomination process along with an esteemed jury of comics professionals. 

Fan and pro-jury voting are tallied independently, and the combined nomination ballot is compiled by the Ringo Awards Committee. The top two fan choices become nominees, and the jury’s selections fill the remaining three slots for five total nominees per category. Ties may result in more than five nominees in a single category. Nominees will be listed on the ballot alphabetically. Nomination ballot voting is open to the public (fans and pros) between March 13, 2026 and May 28, 2026.

Updated Categories: New in 2026 are a number of updates to the Ringo Awards based on juror, publisher, and voter submissions:

  • Best Single Issue or Story is renamed Best Short Story
  • Best Kids Comic or Graphic Novel is now divided into subcategories for Ages 11 and Under and Ages 12 and Up
  • Added the Best Comics-Related Publication category, recognizing outstanding non-comic works that explore, analyze, or document the art, history, and/or culture of comics

(4) TUTTLE REVIEWS. Lisa Tuttle’s “The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – review roundup” in the Guardian covers The Library of Traumatic Memory by Neil Jordan; The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan; Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison; Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman; and Spoiled Milk by Avery Curran

(5) TECHNOFASCISM. At CrimeReads, Ani Katz makes recommendations: “Technofascism in Thrillers: A Reading List”. Here’s one of the several genre works on that list.

The City & The City by China MiÃĐville

MiÃĐville’s much-lauded police procedural is something special. What seems at first like a straightforward murder investigation of a foreign student quickly becomes more than meets the eye– though actually, in the fictional Eastern European city of BeszÃĐl, choosing what does and does not meet your eye is a matter of grave consequence. BeszÃĐl has a twin city, Ul Qoma– the two cities are so close that they are intertwined, sharing much of the same geographical space, but the citizens of each metropolis must “unsee” the other. To acknowledge the other city is known as breaching, a violation which brings on the full force of Breach, an inescapable, all-seeing secret police. Breach, and you disappear forever. Inspector Tyador Borlu’s investigation leads him through iron doors and puzzle boxes of bureaucracy in what becomes a search for a rumored third city hiding between BeszÃĐl and Ul Qoma. MiÃĐville deftly conjures a sense of surveillance and control so oppressive it feels physically palpable.

(6) FREE READ. Grist has published the next climate fiction story in their Imagine 2200 series, “Sandbag Squidward”, “a snarky, sarcastic story about the desire to run away from reality, and how hope and connection can find their way in despite your best efforts.”

Henry’s visions of serving his Conservation Corps time on a beautiful beach, like the one in the digital world he’s building, crash into reality when he’s assigned instead to a cold, dirty beach in Louisiana. Despite his best efforts to do as little work as possible, and to demean everyone around him, the real world seeps into his digital paradise.

What will happen when Henry gets the chance to leave the real world behind and devote himself full time to his digital existence? Well, the answer might not surprise you, but the path to get there will surely entertain you.

(7) FEEDING THE TROLL. The YouTubers who produce The Damage Report opened yesterday’s installment by pounding Jon Del Arroz: “Right-Wingers CRUMBLE As Masters Of The Universe Movie Attack Backfires Spectacularly”. Of course, JDA absolutely believes there’s no such thing as bad publicity. So, uh, everybody wins?

Right-wingers crumble as their arguments over the new Masters of the Universe movie, Mr. Rogers and the new Star Trek series immediately backfire in their faces. John Iadarola and Brett Erlich break it down on The Damage Report. Leave a comment with your thoughts below!

(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

March 13, 1956 — Dana Delany, 70.

I remember Dana Delany best for her role as nurse Colleen McMurphy on China Beach, set at a Vietnam War evacuation hospital.  It aired for four seasons starting in the late Eighties. Great role, fantastic series. I rewatched it a decade or so ago on DVD — it held up very well.

Dana Delany

So let me deal with her main genre role which was voicing Lois Lane. She first did this twenty years ago in Superman: The Animated Series for forty-four episodes, an amazing feat by any standard.  That role would come again in Superman: Brainiac Attacks, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (avoid if you’ve got even a shred of brain cells), in a recurring role on the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited series, The Batman and even in the Superman: Shadow of Apokolips game.

Her other voice role of note was for Wing Commander Academy as Gwen Archer Bowman. And she wasn’t Lois Lane but Vilsi Vaylar in Batman: The Brave and the Bold’s “The Super-Batman of Planet X!”. 

She’ll have a one-off on Battle Galactica as Sesha Abinell; more significantly she has a starring role as Grace Wyckoff in the Wild Palms series. 

Oh, she showed up on Castle as FBI Special Agent Jordan Shaw in a two-part story, the episodes being “Tick, Tick, Tickâ€Ķ” and “Boom!”. 

So I’m going to finish with her role in Tombstone, Emma Bull and Will Shetterley’s favorite Western film along with the Deadwood series. It’s an inspiration she says for her Territory novel. And I love it as well. Delany played magnificently Josephine Sarah “Sadie” Earp, the common-law wife of Wyatt Earp. The final scene of them dancing in the snow in San Francisco is truly sniffles inducing. 

(9) COMICS SECTION.

(10) MEDIUM COOLER. [Item by Steven French.] The Guardian picks its six favourite board games based on video games: “Less respawning, more re-rolling: six of the best board games based on video games”.

Video games have long been heavily inspired by physical games, from chess and Scrabble to Dungeons & Dragons. The deck-building collectible card game, for example, has become immensely popular in digital form, thanks to hits such as Slay the Spire, Marvel Snap and Balatro. Now, an increasing number of games are going in the opposite direction, trading pixels for pieces and screens for spinners. Here are six of our favouritesâ€Ķ.

(11) SH-BOOM! “Astronomer witnesses ‘bonkers’ collision of 2 planets” – USA Today has the story.

Two planets crashed into one another in a violent, chaotic collision that astronomers recently witnessed 11,000 light-years away from Earth.

The rare cosmic event is not one scientists get to see every day.

But thanks to a bit of serendipity, a researcher at the University of Washington looking through old telescope data happened upon the bread crumbs that would lead him to the stunning discovery. A distant star located at a distance equal to nearly halfway from Earth to the galactic center of the Milky Way was displaying short dips in brightness before apparent chaos erupted.

“Right around 2021, it went completely bonkers,” study lead author Anastasios Tzanidakis, a researcher at the University of Washington, said in a statement. “I can’t emphasize enough that stars like our sun don’t do that. So when we saw this one, we were like ‘Hello, what’s going on here?’”

The phenomenon, which researchers claimed had never before been observed, led them to conclude that what they were seeing was evidence of a planetary collision, according to a study published March 11 in the Astrophysical Journal Lettersâ€Ķ.

(12) THE STARS OUR DESTINATION. “No Coming Back: Meet Chrysalis, the 36-Mile Interstellar Ship Designed to Carry 1,000 Humans Beyond Earthâ€Ķ Forever” – Indian Defence Review has the story.

â€ĶEngineers studying interstellar missions increasingly approach the challenge from a different perspective. Instead of designing a craft for a small crew, they imagine a self-contained environment capable of supporting an entire population for generations. A vessel attempting such a journey would need to produce food, recycle its atmosphere, and maintain a functioning society without any external support.

One concept exploring that possibility is called Chrysalis. Developed as part of the Project Hyperion Design Competition, the proposal outlines a massive generational spacecraft capable of carrying 1,000 people on a voyage lasting roughly 250 years toward a neighboring star system.

The Chrysalis concept was proposed by a multidisciplinary team that includes Andreas M. Hein of the University of Luxembourg and designer Frederic Spiedel. Their approach treats the vessel less like a transport craft and more like a long-term settlement that happens to travel through space.

At the center of the design is a rotating habitat ring. Instead of drifting weightless, the inhabitants would experience artificial gravity generated by centrifugal force as the structure spins. This approach has long been considered one of the most practical ways to replicate Earth-like gravity conditions in spaceâ€Ķ.

â€Ķ The technical challenges of building a generational spacecraft are immense, but they are only part of the problem. Maintaining a stable community for centuries inside a closed environment introduces equally complex social questions.

The competition required participating teams to address governance, education, and knowledge preservation across generations. Children born aboard the ship would eventually inherit responsibility for maintaining the systems that sustain the spacecraft.

To support that continuity, the Chrysalis design includes educational facilities, research areas, and community governance spaces. These institutions would help preserve technical knowledge and maintain the mission’s long-term objectives.

Robotic maintenance systems also form a critical component of the spacecraft’s infrastructure. Autonomous robots could inspect the outer hull, repair mechanical systems, and monitor environmental stability without exposing humans to the risks of deep-space operationsâ€Ķ.

(13) SINNERS VS. ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER. Ahead of the 98th Academy Awards, JustWatch analyzed streaming behavior from 20 million monthly U.S. users to compare demand for two of this year’s most talked-about nominees: Ryan Coogler’s Sinners and Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another.

Our latest data shows that awards buzz is translating into a recent surge in streaming demand for one of the films.

Key takeaways:

  • Sinners leads One Battle After Another in overall streaming interest on JustWatch by 30%
  • Following the Oscar nominations announcement, Sinners saw a 617% surge in streaming interest when compared to One Battle After Another
  • Momentum continued after the SAG-AFTRA’s Actor Awards, with Sinners seeing a 187% increase in audience interest compared to One Battle After Another

[Click for larger image.] The chart above illustrates how streaming demand for both films evolved across major awards season milestones like the announcement of the Academy Award nomination, the BAFTAs, and the Actors Awards. Across these moments, recent streaming audience interest appears to swing increasingly in favor of Sinners.

The analysis is based on streaming intent data from JustWatch users in the U.S. between January 8 and March 9, 2026, capturing audience actions such as clicking through to streaming providers.

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Cat Eldridge, Andrew (not Werdna), Nicholas Whyte, Olav Rokne, James Bacon, Scott Edelman, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, 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 Thomas the Red.]

Pixel Scroll 3/7/26 Ain’t No Pixels In This Scroll, And The Scroll Is Far Too Long, Anytime She Files Away

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(1) SFF/H FILMS DIRECTED BY WOMEN. Ahead of International Women’s Day (March 8), new data from streaming guide JustWatch reveals the most streamed horror and fantasy films directed by women in the United States, highlighting how female filmmakers are making an impact in genres traditionally dominated by male directors.

Audiences have been gravitating towards horror, fantasy, and science fiction with the genres’ inventive storytelling and boundary-pushing filmmaking, and women filmmakers are among the genre’s top directors. According to the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative study, women directed only 8% of 2025’s top 100 grossing films. And yet a number of recent movies by women are among the most popular horror and fantasy movies streamed during the past year according to JustWatch, the world’s largest streaming guide with over 20 million monthly users in the United States.

The ranking shows that audiences are actively seeking out genre films from women directors across major streaming platforms.

Some highlights from the list:

  • Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance ranks as the most streamed female-directed genre film in the U.S.
  • Emma Tammi’s Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 follows closely behind
  • Kelly Marcel’s Venom: The Last Dance also ranks among the most popular titles
  • Indie hits like Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow are also among the top streamed films

The analysis is based on streaming activity from JustWatch users in the United States between January 2025 and March 2026, tracking which films viewers are most actively trying to stream online.

(2) TIME PASSAGES. SF 101 takes listeners “Back to the Futures” in episode 63.

This time on Science Fiction 101, we take some trips down memory lane to revisit classic time travel movies. We mostly focus on the Back to the Future series, but also a couple of wildcards: Primer (2004, Colin’s pick) and Peggy Sue Got Married (1986, Phil’s pick).

We also have a listener quiz – Silverberg/Tolkien/Bradbury – and our usual round-up of recommended SF past, present and future.

(3) LAST SEASON OF ‘THE BOYS’. “The Boys Final Season 5 Trailer: Homelander Sits in The White House” – Variety introduces the trailer.

The end of “The Boys” is nearly here.

Amazon Prime Video has released the trailer for the fifth and final season of the superhero drama, which will begin streaming on April 8 with its first two episodes. The series finale will drop on May 20.

“In the fifth and final season, it’s Homelander’s world, completely subject to his erratic, egomaniacal whims,” the logline reads. “Hughie, Mother’s Milk, and Frenchie are imprisoned in a ‘Freedom Camp.’ Annie struggles to mount a resistance against the overwhelming Supe force. Kimiko is nowhere to be found. But when Butcher reappears, ready and willing to use a virus that will wipe all Supes off the map, he sets in motion a chain of events that will forever change the world and everyone in it. It’s the climax, people. Big stuff’s gonna happen.”

(4) 2026 BRITISH FILM DESIGNERS GUILD AWARDS. Deadline reports that Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein was one of the big winners at the 2026 British Film Designers Guild Awards. The complete list of winners is at the link. Here are the ones of genre interest:

Best Production Design – Major Motion Picture

  • Frankenstein

Best Production Design – Major Motion Picture, Fantasy

  • Production Designer Fiona Crombie and Set Decorator Alice Felton for Mickey 17 

Lifetime Achievement Award

  • Malcolm Stone, whose credits include The Muppets, Band of Brothers, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and The Dark Crystal.

(5) HAMIT BOOK HONORED. Congratulations to Francis Hamit who has won a Literary Titan Book Award for his Vietnam War memoir Out of Step – Part One.  “Not science fiction,” says Francis, “but it gets notice and occasionally drags a sale of Starmen along with it as well. Getting five-star reviews regardless.”

(6) FOR THOSE WHO CELEBRATE. Hot dang! Daylight savings time begins in the U.S. tomorrow!

(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

March 7, 1944 — Stanley Schmidt, 82.

This Scroll I come to speak of an editor that I really like, Stanley Schmidt. Starting in 1978, his longest tenure as an editor was at Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine for an extraordinary thirty-four years. I’m reasonably sure that he was nominated a record twenty-nine times before winning a Best Editor, Short Form at LoneStarCon. That Award came just before his retirement from Analog, nice timing indeed.

Stanley Schmidt accepts the Solstice Award in 2015. Photo by Kathi Overton.

But let’s go back in time now. 

He started out as a writer with his first short story being “A Flash of Darkness” being published in Analog in September of 1968.  Likewise his first novel, The Sins of the Fathers, serialized in Analog from November 1973 to January 1974. So one could, well I will, say that his editing of Analog was well rooted in his own history with it. 

Now where was I? Oh there. The Sins of The Fathers is an amazing work and would’ve made a stellar series but Schmidt was not, shall I say a prolific writer with just three novels and I count thirty-two short stories, so that didn’t happen. However the Lifeboat Earth collection of nine stories does continue what was started here, so do get it and read them if you enjoyed this novel.

He edited a lot, and I do mean a lot, of Analog anthologies taken from the material he edited in those years he was there. I can’t say which you should read as they’re all likely to have excellent reading in them, aren’t they?  

He only edited four other anthologies of which I’ve only read one, having a decided jones for alternate history of all sorts: Roads Not Taken: Tales of Alternate History, co-edited with Gardner Dozois. Turtledove, Silverberg and Resnick, to name but a few, have stories hereâ€Ķ Great stories all of course.

Before I take your leave, I should note that he had the honor of winning the Robert A. Heinlein Award which is given by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society for outstanding published works in science fiction and technical writings that inspire the human exploration of space.

(8) COMICS SECTION.

(9) PINKWATER ON CAR TALK. Daniel Pinkwater called into this episode: “#2615: ‘Relaxed Fit’ Comes for Cars” – The Best of Car Talk on NPR. His call begins about 13 minutes into the show.

Raconteur and friend of the show, Daniel Pinkwater has been on a lifelong quest for the perfect car. His is a quest not motivated by horsepower or design so much as the need to find a vehicle that he can get his ‘substantial’ frame in and out of without the use of lubricants. How effective is WD-40 when used as an antiperspirant? Find out on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.

(10) LET THEM EAT HUMMUS! [Item by Steven French.]  â€œScientists successfully harvest chickpeas from ‘moon dirt’” reports Phys.org. (Spoiler alert: the regolith had to be laced with a type of fungus for the chickpeas to grow).

As the U.S. plans to return to the moon with the upcoming Artemis II mission, a question endures: What will future lunar explorers eat? According to new research from The University of Texas at Austin, the answer might be chickpeas.

Scientists have successfully grown and harvested chickpeas using simulated “moon dirt,” the first instance of this crop produced in this medium. The research, which was conducted in collaboration with Texas A&M University, is described in a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Sara Santos, the principal investigator of the project, said that the work is a giant leap in understanding what it will take to grow food on the lunar surface.

“The research is about understanding the viability of growing crops on the moon,” said Santos, who is a distinguished postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG) at the Jackson School of Geosciences. “How do we transform this regolith into soil? What kinds of natural mechanisms can cause this conversion?”

(11) THE MOUSE THAT BORED. “Robot ‘mice’ developed to inspect Large Hadron Collider” reports BBC. (Subscription required by readers outside UK.)

A mouse-sized robot has been developed, in part by UK scientists, to inspect the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) on the Swiss-French border.

The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), which is based in Oxfordshire, partnered with the European Organisation for Nuclear Research – known as Cern – to develop the robot.

A first-of-its-kind, the robot – which is 3.7cm (1.5in) wide – travels autonomously through the narrow pipes making up the 27km-long (17 miles) collider.

The invention, which has made it much easier to check areas which can be extremely tight and cold, was recently awarded with a prestigious engineering honour celebrating innovationâ€Ķ

(12) ROBOTS FIGHT IN UKRAINE. The BBC tells how “Armed robots take to the battlefield in Ukraine war”. (Subscription required outside UK.)

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the war in Ukraine has developed into a high-tech conflict. 

Now, Ukraine has embarked on a massive programme to deploy armed robots on the ground.

Uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs), or ground robot systems as they are known in Ukrainian military parlance, have already proven their worth.

“Robot wars are already happening,” says Oleksandr Afanasiev from the Ukrainian army’s K2 brigade. He commands its UGV battalion – the world’s first, he says.

The role of armed UGVs will soon grow exponentially, according to Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s former commander-in-chief and now ambassador to the UK.

Speaking at the London think-tank Chatham House about the future of warfare, he described how strike UGVs would be used not just on their own, but as part of large, AI-powered swarms of drones. 

“In the near future we’ll see dozens and even hundreds of smarter and cheaper drones attack from various directions and heights, from the air, ground and sea at the same time,” he said.

“Sooner or later, we’ll end up in a situation where our strike UGV will come up against their strike UGV on the battlefield. Robot wars may sound like science fiction, but there’s nothing sci-fi about the battlefield. It’s our reality,” he says.

Another Ukrainian manufacturer of UGVs, Tencore, produced more than 2,000 UGVs for the Ukrainian army in 2025.

Its director, Maksym Vasylchenko, expects demand to jump to around 40,000 units in 2026, at least 10-15% of them armed with weapons.

Further ahead, Vasylchenko believes robots will engage in combat in human form: “It won’t be science fiction anymore.”

[Thanks to SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Kathy Sullivan, 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 Peer.]

Pixel Scroll 3/3/26 I Don’t Care, I’m Still Free, You Can’t Take This Scroll From Me

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(1) HAVE YE SEEN THE GREAT WHITE TUNA SURPRISE? Timothy the Talking Cat mentioned File 770’s favorite writer (who is not Timothy the Talking Cat, hard as that is to believe) in his latest critical pronouncement, “Timothy reviews Moby Dick” at Camestros Felapton.

â€Ķ I only watched the film. Ray Bradbury was in it, setting fire to books, which is another effective way of editing that he invented in the 1950s. That’s why books are shorter nowâ€Ķ.

(2) HAUNTING IMAGES. Christopher Lockett’s post “On Gremlins” at The Magical Humanist explains why they’re on his mind.

â€ĶWatching the “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” episode of The Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) when I was eleven was one of those terrifying viewing experiences we sometimes have when we’re young that rewires something in your brain. It disturbed my sleep for months afterward, and I’ve still never seen the 1984 film Gremlins.2 At the same time, the idea of a malevolent creature who plagues airplanes has always been a source of fascination to which my imagination has often returnedâ€Ķ.

â€ĶGremlins, indeed, almost became the subject of a Disney film: author Roald Dahl, who would go on to write Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) and James and the Giant Peach (1961) among innumerable other beloved children’s books, was an RAF pilot. His first book was titled The Gremlins, about a British Hawker Hurricane pilot named Gus who is first tormented by gremlins but ultimately befriends them and convinces them to use their technical savvy to help the British war effort. In 1942, Dahl was invalided out of active service and sent to Washington, D.C. as an RAF attachÃĐ. The Gremlins brought the RAF mythos of airborne imps to America and was popular enough that Disney optioned it as an animated feature. Though Disney ultimately did not make the movie, Dahl convinced them to publish it with the animators’ illustrations in 1943. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt reportedly delighted in reading it to her grandchildrenâ€Ķ.

â€Ķ Though Dahl would later claim to have coined the word “gremlin,” that is demonstrably false, as the term was in use from the 1920s and was featured in Pauline Gower’s 1938 memoir Women with Wingsâ€Ķ.

(3) ATTENTION JOHN HERTZ. Please advise — what is your current mailing address? Two people have contacted me about letters that bounced from the most recent one I have. And do you want the current address published here?

(4) NO, AND HELL NO. Engadget cheers the news that “The Supreme Court doesn’t care if you want to copyright your AI-generated art”.

As AI-generated artwork becomes more commonplace, it still won’t be able to be copyrighted, according to US courts. On Monday, the US Supreme Court declined to hear a case about whether an artwork generated with the help of AI can be copyrighted. The refusal means that a lower court’s decision to reject the copyright request will stand.

The case dates back to 2018 when Stephen Thaler applied for a copyright of an artwork called A Recent Entrance to Paradise. Unlike using ChatGPT or Midjourney, Thaler, a computer scientist, created an AI system that generated the artwork in question. However, the US Copyright Office rejected his application in 2022 on the grounds that it wasn’t made by a human author. Thaler sought appeals at higher courts, but ultimately had to escalate the case to the Supreme Court after both a federal judge in Washington and the US Court of Appeals ruled against him.

With a refusal from the highest court in the US, it’s unlikely Thaler’s case can continue. The US Supreme Court could always hear a related case in the future, but Thaler’s lawyers said, “even ⁠if it later overturns the Copyright Office’s test in another case, it will be too late,” adding that the decision will have negatively impacted the creative industry during “critically important years.” It’s worth noting that Thaler also filed applications to the US Patent and Trademark Office for AI-generated inventions, which were rejected for similar reasons.

(5) ALA UNIONIZATION EFFORTS. Publishers Weekly reports “ALA Workers Initiate Union Drive”.

Employees of the American Library Association have announced plans to form the ALA Workers United (ALAWU), working with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31 in Illinois.

When ALA staff arrived for work at the association’s main Chicago headquarters on March 2, they were greeted by fellow workers who shared an open letter urging support for the ALAWU and handed out buttons with the union logoâ€Ķ

â€Ķ Council 31 represents approximately 3,000 Illinois library workers in Chicago and its suburbs, major Illinois cities, and state universities. Nationwide, AFSCME represents more than 35,000 library workers.

The open letter, signed by 40 ALA workers, states that “recent multi-round layoffs, increased workloads, benefit reductions, financial crises, ingrained salary disparities, and lack of transparent decision-making have motivated us to come together in our union.” Their list of concerns refers to the streamlining goals in the ALA strategic plan released last summer and the association’s acknowledgement of workforce reductions in October 2025. Some 30 employees left the association last year, through buyouts and layoffsâ€Ķ.

(6) CALLING ALL COLLECTORS. Heritage Auctions’ “Intelligent Collector” newsletter shares a fascinating set of artifacts in “150 Years of the Telephone”. Several are of genre interest – especially this one.

OF ALL THE famous fictional telephones in entertainment history, the Batmobile Batphone from the 1966-68 Batman TV series just might be the most recognizable. While on patrol or in pursuit, the Dynamic Duo could pick up the bat-shaped phone for instant access to the Gotham City Police Department. This version of the futuristic gadget â€” the only hero working model known to exist — sold for $45,000 in a December 2019 Heritage auction.

(7) BRUCE CAMPBELL MEDICAL UPDATE. “‘The Evil Dead’ Star Bruce Campbell Reveals Cancer Diagnosis; Cancels Upcoming Fan Convention Appearances” reports Deadline.

The Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell revealed he has been diagnosed with a ‘treatable’ but not ‘curable’ type of cancer, forcing him to seek medical care and cancel forthcoming public appearances.

While the horror icon did not specify the details of his diagnosis, he noted in a social media announcement, “I’m posting this, because professionally, a few things will have to change — appearances and cons and work in general need to take [a] back seat to treatment.”

The actor said he hopes to get well by the summer in order to tour his comedy movie Ernie & Emma, which he wrote, directed and stars in, this fall.

“There are several cons this year summer [sic] that I have to cancel. Big regrets on my part. Treatment needs and professional obligations don’t always go hand-in-hand,” he explained.

Concluding, he said, “That’s about it. I’m not trying to enlist sympathy—or advice—I just want to get ahead of this information in case false information gets out (which it will). Fear not, I am a tough old son-of-a-bitch and I have great support, so I expect to be around a while. As always, you’re the greatest fans in the world and I hope to see you soon!”

(8) JEFFREY CARVER FUNERAL UPDATE. Mickey Mikkelsen has passed along all of the info he has thus far for Jeffrey A. Carver’s funeral.

(1) To attend in person, you need to register through Evite. If you need the link, I can provide it – email me at mikeglyer (at) cs (dot) com

(2) The funeral can be viewed online. Currently, we only have the Zoom link that will be used for the reception: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89922434097?pwd=oScYpgTBEvC3cSEHKfkFD9yra7wkIE.1

It will have an open sharing/speaking time. The service itself will be live-streamed, and they are still working on getting the link for that from the church.

(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

March 3, 1920 – James Doohan. (Died 2005.)

James Doohan, a Canadian, is of course remembered best for being the original Montgomery “Scotty” Scott on the first version of the Enterprise. And doesn’t it say something about the franchise that I had to write the sentence that way? 

He played, definitely way too much in my opinion, the archetypal Scotsman. He even had a Dress Uniform Kilt, something I’m dead certain doesn’t exist in the modern Navy, as on display in “Is There in Truth No Beauty?” and “The Savage Curtain”. And I forget how many characters he drank literally to the floor. No don’t get me wrong, I loved the character, but the depiction was seriously over the top.

So my favorite episode involving him? That had to be when he defended the honor of the Enterprise in a bar brawl with a Klingon in “The Trouble with Tribbles” after that Klingon called his beloved ship a garbage scow. Perfect, just perfect. 

So what else has he done? His first major genre role (he had previously appeared in one episode of Tales of Tomorrow) was as Paul Mitchell on Space Command, an early Fifties Canadian children’s sf series. It only lasted two years but they did one hundred and fifty episodes!  Shatner would appear there.

A decade later, he entered the Twilight Zone playing Johnson, by no means a major role, in the “Valley of the Shadow”.  Around the same time, on Outer Limits he played Police Lt. Branch in “Expanding Human”, this time a lead role. 

He showed up twice in The Man from U.N.C.L.E (in different roles), Bewitched, Fantasy Island, MacGyver and Knight Rider 2000.

Need I say Next Generation’s “Relics” was wonderful?  And I’m not talking about Trials and Tribble-ations even though it’s a stellar story as he’s only there in existing footage of him.

Filmwise, Trek was his major gig as I see very little genre undertakings at all. He had an uncredited role in The Satan Bug, an sf thriller. It’s so short that IMDB gives the time that he’s in the film.

His only other genre role that I can see in a film outside of Trek was as Judge Peterson in Skinwalker: Curse of the Shaman. If you’ve not seen it don’t feel bad. It’s obscure enough that no one on Rotten Tomatoes has either. 

I think that covers it for him. Now keep in mind that I did love him, despite my criticism of his portrayal of a Scottish character, on Trek as he’s really likeable. He and Nichelle Nichols always seemed to be the two most, well, truly warm, likeable individuals there. 

I think I’ll go watch both of the Tribbles episodes on Paramount+ now.  Yes, I know there’s the animated episode as well, “More Tribbles, More Trouble”, but it just doesn’t have the charm the actual ones with live actors do. 

(10) COMICS SECTION.

(11) FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTENT. Brian Cronin’s “Look Back” at CBR.com remembers when “DC Launched One of Its Most Historic Science Fiction Comics 75 Years Ago”. His piece includes this bit of “inside baseball”.

â€ĶTake a look at the striking Carmine Infantino/Frank Giacoia cover of Mystery in Space #1, and tell me what notable thing you DON’T see on this cover that you would TYPICALLY see on a comic book cover. You’ll note that there isn’t a NUMBER on the cover. That was part of something that DC would often do during this era.

You’ll see it in the house ad announcing Mystery in Space, as well. Note that it simply tells you how awesome the comic book is, it does not tell you that it is a NEW comic book. That is because DC Comics, at the time, believed that comic book readers were turned off by new comic book series. The idea being, “If it is new, how do we know if it is any good? If it’s been around for years, then it MUST be good, right?”

That is sort of the very theory that the early comic book industry operated under, where comic books initially were just reprint collections of famous comic strips, under the theory that, “What would people want to read? The comic strips they already know and love, or some new comic book that you guys came up with? Obviously the former!”â€Ķ

(12) TODAY’S THING TO WORRY ABOUT. [Item by Steven French.] Another week, another article on the Fermi Paradox! But here a couple of researchers turn it around and use the famous Drake equation together with the lack of evidence for extra-terrestrial civilisations to impose an upper limit on the lifetime on any such civilisation, including ours of course – spoiler alert: the answer’s not encouraging.

(Both researchers are based in Tehran and I’m sure Filers will join me in hoping that they and their families are safe.)

From Phys.org: “How long do civilizations last?”

It is one of the most famous questions in science, and it was asked, as legend has it, over lunch. Enrico Fermi, the physicist who helped build the first nuclear reactor and whose name graces a unit of length so small it makes an atom look generous, was chatting with colleagues about the possibility of alien life when he suddenly asked “where is everybody?”

The universe is 13 billion years old. Our galaxy alone contains hundreds of billions of stars, a significant proportion of which host planets. Many of those planets sit in the right temperature range for liquid water. The numbers, by any reasonable estimate, suggest that life should have emerged many times over, in many places, long before our own planet had even formed. And yet, no signals. No visitors. No evidence of anyone at all. This is the Fermi paradox, and it has remained unresolved for 75 years.

Now, two physicists from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran have approached it from a new angle. Rather than asking why we have not found other civilizations, Sohrab Rahvar and Shahin Rouhani have asked what the silence itself tells us and the answer places a hard mathematical ceiling on how long technologically advanced civilizations are likely to surviveâ€Ķ.

(13) CLASS D, GRADE F. “NASA lost a lunar spacecraft one day after launch. A new report shows what went wrong” says NPR.

Why did a $72 million mission to study water on the moon fail so soon after launch? A new NASA report has the answer.

SCOTT SIMON, HOST: Thursday marked one year ago today, a NASA probe called Lunar Trailblazer lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Its mission was to map the water on the moon, but a day after the launch, mission managers lost contact with the spacecraft. It was never heard from again, unlike B.J. Leiderman, who does our theme music. Now NPR has learned exactly why the $72 million mission failed. Joe Palca has this report.

JOE PALCA, BYLINE: The launch was successful, but the first communication from Lunar Trailblazer showed something was wrong with the power system. A report by a review panel convened by NASA to explore why the mission failed contains the explanation. Software that was supposed to point the spacecraft solar panels toward the sun instead pointed them 180 degrees away from the sun. The panel found other software errors as wellâ€Ķ.

â€Ķ PALCA: Lockheed Martin built the low-cost Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft. The NASA panel says the company did not properly test the pointing software before launch. Mission managers might have been able to fix that problem, but other software issues made it ultimately impossible.

Neither Lockheed Martin nor NASA would provide a spokesperson for comment. But in a statement, Lockheed said it had learned lessons from Lunar Trailblazer and would make changes going forward. The statement also pointed out that lower-cost missions are inherently riskier. A NASA statement also talked about lessons learned.

Scott Hubbard is a NASA veteran, now at Stanford University. He says, yes, NASA accepts higher risk with lower cost, or so-called class D, missionsâ€Ķ

(14) WHAT PEOPLE ARE WATCHING. JustWatch – The Streaming Guide has shared their Top 10 charts for the month of February.

[Thanks to Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Mickey Mikkelson, Andrew (not Werdna), 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 Steve Davidson.]