A potpourri of SF news

Life went on, mostly without my participation, over the past couple of months and the run-up to and roll-out of InterstellarNet Enigma. On the genre side, here are a few interesting items that got me off-task long enough to bookmark for later perusal.

Looking for diversion? Best-selling and best are distinct concepts, but popularity remains a hint at options worth considering. In the video department, therefore, I found this list from Fortune to be interesting: "Here are the 10 highest-grossing sci-fi movies of all time." The Star Wars franchise, not surprisingly, dominates the list -- and in the case of episodes four through six, I even understand. I thoroughly enjoyed about half these top grossers.

 I've often posted about the nascent Museum of Science Fiction (hopefully) coming to the Washington, DC area. MoSF has kicked off a Kickstarter campaign to bring their first public exhibition, "The Future of Travel," to DC's very busy Reagan National Airport. It's become a Kickstarter staff pick, which has to be a Good Thing. And in a marriage made in, er, the heavens, "NASA and Museum of Science Fiction Sign Space Act Agreement." The agreement gives MoSF improved access to key NASA resources.

Mars is, of course, a favored destination of science fiction. How about getting real people there? Several SF authors recently participated in a panel at "Humans to Mars Summit in Washington." Panelists and colleagues were (alphabetically): Catherine Asaro, Geoffrey Landis, Tom Ligon, Michael Swanwick, and Mary Turzillo. I wish I'd had the spare time earlier in the month to have joined them.

Finally, if you recall my uncharacteristically introspective post of a few weeks ago, "Of Hugo Awards, Sad Puppies, and notoriety," the controversy has gone mainstream. See, from The Wall Street Journal, "The Culture Wars Invade Science Fiction."