More 3D Photography

Here is a more common type of 3D photography known as anaglyph photography. Here, the left and right eye view of an object are photographed or printed through different coloured filters, so that when the image is viewed through glasses with a red filter covering the left eye and a cyan (blue-green) filter covering the right eye, each eye sees only one of the two images, and the object is seen in 3D. If you still have the 3D glasses used for seeing the "Spy Kids" movie, they will be perfect for viewing these images. If you have the 3D glasses from the "Night of the Living Dead 3D" movie, you will have to turn them around and wear them backwards so that the red filter is in front of the left eye.

Anaglyph images can even be made from stereoviews by using free software such as Anaglyph Maker.

The following photos were originally stereoviews taken of the stuffed animals in the Redpath Museum of McGill University in Montreal.

   

Has anyone ever heard of this?

The photograph here is one of the late Judy Garland dancing the jitterbug in the mid-1940's. Probably, the only thing unusual about the photograph is the strange colouring. This strange colouring was created when an ordinary black-and-white photograph was colourized in order to be seen in 3D when viewed through ChromaDepth glasses.

 The ChromaDepth process creates a pair of glasses that optically causes red objects to appear closest, blue objects to appear farthest away, green objects to appear at a middle distance, and so on.

Now, what I was wondering was, has anyone else ever heard of this type of 3D process, or is it virtually unknown?

To see a larger version of the photo, simply click on the photo, and to find out more about the ChromaDepth process, simply click on the name "ChromaDepth".

John McCain Humour Clarified

After I had written the previous blog entry on John McCain's jokes, I received the following comment:

yougottabeshittingme wrote today at 11:26 AM Jack you moronic fucktard! Do you ever check out the bullshit you post on here. Of course not! You just post your lies and don't give a fuck what morons believe you. You forgot to mention that these stories were recalled by the Tuscon Citizen. They have been repeated anough that the blogosphere believes them but they simply are not true.   Needless to say, I was pretty much upset by these allegations, and I found myself looking for evidence that the Tucson Citizen had in fact retracted the story in question. I at first had no success in this, until I saw the following entry repeated over and over again in Google: McCain Ape Rape Joke Recalled By Sources Now, the accusations against me DID say that the story was “recalled” by the Tucson Citizen, so I investigated further and clicked on one of the links. Now, remember, in the English language, the word “recall” can mean one of two things. According to the Cambridge Dictionary of American English, “recall” can either mean: recall (ASK TO RETURN) verb [T] to order the return of (a product made by a company) because of a fault in the product recall noun [C usually sing] The government ordered a recall of the garment, saying it could burst into flames. OR recall (obj) (REMEMBER) verb to bring (the memory of a past event) into your mind I can vividly recall our first kiss. He recalled that he had sent the letter over a month ago. Can you recall what happened last night? recall noun [U] the ability to remember things He has perfect/total recall. Obviously, my critic used the first definition of “recall”, and interpreted the Google entry to mean that the story about the ape rape joke had been retracted by the Tucson Citizen. I, however, went one step further and ACTUALLY READ THE ENTRY. This is what the article actually said: Sam Stein The Huffington Post  stein@huffingtonpost.com  McCain Ape Rape Joke Recalled By Sources July 15, 2008 06:37 PM News circulated fast late Tuesday afternoon that back in 1986, during his initial run for the Senate, John McCain allegedly told a crude joke about rape involving a woman's affection for an ape. The story, which was reprised on the blog Rum, Romanism and Rebellion before being blasted out by Think Progress, goes like this: In an appearance before the National League of Cities and Towns in Washington D.C., McCain supposedly asked the crowd if they had heard "the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die?" The punch line: "When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, "Where is that marvelous ape?" Eeeshh. The joke, as one can imagine, did not go over well with various women's groups, which responded with indignation. But the McCain campaign denied that he had ever said the offensive gag. "It's pretty obvious to us that this is a politically motivated sideshow," Torrie Clarke, McCain's spokeswoman at the time, said back in 1986. Till this day it has never been proven definitively true or false whether the Senator ever said the line. The Huffington Post reached out to the original reporter in that story, Norma Coile (who, after talking to multiple sources months after it was told, wrote about the response to the rape joke in the Tuscon Citizen) to find out if she thought it was true. "I'm not sure exactly what the wording was of the joke, but something was said. Some joke involving a rape and ape was said. Enough women repeated it to me at the time and the McCain campaign had a non-denial denial," said Coile, now with the Arizona Daily Star. "It came after his 'Seizure World' joke, in which he referred to the [retirement community] Leisure World as Seizure World... I just think it reinforced this idea that John McCain is humor-challenged. Whatever his qualities, he seems to have a tin ear for how these jokes will go over." Indeed, while this anecdote occurred more than 20 years ago, McCain has occasionally found himself with his foot in his mouth throughout his time in public office. Back in 1998, he odiously declared before a GOP crowd: "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno." More recently he joked that it might be good for the United States to keep exporting cigarettes to Iran as cancer would prove an effective weapon against that country's citizens. But venturing into the extremely sensitive subject of rape and humor is not something that - even 22 years later - will endear McCain to the women voters his campaign has sought to recruit. And organizations in Arizona that weighed in on that 1986 line see it as another example of the Senator not being sensitive to female issues and concerns. "I don't think we can say one example like that is indicative of someone's character. But certainly I think John McCain has made lots of quotes where he says jokes like that," said Linda Barter, head of the Arizona Women's Political Caucus, which objected to McCain's joke at the time. "Our organizational purpose, however, is to increase the number of elected and appointed women, and we support pro-choice women, so there is certainly a division there. John McCain has not been pro-choice or supportive of issues related to women's reproductive health. I guess this should lay that last batch of accusations against me to rest.

John McCain's Sense of Humour

This is a TV spot about some of the "Good Ol' Boy" humour that Presidential candidate John McCain seems to be fairly bursting with. Many thanks to Sherry for finding this.

Arrested Development?

During the current United States Presidential election, most of the focus has been on the campaigns of Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton. Comparatively little has been said about the Republican candidate John McCain. He has been portrayed as the sober, conservative, family-values counterpart to the “radical” Democratic candidates.

Now it turns out that this portrayal has not been strictly accurate. During some of his speeches, McCain has made several jokes, some of which may provide a truer key to his character.

For example, McCain told the following joke to a group of Republicans back in 1998:

“Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno.”

This joke could probably be considered as insulting and sexist to say the least, as well as being almost incomprehensible.

But the jewel of the collection is a joke that he told in March 1986, when McCain was running for the US Senate. This joke was quoted in the Tucson Citizen:

“Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die? When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, ‘Where is that marvelous ape?’”

Now, this joke offended a lot of people back in 1986, but it was largely forgotten about until someone mentioned it in a blog on the Internet.

Now, what I'm wondering is, aren't there some minimal standards needed for being a candidate for President of one of the largest countries in the world? Or can just anybody apply?

And you thought that cigarette advertising was illegal in Canada???

I had assumed that it was a done deal. It was bad enough having all these smokers befouling the air that I was trying to breathe, but at least I didn't have to worry about the media encouraging them to continue doing so. Or so I thought . . .
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/178/4/384-a

CMAJ • February 12, 2008; 178 (4). doi:10.1503/cmaj.080046.
© 2008 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors
All editorial matter in CMAJ represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Canadian Medical Association.

NEWS

Cigarette ads return to Canadian magazines

Roger Collier

CMAJ

If Mags and Fags doesn't carry a magazine that interests you, chances are you aren't interested in anything. With somewhere between 6500 and 7000 titles, on subjects ranging from miniature doll houses to elk hunting, the store offers the widest selection in the nation's capital.

The variety of magazines is matched only by the variety of ads within their pages. Every product imaginable — wrist watches, throat lozenges, spark plugs — is promoted somewhere on these shelves. For the past 10 years, however, one product has been absent from Canadian magazine ads: cigarettes. Now, much to the chagrin of anti-smoking advocates, they're back.

The days of the medical profession and the Marlboro Man serving as shills and icons for the tobacco industry are long gone, but tobacco advertising is back. Image by: Stanford University Lane Medical Library / tobacco.stanford.edu

Last summer, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the advertising restrictions listed in the Tobacco Act, which the federal government passed in 1997. The Act states, among other things, that no person or fictional character can be used to promote a tobacco product. That spelled the end of lifestyle advertising campaigns, such as those featuring the über-rugged Marlboro Man or cartoon hipster Joe Camel.

The Canadian tobacco industry's "big 3" — Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd., JTI-Macdonald Corp. and Rothmans, Benson and Hedges Inc. — opposed the new restrictions. During the decade-long court battle that ensued, the companies refrained from advertising in mass-market publications, arguing that the restrictions were so limiting as to essentially constitute a ban anyways.

About 5 months after the Supreme Court's June decision, however, JTI-Macdonald launched several new products with accompanying ad campaigns. The ads have appeared in entertainment magazines, such as Montréal's Mirror and Vancouver's Georgia Straight, and in the Canadian edition of Time.

The new cigarettes contain additives to improve their taste or mask the smell of their smoke. One brand, called More International, comes in whisky or liqueur d'orange flavours. Another, called Mirage, emits a vanilla aroma when smoked and is being promoted as the only cigarette in Canada with "unique Less Smoke Smell (LSS) Technology."

Cynthia Callard, director general of Physicians For a Smoke-Free Canada, says the ads violate the Tobacco Act, which forbids promotions that are "likely to create an erroneous impression about the characteristics, health effects or health hazards of the tobacco product or its emissions." In early December, her organization objected to the Mirage ad campaign in a written complaint to federal Health Minister Tony Clement. Health Canada is investigating the complaint.

"People will think that if there is less of a smoke smell, there is less smoke and therefore less harm," said Callard.

JTI-Macdonald defends the Mirage ad campaign, claiming it contains no ambiguous health messages and adheres to the Tobacco Act. It also claims the ads are to promote a new brand to existing smokers, not to recruit new smokers. "In our minds, we have the right to communicate new products to smokers," said André Benoît, vice-president of corporate affairs and communications. "The only way to do that is through advertising."

Callard believes Mirage cigarettes will compromise non-smokers' health. When the smell is masked, people will unknowingly expose themselves to more second-hand smoke. The return of tobacco ads can only harm Canadians' health and by not issuing a comprehensive ban, the government is responsible for allowing it to happen. "I don't entirely blame the tobacco companies. It's their job to sell cigarettes."

As 1 of 168 members of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Canada is obligated to ban all tobacco product advertising by 2010. But the ban must adhere to each member country's constitution and antismoking advocates say that gives Canadian tobacco companies some wiggle room, which they will be sure to take advantage of. "Nothing short of a complete ban on advertising and sponsorship is effective," said Douglas Bettcher, director of WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative.

Bettcher says many studies have shown partial bans have no effect on reducing tobacco consumption. Restricting one form of advertising merely results in a shift to another form. Complete bans, however, can reduce smoking rates by as much as 6%, according to the World Bank Group's 1999 report "Curbing the Epidemic." About 20 countries have such bans in place.

In addition to implementing advertising bans, Bettcher would like to see countries forbid retailers from displaying cigarettes and require them to keep tobacco products under store counters. "The package itself is the last point of promotion to the customer."

Keeping Canadian tobacco companies out of the ad game won't be easy, says Richard Pollay, a University of British Columbia marketing professor who has followed the advertising practices of tobacco companies for 20 years. The industry is endlessly creative, he says, not only adapting to new legislation or changing public sentiment, but anticipating them: "They're playing chess when everyone else is playing checkers."

Copyright 1995-2008, Canadian Medical Association. All rights reserved. ISSN 1488-2329 (e) 0820-3946 (p)
All editorial matter in CMAJ represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of
the Canadian Medical Association.

So now we're back to the Bad Old Days. How Wonderful! 

The Animator

An animated creation story.