Persistent
Top Posts
-
Recent Posts
- Musk Really Is Like Tesla, But Not In a Good Way
- “The Mountain in the Sea” – Aliens Among Us
- The Netherlands Would Be a Pretty Nice Future
- Why Care That “The Rings of Power” Is Mediocre?
- Obscure Creators of the World #1 – Federico Faggin
- Ukraine v Russia Is a Tech War Like Union v Confederacy
- My Mother Was a Ukrainian Refugee
- Following in the Parents’ Footsteps
- Launching US Rockets From Soviet Bombers
- Ekranoplans are Back! Maybe. The Regent Seaglider
-
Join 27 other subscribers
Meta
Archives
Tag Cloud
Tag Archives: tech-history
Musk Really Is Like Tesla, But Not In a Good Way
Although Elon Musk did not found or name Tesla Inc, he often gets compared to its namesake, Nikola Tesla. Both were from the provinces – South Africa for Musk and Serbia for Tesla – and made their fortunes in the … Continue reading
Obscure Creators of the World #1 – Federico Faggin
The people we know about are usually the ones with publicity staffs. Their success depends on how widely known they are. This is obviously the case for sports figures, actors, musicians, and politicians, but also applies to technicals like Steve … 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
We’ve Got to Get To America 4.0
Every 80 years or so this country has been rebooted. Long-felt tensions exploded, and the country took a new direction. We’re at that point now. There is an outright criminal in the White House, there’s been a massive death toll … Continue reading
Some Firsts Who Were Women
The Web keeps throwing stories at me about remarkable pioneering women, so let me get down a few before It gets mad: First Known Author – Enheduanna, Ur, ~2200 BCE That is, the first writer whose name was recorded. Seems … Continue reading
A Heinlein Meme Started the Space Race
… according to the excellent Washington Post podcast Moonrise. It’s an account of what led up to the Apollo 11 moon landing, starting with Robert Goddard, John W. Campbell, Sergei Korolev, and Wernher von Braun in the 1920s and 30s, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged movie-ish, sf-ish, space-ish, tech-culture, tech-history
Leave a comment
Mad Science #3: Land Mine Follies
Two stories of mad science this time about this vicious class of weapons, and one about how they ought to be done: Radioactive Nazi Land Mines Like Mad Science #1, the first story comes from Atomic Adventures (2017) by James … Continue reading
Mad Science #1 – Soviet Space Station Rayguns
I’ve been reading a lot of juicy stories about completely crazed projects recently, so I’d like to pass some on. These were projects that made sense to someone at the time, but were really awful ideas, ones that you can … Continue reading
The Least Substantial Lasts Longest
A few days ago a friend noted that this was the 40th anniversary of the VAX computer line, one of the most successful and most criticized machines ever. Its first model was the VAX 11/780, which was announced on Oct … Continue reading
Homo Faber
Even the children of homo sapiens can’t resist making things. While walking through the local park, Menotomy Rocks, I came across this: It’s been there for years. Every kid who walks by feels an urge to add a stick. In … Continue reading
A Niche in the Library of Babel 