Science wants London to plant Christmas trees
The news that trees are good will come as no surprise to anyone who stayed awake in Year 8 Biology.
A paper published this month in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning indicates that the urban trees of the Greater London Authority (GLA) area remove somewhere between 850 and 2000 tonnes of particulate pollution (PM10) from the air every year.
So we should plant more trees, simple. But which sort? And where?
The research found that the targeting of tree planting in the most polluted areas of the GLA area and particularly the use of a mixture of trees, including evergreens such as pines and evergreen oak, would have the greatest benefit to future air quality in terms of PM10 removal.
I fail to see how anyone could object to an enormous Christmas tree being planted in the middle of every roundabout in the city. They would suck up pollution all year, and to reciprocate we could decorate them at Christmas in a pagan ceremony of thanks. Win win.
Source: EurekAlert! via Atlantic Cities
Photo: Wikipedia
27 Oct 2011
27 Oct 2011
Occupy LSX: lay off the booze
Venus Cumarar, who’s doing a great job managing the waste coming out of the Occupy camp, begs protesters to lay off the booze. Sober revolutionaries…things are really getting serious down there.
Source: The Occupied Times
27 Oct 2011
Rider of software evangelist shows Van Halen as amateurs
Free software evangelist Richard Stallman is looking for speaking gigs in the UK next week. If you want him, he’ll possibly speak for free, but there is a 9,000 word rider that you’ll need to deal with. For example, “If you can find a host for me that has a friendly parrot, I will be very very glad. If you can find someone who has a friendly parrot I can visit with, that will be nice too. DON’T buy a parrot figuring that it will be a fun surprise for me.”
Source: MySociety.org
27 Oct 2011
London agenda for Thursday 27 October
1. View marginal and degraded performance practices at Trashing Performance [Le Cool]
2. Pull some strings to see the London Puppetry Festival [Run Riot]
3. Dance like a human centipede at Buried Alive Hallowe’en Ball [Time Out]
4. Hear Small Horses and Seductive Gaze at Soundspray [Don’t Panic]
5. Visit the Fortean Society’s event on Investigating Ghosts [Ian Visits]
6. Find the American Church [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
27 Oct 2011
Hollandaze by Odonis Odonis
Fuzzy, lo-fi surf punk/gaze from Toronto, courtesy of Brighton’s Fat Cat Records (Breton, Mazes, some band called Sigur Rós…). Hollandaze is the title track from Odonis Odonis’ debut album, released November 7th. It got me thinking about other possible food-based puns which could double up as awesome album/song titles – ‘Playing Ketchup’, ‘In the Gravy’, ‘Second Cumin’…’Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Curd’ (ahem)…
Odonis Odonis – Hollandaze by snipelondon
MP Free is Snipe’s daily dose of new music. Email your suggestions to tom.jenkins@snipelondon.com or look at the archive.
26 Oct 2011
How will Occupy London end? Some scenarios
How will Occupy LSE end? Let’s look at some hypotheticals, with reference to other global protests which are a few weeks further along in their development.
26 Oct 2011
Amy Winehouse drink drive what?
A big eh? to the LBC tweet writers. She died in her flat not behind the wheel. Weird angle. And that “Breking” is a [sic].
26 Oct 2011
26 Oct 2011
Stargazing in London becomes slightly less impossible
London, when did you last look up and comprehend the stars? When did you last gaze in wonder at the immense vault of the heavens, glistening above you like a thousand premonitions of your own untimely death? Not recently, I’ll wager, for the very good reason that you can’t see squat most of the time. A moon here, a Jupiter there, perhaps the square of Pegasus on a clear night. Slim pickings.
But recognising your own mortality just got a bit easier with the news that the Waterworks nature reserve near Hackney Marshes is London’s contribution to the Dark Sky Discovery project, which means events and telescopes and that sort of thing, mostly starting next year. Question: where else in London combines good star-viewing with low chance of being mugged on the way back? All suggestions gratefully received.
26 Oct 2011
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- London has chosen its mayor, but why can’t it choose its own media?
- Nice map of London's fruit trees shows you where to pick free food
- An interview with Desiree Akhavan
- The best church names in London, and where they come from
- A unique collection of photos of Edwardian Londoners
- Punk brewery just as sexist and homophobic as the industry they rail against
- Diary of the shy Londoner
- Nice Interactive timeline lets you follow Londoners' historic fight against racism
- Silencing the Brick Lane curry touts could be fatal for the city's self-esteem
- Peter Bayley has worked for 50 years as a cinema projectionist in East Finchley
© 2009-2026 Snipe London.