Curiouser and Curiouser!

Curiouser and Curiouser! on london http://matt.blogs.it/ RSS feed for topic london Copyright 2006 Matt Mower Squib/0.1 self@mattmower.com self@mattmower.com en-gb Death to London Underground Wed, 22 Jan 2003 20:14:15 +0000 Just been watching the program "Kenyon confronts" about the London Underground.  It's absolutely disgraceful and what's worse is the arrogance of London Underground management. What's clear is that what <A href="http://www.monbiot.com/">George Monbiot</A> has been saying for a while (i.e. in <A href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0333901649/026-1062079-7251615">'Captive State'</A>) for a while is true: The Public Private Partnership scheme is just a swindle designed to line the pockets of big business with taxpayers money. Anybody else feel the same way? What can we do about it? http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00001092.html Catch up... Fri, 14 Feb 2003 09:53:57 +0000 Just catching up... Had drinks with <A href="http://www.rklau.com/tins/">Rick</A> and <A href="http://www.surveyanalysis.com/">Roger</A> on Wednesday night in central London.  I hadn't seen either of them in quite a while so it was good to catch up.  Add <A href="http://paolo.evectors.it/">Paolo</A> to the mix and i've had a very interesting week! Yesterday was spent getting the liveTopics release together.  It was quite frustrating but I think I should have it done by this afternoon. http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00001157.html London by night Fri, 28 Feb 2003 14:44:00 +0000 <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <A href="http://www.rereviewed.com/rs/archives/000204.html">London by night</A>. <A href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2805105.stm"><IMG height=152 alt="London seen from space" src="http://www.rereviewed.com/rs/archives/nasa203.jpg" width=203 border=0></A> The International Space Station has taken a photo of London at night. Is this progress? On one level, I don't care, I like the fact of the picture. Then again, if I had my way*, I would have maps pretty much everywhere at home. One of my most recent moments of little-boy-level enthusiasm was visiting a very pleasant, large townhouse where the 'cloakroom' (i.e. the toilet behind the kitchen) had been wallpapered with an A-Z of London. How wonderful. I blame at least some of this on being given an illuminated globe at age about five, and my excitement, later in my childhood, on realising that it was slowly going out of date. [<A href="http://www.rereviewed.com/rs/">Rogue Semiotics</A>]</BLOCKQUOTE> Cool pic although I actually think it would have been more fun to post it and ask what the hell it was ;-) http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00001240.html Where is all the music? Fri, 14 Nov 2003 09:01:09 +0000 Something that has surprised me travelling in and out of London twice a week is how few people listen to music.  I mean, there are quite a few people with walkmans, but my lazy observation is that it is less than 20% overall.  I find this surprising.  Do these people not listen to music at all?  Not at home?  Where is all the music? http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00001727.html If you know you're not wanted... Fri, 14 Nov 2003 13:53:28 +0000 <a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/7602147?source=Evening%20Standar">This is London</a> reports on Bush's security arrangements for his UK visit. In case you were worried: <div style="margin-left: 40px;">the Met and the US Secret Service have reportedly agreed "rules of engagement" allowing Bush bodyguards to shoot anyone they believe is clearly threatening the life of the President. </div> So that's alright then.  It goes on to say: <div style="margin-left: 40px;"> White House officials have already vetoed the traditional drive in an open carriage along the Mall. They fear it would make Mr Bush too vulnerable to attack or confrontations over British support for the US in Iraq. </div> and <div style="margin-left: 40px;"> But with tens of thousands of protestors from around the UK set to join blockades and marches during the Bush trip, US officials are reportedly insisting on an "exclusion zone". They say terrorists could use the crowds as cover to attack the President. Secrecy surrounds his itinerary during the trip, which starts on 19 November. He will stay at Buckingham Palace and his staff want The Mall, Whitehall and part of the City closed. Besides provoking a civil liberties backlash, the Met fears such a move would cause traffic chaos and incur huge loss of business across the capital </div> If they're so afraid then there is a simple answer that won't cost the UK taxpayer millions of pounds. Bush can stay at home! http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00001729.html It's nice to be safe isn't it? Mon, 17 Nov 2003 12:50:19 +0000 <div style="margin-left: 40px;"><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/0.91/public/-/1/hi/uk_politics/3275907.stm">Bush security swings into action</a>. An "unprecedented" security operation is under way ahead of US President George Bush's state visit to Britain. [<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/0.91/public/-/1/hi/world/default.stm">BBC News | World | UK Edition</a>] </div> <h3>Compare and contrast.  A lesson from todays BBC lunch time news:</h3> <h4>Item #1 : Bush's visit. </h4> Apparently all police leave has been cancelled across London, 14,000 officers have been made ready for the largest security operation in UK history.  Context: Thousands of <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3275907.stm">people are going to converge upon London</a> to tell Bush we don't want him in our country.  Result: He will<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3274331.stm"> shrug off our protests</a> at a cost to us taxpayers of millions of pounds. I especially enjoyed Bush's comments: "I understand you don't like war, and neither do I. How <a href="http://www.awolbush.com/">would he know</a>? <h4>Item #2 : Rising crime in rural areas.</h4> Although crime is apparently falling in urban areas it is steadily rising in rural areas.  The reason?  Lack of police officers.  The days of the 'village bobby' are long past and most villages appear to have to fend for themselves. Solution offered by the home office are to re-instate the dedicated village officer at a cost to each village of £10,000.  Money presumably to be extorted from the poor buggers who live there.  However in the trial mentioned in the piece the programme had been scrapped because the so called dedicated officer was continually being called away to emergencies.  Did they get a refund? Alternative solution is for village to hire their own private security firms.  I won't elaborate other than to say what a truly awful idea this is. Compare and contrast. http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00001735.html Damned extortion Wed, 03 Dec 2003 19:57:30 +0000 You know, what really galls me is that I am in favour of the London congestion charge and am happy to pay it.  Except when I don't think I should. Coming back from the airport this evening I passed through the congestion zone briefly sometime around when charging finishes at 6:30.  It's hard to tell because I tend to spend more time keeping an eye on the assholes trying to kill me than watching the clock. So when I got home I phoned up and asked the congestion charging people if they could tell me if I had been in the zone during the charging period.  "No we can't tell you that." They said and then went on to say "We recommend that you pay the charge if you think you were in the zone."  Well obviously there are civil liberty implications in my question so I wasn't too perturbed.  So I asked "I assume that if you find I wasn't in the zone you'll refund my £5?"  "We don't give refunds." So they can tell if I was in the zone and didn't pay, but can't tell if I paid but didn't have to.  They'll take my money now or fine me (£80 and upwards) if I make a mistake. This feels a lot like like extortion to me.  http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00001783.html Get 'em while they're hot Thu, 29 Apr 2004 12:38:57 +0100 <a href="http://joi.ito.com/joiwiki/LoicLondonMay04">Loic</a>, <a href="http://www.theobviousblog.net/blog/archives/000494.html#000494">Lessig</a> and now <a href="http://www.theobviousblog.net/blog/archives/000496.html#000496">Doc Searls</a>. It all seems to be happening in London at the moment. http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00002133.html Social Tools for Enterprises Symposium in London Tue, 08 Jun 2004 12:24:14 +0100 Now that we have the agenda sorted I am happy to announce the 1st, London, <div style="margin-left: 40px;"><a href="http://www.kmcluster.com/lon/LON_Summer_2004.htm"> Social Tools for Enterprises Symposium</a> </div> which <a href="http://www.evectors.com/">Evectors</a> is organising ably supported by <a href="http://www.kmcluster.com/">KM Cluster</a> and a group of the usual suspects (see the <a href="http://www.socialtext.net/stes/">Wiki</a> for details). We think this is a great opportunity to start showing people that social tools (both people tools and software tools) are ready for prime time and deliver bottom line benefits to enterprises. The event will be held on Monday 12th July at the <a href="http://www.bloomsburysquare.co.uk/intro/index.html">Bloomsbury Square Training Centre</a>. We've got a great list of people leading sessions which we hope will be a bit different to the usual chalk & talk conference fare. We really want a conversation to emerge from this event which will help to enlighten people interested in social tools but unsure how to put them to best use in their own contexts. So we have: <ul> <li>Stowe Boyd - <a href="http://www.corante.com/about/research.shtml">Corante Research</a> & <a href="http://stoweboyd.typepad.com/awm/">A Working Model</a></li> <li>Lee Bryant - <a href="http://www.headshift.com/">Headshift</a></li> <li>Prof. Marc Eisenstadt - <a href="http://kmi.open.ac.uk/home-f.cfm">Knowledge Media Institue</a></li> <li>David Gurteen - <a href="http://www.gurteen.com/">Gurteen Knowledge</a></li> <li>Euan Semple - <a href="http://www.bbc.com/">BBC</a></li> <li>Phil Wolff. - <a href="http://www.dijest.com/aka/">A Klog Apart</a> & <a href="http://blogcount.com/">BlogCount</a></li> </ul><a href="http://paolo.evectors.it/">Paolo</a> and I will also be there. I think it has the potential to be a great event and a great day I hope that you will come and join us. Please tell all your friends! http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00002296.html And I'm sick of the BBC coverage already Thu, 07 Jul 2005 10:38:04 +0100 After about 5 minutes I'm completely sick of the BBC coverage of whatever incidents have taken place today. I just got a phone call from my Mum to make sure I was okay. They'd heard reports of bombs in the centre of London. After assuring her that I was okay I flipped the TV on to see what was happening. I shouldn't have bothered. Beyond the possibility that there has been a bomb on a bus (certainly something happened) and some sort of disruption on the tube they have absolutely nothing to say yet they insist on wittering on about it anyway. You can tell the presenters have been eagerly practicing their waffle and speculation since 9/11. Now is their moment in the sun. If this is the best the BBC can do then I suggest we close down BBC news and save the tax payer some money. Update: The BBC website has, predictably, melted down. I'm switching on the TV every half hour or so to comb the coverage for useful information of which there is very little. My hope is that this is not the precursor to something worse. http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00002728.html More bombs, More cringeworthy coverage Thu, 21 Jul 2005 13:55:18 +0100 Another incident in London. So far it seems as if the scale was not as large as before, or that something went wrong for the attackers. In one case it may be that only the detonator went off. However the BBC news reporting is just as bad as before. This time I have <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ukfs/hi/feedback/default.stm">registered a complaint</a> with BBC news:<blockquote>To whom it may concern:I would like to register my anger at the inane reporting by BBC news, around ten to two this afternoon, in response to this 2nd incident. I heard one of your team ask an eyewitness to a device going off "can you tell us how worrying this was?"For goodness sake. If you have nothing sensible to ask an eye witness then please just keep your mouth shut.The BBC coverage of both of these incidents has made me cringe. Your brief should be to *inform*. In my opinion you are failing badly.Regards, Matt</blockquote> Or at least I would have registered my complaint if the BBC servers weren't giving me a constant 503 error. You'd think the BBC would have learned to cope with server load... Finally it went through. http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00002774.html