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The confirmation of Barack Obama as the presumptive Democratic Party candidate for the 2008 presidential election is a historic moment in the history of black America. Previously I’ve posted audio recordings of Bobby Kennedy’s campaign in 1968 and Spiro Agnew’s vice-presidency. Now seems like a good time to turn to the record collection to remember the first black man to have run a major US city or to have been seriously considered for a presidential ticket: Carl B. Stokes. Read the rest of this entry »

Is this what he’s thinking?

Reminds me of a song I know…

[audio:get_out.mp3]

Last year I posted a recording of an interview with Senator Robert ‘Bobby’ Kennedy, conducted by David Frost, just a short while before Kennedy was assassinated. There is every chance that had he not been slain, he would have secured the Democratic Party nomination for the 1968 presidential election and beaten Richard Nixon, the Republican candidate, just as Kennedy’s older brother did back in 1960. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Either you’ll get it or you won’t.

I want Ken Livingstone to be re-elected as Mayor of London. I believe that as a politician he is a cut above any of the other candidates and has the experience and record of achievement that entitle him to a third term of office. I have even made a small donation of £50 to his campaign. But I have today cast my (postal) vote for the Green candidate. Why? Read the rest of this entry »

Is America ready for an oven-ready President? It’s all good!

I spent Saturday at “barcampUKgovweb” and met a very interesting group of people who care about how government behaves online. Among the 60 or so participants, there was a roughly even split between people working for government, people working for companies and people who are - for want of a better term - civic hackers. Read the rest of this entry »

With Barack Obama neck-and-neck with Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, it’s worth recalling a virtuoso performance by comedian Chris Rock back in 1996 when Colin Powell was rumoured to be considering a presidential bid. Have things changed much since then? Could Rock’s cynicism about white people saying they’ll vote for a black candidate explain the inaccuracy of opinion polling in the New Hampshire primary?

Enjoy a master at work (caution: strong language).

[audio:chris_rock_black_president.mp3]

Many Eyes is a web-based data visualisation tool that is still in alpha but already looks impressive. It’s very simple. You cut and paste data (numbers or text) and then choose from a variety of data visualisation tools to make your dataset come to live. We hope to be doing some cool things with it over at caphealthcheck.eu and farmsubsidy.org. In the meantime, here is a rather silly visualisation of the most frequently used words in speeches made by the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Conservative Party Leader David Cameron. Can you tell whose words are whose? Answer after the jump.

Many Eyes has got some glitches but it seems a lot better than its rival Swivel. Here is a good comparative review of both.

Read the rest of this entry »