ee bah gum

A great BBC article about Estonia's network of WIFI hotspots, or Traadita Interneti Leviala.

You can find access points in many of Estonia's cafes and pubs and two-thirds of them are free to use. Those that charge usually offer slightly faster connection speeds. And more importantly, the hotspots are clearly marked with orange and black signs and stickers. Even local petrol stations offer access, ensuring that Estonians car owners can check their e-mail on the road.

Next: expansion to Latvia and that other non-Eurovision winning country to the south, and a British petrol company is having a similar idea.

One world, one music

A week before Europe unites in hoots of derision, cheers of delight, and bewilderment at what the Greeks are wearing this year, John Harris bemoans the globalisation of music. It's only as global as we let it be, and I hope that championing quality music from outside the Anglo-Saxon corporate bloc helps in a little way. To that extent, my tip for this coming week: watch the Eurovision song contest, and if you have the chance, vote for the song that moves you. 2100 CET Wednesday and Saturday next, that's 1500 in Toronto, 1200 in Vancouver, and some unspeakably early time in Australia. Sorry, folks.

Anyway, some thoughts on the records played (and not played) in this week's Pig Of The Pops from May 1986 will be elsewhere...

Ah, handy

In the beginning, there were the monopoly mobile telephony operators. And they were big, and they were monolithic, and they were crap, and they charged an arm and a leg. And sundry other body parts.

Then, in the middle of the first decade of the new century, the monopoly was broken by small, upstart companies. Telmore and CBB Mobil (both from Denmark) pioneered low-cost, no-frills services. They didn't offer the latest phones with games and 45,000 SMS messages and 300 minutes of streaming-nose video pictures and Nicky Campbell in your pocket for €66.99 per month. Rather, they used cheap phones, sold simple telephone connections, and charged only a few euro per month.

The market in the UK is slightly different, as there are still pay-as-you-go packages available from most operators. These are, however, at deeply unattractive rates for anything other than occasional use, and the first operator to offer a simple, low-cost service could make 1.76 metric killings.

The Provincial Day of Prayer

This comment from God:

"I don't care how holy somebody claims to be," God said. "If a person tells you it's my will that they kill someone, they're wrong. Got it? I don't care what religion you are, or who you think your enemy is, here it is one more time: No killing, in my name or anyone else's, ever again."

Cricket desk

In the West Indies yesterday, England won the last match in the series. The Windies made 261/6, thanks mainly from 104* from Sarwan. In reply, England was never troubled after an 82 from 57 from Trescothick, and passed the target with sixteen balls and five wickets in hand. The final score: West Indies 2, England 2, Rain 3. New Zealand will also be involved in a four-cornered series this June and July.

Domestically, we've had the last 32 of the Trophy this week, and more upsets than normal. In Clontaf, Surrey were restricted to 261, and Ireland passed the side for the loss of five wickets with ten balls remaining. At Exmouth, the professionals of Leicestershire made 156 all out; their amateur hosts, Devon, made 156/9 to progress by losing fewer wickets. Derbeyshire and Durham fell to top-flight opposition, while Scotland (hosting Essex) and Staffordshire (hosting Lancashire) came close but lost their games. Worcestershire -v- Herefordshire and Wiltshire -v- Nottinghamshire were abandoned because of the weather and will play again next weekend.

I'm not counting the match between Sri Lanka and An XI From Zimbabwe as a full test match, as the host side is clearly not the country's best, and has been selected purely for political reasons. This is blatant team-rigging, in the same vein as the excesses of the apartheid era.

Dirty Cash

A breast cancer charity has rejected a million pound donation from Nestlé. Baby Milk Action commentatorised:

"This marks a turning point as this is a charity thinking beyond its own immediate gains and making an ethical decision on what could have been a very lucrative offer. Nestlé has repeatedly breached international guidelines on the promotion of baby milk.

Not least in the considerations, the fact that breast feeding lowers the later incidence of cancer.

Compare and contrast

Charmed tonight: Leo consults aged tomes in a library staffed by debonair gentlemen with English accents. Was one of them called Giles?

SM:TV

The BBC's unveiled yet another new idea for Saturday morning television. What they're going to do is standardise that day with every other day of the week: run news programming on BBC1, and shunt children's shows to BBC2. Filling the 10-12 slot - currently occupied by some fairy and a bunch of fairies is In The Know, a topical sports magazine that clearly owes nothing to Grandstand.

Routeing around

There's a new version of the Train routeing guide out, and it introduces Barnt Green as a routeing point, so that Longbridge is now not to view Gloucester or Worcester as possible points. How does this new guide fare on a tricky little task?

For instance, what if I were to order some supplies from Scraptastic, and save on the P&P by picking them up myself from Scraptastic Towers in Stanford-le-Hope. (A false economy, but we've already had to suspend disbelief totally.) What are my options?

The only valid routeing point for Longbridge is Birmingham, as fares from Barnt Green to London cost more. Stanford's RPs are Barking, Romford, and Southend; the latter also has to be ruled out for fares. The only routes from Birmingham to Barking or Romford are via LONDON.

Birmingham to London offers four distinct options:
1) On map LM, down the West Coast main line to Euston, Kensington Olympia, or Clapham Junction. I can go via or avoiding Northampton, and (thanks to CN+LM) I can go via Lichfield Trent Valley - especially useful for avoiding the Nuneaton.
2) On GC, down the Chiltern line to Marylebone or Paddington.
3) CN+MM takes us to Derby, Loughborough, or Leicester; then on the Midland Mainline to Bedford and St Pancreas.
4) Map CS sends us via Coventry or Solihull to Banbury (and thence to Marylebone, perhaps), Oxford, Didcot, and Reading to Slough and Paddington
4b) or on from Slough to Kenny O and Clapham J;
4c) or from Reading to Farnborough, Guildford, change at Redhill for Croydon, thence to Clapham J.

From London, I have two clear routes
1) Via map EA through Liverpool St and Stratford to Romford, thence to S-l-H.
2) On map TS via Liverpool St and Stratford OR Fenchurch St and West Ham to Barking, thence to S-l-H.

Thanks to an easement in the rules (number 29, fact fans) I can go direct via Purfleet and Grays, or indirectly via Upminster and Basildon, reversing at Pitsea.

Now, map TS includes Willesden Junction (also on map LM) and West Hampstead (also on MM). However, I can't change there to the North London Line and jump off at Stratford for Barking, because all journeys must be made via a mapped route (London terminals), a direct train (of which there are none) or the shortest route (down the West Coast and via Fenny.)

Curious, that.

Isn't that...

Yes, it is. Better than the original, less bombastic than anyone else's cover, it's Ali Griffin's new song, Wherever You Will Go. It's not as good as Bring It On, but then very few songs are. Especially Volare as performed by the Millwall Football side. It's so bad that the song's writers have refused permission to release it. Phew. Wonder if we can get them to buy up Simon Cowell?

Fairtrade is for life

...and Starbucks? Getting there, but agonisingly slowly.

Decision 79

The heady days of election programmes have filled my screen and my head all day. The shadow of the car manufacturing plants helped to strengthen Mrs Thatcher's position - her man Jocelyn Cadbury won here in Birmingham Northfield by a whisker, her party won half a dozen other seats near car plants by flimsy margins, and without those the overall majority would have been nearer 20 than 40.

In turn, the internal debate about the radical economic policy of the Thatcher government would have been far larger, and I don't think she would have been able to push through quite as many radical reforms in the first parliament. The Falklands factor and Labour's infighting would still have given the Tories a huge majority in 1983, but the Thatcherite programme would be a little way delayed. The 1987 election's a foregone conclusion, but the majority isn't, and I can't see Thatcher / Heseltine / Major winning a 1991/2 election with a working majority, let alone limping along to 1996/7. Could the voters at Longbridge have prevented a Kinnock government in 1991/2? There are too many ponderables...

Other notes: really struck by the relaxed nature of Richard Baker on the 9:30 news bulletin, and rather liked the minimalist computer-generated graphics package. We need someone with the capacity of David Butler or Bob McKenzie to explain away the results, rather than relying on the computers to calculate the swings. Also liked the way they let graphics and lists run in complete silence, without anyone wittering over the top or playing any incidental music. They wouldn't do that now!

A BBC poll cited the main reasons for backing a party as: Prices (given by 42% of respondents); Taxes (24%); Jobs (22%); and Strikes (18%). Can we finally kill the canard about the Winter of Discontent being the one thing that begat Thatcherism? The evidence shows it was the same debating points that decided the 74 and 70 elections, and would decide (at least) the 92 election; it's the economy, stupid.

Looking back over the history, I'm surprised that the BBC has only had four election night hosts. Richard Dimbleby covered 50, 51, 55, 59, and 64, before his premature death the following year. Cliff Michelmore brought a light touch to the 66 and 70 shows (the latter being the most fun election programme I've yet seen.) Alistair Burnett timed his year with the BBC to cover one royal wedding, two general elections, and one presidential resignation, before David Dimbleby took over from 79.
Who would follow David? Dermot Murgnahan was an excellent number two to Jonathan Dimbleby on ITV's coverage last time. At the risk of sounding very shallow, I don't think Huw Edwards has the gravitas, and that's mostly from his accent. Sophie Raworth falls for similar reasons. George Aligiyah, Peter Sissons, and Jeremy Bowen are possibilities. From the radio: Julian Worricker, James Naughtie, maybe even Eddie Mair. I suspect, though, the job would go to Jez Paxman. Wouldn't mind seeing Worricker and Mair doing the European elections...

And finally, the man who programmed ROVER, the election computer, reckoned that we might be able to vote by computer "in the year 2000." That's as spot on as anything Bob McKenzie's Swingometer predicted!

Also...

West Indies won the sixth ODI, to lead the series 2-1... Some newspaper front pages for today, courtesy of the BBC. To see other days, change the URL as appropriate.

Don't even bother

It's not a good weekend for travellers in the midlands. Yesterday, the new airline Duo (no link, for obvious reasons) went into administration, and all flights were grounded. The airline had begun flying from Birmingham and Edinburgh to Scandinavia and northern Europe, and claimed to offer full-fare facilities at a cheap-fare price. It's not rocket science to work out why they failed.

Today, a bomb scare at Birmingham airport closed the terminal for something around three hours. After a controlled explosion, the army confirmed that it was the usual sort of bomb scare, all scare and no bomb. As usual, the contingency management procedures failed to give appropriate information to waiting passengers, with many relying on bulletins from the local BBC station, and some just turning around and going home.

Cricket

Amazingly, not only was there some play in the West Indies yesterday, but there was actually a real result! England made a sensible 281/8 at the St Lucia ground, steered by Trescothick's 130. For the home side, Sarwan and Smith completed an unbroken partnership, and 83 runs in just seven overs, to take the victory with two overs in hand. Series so far (5/7): Eng 1, WI 1, Rain 3.

Brief site stats

April: 32 hits/hr, 171 pages/day, approx 10MB uploaded per day. The Why People Don't Vote minirant is still amazingly popular, as is the 2004 prediction page. The RSS feed has been hit 32 times, but most of those are my testing. Leading numbers of visitors from NTL, Planet Online, and AOL; leading search engines are Google UK, Google Global, and Yahoo Global - they're split by 5%, but are three times the next closest competitor. Internet Deplorer made 92.5% of visits, Gecko browsers just 7%, but that's still three times as many as lottery.merseyworld.com gets. Of resolved hits, the UK took 19.3%, other Expanded EU nations 5.1%.

Big

A new number one, D12's D12 Band is the bestseller, knocking Anastacia down to 2. Snow Patrol climbs to 3, Eamon slips to 4, and Franz Ferdinand is really popular back up to 5. The Beta Band's Heros to Zeros is in at 11, Wiley at 24, JC Chavez at 25, and the Streets return at 26 ahead of their new album next week. The Walkmen are in at 36, and albums from Patty Smith and Joe just miss the 40.

Good climbs for Busted's new album (28-22), and the Lostprophets (39-30). Slumps for Prince (2-6), Agnetha (7-14), the Zutons (8-16), Katherine Jenkins (20-35), and Simply Red (22-39).

On the singles, no surprises at the very top. Eamon holds the top for week three, keeping Busted to 2. Slightly surprised to see the Streets' Fit... only make 4. Just two female vocals in the ten, Anastacia at 5, and the Boogie Pimps at 10. And two Finnish acts in the ten, Rasmus at 6 and HIM new at 9 with Solitary Man - it's almost a year since their top 40 debut, and four since they first crossed my radar. Dogs Die In Hot Cars have been a critical favourite for about a year, and they finally have a Big Hit Single, Godhopping is in at 24, and it's my Single Of The Week, albeit in a fairly weak week.

Elsewhere, James Fox slips 13-25, Britney rebounds 27-18, but Marillion's fanbase has run out, their single slumps 7-32. No joy for the huge hype behind Fefe Dobson, her single can only make 42. The Stills put Changes Are No Good in at 51, and that's yer lot.

Deconstructing Fairly Odd Parents

Well, Slate magazine has saved me a job. FOP crept onto Nick's schedules without much fanfare last year, though it's been running in North America for a couple of years now. It's got the pace of Tiny Toons, the moral dimension of Rugrats, and the almost other-worldly nature of every good cartoon ever. Personally, I reckon it's the greatest cartoon since Animaniacs went out of production, and knocks spots off of The Simpsons and Futurama. The Groening franchises have bad episodes. FOP doesn't.

older writing...