tingilinde

100 mpg plus from the past

Someone mentioned Messerschmitts:

the historic price of electricity in the us

I can produce about 150 watt-hrs of work on my rowing machine and not die in a single session.  Assuming I had a reasonably efficient generator that would be about two cents worth of electric energy at current NJ rates.  A good average number of manual labor is about 1 kWh per day for a person in good physical shape.  So having someone do a day's worth a manual labor is about the same is fourteen cents worth of electric energy.  

It turns out electric energy wasn't always cheap.  This chart is from a talk on energy efficiency and shows 1910 saw rates of about $1.60 per kWh (1990 dollars) and the 20s  through the mid 30s were mostly around sixty cents. 

great chips

A list of some of the more important microchips  (via IEEE Spectrum)

how many have you used?

(thanks for the link Mike)

the business of the media - and saving it

Lots of argument and discussion on this point.  Jason Pontin of the Technology Review weighs in with more points to consider.

I don't agree with all of his points, but I don't believe Clay Shirky or Dave Winer are right either and I am not expert enough to have my own opinion.  I think we strap in and watch what happens.

the mac is 25 today

I had to buy one on day one - but Donald Duck comic books made me do it.  When Donald Duck painted a checkerboard pattern on a kitchen floor, he used a can of checkerboard paint.  The fact that this was native in MacPaint was compelling to me.

nuclear light houses

a bad idea

little boy was female

David Samuels has a fine piece on John Coster-Mullen in the December 15, 2008 issue of The New Yorker.  The online version is here.

Coster-Mullen is obsessed with reconstructing the details of early American atomic weapons and has done a remarkable job.  Great piece.  

There is no security issue with publishing this sort of stuff.  The hard part of building a device is acquiring material - the physics of building something is well understood by tens of thousands of physicists.  Keeping this sort of information secret is just silly - probably a mixture of giving the public a false sense of security and paranoia. 

And yes - female indeed.  I was always under the impression the configuration was male. 

jetpack hunting

A video to promote a book...

Mac Montadon promotes Jetpack Dreams and I'm tempted to get the book. There are several reasons we aren't using them now that we live in the future. Building the appropriate power source and energy storage is a bit demanding.

but a fun video


Jetpack Dreams Trailer from Mac Montandon on Vimeo.

assisted bicycles

People have been putting motors of various types - steam, electric, gas, and even rocket - on bikes since they decided they wanted something beyond pedaling.

This one is from the Smithsonian and weighs about 150 pounds with a range of 7 miles ... from the 1890s. Dangerous seems like a reasonable description. Check out what appears to be the front brake. At least the seat is heated.

For a few thousand dollars and a bit of work you can have the modern equivalent with little gas turbines. Or how about rockets? or rockets for kids?

when bell labs was magical

Greg points to a piece about the old Bell Labs that was recently aired on Studio 360.

When a monopoly allowed science and technology to flower in an industrial lab. There were warts, but it was an amazing place.