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Just finished watching Children of Men. Fucking fantastic movie that was tightly paced and wonderfully directed. A beautifully rendered dystopia. Great performances by the actors and I didn't even hate Clive Owen in it which makes a change.

It occurred to me also that V for Vendetta should have been filmed this way. Far more convincing portrayal of a future totalitarian British dystopia.

Labels: cinema, movies

BBC News: Could X-ray scanners work on the street?

X-ray cameras that would "undress" passers-by in a bid to thwart terrorists concealing weapons, could be coming to a street near you, according to reports. Aside from the obvious privacy issues, would such a plan work?

Leaked documents said to have been drawn up by the Home Office and seen by the Sun newspaper say cameras which can see through clothes could be built into lamp posts to "trap terror suspects".

X-ray type cameras have their place in the security framework but in the War on Terror they would be costly and ineffective if implemented widely like surveillance cameras.

They are effective in situations where specific locations need securing such as airports as they can be used to filter out individuals for additional scrutiny by security guards who are hand to do so.

Surveillance cameras are used in an entirely different manner they are predominantly used as a visible deterrent against criminal acts or as evidence gathering devices for prosecution of criminals after the fact. They are very rarely used to apprehend criminals in the act.

Security expert Bob Ayers, of Chatham House, believes putting an X-ray lens on a lamppost poses all sorts of resource questions.

"Some guy walks past and his picture is beamed back to a control room to say that something is under his jacket. What do you do? Despatch a police car to hunt him down and frisk him?

"The real question is not whether the technology can see something under the clothing. It's how you respond to it when the technology says there's something unusual.

This may well have been obtained from leak Home Office documents but I doubt even that incompetent government department would pursue this ill-thought out scheme.

Labels: Security, Surveillance

BBC News: YouTubers to get ad money share

It was bound to happen at some point that Youtube would have to start pay those people that make the site what it is today - the video makers. Although to be honest the success has mostly been off the back of material that infringes copyright rather than the truly user-generated stuff.

But with other video sharing sites such as MetaCafe and Revver already having business models that reward the creators of well viewed movies then YouTube had to do the same or risk losing their number one spot.

Labels: copyright, YouTube

I've watched the entire fourth and fifth season of Smallville in the space of just over a week and if someone doesn't stop me I'll go right ahead and watch as much of the sixth season as has been broadcast already.

Labels: TV

The ability to share videos on a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force.

Labels: YouTube

Apparently after the walkouts of a number of "celebrities" from the Big Brother house the producers are thinking of putting 'the only transexual in the village' Lauren Harries in followed by her mother. I'm not sure who I feel sorrier for, Lauren who will be entering that most tolerant of environments, the other housemates as Lauren describes her method of dealing with people she dislikes

I can go into their brains and turn all the taps on so the water floods out of their ears and their nose and mouth. In the end they go insane.

Or the viewing public, well actually I think the viewers deserve to suffer whatever happens.

The same can said of viewers of Day 6 of 24. They've really upped the improbability and insanity this time around and Jack is even more the unstoppable killing machine.

Having endured close to two years of torture at the hands of the Chinese (have they learnt nothing? Torture is wrong and ineffective unless it's being carried out by Bauer himself) he is almost immediately handed over to Islamic terrorists for yet more torture.

Having suffered a grevious stab wound to a nerve cluster in his shoulder Jack then rips out an unsuspecting terorists jugular with his teeth and escapes. He then proceeds to save the life of the leader of a different terorrist cell (who Jack has learnt has given up the terror game and wishes to enter the peaceful political process) from an airstrike carried out by the US military, kicksplodes a subway suicide bomber, shoots fellow CTU agent Curtis and then witnesses a nuke going off in LA.

All this and it's only been a mere four hours.

Labels: Terrorism, TV

Labels: movies, YouTube

If Carlsberg wrote I'm sorry I dented your car notes they'd probably be the best I'm sorry I dented your car notes in the world.

Please note this link has nothing whatsoever to do with Carlsberg.

Labels: photography

This is well bloody disturbing. His raucous laughter in this context seem like the pitiful screams of a tortured soul. [via]

Labels: humour

Following on from Eliot Van Buskirk's Wired column Who's Killing MP3 and iTunes? (in which he pontificated on the future of the MP3 file format in comparison to DRMed alternatives like Apple's AAC format as sold in their iTunes online store) there is the news that EMI has announced that it will no longer produce CDs with DRM.

One swallow doesn't make a summer but this would seem to be an indication that even the record companies are coming to doubt the efficacy of DRM.

Labels: Computer security

Frankie Flood a University of Illinois School of Art and Design student produced a number of beautiful but deadly looking pizza-cutters for his MFA Thesis Exhibition[via]

This is my favourite of his works featured.

PLF "Pizza For Life" 2002
Powder coated aluminum, stainless steel, and ball bearings
4" x 9 1/2" x 1 1/2"

This one looks like a particularly vicious weapon as used by an assassin in a steampunk novel. Cardinal Chang of The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters perhaps.

Labels: cool

Black Sheep

There are 40 million sheep in New Zealand and they're pissed off!

Based on the evidence of the trailer this looks like a ridiculous low budget comedy horror movie in the style of early Peter Jackson and I'll love it.

Labels: movies

The second of the BBC's Doctor Who spin off series The Sarah Jane Adventures has gotten off to a great start with their special pilot episode. Let's just hope that they can keep up this level of quality for the series proper and not go the way of Torchwood.

Coincidentally a half-year review of the Torchwood team has been leaked on to the interweb.

To: All Staff
From: HR Director
Importance: High
Subject: Half-Year Review - Some Essential Reminders

As we are all aware, we at Torchwood have undergone a drastic downsizing and restructuring exercise during Q1 and Q2 of the current period. Painful as the process has been, the Board is confident that we have now turned the corner and that the organisation is poised to build on its strengths over the coming months to emerge as a strong and vital entity with continued assured growth potential.

Brilliant stuff.

Labels: TV