Friday 21 November 2008

PhotoShop strikes again


Hoo Ha at the BBC from the American DoD about altered images of a big cheese. The one sent is at left and the changed photo is at the right. Personally, I cannot see any problem with the enhancement. I suppose it is some politically correct thing - would they have done it to a man?



Scammers

Interesting account of how one man responded to the Nigerian Bank Scam. He is clearly a better letter-writer than I. Just about a week ago I received one of the initial letters offering some $30 million for the use of my bank account. I was bored. Not a lot to do anyway. So, I replied in what I thought was the appropriate mix of thanks and reverence that the good Lord had brought us together. So far - zilch reply. Still, maybe my correspondent is busy. They will get no details from me but it will be fun.

When I was an investigator we often received anonymous letters written in the strange mix of Englinigerian so getting his and responding brought back memories of past times.

One less thing to keep clean?

A new discovey has surfaced regaring one of the Victoria's Secret Supermodels - that she has no belly button! VS reps have confirmed that Karolina Kurkova indeed has no belly button, and that one is installed using photo editing whenever her odd mid-section is photographed.

Reasons for her missing button could be a result of the surgery needed to correct abdominal problems at birth or some other condition.

When the lovely lady appears in print,she has to have a navel PhotoShopped in. Isn't technology wonderful?

BBC backs off

We now have the result of the investigation into the conduct of Ross and Brand. Jonathan Ross will not be punished any further for making lewd calls on a radio show, the BBC Trust has ruled. Instead, they have come to the conclusion that the behind-the-screen staff did not properly check the recorded programme before it was transmitted with the offensive material.
I cannot accept this. Both men are professional broadcasters and are not some Johnny Come Lately amateurs. They knew full well that what they were doing was beyond acceptable limits. Brand resigned immediately things blew apart. Ross took his 3 month suspension without a word of dissent or quibble. The senior staff resigned. So, facing a serious case for breach of  contract if they fired Ross - which would have cost them considerable damages at a time when the public are edgy about how license money is used - they blamed the producers who had resigned and would have problems with any legal dispute.
Ross came under additional criticism. The trust said bad language in an episode of Ross's pre-recorded BBC1 chat show, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, in which the presenter told Hollywood actor Gwyneth Paltrow he "would fuck her" was "gratuitous and unnecessarily offensive".
It stinks.

Something to look forward to


We have some serious sounding forecasts of heavy snow tonight extending into tomorrow. The temperature has dropped significantly and the skies have that leaden colour. We seem to be well organised here. In the past the gritters have been out in advance of the snow and then again as things start to move in the morning. They even have a little truck that goes along and clears a path along pavements and drops grit on the cleared pathway. We have all the clothing and boots needed. We live in the very middle of the shops. The freezer is full as is the 'frig so no worries there. I quite like the snow.


Ripples in a pool

I have joining four new social groups; one security-oriented and one photographic with two general ones. I posted straight away on all except the security spot and had a good response; everyone seems very friendly. Someone came back from the security spot asking if I knew anyone for a job in Dubai. I conclude from this that it is a networking thing as much as a discussion group. I think I am a bit too old now to think of Dubai!
Daughter Caroline has been pestering me on Facebook to play her at Scrabble. I think she still smarts over growing up when she used to get beaten all ends up. She is now very good at it; I've taken on the challenge and we shall see if the old magic is still there.

Wednesday 19 November 2008

Yet another one hits the dust

I've been a member of another blogging group for just over a year. This was a splinter of another group of people that had been running for about 18 months. The latest iteration has now gone phut. I think the main problem was that things got so that there were just a very limited number of us who bothered to write posts.
This generated a sameness or something akin to flogging a dead horse when a thread did develop. We had about five people who generated over 150 posts on 'Cars I have owned'. Before long we would have been writing about 'Neck ties I spilled soup on' I raised the question of was it worth it and it appeared I was not alone and it just needed someone to give it a nudge and the whole thing crashed to the ground.
Shame really. We had some nice discussions and the tone was very calm and polite. Maybe too calm and polite? There was none of that frisson of 'what has X said about Y today?' when one opened things up in the morning. We had a putative membership of almost 40 but some 90% were content to sit like cuckoo chicks waiting to have stuff pushed into their mouths.
We did try a clear-out where I suggested that membership depended upon a commitment to post with some regularity. This was not favoured so nothing was changed by the membership review.
I've found myself what may be roosting space on three Ning sites and I'll see how I get on there.
I'll carry on running things here as well.