Arts Briefs

Poor Vision

A British professor intends to put opticians out of business it seems.

Josh Silver, who teaches Physics at Oxford University, has developed an entirely new kind of optical lens, which could change the way glasses are made, reported The Guardian.

Silver, who began his revolutionary quest nearly 25 years ago, wanted to create a lens that could be “tuned” by the wearer to correct their vision, which could drastically reduce the cost of glasses, and allow millions of visually impaired people in impoverished countries to see clearly.

It appears he has succeeded, as his device, which relies upon the theory that the fatter the lens, the more powerful it becomes, has already had 30,000 pairs shipped to 15 countries.

The way that the lens works is that its tough plastic lenses are in fact two clear circular sacs filled with fluid. Each is connected to a small syringe attached to either arm of the spectacles and there is a dial where the wearer can either increase or reduce the amount of fluid, therefore increasing or decreasing the strength of the lens.

Silver intends up his production to a point that they can ship up to 100 million pairs annually, and hopes to conquer the world entirely by 2020.

It’s unclear whether he chose that date realistically or just simply for its irony.

Walrus of Tough Love

They say there’s always more fish in the sea, but what about the aquarium?

Zorro, a six-year-old sex starved zebra shark at the London Aquarium, has apparently been having trouble wooing his latest conquest, fellow zebra shark Mazawabee, reported The London Paper.

Zorro’s lack of luck with his tank mate has hurt his reputation as a ‘ladies’ shark’, and the staff at the aquarium has had to call on he help of another womanizer; Barry White.

“Research suggests that fish can not only hear music but can appreciate different tunes and melodies, so we have decided to see if some good old-fashioned love songs will get them in the mood,” explained curator Paul Hale.

Track selections include White’s Baby We Better Try To Get It Together and My First, My Last, My Everything.

Perhaps Zorro just needs a better pick-up line.

Moving Murals

A Boston visual artist is changing the way audiences look.

Artist Rufus B. Seder’s “movies for a wall” artform, Lifetiles, with which he makes his drawings, paintings and pictures “move,” has made him one of the most sought after artists working today, reported CNN.

His art, which doesn’t actually move at all, uses optical tricks to convince the patron that the display is in fact moving, similar to a flip-book or early animation.

The process, which Seder jokingly described as “magic,” is a simple, but painstaking one.

“It’s like a flipbook. I’ve taken all the pages from a flipbook and scrambled them all together, and I’ve put them up on the wall and made them animate,” Seder explained.

Seder has over 30 installations around the world of his Lifetiles, such as one in a Taiwan Aquarium, where an entire wall can convince its audience that the dolphins in his picture are, in fact, swimming beside them.

Why you would need a moving mural of dolphins in a national aquarium remains a mystery.

Check out the video: http://tinyurl.com/lifetiles.

Published in Volume 64, Number 17 of The Uniter (January 28, 2010)

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