Author Archives: jlredford

Give ’em a Short, Sharp Shock and They Will Totally Do It Again

Posted on November 25, 2025 by jlredford

We’re watching the tremendous Ken Burns PBS series “The American Revolution”. It stresses that the British tried to hit the Americans suddenly and hit them hard. They would disperse this disorderly rabble with a whiff of grapeshot. They burned everything … Continue reading →

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Little Free Libraries – Boon or Blessing?

Posted on November 10, 2025 by jlredford

I was out taking my constitutional the other evening when I noticed a new little free library. There are five of them within just three blocks of my house: Hmm! I see from the Little Free Library site that about … Continue reading →

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From Creepy DARPA Concept to Useful Widget – A Long But Typical Engineering Journey

Posted on October 20, 2025 by jlredford

The standard engineering story goes like this – someone thinks of a good idea, they found a startup to develop it, it gets backed by venture capitalists, it becomes a hit, everyone gets rich, and the field moves forward. Boy … Continue reading →

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The Odd Longevity of Pink Floyd

Posted on October 11, 2025 by jlredford

Our town has a theater, the Regent, where a lot of tribute bands come to play. They do covers of Elvis, Sinatra, and the Eagles, which are unsurprising. They were all massive stars with the usual songs about falling in … Continue reading →

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MIT Under Attack

Posted on July 24, 2025 by jlredford

Last May 31st I attended Technology Day at MIT, where the school presents talks on all kinds of interesting research to its alumni. Commencement is always the day before, and the alumni reunion events are that evening. I’m a big … Continue reading →

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“Whoosh” – Autonomous Gondolas vs Robo-taxis

Posted on June 21, 2025 by jlredford

A New Zealand-based company, Whoosh Solutions, is building a new kind of urban transit system – a network of overhead fixed cables that are used by self-driving battery-powered gondolas to go from point to point. They can switch from one … Continue reading →

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The Most Exciting Day in the History of Arlington MA

Posted on June 2, 2025 by jlredford

… was April 19, 1775, and that was plenty! That’s when the Regulars (both sides thought of themselves as British) retreated down Concord Road (now Massachusetts Avenue) from the Battle of Lexington and Concord. They had gone out there to … Continue reading →

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Tesla-Free At Last

Posted on May 6, 2025 by jlredford

I first leased a Tesla Model 3 in Dec 2019. It was the fastest and smoothest car I had ever driven! It was so quiet and had so much zip. Its interior was elegantly sparse – it had just a … Continue reading →

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Cool Space Stuff: VLEO and Electric Jets, Rocket Planes

Posted on April 5, 2025 by jlredford

Here’s a quick dump on some novel ideas: satellites in very low orbits so they can take better pictures, using electric jets to deorbit space junk, and a rocket plane with big ambitions from New Zealand! Very Low Earth Orbit … Continue reading →

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“Sapiens” and the Fifth Order of Being

Posted on February 28, 2025 by jlredford

Yuval Harari’s “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” (2011) is a Big Think book, attempting to cover a vast range of subjects in a way that non-specialist readers can follow. In this case it’s the development of our species over … Continue reading →

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