NASA Isnt Hiring Someone to Stop an Alien Invasion, You Jabronis. These days, reading anything e. Juicero. Just when I thought we had hit the apex of bad reporting and general dystopia, today, severaloutletsran stories about NASA hiring someone to defend Earth from aliens. It quickly skyrocketed to become the top story on Facebook news, despite being the media equivalent of horse droppings, wrapped in manure, sprinkled with trash shrapnel. Clearly, NASA is not hiring anyone to defend the planet from the sorts of alien invaders depicted in stories like these, and this person will not be calling the shots Independence Day style against extraterrestrial belligerents. What this job posting is actually about is very simple and not at all newsworthy NASA is hiring a planetary protection officer to make sure that spacecraft from Earth dont contaminate other worlds, and that we dont bring back potentially dangerous alien microbes from anywhere else. Currently, NASAs office of planetary protection includes just one member, Dr. Cassie Conley. Of course, you wouldnt know this from a headline like this Or this Or, the spiciest meatball of all A rep from NASA clarified what the divisions actual responsibilities entail. The Office of Planetary Protection is involved in many facets of mission development to prevent microbial contamination of other planets and our own, Laurie Cantillo, lead communications specialist in the planetary science division, told Gizmodo. Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute in Californiawhich literally searches for advanced extraterrestrial lifewas pretty amused by the press coverage surrounding NASAs new job opening. If you have a sample return mission to Mars, you want to be careful in both directions, he told Gizmodo. You want to be sure that anything you send to Mars doesnt contaminate Mars with early bacteria, because what if we found life on Mars but it just turned out to be your neighbors Sending pond scum to Mars would complicate the search for life there. All NASA spacecraft are sterilized to prevent this hypothetical situation, which is known as forward contamination. But the planetary protection officer would also help to ensure that any kind of microbes are not brought back to Earth from other planets. Unsurprisingly, this is called backward contamination. As far as protecting us from the kind of aliens you see every night on the TV, NASAs never considered that, Shostak added. Sending pond scum to Mars would complicate the search for life there. Though this should be abundantly clear by nowthat NASA isnt planning to launch an attack on aliens they dont know existShostak gets some colorful phone calls from those who want to believe. I have to say, people do call me and say, Do you know anything about the Pentagons plans to defend Earth he said. To be clear, Shostak does not know anything about the Pentagons plans and thinks that even in some alternate reality where he did, the Pentagon wouldnt waste time or money trying to save us. So please stop calling him. If youre interested in astrobiology and fit the qualifications for planetary protections officer, by all means apply to the position. Youd be getting paid 1. Oggy Et Les Cafards 2013. Ofgem and Government have published a plan to make the energy system smarter and more flexible, saving consumers billions between now and 2050. But dont believe the misinformed hype that NASA has an officer in charge of fighting aliens, Will Smith with a Carbonizer style. Think about it There is nothing here worth invading for, except for this video of a seal befriending a dog or very fluffy cats. Hypothetically, any and all of these things could exist elsewhere in the universe, so there is really no need to get them from our trash infested planet. Net Meter Gadget' title='Net Meter Gadget' />Quarq DZero Power Meter In Depth Review. This past summer at Eurobike, Quarq announced their latest generation of power meters, the DZero lineup. The aim of this line was to refresh the existing offerings, while also somewhat simplifying things. Most visible to consumers though was the addition of Bluetooth Smart transmission, making for dual ANTBluetooth Smart capabilities. Alongside that was an updated multi color LED for status clarity. Behind the scenes, the company tweaked the strain gauge design to increase accuracy levels. Finally, the company also added support for Boost 1. BB3. 86 EVO bottom bracket compatibility. Phew. Ive been riding a DZero loaner unit that Quarq sent to try since December. Plenty of indoor and outdoor rides across all sorts of lovely winter and now spring conditions. In doing so, Ive been recording boatloads of test data, with usually 2 3 other power meters on the bike at the same time. Like normal, Ill be sending the unit back to Quarq once Ive wrapped up the review. With that lets dig into whats in the box and then get it setup on the bike. Unboxing The exact configuration of your Quarq DZero box will vary based on what exactly you ordered. In my case, the loaner unit I got came with chainrings pre installed, minimizing the amount of work involved in setup. I like thatbecause Im lazy. Though realistically installing chainrings is just a couple minute task at worst, it takes only a hex wrench. As noted, my unit came with the chainrings pre installed, but they also included some extra chainrings for craps and giggles. Further, they included a bottom bracket adapter, simply because the bike I was installing it on didnt match the bottom bracket of the unit. Otherwise, inside the box, youll find a small packet of papers that serves as a guide and warranty cards. And then, of course, youll find both the drive side with chainrings and non drive side crank arms situated. And a closer look at the informational pieces of former trees If you take a peek at the piece of paper rubber banded to your crank arm, itll show the test information from the factory calibration test pass. Its actually pretty cool how that all works, and I showed it within my behind the scenes post at Quarqs HQ last year or so. Heres how the two look when positioned all pretty And thus concludes our unboxing section. I love unboxing sections that have a mere two parts to the device. Note the coin cell battery is already pre installed. InstallationConfiguration Like any power meter, getting the Quarq installed will vary depending on what your current bottom bracket setup is relative to whatever you bought from Quarq. If you were smart, you bought the same bottom bracket setup, and thus your installation is pretty quick and easy. If instead you elected to introduce unnecessary pain and confusion, then you bought some other standard and now need to also convert your bottom bracket. That, in turn, may be easy, or you could spend all day waiting for glue to dry. In this case, I kept things relatively simple and thus the change was easy enough. Canopus Edius Pro 3.5 on this page. Since I was using GXP previously, I merely needed to remove a few screws and pull out the existing crank set. Then, I slid in the new crank set. Dont forget to put the chain on the correct side of the axle, else, youll swear a bunch when you get to the end and realize you have to start over again. Dont worry, I forget about 7. Once done youll go ahead and screw on the non drive crank arm on the other side and then attach your pedals. Dont forget spacers if your pedals require them. Of course, just like bottom bracket changes can vary, so can how you buy the Quarq when it comes to chainrings. If you bought just the power meter spider, then youll need to install the chainrings those are the spikey things that you can use like a Frisbee if fending off a knife attack. Whereas if you buy the whole kit with them pre installed, then youll save yourself 5 1. Its super easy to install chainrings though. Coil Master wire coiling tool make the best coils in the fastest time. Enjoy your happy coiling timeOnce everything is set, toss your bike on a trainer and do a few brief like 5 2. A The front doesnt fall off, andB It doesnt sound like anyone is dying down there. If both things check out, then we can move onto doing a zero offset. Which I might as well cover in the general use section. Beyond that, were done here. General Use Overview As has been the case for about a decade, using a Quarq power meter is pretty darn simple. You can more or less set it and forget it. Yet there remains a fair about of tweaking that can occur behind the scenes with their apps, for advanced users that want it. In fact, Id argue no power meter has as much tweakable potential. On the flip sideits generally best not to tweak things unless you really truly know what youre doing. First though, lets start with the basics. And no better place to begin than the battery compartment. The unit hosts a CR2. ANT sensors these days. Quarq states a battery life of about 2. Net Meter Gadget' title='Net Meter Gadget' />I havent ridden enough hours yet on it to find the end of that tunnel. Generally speaking, their battery life estimates are pretty solid. Not to mention that Quarq says that realistically folks can probably get up to 3. Arctic Circle in December. The battery compartment can be found right on the front, easily unscrewed and accessed without any tools. Long time Quarq users and Quarq themselves know that much older generations of Quarq units i. But since then things have been pleasantly quiet. GEttYOpVJxbhWt2_ht8reMSO94g=/768x0/filters:no_upscale()/network-meter-gadget-57d1f1cb3df78c71b635f2e0.png' alt='Net Meter Gadget' title='Net Meter Gadget' />The battery is found under that little Q cap looking thing Well move onto connectivity, for which the DZero supports both ANT and Bluetooth Smart. This means you can use any head unit that supports ANT power meters like a Garmin or Wahoo device, as well as those from Polar and Suunto that support Bluetooth Smart power meters. Ive tested it across virtually all Garmin devices made in the last few years via ANT, as well as via Bluetooth Smart on the Garmin Fenix 5 and FR9. Polar M4. 60, Wahoo Bolt, and even Zwift i. OS.   No issues. When it comes to the data types the DZero supports, it will depend on which protocol you use ANT Power totalANT Power Balance estimatedANT Cadence. Bluetooth Smart Power. Bluetooth Smart Power Balance estimatedBluetooth Smart Cadence. Since the unit isnt a separated leftright power meter i. Power. Tap P1 or 4iiii Precision, it tends to handle 3rd party compatibility over Bluetooth Smart better than those that are dual systems on Bluetooth Smart. On ANT there are no issues at all with either type. Pro Tip If reading this review some time down the road and you want to validate compatibility with your specific head unit over Bluetooth Smart, double check the comments section below. Many folks will chime in to confirm operation. For example, you can see the Polar M4. Quarq DZero below As for the metrics noted above, you can see this detail on the head unit itself of course, or afterwards on various platforms depending on the capabilities of the platform. For example using the baseline of Garmin Connect, heres what youve got for a ride. Whereas if you pair to Suuntos platform you wont get some of the additional power meter metrics beyond baseline power, since Suunto doesnt support those. Meanwhile, Polar sits somewhere in the middle on support of advanced metrics. Z2xENbplxOeX1fKL7HL3aki7KAi1ZkHJZuNXLO-xrINb_xVC2gUB2joAM2T8ph5XN=h900' alt='Net Meter Gadget' title='Net Meter Gadget' />These days, reading anything e. Juicero. Just when I thought we had hit the apex of bad reporting and general.