Ben Balas

@bjbalas.bsky.social

Vision Scientist, Dad, Would-be artist & dreadful chess player. Check out my new #visionscience textbook here: https://www.routledge.com/Practical-Vision-Science-Learning-Through-Experimentation/Balas/p/book/9781032691121 All opinions my own.

@nmwilkinson.eurosky.socialReposted by @bjbalas.bsky.social

New paper! Accepted at Perspectives on Psychological Science. A textbook finding in infant psychology is that newborns - within ~1 hour of birth - visually track a simplified 'three blob' facelike stimulus further than its inverted control (see picture). This suggested inborn knowledge of faces!

a simplified facelike stimulus consisting of three blobs for eyes and mouth on a head-shaped background, and its non-facelike control stimulus with the blobs inverted upside down.
@nsousanis.bsky.socialReposted by @bjbalas.bsky.social

Students made their first minicomics in my intro making course - mostly standard format but this student, a first time maker(!), did something so off the charts I’m still reeling from it! & he made like 12 of them for his classmates! A paper engineering feat of flipbookery as well as killer drawing!

@bjbalas.bsky.social

Tonight's showing at the Fargo Theatre was the 2010's entry in their Centennial Film Series: Jordan Peele's GET OUT. This was my 2nd time watching and it's a whole different movie when you know what's coming. ICheck out @blaisebalas.bsky.social's article about it below!

@bjbalas.bsky.social

It can be tough to tell whether or not your #chess game is getting any better, but every so often I spot a tactic I know I would have missed a little while ago. Got this one right during a 2+1 Bullet game this evening: White to move and mate in 3!

Photo, no description
@bjbalas.bsky.social

Checked out the matinee showing of PRIMETIME at the Fargo Theatre today and it was much more interesting and much weirder than I thought it was going to be - excited to talk about this at Film Club next week! #FilmSky

@minouette.bsky.socialReposted by @bjbalas.bsky.social

For the Day 26 #sciArtSeptember prompt cedar, I am sharing this one of a kind cyanotype on water colour paper 11” x 14” has an image of the moon, a fern leaf, cedar leaf and bedstraw, embellished with my linocut prints of pollinators. The insects are a yellow eastern swallowtail butterfly, a virgin

this one of a kind cyanotype on water colour paper 11” x 14” has an image of the moon, a fern leaf, cedar leaf and bedstraw, embellished with my linocut prints of pollinators. The insects are a yellow eastern swallowtail butterfly, a virgin tiger moth, an imperial moth and a spotted lanternfly.
@bjbalas.bsky.social

Guy Delisle is one of my favorite comics creators & when I saw his book MUYBRIDGE on the shelf at the Fargo Public Library I snapped it up. It's a wonderful history of the man himself, the early experimental years of photography, & the birth of the motion picture. Highly recommended! #VisionScience

@bjbalas.bsky.social

Had a quick meeting with my recruitment coordinator this afternoon and we (1) Sorted out some details for an upcoming study, (2) Planned out our next outreach events, and (3) Found out that operators at the Lutefisk Hotline answer the phone on the 2nd ring! #fargofacts

@comicbookyeti.comReposted by @bjbalas.bsky.social

Tonight’s reading. This is not quite what I expected but it is truly a fascinating premise. Top five billing on artistic merit in 2026.

The Last Day of HP Lovecraft graphic novel
@bjbalas.bsky.social

Movie night at the Fargo Theatre and tonight's feature was Albert Brooks' DEFENDING YOUR LIFE. This was one of those movies I saw in fragments on HBO a bunch as a teenager, but only ever watched all the way through once. Neat concept, lots of funny bits, but heavy on the exposition at times.

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