{"id":293,"date":"2008-03-30T18:20:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-30T22:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=293"},"modified":"2008-03-30T18:20:00","modified_gmt":"2008-03-30T22:20:00","slug":"better-than-escher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=293","title":{"rendered":"Better than Escher?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ambaka.com\/blog\/19\/diagram_virus01.png?w=545\"><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Yes, but let&#8217;s give the old guy credit for having to work with such primitive tools &#8212; like himself.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s right; I don&#8217;t have to calculate or plan anything in my own head like what&#8217;s-his-name did.  With a single, thunderous click I unleash an awesome whirlwind of mathematical calculations, the simplest of which would leave me frowning and scratching my head.<\/p>\n<p>Folks like me often forget (or don&#8217;t know) how many sets of &#8220;shoulders of giants&#8221; we stand on and what those giants are doing down there.  (Is it any wonder I often feel like a conqueror, standing astride this apex of culture and science?)<\/p>\n<p>But that&#8217;s only one of the reasons I&#8217;m better than Escher.  Or wait.  Actually, that&#8217;s the only reason I&#8217;m better than Escher &#8212; it&#8217;s that simple!<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps there is something from the mind of that Escher guy in one of my photoshop filters?  That&#8217;s not a bad guess, especially considering how incredibly Escher-like this image is (I made it, not Escher).  Declaring myself to be better than him (was he a man or a woman?) is my little way of tipping my hat to him\/her.<\/p>\n<p>Why then should anyone hold on to works by MC Escher, or look at them, when they&#8217;ve got my stuff?  Well, lots of reasons.  First of all, they make me look good.<\/p>\n<p>Escher worked almost entirely in black and white while I work with millions of colors, although I restrain myself (most of the time) by sticking to a 256-color palette to reduce file sizes, and for some other reasons I can&#8217;t remember.<\/p>\n<p>If Escher was alive today (he isn&#8217;t, is he?) he&#8217;d want to steal my enchanted tool kit and run out the door with it.  But I wouldn&#8217;t stop him.  In the classic sage-like response to just about everything, I would just roll on the floor laughing.  And then download the whole lot once more.  Times sure have changed, haven&#8217;t they?<\/p>\n<p>What would Escher be doing today?  He&#8217;d probably be writing graphical programs with a mathematical angle (no pun intended) like fractals or 3D; trading his pencils for pixels in an instant.  He&#8217;d know better than to compete head to head with the likes of someone like me.  Smart guy.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"technoratitag\">Technorati Tags: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.technorati.com\/tag\/MC+Escher\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"tag\" title=\"Technorati tag: MC Escher\">MC Escher,<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.technorati.com\/tag\/Escher\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"tag\" title=\"Technorati tag: Escher\">Escher,<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.technorati.com\/tag\/MC+Escher+II\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"tag\" title=\"Technorati tag: MC Escher II\">MC Escher II,<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.technorati.com\/tag\/Son+of+Escher\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"tag\" title=\"Technorati tag: Son of Escher\">Son of Escher,<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.technorati.com\/tag\/Revenge+of+Escher\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"tag\" title=\"Technorati tag: Revenge of Escher\">Revenge of Escher,<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.technorati.com\/tag\/Fall+of+the+House+of+Escher\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"tag\" title=\"Technorati tag: Fall of the House of Escher\">Fall of the House of Escher,<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.technorati.com\/tag\/Es-cher%21+--+Gesundheit%21\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"tag\" title=\"Technorati tag: Es-cher! -- Gesundheit!\">Es-cher! &#8212; Gesundheit!,<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.technorati.com\/tag\/eschewing+Escher\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"tag\" title=\"Technorati tag: eschewing Escher\">eschewing Escher,<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yes, but let&#8217;s give the old guy credit for having to work with such primitive tools &#8212; like himself. That&#8217;s right; I don&#8217;t have to calculate or plan anything in my own head like what&#8217;s-his-name did. With a single, thunderous click I unleash an awesome whirlwind of mathematical calculations, the simplest of which would leave &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=293\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2634,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2634","url_meta":{"origin":293,"position":0},"title":"Lookin&#8217; Sharp","author":"Tim","date":"29 March, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Just when I was beginning to think the 3D fractal scene was plateauing and running out of interesting themes to explore... along comes something sharp.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/The-Center-of-It-All-by-lenord.jpg?fit=500%2C250&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":418,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=418","url_meta":{"origin":293,"position":1},"title":"Sheets in the Wind and Rings of Gold: The Ultra Fractal Style","author":"Tim","date":"2 October, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Whether you're a fractal artist or simply just a fan of fractal art, you're bound to eventually notice similarities in style and develop preferences for this kind of art or that kind of art. Fractal art is still what I would consider to be something of a niche art form,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4855,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=4855","url_meta":{"origin":293,"position":2},"title":"Earthscapes: Bottom Row","author":"cruelanimal","date":"24 May, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Earthscapes. United States Postal Service (2012) [Click on images to view at higher resolution.] \u00a0 The last of three posts about postage. You can skip the short context-setting intro section if you've already DVRed this series. If you've just wandered in, you might want to bounce back to the previous\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Earthscapes_RailroadRoundhouse_sm.jpg?fit=450%2C446&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4976,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=4976","url_meta":{"origin":293,"position":3},"title":"Paint by Fractals","author":"Tim","date":"30 July, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"What shower of insults and rotten tomatoes are provoked up by such a play on the expression, \"Paint by Numbers\"?\u00a0 And yet, to those who know what galactic boundaries are quickly traversed by just a few (million) iterations of the simplest of fractal formulas, the phrase \"Paint by Fractals\" is\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=4976#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Dodgeball-with-Flash-Gordon-by-Sitting-Duck.jpeg?fit=500%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5637,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=5637","url_meta":{"origin":293,"position":4},"title":"The Art Dimension: turning fractals into art","author":"Tim","date":"7 July, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In my previous series of postings (first, second) on how to separate the art from the fractals, I basically say that the only way to do more with fractals than simply create computer crafts is to focus on producing works of abstract expressionism or landscape\/place.\u00a0 These are the only two\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/84-A-Festive-3D-Encounter.jpeg?fit=500%2C281&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1508,"url":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=1508","url_meta":{"origin":293,"position":5},"title":"Champion Graveyard Sound","author":"Tim","date":"20 August, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Macro photography and fractals have a lot in common.\u00a0 I don't know what that is, but I just sense that they have a \"family resemblance\".\u00a0 Imagine you're trying to put together a jig-saw puzzle but someone has accidentally thrown in another puzzle with it.\u00a0 While looking for the pieces that\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=1508#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/771px-Calliphora_vomitoria_Portrait.jpg?fit=600%2C467&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/771px-Calliphora_vomitoria_Portrait.jpg?fit=600%2C467&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/771px-Calliphora_vomitoria_Portrait.jpg?fit=600%2C467&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}