Nimbos

Merry Christmas 2009

2009-12-24T21:04:00.003Z

Today is the 25th anniversary of the broadcast of the final episode of The Box of Delights on BBC TV. Instead of Christmas cards (for I only post a few) here's a rather twee tribute this anniversary and to Christmas too.

A very merry Christmas to all of you at home.

For those of you who may be interested - the box animation was put together in Swift 3d then Flash and Adobe Premiere Elements. The music is the original piece taken by the BBC for The Box of Delights - a segment from Victor Hely-Hutchinson's Carol Symphony. The pictures were all taken in the heavy snow of February this year in and around Crystal Palace Park.

Derren Brown's Lottery

2009-09-12T11:46:00.004+01:00

I enjoyed Derren Brown's explanation on how the lottery was "predicted" last night. The wisdom of groups thing and especially the automatic writing thing are pure bunkum.

For the group of 24 predicters - did none of them question why at the main draw, and for the first time, it was Derren who did the maths and not someone from their group? So yes - I beleive the group of predictors were lied to.

This is my take:

We know Derren spoke to Camelot for their agreement to do the stunt - I reckon they agreed to collude with him.
I don't think there is anything which says the draw has to come from the machine shown live. In fact - when the programme over-runs or is short some draws are made in advance and simply put up on the screen.
So the draw is run in advance of the TV show following the legal requirements and with the observers. This draw result is passed to Derren after he can buy a ticket, but before the live show.
The weighted balls are put into the machine and the machine is used simply to publish the draw result of earlier.
BBC has a legal right to publish the lotery results first. So Derren has to stay quiet (as he said he did). I never bought that a prediction cannot be published in advance, but if Derren knows the draw result he cannot legally publish it himself ahead of the BBC show.

So the clues are all there. The lottery draw isn't rigged, but the live machine is. All stays within the law and Derren does say how it was done in the Friday show.

So what's in it for Camelot? A lot of advertising. I'm willing to bet that lottery sales are up this week and they certainly advertised heavily during Derren's explanation show last night.

Elizabeth Cross

2009-07-06T16:15:00.003+01:00

Seeing this on the British Monarchy website today, I was hoping for a recording of HMQ in a strop.

That would have been a hit on teh internets, I'm sure.

However, it's actually a broadcast made on the introduction of a new medal to be named in her honour.

That said, if you've ever seen the face of Queen Victoria on her memorial in The Mall, you'll know that looks like Victoria cross...

48 Hour Bloopers

2009-05-04T23:01:00.002+01:00

Following on from our 48-hour film challenge entry Pressure Valve, here are the out-takes:

Tomato Plant Timelapse

2009-04-22T23:32:00.002+01:00

Something new what I made.

My first attempt at a time-lapse video. It's one of my tomato saplings growing. One frame taken every half-hour for nearly 5 days. I would have let it run longer, but some computer glitch scuppered it at about 2am this morning. Still - you can see the growth.

I may try cress next time.

Pressure Valve

2009-04-19T21:46:00.005+01:00

On a sunny weekend in early April 2009, The Middlemen assembled to make a film; an entry for the Sci Fi London 48 Hour film challenge.

We were given as our pre-requisites:

Title Pressure Valve

Dialogue I do not speak your language and you don't speak mine

Prop Five ring doughnuts

This is what we made:

(best full screen, and HQ of course)

Overzealous Steet View

2009-03-20T14:06:00.004Z

After Google launched their new Street View service for several UK cities yesterday, it has been all over the press today that some compromising images have slipped through.

Google had assured the Information Commissioner that they could apply a complex imaging algorithm to their millions of captured images to recognise and blur-out faces and number plates. It seems that this algorithm can be over-active as well as missing the odd face. Take this image which I grabbed from a Street View scene in Edinburgh earlier today. It a view of the Queen's Gallery, outside the Palace of Holyrood House, opposite the Scottish Parliament building. You can see that Google have helpfully blurred the face of who I assume is Mary Queen of Scots (although, of course, it's hard to tell) on the poster hanging from the wall.

I have to say that I am impressed with Street View, and I'm sure I will be using it but I do find it ironic that they can immediately protect the privacy of poster subjects, pub signs and statuary all over the country but not people vomiting in the street or walking out of sex shops. Go fig.

Mini Blog

2009-03-10T23:07:00.003Z

It works!
I've been using Twitter more and more recently. So - while I try working on revamping this place a bit, I've added a twitter feed as the Mini-blog on the right.

Lego Domination

2008-12-15T21:01:00.007Z

One day robots will take over the world.
It begins here with Lego:

Platform Announcements

2008-11-11T13:17:00.003Z

Heard this morning at London Bridge Rail Station - two immediately sequential loudspeaker announcements made by the same person:

"This is a passenger announcement. Due to overcrowding, London Bridge Underground station is inaccessible. We advice passengers to seek alternative routes"
"This is a passenger announcement. Due to signalling failure in the Blackfriars area, trains to London Blackfriars are suspended. London Underground are accepting rail tickets from this station"

We all know that problems occur, but a little joined up thinking is a good idea.

Operator. Get me Whitehall 1212

2008-10-24T22:04:00.004+01:00

The Met have begun a press campaign to publicise their new London-wide non-emergency number 0300 123 1212.

The continuity branding geek in me is rather pleased they've picked a number like this: the original Scotland Yard number from the beginnings of the London telephone network was famously "Whitehall 1212".

I suppose we should be grateful too, that it's not 0118 999 881 999 119 725 3.

Non-Materialist Neuroscience

2008-10-23T12:10:00.003+01:00

Spotted this on the New Scientist website earlier today. It seems the creationists have now declared war on common sense again with another set on non-sequitur arguments.

At least, as is pointed out in the article, this shouldn't have quite the same polluting impact as Intelligent Design. Especially in schools as neuroscience doesn't tend to be on the curriculum.

Scientists are perfectly willing to modify or even throw-away theories if they can be disproved or are superseded. In fact this is the very essence of the scientific method. But please, people, be rigorous in your proof and don't just try and squeeze the facts into your dogma-shaped hole.

It's a job

2008-10-12T21:47:00.006+01:00

Popped into Crystal Palace Park with DrD this afternoon to take advantage of the unseasonally warm weather and take some photographs.

While admiring the abundance of holly berries (means a hard winter to come, apparently) we spotted a group of four hard-hatted men working high up on the transmitter tower.

I don't now exactly what they were doing, but they made the trip up and down the tower in a small, red, cherry-picker basket on a wire. All very precarious-looking and while the thought of going up there does give me the willies, I bet the view is amazing.

More photos on my flickr account.

Burst

2008-10-07T11:54:00.005+01:00

It's the small, beautiful things which make life worth living.

In which case watching people get scooshed by a burst water main outside the office is certainly up there.

Schadenfreude? Me?

Pics in Use

2008-10-03T14:50:00.002+01:00

Goodness, but it's been a while!
Note to self : if you're going to pay for the hosting of a blog site, then it's probably a good idea to use it...

For starters and by way of a little piece of news - the people at Schmap, who produce online travel guides asked me very nicely if they could use one of my pictures on their site. It's to illustrate the Lloyd's of London building in the City. They found the picture via Flickr after I took one during London OpenHouse and posted it to my photostream.

You can see how they make use of it here.

Fire!

2008-06-11T22:12:00.003+01:00

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

2008-05-21T23:59:00.004+01:00

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

2008-05-02T00:34:00.005+01:00

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

2008-04-23T23:25:00.002+01:00

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

2008-04-09T13:20:00.006+01:00

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

2008-04-07T23:30:00.005+01:00

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

2008-03-23T23:08:00.002Z

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.

Piracy Up, Global Warming Down

2008-03-20T21:02:00.004Z

From the school of thought that says you can prove anything with statistics - here is our best hope of defeating Global Warming. Everyone get torrenting.

From The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster via Digg

RealPlayer: Buffering

2008-03-15T15:12:00.003Z

This made me laugh.

Faith and Truth I Will Bear Unto You

2008-03-15T12:20:00.003Z

Following Lord Goldsmith's report on British Citizenship there has been a lot of coverage in the press asking if, as suggested, school-leavers should swear the oath of allegiance to The Queen. I for one don't think this would necessarily help. I don't have a problem with school-leavers having the opportunity to take the oath, but they should not be compelled to. That would not be very British at all.

Certainly any ceremony of citizenship for foreign nationals or any voluntary citizenship ceremonies for British nationals (of any age) should contain the oath. The point here is that the monarch or The Crown is bigger as a concept than the person of one little old lady. Much has also be said in comparison with the US habit of swearing "allegiance to the flag of The United States of America and the republic for which it stands". In Britain, we don't have "the flag" as a symbol of the state in the same sense. In fact the flag is a relatively new addition to our symbol collection. Rather than investing this kind of symbolism in a piece of cloth, it is invested in the monarch.

I also think it is short-sighted to see the oath as a vindication of monarchy. Documents and all our coins may all say that The Queen is there "by the grace of God", but in truth she is there by the collective will of the people (through Parliament). Swearing an oath to The Queen's "heirs and successors according to law", does not preclude a successor outside of current convention if it is the will of Parliament to change the law accordingly. There is a tenet which has also appeared on coins in the past which says "The Love of the People is the Queen's Protection".