Royalty on t'telly!

Yesterday one was amused to see sites such as Twitter and Facebook come alive with people posting links to HRH (I like referring to royalty using this acronym, it makes them sound like old fashioned British sports cars) Prince Charles presenting the weather on Scottish TV.

                           HRH Prince Charles presenting the weather forecast yesterday
                                     © BBC Scotland

Suspect forecasters have a long history

Over the last couple of years several media outlets, most notably the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, and the Telegraph have been using a commercial weather forecasting service called Positive Weather Solutions (PWS) to give them the ammunition for such sensationalist headlines as;

After a glorious autumn... Britain prepares for Siberian freeze in just weeks (1)

Building the internet of the future

As someone who is a bit of a sci-fi geek, ever since I first got the internet way back in the mid 90's I have daydreamed about a dystopian future, where those who opted out of internet access due to privacy fears become some kind of second class citizens. (Imagine Arnie in Running Man, but set in Britain with an eccentric anti-hero trying to lead the neo-luddites to revolt, fighting for access to basic welfare......sorry I digress!)

With the recent (and much overdue) ascent to the headlines of the US Protect IP Act (PIPA) and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) my daydreams of how the internet may shape our future have moved into a more metered and realistic realm. Whilst I may not have the technological know how of some authors who have made predictions about its development, I believe that lay users of any technology may be the best placed to develop such things in new interesting directions.

Singing from the roof tops about the disaster!

First of all may I wish a Happy New Year to one and all, I hope 2012 brings you prosperity and joy (obviously in a sustainable manner!)

A few months back I wrote about how humans have traditionally remembered disaster across generations (whether a war or a flood)  by using markers, monuments, and in more recent times websites. In that post I noted that one of the oldest forms of commemorating such events in a civilisation is through oral stories and folk songs.

Blame it on the weatherman!

Still don't know what to get that weather obsessed friend of yours for Christmas? Look no further than a new clothing range launched by the Met Office in collaboration with ethical clothing company Rapanui. The range, which depicts common weather symbols with light hearted alterations, such as a cloud symbol on top of an ice cream cone, highlights how embedded the weather is to the average citizen of the UK.