Reddit Round-Up: Photoshop, Gender Biases when Rating Teachers, and Nuclear Reactors

Some interesting photoshop examples (EDIT on 2009-06-09: link is borked, my apologies). Who knows if they're real - maybe they were reverse photoshopped?

Apparently high school students like male physics teachers more, even when the numbers say something else.

Iran is starting computer tests for its budding nuclear reactor at Bushehr.

Airbrushing

When I was in high school I used Photoshop at a web design job. I worked with an older graphics guy who taught me not only basic graphics techniques, but also random things, like how to create a fake photo with a man's head on a woman's body. He did this with one of my photographs, enlarging my nose and chin to enhance the effect. I showed this fake photo to my friends, all of whom thought it was hilarious. To impress them, I secretly put their heads on different bodies of women. When I showed them their "womanized" versions, they all freaked out. I asked them why, and they said it was cool when it wasn't their photograph.

Airbrushing isn't new, but I don't see the "behind the scenes" examples very often. While browsing around today, I came across an airbrush example I've seen a few times. The link below contains a women in a bikini but no nudity, so it might be NSFW depending on your workplace. You'll need to mouse-over the photo for the effect.

http://homepage.mac.com/gapodaca/digital/bikini/bikini2.html

Another great example which is definitely safe for work is at:

http://homepage.mac.com/gapodaca/digital/blonde/blonde1.html

Sometimes I wonder if most humans are like my friends in high school, only we don't know that the media plays tricks on us all day long. Or maybe we're supposed to know?

PS My face on a woman's body is hotter than 20% of women, according to HotOrNot.com. I don't think people were rating the face, though. No, I'm not going to post the photograph here. Yes, I'll close the comments on this post if I have to.