A Mac addict is born.
I don't spend much time proselytizing the Macintosh these days, because unlike back in the nineties, Apple doesn't need help, they are doing better than ever, and on three platforms too (iPod, iPhone, and Mac). But anyway, here's a cute little story of a... what do they call them? Shifters? Changers?
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
Family nudity
Mores vary widely regarding families and nudity.
"One father, who works away from home during the week, comes back to his wife and four daughters on Friday night and feels hopelessly out of place. "He keeps asking, rather desperately, 'Is that appropriate?' because we're all wandering about naked," says his wife fondly. "But we don't take any notice of him.""
Pascal said:
I've watched very carefully the many documentaries made on populations that live naked. It seems EVERYBODY gets used to it as naturally as I got used to my cat being naked. :-)
Admittedly, few of them are located in the Arctic Circle...
But do you think the Eskimos sleep in pyjamas, or in anything else? Guess again! Just the collective family/clan's body heat under a very warm fur blanket.
It's all about how we've been educated, and some social taboos we've unnoticingly assimilated. In some countries (Saudi kingdom, Afghanistan...), for a woman to show her bare face in public, or her uncovered hair, is considered nearly as obscene as if she were stark naked.
When you consider it in a purely objective manner, removing from the equation your own society-based educated feelings & reflexes, it becomes astomishing how the protective function of clothes has turned in priority to protection from the gaze of others. How did we become so repressed about our very being?
The legend of Adam & Eve, no matter how naive, bears very deep revelations about the minds that came up with its symbolism. God creates Man and Woman. Creates them butt-nekkid [Gen 2:25] TO HIS IMAGE [Gen 1:27], and blesses them by saying: "Grow and multiply." [Gen 1:28] Translation: it is RECOMMENDED that they have sex to their heart's content. Reminds me of the very revered and fully naked statues or greek and roman gods & goddesses.
Then the humans do the one foolish thing, and all of a sudden they are ashamed of being naked, and they make loincloths with fig leaves. [Gen 3:7] If, like me, you've played with fig leaves as a child, you know the darn things are itchy and have quite an irritant juice. Out of mercy for his creation which can no longer bear to live in innocent nudity, God replaces their awful undies with very nice leather tunics. [Gen 3:21] Quite a kind gesture, from a Father that's just been bitterly disappointed by his offspring for the first time in history. I wonder how much a good leather tunic would cost even today?
Incidentally, there's something odd: in Genesis, Man is authorised to eat all the fruits of the Earth, except that single forbidden one. [Gen 1:29-30] It is only after the flood that theBook of Gusteau also mentions animal flesh. [Gen 9:2-3, 9:7], again advising for lots of sex along the way.
Which means that, either those who came after Adam & Eve killed animals just to skin them, or that everybody else until Noah dressed with vegetal fibers and materials. "Holy Josephine Baker, Batman! That means... it means..." (Robin turns bright red, while the Caped Crusader slowly starts peeling a batanana from his utility belt.)
Even in monotheistic Europe, the uncovered human figure was the subject of fery little fuss until the gloomy austerity of Puritanism started spreading. We must face it, my fellow Earthlings: our current "fashion values" are merely an episode of a history where standards change a lot.
"One father, who works away from home during the week, comes back to his wife and four daughters on Friday night and feels hopelessly out of place. "He keeps asking, rather desperately, 'Is that appropriate?' because we're all wandering about naked," says his wife fondly. "But we don't take any notice of him.""
Pascal said:
I've watched very carefully the many documentaries made on populations that live naked. It seems EVERYBODY gets used to it as naturally as I got used to my cat being naked. :-)
Admittedly, few of them are located in the Arctic Circle...
But do you think the Eskimos sleep in pyjamas, or in anything else? Guess again! Just the collective family/clan's body heat under a very warm fur blanket.
It's all about how we've been educated, and some social taboos we've unnoticingly assimilated. In some countries (Saudi kingdom, Afghanistan...), for a woman to show her bare face in public, or her uncovered hair, is considered nearly as obscene as if she were stark naked.
When you consider it in a purely objective manner, removing from the equation your own society-based educated feelings & reflexes, it becomes astomishing how the protective function of clothes has turned in priority to protection from the gaze of others. How did we become so repressed about our very being?
The legend of Adam & Eve, no matter how naive, bears very deep revelations about the minds that came up with its symbolism. God creates Man and Woman. Creates them butt-nekkid [Gen 2:25] TO HIS IMAGE [Gen 1:27], and blesses them by saying: "Grow and multiply." [Gen 1:28] Translation: it is RECOMMENDED that they have sex to their heart's content. Reminds me of the very revered and fully naked statues or greek and roman gods & goddesses.
Then the humans do the one foolish thing, and all of a sudden they are ashamed of being naked, and they make loincloths with fig leaves. [Gen 3:7] If, like me, you've played with fig leaves as a child, you know the darn things are itchy and have quite an irritant juice. Out of mercy for his creation which can no longer bear to live in innocent nudity, God replaces their awful undies with very nice leather tunics. [Gen 3:21] Quite a kind gesture, from a Father that's just been bitterly disappointed by his offspring for the first time in history. I wonder how much a good leather tunic would cost even today?
Incidentally, there's something odd: in Genesis, Man is authorised to eat all the fruits of the Earth, except that single forbidden one. [Gen 1:29-30] It is only after the flood that the
Which means that, either those who came after Adam & Eve killed animals just to skin them, or that everybody else until Noah dressed with vegetal fibers and materials. "Holy Josephine Baker, Batman! That means... it means..." (Robin turns bright red, while the Caped Crusader slowly starts peeling a batanana from his utility belt.)
Even in monotheistic Europe, the uncovered human figure was the subject of fery little fuss until the gloomy austerity of Puritanism started spreading. We must face it, my fellow Earthlings: our current "fashion values" are merely an episode of a history where standards change a lot.
Half Of UK Men Would Swap Sex For 50 Inch TV
Half Of UK Men Would Swap Sex For 50 Inch TV.
What I'm surprised about is that only half of that would swap chocolate for sex.
... Thinking about it, the swap is limited to half a year of sex... perhaps half of men don't foresee any sex to speak of in the next six month, whereas chocolate is a close as the corner store!
What I'm surprised about is that only half of that would swap chocolate for sex.
... Thinking about it, the swap is limited to half a year of sex... perhaps half of men don't foresee any sex to speak of in the next six month, whereas chocolate is a close as the corner store!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Quotes from The Simpsons
Homer: "Mr. Burns, you're the richest man I know."
Mr. Burns: "Ah yes. But I'd trade it all for a little more."
---
(After his house got demolished in a hurricane)
Ned Flanders: "It's all gone. Gone-diddly-on."
Mr. Burns: "Ah yes. But I'd trade it all for a little more."
---
(After his house got demolished in a hurricane)
Ned Flanders: "It's all gone. Gone-diddly-on."
Monday, February 11, 2008
Bridge City Tool Works and Luminous Landscape
Bridge City Tool Works Foxtail Shoulder Plane commemorative tool.
This is just an astonishing piece of craft.
To really appreciate it, download the PDF brochure (6.5MB) and zoom in on the high-def images.
I heard about it in the latest video journal from luminous-landscape.com. Michael Reichman interviews Jay Maisel, a veteran photographer and artist who inhabits the whole of an old bank building, seventy-two rooms filled with his pictures and tools and studios. Amazing.
(I can't believe he owns a whole building in Manhattan, and a building which does not bring any income in itself because he uses it all personally. How does he afford that? Just the property taxes and the heating must be huge.)
TTL said:
"That sure is a nice instrument. But I went to luminous-landscape.com and couldn't find the video you mentioned."
No, considering that the video is supporting the web site, the site navigation lets it down a little, the downloads are not always easy to find (at least I can say that I've had trouble, and I've been buying on the web for over a decade), and the new issue is not mentioned on the main pages for days (at least this time around).
It is here.
And I found it via the News page, which is the best way to keep track of LL, which often has much to interest the serious photographer.
This is just an astonishing piece of craft.
To really appreciate it, download the PDF brochure (6.5MB) and zoom in on the high-def images.
I heard about it in the latest video journal from luminous-landscape.com. Michael Reichman interviews Jay Maisel, a veteran photographer and artist who inhabits the whole of an old bank building, seventy-two rooms filled with his pictures and tools and studios. Amazing.
(I can't believe he owns a whole building in Manhattan, and a building which does not bring any income in itself because he uses it all personally. How does he afford that? Just the property taxes and the heating must be huge.)
TTL said:
"That sure is a nice instrument. But I went to luminous-landscape.com and couldn't find the video you mentioned."
No, considering that the video is supporting the web site, the site navigation lets it down a little, the downloads are not always easy to find (at least I can say that I've had trouble, and I've been buying on the web for over a decade), and the new issue is not mentioned on the main pages for days (at least this time around).
It is here.
And I found it via the News page, which is the best way to keep track of LL, which often has much to interest the serious photographer.
Slanted light
BTW, these were pictures where a tiltable screen would have been the bee's knees, since I composted them at waist height in order not to tilt the vertical lines.
More on the Sigma DP1
[Update: my mistake, it is not about the DP1, it is about the SLR SD-14, which has a similar resolution. I found the link in the middle of an article about the DP1, and I didn't pay enough attention. But it is still about a similar Foveon sensor.]
We talked about the upcoming high-quality Sigma DP1. Here's an interesting test of it. According to this guy, it seems like it actually may have unrivaled image quality for the size of the camera, just like the intention was.
Interestingly, the actual resolution of the files is small by today's standards, "only" 5MP, but the thing is that normal sensors cheat, they have separate little sensor dots for each of the three colors and so they have to extrapolate for each color. The Foveon sensor the Sigma uses does not have that, so the natural resolution picks up more detail per 100 pixels. There's no extrapolation of data.
We talked about the upcoming high-quality Sigma DP1. Here's an interesting test of it. According to this guy, it seems like it actually may have unrivaled image quality for the size of the camera, just like the intention was.
Interestingly, the actual resolution of the files is small by today's standards, "only" 5MP, but the thing is that normal sensors cheat, they have separate little sensor dots for each of the three colors and so they have to extrapolate for each color. The Foveon sensor the Sigma uses does not have that, so the natural resolution picks up more detail per 100 pixels. There's no extrapolation of data.
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