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January 3, 2008

Ex-Patriot tells a little; More Google tricks; 'Can Atheists Be Parents?'; Fractal art winners...

Offensive lineman Ross Tucker out of Princeton was once a New England Patriot, playing in two games in 2005. In Sports Illustrated, he writes How the Patriots do it: An inside look at keys to New England's dominance:

During my time in New England I worked as a backup lineman and often had to snap to Brady while playing center. In spite of all of the other chaos that he had to sort through, he always found the time to look me squarely in the eye and say, "C'mon Ross, me and you, let's get a great snap first."

I never wanted to snap a ball so well in my life.

I was a veteran in my fifth and sixth years in the league while in New England and I had started over 20 games, but Brady's ability to single me out and make me feel important for the success of the play was unlike anything I had experienced.

The tagline at the end of the story reads, Ross Tucker has played for five different teams in his NFL career and is currently on Injured Reserve with the Washington Redskins. He has joined SI.com as a regular contributor on the NFL beat.

Last September, Tucker wrote a guest segment of Peter King's column, The Final cut: First-hand account of an NFL career coming to a close, about being fired during training camp by the Redskins. A herniated disc and spinal cord irritation suffered in his final game, confirmed by his exit physical, put him on injured reserve and ended his career:

...I am more than excited about the possibility of writing or talking about football for a living. I figure if I can't play anymore, that would be the next best thing.

But it is not the same as playing. Nothing else in life can replicate the feeling of running into another man in front of 90,000 people and hitting him as hard as you possibly can. My mom will probably hate reading this, but more than the paycheck or the camaraderie of the locker room, I will really miss the violence. It is just an amazing and pure primal feeling that you really don't understand if you have never had the chance to do it.

I'd like to see him spin out more details of his time as a Patriot. His latest SI piece is really a quick first draft. There's more there to be described.

Faces only? Top 10 Obscure Google Search Tricks at Lifehacker. Some were new to me.

Heckuva headline: Can Atheists Be Parents? Time Magazine. The New Jersey Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal of a couple whose adoption of a child, now 17 months old, was rejected last year by a judge who ruled, "the child should have the freedom to worship as she sees fit, and not be influenced by prospective parents who do not believe in a Supreme Being."

Their first adopted child is now 31.

Tweaking math:

Shuttered Windows by Susan Chambless

Fractal n. A geometric pattern that is repeated at ever smaller scales to produce irregular shapes and surfaces that cannot be represented by classical geometry. Fractals are used especially in computer modeling of irregular patterns and structures in nature.

Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest Winners 2007 include the work above. Fractal art involves choices and tweaking, color and focus, the actual calculations so complex only a computer could do them.

Interesting bit from the contest rules:
7. Selection Criteria

We are choosing art that represents our art form to a world that largely does not know it—or if they do know it, they know only garish, 70s-style imagery. We want to show diversity of fractal styles. We want to show diversity of colors. We want to show technically excellent work, but not work that is only technically excellent—it should be exemplary in its artistic expression as well. We want to show artwork that evokes a response from the viewer, that they can connect to. We want to show artwork that is uniquely fractal; artwork that uses fractal tools to produce less-fractal imagery is not as desirable. We want artwork that will look good when printed large (i.e. has lots of good, interesting fractal detail).

Bonus links:

Fractalus.com is fractal central. There, you'll find galleries, Information about Fractals, software links, and Step by Step: the Creation of a Fractal. At Step 177, Damien M. Jones is happy with his creation, at right.

Don Archer Digital Art This site is an exercise in love, vanity and art. It includes my current images, vintage fractals, animations, ceramic tiles, digital photographs, and more... Archer is director of MOCA, the Museum of Computer Art.

'Oh, no!' food news
Can the world act fast enough to save the disappearing tuna? Christian Science Monitor.

Alert over the march of the 'grey goo' in nanotechnology Frankenfoods

40pc feel food main cause for obesity: study

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 10:28 AM | Permalink

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