You are probably already aware of the Hacker factor website. We have mentioned it before for its useful explanations and analyses regarding photo manipulations and media fakery.
Only recently on the blog there was a pretty interesting post about "virtual models" (on this forum we would call them "sim-models") and the manipulated appearance of the products they advertise, as especially used in fashion.
The person running the website is one Dr. Neal Krawetz. I don't know who he is, but I like how his blog seems to be also branching a little into the less innocuous world of news and global affairs. Just today he posted about the death of Kim Jong Il, advancing reasonable doubts as to the circumstances of the dictator's death, especially in relation to the too quick embalming of the corpse.
Pretty interesting stuff. And there's more:For example, the news releases leave out a details, like "where was the train when this happened?" Was he in North Korea, Russia, or China? I mean, they didn't even report his death until nearly 48 hours later. If he died outside North Korea, then it could take a day to get his body back home... (Let's spawn conspiracies by postulating that he could have been killed by the Russians or Chinese.)
The second oddity to this story are the photos that came out today. When leaders die, it is not uncommon to have them embalmed and put on display. This process typically takes several days to a week. The photos show Kim Jong Il served under glass. Based on the timeline provided by the news reports, he was placed there no more than three days after his reported death. This seems very quick to me. I mean, he allegedly died on Dec 17, had an autopsy on Dec 18, and was put on display on the 20th. The autopsy should have been done before the embalming. And it would take a few days to run blood tests. This, together with the preparation for public display (i.e., embalming, putting makeup on a corpse, dressing him, etc.), had to take more than 24 hours.
In other words: the news reports are lying. He likely died a week ago (or longer). The most recent photos of Kim Jong Il, collected by the Huffington Post, are dated 24-August-2011. So that gives about a four-month window for him to have actually died... assuming that he wasn't already dead and that the photos are not body-doubles, as some blogs reported a year ago. (In September 2010, Kim Jong Il named his son as the heir apparent, so he could have died around then.)
2011 has been a weird year. Even the death of Steve Jobs had something about it that didn't ring true! This makes me even more glad that there are out there other trained eyes and minds apparently willing to see, interpret and explain media fakery to the public.Finally, I can't help but think that there is some significance to reporting his death as December 17th. For example:
December 17, 2010: North Korea threatens to retaliate for a South Korean military drill.
December 17, 2008: North Korea releases photos of Kim Jong Il, in an effort to show that he isn't in failing health.
December 17, 2003: This is the date that North Korea wants to restart talks on nuclear weapons.
December 17, 1998: The Battle of Yosu, when North Korea attempted to invade South Korea.
December 17, 1994: North Korea shoots down a US Army helicopter when it strays north of the demilitarized zone.
