Three childhood memories.

There are a few things that come back to me from time to time which I remember from my childhood times - discoveries, experiences, thoughts and thought experiments - that really should've been recorded down a long, long time ago.

So.. on the bus to uni this morning, I decided to finally compile some of these thoughts into one place, before my memory further deteriorates.

Here they are.

1. Relativity: this thought occurred to me sometime back in 2001. It was based on a small curiosity on my way home from school, in dad's car.
   I sneezed. I looked out the window, and saw some people walking along the footpath, as we zoomed past them.
   Then I wondered..
   

   "Well, sound can be seen by recording them in wave forms.. like the ones you see on TV! the funny fuzzy line things.. So taking that idea.. if you were to record my sneeze on a long sheet of paper along the road, as I traveled past in my dad's car(going at however fast it was going at that moment, but also given that it's faster than normal walking speed), you'd end up with a very long piece of the drawn sound wave(relative to the person walking, but not me, because I'd be traveling fast past it.)
   Then I thought.. well, if I had a device that could read this graphical interpretation of (the sound of) my sneeze as I traveled past it, it would play back the sound at the speed of which I was traveling at.
   I.E. If I was to take this paper(with the sound drawn on it, like those seismograph thingos), and walk at "walking speed" alongside it, with my playback device, it would sound like a slow-mo version of my sneeze, therefore the duration would be much longer(the faster my original speed was, the longer the sound would be at walking speed).
   However, if I was to jump back in the car, travel at the same speed at which I was traveling before, again with my playback device, it would sound "normal" like how I heard myself in the car."
   

   
   
   In 2001, if I had the linguistic skill to explain the above idea as I have done now, I definitely would have. However as a child, most things you can't really explain in words, but can visualise. I attempted to explain this to my parents once, but they didn't really get it, most likely due to my poor explanation. So I never bothered to try explaining it to anyone after that. I wanted to, but I kept to myself. (Publish or perish, gah!)
   It only occurred to me, during year 12 physics, that this thought touches the surface of what we call "relativity" - largely involving frames of references.
   
   This suggests an idea to hike up the primary education level a little more(especially in Australia since I've only lived here and in Korea and nowhere else, but that's not saying that they teach relativity in Korea >_>), or at least for some internally, and if so, in more places. I believe 10 year olds are capable of handling the idea of relativity as proven - the most problematic issue here would be finding an excellent educator to explain this to them.
   I certainly couldn't do it if I was asked, probably.
   
   For this point, I have purposely tried to stay away from correct terminologies, as an attempt to explain it as close as possible to how I would've at the time. Although it's evidently unsuccessful. There would've been more "you know" and "like"s.. xD


2. Taxi drivers: This was back in Korea, on a rainy day; I remember this because I was busy drawing on the foggy window P:
   Dad and I were going to some relative's house.. and as usual, we're stuck in traffic. A sudden thought came to me. What if the taxi driver was taking the long route to make us pay more?
   Then, guess what, dad makes the same suggestion to the driver, that it seems like he's going around places on purpose to hike up the taxi fee. Of course, he denied, the argument continued, but I tuned out.
   People, small children aren't all innocent.. some like to scheme.. A lot.
   
   I guess my point here is that it's sad in a way that a young child would be tainted with such injustices of society.. Children are very good observers. They absorb everything like shamwow.
   


3. I WANT MY MUMMY: During the celebration of my 100th day of living(all relatives were gathered, also this is a Korean tradition, 돌잔치), the grown-ups were busy taking photos of me and a cousin sitting behind the ginormous empirical table, fiddling with various things. I don't remember what I was doing, of course, but I do remember wailing because mum didn't come to me when I wanted her to. Instead, my aunt came and sat me on her lap, and believe it or not, I do actually remember the fear, and wanting mum, not this random lady who I felt was trying to force me to sit still.
   Now, that sounds ridiculous, but one thing I'm sure of is that either I actually do remember the feelings(I doubt this myself. No proof to back this up.), or someone somehow really made me believe it sometime way back in the past when I was in the most gullible mode.
   Amazing, huh.
   

WHOA MOVING PICTURES

From Alan Cholodenko's (The) Death (of) the Animator, or: The Felicity of Felix Part II: A Difficulty in the Path of Animation studies;

A quote of a quote from the essay:

Last night I was in the Kingdom of Shadows. If you only knew how strange it is to be there. It is a world without sound, without colour. Everything there – the earth, the trees, the people, the water and the air – is dipped in monotonous grey. Grey rays of the sun across the grey sky, grey eyes in grey faces, and the leaves of the trees are ashen grey. It is not life but its shadow, it is not motion but its soundless spectre.
Here I shall try to explain myself, lest I be suspected of madness or indulgence in symbolism. I was at Aumont’s and saw Lumière’s cinématograph – moving photography.
(Gorky, 1996 p.5)

..I just wanna say - as mesmerising as this is - physics noob much?

I know I can say that now, in 2010, after how far the technology's come so far.. but.. I can also say that moving pictures became possible because of the physics behind it.. To me, this quote isn't so great(well, yeah of course it is in another sense, but for now let's take this term colloquially); sure, it must've been shocking back then, but surely for a guy like Gorky, he could've made himself aware of the latest technology..
Perhaps he did, later in his review.
Haven't read it, not going to read it, and if he indeed looked into it, good on him.

Gallery review: “Savitri” - Richard O'Farrell

Savitri
Richard O'Farrell

The image instantly catches my attention as it presents a beautiful young girl, who we're informed to be an albino girl by the artist's statement, and I feel privileged or lucky to have seen this image.

This image stood out to me in the gallery, largely due to my liking for uniqueness and individuality naturally drawing my attention.
It is a portrait of a young albino girl, front profile, and her head is ever so slightly tilted to her right.
Her eyebrows are lightly tense, while she provides a Mona Lisa smile; creating a strangely comfortable expression coming from the subject. She is seen wearing a thin floral hair band, a dark bobby pin, a beady necklace, and a white patterned shirt.

O'Farrell is perhaps ultimately trying to convey the enigmatic abilities which physical disorder can bring; be it blindness or albinism. This is achieved through manipulating some techniques; low aperture(great depth of field) and black and white setting. The lights are coming from above, not directly, but slightly more from the subject's right. It seems like he used a reflector to light up the shoulders and lower part of the neck.

I like this image. It is strange at first glance, and asks for attention like a rhetorical question. It is often an expectation to meet the eyes of the subject in a portrait, which is not the case for O'Farrell's image of “Savitri” – perhaps this is the first step into the image – and that draws us in.
Perhaps O'Farrell tried to highlight her uniqueness and incredible intelligence by reflecting her ability to focus in his photography. This was somewhat effectively achieved through his usage of low aperture.
However what he did more effectively in this image is highlighting her closed eyes. I think the black and white photography helped to accent her strange appearance; the unusually light colour of the eyebrows and eyelashes. It has also hidden the surprise of albinism, which possibly could not have been noticed immediately by the general audience without the help of the artist's statement.

She has her eyes closed tight(the artist tells us that she is blind), with her eyebrows lightly knit. It is a reminder that people with one(or more) disabled senses out of the five, develops other remaining four(or less) senses to a higher state than a person with all five senses. It looks as if she's intimately concentrating on other senses, such as listening, or smelling, and somewhat confronts the viewer that she is not watching through her eyes, but perceiving through her other senses.
It is thus, to some extent, intimidating to look at this image, however peaceful simultaneously, and this combination develops a quaint atmosphere which seamlessly captivates the viewer.

The forums.

My forum/one that I go to, has a thread going on about HIV research funding.

.....I want to tell them that they're stupid, pulling the randomest logic from everywhere, and not thinking properlly.. it is ridiculous.

Cure for common cold? Make Africa into a mass-producing industry? Turn it into a giant farm? Go spread the population in Antarctica? ARE YOU GUYS JUST STUPID OR 12 YEAR OLDS?

AAAAAAAAAAFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF.

I'll just watch with my imaginary popcorn here.

In the wise words of Annie

"Don't think, just do"

Shut it, you who are thinking Horace; Annie's manpower overrides any man that ever existed, exist and to exist.

Internet filtering

Hey Australia, did you forget filtering material for children is up to their parents, not the government?