Brisbane News – London police find dead man after G20 protests.

I couldn’t believe this at first when I saw a comment posted on a friends facebook… Strangely its not in th UK News as of yet.

He added later “I was in the vicinity. I had to get away from the main area as it was getting very heated indeed. I could just about see what was going on. Some people were covered in blood…. Felt like a horror movie. Some of the protesters were throwing things at the police therefore delaying medical attention to the dying man – Police version: natural causes!! I am shocked”

You may have noticed the weird little Google street view camera cars trundling the streets of Londinium over the last year. At long last the pics have been processed (Boots the Chemist, I expect) and put online.

Yay! Of course this is extremely cool. A modern wonder: fabulous, fascinating, useful, funny etc etc.

And how does the crap press react?

Evening Standard:

Daily Mail:

Google forced to black out thousands of Street View photos after privacy protests.

THOUSANDS of privacy protests in a day? Really? I doubt it. I smell journalistic licence (commonly knows as “making up numbers out of thin air”)

The London Paper:

Google privacy protest

Google forced to black out new service after London sex shop pics outrage

What a load of crap. There’s nothing in these pictures that you couldn’t get by going outside and walking around with your eyes open. As if we have anything to worry about, with about 15 CCTV cameras for every citizen.

Anyway – have a look around on Street View – it rocks!

In the meantime, here’s screengrabs of 2 of my favourite local shopfronts.

^^ I like this one  because of the lovely old advertising paintings on the walls.

^^ And this one, because it’s so cheeky and naff.

Boris is at it again….

Boris backs Thatcher over golliwog sacking.

Jail for photographing police?

The relationship between photographers and police could worsen next month when new laws are introduced that allow for the arrest – and imprisonment – of anyone who takes pictures of officers ‘likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism’.

Set to become law on 16 February, the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 amends the Terrorism Act 2000 regarding offences relating to information about members of armed forces, a member of the intelligence services, or a police officer.

The new set of rules, under section 76 of the 2008 Act and section 58A of the 2000 Act, will target anyone who ‘elicits or attempts to elicit information about (members of armed forces) … which is of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism’.

A person found guilty of this offence could be liable to imprisonment for up to 10 years, and to a fine.

The law is expected to increase the anti-terrorism powers used today by police officers to stop photographers, including press photographers, from taking pictures in public places. ‘Who is to say that police officers won’t abuse these powers,’ asks freelance photographer Justin Tallis, who was threatened by an officer last week.

This government’s contempt for civil liberties continues…

Will this “anti-terror” law be used by the police to harrass anyone they want to? Of course it will.

Complete story, from the British Journal of Photography here.

OK Londoners, scary-time. BBC news site has this story:

Russian ex-KGB agent Alexander Lebedev is to buy the London Evening Standard newspaper for the sum of £1.

The paper’s publisher – the Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) – said it had agreed to the sale of a majority interest in the paper to Mr Lebedev.

The billionaire businessman is believed to have made an offer for approximately a 76% share of the paper.

He has previously revealed that he used the paper to find out information when he was a young spy based in London.

The Evening Standard has vied with the Daily Mail for the “most odious rag in Britain” award for some time. The fact that it is out of step with so many Londoners’ views has left the good freebies (eg Metro) with a clear run. Personally, I think Metro is a far better paper that the Standard, in every way. And now the Standard has its very own Murdoch, in the shape of an ex-KGB Russian oligarch owner. Be afraid!

Full story on BBC news here.

Mmmmmm…

I think everyone knows how much I love my food and low and behold this week I managed to stumble across foodie heaven… Niamh’s Food Blog eat like a girl,is based in london and filled with really sexy recipes like Pea & Ham Soup and restaurant reviews.

Check it out!

Hackney man critically ill after catching Anthrax from bongo drums!

OK – that’s a bit of a silly way to put it, but someone is, sadly, very ill after inhaling anthrax spores from animal skins while making drums. Apparently it’s not unheard of. A quick google-around tells me that someone in Scotland died in 2006, and another drum-maker from Greenwich Village had the same problem a while back. Oh, the dangers of being a bohemian!

Well, I hope our Hackney drum-maker gets well soon, and that his goat skins remain ever anthrax free in future.

Real story on BBC news here.

Next time you’re at a party and someone gets the bongoes out – time to pop out into the garden for a bit of fresh air, I think…

Stoke Newington is CRAWLING with police this morning. You’ve never seen so many police. All over the frigging place.

“What are they doing?”, you ask. Busting a major crack ring? On the trail of a terrorist cell?

Nope.

Catching cyclists.

Yep – you heard me right. They have Stokey on lock-down so that they can bust people for riding down alleys without dismounting, running red lights, etc.

OK – bad cycling annoys me as much as the next person. I can’t stand the little toads that ride at speed down the pavement – I just shout at them: “are you too frightened to ride on the road?” And running a red light when there are pedestrians around is a no-no for me too.

But seriously – a police crackdown, utilising this many officers to catch a few mildly anti-social cyclists is just absurd. Is this what I pay them for?

A friend of mine was fined £30 by a copper the other day. The crime: going across the pavement with his bike in order to lock it to a railing. He freewheeled the bike, standing on the pedal, like you do. Result a £30 fine. Frigging ridiculous.

So – the question is: now that cycling has begun to really take off as a form of green, healthy transport for Londoners (post-Olympic effect too), who has ordered the police to crack down on cyclists in this absurd manner?

Hey police cadets – looking forward to a glorious career of hassling cyclists?

Those of you who are aware of Twitter may be amused to hear that Tower Bridge is now at it. What a happy, eventful and productive life the old girl seems to be leading. Hurrah for Tower Bridge, and her endless opening and closing!

If you feel tempted to become a follower of Tower Bridge (and, let’s face it, who could resist?), here’s a link

President Pervez Musharraf has lifted the state of emergency in Pakistan, but the debate rages hot and heavy at our sister blog in Karachi–it’s our network’s most-discussed post. Author MB includes this image on his post, saying, “This photo of a man on the street of Karachi probably explains overall situation better than any of us could.”