This Will Be Great Fun!
I’ve just seen this Panono camera ball demonstrated on the Click segment of BBC Breakfast for today. You can probably find it on this page.
At the moment, it’s only a prototype, but my devious mind has already thought of several useful applications of the technology. At the moment the price looks to be several hundred euros, but one that was the size of a cricket ball, that is say just £200 would be wonderful toy for people of all ages.
Diversion By The Black Triangle
I heard this on the BBC Radio 5 traffic reports.
Is the Black Triangle anything like the Bermuda Triangle?
Why Is This Story Popular?
This morning, this story about the execution of Saddam Hussein, was second on the most-read list on the BBC News web site.
It’s still at number five!
Why? It was written in 2006!
The Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction
I remember a BBC television comedy series called Citizen Smith, which starred Robert Lindsay as Wolfie Smith. This sums up the theme of the series.
Wolfie is the self-proclaimed leader of the revolutionary Tooting Popular Front (the TPF, merely a small bunch of his friends), the goals of which are “Power to the People” and “Freedom for Tooting”. In reality, he is an unemployed dreamer and petty criminal whose plans fall through because of laziness and disorganisation.
But today, I was watching the BBC News and they were discussing the Lambeth slavery case.
Later in the article on Citizen Smith, this paragraph appears.
The Tooting Popular Front was inspired by the numerous minuscule leftist political groups active in the United Kingdom in the 1970s. One model may have been the then somewhat well-known “Workers’ Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought”, a particularly far-left group led by Aravindan Balakrishnan, who became a suspect in the Lambeth slavery case of 2013.
Sadly John Sullivan, who wrote Only Fools and Horses, in addition to Citizen Smith, died in 2011, so he can’t tell us if his fictional revolutionaries were based on Balakrishnan’s group.
Replacing A Television
My 32 inch Sony television is now past its best, as it’s been on Radio 5 so much, the phosphor on the plasma screen has been damaged. I originally bought it in John lewis in Cambridge and when I moved, I mounted it on a John Lewis swing mount, so I could watch it in both my living room and the kitchen, when I’m cooking. The system works well and I can link it into any related device with ease to watch films on my laptop or BBC iPlayer.
So it would seem logical to upgrade it with something more modern, that had more than one HDMI port, an LED screen and perhaps some built-in smart technology. My watching habits are fairly simple, in that I never record programs for later viewing, but I do use iPlayer regularly. With the exception of sport, I never watch a channel with adverts. If I could pay a subscription for advert free television, I might watch programs like Downton Abbey. Incidentally, I’ve never seen an episode.
My reasoning suggested that a modern Sony of a maximum of 40 inches from John Lewis, that fitted the current bracket might be a good purchase.
But firstly, the Sony I thought I should buy, would appear to be difficult to fit on a swing mount. Apparently, it needs to go flat on the wall. So I suppose you can’t use it in buildings like lighthouses or windmills.
I then settled on a Samsung, but the John Lewis assistant, then told me, it would have to have a new bracket if they fitted it, despite the fact that the new bracket would be the same as my old one. I know it will be mounted on a very solid brick wall and the new television will be a lot lighter than the old television, but drilling a new set of holes is probably not a good idea.
I did buy the Samsung and I’ll fit it myself.
It does strike me though, that with new technology coming in regularly, many people will want to replace a television and will get rather annoyed, when they find they either can’t fit the obvious one of their favourite make or they need an unnecessary new bracket.
Dr. Who Episodes Found In Nigeria
This must be one of the strangest stories of recent weeks. I found it on the BBC web site here, when I was coming back from Palermo.
How many old programs from the goldern black-and-white age of British television are gathering dust in cupboards all over the world?
Knock HS2 And It Might Go Away
I’m not a great supporter of HS2, but this story on the BBC, being spun as how it will damage other areas of the UK, is pure scaremongering and very bad journalism.
The areas, they say could be worst affected are Aberdeenshire, Norfolk, Dundee and Cardiff. On the television this morning they’re adding in Bristol and Cambridge.
Putting in Norfolk is a strange one, as obviously HS2 spending will also hurt Devon and Cornwall. These areas though will hopefully get improvement in the next few years, but this will come from using better train technology on upgraded lines.
West Norfolk for instance will be linked into the Thameslink system and electrifying and straightening the main routes across East Anglia and Ely to Norwich, would improve the area a great deal. A lot of this will happen, whether or not HS2 is built.
Devon and Cornwall is more problematical due to the geography and the scenery, but I suspect that Plymouth and Penzance will be a lot closer to London, when the electrification and new trains being planned for the Great Western Main Line are completed and delivered.
The Aberdeen and Dundee areas north of Edinburgh will always be badly served from the Scottish capital, until you build a new bridge or tunnel over the Forth of Firth. I can’t see anybody leading a campaign to replace the iconic Forth Bridge.
Cardiff and Bristol are interesting ones, as courtesy of Brunel, electrification and new trains, they will get their own HSW before HS2 is even started, at the current rate of progress. Once the Severn Tunnel is sorted, it would seem that services between the English and Welsh capitals could be around two and a half hours or even less. Having just been through the very problematic Simplon Tunnel at high speed,which is almost as old as that under the Severn, I’m certain, that a few world class engineers and tunnellers can sort out the bottleneck on the railway to Wales.
To suggest that Cambridge will be hurt by HS2, is like suggesting that the London Underground, will be hurt by Crossrail. Cambridge has recently seen an improvement of the line to London and in a few years, it will be connected to Thameslink, giving it better access to London and areas south of the Thames.
I suspect, that the overpaid BBC hack, who started this story, wants to kill HS2, as he lives in an area affected by the proposed route.
Or could, the journalist be fed-up with having to go from his home in the South East to his place of work in Manchester, so he might be very anti-train.
The BBC article is in any case unattributed.
And of course, remember it’s a much better story, if it destroys something!
Goodbye And Farewell
Sadly, David Frost has passed away. I was surprised he was only eight years older than me, as I thought he was older than that.
I posted here my memories of That Was The Week That Was. Frost must have been in his early twenties, when he starred in that program.
How many comedians and performers are successful at that age now? And they say, it’s a young person’s world.
Incidentally, when I talk to my peers today, I find very few others, who at fourteen used to watch TW3. I think it shows the sort of attitude that my parents, and especially my father, had to life.
The Syria Debate on Radio 5 Live
I was invited to be a member of the public at this debate on College Green by the Houses of Parliament today.
I didn’t say much, but it was an interesting experience. I found it fascinating to see how they set it all up and I think I learned something, if ever I get interviewed by the media again.
I don’t think we contributed much to the debate, but then only time will tell what will happen in Syria.
The End Of Television As I Knew It!
On the way to see Ipswich at QPR yesterday, I walked past the old BBC Television Centre at the White City.
The End Of Television As I Knew It!
It is all rather sad to see such an iconic building on the way down!
The Anonymous Widower 