al-mofhariz

He's Got the Moves: Computer Scientist Christoph Bregler lectures on "Virtual You" Don't move a muscle . . . Every human being has a unique body signature. Your hand gestures. Your facial expressions. The way you walk. Computer scientist Christoph Bregler of NYU's Courant Institute is a master of analyzing and recreating such subtleties--designing systems to track human movement and train computers to recognize and animate all that "you-ness." Jumping off from recent collaborations with dancers, animators, film producers, and game designers, Dr. Bregler discusses: -- motion capture in science and entertainment --massive multiplayer "Mocap" games and flying "Squidballs" -- "Obama-ness" versus "Palin-ness" --his "GreenDot" iPhone app, an experiment in community video and nonverbal expression Before & After --Groove to animated tunes --Try our machine-coded cocktail of the night, the Wet Wire --Sti...

I celebrated the end of the semester by cracking open Katherine Howe's delightful novel, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane . I picked up the book a few months ago out of curiosity. I'm only separated from Howe by a single degree of social distance, although our link is a loose one, and I do not know her personally. But I'd read on the book jacket this tidbit: "The idea for this novel developed while [Howe] was studying for her doctoral qualifying exams, walking her dog through the woods between Marblehead and Salem." That's what I call putting qualifiers to good use! What's most interesting about the book, though, is the way it succeeds as an argument about historical emphasis. Set aside the plot (though it's a fine one) and all of the made-up stuff (you know, the "fiction") and you hold before you a historiographical essay. Apparently inspired by recent work in the history of science attempting to place alchemy nearer to the mainstream of...