Bad Day At Work

So what actually is in the tower other than the clock?

Hi All,

As the clock tower is indicative of the big ben tower in London, I would suggest it contains little more than hot air!!!!!

The tower contains cells near ground level to imprison Members of Parliament in breach of parliamentary privilege, sadly unused since 1880!

I went up the tower about 40 years ago as a child.

The clock mechanism is behind the dials. Below this is the main shaft with the weights which drive the clock and striking mechanism. These were originally wound by hand but are now wound electrically. I recall the tower being largely empty apart from the staircase and the weights and cables. To the best of my memory, the bell chamber is above the clock mechanism. There is a metal walkway around the bells so you stand more or less alongside them. In the corner were a pair of BBC mics for the World Service chimes which are always live unless the clock is stopped for maintenance.

Above the bells is a light which is lit when the House of Commons is sitting.

Becareful, PETA will insist on the condition of the lead reindeer!

What lead reindeer?

There!!! That's better!

Hello

I'm charged with copyright control here at CartoonStock (http://www.cartoonstock.com ) and I notice you're using one of our images aha0005 at http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/5842 without having purchased a license for it.

The artists we represent are professional and make their living through the licensing of their cartoons, so I hope you can understand that they need to earn appropriate license fees for use of their work. The use of their images without the appropriate license is, I'm afraid, a breach of copyright.

As per the pricing page on our website (http://www.cartoonstock.com/pricing.asp) your usage should fall into our license category 2a.

Following the link below will allow you to purchase the appropriate license for your use of the image.

http://www.cartoonstock.com/cart.asp?basket=yes&addtobasket=aha0005&referrer=1025&licenseCategory=2a

Licensing the cartoon using this link will ensure we know your use of the cartoon is now legitimate and will prevent us having to pursue the matter further.

If you link to the image in accordance with our "permissible uses free of charge" (see http://www.cartoonstock.com/blog_FOC.html) instead of embedding it in your own content, then that is an acceptable alternative. If you decide to do this, please reply so we can confirm this has occurred.

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Thank you.

George Walker

Copyright Control
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CSL, CartoonStock Ltd 6 . North Parade . Bath . BA1 1LF . United Kingdom t. +44 (0)1225 789600 | f. +44 (0)1225 789642 Toll Free (USA/Canada) 888 880 8357 www.CartoonStock.com

Quick! Shove a wad of C-notes in your scanner and fax those bad boys to 'toonstock before they sue your avatar!

I think this is one of the CR 4 "own" bloggers, so I think Global Spec is the one that takes the fall on this one... Oops! Sorry about that, guys! Let us know if you need us to pass the hat! It's the least we can do for giving us a year of fun and information.

So how much is that shitty 'toon worth, George? Are you suggesting people actually pay for the privilege of using that crap?

-e^©®™

Somebody thought it was good enough to use, so like, why get offensive.

We liked it then, but now it's a POS???

Because heavy-handed corporate crap like that pisses me off? That one should've been a freebie. Someone thought it was good enough to post. That's their perogative. I think it's lousy. That's mine.

"heavy-handed corporate crap"

My guess is it's some guy in his home basement running a one-horse business to make a few bucks.

Many years ago, when I was a programmer of very small financial means, I copyrighted a piece of software called "Animal Soup." Several months later, Disney Corp. came out with a piece of software with the same name. You bet your ass I contacted them! And I would have sold them the name for a song (just not "It's a Small World" - I hate that one.). Unfortunately, they decided to change the name, and that-was-that.

Also, I've done the toon biz, as well. Even if you do get published, unless your a Chas Addams, you can figure on makong as much as some poets!!!

All I'm sayin' is when one of these things comes along, it's shocking at first, then usually it turns out to be no big deal. Just some poor slob trying to keep the lights on and and the hard drives spinning.

On the flip side this guy could make available a few freebie teasers to advertise his work and, if he gets enough interest, charge nominal usage fees for the rest of 'em. Free teasers -- as long as the appropriate attributions are made -- are good advertising. Software houses do it all the time. You download for free some limited version and, if you like it and want the premium features, you pay for the full version. If your would-be users think it's crap and tell you so, you should be willing to go back to the drawing board and make changes to better suit their tastes.

You, TechnoTourist and possibly others like that 'toon. I happen not to like it at all. Sloppy execution for one, but then, my tastes are my own and may not jibe with anyone else's here. Douglas Adams' or Gahan Wilson's or Bode's 'toonz? I'd pay to use those. Any of them. But George's 'toon or the guy's he reps for? Nah. Not even.

I agree!

Btw, check out the lower left corner of the 'toon where the Copyright Notice Obliterates The Author's Sig!

What's up with that?

Note also that the Notice says "©Original Artist," not "©Original Artist's Actual Name Here." Judging by that unreadable scribble that is the artists sig, I'll be George couldn't read it either and so he substituted some generic "Original Artist" crap.

George doesn't know who the original artist is and, consequently, couldn't pay the poor sod even if he wanted to.

This sure smells fishy, George. George?

Tell you what: How much do you wanna bet that George lifted that 'toon himself and sends NastyGrams to "Unauthorized Users" (gasp!) telling them to Cough It Up Or Else? A scammer.

George?

It's possible.

When I looked on their web site, I couldn't see how much the original artist gets paid. They have a list of artists, and even a phograph that might be Mr Walker. The prices seem a bit steep, and I know people who could do better for free.

Lousy sales pitch Mr Walker.

I was just wondering if the image of Big Ben is copyrighted. I mean, you see it everywhere, surely those tightwads at the gov.com wouldn't have missed a trick like that? Would carntoonstuck have got permission to show the image?

Ho Hum.

Anyway, given the power of the interweb, blah blah blah, how about we start a boycott? Lets all look at a decent cartoon site!

Hang your head, Mr Mak......BB is the bell isn't it ?

Yeah..... lets ignore CartoonSchlock. They got no sense of humour.

Doh! Yesyesyesyesyesyes! Alright, you git, but only 'cos there isn't a name for the tower, other then 'the clock tower'! (The name Big Ben is only a nick name, the official name is the 'great Bell'. Hey! That means the tower's nick name is Big Ben! We need a referee!)

Heeeheeeheee ! In point of fact, I think that should be an 'eke name'. To further annoy, Pugin was probably responsible for both bell and tower ('Ben' Barry just palmed the details off to him). And lets not forget the poor litle quarter bells

Hang on in there ;

Pic from the 39 steps? I don't know much about Pugin, But I know the chap who designed the clock works was actually a Lawyer! He had plenty of time to redesign and perfect, 'cos the tower was late! Did you know the tower leans up to 8 1/2 inches? (though I don't know if it's to the left or Right )

Q. Is there a law against shooting Lawyers?

A. There are some left, aren't there?

It leans Northwest, but has an annual East-West sway ; http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1354493/British-Association-Soil-expert-saves-leaning-tower-of-Pisa.html That's clockwise then.

It's more eco-friendly to just let the lawyers compost themselves. Makes for lovely roses.

How do they get all those different notes from one bell? A whammy bar?

It's got like the big one that goes "Dong.....Dong.....Dong...etc" to count the hours, and the quarter bills to sing it's tune.

E-c-d-g...g-d-e-c

Lord through this hour,
Be Thou our guide
So, by Thy power
No foot shall slide

Sod it, here !

It's much copied ; http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=q4omtlg-rWg&feature=related

Even ET got in on it ; http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uIOMYSk7YEY

It would be more fun with a whammy bar.

Or even when of those voice-box tubes you stick in the mouth (like Peter Frampton etc). Gordon Brown would maker so much more sense.

This crowd would be more familiar with Jam Bun Jovi, Livin' on a prayer.

Jam Bun Jovi

PMSL ! They probably take a hair-stylist on tour . Joe probably just has a quick buff-up (I think some get removed the cool vid of the toon played over farnborough ), and ZZ Top, well err.....

I've copyrighted, registered and made my trademark the letter 'e,' as in e^©®™. Now, everytime Ge^©®™orge^©®™ writes his name, he'd better cough it up or I'll litigate. Got that Mr. Corporate Shill? I charge by the font size. Italics costs extra and you don't even wanna hear about Boldface and Underscore. I do offer quantity discounts, however.

The rest of you schmucks can use The Fifth Letter for free. Just remember who your Santa is this year (= leave me some cookies and milk) and we'll get along just fine.

Besides all that, What's next ?

"I have been instructed to advise you that some of the words you used in your previous posts, may be legally considered 'a direct quote' from our sponsors various publications in recent years. This may be served as a fair warning, prior to a copyright infringement prosecution"

What on earth is or should be considered original in any aspect of our collective culture ?

Definitely not art, not literature, not news, not gossip, in short NADA

"...some of the words you used in your previous posts..."

What he means is not all of them; just some of them. As long as you avoid definite articles, concrete nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs you should be okay. Watch those vowels, though. This is where being from Prague comes in real handy.