Simanaitis Says

On cars, old, new and future; science & technology; vintage airplanes, computer flight simulation of them; Sherlockiana; our English language; travel; and other stuff

EV POLE-TO-POLE!

A TECHNOLOGY REPORT IN SAE International Automotive Engineering, April 2024, caught my eye: Cami Buchholz’ “All-Electric Nissan Ariya Handles Ultra-cold Temps on Pole to Pole Trek.” What’s this? What about … Continue reading

April 28, 2024 · 5 Comments

SNACKIN’ ‘ROUND THE GLOBE

DAUGHTER SUZ RECEIVED A NEAT-O GIFT from a friend: a subscription to Universal Yums, a company that can provide a box of snacks from a particular foreign country each month. … Continue reading

April 27, 2024 · Leave a comment

THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

THERE’S IRONY TO BE HAD in my having a Ph.D. in mathematics. This is at least in part because I spent the majority of my career working in automotive journalism, … Continue reading

April 26, 2024 · 1 Comment

DALÍ DIALING

“YOU’VE GOT SALVADOR DALÍ ON LINE ONE.” Ask Dalí at the Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. Image by Martin Pagh Ludvigsen/Goodby Siverstein & Partners via NPR. Details are given … Continue reading

April 25, 2024 · 3 Comments

PEKING TO PARIS—1907

THE CHALLENGE WAS SET by the Paris newspaper Le Matin on January 31, 1907: “What needs to be proved today is that as long as a man has a car, … Continue reading

April 24, 2024 · 5 Comments

TIMEKEEPING—OBJECTIVE, GEOMETRIC, NUMERICAL, FRACTIONAL, DIGITAL

THE SANDS OF TIME ARE ONLY ONE way we describe its passage. The positions of stars and angled points of a sundial are geometric. We have numerals: “three fifty-two.”  Also, … Continue reading

April 23, 2024 · 5 Comments

DIALECTS THAT I’VE HEARD, LIKE, Y’KNOW

 A RECENT WORDS TRIVIA WEBSITE “Top 6 English Dialects That Sound Like Different Languages” got me thinking of dialects I have known. Here are tidbits gleaned from the Words Trivia … Continue reading

April 22, 2024 · 5 Comments

ART DECO AT THE METROPOLITAN OPERA 

I REALLY ENJOY ART DECO. And if you do too, have I got a deal for you on this Wednesday, April 24, 2024: The Metropolitan Opera HD Encore presentation of … Continue reading

April 21, 2024 · Leave a comment

LLM HALLUCINATING: AN A.I. PARLOR GAME

ROBERT CRAWFORD’S ARTICLE “After the British Library Cyberattack,” London Review of Books, April 4, 2024, is an excellent—and humorous—imagining of A.I. It follows up on the lamentable October 2023 British … Continue reading

April 19, 2024 · 2 Comments