tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-203820252011-12-14T20:05:33.476-07:00Walter Jon Williams speaks his mind.dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.comBlogger9561100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-50446272606839228782010-08-06T22:05:00.003-06:002010-09-01T15:19:46.224-06:00

Walter Jon Williams' blog has been moved to this new address! Please bookmark it, and--- if the mood strikes--- send lots and lots of money!All the old posts and replies have been moved to the new location, so if you want to revive any old arguments or look through the archives in search of some perfect bit of wisdom you vaguely recall my having written, you can do it over there.Comments will be

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-42762553040484141702010-07-25T20:18:00.003-06:002010-07-25T23:29:20.524-06:00

We went to the movies this afternoon, and the theater was packed. But as I looked around I realized that no one in the theater seemed to be under fifty. Okay, so the cheap Sunday matinees are attractive to people living on a pension. But why this movie, rather than the others in the multiplex? What was bringing a whole crowd of middle-aged to elderly people out to the cinema?The answer? A

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-34945292595732922010-07-25T19:43:00.003-06:002010-07-25T20:18:28.983-06:00

I certainly picked an interesting time to take an intensive astronomy course.Via David Brin, I hear that we've now found that our new space telescope Kepler has found 140 Earth-sized exoplanets. Kepler finds planets by detecting almost imperceptible 'winks' - the tiny amount of dimming that occurs each time a planet moves across the face of a star . . . 'Transits', as they are known, by

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-24383659622650290942010-07-22T21:18:00.002-06:002010-07-22T21:23:42.072-06:00

I'll be signing in Albuquerque this weekend, on Saturday the 24th, from 3-4:30pm. The signing will be at Page One, Albuquerque's biggest independent bookstore. I will be signing The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories, along with whatever else they have in the store (which should be everything in print, and some other stuff besides.) I'll be alongside Bob Vardeman, and we'll read, chat,

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-76057408804805075022010-07-21T22:32:00.004-06:002010-07-21T23:59:46.794-06:00

We've been reorganizing the garage, and I've been going through a lot of old paperwork to see what can be tossed away. Among other things, I found boxes upon boxes of old tax forms and documentation stretching back to 1979, my first year as a full-time professional writer. I've tossed away pounds and pounds of old bills and canceled checks, but I've hung onto the actual tax forms and my expense

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-5495610141114512842010-07-20T14:16:00.003-06:002010-07-20T14:32:48.919-06:00

When I was learning scuba, I was being forever warned about the kind of stuff that many atmospheres of water pressure could do to you.Mythbusters had an episode that illustrated this very nicely, and Carrie kindly pointed out the relevant video on YouTube.They stuffed a dead pig in a hardhat diving suit, dropped it to 100 meters depth, then drained the air pressure from the suit, subjecting Mr.

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-55404251943508812472010-07-20T14:09:00.004-06:002010-07-20T14:33:35.606-06:00

Amazon has announced that it's now selling more Kindle e-books than hardbacks, and that this is a huge milestone in the history of publishing. Several grains of salt need to be taken with this message. No raw numbers are provided, only a percentage (143 Kindle sales for every 100 hardback sales). It's not clear how many of the Kindle sales replace hardback sales, and how many replace paperback

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-3261433576594745952010-07-19T17:46:00.005-06:002010-07-19T18:08:16.169-06:00

Behold a false-color image of Messier Object 27, better known as the Dumbbell Nebula. False-color images of astronomical objects are not unusual, of course, but what's unique about this one is that I created it my ownself, while noodling around on software the final day of LaunchPad. And the absolutely cool thing is that you can do this too, because the software is free for download, and is

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-7118796626897267872010-07-19T16:16:00.003-06:002010-07-19T17:12:36.313-06:00

So I am back from Laramie, where I spent a week at LaunchPad, the workshop designed to cram as much astronomical knowledge into your skull as can possibly be accomplished without the use of a mallet. I filled an entire legal pad with notes. I wonder if, a year from now, any of it will be decipherable. I would have typed the notes into my laptop, except that my word processor doesn't do

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-90108200086533707102010-07-15T22:34:00.002-06:002010-07-15T22:38:46.922-06:00

So I've been living and breathing astronomy for four whole days now, and it's producing conversations like this:ME: I've been observing the Wal-Mart parking lot, and I've noted twelve Class O supergiant vehicles, fifteen Class B giant vehicles, eight Class G vehicles, and nine Class M dwarf vehicles.CARRIE: What conclusion do you derive from your observations?ME: Big pickup trucks and Wal-Mart

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-32753379329244956932010-07-13T23:40:00.004-06:002010-07-15T22:34:46.529-06:00

I am in Laramie, Wyoming, attending Launch Pad, which is an astronomy workshop for SF writers and other creative people, intended to give us sufficient astronomical knowledge so that our fiction won't embarrass the professionals.Hosting is writer/astronomer Mike Brotherton, ably assisted by astronomers Jim Verley and Kevin R. Grazier, who is the science advisor to Battlestar Galactica and Eureka.

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-6483517516372823162010-07-09T22:30:00.003-06:002010-07-09T23:07:23.946-06:00

The Royal Society for the Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce (RSA) has been sponsoring lectures for 250 years. But only recently have they been producing a series of brilliant animations of the lectures themselves, including this one illustrating a talk on the financial crisis by controversial anthropologist and geographer David Harvey.The analysis is frankly Marxist. I'm inclined to think he's

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-4432806389985424392010-07-09T22:24:00.002-06:002010-07-09T22:28:13.682-06:00

So I've watched a few episodes of Season Two of True Blood, and I'm beginning to sort out the whole idea of porn for girls and how it works.Porn for boys, for instance, works as follows:1. Pizza deliveryman rings doorbell.2. Beautiful woman in negligee answers.3. They have hot sex.Whereas porn for girls runs like this:1. Vampire rings doorbell.2. Beautiful woman in Daisy Dukes answers and

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-33623378490525608092010-07-09T22:19:00.003-06:002010-07-09T22:24:11.822-06:00

The Clarion Workshop is holding this year's Write-a-Thon even as I'm typing this. Writers will be beavering away for the next month, trying to write enough copy to trigger donations from their sponsors.You could be that sponsor! Support the Writers of the . . . well, I can't say Future, can I? That's another outfit. Support the Writers of Tomorrow! Pledge today!

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-64787070135350107832010-07-07T13:54:00.004-06:002010-07-07T14:31:20.654-06:00

I think it was Joe Haldeman who said about creating aliens for science fiction: "If they're not at least as weird as the Japanese, the author has failed." Well, the Japanese have got even weirder.Cracked.com demonstrated this with a list of 6 Japanese Subcultures That are Insane (Even for Japan). Check out the Mountain Hags, the Male Host gigolos, the Yankiis, and the Visual Kei. Plus the

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-72977575725171195532010-07-06T22:31:00.002-06:002010-07-06T22:51:41.645-06:00

We had a pleasing holiday weekend, including a small gathering on the Fourth of July for a few friends. We served only patriotic American foods: hamburgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob, potato chips, macaroni salad . . . though it has to be admitted that we did have fruit salad in case anybody brought a Communist who couldn't eat red meat. Our friend Pat Rogers brought a completely evil version

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-76558907397279692722010-07-02T00:19:00.003-06:002010-07-02T00:23:53.541-06:00

I had a recent email from the Romanian translators of The Praxis. It seems that "Sula" is a very rude word in Romanian--- the literal meaning is "bodkin," but the slang meaning is something else again. So my heroine's Romanian name is now Caroline Sylla. This is fine with me. When I offend foreigners, I want to do it deliberately, not by accident.

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-42590209480858274562010-06-30T20:34:00.003-06:002010-06-30T20:45:11.988-06:00

It occurs to me that pasta seems to be the foodstuff with more folklore and superstition attached to it than any other. My mom, for example, always poured oil into the pasta water in order to keep the pasta from sticking together. It also kept the water from boiling over. When the pasta was cooked, she'd rinse it in hot water in a colander, "to wash off the extra starch." (I think it was

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-83535666994119826362010-06-29T20:56:00.003-06:002010-06-29T21:07:50.927-06:00

Okay, the last Mystery Plane was identified after a mere 32 minutes. Let's see if this one does better.What is this aircraft? And why is it not what you might think?

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-91559927022065425672010-06-28T16:50:00.002-06:002010-06-28T17:01:11.961-06:00

The last time I was at an air museum, I posted a picture of a mysterious aircraft and challenged you all to solve the puzzle. Diana Rowland came up with the solution in, like, twelve seconds, but now that I've been to the Museum of Flight I hope to do better.What is this aircraft? And no, it's not the one you probably think it is.

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-8307982387015489602010-06-28T16:42:00.002-06:002010-06-28T16:48:36.467-06:00

So I'm back from Seattle, having had a wonderful time with any number of old friends. And having finally met Ursula K. Leguin, and actually been on a panel with her, as opposed to just looking at her from across the room as she's mobbed by admirers, which I gather happens to her more or less all the time.The first place we stopped was the Museum of Flight, which is right next to Boeing Field. In

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-42994810709337600832010-06-22T23:41:00.003-06:002010-06-22T23:45:32.934-06:00

I'm leaving for Seattle to help with the induction of Roger Zelazny into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, which will take place on Saturday. I'll be doing a panel on science fiction on Saturday morning at 10:00, followed by a signing at 11:00. Both will be at the Courtyard Seattle Lake Union hotel, and will be followed by the Locus Awards.Come join me if you're in the area.

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-80271242239817832822010-06-22T23:03:00.004-06:002010-06-22T23:37:52.230-06:00

A note on Turkish soft power: I posted a couple years ago about the Turkish telenovela Noor, which turned out to be a huge hit once it was translated into Arabic and marketed in the Arab world. Arab women were stunned and fascinated by the male hero, who openly loved and supported his wife, allegedly a new idea in those parts. The fictional hero was cited as a co-respondent in divorce cases by

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-42991335118663334872010-06-22T22:38:00.004-06:002010-06-22T23:02:20.630-06:00

I am still a bit rocky from the two weeks of Taos Toolbox, and remain very much sleep-deprived. I came down from the comfortable temperatures of the mountains to the 100-degree heat of the Middle Rio Grande Valley, so all I've wanted to do is cower under the air conditioner and sleep.Not that my schedule permits this, of course.But what a terrific workshop we had! For two weeks the participants

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-39263254235243811342010-06-14T21:21:00.002-06:002010-06-14T21:23:08.853-06:00

So here I am at the lodge in Taos Ski Valley and it's nine-fifteen at night and I've just been told that there is a bear in the building.Stay tuned.

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-62919317191982151232010-06-11T00:16:00.006-06:002010-06-11T15:13:29.849-06:00

Finnish orc-rock band Turisas, display their dexterity on "Rasputin." Dig that frenzied Finnish dancing!And dude--- heavy metal accordion.Rah. Rah.

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-68739667193615484122010-06-10T22:14:00.002-06:002010-06-10T22:20:59.423-06:00

A few choice quotes from Toolbox workshop critiques. All this goes on the virtual tee shirt."Nothing says 'fuck you' like a corpse hand in the face.""The house is on fire but I dropped my drink.""You can't be Orwell and Kafka simulaneously.""Lovecraft was scared of everything. But these guys are really okay.""I'm having trouble doing ONE thing simultaneously.""Why didn't his friends notice that

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-78155359863264356462010-06-10T16:02:00.004-06:002010-06-11T00:33:22.249-06:00

Here we are at Toolbox,Our jolly, happy crewHere we are at ToolboxWhere the hell are you?

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-13371733880914831992010-06-10T15:59:00.002-06:002010-06-10T16:02:22.743-06:00

The Onion does it again.Massive Flow Of Bullshit Continues To Gush From BP HeadquartersLONDON—As the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico entered its eighth week Wednesday, fears continued to grow that the massive flow of bullshit still gushing from the headquarters of oil giant BP could prove catastrophic if nothing is done to contain it.The toxic bullshit, which began to spew from the mouths of BP

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-73704361130977787432010-06-04T13:51:00.002-06:002010-06-04T14:15:43.507-06:00

Friday already?It has been a very busy week. The next weeks are likely to be busier. For the last few days I've been busy with so many things.The runup to Taos Toolbox, the master class in writing that I'll be running for the next two weeks. The quarterly organizational meeting at the karate school, usually lasting much of the day (I had to bail early).Requalifying for my black belt, later

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-15596761512908232512010-06-03T14:15:00.000-06:002010-06-04T14:18:48.616-06:00

From the realm of the strange, useless, and utterly cool, it's a printer made out of Legos. [via Emily]

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-91425353641683852652010-05-31T14:00:00.003-06:002010-05-31T14:05:25.704-06:00

Over on her blog, Cat Valente lets Lost have it with a multi-barrel chain gun. It had me hopping up and down and clapping my hands with glee, it did.Lost is a science fiction show.Now, they haven't wanted that label from the beginning. First, they assured us that everything had a real-world explanation and it was not science fiction or fantasy at all. This is obviously crap at this point, but

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-88303509674499542082010-05-29T15:54:00.004-06:002010-05-29T15:56:45.412-06:00

Hey, have I mentioned that The Green Leopard Plague is available as an ebook? And at a very reasonable price, too!

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-43305403463481285082010-05-29T15:43:00.002-06:002010-05-29T15:53:23.028-06:00

It occurs to me that if you show these parodies in a certain order, they even have a plot.Hearing that Hitler parodies are being removed from YouTube, Stalin makes his move:Hearing that Stalin is moving in on their action, the Hitler parody writers react:And now--- just because I feel like it--- Hitler reacts to the final episode of Lost.

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-31325816692370813412010-05-27T20:30:00.002-06:002010-05-27T20:38:44.321-06:00

As have many of you, I've enjoyed the "Downfall Meme," in which a key scene of the 2004 film Der Untergang ("Downfall") is used to comment on issues of the day.Alas, German movie dinosaur Constantin Film AG is now asserting ownership of these parodies--- which, it has to be said, vastly increased the popularity of their fine if depressing film--- and they are slowly being taken down wherever they

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-2803948997689861712010-05-26T15:41:00.005-06:002010-05-26T18:02:58.262-06:00

Let's say you're a cop. You're in pursuit of a serial killer. The killer knows you're after him and has already trashed your house and tried to murder a member of your family. What do you do?A. Surround your family with guards.B. Get your family out of town and to an undisclosed location where the killer can't find them.C. A and B both. D. Let your family go about their ordinary lives.The

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-24212147203390104742010-05-25T18:54:00.004-06:002010-05-25T21:09:06.790-06:00

As most of you probably know, I began my career as an author of historical fiction. Those books are long out of print and, I assumed, long forgotten.I'm pleased to report that one reader hasn't forgotten. Reader/modeler Dan Thompson has created a miniature of my character Captain Favian Markham, USN, standing on the deck of his captured British frigate Macedonian. The process of creating the

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-29506617778421766422010-05-25T15:52:00.002-06:002010-05-25T15:55:07.516-06:00

Via Gio, an ad for French cable channel Canal+, featuring a tale of tragic love on Brokeback Mountain.

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-91793493233073886422010-05-22T16:50:00.001-06:002010-05-22T16:53:10.828-06:00

Via Gardner, it's the trailer for the 1950 version of The Empire Strikes Back!In 3-Dimension!

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-20151740848496581472010-05-21T12:45:00.002-06:002010-05-21T12:51:26.029-06:00

A few days ago, all Twitter was aglow with the information that Harlan Ellison had died.Last night, I received email that Normal Spinrad had died during an operation.As it happens, Harlan is very much alive, and Norman survived his operation perfectly well.So there seems to be a "prankster" working the science fiction social networks. I put "prankster" in quotes because, speaking only for myself

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-91092091270352729932010-05-20T16:39:00.003-06:002010-05-20T16:44:51.553-06:00

From Air & Space magazine, a time lapse photograph showing the six weeks' preparation necessary for launching the Discovery cut down to just under four minutes.[via Bob]

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-64090621494990492432010-05-19T23:24:00.001-06:002010-05-19T23:26:28.081-06:00

Via Gio, the winner of the 19th Century Darwin Awards.

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-21916174861794276342010-05-19T15:53:00.002-06:002010-05-19T15:59:19.104-06:00

The Daring to Ask Blog has dared to ask me some very comprehensive questions about my novel, The Rift. The book was published in 1999, but don't let that stop you from enjoying it.

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-68410506629033163392010-05-15T23:50:00.004-06:002010-05-16T00:01:34.818-06:00

Me and my friend here, Iron Chef Walter, are off to Taos for a week. My appearances are likely to be intermittent for the next seven days or so. In fact I make not make it back if I'm hanging out with this guy. As you can see, he can really put it away.

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-76360088439821653452010-05-14T21:37:00.004-06:002010-05-16T00:02:30.318-06:00

With the environment under threat, and the so-called "experts" failing to come up with a solution, the President makes a wild call, and a rag-tag band of mavericks steps up to the plate and jury-rigs a solution that saves the day . . . No, this isn't the movie Armageddon. This is real life. With BP unable to stop its gusher on the floor of the Gulf, Obama has now called in his own team. I note

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-21891956625016771502010-05-13T22:56:00.004-06:002010-05-14T00:11:45.764-06:00

It's been a week since Wall Street's flash crash, when runamuck automated selling wiped out a tenth of my retirement fund--- and, somewhat less importantly, a trillion dollars of assets worldwide. The stocks have come back, but what I find interesting is that no one's actually found what triggered the manic selling. They seem to have ruled out mistakes by traders, so the whole "fat finger

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-41130894715326857102010-05-12T21:07:00.004-06:002010-05-14T00:19:31.670-06:00

My new collection, The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories, is now available! Ask for it wherever fine books are sold! Contained in the volume are two stories that actually won Nebula Awards, as well as other stories that were nominated for Nebulas, Hugos, and/or Sidewises, but due to some horrid cosmic accident did not actually win. Plus there's an introduction by Charles Stross and

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-17875326829063207912010-05-11T21:46:00.000-06:002010-05-12T21:47:31.613-06:00

Via Ralf, a highly scientific explanation of how the U.S. gets its oil.

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-89238650330874298302010-05-10T01:44:00.004-06:002010-05-10T01:48:41.503-06:00

She never lost the sizzle. Here's she is from 1965.RIP, Miss Lena Horne.

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-34616921168953156932010-05-09T23:09:00.002-06:002010-05-09T23:12:16.734-06:00

I could use some free publicity about now, so could one of you please load a cooler with a bunch of my books and leave it in Times Square? Just don't tell me when or if you're going to do it. Or who you are. Or anything.Thank you.(/irony)

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-16004474083609544952010-05-05T22:09:00.002-06:002010-05-05T23:17:52.654-06:00

Recently my cousin Karla and her mom Alice passed through New Mexico on the way to a bowling tournament in El Paso. I get to see my relatives maybe once every decade, so I was pleased to invite them over for dinner and to show them around Albuquerque. Unfortunately this was a day of a huge windstorm, cold gusts to sixty knots or so, so the outdoor activities we'd planned--- aerial tram,

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-62248848572098012922010-05-05T22:05:00.002-06:002010-05-05T22:09:30.231-06:00

Via Patricia, this really astounding virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel. It's got everything but the Pope!

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-5575672972069842472010-05-04T19:36:00.001-06:002010-05-04T19:40:21.443-06:00

Long live the glorious proletarian revolution in soft drink technology!

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-73497164619243820992010-05-04T19:29:00.001-06:002010-05-04T19:32:11.209-06:00

[Update: Due to the vagaries of Blogger, this essay was originally published as if it were written on April 26. Thanks to Ken, I've learned how to adjust the time stamp, so here it is, as if it were new.]I just got round to reading an essay/review by novelist/critic James Wood published a month or more ago in The New Yorker. It begins as a reaction to Reality Hunger: a Manifesto by David

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-46731717487918730012010-05-03T22:26:00.002-06:002010-05-03T22:28:55.219-06:00

It's Dr. John and Eric Clapton doing a duet on "St. James Infirmary Blues."I mean, what a fine idea this is!

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-26022488524738771802010-05-03T20:17:00.002-06:002010-05-03T20:42:46.668-06:00

War's tragedy doesn't end with the war, nor does trauma end when the precipitating cause goes away. When my father's generation came home from the Second World War, a lot of them brought the war home with them. The traditional cure for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in those days was lots of alcohol, followed by kicking the wife and kids around the house.Not that this happened to me. My father

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-71563806391600982372010-05-03T17:28:00.003-06:002010-05-03T17:30:08.180-06:00

I started an essay on fiction writing on April 26, but never got around to finishing it till today. Blogger went and posted it as if I'd finished it on April 26, which means it's buried amid old postings and you probably won't see it. Here it is, if you want to jump right to it.

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-22322934105313557192010-04-30T23:21:00.004-06:002010-04-30T23:37:32.097-06:00

What is this, you ask? It's the entire Afghan war reduced to a flow chart and put on a PowerPoint slide. Of what use is this slide, which was presented to General McChrystal as part of a staff briefing?Well, none. But it sure looks like it contains a vast amount of information, doesn't it? It actually looks as if it might mean something! But it's empty of actual useful information.Up till

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-544648226285469572010-04-28T23:26:00.001-06:002010-04-28T23:27:35.874-06:00

And it's all true![via Daniel]

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-13417723257601522352010-04-27T20:26:00.000-06:002010-04-27T20:27:35.552-06:00

I was contemplating the moon at 2:30 this morning from the hot tub, and I looked down to see an enormous hound standing under the elm tree staring at me. It looked big enough to rip my arm off. I had a moment of frigid horror, and then the hound moo'd and wandered off, chewing its cud.

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-75933639382802022162010-04-25T21:03:00.005-06:002010-04-25T22:49:32.063-06:00

Saturday night we drove to Santa Fe to enjoy a baroque concert. It might as well have been titled "Music You've Heard a Lot," as it included Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Bach's Concerto in D for Two Violins, and a concerto grosso by Handel, the precise title of which escapes me. Whether you know it or not, you've heard the first two a lot, and I, at least, have heard the Handel more than a few times.

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-22627307326328298372010-04-22T20:27:00.002-06:002010-04-22T20:29:17.109-06:00

Happy National Sovereignity Day to my friends in Turkey!

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-16899203386141013862010-04-21T21:54:00.003-06:002010-04-21T22:47:37.221-06:00

I'm trying to decide whether or not I want to drop my subscription to Albuquerque's sole surviving daily paper.I don't want to, y'know, be Part of the Problem. Newspapers are dying. Friends of mine in the newspaper business have been laid off and can't find jobs. Journalism is a (potentially) noble profession and a (potential) valued resource in a democracy. I've subscribed to a daily paper

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-89278469259608007302010-04-20T22:31:00.003-06:002010-04-20T22:37:32.391-06:00

I'm brush-whacking and sawing dead limbs off my apricot trees today, so while I'm ducking deadwood and dodging the chainsaw, please enjoy Virginia O'Brien ("Miss Deadpan") recalling a night of adventure.

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-81412806632300639482010-04-16T17:41:00.005-06:002010-04-16T20:11:03.269-06:00

Y'know, yesterday was one of those days when it occurred to me that I might just be a good teacher. I got an email from my sometime student Saladin Ahmed (Taos Toolbox 2007) that he's just got an agent. This is on top of an amazing few weeks: a Nebula nomination, a Campbell nomination for best new writer, and becoming father to twins.Not to take away from Saladin's considerable talent, but I'd

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-76282595262536337042010-04-16T17:03:00.005-06:002010-04-16T21:09:09.995-06:00

Ah, lovely! The S.E.C. is finally suing those meretricious smart bastards at Goldman, Sachs for selling their customers the same bonds they were shorting in the market. And which were, furthermore, structured to fail and to make Goldman a ton of money.The instrument in the S.E.C. case, called Abacus 2007-AC1, was one of 25 deals that Goldman created so the bank and select clients could bet

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-90605539350387698452010-04-15T22:45:00.005-06:002010-04-15T23:30:07.129-06:00

Tor Books has done an amazing job of publishing two of my friends on the same day! First up is my former student, Ian Tregillis, who is a Los Alamos physicist, and who in his spare time wrote a trilogy that has me clenching my jaw with bilious envy. Bitter Seeds is the first in the series, a harrowing tale of espionage, treachery, and darkest magic set in an alternate World War II. You can tell

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-65092990974265701892010-04-14T21:25:00.004-06:002010-04-14T21:34:05.333-06:00

I just found out that someone I know has popcorn lung, an irreversible lung disease caused by inhaling the buttery aroma of microwave popcorn, or specifically diacetyl, the chemical used to produce the buttery taste in the absence of actual butter. Diacetyl is also found in candies and wines. [In interests of fairness, I would like to point out that this is not April First.]Why have you never

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-36497720266155518332010-04-14T14:56:00.001-06:002010-04-14T15:00:51.684-06:00

The Praxis is now available in Germany. I advise you all to buy lots of copies for your German friends.

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-47109868931405961902010-04-14T14:25:00.003-06:002010-04-14T14:51:44.343-06:00

While in Portales I got to admire Steve Gould's new iPad, which I have to say is a lovely, shiny toy that for the most part does nothing that other platforms can't do better and cheaper. It's an awkward size and my cargo pants would have to be completely redesigned if I were to carry one around. (And it won't run Flash, and because it doesn't have a phone you can't call for pizza, so what's the

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-70473281119851830152010-04-13T22:01:00.003-06:002010-04-13T23:22:23.070-06:00

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who as the Vatican's secretary of state is Number Two among the Catholic clergy, was asked yesterday about a pedophilia scandal involving a priest having sex with a large number of underage girls. Cardinal Bertone's answer: blame the gays!"Many psychologists and psychiatrists have demonstrated that there is no relation between celibacy and pedophilia. But many others

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-63883618139926885342010-04-13T19:19:00.002-06:002010-04-13T19:40:16.818-06:00

Oklahoma Tea Party types along with conservative legislators are planning to create a new, state-sponsored militia to stand in arms against the federal government, and particularly against the new health care bill.In other words, Oklahomans are planning to give arms, ammunition, and explosives to the same sort of people that blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City just 15 years ago

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-40143159319257859912010-04-12T22:56:00.006-06:002010-04-13T19:19:12.020-06:00

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

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-81228580046415863152010-04-12T20:53:00.002-06:002010-04-12T22:44:24.152-06:00

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

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-56870701478739090132010-04-12T20:41:00.004-06:002010-04-12T20:51:03.136-06:00

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

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-27810330844051409462010-04-12T20:27:00.003-06:002010-04-12T20:40:54.432-06:00

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

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-56288050497876973282010-04-12T20:14:00.004-06:002010-04-12T23:28:58.941-06:00

Well okay, this happened over a week ago, but it's still priceless. In this video Congressman Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) wonders 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

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-34706818805013203032010-04-08T23:39:00.003-06:002010-04-08T23:44:26.712-06:00

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.

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-40670906320078032982010-04-07T15:32:00.003-06:002010-04-07T15:33:40.649-06:00

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]

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-27576884026585007112010-04-06T22:16:00.003-06:002010-04-06T22:31:37.494-06:00

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

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-91779220027185391422010-04-06T21:37:00.002-06:002010-04-06T22:11:23.476-06:00

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

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-21893306325646106022010-04-06T21:25:00.002-06:002010-04-06T21:28:46.214-06:00

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

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-60056550251958826452010-04-03T22:43:00.008-06:002010-04-03T23:14:32.614-06:00

I am rarely delighted by my one-star Amazon reviews. Especially when I'm taken to task for making up dumb stuff, when in fact I did scrupulous research and the reviewer didn't bother to simply google the topic and find that out. (Okay, that one still rankles.)But at least I'm in good company. Jeanette Demain over at Salon has been brooding over one-star reviews of the classics. Jane Eyre by

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-67227962192420488572010-04-01T21:41:00.002-06:002010-04-01T22:00:17.065-06:00

So Swedish blond furniture giant IKEA decided to open outlets in Russia. Turns out it was a bad idea.From the start the company announced that even in Russia it would be adhering to its clearly-formulated Swedish rules, based on the Protestant work ethic and unanswerable logic. As a result, Khimki officials turned off the electricity just before the first Moscow shop opened. There was no

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-43493766605501100972010-03-31T23:03:00.003-06:002010-03-31T23:06:05.093-06:00

On April 1, one year ago today, I looked out the window of my hotel room and saw this. My oh my.

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-17012649777641984062010-03-31T21:57:00.003-06:002010-03-31T23:00:49.802-06:00

I put aside my Nebula reading for some stories by W. Somerset Maugham, his collection The Trembling of a Leaf. These are stories set in Samoa or Honolulu or on the long passage somewhere between, and include "Rain," the story that introduced the world to Miss Sadie Thompson, the hooker with a heart of sulfuric acid played variously on the screen by Gloria Swanson, Joan Crawford, and Rita Hayworth

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-22598374748148662932010-03-30T14:50:00.002-06:002010-03-30T14:53:10.487-06:00

It's World War II on Facebook. [via Janice]

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-3571651612756541242010-03-30T14:32:00.002-06:002010-03-30T14:39:34.809-06:00

So . . . as I was discussing my 2009 taxes with the Accountant, the Accountant asked: "What about property taxes for 2009?"Hmm. Interesting. I didn't remember paying property taxes for 2009. Or for that matter receiving a bill.So I've been on the phone with the County Clerk and the County Assessor and the County Treasurer. And it turns out that my purchase of the property 16 years ago was

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-74326123685769365522010-03-29T22:28:00.003-06:002010-03-30T13:36:48.440-06:00

If you don't give your reader the ending you promised, then the ending you actually write better be three times better than the ending the audience expects.

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-18590078178311436752010-03-29T13:56:00.002-06:002010-03-29T17:30:38.952-06:00

Courtesy of USA Today, an animation showing the decade-long assembly of the International Space Station.[via Gardner]

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-75335187890593665222010-03-28T21:04:00.002-06:002010-03-28T21:11:22.436-06:00

From Bruce Schneier, we find that all that anonymous networking data isn't so anonymous after all . . . Computer scientists Arvind Narayanan and Dr Vitaly Shmatikov, from the University of Texas at Austin, developed the algorithm which turned the anonymous data back into names and addresses.The data sets are usually stripped of personally identifiable information, such as names, before it is sold

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-9682102301838254852010-03-28T21:00:00.002-06:002010-03-28T21:04:52.757-06:00

Betraying a refreshingly unusual attitude, the screenwriter who wrote Battlefield Earth apologizes for his work. It wasn't as I intended -- promise. No one sets out to make a train wreck. Actually, comparing it to a train wreck isn't really fair to train wrecks, because people actually want to watch those.It started, as so many of my choices do, with my Willy Wonker. It was 1994, and I had read

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-91186127170587905212010-03-26T16:07:00.001-06:002010-03-26T16:08:31.476-06:00

There's a huge wind storm going on right now. I was driving home this afternoon and saw a large object bounding down the road ahead of me. Turns out it was the roof to someone's barn or garage.

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-58130575477749116372010-03-26T15:28:00.006-06:002010-03-26T15:35:47.876-06:00

Don't say I never did anything for you! My new Night Shade collection, The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories, is now available for pre-order at half price!

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-30357111880683611772010-03-26T15:11:00.002-06:002010-03-26T15:27:29.115-06:00

NASA astronaut Colonel Mike Fincke, with whom I had a memorable conversation back in 2008, has invited me to witness his next shuttle launch, STS-134.

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-66373062582325055732010-03-24T22:57:00.002-06:002010-03-24T23:08:15.290-06:00

A memo written by David Mamet has recently surfaced, one that he wrote to the writers of his TV show The Unit. Though the memo is directed specifically to television writers, it nevertheless contains advice which all writers of fiction should take to heart. . . . OUR FRIENDS. THE PENGUINS, THINK THAT WE, THEREFORE, ARE EMPLOYED TO COMMUNICATE INFORMATION — AND, SO, AT TIMES, IT SEEMS TO US.BUT

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-79737163472808643202010-03-24T14:35:00.002-06:002010-03-24T14:35:44.340-06:00

Five years ago today, I was undergoing surgery for a burst appendix and a necrotic gall bladder. I've exceeded my expiration date by five years!

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-55452196262941131142010-03-23T22:29:00.002-06:002010-03-23T22:40:14.223-06:00

My story "Abrizonde," from the Songs From the Dying Earth collection edited by Gardner Dozois and George RR Martin, is on the long list for a British Fantasy Award. As are two more stories from the collection, and the collection itself. Mind you, this is a long list, and it will grow shorter in time. Still, more glory for meeeeeeeeee!

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-36032403350191759352010-03-22T21:32:00.004-06:002010-03-22T23:10:33.503-06:00

(Yeah, that title dates me, doesn't it? Nothing says senile like referencing an obscure Jim Brown movie that has nothing to do with the ostensible topic. Yet here we go, maundering on . . . )I spent part of last week at the World's Best Technology expo in Arlington, TX. Each morning I woke up to the sound of screaming . . . from the roller coaster at the amusement park across the street. I

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20382025.post-79118974709315757662010-03-22T21:24:00.003-06:002010-03-22T21:32:05.300-06:00

Today had a refreshing sense of normality to it, which so many of them don't nowadays. I rose, exercised, showered, ate lunch, went shopping. Then I spent several hours spraying weed killer about the property--- I've been overrun with something called "London rocket," which is a kind of mustardlike plant with a yellow flower, not native to the area but spreading like, well, weeds. After that I

dubjayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09384513739417728991noreply@blogger.com3