leyton.org

An interesting and informative newsletter from the Today Programme’s experience in Africa. Threatened with what seems like abduction, clear officious obstruction, and the challenges of preparing a live broadcast from Lagos, a “smokey, congested, fume filled arena of traffic jams, power cuts, crime, corruption and mile upon mile of depravation and decay“. Mike Thomson’s newsletter, “Out of Africa”, puts last weeks broadcast from Lagos into a whole new perspective.

The FT is reporting that Singapore is threatening to sue a weblogger (more here too )following unfavourable comments about a government agency (via Roger Darlington). I visited Singapore last year, and whilst I enjoyed our stay there - especially catching up with friends - the culture of government is more akin to business than democracy. There is a very submissive press, and censorship rules are very tight.

I think the very best thing that can be done to alleviate the situation is simply to draw attention to it, and highlight that the Singapore approach is simply wrong. Free speech and criticism are part and parcel of democracy, and should be encouraged.

I like things to be as they should be. I hate seeing people do a bad job, and I hate it when - by not getting feedback - people continue doing so entirely oblivious to the frustration and fury I feel, especially if I’m being taken for granted.

So I’ve started getting a bit more of a bee in my bonnet for a while now about both the little things, and the big things. I thought it might be a good idea to collate some of them I’ve already written about, but also to list some of the more minor items which I haven’t, but have resulted in responses or improvements. Read the rest of this entry »

The National Trust has launched a campaign to save Wembury Point (on the south coast of Devon, just to the east of Plymouth) from commercial development.

I have spent many weeks on holiday there at Churchwood Valley, most recently in October 2003 (We also managed to go and visit the remarkable Eden Project). So I have walked along the coastline around this splendid area many times. The view out across Wembury bay over to the Great Mewstone is truly beautiful.

The prospect of loosing much of this remarkable stretch of coastline to commercial development is abhorrent, but the good news is that the target sum of £350,000 is readily achievable if National Trust members and others chip in.

Tax efficient donations can be made online.

A marvellous sketch from Francis Crick’s notebook, giving his first impression of DNA (via boingboing).

It’s fascinating to see the origin of ideas in such a way, and the wider project to open up the archives of prominent scientists is a stunning example of just how powerful a medium the Internet really can be.

Prospect has an interesting article titled Escape from the Universe: The universe is destined to end. Before it does, could an advanced civilisation escape via a “wormhole” into a parallel universe? The idea seems like science fiction, but it is consistent with the laws of physics and biology. Here’s how to do it.

Excellent stuff from this excellent magazine, which is really going from strength to strength at the moment.

Early last week, I wrote a letter to Glasgow Council regarding some works that had been left in a bit of a mess outside our flat.

I’m pleased to report that this morning I received a response back from the Head of Maintenance and Design. Read the rest of this entry »

As friends and family will know, Frances and I are hoping to buy a house in Glasgow sometime quite soon. We’re ready to buy quite quickly (proceeds from our house sale at the ready, and demonstrable regular income), and we don’t have a chain behind us. In London, Estate Agents would be crawling over us: We are - I think - everything they want in a buyer.

But Scotland’s Estate Agents seem universally uninterested in us. This puzzles me immensely, not through my being blase or carrying some misplaced confidence in our merits as house buyers, but merely because we have rarely had even a flicker of interest from them after having viewed a property. They don’t send us anything. They usually don’t bother to take our details. They very very rarely phone us up after having viewed a property to discover our thoughts.

In short, they’re a waste of space. Ok, so Estate Agents are universally derided as such. But I’d argue that Scottish ones are particularly problematic, and in merit of special treatment. Read the rest of this entry »

I recently wrote to Glasgow Council Land Services to complain about some road works that had been left unfinished for over a month.

I’ve developed something of a bee in my bonnet about sloppy work (I’ve complained previously, when in London, and intend to soon write about the deplorable state of road lane markings in Glasgow). Whilst the road had barely any interruption (despite being involved in the works), the pavement - right next to a bus shelter - was in a very poor state, with a temporary cover over a shallow, but wide, hole. So there’s no doubt in my mind about the priorities the council shows when it comes to road users.

So, my letter would have been received on Wednesday. Today, the pavement has kind of been repaired. I say kind of: it’s been filled in but not sealed, and the “workman ahead” signs are still strewn about the place (nearby residents are forever picking them up from when the wind moves them, and putting them by the side of the pavement).

Whether or not my letter actually achieved anything (and the state of “finishing” makes me thing it’s a temporary patch at best), I’m now left with this impression of a petulant council reluctantly “finishing” a piece of work. Given how poorly the tarmac has been sealed in, a good Scottish winter and I’m sure they’ll be back to fix it again, rather than doing it properly in the first place a month ago when the works completed. Good to see where the council tax is being spent.

Still, at least I feel much the better for having raised the issue (rather than just idly walking past and ignoring it). Yet I fear I may be turning into something of a bitter old man complaining about everything to everybody. I suspect friends and relatives have known that for some time…

My local councillor, Iris Gibson might soon discover this herself. I understand council elections are due in May, and it’s funny how attentive councillors get to the issues upsetting ward residents

Quite what a Scottish National Party member will make of a bitter and twisted Englishman moaning about the state of the roads in her ward, I don’t know.

The unfolding disaster in Asia has stunned the world. At a time like this, it’s important that people dig into their pockets and donate to one of the many charities working to help alleviate the immediate, and longer-term problems faced by the people in the area.

I’d ask readers consider donating to one of the many charities working in the region, such as Oxfam, Red Cross, or through the umbrella organisation Disaster Emergency Committee. You can increase your donation in the UK - at no cost to yourself - by ensuring you tick the Gift Aid box to have the tax reclaimed, or by signing up for a Charity Card.

It’s important that the surprisingly small amount so far pledged by the UK government (£411,000 - or 0.7p per person in this country) is topped up by personal and company donations. According to the UN the single largest relief operation the world has ever seen is needed to assist the people in the areas affected immediately, and over the coming weeks, months, and years.