Monday, January 27, 2020

Visual Effects Development in Early Days

Visual Effects Development in Early Days Before the arrival of Cinema, there were some forms of visual entertainments in Europe. The first one was Chinese Shadow Puppetry. It was introduced in Europe in late 17 century from Far East. This type of light show is the one of the popular performances in shadow theatre. The second one was Panorama. It was started by a Scottish artist Robert Baker. Panorama is a simple illuminated view which tells the story from circular paintings. Another popular visual entertainment was the Camera Obsura. The inverted image of the outside world appears on the wall of a dark room through the small hole. This process was later adapted for the pinhole camera and magic lantern. Magic Lantern was like a today projector. The light source inside the room was used to project images through lens into the darken room. The stories were painted on large glasses. The illusions of Magic Lantern such as beheading and beatings were much more improved by making dissolve and using multiple layers. An optical toy called Zoetrope plays the animated sequences to be viewed through slits in a rotating drum.   {{Rickitt, Richard 2006}} Figure 1; Chinese Shadow Theatre Figures Figure 2; Illustration of the Camera Obscura Principle Figure 3; Illustration from Kircher, Projection of Death Figure 4; a modern replica of a Victorian zoetrope Kinetograph By late 1890, Edison and his assistant Dickson developed a device called the Kinetograph. A single viewer needs to bend down to watch the moving images through the keyhole. That is why the nickname was given as What the Butler Saw. Kinetograph can take rapid sequential images and displays images using the loops of 35mm film. But Kinetograph cannot project the moving images on the screen as the viewers demanded. {{Rickitt, Richard 2006}} Figure 5; 1895 Version of Kinetophone in use Cinematographe Lumiere Brothers developed a Cinematographe that is improved on Edisons Kinetograph. Cinematographe was an all in one device. It can be used as camera, film printer and projector. The device was lighter than Kinetograph because the film needs to be hand cranked rather than relying on electric motor. Lumiere Brothers used Cinematographe to show the short clip in the basement of Grand Cafà ©, in Paris. They charged one franc for a twelve strips. It was last for one minute. Since then, the world first cinema market had begun. Arrival at a station (1895) made by Lumieres Brothers shook the audiences. In that film, the viewers thought that train would burst through the screen as train was approaching the station. {{Pinteau, Pascal 2004; Rickitt, Richard 2006}} Figure 6; Auguste (1862 1954) and Louis Lumiere (1864 1948) Father of Special Effects Figure 7; Georges Melies (1861 1938) A pioneer who discovered many special effects and influenced the visual effects world till today was Georges Melies. He was a magician and a youngest son of a French shoemaker. He used to work in family shoes business until his father retired. He then bought a theatre to make his dreams come true. He designed the innovative stage illusions and performed in his way of comic style. Magic lantern show was one of his great attractions. George Melies realized the benefits of Lumiere Brothers Cinematographe device that brings together the theatrical projection and technology. Therefore, George attempted to buy the Cinematographe device from father of Lumiere brothers. But he was refused to own the device as Lumiere Family wanted to ensure the exclusivity of film production. {{Pinteau, Pascal 2004; Rickitt, Richard 2006}} George did not give up easily. He went to London and purchased a device developed by Robert William Paul to work together with Edisons Kinetograph. George then hired two e ngineers to build a new version of camera. The First Special Effect Trick George discovered his first camera trick by accident. When he was recording the traffic, the camera was jammed. After one minute later, he continued to record the traffic. When he joined the break, he suddenly saw the bus changed into a hearse and men changed into women. Since then, he realised the importance of effect by substitution called Stop Action Trick. Stop Action Trick was already used in the Execution of Mary Queen of Scots (1893) produced by Edison before his discovery. But this one became the first trick of his incoming special effects discovery. {{Pinteau, Pascal 2004; Rickitt, Richard 2006}} Georges produced many genres. Among them his fairy tales and fantasies films were more famous e.g. Cinderella. In Cinderella film, his stop action tricks attracted the audiences by turning pumpkin into horse cart and rags into Cinderellas dress. Figure 8; a scene from Cinderella (1889) Figure 9; stop action trick used in Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (1895) The Worlds First Special Effects Facility The Black Maria was the Edisons world first film studio constructed on the train rotating turntable so that studio can be oriented to face the sun like sunflowers. {{Ezra, Elizabeth 2000}} In 1896, Georges Melies also made a first special effect film called The Varnishing Lady in his first special effects glass studio in order to avoid the ruin of illusions by the weather. The studio was constructed by iron structure, glass wall and wooden floor. It was designed by Georges with trapdoors, winches, pulleys, mirrors and flying rigs. The studio was a most sophisticated one at that time. {{Pinteau, Pascal 2004; Rickitt, Richard 2006}} Figure 10; Edisons The Black Maria Film Studio Figure 11; Georges Melies glass studio Georges Split Screen Process Indian Rubber Head (1902) made by Georges Melies was used a split screen process. In order to create the illusion of an expanding head, Georges zoomed in on his head and superimposed this onto the film. Some areas of films were masked off to isolate the certain part of the picture to split the screen. {{VisualFx Hub 2017}} Figure 12; a scene from the man with the rubber head The First Science Fiction Film A trip to the moon was an earliest science fiction film made by Georges. The two minutes story is about a group of Victorian explorers visiting to the moon. In which film, Georges created the three dimensional depth illusion by painting. This is a very innovative film that covered a lot of Georges camera tricks such as superimpositions, double exposures, dissolves, stop-motion, matte paintings and miniatures. He even introduced the colour to the screen through hand painting and tinting. {{VisualFx Hub 2017}} Figure 13; the iconic image of the Man in the Moon Georges last days The masterpieces created by Georges were self-explanatory and visually stunning to be enjoyed by all audiences from all over the world without subtitling. But Georges films had been pirated and distributed illegally in United States and other countries. In 1913, Georges abandoned the filming after his wife death. In 1914, George was bankrupted and sold his all properties including his masterpieces to creditor. He spent the rest of his life just by running the toy shop at the train station in Paris. Nevertheless, his visual styles and special effects will never be forgotten. {{Pinteau, Pascal 2004; Rickitt, Richard 2006}} Other contributors in early days of Visual Effects There were many other innovators as well who had been developing the techniques for visual entertainments at the same time with Georges Melies. Robert William Paul was a scientific instrument maker from London. Robert built his own camera and projection for his production after he was refused by Edison to duplicate the Kinetograph. Although Robert was not a film maker, he produced a number of special effects featured films. E.g. The Motorist (1906) was the one of his remarkable films which is equally visual stunning as Georges Melies Masterpiece. The film was decorated with all available special effects to depict the story of a couple driving the car on the rings of Saturn in the space. In 1910, Robert abandoned film production and destroyed all his films. Another pioneer called Georges Albert Smith was an English photographer who built his own cameras and produced many trick films. Santa Claus (1898) was a notable film made by Georges A Smith. He created the earliest opening title s equence in Santa Clause film. He used the techniques of multiple exposures, stop action tricks and image within image in this film with the help of Georges Melies. {{Rickitt, Richard 2006; American Movie Classic Company 2017}}

Sunday, January 19, 2020

A belief is knowledge if it coheres with other accepted beliefs Essay

Explain and illustrate one criticism of the view that a belief is knowledge if it coheres with other accepted beliefs Coherentism is the Philosophical idea that truths should not be looked at individually. They should rather be looked at, as a whole. The coherence theory can be put into two parts. These are the coherent theory of truth and the coherent theory of justification. The coherent theory is that truth is different to justified belief. Truth is infallible. It is, what it is, that being correct. Whether it is contingent truth, which may, or may not, be true at a certain time; or a universal truth, which is taken to be always true, everywhere. In contrast the theory of justification, only involves beliefs; although these beliefs have to be coherent when looked at together as a whole. As an example of this, we can look at the example of my Aunt Dotty. An envelope comes to my House. However, there is no letter inside of it. I come to the conclusion that the only person absent-minded enough to forget to put the letter inside the envelope is my Aunt Dotty. However, she lives in Exeter; when looking at the postmark, I see it comes from Edinburgh; also the handwriting on the envelope is not that of my Aunt Dotty. My theory that the envelope came from my Aunt Dotty, who just forgot to put in the letter does not cohere. The separate beliefs do not seem to form together in a coherent way. However, I also remember that my brother was taking my Aunt Dotty to Edinburgh. Furthermore, the writing on the envelope seems to be that of my brother. From this I come to the conclusion that my Aunt Dotty forgot to put the letter in the envelope, and then asked my brother to write the address for her. I would be justified in my son you’re a whale belief of this, as all of my beliefs relating to it fit together in a coherent way. However, that is not to say that my coherent belief is the truth. It may not be the truth. It is just a justified belief. This theory of coherent beliefs perceived and regarded as a whole is called holism. Coherentism dictates that if we want the greatest understanding of what could be considered to be the real world possible, then our beliefs need to be as comprehensive as possible. Furthermore, for Coherentism to work successfully, our beliefs must be non-contradictory and consistent. In traditional Coherentism it is not the set that is justified, but rather the beliefs that make them up. It is from this that the most common flaw, with Coherentism is found. There may not be just one set of justifiable beliefs, relating to a certain number of beliefs. There can be multiple sets. Furthermore, internally all of these beliefs may be individually coherent. One example of this is the science fiction film. In such a film there can be many coherent worlds. However, these worlds are far from the reality of the perceived real world. The problem with the theory of coherence is that if we can only take one thing to be true – as if there were more than one they would undoubtedly we contradictory – it then follows that only one thing can be completely justified as being adequate to believe. In contrast in Coherentism, there can apparently be many sets of justified beliefs. In response, Coherentists argue that there can only be one coherent set. F.H. Bradley, the noted Coherentist, writes: ‘My object is to have a world as comprehensive and coherent as possible, and, in order to attain this object, I have not only to reflect but to perpetually have to recourse to the materials of sense. I must go to this source both to verify the matter which is old and also to increase it by what is new. And in this way I must depend upon the judgements of perception.’ This shows that it is Bradley’s aim to find the most coherent and therefore, hopefully, the only truly coherent set. Richard Wollheim late goes on to say that Bradley thought that Coherence should be a test of justification, rather that a test of any individual belief. Although, only ‘those that have some initial inclination or motive to believe in,’ so as a result of this coherence has the ‘function†¦ to discriminate within those judgements and to eliminate some in favour of others’. In line with Bradley’s defence of Coherentism is that of Jonathan Dancy. He says ‘in general, if we find ourselves scrutinising something we believe, we retain it unless we find something against it, just on the grounds that it is a belief already’. So, if we take Bradley’s response, together with that of Dancy, we are shown that Coherentists do not intend for there to be multiple sets of coherent beliefs, as a result of the coherent theory. Rather, Coherentism is intended as a means of testing existing beliefs, as well as those that can be later added. Donald Davidson, another noted Coherentist, also attempted to defend Coherentism. To do so, he gave as an example, the case of the Radical Interpreter. Imagine that there is a speaker of English, who comes across a group of people speaking a language that no one outside of that group understands. The language is called L. How can our speaker of English, the Radical Interpreter, be able to understand L. Davidson’s answer is that he will have to use what is called the Principle of Charity. The Principle of Charity dictates that the Radical Interpreter will have to assume that what the speakers of L say are true. That is to say, true by the standard of the Radical Interpreter. The speakers of L and the Radical Interpreter have to share the same standards of truth in order to have something in common. If this were not the case, it would be difficult for the Radical Interpreter and speakers of L to see where they disagree. Although, even if they do share the same standards of truth, they may, however both be wrong. The question then arises of what guarantee the Radical Interpreter has, that his and the speakers of L’s standards are not mistaken. Davidson gives the answer to imagine an interpreter to our Radical Interpreter. This interpreter is the Omniscient Interpreter. If the Omniscient Interpreter is to successfully interpret our Radical Interpreter, then he must use the same standards of truth used by our Radical Interpreter and the speakers of L. So the Omniscient Interpreter, like our Radical Interpreter, will have to assume that they use the same standards of truth. However, because the Omniscient Interpreter knows everything, it must follow that his standard of truth is true. Therefore, it follows that if the standards of truth used are roughly common to all parties, then neither the Radical Interpreter nor the speakers of L can be completely mistaken. As a result of this, our interpreter can assume that the majority of his basic beliefs are justified, as are those of the speakers of L. It then follows that there can be no place to believe that there can be more than one set of coherent Beliefs. From this, Davidson believes the Coherentist can dismiss the argument against him. It seems that in the previous defences of Coherentism, the Coherentists have adapted there argument, to suit the criticism of those attempting to undermine it. That is to say, that they are adapting the argument to suit the focus of the criticism. For example, when criticised that Coherentism allows for multiple sets of belief, Bradley, showed that the aim is to have only the most coherent belief. This may show the simple sophistication of the argument. It allows for only the most coherent argument and therefore the most likely to be the truth, to be accepted. Rather, the Coherentist would normally only accept the most coherent argument, rather than the least. To give an example of this; say I woke up one morning. My window was smashed and my television was gone. One set of coherent beliefs is that I have been burgled and my television stolen. My Dad has gone, so he may be contacting the Police. Another set of coherent beliefs, may be that my dad has lost his mind and jumped out of the window with the television. One of these beliefs is more coherent that the other. My father has not history of mental illness, so I can suppose that we have been burgled. Although, both sets are coherent, one is more coherent than the other, so I accept the most coherent as my Belief.

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Anatomy and Physiology Essay

The primary goal of this lab is to learn the names of many blood vessels. You will use the models provided as well as pictures in your lab book. Microscopic Structure of Blood Vessels Tunica intima: lines the lumen of the blood vessel. Continuous with endocardium of heart. Is extremely smooth to decrease resistance to blood flow. (Made of epithelium) Tunica media: More bulky middle coat. Composed of smooth muscle and elastin. Regulation in the diameter of blood vessels, which alters peripheral resistance and blood pressure. Tunica externa (adventitia): Outermost tunic. Function is primarily supportive and protective (areolar and fibrous CT) Picture Generalized Structure of Arteries, Veins and Capillaries Types of Blood Vessels Elastic arteries: Contain much elastic tissue Larger arteries closer to the heart Must expand when heart pumps much blood into them and then passively recoil after blood passes by. Thus, must withstand pressure fluctuations Muscular arteries: Have less elastic tissue, but substantial muscle tissue Smaller arteries farther from heart Exposed to less extreme pressure fluctuations Veins: Far from heart Not subjected to pressure fluctuations Are low pressure vessels thus are thin walled Blood flows against gravity so 1. Have larger lumens 2. Have valves to prevent backflow 3. Skeletal muscle pump Capillaries: Tiniest vessels One cell layer thick: endothelium with underlying basal lamina (tunica intima) Thinnest for making exchanges between blood and tissue cells Activity One Observing a vein and an artery on a microscope slide. Major Systemic Arteries of the Body Activity Two Use the models provided to find arteries listed Use pictures on the following pages to assist Both models and pictures will be used on the test Major Systemic Veins of the Body Activity Three Use the models provided to find veins listed Use pictures on the following pages to assist Both models and pictures will be used on the test Special Circulations Pulmonary Circulation Does not serve metabolic needs of body tissues Function is to bring blood close to alveoli in order do gas exchange Pulmonary arteries are structurally similar to veins Create a low pressure bed in the lungs Carry deoxygenated blood from heart to lungs Pulmonary veins

Thursday, January 2, 2020

Olivia Batten. Mrs. Morrison-Robinson. Writing 421. 19

Olivia Batten Mrs. Morrison-Robinson Writing 421 19 May 2017 Fentanyl’s Policy Solution Fentanyl is a powerful narcotic, one hundred times stronger than heroin (Sagan), that is rapidly becoming a national crisis in Canada. Fentanyl is often found within fake OxyContin pills or laced in other drugs such as heroin. Alberta and several cities in Ontario are seeing how fentanyl is affecting their provinces: in 2016 Alberta saw 343 fatal overdoses, Ontario saw 165 in 2015 (Cheung). The closest Canadian province, British Columbia, to the deadly drug’s source has felt the impact of the narcotic the most. Last year there were 914 fentanyl linked overdoses in B.C (Ostroff). The danger of fentanyl is something every single Canadian youth needs to†¦show more content†¦There is a lot of misconception about drug legalization. Uncertainty towards this concept is usually because of stigma surrounding drug use or confusing legalization with decriminalization. Decriminalising an illegal drug means taking away penalties for possessing tha t drug but leaving its distribution in the hands of criminals who can continue to contaminate the drug any way they see fit. Legalization by contrast brings narcotics entirely under government control. That means that when a drug is legalized, the government is the one in charge of regulating the sales, content, and distribution of the drug. The most universally effective example of a government deciding to legalize a dangerous substance, which in its unregulated state was killing over a thousand people a year, happened when the United States decided to legalize alcohol. Before it was legalized, alcohol in the Prohibition era was laced with poison and the alcohol content of a drink varied dramatically (Ostroff). Back then the selling of alcohol, like the drug market today, was a criminally operated free-for-all. Unregulated and tainted liquor killed over 10,000 americans during the thirteen years of prohibition (Hanson), that’s two alcohol-caused fatalities a day. Today, al cohol is strictly regulated by the government and there are rules for what manufacturers can put in their product before it is allowed to go to market. For this reason alcohol fatalities are caused