Friday, December 22, 2006
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Bah...
Every kid has to go through the sorting box to learn shapes...
why wasn't mine as sleek glossy black as this one?
Is Castro finally dead?
Babalu Blog is hearing rumors.
Pajamas Media is checking things out and reports:
"Spanish Radio said to have reported Castro dead. Miami police on alert."
Related: The Ileana Ros-Lehtinen flap.
"Spanish Radio said to have reported Castro dead. Miami police on alert."
Related: The Ileana Ros-Lehtinen flap.
- North Korea has awarded its decorative title of Labor Hero to Cuban President Fidel Castro, the country's official news agency reported late Tuesday.
"A ceremony awarding the title of Labor Hero to the chairman of the national committee of Cuba, Fidel Castro, was held on the occasion of his 80th birthday at the DPRK Embassy in Cuba on the 11th (Tuesday)," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The title of "hero," which comes in only two forms, DPRK Hero or Labor Hero, is one of the highest honors awarded in the communist state, according to experts.
"Chairman Castro is a leader who has actively supported the DPRK people's struggle for independence, unification of their motherland and construction of a socialist nation," Pak Tong-chun, the North's envoy to Havana, was quoted as saying at the ceremony.
"A ceremony awarding the title of Labor Hero to the chairman of the national committee of Cuba, Fidel Castro, was held on the occasion of his 80th birthday at the DPRK Embassy in Cuba on the 11th (Tuesday)," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The title of "hero," which comes in only two forms, DPRK Hero or Labor Hero, is one of the highest honors awarded in the communist state, according to experts.
"Chairman Castro is a leader who has actively supported the DPRK people's struggle for independence, unification of their motherland and construction of a socialist nation," Pak Tong-chun, the North's envoy to Havana, was quoted as saying at the ceremony.
Via M Malkin
Enderlin/Al Dura
Charles Enderlin et France 2 sont mis en cause de tous cotés, pour la fabrication et la diffusion d’un faux reportage aux conséquences gravissimes. La mort du petit Mohamed Al Dura a été diffusée dans le monde entier, l’enfant est devenu le symbole du "martyr de la cause palestinienne".De nombreux kamikazes se sont fait exploser dans des autobus, des restaurants et des cafés bondés de civils en son nom.
Dans ce dossier spécial sans cesse mis à jour, Acmedias résume les 10 points clés qui permettent decomprendre la polémique, et analyse la qualité de l’information fournie par les organes de presse.Nous appelons de tous nos voeux la diffusion publique des rushes de France 2, la mise en place d’unecommission d’enquête et l’établissement de la vérité.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Ceramic Babies
Ceramist Shigeki Hayashi latest work entitled The Entertainment Ceramics 2 explores the Japanese obsession with youth, technology, and amusement. Two rows of infants sit facing each other with eyes closed, wearing spacesuits seemingly consumed by what appears to be a deep meditative state, or a sweet somber in mother's womb.
His work is startling, not necessarily in a disturbing way, its just visceral and reactionary. Great stuff!
His work is startling, not necessarily in a disturbing way, its just visceral and reactionary. Great stuff!
via WMMNA
Hello mel!
Completely automatic and unassisted, this cot rocker is designed to naturally settle and soothe a baby to sleep.
Through a gentle rocking motion, the Lullabub subtly mimics the motion of a car and puts your noisy one to sleep without your exhaustion.
Pinochet est mort...
Cet homme n'aura pas fait que du bien et il ne s'agit pas ici de faire l'apologie des dérapages de son régime.
Comme un grand nombre des régimes de transition, cette dictature aura également causé la misère et la mort.
Mais Augusto Pinochet a toutefois le mérite d'avoir éliminé un régime marxiste et totalitaire qui aurait mené son pays à la faillite et d'avoir instauré une économie du marché à la place.
Le Chili est grâce à cela le pays économiquement le plus performant d'Amérique latine et il est loin d'être comparable aux enfers socialistes du reste du continent.
Je m'attends par contre déjà à lire et à entendre les critiques virulentes et faciles venant de simples d'esprit qui n'ont en revanche aucun problème à vénérer un Fidel Castro, un Hugo Chavez ou encore un Evo Morales.
Ils sont nihilo-pavloviens à leur manière...
Via Le Mont De Sisyphe
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Allende
http://ase.skynetblogs.be/archive-week/2003-37#57190
pour info...
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"France has always said"
The French continue their convergence with anybody who recommends America up sticks in Iraq.
PARIS PRAISES 'LUCID' BAKER-HAMILTON IRAQ REPORT
PARIS December 7, 2006 (AFP) -
PARIS PRAISES 'LUCID' BAKER-HAMILTON IRAQ REPORT
PARIS December 7, 2006 (AFP) -
From our point of view, it reflects the actual situation in Iraq," Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy* said in a statement.
"As France has always said, there can be no military solution to the deep crisis that Iraq is going through. The report does not fix a precise timetable for withdrawal, but it does set a horizon. That is also what we are saying," he said.
"As France has always said, there can be no military solution to the deep crisis that Iraq is going through. The report does not fix a precise timetable for withdrawal, but it does set a horizon. That is also what we are saying," he said.
Yes, well, what "France has always said" -
- more commonly formulated as a petulant French "demand" - regarding Iraq has had very little to do with Iraq and everything to do with vindicating France's go-nowhere opposition to American policy, Iraq (or whoever) be damned.
IRAQ REJECTS SUGGESTION OF US TROOPSLEAVING BY EARLY 2008 AS 'AN INSULT'
MANAMA, Iraq December 11, 2006 (Telegraph) - Jalal Talabani, Iraq's president, firmly denounced proposals in the Iraq Study Group to scale down the war effort. ...
"We smell in this report the attitude of James Baker. We see this as an insult to the people of Iraq."
... In an interview in Bahrain, Iraq's foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari also lashed out at the ISG report, telling The Daily Telegraph it threatened the survival of the Baghdad government.
... In an interview in Bahrain, Iraq's foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari also lashed out at the ISG report, telling The Daily Telegraph it threatened the survival of the Baghdad government.
"We do not like it, in fact we think it is very dangerous for us," he said.
"There are some proposals in it which mean American is giving up."
"America giving up"?
"America giving up"?
Ah, mes amis, that is what "France has always said".
No sooner was America in Iraq, than France demanded America get out. France has also demanded, inter alia, that Iraq magically produce institutions and instruments of post-Saddam governance post-haste.** France has demanded multipolar French-catered tea parties to instruct the Iraqis on French ideas of Iraq sovereignty. And she has demanded Iraq's terrorists be given seats at these tea parties. Of course, France can demand much because she does little.
In none of this has France once converged, not once, with the Iraqi government or a consensus of the Iraqi people.
The ugly truth is that pettiness and pique used by France to influence events has signaled terrorists to go at it in Iraq. This has put Iraq at hazard, but provides a context for smug "France has always said (told you so)" pronouncements.
No sooner was America in Iraq, than France demanded America get out. France has also demanded, inter alia, that Iraq magically produce institutions and instruments of post-Saddam governance post-haste.** France has demanded multipolar French-catered tea parties to instruct the Iraqis on French ideas of Iraq sovereignty. And she has demanded Iraq's terrorists be given seats at these tea parties. Of course, France can demand much because she does little.
In none of this has France once converged, not once, with the Iraqi government or a consensus of the Iraqi people.
The ugly truth is that pettiness and pique used by France to influence events has signaled terrorists to go at it in Iraq. This has put Iraq at hazard, but provides a context for smug "France has always said (told you so)" pronouncements.
And more than anything in the world, this French government wants to tell the United States it told us so.
** By contrast, the European Convention, chaired by a Frenchman, convened in December 2001 to draft the EU constitution. A year and a half later a draft was published, argued over, and a final draft finalized the following year. In May 2005 the French voted the whole mess dead.
Via PAVE FRANCE
2006 Dishonest Reporter of the Year Award
Foreshadow of the Year: Zoran Bozicevic
This National Post photo editor anticipated ?fauxtography? days before war exploded in Gaza and Lebanon. As one dubious photo after another crept into the mainstream coverage, Jules Crittenden, a Boston Herald editor, validated Bozicevic. Crittenden's blunt assessment:
Everyone in the news business gets taken for a ride sooner or later.
Worst Director: Salem Daher, a.k.a. Abdel Qadar, a.k.a. "The Green Helmet"
Though Daher insisted to AP that he?s just a Lebanese civil rescue worker, the German TV show ZAPP caught him directing other cameramen, posing for photos with casualties and having a body unnecessarily loaded into an ambulance a second time for better footage. ZAPP accused the ubiquitous Daher of abusing the dead. (Wikipedia clarifies the confusion over his name.)
Worst Caption (newspaper): NYTimes
The NY Times was caught up in the fauxtography scandal thanks to a break down in the caption-writing process. This caption in a slide show suggested the man was dead. Bloggers wondered how a man killed in the strike could look so very much alive in the slide show?s other images. Ironically, the Times had Hicks' correct caption for the same photo in a separate report on July 27. The Times issued a correction and apologized to Hicks for the bungle. In October, Hicks explained to Photo District News his view of the affair.
Worst Caption (magazine): Time
When a Hezbollah gunman was photographed near a billowing pillar of smoke, Time wrote a caption stating the fire was started by a downed Israeli jet.
Worst Use of Props: BBC
In this photo, a Lebanese child stands next to an unexploded Israeli shell. Is the child or the bomb the prop? BBC's Martin Asser explains that it was the boy:
When Um Ali Mihdi returned to her home in the southern Lebanese city of Bint Jbeil two days ago, she found a 1,000lb (450kg) Israeli bomb lying unexploded in her living room.
The shell is huge, bigger than the young boy pushed forward to stand reluctantly next to it while we get our cameras out and record the scene for posterity.
Worst Buzzword: "Disproportionate"
Although Israel?s air strikes were limited to Hezbollah targets, the word "disproportionate" became the standard catchphrase of criticism. Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen debunked the disproportionate use of that buzzword. After the war, it became clear that Israeli strikes were anything but disproportionate.
Retraction of the Year: Kofi Annan
The outgoing UN Secretary General, who joined the global chorus unfairly blaming Israel for the Gaza Beach incident, to his credit, retracted criticisms of the IDF, saying he had responded to "media speculations." We await retractions from those media speculators.
Canard of the Year (USA): Thomas Ricks of the Washington Post
Ricks accused Israel of deliberately leaving Hezbollah rockets intact for P.R. purposes. Appearing on CNN's show, Reliable Sources, he said:
"Israel purposely has left pockets of Hezbollah rockets in Lebanon, because as long as they're being rocketed, they can continue to have a sort of moral equivalency in their operations in Lebanon?. It helps you with the moral high ground problem, because you know your operations in Lebanon are going to be killing civilians as well."
Canard of the Year (Europe): Robert Fisk of the Independent
Rushing to judgment, Fisk declared Israel guilty of using uranium-based shells in Lebanon, though UN tests of soil samples were still in progress. The tests didn't detect any unusual traces of uranium, but Independent buried the findings. We await a retraction.
Sympathy for the Devil Award: CBC
When the CBC aired a sympathetic interview with the family of Samir Quntar about the possibility of the Lebanese terrorist's release in a prisoner swap (watch the interview here), they all but ignored the brutal attack that landed him in an Israeli prison, and didn't bother interviewing any relatives of his victims. After HonestReporting-Canada took action, the CBC followed up, interviewing Smadar Haran Kaiser, the woman whose family Samir Qantar murdered (watch the follow-up interview here).
Worst Cartoon of the Year: Martin Rowson of the Guardian
The day after publishing this nasty cartoon, The Guardian apologized, but only because the Jewish stars in the illustration "might have been interpreted as implicating Judaism rather than the Israeli government in the present conflict."
Worst News Executive: Dr. Snuki Zikalala of the SABC
Dr. Zikalala, the news director of the South African Broadcasting Corp., gets this award for blacklisting various reporters, commentators and analysts. Though most personalities were banned for their views on South African politics, Paula Slier found herself blacklisted because her coverage of the Mideast conflict crossed Zikalala's red lines. He wrote in a memo:
From the movement where I come from, we support PLO. But she supported what's happening in Israel?. I said no, you can't you can't undermine the Palestinian struggle, you can't. For me it's a principle issue.
Worst Tangle of Media, Political & Judicial Interests: The French "Establishment"
French media analyst Philippe Karsenty was found guilty of defaming France-2 TV and reporter Charles Enderlin for criticizing the network's footage of Mohammed Dura. Karsenty, the founder and president of Media-Ratings discussed in an exclusive interview with HonestReporting how the trial touched on larger issues of anti-Zionism in the French media, the icon status of Mohammed Dura, Israel's response to the affair, the disturbingly close relationship between French media and political elites, the fairness of French justice, even the role of the new France 24 international news station.
A parallel suit against Pierre Lurcat was dismissed on technical grounds. A third suit against Charles Gousz is yet to begin.
Worst Hypocrisy: Arab Cartoonists
We were struck by the Islamic rage over the Mohammed cartoons, while Arab cartoons are rife with demonizing anti-Semitism and Holocaust-denial.
Most Consistently Manufactured News Event: Bil'in
Broadway would envy the longevity and theatrics of the scripted clashes at Bil'in each Friday at the site of the security fence. One week, the "media event" even included Reuters' participation.
Most Improbable Question of the Year: Is the BBC Pro-Israel?
Read Martin Walker's commentary to find out why the answer is no. If you?re still in doubt, consider the following: the BBC rejected key proposals put forward by the independent commission of inquiry, it stonewalls on Freedom of Information requests for the Balen report, and high level figures admit the Beeb is out of touch with viewers.
Dishonest Reporter of the Year: Adnan Hajj
Working for Reuters, Hajj was caught poorly altering one photo of Beirut destruction and another of an Israeli jet firing flares. The doctored images - first spotted by Mike Thorson and blogged on Little Green Footballs - suggested a greater extent of Israeli destruction than really existed. Unlike other "fauxtographs," the sloppiness of Hajj's work suggested not a breakdown of procedure but deliberate doctoring.
Hajj claimed he only used Photoshop to remove dust marks, but Reuters severed all ties with the photographer and removed all 920 of his photos from its database. The furor touched off the heightened scrutiny that led to our other ignoble honorees.
* * *
Hopefully, we'll see in 2007 better safeguards preventing another "Photoshop of Horrors," tighter caption-writing procedures, and clearer and enforced standards addressing posed photos. We also hope that the speed of digital photography and the rush of deadlines don't rush past the needs of fact-checking.
We covered a lot of ground in 2006, and with the help of readers -- our eyes and ears -- we'll continue monitoring the media in the coming year.
This National Post photo editor anticipated ?fauxtography? days before war exploded in Gaza and Lebanon. As one dubious photo after another crept into the mainstream coverage, Jules Crittenden, a Boston Herald editor, validated Bozicevic. Crittenden's blunt assessment:
Everyone in the news business gets taken for a ride sooner or later.
It's an occupational hazard. What is surprising is the scale of it in Lebanon.
And what is tragic about this is, as a Boston Herald photo editor noted, editors everywhere can no longer trust the pictures from Lebanon.
The public cannot know what is staged and what is real.
Worst Director: Salem Daher, a.k.a. Abdel Qadar, a.k.a. "The Green Helmet"
Though Daher insisted to AP that he?s just a Lebanese civil rescue worker, the German TV show ZAPP caught him directing other cameramen, posing for photos with casualties and having a body unnecessarily loaded into an ambulance a second time for better footage. ZAPP accused the ubiquitous Daher of abusing the dead. (Wikipedia clarifies the confusion over his name.)
Worst Caption (newspaper): NYTimes
The NY Times was caught up in the fauxtography scandal thanks to a break down in the caption-writing process. This caption in a slide show suggested the man was dead. Bloggers wondered how a man killed in the strike could look so very much alive in the slide show?s other images. Ironically, the Times had Hicks' correct caption for the same photo in a separate report on July 27. The Times issued a correction and apologized to Hicks for the bungle. In October, Hicks explained to Photo District News his view of the affair.
Worst Caption (magazine): Time
When a Hezbollah gunman was photographed near a billowing pillar of smoke, Time wrote a caption stating the fire was started by a downed Israeli jet.
But Israel didn't lose any aircraft over Lebanon. In fact, the fire was started by exploding Hezbollah rockets destroyed in an air strike.
As other questions threatened to stain the reputation of photographer Bruno Stevens, he posted the story behind the photo on Lightstalkers.
He included other notable facts and photos from the scene.
As other questions threatened to stain the reputation of photographer Bruno Stevens, he posted the story behind the photo on Lightstalkers.
He included other notable facts and photos from the scene.
Worst Use of Props: BBC
In this photo, a Lebanese child stands next to an unexploded Israeli shell. Is the child or the bomb the prop? BBC's Martin Asser explains that it was the boy:
When Um Ali Mihdi returned to her home in the southern Lebanese city of Bint Jbeil two days ago, she found a 1,000lb (450kg) Israeli bomb lying unexploded in her living room.
The shell is huge, bigger than the young boy pushed forward to stand reluctantly next to it while we get our cameras out and record the scene for posterity.
Worst Buzzword: "Disproportionate"
Although Israel?s air strikes were limited to Hezbollah targets, the word "disproportionate" became the standard catchphrase of criticism. Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen debunked the disproportionate use of that buzzword. After the war, it became clear that Israeli strikes were anything but disproportionate.
Retraction of the Year: Kofi Annan
The outgoing UN Secretary General, who joined the global chorus unfairly blaming Israel for the Gaza Beach incident, to his credit, retracted criticisms of the IDF, saying he had responded to "media speculations." We await retractions from those media speculators.
Canard of the Year (USA): Thomas Ricks of the Washington Post
Ricks accused Israel of deliberately leaving Hezbollah rockets intact for P.R. purposes. Appearing on CNN's show, Reliable Sources, he said:
"Israel purposely has left pockets of Hezbollah rockets in Lebanon, because as long as they're being rocketed, they can continue to have a sort of moral equivalency in their operations in Lebanon?. It helps you with the moral high ground problem, because you know your operations in Lebanon are going to be killing civilians as well."
Canard of the Year (Europe): Robert Fisk of the Independent
Rushing to judgment, Fisk declared Israel guilty of using uranium-based shells in Lebanon, though UN tests of soil samples were still in progress. The tests didn't detect any unusual traces of uranium, but Independent buried the findings. We await a retraction.
Sympathy for the Devil Award: CBC
When the CBC aired a sympathetic interview with the family of Samir Quntar about the possibility of the Lebanese terrorist's release in a prisoner swap (watch the interview here), they all but ignored the brutal attack that landed him in an Israeli prison, and didn't bother interviewing any relatives of his victims. After HonestReporting-Canada took action, the CBC followed up, interviewing Smadar Haran Kaiser, the woman whose family Samir Qantar murdered (watch the follow-up interview here).
Worst Cartoon of the Year: Martin Rowson of the Guardian
The day after publishing this nasty cartoon, The Guardian apologized, but only because the Jewish stars in the illustration "might have been interpreted as implicating Judaism rather than the Israeli government in the present conflict."
Worst News Executive: Dr. Snuki Zikalala of the SABC
Dr. Zikalala, the news director of the South African Broadcasting Corp., gets this award for blacklisting various reporters, commentators and analysts. Though most personalities were banned for their views on South African politics, Paula Slier found herself blacklisted because her coverage of the Mideast conflict crossed Zikalala's red lines. He wrote in a memo:
From the movement where I come from, we support PLO. But she supported what's happening in Israel?. I said no, you can't you can't undermine the Palestinian struggle, you can't. For me it's a principle issue.
Worst Tangle of Media, Political & Judicial Interests: The French "Establishment"
French media analyst Philippe Karsenty was found guilty of defaming France-2 TV and reporter Charles Enderlin for criticizing the network's footage of Mohammed Dura. Karsenty, the founder and president of Media-Ratings discussed in an exclusive interview with HonestReporting how the trial touched on larger issues of anti-Zionism in the French media, the icon status of Mohammed Dura, Israel's response to the affair, the disturbingly close relationship between French media and political elites, the fairness of French justice, even the role of the new France 24 international news station.
A parallel suit against Pierre Lurcat was dismissed on technical grounds. A third suit against Charles Gousz is yet to begin.
Worst Hypocrisy: Arab Cartoonists
We were struck by the Islamic rage over the Mohammed cartoons, while Arab cartoons are rife with demonizing anti-Semitism and Holocaust-denial.
Most Consistently Manufactured News Event: Bil'in
Broadway would envy the longevity and theatrics of the scripted clashes at Bil'in each Friday at the site of the security fence. One week, the "media event" even included Reuters' participation.
Most Improbable Question of the Year: Is the BBC Pro-Israel?
Read Martin Walker's commentary to find out why the answer is no. If you?re still in doubt, consider the following: the BBC rejected key proposals put forward by the independent commission of inquiry, it stonewalls on Freedom of Information requests for the Balen report, and high level figures admit the Beeb is out of touch with viewers.
Dishonest Reporter of the Year: Adnan Hajj
Working for Reuters, Hajj was caught poorly altering one photo of Beirut destruction and another of an Israeli jet firing flares. The doctored images - first spotted by Mike Thorson and blogged on Little Green Footballs - suggested a greater extent of Israeli destruction than really existed. Unlike other "fauxtographs," the sloppiness of Hajj's work suggested not a breakdown of procedure but deliberate doctoring.
Hajj claimed he only used Photoshop to remove dust marks, but Reuters severed all ties with the photographer and removed all 920 of his photos from its database. The furor touched off the heightened scrutiny that led to our other ignoble honorees.
* * *
Hopefully, we'll see in 2007 better safeguards preventing another "Photoshop of Horrors," tighter caption-writing procedures, and clearer and enforced standards addressing posed photos. We also hope that the speed of digital photography and the rush of deadlines don't rush past the needs of fact-checking.
We covered a lot of ground in 2006, and with the help of readers -- our eyes and ears -- we'll continue monitoring the media in the coming year.
Via HonestReporting. com
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