Paperchase, an Edinburgh-based stationery designer is in the middle of a social media storm after apparently plagiarising the work of an independent artist on The Hidden World of Eloise.

Twitter is alight with Tweets about their use of some of the artwork of the artist without permission and the company’s steadfast refusal to even acknowledge her claims. With the prohibitive costs of launching any sort of court action, the artist has been forced to turn to the web to vent their anger.

As a keen – if not very good – photographer – I’d be well pissed off too, if one of my photos appeared in a calendar or other device which some faceless corporation was making money from at my expense.

The image at the centre of the storm is the girl featured in the illustration ‘He says he can hear the Forest whisper‘. Compare it with the image shown on Paperchase’s Wonderland Square album.

Do you see the similarites between the two?

Shame on Paperchase for their actions; I hope the guilt trip being laid on them by the internets’ many users makes them pull the design from their products and offer an apology at the very least. I hope they do they right thing.

Good luck to the independent artist involved; the other little guys and girls are behind you in support.

And no, I won’t be buying any Paperchase products in protest. Neither, I suspect will many hundreds of others if the comments on Amazon are anything to go by!

EDIT: It appears Amazon have withdrawn the product from their stock listing while Paperchase have issued an apology .. it’s not much, but its a start I suppose.

However, if they were aware of the copyright claim and had contacted the artist (as Paperchase claim they did), why did it take until today’s Twitterstorm for them to do anything about it?

As published by MMarley, this YouTube video comprises nothing but small sounds recorded from James Cameron’s sci-fi sequel ‘Terminator 2: Judgement Day’.

The video has been put together by Fagottron .. excellent work!

No, it’s not an optical illusion, trick of the light or anything like that… this photo was taken by my wife, from her home office window a few moments ago.

Its a snow plough! Or, at least a JCB with a plough attached which, let’s face it, is close enough.  This surely disproves any notion that such beasts are a mythical entity or the stuff of folklore and legend.

If you watched the second instalment of the latest Doctor Who special (shown on BBC1 on New Years Day), you’ll know that David Tennant’s tenure as The Doctor came to an end and the role was taken over by Matthew Smith.

I’ve had a hard time taking to the new Doctor Who series since Christopher Ecclestone, and much of this is down to the writer Russel T. Davies.  Frankly, I find his scripts and storylines are rubbish – I dislike immensely the angst-riddled angle and the constant gay-isms that permeate through not only Doctor Who but the spin-off show, Torchwood.

However, with Steven Moffat now at the helm, I have better hopes for the future of Doctor Who, and the BBC have put together a preview of what’s in store for Matthew Smith’s Doctor…

As 2009 draws to a close I would to take this opportunity to thank West Lothian Council for their effort – or lack of it – in dealing with the cold snap that has affected the region over the past 10 or so days. Yes, they may have been battling to keep open the major routes through the area – the M8; the A899; A71; A89 – but really, what use is it keeping these routes open when people are having difficulty even getting out their housing scheme in order to reach these major routes?

I’ve yet to see a gritter in Livingston anywhere other than going up and down the dual-carriageway. I’ve just come along the A71 into Edinburgh, which is completely untouched after snow and -5 temperatures overnight. Driving was a bit hairy as a result but this isn’t the first time this winter I’ve had to drive on poorly-or-untreated roads and I’m sure it won’t be the last.

My own street in Livingston has a 9” high ridge of hard-packed snow and ice running down the centre of the road, where cars have tried to navigate up and down the street. This ridge scrapes along the underside of my car and if it weren’t for our attempts to clear the bottom of the street where the road bends, there would bound to have been accidents! Residents are struggling to park their cars and are abandoning them where they lie stuck, especially as the entrance/exit to the scheme is built on a hill. Clown drivers who park right on the bend at the top of the hill don’t help though.

The pavements haven’t been touched either and fresh snow on top of ice makes for treacherous walking conditions and even the ring-road – a bus-route – has hardly been treated, and I reckon its down to the traffic on the road that has kept the snow and ice to a minimum.

Now, WLC may claim that resources are stretched but I’m sure they won’t be slow in chasing me for my monthly council tax payment. I wonder if I’ll get away with the same excuse that my resources are stretched? I very much doubt it, but should any damage occur to my car because of WLC’s failure then they can expect to foot the repair bill.

This picture came to me via the SciFi Rules Twitter feed.  It depicts DaVinci’s Last Supper, as it might appear in the Star Wars universe…

I loved playing with Lego as a kid and built many different things using their interlocking colour blocks.  However, I never thought to do anything like the below which was sent to me by a friend.

Ohh la la… I’ll never look at lego in the same light again. It puts a whole new slant on dominating your life.

I’ve been watching the bank charges test case with more than a passing interest.  Probably because I have a claim in against my bank for some £3k of charges.  So I was looking forward to this morning’s Supreme Court decision where, like many, I had high hopes of the Supreme Court upholding the verdicts of TWO courts’ previous rulings.

Well, guess what? They didn’t… they found in the banks’ favour.

This is a disgraceful decision by the Supreme Court and clearly a political one made for economic reasons rather than on a point of law that has been passed by two previous court rulings.

Put simply, the Supreme Court has bought into banks’ spin and scaremongering.

Quite how their decison differs so radically from not one, but two courts beggars belief.  Banks can now name their price for fees charged – utterly outrageous!  I don’t even have a current account – my account is a basic one so it’s impossible for me to go overdrawn without the bank physically doing so themselves.  £39 for returning a direct debit? Don’t make me laugh…

Their greed over the years has contributed a large part to so many people falling into debt with their punitive charges,  and the whole thing stinks! I wonder how many of the Lords who sat on the appeal court are shareholders in the major banks and are protecting their share dividends?

Rotten, absolutely rotten… the Supreme Court – and the government which allowed it all to happen – should hang their heads in shame!

Tuesday evening will be a sad time for me as series one of Warehouse 13 comes to an end on SyFy UK.

This has been one of my favourite series in recent time and I’ll miss the adventures of Artie, Pete, Myka, Claudia and Leena as they bid to rid the world of dangerous historical artefacts.

Thankfully, unlike other series I’ve enjoyed such as Firefly, John Doe and Dollhouse, the doors haven’t closed for good on W13 and I can at least look forward to next year when series two begins.

Huzzah!

Earlier today, the lovely Jenni Falconer posted a question on Twitter asking whether she could substitute normal milk for butter milk in her baking, or if she would have to go and buy the real thing.

Never one to turn down a damsel in distress I tweeted back a tip I picked up to make buttermilk substitute using lemon juice and was surprised when she replied back that she would try it!

Ok, so Jenni might have spelt lemon wrong but I don’t care – this is the first time ever that a celeb has taken the time to Tweet back to me.

For the record, if you need to use buttermilk in a recipe and don’t have any to hand, then simply mix one tablespoon of lemon juice (or white vinegar) with one cup of normal milk and leave the mixture to stand for about 10-15 minutes and you’ll have buttermilk substitute!

It’s amazing what you pick up from watching cookery shows on TV!