It must be tough, trying to be beautiful in Japan.
(hat tip to Zapato Productions intradimensional for the link)
-
Charles Socarides
I see that Dr. Socarides died last Sunday. I can’t say I’m sorry – as the obituary says, he inflicted enough pain and suffering on gay and lesbian people in his time, and the organisation he founded (NARTH) continues to do so.Leave a comment
-
The Citizenship Test
Both the UK and the Netherlands are toying with the idea of introducing a citizenship test for immigrants. Last night, one of the Dutch TV channels had a programme: De Nationale Inburgering Test (the national citizenship test). It was the same format as the BBC’s "Test The Nation" – two presenters introduce a series of multiple choice questions for those watching at home and in the studio, and there are six different groups in the studio audience plus a group of celebrities. So the Dutch version had groups such as Chinese (from Chinese takeaways in the Netherlands), Antilleans (from the Netherlands Antilles in the Caribbean), royalists, students, Zeeland (a province of the Netherlands) and workers with asylumseekers.The 36 questions were in three main categories: Dutch life, norms and rules, and Dutch history. If you answered at least 80% of the questions correctly (i.e. 29 correct answers), then you could consider yourself as having passed the citizenship test.Well, despite having lived here for 23 years, I only managed 24 correct answers – so I’ve failed the test (does this mean I get deported, or am I going to be put on a list of potential terrorists, because I clearly don’t fit in with the Dutch way of life?). At least I know that Martin didn’t do much better – he only got 26 correct answers, and he’s Dutch!However, the real kicker was that none of the studio groups, on their group average, managed to pass the test – even those consisting of native Dutch people. That also went for the viewing audience who followed the test on the Internet, or who texted in their answers via SMS. And the group that did the best (while still not passing)? The Chinese, of course. Only one slice of the studio audience managed to actually pass the test – the older women – everyone else failed. Let’s face it, it’s clearly just too difficult to live here…Leave a comment
-
Dr. Crippen’s Cautionary Tale
I’ve started reading Dr. Crippen’s NHS Doctor blog. He seems to be another fellow soul; close to having a Victor "I don’t believe it!" Meldrew meltdown like me at the foibles of today’s modern world, infested as it is with management consultants and others of their ilk. The good doctor tells another cautionary tale today about the state of cleanliness in the NHS. I fear that something similar is happening in the Dutch health system, but so far, touch wood, I haven’t yet had to sample it at first hand. My time will surely come, though.2 responses to “Dr. Crippen’s Cautionary Tale”
-
Thanks for the mention Geoff. I’m sad to hear that the cleaning problem is hitting Holland. I have not "sampled" the hospitals there, but certainly the French and German hospitals I’ve been in were all spotless.Yes, I am approaching meltdown, which is why I am blogging. It is hugely destressing and gratifyingly a few people are acutally reading the blog. For all the cynicism, I do care very much about the standard of healthcare in the UK – well, everywhere, really I guess. I used to shout and scream about it a lot in committees. I find fleshing the problems out round a human and possilby humorous story is more effective…and certainly more relaxing!
-
I’ve been doing some brief checking around, and it does seem that at the moment the incidence of MRSA cases in Dutch hospitals is less, on a comparative basis, than in the UK. However, there’s no room for complacency – just this month a patient and two hospital workers were infected with MRSA in our local hospital here in Gouda…
Leave a comment
-
-
Managing Photo Libraries – Part 4
Time to return to another hobby horse of mine – using computers to manage libraries of digital photos. I’ve been here before – starting back in February 2005 when I berated Microsoft for insisting on having a proprietary scheme of managing image metadata instead of adopting the industry standard of IPTC/XMP.
Well, I muttered about this here and there, and I see I was not the only one to mention to Microsoft that their upcoming Vista operating system really should support IPTC metadata.
Today, I installed the latest Beta version of Microsoft’s Vista (build 5270) on one of my PCs to take a look at it. And, of course, it does NOT support IPTC metadata, but carries on using its own proprietary metadata. What is it about Microsoft? Do they never bloody listen?
27 responses to “Managing Photo Libraries – Part 4”
-
Does Vista store the data in EXIF format instead of IPTC/XMP or in some other format? AFAIK IPTC/XMP is only supported in JPEG and TIFF images, so if you add metadata to any other formats, e.g. BMP, PNG etc. Vista would more than likely have to create a secondary NTFS stream to store the metadata with the image.
-
Sean, EXIF and IPTC/XMP metadata are for different things. EXIF is for metadata about the technical details of the digital image – shutter speed, focal length, ISO rating, etc. IPTC/XMP is about the content of the image – a title/description, who took the photo, location, keywords/tags, etc. So if Vista is going to use EXIF to store content data, this would be a bad move, in my opinion – and it would be a proprietary move by Microsoft. You’re right when you say that IPTC/XMP is native to JPEG and TIFF (it is for digital images, after all). While it can be added to other image formats – this would be via a vendor-specific mechanism. Adobe, for instance, uses ‘sidecar’ files to add XMP data to RAW format files.
-
Geoff, EXIF is mostly used for the technical details like shutter speed etc. However EXIF as a standard does support additional fields that don’t fall into the category of camera technical details, for example here is a brief set of example EXIF fields that aren’t related to the camera’s technical information for the image.PropertyTagArtist – specifies the name of the person who created the imagePropertyTagCopyright – string that contains copyright informationPropertyTagExifUserComment – used by EXIF users to write keywords or comments about the image PropertyTagImageDescription – string that specifies the title of the imagePropertyTagGpsXXX – location informationNow I’m not saying that EXIF is better than IPTC/XMP for the storage of this sort of metadata, just that EXIF does have support for most of this type of metadata. So if MS, and I’m not sure that they are using EXIF for metadata storage, are using EXIF then the image metadata storage in Vista can’t be called proprietary.In terms of a cool application that makes use of the GPS EXIF tags you may want to take a look at the Media Center add-in I created.http://spaces.msn.com/members/seanmcleod/Blog/cns!1pC_K0hKOTPOd-hSoTxSOeeQ!122.entryCheers
-
Sean, thanks for pointing out that EXIF does have some support for content data. You’re right, but having looked at the 2002 EXIF spec, it’s seems pretty limited in my opinion, and does not have the flexibility of the legacy IPTC spec, let alone the XMP Core spec. The one area where it does score is in having a specific field for GPS info – which is something that the IPTC don’t appear to have catered for as yet in XMP Core (although being XML-based, it’s clearly going to be easy to add)
-
The XMP Core may not support GPS information, but I’m pretty sure the larger XMP standard does since when I was looking into location metadata options while developing my Media Center add-in I noticed Adobe Photoshop listing GPS/location information in it’s XMP editor.Oh, something else I just remembered in terms of metadata storage. One of the advantages of using an alternative NTFS stream for storing the metadata is that photo editing applications that aren’t aware of IPTC/XMP data in the image will trash/destory the IPTC/XMP data when they save an image file that has been edited. However a photo editing application that isn’t aware of the metadata won’t be able to destory the metadata stored in an alternative stream.So a user in Vista may rate a photo, add keywords etc. using the new Vista shell and it’s easy metadata editing facilities and then use some photo editing application to make some image edits and after they save their edits all their metadata tagging is lost!The downside to using an alternative NTFS stream is that they’re lost when you copy the files to non NTFS file systems like FAT, to a CD etc.
-
Sean, I agree with your observation that a photo editor that isn’t aware of ITPC/XMP is likely to trash the metadata – that’s exactly what Microsoft Digital Image Suite editor does – as I found to my cost! And while you can sidestep this with an alternative NTFS stream, I personally don’t like this approach, since you are locked into the platform. I would much rather the metadata travels with the image file at all times. The price is then to make sure that the editor that one uses is IPTC/XMP aware – and I think that’s a price worth paying.Oh, I’ve just had an email from someone giving some more background on the GPS metadata… To quote: "the IPTC4XMP working group did discuss the inclusion of GPS data into IPTC Core. There were several factors involved in the decision to postpone, from my recollection. Keep in mind, first of all, that GPS info is "technical" metadata rather than descriptive metadata, and IPTC metadata consists of, by and large, descriptive metadata.The primary discussion revolved around whether or not anyone would enter in this kind of data by hand. We reasoned that since GPS info already has a place to exist (in the EXIF data), and since digital cameras enabled with GPS already write this data to the EXIF data space that it would be a duplication of effort; and at least for now it was unlikely that people would take the time to manually re-enter this info. Another issue is that the GPS data only represents where the camera was located at the time of exposure, not necessarily the location of the subject."Makes sense to me…
-
Yep, but the other cost is support calls MS have to take when people create metadata via the Vista shell and then complain when they use photo editing application X which doesn’t preserve IPTC/XMP data during editing.I guess my main point is that it isn’t necessarily as easy as saying, "photo metadata *must* be stored in IPTC/XMP format" when you look at all the issues and the scenarios that are being supported, e.g. encouraging people to add metadata via the Vista shell, i.e. not only hard-core photo enthusiasts who know how to pick a photo editing tool that understands IPTC/XMP. Supporting the same metadata on all image formats, i.e. others that don’t natively support IPTC/XMP or EXIF, e.g. BMP, PNG etc.By the way, similiar issues apply to EXIF, although I think in general a lot more photo editing apps are aware of EXIF data and won’t trash it compared to IPTC/XMP.Maybe the solution is for the image metadata property handler to always write to an alternate NTFS stream and to IPTC/XMP if the image format supports it. So a user editing the metadata in the shell or some other program that uses the Vista APIs for editing/creating metadata results in the metadata ending up in both.Then have the IFilter for images when it is invoked by the indexing service whenever the file is modified also ensure that that the metadata in the alternate NTFS stream and the IPTC/XMP stream is in sync. So if a user deletes the IPTC/XMP stream while editing the image in a photo editing application that doesn’t understand IPTC/XMP then the IFilter will recreate the IPTC/XMP stream based on the contents of the alternate NTFS stream.In addition keeping the two streams in sync means that if the image is copied onto a different file system then the IPTC/XMP stream will still be able to provide the metadata.
-
I’ve used very single version of Microsoft’s Digital Image Suite since its original days as Picture-It! Plus somewhere in the garage I still have a copy of some Microsoft photo editor program from about five years ago.My observation is that Microsoft hung their hat up and congratulated themselves on a job well done ten years ago as far as photo editing, importing and managing goes. In ten years there has been ONE patch to the Picture-It/Digital Image product line. That implies that either the product is perfect (It isn’t as I can reproduce bugs in the current version that have been there for TEN YEARS NOW) or the product team is either unskilled, unmotivated or has no realistic deliverables.I take the Zen approach to Microsoft’s expertise in photo imaging: Don’t expect anything and you will never be disappointed.I imagine in addition to the other issues that when Windows Katrina (the hurricane of PR hot air aka Vista) finally ships that once again the only drivers for digital cameras will be for those that shipped in 2006, and that legacy cameras will no longer be supported.
-
I’m the PM for Imaging in the Windows Client Platform, so I’d like to respond to this. We absolutely aren’t trying to lock anybody into proprietary metadata formats. In fact, we don’t ship any proprietary metadata formats. On the contrary, we provide extensibility to make it possible for any third party to add a metadata handler for any format that doesn’t ship with the platform. In the current CTP builds, we support XMP and EXIF, but unfortunately, so far, we only support IPTC for TIFF files. There was a snag in offering IPTC support in JPEG because the IPTC block in a JPEG file has to be nested in an App13 block. We had some delays in determining how to implement the App13 metadata handler, but (many thanks to our friends at Adobe) we now have the information required to do that.We want very much to support IPTC in JPEG in Vista and WinFX, but we’re running out of time and I honestly don’t know if we’ll be able to get this done in time. If not, we definitely plan to ship this in the next version of the OS. Because this is the first version of our new extensible imaging platform, there’s an awful lot we’re trying to do and, unfortunately, time is limited. There are many features we’re passionate about that we have to put off until the next version. At this time, I don’t yet know whether this will be one of them. I hope this information is helpful. Please feel free to write me if you have any concerns.Peggi Goodwin
-
Peggi, thanks very much for responding. Good to hear that IPTC support is planned for JPEG in Vista – but I hope you mean that it will arrive in the next version of Vista, not the next version of the OS after Vista.But I don’t think I quite understand by what you mean by "In the current CTP builds, we support XMP and EXIF, but unfortunately, so far, we only support IPTC for TIFF files". My interpretation of that would be to say that if I use the Windows Explorer to examine file properties of a JPEG, then I would see XMP and EXIF metadata displayed, and if I were to examine a TIFF file, then I would see IPTC (legacy IIM?) metadata displayed. This doesn’t seem to be the case. If I look at a JPEG file with Windows Explorer – I can see EXIF metadata, but not all XMP metadata (only ‘keywords’, apparently). And if I search on XMP metadata (after adding an XMP iFilter to the indexing engine), I can only seem to search in the ‘keywords’ metadata. Similarly, tagging a TIFF file with IPTC data does not seem to be reflected back in the properties displayed in Explorer or searchable in the index. I’m clearly missing something in what you mean by "support". I would be grateful for a pointer to a fuller explanation of what you mean, if that’s possible.Many thanks, Geoff
-
Well since they’re supposed to be pretty much code complete at the end of Dec 05 there is a good chance she is refering to the next OS release after Windows Vista ships.Just as you can get an IFilter component from a 3rd party today for indexing IPTC/XMP metadata you’ll be able to write a property handler for IPTC/XMP data for jpeg files which the Vista shell will then use for reading the metadata when it needs to display the metadata. And will use it to persist any changes the user makes to the metadata via the Vista shell. Other 3rd party applications will also be able to use the property handler via the Vista APIs if they want to read and/or update the metadata.So it would be useful for the Vista OS to ship with a default property handler and IFilter for IPTC/XMP metadata in jpeg and tiff files, but you’re not totally out of luck if they don’t since you or some other 3rd party can provide the same functionality as MS would’ve.Cheers
-
By the way, for some background info on the new property handlers API, some examples on their usage and support for ‘Open MetaData’ take a look at the following blog posting by one of the MS developers.http://blogs.gotdotnet.com/marcmill/archive/2005/11/02/488475.aspx
-
Sean, thanks for the extra info. I like the way you say "you’ll be able to write a property handler…". I think you way overestimate my capabilities as a programmer – I haven’t done any real programming for the last 20 years, and now when I look at the SDK documentation I feel as though I’m in "a maze of twisty little passages, all alike". Cheers.
-
I had an email exchange with Geoff offline, and realized that he was specifically concerned about the fact that IPTC and XMP metadata are not exposed in Windows Explorer. Alas, Windows Explorer is not the best way to view images in Vista, or to access image-specific metadata. The Vista Photo Gallery is specifically suited to that. You can access EXIF, XMP, and IPTC (in TIFF) metadata from the Photo Gallery. Unfortunately, the Photo Gallery isn’t as discoverable as it should be. (It’s under All Programs, but My Pictures still defaults to Window Explorer.)I’d like to clarify what we’re doing with metadata in Vista. Microsoft has not created a new metadata format for images. There’s a metadata property handler that understands several common image metadata formats, like XMP, EXIF, and IPTC, and can search for and rationalize metadata across these formats. The format used to add keywords to photos in the Vista Photo Gallery is XMP. I’d also like to address the concerns about preservation of metadata. The new Windows Imaging Component in Vista and WinFX actually supports preservation of unrecognized metadata. Applications that are built on the new platform can invoke the "Unknown Metadata Handler" for any metadata block they don’t recognize, and all the metadata in that block will be preserved as a BLOB (binary large object), enabling applications to write it back to the file stream intact, after editing metadata in blocks that they do recognize. This is actually the first system to support preservation of unrecognized metadata, and we think this is a big step forward for photo applications. I hope this helps to clarify some of the questions about what we’re doing in the Vista Photo Platform. We’re very much aware that Microsoft has not had a strong focus on imaging in the past. However, digital cameras drove a large percentage of upgrades to Windows XP, and the company has recognized that improving the digital photo experience is going to be a key factor for many people in the decision to upgrade to Vista and beyond (assuming that we can provide significant improvements in the photo experience in each release). We have a lot of new folks across the company working on various aspects of imaging now, and all of these people are very passionate about digital photography. So you can definitely expect to see more of a focus on this from Microsoft in the future.
-
Peggi, I’m sorry, but you’re wrong. The Vista Photo Gallery DOES NOT give the end-user access to XMP and IPTC (in TIFF files) metadata. I’m beginning to feel like someone listening to ancient Greek philosophers arguing about the number of teeth a horse has. Why doesn’t anyone bother to go round to the stable and actually count them?I tagged a number of test images (both TIFF and JPEG) with XMP and IPTC metadata. The Vista Photo Gallery does not show any of this metadata. All it will show is the metadata that Microsoft uses in its Digital Image Suite products – and this ain’t XMP or IPTC.Worse, just like the Digital Image Suite editor, if I use the Vista Photo Gallery to “fix” (edit) an image, it promptly strips out any XMP and IPTC data that was originally in the image. This breaks my digital workflow – metadata must be preserved.And I am "not concerned specifically with Windows Explorer". I am interested in a consistent platform and set of tools that will give me a good user experience. Vista Photo Gallery does not give me access to EXIF metadata – whereas the Windows Explorer does. The Windows Explorer does, however, expose Microsoft’s image metadata as used in your Digital Image Suite software. So my overall impression is that the tools are neither consistent with each other, nor do they give me full access to what I consider to be the industry standards of image metadata: IPTC, XMP and EXIF. It would be good to see a "focus on [digital photography] from Microsoft in the future", but the performance thus far has not been encouraging. But thanks, Peggi, for continuing the conversation. I appreciate that.
-
Try the WICExplorer tool from the following blog entry to enumerate the various types of metadata in your test images that Vista should be picking up and writing to via the new Vista Imaging APIs.http://blogs.msdn.com/rwlodarc/archive/2005/09/21/472338.aspx
-
Sean, thanks – I’ll give it a go and post back what I find. Jus watching the CES keynote at the moment… Cheers, Geoff.
-
Erm, OK, Sean, I downloaded WICExplorer (the compiled version with the metadata dictionary) from the link that you gave. I extracted both files from the Zip file to F:/WICExplorer/. I attempted to run WICExplorer and got the delightful error message: "The procedure entry point WICCreatImagingFactory could not be located in the dynamic link library WindowsCodecs.dll". OK, what now? Thanks, Geoff
-
Yep, the joys of CTPs/betas. The binary you downloaded was compiled for the PDC CTP build in Sep 05 and things have changed between then and now the Dec 05 CTP. So your best bet is to download the source and recompile against the Dec CTP headers and libs.I have the Dec CTP with the matching Windows SDK and VS2005 installed, however it’s on a dual boot machine. I’ll try and recompile the source this weekend.
-
Indeed, the version of WICExplorer up on my blog is for the PDC release of WinFx and Vista. Some APIs have changed a bit. I’ll get a new one posted by Saturday. Apologies for the delay on this…
-
Indeed, the version of WICExplorer up on my blog is for the PDC release of WinFx and Vista. Some APIs have changed a bit. I’ll get a new one posted by Saturday. Apologies for the delay on this…(doh, previous post has the wrong link to my blog)
-
OK, thanks guys, I’ll wait until the new version of WICExplorer is ready. Meantime, I’ve had further emails from Peggi and others in Microsoft about the issue. It’s clear from them that what is in the December CTP is not the final build, and that Microsoft hope to improve the user experience for the final release. Whether they’ll clear the bar that I’ve set, we’ll wait and see, but at least they appear to be trying hard.
-
As always, we appreciate your feedback. Each new CTP build we release will have more features enabled, and I hope you’ll continue to download the CTP releases and give us feedback on them. I can’t promise that all of the user experience features around metadata will be enabled in the next CTP build, but they will come incrementally, so please bear with us. Our goal is to ultimately deliver the best platform for digital photography that has ever existed. We realize we have a long way to go, but we’re making huge strides in Vista. (And Vista is only the beginning!)
-
I’ve just posted the updated WICExplorer at http://blogs.msdn.com/rwlodarc/archive/2006/01/07/510478.aspx.
-
[…] Managing Photo Libraries – Part 4 […]
-
[…] Managing Photo Libraries – Part 4 […]
-
[…] the build 5308 of Windows Vista came out I took a look at the bundled Windows Photo Gallery application and was not too impressed. Now that beta 2 of Vista is out, I thought I’d look again to see what has changed in Windows […]
Leave a comment
-
-
Brussels Sprout Bidding
People do the strangest things. Such as bid for a single cooked brussels sprout on eBay. But at least the proceeds are apparently going to charity, so I can turn my disbelief back a notch or two. While we’re talking about eBay, the Banterist has an updated version of "A Partridge in a Pear Tree" that is appropriate for the occasion.(hat tip to Tom Reynolds at Random Acts of Reality for the sprout)One response to “Brussels Sprout Bidding”
-
Strange? It’s just beautiful if people want give some of their money to charity :)What about "Lucia buns" for charity? My mom made’em, heh… http://cgi.ebay.com/Lucia-buns-from-Sweden-for-charity_W0QQitemZ5654086396QQcategoryZ88433QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Leave a comment
-
-
The Algebraist…
…is the title of a science fiction book by Iain M. Banks. I’ve just managed to get around to reading it and finished it today. Banks did not disappoint.This is big, glorious space opera – hard SF that nonetheless is written by someone who understands human foibles only too well. So it’s not just flashy machines and mind-blowing ideas, it’s also about the things that we do that have impact on others; about power that corrupts, societies that revolve around the most pointless of things, and about religion that dulls the mind (the "Truth"). It’s also full of memorable characters – mostly non-human. And it’s about a journey taken by one human – a complete circle from a quiet conversation in a garden to a similar, and yet utterly different, conversation in the same garden between the same two characters – but between these conversations, the universe has changed, and a new set of possibilities have arisen. In his control of the science, and his command of truly outrageous ideas and visions (an alien society living in the atmosphere of a gas-giant planet similar to Jupiter), Banks reminds me of John Varley. Where I think he goes beyond Varley is the fact that he is a political writer. The political voice of his alter ego, which is given full reign in novels set in our world, such as Dead Air and Complicity, is present in this SF book. Gas-giant planets or Margaret Thatcher, Banks’ voice is very much one that deals with politics, and its impact on people. His voice is the stronger for it.Leave a comment
-
Mealbox
A spiffy-looking set of dining table and Japanese-style chairs from a Norwegian company. Although the lack of any indication of price is never a good sign in my opinion.Leave a comment
-
Lenovo Concept Tablet PC
This concept Tablet PC by Lenovo has won an award. I hope that the award spurs Lenovo on to actually manufacture and sell it. I’m already lusting after it.Leave a comment
-
The In Terror Bang
I’m sorry, I know it’s in appalling taste, but the headline just popped into my head when I read this news item. I hope they catch the person that did it.Leave a comment
-
The Interrobang
I don’t think I’ve ever had cause to use this character – and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in the wild, either.Leave a comment
-
Don’t Give Up
A new version of the classic Peter Gabriel song for the sake of a good cause. And if you don’t want to donate via this channel, then there are plenty of others to choose from. Take a moment to pause this Christmas, and think of others who need help.Leave a comment
-
The King William’s College Quiz
For over one hundred years, King William’s College on the Isle of Man has set a quiz for its pupils at Christmas. I never went to King William’s, but my cousin did. And every Christmas, the entire extended family would sit around scratching their collective head trying to come up with the answers to this notoriously difficult quiz.If you’d like to have a shot, then the Guardian has published this year’s quiz. Just don’t expect Google to be any help whatsoever.Leave a comment
-
The New World
John Patterson’s review of Terence Malick’s new film: The New World makes me want to see it. Another "When It Changed" moment – this time captured on film. Malick’s earlier Days of Heaven was a wonder, so I think I will like this new one as well. I see that the review singled out on IMDb categorises The New World as "pretentious drivel", "absolutely painful" and "virtually no dialogue" and suggests that you "rent Disney’s version of Pocahantas [sic] instead". That’s good enough for me, I’m sure I will absolutely love Malick’s version.Leave a comment
-
Nothing Dies On The Internet
As is well known, the Internet is a fount of true and false information. And often, information that is shown to be false just won’t die. Like a bad penny it turns up again, professing its versimilitude to all who will listen.A case in point, Neatorama, a site that collects neat things from around the web, published this today. Ostensibly, it’s an article about a pair of identical twins, one of whom has had the amputated arm of his twin surgically attached to his torso. Also, a finger joint has been amputated from one twin’s hand, and used to lengthen the same finger on the other twin’s hand.The article was originally published in 1999 – April 1st 1999, to be precise. Now, it’s quite possible, and indeed probable, that Neatorama realised it was a joke, but decided to re-publish as it is, in truth, a startling article. Still, the kicker is that I’ll bet that many people out there will think that this is a piece of true reporting – just as many people did when it was first published. And the real eye-opener for me is that some folks really do think that this is a neat thing to do. As I’ve said before, I never will understand human nature.Update: Nope, Neatorama thought the story was true. Sigh.Leave a comment
-
When It Changed
Here I am, mentioning the ED SF Project yet again in less than 24 hours. But I feel I have to, because Kameron Hurley has just published her appreciation of Joanna Russ’ story: When It Changed.I remember reading the story back in 1977, in the paperback of Harlan Ellison’s collection: Again Dangerous Visions. It had a powerful effect on me then, and on re-reading it, I find that the effect is only slightly diminished. It speaks of a very different society from what we experience, and yet one that I (and I think, Kameron) can empathise with. And at the core of the story is the recognition by the narrator that the known world is on a cusp – and from that moment on, because of a meeting, the world is irrevocably changed.Imagine the meeting between Cortes and the Aztecs as a some sort of two-dimensional object – say a square. Now turn that 2D object into three dimensions – a cube. That extra dimension is what Russ paces out in the nature of the meeting that occurs in this story. You’ll have to read it to understand what I mean. If you’ve read Le Guin’s Left Hand of Darkness, you’ll have an inkling of what Russ is going to do, except in her story there are no aliens in the sense of being non-human. There are aliens of another form, though, and equally as deadly as invaders from Mars.Leave a comment
-
Fashionable Disorders?
Dr. Crippen blogs about something that I wonder about. I’m sure that part of it is a sense of "in my day, you were grateful to live in a cardboard box", but somehow I don’t think that’s all it is.2 responses to “Fashionable Disorders?”
-
Ah yes, a subject near and dear to me.I do agree that ADD and ADHD have become something of an in-vogue diagnosis. However, I also know that twenty-odd years ago I was diagnosed as having a mild form of ADD and was put on Ritalin from 2nd grade until junior high. It was one of the best things that could have happened for me back then. The medication helped me focus and combat boredom while I learned mental coping skills that eventually enabled me to come off the medication.I do believe that there is a real disorder behind ADD and ADHD. As such, I can’t fully back solutions that purely put the dunce cap on a kid and put him in the corner – that’s like punishing a paraplegic because he can’t walk. However, I believe that any medication treatment should be accompanied by psychiatric (or psychological?) "coaching" in order to learn to cope. Some people will be severe enough that they may never come off medication, and that’s fine, but overmedicating isn’t the solution either.I do think adult ADD is a reality as well, and I am glad to see people who truly need it get treatment. Again, this shouldn’t be abused, but I don’t know how much we see is abuse and how much we see simply wasn’t diagnosed before. Same with youth ADD. I didn’t have the awareness twenty years ago (I was seven!) to know if the same attention was given to the disorder, but before we declare increases to be abuse of a diagnosis, let’s look at how much of that is due to previously-undiagnosed conditions.
-
Thanks, Mike, for your insights. I agree that there are such things as ADD and ADHD, it’s just that I feel that they are becoming knee-jerk labels in some cases. It’s rather like the "he’s a sexual athlete, she’s a nymphomanic" labelling, which often speaks as much about the labeller as about the person being labelled. I reckon I was overexposed to the ideas of Thomas Szasz ("The Manufacture of Madness") and R. D. Laing ("Sanity, Madness and the Family") when younger. Both authors over-egged things, but nonetheless I think there was/is a grain of truth in their claims.
Leave a comment
-
-
It’s All In The Genes
Fascinating study summarised by Hilzoy over at Obsidian Wings. Could it really be true that sexually differentiated object preferences arose prior to the emergence of hominids?Leave a comment
-
Refugees From Nulongwe
I mentioned the ED SF Project earlier this month. It’s a collection of appreciations of SF short stories that were published by Ellen Datlow. I’ve been reading the appreciations published by contributors. Many of them make me want to read the original story immediately. Once such came in today – Rhonda S. Garcia’s appreciation of "Refugees from Nulongwe" by M. Shayne Bell. The story does not disappoint. It’s a terrific little story – a perfect example of the "what if" of good SF where it explores humanity and what it means to be human. The footnote to the story gives the clue to how the story came to be written – the situation explored in the story is close to our reality. And the picture of the two strong old women – one human, one not – is striking.Leave a comment
Geoff Coupe's Blog 
Leave a comment