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

Author Archives: simanaitissays

A SET-THEORETIC BALLET IN TWO ACTS—SELF-TAUGHT

I KNOW LITTLE about composing a ballet. On the other hand, I didn’t know much about magazine production when Larry Givens took me on as Associate Engineering Editor for SAE’s … Continue reading →

April 18, 2021 · Leave a comment

CHINA’S DIGITAL ECONOMY

LONG LING, A GOVERNMENT official in Beijing, contributed “Diary: At the Temple,” in the London Review of Books, January 21, 2021. A vignette in her article encouraged me to learn … Continue reading →

April 17, 2021 · Leave a comment

QUATERNIONS—EXPANDING OUR TOUR OF NUMBERS ON A DUBLIN BRIDGE

OUR TOUR OF numbers here at SimanaitisSays has included “You Can Count on Me—Or Maybe Not,” “Exploring Rationality,” and “Euler’s Elegance.”  Along the way, we’ve encountered three expanding sets of … Continue reading →

April 16, 2021 · Leave a comment

CELEBRATING THE FRENCH TACOS

WHAT DO THE Australian H.S.P., the Tanzanian Chipsi Mayai, and the French Tacos have in common? Their common ingredient is chips in English, chipsi in Swahili, pommes frites in French, … Continue reading →

April 15, 2021 · 2 Comments

ON TRILLIONS

SUPPOSE AN OFFICIAL Counter had been commissioned at the birth of Christ to begin numbering the seconds (assuming, for the moment, a start at 1 A.D., not the 4 B.C. … Continue reading →

April 14, 2021 · 3 Comments

FLAT-RAD FOUR-SEATER

IT COULD HAVE BEEN this Salon feature of a Morgan Plus 4 Tourer, R&T, March 1954, that initiated my love affair with the Morgan Four-Seater. Indeed, the magazine’s cover was … Continue reading →

April 13, 2021 · 2 Comments

BIG EV BENEFITS FROM NANOTECH

A HEADLINE CAUGHT my eye: “Aiming for the 5-minute EV Recharge,” in SAE Automotive Engineering, April 2021. The Technology Report by Stuart Birch describes nanotech advances from NAWA Technologies, headquartered … Continue reading →

April 12, 2021 · 2 Comments

AROUND THE WORLD IN FIVE GENRES

TURNER MOVIE CLASSICS recently aired Mike Todd’s Around the World in 80 Days, 1956. This got me thinking about the marvelous tale by Jules Verne in his novel, Le Tour … Continue reading →

April 11, 2021 · Leave a comment

OLD COPPER FLOURISHED IN GREAT LAKES REGION

NO, I’M NOT making a political comment about policing in the U.S. Upper Midwest. Rather, I’m citing “Great Lakes People Among First Coppersmiths,” as reported by David Malakoff in Science … Continue reading →

April 10, 2021 · Leave a comment

STRENGTHEN YE, STRENGTHEN YE!

THERE ARE SEVERAL views on the etymology of the word “stork,” but Katherine Rundell’s suggestion is particularly appealing in “Consider the Stork?,” London Review of Books, April 1, 2021.  “Storks … Continue reading →

April 9, 2021 · Leave a comment