Already computers are more powerful than humans in some cases ... Technology is just another means of evolution. We are changing the definition of what it is to be human.
- roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro
Grandfather thinks back sixty ago, in a young ...
Continue reading Grandfather Says: The Rise of the Machines
Grandfather Says: Twas a Time When Coal Was Used to Heat Houses
In 1930's Detroit, coal was the predominant fuel used for heating in the winter. The coal was delivered at grandfather's house by a chute from a coal delivery truck. The coal went through a basement window into a small room called the "coal bin." The ...
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Grandfather Says: Run, Run, Rudolph!
Back when Grandfather was a young buck, 60 or so, he walked behind a mule train on the Bright Angel trail halfway to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
Grandmother rode a mule named "Rudolph." Grandfather had to walk, because the mule skinners said ...
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Grandfather Says: The Story of the Cowhide Guitar
This dissertation aims to introduce to the world a previously unknown luthier and student of Segovia's, Manos de Jamón.
Señor de Jamón developed the technique of banging the soundboard while strumming with his knuckles, which ...
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Grandfather Says: Woody the Antique Dealer
Grandfather says after he retired, he spent some time repairing old furniture for an "antique" dealer. Woody was his name and he made soirees into the Pennsylvania countryside to buy old stuff from "pickers" (folks who buy and collect the stuff for ...
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Grandfather Says: The Ghost of Major Alvah L. Miller
Grandfather remembers in awe his uncle, Alvah L. Miller.
Major Miller died January 31, 1944, while in command of Darby's Rangers second battalion. The first, second and forth Ranger battalions successfully landed on the beach at Anzio, Italy, but ...
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Grandfather Says: I Think, Therefore I Am
I think, therefore I am.
-- Rene Descartes, French scientist and philosopher
Leave it to the French to get things the wrong way 'round. (You'll have to pardon Grandfather for that one.)
Grandfather says, "He am, therefore he thinks; and the more ...
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Grandfather Says: The Little Engine That Couldn’t
Not all of Grandfather's escapades were a great success.
Grandfather set out to build a miniature steam engine, which he did alright, but just look at it!
The boiler proved to be "marginal" (as the engineers say) meaning: "about to explode" ...
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Black Coffee: Here Comes the Lightning Round!
It's time to sit back, relax and enjoy a little joe ...
Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what's been going on in the world of money and personal finance.
I'm away on vacation -- but our ...
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Grandfather Says: Great Grandfather’s Stained Glass Bullseye Windows
One of the most influential people in Grandfather's life as he was growing up was his maternal grandfather, Mr. James F. Miller.
He lived for many years in an elegant old home in Saginaw, Michigan; a relic from the days when Michigan's virgin ...
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Grandfather Says: My Adventures With Model Airplanes
From about age 12 or so, Grandfather has built and flown model airplanes. These were free-flight models, before technological progress made radio control inexpensive enough for anybody except the military.
In his teens, grandfather ...
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Grandfather Says: The Little Kite That Could
One day Grandfather made a "Little Kite that Could."
About a half-century ago, the local Jaycees put on a kite building and flying contest.
On the day of the event there was practically no wind and ordinary kites wouldn't fly at all.
But ...
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Grandfather Says: The Carnegie Hall in Lewisburg
There is a Carnegie Hall in Lewisburg, West Virginia.
Back in the days when Andrew Carnegie was presiding over his empire, he occasionally travelled on his railroad into West Virginia, to look after his anthracite coal mines. The coal was baked ...
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Grandfather Says: The Discovery of Argobrite’s Cave
Grandfather says there is a natural cave on his property: Argobrite's Cave, named after an itinerant physician who made calls on horseback to local subsistence farmsteads in the early nineteenth century. Local legend has it that he discovered the ...
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Grandfather Says: Are You Ready for Retirement?
Grandfather knew when he retired nearly fifty years ago what it would be like.
He thinks the reason that he knew was because there were things he wanted to do that he had to forgo when he was hired out to "the other man" and would now have free ...
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Grandfather Says: A 4th of July to Remember
Grandfather says Grandmother sewed period costumes for the family, which we wore to the nations bicentennial celebration in Washington, DC in 1976.
Grandfather and family traveled to Wolf Trap National Park, where the day was celebrated by a ...
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Grandfather Says: High-Wire Theater and Church Improvements
Grandfather says he supposes you've noticed how many technical credits are listed following a movie. Amateur productions also need some of that kind of support.
In productions Grandfather helped with, there were chronic technical shortcomings in ...
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Grandfather Says: The Story of Dan and Ralph
Grandfather says he thinks you might be interested in the story of Dan Blakeslee and Ralph William Blakeslee.
Well, Grandfather's going to tell it to you anyway.
Dan Blakeslee made his way up the Chilkoot Trail into the Yukon in 1899, built a ...
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Grandfather Says: Political Anarchy
Grandfather says he is a political anarchist, more than anything else.
Then he favors youths dressed in black and wearing masks and hurting people and breaking things, you ask?
No, Grandfather's anarchy is not violent; it merely avoids ...
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Grandfather Says: A Fond Look Back at My Love of Fishing
Grandfather says nearly as far back as he can remember, he has loved to fish.
He was on a footbridge over a creek at a family picnic when he was, oh, maybe 4 years old. When he saw minnows in the water, he bent a reed into an "L" and dangled one ...
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