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Post by dgriffin on Nov 11, 2008 16:54:53 GMT -5
I found this on Foreign Policy Magazine's site. Interesting political fakery. Friday Photo: Kim Jong Il photoshop fakeryFri, 11/07/2008 - 5:27pm The BBC is reporting that the following photograph of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, released earlier this week, may be a fake:  From the above distance, everything looks fine. It's just Dear Leader, the paragon of health, inspecting the troops as normal. But zoom in, the BBC found, and a few inconsistencies raise red flags:  Maybe North Korea has stolen CNN's hologram technology? On a serious note, the inconsistencies in the photograph raise the question of whether Kim is in fact incapacitated, or even dead. The latest speculation is that Chang Sun-Taek, Kim's brother-in-law, is running the show. But nobody really knows for sure. blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/10251
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Post by clarencebunsen on Nov 11, 2008 19:23:01 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2008 20:19:21 GMT -5
I would rather see a photo of him standing in front of a firing squad. I'd love to see his knees buckle as a hood is placed over his head. He'd probably cry like a baby.
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Post by dgriffin on Nov 11, 2008 23:17:41 GMT -5
CB, that's pretty interesting. And I was actually more intrigued by the photo effects angle of the story than the political side. But in regard to the latter, what often makes little sense to us living in a democracy, can be terrifically important to those enmeshed in a paranoid dictatorship. Back to the photography, yes, the compression explanation makes sense. So does the curvature of the low wall, and I notice a slight dip in the contour line of heads in the wide group view; either the Chinese like to line up with the short guys in the middle, or the group is arranged in a slightly concave arc. The short version of what he said about the black line seems to be, "Who knows?" Regarding the leg shadows, yes, that makes sense. But it's interesting the shadows don't appear identical between the wide view and the closeup. I wonder why. By the way, I had to chuckle at this: "Farid calculates that only a few inches of background difference would suffice ..." Makes me wonder if he really set up a calculation to figure that out or if he more quickly took his kids outside in the late afternoon and tested out his theory by having them stand against a wall. Hahahaha. It reminds me of an engineering story of dubious credibility. Young civil engineers in Albany were busy trying to calculate the exact center of New York State in the 19the century when a an old surveyor came into the office. After listening to them discuss the complicated mathematics they might use, and the days of calculations the project would take, he offered his solution. At first they laughed, but after a short discussion, they agreed his idea was the simplest. They pasted a map of New York on a board, cut out the shape of the state, and then moved it around on a nail head until it balanced.  |
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Post by Ralph on Nov 12, 2008 1:05:34 GMT -5
I have to chuckle about the whole thing. The large group photo and the small photo they show as being "examined" are not the same to begin with. Look at the soldiers standing next to him, not even the same uniforms!!! Two totally different pics!  |
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Post by dgriffin on Nov 12, 2008 7:33:23 GMT -5
I have to chuckle about the whole thing. The large group photo and the small photo they show as being "examined" are not the same to begin with. Look at the soldiers standing next to him, not even the same uniforms!!! Two totally different pics! That's right, Ralph. The wide shot published by FP Magazine is not the same wide shot that appears on the SciAm site referenced by CB. Of course, even if the long shot and close-up were admittedly different photos, one could still question what happened to the black horizontal line, why the shadows differ, etc. Although, the argument gets weaker. I wonder how many Kim Jong Il watchers there are in the world, other than the intelligence organizations. Hard not to agree with Kracker's sentiment. It's fascinating to consider that one man (Jong Il's father) could put together the huge and powerful organization necessary to take a nation hostage and run it. And that he could keep the other dogs around him at bay, remain at the top and then pass the reins to his son. Or, for that matter, that his son can continue to do the same. The politics must be a careful balancing of playing one faction against another while remaining in control of all of them. But eventually, capitalism will no doubt prevail, as it has everywhere else in the world. |
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