Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 76

Clouds of the Valkyries

Tonight an enormous striated cloud formation, at least 40-50 miles wide, poured over the mountains and drifted in our direction.  I’ve never seen anything like it. The supercloud looked all pretty and pink in the sunset, but I felt uneasy.  We’ve turned into Extreme Weather Planet in the last couple weeks, with summer heat alternating with downpours that have caused a lot of flooding.  (In fact last night, during class, my karate school got flooded when waters poured in under the back door.  ...

Can We Have the Enterprise Now?

So researchers at CERN have broken the speed of light, but only with neutrinos. If confirmed, the discovery would undermine Albert Einstein’s 1905 theory of special relativity, which says that the speed of light is a “cosmic constant” and that nothing in the universe can travel faster. That assertion, which has withstood over a century of testing, is one of the key elements of the so-called Standard Model of physics, which attempts to describe the way the universe and everything in it works....

Babington

Who was it who, on this blog, recommended to me the works of Thomas Babington Macaulay?  I’ve searched but have been unable to find the comment. Be that as it may, Macaulay has become my reading for much of the summer. When I’m teaching at Taos Toolbox, there’s always the question of what to read when I’m not writing critiques of other authors.  When I’m in full-bore critique mode I can’t read SF or fantasy for pleasure, and so I tend to default to history and biography. My last year’s Toolbo...

Back at the Zoo

Went back to the zoo tonight, for a high-energy session by saxophonist/vocalist Grace Kelly.  Here’s a sample of the sort of thing we saw. And here’s Kelly at a previous concert at the Albuquerque zoo.  The video probably isn’t the best showcase of her talents, but it shows you what the venue looks like, the big concert stage in the middle of a duck pond, with little kids dancing by the stage and a huge picnic vibe.

 

Chairman of the Board

A gorilla looking very much the elder statesman, though in fact he’s young.  Viewed at the Twilight ramble, last week.

Tiempo

My summer entertainment has largely consisted of the first series of El Ministerio del Tiempo, a Spanish science fiction series available on Netflix.  (Don’t worry, there are subtitles.) It’s smart, it’s clever, and once you accept its (somewhat ridiculous) premise, it explores that premise thoroughly and plays fair with its audience.   More than that, its avoids all the time travel cliches you might expect from TV writers who aren’t familiar with the vast body of time travel literature. Spai...

Sleepy Kitty

This is not exactly your go-to blog for cute animal pictures, but sometimes even my stony heart has been known to melt. Tonight’s expedition was the Twilight tour at the local zoo, a chance to visit the animals in small groups led by a docent.  I was able to take this picture of a full-grown ocelot sacking out on a tree limb. Photographing the animals was challenging, not because they were either indifferent or in motion (though they were), but because I had to photograph them through wire me...

Final Revised Version

The other night we made our way to the Santa Fe Opera— the only opera I know of that features tailgate parties— for a tailgate dinner and “Candide,” music by Leonard Bernstein, book and lyrics by a rather complex and storied group of collaborators, all inspired (or not) by the short novel by “M. le Docteur Ralph”, which was one of Voltaire’s hundred-odd pen names. All clear so far?  It only gets more complex from here. “Candide” originated not as an opera, but a Broadway show, originally conc...

From the Robophobe

More strange, out-of-context critiques from the Toolbox. “She critiques the god and decides it’s not a good one–maybe 6 out of 10.”
“Your story succeeds in avoiding the Lovecraftian gravity well.”
“I didn’t like the character–she was willing to get rid of her dog in exchange for a robot!”
“The self-aware-robot commercial wars will make the PC-Mac rivalry look like a Sunday brunch.”
“I think I need to clarify my world before I break it.”
“Enough about feelings!”
“This plot reminds me of Shaqu...

Maple Leaf

Happy Canada Day to our friends in the North! Y’all keep up that “peace and good government” thing, okay?