Karl-Johan

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• Commented on Worldcon in the news
  In 6: The last sentence should have read: But I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the support mainly appeared during the bidding phase....
• Commented on Worldcon in the news
  I might have a bit of expansive view of government support here, but here are some examples: Having a local tourist board to help wrangle and coordinate convention centers and hotels is a hugely important and valuable service. Glasgow 2005...
• Commented on Worldcon in the news
  I have a slightly different view of the pre-con troubles which ailed the Chengdu Worldcon. Basically, I believe the bidders were fairly clued into the formal requirements of running a Worldcon. They also believed or were sure of some form...
• Commented on Update to Public Appearances in a time of pandemic
  At the same time, don't forget the origin of sf fandom: long-distance communication via mail and fanzines, for the fen lived far apart. From what I've seen of fandom, we already have social constructs and frameworks that can handle this....
• Commented on The Inevitable Brexit Thread (1)
  This is my ignorance of UK constitution speaking, but doesn't both the Monarch and the Parliament have a role in affirming the Prime Minister? I'm reminded of the farce that was the Swedish parliament this autumn and winter....
• Commented on What I published in 2018
  What Greg said. The meme that you nominating more than one work per category under EPH is based on a flawed understanding of the algorithm. You want to feed as many works into the algorithm per voter so you can...
• Commented on Dread of Heinleinism
  But I think there is one spiritual descendant of Heinlein that shouldn't be forgotten: Lois Bujold (who indeed was born in 1949 and grew up on a diet of sf magazines). While Barrayar and Beta Colony are more inspired by...
• Commented on The Pivot
  You'd basically fall into OGH @13: since the formal Article 50 notice has been sent in, the original referendum result has been officially accepted by the UK government. Put another way: the referendum matters to the UK government and within...
• Commented on PSA: Please don't nominate the Laundry Files for a Best Series Hugo Award (this year)
  No, there is no obvious definition on what constitutes a series, and that's by design. It's up to the people nominating to come up with the definition by Brownian motion. As long as there is some sort of continuity ("unified...
• Commented on PSA: Please don't nominate the Laundry Files for a Best Series Hugo Award (this year)
  The Vorkosigan Saga DID win the inaugural Best Series Hugo, and in a near landslide (it won in five passes, not six like all the other categories)....
• Commented on PSA: Please don't nominate the Laundry Files for a Best Series Hugo Award (this year)
  If 2017 was Bujold's year to lose a Best Series Hugo, then I'd say 2018 is Jemisin's year. For myself, I like that the Hugo awards now can reward ultra long form works in a way that wasn't possible earlier,...
• Commented on Unforeseen Consequences and that 1929 vibe
  Given the high proportion of far-right views among self-proclaimed libertarians and the anti-bank philosophy behind Bitcoin, I'm not surprised that Bitcoin is catnip to anti-semites (who, after all, are sure that Jews run every financial institution on Earth). I'm not...
• Commented on Excuses
  Don't show this to the Auditors: https://hackernoon.com/the-parable-of-the-paperclip-maximizer-3ed4cccc669a with attached game....
• Commented on Excuses
  Write Charlie write! As for old, old Swedish fringe-fan and long-time journalist Bertil Falk just released his biography "Feroze Gandhi: The Forgotten Gandhi" and is currently touring all over India because of that - at age 84!...
• Commented on Radio silence
  No problem! I was sort of busy during Worldcon as well, and I imagine so were many others of us. I hope you had an enjoyable Worldcon!...
• Commented on The light at the end of the tunnel (is not necessarily an oncoming train)
  Got it! (Feel free to remind other friends of yours.)...
• Commented on The light at the end of the tunnel (is not necessarily an oncoming train)
  Have you noted your interest to participate in the programming at Helsinki? (Hint, hint)...
• Commented on A reminder
  I can recommend taking a look at David Neiwert's writings as well, especially Rush, Newspeak and Fascism: An exegesis. Unlike Eco's or Britt's more typological description, Neiwert works from Griffin's definition of fascism as "palingenetic ultranationalist populism". The one "good"...
• Commented on Playtime is over
  I'm generally averse to seeing conspiracies, unless there can be hard proof of it (correlation does not imply cuasation and all that). I found your piece on the beige dictatorship quite insightful, and it helped to explain a lot of...
• Commented on The Day After
  One thing to remember here is that Trump ran a fascist campaign, but he does not control, build, or run a fascist movement, or any real political movement as Europeans are used to thinking. What I believe will happen: Obamacare...
• Commented on Reality is broken
  "A Different Kind of Darkness" by Dave Langford. First published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and IIRC a Hugo Winner (and worthy so, IMO)....
• Commented on "Tomorrow belongs to me"
  Heh. I'm also something that can be perceived as a super-ultra-radical-rabid left, for Swedish values of same. Back when Sweden had the referendum about joining the EU, I was vehemently on the No side. But if Sweden were to have...
• Commented on "Tomorrow belongs to me"
  Yes, that's a very good question, and OGH has already coined a great term for their type of governorship: the beige dictatorship. But I'm fairly convinced that the answer is "No". Thank god we have at least one reasonably statesman...
• Commented on "Tomorrow belongs to me"
  So the beige dictatorship is crumbling, since one faction of it started to play the xenophobia card so much that they actual populists could pick up the ball with it. Which description fits both the US and the UK. I...
• Commented on Updating a classic
  Secure against industrial espionage and leaks! Every department working on $PRODUCT must use different code names for it. Use of the code names or discussion about $PRODUCT must be limited to those on the need-to-know list, where you explicitly know...
• Commented on The sky's gone dark
  I'm Swedish and base this on Sweden, but Sweden and Finland are quite similar demographically and in their telecoms development. That said, Sweden had a very healthy and large cabled telephone network, covering the entire country. Part of it was...
• Commented on The sky's gone dark
  One medium-term result is that the militaries will take far greater control of the space launch infrastructure. However, that monopoly is unlikely to last longer than, say, 10-15 years past where the Kessler syndrome has gone from critical to serious/moderate....
• Commented on The present in deep history
  My WAGs here: Globalisation. This includes that communication and transportation has become cheaper, more accessible, safer, faster, and with more capacity during this entire period. Here lots of things can be included, like improved navigation methods, trains, aircraft, telephones, the...
• Commented on An exercise in futility
  I'm reminded of that this happened in reverse with one of Börje Crona's books published by LFP here in Sweden. The typesetter deliberately removed various swear words he considered tame, and inserted his own. Only trouble was that he managed...
• Commented on Not a Manifesto
  Makes Bone Dance by Emma Bull seem prescient......