Category: Inventions

Time to get frivolous

January 7, 2025 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

On Sunday, President Biden repealed the Social Security Windfall Elimination Provision. Since I will start getting a windfall, being frugal is pointless.

Tramping around in the snow with Sparky, I get wet boots. Two weeks ago, I knocked up a drying rack for my boots using shelf brackets, scrap wood and my CPAP machine. It folds up for easy storage.

Now that the SSFA is passed and frivolous spending is encouraged, I spent $45 on Amazon to get a boot dryer like regular people use.

I am eager to try it out.

SPACE: Railguns on the Moon.

June 24, 2024 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

SPACE: Railguns on the Moon

February 6th, 2018, Elon Musk demonstrated that launching objects into orbit had become a mundane commercial activity. To make it interesting, the object he put in orbit was a Tesla Roadster that has since traveled over a million miles and made four laps around the sun. Where is the Roadster now?

Gun Season Didn’t Work Out, but the Hat Did.

December 4, 2023 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

Gun season is over and I got nothing. There are two bonus days later in December, but I’m not optimistic. Deer get smarter as the season progresses.

Electric cars aren’t a done deal.

May 31, 2023 / Richard Nestoff

WSJ: Automakers get into mining.

When General Motors began outlining plans in 2020 to fully switch to electric vehicles, it didn’t account for one critical factor: Many of the battery minerals needed to fulfill its plans were still in the ground.

“I remember seeing a report from our raw-materials team at the time saying, ‘There is plenty of lithium out there. There is plenty of nickel’,” said Sham Kunjur, an industrial engineer now in charge of securing the raw materials for GM’s batteries. “We will buy them from the open market.”

GM executives soon came to discover how off the mark those projections were, and now Mr. Kunjur’s 40-person team is scouring the globe for these minerals.

“Why Magical Thinking isn’t Whimsical” or “No Shit, Sherlock” would also have been serviceable titles for this article.

Use the heat in the house to warm the swimming pool.

April 15, 2023 / Richard Nestoff

This isn’t my invention. One of my students told me that her dad built a system to use the heat from the central air conditioning heat pump to warm the water for their swimming pool.

Cleat invention for fence climbing

March 8, 2023 / Richard Nestoff

If there is a product available for climbing over chain link fences, I can’t find it. Occasionally, I have to climb over a chain link fence, and I don’t mean the easy kind with a pipe at the top. Pointy shoes are out, and you’d think a ladder would work, but you need two of them. I could use two buckets, but empty buckets always get used for something.