B U R N

At £20, becoming a member of the Serpentine Swimming Club does not cost the world. It is one of the few places in London where triathletes can train in open waters. The membership application form suggests there might be another ‘fee’ to pay, though:

Tests over the years have shown that without chemical treatment bacteriological contamination can occur in the Serpentine. We are advised that swimming in contaminated water such as untreated Serpentine may render the swimmer open to such diseases as:

a) Salmonellosis or Shingellosis – at worst typhoid but more generally stomach upsets;
b) Amoebic dysentery;
c) Poliomyelitis;
d) Infective hepatitis;
e) Sore throats, noses, ears etc. caused by streptococci psdeudomonads or staphylococci.

These are only some of the possibilities; there are others, including Weill’s disease and botulism.

It has been agreed that members of the swimming club may continue to swim from the Lido between 06.00 am and 09.30 am when the water is untreated, but any club member who chooses to swim does so at his / her risk. The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will not be responsible for any injury or infection caused by contamination of the water.

I have read and understood the contents of this application form / letter. I realise that the water in the Serpentine may be untreated, contaminated and unsuitable for swimming. I accept the risk of injury or infection if I choose to swim there in spite of this warning. I understand the rules of the club, swim times and permitted areas.

My colleague tells me her friends always finish off a Serpentine swimming session with a glass of Coke, apparently it sanitises the system…

Speaking of fitness regimes, this is seriously interesting stuff: Evolutionary fitness.

There are places I would like to see and there are places I would die to see. This one clearly falls in the latter category:

A good book will, of course, close its tentacles around you and suck you into a parallel universe. There is, nevertheless, something great about maintaining the connection between the fictional world set out on the pages and the ‘real’ world in which the reading takes place.

In my personal experience, it was while travelling in Turkey that I started marvelling over Orhan Pamuk’s books, namely ‘The New Life‘, which is all about movement, twists and turns in small town Turkey. The sublime architecture of my ‘old’ university in Aarhus formed the backdrop of most of Svend Aage Madsen’s detours into the realm of magic. Javier Marias described the farcical nature of Oxford so well that the book itself became almost too predictable (or was it the other way round?).

In short, to me the best books are not necessarily self-contained universes, rather they are merely pointers to or reminders of personal spaces and experiences.

All the nonsense above is just a long-winded introduction to another mechanism for enhancing the reading experience: seeking out contexts that are completely contrary to the settings described in the book.

I recently finished reading the biography of Denmark’s greatest Arctic explorer, Knud Rasmussen. The vast desolate spaces of Greenland took on even greater depths in the depths of the London Tube, close to bursting with 8.15am commuters during an involuntary, non-permanent marriage with public transport whilst I got my bike fixed.

Giles Coren has something to say about books and places, too.

Pheeew, I thought I was going crazy. None of my friends have seen this guy, but for some inexplicable reason I keep bumping into him: ‘The Guy with the Rubik’s Cube on the London Tube’.

He enters the coach, starts doing his tricks and then leaves. Never asking for money, just focusing on the cube and chatting away.

Thank god he was caught on camera: Read the rest of this entry »

I have been working on this event for a while, please attend if you can:

In Media We Trust?
The media isn’t what it used to be, neither are we. This event will ask to what extent we have become more informed and better at reaching the right decisions as citizens in a society dripping with information.

What does it take to be media savvy, as the line between media consumer and media provider is increasingly blurred? Whose responsibility is it to foster media literacy anyway?  

An interactive panel debate with Ben Hammersley (Editor at Large, Wired), Matt Locke (Commissioning Editor for New Media and Education, Channel 4) and David McCandless (Author of ‘Information is Beautiful’).

The event is free and open to all. No need to register. Thursday March 18th, 6.30-8pm, followed by drinks.

Pose your questions in advance at elviswalks.com and forward them to questions@elviswalks.com.

New Theatre, London School of Economics & Political Science, Houghton St, London WC2A 2AE

Presented by the Media CSR Forum in association with POLIS.

Check out my cousin’s latest project, Connected; a scarily cool movie that makes even Belgium look like a nice place:

Set in the distant future, Connected is a story about survival and greed with a post apocalyptic wasteland as its backdrop. Survivors of an unknown disaster shuffle through a desolate landscape, as it quickly becomes clear that not everybody has the strength to survive.

Because you have nothing better to do on January 26th you should come to Leicester and take part in the event ‘Stakeholders Unite Against the Environmental Crunch‘. This has nothing to do with yours truly giving a talk on emerging issues on the sustainability radar:

As words such as ‘sustainability’, ‘climate change’ and ‘responsibility’ have climbed to the top of political and corporate agendas, it is time to assess what the future might hold. In my talk, I would like to draw out a few trends and challenges that are bound to change the landscape further, as sustainability continues its journey towards the mainstream. In the face of adversity, we need to use our imagination to envisage scenarios that are not just ‘likely’ but, more importantly, ‘desirable’.

Many of us were highly impressed with Hans Rosling’s ‘the best stats you have ever seen‘ talk at TED 2006. If you have yet to see this presentation, please do so without further ado.

There is one book I particularly look forward to buying this year, ‘Information is Beatiful‘ by David McCandless. He masters the art of converting complex data into strikingly simple images:

I spent a year creating over 200 new images that use information design to explore a whole range of subjects visually, from pop to philosophy, all with the mininum of words, natch.

Read the BBC’s background article, Information goes out to play, or check out this powerful image, which shows to perfection exactly how strong the scientific consensus is on anthropogenic climate change: Read the rest of this entry »

He was working in the office next door and we would often end up in the same lift or see each other when making a brew in the kitchen. Being a smoker and going out for a fag several times a day, he would leave a trail of tobacco fumes in the lift and in the corridors. As a result, he seemed to be present even when he was not there in person.

Two-minute conversations rarely lead to deeper insights, and so it happened that we would more often than not start our exchange of trivialities with an assessment of the cold/windy/humid/rainy weather of the UK compared to the sunny haven of California.

He was only in London for a limited period, with work, always talking about his imminent return to the Golden State, retirement and time with the family. In fact, I only ever referred to him as ‘California’. He never got my name.

His much anticipated move back was days away, but then earlier this week he fell to the floor in said corridor, hit by a stroke. 30 minutes of resuscitation failed to bring him back to life.

Merry Christmas - make sure you enjoy it.

…from a lovely walk in Hampstead Heath. London is feeling more and more like home.