Of all the stupid things...

...the first official reaction I have heard? Congestion charge will be waived today...thanks a lot...

All overground train services have been suspended apart from Waterloo now apparently, and all trains bound for London are being terminated before they get here...

Another explosion has been reported near Liverpool street...the radio is advising everyone to avoid central London at all costs...

The army has been spotted in Covent Garden...

I wanna go home... :(

London hospitals...

...have stopped accepting any non-emergency cases, this is getting really serious...Sky have posted a picture of the bus (copied here) -

It looks like everyone in the two departments near me have been accounted for (which is a small blessing)...

No reaction from the government yet either...but it's no co-incidence that today is the start of G8...

All roads into...

...the city have been now been closed, Union representatives have said that 3 buses have now been destroyed by explosions (making 9 incidents so far), eye witnesses from the tube are reporting bodies "with limbs missing" littering the rails...all the stations around here are firmly cordoned off, so I couldn't get out of London even if I wanted to...

Our MD has just suggested starting a check on all members of staff to make sure everyone is accounted for...

The sound of sirens outside is virtually constant...

Uh oh...

...reports are now indicating that it's 3 explosions on the tube and at least one bus has been ripped to pieces (near my office again)...for some odd reason the BBC are still talking about power surges being the cause...

These are bombs...

London is in chaos!

Latest reports say there have been at least 2 explosions across the capital, one in Kings Cross where I am...

Walking around there are police and fire brigade everywhere, as I was taking these shots a police officer said "You really don't want to be anywhere near that station, fella"...(he didn't have to tell me twice)...

I didn't take any pictures of them but lots of people had soot all over their faces...there are two helicoptors overhead and sirens and flashing lights everywhere...

Everything was locked off behind the police line (I had missed it by coming up the side of the station, so kind of ended up in the middle of the closed bit...

The sheer number of people just standing around in the road was unbelievable...everyone is calm though, there is more an air of excitement than panic, which is quite strange...

Goodness....

...we won the 2012 Olympics after all...! I have to confess to a feeling of some pride, but also, a nagging worry about the travel infrastructure! We shall see...

Very, very strange...

...not sure what to say about this really!

(zoom in and take a look at the "small print" litho)

Wow...Live8 today...

...watched virtually all of it, apart from missing Macca and U2 perform Sgt. Peppers no less than *twice* (which totally sucks), best bit of the day (not that it is over yet) so far? Sir Bob introducing the woman who grew from the tiny child (ten minutes from death) the last time that the rest of the world stopped to think about Africa (20 years ago)...worked hard to keep from tears... :(

Madonna was good too... ;)

A great example of...

..."Guerrilla marketing" spotted (quite often) in Kings Cross, perpetuated (I assume) by the *extremely* intimate drinking hole "The Lincoln Lounge" in an effort to get people to head in their general direction...(thanks to the fact that most of the running people point in their direction)...

Still, it's a cute bit of stencil work...and I had some quite nice olives in there once... ;)

...this post also marks the start of July (already), where did the first half of the year go?!

Oh...that's just wrong...

...you can't deface a "Reward" poster for a lost cat! :(

Well, it seems there is no end...

...to Google's power, check this out...

Sorry it is super blurry, but there you go...probably shouldn't pan using a phone camera... ;)

Well, the weather turned...

...last night, it absolutely lashed it down, serious thunder and lightning, so bad, in fact that it kept on crashing the cable box (right in the middle of Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nighmares, no less!!), I tried for ages to get a snap of a lightning bolt, but it's easier said than done...! Still, no need to water the garden this morning (always a silver lining)...

Just got an interesting...

...MMS from Mr Ninjabathy -

- that appears to be the work of this guy (odd website)...Can't work out what the ugly little creature is holding though...braces maybe? Later research is required...

Update - they are guitar straps...quirky ones... ;)

For the first time today...

...since I started doing this little hobby, I woke up and thought to myself, "What on earth am I going to blog about today?"...

(can "blog" be a verb? Ah, Answers.com says yes...thank you...)

*Ahem*, anyway..."What on earth am I going to blog about today?"...

There were a multitude of things in my head that I could talk about, for example - Flyingpops and I have been getting out on the bikes a lot lately (found some *awesome* downhill routes along the Surrey Cycleway btw.), my foot still ain't quite right, we have large flowering courgettes on the courgette plant (okay, where else would they be? Shame I don't really like courgettes, but I know someone who will wolf them down ;)...Squiz came and stayed the night on Saturday (we BBQ'd *again*, no bad thing though in my opinion ;) ...etc., etc., etc. (or as the Victorians would have it "&tc." which I think I prefer actually)...

Unfortunately, something else came to light while grazing my feeds (ooo, I like that! Wonder if anyone else has thought of that way of describing the activity - update - just checked Google, nope, I'm the first!) this morning more worthy of comment...
The BBC is reporting that in the United States of America, the Supreme Court has ruled that (and I quote) "(We) hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright ... is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties."...

This has broad implications...not least - every company or person that makes any code that can be used to swap copyrighted material can now be sued by the injured parties. Taking this at it's least extreme - Grokster, Morpheus, Streamcast et al, are now going to be sued to death (that's it). It's most extreme? You *can* use Google to search for illegal material quite easily, and I pity the guy that wrote Bittorrent...everyone is going to have to be very careful about what they say, and carefully check what they *have* said in public in the past...

Imagine if this had happened with the video recorder...how quickly would they have stopped making them? Would they have been so widely adopted? "Hey, you can record movies off TV!" from the mouth of the wrong company exec would have been enough for a barrage of law suits...I think the VCD player would have been the product of choice for many electronics firms from there on in...(and the winner? The Yakuza/Mafia/, who would have employed armies more hawkers and VCD pressing plants to flood the world with pirate copies)...the current trend of "boot sale" buying would have started ten years earlier...

One thing is for sure though, for the short term, this ruling is going to do is make a lot of lawyers a lot of money and push the scene further underground...

Well...

...this is now this -

- thanks to these guys -

- who, as you have seen previously, do rather a good job at this kind of thing -

Saw a guy last week...

...in bright sunshine, standing in one of the phone boxes holding his mobile phone - eye-height glance, phone level glance (tap keys)...eye-height glance, phone level glance (tap keys)..(repeat)...

Odd behaviour I thought, perhaps the poor fellow has got low battery? But then, I reasoned, wouldn't the glancing/tapping behaviour be the other way around, and the handset on the landline be off the hook? Clearly he was transcribing something onto his mobile...

Anyway, late for my train I hurried past and gave it no more thought until a couple of days later...same behavior, different guy...gent in a suit this time...

Investigation revealed a possible solution, but why, when standing at a convenient and totally anonymous means of communicating with these people would you opt to use the easily trackable and well recorded mode you carry around in your pocket, exhibiting obviously suspicious behavior? *shrug*

Another thing, if the activity is illegal, which I believe it is, why don't the police take a look at the cards, ring the number, arrange a meeting (if only to get the address) and go round and arrest them? Admitedly, it could be that the card advertising "Juicy, Fruity Melons" means just that, but if I were in the vice squad I know where I would hang out... ;)

Oh dear, poor old...

...Glastonbury-goers...It has rained rather hard...check out the guy swimming to rescue his car keys in picture 2...(reproduced below)

In honour of Wimbledon...

...some shots of the strawberry plants, which are coming on really nicely, not going to get a full bowl of them any time soon, but it is nice to be able to have the occasional snack when pottering around the garden...

...this variety is a tiny alpine strain, very small, sweet fruit...only one ever seems to ripen at any one time though, oddly...

Oo-er...shock! Tim has gone out...

...(earlier than normal) and also (sort-of-Brit) Greg (which is more of a shock), but - über-shock of the tournament (apart from the lack of rain/hail thus far) is Murray (surname because he is most worthy of respect (it's Andrew by-the-way))...now, this is really rather odd, because -

• England hasn't had a good player in (my) living memory
• Murray is only 18, and *brand* new to grass play
• He is *thrashing* the number 13 seed (without sweating, swearing or breaking things)
• (and it's hot)

Most impressive... :)

Something interesting from...

...Marketing Week this week! Well, not so much them as the companion title "Precision Marketing" which I also get (it's for people in the direct marketing game, which is me, I guess, even if I am almost 100% B2B content)...

Anyway, Ubisoft are launching *another* remake of Bomberman (play a shoddy version of the original there ;) and *apparently*, if you go here (from tomorrow onwards, until the end of the campaign), you can get hold of a pack of free, personalised business cards to give out to your friends (that are also a five quid off voucher for the game!)...

It's viral marketing at it's sneaky best... ;)

Bet you have to register for spam too...(use your old Hotmail account)... :)