Acres, furlongs and chains

Urban design is only one of many pointless interests of mine. I must write up my findings of Soviet urban planning one day. When it comes to imagining car-free cities, or even large space habitats, some understanding of space and design is necessary.

I admit it, I am old fashioned. I remember Imperial measurements. When I was a boy land was measured in acres and I understand this in a visceral way, unlike hectares which I have to think about. I can picture an acre. This has nothing to do with understanding the mathematics and everything to do with default visual models.

Anyway, when I design large structures in my mind I use these old measures and if I have to describe it to someone else I convert it to metric to make it easy for them. My friend Simon, for example, must have everything in metric or refuses to accept the idea. This is not because he fails to understand the mathematics, but because he believes that anything short of the perfect symetry  of the metric system is a perversion.

So here is a little ditty from wikipedia that describes my favourite redundant measures: chains and furlongs. Ah, even saying the names gives me a warm nostalgic feeling inside.

The name furlong derives from the Old English words furh (furrow) and lang (long). Dating back at least to the ninth century, it originally referred to the length of the furrow in one acre of a ploughed open field (a medieval communal field which was divided into strips). The system of long furrows arose because turning a team of oxen pulling a heavy plough was difficult. This offset the drainage advantages of short furrows and meant furrows were made as long as possible. An acre is an area that is one furlong long and one chain (22 yards) wide. For this reason, the furlong was once also called an acre’s length, though of course in modern usage an area of one acre can be any shape.

The furlong was historically viewed as equivalent to the Roman stade (stadium), which in turn derived from the Greek system. For example the King James bible will use the term “furlong” in place of the Greek “stadion”, whereas modern translations will translate into miles in the main text and relate the original numbers in footnotes.

In the Roman system, there were 625 feet to the stade, eight stade to the mile, and three miles to the league. A league was considered to be the distance a man could walk in one hour, and the mile consisted of 1000 passus (5 feet, or double-step).

After the fall of Rome, Medieval Europe continued with the Roman system, which proceeded to “diversify” leading to serious complications in trade, taxation, etc. Around the turn of the century of 1300, England by decree standardized a long list of measures. Among the important units of distance and length at the time were foot, yard, rod, furlong and mile. The rod was 5½ yards or 16½ feet (= 3 feet/yard × 5½ yards), and the mile was 8 furlongs, so the definition of the furlong became 40 rods and that of the mile became 5280 feet (= 8 furlongs × 40 rods/furlong × 16½ feet/rod ).

The official use of furlong was abolished in the United Kingdom under the Weights and Measures Act of 1985, which also abolished from official use many other traditional units of measurement.

L&J architecture

The Lilly & Jamaica stories are for the Young Adult market. As such we can deal with more interesting story lines and themes. It is probably best to preserve a simple three act structure, however. Also, small chapters and reasonably condensed sized overall is preferable.

At this stage the design principles are as follows:

• Between 30,000 and 35,000 total word count
• roughly 1,000 words per chapter
• three act structure
• This gives approximately 10 chapters per act, plus a prologue and an epilogue.

Genesis of the Beguilons

Form follows function. This is true in evolution of biological life, and it is obviously also true in the planned evolution of technology. Machines that have poor ergonomics, or are inefficient in their design are not replicated in the market. Ineffective designs remain on the shelf and are subsequently removed from the manufacturers’ lists.

The key to understanding why a machine has a given form is to understand what the machine was designed to do and how it was supposed to achieve it. For example, a bulldozer is heavy to avoid being displaced by the material it is designed to move. It has tracks rather than wheels because this disperses the weight more evenly, gives a more stable footprint and allows movement over a greater range of terrains. It is not any number of other things that may be cool but do not fulfill its function.

In a more complicated example, one might say that many of today’s machines are ineffective because they break so easily after their first use. But a closer look at the design principles behind them may reveal that they are perfect for what was intended – if indeed it was intentional that they break (in order to make the consumer purchase more).

So there are more than just the obvious criteria upon which one might judge function.

Beguilons are diminuitive bad tempered robots hell-bent on ‘improving’ the processes and functions of other machines and organisations. They communicate through poorly amplified volalisers and hard to self-access ticker-tape readouts. They are armed with low-powered discombobulators which they discharge without much provocation.

What was the genesis of the Beguilon species? These images show perhaps early models in the process of infiltrating human domestic environments.

L&J The Kyoto Files

Ideas for book 3, The Kyoto Files.

Lilly (or Jamaica) ponders by a goldfish pond, spear in hand, after suffering defeat in practice combat. As lightening crashes overhead, she sees the jagged flashes as a reflection in the water. The bolts super-impose themselves on the spear and form the image of a cross-piece. This gives her the idea of adding a cross-piece to her spear, and this gives her a combat advantage on the following day.

This is an example of the flash of inspiration so often referred to in the advanced schools of Japanese martial arts. This particular story somes from the Hozoin Ryu, a spear school founded by a Buddhist sect.

Project Icarus early notes

Zero G activity.
Open space – spacewalk.
Leaking atmosphere – threat of suffocation.
Cracked window – explosive decompression.
Silence of space.
Beguilons look like small kitchen dustbins when they are inactive.
Lower gravity – leaping on the moon.
Meteor hurtling sliently past.
Crew in hibernation.
Crew is many thousands of colonists.
Overgrown hydroponics area – jungle.
Creatures in the jungle that have become totally wild – prematurely rejuvenated.
Arrival at ship in hydroponics jungle – misunderstanding of where they are really located – discovery of mistake by finding a window and seeing open space.
Captured by ‘primitives’ in the jungle.
How can ship be ‘late’ if ship was on pre-programmed course? Can only be late if course was altered. Why would the course be altered? Efficiency: take a curving route conserves fuel and allows galactic arm to move into position without the ship burning a lot of fuel to get to target system.
Robotic ‘cute’ friends? Mythical animal helper?
Part of the crew awakened already? More than one generation? Confused about mission? Jungle ‘primitives’.
Danger to the ship? Heading towards sun/black hole/war zone/comet.
Beguilons crave fuel/effort/energy efficiency. Exploration of efficient vs effective.
What is the correct conclusion? That ship reaches destination, but it cannot go back in time so even if it arrives it is still thousands of years late. Could be that it is routed to the nearest suitable solar system which is far away from destination. This gives happy ending for colonists but totally ruins history as it was intended.
Are the Beguilons on a BEPC mission? Probably not. They are out of control. So what was the orignial BEPC mission?
What if mission profile comes from BEPC and not DTJ hierarchy? What if entire mission is a set up by BEPC to get the DTJ to do something against their department objectives, and L&J manage to ruin even that: inadvertantly thwarting the BEPC scheme.
Captain can be spoken to though he is in hibernation. This is like interupting his dreams.
Captain says, ‘We are on a first name basis on this ship. My first name is Captain.’
What if ship is stormed by BEPC shock troops whose job is to clean out the Beguilons? led by Mysst?

Operation Boiling Point

Quick notes following a conversation with Tony.

This is an idea for the Lilly & Jamaica story. All we have so far is the setting.

A timeline change occurs while L&J are asleep. They awake to find the world completely different but of course they accept the physical changes because their minds have readjusted without them having the opportunity to observe the change (!). They are alerted to the change, however, by a shielded devcie that records timeline alterations. Where before this device was electronic and whiz-bang, it is now retro-steampunk tech. It is still official DTJ equipment, and the agents recognise, understand, and trust it.

They return to 19th century to track down the time tampering nexus and interact with the DTJ offices operating there. Everything is steampunk technology. Clearly the change has occured much further back in history than this.