Ned Gulley's Blog. Resident buzzwords: wise crowds, accelerated design, swarm robotics, synthetic biology.
Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 31st, 2010
When you see a close-up photograph, something about it just looks small. Psychologically, what you’re responding to is the severely limited depth of field. Only one band of the photo is in sharp focus, and the foreground and background are both blurry. This happens because the physics blah blah optics blah blah blah. But once [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 25th, 2010
The amount of useful stuff we squeeze out of petroleum is shockingly long. In addition to merely propelling us in various motor vehicles, it takes the form of plastics, lubricants, solvents, waxes, asphalt, synthetic rubber and fibers, flavorings and fragrances, cosmetics, medicine precursors, and on and on. On the plus side, we can be congratulated [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 19th, 2010
Here’s a trailer for a movie that you might see this year. Or maybe it’s a trailer for a movie that you’ve already seen several times in the last year. See if you agree. This impressive meta-film is the work of the comedy duo BriTANicK. Meta is in the air these days. People are getting [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 17th, 2010
Ever wonder, as you’re watching the Pasadena Tournament of Roses parade, or some equally bizarre weirdness-on-wheels spectacle, just who first came up with the idea for floats? If you’re a regular at the Atlas Obscura, you would know that they’ve been building floats for the Yamaboko festival in Kyoto ever since the year 869. That’s [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 8th, 2010
I wrote a short guest post for Loren Shure’s Art of MATLAB blog over at MATLAB Central. It’s based on a surprisingly visual explanation of a remarkable theorem. Have a look: Nicomachus’s Theorem.
Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 4th, 2010
“The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.” -Ralph W. Sockman. Magic is a slippery word. Does it refer to a trick or a glimpse of something deeper? This simple question has always puzzled me. This little essay is my attempt to nail down why that is. I want to talk [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 3rd, 2010
Pakistan and India share a border that is well over 1000 miles long, but in all that distance, there is only one road that goes directly across the border. Or at least that’s what is claimed by the Wikipedia entry for Wagah, a town that straddles the Grand Trunk Road between Amritsar (India) and Lahore [...]
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