JUST JOKING AROUND
MARK TWAIN said, “Man is the only animal that laughs, or needs to.” Once our ancestors evolved open-ended thinking, they followed with a hard-wired sense of humor. And if you’d … Continue reading
AFOOT WITH ARCHEOLOGY
SHERLOCK HOLMES was a master at identifying what his chronicler Dr. John H. Watson preferred to call “footsteps.” And, according to Science magazine, 26 July 2013, the San people of … Continue reading
CELEBRATING SIR PETER USTINOV
TO SAY that actor, writer, dramatist, filmmaker, opera director and stage designer Sir Peter Ustinov was a renaissance man does him a disservice. None of the renaissance men I’ve read … Continue reading
AN ALVIS SPEED 20 SB? A TALBOT LAGO T26?
“IF I were a rich man…,” mused Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. Though my circumstances are decidedly different, my musings are the same as I look through the catalogs … Continue reading
RISKY RESEARCH
HOW MUCH risk should a journal assume when publishing new—and potentially contentious—findings? This may sound purely academic, but there are implications in how the rest of us accept things that … Continue reading
A QUEST FOR LATERAL CONTROL: THE GOUPY II
EARLIEST AIRCRAFT were on a quest for control, especially laterally, from side to side, in roll. Wing warping was one choice; ailerons were another. Major court cases ensued (for the … Continue reading
TWIN-ENGINE CARS
HOLLYWOOD PRODUCERS know that if one elephant is good, then more than one is even better. Over the history of the automobile, designers have occasionally shared this view. Many Land … Continue reading
A “SPRUCE GOOSE” FANTASY
HOWARD HUGHES disliked the term “Spruce Goose” for what he preferred to call the Hughes Flying Boat. And indeed, spruce was only one of the woods used in the Hercules … Continue reading
THE BAROQUE CYCLE
EVERY SO often, I encounter a tale that calls for periodic rereading. James Clavell’s two-volume Shōgun is one (www.wp.me/p2ETap-1ln). Neal Stephenson’s trilogy of The Baroque Cycle is another, all 2633 … Continue reading
SUZUKA’S GRASSY HILLOCK, 1989
MARGIT MOTTA and I witnessed one of the most dramatic—and controversial—moments of Formula 1 racing at the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix. The drama was a high point of the intense … Continue reading
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