Central serous chorioretinopathy, commonly referred to as CSC, is a condition in which fluid accumulates under the retina, causing a serous (fluid-filled) detachment and vision loss.

The causes of CSC are not fully understood. It is thought that any systemic exposure to a corticosteroid drug can bring about or worsen CSC. Corticosteroids are found in allergy nose sprays and anti-inflammatory skin creams available over the counter, and are often prescribed to treat a variety of medical conditions.

General tech specs for Amazon Video Direct

Amazon Video Direct currently supports spation video resolutions up to 1920x1080p. (4K/UHD content isn’t supported at this time.) Their software automatically adjusts the delivery streams to a resolution appropriate to the customer’s device and connection speed. If you submit a 1080p HD video, and a customer streams it in SD, Amazon Video Direct automatically adjusts it for that customer.

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Trailer DCPs should be delivered in two resolutions: 1998×1080 (Flat) and 2048×858 (Scope). This way the cinema can play the trailer before both Scope and Flat movies without changing presets on the projector. With common height cinemas a preset change involves zooming the lens and changing the side masking.

For a Scope movie you should deliver the Scope trailer filling the Scope resolution 2048×858, and then use “fit to width” in a Flat 1998×1080 project in After Effects or similar software to make the Flat trailer.

For a Flat movie you deliver the Flat trailer filling the Flat resolution 1998×1080, and then use fit to height in a Scope 2048×858 project in after effects or similar software to make the Scope trailer.

Sometimes I see DCP trailers for Scope movies that do not fit the presets. The flat trailer is correct, but it seems they used this flat trailer to make the scope trailer. Instead of fitting it to the width, they fitted it to the height of the scope resolution 2048×858. This results in a scope trailer with a small letterboxed and pillarboxed picture.

A Scope trailer without soft subtitles could be shown at both flat and Scope presets. When played with a Flat preset only the pixels between 1998 and 2048 would be cropped. A local distributor could add normal 8/14 “from bottom” subtitles to make the scope trailer and add 22/28 “from bottom” subtitles to make the flat trailer.

Trailers should have a good cinema 5.1 sound mix. Trailers are normally louder than feature films and the cinema may play the trailers at a lower volume setting than the feature films.

The research conducted in Japan came to some unexpected results:

This study examined the effects of gum chewing while walking on physical and physiological functions. [Subjects and Methods] This study enrolled 46 male and female participants aged 21–69 years. In the experimental trial, participants walked at natural paces for 15 minutes while chewing two gum pellets after a 1-hour rest period. In the control trial, participants walked at natural paces for 15 minutes after ingesting powder containing the same ingredient, except the gum base, as the chewing gum. Heart rates, walking distances, walking speeds, steps, and energy expenditure were measured. [Results] Heart rates during walking and heart rate changes (i.e., from at rest to during walking) significantly increased during the gum trial compared with the control trial. Walking distance, walking speed, walking heart rate, and heart rate changes in male participants and walking heart rate and heart rate changes in female participants were significantly higher during the gum trial than the control trial. In middle-aged and elderly male participants aged ≥40 years, walking distance, walking speed, steps, and energy expenditure significantly increased during the gum trial than the control trial. [Conclusion] Gum chewing while walking measurably affects physical and physiological functions.

I can't agree more with the article in The Guardian, that mass produced wine which includes nearly every bottle on the shelf in the US is as far removed from what wine supposed to be as Taco and donut from the idea of food.

Advocates of natural wine believe that nearly everything about the £130bn modern wine industry – from the way it is made, to the way critics police what counts as good or bad – is ethically, ecologically and aesthetically wrong. Their ambition is to strip away the artificial trappings that have developed in tandem with the industry’s decades-long economic boom, and let wine be wine.

Simple as that, but can't be mass produced:

Natural winemakers believe that none of this is necessary. The basics of winemaking are, in fact, almost stupefyingly simple: all it involves is crushing together some ripe grapes. When the yeasts that live on the skin of the grape come into contact with the sweet juice inside, they begin gorging themselves on the sugars, releasing bubbles of carbon dioxide into the air and secreting alcohol into the mixture. This continues either until there is no more sugar, or the yeasts make the surrounding environment so alcoholic that even they cannot live in it. At this point, strictly speaking, you have wine. In the millennia since humans first undertook this process, winemaking has become a highly technical art, but the fundamental alchemy is unchanged. Fermentation is the indivisible step. Whatever precedes it is grape juice, and whatever follows it is wine.

Interesting article exploring what is a tree published in Knowable Magazine.

If one is pressed to describe what makes a tree a tree, long life is right up there with wood and height. While many plants have a predictably limited life span (what scientists call “programmed senescence”), trees don’t, and many persist for centuries. In fact, that trait — indefinite growth — could be science’s tidiest demarcation of treeness, even more than woodiness. 

Take longevity. A classic example of the Methuselah-ness of trees is the current record-holder, a 5,067-year-old great bristlecone pine that grows high in the White Mountains of California. (That tree was almost 500 years old when the first pyramids were built in Egypt.)

The White House asked to borrow a van Gogh. The Guggenheim offered a gold toilet instead.

Over the course of a year in partnership with a professional research firm, Cards Against Humanity is running a different sort of opinion poll with more unusual questions. The early results are at Pulse of the Nation.

They asked people if they’re rather be “dumb and happy” or “smart and sad”. The “dumb and happy” respondents were more likely to say human-caused climate change is not real:

The majority of black people surveyed believe a second civil war is likely within the next decade:

65% of Democrats surveyed would rather have Darth Vader as President than Donald Trump:

And one’s approval of Donald Trump correlates to a belief that rap is not music:

Many of the responses were irrational — Darth Vader would be much worse than Trump and Democrats believe that the top 1% of richest Americans own 75% of the wealth (it’s actually 39%)…and people with more formal education guessed worse on that question. The divide on rap music is racial and generational but also points to a lack of curiosity from many Americans about what is perhaps the defining art form of the past 30 years. But the worst is what Americans thought of each other…Democrats think Republicans are racist and Republicans don’t think Democrats love America. The polarization of the American public continues.

360 view of Barcelonetta Beach in Barcelona.

Photo taken on i-Phone from the garden. Clouds worked as a protective screen.

Noteworthy collages from Alexey Kondakov. For more of his work, check out his Instagram or Facebook.

Noteworthy GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS exhibit by Sergey Borisov at RuArts Gallery.

When Ricardo Bofill stumbled upon a dilapidated cement factory in 1973 he saw the opportunity. La fábrica was born. 45 years later it transformed into a spectacular and unique home.

 Photos above were taken on Rolleiflex 2.8F with Carl Zeiss Planar 80mm lens on Fuji 400H Pro film in February of 2017.

Probably the best the web has to offer: watch random You Tube videos with almost no views.

These videoscome from YouTube. They were uploaded in the last week and have titles like DSC 1234 and IMG 4321. They have almost zero previous views. They are unnamed, unedited, and unseen by anyone but YOU.

Awesome!