A builder exploring Second Life

Da Vinci Gardens
Last week Curtis send me this note:

Hi!

Jace and I found a great sim that I want to share with our friends. 

Okay, to begin with, this is a sim called Da Vinci Gardens.  Lots to see here.  But what I specifically wanted to share with you is the Seahorse Tour of Atlantis.  It's just amazing.

You can ride one seahorse if you're alone, or ride as couples. It's more fun with two, of course.

Turn your AO off, and then jump on the seahorses. It's about a 15 minute ride.  And you can stay on the seahorses even when you get back to the starting point. We rode them 3 times. And each time the camera angle is just slightly different.  I suggest turning the music on, but that's optional.  I enjoyed the music.

Curtis

the Land Mark

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kalepa/127/227/2

Da Vinci Gardens is not a new place but I never bin there.  So Tim and I went there yesterday.

Enjoy SL in this region full of diversity - but with one main style: A mixture of romance, mysticism and adventure. Enjoy!

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519, Old Style) was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. His genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance Man, a man of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination". He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived. According to art historian Helen Gardner, the scope and depth of his interests were without precedent and "his mind and personality seem to us superhuman, the man himself mysterious and remote". Marco Rosci states that while there is much speculation about Leonardo, his vision of the world is essentially logical rather than mysterious, and that the empirical methods he employed were unusual for his time.

We landed near the seahorses and took the tour. 

Among the works created by Leonardo in the 16th century is the small portrait known as the Mona Lisa or "la Gioconda", the laughing one. In the present era it is arguably the most famous painting in the world. Its fame rests, in particular, on the elusive smile on the woman's face, its mysterious quality brought about perhaps by the fact that the artist has subtly shadowed the corners of the mouth and eyes so that the exact nature of the smile cannot be determined. The shadowy quality for which the work is renowned came to be called "sfumato" or Leonardo's smoke. Vasari, who is generally thought to have known the painting only by repute, said that "the smile was so pleasing that it seemed divine rather than human; and those who saw it were amazed to find that it was as alive as the original".

We just did one ride. We clicked the vase that lies near the seahorses and went up to the surface area.

Journals and notes

Renaissance humanism recognized no mutually exclusive polarities between the sciences and the arts, and Leonardo's studies in science and engineering are as impressive and innovative as his artistic work. These studies were recorded in 13,000 pages of notes and drawings, which fuse art and natural philosophy (the forerunner of modern science), made and maintained daily throughout Leonardo's life and travels, as he made continual observations of the world around him.

Leonardo's writings are mostly in mirror-image cursive. The reason may have been more a practical expediency than for reasons of secrecy as is often suggested. Since Leonardo wrote with his left hand, it is probable that it was easier for him to write from right to left.

His notes and drawings display an enormous range of interests and preoccupations, some as mundane as lists of groceries and people who owed him money and some as intriguing as designs for wings and shoes for walking on water. There are compositions for paintings, studies of details and drapery, studies of faces and emotions, of animals, babies, dissections, plant studies, rock formations, whirlpools, war machines, helicopters and architecture.

Leonardo Da Vinci has been credited with designing the first Helicopter in 1493. It was all theory, and never actually built, but it was still way ahead of its time. It was based on what may have been a childs toy, known up to 100 years before this design.

With its slightly strange spiral single wing - it somewhat resembles an Archimedean screw designed for the air. It was designed to be made with reed, and covered with taffeta (a kind of rough cloth made from scraps and rags) - these materials were to ensure it was a fairly light and resilient design. The central screw was intended to be 13 feet (thats just over 2 meters) in diameter.

Leonardo's Helicopter would have been powered by four men on a capstan, pushing bars around the central shaft - turning the spiral.

From his own notes: "A small model can be made of paper with a spring like metal shaft that after having been released, after having been twisted, causes the screw to spin up into the air."

At Da Vinci Garden Leonardo's copter has a steam engine. Our second tour. 

After this great tour over the sim, we went to the Egypten part with the pyramide. Maybe you know Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, when Indiana Jones braves an ancient Peruvian temple filled with booby traps to retrieve a golden idol. Remember that when you enter the pyrimide to find the tombe of the farao.

Tim and I had a great time. Da Vinci garden is more than worth to explore and to undergo.

Great made, lots of details, spooky, riddles and sometimes even funny.

There is much more to see, so we sure will return to explore other parts of Da Vinci Gardens.