3-second rule

Photo by nicky.reynolds

What we have is very broad research showing that we experience the world in about these 3-second time frames.

Developmental psychologist Emese Nagy of the University of Dundee in the United Kingdom, commenting on her study: Sharing the moment: the duration of embraces in humans, in which she determines that the average Olympic gymnasts' hug lasts about three seconds.

Nagy's research stems from older studies that have observed this 3-second rule in human nature, as reported by the Journal Science:

Crosscultural studies dating back to 1911 have shown that people tend to operate in 3-second bursts. Goodbye waves, musical phrases, and infants' bouts of babbling and gesturing all last about 3 seconds. Many basic physiological events, such as relaxed breathing and certain nervous system functions do, too. And several other species of mammals and birds follow the general rule in their body-movement patterns. A 1994 study of giraffes, okapis, roe deer, raccoons, pandas, and kangaroos living in zoos, for example, found that although the duration of the animals' every move, from chewing to defecating, varied considerably, the average was, you guessed it, 3 seconds.

free with tempi

Photo by CubaGallery

In an age before mechanical repetition, before constant noise, before continuous acceleration, did people have a different sense of time? Pianists today are nowhere as free with tempi, as improvisatory yet structured, as subtle.

Shirley Apthorp in the Financial Times writing about Chasing the Butterfly, new recordings of Grieg -- that rely on old takes by Grieg.

morning light

Sunday. Starting slow.
Boulder, CO

international business machines

Brilliant short on important tech history by the commercial and documentary filmmaker Errol Morris. The piece was commissioned by IBM for their 100th anniversary.

(Betcha can't clear the Mandelbrot scene without choking up.)

via @frydave

smells like

Tamily Weissman, Jeff Lichtman, and Joshua Sanes (2007). Image taken from a transgenic “Brainbow” mouse that enables neuroscientists to distinguish between neighboring, densely packed neurons by illuminating them in different colors. This photomicrograph shows a few of the many neurons that are found in the neocortex.

Image via "Portraits of the Mind: Visualizing the Brain from Antiquity to the 21st Century," by Carl Schoonover; Published by Abrams, featured on Book Bench, the New Yorker blog


Made me think of the kaleidoscope that is Klimt:

Gustav Klimt, The Pear Tree (1903)

jarmusch rules (abbrv.)

Photo via jonathanrosenbaum.com

Rule #1: There are no rules.
Rule #2: Don’t let the fuckers get ya.
Rule #3: The production is there to serve the film.
Rule #4: Filmmaking is a collaborative process.

Rule #5: Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery—celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.”

Posting these so I don't lose track of them. They're intended for filmmakers but apply across the board. Treat yourself and read them in their entirety.

Found via users illusions.

something called a mouse

What is this? Look at this, Keith. This is incredible! My God! I drew a circle!

Andy Warhol to Keith Haring at a 9-year old's birthday party in 1985. The two were playing with the Macintosh computer that Steve Jobs had just given the birthday boy. From the Playboy Interview with Steve Jobs that same year »

far more forthright, direct, humane

Image: The Kahn Memo via The Best American Poetry

The passive voice is wildly overused in government writing. Typically its purpose is to conceal information — one is less likely to be jailed if one says, ‘He was hit by a stone,’ than if he says, ‘I hit him with a stone.’ The active voice is far more forthright, direct, humane.

Economist Alfred E. Kahn in a memo to his Civil Aeronautics Board staff in 1977, cited by his friend Robert Frank in today's New York Times.

Stacey Harwood also wrote about the memo in The Best American Poetry shortly after Kahn's death, and posted image copies online if you'd like to give it a read.

I have heard it said that style is not substance, but without style what is substance? — Kahn

stan adrift

Snow's just begun. Five to ten inches expected. Stan and I have canceled our plans and are staying home with the Sunday New York Times.

the safety of the world

The safety of the world depends on your saying 'no' to inhumane ideas. Standing up for one's own integrity makes you no friends. It is costly. Yet defiance of the mob, in the service of that which is right, is one of the highest expressions of courage I know.

Representative Gabrielle Giffords' commencement address to Claremont's Scripps College in May 2009, as reported by the LA Times after Giffords was shot in the head this morning by a gunman at a "Congress on your Corner" event in Tucson. Six others were killed.

another sexy saturday night

another sexy saturday night
Originally uploaded by suttonhoo

At the Ideal Market,
North Boulder.

this is stan

I found Stan in an art supply store. He's a Woodland Scenics Seated People (1/4" Scale A2043).

He was hanging on an aisle endcap and caught my eye as I was scanning the rows for pens. He and his people were all seated, waiting eternally. Stan seemed the most optimistic of the crew, looking off to the far horizon. Hopeful. Confident. Longing.

I snapped his picture, found the pens, paid at the register and went my way.

But for some reason I couldn't forget about Stan.

A few weeks later I went back and bought the last pack of Woodland Scenics Seated People off the rack.

And now we're getting to know each other, me and Stan.

More to come.

joe's paint & body repair

joe's paint & body repair
Originally uploaded by suttonhoo

Boulder, CO

letterage

The Alphabet from n9ve on Vimeo.

sometimes we simply perform in the woods

They do their pieces in this tiny studio, with no publicity whatsoever, for an audience that is reached through text messages, and that audience never comes directly to the theater. They are met at another location and escorted to the theater by a cast member. When you come, you are advised to bring your passport, because you never know when the police are going to show up and haul everyone off to jail.

Catherine Coray, a theater professor at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, speaking of the Belarus Free Theater in this morning's New York Times.

The Belarus Free Theater players are currently in New York where they are performing in Being Harold Pinter as part of the Public Theater's Under The Radar Festival.

interchange, take two

interchange, take two
Originally uploaded by suttonhoo

Colorado this time.

Davey's Chuck Wagon Diner

Davey's Chuck Wagon Diner
Originally uploaded by suttonhoo

Lakewood, CO

the last of the ho ho ho

the last of the ho ho ho
Originally uploaded by suttonhoo

Wreath. Parting shot, Midway.

Heading back to Colorado without Mr. Hoo,
as it has been for the last six months. This
goodbye feels harder than most because we
had a couple of weeks to get used to each
other again; the slow waking to mornings and
the long goodnights.

Ready to be living under the same roof again.

interchange

interchange
Originally uploaded by suttonhoo

Road to Midway
Colorado-bound.

sunset, 1.1.11

sunset, 1.1.11
Originally uploaded by suttonhoo

First sunset of the new year.
Naperville, IL

getting to PERMA

Jane McGonigal - On Productivity from The School of Life on Vimeo.

Thanks to Jane McGonigal my New Year's Resolution is to play more games.

And get back to blogging (I miss it).


Jane McGonigal is a game designer based in San Francisco, California. She is the director of game research and development at the Institute for the Future and author of Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World.