CAUDRON G.3 TECHNICALITIES
I UNDERRATED technical nuances of René Caudron’s G.3, the aeroplane flown by Frenchwoman Adrienne Bolland in her 1921 conquest of the Andes. Describing the G.3, I termed it “of the … Continue reading
ON THINKING (TO ONE’S SELF)
THE BEAUTY of English is its clarity. Some languages can be ambiguous, encouraging interpretation, nuances, not to say differences of understanding, between speaker and listener. But not English, when properly spoken. … Continue reading
WHERE ARE SELF-DRIVING CARS HEADED?
IF SELF-DRIVING CARS are to be common on U.S. streets by 2020, many crucial decisions are still to be made. Even the basic concept isn’t clear: Google’s goal, for example, … Continue reading
CHINA’S FAST TELESCOPE TO ENHANCE MANKIND’S LISTENING
CHINA IS well along in constructing the world’s largest radio telescope, scheduled to be completed in September 2016. Known as FAST, for 500-meter aperture spherical telescope, the project is making … Continue reading
SAY AGAIN, PLEASE, SYNTHETICALLY IF YOU LIKE
AMONG VOICES I might recognize are those of HAL 9000, Siri, Stephen Hawking, our Honda’s nav system, IBM “Jeopardy!” Watson and the Tokyo Subway’s Elmer Fudd. All are examples of … Continue reading
AIDA AND THE CANAL? THE COBBLESTONES OF SUEZ ONCE TROD BY OTHELLO?
EGYPT HAS rich operatic history, but not without misunderstanding, myth and surmise. It has been said that Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida was commissioned to celebrate the grand opening of Cairo’s Khedivial … Continue reading
CHINA’S EV MARKET
WHAT WITH gasoline prices at historic lows, BEVs (Battery Electric Vehicles) and HEVs (Hybrid EVs) have been glued to U.S. showroom floors. Not so in China, though. A series of … Continue reading
CROSSWORDS SANS FOREIGN WORDS
I AM a crossword puzzle fan. In moderation, mind; I don’t do them every day, nor in ink. But I enjoy working through the Sunday crosswords (and alternating acrostics) in … Continue reading
THE BUDDHA’S TOOTH—WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED?
IT MAY SEEM unlikely that I’m learning world geography, history and religion from old Sam Spade radio mysteries, but, in fact, this is how I first heard of Sri Dalada … Continue reading
BABYLONIAN CALCULUS?
IT’S RARE THAT calculus makes the cover of Science, the weekly magazine of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Nor is ancient Babylon an expected Science cover subject. … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 