Thu, 28 Nov 2002
It's uncanny!
Japanese roboticist Doctor Masahiro Mori has a fascinating theory
about the psychology of the uncanny: why do glittering robots and aliens
and fey folk in movies appeal, while zombies and monsters repel us?
It's all to do with our emotional responses to entities that look
similar to -- but not identical to -- human faces and bodies, and tied
up with the deep-rooted human perception of beauty in symmetry.
David Bryant
gives a digest of his theories.
[ Link ]
[ Discuss writing ]
posted at: 21:36 | path: /misc | permanent link to this entry
Hibernation
Last week was bad; I was sleeping later and later and getting tired
earlier and earlier. I had a constant urge to sally forth and eat
fried food, fish and chips, or maybe garbage pizza; and no matter how
much caffeine I drank I still felt fatigued. Then, around Friday, I
realised what was going on.
It's hibernation season.
I get this every year, but this time round it seems to have hit me
particularly hard: some time in November as the nights draw in I
seem to lose the ability to stay awake and do a full day's work. It's
mild seasonal affective disorder, aka winter blues, and living at a
latitude fifty miles north of Moscow doesn't help; sunrise is currently
some time around 9am and sunset is getting closer and closer to 4pm.
Whatever, the upshot is that it takes me longer to wake up and get
going in the morning and I get tired earlier in the evening. For the
past week it's been all I can manage just to keep up with my basic
writing workload, never mind updating the blog, tidying the flat,
or doing anything else for that matter.
Anyway, next weekend Feorag and I are off to London to do some seasonal
shopping. After that, I guess I'll doze off and see you in the new year.
posted at: 21:30 | path: /misc | permanent link to this entry
Quicktopic is down
Quicktopic, who host the discussion areas for my blog (and others, such
as BoingBoing) is down right now.
(One of these days I'll have to write my own ...)
posted at: 17:23 | path: /misc | permanent link to this entry
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