S. Evan Townsend's Blog, page 121

Nova and Words

Last Wednesday (the 14th of August) an amateur Japanese astronomer discovered a nova.  According to Space.com it's visible with binoculars or if conditions are right (clear, dark sky) the naked eye.

A nova is when matter (mostly hydrogen) orbiting being sucked off a star into a near-by white dwarf starts to undergo fusion in a run-away reaction.  These are not uncommon events (about 10 per year visible in our galaxy) but not often visible to the naked eye.  There are star maps to locate it on this page.

The word "nova" for an explosion of stellar matter is interesting and part of how astronomy has evolved.  The word "nova" is Latin for "new."  When Tycho Brahe saw a nova in the 16th Century he thought it was a "new star" and called it a stella nova. And then when scientists found out what a "nova" was (i.e., not a new star) they still kept the old term.

Astronomy is full of these kinds of things.  "Planet" comes from Greek for "wanderer" because, unlike the "fixed" stars (as the ancients believed), the planets wandered about the night sky.  "Comet" comes from the Greek for "long hair."  "Asteroid" comes from the Greek for "star like" because when they were first discovered no one knew what they were, just that they appeared star like in their telescopes.

I suspect other sciences have these linguistic quirks.  Let me know in the comments if you know of any in your discipline in the comments.

Movie Review: 42

Last night I watched the movie about Jackie Robinson, 42 . I liked the movie a lot despite its flaws.  And let me get this out of the way right now: early in the film a Negro League bus is shown going down a dirt road and a text at the bottom of the screen says something like "Interstate 24, Missouri."  It's 1947 (or '46, I don't remember) and the Interstate Highway system came into being with the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 (nearly 10 years later) and even then, Interstate 24 does not enter or go through Missouri.  This is the kind of historical detail mistake that I tried very hard not to have in my historical fantasy books.

Here's what I liked about his movie: it wasn't preachy or pandering.  Jackie Robinson did not feel entitled or victimized because he is black.  He knew he had to prove himself on the field and did not expect special treatment.  In fact, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Branch Rickey (played very well by Harrison Ford) tell him he has to be "strong enough not to fight back" against the racism he will be subjected to.  And I liked that Rickey, a devout Christian, is portrayed positively in a Hollywood movie.  And I liked that Rickey's motivation in bringing in Robinson was not out of sympathy for Robinson, but because it was 1) the right thing to do and 2) would be profitable.  Rickey wasn't forced by any government to integrate the Major Leagues, he did it on his own.  There's a line where Rickey says "dollars aren't black or white, they're green."  He thought bringing a black man into the majors would attract more black fans and he wanted their money to buy tickets.  The free market integrated baseball, not the government.  (Later Rickey tells Robinson that he once played baseball in college with a black man and he didn't feel he did enough to help that man, and that, too, motivated him to do the right thing.)

There's another scene early in the movie (right after the "Interstate 24" error) when the Negro League bus stops at a gas station.  The owner starts pumping gas into the bus and Robinson heads for the bathroom.  The owner says he can't use the bathroom so Robinson says "We'll buy our 99 gallons of gas somewhere else."  The owner relents and allows Robinson to use the bathroom.  Again, this shows the power of the free market over racism.  Racists who refuse to take money from some people they don't like are hurting themselves and the smart ones get over it.

I also liked that Alan Tudyk was cast against type, playing a racist jerk manager rather than the usual sorta nuts nice guy he usually plays.

What I didn't like about the movie was that it was a bit heavy-handed in portraying all the racism that Robinson had to endure.  I wished it had spent more time on his accomplishments and triumphs and his personality that allowed him to endure and come through a winner.  And the climax of the film was the Dodgers winning the pennant the first year Robinson played for them.  I think for this kind of film the climax needed to be something more substantive and heart-felt, something that changed in the heart of a character.  But those are minor quibbles.  The movie has a great cast, good acting and production values, and lots of hats (I like hats). 

I thoroughly enjoyed this film.

Movie Review: Olympus Has Fallen

I'm not sure exactly what enticed me to watch Olympus Has Fallen , the movie about a terrorist attack on the White House (not to be confused with a similar movie, White House Down ).  But I put it on my Netflix queue and it bubbled to the top (well, being a new release, I put it at the top).

I have to say, I enjoyed the movie.  For a movie dealing with the President it wasn't overtly political (it did stray into Hollywood pabulum occasionally) and it was fun and exciting and people who didn't serve in the military probably didn't notice a bunch of stuff that wasn't very realistic.  I did find it interesting that Morgan Freeman was cast as the Speaker of the House and a politician to the right of the President, at least on foreign policy.

Basically we have a bloody and violent popcorn movie.  But it suffers a flaw (not exactly fatal in this case) that a lot of thriller movies (and books) have.  That is, the climax (at the end of the movie) is not as exciting as the first act battle sequence that sets up the story.  The taking down of the White House was a very well executed and exciting sequence early in the movie (if unrealistic, I thought).  The climax (with a ticking clock, no less) was less so.  But if you park your brain and enjoy the ride, it's a fairly fun film.  The worst part was watching Lawrence O'Donnell try to act.

More Freelancing Making Me Nervous

I'm a wee bit nervous. 

While I was on vacation I got an email asking me to do two freelance stories for the local paper (the editor actually tried to call but I was in a no-service area of Montana).  Well, one thing led to another and it turned into three stories (all of which I found the subjects to interview and write about).  Last year when I wrote for this publication, they asked for two 300-word stories.  After trying to write them I asked if I could do more words and they said, "Sure."  So they got two approximately 400-word stories.  So this year I'm aiming at 400 words.  I've already sent off two of them that were 423 and 501 words.  So I'm already over the limit pretty significantly in one case (25% over).

But the second draft of the third story is currently at . . .787 words.  I can kind of see pulling that back to 731 by taking out one paragraph that isn't desperately essential to the story.  But even that I don't want to do. But  I'm 97% over the limit!  And, frankly, I don't want to make the story shorter because it's such a great story (because of the subject, not my writing).  I'm going to, when satisfied with it, email it off and let the chips fall where they may.

So I'm a wee bit nervous.

Oh, and staring this afternoon I have another big story (1,000 words plus) to work on for another publication!

Don't Want to Buy a New Printer

Back in about 1993(!) I bought a HP LaserJet 4 printer.  I was in college at the time and I needed to print a lot of stuff.  Plus, even then I had ambitions of being a writer (I was working on Rock Killer at the time) and figured I needed a good printer.  I remember paying about $1,500 for it.  My wife actually used some of her inheritance money to purchase it.

At some point we put more memory in it because my wife was trying to print big graphic files with it and it just couldn't handle them.  We were living in Vancouver, WA at the time and so that was before 1999.  I remember it needed (expensive) Apple Mac RAM units.

So now it's 20 years later and that printer is . . . starting to jam.  Badly.  It'll jam on the first page and then the rest will accordion behind it (never knew an 8x11 sheet could be made that small).  About a month ago I printed out a 400+ page manuscript and for the first time in its life it streaked about half the pages.  So I ended up printing about 600 pages and it shot them all out in stride.  Maybe that was the last straw because since then, it's been jamming.

So the question is, do I fix it or do I buy a new (color laser) printer.  The problem I have is I believe most printer companies now sell what I call "disposable printers."  They sell you a cheap, piece of crap printer for either very little profit or at a loss and make it up on ink and toner.  I don't want a cheap printer, I want one that will last another 20 years and spit out paper reliably.

So tomorrow I'm taking it in to get fixed.  I'm hoping that will solve the problem for another 10 years or so.  But I'm also worried that, like an old car, it'll start nickel and diming me to death.  Parts wear out, plastic gets old, rubber dries out.  It might be time to move on.  I just don't want to.

Referrer Spam

I'm starting to hate what is called "referrer spam."  Look at this screen capture of my stats from a couple of days ago (August 5th):

As you can see, something called "r-e-f-e-r-e-r.com" gave me 101 pageviews.  That is referrer spam.  In fact, of the four "entry" sources listed, the only one I know is not referrer spam is my own website.

On my old (paid) blog I never had referrer spam that I noticed.  Yes, I'd have comment spam but even that was filtered out pretty well.  It seems what the referrer spam people hope is you have on your blog your best referrers and then people who come to your blog will see that and click the link.  And that sends them to a porn or scam or virus-installing website.  The thing I hate about referrer spam is it distorts my pageviews so I have no idea who is really looking at my blog.

In an attempt to stop getting referrer spam, I have removed the pageview counter on this blog.  Maybe their bots will see I don't post anything about pageviews or referrers and stop spamming me.  Well, that's the hope (hasn't worked so far).  You'd think the geniuses at Google would come up with a way to block it.  But so far, no soap.

I guess it's just another annoyance of the internet these days.

UPDATE: I just noticed at the bottom of each blog post a "Links to this post" link.  So I took that out and maybe that will solve the problem.   I never realized that was there since it is in the Blogger default setup.

An Adventure

I'm home from my vacation/family reunion in Estes Park, Colorado.  It was two days getting there, three days reunion, two days getting home.  The trip home was pretty uneventful.  The trip there was . . . an adventure.

But first some stats:
States traveled: Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Colorado
Miles traveled: getting there: 1,279; getting back: 1,204 for a total of 2,483 (The distance back is shorter because we took a more direct route and didn't have to turn around and go back).

Highest speed limit: 75 (most of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado interstate).  Lowest speed limit: 55: (Idaho on Lookout Pass just before the Montana border).

We left Thursday, August 1st, bright and early heading east on I-90. My mother was convoying with us and my youngest son rode with her. Lunch and fill the gas tank in Missoula, Montana and then back on the road, cruise control set at 80 (speed limit 75). After Butte, we started climbing over a pass (Homestake Pass, which is 6,329 feet) and it started raining . . .hard.   Despite brand new tires on the car it hydroplaned a bit due to the amount of water on the road. We crossed the continental divide at the top of that pass and descended into a wide valley.

Ahead we could see black clouds and as we got closer, lightning weaving through the clouds.   We got separated from my mother and son in Butte (they took the wrong turnoff) so they were about 10 miles behind us. We drove on into the storm and up another pass (Bozeman Pass at 5,702 feet). I wasn't too worried, what could it do other than rain hard like we'd just come through.  Soon, lightning and thunder were constant as was heavy rain. One lightning bolt was very bright and the thunder followed almost immediately. Then we came to road construction and were limited to one slow-moving lane. I suddenly noticed there was some hail mixed with the rain. Then came more hail. The cars slowed to a stop just as it began hailing very hard. Soon the road was white with hail and I was afraid my car might be dented or a window crack. We sat and sat, listening to the hail pummel the car. I took a video during this:


 Eventually the hail slowed down and was only raining. The line of vehicles started to move slowly. The road was completely covered with a hail/water slushy mixture and on-coming cars would splash that over our windshield blinding us until the wipers could take care of it.

As soon as we had cell service (it was spotty in many parts of Montana) we called the other car and told them to wait. We got to Bozeman (sunny, warm, but the smell of recent rain) and waited for them to catch up.  I looked over the car and there didn't seem to be any sheet metal damage. 

When my mother and son did arrive in Bozeman, they said they had no hail but rain. Dinner in Bozeman then on to Billings where I’d made motel reservations. This was about 650 miles into the trip. The next morning after the mandatory Starbucks stop, we headed out again. Just after I-90 split with I-94 (which continues east into North Dakota) and goes I-90 heads south, I tried to speed up to the 80mph I wanted to go but the car would not speed up and the RPMs would not go above 3000 no matter that I had the gas floored (the engine red lines at bout 5,400 RPM).  So I pulled over and stopped and we could smell the hot transmission. When we drove to Starbucks I saw a Chrysler dealer so we turned around and limped back to Billings (it seemed to be working fine after sitting 10 minutes but didn’t want to be in the middle of nowhere Montana and have it go poof on us. The service department said they could look at it “after lunch” (this was about 9:00 in the morning). So they took us to a mall and we walked around then went back to the dealer, walked across the street for lunch. Then we decided my mom and the kids should go ahead and my wife and I would come when we could. The car’s “transmission communication wire” was not communicating so they replaced that and we left. We finally left Billings about 5:00 and caught up with mom and the kids in Casper, Wyoming (they stopped a long time for dinner) we got to Boulder around 1:00 A.M.  We slept late and the next day headed to Estes Park for the family reunion.

The drive home was almost completely uneventful.

And that's our adventure.

Vacation

I'm on vacation at a Townsend family reunion in Colorado.  After two full days of driving (and car troubles in Billings, Montana, we arrived yesterday.  It's beautiful here but the living conditions are a bit rustic.  Also we're at 8,000 feet over sea level and just walking up a slight incline is an aerobic workout.  We're at the "YMCA of the Rockies" but there's got to be 5,000 people here, too.

There's no AC in our room and you have to close the windows at night because of bears so last night we roasted.  Today we're trying to cool off the room before we have to close the window.

Here's some pictures I've taken since arriving (I forgot my camera so these are all iPhone pictures):

Joke

In lieu of anything else to blog about today, I'll tell a joke:

These three ropes walk into a bar.  They sit down at one of the small, round tables and wait for the waitress to come by.  She eventually does: blonde hair, blue eyes, big breasts, wearing a tiny little uniform that showed a great deal of leg and cleavage.

"What can I get you guys?" she asks.

"Three beers, please," one of the ropes says.

She looks at them with a curious gaze.  "Are you guys ropes?"

"Yeah, we're ropes," the same one answers.

She smiles sadly.  "I'm sorry, we don't serve ropes."

One of the other ropes gets mad and stands up.  "I demand to speak with the manager."

"Okay," she breathes, and leads the rope behind the bar to a hallway.

The manager comes out, about six foot five, 300 pounds, wearing a wife beater and jeans, he growls, "What's going on here?"

The rope stands tall and says, "My friends and I come in here and order three beers and your waitress won't serve us."

The manager glares at the rope.  "Are you a rope?" he demands.

The rope almost withers in the gaze.  "Yes, we're ropes."

Sneering, the manager simply states: "We don't serve ropes."

The rope slinked back to the table and told his friends what happened.

The third rope was the smartest of the three (he was nylon).  "I'll get us the beers," he said confidently.  The other two were not so sure.

He borrowed a comb and frayed his ends.  Then he tied himself into a knot.  Going up to the bartender he said, "Barkeep, three beers, please."

The bartender looked him over and said, "Are you a rope?"

And he replied . . .

"I'm a frayed knot."

Technology Trap

Last night about 9:00 P.M. the power went out.  It was out for about two and a half hours.  Not a huge catastrophe but it was still rather hot outside and by the time the power returned, it was getting uncomfortably warm in the house.  I was, by that time, snoozing in my recliner because the family room was cooler than our upstairs bedroom.

It was rather ironic because Friday when I was driving to Seattle, I started thinking about what James Burke described in his 1978 PBS (BBC?) program "Connections" as a "technology trap."  The basic gist of which is this: we are, in our modern society, so reliant on technology to clothe, feed, house, and transport us that if that were all suddenly taken away, a lot of us would be in deep kimchee.  For instance, I've heard cities usually have about three days supply of food.  Food is brought in by trucks and trains.  Take away the trucks and trains and people will be starving.  First go the animals, then they might turn on each other.

So here I was in Seattle, 180 miles from home, assured my car would take me back when I wanted it to.  But what if North Korea set off an EMP over the West Coast.  Nothing electronic would work (cell phones, land lines, cars with electronic ignitions which is pretty much every car made in the past 30 years) and the electrical grid would go down for weeks if not months.  Assuming I could walk 20 miles per day (which, in as bad of shape I'm in, would be a big assumption) it would take me nine days to get home.  If the marauding bands didn't get me, first, that is.  So I make it home, but all the food is gone or rotten.  I don't have a garden and no clue as to how to start one.  And it take time to grow vegetables.  Most likely I'd starve to death before I found food.  Or die of thirst, or dysentery from drinking bad water.  The government would be in just as bad of shape and could not rescue you (depending on how wide-spread the EMP hit).

Our modern society and the population numbers we sustain would not be possible without all this amazing technology.  There's not much we can do beyond hardening our electrical grid against an EMP but that would cost billions that the government doesn't have.  Or, and a big enough solar flare could do the same thing and over a much wider area.

There's already been a book written about this.  But basically, you can say "bye-bye" to modern technology for a long, long time.  And a lot of people would die, either by starvation or the ensuing violence.

Almost makes you want to be a survivalist.