my social production
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Viewing all posts tagged "britain"
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- It’s not an offence to be naked in public in England and Wales
- Becomes offence if it can be proved the person stripped off with the intention to upset and shock
- Complainant has to prove this
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Personal project: compose a pseudo essay consisting only of George Orwell quotations.
Requirements:
- must have a clear purpose
- must be easy to read
- must be sourced carefully
- must avoid inline references (to aid readibility)
Risks:
- end result could be lame
- why butcher my favourite writer’s prose?
Should I do this?
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London Transport
75% of people on London buses are mean, crazy, or stupid. Typically, passengers sitting on the aisle seat who have chosen to leave the window seat unoccupied will wait to be asked politely by newly boarded travellers whether or not the window seat is free, and, if so, whether or not it would be alright if they could squeeze through to sit down. More often than not, the one sitting on the aisle will gladly collect himself and his bags, stand up, and backpedal a few feet to allow sufficient space for the newcomer to pass, before returning to his coveted aisle seat.
This process, it seems, is preferable to either 1) taking the window seat in the first place, or 2) kindly scooting over whenever a newcomer boards the bus. Why this is the case is beyond me, but I think it has something to do with the (British?) sense of ownership one feels when occupying a space, no matter its extent or significance.
Roughly 24% of London bus passengers are nice, sensible, smart people. They never leave a window seat unoccupied.
That leaves the final 1% of London bus passengers, one of whom I encountered today. I give you the following illustration I made with the little Cyanide and Happiness people. That’s me in the green shirt and this is exactly how the exchange happened, word for word, action for action. I was stunned.
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Jakarta Fails To Put Out Smoking On Buses
If only Jakarta had put the same effort in stopping public smoking as it did in cracking down on beggars, then maybe it would be a much healthier city. The article pointed out:
Smoking is continuing on nearly 90 percent of public transportation vehicles in the city, despite a four-year-old bylaw banning lighting up in public places, the Indonesian Consumers Foundation said on Thursday.
This is yet another example that the city only enforces certain bylaws it wants to enforce and ignore the rest.
This is interesting: the city only enforces the laws it wants to and ignores all the rest. Compare this to London. When the English government banned smoking in enclosed public spaces, there was an initial outcry from smokers’ lobby groups, such as Forest, which called the ban draconian and complained that it would be “impossible to set up a private club run by smokers for smokers.” God forbid that!
On the other hand, owners of pubs, bars and restaurants, managers of offices and factories, plus an overwhelming majority of citizens supported the ban. It came into effect on July 1, 2007, and had immediate results. You still had your odd whiff of smoke every once in a while, but a year into the ban it became extremely rare. The authorities cracked down hard on business owners who tolerated indoor smoking, in addition to individual offenders.
But today, over two years into the ban, you hardly ever hear about problems. It’s as if the ban polices itself. It’s a case of a society enforcing a law it clearly wants to, to the extent that its violators do more than simply breaking a law: they brand themselves unfit for society.
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Real Life Conversations™
Today’s Real Life Conversation is brought to you by the fine drivers of London taxi cabs. This morning I had a not too uncommon encounter with a London taxi. First, let me set up the situation:
Taxi driver fails to see me approaching to his right, and yet, having seen no cars coming from his right side, begins pulling out into the road to make a right turn. Taxi driver sees traffic coming from his left and therefore cannot continue with his turn. As he sits there idling halfway across the lane, I continue my approach all the way up to his driver’s side door, where I pause, look up, and meet the driver’s eyes. I had deliberately left 1 inch of space between my front tire and his car door.
“Are you making a statement!?” he says.
“Yes,” I say, “you cannot pull out halfway into the street and expect me to swerve!”
“Fucking asshole!” he says.
Today’s Real Life Conversation was brought to you by the fine drivers of London taxi cabs.
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I’m a nice guy!
Tonight I was tipped off to a very nice article in the Guardian written about me by my neighbour, who I just meet a couple weeks ago in the strangest of circumstances. Her retelling of the event is much better than I ever could have mustered, and while I thought it’d be fun me to try anyway, if for no other reason than to present a different perspective, there’s really no point! I’d only echo her sentiments exactly.
I hope to meet up with Ariane at some point because, really, it’s a shame that neighbours in such a dense city hardly ever speak to each other.
Here’s is a link to the original article:
The drip, drip effect by Ariane Sherine
For those reading this from their cramped apartment in a dense, busy city, how do you go about meeting your neighbours? Or if you don’t, why do you think that is? No time? No point?
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![This is the rule:
Motorists, including motorcyclists, MUST stop at the first white line reached if the lights are amber or red and should avoid blocking the way or encroaching on the marked area at other times, e.g. if the junction ahead is blocked.
[Laws RTA 1988 sect 36 & TSRGD regs 10, 36(1) & 43(2)]
Source: The Highway Code, Road junctions (170-183)
Is this rule followed? Not at all. Here are some examples from my ride today:
Is this rule punishable? Yes, in theory. Are people actually punished for such violations? Not that I know of.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_krrgycRHPK1qzdwdxo1_400.jpg)
This is the rule:
Motorists, including motorcyclists, MUST stop at the first white line reached if the lights are amber or red and should avoid blocking the way or encroaching on the marked area at other times, e.g. if the junction ahead is blocked.
[Laws RTA 1988 sect 36 & TSRGD regs 10, 36(1) & 43(2)]
Source: The Highway Code, Road junctions (170-183)
Is this rule followed? Not at all. Here are some examples from my ride today:
Is this rule punishable? Yes, in theory. Are people actually punished for such violations? Not that I know of.
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