FUN WITH CHEMISTRY—FIVE DECADES AGO
HOW TIMES change. Fun with Chemistry: Easy Experiments for Young People was originally published in 1944. A revised edition appeared in 1962, with additional printings up through 1973. However, were … Continue reading
CELEBRATING PENGUIN BOOKS
PENGUIN BOOKS is celebrating its eightieth anniversary, thus reminding me of the pleasure I’ve derived from these pocket-size, color-coded, modestly priced editions of literature. A Penguin celebration also appeared in … Continue reading
SANTA ANA DRAGS
PEOPLE FLYING into or out of Orange County, California, John Wayne Airport (SNA) may not realize it, but they’re sharing real estate with 1950s’ hot rodders. What’s more, hot rod … Continue reading
MOVING THE GOODS—BY AIR
IT DIDN’T take long for marketers to realize that aeroplanes could move the goods, in the advertising sense. Quite distinct from poster art of early aviation meets, another genre quickly … Continue reading
HELLO, CAN WE HEAR YOU NOW?
NASA’s RECENT announcement that there are signs of water on Mars is a long, long way from any chance that it has life as we know it. However, this news … Continue reading
AFRICA COUNTS
EARLIEST MAN arose on the African continent, and with evolving culture came mathematics. There’s a standard book on this subject, now in its third edition, Africa Counts by Claudia Zaslavsky. … Continue reading
CALIFORNIA, HERE I CAME
I’M A born-again Californian, not a native one. Wife Dottie, by contrast, is a desert rat from El Centro. In rearranging some bookshelves recently, I came upon a fine California … Continue reading
WONDERS OF A CAR’S CATALYTIC CONVERTER
MY RECENT item on fuel cell catalysts got me and several readers thinking about conventional automotive catalytic converters. Are automotive catalysts the same as those in a fuel cell? No. … Continue reading
CREATE ONE’S OWN LA BOHÈME
I’VE REDISCOVERED a book about making one’s own opera production with nothing more than scissors and glue. What fun. A snip-and-paste challenge. I think of this as preparation for the … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 
HYBRID VS. GASOLINE VS. DIESEL: TWO SNAFUS
THE RECENT Volkswagen diesel deceit reminded me of a 2010 SAE International presentation of mine that coordinated with an article in R&T. In retrospect, the presentation involved a pair of … Continue reading →