Latest Five Posts
The Active Travel Realisation Gap
- Posted by Matt (Permalink)
- Published on
This is an unrolled thread originally posted on Twitter.
There's a ‘realisation gap’ between a) the delivery of quality active travel infrastructure and b) the vision of aspirational urban designers and the work of academics working in the field of active travel, as well as that of knowledgeable local activists and campaigners.
In some parts of the country, particularly in London, this gap is being closed thanks to the work of activists and local politicians with the vision and means to make change.
In others, the gap is more like a chasm, where attempts to bridge it are swiftly shut down by well organised campaigns from coalitions of groups who either have vested interest in maintaining the status quo, who are fearful or resistant to change because of perceived impact on their lives, or who want to politicise the issue in bitterly divided local authorities.
It gets worse though, because even now, roads are being built with no provision for active travel, or with substandard provision (usually paint) which will lock in car dependency for years to come. This is because those who have the greatest influence or decision-making power either have little interest in active travel and put the interests of drivers first, or at the very least do have interest but see active travel provision as of secondary importance, or as supporting mainly a leisure activity done by a minority of people.
The IPCC reports spell out how we must make major changes to our lifestyles if we are going to keep the global average temperature rise below 1.5C. But these changes need supporting by massive investment backed by vision, education and communication, and not just in active travel, but in public transport too.
So I think we need to better understand this ‘realisation gap’ and examine all the things that are stopping us from closing it, and it's way more complicated than simply having a lack of money. Because if there's no vision and political will to make change, the gap will never be closed.
The National Health
- Posted by Matt (Permalink)
- Published on
This is an unrolled thread originally posted on Twitter.
In 2010 I was a web developer supporting a research project mapping childrens’ health services across the UK. It was funded by the then Department of Health. My academic colleagues were leaders in their field working on a project to help improve children's health services.
The Conservative / Lib Dem coalition government, formed in May of that year, effectively shut the project down as part of the government's austerity agenda. Before the team disbanded, my colleagues, with decades of experience working public health between them, expressed concern for the future of the NHS under the new administration. I think it was a concern now validated by the state of the NHS today; underfunded in real terms, understaffed, and with remaining staff stretched and exhausted. This was happening before the pandemic too.
In 2009, the NHS was recorded as achieving very high levels of patient satisfaction (source). So what we've seen over the last 11 years is an abrogation by our government to support the NHS, fund it properly and maintain these levels of satisfaction.
If you know someone who works in the NHS, ask them about it and they will likely tell you they and their colleagues are exhausted. We were clapping them every Thursday last year, but what they really need is a change of government.
Link Notes 31 March 2021
- Posted by Matt (Permalink)
- Published on

Today's links
- The Northern Independence Party: A new party with the aim of creating an independent Northumbria.
- BBC Four to become archive channel as cost-cutting drive continues: The continued chipping away of what makes the BBC great.
- On this day, from the archive: 2004, 2003
A note about simplicity, privacy and this website
- Posted by Matt (Permalink)
- Published on

I've built this website to be simple, highly optimised, accessible and to respect you by not tracking you. There are no third-party scripts being loaded that have the potential to track you and all of the code and assets are being loaded from the same public html directory on the server.
I've also disabled the server access logs which usually record IP address, user agent, page visited and referring URL etc. If you're reading this, I know nothing about you and have no record of your visit. I think service providers and anyone publishing online should operate like this more.
So instead of knowing about you via analytics and server logs, how about more meaningful communications? If you have a website or blog that takes a similar approach email me at mail@mattjon.es, say hello and maybe we can build a network of similar independent sites.
In the mid-nineties, there was the concept of the ‘webring', where site owners linked to other sites around the same theme or topic. Before RSS, subscriptions and follows, it was an early social network and publishing platform, albeit rather rudimentary.
Maybe the old ideas are the best.
Link Notes 22 March 2021
- Posted by Matt (Permalink)
- Published on

Today's links
- Why All Drugs Should Be Decriminalised | Interview With David Nutt: Interview with Professor David Nutt.
- Ethical small tech: Investing in small technology and trustworthy services.
- In Our Time Podcast archive: The history of ideas.
Playing music
- Posted by Matt (Permalink)
- Published on
In 2020 I started making electronic music, mainly as a more creative way to unwind during lockdown evenings.
It's mainly quite meditative stuff, inspired by the early pioneers of electronic music: Laurie Spiegel, Pauline Oliveros and also the early work of Steve Reich.These musicians either used tape loops or sequencers to experiment with melody, harmony and rhythm.
My latest live piece used two step-sequencers (software the triggers a set of notes over a number of bars). Each sequencer was in a different odd time signature and they were pitched a fifth interval apart.
Both sequencers controlled a single synth. Then I controlled both the sequencer and the synth using the a single media keyboard contoller, improvising in C minor with delay and other effects.
I get the sense that for those early experimental musicians, making their music was about breaking compositional rules and about play and discovery with the new technology at the time.
Link Notes 1 May 2020
- Posted by Matt (Permalink)
- Published on

Today's Links
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Raspberry Pi unveils $50 interchangeable-lens camera board: More things you can do with the diminutive computer.
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City leaders aim to shape green recovery from coronavirus crisis: Cities in Europe, the US and South America are making sure people can move round safely by widening footways and installing cycle paths.
Link Notes 30 April 2020
- Posted by Matt (Permalink)
- Published on

Today's Links
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OpenAI’s Jukebox AI produces music in any style from scratch — complete with lyrics: Music that sounds like there are lots of people involved in making it, but it's made using Artificial Intelligence
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What if Covid-19 Returns Every Year, Like the Common Cold?: We could be in and out of lockdown until a vaccine is developed.
Link Notes 29 April 2020
- Posted by Matt (Permalink)
- Published on

Today's Links
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Greater Manchester councils stand to lose more than £110m from Manchester Airport: We need to break the link between quality public services and public investment in industries most damaging to the planet.
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On this day, from the archive: 2004, 2003, 2002
Link Notes 28 April 2020
- Posted by Matt (Permalink)
- Published on

Today's Links
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Van Gogh Museum Virtual Tour: View Van Gogh's paintings in 4k resolution, as if you were walking around the gallery.
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The British Museum has published 2 million images under a Creative Commons license: View the artefacts plundered by British colonialists over centuries from the comfort of your home.
Previous posts
- Link Notes 27 April 2020
- Link Notes 26 April 2020
- Link Notes 25 April 2020
- Link Notes 24 April 2020
- Link Notes 23 April 2020
- Link Notes 22 April 2020
- Link Notes 21 Apr 2020
- What matters
- Modified Social Benches
- Frequency
- Fictional spacecraft on the ground and real spacecraft in space
- Celestial mechanics and the new political landscape
- Bowie and the 90s Internet
- 2013: The Year the BBC Looked Like a Bogus Signer
- We Are All Netizens Now
- The Science of Doctor Who
- Is cycling getting more or less dangerous?
- Greasemonkey script to remove promoted tweets from Twitter
- How short-term thinking about road safety has failed to make liveable towns and cities
- Wikipedia > New Year's Resolution
- Fixing a non-booting Raspberry Pi (constant green LED, no video)
- The only kit you need is a bike
- Gateshead, Tesco
- Using your energy, not battery power, to light your bicycle
- Infinite ASDA
- Boston Dynamics Petman
- Darktable
- Johann Hari's Wikipedia editing history as David Rose
- Johann Hari's Wikipedia editing history as David Rose
- Secular Americans praise Bloomberg - 9/11 ceremony religion free