The Rest of the Picture

For many, many years, starting during WWII, the late great Paul Harvey broadcast The Rest of the Story - a factual story with a twist at the end.

Well, the photo to the left has a twist at the end.

It appeared yesterday in our local newspaper and seems to show a woman with a cigarette dangling from her lips.

It was an ilustration in a story about the "Clay Arts Club" whose members fashion pottery out of clay.

Why would a woman pose with a cigarette in her lips and why would the newspaper print such a photo?

Well, things are seldom as they seem, and further investigation of the photo shows quite a different story. Look at the second photo, which shows more of the photo that was published.

You can see the "cigarette" is merely the leg of a chair that happens to be behind her. The upper part of that chair leg is above and behind her neck and the other leg can be seen behind her hair.

And, as Paul Harvey would say, "Now you know the rest of the picture!"

Ira Glickstein

Grand Illusion of Motion (NOT!)

Double-click on the image to make it larger.

The wheels appear to be turning but I assure you it is a static picture.

If you stare at a black dot, the movement stops in that area.

I don't know what logical or philosophical point this makes.

Perhaps that some politicos claim to be making things happen and change but are not too successful at it. (But, I'm not complaining. Some of the best Congresses have been those that did the least damage!)

Ira Glickstein

Don't believe half of what you see ...

A famous quote says "Don't believe half of what you see and none of what you hear." Do you see "spirals" in this image? They are not there at all, as illustrated by the image below! The small black and white squares are in perfectly round, evenly-spaced, concentric circles.

Thanks to http://www.realityprime.com/articles/another-illusion for this great optical illusion.

Ira Glickstein

Audio Illusions

[from Joel] We've previously spoken of optical illusions in the hope of differentiating L/C minds. While dog-sitting at my daughter's house yesterday, we took the opportunity to wash some clothes. While the machine was running, I tried to do some plastering around the new shower. I had to stop after awhile because the washer was driving me crazy. It kept repeating "Running bear. Running bear. ........" I'm sure you've all had that kind of experience. It recalled to me camping in a tent and being awakened in the morning to the cooing of doves that repeated over and over, "You're so damned stupid. You're so damned stupid." If you search the web you'll find among other sites the following one:

http://listverse.com/2008/02/29/top-10-incredible-sound-illusions/

A most interesting one is "Phantom Words", a repeated sound that eventually become a word in your own mind. When I played it this morning, all three dogs snappped to attention and a normally silent dog began to bark.

Although most auditory illusions refer to music, some are based on "defects" in our mental interpretation of sound into words. It would be interesting to be able to separate L-minds from C-Minds in this way, or at least as an IQ test that would distinguish intellect from indigestion. -Joel

On a tree by a river a little tom-tit
Sang "Willow, titwillow, titwillow"
And I said to him, "Dicky-bird, why do you sit
Singing 'Willow, titwillow, titwillow'"
"Is it weakness of intellect, birdie?" I cried
"Or a rather tough worm in your little inside"
-Gilbert and Sullivan (apologies to Ira)

Optical Non-Political L/C-Mind Discriminator?

[Updated 14 July see "TRUTH"] Is there a non-political optical illusion that could discriminate L-minds from C-minds? That is the challenge Joel posted in an earlier Comment.

I thought about it and adapted the image Joel linked to and came up with a new image that shows a number of cylinders on a field of light and dark squares.

Using the cylinder labeled "A" as a reference, and using your powers of absolute judgement, which of the numbered cylinders is the most similar to "A"? Which is the most different?

Please post a Comment and express your answer as a two-digit number, the first being the number of the cylinder that is the most like "A" and the second the number of the most different from "A". (Of course, also say if you have Liberal or Conservative tendencies.) If you wish, I'd appreciate it you tell us how you came to these conclusions.

DISCUSSION

Joel wrote, in part: "When I started studying my concept of inborn L/C-minds, I hoped that I could find a simple non-political discriminator. It would be interesting to find an optical illusion that would do this. The trouble with most of them is that they are universal. ... It would be wonderful if L-minds saw one and C-minds saw the other at least at first glance. That would be proof of a wiring difference unconnected to education."

A few days from now, I will update this posting and indicate why I think this might possibly be a valid test of L- vs C-minded tendencies (or not :^).


TRUTH [the following was added July 14th]


The image below shows the "truth" about the five numbered cylinders as they relate to cylinder "A". Spoiler - Don't scroll down to the image unless you have thought about the issue for a while.


As Joel and Howard noted in their Comments, at first glance, "51" appears to be the answer. Cylinder "5" looks most like "A" in shading and size and "1" looks least like "A", much lighter in shading.


However, further "logical" consideration reveals some problems with that initial conclusion. The cylinders do not seem to conform to the laws of illumination. How can a cylinder in the shadow of the larger green cylinder have a bright top? Also, Howard remembered the base image is an optical illusion and the squares behind "A" and "3" are actually the same exact shade. Thus, since neither cylinder "A" nor "3" have a left edge, their left sides must also be the same exact shade.


So, how does this relate to L/C minds?

IRA'S L/C MIND THEORY

I have a theory that we each have both an L-mind and a C-mind, and we learn to use each of them to maximum advantage. We need both to survive and prosper in the real world.

Our L-mind is "warm-hearted" and "instinctual". Our C-mind is "hard-nosed" and "logical". Those of us with L-minded tendencies, tend to use more of that side of our intellect and vice-versa for those of us with C-minded tendencies.

For example, most L-minds would subscribe to Benjamin Franklin's notion that "it is better a hundred guilty persons should escape than one innocent person should suffer". Our L-mind imagines the anguish we would feel if we were wrongly convicted of a crime and sent to rot in jail.

Most C-minds would ask "Why 100? Why not 1000 (Maimonides)? Or 10 (Blackstone)? Or 1 (Trajan)? Should the number be higher or lower for capital cases?" A C-mind would inquire as to the recidivism rate: "How many of the hundred guilty would in future commit crimes that victimize other innocent persons?" Our C-mind imagines the anguish we would feel if we, or other innocents, were victimized by a guilty person who had previously been aprehended and tried for a serious crime but had been set free due to a crafty lawyer or some technicality.

In many situations it is important to react "instinctually" - "kill or be killed". In many other situations we have the time and resources to act more "logically" - "checks and balances". My point is that L-minds tend to react "from the heart" while C-minds "from the head". I thought my optical illusion problem might separate the two.

SO, WHAT IS THE TRUTH"

Back to the image! After logical consideration, it is clear that the instinctual "51" cannot be correct. There is something out of place about all the small cylinders. Those in the shadow of the large green cylinder should not have bright right sides, yet they do. Those outside the shadow of the large green cylinder should cast shadows of their own and yet they do not.

Clearly, these small cylinders are not in the original optical illusion image, but have simply been pluncked down in front of the image to confuse the viewer. Take them out of that image and put them on a uniform white background and the truth will come to the fore.

Cylinder "3" is identical to "A". Cylinder "4" is both larger and darker, so it is the most different. Thus, the correct answer is "34".

Ira Glickstein

Amazing Color Illusion - You Can't Deny It Even When You Know It is False

[Modified 10 July - Thanks Joel! See "PPS:"]
See the GREEN and BLUE swirls? Do you believe they are the EXACT same AQUA color?

I copied the area of GREEN swirl labelled as "1" and the area of BLUE swirl "2" and put expanded versions of each adjacent to each other so you can see they are really the EXACT same AQUA color.

OK, now that you know they are the same, look back at the swirls and you cannot make them not look GREEN and BLUE. Can you?

I think this is proof that, at least for color vision, we humans see things in a relative, contextual way rather than an absolute, isolated manner. A computer scanning the image pixel by pixel would have no trouble seeing the same color in both sets of swirls. However, we humans, even when we know for sure they are the same color, cannot dismiss the optical illusion.

Does this perhaps extend to other mental activities? Does it explain the contradictions in L-Mind and C-Mind thinking? L-Minds often willing to allow an otherwise normal unborn baby to be put to death at the whim of the mother while denying the justice system the legitimacy to use the death penalty on the most awful criminal? The C-Mind sometimes insisting that human life, once conceived, has an absolute right to live, while, at the same time, often supporting wars that kill large numbers of innocents as "collateral damage"?

Ira Glickstein

PS: Thanks to my son-in-law Avi for bringing this illusion to my attention on his Blog.


PPS: [Added 10 July] Thanks to Joel for his Comment with a link to an equally compelling optical illusion. I went to Joel's link and downloaded the image. Then I copied part of the "A" GRAY square and part of the "B" WHITE-looking square and pasted them in the upper left corner so you can see they are exactly the same shade of gray!