NT: Vi Hart videos

[Catherine]

For those who haven't seen her work, here is part 1 of a 3-part series on doodling in spirals and Fibonacci series.

 

 

 

[Eric]

As a fan of doodling and math, thanks for posting.  Phi is why my avatar is a nautilus shell. 

 

Nature by Numbers:

[Catherine]

My husband & I always wonder how many "takes" she needs to get one of these hi-speed, information-packed videos done.  She's got tons of them.  My older daughter first introduced me to them and they're all terrific.

[Gail in Virginia]

Eric, that was absolutely beautiful.  Thanks for sharing.

[kcjenkins]

Yes, Eric, that's lovely.  And one of my favorite poems is 

 

The Chambered Nautilus

BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES SR.

This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,

   Sails the unshadowed main,—

   The venturous bark that flings

On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings

In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,

   And coral reefs lie bare,

Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;

   Wrecked is the ship of pearl!

   And every chambered cell,

Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,

As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,

   Before thee lies revealed,—

Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!

Year after year beheld the silent toil

   That spread his lustrous coil;

   Still, as the spiral grew,

He left the past year’s dwelling for the new,

Stole with soft step its shining archway through,

   Built up its idle door,

Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,

   Child of the wandering sea,

   Cast from her lap, forlorn!

From thy dead lips a clearer note is born

Than ever Triton blew from wreathèd horn!

   While on mine ear it rings,

Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:—

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,

   As the swift seasons roll!

   Leave thy low-vaulted past!

Let each new temple, nobler than the last,

Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,

   Till thou at length art free,

Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!

 

One of the reasons I fell in love with Don, when I was only 17 and he was 18, was his reciting this poem by memory,  on our first date, when I mentioned loving it.