John Logie Baird Probably Is Birling In His Grave

I'm out of touch with the days this week. Until an hour ago I was convinced today was Saturday and was preparing my usual Take Your Pick post.  At my age wishing even a day away is dangerous for health so I must start to check the calendar on my iPad every morning.

Last year (which sounds so long ago), I started to play a word game on my iPad, while I drank my one and only cup of coffee of the day. The evidence that such 'brain games' are good for the memory seemed reasonable and combined with my bridge playing, I thought I would be staving off memory problems.  Admittedly, the ten minutes or so of the word game seems to ease me into the day far quicker than the half hour I used to spend gazing into the garden and daydreaming. (I still do that but not first thing in the morning).

Speaking of games (awful link, my apologies), why are second - or even third - rate comedians receiving so much publicity?

I noticed this quiz advertised on my Sky programme and decided it wasn't to my taste - perhaps because I can't thole Jonathan Ross or I hadn't heard of many of the participants or I'm not a fan of today's style of comedy.

It's common knowledge many of today's comedians' material can be offensive (was it every thus?), yet 240 television viewers were outraged enough to write to Channel 4 and complain about the content.

Channel 4 have yet to comment and the Daily Mail is upset.  May I suggest Channel 4 should issue a brief statement along the lines of 'Each television is provided with an on-off button'.

In this house, over the Christmas period, the television was on only to view a couple of films and folk occupied themselves with other activities as nothing more appealed to anyone.  Instead of television enhancing our lives it now seems to dominate it, and more and more, when I visit friends, if a television is on it's seldom switched off, although usually the volume is reduced.

I wonder if John Logie Baird expected his invention would replace social interaction? Probably he's birling in his grave as I type.

Tweet

Privilege Television

The Scottish Prison Service is ordering 1,600 19 inch flat screen televisions for use across the service.  The televisions are for inmates and are being purchased in order to meet energy efficiency targets.

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) said the television sets would not cost the taxpayer any money as prisoners were charged for television access.  Prisoners pay £1 a week for their in-cell terrestrial and satellite televisions but, according to the SPS, they are not a right and can be taken away at the prison governor's discretion. Remand prisoners do not pay the fee.  PlayStation (PS2 or other console) is provided free of charge in prisons.

A TV licence costs £145.50 a year and a Sky starter pack is £19.50 a month.  Therefore for the average home, the basic annual cost of satellite television is £379.50.  That excludes the cost of the television itself. 

Prisons will be able to negotiate prices for televisions and satellite receivers but is £1 a week a fair price?  The top websites which provide bedside televisions do not give prices online but even a standard Freeview TV will cost far more than £1 a week.

Our prisons have rooms with extra large television screens for inmates' use.  The taxpayer pays for those.  Should we also be subsidising personal televisions?  What saving will low energy televisions make to the prison estate energy costs?  We really need some detail and not just to be told that there will be no cost to taxpayers.

The SPS said televisions had been a 'feature' of prisons since 1999 when Labour began it's eight-year term at Holyrood yet Richard Baker, Labour's justice spokesman, is jumping up and down with indignation at the purchase of these new televisions.  He should have checked out the history of personal televisions in prisons before protesting.

source

Tweet

Erasing David

The recent release of the film 'Erasing David' caused quite a bit of interest in the entertainment world.

The story is about a man who decides to 'vanish' in today's surveillance society and is being shown on More4 tonight at 10.00pm. More4 is on Freeview channel 14 and Sky channel 138.

One to record methinks. Could be useful in the early hours of Friday morning.

Thanks to microdave for the reminder.

Tweet

I Had A Dream - It's Never Too Late

I seldom watch television and didn't see this but read about the lady in today's Times. She appeared on Saturday's Britain's Got Talent show. Read the Times article first then play the video. It's inspiring.

Susan Boyle Sings on Britain's Got Talent 2009 Episode 1 @ Yahoo! Video

 Update:  It seems Susan Boyle is taking America by storm.  To date 6,778,991 have watched the best of the videos on Youtube. The figure obviously doesn't include other recordings such as the one above.

Tweet