MachinePix Weekly #46

This week's most popular post was a mysterious truck filled with sharks 😮🦈🛻

My friend Spencer, editor of the (much more punctual) newsletter The Prepared, is hosting a reading club for Adam Rogers’s new book Full Spectrum. Those of you that know me know that I am fascinated with color and color perception, and I’m very excited to start this book.

Spencer Wright @pencerw

Very excited to read @jetjocko’s new book on color science with @the_prepared’s Members’ reading group starting this week:

The most popular post this week was a flatbed truck transporting sharks. This was filmed near Baltimore, so many assumed this on behalf of the National Aquarium. In a surprising twist, a spokesperson for the National Aquarium said “the animals were not headed to or from the National Aquarium and we did not have any involvement in the transport”—so who was trucking sharks?!

MachinePix @MachinePix

Transporting sharks.

I’m always looking for interesting people to interview, have anyone in mind?

—Kane

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The Week in Review

The coarse blue material used in masks that was in short supply at the start of the pandemic is called “melt-blown extrusion,” and there aren’t many machines that can make it.

MachinePix @MachinePix

Manufacturing pleated surgical masks.

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Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is a “synthetic fluoropolymer of tetrafluoroethylene”—but you probably know it as Teflon™. If you’ve ever done plumbing or pneumatic work, you also know that PTFE tape is a godsend.

MachinePix @MachinePix

Winding rolls of PTFE tape.

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xkcd once said that subcultures are nested fractally, and RC is no exception. Did you know the fastest RC glider reached 392 mph?

MachinePix @MachinePix

Retractable propeller in an RC glider designed by Eugenio Pagliano.

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God bless practical effects.

MachinePix @MachinePix

Large creature reference test for visual effects by @AceRuele.

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Postscript

Uber’s helipad in SF with Sutro Tower in the background.

If you enjoyed this newsletter, forward it to friends (and interesting enemies). I am always looking to connect with interesting people and learn about interesting machines—reach out.

—Kane