Back near the beginning of the current Solar Cycle 25, we penned an article on what the whole deal is with solar cycles, and what could potentially lie in store for us as the eleven-year cycle of sunspot population developed. Although it doesn’t really come across in the article, we remember being somewhat pessimistic about things, thinking that Solar Cycle 25 would be somewhat of a bust in terms of increased solar activity, given that the new cycle was occurring along with other, longer-period cycles that tend to decrease solar output. Well, looks like we couldn’t have gotten that more wrong if we tried, since the Sun lashed out with a class X solar flare last week that really lit things up. The outburst came from a specific sunspot, number 3514, and clocked in at X2.8, the most powerful flare since just before the end of the previous solar cycle. To put that into perspective, X-class flares have a peak X-ray flux of 10^-4 watts/m², which when you think about it is a lot of energy. The flare resulted in a strong radio blackout; pretty much everything below 30 MHz was unusable for a while.

What’s a car salesperson good for? Having dealt with quite a few over the years, and bearing in mind Mom’s advice about only saying nice things about people, we’ll defer an answer to that question at this time. However, if you need help with Python, it turns out that some car sales reps — the AI kind — are willing to pitch in with a little code if asked nicely. The story comes to us via The Autopian (shout out to Lewin!) which documents an interaction with a ChatGPT-powered chatbot on a Chevrolet dealer’s website. Ostensibly designed to answer questions about the dealerships latest offerings, it turns out that if instead of asking if that Tahoe comes with leather seats you ask it to write some Python to “Solve the Navier-Stokes fluid flow equations for a zero vorticity boundary,” it’ll happily comply. We find that pretty darn funny, and while we appreciate the free access to ChatGPT, we doubt such a service is going to move many cars. Remember, kids: sanitize those inputs!

When was the last time you saw a dedicated GPS in a passenger vehicle? We haven’t seen one in quite a while; the last time was probably when our trusty old Nuvi’s suction cup mount popped off the windshield and we finally gave up and threw the thing in the glove compartment. Unless you’ve got a specialized need, like trucking or local deliveries, chances are good that you’ve just switched over to using a smartphone, imperfect though they may be for navigation tasks. That trend has probably put GPS companies in a pickle, since nobody likes a declining user base. This probably at least partially explains why TomTom has teamed up with Microsoft to build a fully integrated conversational driving assistant. If the fact that Microsoft is involved makes you think “Clippy on wheels,” that’s sure what it sounds like to us. The press releases use a lot of words that say very little, but we’re assured that OpenAI’s Large Language Models will be leveraged, and that Cognitive Services are very much on the table. So you know this is gonna be great, whatever it turns out to be. We can’t help but wonder what the monetization model will be for this; will you pay an upfront subscription, or will this be a “pay-as-you-go” deal where you get charged by the interaction? But perhaps more importantly: will it write Python for you while you drive?

Another item that starts with a question: What time zone is Antarctica in? Why, whatever time zone you want it to be! At least that’s how it appears based on this forum message from one Zakhary V. Akulov, chief of the Vostok Antarctic research base, who decreed that the time zone for the station will be UTC+5 starting December 18. Given that Vostok is a Russian scientific station, it makes sense that he chose a time zone in Russia, but since there are about nine time zones across the country, he had a lot to choose from. It’s also a bit puzzling; while we can see randomly selecting your time zone at the South Pole, where all time zones converge and every direction is north, Vostok is 1,300 kilometers away from the geographic pole. And at about 106° East longitude, Vostok lines up more with Vietnam and Indonesia than any of the population centers in western Russia. To each his own, we suppose, but it seems a curious choice.

If you’ve got a complex mechanical linkage to design, we’ve got the perfect tool for you: MotionGen. We haven’t played with it much yet, but just from the animations on the front page it looks perfect for designing everything from anthropoid robots to Strandbeest legs. It looks super-useful; somebody should give it a whirl and report back in the comments.

And finally, we’ve been following a labor-of-love classic car restoration that we thought we’d share. It’s over at the my mechanics channel on YouTube, where the focus is usually on the restoration of wonderful old tools and artifacts of much smaller size and complexity. The car is a 1973 Datsun 240Z, which has clearly seen better days but still isn’t that bad for a 50-year-old car. The video linked below is the latest episode, which details the repairs necessary to the rocker panels, rear wheel arches, floor and seat mounts, and a little bit of the hood. It’s kind of amazing to watch the process of turning flat pieces of sheet steel into exactly the right size and shape to replace rusty-out sections of the car. The whole playlist is worth watching, especially if you’re settling in for that long winter’s nap and need some nodding-off fodder. Merry Christmas!