/* ** ************************************************************************* ** ************************************************************************* ** ** NN NN SSSSSS XX XX ** NNN NN SS SS XX XX ** NN N NN SSS XX ** NN N NN SSS XX ** NN NNN SS SS XX XX ** NN NN SSSSSS XX XX ** The Non-Sequitur Express ** « an eclectic e-newsletter, e-published irregularly » ** Produced by Phillip Thorne ** nsx.underbase.org ** ** Volume 8, Issue 3: Sunday, 5 March 2006 ** Previous issue: Wednesday, 15 February 2006 ** ** ************************************************************************* ** ************************************************************************* */ EDITOR: I'm back! ERRATA & FOLLOW-UP: More E Ink products OBS & COGS: Bug for you, Persistent chlorine, Magnetic word fun SHOPPING ADVISORY: Free IRS prep & filing; Sam Goody clearance sales UPCOMING TV: SG1/SGA/BSG season finales, Doctor Who, Miyazaki on CN TOYS: LEGO does Mindstorms, Avatar, Batman, SpongeBob WEBSITES: Canada Post and Flat Stanley, Eurofighter fun http://www.underbase.org/nsx/ - back issues http://www.underbase.org/blog - NSX::Blogmode http://www.underbase.org/nsx/index_plus.htm - extra content /* *************************************************************************** ** FROM THE EDITOR ** ************************************************************************ */ Everyone still reading? Good! Several of you take the time to write "Thanks, that was interesting" after each issue. I'm glad you like it. Tell your friends! *** Peeve of the month: people who speak via cell phone while in a public restroom. Not just *in* the restroom, but, ahem, doing their business. (I hope the voice pickup on that phone is highly directional.) And I'm not the only person who thinks so, because this exact complaint appeared in the company suggestion box. (The box isn't /dev/null [1] -- there's a committee that reads its contents, then reports on their disposition. [1] In the Unix operating system, physical devices (monitors, printers, modems) are represented as files in the "/dev" directory, and to use the device a program simply throws bits at it. The device "/dev/null" discards them immediately. /* *************************************************************************** ** ERRATA & FOLLOW-UP ** ************************************************************************ */ Error in Issue 8.2: The mastfoot mistakenly labeled the issue as "8.1." *** Followup to "Consumer Electronics" in Issue 8.2: Further poking around the E Ink website reveals that it variously calls its product an "electronic paper display, a "paper display module" and "imaging film." Also, in addition to the Sony Reader, three other consumer products are Coming Soon: * The Lexar JumpDrive(R) Mercury, with a capacity bar graph on its case. (It's the memory equivalent of those graphs on the sides of batteries.) * An ultra-thin wristwatch by Seiko Watch Corp. * A postcard-sized weather current/forecast display by Ambient. /* *************************************************************************** ** OBSERVATIONS & COGITATIONS ** ** Bug for You ** Why is chlorine persistent? ** Silly sentiments with happy words ** ************************************************************************ */ The other morning I walked into the office and found a Styrofoam coffee cup on my desk, upturned, with the following written in blue ink on its bottom surface: BUG FOR PHILLIP! and on its side: BUG HERE (down-arrow) I'm not only the documentation specialist and the MS Office guru, but also the go-to guy for evicting insects from the room -- evicting, not exterminating [2] -- and if I'm not available to respond immediately to a cry of "Eww, another bug! Phil, get rid of it! Please?" my coworkers have, it seems, taken to caching the problem for later processing. Gee, thanks. (The joke's on you. I take the bug to the lobby and drop it on the tree there, instead of carrying it outside.) [2] One of the principles of Jainism (one of the Indian religions) is total non-violence toward all living creatures; hence vegetarianism and, for some adherents, the wearing of masks to avoid inhaling tiny insects. Obviously this tradition could arise only so long as life was divided between "animals" and "plants," and the existence of microbes was unsuspected. I guess you'll never achieve enlightenment so long as your immune system is active. *** After swimming in a chlorinated pool, the scent of chlorine is retained by the hair and skin (and garments) for a prolonged period, even after repeated bathings (or rinsings). Why? That is, what's the chemical mechanism by which chlorine (or chlorine compounds, perhaps) binds to and release from these substrates? (At least it does with me, but perhaps I have an unusual affinity for chlorine. I'll have to keep that in mind should I meet any chlorine-breathing aliens in the future.) *** I participate in a number of online survey panels, and one of them (Synovate) sometimes sends me tokens -- a pen, a drink bottle, magnetic calendar sheets. This week my credit card company got into the game. "We're really thankful to have you as a cardmember [and] we hope you enjoy this [...] magnetic word art filled with countless thanks and reminders." The five-inch-square sheet is pre-scored into about 50 words, phrases, punctuation and symbols. I can now assemble sentences like: ME FEEL HAPPY I AM COOL FOR YOU WE WANT BETTER FAMILY OR GRATEFUL FRIENDS (heart) & (flower) TOGETHER ARE NICE TO GIVE WITH AWESOME KUDOS BRING VALUED FRIENDS TO MAKE BETTER JOY RECOGNITION OR WE ARE NICE ! /* *************************************************************************** ** SHOPPING ADVISORY ** ** IRS Free File ** Store closing sales for Sam Goody and Suncoast ** ************************************************************************ */ Done your 2005 federal taxes yet? Bought your tax software? If not, and your AGI is under $50,000, you're eligible to use Free File, a service that offers free online tax-prep software and e- filing. It's a project of the IRS and the Free File Alliance, a group of commercial tax-prep software vendors (including H&R Block, if you like TaxCut). http://www.irs.gov/app/freeFile/jsp/index.jsp -- Choose a company http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=118991,00.html -- Before Getting Started Note: this is federal filing, not state. However, if you're in Pennsylvania, and your return is sufficiently simple, you can use free "pa.direct.file" to prepare and file online. Other states may offer similar conveniences http://www.revenue.state.pa.us/https://pa.direct.file.state.pa.us/ *** Musicland Holding Corp., which owns the Mediaplay, Sam Goody, and Suncoast chains of A/V retailers, is currently undergoing Chapter 11 reorganization. One result is clearance sales as some (not all) storefronts close. For example, I can verify that the Sam Goody stores in both the King of Prussia and Exton Square malls in Chester County are closing, with sales as follows: 30% off all CDs and DVDs; 40% off if you buy 4 or more; 50% off magazines; fixtures are being sold too. To check your own region, there is a list of Sam Goody and Suncoast store closings (a 1-MB Excel file) linked from the following page: http://www.musicland.com/mediainfo.asp /* *************************************************************************** ** TELEVISION ** ** fri-10-mar: Season finales on SFC of SG1, SGA, and BSG ** fri-17-mar: Studio Ghibli on TCN ** fri-17-mar: New "Doctor Who" premieres on SFC ** ************************************************************************ */ The season finales of the Sci Fi Channel (SFC) series "Stargate SG-1" (9), "Stargate Atlantis" (2), and "Battlestar Galactica" (2) will air this Friday starting at 20:00, with encores at 21:00. BSG reprises Monday at 23:00. The Friday lineup will be supplemented with the new "Doctor Who" -- see below for details. WARNING! The BSG finale is *ninety minutes* long, not the usual hour. All three series return with new seasons in the summer. http://www.scifi.com/stargate/ http://www.scifi.com/atlantis/ http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/ http://www.gateworld.net/ *** Cartoon Network (CN) will be running a "Month of Miyazaki" starting fri-17-mar. Unlike TCM's version in January, this one will have commercials and, probably, CN's annoying Friday night hosts. (CN ran "Spirited Away" as a 3-hour block on fri-3-feb at 19:00 and again at 24:30.) There are no details on the CartoonNetwork.com website -- not as yet, not that I can find; and its schedulebot only runs one week in advance. That's all par for the course for CN. http://schedule.cartoonnetwork.com/ *** With SG1/SGA/BSG out of the way for the moment, SFC fills Friday with "Doctor Who" -- the *new* one [1]. It will normally air at 21:00 (encores at 24:00 and Sunday 24:30), but for the first few weeks episodes will be doubled up. Date-time Encore Ep# Title ================ ====== === ======================= fri-17-mar-21:00 23:00 101 Rose fri-17-mar-22:00 24:00 102 The End of the World sun-19-mar-23:30 101 Rose sun-19-mar-24:30 102 The End of the World fri-24-mar-20:00 102 The End of the World fri-24-mar-21:00 24:00 103 The Unquiet Dead sun-26-mar-24:30 103 The Unquiet Dead fri-31-mar-21:00 24:00 104 Aliens of London, pt.1 ================ ====== === ======================= If you lost track, the original ran from 1963-1989 [2], 26 seasons [3], usually as "serial" stories of four 25-minute episodes, with seven incarnations of the title character [4][5]. After many attempts to restart the series (including the 1996 telemovie co- produced with FOX Television in the US) and several changes of administration at the BBC, the project was finally handed to BBC Wales, and a creative team who'd had success with shows you've probably never heard of. The transition included a format change: instead of "serials" strung together from 25-minute episodes, the new show would have seasons of 13 one-hour eps with a connecting story arc. Also, all the actors have accents from the north of England that are utterly unintelligible to Americans. I really hope SFC provides closed- captioning. The Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) bowed out after only one season, to be replaced by #10 (David Tennant, who played Barty Crouch Jr. in the recent "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" movie). Continuity is provided by his companion, Rose Tyler, and repeated visits to London. (Her mother and boyfriend aren't at all enthusiastic about her absences. No surprise.) http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/scifi.shtml http://www.scifi.com/doctorwho/ *** [1] The show is sometimes called "Doctor Who: The New Series" which I abbreviate "Who:TNS." This is the same convention adopted with the new "Battlestar Galactica" which, unlike "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (ST:TNG) is literally *not* another generation. [2] 23-nov-1963 to 6-dec-1989, specifically. [3] US:season = Brit:series. [4] Strictly speaking, the character of "The Doctor" and the title "Doctor Who" aren't equivalent, although many ill-informed and not- detail-oriented people have thought so, and despite the recurring dialogue gag of "Doctor? Doctor who?" [5] The Doctor is a human-appearing alien from the planet Gallifrey (possibly a half-human hybrid, depending which story editor [6][7] you ask) and a Time Lord (which may or may not cover the entire population of Gallifrey; again, depending who you ask). One of his alien abilities (and a key to the longevity of the TV series) is to "regenerate" his body upon severe injury, gaining a new appearance, voice, and personality. He can do so 12 times, producing 13 different incarnations -- or, to use the proper verb- to-noun term, "regenerations." The original TV series featured seven (which may or may not be the *first* seven, depending who -- oh, never mind), the 1996 telemovie #8, and the new series the next two. This does not count additional actors who've played one of the established regenerations, or the 9-10-11-12-13 in the 1999 comedy- charity special "The Curse of Fatal Death" which ran from Rowan Atkinson ("Blackadder," "Mr.Bean") to Joanna Lumley. Like I said: comedy. [6] On a TV series, the "story editor" is responsible for the broad scope of the characters and scripts. He often lays out the structure for a season and proposes story ideas, then edits scripts produced by individual scriptwriters to ensure compatibility. [7] Near the end of the first "Doctor Who," two divergent visions of the Doctor's backstory emerged: the so-called "Cartmel Master Plan" from story editor Andrew Cartmel, which was gradually revealed in the follow-up "New Adventures" novels and especially _Lungbarrow_; and the "Segal Master Plan" by Philip Segal, who produced the FOX telemovie. It's in the latter that the Doctor is half-human. /* *************************************************************************** ** TOYS ** ** LEGO Mindstorms NXT ** LEGO "Avatar: The Last Airbender" ** LEGO "Batman" ** LEGO "SpongeBob SquarePants" ** ************************************************************************ */ At the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), The LEGO Group (TLG) revealed an update to its award-winning, top-selling and loyalty- inspiring robotics system, Mindstorms. The new Mindstorms NXT has many technical improvements over its predecessor, RCX, and was designed in collaboration with several LEGO fans. NXT is currently in beta testing, and will hit retail in August. http://mindstorms.lego.com/ http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,69946-0.html -- "Geeks in Toyland" http://www.nxtbot.com/ http://www.nxtclub.com/ In the past decade, TLG has built many of its sets around third- party licenses, some of them a better fit and more successful than others: Disney characters, "Bob the Builder," "Dora the Explorer," "Ferrari," "Harry Potter," "Jurassic Park 3," the NBA and NHL, the "Spider-Man" movies, "Star Wars," and "Thomas the Tank Engine." It has now licensed two Nickelodeon properties and "Batman" -- possibly from DC Comics, possibly from Warner Bros. Also, the "Star Wars" license has been extended to 2011. Avatar http://www.legofan.org/ -- Two set packages on homepage SpongeBob http://www.eurobricks.com/ Batman http://www.lego.com/eng/batman/default.aspx http://www.millionaireplayboy.com/images/tf06/index.php?list=lego -- Toy Fair photos http://www.batbrick.com/ (Meanwhile, Mega Bloks holds licenses for "The Chronicles of Narnia," certain Marvel characters, and "Power Rangers." Also that one _Enterprise NCC-1701-D_ set with the freaky-looking Captain Picard minifig. And Ritvik probably needed licenses for the A-10 Thunderbolt and other warplanes of the US military.) /* *************************************************************************** ** WEBSITES ** ** Canada Post and Flat Stanley ** Eurofighter fun ** ************************************************************************ */ The Canadian equivalent of the US Postal Service is the Canada Post Corporation. Fun activities on its website include "The Flat Stanley Project," based on the children's book by Jeff Brown in which the title character is squashed flat in a freak bulletin- board accident, and thereafter is able to travel by envelope. (There are a lot of superpower-granting freak accidents in comic books, but that's not one of them.) http://www.usps.com/ http://www.canadapost.ca/ http://www.flatstanley.com/ *** The official site of the Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft (a swing-role, single-seat, twin-engine, delta-wing design with canards, currently in service with Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK) includes a bizarrely playful interactive section: the "Blue Sky One" scrolling shooter, a parking game, a slider puzzle, and a "build and fly factory" in which you test unlikely jet/blimp/hang- glider chimeras. http://www.eurofighter.com/Interactive/ /* ************************************************************************ ** Legalese ** Acknowledgments ** Opt-in/out Instructions ** *********************************************************************** */ The original content {layout, text} of this newsletter is copyright 2006 Phillip Thorne. Reproduction in whole or in part is permitted only as per applicable copyright law, if all copyright notices remain intact, and if citation trails (URLs or otherwise) are provided. That said, if you think colleagues would find an issue useful, please reproduce it -- but also suggest they subscribe. Those creative works {books, films, TV, websites, software, toys, etc.} referred-to {reviewed, synopsized, quoted, condensed, analyzed, etc.} herein are the property of their respective owners, are referred-to according to copyright law as interpreted in the U.S., and are cited whenever possible. No {endorsement, infringement, insult} is {expressed, implied, intended}, except where specifically stated. Other data sources: The Internet Science Fiction Database www.isfdb.org Usenet news.rec.arts.anime.misc news:rec.arts.sf.tv Wikipedia en.wikipedia.com Yahoo! Movies movies.yahoo.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) /* *************************************************************************** ** *************************************************************************** ** The Non-Sequitur Express ** http://nsx.underbase.org/ ** Volume 8, Issue 3: Sunday, 5 March 2006 ** Copyright 1999-2006 Phillip Thorne, nsx@underbase.org ** *************************************************************************** ** ************************************************************************ */