Now for something completely different. Or maybe not so different because this one appears to have been let down by ham acting too.
A robot on show at a Russian state-sponsored event has turned out to be a man dressed in a costume.
Robot Boris featured on Russian TV and was apparently able to walk, talk and dance.
But soon after its appearance journalists began to question the bot's authenticity.
In a picture published afterwards on social media, the neck of a person was clearly visible.
The robot is in fact a 250,000 rouble (£2,975) costume called Alyosha the Robot, made by a company called Show Robots.
Whoever came up with that act may not have much of a future.
Next we have China and what appears to be clumsy hostage taking in response to the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.
A second Canadian has been detained in China on accusations of harming national security, as tension continues between the two countries.
It was confirmed on Thursday that Michael Spavor, a businessman, had been detained in addition to former diplomat Michael Kovrig.
Canada drew Chinese protests after it arrested an executive at telecoms giant Huawei at the request of the US.
Meng Wanzhou has been bailed but may face extradition for fraud.
She denies violating US sanctions on Iran through Huawei's business dealings. China has threatened unspecified consequences if she is not released.
It's all too obvious - makes the Chinese government look guilty and casts yet another cloud over wider perceptions of Chinese integrity and the political independence of Chinese business.
Before that we had some extraordinary bungling such as the killing of Jamal Khashoggi and the Novichok screw-up. It all serves to undermine the idea of sinister competence within the secret machinations of shadowy branches of government.
4 comments:
Yes, there's no need for conspiracy theories. If people could get together and create a convincing illusion to fool us, they could probably get it right in the first place so that we didn't need fooling.
By the way, never has your CAPTCHA thingie looked more appropriate. I'm just about to tick a box that says "I am not a robot"!
The robot act reminds of a long ago practice of kids dressing up as Guys and sitting in wheelbarrows at stations etc, one of these went spectaculary wrong when some other kids thought one was encroaching on their 'patch' and stabbed the Guy not knowing there was a boy inside.
A robot on show at a Russian state-sponsored event has turned out to be a man dressed in a costume.
It was not unknown in Russia for things to be not quite as they seemed, as I recall.
Sam - good point, that's the problem with conspiracy theories.
Wiggia - that was unfortunate. I remember kids dressing up as Guys and sometimes they were less convincing that the real ones.
James - almost a rule of thumb from what I see.
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