Maint Req'd

So on the way home from the hike up White Oak Canyon (pictures here - about the most picturesque hike in Shenandoah National Park) I took a wrong turn. I kept going on the the wrong road for a while, my spidey sense telling me that I was generally going in the right direction. That being said, I started to get pretty nervous and had my wife dig out my tertiary navigation system - my trusty old tom-tom. I say 'tertiary' as the primary and secondary systems were in failure. The primary system, my wife reading the printed out google directions to the lower trailhead parking improperly backwards to derive the trip home, thus giving me the wrong turn. My secondary system was my visual memory and internal compass. That was all screwed up from fatigue.

This meant plugging in the tom-tom to the only electrical outlet in the jeep which was conveniently located between my knees under the the steering wheel, a feat that requiring only basic contortions worthy of a 5th degree yogi. During this process I managed to keep keep the jeep on the road and probably only took out a couple of chickens that may or may not have been crossing the road. Why? I'm thinking because they are just dumb birds...

In any case, with a growing sense of dread, I waited for the tom-tom to charge sufficiently to power and get enough GPS signals to advise me on the proper route home. I had not reached a full panic yet, but suffice it to say that with the fatigue from the hike, I was not at my best. It was at this point that the jeep decided to try to push me over the edge. Now I have documented elsewhere (here and here) the attempts on my life by my jeep. Thus it should come as no surprise to most that the jeep took advantage of the situation to tweak me a bit.

What did it do? There is an innocuous blank spot on the control panel that I never paid much attention to. It would light briefly when I started the jeep, then go out with the rest of the lights. It was in this time of stress that the jeep decided to light up that particular panel with the very informative message "MAINT REQ'D".

"MAINT REQ'D"? Really? What does that mean? Drive 50 more miles and the tires fall off? The engine engulfs the entire vehicle in a fireball leaving nothing but charred occupants and a blackened spot where nothing will grow for 50 years? Or will the engine just stop, leaving me and wife stranded in the Appalachian foothills, playing out a Virginia version of 'Deliverance'? "MAINT REQ'D" - really? It's a jeep, there's always "MAINT REQ'D" - that's part of the 'jeep experience'. What nimrod at GM thought that would be a good thing to put on the control panel?

My reaction was predictable. We unplugged the tom-tom, as in the time spent cycling in and out of panic attacks we passed a couple of familiar landmarks and my primary navigation system came back online - which is to say my wife recognized a previous turn off and started giving me proper directions. I still proceeded to drive white knuckled, expecting the wheels to fall off at any minute, but resolved that I would get out of the foothills and as far as possible from gay hillbilly love (not that there's anything wrong with that...). Wife and I discussed stopping and turning the jeep off and on again, but dismissed it as it sounded like one of the stupid things you scream at doomed characters in movies not to do. You know, like when the babysitter decides to answer the door with the chainsaw guy waiting, or the girl who decides it's a great time for a midnight naked swim in 'Jaws'.

Since you are reading this you know nothing untoward happened. We made it home, and I unlocked the glove box and pulled out the owner's manual to see if it had some guidance on this peculiar status light. Sure enough, it was as dumb as I expected. At 82000 miles, this light comes on 'automatically' to remind you to have GM check your emissions system. An internet search confirmed that this light is mostly BS. I am guessing that the government had GM put in that light 'voluntarily' so that folks would do the right thing and maintain their pollution control systems. The whole thing is even more ironic since in Virginia I have to take the jeep into an inspection station every two years where they put it on a treadmill and use a probe up the tailpipe to verify that it's emissions are in order - a kind of official government car gay love thing (not that there's anything wrong with that...). Somewhere, there is a (now) unemployed GM car designer laughing his ass off over this as he balances his next Blatt's beer on his corpulent belly.

Saturday Techno-Paloosa!

It's Saturday, and time to get all the techo crap links I've collected off my plate. So in no particular order, here I go...

(H/T Gizmag.com) I saw Iron Man 3 recently, the first movie I've seem in a theater in years, and I wondered then how far out technology was to achieving what I was seeing in the exoskeleton area. Then when I saw how Honda with their whole excellent robotics knowledge base have an assisted walking device that they are ready to start marketing, I was blown away. This will revolutionize elder care. Goodbye wheelchairs - at least partially...

In other robot news, it didn't take long for the telepresence with wheels thing to become a reality. While I can see this being necessary for some, I can also see the potential for misuse. It is at most a 5 year fad I think. Consider the next step where there are no classrooms and virtual schools - not such a long step... but a cool for now technology nonetheless. 

Reinventing the wheel - what else can be said...

(H/T Gimag) So scientist have discovered that quantum entanglement is the norm rather than the exception. Like many things in mathematics, when you think about it, that seems to to be self evident, but when the pointy heads prove it, you and everyone else go Wow! Cool! I know I did...

The satellite based tracking of aircraft by the Proba-V is the logical extension of the technology used by a certain company to track ships via AIS. Much like that technology, it relies on transponders being turned on and not spoofed. To fly in today's post 9/11 world, that is assured for most populated areas. Not quite an anti-terrorist capability, but certainly a valuable tool for flight space management.

A jeep looking watercar... how neat is that? Of course, looking over the advertising material, I am a little concerned about the apparent requirement for women in these things to be hot and scantily clad... I mean doesn't it limit the market share in predominately Muslim areas?

PSA

Just a quicky - I updated my Trail Guides with stuff from my hike up White Oak Canyon at Shenandoah National Park. Go take a look at the pics (and the videos, though they aren't near as good as the pics).

A tale of two DUIs

So this is the tale of two DUIs. First up is this guy. He obviously pissed off some officer in the lovely town of 'Surprise!' as they decided that he was drinking 'just by looking him in the eye'. Well, actually, the whole story, when you strip away the other nonsense, is one trooper's misinformed belief that bloodshot eyes mean that you have been drinking and should be arrested. Stupid trooper story...

The second DUI story is this guy:

From The Smoking Gun

Apparently the police 'profiled' him and shockingly, he was drunk!. Not sure why this was a story, except to point out that given his obvious stupor and half closed eyes, how can you tell if they are bloodshot?

Ok, so I was (sort of) wrong...

So a few posts back I lamented the Supremes decision to strike down the Arizona voter ID law. It appears that while I was right on the substance (which I usually am), I was a bit hasty in my judgement of the Supremes as they weren't quite done with voter law decisions. Their other decision that the specter of 'Jim Crow' is dead and the law no longer requires the states to get pre-approval of any vote related changes from the Feds brings a breath of fresh air into the room. In fact, Texas is rolling ahead with it's voter ID laws in the wake of this ruling.

I am still not sure what is won here is more of a reprieve than a repudiation though. It seems to me that the casting out of the voter ID is still driving the boat. What I am afraid of is what I don't understand. I suspect that I am not alone in this.

The Right Kind of Empty Chair

From Reuters:

Even as a lapsed Catholic I am really starting to like this new Pope. He didn't move into the papal residence but stays at a nearby guest house, preaches humility, and when his establishment sets up a fancy shindig for the 'papal court', he doesn't show up. This is exactly the right kind of humility that our ruling class needs to emulate. Contrast this with the small and understated little excursion the our royal family took ($100,000,000 for 8 days) during a time when Americans are hurting more than ever.

Who let the dogs out?

A small study on how misconceptions, half trues, and sometimes even outright lies can easily lead good people down a very wrong path.

Consider this article about dog restraints from January 2008. Notable quote:

"Bark BuckleUp is just like the 'Click It or Ticket' (seat belt campaign) but for pets," she told ConsumerAffairs.com. "We believe that getting the word out to the nation is the best way to save pets' lives."

 Now consider this Obama speech from that same month. Particularly:

There is something happening when people vote not just for the party they belong to but the hopes they hold in common – that whether we are rich or poor; black or white; Latino or Asian; whether we hail from Iowa or New Hampshire, Nevada or South Carolina, we are ready to take this country in a fundamentally new direction.

So time passed, things changed, but things still kinda stayed the same. Two years later, the right thinking people were still looking to save pets everywhere from painful deaths. Notable quote:

Eighty percent said they take their dogs with them on errands, going to the park, or on road trips, but only 17 percent acknowledged using any type of pet restraints.

 Obama also was having a hard time getting his thing going too.  He was having a hard time getting past the 'Bush Recession', even after throwing billions of future dollars at it. Notable quote:

"while the argument for transfers to states being stimulative is plausible, there is surprisingly little evidence on the countercyclical effects of federal transfers to states."

 Finally, we come to this year. Real scientist study the dog restraint problem and come to the startling conclusion that all the currently devised restraints are useless. Note:

"We tested them to the child safety restraint standard and we experienced a 100-percent failure rate to protect either the consumer or the dog,”

Then we have this chart on economic recovery from Instapundit (yes, it's from last year, but things have not really changed that much...)

Facts - they are such tricky things...