Lambda Sci-Fi DC Area Gaylaxians (202) 232-3141 - Issue # 332 – November 2017 E-MAIL: [email protected] WEBSITE: www.lambdascifi.org The LSF Book 2017 Nebula Awards Discussion Group info passed along by Carl The 51st Annual Nebula Conference was held in Pittsburgh, PA on the weekend of May 18-21. In addition to the conference itself, Nebula Awards for works published If you’re interested in lively in 2016 were announced and discussions of F&SF books (with an presented May 20th. As a reminder, emphasis on elements of interest to the Nebula Awards – awarded by the the LGBT community), we invite you Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers to join the LSF Book Discussion of America (SFWA) – recognize the El-Mohtar (The Starlit Wood) Group. Each month, we conduct fas- best works of science fiction or Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding cinating round-table discussions of fantasy published in the United States. Dramatic Presentation works by significant F&SF authors. Here’s the list of this year’s Kubo and the Two Strings (LAIKA) - The LSF Book Discussion winners: Arrival (21 Laps Entertainment/Film- Group usually meets on the 4th Thurs- Best Novel Nation Entertainment/Lava Bear day of every month, starting at 7:00 All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Films/ Senolinguistics) PM, at Peter & Rob’s home: 1425 “S” Jane Anders (Tor) Andre Norton Award for Young Adult St., NW – for directions or more Best Novella Science Fiction and Fantasy details, call 202-483-6369. The next “Every Heart a Doorway” by Seanan Arabella of Mars by David D. Levine book discussion will be a combined McGuire (Tor.com) (Tor) November/December discussion held Best Novelette on December 7, 2017. “The Long Fall Up” by William For more information about Here are the details for the Ledbetter (Magazine of F&SF) the Nebula Awards (and a complete next several book discussions: Best Short Story list of past nominees and winners), go Dec. 7, 2017 (combined Nov/Dec) – “Seasons of Glass and Iron” by Amal to: http://nebulas.sfwa.org/ LYF Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (moderator: Dave R.) Jan. 25, 2018 – Binti and Binti: Home Happy by Nnedi Okorafor (moderator: Carl) Thanks- Feb. 22, 2018 – Borne by Jeff Van- giving, LSF! derMeer (moderator: Konrad). LYF < < < < < < November 2017 LSF Meeting > > > > > > What’s Inside? The next LSF meeting will be held on Sunday, November 12th. The Page 2: Minutes of the October LSF meeting will be held at Peter and Rob’s home, 1425 “S” Street NW, Wash- Meeting; What Color Is a Dinosaur? ington, DC. The meeting will begin at 1:30 and the “group watch” will begin at Page 3: CORRECTION! 3:00 PM. Hope to see you there! Page 4: Information About LSF: DC Area Gaylaxians and Con Calendar. LYF Minutes of the What Color Is a Dinosaur? ces in technology and paleontology- October LSF Meeting by Carl (with additional info cal research. Dinosaurs were proba- taken by Scott from Wayne #1) bly endothermic (“warm-blooded”) to one extent or another, as suggested by TV News Believe it or not, we now an analysis of bone structure and Rob is passionate about the might actually be able to answer that bone growth patterns. Closer analy- new CBS series Star Trek: Discov- question with a fair degree of certainty sis of their skeletal structures led to a ery. He thinks that the third episode – at least in a few cases. whole new vision of how dinosaurs should have been the first epi- Discussions about dinosaur stood and moved and looked. And so sode. The first two episodes could coloration had been pure guesswork for on. And then some researchers spec- have been referenced in flashback – well over a century, due to the nature ulated as follows: “Let’s look at the they were boring. Fans believe that of the fossil record and the level of coloration of dinosaurs’ closest living this series will focus on Section 31, technology available to researchers. relatives. Reptiles and birds express which is not subject to the normal Think about it: how can you determine all kinds of colors – think of gila constraints of Starfleet ethical what color a dinosaur was when all monsters or peacocks or chameleons protocols. He-he. you’ve got is a scrambled pile of or cardinals. Couldn’t this also be Fox’s The Orville is a tradi- fossilized bones? Up until recently, it true for dinosaurs?” Paleo-artists tional sense-of-wonder Trek-ish ser- seems to have been pretty much took up these concepts and ran with ies with a little sophomoric humor “agreed” that dinosaurs must have been ‘em; suddenly “dinosaur books” be- added in. some kind of dull green-grey-brown came much more visually interesting Rob hated the first episode color combination – you know, like than they had ever been before. And of The Inhumans, including the spe- some kind of giant alligator or iguana. let’s not forget all those incredibly cial effects of Medusa’s hair. Carl But then came recent advan- detailed fossils that have been dis- agreed with the ridiculousness or covered in northern China over the Medusa’s hair. (Somehow, it didn’t Other News past decade: dinosaurs with feathers! seem so stupid in the Marvel com- Carl reported that Kathe Koja, Birds didn’t “invent” feathers; they ics.) author of Under the Poppy, has a new seem to have “inherited” them from A 10-episode stand-alone book titled Christopher Wild, her tri- their theropod dinosaur ancestors! anthology TV series called Electric bute to Christopher Marlowe. Still, the speculations of paleon- Dreams is planned, based upon Phil- The world’s first talking sex tologists and paleo-artists about dino- lip K. Dick’s short stories. SyFy robot, named Harmony, is ready for saur coloration were just that: spec- Channel’s new series Happy will air you. Harmony appears to resemble ulations. Until… this Autumn; it’s based on the comic Ivanka. In 2008, Yale graduate stu- book series by Grant Morrison: an Wolfenstein’s newest game dent Jakob Vinther and colleagues in- ex-cop turned hit man, with a blue shoots at Nazis (as does the original spected some 100-million-year-old winged unicorn named Happy. Rob game). Current-day Nazis are not hap- fossil bird feathers from Brazil with a watched the last season of clones- py about the renewal of this game. scanning electron microscope and themed Orphan Black; Tatiana Mas- Headline: “Nazi-Killing Video Game discovered fossilized melanosomes lany won an Emmy for her per- 'Wolfenstein II' Angers Nazis With (pigment-bearing organelles) in the formance(s). 'Make America Nazi-Free Again' dark bands of the fossils. (These are Rob and David are enjoying Slogan.” really detailed fossils, you under- NBC’s The Good Place, about a stand.) Melanosomes are nano-sized woman who finds herself in the Upcoming LSF Events packets of pigment found in the fea- “good place” afterlife, but it’s a mis- LSF will host a “spooktac- thers of living birds. A hundred mel- take that she is there. The first sea- ular” board gaming party on Saturday, anosomes can fit across a human son ended with an excellent surprise! October 21. hair.) And in 2009, Vinther’s group The reboot of a Once Upon Upcoming LSF book discus- further showed that another fossil- A Time has begun – a seventh season sions: Passing Strange by Ellen Klages ized feather would have been iri- – several years in the future from the (October 26); Ninefox Gambit (The descent in a living bird, due to micro- sixth season. Henry is now an Machineries of Empire #1) by Yoon scopic light-refracting surfaces crea- adult. Some of the actors will return, Ha Lee (Dec. 7, combined November/ ted by stacked melanosomes. OK, so excluding the characters of Snow December discussion). these findings indicated that it’s pos- White and Prince Charming. sible for melanosomes from Meso- Rob reports that a two-hour And then everyone watched zoic times to survive in fossils. But no movie finale for Sense8 will be pro- episodes 2 and 3 of Star Trek: Dis- one had found melanosomes in non- duced. covery (with Captain Malfoy!). LYF (continued on page 3) What Color Is a Dinosaur? continued from page 2 Sinornithosaurus (another small thero- lucky find for a land-dwelling dino- pod species) indicate that its feathery saur of this size. avian dinosaur “proto-feathers” (fil- filaments possibly varied in color be- Back to the laboratory… aments also called “dino fuzz”) – and tween black and russet-orange. Brown and his colleagues found mo- no one had used melanosome shape Well, that’s OK for feathered lecular signatures left by pheomelanin and density to infer color. Until… dinosaurs and prehistoric birds, but pigments in the nodosaur’s fossilized A team of paleontologists everyone figured we were simply out skin. Even more surprising, they from the UK and China also used a of luck when it came to non-feathered found that the reddish-brown pigment scanning electron microscope to ex- dinosaurs. Until… was more pronounced on the dino- amine the fossils of feathered birds saur’s back than on its belly. In other and dinosaurs found in Liaoning Pro- words, this nodosaur was a darker vince, China. These creatures lived red-brown color on top. This pattern between 131 million and 120 million is known as countershading – it’s a years ago. Among the fossils they common camouflage pattern found in examined were those of Sinosaurop- such prey mammals as chipmunks, teryx, a turkey-sized relative of Ty- gazelles, and giraffes, but it’s never rannosaurus rex and Velociraptor.