errantember: (Default)
While Leonardo da Vinci, painter of the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, is well known as a genius and perhaps the most significant artist of the Renaissance, less is known about his science and design. The Science of Leonardo: Inside the Mind of the Great Genius of the Renaissance takes us on a grand tour of his life and work, revealing the seamless integration of art, science, engineering, and reverence for nature that made up his worldview.

Although very public about his artistic technique, da Vinci was far more secretive about his science, and when the thousands of his notebooks he left to a close friend were scattered to the wind by a relative, those secrets were trapped in dusty libraries across the globe while the world moved on. Only now, with painstaking research, do we discover that he was the first to develop the modern scientific method, the pre-cursors of calculus, enormous advances in the geometrical and physical science of sight, and designs for flying machines that work when executed with modern materials, all hundreds of years ahead of those to whom these feats are historically attributed. Most amazingly, the synthesis of his work across the boundaries of multiple disciplines, and the observations of the interconnectedness of disparate subjects reflects a Systems Theory that we are only beginning to grasp ourselves at the forefront of today's science. Inside are his life's history from several different perspectives, including his important relationships, patrons, environs, and well-supported suppositions about his state of mind and interests as he journeyed through his amazing life. If Leonardo da Vinci isn't the first person you'd visit with your time machine, he will be after you've finished this amazing book.
errantember: (Little Cowboy Scott)
I'm drawing a picture of this, but it's taking longer than I thought.

The pipe on the handlebars of the scooter has only a single bolt to lock it in place over the pipe on the front wheel. Because the tolerances are sloppy, the slightest looseness in this bolt makes the handlebars wobble. You can *tighten* the bolt, but getting to it requires remove about nine screws and half the cowling of the bike, and even with a lock washer and a lock nut, it only lasts about 30 minutes before loosening up again. For that thirty minutes, you experience this thrilling, novel feeling like you are almost in *control* of the vehicle. Unimpeded by simple harmonic motion or random Brownian Effects, you can *feel* the road. When you turn the handlebars, the wheel turns exactly the same amount! And *then* the scooter *goes* there! Around the life-threatening 1/2 inch pothole! Past the blind motorist pulling out in front of you! Up onto the sidewalk and over the toy poodle!

It's all very exciting. But then the jiggle starts.
Read more... )
errantember: (Little Cowboy Scott)
It's very clear that it's time to start my new businesses. In addition to engineering contracting, which will continue to be my main financial engine for now, I'm pursuing two vectors. One will be permaculture based, with my co-op as the core. The other will be a combination of music, firedancing and other performance and visual arts marketed to the poly and BDSM crowd.
Read more... )

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