I climb up the scale and listen to your melody
As it casts itself out. A path for me.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Monday, June 02, 2008
Beauty in Second Life...
My last major post discussed evolution and beauty. By the way that post was also sent to my science blog where it generated a lot of discussion so check it out at:
http://www2.ljworld.com/weblogs/dangerous-ideas/2008/may/30/evolution-and-beauty/
Today I was down loading the new edition of Sculptie paint. This is a software tool for making irregular shaped objects called "sculpted prims"in Second Life. The creator is Cel Edman (at least that is his avatar's name) and today I briefly chatted with him and visited two of his second life sites. First his store where he sells prepackaged sculpties for those who need certain types of irregular shapes. For instance-building stairs the old way in second life eats up a lot of prims, but Cell has a stair tool which allows you to create single prim stairs. Remember in Second Life you are limited in the number of prims based on how much land you own...so every prim counts!
Outside his store is a wonderful set of sculpted forms:
Cel also tells me that he has never really had time to build in SL and he has recently bought land in a public area and has begun to build some really exciting things. For instance, check out this wonderful sculpted prim tree and how in interacts with the light and fog in the sim.
Oops a storm is moving in and my battery back up has just kicked on.
http://www2.ljworld.com/weblogs/dangerous-ideas/2008/may/30/evolution-and-beauty/
Today I was down loading the new edition of Sculptie paint. This is a software tool for making irregular shaped objects called "sculpted prims"in Second Life. The creator is Cel Edman (at least that is his avatar's name) and today I briefly chatted with him and visited two of his second life sites. First his store where he sells prepackaged sculpties for those who need certain types of irregular shapes. For instance-building stairs the old way in second life eats up a lot of prims, but Cell has a stair tool which allows you to create single prim stairs. Remember in Second Life you are limited in the number of prims based on how much land you own...so every prim counts!
Outside his store is a wonderful set of sculpted forms:
Cel also tells me that he has never really had time to build in SL and he has recently bought land in a public area and has begun to build some really exciting things. For instance, check out this wonderful sculpted prim tree and how in interacts with the light and fog in the sim.
Oops a storm is moving in and my battery back up has just kicked on.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Simone's new doo
Last night I decided to get some flexi prim hair for my SL avatar. I was amazed at how different she looked compared to her normal prim self.
Before:
After:
I like the new hair but for teaching I will stick to my old look except when I want to let my hair down...virtually that is.
Before:
After:
I like the new hair but for teaching I will stick to my old look except when I want to let my hair down...virtually that is.
A loss...
One of my favorite bloggers is Ron Hudson over at 2sides2ron. Recently his Mom passed away and I thought his post about her death and the aftermath should be shared to a wider audience.
See http://ronhudson.blogspot.com/2008/05/through-those-eyes.html
See http://ronhudson.blogspot.com/2008/05/through-those-eyes.html
The Evolution of Beauty
I am never away from thinking about evolution. Being at Disney last week taking lots of pictures of flowers, got my thinking about evolution and beauty. Take this shot of a flower from Disney:
Actually this structure is called a spathe and it really a group of fused flowers wrapt around by a leaf. Think of Jack in the Pulpit and you have idea.
At first glance, not a traditionally beautiful picture and yet if you really look at it I suspect you will see a certain sensuousness to this image. I am reminded of Georgia O'Keeffe who allegedly said she painted flowers because she couldn't afford models. The traditional explanation for why flowers are beautiful is that that this is a by product of the coevolution between flowers and pollinators. But that really doesn't explain why they are beautiful for us. Part of the answer maybe that flowers also coevolved with us and breeders selected for beauty. But why beauty in the first place?
In terms of sexual beauty and attractiveness, it appears that humans and other animals have innate neurological biases that operate in conjunction with Darwinian sexual selection leading to elaboration of certain characteristics. But why these biases? Why not just respond to the narrow signs required for our reproduction and not feel rewarded emotionally by flowers and other things that we see as beautiful be it a flower, a poem or a butterfly?
Of course, I would want an evolutionary explanation because of my (innate perhaps?) desire for explanation. How do things come about? How do they work? But just because scientists are interested in these sorts of questions no way diminishes the emotional response and appreciation of beauty in all its forms.
Nor does beauty exist in a vacuum. Our innate neurological biases may be enhanced or over ridden by our experience or cultural preconceptions. For instance for me the beauty of the Rhododendron in the picture above is enhanced by the presence of these little bug (actually Katydid) nymphs:
There is a richness of connection that the nymphs add that for me is itself part of beauty and would be missing if I had taken a shot of the flower alone.
Actually this structure is called a spathe and it really a group of fused flowers wrapt around by a leaf. Think of Jack in the Pulpit and you have idea.
At first glance, not a traditionally beautiful picture and yet if you really look at it I suspect you will see a certain sensuousness to this image. I am reminded of Georgia O'Keeffe who allegedly said she painted flowers because she couldn't afford models. The traditional explanation for why flowers are beautiful is that that this is a by product of the coevolution between flowers and pollinators. But that really doesn't explain why they are beautiful for us. Part of the answer maybe that flowers also coevolved with us and breeders selected for beauty. But why beauty in the first place?
In terms of sexual beauty and attractiveness, it appears that humans and other animals have innate neurological biases that operate in conjunction with Darwinian sexual selection leading to elaboration of certain characteristics. But why these biases? Why not just respond to the narrow signs required for our reproduction and not feel rewarded emotionally by flowers and other things that we see as beautiful be it a flower, a poem or a butterfly?
Of course, I would want an evolutionary explanation because of my (innate perhaps?) desire for explanation. How do things come about? How do they work? But just because scientists are interested in these sorts of questions no way diminishes the emotional response and appreciation of beauty in all its forms.
Nor does beauty exist in a vacuum. Our innate neurological biases may be enhanced or over ridden by our experience or cultural preconceptions. For instance for me the beauty of the Rhododendron in the picture above is enhanced by the presence of these little bug (actually Katydid) nymphs:
There is a richness of connection that the nymphs add that for me is itself part of beauty and would be missing if I had taken a shot of the flower alone.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Update on Expelled! Was Behe expelled?
I am no fan of Michael Behe but according to this post at Darwinian Conservatism he was expelled from Expelled. Seems he is just too independent for some of the other ID'ers.
Thanks Larry for pointing this gem out.
Thanks Larry for pointing this gem out.
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