Technology for Luddites
“We would be so much better off simply fixing up and reactivating the normal-speed track system that is sitting out there rusting in the rain — and save our more grandiose visions for a later time”. Read.
Previously: How eco-friendly is a high speed train? / The age of speed / Only idiots travel by train.
Welcome to the beautiful nonexistent world of Snaiad.
Via Metafilter & Tetrapodzoology.
“The design and manufacture of scientific instruments has undergone a radical transformation in the last 30 years, achieving what might be described as the democratization of accuracy. Levers, pinions, wheels, and linkages have given way to microprocessors that read data at exquisite levels of sensitivity and reveal it instantly on digital displays. This transformation has affected our lives far beyond the laboratory, but to my eye the gains have been accompanied by losses.”
Read: The engineer’s art, why a contemporary-art expert also collects old machines.
Picture: Einthoven’s string galvanometer.
“Eurotunnel doesn’t take foot passengers, which is fair enough given you stay in the car on the journey. But if we hop up the road to the Eurostar passenger service from Ashford to Calais, the four of us will have to fork out at least £220. Different service, I know. But same tunnel. And more than three times as much. For not taking a car”. Fred Pearce again, on ferry and train fares. Previously: Only idiots travel by train / Life without airplanes.
Following kitesurfing, kite buggying, kite landboarding and snowkiting (no slope required); kiteboating:
Airplay Kitesailing, Kite For Sail, KiteCat, the pioneers.
Previously: kitesurfing for cargo vessels. Related: sailing at the touch of a button / Sailing Rockets.
