realism looks creepy

This is a very interesting piece on the paradoxical effect that realistic images in games (and computer-rendered movies) can repel people rather than charm them.
http://slate.msn.com/id/2102086/

I don't think it will last for long though. As animators get better at what they do and we develop better tools, including offloading a lot of the grunt work to AIs, this will turn around. Expect to see truly believable artificial characters in the near future.

I make a prediction here too: not far in the future we will see the first truly alive virtual characters. They will owe their realism to the fact that they will actually be real... albeit inside a computer.

(Now there is redundancy for you -- I used the words "will", "actually", "be", and "real", all of which carry the same meaning.)

Reagan blasts Bush

Read this piece on patchworkkid's LJ.

The Bush inner circle would like to think of George W.'s presidency as more of an extension of Ronald Reagan's... "The Bush people have no right to speak for my father... these people are overly reaching, overly aggressive, overly secretive, and just plain corrupt. I don't trust these people."

http://www.livejournal.com/users/patchworkkid/377003.html

Exploring the Cosmos

[sigh] This is one of the things I miss about not being in Melbourne. These kinds of things are going on down there all the time. Wish I could be there. :(

Free presentation on Tuesday 29th of June at 7pm in Hawthorn Town Hall

This is the golden age of astronomy. Large telescopes on the ground and in
orbit are returning spectacular images of the Universe.

Prof. Duncan Forbes and Dr Sarah Maddison will be giving a talk on the Hubble Space Telescope and Australia's Gemini Telescopes, with lots of cool pictures and computer animations. This will be a talk for novice and enthusiasts alike. Explore the cosmos with expert guides.

Time: 7pm Tuesday June 29th
Location: Hawthorn Town Hall, Burwood Road, Glenferrie
Web: http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/