Lovely bit of mad science.

I'd love to see what happens when another food source is added to the opposite end of the stick. Squirrel powered near-perpetual motion machine perhaps?

*mad science

>> ^djsunkid:

True story- My favourite part of this ride wasn't the ride itself, it was actually in the corridor on the way to the ride. As well as these videos, they had a bunch of mad-science lab decorations scattered about. One of the decorations was a computer monitor that was showing an animated Mandelbrot zoom. This would have probably been in around 1991 or 1992.
I was already familiar with the concept of zooming in on the Mandelbrot set, but remember back in those days it would take minutes or even sometimes hours to render each frame. It had never occurred to me to make an animation of a zoom. It totally and utterly mesmerized the twelve year old me. It was the worst thing being in a line and not getting to just stand and watch it- the line moved and I couldn't block people, so I only really caught a glimpse of it. It was really just a few seconds ping-pong loop, but wow. What an effect.
When I first saw the program Xaos running on a (then) modern computer, probably an early pentium or something, I knew for sure that it was the future. Realtime animated fractal zooms, WTF!
I wonder if there are any photos or videos of the decor of the corridor from that ride?


Hhaa, Blue Man Group uses that too IIRC. I love the 3D ones now! I want a screen saver of it!

True story- My favourite part of this ride wasn't the ride itself, it was actually in the corridor on the way to the ride. As well as these videos, they had a bunch of mad-science lab decorations scattered about. One of the decorations was a computer monitor that was showing an animated Mandelbrot zoom. This would have probably been in around 1991 or 1992.

I was already familiar with the concept of zooming in on the Mandelbrot set, but remember back in those days it would take minutes or even sometimes hours to render each frame. It had never occurred to me to make an animation of a zoom. It totally and utterly mesmerized the twelve year old me. It was the worst thing being in a line and not getting to just stand and watch it- the line moved and I couldn't block people, so I only really caught a glimpse of it. It was really just a few seconds ping-pong loop, but wow. What an effect.

When I first saw the program Xaos running on a (then) modern computer, probably an early pentium or something, I knew for sure that it was the future. Realtime animated fractal zooms, WTF!

I wonder if there are any photos or videos of the decor of the corridor from that ride?

Ahh.... I didn't notice that. I have too many videos to submit so I won't be doing them. Maybe you can post about them in SiftTalk?

In reply to this comment by taoofpooh26:
I didn't up them myself because I made the videos.

I read the posting policy. I followed the spec for this by not sifting my own stuff, and e-mailed the admins as described in the policy. Brian Hudson replied, suggesting I contact some of the top members about the videos. That's what I did. I went and found some of those members that might like my videos based on their own video viewing history and such, and contacted a few.

In reply to this comment by ant:
You didn't submit them? I upvote anything science even though I don't watch or have interest.

In reply to this comment by taoofpooh26:
A few videos that might be of interest, given some of the other stuff you like. Semi-educational, semi-insane, mostly silly time wasting.

Here's a handful:
Potential Energy
The Physics of Breaking Stuff
Breaking Flaming Boards and Leidenfrost

A few videos that might be of interest, given some of the other stuff you like (geeky science and such). Semi-educational, semi-insane, mostly silly time wasting.

Here's a handful:
Potential Energy
The Physics of Breaking Stuff
Breaking Flaming Boards and Leidenfrost
Doll Death - Slain By Solvent Science

A few videos that might be of interest, given some of the other stuff you like. Semi-educational, semi-insane, mostly silly time wasting.

Here's a handful:
Potential Energy
The Physics of Breaking Stuff
Breaking Flaming Boards and Leidenfrost
Doll Death - Slain By Solvent Science

Tags for this video have been changed from 'geek, mad science, world domination, date rejection' to 'geek, mad science, world domination, date rejection, jonathan coulton' - edited by calvados

It's true. It's interesting, actually- just how far the scientific analysis of food has come in the past century, and how most of that advancement has been squarely in the services of EVIL. Pizza Pockets, TV Dinners, Instant Mashed Potatos, Chocolate Bars with fake chocolate, etc. It was in the early 80s, at the tail end of "Nouvelle Cuisine" that Harold McGee was doing a bit of research for a project and discovered this HUGE amount of literature that no chef had ever seen, that explained SO much about the food that we work on.

That is what prompted him to write the first edition of his book, which has launched a huge interest in the haute cuisine world in understanding the science behind what we do every day. Now he, Herve This from France, Heston Blumenthal (the chef of the Fat Duck in this clip), Ferran Adria of El Bulli, and a few others are learning what "mad science" has done to food in the past century, and finally starting to use it in the aid of culturally worthwhile cuisine.