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The Last Motel
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Aug 19, 2024  | 
Truck. Stick shift. Left front tire needs airing up every 100 miles or so. Two-lane blacktop. Passing zone. No-passing zone. Day fades into night. Low beam. High beam. AM radio. Baseball game. Bottom of the ninth.

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The Last Picture Show?
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Apr 19, 2021  | 
Global pandemics and lockdowns have consequences. Who knew? Apparently, not everyone.

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The Latest Fad: Elf Ears
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jun 21, 2021  | 
I am not making this up. Let me repeat: I am not making this up. The latest plastic surgery trend in China is elf ears. I am trying to decide whether or not I should get elf ears.

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The Mystery of 96.7 MHz
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Oct 24, 2022  | 
The year is 2017. You are in Portland, or at least in the general vicinity. It is late at night. You are driving down a dark road. You turn on your radio, and happen to tune to 96.7 MHz on the FM dial. What you hear is something you've never heard on the radio. Something strange is going on, something very strange.

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The New Corvette Looks Good. But Will it Sound Good?
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Aug 13, 2019  | 
For the first time, the engine is mounted amidships: 6.2-liter naturally aspirated V8, 495 horsepower, 470 lb-ft of torque, 0 to 60 mph in under 3 seconds, top speed of 194 mph with optional performance packages. It is the most powerful and quickest base-model Corvette ever. And it has the most powerful Bose sound system ever in a sports car.

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The Next Big Thing
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Oct 21, 2013  | 
Their future seemed so very bright. The SACD format, with a bit rate four times that of CD, was designed to lead the CD to new heights. DVD-Audio, sibling of the wildly successful DVD-Video format, offered audiophile fantasy surround at 96 kilohertz/24 bit. Hard on the heels of Avatar, 3DTV promised to change TV viewing forever.
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The Next Big TV Thing
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Nov 20, 2012  | 

TV manufacturing is a tough business. You’re making a perfectly good black-and-white TV and then someone comes along with a color TV. So you need to make color TVs. Then TVs become digital. Then they become high-def. Then they become flat. Then they become big. Then they become 3D. Then they become really big. Then they become 4K. It just never ends.

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The Pendulum Swings
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Nov 12, 2013  | 
Is our most fervent technology infatuation about to reverse course?

Without question, smartphones are awesome, and they have dramatically changed our everyday lives. We measure our self-worth by the number of bars we have. When our phones are fully charged, we are happy. When they are discharged, we are in full panic mode. Kids today probably can’t fathom how anyone functioned before the advent of smartphones. They ask, “Dude, how did people post pictures of themselves on Facebook while water skiing?”

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The Perplexing Mystery of Building 8
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Oct 24, 2017  | 
Roswell.

Area 51.

Building 8.

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The Physics of Unphysics: Walmart Takes to The Cloud
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Mar 14, 2012  | 

You’ve got to hand it to Walmart. First, they make a zillion dollars selling DVD and Blu-ray discs to everyone. Now, they’re set to make another zillion dollars so you don’t have to actually use the discs. Brilliant, simply brilliant.

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The Pohlmann Interview
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Oct 16, 2018  | 
As this magazine celebrates its 60th anniversary, we are trying to reconcile the fact that Ken Pohlmann is the longest-serving contributor to these pages. Frankly, we’re not sure why we ever hired him 30 years ago. In an effort to find out, we asked Mr. Pohlmann to share his stories of his early days at the magazine. —The Editors
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The Rapture of the Rumble
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Dec 28, 2020  | 
Because everything must be controversial, I am going to be controversial. This blog discusses God, politics, climate change, and Enzo Ferrari. Furthermore, if it causes lightning to strike you, so be it.
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The Return of Professor Lirpa!
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Apr 01, 2014  | 
Frankly, I thought he was dead. You know—like one of those male Hollywood stars who’s gone through three too many facelifts and goes into seclusion. Then suddenly he reappears in Teen Beat magazine with a photo of him kitesurfing with his 18-year-old supermodel girlfriend who is naked and you say to yourself—"Whoa! I thought he was dead!" Anyway, last night, precisely at midnight, there was a knock on my door. I unwisely opened it, and there stood Professor Lirpa.

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The Return of the Prodigal Shack?
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Aug 28, 2023  | 
I remember it like it was yesterday. I was consulting for a car company and I needed to A/B two tweeters. I dashed over to the nearest RadioShack and picked up a speaker-switching box. Crazy to think about it now – a brick-and-mortar store selling something like that. Of course, RadioShack is just a distant memory now. Or is it? Is RadioShack making a comeback?

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The Rise and Fall and Rise of Vinyl
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Feb 16, 2016  | 
Which of the following statements is false? 1. The sun rises in the east. 2. The hands of a clock go clockwise. 3. New technology is always better than old technology. This last statement, of course, isn’t quite as gospel as the others. Sometimes old technology has advantages that cause it to linger longer than we’d expect, or in rare cases, even make a comeback.
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