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Tag Archives: Tech life in New England
MIT Under Attack
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
Tesla-Free At Last
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
Libraries – Old and Grand, or New and Bland
Last summer I tried to visit every local library that I could get to by bicycle. It was an excuse to exercise, but I had also just read “The Library Book” by Susan Orlean (2018). It’s a history of the … Continue reading
Serious Tech Tourism – the Niagara Parks Power Station
My wife and I recently went to the Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake Ontario. This has been presenting plays by George Barnard Shaw and other 20th century playwrights every summer for the last 60 years. It’s held in a perfect little … Continue reading
A Golden Age for Chemists – MIT on Climate Change
The physicists used to have all the fun, what with building species-ending weapons and ominously declaring that I Am Become Death. Yet nukes turned out to be useless for actual military purposes, as Putin has discovered to his dismay, and … Continue reading
A Better Heat Pump Scheme: Networked Geothermal
A lot of the green energy transition is already well underway. PV solar and wind are already cheaper than gas, and electric vehicles are at near cost parity with ICE and much more fun to drive. Major countries like Germany … Continue reading
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
Innovations of The Big Dig 1 – the Concept
WGBH, the main Boston public radio station, has just done a great series on The Big Dig. You can find the podcast here: The Big Dig, and the start of the series on Youtube here: The Big Dig began with … Continue reading
Space Has Become Cheap
I was talking with a researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute recently, and he mentioned a new project he had to track penguins. From space. With his own personal satellite. These days you can put up a cubesat, a … Continue reading
A Niche in the Library of Babel 