Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 141

Wretchedness, Worldwide

I thought I’d take note of some recent news items.
First, the Rector of the Islamic University of Rotterdam,Ahmet Akgündüz, has praised Turkey’s ruling AK Partyfor only stealing 20% of the nation’s income, as opposed to the 80% taken by previous parties.
He said that, unlike the AK Party, previous governments did not have enough money to build double-lane highways noting that it should be admitted that the AK Party government’s performance since it came to power has been quite successful on the...

Flamingo Tongue

This is something called a “flamingo tongue.” Click the picture for a life-sized image. It’s a kind of sea slug, maybe three inches long, and crawls about on corals eating, I suspect, everything.
I think it looks more like an uncircumcised penis, possibly with a horrific disease, but then I don’t know what an actual flamingo tongue looks like.
I’m speaking from complete ignorance here. Feel free to ignore me.

Lamanai

After my week of diving was over, I set out on a field trip to the Mayan city of Lamanai. It’s one of the few Mayan cities where we know its actual name, as the Mayans were still in residence when the Spanish arrived, and the Spanish missionaries recorded the name, which means “submerged crocodile.” Crocodiles— caymans, really— are apparently represented in the local Mayan art, and may have played a part in the local religion, but I didn’t see any of the evidence myself.
The trip from Belize C...

Fly, Little Nook! Fly!

Barnes & Noble has decided to split off its Nook division, which includes its profitable B&N College bookstores in universities around the country.
Apparently the Nook is losing market share to Kindle and iPad. (My own ebook sales through the Nook store are roughly 10% of my total, FWIW.) The division is also losing money, though I can’t imagine why. It’s not as if they’re renting a lot of retail space or anything.
B&N’s brick-and-mortar stores are somewhat more profitable than they have been,...

New Star on the Horizon

My novelette “Video Star” is now available at Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, and Amazon. Smashwords has probably already distributed it to iBooks and various other sites.
It’s a mere $0.99! Which is practically nothing these days! You can get this story forpractically nothing!
“Video Star” is set in the same world asVoice of the Whirlwind—in fact, it used to be in the samebook. ”Video Star” was originally a subplot inVotW, but it grew too long, and I replaced it with the chapter where Stewar...

Arrow

You thought from the title that this was going to be about the TV show, didn’t you?
Nope, I’m here to introduce you to an invertebrate. This is an arrow crab (Stenorhynchus seticornis). You can see the pale stripe across the carapace that gives it its name.
It’s maybe six inches across if you stretch those incredibly thin legs out to their maximum extent. I gave my macro lens a workout on my recent dive trip.
The picture has been pretty seriously Photoshopped, because the photo was taken at nigh...

Strange Invader

A sea monster, perhaps one designed by Jim Henson, has invaded the Silent World!

Accented

Those of you who intend to go to the London worldcon, or anyone else planning to visit Britain, might pay particular attention here.
It has always struck me as unfair that the inhabitants of the United Kingdom spend their entire lives learning to speak charming and distinct dialects, only to have ignorant North Americans lump them all together as “a British accent.”
Here’s Siobhan Thompson to help you sort one from the other.

1960-2014

Lee Sprague, who was my Kenpo teacher for eight years in the Nineties, died yesterday of a massive heart attack. He was 53. I’ve just come from his memorial at a local karate school.
Lee A.W. Sprague— who rejoiced in the acronym L.A.W.S., plus of course his nickname “Lethal”— stepped into a school that could fairly be described as “troubled,” and transformed it through his dynamism, personality, dedication, and energy. In fact he so blazed with energy that I figured he’d burn out in two to thr...

Substitution: Oliver

I’m exhausted and feeling grumpy, so I’m calling on John Oliver to substitute tonight. Here he is on the subject of net neutrality.
Be sure to watch to the end. ”Fly, my pretties! Fly!”