A sinister turn

Last week I reported my run-in with the security services. Following this events have taken a rather more sinister turn:

"This blog has been locked by Blogger's spam-prevention robots. You will not be able to publish your posts, but you will be able to save them as drafts."

Is it a coincidence that SPAM is an acronym of Seditious Paramilitary Armed Militias? Is it? Hmmm???

Well, I will not be silenced. The world has a right to know what's really going on in the world of London skyscrapers, and not just the candy-floss that Norman Foster and his oily ilk spew forth from their Machiavellian bellows. They have a right to know NOW... or at the very least within two working days. But they (the bad 'they', as in plural of 'the man', not the good 'they' who are them that need to know) are making it very difficult for me:


That's a pretty tough picture to verify. The conspirators know no morals.

Google - when you read this to check if it's spam take note - the verification image doesn't display in firefox (it does in explorer though). Also, do you let people know if they were marked as spam automatically or via the objectionable content link at the top of blogger? If you're allowed to, please let me know via comment; I have to say that I would be absolutely chuffed to bits if there is somebody in this world who was so incensed by my mocking Placebo's lyrics that they tried to ban me. Hahaha.

Should talk a bit about scrapers. Londonist talk about scrapers a bit. Most notable is that Will Alsop is planning a tower for Old Street. The talk is of it replacing an "existing obsolete mid-rise". I wonder if this means the building where the Foundry - odd and worthy punk/art pub where Karen's friend Astrid once held her tubemap art exhibition - is? (Nope - just checked and the Foundry - though on the corner - is technically on Great Eastern Street, so it is safe).

A few years ago I saw a Channel 4 documentary by Will Alsop about the future of British urban sprawl. His vision is of more, but less dense, sprawl. He calls them supercities. The article I just linked to contains the following gem: "Barnsley could be remodelled on a Tuscan hill village"

Seems a big ask to me.

Slightly lower down he clarifies this: "transforming the South Yorkshire town of Barnsley by modelling it on a Tuscan hill village, complete with its own walls."

Yes, well spotted there. I do find conurbations have difficulty becoming sustainable without walls. Allsorts goes wrong. Lions have been known to move in. Learn from the Masai!

But it was a pretty interesting documentary for all that.

Anyway, goodnight. I'm off to build a car out of yoghurt.