Sunday, October 02, 2016

Bad day for a couple of Subaru owners

Welp, today was a bad day for a couple of Subaru owners.

Death-defying u-turn

The first instance happened this morning near the bottom of a shallow hill on a two-way, two-lane road with rapidly moving traffic.  A maroon-color Outback rapidly pulls over to the shoulder.  The Outback is full of people and luggage, including stuff tied to the roof rack.  Cars immediately following the Outback braked to avoid a collision, with a couple of them swerving briefly into the lane of opposing traffic. Dust was kicked up a dozen feet into the air.  But, that's not all!  The lady driving the Outback activates her left turn blinker just as Allie and I approach in our car.  All of a sudden the lady veers back into the road at a sharp angle, with her front left fender heading straight for our front right fender.  Allie honked and swerved into the opposing traffic lane to avoid the collision!  The lady barely stopped in time to miss us.  Fortunately there was a gap in the traffic on the opposite lane into which we could veer.  Just as we passed, she continued her sharp turn into the lane and across into the opposite lane.  She cut out in front of the car that was immediately behind us.

Then she proceeds to make a full u-turn right in front of on-coming traffic in the opposing lane.  Traffic moving in both directions had to slam on their brakes to avoid being hit by this lady.  I'm sure she left a phantom intersection in her wake.  When I looked back, I saw a field of brake lights as we continued on.  After a few cuss words were uttered by Allie, I stated, "that the lady was driving like Clark Griswold".  "Yeah, [more expletives], Griswold!" Allie appreciatively replies.

Bang, crumble, bye-bye bike

Roof-racked bicycle might've looked
something like this before being
mangled beyond recognition.
This afternoon, as I was walking Toebzilla around the apartment complex near the parking garage, I hear the sound of metal crunching.  I turn just in time to see a Subaru with a roof-racked (apparently expensive) bicycle being torn a part as the driver drove under the height restriction bumper.  The bumper was a large, red, round and heavily constructed pipe that was mounted to the entrance ceiling.  Conveniently, the bumper had the garage's height restriction boldly printed upon it.  The Subaru would've been fine without the racked bicycle.  But, the Subaru had a racked bicycle.  The driver drove clean through and didn't stop until fully inside the garage.  The crunching sound coming from his roof didn't appear to be enough to deter him from continuing.  He stopped a few feet passed the bumper, and a few seconds too late.

The expensive looking bicycle was no longer a bicycle.  I mean, there was still kinda two wheels, but it was a mangled mess.  The roof rack was also a mangled mess.  The roof rack being attached to the roof of the Subaru likely suggests that the Subaru's roof was also damaged to some extent.

At this point, the driver still doesn't exit his car.  I think he was stunned.  He finally pulls into a nearby parking spot.  He still waits a considerable amount of time to get out.  Maybe he was surveying the damage to the roof of the Subaru from the inside?  When he finally gets out, he just stares at the mangled mess where his bicycle and roof rack formerly existed.

In what I thought to be a quiet voice, I made a comment, half to myself, half to Toebzilla, "That's an expensive mistake".  Despite the distance between us, the driver, who appeared to be of the more laid-back early-twenties variety, looks over at me and just yells "Fuck!".  I could do no more than to reply with a consoling "Yup!"  and continue on my way with Toebzilla.

It's been one of those days.

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Microsoft Settlement Refund...umm, wow Part 2

United States v. Microsoft
I received the remainder of my Microsoft Anti-trust Settlement the other day.  It was roughly $5.  I received the bulk of my settlement funds a decade ago.  I'm not really sure why I was owed an additional $5, though for some reason this amount didn't surprise me.  The amazing thing is that yet again, Microsoft knew my current address; this time my personal address.  It is literally 10 years later from my previous refund check, 13 years since I sent in my voucher request, and 14 years since this odd saga began in 2002 after the settlement of the lawsuit.  But, the saga actually extends back to 1990 (backup link).

Previous Post, August 14, 2006

Previous Post, September 30, 2003

Friday, September 09, 2016

Limited lifespan of Habitable Zones around other stars [and a loosely held secret finally revealed about me]

Habitable zone around a red dwarf, image © Matthew Lorono, 2016
Habitable Zone around a Red Dwarf star
I've been fascinated by the idea of planets around other stars since I was young.  In fact, I developed several fictional solar systems, one of which became the basis for an online gaming and science fiction club.  That solar system is called Greeop System,[001]  which inspired the development of many more solar systems and formed the basis of many gaming and fictional story plots.[002]

At some point, I stumbled across the book Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon In The Universe (2000), which is one of the earliest sources that discusses the idea of Habitable Zones around stars.  

What's a Habitable Zone?  If a terrestrial planet orbits its sun at just the right distance, that sun provides the right amount of light and other energy to make life more likely, given several other factors.  If a planet is too close to its sun, it is likely too hot.  If a planet is too far from its sun, it is likely too cold.  This is why Habitable Zones are sometimes called Goldilocks Zones, in reference to the fairy tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears and finding options that are "just right" between two extremes.

In the past decade, the concept of Habitable Zone has been refined.  From the study Habitable Zone Lifetimes of Exoplanets around Main Sequence Stars, it is now often defined similar to,
...the circumstellar distance at which surface temperatures allow liquid water to be present on the planet’s surface, assuming variable H2O/CO2/CH4 greenhouse forcings.  The Habitable Zone has a minimum and maximum extent, forming inner (closer to the star) and outer boundaries that are set in part by biogeochemical climate feedback mechanisms and stellar luminosity.[003]
Yeah, Goldilocks metaphor seems to get the point across easier.  The question is, what's "just right" for life?  Star size and age appear to play the substantial roles in setting the limits of a Habitable Zone.  Not only is the Habitable Zone different between large and small stars, it can move over the life-cycle of a star. For example, main sequence stars gradually output more energy over billions of years.  A planet that initially forms within the Habitable Zone of a young star might not remain in the Habitable Zone later in the star's life-span. It is predicted that our Sun will be so hot in 1.75B years, surface water will no longer be possible on Earth, presumably making life on Earth no longer sustainable.[003]

If a planet has the right conditions and resides within the Habitable Zone, life still has to appear and evolve in some sort of sequence.  Taking Earth as the only example we have,
... this stepwise progression began with the origin of life, continued through the transition from replicating molecules to RNA and then DNA [1B years after Earth formation], from prokaryotes to eukaryotes [1.5 to 2.5B yrs after Earth formation] and cell differentiation [3.5 to 4B yrs after Earth formation], and concluded with the final step from primate to human societies [4.54B years after Earth formation].[003]
However, if just one of these steps takes a lot longer, there is a drastically lessened chance of having enough time to develop intelligent life similar to humans; assuming the march toward more intelligent creatures is inherent to the process of evolution on different planets.  Different stars may also extend or reduce the time-frame within which life may appear and develop.  Larger stars will have short Habitable Zone lifespans.  Smaller stars, such as Red Dwarfs may have very long and stable Habitable Zone lifespans.

Of course, a lot of this is based on assumptions that life on other planets will resemble life that formed on Earth.  Maybe life of different kinds exist in the Universe.[004]  The rules may be different for different kinds of life.  Maybe Earth is extremely unusual. Worse, maybe we will not be able to immediately recognize other forms of life simply because it is so different from our experience.  As more information is gathered, these issues will hopefully be addressed.

Pirmary reference:
Andrew J. Rushby, Mark W. Claire, Hugh Osborn, and Andrew J. Watson. Astrobiology. September 2013, 13(9): 833-849. doi:10.1089/ast.2012.0938, Habitable Zone Lifetimes of Exoplanets around Main Sequence Stars.

Response:
Voat.co