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

Category Archives: Sci-Tech

ROMANCE OF THE SABRE-TOOTH CAT

LA BREA Tar Pits of 12,000 years ago are linked to a 1942 Romance of the Ranchos radio program and also to The New York Times published only yesterday. The … Continue reading

April 13, 2017 · 3 Comments

THIS VIDEO GAME IS ON ME

I ENJOY the time-gobbling hobby of building virtual GMax craft for use in Microsoft Flight Simulator. So it is with interest that I read the article “Video Games: The Bad, … Continue reading

April 10, 2017 · 5 Comments

MEASLES REDUX—AN IGNORANCE OF SCIENCE

ON SEPTEMBER 27, 2016, the Pan American Health Organization declared that “The Region of the Americas is the first in the world to have eliminated measles, a viral disease that … Continue reading

April 9, 2017 · 1 Comment

LOCKHEED MARTIN F-35—THE FINAL GENERATION?

MY INTERESTS in aviation are few beyond its Golden Age of the 1930s. However, I’m fascinated by the overwhelming technicalities of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter. … Continue reading

April 6, 2017 · 4 Comments

SCIENCE AND “AIR QUOTES”

ACCORDING TO White House press secretary Sean Spicer, we’re supposed to identify “air quotes” in presidential tweets about surveillance. And, says presidential senior advisor Kellyanne Conway, we’re to acknowledge “microwaves … Continue reading

March 15, 2017 · 2 Comments

SCIENCE AND GOVERNMENT POLICY

TWO SUCCESSIVE issues of Science magazine have multiple articles on science and government policy. Here I glean tidbits from two pieces in particular: Informing Policy with Science was a Science … Continue reading

March 5, 2017 · 3 Comments

HEY! YOU! GET OFF MY CLOUD!

PROFESSORS AT Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Vernam Group hacked Amazon Web Services, the Cloud computing business that earned Amazon more than $6 billion in 2015. Then, honest guys that WPI’s Thomas … Continue reading

February 16, 2017 · Leave a comment

MAKE TOMATOES GREAT AGAIN!

MODERN TOMATOES don’t taste as good as they did in the old days. Nor are today’s commercial varieties as tasty as their heirloom counterparts. How come? Is there any hope … Continue reading

February 13, 2017 · 2 Comments

WOODSMAN, SPARE THAT CO2

BURNING WOOD to make electricity? There’s enough controversy in this concept to keep us occupied for awhile, so let’s begin by considering several aspects of the matter, as discussed in … Continue reading

February 8, 2017 · Leave a comment

THOSE WITHOUT GUMTION NEED NOT APPLY

THERE’S A CONFLUENCE of art and science in the works of 19th-century English painter J.M.W. Turner. London Review of Books, October 20, 2016, contained an article titled “The Chase: Inigo … Continue reading

February 4, 2017 · 2 Comments