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comment by Almost_A_Robot
Almost_A_Robot  ·  4427 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: A Human-Powered Helicopter: Straight Up Difficult

Da Vinci's ornithopter never did fly, but Students at MIT created a working ornithopter and for those of you with a lot of time on your hands here is the official paper





winston  ·  4427 days ago  ·  link  ·  

da Vinci was a visionary. Who is the da-Vinci of our times?

Almost_A_Robot  ·  4427 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Well its not really feasible to be a Renaissance man anymore, the cut off point was around the mid 1800s. Back there was maybe a few thousand people working on research, but now there are millions of people working in every field, and unless you are some kind of savant it is impossible to become an expert in all of them.

winston  ·  4420 days ago  ·  link  ·  

From a percentage of population standpoint, it may not be much of a variant. I can't think of any people that would fit the Renaissance Man title though.