Fireflies
ncase.me
Fireflies
1–10 of 93 posts
Re: Fireflies
#2Probably one of my favorite things I've seen on HN in a long time. The perfect synthesis of tech explanations to biological phenomena. The way the entire page fits together to teach is just beautiful.
Why it's sitting down on the second page with just a few upvotes is beyond me.
Re: Fireflies
#3Beautiful, educational and clever. I love it.
On the subject of fireflies and emergent patterns, RadioLab did a wonderful podcast on the subject as well a few years ago: http://www.radiolab.org/story/91500-emergence/ This piece very much reminded me of that.
Re: Fireflies
#4Yay ncase did it again! Don't forget to (re)view his project on The Parable of the Polygons: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8716538
Playable posts are amazing. Interactivity in texts is amazing.
<3
Re: Fireflies
#5I think the example works more quickly than it should due to the line "if(ff.clock>1) ff.clock=1;" Every time the clock goes over 1, wouldn't you mod the clock value, not set it to 1 exactly?
Re: Fireflies
#6What an extremely nice interactive read. Works good on mobile. And it applies the biological lesson to human life, which is a nice way to finish a sermon. Article. Well done.
Re: Fireflies
#7Reminds me of the Fireflies[0] model included in NetLogo[1].
[0] https://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/models/Fireflies [1] http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/index.shtml
Re: Fireflies
#8This is neat.
Did they ever figure out why Thailand fireflies do this, instead of just how?
Re: Fireflies
#9This is neat. Did they ever figure out why Thailand fireflies do this, instead of just how?
I suspect it helps avoid being eaten. Anything trying to eat them is presented with too many bright spots to track, then nothing to see.
Re: Fireflies
#10Reminded me of another phenomenon, the one occurring to metronomes on the same surface: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v5eBf2KwF8