Drawing machines, bathing machines, motorbikes, the stars…: where are the masterpieces?

The term ‘digital drawing’ may imply a special kind of drawing, set against a natural approach. Previous generations also had to adjust to the new technologies of the time. Some resisted, some went ahead. New methods present difficulties as well as opportunities. The how-to-draw books of the 1900’s show not just one ‘traditional’ approach, but a wide range, and a healthy debate. For the past two centuries such books have here and there discussed both drawing machines, and the connected question of how to draw machines. One way or another the world of drawing will absorb the impact of computers, and it won’t be just as an isolated genre of slightly weird drawing. So it is wrong to exclude ‘digital’ drawing from surveys, to think of this category as distinct from mainstream drawing. Museums have already collected the significant works, and traced the history. The way forward should be to integrate digital tools within the broad spectrum of drawing types. There are no good reasons for not using digital devices, and no good reasons for not using pencils. All the same, I cite three cases where a pencil and paper technique would not be up to the job: football, a drawing jam session, and astronomy

A drawing book for digital eyes

Looking at book covers may not tell you everything, but they do tell you something. A collection of leather-bound ‘how to draw’ books of the nineteen twenties exudes confidence, the expertise of the masters handed down. The titles indicate attention to technique, referring to ‘pencil drawing’, ‘lead pencil drawing’, or ‘pen and ink’, and speak of the ‘art’ of drawing. Some of these had been in print for fifty years. There are idealised classical figures, nature studies, but also stirrings of a more liberal approach. By the nineteen forties and fifties the books are less formal, less symmetrical, and more Do-It-Yourself: ‘I wish I could draw’, ‘Drawing at Home’, ’The Natural Way to Draw’, ‘Drawing Without a Master’. Some are slim volumes running in series devoted to subjects such as ships, cats, trees, even tanks. You draw the world around you

Near threshold rotational excitation of molecular ions by electron-impact

New cross sections for the rotational excitation of H$_3^+$ by electrons are calculated {\it ab initio} at low impact energies. The validity of the adiabatic-nuclei-rotation (ANR) approximation, combined with $R$-matrix wavefunctions, is assessed by comparison with rovibrational quantum defect theory calculations based on the treatment of Kokoouline and Greene ({\it Phys. Rev. A} {\bf 68} 012703 2003). Pure ANR excitation cross sections are shown to be accurate down to threshold, except in the presence of large oscillating Rydberg resonances. These resonances occur for transitions with $\Delta J=1$ and are caused by closed channel effects. A simple analytic formula is derived for averaging the rotational probabilities over such resonances in a 3-channel problem. In accord with the Wigner law for an attractive Coulomb field, rotational excitation cross sections are shown to be large and finite at threshold, with a significant but moderate contribution from closed channels.Comment: 3 figures, a5 page

Hugues Faure, 1928–2003: The unique adventure of his life

Hugues Faure was not only one of the greatest pioneers of the study of the Quaternary and a man of outstanding personality, with the highest integrity, an uncommon strength of character, with a lot of kindness and generosity, but also a man who made his dreams, conceived in the inhospitable solitudes of the Sahara, come true. He was very young when he chose his way: barely 10 years old and his passion for geology already filled his life. It was in Africa, a continent he discovered at his earliest years as a field-geologist, and deeply loved, that he nursed and matured many of his most stimulating ideas on Quaternary environmental change. It was in the desert that he built up his exceptional personality and found his truth, which finally allowed him to accomplish his destiny. Hugues Faure was born in Paris, on the 11th March 1928, the son of a jeweller. The comfortable circumstances of the family were darkened by his father's death when Hugues was only 3 years old. As a consequence of this sad event, Hugues used to spend in England most of his school holidays far from his family. Then during World War 2, he lived the exodus on the roads of France, cycling under the bombs, with his dog in his basket. He was 12 years old, and it was the end of his youth. His passion for earth sciences had began before the age of ten, when he started collecting flint and fossils from the chalk of the Paris Basin, and decided to stop playing piano, so as to devote himself to Geology. Hugues graduated in Mathematics from Lycée Jacques-Decour in 1948, and in Sciences from the Faculté des Sciences de Paris Sorbonne in 1949. On the same year he enrolled as a geologist of the “France of Overseas”, then as a hydrogeologist at the French Geological Survey (BRGM) (1949–1963), so as to work in Africa

Consistency of vanishing smooth fictitious play

We discuss consistency of Vanishing Smooth Fictitious Play, a strategy in the context of game theory, which can be regarded as a smooth fictitious play procedure, where the smoothing parameter is time-dependent and asymptotically vanishes. This answers a question initially raised by Drew Fudenberg and Satoru Takahashi.Comment: 17 page

A note on poor-institution traps in international fiscal policy games

This note explores the link between the effort level to strengthen institutional quality and the nature of the fiscal policy game among interdependent economies plagued by corruption. Every country has a lower incentive to improve public governance when the effort made abroad to remedy institutional deficiencies becomes weaker. More importantly, the model highlights a possible trade-off between fighting corruption in interrelated developing countries and promoting fiscal policy coordination among them: cooperation goes together with the acceptance of more corruption. It follows that poor-institution traps can be Pareto-improving.Corruption; Fiscal policy; International coordination