Althouse: At the Global Mirror Café...

February 16, 2010

At the Global Mirror Café...

... you can see things a new way.

37 comments:

Freeman Hunt said...: Lent begins tomorrow. Will be time to see things in a less online way. Will be checking email and other things for twenty minutes once a day.

How about you?; 2/16/10, 3:46 PM
traditionalguy said...: Freeman...Are you giving up make-up for Lent?; 2/16/10, 3:57 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: "Oh nooo, look out, she's got a camera, she's gonna shoot"

Meade calmly says, 'its ok its ok.. She's got tenure'; 2/16/10, 3:58 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Ha. No. I usually don't wear it, so that would be kind of like giving up broccoli.; 2/16/10, 3:59 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Not that I don't eat broccoli, but that it wouldn't be much of a challenge.

...

Well, not that I do eat broccoli either.

I'm broccoli neutral.; 2/16/10, 4:00 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Amba just came up with the name "MediaFast". I like that.; 2/16/10, 4:01 PM
traditionalguy said...: OK, we need an expert to take Freeman's picture and add make up like Sarah palin's and then we can compare the two. Freeman looks smarter than Sarah and make up probably won't disguise that. Freeman just isn't populist material like our wolf and moose huntress from Wasilla.; 2/16/10, 4:07 PM
Unknown said...: That photo looks familiar, as in last year. Are times so tough we need to recycle digital images?; 2/16/10, 4:24 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/16/10, 4:36 PM
Anonymous said...: I am not a Catholic (at least not anymore), nor even a Christian, but I feel that there is something in the air driving a spirit of self-examination.

Why must we all have an opinion?

Take the torture of terrorists, for example. I have no idea whether the information gleaned from it is helpful or not. I have no idea of how the moral scales weigh, really. I'm just talking out of my ass if I state what I think.

It's the same thing with the big national issue of healthcare. I have health insurance and it is pretty good. But I have no idea whether there are large systemic problems or not.

I'd like to leave it to experts to deal with issues like this, and try to avoid forming any opinion on my own. But it seems like such an abandonment of personal opinion is frowned upon in our modern American society. We are pressured to think something – this way or that. We ought to be sure to vote too.

But it all seems to be a burden.

Torture doesn't affect me. Neither does health insurance reform. Nor do the myraid other issues that make up the political world and the reporting of the mainstream press.

So why bother even thinking about it?; 2/16/10, 4:39 PM
dbp said...: What happens if you take a picture of a reflective globe with the fisheye lens? Do they cancel out or do you get a picture of nothing?; 2/16/10, 4:46 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: If Escher had a digital camera...; 2/16/10, 4:46 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: ...and was a hot blond.; 2/16/10, 4:47 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: dbp, please don't give Althouse any ideas.; 2/16/10, 4:59 PM
Triangle Man said...: Gotta give the Obama administration credit for getting behind building new nuclear reactors, though I see that the loan guarantees came about because of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, so credit to W too.; 2/16/10, 5:00 PM
traditionalguy said...: JRH...You speak well the usual attitude around here. Let the professional-experts handle it. That is like relying on the security detail/Police so we don't have to take turns guarding our own lives and property ourselves. The political system also has had a self correcting balance of power between the two competing parties that would expose the worst in each other to win the next election. However in the wealth circus from 1993 thru 2006 most of the professional-experts were bought off en Mass to support whatever cult fantasy the media and the Soros-democrats could sell with their psychological propaganda deluge. This eliminated most of those who would not go along with the Machine's goals. That is the reason why we now want to see all the facts which we can use to think for ourselves. It is also why we want a Sarah Plain President, who is not the Emperor, but who is the WatchDog type, guardian leader that will allow us to relax again.; 2/16/10, 5:02 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: The drug dealer (alleged) who lived downstairs disappeared a few weeks ago, and the landlord just threw all his stuff in the dumpster. When I got home, homeless people were digging through his stuff and I tweeted the whole thing. Fun!

I keep saying "alleged" to my other neighbors and they all say: "No, he was a drug dealer".; 2/16/10, 5:03 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Julius Ray Hoffman said...

I'd like to leave it to experts to deal with issues like this...But it all seems to be a burden...So why bother even thinking about it?

Thomas Jefferson said...

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

I'm gonna have to go with Jefferson on this one.; 2/16/10, 5:04 PM
Ann Althouse said...: I've already blogged the double fisheye effect.

Also here.

And this picture isn't from last year. It's from last Thursday.; 2/16/10, 5:10 PM
Anonymous said...: Nevermind my previous comment. I just noticed that Althouse had frontpaged one of my remarks on the Picasso-cardboard-penis post from yesterday. That cheered me up. Now I'm ready to opine away. No issue will be too big for me to talk out of my ass about! No global narrative will be too far entrenched for my two-bit silly dramatic trollish thoughts!

Just gotta update my porn sites first... Then watch out, you lying conniving scumbag Democrats and fucktard Jesus-freak Republicans, I'm coming with my dirty tongue after YOU!

SARAH PALIN FOR EMPEROR!; 2/16/10, 5:28 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Tony started the day early having set his alarm clock
(MADE IN JAPAN ) for 6 am.

While his coffeepot
(MADE IN CHINA )

was perking, he shaved with his
Electric razor
(MADE IN HONG KONG )

He put on a Dress shirt
(MADE IN SRI LANKA ),

Designer jeans
(MADE IN SINGAPORE )

And Tennis shoes
(MADE IN KOREA)

After cooking his breakfast in his new Electric skillet
(MADE IN INDIA )

He sat down with his Calculator
(MADE IN MEXICO )

To see how much he could spend today. After setting his Watch
(MADE IN TAIWAN )

To the radio
(MADE IN INDIA )

He got in his car
(MADE IN GERMANY )

Filled it with GAS
(from Saudi Arabia )

And continued his search
For a good paying AMERICAN JOB.

At the end of yet another discouraging And fruitless day
Checking his Computer
(made in MALAYSIA ),

Tony decided to relax for a while.
He put on his sandals
(MADE IN BRAZIL ),

Poured himself a glass of Wine
(MADE IN FRANCE )

And turned on his TV
(MADE IN INDONESIA ),

And then wondered why he can't
Find a good paying job
in AMERICA

Now he's hoping he can get help from his president

(MADE IN KENYA ); 2/16/10, 5:50 PM
john said...: The appearance of boredom in our hostess' posture might be deceiving. Perhaps she is signaling Meade that a gift of a little bling would be appreciated.; 2/16/10, 5:55 PM
Triangle Man said...: That's not boredom it's affected contrarianism, and she made you look. Rube!; 2/16/10, 6:10 PM
Ron said...: Commenter Gift Bags!!! An overdue idea for Althouse...she can give them out during her live blogging of the Oscars!; 2/16/10, 6:33 PM
KCFleming said...: Obama sans makeup.; 2/16/10, 6:56 PM
rhhardin said...: I feel that there is something in the air driving a spirit of self-examination.

Hypochondria.; 2/16/10, 6:57 PM
KCFleming said...: RH, I was gonna say hydrogen sulfide.

But I'm childish.; 2/16/10, 7:04 PM
dbp said...: Pogo,

That is funny on so many levels I don't know which one to LOL at first!; 2/16/10, 7:04 PM
dbp said...: Althouse,

The links sort of answer the question: It looks as if given the size of a mirrored sphere and the distance a picture is taken from it, that one could make the sphere look like a flat mirror.

Had I a fisheye lense and a mirrored sphere (rather than neither) I would spend a whole day playing around with them.; 2/16/10, 7:10 PM
Deborah M. said...: @Lem: Brilliant.; 2/16/10, 7:13 PM
rhhardin said...: Self-sufficiency is the path to extreme poverty.

Start with making your own shoes.; 2/16/10, 7:25 PM
knox said...: Obama sans makeup.

LOL. Now that's ugly.; 2/16/10, 7:48 PM
kentuckyliz said...: I laughed out loud to several of the comments here. Thank you everybody.

Perhaps late winter triggers something archetypal within us--we think we have wronged the gods, and so we examine our consciences and make sacrifices and try to appease the gods, to make the damned winter end.

And then, the mountains fill with light green and white and pink and purple and it feels like a resurrection and we know we are made right with the gods and all is well.; 2/16/10, 7:49 PM
Sprezzatura said...: Did Althouse cover this stuff ? I don't recall seeing a post. But, now that Loury has hammered the BC maybe she'll have an opinion/comment. [Surely Cedarford would have an opinion about some other aspects of this BHTV thing.]; 2/16/10, 8:08 PM
Irene said...: Pogo, that sparkles!

Ron, if there were Commenter Gift Bags, then this experience would be like going to the OPRAH show. Althouse swag!; 2/16/10, 8:37 PM
Randy Haddock said...: What camera do you use? You probably get asked this a lot and have probably answered it over and over again, but those pictures look so sharp! And it looks like you're using a point-and-shoot camera?; 2/17/10, 1:40 AM
zTruth said...: Great pic!; 2/17/10, 7:07 PM