Digital cloud plan for city skies

"Digital cloud plan for city skies" read a heading in my BBC Live News Update. Wow, my heart started beating faster, finally London gets an overall free WiFi coverage, the so-called "Cloud". That would be so cool, in the country where broadband cable is still a luxury and download speeds are usually limited by the capacity of Victorian copper wires.

Alas, the article turned out to be about building "120m-tall mesh towers and a series of interconnected plastic bubbles that can be used to display images and data" Doh. Like the utterly useless "white elephant" of Millenium Dome was not enough. Perhaps this will be the last belch of the lame-duck Labour Government, still delirious after the boom years of the financial bubble. And who will be stuck with the bill? The taxpayer.

Ban bicycles in London! (Skyride 2009)

After 6 years in Amsterdam, I am positively convinced that bicycles are the superior commuter means of transportation but, let's face it, London is simply not made for bikes. Here they are a serious hazard for unsuspecting pedestrians and a major deterrent for city buses. Mountain bike yobs whizzing down crowded sidewalks or a single leisurely cyclist in the bus lane keeping down a string of full buses -- those are familiar daily sights for every Londoner.

The recent London Skyride - on top of creating a horrid traffic snarl-up in Central London - cost the taxpayer 62 pounds a biker! These days that money can fly you to Spain and back.

The Anglo-Saxon fear of central planning has left London with a random sprinkling of cycle lanes and hardly any bicycle racks. With the worst air quality in Western Europe this city is dangerous for cycling commuters just as well. I really feel sorry for those foreign tourists who get duped into hiring a bike for a pleasure ride in London. Watching them trying to navigate through the relentlessly heavy traffic squeezed into a medieval labyrinth of Victorians streets, theirs must be a nightmarish experience.

You won't find me concurring with the Daily Mail columnists very often, but this time I have to take their side: ban bicycles in London!

The secret of the British stiff upper lip

Now I know the secret of the proverbial British stiff upper lip! Nothing to do with strong will, tenacity or aristocratic composure. It's thanks to awful British dentists!

The other day I saw an ad in a glossy magazine advertising luxury shoe shops to wealthy tourists. The slogan went: "The British have awful teeth, that's why they need beautiful shoes!" What a horrible distinction!

Swine flu vaccine: a profit-generating myth

Following the bird flu and atypical pneumonia, these days the swine flu is the focus of a massive media hoopla. After 300 people died worldwide, it has been proclaimed a pandemic. Give me a break, more people die every year choking on fish bones but I don't see a war on fish waged anywhere.

The real reason for this well-orchestrated hysteria may be in what is peddled as the salvation: the so-called vaccine. Anyone whose ever peeped into a school textbook of anatomy and hygiene would know that there in principle can be NO anti-viral vaccine.

As usual, the USA is the trend-setter for this kind of nonsense: they kicked it off back in the days of the Bush administration when a 7-billion bird flu vaccine contract was awarded to a company owned by Rumsfelld, Dubya's best crony. Now this get-rich-quick scheme has become adopted all around the world, scaring millions in spending on something that accomplishes nothing.

Anglo-Saxon and Continental mentality divide

Anglo-Saxon mentality is about individualism and personal success. As long as I have achieved, nothing else matters, I've deserved it. The wide rich-poor gap typical fro Anglo-Saxon economies testifies to that attitude. The arrogance of the bankers just recently bailed out with public money who have awarded themselves billions in bonuses wouldn't have been tolerated outside the Anglo world.

Collective good and equality are more a consideration in the Continental (Northern) Europe that includes France. Only from there could come rich people demanding to be taxed more to help the country, like it has just happened in Germany.

Random acts of kindness in the City

I don't know whether the countryside has ever been the veritable repository of virtue and good manners or whether only in the good olden days people used to be nice to each other. One thing for sure, city life does not make folks any softer. The stress and frustration of urban rat-race seem to do everybody's heads in.

So much the more fun it is to observe how people react to random acts of kindness. A bit every day - I try to make it a regular practice. A smile, a nice word,a gesture of courtesy.

Many are incredulous. Their immediate reaction is suspicion. I guess they think I want something from them.

Yet many are impervious. The callous around their hearts protects them from hurting and good feelings likewise.

For a few, it does not register at all. Too busy, perhaps. It's alright, receiving gratitude is not the purpose of this exercise.

I am so happy though that there are enough souls out there whose first unconscious reaction to a smile is a smile. There is hope for this weird protein-based species.

TV is a Hitler in your home

Have you ever visited someone, often invited, only to find your host glued to the TV too busy following another portion of Big Brother tribulations to pay attention to you, the guest?

Since when has this become acceptable? I once was at a private dinner party where the hostess fell asleep right at the dining table while watching some shite on TV over our heads. When she came to, she continued as if nothing had happened.

I think it defeats the whole purpose of inviting people over to your place and is also insulting because it shows that whatever crap they put on to have you watch commercials is more fun and important for you than your friends.