John Carter

[John Carter @JohnCarterAudio]

@SiliconBadger @philosophymeme0 @grok 🙏

[John Carter @JohnCarterAudio]

@Flock_Safety @reason @BessByers

[Dr. CZ @AngelMD1103]

Many Europeans traveled across the U.S. during the World Cup, the journey itself becomes part of the adventure. Stopping at a massive can feel like discovering a whole new world, with its huge stores, endless food options, and unique souvenirs.

What seems like a simple gas station to locals can be an unforgettable cultural experience for visitors. The combination of clean facilities, fresh food, snacks, and merchandise shows a different side of American road travel.

These small moments are often what make traveling special — discovering everyday things that feel extraordinary somewhere else. Who would have imagined that a quick stop for gas could become one of the favorite memories of a World Cup trip?

[Siraj Hashmi @SirajAHashmi]

Kids today have no idea how good The Onion was, like when Autistic Reporter Michael Falk delivered this news package, “Train Thankfully Unharmed In Crash That Killed One Man”

[John Carter @JohnCarterAudio]

@ReemAmirIbrahim All these dummies in the comments think The Copts built the pyramids. We all know who really built them

[John Carter @JohnCarterAudio]

@MollyJongFast @themimsshow

[Make It Make Sense @themimsshow]

Data centers are not stealing your water

[Jason Miyares @JasonMiyaresVA]

First, if you are going to appeal to SCOTUS maybe don’t misspell Virginia????

[Charles C. W. Cooke @charlescwcooke]

The only thing that “speaks volumes” here is Kaine’s dishonesty. The Democrats asked the court to consider the questions at hand only after the referendum had been held. The court agreed. Now the same people are demagoguing the court for doing what they demanded of it.

[John Bistline @JEBistline]

Texas just passed California in utility-scale solar. And it's not close in wind or energy storage.

[Ramez Naam @ramez]

Everyone who cares about climate should understand this. Texas, with no pro-climate policies, has blown passed California in clean energy. In large part because Texas has less red tape and makes it easier to build.

[Joshua Bailey @JoshuaBailey184]

If you're a gun control org who successfully pushed for a ban on body armor in New York you get an exemption to commit the felony yourself, thems the rules

[reason @reason]

California progressives are pushing for a tax on billionaires; so are senators like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

But as @MightyHeaton explains, such programs don't work. Just ask France.

[reason @reason]

Gerrymandering, a better way to win reelection: @GoRemy appreciates your support this November, but he doesn't need it.

[John Carter @JohnCarterAudio]

@TheAnnaGat @RichardHanania @DinaPomeranz What an epic fail of a fact check

[Harry Potter Universe @HPotterUniverse]

Someone brightened a couple of still shots from the Harry Potter TV series trailer.

Look how much better it looks with some brightness and color!

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

Warm colors increase your heart rate. Cool, washed-out tones lower it. Every remake you’ve watched in the last decade has been deliberately color-graded to flatten that signal.

It started in 2000. The Coen Brothers shot O Brother, Where Art Thou? in Mississippi during summer, when everything was, in Joel Coen’s words, “greener than Ireland.” They wanted a dusty Depression-era look. Cinematographer Roger Deakins tried every trick in the book: chemical treatments, lens filters, old darkroom techniques. Nothing worked. So they did something no one had done before: digitally scanned the entire film and recolored it frame by frame. Deakins spent 11 weeks turning lush greens into burnt yellows. No feature film had ever been entirely digitally color graded before.

Every major studio adopted the technique within a few years. And then the problems started.

Modern film cameras don’t capture what your eyes actually see. They intentionally record flat, grey, washed-out footage to capture as much detail as possible. The plan is for the color team to add vibrant color back in later. But the people doing that work stare at grey footage for weeks. Their eyes adjust. One filmmaker admitted he’d bring saturation up to 120% and feel satisfied, then realized the image still looked desaturated to everyone else. He had to crank it to 200% before it looked normal.

That’s just eye fatigue. The color draining also happens on purpose.

Muting colors hides bad CGI. If a computer-generated background doesn’t quite match the actors, draining the color smooths over the mismatch. The Lord of the Rings extended editions look flatter than the theatrical cuts for exactly this reason: the added scenes had less polished effects, so they were washed out to cover it.

Then streaming made it permanent. Bright colors look messy when video gets compressed for phones and laptops. Dull colors look consistent whether you’re watching on a 75-inch TV or a 6-inch phone screen. So studios color their movies for the smallest screen in the room.

Your brain registers the difference even if you can’t name it. Your eyes are wired to perceive warm, rich colors as closer and more immediate. Washed-out tones create emotional distance. When a studio drains color from a scene, they’re dampening the emotional signal the image sends to your brain.

Old film stock didn’t have this problem. Kodak and Fuji films had rich, punchy color built into the physical chemistry of the film itself. Each brand had a distinct look you could recognize. Digital cameras capture flat, neutral data by default. Getting that warm, vivid “film look” from digital requires skilled work that costs time and money. Most productions don’t invest enough of either.

Modern cameras can capture a wider range of colors than film ever could. The technology has never been better. The choices have never been lazier.

[AF Post @AFpost]

President Trump said that it was “not a good thing to do” to attack Iran “out of habit,” but he did it on behalf of “good allies” in the Middle East, naming “Israel” specifically.

Follow: @AFpost

[Billy Binion @billybinion]

Tricia McLaughlin complaining about an “egregious smear” is beyond rich. This is the same person who smeared Americans as “domestic terrorists” and pushed wild claims about immigrants that were repeatedly contradicted by video. All while collecting a taxpayer-funded paycheck.