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annoyed

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As part of his manifesto, current London Mayor "Beano" Boris Johnson demanded the removal of our bendy-buses from the roads and the return of a Routemaster-like design. The Routemaster, with its hop-on hop-off rear platform, is entirely inaccessible to people with mobility issues, so clearly a new design was actually needed to make this a reality.

First, I have to say, I don't particularly like this type of thinking. Beano Boris clearly had a run-in with a bendy bus or something, or is just wistful for the past, but claims that they are "more dangerous" were shown to be debateable at best, and meanwhile the tax payer is having to fork out again, one way or another, to replace some of the most modern buses on the network because the Mayor doesn't like the design. Routemasters went the way of the dodo for very good reasons: completely inaccessible to wheelchair users, uncomfortable for everyone else, and they require two staff on every bus - conductors were a great idea in 50s to keep buses moving; now we have Oyster. Pointless.

But anyway, on to the competition itself - the winners were announced yesterday. What a disappointment, really: we have some extremely innovative designers in this country, but the winning entries are little better than something I could have come up with, frankly.

Take a look at this joint-winner, designed by renowned British company Aston-Martin and notorious(?!) design firm Foster + Partners. I don't like the Fisher-Price look of it, and I don't see much in the way of innovation at all. It's supposed to be highly manoeuvrable and is zero-emissions. Presumably they have ideas for how, but it doesn't seem to appear in the design. They do have solar panels on the roof, though, to catch all of that British sunshine (yeah, right). Bizarrely, it doesn't seem to accommodate wheelchair users.

Here is the other joint winner, submitted by Capoco. Because Capoco aren't Aston-Martin, the press has said even less about this design than the other, but they do have a project website available. Again, the look of the thing is absolutely nothing special - it smells, walks and talks like a Routemaster. Job done on that score, I guess, although it comes with a side-ramp for wheelchair users. Special features appear to be that it's quite light for a bus, and is hydrogen powered. Somehow I wouldn't be surprised if the hydrogen electric drive chain became traditional diesel by the time it hits the road.

So what did we miss out on? There are other designs on the winners page which look interesting, but some of the best designs don't even seem to have made it to the finishing line. Take a look at this, my favourite:

This is the bus design that was submitted by On Route. As you can see just by looking at it, this looks a lot squarer and a lot more modern than the other designs. It has a really wide and accessible rear ramp, so more people can get on/off at a time, and it's big and square to fit more people in more comfortable. But what is really great is what else it does - the clue is in the name, they called it "Freight*BUS". As well as being able to carry passengers, it can also carry Euro-pallets: so at night time, or other low passenger periods, this bus can be used to carry good around the city. As well as taking cars off the road, it can take vans and trucks off as well!

I don't know if that kind of system could actually work in practice, I don't know how practical it is. But it's that kind of radical thinking that will help improve our transport system and turn it into something to be really proud of. And it's the kind of design that our country is known for. But because the competition is blinkered into producing the most minimal re-work of the Routemaster that they can possibly get away with, these ideas don't seem to be in with a chance. Such a shame.

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chipper

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The latest news from faith science:

“Two areas in a woman’s brain are activated when she talks,” al-Zindani explained. “As we can see, there are many centers of speech in a woman’s brain. [..] The opposite center does not operate during speech, because it is busy remembering.”

“[..] So when a woman talks, she might use the part of the brain containing the memory for talking - and that’s it, the data is lost.”

• 2009 is going to be a year to beat the crap out of your debts. It's looking like lending is going to be cheap, and sustainably cheap, for a while yet. Don't let falling interest rates reduce your payments: unless you're smart with those savings, you'll lose out. Pay over where possible, or move debt to places where you can do that.


• Apropos to the last item, if you're not in property already, get into the market. Prices have fallen reasonably hard, and as lending cheapens the market will open up. This is a five-year investment minimum, but over that time I expect a ~20% increase in prices from the bottom: negotiate hard, start paying off that mortgage, and ride the upside. You're going to have to do extremely well to beat that as an investment vehicle.


• Movement into more liquid investments. I'm not going to be wanting to tie up my assets over long periods - even though that's going to be the only way to get an "attractive" interest rate. Not many jobs will be "safe" in 2009, and it's useful to be prepared: personally, my aim will be around one year's income on hand and liquid.


• If you have enough spare, now is also the time to get into the right stocks. Again, spread - the market is very attractive to buyers right now. Buyer beware though: although a lot of stocks are cheap, that's because the companies are going bust. Don't buy those ones.


• If you can't pick stocks, don't pick horses - look into lending, and look to spread investment across short term lending (3yr+) with tools like Zopa. Banks haven't just stopped lending to bad risks; they're not lending because they're hoarding capital - lots of potentially good customers need money....


• Don't ignore the opportunities around you. My local credit union is moving into my area, and I'm looking hard at it: with financial advisors on board, and a format which turns borrowers into savers, the risks here are lower than elsewhere, and you're not exposed to individual risks.


• Retailers are hurting, because people aren't spending as much - to be honest, now doesn't feel like the time to be spending to me. Although borrowing is cheap, buying goods isn't an investment, it's a write-off. Maintaining the jam tomorrow outlook will be my watchword.


• Now is a great time to set up a business. If you can do it without a loan, great - but if not, don't worry, investment will be cheap as investors and angels try to wring some kind of return out of their money. If you already have a business, look to see how it can expand - particularly, there are going to be plenty of skilled people looking to supplement their income on the side. Now is the time to tap them.

Most people won't have heard of Codeweavers. They provide software on Linux which allows you to run Windows apps and games (most of the time). A little while ago, they issued a challenge to President Bush to make the most of his remaining days in office by achieving a significant goal of some sort, one of:

1. Reduce the Price of Gas
2. Reduce the Price of Food
3. Create More Jobs
4. Rejuvenate the Housing Market
5. Bring Osama Bin-Laden to Justice

Interestingly, each one of these goals was made measurable: so, to achieve the "Create More Jobs" goal, all Bush needed to do was add a single job to the overall employment (non-farm workers) figure. If milk could be bought for $3.50 per gallon, the food goal would be met. Bringing Bin-Laden to justice is relatively obvious, and the housing market task was to restore property prices to their median value of a year ago.

It was pretty obvious when Codeweavers set this challenge that they were betting against any of these conditions actually coming true. But they didn't count on the world economy collapsing; and indeed, gas has fallen a whole dollar per gallon - so the goal has been met (indeed, the most pressing goal as voted for by the visitors to the site).

Codeweavers will be now giving away copies of their software for free, including support, tomorrow.

Anyone think Bush will achieve another goal? Still a few weeks left....

It annoys me when numbcow leaves lights on, but it annoys me even more when there are two lights on in a room.

On asking, she will usually switch one off quite happily. Tonight, we managed to leave the main bedroom light off for all of fifteen seconds before she turned it on again, having literally forgotten that she'd just switched it off.

Sometimes I see a story and I'm sure it's going to spread like wildfire on the interweb. This time not, so much, and I don't understand - don't people want to know what goes into a kebab?

Wolverhampton Magistrates' Court heard about a long list of hygiene breaches at the Cannock Road shop.

A statement of facts, read out to the court, said: "Upon his arrival the officer observed a dead male lying on a sofa at the rear of the main kitchen.

"Sat opposite to him was Mr Singh who was preparing food, making kebabs."

I mean, you obviously have to get your priorities straight.

A spokeswoman for West Midlands Police said the death had not been found to be suspicious and no further action had been taken over the matter.

So that's alright then.

Best piece of Dom Joly overheard the other day on my way back from Belfast:

"Helloo?! Hello! Yeah, I'm in London. No, Gatwick. Yeah. We're touching down right now..."

Incredulous looks all round.

[	Current Location	|	the sofa	]
[	I am feeling:	|	sick	]

(more politics, sorry)

So, the Prince of Darkness, sometime member of Blair's "jewish cabal" (aside from the small detail of his not actually being jewish) and reluctant friend of Dorothy Peter Mandelson is back in the saddle as our (*cough* unelected *cough*) Minister of Business. In this credit crisis, he has a great deal to offer - after all, he was kicked out of Government the first time around for, ahem, some financial indiscretions with a dodgy loan deal.

Personally, I have to say, I was more comfortable with him being in Europe: as a proponent of free trade, his habit of setting small fires underneath continental presidents was relatively amusing. And hey, if the French don't like him, he can't be all bad :o< But it does slightly worry me to hear that he's had his fingers in the pie over most of the summer: Brown's great conference speech, for example, apparently went through the Mandelson Mill. So remotely was the master tugging the strings that when he turned up at Number 10 this morning absolutely no-one had any idea whatsoever; the opposition had nothing prepared and had to make do with a limp-wristed William Haig coming out (no pun intended) and making various banal comments about how desperate a move this was.

Interesting times in UK politics ahead I think: Mandelson talks light, but is a substantially heavyweight politician. I suspect most of the British public have forgotten who or what he is as well, which makes him extremely dangerous.

Question for my American friends

So, the bail-out plan finally passed. But, if the original ~$700B plan was too much for the tax payer to bear, how come the same thing with another $150B in tax breaks is ok? Where does all that extra money come from?

For what I'm sure is the first time in my life, I'm planning on watching a political debate from the US. Maybe even live. The reason: I've been watching the clips of Katie Couric interview the candidates on CBS Evening News. I don't know how balanced those clips are, but good grief, the difference is stark.

I'm not sure I can say anything about Palin that hasn't already been said more aggressively in rants like these, but one thing is for sure: she's no Margaret Thatcher, or Angela Merkel. She's not even Carole Thatcher.

I've also been watching bits of SNL. Talk about lazy comedy: much of the time, they're just repeating what Palin said verbatim. But still people laugh. You won't be laughing after the election....

I'm watching an interview with the Republicans on the news at the moment, who are blaming Nancy Pelosi for making a "partisan" speech and causing them to lose votes to support the $700B pay-day. Clearly she is such a powerful speaker that her words alone can prevent good Senators from voting for a Bill they would otherwise support. Words so powerful they must have changed the wording of the Bill itself.

I can't say I'm really that fussed about whether or not the thing passed; I think something like it is going to be needed, but eh. I do find the GOP's bleating about Pelosi and the Democrat's failure to bring all their Senators with them really rather shallow, though.

According to recent news, methane has been spotted bubbling up out of the sea - the theory is that a layer of permafrost on the sea bed in the Arctic is melting and releasing stored methane. In terms of greenhouse gases, methane is one of the worst: it's some 21 times more heat absorbent.

Drilling for methane (as well as oil) in the ANWR region was one of the "solutions" proposed to future energy crises, one wonders what proportion of gas exists at layers in the earth high enough up to escape in this process, but according to The Independent:

"The amount of methane stored beneath the Arctic is calculated to be greater than the total amount of carbon locked up in global coal reserves so there is intense interest in the stability of these deposits as the region warms at a faster rate than other places on earth."

They've been measuring increased methane all over the north Russian coast, some times as much as 100 times as much methane as usual. The pictures of bubbling are from areas even more active than that, as the gas doesn't have time to dissolve into the sea and bubbles up like a fizzy drink.

Additional data points from the article that indicate we could be well and truly fucked: they've been measuring gas levels since the 90s, and the methane is definitely a new phenomenon, and that with the sea ice in the region breaking up during summer less and less heat is going to be reflected back out into space...

One of the entertaining things I've been finding about the on-going American soap-opera election process is that, for the first time that I've noticed, arguments about policy (yes! there are some!) are being distilled down into relatively simple info-graphs which are actually relatively honest.

This first article about the various tax-plans attempts to present the information about tax cuts against the population curve; compare the "new" chart with the one that the Washington Post created (and ran) at the bottom of the page. Very distinctive differences between the two.

Second, an economist draws some pictures of other parts of McCain's plans; ear-marks and off-shore drilling. Much like the representation of his tax-cut policy, it shows him mostly fiddling around the edges and making very little actual difference.

Has anyone else got any interesting links to pretty pictures?