Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar

In back of these clouds rises the 7,555 meter peak of Annapurna 3. Other clouds hide other tall mountains. The monsoons are still with us one week away from the end of August and everyone waiting for the sunrise views at Sarangkot will see mostly clouds. There’s a  metaphor here somewhere. Everyone recognized that some of the taller peaks of the Himalayas were in back of the clouds. Nobody believed that the mountains had been removed by the monsoon cloud cover. No one was here to watch clouds.

 Sarangkot-clouds-23-Aug-13-20.jpg

Where is the mirror and where is the dust?

A Stellar Event Close to Home

NASA tells us that the sun’s magnetic field is about ready for a reversal. Don’t be too concerned, this is a big event but a regular part of the eleven year solar cycle.

The Sun’s Magnetic Field is about to Flip

Space events keep playing a more and more important role in our lives. Massive solar flares used to go unnoticed until we started to string telephone and electric power cables overhead. Now we have satellites and space stations that can receive severe damage from a healthy dose of radiation from our nearest star.

If you are not tasked with taking care of objects in space, though, the increased radiation might provide benefits to radio propagation on some higher frequencies than normal and some unusual auroral displays. Keep looking up.

 

Albers on the iPad

nofilmschool.com’s V Renee Barden has come across a fascinating application available for the Apple iPad. If chroma is important to your creative product, how best to internalize the effective use of color than an interactive treatment of Josef Alber’s seminal text?

Interactive iPad App ‘Interaction of Color’

This is perhaps the definitive application to exploit the capabilities of Apple Retina display. I had been wondering if I would have been better getting an Asus or Samsung tablet. Maybe this will convince me that the Apple device can offer something unique.

 

Sar-e Pol Voice of Women Radio Shut Down

I enjoy the international edition of Radio World not only for material from their own staff but for links to articles from a diverse range of sources . . . like this from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Afghan Radio Station Dedicated To Women Shut Down

It is funny how dated the name RFE seems these days. It has been a number of years since Churchill’s phrase, “the iron curtain” was an apt description of the division within Europe.

 

 

 

Insight on The Act of Killing

Am I getting closer to being able to see this film? From nofilmschool.com comes some more details on the film that shows what happened on the ground after Mel Gibson makes it to the plane to leave in The Year of Living Dangerously.

Joshua Oppenheimer Talks About Why His Film is Important

Joshua Oppenheimer discusses the tactics involved in getting the film to screens in Indonesia and also how to, “light what was a very dark journey.”

The trailer and these interviews are also found at filmcourage.com;

‘MAKING THE ACT OF KILLING GAVE ME NIGHTMARES AND INSOMNIA’

This is the stuff from which nightmares arise and of which we are all capable.

4K . . . and another thing

Gamut. If you don’t have a background on the technical side of television this may be a new term for you. Think colorimetry.

We don’t have a full palette of red, green, and blue to mix when we create a color image. Gamut is the quality related to how much of the full color space we can truthfully represent without artifacts or distortion. The new 4K technology lets us carve out a bigger chunk of the color space.

For me the attractive feature in the 4K capable hardware is the enhanced dynamic range provided by the new sensors. This article from Dave Kendricksen, found at nofilmschool.com, would have us believe that the end of interlacing and an expanding gamut are the key features to be had in the new technology.

Sayonara Interlacing, Hello Wider Color Gamut

 

Burka Avenger – a new icon

Cartoon images allow the distillation of complex social processes. They can result in the presentation of stereotypes or in the creation of icons that serve as inspiration to many.

Which is this? Or it it both?

‘Burka Avenger’ comes to Pakistani TV

Burka Avenger logo

Thanks to the foundations laid by Al Gore, Al Jazeera will soon get distribution in the United States. How long before we will be able to watch Burka Avenger on Cartoon Network?

 

HFR – Frame Rates Revisited

So, maybe the BBC tech folks believe that higher frame rates will enhance the presentation in UHDTV as noted in the comments of Andrew Cotton. Dave Kendricksen, at nofilmschool.com, considers the results of audience response to the same material presented at 25 and 50 fps. There is no clear winner from this one and the title of his article might best summarize the conclusion, “Maybe it Depends.”

Matt Fannin has the site where the source material is available for your own assessment;

Frame Rates In Action

How far can we extend and enhance television or film technology before it becomes a new form? Are we really trying to work towards a presentation that is more “lifelike?” It might be time to do another read of Understanding Media, a book that came into being through funding from the National Association of Educational Broadcasters. Marshall McLuhan’s 1964 work is still in print.