Easy Questions?

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

You'll have to ask this guy:

[Griffin NoName]

Ugh! Is that what a head lice looks like??

[Roland Deschain]

Oh, Rigel, how I miss thee. A heart of gold, covered in a complete bastard.

[Griffin NoName]

WARNING  Unsavoury content follows

I am just watching a detective story on TV and the blind man with the guide dog has just got killed, which led me to wonder, in countries where one is obliged to scoop up one's doggy's poops, how would a blind man do this?

Inventive answers allowed.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

By smell? 

I'm told that some folk's sense of smell is quite... acute.  And that they can locate things that way... and a fresh source of "exhaust" ought to be sufficiently odoriferous enough to be detectable.

I would certainly hope he did not have to do this strictly by touch.... or at least, he carries those disposable latex gloves and some plastic baggies...   

[Roland Deschain]

You know, i've not once thought about how the blind were meant to do this. Maybe if they're walking their dogs, when it stops to do its business, they get close in on the action so they know more accurately where it is, or maybe they are exempt from the law? I'll have to look for that online.

EDIT: Almost the first result - http://puppyintraining.com/who-picks-up-guide-dog-poo/

[Griffin NoName]

Hmmm. Still must be quite difficult I would have thought.

[Roland Deschain]

Hmmm. Still must be quite difficult I would have thought.

Maybe, yes, but from what that webpage says, it appears that method makes it far simpler. I thought they'd have come up with something for guide dogs and their blind owners, and this appears to be what i'd say is the simplest method.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

You know, i've not once thought about how the blind were meant to do this. Maybe if they're walking their dogs, when it stops to do its business, they get close in on the action so they know more accurately where it is, or maybe they are exempt from the law? I'll have to look for that online.

EDIT: Almost the first result - http://puppyintraining.com/who-picks-up-guide-dog-poo/

Bloddy clever, I'd say-- all the people I've ever known personally, who were blind, had excellent sense of spatial memory-- for example, when sitting at table, the blind person would have to hunt for the silverware, glasses, plate, etc.  Once.  After discovering where all this stuff was?  They unerringly remembered where it was, for use.  I suspect long practice honed their spatial memory to a fine degree (to avoid knocking over glasses, if nothing else).

So, once a guide dog owner knows how far the end of his/her dog is, with respect to where they were touching the animal?  It'd be simple enough, to remember where the poo must be deposited, to fish up with a plastic baggie (or other pooper-scooper)

[Roland Deschain]

I'd not thought of the spatial awareness that blind people have to function in everyday life. It reminded me of this Family Guy sketch, which although it uses humour, puts across a serious point. This is the only one in English on YouTube that I could find.

[youtube=425,350]8Hhg7wbknr4[/youtube]

[Swatopluk]

What is the ideal distance from a movie screen (in proportion to the size)?
Up close one can see all details but not the full image, too far away and one gets the full image but it gets smaller with distance.
In most cinemas I frequent the last row is the best but in smaller ones it is still a bit too close to the screen. And some very old Berlinian cinemas are very narrow but extremly long, so one needs binoculars from the seats farthest from the screen.
So, where's the optimum?

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Using simple trigonometry you can consider your angle of view and the distance to the screen compared to the width of the screen. Assuming an angle of view of 100^o, you can form a triangle where the base is the width of the screen and the height is the distance from the screen and use function splitting the triangle in two (to get 2 right triangles), define the angle (50^o - 90^o = 40^o) and calculate a tangent:

tan(40^o) = 2L/w

so for a 5m width screen the distance L would be:

L = w tan(40^o) / 2

L = 2.1 m

In that particular case you would insure that the edge of the screen is on the very limit of your vision, you can play with both the angle or the width if you want more clearance.

[Swatopluk]

That's elementary geometry and I remember enough of that. The question pointed more towards physiology, i.e. what is the ideal angle for the eye considering area of sharp focus, normal eye movement etc.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

An optometrist may be able to answer that one more accurately, I know that the density of cones and rods increases radically at the center and gradually diminishes as you go out and there are slight variations depending on the individual. The angle at which you can read for instance is ~5 - 10^o, but you generally are sweeping the area of vision and the brain generates the perception of a full picture.

There may be concrete elements to consider but subjectively I would propose that to enjoy a movie you want to be relatively close to the edge of your visual angle because that would help you to be immersed in the image (which is the argument for IMAX movies). It is quite likely that some people prefers a smaller angle to have a better perception of all elements on the screen, but at the price of detail.

[Griffin NoName]

The knack is to work all that out on entering the cinema. Assuming you enter at the back, furthest from the screen, don't forget the screen will look narrower than it really is.