by david allan van nostrand | Oct 12, 2026 | Americana, The iterative process, The Wayback Machine
Well, wouldn’t you know it, someone invented the refrigerator, after a dozen men before him invented the bits and pieces it would take to build a device that chilled the air inside an insulated box, using the principles of expansion and contraction of liquids and...
by david allan van nostrand | Sep 28, 2026 | Americana, origin story, The iterative process, The Wayback Machine
Nature makes ice by dropping the temperature. The farther north you go, the thicker the ice that forms naturally on freshwater lakes. Ice farmers harvested huge blocks of frozen lake with huge saws and dragged them to the cool, dark areas where they’d be stored in...
by david allan van nostrand | Apr 13, 2026 | Planning, Strategy, The iterative process
In the 1970s and 1980s, there was one question asked over and over again by men and women alike in every bar in town – from fern bars to discos, pubs, and dive bars. What’s your sign? It was a jumping-off point for mutual seduction that was so popular in the...
by david allan van nostrand | Jun 2, 2025 | Items in the News, The iterative process, The Wayback Machine
Most sources say that László Bíró invented the ballpoint pen in 1938. What many don’t bother telling us is that he was the inventor of the modern ballpoint pen. Some sources tell us that John J. Loud was issued U.S. Patent #392,046 for a ballpoint pen 50 years earlier...
by david allan van nostrand | Feb 3, 2025 | Items in the News, The iterative process, The Wayback Machine
Armies must keep their soldiers fed.* When successfully engaged with the enemy, armies keep advancing and their supply lines stretch longer and longer. The French were fighting battles on four fronts back in 1875, each with its own supply line struggling to keep up....
by david allan van nostrand | Jan 20, 2025 | The iterative process, The Wayback Machine, The world around us
The Switzerland-based Federation Internationale de Ski (FIS) created World Snow Day to attract kids to snow-related sports and activities, mostly snow skiing and snowboarding. Their vision is to become a giant, worldwide snowy fiesta that includes tobogganing, making...
