World’s Most Expensive Television Set
Posted By Ben Goulding, 18 March, 2010 | permalink
Here is the world’s most expensive television set. It’s not the size of the screen or some breakthrough technology that’s given it a huge price tag though – it’s because it’s encrusted in diamonds and covered with gold.
British designer, Stuart Hughes will only make a total of three PrestigeHD Supreme Rose televisions. Each set will have a 55-inch screen with a 28kg frame made from solid 18-carat rose gold. The outer frames will be encrusted with 72 round cut one-carat flawless diamonds.
Hundreds of tiny sunstones and amethysts are mixed into the gold frame, while inner frame will be made from hand-sewn alligator skin. As for the price, it’s a whopping £1,500,000 ($2,300,000).
Hughes is also producing 10 cheaper versions of the PrestigeHD Supreme. They will only have 19 kilograms of gold and 48 diamonds, for a price tag of £1 million ($1,500,000). I think I’ll take two.
1 Comment | Posted in: Television
YouTube Closes Down
Posted By Ben Goulding, 9 March, 2010 | permalink
(Youtube Link)
This will probably make more sense to those of you who are familiar with British television, when the BBC hands over to Ceefax during the night (when nobody’s watching). For those of you who don’t know much about Ceefax, it’s the BBC’s teletext information service transmitted via the analogue signal, which began in 1974 and is set to run until 2012.
Created by Eddie Robson, from a genius original idea by Mal Franks, this is ‘YouTube closes down for the night’. (View in full screen mode).
1 Comment | Posted in: Internet | TelevisionRare Hour-Long Alfred Hitchcock Interview With Tom Snyder (1973)
Posted By Ben Goulding, 14 October, 2009 | permalink
Long thought to be lost or destroyed a complete recording has been found of one of the few hour long interviews of Alfred Hitchcock. Originally broadcast as one of the first Tomorrow Shows with Tom Snyder in the Fall of 1973.
Here is part one:
(Youtube Link)
Follow the links for the remaining parts.
Part two, part three, part four, part five, and part six.
Via Kottke
Comments Off | Posted in: Entertainment | TelevisionNews Reporter Gets Assaulted With Love By Dog
Posted By Ben Goulding, 18 August, 2009 | permalink
(Youtube Link)
“Global BC noon anchor Randene Neill tries to handle Ginger, a dog looking to be adopted from the SPCA. What ensues during the segment is pure hilarity.”
I love the way it goes from this dog is “so well mannered” to “this dog is crazy!”
Comments Off | Posted in: Entertainment | TelevisionHave Knives Gone Out Of Fashion?
Posted By Ben Goulding, 20 July, 2009 | permalink
Knives, once a regular tool used at meal times, now it seems they have been given the chop.
A growing trend in today’s society seems to be TV dinners, and there is good reason for this. With more women working now than ever and working hours at an all time high, people have less time and so things like meal times are put on the back burner.
With many people eating the majority of their meals on their laps, just using a fork or fingers, knives have lost their place as a common piece of cutlery. Major UK retailer, Debenhams said that four years ago it sold equal numbers of knives and forks, but in the last few months it has sold about two forks for every knife.
Should we be worried about this? Should more emphasis be put on making time for eating meals with the family at the table, or is that just impossible with the busy schedules of today?
Comments Off | Posted in: LifestyleReal Life Super Mario On India’s Got Talent
Posted By Ben Goulding, 13 July, 2009 | permalink
Here’s a great act from reality TV show “India’s Got Talent.” It shows a group of Indian gamers recreating the Super Mario video game. Check it out!
Comments Off | Posted in: Entertainment | TelevisionComputer Learns Sign Language By Watching TV
Posted By Ben Goulding, 9 July, 2009 | permalink
British scientists have created a computer that is able to learn sign language by watching television shows that are both subtitled signed.
Researchers at the University of Oxford, came up with an algorithm to recognize gestures made by people. The team exposed the computer to around 10 hours of TV footage that was both signed and subtitled, tasking the software to learn 210 nouns and adjectives that appeared during the footage, of which it correctly learned 136 words.
The software uses a person’s arms to estimate the rough location of fast-moving hands and identifies flesh-colored pixels in those areas to understand the precise hand shape, however difficulty often arises when some words have different meanings depending on the context. E.g. cutting a tree has a different sign to cutting a rose.
Although this is a clever piece of technology, it still has a long way to go. Rather than working round the problem, maybe the researchers should concentrate their efforts more on making deaf people hear again. What do you think?
1 Comment | Posted in: Sci/Tech | TelevisionLittle People Call For Ban On “Midget”
Posted By Ben Goulding, 6 July, 2009 | permalink
Little People have filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission, calling on them to ban the word “midget” on television.
The controversy was sparked when contestants from “Celebrity Apprentice” created a detergent called “Jesse James and the Midgets,” to which Joan Rivers suggested bathing little people in the detergent and hanging them to dry.
The little people claim that the word “midget” is objective, discriminative, and offensive in the same way as racial slurs.
What are your opinions on this delicate matter?
Is the word “midget” disrespectful and offensive or is it just a harmless term used by people who are uneducated in the correct way to address little people?
Comments Off | Posted in: TelevisionTV Show Aims To Convert Non-Believers
Posted By Ben Goulding, 4 July, 2009 | permalink
A new Turkish television game show will bring together a Christian priest, a Muslim imam, a rabbi and a Buddhist monk with the aim of converting 10 atheists.
A successful convert will win a pilgrimage to a holy site of their chosen religion (the Vatican for Christians, Mecca for Muslims, Jerusalem for Jews and Tibet for Buddhists).
The show has been controversial however, with Muslim leaders showing their disapproval and the Religious Affairs Directorate refusing to provide an imam for the show.
“Doing something like this for the sake of ratings is disrespectful to all religions. Religion should not be a subject for entertainment programs,” High Board of Religious Affairs Chairman Hamza Aktan told state news agency Anatolian after news of the planned show emerged.
The Turkish television station opposes this view stating, “We are giving the biggest prize in the world, the gift of belief in God.”
Is the game show acting in an unethical and immoral manor just to gain views, or is it providing a genuine opportunity for non-believers to find God and enrich their lives? You decide.
Comments Off | Posted in: Entertainment