So I'm tryin to whip up the artwork for the 3D belt buckle. Basically I have to create a 3D version of the BME logos to be able to create the cast. The file I need is just a grayscale, with white representing “highest metal” and black “lowest metal”. Below is my first attempt, visualized as a bump map? Think you can do better? If you can, I'll gladly give you a few buckles in return if your design is run.
(Click it to see a lighting animation if it's not obvious).
Wow… check out what came into stock yesterday:
Click here for the belt buckles, and click here for the key chains (and for future reference this stuff is in the ever-growing media section of BMEshop).
So I finally got around to watching Bowling for Columbine since it had its DVD release a couple days ago. I definitely enjoyed it on the whole, but I have to admit that I think Moore got it wrong on the gun issue. It's no secret (although I'm sure it will surprise some of you) that I'm a dues paying NRA member and strong supporter of relatively no-questions-asked gun rights.
I'll ignore the fact that the movie made a number of fundamental misrepresentations (for example showing footage of rockets used to launch satellites and implying that they were “weapons of mass destruction”) and repeat the paradox that was discussed in the movie — why does America have less guns per capita than countries like Canada, but then have a staggeringly high murder and crime rate? Moore got it right — it's because that's superimposed on a culture of fear (which serves to distract from the nation's imperialism both on an international and a domestic “class war” level), but he got the solution wrong, and he appears to have fallen prey to some corporate misdirection in the process.
He kept coming back at guns as a problem rather than a symptom, even ended with a truly insulting interview with Charlton Heston — while he clearly exposed that the real problem is wealth disparity, corporate power, and media fear-mongering (he almost got it right by going after Dick Clark), at least in the movie he was afraid to point the finger squarely at the true enemy… and even made fun of those (like the opening interviews with the militia members) who actually spoke out against the real problems in America — namely conglomeration and consolidation of wealth/power, and the use of that wealth and its resulting political strength to oppress and control the population.
Moore makes the mistake of demonizing guns, when instead he should realize that guns are a balancing factor (not to mention that they are also proof of a population recognizing the imbalance and responding to it) — which is exactly why the government and the wealthy fight very hard to keep them out of the hands of the citizenry. To make a metaphor, let's say that we could prove that pornography leads to rape and oppression of women (which I do not believe). Would the solution then be to penectomize all men, or to go after porn? Under Moore's line of thinking, penectomy would solve the problem… which clearly would only attack the symptom, as well as stopping people from having healthy sex.
Anyway, I enjoyed the movie, but I think it was misguided. I hope (and I hear rumor) that his next movie will go after the real enemy: corporate America and the xenoaristocracy of the rich. While I would recommend reading between the lines as you watch Bowling for Columbine, I would though still recommend it in general.
Whenever Mastitis is linked off the front people, people tent to get kind of freaked out (and for good reason). From the reports that I get, it's disturbingly common, especially among heavier women (I assume both due to bra pressures irritating tissues and inexperienced piercers placing the ring badly due to the nipple being distended). I won't be updating Risks or the Glossary until I've got the new software written, but I wanted to share this email here:
I am a 33 year old female with 7 body piercings. I have tongue, both nipple, both inner labia and a vertical and horizontal hood piercing. I have had no problems with any of my piercings except for my left nipple piercing. I think that the piercing was done too deeply. It went through my areola instead if the nipple. After 14 months of waiting for it to heal I decided to take it out due to continuing discomfort. Three weeks after I removed the barbell a very large abcess formed. I went to the Doctor and they had to perform surgery to remove the abcess.Exactly one month later I was back in for a second surgery to deal with a staph infection and another abcess. Exactly one month after the second surgery I was back in again to have a third surgery to deal with a staph infection and a infection called actinomyces. I am now one month past the third surgery and will likely require a fourth surgery. There is a small possibility I may actually have to have my breast removed. I love my piercings and take very good care of them. But If I had been aware of this as being a possibility I would never have gotten the nipple piercings. I have been told by my surgeon that I am the fourth person she has done surgery on due to a infection related to a nipple piercing.
I have enclosed a picture taken shortly after my second surgery, it shows the wound and my inverted nipple (the nipple inverted as soon as I took out my barbell) I am fine with this picture being posted as a way to educate about possible side effects.
Now, of course you could say “but it was pierced wrong” or “but she should have known not to take it out like that”, but that's really beside the point, and doesn't make these risks any less real. So please consider that if you're a woman and want to get a nipple piercing that it's essential that you will go to a top-notch piercer that'll place it properly (not intersecting the lactiferous sinuses!).
Davi had posted a link to this to comment on the Klumps looking guy, but I'm more disturbed by the bottom tagline. Now, we all know that CNN's tagline is “the most trusted name in news” and FoxNEWS is “fair and balanced”… I'm quite impressed at MSNBC's new slogan… I'd say it's extremely edgy, to say the least!
