March 11, 2005
Hot sink
I'm a pretty untutored cartoonist, so when I am actually called upon to draw something I've never drawn before -- like, say, a bathroom sink -- I like to look at some pictures so I can solidify the image in my mind. Thus it came to pass that I was doing a Google image search on the word "sink" this afternoon at work. Well, the fifth hit on the search results page, even with "Moderate SafeSearch" on, was not what you would call safe for work. (In case the Google search results change, here's a link to the really, really, really unsafe for work full-screen version of the unexpected image and the page on which it is featured, the Ass of the Week Desktop.)
Suffice it to say I will probably not be using that image as a model for any cartoons in the near future.
Posted by Francis at 12:29 AM | TrackBackAnd that's not even a porn site.
Perhaps that's why Moderate Safe Search didn't block it. Or rather, I'd think that if, in fact, Moderate Safe Search were at all useful.
In truth, I never use Safe Search, because I don't tend to image-search in public places, and because I'm not offended by nudity. So when I was looking for pictures of "Illegal", "Immoral", and "Fattening", I made the mistake of Image-Googling for "immoral". Some pictures of protests ("Segregation is Immoral" for instance), but of course, a lot of nudity, a lot of it Japanese. (There may be some sort of anime porn with that title; it's hard to tell.)
But the semi-weird thing is that if you do the same search with Moderate Safe Search on, the first seven pictures are the same, six of them Japanese nudity. The really weird thing is that, without MSS, the eighth image is (worksafe) abstract art, but the eighth with MSS is this non-work-safe image (from, I think, a French art film), and the abstract art is ninth. Frankly, I think there's more nonworksafe material in the first twenty hits with MSS on than with it off.
So I have no idea how that thing is supposed to work, but clearly it doesn't.
Posted by: Lance at March 11, 2005 02:36 AMHowdy Francis,
It's your old pal Rich English from the Santa Fe days. Just picked up a copy of your book (I work in a book store) and it flat out KILLS! Drop me a note if you find yourself with the time. Also, chekc out the magazine I write for, Modern Drunkard. www.drunkard.com.
Cheers.
Posted by: Rich at March 11, 2005 12:31 PMAbout a year ago, G was doing some research on stereotypes and needed "generic" images of individuals from a set of easily sterotyped categories. For reasons passing imagination, the categories that she and her research partner had selected were homosexuals, fat people, and cheerleaders. She'd never used Google image search before, so I had to explain to her what she was getting herself into. It wasn't pretty.
Posted by: Scott at March 11, 2005 01:47 PM