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miriam_ehumanoids
I had a big win yesterday. I've been teaching myself Blender lately and had been adopting a crawl before you walk, walk before you run approach, which is unusual for me. I finally got to one of the more mouthwatering parts: putting bones in a humanoid so that I could easily animate it. Expecting this to be difficult, I was one very delighted and surprised fool to find that it was simplicity itself. Joy! I am so gonna have fun with this! See? This is why I don't play games. Learning this sort of stuff is the greatest fun to be had, ever!
anti-democracy
Our parliament has suddenly become flooded with very active lobbyists for the richest, most polluting companies in Australia. Now that we have a government that looks like it might actually abide by the wishes of the people and get something done to fix the problems facing us, big industry is funding a multi-million dollar propaganda rush on the fragile intelligences of those in government. Sign the GetUp document to pressure the Rudd government to remember that they were elected by us not a small number of ultra-wealthy sociopaths. GetUp campaigns have worked wonders so far. If any movement can stop or slow this corruption it is GetUp.
http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/ClimateActionNow/340
surfaces
Related to that last point, I've been thinking a lot about the surfaces of materials a lot recently. It seems to me that you will hear much more about this in the future. The surfaces of most materials act quite differently from the bulk of it. This is why you can float a metal needle on water. The molecules at the surface act differently from those inside the water. Having less water molecules around them (because they are at the surface) they hold onto their fellows more strongly -- we see this as surface tension. There are a number of other effects peculiar to materials' surfaces. Easily shattered materials, like glass, become flexible as thin strands or sheets. Weaving or interleaving materials with different qualities creates composite materials with capabilities vastly surpassing any of its components. Electronics, in studying the problems of making very small circuits has turned lemons into lemonade by finding that very small bits of stuff, and even the gaps themselves, can have very useful qualities. It is leading to new kinds of electronics and optics, simply by switching our interest from large scale to small scale. And that's how this point relates to the one in the previous paragraph. If we take up the challenge of making good use of a low-energy world that pollutes less then we will find great opportunities there for us. At the moment we "need" massive power stations, coal mines, aluminium smelters, concrete plants, steel plants... but if we look carefully we can find vastly superior alternatives that not only pollute less, but make us wealthier and improve our lives. We are surrounded by power -- sun, brownian motion, wind, geothermal, sound -- we simply need to learn to use it better. Coal and oil, while "convenient", are not viable in the longer term and are destroying what we have in the shorter term. Aluminium is a wonderful metal, but is extracted at unbelievable cost. In the end it corrodes away like most metals. It has also been implicated in Alzheimers disease. Much better alternatives exist in ceramics and organics if we look for them. Seashells are grown from the ocean's water by an incredibly low energy system. They are far, far stronger than concrete. There has been a trend away from pouring concrete, using prefabricated parts instead. If such parts were made in the sea in environmentally friendly, low energy fashion then we would all be better off. All our problems are actually opportunities in disguise...
sight
...maybe even my continuing eye problems. About 2 years ago I was told that I have macular degeneration and that I could expect to lose my vision within the year. Well it turned out on further investigation that it wasn't that at all, though nobody knows what it actually is. I am still losing my vision... just more slowly. It has made me consider my mortality with more urgency. I am a notorious procrastinator. I think I need a kick in the pants like this to actually get something done. If it serves to do that (and it seems to be working) then I could actually end up grateful for it... kinda...
I had a big win yesterday. I've been teaching myself Blender lately and had been adopting a crawl before you walk, walk before you run approach, which is unusual for me. I finally got to one of the more mouthwatering parts: putting bones in a humanoid so that I could easily animate it. Expecting this to be difficult, I was one very delighted and surprised fool to find that it was simplicity itself. Joy! I am so gonna have fun with this! See? This is why I don't play games. Learning this sort of stuff is the greatest fun to be had, ever!
anti-democracy
Our parliament has suddenly become flooded with very active lobbyists for the richest, most polluting companies in Australia. Now that we have a government that looks like it might actually abide by the wishes of the people and get something done to fix the problems facing us, big industry is funding a multi-million dollar propaganda rush on the fragile intelligences of those in government. Sign the GetUp document to pressure the Rudd government to remember that they were elected by us not a small number of ultra-wealthy sociopaths. GetUp campaigns have worked wonders so far. If any movement can stop or slow this corruption it is GetUp.
http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/ClimateActionNow/340
surfaces
Related to that last point, I've been thinking a lot about the surfaces of materials a lot recently. It seems to me that you will hear much more about this in the future. The surfaces of most materials act quite differently from the bulk of it. This is why you can float a metal needle on water. The molecules at the surface act differently from those inside the water. Having less water molecules around them (because they are at the surface) they hold onto their fellows more strongly -- we see this as surface tension. There are a number of other effects peculiar to materials' surfaces. Easily shattered materials, like glass, become flexible as thin strands or sheets. Weaving or interleaving materials with different qualities creates composite materials with capabilities vastly surpassing any of its components. Electronics, in studying the problems of making very small circuits has turned lemons into lemonade by finding that very small bits of stuff, and even the gaps themselves, can have very useful qualities. It is leading to new kinds of electronics and optics, simply by switching our interest from large scale to small scale. And that's how this point relates to the one in the previous paragraph. If we take up the challenge of making good use of a low-energy world that pollutes less then we will find great opportunities there for us. At the moment we "need" massive power stations, coal mines, aluminium smelters, concrete plants, steel plants... but if we look carefully we can find vastly superior alternatives that not only pollute less, but make us wealthier and improve our lives. We are surrounded by power -- sun, brownian motion, wind, geothermal, sound -- we simply need to learn to use it better. Coal and oil, while "convenient", are not viable in the longer term and are destroying what we have in the shorter term. Aluminium is a wonderful metal, but is extracted at unbelievable cost. In the end it corrodes away like most metals. It has also been implicated in Alzheimers disease. Much better alternatives exist in ceramics and organics if we look for them. Seashells are grown from the ocean's water by an incredibly low energy system. They are far, far stronger than concrete. There has been a trend away from pouring concrete, using prefabricated parts instead. If such parts were made in the sea in environmentally friendly, low energy fashion then we would all be better off. All our problems are actually opportunities in disguise...
sight
...maybe even my continuing eye problems. About 2 years ago I was told that I have macular degeneration and that I could expect to lose my vision within the year. Well it turned out on further investigation that it wasn't that at all, though nobody knows what it actually is. I am still losing my vision... just more slowly. It has made me consider my mortality with more urgency. I am a notorious procrastinator. I think I need a kick in the pants like this to actually get something done. If it serves to do that (and it seems to be working) then I could actually end up grateful for it... kinda...