Big Brother watches more...

The Times is today reporting that the Chinese government has installed a phenomenal sounding 40,000 CCTV cameras inside the Xinjiang region which saw rioting last year, with 8,400 of those earmarked for the city of Ürümqi, where the worst of the rioting occurred.

Apparently, they have installed cameras inside buses, schools, shopping centres and on the streets themselves - fitted inside 'riot proof' casings - as a means of avoiding a repeat of last year's violence.

The Times also mentions that the city of Beijing is also to be 'blanketed' with surveillance cameras so that "no place was left unwatched."

However, while all of this very much plays into the hands of those who would hold China up as a living embodiment of George Orwell''s seminal 1984, it fails to take into account that - when it comes to acting like Big Brother - the UK is still far and away in the lead...

You see, London apparently has over a 1,000,000 CCTV cameras scattered around it's 659 square miles. A million. That's over 1,500 every square mile. Allegedly, the average Londoneris filmed more than 300 times every single day...

Well over 10,000 of these cameras are government funded and designated as 'crime fighting' CCTV units (costing over £200 million to install) and China should perhaps look to their performance when it comes to evaluating how useful a deterrent they've proved to crime. A report in 2009 showed that less than 3% of robbery arrests were due to CCTV evidence (8 out of 269), while a report in 2007 found little evidence to link numbers of cameras with successful 'clear-up' rates of crimes...

While the number of cameras in China makes headline news, the vast quantities lining the streets of the UK - achieving very little, costing a lot - are rarely noticed. It seems 1984 is more relevant today than ever.

"There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment."

-George Orwell, 1984

Man saved from Death Penalty by Warrior Gene

The case of Bradley Waldroup is currently raising a considerable degree of interest...

Waldroup was arrested in Tennessee in 2006 and charged with felony murder and attempted first-degree murder. The case - which was particularly bloody - saw Waldroup (who had been drinking heavily) kill his wife's friend and then attempt to murder his wife (who he was estranged from) in front of his four children. It seemed that the case was relatively open and shut - Waldroup admitted to the crimes and at his trial, said that he had 'just snapped'.

But, rather than be convicted of the charges (which would have carried the death penalty), Waldroup was instead convicted of voluntary manslaughter and attempted second-degree murder - the result spared him a place on Death Row and one of the contributing factors in the decision was his genetics...

You see, Bradley Waldroup apparently has a high risk version of the MOA-A gene - known popularly as the 'warrior gene' and forensic psychiatrist William Bernet successfully argued in court that the presence of this gene - combined with other factors such as his childhood - contributed to the incident. The jury was convinced - a decision which has left the prosecution team, and opposing science experts, in shock.

The decision seemingly opens the door to other defendants to try and use this defence - as Bernet says "A person doesn't choose to have this particular gene or this particular genetic makeup. So I think that should be taken into consideration when we're talking about criminal responsibility."

It would be appear to be a potentially slippery slope that seemingly abrogates people of their responsibilities based upon their genetics - scientists have often pondered a genetic link to kleptomania, it might not, therefore, be long before burglars and thieves are successfully able to argue that their genes are responsible for their crimes.

Based upon all this, I'm waiting for the moment that someone who has been found guilty of committing a serious crime decides to sue their own parents for negligent provision of genetic materials. Sounds utterly crazy? Well, a few years ago, so would the case of Bradley Waldroup...

'Kin Useless

A few months ago, the Microsoft Kin was trending as it launched in a sea of publicity in which Microsoft's Robbie Bach declared "This is aimed at 15- to 30-year-olds who are social-networking enthusiasts" and that the Kin is "for people who live to be connected, share, express and relate to their friends and family."

Obviously, there weren't a whole lot of those people around as the Microsoft Kin is trending for an altogether different reason today - Microsoft have killed it, only 48 days after it was launched...

Analysts are using the word 'disaster' and 'failure' with alarming (for Microsoft) alacrity as cancelling a product which has taken two years to develop, and which utilised a large advertising budget, within such a short space of time is fairly unprecedented. Indeed, the 48 day lifespan of the Microsoft Kin is the shortest ever for a Microsoft product.

I'm sure Bill Gates is toasting executives over hot fires right now to find out exactly how Microsoft managed to miscalculate both audience and demand. Currently looking like a right 'Kin mess for Microsoft...

Anna Chapman hits the headlines...

Anna Chapman is the (we assume) pseudonym of one of the 10 alleged spies arrested by the FBI and, strangely enough, she's the only one of those spies who is trending individually on Google - I'm sure it's nothing to do with with the fact that the US tabloids are describing her as a 'flame-haired, 007-worthy beauty' with a 'Victoria's Secret body'.

From the evidence presented, it seems that this band of (relatively hapless) spies, did very little during their time in the US apart from spend money, make no headway on finding political contacts and exchange the type of greetings that I had assumed were just spy cliches...

For example, the FBI - acting as fake Russians - told her to give a fake passport to a contact (who she would recognise by the way they held their magazine), who would welcome her with the phrase "Excuse me, but haven't we met in California last summer?" To which Chapman was meant to respond, "No, I think it was the Hamptons."

There is also a story of one spy sitting next to an, alleged, Russian official on a park bench for an illicit meeting and swap of materials. Sitting on a park bench? It's not very inventive, is it?

In fact, if this spy ring is truly the work of the Russian government then I can only assume that this operation is a carefully plotted smokescreen to hide the real spy ring so it can go about its business with greater ease...

Zombiefit - Fitness to Survive the Apocalypse

Just how fit are you?

Fit enough to go for a quick jog around the park without collapsing in a wheezing heap? Perhaps fit enough to lift weights for an hour, a couple of times a week? Or maybe you're not fit at all, and your sole daily exercise involves a PC, a mouse and impressive index finger strength?

Well, ask yourself - if Zombie Apocalypse occurred today - would you be able to survive? With hordes of slobbering, slavering zombies lurching down every street, ready to sink their teeth into you with no hesitation, it would very much be a case of survival of the fittest...

Enter Zombiefit from St. Charles, Illinois, who seem to have taken their inspiration from a quote from Zombieland "First rule of Zombieland: Cardio" and built an entire exercise regime around it.

Zombiefit is all about getting functionally fit - there is, after all, no point being a bodybuilder with bulging biceps and a chiselled torso when you spend much of your day running away from flesh-hungry zombies. They describe the concept:

"The keys to surviving Z-day are simple: Be able to lift and throw heavy things, run fast and for long distances, and be able to navigate obstacles and urban environments in an efficient manner."

While I applaud the initiative of this fitness club I have a feeling that they are leading their members to feel dangerously overconfident on that fateful day when the dead rise and start munching their way through the general populace. After all, running will only get you so far - there comes a time when you are trapped in a corner and have to fight your way out. In such moments, all your fancy parkour moves aren't going to help you much...

It would seem the organisers have perhaps missed a trick by failing to give training for repetitive arm movements (i.e. swinging an axe at zombie heads, pumping a shotgun repeatedly), long distance throwing (i.e. molotov cocktail into a packed mass of zombies) - not to mention holding a heavy object for large lengths of time (i.e. a chainsaw). Adding in such elements would, I'm sure you'll agree, go some way to turning this course from a useful one into an essential one...

Weekly Round-Up

Taking a sweeping look at the trending topics of the last week, we can see Australia getting all hot under the collar at the antics of Alizee Sery, a French 'exotic dancer' who decided to carry out (and film) an 'impromptu' strip tease on top of Ayers Rock. Ayers Rock is known as Uluru to the Aborigines, who own it and consider it their most sacred site and they were (strangely enough) less than pleased at Ms. Sery's antics - describing it as the equivalent of 'defecating on the steps of the Vatican'. Alizee, however, was quick to defend her actions 'I am aware that Uluru is sacred in their culture. My project is a tribute to the greatness of the rock. What we need to remember is that traditionally, the Aboriginal people were living naked. So stripping down was a return to what it was like.'

In Brazil, attention is firmly focused on presenter Ana Maria Braga after a series of allegations that she had been having an affair with her dance instructor on the Brazilian version of Dancing With Stars. While such allegations seem to surface with some frequency around these type of shows, Ana Maria refused to ignore them and instead came out fighting - tearfully declaiming the accusations as lies on her live TV show in Brazil and swearing to take everyone involved to court...

As in Australia, India was all atwitter with regards to someone taking their clothes off. Sherlyn Chopra hit the headlines - both in India and abroad - for posting nude (or at least implied nude) images on her Twitter via Twitpic and asking for people's opinion on them. Subsequently, she removed the images but was (allegedly) banned from uploading images any further images to Twitpic (although this ban seems to have been lifted yesterday). Now, I am certain that the flood of search enquiries for Sherlyn this week have all been to do with a desire to read her quotes on the issue, and nothing to do with people trying to find the aforementioned images.

In Poland, Bruce Willis has been making headlines for his Sobieski Vodka adverts - in which he makes it clear that he's become a Partner in the company and that he knows nothing at all about vodka. Make up your own mind as to whether this is madness or genius...

The UK meanwhile, was mourning the death of cult legend Frank Sidebottom - well, not so much Frank Sidebottom as his creator and alter-ego Chris Sievey who unfortunately passed away on the 21st June. After enjoying considerable success in the 1980s and early 1990s, Frank made less appearances in the time following but will be deeply missed by a generation for his bizarre humour and cover versions...

Finally, in the US, Twitter is again helping to make headlines when actress Amanda Bynes used it to announce that she's retiring from acting at the grand old age of 24. It apparently came as something of a shock to her publicist, who knew nothing of her retirement but, despite a wave of disappointed tweets from her 350,000 twitter followers, Amanda is adamant that she's going to call it a day.