Unlucky 13 - the M1 junction's weirdness explained

As a frequent traveller to Bedford via Milton Keynes and the A421, I have often wondered why this road suddenly and inconveniently veers south-east and travels alongside the M1 motorway for a couple of miles before meeting it at junction 13, and then goes north again on the other side, adding several unnecessary miles to the journey. Having discovered that junction 13 itself in its original form featured in road enthusiasts' website CBRD's list of bad junctions, piecing together the various reader comments solved the mystery of the bigger picture and why the entire road layout in that area is a bit strange, so here is the explanation.

Why does the A421 go down to the motorway junction and back up the other side? Read on to find out...

The scourge of corporate liveries

Having previously bemoaned the dominance of Routemasters on the classic bus scene, here I explain why my interest in modern-day operations is also at a very low ebb. The 'big three' of Stagecoach, Arriva and First between them now seem to operate the vast majority of buses in the UK and with their corporate liveries and relentless standardisation, wherever you go these days the buses all seem to look the same. Ever more difficult operating conditions are causing more and more independent operators to either close down or sell out, and the big groups seem determined to wipe out all of the tradition and local identities they inherited in the pursuit of a nationwide corporate brand to satisfy their shareholders. The variety that once characterised the industry is long gone and I think the country is much poorer for it, not just for enthusiasts but also from the passenger's point of view.

My thoughts on the Clarkson saga

Unless you've been living in a cave for the past few weeks you can't have failed to realise that Jeremy Clarkson has effectively been sacked from BBC Top Gear and the media is awash with stories of a 'fracas' in which he is alleged to have punched a producer in a row over catering. As a consequence, the remaining episodes of the current series were immediately pulled from the schedule and Clarkson has been suspended until his contract expires and will not have it renewed. However, I believe there is more to this story than meets the eye so here I present my thoughts on the matter.

The death of Mondeo Man

It recently came to my attention that Ford have quietly launched a brand new Mondeo for 2015. This must have been a low-key event as the new model completely passed me and several other car enthusiasts by and I have seen little advertising, but not so long ago the debut of a new Mondeo would have been a cause of major excitement among company car drivers and fleet managers eager to get their hands on something new to show off to their colleagues. That just shows how marginal this once-universal model has become - the ubiquity of Mondeos was such that they even entered popular culture by spawning a nickname for the type of people who typically drove them, sales reps in the 1990s being almost universally characterised as 'Mondeo Man'. Nowadays though, it seems Mondeo Man is becoming an endangered species and has been usurped by 'German Saloon Man' as the traditional Mondeo users are turning en masse to 'prestige' brands such as Audi, BMW and Mercedes.  

Facebook friend frustration

I hope I'm not alone in my feelings towards Facebook friends - the sense of satisfaction when a friend request is accepted but also, more pertinently to this post, that feeling of disappointment and self-doubt when you realise a request you were confident would be accepted has been either rejected or worse still simply ignored and left hanging as a pending request. These feelings are even worse when you see these same people becoming friends with many of your friends and making you feel left out.

Speak English please, you're in the UK now

While I very much enjoy my work as a software developer and postgraduate research student at a university, the working conditions I have to endure are starting to get to me: an attic room that is always hot and full of fellow students who speak only Arabic, giving it the nickname of the Middle East. I have the greatest of respect for other cultures and this university is a particularly multicultural place, but I'm sure I can't be the only one who finds it rude to come to another country and carry on speaking your native language in the presence of those who don't understand it.

An architectural marvel? Surely not...

Following neatly on from the sad story of The Point, I have recently discovered that not only is the Milton Keynes shopping centre a listed building but the same honour has more recently been bestowed upon another site of even more dubious merit, which has left me quite frankly flabbergasted. Who would believe the city centre's old bus station has Grade II Listed status?

What's The Point?

A requiem for Britain's first multiplex cinema

 

An iconic local landmark that played an important role in my childhood has just closed after less than 30 years and is scheduled for demolition, so as yet another part of our heritage bites the dust I take a fond look back at The Point, the UK's first multiplex cinema. I'm sure I am not alone in having so many fond memories of that place: countless cinema trips, often to see the latest Roald Dahl or Disney animation, were part of the routine when I was young, sometimes with a group of friends as a birthday treat, sometimes just as a family outing, and the sight of that big red neon pyramid glowing against the night sky always filled me with excitement. Although I haven't set foot inside for years I can still vividly recall it: the wide staircase leading down from the entrance to the foyer with its central box office, the smell of popcorn, the illuminated signs above the auditorium doors spelling out the names of what seemed like exotic films I was far too young to watch, and the red tip-up seats.

The Point opened a couple of months after I was born so it has always been there on my many trips to Milton Keynes, a reassuring presence in this ever-changing city and one of the last links with a childhood long gone. It is such an unmistakable icon and one of the first things to be seen when getting off a bus in the city centre that it has become a familiar and accepted part of the landscape and things just won't be the same without it, although it has been very sad to watch its decline in recent years.

Cloud computing is the future for universities

This article began life in late 2013 as an answer to a question in an assignment for the Cloud Computing module of my undergraduate degree programme, in which each student was given a cloud technology and asked to explain how it could benefit the university, mine being Rackspace hosted services. My response was well received by the lecturer and I feel it has genuine real-world merit as a solution to the challenges of academic IT provision so it is deserving of a wider audience, hence my decision to share it here. It is reproduced largely as submitted but with minor edits to remove references to the specific institution that would be inappropriate to reveal in public, and the mention of Rackspace by name is not showing favouritism but simply because that is the specific technology I was given by the lecturer; other similar cloud services are available and equally valid in this scenario. Although this text is now over a year old, the situation has not changed greatly and most of the problems discussed remain contentious issues, so it is still just as valid as when it was written.

Facebook groups and the curse of the unavailable attachment

Something that has been annoying me for ages and shows no sign of being fixed gives me cause to have another dig at Facebook I'm afraid. I'm sure you've all experienced this - someone shares something to a group but all you see is this message:

Utterly pointless really - why bother telling you someone has made a post you're not allowed to see, especially as the comments then just fill up with people saying they can't see it. I know why it happens - the person whose post has been shared has set its privacy settings to something other than 'public' so those group members who are not their friends don't have permission to view it. As the person who shared it is likely to be friends with the person who originally posted it, they probably won't even know some people can't see it.