#92503
01/24/2003 11:42 AM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872 |
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)
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#92504
01/24/2003 2:04 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
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?
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#92505
01/24/2003 3:14 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
>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.
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#92506
01/24/2003 3:35 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
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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#92507
01/24/2003 3:48 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,062 Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,062 Likes: 2 |
...overlooking the mispelll.
...I'll bet the OED is telling
there isn't any three-l spelling.
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#92508
01/24/2003 4:07 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
three-l spelling
One of the esses got transmorgrified and sent to the tail of the word.
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#92509
01/24/2003 4:08 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
no three-l spelling?
on the contrary, OED has 'frillless'. other possibilities: gallless, smellless..
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#92510
01/24/2003 4:58 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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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.
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#92511
01/24/2003 5:21 PM
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
lllama
big fire.
llllama
bigger fire.
formerly known as etaoin...
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#92512
01/24/2003 5:45 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
*** 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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#92513
01/24/2003 5:55 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 10,542 |
>all-together.
Perhaps you meant all together or altogether [OneLook®]
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#92514
01/24/2003 6:19 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 4,189 |
Oh, geez, tsuwm...are you hyphenventilating again? [shaking-head-and-rolling-eyes e] (had to get some hyphens in there for ya, somewhere)
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#92515
01/24/2003 6:33 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
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#92516
01/24/2003 9:58 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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My word will be my "Om" and my "Everything"
Whoa! I can see the whole paragraph!
Oon jellimon.
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#92517
01/24/2003 11:04 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I have always wondered why the ancients spoke of seven sisters, but today the senth one seems to be missing. Apparently the answer to that is not known. I did find a star chart with names of the stars: http://www.seds.org/billa/twn/m45x.html
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#92518
01/24/2003 11:37 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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It has to do with rods and cones....
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#92519
01/25/2003 12:34 AM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 13,803 |
the ancients spoke of seven sisters
Graves said that there were seven visible, but one blew or something in historical (or just slightly prehistorical) times and that that fact is accounted for in the myth. ICLIU.
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#92520
01/25/2003 12:57 AM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872 |
Hmmm...No worthwhilewind I don't think this crew quite ready to seek nirvana, instead I think they need a koanic jolt to their modern day romote-clicking television sensibilities so that they might begin to understand the strange world that exists around them so that once again they can walk as equals among free thinking men.
Ah what the hell, let's try it anyway. (WO'N this extends your point about indirect viewing.)
*** Astronomers have learned that they can see very dim stars if they don't look directly at them. Sailors also know that this is the best way to see a dim light and use this technique of "averted vision". It works because the fovea contains only cones, which require a higher level of light than the rods, even though they distinguish color and images. The rods, exquisitely sensitive to even the lowest levels of light, are distributed around the fovea. To use them best, the eye must not aim directly at the object to be viewed. Thus to make out a dim pinpoint against the background of the night sky, the rods work best, and they are not in the fovea at all but spread around the central region of the retina.
*** During November in 1992 I studied the habits of blackbirds. In particular a flock (700 +) that nested at night in a huge magnolia tree in downtown Birmingham. At first light, after a warming spell on the nearby electric wires, the flock would fly (two to eight miles) towards the rising sun to neighborhood feeding grounds, separating into bird units of one, twos, threes, fours, or fives .
Then late in the afternoon they would begin to gather into long high flying bands, now flying westward towards the setting sun. Then upon arrival at the magnolia tree they would alight on the electric wires and warm their feathers and wait until someone or something, decided it was time to go to bed. Who or what decided, was my quest. I never did find out, but each time, at a point before the sun fully set, in an instantaneous flapping rush of 1,400 wings, the electric wires were emptied and the magnolia tree became full and the magnolia tree became dark and still for the night.
The rush to the tree took less than three seconds, and it was always complete to the last bird; no stragglers arrived after the single rush. I knew then of the green flash but never saw it, but now I suspect the trigger was a blue (or violet) flash that is unavailable for seeing by the unaided human eye .
*** The next time you go to the supermarket to check out the apples or peaches, turning them over to look for bruises or spoilage, remember that you are using your color vision in the same way your distant forebears did.
You will also be using your stereoscopic vision, the ability to focus both your eyes on the same spot in order to determine depth or distance. Stereoscopic vision must have been an important asset for creatures that lived in high trees, where missing a branch as you swung home could mean a screaming, fatal fall.
Those days of tree dwelling must have left an indelible imprint on our minds. The three most common fears among humans are fear of darkness, fear of falling, and fear of snakes. To a tree dwelling animal, darkness meant danger unless it was safely bundled into a warm, cozy nest. You can not see where you are going in the dark, and even our early ancestors depended heavily on vision; they were diurnal (daylight active) creatures, not nocturnal animals. Fear or falling is obvious to a tree-dwelling species. Infants display an innate fear of heights at the age of only a few months. And snakes must have been one of the few predators that could reach our monkey ancestors up in their leafy nests. Even in the dark. ~ Ben Bova ~ Story of Light
Conclusion
The rising and setting sun triggered directional and vital temporal responses in early man. Genetic amplification of the external signal of the sun (and to a lessor extent, the moon) to a image greatly magnified, was so advantageous to our predecessors that today, try as we might, our mind/eye system won't allow us to see the sun or the moon on the horizon, any other way.
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#92521
01/25/2003 4:20 AM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
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#92522
01/25/2003 6:42 AM
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Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 77
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 77 |
Well, I have never had a (n overwrought)fear of snakes, quite the contrary, had a wild garter as a pet in my youth compliments of my nature loving father. And I do not fear falling; quite the contrary, I am terrified of *jumping which I seem irresistibly compelled to do when I get near the edge of something up high. And darkness, well it isn't inherently scary; I sort of like it, back to the safety of the womb I suppose. So I'm not sure just how universal those are. I don't think I'm goin' too far along with all that tree jumping stuff. Most of our worldview got imprinted when we came down from those trees, stood upright and started running around on those savannahs!
Still I liked the story of the blackbirds, the collective mind of them, I suppose, and it reminds me of the true story of the wild parrots of Long Beach and San Fransico which I just may have to write....(finally home from work on the left coast and none of you are awake....)
mm
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#92523
01/25/2003 1:33 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
nail down Faldage's so he can foveate!
So, lemme get this straight. Y'all want me to narrow my vision?
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#92524
01/25/2003 3:35 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
See if you can nail down Faldage's so he can foveate!
I would, my dearest WW, but... is it legal?
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