Eli Whitney Museum

More than half of America's presidents arrived at the White House on horseback. President Taft closed the White House stables a century ago. But President Eisenhower trained as a Cavalry Officer at West Point. And Ronald Reagan rode horses in some of his most memorable movie roles.

Just over 450 years old today (Feb. 15th), Galileo Galilei is the father of experimental building. He argued that nature wants to be observed and tested.

Dana Josephs is launching a year-long project to get girls excited about coding. The first session will test ideas that others have suggested would encourage girls to experiment with computer basics – some sensible, some silly.

Spools store and dispense thread, wire, and ribbon. But they have always been too interesting to waste when that job is done.

Construct a drawing machine that seems simple – crank a wheel which moves an arm with a pen that draws on paper placed on another moving wheel. But change any connection in the system, and the drawing will change – some times a little, sometimes a lot.