Watch this interview with 16 year-old Wimbledon start-up kid
TechCrunch has interviewed the 16 year-old Wimbledon kid that has snagged $300,000 from Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing for his start-up. The start-up itself does something boring – summarising text into small briefs – but the guy is unbelievably self-possessed.
03 Feb 2012
London agenda for Friday 3 February 2012
1. Discuss the Felt’s new book at Rough Trade East [Le Cool]
2. Club at the Nest with Hervé and Adam F [Run Riot]
3. Eat dinner with comedians Chris Cox, Oliver Meech, Chris Lynam, Myra Dubois, Alex McAleer and MC Neil Henry at Magic Night [Don’t Panic]
4. Chat with Time Out’s Film editor Dave Calhoun about Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy [Time Out]
5. Greenwich is now the Royal Borough of Greenwich. Huzzah? [Ian Visits]
6. See the Salamanca Street Ceramics [Tired of London]
03 Feb 2012
"You could almost eat the soil" at the Olympic park
Andrew O’Hagan visits the Olympic Park for the LRB, and discovers they have been cleaning the soil with big machines. Who knew?
03 Feb 2012
Jenny Jones does her bit for cyclists, again, as new safety campaigns gather speed
Jenny Jones, Ken Livingstone’s effective running mate rival for the mayoralty, has a piece at the Guardian pivoting off The Times’s new cycling campaign. She doesn’t say anything new, but she doesn’t need to. Just getting more people to pay attention to what she’s been saying for ages will be enough. Sample quote:
“…we have to be clear that the mayor’s advice to cyclists at a recent assembly meeting that you will be OK if “you keep your wits about you” is no excuse for inaction on building high-quality cycle lanes.”
Meanwhile The Times continues its conversion. It has a must read interview with a lorry driver who hit a cyclist. They think this campaign is so important they’re putting it outside their paywall. Which goes to show how ridiculous is their paywall. Anyway, it’s great to be able to direct you there.
“So I spun the wheel as fast as I could, braked, put the vehicle into the ditch on the other side of the road, hit the cyclist with the front near side of the cab, threw him down the road about 30 or 40ft. I ended up in the ditch. I didn’t see him go down the road – I just heard the crump.”
And also today Ross Lydall in the Standard reports on a new campaign specifically trying to eliminate cycling collisions with HGVs.
This is about raising awareness and improving infrastructure. The first is finally happening, now what about the second?
Jenny Jones at Comment is Free – Safety comes first if we want a cycling revolution
The Times – The lorry driver’s story: ‘Every time I see a cyclist I remember the accident’
Ross Lydall at the Standard – ‘See Me Save Me’ campaign launched after 50 Londoners kiled by HGVs in three years
03 Feb 2012
Watch The Shard's architect Renzo Piano talk about creating his "vertical city"
AR Innovators – Renzo Piano from The Architectural Review on Vimeo.
Architectural Review interviewed Renzo Piano. It’s a long one but there’s fascinating stuff in here about how The Shard was dreamt up, Ken Livingstone’s role in it, and how Piano tried to stop his tower seeming threatening and ugly to the cowering ants awe-struck people below.
The real Shard chat starts about 1:55. Also just love his dress sense.
02 Feb 2012
Boris Johnson ambushed outside City Hall by Bermondsey Village Action Group
SE 1 explains what’s going on here.
Mr Johnson, who was in the park for a photo opportunity with Conservative colleagues, spent more than seven minutes talking to activists opposed to the demolition of the South Eastern Railway building in Tooley Street and the flank wall of the terminus roof on the St Thomas Street side of the station.
02 Feb 2012
UCL student union goes pro-choice and anti-freedom of speech
University student union votes for well-meaning but badly-thought-through motion shock
UCL student union has voted to become officially pro-choice. Nowt wrong with that. It’s the rest of the motion which bears all the hallmarks of adolescent do-goodery.
3. will ensure that any UCLU anti-choice campaigns run on campus are obliged to inform UCLU in advance, so that pro-choice campaigns have the opportunity to campaign at the same time with an equal budget and an equal amount of advertising space and vice versa
4. ensures any future open events by UCLU Clubs or Societies focusing on the issue of termination invite an anti-choice speaker, a pro-choice speaker, and an independent chair, to ensure there is a balance to the argument
So you can’t run a pro-life/anti-choice campaign on campus without the student authorities’ say so.
And you’re mandated to have speakers on both sides of the argument if you want to debate or discuss the issue.
Ministry of Truth gets it right:
“Look, just because you’ve settled on becoming officially pro-choice it doesn’t mean that you’re justified in nannying your members. If one of your member societies is desperate to waste an hour or two listening to some foaming-at-the-mouth moron claim that Marie Stopes International are just a bunch of baby-eating bastards then fuck it – let ‘em listen.”
Christina Odone in the Telegraph objects from a Catholic perspective:
“The Union at UCL wants to shut down all intellectual questioning, while providing the only truth it approves of (in this case, pro-choice).”
UCL students – you are predominantly pro-choice. Great. So am I. Now let’s leave everyone else alone.
UCLU – January referenda
Ministry of Truth – How not to do Pro-choice
Christina Odone at the Telegraph – Abortion, a student union and the closing of the British mind
02 Feb 2012
London agenda for Thursday 2 February
1. Head to the Garage for the charming Beth Jeans Houghton and the Hooves of Destiny [Le Cool]
2. Join Granta contributors and editors to celebrate the launch of Granta 118: Exit Strategies [Run Riot]
3. Watch some dreamy hip-hop at CAMP by Shlohmo + Salva [Flavorpill]
4. Chat with director Ying Welsh on the ongoing revolution taking place in Bahrain at Shouting in the Dark [Don’t Panic]
5. Listen to Alain de Botton discuss Religion for Atheists. It’s free. [Ian Visits]
6. Shop in the Boxpark [Tired of London]
02 Feb 2012
"Give me your traders, your brokers, your greedy bankers yearning to breathe free"
Boris’s French overture sounds like it is directed to a group of noble exiles unfairly penalised at home. A band of travelling mercenaries unwilling to pay their fair share is closer to the truth, says Mike Bonnet.
02 Feb 2012
Reviewed: Art by Animals at the Grant Museum - an interesting load of old cobblers
Art by Animals at UCL’s Grant Museum is an exhibition of two halves.
The half dealing with art by apes is a fascinating exploration of human ideas about creativity, artistic interpretation, and the assignation of meaning.
The half dealing with art by elephants is a load of old cobblers.
Let’s start with the elephants. Above is a picture which a human has called “Flower Pot”, by an elephant which a human has called Boon Mee. If you think it looks like a substandard human painting of a flowerpot, it’s because that’s exactly what it is.
You see the elephants creating these pictures live in a sanctuary in Thailand where they are trained to make marks on canvas by their human keepers. The keepers design the paintings beforehand and control the elephant’s movements by pulling on their ears. The elephants are not artists, they’re just glorified paintbrushes.
Nevertheless, these canvasses are then sold online as “elephant art” for sums approaching $500 apiece. We’re supposed to stand back in wonder at these pictures, marvelling at how “talented” the elephants are and how it’s amazing really and “doesn’t it just go to show?”
What it goes to show is that human beings can train animals to perform tasks. And that other human beings will pay for the resulting output. This is neither revelatory nor even interesting.
The ape art, on the other hand, takes us somewhere it’s worth going. According to museum manager Jack Ashby, quoted in the New Scientist here, the apes decide when a piece is “finished” and move on to another one. That is to say they are not doodling ad infinitum. They have a conception of completeness. They also make pretty patterns.
Here’s the video accompanying the exhibition, which runs Mon-Fri 1pm-5pm until 9th March.
What’s on at UCL – Grant Museum
Elephant Art Gallery – Pictures for sale
New Scientist – When animals get arty
01 Feb 2012
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- London has chosen its mayor, but why can’t it choose its own media?
- Punk brewery just as sexist and homophobic as the industry they rail against
- Peter Bayley has worked for 50 years as a cinema projectionist in East Finchley
- A unique collection of photos of Edwardian Londoners
- Number of people using Thames cable car plunges
- Could red kites be London's next big nature success story?
- The five spookiest abandoned London hospitals
- Diary of the shy Londoner
- 9 poems about London: one for each of your moods
- Nice map of London's fruit trees shows you where to pick free food
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