http://www.ultraswank.net Retro Living and Design from the 50s, 60s and 70s Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:59:46 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.ultraswank.net/science/our-friend-the-atom-%e2%80%93-part-3/ http://www.ultraswank.net/science/our-friend-the-atom-%e2%80%93-part-3/#comments Fri, 08 Apr 2011 05:32:10 +0000 James Vaughan http://www.ultraswank.net/?p=3225 The religion of The Atom died with Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. With that fall from grace came the end of many of our utopian dreams. A responsible future of conservation and organic carrots just wasn’t very exciting. Although widespread use of the atom remains controversial; 436 reactors remain the source of 15 per cent [...]]]> http://www.ultraswank.net/science/our-friend-the-atom-%e2%80%93-part-3/feed/ 0 http://www.ultraswank.net/science/our-friend-the-atom-%e2%80%93-part-2/ http://www.ultraswank.net/science/our-friend-the-atom-%e2%80%93-part-2/#comments Fri, 01 Apr 2011 05:39:04 +0000 James Vaughan http://www.ultraswank.net/?p=3194 Atomic power was projected to be very cheap. We were going to have electricity coming out of our ears! We would not have to import oil from crazy foreigners or dig up whole states looking for coal. Utility companies and government agencies around the world took up the chant of the mighty atom. Nuclear power [...]]]> http://www.ultraswank.net/science/our-friend-the-atom-%e2%80%93-part-2/feed/ 0 http://www.ultraswank.net/science/our-friend-the-atom-%e2%80%93-part-1/ http://www.ultraswank.net/science/our-friend-the-atom-%e2%80%93-part-1/#comments Wed, 23 Mar 2011 12:32:06 +0000 James Vaughan http://www.ultraswank.net/?p=3163 No modern technology has ever had such a schizophrenic and complicated identity as Atomic Energy. It is often presented in mystical terms. A Pandora’s Box of knowledge that cannot be unlearned. The magical Genie that can do both help or harm but cannot be returned to his bottle. Nuclear Power is the ultimate parable of [...]]]> http://www.ultraswank.net/science/our-friend-the-atom-%e2%80%93-part-1/feed/ 0 http://www.ultraswank.net/science/disneys-house-of-the-future/ http://www.ultraswank.net/science/disneys-house-of-the-future/#comments Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:33:37 +0000 Chris http://www.ultraswank.net/?p=1026 This is the House of the Future (or Plastic House of the Future) at Disneyland, California circa 1957 – where you could get a glimpse of what the future held in technology and comfort in the year 1986. Look at all those fancy buttons all over the place, I crave more buttons in my apartment [...]]]> http://www.ultraswank.net/science/disneys-house-of-the-future/feed/ 5 http://www.ultraswank.net/science/james-bonds-weird-world-of-inventions/ http://www.ultraswank.net/science/james-bonds-weird-world-of-inventions/#comments Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:27:00 +0000 Chris http://www.ultraswank.net/uncategorized/james-bond%e2%80%99s-weird-world-of-inventions/ Check out this scanned article from Popular Science back in 1966 featuring the zany gadgets that was used in the 007 movie Thunderball. Thank you Royalton for the tip! Some of the gadgets actually are buckled onto Connery’s famous back. One is the Bell jet-pack flying belt Bond uses in the beginning of the film [...]]]> http://www.ultraswank.net/science/james-bonds-weird-world-of-inventions/feed/ 1 http://www.ultraswank.net/science/ride-the-peoplemover/ http://www.ultraswank.net/science/ride-the-peoplemover/#comments Sun, 11 Sep 2005 21:04:00 +0000 Chris http://www.ultraswank.net/uncategorized/ride-the-peoplemover/ This is a photo from Disneyland probably taken in the early 1970s. It depicts an attraction called The Peoplemover. It was meant as a demonstration of futuristic technology, suitable for moving people around urban centers, airports, shopping malls and what not. It was introduced in 1967 and took the passengers for a ride around Tomorrowland [...]]]> http://www.ultraswank.net/science/ride-the-peoplemover/feed/ 3