As you probably know, three astronomical events took place today, namely a solar eclipse, a so-called “supermoon” and the equinox. If you want to be very specific, however, it must be said that, while March 20 meets the definition of a “supermoon”, namely the full or new Moon being within 90% of its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit, the Moon was at perigee yesterday. Also, to continue on this note, the exact time of the equinox is 10:45 PM GMT, so 15 minutes before midnight CET and actually on March 21 if you move further east, so including for me. And, since today’s solar eclipse was total for some parts of the world, it had to happen at the same time as a “supermoon”, as otherwise the Moon wouldn’t have been able to completely block the Sun, so these two events taking place at the same time is not only in no way unusual, but in fact certain.
If that suddenly made things a bit less exciting, well, science and details often tend to do that, and the fact that they frequently make it difficult to maintain high hopes without doing much to pull one out of the depths of despair is a good part of the reason why so many cling on to other beliefs, even after they have been undeniably proven false. After all, while thankfully far less than it’d have been centuries ago, I’m sure that even now a day like this was used as an excuse for predictions of doom and gloom which some people believed, and that far more are at least somewhat apprehensive about the future despite knowing that there’s no rational basis for such concerns.
That’s not what this post is about, however, and it couldn’t really be, not when I’m also, to a certain extent, guilty of holding on to certain beliefs largely just because they still offer some chance to have a reason to hope when a completely rational approach would leave none. I may say that, at least based on this explanation of the phenomenon, people should probably keep only those unscientific beliefs which give them reason to hope, empower them or at least help them cope, and discard those which limit them or add to their difficulties and concerns, but even that is probably too much for this post.
What I had in mind when I started thinking about writing this was that we should do a better job of showing people how interesting the sky is, in itself. That we, as a species, should look up more, of course not only literally but that’d be a good start, and being more interested in a far bigger picture should also make it easier to then focus on the various big pictures here on Earth. And that there’s so much to know, so much to see and so much happening up there that we don’t need to rely on myths, superstition or sensationalism to catch and hold the attention of most people if only it’d be presented to them in the right way.
We’re on a large ball of rock, with a molten metal core and some liquids and gases sprinkled around the surface, which is spinning on its axis and which has another ball of rock spinning around it, and both of these balls are, along with many, many other celestial bodies of various shapes and sizes, spinning around a huge ball of burning gas, which is only one of hundreds of billions that are part of and spinning through a galaxy, which in turn is part of a local cluster which is part of a universe which is expanding ever faster. And this universe is likely filled with worlds and places and creatures we can’t even imagine, and perhaps also with some we have, merely by accident, happened to imagine. And it may not be the only universe, and it may not be on the only plane of existence, but how can we hope to truly know more about the others if we don’t make enough of an effort to learn about the one we actually are directly part of?
What I’m saying is that, while such events may not mean anything, they can still tell us a lot. And that searching for answers may be frustrating, when they seem to insist on hiding or reveal themselves only in the form of even harder questions, and in some ways it may even be dangerous, when said answers are disappointing or even lead to hopelessness and despair, but that makes it no less rewarding or necessary. And that we may at times need to search for strength and meaning elsewhere, or we may at times need to take a break and simply look at our feet for a while, to stop stumbling around so much and perhaps also to rest our eyes and necks, but that we should never forget about looking up at the sky.
The very fact that we know enough about a few things to make them perhaps appear less interesting should make us even more keen on learning more about the rest. Because what we know is so little in the grand scheme of things and so restricted to things that happen so near and so often on an astronomical scale that it should serve to merely whet our appetite. It should tell us that, despite being so insignificant, we are, eventually, capable of wrapping our minds around things much bigger than ourselves.
Meant to also include something about the plans for the new computer in this post, but now that I started writing it I realized everything’s too unclear and parts of it still quite unlikely, plus that what’s going on with the exchange rates makes it quite a bad idea to jump on it next month as planned but at the same time an even worse one to wait even longer, so I wouldn’t even know what to say and all of it may easily end up being wrong anyway. As such, I’ll just stick to a few paragraphs about the third attempt to run and what I’m thinking of playing next on this computer.
Yes, that means I ran again, on Monday, and this time I apparently covered about 1.9 kilometers. It was still through the park, as I meant to go buy something after that and the track would have once again been out of the way, and it was still too fast, as it took me 11 minutes, which again works out to a speed of over 10 km/h, but maybe the speed will sort itself out as I’ll increase the distance, as it would have been difficult to maintain it for much longer. When will I try the track for the first time, I have no idea at this point, and if it’ll involve anything except simply walking in I’ll probably shy away anyway.
As for games, as I say on my playlist on MobyGames, I mean to start Quest for Infamy after the next patch will appear, as there appears there will be one to fix some more bugs, and also to restart King of Dragon Pass at some point this year. What I don’t say there is that King of Dragon Pass is a game I definitely intend to finish, by which I mean to win a long game, before getting the proper computer for myself next year and passing the one which may be bought this spring to dad, so there is some rush, but at the same time I’m not that keen to start it again while I’m still using this computer and then need to move the save, even though that shouldn’t pose the slightest problem in itself, so it’s lower down the list when it comes to what I may actually move on to right now.
In fact, at the moment there’s a higher chance to decide on one of the games listed there as likely to be played in 2015, namely Might and Magic I and Age of Wonders, than on King of Dragon Pass. Not that I’m particularly keen on those either, considering the difficulty and frustratingly outdated gameplay of the first one, which I only started initially out of curiosity, wondering what such an old RPG was like, and the fact that I did play part of the second way back, before abandoning it for some reason, as I say on my games played page.
The thing is that I find myself rather keen on Quest for Infamy at the moment, though I know I may get frustrated with it quite soon after starting, but I want to wait for that next patch, so if I’m to play something again soon I’ll need to decide on one of the others, and likely between trying to remember what I was doing and struggling to continue Might and Magic I and installing Age of Wonders to start it again. Admittedly, there are plenty of other options as well, even after eliminating anything that may require a dedicated video card, as I plan to use that temporary next computer without one, but finishing five games would make it a good year for me from that point of view and I already finished one, so going through these four may be a pretty tall order even without including anything else. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean I won’t get frustrated and decide to start, or perhaps continue, anything that at the moment I list as unlikely on that playlist.
Considering the sweeping rule changes, most people were expecting Formula 1 to be plagued by reliability issues and mistakes last season, especially in the early part. However, what happened was that the first rounds saw unusually few problems, in fact more being noticed later during the year, and even those were fewer than what most were prepared for.
Based on that, the fact that the rule changes between last season and this one were few should have made most expect most teams to have few problems. That obviously didn’t include McLaren, considering their testing woes and the fact that Honda is only now returning as an engine supplier, nor Marussia, which the public didn’t even know will try to enter the competition until shortly before the first race, so doubt anyone was surprised to see that they weren’t even able to get a car on track under its own power over the course of the weekend, but all the other teams should have been quite safe. Even Force India, which only got this year’s car running for the final two and a half days of testing, demonstrated excellent reliability during that time, so there were few reasons for concern.
But things didn’t quite work out that way, did they? First it was Alonso being advised by doctors not to race this week, following his crash in testing, which resulted in him being replaced by a Magnussen who didn’t merely qualify 18th and last, but then didn’t start at all when his engine failed on the way to the grid. Then it was Sauber’s legal troubles which, while having nothing to do with reliability, did cause them not to take part in free practice one. Then, on top of other issues that restricted running for several cars, Massa and Ricciardo didn’t run at all in free practice two, the latter even requiring an engine change. Then Bottas somehow hurt his back during the second part of qualifying and, despite ending up sixth on the grid, was ruled unfit to race. Then Kvyat joined Magnussen in retiring with mechanical problems on the way to the grid, leading to only 15 cars actually starting despite the fact that 18 participated in qualifying and 20 were present at the track.
Worse, both Lotus drivers retired without even completing the first lap, Maldonado being the quite innocent victim of an early tussle between the two Ferraris and Nasr and Grosjean crawling to the pits with a technical problem which had actually begun manifesting itself during the formation lap. That left 13 drivers racing with 57 laps to go and, while only two more retired by the end, they did so under rather unusual circumstances as well, Verstappen’s engine failing on the first lap after his only scheduled pit stop and Raikkonen being unsafely released from the pits and ending up on track with a left rear wheel that wasn’t properly attached, which probably means he’ll also carry a penalty into the next race.
It now remains to be seen how things will continue in the following races and what shape each team will be in at the start of the European season, which tends to be the deadline by which early issues need to be solved, but at the moment it looks like many went backwards in certain ways, while issues that have nothing to do with the cars seem to “conspire” to add to the uncertainty. And I guess it also remains to be seen whether Marussia’s stated attempt to race this season is serious or a mere publicity stunt and, in the former case, whether it’ll be in any way successful, by which I simply mean whether they’ll manage to start the next few races.
I’m writing this week’s first post so late because I meant to do it after finally managing to finish all adventures included in The Witcher, by which I mean the two “official” ones and the few others which I understand were added along with the 1.5 patch, and I only managed to finish the last one this evening, at 7:45 PM. At the start of the week I thought I might manage it Friday, or perhaps even as early as Thursday, but that didn’t quite work, and even completing this last one now took some effort, so if I wouldn’t have had to post something I’d have likely left it for tomorrow or even next week.
Of course, this means I now have to start thinking about writing the review, and that’s quite a scary prospect. It probably won’t happen next week, and either way I first mean to install The Witcher 2 and get it to run on just about minimum settings to import the save from the end of the first one and then save again right at the beginning with it imported, keeping that save for whenever I’ll have a good enough computer to play it properly, but I definitely aim to do it by the end of the month. That doesn’t mean it’ll work out that way, but at least I have some notes to rely on, which should make it somewhat more manageable.
Otherwise, as I was saying, my trial for Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2015 finished on March 7, so I had to pair something else with Comodo Firewall 8 at that point, and that something was G DATA Antivirus. That was a rather rushed decision, since I initially meant to try one that’s generally seen as a poorer choice at the moment and was thinking of Panda Antivirus Pro 2015, but then I noticed that a firewall was included in that, as it seems to be the case for McAfee AntiVirus Plus as well, and I feared conflicts even if I’ll disable it, so I had to quickly find another option and decided on this with little time to spare.
Uninstalling Kaspersky took a while, but that was largely my fault, as instead of following the instructions and turning off the Anti-Virus and then running the tool normally, I first tried to run it in safe mode, twice, and it didn’t seem to do much of anything, as it tries to use something that can’t run in safe mode. After that, I had to run it twice normally as well, since the first time Comodo really didn’t like what it was trying to do and I apparently couldn’t give permissions fast enough, but finally the fourth time it worked out all right and seemed to clean up after itself very well.
As for G DATA, at first it seemed to have a more significant impact on performance, but between scanning everything once or twice to have it remember that all those files and processes are safe and, possibly, me getting used to a few quirks, I’m now getting along quite fine with it as well, and it does seem to be a particularly powerful security product for a number of reasons. As such, I can easily continue this little, though scary, project, the plan currently being to move to Emsisoft Anti-Malware when this will end. Then, if everything goes well, I should have a new computer by the time that will also end, so I’ll decide what next depending on other factors.
Confirmation was received at 1:36 PM GMT, which means that, as of about four hours ago, we know that Dawn entered orbit around Ceres, becoming both the first spacecraft to visit a dwarf planet, ahead of New Horizons‘ flyby of Pluto, scheduled to take place in July, and the first spacecraft to orbit two different solar system bodies. According to the information currently available, the actual orbital insertion took place around 12:39 PM GMT, though the way in which this is achieved and the exact trajectory are rather unusual, so at the moment I’m personally not quite sure what that means in terms of how long it’ll be before achieving its first stable science orbit.
What matters most, however, is that, as of today, we’re there, and by “we” I’m referring to humans as a species. We now have a presence, we now have “eyes”, around what was, for a time, in the 1800s, considered the solar system’s fifth planet, before being relegated to the status of asteroid and then promoted again, this time to that of dwarf planet, when this concept was introduced, not that long ago.
Now, as the scientists and technicians involved will be working furiously over the coming hours and days to ensure that everything is in order and the actual science campaign can begin in good conditions, what the rest of us can do is wait for more information to be released, and perhaps spread the word and attempt to create even more interest and support, which may help other such missions be approved and funded in the future. After all, even if we’re talking strictly about Ceres, many interesting questions exist and Dawn will only be able to answer some of them, while most probably replacing them with some even more intriguing ones, as that tends to be what exploration is all about.
