Author Archives: dr.hypercube

A super secret preview of the KPK Wunderkammer

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My partner in sciencecrime is pulling some of his collections out of mothballs and displaying same. We’re assembling quite an interesting little wunderkammer. I’m responsible for most things that respire, he for the things that don’t or have ceased to. The name we’ve assigned to the project is both a geologic descriptor and a mashup of our initials (the last K is for kolossal!!). I’m hoping to take a panorama shot in a bit, but for right now, a sneak peak:

The Hall of Local Skulls

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The Hall of Porifera, Vespids and A Fish

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Don Coyote

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Lucy

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Nepenthes truncata Paisan Highlands

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“Atoms for Peas Piece Peace” Chemistry Set

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The Siege Engine and Robot Annex

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The Snowbird Ornithopter

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Seems like it wasn’t all that long ago when any kind of human-powered flight was a very ambitious goal.

The Snowbird Human-Powered Ornithopter was designed and constructed by a team of students from the University of Toronto. On August 2nd 2010 it sustained level flight for 19.3 seconds, becoming the world’s first successful human-powered ornithopter.

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More info at hpo.ornithopter.net.

Via a tweet from @bruces.

The Atlantic Tech Canon

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Tons of quibbling possible  – no The Elements of Programming Style (feel free to substitute your own title)? Regardless, any list that includes Fred Brooks, Vannevar Bush, Murray Bookchin and Donna Harraway is OK by me.

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N.B. – a tech canon is very different from the meatball cannon drawn for me yesterday by a slightly off-task, but creative, second grader.

The Atlantic Tech Canon – Alexis Madrigal – Technology – The Atlantic.