(1) SOLD BY VOLUME NOT WEIGHT. Weightless Books delivered the Summer 2025 issue of F&SF to digital subscribers today. Interestingly, it’s labeled Volume 1 on the cover, but inside the Indicia says it’s Volume 147.
(2) FUTURE TENSE. The new Future Tense Fiction story for November 2025 is “Subsidence,” by E. G. Condé.
The story is about the intersection of data centers, AI systems, and nuclear energy. It explores how data center systems can fail and the role of human workers in keeping systems online, attending to finicky machines, and diagnosing hard-to-sniff-out problems with their intuition and experience. The author is also an anthropologist of computing who has done extensive research in and around data centers.
The response essay “Is It Possible to Store Data in DNA?” is by author and musician Claire L. Evans.
… As much as we may pretend otherwise—imagining our terabytes of stored photos, files, and text to be eternal—data is no exception to this rule. Every digital calculation grinds away at its host servers at a molecular scale, producing accumulated frictions that escape as relentless heat. To keep it at bay, data centers depend on constant air-conditioning and convective pipes coursing with cooled water. Without continual monitoring and backup cooling systems ready to kick on at a moment’s notice, the heat produced by the internet’s constant calculations could easily spark the kind “thermal runaway event” detailed in E. G. Condé’s striking short story “Subsidence.” At scale, in less than half an hour, such an event would quite literally melt the cloud as we know it.
Every digital calculation grinds away at its host servers at a molecular scale, producing accumulated frictions that escape as relentless heat.
“Heat is the waste product of computation,” Condé writes in his other life as an anthropologist of computing, under the name Steven Gonzalez. “If left unchecked, it becomes a foil to the workings of digital civilization.”…
(3) ‘PLURIBUS’ A BIG SUCCESS. “Vince Gilligan’s ‘Pluribus’ Sets Record For Biggest Apple TV Drama Series Launch” reports Deadline.
Years of unprecedented secrecy, a hard to explain premise and a title many have to look up in the dictionary did not hamper Pluribus‘ launch as Apple TV‘s most viewed drama of all time. According to the streamer, the series from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan broke the record previously held by Severance Season 2 for the biggest global drama series launch cross Apple TV’s more than 100 territories, led by the U.S., UK, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Germany, Mexico, India and France.
In the U.S., the viewership high mark has been corroborated by the Nielsen Streaming Content Ratings, measuring minutes for Episodes 1 and 2 of drama originals over premiere weekend. Pluribus, starring Rhea Seehorn, debuted with two episodes Friday, Nov. 7.
While official Nielsen data will not be available for a couple of weeks, Luminate reported earlier this week that Pluribus logged 6.4M hours with its first two episodes over the first seven days of release in the U.S., a strong showing that landed the series at #4 for the week behind shows that all had significantly more episodes available.
There also has been anecdotal evidence, with reports of the Apple TV app crashing from high demand after the first two episodes of Pluribus were put up on the platform….
(4) SHOCKING LACK OF ATTENTION. “The British library is in crisis: why does nobody care?” asks CityAM.
The widespread indifference to the British Library’s crippling cyberattack demonstrates a perilous failure to value the knowledge infrastructure vital for national prosperity, says Hetan Shah
The head of a critical British information body has resigned. No, not the BBC. At the start of this month the chief executive of the British Library, the UK’s national library based in Kings Cross, left her role after less than a year in post. And virtually no one noticed.
The media’s near-silence parallels the national reaction to the major cyberattack the Library suffered two years ago. So limited was the coverage that even parliament was oblivious. Around six months after the cyber incident I talked to the then chair of the science select committee, who was not aware of this incident that was having such a profound impact on the research community.
Why the lack of interest? Contrast this with the fascination in the leadership travails of the Turing Institute, an artificial intelligence body (ironically enough physically housed in the British Library) which has had sustained coverage across the media. The nation rightly values scientific infrastructure, but it pays extraordinarily little attention to what is happening at our national library….
(5) ALAN DEAN FOSTER – DEAD MAN’S TALE. Free download at this link, courtesy of the author: “Dead Man’s Tale” at Hidden Door.
In the near future, people can volunteer to become a Nul — an empty vessel for a tiny creature called a NyVarnn, who are curious about the human experience.
You volunteered for the procedure expecting death, but something went wrong and you now find yourself an unwilling passenger to an alien in control of your body, out for adventure in New York City!
(6) FIRST CALCULATOR A ‘NATIONAL TREASURE’? “Paris court blocks auction of earliest-known calculator” reports BBC.
One of the world’s first calculating machines will not go to auction as scheduled in France, after a Paris court provisionally blocked the historic item from being exported.
Auction house Christie’s has confirmed it will not proceed with bidding for the machine La Pascaline, developed by the French mathematician Blaise Pascal in 1642.
Valuations suggested the machine could fetch €2m to 3m (£1.7m to £2.6m), and Christie’s called it the “most important scientific instrument ever offered at auction”.
Scientists and researchers made a legal appeal to grant heritage protections to the historic instrument, arguing it should be classified as a “national treasure”.
Pascal was just 19 years old when he developed the earliest version of a calculator, Christie’s said. There are only nine of these machines still in existence.
“It is the first attempt in history to substitute the human mind with a machine,” the official collection description reads.
“Its invention marks a breakthrough, a ‘quantum leap’ whose importance and significance take on a very special meaning today.”
La Pascaline was exhibited at Christie’s venues in New York and Hong Kong throughout the year.
The machine was included in Christie’s auction of the library of the late Catalonia collector Léon Parcé, which also featured Pascal’s philosophical piece Pensées and the first printed version of “Pascal’s wager”.
On Wednesday, a Paris administrative court temporarily blocked an earlier export authorisation provided by France’s culture minister in May. Two experts had signed off on the minister’s certificate, including one from the Louvre Museum.
The judge concluded there were “serious doubts” over the legality of the certificate, a statement from the Paris court said, adding the decision was provisional until a final judgment is delivered.
In a statement to the AFP news agency, a Christie’s spokesperson said: “Given the provisional nature of this decision and in accordance with the instructions of its client, Christie’s is suspending the sale of La Pascaline.”
The court noted La Pascaline’s historic and scientific value could qualify it as a “national treasure”, guaranteeing protections under France’s heritage code….
(7) PAY THE WRITER. Writer Beware’s Victoria Strauss warns, “Royalties in Arrears: Mango Publishing / Blushing Books / Bottlecap Press”.
Publishers do a lot of bad things (as the archives of this blog attest), but among the most infuriating–and, often, the hardest to remedy–is the failure to pay authors the money they are due. Non-payment of royalties and/or failure to provide sales reporting are among the most common publisher complaints Writer Beware receives.
Below, you’ll find a collection of recent offenders….
(8) BEAR NECESSITY. BBC is there when “Prince and Princess of Wales meet Paddington Bear at Royal Variety Performance”.
The Prince and Princess of Wales shook hands with Paddington Bear and discussed marmalade sandwiches backstage at this year’s Royal Variety Performance.
Paddington, in the form of an actor in a costume from the beloved bear’s new West End musical, performed for the royal couple at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Wednesday.
Prince William said the performance was “fantastic”, before adding: “Your sandwich looks very nice.”…
… Paddington has a close connection with the Royal Family, after the character famously appeared in a sketch with the late Queen Elizabeth II for her Platinum Jubilee in 2022….
(9) SUE GRANQUIST (1966-2025). “Sue Granquist, the Chicago blogger and technology professional who wrote Black Gate‘s Goth Chick column every Thursday for sixteen years, passed away unexpectedly on Tuesday” reports John O’Neill in Black Gate’s tribute “Goth Chick, January 13, 1966 – November 18, 2025”.
(10) MEMORY LANE.
[Written by Cat Eldridge.]
November 21, 2012 — The Rise of the Guardians
On this day thirteen years ago, The Rise of the Guardians enjoyed its premiere in limited release with its full one that coming weekend. It is quite possibly my favorite holiday film, though Scrooged, the original and absolutely perfect A Lion in Winter, and The Polar Express are also on the list as well. Oh, and the forty-year-old version of A Christmas Carol starring George C. Scott
It was directed by Peter Ramsey and produced by Christina Steinberg and Nancy Bernstein from a screenplay by David Lindsay-Abaire. It was based on William Joyce’s The Guardians of Childhood series, a most delightful series indeed.
OK, IT IS TIME FOR A CUP OF HOT CHOCOLATE PREPARED BY THE STEWARDS OF THE POLAR EXPRESS. COME BACK AFTER WE HAVE TOLD THE STORY OF THIS FILM AS THERE ARE REALLY, REALLY SPOILERS THIS TIME.
The Guardians of Childhood series was a mystical epic of mythological characters fighting darkness to protect childhood dreams. It made very good source material for that aforementioned screenplay by David Lindsay-Abaire in which Jack Frost awakens from a very long nap under the ice with his memory gone to discover everyone has forgotten him.
Meanwhile at the North Pole (splendidly realized here), the Man in the Moon warns Nicholas St. North that Pitch Black (who look a lot Mr. Dark in Bill Willingham’s Fables series) is threatening the children of the world with his nightmares.
He calls E. Aster Bunnymund, the Sandman, and the Tooth Fairy to arms. Each of these is a wonderfully realized character as the Man in the Moon and Nicholas St. North.
A series of truly epic battles to defeat Pitch Black follows lest all the children of the world are permanently beset with nightmares. He is defeated when his own Nightmares sensing he has grown weak drag him down into the Underworld.
DID YOU ENJOY THAT HOT CHOCOLATE? GOOD, COME ON BACK.
The feature starred the voice talents of Hugh Jackman, Jude Law and Isla Fisher among others. I think it was a stellar voice cast and the animation was splendid. I’ve rewatched it several times, and the Suck Fairy sits on the couch sighing, drinking hot chocolate, stroking a Pixel, and saying that it’s too sweet for her to mess with. The holiday season does bring out the soft side of her.
It did exceedingly well at the box office taking in over three hundred million on a budget of one hundred and thirty million according to Box Office Mojo, and about half of the critics really liked it such as Derek Adam’s of Time Out who proclaimed “Rise of the Guardians is an effervescent dose of fantasia that’s pretty hard to dislike. Unless, of course, you’re a cynical grump.” The grumpy ones I’ll not quote, but let just say that v that a certain Nickolas gave them a lump of coal when it came out.
The audience rating at Rotten Tomatoes is very healthy eighty percent.
It can be streamed on Peacock.
(11) COMICS SECTION.
- BC fails to launch.
- Dinosaur Comics rants about a vitamin name.
- Dog Eat Doug has an annoying request.
- Rhymes with Orange features early hold music.
- The Argyle Sweater draws the fashion line.
- Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal questions an inherited relic.
- Yaffle meets a Seuss character at a concert.
(12) GET HAPPY. “McDonald’s Grinch Happy Meal: When, where to get it” – FOX 11 Los Angeles has the story.
…The specialty meal is through a partnership between McDonald’s and Dr. Seuss Enterprises.
“THiS iS MY MEAL AND i DiDN’T PARTNER WiTH McDONALD’S OUT OF THE GOODNESS OF MY HEART,” The Grinch wrote i in a handwritten note on crumpled paper from Mt. Crumpit, according to a McDonald’s news release.
The McDonald’s Grinch Meal includes: Choice of Big Mac or 10-piece Chicken McNuggets; Dill Pickle “Grinch Salt” McShaker Fries (tangy, dill pickle seasoning); Medium Drink.
The Grinch is also being generous and adding a special gift with each meal: a pair of socks. The socks come in four colors—yellow, red, blue and green—and feature a handwritten message from The Grinch.
The Grinch Meal will be available at all participating McDonald’s restaurants across the United States. You’ll have to check with the restaurants closest to you to see if they’re participating.
It will be available beginning on Dec. 2, 2025, and will be available for a limited time. McDonald’s did not provide an end date….
(13) WITCHING GEAR. “Bronze Age to Elphaba: The centuries-old origins of the witch’s hat” at BBC.
What’s the first image you associate with the witch? Might it be the broomstick, which was first linked to sorcery and heresy in 1342 when Irishwoman Lady Alice Kyteler was accused of witchcraft? An investigator, on searching her home, found the offending item, “upon which she ambled and galloped through thick and thin”. Or perhaps it’s the cauldron, where potions were brewed in William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth “Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble” was the witches’ now iconic incantation.
But perhaps the most enduring image of the witch is the conical hat, seen in Frank L Baum’s 1900 classic children’s novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; in 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and Margaret Hamilton’s frightening depiction of the Wicked Witch of the West; in the opening cartoon credits of 1960s sitcom Bewitched; in the Harry Potter films; and of course Cynthia Erivo’s portrayal of Elphaba in the Wicked film adaptation, set to defy gravity once again when the concluding instalment, Wicked: For Good lands in theatres on 21 November.
Some of the earliest examples of conical hats are majestic, gold, tapered headpieces decorated with astronomical symbols from the Bronze Age, when it was said that the priests who likely wore them had divine knowledge and power. Pointy hats were found on the heads of Chinese mummies from the 4th to 2nd Centuries BC, earning them the modern nickname “The Witches of Subeshi” when their graves were unearthed in 1978….
(14) VIDEO OF THE DAY. How It Should Have Ended gives Predator Badlands a new twist.
[Thanks to Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Joey Eschrich, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, and Mike Kennedy for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jon Meltzer.]
