Johanna Faust, a mixed race Jew, prefers to publish pseudonymously. She is committed: first, to preventing war, ecological disaster, and nuclear apocalypse; last to not only fighting for personal privacy & the freedom of information, but, by representing herself as a soldier in that fight, to exhorting others to do the same. She is a poet, always. All these efforts find representation here: "ah, Mephistophelis" is so named after the last line of Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, whose heretical success flouted the censor for a time.

What The Romney Nevada Event "REALLY" Looked Like


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UPDATE: 
There is a strong possibility, 
nay, probability, in my mind, Gentle Reader, 
that this image was manipulated 
quite by accident, 
despite what the impression thus given 
might profit the Romney campaign. 
Full details after the post; 
(I must confess I am still pleased with myself, 
beginner at photoshop that I am.


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Alternate titles:
  • "Turnabout Is Fair Play"
  • "Live By The Photoshop, Die By The Photoshop"

By now you may have heard of the Romney event at the Henderson Pavilion in Nevada, certain pics of which were thought, by our friends over at BuzzFeed, to have been photoshopped, or at the very least manipulated -- and that badly:

Read more of "Romney Campaign Exaggerates Size Of Nevada Event With Altered Image: At best, the official Romney Instagram account posted a really bad panorama" at BuzzFeed.com




First off, here is a (very) rough estimation of what the Romney event above looked like before the image was manipulated.



from Michael Shaw's article here.
The helpful guide on the leftt served as my template.



Now we have a few images from the event.  They are as state of the art and authentic as one can reasonably expect of satirical endeavors such as this, no? (Credit goes to Donnie Hoyle's You Suck At Photoshop, for teaching me that although I do, it needn't hold me back)...

















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UPDATE (part two): 

A  reader was kind enough to leave a comment that explained in detail the technological circumstances by which this accident would be, well, innocent.  From the comments (and thank you Anonymous 8:22 am):

Please do not take this as my being a supported of Romney, I am disgusted with both candidates, and will continue to be disgusted with most politicians for a long while. The image, if taken from instgagram leads me to believe all images were taken on a smart phone. I have done panorama shots on my phone before that looked similarly "jacked up". 2 doors, 3 arms, .etc, .etc... Again, not trying to knock your rant or anything, but there is a realistic possibility of just a simple panoramic stitching error.



Hints had been dropped elsewhere (Redditors, I am thinking of you), but unfortunately by those who assumed a certain familiarity with the technology. As I understand it, we are dealing with a not uncommon but unfortunate result of an attempt to use applications native to one's cell phone to stitch images stored upon that same phone into panoramic presentations.  This appears to be, under certain circumstances, (and of what these circumstances are I am as yet not fully conversant), ill advised, as it is likely to produce effects such as started all this.

In other words, not being familiar with the technology, I had had not nearly enough of a clue to realize that the entire concept of willful image manipulation was called into question.


A question remains: 
Why was an image stitched thus inadequately 
considered a fit representation, 
with no apology or disclaimer,  
in the first place?

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Be seeing you.

9 comments:

  1. Hmmm

    What is truly sad is that when Ron Paul was on the stump he really did fill stadiums with people who wanted to hear his message. And the media did the same photoshop lies except they took people out of the pictures..............The main stream American media is part of the 1% for the 1% and by the 1%.

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  2. Does the Romney campaign hire graphics guys who are just high all the time? Who thought that they could pull this crap off? I guess Romney, the born liar and Mormon bishop.

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  3. This is the fundamental problem with Mormonism and its separating the Logos from The Father in the Trinity. Instead of having a trinitarian God, Mormons split the god into its three personages. This allows for a God (The Father) to act without regard to the Logos (Logic). In other words, it allows for a deceitful flippant inconsistent illogical God.

    And the Father figure is an exemplar for the Ruler/Leader -- which explains much of why Romney lies the way he does. He's not interested in TRUTH. He's ONLY interested in PERSUASION.

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    Replies
    1. "Logic" is not the translation of "Logos."

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  4. Please do not take this as my being a supported of Romney, I am disgusted with both candidates, and will continue to be disgusted with most politicians for a long while. The image, if taken from instgagram leads me to believe all images were taken on a smart phone. I have done panorama shots on my phone before that looked similarly "jacked up". 2 doors, 3 arms, .etc, .etc... Again, not trying to knock your rant or anything, but there is a realistic possibility of just a simple panoramic stitching error.

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  5. Anon @7:50 : a fine, thought provoking reading of the Mormon identified, uh, intellect. of course such things can only be signposts: an analysis, by analogy, in the literary sense of the word, rather than the chemical. (and lets not let biocentrism distract here, for the objectivity of the world out there is a useful trope when sorting babies from bath water).

    not to denigrate the analysis, of course, neither in its theological nor literary sense: i majored in literature, and am a keen student of the divine. but i must ask: why then are all those (sociopath) politicians who are, oh, Catholic or Protestant or Hindi or Muslim or Jew -- why are THEY "ONLY interested in PERSUASION"?

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  6. anonymous @8:23 good point.

    anonymous @8:22 hmm. well thank you; i had fun photoshopping it the other way, but i hear you. i suppose there are enough things to dislike the Romney for, without resorting to fabrication.

    after i make myself a cup of coffee to go with the wonderful apple pear pie that just came out of the oven, i will update.

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  7. Logos is most DEFINITELY Logic. The translation in the bible to "word" is incorrect. The Greek word for "word" is "Lexis" not "Logos".

    Logos is the rational element of God at work in the universe. Go read Heraclitus and Philo of Alexandria. Go look at Aristotle and the three forms of Rhetoric: Logos, Pathos, Ethos.

    "Logos (Logical) means persuading by the use of reasoning. This will be the most important technique we will study, and Aristotle's favorite. We'll look at deductive and inductive reasoning, and discuss what makes an effective, persuasive reason to back up your claims. Giving reasons is the heart of argumentation, and cannot be emphasized enough. We'll study the types of support you can use to substantiate your thesis, and look at some of the common logical fallacies, in order to avoid them in your writing. "

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  8. Anonymous @9:42

    I have a degree in Philosophy, and understand the progression of the Logos throughout history -- especially during the period of ancient Greek and Roman history. My university required us to have a 'cultural requirement', so Ancient Greek and Roman history was a perfect fit for my degree.

    The Logos was considered to be the Active Intellect of God at work in the Universe -- LOGIC. It's a bit more complicated than just "Logic", but it definitely must include Logic. It's what causes the galaxy to swirl, for example -- it's what gives the universe its logical characteristic.

    As for why "Logos" was translated into "Word" in John 1:1 -- pretty simple. The King wouldn't want that. The three forms of Rhetoric are Logos, Pathos, and Ethos -- Logic, Emotionalism, and Authoritarianism. The TRUE Christian must always choose Logos over Pathos and Ethos. So they translated that problem right away -- into "word". Which is silly, because any student of Greek knows that "Lexis" is the Greek word for "word", not "Logos".

    So the King got his translation which permitted the "It's right because the KING says so!" arguments to follow. The King got to act independent of Logos.

    If you take a look at the Mormon belief system, you'll see a tremendous disdain for the Greek/Hellenistic element of Christianity. They're far more "Might makes Right" Romanesque, and have no use for the Greek philosophers who laid the foundation of Christianity.

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