Winter in Transylvania
This is something new:
They're from a remarkably atmospheric series called Winter in Transylvania. The processing is interesting - I don't know what they've done, but the saturation is definitely quirky, and the overall effect is lovely. Great to see such work under a Creative Commons license, too.
Via Photojojo ♥s Tumblr.
Video results
My uni results came in this evening, and my video project did spectacularly badly. The video itself got 37%, which is quite the achievement - I don't know of anyone who's managed a lower score. The how-i-made-it documentation pulled the overall mark up to 40%, which is the lowest possible mark to still get a third.
They had two major problems with it: the lack of research, which I hold my hands up to, and the concept, which was 'inconceivable' and totally unrealistic. I don't want to whine, but it seems reasonable to mention this is from the teachers who, when I pitched a previous idea about a party political broadcast that focussed on under-appreciated issues, told me it would be better if I made up all the issues, as this would be surreal.
I don't know - maybe a non-realistic Childline theme was a tasteless thing to do. I knew it wasn't a completely believable situation, but I thought the metaphors were clear and had a strong enough message to justify the liberties. Maybe this is just wishful thinking.
They also said my technical skills were weak, which hurts. If there's one area I thought I was fine, it was the technical side.
So I'm a bit down about the whole thing. The low mark doesn't actually affect anything important, due to the weird averaging-out system of marking, but it's not nice being told that something you worked very hard at is rubbish. I'll get over it, though.
Other than that, my essay got 63%, which is my lowest essay score, but still a 2:1. I'm fine with that. The lecturer crossed out all the don'ts, can'ts, won'ts, etc. on the basis that contractions are 'not appropriate for an academic text'. This is the first I've heard of it - all my essays have used contractions - and I suspect I got a (ridiculously) old-fashioned dude. Who are these academics who can't understand contractions? Luck of the draw, I guess.
We don’t need no vanishing points
For this year's Sport Relief, seven celebrities will be cycling from John O'Groats to Land's End. This is a Worthy Thing, and good for them. The advert made me laugh, though:
To be fair, there are areas just north of Manchester which exist outside of Euclidean space, so it might be fine. Otherwise, the perspective seems...missing. Which might be ok - you could argue it's a particular style, and I've seen worse Photoshop jobs - but then you notice David Walliams' head. And arms. And hands.
Caution over Cherie Blair’s religious ruling
Cherie Blair/Booth apparently gave someone a lenient sentence because they were religious:
I am going to suspend this sentence for the period of two years based on the fact you are a religious person and have not been in trouble before. You caused a mild fracture to the jaw of a member of the public standing in a queue at Lloyds Bank. You are a religious man and you know this is not acceptable behaviour.
Admittedly, "based on the fact that" seems damning. But I think it's worth waiting for the full transcripts to become available, as this has the feel of something that could be explained. Maybe there were unreported circumstances, or maybe this is the kind of thing judges say to get through to supposedly religious people. While it's possible she crossed a line, I'm skeptical it's this clear-cut.
The National Secular Society have made an official complaint, so hopefully they have all the facts of the case. But they do, um, take a hard line sometimes, and I'd like to see more evidence before jumping the gun.
Befrocked brats in the news
The Pope's rubbish, isn't he? He thinks there's a 'natural law' against gay people. The Archbishop of Westminster agrees, which was news despite that being his job. Mind you, Muttley mostly went on and on about Dastardly's right to speak out, which - from the reactions I saw - was an argument he was having entirely with himself. But while their bigoted drivel was widely reported, the dynamics of the criticism meant the media were surprisingly hostile - he was criticising 'our' equality laws, so it became a nationalistic thing. Outside of the usual circles it was only a few lefties who decided they agreed, which was a bit bloody weird: they seemed to fall for the 'why would you want to work for homophobes anyway' trick.
It's really quite easy: there are human rights, and that's it. No 'natural law'. No 'natural justice'. No religious rights. You get the human right to hold whatever beliefs you like. You get the human right to be treated according to your ideas, where they are relevant, and not your biology. There are more. The equality bill puts these transparently correct ideas into law. It's not difficult, yet the Pope still struggles.
He's coming to the UK later this year. I say we do our best to annoy him so he doesn't bother visiting at all, but, failing that, protest him when he arrives. Protesting is a tricky business, as you don't want to seem anti-religion and generally unpleasant, but I think it needs to be done. You can't let people claim condoms aggravate the spread of aids, or that equality laws don't apply to religious people. When people say things like that, there's a duty to point out that they're a dick.
Pet portraits
Lots of modern compact cameras detect faces. They recognise face-like shapes, and keep them in focus when the picture is taken. It's a good idea, and seems to work well. Admittedly there are some problems with recognising all the different face-shapes in the world, although these generally seem to be through lack of testing rather than (somewhat unlikely) overt racism. There is, however, one obvious, glaring, flaw: for all the photographs of people, there are at least as many of pets. Enter Fujifilm's FinePix Z700EXR, which can supposedly detect dogs and cats. That must be some impressive software. I mean, if they're struggling with the variances in people...
Maybe I'm thinking about this upside down, though - Fuji may have simply developed a cuteness detector.
I'm assuming there's also a dangle-a-biscuit-in-front-of-the-lens button, because otherwise there's no way they're looking at the lens long enough for canine detectors to kick in.
- pretty sure this is the dog equivalent of the kid from Love Actually [↩]
Real-time LOST
(spoilers for seasons 1-5; nothing new if you're up-to-date)
Final season starts Feb 9th in the UK. Getting quite excited now. Via.
The Telegraph’s oh-so-shocking David Miliband story
The Telegraph are happily reporting that David Miliband, an atheist, sends his son to a faith school. He 'has been accused of hypocrisy', we're told in the most passive of passive voices. It's not the Telegraph accusing him of hypocrisy, in their website-front-page top-section headline; oh no: it's other people. And what a terrible hypocrisy it is. It means...wait, what does it mean?
As ever with this type of story, it doesn't mean much. 99% of hypocrisy stories are dickish, because they don't go beyond risk-free attack. When newspapers accuse someone of inconsistency, they're not making any statement on the rights or wrongs of the positions, so there's no comeback. Media pure-hypocrisy stories conjure up an air of vague wrongness, without ever honing in on a specific problem. What is the Telegraph trying to say, here? That hypocrisy is a binary personality trait, and David Miliband can't be trusted on anything, ever? That there's something wrong with faith schools? What? It's meaningless.
Everyone's a hypocrite. Everyone fails to meet their ideals, and everyone has to compromise sometimes. Government ministers more than the rest of us. I suppose continuous, spectacular hypocrisy could eventually become a point unto itself, but most of the time you have to go beyond the inconsistency. You can use hypocrisy as the starting point - the minister says x, but does y, because the problem with x is... - but isolated it's just trolling. If you want to be completely ridiculous you point out inconsistencies across the entire government, as if such a massive organisation could avoid such problems. This is all Private Eye does, as far as I can tell. Such things only feed cynicism, and stifle useful argument.
And, aside from that, mentioning a minister's children is pushing it. There could be all sorts of reasons for the choice of school, none of which need bringing up in a newspaper. Anyway, the Telegraph eventually finds someone who'll say the word 'hypocrisy', albeit more gently than you'd imagine from the headline. But they don't have much luck elsewhere:
The British Humanist Association, which wants to remove the right of faith schools to discriminate on the basis of religion, said Mr Miliband’s choice of school was a private matter.
This is why I like the BHA: they're classy.
The most annoying sign ever?
I don't know where to start.
Update: the website is, um, quite the thing.
Hello!
Hey, thanks for coming! I'm Andrew, and this is where my headthinks come to breed. They often dance around humanism, photography and general wonderments, but there's dabblage aplenty.
Do feel free to email me - I get lonely:
Your hair looks swish, by the way - have you done something new?
Recent Comments
- chrissie allen: Wonderful pictures. Superbly taken and indeed very atmospheric….just gorgeous! A joy to see on a drab old Monday, thanks.
on Winter in Transylvania. - Graham Nunn: I hate the notion that contractions are bad English. It’s especially irritating in journalism when they’re quoting sportspeople. “It is a really big...
on Video results. - Simon: Bagpipe rock fusion goes stratospheric!
on McShane Apocalypse Serenade. - Simon: Damn. If it’s any consolation, I completely fucked up my third year project. Regarding the essay, perhaps you should have submitted it in Latin?
on Video results. - John: So, Derren isn’t using NLP or covert hypnosis to insert thoughts on the subconscious to predict thoughts? thank you
on Derren Brown – Mind Reader: The Evening of Wonders.
