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Putin on the Ritz

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Re: Putin on the Ritz

#71

Post by aaronem »

robmcm wrote: post #20
rayiner wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We've reached a point in time when we can start actually faking history. It has always been possible to fake history, inadvertently or intentionally. There was a narrow stretch of time when photography became widespread which made it a bit harder to fake history, but photographs were being faked and staged long before we had computers to do digital editing of them. And before we had photographs, it was possible to…

There is an interesting thoery called Phantom Time http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_time_hypothesis related to a preiod in the middle ages that may not have existed. supposedly a king wanted to be on the throne during the millennium so faked a few hundred years of history. If true we would only be in the 17th or 18th century. Which may explain why the world didn't end in 2012, or why there still aren't hover boar…

Here's a conspiracy theory for you: Pratchett's History Monks exist, and this was their doing. But nothing much happened during those three centuries anyway, not even the horse collar, and such stretches of fallow time come in handy when you've also got to worry about centuries like the nineteenth and twentieth, where a mere hundred years doesn't start to be enough time for everything to happen in.

Re: Putin on the Ritz

#72

Post by [deleted] »

aleyan wrote: post #33

Trust is something hard to come by and when dealing with foreign sources you have to rely on translators and their issues. What is worse, even if the translators are reliable, alterations can be made after the fact, but verification is difficult because of language barriers. Here is an example that my father found about Putin's person of the year interview with Time. Time published a full transcript [1] in English an…

[deleted]

Re: Putin on the Ritz

#73

Post by jff »

aaronem wrote: post #68
t59769 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am skeptical of anyone using the expression "conspiracy theory nonsense" so casually.

I can't think why. Almost all conspiracy theory is compounded of excess credulity, overactive pattern-matching, and reheated leftover California counter-culture convictions regarding the so-called "Establishment".

Somehow managing to believe everything while believing nothing. Aliens at Roswell? Sure! US managed to land on the moon? Ridiculous!

Re: Putin on the Ritz

#76

Post by yapcguy »

wozniacki wrote: post #52
sz4kerto wrote: post #24

Haha, the modified photo appeared in a satirical post on Index.hu, there's nothing to see here people, move on. :) http://index.hu/szarvas/2014/02/11/ader_alair/ Here're the other posts from the same series: http://index.hu/szarvas/ All entries are simple montages, they're only funny for people who know Hungarian politics, but for them they're quite obvious. Edit: the man in the middle of the photo is the Hungarian P…

PRESIDENT OBAMA ON PUTIN: I don't have a bad personal relationship with Putin. When we have conversations, they're candid, they're blunt, oftentimes they're constructive. I know the press likes to focus on body language and he's got that kind of slouch, looking like the bored kid in the back of the classroom. [1] Putting Russia-United States relations aside, I thought that was a spot-on description of Vladimir Putin'…

This article offers an interesting look at Russia-US relations:

"Diagnosing Sochi Media Coverage: Virulent Russophobia...

The water, the toilets, the hotels – nothing pleases our pampered media divas, whose hatred of all things Russian oozes from between the lines of their "reporting" like pus from an old wound."

All the antipathy we saw aimed at Russia during the cold war years is now being revomited up by the political class, albeit in a new flavor: instead of genuine martyrs like Andrei Sakharov and Alexandr Solzhenitsyn being lionized, we see the professional provocateurs of "Pussy Riot" elevated by Western media to the status of "dissident" stars.

http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2014/02/09/diagnosing-soc...

Re: Putin on the Ritz

#77

Post by voidlogic »

seren wrote: post #10
rayiner wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We've reached a point in time when we can start actually faking history. It has always been possible to fake history, inadvertently or intentionally. There was a narrow stretch of time when photography became widespread which made it a bit harder to fake history, but photographs were being faked and staged long before we had computers to do digital editing of them. And before we had photographs, it was possible to…

And the further back we go in time, the less independent reporter we can find. For example, how much can you trust Caesar's account of its campaign in Gaul ?

No more than I would trust a Bill Clinton or George W. Bush autobiography- but all these types of works provide fascinating insight into the psychology of the people involved, just maybe not the facts of events :)

Although, even from Ceasers time we can find accounts by other Romans, Greeks, etc and use archeology to see where he is likely bending the truth.

The problem now days is accounts of events, due to ease of communication, while more plentiful are less independent.

Re: Putin on the Ritz

#78

Post by aaronem »

jff wrote: post #73
aaronem wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't think why. Almost all conspiracy theory is compounded of excess credulity, overactive pattern-matching, and reheated leftover California counter-culture convictions regarding the so-called "Establishment".

Somehow managing to believe everything while believing nothing. Aliens at Roswell? Sure! US managed to land on the moon? Ridiculous!

I'm still surprised, when I bother to think about it, that no eager beaver has come up with the idea that perhaps the US did land on the moon, but only thanks to alien technology reverse-engineered from the remains of 1947 Roswell crash.

Re: Putin on the Ritz

#79

Post by laumars »

aaronem wrote: post #78
jff wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somehow managing to believe everything while believing nothing. Aliens at Roswell? Sure! US managed to land on the moon? Ridiculous!

I'm still surprised, when I bother to think about it, that no eager beaver has come up with the idea that perhaps the US did land on the moon, but only thanks to alien technology reverse-engineered from the remains of 1947 Roswell crash.

I can't speak for your specific example, but there are some theories that equate the massive technology leap we had in the 50s->present day has been due to reverse engineered alien technology.

In fact Star Trek: Voyager did a two part episode that used this conspiracy theory as part of the main story line.

Re: Putin on the Ritz

#80

Post by coldtea »

GotAnyMegadeth wrote: post #48
coldtea wrote: post #47

> Kim Jong Il rarely appeared in digitally altered photos. Instead, he did a different type of misdirection. In almost every photo of him, KJI wore the same clothing. It's as if he only owned one set of clothing (or a closet full of the same discount gray suits). This wasn't because KJI had no taste. Instead, it allowed his counter-intelligence people to publish any photo of him over the decades as if it were a recen…

If you were ill and worried that a political rival might take the chance to over throw you, you could publish photos of you looking fine, doing dictator stuff, and they'd never know...

But actual people in your circles (including rivals) WOULD know. They don't get their information from pictures, the masses do that.
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