SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the godfather-of-the-sexual-revolution dept.
Hugh Hefner, Playboy Magazine Founder and Star of Girls Next Door, Dies at 91
"Hugh M. Hefner, the American icon who in 1953 introduced the world to Playboy magazine and built the company into one of the most recognizable American global brands in history, peacefully passed away today [September 27] from natural causes at his home, The Playboy Mansion, surrounded by loved ones," a rep for the Playboy Enterprises founder said in a statement to PEOPLE.
[...] "My father lived an exceptional and impactful life as a media and cultural pioneer and a leading voice behind some of the most significant social and cultural movements of our time in advocating free speech, civil rights and sexual freedom. He defined a lifestyle and ethos that lie at the heart of the Playboy brand, one of the most recognizable and enduring in history. He will be greatly missed by many, including his wife Crystal, my sister Christie and my brothers David and Marston, and all of us at Playboy Enterprises," said Cooper Hefner, his son and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises.
By putting up his furniture as collateral for a loan and borrowing the rest from family and friends, Mr. Hefner published the very first issue of Playboy in December of 1953, which featured a nude Marilyn Monroe.
The same year, Hefner launched media and lifestyle company Playboy Enterprises, Inc., on which he served as a board member until the time of his death.
[...] The magazine became known for its articles as well as the beautiful women that graced its pages, with Hefner asking some of the world's greatest and most progress literary figures to write for him including, Hunter S. Thompson, John Updike, Ian Fleming, Joseph Heller, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Margaret Atwood, Jack Kerouac and Kurt Vonnegut.
Also at The New York Times, NPR, BBC (obituary), The Guardian, and Reuters.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday September 29 2017, @06:09AM (3 children)
Did you follow the link to see what the picture looked like? It's a lady in a hat looking back over her shoulder. True, the shoulder is bare, which is necessary to get a good range of tanned skin tones. Rounded surfaces handle light differently than surfaces that abruptly change direction, as clothing usually does. It's not more than *extremely* mildly erotic. And then less so than many women you can see on the street. She does have smooth skin and a nicely symmetrical face, which not everyone has, but this is as rare among men as it is among women. Perhaps someone with a skin disease would have been a better challenge for video processing, but IIRC at the time even handling a smooth gradation was quite a challenge.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by tfried on Friday September 29 2017, @07:12AM (2 children)
Did you read my post?
It's the origin of the image (which is a crop of a clearly soft-pornographic image, taken from a clearly soft-pornographic magazine) which is embarrassing, at the very least. It would be absolutely reasonable to be upset about it, if there was the slightest suspicion that the pick was intentional.
If you need a neutral sample of text, you don't pick a section from "Mein Kampf" or the "Communist Manifest", not even cropped and garbled. If you need a neutral image of a car, you don't take the one JFK was assasinated in. If you need a neutral audio-sample of a dialog, you don't take it from a porn-movie, even if the sample itself is harmless. If you need a neutral sample of a white substance for color-matching, you take MgO or wheat flour, not cocaine, even if it might serve the purpose just fine.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday September 29 2017, @04:04PM (1 child)
What the hell does the origin of something self contained matter? That strikes me as wholly irrelevant, so much so that while I read it in your post I couldn't believe that was your point.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by tfried on Friday September 29 2017, @07:57PM
A lot, if the choice of origin was intentional. Not at all, if the choice of origin was not.
In the case at hand, the choice of origin was not intentional, but that does need explaining, because it's not like the image is one-of-a-kind WRT to its purpose, and the origin is what it is.