Thursday, May 26, 2011

A Digital Map Of The Entire Known Universe

A stunning journey through the entire viewable universe.



Feel small yet?

Through a coop with NASA and the American Museum of Natural History, this movie has been produced that attempt to show what it would be like for a human to travel through the known universe.  More information can be found here.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

An Experiment In Perception

This psychology experiment found that 75% of people don't recognize major changes that occur right in front of them.  They used a tricky methodology, having participants sign into a test with a desk clerk while having the original person step away to file a form and a different one come back to the counter to finish.  Most people didn't notice a thing.


Pretty crazy, huh?  However, you might be thinking that these people just weren't paying attention and that this wouldn't happen to you, right?  Well, let me ask you, did you notice anything strange about the video you just watched?  In fact, the male professor was originally wearing a red shirt and then a blue one later on.

Did you catch this significant change?  If not, don't feel bad.  I had to rewatch it before I noticed it also.

Friday, May 20, 2011

A Short Thought Poem: "Eye"

I believe that the root of immorality is self-worthlessness. 

I have no worth and thus 

I have no right to be moral. 

Immoral things comfort my body which is worthless. 

It is a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Imaging and the Uncanny Valley

Well, it appears that this video is old but I Stumbled it the other day and found it fascinating.  Apparently, this technology has been used in newer video games and the like. 


Spoiler Alert!  Emily IS the animation.  She is not real.  Now that you have seen the video, I would like to point out that there are some inconsistencies in the animation.  You may have noticed that that when she stops speaking, her lips contort to an out of sync shape with the rest of her face but this is minor.  Honestly, I had no idea when I first watched this video that she was a computer generated image.  Simply amazing.  The Uncanny Valley will soon be crossed.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Perception is such a strange uncompromising concept

We live everyday moment of our lives in the 3rd dimension.  It is inescapable.  We do prefer it this way though at least above the lower dimensions.  Look at any 2D object like a flat wall and then to any 3D object.  From my experience, I get bored very quickly looking at 2D and 3D, while not necessarily exciting, is much more interesting and hold my attention longer.

If we lived in a 2D "flatland", we would perceive 3D space in thin cross-sections of whatever we were looking at.  The same idea can be applied to us "3Ders" looking into the the 4th dimension (which is universally accepted as time).  This makes time, 4D space, seem as a cross-section to us thus we perceive time in each passing moment of our existence and linear.

My point?  Understanding more about the world you live in makes your experience more deep and rich than going through life unaware of things.  Ignorance isn't always bliss but sometime knowledge is.

This video goes on to explain every conceivable dimension and is a very interesting watch:

Imagining the 10th Dimension

Friday, May 6, 2011

Joints (or Purple Haze): An old work still in progress...

While I was sifting through file on an old external hard drive of mine, I happened upon a folder of text documents that held some really old writings of mine.  I'm not proud of the quality of this by any means but I think works at different times of development can be very telling.  Anyways here is the excerpt:



The aroma had begun to fill the air since the first puff was taken; it had reached Eric before he knew it. Danielle’s arm was extended, waving the smoking circular item in front of him. Her radiant blue eyes connected with his as he tilted his head up. Eric was taken aside for a moment by her friendly look and his were thoughts lead astray to other parts of her body. “Go ahead, it’s your hit.” she gleefully murmured during a slight exhale trying to hold as much of the euphoric smoke in as possible.

Eric was pulled back into reality away from Danielle’s wonderland. Covered with shock and embarrassment, he quickly reaffirmed the situation. As he reached out for it, he took another glance at Danielle. Through her pursed lips and bodily stoicism, he could plainly she that she was choking, short of air. While he didn’t want to continue the circle, he sternly pulled the emberous stick from her tight clench to allow relief of her pain and suffering. Danielle turned to the other side and began cough voraciously.                                                                                                                                     

Eric’s mind soon floated away from all youthful pleasures. As he stared at the burning stick between his fingers, he thought about how many of his close friends enjoyed this thing that he disliked so much. His eyes scoured the room, looking for some sense of sanity from his moderately asphyxiated peers. It seemed the exact moment Eric began to look up at the group they decided to fix their stare and intent directly on him. All the laughter had died down, no one was choking to death anymore; they all were sitting and solemnly peering at Eric. Fearing more attention than just staring coming on, Eric casually put the joint up to his lips and began to inhale, throwing away years of drug-free behavior. Making sure his friends didn’t laugh too hard at him at school for being a novice smoker, Eric puffed repeatedly and held the smoke for awhile before release like he had seen his friends all do before.                        

Eric proud with his accomplishment, handed it to the person on his left and laid back in his seat to relax. This is when he began to feel strange. It wasn’t exactly the light-hearted euphoria he had imagined and heard it described as. Actually, he started to become overcome with melancholy and his vision began to fade. Eric could feel his eyes rolling back into his head as darkness began to void his vision. With the world slowly melting away, Eric heard a voice of a disheartened friend exclaiming, “Man, I didn’t know you couldn’t even handle one hit!”
      
The laughter pursued Eric on his journey into blackness. It echoed maniacally through his head as it altered from a high pitch to one that was demonically deep. The laughter became rampant until Eric knew someone else was there. “Who are you?” Eric propositioned this with a nearly indifferent tone, almost naïve to the question itself.
      
The voice bellowed back with tremendous veracity and unmistakable truth renouncing within the space, “I am your God!”
      
Pillars were positioned symmetrically in the room where Eric now stood. It was circular adorned with marble statues of grotesque angels and demons. In the center of the room was a series of smooth block steps up to an altar. Eric stood with his head drooping downward; his eyes were focused at the ground beneath his feet. It was a stance all too common to Eric. He used it to handle uncomfortable situations and ones were he lacked confidence. He stood defensively but almost with submission. His father had seen it and so had his gym teacher.   

In an instance of deafening silence, Eric’s toes begin to curl as his foot makes a step forward. “I’m not afraid of you.” he mutters half under his breath as he begins to walk toward the voice.
     
“I will smite you!” the voice roared with enough force to scatter the debris and dust lining the room.

However, this did not faze Eric, he had felt the ravaging wind from the voice against his forehead and continued on. The figure looming before him was like an amorphous rendering of a human covered in a purple shadowy haze. The haze engulfed the body and pulsated brilliantly at the devil’s head. It hovered in the air, arms outstretched, as if waiting to take the incoming soul.

As Eric reached the steps of the altar, he briefly hesitated before starting the climb.  He clenched a fist tightly, his hands shaking with determination.  At this moment, the deity was overjoyed because it believed that Eric had changed his mind.  An ever so slim smile grew on his face.

As Eric reached the top of the stairs he emotionlessly passed through the figure.  The apparition emitted an unnatural scream rocking the foundations of the room and vanished instantly, leaving only an evanescence of the purple haze.  Without stopping, Eric continued down the stairs behind the altar and into the darkness. 

It took quite a bit of restraint to keep myself from editing this at least a little.  This little diddy was written in 2006.