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  • The price of petrol – an object of worship

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Media

    image of petrol pump nozzle in tankThere’s been a lot of coverage in the media recently on the falling price of crude oil – and consequently of petroleum products – but it is questionable whether any other coverage has attained the level of religious fervour exhibited by the Bristol Post, an organ not normally renowned for its piety.

    Yesterday’s Post featured a report with the headline Unleaded petrol drops below £1 in Swindon – but when will Bristol see the hallowed price?

    Yes, that’s right – hallowed.

    According to Collins English Dictionary, the adjective hallowed has the following meanings:

    1. set apart as sacred
    2. consecrated or holy

    Nowhere else have I encountered the price of petrol being referred to as being set apart as sacred, let alone consecrated or holy.

    Collins also adds helpfully that hallowed is used to describe something that is respected and admired, usually because it is old, important, or has a good reputation.

    I hardly think any of the adjectives so helpfully added by Collins could be applied – even in the broadest sense – to the price of petrol in the West Country.

    Could it be that the unnamed journalist responsible for the piece is ignorant of the meaning of hallowed?

    Quite possibly.

    Furthermore, the Bristol Post is well known locally for its unquestioning championing of the motorist and demonisation of cyclists, not to mention its barely concealed opposition to Bristol Mayor George Ferguson’s plans for residents’ parking zones. That being so, perhaps Post “journalists” do worship piously at the pumps every time they fill up. 🙂

  • Vous n’êtes pas Charlie

    Steve WoodsMedia, Politics

    Today an anti-terror rally is being held in Paris in memory of those killed at the offices of Charlie Hebdo (posts passim) and at a Kosher supermarket in recent days.

    It is said that up to 1.5 mn. people are attending the rally.

    Amongst the attendees are many politicians, led by President Hollande. Many foreign politicians are also attending.

    Charlie Hebdo was a beacon of free speech and freedom of the press. Several of the foreign politicians in attendance represent regimes whose treatment of the press is less than enlightened. They include:

    Hat tip: Daniel Wickham.

  • Bristol – European fly-tipping capital?

    Steve WoodsBristol, Oddities, Politics

    In the world of the city’s great and good, Bristol is off to a flying start celebrating its year as European Green Capital.

    Plans are already well advanced to spend thousands on spurious ‘green‘ arts projects, such as dumping a load of old boats in picturesque Leigh Woods.

    According to the blurb on the European Green Capital website, the “European Green Capital Award (EGCA) has been conceived to recognise and reward local efforts to improve the environment, the economy and the quality of life in cities.”

    However, it would appear that there’s been little local effort – apart from protests by local residents and councillors – to improve the environment and quality of life in inner city areas such as Easton, Lawrence Hill and St Pauls, judging by the amount of fly-tipping that still goes on daily on our streets with no sign of a slackening or any meaningful enforcement efforts or action by Bristol’s seemingly impotent or uninterested city council.

    The photographs below were taken this morning by local resident Hannah Crudgington and are typical of the grottiness we inner city residents have to endure every day. All the photographs were taken within a couple of hundred metres of each other in the BS5 postcode area.

    fly-tipping at Twinnell House

    fly-tipping on Stapleton Road

    fly-tipped mattress on Goodhind Street

    Was Bristol awarded the European Green Capital award on false premises? Some in the city believe that to be the case. Judging the evidence of my own eyes, awarding Bristol with the European Green Capital award would have been more appropriate.

    Do you agree? Please feel free to comment.

  • Je suis Charlie

    Steve WoodsMedia, Politics, Social Media

    Social media has responded quickly to the horrific attack on the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris today, which resulted in 12 deaths and 5 injured. Four of those killed were Charlie Hebdo cartoonists Charb, Cabu, Tignous and Georges Wolinski.

    The press office of Amnesty International in France has described that attack as “A black day for press freedom”.

    Many Twitter accounts changed their avatar to the Je suis Charlie image shown below, whilst many tweets were also tagged with the #JesuisCharlie hashtag.

    Je suis Charlie

    Some of the harshest condemnations of the attack have come from the attackers’ co-religionists. The imam of Drancy, Hassen Chalghoumi, is reported to have said: “Their barbarism has nothing to do with Islam”.

    My deepest condolences to the victims and their families.

  • Crowdfunding for Bristolians only

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Media, Oddities, Tech

    What could have been a fine report on a local space technology story has been ruined by poor writing in the Bristol Post.

    Yesterday’s Post carried a story on Bristol SpacePlanes and its efforts to develop a reusable orbital vehicle.

    CGI impression of Bristol SpacePlanes Ascender craft
    A CGI impression of the Bristol SpacePlanes Ascender craft

    The Post’s journalist gets off to a bad start in the first sentence:

    Bristolians are being invited to help launch planes into space in a new crowd-funding [sic] campaign.

    Just Bristolians, Bristol Post?

    I thought the idea of crowdfunding (minus the hyphen. Ed.), was that anyone can be part of the crowd that provides the funds, irrespective of geography.

    This suspicion is borne out by 30 seconds research. The first item on crowdfunding I found, from Wikipedia, states: “Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising monetary contributions from a large number of people, typically via the internet.”

    Nowhere in the Wikipedia entry is there is indication at all that crowdfunding is to be restricted solely to Bristolians.

    Or am I just misreading to local media’s propensity to find a local angle to a story? Here’s a hint: it already has one, featuring a local high technology company and doesn’t need a second one! 🙂

  • TidyBS5 at the Neighbourhood Forum

    Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

    The regular meeting of the Easton & Lawrence Hill Neighbourhood Forum took place in Barton Hill yesterday evening and once again the problems of litter and fly-tipping were a prominent item.

    I gave a brief summary of what had been happening campaign-wise over the last month and there were also some excellent contributions regarding future actions.

    One new development was a cleanliness petition which attendees were encouraged to sign by local councillors Hibaq Jama and Marg Hickman. The petition will be going online shortly and a link to it will be posted here when it’s available.

    One new angle to the cleanliness campaign is the Tidy BS5 Volunteer of the Month. The December winner is Angela Smith, who organised a Sunday litter pick in November in Bloy Street with her neighbours.

    Angela Smith receiving her award
    Angela Smith receiving her award. PiEdcture courtesy of Stacy Yelland

    The local police also support TidyBS, as can be seen from the photo below.

    Police and local residents show support for TidyBS5
    Police and local residents show support for TidyBS5. Picture courtesy of Stacy Yelland

    Bristol Mayor George Ferguson will be visiting Easton & Lawrence Hill wards in January and his minders for that visit will be making sure that the litter and fly-tipping problems which residents and those working in the area have to endure daily are well and truly to the fore in his itinerary.

    One related matter raised was recycling in the area’s high-rise flats. Young local people are trying to get then instated in some local tower blocks. At present, some blocks dating from the 1960s and with over 1,000 residents have no recycling facilities at all. (Not a very positive message or good example from a city that’s only a fortnight or so away from being European Green Capital for 2015. Ed.). However, Deputy Mayor Gus Hoyt has been talking to researchers at UWE about recycling in high-rise blocks. UWE’s researchers have found out that when flats are given recycling boxes, the average recycling rate is only about 10%. In reality it is more economical and efficient to collect rubbish together and then sort it at the waste depot. Gus’ research is continuing and will no doubt lead to changes in recycling practices sometime in the future

  • Pointless paving

    Steve WoodsBristol, Oddities, Politics

    One thing living in Bristol for nearly 4 decades has taught me is that Bristol City Council is profligate and lacks competence.

    This was once again brought sharply into focus earlier this morning in a dead-end street called Clifton Street (map) leading to the back entrance of Easton CofE Primary School where I encountered the roadworks shown in the photograph below.

    image of dropped kerbs and textured paving on a dead-end street
    Bristol’s most pointless dropped kerbs?

    The view shows the entrance into the staff car park of the school, the approach to which has just been enhanced by 2 dropped kerbs and textured paving on each of the street’s two footways as part of works to replace the street’s kerbstones.

    There are only going to be two times in the day on weekdays when there is likely to be any traffic at all on Clifton Street – before and after the school day.

    As for the use of textured paving, this is generally installed to assist the visually impaired and I cannot see many visually impaired people using dead-end streets in Easton anyway.

    I wonder how much this municipal largesse by the city’s highways department has cost the public purse.

    If the city council really wanted to spend money on roadworks in Easton, there’s plenty of other stuff that needs attention, as shown in the example below.

    damaged Stapleton Road pedestrian refuge
    Picture courtesy of Hannah Crudgington

    The damaged pedestrian refuge shown above is on Stapleton Road, just a couple of hundred metres away from Clifton Street. Local residents have been attempting to get the council to repair it for over 6 months, after it was damaged by a bus driver with delusions of driving competence. These efforts have so far come to nought.

    In the recent TidyBS5 residents’ rubbish summit (posts passim), it was stated that council officers frequently intone the words “It’s the inner city” as an excuse for lack of action. Clearly this only works one way, i.e. when the lack of action concerns something either highlighted or desired by residents; when the initiative comes from within the council, there’s apparently no object, no matter how pointless what is proposed. I’ve encountered this ‘not invented here’ syndrome before in local authorities.

    It’s normal to see a spate of daft council spending in March each year, just before the municipal financial year runs out. This year it seems that Bristol City Council is providing the residents of Easton with an early Christmas present in the form of dumb expenditure.

  • Takeaway turns up heat on fly-tippers

    Steve WoodsBristol

    Chinese takeaway Sun Hing on Stapleton Road must have had some trouble with fly-tippers in the past.

    As a commercial outlet, the takeaway is required by the council to have – and pay for – its own contract with a waste disposal service.

    If one has paid for a service, then one evidently doesn’t want others (ab)using it for free.

    The sign below has recently appeared above Sun Hing’s bins in Newton Street.

    photo of bins and sign outside Sun Hing takeway on Stapleton Road

    There actually is a CCTV camera covering the bins, but it is out of shot.

    Hat tip: Hannah Crudgington.

  • Everyday sexism: Barbie can’t code

    Steve WoodsOddities, Tech

    As is well known, the world of IT is a preponderantly male world. For instance, over at Wikipedia, under 20% of users who edit articles are women. Elsewhere, women tend to be thin on the ground at any professional IT gathering.

    However, telling girls and young women that IT is not a field for them is just wrong. It isn’t; I know of many excellent women coders and programmers, ranging from web developers to those who write the code for microprocessors and mobile phone chips (although I shall refrain from identifying them here. Ed.). Indeed, the person regarded as the world’s very first programmer, Ada Lovelace, was – unsurprisingly given her name – a woman (posts passim).

    It’s therefore with a sense of exasperation that I came across the image below this afternoon.

    image showing Barbie calling for Steven and Brian to code up her game idea

    Mattel, makers of Barbie since 1959, should be ashamed of themselves if they are responsible for putting out the message that the world’s most prominent promoter of all things pink needs the help of 2 men to code up her game. It helps reinforce the erroneous stereotype that IT isn’t the done thing for girls or is too hard for them, especially as Barbie is aimed at young, impressionable minds. What’s more, the gender role stereotyping is further reinforced by having Barbie sat in a kitchen… Oh dear!

    Update 21/11/2014: Mattel has since apologised for its crass mistake, according to CNET, to whom Lori Pantel, vice president of global brand marketing for Barbie gave the following statement:

    “The ‘Barbie I Can Be A Computer Engineer’ book was published in 2010. Since that time we have reworked our Barbie books. The portrayal of Barbie in this specific story doesn’t reflect the Brand’s vision for what Barbie stands for. We believe girls should be empowered to understand that anything is possible and believe they live in a world without limits. We apologize that this book didn’t reflect that belief.

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