Gridlock

Grids call for some clarification. In the 1930s, power companies in Britain constructed a countrywide system of high-voltage transmission lines to provide electricity to consumers. It was named the National Grid, a phrase that spread to other parts of the world. Soon this borrowed term was abbreviated to Grid and others borrowed that name. Soon most people understood grid to mean a "network of transmission lines," by 1954 town planners were using" grids" for planning city roads. A combination of the words grid and lock, it's also called a traffic jam and describes major intersections that are blocked and vehicles are unable to move because of their extreme numbers. Even in Charles Dickens's time the compound word was used to explain a "a complete lack of movement or progress resulting in a backup or stagnation" From this the term gridlock may have been coined by engineers to describe the "obstruction of urban traffic caused by lines of vehicles forming across junctions and causing further line to form in the intersecting streets."

Other words that come to mind depicting delays are bottleneck, hitch, obstruction, setback, snag, and stoppage. Eventually a metaphor emerged when a point in a clash when no agreement can be reached, as well as to mean there is a delay or setback. Naturally, traffic engineers don't use the everyday term "gridlock." Instead they explain traffic conditions according to "levels of service," which is a formal system of defining the condition of traffic flow. In the long run drivers will have to arrive at a decision if they are benefiting from life in the fast lane at 30 miles per hour and this muddle of movement gets more perilous every day. In Manila, traffic officers were told to perform the Macarena to avoid traffic congestion. It was a flop.

Oddly enough pedlock has been added to the dictionaries. It's a combination of pedestrian and gridlock that has surfaced to explain what happens when a place is so crowded that people can't move easily in any direction. Probably the most unique evolution of the expression to date can be found in the zebrafish. These familiar tenants of home aquariums make it an ideal organism for developmental biologists to use in studying how organs are formed during embryogenesis. Dr Tao P. Zhong at the Vanderbilt Medical Center in Tennessee describes the essential task of a gene-- called gridlock-- that influences the outcome of precursor cells that will go on to become blood vessels:

The embryos are clear and develop outside of the mother's body, allowing scientists to watch a zebrafish embryo grow into a newly formed fish under a microscope. This transparency makes observation of anatomical defects caused by genetic mutation easier. Moreover, zebrafish are particularly useful for studies of cardiovascular defects since survival of the embryos is not dependent on circulating blood flow. An obscure, torpedo-shaped fish that hails from India's Ganges River.

......zebrafish embryos as a model for understanding a type of human blood vessel blockage seen in newborns called coarctation of the aorta. Though coarctation is a common occurrence routinely screened for by pediatricians, little is known of the cause. ..(It's) a congenital cardiovascular disease," Zhong said, "where a malformation, or blockage, occurs in the aorta during development. The child can survive with reconstruction of the area blood vessels--an adaptive mechanism takes place."

Sources:

Blood vessel study uses zebrafish:
www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/reporter/?ID=1933

CNN.com - Books - Brave new words - July 3, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/2000/books/news/07/03/new.dictionary/

Grid:
http://www.worldwidewords.org/genindex-go.htm

Online Etymology Dictionary:
http://www.etymonline.com/

This week planner is providing study material for two weeks ...:
www.vangrysperre.kawaregem.be/6Aw11.doc

Trivial Trivia: July '98:
www.tulok.net/triv/0798.htm

Senior Thesis:
www.viterbo.edu/personalpages/faculty/ RRuppel/Symposium/Jason.html

Setup

• Required pieces
  • Icehouse pyramids
  • Chessboard
  • Some sort of token that can be passed around
• Give each person a full set of Icehouse pyramids of a single color.
• Select a starting person at random.
• Select an initial position of the token - not the starting person

Placement Phase

• During the first phase of the game, players take turns placing a pyramid of their choice somewhere on the chessboard.
• The pyramids are placed in an upright position until all pieces have been played

Drop Phase

• Each player will choose a piece of their color that is still standing and "drop" it - knocking it over so it is pointing away from the player.
• After a piece has been dropped its color is no longer significant.
• When a piece is dropped, it re-orients one or more pieces immediately in front of it to the direction it is pointing.
  • Small pieces re-orient the piece
  • Medium pieces re-orient two pieces
  • Large pieces re-orient three pieces
• Only previously dropped pieces can be re-oriented

The Token

The token allows you to skip your turn. Whoever your turn comes up, if you have the token, you can pass it in the direction of play instead of playing. However, two turns in a row may not be skipped - you cannot skip your turn if you were just passed the token.

Scoring

The object is to end up with the most chains of pieces pointing in your direction as possible. A single piece pointing in your direction is worth 1 point. However, having 4 pieces in adjacent squares that all point in your way is worth 8 points.

Points = 2^length-1
A chain across the entire board (length 8) is worth 128 points.

• <, >, ^, v: dropped pieces pointing in various directions
• s, m, l; S, M, L: Standing pieces owned by two different players

Dropping a piece

turn 1 -> turn 2 -> turn 3 -> turn 4
s S s     s S s     s S s     s S s
s < m     s ^ m     > > m     < < <
m l L     m ^ L     m ^ L     m ^ L

Original rules at: http://www.wunderland.com/icehouse/Gridlock.html

Gridlock (1993 - 2005)

History

Mike Wells, is a Mastering Engineer at 5-25.com, providing mastering, restoration, and other music services.

Side Bits

Gridlock has officially dissolved in March of 2005. Mike Wells has written up a full Gridlock retrospective at this address (http://www.5-25.com/gridlock/retro.html) which makes for some interesting reading. The Mikes are still pursuing their own visions of the music they enjoy playing and making - just separately.

Discography - Albums

1. Frantic
2. Halo (Rebirth)
3. (unlisted)
4. Sickness
5. (unlisted)
6. Pulvis Et Umbra Sumus
7. (unlisted)
8. Retina
9. Wound
10. (unlisted)
11. Burn
12. Ich Dien
13. (unlisted)
14. Only Living Witness
15. Thin White Line
16. Regret
17. Burn (Mantra)
18. Frantic (Stark-Raving Mad)

1. From Zero
2. Ash
3. (unlisted)
4. Sever
5. (unlisted)
6. Cramp
7. Without
8. (unlisted)
9. Here
10. Further
11. Egeszseges
12. Scrape
13. Under
14. Ash - (KSP remix)
15. Enzyme - (Dryft remix)

1. Halo
2. II
3. Metro (cover)
4. Burn (live)
5. Retina (live)
6. s>r
7. Burn (Aghast View remix)
8. Scrape (live)
9. Sever (live)
10. 5.25
11. Edit364
12. Program41

1. Fix
2. Front
3. Voiceless
4. Uh4.17
5. Uh4.17
6. 397-RALD
7. Estrella
8. Back
9. 364-277
10. 364-277
11. Done
12. Voiceless (Vcam Rmx)

1. UH4.17 (Trace)
2. further (further)
3. burn (the synthetic form)
4. estrella (Trace)
5. .0002 (an O2 track)
6. caloc (a Dryft track)
7. ich dien (the synthetic form)
8. voiceless (Trace)
9. bu-yaam
10. recycle

1. pallid
2. distance
3. return
4. song23
5. invert
6. chrometaphor
7. scratch
8. displacement
9. the 8th winter
10. re/module
11. atomontage
12. done processing

Discography - Singles

Side Projects

1. 39theives (sic)
2. dibt2e
3. caloc (version)
4. drywht
5. mytotyc exyt
6. slalum (eclipsect remix)
7. 39theives (codec remix)
8. mytotyc exyt (O2 remix)