Simanaitis Says

On cars, old, new and future; science & technology; vintage airplanes, computer flight simulation of them; Sherlockiana; our English language; travel; and other stuff

Monthly Archives: September, 2020

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS TIDBITS—THE LIGHT SIDE

I GAIN LOTS of industry insights from Automotive News, even though this is often peripheral to whatever I feel like writing about these days. Nevertheless, it’s fun to encounter the … Continue reading

September 30, 2020 · Leave a comment

BEATING TRUMP IN DEBATE

NICHOLAS KRISTOF AND Richard A. Friedman offer advice to Joe Biden in advance of tonight’s presidential debate, September 29, 2020. Kristof and Friedman recommend humor, ridicule, and mockery.  Nicholas Kristof, … Continue reading

September 29, 2020 · Leave a comment

YOU WANT MEGAPIXELS? I’LL SHOW YOU MEGAPIXELS!

“TALK ABOUT A sharper image,” Science magazine, September 11, 2020, wrote. The news brief describes a recently constructed imaging sensor array that captured a world-record 3200 megapixels in a single … Continue reading

September 28, 2020 · Leave a comment

HOLY CON! PART 2

THIS ALL STARTED with the claim that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were more than just er… friends. This revelation depended on a Coptic fragment that, maybe, was authentic, as described … Continue reading

September 27, 2020 · 1 Comment

HOLY CON! PART 1

JAMES LASDUN OFFERS a compelling title in “Bats on the Ceiling,” a review in London Review of Books, September 24, 2020, of Veritas: A Harvard Professor, a Con Man, and … Continue reading

September 26, 2020 · 2 Comments

SCOTUS TIDBITS

THE SUPREME COURT of the United States is much in the news these days, what with the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Republican efforts to rush a replacement … Continue reading

September 25, 2020 · Leave a comment

MUSICAL (AND SOCIETAL) SUCCESS STORIES PART 2

YESTERDAY, WE CELEBRATED musicians as varied as Franz Josef Haydn, Jimi Hendrix, and Grace Slick. Today in Part 2, a remote Scottish town is threatened environmentally. There’s a happy ending, … Continue reading

September 24, 2020 · 1 Comment

MUSICAL (AND SOCIETAL) SUCCESS STORIES PART 1

MUSIC CAN HAVE a beneficial influence on society, even sometimes a happy one. This came to mind recently when I heard the full story of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ charming … Continue reading

September 23, 2020 · Leave a comment

1947 ARSENAL CTA GRAND PRIX CAR PART 2

YESTERDAY, WE LEARNED of an optimistic post-World War II plan of returning France to the forefront of Grand Prix motor racing. Chosen to lead this effort was Albert Lory, whose … Continue reading

September 22, 2020 · 2 Comments

1947 ARSENAL CTA GRAND PRIX CAR PART 1

WHAT DOES THE post-war French Arsenal CTA grand prix car have in common with a locomotive? At first thought, it isn’t the robustness of its construction nor the success of … Continue reading

September 21, 2020 · Leave a comment