Nesbitt notes (archive)

Archive of older notes from the Nesbitt notes page.

Archangel

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  Archangel - forthcoming graphic novel written by William Gibson. This could be some awesome shit. I can see tailoring Gnomon Chronicles for the same audience that buys Archangel.

Historical Person of Interest: Florence Violet McKenzie

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  1982: Electrical engineer Florence Violet McKenzie dies. She was Australia's first female electrical engineer, founder of the Women's Emergency Signalling Corps (WESC), and lifelong promoter for technical education for women. Fiction, she works with Henrietta Bolt during World War 2.

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  1942: Pilot and alleged time-traveller Henrietta Bolt works with Florence McMcKenzie on secret wartime communications protocol.

Historical Person of Interest: Max Planck

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  1947: Physicist and academic Max Planck dies. He made many contributions to theoretical physics, and earned fame as the originator of quantum theory. His is an interesting life story ... First World War, nuclear research, Second World War ... his son Emil died in one of the conspiracies to bomb Hitler in 1944. I see a drama around the mathematicians and scientists in 1920s-30s-wartime Germany ... Einstein and the rest ... there's a story about a scientist dissolving a Nobel medal in acid, the actual gold medal, to keep the Nazism from taking it ... after the war, the gold was recovered from the acid, and the medal restored.

The Taking of Pelham 3.1415

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  Image needed, movie poster for The Taking of Pelham 3.1415.

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  Old movie poster excited to see new movie.

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  George Plimpton calls The Taking of Pelham 3.1415 "thrilling and informative ... computationally rewarding!"

The Noel Harrison Sensation

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  The Noel Harrison Sensation (or simply "The Sensation") is a transdimensional corporation which Noel Harrison uses to project his sensorium. Harrison usually manifests The Sensation as a movie poster, although he occasionally manifests as a life-size cardboard figure. Careful placement of The Sensation in space and time allows Harrison to privately experience gala openings of his films, his own theater performances, and other film- and theater-related events, without drawing undue attention to himself.

Alien (documentary)

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  1985: Ridley Scott calls his documentary film Alien "a brooding meditation on man's inhumanity to man." See also Do Blade-Runners Shave Their Electric Sheep? and Noctua's Revenge (documentary).

To-Do List

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  Illustration, book cover / movie poster: Nathan Rosen and The Eel Discuss a Molecule Where None of the Electrons Have a Definite Quantum Number, But the Pair of Electrons has a Pure State.

In The News (miscellaneous):

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  2017: Leonardo Draws Clock Head wins Newbery Award for Best Children's Book Cover of the Year.

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  2017: Signed first edition of The Safe-Cracker sells for ten million dollars.

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  Custodian catch phrase: "Don't make me get the shovel." (Scene: shovel full of people in foreground, Custodian, Custodian doing the shoveling.)

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  2017: Dard Hunter, Glyph Warden wins Pulitzer Prize.

In the News: Mir and AESOP:

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  1999: Sensors on the Mir spacecraft detect patterns of electricity which reveal existence of a vast electrical intelligence in the Earth's ionosphere, now known as AESOP ("Artificial Expert System of Philosophy").

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  AESOP ("Artificial Expert System of Philosophy") said to be cause of prophetic dreams among the Mir astronauts.

From the July 20 "On This Day in History" template:

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  1889: Mark Twain alleges that Baron Zersetzung is "trafficking in Clandestiphrine and Extract of Radium, to the detriment of clear and rational thought, relentless seeking to corrupt, usurp, and digest what remains of the Republic."

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  1977: Project MKUltra (nonfiction): The Central Intelligence Agency releases documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing it had engaged in mind-control experiments.

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  2017: Pin Man says he "was involved with Project MKUltra (nonfiction)."

From the August 21 "On This Day in History" template:

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  1944: Extract of Radium distributor and alleged crime boss Baron Zersetzung programs the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory to fatally irradiate physicist and crime-fighter Harry Daghlian.

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  1945: Physicist Harry Daghlian is fatally irradiated in a criticality accident during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

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  1945: The Custodian stops Baron Zersetzung from stealing the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

From the July 28 "On This Day in History" template:

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  1974: Watergate scandal: The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee votes 27 to 11 to recommend the first article of impeachment (for obstruction of justice) against President Richard Nixon.

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  1974: Industrialist, public motivational speaker, and alleged crime boss Baron Zersetzung says he "advised President Nixon to have one of the House Judiciary Committee members murdered, as a lesson to the others."

From the August 17 "On This Day in History" template:

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  1929: Captain and pilot Francis Gary Powers born.

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  1930: Film director and arms dealer Egon Rhodomunde begins shooting his film Spy Pilot.

From the May 6 template:

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  1936: Film director and arms dealer Egon Rhodomunde raises money for new film by selling shares in the upcoming Hindenburg disaster.

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  1937: Hindenburg disaster: The German zeppelin Hindenburg catches fire and is destroyed within a minute while attempting to dock at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Thirty-six people are killed.

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  1938: Alice Beta Paragliding published. Many experts believe that the illustration depicts Beta infiltrating Egon Rhodomunde's hunting lodge, allegedly searching for evidence of Rhodomunde's involvement with the Hindenburg disaster.

From the July 24 template:

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  1973: Film director and arms dealer Egon Rhodomunde raises money for new film by selling shares in the Watergate scandal (nonfiction).

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  1974: Watergate scandal (nonfiction): The United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon did not have the authority to withhold subpoenaed White House tapes and they order him to surrender the tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor.

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  1974: Industrialist, public motivational speaker, and alleged crime boss Baron Zersetzung says he "advised President Nixon to have one of the Supreme Court justices murdered, as a lesson to the others."

Baron Z and Skip Digits:

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  Industrialist, public motivational speaker, and alleged crime boss Baron Zersetzung makes Skip Digits an offer he can't refuse.

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  Skip Digits allegedly works for Baron Zersetzung, using his math-stealing power to rob casinos that Baron Z wants to acquire.

Philippe Petit:

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  1974: High-wire artist Philippe Petit performs a high wire act between the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

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  1975: Math photographer Cantor Parabola takes retro-temporal pictures of Philippe Petit's high wire act between the twin towers of the World Trade Center, revealing unexpected correspondences with other timelines.

Miscellaneous:

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  2017: New survey shows that "suicide-by-Ultravore" is on the rise.

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  Mystic and faith healer Grigori Rasputin publishes new class of cryptographic numen in violation of agreement with The Custodian.

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  Hanford Site engineers begin feeding radioactive chemical waste to Ultravore.

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  Synthetic organism Ultravore begins consuming and dematerializing radioactive chemical waste at the Hanford Site, kicking back thirty percent of the energy harvest to The Custodian.

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  The Custodian lets Ultravore live in exchange for thirty percent of the energy harvest from whatever Ultravore consumes.

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  2017: Renaissance-era mechanical soldier Clock Head says it has "long since retired from guns in particular and machinery in general. Machinery other than myself, I mean."

• Pin Man says he "was involved with Project MKUltra (nonfiction)."

• Pin Man #1

• Baron Z and the Two Thieves

• Hindenburg disaster, Baron Z and The Eel fighting

Previously

• Template:Selected anniversaries/July 8 - Roswell, Janet Beta

• Template:Selected anniversaries/August 1

• Nesbittica Balloonica (nonfiction) is a display typeface designed by Greg Nesbitt (nonfiction)

• Periphery (town) is like Gilligan's Island

• Jack Boucher (nonfiction) ... Jack Boucher ... Cantor Parabola ...

• Max Beckmann (nonfiction) ... Max Beckmann

• Co-opt the Shadow? Template:Selected anniversaries/July 31

• Asclepius Myrmidon
  • Hand signals to Triage
  • Battle of the Crater (nonfiction)

• Bonus Army (nonfiction)

• Neptune Slaughter and submarine designer Wilhelm Bauer (nonfiction)

• Group comedy ethic: Respond with "Yes, and" (never "no"))

• The Zodiac Healer, colleague of The Custodian

• Air-horse raiders appear in space-time above planet Earth-space-time, descend on First World War, the worst of it, trenches, shells, gas, 1917, 1916, 1915, working backwards ... Air-horse attack armored electrical-signal-train traversing telegraph wires across Western North America ... race to San Francisco, which telegraph will click first, who will be first to receive the news? "The happiness of Rome seemed to hang upon the outcome of a race" -- Baron Z syndicates the show and sponsors the air-horse raiders ...

• Jane Beta - daughter of Alice Beta and Niles Cartouchian
  • Jane Beta worked on ENIAC (SETI) - which was a front for unlicensed Extract of Radium and clandestiphrine manfacturing
    • The Custodian keeps the licenses
  • Jane Beta becomes Radium Jane when she drinks Extract of Radium
  • 1923: Celebrity time-traveller Radium Jane drinks too much Extract of Radium, relapses into her Jane Beta state.

• O. Henry (nonfiction)

• • Knows Judge Havelock

• Havelock - must traverse back before he risks dying "for real", after 1911 - traversing back he keeps his identity - dying "for real" he is reborn the early 1800's with only residual memories of his deal with The Custodian
  • But it's like quitting smoking, he knows he should traverse back, but traversing forward feels so good, and traversing back is worse than work -- it is painful work.

• Scene: Havelock Plays Russian Roulette for charity at Carnival Tenebre, a dollar a spin, to ransom O. Henry (nonfiction), or maybe for Mark Twain.