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

GMAX TUPOLEV ANT-25 PART 1

MY GMAX MANIA continues. After having incorporated just about every documentable detail into my GMax Westland Lysander, I looked around for another project using this entertaining computer software. Years ago, … Continue reading

October 9, 2019 · Leave a comment

FROM TABLET TO SCROLL TO CODEX TO BOOK

WE THINK OF books as being on particular topics. Even anthologies have a common theme: mysteries, short stories, and the like. But it wasn’t always that way. Here are tidbits … Continue reading

October 8, 2019 · Leave a comment

MATH WORDS PART 2

MUCH OF “THEORETICAL” mathematics finds application in other areas of science, as seen here yesterday in Math Words Part 1. More tidbits gleaned from AAAS Science magazine, September 20, 2019, … Continue reading

October 7, 2019 · Leave a comment

MATHEMATICAL WORDS PART 1

“ANOTHER DAY with No Use for Calculus” reads a humorous, if inaccurate, t-shirt slogan. In fact, calculus is the mathematics of analyzing motion. So, in a sense, unless you’re utterly … Continue reading

October 6, 2019 · Leave a comment

ON DENISOVANS PART 2

YESTERDAY, THE DISCUSSION was on Neanderthals and Denisovans, branches of human evolution who didn’t quite make it. I also cited a mild preference for Denis as my given name. Today, … Continue reading

October 5, 2019 · Leave a comment

ON DENISOVANS PART 1

IF I HAD it to do over, I might spell my given name with one “n.” This is partly to honor the Denisovans, close cousins of the Neanderthals and, thus, … Continue reading

October 4, 2019 · Leave a comment

LIZZIE’S FRIEND BARBARA PART 2

BARBARA AND TONY Bertram ran a British Intelligence “secret house” for French Resistance operatives during World War II. Her memoirs, French Resistance in Sussex, recount “the excitement, anxiety and love … Continue reading

October 3, 2019 · Leave a comment

LIZZIE’S FRIEND BARBARA PART 1

IN RESEARCHING THE Westland “Lizzie” Lysander, I learned about Barbara Bertram. During World War II, she and her husband Major Anthony Bertram lived in Bignor, a tiny Sussex village not … Continue reading

October 2, 2019 · Leave a comment

THE M.G. MIDGET M-TYPE

THE M.G. MARQUE evolved from Kimber Specials built by Morris Garages’ Cecil Kimber as early as 1923. The M.G. Octagon was registered as a trademark in 1924, and specials from … Continue reading

October 1, 2019 · 2 Comments

IMAGES FROM AVIATION’S GOLDEN AGE

THE GOLDEN AGE of aviation is regarded as being the 1920s and 1930s. As noted by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, “Airplanes evolved from wood-and-fabric biplanes to streamlined … Continue reading

September 30, 2019 · Leave a comment