Fifty days after the Amazing Superstore Above The Line at Gerrard's Cross became the Amazing Superstore On The Line at Gerrard's Cross, normal service has been resumed. It's only taken seven weeks to pick up all the sodden lumps of earth, clear the broken concrete, and re-lay the tracks. Supermarket building firm Tesco have so far had to pay out £8.5 million (€12.5 million) in compensation to commuters and to Chiltern Trains, and that doesn't cover their own costs of re-building the site.

Further good news for travellers to Birmingham Airport, where the "turn-up-and-go" service will resume this December, after an anxious fifteen months. There will be more trains, ensuring that there will never be a gap of more than 14 minutes from Neustraße, or 18 minutes from Coventry. According to the piece in the Birmingham Mail, there will be direct trains to Walsall for the first time in donkey's years (if ever), and through trips from stations between Wolverhampton and Brum. Quite why the cuts were imposed in the first place is anyone's guess...

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posted 22 Aug 2005, 19.47 +0100

Dear Columbia Broadcarping System,

Your recent claim that the sudoku is a invention from your colony is wide of the mark. As a trivial amount of research would have told you, the game was first invented by Leonard Euler in the 18th century. Not only was M Euler far more intelligent than anyone at your company will ever be, he was also Swiss. Still, what price accuracy when there's nationalism at stake?

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posted 24 Aug 2005, 20.16 +0100

A listing of selected television and radio broadcasts, with a deliberate emphasis on culture and intellectual programmes.

Regulars
Composer of the Week (Radio 3, noon): Carl Maria von Weber.
Book of the Week (Radio 4, 9.45am and 12.30am): Tales from the Country Matchmaker, by Patricia Warren, read by Annette Badland.
Woman's Hour Play (Radio 4, 10.45am and 7.45pm): Valley of the Dolls, by Jacqueline Susann. (Second and final week)
Book at Bedtime (Radio 4, 10.45): The Sheltering Sky, by Paul Bowles, read by Alison Joseph. (Second and final week)

Saturday

9am BBC 7 Purely Peel

Steve Lamacq hosts a three hour special celebrating the life of John Peel, broadcaster and music champion. Repeated at 8pm and 3am.

6pm BBC7 Journey Into Space

The World In Peril (15 of 20). Jet and Doc are trapped on the sphere of the asteroid. Lemmy and Mitch have heard of the plan to use television to hypnotise the Earth. And only six weeks until the Martian take-over is complete...

6.30 Radio Wales I Write the Songs

Mike Batt, the genius behind Katie Melua and the Wombles.

7.30 Radio 3 Proms

Rossini: William Tell - overture. Debussy: Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune. Esa-Pekka Salonen: Helix (BBC commission - world premiere). Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg - prelude to Act 1.

9.20 ITV Abba - The Reunion

Footage of Abba's first public engagement in 22 years. But will it include the clip shown in the interval of last year's Eurovision Song Contest?

9.50 BBC-4 Say It Like It is

How people respond to the human voice and how public figures modify their accent to suit their audiences.

Sunday

7pm C5 Loch Ness Monster: The Ultimate Experiment

Special effects people try to build their own monster.

9pm BBC-2 Coast

Hunstanton to Dover.

10pm BBC-3 Who The f*** is Pete Doherty?

Roger Pomphrey's portrait of the controversial, talented and troubled songwriter Pete Doherty. Beware of on-screen graffitti, or wait for the inevitable BBC-2 repeat.

Monday

8pm Radio 4 Document

A Right Royal Affair The will of Prince Francis of Teck was sealed shortly after his death in 1911.

8.30 World Service World Book Club

Andre Brink will be discussing his novel 'A Dry White Season' with Harriett Gilbert.

29/08/2005

9.30 Radio 4 Six Places that Changed the World

3: The United Nations was founded at a conference in San Francisco's opera house 60 years ago.

Tuesday

9.30am Radio 4 Further Five Numbers

2 Simon Singh is doubling. Good-oh!

7.15 C5 Don't Get Me Started!

Rosie Boycott on False Grief, a programme that (according to last week's Private Eye) is directly lifted from Patrick West's Civitas pamphlet Conspicuous Compassion.

Wednesday

Thursday

9.30am Radio 4 Olympic Stories

In 1992, David Grindley won a bronze as part of Britain's 4x400m relay team. A year later, injury shattered his dreams. Diane Modahl conducts the interview.

6.30 Radio 4 I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue

From the Edinburgh Festival, and on a different night from usual.

8.05 World Service One Planet

Drowning in Plastic Bags.

Friday

7pm BBC-4 Life With a Hungarian Gypsy Band

Parno Grast are an authentic gypsy band living in a remote Hungarian village.

9pm BBC-2 Coast

The future of the coast. Last in the series that's been the surprise hit of the summer.

9pm BBC-4 Cambridge Folk Festival

Featured performers include Christy Moore, Kathryn Tickell, Mary Gauthier and the Blind Boys of Alabama.

9pm Classic-FM Evening Concert

Joby Talbot's been commissioned to compose a piece of music each month for a year. The complete cycle gets its first airing here.
January: A yellow disc rising from the sea,
February: The Artic Circle,
March: Seed Capsule,
April: The first day of summer,
May: Cumulonimbus,
June: Transit of Venus,
July: Murmuration,
August: Cloudpark,
September: The last day of summer,
October: Cerberus,
November: Eleven,
December: Polarisation,

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posted 25 Aug 2005, 18.44 +0100

Dear Mr Clarke,

You are quoted in to-day's Manchester Guardian as saying,

"The human rights of those people who were blown up on the tube in London on July 7 are, to be quite frank, more important than the human rights of the people who committed those acts."

If this is a correct quote, then it completely misunderstands the concept of a right. By definition, rights are equal for all people. Anything that varies in application, or is not upheld in a reciprocal nature, cannot fit the definition of a right.

Furthermore, rights do not degrade, as your statement implies. That someone has breached the rights of another does not diminish our responsibility to uphold their rights as if no wrongdoing had occurred. This does, of course, allow the possibility of sanctions that follow our established system of justice, but does not allow us to break their rights.

I very much hope that the newspaper has taken your comments out of context, and you will be able to set the record straight with them. Should you be arguing sincerely, then I fear that you are acting in a manner inconsistent with the standards I expect of a justice minister.

I look forward to hearing your response.

Iain Weaver, Esq.

(Based on Charlie Whitaker at Perfect.)

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posted 25 Aug 2005, 19.50 +0100

From the department of Better Late Than Never, John Straw and Theresa Jowell have called for the ICC to suspend Zimbabwe from international cricket, over the country's piss-poor human rights record. The ICC told them to piss off, and will include Zimbabwe in the six-year test cycle scheduled to begin next year.

Still on political change, Garry Kasparov outlines his plans to topple Vladimir Poutine.

More bad press for the devils at Google, and from the screamingly capitalist Torygraph. The evil that the world's dominant search engine does? Split its shares into "A" class, with one vote per share; and "B" class, with ten votes per share. "Search in vain for democracy," says George Trefgarne. Search better with Scroogle.

Very good news from Germany, where music channels MTV and Viva have told Clearchannel's Annoying Thing character to hop off. Catherine Muehlemann, head of the channels, said the ads drew complaints both from viewers who find them annoying and from their more traditional, financially strong advertising clients.

Similar moves in Turkmenistan, where president Saparmurad Niyazov has banned music television from showing the Annoying Thing commercial. He's also banned all music television, and all recorded music at all. This, lest we forget, is the chap who has re-named the days of the week after his own family, and banned all opposition, clearly afraid of the power of the Crazy Frog party.

Ken Clarke has capitulated to the Europhobes in the Conservative party, claiming that "the Euro is a failure." It's not a failure, just ask the Italians who are no longer borrowing 125% of their annual production. The things he'll do to lead the Tories, eh...

The G8 lied over their African reform plans. Why isn't Mr St Bob Geldorf kicking up a stink about this?

Still kicking up a stink, Britis interior minister Charles In Charge has announced firm plans to deport people who, in his sole judgement, have committed acts in praise of terrorism. These laws will cover foreign nationals visiting Britain. Therefore, we should be able to get those warmongers from the far-right neo-colonials removed, such as Ms Patricia Robertson, who called this week for the assassination of President Chávez of Venezuela. In passing, I note that Ms Robertson's piece of propaganda also gets an airing in the UK on The God Channel. Anyone know the number for OFCOM?

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posted 28 Aug 2005, 12.03 +0100

Things are beginning to kick up after the summer break. Juanes has the biggest hit in Germany, La camisa negra is a rather insipid tune, one that hasn't stuck in my brain after a single listen. Die Firma's die Eine 2005 is also into the top three, where Ilona Mitrecey still holds strong. James Blunt tops the listings in Flanders, and is behind only Dutch supergroup Chipz north of the border. Colours Turned Red are top of the pile in Norway, singing about their New California, while Ravi moves into the top three with Tsjeriau.

Nine new entries in the UK's top twelve this week. Oasis top the pile with The importance of being idle, only the second time they've lifted two chart-toppers from one album. Rihanna holds off lots of people, Upon the replay is second. Simon Webbe formerly of Blue lands at 4, closely followed by the Black Eyed Peas, Girls Aloud (number 7, their smallest hit ever). The Kaiser Chiefs, the band that likes to think they're the new Dennis and the Dinmakers but are probably the new Boys Aloud, they land at 9 with the re-released I predict a riot. Tapping the purchasing power of three-year-olds (and Chris Moyles fans), the White Stripes' My doorbell anchors the top ten, just ahead of the Freemasons and The Annoying Thing. The Rolling Stones land at 15, ahead of Mint Royale's disaster of a remake of Singing in the rain. On the albums, James Blunt is still at the top, ahead of Goldfrapp, with the pisspoor Craig David at 4.

North Europe's Top Twenty

 20 12 Akon - Lonely
 19 re Gorillas - Feel good inc
*18 re Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway
 17 16 Mariah Carey - We belong together
 16 re K T Tunstall - Other side of the world
 15 11 Porcupine Tree - Lazarus
*14 NE Iron Maiden - The trooper
 13 10 Schnappi - Schnappi, das kleine Krokodil
*12 13 Pinocchio - T'es pas cap Pinocchio
*11 15 Ilona Mitrecey - C'est les vacances
 10  9 Coldplay - Speed of sound
  9  8 Raphael - Caravanne
* 8 NE McFly - I'll be OK
  7  6 Kelly Clarkson - Since you've been gone
  6  5 Ilona Mitrecey - Un monde parfait
* 5  7 Charlotte Church - Crazy chick
  4  4 Shakira - La tortura
  3  3 Crazy Frog - Axel f
* 2  2 James Blunt - You're beautiful
* 1  1 Daniel Powter - Bad day

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posted 28 Aug 2005, 15.48 +0100

A not atypical late summer week - a frontal system passed on Monday, and another on Wednesday evening, briefly leading to some quite cold weather. However, it proved to be a false dawn, as warm weather has been building since.

22 Mo rain to sun         15/19, 15.9
23 Tu sun to cloud        10/20,  0.0
24 We rain to sun         14/18,  6.1
25 Th heavy showers, sun   9/16,  0.4
26 Fr cloud                8/17,  1.3
27 Sa mostly cloudy       11/19,  0.0
28 Su sun                 12/22,  0.0

Just the two degree cooling days this week, the summer's total is now 183. At this week last summer, the total was 161, and the entire summer's total 184. We should creep past that figure to-morrow.

High pressure dominates the chart for to-morrow, with a weak weather front stalling just to the north of Birmingham before breaking up. The charts suggest a multi-centred low will track over Iceland, and bring one or two distinct fronts from the west during Wednesday or Thursday. More settled weather for Friday is possible, but by then another low pressure area will be in the Atlantic, ready to spoil another week-end.

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posted 28 Aug 2005, 19.14 +0100

older writing... write to