Leonardo Da Vinci died at age 67 in France on May 2, 1519. IMHO, His passing was the end of the initial phase of the Italian Renaissance. Spain was beginning to colonize the Americas, printing was become common (started in mid 1400s). Luther had posted his 95 Theses two years earlier, in 1517. After Michelangelo and Leonardo left Florence, it was no longer the center of European culture, like it had been for the previous century and then some.

Leonardo left drawings of a human powered flying machine. It was never built, and just as well. The human body can't generate enough power to keep the weight of a person and the machine in the air. With very high tech materials and engineering, it is just possible for a person to fly in ground effect if the pilot/power source is in really good shape and skinny.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect_(aerodynamics)

A Canadian artist and engineer decided to make a model based on Da Vinci's drawings, back in the 1990s, iirc. The engineer, Bob May, did a couple of full-size realizations of the model. One is at a museum in Boston. The other is in....wait for it...Ogden, Utah.

The Weber County Library System asked Mr May if he would be interested in doing a full scale model as an art installation at a new library they were building. He said sure. It is now hanging from the ceiling of the Pleasant Valley branch in Washington Terrace, south Ogden (5568 Adams Ave). If you are at all interested in that sort of thing, it is worth a drive if you are anywhere close. Like I said, I believe there are only two of these suckers in the world! It's about a 40 minute drive from downtown SLC.

I found very little on the internet WRT the flying machine model in Ogden. There used to be a youtube video about crating the model up and shipping it to Utah, but that seems to be gone. Here is a brief CTV news story about the creation of the model. Bob May initially did a small model kit (42” wingspan, so as kit models go, pretty large).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj6kMZBrUq4

The kit company appears to be out of business. The pages on its website to buy kits are missing. I think they sold their existing inventory and shut up shop. Here are a few pages about the kit:

http://www.davincistore.com/T_wwdvd.html Builder’s journal

http://www.davincistore.com/MR_FMReview.pdf Review of the kit/model

http://www.davincistore.com/H_kits.html History of the kits


A blurb on the Weber County library branch. It doesn’t even mention the model. :(
https://www.weberpl.lib.ut.us/visit/visit-pleasant-valley-branch

http://grandeexhibitions.com/da-vinci-the-genius/

Life Of Leonardo da Vinci
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ-R2c73KwU

Truth be known, opinions notwithstanding, Leonardo da Vinci would have been, had he been born in our day, visited by representatives of the only true church. He, being wise, would have become a golden convert and would have persuaded most of Oracle middle managers to join him in joining the fast-growing organization.

He would have rapidly aspired to high leadership. Eventually, being a Senior member of the Council of the Twelve, he would have lusted after the Top Spot, of course.


He would have fought off most of the absurdities of this present reverse-thyself batch of bloated prevaricators.


As he became aware of the CES Letter, he would have leafletted Salt Lake City and parts of Provo during spirited games, so that the collapse of Zion would be assured with utmost efficiency.


So, there you have it, the reason he wasn't born when you and I were. The slow collapse is much more astounding than would have been his 120-day crash.

Leonardo, the rebel who with Vitruvian Man put himself in God's position at the center of the universe.

No Einstein or Hawking, who left enough ambiguity for believers to claim him as their own, Leonardo asserted that man and no one else was master of, and responsible for, his destiny.

I guess Kori will never quote Lenny then. Just as well. Typing right to left can be a real chore.

There actually are Da Vinci typefaces where the letter images are reversed. And right to left must be doable. Hebrew, after all.

A lot of historians believe he was dyslexic and had to experiment with all sorts of writing styles to find something that worked, laboriously, for him. That diagnosis would accord with his remarkable three-dimensional skills as manifested in both art and invention.

And yes, he was as sacrilegious as any of the ancient Greeks. In that Vitruvian man, he takes the square and circle, an old scheme representing the universe, and puts a human right where images of God or Jesus had traditionally gone. Moreover, the human looks very much like Leonardo himself. It was an autobiographical sketch of the cosmos.

Nothing was sacred to him but human creativity.

so sad to hear that he died ~


he was realy good in Titanic and some other movies ~


RIP in peace Leonardo ~

It was just a matter of time. Between the Titanic, Daisy Buchanan, and the Arikara Indian tribe, he was burning through his 9 lives like they were pot gummies.

Thank heaven Homer is still alive.