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"You have to budget the number of fuzzy rules you use to control a system. It turns out, you can state the optimality principle in three words: 'patch the bumps.'"
- Bart Kosko
 |
| Pocket Nucleo-Bulb | ||
| A nuclear-powered pocket-sized flashlight. |
The mayor of the Foundation, Salvor Hardin, was having trouble with those little monarchies that tended to spring up as the influence of Trantor went down. At this point in the plan, he needed to demonstrate the value of affordable nuclear power to the Prince Regent Wienis.
| He [Wienis] cast one look out of the window. The city was pitch-black. From below there were the hoarse confused cries of the mob. Only toward the fight, where the Argolid Temple stood was there illumination. He swore angrily, and dragged the king away.
Wienis burst into his chambers, the five guardsmen at his heels. Lepold followed, wide-eyed, scared speechless. "Hardin," said Wienis, huskily, "you are playing with forces too great for you." The mayor ignored the speaker. In the pearly light of the pocket nucleo-bulb at his side, he remained quietly seated, a slightly ironic smile on his face. "Good morning, your majesty," he said to Lepold. "I congratulate you on your coronation." |
| Technovelgy from Foundation,
by Isaac Asimov. Published by Doubleday in 1951 Additional resources -
|
Isaac Asimov did not invent the flashlight; that honor was reserved for the original owner of the American Eveready Battery company, Joshua Lionel Cowen. He had an idea for a decorative lighting fixture for potted plants - a metal tube with a bulb and a battery. One of his salesmen, Conrad Hubert, took over the idea and the company and ran with it, selling the world's first flashlight in 1898.
And Cowen? He was one of those people who seemed to invent something other than what he originally had in mind. He was working on creating a store window display with a little battery powered car that would go round and round on a little circular track. It turned out that people wanted the car and the track more than what they displayed.
Joshua Lionel Cowen went on to found the Lionel Model Train company.
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Tech news articles related to Foundation
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Pocket Nucleo-Bulb-related
news articles:
- Handheld Fusion Reactors Planned
- Diamond NanoTech Battery Lasts 28,000 Years
| Is There A Subterranean Ocean? |
| The Robotic Shopping Cart Of The Future |
| Arctic Resource Jackpot An Old Wish |
| Marie Curie's Papers Still Radioactive |
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'...small electric motors at the principal joints worked the prosthetic framework by means of steel cables...'
'Living protoplasm incorporated into the Ampek F-a2 recording system...'
'Twoflower's Luggage, which was currently ambling along on its little legs...'
'He came to as the ship went into free flight, arching in a high parabola over the plains...'
'The peculiar quality of this light, which gave it its great preeminence over all other penetrating rays...'
'The overworked leg motor would have to cool down before he could work on it...'
‘Where to, sport?’ the starter at cab relay asked.
