High Speed Rail

Interesting article in the Guardian today on high speed rail developments in the UK. Announcing the new Javelin service from London - Ashford, and some interesting notes on the proposed High Speed Two.

High Speed Two, the company established by Lord Adonis to draw up plans for a
north-to-south high speed line, is expected to deliver its outline plans by the
end of the year. Lord Adonis said building new 140mph routes could be as cheap,
and less disruptive, than upgrading existing lines such as the west coast main
line and the east coast line. Citing a recent estimate that put the cost of an
east coast upgrade at £10bn, the transport secretary said a massive
line-building project could be the easier option. "If we don't build a
north-south line we will have to invest in upgrades for the east coast and west
coast main line and that will be expensive and massively disruptive," he said.

The power of images

Iran, June 2009.

Fake blood? Or has my skepticism gone too far?

z.electric - upcoming gig

Friday June 19th, at Brixton Jamm. z.electric are on the bill to open for Phil Hartnoll of Orbital.

This will be a BIG night.

Tickets are £10 each pre-sale if you email me at this email address:

Plunged into Chaos!!!!

Martin Flicker, who pretends to be a journalist wrote a bizarre article in The Mirror (that most trustworthy of 'news' providers) about the RMT strike. Martin starts his piece with the statement that"London was plunged into chaos last night after last-gasp talks between Tube bosses and workers broke down."

PLUNGED INTO CHAOS!!! Argghhh!!! No!!
Not a plunging? .....
And surely not into chaos?

Surely it's the end of the world as we know it?!!!
Further down the article Martin backpedals a bit, now saying that the strike was "causing huge problems for millions of commuters and costing businesses tens of millions of pounds".

From "plunged into chaos", to "causing huge problems" in two sentences. Martin, did you run out of things to say, so you decided to restate the same thing twice? Or were you trying to be poetic with your prose?

I'm not sure if Martin Flicker fancies himself as a new reporter, but I sure don't.

Stupid Stupid Stupid - the Daily Telegraph

Oh, the English media are idiots. Especially the Daily Telgraph. With most tabloids (mirror, sun etc) everyone knows they print utter crap, and treats the reporting accrodingly. The 'grpah, on the other hand, pretends to be a real news outlet, which, unfortunately it is not.

Today, in order to try and create some controversy out of nothing, the 'graph is dropping the suggestion that a bomb "might have" been the cause of the Air France crash earlier this week. Here's their justification for printing this tripe:

One anonymous Air France pilot suggested that a bomb could "very well" be the cause of the crash. He said: "One can very well imagine that a bomb caused the aircraft's depressurisation and that the plane took time to break up. It could just as well have been a big bomb that blew up the entire plane, which would explain why the aircraft didn't have time to send an alert signal."

An "anonymous" Air France pilot makes a non-commital comment that the Telegrpah decides to report as somehow contributing to the 'news'....! Oh my! What superb journalism. Come on babay light my fire, my sarcasm couldn't get much higher.

With almost every body that knows a thing or two abour aeroplanes saying that the weather conditions were the most likley cause, the telegraph hunts for a headline by pointing out some minor detail to try and get readers in. Granted, the bulk of the actual story demsontrates fairly clearly that a 'bomb' type explosion is highly unlikely, what frustrates me is the desparate craving for readers that the story's headline suggests.

I should say Oi, telegraph! No!