eVTOL UPDATE PART 1
“VTOL” MEANS “VERTICAL take-off and landing” aircraft. Drones are VTOL; so are helicopters; and so are aircraft like the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey, Hawker Siddeley Harrier Jump Jet, and Dornier … Continue reading
SOLID-STATE BATTERIES: WHEN? IF? WHOSE?
THIS IS A PARTICULARLY interesting time for solid-state batteries, those, as their name indicates, using a solid material rather than liquid means of conveying their ions from post to post. … Continue reading
SKOOL IS BACK
NOW THAT KIDS ARE returning, sorta, to traditional schooling, maybe it’s time to bring some humor, er… humour to the educational process. I do this in vintage fashion, by examining … Continue reading
HOLMES, THE ISLE OF MAN, AND PETER H. WOOD
AMONG PETER HARRY WOOD’S PASSIONS were vintage British cars and Sherlock Holmes. Peter was invested into The Baker Street Irregulars in 1985 with the BSI sobriquet “The Second Stain” and … Continue reading
STAGING WAGNER
RECENTLY, I NOTED, WATCHING Bergman’s The Virgin Spring reminded me of Wagner staging of medieval interiors. I was thinking especially of the Hunding residence built around a massive ash tree … Continue reading
TIDBITS ABOUT AUNTIE BEEB
BBC WORLD SERVICE is my wakeup call at 6:00 a.m. Pacific, 13.00 GMT. They used to play Lillibullero, but now it’s just a zippy modern sound check. This year is … Continue reading
VOLKSWAGEN DELUXE SEDAN—A 1952 PERSPECTIVE
“HOW WOULD YOU IMPROVE on a car which will cruise effortlessly all day long at top speed? What changes would you suggest in a vehicle which will seat a driver … Continue reading
TAKING A KITE-SHAPED TOUR
IT’S A RATHER IMPOSING title for a 1915 pocket guide: The Real United States & Canada Guide-Book. But its author William Harman Black had already published Real Round the World, … Continue reading
CELEBRATING TRUFFAUT, BERGMAN, AND BONDARCHUK PART 2
CONTINUING OUR FOREIGN FLICK fling, we devote Part 2 to the single, massive, expansive, (add adjective of your choice) 7 hour 11 minute epic, Sergei Bondarchuk’s Война и мир, War … Continue reading
CELEBRATING TRUFFAUT, BERGMAN, AND BONDARCHUK PART 1
IN MY BEATNIK PHASE (which lagged into the 1960s) I was into foreign films, the sort that lingered on pensive closeups and raindrops clinging to a leaf. Now, apparently into … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 