BBC NEWS | Edinburgh buskers ‘to pipe down’: “Bagpipers on Edinburgh’s historic Royal Mile have been told they will be arrested if they continue to play.”

Whatever next?

(thanks to Dave Henniker for the image)

Engadget brings us some niftly liveblogging from WWDC, including shots of some of the slides to which Steve treated the MacFaithful.

Here, for example, are the seventy countries - in red - where the brand-new, 3G iPhone (with GPS) will be available later this year.

Spot the big green one?

28th May.

Commander Ian Lancaster Fleming - author, fantasist, banker, journalist, sailor and failed diplomat - would have been 100 today, had he kept off the gin and cigarettes.

The Register, along with a suitably tongue-in-cheek potted biography, reports of a commemorative exhibition at the Imperial War Museum entitled For Your Eyes Only. Hope to make it back to London before it closes.

In the meantime, I’ve been looking for an excuse to post this xkcd.com cartoon for ages.

Sorry, Sky, but this is sloppy.

Thousands Spent on iPods for Civil Servants

screams the tabloidesque link. Shock, horror! Those fat-cat civil servants getting yet another perk, eh? Bring on the revolutionaries.

Now hold on just a wee minute here.

Civil Servants Listen While They Learn

is the real story. The Home Office has bought a bunch of iPods for employees to watch training videos on - sensible and cost-effective, methinks. Not such an eyecatching headline, though, is it?

aka The Terrifying Revenge of the Three-Chord Wonders

I didn’t mean to like this song, honest. But I heard it in New York last week and it’s in my head now.

The radio station called it ‘Kid Rock’s tribute to Sweet Home Alabama‘. But doesn’t Warren Zevon get a nod for that piano riff?

I feel the need to test Wordpress’s ‘Blog by Email’ feature. And what better way than to comment on the utter awfulness that is the Delta International Lounge at JFK?

Sure, bits of Heathrow are just as architecturally grim. And the security here’s pretty much par for the course.

No, it’s the music in the Starbucksy bit which it truly awful.

Perhaps whoever was responsible for choosing today’s tunes has just gone through a particularly traumatic breakup, in which case they have my sympathy. But do we honestly need track after track of 80’s angst-ridden chick rock?

A couple of songs ago we had ‘Live to Tell’ - hardly Madonna’s finest hour, for a ‘Lucky Star’ kid such as myself.

But now we’re being assaulted - yes, assaulted - by ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’. Which, I’ve just concluded, has to be a pretty strong contender for the honour of  Worst Song … Evah.

Your nominations?

—

Sent from my iPhone

So according to the BBC’s Justin Webb:

Truly the British foreign service is staffed with all-rounders with time on their hands…

I hate to conform to Justin’s stereotype, but I, too, knew that Thunderbirds was British. I suspect a quick straw-poll of ‘us’ would turn up a fair few more - dare I say a significant majority?

But I’m cheating. Firstly, I have a six year old son. So the words Thunderbirds are Go have been in the household vocabulary for a good while. The nine-year-old daughter who’s into Busted (who, by the way, are also British) probably has something to do with it too. And secondly, they filmed part of the remake at my old school (but perhaps I shouldn’t admit to that for fear of reinforcing another, altogether different stereotype).

But hang on. What’s this about time on their hands? Great, that’s OK then - I don’t fit the stereotype after all ;-)

Perhaps this’ll cheer you up.

Just brilliant - almost makes me wish I’d decided to work in advertising after all.

24.

Perhaps it’s coincidence, but I seem to have met a disproportionate number of people over the past week who are 24. Born in 1984, ten years after me.

One of my favourite songs is also 24. 24 years ago this week, 99 Red Balloons was just finishing a week as the UK’s Number One. I have vague recollections of my sister and I listening to its fall from grace on the Capital Radio Chart Show, courtesy of David ‘Kid’ Jensen. Nena, lead singer of the eponymous German rock group, was 24 at the time.

If I could find a souvenir
Just to prove the world was here
And here is a red balloon
I think of you and let it go

I gave the song a blast this afternoon to see what my daughter, now the same age I was in 1984, made of it. Lately she’s been asking a lot about recent history so I even had a go at explaining the dated-sounding Cold War lyrics. I spared her the video, though, with its ’80s fashion and bad hairstyles.

Incidentally, whilst looking up the links for this post, I came across the original German lyrics to Neunundneunzig Luftballons. Rather more protest going on there than in the almost comedic English translation, and perhaps more contemporary relevance too.

Neunundneunzig Kriegsminister
Streichholz und Benzinkanister
Hielten sich für schlaue Leute
Witterten schon fette Beute
Riefen “Krieg!” und wollten Macht
Mann, wer hätte das gedacht
Daß es einmal so weit kommt

Oh, and for anyone who’s expecting a ‘Russia election’ post, this is as close as you’re going to get.

My Week: Heather Mills - according to Hugo Rifkind.

From The Times, 16 February:

I’ve had enough! I’m going to sack Paul and divorce myself. I’m only thinking of my daughter. Ninety per cent of global warming comes from cows! I left home before I was born. You people make me sick.

Brilliant. Just brilliant. Read the rest.