/* ** ************************************************************************* ** ************************************************************************* ** The Non-Sequitur Express ** Published at random intervals by Phillip Thorne ** Volume 4, Issue 1: Tuesday, 1 January 2002 ** http://nsx.underbase.org/ ** ** "Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from ** acquiring the deadening effect of habit." ** --W.Somerset Maugham, _The Summing Up_ ** ************************************************************************* ** ************************************************************************* */ OBS & COGS: Happy Palindrome, Roses, Mummers, fireworks, balloons. ERRATA: "Futurama" Christmas. SOMNAMBULA: Combat prompts rapid terrarium evolution in Elizabethan inn. 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 ** ** Enjoy this palindromic year while it lasts. ** Tournament of Roses Parade, Mummers Parade, fireworks. ** Helium balloons. ** ************************************************************************ */ Happy Holidays to all my readers (whatever your preferred holiday may be), and happy arbitrary year rollover. In the Gregorian calendar, it's now Anno Domini 2002, and while pinning up the new calendar, I realized this numeral is (a) a palindrome, and (b) the last one we'll have for 110 years. Observe: Palindromic years Gap To next block ------------------------------------------------- ----- ------------- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 = 1 2 11 22 33 44 55 66 77 88 99 = 10 2 101 111 121 131 141 151 161 171 181 191 = 10 11 202 ... " " ... " " 909 919 929 ... 999 = 10 2 1001 1111 1221 1331 1441 1551 1661 1771 1881 1991 = 110 11 2002 2112 ... " " ------------------------------------------------- ----- ------------- In the distant past, every decade boasted a palindromic year; but they went unnoticed, because nobody was yet using that system. In our fancy post-1000 era, we get ten palindromes per millenium, at 110-year intervals, with a mere 11-year gap between (eg 1991 to 2002). Of course, this particular spacing is an artefact of our *base ten* counting. Likewise, any palindromic *dates* (a day in a specific year) are artefacts of our chosen notation. The standard American format of mm/dd/yy is fruitless, since there's no 20th month; but if we use dd/mm/yy, with only two digits for the year, then 20 January 2002 is the first such date: 20/1/02. Use y2k-compatible format dd/mm/yyyy, then 20 February 2002 qualifies: 20/02/2002. Switch to a Julian day (days 1 to 365 of a year), and 200/2002 also qualifies. *** A traditional sedentary New Year's activity in my family is to watch the Tournament of Roses Parade on TV. This annual CA/Pasadena event features parade floats depicting whimsical scenes; the structures are covered entirely in natural, unadulterated plant materials. Not a strip of wire, a lick of paint or a splinter of treated plywood may be exposed. In the parade's 113 years, float builders have scoured the vegetable world for raw materials: flowers, seeds, nuts, spices; bark, fiber, husks, grasses; fruits, vegetables, mushrooms, seaweed; crushed, rolled, cut or dehydrated. (The combinatorial problem of meeting the demands for specific colors and textures, using a limited palette of materials, resembles the efforts of anyone sculpting with LEGO bricks. The central rule of the parade, combined with the human effort to creature unique works of art, is exactly the sort of eccentric activity that would attract the citizens of novelist Iain M. Bank's interstellar civilization, the Culture.) The 2002 parade featured 53 floats, 27 equestrian teams and 24 marching bands. One band flew in from Hawaii, another from England. Several had 200 to 300 members. I wonder: at that scale, is it cheaper to buy 300 tickets or simply charter a jet? Why did the West Point band have bagpipers? Why was the UK band (which is strangely absent from the HGTV parade site) wearing leopard skins? Why the *high heels* on one flag- twirling color guard? All musical instruments carry the logo of the manufacturer, but why are they so *big* on drums? Finally: the Kamehameha Schools Warrior Marching Band from HI/Honolulu is named after King Kamehameha III (reigned 1825-1854), and pronounced "KA-meeha- meeha"; not to be confused with the homographic but differently- pronounced "ka-MAY-ha-may-ha", the ultimate energy attack used by Goku in the anime "Dragonball Z". (The king's also the namesake of a Ben Franklin-class submarine launched in 1965, registry SSN-642. [ http://www.kamehameha.navy.mil/ ]) Compared to the sedate Rose Parade floats with their dignified colors, the Mummers Parade of PA/Philadelphia looks undeniably garish. This hundred-year tradition, derived from a 400-BC Roman Saturnalis festival (and more recently, from neighborhood and workplace camaraderie), features (among other genera) otherwise sensible grown men attached to ten-foot peacock-like backboards embellished with every bowerbird decoration imaginable: dyed ostrich plumes, mirrors, sequins, murals. Singly or in groups, these "Mummers" stage elaborate dances. Aliens could be forgiven for thinking it some sort of courtship ritual. A typical Rose Parade consists of 50-some floats spread over 2.5-hours, with an interest-keeping distribution of themes (enforced by a parade committee that approves designs) and infinite variety in shape. A typical Mummers Parade has 15,000 performers (in Comic, Fancy, and String Band divisions) spread over 7-hours, with no limit on the re-use of themes or musical selections, and only beetle-like variation. The phrase "interminable sturgeons" comes to mind. Another Philadelphia New Year's tradition is a fireworks show over the Delaware River. I saw several new designs this year, and since presumably R&D involves test firings, do neighbors (obviously not *near* neighbors, not near the literal powder keg of a fireworks factory) get to watch? Modern fireworks are based on burning powdered metals (aluminum and magnesium) colored by heavy (ie toxic) metals (crimson strontium, green barium). What sort of environmental impact statement must be filed before a display? Do environmentalists ever protest? *** And do environmentalists ever protest the release of helium balloons? This morning, my father discovered a deflated balloon in his yard, with a card identifying its origin at a Baptist church in PA/York; it had traveled due east some 85-km. It was probably a Sunday school activity, but oddly lacked the usual second half of such releases: a request to mail the card back, so that the balloon-flock distribution might be plotted. (Certain radioactive elements in Earth's crust decay via emission of alpha particles (eg thorium to radium): a quartet of protons and neutrons. Stealing the atom's now-spare electrons, what is now a helium atom diffuses through fissures, and may dissolve in natural gas (ie methane); as the US has the bulk of the world's natural gas deposits, it's also the major supplier of helium (in US deposits, it occurs at up to 7% concentration). An environmentalist might protest the hydrocarbon economy, but would have to be really bored to fret about inert helium.) /* *************************************************************************** ** ERRATA & OMISSIONS, ADDENDA & ADMISSIONS ** ** "Futurama" schedule change. ** ************************************************************************ */ Special TV Announcement #5 (23-dec-2001) promised a "Futurama" double Christmas feature at 21:00. In fact, only one episode aired, at 21:30. /* *************************************************************************** ** SOMNAMBULATION: ** a slightly fictionalized account of a journey via the realms of Morpheus ** ** Tuesday, 25 December 2001: ** Combat prompts rapid terrarium evolution in an Elizabethan inn. ** ************************************************************************ */ Suddenly, the team lands in Elizabethan England, and our time-travelling polyship is sunk in the lake outside a rough-timbered inn. Sitting on the pier, we consider whether wading into the chill water to retrieve our gear is worth the trouble. Bored by our debate, the hothead splashes in, and moments later, the individual components of our vessel bob to the surface, buoyed by their now-inflated rescue bags. "Well, that makes sense," I point out. "So why didn't they work when we landed?" We shuffle over and drag our survival backpacks from the bed of the cargo sled. I paw through the contents of my orange model: weapons, condensed rations, spare clothing, reading material packed in a waterproof zip pouch. The last gives me pause -- _X-Men_ comics? What had I been thinking? A couple of Iain M. Banks novels (in small print) would last *so* much longer during downtime. We now have to establish ourselves in this era. How will we pay for lodgings? Well, everybody likes chocolate, so that's the ideal barter medium; even better than gold and jewels (of which we have a supply). I extol the virtues of this New World import to the innkeeper, describe a resale scheme to her regulars, and hand over an individually-wrapped sample to try. I briefly worry that perhaps chocolate is an acquired taste, and how that'll influence its marketing. Haggling commences; I finally agree to pay two bars, but I get to sleep in on the last morning. Suddenly, we're in battle! For no discernible reason! Blaster bolts traverse the inn's interior, a maze-like jumble of stacked crates and canisters. Those of us not actively trading shots provide first aid to those patrons caught in the crossfire. I capture an explosion in a glass bell jar. Moments later, I take a closer look, and realize an ecosystem has developed under the glass. (A very peculiar explosion indeed!) I notice a gap in the jar's seal against the rough-topped crate, and worry that the tiny lizards within will escape their terrarium environment; I'm thankful it's not full of water. I return a few minutes later, and the ecosystem has changed; *now* it's full of water, and ten times as large. (Very flexible glass!) Still worrying, this time that the evolution may be too rapid for a human to observe all the details, I plant a dozen black, self- adhesive disposable camera patches around the cylinder's circumference. They're capable of slow, snail-like mobility, so will eventually cover every angle. I peer through the glass at the bizarre aquatic life. That one -- is that a squid or a jellyfish? Its dark-grey tetrahedral body is the texture of foam rubber; clusters of eyes decorate each vertex. It swims sideways, and the trailing face sports a bevy of tentacles: a cluster of pale-fleshy round-tapered ones in the center; and at the edges, two wide, frilled fronds, three times as long. It heads for an immobile pile of similar creatures, these with cubical bodies; they're huddled, lattice-like, beneath an overhang of the shoreline and an associated raft of green surface weed. "Gregarious," I note in my log. Hours later, the tank has expanded to cover an entire wall, and has become the center of the region's tourist industry. /* ************************************************************************ ** 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 2001 by Phillip Thorne. In this issue, certain data (possibly not otherwise acknowledged) have been obtained, aggregated and synthesized from: Home and Garden TV hgtv.com The _USS Kamehameha_ www.kamehameha.navy.mil The Philadelphia Mummers Parade mummers.com WebElements webelements.com and _The New International Dictionary of Quotations_ (1986) 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, follow standard mailing list protocol with the addresses below: Publisher: nsx@underbase.org Newsletter: nsx-l@underbase.org 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 1: Tuesday, 1 January 2002 ** Copyright 1999-2001 Phillip Thorne, nsx@underbase.org ** *************************************************************************** ** ************************************************************************ */