If the Tube were run by Twitter + American Song to Celebrate 4th July

Happy 4th July to all the American readers of this blog. I've been amazed at how many US readers still read & comment on the blog & and send me personal emails. I really do appreciate it. So, thought you might like a little song about the Twitter Fail Whale which is sung to the tune of American Pie.


Twitter for people who don't know it, is sort of like a public form of instant messaging (or micro blogging) where you can tell "the world" or just your friends what you've been up to in 140 characters. My twitter profile is here. From being a super geeky thing it's now getting much more mainstream since appearing on FOX TV and having Amazon invest an undisclosed sum in it.


Problem is that it's getting so popular it can't cope with the millions of people now using it and whenever it's over capacity - which as has been many, many times of late you see the Twitter Whale or the Fail Whale (pictured above) as he's now called.

The Twitter Fail Whale now has thousands of fans including myself who celebrate his appearance and the frustration that he causes to millions of people around the world who have to stop twittering and do something else instead. The fan club's founders say he's:

"one of coolest whales we know... you know... the handsome whale and his birdie entourage who show up occasionally on Twitter to let you know that it's time to push back from your keyboard and to go take a break."

The Twitter Fail Whale Song from The Joy of Tech should be sung to the tune of American Pie and you can see the full lyrics by following the link from part of the screen grab below:


Personally, I think that London Underground should have their own Fail Whale and it would be a cartoon of an inflated Boris Johnson head being lifted by hundreds of flying Oystercards. If I was remotely good at PhotoShop or could be arsed, I would make it. But I'm not.

However, I can make an attempt at a couple of Transport for London messages in 140 characters or less, (like the one that opened this post) that you might see if the Tube were run by Twitter.


"Tube is over capacity Too many tourists We'll try to lighten the load making off peak fares higher & we'll have things back to normal soon."

" Tube is over capacity Too many commuters! We'll try to lighten the load making peak fares even higher & we'll have things back to normal soon"

Idea inspired by Pete Cashmore's Twitter downtime tweets. Feel free to try others in comments or give us your thoughts on Twitter too.

Thanks to Qype for Battersea Barge Party

Just recovering from two great days at 2gether08 and just because I hadn't drunk and talked enough, the days were rounded off by a river boat party with Qype on the Battersea Barge

I'm off to take some photos of Battersea Power Station later today with fellow partygoers TikiChris & Jemimah from Radio 5's Pods & Blogs, & will try to find out more about the plans for a possible Tube station there. So it was nice to have a great view of it from the boat last night.


There's a couple more pictures here and I'm sure that other Qyper's will add more soon.




Many thanks to Rob, Sabrina & Andy at Qype for their great hospitality, Manhattans & golden food. Where's the Rennies?!

Allergy Tube Ad Revisited

More mystery around the London Underground ad for allergy sufferers. Firstly thanks to everyone who commented on their "unusual" allergies in response to me seeing the ad for Piriton. I wondered why the name Baker Street had been blanked out from the ad - when they had shown such a recognisable station it seemed weird to do this.


A number of you came up with some theories and then Chris said he had seen the ads at Liverpool Street with the name Baker Street in them. I've been at an event all day called 2gether08 (more on that soon) which was held in Shoreditch, so I came home via Liverpool Street & completely forgot about Chris's comment until I found myself in front of the advertisement.


Lo & behold there was "Baker Street" in the ad complete with roundel and everything. So what's that all about? There's a couple of replacement allergies too - chewing gum replaces leather (although how you'd be allergic to chewing up on a platform floor unless you were wandering around with bare feet, is a bit of a puzzler - if you were wandering around with bare feet, then allergies would be the least of your problems). Mould spores replace moisturiser.

The client or advertising agency must be testing this. Perhaps there is higher recall with a station name. Or maybe without it, as it looks weird? Any more theories on this?

London Transport Museum events for London Festival of Architecture

If you have an interest in urban development and design and can get to Covent Garden tonight (3rd July 2008) or Monday 9th July there are two interesting talks at the London Transport Museum.

First up is Malcolm Smith who's the Design Director at Arup's Integrated Urbanism Unit. He'll be revealling his pioneering work on Chinese eco-city Dongtan near Shanghai, which will run entirely on renewable energy. "By 2050 up to half a million residents will live in a zero emissions city - proving environmentally sustainable urban living is possible.".

Then on Monday Wayne Hemingway, designer and founder of Red or Dead, will talk about his passion for creating affordable and well-designed homes.

The talks are both held at the very cool Cubic Theatre, London Transport Museum, Covent Garden Piazza, WC2E 7BB. They run from 19.30-20.30 & tickets are £10 adults, £8 concessions.

Further information about the events can be found at www.ltmuseum.co.uk and tickets can be booked in advance on 020 7565 7298.

Remains of Glastonbury on the Tube

Looks like Glastonbury's over then! After tripping over rucksack strings getting out of the London Underground on Thursday and Friday & gagging on the smell on of the many newly box-fresh designer Wellingtons, all I had to face was this beauty yesterday:


Seems like "peace, love & harmony" has made it into the 21st century with this lovely retro "Flower Power" looking luggage tag. Although I must admit I would have felt much more love and harmony to the woman carrying it, if she had forgotten she was on a Tube, made a sharp twisty movement and almost knocked me out with her rucksack when she left the train.

People with ridiculously large rucksacks on the Tube has always been a particular bug bear of mine and made it into my
Tube Etiquette page years ago.

You might remember the Tropicana advert on daily challenges a Londoner faces, which I used to illustrate my point:


What I said then still stands today

"Now I know that many of you reading this are tourists and are planning to use the Tube as a cheap form of travel to and from airports and to railway stations to get you out of London and into the country.

But nothing annoys people more than ruck sacks the size of mini camper vans strapped to people's backs. Particularly when those people suddenly think they ought to be auditioning for the ballet and start doing pirouettes in the middle of a carriage.

If you're going to turn around with one of those great things on your back the chances are, if you're travelling in the rush hour, someone will be very close behind you and won't appreciate having a piece of canvas, Goretex or whatever smashed into their face. Give us poor daily commuters a break and try and travel outside of the rush hour with your backpack."

I know it isn't always possible to travel outside of the rush hour, but you won't get so many glares from regular commuters if you do.

Please feel free to share large rucksack or large luggage on the Tube stories or comment - perhaps I'm being an old misery about this. But when half your journey is on the Piccadilly Line which has just come from or going to Heathrow Airport you'll know what I mean.