Randomness

[Alelou]

To me this just makes obvious sense. Your brain can extrapolate that a ball headed right at you will continue to head right at you, and indeed it needs to so you don't get whacked in the head. You could test this not only by seeing how optical illusions fool the brain but by coming up with something that behaves in an unexpected manner during that lag. Theoretically, everybody would then react the wrong way to it. It has nothing to do with physics or ESP, it's simply a theory of how the brain perceives reality effectively despite an inescapable physical limitation.

[Elessar]

It would refute modern physics wouldn't it? I was under the impression that everything is a matter of probability, and that nothing about the future is set in stone.

All the eye is doing (according to them) is predicting where something will go/be.

I don't think this sounds all that outlandish because the eyes do the same thing w/ that spot in the center of your vision that both eyes can't see. I read something about this - we have a blind spot right in the center of our vision that (no big nose jokes) you can't actually SEE, but your brain uses what it knows about the environment to extrapolate what you "see" there.

So this doesn't really surprise me, and it has nothing to do with physics... it's just your brain predicting what SHOULD be there 1/10th of a second ahead of time.

But it's still pretty awesome because it makes you think about all the little "things" you're doing right now... you're not doing them RIGHT NOW, you're doing them... wait, are you doing them 1/10th of a second before right now, or 1/10th of a second after right now?

[enterprikayak]

So I just was staring slackjawed at the screen as I purchased books online to take with me to Dallas and I was looking at "Quotable Star Trek" and I vaguely addressed Lee (wanting coffee) and said,

"Lee, can you get me some Star Trek?"

It's a sickness.


I just made this into a Tshirt for the con. She looks pregnant. I'm pregnant. It fits.

[TPoptarts]

^ I think you should have added like tusks to the sehlat

[enterprikayak]

[TPoptarts]

The little furball thing in the picture

[enterprikayak]

Ahhhhh. Yes.

And another anecdote from this am:

Priso always calls me these nicknames (he does for everyone) and recently he referred to me as "Clumsy Mumsy". Aureilia took this up with gusto and likes to call me Clumsy Mumsy also. (I'm not particularly clumsy, but Priso likes anything that rhymes).

So just now, Aureilia's chanting about wanting to have a shower with me, and she's going: "I want to shower with Mommy! I want to shower with Clumsy Mums! I want to shower with Clumso!"

Clumso.

She made it up all on her own. We laughed with surprised delight (thus delighting her) and now I think I'm going to be Clumso for a loooooong time.

[Alelou]

Great shirt, Clumso!

[Entilzha]

Marc Okrand visited his friends in Estonia again. Turns out the creator of the Klingon language is occasional visitor in my country.

[Elessar]

Marc Okrand visited his friends in Estonia again. Turns out the creator of the Klingon language is occasional visitor in my country.

That'd be an interesting guy to hang out with. It'd be even funnier if he doesn't even speak it. If you're like "yeah do you speak Klingon, cuz you invented it." and he's like "No, pft, haha, what kind of weirdo do you think I am? I just threw some crap together by tripping LSD and watching Hanna Barbera cartoons at 4 am with a voice recorder sitting in the corner."

[Entilzha]

[CX]

D-Day today...

[Alelou]

D-Day?

[Elessar]

Indeed, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-day

[Alelou]

Oh, THAT D-Day. I should have realized. I thought your site was experiencing some grand trauma.

My father has very clear memories of that from the homefront in Dundee -- his older brother was in a POW camp in Germany, his father was at sea, and the kids at school in Scotland were all very excited when they heard what was going on. But my dad just kept thinking about what his mum had told him, that a lot of young men were going to lose their lives that day.

And oh Lord was she right.