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.
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.
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.
UK Justice Minister Jack Straw today signaled that some of the terror laws enacted after 9/11 and 7/7 may be scaled back. The announcement is the first indication that Labour ministers want to scale back counterterrorism laws, amid growing consensus that recent powers have gone too far.
The Obama administration isn’t just watching rightwing extremists. It’s watching us all – and we should all be concerned
Mathematics should be one of the most useful subjects children learn in school – yet thousands leave school each year unable to use simple mathematical methods. Or, worse, they are traumatised by their experiences in maths classes. However Maths can be fun – if only it’s taught properly.
I think Clifford Stoll is the kinda guy that can make mathematics fun for the typical student.
From Bryan Talbot who bought us the excellent Alice in Sunderland and Luther Arkwright comes Grandville, his new steampunk fantasy adventure graphic novel which is due out this October 2009. Looks like a brilliantly rendered cross between Sherlock Holmes and Wind in the Willows.
A mind blowing animation showing the relative size of planets and stars in our universe.