On the Passing Scene VII

Hey.

• So I'm getting into GURPS—which, turns out, does have rules for bullets overpenetrating—but I'm all like, "Dude, d6s? What is this, Risk? RPGs need weird dice, how do we set ourselves apart from the mundanes otherwise?!" I seriously considered multiplying all scores by 2 and using d12s. Yes I'm a nerd.
  
  Maybe multiply it all by 5, and use d30s? They're Catalan solids, specifically rhombic triacontrahedrons. Speaking of, using Catalan solids also gives you a second type of d12 (the rhombic dodecahedron), two different d24s, and fully three different d60s.
  
  Anyway, it's all good; I came to my senses and ordered some barrel dice (sold as Crystal Dice), d6s, in bright transparent orange. They're basically elongated triangular antiprisms with tetrahedrons attached to each base. Yes, there are words for that shape.


• I actually watched Sky Captain (and the World of Tomorrow), and, frankly, that film could've been better. Aside from nothing coming of a shrunken elephant shown in one scene (which breaks all kinds of rules...of writing, I mean, not science), who the hell has airborne aircraft carriers held aloft only by propellers? The Iron Vulture and the airship of Robur the Conqueror are there to be ripped off, there's no excuse for this. And how the hell is an airplane that can be used as a submersible light enough to fly? I'll let that raygun slide, but what about Totenkopf's rocket? I mean, the most powerful rocket I can think of, let alone the most powerful these writers can think of, couldn't possibly incinerate the earth. Slag an area the size of Texas and irradiate half a hemisphere, maybe, but not the whole earth.
  
  Speaking of Totenkopf, why did not one person say "Death's Head. Symbol of the SS and also of Frederick the Great's elite hussars." when Polly was asking around about him? And is it the 30s, or the 40s? Because absolutely everything they have is very c. 1937—it certainly doesn't feel post A-bomb—and yet they keep referring to the Great War as the First World War.
  
  Most importantly, I know debris falling on the fleeing townsfolk is cool and all, but who walks their giant robot army down a street two abreast? Limiting one's mobility like that has undone lots of armies that couldn't be undone by Ewok tactics like tripping them. Aside from the fact a mecha shouldn't be walking on good terrain (has nobody seen Gundam? they roll, on the treads in their feet), one can basically be thought of as a light tank. All armor needs infantry support.


• So I'm playing Metroid Prime 3 on my brother's Wii, and the planet Bryyo has convinced me that parabolic arches can look very nice... if they're tall enough. They look god-awful if they're too low.
  
  Stupid Gaudi, calls flying buttresses "architectural crutches" and then he goes and makes those club foot arches in the Casa Mila.


• I bring up those parabolic arches 'cause I thought I'd have my felinoids use 'em in their temples. I have a scene where the cop-protagonist notices that this corrupt noble's palace (in the sense of seat of government) is built with temple-style arches, rather than secular architecture, and it creeps him out.
  
  Why no, that's not a reference to the Reformation, with its loot of the monasteries and its "cuius regio eius religio", putting worldly power in the position of the divine. Really. Promise.
  
  Okay yes, yes it is.


• So I found Vandread, all of it, used, over the weekend. It's got a very creepy Crying Game plot twist I shan't divulge, but there's just something about this show, man. Seriously, it may just be a quick make-a-yen hot-girls/cool-mecha show, but damned if the sumbitch doesn't have more real SF chops than anything Joss Whedon has even heard of.


• I think I read something backwards, earlier, when I said the IMF special drawing right would have to have an inflation rate of .91% to have the value I gave it in my setting. Turns out, no, it would have to have one of 1.71. The average of the last century was, again, 3%; 1.71% is certainly closer to that than .91% is.


• Finally, I leave you with this guy, a Ukrainian musician playing the bandura in traditional Kossack garb. If this is not the single coolest person you ever saw, who the hell else have you seen?!