TRAVELERS’ CODE
IN THE early days of telegraph communication, sending a “cable” was priced by word count—and it cost a pretty penny. A ten-word message from New York City to Chicago in … Continue reading
SAP @ Y MBCU CAST 35
THIS TITLE—SAP @ Y MBCU CAST 35—is so wonderfully evocative of traditional time-speed-distance rallying that I’ve recycled it from an old Tech Tidbits piece. The extended version resides at http://www.roadandtrack.com/column/sap-y-mbcu-cast-35. … Continue reading
THE COMPUTER: A PHOTO ESSAY
UBIQUITOUS THOUGH it is, the digital computer is a relatively recent thing. Plenty of us remember our first significant encounter with its wonders—mine, an IBM 1620 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute … Continue reading
BERTIE
BEING THE Anglophile that I am, I enjoy my biweekly London Review of Books. Worth sharing here are details of Bertie: A Life of Edward VII, reviewed by Bee Wilson … Continue reading
SIR HERBERT’S GLOBAL OFFSPRING
THE AUSTIN Seven was Sir Herbert Austin’s concept of the perfect small car. As he said at its July 21, 1922, introduction, “The British working man will not stand any … Continue reading
CONCENTRATION
AYRTON SENNA was, to my mind, the most cerebral race driver of all time. And in a hot, crowded pressroom at the Japanese Grand Prix, October 1989, he proved this … Continue reading
LOL
HERE I’M thinking of LOL as in “Lots of Luck,” one of the many possible meanings for this oft-used internet alphabetical triple. One website lists seven interpretations of LOL earning … Continue reading
WHAT’S A SLIDE RULE, GRANDPA?
THERE ARE blessedly few of us these days who remember the slide rule, and fewer still who understand its workings. So why not join this hardy band and learn some … Continue reading
ST. PETE FLIGHTS, REAL AND VIRTUAL, PART 2
MEANWHILE, ACROSS the Atlantic in another St. Petersburg, a Florida businessman named Percival Elliot Fansler approached aeroplane maker Tom Benoist with an intriguing idea. Tampa Bay separated the cities of … Continue reading
ST. PETE FLIGHTS, REAL AND VIRTUAL, PART 1
TWO HIGHLY significant events in aviation history involved the cities of St. Petersburg, one in Russia, the other in Florida. What’s more, they happened within months of each other in … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 