Trust me—you really don’t know what you’re missing.
Link Archives for the Bill Wattenburg Fan Page
At a later point, when this page grows in size, I’ll split it into
categories, but for now, it’s just one list in chronological order.
- (8/8/99) One of the first callers referred Bill to an
article about the Quincy Library Group Plan
in the July 1999 issue of the Smithsonian Magazine.
- (8/8/99) Someone asked Bill why the CCRADIO excels at receiving AM
radio signals. This is no ordinary radio. Its speaker is tuned to accurately
reproduce the frequencies of the human voice; its audio circuits also filter
the signal to favor the frequencies in the human voice; its case was designed
to shunt extraneous signals to ground; and according to the C. Crane Company,
the radio also uses a digital tuner instead of an analog one, enabling a
stronger lock on stations.
- (8/8/99) A caller asked how the memory chips in digital answering
machines work. Some are made by Information
Storage Devices, and are specially designed for audio storage. According
to the company, its ChipCorder line “utilize ISD’s proprietary multilevel
storage” methodology in which one of more than 250 distinct voltage levels is
precisely stored per memory cell…enabling voice and audio signals to be
stored directly, in analog or digital form, into EEPROM and FLASH memory
cells, providing up to eight times more storage space for any given memory.
Similar chips are made by Invox. Invox’s chips store analog audio directly,
without digitizing it.
- (7/29/99) A caller recently asked about bees being used for land
mine detection. The Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory is experimenting with gluing RF tags to bees,
tracking the direction of flight from the hive, and then testing them upon
return for traces of TNT. (A short item is in the August 1999 issue of Popular
Science, p. 26. One of the researchers is from the University of Montana,
where he is conducting other
bee research with instrumented hives, among
other research.
- (7/18/99) A young caller recently asked Bill about “flicker lights”
and how they worked. Bill’s answer described how blinking lights work, but
flicker
lights are something entirely different.
- (7/4/99) A young caller called in with an answer to his question
about soap bubbles from last week. Good explanations could once be found at the
Super Computer Research Institute at Florida State University (the site the
caller found, now gone, but
Lary Dennis
was the author), along with a
Microscopic Soap Bubble Gallery,
J. May Home Inspections (bubbles
related to boiling water), and at the
Exploratorium
(including soap bubble formulae and lots of bubble links). Also
visit this bubbles resource
- (5/30/99) A caller recommended a science web site:
www.explorescience.com.
- (3/16/98) A few callers have recently
asked about the Lawrence Livermore report on leaking underground fuel tanks:
Recommendations To Improve
the Cleanup Procedures for California’s Leaking Underground Fuel Tanks.
This report brought to light a billion-dollar fraud that is still being
perpetrated, and will force many independent gas stations to close their doors
this year, resulting in even less competition and higher gasoline prices.
- (2/28/99) A caller wanted to know how to get an AM radio signal
into a steel building. C. Crane sells an
FM radio transmitter
that can be used for this purpose (FM signals aren’t blocked as easily by
steel buildings).
- (2/28/99) A caller recently asked about a glass-enclosed device
with black and silver vanes. It is called a radiometer, and the
C. Crane company sells a fancy
one for $49.95.
- (10/31/98) Educational geographic web site mentioned by one of
the callers: www.internetcameras.com.
- (10/31/98) Need to remove a broken light bulb from a socket? Use
the Socket Surgeon (possibly available from
Silvo Home: 1-800-331-1261) to do it safely, without risk of electrocution
or cutting yourself on broken glass. This non-conductive plastic tool comes in
three sizes to fit all common household bulbs. The set of three sells for
about $10, which is cheap for something that can save your life.
- (5/7/98) What emergency alerts on the radio and television are:
The Emergency Alert System.
This system is responsible for those high-pitched tones you occasionally hear
when stations are testing the system.
- (timeless) Quotes from actual
performance appraisals that Bill
read during the show.
- (1/10/98) A caller was interested in a voice-operated TV for a
bedridden friend. Wattenburg mentioned that such devices existed, and I too
recall seeing a voice remote control advertised, but upon searching for it on
the Web, I’ve found that the product was called VCR Voice, from
Voice Powered Technology, and does not
appear on their current list of products. Unfortunately, the company has filed
for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and hasn’t been manufactured since 1993. The
company is unaware of any other similar product. You can reach them at
1-800-255-2310.
- (1/10/98) A caller wanted to know why a car’s starter motor and
alternator couldn’t be combined. The answer is they can, and
Continental AG is working on a
flywheel system that would perform both of these functions and also as a
power-storage device for acceleration. Two big advantages are a 20-pound
weight savings, a 30% fuel savings if used as part of an automatic start/stop
system, and far less noise when starting the engine. There is a short blurb in
the February 1998 issue of Popular Mechanics (p. 24).
This page was last modified on Monday, 11-Oct-2004 20:05:40 PDT.
