A New Zealand company is seeking EU approval to market honeybee venom to help people with arthritis ease their pain. Nelson Honey & Marketing says two teaspoons a day of its honey with added venom milked from honeybees has anti-inflammatory power to soothe joints. The venom concept is not new - some clinics even offer up bee stings. The UK's Food Standards Agency said it would be considering the application in the coming months.
The Manuka honey with added bee venom has been available in New Zealand for 13 years and its makers say although it does contain a venom, it has proved extremely safe. It contains a blend of honey derived from the native New Zealand Manuka tree and dried venom harvested from the Apis mellifera honeybee using electrical milking machines that send impulses to stimulate worker bees to sting through a latex film onto a glass collector plate. Anecdotal benefit The Nectar Ease label advises consumers to start with a quarter of a teaspoon a day and increase this to one or two as required. It also warns that people with allergies to honey or bee venom should seek medical advice prior to use, and that it should not be given to infants under 12 months of age. Honey has long been hailed for its healing properties, but the Arthritis Research Campaign said it was sceptical about the beneficial properties of honeybee venom in the treatment of arthritis. The charity's medical director Professor Alan Silman said: "We recently compiled a report on the effectiveness of complementary medicines in treating the common types of arthritis based on available scientific evidence and honeybee venom didn't feature, as no research has been done into this product. "As a result, it's difficult to postulate the action of honeybee venom or how it purports to work, because any available evidence is entirely anecdotal." | |||
5.7.09
'Bee sting honey' for arthritis
Vibrating siren tested by doctors
An emergency siren that alerts drivers by making their vehicles vibrate is being tested by doctors in Hampshire. The Howler is being used by BASICS Hampshire, a charity made up of 20 volunteer medics who attend about 750 road traffic accidents every year. They said paramedics were often held up by drivers who cannot hear them because they are playing loud music and are not looking in their mirrors. The new device is mounted underneath the bonnet and sends out a sound wave. Quicker response The Howler sends out low bass sound that makes the car in front "shake". Dr Rob Dawes, a volunteer doctor whose full-time job is as an hospital anaesthetist and military doctor, said people get out of the way quicker when the device is used. He said: "The main problem is on the motorways where people can't hear the sirens or see you, because often they either don't look in the mirrors or they've got the radio on quite loud. "What this new siren aims to do is, because they can't see you and they can't hear you, we hope that they'll be able to feel you." Dr Dawes, who attends about 300 roadside accident scenes a year, said the new siren was the only one of its kind in England. The Howler siren is designed to make drivers move out of the way quicker | |
US man sets hot dog-eating record
The world record for competitive hot dog eating has been broken in the US.
Joey "Jaws" Chestnut ate 68 hot dogs in 10 minutes at the annual 4 July contest at Coney Island in New York, shattering his old record of 66.
His main rival, Japan's six-time winner Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi, ate 64 and a half. It is thought the two men ate around 19,000 calories between them.
The first such hot dog eating contest was held in 1916, when the winner put away only 13 franks.
The two men have gone gut-to-gut for almost a decade at the annual competition, which has become an Independence Day tradition in the US.
This year's contest was broadcast live on sports channel ESPN, and featured much of the fanfare usually reserved for professional sporting events.
Mr Chestnut, who won his third straight title in a row, takes home $20,000 (£12,250) in prize money and the coveted Mustard Belt.
The 25-year-old Californian is a man of diverse taste, the BBC's Jon Donnison reports from Washington.
His other world records include eating 5kg of macaroni and cheese in seven minutes; and 188 jalapeno peppers in 10 minutes.
Beer runs out at annual festival
A Herefordshire beer festival has been stopped early after it was "drunk completely dry", said organisers.
The Sunday session of the Beer on the Wye festival has been called off, despite an emergency delivery of 18 barrels of drink on Saturday afternoon.
Herefordshire Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) said: "The cider bar was closed at about 9pm and virtually the last drop of beer went by closing time."
The event, which is in its fifth year, began in Hereford on Friday.
Mark Haslam, from Camra, said Sunday's family fun events had also been cancelled because food had also run out.
Local beer
He apologised for any disappointment caused and said this year the attendance had been about 30% higher than last year.
"People just kept coming and coming," he said. "I mean it is a nice location, in a marquee by the river, but we have had nice weather before."
The festival normally attracts about 3,000 people over three days, but about 3,800 had already attended by Saturday night, he said.
He also believed the popularity of local beers was growing and helped attract people of all ages.
Mr Haslam said organisers brought in their back-up plan and ordered extra barrels on Saturday, but this was soon used up.
He said next year Camra would order more beer and have a bigger back-up supply.
Jackson maintains chart dominance
Michael Jackson domination of the UK music charts has continued 10 days after his death, with 13 of his songs among the top 40 best selling singles. His 1988 track Man in the Mirror climbing from number 11 to two. But he was held off the top spot by Euro-pop act Cascada who scored their first UK number one with dance track Evacuate The Dancefloor. Jackson's The Essential rose 19 places to become the number one album and he has four other albums in the top 10. There has been a huge surge in demand for Jackson's albums and singles following his death more than a week ago. He nearly doubled his presence in the singles chart after securing seven places in the top 40 last week. As well as Man in the Mirror, tracks Billie Jean, Thriller, Smooth Criminal and Beat It, all featured in the top 20. He now equals Belfast singer Ruby Murray's record for the most singles in the top 20 in the same week which was set back in March 1955.
Jackson also secured five records in the top 10 of the album chart, with eight records in total in the top 40. It was a good week for UK duo La Roux - after topping the single's chart with Bulletproof last week, their self-titled album debuted at number two in the album chart. The record was the biggest first week sale for a debut album so far this year, according to the Official Charts Company. Interest in Jackson's work is expected to swell even further ahead of the star's memorial on Tuesday. Fans who took part in an online draw to attend the service were set to find out on Sunday if they had won one of 17,500 tickets avaiable. More than 1.6m people signed up for the chance to be at the ceremony being held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. | |||
4.7.09
Music sleuths seek out lost tunes
With reissued classic albums crowding out new artists on record companies' release schedules, you might be forgiven for thinking the music industry had left no stone unturned in its quest to recycle the past.
 |   I'd say some of these titles are quite outlandish  Doug Shipton, Finders Keepers Records |
But while the major labels continue their endless restoration of rock's rich tapestry, a small band of maverick entrepreneurs are finding that there are still plenty of what they call "undiscovered vinyl artefacts from the annals of alternative pop history".
Are you ready for funky progressive rock from communist-era Hungary?
How about film soundtracks recorded in Lahore during the golden age of Pakistani cinema? Or maybe 1970s psychedelic Turkish protest songs?
All these and more can be found in the catalogue of Finders Keepers Records.
The label has been in existence since 2005, when it reissued a hopelessly rare avant-garde concept album by French composer and arranger Jean-Claude Vannier, best known for his work with Serge Gainsbourg.
Taking risks
Doug Shipton was working as a press officer with independent record company Cherry Red when he and fellow enthusiasts Andy Votel and Dominic Thomas "cobbled together" enough money to launch Finders Keepers.
"We're all avid record collectors, we all DJ in our spare time," he says.
 Finders Keepers' biggest successes have come from rare Turkish music |
"We do tend to lean more towards the dancefloor-friendly side of things, but really, we release whatever takes our fancy.
"I'd say some of these titles are quite outlandish, but with a bit of love and attention, anything's possible, really."
Low overheads mean that Finders Keepers is a viable concern with sales of 4,000 to 6,000 for each release.
The label's most successful albums to date have been two releases in its "Anatolian Invasion" series, by Turkish artists Selda Bagcan and Mustafa Ozkent, which have each sold 10,000 copies, Doug says.
Music, nostalgia and sex
Now approaching its fifth birthday, Finders Keepers is a relative novice in the world of esoteric reissues. The label widely credited with starting the phenomenon, Trunk Records, has been going since 1995.
Trunk was the first company to issue a soundtrack album from the cult British horror film The Wicker Man.
Subsequent releases have included the music from much-loved 1960s and 1970s children's TV series the Clangers, Ivor The Engine and Pogles Wood.
The Clangers album has been the label's most successful project, selling between 5,000 and 10,000 copies.
| This is my sort of thing - slightly esoteric, bit curious, daft recordings which make good listening Jonny Trunk, Trunk Records |
However, Trunk's catalogue also has its seedier side, boasting porn film soundtracks from the 1970s and other saucy ephemera - fully justifying the label's motto of "music, nostalgia and sex".
Label founder Jonny Trunk carved out his strange niche in the music business after tiring of his job as an advertising copywriter.
He began by licensing albums from the Bosworth music library, which had a large storehouse of tunes recorded for TV and film soundtracks that had never been commercially released.
"I started with another couple of guys. We had £600 each - that was our life savings - and we got the money back," he says.
"The investment keeps rolling. I don't spend any of the money and all the profits go back into new projects.
"My business acumen, if you like, is nothing more than trying to be frugal all the time."
Lengthy trail
Putting out long-lost records that few people have heard of is clearly no easy way to get rich.
Both Jonny Trunk and Finders Keepers' Doug Shipton are keen to stress that tracking down the rights to some of the more obscure items in their catalogues has taken years of research and legal negotiations.
For Finders Keepers, one of the hardest artists to locate was Turkish protest singer Selda Bagcan, who was persecuted by her country's military rulers in the 1980s because of her political lyrics.
 Jonny Trunk sees some of his releases as "art projects" |
"We spent a long time trying to find her," says Doug.
"She did actually reply to us on several occasions, telling us that she was dead, in order to throw us off the trail.
"She did relent in the end and allow us to come and visit her."
One of the oddest stories lurking behind Jonny Trunk's odd repertoire concerns the album Music For Biscuits by the Mike Sammes Singers.
Sammes and his vocal group provided backing vocals on many British pop hits in the 1960s and 1970s.
The singer died in 2001, not long after Jonny had made an initial attempt to get in touch with him.
Thanks to the intervention of a neighbour, Jonny ended up releasing a collection of unreleased Sammes tapes that had been discarded by house clearers and thrown in a skip.
"They'd unscrewed and taken away anything of any value and left these piles of beautiful manuscripts and all his old songs he'd had transcribed," says Jonny.
"After spending a day there, I found this tiny little box of all these little showreels, which I thought needed preserving.
"It's a bit like an art project, that one. But this is my sort of thing - slightly esoteric, bit curious, daft recordings which make good listening."
Strange experiments
In fact, Jonny Trunk is quite prepared to release albums that appeal to a highly restricted audience, giving his reissue of avant-garde music pioneer Desmond Leslie's recordings as a example.
 The Clangers soundtrack is Trunk's best-selling release |
"He made really unusual recordings using vintage techniques. When I say that, it means throwing electric fans into pianos and that sort of thing.
"You're going to sell 500 copies of that, probably, if you're lucky, because it's weird," he says.
"But then something a bit more obvious, you might sell 3,000 or 4,000. It depends which way the wind's blowing."
However, he adds that the advent of iTunes and other digital music services has made it harder to sell complete albums to people who may just want to download the opening track instead.
So what kind of people seek out albums from labels such as Finders Keepers and Trunk? Who is the typical consumer?
"It's a very discerning record buyer, because they're very specialist releases," suggests Doug Shipton.
"I've always thought it's adventurous listeners, people into slightly more interesting music than you get everywhere else," says Jonny Trunk.
"It's always been off the beaten track, this kind of recording, although it's getting more popular now.
"Everyone thinks it's lucrative and it's not. It's a lot of work to not make a lot of money. So you've got to do it because you really want to do it."
The Bill's theme tune to be axed
The title music to ITV1 police drama The Bill is being dropped as the show moves to a post-watershed slot.
But the new music will retain "subtle echoes" of the distinctive theme tune as part of an overhaul of the series.
The drama will move to a weekly slot at 2100 BST in the coming months and will "delve deeper" into its characters with more hard-hitting storylines.
The Bill, which became a regular series in 1984, will also feature incidental music for the first time.
Bafta winner
The theme tune, Overkill, has been revised over the years, but is best remembered for being accompanied by a sequence during the closing credits featuring two police officers walking on the beat.
The programme, which won best continuing drama at this year's Bafta Awards, currently has two weekly episodes broadcast at 2000 BST.
Executive producer Jonathan Young said the revamp - including the new title music - would give viewers a "more immersive experience".
But he added: "We haven't sought to totally reinvent The Bill. The heart of the show will remain the same, but will look very fresh."
The programme's makers have yet to reveal the sound of its new title music, while the repositioned show will be advertised on ITV and billboards ahead of its launch.
3.7.09
10 things we didn't know last week
10 things we didn't know last week
15:06 UK time, Friday, 3 July 2009
Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.
1. Fred Perry was also table tennis world champion.
More details
2. Mrs Slocombe's first name was Betty.
More details (the Guardian)
3. The UK is developing a quarter of the world's wave technologies.
More details (New York Times)
4. Press-ups come in many guises, such as the "seal", "frog" and "donkey-kick".
More details
5. The keffiyeh, a chequered scarf worn mostly by Arab men, and made famous by Yasser Arafat, is now mostly made in China.
More details
6. Vegetarians are generally less likely than meat eaters to develop cancer.
More details
7. The Duke of Kent requested that players no longer bow to the royal box at Wimbledon, in 2003.
More details
8. Richard and Judy did not pick the books that featured in their book club.
More details
9. Michael Jackson patented one item - the special shoes he used in the stage version of Smooth Criminal.
More details
10. Saddam Hussein once hired the James Bond director, Terence Young, to make a promotional Iraqi film.
More details
Download Junkie
| Highlights This Week Include: | |
 | |
 | Mozilla Firefox 3.5 |
 | Recuva 1.28 Freeware Salvage & recover deleted files 29 June 2009 |
 | Driver Genius Pro 9 Freeware Find & download the latest drivers 02 July 2009 |
 | Winamp 5.56 Freeware Thoroughly remove installed software 02 July 2009 |
 | VirtualBox for Windows 3.0 Freeware Host a virtual operating system 30 June 2009 |
 | Timy for Basecamp Freeware Create your own Basecamp timesheet 02 July 2009 |
 | Mozilla Weave 0.4 Freeware Sync your Firefox 3.5 bookmarks, passwords & preferences 29 June 2009 |
 | Opera 10 Preview build 1606 Freeware Take a look at the future of this web browser 27 June 2009 |
 | LittleSnapper 1.0.4 Trial Software Alternative way of collecting websites, storing & sharing with friends 26 June 2009 |
 | Mozilla Ubiquity for Firefox 0.5 Freeware Use a command line to drive your browser 26 June 2009 |
2.7.09
Fayette Pinkney - Singer lent voice to '70s hits passes at 61
Fayette Pinkney, an original member of the Three Degrees who lent her strong, soulful voice to the 1970s hits When Will I See You Again? and TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia), the theme song of the television show Soul Train, died Saturday in Lansdale, Pa. She was 61.
The death was confirmed by Abington Health Lansdale Hospital. The cause was acute respiratory failure, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
THREE DEGREES
The Three Degrees formed in the early 1960s when Pinkney, who was still going to Overbrook High School in Philadelphia, joined with Shirley Porter and Linda Turner under the management of Richard Barrett, the record producer behind the Chantels and Little Anthony and the Imperials.
For more than a decade, Pinkney was the one constant in a group whose members came and went. She sang on the group's first single, Gee Baby (I'm Sorry), on its 1970 hit Maybe and on the hits for Philadelphia International Records in the 1970s that helped the define the Philadelphia sound.
In a statement, Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, the label's founders, called the Three Degrees ``our Philly sound version of Motown's Supremes, but bigger and stronger and melodic.''
The group's first two singles for Philadelphia International, Dirty Ol' Man and I Didn't Know, were modest successes, but TSOP, a mostly instrumental piece featuring the studio band MFSB, reached No. 1 on both the R&B and pop charts in 1974. When Will I See You Again?, which sold more than 2 million records, reached No. 2 on the pop charts that year.
Their close-harmony singing made the Three Degrees a popular nightclub act. A performance at the Copacabana in Manhattan ended up in the 1975 film The French Connection.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MstNKkN3r34http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S60INr8-yu8
The Michael Jackson spammers
As millions upon millions of people rush to the internet to find out the latest on Michael Jackson, the underground network of spammers have sensed a business opportunity too good to miss.
They figure that at such a time, people have their guard down in their eagerness to substantiate rumours and half-truths. That has meant, for the legion of internet swindlers, this has been the ideal moment to trot out spam e-mails and throw up malicious websites to infect victims' computers.
As news of Michael Jackson's death was coming through, the scams started appearing almost instantaneously. As the days have passed, the guys behind these nefarious operations have stepped up their game.
Mr Jackson's death "took a lot of people by surprise - the spammers too," Dermott Harnett of anti-spam engineering at Symantec Corp told the Associated Press.
"It might take them some time to really pounce on this issue. They are catching up pretty quickly, though."
Spam is the most common way for fraudsters to find victims after these types of events. The easiest way to lure people into the trap is to trick users to click on e-mail attachments so that the online crooks can infect computers and take command of them for more underhand activities.
Symantec says the spam about Mr Jackson gets more convincing every day. One message promises a YouTube video showing the exclusive "last work of Michael Jackson." Unfortunately all users get is a malicious programme that steals their passwords.
Another example is that of a promise to show the "latest unpublished photos" of the so-called Prince of Pop if people click on a link which actually installs a password-stealing programme on users' machines.
Dodgy solicitations are even coming in the guise of legitimate news organisations that seem like the real deal because they contain accurate enough information to persuade people to click on the link. Others promise access to secret songs.
In an e-mail I received from Websense Security Labs ThreatSeeker Network, they warned about spam e-mails offering recipients links to unpublished videos and pictures of the late pop star. All of course fabulously enticing to see in this frenzied atmosphere.
In some cases the spam may force a pop-up message asking users to update their copy of Adobe's Flash. This is seen as a standard hacker tactic notes ComputerWorld.com as a way to install spyware.
One of the newer scams that Sophos has noticed is a malware-free scam that tries to get people to send money to the bogus "Michael Jackson Organisation."
Symantec has drawn up a list of scams that will soon become commonplace as a result of Mr Jackson's surprise death and that of Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon.
These include things like spam with subject lines trying to peddle fake medicines, Twitter tweets about these deaths with links to all sorts of malicious websites and sites claiming to host videos of the last moments of these individuals lives. The purpose is to actually peddle fake goods or malware or even collect and validate live e-mail addresses to sell to the highest bidder for spamming.
The age old advice is to only visit sites you are familiar with and trust... yes, that would be the BBC. Added to that, the security community also recommends users do not click on every link that pops up related to the story, don't open e-mails from people you don't know and of course keep security solutions up to date.
In a blog, Sophos reckons naturally enough things will get worse before they get better.
"It is likely that more Michael Jackson-themed malware and spam is on its way however. It is advised that users be especially vigilant when they receive messages or links related to this news."
Such are the times we live in!
Ariane lofts biggest 'space bird'
The world's biggest commercial telecommunications satellite has been put into orbit by an Ariane 5 rocket.
The TerreStar-1 platform weighed just shy of seven tonnes at launch.
Built for TerreStar Networks, the spacecraft will provide voice, messaging and data connections to the North American market.
The satellite was so big it was the only passenger on Ariane which routinely carries double payloads from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana.
The heaviest commercial satellites in the past have been of the order of six-and-a-half-tonnes, or plus.
Blast-off was delayed because of stormy weather but eventually took place at 1452 local time (1752 GMT).
The Ariane 5 rocket carrying TerreStar-1 launches
Built by Space Systems/Loral, TerreStar-1 has a huge deployable reflector antenna, measuring 18m across. It was stowed like an umbrella for launch and will be unfurled in the next couple of weeks in a procedure that should take about four hours.
TerreStar-1 is the centrepiece of an integrated space and terrestrial service for which customers will use a smart phone-sized device. This is a step-change from some of the bulky gear normally associated with satellite comms.
"It's the first full-mode terrestrial/satellite handset," TerreStar President Jeff Epstein told BBC News.
 The handset is similar in size to everyday smartphones |
"It's about the size of a Blackberry 'Curve'. It's very small; everything is internal: there are no external antennas.
"It will work on a terrestrial network as a normal cell phone would, and when you're out of range or the network's down for whatever reason, it will go to the satellite. The whole premise of our business model is that to get wide adoption, you need a handset that is useable, not something that is huge."
In the first instance, it is expected the primary users will be government, emergency responders, rural communities and commercial users.
Wednesday's launch was the third of the year for Ariane.
On its previous outing, the rocket placed in orbit the Herschel and Planck space telescopes. Their combined 1.9bn-euro programme cost made the event the most valuable launch in the history of European space science.
Four more Ariane flights are planned this year.
Streets Of San Francisco actor Karl Malden dies
Oscar-winning actor Karl Malden has died at the age of 97.
Malden, best known for roles in A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront and the TV series The Streets Of San Francisco, died in his sleep in the early hours of yesterday morning in his Los Angeles home.
The actor had been in failing health in recent years.
Award-winning: Karl Malden, pictured accepting his Lifetime Achievement Award at Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2004, died in his sleep
Malden won his Academy Award for his performance alongside Marlon Brando in the 1951 classic A Streetcar Named Desire.
He was known to younger audiences through his American Express commercials, where he sternly warned tourists 'Don't leave home without them.'
In a career spanning seven decades, Malden made his mark portraying plain-spoken men of a gruff, coarse manner, although he was noted for bringing an understated, natural dignity to many of his roles.
Stars: With Michael Douglas in The Streets Of San Fransisco in 1972
His talents earned him a place in the works of playwrights Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams, as well as directors Elia Kazan, Alfred Hitchcock and John Frankenheimer. He shared the screen with the likes of Vivien Leigh, Montgomery Clift, Rod Steiger and George C. Scott.
He was born Mladen George Sekulovich in Chicago to parents of Serb and Czech origins, grew up in Gary, Indiana, and worked at a steel mill before moving to New York City in 1937 to pursue acting.
His stage debut came that year in Golden Boy and he later appeared in the original cast of Miller's All My Sons.
Actress Mollie Sugden dies at 86
Comedy actress Mollie Sugden, best known for her role as Betty Slocombe in the hit TV series Are You Being Served?, has died in hospital at the age of 86 after a long illness.
The popular television star shot to fame in the 1970s comedy show packed with double-entendres, as the panto-like character of Mrs Slocombe
Sugden played the head of ladies fashion alongside Wendy Richards, who died in February from cancer, in the antiquated Grace Brothers department store.
Mollie Sugden, pictured at the funeral of her Are You Being Served? co-star Wendy Richard earlier this year, has died aged 86
She died after a long illness, according to her agent, who said she had never receovered from her husband's death in 2000.
Sugden's twin sons, Robin and Simon Moore, were at her bedside at the Royal Surrey County Hospital, said agent Joan Reddin.
David Croft, one of the writers of Are You Being Served?, remembered her as a 'marvellous character' who would never turn down chances to make people laugh.
'She would never refuse any sort of comedy situation no matter how undignified it was she would always go along with it. She was marvellously funny,' he said.MORE
1.7.09
Level of heatwave alert increased
The Met Office has raised its heatwave alert level in parts of England as hot and humid conditions look set to continue until Friday. London and south-east England are now classed as Level 3 with temperatures set to reach at least 32C. The Department of Health has issued special advice for the elderly and other people at risk from the heat. In other parts of the UK, temperatures remain cooler and some areas are expected to see thundery downpours. This is the first time the Met Office has issued a Level 3 alert since June 2006. Met Office spokeswoman Sarah Holland said: "We are expecting temperatures in London and the South East to reach 31-32C today and on Thursday they might reach 33C. "After that we are expecting temperatures to come down and by the weekend it should be a lot cooler." The Department of Health (DoH) said those at most risk from heatstroke include the very young and the very old, and people with heart and respiratory problems. It said people should contact their local environmental health officer if they have concerns about living conditions for themselves or a vulnerable friend, neighbour or relative. Ozone levels are set to increase and the DoH has advised people to keep their windows shaded and closed when the temperature is hotter outside than inside. People with respiratory problems should stay inside during the hottest part of the day. | |
30.6.09
Billy Mays, the infomercial king
MICHAEL JACKSON was not the only famous 50-year-old to meet an untimely death in the past few days. On June 28th it was reported that Billy Mays, America’s “infomercial king”, had gone to meet the Great Pitch Man in the Sky. “Hi, Billy Mays here” was his booming catchphrase, which certainly got straight to the point in a way typical of his no-nonsense approach to selling. His death was mourned by many Americans, including plenty who would never admit to having spent a minute of their time watching an infomercial, the medium he made his own.
OxiClean, a “huge value” detergent; ZorbEEZ, a “super absorbent” cleaning-cloth; Kaboom, an unstoppable cleaning fluid (“Kaboom! And the soap scum is gone!”); Orange Glo, which “cleans, polishes and protects, all at the same time”; and Mighty Putty, sticky stuff that is “going to solve all your problems”. These were among a long list of products introduced to consumers by Mr Mays, who with his sometime partner, Anthony Sullivan, was said to have generated over $1 billion in sales.
Cleaning up Mr Mays was best known as a practitioner of infomercials lasting a couple of minutes, which may account for his fame. The longer variety can drag on for half an hour or more, whereas the quick-fire messages and demonstrations delivered by Mr Mays were sufficiently energetic and entertaining to inspire scores of affectionate parodies and dubbed-over versions on YouTube (check out, for instance, the “Billy Mays Gangsta Remix”).
Mr Mays learnt his art on the boardwalk of Atlantic City, demonstrating gadgets “As Seen On TV”. He gave bottles of OxiClean to the 300 guests at his wedding, and later went through his “Powered by the air we breathe!” routine from the OxiClean ad on the dance floor. More recently, he appeared with Mr Sullivan in a reality-television show, “Pitchmen”.
Many people regard advertising as one of the worst aspects of capitalism, and the in-your-face style of infomercials as the worst aspect of advertising—selling weak people goods they don’t need. Yet to their fans, infomercials are an example of capitalism at its best, because of the way they single-mindedly promote new products to the likeliest “early adopters”. To do so, they have become increasingly sophisticated. Marian Salzman, a trend-spotting guru at Porter Novelli, a public-relations firm, says that “infomercials have become pop culture and a shopping substitute, edutainment even,” and that Mr Mays “will be remembered as the Dean of Salesmanship.”
Sadly, Mr Mays has signed off at a time of great possibilities for infomercials. An industry said to have revenues of $30 billion a year and a growth rate of 7%, infomercials are proving surprisingly resilient in the face of the recession. Indeed, the collapse of mainstream advertising has made it cheaper for infomercial-makers to buy time on television and other media. Mainstream firms such as Avon, a cosmetics company, are embracing infomercials for the first time. In May the firm ran one designed to recruit saleswomen.
Amar Bhidé of Columbia University Business School and the author of “The Venturesome Economy”, which explains why America’s economy has prospered, says there are a number of advantages over other forms of advertising that, despite their relatively low rate of sales conversion, make infomercials “a particularly efficient channel”. Their direct-selling method means low labour costs and limited inventory (no need to stock the shelves of thousands of retail outlets across the country). Also, there is often risk sharing between the vendor and the television channel that screens the infomercial.
On June 29th the British government announced the launch of a £150m ($225m) venture fund to promote investment in small, innovative technology firms. Given governments’ poor record in picking future business winners, this may prove to be money wasted. If politicians want a surer way to increase innovation they might do better to invest in training people who, like Mr Mays, can persuade cautious consumers to take a chance on new products, thereby helping to build the initial demand needed to launch them. Want to know how? Simple. Governments of the world: call right now!
Ladybird 'risk to 1,000 species'
 The insects are the fastest-spreading alien species on record The Harlequin ladybird is putting over 1,000 species in the UK in peril, scientists have warned. "The rate of spread is dramatic and unprecedented," said Dr Helen Roy of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. The ladybird has spread to most parts of the UK in just four years, preying on many other insects. However, research outlined at the Royal Society's Summer Science Exhibition suggests local ladybird parasites are adapting to prey on the interloper. To help that process along, scientists are suggesting introducing a mite that renders the ladybirds infertile. | |
Digital TV now in 90% of UK homes
Almost 90% of British homes are using digital TV, reveal figures from Ofcom.
The latest statistics on take-up of digital TV in the UK suggest that 18 million households, 89.2%, have a DTV receiver.
Digital video recorders, that can store, pause, or rewind live TV, are also proving popular.
Ofcom reports that about one million were sold in the first three months of 2009, taking the total in UK homes to 8.9 million.
28.6.09
Michael Jackson tops album chart
Michael Jackson has topped the UK album chart and made six new entries in the singles top 40, six years after his last number one. Greatest hits album Number Ones rocketed from 121 to the top spot after a surge in sales since the superstar's death on Thursday. The same album earned Jackson his last number one when first released in 2003. Four of his other hit albums also made a reappearance in the top 20, the Official Charts Company said. Thriller, still the biggest-selling album of all time, raced from 179 to number seven, King of Pop reached 14, Off The Wall got to 17 and The Essential Michael Jackson came in at number 20. A total of 11 Michael Jackson or Jackson Five albums featured in the top 200. In the singles chart, 43 out of the top 200 singles feature the singer, with Jackson hits accounting for all but one of the new entries in the top 40. Overall, Michael Jackson accounted for over 300,000 record sales across singles and albums in just two days this week. World domination Music retailers said that although demand for Jackson's singles had been high since his death, his extensive back catalogue meant that no one song stood out in sales and he was narrowly denied a posthumous entry in the top 10.
Man in the Mirror re-entered the charts at number 11, nearly 20 years after its original release, while Billie Jean got to 25, Smooth Criminal to 28, Beat It reached 30 and Earth Song reached 38. Jackson's return to the charts overshadowed electro-pop newcomer La Roux's new entry at number one in the singles chart with Bulletproof. Kasabian also suffered and was knocked off the number one spot in the albums chart with West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum. Gennaro Castaldo, of music retailer HMV, told the BBC the estimated demand for Jackson albums was now 80 times greater than the day before he died. "Once we had the announcement of his death people came into our stores and we had large crowds. "Fortunately we had a lot of stock because we had been preparing for the O2 concerts, but sadly we didn't expect to sell them for this reason." 'Larger in death' Jackson's albums have dominated sales at music retailers and download sites across the world since his death. Earlier on Sunday his songs topped Apple's iTunes download charts in every country except Japan.
The star died after suffering a cardiac arrest at his Los Angeles home on Thursday. Police investigating the death said they had carried out an "extensive interview" with his doctor, Conrad Murray, who was with the singer at the time. A spokeswoman for Dr Murray insisted he was not a suspect in the case and the Los Angeles Police Department said they did not intend to speak to him again. Jackson's family are said to be seeking a second autopsy because they still have questions about his death. The Los Angeles County Coroner's office said there was no evidence of foul play after an autopsy on Friday, but gave no cause of death. It said the results of toxicology tests could take weeks to come back. Speaking in an interview with Fox News, Michael Jackson's father, Joe Jackson, said he doubted that stress over the star's upcoming residency at London's O2 Arena was a factor in his death. He added he thought his son was going to be larger in death than he was in life, but wished he was around to see the public outpouring of affection since he died. | ||||
Oldest UK Olympian dies aged 100
Britain's oldest Olympian Godfrey Rampling, who won medals at the 1932 and 1936 Games in Los Angeles and Berlin, has died at the age of 100. Mr Rampling celebrated his 100th birthday in May with actress daughter Charlotte Rampling and other relatives. A member of staff at his care home in Bushey, Hertfordshire, said on Sunday that he died in his sleep on 20 June. A 400m runner, he was a member of the Great Britain 4x400m relay teams which won silver in 1932 and gold in 1936. In 1932 he anchored the 4x400m relay team to silver behind the US.
Four years later he ran a superb second leg to overtake his American rivals and help secure gold for his team. Mr Rampling narrowly missed out on individual medals at both Games, but won gold in the 440 yards at the British Empire Games in 1934. Born in Blackheath, south east London, he spent 29 years in the Royal Artillery before retiring with the rank of colonel in 1958. Linda Simpson, clinical manager at the nursing home where Mr Rampling lived, said: "He was a lovely gentleman, he was a true gentleman and he will be truly missed."
On his 100th birthday on 14 May he was welcomed to his party by trumpeters from the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery. The British Olympic Association was among those which offered its congratulations to Mr Rampling on his century. "As our oldest living Olympic gold medallist his achievements both on the track, at the 1932 and 1936 Olympic Games, and off the track during his time in the Royal Artillery, are much to be proud of," a spokeswoman said. In an interview with the Independent newspaper the week before his birthday, Mr Rampling said: "How old did you say I am? A hundred next week? Really? Are you sure? Good Lord, I'm surprised anyone remembers. How nice. "These days it's rather like when I was running. The older I get, the slower I get." | ||||
10 things we didn't know last week
10 things we didn't know last week
16:19 UK time, Friday, 26 June 2009
Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.
1. Camels travel by train.
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2. Buddhist monks sleep upright.
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3. Four-legged animals need to avoid doing "wheelies".
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4. Seagulls attack whales.
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5. If you use a tool for a while, your brain can mentally incorporate it into your body.
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6. The UK has the ability to launch "cyber attacks".
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7. British-style black cabs are now driven in China.
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8. Every film in which actress Dame Judi Dench swears results in complaints to the BBFC.
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9. There is a long tradition of "medals of dishonour".
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10. Chilli can be used as a weapon in crowd control.
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Week-long heatwave set to hit UK
A heatwave is to hit the UK bringing soaring day and night time temperatures and thundery showers throughout the week, the BBC's weather unit have said. In London the temperature will rise steadily from about 29C on Sunday to about 32C by the end of the week. In the rest of the UK temperatures will climb from about 22C on Sunday to about 29C on Friday. However, BBC weather said an on-shore breeze will keep Eastern England and Eastern Scotland cooler during Sunday. On Friday the Met Office issued a heatwave alert for England and Wales and the Department of Health has asked people to check up on vulnerable friends, relatives and neighbours. NHS staff have also been warned to prepare for a surge of elderly and ill patients suffering from the heat. Hit by lightning The Met Office has predicted that around the country daytime temperatures could reach 29-30C, with minimum night-time temperatures of 15-18C. London, the East of England, South West, South East and the Midlands are the most likely to be affected. Above average temperatures are expected in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The high temperatures will be accompanied by high humidity and thundery showers, BBC weather centre said. Various parts of England were hit by severe thunderstorms on Saturday night. In Birmingham, a 16-year-old boy suffered a cardiac arrest and five others were hurt in a lightning strike.
Officials had already said this summer may be warmer than the past couple of years. With climate change, heatwaves are likely to become more common over the next few decades and the Chief Medical Officer has warned of an increase in deaths in times of hot weather. Heatwave guidance The Department of Health has advised people to keep their homes as cool as possible and remembering the needs of friends, relatives and neighbours who could be at risk is essential. "Windows should be kept shaded and closed when the temperature is hotter outside than inside. "People with respiratory problems should stay inside during the hottest part of the day," a DoH spokesman said. Other advice in the government's heatwave plan includes to drink cold drinks like water or fruit juice regularly and avoid tea, coffee and alcohol. Help the Aged and Age Concern welcomed the advice. A spokesman said: "Older people, especially those on medication, can often find coping with the heat particularly difficult." | |||
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