(1) HAVE YE SEEN THE GREAT WHITE TUNA SURPRISE? Timothy the Talking Cat mentioned File 770’s favorite writer (who is not Timothy the Talking Cat, hard as that is to believe) in his latest critical pronouncement, “Timothy reviews Moby Dick” at Camestros Felapton.

… I only watched the film. Ray Bradbury was in it, setting fire to books, which is another effective way of editing that he invented in the 1950s. That’s why books are shorter now….

(2) HAUNTING IMAGES. Christopher Lockett’s post “On Gremlins” at The Magical Humanist explains why they’re on his mind.

…Watching the “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” episode of The Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) when I was eleven was one of those terrifying viewing experiences we sometimes have when we’re young that rewires something in your brain. It disturbed my sleep for months afterward, and I’ve still never seen the 1984 film Gremlins.² At the same time, the idea of a malevolent creature who plagues airplanes has always been a source of fascination to which my imagination has often returned….

…Gremlins, indeed, almost became the subject of a Disney film: author Roald Dahl, who would go on to write Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) and James and the Giant Peach (1961) among innumerable other beloved children’s books, was an RAF pilot. His first book was titled The Gremlins, about a British Hawker Hurricane pilot named Gus who is first tormented by gremlins but ultimately befriends them and convinces them to use their technical savvy to help the British war effort. In 1942, Dahl was invalided out of active service and sent to Washington, D.C. as an RAF attaché. The Gremlins brought the RAF mythos of airborne imps to America and was popular enough that Disney optioned it as an animated feature. Though Disney ultimately did not make the movie, Dahl convinced them to publish it with the animators’ illustrations in 1943. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt reportedly delighted in reading it to her grandchildren….

… Though Dahl would later claim to have coined the word “gremlin,” that is demonstrably false, as the term was in use from the 1920s and was featured in Pauline Gower’s 1938 memoir Women with Wings….

(3) ATTENTION JOHN HERTZ. Please advise — what is your current mailing address? Two people have contacted me about letters that bounced from the most recent one I have. And do you want the current address published here?

(4) NO, AND HELL NO. Engadget cheers the news that “The Supreme Court doesn’t care if you want to copyright your AI-generated art”.

As AI-generated artwork becomes more commonplace, it still won’t be able to be copyrighted, according to US courts. On Monday, the US Supreme Court declined to hear a case about whether an artwork generated with the help of AI can be copyrighted. The refusal means that a lower court’s decision to reject the copyright request will stand.

The case dates back to 2018 when Stephen Thaler applied for a copyright of an artwork called A Recent Entrance to Paradise. Unlike using ChatGPT or Midjourney, Thaler, a computer scientist, created an AI system that generated the artwork in question. However, the US Copyright Office rejected his application in 2022 on the grounds that it wasn’t made by a human author. Thaler sought appeals at higher courts, but ultimately had to escalate the case to the Supreme Court after both a federal judge in Washington and the US Court of Appeals ruled against him.

With a refusal from the highest court in the US, it’s unlikely Thaler’s case can continue. The US Supreme Court could always hear a related case in the future, but Thaler’s lawyers said, “even ⁠if it later overturns the Copyright Office’s test in another case, it will be too late,” adding that the decision will have negatively impacted the creative industry during “critically important years.” It’s worth noting that Thaler also filed applications to the US Patent and Trademark Office for AI-generated inventions, which were rejected for similar reasons.

(5) ALA UNIONIZATION EFFORTS. Publishers Weekly reports “ALA Workers Initiate Union Drive”.

Employees of the American Library Association have announced plans to form the ALA Workers United (ALAWU), working with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31 in Illinois.

When ALA staff arrived for work at the association’s main Chicago headquarters on March 2, they were greeted by fellow workers who shared an open letter urging support for the ALAWU and handed out buttons with the union logo…

… Council 31 represents approximately 3,000 Illinois library workers in Chicago and its suburbs, major Illinois cities, and state universities. Nationwide, AFSCME represents more than 35,000 library workers.

The open letter, signed by 40 ALA workers, states that “recent multi-round layoffs, increased workloads, benefit reductions, financial crises, ingrained salary disparities, and lack of transparent decision-making have motivated us to come together in our union.” Their list of concerns refers to the streamlining goals in the ALA strategic plan released last summer and the association’s acknowledgement of workforce reductions in October 2025. Some 30 employees left the association last year, through buyouts and layoffs….

(6) CALLING ALL COLLECTORS. Heritage Auctions’ “Intelligent Collector” newsletter shares a fascinating set of artifacts in “150 Years of the Telephone”. Several are of genre interest – especially this one.

OF ALL THE famous fictional telephones in entertainment history, the Batmobile Batphone from the 1966-68 Batman TV series just might be the most recognizable. While on patrol or in pursuit, the Dynamic Duo could pick up the bat-shaped phone for instant access to the Gotham City Police Department. This version of the futuristic gadget — the only hero working model known to exist — sold for $45,000 in a December 2019 Heritage auction.

(7) BRUCE CAMPBELL MEDICAL UPDATE. “‘The Evil Dead’ Star Bruce Campbell Reveals Cancer Diagnosis; Cancels Upcoming Fan Convention Appearances” reports Deadline.

The Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell revealed he has been diagnosed with a ‘treatable’ but not ‘curable’ type of cancer, forcing him to seek medical care and cancel forthcoming public appearances.

While the horror icon did not specify the details of his diagnosis, he noted in a social media announcement, “I’m posting this, because professionally, a few things will have to change — appearances and cons and work in general need to take [a] back seat to treatment.”

The actor said he hopes to get well by the summer in order to tour his comedy movie Ernie & Emma, which he wrote, directed and stars in, this fall.

“There are several cons this year summer [sic] that I have to cancel. Big regrets on my part. Treatment needs and professional obligations don’t always go hand-in-hand,” he explained.

Concluding, he said, “That’s about it. I’m not trying to enlist sympathy—or advice—I just want to get ahead of this information in case false information gets out (which it will). Fear not, I am a tough old son-of-a-bitch and I have great support, so I expect to be around a while. As always, you’re the greatest fans in the world and I hope to see you soon!”

(8) JEFFREY CARVER FUNERAL UPDATE. Mickey Mikkelsen has passed along all of the info he has thus far for Jeffrey A. Carver’s funeral.

(1) To attend in person, you need to register through Evite. If you need the link, I can provide it – email me at mikeglyer (at) cs (dot) com

(2) The funeral can be viewed online. Currently, we only have the Zoom link that will be used for the reception: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89922434097?pwd=oScYpgTBEvC3cSEHKfkFD9yra7wkIE.1

It will have an open sharing/speaking time. The service itself will be live-streamed, and they are still working on getting the link for that from the church.

(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

March 3, 1920 – James Doohan. (Died 2005.)

James Doohan, a Canadian, is of course remembered best for being the original Montgomery “Scotty” Scott on the first version of the Enterprise. And doesn’t it say something about the franchise that I had to write the sentence that way? 

He played, definitely way too much in my opinion, the archetypal Scotsman. He even had a Dress Uniform Kilt, something I’m dead certain doesn’t exist in the modern Navy, as on display in “Is There in Truth No Beauty?” and “The Savage Curtain”. And I forget how many characters he drank literally to the floor. No don’t get me wrong, I loved the character, but the depiction was seriously over the top.

So my favorite episode involving him? That had to be when he defended the honor of the Enterprise in a bar brawl with a Klingon in “The Trouble with Tribbles” after that Klingon called his beloved ship a garbage scow. Perfect, just perfect. 

So what else has he done? His first major genre role (he had previously appeared in one episode of Tales of Tomorrow) was as Paul Mitchell on Space Command, an early Fifties Canadian children’s sf series. It only lasted two years but they did one hundred and fifty episodes!  Shatner would appear there.

A decade later, he entered the Twilight Zone playing Johnson, by no means a major role, in the “Valley of the Shadow”.  Around the same time, on Outer Limits he played Police Lt. Branch in “Expanding Human”, this time a lead role. 

He showed up twice in The Man from U.N.C.L.E (in different roles), Bewitched, Fantasy Island, MacGyver and Knight Rider 2000.

Need I say Next Generation’s “Relics” was wonderful?  And I’m not talking about Trials and Tribble-ations even though it’s a stellar story as he’s only there in existing footage of him.

Filmwise, Trek was his major gig as I see very little genre undertakings at all. He had an uncredited role in The Satan Bug, an sf thriller. It’s so short that IMDB gives the time that he’s in the film.

His only other genre role that I can see in a film outside of Trek was as Judge Peterson in Skinwalker: Curse of the Shaman. If you’ve not seen it don’t feel bad. It’s obscure enough that no one on Rotten Tomatoes has either. 

I think that covers it for him. Now keep in mind that I did love him, despite my criticism of his portrayal of a Scottish character, on Trek as he’s really likeable. He and Nichelle Nichols always seemed to be the two most, well, truly warm, likeable individuals there. 

I think I’ll go watch both of the Tribbles episodes on Paramount+ now.  Yes, I know there’s the animated episode as well, “More Tribbles, More Trouble”, but it just doesn’t have the charm the actual ones with live actors do. 

(10) COMICS SECTION.

• xkcd needed a fuller explanation.
• Bound and Gagged ends up in the bin. 
• Carpe Diem provides in-flight entertainment never seen before.
• Heathcliff visits a comedy club. 
• Spectickles threw the wrong thing.
• Thatababy plays with Star Wars baby toys.

(11) FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTENT. Brian Cronin’s “Look Back” at CBR.com remembers when “DC Launched One of Its Most Historic Science Fiction Comics 75 Years Ago”. His piece includes this bit of “inside baseball”.

…Take a look at the striking Carmine Infantino/Frank Giacoia cover of Mystery in Space #1, and tell me what notable thing you DON’T see on this cover that you would TYPICALLY see on a comic book cover. You’ll note that there isn’t a NUMBER on the cover. That was part of something that DC would often do during this era.

You’ll see it in the house ad announcing Mystery in Space, as well. Note that it simply tells you how awesome the comic book is, it does not tell you that it is a NEW comic book. That is because DC Comics, at the time, believed that comic book readers were turned off by new comic book series. The idea being, “If it is new, how do we know if it is any good? If it’s been around for years, then it MUST be good, right?”

That is sort of the very theory that the early comic book industry operated under, where comic books initially were just reprint collections of famous comic strips, under the theory that, “What would people want to read? The comic strips they already know and love, or some new comic book that you guys came up with? Obviously the former!”…

(12) TODAY’S THING TO WORRY ABOUT. [Item by Steven French.] Another week, another article on the Fermi Paradox! But here a couple of researchers turn it around and use the famous Drake equation together with the lack of evidence for extra-terrestrial civilisations to impose an upper limit on the lifetime on any such civilisation, including ours of course – spoiler alert: the answer’s not encouraging.

(Both researchers are based in Tehran and I’m sure Filers will join me in hoping that they and their families are safe.)

From Phys.org: “How long do civilizations last?”

It is one of the most famous questions in science, and it was asked, as legend has it, over lunch. Enrico Fermi, the physicist who helped build the first nuclear reactor and whose name graces a unit of length so small it makes an atom look generous, was chatting with colleagues about the possibility of alien life when he suddenly asked “where is everybody?”

The universe is 13 billion years old. Our galaxy alone contains hundreds of billions of stars, a significant proportion of which host planets. Many of those planets sit in the right temperature range for liquid water. The numbers, by any reasonable estimate, suggest that life should have emerged many times over, in many places, long before our own planet had even formed. And yet, no signals. No visitors. No evidence of anyone at all. This is the Fermi paradox, and it has remained unresolved for 75 years.

Now, two physicists from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran have approached it from a new angle. Rather than asking why we have not found other civilizations, Sohrab Rahvar and Shahin Rouhani have asked what the silence itself tells us and the answer places a hard mathematical ceiling on how long technologically advanced civilizations are likely to survive….

(13) CLASS D, GRADE F. “NASA lost a lunar spacecraft one day after launch. A new report shows what went wrong” says NPR.

Why did a $72 million mission to study water on the moon fail so soon after launch? A new NASA report has the answer.

SCOTT SIMON, HOST: Thursday marked one year ago today, a NASA probe called Lunar Trailblazer lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Its mission was to map the water on the moon, but a day after the launch, mission managers lost contact with the spacecraft. It was never heard from again, unlike B.J. Leiderman, who does our theme music. Now NPR has learned exactly why the $72 million mission failed. Joe Palca has this report.

JOE PALCA, BYLINE: The launch was successful, but the first communication from Lunar Trailblazer showed something was wrong with the power system. A report by a review panel convened by NASA to explore why the mission failed contains the explanation. Software that was supposed to point the spacecraft solar panels toward the sun instead pointed them 180 degrees away from the sun. The panel found other software errors as well….

… PALCA: Lockheed Martin built the low-cost Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft. The NASA panel says the company did not properly test the pointing software before launch. Mission managers might have been able to fix that problem, but other software issues made it ultimately impossible.

Neither Lockheed Martin nor NASA would provide a spokesperson for comment. But in a statement, Lockheed said it had learned lessons from Lunar Trailblazer and would make changes going forward. The statement also pointed out that lower-cost missions are inherently riskier. A NASA statement also talked about lessons learned.

Scott Hubbard is a NASA veteran, now at Stanford University. He says, yes, NASA accepts higher risk with lower cost, or so-called class D, missions…

(14) WHAT PEOPLE ARE WATCHING. JustWatch – The Streaming Guide has shared their Top 10 charts for the month of February.

[Thanks to Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Mickey Mikkelson, Andrew (not Werdna), Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Kathy Sullivan, and Steven French for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Steve Davidson.]