BORRONI-BIRD’S AFREECAR
CHRIS BORRONI-BIRD has proposed an innovative means of personal mobility and mobile power particularly optimized for sub-Sahara Africa. The Afreecar, a play on “Africa Car,” is an advanced bike-trailer system. … Continue reading
THE DUNNING-KRUGER EFFECT, ME, AND JOHN CLEESE
IT SOUNDS like a Grade-B sci-fi theme, but the Dunning-Kruger Effect is, alas, as timely as today’s headlines, rings true with my own intellectual life, and, what’s more, has an … Continue reading
GOTCHA, CAPTCHA!
CAPTCHAs are Completely Automated Public Turing tests to tell Computers and Humans Apart. We all encounter these visual puzzles used as website defenses against robo intrusion. Our solving the puzzle … Continue reading
TRAVELIN’ THE RAILS WITH CHARLEY F. MURPHY
WHAT FOLLOWS is a multi-part exposition of science (you’ll excuse the word) based on charge, force, and magnetic field, better known among students of physics as Charley F. Murphy. My … Continue reading
ON BEING RORSCHACHED AND OTHERWISE TESTED
IN THIRD Grade, I had a Rorschach. No, my mother didn’t have me tested. The Cleveland Board of Education did, as part of its innovative Major Work Class, a kinda … Continue reading
BOOK SMART, HEAD DUMB
MY MOTHER, rest her soul, used to say that I was “book smart, but head dumb.” I am not surprised to learn, based on a new book on the matter, … Continue reading
SOMETIMES SCIENCE SUCKS
FORGIVE THIS teaser title for news of engineering a gizmo that mimics a suckerfish and generates a pull-force up to 340 times the weight of the gizmo. Biomimetics, the mimicking … Continue reading
THE 1918–1919 FLU PANDEMIC
IT’S FLU season. Wife Dottie and I have got our shots. I recommend the same to SimanaitisSays readers, even those who may be shot-challenged for whatever reason. By way of … Continue reading
(WO)MEN OF MATHEMATICS
IN KEEPING with the book’s title, E.T. Bell’s classic Men of Mathematics has only 24 women out of the more than 300 personages listed in its index. As a source … Continue reading
WHAT’S YOUR STATE’S OFFICIAL FOSSIL?
NO FAIR if you just name some geriatric neighbor who complains about your loud music. I mean a genuine preserved relic from a previous geologic age. Wikipedia has a list … Continue reading
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