Trescothick And Mental Illness

Marcus Trescothick, a cricketer with Somerset, has written an autobiography, Coming Back to Me. Trescothick pulled out of the 2006-7 Ashes tour due to what kept being called a "stress-related illness." It turns out that he has been having anxiety attacks since the age of 10.

We hear far more about psychologists whispering in the ears of cyclists at Olympic velodromes just before their ride. It's very rare for a professional sports player to speak out on mental illness:

"I struggled mostly with the nerves and the worrying that goes with it. It doesn't matter what you do, anybody can pick it up whether you earn £1m a year or £20 a week. It strikes when it wants to and there's not much you can do until you take pills or seek help and get back on the road to recovery."

"People try and hide it all the time. I hid it for weeks, months and a couple of years before saying I don't want to run from this any more."

"Anxiety problems are seen as a weakness. People tell you to pull yourself together. But it is an illness, it's not something you make up."

The Olympics

- Chris Hoy has received a great deal of attention for his three cycling gold medals. But, hands up, how many people know that the design of his bike was courtesy of BAE Systems?

- Three years ago, North and South Korea even contemplated having a unified team in Beijing. Sadly, it ended up that they didn't even march together into the stadium.

- Too much attention has been given to gold medalists. I'd like more attention to the athletes who came to Beijing and achieved personal bests. I think Louis Smith, winning the first individual medal in gymnastics for Britain since 1908, should get more attention.

- Speaking of medals, who are the top countries when you compare total medals to their country's GDP? (China, US, Britain and Russia lead the official medals table today. But, by this criteria, Russia is 34th, China is 40th, Britain is 49th, and the US is 71st)

Migrant Recycling Workers Shut Down In Beijing

A relentless campaign by Beijing to present a sanitised, modern city to millions of Olympic Games visitors has led to a government shut down of scores of garbage recycling centres that provide these migrant workers with an income:

As the Olympic Games approach, the number of garbage pickers has visibly dropped across Beijing including at Qianbajia, a recycling station where about 200 households live among towering piles of plastic, building materials and scrap metals.

Qianbajia is among the dozens of urban recycling stations being shut down for the Games, effectively cutting off the livelihoods of tens of thousands of Beijing's temporary workers who eke out a living from the city's cast-offs. The workers process up to a third of Beijing's trash and have a "positive effect" on society, but most have criminal records, leave second-hand environmental pollution, and pose a health threat.

Scrap traders and recyclers, faced with a diminishing pool of rubbish collectors to do business with, grumble of lost profits and fear that their suppliers may not come back after the Games.

Rights groups and activists say the sweep has also taken in the homeless and the mentally ill, along with beggars, hawkers and prostitutes.

Climate Change And The Planning Bill

- Will Paul Ince be the first Black manager in the Premier League, sooner rather than later?

- Emily Benn could be the youngest MP ever ...

- Cavemen being arrested in Brussels?

Finally, an amendment to the Planning Bill on Monday was defeated by 15 votes (24 Labour MPs voted for it). It would have required climate change to be taken into account in planning decisions for major projects such as roads, airports and power stations.

Friends of the Earth's Planning Campaigner Hugh Ellis, said:

"With no reference to climate change in the Planning Bill, people have no guarantees that Ministers will take climate change into account when considering major projects such as roads, airports and power stations which will lock us into the path towards climate change and environmental destruction. Government has recently made some bold statements about taking action on climate change. But yet again it has missed a vital chance to make those words a reality and create a cleaner, greener future for us all."

Summer's Here - Euro 2008

The World Development Movement has put together a nifty site to help you choose who to support now that all the "home countries" aren't in it.

The Netherlands creates the highest amount of carbon dioxide of countries in Euro 2008, emitting 16 tonnes for each huge Dutchman. Turkey, Romania and Croatia emit the least with 3-to-4 tonnes per person.

Austria, Switzerland and Croatia were best on renewable energy as a percentage of electricity generated.

Hence, I'm leaning Croatia. Eduardo is recovering from his horrific injury, but they still have Vedran Ćorluka, Luka Modrić, and Niko Kranjčar.

Stylish football, sustainability, what's not to like?

Video: A wind turbine for Manchester City

Football Violence In Earlsdon

A riot, and I think you can call it a riot if it involves 100 people with bricks and knives, happened yesterday on Earlsdon High Street, between rivals supporting the Sky Blues and Leicester City.

It was at 1130am, but I didn't find out until 1130pm (just by checking teletext). My in-laws were visiting from Manchester yesterday, and they arrived around 1030am, and noticed helicopters overhead (we wonder what this means in retrospect). We went out to shop on the high street around 4pm, and there was no sign that anything had occured!

I'd agree with the poe-leece in that "it is very unusual for disorder to break out in the Earlsdon area, and all indications at the moment suggest that the violence was planned."

That being said, if a 100-person riot had happened in Leicester Square at 1130am yesterday, it would have led the national media. Instead, I think the media wants to think football violence is a thing of the 80's and 90's.

Coventry And London 2012

The city council's website has a small bit about London 2012, saying that the "Culture and Leisure" part of the council, with CV One, will explore hosting countries/teams in Coventry for the games.

As of today, Alice Davey (the head of culture and leisure at the city council) confirms that the council hasn't put any specific guidelines in place for the process.

I think it would be good to encourage the council to court certain countries, based on ethical criteria, i.e. we don't want Burma or Sudan to train at the University of Warwick, what with monk repression and Darfur.

New Zealand is officially non-nuclear, and Norway hosts the Nobel Peace Prize?

"Rouleur" At Coventry Transport Museum

Coventry's Transport Museum already displays the largest collection of British road transport in the world, including 200 cycles.

The "Rouleur" exhibition was a huge success in London in 2007.

It features the best work of six photographers who create a personal and intimate image of the sport of cycling -- the places and experiences, illustrated through landscapes, portraits, incidental details, and captured moments.

The exhibition will be on display in the Museum from 31st January to 29th February 2008. Admission is free and the Museum is open everyday from 10am – 5pm.

A-Star

If you see footballers forming an "A" with their fingers after scoring a goal, this is what it's about.

Coventry City FC Into Administration?

Coventry City has £30m in debts. There are two options, only one of which is being considered:

- a private takeover of the club (being put together by Ray Ranson and Sisu Capital)

- the Green Bay Packers Option

The Green Bay Packers are a NFL American Football team. They are the only non-profit, community-owned major league professional sports team in the United States.

Despite having one-third the population of Coventry (102,313 people as of the 2000 census), the Packers have 112 000 shareholders.

If 112 000 Sky Blues supporters stepped forward, it would be £270 each to wipe out the club's debts.

Such an ownership structure has not handcuffed the Packers from being successful. Indeed, they won the 1996 Super Bowl, attracted arguably the best quarterback in the last 15 years to play for them, and had five league titles between 1961 and 1967.

Gambling In Tennis

Concerns have been rumbling on since August about gambling's influence upon pro tennis.

The fear is that, "it is obvious to anyone with some experience of the normal Betfair market behaviour and the appropriate odds for a tennis match that certain low-level ATP matches are being fixed, with corresponding irrational market patterns."

The highest ranked player to admit to being propositioned with a bribe has been the current world #3 Novak Djokovic. He was offered $250,000 to throw his first-round match at the St. Petersburg event in Russia last year, with the offer alledgedly coming from the Russian or Ukrainian mafia. Djokovic skipped the tournament.

Okay, it's two men hitting a yellow ball back and forth, but it's a symptom of a much wider disease. The annual takings of criminal gangs around the world are roughly equivalent to Britain's GDP, or twice the world's combined defence budgets.

"Gambling on Tennis - the usual suspects" will be broadcast tonight from 7pm on Radio 5Live.

Manchester City's New Owner

"Mr. Thaksin was equally brutal in addressing the insurgency in Thailand’s predominantly ethnic Malay Muslim southern border provinces. His heavy-handed counterinsurgency policy, which emphasized the unnecessary or excessive use of force and encouraged grave human rights violations, lead to the deaths of hundreds of ethnic Malay Muslims and injuries to many more."

Cycle Training In Coventry

Coventry City Council cycle training instructors are running another course of basic cycling skills at Manor Park Primary School, in Ulverscroft Road, Cheylesmore.

It will be next Tuesday, the 24th, from 10am to 3pm, for children aged eight and over.

They will need a roadworthy bicycle, a cycle helmet and a packed lunch. The course costs £10 and booking is essential on 024 7683 1371.

Wimbledon and Big Oil

I was paying more attention to Federer's fifth title, but there was more going on.

In the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (it's new nickname is Chris, say the acronym aloud, de-berr), there exists the Energy Development Unit. Jim Campbell is the civil servant in charge of regulating Britain's oil and gas industry.

The giant oil company Chevron provided an all-expenses-paid day out at Wimbledon for Jim Campbell ... In the course of a single year, officials were given, among other things, a racing day at Glorious Goodwood. They also got private art views, a trip to the ballet, a golf outing, a party visiting the crown jewels at the Tower of London, tickets to balls, dinner in a Michelin-starred restaurant, and a case of champagne from Shell for Christmas. Officials were also invited to a more conventional round of company banquets, presentations, lunches and dinners, at hotels such as the Savoy and Claridge's. From May 4 2006 to April 26 2007, EDU staff received a total of 170 gifts and invitations from companies including Shell, Total, Exxon Mobil, Amerada Hess and Chevron. Mr Campbell, the head of the energy unit, recorded receiving a benefit of some kind more than once a month.

Public Bike Rentals - Paris

Paris is governed by a Socialist-Green city council (with a Green in charge of transport), and this 15th July, the city will introduce a system of public bike rentals called Vélib. There will be 750 self-service (chip card) stations with over 10 000 bicycles for rent. Each bike will have a basket, a light, a lock, and three speeds:

Customers will release a bike from the station by means of a chip card, which then lets them deposit the bike at any other station at the end of the journey. Payment occurs electronically. A customer has to load up the card by buying a subscription to the service, which can be purchased online, in town halls or at post offices. Using a metro ticket as a subscription will also be possible at some stations.

Commuting By Bicycle In Coventry

A bit of playing around with online maps shows that, based on cycling at 9 mph, you can commute in the following times, in to the Council House, in Coventry:

Wyken Community Centre – Council House, 3.1 miles (20.6 min)
Finham Park School – Council House, 3.1 miles (20.6)
Bell Green Library – Council House, 3.3 miles (22)
Tile Hill Lane/Beech Tree Avenue – Council House, 3.3 miles (22)
Holbrook Primary – Council House, 3.5 miles (23.3)
Remembrance Road – Council House, 3.6 miles (24)
Birmingham Road, Allesley – Council House, 3.8 miles (25.3).

And of course, you don't have to spend time parking, you aren't stop-starting as much as cars/buses, and you get a healthy amount of physical exercise each workday.

Grants For Coventry Arts And Sports Groups

The city council is relaunching their small grants scheme for sports projects, arts projects and the organising of local events.

You can apply for grants of up to £1000 for sports and arts projects and up to £250 for "those wishing to organise events in their local community."

Your application needs to check one of the following four boxes:

- Extend access and increase participation
- Increase skill and creativity
- Create better opportunities for local people
- Increase volunteering opportunities for local people

The Cost of The Olympics

Suddenly, the budget for the Olympics has trebled to £9.3 billion.

The most outspoken criticism came from Derek Mapp, the chair of Sport England. He said the diversion of £55.9m of Sport England's income was "a cut too far and seriously endangers the creation of a sporting legacy from the 2012 games. The true loss, he said, would be £223m because almost £3 is levered in for every £1 invested.

He said that in the best case scenario 186,000 fewer people would be taking part in sport. "Grassroots sport has benefits of reducing obesity and crime and the government spends £8.2bn a year because we are an unfit nation. We are the biggest tool to make a change, yet we are being cut," Mr Mapp said.

Helen Jefferson Lenskyj, author of two books on the impact of the Olympics, says that an affordable housing legacy is unlikely to materialize, and that, in fact, conditions for homeless and inadequately housed people are exacerbated by hosting the Olympics.

Her paper notes several interrelated housing trends in many Olympic host cities, including: evictions of tenants in low-rent housing, particularly in “Olympic precincts”; a significant decrease in boarding-house stock; evictions resulting from gentrification and beautification of low-income areas; artificially inflated real- estate prices; unchanged or weakened tenant-protection laws; the criminalization of poverty and homelessness; temporary or permanent privatization of public spaces; and temporary suppression of human rights, particularly freedom of assembly.

Cycling Guide In The Guardian

The Guardian has a very good collection of pro-cycling articles on its website today.

It includes:

- tips on how to buy a bicycle

- tips on how to deter bicycle thieves, and,

- Channel 4 presenter Jon Snow describing the danger to cyclists on London roads and how he feels urban cycling lanes should be a governmental priority

The government thinks that with the Lottery funding the admirable Sustrans National Cycle Network, they have done their bit for cycling. But in truth Sustrans is what it is, a mainly recreational, regenerative exercise that has made it possible for families and individuals to cycle safely across the British countryside. To a much lesser extent has Sustrans provided commuter routes, and only rarely any inner-city infrastructure. Some local authorities have scraped money from here and there to build small stretches of separated cycle way. But as a rule, the government has effectively given urban cycling no priority whatsoever in its thinking.

Nowhere is the war against the carbon footprint more important than in the inner city. In ignoring the need to build major cycle infrastructure, ministers are turning their backs on one of the more obvious solutions to both transport safety and global warming.

Walking and Cycling in Coventry

I've stood, a few times now, counting cars in morning rush hour at the roundabout where Earlsdon Library is. Consistently, you have about 1.2 people per car, that is, you sample 20 cars, and there are 20 drivers and 4 passengers.

What if some of the 24 cycled to work? Or walked, or car-shared? Or rode on an extra double-decker bus each hour?

We wouldn't have as much congestion. The air would be cleaner. Each of those former drivers would save on petrol and parking costs.

They would be getting to work on time (that's the thing with cycling and walking, you're in control, and you know it takes exactly 30 min once you leave your door walking, or 15 min if you cycle).

I've sent a letter to the City Services directorate at Coventry City Council, and copied it to Kevin Foster (Con - Cheylesmore), the cabinet member for City Services. I expect I'll have to wait until January for a few answers, but it'll make for interesting reading:

People in Coventry need to be able to make direct,attractive, safe and comfortable journeys by bicycle.More cycle journeys would relieve traffic congestionand reduce emissions. As well, cycling is anaffordable transport option for those most in need,amongst whom car ownership is less common.

I have some questions on cycling policy in Coventry:

- What has been the city council’s spend on cyclepaths/cycling infrastructure, as compared to spending on roadworks/road-related infrastructure? Can you provide me with figures for the years 2004/05, 2005/06, 2006/07, and for projected 2007/08 and 2008/09?
- What percentage of city council employees cycle regularly to work (say, at least twice per week) … and what targets do you have for staff cycling to work inthe future?
- What actions have been taken, if any, to encourage cycling use amongst private-sector employers with more than 20 employees?
- Will Coventry put some effort into the September 2007 European Without My Car Day?