S. Evan Townsend's Blog, page 6

Dream Cars

1967 Shelby Cobra 500If you read this blog regularly, you know I like cars. I really do. I'm not sure what the appeal is to me (and a lot of people) about cars. They are amazing engineered machines and some are fun to drive. Some of them even sound good.

Jay Leno is a car guy. He owns 181 cars (and 160 motorcycles). I'm envious of his ability to do that. There are so many great cars that have been made over the past century.

Like any piston head, I have cars I dream about owning. Here's some of mine:

2015 Ferrari 458 Italia. This was the last naturally aspirated (no turbos*) Ferrari sports car. And 2015 was the last year they were made. After that, Ferrari started putting turbos in their sports cars and shrinking engine sizes to meet EU and US carbon emissions regulations. In Ferrari red, please. Which is actually rosso corsa or "race red."

2024 Ferrari 812 Superfast. This is a "grand tourer," not a sports car. But it has a naturally aspirated V12 engine that makes 789 horsepower. I'd like this car in yellow, or "Giallo Modena" in Ferrari speak.

1967 Ford Mustang Shelby Cobra 500. Not only are these beautiful cars, but they have around 650 horsepower. A little scary with 1967 suspension technology. In blue, please, with a white stripe.

2025 Chevrolet Corvette Z06. An amazing sports car packing 670 horsepower out of its naturally aspirated V8 that sits behind the driver. With huge tires and an amazing suspension, it's designed for racetrack duty. In "Accelerate Yellow Metallic," please. Or maybe "Hysteria Purple Metallic" (which is a new color this year).

2024 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS. This is the last year for the Cayman before it goes all electric. (Maybe. Porsche might be backing off of that.) This model sports 493 horsepower in its mid-engine design. A true old-fashioned sports car that is small with go-cart like handling and lots of power. Either "Guards Red" or "Racing Yellow" are my color choices. (Or, for $14,750 you expand the colors you want so maybe "Acid Green.") Used ones are selling for more than MSRP of new ones.

2024 Ram 1500 TRX. A pickup truck with a 702 horsepower supercharged* HEMI V8. That was the last year it was be offered with the HEMI. It's fast 0-60 (especially for a truck) but its top speed is limited by it's weight and tires. Made for off-road use, it would be fun to barrel through some muddy trails. In "Flame Red" and "Crystal Black" please (all come in two colors).

1967 Shelby Cobra. A tiny sports car from England (the AC Cobra) with a Ford V8. Built by Carroll Shelby, original models today sell for over $1 million. Replicas can, depending on the quality, go for six figures. A very scary car with old-fashioned suspension. But oh so pretty. Blue with a white stripe.

Honorable mention: 2024 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing. A sports sedan with supercharged V8 engine and is available with a manual transmission. I'm not really picky about the color (believe it or not).

And now Ferrari has a new car, the 2025 12Cilindri two seater. It has a 12 cylinder engine and is beautiful. It is the replacement for the 812 Superfast. I think I still want the Superfast more. Ferrari has announced it will make V-12s until regulations make it impossible.

Do you have any cars you dream about owning? Let me know in the comments below.

*Turbos and superchargers pump air into the cylinder to give it more oxygen to burn, thus increasing horsepower. They work like a bellows in a blacksmith shop, making the fire burn hotter.  In a car engine's cylinder, that means more energy thus more horsepower.

Turbos use exhaust gasses to spin. Thus you often get "turbo lag" where the exhaust pressure has to build up. Somehow, automakers have found ways to minimize that. 

Superchargers are belt driven and don't have "turbo lag." You can hear them whine under the hood as they spin up. The faster the engine goes, the more pressure they put into the pistons.

Huskies Season Wrapup!

The University of Washington Huskies football regular season is over. I was cautiously optimistic about this season even though I knew we'd have some tough games.

The first two games were easy wins against Weber State (an FCS team) and Eastern Michigan at home. 

Our first loss was to the WSU Cougars in the Apple Cup cross-state rivalry game. Penalties at key times really hurt the Huskies. Since this was played in Lumen Field (the Seahawks usual stadium) we still kept our home winning streak alive. But I hated losing to the Cougs.

Next we played Northwestern, a Big10 team, at home. We won that game. Then we played Rutgers in New Jersey. And despite being the better team, we lost. Three missed field goals didn't help. So we were 3-2 going into playing Michigan at home. 

I was worried at this point that we'd be lucky to be bowl eligible (win six games out of a twelve game schedule) and if we did go to a bowl it'd be something like Cooters Bait Shop and Adult Novelty Emporium Bowl. 

Then we upset #10 Michigan! Despite our quarterback throwing his first interception of the season, the Huskies did almost everything else right. The final score was 27-17. We were 4-2 overall. Hope swelled in my chest.

But then we headed into a buzzsaw of a schedule. First up was at Iowa. Iowa was 3-2 but we'd yet to win a game not at Husky Stadium. And we didn't win this one, losing a horrible 40-16. I was seriously wondering if the Hawkeyes were playing second stringers by the end of the game. 

The Huskies had a bye week to lick their wounds and listen to calls to fire Coach Fisch.

 Next they traveled to the University of Indiana who was undefeated and ranked #13 in the AP poll. They played better than they did against Iowa, except for our quarterback's two interceptions. We lost 31-17. We were 4-4 on the season and needed to win two more games just to be eligible for the Cooters Bait Shop Bowl. Wasn't sure we could do it. Our next game was at home against USC. They also were 4-4 and we had home-field advantage. But if we didn't beat USC, we probably weren't going to a bowl game.

We did beat USC. It was a nail-biter of a game as the Huskies were dominant in the first half, but USC came out at the second half, started running the ball, and scoring. They led by one point in the third quarter but the Huskies managed to get a touch down in the fourth quarter while their defense held the Trojans scoreless. The final score was 21-26. Our record was 5-4 and only needed one more win to be bowl eligible. And our home game winning streak rose to 19.

Next we played Penn State at their home field. Penn was 6-1 and #6 on both the AP poll and the CFP (the first CFP rankings came out the Tuesday before the game). I held little hope for winning that game. The game was shown on Peacock and I debated paying NBC for the privilege of watching the Huskies lose. But I did pay, and they lost, 6-35. It was brutal.

Our only hope to be bowl eligible was to beat UCLA at home (because we probably weren't going to beat Oregon). Going into the game, UCLA was 4-5 and we were 5-5. It was a home game, and that gave me some hope because for two seasons the Huskies have been unbeaten at home. It was a Friday night game and shown on FOX. 

And win we did, despite our quarterback throwing two interceptions in the first half. Coach Fisch put in the freshman quarterback he's grooming to be next year's starter for the second half. And he threw an interception! We still won 31-19 and kept alive (at 20) our home game winning streak. And we were 6-5 so we were bowl eligible. Probably wouldn't be a very good bowl (Cooters Bait Shop Bowl).

The Huskies had a bye and then they had to play Oregon who was 11-0 on the season, #1 in the AP poll and #1 is the CFP rankings. It was the only undefeated team in FBS football. And we were playing in Eugene. Winning that game would be a miracle.

And they lost 21 - 49. Coach Fisch put in his true-freshman quarterback Demond Williams who played well, connecting with his recievers and using his legs to make plays. But he was also sacked ten times. The Husky defense couldn't stop the Ducks run at all. This wasn't as bad a loss as the Nebraska game, but it was still bad.

The Huskies went 6-6 on the season, winning all home games but no away or neutral games. Yes, it was a rebuilding year after last year's amazing season. We can only hope now that they improve next year.

On December 8th we find out which bowl we go to. Let's hope it's not the Cooter's Bait Shop Bowl.

I Did the Math Too Late

 Happy Thanksgiving, USA!
I did the math and the math won.

Or, let me explain. I bought my wife a Toyota Prius Prime PHEV. I thought this would be great for her because she mostly just drives around town. Then if she wants to go on a longer trip, say to go see her sister, she has a gas engine to get her there. This is why I rejected an EV for her. She might want to take my car on the longer trip! Eeek! Plus the 2024 Prius actually looks like a nice car. We got one in red.

I live in a unique area where, due to state laws, gasoline is expensive compared to most other states (California and Hawaii are the only states where it's higher). But the area I live in has some of the cheapest electricity in the country due to being 100% hydropower. 

So, after I bought the car, I did the math. Here's what I learned:

She gets about 30 miles off of a full battery. I calculated that it takes $0.64 to charge the battery. So that's $0.021 per mile. Pretty dang cheap.

Assuming gas is $4 a gallon (which is about what regular runs in Washington State), and a Prius gets 52.3 miles per gallon (that's what a Google search came up with), that's $0.076 per mile. That's a savings of $0.0551 per mile. Yay!

But, the Prius Prime cost about $5,000 more than a Prius. So I divided $0.0551 into $5,000 and I get 90,744 miles (ignoring significant figures). So my wife has to drive about 91,000 miles on battery to pay back the extra expense of the PHEV. But it's a Toyota. She might do that. It'll just take years, though.

Now if gas goes up to $5 a gallon, its only 67,000 miles.

But if electricity goes up (and it will January 1st), the miles goes up.

Maybe I should have just bought her a Prius.

Subtitles

I have some friends who are about twenty years younger than I. And I've noticed that they like to turn on the subtitles on movies and television shows that are in English. 

And I'm not sure why.

My problem is, when the subtitles/closed captioning are on, I pay more attention to them than to the action on the screen.

I do know it's sometimes hard to understand the dialogue and turning on subtitles helps with that (I did it on Deadpool & Wolverine briefly when I missed a joke). But I still find it distracting.

And I wonder why younger folks might turn on subtitles. Maybe it's because they were available through DVDs and closed captioning when they were younger.

When I was younger, you just watched the program and hoped you heard everything correctly. You couldn't stop the television show or movie and hear it again. You just had to hope you heard it right the first time. We only had broadcast television or we could go to the movies. And the DVR hadn't been invented yet. Yes, I'm old!

I still don't like subtitles on English programming. How do you feel about it? Do you turn the subtitles on? Let me know in the comments below.

Hot Wheels and Skyhawks

When I was a kid, like most children, I adored cartoons. My favorites were the Loony Toons, but I also remember others. 

For example, I remember the Hot Wheels and Skyhawks programs. They were shown back to back on ABC 1969 - 1971.

(I'm slightly surprised I got to see them since we only had two channels and they didn't show ABC shows unless they were popular; that's why I missed the first season of The Six Million Dollar Man.)

Hot Wheels was, obviously, named for the toy cars. I don't know if there were "Skyhawk" toys. Maybe.

But here were two things I loved: cars and airplanes. Now, some 53 years later, I only have vague images from the two shows. I do remember catching Skyhawks re-using footage (I was around 10 at the time). Which they probably did more than I caught.

I remembered that they were 15 minutes each so they totaled 30 minutes. But according to the interwebs, they were 30 minutes each.

I guess they were canceled because the FCC thought they were just half-hour long ads for toys. 

Most people I've asked don't remember these cartoons. For a while I worried that I made them up (or at least made up Skyhawks).

Hot Wheels has it's own Wikipedia page. Skyhawks has an IMDB page. Which is the only tangible evidence I have that these two shows existed.

Did you have a cartoon you liked but almost no one remembers? Do you remember Hot Wheels and Skyhawks? Let me know in the comments below.

I Like Fahrenheit

When I was studying science/engineering at the University of Washington (Go Dawgs!), we always used the celsius scale for measuring temperatures. It made the calculations easier. For example, it takes one calorie to heat one gram of water one degree celsius. Any calculation that involved temperature is easier in celsius. Well, to be honest, all calculations were easier in metric.

But in my regular life, I like Fahrenheit. I think it's more suited to human existence (except for trying to spell it).

For example, 0 celsius is the freezing point of water. Not real cold. But 0 Fahrenheit is freaking cold! Saying it's going to be -18 degrees C doesn't convey the frigidness of 0 degrees F.

Or do weather forecasters in countries that use celsius breathlessly exclaim that it's going to be over 38 degrees? No, but in American, they can say temperatures will be in the triple digits.

Plus Fahrenheit has more precision than celsius. Every degree celsius has 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit. So it's almost twice as precise.

How do you feel about Fahrenheit versus celsius? Let me know in the comments below.

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.