More about Puppeteers - A Host of Characters

"Puppeteers are highly intelligent, herbivorous, and as a species, very old. Their corner on interstellar business is as old as the human Bronze Age. And they are cowards.”

The Relic of the Empire, Neutron Star, Larry Niven

Neutron Star a Preface

“The human is a highly complex organism, motivated by a variety of emotions- curiosity, courage, cussedness, love, hatred, boredom, and a combination of others.

The puppeteers were gentle-in fact one of their most laudable and dominate characteristics was cowardice-which made for a very high survival factor. At least for puppeteers.

The most admirable thing of course, was that they were willing, (and very able) to pay others aliens to take the risks they were morally obliged not to take themselves. Which appealed highly to the greed in certain life-forms.

Notably homo sapiens…”

Neutron Star, Larry Niven, Ballantine Books, 1968

Cleaner Bot Build Underway

There isn't much to see here, even though I started this project several weeks ago. Illustrated here is the central hub and a few of many track pieces that were to be adhered to the hub. I found the tracks, at their present length of 5mm will not wrap around the cylinder as I'd hoped. I should have chosen a more flexiable material or had cut them a bit shorter.

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Cleaner Bot Series (mostly)

Lost & Found - Small is Beautiful

This beauty stands approximately 17mm tall. A very small cake on a cake serving stand. Although it doesn't look it will be too filling, It looks like it may be tasty.

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To other "lost & found"

Edited on 5/25/23 @ 4:18 PM, added Although...;

A Host of Characters - Puppeteer’s an Alien Race

"A puppeteer is unique. Imagine a headless three-legged centaur wearing two Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent puppets on its arms, and you will have something like the right picture. But the arms are weaving necks and the puppets are real heads, flat and brainless, with wide flexible lips. The brain is under a bony hump set between the base of the neck. This puppeteer wore only its own coat of brown hair, with a mane that extended all the way up its spine to form a thick mat over the brain.

I watched with the rest as it came across the floor, not because I’d never seen a puppeteer, but because there is something beautiful about the dainty way they move on those slender legs and tiny hooves.

A puppeteers mouth are not only the most flexible speech organs around, but they also have the most sensitive hands. The tongues are forked and pointed: the wide thick lips have little finger-like knobs along the rims."

Neuton Star, Larry Niven

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Neuton Star, was first published in 1968, is short story by Larry Niven. Neuton Star was publised by Ballatine Books as a collection of Niven short fiction.

Others in this series.

Edited on 5/21/23 @ 11:56 PM: I had forgotten to add quotation marks; 5/23/23 @ 12:04 PM: Added link above

Pliers for Wirework

I found this one page resource that speaks on different plier types and how they may used in constructing jewelry.

I don't know how much jewelry I will be making, however I do work with wire at times and knowing how these pliers are used is good to know.The article lists six different types of pliers, thier basic configuration, and how they may be used.

Here are the six types of pliers mentioned:

1. Chain nose pliers
2. Wire cutters
3. Nylon jaw pliers
4. Flat nose pliers
5. Round nose pliers
6. Bail making pliers

A Host of Characters - Pythsyccans another Alien Race

“Pythsyccans were an alien race that had been warring with the Federation for decades. Although the Pythsyccans had not found Earth and its solar system, they were quickly subduing the humans of deep space.

Pythsyccans stood over seven feet tall, were black in color, and were roughly human in general configuration, except that a second pair of arms sprouted from their midsection. The secondary arms were greatly atrophied and were usually folded across the obscene vertical gash of the eating-mouth.

Musculature was light and largely confined to the triple-segmented working arms and legs. The vital organs were externally positioned around the central spine, along black and purple rubbery sacs which heaved and glistened wetly in the spray which simulated the Pythsyccan atmosphere. One last note, the Pythsyccans stank with a sweet rancidity which was hard to purge from ones nostrils.”

The Palace of Eternity, Bob Shaw

Brick Riders

What do you get when you cross a Hot Wheels vehicle with legos? You get a Brick Rider. It is a rather intersting concept. Here are two "brick" vehicles:

New for 2023

Special feature: Removable bricks allow you to customize your vehicle.

Brick Rides: Brick and Motor: HK037

From the back of the 2023 card:

Born: 2022, El Segundo, California
Designer: Hot Wheels®

"Burn up the road in this customizable open-wheeled hot rod! Use the removable front skull grill and dual turbo engine to mix and match brick parts for some high-speed action."

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Hot Wheels, HKH17, Briking Speed

From the back of the 2022 card:

Born: 2021, El Segundo, California
Designer: Hot Wheels®

"Inspired by vintage open-wheeled race cars, this playful brick car has a moveable spoiler and driver. Stack your parts in different ways and race to the finish line."

There are two more in this collection: Custom Small Block and Brickin' Delivery Visit here for an example of the Bricking Trails.

No Awarence of Indentity

"In the primary state, an egon has no awarence of indentity."

The Palace of Eternity, Bob Shaw

Journey Beyond Tomorrow

First Signet edition. Cover art by Paul Lehr.

The
Journey of Joenes

"He was an innocent South Sea islander with a wanderlust, a seeker after Truth, a young man with a vision that took him on a voyage of discovery to a strange land."

America
In the 21st Century

"Where he encountered fantastic marvels and terrifying ordeals"

His Name was Joenes

"His misfortune was sanity, for he was adrift in a world gone mad..."

Journey Beyond Tomorrow, Roberet Sheckley, A Signet Book, 1962.

Indiana Jones Concept Art

Dr. Indina Jones

There is alot of this kind of stuff on the bonus materials DVD. Concept art, story boards, and comentaries all give you a behind the scenes look into the making of this triology. The producers use these story boards and concept art to help visualize and set-up scenes and to help fill out the persona of for their characters.

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Edited on 5/8/2023 at 11:18 AM.

The Egon Mass

"The egon- mass contains every mind ever to have exsisted on Earth."

The Palace of Eternity, Bob Shaw

Indiana Jones in Miniature

I found this image on a bonus materials DVD for the Indiana Jones trilogy. This scene was created in miniature for the Last Crusade. The Last Crusade was the third film in the trilogy and depicted Jones's search for the golden chalice. The movie depicts Jones traveling around the globe and getting himself in and out of many precarious situations.

What is an Egon?

"The egons are gregarious infinite connectivity through the interaction of their identities."

The Palace of Eternity, Bob Shaw

Mack, You're a Egon

"The most basic and universal units of life are the egons," Labrenus communicated. "These are organized clouds of energy which live in interstellar space, feeding on the minute amounts of energy in starlight."

The Palace of Eternity, Bob Shaw