UNKNOWNS OF LEONARDO DA VINCI

Leonardo da Vinci is best remembered as the painter of the Mona Lisa (1503-1506) and The Last Supper (1495). But he's almost equally famous for his astonishing multiplicity of talents: he dabbled in architecture, sculpture, engineering, geology, hydraulics and the military arts, all with success, and in his spare time doodled parachutes and flying machines that resembled inventions of the 19th and 20th centuries. He made detailed drawings of human anatomy which are still highly regarded today. Leonardo also was quirky enough to write notebook entries in mirror (backwards) script, a trick which kept many of his observations from being widely known until decades after his death.

Birth name- Leonardo di Ser Piero

Born- April 15, 1452(1452-04-15) Vinci, Florence, in present-day Italy

Died- May 2, 1519 (aged 67)Amboise, Indre-et-Loire, in present-day France

Nationality- Tuscan, Italian

Field- Many and diverse fields of arts and sciences

Movement- High Renaissance

Famous works- Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, The Vitruvian Man

It is primarily as a painter that Leonardo was and is renowned. Two of his works, the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper occupy unique positions as the most famous, most reproduced and most parodied portrait and religious painting of all time, their fame approached only by Michelangelo's Creation of Adam.[1] Leonardo's drawing of the Vitruvian Man is also iconic. Perhaps fifteen paintings survive, the small number due to his constant, and frequently disastrous, experimentation with new techniques, and his chronic procrastination.[b] Nevertheless these few works, together with his notebooks, which contain drawings, scientific diagrams, and his thoughts on the nature of painting, comprise a contribution to later generations of artists only rivalled by that of his contemporary, Michelangelo.

As an engineer, Leonardo conceived ideas vastly ahead of his own time, conceptualising a helicopter, a tank, concentrated solar power, a calculator, and the double hull, and outlining a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or even feasible during his lifetime,but some of his smaller inventions such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing the tensile strength of wire entered the world of manufacturing unheralded. As a scientist, he greatly advanced the state of knowledge in the fields of anatomy, civil engineering, optics, and hydrodynamics.

Virgin and Child with St Anne, return None of Leonardo's paintings are signed. Certain works still in existence are cited by Vasari or are referred to in contracts. All notes in this section are drawn from the analysis of opinions of various scholars by Angela Ottino della Chiesa.

Entirely by Leonardo -

The Last Supper (1498)—Convent of Sta. Maria delle Grazie, Milan, Italy
Mona Lisa or La Gioconda (1503–1505/1507)—Louvre, Paris, France
Adoration of the Magi unfinished painting (1481)—Uffizi, Florence, Italy
The Virgin and Child with St. Anne (c. 1510)—Louvre, Paris, France
Virgin of the Rocks, Louvre, Paris, considered by most historians to be the earlier of two versions and to therefore date from 1483–1486.
The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist large drawing (c. 1499–1500)—National Gallery, London, UK.
St. Jerome in the Wilderness, (c.1480), Vatican, unfinished painting.

The Baptism of Christ (1472–1475)—Uffizi, by Verrocchio and Leonardo

Leonardo with other hands -

The Baptism of Christ (1472–1475)—Uffizi, Florence, Italy. Cited by Vasari as by Verrocchio, with the angel on the left-hand side by Leonardo.[8] It is generally considered that Leonardo also painted the background landscape and the torso of Christ. One of Leornardo's earliest extant works.[x]
Virgin of the Rocks, National Gallery, London, generally accepted as postdating the version in the Louvre, possibly 1505–1508, with collaboration of de Predis and perhaps others.[y]

Virgin of the Rocks, National Gallery, London, possibly 1505–

1508, demonstrates Leonardo's interest in nature.

Extra credit: Leonardo da Vinci means "Leonardo from the town of Vinci," and thus he is generally referred to in short as "Leonardo" rather than as "da Vinci"... He received a fresh burst of public interest in 2003 with the publication of The Da Vinci Code, the bestselling thriller by author Dan Brown.

CLIMATE SAVERS COMPUTING INITIATIVE

Started by Google and Intel, the Climate Savers Computing Initiative brings together industry, consumers,government, and conservation organizations to significantly increase the energy efficiency of computers and servers. Believe it or not, the average desktop PC wastes over half the power delivered to it! Servers are slightly more efficient but still squander about one-third of the power consumed. This wasted electricity unnecessarily increases the cost to power computers and also increases the emissions of greenhouse gases. Improving the energy efficiency of computers is one of the most cost-effective ways to reduce electricity consumption and the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

Through more efficient design optimized for power consumption alongside speed, capacity and cost, together with use of power-saving technologies, the electricity required to power computers can be significantly reduced while at the same time increasing their computing capabilities. As participants in this program, computer and component manufacturers commit to produce products that meet specified power-efficiency targets, and corporate participants commit to purchase power-efficient computing products. In addition, the Initiative will educate consumers and IT personnel about power management of computers and show individuals how they can reduce the electrical footprint of their computers without any resulting loss of productivity.

Increased deployment of high-efficiency systems combined with education and power management technologies will save money, reduce energy consumption, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. By 2010, the focused effort of technology providers and committed participants will lead to about a 50% reduction in annual power consumption by computers, and committed participants in the Initiative could collectively save $5.5 billion in energy costs.

LATEST INVENTION IN COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CONTACTLESS DATA INPUT IN COMPUTER :-

FIELD: computer engineering and computer control.

SUBSTANCE: proposed method that provides for persons of limited capabilities to communicate with aid of written speech and also for teaching by concurrent operation with teacher using same computer screen includes generation of cursor position on screen control signal by turning head toward desired direction of displacement; in the process displacement speed is set to be proportional to spatial head turn angle; INPUT control signal is generated by facial expression. System has contactless handler built around computer vision system that has series-connected receiving television camera, image processing unit, as well as cursor position on screen and INPUT control signal generation unit.

EFFECT: enhanced social activity of persons of limited capabilities. 9 cl, 5 dwg

Vezhnevets V.P., Bajakovskij Ju.M., Krichevets A.N.

Patent number: 2227930

Publishing date: May 25, 2004

FACTS TO MAKE EVERY INDIAN PROUD

Who is the co-founder of Sun Microsystems?
Vinod Khosla

Who is the creator of Pentium chip (needs no introduction as 90% of the today’s computers run on it)?
Vinod Dahm

Who is the richest man on the world?
India’s Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries Limited.He is the chairman, managing director and
the largest shareholder of Reliance Industries, India's largest private sector enterprise and a Fortune 500 company.

The five richest people in the world with their net worth
1. Mukesh Ambani ($63.2 billion)
2. Carlos Slim Helu ($62.2993 billion)
3. William (Bill) Gates ($62.29 billion)
4. Warren Buffett ($55.9 billion)
5. Lakshmi Mittal ($50.9 billion)
Source : CNBC TV Broadcast

Who is the founder and creator of Hotmail (Hotmail is world’s No.1 web based email program)?
Sabeer Bhatia

Who is the president of AT & T-Bell Labs (AT & T-Bell Labs is the creator of program languages such as C, C++, Unix to name a few)?
Arun Netravalli

Who is the GM of Hewlett Packard?
Rajiv Gupta

Who is the new MTD (Microsoft Testing Director) of Windows 2000, responsible to iron out all initial problems?
Sanjay Tejwrika

Who are the Chief Executives of CitiBank, Mckensey & Stanchart?
Victor Menezes, Rajat Gupta, and Rana Talwar.

We Indians are the wealthiest among all ethnic groups in America, even faring better than the whites and the natives. There! are 3.22 millions of Indians in USA (1.5% of population). YET,

38% of doctors in USA are Indians.
12% scientists in USA are Indians.
36% of NASA scientists are Indians.
34% of Microsoft employees are Indians.
28% of IBM employees are Indians.
17% of INTEL scientists are Indians.
13% of XEROX employees are Indians.

You may know some of the following facts. These facts were recently published in a German magazine, which deals with WORLD HISTORY FACTS ABOUT INDIA.

01. India never invaded any country in her last 1000 years of history.

02. India invented the Number system. Aryabhatta invented ‘zero.’

03. The world’s first University was established in Takshila in 700BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century BC was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.

04. According to the Forbes magazine, Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software.

05. Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans.

06. Although western media portray modern images of India as poverty striken and underdeveloped through political corruption, India was once the richest empire on earth.

07. The art of navigation was born in the river Sindh 5000 years ago. The very word “Navigation” is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH.

08. The value of pi was first calculated by Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is now known as the Pythagorean Theorem. British scholars have last year (1999) officially published that Budhayan’s works dates to the 6th Century, which is long before the European mathematicians.

09. Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India. Quadratic equations were by Sridharacharya in the 11th Century; the largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Indians used numbers as big as 1053.

10. According to the Gemmological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source of diamonds to the world.

11. USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century-old suspicion amongst academics that the pioneer of wireless communication was Professor Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi.

12. The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra.

13. Chess was invented in India.

14. Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted surgeries like cesareans, cataract, fractures and urinary stones. Usage of anaesthesia was well known in ancient India.

15. When many cultures in the world were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilisation).

16. The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC.


Quotes about India.

We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.
Albert Einstein.

India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend and the great grand mother of tradition.
Mark Twain.

If there is one place on the face of earth where all dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.
French scholar Romain Rolland.

India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.
Hu Shih.
(Former Chinese ambassador to USA)

ALL OF THE ABOVE IS JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG, THE LIST COULD BE ENDLESS. BUT,

if we don’t see even a glimpse of that great India in the India that we see today, it clearly means that we are not working up to our potential; and that if we do, we could once again be an ever shining and inspiring country setting a bright path for rest of the world to follow. I hope you enjoyed it and work towards the welfare of INDIA.

Say proudly, I AM AN INDIAN.