28 May 2012
27 May 2012
Couch potatoes mourn the death of a hero
I am sorry to say that I missed this when the news was first announced but
Eugene Polley, the inventor of the television remote control, died last week at the age of 96. His former employer, Zenith Electronics said Polley died of natural causes last Sunday.
His 1955 invention, the Flash-Matic, pointed a beam of light at photo cells on each corner of the TV, turning it off and on and changing the channels. However, because the Flash-Matic used light to operate the television, it was temperamental and other lights could interfere with its operation. It was followed by sonic-controlled remotes and then infrared and radio frequency models.
Before Polley's invention, Zenith's first remote was connected to the television by a wire cord.
Polley was rightly proud of his invention and was honoured in 1997 with an Emmy for hiscontribution to television. Like millions the world over his invenstion freed us lazy git from the hell that was getting up and walking the few paces to television. For that he will be sorely missed.
RIP Eugene!
Your Telly or your life!
Eugene Polley, the inventor of the television remote control, died last week at the age of 96. His former employer, Zenith Electronics said Polley died of natural causes last Sunday.
His 1955 invention, the Flash-Matic, pointed a beam of light at photo cells on each corner of the TV, turning it off and on and changing the channels. However, because the Flash-Matic used light to operate the television, it was temperamental and other lights could interfere with its operation. It was followed by sonic-controlled remotes and then infrared and radio frequency models.
Before Polley's invention, Zenith's first remote was connected to the television by a wire cord.
Polley was rightly proud of his invention and was honoured in 1997 with an Emmy for hiscontribution to television. Like millions the world over his invenstion freed us lazy git from the hell that was getting up and walking the few paces to television. For that he will be sorely missed.
RIP Eugene!
Anarchists "Smash the System"
Friday's Guardian reported that an anarchist organisation has claimed responsibility for two "attacks" on railway signalling in Bristol which caused severe delays and the cancellation of services.
British transport police and Network Rail confirmed that signalling cable was destroyed on Tuesday morning in two separate incidents of arson which caused "extensive damage" and substantial delays to passengers.
The group – calling itself the Informal Anarchist Federation – has warned of further "guerrilla" attacks and sabotage to "hurt the national image and paralyse the economy however we can". On Wednesday the group posted a statement on the Indymedia Bristol website saying it had "struck two points on the railway routes into Bristol", adding that members had "lifted concrete slabs running alongside the tracks and burned out the signalling cables found in the trench underneath".
Wow them Annykists really smashed the system! I am sure that millions will flock to their cause and rain blow upon blow against the evil empire... that or a few thousand commuters will simply curse them as being a bunch of cretins.
British transport police and Network Rail confirmed that signalling cable was destroyed on Tuesday morning in two separate incidents of arson which caused "extensive damage" and substantial delays to passengers.
The group – calling itself the Informal Anarchist Federation – has warned of further "guerrilla" attacks and sabotage to "hurt the national image and paralyse the economy however we can". On Wednesday the group posted a statement on the Indymedia Bristol website saying it had "struck two points on the railway routes into Bristol", adding that members had "lifted concrete slabs running alongside the tracks and burned out the signalling cables found in the trench underneath".
Wow them Annykists really smashed the system! I am sure that millions will flock to their cause and rain blow upon blow against the evil empire... that or a few thousand commuters will simply curse them as being a bunch of cretins.
The Informal Anarchist Federation, probably a small bunch of social inadequates one could count on the fingers on one hand really have a sense of their own self importance if their press release on Indymedia is anything to go by:
The purpose of guerrilla attack is to spread the struggle into
different territories and facets of life. Finance, judicial,
communications, military and transport infastructure (sic) will continue to be
targets of the new generation of urban low-intensity warfare - the
Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI) / International Revolutionary Front.
The means for this struggle are always close at hand. On the morning of May 22nd we struck two points on the railway routes into Bristol.... By lifting the concrete slabs running alongside the tracks and burning out the signalling cables found in the trench underneath, before carriges (sic) came on the line...
... The potential spread of such blockages in general poses a significant problem for the flow of commodites (sic) and for making sure that labour exploitation arrives on time... Such actions are a time-honoured method of disturbing the 'social peace' myth: from similar sabotages in France...to the iconic seizure and arson of the city bus in London last August (yeah right! I'm sure that this was the work of committed revolutionaries!)... Everywhere the bosses want us scurrying around their metropolis, like consignments of human flesh in alientating (sic) containers on pre-determinated routes, in a frenetic hussle (sic) for survival, there is and will continue to be every reason to forcefully intervene in the smooth flow of the daily grind...
In the United Kingdom of clockwork control and domestication, we're some of the 'unpatriotic ones' who find the 2012 Olympics, with the ensuing spectacle of wealth... But no union or movement calls our shots, and we have no inhibition to use guerrilla activity to hurt the national image and paralyze the economy however we can. Because simply, we don't want rich tourists - we want civil war.
And come a civil war I am sure that these class warriors would shit their collective underpants. In the meantime they can bask in the "glory"of a job well done.... Ha!
Personally I have always had a low opinion of anarchists. This opinion was formed by my first encounter with anarchists in my late teens (mainly upper middle class children spouting slogans) and very little have I seen since that has done much to make me thing much more of them...
Ah well I wonder what these wankers in Bristol will do next
The means for this struggle are always close at hand. On the morning of May 22nd we struck two points on the railway routes into Bristol.... By lifting the concrete slabs running alongside the tracks and burning out the signalling cables found in the trench underneath, before carriges (sic) came on the line...
... The potential spread of such blockages in general poses a significant problem for the flow of commodites (sic) and for making sure that labour exploitation arrives on time... Such actions are a time-honoured method of disturbing the 'social peace' myth: from similar sabotages in France...to the iconic seizure and arson of the city bus in London last August (yeah right! I'm sure that this was the work of committed revolutionaries!)... Everywhere the bosses want us scurrying around their metropolis, like consignments of human flesh in alientating (sic) containers on pre-determinated routes, in a frenetic hussle (sic) for survival, there is and will continue to be every reason to forcefully intervene in the smooth flow of the daily grind...
In the United Kingdom of clockwork control and domestication, we're some of the 'unpatriotic ones' who find the 2012 Olympics, with the ensuing spectacle of wealth... But no union or movement calls our shots, and we have no inhibition to use guerrilla activity to hurt the national image and paralyze the economy however we can. Because simply, we don't want rich tourists - we want civil war.
And come a civil war I am sure that these class warriors would shit their collective underpants. In the meantime they can bask in the "glory"of a job well done.... Ha!
Personally I have always had a low opinion of anarchists. This opinion was formed by my first encounter with anarchists in my late teens (mainly upper middle class children spouting slogans) and very little have I seen since that has done much to make me thing much more of them...
Ah well I wonder what these wankers in Bristol will do next
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