I came across this very cool page today, which had the following great exploration of simple rule based automatons. You should go to the site to read more, but essentially the little robots will examine your cursor, follow it around in "their world" and flee if you bring it too close.
not unlike cattle in a field ... or people watching an event in public spaces in a city
Friday, 10 September 2010
wierd world
People often say that the world is getting stranger, while I agree I also feel that the world was once much stranger than it is today.
In some surfing on the net my wife came across a site with a collection of weird ads (here). One of the ads was particularly disturbing to me ...
and if this isn't soooo close to pedophilia it is certainly pandering to that market
... eewww (shudder)
So we do seem to be getting better as most people would (I hope) now see this as wrong.
In some surfing on the net my wife came across a site with a collection of weird ads (here). One of the ads was particularly disturbing to me ...
and if this isn't soooo close to pedophilia it is certainly pandering to that market
... eewww (shudder)
So we do seem to be getting better as most people would (I hope) now see this as wrong.
Monday, 6 September 2010
blue tongue
my wife called me at work today to say a lizard had made its way into the laundry and vanished.
I immediately suspected a blue tongue.
When I got home I found him (or her) wedged under the freezer. They love places like that ... and the motor is warm too ... ouhhh
We'd been doing a little clearing in the back yard (and so too had the neighbor) so we'd probably ripped up its habitat.
So not wanting to let it either get stuck in the laundry or get mauled by a cat we lifted up the freezer and I caught it. We put it in a box while we had dinner, and thought perhaps it might like a slice or two of the steak we were cooking ... seems it did.
So after dinner we took it down to the bottom of the hill where there is a little remnant bush and let it go.
Seemed a little sluggish (well it was night time and he'd just eaten)
but soon enough it was off into the bushes...
and hopefully to continue a long and happy life.
If you've never seen one up close they are quite cute, one from another day:
and have the most interesting details, like the little scales which cover their ear holes
this fellow I did not relocate, but left lying around in my yard. He (or she) didn't seem to mind the photography session, but some weeks later I found him ripped apart by some local kitty cat.
I don't like cats in Australia, they are responsible for the deaths of many native creatures here.
Pitty one can't get rid of the local cats....
I immediately suspected a blue tongue.
When I got home I found him (or her) wedged under the freezer. They love places like that ... and the motor is warm too ... ouhhh
We'd been doing a little clearing in the back yard (and so too had the neighbor) so we'd probably ripped up its habitat.
So not wanting to let it either get stuck in the laundry or get mauled by a cat we lifted up the freezer and I caught it. We put it in a box while we had dinner, and thought perhaps it might like a slice or two of the steak we were cooking ... seems it did.
So after dinner we took it down to the bottom of the hill where there is a little remnant bush and let it go.
Seemed a little sluggish (well it was night time and he'd just eaten)
but soon enough it was off into the bushes...
and hopefully to continue a long and happy life.
If you've never seen one up close they are quite cute, one from another day:
and have the most interesting details, like the little scales which cover their ear holes
this fellow I did not relocate, but left lying around in my yard. He (or she) didn't seem to mind the photography session, but some weeks later I found him ripped apart by some local kitty cat.
I don't like cats in Australia, they are responsible for the deaths of many native creatures here.
Pitty one can't get rid of the local cats....
Friday, 3 September 2010
party nonsense
I read this morning that Andrew Wilkie has made a choice to sign up with Labor and have left the Coalition wondering. One opinion writer phrased it as:
That's a funny image, but somehow I think Wilkie may have made the right choice. That writer goes on to say:
Which is interesting as perhaps what happened was that Tony Abbot did his usual "whack it on the table" take-it-or-leave-it with strings attached, while Julia did some negotiation.
This is to my mind what politics should be about, negotiating outcomes not bullying.
Later I read that Andrew Wilkie is getting some flack about the distribution of preferences here
revenge ... right ... sounds more like the sort of unhelpful bully tactics which have been the mainstay of party politics for the last 20 years.
If we want our government to stop being "a place away from us" I think we need to move away from this and move back to the leaders being representatives of the electorate; to go into parliament and do their best to negotiate for the prople they represent (their electorate). Not bend over on towing some party line.
As the Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie stood in a parliamentary courtyard declaring he was a Julia man, it was very nearly possible to hear Tony Abbott banging his head on the wall of his office
That's a funny image, but somehow I think Wilkie may have made the right choice. That writer goes on to say:
Hadn't Wilkie arrived in Canberra bearing a list of priorities, the very first of which was the replacement of Royal Hobart Hospital?
Hadn't he, Tony Abbott, offered to do just that at the cost of a cool billion bucks?
And what was Wilkie's response? Why, holy hell, he'd taken instead a piddling $340 million from Julia Gillard for a hospital renovation and he was out there in the courtyard claiming it was a superior deal, with the big money going to hospitals far outside his electorate!
Which is interesting as perhaps what happened was that Tony Abbot did his usual "whack it on the table" take-it-or-leave-it with strings attached, while Julia did some negotiation.
This is to my mind what politics should be about, negotiating outcomes not bullying.
Later I read that Andrew Wilkie is getting some flack about the distribution of preferences here
But for the Liberals none of this matters. All that counts for them is that Wilkie got over the line with their backing and has now rubbed their noses in it. The next election will bring revenge.
revenge ... right ... sounds more like the sort of unhelpful bully tactics which have been the mainstay of party politics for the last 20 years.
If we want our government to stop being "a place away from us" I think we need to move away from this and move back to the leaders being representatives of the electorate; to go into parliament and do their best to negotiate for the prople they represent (their electorate). Not bend over on towing some party line.
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