Thats cool.....
Reminds me of what Joseph Licklider predicted.
Years before the internet he already predicted e-commerce, and he also said (partly tounge in cheek) that small items could be instantly delivered in a network of plastic tubes. Well, he wasn't always right, but he was a lot closer than most people were.

Very influential in PC evolution.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licklider

Where I was stationed when doing my military service (draft), we had a tube post system like that. And (mis)used it mainly to send food to each other...with or without those containers   

I'm not sure I want to know... 

Morse -   

My father was remembering back to when I was a kid and mentioned that one of the things he enjoyed most, was watching me from the window at dusk, as I skated up and down our block wearing a pair of Union skates, with the steel wheels.

Why?

Because the bits of flint in the cement of the sidewalk would cause sparks, and as it got dark you could see the sparks as I flew past the house. 




These skates were tough, and unless you skated on dirt or grass instead of the sidewalk, left them out in the rain, or lost a skate, it wasn't likely that you would ever need more than 1 pair over the course of your childhood. (I managed to wear out a pair a year, though, with the amount of skating I did)

They were completely adjustable (with a key)...one size fits all...and fit over your shoes. With how popular they were, it was probably the reason why kids sneakers all had that rubber toe back in those days.

Around 1980 they started disappearing, as well as the old style rubber toed sneakers, when Rollerblades came along.

My daughter has never actually seen a pair of these skates, other than in pictures, and it was rather tough finding a good pic of them online. I have often wished as she was growing up, that they never went out of style, as it would have been a lot cheaper for me not to have to buy her a new pair of skates every time her feet grew.

Does once having learned, but long since forgotten, how to extract square and cube roots without a calculator count? If so, I guess I'm old, too 

Does once having learned, but long since forgotten, how to extract square and cube roots without a calculator count? If so, I guess I'm old, too 

Yeah, it's one of the things kids should never be exposed to, brrrr! That, and how to check if the mathematical product of two numbers is correct. I remember doing it once when I was 10, and just because I finished the assigned work earlier than my classmates, so I was assigned something else. My god, it took me more than one hour!

@J-Mac:
How many of those square roots did those nuns beat into you?

I mean, if you still can extract them till this day...  

Heliographs
Semaphore
Mores code

Used all of 'em to talk to and fro' when I was a kid.

[edit] I thought I'd typed "Morse".   
Now I think of it, mores code seems also to be of the past. 

Too true!

My Dad's teacher (circa 1930's) wouldn't even allow counting using your fingers! I think mental arithmetic is a thing of the past...

With calculators, I guess it is...

...until you find yourself in a situation where some quick mental calculations are desperately needed, as no calculator nor computer is available. I actually did come across similar situations in field construction management, though at the time mobile devices were just plain old cell phones. 

Jim

My Dad's teacher (circa 1930's) wouldn't even allow counting using your fingers! I think mental arithmetic is a thing of the past...

My teachers in the 1970's and 1980's wouldn't allow this either... I wasn't allowed to have a calculator until high school.

No hand held calculators in the 60's! 

Cranio, I remember someone showing me a formula and when it appeared it said shell oil! 

Cool, 40hz  I was unaware of that... Nice to learn these little mathematical tricks.

Not a formula for Shell oil, but one that if followed may yield a cheaper and altogether more cozy way of heating your home:

62 O2 (g) + C52H84O22 (s) --> 52 CO2 (g) + 42 H2O (g)