A little, previously unknown and quiet Buckinghamshire village by the name of Broughton has hit the news for ’standing up’ to Google in the latest example of hysteria surrounding their much vaunted (by me) street view service. A handful of residents there successfully managed to deter the Google camera car by forming a vigilante type mob and waving pitchforks and crosses at it. Or something like that..

… once Paul Jacobs spotted the Google camera when he glanced out his window on Wednesday, the photographers did not get far. The car was an unmarked black Opel, but the 360-degree camera on the roof was a bit of a giveaway. Jacobs rushed round banging on neighbours’ doors, and soon had a posse surrounding the driver. When one of the residents called the police, there was a swift U-turn. Jacobs said there had been three burglaries in the last six weeks: “If our houses are plastered all over Google, it’s an invitation for more criminals to strike.“

via

In fact, since the UK version launched a few weeks ago, there have been a multitude of privacy rows in the press and plenty of nervousness in affluent leafy suburbs. This idea that being able to see a photo of a house will cause crime is all too oft cited. I don’t know if anybody has pointed out to Paul Jacobs that burglars have been successful on at least 3 occasions in recent times, without the benefits of street view, but it seems that he’s made his mind up, and has possibly also never heard of logic. So who am I to argue? Also, the fact that burglars are generally opportunistic creatures slightly puts a dampener on the idea of stripy-topped villains looking for targets on their iPhones and then driving to them with the built in satnav.

Nonetheless, the media love this type of shit. I don’t remember such a fuss over the initial launch of street view, but then maybe that’s because it wasn’t in my country. I mean, there were some complaints about photos but most people seemed to accept Google’s promise that they blur any faces and personal stuff and that they would remove any image on request. They still have that promise, and a few people here have taken them up on it. Notably, the guy spotted coming out of a sex shop. Incidentally, how did he find himself on Google? Surely he must have started up streetview and went straight to look at the shop front of his local porn merchant? Who does that? Anyway, at least some people are content with letting Google continue their work and waiting to see the results before getting all twisted. Also, who the fuck cares about a house in Broughton? And surely the place is even less private now that it’s been all over the news(?) The residents don’t seem too fussed about having their soul captured by the evil beings with cameras, as long as those cameras don’t have a multicoloured company name in a bad font on the side.

(* not original ‘John Holmes’ face. replaced to maintain his privacy.)

I for one, love streetview. I’ve been using it for years now; mostly fueled by holiday planning (the views of L.A. are great) but also just because it’s there. I’ve literally spent hours looking at film locations, places I’ve heard about in songs, potential holiday destinations, places I’ve been, random interesting sights, etc.. I’m not trying to pretend that that’s a cool way to spend time, but it can be fun, and more pertinently, it’s harmless. The technology is great, and until the court case that features a burglar confessing about the map he created of spots to run up in (complete with directions), then I will maintain my view that Broughton is one village that has the idiot/normal ratio the wrong way ’round.

Related posts:

1. google street view goes big
2. street view hits the UK.. properly this time..

It’s been a year and a half since I last went, but I’m still sorting through the photos.. Just got around to uploading another batch to flickr which you can go and look at if you like

Related posts:

1. photos from Sicily
2. (my) genius photography
3. the guardian travel photo of the month

Fairly lengthy title there but it does what it says on the tin. After a bit of tinkering yesterday, I’ve added a nice little alternative way to browse my blog posts; via a google map. I’ve limited it to any posts in the ‘travel‘ category because that’s really the only section that warrants the feature. Otherwise, the map would have tonnes of markers all above my house – it’d be odd.

So if you have a look in the travel category, you should see a custom map with various markers of my face (with shades on naturally, because most of the posts are holiday based) and if you click on them, you’ll get a little pop up telling you about that post. The map will only show you posts from the particular page you’re looking at – as in, there’s more than one page of ‘travel’ category results, so the map will display markers relative to the posts that are displayed below it. It’ll also center itself to wherever the top post on that page is located.

It’s fairly basic but I think it’s nice and it wasn’t actually too difficult to pull off. Feel free to praise me for my fine work haha..

(Oh, and I’ve added this post to the travel map, in a fairly random location so don’t go thinking it’s broken – I meant it to do that).

Related posts:

1. google street view goes big
2. street view hits the UK.. properly this time..

I love google maps. I could happily spend hours just zooming around the world looking at stuff, and in fact, I probably have done just that. It’s awesome. And it keeps getting better and better – and now it’s even better again! The street view option which started off not too long ago with a couple of North American cities now offers imagery from what looks like every major U.S. city and a decent handful from Europe. But no UK representation (yet).

It’s a great tool for checking out potential holiday destinations.. or even past holiday destinations for a hint of nostalgia or to remind you of that road where you nearly got ran over in Prague for instance (that particular view isn’t available yet but I’ll keep you updated).

I’ve just spent a short while checking out Rome and Paris and I’m just amazed at the sheer amount of coverage they have.. Go google!

I wonder how long it’ll be until they send the camera car to my village…

Related posts:

1. the whole street view uk kafuffle
2. street view hits the UK.. properly this time..
3. view my blog posts using google maps!

It’s ridiculous.

Still going through photos from Paris and getting them onto flickr so feel free to stroll over now and then. I quite like this one. It’s funny going into the room where it is because there’s suddenly this mass of people who you just know are only there to see the Mona Lisa and nothing else. Y’know, like they’re on a coach tour of Paris and are trying to fit in all the big things. I wont lie, there wasn’t a massive amount in the Louvre that I was fussed about seeing but I’m happily ignorant about art. The Egyptian sections were great and it was nice seeing the Venus De Milo (though all I could think of was the Gummi de Milo) but I was really just too tired to take in much else. It’s overwhelmingly big (the museum) and there’s so so so so much to see if you’re into that type of thing.

Regardless, more photos to come!

Related posts:

1. been to paris for the weekend

Spent the weekend just gone in gay Paree and had lots of fun. It’s slightly odd that I’d not really been before (except as a very very young child) considering it’s a mere 40 minute flight away from Southampton (or a painstaking 6 hour flight/coach home via Birmingham – but the less said about that the better). Thankfully, the weather pretty much held out and we did the whole tourist thing in fairly decent sunshine and almost no rain. By ‘tourist thing’ I mean, queuing to get up the Eiffel Tower, queuing to get into Notre Dame and queuing to see the Mona Lisa in the Louvre amongst other things it was fun. Most of the sights are within walking distance, but we ended up getting the metro to most places after the first day. Probably one of the nicest/easiest public transport systems I’ve ever been on. Good stuff.

Venturing into cafes for brunch or a quick pit stop occasionally only served to remind me how bad my French is but we got by with some really nice (if not a tad overpriced) meals. I’m so so so glad we never actually got ’round to ordering Steak tartare though. Ewww.

A selection of photos from the thousand or so that I took will be up on Flickr in dribbles over the next week or so, so have a look over there for the goodness. Til then, enjoy the 1 that’s attached to this post. Les parcs à Paris sont magnifiques!

Related posts:

1. swarming the mona lisa
2. photos from Sicily

During what proved to be a overly busy weekend traveling around Southern England, we also hopped on the train to go to the London Taste Festival on Saturday. While the weather wasn’t quite as nice as you’d've expected on the Summer Solstice, at least it didn’t rain – so the afternoon walking around Regents Park eating random foods was actually rather splendid.

I really don’t even remember half of what I ate but somewhere along the line there were scallops, fish and chips, curry, marmite crackers, strawberries, fondue, prawns, pie, spitroasted pig and Onken yogurt. Not to mention an abundance of free samples of wine/beer and various nibbles. It was great. You have to pay for the food using ‘crowns’ (1 crown = 50p), and most dishes were around the 8 crown mark so it’s not massively cheap but not at all expensive. Definitely worth it to try things cooked by all those fancy chefs in restaurants you hear about or walk past but could never afford to go to. We even saw Gary Rhodes and Angus Deyton so I can finally tick the ‘been-to-london-and-seen-a-famous-person’ box.

The Bath event is next week and then it’s in Birmingham the week after before hitting the rest of the country again next year. We’ll almost certainly be going again and if you even remotely like food, you should too.

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‘sunset over the river nile‘ by Matt Northam (me )

A couple of months ago, I went to Egypt and had fun. It was nice. I also took a couple of thousand pictures, most of which aren’t anything special. They’re holiday photos – you know what they’re like. However, I did take a few that I thought came out rather well, and you can see them in a ‘egypt’ set on flickr. I also submitted one of them to the Guardian Unlimted (The Guardian Online) travel section (Been There) and now, many moons later, I’ve been awarded the ‘February 2008 Photo Of The Month‘. Awesome!

I’m still fairly surprised and genuinely stoked to have won because it puts me in fairly illustrious company. It’s an honour and all that.. I’ve been smiling all week.

My winning photo is recreated above in all it’s glory but you can also see a larger version on flickr, or the individual photo page on ‘been there’, or the rest of the months entries.. Whatever takes your fancy.

Ranjit Dhaliwal, the Guardian’s assistant picture editor, says:

“This is a wonderfully evocative travel image, it oozes atmosphere. The use of an architectural feature to frame the subject shows that the photographer has a good eye for composition.”

I says:

Oooooh yeah!

Apparently I win a canvas print of the photo so we’ll see how that goes..

Related posts:

1. went to egypt
2. (my) genius photography
3. ‘yyellowbird’ on flickr

So Fidel Castro has announced his retirement. He’s not had a bad run has he(?) It’s been a long time coming really and I don’t think anybody can really say they’re surprised what with his obvious health issues.. He said himself:

“It would betray my conscience to take up a responsibility that requires mobility and total devotion, that I am not in a physical condition to offer”.

and that’s fair enough innit(?) 49 years in power! Must’ve done something right.

I went to Cuba a couple of years ago and it really is(/was) a superb place to travel around, albeit in a limited fashion. It’s a beautiful country in so many senses and we’ve often talked about going back. However, I think it remains to be seen how much the country will change without Fidel at the top.. As long as America doesn’t get it’s grubby hands on it, I think it’ll do fine. There’s a quote on the BBC page from Bush, saying “…we’re going to help. The United States will help the people of Cuba realise the blessings of liberty“. Wow. Lucky Cuba. Because that approach always turns out well doesn’t it(?)

BBC Video of Castro’s ‘career’

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Oh, and the reason my ‘new year‘ post was so late into 2008 was because I spent the first chunk of January in Egypt. Sharm-el-Shiekh in fact. The Ghazala Gardens to be precise. It was very nice.

I took a few photos which I’ve yet to sort through but they’ll pop on flickr shortly so if you’re remotely interested in photos of ancient sites (specifically the ones around Luxor) then have a look.

Related posts:

1. the guardian travel photo of the month
2. (my) genius photography
3. what digital camera magazine

Or if you’re lazy, I’ve included a few of my favourites below..

Anyway, like I said, go and look at the rest.

Related posts:

1. It’s been 115 days..
2. what i did this summer

California was superbly great. Words cannot describe the gloriousness of the whole trip so forgive this brief attempt. 18 days, 3000 miles, 10 cities (and multiple small dwellings which probably just about count as towns), 7 state parks, 1 wild sea otter and 0 McDonalds-esque meals(!!!) later, it really does feel shit to be home. I don’t think there could be a worse time to come back either, with a massive chunk of the country underwater.. It’s odd that only two weeks ago I would’ve happily lopped off an arm for a glass of ice cold water while stood in Badwater in temperatures touching 50°C, and now I’m finding it hard to picture what the sun feels like.

Blah.. It’s amazing how far 14 hours on a plane can take you

Anyway, stacks of work to be done, loads of emails to catch up on and lots of reality to get back in touch with.. Maybe going away for quite so long isn’t actually that good(?) I’ve got thousands of photos to sieve through too, so expect some updates on my flickr page very soon (the one accompanying this post is of pelicans in front of Alcatraz. Innit nice?) and I’m sure I’ll have a few more things to write about California when I can get ’round to relaxing for a bit. Til then, keep it gangsta.

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Well, not ‘back’ because I’ve never been before.. but it’s a song.. blah..

A wee note to share with the world that I’m off to California (and Nevada and Arizona) for the best part of a month as of tomorrow so don’t expect any thing on this site. If you see stuff, it’s because I’ve been hacked. That’s bad.

Photos and whatnot upon return.

Here comes the sun..

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Last week, archeologists in Rome reckon they stumbled on the location of Lupercale, the mythical(?) location where Romulus and Remus were suckled by a she-wolf before growing big and strong and founding what would end up as Rome (but could’ve been called Reme). You know the story. So do I.

(Just for good measure, here’s another picture of suckling babies. Disturbing.)

But what I never realised was that the Ancient Romans actually had a location where the cave was supposed to be. A cave which was deservedly revered by Romans who loved the whole she-wolf thing. A cave which was built over by Emperor Augustus’ palace when the Republic became the Empire. A cave which was then bizarrly forgotten about. A cave which has now been rediscoved underneath Augustus’ palace on the Palatine Hill. Yay for legends with a proven factual basis!

It’d be cool to look around it when they’ve finished excavating. Presuming of course that it’s accessible and doesn’t get closed for safety reasons before it even gets opened. We’ll see. I’m adding it to my list of things to see next time I’m in Rome.

No related posts.

Before I do though, in case you’re wondering (get it?) here’s the old 7 Wonders of The World: Great Pyramid of Giza, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Temple of Artemis, Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Mausoleum of Maussollos, Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse of Alexandria. (Click on the image to see them). They’re all rather good, but it’s either the Pyramid or the Temple of Artemis that does it for me. Or maybe the Lighthouse. Actually, ignore that, it has to be the Pyramid. It’s the only one I’ve seen and can vouch for it’s wonder. And it is wonderful.

Moving onwards.. here’s my ‘7 New Wonders of the World’ (in no particular order)

1. Great Pyramid of Giza

photo by sabbagh

It’s my favourite wonder of any epoch. Just the fact that it’s still standing, 4,500 years after it was built is worth a mention, but it’s everything about it that means it should be on any list of this type without a second thought. How was it built? Why with such attention to detail? What actually is it? I have no idea. But I do know it’s awesome in every sense of the word.

2. The Colosseum

photo by tony_burbage

Or, the Flavian Amphitheatre if you want to get picky. 50,000 Romans used to cram in to watch undeniably horrific things on a regular basis but did any of them ever sit back and appreciate the structure they were sitting in(?) Numbered seating, tickets, multiple entry points, a mass of underground tunnels, retractable awnings.. The blueprint for all stadiums since, not to mention an amazingly massive yet ornate building. What have the Romans ever done for us?

3. The Acropolis

photo by RobW_

I’m not sure if this counts as cheating, because nature did most of the work but I suppose the addition of the various structures separates this place from Uluru and the like. The Parthenon is obviously the crowning glory but the whole site is really worth exploring. Probably best to wait til the scaffolding has come down.. but then, that could be decades away. So ignore that.

4. Machu Picchu

photo by Matthew Clark Photography

The Lost City of the Incas which apparently wasn’t even really a city.. more of a house in the hills type of thing for nobility. It’s another one of those things that you just think “how?!”. I think that’s probably the main factor for a wonder in my eyes.. and this definitely has it. If you consider the possibility that the Incas didn’t use wheels, it just adds to the confusion. So I try not to think about that. What I do think about is how I can convince my girlfriend to think that trekking through the jungle and sleeping in tents would be a good holiday. One day.

5. Easter Island Statues (Moai)

photo by Kenny Maths

These monolithic heads (and shoulders) were possibly the first ‘wonder’ type of thing that I ever read about. I seem to remember having a book about them when I was a very wee nipper. Since then, I’d like to say I’ve grown up slightly, but my fascination for these carvings hasn’t really diminished. Some of them are immense (the largest being 10m high, weighing 75 tonnes) and there’s just so many of them (hundreds!) it’s baffling.

6. Angkor Wat

photo by Kenny Maths

I think that the whole city of Angkor looks amazing but it’s the centerpiece temple that gets all the attention. Aesthetically jaw-dropping, this temple is a glorious example of expert masonry. The whole thing is intricate and just great. Strangely, every time I see a picture of it, I cant help but think that it looks like it’d really hurt if you fell out of the sky and landed on it. Picture that for a second.

7. Stonehenge

photo by webmink

The final one was quite difficult for me to choose. While I definitely knew it wouldn’t be the Statue of Liberty, or the Eiffel Tower (how are they even on the list?!?!) I was torn between a few .. But I eventually settled for this. Slightly out of blind patriotism and slightly because it’s only up the road from me, but mostly because it’s actually quite cool. Briefly, I just want to say that I don’t think that they should let nutters run all over it wailing and rubbing stones or whatever they do. We went there and had a nice cream tea on the grass a few summers ago and while it was a really nice day, it would’ve been better if the cross-legged, arms-outstretched, too-old-to-be-doing-that numpties weren’t there. Oh well. The site has such a long documented history, charting the development of the stone circles, and yet we still don’t actually know what they’re there for. Estimates reckon that construction (to get to the state that we recognise it at) would’ve taken hundreds of years which is just insane. Why so much effort? Boggling.

.
And there you have it. My 7 choices for the ‘New Wonders’. I still don’t know which one I’ll actually vote for but there’s a few months before the deadline (7.7.07 – very clever). Go and vote for your pick.. then tell your grandchildren that you helped come up with the list. It’ll be well impressive.

http://www.new7wonders.com

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You’ve probably seen this at some point in your internet browsing life, but if not – bear witness to the Skywalk. A 4000 ft high walkway made of steel and glass which juts out 70 ft from the edge of the Grand Canyon. I first read about it a couple of years ago and if I’m being honest – didn’t really believe that it’d come to fruition. I just couldn’t comprehend how they could build it and make it safe. I still cant. But they have.

Due to open March 28th 2007, the Skywalk is being has been built on the sacred land of the Hualapai tribe. Not sure if that’s the best use of sacred land, and by some accounts, neither do the tribal members but I suppose it’s a money-earner and dead presidents are more powerful than dead Indians.

Apparently it’ll cope with 120 people walking across the 4 inch glass floor at any one time and will cost $25 per person. Suppose I should add that to the list of foreseen expenses for our trip the West Coast this is summer because there’s no way I’m missing out on going on this thing while we’re there. I can’t remember where exactly we were going to go at the Grand Canyon but a detour might be in order. Frankly, I think it looks terrifying but it has to be done. National Geographic reckon it could be anything between 100 – 1,000 years before the structure become unsafe due to the fact that it’s built into limestone and the sides of the canyon are prone to rock slides. One tribal member only gives it 15-20 years before the thing collapses. Not exactly filling me with confidence but then I suppose if there’s any good time to do it, it’ll be within the first few months of it’s lifespan. Which is what I’ll do.

Finally, a wee comparative diagram showing the height of the Skywalk. For reference, I’ve added Smeatons Tower (an old lighthouse on Plymouth Hoe) because that’s one of the tallest things I’ve ever been up. Crikey.

more info and latest updates: http://www.grandcanyonskywalk.com/

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yesterday, for my birthday (i’m so ooolld), i went to amsterdam for the day and had lots of fun. i’m knackered today though. did quite a bit of stuff, including;

• walking alongside (and then taking a cruise along) several canals. they’re rather tranquil and relaxing. quite impressive from a constructional point of view too.. if you’re into that type of thing that is. i’m not. but i can appreciate it anyway.
• visiting the katten kabinet. it’s billed as a cat museum, but instead of a history of cats accentuated with various stuffed famous cats (y’know.. things you might expect in a museum), it features 3 large rooms adorned with paintings of cats. although i did recognise some of the art, a lot of the paintings seem to have been done by the same person. in 2006. not exactly historical documents of note, but occasionally nice nevertheless.
• casually strolling through the red light district. merely out of curiosity i must stress. i don’t want to get into a discussion about prostitution, but safe to say the concept has never appealed to me. so, the red light district didn’t really do anything for me either. it was however, kinda interesting to see how blatant the whole thing is. obviously, i’ve heard all the stories about ladies parading in windows – but seeing it was still very odd. god knows how they weren’t freezing cold.. double glazers must do a roaring trade. also, i thought they’d be dancing or doing something vaguely enticing.. instead of just standing there. but then i suppose that their customers aren’t really paying for dancing skills so…
• very occasionally getting the whiff of some high-grade. you know the dizzle. really tho’, the dope was nowhere near as prolific as i presumed it would be. it’s probably because we weren’t really looking for anything to smoke, but it really did seem like the whole coffeeshop thing has been grossly over hyped.

all in all, it was a very enjoyable day trip. flight from southampton took about an hour, and we had the best part of a full day to spend there. not bad at all.

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i’m off to cuba shortly so expect nothing for a while.

to celebrate, i drew che on my ‘all city’ site.. witness the fitness.

err. yeah. not much else to say. jsut wanted to brag on my return, i’ll be unleashing my new site design and couple of other fun things which i’ve been working on..

stay tuned hip hoppers.. stay tuned..

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