A Ponder...

Driving in my truck yesterday, I happened to notice the odometer was getting close to 150,000 miles. My 1996 Toyota T100 has given me nearly flawless service since I bought it more than 10 years ago. Just recently I had the first expensive maintenance in its entire lifetime, and I expect that to be the last for at least another 50,000 or so miles.

But I got to pondering another significance of that 150,000 miles. All but a very few miles of that were driven by me – so that 150,000 miles represents a whole bunch of my personal time. If you figure I averaged 50 MPH over they entire life of the truck (that's optimistic), that means I have spent something like 3,000 hours driving my truck. And that doesn't even count the time I spent driving our other vehicle!

Three thousand hours on the road. I know where most of this came from: until five years ago, I had a job that required me to commute to the office every day. Until two years ago, I traveled to the office once a week. The past two years I've worked from my home, with no commute at all.

Back in the bad old days when I was a manager, we used to figure that a normal employee worked 2,000 hours per year (50 weeks at 40 hours per week). So that 3,000 hours is equivalent to a year and a half of employment. If you figure in the fact that the vast majority of my commute time in this truck happened over just six years of employment (when I was commuting every day), a year and a half of wasted time starts to be significant.

The bottom line is that both I and my employer are gaining from the absence of my commute. I'm a salaried employee and don't formally keep track of my hours – but I guarantee you they exceed 40 hours per week (ask my wife!). I gain personally as well – no more frustrating rush hour commutes, and some more free time to spend with my family, on my hobbies, or on my honey-do list (I'll let you guess where the priorities are <smile>).

I love it that my Toyota shrugs off the 150,000 miles … but I hate it that I had to waste all that time driving to find that out!

Firearms Refresher Course

From Jim M., who starts out with this quote from Thomas Jefferson:

"Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not."

And then starts the actual course:

FIREARMS REFRESHER COURSE

1. An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.
   
   
2. A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.
   
   
3. Colt: The original point and click interface.
   
   
4. Gun control is not about guns; it's about control.
   
   
5. If guns are outlawed, can we use swords? (Ed.: See what's happening in England, where there's a serious move afoot to outlaw knives!)
   
   
6. If guns cause crime, then pencils cause misspelled words.
   
   
7. "Free" men do not ask permission to bear arms.
   
   
8. If you don't know your rights you don't have any.
   
   
9. Those who trade liberty for security have neither.
   
   
10. The United States Constitution (c) 1791. All Rights reserved.
    
    
11. What part of "shall not be infringed" do you not understand?
    
    
12. The Second Amendment is in place in case the politicians ignore the others.
    
    
13. 64,999,987 firearms owners killed no one yesterday.
    
    
14. Guns only have two enemies; rust and politicians.
    
    
15. Know guns, know peace, know safety. No guns, no peace, no safety.
    
    
16. You don't shoot to kill; you shoot to stay alive.
    
    
17. 911 - government sponsored Dial-a-Prayer.
    
    
18. Assault is a behavior, not a device.
    
    
19. Criminals love gun control -- it makes their jobs safer.
    
    
20. If guns cause crime, then matches cause arson.
    
    
21. Only a government that is afraid of its citizens tries to control them.
    
    
22. You only have the rights you are willing to fight for.
    
    
23. Enforce the "gun control laws" we ALREADY have, don't make more.
    
    
24. When you remove the people's right to bear arms, you create slaves.
    
    
25. The American Revolution would never have happened with gun control.
    
    
26. "A government of the people, by the people, for the people..."

My guns are handy, ready to punch large holes in varmints (we have lots of those!) and bad guys…

New Poll

There's a new poll up, at the right. This one tests your understanding of the mechanics of a ship… Get it right and you might have a career in naval architecture!

Why is the Sky Blue?

I have smart readers! 60% of you who responded to the poll got the right answer: scattering. And nobody took the dunce's answer (pigment).

The simplified explanation: if the atmosphere above us was perfectly transparent (so that the sun's light shined straight through it), the sky would be pitch black. But a phenomenon called “Rayleigh scattering” causes a little of the sun's light to be scattered in random directions, which is why the sky isn't pitch black. Rayleigh scattering is sensitive to the light's wavelengths – shorter wavelengths (the blue end of the spectrum) are scattered more than longer wavelengths.

And that, my friends, is why the sky is blue and not black. Much more, including the interesting effects of Mies scattering, here, here, here, and here.

Mercury

This morning the planet Mercury was at its greatest elongation (angular distance from the sun) as seen from Earth – which means this morning was a great time to try to observe Mercury. No binoculars or telescopes are required; it's plenty bright enough to see with the naked eye. It's been many years since I tried to locate Mercury in the sky, and I remember it being very difficult to find.

Not this time! I went outside at 4:30 am, about 75 minutes before sunrise, and looked over in the direction where the sun would be coming up – and there it was! A small, bright, orangish “star” right where it should be.

The image above is shamelessly stolen from Bryan Brandenburg's excellent blog. More information on the planet Mercury (and viewing it) can be found here, here, here, and here.