Sunday, March 6, 2011

Great Quote

"And all this madness, all this rage, all this flaming death of our civilization and our hopes, has been brought about because a set of official gentlemen, living luxurious lives, mostly stupid, and all without imagination or heart, have chosen that it should occur rather than that any one of them should suffer some infinitesimal rebuff to his country's pride."

~Bertrand Russell

(8 days after the start of WW I)

Perceptory Illusions




















My sincerest apologies, all! I have been very busy with schoolwork, and finally have a chance to work a little bit on this during spring break. This group of illusions, in conjunction with other flaws of our mind (and the entire lack of evidence for the claims), is what leads me to not believe in the existence of ghosts.

Beau Lotto: Optical Illusions Show How We See


Waterfall Illusion

(Wait, isn't this a painting by one of the artists you featured previously?) Why yes, yes it is.
One would think that a 3-D version of this illusion would be unlikely, if not impossible. But to the contrary, it has been done. The creator has yet to reveal how the illusion works.

Color Changing Ring of Dots Illusion

It appears that the dots quit changing shape/color/size when the ring rotates. This is (for those of you who have yet to understand the point of this post) not the case. It is known as change blindness.
From NewScientist:
"The pair believe the illusion occurs because the areas of the brain responsible for detecting these changes are organised locally - each part of the visual field is monitored by a specific part of the brain. Because a fast moving object spends little time at any one location, a local detector only has a small window of time in which to assess the changing object - and therefore fails to detect the change."

Size Illusion


It is the illusion of size rather than the size itself which matters. The explanation for this has yet to be agreed upon by psychologists and neurologists.

The Phantom Spin Illusion

Part 1 Illusion: Top and bottom halves of 'wheel' should appear to move in opposite directions. They also switch directions when the 'wheel' moves in opposite directions.
Part 2 Illusion: The 'wheel' appears to be rotating as 'wheel'-block combination moves.
Part 3 Illusion: Both wheels connected to chain appear to rotate.

Impossible Motion Trick

The slopes appear to move down from the center. A different perspective reveals that the slopes actually move down towards the center.

Odd 3-D Illusions


Floating Cube Illusion


Ames Window Illusion


It's really a trapezoidal window. It appears to reverse direction every 180 degrees, but is really rotating in the same direction continuously.

Well how could this be used to manipulate people?





















Gears supposedly spin at a rate proportional to how stressed one is.

Complementary Color Wheel Illusion


More Information:
Coolest Illusion Site I've Seen
Optical Illusions
Touch Illusions
Another Optical Illusion Site
Rotating Grid Illusion
Octavio Ocampo - An Optical Illusion Artist
Psychological Explanations
200 yr-old Illusion Explained
Three-Arm Illusion

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Richest Americans of All Time

Mint.com

It's just an interesting infographic.