/* ** ************************************************************************* ** ************************************************************************* ** ** 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 7, Issue 2: Sunday, 27 February 2005 ** Previous issue: Thursday, 10 February 2005 ** ** ************************************************************************* ** ************************************************************************* */ EDITOR: Speed speaking Google, BSG octagons, spam, aspirin, help! TOURISM: Japan promotes itself, a deal, website observations MEDIA NEWS: ST:ENT, "Clone Wars," "Hitchhiker's" movie MEDIA ANIME: Studio Ghibli in _New Yorker_, DVD, theaters PHIL AT WORK: Lab notebook archiving: now with more Scotch tape! 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 ** ** Phil gets another Google top ranking ** "Battlestar Galactica" likes octagons ** Silly: misleading spam ** Silly: amusing aspirin ** Please watch for web trends ** ************************************************************************ */ "Welcome to the 2005 Presidents Day issue of NSX..." is what I'm *not* saying, because it's been two weeks, not one. "The post- Presidents Day, not-quite-end-of-month issue" is descriptive, but a mouthful. Speaking of mouthfuls... I own (surprise!) the highest-Google-rated webpage for the keyword-pair "speed speakers" (but not "speed speaker" singular), and it's the *only* match devoted to people who speak rapidly. That's probably why I was contacted by a talent agent looking to hire such people -- it wasn't a *good* match, but it was better than the pages describing audio technology; and (when I checked) none of the other obvious keywords were much use either. ("Moschitta Woodmore" gets some interesting content.) If a proper index existed for such a skill, I'd think a professional talent agent would know where to find it. http://nsx.underbase.org/review/performer/speed_speech.htm (I'm also the topic of most of the top hits for, as you might expect, "phillip thorne" and "non sequitur express.") On watching the new "Battlestar Galactica" series: I suspect the Colonials are superstitious about right angles, because all their paper products are octagonal: notepads, print-outs, photographs, books... all have their corners cut off. Even a CD-ROM-like computer disk was octagonal. Wait: I think we saw a roll of toilet paper bearing square sheets. I received a piece of spam recently bearing the subject: line, "You might transform." Now, being a Transformers fan, that stood out; but the content was the usual boring sex-drug pitch -- though with the oddly appropriate warning, "Can build up in the trunk." Upon checking the office medical cabinet for something to treat my throbbing shoulder (first time I've connected the phrase "repetitive stress injury" with Scotch tape and glue sticks), I encountered a product labeled: Un-Aspirin Contains no aspirin Are you chuckling? I'm chuckling, because juxtapositions are funny. The phrase: "Un-Aspirin: Contains 70% aspirin by weight" would've been funnier. A task for my readers: From reading _Wired_ magazine, I've gotten the impression that technical development on the Web is passing me by: blogs, RSS aggregators, social networking, post-Google search engines. (Me, I still think Usenet is a pretty neat idea.) I don't have the time to fiddle with these new services, not if I'm busy watching bad SF TV for you benefit. If any of you *are* developing opinions on these things, please apprise me. /* *************************************************************************** ** TOURISM ** ** Is Japan expensive? Japan says no! ** Tokyo Animation Fair ** Manga store with dubious website choices ** ************************************************************************ */ The 2007 Worldcon will be held in Yokohama, and though it's a bit early to be getting excited about it, I've been checking other tour operators to get a baseline sense of the costs. www.nippon2007.org Japan's MLIT (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport) is conducting a campaign ("Yokoso! Japan" meaning "Welcome!") to dispel the perception that Japan is an expensive vacation destination. For NorAm travelers, it's undoubtedly more expensive than Europe to *get* to; but once there, plenty of budget options exist for lodging, dining and domestic transit. It's also accessible to visitors who don't speak Japanese, and the site includes a variety of first-person accounts attesting to the fact. [1] Most everything is labeled in both languages -- most everything *except* the streets in Tokyo, which aren't labeled at all, rendering maps of somewhat dubious utility. [2] www.JapanWelcomesYou.com www.japanwelcomesyou.com/cssweb/display.cfm?storyID=1233 --Travelogues www.japanwelcomesyou.com/cssweb/display.cfm?storyID=1236 --Great Travel Deals www.jalpak.com/e/tours/jp_special_pkg/index.shtml --Jalpak International America Here's a deal: Jalpak International America is offering a package focused on animation: a 6-day, 4-night excursion including airfare (Japan Airlines), four nights at the Sunshine City Prince Hotel (double occupancy) and a one-day pass to the Tokyo International Anime Fair, for $935 plus taxes (from NYC). The departure dates are 28-31 March 2005. A thousand bucks? From what I've seen, that's a dang good price -- but maybe there are extenuating circumstances; maybe, a month out, they haven't filled all their slots. www.jalpak.com/e/tours/jp_special_pkg/anime05.shtml www.taf.metro.tokyo.jp/en/index.html --Tokyo Animation Fair www.mandarake.co.jp/english/shop/nkn.html The Tokyo Animation Fair (aka International Anime Fair) was initiated in 2002 as an industry promotion and last year (2004) entertained 70,000 visitors. It's held at the Tokyo Big Sight convention center, the one shaped like a quartet of inverted pyramids. (The Japanese just love their bizarre public architecture, and animators just love putting it in the background.) The 2005 edition runs thu-31-mar to sun-3-apr-2005. The Jalpak tour page suggests some points of likely interest to visitors, including the Mandarake chain of manga/anime stores. The Mandarake website has the customary upper-right-corner Contents block, but I'm a bit disturbed that four of its five featured content types refer to (ahem) sexual perversions. [3] "Hey!" you say, upon checking the page for yourself. [4] "/Yaoi/ is just gay stories. That's not perverse." Maybe, maybe not -- depending on your personal degree of moral conservatism. But note that "Harry Potter" is a subcategory. I'm going to be atypically unambiguous in expressing an opinion here, on the topic of Harry Potter /yaoi/ /doujinshi/ [5]: That's. Just. Wrong. "Slash" fanfic was wrong in the 1970s, when the mode was invented with Kirk-Spock pairings; and it's wrong now. Anyway... The fifth type is /sentai/, the ubiquitous color-coded superhero teams. As that page explains: Once a year, the creators of the Sentai show renew the series with whole new title, story, characters, and vehicles to keep viewers attracted and for other various reasons. "Other various reasons." Oh, I like that. Maybe something like... "We run out of ideas annually, so we create a new show with which to recycle them." *** [1] English is the world's lingua franca, but if you're not a native anglophone, then I forsee the collision of incompatible accents. On voicing the possibility among friends, I was told of one native German-speaker who had learned English in New Orleans. Oy. [2] For an allegedly organized country, Japan's made some puzzling cartographic choices, including an address scheme that's not geographic, but temporal: buildings are numbered in the order they're built. Companies don't bother giving directions, but instead hand out maps; and even cab drivers need them. The only major city with a grid-based road system is Sapporo, up north; and *that's* only because it was built by *Americans*. [3] On the other hand, the mandrake root has long been considered an aphrodisiac; so maybe the choice isn't accidental. [4] Checking for yourself -- an admirable habit. Trust no one! [5] Fan fiction ("fanfic") is the phenomenon of fans writing new stories with their favorite characters, and /doujinshi/ are the visual equivalent, fan-produced comic books -- an understandable adaptation in Japan, a country where half the printed output consists of /manga/, and even instruction manuals are printed in that mode. /* *************************************************************************** ** MEDIA NEWS ** ** "Star Trek: Enterprise" season 4 thus far ** UPN "Enterprise" favorites poll, sweepstakes ** "Clone Wars" season 3 on Cartoon Network ** "Hitchhiker's Guide" trailer now online ** ************************************************************************ */ Sixteen of the 20 eps (not 26) of the final season of "Star Trek: Enterprise" have aired. Thus far this season: the wrap-up of the Temporal Cold War arc by means of Space Nazis (2 eps); T'Pol gets married to save her mother T'Les's career; a century before Khan and two before Commander Data, the Augments become a bother (3); Vulcan society gets shuffled to its familiar form with the rediscovery of Surak's original writings, a Romulan plot is foiled, and T'Les is killed (3); we meet the inventor of the transporter; yet another Romulan plot is foiled, when Archer brings together Andorians, Tellarites and Vulcans on a common project (3); the NX-02 is launched, and we finally get an explanation for the long-running Klingon Forehead Issue (2). The last four eps air from 15-apr- through 6-may-2005. www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/index.html www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/ENT/index.html www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/ENT/episodes/index.html?season=4 UPN is conducting a viewer poll for the top-three favorite "Enterprise" eps, to be aired 25-mar-, 1-apr- and 8-apr-2005. There's also a sweepstakes, with the grand prize being Archer's uniform, and the 25 first prizes a DVD box set. http://www.upn.com/shows/enterprise/fan_favorites/ Cartoon Network (CN) will air the second set of 20 "Star Wars: Clone Wars" mini-sodes the week of mon-21- to fri-25-mar-2005. Or maybe it's the "third season" of 10 episodes -- I don't know anymore. The first "season" of ten three-minute episodes was first aired in the autumn of 2003; and the next ten in a so-called "second season" in March of 2004. Since they're all connected, and aired at random times, division into seasons of any sort is arbitrary (and confusing). CN hasn't yet posted any information, and the official "Star Wars" sub-site has only a placeholder. www.starwars.com/clonewars/ A trailer has finally been released for "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" feature film, so we can see what the characters and ships look like. It's available on both the official site and the movie trailers site maintained as a Quicktime promotional by Apple Computers. The movie has also changed its release date from 5-may-2005 to 29-apr. http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/ http://hitchhikers.movies.go.com /* *************************************************************************** ** MEDIA NEWS: ANIME ** ** Miyazaki profiled in _The New Yorker_ ** Disney releases the rest of Studio Ghibli to DVD ** Newest Ghibli film to US come June ** Live action adaptation of "Kiki's Delivery Service" ** ************************************************************************ */ The 17-jan-2005 issue of _The New Yorker_ contains a 12-page profile of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, his work at Studio Ghibli, and a tour of the new Studio Ghibli Museum in Tokyo. Because of his involvement at every phase of production, the article calls him the world's first "animation auteur." We learn that Miyazaki rarely gives interviews, in part because he's reluctant to promote his own work; he believes kids spend too much time in "virtual realities" as it is. He designed the museum, but didn't get everything he wanted: the spiral staircase that swayed alarmingly when climbed; or the big pile of dirt that kids could slide down, thereby annoying their mothers. The Disney-produced DVD of Ghibli's first film, "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind," went on sale on tue-22-feb-2005. It's been widely advertised on TV: ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and Cartoon Network. At the same time two other Ghibli DVDs hit stores: "Porco Rosso" and "The Cat Returns." You're likely to find all three with special promotional pricing, and Disney is also running a buy-three-get-a- fourth-free offer. Ghibli's newest film, "Howl's Moving Castle" (based on the book by British author Diana Wynne Jones), opens in wide US release on 17- june-2005. On 4-feb, _Variety_ reported that Disney plans to produce a live- action English-language version of "Kiki's Delivery Service" (based on the books by Japanese author Eiko Kadano). Fans on news:rec.arts.anime.misc are cautiously optimistic, because the film has no elements that would be problematic to adapt. www.newyorker.com www.ntv.co.jp/ghibli/ http://disneyvideos.disney.go.com www.nausicaa.net /* *************************************************************************** ** PHIL AT WORK ** ** It's craft-time in the bio lab, ** Or, ** How to develop a loathing for glue sticks and sticky flags while ** earning a decent wage and supporting patent protection policies ** ************************************************************************ */ One doesn't often get a temp job that pays nearly $20 an hour [6] but whose primary skills are learned in grade school. I'm currently engaged at a local pharmaco in the important task of archiving its lab notebooks. The process involves recalling each notebook from its assigned researcher, checking that any inserted contents are firmly secured (and re-attaching them if not), flagging any pages with color content, sending the books off to a third party for imaging, then checking that all the scans captured the content adequately. It's mind-numbingly boring, and the chronic use of glue stick and Scotch tape ain't so good for the shoulder, natch; but at least it's a change from RSI caused by computer data entry. My skin isn't allergic to this grade of paper, unlike the medical forms I've been handling for the past year. And by "boring" I mean "does not engage the higher brain centers," which leaves them free for other tasks. Why archive the notebooks, you ask? To use the formal term, it's a matter of "business continuity" to back-up "critical documents" to multiple locations. The hardcopy books are kept in a vault on-site, while the CD-ROMs and microfilm are stored elsewhere. This is a company decision, not an FDA (Food and Drug Administration) policy. The notebooks are kept in a particular way. Although that's partly a matter of GLPs (Good Laboratory Practice), which *are* an FDA policy, it's mostly for patent protection. Pages are signed and dated to establish that "Witness W affirms that Researcher R discovered commercially-significant Phenomenon P on Date D." Blank areas are crossed out, and inserts are signed across the insert/page boundary to demonstrate they haven't been moved. Not that the researchers always meet every guideline -- but if they haven't, it's too late to change anything. That little caveat sure makes *my* job easier. The library vault is protected from fire by Halon extinguishers -- we still haven't received our training in how to exit if the alarms go off; being an ISO 9001 company, everyone needs to be trained in *everything* they touch, and the training *documented* -- and from intruders by keycard locks. The reader is placed such that, to present my keycard to it, I have to perform a sassy little swivel of the hips -- which I find amusing. Not that I'm the hip-swivelling type, no; but I'm flirting with an inanimate device. Did I mention the mind-numbingly boring part? Inserts include hand-written notes, word-processed charts and tables, cash register-like output tapes from analyzers, Polaroid snaps of gel electropheresis plates, and complete instruction manuals from third- party assay kits. Anything that doesn't fit on a single page gets relocated to a sequentially-numbered additional sheet. Any page that can be scanned in one-bit color, *is*, to cram as many books onto a single CD-ROM as possible. Everything else has to be scanned in 24- bit color, from multicolored graphs to charts with grey header cells; and each such page must be tagged with a self-adhesive flag. Yeah. That's a lot of flags. There are some 1800 notebooks to process, four of us to do so, and three months in which to do it; that's 150 books a week. Many of the books have a half-dozen inserts on each page, all of them peeling loose due to inadequate paste applications. That's a *lot* of Scotch tape, yes; I expect I'll have quite an impressive spool-ziggurat on my desk by job's end. *** [6] Temporary placement firms prefer to maintain a degree of confidentiality regarding their rates of compensation. I therefore follow the "Dragnet" principle of "changing the names to protect the innocent." If by change you read "omit entirely." /* ************************************************************************ ** Legalese ** Acknowledgments ** Opt-in/out Instructions ** *********************************************************************** */ The original content {layout, text} of this newsletter is copyright 2004 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. 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. NOTE: If you're replying to the author, make sure the address is *not* "nsx-l." That would be the entire *list*. 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 7, Issue 2: Sunday, 27 February 2005 ** Copyright 1999-2005 Phillip Thorne, nsx@underbase.org ** *************************************************************************** ** ************************************************************************ */