why (fi)?

If, like me, you are busy roaming a major city this weekend, but still feel the need to go online, than this tee-shirt could be quite useful. Who needs keychain detectors when you can also operate as a public service with this black number?

The wi-fi detector tee-shirt displays glowing bars to indicate signal strength. A couple of minor problems though? It picks up peer network enabled PCs and the batteries are NOT included.

tags technorati : rashbre wi-fi t-shirt clothing street

snappy slurpy

Debra wrote a few days ago about photographing a street scene and then being semi accosted by a drunk who she had randomly captured on film. It all played out okay, but did also get me thinking.

In some places it quite easy to look like a tourist and take purposeful pictures with crowds of people in a fairly innocuous way. Other times its best to look like 'an artist' trying to take 'the perfect shot' without overtly paying attention to the folk around.

In reality, like a spy, its always good to be aware of the surroundings and the possibilty of attracting unexpected attention. Being out in a group can help and tiny digital cameras don't draw so much attention.

If I take pictures of single individuals, or small groups where they are really the focus, then I try to ask for permission. If its a 'busy street scene' or similar, then I think its fair game when the people are really an incidental part of the composition. It is like there is a line between 'street' and 'candid'. I suppose on average I'm more often waiting for people to get out of the frame when I take pictures rather than capturing them.

But I must confess my inner mad scientist is urging me to make an anonymous Starbucks coffee cup camera - because I can, if you know what I mean.

tags technorati : rashbre camera spy drink mad scientist

North West Frontier Art

Great to hear from friend Imran this week. He's been putting together a bit of a portfolio and I'm expecting great things in the future as he expands it into a gallery of some type. Imran is one of those people with a great eye for the scene and I'm looking forward to online galleries at the very least and hopefully a proper facility somewhere too!

tags technorati : rashbre art photography liverpool

travelling companion of the earth

Fifty years ago, on the 4th October, the first Russian Sputnik was launched and marked the start of the space race. Firing a silver beachball with four antenna into space led to America then galvanising the Apollo program to get Neil Armstrong and friends on the moon just 12 years later.

Sputnik Zemlyi helped give a name to the beatnik generation and heralded the Americans and Russians doing amazing things with relatively ancient high-technology - old space capsules are filled with relays and electro-mechanical componentry.

Of course, part of the agenda of sputnik was Russia's attempts to build ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missiles) and the sputnik was a first attempt to get a payload into orbit. The agenda of both superpowers continued to be around advanced weaponry and the Americans built the halls at Canaveral big enough so that rockets could be assembled ready to fly rather than having to be upturned and then fuelled (which could take more than a day).
So using today's custom Google, I checked the name of America's first satellite...Explorer 1, which orbited some four months after Russia's first success. And less than four years later the Russians put Yuri Gagarin into space in April 1961. Right now there's some 25,000 man made satellites orbiting earth with some 8,700 still in managed orbit and the remaining 16,000 or so in various stages of decay. Russia accounts for 10,000 of the broken units and the USA has around 4000 of the ones still active.

So, a few days ago, when I was looking at the International Space Station, there's some comfort to knowing it is at least a symbol of co-operation between the major countries involved, rather than owned by a single superpower with a big ray gun.

sputnik zemlyi beep beep (mp3)
fireball xl5 theme tune (mp3)

Oh, alright then, here's the Fireball XL5 tune with the credits

tags technorati : rashbre sputnik russia space race satellites

OTA : Wordless Wednesday

Every balloon a winner from Saturday's school reunion

Add a comment or trackback for Wordless Wednesday!

Tag: Wordless Wednesday trackback

masque of the red death

The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine.

Or so I've been told.

I'll have to wait a few weeks to check this out, but I do seem to have managed to blag some tix for this rather interesting evening at BAC. First part is wandering around inside a building filled with a live performance of Edgar Allen Poe's Masque of the Red Death and then its down a secret path to a private party at Prince Prospero's Palace.

tags technorati : rashbre red death battersea BAC theatre avant-garde arts london buzz party masque

smashing

The saga of the lounge sofa continues and the next version is being delivered later this week. This will be the third set, based upon the various colour (yellow instead of brown) and configuration (righthanded instead of left handed) erros of the last few months. The Autostrada from Italy now charges a discount to the trucks shipping furniture to England for rashbre central.

But to keep the story going I've had another spot of bad luck. The light fitting was ordered over the internet from a well know store with a spelling similar to d*b*nh*ms. It arrived in a big box, the delivery man zoomed away at warp factor five and before opening the box I noticed an unusual rattling sound. Yes, the glass was broken into quite a few small pieces. We called to have it collected and sure enough another van picked it up a few days later.

The cost of the delivery and return was deducted from the credit card used to pay - a d*b*nh*ms store card. However, the original item was neither replaced nor had the money refunded. Now after two months there is also interest to pay on the non existent product.

Phone calls don't help; the store card is really not connected to the store and the store can't resolve the interest. They are suggesting that letters are now required. I do use the internet for quite a few purchases. This particular retailer hasn't really cracked it (well other than the glass) and at the moment I seem to be paying for their poor systems. I'll admit the amount of interest charged is pretty small, assuming the refund comes through but it's still not right. It relies on people not having time to fix these things. I just won't shop online with them again.

Anyway, to be less gloomy, at least the mac mini can now pump the internet and iTunes Front Row onto the television for those moments when there's nothing else to watch.

tags technorati : rashbre retail internet purchases sofa settee mac mini television HDTV HDMI

a nice matter

Mnemosyne, the Greek goddess of memory has a lot to answer for, if in addition to her more obvious contribution, she also influenced the derivation of the living organism known as the meme. I was rewarded with a meme a few days ago by bob-kat, who cited rashbre central as a place where 'nice matters'. So I feel honoured and then honour bound to pass the award along.

I'm already in august company, with many who have already received the award. So I thought I'd head across to a few sites that consistently amuse and challenge me, but in most cases they are the sort to normally eschew memes and similar.

So I'll start with one of my sources of Web 3, social networking in the form of webby's world which provides an almost daily commentary on new bits and pieces of our ever more online existence.

Then onto a big site...that of the most maximum bob, someone with eclectic comment, swooping between idyllic holidays in France to the merits of the helvetica typeface, via excellent critiques of classy films. And now banned in Turkey along with all of wordpress....unless you use wordpressproxy.org, of course.

I felt I should include Doris Mash (Version 2) who doesn't post daily but has some amazingly thought provoking posts which really stay in the mind.

An enjoyable site from a long way away is WindBag and Thunder in Brisbane, Australia, with a mix of folklore, mythology and amazing Flying Star Toys. I'm still trying to figure out how to negotiate with Florence for the passage of 'sweet sixteen' from Australia to England but I think my email must be disapperaing down a spam filter somewhere.

Next is actually a flickr photo stream, but it can be approached via the occasional blog called nothing to write home about. Enjoy the posts and the sumptuous photographic experiments which are easier to find on the flickr part of Debra's world.

My last one is from Vancouver. The original Netchick. I know I'm in the current writing competiton over there but for me its just for fun(I scored around 3 and the winners scored about 1000). The slightly disorganised global competition is a piece of classic fun from this original and interesting site.

Thats about the right number of people; I could easily add more and its tough to know where to stop. Fortunately I know that there's a fair few people doing this and that the 'niceness' is spreading quite well through the efforts of others. There's two forms of badge for this...The original and one which I modified. The pink crochet knitted version clashed with the usual graffiti of rashbre central.

So I'd be honoured for my nominees to accept their awards, and ask them to 'pass it forward' to hopefully make some else smile.

tags technorati : rashbre maximum bob windbag and thunder photography nice matters vancouver netchick webby's world debra niceness nice matters

arcs

I normally refer to the fun of going forward, but the last few days triggered thoughts from the past.

One moment related to childhood summer, when it was possible to lay on grass in the garden looking towards the sky at distant silvery passing planes. So when I fly back into London at this time of year, it is still light enough in early evening to pick out landmarks. If I spot the route traverses the area of my childhood, then I look for landmarks of the river, certain roads and the area of that garden, so I can look back from the plane to the spot where I used to gaze upwards. My return from Amsterdam this week gave a perfect moment.

And then, today, I was propelled into another situation evoking the past, an improbable amalgam of people, illustrating possibilities and paths. Yes, it was a school re-union.

tags technorati : rashbre childhood sky planes stars school renunion west hatch london

burma

Calling Burma by its other name is what the junta wants. The military rulers of the country have been systematically quelling the pro-democracy protesters, of whom a large proportion appear to be Burmese monks. China is a major trading partner to Burma and has been supplying arms to support the junta, whilst resisting the efforts of the United Nations to exercise sanctions. China has also developed ports, factories and power plants in the country as a way to further its own economy.

Here is another corner of the world where major state imposed tyranny pushes the population back with brutal suppression. Neighboring China's agenda is supposed to be one of stability in the region, although its own record illustrates that its not too picky if that is achieved using guns and tanks as a form of suppression. China's eyes are also on its upcoming Communist Party politburo reshuffle and the 2008 Olympics as a global stage.

So now we have a United Nations envoy visiting Rangoon and the United States in discussions with China about the situation. The new global dependencies on China as a manufacturing base as well as a still largely untapped market, yet alone the host to the global games create interesting dilemmas for the economies of the west, where olden day threats of sanctions now get balanced against unintended consequences to global economies.

So will appeal to either Burma or China make a difference? The world watches.

tags technorati : rashbre burma china injustice sanctions rangoon monks

touching

Slight hiccup today when it emerged that a photo of an MP (the Secretary of State) was slightly 'retouched' because he hadn't actually been present when the picture was taken. Some other MPs turned up on time, but the final picture seems to have accidentally merged them with the separate picture of the missing person. A terrible mix-up, even the hospital trust where the photo was taken and the MP's press office appeared confused.

In this new era of spin free politics, exemplified by the recent original speeches from Gordon Brown we must guard against accidentally being misled by this kind of thing.

In another news item, Gordon has just published a new book about everyday heroes, which he claims to have written himself after talking to the people featured. I see its being serialised in the Daily Mail at the moment. Interesting that several of the people featured in the extensive chapters had only (allegedly) had brief 3-4 minute phone calls with the man until they met him at the book launch. We should be under no illusion about the power of his words.

generally speaking

I was expecting an announcement about a general election for the UK today. By my reckoning, if there was to be an election before the end of the year, it would need to be in October at the latest. I don't know quite how many weeks notice one has to give, but I'm guessing 4 weeks or a calendar month. Elections are usually on a Thursday, so that limits the number of dates left.

I can't imagine we'd have an election too close to Christmas; that rules out December. November starts to see grotty weather and coldness, so that could put off voters visiting their polling stations. The week of Guy Fawkes Night would be a strange time to vote for a new Parliament (after all, Guy Fawkes was the fellah that tried to blow up Parliament), so my bet would have been for the last Thursday in October. Thats the 25th October. Or at a pinch the 1st of November.

But as we are past the calendar month point and we have a weekend in front of us, I'd have thought now would have been the time to announce it. The Conservative conference probably throws a spanner in the works. If it was announced this weekend then the half of the Conservative MPs that make the trip to Blackpool could have a field day chatting about it. That means it could be as late as next Thursday before an announcement, with a view to also running a spoiler on the Conservative conference output.

Its interesting, because the latest the UK has had an election in any year since 1945 was 25 October in 1951. Never November, December or January and the earliest date in February is 23rd. So if it isn't by 25th October/1st November, then I wonder if we will wait until next February/March? Strictly, of course, we don't need to have an election until 2009, but I can't see Gordon waiting that long. Presumably some of the monetary gremlins will start to go munching if its left too long.

The chart below shows my 'look back into history' view of the last 50 or so years of votes. Nearest (biggest) are the most recent ones...


And here it is as a table:

So will UK get an election? I suppose its still anybody's guess?