Has anybody noticed how some of the BBC's UK election graphics bear a striking resemblance to those of Nuno Pinheiro's KDE Air theme? (i.e. the interlocking circles)

I guess as a graphics concept it's not exactly unique and fairly generic, but nonetheless these are an absolute spitting image. I can't locate a good BBC web page that shows an example but they're all over the TV coverage here in the UK.

The /blurred circles/ are called bokeh effect

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh for more info or http://www.google.com/images?q=bokeh for examples

It's not the blurred circles though that I'm referring to, but rather the interlocking outline circles seen on the plasmoid backgrounds and elsewhere on the desktop. In fact, I see them now in the corner of this reply box.

I've stuck a couple of example pics here:

http://imagebin.ca/view/AX2KXz.html

http://imagebin.ca/view/YSWFG5h.html

Anything seem familiar?

Those circles were introduced by It-s (Eugene) in Atra-dot wallpaper. Later, they were added to Air (I have no idea whether Nuno did that)

Anyhow, it is not that unique concept to be able to claim anything.