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Da Vinci's Purposeful Mistakes
puppetman writes "According to a story out today, Leonardo Da Vinci deliberately introduced mistakes in his inventions. The series, Leonardo, produced by the BBC, claims that simple mistakes were introduced; mistakes that would not become apparent until after the contraption was built. The series hypothesizes that this was either a form of patent protection, or a way of ensuring his work did not end up being used for military purposes (Da Vinci was a gay, vegetarian pacifist)."
And not all pacificts are vegetarian, and being vegetarian (or gay) doesn't make you more of a pacifist.
Da Vinci designed a tank, an assault chariot armed with whirling scythes, and numerous pieces of Artillery. Not very pacifist.
Adolph Hitler sometimes considered himself to be a vegetarian, (A loose definition by today's standards: He ate some pork and fowl, but also ate alot of vegetables, spoke of the benefits of vegetarianism. Pretty radical in those days in Germany, the Pork Capital), and did not consider himself a pacifist.
This certainly supports the point that not all pacifists are vegetarian.
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
The degree of his pacifism is also quite suspect:
The article's author is certaintly quite correct, however, that he was a vegetarian.
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
Actually, the article said he was a gay, vegetarian, pacifist. The original poster just repeated it.
Someone hates these cans.
and in italian, which is just crazy paranoid.
That brings up an interesting point which so few Americans often recognize.
At a recent job site, there was a bookcase in the break room with one of those illustrated history books on 'The Renassiance.' I spent some lunch periods browsing through the book. Shockingly, it was almost all about the Renaissance that happened in Italy.
What happened to all the people running around squawking in mock British accents in costumes? Wasn't that part of history too?
Well, it turns out that the Renaissance happened mostly on the continent, in Italy. The English had the Elizabethan stuff, but certainly little of the high culture of the Renaissance.
It would kinda dampen the spirit of all the SCA people carrying on in mock garb at the Ren-Fests if they had to learn Italian, though, so we'll continue pretending, sorta like a Monty Python version of history.
Like any rational human, Leonardo abhorred war -- he called it "beastly madness" -- but since Renaissance Italy was constantly at war he couldn't avoid it. He designed numerous weapons, including missiles, multi-barreled machine guns, grenades, mortars, and even a modern-style tank. He drew the line, however, with his plans for an underwater breathing device, which he refused to reveal, saying that men would likely use it for "evil in war."
So perhaps one could say he's a realist.
Yes, I believe you're thinking of Michaelangelo. I just visited Italy this summer and all of M.'s women are as you described. Muscular with breasts as an afterthought.
This guy started it, just over a month ago. I can't believe how fast it caught on.