Reuters faking photos

Posted on Aug 10, 2006

Via LGF

The photo here is reproduced below

Notice how the pattern repeats in the cloud at the top?

That’s not the only thing that repeats: Here is a close-up of the lower-left corner of the same photo.

The top red rectangle is just a copy/paste of the lower; and it repeats all the way to the top.

The photo has been doctored, quite badly.
By the photographer? Editor? Reuters? Yahoo?

UPDATE: According to YNet news, Reuters admits altering Beirut photo and posts what it calls a ‘corrected’ version

image

and commenter {jeff} provides the link to Yahoo’s mea culpa. (Link seems to be broken)

High School Memories, Present-Day News

Posted on Nov 5, 2005

When I started my senior year of high school, I had a full schedule; though 1 of my ‘classes’ was as a student helper in a beginning Computer Science class.

Which basically meant that I effed around on the computer all day.

This was in the early 80′s and our computers consisted of 3 terminals (2 teletype & 1 with a monochrome monitor). We also had 3 card-punch machines on which we did our coding for our COBOL programs, to free up the terminals for the BASIC programmers.

We eventually did get 4 Atari 800s for the class.

About two weeks into the school year, I was offered a part-time position at the Patent & Trademark Office via the school’s Cooperative Office Education program.

Which meant, if I dropped two of my classes, I could be out of school by noon to be at the PTO by 1:00 and get practical experience in the real world.

I didn’t have to drop the CompSci student helper class, but I did drop my Accounting course & my Business Math course.

I was damn glad I got to drop the accounting class. The first day of class our teacher said “OK, class, how do you spell ‘accounting?’ Everyone together: A, C, C…”

Oh. My. God. We’re freaking 18-years old, fer chrissakes!

I wasn’t happy dropping the math class, cuz the teacher was kind of freaky-cool. He always wore the same black MIB/Blues Brothers suit and tie, except for St. Patty’s Day when he wore the same style of suit in green. He also had this long black/going grey beard and bald-topped head with a crown of black/grey hair.

His class was always popular because he claimed to be able to hypnotize people. One day he hypnotized my class into thinking that we couldn’t open our eyes. I guess it kinda worked, I convinced myself that I couldn’t.

He also was a Buddhist and rumor was that he once freaked out on a student who had killed a fly in his class.

Anyway, I was surfing through the local NBC affiliate news webpage and ran across this story:

Two Fairfax County Men Face Child Porn Charges

George Bishop, 46, is from Chantilly, Va. Detectives began their investigation after they got a complaint that Bishop allowed teenage boys to come to his house, drink alcohol and take illegal drugs.
Detectives said they searched Bishop’s house and found evidence against him and another man, 66-year-old Richard Evans, of Annandale, Va.

Emphasis added.

I was IMing with a high school buddy, sent him the link & he confirmed it: The hair & beard are completely white now, but that’s my high school Business Math teacher!

Wictory Wednesday

Posted on Sep 8, 2004

My first Wictory Wednesday!

Two requests for both all my readers:

1) Volunteer

and/or

2) Donate

to the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign.

& if you live in Illinois, remember to vote eary and vote often!

The Wictory Wednesday blogroll:

Patriot Paradox
Flyover Country
Right Wing Crackpot
Davidson’s Law
Pennsylvanian in Exile
Curiouser and Curiouser
Random Thoughts
Civil Commotion
Truth, Lies & Common Sense
Jilly M
Southern Conservatives
Bowling for Howard Dean
The Trimblog
Left Coast Conservative
All The Right Stuff
The Vatican of Liberalism
American Liberty Journal
Ben’s World
Red, White And Right
Random Numbers
Blogging For Bush (unofficial blog)
MySearchForTruth
Miller’s Time
Democrats for Bush
Apologies Demanded
The Daily Diatribe
Kilabe’s Hive
Transcended.net
The Black Republican
AlphaPatriot
Bush-Cheney 2004 (unofficial blog)
Army of One
mu·si·cal·i·ty
Pardon My English
Slublog
*2Flower* To You
Right Wing Ruminations
Chance Clay
Something to Cry About
My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
Malarchuck Rants & Raves
Krotchety Kegler
West Virginia for Bush
Argghhh!
Proud Veterans
The Right Side
Neophyte Pundit
Feste…a foolsblog
Matt’s Rants
The Ole Miss Conservative
The Jogging Blogger
Small Town Veteran
Matt Margolis
The Rinse Cycle
King of Fools
DANEgerus
Ryne McClaren
Slings and Arrows
The Templar Pundit
Patriot Blog
Miss O’Hara
William Webb
The Permanent Revolution
Dagney’s Rant
Ramblings of a Jackhole
Conservative Eyes
Joshua’s Place
Opinion Times
Viking Pundit
BIRD
CaribPundit
La diosa del lago
Calblog
Stars ‘n Stripes
Confessions of a Political Junkie
Clearing Datum
Reagan Country
Patriots for Bush
The (vast) Right Wing Conspiracy
Pop Politics
My Little Corner of the World
Urth:The Drowned Land
SarGardoon
My Pet Jawa
BushBlog.us (unofficial blog)
Jarhead
ExPostFacto
Small Town Veteran
Avoiding Evil
Drink this…
Dummocrats.com
Right on Red
BUSH over Kerry
PoliPundit
Deep Thoughts…or not?
Tomfoolery of the Highest Order
Marlo’s Musings
RightGuys.net
Louisiana Conservative
Rizzay’s Ramblings
Back and Forth
Imaginary Conversations and Random Thoughts
The Coliseum
Nuts and Dolts
Everything I Know Is Wrong
Bush 2004 (unofficial site)
TryOnTheGlasses.com
On the Right Track
My Domestic Church
Boots and Sabers
JPerspective.Com
Ohio for Bush
Mediocre but Unexciting
Pencil In Your Hand
All-encompassingly
Resistance is futile!
Winning Again!
Right Wing Drummer
The SmarterCop
Alamo Nation
The Patriette
a_sdf
Jim “Big Dog” Gerkin’s Weblog
Wisconsinites for Bush ‘04
Passionate America
Sneakeasy’s Joint
Backcountry Conservative
eTalkingHead.com
Blogged & Dangerous
BatesLine
J. Alexander Lollie
This is War.info
OkieMinnie Me
Stephen Blythe
Mark Kilmer
RobBernard.com
Clay Calhoun
The Politicker
Conservative Dialysis
The Galvin Opinion
Quotes, Thoughts, and other Ramblings
Right-Wing & Right Minded
Heathblog
Election Projection
Right Wingin-It
Mind of Mog
asisaid.com
Joefish’s Freshwater Blog
A Rice Grad
The World of Tomorrow
The Countertop Chronicles
Confederate America
Brain Shavings
Viewpoint Journal
watersblogged!
Go Dubya!
Dingo’s Calzones
Entropy Manor
The Fighting Gamecock
Aaron’s Rantblog
sisu
I am Right
Boycott the Left
The Irish Lass
Jarhead Journal
She Who Will be Obeyed
The Longhorn Mafia
Spot On
Peace for Our Time
epollarity
Between the Coasts
Further Right Than Middle
Freedom of Thought
Stanistan.com
The Commons
The Hedgehog Report
The Physics Geek
Erika for President
Nickspace
Jeremy Kissel
The Michigan Partisan
North Georgia Dogma
Polish Immigrant
Strike Thee With Curses
The Chapin Nation
Left and Right
The Hedgehog Blog
Blogs for Bush
Chuck’s Daily Blog
Eternal Rebels
Planet Parmasan
Six Meat Buffet
Brandon Speaks
Pennsylvania for Bush
TheDanPage.com
Democrats Give Conservatives Indigestion
Coldheartedtruth
Down Range
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Gore Strikes Again!

Posted on Jun 25, 2004

Yahoo! News – Gore Says Bush Lied About Iraq to Push for War

Gore also accused the Bush administration of working closely “with a network of ‘rapid response’ digital Brown Shirts who work to pressure reporters and their editors for ‘undermining support for our troops.”‘

So, from Jessica’s Well via WizBang, Left & Right has applied for membership into:

Remembering September 11, 2001

Posted on Sep 11, 2003

A list of those murdered on September 11, 2001

I didn’t lose any family or friends that day, though I know some who did and several members of my immediate family were close enough to the danger that I worried for their safety.

First, some links. There are much better writers than me.

Michele from A Small Victory gives us

From The Mudville Gazette: The story of Rick Rescorla, Corish-born American hero. Rick Rescorla served in Vietnam and was a hero at the Battle of Ia Drang Valley in November, 1965 (Lt. Rescola is pictured on the cover of the book written about that battle; We Were Soldiers Once… And Young). He was also an employee of Morgan Stanley, was the last person out of the Towers when they were bombed in 1993 and assisted in the evacuation of the Towers on September 11, 2001, his final act of heroism. More than 2600 employees of Morgan Stanley owe their lives to Rick Rescorla, who perished when the South Tower collapsed.
There is an online petition to have Rick Rescorla awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Mine is the 20,112th signature.

People who knew Rescorla note that all this is exactly what he wouldn’t want.

He shunned public praise for his past heroism, kept his war photos and medals in a closet, and told his wife he didn’t want to see the Mel Gibson movie based on “We Were Soldiers” when it came out. To the friends he left behind, his death made a kind of cosmic sense on a day when the universe was out of order: The right man in the right place at the right time. He left in a blaze of glory. With no parade. Rescorla was a man who didn’t need to be reminded of the high price of freedom.

However we do

Some survivors were still in the North Tower when it collapsed.

A tribute to the firemen who were killed, and a gallery.

Voices of September 11th is an advocacy group providing resources and support to victims’ families, survivors and all those impacted by the terrorist attack on September 11.

Galleries:
The Digital Journalist
The New York Times
James Nachtwey

2 coincidences that day:

#1 – my brother and I had traded emails on September 10th about the relative safety on airliners compared to automobiles. My theory is that, since most airline accidents occur during takeoff & landing (basically the first and last MILE of a trip; in-flight accidents are rare), comparing accidents per mile between airliners and autos is overstating the safety of airliners. For instance, your chances of fatality flying from New York to DC are roughly the same as your chances flying New York to LA.
My brother responded that my theory was BS, but interesting. I was preparing my response and reading the Washington Times online when the boss came into my office to tell me that 2 planes had hit the Towers.

#2 – The Washington Times article I was reading:
Americans on Palestinian Terrorism
Frank Luntz, September 11, 2001

Imagine for a minute that a popular restaurant in Manhattan’s Times Square was blown to bits by a terrorists bomb. Would the American public demand from the Bush administration an immediate and aggressive effort to prevent similar attacks from occurring in the future? Or would Americans prefer a wringing of hands so as not to perpetuate a “cycle of violence” or “inflame” an already volatile and dangerous enemy?

The answer is obvious.

(The Times no longer has the article online, but I printed it out and read it every so often.)

My first thought after hearing about the planes hitting the Towers was of my sister. She works in Rutherford, NJ, but her company’s main offices are in midtown Manhattan, and at the time was going there often. As well as going to retail stores, one of which was in the World Trade Center (but not the Towers, one of the other WTC buildings. It later turns out she was at that store the Tuesday before. Mine would be a different story if we were remembering 9/4/01. Thankfully, none of the employees of that store were hurt.) She was not answering the phone in her office and I could not get ahold of her on her cellphone. I left several messages on both and she later called back from her office. She had been late to a meeting and wondered why everyone in the parking lot was staring at lower Manhattan. She didn’t have time to look.

When I heard that the Pentagon had been hit and there was still a missing plane in the air, possibly headed for the White House, I started worrying about my brother, who worked in the 1600 block of K Street, 3 blocks from the White House. I was able to reach him on his cellphone, he was already heading home and was miles away from work. I was talking to him when the north tower collapsed.

After hearing that air traffic had been shutdown, my next thoughts were of my Mom. She was on vacation in Mexico and was due to fly back that afternoon. I called her to see if she had checked with the airline on rescheduling her flight. She had been busy packing, hadn’t had the TV on and didn’t know about the attacks. She turned on CNN and watched the horror, asking about my sister and brother. I told her they were both OK and both were heading home. She wasn’t able to get a flight home until Saturday.

Our office stayed open until early afternoon, then my boss told me to go home.

Throughout it all, I was horrified and angry, but it didn’t really hit me until later that day. I was going to band practice (I knew we wouldn’t be practicing, but I couldn’t stay home in an empty house) and was passing by an elementary school. The kids from the neighborhood were all by the side of the street, waving American flags & holding signs. I finally started to get choked up. Then, the local classic rock station started playing Ray Charles, America the Beautiful. I completely lost it and had to pull over. The grief of the entire day finally overwhelmed me.

It still hurts to think of that day, but it NEEDS TO HURT. We can’t forget, we can never forgive. I have links to galleries of pictures from that day, I look at them every so often, especially when I hear of someone saying we should “get over it.” We shouldn’t get over it. Because it’s NOT OVER. The actions we have taken since that day are justified.

What else should we do? Cry, grieve, bury our dead (what’s left of some of them, if anything), build our hideous memorials and go about our business, waiting for the next attack?
The answer is obvious.
Let’s Roll!