Month: May 2009
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Who’s Watching You?
First episode of the BBC’s documentary Who’s Watching You in which Richard Bilton uncovers the hidden world of surveillance in Britain. Quite wide ranging in its scope it takes in everything from RIPA abuses by local councils to surveillance carried out by unmanned drones.
It was a little disjointed as it tried to be balanced in its approach and show both the good and bad sides of surveillance. I think the very fact that the BBC has produced a documentary like this is great and hopefully it will spark some debate amongst the general public about the need for blanket surveillance.
Do the benefits to society outweigh the costs? I think in many cases that the answer is no. For example public CCTV which many people are in favour of because they believe that the cameras reduce incidence of crime. If we consider just in financial terms and ignore possible infringements of civil liberties does spending hundreds of millions of pounds make sense when there is evidence that they have a negligible effect on reducing crime although they are useful in catching criminals after the fact. So the question must now be are our CCTV systems in Britain worth the massive cost just to catch and convict the number of criminals it does. Could the money not be better spent by putting more policeman on the beat?
I think viewers may have had their eyes opened with the part of the programme about ANPR (Automatic number plate recognition). I’d be surprised if the majority of the public knew that ANPR even existed let alone how extensive it was and how long the data that was collected by systems across the country was retained for.
Two more episodes to follow, but on the evidence so far this seems like an interesting and important documentary.
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25 And Over – act like a grown-up
Funny and insightful post on Tomato Nation about the etiquette of being a grown-up.
A certain grace period for the development of basic consideration and self-sufficiency is assumed, but once you have turned 25, the grace period is over, and starring in a film in your head in which you walk the earth alone is no longer considered a valid lifestyle choice, but rather grounds for exclusion from social occasions.
I think I’m mostly fine on these things.
The BBC reports that a national network of cameras and computers automatically logging car number plates will be in place within months. [via]
There is a place for it for the tracking of cars known to have been involved in crime or for the surveillance of suspects in the same way that court approved wiretaps are used to monitor suspects but not for the blanket surveillance of the entire population.
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Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes
Watch the trailer in High Definition: 1080 | 720 | 480
I’m really quite looking forward to this as I’m a big fan of pretty much anything Holmesian and think Guy Ritchie has found his form again with his last film RocknRolla.
Henry Porter of the Guardian writes that ID cards could grant the taxman access to your bank records
Secondary legislation laid before parliament last week reveals that the taxman will have access to the log of a person’s major transactions, hotel bookings, airline tickets, holidays, car payment plans etc. Naturally the subject of this inspection will have no idea that HM Revenue and Customs is examining their spending log or what deductions, false or otherwise, will be made.
It seems that the fears of opponents to the ID card system were in fact well-founded. The system isn’t even in place yet and there is already function creep.
The Guardian reports that CCTV schemes in city and town centres have little effect on crime.
The review of 44 research studies on CCTV schemes by the Campbell Collaboration found that they do have a modest impact on crime overall but are at their most effective in cutting vehicle crime in car parks, especially when used alongside improved lighting and the introduction of security guards.
CCTV has become like security theatre, the cameras’ primary purpose is to make it look like something is being done about crime in a particular location.
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Nitpicking Angels and Demons
My stream of consciousness review/nitpick of the movie Angels and Demons based on the novel by Dan Brown.
Lab coats at CERN! Maybe, but not likely if they are doing all their science sat behind computers. I guess it’s a shortcut to indicate that these people are “scientists”.
Looks like it was really the LHC and the Vatican.
Apparently it wasn’t really the Vatican.
Father Marco Fibbi, a spokesman for the Diocese of Rome, said: “Normally we read the script but this time it was not necessary. The name Dan Brown was enough.”
The ambigram thing that is a significant plot point defies logic as they clearly have been created by the producers of the movie so naturally cannot have been nigh on impossible to create and believable as a thing of myth.
Vittoria upon discovering Silvano murdered says “my God!”. In situations like that surely people revert to their first language which would be Italian in this case so “Dio mio” is more correct.
Illuminati before they became violent were scientists who were driven underground.
– Are you anti-Catholic?
– No I’m anti-vandalism!
Extremely combustible material known as antimatter. Strictly speaking no it isn’t combustible, but how do you describe antimatter/matter annihilation and the resulting massive release of energy? The God particle is mentioned. Not in the book but makes more sense for this to be an issue for the Vatican and the questions over the creation of the universe that this raises. Two opposing forces will annihilate. Paralleling antimatter/matter annihilation with the Vatican/Science conflict.
Destruction of the Vatican through light is the ancient Illuminati threat.
Four fundamental elements of science. Fire, Earth, Air and Water.
1668 – Church kidnapped and branded four scientists.
Neat framing for a thriller in that they have until midnight to thwart the plan to destroy the Vatican.
Would the Camerlengo really be Irish?
Energy research! In reality in order to create antimatter you need to put in more energy than you would get out.
English is the language of radicals. Shakespeare and Chaucer! That is why Galileo used it for his secret path of illumination message.
Treasure hunt where they only work out the next destination just too late.
Better thriller than The Da Vinci Code even if it is based upon pseudoscience and religious myth and misrepresents the conflict between science and religion.
– Stem Cell research is murder.
– Condemning sick people to die.
– Man is not God.
There have been incidents in the past where the Vatican has tried to suppress science and scientists and many religious people nowadays feel under attack by those in the scientific community particular in regards to evolution. But the film really overhypes the situation. The conflict between science and religion isn’t really that extreme.
It’s a race against time to save the cardinals and yet Langdon still has time to wash himself and change his clothes. Plus they are being extremely slow in the switching off lights sector by sector in the Vatican city plan.
How does Vittoria, a physicist, have knowledge outside of her field of expertise and be able to describe the signs of a possible overdose of the Pope’s medicine?
Why would the Vatican archives not have a failsafe should power be lost? In this case it is obviously not an accident as it would mean having to turn of the backup as well as the primary power to the archives. This coupled with the theory that the pope was murdered indicates an inside job and hence a very limited number of suspects. However neither group knows at this point of the information the other has gathered.
Camerlengo arguing for a kind of Vatican III. End the brutal battle between science and religion. Science too young to understand.
The pacing of the film is wildly off. The second hour i.e. between murders 2&3 is much longer than the first and third hours. Between the third and fourth murder 14 minutes shrinks to 5 minutes in about 30 seconds.
Good misdirection with the mercenary, he’s in it for the money not for the cause, and then Commander Richter of the Swiss Guard acting strangely.
Why was Silvano conflicted? Is it only about the so called God particle? Surely he was pursuing this area of study to prove God’s part in creation not dismiss God as creator.
And again the Camerlengo must be lacking in faith if he believes that science was seeking to and could take away the power of creation.
Doesn’t matter whether you believe or not events can be interpreted both ways. God sent Langdon to save the church or perhaps he did not.
More factual errors made by Dan Brown in the novel Angels and Demons.
CERN’s response to the questions moviewatchers may have about them and the LHC following the movie.
Edit: More things occur to me regarding the film.
Why reveal the plan to kill the cardinals at the appointed hours? It only introduces more chnace for the plan to fail.
You can understand why the Swiss Guard might initially be distrustful of Langdon but why when he has proved himself as on the same side do they continue to hinder his efforts.
Also the film will further the confusion of laypeople between the creation of antimatter and the search for the so called God particle at CERN.
Angels & Demons is a good but flawed thriller that revolves around the quest of Robert Langdon a Harvard University professor to unravel a plot to annihilate Vatican City by the secret society called the Illuminati using antimatter stolen from CERN.
I think that this is a very good adaptation of Dan Brown’s book and is my opinion an improvement over the book. The film is an action packed and pacey thriller whose main flaw I feel are due to the source material. As a sequel it is also an improvement over the movie of The Da Vinci Code as there is significantly less standing about and spieling off of expository bits of dialogue. Also where the end of The Da Vinci Code seemed to fizzle out to nothing Angels & Demons has a very explosive finale.
The one flaw with the pacing of the film is that the structure of the plot with rigid deadlines to be met means that variations in pacing become noticeable where one hour between events passes quickly the next hour can pass much slower.
There have been a a number of changes made in the adaptation which tighten up the story. There is much less set at CERN although it looks like that they really did film the LHC there. the character of the Camerlengo has been altered slightly and is here portrayed as a Northern Irish priest by Ewan McGregor. The character of the Hassassin has been changed to become more of a mercenary than a zealot.
The acting is excellent with McGregor and Mueller Stahl as stand outs amongst the cast. Tom Hanks reprises his role as Robert Langdon and is more believable as an academic turned reluctant action hero than Nic Cage in the similar National Treasure.
This is a far less controversial film than some Catholic organisations might have you believe, the premise of the story is this supposed battle between science and religion but this is merely misdirection. The Vatican and the Catholic church come out of this relatively unscathed, they were guilty of the persecution of scientists in the past most notably Galileo but they haver admitted their mistakes in that regard already.
To conclude this is a good thriller and is a fun ride that is best enjoyed with your brain turned off.