Oh my...

Shot man not connected to bombing

Petty criminal?
What an absolute PR cock up!

"We are now satisfied that he was not connected with the incidents of Thursday 21st July 2005.

"For somebody to lose their life in such circumstances is a tragedy and one that the Metropolitan Police Service regrets."

Update, so far it appears...

1. Man is Brazilian, a country hardly known for its Muslim population.
2. According to the police, not involved at all.
3. Was shot five times in the head after being pinned down because he was suspected to be a suicide bomber. (according to witnesses based interviewed on BBC London on day of bombing)

Sounds like murder/execution to me.

Tony Blair is very mum about the whole situation...

Update 2 (14:20 BST):

According to the BBC, the man shot dead is a legal immigrant. It is scary that an apparent white man legal immigrant was shot five times in the head while on the floor. I wonder how trigger happy police would react when meeting Asian or Arab men. Scary...

Now the second problem is why did the man run? According to eye witness, he was being chased by plain clothes police. Well I have seen pictures of these plain clothes police before and they do not look anything like police. I know I am stretching my limits here, but they do look more like mercenaries. If you see a bunch of guys chasing you with guns with no visible police identification, you would run wouldn't you? (And this is around the Brixton area, notorious for gang violence)

Third problem, and this is something I find awfully scary. Witnesses has described 'wires' on Charles de Menezes body which in their shallow mind could have only meant he had a bomb. Now what? I can't listen to my personal music player on the Tube anymore because of the wires that will be sticking out of my shirt because some over excited passenger might identify me of being wired to a bomb.

Another blow for this government's public relations department. I wonder how they are going to spin this.

Fitness First bomb bag

This is the rucksack used by one of the Thurday's London bombers on the number 26 bus. The image isn't great but if you look closely you would be able to see that it is a Fitness First bag.

This bag is very common on the Tube and used by possibly thousands of commuters everyday. I am not a member of Fitness First so I do not know whether there is a policy that requires its members to use such bags when going to one of its gym (it would be a stupid policy). Anybody care to enlighten me?

According to yesterday's Evening Standard, the picture was taken by a resident on a third floor flat.

(Update: uploaded the picture from Evening Standard, it's clearer)

Via Tube Diary:


Original post.

I have a decent enough Maglight that I received for my birthday many years ago (I hardly use them unless I have to walk through the woods at night). My whistle still works from when I bought it during one of the Notting Hill Carnival I attended (like hell I will bring this with me, what am I in? Titanic?). I always carry a bottle of water. And this bunch wants to sell all of these plus a mask for twenty quid.

Paranoid. But nothing wrong if you are. Just get them from your local store. Cheaper too.

Routemasters no more...

Today the Routemasters on route 14 and 22 were replaced by new modern double deckers.

The number 13 which I sometimes use to get from Golders Green to the city will get new double deckers on the 21st of October. From the 28th of October, route 38 will start using bendy buses. The final route to use Routemasters will be the 159 from Marble Arch to Streatham. It will be replaced on the 9th of December.

I really can't believe it. Come 2006, there will be no more Routemasters on the London bus map! Removing Routemasters is like replacing black cabs with souless yellow Fords. The new bendy buses are alright, but they just lack any character.

There is some hope though. Ken Livingstone has promised that two new heritage routes in Central London will use the vintage buses.

It is still sad though. The days when we could freely kill ourselves by running and hopping on the bus while it is pulling away, chat with the conductor and then jumping back out, is long gone.

Film Review: Fantastic Four

Is it only me whom find this whole adaptation of a comic book (that isn't that great to begin with) tedious? It may be faithfully based on the book unlike some recent films, but isn't that the problem here? It is too much of a B-films. It has no name actors in it. Acting is as wooden as it could possibly be.

Jessica Alba might be in it, but she barely uhm...bared herself at all. Invisible Woman she may be, but still no match for Dark Angel.

Michael Chiklis (you might recognise him from TV's The Shield) was excellent as The Thing, and the make up department did a pretty darn good job covering him up with prosthetics. Rumours has it that it wasn't a CGI Thing like The Hulk, so extra kudos to the filmmakers. I hate CGI.

A couple of smart liners which are pretty much expected in these kinds of films anyway. Which were pretty pathetic. Plot was tiny. CGI when used were pissed poor. Dialogues were cheesy. I don't know what else to say. It is my second major disappointment in Hollywood summer flicks this year, the other being Batman Begins.

Brilliantly unfantastic.

London: again...

Train evacuated as 'shots heard'

It may just be false alarm. BBC News 24 has a piece up.

Update: BBC London isn't treating this seriously.

An eye witness called Ben described a scuffle at a carriage, people running out and in then 10 to 12 shots were discharged. The train was in dock. Speculation?

Update 2: Mark on BBC London states that an Asian guy ran on the train pursued by plain cloth police, he tripped in the train and while the guy was (pushed?) on the floor, an armed plain clothes police discharged 5 shots into him.

Really weird... The suspected suicide bomber was pushed to the floor? And then shot?

Update 3: Victoria Line (Victoria-Brixton), Northern Line (Kennington-Morden) suspended. Stockwell Station closed.

Update 4: A couple of eye witness has described that the Asian guy has been bundled down (more like jumping on him) and a plain clothes armed officer unloaded a couple of shots at him. Close range. Suspected suicide bomber. Isn't that a tad too risky??? (update: he died)

Update 5: East London Mosque on Whitechapel Road being surrounded by police.

Update 6: This doesn't seem to be as serious as even yesterday's events. Now I have an errand to attend to in North London. Listen to BBC London for more info.

Update 7: Nosemonkey has a liveblog at Europhobia.

Update 8 (11:40 BST): TfL for travel updates.

Update 9: There is an interesting debate on 'stop & search' on BBC London now with the public chipping in their two pence.

Update 10: Okay, I am off...I just need to figure out how to get to North London...

Update 11: I am back. Got held up for the moment. Anyway here is a slight update on what is happening. People are pretty damn calm at the moment as I am as well. The distruption on the Tube does not help me one bit, but you know business as usual... The East London Mosque cordon has been lifted (false alarm). I need to get a bus map...

Opinion on 2005 Mercury Music Prize nominations

I meant to blog about this yesterday but I guess the piss poor second London bombing of the year diverted some of my attention.

Anyway the 2005 Mercury Music Prize nominations is up:

Antony and the Johnsons - I Am a Bird Now
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
Coldplay - X&Y
The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike
Hard-Fi - Stars of CCTV
KT Tunstall - Eye to the Telescope
Kaiser Chiefs - Employment
The Magic Numbers - The Magic Numbers
Maximo Park - A Certain Trigger
MIA - Arular
Polar Bear - Held on the Tips of Fingers
Seth Lakeman - Kitty Jay

Looking at the list, with the exception to Coldplay, this year has been one hell of a quality year. Favourites to win at 4/1 (odds by William Hill) is Kaiser Chiefs for their amazing debut album.

I am aware that Bloc Party has been compared to the slightly hyped up Franz Ferdinand many times (including in this very blog), but with Silent Alarm, the bar has been raised ten-fold. I wish British Sea Power's Open Season was included in the short-list but it seems that the judges prefered nominating 'new' bands and/or those with 'debut' albums. That would be my choice for winning the prize had it been nominated.

Maximo Park's A Certain Trigger deserves a nod as well. The northern lads' debut album is a great find. So many to root for... including KT Tunstall and The Magic Numbers.

London: Mobile Clubbing

Mobile Clubbing: London, end of Deptford High Street around The Anchor, 10 August 2005 17:24 BST

Racial & Religious Hatred Bill

Surprised to find Boris Johnson MP has a new blog design. And with it a new post by Melissa regarding the proposed Racial and Religious Hatred Bill. Those who occassionally glance through this blog will know that I myself am opposed to the bill, particularly the bit on religious hatred.

The proposed ban on incitement to "religious hatred" makes no sense unless it involves a ban on the Koran itself; and that would be pretty absurd, when you consider that the Bill's intention is to fight Islamophobia. As for the measures Clarke announced yesterday, to stop people "glorifying or condoning" acts of terrorism, they seem to trap us in a semantic convolvulus. What is "condoning" an act of terror?

The Daily Mail yesterday denounced the evil mullahs who "blame us" for the bombings, in the sense that we were co-invaders of Iraq. But, er, it was surely the same Daily Mail that, two weeks ago, printed an article by Sir Max Hastings, saying that the chief provocation for the bombings was Britain's role in the Iraq war. Are we proposing to bang up Sir Max, George Galloway and all the millions of Britons who make the same point as the evil mullah?

Actually I know many of you right wingers who may have wandered into this tiny blog by accident would probably agree with The Daily Mail to bang us 'lefties' in prison. Remember this?

Back to the topic of religion. I seem to remember being forced feed a leaflet on converting to Christianity. Not that I have anything to convert from seeing as I am a person of no faith. Didn't the Catholic Church speaker at last week's vigil mentioned something about people of all faiths and non faiths should join together? Well, then please refrain yourself from approaching me with that book unless you are willing to be involved in a debate with me.

And what about the outdated Blasphemy law that some Christian factions has threaten to invoke in order to stop us BBC license payers from enjoying a crude television programme featuring a gay Jesus? And then there was that protest by the Sikh community in Birmingham.

What with this new law, we are not allowed to criticise organised religion anymore. How are we to combat Islamic extremism if such laws would bar us from opening our mouth in such a PC world?

Free speech should be the way on religion. If it is alright to criticise political belief then it should be as well for religion.

But I do need protection from religious fanatics, can this bill provide me that?