What is Digg?84 Comments
- nepawoods, on 10/12/2007, -12/+223Personally, I think these things are too beautiful to eat, and their very existence calls into question the morality of eating any member of the wondrous kingdom of plants. I'll stick to eating meat, thank you.
- nullx42, on 10/12/2007, -3/+98http://www.mndl.hu/files/fractal_cow-render_060123200050.jpg Now will you still "stick to meat"?
- themastersb, on 10/12/2007, -5/+68At least I kill animals before I eat them... I see people who eat apples alive!
- laplacian, on 10/12/2007, -7/+61http://www.fourmilab.ch/images/Romanesco/ is soooo much better than the posted crap.
- Muncher, on 10/12/2007, -3/+41What?
- davecor, on 10/12/2007, -5/+32Why do people assume that cool ***** is FAKE without actually looking the stuff up?!?!?!
I'll use your logic on YOU...
Exsst, I don't think you are a real troll, but are a java script that generates trollish behavior and randomly posts on digg. - CiXeL, on 10/12/2007, -1/+25somebody really REALLY needs to do a timelapse video of one of these things growing
you see the same fractal pattern in many species of acropora coral that people keep in aquariums. in fact, thats the first thing i thought of when i saw it. - chicken101, on 10/12/2007, -3/+26No no, I agree with heppar on this one. (it makes more sense than most of the comments on digg).
- SEMW, on 10/12/2007, -5/+26> this effect is most notable as the shadow looks rough and grainy.
Hardly proof. All photos are grainy to some extent, more and more as you go to higher ISOs, and it's often more visible in the shadows.
Not to mention, why would they bother faking it? It's not as if it's a rare or unusual plant. They're pretty common.
If you don't like that pic, there's loads more out there. http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=Romanesco%20cauliflower - Lounger540, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16No, what he means is, we've seen this before in nature and didn't notice. Then we see some computer stuff using fractals and some one says, 'oh, look, it existed before computers and math.' and we're in awe. But it was there and you never noticed it. I guess, like how most major blockbusters where around in print before and most people never read them and they are usually arguably better forms of the art.
- xed122333, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15I used this photo on a report on fractals a while ago. Great picture and really shows the wonder that is nature.
- davecor, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16@ ohthedaysofyore;
The cauliflower was shot under a softbox against a white sweep - I have just such a setup in my house (I photograph toys for a website -***shameless plug*** www.toyvault.com) - I've been a photographer for 20 years - this is a pretty standard lighting scheme.
So no, it's not natural lighting - it's studio lighting - As seen in the following 3 links;
http://www.bigstockphoto.com/photo/view/404999
http://www.photographersdirect.com/buyers/stockphoto.asp?imageid=756454
http://www.markmillward.co.uk/gallery4.htm
I'd say the burden is on YOU to prove it's a render - nothing in TFA suggests it is. - zappo1776, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15Yeah, vegans are nothing but plant haters.
- Lnomis, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I saw a picture of one of those when I tried mushrooms in Amsterdam. I thought it was a hologram.
*****' A. - SEMW, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10These are hardly some rare, remarkable plant. I had some with steak and baked potatoes last week. They're not exactly uncommon.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7We get our veg from a farmers collective called 'Riverford', every second week a guy drops by a random box of organic non-mass produced veg and one week we had one of these in it - what a vegetable, every bit as beautiful as the pic, I agree with nepawoods it is a shame cooking it....but we did and it was really nice, quite like broccali actually. All I can say is thank god the supermarkets haven't totally killed off agriculture in the UK or i'd have missed out on this beauty.
- davecor, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6@ ohthedaysofyore;
Have we established it's a render? I don't think that's been proven. I shoot photos for a website and knock the backgrounds to white - The shadows under the cauliflowers are odd, but by no means proof of a rendering of a digital model.
It's a photo of a common object - when you hear hoofbeats you should think horses, not zebras. - jiggidy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Man. you don't understand. those other pictures you provided are when the plant is over grown. like the picture in this article is how most of our plants look like when they are ready to be picked. smaller the better. when it grows out like the other pics, its not as good.
- lewikee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4The burden of proof is on the people that say this is a render, as this is a common object. All I see here is a studio lighting photo with some possible post processing. Notice that broken node in the upper center which implies this not being a render (a render could still produce that imperfection, granted) I also see color imperfections as red blotches on other parts of the object.
Again, all I've said isn't proof that it ISN'T a render. But since the Romanesco cauliflower is not a hard thing to procure, the burden of proof is on those claiming it's a render. Harsh lighting and high contrast between light and shade is NOT proof, as post processing can accomplish these attributes. - Applemacmad, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Shame it's one of the worst tasting vegetables ever...
- rationalist, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2On the contrary, evidence that complex, seemingly designed structures can emerge through natural processes following simple rules without requiring intervention by a designer.
- harrybozack, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2A direct link to a hi-res version - http://dilipb.smugmug.com/photos/2785987-O.jpg
- Akronos, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3This was actually a good comment. If only it didn't need a translator, then I'm sure it would have been dugg up.
- DrScott, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Reminds me of the buddah.
- Kratos76, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Why is this submitted under technology? Are we really hurting that bad for good tech articles?
- jiggidy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I get my seeds from Vesey's or Stolks. Umm optimal growing conditions would be a warmer climate. you have to use pesticide on these unfortunatley. cause the bugs just love it. You have to keep it well watered. Shouldn't be too hard. start early though. I would suggest planting the seeds and keep it in a green house between april and june. then once they are matured (id say once you start seeing some leaves). put em out in some fertile soil.
- cybermage, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I like veggies. That one is even more likeable
- megaloid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Tell you what, I'll go down to the supermarket, buy one of these, and take a photograph that looks very much like the one in the article, with the slight exception of some little bits of black mold on the tips of the flora. I eat these all the time. They're good steamed with butter, but to tell the truth, broccoli is somewhat tastier.
- Djerrid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'll add to the picture fest: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9a/Brocciflower.jpg
- ajchavar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1o the days of yore, i see what you mean, on the bottom, there are several little shadows within sharp contrast to each other. but, you need to pay more attention to the other posters instead thinking that you are always right. this photo was lit from all sides, pretty evenly, this can create several shadows under some circumstances, if you look even closer at these alleged "fake shadows" you'll see a slight reflection, this was probably shot on a mildly reflective white background, which can enhance contrast between shadows, but it not fake. what you see is probably a combination of the shadow/reflection effect an the downsizing of the image for the web, graininess can come from photos themselves, not just rendering programs. as another photographer with experience in this type of lighting and setup, I would strongly argue that this is a real photo, and not shopped or rendered.
- SacwChiri, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2so its supposed it can be eaten right... does it taste good?
and also the shape is mesmerizing.. i dont know what fractals are but it just looks amazing... - gmaki, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Ok yeah, so I have a bad memory. I am old and my mind is apparently failing.
A similar picture was actually the SOURCE for a Fark Photoshop contest, so there was something in my memory about it. Unfortunately, a few key brain cells have died off since then.
http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=2568512 - Uruviel, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4They are quite tasty. And quite common, here in the Netherlands that is, you can get them in most local supermarkets. Go grab one yourself and observe the nice fractal before you boil them.
- bulkka, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Romanesco+cauliflower&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2
- jiggidy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Haha. We grow this on our farm. The taste is stronger than the average white cauliflower (kind of a mix between broccoli and cauliflower.. It's called Veronica. You should check out the Cheddar and Graffiti cauliflower that we grow too:
Cheddar: http://www.forkandbottle.com/winecountry/farmmark/images/cheddarcauli.gif
Graffiti: http://static.flickr.com/27/51411222_f832ed138f_m.jpg - Leadhyena, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I hate to be such a math nazi, but this cauliflower _isn't_ a fractal, and I have to get this on the record. It exhibits fractal like behaviour, but a real fractal of this form would have completely self-similar behavior, meaning that there would be a pattern going all the way in forever. For each small flower, you'd see it composed of smaller flowers, all the way down past the atoms. We know that the atoms don't have this shape, so this cauliflower isn't a fractal. Because of the nature of atoms, NOTHING with mass in this world can be a fractal, not even a humongous atom made of smaller atoms, because the atoms composing them are themselves composed of quarks.
Fractals are so named because they have fractional dimension. Completely self-similar systems have fractional dimension because of the laws of geometry; by expanding a fractal to a multiple of its size diameter-wise, you expand its measure (length, area, volume, hypervolume) a certain amount, and the dimension of that object is ln (measure expansion)/ln (diameter expansion). This is why things like the sierpinski triangle are fractals (expanding the triangle to twice its diameter gives three copies of the original object, meaning its dimension is ln3/ln2=~1.5848. This cauliflower, not being vectorially self-similar, but radially self-similar, would require a Hausdorff dimension measure, and it would equivalently fail because at some point you're just recounting atoms.
One last point about your comment which sent me on this rant. The universe cannot be a fractal, because it is made up of matter and energy that is quantized (the whole root to Quantum Physics). This means that all matter/energy is portioned out, and since it can never be smaller than these portions, it will never be a fractal, because at some point "the rabbit-hole stops". Until they disprove Quantum Physics (isn't entirely impossible, but highly improbable :D ), the idea of actually beholding a fractal can only happen in the dreams of mathematicians. - coldskool, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1http://www.fractaluniverse.org/
l33t - aleksandar, on 02/28/2009, -0/+1And here is a computer generated model of the same thing:
http://aleksandarrodic.com/renderman/matrix.html - nepawoods, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It was documented in 16th century Italy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanesco_broccoli
- EarlPolliwog, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I'm very interested in growing this myself. I have some Romanesco seeds, but where do you get the others? And what are the growing conditions?
- busterjet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Hello everyone,
I run the website with this photo - and I took the photograph in question. I've really enjoyed reading everyone's comments.
It is a real photo of the real thing, not a computer generated image. I saw it in my local supermarket and thought it looked amazing.
The photo was taken in a light cube, hence the white background. The contrast has been upped in Photoshop which I felt made a nicer picture, if not totally natural-looking.
If anyone wants a high-res version, I've uploaded one here. No terms apply to its use:
http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/digg/romanesco-cauliflower.jpg
Cheers - giveer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2*ahem*
1.618
That is all. - bcimhe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1in-f'ing-credible!
- coldskool, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1No need, just follow Kirk Cameron and crew and Jesus loves you.
- jesuschrysler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1A fractal is "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be subdivided in parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced/size copy of the whole". The term was coined by Benoît Mandelbrot in 1975 and was derived from the Latin fractus meaning "broken" or "fractured".
Took maybe three seconds to find that. Come on. - DrGonzo1184, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@nullx42
Do you know where I could get a higher res copy of that cow fractal. That thing is freakin' sweet. - kevmaguire, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Haha how strange - I saw one of these out shopping a few weeks ago and had to take a picture -
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=342971480&size=o - Trena, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0A fractal is a real object or a mathematical model that repeats itself when you vary the observation scale.
Just like the Romanesco cauliflower of the photo. If you look at it closer you will see exactly the same figure you see when you look at it far away. It repeats itself. Each spiral is a copy of the spiral it comes from. I think it is amazing. - manni, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0in germany 4 example this food is quite common. we call it romanesco. its taste is directly between cauliflower and broccoli.
- bryxal, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3The fact that you can do it doesn't make it any less legal.
It does means that any reputable internet site will pay them 20$ or will link back.
They don't care if your blog hosts it without paying they do care if CNET or other *real* sites do. -
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