Awesome Sauce Of the Week

These are things I would normally spam friends with in emails.  This way there is a chance more people will be able to enjoy it.

These lables show up in my mind in front of offending articles automatically.  It's great to see that you can add them in reality now.

http://www.tomscott.com/warnings/

If you live near LA.

http://www.labyrinthmasquerade.com/

This had me rolling.

http://media.gunaxin.com/mpaa_ratings/45758

Science?? Um, yea right.

This is in regards to this recent Boing Boing post.
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/10/13/what_would_happen_if.html

OK, I've done some work on prairie restoration. The key element is not humans leaving. It really is not. The one thing they seem to miss entirely and which is a HUGE factor in areas that have it is FIRE! Fire is what made the prairies the way they are in the first place, fire is what defined the composition of the forests and fire is what will destroy invasive flora. The simplest form of prairie restoration is to burn the lot every 2 years. Only the things that have adapted over the last 10’s of thousands of years will be able to survive such activity. The things that have evolved will thrive. Also to assume that there will be no continued evolution over the next 50-200,000 years is silly. Plants and animals go through a naturally cycle of extinctions and will continue to do so without the impact of humans. This also assumes no major geological events that could cause mass extinction would occur in the next 50,000 years. The Yellowstone Caldera could and probably will blow some time within the next 100,000 years (it seems to cycle every 600,000 or so and it’s over due). That explosion would theoretically be 1000 time more powerful than Krakatoa blasting millions of tons of dust into the air and create something very like a nuclear winter. The ecological change would be considerable to say the least. It is hard to come to grips with the idea that we are a relatively small part of change on this planet when you start to talk in 100,000-year time frames. That’s more than one ice age for instance.

This does not change our responsibility to our environment but we need to realize that what we are protecting is NOT the earth but the current ecosystem that allows humans to live here! Without it we do not have the resources to maintain our current level of technology or culture. Just something to think about.

Dear God how can we do this to each other?

As I write this I feel sick inside. I just watched a documentary on the massacre in Rwanda in 1994.
I am ashamed to say I did not know. I was drunk, in collage. Blind to the world outside the small city I was in.

How can someone, anyone, be a part of something like that? How can it be that we humans have such an ability to hate each other?

WHY!! Why would you kill someone simply because of how they looked?! HOW can you hate someone because of the color of their skin or the size of their nose or how tall they are! Or even because of who their parents were... or their grand parents? Why is it so important which god, if any, they pray too?
What is it that makes us such animals!!??

And how could the people in power... who could have stopped it... who could have done something to help... anything... stand by, and watch. Why do we keep re-electing them?
What is the greater maddness? To chop someone up with a machette? Or to stand there and watch when you could stop it?

We crow about how we are "helping" the people in Iraq find Democracy. Yet time after time when there was no oil, no diamonds, no preacious resources. We stood idly by and did nothing. How can we be such hypocrites? How can we sleep at night? How can we forget so easily?


I read a saying somewhere.
"No man is free, till ALL men are free."

I say peace is an illusion unless it is shared by everyone.
We learned these last few years that we die just as easily as anyone else when shot at or bombed or caught in a hurricane. Our sons and daughters die every day in fighting on the other side of the world. And here on our own streets.
But has it taught us anything?

I don't know what to do. I have to write what I feel and hope someone reads it. If even one person is inspired to look out beyond themselves, to care about just one more person than they did yesterday. Perhaps I have done something worth while.

Doing something, anything, is better than saying there is nothing we can do. And then doing nothing. Share what you think and feel. When we discover we are not alone, when we work together, we can do great things. And some day, we may make amends... for all the things we have failed to do.


I was told "Love them." Just those 2 simple words. It is all I needed, to know what to do.
It is so very easy and yet so very, very hard.
I am afraid that it might be our only chance.
I hope, with all my heart, that I am not the only one who knows this.

Peace

This is just silly...

Now look, I was raised a Christian and although I may have strayed a bit from that rigid course I still cannot believe the extent that "The Church" goes to to keep people from reading certain books. Do they seriously believe that their followers are so softheaded that simply reading one of the Harry Potter books is going to convert them to some strange here to fore unknown form of Satanism? (Yes, I know there is nothing in the Harry Potter books that would lead you to that but some folks have not read them and like to jump to conclusions. There is nothing in any of them that even implies "If you do _____ you will get _____" but I digress.)

Seriously people. I can't believe anyone is so easily swayed. They ARE good books but they are not THAT good. I would be much more concerned with the messages of Greed, Lust, Sloth, Envy, Pride and Gluttony that are being drummed into our heads by the popular media on a daily basis. (Jeeze, I guess they only miss Wrath to make it a full sweep.) I understand that the concept of "fantasy" is difficult to wrap your head around but try to stay with me here. Fantasy is (as a library section anyway) Fictional writing (that means NOT REAL) that is intended to amuse, divert and perhaps provoke thought but really is NOT intended to instruct or define or describe. That is the realm of NON-Fiction books.

A book can only be evil if the person reading it is looking to make evil from it. Otherwise it is just words on wood. Let us not discourage our children from reading. And at the same time let us make sure we spend enough time INTERACTING WITH THEM so that they understand the difference between Fiction and Non-Fiction.


Any this is a bit wordy as it is so I'll leave it at that. If someone has some solid evidence that books read with a parent can warp a child's mind I'd be very interested to see it. Please include the source of the information as well as the agency that funded the study.

Otherwise... peace out.

An open letter to one of the most outspoken researchers on Global Geological Events

Dear Mr. McGuire
I have had the pleasure of reading several of your articles relating to global geophysical events (GG) on the Internet. After reading your work and referring to the work or several other scientists I have come to a few conclusions and was hoping to get your thoughts on them when your time allows.

Based on everything that I have read it seems that, baring some human generated error in energy creation or during a large scale war, the most likely cause of the end of our species (at least as we know it) is a GG. The problem is we seem to be standing in a room full of ticking bombs with hidden timers. We know we are in trouble but there is no real way to prepare ourselves for an event of such magnitude. Unfortunately the room full of bombs metaphor seems all the more frightening when on considers the possibility of any bomb setting any number of the others off at the same time. It would seem that no amount of warning could possible allow us to respond or in any way usefully prepare for such a series of events. The saddest limitation of any possible preparations would be the human tendency towards panic in catastrophic situations. As a race we also seem to lack the ability to “keep our eye on the ball” as it were for non-immediate threats. It seems we are not very well evolved to deal with such scale of danger. I believe this has all been covered by better minds than mine but I wanted to convey my awareness of the situation.

The solution to these dangers may end up being the ability to “leave the room” as it were. It strikes me that it would be the best possible option for preparation. It does not require an immediate threat to instigate. It addresses all the possibilities of a GG. The public at large does not need to even consider it an escape mechanism. One might think it seems farfetched to seriously propose work on our ability to move a large portion of humanity off planet temporarily and perhaps indefinitely but it has positive ramifications beyond the survival of a global catastrophe that should be considered. An advanced space program produces obvious long-term benefits to the world economy and science at large. It creates a high demand for the best and brightest and stimulates the imagination of the next generation better than any video game possibly could. I clearly remember spending awestruck hours watching coverage of the first shuttle flights. I checked the NASA website every day for weeks on the progress of the Martian landers. I was thrilled to see that a group had won the X-Prize and that a second one had been offered for the next step.

I don’t know if scientists of your level have opportunities to advise the leaders of countries directly or if they end up teaching the future leaders of countries. But either way it seems the that long term survival of the species depends on it’s ability to “dodge the bullet” of a G-G from which ever direction it may come.

Thank you for your time in reading this. I’m curious if you think that this suggestion has merit and if there are any factors that I have neglected in your view. I fully believe that such a plan would require significant resources for 50 or more years to reach any sort of serious ability to make an positive impact in a dire situation. I believe that if the scientists can form a unified front on this sort of recommendation, it will be taken seriously by congress and addressed in a manner that will give us a chance at long-term survival.

Why is it so hard to ensure that every vote is counted???

This one blows my mind! I am not living in a 3rd world country. Modern technology handles millions for transactions a day of billions of dollars AROUND THE WORLD!! Why the heck can't we get a voting system that accurately counts everyone's vote and issues a receipt?
Also why do we all have to vote on the same day??? Isn't that just asking for trouble? Lets vote over the course of 2 days at least and NO BLODDY EXIT POLES!!!! Votes are counted during the following week AND ONLY THE FINAL NUMBER IS RELEASED!! GET IT RIGHT THE FIRST DAMN TIME!!

There's nothing wrong with having electronic voting. Just have it set up by a company that does not have a direct stake in the election! NOT BY A COMPANY THAT CAN"T EVEN MAKE AN ATM THAT GIVES OUT THE PROPER AMOUNT EVERY TIME!!! (In 12 years of using them a Diebold ATM is the ONLY one I've ever have mis-dispense money. AND MORE THAN ONCE!!)

We spend BILLIONS of dollars on elections and end up having results that do not justify the effort AT ALL! If I were running a political party and elections were being decided in the thousands of votes then I would be VERY interested in making sure that the process was accurate to better than the 10000s place! Seriously… districts had errors that DOUBLED their votes? That's not funny, that is a system that we should get a FULL REFUND FOR! Why not? Did we actually request a system that was accurate "give or take 10000 votes here and there"?
Some how I doubt it. If the credit card companies screwed up 10000 out of every 1 million transactions due to faulty software and hardware you better bet they would be beating down the door of the vendor with something like a big fat lawsuit!

Anyway, I wondering if anyone else thinks this is egg on the face of democracy? And why were we not in the streets like the Ucrainians demanding accuracy in our election system? Pretty damn important to not ignore this sort of thing!

I don't care what the final margin was in the election. There were a LOT of local elections that were a hell of a lot closer and suffered due to this pathetic system of voting we keep using!

Mr. Bush if you want to have a constitutional amendment to add to your resume then make it the "Accuracy in Elections" Act of 2005. MANDATE that the process is given the attention it deserves! Give yourself one thing that future generations will give you credit for and be proud of this period of american history for.

NO VOTE LEFT BEHIND!

Busy first day...

Well, as I end the first day of my venture into the "blogosphere" I can't help but wonder how this will end up? Will I continue to purge the contents of my mind onto the unsuspecting denizens or will this be added to the long list of unfinished projects? It's interesting to me that a blog is something that is only finished when it is abandoned entirely.

“Damn trigger happy Americans, Since when is Death good?”

Death is good when you have lived for too long.

The definition of "too long" varies greatly between an internal and an external definition.

Some people seek death. Some people run from it for as long as they can. It finds everyone eventually.

I feel badly for those who die in war. Especially those who die in a war that has nothing to do with them.

But I feel worse for those who live every day in fear of torture for years. Those who don't have enough to eat. Who can't speak their mind to their friends about the things that concern them for fear of "disappearing".

War is bad. War is not a good solution for anything. War always does more harm than good. War is inevitable anytime you have someone(s) who rules by fear. Check out history sometime. Will fewer people die in this war than would have died in a civil war? No way to know. Probably, civil wars are always the nastiest.

Is it a good sign that people in Iraq are apparently happy to be out from under the rule of Hussein? Yes, it means that, although we may not have done the best thing, we did not do the worst thing.

This is not the first time the US has acted in a questionable way in regards to the use of power. I'm afraid it will not be the last. But, in truth, any use of power should be questioned. It is by questioning that power that you retain your most basic freedoms.

There is ample evidence already that Saddams government was sponsoring terrorists. I hate that no one in his country was able to stop him. I hate that the UN was unable to apply the pressure needed to force him to be human. I hate that Americans are dying in an effort to correct the problem. But that changes nothing. The troops are there. They are doing their best. Their cause is worthy. Freeing a people from a tyrant is always a worthy cause.

Does the Bush administration have a hidden agenda? The whole world is watching with a magnifying glass. I doubt they could pull it off. Our government has very rarely been that good. Even under substantially better leadership.

There is a message being sent in a way that is unmistakable. Play nice. There are bigger dogs in the yard than you. And if you want to follow a way of life that includes terrorism. You will find that your country does not fit in the modern world.

There are threats to life on this planet that make these petty squabbles irrelevant. We are talking about the continued existence of the race as a whole. Viruses don't give a damn what color your skin is, a comet is just a big bullet and if anything that breeds fast develops a taste for corn or wheat or soy we are screwed. If we work together we MIGHT survive the next hundred years. If we keep practicing intolerance and terror we don't stand a chance.

No the USA is NOT perfect. Not even close. But we honestly TRY to be, I believe. We need the help and guidance of cooler heads. We tend to ignore arbitration and admonishment. We tend to happily accept help and assistance and recommendations. England's Tony Blair figured that out. That's why they are there with us.

We KNOW we're not perfect (despite what you might hear). Reminding us of that will not endear you too us. Tell us HOW to be perfect. Better yet, Show Us! Set a working example to follow. Our entire history and government is an amalgamation of other country's ideas that have been proven to work.

Anyway, that's my long-winded 2p as usual. Congrats if you got this far. Peace to you and yours and may whichever god you pray to bless you.

Because we must

We do because we must
Trudging forward through the dust
And our leaders spend our trust
Like so many unwanted pennies.

Any here could die this day
While back home hearts dismay
Oh this grisly game we play
Will one day claim our souls.

We could ask why we are here
Far from all that we hold dear
Purpose rather far from clear
Still we struggle through the days.

Could our time spent in this place
Bring us closer to true grace
Carving lines on young tan face
Hearts hardening to our future.

Will we ever get back home
Back to sweet and cool green loam
What possesses us to roam
And leave the safety of the hearth.

Why is it the ones who rule
Who weld war as though a tool
Never learn from its red school
And never walk the fields of terror.

Perhaps one day we shall see
What it is we’re meant to be
Souls alive and strong and free
Heads bent to no cruel master

Upon faith our hearts must feed
`Till we’re pardoned from this deed
Though our bodies here may bleed
Our spirits are immortal.

To explain the next several posts...

The following few posts are just an effort by me to consolidate some of the posts I have made in the past to various threads on various boards and were important enough to me that I saved them.

They reflect my feelings at the time of the post. It's out of context so it may be a bit odd. Any that are so obscure as to require context to understand at all I will try to include a bit to explain where they are from.

I hope they make for interesting reading for you all.

Thanks to Ward-o-matic for inspiring me to do this!

I was inspired to reply to his review of The Polar Express and further inspired to Blog myself. This is the post from his blog.

This is a different person from above FYI.
I have always had a keen eye for detail and although I am not a professional artist I have always been fascinated by the details of the body. There is a lesson most 2d artists do early on that involves drawing your hand without looking at the paper while drawing. You only look at the hand. You end up with a very stylized version of the hand and it strongly draws your attention to the details you are noticing on the hand. It also gets you in touch with how a “too perfect” hand looks “not quite right”.

I think part of what is lost in much animation and motion capture is that skin has layers and flaws. The reason animation looks like puppets is that only the outer layer is being rendered. So it looks like the characters are solid (like a puppet). The body is a (mostly solid) skeleton with a layer of muscles and tendons moving over it and then the skin moving over that and all filled with varying viscosities of liquid. Not to mention all these are being subjected to gravity. Usually the skin will distort as it moves over the bones and the muscles and tendons. This actually is why people who have had face- lifts and such look like their expressions are “plastic”. The skin has lost some of its ability to respond to the bones and such moving under it.

The color of the skin also changes subtly as it is stretched, as it is not as deep. It is important to remember that skin is translucent (hold a flash light up and cover it with your hand completely in a dark room to see this.) The color of skin is really the color of light moving down through it’s layers and then being reflected back out again (or passing through it, like in the lobe of your ear with a strong back light). You saw this with the eyes and corrected for it nicely with your redraws but it is still a “rendering” of it. Eyes are DEEP! And have varying levels of clarity to the surface. For example the area around the cornea is mostly transparent with the “color” of the eye actually below the reflective surface. Take a moment to look very closely at someone’s eye to see how it is almost like a gem in it’s depth and reflective qualities (and flaws).

Another thing that is lost is the wrinkles at the edge of the eyes, and the pinch between the eyes. I think the “feel of realism” can be linked especially the part between the eyes. You’ll notice that both Gollum and Mr. Incredible have it and that the others pictures do not.

The result of these details missing is one of the most glaring problems with motion capture that I see. You can only ever get the opaque surface of an object and there is more to it than that that your eye sees even though you might not register that you have seen it.

Anyway those are the parts that struck me the most. It would be interesting to see what else would come up with more detailed examination. I have background in theater lighting and you should see how the skin reacts to different colors of filtered light! Even different actors look different under the same light! Part of theater makeup is just trying to get everyone looking the same.

Great article and as a life long Fan of CG (I went nuts when I saw the old CG tin can commercial the first time and have been hooked since) I would love to see the art push forward!

Shadowgolem@yahoo.com