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From: David Langford <ansible@cix.co.uk>
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Subject: Ansible 445 -- August 2024
Date: Thu, 01 Aug 2024 16:36:37 +0100
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ANSIBLE(R) 445
AUGUST 2024 

From DAVID LANGFORD, 94 London Road, Reading, Berks, RG1 5AU, UK. Website
news.ansible.uk. ISSN 0265-9816 (print); 1740-942X (e). Available for SAE,
a deeglo for a cup of oglo, or a first-class return ticket to Tranai.

[NET NOTE. See https://news.ansible.uk/a445.html for the nice HTML version;
https://news.ansible.uk/pdf/a445.pdf for a printable PDF. Mailing list
subscribe/unsubscribe information appears below -- please don't send such
requests to my own e-mail address. DRL]


### THE GALACTIC WHIRL ###

FRANK COTTRELL-BOYCE, novelist and screenwriter with many genre credits
including _Cosmic_ (2008) and three authorized _Chitty Chitty Bang Bang_
sequels, was named as the new UK Children's Laureate on 2 July -- taking
over from Joseph Coelho. (BBC, 2 July) [PY]

GREG EGAN on the great IT disaster of 19 July: 'Crowdstrike have advised
that the world will be reverted to its last valid backup set, dated 7 Jan
2014, within the next 30 minutes. Please make paper notes of anything
important to you from the intervening period, and tape them to the
refrigerator door in a prominent position.' (Mastodon, 20 July)

STEPHEN KING, in a newspaper symposium where many authors named their '10
Best Books of the 21st Century', was not afraid to include _Under the Dome_
(2009) by Stephen King. (_New York Times_, 8 July) [AIP]

GEORGE R.R. MARTIN had a little grumble about Glasgow 2024: 'I am not on
any programming. It is not for lack of trying, though.' He wanted a phone
discussion of proposals for a Wild Cards event and a Howard Waldrop
memorial (with films), but was asked to fill in the official online
'Planorama' form like everyone else; whether he did isn't clear from his
post, but one assumes not. (9 July) The story was picked up by the local
and then national press (_Glasgow Times_, 11 July; _Guardian_, 17 July;
BBC, 18 July), and large tracts of social media were duly Plunged Into War.

MIKE RESNICK's five Hugo awards have been donated by his widow Carol to the
US Worldcon Heritage Organization for their regular Worldcon exhibit. (WHO
press release, July)

J.M. STRACZYNSKI's afterword to _The Last Dangerous Visions_ (of which
advance copies have been circulating for a while) takes the unusual step of
naming and shaming eleven authors, mostly women, whom he invited to
contribute but who said no or didn't reply. He suggests they're afraid of
online outrage ('This is not necessarily the best time to be dangerous'),
neglecting less exciting possibilities such as lack of time, lack of
interest or simply not wanting to get involved with a Harlan Ellison
project which for several decades was a cobwebbed fannish joke. Of the 102
authors announced in 1973 plus the uncertain number later acquired by HE,
fifteen have made it to the final cut, with nine more added by JMS.

JACK VANCE's anagrammatic homage, the major _Dungeons & Dragons_ bad guy
Vecna, appears on one of the Royal Mail _D&D_ stamps. (25 July)


### CONFRIAR ###

SOLD OUT 2 Aug [] WRITING FANTASY (discussion and signing) with George R.R.
Martin and Sir Philip Pullman, Oxford. Live streaming to be available via
the link at www.oxfordwritershouse.com/events.

3-4 Aug [] SURREY STEAMPUNK CONVIVIAL, Stoneleigh, Epsom. See
bumpandthumper.wixsite.com/steampunkconvivials.

6 Aug [] EXTRA LONDON PUB MEETINGS before Worldcon: Cask Pub & Kitchen, 6
Charlwood Street, Pimlico, from 3pm (meet the GUFF delegate!) and The
Crown, 51 New Oxford St, upstairs 7-11pm. All welcome. If the Crown is
closed try Bloomsbury Tavern, 236 Shaftesbury Avenue (ground floor, same
times). See also news.ansible.uk/london.html.

8-12 Aug [] GLASGOW 2024 (Worldcon), Glasgow SEC. GBP230 reg; first
Worldcon and 'historically under-represented' GBP165; Scots residents
GBP150; under-26s GBP135 (GBP95 if Scots); under-16s GBP90; under-11s
GBP55; under-6s GBP5. Virtual membership GBP80. Day rates at
glasgow2024.org. _Owing to a mix-up regarding the cancelled 1 July price
rise, PR5 as initially released gave higher at-the-door rates (GBP255 reg
etc.) which will not take effect._

9-11 Aug [] TFNATION (_Transformers_), Hilton Birmingham Metropole near the
NEC. Various day ticket rates at tfnation.com/2024.

16-19 Aug [] ERASMUSCON (Eurocon), Rotterdam, Netherlands. Euro125 reg;
under-23s Euro75; under-13s Euro10, under-3s free. Under-19s must be
accompanied by an adult. See www.erasmuscon.nl for day rates.

17 Aug [] SMALL PRESS DAY, various events throughout the UK and Ireland,
and online. See smallpressday.co.uk.

17 Aug [] STARS OF TIME (comics), Winter Gardens, Weston-super-Mare.
GBP11.55; child/concessions GBP7.21. See www.starsoftime.co.uk.

23-26 Aug [] FRIGHTFEST (film), London, Odeon Luxe, Leicester Square.
Festival passes GBP225 rear circle, GBP240 stalls, GBP250 circle; for day
passes at various rates see www.frightfest.co.uk/filmsandevents/.

23-26 Aug [] ASYLUM XIV (steampunk), The Lawns and other Lincoln venues.
Weekend pass GBP45 inc fees at www.ministryofsteampunk.com.

24-25 Aug [] DUBLIN COMIC CON, Convention Centre, Dublin. Various ticket
prices (extra for early entry, etc.) at dublincomiccon.com.

29 Aug - 2 Sep [] OXONMOOT (Tolkien Society), St Anne's, Oxford. GBP120
reg. See www.tolkiensociety.org/events/oxonmoot-2024/.

SOLD OUT 31 Aug [] WHOOVERVILLE 15 (_Doctor Who_), QUAD Centre, Derby. No
more tickets at www.derbyquad.co.uk/events/whooverville15/.

7-9 Feb 2025 [] CONTABILE 35 (filk), Wensum Valley Hotel, Norwich. GBP43
reg; GBP33 concessions. More details at c35.contabile.org.uk.

18-21 Apr 2025 [] RECONNECT, Hilton Lanyon Place Hotel and ICC, Belfast.
_Now GBP80 reg_; GBP40 discounted (under-18s, concessions, Eastercon
first-timers, Irish residents); GBP25 supp. See easterconbelfast.org.

23-26 May 2025 [] JODIWORLD (Jodi Taylor), Doubletree by Hilton, Coventry.
Waiting list -- GBP10 deposit asked -- at www.jodiworld.org.

7-8 Jun 2025 [] EM-CON (media), Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham. Weekend
tickets GBP30 (11am entry) or GBP40 (10am) at www.em-con.co.uk.

21 Jun 2025 [] STARS OF TIME (comics), Steam Museum, Swindon. Ticket sales
awaited at www.starsoftime.co.uk/swindon.

RUMBLINGS. _Glasgow 2024_ tweeted on 15 July that draft programme schedules
had gone out to nearly a thousand people. 'There is over 1000 hours of
programming!'
     _Business Meeting_ agenda publication was slightly delayed because
there are a record 50 items of business, with multiple proposals sparked by
the horrors of 2023. What a fun meeting it will be.
     _Hugo Voting_ closed on 20 July; two days later, Nicholas Whyte's
Glasgow Hugo team announced that 3,813 final-ballot votes were cast and
that 'at least 377' fraudulent votes, with 'obvious fake names' etc., had
been detected and disqualified. Many favoured a particular 'Finalist A' in
an unspecified category. Reportedly at least one sponsor refunded WSFS
membership fees for those who confirmed they'd voted as instructed. See
full statement at glasgow2024.org/hugo-awards/statement-22-july-2024/. Much
media coverage followed; the _Guardian_'s headline (23 July) asserts that,
as was carefully not stated, Finalist A is 'one writer'.


### INFINITELY IMPROBABLE ###

SCIENCE MASTERCLASS. 'Hippopotamuses can become airborne for substantial
periods of time, researchers discover' is a Sky News headline somewhat
deflated by the revelation that 'substantial periods of time' here means
'up to 0.3 seconds' (6 July) Hey, I myself can levitate! For a little bit.

AWARDS. _Arthur C. Clarke:_ _In Ascension_ by Martin MacInnes.
     _Prometheus_ (libertarian): NOVEL _Critical Mass_ by Daniel Suarez.
HALL OF FAME _The Truth_ by Terry Pratchett.
     _Scribe_ (media tie-ins): ADAPTED NOVEL _Ultraman_ by Pat Cadigan.
GRANDMASTER ('Faust' award) James Reasoner.
     _SF and Fantasy Hall of Fame_ creators: Nicola Griffith, Nnedi
Okorafor.
     _Shirley Jackson:_ NOVEL _The Reformatory_ by Tananarive Due.
SPECIAL/NOVEL _A Haunting on the Hill_ by Elizabeth Hand.

MAZING STORIES. The 2024 York Maze design commemorates the 25th anniversary
of Julia Donaldson's _The Gruffalo_ (1999, illustrated by Axel Scheffler),
with characters from the book outlined by winding paths in a 15-acre field
of more than a million maize plants. (_i_, 14 July)

INVISIBLE IDIOT: AI MASTERCLASS. 'The researchers found that feeding
AI-generated data to a model caused subsequent generations of the model to
degrade to the point of collapse. In one test, text about medieval
architecture was used as the starting point, but by the ninth generation
the model output was a list of jackrabbits.' (_Nature_, 25 July) [JH]

R.I.P. _Erica Ash_ (1977-2024), US actress in _Scary Movie V_ (2013) and
_We Have a Ghost_ (2023), died on 28 July aged 46. [SJ]
     _Zeev Bar-Sella_ (1947-2024), Israeli writer and critic who wrote a
2013 biography of Russian sf author Alexander Belyaev, died on 27 July aged
77. [AM]
     _Leo (Lee) Chaloukian_ (1927-2024), US sound director for _Near Dark_
(1987) and _The Puppetoon Movie_ (1987), died on 18 July aged 97. [AIP]
     _Cheng Pei-pei_ (1946-2024), Chinese-US actress whose films include
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