Reality in the eye of the beholder

Joseph Blumberg – 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.”

via Reality in the eye of the beholder.

Julian Assange Blasts Media, Accepts Journalism Award

By Ed Silverstein , TechZone360 Contributor – The controversial WikiLeaks site has won a prestigious journalism award from Australia’s Walkley Foundation, as the site’s leader remains under house arrest.

“This year’s winner has shown a courageous and controversial commitment to the finest traditions of journalism: justice through transparency,” according to a foundation statement announcing the award.

“WikiLeaks applied new technology to penetrate the inner workings of government to reveal an avalanche of inconvenient truths in a global publishing coup,” the foundation adds. “WikiLeaks and its editor-in-chief Julian Assange took a brave, determined and independent stand for freedom of speech and transparency that has empowered people all over the world.”

Soon after getting the award, Assange found himself speaking via teleconference to a journalism meeting in Hong Kong where he took the opportunity to criticize the establishment media, U.S. political leaders, the banking system and the Internet, according to The AFP news service.

During the News World Summit, Assange said he will work to prevent the Internet from becoming “a vast surveillance tool for governments and corporations.”

“Of course I’m a goddamn journalist,” he said during the summit.

In addition, Assange also claimed Visa and Mastercard “illegally” stopped WikiLeaks funds as part of a “secret deal with the White House,” The AFP said.

“Issues that should be decided in open court are being decided in back rooms in Washington,” he was quoted by The AFP.

And he claims the Internet is now the “most significant surveillance machine that we have ever seen.”

“It’s not an age of transparency at all … the amount of secret information is more than ever before,” he added.

Assange is now under house arrest in England, and is the focus of a request by Swedish authorities to be extradited on sexual assault allegations.

In a related matter, TechZone360 reported earlier this month that the United States government has not charged Assange, but a federal grand jury was investigating if Assange or WikiLeaks violated any U.S. laws. …

via Julian Assange Blasts Media, Accepts Journalism Award.

New compound defeats drug-resistant bacteria

Chemists at Brown University have synthesized a new compound that makes drug-resistant bacteria susceptible again to antibiotics. The compound — BU-005 — blocks pumps that a bacterium employs to expel an antibacterial agent called chloramphenicol. The team used a new and highly efficient method for the synthesis of BU-005 and other C-capped dipeptides. Results appear in Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry.

via New compound defeats drug-resistant bacteria | Brown University News and Events.

Yoga is the work of the devil, says Vatican’s chief exorcist (and he doesn’t like Harry Potter much either)

Father Gabriel Amorth has carried out more than 70,000 exorcisms in his capacity as Chief Exorcist at the Vatican.

The 85-year-old can boast 25 years in the post after being appointed by the late Pope John Paul II.

At a conference today, he surprised the delegates by revealing some of his greatest dislikes – yoga and Harry Potter.

Father Amorth, a colourful and often outspoken personality, said:’Practising yoga brings evil as does reading Harry Potter. They may both seem innocuous but they both deal with magic and that leads to evil.’

He added:’Yoga is the Devil’s work. You thing you are doing it for stretching your mind and body but it leads to Hinduism. All these oriental religions are based on the false belief of reincarnation.’

Father Amorth, speaking on the subject of People And Religion at a fringe event at the Umbria Film Festival in Terni, spoke of his distaste for JK Rowling’s young wizard.

He said:’People think it is an innocuous book for children but it’s about magic and that leads to evil. In Harry Potter the Devil is at work in a cunning and crafty way, he is using his extraordinary powers of magic and evil.

‘Satan is always hidden and the thing he desires more than anything is for people to believe he does not exist. He studies each and everyone of us and our tendencies towards good and evil and then he tempts us.

‘My advice to young people would be to watch out for nightclubs because the path is always the same: alcohol, sex, drugs and Satanic sects.’

via Yoga is the work of the devil, says Vatican’s chief exorcist (and he doesn’t like Harry Potter much either) | Mail Online.

How cool is it to get paid to remove something that doesn’t exist?

 

A theory of everything (else) – Jacques Vallee