Ansible!

The latest Ansible is up and is, as usual, a joy to behold. All hail Dave Langford! All hail Discordia!

Iain Banks had a surprise memorial in a 24 June Independent crossword set by 'Alchemi', featuring the one-word answers BUSINESS CANAL DREAMS COMPLICITY CROW ROAD WALKING GLASS WASP FACTORY WHIT. [PM] On 23 June, asteroid 5099 was officially named Iainbanks by the International Astronomical Union 'and will be referred to as such for as long as Earth Culture may endure.' (Minor Planet Center blog, 1 July)

H.P. Lovecraft will join Neil Gaiman and Frank Herbert (see A312) as a place name. The city council of Providence, Rhode Island, voted to give the name H.P. Lovecraft Square to the intersection of Angell Street, where HPL lived for years, and Prospect Street, home of his doomed character Charles Dexter Ward. (Providence Journal, 17 July) [PDF] Eldritch geometries and blasphemous ichor are surely to be expected.