Alex Higgins RIP
Like many who grew up in the eighties it was impossible to ignore snooker’s heyday. Not long after colour technology made snooker palatable for TV audiences the characters of the game were unleashed on a public hungry to learn more about this weird ’sport’. I remember lapping it all up. Read more
Bill Gates on the iPhone
Ever wanted to ask a famous billionaire a question and have listened in vain to countless interviews with said person and urged the interviewer to ask the question you wanted?
I finally got my wish.
A few months ago I wrote here about how Bill Gates predicted the iPhone (he called it the “wallet PC”) 15 years ago . . . a full 6 years or so before Apple started working on their revolutionary product. I’ve always wondered how Bill felt about that . . .
Well thanks to Robin Lustig of Newshour on the BBC world Service I got an answer. Bill was doing an interview about AIDS (his foundation is one of the biggest campaigners for this disease) and at the end of the interview Robin presents Bill with an aural reminder of the notorious page 74 of The Road Ahead . . . listen here (it’s at the 29 minute mark):
ROBIN: You wrote 15 years ago that you envisaged the day when we’d all be carrying something you called a wallet PC . . . . you were describing then what we now know as an iPhone. Why didn’t you make it?
BILL: Well Microsoft er, has had good vision, and er, certainly is working in that area. It’s great that other companies er like Apple and others are there and doing well too and you know phones arent’ doing everything that I talked about back then so there’s still opportunity to do something that goes beyond whatever’s popular now and Microsoft ‘ll be there as one of the companies trying to help people out.
ROBIN: But don’t you wish it was you that had made them and not Apple?
BILL: Well certainly there’s room in that business for a lot of success. Microsoft’s had a lot of success and now many others are too and the competition is gonna be a great thing for consumers.
What do you think?
Kagame on African Aid
Last year in Tanzania I interviewed leading economist Jeffrey Sachs about aid to Africa. He was quite dismissive of my suggestion that South Korea was a good example of how a country can come from behind and make it without succumbing to all the problems that have plagued African countries (a suggestion incidentally which I got from former World Bank official Robert Calderisi’s book ‘The Trouble With Africa’). The phrase Jeffrey used was “cliche”. You can see the interview here.
However, in this week’s Spiegel magazine, Paul Kagame, president of Rwanda sees things my way:
SPIEGEL: Do any countries serve as role models for you on the path to becoming a modern state?
Thank you Paul.
The Macondo Well — the Marquez connection
Does someone at BP have a literary bent or is it just a coincidence? The Deepwater Horizon catastrophe which struck back in April (and which is still inflicting so much grief to the people of the gulf of Mexico today) was caused by a ruptured undersea well which was named Macondo. Now who named this well and why? Read more
The Rules of the Game of Bao
Last year on a trip to Tanzania I posted on BBCAfricaSlowdown.com a video of some guys in Dar es Salaam playing Bao.
Move over Colin Prior . . .
For years there’s only been one name in Highland photography . . . walk into any branch of Graham Tiso’s in most Scottish towns from Fort William to Edinburgh and those stunning glass-framed shots of Glencoe selling for £120+ on the walls are almost surely taken by the brilliant and much-respected Colin Prior. Read more
Goldheart Assembly, ICA, 31st March
The following review appears in the latest edition of London’s premier music ‘zine, London Tour Dates
The modern face of British folk-pop fandom is morphing and merging. These days at a gig you’re just as likely to see willowy Goldsmiths students called Francesca supping cocktails as a crusty holding a plastic pint glass, although to be sure there were a couple of beards on show at the ICA that would have impressed the Taliban. All united in the happy sound of Goldheart Assembly celebrating the launch of debut album “Wolves and Thieves”. Read more
Bus Lane Contravention: Clapham Park Road
Have you received and paid for a penalty charge notice for a bus lane contravention from Lambeth Council on the A2217 Clapham Park Road?
If you did before 21st December 2009 then you may be entitled to a refund.
In January 2009 I got a PCN on this road. I spent a year querying it (obtained from manually-operated CCTV — camera number 139) for a whole bunch of reasons (you don’t have to be an expert on these things to see a ton of things wrong with the whole set up). I finally received confirmation that the bus lane was non-compliant on 16th March 2010 and did not have to pay the charge.
The letter from Lambeth council outlined why they originally thought I was in breach of the law but then went on to state:
This [referring to the original decision to PCN me] was also the council’s position until 21 December 2009. The Council had commissioned an independent review of the Clapham Park Road bus lane by WS Atkins Consulting following a number of complaints and contradictory rulings by PATAS. In summary the result of the review was that the bus lane was not enforceable due to technicalities relating to length of the entry taper and the positioning of signage.
I’m not sure about tapering but if you go to google maps you can clearly see that the sign in question as you approach the bus lane does not state hours of operation. Now there is some debate as to whether that means a driver is to assume that the hours of operation are therefore 24×7. If not, then the sigange is indeed wrong but if so, and we are to assume in the absence of any times that it’s 24×7, then there is vast inconsistency throughout Lambeth borough and, I suspect, the whole of London. In fact this signage on Clapham Park road is the only example I can find of a 24×7 bus lane operation where the signage does not explicitly state this and if you drive on a bit further down Acre Lane you will find similar signage which states the hours of operation as being 24 x 7 excluding Sundays. There are other examples all over Lambeth where 24×7 is indicated by the phrase “At All times” and other such wording. This inconsistency will stand you in good stead if you wish to appeal.
If you are thinking of engaging a council in correspondence you might be interested to know:
- I had to do it via the Local Government Ombudsman as the council, without informing me, passed my own letters onto a 3rd-party agency called Astron who simply sent unsigned acknowledgements in reply to each letter. As yet, Astron have not replied to a single letter.
- Don’t complain about the lack of response to the council’s complaints manager. In my case he simply passed my complaint onto the Lambeth traffic Department who passed it on to Astron — I got the standard ack in reply.
- Even if you are penalised on this road post 21/12/09 then you should still appeal. This notorious south London junction has a lot of things that mitigate any bus lane contraventions: not least the fact that because of the complex layout you, the driver, are forced to take a right-hand fork in order to turn left, something which comes very unnaturally to most drivers and is yet to be tested in front of a magistrate as far as I know.
UPDATE FROM Lambeth Council
6th August 2010
We suspended enforcement of this on 21/12/09 to carry out remedial works to the signs and lines. Enforcement recommenced on 22/01/10. During this time no Penalty Charge Notices (PCN) were issued.
Although the signs and lines needed improving at this location the vast majority of drivers complied with the regulations and did not enter into the Bus Lane. Any motorist who received a PCN had the opportunity to challenge it within the statutory procedure at the time. Although we had no legal obligation to reopen cases, we have reconsidered, on a case by case basis, any correspondence we received from a motorist who previously challenged the PCN on the grounds the signage was inadequate or confusing.