A-capella-cat-abra

I wrote it that way in the title to make it easier to read and to understand what it's about. It's really Acapellacatabra, with multiple uses of SeeU's voice providing all the vocals in this unusual unaccompanied track.

This was devised and produced jointly by Ga Gain (the composer of Arirang) and someone known as porifra of whom I as yet know virtually nothing...

Tweet of the Day – 29 April 2013

From BBC Propaganda, in the wake of this evening's Dispatches TV programme...

"Royal Mail employees fired for theft:

• 2007  364
• 2008  401
• 2009  345
• 2010  340
• 2011  309 "

I present this information just as it comes, as it is difficult to draw any concrete conclusions from so few statistical datum points. For example, does it mean that there is now a downward trend, perhaps from the change of national government sending a message that Royal Mail is no longer a safe haven for theiving employees? I think that's a tough one to justify, especially without the 2012 figure.

However it does show that it is an endemic problem within the Royal Mail, and has been for at least half a decade, probably a lot longer. As with so much in the public sector (though by no means all), it is at least perceived to be a 'soft touch' for the more dubious types, or they are more easily tempted, or there are inadequate safeguards. It is probably a combination of all of those things, and perhaps more besides.

I am personally aware of other issues that come more under fraud than direct theft, though with similar results, such as the Post Office counter (in a shop) that was paid to run two counters but almost never had more than one open and was pocketing the second salary. It was run by an obvious Labour supporter who had claimed to me that he 'always voted Conservative'. I was never fooled, not for an instant...

They eventually lost the facility and it passed to another shop in the same short road, where it has run successfully ever since.

Illumiroom

Another in the range of technological advances that are coming into living rooms this decade is Microsoft's Illumiroom concept system that uses one's own room as an extension of a television set, mainly for games enhancement but there are other uses too..

This five-minute video is so well put together that it describes and shows what it is and how it does it much better than I could, and is very interesting indeed...

Have a Break, Have a...

...Kit Kat! What else?

You can have this Kit Kat along with (left to right) Kiyoteru, Yukari Yuzuki, Iroha Nekomura (miaow!) and the rarely seen little Yuki Kaai (whose first name means 'snow'). This song is from the Vocalekt Visions compositional duo, Tempo-P (lyrics) and neutrinoP (song and video)...

More from the Elders

Those American seniors (as they are sometimes termed on that side of the Atlantic) whom I featured here recently recorded more than was in just the original video. Interestingly, in the less than two weeks since that was uploaded to YouTube, it has received almost twelve thousand comments, most falling into either the "I love Vocaloids" camp or the commenter's own reaction to the elders' specific remarks.

Here, then, is a video with two minutes more of their reactions to a Miku concert on video. There are some great comments, including a surprisingly perceptive one that perhaps the (hugely enthusiastic) audience were also not 'real'. On this occasion, they were real people, but we have seen on this very 'blog examples in Dreamy Theater where the stage is indeed a stage with a synthesized audience waving glow sticks.

Go ahead and watch this, I suggest. It's almost as entertaining as the original one...