THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
12/14/01 -- Vol. 20, No. 24
Big Cheese: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Little Cheese: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
Back issues at http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper
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Topics:
National Testing and Research Center of the Consumers
Union (part 3) (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
DUNE: HOUSE HARKONNEN (book review by Joe Karpierz)
OCEAN'S ELEVEN (2001) (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: National Testing and Research Center of the Consumers
Union (part 3) (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
We are still belaboring the Consumers Union.
Following the question and answer session they had yet another
break for eating. They served refreshments with what I believe
were products that they had previously "tested" and recommended to
their readers, products that had high consumer appeal. It was one
place where they could actually apply the information they had
collected. I had a half of a Krispy Kreme doughnut.
Each person who came had gotten a stick-on tag that assigned him
or her to a tour group. The crowd must have been divided into
eight or so groups. The groups then were taken to testing labs in
twenty-minute sessions.
Our group first went to the dishwasher testing lab. Now there was
a truly impressive sight. They have about fifty dishwashers set
up in one room. You also see a bunch of dirty dishes on a table.
Closer look shows you they are all soiled identically. There is a
wedge of peanut butter smear, a wedge of egg yolk, etc. Plates
are soiled following precise plans (or "recipes") of stains that
has never varied. People have a natural reaction when they visit
some place and see a dirty dish. It is somewhere between the
feeling one is seeing something personal and something revolting.
I suppose dirty underwear would be more so. Here that is part of
what you come to see. It is somewhere between fascinating and
nauseating. Actually the main group of dirty dishes they were
testing with were all soiled the same way. There was dried
chopped beef, corn, spinach, spaghetti, and mashed potatoes as its
fixed recipe. I guess these foods are cooked and prepared only to
be washed away. The tester gave a short talk on what features
they found were good including a new and different silver rack
that holds the utensils away from each other for better water
circulation.
I asked about how they can afford to buy so many dishwashers just
for a short testing period, and what do they do with them when
they are done? Apparently they auction the goods to employees at
typically half-price. I wonder if they auction off things like
stoves that they find are dangerous.
In the lab where they had child car seats to be crash tested they
start with a tape with Walter Cronkite reporting on seats being
found dangerous. They talked a little about the seats and laws.
In New York State a child has to be twelve years old to ride in
front seat. They showed features including a car seat that
cleverly transforms to become a stroller. However it is not very
good car seat that becomes a not great stroller.
The human factors talk (they may not have their own room because
of the global nature of their work) looks at the question "what
does user expect the machine to do." They look at inconvenient
control panels, products that do not do what is expected, etc.
Sometime for historical reasons inconveniences come to be the
expectation. On a calculator the buttons 1, 2, and 3 are in the
bottom row because they evolved from adding machines. On a
telephone they are in the top row because they evolved from a
phone dial. Other features you look at is can you correct
mistakes if you hit a button wrong or do you have to start over?
How does the machine acknowledge button presses? How does one
judge objectively whether a design works? These are all questions
that he looks at. The speaker likes to have people do their
thinking out loud so he knows how will people react to a design.
He had Evelyn come up and try out a toaster oven. Evelyn could
not figure out how to toast bread with the current design.
Our next lab was involved with processing foods. Having just
finished a major report on tuna, they were gearing up for their
study of peanut butter. They do physical testing of foods. They
might look at how well does low-fat cheese melt. Does the popcorn
that advertises that it pops up bigger kernels actually do so?
Much of the work is coming up with objective standards. When one
opens a can of tuna fish one usually uses the lid to squeeze out
the fluid. But the force uses is a variable that might effect the
results. Standards have to be set and adhered to on how much
pressure to use to get the moisture out. They seemed to feel that
the new pouch tuna is better than the canned tuna since it was a
better cut of fish and they felt the difference in weight was just
packing moisture. For the tasting of food they had trained
sensory panelists. Some information could be gained from just
random testers, some required people who knew proper ways to
taste.
There was more food work done at the next room, an analytic lab
that chemically tests food products. They look at questions like
are labels accurate? They had people try samples of two cranberry
juice drinks. We were supposed to judge which had more cranberry,
Apple and Eve or Ocean Spray. I believe people voted two to one
for the Ocean Spray. They measure it by the presence of a
chemical compound that is only in cranberries. They use high
pressure chromotography look for this compound, quinic acid.
Within experiment error both had just about the same levels of
quinic acid and both have about 25% cranberry juice. I asked if
they were sure both products were using cranberries with the same
levels of quinic acid and they agreed that this was a
consideration.
The last lecture we had a choice of several. I chose audio.
Mostly the discussion was about speakers. The talk was more
technical than I was expecting. The discussion was a bit over my
head. From there we went into the anechoic room. This is a room
lined with sound baffles to kill all echoes from the speaker in
the center of the room. This anechoic room was small compared to
the one at Bell Labs in Murray Hill. Testing a speaker in an
anechoic room is better for hearing how the speaker will perform
in a wide range of rooms.
One visitor said that he wanted them to do testing of more high
end speakers. The engineer said that the budget did not allow for
purchase of expensive speakers that most readers will not be
buying. The visitor asked why the same logic did not apply to
cars. Did we not hear earlier that CU bought more expensive cars
to learn of new features? It is just a question of what strategy
is most effective for getting useful information to the users.
And that pretty well covers the visit. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: DUNE: HOUSE HARKONNEN by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
(copyright 2000, Bantam Spectra, 603pp, HC, $27.50, ISBN 0-553-
11072-1) (a book review by Joe Karpierz)
In my review of the previous novel in this prequel trilogy, DUNE:
HOUSE ATREIDES, I made the following statement:
"But for me, the story had no life, no excitement, nothing to
cause me to keep turning the pages. To me, it didn't *feel* like
Dune. And that was its failing."
And,
"Having said all that, I'm going to keep reading these things,
much like I read the original "Dune" series, hoping for it to get
better. And it did. I hope this will too."
Well, it still didn't feel like DUNE, but it certainly did get
better. The title of this one is "House Harkonnen", but it split
its time between the Harkonnens and the Atreides, with some other
stuff thrown in. The novel continues setting up what the empire
and the main characters are going to look like when Dune starts
up.
On the Atreides front, Duke Leto is the head of House Atreides.
He has taken in Kailea and Rhombur Vernius, evicted from Ix when
the Bene Tleilax took over the joint (in cahoots with the
emperor). Remember, the Bene Tleilax are working on a synthetic
spice melange, as good as the real thing, so the emperor can end
his, and the empire's, dependence on Arrakis (and House Harkonnen)
once and for all. Leto and Kailea are smitten with each other,
and Leto takes her as his concubine. For political reasons, he
can never marry her. She bears him a son, Victor. The Harkonnens
plant a spy in House Atreides, in the form of a lady-in-waiting
for Kailea, who is there to stir up trouble in the House by
getting the ear of Kailea and poisoning the thoughts and feelings
of Kailea toward Leto. To make things complete, we are introduced
to Jessica (yes, *that* Jessica), who is introduced into House
Atreides for the express purpose of continuing the breeding
project which will eventually produce the Kwisatz Haderach. She
is under orders to bear him a daughter, who will eventually become
the mother of the Kwisatz Haderach. We all know how *that* turned
out.
On the Harkonnen front, well, not that much interesting happens.
The Baron's health is getting worse due to the virus like illness
that the Bene Gesserit have infected him with. We spend a lot of
time following around Glossu Rabban, who is really (da da) Beast
Rabban, but I guess you probably knew that. And a Beast he is,
too. We also eventually see the introduction of Feyd-Rautha, who
is also part of the original novel, but is first seen as an infant
in HOUSE HARKONNEN.
In no particular order, we also see underground attempts to
reclaim Ix for House Vernius, Duncan Idaho going through
Swordmaster training, the introduction of Gurney Halleck into
House Atreides, and the death of Pardot Kynes, leaving his son
Liet as the new Planetologist on Arrakis. So all is nearly set up
for the beginning of the original novel.
What made this entry in the series better than House Atreides? I
can't put my finger on it, but I suspect that part of it is that
we're getting closer to the Dune universe as we know it, and
familiarity is always a comfortable thing. I think the characters
were more engaging this time - probably because we weren't being
introduced to most of them. They already had some history and
background for the reader to lean on. The action and plot seemed
a bit more enjoyable as well. I was certainly more entertained
and captivated than I was with the previous novel. It was a much
more enjoyable read.
If HOUSE CORRINO continues the pattern of improvement, it will be
a thoroughly enjoyable book. [-jak]
===================================================================
TOPIC: OCEAN'S ELEVEN (2001) (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: This supposed remake of the 1960 heist has some nice
moments in its buildup but loses credibility when it takes a turn
for the science fictional. The script seems more contrived than
clever. Lots of gloss with nice views of Las Vegas adds interest,
but as a heist film it leaves a bad taste in ones mouth. Rating:
5 (0 to 10), low +1 (-4 to +4)
If I am not tremendously enamored of the new OCEAN'S ELEVEN, it is
not indignity over the remake not capturing the original. I
somehow was born immune to the charms of Frank Sinatra and his Rat
Pack buddies. The 1960 film OCEAN'S ELEVEN was a vanity piece for
the Sinatra gang but only a mediocre heist film. Compared to
1955's FIVE AGAINST THE HOUSE, it pales considerably. 1955's
RIFIFI is a heist film that so far surpasses the Sinatra effort
that it seems foolish to even compare them. At least most of what
was in the original OCEAN'S ELEVEN was plausible.
Danny Ocean (played by George Clooney) has big plans when he gets
out of prison. He wants to get revenge on Terry Benedict (Andy
Garcia) who stole his wife Tess (Julia Roberts) and who owns three
casinos. By staging a huge robbery he plans to cut Benedict down
to size. The film predictably falls into neat chapters: character
background, assembling the team, planning the crime, executing the
crime, and aftermath. The original OCEAN'S ELEVEN drew added
excitement from the fact they were robbing multiple casinos at the
same time, making the plan more complex and interesting. The
remake pays lip service to this concept, with Danny claiming that
the plan is to rob three casinos. This really is a cheat on the
audience. The plan is to rob only one casino, but one which
happens to be holding money for two others. Would the film have
been twice as exciting if the vault held the cash for six casinos?
One or six matters little to the audience as long as it is all in
one vault.
I suspect for the original film Sinatra counted the number of
people he wanted to be in the film and that was how they decided
on a team of eleven. It really is too many for the screenplay to
handle adequately. For the 2001 OCEAN'S ELEVEN it was an excuse
to pack the film with box office actors, but it is too many people
for the script to handle well. We mostly see Ocean, Dusty Ryan
(Brad Pitt), and Linus Caldwell (Mark Damon). Other members of
the team have much smaller parts.
The new version of OCEAN'S ELEVEN, directed by no less a talent
than Steven Soderbergh (TRAFFIC and THE LIMEY) does not try to be
believable. Instead, it at times plays its story like a James
Bond mission. Included is the use of a device that would be more
at home in GOLDFINGER than in a realistic heist film. While I
admit I have not researched it, I strongly suspect there is no
such portable device. If there is a portable version, there
probably is no version of this device as powerful as the one in
the film is. If there was a device so portable and powerful and
if it was used, it would have more far-reaching effects than
shown, and the effect seen in the film would immediately tip off
the casino owners that what was happening was not mere chance. In
other words Ted Griffin, the writer, moved the story to the realms
of fantasy to get around a technical problem. Fantasy has its
place, but a gritty heist film isn't it. The film also seems
contrived for Ocean to know in advance exactly what Benedict is
going to do and has an intricate plan which only works because
Benedict does exactly what is planned.
There are a couple of thefts in the course of the film that
neither Griffin nor Soderbergh planned on. Two veteran actors
steal the show. They are Carl Reiner as a con man who posing as a
European aristocrat and a deliciously over-the-top Elliot Gould.
Nominal star Clooney is smooth but uninteresting. He fared much
better in O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?
Slick but not satisfying, OCEAN'S ELEVEN offers lots of stars,
some excitement, and nice photography of Las Vegas, but is let
down by script problems. Ted Griffin, who wrote OCEAN'S ELEVEN,
also wrote another overrated film, RAVENOUS. This script could
have used another write or two before it was ready to be shot. I
rate OCEAN'S ELEVEN a 5 on the 0 to 10 scale and a low +1 on the
-4 to +4 scale. [-mrl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Now we sit through Shakespeare in order to recognize
the quotations. - Oscar Wilde
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