If I Saw Jesus in a Tortilla, Can I See Fred's Inner-Demon?

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2010 Oct 12, 21:08

Awhile back, SnakeByte turned me on to what has to be the greatest "Compare" programme known to Man, God, Vishnu, and that guy who mugged your mum last week, Beyond Compare. This thing (aside from not being free) makes all other File Comparison applications look like they're still in nappies. It can compare Files, Folders, whole Drives, Registries (!), Images, even MP3's - via content, binary/interpreted, etc, etc, etc. Yes, we all have our favourite applications for comparing things, and this is mine.

But that's not the point of this post - merely the cause.

About 6 months ago on this forum I did a tongue in cheek triptych series of doctored photographs of Nikos as Mother Teresa, Nikos as a Castro Supporter, and Nikos as an evil Greek Dictator.

The other day I was playing around using Beyond Compare to look at and display the "differences" between the source photos and the end result, and I found something disturbingly odd about the Castro image (the middle one, above). At the time I thought it would be humorous to replace the head of the guy in the NSA shirt on the far left with fgagnon's forum avatar, I just started up Gimp and the job was done. But, when comparing the source files recently (before/after) something weird showed up.

Beyond Compare has four formats for displaying the (main) differences between two photographs - Blend Mode, Binary Operation Mode, Mismatch Range Mode, and Tolerance Mode.

The original image is in the left panel, the "after" image in the right panel, and the edited differences displayed graphically in the centre panel highlighted as colour (the unchanged parts are displayed in black and white). Obviously what we're concentrating on here is the centre panel and most importantly of all, how Tolerance Mode reveals a snarling demon hiding in Fred's Soul, which, quite frankly, is a little weird:

So if Jesus can appear in a Tortilla, the Virgin Mary in a sliced Tomato, or Che Guevara in a Swirl of Sand, who's to say that Fred's inner-Demon can't be revealed by a simple superimposition with a 51 year old photograph?

:twisted:

I do, however, like to think there's still grace in his heart. :D

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2010 Oct 12, 23:39

arrgghhh ... I've been found out.

Post by **nikos** » 2010 Oct 13, 05:37

some times i wish they cut you off electicity permanently

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2010 Oct 13, 07:17

nikos wrote:some times i wish they cut you off electicity permanently

Yo, Sergei, bear in mind that you do supply your own ammunition. Remember, now I can add vocal effects. :twisted:

Imagine how Judas felt when they got together and said, "Hey, I know, let's start our own religion! It'll be cool!" And then after they handed out assignments, Judas complained "Why do I always have to be the bad guy?"

It's never easy formulating a cosmology.

Just wait until Vanessa goes to school and is asked to draw pictures of mum and dad - she'll be standing in a field of flowers holding hands with mum laughing at the sunshine - and you'll be the grumpy one who wouldn't come out to play...

narayan · Post by **narayan** » 2010 Oct 13, 09:07

Ah, the facial expression is JUST RIGHT when answering your posts.

But Vanessa must not forget to draw the goatee.

Tuxman · Post by **Tuxman** » 2010 Oct 17, 23:54

Damn. It was "let's make a joke of nikos" day and I missed it?
Send me a PM the next time!

narayan · Post by **narayan** » 2010 Oct 18, 05:23

Oh it's never too late to join the revelry: There is a vast scope for more juicy comments, like-
"Finally we have proof that Castro had taken Nikos under his wings (armpits to be precise)"

Tuxman · Post by **Tuxman** » 2010 Oct 18, 08:44

Well, I like Castro. He never put himself into dependence on the US of A.

narayan · Post by **narayan** » 2010 Oct 18, 12:32

I agree - every good ruler MUST resist the outside influences BECAUSE they would be self-serving.

Every nation has the right to follow its own vision, and the right to select the way to achieve it within its own cultural context. If a leader who is able to do that, he's good- No questions.

Tuxman · Post by **Tuxman** » 2010 Oct 18, 12:47

narayan wrote:Every nation has the right to follow its own vision

People with visions should see a doctor.
(According to Helmut Schmidt.)

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2010 Oct 18, 17:03

narayan wrote:Every nation has the right to follow its own vision, and the right to select the way to achieve it within its own cultural context. If a leader who is able to do that, he's good- No questions.

Spoken like a true ex-colonial subject who achieved it with as little pain as possible... albeit by inventing a new state for those who didn't share the vision. Of course, some Rwandan Refugees might disagree with the overall sentiment if some visions are realised by severe inconvenience to the daughters of change...

Helmut Schmidt wrote:A grand coalition would be one of the worst outcomes for our country, because there would be no possibility to change what has to be changed

Germany's always between a rock and a hard place - the Weimar Republic's experimental liberal democracy didn't exactly have the outcome that the words "liberal" and "democratic" might suggest. And yes, like it or not, that kind of thing will always be mentioned no matter how much distance each generation thinks it's moved forward. We'll take your locomotives and your women, but your autonomy will always be subject to historical scrutiny and fear. Some nice cars, too. But no revolutionaries, please...

narayan · Post by **narayan** » 2010 Oct 19, 02:39

Well, ALL empires in history were formed through coercion, by decimating the neighboring kingdoms (which included loot, pillage, rape, torture, maiming and killing of its civilian population), Any signs of a vision came only when things settled down.

Vision is just a desired scenario to be achieved in long term. It is primarily meant to serve the self-interest of the visionary and his collaborators, but on rare occasions it may benefit a few others as well. Since visions (and self-interest) of different people are bound to be different, conflicts are inevitable. It is HERE that the leadership becomes critical, as it sets the tone of the entire course of the conflict (e.g. Mahatma Gandhi).

Visions are of no value to people who are struggling for their daily survival (e.g. Darfur). They are used (always without consent) by those with the vision.

And history is written selectively by the victor. So, while Hitler is vilified, bombing of German cities will be swept under carpet. While Saddam is castigated for his nerve gas, use of Napalm, Agent Orange and nuclear bombs on civilians will be conveniently forgotten.

Post by **nikos** » 2010 Oct 19, 05:41

hey, it's a jungle out there!

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2010 Oct 19, 07:59

Ah, working from a dispassionate definition of "Vision", I wholeheartedly agree, though I'm mindful such a pedantic notion is of cold comfort to Darfur, Dresden, and Carthage, and is one of the downsides of (Romantic) classical education.

narayan wrote:Well, ALL empires in history were formed through coercion, by decimating the neighboring kingdoms (which included loot, pillage, rape, torture, maiming and killing of its civilian population), Any signs of a vision came only when things settled down.

Alexander the Great is an interesting (possible) exception, with (unfortunately) plenty of unknowns mitigated by indeed "who wrote the history". Unresisting civilian populations fared pretty well - emphasis on unresisting - but they were oddly free to govern themselves (unlike the visions of latter Empire states). But such is a Vision beyond the pale of ordinary man, to be sure. Some would dismiss it as a "practical" approach (let the locals run the bureaucracy, take the spoils), but I think that's missing a bigger fractured picture.

narayan wrote:Visions are of no value to people who are struggling for their daily survival

Um... personal circumstances aside... wait... scratch that... my Visions are of great value to me, though intriguingly are at odds with the progressive world I appear to live in (Ireland's Banana Republic, aside). Another downside to (Modern) classical education. I'm thinking Vision is the wrong word to use in English, given the unrelenting imagery of contemporary connotation.

There's a lot to be said for tilting at windmills, God bless Alonso Quixano.

narayan · Post by **narayan** » 2010 Oct 19, 09:34

I was not referring to great scholars/philosophers and artists. Or even the shepherds for that matter (Great philosophies in all major religions came from shepherds: Krishna, Muhammad, Moses...).

@Alexander:
That seems to be true, going by this famous story in India:

After defeating Porus, an Indian king, Alexander asked him, "now what treatment do you expect from me?" He probably expected Porus to beg for his life. But Porus replied, "like one king to another". Pleased with this brave answer, Alexander not only set him free, but also gifted him some other territory he had won!

Such acts can only come from a totally self-assured person. And no doubt some of the vanquished areas actually got a better management in the bargain.