Theories on how the Great Pyramid at Giza take various forms.  Most of them have involved some form of ramp, up which the large stone blocks were hauled.  The problem was that construction of some of the ramps would have taken more effort and material than the pyramid itself. 

Recently a French architect has proposed a theory that seems pretty logical, and solved a lot of the problems with the previous ramp theories.  Fleshing out a theory suggested by his architect father, Jean-Pierre Houdin spent most of a decade planning how he would build a pyramid, and developing 3D computer models to show how it could be done.  His plan involves the use of a ramp, but one which is internal to the pyramid, which is made of straight sections which turn at the corners and create a straight sided spiral to the top of the pyramid.

When the ramp reached a corner, there would be a platform and a crane, for turning the block of stone 90 degrees, so it could proceed up the next section of ramp. 

Of course, the ramp theory will not be proven until a pyramid is taken apart to verify that an internal ramp exists, which is not likely to happen anytime soon.  Mr. Houdin was resigned to that uncertainty, and had been making presentations of his theory.  After one of his presentation, he was approached by a member of a German team which in 1986 had undertaken a project of scanning the pyramid looking for internal passages and chambers, using a sensitive gravity sensing technology.  The member of the German team said that beside their published report, they had some images which they could not explain, so they were not included in the report.  The images are below, and show regions inside the pyramid which showed as low density zones.  Maybe they are internal tunnels, ramps, or tunnels filled with rubble from the building process.  They match almost exactly Houdin's calculated positions of the internal tunnels and ramps.

Another bit of supporting evidence is seen on the pyramid itself, where a notch on one of the corners appears to be an exposed turning platform theorized by Mr. Houdin.

When the notch was explored by Bob Brier, he found a small room behind the platform, inside the pyramid, on the notch.  This room appeared to be from the time of the construction of the pyramid, because the entrance to the room was smaller than the stones that would have been removed to form the room later.  The roof of the room also had stones which were shaped to a dome shape, to support the weight of the stone above the room.  A project has been proposed to penetrate the wall of the hidden room to see if behind it is an internal ramp.

This theory was presented by Mr. Houdin and Bob Brier in Secret of the Great Pyramid.  See these links for more information.

http://www.archaeology.org/0907/etc/khufu_pyramid.html

http://www.archaeology.org/0705/etc/pyramid.html

Its not often that one runs across a history book that you can't put down until you have finished.  This new book about Alexander the Great is such a book.  It is very readable, unlike many other books on ancient history, and explains the ancient battles and tactics in a much more understandable style than other books. 

Alexander might have been better called Alexander the Bold, or Alexander the Lucky, or Alexander the Inheritor of Philip's Army.  It was Philip who developed a style of soldering that could allow an army of herdsmen to challenge the Greek phalanx staffed by soldiers wearing expensive bronze armor.  Philip also developed the battlefield tactic of advancing his army to strike a point to one side of the enemies line of infantry.  By striking with a wedge instead of a direct frontal attack, the enemy's line would inevitably be pulled out of formation, allowing the rest of Philips line to attack them when the unity of the Greek phalanx had been weakened.  Philip also drilled his army of herdsmen until they fought as a unit, could turn and defend from mulitple threats, and were hardened to forced marches and extremes of weather and terrain. 

Philip developed the innovative sarissa spear and the tactics of using it, and the training in its use in battle.  The sarissa was longer than the spear of the Greek phalanx, and made Macedonian lines a veritable porcupine of spears, and was specifically designed to defeat the Greek phalanx. 

Photo by permission of Simon and Schuster

Alexander was smart enough to use all that Philip had developed, and had the political genius to gather allies, eliminate threats, cojol reluctant troops, and added his own genius to the tremendous assets he had been given by his father.  Each of his three major battles with the Persian army, which always included a fair number of Greek mercanaries, involved an asymmetical battle line, which showed Alexander's confidence in the Macedonian battle tactic, and his father's wedge attacking style.  In each of the three battles against an overwhelmingly superior Persian army, the impenetrability of the sarissa armed Macedonians and the ability of the Macedonian cavalry to exploit weaknesses in the enemy's battle lines carried the day.

These topics and all of Alexander's battles, politcal intrigues, and his far thinking plans for his empire are presented in a very enjoyable style.   I'd highly recommend this book.  

The Greek historian Herodotus tells of a Persian siege of a Greek colony called Barcus, in North Africa, in 512 BC.  During the siege the Persians would tunnel under the city walls, hoping to fill the tunnel with firewood, and when ready the fire in the tunnel would burn the wooden support bracing holding up the tunnel, and the tunnel would collapse, and hopefully the wall above it would also collapse. 
 

This graphic shows typical bronze shields used by the Greeks.  

A bronze worker in the city devised a method of detecting the location of hostile tunneling, using a bronze shield "covered over with bronze."  Maybe that means they stretched a thin layer of bronze over the back of the shield, to amplify any vibrations as sound.  If so, this would be an ancient world speaker, or amplifier. 

The defenders of the city would carry the speaker around the wall, and "applied it to the ground".  When the shield was near active tunneling activity, the shield made a sound.  The defenders of Barca then dug a tunnel from their side, and entered the tunnel and slayed the Persian tunnelers.

In the 2006 movie "The Illusionist",  starring Edward Norton as a turn of the century magician in Vienna, Austria,  Norton makes a special locket and gives it to his love.  The locket opens to display a picture, and may also be turned to form a heart shaped locket.  When the heart shaped locket opens, a different picture is displayed.   The functioning of the locket appeared for just a few seconds in the movie, and the scene was created by the use of two lockets and special effects.  The locket in the movie only opens when in the heart configuration.  That brief glimpse of a magical locket inspired lots of people to try to buy one, and inspired a number of craftsman to try to make a locket in the real world that worked in the same way.

Link to the locket as seen in the movie:

A short video of the locket in action:

Duplicating the action of the locket from the movie in the real world was actually a very difficult task, and the lockets made were all crude, and only partially functional.  An ebay search will turn up quite a few which "kind of" work, but not really.  That changed when Jim Anderson designed a locket that actually works similar to the magician's locket,or even better.  Pictures show its operation below. All these pictures are of the same locket. 

It uses tiny magnets that both repel and attract other tiny magnets, which cause the locket sections to float over certain positions, and snap into place in other positions.  It also uses an intricate ball socket that allows the locket to achieve the seemingly impossible, and required some intricate machining.

Jim sells these lockets at Illusion Lockets.  They are available in many types of wood and other materials.  They come with a small punch to punch out round portraits from prints. 

I have been looking for a way to light up the flagpole on my recumbent trike, and found a product that looked like it would work, the Arizona Whip.  Jerry at arizonzawhips.com was very nice to work with, and I got it hooked up this past weekend. The whip is 5" tall, and is of clear lexan. Inside the clear tube are 24 LED lights, 12 facing forward and 12 facing backward. Each side has a red group, and a yellow group, and on one side the red and yellow groups of LEDs flash on alternately. Jerry has other color configurations, including a red, white and blue one. The whip screws into a clamp that grips the 1.25 inch tube of the rear wheel fork. The clamp is for 1.5 in. tubes, but with some rubber and duct tape shimming, it grips the 1.25 inch tubing nicely with one Allen bolt for tightening. It extends up through the frame and clears the panniers, rack, seat, and headrest nicely.  These pictures show the whip in daylight, and the clamp attached to the frame.

I ran a switch forward to the left hand grip, so I can turn it on and off from the seat. It runs off a 9 v battery. I have not ridden it to work yet, so I don't know how long the 9 v battery will last.

The picture below is how it looks at night, from the rear.  The bike is facing not quite straight, and the bag on the rack is blocking one of the LED lights.  The headlight is shining across the street at an angle, and provides lots of illumination.

This sucker is not cheap at $150, but if I can get noticed by a car either ahead of or behind me, it will be worth it.

Thanks to Terry Harper, who informs that "one of the earliest such vehicles was patented by Ira Peavey of Maine in 1907. At least two were built and tested succesfully. One was stream poweredm the other used a gasoline engine.

Peavey's machine was designed to haul trains of sleds loaded with logs. However, he had to compete with Alvin Lombards steam Log hauler which had appeared earlier in 1902. While Peavey's machine worked great on hard packed snow it was near useless in soft powder. In addition its relatively rigid construction meant that it tended to rear and plunge over the hills and humocks associated with a rough winter haul road and was quite hard on the drawbars of the sleds. In this respect the Lombard proved to be a much better machine and dominated the market here in the north east."