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- Innovations of the Big Dig 3 – Scheme-Z => Zakim Bridge, Conclusion
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Tag Archives: big-tech
Innovations of the Big Dig 3 – Scheme-Z => Zakim Bridge, Conclusion
Here’s the last of the major innovations described in the WGBH podcast, The Big Dig, along with my take on how it all turned out. Along with the straight construction challenges of the Dig, described in the previous posts, Fred … Continue reading
Innovations of the Big Dig 2 – Slurry, Jacking, Freezing
Let me again recommend the WGBH podcast, The Big Dig, which was the inspiration for these posts. It’s full of great stories, but I’d like to concentrate on the innovations that made this vast project possible. Last time I talked about a … Continue reading
“Oppenheimer” and the Limits of Scientific Influence
One of the favorite tropes of SF is the mad scientist. He (always he) represents the disruptive power of modern science to old beliefs, and of modern technology to old ways of life. He becomes crazed with this power, and … Continue reading
When Will Scotland Sell More Wind Than Whisky?
Here’s something unexpected – there is actually an advantage to living on a storm-swept rock in the North Atlantic: Scotland now has more wind power per person than any other country! They’re now up to 1900 W/person of capacity for … Continue reading
The Netherlands Would Be a Pretty Nice Future
The Washington Post today has a fascinating article about what would seem to be a dull topic: Netherlands Agriculture Technology. It notes that tiny little Holland, with the land area of Maryland and only 17M people, is the second largest … Continue reading
Ukraine v Russia Is a Tech War Like Union v Confederacy
In the 1860s the Europeans watched the American Civil War in horrified fascination. It had been almost 50 years since the Napoleonic Wars, when they had been in a real war with matched combatants. They had been mainly fighting colonial … Continue reading
Launching US Rockets From Soviet Bombers
In the last post I complained about how ugly the Soviet ekranoplans were. I’m glad I can now pass along a story about one of their really beautiful planes – the TU-160 supersonic bomber. It almost got used for doing … Continue reading
Space vs Balloon Tourism
After a long hiatus, space tourism came back this year. The last trip was in 2012 to the ISS, but there have recently been four trips: two sub-orbital flights by Blue Origin in July and October, one by Virgin Galactic … Continue reading
The First Exa-Transistor Computer
That is, the first single system to have more than 1018 transistors, more than a quintillion, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 . It’s the Fugaku supercomputer in Japan: It’s the world’s fastest machine as of November 2020, as defined by the benchmarks on … Continue reading
The Really Dangerous Tech is Really Old
Here’s an odd thing – the technology that is really dangerous today all comes from the 1950s and earlier. The big inventions of the last 60 years are nowhere near as deadly as the ones from earlier, especially those from … Continue reading
A Niche in the Library of Babel 