Year: 2010

Giant fretwork Declaration of Independence took 10 years

Giant fretwork Declaration of Independence took 10 years

Retired Navy patternmaker and former shop teacher Charlie Kested was 71, in 2000, when he first fired up his scroll saw to start work on this project. He just finished. In the intervening decade, Kersted has survived and recovered from a stroke that left him without feeling in one hand.

Apart from all the human interest angles on Charlie himself–senior citizen, veteran, patriot, teacher, craftsman, stroke survivor–the piece itself seems a truly remarkable artifact. Each word is carefully cut from dark walnut, right down to the last flourish and detail of the script, and affixed to a light-colored baltic birch “page.” Hopefully there’ll be some nice higher-resolution photos available online soon. [via Boing Boing]

Boxee Box teardown

Boxee Box teardown

Our friends over at iFixit take us on a tour inside the recently released Boxee Box. This oddly shaped box manufactured by D-Link houses media player hardware that runs the popular media management software. It appears to be every bit as interesting on the inside as it does on the outside.

Stigler’s Law of Eponymy

A comment on this morning’s cometarium post reminded me of this famous axiom in the history of science: “No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer.” Stigler’s Law is named for University of Chicago statistician Stephen Stigler, who attributes it to sociologist Robert K. Merton. [Thanks, Rahere!]