Final Projects?!

Hurray for final projects... I guess.

I'm just curious about what everybody is doing for the final project. What do people dream about? What do people wish to make? What do people wish to learn?

Maybe we could help each other out and all have great projects! ^^



ps. please post your responses to this as new posts rather than just comments.

Hey, if nobody cares...

... I'm considering trashing my documention of all those projects if nobody has any comments on them.

It's kind of heartbreaking to not even get a "Cool. Thanks for taking photos of my project!" -- like, come'on? Not even a word from our teacher... 'tis quite sad...

Photos and Videos!

note 1 -- the blurry photos are not mine.
note 2 -- the videos are much more interesting.

http://hybrid.concordia.ca/~starlocke/cart451/photos/enclosure/

Enjoy!

Smooth/Striated-A short text on Riemannian Geometry

For those confused by Deleuze/Guattari's invocation of Riemannian manifolds in
the Smooth/Striated, here is a basic intro:

What is Riemannian Geometry? A description for the nonmathematician.

Euclidean Geometry is the study of flat space. Between every pair of points there is a unique line segment which is the shortest curve between those two points. These line segments can be extended to lines. Lines are infinitely long in both directions and for every pair of points on the line, the segment of the line between them is the shortest curve that can be drawn between them. Furthermore, if you have a line and a point which isn't on the line, there is a second line running through the point, which is parallel to the first line (never hits it). All of these ideas can be described by drawing on a flat piece of paper. From the laws of Euclidean Geometry, we get the famous theorems like Pythagorus' Theorem and all the formulas you learn in trigonometry, like the law of cosines. In geometry you also learned how to find the circumference and area of a circle.

Now, suppose instead of having a flat piece of paper, you have a curved piece of paper. You might have a cylinder, or a sphere. You can use a cardboard paper towel roll to study a cylinder and a globe to study a sphere. A shortest curve between any pair of points on such a curved surface is called a minimal geodesic. You can find a minimal geodesic between two points by stretching a rubber band between them. The first thing that you will notice is that sometimes there is more than one minimal geodesic between two points. There are many minimal geodesics between the north and south poles of a globe. We can also look for lines, which are curves like the ones in Euclidean space such that between every pair of points on the line, the segment between them is a minimal geodesic. There are no lines on a sphere! Every time you try to extend a minimal geodesic it starts to wrap around and it isn't a minimal geodesic anymore. On a cylinder, some minimal geodesics can be extended to lines but most of them start to wrap around the cylinder and cannot be extended. Surfaces like these are harder to study than flat surfaces but there are still theorems which can be used to estimate the length of the hypotenuse of a triangle, the circumference of a circle and the area inside the circle. These estimates depend on the amount that the surface is curved or bent. One of the basic topics in Riemannian Geometry is the study of curved surfaces.

An important tool used to measure how much a surface is curved is called the sectional curvature or Gauss curvature. It can be computed precisely if you know Vector Calculus and is related to the second partial derivatives of the function used to describe a surface. To study the sectional curvature of a surface at a given point, you first find the tangent plane to the surface at that point. If you can find a small piece of the surface around the given point which only touches the tangent plane at that point, then the surface has positive or zero sectional curvature there. For example, a paraboloid or a sphere has positive sectional curvature at every point. If it is not possible to find a small piece of the surface which fits on one side of the tangent plane, then the surface has negative or zero curvature at the given point. This happens around the neck of a one-sheeted hyperboloid and on points where the surface looks like a saddle. If you use the precise formula to compute the sectional curvature of a point on a plane or a cylinder, then you will discover that these surfaces have exactly zero curvature everywhere.

In Vector Calculus you are also taught how to measure surface area using double integrals. Sometimes when you compute double integrals you use a change of variables and a Jacobian. These techniques are used regularly by Riemannian Geometers.

Riemannian Geometers also study higher dimensional spaces. The universe can be described as a three dimensional space. Near the earth, the universe looks roughly like three dimensional Euclidean space. However, near very heavy stars and black holes, the space is curved and bent. There are pairs of points in the universe which have more than one minimal geodesic between them. The Hubble Telescope has discovered points which have more than one minimal geodesic between them and the point where the telescope is located. This is called gravitational lensing. The amount that space is curved can be estimated by using theorems from Riemannian Geometry and measurements taken by astronomers. Physicists believe that the curvature of space is related to the gravitational field of a star according to a partial differential equation called Einstein's Equation. So using the results from the theorems in Riemannian Geometry they can estimate the mass of the star or black hole which causes the gravitational lensing.

Like most mathematicians, Riemannian Geometers look for theorems even when there are no practical applications. The theorems that can be used to study gravitational lensing are much older than Einstein's Equation and the Hubble telescope. We expect that practical applications of our theorems will be discovered some day in the future. Without having mathematical theorems sitting around for them to apply, physicists would have trouble discovering new theories and describing them. Einstein, for example, studied Riemannian Geometry before he developed his theories. His equation involves a special curvature called Ricci curvature, which was defined first by mathematicians and was very useful for his work. Ricci curvature is a kind of average curvature used in dimensions 3 and up. In Linear Algebra you are taught how to take the trace of a matrix. Ricci curvature is a trace of a matrix made out of sectional curvatures.

One kind of theorem Riemannian Geometers are looking for today is a relationship between the curvature of a space and its shape. For example, there are many different shapes that surfaces can take. They can be cylinders, or spheres or paraboloids or tori, to name a few. A torus is the surface of a bagel and it has a hole in it. You could also stick together two bagels and get a surface with two holes. How many holes can you get? Certainly, as many as you want. If you string together infinitely many bagels then you will get a surface with infinitely many holes in it. Now suppose you make a rule about how the surface is allowed to bend. If a surface must always bend in a rounded way (like a sphere) at every point, then we say it has positive curvature. A paraboloid has positive curvature and so does a sphere. A cylinder doesn't and neither does a torus (look inside the hole to see it bends more like a saddle). There is a theorem which says that if a surface has positive curvature then it cannot have any holes.

A conjecture is a suggestion of a possible theorem which has not yet been proven. In 1969, Milnor stated a conjecture about spaces with positive Ricci curvature. He conjectured that such a space can only have finitely many holes. I am working on trying to find a proof for this conjecture and so are many other Riemannian Geometers. So far there are some partial results. It was proven for 3 dimensional spaces by Professors Schoen and Yau. In fact they showed that 3 dimensional spaces with positive Ricci curvature have no holes at all. On the other hand, Professor Wei has constructed higher dimensional spaces with positive Ricci curvature and many holes, just not infinitely many holes. She doesn't actually build a model with her hands; she describes the spaces explicitly with formulas similar to the way one can describe a globe with an atlas full of maps. The distances between the grid lines are described with formulas and then she does a lot of calculus to compute the Ricci curvature and make sure it is positive. Professors Anderson, Abresch and Gromoll also have theorems which are related to this conjecture but don't quite prove the conjecture itself. I also have proven one theorem which is related to the conjecture. Our theorems can be used as building blocks to find a proof for the whole conjecture but there are still some very important pieces missing. It is almost as if we have put together the outer edge of the puzzle and now we have to fill in the middle.

virtuality in architecture

Here is also an interesting text that explores further the concepts of virtuality that rajchman brings up.

www.ivan-juras.com/cadiz_en.pdf

Virtuality

In helping "virtualizing" the reading from Rachjman for tomorrow, one could take a look at the work of the architectural collective R&Sie from France:

http://www.new-territories.com


They especially are pertinent in taking on some of the ecological questions that arise in all of the three texts.

CS.

Questions from Phil on Mc Cullough_DIGITAL GROUND: Architecture, Pervasive Computing and Environmental Knowing

QUESTION on MALCOLM MCCULLOUGH READING:

#1
One of the main ideas behind pervasive computing is the idea of foreground/background in which technology can be found. Right now it sits mostly in the foreground, taking up a lot of our attention and time, whereas pervasive/soft technology wants to put more of it into the periphery of our environments, i.e. in the background, to reduce the amount of stress associated with "interfacing" with them. Do you think we can actually achieve this task of setting "widgets" in the periphery/background of our environments and still make them usable/usefull and if so will they actually remain "peripheral"?


#2
McCullough suggests the idea of this overwhelming sea of information in which present day bureaucracies can even deal with the amount of data/information they have in an efficient manner. Ubiquitous computing will only create an exponential amount of data compared to what we are used to today, now how will these "systems" deal with this incredible amount of information and make sense out of it, or will they even be able to? 

#3
  In this too much information informative?

#4
Why would we put so much time, effort and money in creating this technology which will probably end up alienating us anyway? Aren't there better things to do..?

#5
Security, Privacy, Intimacy!?!?!?!?!?!?

CLASS TODAY_19/10/05

HI All,

Please remember to bring the material you played around with last week to pick up on the exercise we started as well as the stuff for the enclosure demo. ALSO, anyone who has laptops (PC or Mac) that contain software for sound editing/manipulation (Peak, Audio Mulch, Pro Tools, Max/MSP) PLEASE BRING THEM TO CLASS TODAY!!! We need to have at least 3-4 "workstations" where we can manipulate sound...

See you all later.

CS

Mind and Body...

It would seem that being emotionally unstable leads to the discovery that our "minds" totally affect how our "bodies" are regulated...

And it would also seem that the desire to feel "normal" is simply not enough to return the body into a normal state. Normal -- being active, flexible, good, etc... whatever.

Having nothing to do... totally destroys my ability to be "alive and well"... because this inactivity... the lack of something meaningful to do... it's like a dark pit of nothingness.

So yep... off to work I go... maybe that would provide some temporary relief of this instability.

*rings some bells about embodiment* Interesting thing to realize, that it was...

I wonder if it's possible to communicate or even evoke utter dispair... is it something that people who are fairly well-off in the world able to grasp? Would they want to be thrown into dispair, anyways, and why?

from rudy to rudy's group

To all the people in my group (Rudy, Greg, Sam, Flora, Kim, etc.....)

Please do not forget to bring BLACK grabage bags for next week.
We should meet maybe one hour or two before class (On the 7th floor) to get
the medium done
and to choose the sound piece Greg and Rudy are brining to class.

If anyone as a better idea on the medium to use here a list of what we talk
about
in a PHYSICAL way to enclose a body :

card board, boc, textile, curtins, liquide, plastic, metal, aluminium,light,
laser, people,
fog, smoke, wood, metal, scrim, paper, glassm plexiglass, snow,sand,ice,mud,
mirrors, cristal, latex, rubber, styrofoam, paint, garbage bag.

please confirm

rudy (thank you for your time)

Intro to Projection Technologies

INTRODUCTION TO PROJECTION

I. Basics:

A Digital Projector is an electo-optical device that converts image data from a computer or video source to a bright image which is then imaged on a distant wall using a lens-based system.

Three Types of Current Types of Projection Technology:

CRT, LCD and DLP

CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) PROJECTION

Cathode rays are streams of high-speed electrons emitted from the heated cathode of a vacuum tube. On one end of the tube is a heating element and on the other end is a phosphor-coated surface. In a cathode ray tube, the electrons are carefully directed into a beam, and this beam is deflected by a magnetic or electric field to scan the surface at the viewing end (anode), which is lined with phosphorescent material (usually based on transition metals or rare earths). When the electrons hit this material, light is emitted. In the case of television and modern computer monitors, the entire front area of the tube is scanned in a fixed pattern called a raster, and a picture is created by modulating the intensity of the electron beam according to the programme's video signal.


CRT projectors have smaller CRT tubes built into them. These tubes are small (perhaps 9-inch diagonal), expensive and extremely bright. In the basic layout, you have one or more CRT tubes that form the images. With a lens in front of the CRT, you can magnify the image and project it onto a screen. There are three CRT configurations used in CRT projectors:

-One color CRT tube (red, blue, green phosphors) displays an image with one
projection lens.

One black-and-white CRT with a rapidly rotating color filter wheel (red, green,
blue filters) is placed between the CRT tube and the projection lens. The rapid
succession of color images projected onto the screen forms an apparently single
color image (the images are projected too quickly for your brain to distinguish
between them).

Three CRT tubes (red, green, blue) with three lenses project the images. The
lenses are aligned so that a single color image appears on the screen.

LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) PROJECTION

LCD is Liquid Crystal Display technology. Such projectors contain three separate LCD panels formed out of glass, one for red, green, and blue (RGB) components of the image signal being transferred to the projector. As the light passes through the LCD panels, individual pixels can be opened to allow light to pass or closed to block the light. This activity modulates the light and produces the image that is projected onto the screen.
LCD is a transmissive display, meaning it doesn’t produce its own light but instead relies on a separate light source that passes through the display directly to the eye (in the case of a display). Light produced by a tiny back lamp passes through a polarizing filter which aligns light waves in a single direction. The light then passes through the actual LCD panel. Depending on how the crystals are aligned, the light either passes through the panel or is blocked. The liquid crystal portion or the panel is spit up into tiny individual cells that are each controlled by a tiny transistor to supply current. Three cells side by side each represent one "pixel" (individual picture element) of the image. An 800 x 600 resolution LCD panel would have 480,000 pixels and each pixel would have three cells for a total of 1,440,000 individual cells.

Red, green and blue are the primary colors of light. All other colors are made up of a combination of the primary colors. An LCD panel uses these three colors to produce color which is why there are three cells per pixel — one cell each for red, green, and blue.

Once the light is passed through the liquid crystal layer and the final polarizing filter it then passes through a color filter so that each cell will then represent one of the three primary colors of light.

DLP (digital light processing) PROJECTION
DLP is the display technology developed by Texas Instruments which uses mirrors to display an image. In DLP projectors, the image is created by microscopically small mirror laid out in a matrix on a semiconductor chip, known as a Digital Micromirror Device (DMD). Each mirror represents one pixel in the projected image. The number of mirrors corresponds to the resolution of the projected image: 800_600, 1024_768, and 1280_720 matrices are some common DMD sizes. These mirrors can be repositioned rapidly to reflect light either through the lens or on to a heatsink (called a light dump in Barco terminology). The repositioning is achieved through a micromechanical electrical system (MEMS).

The rapid repositioning of the mirrors (essentially switching between 'on' and 'off') allows the DMD to vary the intensity of the light being reflected out through the lens, creating shades of grey in addition to white (mirror in 'on' position), and black (mirror in 'off' position). There are two primary methods by which DLP projection systems create a color image, those utilized by single-chip DLP projectors, and those used by three-chip projectors.

In a projector with a single DMD chip, colors are produced by placing a color wheel between the lampand the DMD where it is reflected out through the optics. The color wheel is usually divided into four sectors: the primary colors: red, green, and blue, and an additional clear section to boost brightness. Since the clear sector reduces color saturation, in some models it may be effectively disabled, and in others it is omitted altogether.

The DMD chip is synchronized with the rotating motion of the color wheel so that the green component is displayed on the DMD when the green section of the color wheel is in front of the lamp. The same is true for the red and blue sections. The red, green, and blue images are thus displayed sequentially at a sufficiently high rate that the observer sees the composite "full color" image. In early models, this was one rotation per frame. Later models spin the wheel at twice the frame rate, and some also repeat the color pattern twice around the wheel, meaning the sequence may be repeated up to four times per frame.

The DLP "Rainbow Effect"

This visual artifact is best described as brief flashes of perceived red/blue/green "shadows" observed most often when the projected content features bright/white objects on a mostly dark/black background (the scrolling end credits of many movies being a common example). Some people perceive these rainbow artifacts all of the time, while others say they only see them when they let their eyes pan across the image. Yet others do not notice the artifact at all. The effect is likely rooted in the concept of the flicker fusion threshold.

The image to the right shows how a white circle looks to a camera while panning horizontally, using a long exposure. The white light is visibly split into its colored components. The rainbow effect occurs when this is visible to the naked eye.

The manufacturers of single-chip DLP projection systems use color wheels rotating at higher speeds, or
with more color segments in order to minimize the appearance of the artifacts. Less 'chicken wire' (or
'screen door') effect because pixels are much closer together. This doesn't make so
much difference with data, but it produces smoother images for video.

A comparison of an LCD and DLP projection to illustrate the 'screen door' or 'chicken wire effect on LCD projections.
• Higher contrast achievable.
• DLP projectors are generally more poratable as fewer components are required.
• It has been claimed that DLP projectors last longer than LCD projectors please click here to view the article.

Problems with DLP technologies

Less colour saturation (more of a problem with data than video)
• The 'rainbow' effect, appearing as a momentary flash of rainbow-like striping typically trailing the bright objects when looking from one side of the screen to the other, or when looking away from the projected image to an offscreen object. Only some people see this effect, or you can create it for yourself by moving your eyes very quickly across the screen. There are two types of DLP projector - the old ones had four segments on the colour wheel, the new ones have six and spin faster, which means less rainbow effect and more saturated colour.
• The 'halo' effect (or 'light leakage'). It may bother some people using their projector for home cinema. Basically it's a grey band around the outside of the image, caused by stray light being bounced off the edges of the tiny mirrors on the DLP chip. It can be a distraction, but can be overcome by having a black border a few inches wide around the screen, so the halo falls on to the border. However the halo effect is less evident in the newer DLP chips such as the DDR chip
• Generally, DLP is a better technology for home theatre than LCD . Some of the more home theatre-oriented projectors have virtually no halo effect.

Important terms for projection:

Brightness

(ANSI lumens): ANSI stands for the American National Standards Institute. The power of the illumination and the contrast ratio on a projector are always preceded by ANSI because they’ve officially approved this format of lighting.

ANSI lumens ANSI lumens refers to the degree of brightness illuminated in a projector’s display, measured in “candles”. One lumen is defined as the amount of light that falls on a unit spherical area at unit distance from a light source of one candela.

Color

Chrominance: The chrominance of a picture refers to its color saturation and hue.

Luminance: Luminance refers to the color intensity of an image.

Contrast

Contrast Ratio: The contrast ratio refers to the ratio of darkness to brightness.

Resolution

Aspect Ratio: The aspect ratio of an image is its displayed width divided by its height (usually expressed as "x:y"). For instance, the aspect ratio of a traditional television screen is 4:3, or 1.33:1. High definition television uses an aspect of 16:9, or about 1.78:1. Aspect ratios of 2.39:1 or 1.85:1 are frequently used in cinematography, while the aspect ratio of a full 35 mm film frame with soundtrack (also known as "Academy standard") is around 1.37:1.

Resolution: Resolution is defined by the number of dots a display uses to create an image, expressed in pixels. For example VGA (Video Graphics Array) is 640 x 480, and SVGA is 1280 x 1024. The higher the resolution, the sharper the image.

(Super eXtended Graphics Array), and 1600_1200 resolution (UXGA, Ultra-eXtended) are the most common display resoultions. Many computer users, including CAD users and video game players, run their computers at 1600_1200 resolution (UXGA, Ultra-eXtended) or higher if they have the necessary equipment. When a computer display resolution is set higher than the physical screen resolution, some systems make the virtual screen scrollable over the physical screen. With digital television and HDTV, vertical resolutions of 720 or 1080 scan lines are typical.

The 640_480 resolution, introduced with the IBM PS/2 VGA and MCGA (multi-color) on-board graphics chips, was the standard resolution from 1990 to around 1996, partly due to its 4:3 ratio. 800_600 was the standard resolution until around 2000. Since then, 1024_768 has been the standard resolution. Many web sites and multimedia products are designed for this resolution. Most of today's computer games released during the "128-bit video game era", such as SimCity 4, do not support 640_480 at all. Microsoft Windows XP is designed to run at 800_600 minimum (although it is possible to select 640_480 in the Advanced Settings window, and an application is able to switch to any other mode). Linux uses the X window system and can run at any desired resolution as long as the display and video card support it.

NTSC (national television standards committee) NTSC is the video transmission system used in America. 480 lines

PAL (phase alternating line) PAL is the video transmission system used in the Western Europe, Asia, Australia and certain countries in South America and the Far East. 576 lines

SECAM (sequential coulcur a memoire) SECAM is the video transmission standard in France, Russia Eastern Europe and some countries in Africa.

Computer Standard
Resolution
Ratio
Pixels

CGA
320_200
16:10
64K

QVGA
320_240
4:3
77K

B&W Macintosh/Macintosh LC
512_384
4:3
197K

EGA
640_350
approx. 5:3
224K

VGA and MCGA
640_480
4:3
307K

HGC
720_348
60:29
251K

MDA
720_350
72:35
252K

Apple Lisa
720_360
2:1
259K

SVGA
800_600
4:3
480K

XGA
1024_768
4:3
786K

XGA+
1152_864
4:3
995K

WXGA
1280_768
15:9
983K

SXGA
1280_1024
5:4
1.3M

WXGA+
1440_900
16:10
1.3M

SXGA+
1400_1050
4:3
1.5M

WSXGA
1600_1024
25:16
1.6M

WSXGA+
1680_1050
16:10
1.8M

UXGA
1600_1200
4:3
1.9M

WUXGA
1920_1200
16:10
2.3M

QXGA
2048_1536
4:3
3.1M

WQXGA
2560_1600
16:10
4.1M

QSXGA
2560_2048
5:4
5.2M

WQSXGA
3200_2048
25:16
6.6M

QUXGA
3200_2400
4:3
7.7M

WQUXGA
3840_2400
16:10
9.2M

HSXGA
5120_4096
5:4
21M

WHSXGA
6400_4096
25:16
26M

HUXGA
6400_4800
4:3
31M

WHUXGA
7680_4800
16:10
37M

Native Resolution
Every projector has a 'native' resolution (sometimes called 'true resolution'). That's the maximum number of pixels it can actually project individually. So an SVGA projector can only display 480,000 pixels at a time.

This may sound like a lot, but if you take a typical projection screen of 2 metres width, each pixel is going to be a quarter of a centimetre wide, whereas with an XGA projector the image is going to be under a fifth of a centimetre wide, and over 60% more pixels are displayed. This means the image is going to be sharper and less 'blocky' when projecting with an XGA projector.


Ambience Ambience refers to a room’s level of lighting, such as daylight, artificial light, etc. The higher the ambience, the brighter the projector needs to be to produce a viewable image. A projector cannot make the surface it projects on to any darker. Consequently, the brightness (or lack of) that you see on the screen with nothing projected on it is the darkest black you could possibly get from a projector.

Projection angles
Keystoning Automatic keystoning is a projector feature that creates a uniform image top to bottom by correcting the image if it’s projected onto the screen on an angle.

Focus The focus on a projector defines the minimum and maximum projection distances.

Projection_Flatland_Voids_Solids_Surround

Hi All,
Just to prime you for our upcoming work on Wednesday dealing with projection/light/surround/immersion, here are several visual examples (in no particular order) of ways in which projection, light and space meet.


Anthony Mc Call


Anthony Mc Call


James Turrell


James Turrell


James Turrell


James Turrell




Robert Irwin


Steina Vasulka


Asymptote Architecture


Asymptote Architecture


Nomad:The River (Yin Mei/Chris Salter)


Dumb Type


Dumb Type


Arnold Dreyblatt


Arnold Dreyblatt


Erik Adigard+Chris Salter

The chicken or the egg? The blonde or the brunette?

I was thinking about that "chicken or the egg" issue...

I still say that the "model of chicken" has always existed, even before the existence of an instance of a chicken in the universe. But why? Well, to my best understanding, it boils down to the genetic key that defines a chicken.

Two ancient animals getting together had potential to produce chickens, or dodos. It was just some convergence of (seemingly) random luck that chickens were produced. Let us suppose they had equal chance of producing dodos. It is clear then, that both the models for both the chicken and the dodo existed before actual instances of them existed.

The parents of the chicken could have been birds, or worms, or whatever they were. The egg that they produced... (if they produced an egg at all) was a chicken egg. It could also be possible that the chicken was born without having to incubate inside of an egg; and then as more chickens were made, they started to produce eggs!

So... we can see that either the chicken or the egg could have been the first thing to be instanciated -- but it must be accepted that the chicken model, and then chicken egg model existed before either those.

---

I don't understand how eggs are formed... but I suspect that chicken and chicken egg are equally of the same creature. Essentially, when the DNA codes of both parents come together, they mix together to create "chicken" or "dodo"... and depending on what was to be born... that initial cell would start to sub-divide, absorb whatever nutrients it needed... and maybe it produced its own egg shell for protection. Or maybe the egg shell is something that only chickens (as parents) can produce to protect their offspring. But since eggs are not resticted to chickens, and are a feature of birds... it is more likely that chicken are a subset of birds (which we seem to accept) and that they were born from an ancient bird species (ie: pre-chicken)... as opposed to being born directly from worms or whatever.

What that last paragraph discussed... was the issue of whether or not a chicken requires an egg to be considered a chicken. I think that "chicken" requires "bird" to exist before... and that "bird" requires... something else...?

So, assuming that "bird" already existed before "chicken", we can say that "chicken" came first. Otherwise, "egg" came first, containing the first "bird"... which could have been a chicken?

We would have to ask for the family tree of chickens and birds to be able to carry on any further discourse. Eventually, we will have to go back to examining how "life" started on earth... and ultimately how the universe started!

---

About the universe... is it right to say that we live in a world of duality? Of simply positive and negative forces? "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction"...

...and that life, as we know it, is simply a phenomenon that involves the convergence of a lot of factors involving positive and negative forces?

---

Oh, about blondes and brunettes... I just wanted to point out that the brunette status exists independent of the blode status. Why? ...because of genes. You could have been born blonde, but your genes say that you're really a brunette. Eventually, those dominant genes take over and you become a brunette. If you would have died before your brown hair started growing, your genes would still say you're a brunette. Only... nobody would know unless they checked.

---

"If a tree fell in a forest... and there was nobody around... would it still make noise?"

---

Well, if you were deaf of hearing and watching that tree fall, and you had a microphone to record sound... you could say the tree made noise.

Your existence, however, doesn't affect the fact that the tree makes noise.

If you didn't exist... the microphone still records the event of the tree falling.

The microphone's existence doesn't even matter.

The tree's existence, however... does matter. The moment it falls, it is no longer a tree. It becomes a log, providing a record of the existence of a tree that fell.

No tree = no log = no tree to fall over.

---

I wonder if that has anything to do with the concept of "data logging"...

---

Interesting stuff, no?

Foamy Photos!

http://hybrid.concordia.ca/~starlocke/cart451/photos/foamy/

Photos of foamy sculptures, and more! Enjoy!

Some photos were taken by um... not me. ^^;