Fauxtography? Or serendipitously awesome camera work?

Oh, as for the runners all looking one direction, it’s certainly unlikely they would be looking at the bomb. Since the bomb’s laser guided, however, the plane that dropped it would still be in the area lasing its intended target. They could simply be looking at the plane, or at something else (like a helicopter or whatever) that coincidentally happened to be off in the same direction.

Blacklake on May 29, 2007 at 7:56 PM

The pixelation artifacts alone, as discussed on jawa, show this to be a cut-and-paste hoax. Why is there pixelation around the edges of the bomb but nowhere else?

No, they do not, and I just sent Jawa a lengthy e-mail explaining the many flaws with the analysis of one his commenters regarding the digital aspects of this image.

The pixelation is a natural artifact of jpeg compression. If you look closely, you can in fact see that there clearly is pixelation (more accurately, compression artifacts), in other places. The treelines exhibit them, the buildings do. Where you’ll find them most are anywhere you have borders with high contrast.

Because the bomb is small on screen and surrounded by high-contrast blue sky, it suffers somewhat more from the .jpg compression process than some other areas of the image. (Also, because the sky is a uniform blue, the artifacts are particularly easy to pick out). But as somebody who deals with .jpg images literally on a daily basis, cutting, pasting, and other manipulating them in Photoshop, I can assure you, the artifacts you see here are entirely appropriate and absolutely do not indicate deliberate manipulation (though they don’t preclude it, either).

Blacklake on May 29, 2007 at 8:54 PM

The “missile” is probably a cut & paste of a JDAM,

Folks, you have to do at least some minimal research before you go crazy with this stuff. It’s clearly not a JDAM. It doesn’t even vaguely resemble a JDAM, beyond the fact that it’s longer than it is wide. There’s more than enough detail to illustrate without doubt that it’s a Paveway series LGB (the generation is not so clear–could be anything from a II to a IV).

Here, look for yourselves:
http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app5/paveway-2.html

But see how big it is in proportion to the people? It would have to be at least a 2,000 pounder to look that big, and see how small the explosion is?

The proportion to the people means nothing, as you don’t know the distance of the bomb or the depth-of-field of the camera. The proportion of the parts of the guidance kit (comprised of attachments to the tail and nose) to the core bomb does. Based on those proportions, it is clearly not a 2,000 bomb. The proportions appear to match those of a 500 lb device (see the above link again for reference).

What would a laser guided bomb, missle, or whatever be doing to draw peoples attention to it AND give them time to start running in the right direction? Anyone who can’t answer that question first should just move to a different thread.

It would be being dropped by a plane. The appearance of the plane would draw people’s attention, and give them time to start running. As the bomb is an LGB, not a JDAM, the plane would be flying overhead to continue lasing its target point, as opposed to leaving the area, so would likely continue to draw attention while the bomb descended. May I stay in the thread?

Here is the disturbing thing about all of this. Conspiracists, whether they’re 9/11 Truthers or Moon Landing Deniers or Roswell Fanatics start with a premise they want to be true, then fixate on the task of making sure any evidence that emerges is parsed only so as to play into their delusions. They look at images they don’t understand, pretend to be experts on everything from photo manipulation to structural engineering to demolitions to aeronautics, and do everything else in their power to make sure that no conceivable evidence can get in the way of their premise, no matter how obvious it happens to be, or how outlandish their efforts to avoid it.

In the age of “fauxtography,” it is genuinely important to be vigilant for fraud. The only sound way to do this, however, is to look at evidence first, then form conclusions. It is vital that we not lapse into the dysfuntional thought patterns of conspiracists.

Many people in this thread are not avoiding that trap. They want it turn out that these images were manipulated, and by God, they’re not going to let anything get in their way.

This not only fails to serve them well, it undermines the goal of legimitely playing watchdog to the media. If we cry “faux” at every photo that emerges from Palestinian sources, including the ones that aren’t fake, or even that we have insufficient reason to conclude are fake, it will eventually become hard to take us seriously when we have a real fraud to decry.

I, too, wish these photos were fakes, as they will no doubt be used as anti-Irael propaganda. There is, unfortunately, no evidence beyond uneducated imagery analysis, partial-at-best knowledge of military procedures and materiel, and other bits of half-baked, ill-informed conjecture to back that notion.

Don’t be so quick to jump at shadows. Save your energy for the real fights.

Blacklake on May 29, 2007 at 11:45 PM

Laser guided bombs are most effective from a distance using a ground based laser unit or a different aircraft.

LGB targets can be lased by other aircraft or ground spotters, but aircraft also routinely self-designate, particularly dual-seaters tasked with ground attack, of which Israel has an ample supply (particularly in the form of F-16Ds, F-16I’s, and F-15I’s). LGB’s of this type are also gravity-fall weapons: the fins are there for steering, and do little if anything to extend range. As such they are useful from roughly the same range as any common bomb (i.e., short, not long). And in environments that are low threat from surface-to-air defenses, they’re routinely dropped from 10,000 feet or lower.

I try to watch the right movies.

Blacklake on May 30, 2007 at 11:10 AM