2001 A Space Odyssey

Actually I have watched this movie at least three times, but I've fogotten the detail of story.  What I remember about this movie is that the movie is one of the difficult movie to figure out a message.  This movie is profound, meaningful, and artistic.  People in this movie don't speak so much, and Kubric is using some beautiful classic music in some scene where we don't expect that kind of music is used.  I especially like the beginning of this movie, which is called "The dawn of man".  At the moment human beings achieved the innovative evolution, the movie impressed me with beautiful music.

An Optical Illusion

Do you trust your eyes? If so, how can you trust your eyes?  The picture is famous for optical illusion.  Can you believe the square marked A and the one marked B are exactly same colour?  You may say "A is much darker than B"; however, they are same.  This is called an optical illusion (or visual illusion), which is characterized by visually perceived images that differ from objective reality.  There are three main types: literal optical illusions, physiological optical illusions, and cognitive optical illusions.


Initially, literal optical illusions create images that are different from the objects that make them.  For example, the lines in following picture are actually parallel, but we somehow feel they have angles.
Zollner, who were Geman, found this optical illusion.  I don't know why our eyes are deceived in this case.  According to Zollner, oblique lines in each parallel lines influence our brain, and the bigger the angle of oblique line is, the more effective it is.  I have a lot of examples about this kind of simple optical illusion, so if you  guys want me to introduce them, let me know!



The second type of optical illusions is physiological one.  This one is the effects on the eyes and brain of excessive stimulation of a specific type such as brightness, colour, size, position, tilt, or  movement. For example, look at the left picture.  Although there are only white dots on the cross, we can see black dots there.  The theory is that a stimulus follows its individual dedicated neural path in the early stages of visual processing, and that intense or repetitive activity in that or interaction with active adjoining channels cause a physiological imbalance that changes perception, according to the literature on this subject.


The third type is cognitive optical illusion.  This type is  called "unconscious inferences". This idea was suggested in the 19th century by Hermann Helmholtz.  For example, look at the right picture.  What do you think this picture looks like?  Some people might say this is two faces which gaze at each other.  The other people might say this is vase.  If we change the way to see it, we can find other shape in a same picture.


What are optical illusions teaching us?  What I wanted to say with using those example is a very simple but important thing. That is, nobody can say "what I see is absolutely correct".  People usually believe only what they can see; however, sometimes truth is hidden.  If we change the way to see, we may be able to see what we haven't seen or what other people usually see.


P.S.
I put the picture which clearly explains the first picture because some of you may be still doubtful.

The Summary of "A Darwinian theory of beauty"

What is beauty?  We can find beauty in many different things like music, art, sports, plays, and so on.  When we think about this topic, we are likely to think beauty is determined by personal sense of value or culture.  However, Denis Dutton illustrates that there are universal beauty that has never changed since human existed, with Darwin's theory.  In nature, there are natural selection and sexual selection.  These selections mean that beautiful things naturally win and remain and what lost in competition disappears. This phenomenon is not dependent on culture but everywhere.  There are beautiful landscape which everybody loves regardless of culture or nationality.  Also people can feel beauty in something done well.  These example shows us that we have aesthetics not in our eyes but in our deep mind.  We have taken it over historically and we also give it to offspring as long as human exist.

Personal Reaction about Bill Reid Gallery

Before I came to Vancouver, I hadn't been curious about the First Nations' culture in Canada.  However, once I knew the history, the culture, and the totem poles, I became interested in the First Nations.  Although the Bill Reid Gallery was smaller than I expected, it was interesting.  In particular, what I found interesting is tongues which most faces have.  The thrusting tongues looks humorous, but actually it doesn't mean it.  The tongue-thrusting is serious, and I heard that it shows that the creature is giving "knowledge" or "power" to the creatures to whom it is thrusting its tongue.  Totem poles are not symbol of religion but symbol of the history.  I felt the First Nations had found their history or origin very significant when I went to the gallery.

Common Cuckoo

  I have already introduced a insect, a plant as a interesting specie although I was not sure if you guys were interested in them or not.  Anyway, because I want to share something interesting or mysterious with you guys, I'm going to write about that kind of thing again.  Today's theme is "Common Cuckoo"(Cuculus Canorus), which is a kind of birds.


  The cuckoo is seen in Eurasian Continent and Africa Continent.  Sometimes we can see it in Japan in May.  This bird is known for peaceful birds because their songs sound humorous, amiable, and cute.  However, as a matter of fact, they have a horrible custom.  The common cuckoo is a brood parasite, which lays its eggs in the nests of other bird species.  It means they make other birds bring up their child!!  The victims are mostly the Reed Warblers, which is also kind of birds, and much smaller than Cuckoo.  When the hen cuckoo flies down to the Reed Warblers' nest, she pushes one Reed Warbler egg out of the nest, and lays an egg and flies off.  The whole process takes only about 10 seconds.  She kills a Reed Warbler egg in order to make Reed Warbler bring up only her child.  Sometimes, the hen cuckoo fails to kill other eggs, and then the eggs safely hatch; however, when Cuckoo's egg hatches, the Cuckoo chick pushes other eggs out of the nest.  Eventually, if birds are invaded by Cuckoo, their own eggs can never survive.  At 14 days old, the Cuckoo chicks are about three times the size of the adult Reed Warblers.

  We wonder why Reed Warblers don't notice the fact the chick is actually a wrong bird.  The size of Cuckoo chicks is totally different from Reed Warblers' chicks. It's obvious!!  But, in fact, they know they are raising other birds' chicks.  They have known it since their own children are killed by the chick.  Even if Reed Warblers know the truth, they can't help raising the Cuckoo chick, which is only child remained in their nest.  This is kind of an instinct that animals have.  Although they are aware of something wrong, they keep feeding the chick until the chick is grown up and leaves the nest.


  Do you think Cuckoo is cruel?  Yes, for victims such as Reed Warblers, this custom is fairly terrible.  But why do Cuckoos do this?  Why don't they bring up their children by themselves?  Are they just lazy?  Actually, not.  They have a reason that they have to do that.  The reason is their body temperature is not enough high to warm eggs up.  Their body temperature is easy to change, so they can't warm their eggs up by themselves.  I think Cuckoos were thinking over about this serious problem, and they came up with being a brood parasite in order to survive.  When they get pregnant, they always have to find a suitable nest.  Even if they can find it, they have to say good bye to their eggs.  Their child can never see the true parent.  The chick thinks the bird who feed him is a parent, and the hen Cuckoo realize it.  Although she loves her child, she can't meet her child as a parent.  This is a tragedy not only for Reed Warblers, but also Cuckoos.

Cheer for Argentina!!

  Today, I'm going to writing about soccer, especailly Argentina national team.  I'm really crazy about watching soccer games though I don't like playing it.  Soccer players always attract me, and I"m so excited when teams I cheer win.  I have many teams I love to cheer for, such as Barcelona FC in Spain, Manchester United in England and Inter Milan in Italy, but the team I love the most is Argentina national team.  In spite of the fact that I have nothing related to Argentina, I have been a big fun of Argentina. The first time I watched the game of Argentina is 13 years ago.  Then, I had watched 1998 World Cup, which was held in France, and I was so attracted to Argentina although they couldn't be a champion.  Their soccer was really fantastic, artistic, mervelous, and definitely outstanding compared to other thems.  Since then, I have loved Argentina national team.
  As a matter of fact, I would cheer for Argentina rather than Japan or Korea if they matched.  I think most people naturally cheer for their own countries.  However, I can't naturally think either Japan or Korea is my own country.  Of course, I have many favorite players in Japanese team and Korean team, and I love both.  But it is not based on my patriot.  When 2002 World Cup was held in Korea and Japan, everybody in Japan had cheered for Japan.  While most of my friends worn Japan Uniforms, and some of my Korean Japanese friends worn Korean Uniforms, I worn Argentina Uniform.  (However, then Argentina had to go home much more earlily than supporters expected...)
  Now, 2011 Copa America, which is the biggest soccer event in South America, is going on in Argentina.  Although Argentina has so many great players such as Messi, who is the best player in the world, and Argentina is a host country, they couldn't win at the last two games!! Both were draw games.  I was really disappointed. Actually I can't figre out what's going on.  That's why I came up with posting this topic.  Argentina still has a chance to go up to the tournament if they win at the next game; however, if they lost or drew again, I would be terribely shocked, even might get sick.  So please cheer and pray for Argentina to win!

Similarities between Genesis and "Prometheus Bound"

  I'm going to write about similarities between Genesis and "Prometheus Bound".  We can find some similarities in both stories even though they are based on different philosophies.
  First of all, both stories have absolute existences. It is God in Genesis, and it is Zeus in "Prometheus Bound".  They have a strong power which others can't rebel against at all.  Also, both seem to think that they don't want to share their knowledge, technology with people, and gave punishment to serpent, and Prometheus.  Actually there is a difference here.  I guess the reason of the punishment Zeus gave is because he was afraid that people got power to assert against Gods including him; however, God in the Bible just got angry against breaking a rule.  Although reasons seem different, both situations are quite similar.
  Secondly, both stories have victims of unreasonable punishment, and both victims tried to help people.  In Genesis, serpent got punishment because he encouraged Eve to eat the fruit.  I can say it's little bit controversial because serpent might just try to confuse people and tempt Eve.  In this theory, God put the tree because he respected people's will or loyalty.  So I can't say if the serpent was really good or not.  Meanwhile, Prometheus was definitely a victim.  He helped people to gain vital knowledge and skills. He thought it was absolutely necessary for people, but Zeus didn't like it.  Although I can't say both victims are completely same, they got punishment which most people might think was unreasonably terrible.

The differences between 1st account and 2nd account

  As most of my friends know, I'm a Christian, so I have been to Church every Sunday.  However, I have never tried to compare each account of Genesis. It may be theologically a good idea.  I always realize how deep the Bible is when I read it.  Roughly speaking, there are three differences between 1st account and 2nd account.  These are 1)how to call God, 2)length of the creation, and 3)the sequence of events.
  First of all, while God is called just "God" in 1st account, he is called "the Lord God" in 2nd account.  Why is it different?  I guess that's because God has been the only existence which can think about other things until he created others.  Then, nobody has been able to recognize God.  However, after he created some things which could recognize themselves and others, it became possible that God was called "the Lord".  At the moment he created us, he became the Lord.  I think the author has tried to show us the moment God became OUR God.
  In addition, the lengths of the creation are different.  God took 6days to create the base of the world such as ocean, land, and stars.  On the other hand, he has created creatures including human beings for only one day.  Some people believe that it may be easier to create creatures than the world.  Meanwhile, some number theorists who try to connect mathematics with the Bible pay attention to numbers themselves like "6" and "1".  "6" is called "perfect number" because "1+2+3"(they are factors of 6) is 6 and "1*2*3" is also 6.  The number "6" shows us that God is perfect.  In the mean time, the number "1" is the basic number of everything. "1" never rejects anything, and can accept everything.  So the number "1" is regarded as a symbol of coexistence.  Although I don't know the meaning of differences of these lengths, I think that a day is different from a day we imagine.  A day in the Genesis could be a thousand years.  Because God also create time, he can control the length of time.
  Finally, the sequence of events is different.  In 1st account, God created vegetation, and then created human.  However, in 2nd account, it's opposite.  He created a man at first, and then others.  If I can say something from Christian's point of view, it may show that people are very special for God.  All of other things were created for people.  Ocean, land, sky, Sun, Moon, etc are necessary for people before human was created.  Animals, vegetation, cattle, and partnership are necessary for them after human was created.  Of course, it doesn't mean people can do anything to other creatures.  When people get a power to control them, people get also responsibility to deal with them other creatures well.
  Although Genesis is controversial part and some people may misunderstand what is actually written, I like Genesis.  I don't believe that kind of things actually historically happened.  But I believe that God created this world no matter how long he took for it.  Anyway, most Christians don't believe that men are superior to women because of what is written in Genesis.  Only few people who are very conservative believe that.  It's actually absurd.  Don't misunderstand it!!

Voynich Manuscript

  Today, I'm going to write about Voynich Manuscript, instead of my usual weekend.  Have you ever heard Voynich Manuscript?  It's one of the most interesting mystery in the world.  As you guys know, I have a lot of interests; especially, I'm really curious about something mysterious.  Voynich Manuscript always catches my heart and holds it.  It's special in numerous mysteries I have ever known.

  Voynich manuscript was found by Wilfrid Michael Voynich(1865-1930, Polish)  in Italy
 in 1912.  What is interesting about this manuscript is the fact that this manuscript is written in unknown language.  Voynich had tried to understand this language with many language experts; however, he couldn't succeed.  What he found out is only the fact that this manuscript was written in 15 centuries.  The language seems similar to European language, but it's definitely different from any other languages.  Some researchers claims that this language is kind of fake because this language hadn't been found in any other written materials.  In other words, this language is used in only Voynic manuscript.  So, some researchers believe that a genius created this language to confuse people.  It is still one of possible hypotheses.  However, most of linguists denied this hypothesis because the language seems like a language that some people actually had used in certain ages.  The linguists claims that they can figure out that the language is not fake by means of investigating how often same patterns show up in sentence, or sentence structures.
  What's more bizarre is the illustrations in the manuscript.  There are some familiar plants in those illustrations; however, most of them are something nobody knows.  Most of illustrations seem like plants, and some of them seem like animals, people, or space.   In particular, the illustrations which seem like space are really similar to galaxy, or Andromeda Nebula.  How come the author could draw the pictures of galaxy without astronomical telescopes?  It is obvious that people in 15 centuries didn't have astronomical telescope.  Therefore, some people claims that aliens wrote this manuscript. According to those people, the language and unfamiliar plants in illustrations are not something which had existed on earth.  This idea sounds absurd, but I like it.
  So many people, including many researchers, scholars, doctors, professional and amateur cryptographers, and American and British code-breakers from World War, have tried to decipher it, but nobody haven't succeeded yet.  Because it is open for everybody, we can see the whole pages of this manuscript through the internet.  If you succeed to decipher it, you may be able to get more than I million dollars!  Let's try to do it!!