AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE WORRIES
DESPITE ALL the hype of autonomous vehicles as the hot tip for 2020, I predict society’s principal winners in this won’t be those seeking enhanced personal mobility. It will be … Continue reading
AVIATION ART SOARING TO THE ABSTRACT
IT DIDN’T take long for art to discover aviation as a subject. A Wright Flyer had already appeared in Henri Rousseau’s Les Pêcheurs à la ligne avec aeroplane less than … Continue reading
FREEZER CLEAN-OUT GUMBO
I HAVE several gumbo recipes, some so wonderfully authentic with Andouille sausage, filé and the like that I daren’t serve them without a couple Abita brews. Another is FCO (Freezer … Continue reading
WHAT’S MODERN?
I CONFESS, I don’t usually read Elle Decor. However, its September 2015 issue caught my interest: “What’s Modern Now?” Being a sometimes Luddite who still likes to think I’m edgy … Continue reading
MACGYVER—YOU GO, GRRL!
HOLLYWOOD AND engineering organizations have teamed up with a neat project: Five aspiring screenwriters are developing TV pilots of series starring female heroes of science. The Next MacGyver competition is … Continue reading
MOZART SELLS! BUT SO DOES WILLY NELSON
AUSTRALIAN RESEARCHERS have studied the music congruity effects on consumer behavior; loosely, how background music affects sales of one thing or another. Not surprisingly, it depends on what’s being sold … Continue reading
THE DEMISE OF AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING
STUDENTS ENTERING traditional automotive engineering programs today may be the last generation of this noble profession. If predictions about future automobiles are correct, the only discipline surviving will be body … Continue reading
SLEEVE VALVES ALOFT
BRISTOL’S HERCULES rivals the Rolls-Royce Merlin as the most important British aircraft engine of World War II. The Merlin was a liquid-cooled V-12 with conventional poppet valves, four per cylinder, … Continue reading
LOFTY LONDON—1930
“THE EYE of the Airman sees all—even the private terraces, lawns and walks in the secluded gardens of the King’s Palace.” This is true today, albeit from some altitude, for … Continue reading
TAKE MY MATH TEXT, PLEASE
FROM TIME to time, people tell me that mathematicians are a humorless lot. This, despite my having a tee-shirt (I’m wearing it at the moment) that says “Another day with … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 