Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/167624378?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Iraq emerges from war a society divided by sect (AP)
BAGHDAD ? The sounds of cars honking, shoppers shuffling and children laughing and playing drums fill the air in Hurriyah, a Baghdad neighborhood where machine gunfire and death squads once kept terrified residents huddled in their darkened homes.
But normalcy has come at a price: Few Sunnis who were driven from what was once a religiously mixed enclave have returned five years after Hurriyah was the epicenter of Iraq's savage sectarian war. With Shiite militias still effectively policing the area, most Sunnis will not dare move back for years to come.
Hurriyah ? the name means "freedom" in Arabic ? is symptomatic of much of Iraq: far quieter than at the height of the war but with an uneasy peace achieved through intimidation and bloodshed. The number of Iraqi neighborhoods in which members of the two Muslim sects live side by side and intermarry has dwindled.
The forced segregation, fueled by extremists from both communities, has fundamentally changed the character of the country. And it raises questions about whether the Iraqis can heal the wounds of the sectarian massacres after the Americans leave by the end of this month.
"It's quiet now, but from time to time there are problems," said a Shiite man in a pinstriped dishdasha, or traditional Arabic shirtdress, who stopped to chat outside a grocery store.
"Back then, the people were in a panic, we were in fear of everybody because of the killings," said the man who would identify himself only by his nickname of Abu Ahmed ? a sign of the fear that still pervades the neighborhood. "Many families left when they were afraid for their lives."
Getting to Hurriyah ? a middle-class neighborhood of modest, single-family homes and shops just west of the Tigris River ? is not easy.
Thick blast walls and a security checkpoint protect the entrance. Guards check drivers' IDs.
On the neighborhood's main road, a visitor can see banners of Shiite saints posted on concrete walls, along with a painted mural of Snow White whistling to a bird.
The streets are also lined with billboards depicting slain soldiers of the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia controlled by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr that made up most of the death squads. Their pictures are shown under the glowering faces of al-Sadr and his revered father, Mohammed al-Sadr, who was killed in 1999 by Saddam Hussein's henchmen.
Gaggles of boys roam the wide streets littered with rubble, playing drums and laughing. On a recent sunny Sunday morning, men were sipping tea at cafes while women shopped. A cheerful, elderly woman in a black head-to-toe abaya greeted a reporter with kisses but then hurried away when asked for her name.
Deadly bombings remain common in Hurriyah, although far less frequent than a few years ago. It's the Shiite militias, who kill those they deem traitors, that spur the most dread.
"Even though there are police and Iraqi soldiers in Hurriyah, we still consider the security situation there unstable," said Iraqi police Capt. Hassan Hadi. "Militias and criminal gangs are behind this instability, which needs more time, checkpoints and inspections, and tighter security measures, before it will get better."
U.S. and Iraqi intelligence officials believe Hurriyah is now a haven for a Mahdi Army splinter group: Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or Band of the People of Righteousness. They say the militia does not have al-Sadr's backing, relying instead on Iranian support of about $5 million in cash and weapons each month. Iraqi officials confirm Iran's role in the militia, although Tehran has repeatedly dismissed the accusations.
Ali Hussein, 49, a local electrician, said the militias like Asaib Ahl al-Haq have morphed from protectors into Mafia-type organizations in Hurriyah, shaking down businesses for cash.
Asaib Ahl al-Haq "takes millions from these entrepreneurs and businessmen," Hussein said. "Because if they refuse to pay, the Asaib group would send their agents to destroy their businesses."
Army Maj. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan, chief spokesman for the departing American military in Iraq, said Asaib Ahl al-Haq militiamen based in Hurriyah were behind recent attacks on the fortified Green Zone, which houses government headquarters and foreign embassies. He also accused the group of launching indirect fire and armor-piercing explosives known as EFPs on the sprawling Victory Base Camp, which until recently housed tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers.
Buchanan predicted the Shiite militias will keep Sunnis from moving back to their old homes.
"Hurriyah was all about ethnic cleansing," he said. "For them (Sunnis) to overcome all of that would take a heck of a lot of motivation. And I just don't see it anytime in the near future. We might get there eventually."
For generations, Shiites and Sunnis lived together in Hurriyah, their families mixing and often marrying. There were also tensions: Under the protection of their patron, Saddam, some Sunnis derided Shiites and their religious rituals. Sunnis dominated the northern part of the neighborhood, with Shiites forming the majority in the south. The area in the middle was religiously mixed.
After Saddam's fall in 2003, Sunni insurgents moved into the neighborhood to attack Shiites. That prompted Shiite militias from across Baghdad to rush to Hurriyah, where they roamed the streets, intimidating, kidnapping and killing Sunnis.
On one particularly violent day, Nov. 24, 2006, Mahdi militiamen stormed Hurriyah with machine guns and shoulder-fired rockets to avenge an al-Qaida attack that killed hundreds of Shiites in Sadr City. The militiamen burned homes and attacked Sunni mosques. Twenty-one Sunnis died. Fellow Sunnis insisted they were innocent worshippers. Shiites believed they were fighters using the mosques as bases. The truth remains in dispute to this day.
Sunnis fled en masse. Some moved elsewhere in Baghdad, others went to refugee camps in western Iraq and still others left the country altogether. What had been one of the most religiously diverse areas in the capital turned almost exclusively Shiite over the span of one year. Only one other neighborhood was as upended: Dora in southern Baghdad, which today is nearly completely Sunni.
A few Sunnis braved it out and still live in Hurriyah.
Abu Muhanad, a 53-year-old government worker, said he moved his oldest son out of the neighborhood in 2006 but was less afraid for himself.
"I had big faith in my Shiite neighbors and I was sure that they would protect me and my family," he said. "Now, the situation is better and I still have my good Shiite neighbors who love me. I am even rejecting requests by my sons now to leave Hurriyah and buy a bigger house somewhere else in Baghdad."
The remains of what were once thriving Sunni mosques ? still in ruins five years later ? are reminders of how the war has fundamentally changed Iraqi society.
Half the dome of the Nidaa Allah mosque was sheared off in the Nov. 24, 2006 assault, and what remains is still pimpled with bullet holes. Across the street, grocer Amir Salman remembers shuttering his shop for six months.
"At that time, everyone was hiding in their homes," said Salman, a Shiite. "It is better now, and there are still some Sunnis here, but they are few. It used to be about 50-50, with Sunnis and Shiites."
He shrugged. "Maybe it will get better," he said.
___
Associated Press Writers Sameer N. Yacoub, Bushra Juhi and Mazin Yahya in Baghdad contributed to this report.
___
Follow Lara Jakes on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/larajakesAP
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The shadows in a city reveal its energy flow
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Public release date: 28-Nov-2011[ | E-mail |
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FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology
Researchers at the Technical University of Madrid (UPM, Spain) have created "shadow models" and a type of software that calculates the amount of solar radiation that reaches streets and buildings in high resolution. According to the results published in the Research Journal of Chemistry and Environment, they could help to optimise the energy consumption of cities.
"Solar radiation that falls on a certain point in the city varies depending on the time of day, the weather conditions, the pollution level and other variables," explains Roberto San Jos, lecturer at the Technical University of Madrid (UPM). He adds, "what we have done is calculate radiation using supercomputers that simulate the vast amount of data involved in the entire atmospheric process."
The method involves throwing up to 100,000 rays of light for just a few seconds from any position and verifying the point of collision upon reaching obstacles. Calculations are so complex that they have required the powerful machines of the Supercomputing and Visualization Center of Madrid (CEsViMa-UPM) and the Mare Nostrum supercomputer at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center to work for 72 hours in order to achieve just 6 seconds of light and shadow evolution for an area of Madrid, Spain.
In order to carry out the study, which was published in the Research Journal of Chemistry and Environment, global meteorological data provided by the USA's National Center for Atmospheric Research has been taken. Information applying to Europe and Spain was taken from this data before homing in on a more local level. The starting point of the whole process lies in an open source of geophysical research called EULAG.
The researchers have conceived two mathematical "shadow" models in which the first supplies data to the second. One shows highly detailed, 3D images of the behaviour of radiation while the other reveals the exchange of energy that occurs in a selected area. Urban morphology plays a crucial role in the energy balance.
San Jos explains that "depending on urban layout, at a certain time of day there will be rays of light that collide with the tarmac, the pavement and other buildings. They are then successively reflected until they create different degrees of shadow on the surface."
The team has set up their two models in an IT tool named SHAMO (SHAdow MOdel), a software that allows for shadows and solar radiation in any city to be quantified. In particular, cubic areas with a base of 1 km x 1 km and a height of 400 m are analysed with a resolution of 4 m.
The energy optimisation of a city
San Jos states that "the results can serve as a tool for sustainability and energy optimisation in cities from both an architectural (a shaded building requires more internal heating that a building in the sun) and urban planning point of view. In this sense, results can be used in the search for harmony between human and natural energy consumption."
The researcher exemplifies this: "The heating is often turned on during the day and turned off at the night but in some cases could be the other way around. For instance, sometimes the amount of solar radiation that reaches a building is enough to keep in the warmth that has accumulated from the heating being on during the night."
This study forms part of the European BRIDGE Project on urban metabolism, a concept that perceives the city as a living organism in search for a sustainable energy balance. The department of urban planning at Madrid City Council has already expressed their interest in the tool.
###
References:
R. San Jose, J. L. Prez, R.M. Gnzalez. "Sensitivity analysis of two different shadow models implemented into EULAG CFD model: Madrid experiment". Research Journal of Chemistry and Environment 15(2): 319-325, 2011.
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Public release date: 28-Nov-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: SINC
info@agenciasinc.es
34-914-251-820
FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology
Researchers at the Technical University of Madrid (UPM, Spain) have created "shadow models" and a type of software that calculates the amount of solar radiation that reaches streets and buildings in high resolution. According to the results published in the Research Journal of Chemistry and Environment, they could help to optimise the energy consumption of cities.
"Solar radiation that falls on a certain point in the city varies depending on the time of day, the weather conditions, the pollution level and other variables," explains Roberto San Jos, lecturer at the Technical University of Madrid (UPM). He adds, "what we have done is calculate radiation using supercomputers that simulate the vast amount of data involved in the entire atmospheric process."
The method involves throwing up to 100,000 rays of light for just a few seconds from any position and verifying the point of collision upon reaching obstacles. Calculations are so complex that they have required the powerful machines of the Supercomputing and Visualization Center of Madrid (CEsViMa-UPM) and the Mare Nostrum supercomputer at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center to work for 72 hours in order to achieve just 6 seconds of light and shadow evolution for an area of Madrid, Spain.
In order to carry out the study, which was published in the Research Journal of Chemistry and Environment, global meteorological data provided by the USA's National Center for Atmospheric Research has been taken. Information applying to Europe and Spain was taken from this data before homing in on a more local level. The starting point of the whole process lies in an open source of geophysical research called EULAG.
The researchers have conceived two mathematical "shadow" models in which the first supplies data to the second. One shows highly detailed, 3D images of the behaviour of radiation while the other reveals the exchange of energy that occurs in a selected area. Urban morphology plays a crucial role in the energy balance.
San Jos explains that "depending on urban layout, at a certain time of day there will be rays of light that collide with the tarmac, the pavement and other buildings. They are then successively reflected until they create different degrees of shadow on the surface."
The team has set up their two models in an IT tool named SHAMO (SHAdow MOdel), a software that allows for shadows and solar radiation in any city to be quantified. In particular, cubic areas with a base of 1 km x 1 km and a height of 400 m are analysed with a resolution of 4 m.
The energy optimisation of a city
San Jos states that "the results can serve as a tool for sustainability and energy optimisation in cities from both an architectural (a shaded building requires more internal heating that a building in the sun) and urban planning point of view. In this sense, results can be used in the search for harmony between human and natural energy consumption."
The researcher exemplifies this: "The heating is often turned on during the day and turned off at the night but in some cases could be the other way around. For instance, sometimes the amount of solar radiation that reaches a building is enough to keep in the warmth that has accumulated from the heating being on during the night."
This study forms part of the European BRIDGE Project on urban metabolism, a concept that perceives the city as a living organism in search for a sustainable energy balance. The department of urban planning at Madrid City Council has already expressed their interest in the tool.
###
References:
R. San Jose, J. L. Prez, R.M. Gnzalez. "Sensitivity analysis of two different shadow models implemented into EULAG CFD model: Madrid experiment". Research Journal of Chemistry and Environment 15(2): 319-325, 2011.
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/f-sf-tsi112811.php
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Post Time: 11-27-2011 at 08:56 AM
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Hugh Jackman's Wife Opens Up About Battling Gay Rumors
Many women would consider being married to Hugh Jackman a dream come true, but Deborra-Lee Furness, his wife of 15 years, confesses the job comes with the occasional downside, like putting up with rumors and avid fans.
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Romney the 1st GOP candidate to plant flag in Fla.
MIAMI (AP) ? If there's any Republican presidential candidate who can afford to spend precious time and money focusing on winning in Florida, it's the one campaigning in the state Tuesday.
While others focus on Iowa's caucuses or the early primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina, Mitt Romney spent the morning welcoming endorsements from three top Cuban-American Republicans. He was set to attend several fundraisers and visit the port in Tampa to discuss trade policy.
It's the only early primary state Romney is visiting this week, little more than a month before voters start weighing in on the GOP nominating contest, in Iowa. It's also critical in the race against President Barack Obama, putting Romney in a key battleground state a day after Democrats started spending money to run attack ads against him.
"They don't want to see me as the nominee, that's for sure," Romney told reporters Tuesday. "It shows that they're awfully afraid of facing me in the general election. They want to throw the primary process to anybody but me, but bring it on. We're ready for them."
He announced endorsements from Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart and his brother, former Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, among others. They underscore his strengths going into the Jan. 31 Florida primary and would help him appeal to Hispanics in the state should he become the nominee. The Cuban exile community in the Miami area is an important constituency group for Republicans and the three, who endorsed Sen. John McCain over Romney in 2008, are longtime leaders here.
Romney's also racked up support from a list of other establishment Florida politicians, including former Sen. Connie Mack and Sen. Mel Martinez.
Contrast that with his rivals, who have spent most of the primary campaign jockeying to become the consensus conservative alternative to the former Massachusetts governor ? and probably need to win at least one earlier-than-Florida primary to stand a chance of competing with Romney.
Newt Gingrich is spending three days in South Carolina this week. Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman are campaigning in New Hampshire. Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann are in Iowa. Herman Cain is scheduled to make stops in Michigan and Ohio, though his campaign is now battling new accusations that he had an extramarital affair.
"It's almost like every other campaign is focused on this slingshot strategy with having to win one or two other states and then coming into Florida with momentum," said Brett Doster, who ran former President George W. Bush's reelection campaign in Florida and is now advising Romney.
The mechanics of winning here play directly to Romney's strengths as a candidate. He's shown discomfort with the hand-to-hand retail politicking that's critical in other early states but isn't effective in a state of nearly 19 million people. He's sitting on the kind of cash it takes to run TV ads here ? nearly $1.5 million per week for a buy in all 10 of the state's media markets ? and keep raising it.
He can't afford to neglect Florida. Although he has a significant lead in New Hampshire, he's vulnerable in Iowa and South Carolina. His advisers have long said performing well in Florida is critical for his campaign.
Almost all of Romney's rivals, on the other hand, acknowledge they're barely thinking about Florida.
"This race hasn't come to Florida yet," said Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond. Gingrich's first priority is South Carolina, where he's hired nearly a dozen people and opened several campaign offices.
"Iowa and New Hampshire and the earliest states are priorities for the governor's time and our campaign," said Perry spokesman Ray Sullivan.
"We felt all along that Iowa was going to be our priority from day number one," said Bachmann spokeswoman Alice Stewart. "As to when and how we campaign in Florida will be decided after the caucuses."
Most of the Republican field did gather here for three days of events surrounding a debate and a straw poll at the end of September. But since then, Bachmann and Perry haven't come back for public events. Huntsman moved his campaign headquarters from Orlando to Manchester, N.H.
Cain, who won the straw poll, was in Miami earlier this month, where he visited a restaurant in Little Havana that's a frequent stop for political candidates. But he's dogged by allegations of sexual harassment and now an extramarital affair, and has suffered in polls for it.
The straw poll was a setback for Perry. Still, he pays a staff of 11 in the state and has worked to cultivate relationships with tea party leaders. He's also hired a national campaign team that has significant Florida experience. But Perry hasn't been back since September, and a series of bad debate performances has hampered his fundraising and ability to compete here.
Romney didn't compete in the poll, though he attended the debate. He has five paid staffers working for him out of a state campaign headquarters in Tampa ? also the site of the Republican National Convention next summer. He's campaigned here periodically since announcing his candidacy in June.
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Tuesday, November 29, 2011
British Library puts 19th C newspapers online
LONDON (AP) ? The newspaper coverage was troubling: London's huge international showcase was beset by planning problems, local opposition and labor woes ? and the transport was a mess.
It sounds like the 2012 Olympics, but this was the Great Exhibition of 1851 generating stories of late trains, unscrupulous landlords and dangerous overcrowding.
Coverage of the event is found in 4 million pages of newspapers from the 18th and 19th centuries being made available online Tuesday by the British Library, in what head of newspapers Ed King calls "a digital Aladdin's Cave" for researchers.
The online archive is a partnership between the library and digital publishing firm Brightsolid, which has been scanning 8,000 pages a day from the library's vast periodical archive for the past year and plans to digitize 40 million pages over the next decade.
A glance at the stories of crime and scandal shows some things haven't changed ? including grumbling letter-writers complaining about disruption caused by the 1851 exhibition, held inside a specially built Crystal Palace in London's Hyde Park.
"People were saying, 'This isn't good, I can't ride my horse in Hyde Park,'" said King. One regional newspaper editor complained that the "celebrated p.m. fast train service to London" arrived two hours late and warned visitors "not to trust themselves to the tender mercies of the numerous private housekeepers" renting out rooms at exorbitant prices.
The library hopes the searchable online trove will be a major resource for academics and researchers. The vast majority of the British Library's 750 million pages of newspapers ? the largest collection in the world ? are currently available only on microfilm or bound in bulky volumes at a newspaper archive in north London, where the yellowing journals cover 20 miles (32 kilometers) of shelves.
"We've got 200 years of newspapers locked away," King said. "We're trying to open it up to a wider audience."
There will be a cost to download articles online, though they can be accessed for free at the library's London reading rooms.
Most of the first batch of 4 million pages are from the 19th century, and include stories about huge international events, freak accidents and local crimes, as well as articles about Victorian celebrities such as Florence Nightingale, whose nursing of troops in the Crimean War made her famous.
There are stories of war and famine, crime and punishment, alongside birth and death notices, family announcements and advertisements for soap, cocoa, marmalade, miracle cures and treatments for baldness.
Crime columns provide a glimpse at rough 19th-century justice. Newspapers printed lists of people transported to Australia for stealing money, silver, cloth, hay and, in one case, "seven cups and five saucers."
The archive includes national and regional newspapers from Britain and Ireland, as well as more specialized publications. The Cheltenham Looker-On reported on society, fashions and gossip in the genteel English spa town. The Poor Law Unions' Gazette contained vivid accounts of workhouse life, and descriptions of inmates who had absconded.
King said the library hopes the archive will also help amateur genealogists find information about their ancestors.
Library staff have already highlighted a few links to the famous, including an 1852 appearance in insolvency court by Simon Cowell's great-great-great grandfather, Michael Gashion, and a local newspaper item about the great-great grandfather of actress Kate Winslet, who was "embedded in a mass of bricks and timber" when a hotel facade fell on him in 1903.
Bob Satchwell of press trade group the Society of Editors welcomed the archive ? some good news for newspapers amid all the negative press from Britain's ongoing phone hacking scandal.
He said the website "opens up a magical new window on a magnificent treasure trove of real history, recording the lives of ordinary people doing extraordinary things in vibrant communities, rather than merely the cold facts of politics and pestilence."
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Monday Music Video: The Glamorous Platypus
November 28, 2011 |??2
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I?ll start by saying that I love my fellow biologists. We are a quirky crowd that has a strong passion for our subject matter, and our subjects. For example, I?ve been in love with nudibranch gastropods for as long as I can remember. The first time I saw one in the wild was a magical moment for me, and the adoration has not abated. The producers of this week?s Monday Music Video have clearly got a similar passion for the platypus, an odd-looking, Australian-inhabiting, semi-aquatic mammal. This parody of Fergie?s ?Glamorous? featuring Ludacris is absolutely fantastic. The mood of the main female character is spot on: a great mix of sarcasm, humor and glam. I would have loved to see the lyrics on-screen, and the dubbed sound is a bit off at times, but I?m willing to forgive these issues for the originality, quirk and love for my fellow biologists.
Happy Monday, and enjoy!
About the Author: Carin Bondar is a biologist, writer and film-maker with a PhD in population ecology from the University of British Columbia. Find Dr. Bondar online at www.carinbondar.com, on twitter @drbondar or on her facebook page: Dr. Carin Bondar ? Biologist With a Twist. Follow on Twitter @drbondar.More??
The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=bfdd93162ed75036938c78d758680248
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Reality in the eye of the beholder
Public release date: 28-Nov-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Joseph Blumberg
joseph.e.blumberg@dartmouth.edu
603-646-2117
Dartmouth College
A Photoshop reality check
You know they couldn't possibly look that good. But what did those models and celebrities look like before all the retouching? How different is the image we see from the original?
Dartmouth Computer Science Professor Hany Farid and Eric Kee, a PhD student at Dartmouth College, are proposing a method to not only answer such questions but also to quantify the changes.
As Farid writes, "Impossibly thin, tall, and wrinkle- and blemish-free models are routinely splashed onto billboards, advertisements, and magazine covers." He says that this is "creating a fantasy of sorts." Going beyond considerations of aesthetics or any dishonesty of photo editors or advertisers, Farid and Kee voice public health concerns.
In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on November 28, 2011, they point out that these highly idealized images have been linked to eating disorders and body image dissatisfaction in men, women, and children. The authors note that the American Medical Association has recently adopted a policy to "discourage the altering of photographs in a manner that could promote unrealistic expectations of appropriate body image."
There have already been repercussions in the United Kingdom. A Reuters news story from July 2011 reports: "Two L'Oreal cosmetics adverts [advertisements] featuring actress Julia Roberts and supermodel Christy Turlington were banned in Britain by the Advertising Standards Agency, following complaints by MP [Member of Parliament] Jo Swinson. Liberal Democrat MP Swinson said the magazine adverts for foundations made by Maybelline and Lancome, both owned by L'Oreal, were misleading because the photos had been digitally altered." On a prior occasion, L'Oreal had been forced to add a disclaimer to another ad.
But Farid and Kee assert that outright bans or simple disclaimers may not be addressing the issue fairly or completely. They are seeking a way to for advertisers to truthfully and accurately characterize the extent to which an image has been altered while allowing the public to make informed judgments. The goal is to create a metric that provides an objective assessment of how much alteration has been made.
The authors propose a rating system that takes into account common practices such as cropping and color adjustment while providing assessment of other kinds of modifications that dramatically change a person's appearance. They consider geometric alterations such as slimming legs, adjusting facial symmetry, and correcting posture, as well as photometric manipulations that might include removing wrinkles, "bags" under the eyes and skin blemishes.
"We start with the before and after digital images from which we automatically estimate the geometric and photometric changes, effectively reverse engineering the manipulations that a photo retoucher has made," Farid says.
In the study, to crosscheck and validate their metric, human observers were asked to compare and rank the differences in hundreds of pairs of before and after retouching images. The results correlated highly with the mathematical metric.
"Such a rating may provide incentive for publishers and models to reduce some of the more extreme forms of digital retouching that are common today," the authors conclude, but they add, "It remains to be seen if this rating can mediate the adverse effects of being inundated with unrealistic body images."
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 28-Nov-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Joseph Blumberg
joseph.e.blumberg@dartmouth.edu
603-646-2117
Dartmouth College
A Photoshop reality check
You know they couldn't possibly look that good. But what did those models and celebrities look like before all the retouching? How different is the image we see from the original?
Dartmouth Computer Science Professor Hany Farid and Eric Kee, a PhD student at Dartmouth College, are proposing a method to not only answer such questions but also to quantify the changes.
As Farid writes, "Impossibly thin, tall, and wrinkle- and blemish-free models are routinely splashed onto billboards, advertisements, and magazine covers." He says that this is "creating a fantasy of sorts." Going beyond considerations of aesthetics or any dishonesty of photo editors or advertisers, Farid and Kee voice public health concerns.
In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on November 28, 2011, they point out that these highly idealized images have been linked to eating disorders and body image dissatisfaction in men, women, and children. The authors note that the American Medical Association has recently adopted a policy to "discourage the altering of photographs in a manner that could promote unrealistic expectations of appropriate body image."
There have already been repercussions in the United Kingdom. A Reuters news story from July 2011 reports: "Two L'Oreal cosmetics adverts [advertisements] featuring actress Julia Roberts and supermodel Christy Turlington were banned in Britain by the Advertising Standards Agency, following complaints by MP [Member of Parliament] Jo Swinson. Liberal Democrat MP Swinson said the magazine adverts for foundations made by Maybelline and Lancome, both owned by L'Oreal, were misleading because the photos had been digitally altered." On a prior occasion, L'Oreal had been forced to add a disclaimer to another ad.
But Farid and Kee assert that outright bans or simple disclaimers may not be addressing the issue fairly or completely. They are seeking a way to for advertisers to truthfully and accurately characterize the extent to which an image has been altered while allowing the public to make informed judgments. The goal is to create a metric that provides an objective assessment of how much alteration has been made.
The authors propose a rating system that takes into account common practices such as cropping and color adjustment while providing assessment of other kinds of modifications that dramatically change a person's appearance. They consider geometric alterations such as slimming legs, adjusting facial symmetry, and correcting posture, as well as photometric manipulations that might include removing wrinkles, "bags" under the eyes and skin blemishes.
"We start with the before and after digital images from which we automatically estimate the geometric and photometric changes, effectively reverse engineering the manipulations that a photo retoucher has made," Farid says.
In the study, to crosscheck and validate their metric, human observers were asked to compare and rank the differences in hundreds of pairs of before and after retouching images. The results correlated highly with the mathematical metric.
"Such a rating may provide incentive for publishers and models to reduce some of the more extreme forms of digital retouching that are common today," the authors conclude, but they add, "It remains to be seen if this rating can mediate the adverse effects of being inundated with unrealistic body images."
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/dc-rit112311.php
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Rage grips Pakistan over NATO attack (Reuters)
ISLAMABAD/KABUL (Reuters) ? Fury spread in Pakistan on Sunday over a NATO cross-border air attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and could undermine the U.S. effort to wind up the war in Afghanistan.
On Sunday night in Pakistan, more than 40 hours after the incident, many questions remained.
NATO described the killings as a "tragic unintended incident" and said an investigation was underway. A Western official and an Afghan security official who requested anonymity said NATO troops were responding to fire from across the border.
It's possible both explanations are correct: that a retaliatory attack by NATO troops took a tragic, mistaken turn in harsh terrain where identifying friend and foe can be difficult.
Militants often attack from Pakistani soil or flee after combat across a porous border that NATO-led troops, under their United Nations mandate, cannot cross.
What is clear is the incident could undermine U.S. efforts to improve ties with Pakistan so that the regional power helps stabilize Afghanistan before NATO combat troops go home by the end of 2014.
The attack was the latest perceived provocation by the United States, which infuriated Pakistan's powerful military with a unilateral special forces raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in May.
Thousands gathered outside the American consulate in the city of Karachi to protest against the NATO attack.
A Reuters reporter at the scene said the angry crowd shouted "Down with America". One young man climbed on the wall surrounding the heavily fortified compound and attached a Pakistani flag to barbed wire.
"America is attacking our borders. The government should immediately break ties with it," said Naseema Baluch, a housewife attending the demonstration. "America wants to occupy our country but we will not let it do that."
Pakistan buried the troops killed in the attack on Sunday. Television stations showed coffins draped in green and white Pakistani flags in a prayer ceremony at the headquarters of the regional command in Peshawar, attended by army chief General Ashfaq Kayani.
The NATO attack highlights the difficulties faced by the United States as it tries to secure the unruly border area that is home to some of the world's most dangerous militant groups who have mastered the harsh mountainous landscape.
Around 40 troops were stationed at the outposts at the time of the attack, military sources said.
Militants targeting NATO forces have long taken advantage of the fact that the alliance's mandate ends at the border to either attack from within Pakistan or flee to relative safety after an attack.
Three Pakistani soldiers were killed last year by NATO gunships. NATO said then that its forces had mistaken warning shots from Pakistani forces for a militant attack.
In the latest incident, a Western official and a senior Afghan security official said NATO and Afghan forces had come under fire from across the border with Pakistan before NATO aircraft attacked a Pakistani army post, killing the soldiers.
"They came under cross-border fire," the Western official said, without identifying the source of the fire.
The Afghan official said troops had come under fire from inside Pakistan as they were descending from helicopters, which had returned fire.
Both officials asked not to be named because the attack is so sensitive.
Pakistan has said the attack was an unprovoked assault and has said it reserves the right to retaliate.
STRAINED RELATIONS
U.S. and NATO officials are trying to defuse tensions but the soldiers' deaths are testing a bad marriage of convenience between Washington and Islamabad.
Many Pakistanis believe their army is fighting a war against militants that only serves Western interests.
Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by telephone early on Sunday to convey "the deep sense of rage felt across Pakistan" and warned that the incident could undermine efforts to improve relations, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Pakistan shut down NATO supply routes into Afghanistan in retaliation for the incident, the worst of its kind since Islamabad uneasily allied itself with Washington following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Pakistan is the route for nearly half of NATO supplies shipped overland to its troops in Afghanistan. Land shipments account for about two thirds of the alliance's cargo.
A similar incident on Sept 30, 2010, which killed two Pakistani service personnel, led to the closure of one of NATO's supply routes through Pakistan for 10 days.
U.S. ties with Pakistan have suffered several big setbacks starting with the unilateral U.S. special forces raid in May that killed bin Laden in a Pakistani town where he had apparently been living for years.
Pakistan condemned the secret operation as a flagrant violation of its sovereignty, while suspicions arose in Washington that members of Pakistan's military intelligence had harbored the al Qaeda leader.
The military came under unprecedented criticism from both Pakistanis who said it failed to protect the country and American officials who said bin Laden's presence was proof the country was an unreliable ally in the war on militancy.
Pakistan's army, one of the world's largest, may see the NATO incursion from Afghanistan as a chance to reassert itself, especially since the deaths of the soldiers are likely to unite generals and politicians, whose ties are normally uneasy.
Pakistan's jailing of a CIA contractor, Raymond Davis, and U.S. accusations that Pakistan backed a militant attack on the U.S. embassy in Kabul have added to the tensions.
"From Raymond Davis and his gun slinging in the streets of Lahore to the Osama bin Laden incident, and now to the firing on Pakistani soldiers on the volatile Pakistan-Afghan border, things hardly seem able to get any worse," said the Daily Times.
Islamabad depends on billions in U.S. aid and Washington believes Pakistan can help it bring about peace in Afghanistan.
But it is constantly battling Anti-American sentiment over everything from U.S. drone aircraft strikes to Washington's calls for economic reforms.
"We should end our friendship with America. It's better to have animosity with America than friendship. It's nobody's friend," said laborer Sameer Baluch.
In Karachi, dozens of truck drivers who should have been transporting supplies to Afghanistan were idle.
Taj Malli braves the threat of Taliban attacks to deliver supplies to Afghanistan so that he can support his children. But he thinks it is time to block the route permanently in protest.
"Pakistan is more important than money. The government must stop all supplies to NATO so that they realize the importance of Pakistan," he said.
But some Pakistanis doubt their leaders have the resolve to challenge the United States.
"This government is cowardly. It will do nothing," said Peshawar shopkeeper Sabir Khan. "Similar attacks happened in the past, but what have they done?"
(Additional reporting by Zeeshan Haider in Islamabad, Izaz Mohmand and Aftab Ahmed in Peshawar, Imtiaz Shah in Karachi, and David Brunnstrom in Brussels; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Peter Graff)
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Monday, November 28, 2011
Libyans recover looted Roman antiquities (AP)
TRIPOLI, Libya ? Libyan authorities unveiled on Saturday ancient Roman figurines and pottery fragments that they said were seized by revolutionary forces from Moammar Gadhafi's soldiers during the battle for the capital Tripoli.
The director of the state antiquities department, Saleh Algabe, showed the 17 objects to reporters. He hailed the find as an important recovery of national treasures.
The pieces included a striking female figurine and several small human heads in marble, as well as two ornamental clay fragments. Algabe said the figurines were likely used in pagan worship and dated back to the second and third centuries A.D., when a swathe of North Africa belonged to the Roman Empire.
Algabe said the pieces were seized from a truck on the road to Tripoli's airport on August 20, as revolutionary forces were entering the capital. It appeared Gadhafi's forces wanted to smuggle them out of the country and sell them at auction to fund their fight, he added.
The pieces probably do not represent a major component of Libya's wealth of artifacts from the Roman era. Still, officials played up their recovery as significant.
Khalid Alturjman, a representative from the country's National Transitional Council, said the rebels' seizure of them stands as "a great example of the sacrifice of these revolutionary men for this country."
Algabe stressed that although they dated to the Roman era, they exhibited clear signs of local influence.
"This confirms the role of Libyans in civilization," Algabe said.
The conference was held in Tripoli's main archaeological museum, which boasts a collection of ancient Roman statues and mosaics. The museum is housed within the Red Castle, a Crusader fort that faces the Mediterranean Sea.
A museum employee said the recovered objects had once been part of the public collection. However, members of Gadhafi's regime had taken them, saying they were to be exhibited in European museums ? and never returned them.
Libya boasts many ancient Roman structures, including the famed seaside ruins of Leptis Magna, east of Tripoli.
Almost all of Libya's ancient archaeological sites and museums were spared damage during the recent civil war. NATO made a point of avoiding them during its bombing campaign, and Agabe said that the revolutionaries also made an effort to protect them.
"The Libyan people decided to protect their heritage," Algabe said.
(This version CORRECTS Adds details, quotes, byline. Corrects the spelling of Algabe's name.)
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Sunday, November 27, 2011
Republican field crowded and likely to remain so
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) ? They are barely blips in presidential polls and their campaign cash is scarce. Some are running on empty, fueled mainly by the exposure that comes with the blizzard of televised debates in this election cycle and interviews they eagerly grant to skeptical reporters.
Yet the second-tier candidates for the Republican presidential nomination soldier on. They argue that the race is far from over and that anything can happen with polls showing a wide-open race in Iowa five weeks before the Jan. 3 caucuses.
Former Sen. Rick Santorum is typical when he resists the conventional wisdom that only candidates with a lot of cash and a big campaign can win.
"I feel like I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing and I feel like I'm making a difference in the race," said Santorum, who barely registers in state surveys despite having campaigned in Iowa for more than a year. "I absolutely believe our time will come and we'll have the opportunity to have the spotlight turned on us."
Santorum, who represented Pennsylvania in Congress for 16 years, frankly acknowledges the possibility of a different outcome.
"If it doesn't, you know, it doesn't," he said.
Even more than energy and determination, also-ran candidates rely on particular issues, free media and prospects for the future to drive them to keep their small-scale operations going.
With polls and money putting candidates like Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain atop the field of Republican rivals, there's a crop of others likely to remain in the race until voters have their say. One force in that dynamic is the fluidity of this year's contest.
Rep. Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota congresswoman, was among the many candidates who surged when they got into the race but then plummeted in the polls. She's gotten feistier as her fortunes have sagged.
"I guarantee you, with everything within my being, I have the backbone," Bachmann said. "I'll put my backbone up against any other candidate in the race."
That includes Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is adamant that he's not giving up, even as his campaign flails and his once-flush bank account suffers following a series of debate missteps that has some of his fundraisers questioning his viability. He, like Bachmann, Santorum and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, are barely blips in many surveys.
Although they don't seem to be catching fire, it turns out that the nomination itself is not the only prize to be had by seeking a presidential nomination.
Rep. Ron Paul's hard-core libertarian views energize a small but loyal base. Santorum uses his platform to hammer his hard-core anti-abortion stance. Bachmann just released a book whose sales could see a boost in the run-up to the Iowa caucuses.
And history shows that future leadership posts ? and presidential runs ? can be in the offing.
Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa waged a long-shot bid for the Democratic nomination in 1992, getting forced out after the early primaries. He endorsed candidate Bill Clinton, kept his seat in the Senate and became an influential voice in the Clinton White House.
Romney lost his first presidential bid in 2008 but used that experience to build a network of political and financial supporters serving him well in this election cycle.
There are other reasons too to press ahead when chances of victory seem slim, not the least of which is how quickly politics can change.
Just ask Gingrich. The former House speaker was a footnote in the race this summer after his campaign imploded. Now, as Iowa voters give him a second look, he's enjoying a rise in state and national polls. And he reports that money and manpower are now flowing his way.
It's not unusual for second-tier candidates to stick around long after they have fallen out of favor with voters and donors alike. The structure of the race in Iowa and other early voting states like New Hampshire and South Carolina is designed to make it possible for them to keep going because the states are relatively cheap places to campaign and they value hand-to-hand campaigning over pricy TV ads.
"In Iowa, you can sleep on people's couches and hang on for a long time with very little money," Republican strategist Rich Galen said. "You can live off the land in Iowa. You can't do that in Florida."
The nature of the politics of the first three states to vote also encourages longshot candidates because the contests are dominated in both parties by hard-core activists more interested in political purity than poll numbers.
Steve Scheffler, who heads the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, notes that very few people in Iowa have made firm decisions on whom to support, meaning the race could be anyone's to win.
"There's enough fluidness in the race and enough people out there who are not entrenched in stone," Scheffler said. "The verdict is still out there."
Thus, so too are the second-tier candidates.
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