Author Archives: Cora

Hanseatic Steampunk: Cora’s Adventures at the 2025 Aethercircus Festival in Buxtehude

Posted on May 26, 2025 by Cora

The first May weekend was another long holiday weekend, because May 1 is a public holiday in Germany, the schools were closed on Friday May 2 and many had taken the day off work, so much of Germany had a … Continue reading →

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Robot Hallucinations Revisited

Posted on May 20, 2025 by Cora

Rather than overload my previous post (which got a lot of attention) with ETAs, I decided to write a follow-up post with a round-up of new developments, insights and reactions on the Seattle Worldcon ChatGPT controversy. For starters, Kathy Bond, … Continue reading →

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Robot Hallucinations

Posted on May 8, 2025 by Cora

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you will be aware that the 2025 Worldcon in Seattle, Washington, is embroiled in a massive scandal. Turns out the programming team used ChatGPT to vet people who’d applied to be on programming … Continue reading →

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Easter 2025

Posted on April 22, 2025 by Cora

This year, the long Easter holiday weekend began with my birthday on Good Friday. The fact that there are so many birthdays and wedding anniversaries in March and April in my family is also why Easter was never that big … Continue reading →

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The Obligatory Birthday Post 2025

Posted on April 19, 2025 by Cora

April 18 was my birthday and also Good Friday. So my initial plan to go out and have lunch at a nice restaurant somewhere was scuppered, because Good Friday is the one day in Germany, where almost everything is closed. … Continue reading →

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Some Thoughts on the 2025 Hugo Finalists – with Bonus Road Trip Photos

Posted on April 7, 2025 by Cora

The 2025 Hugo finalists were announced last night – in a somewhat low-key way via Hugo administrator Nicholas Whyte (I recognised his voice) and someone else whose voice I didn’t recognise reading out the finalists in a YouTube video. If … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Comics, Fanzine Spotlight, Film, Non-Fiction Spotlight, Semiprozine Spotlight, TV | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Easter Branches 2025

Posted on March 19, 2025 by Cora

So what are Easter branches? Easter branches are a North and Central European tradition, where you cut (or buy) bare branches in the run-up to Easter, put them in a vase and decorate with painted eggs or other festive decorations. … Continue reading →

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An Open Letter to the 2025 Hugo Finalists, Whoever They May Be

Posted on March 15, 2025 by Cora

This is an updated version of this post from 2021, this post from 2022, this post from 2023 and this post from last year, which a lot of people found helpful. There also a Chinese translation of the 2023 post … Continue reading →

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Some Comments on the 2024 Nebula Finalists

Posted on March 13, 2025 by Cora

The finalists for the 2024 Nebula Awards were announced today. The video of the live announcement may be found here. Once again, I didn’t get to read nearly as much as I wanted to last year for personal reasons, so … Continue reading →

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Journey to the Edge of the Ruhrgebiet: Cora’s Adventures at the Marché Noir Retro Fair in Dorsten, Part 3: The Road Home and Greven

Posted on February 25, 2025 by Cora

Two weekends ago, I attended the the Marché Noir retro toy/comic/games/cool stuff con in Dorsten on the northern edge of the Ruhrgebiet. For the trip to get there, see part 1 and for my impressions of the con itself and … Continue reading →

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