/** ************************************************************************ ** ************************************************************************* ** The Non-Sequitur Express ** What is the sound of half an invisible hand clapping? ** Published at fortnightly or random intervals by Phillip Thorne ** http://nsx.underbase.org/ ** ** Volume 3, Issue 2: Thursday, 05 April 2001 ** ************************************************************************* ** *********************************************************************** */ OBSERVATIONS & C: Visual tricks on the road, TV chroma. ERRATA & O+A+A: Clouds, the ergonomics of brooms. LINGUISTICS: Hyperlinks in Latin: cf eg ie qed qv qqv. UPCOMING: "Crusade", "Roswell Conspiracies". plus Legalese, acknowledgements and opt-in/out instructions. /** ************************************************************************ ** OBSERVATIONS & COGITATIONS ** Illusions when driving ** Distant TVs: a study in blue ** Today's masthead ** *********************************************************************** */ Oh, the faults to which human visual perception is prone. I was once driving along a low-traffic suburban road near my home, when I spotted a low obstruction in the street. It was the size of a cat, and at the appropriate elevation; but it was pink, and didn't move like a quadruped, and wasn't changing size (as I approached) as you might expect were it crossing the road (as cats are prone to do). After a few blinks, my brain finally assembled sufficient clues for a positive ID: it was not a cat. It was a boy, wearing a pink helmet and lying prone on a skateboard, coasting along the road's incline; amateur street luge, apparently. Issues of safety aside, this was (literally) Not Something I See Every Day, and hence I lacked a mental template with which to identify it. And another example... I was again on a road, mid-afternoon, at the bottom of a long shallow hill. Oh, was that a jogger to my left (at the entrance to a shopping center), lanky, wearing white-piped black running pants? Blink. It was not; it was a conspiracy, by the grey cement curb, of light and shadow, perspective and expectation. *** Why is it that, when seen through a window, active TV screens are always bluish, regardless of the chromatic content of the program? Is CRT radiation inherently short-wavelength? Is it the static between the pixels? Does plate glass preferentially absorb long wavelengths? Is it the same atmospheric process that makes the sky blue? Does the same effect apply to film projectors, rear-projection TVs or LCD flatscreens? *** Today's masthead joins proto-economist Adam Smith's "invisible hand", the Zen /koan/ about one hand clapping, and the half-baked regulatory changes in California's electricity industry -- ie deregulating wholesale prices but keeping retail fixed. It's an NSX original -- which just means I thought of it before doing a Google search that reveals it's been oft-used before. The "half" conditional seems new, though. In Vernor Vinge's novel _A Deepness in the Sky_, one of the starships of the Qeng Ho interstellar trading fleet is called _The Invisible Hand_. /** ************************************************************************ ** ERRATA & OMISSIONS, ADDENDA & ADMISSIONS ** *********************************************************************** */ In issue 3.1 (25-feb-2001), I hypothesized that the non-existence of "mid- level" clouds might have hindered prescientific peoples from linking the phenomena of fog and high-clouds. Well-traveled reader JA of PA has evidence to refute my first premise. He writes: "In San Francisco, one can see clouds quite nearby, and then walk over and experience fog, then walk back and see a cloud. A bicycle or good horse makes it a bit easier and somewhat faster. "Once when I was hiking in the Sierras, standing atop Half Dome, I watched clouds sweep through Yosemite valley, looking like the puffy cumulus clouds that they were, a thousand or two feet below me. When they reached the end of the valley, the granite bubble on which I was standing forced them up, and I would be momentarily enveloped in fog until the cloud had passed. I could see the cloud coming and going, and I could see it as fog while it was passing." In issue 2.23 (8-sep-2000), I speculated that broomsticks (as used in the game of Quidditch in J.K.Rowling's _Harry Potter_ books) must be very uncomfortable to sit upon. Enter the Cushioning Charm. According to _Quidditch Through the Ages_ (one of two background info mini-books she's written this year) this was invented by one Elliot Smethwyck in 1820 (p.47); Figure F (p.48) shows a very comfy, not-at-all-bicycle-like invisible seat fastened to the broomshaft. /** ************************************************************************ ** LINGUISTICS ** Hyperlinks in Latin ** *********************************************************************** */ From the Random House Webster's College Dictionary, 1992: cf - compare [L confer]. eg - for example [L exempli gratia]. ie - that is [L id est]. qed - which was to be shown or demonstrated [L quod erat demonstrandum]. qv - which see; used in formal writing after a cross reference [L quod vide]. qqv - plural of qv [L quae vide]. (See also: p and pp.) /** ************************************************************************ ** UNDERBASE.ORG UPDATES ** TV, reviews, surveys and spreadsheets ** *********************************************************************** */ Over the past few months, I've been putting far more effort into my underbase.org website than into this newsletter. On 14-march my hosting service suffered a server crash, and their outsourced backup service sufference an incompetence crash. Consequently, I had to reconstruct the site from my own partial (and unorganized, shame on me) backups. I've also restored the nsx-l@underbase.org discussion list (not that it was ever used). First, there are the TV listings (SF, Philadelphia market) I maintain at: http://nsx.underbase.org/tv/ I recommend the references I've emplaced under the NSX-Plus banner: http://nsx.underbase.org/index_plus.htm A subset of the topics is listed below. Most of the Surveys are MSExcel spreadsheets; I intend eventually to export them in some more-portable database-ish format(s). (Be warned: a few of the spreadsheets do contain macros for sorting purposes.) Book Reviews TV Reviews and Synopses Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot (US animation) Outlaw Star (anime) Tenchi Muyo, Tenchi Universe, and Tenchi in Tokyo (anime) The Invisible Man (SFC) The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne (SFC) Film Reviews Toy Reviews Conference and Convention Reviews Comparisons and Surveys Ergonomic computer keyboards Handhelds, palmtops, PDAs and e-books Features and prices of home electronics (TV, VCR, PVR, DVD, digicams...) Nanotech in SF Nonfatal dismemberments in SF /** ************************************************************************ ** UPCOMING ** Series, Seasons, Episodes, Movies, Books ** *********************************************************************** */ The Sci-Fi Channel begins airing "Crusade", the short-lived TNT-funded sequel to "Babylon 5", on mon-9-apr-2001-20:00, in the originally-intended order. I await their fix to the ad-hoc patch that explained the mid-season change in uniform styling. (I tried to confirm this date/time on scifi.com, but there's no obvious link.) FoxKids begins airing the animated "Roswell Conspiracies: Aliens, Myths and Legends" on sat-7-apr-2000-11:30, but *not* in its original order. Think B.A.D. + M.A.S.K. + MiB + "The X-Files". This first aired on BKN (the syndicated Bohbot Kids Network) in 1999, but the network collapsed before the 26-episode story arc was complete. For more complete listings, updated every 5 to 10 days, see: http://nsx.underbase.org/tv/ /** ************************************************************************ ** Legalese ** Acknowledgments ** Opt-in/out Instructions ** *********************************************************************** */ The set of creative works herein reviewed and analyzed, including the subset {books, movies, TV shows, toys}, are the property of their respective copyright holders. No infringement or endorsement is expressed, implied or intended. The original reviews and analyses are themselves copyright 2000 by Phillip Thorne. If you're receiving this newsletter, you've probably intentionally subscribed to it, or possibly you're interested in special conference/ convention/tradeshow coverage. In any case, to cancel your subscription, send an email message to nsx@underbase.org with the words "UNSUBSCRIBE NON-SEQUITUR" in the subject line and/or body. Newsletter: nsx@underbase.org (human-managed) Discussion list: nsx-l-subscribe@underbase.org (to subscribe; blank subject) nsx-l (list posting) nsx-l-unsubscribe (to unsubscribe) TV listings site: http://nsx.underbase.org/tv/ /** ************************************************************************ ** ************************************************************************* ** The Non-Sequitur Express ** http://nsx.underbase.org/ ** Volume 3, Issue 2: Thursday, 05 April 2001 ** Copyright 1999-2001 Phillip Thorne, nsx@underbase.org ** *************************************************************************** ** ************************************************************************ */