Thoughts, ramblings and other stuff

Locus published the Recommended Reading List for past year. It is a consensus by Locus editors and reviewers and I haven't read any of them. I mean the novels. A lot of short stories are online and I read some of them but not the novels. I'm planning to read the next Gentlemen Bastards novel and Shining Girls and Neptune's Brood eventually but between work and internet my book reading really slowed down.

Part of it is my fault - as I mentioned internet - the time sink. But also I'm often just too tired to do something else then just stare at something mindless. Two weeks ago when I was finishing a big project I was so tired I was even too tired to watch TV. It was all for last year and involve a lot of precision and double checking and a lot of very pissed emails and I had to concentrate on every single step and then my brain just turned off. So I only finished one book last month and it's an old one - Year Zero. It was fun sf satire about copyright law and a fast and easy read. Took me a month to get through it. Now I need to catch up on some articles but I'm also finally reading The Speed of Dark. I might be able to catch up on the last years books before I die.

Also, last week The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) has announced its selections for the The Reading List Book Council Award List: Librarian’s top picks in adrenaline, mystery, romance, sci-fi, women’s fiction and other genres. Here I at least read (and saw) some of the read-alikes. And I have two of the sf short list on my Kindle already - The Great North Road (I like Peter F. Hamilton's books) and Wool (everyone was raving about it for a while). I just didn't get to them yet.

The winners of the World Fantasy Award were announced yesterday in Brighton during World Fantasy convention:

World Fantasy Special Award: William F. Nolan and Brian Aldiss

Novel
Winner: Alif the Unseen, G. Willow Wilson (Grove; Corvus)
The Killing Moon, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
Some Kind of Fairy Tale, Graham Joyce (Gollancz; Doubleday)
The Drowning Girl, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Roc)
Crandolin, Anna Tambour (Chômu)

Novella
Winner: Let Maps to Others, K.J. Parker (Subterranean Summer ’12)
Hand of Glory, Laird Barron (The Book of Cthulhu II)
The Emperor’s Soul, Brandon Sanderson (Tachyon)
The Skull, Lucius Shepard (The Dragon Griaule)
Sky, Kaaron Warren (Through Splintered Walls)

Short Story
Winner: The Telling, Gregory Norman Bossert (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 11/29/12)
A Natural History of Autumn, Jeffrey Ford (F&SF 7-8/12)
The Castle That Jack Built, Emily Gilman (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 1/26/12)
Breaking the Frame, Kat Howard (Lightspeed 8/12)
Swift, Brutal Retaliation, Meghan McCarron (Tor.com 1/4/12)

Anthology
Winner: Postscripts #28/#29: Exotic Gothic 4, Danel Olson, ed. (PS Publishing)
Epic: Legends of Fantasy, John Joseph Adams, ed. (Tachyon)
Three Messages and a Warning: Contemporary Mexican Short Stories of the Fantastic, Eduardo Jiménez Mayo & Chris N. Brown, eds. (Small Beer)
Magic: An Anthology of the Esoteric and Arcane, Jonathan Oliver, ed. (Solaris)
Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Random House)

Collection
Winner: Where Furnaces Burn, Joel Lane (PS Publishing)
At the Mouth of the River of Bees, Kij Johnson (Small Beer)
The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories Volume One: Where on Earth and Volume Two: Outer Space, Inner Lands, Ursula K. Le Guin (Small Beer)
Remember Why You Fear Me, Robert Shearman (ChiZine)
Jagannath, Karin Tidbeck (Cheeky Frawg)

Artist
Winner: Vincent Chong
Didier Graffet and Dave Senior
Kathleen Jennings
J.K. Potter
Chris Roberts

Special Award—Professional
Winner: Lucia Graves for the translation of The Prisoner of Heaven (Weidenfeld & Nicholson; Harper) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Peter Crowther & Nicky Crowther for PS Publishing
Adam Mills, Ann VanderMeer, & Jeff VanderMeer for the Weird Fiction Review website
Brett Alexander Savory & Sandra Kasturi for ChiZine Publications
William K. Schafer for Subterranean Press

Special Award—Non-professional
Winner: S.T. Joshi for Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction, Volumes 1 & 2 (PS Publishing)
Scott H. Andrews for Beneath Ceaseless Skies
Charles A. Tan for Bibliophile Stalker blog
Jerad Walters for Centipede Press
Joseph Wrzos for Hannes Bok: A Life in Illustration (Centipede Press)

The Life Time Achievement Award: Susan Cooper and Tanith Lee

Since I haven't read any of this (but I heard good things about Alif so maybe one day) here is fantasy I am for sure going to read. There is a new blurb for the new Ian Cameron Esslemont's malazan novel Assail and it is even more interesting - Crimson Guard, Fisher and Sliverfox with the Imass.

Tens of thousands of years of ice is melting, and the land of Assail, long a byword for menace and inaccessibility, is at last yielding its secrets. Tales of gold discovered in the region’s north circulate in every waterfront dive and sailor’s tavern and now countless adventurers and fortune-seekers have set sail in search of riches. All these adventurers have to guide them are legends and garbled tales of the dangers that lie in wait - hostile coasts, fields of ice, impassable barriers and strange, terrifying creatures. But all accounts concur that the people of the north meet all trespassers with the sword. And beyond are rumoured to lurk Elder monsters out of history’s very beginnings.

Into this turmoil ventures the mercenary company, the Crimson Guard. Not drawn by contract, but by the promise of answers: answers that Shimmer, second in command, feels should not be sought. Also heading north, as part of an uneasy alliance of Malazan fortune-hunters and Letherii soldiery, comes the bard Fisher kel Tath. With him is a Tiste Andii who was found washed ashore and cannot remember his past and yet commands far more power than he really should. It is also rumoured that a warrior, bearer of a sword that slays gods and who once fought for the Malazans, is also journeying that way. But far to the south, a woman patiently guards the shore. She awaits both allies and enemies. She is Silverfox, newly incarnate Summoner of the undying army of the T’lan Imass, and she will do anything to stop the renewal of an ages-old crusade that could lay waste to the entire continent and beyond. Casting light on mysteries spanning the Malazan empire, and offering a glimpse of the storied and epic history that shaped it, Assail brings the epic story of the Empire of Malaz to a thrilling close.

I have been so busy recently I didn't realise that it is time for IgNobels already. They were awarded today and I must say that I am in awe. I wouldn't even think about trying to investigate most of these but I now want someone to test if Usain Bolt could run on water on the Moon. I'm also wondering what you feel when large chunk of your life is spent on observing dung beetles and cows. Although talking to drunks about how pretty they think they are might've been worse. But the archaeology prize paper makes perfect sense and I'm sure it would be useful - probably to the same people who keep body farms. And I knew there is a reason why I onion tears are the worst. Although, of course, nothing can beat Łukaszenko as he is something special even among other dictators.

MEDICINE PRIZE: for assessing the effect of listening to opera, on heart transplant patients who are mice.

PSYCHOLOGY PRIZE: for confirming, by experiment, that people who think they are drunk also think they are attractive.

JOINT PRIZE IN BIOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY: for discovering that when dung beetles get lost, they can navigate their way home by looking at the Milky Way.

SAFETY ENGINEERING PRIZE: for inventing an electro-mechanical system to trap airplane hijackers — the system drops a hijacker through trap doors, seals him into a package, then drops the encapsulated hijacker through the airplane's specially-installed bomb bay doors, whence he parachutes to earth, where police, having been alerted by radio, await his arrival.

PHYSICS PRIZE: for discovering that some people would be physically capable of running across the surface of a pond — if those people and that pond were on the moon.

CHEMISTRY PRIZE: for discovering that the biochemical process by which onions make people cry is even more complicated than scientists previously realized.

ARCHAEOLOGY PRIZE: for parboiling a dead shrew, and then swallowing the shrew without chewing, and then carefully examining everything excreted during subsequent days — all so they could see which bones would dissolve inside the human digestive system, and which bones would not.

PEACE PRIZE: Alexander Lukashenko, president of Belarus, for making it illegal to applaud in public, AND to the Belarus State Police, for arresting a one-armed man for applauding.

PROBABILITY PRIZE: for making two related discoveries: First, that the longer a cow has been lying down, the more likely that cow will soon stand up; and Second, that once a cow stands up, you cannot easily predict how soon that cow will lie down again.

PUBLIC HEALTH PRIZE: for the medical techniques described in their report "Surgical Management of an Epidemic of Penile Amputations in Siam" — techniques which they recommend, except in cases where the amputated penis had been partially eaten by a duck.

You can watch the whole award ceremony here and it is worth it. It's fun, the speaches are kept short and there is opera at the end dedicated to The Blonsky Device.

There were another awards awarded this weekend on a con. The 2012 Zajdel awards were handed out on this year Polcon:
Novel:
Robert M. Wegner, Niebo ze stali (Sky of Steel)
Jakub Ćwiek, Kłamca 4. Kill’em all
Jarosław Grzędowicz, Pan Lodowego Ogrodu, tom 4
Anna Kańtoch, Czarne
Andrzej Ziemiański, Pomnik Cesarzowej Achai, tom 1

Short Story:
Robert M. Wegner, Jeszcze jeden bohater (One More Hero)
Jakub Ćwiek, Będziesz to prać!
Jakub Ćwiek, Co było, a nie jest...
Jakub Ćwiek, Kukuryku!
Jacek Dukaj, Portret nietoty
Tomasz Kołodziejczak, Czerwona mgła


I haven't written about nominees before because I didn't read any of them, except for Czerwona Mgła - Red Fog story. I also haven't written about them because I never read them but I read other stories from most of those authors and there wasn't a lot of results I could be happy with. I finally decided that one good thing about that this is a nice reminder that there are much worse things then Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. They fell into similar category of being widely beloved and nominated for awards but full of questionable content. Between Ziemianski's beloved trope of turning his "kickass strong woman" protagonist into object in her own story (I haven't read that one but I'm sure he manage to stick rape/sexual abuse/prostitution in there too) and Kołodziejczak's stories about how only normal families with men and women in their traditional roles of husbands and wives in idealised version of 1920s will save the world from being taken over by evil (literally, it stops it from corrupting souls - also singing patriotic and religious songs). The worst part about it that they are often have cool worldbuilding and they read really well. But only until your tolerance for the underlying message runs out and you turn away in disgust. Or, judging from those nominations, not.

The guy who got most nominations isn't as bad so I won't bother you with rant about him but I can't get over how he got all those short stories nominations. And I can't get over that only one woman got nominated. But I don't know the guy who won both categories. Maybe he is better.

I didn't want go so depressing and grumpy old woman on another post so now time for something nicer. And in English.

Steven Erikson wrote about his inspirations for his current trilogy and epic fantasy in general in On the Origins of Forge of Darkness by Steven Erikson. He also proved once again that he is a writing machine because he had two week writer's exhaustion and then published another book year after the last.

Here's Neil Gaiman intervied by BBC at the age of 7. And Below is his talk with with Philip Pullman. I'm not going to say anything about first one because I already ranted today except that it so awesome they found it for him. The second one mentions Neil in badger costume:

The winners of the 2013 Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation Awards have been announced:

Long Form Winner
Atlas: The Archaeology of an Imaginary City by Kai-cheung Dung,translated from the Chinese by Anders Hansson, Bonnie S. McDougall, and the author (Columbia University Press)

Long Form Honorable Mentions
Belka, Why Don't You Bark? by Hideo Furukawa, translated from the Japanese by Michael Emmerich (Haikasoru)
Kaytek the Wizard by Janusz Korczak, translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Penlight)
Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, translated from the Russian by Olena Bormashenko (Chicago Review Press)

Short Form Winner
“Augusta Prima” by Karin Tidbeck translated from the Swedish by the author (Jagannath: Stories, Cheeky Frawg)

Short Form Honorable Mentions
“Every Time We Say Goodbye” by Zoran Vlahović, translated from the Croatian by Tatjana Jambrišak, Goran Konvićni, and the author (Kontakt: An Anthology of Croatian SF, Darko Macan and Tatjana Jambrišak, editors, SFera)
“A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight” by Xia Jia, translated from the Chinese by Ken Liu (Clarkesworld #65)
“A Single Year” by Csilla Kleinheincz, translated from the Hungarian by the author (The Apex Book of World SF #2, Lavie Tidhar, editor, Apex Book Company)

Every time I see Belka, Why Don't You Bark? it strikes me how wrong the English transcription of Cyrillic is. The first time I had to look up the actual name because I knew this was wrong but wasn't sure where. If you just heard someone call their dog by that name and had to write it down it would be like "Biewka". "Belka" doesn't even sound close. And this happens to Russian names all the time. And Kaytek name was changed to be easier to pronounce correctly for English speakers. Luckily, Srugatskys' names are close enough.

When I looked at this list I was overwhelmed by nostalgia. Kaytek the Wizard was one of the books of my childhood. I think it was my favourite of Janusz Korczak children's books as it wasn't as sad as the King Matt books. Of course now they all fill me sadness for a different reason.

Roadside Picnic is my favourite Strugatskys' book and if you haven't read it yet you should take this opportunity to do it.

The winners of the 39th Annual Saturn Awards are:

FILM AWARDS

Best Science Fiction Film: Marvel’s The Avengers
Best Fantasy Film: Life of Pi
Best Horror/Thriller Film: The Cabin in the Woods
Best Action/Adventure Film: Skyfall
Best Independent Film Release: Killer Joe
Best International Film: Headhunters
Best Animated Film: Frankenweenie

Best Actor: Matthew McConaughey (Killer Joe)
Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games)
Best Supporting Actor: Clark Gregg (Marvel’s The Avengers)
Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway (The Dark Knight Rises)
Best Performance by a Younger Actor: Suraj Sharma (Life of Pi)
Best Director: Joss Whedon (Marvel’s The Avengers)
Best Writing: Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained)

Best Production Design: Dan Hennah (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey)
Best Editing: Alexander Berner (Cloud Atlas)
Best Music: Danny Elfman (Frankenweenie)
Best Costume: Paco Delgado (Les Miserables)
Best Make-Up: Heike Merker, Daniel Parker, Jeremy Woodhead (Cloud Atlas)
Best Special Effects: Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams, Dan Sudick (Marvel’s The Avengers)

TELEVISION AWARDS

Best Network Television Series: Revolution
Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series: The Walking Dead
Best Presentation on Television: Breaking Bad
Best Youth-Oriented Series on Television: Teen Wolf

Best Actor on Television: Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Kevin Bacon (The Following) – tie
Best Actress on Television: Anna Torv (Fringe)
Best Supporting Actor on Television: Jonathan Banks (Breaking Bad)
Best Supporting Actress on Television: Laurie Holden (The Walking Dead)
Best Guest Star on Television: Yvonne Strahovski (Dexter)


HOME ENTERTAINMENT AWARDS

Best DVD/BD Release: Touchback
Best DVD/BD Special Edition Release: Little Shop of Horrors: The Director’s Cut
Best DVD/BD Collection Release: Universal Classic Monsters: The Essential Collection
Best DVD/BD Television Series Release: Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 1 & 2


SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS FROM THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE FICTION,FANTASY & HORROR FILMS

The Lifetime Achievement Award: William Friedkin
The Dan Curtis Legacy Award: Vince Gilligan
The Visionary Award: Richard Matheson
The Life Career Award: Jonathan Frakes

What does Breaking Bad and The Following have to do with Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror? Or Les Miserables? Or did I miss something? Besides that everything else is pretty expectable, although I find it interesting that Doctor Who lost to Teen Wolf. Hobbit's loss is not surprising since we all know there will be two more and many are not happy about bloating it so. I'm not happy about Revolution because I find it extremely meh but next year has to belong to Orphan Black or someone will suffer. The saddest part was that Richard Matheson, who was supposed to attend died just few days before he was to get his award.

I feel a little sick. It's not bad but makes me feel tired and it's hard to concentrate so instead of writing about my feelings the Orphan Black I'm just going to throw bunch of links at you.

I was right that they had scientist working on Orphan Black and she is friends with the show creator so the science was there from the beginning. It shows because instead of bending science to story the story is based on science. And now we know who Cosima is based on.

Post- finale interview with Tatiana Maslany - don't read if you didn't watch yet - but if you did she has some nice insight into all the clones.

We (the fans) are not the only ones who noticed Tatiana Maslany's awesome performance. There are people outside the fandom who also think she deserves every acting award ever. She has already been nominated for Critics' Choice Television Awards for Best Actress in a Drama category. And, even though the series is on a pretty niche network so ratings are nowhere near network dramas not to mention it's sci-fi which is the surest way to get overlooked, there are those who believe she can get an Emmy nomination. She was even invited on a Variety panel with those who will get nominated almost for sure.

The cast and crew of Orphan Black are thanking fans by posting pictures on Twitter with thanks. The best however is this joke spoiler plan for next season - some great ideas but they wrote themselves into a corner with episode 9:

Last few days were big on award announcements.

The winner of the 2012 Philip K. Dick Award for original science fiction paperback published for the first time during 2012 in the US was announced on Friday at Norwescon 36:

Lost Everything, Brian Francis Slattery (Tor)

Special citation was given to:
Lovestar, Andri Snær Magnason (Seven Stories)


In UK the winners of the 2012 BSFA were announced on Sunday at Eastercon:

Best Novel
Jack Glass, Adam Roberts (Gollancz)

Best Short Fiction
“Adrift on the Sea of Rains”, Ian Sales (Whippleshield Books)

Best Artwork
Blacksheep for the cover of Adam Roberts’s Jack Glass (Gollancz)

Best Non-Fiction
The World SF Blog, Chief Editor Lavie Tidhar


The Baltimore Science Fiction Society has announced the finalists for the 2013 Compton Crook/Stephen Tall Award:

Glitch, Heather Anastasiu (St. Martin’s Griffin)
Shadow Ops: Control Point, Myke Cole (Ace)
Stormdancer, Jay Kristoff (Thomas Dunne)
Fair Coin, E. C. Myers (Pyr)
Scourge of the Betrayer, Jeff Salyards (Night Shade)

The award, which honors the best first SF/fantasy/horror novel of the year, will be presented at Balticon 47.

I have to admit I haven't read any of those winners or even nominees (haven't even heard of them). I don't know if that's because I'm so hopelessly behind or because they are not really my kind of stuff.


And last but not least (and certainly causing the most controversy as always) the nominations for 2013 Hugos:

Best Novel
2312, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)
Blackout, Mira Grant (Orbit)
Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas, John Scalzi (Tor)
Throne of the Crescent Moon, Saladin Ahmed (DAW)

Best Novella
After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall, Nancy Kress (Tachyon Publications)
The Emperor’s Soul, Brandon Sanderson (Tachyon Publications)
On a Red Station, Drifting, Aliette de Bodard (Immersion Press)
San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats, Mira Grant (Orbit)
The Stars Do Not Lie, Jay Lake (Asimov’s, Oct-Nov 2012)

Best Novelette
“The Boy Who Cast No Shadow”, Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Postscripts: Unfit For Eden, PS Publications)
“Fade To White”, Catherynne M. Valente ( Clarkesworld, August 2012)
“The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi”, Pat Cadigan (Edge of Infinity, Solaris)
“In Sea-Salt Tears”, Seanan McGuire (Self-published)
“Rat-Catcher”, Seanan McGuire ( A Fantasy Medley 2, Subterranean)

Best Short Story
“Immersion”, Aliette de Bodard ( Clarkesworld, June 2012)
“Mantis Wives”, Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld, August 2012)
“Mono no Aware”, Ken Liu (The Future is Japanese, VIZ Media LLC)

Best Related Work
The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature, Edited by Edward James & Farah Mendlesohn (Cambridge University Press)
Chicks Dig Comics: A Celebration of Comic Books by the Women Who Love Them, Edited by Lynne M. Thomas & Sigrid Ellis (Mad Norwegian Press)
Chicks Unravel Time: Women Journey Through Every Season of Doctor Who, Edited by Deborah Stanish & L.M. Myles (Mad Norwegian Press)
I Have an Idea for a Book … The Bibliography of Martin H. Greenberg, Compiled by Martin H. Greenberg, edited by John Helfers (The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box)
Writing Excuses Season Seven, Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler and Jordan Sanderson

Best Graphic Story
Grandville Bête Noire, written and illustrated by Bryan Talbot (Dark Horse Comics, Jonathan Cape)
Locke & Key Volume 5: Clockworks, written by Joe Hill, illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez (IDW)
Saga, Volume One, written by Brian K. Vaughn, illustrated by Fiona Staples (Image Comics)
Schlock Mercenary: Random Access Memorabilia, written and illustrated by Howard Tayler, colors by Travis Walton (Hypernode Media)
Saucer Country, Volume 1: Run, written by Paul Cornell, illustrated by Ryan Kelly, Jimmy Broxton and Goran Sudžuka (Vertigo)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
The Avengers, Screenplay & Directed by Joss Whedon (Marvel Studios, Disney, Paramount)
The Cabin in the Woods, Screenplay by Drew Goddard & Joss Whedon; Directed by Drew Goddard (Mutant Enemy, Lionsgate)
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Screenplay by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro, Directed by Peter Jackson (WingNut Films, New Line Cinema, MGM, Warner Bros)
The Hunger Games, Screenplay by Gary Ross & Suzanne Collins, Directed by Gary Ross (Lionsgate, Color Force)
Looper, Screenplay and Directed by Rian Johnson (FilmDistrict, EndGame Entertainment)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
Doctor Who, “The Angels Take Manhattan”, Written by Steven Moffat, Directed by Nick Hurran (BBC Wales)
Doctor Who, “Asylum of the Daleks”, Written by Steven Moffat; Directed by Nick Hurran (BBC Wales)
Doctor Who, “The Snowmen”, written by Steven Moffat; directed by Saul Metzstein (BBC Wales)
Fringe, “Letters of Transit”, Written by J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Akiva Goldsman, J.H.Wyman, Jeff Pinkner. Directed by Joe Chappelle (Fox)
Game of Thrones, “Blackwater”, Written by George R.R. Martin, Directed by Neil Marshall. Created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (HBO)

Best Editor, Short Form
John Joseph Adams
Neil Clarke
Stanley Schmidt
Jonathan Strahan
Sheila Williams

Best Editor, Long Form
Lou Anders
Sheila Gilbert
Liz Gorinsky
Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Toni Weisskopf

Best Professional Artist
Vincent Chong
Julie Dillon
Dan dos Santos
Chris McGrath
John Picacio

Best Semiprozine
Apex Magazine, edited by Lynne M. Thomas, Jason Sizemore and Michael Damian Thomas
Beneath Ceaseless Skies, edited by Scott H. Andrews
Clarkesworld, edited by Neil Clarke, Jason Heller, Sean Wallace and Kate Baker
Lightspeed, edited by John Joseph Adams and Stefan Rudnicki
Strange Horizons, edited by Niall Harrison, Jed Hartman, Brit Mandelo, An Owomoyela, Julia Rios, Abigail Nussbaum, Sonya Taaffe, Dave Nagdeman and Rebecca Cross

Best Fanzine
Banana Wings, edited by Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer
The Drink Tank, edited by Chris Garcia and James Bacon
Elitist Book Reviews, edited by Steven Diamond
Journey Planet, edited by James Bacon, Chris Garcia, Emma J. King, Helen J. Montgomery and Pete Young
SF Signal, edited by John DeNardo, JP Frantz, and Patrick Hester

Best Fancast
The Coode Street Podcast, Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe
Galactic Suburbia Podcast, Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Presenters) and Andrew Finch (Producer)
SF Signal Podcast, Patrick Hester, John DeNardo, and JP Frantz
SF Squeecast, Elizabeth Bear, Paul Cornell, Seanan McGuire, Lynne M. Thomas, Catherynne M. Valente (Presenters) and David McHone-Chase (Technical Producer)
StarShipSofa, Tony C. Smith

Best Fan Writer
James Bacon
Christopher J. Garcia
Mark Oshiro
Tansy Rayner Roberts
Steven H Silver

Best Fan Artist
Galen Dara
Brad W. Foster
Spring Schoenhuth
Maurine Starkey
Steve Stiles

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer
Award for the best new professional science fiction or fantasy writer of 2011 or 2012, sponsored by Dell Magazines. (Not a Hugo Award, but administered along with the Hugo Awards.)
Zen Cho
Max Gladstone
Mur Lafferty
Stina Leicht
Chuck Wendig

I haven't read any of the novels except Blackout and it was fun but not anything special. However, from what I know about the other nominees they are pretty much on the same level. So in the end the most exiting for me are the Dramatic Presentation categories - film because all were pretty fun and TV episode because I wonder if Doctor Who will be beaten this time.

European Union got the Peace Nobel Price. The Nobel Peace Prize 2012 was awarded to European Union (EU) "for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe". Unlike the others this is awarded in Oslo which makes it a little funny as Norwegians have been consistently rejecting joining the EU for years (and are even less interested now). On the other hand when I thing all that joining did for Poland both as a country and for each of us and all that it did for the stability and cooperation on the continent I admit that I'm happy about this. I'm proud to be EU citizen. I hope to be one my whole life.

In local news, few weeks ago Neil Gaiman posted photos of a bus. The photos looked strangely familiar and now I know why. I've been seeing it around. I saw something Neil Gaiman posted about while walking around town. It's a strange feeling. Like the one I wrote in Chemistry Nobel post. It feels like something that should be happening far away but instead it's right here. It makes me suddenly realise once again I am living on another continent. Now, it's EU that's ocean away and this is around the corner:

Today it's time for the Physics Nobel and it's quantum. Serge Haroche of France and David Wineland of the US got the prize for "ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems".

Serge Haroche at Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, France, and David Wineland at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado, Boulder both work in the field of quantum optics. They approach on detecting the quantum states of particles from opposite directions - Wineland used photons to measure the properties of ions trapped by electric fields, while Haroche used superconducting mirrors to cage photons making them travel back and forth inside for more than a tenth of a second (long enough to travel 40,000 kilometres - distance equal to Earth equator). Both managed to invent ways to measure and control tiny quantum objects without destroying their fragile states. Normally the "observer" effect would cause the collapse of quantum state. Their methods allow to detect particles to observe them in their natural state. This bodes well for quantum computers, devices that exploit the weird properties of quantum systems to solve problems that stymie ordinary computers.

"The new methods allow them to examine, control and count the particles" which may lead the way to superfast computers and "the most precise clocks ever seen".

It's funny how both this and yesterday's Nobels are for such a sci-fi subjects. Both are about something that's been horribly misused, mostly in B-movie and TV episodes. Stem cells, cloning and all that quantum stuff that's basically magic for SF (and some of the crazier religious leaders). It's been all treated so badly I cringe when I hear anyone on screen (books are usually better researched) mentioning it as I prepare to do mental list of WRONG. It's nice to remember actual science behind it all. It's not made up and it's not magic. It just doesn't work like your paper headline implies.e