Please Spare Us

I'm really really worried Boris Johnson will become Mayor of London. I dread to think what he will do to my beatiful city if he's elected. Please watch this and vote for anyone but him or the BNP, if you're eligible to do so.

Tribute vs Plagiarism

For starters, a little task for you. If you haven't already see the video produced by the band OK Go where they dance around on treadmills (where have you been?!?), please do so immediately:

Now, I think this gives us an ideal opportunity to consider the classification of types of copying. This, for example, is a lovingly created tribute to the above. This, is a gentle mickey-take of the above. This, however, is a blatent rip-off, and I hope the creators are ashamed of themselves. Or, at the very least, send a royalty cheque to the band. Hmph!

(Oh, and if you enjoyed the original, also check out this video by them - I was delighted that they actually did the routine when I went to see them live. And when you're done, marvel at/be terrified by the number of fans who have seen fit to create their own tributes.)

Gingerism strikes again

I can't stand Jonathan Ross, but having written before about the inexplicable appearance-based prejudice that some redheads seem to encounter, I feel I must share this clip from Friday's show, in which Catherine Tate demonstrated that the feeling runs very deep in some quarters (but who'd have thought it'd be a cat's home?)

Ginger's Guide to London Streets: Bits and Bobs

The first time I ever spotted one of these little critters was on Tottenham Court Road. Given the plethora of geeky electrical shops around there, I thought it was some kind of officially sanctioned reflection of the consumer bias of the area. It was only when reading Art of the State that I realised that it was actually part of some much larger project; these mosaic space invaders can be found all over the world. Thus far, I've only located two: the red one is on the corner of Bedford Avenue and Tottenham Court Road, the blue one is near the Oxford Street entrance of Tottenham Court Road Tube station - have a look here to see it in situ.

In other news, I was contacted a couple of months ago by a website called Schmap who wanted to use one of the photos from my Flickr photostream for the new edition of their London guide. I happily agreed, but I'm not quite sure what I think of their guides overall. Firstly, the pages have so much on them that they take ages to load on my less-than speedy machine. Secondly, they stuck my photo as part of a gallery above a review of Patisserie Valerie. Which is fine, as that does feature in the photo. But as the review fails to mention they have more than one branch, I thought it was a bit misleading that they listed the address as Brompton Road. I did contact them about this, and eventually they seem to have removed my contribution, although they didn't tell me that they were going to. Ah well, that's my fifteen minutes of fame over!

What do *you* reckon?

During an innocent conversation about the merits of the various radio stations we listen to at work, a colleague commented that she found the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2 rather annoying. "Oh yes!" I agreed. "I hate those programmes where members of the public are allowed to phone in with their opinions".

The reaction was: "That is such a [Ginger] thing to say!" Which has me slightly worried. Surely I don't have a reputation for favouring oppression of free speech, or a disinterest in what Joe Public has to say? I was all set to explain here in detail my defence, comprising points such as (i) such programmes favour polarised opinions and just aren't interested in the calm middle ground (ii) the sort of people/opinions that get aired just conform to the most obvious stereotypes of both ends of any debate and (iii) I get annoyed at such opportunities being presented as though the actual opinions really matter when, in the great scheme of things, they don't change a thing and are just a tokenistic way of filling airtime.

But it seems that others can say it far better than I:

I would get more sleep...

... if this weren't so very true:


From xkcd

"For the Good of the Company"

Dull epiphany

I realised recently that I spend more time holding a pipette than I do a pen.

That's all.

*sigh*

Unequal standards

There have been a few stories in the press recently debating the contrasting media coverage of the respective disappearances of Madeleine McCann and Shannon Matthews. In fact, the differing lengths of their wiki entries probably says it all. There does seem to be compelling evidence for the argument that class has played a part in how eager the press and public have been to respond to these cases.

But there's another element of bias that seems to be going on, highlighted by the murder case of Scarlett Keeling. I can't help but think that if Karen Matthews had left a two year old alone in a flat while she went to have dinner, or a fifteen year old daughter alone in a foreign country (during term time) to be looked after by a male tour guide, she would have been loudly denounced in the media for being a neglectful, unloving mother - her actions being typical of all that is wrong with society.

But, strangely, such comments are rather muted in the press. Do pretty, blonde middle class girls somehow not deserve good parenting? Isn't every missing child of equal value?

Ginger's Guide to London Streets #7: Carthusian Street (EC1)

I only really noticed Carthusian Street at all because of its peculiar second road sign that is, for no apparent reason, in French. The sign underneath, 'Borough of Finsbury Bondary 1906'(?), is quite charming too. Having got a picture of that, I felt I better go on a hunt for other points of interest.

It's a pretty short road, so I wasn't too optimistic. Apart from a disused pub and a hairdresser with attitude there was nothing that immediately caught my eye. And then, tucked unassumingly away, I came across The Chamber of Shipping, with its lovely 1920s crest (below left), including crossed ships near the top. It seems to have quite a long history, but has only been located in Carthusian street since 1994. Its purpose seems to be to act as a trade association for UK ship owners, which seems fairly evident from the name. I was intrigued, however, by the comment here that the £4.3bn gross income of the British Shipping industry makes it 'one of the largest earners of invisibles'. What with that, the inexplicable foreign road sign, and a name like 'Chamber of Shipping', one can't help but wonder if one has stumbled into JK Rowling territory.

Anyway, short and sweet, but a rather different kind of curiosity to the ones I've found thus far.

(Oh, and if you're thinking that the lighting looks suspiciously summer-y, it is. I am soo behind with writing up these entries!)