Just Another Wizard's Tower

Where I've Been Lately

Sat, 09 Feb 2019 06:49:15 GMT

I've been off on a little vacation from this Internet thing, if you can call six weeks in the hospital a "vacation". Well, technically wost of that time was in a convalescent home, but it still felt pretty hospital-like.

It started with a misfolded walker in a restaurant parking lot and over the next few hours became a femur full of titanium rods and such like. The rest of the six weeks was spent recovering.

Now I'm gradually starting to get back into the Internet stuff. Thee seems to be quite a backlog, especially in the email.

More later, probably.

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Equinox

Sat, 22 Sep 2018 07:02:03 GMT

As I post this we have less than a day to go until the Equinox, when the Sun will cross from the sign of Virgo (Tropical horoscope system) to Libra. This will happen Saturday, September 22, 2018 at about 6:54 pm California time. This is 9:54 pm on the US East Coast, 1:54 am Sunday (September 23) UTC ("Greenwich"), and so on into Sunday in Asia and Australia).

The Sun also crosses the Equator from North to South at this time.

As usual, Wikipedia has something to say:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equinox

The figure at

http://www.plergb.com/Analemma/Analemma.shtml

shows the Sun's position on its journey through the signs of the Zodiac. It's updated hourly (but not on the hour). You can look at it year-round even if I only post about it at Equinoxes and Solstices.

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Notice anything different?

Mon, 30 Jul 2018 04:18:20 GMT

The nose ring that has been part of my face for almost twelve years is no more. It had to come out so they could do surgery on my eyes, and I doubt I'll be putting it back in, at least any time soon.

For one thing, in the process of taking it out it broke into two pieces. And for another, I don't feel that much need for it any more. Maybe my hormones are going down with age? Or maybe it's just not nose ring time right now?

I've been noticing the degree to which I'd gotten accustomed to it being there. I reach up to push it aside to take a bite of food or something and I'm a bit surprised to not find anything in the way. This will probably fade with time, but I'm currently noticing it.

I'm gradually getting used to there being nothing hanging there under my nose. And most people probably never really anything there to begin with, so for them things are just "normal".

I suppose I should do up a new profile picture eventually.

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Summer around the World

Wed, 20 Jun 2018 21:27:39 GMT

We're getting close to the 2018 Northern Hemisphere Summer Solstice: 3:07 am California time on Thursday, June 21. That'll be 6:07 am in the eastern portions of the US, then later in the day Thursday in Europe and Asia. It'll be just barely Thursday morning in Alaska and Hawaii.

This year's Solstice is a little unusual in happening on Thursday for almost the whole planet, with a few people on some Pacific islands seeing it come on Wednesday.

While the Northern Hemisphere gets Summer, the Southern gets Winter,

Whether Summer or Winter, at that time the Sun will be rounding the turn on the Analemma.

You can see it at

http://www.plergb.com/Analemma/Analemma.shtml

which is updated hourly year-round.

At the Solstice the Sun will transition from Gemini to Cancer (Tropical Zodiac) and the Sun's longitude will pass 90 degrees.

At this time (give or take an hour or so to give the program time to update the image) you can see the dot in the center of the Sun image change from yellow to gray as it passes from one sign to the other. You will need to reload the image periodically to see any changes.

In the coming months the Northern Hemisphere days will start getting shorter. You may want to check this site now and then during the course of the year.

The page also has links to more detailed explanations of what an analemma is.

Please feel free to pass the URL on to others.

Happy Solstice!

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Equinox

Mon, 19 Mar 2018 23:15:27 GMT

As I post this we're less than a day away from the Equinox, when the Sun will cross from the sign of Pisces (Tropical horoscope system) to Aries. This will happen Tuesday, March 20, at about 9:15 am California time (12:15 pm on the US East Coast, 4:15 pm UTC ("Greenwich")) and on into the evening through Europe and Asia. Some places near the Date Line will see it in the predawn hours of Wednesday morning.

The Sun also crosses the Equator from South to North at this time.

As usual, Wikipedia has something to say:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equinox

The figure at

http://www.plergb.com/Analemma/Analemma.shtml

shows the Sun's position on its journey through the signs of the Zodiac. It's updated hourly (but not on the hour). You can look at it year-round even if I only post about it at Equinoxes and Solstices.

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Do We Have a Funding Deal Yet?

Tue, 23 Jan 2018 05:17:23 GMT

As of the morning paper's deadline the federal government shutdown had not been resolved. That led me to thoughts of what if this impasse, or perhaps some future version of it, never gets settled? Well, maybe not never, but several centuries at least. What do the people involved do?

Does the nation-state formerly known as the United States of America split up for lack of funding authority?

Perhaps the states will go their separate ways, on their own or in league with other entities. Some military units might be able to survive by hiring themselves out as mercenaries while others may resort to plunder. But would such efforts succeed? Military supplies and equipment are pretty tricky to make nowadays. The village blacksmith's efforts probably won't get very far.

But the former Feds may not give up that easily. A few centuries hence we hear that their descendants have set up a sort of hereditary ruling body to eventually take back the reins of authority. They've been building up their numbers and are rumored to be getting close to having a quorum of members in their so-called "Congress", as well as an heir apparent to the Presidential throne.

One question: How many of the rulers of the former United States will be willing to return to the old ways, or whatever semblance of the old ways the Federation can claim to have successfully reconstructed?

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Equinox

Thu, 21 Sep 2017 19:42:54 GMT

As I post this we have about a day to go until the Equinox, when the Sun will cross from the sign of Virgo (Tropical horoscope system) to Libra. This will happen Friday (September 22) at about 1:02 pm California time (4:02 pm on the US East Coast, 8:02 pm UTC ("Greenwich"), and so on into Saturday (September 23) in Asia and Australia).

The Sun also crosses the Equator from North to South at this time.

As usual, Wikipedia has something to say:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equinox

The figure at

http://www.plergb.com/Analemma/Analemma.shtml

shows the Sun's position on its journey through the signs of the Zodiac. It's updated hourly (but not on the hour). You can look at it year-round even if I only post about it at Equinoxes and Solstices.

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Subtle racism, or random happenstance, or ....?

Tue, 11 Jul 2017 04:47:02 GMT

I noticed something odd in the IEEE Computer Society ad on the back cover of the July 2017 issue of Computing Edge.

The image shows five people sitting in a row. The spacing between their chairs isn't uniform. In particular, the rather dark-looking man on our right is at least a couple of inches farther from his neighbor than any other person is from his or her neighbor.

Now was this spacing someone's conscious decision, or was it random happenstance, or subconscious bias, or what? Should we be concerned about it?

Inquiring minds want to know.

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Here comes Summer

Mon, 19 Jun 2017 18:07:44 GMT

We're getting close to the 2017 Northern Hemisphere Summer Solstice: 9:24 pm California time, on Tuesday, June 20. That'll be about half-past midnight Wednesday morning in the eastern portions of the US, then later in the day Wednesday in Europe and Asia.

At that time the Sun will be rounding the turn on the Analemma.

You can see it at

http://www.plergb.com/Analemma/Analemma.shtml

which is updated hourly year-round.

At the Solstice the Sun will transition from Gemini to Cancer (Tropical Zodiac) and the Sun's longitude will pass 90 degrees.

At this time (give or take an hour or so to give the program time to update the image) you can see the dot in the center of the Sun image change from yellow to gray as it passes from one sign to the other. You will need to reload the image periodically to see any changes.

In the coming months the days will start getting shorter. You may want to check this site now and then during the course of the year.

The page also has links to more detailed explanations of what an analemma is.

Please feel free to pass the URL on to others.

Happy Solstice!

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Something for the Equinox

Mon, 20 Mar 2017 02:53:58 GMT

As I post this we're a few hours away from the Equinox, when the Sun will cross from the sign of Pisces (Tropical horoscope system) to Aries. This will happen Monday at about 3:28 am California time (6;28 am Monday on the US East Coast, 10:28 am Monday UTC ("Greenwich")).

The Sun also crosses the Equator from South to North at this time.

As usual, Wikipedia has something to say:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equinox

The figure at

http://www.plergb.com/Analemma/Analemma.shtml

shows the Sun's position on its journey through the signs of the Zodiac. It's updated hourly (but not on the hour). You can look at it year-round even if I only post about it at Equinoxes and Solstices.

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'Tisn't the season any more

Mon, 26 Dec 2016 09:44:38 GMT

Christmas is technically over, at least for most people (your calendar and/or time zone may vary).

I'm reminded that seeing December 26 as a date in a document or on a display gives me a kind of melancholy feeling no matter what time of year it actually is when I see it. It seems to remind me of that "Christmas is over" feeling I'd get every year as a child on the day after, when I realized I would have to wait almost a whole year for the joys of that season to come around again. Somehow the joys of the rest of the year never seemed to come to mind right then.

And I'm also reminded of the Christmas when, late on the evening of the 25th, I was sitting at the counter in an all-night greasy spoon as the manager called out, "86 Christmas," meaning that the Christmas special was no longer on the menu. Again, a reason for a bit of a melancholy mood.

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Solstice

Tue, 20 Dec 2016 06:20:32 GMT

Northern Hemisphere winter arrives on Wednesday, December 21 2016, at 2:44 am California time.

Some holiday-season poetry:

http://www.well.com/~bubbles/Poetry/BirthdayOfTheLight.txt

http://www.well.com/~bubbles/Poetry/ChristmasCat.txt

See the Sun getting close to the moment of Solstice:

http://www.plergb.com/Analemma/Analemma.shtml

The yellow dot near the bottom of the figure 8 represents the Sun on its yearly journey. Notice the little dot in its center. You can think of this as a hole through which to see the part of the figure 8 the dot is passing over. Each astrological sign (Tropical system) is marked by a different color.

Notice the item labeled "Sun's longitude" in the bunch of numbers and such just above the image. This starts at zero at the March Equinox and increases until it gets to 360 degrees at the next March Equinox, whereupon it starts over at zero. Every thirty degrees (0, 30, 60, 90, etc.) the Sun enters a new sign.

At the December Solstice the Sun's longitude will pass 270 degrees as it crosses into the sign of Capricorn (Tropical system). At that time the little dot in the center of the big dot will change color. (The page updates approximately hourly, so you may not see anything happen at the actual moment of alignment.)

This page is here year-round, so you can watch the Sun's entire journey through the seasons.

Feel free to share all this with your friends.

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Something for the Equinox

Wed, 21 Sep 2016 05:14:38 GMT

As I post this we're within a couple of days of the Equinox, when the Sun will cross from the sign of Virgo (Tropical horoscope system) to Libra. This will happen Thursday (September 22) at about 7:21 am California time (10:21 am on the US East Coast, 2:21 pm UTC ("Greenwich")).

The Sun also crosses the Equator from North to South at this time.

As usual, Wikipedia has something to say:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equinox

The figure at

http://www.plergb.com/Analemma/Analemma.shtml

shows the Sun's position on its journey through the signs of the Zodiac. It's updated hourly (but not on the hour). You can look at it year-round even if I only post about it at Equinoxes and Solstices.

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Here Comes Summer!

Sun, 19 Jun 2016 16:06:39 GMT

We're getting close to the 2016 Northern Hemisphere Summer Solstice: 3:34 pm California time, on Monday, June 20. It'll be evening in the eastern portions of the US, Monday night in Europe, Tuesday morning in Asia, and so on.

At that time the Sun will be rounding the turn on the Analemma.

You can see it at

http://www.plergb.com/Analemma/Analemma.shtml

which is updated hourly year-round.

At the Solstice the Sun will transition from Gemini to Cancer (Tropical Zodiac) and the Sun's longitude will pass 90 degrees.

At this time (give or take an hour or so to give the program time to update the image) you can see the dot in the center of the Sun image change from yellow to gray as it passes from one sign to the other. You will need to reload the image periodically to see any changes.

In the coming months the days will start getting shorter. You may want to check this site now and then during the course of the year.

The page also has links to more detailed explanations of what an analemma is.

Please feel free to pass the URL on to others.

Happy Solstice!

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Self-driving Cars

Wed, 11 May 2016 06:07:39 GMT

I saw another Google self-driving car today, and it reminded me of this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scalawagons_of_Oz

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Something for the Equinox

Fri, 18 Mar 2016 23:03:25 GMT

As I post this we're about a day away from the Equinox, when the Sun will cross from the sign of Pisces (Tropical horoscope system) to Aries. This will happen Saturday at about 9:30 pm California time (12:30 am Sunday on the US East Coast, 4:30 am Sunday UTC ("Greenwich")).

The Sun also crosses the Equator from South to North at this time.

As usual, Wikipedia has something to say:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equinox

The figure at

http://www.plergb.com/Analemma/Analemma.shtml

shows the Sun's position on its journey through the signs of the Zodiac. It's updated hourly (but not on the hour). You can look at it year-round even if I only post about it at Equinoxes and Solstices.

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Something for the Solstice

Mon, 21 Dec 2015 02:17:59 GMT

Some holiday-season poetry:

http://www.well.com/~bubbles/Poetry/BirthdayOfTheLight.txt

http://www.well.com/~bubbles/Poetry/ChristmasCat.txt

Northern Hemisphere winter arrives on Monday, December 21 2015, at 8:48 pm California time.

See the Sun getting close to the moment of Solstice:

http://www.plergb.com/Analemma/Analemma.shtml

( Read more... )
Feel free to share all this with your friends.

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Why you haven't seen me here lately

Fri, 23 Oct 2015 16:14:59 GMT

I should explain why I haven't been doing much of anything here lately. Basically it's that I've moved. It was only a few miles across town, but in the process I had to let go of about sixteen years' worth of clutter. That took much of my energy for the past month or so. And now I'm faced with having to decide how to arrange my part of the new place, which is shared with others.

It's no surprise that this has been a stressful time, even if the stress is mostly "good" stress rather than distress.

Not only have I had to shed physical clutter, but I've let go of various and sundry habits as well. Not all of these were things I wanted to rid myself of, so I'll be making an effort to reinstate some of them. This is likely to take even more time, since there's a fair amount of soul-searching and decision-making involved.

I hope to have more stuff to post soon.

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Something for the Equinox

Tue, 22 Sep 2015 06:29:49 GMT

As I post this we're about a day away from the Equinox, when the Sun will cross from the sign of Virgo (Tropical horoscope system) to Libra. This will happen Wednesday at about 1:21 am California time (4:21 am on the US East Coast, 8:21 am UTC ("Greenwich")).

The Sun also crosses the Equator from North to South at this time.

As usual, Wikipedia has something to say:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equinox

The figure at

http://www.plergb.com/Analemma/Analemma.shtml

shows the Sun's position on its journey through the signs of the Zodiac. It's updated hourly (but not on the hour). You can look at it year-round even if I only post about it at Equinoxes and Solstices.

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Just sit back and enjoy the show

Wed, 24 Jun 2015 03:59:27 GMT

We're coming up on the Fourth of July, and that reminds me of fireworks. It's traditional, at least in this country, for people to set off fireworks on the Fourth of July.

This practice is rather dangerous, and the authorities have tried to put an end to it, but people keep doing it. ( Read more... )

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Here Comes Summer!

Sat, 20 Jun 2015 06:51:14 GMT

We're getting close to the 2015 Northern Hemisphere Summer Solstice: 9:38 am California time, on Sunday, June 21. It'll be around the middle of the day in the eastern portions of the US, Sunday evening in Europe, early Monday morning in Asia, and so on.

At that time the Sun will be rounding the turn on the Analemma.

You can see it at

http://www.plergb.com/Analemma/Analemma.shtml

which is updated hourly year-round.

At the Solstice the Sun will transition from Gemini to Cancer (Tropical Zodiac) and the Sun's longitude will pass 90 degrees.

At this time (give or take an hour or so to give the program time to update the image) you can see the dot in the center of the Sun image change from yellow to gray as it passes from one sign to the other. You will need to reload the image periodically to see any changes.

In the coming months the days will start getting shorter. You may want to check this site now and then during the course of the year.

The page also has links to more detailed explanations of what an analemma is.

Please feel free to pass the URL on to others.

Happy Solstice!

comments

Cleaning out the Storeroom

Mon, 15 Jun 2015 01:11:52 GMT

I need to make a decision on something.

When I moved from Los Angeles to the Bay Area back in 1997 I left a bunch of miscellaneous stuff in storage. Some of it was valuable, some may have had sentimental value, and some of it was probably just junk.
( Read more... )
Any advice?

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They probably didn't consider this for that new SF Bay Bridge

Mon, 11 May 2015 05:23:58 GMT

Recently Wikipedia's featured article of the day was about a bridge. This led me to read other articles about various kinds of bridges. They described many different kinds, some of which I had not been aware of.

But they omitted one type: The rocket bridge. They didn't even hint at the concept.

In a rocket bridge rocket engines are affixed to the edges of the deck at intervals, firing constantly. Their thrust supports the weight of the deck. Thus it has no need for piers or cables or stone arches or the like.

Rocket bridges are good for situations such as arbitrarily long spans over bottomless chasms where there is no place to put foundations for piers.

Since construction can proceed entirely from one end, they are also used where there is no way to get to the far side of the channel during construction. They are especially popular in dreamlands where no one knows whether the channel being bridged even has a far side.

If working space at the site is at a premium, sections of the bridge can be assembled elsewhere and fitted with temporary maneuvering controls to allow them to be flown to the construction site under their own power. There they can be joined to the already completed portion.

Note that no falsework is needed, at least for the main span. Construction techniques for the transitions to and from the ends of the bridge will depend on the type of terrain as well as other variables.

Since the rocket bridge is a common choice when it is not known what (if any) terrain awaits on the far side of the channel, it has become associated in the minds of many decision makers with last-minute design changes and the resulting high costs and construction delays. Some critics say that the only place this type of bridge makes sense is in comic books and cartoons.

Even its advocates admit that the design does have some disadvantages.

Since the rocket engines that support the bridge must fire continuously, noise can be a nuisance, especially if there are residential areas nearby. And since engine failure can lead to collapse, designs tend to be highly redundant, making this type of bridge relatively expensive. Operation and maintenance costs are also rather high.

Although in theory the span can be arbitrarily long, when spans get too long getting fuel to the engines becomes a problem. Pipelines are often used, but for long spans their weight uses up most of the load-carrying capacity of the bridge, leaving little available for actual traffic. Tanker trucks present similar problems. Trucks also have the added danger of possibly being delayed by traffic problems or labor disputes.

To get around the problems with trucks and pipelines some projects currently in the planning stages are considering mid-air refueling of the rocket engines from blimps or helicopters or other aircraft capable of hovering.

Some designers have proposed reducing fuel usage by adding lighter-than-air supports to the bridge structure. It is unclear whether anyone is seriously considering this alternative.

Public reaction to the design has been mixed.

Rocket engines tend to be noisy, and there have been complaints. People living near rocket bridges can't sleep, and as a result have been moving to places that don't have rocket bridges. Medical people say that exodus is a good thing because if people stayed near the bridges the noise from all those rocket engines running all the time could damage their hearing.

On the other hand, businesses located near rocket bridges are suffering because so many people have moved away.

Some suggest luring in deaf people to live near the bridges, but even those who can't hear the noise may feel the vibrations, and even if that doesn't bother them the vibration can cause structures to deteriorate faster than they otherwise would.

Others have suggested building noise-powered robots to live under the highways and actually make use of the noise. Some people, however, are concerned that such robots would eventually want to spread out and live elsewhere, and would create political pressure to build noisy rocket-supported elevated highways all over the world so the robots would have the noise to sustain them.

There are rumors of extremist groups plotting to sabotage the rockets to get some quiet. This has prompted officials to remind people that if the rockets were to stop, the bridges they support would fall down. This collapse is itself likely to be noisy, at least in the short term, and would cause considerable damage and quite a few injuries. So the government recommends that the rocket engines not be sabotaged, at least for now.

Stay tuned for further developments.

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Time slithers on, unnoticed

Thu, 09 Apr 2015 00:53:53 GMT

Once again I've let the date slip longer than I should have, for a variety of small reasons that added up to major procrastination. So let's get something here so as to have something here.

One thing I noticed is that the song "Pack Up your Troubles in your Old Kit Bag" will be a hundred years old sometime this year (written in 1915, published a couple of years later). Need I mention that Wikipedia has an article on it?

The words basically encourage people to be happy, and it may at first glance seem like a good idea to teach at least the chorus to your children. But there are two problems.

First, when the song was written cigarette smoking was more generally accepted than it is now. Thus there is a line that more or less equates happiness with being able to smoke. We probably don't want children singing that.

The other problem is that the song might be hard for kids to understand because it is a century old and some of the words have changed meaning or fallen out of use since it was written.

However, when you look at the details one problem sort of cancels the other. The words that have changed meaning so the kids may not understand them are the ones that pertain to smoking, specifically the line about having a "Lucifer" to light your "fag". So maybe people will think it's just some kind of Satanic gay-bashing or something.

But that's still a problem. A few decades ago bad-mouthing homosexuals and consigning them to the Devil was at least somewhat acceptable. That has changed, at least in polite company.

So we may need to come up with a new line to replace the one about having Lucifers to light fags.

In a roughly similar vein, when the state of Kentucky made "My Old Kentucky Home" its official state song, they revised the lyrics to change "darkies" to "people". The revised version is what is sung at official state functions.

Mention of changing the words of songs reminds me of another thought I've had off and on over the years: Applying version and revision controls from the field of computer programming to the arts.

If, for example, a movie was available as originally shown in theaters, as well as in a director's cut, and maybe also a more "family-friendly" version with things like sex and violence toned down, these different cuts would be given version, revision, and/or distribution numbers. Those numbers would be on the label, so when you were considering making a purchase, whether online or in a physical store, you would know what you were getting. Interested parties could also refer to the database (perhaps paying for the privilege) to see exactly what had changed.

It should be possible to word the labels to differentiate the various versions without giving away too much of the plot to people who don't like "spoilers". Think of that as an engineering challenge.

Who would run this? Possibly some government agency, but more likely some sort of organization like Wikipedia or maybe the Internet Movie Database. That too can be worked out if people like the general idea.

What is probably the biggest problem is that some of the entities who have occasion to modify creative works such as movies or songs may not want it known that there are or were other versions on the market. I don't know how to counter that, except to point out similarities to the types of things done in the world of Orwell's _1984_, and to suggest that that kind of thing is not what we want in a free society.

The proposal is presently just a preliminary thought. Many questions will need to be answered. I'm hoping the answers will emerge over time as it is discussed more and more widely.

Your thoughts?

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It's Been a Long, Long, Time

Tue, 17 Mar 2015 03:58:05 GMT

I've gone a lot longer than I'd been expecting to since last posting here. I have some things that might sort of serve as explanations or excuses, such as having gone to two conventions in the last month or so, but they don't seem all that convincing. Other people have been through worse and still managed to post to their web sites.

I think the closest thing to a real explanation is that I'm not yet firmly in the habit of posting here. I haven't been doing it for very long, so it's easy to let it slip. And slip. And slip.

But I was lucky enough to have something pop up to give me a reason to stop the slippage: Someone may have come up with what may be a Chinese equivalent of the word Plergb.

If you're not familiar with the word Plergb in English you can go to http://www.plergb.com and read up on it.

After you've done that check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duang for the story of a new word that has popped up in China. It's been sweeping the country as an Internet meme even though as of this writing nobody is really certain as to what it means. It reminded me of the word Plergb even if it really isn't that close an analogy.

At present the new word-like thing isn't a "real" word in Chinese. Someone has drawn up a character for it, and meanings may be emerging, but it will take time for the dust to settle.

If you want to start a Chinese equivalent of the word Plergb, this may be your chance. Even if this slot is taken, there appear to be others available, perhaps using the same phonemes with different tones. So if you know enough Chinese to know what you're doing (I don't) and you feel like doing it, go for it. If anybody questions you, claim Renegade Status.

Similarly, if you see analogous opportunities in other languages, have at it.

And no, I don't know if the English word Plergb is pronounceable in Chinese. Many people say it's hard enough to pronounce in English.

In other news, I just happened to come across hints that Wile E. Coyote was designing weapons for the British during World War Two.

That's the impression I get from this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panjandrum

It was supposed to assist Allied landing forces by rolling across beaches in advance of our troops, blowing up any obstacles in its path.

It's a pair of wheels with a cylinder full of explosives between them, looking sort of like a cable spool. It's propelled by rockets around the periphery of the wheels.

Note that the rockets produce no net horizontal thrust. They merely cause the wheels to rotate. Any forward progress is the result of friction between the wheels and the ground, just like with the wheels on a car. Note that this thing was intended to travel on beaches, and that the wheel tread is smooth. Then think of what happens when you try to drive a car through loose sand. It's not surprising that it didn't do well. I suspect that cleats or some such might have helped.

In the YouTube video of the re-enactment at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAE7PKv4vgY

you can see the model sometimes making progress and sometimes just spinning without really getting anywhere.

Although it was supposedly a secret weapon, tests were done at a public beach in view of crowds of civilians. That leads me to wonder if it was supposed to fail. Maybe the idea was for the Germans to see the spy reports on it and laugh themselves to death?

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