/* ** ************************************************************************* ** ************************************************************************* ** The Non-Sequitur Express ** Published at puzzling intervals by Phillip Thorne ** Volume 4, Issue 4: ** Previous issue: Saturday, 9 March 2002 ** Next issue: What, you want to spoil the surprise? ** 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 If you're wondering where I get learned my particular take, Kibo, Alternate View, Analog *** This month's _Fast Company_ features an interview with a man who thinks, even in the wake of the dot-com crash, that the Web has been *under*hyped. His thesis is that the internet connects *people*; this is more important than B2B or B2C (business-to-business or -customer). If (he gives this example) you want to know about your new toaster, you shouldn't go to the manufacturer's website, but rather to other owners: find or create a special-interest group. (Brought to the extreme, you can imagine an automated mechanism whereby all internet users register their possessions, interests, and which they're willing to discuss. When a new topic of discussion is proposed, a forum is created, and a spider locates and invites all the likely participants.) *** Once again raising its cyclic head into view of the newsmagazines, behold HEALTH CARE! And how expensive it is, and how many Americans can't afford it. The periodic arguments revolve around two poles: (1) Who should pay, and in what proportion: patients, employers, insurers, government, medical providers, pharmaceutical makers. (2) Why current legislation is inadequate, and current legislators are too slow. The possibility I've never seen raised is this: maybe it can't be done. Given the absolute price of medicine and surgery, and the absolute wealth of the nation, and the absolute number of ill and injured, maybe we just *can't* treat everyone. If so, no amount of shifting the costs, or trimming at peripheral expenses, will change that. Economics is about allocating scarce resources, and has little to do with sentiment, which is never in short supply. If a million citizens suddenly stood and demanded, "We want affordable daily space tourism! And we want it right now!" they'd be laughed at. We don't have the ships, or proven plans for the ships, or the industrial capacity to build them, or the efficiencies to do so at a reasonable price, or the trained pilots. "We" being not only the US, but the entire planet; and "don't have" being "right now". No matter how much money might be thrown at the problem, it'd be *years* before the solution was (a) practical and (b) cheap. *** [] Short Takes Gary Larson's _The PreHistory of the Far Side: A 10th Anniversary Exhibit_ (1986) describes how, in that early era, editors and sensitive readers objected to certain cartoons: any which implied scatology, cannibalism, or animal abuse. (They'd no doubt have also objected to sex, had it ever been used as a subject.) Flash forward 20 years: the plots and gags of such primetime cartoons as "Clerks" and "Family Guy". Quite a contrast. Compare to the content of "Clerks", "Family Guy" or "South Park"; or to a lesser extent, "Futurama" or "The Simpsons" (and to different extent "Invader Zim"). http://www.darpa.mil/baa/baa00-34.htm http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,41216,00.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1112000/1112411.stm [link:www.darpa.mil/baa/baa00-34.htm|DARPA "Exoskeletons for human performance augmentation"] [link:www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,41216,00.html|Wired "Armor: The Things They'll Carry" Jan-2001] [link:news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1112000/1112411.stm|BBC "The military gets mightier" Jan-2001] [link:www.discover.com/feb_02/feattech.html|Discover "Future Tech: Really Special Forces" Feb-2002] distributed computing United Devices (founded by the originator of SETI@home) Intel screensaver cancer anthrax IMDb Pro sfrevolution ad-astra games and t-shirts I now know that my local newspaper must lay out the masthead manually. Both 11- and 12-mar-2002 were Monday. From the "weird mail" file... First there was that ad for Pocket Books' upcoming "Star Trek: New Earth" mini-series, which unaccountably arrived at work. No tracking suite number. Cover letter and a color-photocopied flyer. Gets good blurbs from Greg Benford, Robert J. Sawyer, Charles Sheffield, and F.Paul Wilson. For his new novel (credits: one prior novel, 25 short stories), _Picoverse_. From the description, it's like Benford's _Cosm_, but intentional. "Sonomak", presumably a sonoluminescence-based fusion device -- see recent news. Because I was a Worldcon member, and hence probably affluent and influential? Ace, Mar-2002. www.rametzger.com first three chapters. 30% disount at Amazon. Will be at ConJose. What I really hate is the way MSWindows assigns keyboard focus. I'm typing away in MSExcel, and a spate of new browser windows pop up, dragging me away. Notice that most publications with area code still list it in parens, even though it's necessary? In my own lifetime, my area has split from one to two codes, then gained two more as overlays, ie not a 1-to-1 code-area any longer., and 10-digit dialing became mandatory a few years ago. /* *************************************************************************** ** 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 ** ************************************************************************ */ [2] TV SCHEDULE CHANGES Cartoon Network (TCN) Adult Swim Saturday Late Night Began sat-23-feb-2002 ----- --------------- ---- -------------------- ------------------------- 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 ----- --------------- ---- -------------------- ------------------------- *** [3] TV COMMERCIALS Alf in 10-10-220, not seen since telemovie Toyota Matrix with robot *** [4] UPCOMING FILMS Date Title Studio/Distributor Rating Note ----- -------------------------------- ---------------------- ------ ---------- 3/08 The Time Machine DreamWorks/WB PG-13 3/15 Resident Evil Constantin/Screen Gems R 3/15 Ice Age Blue Sky/Fox PG CGI 3/22 Blade 2 New Line/ibid R 3/22 E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial /Universal, Amblin PG-13 3/29 Clockstoppers Nickelodeon/Paramount PG 4/19 The Scorpion King /Universal 5/03 Spider-Man /Columbia 5/16 Star Wars: Attack of the Clones /20CenFox 5/24 Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron DreamWorks/ G cel 5/31 The Sum of All Fears 6/14 Scooby-Doo 6/21 Lilo & Stitch cel 6/21 Minority Report DreamWorks/Fox 7/03 Men in Black 2 7/03 The Powerpuff Girls cel 7/12 Reign of Fire 7/19 Stuart Little 2 7/26 Austin Powers 3 8/07 Spy Kids 2 11/15 Harry Potter 2 and the Chamber of Secrets 11/22 Star Trek: Nemesis 11/27 Treasure Planet 12/13 Solaris James Bond 20 ----- ------------------------- ---------------------- ------ ---------- /* *************************************************************************** ** SWEEPSTAKES WATCH ** ************************************************************************ */ "Reuse this Bag and Win $500 in Groceries" Prizes: * Grand Prize, 1x, $500 * 1st Prize, 1x, $100 * 2nd Prize, 2x, $50 Runs: Unspecified. To play: Reuse N plastic grocery bags and receive N entry blanks. Sponsored by Better Bag Marketing. /* *************************************************************************** ** ONLINE POLLS ** ** M&Ms ** ************************************************************************ */ http://www.colorworks.com/cgi-bin/sgdynamo.exe?HTNAME=_home.htm&UID=&GEN5= The 21 colors are: red, pink, dark pink, orange, yellow, gold, green, dark green, teal green, aqua green, blue, light blue, dark blue, purple, light purple, maroon, black, silver, white, brown, cream. (Note that the tan color isn't available.) An 8-oz bag costs $3.99 and a 5-lb bag costs $39.90. This is expensive, but a far cry from the original pricing scheme which was, if I recall correctly, in 10-lb $40 increments. Only the chocolate candies are available; not peanut, almond, peanut butter, crispy, or the rare mint. mms.com colorworks.com Excessive graphics and Flash applets. The polls for the new color open in March. The (badly-designed) party calculator tells you how many bags (8-oz and 5-lb) you'll need for a given number of people. Experimentation shows they assume 4-oz per person. 1 1x 8-oz 10 5x 8-oz (2.5-lb) 15 8x 8-oz (4-lb) 20 1x 5-lb 40 2x 5-lb (10-lb) 100 5x 5-lb (25-lb) /* *************************************************************************** ** SHOW REVIEWS ** ** Yu-Yu Hakusho: Ghost Files ** ************************************************************************ */ Yu-Yu Hakusho: Ghost Files TCN z-23:00, 0:30, premiered 23-feb-2002 American version by FUNimation Episode 1: "Surprised to be Dead" A busy street; a small boy and his ball; an older boy shoves him aside, is hit by a car, and sees the paramedics remove his inert body. "This is Yusuke," introduces the narrator. "He's supposed to be the hero of this story. But oddly enough, he's dead." YUSUKE URAMESHI(m), age 14, is a troubled youth. He skips class and refuses to wear the regulation uniform (for which he's chewed out by his class rep, KAYKO(f)). He picks fights, and does nothing to deflate the rumors of his bad-assitude. A teacher, MR.IWAMOTO, believes the worst, while the principal, MR.TAKENAKA, remains frustrated. Red-pompadoured KUWABARA(m) continues to challenge him, despite losing 156 fights in a row. He argues with his mom, who stays out late partying. His only redeeming quality is he's good with kids. Reviewing the events of the day and his current noncorporeal state, Yusuke realizes he's a ghost. At that moment, an attractive woman with a British accent appears, riding a broom -- no, more like an oar -- and introduces herself as BOTAN, pilot of the River Styx, guide to troubled souls. Yusuke's skeptical; with her blue hair and pink kimono, she doesn't look much like the grim reaper. Paging through a guidebook, Botan cheerily explains that Yusuke's death was totally unexpected. In fact, without his interference the little boy would've escaped with one fewer scratch -- so his sacrifice was totally pointless. She offers him the chance to undertake an ordeal and regain his life, but he doesn't see the point. She suggests he visit his wake. At the wake that night, Yusuke sees his mom, traumatized, curled up against a wall. Kayko is bawling. Kuwabara arrives (two friends vainly trying to restrain him), challenging Yusuke to finish their fight. Iwamoto and another teacher sneer that he'd probably been trying to steal the little boy's money, but Principal Takenaka upbraids them. (He regrests the loss of Yusuke's potential.) The little boy arrives with his mother and, not comprehending, asks if he can play with Yusuke again. Botan reappears, and Yusuke tells her he's ready for that ordeal. She tows him away to the SPIRIT WORLD. /* ************************************************************************ ** TOY REVIEWS ** ** New LEGO "Star Wars" ** Z-Cardz mini-models ** *********************************************************************** */ [1] The LEGO Company is prepar Degrees of freedom/Points artic Neck 2 1 Chest 2 1 Waist 1 1 Shoulder 2 2 Elbow 1 2 Wrist 2 2 Hand 1 1 Hip 3 3 Knee 1 2 Ankle 2 2 Foot 1 1 Daredevil has 33 points of articulation for 31 degrees of freedom. Even discounting digits and the spine, that doesn't provide all the human agility you'd expect (eg you can't tilt the head down, fold the arm across the torso, bring the legs parallel, or the heels together), but it's far more than you usually get. (Compare to Kenner's "Star Wars" figures with 5 points, or Hasbro's "G.I.Joe" with 10.) Daredevil can actually fold his legs into the a near-lotus position (although the holster fixed to his left leg boosts him off the floor). Most of the points are nicely stiff -- they hold a pose, even under the weight of the figure -- but the right thigh pivot (on mine) is loose. The surface texture isn't ideal. There's leftover mold flash on the body segments -- no, it's probably residue from where halves were welded together around the articulating pivots and hinges. /* ************************************************************************ ** 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 4: ** Copyright 1999-2002 Phillip Thorne, nsx@underbase.org ** *************************************************************************** ** ************************************************************************ */