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Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States. Four of his predecessors have been killed while in office and there have been near-miss assasination attempts on six others. There have been abortive or ham-fisted attempts on their lives of a further five Presidents. President Obama has, by my reckoning, at least a one in four chance of facing the same. (more…)

Each month the Mayor of London faces a grilling from the London Assembly, a kind of Mayor’s Question Time. It lasts up to a few hours and there is a webcast of it. But the image quality is spectacularly bad:

I suppose this is what people mean when they talk about ‘faceless officialdom’. It’s only recognisable as Boris Johnson by his trademark shock of blonde hair. And this is not just a one-off error, ALL the GLA webcasts are like this, with the faces blurred out like they used to do when represenatives of Sinn Féin were on the TV. You wouldn’t know it, but here is my representative on the GLA Val Shawcross chairing the Transport Scrutiny Committee on 9 September 2008:

Compare London’s foggy blur with the very clear feed of Prime Minister’s Questions:

The Mayor’s Question Time ought to be a showcase event for democratically holding to account the man who runs the world’s greatest city. You’d think they could set up a half-decent camera, and give its lens a wipe every now and then, wouldn’t you?

In a post earlier this week, I referred to my ‘weekly diet’ of podcasts and I thought it was only fair to open up the larder. I have been podcasting the radio show I present since May 2005. Initially I didn’t know what podcasting was or how to do it. A kind listener explained and helped me set it up. For a long time I harboured suspicions that it was just something for the early adopters out there and was never going to go mainstream. That was until BBC Radio 4 issued an edict that presenters had to say the word ‘podcast’ every thirty seconds. In the past 6 months I’ve become a true convert, particularly on a three week solo cycle-camping trip in France, where spoken-word podcasts were regular evening listening. I’d add that not owning a television set also helps free up time for radio and podcast listening.

Just like blogs, there are a thousand awful and pointless podcasts out there for every one worth listening to. There’s also this thing called podfade, in which a podcast starts off really well then becomes less regular, less interesting before it runs silently into the sands of the presenter’s own guilt and self-loathing. In other words, not every podcast stays the course or lives up to its early promise. Then again, there are podcasts that get better with time, usually amateur productions in which the presenter(s) get more comfortable in the role and find their niche. In short, a lot of filtering, and scratching and sniffing is required. Beside the iTunes Music Store podcast area, a recommendation from a friend is probably the best way of finding out about what’s good.

It’s clear that not all of these are strictly speaking podcasts, rather radio broadcasts which are subsequently made available as podcasts. I don’t see that as a disqualification. So here goes, you can read the list after the jump. (more…)

Summer’s here at last, and there’s no better way to celebrate than stripping off and jumping in a river, lake or waterfall. This past weekend I took a brief and rather chilly dip in the Doone Valley on Exmoor.

With impeccable timing my good friend Daniel Start has just written fantastic new book that details 150 wild swimming spots across the UK. It is published by the people behind best-selling Cool Camping and has the same winning blend of inspiring pictures and thorough research. You can find out more on the Wild Swimming website or just go ahead and order it from your local bookshop (that’s my local bookshop, not much good to you if you don’t live in Waterloo).

Daniel did a radio interview with BBC Hereford and Worcester (listen again) and is leading a wild swim at the Hay Literary Festival next week.

From today, all the content at the New York Times website will be free - ending a practice that saw some of America’s best reporting and column writing hidden behind a 'pay wall'. Why a website with a Google Page Rank of 8/10 and therefore huge potential for paid adverts should ever have considered charging for content was always beyond me. Now they appear to have seen sense and have gone the whole hog by opening up their full digital archives back to 1987.

How long before the FT and The Economist follow suit? Amazingly there are still some think tanks out there that are charging for their policy reports - such as the Centre for European Reform, which has some of the best thinkers around, but when it comes to the web is rooted firmly in the dark ages as this £5 for a PDF download demonstrates. I’m sure it’s a great read.  

Read more at nytimes.com

Last weekend I came across a second-hand vinyl record of Senator Bobby Kennedy interviewed by David Frost. The interview was conducted during RFK’s 1968 Presidential bid which was to end in his assassination in Los Angeles - just hours after winning the California Democratic primary. The record is a fascinating document of a remarkable man at a remarkable moment in American history (audio links below). (more…)

Will twelve days be long enough to mourn the passing of James Brown, Soul Brother Number One, the original Funky President, the Minister of the New New Super Heavy Funk, the Godfather of Soul, who left this world on Christmas Day? (more…)

I am currently a Transatlantic Fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. GMF is a nonpartisan American public policy and grantmaking institution dedicated to promoting greater cooperation and understanding between the United States and Europe. Founded in 1972 through a gift from Germany as a permanent memorial to post-World War Two Marshall Plan assistance, GMF maintains a strong presence on both sides of the Atlantic.

Last Saturday BBC Radio 4’s outstanding Archive Hour featured a documentary on the propaganda that came across the Atlantic alongside all the development assistance dollars. Highly recommended listening to anyone with an interest in modern European history and the concept of soft power.

[audio:http://jackthurston.com/radio4_marshallplan.mp3]

Erm, I’m still unpacking boxes and putting up shelves. Come back soon for notes and articles by Jack Thurston.