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Wednesday, 2 November 2005
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John Coltrane is my favorite sax player and a huge influence on my playing. What a treat to see this story.
"In a surprising
development, saxophone trailblazer John Coltrane accounted for two of
the top three jazz albums last week, 38 years after his death."
True greatness is timeless.
I
read a review of one some time ago; it was a gig at the end of the
golden era of Trane's final conventional jazz group, before he went to
the totally modal and free jazz of the last period of his life. I'll be
getting these albums.
[Crooks and Liars]
11:36:00 PM 
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Cory Doctorow:
This spring-driven tea-serving robot is available as a kit or in
pre-assembled form. Either way, it is ingenious as hell, particularly
because its design is four hundred years old:
 An
example of Japanâo[dot accent]s first robot is the fascinating Karakuri: Tea
Server, designed almost four centuries ago and today remains a
remarkable example of Japanâo[dot accent]s keen sense of robotics. What does it
do? This Kabuki-styled doll approaches surprised guests with a full
teacup on a tray; it stops walking when the teacup is taken, waits
quietly, bows, then slowly turns around, smoothly scooting away with
the empty teacup on its tray...
This kit is made of computer designed precision modern materials, but
is as close to the original design as possible. The driving force of
the original tea-carrying doll came from a spring made of whale
whiskers (actually whale teeth). All the other components, such as its
gears, body and escapement for speed adjustments, were made of wood.
How does it work? When a tea cup is placed on the tray, the stopper is
released by the whale spring attached to the dollâo[dot accent]s arms; the spring
forces the stopper to engage again when the cup is lifted from the
tray.
Amazing!
Link
(via Make Blog) [Boing Boing]
11:28:36 PM
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© Copyright 2005 Peter Nixon.
Last update: 4/12/05; 10:02:14 PM.
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