ARTS AND CRAFTS IN CALIFORNIA
ARTS AND CRAFTS didn’t originate in California, but the movement reached a local high in that state at the beginning of the 20th century. The residential architecture and furnishings of … Continue reading
COMBED COCONUTS HAVE COWLICKS
I FIND comfort in fixed point theorems. Briefly, these mathematical verities say that, under certain conditions, some things don’t change: They are fixed. A comforting thought. The more general the … Continue reading
FUN (AND UTILITY) WITH SCIENCE
PUNCH CARD Programmable Microfluidics holds the promise of bringing more science out of the research lab and into the developing world. It could also be a lot of fun encouraging … Continue reading
BUGATTI U-16 ENGINE
ONE OF Ettore Bugatti’s more exuberant engine designs had logic, if not luck, in its favor. This engine was a U-16, a pair of Bugatti inline-8 designs aligned in two … Continue reading
THE FUTURE AIN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE
FUTURISTS HAVE a real challenge: Aim too high, and people ridicule their “Tomorrow everyone will helicopter to work.” Aim too low, “Speaker phones will be all the rage!,” and their … Continue reading
MAPANARE—IN THE TROPICAL FOREST AND IN THE AIR
THANKS TO a Facebook colleague sharing aeronautical and flight-simulation interests, I came to learn about the mapanare, a species of pit viper found in the tropical lowlands of northern South … Continue reading
THE EARTH’S MOST ABUNDANT MINERAL
THE MINERAL bridgmanite got its name only recently. Despite this, specialists in Earth science have long known that the stuff is Earth’s most abundant mineral. I gleaned this, and other … Continue reading
THE NAME GAME
A RECENT brouhaha in the name game got me thinking about questionable automotive monikers. Infiniti has been on again/off again about its 560-hp Q50 Eau Rouge, this sports sedan named … Continue reading
FLIGHT OF THE ?
CHARLES LINDBERGH and his Spirit of St. Louis were the first, in 1927, to fly solo non-stop from New York to Paris. However, aircraft cognoscenti also recognize the Navy-Curtiss NC-4 … Continue reading
A LUDDITE’S VIEW?
PRESERVATION OF hair on the top of my head was one reason for my choosing a Honda Crosstour . See “2012 Honda Crosstour,” http://wp.me/p2ETap-9S. Another reason that continues to satisfy … Continue reading
