Fire!

A little piece of video I captured yesterday.
It is either the beginning of the 62 gun salute at The Tower in honour of the birthday of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
...or Boris Johnson has finally pushed the establishment too far.

Wives and Monarchs

The final version of Wednesday's Evening Standard had the front page headline "Queen in WAG Photos Storm". Apparently there is a huge row about the deal made by The Queen's grandson and his new wife with Hello magazine over photographs of their wedding. They are saying that it cheapens the monarchy to have HMQ displayed in pictures sold in such a commercial manner.

I say apparently, as I've not seen this "row" anywhere else. I can't help thinking that the Standard and the rest of the famously sleb-dependant Associated Newspapers group are more than a little bitter that they were not invited to the party.

BBC Ood

Here's something new that I have made. It's a variation on a theme of other stuff I have made, but after watching Planet of the Ood a couple of weeks back, this was a sequence which leapt out as needing this treatment:




UPDATE
If you can't see the embeded video above, then try this direct link to YouTube.

As an aside - YouTube really make it difficult to add widescreen content. Sort it out YouTube!

The News is Dead, Long Live the News

BBC News have decided to update their branding again (see previous post too). While I can see there is a degree of continuity of design in the titles, I think this version looks a bit too busy and confused. I prefered the previous one.
On a more positive note, and long overdue is the rename of "BBC News 24" to just "BBC News" or, if you insist, the "BBC News Channel". It was always an unwealdy name and struck me as trying a bit too hard to ram its rolling-ness down your throat.
What's nice for branding titles geeks like me is they have posted a veritable wealth of variations:
Here, here, here, here, here and here.

World’s Largest Tidal Turbine Successfully Installed

Via Digg.

The world’s largest tidal turbine, weighing 1000 tonnes, has been installed in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough. The tidal turbine is rated at 1.2 megawatts, which is enough to power a thousand local homes. It was built by Marine Current Turbines, and it will be the first commercial tidal turbine to produce energy.

Looks like a fantastic idea to me.
Famously both the Thames a Severn are significantly tidal, so if this is truly successful it would be well-worth exploiting there too.
As it's on a post it could also be an answer to the environmentalists concerns about traditional tidal barrages - that they block the flow of mud and silt and so destroy wetland habitats.

read more digg story

Changing Change

When the competition was first announced for redesigning our coins I fully expected to hate the result. The brief was to come up with something which better reflected a "modern Britain" so I was anticipating something trite and trying far too hard.

I have to say that I like them. The split design is innovative without trying too hard and means we can retain a degree of consistent heritage with the heraldic imagery we've had on our coins for the last ever.

It's also kind of fun that the press and others are already having fun with the images whether that's referring to the new Pound Coin design as the "Jigsaw Box" or nicknaming a Twenty Pence piece as a "Lion's Arse". The nicknames are something which has been lacking since decimalisation in 1971 so I hope that some stick, however crass.

As ever change is not without some controversy. It's a shame that there's no specific design for Wales as while we lose the old Two Pence Prince of Wales feathers. Britannia's loss is something else which some papers have been wailing about. However - the existing coins are not being withdrawn. They can last for decades so Britannia Fifty-pences will be around for a long while yet. I'd also be surprised if we don't end up with Britannia appearing again. Perhaps on a redesigned Two Pound coin using the brilliant new Britannia design currently appearing on the Mint's collector's coin for an ounce of silver. One thing which does puzzle (rather than bother) me is the fact that words have been chosen for the value in each case rather than figures. It will rely on everyone using them knowing English, at least for those few words.

Multi-Coloured Chick Shop

I find this kind of story disturbing enough with its misleading of impressionable young minds. However, what really boggles me in this story is the line:

The dye, which the farm insists does not contain chemicals, is injected into
ordinary chicken eggs a few weeks before Easter.

Does not contain chemicals - you may as well say it doesn't contain matter! I can't decide if this is sloppy journalism or stupidity on the part of the farm.