
Brian May completes stereoscopic 'devil cards' collection - YeGoblynQueenne
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/oct/28/brian-mays-stereoscopic-devil-cards-diableries-collection-complete
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aasasd
BTW, regarding stereoscopy:

> _What most film histories leave out is that the Lumière Brothers were trying
> to achieve a 3D image even prior to this first-ever public exhibition of
> motion pictures. Louis Lumière eventually re-shot L 'Arrivée d’un Train with
> a stereoscopic film camera and exhibited it (along with a series of other 3D
> shorts) at a 1934 meeting of the French Academy of Science. Given the
> contradictory accounts that plague early cinema and pre-cinema accounts,
> it's plausible that early cinema historians conflated the audience reactions
> at these separate screenings of L'Arrivée d’un Train. The intense audience
> reaction fits better with the latter exhibition, when the train apparently
> was actually coming out of the screen at the audience. But due to the fact
> that the 3D film never took off commercially as the conventional 2D version
> did, including such details would not make for a compelling myth._

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madaxe_again
I saw a load of these for sale earlier this year, at a flea market in a tiny
village in France. Stereoscopes come up surprisingly frequently, and they’re
usually set up with 19th c. pastoralism or pornography. This one was set up
with these “devil cards”, although I didn’t know them for what they were, and
wasn’t prepared to drop €800 for the (probably incomplete) set. Ended up
buying a box of collodion plates from Indochina in the 1870s instead, which
I’ve scanned and sent to Getty for their archives.

It scares me how much history is slipping through our fingers, how much is
already lost.

~~~
napolux
> It scares me how much history is slipping through our fingers, how much is
> already lost.

And with digital, this is even worse.

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mcv
Despite Brian May being one of the greatest guitar legends ever as well as a
professor in astrophysics, I can't help but feel like stereoscopy might be his
biggest passion of all.

During the Pluto fly-by, he also provided stereoscopic images of Pluto, which
help you get a great 3D feel for Pluto.

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mkl
May is not a professor, but does have a PhD in astrophysics.

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ColinWright
For those who are confused by this comment, a brief note.

In many (but not all!) countries, "Professor" is a job title - it's a position
you hold. You are appointed to be a professor in a department, or in an
institution.

In contrast, a "PhD" is a qualification. You register with an appropriate
institute or organisation, you do the necessary work, you go through the
required assessment, and you are awarded the qualification. This is muddled a
little by some institutions awarding "Honorary Doctorates", recognising that a
body of work done by someone would qualify them for the status of the degree.

So it's possible to have a PhD and not be a professor, and it's possible to be
a professor without having a PhD. Brian May has a PhD, but is not a professor.

In some places the distinction isn't so clear, precise, or respected, but
broadly, that's the difference.

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0xcde4c3db
I didn't see any indication of this being the case for Dr. May, but people are
often confused about this when non-professors teach college/university-level
courses. In this case they typically have another title such as "lecturer",
"instructor", or "fellow". This became a minor issue during the 2008
Presidential campaign with Obama's claim of being a "Constitutional law
professor"; he did not hold a professorship and his formal title was "senior
lecturer".

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teh_klev
I think the Guardian article has a wee mistake. They report that:

" _For nearly 30 years, May has attempted to collect all 182 cards. He nearly
made it in 2013, publishing a lavish book with his fellow obsessives Denis
Pellerin and Paula Fleming that featured 180 of the cards. This week the book
will be republished with a crucial update: the missing two cards._ "

In the description for the book itself[0]:

" _When first published in 2013, this book featured all but two of the 184
scenes in the series._ "

[0]: [https://www.diableries.co.uk/about-the-
book/](https://www.diableries.co.uk/about-the-book/)

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coldcode
When you have time and money to pursue a hobby, its amazing what kind of cool
things one can collect. The guy who created Powerpoint retired in the early
80's and devoted a lot of time to the history of the concertina.

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hanoz
Is that _binary_ being drawn in La Loterie Infernale?

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teddyh
I’m pretty sure that rightmost number is either a 3 or a 5.

“ _And I thought I saw a 2_ ”

— Bender, Futurama, _A Head In The Polls_ (1999)

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tomcooks
Just in time for Halloween promo, how timely.

