Facebook's frictionless sharing is akin to malware
Marshal Kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb has a good post on why Facebook telling you what Guardian articles your friends are reading is dangerous and wrong, as well as being really really annoying.
21 Nov 2011
Kent MP is having none of Mayor Johnson's new estuary airport
Mayor Johnson made a speech today warning of economic stagnation if London doesn’t increase its air capacity, and pushing the idea of a massive new airport in the Thames Estuary.
Mark Reckless is the Tory MP for Rochester and Strood, and he doesn’t like the idea one bit. Here is his very strong rebuttal. It concludes with a tasty barb.
“Now is not the time to borrow money for vanity projects.”
Quite why I interpret this as a slight on Mayor Johnson I leave for others to discern. Reckless makes a strong substantive case against the airport on grounds of cost, the existence of better alternatives, and the unconscionably ruinous environmental effects that plonking a massive airport in the middle of the Thames estuary would have. It’s a terrible, terrible idea. Stop it.
Mark Reckless – Thames Estuary Airport: Wrong For Kent, Wrong For Britain
BBC – London mayor Boris Johnson argues case for new airport
GLA’s pro airport PDF – A new airport for London
Snipe – Boris’s new airport plans dubbed ‘ridiculous’ by Kent Tories
Snipe – Thames estuary airport idea is the daftest pie in the sky
21 Nov 2011
See this: the ukelele hits London. Hard
That’s James Hill covering Billie Jean on the ukelele. It’s good. He’s performing in London next week after screenings of Mighty Uke, the ukelele documentary you’ve all been waiting for. We caught up with the film’s director Tony Coleman to find out what the hell he thought he was playing at.
21 Nov 2011
London agenda for Monday 21 November
1. Watch classic films in the old ash bin of the Roundhouse at the Underground Film Club [Le Cool]
2. Visit the mind of two versions of the same person at Polarbear’s Old Me [Run Riot]
3. See Michael Rapaport’s debut documentary on seminal hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest at Xoyo [Flavorpill]
4. Hear the Battles at Stoke Newington’s ? Bar [Don’t Panic]
5. Look for the Great Lost Library of England’s Kings [Ian Visits]
6. Drop in to Drink, Shop & Do [Tired of London]
London Agenda is Snipe’s daily compilation of what to do in London as suggested by everyone else. Send additions to listings@snipelondon.com
21 Nov 2011
Woolfson & Tay
Woolfson & Tay in the heart of up and coming Bermondsey has far more on offer than just books.
Opened just over a year ago by Shivaun Woolfson and Frances Tay, the shop was never intended to be your bog standard bookshop. Woolfson and Tay were working for a non-profit organisation called Living Imprint – an organisation using the power of real life stories to educate and enlighten – when they began looking for premises to continue their work. Looking south of the river in artsy Bermondsey they came across the last remaining space that had been empty for two years in the corner of the recently rejuvenated Bermondsey Square. It seemed like the perfect setting to house exhibitions, workshops, seminars, teaching and retail. It’s hard to imagine the square would feel the same without the bookshop nestled in the corner, a space for the community and learning.
Inside the shop is spacious, while still being cosy and inspiring. The evidence of people’s stories spill throughout the shop, from the current exhibition on the cafe walls, to the shelves labelled Life stories and Life History Writing rather than Biography, to co-owner Shivaun keen to share their own story with me as well as those of the people exhibiting and writing there.
As we sat opposite the current exhibition in the cafe for a cup of tea she brimmed with enthusiasm for the story themed space they had created and the community in which it resides. Due to appear there in the new year is an exhibition about the Holocaust and a workshop for young people to work with playwrights on a creative response to the riots.
Nominated for the 2011 Independent Bookseller of the Year award Woolfson & Tay have created a warm and inspiring place to explore, learn and create. It seems to me that they’ve reinvented the bookshop in an age when bookshops need to offer more than just a shopping experience, and made somewhere lovely.
For information on what’s on see their website
18 Nov 2011
You can never get away from the sprawl
I was once struck by one of the football pitch line painters reading Think and Grow Rich on a tree stump.
18 Nov 2011
Occupy LSX takes over empty UBS bank building
OccupyLSX have taken over an unused UBS bank building near Liverpool Street. Here’s their website, and here’s the Guardian’s coverage. They say they have Yahtzee and other games for anyone that wishes to drop by.
18 Nov 2011
Bow roundabout gets its cycling safety review
The blue paint suggests that you’re in a dedicated cycling lane. You’re not, you’re on a small bit of road that happens to be painted blue.
18 Nov 2011
London agenda for Friday 18 November
1. Go have some crafts, cake, cocktails, and some sort of iPod-listening-like-speed-dating-thing [Le Cool]
2. Watch a brand-new musicial – created every performance – at Showstopper [Run Riot]
3. Watch Lovely Jonjo, Clouded Vison Miki Most We’re not Cool at the Dalston Superstore [Don’t Panic]
4. Listen to a folk-fueled festival in Crouch End [Flavorpill]
5. Get wired then anxious then have a pee at the Tea & Coffee festival [Time Out]
6. Look at illiuminated manuscripts [Ian Visits]
7. View the Olympic Park from Westfield’s Observation Deck [Tired of London]
London Agenda is Snipe’s daily compilation of what to do in London as suggested by everyone else. Send additions to listings@snipelondon.com
18 Nov 2011
See this tonight (birds/art/poetry edition): Ghosts of Gone Birds
Rochelle School, Arnold Circus, London E2 7ES
Read ecstatic reviews of the Ghosts of Gone Birds exhibition here, here and here.
Tonight (details here) there is some avian inspired poetry to go along with the art, which consists of contemporary portrayals of long extinct birds. The aim is to stop us from killing any more.
Oh, and it’s BYOB.
Image: Great Auk, by Bruce Pearson.
17 Nov 2011
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- Peter Bayley has worked for 50 years as a cinema projectionist in East Finchley
- The best church names in London, and where they come from
- Margaret Thatcher statue rejected by public
- Only 16 commuters touch in to Emirates Air Line, figures reveal
- 9 poems about London: one for each of your moods
- Number of people using Thames cable car plunges
- Silencing the Brick Lane curry touts could be fatal for the city's self-esteem
- A unique collection of photos of Edwardian Londoners
- The five spookiest abandoned London hospitals
- Nice map of London's fruit trees shows you where to pick free food
© 2009-2026 Snipe London.