This Week’s News Is Brought To You By –
FanScene, Amazing Stories’ (now) Monthly Newsletter, available to registered members only.
Of Special Note
Tanith Lee does not get the credit or the attention that is deserved
Other Special Notes
and – Gaiman’s weak-ass response
AMAZING PEOPLE NEWS
Michael Swanwick discovers another use of UBIK
Fandom
Amazing Stories has surpassed 1/10th of 1 percent of its goal of 4,000 registrants who want to see the magazine come back.
Space
End of an era for the Gaia spacecraft, which has been mapping the Milky Way Galaxy
A very cool animation of every meteorite impact on Earth since 1500 AD
And an equally cool animation of our sun’s orbit around our galaxy
Science
Solar activity causes robot tractors to act “like demons possessed”. Cue Interstellar
New Research suggests female empowerment among pre-Roman Britain Celtic Tribes
Industry
New Releases
From Jack Mackenzie – The Cryo Game and Other Stories
Literature
Collaborating with ChatGPT – the future of AI novels? (note, though similar, the title of the work is not Nnedi Okorafor’s Death of the Author.)
Art
A modeler shows us what 2001’s moon bus hanger looks like
Social Commentary
Just For Fun
Robo-Wrestling! Looks like a lot of fun!
Mini Editorial
I suspect that many readers, like myself, are approaching tomorrow, inauguration day, with no small amount of trepidation, concern, perhaps even fear. I believe that to be justified. We are quite likely embarking on a future that almost seems to be modeled on an amalgam of possible science fiction apocalyptic futures forewarned of by some of our best. A world where the sky is perpetually the color of a ” television tuned to a dead channel” – but one in which the majority of inhabitants don’t know what a dead television channel looks like. A possible future in which the rule of law is conditional, and so is “reality”. One in which our species will once again be rounding “others” up and locking them up in camps, where, no doubt, the folks who like doing things like that will migrate and be responsible for all manner of violations of human decency.
I wish everyone the best as we all try to navigate this new terrain, balancing personal safety with our responsibility to remain decent human beings.
In the Future
Monday:
The Big Red Button by Tom Easton Free Fiction!
Novedades de Enero 1 y 2
Tuesday:
The Big Idea: Alan Smale
La ventana sur 5: Lovecraft, el sur y el espacio de la locura
Wednesday:
Unexpected Questions with Caitlin Rozakis
Thursday:
Whatever Happened to MOVIES, MUSIC & MONSTERS? (Interview)
Excerpt: The Gift From Aelius by Michael Colon
Friday:
Matt’s Reviews: Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Featured Image
A post=apocalyptic Washing DC, though not “post” for what is now a likelier scenario: A post-nuclear Washington DC after a terrorist attack, as envisioned by Bethesda Softworks (Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2052575/American-apocalypse-pictured-Computer-image-showsWashington-DC-devastated-by-al-Qaeda-nuclear-attack.html)
