Newspeak

Tony Blair took some time off from yachting in New Zealand to say that what the world needs is a “technological revolution similar to the internet” in order to slow global warming.

What I suspect Mr. Blair doesn’t know is that the internet didn’t just pop up overnight. The first TCP/IP network (arguably the start of the internet as we know it) was born in 1983 but this was building on technology that had been developing since the 70s which in turn had been born out of the US DoD’s DARPA which was started in 1958. So if he means similar in timescale I don’t think it’ll help with hitting the emissions targets for 2010.

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On eBay I was the high bidder for a camcorder that I did not want. The auction’s title was “CANON MINI DV CAMCORDER”. The description offered only sparse details about the camera. Lured by Canon’s brand name I emailed the seller asking what the model number was so that I could check the features elsewhere. The email back just said

mvx10i
mx30-7000

After finding the genuine Canon mvx10i has “DV in” by reading an online review I decided to enter a low bid and see how the auction went. Then I googled for “canon mx30-7000″ and found only one result, which was Polish, not being a Polish speaker I didn’t read the website, but wondered why there would be so few results for a camcorder, so I googled for for “mx30-7000″, the results quickly led me to a blog post with a picture of the same camera badged to look like a Sony camera. I then confronted the seller in an email asking which model number was the real one and why the megapixels quoted on the auction description didn’t match the details on the Canon website. His response was.

hi on the lens cap itsays mvx 10i on the screen you pull out it says canon mx30-7000 i realy dont know mutch more about this camcoder as i took it in payment of money owed to me it says 4.1 mega pixels on the front of it. it works and also you can connect to the pc by usb i was owed 120 pounds and it looked like it may be worth the amount thanks

How to spot a counterfeit camera

After looking through ebay some more I have found there are a few other auctions on their selling the same camera but badged slightly differently.

If you look carefully at these two pictures you can see they are the same camera, the only difference is the lens cap and the sticker with the fake brand name. If you’re going to buy a camcorder off ebay, make sure the picture looks nothing like this. In one auction I saw a series of pictures of this type of camera and then one picture of the camera it said it was when they clearly looked nothing alike. You should compare the picture on the auction page to a photograph from the manufacturer’s website.
It is probably also worth checking the feature list from the manufacturer’s website to the feature list, if any is provided, on the auction page. The description of the camera I bid on said it was 4.1 megapixels, whereas the mvx10i has only 2.2 megapixels.

If you find anything strange in an auction either don’t bid or email the seller. If you are convinced that an item on ebay is counterfeit you should report it, this should help protect other less astute buyers and hopefully make ebay a less risky place to buy from.
If you have already bid on an item you think is counterfeit, retract your bid and report the item to ebay. Read this to learn more about retracting bids on ebay.

With that all in mind you should be a little bit safer, don’t be put off by the unscrupulous sellers, there are some good deals on ebay, but, as with most things in life but especially on ebay, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

Mark Twain said, amongst a lot of widely quoted things that “The past does not repeat itself, but it rhymes”. How right he is. Today I found the gallery of the last 50 years of winners of the ‘World Press Photo’ competition. It made me realise that alot of current events are so similar to everything that’s been happening to the world for the last 50 years. So much for progress.

Some particular examples:

1966 - Photo of American Soldiers dragging a Viet Cong corpse behind their vehicle, reminds me of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo with their indecent treatment of humans.

1969 - Catholics and British police fighting in Londonderry (or just ‘Derry’ if you’re Irish), despite lots of talk it doesn’t really look like much is improving in Northern Ireland. At least there aren’t bombing campaigns now I suppose.

1972 - Children running from napalm dropped accidentally on the wrong area. Even with today’s precision missiles they still manage to hit civilians too often.

1974 - Hunger. Fast forward to 2005 and you have Make Poverty History to help people who are starving.

1977 - South Africa. Police fire tear gas at people protesting against their homes being destroyed. In Zimbabwe Mugabe’s government are now clearing peoples’ homes.

1980 - Hunger. Again.

1983 - Natural Disaster. I need say no more about that I suppose.

1989 - Tiananmen Square, ‘The Unknown Rebel’ a pro-democracy protester, rumoured to have been killed. Recently - Pro-democracy campaigner beaten ‘lifeless’ possibly dead, but no-one knows. (edit: he’s badly beaten but alive)

1991 - Soldier cries at death of a fellow soldier in Iraq.

1992 - Hunger. Again.

1995 - Children affected by fighting between Russia and Chechen rebels. Recently - Hundreds of schoolchildren killed by chechen rebels in a siege.

I think you get the idea.

Today I rather daftly uncompressed and archive of an old version of this site over the top, destroying alot of the work I’ve done recently. Luckily as I new where I was heading I managed to get all the CSS back in place within a short time, also helped by the fact that much of the layout is a modified blogger.com theme.

A few elements has been overwritten such as the title image, which you may notice is now a bench, which, should you be in Lincoln ever you can find on the aptly named Steep Hill. You can find the full photo here. Thanks again to Lisa who allowed me to exploit her graphics skills once again to do the nice header picture.

I won’t do that again in a hurry.

Government figures out today reveal in the last year that the number of worrying statistics has risen sharply by an unprecedented 36.3% in 12 months.

A worrying statistic is one that is deemed to concern the majority of the British public. Recent examples of worrying statistics include the 18.4% increase in alcohol related deaths, the revelation that 64% of 999 calls in Llanidloes are not responded to within 8 minutes and the statistics showing that in the last four years deaths from the NHS superbug MRSAâ„¢.

Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone said: “These figures are deeply worrying.

“The government must put in place stricter measures against worrying statistics.”

The concerns over the increase in worrying statistics heightened when it was realised that the increase itself represents a worrying statistic, suggesting that figures could spiral out of control in coming years.

Todays news is rather worrying if you can make the connection.

Firstly, Ronnie Biggs, the Great Train Robber (not that great as he got caught) and long time deathlist candidate has MRSA and is being held at Belmarsh Prison.

Secondly, 10 ‘Threats to National Security’ have been locked up in Belmarsh Prison. Including Abu Qatada. I don’t know the identities of the other 9 yet.

When you hold these two pieces of news next to each other the intention is clear, they are using Ronnie Biggs to infect the 10 ‘Threats to National Security’ the deadly superbug MRSA. In return for his part in the scheme Biggs may be given his freedom.

Sources:-

• ‘Threats to UK security’ detained (BBC News)
• Release appeal as Biggs has MRSA (BBC News)

Before the US election I decided that I would be happier if Kerry won and that I needed a way of being happy should Bush win.

I discovered that Stan James, an online bookmaker, had Bush at 8/13 and Kerry at 6/5. I decided that if Kerry won I wouldn’t mind losing £10 (roughly $20) and while a £6.15 ($12) wouldn’t make me happy that Bush won, it would be some compensation and I could spend that money in some symbolic way.

Well as you should already know, Bush won and I got my stake and winnings paid back into my bank.