27 thoughts on “Focus”

  2. Don’t you know this is what Pinker does each morning to get himself into a writing mood? I thought everybody knew that!

    There are many aspects of this vid (which I saw about 2 weeks ago on G+! :-)) I enjoyed (a female Atlas, not only balancing, but creating the universe; emergent properties unfolding), but the most engaging was that brilliant smile she lets loose at the end.

    1. That probably explain’s Pinker’s perfectly coiffed hair as well. 🙂

  5. Fantastic!

    And a beautiful demonstration of levers, Archimedes would have been rapt.

      1. It’s very counter-intuitive the way that assemblage extends ten feet in front of her.

        And all kept in equilibrium by a feather – that was a nice touch.

  8. Hey, this was me a week ago!, cramming 12 hours straight before my biochemistry final (with a 30 minute nap in between). And walking to campus making sure none of the information dropped out of my head, it felt like a balancing act and I couldn’t let my mind venture off topic because I felt like then everything I had built up into my brain would just crumble into a pile of nonsense.

    I’m fairly certain that I, with a few weeks practice, could do the same as this lady, up to about 4 branches….

    That was cool to watch, I wonder how long she practiced for that.

    I think a closer translation to the title of the program is more like, “You, are worthwhile” as in, excluding others that try to do the same or similar thing.

    Another translation could also be, “You, certainly are of value”, as in worth watching, due to skill level or entertainment value or whatever.

    2. Presumably part of the “X-land’s got Talent” franchise, and it would be a fair translation.

      1. (my connection’s very slow at the moment, I was waiting for the vid to load since long before Ant commented!)

  9. I know I’ve seen that same demonstration before, and I’m pretty sure it was a man who did it. I think — though I’m far from certain — it’s part of the standard repertoire of Chinese acrobats (or maybe just one school of them).

    Still, her execution was superb.

    b&

  10. If you couldn’t concentrate on the performance for 10 seconds, and kept wondering what the panel was doing, you could be the person that chooses WTF everyone else has to watch.

  11. I suspect it looks more impressive than it really is, with the physics of it being rigged in her favor. I saw an essentially identical feat performed by a man, and in that the contraption was visibly wobbly. When there is a fluctuation in balance, the pieces seem designed to compensate by pivoting to produce a greater or smaller overall torque. It looks like a stable structure, within some tolerance of course. And as always with this kind of entertainment, it’s possible for gimmicks to be used as well.

    1. I don’t really know what I’m talking about here but the fact that without the feather the whole thing crumble (at the very end) is very impressive to me. (but then again, you said it may look more impressive than it really is so… 😉 )

      1. It may look a lot more impressive than it is, but no matter how much that is true it is a lot better than anything that I can do. Miyoko Shida definitely leads a balanced life.

    2. The only way the physics favour her is the slight curvature of the palm fronds, which makes the balance point slightly less critical – but only very slightly, just try balancing two of them yourself. It is still susceptible to falling to pieces if she moved suddenly. How difficult do you want it to be? Just the muscular control to move with extreme steadiness for seven minutes is remarkable.

      I note she built the assemblage from the ‘outer end’ in – this is possible because the load at each balance point doesn’t change as further supports are added. Doing it the other way, biggest end first, intuitively seems easier but in fact the load on each balance point would change as further members were added – which makes it impossible.

  12. Lovely and amazing, but can she do, or teach others to do something useful or helpful?

  13. I dunno. What use is Grieg’s Piano Concerto. Or a tiger for that matter. What *use* are either of those things?

    Most of us can’t do any one thing as well as she does that. It needs no other justification.

    1. Drat, That was @Lisa, of course.

      An edit function for WP would be some use, now.

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