Merry Christmas 2009

Today is the 25th anniversary of the broadcast of the final episode of The Box of Delights on BBC TV. Instead of Christmas cards (for I only post a few) here's a rather twee tribute this anniversary and to Christmas too.

A very merry Christmas to all of you at home.




For those of you who may be interested - the box animation was put together in Swift 3d then Flash and Adobe Premiere Elements. The music is the original piece taken by the BBC for The Box of Delights - a segment from Victor Hely-Hutchinson's Carol Symphony. The pictures were all taken in the heavy snow of February this year in and around Crystal Palace Park.

Derren Brown's Lottery

I enjoyed Derren Brown's explanation on how the lottery was "predicted" last night. The wisdom of groups thing and especially the automatic writing thing are pure bunkum.

For the group of 24 predicters - did none of them question why at the main draw, and for the first time, it was Derren who did the maths and not someone from their group? So yes - I beleive the group of predictors were lied to.

This is my take:

• We know Derren spoke to Camelot for their agreement to do the stunt - I reckon they agreed to collude with him.
• I don't think there is anything which says the draw has to come from the machine shown live. In fact - when the programme over-runs or is short some draws are made in advance and simply put up on the screen.
• So the draw is run in advance of the TV show following the legal requirements and with the observers. This draw result is passed to Derren after he can buy a ticket, but before the live show.
• The weighted balls are put into the machine and the machine is used simply to publish the draw result of earlier.
• BBC has a legal right to publish the lotery results first. So Derren has to stay quiet (as he said he did). I never bought that a prediction cannot be published in advance, but if Derren knows the draw result he cannot legally publish it himself ahead of the BBC show.

So the clues are all there. The lottery draw isn't rigged, but the live machine is. All stays within the law and Derren does say how it was done in the Friday show.

So what's in it for Camelot? A lot of advertising. I'm willing to bet that lottery sales are up this week and they certainly advertised heavily during Derren's explanation show last night.

Elizabeth Cross

Seeing this on the British Monarchy website today, I was hoping for a recording of HMQ in a strop.

That would have been a hit on teh internets, I'm sure.

However, it's actually a broadcast made on the introduction of a new medal to be named in her honour.

That said, if you've ever seen the face of Queen Victoria on her memorial in The Mall, you'll know that looks like Victoria cross...

48 Hour Bloopers

Following on from our 48-hour film challenge entry Pressure Valve, here are the out-takes:

Tomato Plant Timelapse

Something new what I made.

My first attempt at a time-lapse video.  It's one of my tomato saplings growing.  One frame taken every half-hour for nearly 5 days.  I would have let it run longer, but some computer glitch scuppered it at about 2am this morning.  Still - you can see the growth.

I may try cress next time.

Pressure Valve

On a sunny weekend in early April 2009, The Middlemen assembled to make a film; an entry for the Sci Fi London 48 Hour film challenge.

We were given as our pre-requisites:

Title Pressure Valve

Dialogue I do not speak your language and you don't speak mine

Prop Five ring doughnuts

This is what we made:

(best full screen, and HQ of course)

Overzealous Steet View

After Google launched their new Street View service for several UK cities yesterday, it has been all over the press today that some compromising images have slipped through.

Google had assured the Information Commissioner that they could apply a complex imaging algorithm to their millions of captured images to recognise and blur-out faces and number plates. It seems that this algorithm can be over-active as well as missing the odd face. Take this image which I grabbed from a Street View scene in Edinburgh earlier today. It a view of the Queen's Gallery, outside the Palace of Holyrood House, opposite the Scottish Parliament building. You can see that Google have helpfully blurred the face of who I assume is Mary Queen of Scots (although, of course, it's hard to tell) on the poster hanging from the wall.

I have to say that I am impressed with Street View, and I'm sure I will be using it but I do find it ironic that they can immediately protect the privacy of poster subjects, pub signs and statuary all over the country but not people vomiting in the street or walking out of sex shops. Go fig.