The Russians’ “tsar tank” (above) didn’t work in World War I, and their “winged tank” (below) didn’t work in World War II.
No matter. “Failure is not falling down,” runs an Asian proverb, “but refusing to get up.”
Technology
Clinton and E-Mail
Bill Clinton sent only two e-mails during his entire eight-year term in office. One was to test the system; the other was to congratulate John Glenn on his return to space.
Both are archived in Clinton’s presidential library.
What Would Darwin Say?
Robert Wallace had a noble impulse when he discovered a new species of monkey in Bolivia’s Madidi National Park. Rather than name the species after himself, he would auction off the naming rights to raise money for the park.
The marketers of the world are not so noble: $650,000 changed hands and the new species was named after an Internet casino. It’s officially called the “GoldenPalace.com Monkey.”
Pull Over
Uninspiring land speed records:
- 39.24 mph, Dec. 18, 1898, Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat (France)
- 41.42 mph, Jan. 17, 1899 Camille Jenatzy (Belgium)
- 43.69 mph, Jan. 17, 1899 Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat (France)
- 49.93 mph, Jan. 27, 1899 Camille Jenatzy (Belgium)
- 57.65 mph, March 4, 1899 Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat (France)
- 65.79 mph, April 29, 1899 Camille Jenatzy (Belgium)
Interestingly, these were all set with electric vehicles.
The Turk
People were willing to believe in a chess-playing automaton as early as 1769. That’s when Wolfgang von Kempelen unveiled “The Turk,” a cloaked and turbaned robot that played over a maplewood cabinet full of clockwork. The contraption toured the courts of Europe, where it beat Benjamin Franklin and Charles Babbage, among many others.
The machine’s secret emerged only in 1854, after the automaton was destroyed in the great Philadelphia fire. The cabinet had contained a human player who followed the game by watching magnets on the board’s underside. He made his moves on a secondary board that transmitted them to the Turk.
Still, it played some good games. Here it beats the crap out of Napoleon Bonaparte, who has White:
1. e4 e5 2. Qf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ne2 Bc5 5. a3 d6 6. O-O Bg4 7. Qd3 Nh5 8. h3 Bxe2 9. Qxe2 Nf4 10. Qe1 Nd4 11. Bb3 Nxh3+ 12. Kh2 Qh4 13. g3 Nf3+ 14. Kg2 Nxe1+ 15. Rxe1 Qg4 16. d3 Bxf2 17. Rh1 Qxg3+ 18. Kf1 Bd4 19. Ke2 Qg2+ 20. Kd1 Qxh1+ 21. Kd2 Qg2+ 22. Ke1 Ng1 23. Nc3 Bxc3+ 24. bxc3 Qe2# 0-1
“IP Over Avian Carriers”
Someone make a note, in case we ever run out of power:
In 1990 the Internet Engineering Task Force proposed a way to send Internet messages by homing pigeon.
It was used — once — to transmit a message in Bergen, Norway.
Da Vinci’s Tank
One more reason not to mess with Leonardo da Vinci — he designed this armored tank at the Château d’Amboise around 1516.
Truth in Advertising
In the UH-1 Iroquois helicopter, a hexagonal nut holds the main rotor to the mast. If it were to fail in flight, the helicopter’s body would separate from its rotor.
Engineers call it the “Jesus nut.”
A Spaceborne Time Capsule
You can write a message to future generations at the KEO project. It’ll be launched on a satellite that won’t return to Earth for 50,000 years.
Even more ambitious is the LAGEOS satellite, which will re-enter our atmosphere in 8.4 million years bearing a plaque that shows the arrangement of the continents. Let’s hope our descendants still have catcher’s mitts.
High PageRanks
Web sites with a Google PageRank of 10:
- adobe.com – Adobe software
- apple.com – Apple Computer (including iTunes Music Store)
- energy.gov – U.S. Department of Energy
- firstgov.gov – U.S. government portal
- keio.ac.jp – Keio University, Tokyo
- harvard.edu – Harvard University
- macromedia.com – Macromedia software
- nasa.gov – U.S. space agency
- nsf.gov – U.S. National Science Foundation
- nytimes.com – The New York Times
- real.com – RealPlayer software
- statcounter.com – web traffic tracking service
- w3.org – World Wide Web Consortium
- webstandards.org – Web standards project
And, of course, Google itself.