Mysteries

This post is going to cover three different mysteries. These are things I have wondered about, and want to know the answers to, but that I have yet to understand.

Anyone who can help me with the answers to any of these things will earn my eternal gratitude, and a link here to their website if desired. Obviously that means I will update the post with new information as it arrives. As with all things, you can reach me if you try, despite comments being off here.

Oh, for all images here, click to see a larger version.

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MYSTERY 1 - Strange marks in highway pavement in the USA
SOLVED! SOLVED! SOLVED!

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Here's a picture taken on I-5 in Northern CA, on a trip to Vancouver:

Look at the road in front of the car. See those sets of 3 marks on each side, roughly where the wheels of the car go? Those are the mystery. Here's a closeup:

What are those things? Here's what I know so far:

• I have googled quite a bit and been unable to find a search that tells me anything.
• It appears that they happen on expansion joints (or some other linear crack in the road, perpendicular to the direction of travel).
• I have seen them in several states, mostly in I-80, but also (as above) in California on I-5.
• The spacing between groups (in the direction the cars travel on the road) can vary.
• Sometimes there are 2 groups of 4 marks instead of 2 groups of 3. No idea why. But that happens on very different roads. I have never seen groups of 4 & 3 on the same road.

This question has driven me crazy for years. I have no clue what those marks are for. The cannot be for traction (like rain grooves) and I can't see why you'd need them across expansion joints.

Mystery 1 has an answer! Readers K and P (possible links still coming) tell me these marks are made as part of a 'dowel bar retrofit', which is a mechanism used to reinforce cracks in highway concrete. Here's a Wikipedia article about the technique.

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MYSTERY 2 - Wood, round, antenna structures west of Richmond, BC

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On our regular dog walks along the dyke on the western edge of Richmond, BC, we see odd, round structures, apparently made of wood. There are several of them, well spaced out. Here's one, from afar, and zoomed in. (The zoom'd image is blurry... sorry.)

And here is a shot showing several of these things off to the south:

And finally, here is a captured image from Google Maps, where I have measured the distance between these things. The points on the white line show their locations.

And here's what I know (it's not much):

• They appear to be made of wood, and have no apparent electrical connections.
• They face South West. (Bring up google maps for Richmond, BC, switch to satellite mode, and zoom in to confirm that yourself. You can see them in some detail there.)
• The spacing between them isn't regular. (See map above.)
• They are in a straight line running very close to due North/South, as far as I can tell. (Again, see map above.) It is just possible that they do not run perfectly North/South, but from the level of detail I have, it's hard to know.
• And once more, Google has let me down on finding more details.

That's it. I know nothing more.

Mystery 2 has been solved. It prompted a lot of discussion on Facebook and in email, and many people participated in the conversation. K suggested these are navigation markers for ships, and looked at some nautical charts but didn't find them specifically. I found them in openseamap.org, but couldn't find the description of the actual things I found. J found the actual information about the chart annotation that resolved it, along with the formal description of the item type - "Daybeacons" - which says: "Generally, daybeacons are unlighted aids used primarily to assist the mariner during daylight hours" and goes on with other information that makes it clear that these things off the coast of Richmond are there to keep ships out of trouble. Thanks to the many people who looked into this and helped find the definitive answer! It was really fun to get it worked out.

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MYSTERY 3 - The scanner that stopped working in Ubuntu Linux 16.04
SOLVED! SOLVED! SOLVED!

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No pictures for this one, I'm afraid, but I wrote it all up in great detail in a post on the Ubuntu Forums here:

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2369422

In short, I updated my OS and everything works (as far as I know) except the scanner. And the failure mode of the scanner is really, really odd. It's as if the bus ID and device ID that were in use for the scanner in the previous version of the OS were saved somewhere, but after the OS update everything got renumbered. When software to find the scanner is run as a regular user, the scanner cannot be found. When the same software is run as root, it does find the scanner (apparently).

As with the other mysteries, Google has not revealed a solution so far.

Mystery 3 has been solved. Without going into too much detail, there was a permissions problem because of changes introduced in Ubuntu Linux between 14.04 LTS and 16.04 LTS. I, personally, got the problem about 95% solved, but thanks to confusing and inaccurate documentation, I missed a bit of syntax that kept it from working. A good friend (John M.) pointed that last issue out, and suddenly everything works again. I think someone at Ubuntu needs a kick in the head for this, but such is life. The scanner works, and that is all that matters for now. Anyone wanting all the details can read this thread: https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2369422 wherein I document the entire mess.

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And that's it. Fame* and fortune** await the people who help me understand these things. Consider it a challenge, please!

Footnotes:
* "Fame" defined as a link to your website, if you want it.
** This is a lie. There will be no fortune for anyone who helps. Sorry.

On Driving Across Country

Yes, I've been gone a long time.  Sorry.  Many things got in the way: work, life, and so on.  I hope that is changing, but back to the topic at hand.

We recently completed yet another drive from California to Illinois for the purposes of seeing family over the holidays and I have a few awards to give out as a result.

But first, "Why drive instead of fly?" I hear you ask.  Well, because it's a lot cheaper.

Tickets for two from SJC to ORD would cost, oh, $800 or so.  Then add the cost of putting two dogs in a kennel for two weeks.  That's a big total.  It's a lot cheaper to drive, bring the dogs, and pay for gas and hotels than it is to fly.  And we once had a dog lose over 10% of her body weight in a kennel because she wouldn't eat.  We didn't like that.

Anyway... on to the awards:

To Iowa, for having the least technically competent drivers anywhere along I80 between California and Chicago.  Over the holidays of 2009 we saw a vast number of wrecks in Iowa after an ice storm.  I am happy to say that  this year, though there was no ice storm, the state of Iowa continues to impress with their total lack of driving ability.  Either these folks don't teach driving at all, or they have all collectively forgotten what they were taught.  Driving in Iowa is not for the weak of heart.

To Illinois, for having the most self centered drivers on the road.  Rest assured that when driving in the Chicago area or on 88 between Iowa and Chicago there isn't a single other driver on the road who cares about you, your goals, or your safety.  All they care about is getting to their destination as quickly as possible, regardless of what that may do to anyone else on the road.  Turn signals?  Fugetaboutit.  Following room?  No one needs that.  Speed limits?  Ha!  Just get there baby... ASAP.  Other places might classify lots of what we saw as reckless driving.  Not Illinois.  There it's just the usual stuff.  Yawn.

To Wyoming, for having the worst stretch of road we have ever driven on.  On 12/30/2010, I80 west of Green River was an unbroken sheet of ice, from side to side of the road including both shoulders, and continuing for 20 solid miles.  We'd had blowing snow and blizzard conditions - nearing white out fairly often - through all of Wyoming, and the road wasn't great, but they were trying.  Plows were out with sand or salt, and the road was OK.  We stopped in Green River for gas and decided, since the road had been passable, to continue.  What we found just outside of town really made us wonder about the Wyoming department of transportation.  I am not exaggerating: 20 uninterrupted miles of ice.  Plus the wonder of trucks flying past us at 50 or 60 MPH on that surface.  We saw several wrecked big rigs, but all had been traveling in the other direction that morning.  Why none of the nitwits that passed us as we limped along didn't die in fiery wrecks we really don't know.

To the I80 drivers just west of Sparks NV, for the best impersonation of a Mad Max movie we have ever seen.  On our outbound trip we stopped in Sparks for the night.  We got moving the next morning only to find both lanes of the interstate completely stopped for nearly two hours.  Lots of emergency equipment drove by on the shoulder, east bound, most of which we never saw again once we finally did get moving.  But we did see a lot of wrecks: overturns, collisions, solo spin outs, a jack-knifed big rig, and so on.  Most of these had no emergency equipment present and appeared recent, which was a challenge given the road wasn't in particularly bad shape.  And this wasn't a chain reaction thing.  These were all separate wrecks, scattered over several miles.  We never did find the actual cause of the stoppage so we'll never know what was really going on.  Some might argue that Nevada should get the award for least competent drivers as a result of this little event, but experience tells us that Iowans are still the ones to beat.

And there you have it.  The 2010/2011 holiday driving awards from yours truly.  I hope to avoid this next year by staying home.