Today's reading: articles, mostly literary criticism, written by the one and only Gwern Branwen.
Reading today:
Today I watched La Faim, an 11-minute animated film by Peter Foldes. The principal character eats and eats, and becomes grotesque. I recommend you try it, because the animation has a delightfully bizarre quality to it. The characters' bodies sort of morph into new positions. It's a bit hard to describe -- just watch the video.
Here are two good reads about how and why people form mental models:
Media today:
Media today:
This instructional video from 1953 explains the basic mechanisms that combine to form contemporary mechanical computers (in this case, naval firing computers.) The narration and examples are clear and accessible to the mechanical novice, who should start at the beginning. If you already know about cams and differentials, watch the first few minutes to see the footage of men operating the computers, then skip to the second half.
Reading today:
Since the animals [from the previous test on 1783-09-19] survived, the king allowed flights with humans. Again in collaboration with Réveillon, Étienne built a 60,000-cubic-foot (1,700 m3) balloon [...] It was about 23 m (75 feet) tall and about 15 m (50 feet) in diameter. Réveillon supplied rich decorative touches of gold figures on a deep blue background, including fleur-de-lis, signs of the zodiac, and suns with Louis XVI's face in the center interlaced with the royal monogram in the central section. Red and blue drapery and golden eagles were at the base of the balloon.
Media today: Making Future Interfaces, a video series on ways to improve webpage design/styling.