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#92503 01/24/03 11:42 AM
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milum Offline OP
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MOON lllUSION EXPLAINED

* Great, I said. Anu's subject entry font renders the capital I's and the small case l's the same. This is an excellent example of how the mind/eye translates reality into a trans-reality that has evolutionary function.
* Shoot, I said. When posted the I's and l's are differentiated. I guess I'll have to make all of them l's to make my point.
* Milum, wofahulicdoc said without really saying, you have misspelled the word "lllusion". You have spelled it "lllusian".
* Oh well, I said. Maybe that will trick people into overlooking the three l's.


Human Vision

*** The human eye/mind system can detect a change of only 2% within a brightness range of 1 to 100,000 candles per square meter. This acute distinction allows us to navigate a path by either sunlight or moonlight, a difference of a million in illuminance.

*** Each eye has a field of vision of over 100 degrees, and together our eyes are able to sense the presence of objects over an entire hemisphere, especially if they move. Although our field of view covers a wide angular area, there is a central region ,the fovea, which is more richly endowed with photoreceptors than any other part. When looking directly at an object, the feature of interest is directed to the fovea. Look at any word in this sentence. Focus on it. If you've focused you can't read its neighbor; now look at the semi-colon just made and try to scrutinize both parts simultaneously. It can't be done. The angle between them is only 0.3 degrees, and the remaining field of view falls of the retinal surroundings- the macula. We read by swift little stops and starts- one word at a time.

*** Each eye has a little blind spot at the connection to the optic nerve. We do not perceive this spot in our field of view. Instead the surrounding field fills it it, a process that is not fully understood. Thanks, probably to early learning, several other potential distractions are suppressed; that nose that protrudes into the scene; an image which is sharp only at the fovea and becomes indistinct at the periphery: and the eye's need for constant movement.

*** Find yourself a rainbow. Fixate on a part of the rainbow. Persist. Remember the eye naturally wanders. Suddenly you will become aware that the rainbow has vanished. Any motion of your eye will make it instantly reappear. The eye is a motion detector that requires constant movement to function. In truth if we could stop eye motion at will we could make any object fade away, the rainbow is just an easy subject because of its smoothness and lack of detail.

(be back in an eye blink)


#92504 01/24/03 02:04 PM
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Mr Minderbinder, sir! Mr Minderbinder! How long you gotta look at a word with your eyes still before you stop perceiving the words around it? I can see around the words, sir! Does that mean I'm abnormal?


#92505 01/24/03 03:14 PM
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>Maybe that will trick people into overlooking the three l's.

on the contrary, the three l's seem to have tricked (at least) one person into overlooking the mispelll.


#92506 01/24/03 03:35 PM
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overlooking the mispelll.

And here I was trying to figure out how to get in a comment on the Illusian Fields.


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...overlooking the mispelll.

...I'll bet the OED is telling
there isn't any three-l spelling.



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three-l spelling

One of the esses got transmorgrified and sent to the tail of the word.


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no three-l spelling?

on the contrary, OED has 'frillless'. other possibilities: gallless, smellless..


#92510 01/24/03 04:58 PM
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. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.


Looking-glass.

It is unlucky to break a looking-glass. The nature of the illluck varies; thus, if a maiden, she will
never marry; if a married woman, it betokens a death, etc. This superstition arose from the use
made of mirrors in former times by magicians. If in their operations the mirror used was broken,
the magician was obliged to give over his operation, and the unlucky inquirer could receive no
answer.


#92511 01/24/03 05:21 PM
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lllama

big fire.


llllama

bigger fire.



formerly known as etaoin...
#92512 01/24/03 05:45 PM
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*** Find yourself a rainbow. Fixate on a part of the rainbow. Persist. Remember the eye naturally wanders. Suddenly you will become aware that the rainbow has vanished. Any motion of your eye will make it instantly reappear. The eye is a motion detector that requires constant movement to function. In truth if we could stop eye motion at will we could make any object fade away, the rainbow is just an easy subject because of its smoothness and lack of detail.

In the same respect, it is well-known that you can see the Pleiades, "The Seven Sisters," much more vividly if you don't look directly at them with the naked eye. When you look directly at the constellation, they tend to fade or disappear all-together.



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