Wednesday 27 March 2013 The Forest Road Reader, No 6

The Birmingham Mail may serve a population in of over one million, but it still finds time to act like a parish newsletter - Brummie couple stuck in Welsh snow drift for 18 hours. There are only two reactions to stories like this: oh dear, how awful or what utter twits. The Satnav leads 4x4 down remote moorland track in North Wales subheading should tell you my reaction.

2008: David Miliband holds a banana as he arrives at the Labour Party conference in Manchester.

Looks like somebody has burned down the local Cash Converters. Well, it's definitely burned down but, unlike a 4x4, the building is incapable of independent action. The local media spin plays down Cash Converters and plays up the building's former life as The Ritz Ballroom, where Jerry Lee Lewis, The Beatles, and lots of bands no one under 60 has heard of once played. Roads are closed and there is consequent gridlock. Unless, as LS wisely points out, you're on a bike.

I just found out about something I'm interested in from a sponsor's advert on a YouTube channel I follow. First. Time. Ever.

Misty's Big Adventure, "that's your favourite band Mum", have a new melancoly yet funky video out. Look out for Bom and his Magic Drumstick doing a sinister turn on the pickled eggs. I so nearly wrote record instead of video there. Quite clearly I am on the downhill slope of life.

Oyster card touch ins and touch outs through the day. Neatly done but unsurprising animation - people travel into central London and Canary Wharf in the morning and travel out again in the evening. I'd be much more interested to vehicles in and out of the congestion charging zone, ideally broken down by private car/taxi/bus/commercial vehicle. I'm sure that data must be available somewhere.

Neal Stephenson's Hieroglyph Project Launches: The idea is to get SF writers to contribute pieces to an anthology. These pieces would all be throwbacks, in a manner of speaking, to 1950's-style SF, in that they would depict futures in which Big Stuff Got Done. We would avoid hackers, hyperspace, and holocausts. The ideal subject matter would be an innovation that a young, modern-day engineer could make substantial progress on during his or her career. Stephenson is looking at the idea of a tower 15km tall. The whole thing sounds like it could be pretty great. Cory Doctorow is also developing a scenario. He would be.

This episode brought to you with the backing track of Meet The Creeper (Brute Man & Wonder Girl Mix).

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Tagged birmingham, twats-in-cars, traffic, and neal-stephenson

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