If you had to guess, do you think I’d be pro or anti? I may hedge my bets on many issues, but I’ve nailed my colours firmly to the mast in a piece for Lib Dem Voice this morning.
Do please pop over to my other home on the net and peruse my views, under the equivocating, could-go-either-way title of “What Nutter writes Tory tax policy?“
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This cool vid on Gizmodo (hmm… two links in two days to Gizmodo, will have to keep this under review) shows how to bundle iPod earbud headphones.
iPods, as you will probably know, have revolutionised many of those dull dull jobs you have to do as a Lib Dem – many of them leaflet related. I now have a small metal box full of BBC podcasts to take around with me when I’m letterboxing and the time just flies past.
I’ve also been using them whilst printing leaflets recently – works fine whilst printing, but you have to couple ear buds with ear defenders in order to be able to hear anything over a noisy clacking folding machine.
And it’s using the ear defenders that is the only way I have ever managed to make the bud-style headphones actually stick in my ear for more than a few minutes. I don’t know if I have anatomically wrong ears or something, but for me, earbuds just fall out after a few minutes. I have to use sports (oh, the irony!) headphones that loop around my ear or the sort on springs that go around your neck – but those are uncomfortable for anything longer than a single edition of the News Quiz.
And while we’re at it, here’s a quick plea for the Beeb: more comedy podcasts please!
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I wrote about Prop 8, and the staggering 34 separate referendums on San Francisco ballot papers for Lib Dem voice.
One of the things Californians were voting on was a bond issue to finance a new high-speed rail link for CA, the “Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act.” Interesting the need to reassure about safety and reliability, even in the name of the bill before the Californian senate.
There’s lots of info about the proposed route on Wikipedia. WP also has a useful map of who voted for it – and if my geography isn’t way out, it looks like the counties who aren’t going to get any of the benefit were the ones who didn’t vote for it.
Gizmodo has some sweet CGI animations, and there’s also an official website.
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I wrote about an interesting transport map I saw on a stand at conference here.
A few days ago, I visited the city’s Traffic Control Centre, where I had a fascinating chat with city council officers about how traffic is monitored and managed on a day to day basis.
One of the outcomes of that was being pointed at a Nottingham-specific transport website that is really useful. It has congestion and traffic problem displays, live links to traffic cameras in the city (there are loads!). It can pick up the information shown on M1 traffic display systems.
If you push the tram button, it has detailed NET information about Nottingham’s trams, including timetables at any given stop. And very helpfully, the map also includes the future tram lines which will hopefully soon be given the green light by government. I got into difficulty describing to friends in Long Eaton the path the tram will take out to Bardills Island, and this map shows it really well. It’s really hard to explain the route the tram will take through the QMC/University – and much easier to show using the map.
The route comes in the south side of the QMC, raises up on stilts, crosses the campus at first-floor level, into a new, specific first-floor main entrance to the building. It’ll cross the ring road at that level, into the University campus, where it goes through the science and engineering corner, and then cuts behind the Djanogly recital hall and the music department buildings. I think it removes the pond with the fountain, then crosses University boulevard and runs along a strip of land to the south side of the road, meaning it has off-road running.
With any luck there will be regular bus services connecting Long Eaton with the new park and ride at Bardills Island, so my friends will have a new and easy route into the city. I’ve been trying to find out how long the tram journey would be, but not found out yet.
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Here’s my message for Obama
Mike over at Troubled Diva gives the rules of the latest cool meme:
Got a message for the US President Elect?
Got a Flickr account?
If so, then might I suggest that you add your message to this brand new and fast-growing pool?
Niles's Blog 