We interrupt your regularly-scheduled book review to bring you random things I found on the Internet today.

First, the so-called "Disappearing Car Door." This is the second automotive anything I've ever actually wanted, and the first was (and still is) the Prius' bidirectional electromechanical conversion system. Alas, it's only tenuously real, as the comments here indicate — and there is corroboration to be had; one of the prototypes that Joalto Design made was even auctioned on eBay in 2007. (The Jatech LLC advertising this technology is the reincarnation of Joalto Design, the CEO being one John A. Townsend.) Unlike some of the commenters, I do think it's feasible to retrofit an existing car to use these, but it would involve monkeying with the suspension to raise the ride height.

(I'd also have given it a more engineerish name for marketing purposes than "Disappearing Car Door," but as the Wii has demonstrated how little this matters, I will set that aside and move on.)



Also, go here for a detailed explanation of what is, strangely, called the Droste effect (the original Droste picture was much simpler, being merely recursive, with no deformation). Then go here for what people do with (mostly) conformal mappings.


Also, second best anagram ever.