Watches Photography experts amazed at world's first lensman's pioneering technique

Photography experts amazed at world's first lensman's pioneering technique
Analysis of Joseph Nicéphore Niépce's work reveals baked lavender oil method used in first ever camera images

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce's View from the Window at Le Gras - thought to be the world's first photograph, taken in 1826 from the window of a French farmhouse. Photograph: AP
The grey, blurred images are not exactly easy on the eye, but they are three of the world's very first photographs and, it will be announced today, were made using a range of techniques including one previously undiscovered method.

Scientists will admit that they are having to rewrite the reference books for one of photography's true pioneers, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, the man widely acknowledged as the world's first photographer.

New analysis of three of the finest examples of Niépce's work, part of the national collection of photographs at Bradford, has astonished researchers.

They have always been hugely regarded but normally described as simple etched plates of pewter, created using a process that involved bitumen. Now,the Guardian can reveal, fresh technical analysis by Dusan Stulik and Art Kaplan at the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles has shown them to have been made by different photographic processes developed by Niépce. The most eye-opening is a plate called Un Clair de Lune which uses a chemical process not previously discovered; one that involved baking lavender oil to create the image.

The revelations shed new light on the early development of photography and raise Niépce's contribution even higher.

Stulik called the discoveries hugely significant. "This is something completely new in the history of photography. My eureka moment was finding that the plate was not an etched plate – we spent some time not believing what we were seeing.

"To see the whole range of experiments is absolutely amazing."

Philippa Wright, the National Media Museum's curator of photographs, recalled: "There was a moment when Dusan was looking down the microscope and he literally stopped breathing." Stulik added: "I did start breathing again."

The revelations will be made at a two-day conference on Niépce in England at the National Media Museum today and tomorrow where 120 delegates will gather from 10 countries to hear in full why the plates were brought to England and what happened to them afterwards.

The conference will hear details of recent advancements in scientific, art historical and conservation research and the three plates will be on display out of their frames – probably for the last ever time – so they can be looked at front and back.

Stulik said the research conclusions meant that even more respect is due to the French inventor, that he truly was the world's first photographer. "Our findings are shining a different light on the early history of photography than has been previously described in literature.
Coppied by http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/oct/13/photography-photography

Watch China and US in stand-off at climate talks

China and US in stand-off at climate talks


AFP/File – Smoke is seen rising from a chimmny in the northern port city of Tianjin where the UN Climate Change
TIANJIN, China (AFP) – UN climate talks were set to wrap up on Saturday with China and the United States locked in a stand-off, slowing down progress ahead of a major summit next month on global warming.
The major powers sparred throughout the six days of talks in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin, prompting the hosts to warn on the penultimate day that the atmosphere for negotiation had deteriorated.
"I want to emphasise no compromise... on the interests of developing countries," the Chinese foreign ministry's special representative for climate change, Huang Huikang, told delegates on Friday.
"We are losing trust and confidence."
Delegates from more than 170 countries attended the latest round of the long-running United Nations negotiations that are aimed at eventually securing a binding global treaty on how to limit and cope with climate change.
World leaders failed to broker such a treaty in Copenhagen last year as developed and developing nations battled over who should carry more of the burden in cutting greenhouse gas emissions that are blamed for global warming.
The Tianjin meeting was the last big gathering before an annual UN climate summit, which will be held in Cancun, Mexico, from November 29 to December 10.
Delegates reported that progress had been made on some specific issues in Tianjin, but many others also said that negotiations were not moving quickly enough to limit global warming below dangerous levels.
"We want to call for greater urgency in the negotiations," Dessima Williams, Grenada delegate and chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, told reporters on Friday.
"We have seen some movement, we are pleased with the engagement and the atmosphere, but there's much more that needs to be done and greater urgency is needed."
Chinese delegate Huang on Friday repeated China's long-held positions that for progress to be made the United States and other rich nations must commit to making bigger cuts in emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
He said they must also give money and transfer technology to developing countries to help them cut their emissions and adapt to climate change.
"Now the key is there is a lack of substantive progress on the developed countries' side," Huang said.
The United States, meanwhile, has insisted all week that it will not provide climate funds unless the big developing countries such as China allow their greenhouse gas emission reduction efforts to be monitored and verified.
Coppied by http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101009/wl_asia_afp/unclimatewarmingwrap

Watches Zimbabwe PM Tsvangirai lashes out at President Mugabe

Zimbabwe PM Tsvangirai lashes out at President Mugabe


Morgan Tsvangirai (R) has shared power with President Robert Mugabe since February 2009
Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has accused President Robert Mugabe of violating the constitution and unilateral decision-making.

Mr Tsvangirai said his MDC party would not recognise any key appointments made by Mr Mugabe in the past 18 months, including governors, judges and envoys.

He also urged the international community to do the same.

Mr Tsvangirai formed a power-sharing government with bitter rival Mr Mugabe in 2009 after disputed elections.

Under their coalition deal, the two politicians agreed to draw up a new constitution followed by a referendum and then fresh elections.

'Racist agenda'
"We will refuse to recognise any of the appointments which the president has made illegally and unconstitutionally over the last 18 months," Mr Tsvangirai said at a news conference in Harare on Thursday.

He said the disputed appointments included the central bank governor, the attorney general, five judges, six ambassadors and the police commission.

Mr Tsvangirai also voiced his "disgust" over Mr Mugabe's unilateral decision to re-appoint 10 provincial governors last week.

"I have defended President Robert Mugabe at my own cost politically. But neither I nor the MDC can stand back any longer and just allow President Mugabe and the Zanu-PF to defy the law, to flaunt the constitution, and to act as if they own this country," he said.

The MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) leader also accused the president of refusing to swear in white farmer Roy Bennett, the prime minister's choice for the post of deputy agriculture minister.

Mr Bennett was tried earlier this year on charges of plotting to oust Mr Mugabe and found not guilty.
coppied by http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11498290

Watch Archbishop Desmond Tutu end public career at 79

Archbishop Desmond Tutu end public career at 79


A look back at Archbishop Desmond Tutu's career
Archbishop Desmond Tutu is stepping down from public life, as he celebrates his 79th birthday.

The man described as the "conscience" of South Africa was a prominent voice during the country's struggle against white minority rule.

Continue reading the main story
Related stories

Archbishop Tutu in his own words
Profile: Archbishop Desmond Tutu
He has since been the voice of reconciliation in a number of regional conflicts.

But the Nobel Peace prize winner says he wants to spend more time with his family and watching cricket.

He also says he wants to make way for a new generation of leaders.

BBC Southern Africa correspondent Karen Allen says Archbishop Tutu is a man widely considered as a moral compass in South Africa, admired for his integrity and adored for his infectious laugh.

Resentment and digestion
As a young cleric back in the 1970s, he was a vocal critic of the apartheid regime.

In the mid-1980s, when South Africa was still under white minority rule, he campaigned in the townships - on one occasion famously wading into the frontline to call for calm when a mob tried to lynch a suspected undercover policeman.

Continue reading the main story
The story so far: Tutu timeline

Born 1931
1970s: Became prominent as apartheid critic
1984: Awarded Nobel Peace Prize
1986: First black Archbishop of Cape Town
1995: Appointed head of Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Strong critic of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, Israel's policy against Palestinians and US-led war in Iraq
What is Archbishop Tutu's legacy?
He became the first black archbishop of Cape Town in 1986.
Coppied by http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11489794

Excited At least 53 dead as car bombs target Iraq police

At least 53 dead as car bombs target Iraq police


AFP – An injured child is carried by her mother following a car bomb in a residential neighbourhood in the
BAGHDAD (AFP) – More than a dozen apparently coordinated car bombs targeting Iraqi police and other attacks blamed on Al-Qaeda killed 53 people on Wednesday, just days before the US military ends its combat mission.
The trail of bloodshed started in the capital Baghdad before stretching to the north and south of the country, hitting 10 cities and towns in quick succession in tactics that bore the hallmark of the jihadist network.
Some 250 people were also wounded, security officials said, as a total of 14 car bombs wrought havoc for police and soldiers whose ability to protect the country is under close scrutiny as US forces have drawn down.
In the deadliest attack, a car bomb at a passport office in Kut, southeast of Baghdad, killed 20 people, including 15 police, and wounded 90 others, most of them police, Lieutenant Ali Hussein told AFP.
In Baghdad, a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle at a police station in the northeastern suburb of Qahira, killing 15 people and wounding dozens more, security and medical officials said.
The attack in the mixed Sunni-Shiite neighbourhood took place at around 8 am (0500 GMT), according to an interior ministry official who gave the toll. "The victims included policemen and civilians," he said.
A doctor at Medical City Hospital said they had received the bodies of two women, two children and two police officers, and that 44 other people were receiving treatment.
A spike in unrest over the past two months has triggered concern that Iraqi forces are not yet ready to handle security on their own, especially with no new government formed in Baghdad since a March 7 general election.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blamed Wednesday's attacks on Al-Qaeda and remnants of the Baath party of now executed dictator Saddam Hussein, who he said wanted "to shake people's confidence in the security forces."
"They (the security forces) are ready to bear the responsibility after US (combat) forces withdraw at the end of August," Maliki said in a statement.
The US army announced on Tuesday that troop levels were below 50,000 in line with President Barack Obama's directives as part of a "responsible drawdown" of troops, seven years on from the invasion which ousted Saddam.
The reduction has raised fears that Qaeda-linked insurgents will step up their attacks.
A separate car bomb in Baghdad killed two police and wounded seven civilians in the city centre, while two other police were shot dead in Al-Amel, a southern district, the interior ministry official said.
In the north of the country, a car bomb in the ethnically divided, oil hub of Kirkuk killed one person and wounded 11, said Colonel Adel Zain al-Abideen, the city's acting chief of police.
In Iraq's main northern city of Mosul, a car bomb killed four civilians and gunmen killed a lieutenant colonel at a police checkpoint.
In Muqdadiya, northeast of Baghdad, a car bomb exploded as a police patrol passed, killing three civilians. When troops arrived to investigate, a second bomb exploded, wounding six soldiers.
In western Iraq, three people, two of them police, were killed and 16 wounded in two car bombs, one of them at a police checkpoint in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, a security official said.

coppied by http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100825/wl_afp/iraqunrestpolice

Jennifer Aniston's new movie The Switch bombs at box office as The Expendables stays at No.1 for a second week

Jennifer Aniston's new movie The Switch bombs at box office as The Expendables stays at No.1 for a second week


Talk to the hand: Jennifer Aniston arrives at the Jon Stewart Show in New York last week
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1305324/Jennifer-Anistons-new-movie-The-Switch-bombs-box-office-The-Expendables-stays-No-1-second-week.html#ixzz0xPBs8M1r
The turkey baster mover starring Jennifer Aniston is officially a turkey. 'The Switch,' performed badly in its opening weekend at the U.S. box office scoring only eighth place and grossing a mere $8.1 million dollars.
Even Aniston's recent regrettable and forgettable comedy Bounty Hunter with Gerard Butler earned $20 million in its opening weekend.
Reviewers panned the film with Us Weekly's Thelma Adams stating that Aniston 'treads on all-too-familiar ground; there isn't an exasperated hair flip we haven't already seen 100 times.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1305324/Jennifer-Anistons-new-movie-The-Switch-bombs-box-office-The-Expendables-stays-No-1-second-week.html#ixzz0xPBoJfca
The sperm donor film starring the 41-year-old actress and Jason Bateman was no match for the Sylvestser Stallone vehicle The Expendables, which maintained its number one spot for the second weekend running. The film has now grossed $64.9 million.
The Switch was also beaten at the box office by the Twilight spoof Vampires Suck, which grabbed second place with $12.2 million, Bow Wow's Lottery Ticket at number 4 with $11 million and Piranha 3-D at number six with $10 million.
Following this latest flop for the former Friends star, the New York Post contemplated whether Aniston chooses her movies based on what is happening in her life at the time.
The Post notes: 'In her newest movie, The Switch, Aniston plays a character that has no husband or boyfriend, which is decidedly inconvenient considering her time to have a child is running out.
'It's funny, cause that's the exact same situation the real Aniston wakes up to each and every morning (minus the stupendous dimmers that Brad Pitt personally installed in the house they lived in together, and the weighted knowledge that he now has six children that she did not give him).'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1305324/Jennifer-Anistons-new-movie-The-Switch-bombs-box-office-The-Expendables-stays-No-1-second-week.html#ixzz0xPByrOVb

Tender moment: Aniston and co-star Jason Bateman share a quiet moment in The Switch, which only reached No.8 in the U.S. box office in its opening weekend

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1305324/Jennifer-Anistons-new-movie-The-Switch-bombs-box-office-The-Expendables-stays-No-1-second-week.html#ixzz0xPCGuo5s
Both Aniston's career and her love life have been chequered with her former beaus including Brad Pitt, Vince Vaughn and John Mayer.
Now Aniston is having to talk about a date she went on with American comedian and talk show host Jon Stewart over a decade ago.
Last week, Aniston was a guest on Jon's show, 'The Daily Show' - one of many she went on to plug her movie- when he reminded her of a romantic Italian dinner they shared in New York.
However, they both had conflicting recollections of the evening.
Said Stewart: 'I asked you out and it was lovely. I remember you brought so many of your friends.
'And I remember thinking, "She's so excited to be on a date with me, she wants me to get to know her posse."'
However, Aniston responded: 'If I remember correctly, wasn't it sort of like, "Hey, a group of us are going out, do you want to join?"'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1305324/Jennifer-Anistons-new-movie-The-Switch-bombs-box-office-The-Expendables-stays-No-1-second-week.html#ixzz0xPCJiQXy

Sylvester Stallone and his co-stars have plenty to smile about as their movie The Expendables topped the US box office for the second week running

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1305324/Jennifer-Anistons-new-movie-The-Switch-bombs-box-office-The-Expendables-stays-No-1-second-week.html#ixzz0xPCig7wS
Coppied by http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1305324/Jennifer-Anistons-new-movie-The-Switch-bombs-box-office-The-Expendables-stays-No-1-second-week.html

US stars dominate races at London Grand Prix

Watches this US stars dominate races at London Grand Prix
Americans David Oliver and Allyson Felix were the class acts on the second day of the London Grand Prix as British athletes once again struggled.
Oliver, the dominant sprint hurdler of the year, barrelled to a decisive victory in the 110m hurdles with a meeting record of 13.06 secs.
And Felix, winner over 200m on Friday night, added the 400m to her list of honours with a hard-fought win over Tatyana Firova and Debbie Dunn.
The home nation's medal-winning heroes from the European Championships again failed to translate their Spanish form to the colder conditions of south London and tough standards of the Diamond League.
The high points were personal bests for Eilidh Child in the 400m hurdles (by 0.01 seconds) and double bronze medallist Perri Shakes-Drayton in the 400m.
The muscular Oliver, who came within a whisker of Dayron Robles's world record in Paris in July, was clear off the second hurdle and went away from Dwight Thomas of Jamaica to add another race to his unbeaten run in 2010.
Oliver said afterwards: "I wanted that Diamond League title - that was my number one goal this season. I've finally been healthy this year and things are working out."


Three-time world champion Dwight Phillips was the class act in the long jump, making light of a difficult wind in front of the main stand to find a leap of 8.18m with his fourth round effort.
European bronze medallist Chris Tomlinson had a best of 7.92m in the same round for third behind Denmark's Morten Jensen. "I'm not happy with the jumps but I'm happy with the victory," said Phillips.
Wallace Spearmon dominated the men's 200m, pulling clear over the last 40 metres to win in 20.12 from Churandy Martina and Jaysuma Saidy Ndure.
Christian Malcolm, who was just one one-hundredth of a second away from European gold a fortnight ago, trailed home last in 20.81, with British team-mate Marlon Devonish in fifth.
Spearmon said: "I haven't won here since 2005, so it's great to come out on top here."
Britain's men also disappointed in the Emsley Carr Mile. Andy Baddeley had been strongly fancied for the European title but followed his poor performance in Barcelona with 11th place here, seven seconds down on winner Augustine Choge. Tom Lancashire was ninth.
The United States's Marshevet Myers was a surprise winner of a loaded 100m, holding off the favourite Carmelita Jeter and a field that included Sherone Simpson, Kelly-Ann Baptiste and Aleen Bailey in an impressive time of 11.01.
Myers said: "I had a great race and I'm now ready to go back to work. I knew it was going to be a hot race - the girls were very talented - so I just had to focus on my lane and running through the line."
New European champion Mariya Savinova kicked clear of Kenya's 2007 world champion Janeth Jepkosgei to win the 800m in 1:58.64, with Britain's Jemma Simpson coming through late for third.
Jenny Meadows, bronze medallist at the Europeans, was fifth with Lisa Dobriskey, normally a 1500m specialist, clocking a personal best of 2:00.14 in seventh.
Simpson was pleased afterwards with her 1:59.26. She said: "I'm getting there and getting more and more consistent - next year it's going to come."
Meadows was less happy with her display. "I made an absolute hash of that between 300m and 200m to go," she admitted. "I got boxed in and had to do a few steps almost on the spot. I was really annoyed with myself."
As well as a personal best it was a new Scottish record for Child as she clocked 55.16 for third in the 400m hurdles.
With Jamaica's Kaliese Spencer streaking clear, Child fought hard down the blustery home straight to hang on to second-placed Zuzana Hejnova, with European champion Natalya Antyukh down in sixth.
In the stadium where Britain's Steve Backley set the world record 20 years ago, Norway's Olympic, World and European champion Andreas Thorkildsen produced a throw of 87.38m to maintain his position atop the Diamond League rankings.


Germany's Matthias de Zordo was 41 centimetres back in second, with Finland's Tero Pitkamaki having to settle for third with a second-round effort of 82.24m.
Kate Dennison finished a respectable third in the pole vault, clearing 4.46m but failing with three attempts at a new British record height of 4.61m.
She was beaten on count-back by Brazil's Fabiana Murer and Israel's Jilian Schwartz, all three clearing the same height, but among her scalps was former world champion Svetlana Feofanova.
Russia's Ivan Ukhov, infamous for his drunken antics in Lausanne two years ago, took the high jump with 2.29m while Kenya's Milcah Chemos kicked past Yuliya Zarudneva to steal the women's 3,000m steeplechase on the line in a new meet record of 9 mins 22.49 secs.
There was also a personal best of 63.35m for Brett Morse, British discus number one, in a competition won by Olympic and world champion Gerd Kanter. The shot put was won by United States's former world champion Reece Hoffa with a season's best of 21.44m.
Coppied by http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/athletics/8914660.stm

Now watches see Final plug on Gulf oil leak at least days away

We are saw this Final plug on Gulf oil leak at least days away

NEW ORLEANS – The government official overseeing the Gulf oil spill response said Saturday he wants additional tests done before ordering BP to finish drilling a relief well that will help plug the runaway well for good.
Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen told reporters it could be late Monday or early Tuesday before officials know the results of those tests, which will be designed to minimize any potential risks with the final plugging procedure.
If Allen gives his final order to proceed with the relief well then, it could be next weekend before the relief well intercepts the blown-out well. Once that happens, engineers will pump in mud and cement to plug the well from below, a process known as the bottom kill.
Before that happens, Allen wants to know if pressure inside the well has to be decreased. He has instructed BP to provide an analysis to determine if the bottom kill could risk damaging the well further without some kind of pressure relief.
BP began drilling its primary relief well in early May to permanently seal the ruptured well. But about two weeks ago, around the time the company had done a successful static kill pumping mud and cement into the top of the well, executives began signaling that the bottom kill procedure might not be done. In recent days, Allen suggested that was a possibility.
But pressure tests this week reaffirmed the original plan.
"The relief well will be finished and the bottom kill will be executed," he said.

A month after plugging the wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico, the waters that were once blackened with gushing crude are now a clear mossy green, lapping the sides of ships stationed near the wellhead. On Saturday, the only dark shadows on the water appeared to be caused by clouds in an otherwise clear sky.
Despite the end of the immediate disaster, however, about a dozen ships are located near the relief wells, overseeing undersea robots and standing by to help with any containment needs that might arise.
Several miles away, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel had been slowly circling the site, using sonar to search for undersea oil leaks that might have been pushed up from the pressure of the cap on the wellhead. The ship has taken 384 water samples since July 28 that were being sent back to a lab to be tested for oil and, if necessary, matched to the same crude that had soiled the Gulf.
So far, Anne K. Lynch, commanding officer of the Henry B. Bigelow, said crews have not found anything to suggest a significant leak since the July 15 blocking of the crude from gushing into the Gulf.
"There's nothing scary," she said.
Allen also said that BP's failed blowout preventer may be replaced before the relief well is completed. He said when it is replaced, officials will take precautions to preserve it for evidence.
Investigators want to analyze the contraption to determine why it failed to prevent the Deepwater Horizon explosion April 20 that killed 11 workers and caused 206 million gallons of oil to spew from the well a mile beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.
Meanwhile, BP warned residents of the Gulf region to watch out for scammers posing as company employees and seeking personal information or money for "safety training" and other purposes.
___
Associated Press Writer Noaki Schwartz contributed to this report from aboard the NOAA ship Henry B. Bigelow.
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