02:0902:09, 27 February 2023diffhist+86
Henry George
Revision to sentence structure. (It is interesting to note that Henry George's razor-sharp ideas still hold tremendous value today. Unfortunately, modern capitalist countries have generally failed to learn from his groundbreaking insights.)
5 February 2023
21:1621:16, 5 February 2023diffhist+53
Freedom-class littoral combat ship
→Engine maintenance incidents: Clarified that the key problems were due to the clutch and combining-gear assemblies, for combining the power output from two dramatically different propulsion sources (gas turbine and piston diesel). Such a system architecture is very novel and highly unusual, and in retrospect it is not surprising that serious problems arose. Gas turbines have very different torque behaviour from reciprocating diesel engines. Combining these mechanically is prone to problems!
02:3702:37, 20 December 2022diffhist+256
Lockheed L-188 Electra
→Accidents and incidents: Added important detail. The mid-air disaster of LANSA Flight 508 was unique in that the actual airplane had been cobbled together from spare parts taken from other aircraft. It could therefore be described as the aviation equivalent of a "cut and shut" car. Thus it was not surprising that the airframe disintegrated when it encountered the turbulence of a thunderstorm. And, it was not surprising that the LANSA airline had a horrible reputation for safety.Tag: Reverted
02:5402:54, 30 November 2022diffhist+21
Bally Technologies
→Today: Simplified the description and removed the bizspeak. Bally makes slot machines and related software for running casinos. Obviously, the firm profits handsomely from casino gambling. The firm demonstrates no interest in the topic of social harm perpetrated by the gambling industry on vulnerable people.
03:0903:09, 2 November 2022diffhist−346
Mark Wiseman
Toned down the repetition. Quite simply, Mark Wiseman is a very wealthy businessman, and there is no need to put him on a pedestal. Businesspeople focus on making as much money as possible, not on solving fundamental problems pertaining to environmental degradation, climate change, long-term feeding of the ever-growing human population in a finite world, inequality, poverty, chronic disease, habitat destruction, biodiversity loss, microplastics, ocean acidification, xenobiotic wastes, and so on.
02:0102:01, 20 October 2022diffhist+104
Gene Amdahl
→Amdahl Corporation: Made revisions to wording in order to improve clarity. Gene Amdahl's paper "Validity of the single processor approach to achieving large-scale computing capabilities" makes for thought-provoking reading, along with the notes by Guihai Chen. Those 1967-era words are especially intriguing in light of subsequent approaches towards advancing computational power. As an aside, today, quantum computing is predicted by many to become the next frontier of high-powered computing.
00:0000:00, 21 September 2022diffhist+117
Kodak Ektaprint Electronic Publishing System
Added minor technical detail. Heidelberger Druckmaschinen was the original equipment manufacturer for the large, heavy-duty, high-volume Ektaprint machines, although Kodak also offered smaller Ektaprint-badged machines that were mundane Canon-based units. As an aside, Heidelberg was also the OEM for the large, heavy-duty machines offered by Pitney Bowes. The Heidelberg machines were rugged and highly productive yet expensive to buy, so they were found mostly in central reprographics departments.
04:2804:28, 18 September 2022diffhist+237
Navistar
→Non-conformance penalties: Added important technical details, given that the fundamental physical reality of the exhaust-gas recirculation concept entails having the diesel engine inhale a portion of its inherently corrosive acid gases and intrinsically abrasive soot. Although newer incarnations of EGR reduce these concerns by using smaller amounts of recirculated gases, combined in some cases with two-stage turbocharging, the fundamental concerns of EGR will always make it inferior to SCR.
03:5903:59, 18 September 2022diffhist+149
Enpro Industries
Removed bizspeak. As an aside, I am amazed at how every business seems to describe itself as "leading". Also, the buzzword "science-enabled" is ridiculous. The buzzword-loving marketing people really need to stop working overtime. I also added details regarding the successor firms of Goodrich (which is now under the Collins Aerospace subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies). Perhaps EnPro will one day be part of a big conglomerate too.
00:1100:11, 16 September 2022diffhist+47
Nigerian National Museum
→Collections: Made some revisions to sentence structure. On second thought, maybe a point-form listing of exhibits and artifact groupings would be preferable, especially given that this is only a brief summary.
03:3603:36, 3 September 2022diffhist+1,390
Environmental effects of shipping
→Conventional pollutants: Added summary of wet-scrubbing technologies, with a reference. A detailed technical discussion on the chemical reactions involved could be added at a later date. It is important to note that there is no free lunch when it comes to emissions technologies. Wet scrubbers effectively convert an air-pollution problem into a marine-pollution problem. Carbon dioxide emissions remain a concern, even though in wet-scrubbing processes, modest amounts become carbonic acid.
02:2302:23, 3 September 2022diffhist−114
Savin (photocopiers)
Savin copiers were memorable for their no-frills basic design and the dustless hydrotreated heavy naphtha-based toner, which had a different odour from the styrene in the powder-toner machines from competitors. Today, Savin machines use dry toner and are rebadged Ricoh units. Savin's history is noteworthy, since today the core physical principles of the liquid-toner-based electrostatic process underpin the HP Indigo commercial full-colour printing presses, which can run 12 process inks at once.
1 September 2022
18:2318:23, 1 September 2022diffhist−314
WSP Global
Toned down the "bizspeakishness" that came through in all the "announcements". Yes, WSP has bought up various other firms. But the "press-release-style" usage of the word "announced" does not need to appear repeatedly. Exact dates of announcements are geared towards stock-market watchers, and thus do not belong on Wikipedia pages. Also, other bizspeak terms like "strategic alliance" have no place here either. Any business move can be described as "strategic" or "tactical" or "impactful" anyway.
16:2216:22, 1 September 2022diffhist+272
Discovery doctrine
→History: The concept of "private property" is in fact a European construct, because prior to the invasion of colonialists and settlers into North America, the Indigenous peoples viewed the land as something that they shared with the wildlife upon which they depended. This wholesome way of looking at the land was fundamentally very different from the feudalism-based European perspective, which engendered the sharply demarcated private-property parcels that today define modern landownership.
03:5803:58, 29 August 2022diffhist+287
Hand-waving
→In applied science and engineering: As a seasoned environmental engineer, hydrogeologist, and groundwater modeller, I have seen many groundwater models that poorly represent hydrogeologic systems. Often the fieldwork is insufficient, simply because fieldwork is costly. Most models are built to satisfy regulatory requirements, but regulatory approvers (and especially lawyers) tend to be poorly versed in the technicalities of groundwater modelling, even though these details can be crucial.
02:5602:56, 18 August 2022diffhist+4,173
Exhaust gas recirculation
Rewrote the section on EGR in diesel engines. It needs to be made clear that EGR inherently entails a compromise: lowering the combustion temperature (in order to reduce NOx emissions), and then dealing with the resulting increase in soot by having to place a diesel particulate filter (DPF) downstream. The DPF generates backpressure (which the engine needs to burn more fuel to compensate for) and needs extra fuel for regeneration. Meanwhile, the EGR brings soot and acid gases into the engine.