September 26, 2002

11:40 AM

cool or creepy?apple is hyping the way forensic detectives in a southern town have gone mac. are we supposed to focus on the guy with the ipod or the corpse on his screen?
posted by subpixel (32 comments total)

I think the "please kill me" look on his face is the creepy part.
posted by interrobang at 11:46 AM on September 26, 2002

Forensic photographer Gary Knight listens to music on his iPod as he organizes CCBI’s crime scene photos.

How is that supposed to help boost Apple's sales? I'd love to check out his playlist, BTW.
posted by falameufilho at 11:46 AM on September 26, 2002

Isn't that Ellen Feiss?
posted by byort at 11:50 AM on September 26, 2002

Definately creepy... Though if you are going to look at images of dead people all day, at least you can do it on a crisp colorful stylish cinema display!

The other nice thing about Apples is that all the smooth polycarbonate plastic is much easier to clean blood off of than the bumpy beige plastic of PCs, which seems to take more work to clean. And when my ipod has blood all over it, the last thing I want to be doing is scrubbing, I want to wipe it clean, and get back to my showtunes!
posted by phidauex at 11:55 AM on September 26, 2002

And who's the dead guy in the ditch? Some dude who wouldn't think different?

Definitely creepy.
posted by maudlin at 11:56 AM on September 26, 2002

Wait a minute. This apple...it vibrates?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 11:57 AM on September 26, 2002

Personally, I find this hysterical. This is an ad campaign I'd devise just to see if the suits would buy it.

Besides, that guy clearly does think different.
posted by Dark Messiah at 11:58 AM on September 26, 2002

I'd love to check out his playlist, BTW.

Lots of Nick Cave. Well, either that or ABBA.
posted by phong3d at 11:58 AM on September 26, 2002

He's listening to the Grateful Dead.
posted by ColdChef at 11:59 AM on September 26, 2002

I say Tom Waits. Or these guys. Or maybe them. Or. . .
posted by gottabefunky at 12:04 PM on September 26, 2002

I'd love to see them plug in their digital camera full of gruesome pics, watch iPhoto import them all automatically and then pop up a cheerful dialog box that says:
"Would you like to email these to your friends?"
posted by machaus at 12:15 PM on September 26, 2002

I bet these are what he's listening to.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 12:18 PM on September 26, 2002

Gruesomeness aside, it seems to be a really good fit: Transitioning from the expensive analog photography techniques to the less-expensive digital ones will save a lot of money.
posted by o2b at 12:18 PM on September 26, 2002

"Would you like to email these to your friends?"

Or better yet: "Would you like to make a hard-cover book?"
posted by damclean2 at 12:44 PM on September 26, 2002

interesting since i recognize the crime scene in the lower photo, infact i pan on going to a show this evening a stones throw from the dead body. wonder when it happened?

creepy yet cool since it is so wierd. and of course who realy cares anyways.
posted by proof_nc at 12:49 PM on September 26, 2002

This reminds me of a scene in the film "Mad Dog & Glory", where Robert De Niro's cop plays the song "A White Sports Coat and A Pink Carnation" on a bar jukebox while examining a corpse.
posted by liam at 12:57 PM on September 26, 2002

interesting since i recognize the crime scene in the lower photo, infact i pan on going to a show this evening a stones throw from the dead body. wonder when it happened?

I think you already know, little camper.
posted by interrobang at 1:08 PM on September 26, 2002

Ooh, you've been little-campered
posted by gottabefunky at 1:17 PM on September 26, 2002

I never knew that bodies ended up exactly like the tape outlines in every drawing of tape outlines I have ever seen.
posted by mss at 1:30 PM on September 26, 2002

Wow. I used to sell forensic equipment until I got out of that business...to sell Mac's. That's just plain wierd.
posted by fatbobsmith at 1:34 PM on September 26, 2002

liam:This reminds me of a scene in the film "Mad Dog & Glory", where Robert De Niro's cop plays the song "A White Sports Coat and A Pink Carnation" on a bar jukebox while examining a corpse.

I watched this movie again last week and I'm pretty sure that it was "Just a Gigolo (ain't' got nobody)" performed by Louis Prima.

But it was a good call, anyway...
posted by rexgregbr at 1:34 PM on September 26, 2002

interesting since i recognize the crime scene in the lower photo, infact i pan on going to a show this evening a stones throw from the dead body. wonder when it happened?

That photo looks staged. Why would you take a crime scene photo of some policeman kneeling over the body with flashlight? Wouldn't you want photos of the area before it's been disturbed? (Maybe he's the suspect and they caught him redhanded?)
posted by joaquim at 3:18 PM on September 26, 2002

Interesting that the forensics folks had to get the state Attorney General to write a letter assuring local district attorneys that manipulation of digital images wasn't any more of a problem than manipulation of "regular" photos.

Btw, the "southern town" under discussion happens to be Raleigh, NC - the state capital. Hi, proof_nc :)
posted by mediareport at 5:11 PM on September 26, 2002

I think it's cool — but then, for my birthday my girlfriend gave me a drawing she did of a polar bear gnawing on a child's severed arm. (I met her when I bought her painting of three sea birds roosting on a floating corpse.) So maybe I'm not the best judge.
posted by nicwolff at 5:43 PM on September 26, 2002

Thanks, revgregbr. I always liked that scene, and have been misremembering it all along. I should watch the movie again too.
posted by liam at 5:52 PM on September 26, 2002

~takes another look at the article after hearing "Raleigh"~
By Golly, you're right...it says Wake County. Gee that looks a little like that creepy motel over by the dog food factory.

It is strange how the science of forensics has become so popular in the last few years. First there was the murder-solved-by-pathologist series of books by Patricia Cornwall, then the Autopsy series on HBO, Forensic Files on Court TV, CSI on CBS, etc. Why has this particular aspect of crime solving become so culturally pervasive?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 7:00 PM on September 26, 2002

Why has this particular aspect of crime solving become so culturally pervasive?

Has to do with the fact that it involves both grisly images and neato technology. I have to say, I find the science side of it just darn interesting. But then I was a PBS science show child, weaned on Cosmos and Nova.
posted by steviehero at 8:01 PM on September 26, 2002

i don't care either way. what i want to know is how he convinced his boss to ok the ipod purchase. i'm trying to score some new gear at work.

i like watching csi.

and macs really are good at working wiht photos. i've heard stories of people switching to macs just so they can use iphoto, which is apparently best of breed software. i like it but i don't take enough pictures to love it.
posted by complex at 9:04 PM on September 26, 2002

Man, this thread has me dying of laughter. [rimshot]
Just WHO is doing these ad campaigns for Apple?First, "Feisty Fleiss" and now "Creepiest/Nerdiest Detective Alive". I never really had much doubt as to who Apple was targeting with their stuff. Now, I'm absolutely convinced.
Seriously, though, for those of you who are actually concerned with the security/legal aspects of this new development [another rimshot], my thinking is that the security of those images is just not up to scratch. Maybe I've read Rising Sun too many times or something, but isn't photographic evidence suspect anyway, regardless of what it is used for?
posted by hoborg at 10:57 AM on September 27, 2002

isn't photographic evidence suspect anyway, regardless of what it is used for?

The article discusses that:

Compared with, say, a weapon, which is considered substantive evidence, a photograph is considered by law as illustrative evidence. “All of our crime scene photographs are used to illustrate an officer’s testimony that the photograph truly and actually represents the scene,” says Knight.

This kind of indirect, supporting evidence does not carry the same weight as direct evidence and therefore it can be handled differently.
posted by mediareport at 2:59 PM on September 27, 2002

“! “! “!

*bangs head on keyboard*

Retype all quote marks in blocks of copied text Retype all quote marks in blocks of copied text Retype all quote marks in blocks of copied text Retype all quote marks in blocks of copied text

*sobs*
posted by mediareport at 3:01 PM on September 27, 2002

All I can say is, I sure *would* be worried if juries are composed of people like those among my fellow MeFites, who are neither

(a) capable of recognizing the hallmarks of a blatantly-staged photograph; nor
(b) using the common sense (aka "bullshit detector") they're equipped with by birthright. Which should be telling them that Apple, or any company, is certainly *not* going to use an actual, human victim of what is apparently death by misadenture, at the very least, in their advertising.

Not in our litigious age, no sirree.
posted by adamgreenfield at 4:35 AM on September 28, 2002