HELLO, KITTY—FROM FERAL TO FRIENDLY
THREE RECENT events got me thinking about the world’s most popular pet, Felis silvestris catus, the domestic cat. First of all, Los Angeles hosted the first Hello Kitty Convention. Then … Continue reading
McCLINTOCK No. 1 AND COAL OIL JOHNNY
IN THESE days of fracking and horizontal drilling, seemingly seeking the last drop of petroleum, it’s comforting that the world’s longest-running oil well, McClintock No. 1, remains productive after 153 … Continue reading
LASERS OVER MAHWAH
IT’S NOT exactly Bullets Over Broadway, but Lasers Over Mahwah is the reality of High Frequency Trading of stocks, as practiced in one of the world’s major centers of such … Continue reading
STRUCTURAL INSTABILITY
IT MAY seem odd that the BBC World Service got me thinking of dynamical systems being structurally stable or not. However, this happened at 6:05 a.m. on Thursday, November 13, 2014. … Continue reading
DAVID MACAULAY’S WORLD
THANKS TO David Macaulay, we can understand something about building a Pharaoh’s pyramid, a Roman city, a medieval castle, a Gothic cathedral and the underpinnings of a modern city intersection. … Continue reading
ONE HUGE PRELUDE
WHEN IS a ship more than a ship? When it’s the Prelude F.L.N.G. There’s fascinating technology in this Floating Liquefied Natural Gas facility, described in “The Biggest Ship in the … Continue reading
SOCCER GOALKEEPERS ARE POOR GAMBLERS
AN AMAZING thing occurred on August 18, 1913, at the Casino in Monte Carlo: At one roulette table, black came up a record 26 times in succession. Or, then again, … Continue reading
THEORIES OF CAT AND MOUSE
“HOW LARGE Predators Manage the Cost of Hunting” is the title of an article in Science, October 3, 2014, the weekly magazine of the American Association for the Advancement of … Continue reading
GASOGENES AND THE MILLE MIGLIA
TO SHERLOCKIANS and other high-living Victorians, the gasogene is a piece of barware, a gadget producing carbonated water for mixing with whisky. To automotive historians, a gasogene was the answer … Continue reading
CELLULOSIC FUELS—BETTER THAN A LOT OF CORN
TODAY’S ETHANOL is a lot of corn. Producing a motor fuel from corn grain raises the price of food. Ethanol-enhanced gasoline isn’t compatible with all cars (and other equipment fueled … Continue reading
