The Original Sims

It’s a shame that NIRSucks.com has gone.  It was a long-gurn blog about being forced to use Northern Ireland Railways (NIR) and the transport company’s short comings.  But NIR doesn’t quite suck so much anymore.  Long gone are (most of) the noisy, smelly, cold, draughty, damp, toilet over flowing carriages that we used to travle in.  Pulling down the window to open the carriage door from outside then banging against the door with full force caused me several bruised ribs.

The trains (tend to) run on time.  The staff are professional and polite.  So NIR is better than it was.  Now they are planning to buy new rolling stock (I believe the technical term is) and they are surveying the customers. 

What can we expect in the future?  Wireless and electric sockets! It’s almost the 21st century here. 

(If nothing else the posting title here will attract even more search results.)

Channel 4 pulled in 2.7 million viewers on Friday with Dirty Sexy Money.  I was one of the happy members of that set.  It’s been something of a dry spell for US drama in the UK; major exceptions being House - new series kicked off last week, too - and Mad Men - although I’ve yet to watch it on real TV.  I suspect this will be my first internet only TV series (thanks iPlayer).

Dirty Sexy Money has got all I want on a Friday night.  It’s smart, it’s funny and it’s on before bedtime - a rarity these days for most decent programmes.  The big bonus is Donald Sutherland. And Peter Krause is a mini-bonus (not so much "Six Feet Under" fan - although Dawn is more "Sports Night" )

Laugh out loud - more please.

The first time I stayed here was during the very wet summer 2007 and everyone was miserable.  I took away a poor impression, but I was being unfair. I spent two nights there - 17 and 18 March and for a pretty good rate - less than than £99 quoted elsewhere.  I thought the place was good and I will be going back again.  The room was comfortable and while not big - it was big enough for one.  I was on business and it was  important to be near the Tube at Lancaster Gate.  Also I was coming in through Paddington which a 10 minute walk.

Here’s a tip:  i thought there was nothing of note around the hotel  but turning right out of the front door and right (not left as was my intention) I discovered The Leinster Arms. What a fantastic pub!  Well it’s OK as a pub but they specialise in pies - oh dear oh dear, I’d stay in the Park Inn just to be near to those pies.

I once wrote about how terrible the food is in Bristol Airport. Specifically the Food Village is horrible.  I really should have taken another photo. Words could not convey how terrible the 21 chips (counted them, 2 were ineadible having been through the fryer more than once buy their look), small fillet of Haddock in bread crumbs - that’s it - all for £6.49.  And it was not quite cold - but not quite warm, either. 

My mistake - there are other places to eat if you go through to Airside.  But it’s a real hassle if (with a two and a half hour wait) I decide I want one of my two ciggies of the day after eating.

Never again, though. And if you go to Bristol Airport - don’t eat before going through to Airside. 

Still Blogsitting for William Crawley over at BBC Blogs

When Newspapers or News Broadcasters use the Internet to engage with the audience it’s usually no more than “Send us your pictures”, or “Tell us what you think”. I’m Editor New Media in BBC Northern Ireland and the response I get from the audience to the “Tell us what you think” is “I don’t care what they think. If I care what someone thinks, I prefer it is someone with an informed opinion rather than just an opinion.”

That’s what I was going to cover in this post, until I saw this. “Newly discovered JFK assassination items revealed” (Free sign in required) The Dallas Morning News sets it up like a drama – which to some extent it is.

An old safe is discovered in a Dallas courthouse. Once opened, its contents reveal a secret cache of files related to the death of President John F. Kennedy. There is an assassin’s gun holster, brass knuckles and a transcript of a "smoking gun" conversation to kill the president.

You can read the whole story on the Dallas Morning News Site. (BTW, although the internet now allows me to read newspapers I would never have dreamed of, I’m not a regular of the Dallas Morning News and should credit Cybersoc for pointing to this story.)

I know public participation in public broadcasting is important; it’s just sometimes I wish we in the Main Stream Media were more creative about how the public and they (we, of course) can work together. The classic public participation on the internet was - and still is - SETI @ Home which helped and still helps scientists use your idle computer time by linking your computer to a grid. There is an idea floating around (perhaps now in operation) to use the power of CATCHPAs (that little test you get in some online forms to test whether you are a human). Part of the CATCHPA would also be part of a mathematical formula and by copying in letters/digits you would join with millions of others to perform a calculation. Don’t ask me for details, I’m only a DJ that made good.

This interesting thing about both the SETI and CATCHPA projects is that they are scientists asking for your help not your opinion. MSM only seem to be interested in your opinion (oh, and your photos).

Dallas Morning News are going the way of the scientists and in what would appear to be a very exciting way. On This page they describe the idea

Below is one, large chunk of the documents. In the coming days, dallasnews.com will share more of them for your review. The documents contained here are those that the district attorney’s office made available in electronic form – an estimated 90 percent of all the documents from the vault. Another 10 percent had not yet been scanned when these files were released to The Dallas Morning News. The contents include transcripts, personal and official letters, newspaper clippings, lists of jurors, police reports, rap sheets, autopsy reports, trial notes, police notebooks, photographs and much more. The documents appear here exactly as they were received by The News . They are neither cataloged nor indexed, and they are in no apparent order. Given the volume, we haven’t been able to review most of the files. That’s why were calling on you. Here’s your chance to review never-seen-before materials related to the JFK assassination.

So – I’m tempted to ask – what do you think?

I’d rather know what you found.

I’m Blog sitting for William Crawley this weekend over at BBC Blogs:

The hardest thing about being a travel journalist on the radio (one of my many previous jobs) was finding people in the countries you visit to interview; distance, language, planning and this was before 1) general use of email and internet and 2) wide availability of mobile phone.

I was thinking about my first assignment in the early hours of this morning. I was in Istanbul for a few days. It was about 12 or 14 years ago. Later I was to learn how to begin setting up contacts in far away places, but for this one I was on a tight rope with out a safety net. I had literally nothing set up. For the early part of the first day a City Guide gave me my first interview looking over the city from the British Council. Although I was new to this, the last thing I wanted my report to be was an official interpretation of the city from someone employed to do that. I was after character and story. As we wrapped up he said he was a Christian and that I might be interested in meeting his Parish Priest – and Irish Man and minister of the Anglican church. Now, that was unexpected.

Numbers were exchanged and arrangements were made and I was to follow directions to the church on Sunday morning before the first service. I don’t know what I was expecting, but in one of the oldest parts of one of the oldest cities in the world I wasn’t expecting what was what appeared to be an English country parish church. It was built in 1858 and designed by GE Street who was also the architect for the Royal Courts of Justice in London. Christ Church, Istanbul is not difficult to find. If you are ever in the city …

The Parish Priest was a Church of England minister originally from Dublin. By co-incidence the church found itself in news in January this year.

The congregation was remarkable in their diversity. This Anglican Irishman was parish priest to English people from the nearby British Council and British Consulate. Turkish people from around the city and further away, Tamils from Sri Lanka, and refugees from the first Gulf war who had crossed from Iraq to find safety in Turkey and more especially this church building. They had come to find refuge there and according to the minister began to do repairs to the church.
Among them - Rev. Sherwood told me, were Chaldean Christians. Never heard the name before.

I probably have heard it since and certainly did hear it early this morning on the World Service .

The full report about the Istanbul visit is here.