Well, I’ve been awfully spotty posting here. That’s because I’m writing seven full-length articles a month about manufacturing over at Forbes.com. I published my 50th a few weeks ago, and the ideas just keep pouring in. It has been loads of fun (and lots of hard work, yes). Almost my whole career, three decades now, […]

One of my most respected LinkedIn contacts is Phil Rink, a fellow engineer who writes the Jimi & Isaac series of children’s books, and is generally well-informed about anything he chooses to comment on. I just recently finished the second book of his series, Jimi & Isaac 1b: Curve Ball. (I love reading good kids’ books – […]

Another entry in the “interesting tidbits of history” category… I’m deep in the midst of a riveting book about the industrial side of the US involvement in WWII, Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in WWII by Arthur Herman. An aside in the book involves the medical innovation helped along by Henry Kaiser, who got his […]

I recently signed on as a contributor for Forbes, to write manufacturing articles for them. Here’s my first one.

I’m in the midst of reading *Coral and Brass* by General Holland “Howlin’ Mad” Smith, his account of his many years of helping to shape the modern Marine Corps. Last night I was reading how the Marines, as WWII broke out, had wanted an amphibious tank, and that their wishes were fulfilled with the development […]

I started out several times to write a caustic post addressed to America’s business elite about their histrionic reactions over the past two weeks to President Trump’s withdrawal of the US from the Paris Climate Agreement. But what’s the point? It’s not like they’re going to listen to little ol’ me. Perhaps for other folks who’ve been cheering […]

This is a very interesting article, about the recent evolution vs. creation debate between Bill Nye (the Science Guy) and Ken Ham, who built the Creation Museum just down the road from me. On the one hand, it gave me a fresh dollop of respect for Nye, who has struck me as completely batty with […]

As WeaponsMan says in this blog post, John Moses Browning was the greatest weapons designer ever.  But he doesn’t go far enough.  Because many of Browning’s designs are still not only in modern service, but still being built by the thousands with only superficial changes over 100 years after they debuted, he is also one […]

The lads and I had the amazing opportunity today to tour the IEAA’s air-worthy B-17, Aluminum Overcast.  I’ve been a fan of this particular bird since I was around the age of my older son, yet this is the first time I’ve gotten to go inside one. I don’t know how those guys did what […]

This is an interesting article about a new breakthrough in easy-to-use industrial robots. The author correctly calls out the possible threat to workers doing the jobs today this robot might do in the future.  But he and his commenters miss much and get much wrong. They brush on, but largely miss, that we’ve priced our […]