Every signed copy of The Art and Science of UWB Antennas will come with a complimentary bookplate. Designed by Patricia Forrest and inspired by a classic design from 1950s science fiction illustrator Ed Emshwiller, the bookplate features equations and graphics from the text. Design elements include: Impulses combining destructive on […]
Books
75 posts
Some distinguished early readers offer enthusiastic reviews for the revised second edition of The Art and Science of Ultrawideband Antennas. “Schantz introduces time domain methods in antenna engineering and microwave techniques, which relate to ultrawideband signals in this expanded second edition. The book is delightfully illuminating, and includes well-researched historical […]
The Heaviside Memorial Project successfully raised funds and completed the restoration of the memorial to Oliver Heaviside and his family in the Paignton Cemetary near Torquay, Devon. Details and additional photos of the unveiling ceremony are available at their web site. The group, organized by the Newcastle Electromagnetics Interest Group […]
The Hugo-nominated short story “Opera Vite Aeterna (epub, mobi)” by Vox Day touches on questions of immortality and religion in the context of a well-crafted tale of friendship, loyalty, and betrayal. My review includes many spoilers, so I strongly recommend you read it yourself, before continuing – after the break.
Some interesting and informative links from around the net: Via The Art of Manliness, here’s “How to Survive a Lightning Strike,” “Why I Am Not An Environmentalist: The Science of Economics Versus the Religion of Ecology,” by Steven E. Landsburg, excerpted from The Armchair Economist: Economics and Everyday Life, Sean […]
Writing an engaging and interesting book on a technical subject poses a significant challenge. Dive too deeply into the technical minutiae and you risk boring non-technical readers. Skim too superficially and you fail to do the subject justice. In his new book, You Are Here: From the Compass to GPS, […]
I just attended the pre-release screening of Atlas Shrugged Part One, and I’d like to share my first impressions. Take this as an initial installment toward the much more thoughtful (but equally enthusiastic) review I’ll compose at leisure over the next few days and publish at the (fan-run, unofficial) Atlas […]
Today, the producers of Atlas Shrugged Part One will be screening the the movie for “selected commentators, bloggers, critics, and devotees of Rand’s work.” I’ll be in Culver City, California for the screening. I’ll provide my initial reactions as well as a full review and analysis. This event caps a […]
On this day, December 30, 1905, former Idaho governor Frank Steunenberg opened his garden gate. An explosion shattered the calm and mortally wounded Steunenberg. Steunenberg was targeted for his role in suppressing the violent 1899 miners’ strike in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho. The Steunenberg assassination led to a no-holds-barred trial pitting […]
I’ve joined Joshua Zader, founder of AtlasSphere, as a co-blogger at the Atlas Shrugged Movie Blog. This is an unofficial fan-run web site focusing on news pertaining to Atlas Shrugged Part One, the soon to be released screen adaptation of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. I’ll primarily post Atlas Shrugged related […]
For over fifty years, Ayn Rand’s best selling novel, Atlas Shrugged, defied attempts to capture it on film or video. Now this past summer, a team led by John Aglialoro completed shooting on the first part of a planned Atlas Shrugged trilogy. Three weeks ago, ÆtherCzar presented a preview of […]
An American engineer must overcome the objections of environmentalists as well as the machinations of terrorists to complete a tunnel under the English Channel on time and under budget. Robert Byrne’s The Tunnel (1977) is an action-thriller in an engineering setting. This was Byrne’s first engineering novel. Writing in Behold […]
Frequent ÆtherCzar visitors will have picked up on my appreciation for Robert Byrne and his engineering novels. If you’re not familiar with his work, the first post below is a good place to start. Engineer as Hero: The Novels of Robert Byrne Book Review: Skyscraper by Robert Byrne Book Review: […]
The movie version of Atlas Shrugged (Part One) completed a five week shoot in July and is now in post-production. Producers John Aglialoro and Harmon Kaslow began filming just days before the rights to the story would have reverted to the Estate of Ayn Rand. The producers changed directors just […]
An engineering consultant (who specializes in failure analysis) must remain true to his independent judgment when his client and his employer both seek to cover up evidence of dangerous problems in a mid-town Manhattan skyscraper. In his 1984 novel, Skyscraper, Byrne describes an intricate confluence of corruption, corner-cutting, and poor […]
A young engineer applies innovative analysis to determine that a dam designed by his firm’s most senior engineer is in imminent danger of collapse and then must take matters into his own hands when his findings are ignored. Robert Byrne’s The Dam (1981) pits the analysis of a brilliant but […]
After a famous wooden roller coaster injures passengers with the violence of the ride, an engineer hired to evaluate new safety modifications must analyze and diagnose a disturbing series of malfunctions before the grand re-opening. Thrill features an engaging cast of characters: the stalwart and straightlaced midwestern engineer, the mad […]
Few novels capture the drama, the passion, and the excitement of engineering. To do justice to the subject, the author must be conversant with engineering science and practice. In addition, the author must write with sufficient power and clarity to make the relevant technical details clear to a non-technical audience […]
Atlas Shrugged is finally coming to the big screen sometime next year. The producers rushed the film into production with a relatively low budget at the last instant to be able to maintain their rights to the story, causing some to question the quality of the production. More from “Big […]
[iframe: src=”http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=uwbantennacom-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&m=amazon&f=ifr&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&asins=0470859318″ frameborder=”0″ width=”120px” height=”240px” scrolling=”no”] AetherCzar is grateful to Dr. Kai Siwiak for his comment provoking guest post on ultra-wideband (UWB) technology. In thanks for his contribution, we’d like to draw our readers’ attention to Kai’s excellent introductory UWB technology text (by way of a review originally posted at […]
Martin Gardner died this week at the age of 95. Author of the long running Scientific American feature “Mathematical Games,” I will remember him most for his marvelous surveys of pseudoscience including Science: Good, Bad, and Bogus and Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. More from the Washington […]
Great history books generally fall into one of two categories. The first category is a streamlined and essentialized rocket trip straight through a subject to the heart of the matter. The second category branches out from the subject at hand to touch on the context, consider the background, describe the […]
I first heard about the “Tin Disease” when I was reading Isaac Asimov’s science essays in junior high school. He described how the tin organ pipes in St. Petersburg mysteriously lost their shine during a cold winter and transformed into a crumbly gray powder. Thus (Asimov said), was it discovered […]
Friday, I discussed Fergus Fleming’s Barrow’s Boys: A Stiring Story of Daring, Fortitude, and Outright Lunacy. Yet another highlight of that book was its treatment of the lost Franklin Expedition. In 1845, Barrow dispatched Sir John Franklin to find the Northwest passage – the long sought northern route connecting the […]