MORNING INTELL: Obama Citizenship, Aging Reversed, Thanksgiving

BLOGOSPHERE NEWS:
November 27 2008



THE SCOOP:
* THANKSGIVING is for Thanks, Right?
* New Drug Reverses the Effects of Aging?
* 100s injured, dead in INDIAN Terrorist Attack
* Obama Citizenship Questions Continue
* Big Brother Alert
* Brainy Obama?

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HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

1. Turkey, Football, Dressing. Really, I didn't want to go anywhere anyhow: Roads, skies less full as Thanksgiving rush starts
   
2. The America-hating disease has spread like a brush fire upon the earth.
   America, the Blessing
   
3. Word wars: Most Americans prefer “Merry Christmas” over “Happy Holidays.”
   
4. Things To Be Thankful For In A Troubled World: The motto at the news networks may be, "If it doesn't bleed, it doesn't lead", but there's plenty of things to be thankful for today if you're in America.

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TWO STORIES FROM WIRED:

• IF You Think Social Security is in trouble now:
  Drugs Reveal Another Possible Cause of Aging: ""In principle, we now could have a way of reversing the effects of aging," said David Sinclair, a Harvard University gerontologist and co-founder of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, a company best-known for its development of an experimental drug called resveratrol."
  The government paying people until we're all 125? Maybe they'll start a lottery to see who gets Social Security after the age of 110.
• A Scientific Quandry:
  When Intelligent and Natural Design Collide: "On a recent flight to California, I found myself looking at man-made structures in the Nevada desert and wondering: did I really know, in a scientifically valid way, that they were artificial? Or was I simply resorting to the principles of Intelligent Design, which in other contexts I'm quick to discredit?"

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• Minnesota Senate Recount, Update IX
  "The Coleman campaign has just issued the following press release that confirms the nightmare scenarios sketched out by John Fund in his Wall Street Journal column today:"
  
  
• Gold to shoot through the roof? Citigroup: Gold Over $2,000, Massive Inflation, Depression, and Civil Disorder. Maybe Citigroup is just talking about their company-wide economic conditions?
  
  
• 125 Dead, 900+ wounded--and counting: TERRORISTS HOLD MORE THAN 100 HOSTAGE IN MUMBAI!
  
  
• Let the Hollywood Purge begin!
  PROP 8 MAFIA CLAIM ANOTHER VICTIM:

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OBAMA CITIZENSHIP ISSUES CONTINUE

1. It may be a "First Read" at NBC News, but only if you've not been looking for the last six months. Duo take Obama birth challenge to Court Hard to ignore all of the court cases--but the other networks continue to do so.
   
2. Kenyan Ambassador tries to explain away his recorded statement from a few days ago. He still declines to answer a simple question.
   Kenya: 'I don't know' if Obama born in U.S.
3. The Obama citizenship issue in one concise interview:
   Alan Keyes Tells Us Why He Questions Obama's Presidency
   
4. David Broder: "When I started covering the White House more than 50 years ago, I believed that the smarter a president was, the better he would be. That was wrong."
   Good Time For a Brainy President

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MEATY LINK FUNK GOODNESS

• BIG BROTHER ALERT:
  Border Agents Begin Using “Long-Range” RFID Scanners on ID Cards: "USA Today has a story on the new long-range RFID scanners reading ID cards as individuals drive toward the border."
  

  “By the time a car stops at the Customs booth, the agent will have the photos and information of everyone in the car. If a name is on a watch list or database, the person will be taken in for questioning."

  
  Long-range ID cards? While this might sound good for terror uses, it's potential for misuse by the government is high.

  “Once a particular individual is identified through an RFID tag, personally identifiable information can be retrieved from any number of sources and then aggregated to develop a profile of the individual.”

  
  
• Fauxtography for Dummies: Fauxtography For Dummies: Use PhotoShop, Catch Criminals. Interview with LAPD forensic photographer.
  
  
• All new for 2011, General Ford Cerberus Motors is proud to present The FannieCrat 3000, the first automobile designed by members of Congress for their adoring constituents. All new for 2011, GFCM presents the FannieCrat 3000 Luxury Sedan! It's a keeper!
  
  
• Lotsa LOLs: Terrorist Restless Leg Syndrome

by Mondo Frazier
images: dbkp file

Fauxtography 101: Use PhotoShop, Catch Criminals

Catching Criminals with Photoshop?
Interview with Jim Hoerricks, LAPD, On Forensic Photography
by Nathaniel Janis
Stinky Journalism

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Second in the Fauxtography Series

ALSO at DBKP:
* Fauxtography For Dummies: Forced Perspective Fauxtography
* John McCain on 9/11: Lapel Pin Fauxtography Claim is Faux
* Iranian Fauxtography: Now, THAT’s What I Call Iranian Fauxtography!

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Over the last few years, a "Fauxtography" epidemic has been steadily infecting the reporting done by many different news outlets. From the infamous Reuters Passion of the Dolls scandal in 2006, to the numerous fake Monster Pig photographs initially verified by the Associated Press and Fox News, it is clear we are living in an age when seeing is no longer believing.

Stinky Journalism's Nathaniel Janis recently had the chance to sit down with Jim Hoerricks--forensic analyst with the Los Angeles Police Department--to discuss ways to identify such photos when they appear, and other issues relating to digital photograph manipulation.

Nathaniel Janis: Could you describe what you do as a forensic video analyst for the Los Angeles Police Department's Scientific Investigation Division?
Jim Hoerricks

Jim Hoerricks: It's a pretty straightforward job description. As far as digital, analog, or any multimedia-type evidence goes, whether it be crime scene, CCTV footage, or audio recordings or surveillance that's done by officers - it comes through our office, and then it gets processed either for comparison or straight out for the media.

If they're looking for just a cell image to put on a flyer, or as part of an Amber Alert, there are a lot of different things to do with the video. After that's taken care of, the audio side needs to be clarified and cleaned up so you can hear what's going on. Finally, we may have to complete certain tasks like identifying a face, license plate, distributing the video to the media or a patrol unit; that sort of thing.

NJ: What would be one of your most common or typical objectives when you're looking at a video from a crime scene? What do you normally have to determine?

JH: We mainly focus on identification of an individual or an object; you know, did subject A do this? Is this subject A? Does the person in the video or the image match the person that we think did it? Or can we get a license plate? Or if we can't see the person's face, is there anything identifiable about the person or the object that we can get out there to the public, whether through the media or crime bulletins internal?

NJ: You've been significantly involved in many projects - including a book and a website - devoted to Adobe's Photoshop program. How did you begin working with the program, and what makes Photoshop and other digital photo applications so valuable and widely used as forensic tools?

Continue reading: Catching Criminals with Photoshop?


by Nathaniel Janis
Source: Catching Criminals with Photoshop?
image: Stinky Journalism

Fauxtography: Tricks for Recognizing Fauxtography

Look Mom, No Photoshop!
Fun Fauxtography Tricks You Can Try At Home
Just Don't Hoax the Media!
by Rhonda Roland Shearer

[ABOVE: Who needs Photoshop? The optical illusion, called "forced perspective," fools the eye and brain into wrongly interpreting objects that are large and far away, as small and near. After a glance, one quickly recognizes that the spray of water that appears to be shooting out of the soda can is actually a water fountain in the distance that was aligned just right by the photographer.]

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Now You Too Can Spot Fauxtography
First in a series

Who knew that optical illusions can be so diverse in the application of the principle called, "forced perspective?"

Click on the following link [A Perfect Shot] to go to the 12 images in the Stinky Journalism album that were collected from the Internet by Polish bloggers.

The album includes many clever variations of the theme that exploits the ambiguity of size cues in a two-dimensional image. An ant walking around the edge of the drinking cup is not alone. It is accompanied by what looks like a tiny flying helicopter--that is actually a full-size helicopter in the distance aligned just right. The eye and brain are confronted by conflicting information and continue to make the wrong guesses about the ant, cup and helicopter sizes.

The fundamental demand pressed by almost all 12 photos --Is the object near or far away? Since all the objects are flat in any photo, only certain spacial cues help us to properly interpret what we are "seeing" or what is "real.

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MORE investigative goodness at Stinky Journalism.

by Rhonda Roland Shearer
images: Stinky Journalism

Fake Pix: And Now for Some REAL Iranian Fauxtography

Iranian fauxtography? You want some real Iranian fauxtography?

From Iran - Dramatic Failure:

Iran was so proud of its rocket launch. It announced it to the world and then said it would put any Muslim satellite into space. Just one little problem. They can't get their rocket off of the ground safely.
Iran's attempt to launch a dummy satellite into orbit earlier this week was a "dramatic failure" that fell far short of the country's assertions of success, Reuters quoted a US official as saying on Tuesday.

Monkey in the Middle accompanied the above info with the photo at the top of the page.

You want Iranian fauxtography?

Well, do you punk?

by Mondoreb