AtDDtA(15): Hypopsammotic Survival Apparatus

[Dave Monroe]

"'It is assumed that the Inconvenience already has a complete
allocation of current-model Hypospsammoootic Survival Apparatus on
board, so no further expenditures for that purpose will be approved.'"
(AtD, Pt. II, p. 425f.)


"Hypopsammotic Survival Apparatus"

http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-query.asp?acronym=HSA


"'Why, staggering sand-dunes!'"

Cf. ...

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Batman_(1966)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059968/quotes

But also ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Hubert_Farnsworth

http://www.gotfuturama.com/Information/Encyc-18-Farnsworth/


Roswell Bounce

http://www.roswell-nm.gov/

http://www.skepdic.com/roswell.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_UFO_incident

https://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/Publications/fulltext/roswell.pdf

Main Entry: bounce
Pronunciation: 'baun(t)s
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): bounced; bounc·ing
Etymology: Middle English bounsen
transitive verb
1 obsolete : BEAT, BUMP
2 : to cause to rebound or be reflected <bounce a ball> <bounce a
light ray off a reflector>
3 a : DISMISS, FIRE b : to expel precipitately from a place c : to
eliminate from a competition by defeating <was bounced from the
tournament in the first round>
4 : to issue (a check) drawn on an account with insufficient funds
5 : to present (as an idea) to another person to elicit comments or to
gain approval -- usually used with off
intransitive verb
1 : to rebound or reflect after striking a surface (as the ground)
2 : to recover from a blow or a defeat quickly -- usually used with back
3 : to be returned by a bank because of insufficient funds in a
checking account <his checks bounce>
4 a : to leap suddenly : BOUND b : to walk with springing steps
5 : to hit a baseball so that it hits the ground before it reaches an infielder

Main Entry: bounce
Function: noun
1 a : a sudden leap or bound b : REBOUND
2 : BLUSTER
3 : VERVE, LIVELINESS

http://m-w.com/dictionary/bounce


"the Hypops apparatus"

Hypopsammotic... Hypops
Pure speculation, this one: Hypops seems to be used as a short plural
for hypopneoa, a medical condition described as 'shallow breathing'.
"Ammotic" is used as an alternative term for 'amniotic', e.g. as
"ammotic fluid". So Roswell's Hypopsammotic contraption would be a
kind of protective cover which however causes shortbreathedness. So
perhaps a sort of diving- or space-suit is implied? This one would be
for sand-travel, of course.

That's too remote and too intricate to be plausible. Hypo- (under) +
psammot- (sand, from Greek psammos) + -ic. A psammophilous plant likes
to grow in sand, for example

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_397-428#Page_425


"'You control your molecular resonance frequencies'"

Cf. ...

http://www.dccomics.com/sites/theflash/

http://www.hyperborea.org/flash/

http://www.marvel.com/universe/Vision

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vision_(Marvel_Comics)

http://www.marvel.com/universe/Shadowcat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty_Pryde

Et soforthiam ...


"'so as to keep everything solid-looking but dispersed enough that
you're still able to walk through it'"

Cf. ...

"Leto plunged under the sand, and his lungs somehow adapted to the
dust, as did all his senses.  Like a sandworm he saw without eyes, and
perceived the creatures ahead of him, as if he were in clear water."
(pp. 385-6)

http://www.tor-forge.com/sandwormsofdune


"'compensate for parameter drift'"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treknobabble

http://www.midwinter.com/~koreth/particles/

http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/tv/deeper_trek_movies_000919.html

http://www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780345495860

http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780061135316/PHYSICS_OF_STAR_TREK/index.aspx


"a surprisingly reasonable club price"

beating their prices
Contradicts p. 425 "no further expenditure".

P. 425 merely says that "no further expenditure for that purpose [i.e.
for Hypops rigs] will be approved." Presumably, the Chums have some
additional discretionary fund from which to draw cash for emergency
purchases such as these.

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_397-428#Page_425

Hm.  Any real-world examples of a foreign excursion being sent out
without proper equipement?  Hm ...


"'that medium which is wavelike as the ea, yet also particulate''"

Sand interests physicists because it, or any collection of macroscopic
solid grains, exhibits both liquid and solid characteristics.

http://www.livescience.com/environment/050929_sandcastles.html

And see, e.g., ...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10279172

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/06dec_dunes.htm

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/11jul_mgm.htm

Also ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave%E2%80%93particle_duality

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/mod1.html

http://theory.uwinnipeg.ca/mod_tech/node154.html

http://www.qmw.ac.uk/~zgap118/


"'By redeploying energy on the order of what it would take to change
the displaced sand into something transparent--quartz or glass, say'"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitrification

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgurite

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinitite


"'one must arrange to translate oneself in time,'" "'wouldn't that
imply some form of passage bacward in Time?""

Main Entry: trans·late
Pronunciation: tran(t)s-'lAt, tranz-; 'tran(t)s-"lAt, 'tranz-
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): trans·lat·ed; trans·lat·ing
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French translater, from Latin
translatus (past participle of transferre to transfer, translate),
from trans- + latus, past participle of ferre to carry -- more at
TOLERATE, BEAR
transitive verb
1 a : to bear, remove, or change from one place, state, form, or
appearance to another : TRANSFER, TRANSFORM <a country boy translated
to the city> <translate ideas into action> b : to convey to heaven or
to a nontemporal condition without death c : to transfer (a bishop)
from one see to another
2 a : to turn into one's own or another language b : to transfer or
turn from one set of symbols into another : TRANSCRIBE c (1) : to
express in different terms and especially different words : PARAPHRASE
(2) : to express in more comprehensible terms : EXPLAIN, INTERPRET
3 : ENRAPTURE
4 : to subject to mathematical translation
5 : to subject (as genetic information) to translation in protein synthesis
intransitive verb
1 : to practice translation or make a translation; also : to admit of
or be adaptable to translation <a word that doesn't translate easily>
2 : to undergo a translation
3 : LEAD, RESULT -- usually used with into <believes that tax cuts
will translate into economic growth>

http://m-w.com/dictionary/translate

Cf. ...

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0708&msg=120822

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0708&msg=120840

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0708&msg=120841


"new elements analogous to 'vortex-formation'"

Cf. ...

"'A Vorticist. Lord help us, his Mercy how infrequent!' Emerson, believing
Vorticists to be the very Legion of Mischief, had so instructed ev'ry
defenseless young Mind he might reach." (M&D, p. 556)

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0206&msg=67150

"Gone was the Chance that might have changed my Life.  It lay at the
Eye of that Vortex, - to cross the Flow of Time surrounding it, was I
oblig'd to aim a bit upstream, or toward the Past, in order to
maintain a radial course to the Center." (M&D, p. 560)

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9807&msg=29308

Thanks as always, Otto and David ...