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In the early 1950's, the threat of Communism created an air of paranoia in the United States and exploiting those fears was Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. However, CBS reporter Edward R. Murrow and his producer Fred W. Friendly decided to take a stand and challenge McCarthy and expose him for the fear monger he was. However, their actions took a great personal toll on both men, but they stood by their convictions and helped to bring down one of the most controversial senators in American history.I was blown away by the comments made by Murrow featured in the opening and closing scene of the movie. I googled around and found the entire text of the speech here - he talks about something that I've been sensing more and more lately, about how Television is becoming a sort of opiate for the masses, the thing is, he delivered this speech 49 years ago... Here are a few quotes, I'd suggest you read the whole speech, but for a taste...:
I have decided to express my concern about what I believe to be happening to radio and television. These instruments have been good to me beyond my due. There exists in mind no reasonable grounds for personal complaint. I have no feud, either with my employers, any sponsors, or with the professional critics of radio and television. But I am seized with an abiding fear regarding what these two instruments are doing to our society, our culture and our heritage.
I invite your attention to the television schedules of all networks between the hours of 8 and 11 p.m., Eastern Time. Here you will find only fleeting and spasmodic reference to the fact that this nation is in mortal danger. There are, it is true, occasional informative programs presented in that intellectual ghetto on Sunday afternoons. But during the daily peak viewing periods, television in the main insulates us from the realities of the world in which we live. If this state of affairs continues, we may alter an advertising slogan to read: LOOK NOW, PAY LATER.
One of the basic troubles with radio and television news is that both instruments have grown up as an incompatible combination of show business, advertising and news.
Sometimes there is a clash between the public interest and the corporate interest. A telephone call or a letter from the proper quarter in Washington is treated rather more seriously than a communication from an irate but not politically potent viewer.
Are the big corporations who pay the freight for radio and television programs wise to use that time exclusively for the sale of goods and services? Is it in their own interest and that of the stockholders so to do? The sponsor of an hour's television program is not buying merely the six minutes devoted to commercial message. He is determining, within broad limits, the sum total of the impact of the entire hour. If he always, invariably, reaches for the largest possible audience, then this process of insulation, of escape from reality, will continue to be massively financed, and its apologist will continue to make winsome speeches about giving the public what it wants, or "letting the public decide."
Just once in a while let us exalt the importance of ideas and information. Let us dream to the extent of saying that on a given Sunday night the time normally occupied by Ed Sullivan is given over to a clinical survey of the state of American education, and a week or two later the time normally used by Steve Allen is devoted to a thoroughgoing study of American policy in the Middle East. Would the corporate image of their respective sponsors be damaged? Would the stockholders rise up in their wrath and complain? Would anything happen other than that a few million people would have received a little illumination on subjects that may well determine the future of this country, and therefore the future of the corporations?
To a very considerable extent the media of mass communications in a given country reflect the political, economic and social climate in which they flourish. That is the reason ours differ from the British and French, or the Russian and Chinese. We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent. We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.
This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box.Fascinating speech, and certainly timely in this day and age... I don't think a whole lot has changed, yes there are still some good reporters, but I think if you look at most network television, it's mostly garbage meant to entertain and amuse the general public, not to engage, educate and enlighten them. Here is potentially where the Internet, with it's decentralized structure can change all of that. Anyone in the world with access to the Internet (and with the $100 laptop project that number will grow exponentially in the coming years), can post an idea that can get picked up and spread like wildfire and reach millions of viewers without any large corporation or government controlling it.
and here's what they look like with 2 light sources that are offset:
In addition to the scene being brighter, notice the interesting pattern in the shadow, in particular that triangle in the middle, which is caused because the light coming in between the cards is coming from the 2 distinct light sources and thus passing at different angles...
The base POV-Ray software doesn't include a modeler, although there are modellers available, I've always enjoyed going old school... you create your scene using code that looks sort of like C, for instance, here's some of the code associated with one of the 'playing cards'
box { <-0.01, 2, -1.1> <>
texture {
pigment {
image_map { png "C:\Program Files\POV-Ray for Windows v3.6\imagemap\bicycle_blue.png"
translate <0,0,0.05>
}
You're on a hiking trip with your best friend and your father. A
poisonous snake bites both your father and your friend and you only have one
dose of antidote. You're too deep in the jungle to hike back to safety,
and if you divide the antidote between them they'll both die. You have to
decide who you'll give the antidote to.
Would you rather hit an innocent person in the back of the head with a hammer, or
spend a month in a 1 metre x 1 metre box.
I think a lot. Some people say I think too much... However, I don't want to be seen as being aloof or pretentious, it's just that I really enjoy philosophical questions and deep thoughts. That's not to say that I don't find pleasure in more down-to-earth or trivial things, like beer and soccer :) I'm happily married with 3 wonderful children. I'm a partner in a technology services company based in Toronto. Myers Briggs says I'm an ENTJ