Clipmarks | abailart's clips

Painting with Light

Thu, 01 May 2008 21:22:48 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners
clipper's remarks: The last shot is a good example of why you should wear dark clothing.

Learning Light Painting

1. The tools

Besides your camera you will need a tripod and a torch

2. Light

I use a little light also used as a key chain. It s powerful enough to draw the characters and can be turned on/off just by pressing a button.

3. Camera settings

Shutter speed: As long as you need to create the scene.

ISO: I usually put it on 100 so I can set the shutter speed on a very slow value and I don t get any noise on my photographs.

Aperture: Set it doing a test shot without drawings, focusing on an element close to what you are going to draw.

Flash: Can be used to fix a person or a moving element in the scene.

White balance: Set it doing a test shot. Street lighting is usually yellow.

Focus: Obviously on manual if there is not enough light.

4. Tips

Light is your friend, you could use moving lights from cars etc.. for exemple, I did one while a train was passing under a bridge.

Wear dark clothes if you want to lower the chance of being visible on the photograph.

Tags: photography, art, light

LSD: The Beyond Within

Thu, 01 May 2008 18:43:55 GMT

clipped by: WIDEEYECINEMA

Clip Source: underdogcinema.com

LSD: The Beyond Within

Long before Timothy Leary urged a generation to “tune in, turn on and drop out,” lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD, was being used by researchers trying to understand the human mind. This documentary is a fascinating look at the story of “acid” before it hit the streets.

Discovered in 1943 by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann, LSD was hailed as a powerful tool to treat alcoholism and drug addiction and to provide a window into schizophrenia and other mental illnesses. While researchers were establishing the medical benefits of LSD, others, such as Brave New World author Aldous Huxley, promoted the drug as a powerful tool for mental exploration and self-understanding. At Harvard, Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner and Ram Dass (then known as Richard Alpert) became popular heroes after the university canceled their research project into psychedelics.

Tags: video, documentary

Modern Myths

Thu, 01 May 2008 15:22:58 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: More myths at site, such as: <<<talk of values is mainly a catalyst for becoming really, really angry and indignant, and is one of life's great pleasures. An absolutely unspeakable variant of this myth is talk of shared values, declaimed by politicians while they entertain dignitaries from, say, Saudi Arabia or Russia, China or Africa, and oddly supposed not to refer to obvious examples, such as a mutual liking for propaganda, deceit, power, war and bribery.>>>

Clip Source: www.timeshighereducation.co.uk

The myth of meaning

People think words mean things and that they know what they mean. Both claims are often untrue. When the Government of the day talks of change, reform, choice, progress, the social contract, radical new initiatives, going forward, transparency, accountability and the like, they mean nothing.

What is usually known as culture is a set of symbols enabling people on the inside to recognise and dislike those on the outside. British culture is obviously an oxymoron, a label for the most uncultured pursuit imaginable, such as reading the Daily Mail, getting drunk and loudly voicing contempt for anything that smacks of culture. Multiculturalism, on the other hand, usually indicates a craven willingness to be polite when some of the population ship their daughters into forced marriage or get their brothers to murder them if they resist.

Simon Blackburn is professor of philosophy at the University of Cambridge.

Tags: modern myths

The New Deadly Sins

Thu, 01 May 2008 08:23:01 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: 4. Authenticity. Please do your best to be someone better than who you truly are. Deep down inside we're ravening beasts. This is the meaning of original sin. Everyone's authentic self is horrid. God's message to man has always been, "You can't really be good, but you can fake it. Really."

5. Caring. This takes so much time and effort that it necessarily results in the opposite of doing something. And notice that when someone says, "I care about the war in Iraq," he almost always means, "I want to lose it." Also there's a bullying logic among those who care. I care more about diddledydum than you do. Therefore I'm a better person than you are. Because I'm a better person than you are, I have the right to order you around. And vote for Hillary on November 4th.

6. Opinion. It's the reverse of fact. Listen to NPR or AM Talk Radio if you don't believe me, or, better yet, read the opinion page of the New York Times. (I'm talking about you, Paul Krugman.) Some people have facts, the

Clip Source: www.weeklystandard.com

Busy times for us sinners--there are now an additional Seven Deadly Sins. The fresh abominations in the eyes of the Lord were announced by Bishop Gianfranco Girotti, head of the Vatican body that oversees confessions and plenary indulgences. This organization goes by the contrition-inducing name of the Apostolic Penitentiary. In an article in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Bishop Girotti detailed the seven new ways we can go to hell or, at the minimum, be sentenced to afterlife in purgatory at the Apostle Pen. The bishop's supersizing of the mortal transgression catalog is thoroughly up-to-date (as translated by the Times of London):

1. Drug abuse

2. Morally debatable experimentation

3. Environmental pollution

4. Causing poverty

5. Social inequality and injustice

6. Genetic manipulation

7. Accumulating excessive wealth

I pretend to no expertise, let alone authority, in religious matters. However, I can't resist the temptation of having a go, myself, at The Seven Deadly

Tags: deadly sins

Seven Myths about Organic Food

Thu, 01 May 2008 08:15:23 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Feed the world.

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

They're not healthier or better for the environment – and they're packed with pesticides. In an age of climate change and shortages, these foods are an indugence the world can't afford, argues environmental expert Rob Johnston

Myth one: Organic farming is good for the environment

Myth two: Organic farming is more sustainable

Myth three: Organic farming doesn't use pesticides

Myth four: Pesticide levels in conventional food are dangerous

Myth five: Organic food is healthier

Myth six: Organic food contains more nutrients

Myth seven: The demand for organic food is booming

All Britain's food is safer than ever before, In a serious age, we should talk about the future seriously and not use food scares and misinformation as a tactic to increase sales.

Rob Johnston is a doctor and science writer

Interesting? Click here to explore further

Tags: organic food

Baghdad Clashes Leave 400 Dead

Thu, 01 May 2008 08:10:25 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Hardly headline news.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

More than 400 people have been killed in fighting over the last month between Shia militias and US and Iraqi forces, hospital officials in Baghdad say.

Hospitals say they are struggling to cope with the casualties

The fighting has been concentrated in the capital's eastern district of Sadr City, a stronghold of the Mehdi Army militia of the cleric, Moqtada Sadr.

Five US soldiers have been killed in fighting in Baghdad since Tuesday.

April has been the most lethal month for US troops in Iraq, with 49 deaths, since September, when 65 soldiers died.

Staff at the hospitals are worried they are running out of clean water and do not have enough severe trauma specialists to treat all those who need help.

An Iraqi government spokesman, Tahsin al-Sheikhli, later said as many as 925 people had died in the Sadr City fighting

Tags: iraq