Many thanks for your comment on 191174 and for the link provided.

http://www.mos.org/leonardo/

However, based on the site visited, Leonardo reminds me of one of my
close friends .... This man has the most amazing ideas but he
invariably fails to convert them into end products.

Is it therefore possible that Leonardo was not the genius that he has
been cracked up to be?

For example, how could Leo possibly 'invent' a tank, a bicycle or a
flying machine before the necessary engineering technology had been
put in place?

I am looking for you to champion your selection of LdV as the World's
Greatest Genius Ever, as compared with Political Guru's far more
impressive nomination ... Your Good Self.
   
Regards

Meg

Hi, Meg! Many thanks for sending this inquiry in my direction. If I'd
known that my comment would lead to this, I might have nominated Mel
Brooks as the world's greatest genius, so that I'd have a good excuse
to spend an hour or so dabbling in Wacka-Wacka Land. Instead, I have
to be serious. Humph. ;-)

Here's a good decription of Leonardo that I found online:

"Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) needs no introduction; if there is
anyone who seems to embody the Renaissance completely and totally, it
is this grouchy and self-centered painter, scholar, inventor,
scientist, writer, anatomist, etc. He seems to span the whole of human
knowledge as it was known at the time, and combine all this knowledge
into this one vast, syncretic whole. So encompassing was his artistic
and intellectual accomplishment, that the life and work of Leonardo
traditionally marks the beginning of what historians call the High
Renaissance.

For all this genius, however, he could never really finish very many
projects (which seems to be a general rule prevailing among geniuses;
they never finish projects, I think, because they get bored too
easily), nor did he ever realize most of his inventions in real terms.
As one surveys his notebooks (written backwards to prevent unwanted
eyes from peering into his secrets), one find helicopters and
submarines, hundreds of years before anyone else will think of them,
but at no point does he sit down and actually build these marvelous
inventions."

Washington State University: World Civilizations
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/REN/DAVINCI.HTM

It's certainly true that Leonardo, for all his creative thought, did
not produce a particularly impressive body of concrete work, where
inventions are concerned. He tinkered with fantastical notions that
were out-of-synch with the technology of his time, yet he did not
press for technological change in order to actualize his inventions;
rather, his mind tended to fly to another fancy.

Defining genius is like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall. Many years
ago I was asked to write an article for the American Mensa Bulletin on
the subject of "The Greatest Genius of All Time." This was
pre-Internet, and I spent some time floundering through various books
trying to justify a choice of one person as the world's greatest
genius. Finally I shrugged off the project and asked the editor of the
"Bulletin" to relieve me of the assignment. Yup, we genii do have a
problem with finishing what we start. ;-)

I suppose the main reason I chose Leonardo, in my comment to the
earlier question, is that I view him as one of the world's great
polymaths. His interests ranged from painting and sculpture to anatomy
and zoology, architecture and civil engineering, astronomy, geology
and paleontology. His creative expression  may not have changed the
world in startling ways (as, for instance, did the work of Johannes
Gutenberg,) but as a model of intellectual breadth, Leonardo is
astounding. And he was not merely a clever man spreading himself thin:
the breadth had depth. On the down side, his intellectual focus seemed
largely to exclude the history of the arts and humanities themselves,
and his scientific interest seems, by today's standards, deficient,
since he was more an observer than a theoretician in many areas.

Now to the links (gotta have the links.) You'll have no difficulty
locating umpteen Web sites on Leonardo, most of which are fairly
similar. Here are a few off-the-beaten path sites that I found worth
visiting:

Weirdo Leonardo:

Bradley Stoke Home Page
http://www.bradleystoke.co.uk/leo/

Leonardo the Vampire:

Kargatane: The Forgotten Children
http://www.kargatane.com/forgotten/leonardo.shtml

The 500-year Saga of Leo's Horse:

Leonardo da Vinci's Horse
http://www.leonardoshorse.org/index.asp

Actual ornithopters:

Hypermart: The O-Zone
http://indev.hypermart.net/suppliers.html

The Secret of the Vitruvian Man:

Leonardo 2002
http://www.leonardo2002.de/ehome/egeheim/egeheim.html

A beautiful Leonardo-inspired pen:

Stylophiles Online Magazine
http://www.penlovers.com/stylophiles/august02/08div.htm

If Leonardo interests you, I highly recommend the book "How to Think
like Leonardo Da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day," by Michael
J. Gelb. This is one of the most insightful self-help books of our
time, and one of the very few such books that I have found personally
useful.

Barnes & Noble
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=1PHJT37G0A&isbn=0440508274&itm=1

Thank you very much for earmarking a question for me. If there is a
particular aspect of Leonardo that interests you, please request
clarification so that I may head for the Web in quest of data and
cease meandering through my own rather muddled mind looking for
diamonds in a pile of rocks. ;-)

Best wishes,
Pink

Hi, Pink

Truly brilliant!

Exactly what I wanted ... When I posted the first question, I hoped
that someone would nominate Leo, and you kindly obliged.

Your answer gives me loads of material that I will check out later.

Incidentally, I used to be a member of MENSA but, after meeting some
fellow members, I realised that it weren't for me. (Pretentious lot,
aren't they?)

Very Best Wishes

Meg

Wow, thanks for the five stars and the lavish tip!

Regarding Mensa, I've been a member for over 25 years. For me, what I
get out of the organization is well worth the membership fee. It's
true that many local groups are rather uninspiring, but the Regional
and Annual Gatherings can be awesome. Nobody throws a party like a
bunch of beer-guzzling geniuses. ;-)

I have a soft spot in my heart for Mensa for sentimental reasons:
Mensa is responsible for uniting me with my spouse (23 years ago,) and
Mensa is also responsible for my mother's marriage to my stepfather
(10 years ago.) Apparently these things run in families.

~Pink

Many thanks, Pink

I never realised that MENSA was actually a marriage bureau. That's
where I went wrong.

So, what does the acronym stand for?

Marriage Ensures Nicer Spouses Always 

Meg

Mensa isn't actually an acronym; as the Latin word for "table,"
"Mensa" symbolizes a meeting of equals.

If it were an acronym, some might say that MENSA would stand for
Misfit Elitists Need Snobby Association. :-D

Lots of people are proposing inventions that will likely be impossible
or impractical for at least 10 more years in field such as nano
machines, alternative energy, and space travel. To see some of them
with lots of engineering details read Analog Science Fiction, Science
Fact. Some of them reached the market resently very close to the way
they were descibed decades ago. Others may never happen. Such as the
chimney 6 KM tall to repel hurricanes. As biproducts it extracted
drinking water from the atmosphere and made electricity in quantitiies
almost sufficient to justify the cost. I understand a one KM chimney
is under construction to generate electricity with the updraft
produced by solar heated air.  Neil