Twitter Without The Witter

While the rest of us use Twitter to tell the world about a particularly excellent snack or impending toilet trip, some people are using it on another level entirely.

Follow @Change_for_Iran, @IranRiggedElect, @NextRevolution and @persiankiwi for real people in Tehran, risking their lives to post news and information.

Powerful, scary, moving. I hope they find the freedom they deserve.

Bad Lighting Design Part 2

It appears the cheap lighting under the Trafalgar Street underpass wasn’t finished when I blogged about it. The latest developments are:

1. A white spotlight pointing downwards above each archway on the north side. Not bad, but should’ve been in the struts pointing at an angle for a better effect.

2. Sequenced LEDs in the attractive niches on the south side. These just add to the overall lurid effect of the colour-changers. Again, these niches should’ve been picked out by gentle spots in the struts.

3. Another row of LEDs has been added at the top, where the road comes out. Because of the slope, these are much higher than the original two runs which were already at slightly different heights. So instead of a pleasing line, we have three strips of light at three different levels.

4. They’ve covered the LED casings and wiring with what appears to be half a drainpipe. However, it’s in two colours: brown on the bricks, and white at the top, adding to the disjointed look of them. Also a note to designers: when you put something on a wall, it doesn’t disappear if you cover it with a similar coloured plasting case. It would’ve been better to have a nice, contrasting casing that was at least consistent with itself. Perhaps painted to match the existing ironwork, making it look like part of the structure. Oh, and they could at least have made an effort to hide the screws that are at 6 inch intervals. Better still there shouldn’t be anything at all ruining a nice bit of Victorian brickwork.

There’s still a crane under there, so Brighton Council might not yet be done with their wacky design hell. I’ll report back if they suddenly install lasers or strobes (which wouldn’t be at all surprising).

The Death Of Politics

Politics in the UK has been dying for a decade. This week, it let out it’s death cry.

I’ve got two ideas to save it:
1. A benign dictatorship, with me at the helm. By far my favourite option, but I lack the private army to bring about the bloodless coup.
2. An Independent Alliance party – anyone with centre-left leanings can join in order to stand as an independent candidate. They’ll receive central help with funding, campaigning and media to raise awareness in their constituency. There is no party whip and no party manifesto: other than rules on extreme views, candidates can stand on their own promises and are free to vote how they wish in parliament. They cannot take more than the bare minimum expenses to do their jobs, they cannot have a second job, and they cannot accept trips, gifts, meals or donations from any third party. They cannot have been a candidate, prospective candidate or even a member of a mainstream political party in the five years previously. They will be contractually bound to serve only two terms, and banned from joining companies that had government connections after they step down. No more revolving door.

It’s time to get rid of career politicians and elect people standing for issues they believe in, in constituencies they have a connection to, and without corporate and big-business corruption.

At the moment there’s a massive obstacle to getting into power: money. An independent must put up a lot of cash, spend a lot of cash on their campaign and then won’t get in because no-one will have heard of them, unless they’re already high-profile. Only a wealthy person with time on their hands could even consider it, and would probably fail. An independent alliance party can deal with all that.

I’m sick of being governed by stupid, greedy idiots. On a local and a national level. It’s time to get real, public-spirited people into power.

I just need a million quid to sort it out.

Disappointing Limitations of iPhoto

I just got a junk mail from Apple with the following disclaimer:

iPhoto does not recognise the faces of animals.

I can only imagine the frustration of the poor user whose frantic calls to the helpdesk resulted in that important bit of small print…

Why I’ll Stop Using PayPal

I’ve been using PayPal fairly regularly, recently. The main reason was that I’m trying not to use my credit card so much, so I don’t build up a balance. But a debit card doesn’t offer much protection when shopping online.

PayPal also means I’m not continually giving out my card details to people – so I thought that I could use lesser-known sites for shopping, with no fear that they’re likely to abuse or lose my details.

However, recently I didn’t get something that I paid for with PayPal. The seller hasn’t acknowledged my emails, or responded when I raised a PayPal dispute. I’ve escalated the dispute to a ‘claim’ where PayPal will look into it and, I assumed, give me my money back.

However, I’ve just noticed this in PayPal’s terms:

If PayPal decides the claim in the buyer’s favour, the buyer will receive a refund only if there are funds in the seller’s account.

So, if the person I bought off has moved that money into their bank account, I get nothing!

Which means anyone can set up a PayPal account, fleece a few thousand people, withdraw the funds from their PayPal account, then disappear. If the bloke who mugged you is caught but has spent the cash, you don’t get it back.

In other words: outside of eBay, PayPal offers NO BUYER PROTECTION WHATSOEVER, for which they receive a hefty chunk of all funds transferred through them.

I’ll go back to my credit card.

Dream

One of the most succesful and impressive pieces of public art I’ve seen…

Dream St Helens

Animal Instincts

The hottest day of the year so far took us to Chester Zoo, where we experienced animal life in all it’s intricate and splended glory:

As the afternoon cooled we headed for Chester city centre to wander the perfecty preserved medieval streets. There, we came across the greatest pub in the world. The Brewery Tap is set in a renovated Jacobian hall, complete with original carved stone fireplace and tapestries. It’s the first pub for brewer Spitting Feathers and they’ve got it bang-on! No music, no screens, just 7 real ales. Best of all, the most expensive is £2.80! I only had time to try the light golden Thirstquencher, but it was more than enough to make me consider buying the house opposite.