Image Tool Catches Fashion Industry Photo Alterations

society

Image Tool Catches Fashion Industry Photo Alterations

Given the social consequences of all this unnatural retouching and as the father of a girl, I can only agree with this proposal to have a mandatory “photoshop rating” added to the photos. Some researchers have come up with a nifty image analyzer that can show the level of alteration of any given picture. Cool stuff.

A new photograph-analyzing tool quantifies changes made by digital airbrushers in the fashion and lifestyle industry, where image alteration has become the psychologically destructive norm.

“Publishers have legitimate reasons to alter photographs to create fantasy and sell products, but they’ve gone a little too far,” said image forensics specialist Hany Farid of Dartmouth University. “You can’t ignore the body of literature showing negative consequences to being inundated with these images.”

via Image Tool Catches Fashion Industry Photo Alterations | Wired Science | Wired.com.

World’s largest 3D painting creates nifty optical illusion

cool

Actors pose with gym equipment on what the Guinness World Records bills as the world’s largest 3D painting, at Canary Wharf in London November this week. British artist Joe Hill‘s creation measures in excess of 1120 square meters, or 12,000 square feet. Guinness says it breaks records for the longest and largest surface area 3D painting. (REUTERS/Paul Hackett)

via World’s largest 3D painting creates nifty optical illusion – Boing Boing.

The Craigslist Project turns Internet anonymity into art

art

I would have never thought you could turn craigslist into art. For those who don’t know (really?), craigslist is one of the oldest – if not the oldest – free classified sites on the web. There’s really everything there, kind of a cesspool in some sections. Heck, I found a couple of jobs on craigslist and they weren’t all that enjoyable. Caveat emptor.

This is pretty cool work!

The Craigslist Project, Samantha Allen’s first exhibit, is a collection of original photographs and written ads that she submitted to the popular classifieds website in the hopes that she might receive intriguing or otherwise noteworthy responses — which, for the most part, she did.

via The Craigslist Project turns Internet anonymity into art on BlogTO

China Threatens Massive Venting of Super Greenhouse Gases in Attempt to Extort Billions

this can't end well

So, basically, China is blackmailing the entire world with a massive release of toxic, ozone-destroying gas is the international community doesn’t pay. Nice.

Keep buying stuff made in China, peeps, it’s cheaper. Yeah, right.

In a shocking attempt to blackmail the international community, Xie Fei, revenue management director at the China Clean Development Mechanism Fund, threatened: “If there’s no trading of [HFC-23] credits, they’ll stop incinerating the gases” and vent them directly into the atmosphere. Speaking at the Carbon Forum Asia in Singapore last week, Xie Fei claimed he spoke for “almost all the big Chinese producers of HFCs who “can’t bear the cost” and maintain that “they’ll lose competitiveness”.

via China Threatens Massive Venting of Super Greenhouse Gases in Attempt to Extort Billions as UNFCCC Meeting Approaches – MarketWatch.

That’s a lot of Rubik’s Cubes

art, cool

4242 Rubik's Cubes were used to create this triple portrait of Dr Martin Luther King Jr

4242 Rubik’s cube cubes and many hours of work were needed to achieve this triple portrait of Martin Luther King Jr.

Original site is in German, so here’s a rough translation (with the help of google, that is):

4242 Rubik’s cube cubes and many hours of work. The result is an approximately 5.8 m wide and 2.9 m high portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King Junior. Pete Fecteau , with the help of YouCanDoTheRubiks, First Park Congregational Church, The Student Advancement Foundation and Cooley Law School produced about half a ton of heavy work of art.  A a computer-generated blueprint was used for the presentation of his ‘Dream Big’, which got him in the top 50 of 1700 participants of the ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

via Dream Big | Ignant.

Thailand is 20% underwater, and is second-biggest hard drive producer after China. Now do you care about the floods? – Boing Boing

sux, tech

A flood victim cycles through the water using a homemade tall three-wheeler in Bang Phlad district, Bangkok October 30, 2011. Thailand’s worst floods in half a century have killed 381 people since July, wiped out a quarter of the main rice crop in the world’s biggest rice exporter, forced up global prices of computer hard drives and caused delays in global auto production after destroying industrial estates. (REUTERS/Bazuki Muhammad)

There may be a shortage of hard drives for the big Christmas retail season because of the catastrophic floods in Thailand. By some estimates the total global output of magnetic hard drives could fall as much as 30% in the final three months of 2011.

Production of laptops and other devices that use these drives may be impacted through early 2012. Second only to China, Thailand is one of the world’s top hard drive producing countries. Western Digital and Seagate now produce about 90% of hard drives, and both have affected plants in Thailand. Western Digital’s factory is literally underwater.

via Thailand is 20% underwater, and is second-biggest hard drive producer after China. Now do you care about the floods? – Boing Boing.