Olympic spirit

July 28th: A stunning ceremony opened the Games: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18906710 At the very same time, more than a hundred cyclists kettled by police near the Olympic park for attending the monthly group ride event: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-19023104

August 1st: Bradley Wiggins wins a gold for Team GB: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19077813 Later the same day cyclist is killed by Olympic bus driver near the velodrome: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19087826

This is probably the main reason I am not excited and didn't bother to get tickets even for sports I'm myself into.

P.S. "Bradley Wiggins reacts to Olympic park rape urging women to dress modestly" http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/aug/02/bradley-wiggins-law-cyclists-helmets Seems to be a mistake in report: https://twitter.com/bradwiggins/status/231017601193635840

"London's Overthrow"

An outstanding essay by China Miéville (and a shorter version in NYT).

Another reason to live in north London - to have the best authors writing about something you know. I saw Miéville once on the literary festival at Stoke Newington (the area which appears, among others, in the piece), and he was the best part of it. I didn't finish his "Kraken" though (the last Miéville's book I read), but still there was an immediate reminiscence of it as the Natural History Museum has also been mentioned.

London maps and open data

Some unusual maps of London I came across lately, in one list:

• 72 old maps in high quality, mostly of 18th and 19th century. Some areas show very little change, something expected by still fascinating to observe.
• Locating London's past - historical maps and datasets, neatly organised (tutorial videos).
• 1960s economics maps of the city, the first one is very neat in its simplicity, and yet accurate.
• August riots in England, verified incidents mapped.
• Tourists attractions by their popularity (Java required).
• Live map of the Tube train positions are approximated from the time of their arrival to the previous station, but still pretty captivating.
• Criminal activity mapped to the street level for the sake of privacy.
• London murders individually mapped by weapon type, based on the open data from the Old Bailey.
• Murders by boroughs, based on the Met's data.
• Road deaths map by BBC. The whole country is covered, postcode search and filtering by vehicle type provided.
• Deprived and rich areas, 2007 Office of National Statistics data.
• Soviet military maps of London - "лучший вид на этот город".
• Map of the most frequent surnames, filtering by the name origin possible.

Russian winter - come to the embassy

Fellow Russians living in London, I really urge you to read this post: http://ponny1.livejournal.com/632205.html

We tend to be a bit snobbish towards our kind and distance ourselves from the country we came from. Well, before the recent elections there were bloody good reasons for that. But what if it's no longer the case - wouldn't that be just great?

My phone number is 07951574886. See you there.

#movember

Today is the last day of Movember, and so it's time for us fellow moustache brothers to share results. Truth to be told, in my case that wasn't precisely a "no shave" month - rather a "no trim" one - but anyway, here are the fruits of my labour:

As you probably know, besides just being funny, this competition is supposed to raise awareness of prostate cancer. Certainly just growing your facial hair has nothing to do with fighting cancer, and I wasn't raising the money specifically because of being not sure I'll make it to the end of November at all (last two weeks were terrible as every meal I ate was seasoned with moustache).

Still if you decide to donate to a cancer related charity, I'd be very glad and also thankful.

Below are some charities you might consider:

• General donation to Movember - convenient as you can enter your own amount to donate (and that's our dedicated Movember resource, chaps!)
• The Prostate Cancer UK charity - £10, £20 or £50, or your own amount accepted - and that'd probably be a more direct way for your money to reach the destination
• Cancer Research UK - monthly, quarterly or yearly donations accepted if you aren't comfortable with an idea of helping to fight only one type of cancer

These are of course the most obvious and general choices so if you know any more targeted organisation that could be a better option.

To my Russian readers: I failed to find reputable Russian charities taking donations online (bank transfers are more common), but if you know one, consider that please.

Cheers!

Sharing is caring

If you were subscribed to my Google Reader shared items by any chance then you probably know that the social functionality has been recently removed from that service and the feed can be no longer updated. While still moaning about the lost paradise on every other platform within my reach, I have moved to Google Plus as it turned out I'm addicted too much to sharing documents, articles and cat pictures.

There are already some handy solutions for those who didn't surrender to Google brute force, i.e. Ridllr or upcoming HiveMined project, but I personally deserted.

Native Google Plus links are human unreadable (the least of its flaws but let's don't get started on that), so there is a nicer URL to remember: http://gplus.to/akopov. Keep in touch.

Aftermath

My pics from the August riots have been published recently in Firecall, an Irish magazine for firefighters.

That particular article can be downloaded from here (PDF).

Laurie Penny on riots

There are lot of opinions on what's going on in London and some other cities these days. That's what I recommend you to read: http://pennyred.blogspot.com/2011/08/panic-on-streets-of-london.html

London blogs I read

More than a year ago I posted my modest collection of links to London blogs I was subscribed to. Since that moment some of them ceased to update and some are thriving. Anyway, there is something to add to that list after all that time, so below are some more blogs I read:

London Reconnections - dedicated to public transportation, it makes a good sidekick for the famous Going Undeground.

London Street Gangs - if you don't read the tabloids but still feel the urge to scaremonger on living in the "knifecrime capital".

Look at my fucking red trousers! - fresh blog dedicated to Londoners wearing red trousers. I can solemnly acknowledge there are plenty of them.

Love London Council Housing and Bollards of London - because the architecture isn't only what is described in the guide-books. I would have also recommended Bad British Architecture if it wasn't dead (still, old posts are there).

Taxi Tales - name of this blog speaks for itself. Sadly, it's simple and straightforward, focused on everyday life and so can't beat that precious NYC taxi blog but I'm not giving up hope looking for the perfect London cabbie's journal. Also, formerly mentioned Cabbies Capital is apparently stopped as author moved to twitter.

The Anonymous Widower - this man knows much about the city and North London particularly. And luckily for us, he blogs about that.

Tired of London, Tired of Life and Fresh Eyes on London - a couple of simple blogs with nearly daily pictures, useful as sometimes you learn from them about the place you haven't been to yet.

A Man With A Moving Camera - photos made by bicycle courier on their way.

The Great Wen - using the London's nickname, this blog is written by a professional journalist covering historical but also some of the ongoing events.

And finally The Cheapside Standard - only three posts so far, but all of them very promising. If it continues, it can easily become my favourite one.

Take Courage

Finally, an explanation on the origin of those numerous signs which I believed before naively to be some kind of inspirational slogans: http://853blog.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/will-london-2012-take-courage/

London cycle blogs

As any newbie I'm consuming a lot of information about cycling in London. My favourite sources so far are:

• i b i ke l o n d o n
  (recently *much* liked, twitter)


• Cycalogical
  (recently liked)


• London Cyclist Blog
  (recently liked, twitter)


• At War With The Motorist
  (recently *much* liked)


• iamnotacyclist


• @douchebagize
  (lol)

Also, it is impossible to underestimate the importance of this site.

Still all of that above is no more than a theoretical knowledge to me for the time being. Right on the day before the last Tube strike I somehow managed to crack the rear wheel rim - how's that for ironic considering that on the previous strike I got the same wheel punctured. So until the new wheel arrives which may take weeks due to its peculiarity I mind the doors again.

London blogs that I read

Most of them known widely but nevertheless:

• Diamong Geezer
• Faded London
• Georgian London
• Goind Underground's Blog
• IanVisits
• Jane's London
• London Metblogs
• London Shop Fronts
• Solar Penguin
• The Cabbies Capital