A trio of videos on counterintuitive mechanisms by the golden-voiced Coolaun and his graduate students.
See Amit Sahai’s page for a concise explanation.
from the South Bay
A trio of videos on counterintuitive mechanisms by the golden-voiced Coolaun and his graduate students.
See Amit Sahai’s page for a concise explanation.
I just finished reading your blog and immensely enjoyed it, May I share some thoughts and observations? (I guess that is a rhetorical question seeing as you can’t answer right now and I am about to subject you to them anyway, so sorry about that:)) I know that you aren’t a writer by profession but it felt like I was reading a writer. What it takes me to say in 3-4 sentences you are able to convey in a single sentence, I thought that was really wonderful and a beautiful gift you have cultivated. My favorite sentence in the whole blog is when you write ‘Aristides Vargas’s script and physically virtuosic staging penetrate to heart, bone and memory’ – there is something so poetic about that. The woodworking post was fascinating and the bench looks great, by the way. I was sad to read that you didn’t really enjoy a lot of the highlights of Italy. After visiting Rome, I couldn’t remember ever visiting a city like that. Every corner (at least the part I saw) was teeming with history and culture and beauty. It probably didn’t hurt that we had a tour guide and a 12 year old with us who couldn’t stop asking questions, we ended up learning a lot more than we bargained for. The Coliseum, Trevi Fountain, Sistine Chapel, Vatican….given your interest in art I thought you would probably really love Rome. But traveling can be tricky and it depends on a multitude of factors. I hope if you go again, it will be a much nicer experience. I don’t know a lot about the things you have blogged about so it was fascinating to read about a different world than mine. The one thing I was hoping to find was some commentary on Star Wars ( I thought you might have an interest )- Empire Strikes Back is my all time favorite movie and the philosophy presented in the movie can warrant at least several pages of analysis, but while I see Kubrick’s Space Odyssey discussed, I didn’t see anything on Star Wars, but perhaps you are not a fan or not an interesting subject maybe (?) I know there is a lot of commercial hype around it but at its essence it’s such a beautiful story with great philosophical undertones. Lastly, how wonderful to see Amit mentioned here, he is not only incredibly bright but a wonderful human being as well. I will have to drop by your blog from time to time to learn new things, it was fun(!) to read. Sorry for the long post, finally done :).
Thanks for the kind words and please do visit as time permits.
Italy: I went to Rome on a 4 day business trip in 1999, had a great time in the off hours, and was looking forward to a return visit. So, I went in with high expectations in 2004, possibly too high, especially for a winter trip and after the changeover to the Euro. With air travel so horrible now and with virtual reality making such strides, I think any future visit will be through a visor.
Star Wars: I have only seen the original movies. I liked them all and I agree that ‘Empire’ was the best. There just hasn’t been a natural intersection between those movies and the items I’ve blogged about so far. Maybe that will happen down the line.
Amit: I don’t know him personally but found his site when I was checking my derivation of the Coolaun cart problem. Mine was both clumsy and wrong and his crisp one pager set me straight.
I just sent you an email, fyi. Sometimes people have told me that it has gone to their junk mail folder the first time so I just wanted to let you know :), thanks.