Bluemerle

Michelle Malkin has linked to From the Pen, who revealed the existence an undoctored version of this


disconcerting photo of Condi Rice with glowering Zombie-eyes, appearing on the USA Today Website.

Why the doctoring? One very plausible explanation offered by Malkin reader "Pete", is that a photo enhanced for use in the newsprint version of USA today was used on the website.
This same reader proffered the idea that perhaps use of unsharp mask had been used to heighten detail, giving an odd effect to the photo.
However, I am certain that unsharp mask, applied globally to the image, does not account for the odd look of the USA TODAY image. The eyes received selective treatment for enhancement. The eyes were selectively masked and colored pixels altered to transparent white.

Usharp mask applied globally produces this image.


I agree the doctored version of the photo was probably intended for use in print. Newsprint is sort of grey, and this technique is frequently used to keep eyes from looking too dark.

One can only guess whether USA TODAY's use of the photo on the website was an unintentional editing mistake, or a small but deliberate prank.


UPDATE: USA Today has replaced the offending altered photo, and included this editorial note:

The photo of Condoleezza Rice that originally accompanied this story was altered in a manner that did not meet USA TODAY's editorial standards. The photo has been replaced by a properly adjusted copy. Photos published online are routinely cropped for size and adjusted for brightness and sharpness to optimize their appearance. In this case, after sharpening the photo for clarity, the editor brightened a portion of Rice's face, giving her eyes an unnatural appearance. This resulted in a distortion of the original not in keeping with our editorial standards.

It was a given that the eyes had been altered independent of the rest of the image, but USA today isn't even pretending this was a benign mix up of an image headed for newsprint with the website. I'm still on the fence about whether it was a sloppy mistake or a juvenile prank, but I'm glad USA Today got busted.

FWIW, I'm a long time user of photoshop, and It's obvious to me nothing was "brightened" or "sharpened" except the eyes; and even then, sharpening/unsharp mask does not account for the change. The whiteness was more likely from a levels adjustment, and of the eyes alone.

Michelle Malkin has more.

A blacknificent squirrel




Magic-size quantum dots may replace light bulbs, light up the future - Science Daily

As a result, the light produced by the quantum dots looks more nearly like the “full spectrum” reading lights now on the market which produce a light spectrum closer to that of sunlight than normal fluorescent tubes or light bulbs. Of course, quantum dots, like white LEDs, have the advantage of not giving off large amounts of invisible infrared radiation unlike the light bulb.

Upside - Paint a Wall of Light! Downside - Useless for eazy-bake oven snacks.

Would be made out of Jello.

I'm still staying off the Golden-gate bridge.

A product description on the Web site of Jaycar Electronics, a major Australian importer of toy, says: "Grab him by the neck and he will squawk and cluck like mad, flapping his wings and feet wildly as if he is really being choked."

But Michael Beatty, a spokesman for the Queensland state branch of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said the toy was "grossly irresponsible" and sent the wrong message to young children.

Also under fire -

Lizard slurping. Which sends an even worse message.

BBC NEWS:
"Norway rats can supposedly swim up to 600m but, to our knowledge, this is the first record of a rat swimming hundreds of metres across open water."

Aftenposten Norway, Norwegian news in English

Moose Attack Moose Statue
A family in the coastal Telemark town of Bamble had erected a statue of a moose in their garden, but a pair of the real thing apparently didn't approve."



Woo, don't know my own strength

And only off by 2,333 years. Impressive.

Odoevsky’s sc-fi novel “Year 4338”, written in 1837, remarked on the peculiar habits of corresspondence in the future. You'd think he was later reincarnated as Al Gore.

“Houses are connected by means of magnetic telegraphs that allow people who live far from each other to communicate. . .”

According to the artlicle linked above, "Odoevsky suggested every household would publish a kind of daily journal or newsletter and distribute it among selected acquaintances."

“We received a household journal from the local prime minister, which among other things invited us to his place for a reception,” one of Odoevsky’s characters tells a friend.

“The thing is that many households here publish such journals that replace common correspondence. Such journals usually provide information about the hosts’ good or bad health, family news, different thoughts and comments, small inventions, invitations to receptions.”

And saayyyy, he gets even predicts Dorkafork's new job at INDC Journal.

“The job of publishing such a journal daily or weekly is carried out by the butler. It is done very simply: receiving an order from the masters, he makes a notice of what they tell him, then make copies by camera obscura and sends them to the acquaintances.”

Those cliquey bloggers.

Really FREAKY, MAN.

Goldstein is the I-ching. The sum of all wisdom. With a prolix hint of menace.

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p.s. This is actually funny if you watched the pilot of ABC's LOST.