Let's pray he can do it!

something like 24 fps?

Well that's the begininng of my thought last night, as I watched some movie or other with (e:matthew). The films we use nowadays show 24 images within every second (used to be much less, that's why old films seem to flicker). So I asked myself what kind of boundary was this. Logic tells us that every second can be broken down into an infinite amount of intervals, thus an infinite amount of scenes or frames. Our photoresistors (the cones and rods in our eyes) are only able (programmed?) to recognize a certain number of images in every second. But, I thought there are other animals that would have to recognize more. Think of a humminbird or dragonfly whose wings are beating hundreds to thousands of times per second. Our eyes can barely catch one in full tilt, yet they glide effortlessly, avoiding obstacles and visiting barely visible nectar goblets.They must see faster, right? (e:Matthew) and I couldn't agree on the answer, so I looked it up.

If you look up Frame Rate Wikipedia presents you with the very scientific-sounding term Flicker fusion frequency and its related link, Flicker fusion threshold both physiological concepts, as opposed to purely physical concepts. The flicker fusion threshold or flicker fusion rate determines the rate at which humans (and supposedly animals/aliens) percieve light. "Light that is pulsating below this rate is perceived by humans as flickering; light that is pulsating above this rate is perceived by humans as being continuous." Humans tend to have a flicker fusion frequency threshold of between 50-75 hertz (which means light pulsing between 50-75 times per second will be seen as continuous). Since this rate would require Disney to hire three times the number of animators it now employs, camera shutters are arranged to interrupt the flow of light 2 to 3 times per second which projects those 24 frames at 48-72 light blips per second. Wow!

Apparently pigeons have been shown to have a higher threshold than humans (don't ask me which tests were used to determine this), and other mammals possess more rods and cones in their eyes than humans. All of which means it's entirely possible that the hummingbird is seeing much faster than we are.

Is seeing twice as fast like living twice as long? Think of all the stuff flying by right now that you're not even bothering to perceive. Your computer could have de- and re-materialized 97 times in the last second and you wouldn't have even noticed!

(e:southernYankee)? [inlink]southernyankee,177[/inlink]

Not to sure myself but if it was, then I have a whole CD of them. I stoled it from (e:Hodown) as she chillaxed at our new pad.

Dear (e:twisted),

I think that the tea(pot?) cozy is not only an excellent idea but also wonderfully tasteful and utterly practical. [inlink]twisted,160[/inlink]

And, we'd hate to lose you on the site, though I appreciate the difficulties of keeping up with multiple blogs. Maybe one in five (or ten) on here? A limited twist but better than no twist. Yo? Get me drift, matey?

And the obligatory admonition to self: no writing posts when you're *insert inebriated state here*.

Just one day! I thought it was gonna sit on my table for a week as I slowly plodded away. Sheesh, I guess I need the 5000 piece instead of the 1000 piece. Or maybe a job would do... :)

I bought a puzzle yesterday, well actually two puzzles. They're both this "Charles Wysocki's Americana" kind which show some pastoral American scene done in a particular cozy style. I used to do them all the time with my aunt, Lovey, when I was younger. Scared me when I realized that was over 10 years ago. While I was doing it I realized that I had actually done this particular puzzle before. I didn't notice until I was doing the first section (after the edges) and remembered doing the exact same thing, in the exact same order. I like to think I'm a much different person now than ten years ago but it points to the fact that there's this certain core you who will always do certain things certain ways. Like washing the left side of your chest first in the shower, or eating the ice cream from the sides in, or putting on both socks and then both shoes (rather than one sock/one shoe, other sock/other shoe). Guess it must be genetic, huh? We're all born either wadders or rollers and there aint a damn thing we can do about it.

Last night:


This morning:


And don't you worry, I'll keep you updated on the progress!

and he's doing pretty good. He had an interview for a new (better) job on Monday, though the job he does now is kinda neat. He makes holographic pictures. I'm still trying to grasp exactly what this means. I know it's a piece of glass that's etched with lasers somehow. I think then that you see the picture embedded therein, kinda like mother mary. I guess it looks really cool when backlit.

I just finished watching Trainspotting so I keep feeling like I'm talking with a Scottish brogue. But of course that's all in my head. God, why must I always be on the heroin? Shite!!!

Anyways, father is doing well. We had a very good conversation, which is not as easy as it seems. You see, both of us are somewhat uncommunicative, especially when it comes to feelings and such. I got it from him, what can I say. So we play this fun game of telephone tag always, where he calls me and I listen to the message and then every day I think about how I should just call him. This was maybe a record cause it only took a little over a week for me to actually do it. My parents just got divorced a couple years ago now, and it is still a bit strange for all of us. It actually made my father want to reach out to me, a positive side effect. He just started calling one day out of the blue and wanted to talk to me. Just talk. Like I said before, growing up we didn't have all that much to say to each other. He told me to do stuff, I told him I needed stuff done. That kind of thing. So when he called me it really touched me (and truthfully kinda freaked me out). Now I have to say that he's the one putting more effort into it, and I definately appreciate what an effort it is.

Thanks dad. For trying to reach out to the child who needs to learn to reach out. You are appreciated.

Basra's new playmate, name as yet undecided, is the teensy-weeniest little cutey-patutey I have ever laid eyes on.

says the MPAA.

They've just shut down another bit-torrent site, Lokitorrent and have put a scary picture and warning there. They say they have the right to shut down peer-to-peer networks because some of the people using the networks are downloading movies. Now downloading movies is not the only use of these types of programs. You can also download porn, music (both commercial and non), TV programs, foreign stuff, home movies, whatever. It doesn't seem right to close down a whole network just because some of the people are abusing it. We don't shut down I-90 when the cops nab a couple speeders. We punish the specific people and punish them for their own abuse of our transportation network. But the MPAA has the muscle (and the lawyers) and the programmers running these networks have virtually nil so the destruction continues.