Friday, June 17, 2005

First thoughts

A fractal is a geometric shape that shows self similarity at all levels of detail. Essentially in the perfect fractal the shape will repeat itself infinitely on every increase in magnification. Of course the maths is beyond us plebs, but the rendered results are astonishing.



And they occur in nature.


Who knew maths could make such music.


Thursday, June 16, 2005

Today it seemed that I might be a...


In the words of the American dream, or Icarus last words;

"One autumn night, five years before, they had been walking down the street when the leaves were falling, and they came to a place where there were no trees and the sidewalk was white with moonlight. They stopped here and turned towards each other. Now it was a cool night with that mysterious excitement in it which comes at the two changes of the year. The quiet lights in the houses were burning out into the darkness and there was a stir and bustle among the stars. Out of the corner of his eye Gatsby saw that the blocks of the sidewalks really formed a ladder and mounted to a secret place above the trees - he could climb to it, if he climbed alone, and once there he could suck on the pap of life, gulp down the incomparable milk of wonder.

His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy's white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning-fork that had been struck upon a star. The he kissed her. At his lips' touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her.
At his lips' touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete

Through all that he said, even through his appalling sentimentality, I was reminded of something—an elusive rhythm, a fragment of lost words, that I had heard somewhere a long time ago. For a moment a phrase tried to take shape in my mouth and my lips parted like a dumb man's, as though there were more struggling on them than a wisp of startled air. But they made no sound, and what I had almost remembered was uncommunicable forever."

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

What I learned today


For those of you who haven't seen Sylvie Guillem live yet, you must do. Like now. Push is the best live artistic performance I have ever seen. Combining cattish atheleticism with sexy elegance, Guillem and Push are dance perfection. Check out that extension.

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