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We've seen plenty of proper screwball depictions of Kris Kringle previously, but history is ripe with examples of magical pensioners who trespass down strangers' flues. Here are 10 of the more egregious examples to throw on this Yuletide bonfire of weirdness.

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Harlan Ellison famously sued James Cameron over The Terminator and won — and now he's going after Andrew "Gattaca" Niccol's new film In Time. Ellison claims In Time is too similar to his story "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman." And he's not just seeking a payout — he's trying to stop the October 28 release of the film, and seeking the destruction of all copies of the film. (Of course, I'm sure he's open to a settlement.) More »
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Today's the day when we celebrate the life of visionary leader Martin Luther King, Jr. But the civil-rights legend is also an important figure in science fiction... as an influence, and an occasional character. More »
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Over at Lazy Self-Indulgent Book Reviews, Nicole Cliffe sort of, kind of, not really reviews books. Here are her tongue-in-cheek reviews of Ellison, Delany, and a prehistoric giant shark. More »
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Ever since ET for the Atari 2600 wowed gamers worldwide, science fiction and video games have been natural bedfellows. Here are 10 great scifi tales that embrace the aesthetics, technology, and popular tropes of the gaming world. More »
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It should have been the greatest television show ever: conceived by Harlan Ellison, with science advisor Ben Bova and scripts by Dick, Le Guin, Herbert and Van Vogt. A new comic based on The Starlost shows what could have been. More »
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Three neat series are coming to an end this Wednesday, and we're sad to see them go. Let's have a moment of silence for Star Wars Legacy, Air, and Ex Machina. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5614933&view=rss&microfeed=true Two of the field's most respected authors will receive recognition for the ways in which they transformed science fiction. Samuel R. Delany and Harlan Ellison will receive, respectively, the 2010 and 2011 Eaton Awards for Lifetime Achievement in Science Fiction from the University of California, Riverside. Ellison will accept his award at the 2011 Eaton Science Fiction Conference in February. Says conference organizer and associate English professor Rob Latham: More »
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The venerable Harlan Ellison is cleaning out his archives and holding his third "Great Book Purge." Over the next three days, Ellison will be selling tons of rare books and screenplays, including his first edition script for I, Robot. More »
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Today's candidate for the best 365 days of scifi is 1968, a year that spawned masterpieces like 2001 and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and such enduring tales as Night of the Living Dead and Planet of the Apes. More »
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LibraryThing's science fiction group had a great discussion about "wrong book, wrong time" situations, where you hate a book, but much later, you rediscover it and fall in love. What books are you glad you gave a second chance to? More »
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If you think sex in the 21st century sucks, just be glad you don't live in one of these scifi dystopias. When Big Brother is a peeping Tom and three-penised mutants are eligible bachelors, getting off is a turn-off. More »
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A Boy and His Dog, a rarely-screened, trippy post-apocalyptic film based on a novella by Harlan Ellison, will be shown in Los Angeles as part of a double feature with Christian documentary Waiting for Armageddon. Why the odd pairing? More »
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Oh, how we laughed when we heard that Harlan Ellison had offered to write the sequel to JJ Abrams' Star Trek, despite a recent lawsuit over his previous work on the franchise. But then we realized it could work. More »
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Joe R. and Keith Lansdale present another collection of stories recalling those hard-boiled cheap thrills from the first half of the last century. Hearken back with us now to yesteryear in Son of Retro Pulp Tales! (Subterranean Press). More »
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Science fiction's best authors chart a vast and unpredictable cosmos - but they're not above making a little wager here and there on earthly matters. Here are SF authors' weirdest (and most productive) bets. More »
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Today's the day when we celebrate the life of visionary leader Martin Luther King, Jr. But the civil-rights legend is also an important figure in science fiction... as an influence, and an occasional character. More »
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What's in a term? Apparently a lot, if this discussion from 1997's SF Vortex is anything to go by. Never mind the excitable host. Watch the debate between writers J. Michael Strazcynski, Harlan Ellison, Yvonne Fern and Herbert Solow (the man who not only developed Star Trek as a television series, but also gave Gene Rodenberry the unfortunate nickname "The Great Bird Of The Galaxy"). In the clip below, they discuss whether "Sci Fi" demeans the genre of science fiction - and the result is oddly compelling, even if they're splitting linguistic hairs and acting like cultural snobs in the process. More »
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In Polish artist Jacek Yerka’s surreal paintings, technology coexists with fantasy, buildings defy logic and gravity, and no boundaries exist between the biological and the mechanical. Although beautiful on their own, they suggest the settings for outlandish tales of foreign worlds, a quality that inspired science fiction writer Harlan Ellison to write an anthology of short fiction based on Yerka’s work. More »
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This week marks the release of the Canadian SF series The Starlost on DVD. Initially conceived by Harlan Ellison, the show ran for one miserable season. With laughable sets, terrible dialogue, acting that was simply beyond the pale, and a strange Amish theme, The Starlost doesn't rate a purchase, but you will derive considerable pleasure out of watching the following video along with Ellison's savaging of the show's producers. More »
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We watched the documentary Dreams With Sharp Teeth about Harlan Ellison at the South by Southwest Film Festival last night, and some of it was impressive, like watching the sharp-penned writer work in a bookstore window in 1994, spending five hours typing a short story so people could see that it's an actual job. However, the film disappointed by refusing to delve into any of the controversy surrounding Ellison at all, turning it into a big fluff piece that basically fails to explain his cranky, world-hating genius. More »
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J.J. Abrams' Lost returns to television tonight, and you'll finally be able to find out what happens when those crazy Losties leave the island. But we're more interested in another (albeit smaller) group of castaways who were busy trying to get out of their own personal hell over 30 years ago. No, we're not talking about Gilligan and company. We mean Marshall, Will, and Holly. They were just a family on a routine expedition, who met the greatest earthquake ever known. It struck their tiny raft and plunged them down a thousand feet below, to the Land of the Lost. Find out more than you wanted to know about this terrific Sid and Marty Krofft show inside, including its connections with Lost, Doctor Who, and Star Trek. More »
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The Harlan Ellison documentary Dreams With Sharp Teeth will be part of the SXSW Film Festival in March later this year, and as you can tell from this trailer, it features Harlan Ellison at his most colorful. The documentary began filming in 1981, also features Battlestar Galactica head honcho Ronald D. Moore, author Neil Gaiman, and Robin Williams along with plenty of choice quotes and vintage photos of Ellison himself. More »
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Our promiscuous, body-swapping descendants will hit the skids in the third book in John Varley's Steel Beach trilogy — if he ever gets around to finishing it. Varley's Irontown Blues is one of the most long overdue books in science fiction according to SF Signal. Varley told Locus the book would be a futuristic detective story, and things would be "looking kind of bad for the human race" by the end of it. Other authors who should crank out those delayed works, according to SF Signal. More »
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If you've been reading anything about the upcoming J.J. Abrams Star Trek remake online, then it's probably been boring stuff like casting rumors. However, plot details have started to surface over the past few days, and at least one person out there isn't happy about it. Fair warning: there be potential spoilers ahead. More »
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Must-see movies are futuristic classics that shouldn't be missed. Of course, not every must-see is perfect. That's why we've rated them 1-5 on the patented "crunchy goodness" scale. Written by Jason Shankel. More »
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