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When Tech Imitates Art

Recently, a sculptor in France contacted a new stone-milling company in Calif., US. He had a 19th-century limestone lion's face that he wanted to reproduce for a line of fountains. But carving each face by hand was a tedious chore for which he no longer had the time or resources.

Instead, he shipped the original work to the stone-milling company, where technicians mapped it in three dimensions with a laser scanner. Then they placed a limestone blank in a computer-controlled milling machine and used the scan data to carve a duplicate lion face at the touch of a button.

The result required some hand detailing, but that was exactly what the sculptor wanted. In about six hours, the machine had done the work that would have taken him much longer with a hammer and chisel.

The limestone lion is an example of how technology is transforming the way hand-carved items can be created or cloned. Scanners, computer-aided design software and automated milling devices are assisting sculptors and in some cases replacing them, creating detailed pieces from slabs of marble and reverse-engineering complex forms.

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Internet Tip - Faster Surfing

We've grown accustomed to all the Website graphics, but they take their toll in slowing access, particularly with dialup connections. If these aren't important to them, you can greatly speed your connections by deleting graphics. In Internet Explorer, go to Tools | Internet Options, Advanced tab and in the Internet Options dialog box, scroll in the Settings window to the Multimedia category. Uncheck the Show Pictures check box and back out with Apply and OK. If you find you simply cannot live without the art work, you can reverse the procedure.