Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Vanselfsprekend


I took this photo of the Laaiplek Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk (Dutch Reformed Church). This was the only text to be found on the entire premises -- its name (on the left of the photo). OBSERVATION: In Afrikaans, if something is “vanselfsprekend”, then it goes without saying -- it is self-evident. One of the things that tends to go without saying in Afrikaans communities is when the Church meets, who the minister might be, whether anything else might be happening in the Church, or how one might contact anyone. This is fairly typical. This way of doing things would be unthinkable in some Church circles.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Wart Remover


Among my many electronics inventions was a wart remover. This was a breakthrough, in that it reduced the current required to remove a wart to mere microamps, and placed electronic wart removal in the hands of amateurs for the first time. It took me a year to develop. I knew it was a winner, so I investigated a patent. But the sticking point was medical approvals. I fell back on publication, in three major magazines (Popular Mechanics was one). OBSERVATION: The photo shows the printed circuit board (PCB) of one of my designs. There's a complete design for free at Circuit Exchange. To follow the electronics trail on this blog, click on the "Electronics" category top left.