What’s the chronology & order of the X-Men movies? How many timelines exist & how are they connected?
There are two timelines. Both timelines begin with the film X-Men: First Class, in 1962. Well, that's not quite true. Any scene set before 1973 is part of both timelines. So, the scenes at the beginning of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, such as Logan as a kid in the 1840s and the scenes of Logan as a POW in WWII in The Wolverine exist in both timelines.The split happens in the 1973 scenes of X-Men: Days of Future Past. When Wolverine comes back to 1973, from 2023, he changes the past in ways that result in most of the existing X-Men films not occurring as depicted. We see the ramifications of this in the final scenes, where he reawakens in 2023 to find Jean and Scott alive, at the mansion, this invalidating the best forgotten third X-Men film, X-Men: Last Stand.So, the new timeline starts with X-Men: First Class in 1962, followed by the 1973 scenes of X-Men: Days of Future Past, followed by X-Men: Apocalypse in 1983. There is then a long gap of unexplained events until we reach the final scene of X-Men: Days of Future Past in 2023. This is then followed by Logan, set in 2029.With the exception of scenes set in the past, the films X-Men, X-Men 2, X-Men: Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and The Wolverine no longer happened, or if they did happen, they happened in quite different ways, that we have not yet been told about.
Was the hitchcock movie the birds released originally in black and white?
Yes it was originally released in black & white on purpose. He wanted make it scarier that way plus due to techonlogy availabe at the time He could not have the real birds with the actors. He filmed the birds then projected it on a silver screen behind the actors.
Why are there white and black dots and specks in older movies?
Very old B&W movies were made when film was a lot grainier, that are the dots which actually made up the image. I don’t think that is what you are asking about. To be complete in answering, firstly I’ll mention that black scratch marks are when the negative film’s emulsion was scratched in handling usually in the camera, or anytime before or in the processing. White scratches are when the movie print is scratched before or during the processing of it.Then there are black dots, larger, even sometimes a blob, is ‘tar’ that is deposited on the print during processing when there is ‘goop’ or ‘dirt’ floating around within the chemical baths.White dots, sometimes even in clusters, is called ‘sparkle’ or ‘speckles’. The white light from the projector bulb is actually shining through the print where the emulsion is totally missing at that particular point (dot). That is caused when in the handling and/or processing of the print film it undergoes physical bumps and has missing emulsion at those points (bumps).
Why do black spots appear suddely in old movies?
The black spots I believe you're talking about are colloquially called "cigarette burns" and they're used to indicate the end of a reel of film. Formally, they're called "cue marks" or changeover marks". You can read all about them by following the link below.Cue mark
Did DC improve Superman by removing his underwear in Man of Steel, Batman v Superman and Justice League?
Definitely Yes.Reason being the “Underwear Over the Clothing” Thing was a mainstay of Victorian visuals of “heroes” and strongmen such as one might see in the Circus.Why Superheroes Wear Their Underwear on the OutsideProblem was … it just dripped of Tackiness.But it wasn’t unprecedented the move that they made.Even previous incarnations of Superman and even Batman and numerous other Superheroes leading up to Man of Steel have begun to “do away” with the tights so to speak.A great example of this is in Bruce Timm and his designs for Superman in “Superman the Animated Series”I remember watching in an interview of development of “Superman the Animated Series” (which was made by the same people that made “Batman the Animated Series”) that they purposely toned down in color the tights because otherwise they’d draw too much attention.And rightfully so because just from a purely aesthetics bright red underwear ontop of blue tend to make the RED stand out far more. In the above picture as you can see they’ve give Superman’s undies a darker hue in order to have it be less of a focus. The cape and the Symbol and his face are the main things you are looking at instead.The same can also be seen in how they cut back on accents of yellow in Batman the Animated Series.As you can see they’ve toned back the visual aesthetic color wise so that you’re more focused on the things that do stand out and need to matter. The 2nd from the left was from the final season of Batman the Animated Series and that was made at roughly the same time at Superman the Animated Series. The Blue accents are gone, the yellow is gone entirely, and its a much more economical look line wise for the series as a whole.Another good example of this principle can be shown in these 2 toys. Just ask yourself “where do you���re eyes get drawn to”.Yeah … that’s right … the crotch.
How would you explain the four stages of abstract reasoning presented in the movie "Inside Out"?
I have not seen the movie but I found this in an article - http://www.businessinsider.com/w..."They made that upImagination LandCall it a cheap shot to say they "made up" imagination, but hear us out. In 2013, scientists put subjects inside an MRI scanner to see which parts of their brains lit up during imagination. Several key structures seemed to be involved, but ultimately the research hit the same dead end that a lot of imagination research hits.We just don't know how we do it.Perhaps that is the biggest complaint one can lob at the movie's treatment of imagination. Psychology doesn't know how imagination works well enough to depict it so fantastically. There is a silver lining. When Joy, Sadness, and their sidekick Bing Bong — Riley's imaginary friend — enter Imagination Land's off-limit zone of Abstract Thought, they lose their complexity in four stages. By the fourth stage, the three characters have been reduced to colored amorphous blobs. As we age into our teenage years, we really do gain the ability to think more abstractly than when we were kids. We think about concepts and ideas rather than just objects. Herr admits, "I think that was one case where it was probably more artistic than it was brain science."But then again, it is Pixar. A little artistic license is to be expected."
"Impressionism" in music(and painting-?): nominees for most exemplary composers/compositions of this period?
First of all, I have to correct a source of occasionally inaccurate information. Debussy's 'Jeux' actually uses a LARGER orchestra than Ravel's 'Daphnis et Chloë'. True, it might be used more subtlely (and, therefore, less obviously), but smaller it AIN'T. I know this because I have been involved in performances of both. Secondly, Fauré was most definitely a Romantic composer, being a contemporary of Tchaikovsky, Massenet and Dvořák. I too love Griffes' music and would suggest 'The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan' and 'The White Peacock'. A little-known composer was the Russian Nikolai Tcherepnin (father of Alexander Tcherepnin). An exact contemporary of Rakhmaninov, his music infuses Skryabinesque exoticism with Ravelian 'impressionism' (not a word I particularly like - and Debussy HATED it). The ballet scores 'Le pavilion d'Armide' and 'Narcisse et Echo' are so fragrant you can almost smell them. Also try the tone poem 'Le royaume enchanté'. There were various contemporaries of Debussy's and Ravel's who have become completely overshadowed by them (not always justifiably). One of these was Florent Schmitt, whose 'La tragédie de Salomé' not only sounds very impressionistic but also looks forward to the rhythmic complexities of Stravinsky (this, before Stravinsky had written any of his famous trilogy of ballets 'The Firebird', 'Petrushka' or 'The Rite of Spring').
Is there any open source software to detect nudity in pictures?
Disclaimer - I work at the company that developed this APIYou should check out NetSpark's Nude Detect API, which delivers a highly accurate confidence rating for images with nudity or minimal dress. For a religiously conservative market that would not tolerate accidental exposure you would probably want to limit content to what is rated up to a 1% confidence rating.It is available here on Mashape to test out using our free basic subscription (up to 5K requests per month) https://market.mashape.com/netsp...There is the capability for this to be adapted to perform the inspection on video instead of still images, and you can contact the developers for a custom quote.
What do you see when you stare into the dark? (Optional) Why does it sometimes move?
Let’s answer the second part first:Our neurons have evolved to only produce a response to a strong stimulus for a few seconds, then they gradually reduce their response to it. When the stimulus suddenly goes away, the brain detects the OPPOSITE signal.In the visual system, seeing a bright colored image for maybe 10 seconds, then suddenly shutting your eyes produces an afterglow that’s the complement of the original color.So - if you sit in a darkened room with your computer screen showing a nice bright red background - stare at the screen for slow count of 20…then close your eyes firmly…you’ll see a pale blue (cyan) afterglow because cyan is the complementary color of red.Now, this image is fixed in the neurons at the back of your retina - and moving your eyes around (while closed) makes it look like this fuzzy glow is moving in front of your gaze wherever you look.The effect gradually fades away over 10 to 20 seconds.You don’t even have to close your eyes. You can get the same effect by staring at a white surface instead. This is called an Afterimage (this link points to the Wikipedia article that shows a few good examples of “The Inverted Flag Illusion”.The resulting images are very blurry because our eyes continually jiggle in their sockets in order to increase the resolution of your visual experience. Hence the ‘burned in’ after-image is very blurry.I think this explains all of the phenomena you’re seeing.So - as to the first part of your question: What do *I* see when I close my eyes? Well, it depends entirely on what I was looking at right before I closed my eyes.