Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 222

Euromos

A year ago today I was in Euromos. We were driving from Bodrum to Selcuk, and on the map, alongside the highway, there was a little star on the map indicating an ancient site.The road wasn't well marked, but we managed to find it and bump along a rural two-rut lane until we came out of the trees and saw what was probably the best-preserved temple of our journey. Euromos was a polis created when

Launch Pad

Hey, I get to go to Laramie and hang out with some cool people for a week!How cool is this?

Political Idiocy Week, #1

Let's not assume that this week's political idiocy is committed only by politicians. John Derbyshire of the National Review, the once-respectable publication founded by noted racist William F. Buckley, has been carrying the flag of white supremacy ever onward!Derbyshire, given the opportunity, to speak before the Black Law Students' association of the UPenn Law School, spent his time lecturing

Political Idiocy Week, #2

With Congress on a pointless hiatus, the leadership isn't able to ride herd on its membership, which means that they're all off in the boonies, demonstrating their general stupidity and uselessness.John McCain is faced with a right-wing challenger in the primaries, one J.D. Hayworth, and so far McCain's been running scared, claiming among other things that he was never a maverick, that he's

Political Idiocy Week, #3

Well okay, this happened over a week ago, but it's still priceless. Georgia congressman Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) wondering whether the addition of 8000 troops will cause Guam to capsize. Not the USS Guam, which might make sense, but the island, which last I heard was anchored solidly to the planet. The naval officer he is questioning stifles his hysterical laughter with admirable military

Portales

I'm out on the Llano Estecado, in Portales, for the annual Jack Williamson lecture.Having fun with Connie Willis, Ian Tregillis, Melinda Snodgrass, Patrice Caldwell, and all the regulars. Tomorrow I meet with students, do panels, and--- y'know--- stuff.

Avatar Comparison Chart

There's nothing wrong with this Avatar Comparison Chart except that it leaves out A Man Called Horse, which with its sequels has exactly the same story. [via Janice:]

Shadow Network

Another enormous online spy network, dubbed Shadow Network, has been revealed by those wonky Canadian online cowboys of the Munk School of Global Affairs. Shadow Network's targets included the Dalai Lama (who was targeted last year by another spy network, the Ghost Net), but they were interested primarily in India.According to the report by the researchers, "Shadows in the Cloud", the documents

Premium Channels

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled 3-0 that the FCC has no legal authority to enforce net neutrality on broadband providers. Providers could, for example, charge extra for larger files, or restrict access to sites that provide content they don't approve of, or--- as Comcast has already done--- sent forged packets to their own customers to terminate peer-to-peer

From My Dream Life . . .

The yodeling of the Baka pygmies, which tonight will feature in my dreams.