/** ************************************************************************ *** ************************************************************************ *** The Non-Sequitur Express *** In the country of the blind, the dyslexic dog wonders whence his roof. *** Published every eleven days or so by Phillip Thorne *** http://nsx.underbase.org/ *** *** Volume 2, Issue 27: Wednesday, 18 October 2000 *** ************************************************************************ *** ********************************************************************** */ OBSERVATIONS & C: Bosses, lugs, bugs, ISO 3166, Soviet former stuff & lands. ERRATA & O+A+A: Gene's Books sale, "Time Squared". TOY REVIEW: Ritvik MegaBloks Transforming BlokBots. BOOK REVIEW: _The Yard: Building a Destroyer at the Bath Iron Works_. UPCOMING: "Freedom", "Level 9"; primetime, TNG, B5. plus Legalese, acknowledgements and opt-in/out instructions. /** ************************************************************************ *** OBSERVATIONS & COGITATIONS *** ********************************************************************** */ Monday, m-16-oct, was National Bosses Day. Did you thank your supervisor(s) for not being as evil as s/he/they might've been? If your car starts making odd noises, check the obvious (and accessible) things first. Pop those hubcaps and check the lugnuts -- are they attached? Tight? Next, check for small furry animals stuck under the hood (and/or small *scaly* animals, if you're in the appropriate geographic region). After that you can crawl underneath and check for missing exhaust system brackets. *** I espied a 3-cm black millipede the other day, trundling across the white- painted wall of the local commuter rail station's pedestrian underpass. It was just the latest of many creepy crawlies I see regularly, many of them clinging (gravity? wuzzat?) to the glass exterior of my job site -- spiders; lepidoptera, orthoptera and diptera; beetles, bugs and mantids. The frosty weather of early last week put many arthropods into dormancy, but the warm weekend awakened them, sending many-spotted ladybugs scurrying across surfaces on random errands. That entomological eruption was nothing, however, compared to the annual breeding season of the red crabs of Australia's Christmas Island (Indian Ocean, 10°S long, 40°E lat, 135 sq.km; not to be confused with the one in the Pacific). For two weeks, a hundred million of these 11-cm leaf-eating crustaceans (/Gecarcoidea natalis/) migrate from the interior highland forests to the shore to spawn. They're one of 13 native terrestial crab species, of which the largest is the two-foot robber crab (/Birgus latro/), capable of opening coconuts. Yikes, that's bigger than Hasbro's Beast Wars "Rampage" toy -- and better-looking, too, with a gorgeously patterned exoskeleton of yellow, orange, blue and violet. *** What does the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency (at www.din.de/gremien/nas/nabd/iso3166ma) do? It maintains ISO 3166 (well, duh), the International Country Code Standard. The ISO 3166-1 "Country Code" standard, first published 1-oct-1997, establishes some 230 codes for the current names of countries, dependencies and other areas of geopolitical interest (like Antarctica), using names obtained from the UN. (These are the geographic top-level domains you often see in URLs, established by the IANA, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority). The ISO 3166-2 "Country Subdivision Code" (15-dec-1998) does the same for administrative subdivisions (states, provinces, etc.), and 3166-3 "Code for formerly used names of countries" (1-mar-1999) handles deleted names. Each entry in ISO 3166-1 consists of an Alpha-2-code, Alpha-3-code, and Numeric-3-code. The code elements of ISO 4217 "Codes for currencies and funds" are based on Alpha-2. 3166/MA claims "the Alpha-3... code elements... are not published free of charge by ISO" but I found them (and Numeric-3) at the UN Statistics Division (at http://www.un.org/Depts/unsd/methods/m49.htm). *** I may have mentioned previously my ingenious and sneaky scheme for tracking my name as it's sold from one mailing list to another. (Okay, so I borrowed the scheme from a coworker -- but I've applied it to a far greater extent.) I therefore know that Edmund Scientific sold my name, resulting (through an unknown number of intermediaries) in the delivery of a complimentary copy of _The Sovietski Collection: Treasures from a Bygone Era_ catalog. (www.sovietski.com) It's full of surplus Soviet uniforms and equipment, Czarist memorabilia, and Slavic handicrafts -- but oddly, no skis; snow, water or otherwise. "After the collapse of the Soviet Union," the catalog's introduction reads, "[our products] became available to us. It's as if an entire country went bankrupt and we were able to buy their remaining stock for a fraction of its true value." I respond, "as if?" If the USSR didn't exactly go bankrupt, it at least went into Chapter 11 reorganization. So what do the loose bits of the former Soviet Union look like in ISO 3166-1? A-2 A-3 N-3 Name --- ---- ---- -------------------- AM ARM 51 Armenia AZ AZE 31 Azerbaijan BY BLR 112 Belarus EE EST 233 Estonia GE GEO 268 Georgia KZ KAZ 398 Kazakhstan KG KGZ 417 Kyrgyzstan LV LVA 428 Latvia LT LTU 440 Lithuania MD MDA 498 Moldova, Republic of RU RUS 643 Russian Federation TJ TJK 762 Tajikistan TM TKM 795 Turkmenistan UA UKR 804 Ukraine UZ UZB 860 Uzbekistan --- ---- ---- -------------------- *** Today's masthead is the result of stringing together the following four aphorisms and jokes: (1) In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. (2) On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog. (3) Didja hear the one about the insomniac agnostic dyslexic? He lies awake at nights, wondering if there is a dog. (4) So I like awake in bed, staring at the stars, and wonder: where the heck is my roof? /** ************************************************************************ *** ERRATA & OMISSIONS, ADDENDA & ADMISSIONS *** ********************************************************************** */ In 2.23, I reported on the imminent closure of comprehensive King of Prussia bookseller Gene's Books, due to the retirement of its owners. It's still scheduled for "mid-November," and the final sale begins m-16-oct. All non-periodical items will be marked down 30%; that includes CDs and bargain books, but not magazines or newspapers. I learned of this f-6-oct, but forgot to mention it in 2.26 t-10-oct. In 2.26, I listed the f-13-oct episode of "Star Trek: TNG" (featuring two Jean-Luc Picards) as "Time^2" (i.e. a superscript "2"), a notation I've only seen used for the "Red Dwarf" episode "Rimmer^2" (featuring two Arnold J. Rimmers). The title is actually "Time Squared," and tv.excite.com listed it as "Time to the Second." Neither is to be confused with the "Babylon 5" episode "Babylon Squared" (featuring, you guessed it, two Babylon Stations). /** ************************************************************************ *** TOY REVIEW *** Ritvik MegaBloks: Transforming BlokBots *** ********************************************************************** */ Think the price of LEGO sets (often 10¢ per element) is sheer extortion? Over the years, many brick-compatible clones have arisen to capture nearby niches. The 1000-employee Ritvik Company of Montréal, Canada, maker of MegaBloks-brand bricks, claims to be the world's second-larger marketer of construction blocks. Their product doesn't use quite the same quality of ABS plastic, and the manufacturing tolerances aren't as precise, but the bricks still clutch adequately. Moreover, the composition of the sets hearkens back to the early days of LEGO, before the days of what LEGO Maniacs derisively call BURPs: big ugly rock pieces. Heavy on the 2x4 bricks, the models have that wonderfully aliased, jaggy texture of yore. In early 1999, LEGO introduced the "Throwbots," a line of robot-shaped sets featuring spring disk-tossing arms. The claimed vehicular transformations were less than thrilling to long-time Transformers fans, but the new ball- and-socket elements were mildly interesting to LEGO engineers. This year, Ritvik has introduced a new four-set line, "Transforming BlokBots." They have more useful joints than the Throwbots, capable of incremental 30° hinge and pivot motion. The transformations are even lamer, however; you pop apart the robot at said joints, and reassemble into vaguely vehicle-shaped blobs. 9331 Space grey,purple,black 195pc $13 at Toys'R'Us, $15 at K*B 9332 Swat grey,black 185pc $13 9333 Ice white,blue,grey 185pc $13 9341 Scuba Team black,blue,yellow 430pc $25 *** 9331-Space contains four types of pivot elements. Unlike the stiff black pins in LEGO Technic kits (the longtime mainstay of LEGO-based transformational engineers), these have non-continuous click-movement, like Barbie's knees or Matchbox's 1986 Robotech toys. Unlike the ball-sockets of the LEGO Throwbots, they're not integral to awkwardly-angled limbs. They're nicely stiff, and can support quite a load. x 6 Socket brick (2x2x2) 360° with 12 discrete clicks x10 Hinge plate (one end 2x3x1) 180° with 7 clicks x 1 Hip brick (2x3x1-2/3) essentially 2 sockets conjoined x 1 Waist turntable (4x4x1-1/3) 360° continuous The turntable (used at the waist) is stiffer than the equivalent LEGO element, preventing silly spinaround. There are two specialized foot elements; they contain the same 360° mechanism as the socket brick, along a vertical axis, allowing you to twist a robot's toes outward into ballet poses. *** The colors of 9331-Space are grey (slightly pearlescent, maybe due to the quality of Ritvik plastic), black and purple. Purple's a very uncommon color in LEGO kits, but it's also found in MegaBlok's 9704-roadster and 9758-monster truck kits. As with all MegaBloks sets, the mix is heavily towards basic elements -- 1x2, 1x4, 2x2, 2x4 bricks; 1x2, 1x4, 2x4 plates; 30° and 45° roof and chin angles. There are four angled "vent" elements, two tile-surfaced 8x4 wing plates, some nifty stackable fenders and a smoky-grey hinged canopy; plus a mini-figure. The Blok Bots line also introduces some specialized anatomy elements: A hinged head/cockpit. A hand-and-forearm (left and right versions), which each fit over a 2x4 brick. The aforementioned foot (one size fits all). And a weapon-shaped blob in bilious fluorescent green, with three interchangeable purple grapple-shaped ends. As with other MegaBloks models, there's a sheet of adhesive decals with robo-techno imagery. *** I've only purchased 9331-Space, but the other three Blok Bots look to have a similar number of pivoting elements, along with similar heads and the same feet. 9332-Swat has four tires, with various clear bricks (police-tinted red and blue); he converts to an open-cockpit road vehicle. 9333-Ice has skis; he becomes a sort of oversized snowmobile. 9341-Scuba Team has two separate robots, with flippers and some hydrothruster-shaped cylinders; they become a variety of submarine blobs. For further info, see www.megabloks.com/html/, the non-Flash subset of Ritvik's site. Throwbots are at www.lego.com/throwbots/. Photos of a Japanese line of three transforming mecha (*these* actually have shapes in both modes) are at www1.sphere.ne.jp/nekotom/toy.html. DD-01 D-Head black,white,yellow,t-green aircraft DD-02 D-Leon blue,white,yellow,black tank DD-03 D-Ground red,black,white,t-green dog-tank Then there are the hobbyists: www.crosswinds.net/~frx/blockwars/ - Jeroen Zuiderwijk, Block Wars Transformers www.geocities.com/~legobot/index-2.htm - Mike Wampole, LegoBot Headquarters members.tripod.com/minispy/transformers/tfs.html - Joel Kuester's designs members.tripodasia.com.sg/kaisheng/lego/mylego.htm - Kai Sheng's designs The following has nothing to do with articulation, robots or transformation, but I've found Todd Lehman's Fibblesnork Random LEGO Set Name Generator to be extremely funny: www.fibblesnork.com/lego/namegen/. /** ************************************************************************ *** BOOK REVIEW *** _The Yard: Building a Destroyer at the Bath Iron Works_ *** Michael S. Sanders *** HarperCollins 1999, 253pp, hardback *** ********************************************************************** */ BIW, the Bath Iron Works of Bath, Maine, on the Kennebec River, is one of six remaining US shipyards, and the lead designer and builder of Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided missile destroyers for the US Navy. The book follows the construction, launching and outfitting of the DDG-75 _Donald Cook_ (the yard's Hull 463), and the training of its first crew. It's not particularly technical, but does have plenty of photos and diagrams. The DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided missile destroyer is the most recent and heavily-armed design in the US fleet. Class members are 504 feet long, 67 feet wide, and 168 feet to the top of the radar mast; at 9000 tons, they draw 30 feet of water. Four 25,000-hp gas turbines drive two variable-pitch props for a cruising speed of 16 knots, and a max sustainable of 31; flank speed is classified. Primary armament is 90 vertical launch missile tubes in two banks; plus Harpoon missile canisters, two deck-mounted three-tube torpedo launchers, a five-inch forward deck gun and two Phalanx CIWS. Surprisingly, the ship is essentially handmade -- even if some of the tools are 300-ton presses and plasma torches capable of cutting two-inch steel plate. There's even a blacksmith onsite, who hot-forges small pieces in shapes impossible to create with cold-forming. True, you don't automate unless your output is large and repeatable; ironically, that's what the blacksmith does: ladder brackets and hatch dogging cams. Actually, you'd think hatches would be standardized across all USN ships and available in bulk. To stay competitive, BIW continually adopts new methods and technologies. Their current methodology involves the largest possible prefab units, built indoors under controlled conditions. The 70-some "assembly units" (as big as the doors and cranes allow) are joined into 40-some "erection units," typically three decks high and the full width of the ship. These are joined into a full ship on the ways, the sloped ramp leading into the river. Building on the ways is three times as expensive as indoors, largely because all the tools must be specially adjusted to account for the incline; but it's still cheaper than outfitting on the water. There's the comparison with the greater, faster output of European and Japanese commercial shipbuilders. A military vessel is more expensive because it simply packs more stuff, with tighter specs and higher performance, into the same volume. There's the complex launching procedure, in which the seaworthy hull slides down the waxed-and-greased launching ways into the river. The critical moment comes when the stern becomes buoyant, causing the ship to pivot amidships and compress a special cradle at the bow. This method is soon to be replaced by a submersible drydock. The book spends almost as much time profiling the yard's ceremonies and workers as its techniques: steelworkers, shipfitters, supervisors and managers. There's also the months-long familiarization of the _Donald Cook's_ first crew, as they work along with the yard to complete outfitting the ship. This understanding, and the consequential skill at damage control, is a particular specialty of the US Navy (the book notes); Japanese commanders during WWII were repeatedly-and-upleasantly surprised to see ships they had thought out of action come steaming back over the horizon. (The eponymous starship of the 1970s anime "Space Battleship Yamato" might have borrowed its name from a WWII Japanese vessel, but its crew displayed the repair prowess of the USN.) See also he Yard's website, www.biw.com, and www.hazegray.org for links to other US and worldwide shipyards. /** ************************************************************************ *** UPCOMING *** Series, Seasons, Episodes, Movies, Books *** ********************************************************************** */ HEADS UP... On UPN, two new series premiere on f-27-oct: good guerillas against totalitarian US in "Freedom" at 20:00, and cool cybercops on "Level 9" at 21:00. No, it seems "StarGate SG-1" is moving back to 17:00 on Saturdays on wtxf- 29-fox. Get out the VCRs, Tivos, ReplayTVs and video capture cards -- it's up against EFC again. Or wait for the encore of one or the other, a week later. TOONS ETC. ... Why do I even bother to list these? Does anybody but myself even *watch* Saturday morning 'toons? I know *some* of you are RSTC fans, but that's vanished with BKN, so...? I don't have the Cartoon Network, so I *really* don't know why I list the anime there. Anybody want these? They'll show up in the online HTML listings, as soon as I figure those out. PRIMETIME ETC. PROGRAMMING... Sld Dead Man Sliding k1804 pg sfc m 1016-1800 * Ros Surprise 203 wb m 1016-2100 Sld State of the A.R.T. K1813 pg sfc t 1017-1800 * Building Big: Skyscrapers 103 12 t 1017-2000 f 1020-2200 * Buf Out of My Mind 504 pg wb t 1017-2000 * Dka Flushed 105 fox t 1017-2100 * Ang Untouched 204 14 wb t 1017-2100 Sld Season's Greedings k1806 pg sfc w 1018-1800 * 7D Peacekeepers 302 upn w 1018-2000 * Vgr Drive v249/703 upn w 1018-2100 z 1021-2330 Sld Murder Most Foul k1815 pg sfc r 1019-1800 * Chm Once Upon a Time 303 pg wb r 1019-2100 Sld Slide Like an Egyptian k1817 pg sfc f 1020-1800 r Inv Liberty and Larceny 105 pg sfc f 1020-2000 f 1020-2300 * Fky Subject: Edith Keeler Must Die 104 upn f 1020-2100 r SG1 Upgrades 403 pg sho f 1020-2200 BCJ Senior Spirit 108 wb z 1021-1000 r JAT Croque for a Day 1314 pg 17 z 1021-1430 * EFC First Breath 403 17 z 1021-1700 s 1029 * SG1 303 pg 29 z 1021-1700 s 1029-0400 * And To Loose the Fateful Lightning 103 17 z 1021-1800 r Inv Tiresias 404 48 z 1021-2000 Fut (pr'emp'd by baseball) fox s 1022-1900 Sim (pr'emp'd by baseball) fox s 1022-2000 PJs The HJs 205 14 wb s 1022-2030 XF (pr'emp'd by baseball) fox s 1022-2100 Vgr Coda 858-v158/316 57 s 1022-0030 Sld Paradise Lost k1818 pg sfc m 1023-1800 * Ros Summer of '47 204 pg wb m 1023-2100 Sld The Exodus, pt.1 k1825 pg sfc t 1024-1800 * Building Big: Dams 104 12 t 1024-2000 * Buf No Place Like Home 505 pg wb t 1024-2000 * Ang Dear Boy 205 pg wb t 1024-2100 Sld The Exodus, pt.2 k1824 pg sfc w 1025-1800 * 7D Rhino 303 pg upn w 1025-2000 * Vgr Repression 704 pg upn w 1025-2100 Sld Sole Survivors k1819 pg sfc r 1026-1800 * Chm All Halliwell's Eve 304 pg wb r 1026-2100 Sld The Breeder k1823 pg sfc f 1027-1800 * Fre Alpha Dogs (series premiere) 101 upn f 1027-2000 * Fky Subject: Coelacanth This! 102 fox f 1027-2100 * Lv9 Pilot (series premiere) 101 upn f 1027-2100 * Cle Brain Drain v1218 pg 17 z 1028-1400 * JAT Monkey Business 118 pg 17 z 1028-1430 * And D Minus Zero 104 17 z 1028-1800 * EFC Limbo 404 17 z 1028-0000 r Fut When Aliens Attack 112 fox s 1029-1900 Sim (pr'emp'd by baseball) fox s 1029-2000 r PJs He's Gotta Have It 109 14 wb s 1029-2030 XF (pr'emp'd by baseball) fox s 1029-2100 abc wpvi-6, cbs kyw-3, fox wtxf-29, ind wgtw-48, ind wfmz-69, nbc wcau-10, pbs whyy-12, pbs wybe-35, upn wpsg-57, wb wphl-17; fx F/X, plx MoviePlex, sfc Sci-Fi Channel, sho Showtime, tnt is TNT, ton Cartoon Network, usa USA. 7D 7 Days, And Andromeda, Ang Angel, BCJ Brisco County Junior, Buf Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Cle Cleopatra 2525, EFC Earth: Final Conflict, Fky FreakyLinks, Fre Freedom, Fut Futurama, Inv The Invisible Man, JAT Jack of All Trades, Lv9 Level 9, PJs The PJs, SG1 StarGate SG-1, Sim Simpsons, Sld Sliders, Vgr Star Trek: Voyager, XF The X-Files. STRIPPED SF... Star Trek: The Next Generation Weeknights (Tue-Fri) 21:00 1 hour, TV-PG, WFMZ-69 The Icarus Factor 140/214 t 1017 Riker vs. his dad! Pen Pals 141/215 w 1018 Data's ham radio bud: save her world! Q Who? 142/216 r 1019 Big-E vs. Borg: Round One! Samaritan Snare 143/217 f 1020 We look for things. Up the Long Ladder 144/218 t 1024 Colonists: pastoral+clones=headache. Manhunt 145/219 w 1025 Picard vs. Lwaxana: Round Two! The Emissary 146/220 r 1026 Worf's libido vs. K'Ehleyr. Peak Performance 147/221 f 1027 Ferengi crash war games. Babylon 5: The Widescreen Edition Weeknights (Mon-Fri) 19:00 1 hour, TV-PG, The Sci-Fi Channel TKO 119/114 m 1016 Garibaldi's boxer bud vs. everyone! Grail 109/115 t 1017 Holy grail searcher and Jinxo. Eyes 122/116 w 1018 Legacies 115/117 r 1019 A Voice in the Wilderness/1 118 f 1020 A Voice in the Wilderness/2 119 m 1023 Babylon Squared 119/120 t 1024 B4: a blast from the past. The Quality of Mercy 117/121 w 1025 Chrysalis 112/122 r 1026 Delenn the butterfly. Points of Depature 201 f 1027 /** ************************************************************************ *** 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. Certain data has been obtained and aggregated from, repeatedly and in particular: Excite tv.excite.com Star Trek Continuum startrek.com If you're receiving this newsletter, you've probably intentionally subscribed to it. Or possibly you've procrastinated in subscribing and I'm sending it to you anyway. Or maybe you're a family member and I'm demonstrating that I'm still alive. In any case, to cancel your subscription, send an email message to pethorne@earthlink.net with the words "UNSUBSCRIBE NON-SEQUITUR" in the subject line and/or body. Capitalization and punctuation don't matter, since I'm doing this all manually. /** ************************************************************************ *** ************************************************************************ *** The Non-Sequitur Express *** http://nsx.underbase.org/ *** Volume 2, Issue 27: Wednesday, 18 October 2000 *** Copyright 1999-2000 Phillip Thorne, pethorne@earthlink.net *** ************************************************************************ *** ********************************************************************** */