Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 233

Aigues-Mortes

So here we have two views of the intact medieval walls of Aigues-Mortes, in southern France near the coast. Aigues-Mortes, which means "dead water" in the old local dialect, is built in the marshland of the Camargues, a perfectly flat stretch of wetlands that forms the Rhone delta. Aigues-Mortes isn't on the sea, but is only a canal and a large lagoon away. The Camargues is famous for its wild

Solar For the Home

Lowe's now sells solar panels that you can install yourself. Lowe's has begun stocking solar panels at its California stores and plans to roll them out across the country next year.This shows how far the highest of the high-tech alternative energy technologies has come. Solar power is now accessible to anyone with a ladder, a power drill, and the gumption to climb up on a roof and install the

Is it Live, or is it HD?

Here is Charlie, our younger cat, watching the nature documentary Winged Migration, which features a lot of eye-croggling footage of birds on the wing. Our cats normally ignore the TV, but Charlie found the film irresistible. He sat in front of the set and watched it for at least twenty minutes. Of course during his excursions outside he sees a lot of birds, including sandhill cranes, snow geese,

Idea Cool and Insane

Friend of the blog Michael Ruppen pointed me at this article, modestly titled "Blueprint for a Quantum Propulsion Machine." In recent years, a new way of thinking about the quantum vacuum has emerged which has vastly more potential. And today, one physicist describes how it could be used to create propulsion . . . The new approach focuses on the momentum associated with these electromagnetic

Who's Tricking the Watchmen?

Got all confused about the stolen emails from the British climatologists? Suddenly wondering whether the entire scientific establishment is involved in a conspiracy to conceal the truth in order to brainwash us into becoming their Marxist bitches?Here's science journalist potholder54--- who actually knows what the scientific terms mean and who actually knows how to do research--- to answer some

More Scenery

For the last few days I was involved in graduating a new crop of karate black belts. I always get the warm fuzzies watching them pound each other (and themselves) into hamburger, the more so because, as a judge, I didn't lose any skin myself. I still feel as if I'm on vacation, for all that I'm involved in a rewrite of Deep State. I guess I'm chiefly on a vacation from the Internet. So here's

Cuteness

There is some kind of French Cuteness Authority that rates villages. At the top are the villages rated Plus Beau, then villages of Character, villages of Charme, and finally (I guess) the dreaded Unrated. This one is Saignon, which is Plus Beau in my book.

Alternate Alexanders

Thanks to an alert on io9, we present a startling piece of alternate history--- the failed pilot for the mid-Sixties TV series Alexander the Great, starring William Shatner as the King of Macedon and Adam West as his henchman Cleander. (Also featured are Joseph Cotton and John Cassavetes, both of whom look embarressed to be seen in this piece of crap.)Imagine how the history of our genre would

Taos Toolbox

Huge news!!!December 1st is the first day for receiving applications for Taos Toolbox, the master class in SF and fantasy taught by Nancy Kress, Carrie Vaughn, and myself. We are awaiting your submissions with great anticipation.

The Perils of Lucidity

I was interviewed for an hour at Utopiales, standing in for GoH Robert Charles Wilson, who was down with la grippe porcine. The audience was tiny at the start, but grew to a gratifying size by the end. A surprising amount of the interview was taken up with the question of why I am not, well, really really famous. They seemed to think I ought to be.Of course I am preoccupied by this question,