Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 249

Galtic Paradise

USA getting too socialist? Tea-baggers too wimpy? Here's a place for you to go galt in style!

Dinosaurs of War

Cracked magazine presents: 7 WTF Military Weapons You Won't Believe They Actually Built I'd post some sarcastic comments here . . . but really, they'd be superfluous.

Not Girly In Singapore!

This Is Not a Game has garnered a great review from the Straits Times, Singapore's foremost newspaper! While all of this is interesting, without strong characters and an engaging plot, This is Not a Game would be nothing but another bit of 'fan fiction' about the joys of living online. Instead, Williams' novel is punchy, tightly plotted – very tightly with a strong twist or two – and

Cell Tower . . . Tree . . . Thing

Kathy and I were driving through Albuquerque the other day and we saw this . . . object . . . on the horizon. "What is that?" Kathy asked in bewilderment. "Is that a Norway spruce?"No, it wasn't. It was a cell phone tower cleverly disguised as a Norway spruce.Kudos to whoever thought to make the cell tower look like something more pleasant and natural.But next time, could you disguise your cell

Clarkson v Honda

Some say that Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson is a swaggering sexist lout. Some say that he's a smug, anti-environmentalist, gas-guzzling enemy of the ozone layer. All we know is that he's done a wonderfully savage review of the new Honda hybrid Insight . . . It’s terrible. Biblically terrible. Possibly the worst new car money can buy. It’s the first car I’ve ever considered crashing into a tree, on

Real Science

The National Institute of Health, following the instructions of President O, have released their new guidelines for stem cell research.We are now nearing the end of the two-week comment period. Despite the new guidelines being rather on the timid side of the political spectrum, various conservative religious organizations have organized a mass protest, resulting in the NIH being flooded with

According to Posner

Distinguished appellate judge, law lecturer, and public intellectual Richard Posner has taken on the current economic crisis in his new book.Surprisingly for someone appointed by Ronald Reagan, Posner blames not speculators, or regulators, or greed for the current problem, but capitalism itself.This from the NYT review:The current crisis, Posner maintains, is a depression. True, it is not (we

The Golden Horn

Would this work as a jacket photo, do you think? (Photo by Patricia)

Pamukkale

Pictures of the famous travertines of Pamukkale.These small ponds are natural mineral formations. They're only a couple inches deep, which made me wonder why they're so darned blue, as well as why the shade of blue is a distinctive turquoise.I remember that last year in Canada we saw a number of glacier lakes that were turned turquoise by "stone flour" finely ground by glaciers, and I wonder if

Sacred Pool

You might think I'm smiling in this picture because I'm looking at Melinda's chest. This wouldn't be true. While I'm sure Melinda's chest is worth smiling at, I really couldn't see it from this angle. I'm smiling because, Dude, I'm diving the ancient ruins of Hierapolis! Hierapolis was an ancient spa town built on a plateau behind the white calcium cliffs of Pamukkale ("Cotton Castle"), which is