Tag Archives: Krampus

Pixel Scroll 12/9/25 Lex Luthor, Rod McBan Launch Competing Bids For DC/Warner Brothers

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(1) HERE’S MY NUMBER AND A DIME. The New York Times know what happens “When the Phone Number in That TV Show Actually Connects Somewhere”. (Behind a paywall.)

In the final season of the Netflix hit “Stranger Things,” which dropped last month, posters are put up around the fictional town of Hawkins, Ind., seeking the character Eleven (a.k.a. Jane Hopper, played by Millie Bobby Brown), along with a phone number to call.

If you’ve consumed even a few American movies or TV shows, you probably think you know how that phone number began. But this time, it was not the familiar 555 used by so many programs and films. Instead the number looked real: (765) 303-2020. The area code was even accurate: 765 is Central Indiana, the state where the show is set.

The authentic-looking number caused at least some fans to wonder, “What happens if I call it?”

The North American Numbering Plan Administrator, which regulates telephone numbers in the United States, officially reserves numbers for fictitious purposes — saving the average person from being inconvenienced, or worse, by constant requests to talk to Mark Scout or Homer Simpson.

But if you call (765) 303-2020, it really does sound like you have reached through time, space and the barrier between fiction and fact to arrive in the world of “Stranger Things.”

“Thank you for contacting the Hawkins Police Department,” a message on the other line says. “Due to the recent 7.4 magnitude earthquake, Hawkins is currently under lockdown to ensure the safety of our residents. The Hawkins Emergency Task Force is working closely with Hawkins P.D. to track down missing persons, of which Jane Hopper is a priority. We urge you, as a responsible citizen of Hawkins, to assist us in our search to locate her.” (At the end of season 4, a supernatural cataclysm occurs, thought by residents to be an earthquake. It’s that kind of show.)

While many shows still fall back on 555, “Stranger Things” is among the few that have used onscreen numbers for something different, offering Easter eggs for those with a little gumption or curiosity to punch in the fictional digits.

“Stranger Things” has done this before. In season 3, it revealed the home number of the conspiracy theorist character Murray Bauman. A call to the number gives a message saying, in part, “Mom, if this is you, please hang up and call me between the hours of 5 and 6 p.m. as previously discussed.” For strangers, it includes a brusque “never call here again; you are a parasite!”

You can also call the number for Saul Goodman, the titular character in AMC’s legal drama “Better Call Saul,” and get a cheery, “You’ve reached Saul Goodman!” The number of the brothers’ plumbing company in “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” connects to a recording of the actor Charlie Day as Luigi offering his services.

Trouble can arise, however, when filmmakers use numbers they haven’t locked up. The 2003 film “Bruce Almighty” made the mistake of providing a random phone number — worse, it was the phone number for God, which understandably prompted plenty of people to try it. A woman with the number in Florida, who was a non-deity, threatened suit, saying she was getting 20 calls an hour. (She had little luck, and was still receiving phone calls two years later, The Tampa Bay Times reported.)…

(2) WHERE THE TURF MEETS THE SURF. [Item by Steven French.] The Guardian’s Martin Belam is worried about the fate of the ‘Whoniverse’ (I think it’ll all be fine …): “’The fans need something to believe in!’ Will this spin-off save Doctor Who?”

The War Between the Land and the Sea, which debuted on BBC One and iPlayer on Sunday, is the only new “Whoniverse” content fans are getting for the next 12 months. Starring Russell Tovey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Jemma Redgrave, it features a radical overhaul of a Doctor Who monster first seen in Jon Pertwee’s era: the Sea Devils.

The drama plays as an ecological thriller, with humanity’s mistreatment of the oceans used as a stick by the Sea Devils – now dubbed Homo aqua and Homo amphibia – to justify their demands. Tovey’s “everyman” character is thrust into the global spotlight as humanity’s representative in negotiations that feel increasingly impossible.

It isn’t only the ecological messaging being hammered home. As the Earth’s intelligent aquatic species insist on a peace deal that would prevent humans travelling across or above the seas, the parallels with real-world negotiations in which one side is forced into untenable conditions are clear enough….

(3) DOCTOR WHO REVIEW. Meanwhile, the early returns are unfavorable. Beware spoilers in the Guardian piece: “The War Between the Land and the Sea review – prepare to roll your eyes a lot at this fishy Doctor Who spinoff”.

… What they want, it turns out as their leader, Salt (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, whose uninspired character name may require another shot of Bailey’s and a small eyeroll), says, is to partake of a modern morality tale delivered with the subtlety of a great white ramming a small boat. Salt opens discussions by slamming down a parcel of her dead babies “who should have been born at the turn of the third cold current” and were not because humans have poisoned and polluted everything.

Homo aqua will only continue this discussion, she says, with Barclay as the leader of the human side. Why? Because presidents, politicians, ambassadors and military leaders cannot be trusted and because he was the only one to show respect to the body of the creature killed by the fishers. Barclay wonders if she might have a point. “Maybe it is time people like me had more of a voice?” One parable at a time, please, guys! Or at least wait while we put more Bailey’s in the fridge.

But Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave), already known to Whovians as the head of Unit, is thrilled by this turn of events. She has always felt constrained by the political and bureaucratic rules that surround her. Now “we can build a better world for everyone!” Although quite how, when all she seems to do thereafter is beg him to keep reading the committee’s words off the teleprompter and not go rogue as he speaks with Salt, I am not quite sure….

(4) IT’S VERA. “Iconic Cult-Classic ‘Firefly’ Prop Hits the Auction Block” – and Parade knows why people want it.

Firefly fans, hold onto your (Jayne) hats. One of the most recognizable props from the beloved cult series is officially up for grabs. Jayne Cobb’s personal weapon, Vera, has hit the auction block, giving fans the rare opportunity to own a piece of sci-fi history. If you’ve ever watched Firefly and thought “I want something shiny from the ‘Verse,” now’s your chance.

Jayne Cobb’s instantly recognizable ‘very favorite’ weapon is, as he describes it, a ‘Callahan full bore auto lock, customized trigger, double cartridge thorough gauge.’ And to say he’s attached to it is an understatement.

This original prop is a shotgun modified for the show to look like a sci-fi brute. According to the auction listing, it features a folding skeleton stock, a two-part barrel, and all sorts of little ‘greebles’ added to give it utility when you’re looking for jobs out on the rim.…

(5) JOHN NOBLE WILFORD (1933-2025). Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times science reporter John Noble Wilford, who covered America’s first moon landing, died December 8 at the age of 92.

…Under the front-page banner headline “MEN WALK ON MOON,” with a Houston dateline of July 21, 1969, Mr. Wilford gave readers an awe-inspiring and comprehensive account of Apollo 11’s gentle touchdown and exploratory mission on the moon’s arid Sea of Tranquillity after a 230,000-mile voyage from Earth….

… “It was man’s first landing on another world,” he wrote, “the realization of centuries of dreams, the fulfillment of a decade of striving, a triumph of modern technology and personal courage, the most dramatic demonstration of what man can do if he applies his mind and resources with single-minded determination.”

He added: “The moon, long the symbol of the impossible and the inaccessible, was now within man’s reach, the first port of call in this new age of spacefaring.”…

…Mr. Wilford traveled widely as a correspondent. He flew through the eye of a hurricane for a story on cloud seeding, plunged into ocean depths in a research submersible, rode an astronaut-training centrifuge, operated lunar-landing and space shuttle simulators, joined a mapping party in the Grand Canyon, flew ice patrols over Greenland and Newfoundland, and ran rapids on the Colorado River.

In 1976, he covered an expedition to Scotland to explore the longstanding mystery of the Loch Ness monster. With sonar probes and underwater television cameras, the expedition, partly funded by The Times, scanned the murky depths of the 23-mile-long lake for a month, but turned up no trace of the creature, said in legend and in many unverified accounts of sightings to be an undulating serpent….

(6) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

Anniversary: December 9, 2002 — Star Trek Nemesis (2002)

By Paul Weimer: Be prepared, this one is not going to be a fun look back.  

I had had high hopes for what would turn out to be the last of the Star Trek TNG movies, Star Trek Nemesis. It features Tom Hardy (in an early role) as the villain, a clone of Picard that wreaks havoc on the Romulan Empire. Themes of identity, cloning, technology and more were promised. What’s not to love?

Just about everything. There is little I can say that is good about this movie, and it would be folly for me to try, except maybe the confrontations between Shinzon and Picard. There is some actual good stuff there. But it’s cut to merry hell.

And I do think it was the bad editing that really kills the movie’s room to breathe. The original run time of 2 hours and 40 minutes may have been too much, but cutting it down to two hours means that a lot of character development and space for the characters just winds up on the cutting room floor, and it feels like a “this way to the egress” with a lot of scenes and subplots unexplained and undercooked. Just take Deanna and Riker’s marriage, with Wesley somehow coming back to say hi. What was that? 

And don’t get me started on Data and B-4.  The frustrating thing is, in the final cut, the existence of B-4, Data’s earlier model, there is absolutely, positively no consideration of the existence of Lore, Data’s original “twin”, who featured on multiple episodes of ST: TNG. As far as this movie concerned, and the way characters act and react to B-4…Lore might as well never have existed, which is a crying shame. And having Data be sacrificed at the end but his memories downloaded into B-4…that feels like an identity erasure of B-4, quite frankly.  I left the movie with a very foul taste in my mouth, and I didn’t even rewatch any TNG related stuff for a couple of years afterwards. 

(7) COMICS SECTION.

(8) TRAILER PARK. “HBO Drops ‘A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms’ Trailer” and Animation World Network sets the frame.

HBO has released the official trailer for A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms during a panel at CCXP Brazil. The six-episode season debuts January 18 on HBO; it will also be available to stream on HBO Max.

In the series, set a century before the events of Game of Thrones, two unlikely heroes wander Westeros – a young, naïve but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his diminutive squire, Egg. Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne, and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great destinies, powerful foes, and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends….

(9) GOT TO CORNER THE MARKET ON THEM ALL… [Item by Steven French.] Ah yes, I well remember the madness of that early Pokémon craze … “’Kids can’t buy them anywhere’: how Pokémon cards became a stock market for millennials” in the Guardian.

Pokémon has been huge since the late 90s. Millions of people have fond memories of playing the original Red and Blue games, or trading cards in the playground for that elusive shiny Charizard (if your school didn’t ban them). The franchise has only grown since then – but, where the trading cards are concerned, things have taken an unexpected and unfortunate turn. It’s now almost impossible to get your hands on newly released cards thanks to an insane rise in reselling and scalping over the past year….

(10) ALSO A DAYMARE. “When Christmas is a little too bright … look to Krampus” advises NPR.

When Edgar Loesch was growing up, his Christmas was filled with family, friends and St. Nicholas. But his German parents also had one, terrifying addition: a hairy monster named Krampus who they said would carry him off if he didn’t behave.

With goat horns, gnashing teeth and a long tongue to taste one’s sins, Krampus is nothing short of horrifying.

To drive home the threat, Loesch’s parents would sneak outside the window and rattle chains.

“You go to bed, and then suddenly at some point you hear like somebody shuffling outside a bedroom door, scratching on the door,” remembers Loesch.

Despite this early terror, Loesch, like many, has come to embrace Krampus. He’s the owner of Fressen Artisan Bakery in Portland, Ore., and on Saturday it was filled with families eating pfeffernüsse (German spice cookies) and stollen (a marzipan-filled yeasted Christmas cake), and lining up to get their pictures taken.

Entire families, with kids and dogs, took their holiday portraits — not with a jocular Santa, but with a snarling Krampus, standing in front of an Alpine forest backdrop. Some pose in mock horror, while others give the beast a high five. And of course, the occasional child bursts into tears….

(11) THE NOTION THAT THE EARTH IS SLOWLY RUSTING THE MOON IS FURTHER CORROBORATED. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] Haematite (Fe2O3) is a common iron oxide, a form of rust, and back in 2020, it was detected on parts of the Moon’s surface. Water has also been detected on the Moon with locations of such water even suggesting that the Moon’s axis has altered. Then it was reported in 2021 confirmation of an earlier hypothesis that ‘Earth wind’ was a possible source of the Moon’s water. The idea is this, the Moon is normally bathed in Solar wind, but every now and then when its orbit takes it behind the Earth away from the Sun, the Moon becomes part protected by the Earth’s magnetosphere and instead water and hydroxyl ions are carried from the Earth’s atmosphere, by Solar wind, to the Moon: there is an ‘Earth wind’. This is the hypothesis. Yet, while we have the jigsaw pieces (the Earth wind and separately water found and oxidation of the Moon’s surface) we did not know that Earth wind could actually create haematite.

Now, new research by an international team, largely based in China but also Britain and the US, have duplicated the chemical reactions in the lab that show that artificial Earth Wind can create haematite. It looks like the Earth really is slowly rusting the Moon. (Primary research – Wang, H. Z. et al (2025) Earth wind-driven formation of hematite on the lunar surface, Geophysical Research Letters , vol. 52, e2025GL116170.

(12) IF YOU GET RADIO 4. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] New audio version of The Princess Bride is out from the BBC.

There have been a number adaptations of William Goldman’s novel The Princess Bride. In Filer circles, perhaps the most famous is the 1987 (the year SF² Concatenation was founded) film The Princess Bride. That went on to win the 1988 Hugo Best Dramatic Presentation, beating the likes of more SFnal offerings RoboCop (which I saw at a press preview screening at an ungodly hour early in the morning in central London), Predator and ST:TNG ‘Encounter at Farpoint’ as well as the fantasy comedy horror The Witches of Eastwick.

The new audio version of The Princess Bride is just out from the BBC having aired on Radio 4. It is a two-parter that reflects the humour of the original and it keeps on breaking the audio equivalent of the fourth wall. As such it follows the novel’s tradition of being an abridgment of a longer work by the fictional S. Morgenstern.

“This is my favourite book in all the world, though I have never read it”. When Goldman discovers The Princess Bride by S Morgenstern is not the swashbuckling fantasy his father read him as a child, but is in fact a patchy and extensive historical satire, he sets out to create the “Good Parts” version…

Note: A BBC subscription is now required for U.S. listeners to access these.

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

Pixel Scroll 12/17/24 Pixel Yourself On A Boat On A Riverworld, With Tatooine Trees And Mesklin Skies

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(1) READY FOR WHO CHRISTMAS? Bleeding Cool is on hand when “Doctor Who Christmas Special: ‘Joy to the World’ Gets New Trailer”.

… Earlier today, we took a look at what #WhoSpy had to share on the long-running show’s Instagram “subwave network” about the upcoming special. Now, we’re getting a new look that should definitely help you piece together your speculation puzzle – a shorter second official trailer!…

(2) DISNEY BAILS ON TRANS STORY LINE. “’Win Or Lose’ Transgender Actress Speaks Out After Disney Cuts Back Role” – Deadline has the story.

In 2020, Chanel Stewart was scrolling through X when she happened upon a post about how Pixar was looking for an authentic, 14-year-old transgender girl to voice a transgender teenager in a new animated series.

Stewart, who at 14 had already logged a few commercials, knew instantly that it was her role of a lifetime.

“I was exactly what they wanted to a T, and that’s why it felt so right. It felt just so right,” says Stewart, who is a transgender girl from Los Angeles. “I immediately asked my mom if I could do it, because I just felt like if I don’t do this, it wouldn’t make sense. You know what I mean?”

Stewart eventually scored the voiceover job in Win or Lose, which revolves around a co-ed softball team at a middle school named the Pickles in the week leading up to their big championship game. Stewart couldn’t wait to share the news with her friends.

“Oh my God, it was crazy,” the now 18-year-old recalls. “I wore it as a badge. I wore it with pride. I wore it with honor because it meant so much to me. The thought of authentically portraying a transgender teenage girl made me really happy. I wanted to make this for transgender kids like me.”

So when Disney called Monday night to tell her mom, Keisha, that Win or Lose would no longer include a transgender storyline, both she and Chanel were heartsick. (Disney released a statement that said “when it comes to animated content for a younger audience, we recognize that many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline.”)…

… By cutting the transgender storyline, Disney eliminated “a few lines of dialogue” from an episode that references a character’s gender identity. Stewart was not at liberty to share details with Deadline about her character, but was told by Disney that she’s “still a part of the show heavily.”

“It’s just that my character would now be a cis girl, a straight cis girl,” says Chanel Stewart, who is repped by KEY Talent Management and Innovative Artists. “So yeah, that’s all they really told me and that I was still a part of the show.”

But there’s one thing that Disney can’t take away from Stewart. “I’m definitely one of the first [transgender girls] to do this!” says Stewart of her voiceover gig. “It’s a true honor to be a part of queer history.”…

(3) TUNES OF MIDDLE-EARTH. [Item by Steven French.] Thijs Porck is a medievalist and Tolkien scholar at the University of Leiden and in a recent blog post he offers an interesting and detailed analysis of the songs in the anime film, War of the Rohirrim: “The Medieval in Middle-earth: Old English Songs in LOTR: The War of the Rohirrim (2024)”.

“Where is the horse? Where is the rider?”, the opening lyrics of “Hama’s Song” in The War of the Rohirrim (2024) will remind many a Tolkien fan of “The Lament of the Rohirrim” which Aragorn recites in the chapter “The King of the Golden Hall” in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. In Aragorn’s poem, the opening lines run as follows: “Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?”. Tolkien, a Professor of Anglo-Saxon (Old English) at the Universities of Leeds and Oxford, based Aragorn’s poem on the Old English elegy The Wanderer, which uses the so-called ubi sunt motif (‘where are they now?’) to express the fleeting nature of worldly pleasures (the answer to the rhetorical questions being “they are no more”). As it turns out, “Hama’s Song” of the new movie is closer to the Old English original poem, which has the line: “hwær cwom mearg, hwær cwom mago” [Where is the horse? Where is the man?].’

The context of “Hama’s Song” makes clear that “the rider” referred to is the movie’s heroine Héra, who is also the subject of the movie’s credits song by Paris Paloma called “The Rider”. If you listen carefully to this song, you will notice that there is a very clear Old English lyric at 0:41 (and again at 2:01 and 3:01): “Heo is se wind, heo is se wind” [she is the wind, she is the wind]…

(4) UNHOLY ICON. [Item by Steven French.] Atlas Obscura delved into the essence of Krampus (in Milwaukee!): “Krampus Is the Christmas Icon We Need—And Maybe the One We Deserve”.

It’s the Fifth Annual Milwaukee Krampusnacht, an event that has taken over the city’s historic Brewery District. Milwaukee is a city with deep German roots, and this neighborhood, centered around the atmospheric 19th-century Pabst Brewery, with narrow streets and castellated facades, is particularly evocative of the Old World. It’s a fitting backdrop for the horde of Krampusse emerging from the shadows to mete out punishment to the naughty. Evolved from Central Europe’s pagan past and reimagined by Church elites as a kind of unholy enforcer, Krampus is now a global icon for the digital age. But what explains the ascent from obscure Alpine tradition to a 21st-century celebrity that has inspired Krampusnachten around the world? What brings people out of their warm homes, on a night when temps flirt with freezing, to stand on a sidewalk and hope to get thrashed by a masked demon? And what do the people behind the masks get out of transforming into the cool ghoul of Yule? To understand the Krampus, I must become the Krampus.

(5) KSR Q&A IN NATURE. “Sci-fi icon Kim Stanley Robinson: ‘anything can be climate work’” he tells Nature.

As climate change and artificial intelligence reshape the world, some say that reality is starting to look a lot like science fiction. A book that people often point to is Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future (2020).

The novel opens in 2025, with a deadly heatwave in India — a topic that turned out to be eerily prescient earlier this year, when the country faced extreme heat and humidity. In the book, the heatwave triggers a haphazard rallying of society to protect living creatures from climate catastrophe.

Robinson talked to Nature about how the climate crisis is causing younger generations anxiety, but also offering them existential meaning, and why he thinks that AI is a poor choice of name.

Why do you think The Ministry for the Future has garnered attention?

The novel is trying to say that, if we apply ourselves, we have the tools to avoid causing a mass-extinction event. And ordinary processes of humanity — science, diplomacy, treaties, the nation-state system, even capitalism itself — could be used to escape the crisis. That’s a very reassuring message.

(6) FUTURE TENSE. This month’s installment of Future Tense Fiction is “A Healing at the Triple B Trophy Lodge,” by Daily Show writer Scott Sherman—a story about fringe psychological treatments, human cloning, and violent catharsis.

The three-and-a-half-hour drive from Portland Jetport to the former site of Baxter State Park reminded Zayna of her midnight scrambles through the Jammu and Kashmir territory while embedded with the Indian light infantry. Just with fewer IEDs and more abandoned pawn shops. She flipped through her frustratingly thin research file on Parker Rodion as the white rental van cruised north past Bangor. There was essentially zero record of his existence before he became synonymous with kill therapy, and to make the research even more confusing, his aesthetic was so consistent it looked as if all the images of him from the last 10 years were taken on the same day. 

 The response essay, “Sorry, Clone”, is by the bioethicist Josephine Johnston.

The most compelling case for reproductive cloning is often made by infertile people or those who have lost a child. In the early days of 2001, a US congressional hearing on human reproductive cloning heard from two grieving parents. One man’s words were read aloud by a scientist working with couples interested in cloning. The man’s 11-month-old son had died after heart surgery, and in a letter to the committee the man wrote that he “hoped and prayed that my son would be the first; I could do no less for him. He deserves a chance to live … I would never stop until I could give his DNA—his genetic make-up—a chance.”…

(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

Born December 17, 1944 — Jack Chalker. (Died 2005.)

By Paul Weimer: Jack Chalker may have had a “bit”, but he worked that bit rather well.

His bit was transformation. I have a friend, he’s not much into reading SFF books. He loves SFF movies, though and he loves physical transformations. Give him a werewolf transformation or something else, and he is there for it.  If he ever decided to try science fiction or fantasy, I would hand him a Jack Chalker novel and let him go to town on it.

Because Jack Chalker and his works were all about transformation. 

This is most evident in his most popular series, the Well World novels. The Well World itself, shorn of the transformational aspects, is one of the most interesting concepts for a SF novel or series.  A supercomputer that, in effect, stabilizes and controls our universe, posing as a planet that is cut up into 1500 hexagons. If you use one of the gates from our universe (available in old ruins on various worlds) to enter a hex of the Well World, you are usually automatically transformed into a form appropriate for that hex — because normal oxygen-nitrogen land hexes are not the only hexes to be had.  The partial maps of the Well World show all sorts of intriguing things such as the “Sea of Chlorine”, “Sea of Storms” and other intriguing bits. Even more intriguing is that given the reality warping available to the computer in the well world, the hexes can and do enforce levels of technology that work in a hex. It’s an amazing setting (but the RPG made from it was terrible).  This all puts Chalker’s Well World firmly in the realm of science fantasy. 

The real comp for that would be Farmer’s World of Tiers, which has plenty of gates and artificial worlds…but without the transformational elements therein. 

Much of the rest of Chalker’s oeuvre is more science fictional than science fantasy, but as noted before, people winding up in new bodies (long before things like Altered Carbon, sorry Richard Morgan) were de rigueur in Chalker’s books. Although he did not do as much with it as some might like, winding up in a body of a being of different gender (or genders) was par for the course for Chalker. Unfortunately, I can think of multiple times where women (and it seemed to be frequently women) who wound up in new bodies of lesser intelligence and usually higher sex appeal in combination (you don’t need a further picture than that) . That wasn’t so great. 

Chalker grew more enthusiastic with his world the longer he wrote, right up to his unfortunate passing. Midnight at the World of Souls is a lean and mean book, the books grew longer and longer as that series went on, and he went to other books.  But I think that first novel still holds up, especially if you don’t know the answer to the question of who or what Nathan Brazil really is. I think the revelation of that deflates the works, just a little bit. But still, in the end, Chalker had his bit and he worked his bit to a fine edge. If transformation is your thing, Chalker is here for you.

Jack Chalker

(8) COMICS SECTION.

A @newscientist.bsky.social cartoon for Christmas

— Tom Gauld (@tomgauld.bsky.social) 2024-12-17T15:34:22.610Z

(9) CAN YOU DIG IT? [Item by Steven French.] We haven’t been there that long but already there are concerns about preserving our archaeological footprint on Mars! “Anthropologists call for tracking and preservation of human artifacts on Mars” at MSN.com.

Are human spacecraft, landers, rovers and other space-exploration debris little more than trash littering the surface of Mars, or the modern equivalent of Clovis points—treasured artifacts marking Homo sapiens’ lust for new frontiers?

A new paper by University of Kansas anthropologist Justin Holcomb argues physical artifacts of human Martian exploration deserve cataloging, preservation and care in order to chronicle humanity’s first attempts at interplanetary exploration.

The paper, “Emerging Archaeological Record of Mars,” appears in Nature Astronomy.

“Our main argument is that Homo sapiens are currently undergoing a dispersal, which first started out of Africa, reached other continents and has now begun in off-world environments,” Holcomb, its lead author, said.

“We’ve started peopling the solar system. And just like we use artifacts and features to track our movement, evolution and history on Earth, we can do that in outer space by following probes, satellites, landers and various materials left behind. There’s a material footprint to this dispersal.”

Much as archaeologists use “middens” (or, ancient garbage dumps) to reveal secrets of past societies here on Earth, Holcomb argues that much of the material deemed “space trash” actually has great archaeological and environmental value.

“These are the first material records of our presence, and that’s important to us,” he said….

(10) EX-WRESTLER BEAMING UP. “Star Trek’s Next Series Casts a Major WWE Star as Part of the Bridge Crew” reports Comicbook.com.

WWE star Becky Lynch is set to embark on an Earth-bound adventure in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.

Earlier this afternoon, the former multi-time WWE Women’s Champion announced the news on her social media pages. “You know, when you’ve already been champion of the world there’s really only one place to go next and that’s to the stars,” Lynch said in a video. “I am so excited to share with all of you that I am joining Star Trek: Starfleet Academy as part of the bridge crew! Lads, this has been the most incredible experience acting alongside just a spectacular cast and crew. I cannot wait for all of you to check it on when it comes out on Paramount+ and hey, live long and prosper.”…

(11) VIDEO OF THE DAY. [Item by Mike Kennedy.] Ryan George talks with “The Guys Who Designed Airplane Interiors”. Yes, yes, you’re right, the content is not genre related. BUT, attending many large conventions involves flying for a lot of people. And it sucks just as much as this video implies.

[Thanks to Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Lise Andreasen, N., Joey Eschrich, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, and Teddy Harvia for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Andrew (not Werdna).]

Pixel Scroll 11/27/16 That Is Not Scrolled Which Can Enpixeled Lie

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(1) CROUCHING TIGER CAPTAIN. Actress Michelle Yeoh has been cast as a Starfleet captain, but there are conservative and radical interpretations of what that means.

Deadline reports it this way:

EXCLUSIVE: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon‘s Michelle Yeoh is heading into the final frontier with Star Trek: Discovery. Sources confirm to Deadline that the upcoming CBS All Access iteration of the fabled franchise will see Yeoh playing a Starfleet Captain.

However, before you start mapping out the deck of the Discovery, sources close to the production tell us exclusively that Yeoh actually will be the leader of another ship. We hear that Yeoh has been cast as Han Bo and her ship is the Shenzhou. The Yeoh-run spacecraft is set to play a big role in Discovery‘s first season.

Asked for comment, Star Trek: Discovery producer CBS TV Studios declined to confirm Yeoh’s casting,

BBC America is more suggestive:

Forget Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway, and Archer: A new Star Trek TV series is in the works at CBS, with a captain in the form of Michelle Yeoh.

Deadline reports that the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon star will play Starfleet Captain Han Bo in Star Trek: Discovery, which is due on our screens in May….

So what do we know about her character? Well, apart from her name and rank, not very much. Details about the new series are being kept under wraps, though we do know it’s set ten years before the original one featuring Captain Kirk, and will bridge the gap between 2005 series Enterprise and the Kirk years by following the crew of the USS Discovery as they discover new worlds and civilizations.

(2) ENGLISH AS A FIRST LANGUAGE. I took the BBC quiz “English phrases: Test your knowledge”, linked by Chip Hitchcock in comments, and laid an egg. And don’t ask me where that phrase originated, because it’s clear I wouldn’t know!

There are many peculiar English phrases whose origins and meaning can appear obscure. For instance, where does “dead as a doornail” come from? When might one say: “I’ll go to the foot of our stairs?”

A recent BBC News article unearthing the stories behind some phrases drew a huge response from readers, who sent in examples of their own.

But how much do you know about the English language and its sayings?

(3) CHABON’S LATEST. Michael Chabon’s Moonglow is another work readers can simply enjoy, while critics are preoccupied defining its form.

Review in the New York Times.

Michael Chabon’s new book is described on the title page as “a novel,” in an author’s note as a “memoir” and in the acknowledgments as a “pack of lies.” This is neither as confusing nor as devious as it might sound, since “Moonglow” is less a self-conscious postmodern high-wire act than an easygoing hybrid of forms. Chabon has what sounds like a mostly true story to tell — about characters whose only names are “my grandmother” and “my grandfather,” and also about mental illness, snake hunting, the Holocaust and rocket science — and he may not have wanted to be bound too tightly by the constraints of literal accuracy in telling it.

The LA Times has more coverage of Chabon which, if you haven’t already exhausted your 10 free articles for the month as I have, you can check out.

Michael Chabon’s new novel “Moonglow” was inspired by a story his grandfather told on his deathbed. The novel is about families — their lies, loves and the stories they tell about themselves. Kate Tuttle talks to Chabon about fatherhood and fiction; …

(4) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOYS

  • Born November 27, 1907 – L. Sprague de Camp
  • Born November 27, 1926  — Rusty Hevelin

(5) SCI-FI AIR SHOW. A gallery of photos shows these old warbirds parked on the museum runway — makes you think you could reach out and touch them.

The SCI-FI AIR SHOW’s purpose is to preserve and promote the rich and varied history of Sci-Fi/Fantasy vehicles. Through display and education we seek to celebrate the classic design and beauty of these ships and the rich imaginations that created them. When the cameras stopped rolling, many of these proud old ships were lost and forgotten. Please join us in working to keep these rare and beautiful birds soaring!

 

The Chariot was an important piece of equipment carried aboard the Jupiter2.

The Chariot was an important piece of equipment carried aboard the Jupiter2.

(6) RIM OF THE ANCIENT MARINER. A Star Wars actor is busy keeping another franchise afloat. ScreenRant posted “Pacific Rim 2 Set Photos: John Boyega Heads to The Drift”

Having spent a good chunk of the past few years in development limbo, Pacific Rim: Maelstrom – the sequel to writer/director Guillermo del Toro’s 2013 film – has finally begun filming. Contrary to the initial plans, however, del Toro is not directing the sequel and is instead handing the reigns over to former Daredevil showrunner, Steven S. DeKnight; who after spending multiple years establishing himself in the television world, is set to make his feature directorial debut with the blockbuster project. Much to DeKnight’s credit as well, he’s managed to wrangle quite an impressive cast together for the anticipated sequel.

John Boyega is set to lead the cast, as well as executive produce the film, and will be playing the son of Idris Elba’s Stacker Pentecost, following his breakout role in last year’s Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens. Now, we’ve finally gotten our first look at Boyega in the character from the film too.

(7) DEATH WARMED OVER. When Will R. was still among us, he sent a commentary along with the link to this Aliens news item: “Looks Like Neill Blomkamp Really Is Planning To Bring ALIENS’ Newt Back To Life”

“When you say ‘worst deaths,’ do you mean ‘most horrible’ deaths? (I’ve always thought bringing Ripley back, cloned together with the aliens, was about the most horrible thing ever done to a character. John Hurt, though…that’s an all-time classic death.)

“Or do you mean worst deaths narratively speaking? That one would be fun. The first one would be…interesting, but I’d hate to call it fun.”

(8) FOR THAT SPECIAL SOMEONE. I’m sure there’s someone on your list who’d be cheered to receive a copy of The Krampus and the Old Dark Christmas.

Once the mythic bogeyman of European Catholic childhoods and long presented as the opposite of Santa Claus, Krampus is a growing presence in American culture. With the appearance of the demonic Christmas character Krampus in contemporary Hollywood movies, television shows, advertisements, and greeting cards, medieval folklore Krampus-related events and parades in North America and Europe, Krampus is a growing phenomenon.

Though the Krampus figure is now familiar, not much can be found about its history and meaning, thus calling for a book like Al Ridenour’s The Krampus: Roots and Rebirth of the Folkloric Devil. With Krampus’s wild, graphic history, Feral House has hired the awarded designer Sean Tejaratchi to take on Ridenour’s book about this ever-so-curious figure.

 

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Will R., and JJ for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Kurt Busiek.]

Pixel Scroll 12/12 Do Androids Look Up When They’re Dreaming Of Electronic Sheep?

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Live, from way later than the bleeping middle of Saturday night!

(1) VOTER DECEPTION? People are gathering signatures for a San Diego ballot initiative that allegedly will help keep Comic-Con in town, but the organizers of Comic-Con told Deadline.com they have nothing to do with it and it won’t affect whatever they may decide.

Will Comic-Con stay in San Diego? No word yet, but there’s a lot of confusion among fans on what’s going on with the organization’s desire to expand their annual convention in San Diego. Comic-Con International made the unusual move today of putting out a statement regarding a ballot initiative that was drawn up by a group called Citizens Plan for San Diego that seems to be at odds with their own desires for a contiguous expansion along the waterfront. Signatures are being gathered for a ballot initiative to keep Comic-Con in San Diego albeit a different spot, and those collecting signatures are actually advertising the initiative with signs stating “Keep Comic-Con in San Diego….

“There is a lot of confusion about this matter so we felt it necessary to put out a statement to let people know that we are not a party to this, have not read the initiatives and it will have no bearing on our decision of whether we stay in San Diego,” Comic-Con spokesperson David Glanzer told Deadline. He said they have been getting a lot of calls about this and just wanted to set the record straight.

(2) THERE ARE NO BAD PRINCESSES. Check out the photos of what Hampus Eckerman likes to call Disney’s newest Princess at boingboing.

Sophie’s parents tapped their friend, Megan, to turn a Chewbacca doll into a Princess Chewbacca birthday cake, using the “Barbie cake” method, and making Sophie’s third birthday just the bestest.

(3) BYERS SURGERY. SF Site News reports Chunga co-editor Randy Byers is back home after brain surgery.

Fan Randy Byers is recovering at home after undergoing brain surgery to remove a tumor. Byers will receive further diagnosis of his tumors and whether or not additional treatment will be needed, in about a week.

(4) Today In History

  • December 12, 1941 — On this day in 1941 The Wolf Man is unleashed in theaters. Did you know: the “wolf” that Larry Talbot fights with was Lon Chaney Jr.’s own German Shepherd.

wolfman w dog

(5) KRAMPUS. Now just hours away is a local stage performance of a Krampus-themed play.

He’s certainly not jolly, and you sure as hell had better not call him “Nick.” The St. Nicholas you’ll meet tonight is the genuine old-world artifact – the stern judge who oversaw a creaky old style of child-rearing the Germans call “gingerbread and whip.”

Of course Nicholas himself didn’t dirty his hands with whips. For that he had the Krampus. Today, every self-respecting hipster loves Krampus. But while your friends rhapsodize about the ersatz bubblegum Krampus of American comic books, TV, and monster fandom, tonight you’ll get a glimpse of the old devil in his original form – the Krampus of the ancient alpine “Nikolausspiel” or NICHOLAS PLAY, a folk theater production somewhat resembling England’s old Christmas mummers’ plays.

 

kinderhorror-postcard-6

(6) SAFETY LAST. Great video — Samurai Smartphone Parade.

99% of people think using a smartphone while walking is dangerous.

73% of people have used a smartphone while walking.

 

(7) THE HUGO URGE. George R.R. Martin makes two recommendations for the Best Related Work Hugo in a new post at Not A Blog.

THE WHEEL OF TIME COMPANION was a mammoth concordance of facts about the universe and characters of the late Robert Jordan’s epic fantasy series, edited and assembled by Harriet McDougal, Alan Romanczuk, and Maria Simons. It’s a labor of love, and everything one could possibly want to know about Jordan’s universe is in there.

Also

Felicia Day’s delightful look at her life, YOU’RE NEVER WEIRD ON THE INTERNET (Almost).

(8) VERHOEVEN’S STINKER. Jason Fuesting, in “Starship Troopers: Book vs. Movie” for Mad Genius Club, takes a movie we both dislike and, by applying his powers of persuasion, still finds grounds for disagreement.

Ultimately, Verhoeven takes a message needed badly by so many today, with their safe spaces and trigger warnings, and turns it into the film equivalent of those same children’s tantrums, a film so poorly written that only Mystery Science Theater 3000 could find use for it.  A better director would have used Joe Haldeman’s “Forever War,” an excellent book in its own right.  Haldeman makes all the points this film bobbled in “Forever War,” but using it would have meant going without all the Nazi imagery that Verhoeven is evidently fond of and not butchering an outstanding work in the process.  Verhoeven’s film is surely satire, but I do not think he realizes the joke is on his side.

(9) MST3K CAMEOS. There will be a bushel of celebrity cameos on the revived MST3K.

MST3K creator Joel Hodgson announces a celebrity-packed cameo list that includes Seinfeld, Hamill, Harris, Jack Black, Bill Hader and Joel McHale for the new series.

Fans also found out this week from Hodgson that the new MST3K writing team will include not only the cast, but also guest writers such as “Community” creator Dan Harmon and his “Rick & Morty” co-creator Justin Roiland. Others will include “The Muppet Show” writer Nell Scovell, “Ready Player One” author Ernie Cline, “The Name of the Wind” author Pat Rothfuss, musical comedy duo Paul and Storm, “Simpsons” writer Dana Gould, “The Book of Mormon” songwriter Robert Lopez and director of the next “Lego Movie” Rob Schrab.

(10) RETHINKING SUSAN PEVENSIE. E. Jade Lomax of Hark, the empty highways calling has written a set of thoughtful, heart-tugging parallax views about what happened after Narnia’s Susan returned to England.

http://ink-splotch.tumblr.com/post/69470941562/there-comes-a-point-where-susan-who-was-the

…I want to read about Susan finishing out boarding school as a grown queen reigning from a teenaged girl’s body. School bullies and peer pressure from children and teachers who treat you like you’re less than sentient wouldn’t have the same impact. C’mon, Susan of the Horn, Susan who bested the DLF at archery, and rode a lion, and won wars, sitting in a school uniform with her eyebrows rising higher and higher as some old goon at the front of the room slams his fist on the lectern.

Susan living through WW2, huddling with her siblings, a young adult (again), a fighting queen and champion marksman kept from the action, until she finally storms out against screaming parents’ wishes and volunteers as a nurse on the front. She keeps a knife or two hidden under her clothes because when it comes down to it, they called her Gentle, but sometimes loving means fighting for what you care for.

She’ll apply to a women’s college on the East Coast, because she fell in love with America when her parents took her there before the war. She goes in majoring in Literature (her ability to decipher High Diction in historical texts is uncanny), but checks out every book she can on history, philosophy, political science. She sneaks into the boys’ school across town and borrows their books too. She was once responsible for a kingdom, roads and taxes and widows and crops and war. She grew from child to woman with that mantle of duty wrapped around her shoulders. Now, tossed here on this mundane land, forever forbidden from her true kingdom, Susan finds that she can give up Narnia but she cannot give up that responsibility. She looks around and thinks I could do this better….

http://ink-splotch.tumblr.com/post/79664265175/ifallelseperished-i-was-so-tall-you-were

Can we talk about Susan Pevensie for a moment?

Let’s talk about how, when the war ends, when the Pevensie children go back to London, Susan sees a young woman standing at the train platform, weeping, waving.

First, Susan thinks civilian; and second, she thinks not much older than me.

Third, Susan thinks Mother.

They surge off the train, into their parents’ arms, laughing, embracing. Around them, the train platform is full of reunions (in her life, trains will give so much to Susan, and take so much away).

(11) NPR RECOMMENDS. NPR staff and critics have listed 260 books they loved this year – click here to see the ones in the science fiction and fantasy category.

(12) TOUGHER MEGABUCKS.  Scott Mendelson at Forbes tells why he thinks “For ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens,’ Breaking The Opening Weekend Record Just Got Less Likely”.

But if The Force Awakens breaks the opening weekend record next weekend, it, like The Phantom Menace, will have to do it in a lot fewer theaters than expected. Walt Disney reported yesterday (according to the always trustworthy BoxOffice.com and Box Office Mojo) that Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be opening next week on around 3,900 screens in America.

That’s only the 11th biggest theater count in 2015 and nowhere close to the biggest theater count of all time. The biggest theatrical release in 2015 was the 4,301 screen release for Minions ($115 million debut weekend). The widest release of all time was for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse which debuted on July 4th weekend of 2010 in 4,468 theaters. There have been 62 releases debuting in more than 4,000 theaters. If you presume that the figure is closer to 3,900 versus 3,999 theaters next week, that puts the Walt Disney release at merely one of the 100 biggest releases ever, about on par with Spectre and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Point being, Star Wars: The Force Awakens isn’t going to have anywhere closer to the widest theatrical release of all time.

(13) ‘TISN’T THE SEASON. A friend of mine *coff* *coff* wanted me to ask John Scalzi a favor, but after reading “On the Asking of Special Holiday Favors From Me” I’m going to tell my friend *coff* *coff* this is a bad time…

Folks: This week I’ve gotten no less than five requests from fans (or family/friends of fans) asking if I could do some particular special thing or another that would mean a lot to the fan for the holidays. Since there are several of these this week, and these sorts of requests are something I’ve had to juggle before, especially during the holidays, I’m posting this as a general note so people know it’s not personal. And that note is:

I really can’t….

[Thanks to Janice Gelb, John King Tarpinian, Michael J. Walsh, Martin Morse Wooster, Hampus Eckerman, and Brian Z. for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]

Pixel Scroll 12/5 Old Man Zombie Song: “I’m scared of living, and I’m tired of dying”

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(1) CLICHE KILLER. Charlie Stross has left the story! Or at least heaved the book across the room. He’s posted a rant about “Science-fictional shibboteths” with examples of “what makes me yell when I kick the tires on an SF/F novel these days.”

…Disbelief can be shattered easily by authorial mistakes—one of the commonest is to have a protagonist positioned as a sympathetic viewpoint character for the reader behave in a manner that is not only unsympathetic but inconsistent with the protagonist’s parameters. But there are plenty of other ways to do it….

But then we get to more specific matters: specific shibboleths of the science fictional or fantastic literary toolbox that give my book-holding hand that impossible-to-ignore twitch reflex.

(Caveat: I am talking about books here. I basically don’t do TV or film because my attention span is shot, my eyeballs can’t scan fast enough to keep up with jerkycam or pull in enough light to resolve twilight scenes, and my hand/eye coordination is too crap for computer games.)

Asteroidal gravel banging against the hull of a spaceship. Alternatively: spaceships shelting from detection behi nd an asteroid, or dodging asteroids, or pretty much anything else involving asteroids that don’t look like this….

(2) SILVER BELLS. A Krampus parade in Austria. The video (a public Facebook post) is highly entertaining. Jim Rittenhouse nicknamed the marchers “the 324th Krampus Brigade” but it’s a genuine local custom. (Well, I’m not sure about the giant silver bells on their buttcheeks….)

What is this…? An Austrian tradition!

The Krampus is an old tradition. It has its origins before Catholicism reached the mountains in Austria and Bavaria. In the past, were the winter was cold and strong, before the Krampus a so called Perchte should punch the winter away with a rod. When Catholicism reached the described areas, the Perchte was transformed into the Krampus, just like other profane rites. So the Krampus got the bad part of the Nikolaus-Krampus team. With the  Krampus scaring the kids. The good kids are rewarded by the Nicklaus whereas the bad kids are punished by the Krampus.

The Parade called “Krampuslauf” serves to present the masks . Many hundreds or thousands of people look at this ” Krampuslauf ” in different locations in Austria.

(3) Today In History

(4) Today’s Birthday Boys

  • Born December 5, 1890: Fritz Lang
  • Born December 5, 1901: Walt Disney

(5) MYTHIC FIGURES. Seen in Paris a couple of weeks ago —

vader COMP

(6) SORCERER TO THE CROWN. The Independent profiles author Zen Cho.

Perhaps somewhat unwittingly, Zen Cho has become something of a poster-girl for the growing chorus of voices clamouring for more diversity in science fiction and fantasy literature.

It seems a given that a genre that deals with the different, the new, and the unfamiliar as a matter of course should quite naturally embrace diversity and progressiveness in both its practitioners and its characters.

But the recent debacle over the genre’s Hugo Awards – to cut a very long story very short, the awards nominations were flooded by a concerted campaign from a couple of fandom factions who think SF should really be the preserve of straight white males, and a spaceship should be a spaceship and not a metaphor for anything else – shows that there are still clearly-delineated battle lines over this….

Zen Cho’s response has been more measured, and delivered in really the best way an author can – she’s written a novel that simultaneously manages to tackle questions of race, gender, and social justice while being a thumping good read.

Sorcerer to the Crown is a Regency fantasy that posits an alternative-history England where magic is practised openly, but where political shenanigans within the source of the magic, the Fairy Court, are limiting England’s power … and just when it needs it most as the Government ramps up its war with the French.

(7) AN UNEXPECTED LANCELOT. Sherwood Smith covers the history, then reviews the mystery, in “Arthurian Cycle with a New Twist” at Book View Café.

But after a lifetime of sampling all these various versions, I’ve never really taken to this storyline. It’s a doom and disaster tale that turns on adultery. Not my cuppa.

I did have to teach Malory back in my teaching days, getting puzzled kids through fifteenth century English mainly by teasing out stories that could relate to their lives now, and then painting a picture of life then. We read it in spite of the story, kind of, because personality was pretty sparse: the characters are all pretty much one thing, especially the women.

But there’s one Arthurian story I really like a whole lot, and that’s this one, by Carol Anne Douglas, the first half of which is entitled Lancelot: Her Story. I’ve been reading drafts over a number of years, as she slowly reworked and layered the story into what it is now.

She’s studied those earlier versions, and it shows in the episodic nature of the narrative, the easily accessible prose, and of course the famous people and incidents. But she added a twist: Lancelot is a woman. And Arthur and his Knights don’t know it.

(8) TOP 10 WARS. From Future War Stories, “FWS: Top Ten Most Interesting Wars of Military Science Fiction” Many good picks, and plenty of fodder for discussion since my own list wouldn’t overlap that much. What about yours?

  1. The Cylon Wars from BSG

The Cylon Wars have been a founding event in both BSG series, and neither have been seen in any length until the 2012 web-only miniseries Blood & Chrome. In the 2004-2009 Reimagined Series, the rebellion of the intelligence machines, known as Cylons, was about fifty two years before the Cylon Holocaust (BCH), and lasted for 12 years. This war united the 12 Colonies of Kobol under the Articles of Colonization, and saw the construction of the Battlestars that we know and love. This conflict transformed the 12 Colonies and paved the way for its destruction decades later and the rise of our society here on Earth. But, we saw very little of the actually, despite the Caprica series.

In the original 1978 series, the Cylons were actually an reptilian alien race that used robotic soldiers to wages their wars after their own population was nearly exhausted to maintain their empire.

The Cylons of the original series waged an 1,000 year war with the 12 Colonies of Man, until finally achieving victory, and destroying the 12 Colonies of Man. Of course, both Cylons had help in destroying the 12 Colonies in the form of the Baltar characters. After the end of the SyFy Channel reimagined series in 2009, it was believed that a new series would be created around the Cylon War and William Adama’s experiences in the war, along with the series Caprica. Again, the Galactica would be front-and-center. This would have allowed us to see the war that had been floating around science fiction since the 1970’s. That promised series was not delivered in the form that we fans expected. BSG: Blood & Chrome was downgraded to an online miniseries of a 10 episodes. The show we thought we were going to get was just okay, and the Cylon Wars remains an unseen war. What is interesting about the Cylon War mentioned in both series, is that creators took two very different ideas on the war and the Cylons.

(9) VIRTUAL CHERNOBYL. Preview the virtual tour of Chernobyl now being assembled for an April online debut.

Take a virtual tour of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster zone – without leaving your sofa

The town of Prypiat is not a place which is likely to feature on many travel-lovers’ bucket lists.

Almost three decades ago, its 350,000 residents’ lives changed forever when the Chernobyl nuclear disaster turned their home into a terrifying radioactive danger zone.

Prypiat might not be the sort of destination you’d fancy visiting in real life, but soon you will have the chance to take an amazing virtual tour of this abandoned Soviet ghost city.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster next year, a Polish games developer called The Farm 51 is offering “anyone with access to virtual reality devices an unprecedented trip to the area without leaving the comfort of their homes”.

… “Virtual visitors will be free to explore and engage with places that have hitherto been off limits.”

The Farm 51 spent days filming the town’s eerie locations in unprecedented detail, digitising its spooky swimming pool, ferris wheel and bumper cars.

Anyone brave enough to take a virtual tour can do so starting from April 26 next year – the anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster.

(10) GOOGLE BESTSELLERS. At The Digital Reader, “Google Play Reveals Its Best-Selling eBooks, Videos, and Games for 2015”. Depressingly, five of the 10 top books  are “Fifty Shades…” of something. But The Martian by Andy Weir and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs also sneaked in there.

After seeing Google’s list, I was better prepared to discover that science fiction is only the seventh among the top selling fiction categories at Smashwords — “2015 Smashwords Survey Reveals Insights to Help Authors Reach More Readers”.

[Last three of ten points.]

  1. Avoid $1.99.  For the fourth year in a row, $1.99 was a black hole in terms of overall earnings.  On a unit sales basis, although $1.99 books outperformed all books priced $5.00 and above, it dramatically underperformed on overall earnings, earning 73% less than the average of all other price points.  If you write full length fiction and you have books priced at $1.99, trying increasing the price to $2.99 or $3.99, and if your book performs as the aggregate does, you’ll probably sell more units.  Or if it’s short and $2.99+ is too high, try 99 cents instead because the data suggests you’ll earn more and reach about 65% more readers.  I’m not entirely certain why this is the case.  It’s not because our retailers pay lower levels for sub-$2.99 books.  They don’t.  Our retailers pay the same for $1.99 as they do for $9.99.  There’s something about the price point that readers don’t like.  Who knows, maybe readers see 99 cents as an enticing promotional price, $2.99 and up as a fair price, and $1.99 as the price for lesser quality books that couldn’t make the $2.99 grade.  Your theory is as good as mine.
  2. Bestselling authors and social media. Bestselling authors are more likely to have a presence on Facebook and Twitter, and more likely to have a blog.  Not a huge surprise, though it’s worth noting there are plenty of successful authors who have minimal presence on social media.
  3. Top 10 Fiction categories during the one year period: 1.  Romance.  2.  Erotica.  3.  YA and teen fiction.  4.  Fantasy.  5.  Mystery & detective.   6.  Gay and lesbian fiction.  7.  Science fiction.  8.  Historical.  9.  Thriller & suspense.   10.  Adventure.

[Thanks to Mark-kitteh, Alan Baumler, Will R., John King Tarpinian, and Brian Z. for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor  of the day Anna Nimmhaus .]

Noory Boots Brom From Coast To Coast

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Krampus the Yule Lord

Brom, artist and author of Krampus the Yule Lord, told his Facebook followers that he was kicked off George Noory’s radio show last night.

Well, now that’s a feather in my cap. Seems I weirded out George Noory on Coast to Coast so bad he kicked me off the air. Apparently he is disturbed by children being tormented in folktales. Seems that being the case, he would have done just a touch of research before having me on to talk about Krampus. For the record, I do have a very dark sense of humor, but I am a father and am very aware of the difference of fairytales and real life, something George does not seem to understand. Even so, it is the over the top horribleness of Krampus that I dearly love.

…Funny thing is, I was so nervous and focusing so hard on just trying to get through the show, that I didn’t even clue in that he was offended until he hung up on me. I just kept wondering where these odd questions were coming from. I wanted to talk about Krampus’s rich and colorful folklore, not real life infant deaths – geesh.

Laurie Lee Brom, also an artist, said:

So for those of you who missed the shenanigans last night, Brom was HUNG UP ON by George Noory on Coast to Coast! Noory clearly hadn’t taken even two minutes to prep for the show and had NO idea about Krampus. Displaying brilliant interviewing skills, the show asked Brom to provide the questions to ask so Noory didn’t need to do anything at all but be a host to the invited guest. Apparently UFO abductions are fine for airplay, but ancient myths of kids being thrown in a sack of a mythological beast were just too “Halloweenie” for George, who abruptly hung up on Brom. It’s all so hilarious and infuriating at once. Through it all Brom did great. Here’s link to the show.

You can listen to the segment here– http://www.cknw.com/audio/. Select October 28, 10:20 p.m. (Which you can’t literally do, but if you set it for 10 p.m. you can advance the recording for that hour to where you want to start by using the red bar.)

[Thanks to Arnie Fenner for the story.]