The company that manufactures the Oyster cards for London has lost its contract due to its connection with the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe.

The Spectator (obvious Boris link alert) says: “This is welcome news, companies that work with the Mugabe regime should pay a heavy price for their actions.”

The Evening Standard (linked above) reports:

Human rights campaigners War On Want urged the millions of Londoners who regularly use Oyster cards to boycott them until the contract comes to an end next month.

Charity spokesman Paul Collins said: “For those who can afford it it shows empathy with the people suffering in Zimbabwe…

This might have been worthwhile whilst the contract was up for renewal, but right now, it seems rather self-defeating.

In other Boris News, there were reports a couple of weeks ago that there are plans to raise London’s lost rivers, as well as creating cycle superhighways. To me, the first sounds pricey (but very cool) - lots of buildings in the way! The second sounds much more achievable - that’s a matter of some signage and bollards).

A new documentary has been made about a guy who walked a tightrope between the twin towers of the World Trade Centre.

The film is called ‘Man on Wire‘ and is described as a ‘Heist’ film, due to the difficulty of setting up the stunt.

The film website is here.

Don S Davis has passed away, aged 65, of a heart attack. He was best known for playing General Hammond in Stargate SG1.

Dear Fans and Friends of Don S. Davis,

So many of you have been touched by not only the work and art of Don S. Davis, but by the man himself, who always took the time to be with you at the appearances he loved, that it is with a tremendous sense of loss I must share with you that Don passed away from a massive heart attack on Sunday morning, June 29th.

On behalf of his family and wife, Ruby, we thank you for your prayers and condolences. A family memorial where Don’s ashes will be scattered in the ocean will take place in a few weeks, and should you wish to, please make a donation to the American Heart Association in Don’s memory.

With regard to Google Mapmaker I’ve done a before and after shot of the area around Reykjavïk. On the left is the shot of google maps as it stood a few minutes ago. Blank.

On the right is mapmaker - the data here, once it is more consistent and complete should find its way over to google maps proper.

Google has opened up its mapping software for certain areas. It can be a little clunky at times (the list of edits I’ve made isn’t exhaustive, if something is awaiting moderation it cannot be tweaked easily and so on). It’s not always clear what the road classifications are supposed to be - but I’m working on the basis that if I put in a best guess, it can always be tweaked if not quite right.

Nevertheless, it can be fun, as well as useful (I’ve been mapping Iceland, I’ve done a lake, Klerfarvatn, a glacier, and lots of roads concentrating around the Blue Lagoon and Grindav&iaciute;k in the south west). Some of my changes have been accepted immediately, some depend on other changes, and so are pending, and some are in moderation awaiting checking.

Maps are currently editable in a few areas, probably selected for the lack of existing map features, so if the mapping experiment fails, google can delete the mapping info and be back to where they started.

The areas editable right now are: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Grenada, Iceland, Jamaica, Netherlands Antilles, Pakistan, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Vietnam.

Even changes which are approved take a little while to be rendered and appear on the maps - this is especially true for some large features.