Dublin 2019 Opens Hugo, Retro-Hugo, and Site Selection Voting

Online ballots for the 2019 Hugo Awards and 1944 Retro Hugo Awards are now available and open for voting. Dublin 2019 also has opened Site Selection voting for the location of Worldcon in 2021.

2019 HUGO AND 1944 RETRO HUGO VOTING.  Members of Dublin 2019: An Irish Worldcon are eligible to choose the winners of the Hugo Awards, the John W Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book for 2019; and also the Retrospective Hugo Awards for 1944.

Online voting is now enabled for the Hugos and Retro Hugos, though you can also vote via a paper ballot. Members have been emailed personalized links for use in voting.

The deadline for voting is Wednesday 31 July 2019 at 11:59pm Pacific Daylight Time (2:59 am Eastern Daylight Time, 07:59 Irish time, all on 1 August).

Voters can make additions or changes to their ballots as often as they like up until the deadline. A copy of their current ballot will be emailed to them 30 minutes after they finish modifying it.

2021 SITE SELECTION. Dublin 2019 also has opened voting for the 2021 Worldcon site.  Washington, D.C. is the only declared bid on the ballot.

The Site Selection Administrator and staff will be accepting only paper ballots either completed on site, mailed, or hand-delivered, and will not accept ballots via any electronic means.

To vote:

(1) You must be a Full Attending, Young Adult, First Worldcon, or Supporting Member of Dublin 2019; and

(2) You must also pay an Advance Supporting Membership fee of €40, which goes to the winning bid. This process also makes you a Supporting Member of the winning bid’s convention.

If you mail your ballot to the address in the USA (but only then) you may pay your voting fee with a personal cheque in U.S. funds ($45), payable to “Dublin 2019”. NO CHEQUES are accepted to the address in Ireland or at this year’s Worldcon in Dublin.

To pay your Advance Supporting Membership fee online, sign in to our member services site at api.dublin2019.com and click on “Buy a site selection token”. If you are signed in, this direct link will also take you there

There will also be onsite voting at Dublin 2019, see their website for the schedule.

What’s In The 2019 Hugo Voter Packet?

By JJ: On May 11, the 2019 Hugo Awards voter packet became available for download by Attending, Supporting, First Worldcon, Young Adult, and Child members of Dublin 2019. The packet is an electronic collection which helps voters become better informed about the works and creators on the ballot. Works which are included have been made available through the generosity of finalists and their publishers.

The voter packet contains complete texts of many Hugo-nominated works, preview versions of some works, and directions for finding some finalists’ works online. Some novels have been made available through NetGalley, which requires a user account for access (registration is free).

The packet is available for download from the Dublin 2019 website in the Membership section by clicking “Vote for the 2019 Hugo Awards”. You must have a valid Membership login link to download the packet. If you have recently joined Dublin 2019, you will be sent a Membership login link shortly after joining. You can request that your Membership login link be re-sent to you by entering the e-mail address you used when you registered with Dublin 2019 on the Membership page. If you do not receive the e-mail, or your Membership login link fails to authenticate, you can e-mail hugohelp@dublin2019 for assistance.

If you haven’t yet downloaded this year’s Hugo Voter Packet and wish to download only selected parts, or if you’re still trying to decide whether to purchase a membership, a breakdown of its contents is presented below.

The Hugo Voter Packet will be available for download until the voting deadline at 11:59 pm Pacific Daylight Time on Wednesday July 31st, 2019 (7.59 am, Irish time, on 1 August 2019). Voters can make as many changes as they wish to their ballot until the deadline. Changes are automatically saved, and a copy of the voter’s current ballot will be emailed to them 30 minutes after they finish modifying it.

As in previous years, WSFS and Dublin 2019 ask that voters honor publishers’ and creators’ request that they reserve these copies for their personal use only, and that they do not share these works with non-members of Dublin 2019.

Only members of Dublin 2019 can access the 2019 Hugo Award Voter packet and vote on the 2019 Hugo Awards. To become a member of Dublin 2019, see the membership page.

If you don’t have access to the Hugo Voter Packet, here is a list of links to read the 2019 Hugo Finalists which are available for free online. Some detailed discussions of the Finalist works can be found on the 2019 Hugo Award Finalists announcement thread, as well as in other posts on File 770.

Dublin 2019 and WSFS are deeply appreciative of the publishers, authors, artists, editors, and other creators who have generously provided their works to this year’s Hugo Voter Packet, and ask that voters who feel the same way consider posting on social media to thank the publishers, editors, and creators who have participated in the packet.

Read more…

Dublin 2019 Attending Membership Rates Will Rise on May 6

On May 6, 2019, membership rates will rise for Dublin 2019 – An Irish Worldcon. The rates from that date will be as follows:

  • Full Adult Attending membership rates rise to €260 from €235
  • Irish First Worldcon rates, for adults from the island of Ireland attending their first Worldcon, rise to €160 from €150
  • Young Adult Attending membership rates rise to €160 from €150.
  • Child Attending membership rates, for those born between 16 August 2006 and 15 August 2013, rise to €80 from €70.

The new rates take effect at 00.01 Dublin time on Monday, May 6.

The rate for a Supporting membership is unchanged at €40. The rate for an Infant, born after 16 August 2013, remains unchanged at €5.

“As we get closer to the con, we hope people will lock in their memberships at the lowest rate they can,” said James Bacon, chair of Dublin 2019. “We’re very excited about the programme for this Worldcon and we can’t wait to welcome everyone.”

More than 5900 people have already registered as members of Dublin 2019, including more than 4700 attending members. More than 800 people will be attending Worldcon for the first time.

Dublin 2019 – An Irish Worldcon will take place in and around the Convention Centre Dublin from 15 August to 19 August. Activities at the Dublin Worldcon will include the 2019 Hugo Awards, the world’s leading awards for excellence in science fiction and fantasy, as well as the spectacular Masquerade costume display. There are typically 650 to 800 separate programme items, including author readings and autograph sessions, films and videos, academic presentations, and panel discussions on speculative literature and other media, many involving fans and audience. The Irish Science Fiction Film Festival and Golden Blaster Awards will be among the film and video events at Dublin 2019.

Guests of Honour for Dublin 2019 include YA author Diane Duane, and screenwriter and Hugo winner Ian McDonald, as well as game designer Steve Jackson (Melee, Chaos Machine, Munchkin) and editor Ginjer Buchanan. Science Guest of Honour will be Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who discovered radio pulsars in 1967 as a postgraduate student. Bill and Mary Burns will be fan Guests of Honour. Featured Artists are Jim Fitzpatrick, Maeve Clancy and Afua Richardson.

More information and membership registration for Dublin 2019 are available at Dublin 2019 – An Irish Worldcon. Follow the event on Twitter at @dublin2019.

[Based on a press release.]

Top 10 Posts for April 2019

People mourning the death of Vonda McIntyre followed social media links from all over to read File 770’s reminiscence and Tom Whitmore’s official obituary (with its exceptional, full account of her career.)

The Hugo nominee announcement understandably took a backseat to that!

Here are last month’s ten most-read posts according to Google Analytics:

  1. Vonda N. McIntyre (1948-2019)
  2. Science Fiction Author Vonda N. McIntyre, Official Obituary
  3. Dublin 2019 Announces Hugo and Retro Hugo Finalists
  4. Pixel Scroll 4/6/19 A Scroll Without A Pixel Is Like A Walrus Without An Antenna
  5. Pixel Scroll 4/5/19 We Can Scroll It For You Wholesale
  6. Pixel Scroll 4/2/19 Get Me Pixels! Pixels Of Scroller-Man!
  7. Where To Find The 2019 Hugo Award Finalists For Free Online
  8. Pixel Scroll 4/10/19 Got A Ride With A Filer And The Pixel Scroll Man To A Town Down By The Sea
  9. Pixel Scroll 4/24/19 The Scroll Of The File King From Pixel Gynt
  10. Pixel Scroll 4/15/19 You Put Your Right File In, And You Scroll It All About

Scroll-Free Top 10

  1. Vonda N. McIntyre (1948-2019)
  2. Science Fiction Author Vonda N. McIntyre, Official Obituary
  3. Dublin 2019 Announces Hugo and Retro Hugo Finalists
  4. Where To Find The 2019 Hugo Award Finalists For Free Online
  5. 2019 Rondo Awards Nominees
  6. Extending the Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin
  7. Asimov Still Holds The Record
  8. Gene Wolfe (1931-2019)
  9. Hugos There?
  10. 2024 UK Worldcon Bid Picks Glasgow as Venue

Motion to Extend Hugo Eligibility of Prospect

By Olav Rokne: Recently, JJ, Chris Barkley, and Kevin Standee helped me refine a motion that I intend to present at the next WSFS business meeting. The motion is in support of extending the eligibility of the movie Prospect, which was eligible for the 2019 nomination season, but was largely unavailable to most viewers until just over a month ago. It’s a low-budget SFF movie that I think really deserves attention from the fandom community. Getting this a Hugo nod would help it reach the wider audience that it thoroughly deserves. 

Here’s the motion: 


Short Title: Hugo Eligibility Extension for Prospect

Moved, to extend for one year the eligibility of the movie Prospect, based on limited availability, as authorized by Section 3.4.3 of the WSFS Constitution.

Proposed by: Olav Rokne, Marshall Boyd, Amanda Wakaruk, Chris M. Barkley

Commentary: The American film Prospect had its global premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas on March 5, 2018. There were a very limited number of theatrical screenings in large American cities in November of 2018.

Prospect was released on video-on-demand and home media on March 8, 2019.

Due to its limited release in 2018 and early 2019, very few members of Worldcon 76 or Dublin 2019 had the opportunity to view the film before the deadline for nominating the 2019 Hugo Awards.


2019 Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund Vote Count Released

Geri Sullivan

Geri Sullivan won the 2019 Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund on the first round of voting. The administrators today provided a breakdown of the voting results by first preference. (“RoW” stands for “rest of the world.”)

RESULTS

Candidate  N. Am. Europe RoW Total
Teresa Cochran   13      2      15
Sarah Gulde   18    10        2    30
Michael Lowrey   13    12      25
Geri Sullivan   87    44        5  136
Hold Over Funds        
No Preference     4      1      5
         Total votes 135    69    211

Following her return home from Dublin 2019, Geri will become the next North American administrator of TAFF, and will conduct the 2020 TAFF campaign and election in association with Johan Anglemark.

Fans throughout Europe who may be interested in standing for TAFF in 2020 should make a point of talking with Geri and Johan at the Dublin Worldcon, or elsewhere on Geri’s trip, if at all possible.

Because Worldcon will not take place in North America in 2020, it has not yet been decided whether the 2020 TAFF race will be westbound, as is traditional, or eastbound for a second year in a row, which has occasionally happened in the past for similar reasons.

For more information about the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund – past, present, and future – visit David Langford’s excellent TAFF website at www.taff.org.uk.

Waiting For Online Hugo Voting And The 2019 Voter Packet

By JJ: Enquiring Hugo voter minds want to know: When will we be able to vote online? When will the Hugo Voter Packet be available?

In the fine tradition of similar File 770 posts on the subject in years past, and using my highly-refined statistical skills gained while acquiring my Master’s degree from Cattimothy U*, here is a comparison of the deadlines and availability dates of recent Worldcons.

Because what the hell, we’ve got time to kill. And a year from now, someone is going to ask about this again, the way they do every year.

UPDATE May 11, 2019:
The Hugo Voter Packet and Online Voting are now available.

Notes:

  • In 2008 and 2009, the Hugo Voter Packet was put together by John Scalzi
  • In 2012, the Hugo Voter Packet was released in stages starting on May 18, becoming fully available on May 30
  • With the exception of 2009, 2016, 2017, and 2019, all Finalist Announcements were made on Easter weekend

Timing Observations:

  • Aussiecon 4 in 2010 had online nominations available the earliest, on January 1.
  • Aussiecon 4 and Loncon 3 in 2014 had online nominations available the longest, at 82 days.
  • Chicon 7 in 2012 and Renovation in 2011 were the Worldcons which had online voting up and running the fastest, at 2 and 5 days following the announcement of the Finalists.
  • Chicon 7 had online voting available the longest, at 113 days.
  • Denvention 3 in 2008 and Renovation were the Worldcons which had the Hugo Voter Packet available the most quickly, at 3 and 4 weeks following the Finalist announcement.


1 – days between online nominations becoming available and nomination deadline
2 – days between nomination deadline and finalist announcement
3 – days between finalist announcement and online voting becoming available
4 – days between finalist announcement and Hugo Voter Packet becoming available
5 – days between online voting becoming available and voting deadline
6 – days between voting deadline and the start of Worldcon


While you’re waiting for the Hugo Voter Packet, here’s a list of links to read the 2019 Hugo Finalists which are available for free online.

*The Camestros Felapton University for Beating Statistical Horses Until They Are Thoroughly Dead

Dublin 2019 Releases
Progress Report 4

The Dublin 2019 Worldcon committee has published Progress Rreport #4 [PDF file]. With four months to the convention a great deal of important information is included. (You do not need to be a member to access the convention publications.)

An urgent Access issue relates to mobility scooter rental: our primary mobie rental vendor lost a significant portion of their stock in a fire, which has left us with far fewer scooters available. If you would like to rent a mobility scooter please fill out the form at https://dublin2019.com/forms/mobility-scooter-rentals/ as soon as possible. Having as accurate information on demand as possible will help us as we continue actively working on solutions.

Earlier this year, we launched the Fantastic Dublin Fund, our crowd-sourced program to help facilitate Dublin 2019 for people with limited financial means, people of colour, those from marginalized communities, and others. We are ready to accept applications for memberships from one of our key targeted groups: residents of Ireland and Northern Ireland who would otherwise be financially unable to attend the convention. Please help us by spreading the word and donating if you can! You can also donate your membership if you can no longer attend.

You’ll find more details on these and other efforts in the PR #4, which is online and downloadable as a PDF publication.

WSFS related supplements are also available in PDF format:

The printed progress reports will go out soon to members who have requested them.

You can find the all of the progress reports and supplements here.

Pixel Scroll 4/15/19 You Put Your Right File In, And You Scroll It All About

(1) NOTRE DAME. Notre Dame cathedral suffered extensive fire damage today.

A massive blaze…devastated large parts of the 850-year-old church. While the fire is now under control, the cathedral’s iconic spire fell during the hours it took to battle the blaze.

Many sff fans and writers who’ve been there reminisced about their visits in social media, including Samuel Delany

Like many folks, I climbed to the top of Notra Dame myself on my first trip to Paris with Ron Helstrom and Bill Balousiac. As well, we were staying on the Ilse St.-Louis in the hotel next to the Hotel Olinda, which was rumoured (in Arthur and Hope Fromers Europe on Five Dollars a Day) to be the cheapest hotel in Paris. It was a trip and a half! Some of it was reflected in my novel NOVA.

(2) WOLFE. The SFWA Blog posted a tribute to the late author: “In Memoriam – Gene Wolfe”.

…SFWA President Cat Rambo said, “When we talk about fantasy and science fiction writers who were true virtuosos, Wolfe is one of the foremost among them, and I was honored to be at the 2013 Nebula Conference where he was made a SFWA Grand Master. His Book of the New Sun is a revelation to me every time I go back to reread it and his clear, thoughtful, ever-incisive voice will be sorely missed. This year has claimed several giants in the field, and Gene is most assuredly one whose loss will hit hard across the F&SF community.”

(3) APEX REORGANIZES. In “Sleep now, Apex Magazine, you’ve earned it”, Editor Jason Sizemore says Apex Magazine is going on hiatus, but the Apex Book business will continue.

After much consideration, I’ve decided that Apex Magazine will go on an indefinite hiatus. Our last new issue will be 120–the Afrofuturism issue guest edited by Maurice Broaddus. It’s filled with incredible, diverse work and a fitting sendoff for our zine.

Why stop now?

The last few months have been difficult for me both mentally and physically. This leads to soul searching. And that leads to life decisions. One thing that became obvious to me is that I was neglecting both myself and the book side of Apex. I need to take time to exercise, take some time for my health, do more things for fun, enjoy having my kids around before they leave for college in a few years. I need time to read more books! And on the book side of Apex, I had been failing to do the minimum for success because so much of my time was being poured into Apex Magazine. The magazine flourished, while the books languished.

A flourishing magazine is a great thing, but the profit ceiling for an online zine is disturbingly low. One small press book that does really well (like, for example, Greener Pastures by Michael Wehunt) will make 25 times the profit of the zine in a year.

It comes down to health and economics and family. Like most decisions in life.

… And a reminder … this is an extended hiatus, not a permanent closure. I’m a man of whims, unfortunately. After I ended Apex Digest, it was two years later that I decided I wanted to do Apex Magazine. In two years, if Apex Book Company is going strong, don’t be surprised if I have the itch to reopen the zine.

… Lesley Conner and I have not turned our backs on genre short fiction. We plan to do an open call anthology each year that will contain nearly as many words of short fiction as a whole year’s worth of zines. Keep your eyes open for our next project….

(4) A BRAND SEMI-NEW IDEA. On a day that could use some comic relief, Ian McEwan did his best, making absurd statements about sff in an interview with The Guardian: “Ian McEwan: ‘Who’s going to write the algorithm for the little white lie?”.

McEwan has an abiding faith that novels are the best place to examine such ethical dilemmas, though he has little time for conventional science fiction. “There could be an opening of a mental space for novelists to explore this future, not in terms of travelling at 10 times the speed of light in anti-gravity boots, but in actually looking at the human dilemmas of being close up to something that you know to be artificial but which thinks like you. If a machine seems like a human or you can’t tell the difference, then you’d jolly well better start thinking about whether it has responsibilities and rights and all the rest.”

However, as the humor was unintentional, it took D Franklin’s help for it to fully register–

(5) PANDA EXPRESS. Any other day this would seem a bigger loss, but I’ll miss them: “San Diego Zoo to say farewell to giant pandas”.

Whether born here or abroad, all pandas belong to China. The zoo said successful breeding and an increased awareness of conservation helped boost the wild population of pandas in China to around 2,000, downgrading the panda from “endangered” status to “vulnerable” in 2016.

Building bonds of trust with the pandas has allowed zookeepers to perform some medical tests without having to subject the animals to anesthesia. It’s also helping them crate-train the pandas for their journey back to China. Their new home will be the Chinese Conservation and Research Center, where other former San Diego pandas now live.  

(6) DUBLIN 2019 ADDRESSES AIRBNB CONCERN. James Bacon, Dublin 2019 chair, explains the issues with “Short Term Rentals (AirBnB) in Ireland” and shares the available information.

We’ve noted that some of our members have reported issues with AirBnB cancellations. We are sorry that is happening. Many of our own team are booked into AirBnB and it is an affordable option in most cases.

Unfortunately, on the 1st of June this year new legislation is supposed to come into effect that will severely limit the ability for Dublin houses and apartments to be rented out for short-term lets if they were not specifically built for the short-term market (i.e. the Key Collection and StayCity apartments that are part of the convention block are permitted).

The exception to this will probably be if the house/apartment is a person’s primary residence and then only if either let out for a maximum of 90 days per annum, and for a 14-day maximum period, or if the entire property is not rented out (i.e homeshare accommodation).

As of yet we do not know the full legislation, as it is still with the Dáil (the Irish legislature) so we cannot even be sure if the new legislation will grandfather in existing bookings.

More details at the link.

(7) AVENGERS ATTENTION DEFICIT. Daniel Dern says, “This isn’t a spoiler if you’ve seen the Avengers: Endgame. It makes more sense if you have seen the recent Captain Marvel movie, all the way to the very end (final ‘Easter egg.’)”

Dern continues

I was (re)watching The Avengers: Infinity War movie over the weekend, and the last few seconds of the final E. Egg had Nick Fury reach for something from a pocket, and dropped it as he went all Thanos-finger-crumbling-black-dusties. The camera view pans down, showing [ROT-13][ n oyvaxvat qbbuvpxrl jvgu gur Pncgnva Zneiry ybtb ba vg.”

A picture of what Dern saw is here.

Like I said, not a spoiler if you’re up-to-date in trailer and prior movie watching. But wouldn’t have been as noticeable a point, when Avengers: Infinity War first came out, other than ‘if that’s the last few seconds of the movie, it probably is significant.’

(8) FRID OBIT. Dark Shadows’s actor Jonathan Frid died April 13, 2012. (Never mind….) The Los Angeles Times reported at the time

Jonathan Frid, whose portrayal of charismatic vampire Barnabas Collins in the supernatural soap opera “Dark Shadows” turned the classically trained actor into a pop-culture star in the late 1960s, has died. He was 87.

… The campy daytime soap was a year old and struggling in the ratings in 1967 when series creator Dan Curtis took his daughter’s advice to “make it scarier.” He introduced Barnabas Collins, and the ratings took off.

Curtis intended Barnabas to be a short-term villain but soon realized that the Shakespearean actor “brought a very gothic, romantic quality” to the role, Curtis later said. Frid remained on the ABC show until it left the air in 1971.

(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.

[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]

  • Born April 15, 1906 Erroll Collins. British writer whose early Forties Mariners of Space is reminiscent of early Heinlein in its plot and solar system wide setting.  Serialised in Boy’s Own Paper, it would come out later in hardback. Other genre novels include Submarine CityThe Black Dwarf of MongoliaPirates in Space and A Spot on the Sun. (Died 1991.)
  • Born April 15, 1908 Howard Browne. I’m going to call him a pulp writer for lack of a better term.  Some of his work appeared over the pseudonyms John Evans, Alexander Blade, Lawrence Chandler, Ivar Jorgensen, and Lee Francis which makes it difficult to say just what he wrote. I’m reasonably sure that under various names that these are his genre novels:  Return to LiliputForgotten Worlds and The Return of Tharn. He also was a prolific scriptwriter, mostly westerns and cop shows, but he did several Mission Impossible scripts. (Died 1999.)
  • Born April 15, 1926 Homer Nearing. He is best known for his Professor Cleanth Penn Ransom series published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in the early Fifties. One story, “The Neurotic Rose”, ran in the April 1956 issue of Fantastic Universe. Some of the stories formed a fix-up novel called The Sinister Researches of C.P. Ransom. (Died 2004.)
  • Born April 15, 1940 Robert Walker, 79. Ahhh, the Charlie Evan character in the first season “Charlie X” Star Trek episode in which yet another child gets to be a badly behaving godling. I really don’t know what I think of this episode but do know the actor was rather good in his ability to wring sense out of Fontana’s script. Walker didn’t do much else for genre work, showing up on The Time Tunnel as Billy the Kid,  Bobby Hartford in Beware! The Blob, the sequel to The Blob, and in The Devonsville Terror as Matthew Pendleton.
  • Born April 15, 1947 Deborah J. Ross, 72. A friend of Marion Zimmer Bradley, she’d edited and contributed a story to the first of Sword and Sorceress series which lasted thirty volumes. Much of her fiction is set in the Darkover universe with an original series,The Seven-Petaled Shield, underway as well. She’s also edited two Lace and Blade anthologies which have such contributors as Tanith Lee and Diana Paxton.
  • Born April 15, 1952 Glenn Shadix. He shows up in two of my favorite genre films, Beetlejuice and Demolition Man. His other genre films were SleepwalkersMultiplicity and Planet of the Apes. (Died 2010.)
  • Born April 15, 1959 Emma Thompson, 60. Professor Sybill Trelawney, Harry Potter franchise. Men in Black 3 and Men in Black: International as Agent O, The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle as Polynesia, Beauty and the Beast as Mrs. Potts and Treasure Planet voicing Captain Amelia. 
  • Born April 15, 1974 Jim C. Hines, 45. [Entry by Paul Weimer.] Writer, and blogger. Jim C. Hines’ first published novel was Goblin Quest, the tale of a nearsighted goblin runt and his pet fire-spider. Jim went on to write the Princess series, four books often described as a blend of Grimm’s Fairy Tales with Charlie’s Angels. He’s also the author of the Magic ex Libris books, my personal favorite, which follow the adventures of a magic-wielding librarian from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, who happens to have the same pet fire-spider lifted from the Goblin novels as his best friend. He’s currently writing his first foray into science fiction novels, the Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse series. Jim’s novels usually have the fun and humor dials set on medium to high. Jim is also an active blogger on a variety of topics and won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 2012.
  • Born April 15, 1990 Emma Watson, 29. Hermione Grangerin the Harry Potter film franchise. Belle in the live-action Beauty and the Beast. And the voice of Prince Pea in The Tale of Despereaux. 
  • Born April 15, 1997 Maisie Williams, 22. She made her professional acting debut as Arya Stark of Winterfell in Game of Thrones. She is Ashildr, a Viking woman of unique skills, the principal character of a story line, during the time of Twelfth Doctor. She is set to star as Wolfsbane in the forthcoming Marvel film New Mutants.

(10) TODAY’S CLICKBAIT. Food & Wine sounds deeply concerned that the answer was almost never Peeps: “The Most Popular Easter Candy in Every State, According to RetailMeNot”.

If you’re also on team Peeps, know that the candy company has released several new flavors this year, including Pancakes & Syrup and Root Beer Float, which you can learn more about here. As for the rest of America’s candy preferences, check out the full state-by-state breakdown below:

(11) PICARESQUE PUSSYCAT. While Camestros Felapton is in the Himalayas, Timothy the Talking Cat is favoring us with his autobiography: “Beyond the Bounds of Genius: Chapter 1”.

…This was a dark time for England. Specifically it was around 10 pm in November. I needed more light so I filled the bath full of kerosene and set light to it. And for the simple crime of wanting enough light to read by I was thrown upon the mercy of England’s archaic criminal justice system…

(12) AI MEDIC. NPR considers the question: “How Can We Be Sure Artificial Intelligence Is Safe For Medical Use?”

When Merdis Wells visited the diabetes clinic at the University Medical Center in New Orleans about a year ago, a nurse practitioner checked her eyes to look for signs of diabetic retinopathy, the most common cause of blindness.

At her next visit, in February of this year, artificial intelligence software made the call.

The clinic had just installed a system that’s designed to identify patients who need follow-up attention.

The Food and Drug Administration cleared the system — called IDx-DR — for use in 2018. The agency said it was the first time it had authorized the marketing of a device that makes a screening decision without a clinician having to get involved in the interpretation.

It’s a harbinger of things to come. Companies are rapidly developing software to supplement or even replace doctors for certain tasks. And the FDA, accustomed to approving drugs and clearing medical devices, is now figuring out how to make sure computer algorithms are safe and effective.

(13) BIG BROTHER REALLY IS. “How does it feel to be watched at work all the time?” BBC reports on the consequences.

Is workplace surveillance about improving productivity or simply a way to control staff and weed out poor performers?

Courtney Hagen Ford, 34, left her job working as a bank teller because she found the surveillance she was under was “dehumanising”.

Her employer logged her keystrokes and used software to monitor how many of the customers she helped went on to take out loans and fee-paying accounts.

“The sales pressure was relentless,” she recalls. “The totality was horrible.”

She decided selling fast food would be better, but ironically, left the bank to do a doctorate in surveillance technology.

Courtney is not alone in her dislike of this kind of surveillance, but it’s on the rise around the world as firms look to squeeze more productivity from their workers and become more efficient.

(14) JEDI GAME. There’s a new trailer out for the video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

Cal Kestis—one of the last surviving members of the Jedi Order after the purge of Order 66—is now a Padawan on the run. Experience this all-new single-player Star Wars™ story from Respawn Entertainment and EA Star Wars on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC this holiday season, 15 November 2019.

(15) REY PARADE. Holy cats – there’s no end of them! Is this some kind of Escher thing? No, it’s the Rey Meetup at last week’s Star Wars Celebration in Chicago.

(16) BOXING DAY. I love work. I could watch other people do it for hours. (Or robots.) “Handle Robot Reimagined for Logistics” is a new video from Boston Dynamics in which a bird-like robot picks up and stacks boxes.

[Thanks to Danny Sichel, Mike Kennedy, Martin Morse Wooster, Standback, Dann, John King Tarpinian, JJ, Cat Eldridge, ULTRAGOTHA, Chip Hitchcock, Daniel Dern, Carl Slaughter, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jayn.]

Extending the
Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin

Few people have had the chance to see Arwen Curry’s documentary Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin, which began making the rounds of film festivals in June 2018 but won’t be available to a mass audience until it airs on PBS in late 2019. It isn’t a finalist for this year’s Hugo Awards, and some who feel that might be the result of underexposure have announced plans to ask the Dublin 2019 business meeting to extend the film’s eligibility.

Here is the draft text of their motion:


Short Title: Hugo Eligibility Extension for Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin

Moved, to extend for one year the Hugo Award eligibility of the film documentary Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin, based on limited availability, as authorized by Section 3.4.3 of the WSFS Constitution.

Proposed by: Jo Van Ekeren, Hampus Eckerman, Adri Joy, Theodora Goss, Terry L Neill, Juliette Wade, Paul Weimer, Ziv Wities

This motion extends eligibility for the Hugo Awards under Section 3.4.3; therefore, it requires a two-thirds vote of approval.

Commentary: Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin is a documentary film by Arwen Curry exploring the life and legacy of the late feminist author Ursula K. Le Guin. Work on the documentary began as early as 2009, and the filmmaker was able to complete the many hours of filming prior to the author’s death in January 2018. The film premiered at the Sheffield International Documentary Festival on June 10, 2018. Since then there have been a number of screenings at film festivals in various locations around the world; however, the film has not yet been made available for viewing by the general public. Arrangements are in progress for the film to be shown at Worldcon in Dublin in August, and the film will be broadcast in the U.S. on PBS American Masters in October 2019.

Due to its limited release in 2018, very few members of Dublin 2019 had the opportunity to view the film before the deadline for nominating for the 2019 Hugo Awards. Passage of this proposal would make the documentary eligible for nomination in the Best Related Work category for the 2020 Hugo Awards next year.


As noted in the motion, the authority for extending the eligibility period comes from WSFS Constitution Section 3.4.3:

In the event that a potential Hugo Award nominee receives extremely limited distribution in the year of its first publication or presentation, its eligibility may be extended for an additional year by a two-thirds (2/3) vote of the intervening Business Meeting of WSFS.

This provision of the WSFS Constitution was used in 2015 to extend eligibility for the film Predestination and for the short film I Remember the Future, and to extend the eligibility of the anime Summer Wars in 2011.
http://file770.com/tag/dublin-2019/
file770.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2019-22
155217
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:MLPDMRPBJJZJZJ34P2PEB6VI2W6QE2GL
<urn:uuid:fd48388b-403d-4891-8b26-7c94b9abfa87>
2019-05-22T12:47:12Z
64.111.104.218
text/html
sha1:Q7COVRKGD6G34AFPNTMBSQX2AUQA5OFW
<urn:uuid:fbf6a2f1-12b9-4a35-b508-65d8ef24d71d>
http://file770.com/tag/dublin-2019/
response
<urn:uuid:73f4ad58-c0c4-4205-93c1-8232fb957d27>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2019-22
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for May 2019
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-152-225-239.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.1-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/