Recent news articles on 3-D movies have mentioned that they can cause nausea and related symptoms. Some eye-health professionals blame that on a mismatch between eye focus and eye convergence (the amount that eyes must turn inward to aim both at a common point).

I have seen no such connection in my decades of experience in looking at stereo pairs of images, in creating them both photographically and digitally and in teaching others how to view them to extract the useful information they contain.

As anyone can see (no pun), either eye can focus even when the other is closed. Each eye finds its best focus by the same process used by both human photographers and autofocus cameras — focus in and out and pick the best setting. Convergence is a separate and independent process.

But what I have seen as a serious problem for 3-D movies is that viewers must carefully hold their heads “up straight” so that the line from one eye pupil to the other is parallel to the lines connecting matching points in the two images the eyes receive separately.

Old-time home stereo viewers accomplished that proper alignment of the pictures with the eyes by providing a notch for the nose and a “bumper” against the forehead. That doesn’t happen when pictures are on a screen shared with others.

My experience has shown that most persons usually hold their heads at some tilt, changing it occasionally to avoid a “crick in the neck.” Then, to merge two horizontally separated flat images into a single solid one, one eye must unnaturally look a little upward and the other downward.

Doing that for an hour or more is probably the real source of 3-D’s eyestrain problem. It’s a person problem that inventiveness won’t shoo away.

Richard B. Innes

Gorham

 

It’s time to tell the truth about Social Security

 

Many people are totally unaware of the truth behind Social Security, and that’s the way the president and Congress want to keep it.

The Supreme Court ruled that Social Security is no different than welfare or a pork barrel project, so at any time Congress can take the money from the trust fund and spend it how they wish!

Republican and Democrat politicians have already taken and spent a whopping $2.58 trillion from the Social Security Trust Fund, replacing the money with worthless and non-negotiable IOUs and jeopardizing the financial security of today and tomorrow’s senior Americans.

Our Social Security has been used to make the deficit appear smaller and on pork-barrel projects that get these career politicians re-elected year after year.

Now Congress wants to propose “saving” Social Security by cutting benefits, increasing the retirement age and raising taxes.

George W. Bush signed a totalization agreement with Mexico. This would entice illegal aliens from Mexico to remain in the United States for the 10 years it takes to vest for U.S. Social Security (versus 24 years in Mexico).

Unlike Mexico, the United States pays out far more to low-wage workers than they contribute to the system. If granted amnesty, illegal aliens from Mexico, having used fraudulent Social Security numbers, would be allowed to return home and have their spouses and dependents receive U.S. Social Security benefits they would not have been entitled to without a Totalization Agreement.

Contact our delegation and ask them to co-sponsor or introduce companion bills for the following: Savings for Seniors Act, the Social Security Benefit Guarantee Act and No Social Security for Illegal Aliens.

I hope they will respond. All of my telephone calls have been ignored.

Susan Kamuda

Arundel

 

Was best thing about hockey game really a fight?

 

After looking over the March 23 Sports section, it occurred to me why professional hockey lags behind the other professional sports in popularity.

Rather than highlight the artistry and athleticism of the sport, we get a photo of a hockey player about to punch a player from the opposing team. The caption used the words “mixing it up” in describing what is clearly a fight.

Similar conduct in any other sport results in ejection from the game and possible future suspension. In hockey, they sit for five minutes to rest up and do it again. To make matters worse, this particular game and fight occurred in front of 3,600 school children in attendance for this special event.

As a police officer, I have arrested people for less aggressive conduct.

Hockey is a physical sport, and fights have been part of it for decades; I get that. What bothered me the most was publishing a photo of an assault on the front page of the Sports section.

Wasn’t there any real sports action that took place during this game that might have been a better fit for the sports page rather than barbaric behavior? Shame on hockey and shame on the sports editor of this paper.

Steven Edmondson

Topsham

 

Put big flag at Fort Gorges? Here’s another ‘yes’ vote

 

Recently I read with interest a letter from Jake Sawyer regarding the placement of a large, well-lit American flag on Fort Gorges in Portland Harbor.

Mr. Sawyer felt it would be an honor not only to the harbor region, but also to all who arrive by ship or boat to Portland. I grew up on Willard Beach and spent part of the ’40s and all of the ’50s and ’60s in my boat cruising the Casco Bay area, either as a lobsterman or for pleasure.

It was not unusual to see many American flags being flown as one either entered the harbor or cruised among the islands. Starting with the Coast Guard base at Two Lights and then Fort Williams, Cushing Island and the military bases on the backshore of Peaks Island and Great Diamond Island were all on high points of land and easily seen as you cruised by each one.

The current placement of American flag stickers on everything from sports clothing and hats as well as football helmets is perfectly fine but certainly no substitute to seeing the real flag flowing in the breeze in all its glory.

We lost a son-in-law in Iraq, and flying the flag is also a way to honor him and all those who served or lost their lives in the military. I’m certain that is one of the things Mr. Sawyer had in mind with his suggestion. I find it an excellent idea and hope others will agree.

William L. Keller

Falmouth

 

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