Genetics

 

The Genetics of human populations is very complex...

                                                                           

Genetics & South Asian Populations | East London Genes & Health (genesandhealth.org)

Wondering

 It's -10C again, and I'm getting ready for my daily outing. Have been

watching Youtube videos about space in the last few days. Also watched

the beginnings of Moon, a sci-fi movie about some pour soul alone on the Moon. 

There is a grim aspect to the whole thing; the sky seems black all the time.

Yes, there are temperature swings because there is no atmosphere; the Moon

is a big rock. Couldn't one create an artifical daylight environment from all

the solar radiation at peek moments...

Hmmm...

                                                                

                                                                                 

Looked up Neil Armstrong on Wikipedia. He had earned a number of medals

as a war pilot, and had even ejected with his parachute over his head. He

took over the landing module to guide it to a safe landing spot, and they had

50 seconds of fuel left when they landed. Safe to assume he was running on

adrenaline...

*     *     *

Who is this handsome stranger walking against a purple background. Turns

out here was a 'final' version of the walkcycle included in the file all along.

I will be able to complete the Synfig tutorials...😀

                                                             

   

Artic Quest

 Russia's travails in the Artic, from the Guardian UK:

                                                        *     *     *

On it goes, but my character is walking in place, as required...

                                                                            

Evolving

 That would be silly! I mean a Third World War or, at least, a long

land war in Europe between Russia and its Western neighbors as

certain military leaders have suggested. With conscription looming!!

Looking at things from a bit further than current squabbles, what is happening

is the co-existence of very dangerous weapons and a global information

and exchange network. And global shopping.

I was actually surprised. Watching Travelling with Russell on Youtube, two of 

the major grocery chains in Russia are respectively French and German. The very

largest is German. Meanwhile, Germany is sending arms to Ukraine. Totally

schizo. And you can buy an iphone15 easily enough, thanks to Vietnamese and Indian

middlemen.

Russia has great shopping malls. Americans have moved on to Big Box stores like

Walmart and Costco they can just drive up to, but the climate keeps Malls attractive

in Russia... and Canada, as well.

I myself have been spending my days trying to master Synfig (developed in German)

from a team of Russian animators who were the only ones clever enough to use it.

(It is computerized rather than hand-drawn animation, and requires a lot of math).And I 

often look scientific things up inWikipedia in translation from the Russian because it is 

always to the point.

So when a disagreement emerges for Russia, their nuclear weapons are the elephant 

in the room and they feel obliged to stand on it. Are they threatening us with them. 

Yes and no, the weapons are there.

As for regime change in Russia, they have evolved from from pur et dur communism.

Maybe the kind of triple entendre about democratic values we live with looks really 

weird in translation. On a day-to-day basis, President Putin seems out and about talking to 

schoolchildren and attending various openings and commemorations. Not really the

stuff of dictatorial nightmares...

Teddy

 Wearing my new Teddy Jacket, this morning. It is meant for home comfort. The

temperature in my app is set at 22C all winter, but on cold days there are drafts.

This jacket takes care of that.

And yes, it makes me look like a Peanut Butter Bear😃

Below, Chat/Bing on the matter:

                                                                          

                                                                           

          

                                                                    *     *     *

                                  

                                   

Progress

 Had a happy find, this morning. A synthwave collection that actually shows where 

the breaks are located. I can sample Mantra and move to Space Dust with no problem

Progress!!

                                                                    

*     *     *

I'm outa milk...

                                                                            

                                                                                                 

                                                                            *     *     *

Canada in the news:

Canadian tar sands pollution is up to 6,300% higher than reported, study finds | Tar sands | The Guardian

Counting!!

 Been working on synfig a bit more. The challenge this time is to make

the character walk in place. Below, an illustration of the procedure using

a circle that turns from blue to red repeatedly. working within animation mode.

Set the initial Keyframe at blue:

                                                      

Set frame 24 to red:

                                                                                  

Set frame 48 back to blue:

                                                                        

Leave animation mode, set the marker to frame 47 to not repeat the precise same blue.

Create a new layer at the very top as a Time, TimeLoop layer.

See the animation loop as desired:

                                                                   

That works. Interestingly, it is now frame 23 that is red!!

                                                                                    

Cake Moment

 From the point of view of seasonal rotation, today is a good candidate

for worse day od the year: middle of winter, cold, damp, grey and dangerous.

Are we letting this get to us; there are little comforts available. One such showed

up on my Facebook feed, this morning. A simple but certainly comforting

recipe for Semolina Cake. Translating for you:

  

That's 1 cup of Semolina, 1 liter of milk, 1/2 cup of sugar, 2 eggs, 1/3 cup

raisins, pinch of salt. 

Get the milk and sugar to boiling on the stove top. Make it rain Semolina and cook for

5 minutes while stirring.

Away from the heat, incorporate the beaten eggs and raisins.

Pour into a buttered cake mold.

Cook at 350F for 30 minutes.

Wait for it to cool before enjoying.

I calculated the calorie count at app. 1600, that's 270 for 1/6th of the cake, using 2%

milk...😃

                                                                   *     *     *

Wanted to leave the house this morning, but it is impossible. There is a thin

sheet of ice on everything; and for the roads and sidewalks, that is on top of

frozen over slush. Maybe this afternoon if we manage to get over the freezing

point...

                                                     

                                            source: MétéMédia

                                                                            *     *     *

It's Pygame Thursday. Player needs to hit the red to score; if he/she hits blue, he looses

a life. For the moment, only 1 red appears. Later refinemets should change one of the

blues into a red afyter a score... It's a dangerous game: I got the Red but lost one Life

doing it!!

 

                                                                                      

Odd

 Having reached a respectable old age as a Canadian, there

is one thing I assume to have solved for myself, and that is: how 

to dress for the weather. Well, yesterday proved me wrong!

I wore my standard walking in the snow attire, warm hat, coat with

 a hood and heavy scarf, knee-high slush boots, warmest gloves, good 

eyeglasses and headed for the Walmart Center by the truckers' route, 

to avoid all the car traffic. It's more open air but we are alledgedly in a 

warm phase with above zero highs. I hadn't checked the wind chill numbers

(-8C).

It was my hands. The rest of me was toasty but my hands were getting colder 

and colder. Having reached Walmart, I knew I couldn't go back home without

doing something. I ended up scouring Walmart's for thin women's gloves that 

I could wear underneath my heavy ones, like how we dress as children. I

shopped less but - force majeure oblige - did enjoy a Moka cafe at the indoors

McDonalds. It was incredibly delicious...

There was another unexpected outcome: my hands were, of late,  starting to show 

expanding age spots that were purple-colored. At bath time last night, these were 

back to a pristine even-colored white, and are still that way this morning. Odd!!

Smooth2

Here is Bard's take on Synfig keyframes and waypoints:

In Synfig, the terms "keyframes" and "waypoints" are often used interchangeably, but there are some subtle differences between them. Here's a breakdown:

Keyframes:

Markers: They act as markers on the timeline, defining specific points in time where the properties of an object (position, rotation, opacity, etc.) are explicitly defined.

Starting points: They typically define the beginning and end states of an animation, acting as anchor points for interpolation.

Trigger points: They can trigger events or changes in behavior within the animation.

Controllable transitions: You can control the transition between keyframes, specifying whether it's linear, ease-in/out, or something else.

Waypoints:

Intermediate points: They are additional points within a keyframe interval that define how the object's properties change between the keyframes.

Smoother animation: They allow for smoother and more nuanced animation by specifying intermediate states.

Fine-tuning control: You can add and adjust waypoints within a keyframe to fine-tune the animation curve.

Automatic generation: In some cases, Synfig automatically generates waypoints based on changes made to object properties.

In essence:

Keyframes define the major turning points of the animation.

Waypoints refine the journey between those turning points.

Here's an analogy: Imagine driving from point A to point B. Keyframes would be like setting your GPS destinations at A and B, while waypoints would be like picking specific landmarks along the way to guide your route.

Here are some additional resources that might be helpful:

Synfig User Manual: https://wiki.synfig.org/

Synfig for Beginners: Keyframes and Waypoints Explained: https://youtu.be/tAwbC7dPcgs?si=oFbtv-zObPNUwnZn

Synfig- Keyframes or Waypoints? Answered: You should add a 10% waypoint for @keyframes wave - HTML-CSS - The freeCodeCamp Forum

I hope this clarifies the difference between keyframes and waypoints in Synfig!

Smooth

 So things reached a crisis point for me with Synfig today, with

dangling feet and the character moving backwards. My best efforts were

going into being super precise about creating keyframes, but this just wasn't

working. With a little help from ChatGPT, finally came to see how this

whole thing connects.

Keyframes are not the endall, they are merely important wayframes I want to

keep track of. Wayframes ARE important. Whenever I am in animation mode

and play with the shape, a wayframe is created which stores the new parameters

I have selected. Running the timeline, I can see - at any point - how the program

has created inbetween values toward these. If I want to 'see' the wayframe icons, 

I go to the object layer and the pertinent values will be in the properties panel...

Below, I have created a start and end position for the ball with keyfranes,

And then, I just decided to lift the ball in the air at a moment inbetween.

Playing the animation, it will create and arc to accomodate all my instructions...

I now know where my dangling feet come from; the legs were making an arc that

reached 'below' ground level...Done!!

Blur

 My Synfig walk cycle is not yet to my liking, but I peeked ahead to Lesson 9

to see what happens next. Turns out, there is grounds for feeling better about it all.

Synfig has provisions for filter layers, instructions that only affect layers underneath

or in the same group. And one of these is a Time Loop. If I can only get a 31 frame

cycle that I like, the loop can repeat endlessly, and the character stays at the same place

on the canvas...

                                                               

Tasty

 The Bears take it! I bought the new Kraft Barista coffee yesterday - chocolate and 

hazelnut - and it delivers. Nice little taste and a warm aroma. Was somewhat intimidated 

by the packaging at first, but it's actually rather clever. One presses along the dotted 

line and the cover lifts. There is then a foil and carton seal to remove... Later, 

close it back.

I like to mix two or three different coffees together, and make a small somewhat

diluted brew I can sip on in the mornings. It's -13C where I live this morning, 

although we are expecting a somewhat miraculously warm week with highs around

the freezing point.😀

For comparison, it is currently -13 in Moscow, as well, although there it is 6pm

to my 10am...

                                                  *     *     *

I need to work on something else. Maybe do the walk cycle in Khermardi...

                                                           

               

Useful(2)

 Just starting to see all the options on Synfig. Below, using the circle

tool as advanced outline alone, I can change the shape of the circle and the thickness

of the outline wherever I want.

                                                         

Below, using advanced outline and region together. The outline part has many

possibilities; while the shape is controlled by the handles I choose from the handles list.

                                                        

Here, I've added a plant circle, within the group. My plant circle thus moves

weith the group. The properties panel shows me an impressive list of variables...

                                                                 

Fancy that: I've drawn a slice of pizza with the draw tool. (I'm on my older tablet, with

the first Microsoft pen...)

                                                                            

Useful Synfig

 I was asked about using Synfig to create useful icons. Here is the

procedure. 

Synfig is useful because one can easily use the predefined shapes as vectors of

any size, like the star - and even amalgamate them - and thus use them in other programs.

One has to be careful, though, in the orginal use of the tool. I can draw a star

with both outline and interior, but if I then crank it around, a shadow of the original

shape remains. I eithr use just the star, or the outline and interior combo with the

outline invisible, as below.

                                                             

I then do a screen grab of my shape, but now the task is to get rid of the white

background. I copy it to the desktop and open it in Paint 3D. Once there, the 

Magic Select tool will rid me of the background.

                                                         

Once I am satisfied with the Magic Select process, I do a copy/paste of my shape into

Expression Design (both programs are Microsoft and compatible).  I might be tempted

to change the size of the shape, but it is no longer a vector and the edge will look funny...

I can play with the size within Paint 3D, but in Expression design, that is no longer possible. 

I have to paste the size I want.

                                                                         

I then export from Expression Design. To do that, I have to choose the shape before asking

for export. The image area will have a blue outline...

                                                                        

All done. I now have a usable icon on the desktop.

                                                                   

                                                                                        

Codemy PG17

 Pygame Thursdays delivered some new code on the Aspen game. One now

draws a Score and Lives to the game, a WIN banner, and the player character is bound

to never leave the screen. The text is within the draw() definition, and is called

with the blit() command within draw()...

We have a Game instance called our_game on which we call update(). This is where

draw is called.

Finally, there is a display.flip() call, explained below.

I am using my game icons, which I made in Synfig. It's an easy way to make vector-

shaped characters, and they can look fierce!!

                                                                

                                                                                    

                                                                                 

import pygame
import random

# Pygame Setup Stuff
pygame.init()
WINDOW_WIDTH = 900
WINDOW_HEIGHT = 600
screen = pygame.display.set_mode((WINDOW_WIDTH, WINDOW_HEIGHT))
pygame.display.set_caption('Codemy.com - Aspen Classes')
clock = pygame.time.Clock()
running = True

dt = 0
player_pos = pygame.Vector2(screen.get_width() / 2, screen.get_height() / 2)


# Define a Game Class
class Game():
    def __init__(self, aspen_group, food_group):
        self.aspen_group = aspen_group
        self.food_group = food_group
        self.score = 0
        self.lives = 5
        # Define Fonts
        self.small_font = pygame.font.SysFont("impact", 24)
        self.big_font = pygame.font.SysFont("impact", 60)

    def update(self):
        self.check_collisions()
        self.draw()

        keys = pygame.key.get_pressed()
        if keys[pygame.K_p]:
            self.pause_game()

    def draw(self):
        pygame.draw.rect(screen, "#003660", (0, 100, WINDOW_WIDTH, WINDOW_HEIGHT - 200), 4)

        # Text
        title_text = self.big_font.render("FEED ASPEN!", True, "#003660")
        title_rect = title_text.get_rect()
        title_rect.centerx = WINDOW_WIDTH / 2
        title_rect.top = 5

        win_text = self.big_font.render("YOU WIN!", True, "red")
        win_rect = win_text.get_rect()
        win_rect.centerx = WINDOW_WIDTH / 2
        win_rect.centery = WINDOW_HEIGHT / 2

        score_text = self.small_font.render("Score: " + str(self.score), True, "#003660")
        score_rect = score_text.get_rect()
        score_rect.topleft = (5, 5)

        lives_text = self.small_font.render("Lives: " + str(self.lives), True, "#003660")
        lives_rect = lives_text.get_rect()
        lives_rect.topright = (WINDOW_WIDTH - 5, 5)

        # Blit The Text
        screen.blit(title_text, title_rect)
        screen.blit(score_text, score_rect)
        screen.blit(lives_text, lives_rect)

        if self.score == 8:
            screen.blit(win_text, win_rect)

    def pause_game(self):
        global running

        is_paused = True
        # Create pause loop
        while is_paused:
            # Account For Hitting Enter to unPause
            for event in pygame.event.get():
                if event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN:
                    if event.key == pygame.K_RETURN:
                        is_paused = False
                # Account for clicking the X to quit
                if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
                    is_paused = False
                    running = False
                # pygame.quit()

    def check_collisions(self):
        if pygame.sprite.groupcollide(self.aspen_group, self.food_group, False, True):
            # print(len(self.food_group))
            self.score += 1
        # print(self.score)


# Define an Aspen Class
class Aspen(pygame.sprite.Sprite):
    def __init__(self, x, y):
        super().__init__()
        # Define our image
        self.image = pygame.image.load("images/PlayerS.png")
        # Get Rect
        self.rect = self.image.get_rect()
        # Position the image
        self.rect.topleft = (x, y)
        # Move the image
        self.velocity = 5

    # Add food group to aspen class
    # self.food_group = food_group

    def update(self):
        self.move()

    # self.check_collisions()

    def move(self):
        keys = pygame.key.get_pressed()
        if keys[pygame.K_LEFT] and self.rect.x >= 10:
            self.rect.x -= self.velocity
        if keys[pygame.K_RIGHT] and self.rect.x <= WINDOW_WIDTH - 95:
            self.rect.x += self.velocity
        if keys[pygame.K_UP] and self.rect.y >= 110:
            self.rect.y -= self.velocity
        if keys[pygame.K_DOWN] and self.rect.y <= WINDOW_HEIGHT - 95:
            self.rect.y += self.velocity


# def check_collisions(self):
#  if pygame.sprite.spritecollide(self, self.food_group, True):
#     print(len(self.food_group))


# Define an Food Class
class Food(pygame.sprite.Sprite):
    def __init__(self, x, y):
        super().__init__()
        # Define our image
        self.image = pygame.image.load("images/Enemy1.png")
        # Get Rect
        self.rect = self.image.get_rect()
        # Position the image
        self.rect.topleft = (x, y)
        # Move the image
        self.velocity = random.randint(1, 5)
        # Create Random Motion
        self.dx = random.choice([-1, 1])
        self.dy = random.choice([-1, 1])

    def update(self):
        # self.rect.y += self.velocity
        self.rect.x += self.dx * self.velocity
        self.rect.y += self.dy * self.velocity

        # Keep from leaving the screen
        if self.rect.left <= 0 or self.rect.right >= WINDOW_WIDTH:
            self.dx = -1 * self.dx
        if self.rect.top <= 100 or self.rect.bottom >= 500:
            self.dy = -1 * self.dy


# Create an food group
food_group = pygame.sprite.Group()

# Create 5 aspens
for i in range(8):
    food = Food(i * 100, 200)
    food_group.add(food)

# Create aspen group
aspen_group = pygame.sprite.Group()
# Create and position aspen
aspen = Aspen(200, 510)
# Add aspen to the group
aspen_group.add(aspen)

# Create Game Object
our_game = Game(aspen_group, food_group)

while running:
    # poll for events
    # pygame.QUIT event means that the user clicked the X to close the window
    for event in pygame.event.get():
        if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
            running = False

    # Pick the screen color
    screen.fill("silver")

    # Blit (copy) screen object at a given coordinates
    # screen.blit(aspen, aspen_rect)

    # Draw and Move Food and Aspen sprite
    food_group.update()
    food_group.draw(screen)

    aspen_group.update()
    aspen_group.draw(screen)

    # Update Game Instance
    our_game.update()

    # flip the display to output our work to the screen
    pygame.display.flip()

    # Set the clock stuff / delta time in seconds since the last frame
    # used for framerate independent physics
    dt = clock.tick(60) / 1000

pygame.quit()

Naughty

 Guess what, I finally found what is wrong with yesterday's walk cycle:

the character walks off on the wrong leg and the whole cycle is wrong.

Oh yes, another day on Synfig for me!!!

                                     

Some progress

 I know, I know...the timing is all wrong and he is pointing all over the

place. But, I did get the leg cross-overs!!!

                                                                       

Mysterious Big Bang

source: La Presse

author: Mathieu Perreault

translation: Bing Translate/doxa-louise

Demystifying Science The Mystery of the Big Bang

Every week, our journalist answers scientific questions from readers.

"What was there before the Big Bang?"

Richard Deschênes

We don't know, but many astrophysicists are working on models that explain this "singularity".

"In cosmology, we have a model that explains the expansion of the universe after the Big Bang," says Laurence Perreault-Levasseur, an astrophysicist at the Université de Montréal. "When you rewind time, the universe gets smaller and smaller. The physical distances between things are decreasing. We get to a point where the universe is so dense that the expansion equations stop working. We need a theory to tell the story of the Big Bang that we don't have right now. »

The density of the universe at the Big Bang is unphatomable. "It's called a singularity,"says Perreault-Levasseur. The equations we have are no longer valid. It's the same thing inside a black hole, there's an extremely dense zone for which we don't have a theory, which we also call a singularity. »

"For everyday life, Newtonian physics can explain phenomena very well, such as the speed and acceleration of a car or a ball," says the Montreal-based astrophysicist, whose work has a strong mathematical component. "For larger masses and distances, general relativity works better. GPS, for example, works with general relativity, which is also needed to calculate Mercury's orbit because it is so close to the Sun. This does not mean that Newtonian mechanics is wrong, but that it is an approximation of general relativity," the researcher continues.

For very, very small scales, however, we have quantum mechanics, which explains how particles such as electrons sometimes behave like waves. "Things in the world of quantum mechanics can be in two places at the same time. It's a probabilistic world, not a deterministic one. It is because of the theory of quantum mechanics that we have the internet and computers. »

The catch is that at the very small scales of the Big Bang, there are "large quantum effects", but also a very large mass. "Normally, quantum mechanics works with low-mass particles. When there's a lot of mass, it's problematic. »

There are many theories to unify general relativity and quantum mechanics, but none work perfectly. The most promising, accordingto Perreault-Levasseur, is "string theory," a complicated mathematical model where particles are like immensely long, one-dimensional strings. But there are also equations that describe an infinite space with several very different universes where light cannot reach, also called the "bubble universe", or "bounces" with a series of expansions and contractions.

An example of this type of modeling was published in 2017 in the journal General Relativity and Gravitation by Juliano César Silva Neves, an astrophysicist at the Federal University of Alfenas, north of São Paulo, Brazil. In particular, his study postulates that some very old black holes were created during earlier phases of expansion or contraction of the Universe. "I did my PhD on the physics of black holes," says Neves. I tried to apply the bounce patterns to them. »

Bones3

 Will be trying another runthrough to day:

                                                                     

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Been enjoying some videos by Australian blogger Russell, who currently lives in 

Moscow.