Interesting Links for 27-02-2013

[andrewducker]

• A man tried to rob a bank after paying $500 to a wizard to make him invisible
  (tags: crime funny epicfail )
• How the Oscars proved Hollywood is killing the VFX industry
  (tags: specialeffects cgi movies business )
• How to write dates.
  (tags: date )
• The Norwegian prison where inmates are treated like people (and thus has a very low reoffending rate)
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Comments

[gonzo21]

I don't know about movie effects, but I know teh gaming VFX world is in trouble because a lot of studios have been opened in India that are massively undercutting studios in America and Europe.

Which is going to be a problem I think for the entire IT sector before long, they're going to need to find a way to compete with much cheaper Indian programmers.

And that's horrendous about Trident, I wish I knew how the makers of the system have got out politicians so very much bought and paid for that there isn't even a debate about it.

[chess]

+1 - I have been trying to explain this to many people a lot recently, to limited success. It would be really nice if the Lib Dems could stop shooting themselves in their own feet repeatedly though.

[chess]

ISTR it isn't the manufacturers of the system so much as the concept of having a nuclear deterrent of this form, which is considered to be useful in keeping a seat at various international negotiating tables.

[gonzo21]

So you think it's probably all about most of our politicians wanting to cling to this strange idea of Britain still being a world power?

[chess]

There are only two excuses that people supporting it have given me that have made any sense, and both of them essentially boil down to that - there's the 'staying on the big boys' table' excuse and the 'we need to avoid losing the expertise to make this kind of stuff and we can only do that by making some occasionally' one.

[iainjcoleman]

There's a splendid book by Peter Hennessy that collects the UK cabinet papers (plus some other official documents) relating to nuclear weapons - at least, those that are more than 30 years old