Matt T

Britain's busiest train stations or not

Somone was kind enough to leave a comment on this old post on railways so I'm pointing you there as otherwise it'll never be seen.

Labels: Bloggy, railways

Blog Stats

Total number of posts
2,330

Posts mentioning...
Not quite as obsessive as I'd imagined.

Nick Cohen - 67 (3%)

"Decent Left" - 24 (1%)

"Daily Mail" - 74 (3%)

"Cuthie" - 46 (2%)

Posts by Year
You were a bit short-changed this year, Ross, Chris, Peter, Jackie, Dan, John, Nick, Alex, Katherine & of course Stephen, as I only managed 300 posts, down from over 400 in 2003, 2004 and 2006, and an enormous 628 in 2004.

2002 - 108 (scaled up from 8 months blogging)
2003 - 462
2004 - 628
2005 - 448
2006 - 402
2007 - 300 (including this one - possibly a few more to come)

Labels: Bloggy

A new record on Bloglines

I'm sure you all use Bloglines or some other RSS type thingy which tells you when there are new blog posts.

Today, a record. Tim Worstall, the blogger, pornographer and spammer, has apparently updated his spam site (the original one - the proper one has now moved to www.timworstall.com) 134 times. I think this is misleading, as the earliest one was about the US change from Daylight Saving Time. But it remains my Bloglines record.

Stumbling and Mumbling chap has two posts which won't leave Bloglines, however many times I read them. Confusing.

Labels: Bloggy

Tim Worstall's blog

...is now dedicated to showing pictures of Britney Spears and other celebrities naked.

Labels: Bloggy

Separated at birth?

Flicking through today's Daily Mail, as one does at lunchtime, I thought - 'Gosh, Tim Worstall's got a column', but in fact it was Christopher Booker. The resemblance is uncanny, although of course in reality one spends his days writing meaningless rubbish clogging up the world's media, and the other has a successful blog.

Labels: Bloggy, Daily Mail

Oliver on blogging

Oliver has another go at political blogging (which of course is a very small subset of blogs, but the one we tend to concern ourselves with), partly because it narrows the amount of comment available.

If, say, Polly Toynbee or Nick Cohen did not exist, a significant part of the blogosphere (a grimly pretentious neologism) would have no purpose and nothing to react to.

Modesty and realism, alas, make me assume this is not a dig at this blog, but I do think this is very unfair on Oliver's friends over at Harry's Place. I think there is a case to be made that Nick Cohen has relied on blogs, in particularly the Harry's Place blog, for many of his columns and that book, just as much as they have relied on him.

Labels: Bloggy, Nick Cohen

Snigger, snigger

The interview of Alan Rusbridger by Piers Morgan was quite funny, one must admit. Unfortunately this old media event has brought out the worst in the 'new' media. Guido Fawkes, who we last saw in the shadows on Newsnight, tells us that "Strangely they didn't discuss Rusbridger's private life in much detail, which is odd when you consider what him and Piers have in common.". This apparently follows on from Guido's Mini-Me, Tory Mayoral candidate (did I dream that, or read it somewhere?) Iain Dale, who asks "What do Piers Morgan & Alan Rusbridger Have in Common?". Tim Worstall, the blog book writer and spammer [1], is so excited by the hints contained in those posts that he makes a rare appearance on the Harry's Place comments board, to tell us what the point of those comments was. [2].

[1] See here
[2] Those comments are also notable for this Brownie comment (I assume it is genuine, though it is possible it is not) "Jim Rockford, Yeah, I know, I know. Your GIs are so tough. Nobody messes with you. Especially the 30 UK service personnel your boys have killed in friendly fire incidents these last 20 years. D'oh! Posted by Brownie at April 8, 2007 08:56 AM".

Labels: Bloggy

Tim Worstall

Let me begin by saying I like Tim Worstall's blog. I disagree with his views on most issues, I think he is far too quick to draw conclusions from limited data, I think he's slightly boring in that his libertarianism collapses too easily into Toryism (e.g. the idea that the government should create a nationalised company to advertise its jobs rather than use the private sector), and I think occasionally he just gets things wrong (and doesn't often enough own up to it). But I respect the sheer amount of posts he makes, and he often raises interesting issues and points.

In many ways, then, I was disappointed to learn that his huge efforts in gaining revenue for his blog through advertising, and paid links, and paid posts, etc, gained him just £2,000 a year. That's just £9 per working day, which must make his hourly rate dire.

Also, we now have this:

This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation. The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post may not always be identified as paid or sponsored content.

Update: See comments.

Labels: Bloggy

It's MY BIRTHDAY

Yes, 32 today. Like Kate a few years ago, I had a few drinks in Claridges last night, but unlike Kate, it didn't end with Janet Street-Porter... oh I can't bring myself to finish that sentence.

Labels: Bloggy

Tesco Express

My blog search facility isn't working, and neither is my camera link, so I can't prove that I demanded this change, or that it has been made. But I'm pleased to say that I drove past two Tesco Express stores today, one in Battersea Rise, and one on Holland Park Road, and both have replaced the garish store front with a nice black (or dark blue?) one, and more importantly, that silly lower case but oversized e of Express has been replaced by a normal sized one. The power of the Blog.

Labels: Bloggy

Friends of Nick

Watch our for the (rather amusing, it must be said) plugs for Nick Cohen (the famed author of "why it is right to be anti-American" - it's ONLINE, it's ONLINE!) book from various people. Oliver Kamm mentioned the idea behind it:

I have in front of me a bound typescript of Nick Cohen’s book What’s Left?, to be published in Feb. The author says it’s part of the publisher’s “viral marketing campaign”, whereby – ahem – influential people can go to dinner parties and say “I’ve just read a brilliant book by Nick Cohen”, and thereby make everyone else feel envious and out of the loop for not having a copy. If we are not invited to dinner parties, then Mrs Kamm and I must wander the streets of Hove looking out for dinner parties in strangers’ houses, crash them, and say “we’ve just read a brilliant book by Nick Cohen”.

So I’m writing to let you know that I’ve read a brilliant book by Nick Cohen. It’s called What’s Left?, and it will be published in February. There is a fantastic section on Gerry Healy, which I’m pleased to say I prevailed upon the author to leave in when he was wondering whether to take it out on grounds of its esotericism.

Now John Lloyd in the FT also mentions its "brilliance":

It has not conquered because it still has doughty opponents. One such is journalist Nick Cohen, whose book What’s Left?: How Liberals Lost Their Way appears next month. If it does not have a profound effect on the political debate, I will be surprised and disappointed. It is an essay of wide reference and great brilliance...

I don't, btw, doubt that they do think it's brilliant.

Labels: Bloggy, Decent Left, Nick Cohen

Blair and buggery

Jamie links to a Blair speech in which the Prime Minister warns the Army about cowardice. As Jamie says, Blairs farewell is essentially: "We’ve all let him down in our various ways, and we should all be thoroughly ashamed of ourselves."

Jamie also links to the new searchable online database of Old Baily Trials. He finds the ones involving animal buggery. I found the sad case of George and Basil Blog, who had their gold watch nicked.

Labels: Blair, Bloggy, Decent Left, defence, England

Tim Worstall in talks with the UKIP!

This might be a bloggy first.

Labels: Bloggy

2007 - Year in Review

No posts on here from now until the middle of the next week, so here is my review of the year for next year. Hopefully today's good news in Iraq will mean a better one there at least.

January 1st
Political commentators and MPs expressed befuddlement at a passage in Tony Blair's New Year's Address in which he praised the Romans, in particularly their achievements in the the Year 46BC.

January 2nd
Concern grew at Tony Blair's mental state after he followed up his "Roman" speech by one arguing that "The world could learn a lot from Jupiter.

January 4th
Sources close to the Chancellor let it be known that "Gordon is not going to fall for that one" and that he believed a year is "365 days, and no more".

January 9th
Melanie Phillips wrote a Daily Mail column about social policy in Britain in which she noted the issues are complex and many good people hold differing views on what should be done. Therefore, she added, it is hard to know which policy option is right, and she offered the suggestion that a wide range of views should be canvassed and a consensus emerge. Whatever the outcome no-one should be left out of the process or condemned for their opinions, she concluded.

January 17th
Alan "Not the Minister" Johnson launched a new Decency project, which gained 2000 signatures in its first three weeks.

January 31st
The Henry 'Scoop' Jackson Society announced the Top Dog Index, an anual ranking of the World's Most Powerful Nations (Unquestionably). The 2006 rankings are 1. United Kingdom (+1), 2. United States (-1), 3. Canada (flat), 4. Australia, 5. Ireland, 6. New Zealand, 7. South Africa, 8. Gibraltar, 9. Pitcairn Islands, 10. Shetland Islands.

February 2nd
Alan "Not the Minister" Johnson launched a new Decency project, which gained 1500 signatures in its first three weeks.

February 14th
Melanie Phillips announced she is leaving the Daily Mail in protest at its "narrow-minded and bigoted attitude, in particularly towards Muslims." She also declared it to be "run by a Jewish cabal". She is to take over Robert Fisk's job on The Independent.

March 1st
Nick Cohen announced he is leaving The Observer for 'new pastures'.

March 3rd
Nick Cohen joined the Daily Mail with the tagline - "He hates the Left - do you?". His first column attacks traffic wardens, comprehensive schools and the Olympics.

March 5th
Alan "Not the Minister" Johnson launched a new Decency project, which got 1,250 signatures in three weeks.

March 27th
Tony Blair announced he has changed the locks on 10 Downing Street as a 'precuation in these troubled times'.

April 9th
Alan "Not the Minister" Johnson launched a new Decency project, which gained 1000 signatures in its first three weeks.

April 18th
Baroness Thatcher issued a statement saying she planned to take up an unpaid internship at the Darlington-based Peter Cuthbertson Centre for Free Markets and abandonment of the State Pension.

April 29th
In response to a request from Alan 'Not the Minister' Johnson for their signature on a document, Nick Cohen 'denounced the shame-faced appeasement of the British left', Stephen Pollard noted that 'the enemy has shown its face, and it is the British left', and Peter Tatchell declared that 'this day will go down as one of infamy due to the British left'. Islington Friends Meeting House said that they think that sufficed as an affirmation under English contract law to hire the venue out for an evening.

May 5th
Speaking after Labour were reduced to 2 council seats in the local elections, Tony Blair declared he had "one more war in him" and pleaded to be allowed to remain in office. Downing Street later claimed he was misheard and said "one more year".

May 6th
A surprisingly upbeat Tony Blair resigned as Labour leader after ten years as Prime Minister, and made a statement that "there is a great candidate with loads of experience, everyone knows I want him to win, and he will win".

May 7th
A shock in the Labour leadership contest as unknown MP, Anthony Booth, who represents the constituency of Sedgefield, announced he is to challenge the hot favourite, Chancellor, Gordon Brown, for the Labour leadership job. Booth, married to Cherie Blair QC, said he planned to campaign on a platform of opposition to "Brown's War on Iraq" and the Chancellor's "continual debasing reforms of public services".

May 12th
Alan "Not the Minister" Johnson launched a new Decency project, which gained 700 signatures in its first three weeks.

June 7th
Britain gained a new Prime Minister, Anthony Booth, as he defeated favourite Gordon Brown by 200 votes. He appointed Brown his Chancellor and promised a 'Cool Brittania'. Peter Mandelson was appointed to the Cabinet.

June 8th
Articles appeared in the newspapers about 'the growing rift between the new Prime Minister and his Chancellor'.

June 17th
Alan "Not the Minister" Johnson launched a new Decency project, which gained 500 signatures in its first three weeks.

July 1st
The Henry 'Scoop' Jackson Society issued a press release on the 10th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong to the Chinese demanding that Britain - 'unquestionably the second-most powerful nation in the world' - grab it back. They also demanded greater funding for Boeing.

July 12th
Alan "Not the Minister" Johnson launched a new Decency project, which gained 250 signatures in its first three weeks.

July 24rd
Scientists revealed that Tim Worstall had now written more words on his blog in 2007 alone than had been written in all of human history up to 1827.

August 13th
Alan "Not the Minister" Johnson launched a new Decency project, which gained just 50 signatures in its first three weeks.

September 1st
The commenters on the Guardian's Comment is Free complained about the standards of the journalist's posts, and demand some kind of registration system to 'keep the loons out'.

September 15th
Alan "Not the Minister" Johnson launched a new Decency project, which gained just 5 signatures in its first three weeks.

September 22nd
Scientists revealed that Tim Worstall had now written more words on his blog in 2007 alone than had been written in all of human history up to 1887.

October 31st
There was puzzlement in the Blogosphere at the lack of a new Decency project from Alan "Not the Minister" Johnson.

November 30th
There were growing concerns over the health of Alan "Not the Minister" Johnson due to his failure to launch a new Decency project for the second month in a row. Supporters began an all-night vigil in front of their computer screens. Peter Tatchell wrote 2,000 words in Comment Is Free declaring his outrage at the lack of condemnation of those responsible for his disappearance.

December 1st
Nick Cohen's column on Melanie Phillips blog failed to appear.

December 3rd
The number of posts on Harry's Place appearing in previous week fell to 767, its lowest in history.

December 7th
Oliver Kamm announced he will not be posting again in December.

December 8th
Oliver Kamm wrote a 3,500 word post on Noam Chomsky's latest book. He then announced he will not be posting again in December.

December 12th
John Lloyd's column in the FT failed to appear. Rumours that it was because he thought it too morally good for the reading public were denied by the FT editor on the grounds that if that reason was allowed the column would never appear.

December 13th
Scientists now believe Tim Worstall has written more words on his blog in 2007 than in recorded history. They say they are checking their models.

December 15th
There were joyous scenes at the news that Alan Johnson and a number of other members of the Decent Left are alive. However neutral bystanders expressed concern at the group's statement that they had taken over a small and remote island in the Atlantic and planned to use it as a base to "make the world Decent", using a new 'Decency Ray', which had the power to destroy the entire planet (in order to save it) in less than five minutes. Hilarious bloggers pointed out that they thought Tony Blair had already done that. Sober heads said that as long as it keeps the group busy and out of their hair, it's OK with them. The plan for "World Decency Domination" gets 2,750 signatures in three weeks.

December 16th
Joyous scenes subside in confusion when it is realised that in fact it is Alan Johnson, the Cabinet Minister and Trade Unionist, who plans to take over the world from an island base, and not Alan 'Not the Minister' Johnson, who apparently has just been working on another loyalty oath which has so far gained no signatures.

Labels: Bloggy

Live Blogging - AaroWatch

I've got a lead here on the (briliant) boys at Aaronovitch Watch. I've just watched (in fact it might still be on - it certainly seems like it) a programme celebrating that pretty dull programme, University Challenge. Anyway, as you might imagine, it's terribly self-congratulatory, and given Ian Hislop and Steven Fry are two of the talking-heads (and I've just seen the Private Eye team, Hislop, Wheen, Booker (Brooker?) and the other one - Stars by Simply Red for someone who can come up with worse people to be stuck in a lift with), at times almost unbearable. On the other good hand it had Aaro trying to defend his unfunny stint on the programme, when I think he and his team answered every question with the name of a member of Marx Brothers (he is still going on about it being an attack on the Establishment or something like that, which is interesting from someone who today is one of Britain's most Establishment journalists). The exciting bit, and forgive the bad photographs of my TV screen, is the picture of Aaro as a young man! Here's Old (note he's not wearing some strange Invisible Man mask in real life, I'm not sure where that's come from) and Young Aaro!

ps My god, it is still going on. They're raving about a film version now.

Labels: Bloggy, Decent Left, England, politics, TV

Latest Sweepstake News

On the question of how many more words would Oliver Kamm blog more than he said he would in December, the runners and riders were as follows (when OK was on 10,740):

10,740 - Backword Dave
16,000 - Nick
20,000 - Dsquared
22,000 - John Angliss
28,000 - Ross
45,000 - Sahra

As of 9pm on the 28th December, with just three full days to go, the current total is:

15,085.

This means Nick looks highly likely to win, unless Oliver comes up with another 2,916 words.

Labels: Bloggy

2006 Review of Matt T Blog year - Jan to June

Truth be told, not a vintage year. Here's the first half.

January 2006

Nothing, sorry.

February 2006
2nd: Alcohol aides night drivers, declares a 1950s textbook.
5th: Dan's favourite singer, Mick Hucknall, discusses politics.
12th: I transform Tony Blair using a new face-transforming website.

March 2006
8th: I attack an Alice Thompson column as the 'most self pitying' I have ever read.
18th: And then Gerard Baker comes along and beats her.
29th: I take issue with Oliver Kamm's positive obituary for Casper Weinberger, and argue that Iran-Contra negates everything else.

April 2006
12th: "As if I were a black trying to purchase food in a Mississippi diner in 1955" - yes it can only be Carol Gould trying to buy a drink in a London pub.
18th: The Euston Manifesto arrives! I create a handy cut out and keep guide to which project each British Decent has signed up to, and criticise the manifesto on two grounds - first the whinge about a lack of media coverage given many of them are senior people in the media, and second, their criticism of other people for spending more time attacking the domestic left and not enough time helping Iraqis, given this seems exactly what they do. Looking back I think this latter criticism is really why I could never give it a chance - I am still shocked by Nick Cohen, Stephen Pollard and Peter Tatchell's reaction to being asked to 'unite against terror' and I think it says a lot about them (though Tatchell did apologise subsequently for his).
30th: Pollard goes one better, declaring in his Maida Vale Manifesto, which still has less than 10 signatories, that "The mainstream Left has demonstrated clearly which side of the battle to preserve Western civilisation and freedom it is on. The Left, in any recognisable form, is now the enemy". I ask whether he is calling for the arrest of leading left-wing figures.

May 2006
9th: YouGOV pay me my £50!
17th: In Rome, and I tell the hotel receptionist "Excuse me the phone in our room doesn't work". She replies,"This is Italy. Many things don't work."
30th: I prove President Bush is not as unpopular as the polls suggest.

June 2006
12th: I show that the Serie A is not the goal desert commentators think it is.

Labels: Bloggy, Decent Left, England, Iraq, Review of Year, Web

Who is Britain's most Stakhanovite blogger?

There's only one way to find out - a ladder*!

Today's contest - Oliver Kamm v Tim Worstall.

The post below noted Oliver Kamm's remarkable 10,740 words in just 7 days, or 1,534 words per day (wpd), but in fact that's a rather pedestrian total compared to Tim Worstall. Tim's managed 34,874 words in December, up to the 15th, or an astonishing 2,324 wpd.

So does Tim Worstall win this round of the Stakhanoviteness 'ladder'? The problem comes from the quotes. Anyone can copy and paste huge reams of text and have a large WPD. If we remove them from Tim's output, it falls to 21,192 words in December, or 1,412 wpd. So perhaps Oliver takes it after all? Well we must do the same with his output - which is not as easy as he doesn't put his quotes in italics - but a rough & ready measure gives us 9,186 words, or 1,312 wpd. So it's Worstall, by a clear 100 wpd.

So who will be Worstall's next challenger on the UK blogging Stakhanoviteness ladder? I've only managed about 3,500, so I am out of their league. Older readers will remember Stephen Dan Buste, who would regularly write posts over a million words long, but he's no longer blogging, or at least using words to do so. Anyone else?

* The UK blogging Stakhanoviteness ladder works in the same way as a squash ladder, in that the winner of the head-to-head then plays the person above them in the 'ladder' and if he wins that he moves up, if he loses he moves down.

Update: The Guardian has 8,229 words in its Saturday comment section (not CiF but the newspaper). Assuming Saturday is represenative, which is quite possibly is not, then we have a new measure. Tim Worstall represents 1/6th a national newspaper (and quite a wordy one), Unity almost a 1/3rd.

Labels: Bloggy

Sweepstake time

A Simply Red Stars album for the person who most accurately gets the number of words Oliver Kamm will put on his blog in December, the month in which he would he said it 'would not be updated'.

So far the total is 10,740 words by December 13th (and Oliver didn't start until Dec 6th). A linear extrapolation suggests he will reach 38,537 by December 31st, but a much better fit is the expoential curve as noted on the chart, which leads us to the conclusion that 17,643,259 words will be written by the end of the month. This is a remarkable 11 words a second on average, and 68 words a second on New Year's Eve!

So between 10,740 and 17,643,259 (unless Oliver ups his rate in the latter half of the month). Place yer bets!

Update: Dan is desperate to win the Simply Red Stars album, of which he is known to be fond, and has asked for clarification of the rules. Essentially the word count will be what Microsoft Word says it is for all the posts in December, excluding the original which said there would be no posts, but including the dates/headlines/name etc, ie all text. "I don't believe in many things", sang the Great Man, and I don't believe Oliver will change his behaviour to win the CD, but to ensure against blatant cheating he is not allowed to enter.

Update II: The closing date is Monday 18th.

Update III: "The Great Man" referred to in "Update" is me being sarcastic, and refers to Mick Hucknall, not Oliver Kamm. Oliver has much more progressive views on copyright protection and does not think of himself as a communist. In fact remembering how much Hucknall's Guardian article annoyed me, I'm changing the prize to an illegal copy of Simply Red's Stars, not the original (note, it's a notional prize, M'lord).

Labels: Bloggy

Satsumas

Aren't they great? I wonder how many one can eat in a day without negative health consquences. Are there government guidelines?

Labels: Bloggy

Two sets of comments

Apparently YACCs comments don't work with the new Blogger, and won't be fixed this week. So I've reluctantly installed the Blogger commnets, which you'll see to the side of the posts. I think the system is rather clunky, and at the moment plan to keep both in case YACCs returns to health. This promise is, however, much like the Times' promise to keep both the broadsheet and tabloid - ie it is a Tony Blair promise - I'm not exactly lying, but you'd be mad to believe me.

Six minutes later: You shouldn't now be able to see the YACCs comments. But they might return.

Labels: Bloggy

Matt T

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Britain's busiest train stations or not

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Blog Stats

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

A new record on Bloglines

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Tim Worstall's blog

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Separated at birth?

Monday, April 09, 2007

Oliver on blogging

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Snigger, snigger

Friday, February 23, 2007

Tim Worstall

Friday, January 19, 2007

It's MY BIRTHDAY

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Tesco Express

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Friends of Nick

Friday, January 12, 2007

Blair and buggery

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Tim Worstall in talks with the UKIP!

Sunday, December 31, 2006

2007 - Year in Review

Friday, December 29, 2006

Live Blogging - AaroWatch

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Latest Sweepstake News

Saturday, December 23, 2006

2006 Review of Matt T Blog year - Jan to June

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Who is Britain's most Stakhanovite blogger?

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Sweepstake time

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Satsumas

Two sets of comments

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