Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Color Vision...

The most accessible explanation of human color vision and perception I've seen.  Even so, it doesn't shy from the mysteries that most texts avoid...

Code Cracking...

Where the code is on lottery tickets.  A Canadian statistician figured out how to pick winning tickets in a “scratcher” lottery – without scratching.  It's a fascinating read...

All the Volcano Webcams in the World!

On one page...

Gigapixel Art Reproductions...

Courtesy of Google and museums around the world...

Strange Morning Walk...

It's cold and windy – the winds are gusting up to about 25 MPH (40 kph) and the temperature is around 40°F (5°C).  The sky is crystal-clear and moonless; bright stars all around.  The Big Dipper (Ursa major) is nearly straight overhead, which always looks odd to me.

The three field spaniels were, as usual, noses-down, sniffing like mad.  They appeared to not even notice the howling wind.  Racer, the border collie, was very spooked by it all.  The noises all around us (gates crashing, branches swishing, brush rolling across the yard) all caught his attention and greatly distracted him from his pine cones.  He spent most of our walk with his hackles full up, growling, yipping, and generally acting aggressively toward all the noises.  If I was a noise, I'd have been intimidated.  The brown dogs...not so much.