AIRBRUSHING HISTORY

Altering images isn't new as this site proves. Absolute best denial that we did it on purpose and we did it on purpose in the same obfuscating paragraph, was from New York Times Magazine.

"The cover photograph in The Times Magazine on Sunday rendered colors incorrectly for the jacket, shirt and tie worn by Mark Warner, the former Virginia governor who is a possible candidate for the presidency. The jacket was charcoal, not maroon; the shirt was light blue, not pink; the tie was dark blue with stripes, not maroon. The Times's policy rules out alteration of photographs that depict actual news scenes and, even in a contrived illustration, requires acknowledgment in a credit. In this case, the film that was used can cause colors to shift, and the processing altered them further; the change escaped notice because of a misunderstanding by the editors."

The Image Science Group research focuses on digital forensics, image analysis, computer vision, and human perception.

Absolutely fascinating.

And Now, for something completely different

WoW Dancing - My all time favorite. So far, 4,630,831 views.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=066_q4DIeqk

And I thought Too Sexy was funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_oKaCL-OA8

Jimmy: The World of Warcraft Story
"Hey, Bitch. I don't wanna bind!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeUhSjuhQYE

What's the Press Coming to?

The former president of the Dallas Press Club is being sued, accused of rigging several prestigious journalism competitions. Elizabeth Albanese denies the accusations She was president of the Press Club August 2005 until March 2007.

The lawsuit was filed by the press club and the Press Club of Dallas Foundation.

At the center of the case is the question of whether Albanese rigged the Katie Awards, a contest for journalists and communications professionals in Texas, Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

Albanese won 10 Katie Awards from 2003-06, which is also the period in which she was active in organizing the competition. Earlier this year, press club members learned that Albanese couldn't name any of the judges involved from 2004-06. The club's leaders have concluded that no one judged them.

And then there is those other things to explain.

Albanese has been arrested in Texas and Virginia on charges of passing bad checks and in Maryland for fraud, theft and forgery, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

Press club members say she has claimed to be teenage graduate of the University of Texas, a Harvard Law School graduate and a former New York Times reporter. The Associated Press was unable to verify those claims.

Albanese was once described as "one of the most most honored journalists in North Texas." She even invented a rich husband who declared bankruptcy in 2003.

She had criminal records in three states. Sounds like she found just the right career.

Also see "Kiss Me, Katie"

FINALLY - Nov 30 - The Press Club of Dallas has dropped their lawsuit.

The Press Club decided to drop the lawsuit after concluding that it was a waste of money at a time when the club was trying to rebuild its reputation and fund scholarships.

They still want the awards back though. (As if they mean anything.)

Easy Life

July 6 - The Christian Science Monitor on "Al Gore's inconvenient tax" -

wants to replace the current payroll tax with a consumer tax on fossil-fuel use.

This "carbon tax" would, of course, raise the price of gasoline and home heating/cooling. And it would put the burden of generating the same level of federal revenues on consumers while reducing the tax burden on labor and capital (workers and employers). Unless the poor get a break on this consumption tax, it will hit them harder than wealthier folks.

Of course, it has nothing to do with the sale of Elk Hills Reserves to Occidental Petroleum under the Clinton administration for a bargain basement price tag of $3.65 billion.

Before the sale of Elk Hills, Algore controlled between $250,000-$500,000 of Occidental stock (he is executor of a trust that he says goes only to his mother, but will revert to him upon her death). After the sale, Gore began disclosing between $500,000 and $1 million of his significantly more valuable stock.

The Gore family history with Occidental Petroleum began with Gore, Sr. Two years after Gore Sr. was defeated in a bid for re-election to the Senate, he joined Occidental as a member of its board of directors and was rewarded with a $500,000 a year job working for an Oxy subsidiary.