Review: Into The Spider-Verse (Spoilers)

First, if you haven't seen this, do.

Yes, even if you don't like "cartoons."

Are you back yet?

I honestly haven't been a fan of most modern animation. The desire seems to be to do things that can't be done live action, whilst making them as close to live action as possible. Most animators these days seem to want you to forget you're watching a cartoon. (Which has also killed much of the puppetry genre, sadly).

The team behind Into The Spider-Verse - directors Bob Persichetti (Puss In Boots, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit), Peter Ramsey (Rise Of The Guardians) and relative unknown Rodney Rothman, writers Phil Lord (The Lego Movie) and Rodney Rothman, and all the animators...played with this in a beautiful way.

One minute you're watching hyper-realistic 3-D animation and can almost forget it's a cartoon. The next...the next they're using everything you can do in animation. The philosophy was not "Let's do what we can't do in live action." It was "We're doing an animated feature. Let's remind everyone what the medium can do." Whether it was speech bubbles, interspersed motion comic frames, words following characters around the screen - Spider-Verse felt like this delightful mix of modern and traditional animation with techniques taken straight from online motion comics.

It didn't try to hide being a cartoon.

It reveled in it.

The story was one of the closest to perfect I've seen lately. There was one fight scene that dragged a little - and that was literally my only criticism. (When you want to yell "Just beat him already" at the screen, it's a bit too long).

The plotline itself was classic, true YA/MG (It kind of hovered at the edge between the two). It was an origin story, it was a coming of age story, and it was about how you don't start out great. You have to work at it.

It was about Stan Lee's assertion that anyone could be behind the mask. And in service of that, it made 616 Peter Parker...an older, somewhat gone to seed Peter who has lost MJ and is on the verge of despair...explicitly rather than implicitly Jewish. The set up for that was a blink and you'll miss it frame from his wedding, but it was clear.

Anyone can be behind the mask. A hard-boiled detective, a middle-aged guy with problems, a young girl (or two), even a pig.

And, of course, a black teenager who isn't sure who he wants to be. This movie, and Shameik Moore's excellent performance finally gave me the understanding of Miles Morales I needed. I'll always be a Peter Parker fan, but there can be more than one Spider-Man.

Which was the central message: There can be more than one hero. You are never alone.

By making 616 Peter a little bit washed up, the movie neatly skirted the risk of the White Mentor (a variant of the White Savior). In fact, it's Miles who saves Peter. From himself. The movie addressed race without a single touch of racism...my black friends all loved it. Miles Morales gives us a black-Hispanic lead whom I'm pretty sure white kids will have no problems identifying.

In short, this tied for best movie of the year with Black Panther. Not what I was expecting - I was expecting a fun afternoon. Not a movie that should be required viewing in animation school. The subtle style differences between the characters, the use of comic book elements, everything pulled together into a movie that only ever let you forget it was a cartoon so it could hit you over the head with Spider-Ham's mallet with it in a perfect way.

Oh, and the most perfect touch of worldbuilding - I don't know if this came from Ultimates comics because I avoided them to save money - but Miles' policeman dad doesn't work for the N.Y.P.D. - he works for the P.D.N.Y. This beautifully and subtly reminded the viewer throughout that they were in an alternate reality. Nice one, guys.

In other words, if you haven't seen this yet and you are into comics at all, you need to see this spectacular movie. Be aware there are strobe effects in a number of places - I wasn't triggered, but if you have migraines or a seizure disorder, be careful.

And let's set things up for it and Black Panther to cage fight in the Hugos?

So...

...rather than doing my own post I'm just going to link here. Victoria Strauss has done a great job of listing a bunch of shady "publishing services" and "marketing" companies that target self-published authors.

Please avoid these companies and any like them.

Also, it's totally aliens in New York City. That or the Spider-folks are here.

Or, welp, WHO broke time?

Welp, I'm back

And would like to remind anyone (or let you know if you hadn't noticed) that my short story "Temple of Children" is in the January/February issue of Analog.

This is a great way to start the year! The issue also contains stories by Adam-Troy Castro, Andy Dudach, Shane Halbach and Julie Novakova as well as old regulars Ed Lerner (hi yet again) and Bud Sparkhawk.

Happy Holidays

Going dark until after Christmas.

There's some really fun stuff in the works, though. Right after I come back I'll be working on a module for the Taloc Mayan Roleplaying Game.

Can't talk about the other cool thing just yet.

Nuclear Powered Mole Machines

They're a running in-joke in my space opera RPG campaign.

But NASA is literally planning on sending one to Europa. Called "tunnelbot" it's basically a nuclear powered drill that will go through Europa's ice. Well, it may not be nuclear.

But it likely will.

However, this is a long-term plan. The designers have not worked out what kind of spaceship they need to get it there or, big obstacle with many probe missions, how to land on the icy world.

Still.

It's a nuclear powered mole machine.

Interview on Whimsical Words

I did an author interview on Vonnie Winslow Crist's Whimsical Words blog - you can find it here.

I have another one coming up. In this one I talk about the last book in the Lost Guardians series (Although not in the world...but I need a break from the world, so will be doing other stuff for a while).

How SyFy's Nightflyers Missed the Mark

Space horror is a genre that isn't touched by television very often. SyFy's Nightflyers revisits the genre, and it gets many things right.

For one thing, unlike the 1980s movie, it doesn't whitewash the character of Melantha Jhirl - a character who was also whitewashed in the 1985 cover art (Martin was unhappy, but not famous enough yet to argue). In this case, although Martin had little involvement with the series, he did reach out and demand a black actress. Which gave us the able Jodie Turner-Smith. Martin himself was baffled as to how they were going to get a TV show out of a novella, but thinks they did a good job.

One big change is that the Nightflyer is apparently within the solar system, there's not much in the way of interstellar travel, and Earth is dying.

It's the ending that didn't feel right.

Nightflyers is cosmic horror. It's man versus the void. It's about sanity. It might even say something about long distance space travel. There's also some stuff in there about race, about xenophobia, about our natural fear of the other.

But ultimately, the volcryn are incomprehensible, space is huge, and we're all going to die.

The end of the ten episode season? It felt like 2001.

Now this may be that it's not the end, that they're going somewhere with this. After all, they have the full TV rights.

But it left me feeling that the writers missed the point. It left the entire thing feeling more like Alien (don't get me wrong, Alien remains perhaps my favorite space horror movie) than Lovecraft in space.

(Also, if you want to do a Martin space TV series, how about Tuf Voyaging? A flawed, very human, but intriguing protagonist, lots of possibilities for stories even once you've used the ones he wrote, and cats. Cats.)

And Another

Screen Actors Guild, this time.

(Also, yes, I forgot/didn't realize A Quiet Place was genre. My bad).

So, let's see.

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

Black Panther's in there. The only issue is it's up against Crazy Rich Asians (I wouldn't cry if that one won, given the precedents its setting).

And the rest:

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Motion Picture

Emily Blunt for Mary Poppins Returns

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Emily Blunt for A Quiet Place

Blunt's on fire. I need to find something she's in.

Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture (Why don't we have more of this)

Ant-Man and the Wasp
Avengers: Infinity War
Black Panther

So, yeah, MCU has good stunt people.

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series

The Handmaid's Tale

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series

Joseph Fiennes for The Handmaid's Tale

(This is the first man I've seen nominated from that show)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series

Elisabeth Moss for The Handmaid's Tale

Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series

Marvel's Daredevil
The Walking Dead
Westworld

Some familiar stuff here. The SAG awards are selected by actors and performers, so they may say something a bit different.

And they recognize stunt people.

It's...Nomination Season

The Critics' Choice aren't as well known, but I just saw a headline saying that Black Panther got the second most nominations (12). This better than the "I suppose we'll put it in for Best Picture because everyone thinks it's so good" feel of the Globes.

Best Picture also includes Mary Poppins Returns. I saw a trailer for it with Fantastic Beasts, and I have to say that Emily Blunt is visually spot on, and the feel of the movie is...well...there's how long between it and the original? Feels like a year or so. Do we count First Man? People counted Hidden Figures, so...

Black Panther still missed out on Best Actor...which I honestly suspect is going to go to Rami Malek for Bohemian Rhapsody anyway. First Man is the only genre-ish nod - Ryan Gosling.

Emily Blunt is the only genre actress in Best Actress.

Michael B. Jordan does get a nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his wonderful portrayal of Killmonger (one of the best villains of recent years, IMO).

Best Supporting Actress sees Claire Foy from First Man. Still tossing up whether it counts.

The Critics' Choice has Best Acting Ensemble, and Black Panther is nominated there, but it's up against Crazy Rich Asians and the apparently excellent Widows.

Nothing of genre interest in Best Director or Best Original Screenplay.

Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole get a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for Black Panther. First Man is also in there, although that's definitely one of those movies which wins awards despite people not critics not really liking them.

Gonna just go through the rest quickly.

Best Cinematography
Rachel Morrison for Black Panther
Linus Sandgren for First Man

Best Production Design
Hannah Beachler and Jay Hart for Black Panther
Nathan Crowley and Kathy Lucas for First Man
John Myhre and Gordon Sim for Mary Poppins Returns

I might forgive them if they go for Mary Poppins Returns, with its perfect evocation of the original, over Black Panther.

Best Editing
Tom Cross for First Man

Best Costumes
Ruth Carter for Black Panther
Sandy Powell for Mary Poppins Returns

Black Panther should win.

Best Hair and Makeup
Black Panther

Best Visual Effects
Avenger: Infinity War
Black Panther
First Man
Mary Poppins Returns
Ready Player One

Only one non-genre film in this batch, and that was Mission: Impossible - Fallout, which you could make a case for.

Best Animated Feature
Incredibles 2
Ralph Breaks The Internet
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Best Action Movie
Avengers: Infinity War
Black Panther
Deadpool 2
Ready Player One

I want Deadpool 2 to win, except, it's a comedy?

Best Comedy
Deadpool 2

Aha, apparently movies can be nominated in multiple genre categories here. Unfortunately, I suspect Crazy Rich Asians will win here.

Best Actor in a Comedy
Ryan Reynolds for Deadpool 2

Best Actress in a Comedy
Emily Blunt for Mary Poppins Returns

Best Sci-Fi/Horror Movie
So, everything in here is genre. Sort of. Nominations are Annihilation, Halloween, Hereditary, A Quiet Place and Suspiria.

I'm guessing they aren't counting superheroes as sci-fi.

Best Song
"All the Stars" from Black Panther
"The Place Where Lost Things Go" Mary Poppins Returns
"Trip A Little Light Fantastic" Mary Poppins Returns

"All the Stars" also got a Grammy nomination, so...

Best Score
Ludwig Goransson for Black Panther
Justin Hurwitz for First Man
Marc Shaiman for Mary Poppins Returns

It's going to be hard to compete with an actual musical. Not familiar with the non-genre noms at all, but...

Best Actress in a Drama Series
Elisabeth Moss for The Handmaid's Tale

I need to see that.

Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Thandie Newton for Westworld
Yvonne Strahovski for The Handmaid's Tale

Entire lineup looks familiar

Best Comedy Series
The Good Place

Best Actor in a Comedy Series
Ted Danson for The Good Place

There's also a Big Bang Theory mention that I have to root against. Sorry to the fans, but I hate that show.

Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

Two noms for Young Sheldon. Ugh. Make it stop.

A Not So Fantastic Beast - the Problem with Nagini

Like a lot of people, I was vaguely disturbed to find that Nagini, the snake from Harry Potter was, in fact, an Asian woman cursed to turn into a snake. However, I had hope that the character would not be as offensive as the concept indicated. That she would be...you know. Badass.

I was wrong.

Nagini was worse.

We first see the character in a circus freak show, which she does not appear to be part of of her own free will. She breaks out, with the help of Credence...

...and then spends the entire rest of the movie following him around. Whilst every other character in the movie dresses practically, Nagini is never allowed to change out of her circus outfit. Literally silent, she serves only one narrative purpose: A vessel through which the audience can feel bad when Credence, an unlikeable metamorphmagus, goes with Grindelwald.

She doesn't even have a name. A "nagini" is what she is, not who she is (A nagini is a female naga, a serpent race from Hindu and Indonesian mythology. The movie would not change at all if she was not in it. She is pointless.

To sum up: Nagini is a Sexy Lamp, a clear example of the trope, and not being played to subvert it. Her dress is pure fan service, her lack of lines and utter lack of agency (She didn't break out until a man told her she should)...

The character would be bad enough if she was white, but making her Asian (and not even the right kind of Asian if we're going to say her family explains the legend - Kim, the actor, is Korean), only doubles down on the problems.

Her silent submission is a stereotype. The way in which she is put on display comes dangerously close to an allegory for prostitution.

And couldn't they have found her some better clothes?

Don't get me wrong, The Crimes of Grindelwald is not two hours of my life I won't get back. I was glad to finally see a heroic Slytherin (Sure, I'm Ravenclaw to the end, but...). To nobody's surprise, Scamander is confirmed to be a Hufflepuff.

And while Depp was mediocre, Redmayne does weird well enough that if he wasn't so famous I wouldn't mind seeing him take a turn as the Doctor (although I'd still prefer Richard Ayoade). Everyone else acted well.

Oh, btw, Rowling? That's an Each-uisge, not a kelpie. Or did you just change it because nobody could pronounce Each-uisge? If that's the case, I will totally forgive.

A treat from Mars

Just watch the video. Or, rather, listen to it. (It's safe for work, I promise).

Thanks Insight.

If you have a subwoofer, make sure it's turned on...

Golden Globe Nominations

So, they're out...and let's see what genre nods we have.

The obvious is Black Panther for Best Drama. I do think it has a chance of winning, but it's up against the rather more traditionally "award worthy" BlacKKKlansman. Biopic Bohemian Rhapsody is in there too, but given it's mixed reviews...

Musical or Comedy has Mary Poppins Returns, but I think I'd rather see Crazy Rich Asians just because of the precedent it sets. I would have loved to see Deadpool 2 in there...ah well.

No genre nods at all in the acting category. (Really? You couldn't find ONE of the wonderful actors in Black Panther?)

Animated does contain some genre nods. I haven't seen it (yet), but I would like to see Into The Spider-Verse win because it just looks so good. I've also heard good things about Ralph Breaks The Internet. I don't think Incredibles 2 has a huge chance against those two, and I haven't even heard of Isle of Dogs or Mirai.

Other genre nods:
Emily Blunt for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical (Mary Poppins Returns)
Lin-Manuel Miranda for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical (Mary Poppins Returns)
Ludwig Goransson for Best Original Score (Black Panther)
"All The Stars" for Best Original Song (Black Panther)
Elisabeth Moss for Best Performance By An Actress in a Television Series - Drama (The Handmaid's Tale)
"The Good Place" for Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy
Kristen Bell for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy (The Good Place)
Thandie Newton for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television (Westworld)
Yvonne Strahovski for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television (The Handmaid's Tale)

Which all says there's a lot of genre stuff out there, but really, no actor nominations for Black Panther? Disappointed.

First look at "NIghtflyers"

I've intentionally not re-read George R.R. Martin's Nightflyers recently, because I never want to have the book fresh in my mind when a new adaptation is on the horizon.

I have, of course, been wondering just how SyFy was going to get ten full episodes out of a novella. So, apparently, has Martin (Who sold the TV rights years ago and forgot about it).

So far, while perhaps less than faithful to the book in details, the show's looking...pretty good. The best part is the extremely clever use of incidental music. The occasional suggestion of the flapping of wings recalls the title and gives the show an ominous feel.

So did starting with the ending, although some might disagree.

Alien, it is not, but it's been a...actually, I can't think of another out and out space horror TV show right now. Can anyone else?

The biggest problem?

Their absolutely terrible ship design. Guys, guys. At the very start, so it's not a spoiler, we see a character turn on the artificial gravity.

Unfortunately, the Nightflyer also has a spinning habitat ring.

It also has a deck plan that indicates they might be using thrust gravity (the ship is a "tower").

Make up your minds people.

Sorry, but it's pet peeving me...

Tropes Some of us are Done With

I'm not worried about spoilers here, but there are Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. spoilers.

One of the tropes I am the most tired of in television (which has the worst offenders, but the trope does show up in comics too) is the Marriage Ending.

By which I mean that TV shows often don't allow couples to marry until the show has been canceled, in the last episode or in an epilogue. If they do, then they will promptly kill off one of the characters, have them have to leave forever, etc. In some cases, this trope also applies to declarations of love.

Thanks for the twofer, Whedon.

Not only did Whedon let Fitz and Simmons get married only to kill Fitz off (It's a comic book show, so maybe it's not permanent) a couple of episodes later, but Coulson is dying, which means he was finally allowed to kiss May.

Seriously?

Can we stop?

There's this idea in media that marriage should be the end of the story. Married characters are sometimes allowed to be parents or mentors, but more normally they get divorced or widowed and then they get to start their story over. Black Lightning. Iris' father in the Flash.

I can only think of two SF franchises that have broken the rules.

One, despite the above, is the CW DC-verse. Barry and Iris got to get married and keep working together. And, finally, after way too much of the related trope of "They can't get together until the finale so we have to keep throwing stupid obstacles in their way," so did Oliver and Felicity. The writers also stated that they wanted to do this with Alex and Maggie, but Floriana Lima simply refused to stay on the show no matter what she was offered.

The other is Doctor Who, with Rory and Amy. And the Doctor and River, although their relationship was finite, it did last for quite some time, in its weird and quirky way.

Both are signs that things are getting better, but they still aren't there. The trope is even worse when it gets applied to same sex couples, where it crosses with Kill The Gays.

Makes me wish I could do a TV show...where the leads get married. In the first half of the first episode.

Marriage doesn't make you boring. Marriage is not the end of your story. Far from it.

Aww...

The ISS' new robot, CIMON, apparently got mad when somebody told it to cancel playing music and asked them "Don't you like it here with me?"

The little droid is still in testing (It's supposed to float at eye level, but hasn't been quite managing it).

Also, I'm sorry, but every picture of it I see makes me go "Moisturize Me."

So about that mitochondrial DNA?

The theory is that all humans descend from a single female - "Mitochondrial DNA."

It just got a serious dent in it. See, it seems, that we can inherit MtDNA from our fathers after all. It's very rare, but it does happen. Whatever mechanism allows for it appears to be hereditary.

Is this how new mitochondrial lines form? Horses, for example, have three, which may relate to the three initial landraces of horse - steppe horses (ancestral to modern light horses), forest horses (ancestral to drafts) and hill horses (ancestral to ponies).

Thoughts on alternate history

There was a Facebook thread recently about alternate histories.

The general conclusion is that we're all tired of the South winning the Civil War, and just as tired of Hitler winning World War II.

That alternate history writers need to think beyond these scenarios, which are overdone and tend to result in dystopia. One alternative might be to have Germany win World War One, which nobody ever seems to do.

There's so many other good divergence points out there. If you're considering writing alternate history, try to move beyond the low hanging fruit. How different would the world be if Tesla had finished his tower and it had worked, for example.

Just something to think about.

Atlantis? Really?

Every so often, somebody claims to have found Atlantis.

It's been equated with Minoan Crete, it's been located in all kinds of places, including Germany, off the cost of Cornwall (where a larger island, sometimes called Lyonesse, did indeed exist where the Scilly Isles are today). It could be somewhere in Doggerland, the once inhabited land now covered by the North Sea.

Now, somebody's found it again. Off Spain this time. (Plato did specifically say Atlantis lay "beyond the pillars of Hercules," which means Gibraltar and thus outside the Mediterranean).

They claim to have found remnants of a sea wall destroyed by a tsunami, they even think they found Poseidon's temple.

They certainly found something....some kind of ruins. But they're far too old to be Atlantis and the "sea wall" is more likely some kind of megastructure built when the site was above water (it's oscillated over the years).

Besides.

Atlantis probably isn't real, as much fun as it is to play with.

Do We Really Have the First CRISPR Babies?

The news broke over the weekend that a Chinese scientist, He Jiankui, may have altered the genes of twin girls to give them resistance to AIDS.

May have, because we as yet have nothing but He's statement as evidence that this actually happened. The hospital at which he works, Shenzhen Harmonicare, denied any involvement or that they gave approval. Other supposed backers for the trial also knew nothing about it.

Now, given using CRISPR on humans isn't approved anywhere, hiding it and lying on submitted forms makes sense. The Chinese government has ordered an ethical probe.

The status of the girls, if they exist, is unknown.

Now, let's unpack this.

CRISPR has huge promise for editing bad genes out of the genome. However, the technology is years, if not decades, away from being ready for human trials. Heck, I'm not sure I'd try it on a dog or a cat yet.

We need longitudinal studies in fast-breeding creatures (mice would be ideal) to find out what the effects are on the second and third generation. CRISPR editing affects the germ line, meaning you're introducing permanent modifications. Oh, and probably some testing on Rhesus monkeys too, to see how the tech works in primates.

Jumping straight to any kind of human trial? That's some Orphan Black shit right there.

Personally, I hope the girls don't exist. If they do, then the editing may have laid them open to diseases far more common than HIV.

The door is going to open to human genetic manipulation sooner or later, but we need to be careful. Yes, for once, I'm going to be the conservative voice here. Think. Test. We don't know how all the connections work. We still don't understand human epigenetics.

It's the 200th anniversary of Frankenstein. Think, people.

Risen Day Release!

This concludes the series, although I do plan on going back to the world in a future date.

Right now, you can purchase the new book (although I do suggest starting with book 1 if you haven't already) from Amazon and Smashwords:

Amazon (Kindle ebook): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KTR5CHP

Amazon (Paperback): https://www.amazon.com/Risen-Lost-Guardians-Jennifer-Povey/dp/1731064063

Smashwords (all ebook formats): https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/908884

So...

...should we try to fix global warming by injecting sulphur into the upper atmosphere. It's apparently feasible...

...but we've all watched that movie, right?

(I'm inclined to think this kind of thing is a last resort...if we can't fix things a sensible way).

After Jets...

...the airliners of the future may be battery powered, non-polluting, and almost silent.

Sound like a pipedream? Nope. As battery technology improves, it may become feasible. Researchers at MIT have managed to fly a 5 meter plane for short distances...using ion drive.

In the past, ion drive in a gravity well has been impractical because of the weight of the batteries needed. That's no longer true. And while their 9 second, 45 meter flight might seem unimpressive...

...it's worth remembering that the first flight at Kitty Hawk lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet. Look where we've come from there.

The design may look quite different, though. Ion drive in an atmosphere requires a large wingspan to work, meaning that something like the Boeing blended wing design might work:

The downside of this plane design: Lots more middle seats. But VR/AR might make them a lot less unpleasant.

Philcon Roundup

Slightly late because of fun things like cover reveals.

The highlight - getting roped in to Cosplay Night Court (I ended up the punchline to a joke in a good way. No, I don't know who those people are. No, we did not coordinate it).

Also great to talk to everyone. Realized I need more books to sell, but that's in the works.

The hotel needs to put more bar staff on at 6pm, though :/.

Tales from the Old Black Ambulance

See, I promised more news!

This anthology from Prospective Press is currently being kickstarted. It contains my story Hearse, which is written from the point of view of...

...yup, the hearse. It's a bit more complex than that, but...

If you pay $125, you can even be Tuckerized in the story (there might be a few more of those, too). It's $250 if you want to be a corpse (creepy).

If you just want the book, it's $15 for the ebook or $25 (plus shipping) for the hard copy and the ebook. You also get creepy digital wallpaper and your name on the donor page.

Risen Day Cover Reveal

I'll have more news on a different project tomorrow (for a teaser, go to https://youtu.be/FNyg24-i2Rg )

For now, check out the cover to Risen Day, the fourth and final book in the Lost Guardians series.

The proof has been ordered. I'm looking at releasing the ebook next Monday unless I'm unable to review the proof over the weekend. Print will be, as usual, a couple more weeks.

Philcon

Yes, I'll be there. During dealer room hours I'm helping (wo)man the Rantings of a Wandering Mind booth with Joab Stieglitz.

I'll also be taking part in the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading on Saturday at 4pm. (THIS time I have set my phone to yell at me when the time comes). There may be giveaways.

Sadly, I don't quite have book four out. I have cover art, but it's not quite ready to reveal yet.

Germs in the...uh...brain

Apparently, we have bacteria living in our brains. If that creeps you out, then just remember knowing doesn't change anything.

In fact, the bacteria, which are concentrated in the hippocampus (memory), pre-frontal cortex (planning and personality) and striatum (voluntary movement) are probably part of who we are and why we are. Experiments with germ-free mice show alterations in social behavior and cognition, although those alterations aren't consistent, possibly related to husbandry and genetics. Some germ free mice show increases in anxiety, impairment in working memory, increased self-grooming time and possibly an inability to recognize familiar mice.

The very fact that the "germs" are hanging out in the parts of the brain associated with memory and personality is enough to make one wonder a couple of things:

1. Is there a link between brain microbiome and certain learning disabilities, especially autism spectrum disorders and dyspraxia?
2. Are we actually bacterial colonies puppeting around ape bodies? I know that's disturbing, but...

And can we introduce bacteria to the brain to help treat psychological disorders or even, yes, improve memory.

Sooo many story ideas.

The History We Learn

We tell kids to listen to their teachers in school.

In school, I remember being taught that the partition of India (into India and Pakistan) was done to stop everyone from fighting each other. That a "few people chose to move to the right side of the line." But that we British knew best and fixed it.

Anyone who watched this week's Doctor Who saw a different version of that history.

I remember as a kid seeing right through it. I knew, after all, that Hindus and Muslims don't tend to like each other that much. That you took steps not to mistake one for the other if you, well, wanted to avoid being yelled at at best.

The "few people" who "chose" to move were 14 million displaced people. The estimate the Doctor gives for casualties of 1.4 million may be either too high or too low - some figures go as high as 2 million.

And while it's true that there were people on both side who were very much in favor of partition. They didn't get on, and often still don't.

The worst violence did, indeed, occur in the Punjab.

Right now, we have kids in America being taught that the Native Americans chose to leave the east. That Japanese Americans in World War II had the "job of staying out of the way."

Just as I was taught that partition resulted in only "a few people moving," and my teachers never mentioned the thousands of deaths.

Maybe kids don't need to always listen to their teachers about history.

Excelsior!

Many years ago, a man was about to give up on comics. He worked for Atlas Comics, and he was disillusioned with the way the industry was going. His career wasn't where he wanted it to be and, perhaps, he was less than happy with the censorship of the industry.

Then his boss asked him to design a superhero team to respond to the Justice League of America. On the verge of quitting, he decided to write whatever the heck he wanted. He didn't care if he got fired.

Whatever the heck he wanted was superheroes who bickered, who had problems. Who struggled with their relationships.

It was superheroes who were at their heart more human than the rest of us.

The team was the Fantastic Four and the man, of course, was Stanley Martin Leiber, better known as Stan Lee.

Stan Lee was the John W. Campbell, Jr. of comics. Yes, he was personally responsible for Spider-Man, the Hulk, Doctor Strange, Daredevil, Black Panther, the original X-Men, Ant-Man, Iron Man and Thor.

But it was as an editor that he guided an industry for so many decades that his very name is synonymous with superhero comics.

It was as an editor that he demanded colorists and letterers get proper credit for their work.

It was as an editor that he created the "Marvel method" in which artists and writers would work together as equal terms, rather than the artist drawing what the script said.

He stopped writing in 1972 to concentrate on editing, publishing, and entertaining people at conventions all around the country. Everyone knows his face - if not from a convention appearance, than from his cameos in most Marvel movies (the "meta" explanation is that he works for The Watchers, recording events in the universe). Oh, and he also cameo's in Teen Titans Go!, in which he follows the grand tradition of breaking the fourth wall.

But it was his work as a mentor, as a guiding hand, as the "Watcher," of the Marvel universe (although he did also do work for DC on occasion) that makes Stan Lee perhaps the most important figure in both the comics industry and the superhero genre.

Excelsior! Stan.

You will never be forgotten while this civilization lasts.

This is how we get...

...a bad movie.

Mushrooms.

That generate electricity.

I mean, it's a great concept, but it also leads to sooo much mad scientist crap.

Authors and Titles

There's a bit of buzz about how HBO is apparently refusing to let Martin name the Game of Thrones prequel series.

Here's the thing.

Unless you are publishing under your own imprint or, say, with a friend's company - authors often get overruled on titles. I've even had a short story forcibly retitled myself.

Even if you publish under your own imprint, there can be complications. I wasn't able to use the title I really wanted for Fallen Dark because it was close enough to another urban fantasy book that people were getting confused.

Titles are vital, but they're as vital from a marketing perspective as a creative one. You can't let your book (or TV show, or movie) be confused with something else. It has to tell readers and viewers what genre it is. It might be that HBO doesn't think fans will recognize "The Long Night" as a Game of Thrones spinoff.

It might be that they're all still wrangling about it. Martin's certainly not the only person with a say.

People saying he's being treated horribly miss the point though: This is all quite normal in the industry.

And titles are very, very hard.

Aliens and Gender

If you saw last week's Doctor Who, there was mpreg. Which was highly amusing, but a little bit lazy.

If both of your genders can get pregnant, then you aren't really dealing with males or females in the typical sense.

Playing with alien gender is something relatively few science fiction writers do. My own Transpecial features aliens who have three sexes, one of which plays no direct role in reproduction (this was inspired by maned lionesses - look them up).

But aliens that have interesting gender and sex variations are relatively rare. Much playing with gender is done with humans - Leckie envisions a world in which sex is considered completely unimportant in her Ancillary series. Or with beings that might as well be human - JY Yang creates a world where gender is a free choice in The Black Tides of Heaven, with men, women and those who never actually choose.

And, of course, The Left Hand of Darkness - but the people in it are explicitly descended from humans.

Doctor Who's Gifftan may or may not be human variants. But they could have done a better job of playing with gender here (although the concept is not played as ridiculous as it might be - my first assumption was that the character was a pregnant human trans man not an alien, and it was handled in a way that I don't think would have offended anyone. In fact, it was a love letter to fatherhood, cross referenced with Ryan's poor relationship with his own dad).

It left a lot unexplained. Do Gifftan men get pregnant by women? By other men? And I still think it could have gone a step further without confusing the younger viewers.

If you're actually looking for good alien gender stuff:

C.J. Cherryh's Chanur series (old but good) has a species with three sexes and with individuals changing sex under stress.

Asimov's The Soft Ones from The Gods Themselves reproduce in trios. Interestingly, they breed in their larval form not their adult form.

And if you saw the Venom movie, although Venom is referred to with male pronouns, perhaps because he's taking a concept of gender from Eddie Brock, if you go through the comics - symbiotes are in fact asexual and reproduce by budding.

Meaning?

There's lots of ways to play with alien gender. You can take inspiration from Earth (snails have only one sex, bees have three...)

Think about it. Not even humans truly only have two sexes and many things on this planet don't.

Get out there...

...and VOTE, dang it. I already did.

In a rainstorm that doesn't seem like it's going to let up to let me go to the store in comfort any time soon.

I'm back

World Fantasy went well...except that I apparently have to ban myself from loud room parties until I am done with all programming. Sorry, people...I literally fried my brain with noise and didn't know where I was.

The panel on "Effects of RPGs" went well. I also finally found out what C.C. Finlay looks like and hung out some with an editor I'm working with. (And we encored the traditional Balticon complete takeover of Uncle Lee's restaurant).

I also made some progress on a project...muahahaha. You'll all find out soon enough. Now to get the edits of Lost Guardians #4 done so I can get it out there and call the series done.

World Fantasy!

I'll be leaving in about two hours.

So.

You can find me at the "Effects of RPGs" panel on Friday at 3pm, which I will be moderating.

You can also find me at the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading on Saturday at 10:30pm.

I will be at the mass signing. There will be copies of Lost Guardians 1 through 3 available at the consignment table. I believe it's in the dealer room.

And you can probably corner me at the ice cream social or the art reception. Or, you know, the bar.

The space elevator...

...may be a step closer. Researchers from Tsinghua University in Beijing have developed carbon nanofibers that may actually be strong enough (and long enough) to weave into a tether.

We've known for a while that carbon nanotubes were the most promising material. These might finally do it.

Of course, we still have to solve the problems of where to put it, of the stress on the cable, lightning strikes, micrometeor strikes, radiation shielding to protect passengers who would be spending 2 to 3 days in the Van Allen Belt.

But it's a step.

Lagrange point stations?

Well, it seems that a sixty year old theory that dust gathers at Lagrange points is true.

There are two Lagrange (or trojan) points between the Earth and the Moon. L4 and L5. They are important because you could in theory park a satellite or station there with minimal fuel.

However, it might face a problem. L5 is confirmed to have something called a Kordylewski cloud. L4 probably does too. These clouds of dust gathered at the Lagrange points could cause problems for the hulls and, above all, the solar panels of spacecraft positioned there. We may need to design technology to repel the dust before we can actually use the potential of Lagrange points.

Virgin Orbit Almost Ready To Go

Virgin Orbit are doing integration tests on Launcher One, designed to launch small satellites into low orbit.

The rocket will be launched from an old 747 via the same underwing method used to launch missiles.

The system will allow specific, direct launches of small payloads (mostly GPS and cell satellites), without having to put them in with stuff on a larger rocket. Oh, and can go from any runway that can take a 747.

We need to keep innovating - and hybrid launch systems are ideal for low orbital insertion, although they currently lack the power to reach higher orbits or, say, the ISS.

Crows!

Crows don't just use tools. They make them. Check out this article here.

Not all of the birds managed it, but several did. In an environment where that kind of tool making is valuable...well...they'll teach their chicks, and...

I'm more and more convinced that if we destroy ourselves, the dang crows will come down out of the sky to replace us. Maybe they'll do a better job.

Switch it off and on again!

Works for your internet router.

Works for the Hubble telescope. Yes, NASA fixed a gyro problem on the Hubble by turning it off and on again.

Science fiction writers, pay attention. It might be that no matter how advanced your technology...

Remembering History

Okay, so I had a twilight zone moment this week.

There was a British band called The Twenty-Fifth Of May (255) that was...no kidding, British white Communist gangsta rap. Which isn't a thing. Except that in the early nineties it was.

I was a broke college student at the time, but still ended up with one of their EPs in my collection.

Yesterday, I had reason to look something up and realized something odd.

The two discographies I could find from immediate searches...did not have the EP I was holding in my hands.

They only had the band's one album, a couple of singles, and a couple of short live recordings. The bio on one site implied, although did not state, that the band split somewhere at the end of 1992 start of 1993.

The EP I have was recorded in late 1993.

So. What? Did I have a CD from an alternate reality?

No.

Here's what happened.

255 had a meteoric rise and signed with Arista. For two glorious summers, they were a thing. I heard them live at the Reading Music Fest in August 1992. They were, in fact, good.

Then Arista dropped them, because really...British white Communist gangsta rap was never going to be a thing. Arista dropped them at the end of 1992.

People were sourcing off of Arista's catalogue.

Their final EP, Apathy in the U.K., was produced by an independent label, Copasetic Records. Thus it got left off those lists. (I did find it, eventually, on a site intended for record collectors).

This is only 25 or so years ago...and the historical record is already wrong.

Remember this when you're studying history. The record can, internet or no internet, become wrong within less than a human lifespan.

Use your primary sources. Ask people. Whether it's about an obscure footnote to British musical history...or events that shake the world.

The historical record can be, and often is, wrong.

Battling In All Her Finery

This is what happens when I don't post something the day of - I finally remember it days later.

Battling in All Her Finery, containing my story "Dropping Rocks," is now available for purchase. Got to love the cover.

Check it out here.

So...

...scientists have now grown "functional human neural networks" in a lab.

We've seen this movie. It didn't end well.

(Seriously, this is great for studying certain things, but I've seen enough bad horror movies to envision brains in tanks...)

New constellation: Godzilla

Yes, Godzilla is a constellation now...but you won't be able to hunt him down with a telescope in your back yard.

The "King of the Monsters" is one of the gamma ray constellations put together by folks at NASA who love their jobs too much.

There's also a TARDIS, a Starship Enterprise, and the Hulk.

Because NASA people are nerds and I love it.

What about that space art?

SpaceX will be launching a diamond sculpture visible to the naked eye soon. Astronomers are less than amused.

Should we put art into space? The answer is a maybe.

When and if we go into space then obviously we will take art with us, we will create art in space. We may even find new forms of art, new ways to sculpt that only work in microgravity. We will also, no doubt, leave graffiti all over the moon. We will. No matter who tries to stop us.

Art visible from Earth, though, is always going to be a mixed topic. Many of us don't get to properly see the night sky, or only get to see it on vacation. So some would argue that this art is just another form of light pollution.

I'm usually on the plus side for art, but even I'm not sure about this one. Thoughts?

World Fantasy

So, I'm going to be at World Fantasy Con...which starts the day after Halloween.

On Friday at 3pm I'll be on a panel about "Effects of RPGs" where panelists talk about the influence of role playing games on their writing.

Oh, and I'm not missing the ice cream social ;). Sorry to the people with panels scheduled at that time.

Romance, Colonialsm and...Symbiotes? (Warning: Spoilers for Venom)

I wasn't going to watch Venom, but some friends who's judgment I trust gave me a nudge. I was never really "into" the character in the comics, and the Sony Marvel movies have been honestly hit and miss. One of the early trailers left me wondering "Which movie is that supposed to be, again?"

One of the things circulating in the pre-release buzz was that the writers (One of whom is Jewish and the other sure looks that way) saw the relationship between Eddie and Venom as a romance.

This approach created something that is seldom seen in the comics: Character development for Venom.

Venom was shown not as a "suit" but as a character in "his" (Symbiote gender is questionable to me) own right, who changes his opinions on things over the course of the movie. They made Venom a person.

And I'll be honest, this exchange:

"What really made you change your mind?"

"You"

...how much more romantic can you get. So the first lesson of Venom: You can have a romance that is not about sex or mating. This is something I've long held. A really good friendship narrative can be just as strong as a "traditional" romance. (Nothing wrong with traditional romances and I'm not above writing them myself when I feel like it). The romance between Eddie and Venom is counterpointed by the "anti-romance" between Eddie and Anne...the breakup story and its aftermath.

So, to the second part of my title.

Colonialism.

I semi-joked to Greg afterwards that Venom has essentially the same plot as Dances With Wolves.

Guy from superior culture travels to primitive culture. He falls in love with a native, switches sides, and decides to protect these people.

It's...essentially the same story. And that's another thing that, if realized, could make some people uncomfortable with this movie. It presents our highest technology (The bad guys use drones in a way I haven't seen in any movie, although I admit I've missed some of the recent technothrillers), it actually has a "day after tomorrow" feel with manned rockets intercepting comics...

...and then says "These guys have you beat. These guys are going to colonize you. Not just your land, either, but your bodies. And if you fight it you're going to die."

"That's a higher being."

And Venom calling Eddie his "ride" at the start. Venom sees Eddie, at the start, the way I see a horse...something you look after and treat well, but you would never think of as an equal.

Then he realizes Eddie is his equal. "We're both losers." Maybe that's not the most positive way of putting it. But Venom's character development is "These are people and we can't just invade them."

And all of this in a movie the critics have been panning. It has a rotten tomatoes of 31%, but the bad reviews include fans pissed off about the lack of a connection to Spider-Man - which is probably a result of those ongoing rights battles, but which also allowed Venom to be introduced right away as a much-more-interesting antihero. At the same time, most of the fans liked it. If you take only audience reviews, it jumps to 89%, although of course that might be people mad with the critics. Screenrant has the right of it: The critics didn't realize the movie is supposed to be campy, is supposed to leaven its serious themes with a nice dose of humor.

And the one rating that really matters is positive: Venom topped the box office for its first two weeks.

A couple more notes on the movie: Riz Ahmed does bad very well, but I'm starting to experience some fatigue with bad guys who are "Just trying to save us from global warming." This includes the new motivation for Thanos. The Champions comic book just did it too. Can we please stop? By framing wanting to do something about global warming as a villainous motivation, we only support those who don't want to do anything to protect the environment at all...

Launch failure

Launch failure. It's a dirty word, and it's been even more of a dirty word since 1986, when the Challenger disintegrated right after separation.

Amazingly, this is the only instance of a fatality caused by an aborted launch. But one was enough to get people to think about abort systems.

Ironically, the more primitive Soyuz has always done better. There have now been three cases of a launch failure involving a manned Soyuz capsule.

Soyuz T-10-1 exploded on the pad and Soyuz 18-1 blew up at a high altitude...149km...after a separation failure.

And last week, Soyuz MS-10 experienced a booster failure.

The big thing?

No astronauts were killed or even seriously injured in these accidents. (Hey, Space X, why don't you get a copy of their abort system to study? Might save you some time).

Which demonstrates that it is, yes, quite possible to make launch safe for astronauts and ultimately passengers.

(I'm trying not to conspiracy theory about the fact that this comes right on the heels of the mysterious drill hole...)

Should we bring back the passenger pigeon?

Deextinction is starting to head from "can we" to "should we." (Experiments in cloning an ancient horse are seen as preliminary to recreating mammoths).

A team is using rock pigeons and CRISPR in a plan to edit in passenger pigeon genes to restore the species...or something like it.

The eventual plan will be to use a much more closely-related species, with the ultimate goal of reintroducing the engineered "passenger pigeons" (Which the creator acknowledges will be a band-tailed pigeon/passenger pigeon hybrid).

So.

Should we?

Humans are in no small part to blame for the loss of the species, so one might argue we're expiating the sin. However, there's one issue with this (which rears an even uglier head in mammoth cloning).

Not all of a species is in its genes.

I've long held that while I consider cloning a mammoth as an attraction to be relatively harmless, we won't actually get a mammoth.

We'll get a fuzzy elephant. Because our cloned mammoth will be birthed and raised by a female elephant. He'll grow up within elephant culture, he'll learn how to be an elephant. Mammoth culture may have been different.

Ah, but elephants are much smarter than pigeons.

Perhaps, but pigeons have culture too. We can't bring back the passenger pigeon culture, and if we reintroduce large numbers of these birds...then what culture will they have? Presumably that of band-tailed pigeons. Will the genes shift them enough?

Or will they take off in some unanticipated direction. Maybe they'll be something good, maybe not. But we should think about deextinction carefully, because we could end up introducing yet another invasive species to an already stressed environment.

Amused...

...at the people who seem to think it's news that Liam Neeson was recognized by a horse he worked with on a previous movie.

Anyone who knows horses (and mules) knows that all you need to do is give them a treat and they'll remember you forever.

Bees and...mushrooms?

Apparently, somebody saw bees feeding off of mushrooms. And it seems that those mushrooms contain something which kills viruses transmitted the varroa mite, the ultimate cause of colony collapse disorder.

Magic mushrooms indeed...and anything that helps the bees is good.

But one has to wonder if it's boosting bee immune systems if this could also be useful for human medicine...

Doctor Who Series Eleven First Thoughts

The episode was solid (the lack of opening and closing credits did disconcert a lot of people).

Whitaker doesn't have me as quickly as Capaldi does, but she's developing a good grasp of the role. It's hard to establish her final take as the Doctor spent much of the episode in the throes of post-regeneration confusion (on occasion even forgetting English words, although that may be partly because she didn't have the TARDIS to translate).

And no, we haven't seen the new TARDIS yet. This episode was about the Companions and primarily about Ryan Sinclair.

The episode was explicitly narrated by Ryan (I'm hoping we'll get episodes narrated by Graham and Yasmin too), and somewhat centered on him. Whether this implies that Ryan is the primary Companion or not, I'm not sure.

If he is, then I have no complaints.

See, Ryan Sinclair is the first full time Companion with a disability. "He has dyspraxia."

To my current knowledge, this also makes Ryan Sinclair the first major character in any TV show to struggle with dyspraxia.

And they didn't "code" the character or let it go for episodes while we figured it out. They stated it, up front, in dialog.

My favorite lines in the episode:

"You're...a woman?"

"I am? Does it suit me?"

And, of course, "Sheffield steel." Which you have to be British to fully understand. (Basically, Americans, Sheffield is British Pittsburgh).

Oh, and the Doctor's new sonic screwdriver case is made of spoons. Just handing that out there to people who might be amused by it.

(I was quite fond of "I'll have a plan by the time I get to the top" too).

I think the writers and actors still need to settle in some before this gets really good, but it's a refreshing change in tone from Moffat's late seasons and I have absolutely no complaints.

Moons the size of Neptune?

Possibly! We may have found the first exomoon...and if so, it's orbiting a planet larger than Jupiter and is, itself, the size of Neptune.

The first exomoon being very large is understandable. The first exoplanets we found were huge too. However, current theories don't really give space for moons that large...

...so is it real, is it an artifact, or are we just wrong? I'm hoping for the last, because I love when science is wrong.

RIP Kepler

The exoplanet hunting telescope may be dead. Researchers have sent it into sleep mode to hopefully ensure that it will have enough fuel to do its scheduled data transfer on October 10.

There may be a little left over to do a few final observations, but this is very close to the end of the Kepler mission.

The news is not bad, though - Kepler's replacement, TESS, has already started doing its own surveys - and TESS, planned to operate for two years (although NASA's history shows a good record of keeping spacecraft operational beyond their initial parameters) will offer superior resolution and may well find planets Kepler missed. Especially earth-sized planets.

We are in a very exciting time for astronomy!

Shards! Released

Another new anthology. This one is from Spring Song Press (Yes, they're a Christian publisher, but this isn't Christian fiction, although it follows some pretty strict rules of "clean").

The book contains 21 stories on the theme of the title including my own Grimoire. It's edited by C.J. Brightley.

You can get your copies here:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Smashwords

Kobo

iTunes

Enjoy!

So...

...if you invented machine telepathy, what is the first thing you would do with it?

It appears we actually have invented machine telepathy. It's called BrainNet. It's been tested with three people, it's slow and rather unreliable (rather like the internet 25 years ago).

First thing they did with it?

Play Tetris, of course.

Capclave Roundup

I only made it to two panels (plus the Broad Universe reading).

Laura Montgomery's presentation on current U.S. space law was fascinating (and quite useful for writing accurate near future science fiction). It got me thinking about how space law might evolve (which sparked a brief discussion about how we deal with people shooting nuclear reactors into space. For reasons).

I also made it to the panel on human genetic engineering, always a fascinating and controversial topic.

Attendance seemed about normal. It was good to see the regulars (especially Danielle Ackley-McPhail, who's had some issues lately).

The new hotel was okay but they need to open their bar later! 11pm? Seriously?

Starseed

The "starseed" theory has been around for a while. It postulates that life on Earth actually had some kind of origin in outer space.

The more "cinematic" version blames aliens - we were put here on purpose and then left to evolve either deliberately or because something happened to the aliens right after they sent the first terraforming ships.

However, there's a more prosaic version - that life, or its building blocks, was carried to Earth on asteroids or comets.

And it just got a major boost. It turns out that the interstellar medium is the perfect place to turn phosphine, which is poisonous, into oxoacids of phosphorus, which are a required building block for life as we know it.

There's no equivalent situation on Earth, although we might of course be having problems simulating that early environment, so cataclysmically different from Earth today.

But it looks like those building blocks are out there - and we have one more piece in the puzzle. If we do find life based on DNA on another planet, then those oxoacids of phosphorus are why.

See you at Capclave!

Skeeters

We all hate them, and they can carry dangerous diseases. Now scientists have discovered a way to crash mosquito populations using CRISPR. They're using the technique to introduce a gene that makes all the females into hermaphrodites.

Now, this is a weird story idea, but it's also chilling. I mean, if this ends up working on mammals, it could cause all kinds of apocalypses.

Or, you know, what if this gene somehow hooks itself over into bees or ants and creates something bizarre?

Fortunately, they're not rushing to try this in the wild, mostly because we don't actually want to wipe out all of the skeeters...but...

I'm not normally one to say "Hey, put the brakes on," but if we can introduce a single gene into a population and have it become dominant (17 generations)...then that could allow us to adapt ourselves to a colony.

Or, I don't know, eliminate certain racial characteristics. Or we could get some fanatic who decides crashing our population is a good idea...

Bee Problems

If you're using weedkillers containing glyphosate - stop. It seems that the common herbicide also kills off the good bacteria in bees feeding in the area, making them vulnerable to infection.

Use natural methods of weed control as much as possible and don't forget to plant things the little buzzers like (native species, please).

Capclave

So, I'll be at Capclave this weekend.

You can find me, and my books, in the dealer room at the Rantings of a Wandering Mind booth.

I'll also be reading during the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading at 3pm on Saturday.

Going to fall cons?

Please, please get your flu shot...and your other shots (A vendor at DragonCon turned out to be patient zero this year...for chicken pox).

Remember that the flu shot takes two weeks to be effective. But it will protect you and other people (including that elderly writer who would never dream of retiring or another con-goer's infant) from getting something even worse than regular con crud.

Oh, and don't forget to take your immune boosters, get enough sleep and drink lots of water...

We've found Vulcan...

...not. But there is a potentially habitable planet orbiting 40 Eridani. It's a bit close to the star and might be tidally locked, but the dark side could be hospitable to our kind of life.

Now there is a very different image of the Vulcans, right? Of course, if it's not tidally locked it might well be a hot dry world...about twice the size of Earth.

Arachnophobes Beware...

...or at least avoid the Greek town of Aitoliko, where there are currently so many spiders 300 meters of shoreline is nothing but webs on webs.

It's not quite Mirkwood, but...it makes me glad I'm not afraid of spiders.

2018 Emmys

Meant to post yesterday, got distracted by Doctor Who (and the Captain Marvel trailer, which looks sweet. Larson is growing on me).

So, Emmy winners. Most of them were non-genre. Best Comedy Series was won by The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, an Amazon original.

The only genre shows honored were Game of Thrones (Best Drama and the wonderful Peter Dinklage took Best Supporting Actor) and Black Mirror. I'm behind on the one and haven't been watching the other. The Handmaid's Tale, Stranger Things and Westworld all got multiple nominations but did nothing on the day. My worst disappointment? Tatiana Maslany was nominated again for Orphan Black, but lost out to The Crown's Claire Foy.

And apparently it was the worst Emmy's telecast ever...

Uh...Doctor?

Apparently, Chris Chibnall may be a fan of a certain kids' cartoon.

This is the new poster. Which shows crystalline gem formations and Yasmin in something almost, AMOST a Stephen Universe shirt. Now I really want to track down an episode of that show to watch.

So, coincidence, or is Chibnall a Stephen Universe fan?

We also now know the full names of the three companions: Ryan Sinclair (the young black man), Yasmin Khan, and Graham O'Brien. The last name Khan indicates that Yasmin is most likely of Pakistani or Bangladeshi descent rather than Indian, although knowing Doctor Who they won't have it matter too much.

End of an Era

The very last Delta II rocket has been launched. Its last mission was ICEsat II, which will monitor ice melt levels.

The Delta II has been a workhorse for both NASA and the military for decades, but has been obsolete for some time.

For most NASA missions it will likely be replaced by SpaceX's Falcon 9 (considerably cheaper even without the reusable options).

History marches on.

So, What IS Going On On The ISS?

Did somebody sabotage the ISS? Apparently not.

The idea that a crewmember drilled the hole in their Soyuz has been debunked because there are drill scratches on the outside of the hull...and they'd know if somebody tried to sneak an EVA.

Apparently, a groundside maintenance worker accidentally drilled the hole and, presumably out of fear of getting into trouble, patched it instead of reporting it. The patch has now been shored up so that they can get back to Earth on schedule.

The worker, of course, got into trouble. Whether he's looking for a new job or not is unclear...

Being Green...Maybe?

So, while researching yesterday's post, I glanced at the cast list for Spider-Man: Far From Home (Robert Downey, Jr.'s absence is part of the evidence that he is, indeed, leaving the MCU).

But I also found this:

This relatively young (he's 30, but looks younger in many shots) man is Remy Hii, whom some of you probably saw in Crazy Rich Asians (my rom-com hating self stayed away even while I cheered the movie on).

He's listed on the cast of Far From Home - but without a character name.

Which could mean he's just somebody Spidey bumps into in Asia. The villain appears to be Michael Keaton as the Vulture. Hii's fairly high on the listing, though, and is a talented up-and-coming actor that it seems somewhat unlikely Marvel would use in only one movie. He has a soap opera background (he was on the Australian soap Neighbours for two seasons), which is very solid training for an actor.

Going to stick my neck out here. A talented Asian actor being cast, with them hiding the character name, at this point in the MCU...when it's clear they're moving from established heroes to younger ones?

I'm going to make a guess, educated but perhaps out there, and say that this may be the MCU's face of Amadeus Cho. Ruffalo's contract is also coming up and if he decides to leave, then bringing in the younger Hulk makes sense. Cho is also a very popular character amongst younger fans, and would go a large step towards solving Marvel's Asian problem. The character showed up in one of the Hulk movies...horribly whitewashed...but most people have already forgotten that, and as the movie starred Norton, not Ruffalo, it's probably not in continuity anyway.

And, at one point in Cho's background, he was actually Spider-Man...so where else would he show up...

Is Tony Stark Going to Die in the MCU?

There are rampant rumors that Tony Stark is going to die, for real and good, in Avengers 4.

I'll be honest and say I'm leaning that way myself. There are some factors to consider:

1. Robert Downey, Jr. has said he doesn't want to play the character any more, He's been playing him for a while and the desire to move on to new creative challenges is quite understandable. His contract is coming up, so this is the perfect time for him to leave the franchise.
2. In the comics, Tony Stark is the one who wields the Infinity Gauntlet to stop Thanos. This could well result in Tony dying or, well, something happening.

However, I'd like to add to the prediction: Tony Stark will die in Avengers 4. Iron Man will not.

As in, we are going to see somebody else take on the mantle. There are two obvious possibilities:

1. A recovered Jim Rhodes. He's trained in the suits and has been Iron Man in the comics. This all, of course, depends on Don Cheadle's willingness to step up.
2. Riri Williams, as a contemporary of Spider-Man, which would fit with the vague feeling I have that they're going to start moving on to a new generation of heroes. Perhaps Yara Shahidi (she has the hair) or Amandla Stenberg.

Thoughts?

Artificial intelligence looks for alien intelligence

SETI has leveraged machine learning to find 72 new fast radio bursts. FRBs are an astronomical phenomenon we don't know the cause of. They are hard to spot because they are transient (with one notable exception).

We have absolutely no idea what causes them, hence SETI's interest, but the real key here is the heavy use of artificial intelligence to make observations humans are simply too slow to handle...and the more FRBs we find, the faster we will work out what they actually are.

Imitating Plants

Artificial photosynthesis is a science fiction trope...and also something scientists have been trying to crack for a while.

Apparently, the answer may be...hybrid photosynthesis. By using natural enzymes produced by certain algae, a team from the University of Cambridge and Ruhr University Buchem have managed to create artificial photosynthesis without hazardous synthetic catalysts.

The line of research could also be used to create plants that don't need as much light to grow - useful on, say, space stations or Mars.

Jurassic...Horse?

Well, not quite, but scientists are hoping to clone a 40,000 year old foal, member of an extinct species of horse.

They're hoping this will work out the technology to clone mammoths, but the chances of finding intact enough DNA are somewhat slim.

If they succeed, they will likely have something akin to a Tarpan or Przewalski's horse...similar to but not quite the same as modern "primitive" breeds.

MCU Next Generation?

The MCU shows no sign of slowing down (Guardians of the Galaxy scandals aside).

And Captain Marvel shows another clue that they are committing to a next generation of heroes at some point. It's already been revealed that Kamala Khan will show up, most likely in Captain Marvel 2 as Carol's sidekick.

But they just sideways introduced another character, an obscure one, but one which may well have Captain Marvel fans squeeing.

Specifically, Carol's "close friend" - Maria "Photon" Rambeau.

Monica Rambeau, also known as Photon, briefly took up the Captain Marvel mantle in the comics. Maria Rambeau is her mother...and why include her if there are not plans to introduce Photon herself at some point?

The actor cast in the role is Lashana Lynch, a British actor with a fairly light series of past credits.

I suddenly got quite a bit more excited...I adore what I've seen of Photon in the comics. It also addresses the fact that some of her fans would have liked to see Rambeau, not Danvers, as the MCU Captain Marvel. Will we see Maria exposed to something which will then grant powers to her daughter? And will we see, in the future, said daughter fighting alongside Kamala Khan and Peter Parker? I for one would love that teamup. Captain Marvel is set in the 80s, so it would make perfect sense for her to be the right age...

It's the Markovians

...okay, only those familiar with Jack L. Chalker will get the reference. But I can't help but keep thinking it when we keep finding hexagonal storms on Saturn.

Storms are just not supposed to be hexagonal! On any planet! And we have no idea why, either. It's clearly a wave structure created by similar forces that make the jet stream (and those infamous polar vortices) on Earth...but hexagonal?

Sorry.

It's not actually aliens, obviously, but...dang it.

Losing the Past

The archaeologist part of me has been fighting tears since yesterday.

For those who live in a US news bubble - the National Museum of Brazil was reduced to a gutted hulk by fire yesterday.

The "official" extent of the damage has yet to be released, but pictures of the aftermath make it seem likely that little survived. The current guess is that about 10% of the collection survived, including some artifacts that are not flammable (such as their meteorites) and the library which was, thankfully, in another building.

The fire hydrants closest to the building failed, and the museum was already in disrepair. Money for a new fire control system had just been found...but no work had started.

The building itself, a former palace, is probably salvageable, but the collection is irreplaceable, including the oldest human remains found in America.

I can't even imagine what the curators and researchers are going through right now. Or perhaps I can.

We have to guard our past. And this tragedy may be an argument towards virtualizing/scanning collections (especially archives) so that at least some of the knowledge can be preserved. Maybe.

But you can't bring back what was lost here. Literally 200 years of careful collecting - numerous fossils and, perhaps, worst of all, the last remaining recordings of languages no longer spoken.

Sorry...I can't say any more about this. (And before you say people are more important, they are, and the best possible news of this tragedy was that nobody was hurt. But...this is still a great loss for Brazil and the world).

Nibiru Again?

Really, people.

THIS is not Nibiru, regardless of what the tabloids are trying to say.

It's an artifact. Basically, it's the moon's reflection, a form of lens flare. (My first thought was it was a balloon or a Chinese lantern, but then I looked a couple more times).

Smile?

A not that recent study discovered that horses can tell when you are smiling, and recognize it as a good thing. This is quite remarkable given that smiling, as a gesture, is unique to humans and in other predators it's a threat.

Now, it seems, goats have demonstrated the same ability.

For a domesticated animal, knowing when the human is happy is probably a pretty useful skill. However, until now, it's been assumed to be limited to working animals, who have to be able to read our social skills. Goats, while sometimes trained to work, generally are more like cows (although the increasing use of them as kudzu control...)

The study was a simple one. They scattered a bunch of photos in a pen full of goats and discovered that the goats spent more time looking at the smiling ones (so we know it's smiles, not any other cues).

Life lesson? Smile to your critters. They probably know what it means.

Have We Found The Previous Universe?

Scientists are now claiming tiny "points" in the cosmic background are so-called "Hawking points." If they exist, Hawking points are the ghosts of black holes from a universe that existed before the Big  Bang.

If so, it would prove the controversial cyclical universe theory but, of course, not everyone accepts that it's true.

I wonder, though. If this is true, is the ultimate fate of matter that falls into a black hole to be turned into energy in the next universe? There's a story in there somewhere...

Matt Smith to appear in Star Wars

Seems the Eleventh Doctor has been cast for some unspecified role in Episode IX. As British actors (with the exception of John Boyega) are generally cast as bad guys in Star Wars, we might expect to see him as a villain...

...but they're not releasing anything yet. It might be as disconcerting as seeing Arthur Darvill, better known as Rory, get a "promotion" as time agent Rip Hunter in Legends of Tomorrow, though...

We've Seen This Movie

Scientists have made breakthroughs on the structure of dinosaur DNA.

Which turns out to be pretty much bird DNA...and may have something to teach us about both stability and adaptation.

It doesn't mean cloned dinosaurs any time soon.

Right?

Right.

Thoughts on Colonialism and Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive (SPOILERS)

So, I just finished reading the first three volumes of Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive. (My annoyance. I now have book 1 in physical format and 2 and 3 in electronic, so if I want to continue, my OCD will force me to buy them physically...and shelf space, dang it, shelf space).

The story of the first three books follows a group of people who bond spren (spirit familiars) and develop powers. It has quite a bit of politics and it took me two readings of The Way of Kings to really get into it.

But the twist that is revealed (although I'd worked half of it out fifty pages into the first book) reveals something: This is a book about colonialism.

And, oddly, it's a book about colonialism that could only have been written by a white guy.

Up until that point - about three-quarters of the way through book three - we follow people's speculations about the mysterious Voidbringers, which are at first believed to be demons.

Then it seems that they may be the other sentient species on the planet, the Parshmen. The thing that makes the twist too obvious is that most of the life on Roshar seems to be based off of very different principles...in fact, the only "Earth-like" life forms we see are humans and, oddly enough, horses (which are hard to keep on Roshar and only very rich people have them).

The Parshmen are dull, docile slaves...but right before the start of the first book, their wild cousins are introduced. And end up at war with the humans.

So, what's the twist?

The first, obvious twist is: This is a lost colony novel. It is a purely fantastic lost colony novel - the humans come from somewhere else by magic, and are granted part of the world (Shinovar, where the vegetation acts like earth vegetation) to settle by the natives.

We know where this is going...because we know humans. Not content with part of the world, the humans spread out, conquer, enslave the natives (and even manage to affect their minds so they are little more than beasts) and build a civilization.

Guess who the Voidbringers actually are?

But the third book ends by asking a key question: How culpable are the descendants of colonizers for the actions of their ancestors?

It does not answer it...although the very beginnings of an answer might be seen in the actions of some characters.

It takes a lot of courage to actually ask that question, even in an allegorical form...

California Ho! Day Twelve - Back to San Fran

We spent the morning driving back across the central valley (the largest "We need more water" sign was by the cotton farm. Cotton. Seriously. Grow lavender or something, people).

...and back to San Francisco.

We went to the waterfront to look at some ships, although it was a bit too late in the day and too close to closing time to actually go on any of them.

Then back to Chinatown, where we found a restaurant that did not cater primarily to white tourists. Mmm.

Again, it was quite the trip. I still miss my mule!

California Ho! Day Twelve - Very Large Trees

Our plan was to go to Sequoia National Park, but we met up with Andy Pearson and fiancee Kim, and they had a slightly cheaper idea...the Trail of 1,000 Giants in Sequoia National Forest.

Yes, that's a dead giant sequoia. It gives a better idea of just how ridiculously huge these trees really are than the live ones.

People apparently used some of them as goose pens at night. Seriously. The giants were quite something and make the ash tree outside my window look like a mere sapling. Another night in Lemon Cove...

California Ho! Day Eleven - To Sequoia

A driving day. There are no passes south of Tioga until you get clear down to Bakersfield. So...we drove down to Bakersfield. It was so hot my phone battery drained at about twice normal speed.

Desert + irrigation in the Mojave. Quite spectacular. We crossed the Sierras for the last time through a gentle pass on a major road and wound up in Lemon Cove. Sadly, we didn't get the spectacular views of Mt Whitney a friend promised. It was, once more, too foggy and hazy.

Ate hole in the wall Mexican. Like...awesome Mexican. You know the kind of place, in a town where I suspected we were an ethnic minority, if you know what I mean.

Best corn chips. Ever.

California Ho! Day Ten - High Sierras Day 6

...and one last day, a ride over Duck Pass (not called that because there are any ducks up there but because late snow patterns look like the word. Or so I'm told. There were no ducks).

We eventually rode down to Mammoth Lakes, where I said goodbye to faithful Punch (and some overly-affectionate pack mules. Our lunch was not in danger from the wild animals, just the domestic ones). Spent the night at a rustic lodge.

It was an amazing trip (albeit not one for the faint hearted or the unfit) and left me eager for even more adventures.

Califiornia Ho! Day Nine - High Sierras Part Five

We gave the critters the day off and went for a hike.

...into a hailstorm. Okay, it wasn't a bad hailstorm, but we had been thinking we'd avoid any more of them.

Nope.

High Sierras. Hail.

We did, though, find this. It's apparently a snowplant, and it's a parasite, drawing energy from fungi in the soil. Common up here, but really only up here.

Back in camp, where it did not hail, we spent an afternoon relaxing and then in the evening did a reading of cowboy poetry.

California Ho! Day Eight - High Sierras Part Four

And day four - through Silver Pass. We actually went above the treeline (which is 11,800 feet in these mountains).

There were marmots.

And ice on the trail. Which Punchito decided he had to walk over when there was a dry alternate route. Why? Hot mule wanted to eat snow.

Silly mule. But he was doing most of the work...

This is, yes, what it looks like in the Sierras at, oh, 12,000 feet. I think Greg's pointing to a marmot.

Down the other side, we reached our final camp at Fish...I mean Mosquito Creek. Ahem.

California Ho! Day Seven - High Sierras Part Three

Day three and we rode up towards the Silver Pass. I had a touch of altitude sickness the evening of day two, but it wasn't severe and I felt fine in the morning. It was a bit of an easier ride up into the mountains and we ended up here.

This was taken before somebody put the outhouse in the way. Sadly, I didn't get a good one with the outhouse.

Bad part about this campsite: No fire allowed. This is also the highest place I've ever spent the night.

California Ho! Day Six - High Sierras Part Two

Day two was a layover day. Some of us saddled up and rode to Hopkins Lake.

In, as you can see, beautiful weather, but our guide was sniffing the air and looking at the sky and pulled us all back to camp...ten minutes before...

...a raging hailstorm. If you're noticing a pattern here, you are not wrong. We huddled in our tents until it was over. Some fishing was done by those who didn't ride up to the lake. Apparently, if you fly fish, this is a dream destination.

Oh, and I discovered the way to a certain mule's heart: Cantaloupe rind.

California Ho! Day Five - High Sierras Part One

And now to the meat of our trip.

Meet this little guy.

Because the absolute best way to get up a roadless mountain pass? Half-ass it. My new friend for the next few days is known as Punch (also Punchito and Tiny Dancer. He lives up to both halves of Tiny Dancer).

The trip was called the Triple Pass Ride, and they didn't believe in warm-up days. Straight up Mono Pass (simultaneous with a number of Miwuk and other natives doing their annual walk on what was one of the their major trade routes. The pack station was providing stock support for them).

And straight down Mono Pass into...

...you guessed it...

...a raging hailstorm. Punch put his ears in the specific mule position for "I Hate This Weather" and got me down safely. These were trails I wouldn't have thought a horse (and yes, some of us had horses) could manage, but everyone was okay. If wet. It had stopped by the time we made it to camp, or we rode out of it.

Sierras. Hail. It's a thing.