No Tech Magazine

Too Many (African) Babies?

Rapid population growth in the developing world does not significantly contribute to rising greenhouse gas emissions and focusing on the population explosion in poor countries diverts attention from the far more serious issue of over-consumption in rich countries, according to a new study. Introduction. Paper (pdf). Opinion.

Vintage Alloy Tools

Alloy Artifacts: online resource for 20th century hand tools and the companies that made them. Via Makezine.

Good Question

"How much of what we readily identify as 'progress' in urban-industrial society is really the undoing of evils inherited from the last round of technological innovation?" Quoted from: "Where the Wasteland Ends", Theodore Roszak, 1972. (Amazon link).

The Blackpool Tramway

They have the worst weather in the world, but they also have the hottest looking open top trams (streetcars). Welcome onboard the 1930s Blackpool Balloon cars in the UK. Alan Robson has around 1,300 pictures of the vehicles, some of them below. Text and first picture from Wikipedia.

Steampunk Cities

By David Trautrimas via WebUrbanist.

Competing with Computers

Magnetic deviation, lightning calculators, nomograms and more "lost arts in the mathematical sciences" at Dead Reckonings. Related: Satellite navigation in the 18th century.

Optical telegraph in the Netherlands

The communications device was located on the beach of Scheveningen in the 1700s. More on the optical telegraph: Email in the 18th century. Source: geschiedenis van de techniek in Nederland.

Why Paper Is Eternal

"There are modes of learning and thinking that at the moment are only available from actual books. There is a kind of deep-dive, meditative reading that’s almost impossible to do on a screen. Without books, students are more likely to do the grazing or quick reading that screens enable, rather than be by themselves with the author’s ideas." Read: Welcome to the library. Say goodbye to the books (via). See (and print...) also this 75-page essay: "Hamlet's Blackberry: why paper is eternal".

Can Cars

More pictures and plans at Sandy's Can Cars (via Ikkaro). Related: 26 paper models of vintage cars.

Cycle Chics

Fast cars are considered sexy, but we disagree - try to show off your legs when you are driving a sports car or an SUV. More pictures of biking boys and (especially) girls at Copenhagen Cycle Chic. Their motto: "Style over speed".