Happy Valentine's Day!

[eldritchhobbit]

Happy birthday to mr_earbrass and mollypunkin, and happy early birthday to cookiefleck, firiath, alicia_stardust, ankh_hpl, dqg_neal, xerum525, homespunheart, jagash, nightlywanderer, rosamundeb, and kalquessa. May all of you enjoy many happy returns of the day!

Here's a picture of our brand-new baby niece Kaitlyn Margret, who is one week old today!




Happy Valentine's Day to all! In honor of today's occasion, a quote:

Hail Bishop Valentine, whose day this is,
All the air is thy Diocese,
And all the chirping choristers
And other birds are thy parishioners,
Thou marryest ever year
The lyric Lark, and the grave whispering Dove,
The Sparrow that neglects his life for love,
The household bird, with the red stomacher;
Thou maks't the black bird speed as soon,
As doth the Goldfinch, or the Halycon;
The husband cock looks out, and straight is sped,
And meets his wife, which brings her feather-bed.
This day more cheerfully than ever shine,
This day, which might enflame thy self, old Valentine.

Till now, thou warmd'st with mutiplying loves
Two larks, two sparrows, or two doves,
All that is nothing unto this,
For thou this day couplest two Phoenixes;
Thou mak'st a Taper see
What the sun never saw, and what the Ark
(Which was of fowls, and beasts, the cage and park,)
Did not contain, one bed contains, through thee,
Two Phoenixes, whose joined breasts
Are unto one another mutual nests,
Where motion kindles such fires, as shall give
Young Phoenixes, and yet the old shall love.
Whose love and courage never shall decline,
But make the whole year through, thy day, O Valentine....

from John Donne, "An Epithalamion, Or Marriage Song, On the Lady Elizabeth and Count Palatine Being Married on St. Valentine's Day"

Comments

Coach Factory Online

[(Anonymous)]

Da Vinci's aerial screw. "It's sort of like climbing Mount Everest," says Mr. Hirschberg. "It's to prove it can be done."The Sikorsky Prize has drawn i [url=http://www.coach-outlet-storeonline.com/]Coach Online Outlet[/url] nventors from Brazil to Nigeria over the years, with more than 30 known attempts. Most didn't get off the ground because of design issues, fabrication problems or a lack of funding.The first team to make real progress wa [url=http://www.coach-outlet-storeonline.com/]Coach Factory Outlet Online[/url] s a group of students from California Polytechnic State University, whose "Da Vinci III" whirlybird flew for about eight seconds in December 1989. Shortly afterward, the "Yuri I," constructed by students at Nihon University in Japan, made a crucial discovery: They found they could stay aloft for longer if the helicopter's blades were as close to the ground as possible. They managed to fly for nearly 20 seconds in December 1993, a world record that stood for years.Without a further breakthrough, the Sikorsky Prize started to look unwinnable. That was until a University o [url=http://www.coach-outlet-storeonline.com/]Coach Factory Online[/url] f Maryland professor challenged his engineering students to work out whether winning the prize was even theoretically possible.They determined that it was and began to kick around the idea of actually building a copter to prove it. The university ponied up funding, and the group grew to about 50 undergrads and graduate students over the years. They recruit pilots on campus, at one point with a flier that asked, "Are you small but mighty?"The team has built a few versions of their helicopter, named after the Gamera, a fire-breathing flying turtle and monster contemporary of Godzilla. It is also a nod to the school's mascot, the Terrapin.Gamera I's first flight in May 2011 lifted off the ground for about four seconds. Two months later, it was flying 11 seconds. Last July, the Gamera II smashed the Yuri I's record for a human-powered helicopter鈥攕taying airborne for nearly 50 seconds."Someone bought us a round of drinks during happy hour at the bar that day," says Will Staruk, a graduate student and the team's [url=http://ksuua8s22.skyrock.com/3172620137-Coach-Outlet-Uneven-Go-Tote.html]It's going to brilliant #rfswu36[/url] project manager.When Messrs. Robertson and Reichert, classmates at the University of Toronto, first heard about the Gamera's initial attempts back in 2011, they decided they would give the Sikorsky Prize a shot as well.As part of a graduate project a year earlier, the two built the world's first human-powered ornithopter鈥攁 plane that flaps its wings鈥攁nd flew it nearly 500 feet. The pair raised enough money to fund their own rapid successes, nearly matching the Gamera's flights inside an indoor soccer field near Toronto, Mr. Robertson says. The team believes its pedal system鈥攅ssentially a modified road bike鈥攁nd its speedy pilot give it an advantage.One of the biggest challenges is the requirement to keep from drifting more than 1,076 square feet. Both sides are keeping secret the technology they say will help them do that.Toronto's team isn't allowing outsiders to watch test flights. The University of Maryland, however, is inviting the public to watch its latest attempt this weekend. They have been [url=http://www.coach-outlet-storeonline.com/]Coach Outlet Store[/url] testing the Gamera II XR鈥攊ts rotors are slightly bigger than its predecessor鈥攆or weeks in a sports complex in Landover, Md."The Toronto team is very impressive," said Mr. Staruk. "But we'll see who crosses the finish line first." Write to David George-Cosh at david.george-cosh@dowjones.com A version of this article appeared April 26, 2013, on page A1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Flight of Fancy: The Sky's the Limit For Team That Rises to the Occasion.