tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-326077222024-03-13T19:50:43.300+00:00Reflections of The HendoMeanderings of a forty-something hackHendohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984475141993771389noreply@blogger.comBlogger337125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32607722.post-81163267718126670062013-11-02T12:18:00.000+00:002013-11-03T12:33:17.639+00:00Autobiography<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Growing up in Manchester during the 1980’s demanded that you place yourself in a kind of cultural planetary system. One could orbit the Fall, swing around the Joy Division/New Order nexus, but for this young man in rainy Cheadle, the Smiths were a black hole from which there was no escape. The power of Morrissey’s lyricism combined with Marr’s inspired guitar was a sound entirely right for the time if you were frequently caught in the rain while wearing an acrylic jumper from BHS. It spoke directly to me, thousands like me, and for us he made the intolerable bearable, illuminating the dreary and glamourising the greyness. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-104896c7-18b9-1dd5-d319-e04403b00671" style="font-weight: normal;"><br><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I saw the Smiths play twice, and it was brilliant on both occasions; electric, jubilant performances that I’ll remember all my life. I bought all the records. I still have them, and play them. The songs sound fresh to me today, particularly after a couple of drinks, and I think The Queen is Dead is one of the best albums ever recorded. So this review is biased, but even to this unabashed supporter it’s clear that Morrissey, as a man and as a writer, has feet made if not of clay then some other pretty base material.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This autobiography is at times brilliant, at others utterly unreadable. It’s plain that the publisher’s rulebook has been jettisoned - nobody has edited this work. I don’t suppose he allowed them.Well, it needed editing. And there’s surely an element of self-mockery of his insistence that it should appear on the shelf dressed as a Penguin Classic, he must know he is no latter day Manchester Gaskell. Instead he is at times a stranger to paragraphs, flits between tenses, and the book has at best a shaky grip of structure and narrative. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And yet there’s much to enjoy. Perhaps predictably Morrissey is at his strongest talking about Manchester, his love/hate for the city burning through the text. His childhood in Moss Side and his apparently awful schooling make for a great read, but he is plainly the most unreliable of narrators, even of his own story. A wise reader travels here with a bucket of Cheshire salt. He makes his schools sound appalling but if they failed him it’s because they didn't spot his unusual intelligence, not an uncommon problem in big educational systems. He says he put no effort in, so infact he may have failed them. There are no even half-decent teachers depicted, all of them were alleged monsters, and yet someone - somewhere - must have taught him something. He can’t have sprung on us fully-formed and self designed. It’s also clear he came from a big and loving Irish family, albeit with a disappearing dad. I suspect much of Morrissey’s so-marketable trauma is manufactured. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He’s at his strongest about his loves, weakest about his hatreds. Passions shine through; for the New York Dolls in particular, who he plays a part in re-uniting. For punk too; he is among those at the historic Sex Pistols gig at the Lower Free Trade Hall. There’s the sheer randomness of life as a rock star, like the mad drive over the moors during which he and his friends see what they think is a ghost who throws himself across their car semi naked; they ring the police who hilariously suggest they ‘keep an open mind’, when daylight comes they return to find the spectre’s Y-Fronts. A handful of friends are recorded, some of them die far too early and he communicates the blinding robbery of grief very effectively .</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While the Smiths are characterised by their critics as tedious and miserable, if there’s a generic Smiths sin it’s more one of over sensitivity. Morrissey simply feels so intensely, about perceived slights, his talent, his music and so on and this is what comes through the whole of the book. Each entry chart position is listed, too low and it is always his record company’s fault, high and it’s simply what he’s due. And he hates with a terrible vengeance and liberality, playful gossip (bumping into Bowie, fencing musically with Bryan Ferry) at times replaced with seeping vitriol and score settling. His description of Rough Trade, who took him to the top, is unappetising and small minded. Sire records, a later home,also take a pounding, they simply never do anything for him, apparently. The press, even the NME, is always horrendous in his view, but I remember the Smiths being lionised, then revised, then lionised once again. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even allowing for the fact that the music world is a bitchy place, Morrissey’s unrelenting take no prisoners approach alienates even the most sympathetic of readers. Stooping to conquer, he lambasts poor Nick Kent for criticising the band in some music paper, then plainly at a low point, he writes to Morrissey to ask to join it. There are countless more examples of long memory sideswipes at minor players in the Smiths saga. But the worst of this self indulgent stuff is the seemingly endless and turgid account of the law suit over Smiths finances, in which Mike Joyce successfully sued him and Marr. It is entirely tedious, pretty much indigestible and reader, I skipped it.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s a lot that’s not here. There is hardly any explanation or discussion of his much run-ins with reported and denied racism. It might have been a gargoyle worth finally slaying, although personally I don’t see him as racist. His creativity with Marr is barely described. At least he’s honest when he describes the first Smiths album as atrocious. I still remember sitting on my rented couch numb with shock when I heard how the mishandled production had effectively blunted all the songs. I relied on a bootlegged cassette of the Peel and Jensen sessions to get me through my second year of University. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And yet at the end of all the meticulously catalogued abuse, mismanagement and legal tedium he winds up rich, and we’re back in readable territory once more. He absents himself from the UK, taking to California like a duck to water, and rents the house next to Johnny Depp. Finding himself in love with a woman who can (miraculously) put up with him, he even contemplates children, then writes about our politics with all the dilettante authority of the ex-pat Mail reader. In the middle of this, he returns to Sale to watch his auntie die, and this passage is unbearably strong. Pages later he breaks off from an exhaustive account of a world tour to analyse the cultural contribution of Victoria Wood. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You have to winnow through the chaff. Is the exercise worth it? For me it is, but then I have a personal stake, as so many of us do from that time and that part of the world. </span></span>Hendohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984475141993771389noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32607722.post-74715105372941517642012-08-26T14:14:00.000+01:002012-08-26T18:28:36.274+01:00Neil Armstrong, 1930 – 2012<br />
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Modern methods of news delivery are rough on the sensibilities. At around eightish last night a notification surfaced on my iPhone from the NYT app; At 82, Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon, dead. Then that odd sense of personal loss when the death occurs of someone who you didn't really know, had never met, but very much admired.<br />
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For people my age the loss of Armstrong closes a chapter strongly associated with the wonder of childhood and the sense of burgeoning possibility, that you too might be an astronaut and Space generally was going to be ours for the sampling. Remember that game around in the seventies, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Careers_(board_game)" target="_blank">Careers</a>? The best one was being an astronaut. Later you found out that actually this wasn't a job choice for you, but really for an elite within an elite, the very best pilots who were also tremendous scientists and analytical thinkers. It helped to be an American, or a Russian, or at least from a country that got on with them very well.<br />
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The original Gemini and Apollo astronauts were great fliers, but the factor that recommended Armstrong and his kin to NASA, and to the rest of us, was nerve. The Saturn V, and <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/111117798987056645208/ChrisNeilInTheUS#5326721873821069826" target="_blank">I have stood next to one</a> lying flat on its side like a stricken white dinosaur, does not look safe. It is not safe. It is the nearest a vehicle can come to a controlled explosion. There was an escape system - you can see the handle on the schematics and it's featured in the film Apollo 13, but pulling it was unthinkable, I would guess. It wasn’t done. Nobody did it.<br />
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Armstrong and his brethren were the steely concentrated point of a spear thrown by a rattled superpower; Kennedy recognised that it was unacceptable for the Russians to pootle around space unchallenged with their spunky sputniks. He needed a Grand Slam to re-establish the proper order of things, ie with the USA at the top of the interstellar food chain. Hence the space programme, target: The Moon, developed at breakneck speed, with casualties along the way.<br />
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Armstrong had nerve, but was of the breed or maybe the generation of people who don’t bother speaking of it. Nothing much about NASA was safe. The training was particularly dangerous; NASA’s attempt to simulate the Lunar landing module was to build a kind of bedstead with a rocket in the middle and thrusters on the side; a pure deathtrap which Armstrong had to eject out of as it turned over and exploded. Most people would go home at that point, but not him, he just shrugged and<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlJGQ92IgFk" target="_blank"> got on with it. </a><br />
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Did going to the Moon matter? I don’t think the Moon in itself matters a jot. Not to them at the time, or to us now. There was an audit of moon rock recently, the stuff dragged home in plastic bags at awe inspiring expense; <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jne2SLg_TEWcMfZupo1isWy8C8nA?docId=CNG.ab073b1edd4c6fef27622c44e43edcb6.871" target="_blank">some of it has gone missing</a>. Nobody cares. It’s just geology. That’s what the astronauts did when they got there; bounced around with hammers examining the dust. And once they’d got there, and done this for a while, nobody cared to go back.<br />
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The shelved Space Programme illustrates how supremely self interested we are as a species; humans just wanted to know that they could get to such a place. The place itself was not important, the achievement of the journey was the thing. It was the madness of it that gripped. Images persist - at the end, out of fuel, hundreds of feet above the deadly lunar surface, far from rescue, the tiny computer going wonky, Armstrong standing at the window l<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCVySHDCqOA" target="_blank">ooking for a place to just put the Eagle down</a>. He didn’t go on about it afterwards, leaving us to marvel at it all. <br />
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Armstrong and his colleagues dissatisfied in a modern way; having been a locked down individual, married to the mission, its challenges listed by countless dry checklists, he and the others found it problematic to communicate the wonder of it to those of us left down on the ground. Military men, trained to the nth degree, often find it tricky to emote in the right way for the media. He refused to be a trained seal, went off, lectured at a University and farmed. Others in the NASA astronaut office found it harder to come back to earth; divorces, drugs and other hazy questionable stuff sometimes ensued. You could see that making an alteration in our perspective was tricky for the people doing the altering.<br />
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Now it’s us that need to alter our perspectives once more; Armstrong and his generation are slowly leaving us. Must his kind of adventure be a thing of the past? It seems unthinkable but when you look at the bill for a manned Mars mission reality kicks in. If humans care to go to Mars ourselves, rather than sending clever cars with cameras (truly that planet is crying out for street view) it can’t be as a national mission done by one power or another for prestige; it must be a joint enterprise, because the cost and risk will be prohibitive. To pick up Armstrong’s gauntlet, national self-interest must be put aside. That would be some legacy. Hendohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984475141993771389noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32607722.post-56939205571348017862012-08-10T18:13:00.001+01:002012-08-12T11:59:46.842+01:00My Olympics, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Learned to Love the Games<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Here's where I have to admit that I called the Olympics wrong. In common with a few others I saw them approaching with a real sense of dread. That was for a number of reasons; the triumph that was Beijing (how could we compete with all those drummers?), the rickety nature of London's public transport (it can't even get Londoners home on a bad day, never mind millions of Olympic extras), the well known elitism of the IOC - an organisation that seems to be able to take over cities with more facility than the average armoured division.<br />
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I suspected I was wrong when I sat in front of the telly and saw the Geese at the opening ceremony. At that point I realised that something was up, and when the Queen parachuted in with Bond, well that was unforgettable, a work of utter genius. This was going not to be awful. It was going to be great. <br />
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As Keynes once remarked, when the facts change, I change my mind. So it was a case of banging the LOCOG website for tickets in common with half the UK population. People slagged off the site but really it stood up pretty well considering the millions of hits it must have been taking. We went to the Volleyball and wonder of wonder, bagged tickets for the Athletics by doing something deeply unpleasant to my Credit Card one evening.<br />
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The trick that LOCOG pulled off was to make the Games work on both levels, the big stuff like the venues, well designed and delivered on time, and also on the human scale - the volunteer staff, the catering and all the rest of the things that make a spectator event worth attending. The coverage was revolutionary in nature. Make no mistake the digital streaming of up to seventeen simultaneous events to mobile devices is a massive achievement and points the way to an exciting future for sports broadcasting. <br />
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I wondered if I'd enjoy watching sports I don't normally pay to see. But instead I found I liked them <i>more</i> than the sport I normally pay to see. This was down to lots of things, but factors like the military doing the security was great - really two minutes from start to finish - the volunteers, who were everywhere and did a great job, and the enthusiasm of punters in the venues just lifted everything several notches above, say City v Stoke on a wet Wednesday evening. <br />
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People have been comparing footballers to the Olympic athletes and the country's most overpaid sportsmen are not coming out well. It's a bit facile to put the Olympic sporting festival next to football, which is in reality a fully fledged industry in our country, and one that pays its own way rather than relying on Lottery funding. But the spoilt and violent nature of some of the characters in the Premier League is in sharp contrast to the way the GB and other team members came over during the Games. The stark lesson for football players here, if they choose to absorb it, is that these are changed times and top footballers need to give more back - in the way they behave on and off the field. Some players, like Craig Bellamy, run charities that do great work but lets face it, he's very much an exception. The PR people who work with their pampered clients need to get a grip, because it may well be that the wind changed for football this summer.Hendohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984475141993771389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32607722.post-77141102431707523372012-08-05T16:40:00.000+01:002012-08-05T16:40:26.249+01:00Apple's Challenge<br />
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I've had an iphone for a few years now and bought an ipad on the first day they came out. Apple changed the game for phones, effectively invented the tablet market and I've been a huge fan; I'm on my second ipad and will <i style="margin-top: 0px;">probably</i> get an iphone 5. Yet I don't really entertain any notion that the new iphone will be much of an improvement on the iphone 4, which pretty much ticks all my boxes. I think the android/ios device arms race is now in stalemate; beyond incremental improvements in memory and chip speed there's probably not too much they can do to these things to make one vastly superior to the other. One of my friends has got himself a Nexus; while I'm yet to ambush him to get my fingers on it, I'm sure he's right that the Nexus is an excellent device at a brilliant price.<br /><br />But one side is going to lose this race eventually and I think it will be Apple. Someone on one of the tech blogs was writing that Google's mastery of systems will eventually see it win through and I reckon that's right. We're getting to the point that the device is almost irrelevant, it's all about the OS, the user-experience and the content - and the Google cloud experience is immeasurably superior to Apple's. I have quite a fast PC and it really struggles with itunes. The icloud seems to resent me intruding to alter things; the Chrome browser by contrast is immeasurably better written and unites your internet self with your real self pretty effortlessly. I expect android is much the same.<br /><br />The App store has been a big help to Apple, but now I wonder if the App Explosion is over. So many are just gimmicks; I install one, play with a bit, throw it out, rinse and repeat. Maps,twitter, instagaram - Android has the essentials that Ios has. There' s the fracturing of android which some say is an issue, and some issues with app quality on android, but few people say that's a massive problem.<br /><br />This may well be the last iphone I buy because really Apple are selling a pair of devices to me now, a partnership of phone and tablet, and a cloud experience to unite them. If Google start to nudge seriously ahead - the Nexus won't be their last tablet - and their cloud experience continues to improve, and nothing radical happens to itunes, then I may well desert the Jobs temple and I won't be on my own. This Nexus is a real declaration of intent; cheap and effective. The next one will have more memory and probably pack 3G. By contrast Apple's rumoured change to the charger, which makes a number of devices in my house partially redundant, is aggravating and Apple no longer enjoys the tech-lead which would have allowed them to inflict this change painlessly. There is an arrogance there which doesn't fit with the tough spending decisions many people in their target markets are having to make. Apple executives are rich with their options and may not have heard about double dip recessions. This may be a problem, over time.<br /><br />The iphone 5 is a real defining point. It has to be something great that puts it ahead of Samsung's brilliantly received Galaxy II, and by some margin. The future for me as a consumer is lightweight computing that allows me to unite with my content, work and fun wherever I am , whichever of my gadgets I have, and with a minimum of fuss. Apple gets there but I'm starting to wonder if Google and Android aren't starting to do it better, and crucially, cheaper.</blockquote>
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</div>Hendohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984475141993771389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32607722.post-30146903449704190532012-06-20T00:19:00.000+01:002012-06-20T00:24:54.996+01:00JoJo's in Whitstable<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0OJoiCOtyXJNPFsOxe4LQASwZPsaohfyTVwWCDaYNn3QOI7C44xUgRIS5nCBBQi2qMsuuyrTHANSoIP7GgwIaTbuayr0PKLCm6QZR9iRI7zdC9vIHX8KGh-7LEKwMSYbt4dro/s1600/photo+(2).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0OJoiCOtyXJNPFsOxe4LQASwZPsaohfyTVwWCDaYNn3QOI7C44xUgRIS5nCBBQi2qMsuuyrTHANSoIP7GgwIaTbuayr0PKLCm6QZR9iRI7zdC9vIHX8KGh-7LEKwMSYbt4dro/s320/photo+(2).JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Take your hands off my small potato creamy thingies</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Ms T's birthday saw the clouds clear, and joy of joys, the rain stop. So it was off to Whitstable on the Kentish coast to walk the dogs, squint through the sunlight at the boats, smell the sea - and to check out JoJo's which is a place with great and growing 'word of mouth'. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;">The problem with guide dogs, or at least the two I seem to spend time with, is that when prone they occupy space roughly the size of a small continent. Fortunately this is not an issue for the staff here who not only let them in but gave us a table in an area where the noble beasts could sprawl contentedly while their four hungry adults got stuck into the food.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;">JoJo's is a tapas place, albeit with a kind of coffee place at the front which looked to be doing a roaring trade with burgers when we went in. The idea in the restaurant proper is that each plate feeds two people, and you order lots and try things. They encourage you to bring your own bottle although it does have a cellar with the basics. The margin is all on the food brought forth from the huge open-plan kitchen at the back of the single floor dining area; pretty brave policy, because from what I know of restaurants they tend to rely on the booze mark-up to stay in business. Fortunately JoJo's pull off the gamble with friendly, efficient service and some great offerings.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">My favourite was the Calamari which was done to perfection, but our crew raved about the pig cheeks and the Patatas Bravas which have to be the best I've ever had, even in Spain. (Patatas Bravas. That means 'Brave Potatoes'. Doesn't it?). There was even flat bread which they made in the oven there and then.</span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggBqZqq0icoEbyxQINb2efE2dsmQ5bMLBwVoc2r-pgNXFUOV1F54MU0mIA5NYNA3_kyFPxw-xyoGqiXuSqRiDgBnHeBQLfbfmpvb_IT4lUNdMlGQKlv30QGlEj7fq3hzytJtpw/s1600/DSC_0046.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggBqZqq0icoEbyxQINb2efE2dsmQ5bMLBwVoc2r-pgNXFUOV1F54MU0mIA5NYNA3_kyFPxw-xyoGqiXuSqRiDgBnHeBQLfbfmpvb_IT4lUNdMlGQKlv30QGlEj7fq3hzytJtpw/s320/DSC_0046.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;">We stuffed ourselves. A DC3 from t</span><span style="background-color: white;">he Battle of Britain memorial flight flew over and everyone piled out to wave. Perfect. If you're going I strongly suggest booking; it was rammed when we went with piles of families who looked as if they were having as good a time as we were. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.jojosrestaurant.co.uk/" target="_blank">Jo-Jo's Meze Meat and Fish Restaurant</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">2 Herne Bay Road</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Tankerton</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Whiststable</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Kent</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">CT5 2LQ</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">£25 a head (more if you don't BYO booze)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;">01227 274591</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"> </span>Hendohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984475141993771389noreply@blogger.com23A Herne Bay Rd, Whitstable, Kent CT5 2LQ51.3646025 1.054865751.354688499999995 1.0351247 51.3745165 1.0746067tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32607722.post-89590391948718785352012-05-27T09:16:00.002+01:002012-05-28T18:02:44.545+01:00Number 22It's the animals I feel sorry for. Anything with fur suffers madly in this heat. My cats cower in the shade or patrol the house looking for cool surfaces to stretch themselves out on. There is no point in exercising the retired guide dog, indeed it might actually be cruel to give him a run in the park with the sun blasting down. Like the pets, we too slow up and seek lazy options. Fortunately there is a restaurant in Herne Hill which caters for just such an eventually, the tapas eaterie Number 22.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Reports of the Asparagus shortage are exaggerated</td></tr>
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It's been opened a few years and we haven't been for ages, but after last night I think we'll be back more frequently. Good informal service with - heavens be praised - actually enough staff for the number of tables (that enrages me about some places, the ones that increase their margin by flogging a solitary waitress to death over fifty covers). Tables out the back in the cooling evening air.<br />
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The warm weather begged for Rose and we had the last two bottles of Vinas Del Vero in the place. The party was Ms T with whom I shared ribs and a tasty octopus salad, and Helen who's a long standing veggie. She went for creamy Croqetas, tasty aubergine slices and seared tuna, which was done rare, which is how I like it.<br />
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£40 a head, which is a bit top edge for Herne Hill but we did get stuck into the wine. The talk was of Leveson and the thing they call 'Grexit'. It often is these days.Hendohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984475141993771389noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32607722.post-55616250960975797202012-05-23T13:43:00.000+01:002012-05-25T19:11:56.005+01:00Acid Test<br />
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To Lords, on a whim. Well, on the Jubilee Line. Clutching my
M&S sandwiches I weave my way through the crowds on the Friday of England’s
first Test against the West Indies. Big queues outside the entrances because
the security measures now include a pat down and a thorough bag-search, incase
someone tries to hijack the Mound stand, or something. I haven’t got a ticket, but a nice lady at
Lords ticket office sorts me out with a brilliant seat just underneath the
media commentary position and behind the bowlers arm. The price? £60. This is now the price for a view of a premier
sporting event, it seems.</div>
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God, but it’s cold. Mid May, but it may as well be February. I huddle in to my anorak and queue for twenty minutes for a coffee.Windies field
with their hands in the pockets, body language radiating defeat as Strauss nervously
picks his way to a century. I have a little radio that lets me hear the BBC Test
Match Special commentators; it’s like going to the cricket with a bunch of
knowledgeable friends. Henry Blofeld in classic form. Pigeon counting, silly
nicknames for the players and loads of Boycott-teasing. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The first Test I ever went to was at Old Trafford in the
eighties. Big crowd of Windies supporters with steel drums made for a brilliant
atmosphere. Today at Lords there’s an interested buzz, but the gut adrenaline
from a hard fought contest is absent. The crowd is attentive, but it’s politeness not a passionate response to the events on the pitch. That said, we rise
as one to applaud the skipper’s hundred. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Have one of the newsdesk tellies tuned to Sky Sports as
England wrap it up on the Monday. Pleased that there’s a piece on the BBC Six O
Clock News - but a Test victory now feels like business as usual for a side of
real quality. I also think the fact that the game isn’t on free to air TV
has removed it some way from the country’s radar. The sport has lots of money now, and the team
looks totally professional – but do people really care the way they used to? <o:p></o:p></div>Hendohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984475141993771389noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32607722.post-1382604311592358402012-05-14T13:09:00.001+01:002012-06-19T23:13:17.887+01:00Witness<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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City fans are a tough breed. We have long since, in the words of Kipling, learned to treat triumph and disaster as imposters, and we are very well acquainted with the latter. Nevertheless an arrogance had crept in by the end of the season. City had beaten Newcastle away and the final fixture at home versus QPR looked like a formality. Well, more than a formality. A goal party. <br />
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By incredible good fortune and through an impossibly good friend I got a ticket on the morning of the match itself. I was in Manchester anyway and was out walking Russ the retired guide dog when the phone rang with the good news; man and labrador danced all the way home.<br />
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Then it was off to the place they used to call Eastlands, but which we now must call the Etihad. It is a superb stadium and Chris and I arrived two hours early to savour the atmosphere. The club has embarked on a programme of massive construction around the ground as well as rebuilding the team inside it. There is a huge plaza of bars and spaces where fans get together to watch goals on big screens. Spaces in the once run down area of Beswick have been bought and now have development marked out for them; this is a club that recognises UEFA's fair play rules as an opportunity to give something back to the community in which it bases its business. <br />
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We wandered about. City's players arrived in a coach with smoked glass windows. Atmosphere moved up a notch. We met our friends in a crowded pub, then took our comfy padded seats with the marvellous view now afforded to everyone who has a ticket. As I sat down I remembered the Kippax, marvellous character, yes, but really an old shed where you couldn't really see what was going on, either because of the pillars or other taller people. It was a place constructed for a bunker mentality. But this stadium is football for this century, not the early 1900's.<br />
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The rest is history. QPR two one up. Collective despair around the ground. People crying, shouting madly or just sat silent. Some people sat in front of us actually left. Could we really have come this far only to concede defeat once more? Barton's insane and disgraceful violence reducing QPR to ten men; I'd have loved to hear what Mark Hughes - a terrific manager who graces the Premier League with his passion and belief - had to say to him after his sending off. Then Mancini's substitutions. Dzeko; I'll never slag him off again. And Aguero; the desperate majesty of that last-gasp goal. Wonderment and joyous disbelief all around me; and oh so sweet to have deprived the red neighbours of a championship they must have thought they'd won when we lost against Arsenal.<br />
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A thought hit me as the roof blew off; this last chance saloon stuff is what Man U used to do. Then the celebrations; these will reverberate for the next forty four years. I'm hoarse after singing and shouting. This was football history, and I'm so proud to have been a witness. <br />
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</div>Hendohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984475141993771389noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32607722.post-97493723163435502012-05-05T11:00:00.000+01:002012-05-05T11:00:25.919+01:00#Picoftheday<img alt="HMS Ocean sails up the Thames from Gravesend to Greenwich, where she will be berthed as the maritime logistic hub and helicopter launch platform for the Games" height="198" src="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02211/HMS-Ocean-o2-arena_2211176k.jpg" width="320" />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">HMS Ocean in the Thames (Pic Eddie Mulholland of the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/uknews/9246216/London-2012-Olympics-HMS-Ocean-moors-on-the-Thames-for-security-operation.html?frame=2211176" target="_blank">Daily Telegraph</a>)</span><br />
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For a while now I've been doing #tomorrowspaperstoday on twitter with the World At One editor Nick Sutton (<a href="http://twitter.com/#!/suttonnick" target="_blank">@suttonnic</a>k). It's Nick's free form and highly informal paper review which happens on twitter as the pdf's arrive in our email in-boxes from national newsdesks. People chime in with comment, and it's surprisingly popular given that newspapers are supposed to be 'yesterday's media'.<br />
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Photojournalism is such a vital branch of the art of newspaper production, and yet it's so often overlooked. Harold Evans's excellent book on the subject<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pictures-Page-Photo-journalism-Graphics-Picture/dp/0712673881" target="_blank"> 'Pictures on a Page' </a>turned me on to it - get hold of a copy if you're interested in why and how great news pictures work in a paper.<br />
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Anyway twitter seems a good way to celebrate the work of picture desks, so from Monday we're launching #picoftheday as an informal little photo competition on twitter.<br />
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The rules are as follows.<br />
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- The picture must be appearing in the paper edition of a paper.<br />
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- Any picture desk may nominate a snap, which may be sent to Nick or myself as a pdf of the page it will appear in the paper, our e-mail addresses to be available on request. But other un-nominated pictures may also be considered if we see them in time.<br />
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- Nick or I will decide around 11 which has won and tweet it as #picoftheday - part of the #tomorrowspaperstoday tweets. If we know the snapper they will get a namecheck along with a plug for the paper in which it is appearing.<br />
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- Our decision is not final. Coercion or other entreaties will be taken into account.<br />
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- Correspondence about our decision will be entered into on twitter, possibly, until bedtime. <br />
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<br />Hendohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984475141993771389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32607722.post-90361805626256209162012-04-22T14:30:00.002+01:002012-04-22T14:34:55.416+01:00Serious TV<div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
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My friends have a fifteen month old child and for various reasons, mainly to do with sleep deprivation, are only now getting some serious TV viewing done after a period of years. Flatteringly they've asked me to point them at some boxed sets, hence this blog post. TV drama is going through a golden age; there is simply so much exciting work out there, much of it (though by no means all) from the US which has married its film industry to cable TV. But the Europeans have much to shout about. Now there's almost too much top drawer drama to comfortably watch. But I've had a go!<br />
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Here is my advice, and it's published here on the basis that I fully accept its subjectivity. I've missed out Downton, The Wire, and the Mad Men type of offering - they're mainstream and everyone knows they're great. I'm trying to ski a bit off-piste. Humour me.<br />
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<b>Justified</b><br />
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<a href="https://encrypted-tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQHTOl9-_OylsubEFmf2xYNeKJCCznnkPcwuC7y7kYeC3m1VQzo" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://encrypted-tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQHTOl9-_OylsubEFmf2xYNeKJCCznnkPcwuC7y7kYeC3m1VQzo" /></a>One of the great silent scandals of modern TV is the way this series made by the American cable outfit FX has been so widely overlooked here in the UK. That could be because it's set largely in the backwoods of Kentucky and concerns the dealings of a sheriff (played by the dismayingly handsome Timothy Olyphant) and a collection of meph brewing backwoodsmen. Or it could be that it aired on Five US or some similar channel ghetto. That's a shame because its just finished its third season of taut and interesting scripts accompanied by great performances from actors like the aforementioned Olyphant and Wayne Goggins, who starred in the Shield. The highlight so far has been Margo Martindale's outing in Season 2 as a crime matriach for which she won an Emmy. This was unmissable TV and the US critics loved it.<br />
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<b>Fringe</b><br />
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<a href="https://encrypted-tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQtZ5Q6pKb-K-QycHZ7lZxX13n68wOx5l6Py-cqVOSoSltM8kMpAA" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://encrypted-tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQtZ5Q6pKb-K-QycHZ7lZxX13n68wOx5l6Py-cqVOSoSltM8kMpAA" /></a>Another show hardly anyone here in the UK has seen, this is a sort of a canny blend of CSI and the X Files. A strange series of paranormal events emerges in the US, which the FBI begin to investigate and christen 'the pattern'. Key to its unravelling is a mad professor (played by Aussie thesp veteran John Noble) who has, let's say, a chequered past and an enthusiasm for drug abuse. Noble proceeds to steal the show, despite a solid effort from Anna Torv who plays the FBI's lead investigator - who has a few surprises of her own. She ends up in a love affair that literally spans universes, but the writers produce sly scripts which boast enough humour and insight to stop the project sliding into silliness. Bravely imaginative, highly confusing and always in danger of shark jumping, this show is a rollercoaster ride into the imagination of its creators led by the fabulous JJ Abrams. An acquired taste, certainly. But addictive once acquired.<br />
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<b>Homeland</b><br />
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Statistic of the week. 2.3 million are watching Homeland on Channel 4 in the UK, which like the Killing became cult viewing among the twitterati. This audience is bigger than the one that watched it in the States on its home channel, Showtime. The lead character, a soldier who returns from Afghanistan after a period of captivity, is played by the former RSC actor Damian Lewis who many viewers will recognise from Band of Brothers. He's investigated by the rather bonkers CIA agent Claire Danes. This tale of modern espionage manners is conducted against a classy jazz based score and great support from Mandy Patinkin who plays Danes's stressed boss. Apparently this is an effort from two of '24's former producers but there's none of the thoughtless gung ho nonsense of the former series, rather a dark seriousness with flares of persuasive well-directed action. It's based on an earlier Israeli series, which I have so far failed to unearth but I'd certainly be keen to see.<br />
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<b>Spiral (Engrenages)</b><br />
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</b><br />
This French offering from Son et Lumiere features a unit of hard bitten and somewhat corrupt Parisian cops who in the first season take on a serial killer. So far so procedural, except the premise is really a starting point for exploring the diseased relationship between police, the judiciary and politicians. Mirroring this official chaos is the anarchic private life of the police captain played by Caroline Proust, who can't keep a man to save her life. She's the central character but in fact all the performances are strong and the plots are wickedly smart. A fourth season is about to be screened this year, which is excellent news because so far each of the seasons have been stronger than the previous one. It helps the producers that the backdrop is Paris which is classy or seedy on demand; naturally I thought all the sexual and financial shenannigans had to be fictional, until the arrest of Dominque Strauss Khan which showed the programme makers had, if anything, under egged the pudding.<br />
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<b>Walking Dead </b><br />
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Attracting very little attention over here by contrast to its hit status in the US, AMC's Walking Dead is an adaptation of a graphic novel series featuring the take over of the earth by zombies. Only a few survivors are left, led by former sheriff Andrew Lincoln who everyone here will remember as Egg from This Life, another <img src="https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTCH0ff5FuxO83SMkNMsWKr1esCjxChVlncAWNx7a8L4RjvSXld" />case of a Brit actor doing brilliantly in the US (UK producers look to your laurels) There is a stark difference between Season One, which is essential and Season Two, which frankly is not. This is because producer Frank Darabont, who's idea this was, left in a huff when Mad Men appropriated a large part of the second run's budget. Still - both efforts are taut and terrifying pieces of television.<br />
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So that's my list for my TV-exiled mates. I've missed out contenders like Breaking Bad, which is stunning, but I'm going for range here. Thoughts?Hendohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984475141993771389noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32607722.post-41534826315143078012011-11-24T18:13:00.001+00:002011-11-25T08:23:05.009+00:00Leveson and Twitter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNZqgppKzTXKAEE_jAs-Zjbnra3s0Nv907zGQhbfLtAWZgjsGhfs9yt67dSr9GroEqNOgZAWFnrZEi5Eugzh-kFGXAgtcQwWT7o14LfFjM5_SXIK5XkeERQv66Y1awV1c6oTOF/s1600/mccanns-leveson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNZqgppKzTXKAEE_jAs-Zjbnra3s0Nv907zGQhbfLtAWZgjsGhfs9yt67dSr9GroEqNOgZAWFnrZEi5Eugzh-kFGXAgtcQwWT7o14LfFjM5_SXIK5XkeERQv66Y1awV1c6oTOF/s320/mccanns-leveson.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The Leveson Inquiry is underway and it's fair to say it's been a gift to the live news channels who've been sticking with the hearings since the Dowlers opened proceedings so explosively at the beginning of this week. <br />
<br />
But Twitter is a gift to hacks and others following events without the time to actually devote to listening to the witnesses. The Inquiry chairman has allowed tweets and also there's an annexe where the journalists can sit, watch and use their smartphones (and actually write their pieces) to their hearts content. Put these contributors in a twitterlist, open it in tweetdeck, and basically you'll end up with a live text feed of evidence - very useful.<br />
<br />
No collection of links would be right without pointing out that <a href="http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/" target="_blank">the Inquiry itself </a>has a helpful website which among other things lists the forthcoming witnesses. And I post this list with the usual caveat that it can't be complete; if you've been missed out drop me a tweet <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/hendopolis" target="_blank">(@hendopolis</a>) and I'll add you in. <br />
<br />
The broadcasters have deployed in force. <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/rosschawkins" target="_blank">Ross Hawkins</a>, more usually a political correspondent, is there for the BBC's News Channel and <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/BBCPeterHunt" target="_blank">Peter Hunt </a>watches it for the Corporation's various radio news and sequence outlets.<br />
Sky are also there. <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/SkyFixer69" target="_blank">Jim Old</a> is their fixer and tweets about upcoming witnesses,and <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/skymarkwhite" target="_blank">Mark White</a> is a great provider of colour who pointed out this evening that after describing to the hearing the frightening effect of photographers,<a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/jk_rowling" target="_blank"> JK Rowling</a> found her car being pursued up the street by yes, more snappers.<a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/daisymcandrew" target="_blank"> Daisy McAndrew</a> of ITN is also there at times, and has tweeted today how gripping she's finding it. Understatement of the year; our newsroom, usually a cauldron of sound, was definitely on mute as the <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/madeleinemccann" target="_blank">McCann's </a>described their treatment after their daughter's disappearance.<br />
<a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/david_batty" target="_blank">David Batty</a> of the Guardian is a good follow, as is the paper's <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/lisaocarroll" target="_blank">Lisa O Carroll</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/jonathanhaynes" target="_blank">Jonathan Hayne</a>s. I think <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/benfenton" target="_blank">Ben Fenton</a> of the FT is there sometimes judging by his output.<br />
<br />
As well as the<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_509495535"> </a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_509495535" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15651521" target="_blank">BBC's live page beta </a>the <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/IndexLeveson" target="_blank">Telegraph</a> runs a live blog on its frontpage as does the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/nov/24/leveson-inquiry-jk-rowling-sienna-miller-live" target="_blank">Guardian</a>. Other notables include <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/reporterboy" target="_blank">Giles Dilnot</a>, and<a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/IndexLeveson" target="_blank"> Index on Censorship</a> who seem to be live-tweeting it. There must be more. I'll add them as I find them.Hendohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984475141993771389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32607722.post-69732357494202716292011-08-17T13:28:00.004+01:002011-08-17T13:38:27.095+01:00Riot<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpHfX7MbQduEbYsh51QcMOEtejl0a0dOt8x865hWt1YEBmej73o8ItF0TTV5wT5ogPokFzFF58vYvfT_0xRgiAd8hssNNhOvDT6E4ieTfrj5kUPwd-svd990qI5AKVUxgHCP2a/s1600/IMG_0023.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpHfX7MbQduEbYsh51QcMOEtejl0a0dOt8x865hWt1YEBmej73o8ItF0TTV5wT5ogPokFzFF58vYvfT_0xRgiAd8hssNNhOvDT6E4ieTfrj5kUPwd-svd990qI5AKVUxgHCP2a/s320/IMG_0023.JPG" width="239" /></a></div> I've had the busiest few days I can remember in the last week or so. I thought I'd write down my impressions of the disorder in Brixton while my memories of that Sunday night are still fresh in my mind. <br />
<br />
The curtain raiser to the days of anarchy we've all just witnessed was of course Tottenham which blew up when we were in Kent visiting some friends. I watched what was happening on Twitter, and had a look at the initial news pictures. For what it's worth I now think one of the most significant things about Tottenham as far as the overall policing picture was concerned was what happened next door in Wood Green where a lot of looting went on unopposed for some hours.<br />
<br />
Certainly what transpired in Brixton the following evening was definitely more about Wood Green style looting than anger against the police. I was turning in at around eleven on Sunday when I saw on my twitter feed that something was afoot there, so I took my iphone and ventured into the streets.<br />
<br />
I'm still trying to make sense of what I saw. First, in central Brixton, deployed around Coldharbour Lane, I found about a hundred and fifty police officers sealing some streets. These were a 'hard core' of public order trained officers with riot equipment, and a larger number of uniformed officers who chatted when I ID'd. They had been deployed to meet with some trouble that had happened directly after the Brixton Splash festival, and were clearly apprehensive. The usual resources the Met can deploy along with riot equipped officers weren't there. No horses, no dogs and the chopper wasn't in evidence. One officer said to another that "we're stretched across the Met" and I started to realise that it was now kicking off across London. They were forming into lines, and were clearly expecting Tottenham style confrontation. What they got was Wood Green.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI7Y575gdhyphenhyphen8CfUvDRAtA7_-B6zzh2uUrXAbcJ6xXXE3mGEz0OKK8_t0VxfSubCjjnOR0mu-XwMDqJBMrmGrFeIeqUmdVUbDF0oVYiNZesCjhcezXt910_jeCS3mccJI2XPyef/s1600/IMG_0025.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI7Y575gdhyphenhyphen8CfUvDRAtA7_-B6zzh2uUrXAbcJ6xXXE3mGEz0OKK8_t0VxfSubCjjnOR0mu-XwMDqJBMrmGrFeIeqUmdVUbDF0oVYiNZesCjhcezXt910_jeCS3mccJI2XPyef/s320/IMG_0025.JPG" width="320" /></a> I watched as a line of worried police in normal uniforms stretched across one end of a side street - then they heard something on their radio and ran fifty metres to the other end. There were no locals to be seen. It was as if they were waiting for a battle but it simply wasn't going to come.<br />
<br />
To cut a long story short I wandered out onto Brixton Road, where all the shops are - and here there were no police at all. It was about midnight and H&M had already been looted, and I think the Footlocker might already have been torched. There were loads of older kids running around and cycling about with masks on their faces. But there was no massive angry mob - really a couple of hundred or so people, if that. They'd form into a group suddenly - then disperse just as fast.<br />
<br />
I saw one kid in a bikers helmet attack the McDonalds windows with a pole. Up the road a bit a woman had grabbed a chair and was smashing the windows of Morleys the department store, which has been in Brixton through thick and thin. The windows and door of the KFC was smashed and the till was in the middle of the pavement outside. I saw a member of staff still inside who looked at a total loss. The H&M was ransacked, with people shouting at each other to get something. But there was no rhyme or reason to it, clothes were just left up and down the street. I watched as one girl struggled with a bin liner full of stuff not thirty feet from the line of riot police watching in a line across Coldharbour Lane. Some sort of collective madness had descended. <br />
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I heard one character say to another that Curry's was next and people began to stream up the road towards it. The atmosphere was odd, like Guy Fawkes night gone wrong. I saw two guys try to pick up some girls. When I got to Curry's which is in a kind of mini retail park with a neighbouring Halfords (not robbed when I was watching - I'm still trying to work out why) the shop was being attacked by about thirty people intent on getting through the steel doors. There were no police in sight. People were bringing up storage wheelie bins from around the back of the building - it had an semi - organized feel.<br />
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Rain began to fall and I decided I'd pushed my luck as far as I was going to that night. I toddled off home along reasonably quiet streets, seeing small groups of youths emerging from a nearby estate already wearing hoods and masks - clearly the weather wasn't going to put them off.<br />
<br />
What followed was some of the busiest days I've ever had on a newsdesk and it began to dawn on me how privileged I am to work with the people I do - night after night they were putting themselves out there, doing the coverage, with not a single whinge.<br />
<br />
When Manchester, Salford, West Brom and Birmingham all kicked off simultaneously on Tuesday evening I gave up trying to work out why things were happening, and to be honest I still don't have the sociology or even the politics to rationally account for the things we've all seen. It's easy to guess the causes, much harder to really know.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Hendohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984475141993771389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32607722.post-89809569783907916472011-07-29T21:57:00.003+01:002011-08-10T14:30:23.456+01:00Hacking and Tweeting<a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/campbellclaret">Alastair Campbell</a> used to say that no story lasted for more than forty eight hours. I don't know what he thinks of the phone hacking saga's marathon stay at the top of TV running orders but plainly we're in for the long haul, as the judicial inquiries play out in parallel with the two police probes - and whatever criminal proceedings come out of them. <br />
<br />
So here's my list of tweeters who are particularly good to follow on this story, which comes with the usual caveat that no twitter list can be definitive...<br />
<br />
<b>The Guardianistas:</b> <br />
Editor <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/arusbridger">Alan Rusbridger</a>; and his deputy <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/iankatz1000">Ian Katz</a>. <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/GdnPolitics">Guardian Politics</a> is also useful, <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/patrickwintour">Patrick Wintour</a> is the political editor. There's also media editor <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/dansabbagh">Dan Sabbagh</a>, and reporter <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/JoshHalliday">Josh Halliday</a>. Web editor <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/JonathanHaynes">Jonathan Haynes</a> is well worth your clickage, while the Sultans of this story are investigations editor <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/DavidLeigh3">David Leigh</a> and his special correspondent <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/Bynickdavies">Nick Davies</a> - who gets a lot of the credit for keeping on keeping on. <br />
<br />
<b>Other hacks</b><br />
Providing not so much news-tweets so much as pungent tabloid comment via both her feed and her blog, <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/fleetstreetfox">Fleet Street Fox is</a> essential. But she has just got a well deserved book deal, so we might be hearing less from her. <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/GuidoFawkes">Guido Fawkes</a> is also key, as is <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/dizzy_thinks">Dizzy Thinks</a>. <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/Dannythefink">Danny Finkelstein</a> of the Times often makes useful observations. <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/KeirSimmonsITV">Keir Simmons</a> of ITV works hard on the story as does <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/adavies4">Andy Davies</a> at Channel Four. I'm not quite sure who <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/bernardcole">Bernard Cole</a> is or who he works for, but he says interesting things on this issue. The story is now across the Atlantic and <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/bernardcole">Michael Wolff</a>, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair is a great follow. My colleague <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/Peston">Robert Peston</a> continues to break stories on phone hacking, as does the BBC's <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/jonmanel">Jon Mane</a>l. The view from inside Wapping is represented by, among others, the <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/Sun_Politics">Sun's Political Team</a>. <br />
<br />
<b>Some Players</b><br />
In no particular order, I follow <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/tom_watson">Tom Watson</a>, the Labour MP for West Bromwich East who has become the Murdoch's tormenter in chief..<a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/LouiseMensch">Louise Mensch</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/theresecoffey">Therese Coffey</a> are his colleagues on the Culture and Media select committee. She has just had to apologise to the ubiquitous <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/piersmorgan">Piers Morgan </a>for misquoting an article about phone hacking. <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/Jeremy_Hunt">Jeremy Hunt</a> has a twitter feed, but he's been quiet of late. His department, The <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/DCMS">DCMS</a> tweets more frequently as does <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/Number10gov">Number 10</a>. Others worth a look are Sara Payne's <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/hendopolis/followers">Phoenix Chief Advocates</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/NOTWGolfGirl">Hayley Barlow</a>, the publicist who was until recently working for the News of the World. <br />
<br />
Not exhaustive, and I promise I'll update this entry as the saga unfolds.Hendohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984475141993771389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32607722.post-57627967332450964202011-07-09T05:12:00.007+01:002011-07-10T15:57:35.487+01:00Fiends<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-phWOWssYuvY/ThjxA0x9F1I/AAAAAAAAJvM/vPJG9qYs5AQ/s1600/IMG_00003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-phWOWssYuvY/ThjxA0x9F1I/AAAAAAAAJvM/vPJG9qYs5AQ/s320/IMG_00003.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>A long time ago I went to a house fire. An old lady had died, and I was tasked with doing a report for Radio Manchester. I parked the radio car (an estate vehicle with a gigantic telescopic mast on the top - these were analogue days) and had a shufty at the house. It was certainly a mess. It was the days when there were two big causes of house fires, chip pans and exploding TV's. Firemen would wax lyrical about the dangers of plugged in TV's. I don't think they explode anymore. Apparently chip pans are still a problem. But I digress.<br />
<br />
Another old lady emerged from a house nearby. I asked her who had lived in the burnt out shell.<br />
"I don't think Mrs Wells have would have wanted her name published." she said.<br />
I wrote down "Mrs Wells" in my notebook.<br />
"You <i>fiend</i>" hissed the neighbour. <br />
Actually I don't think I used the name in the end.<br />
I think I had a fit of conscience.<br />
<br />
But this week I kept remembering the neighbour. She was certainly being critical of me, but if I wasn't much mistaken, there was a tinge of pleasure in the way she expressed it. I was a <i>fiend. </i>And that's the way I thought about the News of the World. They were <i>fiends</i>. And <i>wicked</i>. And week in and week out three million of us bought the paper. I was one of them, from time to time.<br />
<br />
I have to be honest. I loved some of the stories the NotW came up with. Nobody was sacred.(Maybe that was the problem). There was an amazing never-ending parade of exclusives. They'd started before I was born. That iconic shot of Christine Keeler sitting naked on a chair at the height of the Profumo affair? The NotW. Jeffrey Archer and an envelope full of money for a woman he'd never slept with? Them. And of course there was the fabulous fake Sheikh himself, investigator Mazher Mahmood, whose gleeful exploits among the greedy and gullible surely earned himself a secure place in the heart of anyone who considers themselves a hack. <br />
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Their methods and targets were the very worst, now we know. And looking back it did strike me as a tad odd the way people's criminal records would pop up in their journalism. And they seemed to know all sorts of amazing things about very private people. Over the years I did also notice that police raids, really sexy ones with proper villains being foiled by brave armed officers, did have a curious habit of occurring in front of a Wapping snapper.<br />
<br />
They were drawing journalistic holy water from a magic well, or so it seemed to me. There was obviously always a dark side to the operation, but nobody felt like pointing it out. Other hacks were a bit scared of their operators, they were so mean and slick. Phone hacking, well that was bad, cheating and illegal, but who cared except Hugh Grant and Sienna Miller? Until this week when it all came to bits under the scrutiny of the Guardian. When I heard the Milly Dowler and UK war dead families allegations it was clear to me that the paper was finished. Who on earth can have thought, for a second, that intruding on those poor people was a good idea? The paper, which often seemed dangerously comfortable in the shadows, had finally lost its way.<br />
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Will I miss the News of the World? Yes, quite a bit if I'm frank. I'm afraid it's easily the most interesting of the Sunday red-tops. Footballers will rejoice as the market for kiss and tells has just received a mortal blow. On the other hand some great sports reporting has just gone out of the window.<br />
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It's the last one this weekend. I'll buy it and keep it to show to kids in years hence. This was a newspaper, I'll explain. But they had to shut it, in the end.<br />
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Update: @langrabbie points out the iconic Keeler photo wasn't for the NOTW, which is true, although the paper did buy her story for £23,000. The truth behind the pictureis revealed on<a href="http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/a-modern-icon/"> the V&A websit</a>e. Hendohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984475141993771389noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32607722.post-21170911402534265202011-05-27T12:38:00.000+01:002011-05-27T12:38:02.603+01:00The Police Have Arrived<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1oAb5kHh6kA/SIOIg4Cj1HI/AAAAAAAABpQ/ZnBpxxd3du8/s1600/DSC_0304.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="155" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1oAb5kHh6kA/SIOIg4Cj1HI/AAAAAAAABpQ/ZnBpxxd3du8/s320/DSC_0304.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
I like the twitter-tradition of Follow Friday but it lacks a little something in terms of explaining the context of the why and wherefore of a recommendation. The police are interesting people to follow currently because two things are happening - the command level are waking up to twitter as a way of publicising their force achievements and crime initiatives, and the grassroots cop and their representatives are finding it a way to express reservations (sometimes very serious reservations) about the way things are going on the ground. So these are the Boys/Girls in Blue who I follow, and of course I'm very open to other suggestions. <br />
<br />
I wish twitter had been around when I was a local reporter at Radio Manchester and Granada because there are lots of local story tips now being dropped by the cops. Falling in to the this category is <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/CO11MetPolice">@Co11MetPolice</a> which flags up things of interest, I also like @<span class="tweet-user-name"><a class="tweet-screen-name user-profile-link" data-user-id="270416889" href="http://twitter.com/#%21/GMPGorton" title="GMP Gorton">GMPGorton</a></span> in east Manchester - which I know from experience can be a challenging area for the law. <span class="tweet-user-name"><a class="tweet-screen-name user-profile-link" data-user-id="20038272" href="http://twitter.com/#%21/WestYorksPolice" title="WestYorkshirePolice">WestYorksPolice</a> actually puts job adverts up. </span><span class="tweet-user-name"><a class="tweet-screen-name user-profile-link" data-user-id="48504214" href="http://twitter.com/#%21/DCC_StuartHyde" title="Stuart Hyde">DCC_StuartHyde </a>a self confessed pie eating man-mountain Deputy Chief Constable in Cumbria is also good value.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
Other police tweet and blog under a cover of anonymity, and very illuminating this is at times like these. <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/TheCustodySgt">@TheCustodySgt </a>is one such; he manages a thirty cell suite and a thriving twitter account. He opens up a gateway to lots of cops who also tweet, which I leave you to explore. Don't miss @<span class="tweet-user-name"><a class="tweet-screen-name user-profile-link" data-user-id="255144244" href="http://twitter.com/#%21/PCWibble" title="Youmay Notknowme">PCWibble.</a> He does a fizzing tweet-feed and also check out the blog belonging to </span><span class="tweet-user-name"><a class="tweet-screen-name user-profile-link" data-user-id="304350220" href="http://twitter.com/#%21/InspGadgetBlogs" title="Inspector Gadget">InspGadgetBlogs.</a>I also follow <a class="tweet-screen-name user-profile-link" data-user-id="186860530" href="http://twitter.com/#%21/Spartancop" title="Spartancop">Spartancop</a> and very good value he is. </span><br />
<span class="tweet-user-name"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="tweet-user-name">The Police Fed and ACPO are also running accounts. Have a gander at </span><span class="tweet-user-name"><a class="tweet-screen-name user-profile-link" data-user-id="186482205" href="http://twitter.com/#%21/polisee" title="emma bingham">polisee</a> - she's involved with policy at the Federation, </span><span class="tweet-user-name"><a class="tweet-screen-name user-profile-link" data-user-id="83207614" href="http://twitter.com/#%21/RimonSeed" title="Simon Reed">RimonSeed</a> is also there, </span><span class="tweet-user-name"><a class="tweet-screen-name user-profile-link" data-user-id="260976624" href="http://twitter.com/#%21/olliecattermole" title="oliver cattermole">olliecattermole </a>is an ACPO tweeter.</span><span class="tweet-user-name"> I shouldn't forget the middle management: <a class="tweet-screen-name user-profile-link" data-user-id="208571880" href="http://twitter.com/#%21/policesupers" title="policesupers">policesupers</a></span><br />
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Journalists who follow the cops are also very good value. <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/roamingroyston">@RoamingRoyston</a> is Deputy Editor of the Police Review, and he's got lots to say.<br />
<br />
I've just scratched the surface, but the point is they're out there and well worth adding if you're into that sort of thing. Fellow hacks are welcome to<a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/list/hendopolis/hendocops"> loot my list</a>.Hendohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984475141993771389noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32607722.post-77024834522976735852011-05-16T12:19:00.001+01:002011-05-16T12:31:13.602+01:00Twitter Is No AnswerLast night another demonstration of how excellent Twitter is for sparking communication. <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/davewiner">Dave Wine</a>r (@davewiner), who's the visiting scholar of journalism at the NYU, <a href="http://scripting.com/">posted up a discussion</a> of how the service could well be the host for 'twitter only' reporters, and as he suggested, if there wasn't one already 'there was something wrong'. I found myself responding to this, then feeling a blogpost was in order and so here it is.<br />
<br />
He wrote as follows: <br />
<div class="storyText"><br />
</div><div class="storyText">"Last year I was looking out my window on Bleecker St in the West Village and saw a huge plume of smoke off in the distance. Within five minutes, through Twitter, I knew exactly where the fire was, and had seen pictures taken by people on the scene. </div><div class="storyText"><a href="http://joshualove.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Twitter-LOGO.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="252" src="http://joshualove.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Twitter-LOGO.jpg" width="320" /></a>People working at a local TV station couldn't possibly have gotten a reporter and camera there that fast."</div><div class="storyText"><br />
</div><div class="storyText">Well this is true. And twitter is a great way to stay alert to all kinds of happenings like fires, which lots can see and maybe tweet about, particularly in New York which is full of folk who love to tweet. But my issue with this is, who finds out what caused the fire? And if someone is hurt or killed, who names them? If the fire is in the small hours of the morning, or is in the middle of nowhere, what if nobody tweets about it? </div><div class="storyText"><br />
</div><div class="storyText">Lots will point to the chap who tweeted about the raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound as it happened. But if the guy had been a real reporter as opposed to a twitterer just think of the story he'd have got. And the job offers he'd now be fielding. </div><br />
I think I'm some sort of dinosaur, because I feel that although it's clear Twitter has many qualities there is no way it's a replacement for longer forms of financed reporting, in which there's a proper investment into training, the development of veracity and the cultivation of trust.<br />
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Twitter - let me deal with it now as a "community" - actually abandons standards many journalists are brought up to hold dear, as we've seen in the last few days with the ridiculous and libellous stories about two BBC presenters and the full scale challenge to the rule of law as followed by the rest of the media. I like to tweet, and I get a lot out of it - stories, thoughts, even friends. <br />
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But Twitter is nothing more advanced than a high tech rumour mill. It doesn't replace sending trained and resourced correspondents to places, as Dave, in fairness, admitted in his blog post. It can't replace the kind of journalism that requires even a modicum of fact checking and investigation. It's a magnificent communication and referral tool, but it can't go far in replacing journalism. If somehow mainstream journalism withers as a result of people claiming it's a panacea to the rest of our ills, well we shall all be hugely the poorer. Hendohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984475141993771389noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32607722.post-80646229512511191462011-05-07T13:28:00.001+01:002011-05-07T13:29:53.051+01:00LondonerI never thought I'd make it as a Londoner. When I had to move here to start a job with ITN in the 90's I actually wept at having to leave Manchester<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDvhejK6Yj4LsI2iNDnWMHQBu2q5Hj6cCZxrDRoP8vvo7-N0I9LWfFrs33hP7MjXcIz7aDT3R1BnJeZU1tvmp5Ozk0jqvbRSdnNFJ3QKfo6ofNTQl_2yL6KHlzuqpb9pvdAPhw/s1600/iphone+11+066.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDvhejK6Yj4LsI2iNDnWMHQBu2q5Hj6cCZxrDRoP8vvo7-N0I9LWfFrs33hP7MjXcIz7aDT3R1BnJeZU1tvmp5Ozk0jqvbRSdnNFJ3QKfo6ofNTQl_2yL6KHlzuqpb9pvdAPhw/s200/iphone+11+066.JPG" style="clear: both; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" width="200" /></a>. I was completely attached to all those things which make that city so excellent, the cricket at Old Trafford, the football at Maine Road, Granada TV, Chinatown...the list seemed to be endless.<br />
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And added to that was a kind of professional resentment about the Londonisation of the media's priorities. Journalists in Manchester were under the bitter impresson that London's priorities didn't include making the most of stories from the provinces, but this would turn into resentment when for example the Manchester Air Disaster happened and a cadre of London hacks arrived to cover it. <br />
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And for years I was miserable in London and went 'home' virtually every weekend. To me, for ages, it seemed to be imploding under the stress of simply being Britain's capital city. Smelly and chaotic, to me it just didn't seem to function properly as a place to live.<br />
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But gradually I grew into it, or adjusted to it, and now it seems absurd to go back to Manchester at every opportunity. And these days it seems mad to me that Manchester doesn't have a really swift public transport system that links virtually everywhere with everywhere else with a minimum of hassle. Or a proper river in the middle of it. Or a parliament and a selection of really top rate art galleries, etc etc.<br />
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So against the grain, I've become Londonised. But did I have to be? Ultimately I've lived or worked almost everywhere in Britain at some point or another. Shouldn't I just be a citizen of the UK and feel comfy wherever I land up? Well, I think I draw the line at Warrington.<br />
<div style="clear: both; text-align: RIGHT;"><a href="http://picasa.google.com/blogger/" target="ext"><img align="middle" alt="Posted by Picasa" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif" style="-moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; border: 0px none; padding: 0px;" /></a></div>Hendohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984475141993771389noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32607722.post-52778233373788760202011-05-07T12:01:00.001+01:002011-05-07T12:02:58.115+01:00Pool Thoughts<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPCd0rLUx_Y3RbQuQsr6iis77FwP_E0KmckbgfF9yc2PKAaMWzCQ6sIyTZwNymULupaLApkoNza7j4TqDCGpu9mjKx7O_QhQg2hDbvcNjamZO7wh6pOZXsc2hhCoPMg8g7Dnys/s1600/iphone+11+073.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPCd0rLUx_Y3RbQuQsr6iis77FwP_E0KmckbgfF9yc2PKAaMWzCQ6sIyTZwNymULupaLApkoNza7j4TqDCGpu9mjKx7O_QhQg2hDbvcNjamZO7wh6pOZXsc2hhCoPMg8g7Dnys/s320/iphone+11+073.JPG" style="clear: both; float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;" width="273" /></a> Hovering around 16 degrees celcius a wetsuit is essential - after all why be uncomfortable? But already I don't think a day off is quite complete without hitting Brockwell Lido.<br />
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Divided into lanes it's really the perfect environment for some serious swimming, which unfortunately I'm not capable of. Still, my neoprene clad frame can manage around twenty lengths before I have to drag myself out, spent, to the amusement of the lifeguard staff.<br />
<div style="clear: both; text-align: LEFT;"><a href="http://picasa.google.com/blogger/" target="ext"><img align="middle" alt="Posted by Picasa" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif" style="-moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; border: 0px none; padding: 0px;" /></a></div>Hendohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984475141993771389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32607722.post-68570510165851503892011-04-24T11:06:00.002+01:002011-04-24T12:28:15.565+01:00Location,Location<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI4D0iRdV-fDs9yqbwvHjtX5o1T4CGEfi6G6qQ7LoYfxVaC7sAd8h9l-jb_kvM4IZzR9SqhzDDguaggWIVNDFHrfVerst_2VRLSVj8dOYopihA7zwNoOvJUsf_k5cZYefy9JfC/s1600/IMG_0881-1.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI4D0iRdV-fDs9yqbwvHjtX5o1T4CGEfi6G6qQ7LoYfxVaC7sAd8h9l-jb_kvM4IZzR9SqhzDDguaggWIVNDFHrfVerst_2VRLSVj8dOYopihA7zwNoOvJUsf_k5cZYefy9JfC/s320/IMG_0881-1.PNG" width="213" /></a></div>Much turbulence in the blogosphere this week about the revelation that the iphone and the ipad record your location and let Steve Jobs's peons know where you are. Even the Observer's <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/24/john-naughton-personal-privacy-mobile-phones">John Naughton</a> has weighed in, and has pronounced privacy as dead as a dead thing. He's right, but the iphone is a trivial incursion compared to the other things that have been happening over the years.<br />
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Before I kick off about what I believe is some quite lazy thinking, I should show my hand. I am an unabashed fan of Apple; the iphone and ipad have between them changed my life. The invention that makes them both so essential is the internet of course, the truly revolutionary influence in all our lives, but Apples machines have made the net startlingly relevant and above all, helpful. <br />
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No more hunting around for a number for a taxi when you're a bit drunk at a party. <a href="http://www.yell.com/mobilephones/home.html">The Yell app</a> will find the nearest firm. Wondering what the weather will be like on Wednesday? <a href="http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/services/media/iphone">The Met office app</a> will show you straightaway. Trying to organise a revolution in an arab state? There's a few apps for that. And so on, ad infinitum.<br />
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So I couldn't do without my iphone, now I'm happily living life with it. Which is where the location function comes in. The iphone and ipad now have a free account with 'mobile me'. A lot of apple iphone owners don't know about it, but it is absolutely essential (and easy) to set up. <br />
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Simply put when you log on it shows a map of the world and your phone is there on it, and so is your ipad. If you should lose your phone, or have it taken off you, there it will be. You can lock it, erase it and even send the person who has it a message. With mobile me you have pretty much lost your last phone. You need never worry about the data being compromised; you can blank your phone with a mouse click.<br />
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Presumably the location tracker is for that, because in all the years I've owned an iphone the targeted ads and marketing that privacy campaigners are fussed about have never appeared on either of my devices. <br />
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Privacy is as privacy does. I see the criticism that the tracking facility can cut both ways but who would take a tracking phone to a sensitive meeting, or even use a mobile phone to arrange anything confidential? Governments of various hues can be assumed to listen to all mobile communications. The existence of the NSA's giant eavesdropping computer called<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echelon_%28signals_intelligence%29"> Echelon</a> has been worrying the EU for years. Surely facial recognition software allied to CCTV is a much greater threat to the privacy and liberty of ordinary citizens than any number of iphones. <br />
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If I want to go off the Cupertino grid, I can turn the iphone off and dump it in the desk drawer. Sadly that doesn't apply to the many other cameras and computers that can now track us in our daily lives.Hendohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984475141993771389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32607722.post-90821549305737565972011-04-23T13:44:00.001+01:002011-04-24T12:31:10.403+01:00Summer,Trains, Portugal, Blogging<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KgGooSajESE/TYji_cnFM1I/AAAAAAAAJKs/2BkwJM6d9ok/s1600/1000000390.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KgGooSajESE/TYji_cnFM1I/AAAAAAAAJKs/2BkwJM6d9ok/s320/1000000390.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>I love this time of year. The full heat of summer isn't on top of us quite yet, although it's a blazing April. Train trips up North to see my aged Dad are marvellous experiences as the green vista of England unrolls past the window. The other day I was on the news desk and watched some pictures come in from the news helicopter as it 'repositioned' over the West Country. There really is a massive amount of water in the lakes and rivers and the whole landscape is incredibly verdant, the sunshine having kicked off a massive growth spurt in the countryside. <br />
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I've wanted to write about lots of things in the past few weeks but haven't had the opportunity to simply sit and update things. Watching Manchester City beat Manchester United in the FA cup semi final has to be one of the highlights of this or any year. The following day I was on a train (see a theme here?) and lots of Manchester United fans got on, among them a little boy in full replica Utd kit. He looked utterly miserable. Is this character forming? Is one of the central lessons of growing up how to lose? My heart went out to him. <br />
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I've also been on a brief trip to Portugal which was superb. I haven't enjoyed a city break so much in years; the Portugese are tremendously welcoming but you have to put up with wildcat strikes and stoppages in the transport system - in other words it's just like home. <br />
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After a few days in Lisbon we were heading into the countryside near Porto and made the mistake of using the trains at a weekend. We were sat in a small village waiting for a connection when a rail worker ambled out and told us the train drivers had just decided to have a strike. We all laughed about it. <br />
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"It's just to annoy people." he explained, and who could disagree, it certainly did the trick. <br />
The government finally resigned when we were there, a tremendously worrying period has only just begun for the Portugese. It's a very cheap country to visit by the way, a welcome contrast to Ireland where pizzas now cost £53 apparently. <br />
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I keep reading articles which claim the 'fizz' has somehow gone out of blogging. It's certainly true that the hype has moved to twitter and facebook, but I think blogging still has an old school internet cred. I shall keep doing it; having finished my stint at BBC Online I've been missing the creativity of melding writing and pictures.Hendohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984475141993771389noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32607722.post-70058542329123559122011-03-12T17:55:00.005+00:002011-03-12T21:53:02.791+00:00Education<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAGuKvhTp67rurRBDScqCQxidhRhHgdkOg1KxlyeGSpViS8XQCweb-XDGAGg4N40X9Rj8jQoiOUB7u61hMs4tdNhimG60202Rk776kvaja-HJLTC9BFHwbjgLVkBenPuoyt9H4/s1600/183615_10150153989475491_500015490_8619015_2454888_n.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 234px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAGuKvhTp67rurRBDScqCQxidhRhHgdkOg1KxlyeGSpViS8XQCweb-XDGAGg4N40X9Rj8jQoiOUB7u61hMs4tdNhimG60202Rk776kvaja-HJLTC9BFHwbjgLVkBenPuoyt9H4/s320/183615_10150153989475491_500015490_8619015_2454888_n.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5583269066367362834" border="0" /></a><br />I've been a dedicated viewer of Jamie Oliver's <a href="http://www.jamieoliver.com/news/jamie-sends-last-chance-teens-to-his-dre">new reality show about schools</a>. The premise is the producers recruit twenty kids who left school with no qualifications to speak of, then expose them to teaching from some of the best people in the country. So Jamie teaches them Home Economics, Dr David Starkey (of whom more later) does History, and so on. The only professional teacher is the head, who is cast in a supervising role.<br /><br />Virtually none of the things teachers tell me about in their experiences is in the show. People can teach in the way they like and what they choose, rather than conform to lesson plans with learning and curriculum objectives set by government. OFSTED is not a factor, naturally. So a dream school is exactly what this is, there can be no other school like it in the country.<br /><br />The teenagers, some excluded for "behavioural issues", misbehave in a really epic way. They talk when the teachers are speaking and their attention wanders to the point of rudeness. Actually it's what these people are - they're just rude, in a basic sense that implies they don't even know they're being insulting. And they don't seem to have stop buttons. A fight nearly broke out in politics (teacher, Alastair Campbell) over someone's sexual identity.<br /><br />Starkey made a bad mistake during his first history lesson when he abandoned teaching and dared suggest a pupil was fat. The lad<span style="font-style: italic;"> is</span> overweight, but then of course Starkey had lost his authority and the lesson degenerated into name-calling. Starkey flounced for a bit but was talked back by Jamie Oliver. I didn't have a lot of time for Starkey, who cultivates his own special brand of rudeness, but I have less now. The programme shows how he can give it but not take it, which is illuminating about Starkey but not about education in any real sense.<br /><br />Nevertheless some critics have been shocked by the way the argument from the teaching pro in the "school"was that Starkey had to apologise. I seem to remember teachers being incredibly rude to me and others at school and the lesson you were learning was to take it. But in the event both student and teacher apologised to one another, respect was re-established and Starkey did better in his second lesson at holding their attention. Perhaps we should respect the "respect agenda". <br /><br />The teaching is on surer ground when largely bogus claims of creativity are entertained. The brilliant fashion photographer Ian <a href="http://rankin.co.uk/">Rankin</a> took pictures of the kids, which some of them then cut up. Funnily enough there were no fashion photography classes at their previous schools. Jazzie B <a href="http://www.soul2soul.co.uk/startpage/">(Soul 2 Soul</a>) did the music class. Jazzie B did not tolerate misbehaviour and the class was a big success. Jamie's Home Economic class seemed to go down well, but I am deeply suspicious of the editing in these things. Unfortunately there are very few jobs available in cutting up pictures of yourself, unless you're Picasso or Lady Gaga. Rolf Harris taught Art. I wish Rolf had taught me Art. Some of the kids did amazing pictures, but Rolf seemed tortured that somehow he had missed the mark.<br /><br />In just the way Location Location is not really about property so much as the people buying it, Jamie's Dream School is really about the people in this odd situation. Will any of these kids re-enter education, this time prepared to knuckle down, get some real qualifications and compete in today's frightening job market? It seems unlikely. I reckon some will conclude its better to stay home and compete on the Playstation.<br /><br />I watched all this in the week I stuck my own toe back in education, heading down to Hayes secondary school to mentor 12 year-olds doing BBC School Report. I went on two days and talked to two hour-long classes. The children were immaculately behaved and were obviously interested - I didn't get through my presentation on either occasion because there were so many good questions that sidetracked us into great discussions. The teachers I met were motivated and seemed highly professional. The whole feel of the place was of a set-up aimed at getting the best from everyone. I don't know how representative Hayes is of the average establishment, but it all seemed a long way from "Jamie's Dream School". At the end of one class they all wrote little notes on Post Its about how much they'd enjoyed it. Reader, I'm a hard man at times, but I nearly cried.Hendohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984475141993771389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32607722.post-15418891142346631402011-02-16T15:33:00.003+00:002011-02-16T16:03:48.030+00:00Cat<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf0tfeHj7JAOf4qBRh_Fp3nSHoTld8HtfmlzSFPgyJwdhyoEaZrCdI2z3JMcNpeX-4cdMUJw2cO_OkqfAtVjkVjf07qqlu5Gugw9lIcV7dWSZKZNzShFadMDyh0hL5lt-qsRte/s1600/brixtonsummer05+126.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf0tfeHj7JAOf4qBRh_Fp3nSHoTld8HtfmlzSFPgyJwdhyoEaZrCdI2z3JMcNpeX-4cdMUJw2cO_OkqfAtVjkVjf07qqlu5Gugw9lIcV7dWSZKZNzShFadMDyh0hL5lt-qsRte/s320/brixtonsummer05+126.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574318720710759266" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/2/15/1297790362989/Larry-the-cat-007.jpg"><br /></a><span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><br /><br />I was thrilled to see the Cameron-Clegg administration bow to the inevitable this week and send for a cat to police Number 10. The sighting of vermin at our most prestigious address can't be a good thing for the country's image. (Insert your political rat joke here). A grateful nation must hope Larry is successful in his mission of making the outside of Number 10 a safe place to do pieces to camera once again.<br /><br />There was an unmistakable air of self confidence about Larry as he was unloaded by his handlers. The photographs of him on the stairs show a cat with a degree of <span style="font-style: italic;">chutzpah</span>, not to mention <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1357213/Downing-Street-cat-Larry-attacks-ITV-reporter-Lucy-Manning.html">his pre-emptive strike</a> on ITV News correspondent Lucy Manning. But there are things the Camerons should know about their new friend.<br /><br />First, the vast majority of cats are accomplished benefit scroungers. They will always choose the path of least resistance and Downing Street looks as if it has a number of excellent places to get some shut-eye. I suspect Larry may not be a fan of volunteering, and like one of Downing Street's former bosses, cats as a species do not really recognise society.<br /><br />But secondly, should Larry feel an urge to make a living and actually nail a couple of rats the Camerons should expect a visitor in the wee hours bearing a gift. This gift may infact be only wounded. We can only hope Dave and Sam have a strong stomach, and perhaps a shovel should be issued to the Number 10 copper to extinguish any rat-resistance and dispose of any bodies.<br /><br />Third, and this is crucial, getting on with cats requires both bribery and an eye on your furniture. I suggest <a href="http://www.whiskas.co.uk/our-products-snacks-and-treats">Whiskas treats</a> and the installation of a scratching mat on the cabinet room wall. You can get them from Lidl, Prime Minister, if you're passing.<br /><br />Bonne chance Larry!Hendohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984475141993771389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32607722.post-52833664771436088782011-02-12T23:46:00.001+00:002011-02-12T23:49:23.053+00:00<div style="text-align: center; margin: 0px auto 10px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDTAJevebc3panGaAjUBoyse_rt30Y-JZ19Tm3mLwu-gFdX7dBQ0HIwH0lsVxuPSEqZiZIocYJ3BYG0-dmunMUfOy20t2zeYn33YVSjifK3Y8k55sRLWhfybFEBgCgVP-SG6TP/s1600/DSC_0080.jpg"><img alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDTAJevebc3panGaAjUBoyse_rt30Y-JZ19Tm3mLwu-gFdX7dBQ0HIwH0lsVxuPSEqZiZIocYJ3BYG0-dmunMUfOy20t2zeYn33YVSjifK3Y8k55sRLWhfybFEBgCgVP-SG6TP/s400/DSC_0080.jpg" border="0" /></a> </div>First decent walk of the year in weather that looked like....could it be....Spring? Twelve miles between Fareham and Guildford on the North Downs Way before bailing out and heading for a whiskey and a bath at home, not necessarily in that order.<br />Lagged behind everyone else because I couldn't stop taking pictures of the delicate sunlight amid the trees. I love it when the warmth tempts out the life from the plants and you can hear the birds chirping away in the woods.<br />Stopped for a pint in the Puttenham village pub <a href="http://www.thegoodintentpub.co.uk/">"The Good Intent"</a>. I can recommend the steakburger and chips, as well as the Otter Ale.Hendohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984475141993771389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32607722.post-4987851647037899062011-01-21T16:56:00.002+00:002011-01-21T17:05:48.153+00:00DrivingI've started driving to work a bit more often since I'm generally starting at 6 in the morning while I'm with BBC News online. London roads are probably as quiet as they ever are at that time, but while no marvel behind the wheel myself I do wonder about some of my fellow drivers.<br /><br />This morning I saw one with a dog on his lap. At the next lights I saw another reading the paper (it was the Times, since you ask).<br /><br />And then a white van overtook me doing at least fifty and went through a red light.<br /><br />Made me think.Hendohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984475141993771389noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32607722.post-8792033652147303112011-01-19T12:14:00.004+00:002011-01-19T12:26:28.414+00:00Onenote<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.wirefresh.com/images/one-note-iphone-1.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 529px; height: 337px;" src="http://www.wirefresh.com/images/one-note-iphone-1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Being terminally disorganised I was cheered to find out from <a href="http://www.wirefresh.com/microsoft-onenote-app-for-iphone-free-for-a-limited-time/comment-page-1/#comment-4303">Wirefresh</a> that Microsoft are releasing Onenote, a handy little app for the iphone. It's a list maker on steroids that could mean I never forget to buy my yoghurt again. And it's free (for a limited time). Even better.<br /><br />Well, I <span style="font-style: italic;">was</span> pleased until I found that the release was restricted to the US only. If you go to the British app store it's never been heard of. Why on earth do companies do this? And why don't they say so upfront rather than wasting everyone's time? The cock-up produced this interchange on <a href="http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-onenote/archive/2011/01/18/a-first-look-at-microsoft-onenote-on-the-iphone.aspx?PageIndex=1#comments">the Microsoft blog</a>:<br /><br /><ul class="content-list"><li class="content-item"><div class="full-post-outer"><div class="full-post"><div class="full-post-inner"><div class="post-author"><span class="user-name"><a class="internal-link view-user-profile" href="http://blogs.office.com/members/AndyPoots/default.aspx">AndyPoots</a></span> </div> <div class="post-date"> <span class="value">18 Jan 2011 1:12 PM</span> </div> <div class="post-content user-defined-markup"><p>Hi, Is this App not available in UK? No results on App Store search :-(</p> </div> <div class="post-actions"> </div> </div> </div></div> </li><li class="content-item user-is-author"> <div class="full-post-outer"> <div class="full-post user-is-author"><div class="full-post-inner"> <div class="post-author"> <span class="avatar"><a href="http://blogs.office.com/members/Michael-C.-Oldenburg/default.aspx"><img src="http://blogs.office.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/32x32/__key/CommunityServer-Components-Avatars/00-00-00-21-14/4TFUH38EEVG3.png" alt="" style="border-width: 0px;" /></a></span> <span class="user-name"><a class="internal-link view-user-profile" href="http://blogs.office.com/members/Michael-C.-Oldenburg/default.aspx"><span></span>Michael C. Oldenburg</a></span> </div> <div class="post-date"> <span class="value">18 Jan 2011 1:15 PM</span> </div> <div class="post-content user-defined-markup"><p>@Andy: The product team confirms that this is currently only available in the U.S. App Store on iTunes. I'll try to find out what our international plans are, but right now I don't have any info about that — my apologies. Thank you for visiting our blog.</p></div></div></div></div></li></ul>Good grief.Hendohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06984475141993771389noreply@blogger.com0