Wednesday, 19 October 2005
Thursday, 7 July 2005
London bombings: through the news
An interesting aspect of today's shocking terrorism in the capital, was the way in which the news filtered out (ie, the falsehoods were eliminated). I first heard from a colleague the news that Liverpool had been victim to a bomb at about 9:30am. A quick scout of BBC News online showed that it was in fact Liverpool Street, London, that had been targetted.
Throughout most of the morning, the BBC website was particularly slow in its updates. Despite the obvious demands on its servers and those of rival news sites such as Sky, ITV and CNN, I thought this would have been the ideal opportunity to see if the press are right when they claim that it's the world of blogging that beats the traditional media. When it comes down to it though, how do you find out what's happening now? Type in
"london bombing blog" on Google, and at this moment in time (11:33pm), you get 257,000 results, of not very much relevance. Of course, at 10 this morning, the hit rate was a lot lower.
I tried out technorati.com, which was better, but the blogs I trawled through at mid-morning were cut and paste jobs -- with no unique comment.
The newsgroup uk.local.london was my next port of call. Discussion was on here, but it was rife with further red herrings, such as similar incidents occuring in other parts of the country including Brighton.
It was also about mid-morning when the words "bombs" and "terrorism" were being officially used -- a major U-turn on earlier comments of a "power surge".
The London newsgroup was eventually ditched after comments about bombing Iran and killing Jews started to be offered as solutions to all our problems.
Luckily, I stumbled across blogs.guardian.co.uk/news and I stuck to this for the rest of the day. Yes, it struggled at times with the worldwide web demand, but it kept me up to date on exactly what was happening. It also led its readers to the excellent flickr photo service of the day's unfolding events.
Throughout most of the morning, the BBC website was particularly slow in its updates. Despite the obvious demands on its servers and those of rival news sites such as Sky, ITV and CNN, I thought this would have been the ideal opportunity to see if the press are right when they claim that it's the world of blogging that beats the traditional media. When it comes down to it though, how do you find out what's happening now? Type in
"london bombing blog" on Google, and at this moment in time (11:33pm), you get 257,000 results, of not very much relevance. Of course, at 10 this morning, the hit rate was a lot lower.
I tried out technorati.com, which was better, but the blogs I trawled through at mid-morning were cut and paste jobs -- with no unique comment.
The newsgroup uk.local.london was my next port of call. Discussion was on here, but it was rife with further red herrings, such as similar incidents occuring in other parts of the country including Brighton.
It was also about mid-morning when the words "bombs" and "terrorism" were being officially used -- a major U-turn on earlier comments of a "power surge".
The London newsgroup was eventually ditched after comments about bombing Iran and killing Jews started to be offered as solutions to all our problems.
Luckily, I stumbled across blogs.guardian.co.uk/news and I stuck to this for the rest of the day. Yes, it struggled at times with the worldwide web demand, but it kept me up to date on exactly what was happening. It also led its readers to the excellent flickr photo service of the day's unfolding events.
Saturday, 25 June 2005
Lookalike: Wonka = W*nker
Ever noticed how the great Gene Wilder shares an unfortunate appearance with Paul Danan (who he? CV includes Hollyoaks and most recently, ITV's Celebrity Love Island)?
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Monday, 23 May 2005
Friday, 8 April 2005
New Year Challenge: April update
Today's money spending
Sainsbury's shop:
- Uncut magazine
- Pitted olives
- Meat-free burger
- Stirfry veg
- Pitta bread
- Merlot wine
- Mouthwash
- Milk
- Crisps
- Tomatoes
- Tofu
- Vegetarian sausages
- Fresh pasta
Sub-total: £25.90
Petrol: £19.99
Library loan of CD: 70p
Mojo magazine and The Independent: £3.55
TOTAL: £50.14
BOGOF
I saw an inspired piece of shopping today in Sainsbury's. An old bird behind me bought about 100 packs of Real McCoy crisps. As the spotty checkout boy scanned in the items, the lady said he'd got the price wrong as they were on offer. She then proceeded to give him the piece of plastic which was attached to the shelf, with the Buy One Get One Free (BOGOF) offer written on it.
Tuesday, 5 April 2005
New Year Challenge: April
March was a disaster. I didn't knock up a new recipe for every week of the month, and neither did I do a bit of yoga every day. But, I did get back into going for a run (outside, as opposed to the gym's running machine), at least once a week.
So, this week, I'm aiming to keep a check on all my money spending and TV watching. I don't know why, I just am...
Today's money spending
Brand X air freshener: £1.00
First class delivery for eBay item: £0.75
TOTAL: £1.75
Today's TV watching
BBC Breakfast: 20 mins
Fred Dibnah: 30 mins
Liverpool v Juvenus: 60 mins
So, this week, I'm aiming to keep a check on all my money spending and TV watching. I don't know why, I just am...
Today's money spending
Brand X air freshener: £1.00
First class delivery for eBay item: £0.75
TOTAL: £1.75
Today's TV watching
BBC Breakfast: 20 mins
Fred Dibnah: 30 mins
Liverpool v Juvenus: 60 mins
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