Technology

The Raytheon Radarange was the first commercially available microwave. A clunky, chrome box weighing over 340 kg and costing over $5,000, the Radarange wasn’t widely adopted at the time. However, this artifact was chosen because it was a foundational step in advancing consumer food technology by changing the way Americans prepared food. The Radarange was invented as a result of melted chocolate. In a Raytheon lab, Percy Spencer realized that his candy bar melted when he placed his chocolate bar next to a magnetron. Spencer realized that the magnetron (a special type of vacuum tube) was producing electromagnetic radiation, causing his chocolate bar to melt. Fascinated by this result, Spencer then took a bag of corn kernels and placed them near his magnetron, all of which popped into fresh, hot popcorn all over his lab. Presumably after a few laughs, Spencer and Raytheon realized the true potential of the technology they had on their hands and refined it to create the Radarange, sold starting in 1947. ...

This is an advertisement for the Altair 8800 personal computer in the Popular Electronics Magazine. The Altair 8800 was the first commercially successful personal computer kit and was sold beginning in January 1975, when it was featured on the cover of the Popular Electronics magazine. This magazine had been the life and soul of the personal electronics culture in America, and being nominated to the cover marketed the Altair 8800 massively. It was sold as a DIY kit for around $400, and it was a plain metal box with switches and blinking lights. It was nowhere close to the PCs that consumers have today, but it was a massive success with the “hackers” of the 1970s. ...

We’ve seen the rise of many great empires and nations–Romans and their expansive empire, the British and their global dominance–only to see it crumble to dust. We can blame a lot of things on these collapses: new rising nations, changing technology, unexpected external factors. However, the collapse typically comes from within, as the relationship between the government and its citizens starts to crack and fail. This dramatic decay can be explained by a concept called the social contract. The social contract is one of the most important ideas in political philosophy (the study of the nature of politics, society, and the relationship between citizens and government). It states that citizens willingly consent to give up some personal freedoms to a governing authority, in exchange for the protection of their rights. To put it really simply, citizens give up some free will to gain protection from the government. The social contract was essential to the founding of the United States, but the digital age is bringing new changes to this centuries-old concept. ...

Well, it’s time for my first tech review! Today, I’m gonna be talking about my new microphone, the Blue Snowball! You may have heard of its older brother, the Blue Yeti, which is a professional-grade large microphone, but Blue, a Logitech brand, made another microphone, called the Blue Snowball. The Blue Snowball is half the price of the Yeti at 49.99, and is half the size. It sports a unique design, with a three-legged stand and a ball-shaped microphone. ...