PRESS RELEASES & NEWSLETTERS (see full text below)

UK Blog Awards; RPG Net; Krypton Radio; Omni; Atlas Obscura; Tor.com

SOCIAL

The “Girl’s Section” of the toy store

New Wiki Erases Women

Anti-semitism on Twitter on the Rise (oy; first Egypt, then Babylon, Spain, Russia, Germany and now TWITTER!?)

STDs on the rise in the US

ENTERTAINMENT

If this isn’t science fiction, I don’t know what is: Chicago Cubs Heading to the World Series!.  (Considering that the reporting was done by Larry Fine, one of the original Three Stooges, I’d take it with a grain of salt…)

Howard Hughes Leonardo DiCaprio to Produce Captain Planet

Templates for Pumpkin Carving – Use the Force

With everything going on in the world, I fear death by meteor the most…?

WonderWoman Protested at UN also Gal Gadot on Justice League Set

NuTrek Captain KIrk Joins Wrinkle Cast

You Can Buy THIS RHPS DVD Soon, or You Can Buy The Real Thing Right Now

Review of Delany’s The Motion of Light in Water

Young People Read Old MacLean

INDUSTRY

ERB to 4E

Leckie on Blacklisting

Story Contest

Roddenberry Prize

Hebrew Edition of Red Shirts Wins Israeli Geffen Award

SCIENCE

Shenzhou 11 Heads for Space

Female Astronomers Short Shifted on Scope Time

New Crew to ISS

Better Polish Up Your Drake Equation Variables:  New Survey Shows Ten Times as Many Galaxies as Previously Thought (Fermi’s Question even even more problematic now)

And here’s a New Map of our Starry, Starry Home, the Milky Way Galaxy (Extra-galactics make fun of the name we’ve given ourselves.  Considering that they come from places named Deathwhirl, BitchinBigBlackHoleBaby! and CosmicFlush, I kinda have to agree…)

THIS is what science and technology can do for us

PRESS RELEASES & NEWSLETTERS

The Process So Far | Insight | Introducing | WIN with ODEON

THE BLOGHERO SEARCH CONTINUES.. Since October the 3rd, you have been nominating your favourite digital Blog Heroes across the blogosphere to be recognised as the UK’s best influencers! Whether you are nominating Bloggers, Vloggers, Instagrammers or Snapchatters, there is a category that recognises all types of online content for a UKBA.

In this weeks newsletter, we introduce you to some of the UK Blog Awards very own Blog Heroes and UKBA17 panel judges, including Charly Lester, head judge for 2017 who is a true Blog Hero in her own right and expert across the Dating industry.

This years awards programme will concentrate on building further relationship and connection. Therefore, you can expect to be invited to events in lead up to April 2017.
First up, is the Health and Fitness mixer in association with Action PR and Health and Socialcare sponsor, Hammersmith Health Books.
And if you can’t make it, you can always collaborate with a variety of brands via the newly UK Blog Relations platform!

Finally and to start your Monday with a bang, or a gelato in the case of ODEON Cinemas recent competition. You have the opportunity to be whisked off to Florence with their exciting competition (details below). Or if fruit jelly is more your thing, why not see what the Naturelly team are up to.

Insight: Faya from Fitness on Toast | UKBA15 Lifestyle Winner | Where are you now We caught up with the uber gorgeous Faya from Fitness on Toast who won the 2015 individual Lifestyle category at the UK Blog Awards in 2015. Faya shares insight on who she thinks makes a true #BlogHero and details  her experience with Adidas in Rio for the Olympics. Read the Interview Insight: Eltoria | UKBA16 Fashion and Vlogger Double Winner: Where are you now Eltoria is the UK Blog Awards first double winner. Simone Partner, the talent behind Eltoria shares with us what has been happening in her fast paced life since her double win, as well as how excited she is the be a judge on the Vlogger category panel. Read the Interview

Insight: Take to the Road | UKBA16 Automotive Winner | Where Are You Now We continue our Insight interviews with UK Blog Awards 2016 Automotive winner, Niall from his classic car blog and youtube channel, Take to the Road. Take to the Road is a great blog success story that showcases that if your Blog has a small following it can still achieve great things, as well as gaining insight to some pretty cool cars! Read the Interview Insight: Edita is pret-a-reporter and 2015 UK Blog Awards winner | Where are you now Edita is pret-a-reporter and won the young blogger award at the UK Blog Awards 2015. In this interview, Edita shares how her confidence has grown over the years and the fact that she wishes she had found the courage to begin developing her content long ago, encouraging aspiring influencers not to hold back and to start straight away! Read the Interview

UKBA17 Head Judge & Dating Panel Judge Meet this years Head Judge of the UK Blog Awards 2017. Charly is the CEO of the Dating Awards and former Global Head of Dating for Time Out magazine. View Profile UKBA17 Green and Eco Panel Judge Introduce Janey Lee, who is passionate about all things holistic living and is a successful broadcaster of the famous BBC2 Radio show with Steve Wright known to 9 million listeners. View Profile

UKBA17 Parenting Panel Judge Meet Jessica Rose, Hello! Magazine Blogger and most importantly takes the role of super Mum! View Profile UKBA17 Education Panel Judge Mark is a previous UK Blog Award winner and Education industry expert, known as the ICTEvangelist. View Profile

Health and Fitness Mixer Event This year the awards welcome, Hammersmith Health Books who are sponsoring the Health and Social Care category to celebrate all the tireless efforts of everyone dedicating their work and personal lives to helping other people achieve better health. To celebrate the launch of the Sports and Fitness category, both Action PR and Hammersmith Health will be hosting a networking event for bloggers, at Action PR’s new offices on 27 October. Bloggers will have the opportunity to learn more about the awards and share views on what makes a really great blog, as well as meet other bloggers, judges and talk to the awards organisers. The Platform of Content Relationships As you may know, we announced the launch of the platform back in April 2016 at the UK Blog Awards where Gemma Newton, Director of the UK Blog Awards discussed the importance of influence over social following and developing the right relationships that last with brands. We stand by these key values and hope you find the platform engaging, collaborative and educational in working with your influencer peers and brands. JOIN TODAY!

#Jellygoodfun. Naturelly launch new website. Meet Naturelly, Parenting category sponsors for the 2017 UK Blog Awards. As a family founded brand, Joanne, Dean and the team welcome influencers from every niche to join their family of goodness! Whats more is, Naturelly have launched their shiny new website and have also launched a Birthday Club little ones to get free gifts and goodies in time for their Birthday party. You can sign up here. Book ‘Inferno’ to win the Italian trip of a lifetime. Dan Brown’s latest thriller ‘Inferno‘ hit the cinemas on the 14th October, and to celebrate, ODEON Cinemas have got the trip of a lifetime to give away to a lucky winner who books in immersive IMAX. See if you can make sense of the trail of clues tied to Dante himself in the beautiful Italian city! Simply book ‘Inferno’ in IMAX before midnight on the 20th October to be in with a chance of winning. ENTER NOW!

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RPGnet Newsletter #73
October 18, 2016

New Columns

Two weeks of RPGnet columns brought two new issues of Fuzzy Thinking from Christopher Cecil: “Multiclassing!” and “Role Collecting Games.” The second one may sting a little bit.

Christopher Herde of Our Story continued his look at bringing revolutions to your RPG settings with “Revolting, Part Two.”

New Reviews

Antonios S kicked things off with a look at the “Thunderbirds Roleplaying Game,” which is easy, light-hearted, and straightforward. If you are a fan of the show, add some marionettes and you are good to go.

Minivera reviewed “Low Fantasy Gaming,” a perfect match of modern yet classic mechanics for d20 OGL in a low fantasy setting.

RPGnet’s own Shannon Appelcline took a look at the bluffing board game of exploration “Costa Rica,” which would be great for family/casual play.

Matthew McFarland reviewed “Chariot: Fantasy Role-Playing in an Age of Miracles,” which features an innovative and poetic approach to pre-apocalyptic roleplaying using Tarot for the resolution system.

Antonios S continued his review of the Achtung! Cthulhu RPG line last week with two more supplement reviews: “Assault On The Mountains Of Madness,” a solid, multi-faceted, nail-biting campaign that guarantees hours of Nazi-villain-kicking fun and closes out the War; and, “Shadows of Atlantis,” a fantastic globe-trotting campaign.

Antonios S also reviewed what Yr. Humble Editor agrees is one of the best RPG campaigns to be published in the last few years in the 2014 version of “Horror On The Orient Express.” Antonios also took a look at the very useful related “Horror On The Orient Express Keeper Screen.”

Antonios S also continued his look at the Mutant: Year Zero RPG line with “Die, Meat-Eaters, Die!,” a book full of vegan-furry related locations and adventure seeds.

Rounding things off was Antonios S’s review of the “Syrinscape Fantasy Player / Syrinscape Sci-Fi Player / Syrinscape Board Game Player,” a high-quality background music app for your tabletop gaming sessions.

Threads You Might Have Missed

Over in Other Media, RPGnetters took on designing some new media (or maybe an RPG character) in “Brainstorming a rural superhero.” Anything that gets the genre out of NYC, Metropolis, and Gotham is A-OK with Yr. Humble Editor.

Get some tone-maintaining advice for your RPG session over in “Presenting Absurd or Ridiculous Scenarios in a Serious Tone.”

Also, if you played West End Games’ D6 Star Wars RPG between, oh, say 1993 and 1999 and wanted to see what your campaign would look like if filmed with modern techniques, check out the “New Rogue One Trailer.”

Sign Off

Have a good week, everyone.

• Iustum
  Newsletter Editor

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The Krypton Radio newsletter ROCKS FROM SPACE is back, direct to your inbox! Here’s the latest: We’re going to LOSCON! The Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society has a convention every year in November in Los Angeles, and we’re going to be there presenting our popular Sci-Fi Radio Workshop! Look for us in the dealer’s room, too, and come say hi! Here’s some big news: station owners Susan Fox and Gene Turnbow have been invited to Arisia in Boston in February of 2017 as Radio Guests of Honor! First Los Angeles, then Boston – our first two steps in our mad plot to Take Over The World. Mua-ha. Mua-haha. Just practicing. Tune in to hear Mark Baumgarten and Christian Basel host MarkWho42 next week – the special guest is Mr. Bruce Boxleitner! He was Captain Sheridan from Babylon 5, as well as playing starring roles in Disney’s TRON and TRON: Legacy. The man is walking sci-fi geek history, and Mark Baumgarten and Christian Basel will be his wing men for this great new episode! Remember, you can get some great new shirts at some great new prices on Krypton Radio’s Secret Lab, right on our web site. We have sizes up to 6XL, so there are shirts that fit everyone. Patrons get 10% off the already discounted prices for shirts, by the way. Just sayin’. Keep it tuned to Krypton Radio. It’s the best geek radio there is. Lucasfilm Sues Over Fan Club Trademarking “Jedi”, But Other Groups Shouldn’t Fret Lucasfilm invokes General Order 66 against a perceived unauthorized use of its trademarks. Read more. Firestorm Marries Banshee! Robbie Amell & Italia Ricci Tie the Knot Two stars well known for their portrayals of DC Comics characters begin the greatest adventure of their lives. Read more. Review: Star Wars Rebels “Hera’s Heroes” Hera gets an unexpected guest in the newest episode of ‘Star Wars Rebels’. Ryan Miorelli reviews. Read more. First Impressions: ‘Road Redemption’ Gamer DJ Chaotix reviews the new multiplayer alpha. Read more. On ‘The Event Horizon’: ‘Cloudbound’ Author Fran Wilde We’re back from hiatus, and have we got a treat for you for this Saturday’s show. Read more. Krypton Radio is listener supported radio. If you like what you’re hearing (and reading) please become a patron of Krypton Radio. Just five green things a month. That’s all we ask.

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THREE FICTIONS

To start your week off right, try these three stories of strange worlds and possible futures: THE CAVE PAINTING: A piece of ancient Australian rock art foretells a terrifying future. Science fiction by Garry Kilworth AT REPARATA: There is a cure for the king’s crippling grief, but is it worth it? Fantasy by Jeffrey Ford IN THE MONTH OF ATHYR: Gender war on a decrepit space station. Science fiction by Elizabeth Hand KICK OFF THE WEEK WITH 3 GREAT SF STORIES

Copyright © Alpha Cygni, Inc. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: omni@omnimagazine.com

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October 20, 2016

The Tragedy of a Famous Goose Andy the Footless Goose became an international superstar, then the victim of a brutal murder, then the subject of a mysterious cover-up. Lesbian Vampire Story Years before Bram Stoker was researching for Dracula, another vampire story was written in Ireland: Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. Seasonal Store Success Halloween pop-up stores are not just recession-proof—they flourish when strip malls are bare. Macy’s Wooden Escalators A bit of retro transportation flair preserved in the world’s largest department store. Origins of ‘Indian Summer’ A warm fall streak is known as a “badger summer” in Sweden and a “quince summer” in Spain. So how did we come up with “Indian summer”? Nightmarish Device The Lebenswecker, or Resuscitator, was a 19th-century medical contraption that promised cures by giving patients “healing” pustules. SPONSORED OFFER Peak Your Curiosity Discover 60 of Alaska’s glaciers, 1,500 resident moose, and 300 miles of wilderness trails all in one place. Image of the Day Peek inside the world’s most strange and morbid collections. (Photo: Courtesy Morbid Curiosities: Collections of the Uncommon and the Bizarre/Lawrence King Publishing) Spread the Word SHARE THIS EMAIL WITH A FRIEND Share a Discovery ADD A PLACE TO THE ATLAS

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BLOG ORIGINAL FICTION EXCERPTS     How Much Beer Does it Take to Get a Hobbit Drunk? Hobbits live the good life: they eat all day, they generally work with their hands and enjoy nature (unless they are wealthy and don’t work at all), and they live in an idyllic farmscape full of lush trees, rivers, and green hills. They also consume their fair share of ale in taverns, an ode to the pub culture that J.R.R. Tolkien himself heralded from. But how much can a hobbit actually drink ? Emily Asher-Perrin does the math and asks the important questions in this hard-hitting exposé…. SHARE THIS:         The Malazan Reread Returns! We’re happy to announce that the hiatus has ended and the Malazan Reread of the Fallen is officially back in business! Join Bill Capossere and Amanda Rutter as they dive back into the world of Ian Cameron Esslemont’s Assail, beginning with the prologue and Chapter One (right in the middle of a chase scene, of course…). Welcome back to the reread, and check back in for new posts every Wednesday and Friday! SHARE THIS:         Mentally Ill Women Belong In Your Stories, Too “For better or for worse, mentally-ill women have a place in literary fiction. Our stories are told over and over again, and will continue to be explored as long as people are fascinated by the idea of a woman coming undone. Literary fiction loves us. So, why doesn’t genre fiction love us too?” Sarah Gailey attempts to understand why there aren’t more depictions of women struggling with mental illness in contemporary science fiction and fantasy narratives. SHARE THIS:         Don’t Touch That Dial: Fall 2016 TV Alex Brown’s “Don’t Touch That Dial” column returns to highlight four new fall shows, noting that while they vary in subject and tone, all fill that SFF niche we call home. In this edition we’re looking at shows where the dead commune with the living (Frequency), the dead commune with each other (The Good Place), demons commune with priests (The Exorcist ), and a history professor communes with famous historical figures (Timeless)… SHARE THIS:         How Your Role-Playing Game Campaign Can Inspire Your Novel “The process of adaptation changes based on what bit of the game you’re using as your springboard: a setting, a character, a plot. If you’re minded to adapt your own game experiences in some fashion, it can help to look at it from those angles and figure out what you’re dealing with-so let’s dig into each possibility in turn…” Author Marie Brennan shares some detailed practical advice on how to draw inspiration from your role-playing adventures and adapt various elements into your fiction! SHARE THIS:         Five Mosaic Novels You Should Read According to Jo Walton, “[a] normal novel tells a story by going straightforwardly at it, maybe with different points of view, maybe braided, but clearly going down one road of story. A mosaic novel builds up a picture of a world and a story obliquely, so that the whole is more than the sum of the parts.” Author Angela Slatter explains why she loves books that follow a fractured narrative and picks five of her current favorite examples , from authors Maureen F. McHugh, Alan Moore, Charles Stross, Lavie Tidhar, and Jeff VanderMeer. Be sure to nominate your own favorites in the comments! SHARE THIS:         The Last Starfighter: It’s Interstellar! Grab the wifeoid and your six thousand Griglets and settle in for The Movie Rewatch of Great Nostalgia’s take on 1984’s The Last Starfighter ! Leigh Butler and her sisters, revisiting the movie for the first time since childhood, discover a distinct lack of layers to the film: “What you see is pretty much exactly what you get. And what you see (and what you get) is a movie made in the heart of the early ’80s craze for (a) anything concerning aliens and outer space, and (b) video arcade games.” But that doesn’t mean it’s not a lot of fun… SHARE THIS:       NEW ORIGINAL FICTION   Everything that Isn’t Winter, by Margaret Killjoy Does a renewed world still have a place for those who only know how to destroy? While defending a tea-growing commune in the wilds of the Pacific Northwest, one person seeks an answer. SHARE THIS:       Tweets From Tor.com Follow us on Twitter! Tor.com @tordotcom 14m How DO bookstore events go so smoothly? @LishMcBride explains the behind-the-scenes details for new authors:… https://t.co/ZOlI8 HVXzC Tor.com @tordotcom 1h Wolverine Channels Johnny Cash in the First Trailer for #Logan: https://t.co/WycfGTaGxFhttps://t.co/JwuDY ddADR Tor.com @tordotcom 1h James Gleick’s TIME TRAVEL: A HISTORY is a potpourri that is at times fascinating, and others haphazard. A review: https://t.co/URujx OjgXv Tor.com @tordotcom 2h Tragedy strikes the pumpkin spice away team: https://t.co/n7Yoc3fJRU https://t.co/eHrBC6I3yq FOLLOW US: