this man is teh awesum
In case you haven't heard of him, one of the coolest dudes ever is the late great Jesuit good-for-nothing Anathasius Kircher. Every time I rediscover him I can't get over how cool he was.
The Chronicle of Higher Education called him the 'Dude of Wonders'.
Kircher lived during the Seventeenth Century. He was a professor of mathematics, ethics, physics, Chinese, Hebrew and Syrian. He once had to flee for his life on a broken piece of ice heading down a river. He studied Egyptology, astronomy, geology, medicine, created a museum and was really into mechanical devices. He once descended into the active crater of Vesuvius, he wrote a book on magnetism, gravity, love, and other pulling forces, he created an aeolian harp, and he designed a Katzenklavier, musical instrument that would hammer nails into cat tails to make them yowl at different pitches, though apparently he never made that one.
There's an Anathasius Kircher Society based out of New York, but they haven't updated their blog since December. If they ever get rekindled, I think we should start a Lansing Chapter.
Check out their website for all sorts of interesting research - it reminds me a bit of the Annals of Improbable Research. Some stuff I found there:
The Gomboc, the first self-righting object
Kirby's Wonderful and Scientific Museum
Richard Sweeny's Paper Sculptures
I could spend my days wandering through this ephemera so happily...
The Chronicle of Higher Education called him the 'Dude of Wonders'.
Kircher lived during the Seventeenth Century. He was a professor of mathematics, ethics, physics, Chinese, Hebrew and Syrian. He once had to flee for his life on a broken piece of ice heading down a river. He studied Egyptology, astronomy, geology, medicine, created a museum and was really into mechanical devices. He once descended into the active crater of Vesuvius, he wrote a book on magnetism, gravity, love, and other pulling forces, he created an aeolian harp, and he designed a Katzenklavier, musical instrument that would hammer nails into cat tails to make them yowl at different pitches, though apparently he never made that one.
There's an Anathasius Kircher Society based out of New York, but they haven't updated their blog since December. If they ever get rekindled, I think we should start a Lansing Chapter.
Check out their website for all sorts of interesting research - it reminds me a bit of the Annals of Improbable Research. Some stuff I found there:
The Gomboc, the first self-righting object
Kirby's Wonderful and Scientific Museum
Richard Sweeny's Paper Sculptures
I could spend my days wandering through this ephemera so happily...