Any Politician Who Advocates A Circuit Breaker Is Ignoring The Dynamics
As a Control Engineer, trying to control things with an on-off control like a circuit breaker is like trying to ride a bike only turning hard left or hard right.
We need to apply lots of small actions to nudge the pandemic to a safe equilibrium with the UK population.
- A small action, I would do is shut betting shops, as this can be done on-line and most are owned by big groups, so commercial damage wouldn’t be great. Some staff surely could be redeployed.
- I would also close down all religious services with more than six people. Obviously, God is working on a bigger project at the moment and is too busy to help with the pandemic.
- I would also encourage working from home where possible, as that has been shown to reduce spread.
But perhaps we need to take some serious dramatic action.
Why not release the latest James Bond film on a Saturday evening on free-to-air television? And do it worldwide, except to China!
It wouldn’t do the cinemas any good, but if they got on with the next one, if this one is any good, everybody will flock to see it.
An Inappropriate Advert
I didn’t think that this taxi-advert was in good taste.
No Time To Die has been put back to the 12th of November.
If The Wig Fits, They’ll Wear It
The title of this post is the same as that of an article in the diary in today’s copy of The Times.
Apparently, there has been criticism, of the new film; The Children Act, about the wearing of wigs by barristers.
The tag line of the story, quoting a daily e-mail called The Brief is.
Who cares about accuracy?” The Americans expect to see English lawyers wearing bloody wigs.
C rarely wore her wig, if ever.
In fact, in one case that involved some Americans, they asked her, where they could buy one, so they could take it home as a souvenir.
Will Danny Boyle Direct The Next Bond Film? Here’s What We Know So Far
The title of this post is the same as this article on the BBC web site.
Certainly today’s news gives lots of ideas for a plot.
The Last Cowboy Rides On
Kirk Douglas is a hundred today.
I always liked his film; Lonely Are The Brave, ever since I watched it late one night, whilst programming Artemis.
Happy Birthday, Kirk!
Why Should Hackers Censor What I Watch At The Cinema?
As one of my friends was born in Korea, I was quite looking to seeing The Interview.
However, it now appears that Sony has cancelled all showings of the film in response to threats from hackers.
In response, I will not buy any more Sony products. Not that I have for a couple of years.
Surely, the film makers were only following the route of Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator.
Properly used humour is a vicious weapon and I’ve been wondering what Joan Rivers would have said of the cancellation.
I hope that Have I got News For You give the whole story comprehensive coverage.
I decide what I watch, not dictators, hackers or those with weird political views!
At least the film will soon be available on the Internet, as Sony’s Plastic Collander Of Security, will have let at least one complete copy escape.
The Titanic, Ipswich
This was my nickname for the Odeon cinema in Ipswich which was built in 1991.
I gave it the nickname, as I thought it would never be a success and would sink as the ill-fated liner did. According to this report from the Ipswich Star it lasted until 2005.
C and I only ever saw one film in the cinema.
It’s all very sad!
The Battles Of Coronel And The Falkland Islands
Thebattles of Coronel and the Falkland Islamds were fought between the Royal and German Navies in the First World War. In 1927 a silent black and white drama/documentary was made telling the story of both battles called the Battles of Coronel and the Falkland Islands.
The British Film Institute have restored the film and on Friday, I went to see it at BFI Southbank.
It is a superb restoration to which has been added a modern score. Usually, when films of this age are restored you see the odd bit of blankness on the screen. But not with this film!
The film is also unusual in that no actors are given any credits, but the Royal Navy ships, who played the actual combatants in both navies are named.
It is a serious reconstruction of the battles, but it is not without dramatic and comic moments.
I thoroughly enjoyed it and it reminded me of when at about eleven or so, I saw the Powell and Pressburger film; The Battle of the River Plate, made about the battle in December 1939. I had seen the film in the Rex cinema in Station Road, Wood Green, which was close to my father’s print works.
It would be interesting to see that again to compare it with the earlier one. Both were made with real warships!
If you want to see the film, but can’t get to a screening it is available for download on the BFI Player.
A Dog Of A Film
The Times today gave the film Pudsey: The Movie, the score of zero stars. The review included this paragraph.
Given the half-chewed dog’s dinner of a movie that resulted, it seems likely that makers of Pudsey the Dog: The Movie decided to maximise their investment by getting Pudsey to write the screenplay as well
No wonder, it’s being advertised on a high proportion of buses. The busometer is never wrong.