HOLMES AND OUR PRESIDENTS
GIVEN THAT we’re bracketing the birthdays of two of our greatest presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, what better time to celebrate presidential linkages with the world’s greatest consulting detective, … Continue reading
48 VOLTS? (YET AGAIN? OR DIFFERENT?)
AUTOMOBILES WITH 48-volt electrical systems are being seen in some markets as a near-term necessity. In other markets, the unsettled U.S., for example, it’s anyone’s guess. Automobiles with 48-volt electrical … Continue reading
CHEECH’S STASH
INVETERATE 17-YEAR-OLD that I am, I associate Cheech Marin with his stoner-hippie comedy partner Tommy Chong. And then in the 1990s he was Don Johnson’s partner in the Nash Bridges … Continue reading
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
PACIFIC OPERA PROJECT!
L’ELISIR D’AMORE, by Gaetano Donizetti, had its debut in Milan, Italy, in 1832. Yet this comedy of phoniness promoted by a charlatan of the highest order remains a grand operatic … Continue reading
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
MAKE LITHUANIA GREAT, AS USUAL
WHAT WITH recent executive hawking of an apparel brand tweeted and then promoted by an alternative-facted underling, I thought that perhaps my ancestral homeland might likewise profit from similar hype: … Continue reading
MODENA TO FRANKFURT
IN THE COMPANY of Paul Frère, European automotive journalist extraordinaire, I was passenger on a memorable drive from Modena, Italy, to Frankfurt, Germany. I recently came across some scrubbled notations … Continue reading
ONE BAD HOMBRE AND AN UNTOUCHABLE
I WAS thinking about bad hombres with foreign-sounding names, and Al Capone popped to mind. This is not the irrational neurologic activity it might seem: My mother and father, rest … Continue reading
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
Simanaitis Says 