A friend and I took a Rober class, and while it was interesting if we didn’t have her prior knowledge and my ability to run tests we never would have made things work. He’s great at inspiring people (kids mostly, but adults too) but not the best at instructing them.
10 Likes
Perhaps this would make a great project for him. It is supposed to be a close-up of a larger video of US jets chasing a New Jersey “drone” though nearly as big as the jets. While the design is unusual, I see no violation of physics here, and it would make an interesting model.
The whole video is here.
6 Likes
I just came across an amazing story about an artist named Judith Scott, who had Down syndrome.
It’s a heartbreaking story and really feels like a kick in the gut to me. Twin sisters, Judith (who had Down syndrome) and Joyce. Judith was institutionalized at age 7. I am furious and so sad about how people with disabilities were institutionalized. She remained there for 35 years until her sister took her out. Hearing how she was treated in the institution - I have no words. I’m so thankful that is not how things are done anymore.
Anyway, she spent 18 years working on art. I don’t care what they say - if someone makes art, they are an artist. She died at 61, which is actually pretty remarkable considering the life expectancy for people with Ds during that timeframe.
10 Likes
Precisely. Artist is one of several things that the act makes you it.
9 Likes
I remember those times (though never personally exposed) There was a big political movement to close them and build a humane alternative. I recall a story that as they were closing one of they found a 20 something year old man who when tested had no issues. It seems that he was born there and grew up without anyone noticing.
In the end Reagan closed all the institutions but no humane alternative was forthcoming. I had seen homeless people on the streets of Mexico, and drunks on a bender in a district the police had hearded them to, but that explosion of homeless folk was first the former residents of those institutions.
7 Likes
Yep. I have a psych degree and this was a big topic I recall from my classes. It’s like this balance that we did not get right. But there is also a difference to me with regard to someone who is institutionalized because they need treatment vs they have a disability (and to me, it feels like they just didn’t want to deal with the issues for the person with the disability so they just threw them into institutions for new reason, or like your example, got there somehow another way and was just stuck there).
Reagan’s changes actually have brought about changes that help my daughter get her medical needs met and help me care for my daughter at home, so she doesn’t need to be in the hospital. But she needs a lot of care. I would never even consider putting her in an institution, but until the 60s and 70s brought about all the changes, that’s just what was done. I am thankful for the moms who advocated for their children and refused to institutionalize them because that played a part in the changes that happened.
Then there are people with mental health problems that for a multitude of reasons end up on the street, off meds, in bad situations, and there aren’t enough beds to get them in somewhere to help them.
It is heartbreaking.
7 Likes
There were supposed to be group homes of several people rather than the street but that would take compassion and money and from Reagan on that increasingly vanished. Even now with a bit of effort, many could hold down jobs that anyone without a shower cannot get no matter how well they could do it.
6 Likes
My son clarified to me “NOT Real footage, just Arma 3 gameplay simulation!”
But it does look rather cool!
8 Likes
I would want to try it. Better imagry than the usual, and better thought out. There are several claimed to be Ukraine footage but cannot get across the uncanny divide.
4 Likes
If there are any figma users apparently there is a plugin to make vectors with it:
https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/1440141868641854458/vector-image-ai
5 Likes
I fiddled with the figma plugin a little bit. Kind of Meh to me. Everything has a cartoonish/clip art feel to me. It’s about what you would get with a Inkscape image trace tacked onto an over-simplified MidJourney clone.
Also a little dumb sometimes. “simple line art, seamless pattern of geometric shapes and lines, fine line work with precision and detail-oriented carving, monochrome illustrations on a white background, fine illustrations”
Gave me this?!??
A Mandala request gave me this:
Which seems a bit slapdash for my taste.
Edit: Oh… Also credits are $9.99 for 50 and each prompt gives only a single response (not four variations like MJ)
5 Likes
fun, and slightly creepy
9 Likes
I saw the Strandbeest display at the Peabody Essex Museum years ago. It was really fun. Kinetic sculpture on steroids!
6 Likes
I’ve always been fascinated by these, now doubly so! I had no idea that their movement was based on a evolutionary algorithm and that they are developing a nervous system!
8 Likes
Using GPS satellites to detect tsunamis via ionospheric ionization waves
Excuse me, what?
@hansepe whoa.
10 Likes
Wow. Thanks for flagging this.
I love seeing new applications for existing data. And I wish I was as smart as the people that come up with this stuff!
8 Likes
I wish I was as smart as the people who use this stuff 
7 Likes
This is a pretty crazy story about the world’s largest CRT, maybe the last of its kind in existence.
5 Likes
I added this to my faq about creating a laser business but think it’s interesting enough to cross post here:
Tagging a few people that I know have followings.
9 Likes