A Vanishing PUZZLE: 12 or 13 ?

Optical Illusions

Found this today, not sure how widely it has been distributed in past. Anyway, it's awesome. Try it on if you've not before:Is it 12 or 13? Wait until the group changes position

In the "13" configuration each person is missing a very small slice of themselves which has been shuffled around to make up a new person.This can most plainly be seen by the fellow on the left who's missing the top of his head and the fellow 6th from the left whose shoes aren't quite as bulky as they should be (when in the 13 configuration)

Similar puzzles:Get Off the Earth PuzzleBUSHWACKY and O Sumwon bin LyinThe Extra Square

解決方法 : 分別抓下 12 人和 13 人的畫面擷圖，然後照著原圖分割，再分別清點「人頭」和「人腳」，得到了：

圖的上、下半部各有 12 個構成人形的圖案，在 12 人的圖中，這 12 組圖案都各自配對到，也就是說每一個人在圖的上下半部都分到了「頭」和「腳」；但在 13 人的圖中，有一人沒有佔到上半部，一人沒有佔到下半部，所以多了一人。

信息可視化與視覺設計

[轉] 在工作中你是否會因為不知道用哪種圖表（柱狀圖、餅狀圖、散點圖……）來呈現表格數據而頭疼呢？這就是信息可視化（Information Visualization），是一個很大的話題。我們一般講的可視化，包括科學計算可視化和信息可視化。前者大量運用在醫學、地理、物理等領域（空間數據），比如部分分佈式計算項目的屏幕保護程序，可以歸為科學計算可視化的一種（當然與科研領域相比只能算毛毛雨了）。後者則主要是信息系統、商業金融、網絡等領域（非空間數據，或者多維數據）。一方面由於信息可視化本身是近些年才發展起來的，另一方面我本人實際涉及的也不是很多，本文參考了一些信息可視化的文獻，附在文末，與大家共勉。

一個例子

今年股市比較熱，打開任何一款炒股軟件都能看到花花綠綠的曲線、圖形，那麼你可知道用來表示股價信息的 K 線圖是誰發明的呢？傳說是日本大米商人本間宗久為了記錄下每日的大米價格變動而發明的一種圖示，記錄下價格的漲跌和走勢，適時的進行大米交易來積聚財富，這種圖示法準確、細緻、獨特，後來才被引入美國股市和期貨市場。當然現在信息技術和統計學的發展，還湧現了一大批圖表，比如星空圖、散戶線、火焰山等等。信息可視化在這裡將大量的數據進行信息提取，然後通過直觀和形象的圖形表現出來。（想像一下如果股票信息都是以二維表格形式呈現的話，那是多麼恐怖）認知心理學和圖形設計信息可視化的兩大基礎是認知心理學和圖形設計，認知心理學是理論基礎，圖形設計是實踐操作。可視化不僅僅是視覺上的，該領域的研究人員也嘗試著將聽覺、嗅覺和觸覺融合進去（比如針對殘障人士的設計）。在《信息可視化的基本過程和與主要研究領域》一文中，作者將視覺上的可視化變量分為 7 種：位置、形狀、大小、方向、色彩、紋理、灰度，有時候也會將色彩分為色相、亮度和飽和度。基本上所有的信息可視化應用都是一個或多個變量的組合。不同的視覺變量在呈現數據各有優劣（從認知角度），如下表所示：

*　聯繫：數據與數據間的關係等；選擇：數據的識別等；次序：比如時間序列和空間序列；在 Web 設計上的應用信息可視化對於具體的 Web 應用是很有指導意義的，或者說就是信息可視化的應用。基本步驟就是從大量數據中提取元數據，然後對應可視化變量，用圖形設計方法去實現。IBM 有一個相關項目叫做 ManyEyes ，內置了很多常見的可視化模型，可以參考。對於 Web 設計來說，重點是利用認知心理學的理論作引導，比如色彩的暗喻、直覺等，如果是國際化產品，尤其注意文化差異。從色彩的角度講，各個國家或地區因為政治、宗教、環境等不同，對色彩的感受不同。結合上面的表格，舉個例子：TagCloud。TagCloud 的目的是什麼呢？並非是表現出各個 Tag 之間的關係，而是讓用戶能夠更好的進行選擇、識別，所以通過大小和顏色的區分，創造了 TagCloud。所以做設計還是回到了先進行用戶研究這個話題上。其他在 Web 上的應用，比如 Google Analytics、Google Trends。借助於 Flash、Flex、SilverLight 等強大的瀏覽器端圖像渲染，可以將大量的、複雜的數據清晰、直觀、生動的展現給用戶。

也可以通過信息可視化技術和方法將 Social Network 表現出來：

更多應用以下例子取自 information aesthetics ，點擊圖片上的鏈接訪問源網站：

http://oakland.crimespotting.org/

http://www.similardiversity.net/


http://carohorn.de/anymails/

http://www.areacodeinc.com/work/sharkrunners/

參考文獻

* 宋紹成, 畢強, 楊達, 信息可視化的基本過程與主要研究領域, 2004

* 張聰, 張慧, 信息可視化研究, 2006

* Edward Tufte, Envisoning Information, 1990

題圖來源：帶色彩指示的咖啡杯。

A crapehanger's humor

Scream Of The Ants 心靈印記

Short synopsis:This film narrates an atheist and his wife, a believer, are in India for their honeymoon and try to look for the Complete Man and the truth, which is apparently the reason the woman wanted to visit India.

簡短摘要 :這部電影敘述一對新婚夫妻去印度尋找完人與真理的故事。

I've never seen this movie before. However, after I found the following dialogue, which seems reasonable but still hilarious, I can't help to stop and wonder what if this is the damn truth we're all looking for? A Shit Universe? lol

這部電影我沒看過。不過，在發現以下讓我覺得"好像有道理，但是又覺得好笑"的ㄧ段電影對白，不禁讓我停下來思考 : 如果這真的就是那個我們都在尋找的該死真理呢?ㄧ個狗屎宇宙? XD

[.......There is a monologue spoken by a German tourist to one of the protagonists, the male half of an Iranian couple visiting India. With a goofy smile and a deadpan voice that suggests he’s spent much time passively inhaling whatever it is the Hindoo sadhoos smoke, this character directly addresses the camera and tells us that the universe is full of shit raining down on everyone. Different faiths, he explains, have different ways of dealing with this shit. The Catholics say,“Shit happens.”The Protestants say, “The other guy is responsible for the shit.” The Muslims say “The shit is the Will of Allah.”The Jews go,“Why, oh why, is all the shit falling only on us? The Buddhists reply, “But there is no shit.” And the Japanese Zen masters whisper, “Listen closely and you will hear the sound of shit falling.” .......]

在這對夫妻找到了所謂的"完人"之後,苦行僧所告訴他們的哲理。苦行僧說 : 這宇宙簡直是狗屎，那些狗屎不是固定不動的，狗屎不斷掉到你頭上，它是個過程，不斷有狗屎出現，而你就是會碰到一堆狗屎，為此，在不同文化中，會有不同解釋，例如天主教徒會說：「你自找的。」基督徒會說：「讓它落到別人頭上吧。」回教徒會說：「這是阿拉的意旨。」猶太教徒會說：「為什麼老是我們倒楣？」佛教徒會說：「其實那不是狗屎。」日本的禪宗會說：「去聽那狗屎落下的聲音。」但這些都只是理論，只是一些人想出來安慰別人的方法，讓人在不斷的霉運中，還能繼續活下去。

The Complete Man is a humorous crapehanger, so I decide to denominate this speech " A Shit Universe Theory."

這個苦行僧真是個幽默的悲觀者，我決定將他說的這段命名為「宇宙狗屎說」。

-ness & -ism

I always find the prefix, suffix,and root are quite clever and intriguing invention.


我常常覺得英文的字首字尾字根是很聰明且有趣的發明。

比如說在取這個站的名稱時我就想到了"You, Me and Dupree"中最後Dupree跟Carl說的ㄧ段激勵人心的對話，(雖然其實我覺得這部片實在是不怎麼好看。)但是他所提出的"-ness"概念倒是讓我提起興致。


以下就是電影中有關"-ness"的對話 :

Carl:My life's in the shitter right now.

Dupree:Yes, it is. But what are you gonna do? Quit? So what if you made some mistakes. Everybody does.So what if her dad hates you. You think you're the first guy to be hated by his father-in-law? So what if he beat your ass with a candlestick.

Carl:That's probably happened before.

Dupree:The point is, is somewhere along the road, you lost your magic.
They knocked you off your game. Your Carlness went right out the window.

Carl:What's with this "Carlness"? It's not even a real word.

Dupree:Yes, it is.Oh, it is? It's a verb. It's a conjunction, a preposition, it's a philosophy, a way of life. It's your name with "ness" attached to it.

Carl:Bullshit. There's never been any Carlness. There's just Carl.

Dupree:Well, I'm glad we got that straightened out. My mistake. You know, the truth is, I never really thought you and Molly were right for each other. There was something about her I never bought, right from Jump Street. That whole, "Hey, look at me. I'm a great person. "I'm always smiling.I'm pretty. I'm smart. I work with inner city kids." Get the hell out of there.I saw through that sham, and you did, too. And if you want to know the truth, frankly, I'd blame her.

Carl:Now, wait a minute!

Dupree:No, I won't hold it!

Carl:Hold on a second!Your life is going to hell in a hand basket! Molly is the best damn thing that ever happened to me. Leave her out of this.

Dupree:Sure she is. Did you see what just happened when I tricked you? All of a sudden you had that instinct to fight, that Carlness. That's what this situation needs. It's crying out for it. You're trying to get it back, that fight, the will to fight.

至於"ism" 這個字根，是"-主義"的意思，這個對我而言並不陌生，或許應該說這是不可避免的熟悉。因為翻開藝術人文的書本總是會有一大堆的主義。EX: Impressionism Fauvism Cubism Futurism expressionism
或許正因這些學者、藝術家等有夠多的"主意"才會有這麼多的"主義"吧!


而我，我想我是一個喜歡出主意的人。