Annie Mole, the brains behind the Going Underground Blog has been collecting examples of Guerilla signs on the tube from her readers. Highlights include “For a more efficient service, please alight at the next stop where a team of heaveily drugged sloths will drag you to your destination” and “Peak hours may necessitate that you let other people sit on your lap”
One of the things I like best about these signs is the level of detail to make them look as authentic as possible. If you spot any yourself make sure you send them through to Annie.
It’s always good to read some positive news and this story about a campaign run by T-Mobile is interesting:
News Blaze: You’ve Heard of Pickpockets, Putpockets Slip Money Into Unsuspecting Pockets
The only downside I see is that the people who are being rewarded with free cash are the ones most likely to have it removed by actual pick pockets shortly after.
One of the many applications on my iPhone is MotionX-GPS with gives you a lot of information from the GPS receiver built into the phone. It gives you proper long/lat coordinates for your position, calculates speed, direction and altitude and most interestingly can track your route over time and email you a Google Maps link and Google Earth file.
As I’m commuting further than I used to and am above ground for some of it I tested out the tracking on the train from London Victoria to East Croydon. It lost the signal a few times along the route (bridges and steep embankments didn’t help) but over all did a good job, you can view the route here: maps.google.co.uk.
This morning I was lucky enough to sit opposite a poem by William Wordsworth, titled “Composed Upon Westminster Bridge”. It was part of the Poems on the Underground series.
EARTH has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne’er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!
I wonder what he’d make of the view now.
Today the evening standard relaunches after its “Sorry” campaign. Obviously, there’s quite a lot of talk about it, but not as much as I thought there might be.
To set the scene, the guardian has an interview with Veronica Wadley.
Saying ‘Sorry’ for the past smacks of a Soviet courtroom ‘confession’. ‘Sorry’ has all the hallmarks of a KGB-style smear campaign.
The paper is now out on the streets and the immediate opinions on from twitter aren’t great.
The new London Evening Standard… oh dear oh dear oh dear – justin_williams
Typography? Leading? My eyes hurt!http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/ Will the Evening Standard be apologising for this? tayler
Oh Dear London Evening Standard. Oh deary me. Dboy
Kept my free copy of the “new” Evening Standard for about as long as it took me to walk across the street & back in my office. Still trash! webcowgirl
And more here: http://twitter.com/#search?q=Evening%20Standard
Today I found a new way to challenge my London knowledge, which was a map of Zone One of the London Underground without any of the station names. You have 10 minutes to type as many of the station names as you can remember and watch as your answers get added to the map. I managed 52 out of the 63 stations which I was fairly happy with, but still had to kick myself when I saw the ones I’d missed. It instantly highlights the parts of London you never visit, for me there was a huge empty space in south West London which I had no idea about. Have a go yourself at www.sporcle.com/games/londontubecentral.php and see if you do better than 52…
It reminded me of a simliar game, with the same concept but on a much larger scale. At travelpod they have a flash game where you must place a flag on the map of the world to mark the location of cities and famous places with points are awarded for speed and accuracy. There are 12 levels of difficulty with cities becoming more and more obscure as you progress. Give it your best flag at www.travelpod.com/traveler-iq. Unfortunately I didn’t make the 30,000 threshold to get past level 6, I’m sure you can do better!
This is a great video, i know I take a lot of pictures but the work that went into this is astonishing.
London (harder, better, faster, stronger) from David Hubert on Vimeo.
The Mapperz blog has highlighted a great interactive map of the activity around the country in preparation for the 2012 Olympics. Street level details shows the latest ariel photos of the site as well as altering the map to show activities over a particular time period.
An excellent example of how mapping and other media can be combined in a very usable way.
I like reading guides to London, it’s such a huge and varied city you can always find something new about an area you’ve lived or worked in for years.
Today I found a new site thanks to Read/WriteWeb which offers a different apporach to city guides. The IFeel series lets you browse maps of London, New York and Toronto finding things to do and places to go depending on how you few. Choose your mood from energetic, chilled, manly, sophisticated, romantic, naughty, manly and broke. The site is invite only so far but has some good potential to find hidden gems and personal favourites you may have missed around you.
Enjoy: ifeellondon.com, ifeelnyc.com and www.ifeeltoronto.com
This morning something strange happened.
On a crowded Northern Line train a seat was left empty. the three men standing over it were all too polite to even acknowledge the seat which was left vacant at Angel and it was still empty when I left at Old Street.
How peculiar.
