/* ** ************************************************************************* ** ************************************************************************* ** The Non-Sequitur Express ** Published at wacky intervals by Phillip Thorne ** Volume 4, Issue 3: Saturday, 9 March 2002 ** Previous issue: Friday, 1 March 2002 ** Next issue: Maybe a week, but your guess is as good as mine. ** http://nsx.underbase.org/ ** ** "There can be no religion without hierarchy. Make every man ** his own priest, and ensues chaos. For then would be erased ** the distinction, so crucial to our way of life, between ** confession and talking to yourself." ** --_National Lampoon's Doon_ ** by Ellis Weiner (1984) ** ************************************************************************* ** ************************************************************************* */ OBS & COGS: NSX style, Brickshelf.com, Freedom Ship, PA drought. ERRATA: Futurama, Blockbuster rodents, MegaBloks bots. UPCOMING: SW:AOTC trailer, TCN Adult Swim, TV ads. SWEEPSTAKES: Sears, Giant Food, ET-TRU, Frozen Food, Mauna La'i Spa, Tylenol. TOY REVIEWS: New LEGO Star Wars, Z-Cardz. plus Legalese, acknowledgements and opt-in/out instructions. http://nsx.underbase.org/ - back issues http://nsx.underbase.org/index_plus.htm - synopses, reviews, analyses, etc. http://nsx.underbase.org/tv/ - Philadelphia and network TV listings mailto://nsx-discuss-l@underbase.org - post on this issue (if subscribed) http://www.underbase.org/ - additional databases /* *************************************************************************** ** OBSERVATIONS & COGITATIONS ** ** Welcome and stylistic policies. ** Brickshelf.com: original LEGO creations. ** _Freedom Ship_: behemoth or boondoggle? ** Unasked questions of the Pennsylvania drought. ** ************************************************************************ */ [1] Introduction To the latest batch of NSX subscribers, including several second-time readers who haven't for whatever reason yet canceled after the first reading, welcome! If you have anything to say -- to contribute to this newsletter, to alter your subscription -- please contact me at . And tell your friends, acquaintances and enemies, for to an author there is no activity more sweet than to drop memetic depth-charges into a new mind. (Insert maniacal laughter... HERE.) Readers might have noticed that I don't exactly adhere to the _Chicago Manual of Style_, and newbies might be puzzled by some of my abbreviations and policies. Yes, I *do* attempt to be internally consistent. My guiding principles are to (a) save space, (b) adjust the aesthetics to suit a monospaced font, and (c) mark dates, times and quantities as self- contained units. 1. Numbers * If a passage contains multiple quantities, they shall all be expressed as numerals, so that they're immediately visible. * Numbers that do not need to be visible shall be expressed in the standard "zero to ten, 11 and up" style. 2. Quantities * A value and its unit shall be connected by a hyphen: "10-km". * Units shall usually be expressed as an abbreviation: "10-km" not "ten kilometers". * Units shall be spelled out if the abbreviation is uncommon. * A decimal value less than one shall include a leading zero: "0.5" not ".5". 3. Dates and times * The parts of a date shall be linked with hyphens. * The parts of a date shall be placed in monotonic order: day-month-year, not month-day-year. * When combined, a time may follow a date, even if it's not monotonic. * Times shall be expressed in 24-hour format. * Times greater than 23:59 may be used to denote "late night" timeslots that would usually be counted as "early morning" of the next day. 4. Quotation marks and punctuation * A quoted passage shall contain only its own punctuation. Punctuation of the enclosing sentence shall remain outside. * Periods shall be used to terminate a list entry, even if the entry is a sentence fragment. 5. Delimiters: italics substitutes * Asterisks shall represent emphasis. * Forward slashes shall represent foreign terms. * Underscores shall represent the name of a ship. 6. Whitespace collapse * When a phrase contains abbreviated portions denoted by periods, intervening whitespace shall be collapsed. "J.R.R.Tolkien" not "J. R. R. Tolkien", "Dr.Frasier" not "Dr. Frasier". Usage Conventional forms ------------ -------------------------------------------------- e-ddress email address (from Peter F. Hamilton). eg e.g. "for example". ie i.e. "that is". s1 s2 ... sN Season N of a TV show. SF Science fiction. SFnal Science fictional. SFC The Sci Fi Channel TCN The Cartoon Network TRU Toys "R" Us 12-may-23:00 May 13, 11-pm. 12-may-24:00 May 13, midnight; when speaking of "late night" TV. 12-may-2002 "May 12, 2002". ------------ -------------------------------------------------- *** [2] Brickshelf.com: original LEGO creations I tend to build structures until they reach the point of unmanageable complexity, then lose interest in building further. I hence have oodles of interesting projects that haven't been uploaded to underbase.org, since I can't decide where to shoehorn them. To sidestep the problem with regards to LEGO bricks, I've registered a gallery at Brickshelf.com. This fan site is a repository of original models, and permits keyword and category search; categories represent the most prevalent project themes, including Castle, Town, Train, Space, and Mecha. My gallery presently contains whatever photos I could scrape together of several ongoing projects: replicas of fictional spacecraft, one house, and one train. There's the spaceship _Discovery_ from "2001: A Space Odyssey"; the pre-eminent ships from the anime "Captain Harlock", "Macross", "Mobile Suit Gundam", and "Space Cruiser Yamato"; Chez Masaki from "Tenchi Muyo!", and the British Rail Intercity "125" (introduced 1973). I've also reproduced the bridge of the _Yamato_ in minifig scale, for a future stop-motion film project. [ http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?m=pethorne ] *** [3] _Freedom Ship_: behemoth or boondoggle? Since 1998, Norman L. Nixon has been designing, fundraising, and building enthusiasm for _Freedom Ship_; publicity is starting to come more frequently. It's appeared in a January article in Fox News Online, a feature in _USA Weekend_ a few weeks ago, and the Discovery Channel's two- hour "Engineering the Impossible". _Freedom Ship_ isn't a cruise ship, a tax dodge or a new sovereign country; it's a mobile resort city. (For political and social goals, see the "Sealand/HavenCo" offshore data haven, or the seacrete islands of the Marshall Savage's Living Universe Foundation (formerly the Millenial Foundation). I'm told one of Sealand's principals, one Ryan Lackey, attended my high school. Talk about "six degrees of freedom" -- a conjecture that has never been rigorously proven.) It'll have onboard industries, a 50,000-member population (a rather affluent one), hotel, casino, and duty-free shopping mall. Its size (4320-feet long, 725-feet wide, 25-stories tall) is the minimum to achieve a self-sustaining community. For economic reasons, it'll be built like a barge (with mass-produced rectangular parts) rather than a ship (with expensive custom-shaped parts). It'll be driven by a hundred individual electric motors, each rated at 30,000-hp and housed in a pivoting pod. The vectored thrust will no doubt useful for station-keeping against currents and the wind, but will achieve a max speed of only 10-knots. There's SF precedent, of course. Mile-long ships traversing massive articial oceans are found in both Larry Niven's _Ringworld Engineers_ (1980) and Iain M. Banks' "Culture" novels (_Consider Phlebas_ (1987) or _Use of Weapons_ (1990), I forget). It could also be compared to Banks' spacegoing GSVs ("General Systems Vehicles"). [ http://www.freedomship.com ] [ http://www.ship-world.com - for residents and interested parties ] [ http://www.howstuffworks.com/floating-city.htm - by Kevin Bonsor ] [ http://www.escapeartist.com/efam17/Freedom_Ship.html - A tax haven? by Mark Nestmann ] [ http://www.globalpolicy.org/nations/freedom.htm - 28-may-2000, Target for terrorism? by Jason Burke ] [ http://www.technocopia.com/exp-20000718-nixonanswers.html - 18-jul-2000, N.L.Nixon answers reader questions, by Colleen Anderson ] [ http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,42147,00.html - 4-jan-2002, by Michael Park ] [ http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/eti/eti.html - "Engineering the Impossible" overview ] [ http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/eti/projects/shipmain.html - ETI segment ] "Engineering the Impossible" airs on the Discovery Channel at these times: mon-25-feb-21:00 sat-02-mar-16:00 wed-06-mar-20:00 thu-07-mar-00:00 sun-10-mar-18:00 [ http://www.millennial.org/ - Living Universe Foundation ] [ http://www.sealandgov.com/ - the Principality of Sealand ] [ http://www.havenco.com/ - 16-sep-2001, HavenCo ] [ http://www.globalpolicy.org/nations/exprment/0426seal.htm - 7-mar-2001, Napster mirror ] [ http://abcnews.go.com/sections/tech/DailyNews/sealand000606.html - 7-jun-2000(?) ] [ http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.07/haven_pr.html - jul-2000 ] [ http://www.npr.org/programs/wesat/features/2001/sealand/081101.sealand.html - 11-aug-2001, NPR ] *** [4] Unasked questions of the Pennsylvania drought It's official (as of a month ago, which says something about how effective I'd be as a paid journalist): most of Pennsylvania has moved from a Drought Warning to a Drought Emergency. With no impetus to wash cars, irrigate lawns or fill private swimming pools, the threat of low reservoirs isn't obvious. Instead, the following winter reductions are advised: do only full loads of laundry; if buying, choose a more water- efficient appliance; take shorter showers; if a restaurant, serve water only if asked. However, I ask... ...How is a full load of laundry more water-efficient if your washing machine has a water-level control? Should between-jobs recluses skip showers on alternate days? What about low-flow toilets that don't flush effectively unless used repeatedly? Why does one never see the taboo/noisome suggestion to flush the toilet less often? And if the US has a near-nationwide power grid (it's divided into three subsets) and long-distance gas pipelines, why don't we have aqueducts? (There are advantages to keeping solid and liquid waste separate, and toilets have occasionally been designed to that end; but they require changes in habit, and have never been fast sellers. Buckminster Fuller designed one such for his Dymaxion House, and we know how well *that* sold.) My father's never been infected with the lawn-as-golf-green meme, but he does cultivate several flower and vegetable beds. Living in a humid climate, he can water *those* with the copious output from the air conditioner. (Presumably that's the principle behind the "vaporators" used by the "moisture farmers" of Tatooine, from "Star Wars" -- but where are the desert planet's evaporating seas? Do the vaporators instead do something SF-bizarre, like quantum-tunnel moisture from passing comets?) /* *************************************************************************** ** ERRATA & OMISSIONS, ADDENDA & ADMISSIONS ** ************************************************************************ */ From Issue 4.2 "Upcoming and Ongoing": "Futurama" has not been *moved* to Thursday by FOX; only duplicated there. New episodes are still airing Sundays at 19:00. From Issue 4.2 "Upcoming and Ongoing": The Blockbuster ad with the pet store features a rabbit ("Carl") and a guinea pig ("Ray"), not a hamster. From Issue 4.2 "Toy Review": There are four other entries in the MegaBloks BlokBots line, but somehow they're absent from my toy spreadsheet. /* *************************************************************************** ** UPCOMING AND ONGOING ** ** SW:AOTC trailer on FOX on sun-10-mar-21:00. ** TCN Adult Swim Saturday. ** TV Commercials: VoiceStream, Entemann's, Hedgehogs, Zoloft, ** Wintergreen, SmartMedia, G.I.Joe, US Navy ** ************************************************************************ */ [1] New "Star Wars: Attack of the Clones" trailer. The new trailer will air on FOX on sun-10-mar-21:00, between "Malcolm in the Middle" and "The X-Files". It will appear in theatres attached to "Ice Age", opening 15-mar. [2] TV SCHEDULE CHANGES Cartoon Network (TCN) Adult Swim Saturday Late Night Began sat-23-feb-2002 (today, 9-mar, is 3rd airing) ----- --------------- ---- -------------------- ------------------------- 23:00 Yu-Yu Hakusho 1992 fantasy comedy-drama us.imdb.com/Title?0185133 23:30 Cowboy Bebop 1998 SF drama us.imdb.com/Title?0213338 00:00 Pilot Candidate 2000 SF melodrama us.imdb.com/Title?0291343 00:30 Gundam 0083 1991 SF mecha drama us.imdb.com/Title?0159567 01:00 Outlaw Star 1998 SF space opera us.imdb.com/Title?0266171 01:30 Tenchi Muyo! 1992 SF comedy us.imdb.com/Title?0105559 ----- --------------- ---- -------------------- ------------------------- "Yu-Yu Hakusho: Ghost Files" (aka "Poltergeist Report") is from the studio which did "Dragonball", but mercifully features fewer facial angles and more motion. Troubled teen Yusuke Urameshi has a temper, picks fights, and is recently dead -- but because his noble sacrifice surprised the gods, they'll allow him to win back his life. Can he stay civil long enough to do it? "Pilot Candidate" (aka "Candidate for Goddess") is something like "Neon Genesis Evangelion", but set in space and with more melodrama. Aliens called "Victims" are attacking space colonies, and are fought back with five giant female-styled robots called "Goddesses" (or possibly "Ingrids"), each of which has a pilot and a technician ("repairer"). The organization which fields them ("GOA"?) periodically evaluates new pilot candidates, and the series focuses on #87 "Head Guner" and #88 "Zero Enna". (I'll make an observation here: many anime now supplement cel animation with CGI, which is good for producing smooth rotations of complex objects. The temptation, however, seems to be to include as much extraneous motion as possible. Second observation: think the script was hit by a dictionary explosion? It's a common malady of anime: either give the characters themed names for no apparent reason, or give *everything* random names that make no *sense*.) "Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory" is a sequel to the original "Mobile Suit Gundam". Three years after the One Year War, the Earth Federation is testing two new Mobile Suit prototypes (designed and mother-henned by one Nina Purpleton), one of them equipped with a nuclear bazooka. (Nukes were outlawed by the Antarctic Treaty, signed midway through the war, post- gigadeaths.) The remnant Zeon forces dispatch a team to capture it, but they're not entirely successful, due to the actions of a cadet who grabs the second suit. Pursuit, angst, and battle-nervousness ensue. (TCN has now carried six "Gundam" series, OAVs, and movies: the UC- continuity "Mobile Suit Gundam", "Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket", "08th Mobile Suit Team", and "Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory"; and the AC- continuity "Gundam Wing" and "Endless Waltz".) *** [3] TV COMMERCIALS In the VoiceStream Wireless ads, why do the hapless families never seem surprised when Jamie Lee Curtis spontaneously appears in their living rooms with advice? Same thing for Entenmann's baked goods and Whoopi Goldberg. A current ad for the new Sony GameCube version of "Sonic the Hedgehog" features live hedgehogs who fail to take their cues from the offscreen director. Ah, the hedgehog, that most distinctive of all British rodents (aside from Danger Mouse, of course): like an ovoid pincushion. An ovoid pincushion with a nose and beady eyes and four legs. Nose, eyes, legs, *and* internal organs. An ovoid with eyes and mouth (but no limbs) is the protagonist in the black-on-white animated ads for Pfizer Zoloft antidepressant. (When did baby-stage Digimon get recruited by Madison Avenue?) It sits there like a sad lump until Zoloft modulates its neurotransmitters (as shown in another animation, labeled "dramatization", in case the audience doesn't realize brain cells are not line drawings), whereupon it starts cheerfully perambulating, chasing flying ladybugs. (The creature can be found at www.zoloft.com.) Another fully-animated ad (you don't see those much nowadays, not even full CGI; remember Listerine and Life Savers?) features a stick of Wintergreen Fresh gum and a supermarket laser scanner. The bored clerk swipes the stick, turning the check-out lane into a cool dance club for the other teens. I ask: what sort of teen would be caught *dead* in a supermarket if not forced to *work* there? Palm and Panasonic have been advertising SmartMedia cards using a "Daft Punk" song seen in the 1-sep-2001 TCN "Toonami Music Videos" special; the one to which the Leiji Matsumoto original animation was set. (See NSX- 3.10.) Weird. A few years ago, Hasbro revived the pre-1980s-style 12-inch G.I.Joe action figures ("Authentic Military Collection"), and has now re-released toys from the 1980s line. The characters (Cobra Commander, Destroy, Duke, Snake Eyes) appear in a dramatic CGI ad which makes one think "Cool! Is it a new show or a movie?", but then merely points you to www.gijoe.com, which launches a Flash-based game. Apparently, the biggest selling point the US Navy could find for its current campaign is, "You'll do more in a few years than most people do in a lifetime." This is not necessarily a *good* thing, if cramming sixty years of travel into four years leaves no time to reflect. I have that problem every time I go to a weekend con: time loses all meaning. /* *************************************************************************** ** SWEEPSTAKES WATCH ** ** 16-mar "Sears $100,000 Scholarship and College Basketball Championships" ** 30-mar "Giant Food Stores March Frozen Food Month Contest" ** 30-apr "E.T. Comes Home to Toys 'R' Us and Kids 'R' Us" ** 30-apr "$10,000 Freezer Favorites Sweepstakes" ** 31-may "Mauna La'i Win a Spa Day for You and a Friend" ** ??-??? "Tylenol $250,000 in College Scholarships" ** ************************************************************************ */ "Sears $100,000 Scholarship and College Basketball Championships" Prizes: * Grand Prize, 2x, $100,000 college scholarship plus trip to either men's or women's College Championship game. * 1st Prize, 4x, $25,000 scholarship. Runs: 1-mar to 16-mar-2002. To play: Make a purchase using Sears {Card, Premier Card, MasterCard} at any Sears {Full, Dealer, Hardware} OR at www.sears.com. To enter without purchase, call 1-800-395-9579 and follow voice prompts. "Giant Food Stores March Frozen Food Month Contest" Prizes: * 1st Prize, 1x, home theater equipment and installation. * 2nd Prize, 1x, choice of home gym, ski gear, or golf gear. * 3rd Prize, 1x, $100 of frozen food. Runs: 24-feb- to 30-mar-2002. To play: Mail entry from newspaper circular OR make purchases at Giant. Specifically, each purchase made using BonusCard of {Green's Ice Cream, Freschetta Pizza, Ore Ida Bagel Bites}. "E.T. Comes Home to Toys 'R' Us and Kids 'R' Us" Prizes: * Grand Prize, 1x, $1,000,000. * 1st Prize, 5x, $50,000 to Upromise college account. * 2nd Prize, 2x, 2003 Toyota Sienna XLE van. * 3rd Prize, 3x, trip for 4 to a Universal Studios theme park. * 4th Prize, 10x, year-long movie pass for 2 to Loews Cineplex. * 5th Prize, 20x, $250 TRU shopping spress. * 6th Prize, 20x, $100 TRU gift card. Runs: 27-feb- to 30-apr-2002. To play: Scan gamepiece barcode at any price scanner at any participating TRU or KRU. Gamepiece available in TRU newspaper circulars 3-mar, 17-mar, 24-mar; TRU mailings 27-feb, 9-apr; KRU mailing 19-mar. See www.toysrus.com. "$10,000 Freezer Favorites Sweepstakes" Prizes: * Grand Prize, 1x, $5000. * 1st Prize, 5x, $1000. Runs: 1-feb- to 30-apr-2002. To play: Mail entry form from newspaper circular OR mail 3"x5" card OR enter online at www.easyhomemeals.com. "Mauna La'i Win a Spa Day for You and a Friend" Prizes: * Grand Prize, 30x, day for winner and friend at a local spa, ~$450. Runs: To 31-may-2002. To play: Mail entry form, postmarked by 31-may-2002, OR visit www.maunalai.com by 31-may-2002. Limit one entry per day per {person, e-ddress}, regardless of method. "Tylenol $250,000 in College Scholarships" Prizes: * 10x, $10,000 scholarship. * 150x, $1,000 scholarship. Runs: Unspecified. To play: Obtain application from a participating store. See www.tylenol.com. [ http://www.tylenol.com/scholarship/index.jhtml ] /* ************************************************************************ ** TOY REVIEWS ** ** New LEGO "Star Wars" ** Z-Cardz mini-models ** *********************************************************************** */ [1] The LEGO Company is preparing new "Star Wars"-themed sets for this summer's "Attack of the Clones", and the box art is available on Brickshelf.com. 7113 features a red speeder bike, an orange-haired Jedi, and two Tusken Raiders (minifigs with new printing, no new head-sculpts). 7143 looks like an older brother of the A-Wing fighter; it appears to have an astromech socket in the *left wing*. 7153 is an upgrade of the 165-piece 7144-"Slave I" set, using many of the curved elements that first appeared in the recent "Alpha Team" underwater sets. 7163 is white with accents in sand-red and (whoo!) new lime-green bricks, plus several dome-shaped elements. Set# Name Pcs URL ---- ----------------------- --- ----------------------------------------------- 7113 Tusken Raider Encounter ??? www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=132695 7143 Jedi Starfighter 138 www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=111494 7153 Jango Fett's Slave I 358 www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=111493 7163 Republic Gunship 686 www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=111751 ???? blue battle droid ??? www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=113147 ---- ----------------------- --- ----------------------------------------------- [ http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=11189 - "Star Wars" box gallery ] *** [2] Z-Cardz(tm) "The cardz[sic] that turn into 3-D models! 5 Different Cardz in each pack!" Ages 6 & Up California Creations, Brea CA 92821, www.z-cardz.com Made in Taiwan The gimmick: 2-D components slot together into tiny 3-D models. The results are adorable, but not very practical. I found them at Wizards of the Coast, priced at $3 per pack. A pack contains a folded catalog and five Cardz of a single theme. A single Cardz is a round-cornered plastic rectangle about the size of the playing card (88x57x1-mm), printed on both sides with the component shapes of the object (4-12, usually 7), each one prepunched. The components pop out with a little thumb pressure, with no muss or tearing. (Unlike, say, prepunched paper.) The pieces then slot together at right angles, which provides depth. There are no directions, but the pictures on the back of the pack, plus a little thought, are sufficient for anyone with average 3D visualization abilities. (The process can be seen in a 900-kB Flash applet at z-cardz.com.) A propellor aircraft might consist of a fuselage, horizontal stabilizer, wing, engines and props. A dinosaur has a body, shoulder and hips, and four legs. A bird usually consists of body parts, plus a display stand. The catalog lists 100 different models (presumably in 20 distinct packs): military aircraft (Soviet and US)(8), tanks (1), Formula-1 race cars (1), motorcycles (2), dinosaurs (4), popular zoo animals (2), and birds (2). I bought two packs: "Flying Aces Series 1" (Soviet aircraft) and "Wings Series 2" (birds); oddly, both contained a catalog restricted to (I presume) Series 1. /* ************************************************************************ ** 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 2002 by Phillip Thorne. In this issue, certain data (possibly not otherwise acknowledged) have been obtained, aggregated and synthesized from: Brickshelf brickshelf.com Google search engine google.com Hasbro G.I.Joe gijoe.com The Internet Movie Database imdb.com The Internet Science Fiction Database sfsite.com/isfdb Tylenol painkiller tylenol.com VoiceStream Wireless voicestream.com Z-Cardz z-cardz.com If you're receiving this newsletter, you've probably intentionally subscribed to it, or possibly you're interested in special topical coverage, or maybe I've sent you a teaser issue. To subscribe and unsubscribe, use the addresses below: Publisher: nsx@underbase.org (human) Newsletter: nsx-l@underbase.org (automated system) nsx-l-subscribe (to subscribe; blank subject) nsx-l-unsubscribe (to unsubscribe) Discussion list: nsx-discuss-l@underbase.org nsx-discuss-l-subscribe (to subscribe; blank subject) nsx-discuss-l (to post) nsx-discuss-l-unsubscribe (to unsubscribe) /* *************************************************************************** ** *************************************************************************** ** The Non-Sequitur Express ** http://nsx.underbase.org/ ** Volume 4, Issue 3: Saturday, 9 March 2002 ** Copyright 1999-2002 Phillip Thorne, nsx@underbase.org ** *************************************************************************** ** ************************************************************************ */