Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 102
November 2, 2016
Mystery Plane
I’ve run a number of mystery plane contests, with my online friends of the Ground Observer Corps never taking longer than about 20 minutes to identify the plane. So I thought I’d put up a poser. What plane did I find here on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean? There’s an oval defense blister on the side, another blister on top, and a cigar-shaped fuselage. You can see the remains of an engine nacelle on the wing. The other diver should give it scale. What have I found? The clock is ticking.
November 1, 2016
Manta Ray
It’s always been my ambition to view a manta ray, or devilfish, though luck has always been against me. One of the best places in the world to see a manta is the German Channel in Palau, a channel in the reef blasted by German engineers in support of their phosphate mining endeavors, back when the islands belonged to Wilhelm II. When the tide is on the ebb, water just pours through the German Channel, bringing food along with it. All the mantas have to do is hover there, or turn barrel rolls,...
October 31, 2016
Ghost Ship
Wanna hear a ghost story? (It’s still Halloween in the States, I believe, though I’m on the far side of the dateline myself.) This is the story of an unknown ship, known as the “depth charge wreck” or the “helmet wreck,” from its cargo. It was a Japanese sub-chaser sunk during the Second World War, probably in 1944, though there is no record of it. No one knows the ship’s name. or the names of the crew, or when it was sunk or by what means. It wasn’t even discovered till the 1980s. Strange, b...
October 30, 2016
October 22, 2016
Return to Palau
After two days on airplanes and in airports, we got to spend a night in a luxury hotel. It caters more to Japanese than American visitors, so the breakfast buffet had some interesting choices. I had a vegetable stir-fry of udon noodles topped with a couple eggs sunny-side-up, along with tropical fruit and coffee, and from the terrace I could view thePalau Aggressor, which I’ll be boarding in a few hours, for a week of undersea adventure.
Last time I was in Palau I got an award-winning story o...
October 19, 2016
Oceania
I’m going off to the Pacific for two and a half weeks, to commune with my finny friends. Much of that time I’ll be on a boat with no phone or internet connection, which I for one find to be a delightful prospect. The rest of the time I’ll be on one or another island. I don’t know what the online setup there will be, but I expect it it will make me long for the good old days of dial-up service. I don’t think they’re running a lot of T3 connections to Pacific atolls, but maybe I’m wrong. Postin...
October 17, 2016
Wonderful World of Color
When I made my trip in August to view the Tall Ships, I decided to replace my digital Pentax SLR. I chose the camera in the first place so that I could use the lenses that belonged to my beloved old Pentax film camera, which finally pooped out around 2006. But the new camera had auto-focusing, while the old lenses did not, and the two systems didn’t work very well together. After it jammed when trying to use my old zoom lens, I paid a couple hundred bucks to get it repaired; and after it jamm...
October 16, 2016
Last Chance
My99-cent sale on my Praxis novelInvestments,and my sale (outside North America) ofThe Praxis, are now entering their last hours. So if you wantInvestments at 99 cents, please go to:[kindle][nook][Smashwords][iBooks][Kobo]. AndThe Praxis may still be found for 99 cents at:Amazon.co.uk,iBooks,Kobo, andGoogle! But only for a few hours! Click now!
