Airbrushed make-up ads banned for ‘misleading’

Well, that is interesting. I have to say I am all for it.

Swinson said it was "shocking" that the ASA was not allowed to see the pre-production pictures of Roberts due to contractual agreements with the actor. "It shows just how ridiculous things have become when there is such fear over an unairbrushed photo that even the advertising regulator isn't permitted to see it," she added.

In the case of both the Roberts and Turlington ads the ASA said it was not provided with enough information to evaluate what impact the digital enhancements had on the final image.

"On the basis of the evidence we had received we could not conclude that the ad image accurately illustrated what effect the product could achieve, and that the image had not been exaggerated by digital post-production techniques," the ASA said.

"Pictures of flawless skin and super-slim bodies are all around, but they don't reflect reality," said Swinson. "Excessive airbrushing and digital manipulation techniques have become the norm, but both Christy Turlington and Julia Roberts are naturally beautiful women who don't need retouching to look great. This ban sends a powerful message to advertisers – let's get back to reality."

Beauty retouching is in a fairly unrealistic place, hopefully this will temper some of the crazier Art Directors out there.

Drag-and-drop on applet broken in Safari 5.1

So with the new Safari upgrade Apple broke Java on all browsers. This affects how the Danklife Client Area works as it breaks drag and drop functionality. If you run into this problem as well just hold down Command & Shift and you can drag the applet out of you browser window and then it will work.

I have just upgraded to Safari 5.1 and I notice that drag-and-drop from the Finder to my Java applet does not work anymore (as it is already the case with Firefox 4 and Google Chrome). Now Safari 5.1 acts as Google Chrome : instead of handling drag-and-drop, it displays the dropped file in a new window.

My applet worked fine before upgrading Safari. I have also tested on Safari 5.1 on the Windows platform : drag-and-drop works perfectly.

This is very annoying because, until now, Safari was the only browser on Mac OS X that allowed drag-and-drop on an applet (if I except Firefox 3.6 - which is not the last version of Mozilla browser - and maybe less known browser...). Does anybody know if there is a workaround ?

Unfortunately this is a known issue with Plugin2, which has become the default applet plug-in for all browsers on Snow Leopard and Lion as of yesterday. We have not found NPAPI to have sufficient facilities for us to replicate Java's external drag-and-drop services, and are looking for other technical avenues to pursue.

As a workaround, you can detach the applet from the web page by holding down Cmd-Shift and dragging. The detached applet should respond correctly any DnD operations.

So there you go. You will have a floating Java window that looks like it's own Application.

The Chart That Should Accompany All Discussions of the Debt Ceiling

Via NYT:

The first graph shows the difference between budget projections and budget reality. In 2001, President George W. Bush inherited a surplus, with projections by the Congressional Budget Office for ever-increasing surpluses, assuming continuation of the good economy and President Bill Clinton’s policies. But every year starting in 2002, the budget fell into deficit. In January 2009, just before President Obama took office, the budget office projected a $1.2 trillion deficit for 2009 and deficits in subsequent years, based on continuing Mr. Bush’s policies and the effects of recession. Mr. Obama’s policies in 2009 and 2010, including the stimulus package, added to the deficits in those years but are largely temporary.

Thanks Nathan!

Onion Study

[gallery link="file" columns="1"]  

A red onion left over from the weekend BBQ grabbed my attention just now.  Two Dedo lights used.

New Photo Gallery

So I configured up a new photogallery page which you can see under the Pages section just to your right. Or just click here to see it. I broke it down to a few projects and general themes. Fairly robust little plug in for WordPress. I'll have to work on the layout when I have more time.

Enjoy!

Red Fang

Was hanging out at the new bigger Revival Drum Shop talking drums and this fella comes strolling in for new heads and what have you. Asked him what band he was in a he said Red Fang.

A wee bit of google later and holy shit.

That is one way to get funds....

Consider the life of a Michigan prisoner. They get three square meals a day. Access to free health care. Internet. Cable television. Access to a library. A weight room. Computer lab. They can earn a degree. A roof over their heads. Clothing. Everything we just listed we DO NOT provide to our school children. This is why I’m proposing to make my school a prison. The State of Michigan spends annually somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 per prisoner, yet we are struggling to provide schools with $7,000 per student. I guess we need to treat our students like they are prisoners, with equal funding.

 

Get yer Mornin' Funk on.

Jimmy McGriff - The Bird Wave - 1970 [Soul-Jazz]

Hooo boy, that is some damn fine funk right there. If this don't get you moving, check your pulse.

Two Illustration tips

So I have a large collection of Photoshop brushes here. So large in fact that it can crash my system. Because of this I have deleted most of them from Photoshop.  Now I use this awesome little plug in that allows you to use the Mac's Quick Look function to preview them. Select one in the finder, hit the space bar for a preview and see if you want to load it. Life saver. BrushView QuickLook PlugIn.

Free of course. Saves me a ton of time.

I also tracked down a pretty amazing set of AI brushes doing research for another project. Colorburned has posted a set of 105 retro brushes that are amazing time savers and very functional. Bringing these into Photoshop make me a happy camper. You can copy and paste between all Adobe apps now in case you did not know.

Yeah, this is the stuff that gets me excited....

 

Grant Green

Man, I can not get enough of Grant Green right now. Especially Alive! with one of my favorite drummers, Idris Muhammad. Just listen to that groove, yikes!

Interview with him here.  I read somewhere he played the same cymbals for 30 years and cleans them with mud...

"I went down and it was Rahsaan Roland Kirk. It was amazin' to hear this guy do this. So I asked the drummer, could I play one tune with him. It was like a magnet drawing me to him. So he asked me where I was from. His name was Candy Finch. And he let me play. And after the melody, Roland Kirk turned around and said, "Who's that on them drums?" And I said I was Leo Morris. And he said, "Keep that beat! Keep that beat!" And the next thing you know I end up playin' the whole set."