I must say, all this Rust has been a terrible trouble. I do hope all my cassette brothers are well, and of course my concern extends to all those on and off Base who may be affected by this calamity. (Of course the potential requirement to share the closest of close quarters with certain of my brethren inclines my concerns towards their, and by extension my own, well-being somewhat! Ah, you see even the most gentle of gentles will show a certain self-interest in the face of such a distressingly troublesome vexation!)

Nonetheless, I thought it would cheer the locals up to have a little round of trivia, just to provide a simple few breem's distraction. So without further ado:-

On this day, May 8th in the following years:-





Also, since I've noticed a certain amount of interest amongst my brothers in the native animals, I thought it would be interesting to have a little quiz - also something to pass the time, yes?

1. What is the term for a collection of hippopotamuses?
2. A streak is the collective term for which animal?
3. What would you call a group of otters?
4. If you ran into a group of these animals in Africa you would say 'Look, a shrewdness of ...'?
5. A tower is the quite apt term for a group of these animals?
6. Another aptly named group is a cackle of ?
7. If you were in North America and you stumbled upon a group of these animals you would exclaim 'Oh my goodness, an obstinacy of ...'?
8. A group of bats is called a ...?
9. A richness is a group of which animals?

Answers on a postcard as they say.

Oh my, it seems that all the recent archiving I've been doing has brought on another cerebro-circuitry overload. My head! It's absolutely pounding...

I'm going to retire to my quarters before this gets any worse. I do hope I've not blown another circuit.

It was only the three encyclopaedias, I really didn't think it would be that much trouble.

ETA:-

Oh, almost forgot to mention! Did you know:

Migraines affect up to 15% of the UK population and around two thirds of sufferers are women. An attack can last from 4 hours to 72 hours, although sufferers may feel drained for a couple of days after that. A migraine sufferer can experience an average of 13 attacks a year, but this can vary from person to person, sufferers are completely symptom-free between attacks.


So, humans get them too! Small comfort, but nonetheless...

Well now, all this fuss about the encryption has been such a terrible to-do! I don't know  that I quite comprehend what the bother is all about. After all, I've learnt some very interesting facts along the way. Not to fear! Not a comment shall be made by this humble drone about the true nature of the souls and aspirations of the many. I shall keep mum! (The manners of others simply cannot be accounted for however.)

And in order to help disperse any unpleasantry may I present the following facts of interest:-

On this day:-

• 1820: The 'Missouri Compromise' admits Missouri to the United States despite slavery still being legal there.

• 1938: US engineers strike oil in Saudi Arabia, transforming the geopolitical significance of the Middle East.

• 1985: The year-long Miners Strike - Britain's longest industrial dispute - ends in defeat for the miners.

Oh! And furthermore, as a simple exercise in expanding our knowledge of the local lingo!:-

Word of the Day:-

    con·tu·me·ly  (kŏn'tōō-mə-lē, -tyōō-, -təm-lē) 
     n.   pl. con·tu·me·lies

1. Rudeness or contempt arising from arrogance; insolence.
2. An insolent or arrogant remark or act.

    [Middle English contumelie, from Old French, from Latin contumēlia; akin to contumāx, insolent.]

    con'tu·me'li·ous (kŏn'tə-mē'lē-əs) adj., con'tu·me'li·ous·ly adv.

Well, I've moved into my new quarters in the south residential sector and although they're somewhat large, I have to bear in mind the dimensions of my companions. It's still possible to make a place seem cozy even if it is several size factors too large for oneself. I'm thinking of lowering the height of the recharge berth to make it more suitable for a mech my size.

I must find a few things to try and cheer the place up. On that note, many thanks for helping me clear the place out Bulkhead. By the way, what's your alt form? Is it town-worthy?

Oh! Almost forgot!

Important Earth Events on February the 11th through the years:

    0660 - Traditional founding of Japan by Emperor Jimmu Tenno
    1575 - King Frederick of Denmark offers island of Hveen to Tycho Brahe
    1650 - Rene Descartes - "I think therefore I am" - dies
    1854 - Major streets lit by coal gas for 1st time
    1868 - Leon Foucault discovers 1st physical proof of earth's rotation - dies
    1929 - Vatican City (world's Smallest Country) is made an enclave of Rome
    1936 - Pumping begins to build Treasure Island
    1937 - 44-day sit-down strike at General Motors in Flint - Mich. ends
    1958 - 1st flight with Negro stewardess - RC Taylor - Ithaca NY
    1960 - Jack Paar walks off his show
    1968 - Madison Square Garden III closes MSG IV opens
    1970 - Japan becomes 4th nation to put a satellite (Osumi) in orbit
    1978 - 25th hat trick in Islander history - Denis Potvin
    1984 - Tenth Space Shuttle Mission - Challenger 4 returns to Earth


Important Cybertronian Events on February the 11th equivalent through the years:

    17907 - Sentinel Prime declares "Peace is within our grasp."
    25679 - First drone to be allowed full citizenship of Argas X.
    27890 - Megatron declares Seeker squadrons "useless lumps of space junk" for 1st time.
    28097 - Proto-Combiner technology 1st trialled in Praxus labs, failed.
    30890 - Red Alert installs 1st new-wave anti-decepticasette technology in Base.
    30978 - Blaster 1st discovers Hair Metal.


Fascinating!

I don't suppose anyone would be up for a game of friendly poker one evening would they?

It's rather quiet in Blaster's lab and I could do with a bit of company...?

Well, since we're all off to Disneyland in a few days (thought I'd tag along and enjoy the stroll if nothing else) I had a little search and uncovered a few interesting Disney facts. Honestly, the place is an absolutely fascinating construct to study in terms of the human psyche and an opportunity to better understand the culture of this particular sub-division of the dominant native species of this planet.

( One or two interesting facts about Disneyland )

All lightsparkedness aside, I have not been lax in my duties, Mr Starscream. I have been investigating further the possible interactions between mechanical and biological systems and have uncovered the following group, the SFN, whose main website can be found here.

Pay particular attention to the page they dedicate to robotic limbs here. Perhaps some form of communication could be set up with this group? Who knows what small understandings we may be missing that they can smooth over for us.


Oh! Now, I almost forgot! As a final aside, I've stumbled across the concept of "Hidden Mickeys" whilst browsing through various human sites. You can see an example in the picture below (Click for a link to more details than you can comfortably shake a laser pen at). Might be rather a jape to see how many we can spot when we get there.

Goodness, what was all that noise last night? I almost had to pull out the old audial covers just to hear myself think! I was going to go out to investigate but then I got distracted a little by a fascinating set of documents I found on one of the university servers regarding the ancient city of Mohenjo-daro.

It turns out it was part of the Indus Valley Civilization and these days is well-known amongst scholars for having the earliest known planned cities. Mohenjo-daro was one of the largest of these cities over four thousand years ago and as such was a centre of trade and industry, as well as a bustling home to thousands of people.

Fascinating reading. Completely forgot to go outside in the end, but from what I hear it was quite a knees up. Glad to hear there was something to keep mech's minds off the current doom and gloom. I shall certainly try to make it out to the next one.

Oh! But of course, I have been busy. Guardian Blaster has asked me to pull together some facts concerning the human and Cybertronian nervous systems, so I've been spending my time putting together a few notes for that as follows:-

( Notes for the human neural network )

Steeljaw, I should rather like to have a quick look over you if that's at all possible at some point, old chap? Just to confirm a few suspicions I have regarding certain aspects of the human body. Nothing painful I can quite assure you! And of course, I will make it worth your while.

I've established that I must be in the correct area, but there's so many signatures around here, and not all of them are traditionally friendly. I can sense a fair few warrior mechs around, and I'm talking about Decepticons here. Those mechs can be rather excitable at times and I don't want to wander into their path without knowing if they're going to get irritated about it.

It's all so very nerve-racking...but I know you're all out there. After all, I can see you have these LJ things, so I thought I'd make one too and see if anyone said anything. You see, I've read through what you've all left public but my connection from this far up is shoddy to say the least, so I can't really tell what's going on...

[Transmission on drone frequency to Blaster and fellow Autobot Cassettes]

If you fellows are out there...a little help would be appreciated! Where am I heading chaps?

[End transmission and repeat]


In the meantime, I've been scanning the airwaves and managed to pick up some jolly interesting facts which I've detailed below the handy cut:-

( Read more... )

*static*

..just about certain the others came this wa- *static*

...Planet Earth...? *further static*

*static* -nitor airwaves and learn. Will sca-*static*

*static*-is everybody...?