The Eternals

Art from The Eternals by Neil Gaiman and John Romita Jr (art). (Colors by Matt Hollingsworth.) Now that's a beautiful comic book.

The story is pretty good too. It's Neil Gaiman trying to capture the crazy energy of Jack Kirby, which he does as good as anybody has done yet. I like the book for it's bigger-than-life feel, the beautiful art, the beautiful colors, the beautiful women, and the beautiful giant robot space gods. There are some really amazing designs here.

The Beauty of Math

1 x 8 + 1 = 9

12 x 8 + 2 = 98

123 x 8 + 3 = 987

1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876

12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765

123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654

1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543

12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432

123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321


1 x 9 + 2 = 11

12 x 9 + 3 = 111

123 x 9 + 4 = 1111

1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111

12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111

123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111

1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111

12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111

123456789 x 9 +10= 1111111111


9 x 9 + 7 = 88

98 x 9 + 6 = 888

987 x 9 + 5 = 8888

9876 x 9 + 4 = 88888

98765 x 9 + 3 = 888888

987654 x 9 + 2 = 8888888

9876543 x 9 + 1 = 88888888

98765432 x 9 + 0 = 888888888


1 x 1 = 1

11 x 11 = 121

111 x 111 = 12321

1111 x 1111 = 1234321

11111 x 11111 = 123454321

111111 x 111111 = 12345654321

1111111 x 1111111 = 1234567654321

11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321

111111111 x 111111111=12345678987654321

--------

Final Identity added:

In this sequence ...

1 x 9 + 2 = 11
12 x 9 + 3 = 111
123 x 9 + 4 = 1111
1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111
12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111
123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111
1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111
12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111
123456789 x 9 +10= 1111111111

... they left out the first one

0 x 9 + 1 = 1

---
NOW WHO'S THE NERD????!!!!

Manuscript format for fiction

Manuscript format for fiction. PDF article.

Gigapan

(Funny how I seem to get into a blogging fury on Fridays sometimes. Maybe it's joy of relief of the weekdays' grueling 3-hour workdays being over for me.)

Gigapan gigapixels camera device. (Why are so many web videos right now not compatible with Safari? It's just embarrassing.) Here's a sample. Remarkable.
Technically you can do the same thing manually and then use some good stiching software, but when you get above like ten pictures, it becomes pretty tricky to keep track of what exactly you have already covered, here's where the robot comes in.

Alicia Witt

Another actress I find totally irresistible.

Partisanship

"If you saw two groups of children arguing over which of them could play in some waste grounds, would you choose sides?" - Neil Gaiman, The Eternals

Indirectness

I don't get the indirectness in this world. Like, when two people meet in a club, probably what's on both their minds is whether they'll have sex, but sex is the last thing they're able to talk about.

It's not just that; I hear that when American businessmen do business with the Japanese, there's often trouble, because the Japanese will never say "no" directly. And of course the typical American has to be hit with a lead pipe before he'll understand a "no", so...

Today I talked to a guy, and he saw my tee-shirt saying: "Six foot four, handsome, and money too," and he told me about a tee he wore last night in town saying "masturbation is not a crime", and all the reactions that got.

How the market works

[Thanks to Dr. P.]

How It Works

Once upon a time a man told a small village, "I will buy monkeys for $10 each."

Since there were many monkeys in the forest, the villagers caught them and sold them to the man.

As the supply of monkeys diminished, the villagers' efforts slowed, so the man offered them $20 each.

They renewed their efforts but the supply of monkeys diminished further, so he increased his price to $25.

Soon no one could even find a monkey in the forest.

The man increased his price to $50, but announced, "Since I must go to the city on business, I authorize my assistant to buy monkeys on my behalf."

As soon as his boss was gone, the assistant told the villagers, "My boss has collected lots of monkeys. I'll sell them to you for $35 and then, when he returns, you can sell them to him for $50."

The villagers rounded up all the money they could and bought as many monkeys as possible. Then they had monkeys everywhere...

... but they never saw the man or his assistant again.

And now you understand the workings of the stock market!

Sanders McNew

Thanks to Mike Johnston for recommending Sanders McNew's nudes.

A highly unusual combination of nudes which don't hide the body, and yet are not meant to be erotica, but portraits. And even more unusually, he is not afraid of smiles and happiness. Many of the portraits have the most wonderful, warm smiles. And are beautiful B/W photos on top of it.



Bert said:
I oft wonder if it is the models or the photographers who have a problem with smiles. It just feels so important for me to have at least one (genuine!) smile in a photo shoot. A shot like the one shown here reveals so much on the model that it should be mandatory in a portrait session!

I suspect it's a reaction against all the fake and forced and gratuitous smiles in amateur photography. I mean real amateur: people who only take family snapshots and always tell the kids to Smile.

Also there's a general perception that if something is pleasant, it can't be serious art. You won't find a humorous novel winning a literature prize. You won't find a pretty painting in a censored art exhibition.
----
Also from Mike: This is why pictures in glossy mags seem too good to be true. Scary stuff. Like I said recently: people love fake. Many prefer it.

Weather reports

The two main weather reports services in these parts, BBC and AccuWeather (which Apple uses for its widget) are regularly like five degrees apart in their report of both predicted and current temperature! What's one supposed to do with that?

Old/new post

How frigging irritating: when you start a post on Blogger and save it for later, when you finally do post it, it's posted under the time/date that you started it, not published it. So people don't see it because it's not at the top and may be below posts they have already seen.
I just posted this one on D.E.B.S.

Canon hacks

Some Canon compact cameras can be hacked and get capabilities normally reserved for big cameras.
If the cameras really are capable of all that, it seems idiotic to hide it away. Surely the reasons are fear of complexity for the normal user, and fear of the compacts cannibalizing the markets for bigger cameras, but still.