Month: June 2004

3D photos on the cheap …

Ive seen a number of images popping up online that use the simple technique of taking a photo of an object and then another one moving the camera slightly and then creating an animated .gif file that flicks back and forth between them at high speed. The effect is very similar to that used in the creation of 3D images and movies that require special glasses.

I tried it myself, and while my first tries are far from perfect, it does work. First photo experiment.

The effect would be better if I had a tripod to ensure the same height between photos as well as measuring out a radius from the center of the car to rotate around. The biggest improvement would be to decrease the amount of distance between the images to make the change more subtle, but for now it works.

No sex please — we’re Japanese

From USA Today:

Nothing is happening with depressing regularity between Japanese men and women these days. Marriages, births and hanky-panky are all spiraling downward with troubling implications for the nations future: A sagging birthrate means that fewer working-age people will be around to support a growing population of elderly; a social crisis looms.

Only in Japan would a popular weekly newsmagazine deem it necessary to exhort the nations youth to abstain from sexual abstinence: ‘Young people, dont hate sex,’ AERA magazine pleaded last month in a report detailing a precarious drop in sales of condoms and in business at Japans rent-by-the-hour ‘love hotels.’

More and more Japanese men and women are finding relationships too messy, tiring and potentially humiliating to bother with anymore. ‘They dont want a complicated life,’ says Sakai, who has written a controversial bestseller, Cry of the Losing Dogs, on the plight of unmarried Japanese thirtysomething women like herself.

How NOT to spend Memorial Day . . .

President Bush spent the Memorial Day weekend thanking the nations veterans for their service, saying we acknowledge the debt [we owe them] by showing our respect and gratitude.1

… except this was mere hours after the Bush administration had announced new plans to cut $1 billion from the Veterans Administrations budget in a second term if it gets reelected2. The Administration has already tried to close several VA hospitals throughout the country3 in moves that have been criticized by veterans groups nationwide4. Recently 164,000 veterans have been cut off from their existing prescription drug coverage by the White House5, and the President has threatened to veto6 any bill that would allow veterans to receive both the military pension promised as well as any disability compensation they are entitled to.

Definitely not the best way to show your thanks to those whove served in uniform on this day.

Sources:

  1. Presidential Weekly Radio Address Speech, WhiteHouse.gov, 05/29/04.
  2. “Democrats rip Bush’s outline for cuts in domestic programs,” Palm Beach Post, 5/28/04.
  3. “VA Seeks Major Hospital Overhaul,” CBS News, 8/05/03.
  4. “President Bush’s Veterans’ Budget Called Woefully Inadequate and Inexcusable,” Senate Democratic Policy Committee, 2/12/04.
  5. “VA Cuts Some Veterans’ Access to Health Care,” Washington Post, 1/17/03.
  6. “Bush Threatens Veto of Defense Bill,” Washington Post, 10/7/02, p.A02.