S. Evan Townsend's Blog, page 6

How to Fix One Election Day Problem

Happy Halloween!

Next Tuesday is a presidential Election Day. And there's always problems. One is the media announcing the winner of eastern states too early, perhaps suppressing the vote in western states. In 1980, it was all over by about 6pm on the West Coast. I remember I was in store and on a TV they were displaying for sale, Jimmy Carter was conceding already. I was shocked. My sister said where she lived in Idaho, people heard this and got out of line to vote. (I voted absentee because I was in college at the time.) Long-serving Democrat Frank Church, senator for Idaho, lost that year and that might have been part of the reason why.

In 2000, lots of news outlets called Florida for Gore and made it look as if he were going to win the election. They did this even before the polls were closed in the part of Florida that is in the Central Time Zone (the panhandle). This probably suppressed the Republican vote on the West Coast and the part of Florida that's in the Central Time Zone.

So, do we forbid the media from announcing who won states when? That probably wouldn't stand up to constitutional scrutiny. 

But I have an idea!

Have election day run for 24 hours from midnight Eastern Time to midnight Eastern Time. That's 9pm to 9pm Pacific Time. Then all the polls close at the same time. No one concedes early!

This would also give people 24 hours to vote, making access easier. Not many people might vote at 2am, but people just getting off a swing shift might. And lines might be shorter because people have more options of when to vote.

Then you wake up the next morning and, one would hope, know who won the election.

What do you think of my idea? Do you think it would help voting? Let me know in the comments below.

Predictions

I used to make predictions. Being a science fiction writer, that's kind of what you do. For example: I predicted that the phone, the television, and the computer would all morph into one device. The TV/phone/computer in the 2015 segment of Back to the Future Part II was exactly what I predicted. What I never realized was that it would fit in my pocket! But that's basically what a smartphone is. Now I still used my MacBook as a computer only (although it tries to be more, I just don't let it). But I use my iPhone a lot too. Not so much as a TV (I have one for that), but still it can be a TV.

Another prediction I made was that no one would own media such as records, cassette tapes, VHS tapes, etc. (this was a long time ago). Everything would be downloaded (I didn't say "stream") from the then-nascent internet for a nominal fee. I thought it would be like fifty cents, not the $5.99 that Amazon Prime video charges. 
I'm kind of behind on that. I still own media (I recently bought a 4K Blu-Ray of Smokey and the Bandit). I listen to music off my iPhone rather than stream it using Spotify or whatever. I like to be able to control what I listen to and not have a streaming service play The Police, for example. Or the Grateful Dead.
And, finally, I thought we'd all be on 24-hour military time by now. But, of course, the U.S. is holding back on that. In Europe, they used a 24-hour clock all the time. But the U.S. doesn't. Except in the military and some industries. 
Have you made any predictions that happened. Or didn't happen. Let me know in the comments below.

Will Technological Advances Ever Hit an Asymptote?

I was watching Aliens the other day and I had a thought: will technical advances ever hit an asymptote? 

Here's my thinking. Ripley was drifting in hypersleep (or whatever they call it) for 57 years. Did technology advance during those years? She started in a pretty high-tech society. Would there be a noticeable change after 57 years? Does technology eventually hit an asymptote and only advance at a snail's pace?

Fifty-seven years ago for us was 1967. There was no internet. Not even ARPANET (the precursor to the internet) existed yet. A big television was 27 inches and used a cathode ray tube. Now you can buy televisions that are over 80 inches and are flat and use LEDs. The computer you have in your pocket (smart phone) would probably take up a whole room in 1967. The thought of a "personal computer" was laughable. The thought you would have it in your pocket was inconceivable. 

And the science we have learned since 1967 is amazing. I couldn't hope to list it all here.

What do you think? Could science and technology ever come to a crawl because there isn't anything else to discover or invent? Let me know in the comments below.

Rewriting Aliens

I watched the 1986 movie Aliens again a few days ago. I can't tell you how often I've watched that movie. I have it on Blu-Ray DVD so I can watch it whenever I want. I really like this movie.

***SPOILERS AHEAD***

And I, as usual, I didn't understand why they decided after the crash of the drop ship to sit tight and wait for rescue in seventeen days after being declared overdue. First of all, seventeen days makes no sense. If the trip from Earth (or where ever they came from) only takes seventeen days, why did they go into hypersleep (or whatever they called it). So that doesn't make sense to me.

But the biggest issue I have is why not send Bishop to bring down the other drop ship right away. Seems much more logical then waiting for rescue.  Now assuming LV-426 is roughly the size of Earth (it's supposed to be a moon; why in science fiction movies are they always putting people on moons?), and the USS Sulaco is in a low orbit (so the drop ships don't have to drop forever), then a complete orbit should be about 45 minutes. So Bishop heads for the uplink but by the time he gets there, the Sulaco is out of range and he has to wait, say half an hour. That gives more time for the plot to continue. 

We know the Sulaco is in orbit because they say "Nuke the site from orbit."

And, to add tension, they could have the nuclear fusion plant about to explode. Hicks could say "It's going to be close." 

(Nuclear fusion plants don't explode like thermonuclear bombs, by the way.)

I think James Cameron (who wrote and directed Aliens) must be a pantser. Otherwise, he would have figured this out.

So what do you think of my rewrite of Aliens? Do you have a better idea? Let me know in the comments below.

The above photo is being used under Section 107 of the Copyright Act: fair usage.

SUVs and Crossovers

I like to drive and I like cars. I've owned muscle cars, pony cars, sports cars, and sedans. I currently drive a sports sedan.
I define a "car" as a vehicle that is not a pickup, SUV, crossover, or minivan.

According to Car and Driver magazine, sedans don't sell well. In Fact, Ford stopped selling them (and all other cars except the popular Mustang). What people are buying now are SUVs and crossovers. Lots and lots of crossovers.

What's a crossover? It looks like an SUV but it's built on a car chassis so it handles something like a car and not a truck. You see them everywhere. The Ford Edge is a crossover although for marketing reasons, it's sold as an SUV. Look for a station wagon-like car that is puffed up like an SUV.

I've never personally owned an SUV or a crossover because I like cars. I like to accelerate, brake, and corner quickly. And SUVs and crossovers are not great at that. They might do one or two of those things, but rarely all three.

Even BMW is in the crossover game with their X series. Cadillac has a lot of crossovers.

SUVs are so popular, that Ferrari finally broke down and built one. And it probably accelerates, brakes, and corners very well (it is, after all, a Ferrari). 

Yes, sedans don't have the storage capacity of SUVs and crossovers. My sedan can comfortably hold four people. The truck space isn't cavernous. But I'd rather have the speed and cornering of my sedan than have more room for people and stuff. 

I think the reason people drive SUVs and crossovers is they care more about room and cargo space than handling and acceleration. And some tout the fact you sit high and can see better. Which I sometimes envy when trying to exit our Starbucks's parking lot.

What are your thoughts? Do you like cars or SUVs and crossovers. Let me know in the comments below.

Time

Not my grandsonMaybe it's because I'm getting older, but I've been thinking about time and how it slips by us. 

For example, my grandson just turned five years old. I remember when I met him he was just five hours old. And now it's been five years. Seems like it was only a few months, almost. He'll never be only 5 years old again. How long until he graduates high school or college?

Or my "new" car that I bought in June of 2023. It now has 18,732 miles on it and is over fifteen months old. It'll never be brand new again and it will never have only 18,732 miles on it again.

Time goes one way as far as us mortal humans know. I think about the Pink Floyd song "Time" and the line it "Sun is the same, in a relative way, but you're older / Shorter of breath and one day closer to death." At my age I have more days behind me than in front of me. I try not to let it get me down but, it's amazing how fast time is going by and how fast I'm getting closer to death.

There are all sorts of scientific theories about time. Some of them I understand (General Relativity for example) but a lot of them I don't. Can time be stopped or just slowed? Google "Twin Paradox." Well, if you travel close to the speed of light, you can slow down time. But that is impossible for humans with our current technology. Plus, even of you do travel close to the speed of light, you life won't be longer for you, just those who stay behind.

I guess I'll just keep living my life and try to make the best of the time there is left.

How does the passage of time make you feel? One day closer to death or it doesn't bother you? Let me know in the comments below.

Fall Eqinox

Next Sunday (the 22nd) at 12:44 PM UTC (5:44 AM Pacific time) is the fall (or autumnal) equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. This is when the sun is over the Equator and the daylight all over the globe is right around 12 hours. It also marks the beginning of autumn. The tilt of the Earth is pointing sideways to the sun. 

When I was a kid they would say during the summer, the axis of the Earth points toward the sun, and in the winter, it points away. I thought the axis changed, like a wobbling top. But then I couldn't figure out how the axis always pointed at the North Star. It took me years to understand how that happens as the Earth orbits the sun the axis stays the same but the orientation of the axis to the sun changes as the Earth orbits it. I often took things way too literally when I was a kid.

Also, when I was a kid growing up in Idaho, I couldn't understand why winter didn't start until late December (the winter solstice) when it usually started snow in early November. But we were at about 5,000 feet elevation where we lived (the Snake River Plain). 

And as always, time passes and we fly by another milestone.

At least I'm not writing about cars this week!

Black Wheels

We talked about why tires are black. Now we'll discuss black wheels:

It seems to me that black wheels on cars are the current popular style. I see them a lot on newer vehicles and in car ads. I drove by a car dealership the other day and there were five or six vehicles on their lot all in a row and all with black wheels. Maybe the car manufactures are trying to push them on us. I don't know.

In fact, my new car (well, it's over a year old now) came with black wheels:

At first I was thinking "I could live with them" even though I prefer more... blingy wheels. Then I lived with them. They got dirty if you looked at them wrong and they were hard to clean. And, as I said, I just didn't like the look of them. 
So when it was time to take off my winter tires, I left them on the black wheels and installed a set of BBS wheels which are much more pretty and don't get dirty as easily and are easier to clean.

I like the look so much more than the black wheels. I kept the winter tires on the black wheels to use when keeping a car clean is less important.

I don't know why black wheels are so popular, at least with automakers. I remembered being baffled by the large wheel phenomenon (which, to an extent, is still happening), too. 

What do you think of black wheels? Do you care? Or are they just mostly ugly? Let me know in the comments below.

Why is the Michelin Man White?

Has it ever bothered you that the Michelin Man is white and tires are black? Why is that?

The Michelin tire company was started in 1889 in France. Tires were (and are) made of rubber. But rubber is white. So tires were white. So the Michelin Man was probably made white for that reason. 

And Michelin is now running ads in the US with cartoon white tires on cars. Which I find kind of funny.

Tires stayed white until 1910 when the Goodrich tire company in the U.S. started putting carbon black into tire formulations. Carbon black acts as a catalyst during the vulcanization process, which turns soft rubber into the more durable and elastic substance we use in automotive tires and elsewhere. It not only prevents the rubber's deterioration by stabilizing dozens of chemical bonds, but it increases the material's tensile strength, or the maximum amount of stress it can bear before breaking. This is obviously a boon for tires, which face constant strain. There is still carbon black in modern tires.

What is carbon black? It is a material produced by the incomplete combustion of coal tar, vegetable matter, or petroleum products, including fuel oil. The biggest use of carbon black in the world is tires. It is used as a pigment and reinforcing phase in automobile tires. Carbon black also helps conduct heat away from the tread and belt area of the tire, reducing thermal damage and increasing tire life.

Why is the Michelin Man still white after over 120 years of black tires? Well, you'd have to ask the company. But a black Michelin Man just would look strange, these days.

What do you think? Should the Michelin Man be black? Or are you okay with white? Let me know in the comments below.

The Huskies Start Play this Weekend

Saturday, the University of Washington Huskies start their play for the 2024 season. They play Weber State (an FCS team out of Utah) first. The game will be Saturday at 8pm PDT on the Big10 Network. That's a very late game.

I have no idea how good my favorite team will be this season. 

Last year we went 14-1, undefeated until losing the national championship game to the very good Michigan team. We even beat the hated Oregon twice.

But then our amazing coach left for Alabama. Jerk.

So the school hired Jedd Fisch out of the University of Arizona. He had turned that school around in three years. 

The Huskies lost a lot of players and only two starters stayed. But a transfer quarterback, Will Rogers, stayed even after the old coach left. 

I've only seen this iteration of the Huskies play in the spring game which was at the end of spring camp. They looked okay. So we'll have to see how they play against Weber State. I'm having flashbacks to the time we lost to Montana (an FCS team) under coach Jimmy Lake. He was fired before the end of the season.

Years ago, when the Huskies weren't very good, I came up with my criteria for a good season:

1) Win at least 8 games

2) Beat Oregon

3) Beat Washington State

4) Go to a good bowl game and win it.

The move to the Big10 has sort of messed up that Washington State game. Could be in the future we won't play WSU (we are this year). Also, they went from being a big fish in a medium-sized pond to being a medium-sized fish in a gargantuan pond. I think that's part of the reason our Weber State game is so late (11pm Eastern Time).

And they will have to travel more. Their first away game they play Rutgers... in New Jersey. Other far-away places they will play this year are Iowa City, Iowa, Bloomington, Indiana, and University Park, Pennsylvania. Those will make the trip to Eugene, Oregon to play the Ducks seem like a breeze.  

Another thing I'm not happy about is that the Apple Cup game against Washington State (which is now a non-conference game) is going to be exclusively on Peacock. So I'm going to have to subscribe to that streaming service. At least for a month.

When the AP top 25 pre-season poll came out, the Huskies weren't even on it. Oregon was number three, though. It would be great if we could beat Oregon on the last regular season game. Ex-coach at Vanderbilt and Louisiana State, Gerry DiNardo, says the Huskies could go 5-0 to start their season. That might get us back in the AP top 25.

Are there any college football teams you're looking forward to watching this year. Let me know in the comments below.