I don’t know what’s cooler, a story about black box guns, or the fact that the title namechecks Judge Dredd.
But what I do know is this. Eventually there will be three types of guns:
1. Legacy guns dating back to the age when guns didn’t contain tracking/override electronics.
2. Federal-controlled guns whereby Uncle Sam gets to decide if you can have another shot.
3. Hacked guns
2. and 3. of course will be tough to tell apart. This is going to be fun.
From today’s news.
From THE MIRRORED HEAVENS:
So at the end of Moon there’s a labyrinth. At the end of that labyrinth’s a chamber. That chamber wasn’t built by man. It’s been there since this rock cooled. It contains the most valuable thing in this world.
“Water,” says Sarmax.
He steps into the light. His armor looks pretty beat-up. It’s been burned almost black. He walks toward the ramp’s edge.
“Come again?” says the Operative.
“Water,” repeats Sarmax. “Or should I say: ice.”
“My latest fortune,” replies Sarmax.
He stops just short of the edge—gestures at the sloped walls. He looks back at the Operative. He smiles. He’s so close the Operative can see teeth through visor.
“You’re a resourceful man,” he says quietly.
“It’s just too bad that such resourcefulness has to compensate for such lack of planning,” continues Sarmax. “Such a goddamn shame it’s forced to rely so heavily on pure luck. You almost brought the roof down on your stupid head, Carson. It’s a wonder you didn’t get buried in those tunnels.”
“Would that have been such a terrible outcome?” says the Operative.
“Now that,” says Sarmax, “depends on your point of view.” He gestures at the ramps and ladders stacked about him. “You see before you the industry of a new era, Carson. We live in the dawn times, old friend. Humanity is poised to boil out beyond the Earth-Moon system. The red planet will be colonized en masse within the next two decades. The prospectors are even now testing the tug of the gas giants. The Oort is surrendering her secrets to the probes. It’s all there for the taking. And it all makes me say I don’t give a fuck if you take me down. I don’t give a damn about the Rain or anybody else. Let them squabble. Let them plot. What does it matter when history itself is coming into focus?”
Congratulations, NASA. May we make it back to that rock yet.
It takes an event like the Brazilian blackouts to bring home the banality of Twitter, where the event barely registered amidst the maelstrom of posts on New Moon and Captain Zeep. But the incidents can be seen as good evidence of just how rickety a lot of the developing world’s infrastructure is getting under the pressure of growth. With its regional power status—and hosting of both the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016—Brazil will be more in the limelight than most, at least until the developed world starts sharing a similar problem. At which point we’ll be too deep in our own energy/infrastructure mess to worry about those of others, especially since it turns out that peak oil is coming even faster than we thought, with reports that world oil estimates have been drastically inflated. In the meantime, we’re grabbing all the kilowattage we can lay our hands on. . . .for example, did you realize that 10% of the U.S. power supply right now comes from dismantled Russian nukes? The spoils of empire indeed.
UPDATE: killer blackout pix.
You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all:
We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool -- you bet that Tommy sees!
--Rudyard Kipling
I’ll be speaking at the Library of Congress tomorrow morning. From the press release:
Author David J. Williams (www.autumnrain2110.com) will speak on the future of war and U.S. national security at the Library of Congress this Thursday, October 29th, at 11:30 a.m. His presentation follows the talk he gave at the National Academy of Sciences in August, and will provide a comprehensive framework within which to chart out the next generation of weaponry and strategy.
Williams‘ presentation will be at the Madison Building, LM 139, located on Independence Ave SE, between 1st and 2nd Streets. Mr. Williams will give a 30-minute presentation, followed by a book signing.
I’ve been AWOL doing the pre-copy edit round of revisions on Book Three, but now all normal programming resumes. And what better way to get back into the swing of things then by revealing the cover for the final book of the Autumn Rain trilogy, THE MACHINERY OF LIGHT? Release date: May 2010. Stay tuned! 
It’s been ten years since Homeworld was released, and Uberjumper over at Relic News has a great thread to commemorate it. It’s tough for me to express how honored I am to have story concept and co-writing credits on the game; the comment thread is a moving testament to the game’s emotional impact. It certainly had an impact on me—my involvement in the game was all moonlighting while I was in Vancouver trying to escape the banal reality of my corporate job back in D.C., and in the wake of Homeworld, I had to wonder why I was stuck doing P&L spreadsheets while friends of mine were inking space-fleets for a living. In many ways, that was the motivation for what ultimately became Autumn Rain . . . and it seems like only yesterday me and Rob Cunningham were poring over spaceship drawings in his warehouse-loft over Hastings Street trying to figure out what the thread was that tied it all together while junkies howled and gibbered in the alley beneath us and we contemplated endless galactic suns.
Gail and I met at the LA WorldCon in 2006—in a Starbucks line, as I recall, and jesus were those lattes overpriced. We were both Outsiders Looking In at that point: manuscripts in hand that we were desperate to peddle to the powers that be. Three years later, we’ve both succeeded; Gail’s SOULLESS was just released by oh-so-cool Orbit to great critical fanfare—and how could it not be, given that it’s a comedy of manners set amidst vampires in Victorian London? In addition, she maintains a great blog where she offers readers fashion tips as well as thoughts on how to fight off vampires. I think she’s the next big thing; at least I hope so, as I could use some friends in high places. SOULLESS is available at Amazon and other fine bookstores (and presumably one or two cruddy ones as well).
It gives me great pleasure to introduce the two new members of the Williams household, shown here while studying the habits of fake mice in bathtubs. 
They are:
CAPTAIN ZOOM (aka “the White Lion”): When Zoom purrs, it sounds like a lawnmower starting up. And he is always purring: possibly the most extroverted cat I’ve ever met. This is good news, because his friend is a little shyer, and needs someone to set an example.
AJAX (aka “L’Orange”): For the first few days, Ajax was convinced the entire thing was a trap, and that any moment now he and Zoom would be consumed with gusto. However, discovering the pleasures of the Belly Rub made him forget any such theories, and now he rivals Zoom in his quest for attention.
THEIR MISSION: should they choose to accept it . . . to consume fish at prodigious rates, chase each other at 3 in the morning, and sleep all afternoon. We’ll see if they can handle it.
An oldie-but-goodie from the vault . . turns out that on Earth 744, Captain Britain was actually Captain Airstrip One, presiding over Oceania’s most exposed province in an ingenious depiction of what life was like for all of Winston Smith’s pals in Orwell’s 1984. There’s PDFs of the resultant short strip in various places on the net, but it’s been scanned here. Doubleplusgood! -2.jpg)
