Quickies
Quickies: New alternative to antibiotics, anti-abortion group plan backfires, and the Hugo Awards
- Turtle therapy may help develop alternative to antibiotic treatments for humans – “Sick or injured turtles were usually given a course of antibiotics, but researchers found the antibiotics killed off good bacteria in the turtles’ guts, making them unable to digest seagrass.” From Jack99.
- Anti-abortion group’s effort to defund family planning clinics backfires spectacularly – “This week, a network of family planning clinics in Maine raised thousands of dollars to help fund its abortion services, thanks to an assist from a particularly unlikely source: A major anti-choice group in the state.” Yay Mainers for not putting up with that nonsense!
- Feminists in tech: Stop treating sex work as a contagion – On why creating communities that are welcoming to women shouldn’t involve throwing sex workers under the bus.
- George R.R. Martin and others speak out over Hugo Awards controversy – “Whereas last year’s Hugos recognized a diverse pool of new voices like Ann Leckie, Kameron Hurley, and John Chu, the 2015 ballot revealed last Saturday shows the unfortunate impact of the “Sad Puppies,” a Gamergate-affiliated group fronted by authors Brad R. Torgerson and Larry Correia.”
Didn’t modern science fiction begin with Frankenstein? Plenty of commentary on ethics and society there. In fact, it seems to have been in science fiction from the beginning. Basically everywhere except the most schlocky stuff. (And even then…)
Of course, there’s also right-wing social commentary in science fiction. “Shadow over Innsmouth” is basically an anti-miscegenation screed.
Yeah, you’re definitely right. These guys aren’t longing for the “sci fi of old”, or whatever, they want the 60s’ cheap pulp novels, commercialized and targeted at the adolescent male demographic.
Not only that, because we still have plenty of pulp and cheesecake still, they want intellectually vacant materials to be celebrated with awards, and they’re willing to sacrifice the award’s credibility to get it.
One of the pinnacles of science fiction/sci-fi (cheap or otherwise) is Star Trek – which was usually more morality play than sf.