CVNet - Re: [visionlist] Roman acuity test?

[Larry Baitch]

I do believe that the term "centurion guard" came from the following source:

Python, Monty (1979) _Life of Brian

_

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Larry Baitch, OD, PhD, FAAO
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Director of Clinical & Technical Services
American Medical Vision Technologies

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Laurence T Maloney wrote:
> 1. Actually, I don't think that there is any such rank as Centurion Guard. A centurion 
> commanded a century and was sort of a sergeant, very unlikely to pull guard duty.
> So I'd beware of the quote. 
> It is probably referring to a test for admittance into the legions, after the legions
> were opened to the propertyless by Marius and they became a reasonable career 
> choice for young males (often non-Roman) who had nothing else (about 100 BC). 
> Google reveals many claims along these lines but no references (so far).
>
> 2. The number of Pleiades visible to the naked eye is variable, depending on the eye
> and viewing conditions.  But folks who can see seven should probably also be able to see
> an 8th. The 7th and 8th Pleaides in order of descending visibility are very close.
>
> http://www.naic.edu/~gibson/pleiades/pleiades_see.html
>
> I've never seen more than six but the number potentially visible with the unaided eye
> is closer to 20. It would be interesting to have a translation of number seen into a standard
> measure of visual sensititivity ....
>
> 3. The islamic definition of dawn is the point where a black thread can be distinguished from
> a white. Here are alternative translations of the crucial verse al-Buqarah 2:187 in the Quran:
>
> http://www.qurantoday.com/BaqSec23.htm#Verse2:187
>
> Note that translators who do not understand the visual acuity task implicit in the verse tend
> to produce puzzling translations.
>
>
>
> Laurence T. Maloney
> Psychology & Neural Science
> New York University
> 6 Washington Place, 8th Floor
> New York, NY 10003 USA
> Phone: +1 212 998-7851   Fax: +1 212 995-4349
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dr. Jeffrey Anshel" <eyedoc at adnc.com>
> Date: Saturday, August 4, 2007 6:58 pm
> Subject: CVNet - Re: [visionlist] Roman acuity test?
> To: Denis Pelli <denis.pelli at nyu.edu>, CVNET <cvnet at mail.ewind.com>, visionlist at visionscience.com
>
>
>   
>> Denis,
>>  
>>  You could always just start with: "Legend has it that...."; that 
>>  would likely get you off the hook for any deficiency in accuracy.
>>  
>>  Jeff
>>  
>>  At 09:35 AM 8/4/2007, Denis Pelli wrote:
>>  
>>  >Reading various posting found through Google, I think the following 
>> is
>>  >true:
>>  >
>>  >"The Roman legions required each candidate for Centurion Guard to
>>  >resolve a pair of stars, Alcor and Mizar in Ursa Major, 12 min arc
>>  >apart."
>>  >
>>  >However, I would like to publish this in an article. Can anyone specify
>>  >a reference that I can cite for this fact?
>>  >
>>  >Denis Pelli
>>  >Professor of Psychology and Neural Science
>>  >New York University
>>  >http://psych.nyu.edu/pelli/
>>  >
>>  >p.s.
>>  >Were Centurion Guards lookouts?
>>  
>>  Jeffrey Anshel, OD
>>  Corporate Vision Consulting
>>  842 Arden Drive
>>  Encinitas, CA. 92024
>>  
>>  760-944-1200 (voice/fax)
>>  760-519-0024 (cell)
>>  eyedoc at adnc.com
>>  www.cvconsulting.com
>>  ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ 
>>  
>>  
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