pedal-powered

Engineering students and teachers at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies have finally fulfilled Leonardo da Vinci's vision of an ornithopter, an aircraft, powered by a human pilot's muscles, which flies by flapping its wings. Unmanned ornithopters have already been used for practical reasons and by hobbyists, but having a person power the whole contraption was a much higher level of difficulty. The wing span of this ornithopter is said to rival that of a 747.

The story involves pedal-power, Toronto and an interesting video - all things which make for a good story for bike nerds.

From The Register:

The "Snowbird" man-powered ornithopter achieved its history-making flight last month in Ontario, Canada, witnessed by a Canadian official of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) - the body responsible for authenticating aviation records, first flights and the like. The machine was piloted (and flapped) by Todd Reichert, an engineering PhD candidate at the University of Toronto. It flew for 19.3 seconds, and covered a distance of 145 metres at an average speed of 25.6 kilometres per hour.

Liz Hayward wrote this on the Cyclist Union Website:

ATTENTION BIKE LOVERS!
A petition was brought to my attention in a forum on midnightridazz.com encouraging google to incorporate a "bike there" option in google maps. Great idea, no? So if you haven't done so already, you might want to check it out.

Sounds good to me.

Photo credit: BikePortland.org

Editor's note: No, the photo has nothing to do with Google Maps, but it is a unique bike map! It's Portland's bike map on a bandana and it is real.