Buzzing Around the Police Auction Site

Bumblebee - the police auction site where unclaimed stolen property is sold off to the public - is trying to get known again after years in the doldrums.

Avon and Somerset Police have joined with a number of other forces nationwide in an attempt to gain more profile for the site, the end of the road for stolen items which have proved impossible to link with their owners.

The site's low profile over the years have meant that genuine bargains have often been had by the savvy buyer - though the fact that the buyer collects may prove something of a deterrent to even the most committed bargain hunter.

Proceeds from the site are donated to local charities and schools and current items include 63 bicycles, a Phillips entertainment system, various power tools and a set of men's cufflinks.

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All Bristol's Independent Media in One Place

Bristol's growing number of independent media producers - writers, bloggers, vloggers, photographers and podcasters - have until now relied on diverse methods for letting others know they exist.

Due to the wonders of modern technology, the latest content from all of Bristol's independent media producers can now be accessed in real time here at Trym Tales.

The feeds on the right hand column are the latest offerings from the many blogs and web sites producing local content by local people. This is not a blog roll. It's a feed roll.

To qualify for inclusion in this diverse list, the site has to fulfill a few criteria. First. it must be written or produced by Bristolians and/or contain a significant amount of material with a Bristol theme. Second, it needs to be updated regularly. Sites with no postings since July, for instance, did not make it the cut. Thirdly, the sites need an RSS feed. Any such feed will do, but unfortuantely, there are a few good sites out there which I cannot include because they have no accessible feeds. For some reason, a few of the party political sites fall into this category, otherwise they would be included. Finally, I have tried to restrict the list to non-corporate sites. The Cabot Circus blog, if there is one, will not be included, for instance, nor those by the large institutional media organisations. The aim, instead, is to give a platform for genuinely small-scale sites written by local people about local issues.

I hope you find the sites of interest. Even a glance down the titles of these sites reveals a very diverse and creative independent media scene covering a huge range of issues, perspectives and neighbourhoods within Bristol.

I've no doubt missed many out that I don't yet know about. So, please get in touch and tell me about any that should be included.

Happy reading.

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What Next for Trym Tales?

As Westbury on Trym's leading independent online media provider (I know, the competition isn't huge), Trym Tales is committed to producing engaging and interesting micro reporting focused on events in the urban village itself, with occasional forrays into the wider Bristol scene.

In pursuit of that aim, I was intereted to drop in at the Bellingham Herald earlier - a local news site in Washington State USA which, if I've understood correctly, is completely user-generated (in the true spirit of Web 2.0).

This got me thinking about how Trym Tales could develop if its content were increasingly generated by a team of local reporters and writers, bloggers and vloggers rather than just by one person.

Quite a few things would need to change if that were to happen, but with the high number of free wiki sites available to use now, collaborative mutli-user-generated blogs and independent media outlets are increasingly easy to create and sustain - if the producers are out there and are up for it.

To that end, and to get the ball rolling, I wondered whether, among the massed ranks of regular readers, feeders and subscibers, there were any who wanted to write a one-off post on any aspect of life in north west Bristol.

Send it to me with your contact details and let's get some new voices into Trym Tales. Who knows where this may lead? You can make contact initially via the contact form on the right hand column.

Not that I haven't got plenty to say myself, of course.....

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Was Andrew Ibrahim a Colston's Student?

There is a growing body of circumstantial evidence suggesting that Westbury-on-Trym resident Andrew Ibrahim, currently under arrest under the 2000 Terrorism Act, is a former student of Colston's School in Stapleton, Bristol.

Factors leading to this conclusion include:

1. The financial background. If, as the Telegraph reports, Andrew Ibrahim's father was a consultant pathologist at Frenchay Hospital, and resides in an £800,000 house in Frenchay Village, it is highly likely that his sons would have been sent to independent schools. The alternative for Frenchay residents would be Filton High School, Downend School or Sir Bernard Lovell School. Those familiar with these three local state schools will know that they do not tend to attract the children of hospital consultants - the latter, for instance, being described by a former teacher as populated by "working class kids whose families do not appear to hold education as a high value."

Indeed, the exclusive community of Frenchay, situated on the edge of the River Frome and with its own extensive common, has very few state educated children in it of secondary school age. The high probability is that Andrew Ibrahim was educated in one of Bristol's independent schools. This narrows the field realistically to three - Colston's, QEH and Bristol Grammar.

2. The geographical background. Frenchay is located on the north east corner of the Bristol conurbation, separated from the rest of the city by the M32 motorway. Children who live there and attend an independent school have great difficulty getting to QEH and Bristol Grammar School because of the city's huge traffic problems. A one-way car journey from Frenchay to Clifton (where the other two schools are located) takes over 45 minutes during the morning rush hour. For this reason, many Frenchay families choose Colston's School - a mere ten minutes from the Village. Many families in fact choose the school and then move to Frenchay because of its proximity to Colston's.

3. The Google factor. Trym Tales has received three visits in the last 24 hours from anonymous individuals who reached the site by googling "Andrew Ibrahim Colstons". These visitors were based in York, London and Bristol. Apparently there are individuals who are making the Colston's connection independently and are looking for evidence or confirmation.

4. The Telegraph. Since publishing this post on Sunday night, I have seen the latest Telegraph article, updated on Monday, which states that Ibrahim was a student at Colston's School and includes a quote from headmaster Peter Fraser, who has obviously had his weekend disturbed, confirming that the suspect did attend both the junior and senior schools. Well known ex-Colstonians include rugby player Olly Barkley and former test cricketer Chris Broad.

5. Trym Tales Readers. The comments below add weight to the Colston's link and are much appreciated. Thank you.


Three Footnotes:

1. Everything in this post points to circumstantial factors rather than hard evidence and should be interpreted as such.
   
2. Readers choosing to refer to this evidence elsewhere on the Internet are welcome to do so and are requested to include a link back to Trym Tales.
3. Nothing contained in this post should be interpreted as a criticism of Colston's School.
   

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Police Continue Online Strategy

Following my earlier post about Avon and Somerset's use of blogs and web casts to engage the local public, I have been interested by a couple of additional online measures in the fight against crime.

The local force has for over a year now been a YouTube user with over 25 videos currently uploaded. Their profile page on YouTube is here. I've included one below - Dan the Distraction Burglar - which reveals that it's not all paperwork and form filling in the inner corridors of the Police HQ in Portishead as some frustrated animators are at work producing a creative vibe in the cause of crime prevention. I must confess I was a pleasantly surprised by the tone of the video with its combination of edgy graphics, dead pan humour and murdering grannies. As always, your comments are welcome.

Avon and Somerset also has its own Facebook page where fans can receive news about police-related incidents and watch police videos. In the slightly surreal world which is Facebook, members can also upload photos of police cars taken from a variety of angles and interact with other fans of the local police, some of whom have chosen to upload interesting photos of themselves considering the nature of the group they have joined.

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Free eBooks for the Holidays

Fancy curling up with an old classic on your lap top, PDA or mobile?

I know, they'll never replace proper books, but, all said, ebooks do have their charms. Especially when they're free - in the sense of requiring no payment and having absolutely no strings attached whatsoever.

Open Access is a corner of the Internet which is doing very nicely, thank you, and which allows ordinary web surfers in Westbury on Trym, Baghdad or Buenos Aires to access masses of free software and - the point of this post - works of literature.

All of the following titles are free and legal - you are not robbing the (long-dead) author nor will your computer be taken over by nasty software from the Ukraine. Honest.

So, for the holidays, please allow Trym Tales the pleasure of recommending:

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

• The Marvelous Land Of Oz by L. Frank Baum

• A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

• Beowulf

• Ulysses by James Joyce

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

• The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli

• The Iliad by Homer

• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

• The Art of War by Sun Tzu

In case none of the above titles appeal, why not visit Project Gutenberg and search their listings of over 20,000 free ebooks ready to download today.

Go on, try it. You know you want to.

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Avon Police Discover Blogs and Webchats

Avon and Somerset Police seem to be making strides forward in their use of web technology as a means of inter-facing with the public.

Two developments have caught my eye in recent weeks.

First was the new blog by Andy Bennett, Chief Inspector of Avon and Somerset Constabulary. It's a slightly curious contribution to the blogosphere. On the one hand it's got some interesting content about neighbourhood policing and citizen focused policing; on the other hand there's a post about the recent police protest in central London over the terms of the police pay settlement.

The posts are about one a fortnight so the feed burner won't find it too taxing keeping up with the blog's output. Nor, incidentally, do I expect CI Bennett's blog to achieve the popularity of that by the pseudonymous DC Copperfield whose irreverent view-from-the-thin-blue-line Policeman's Blog is an Internet phenomenon and looks set to propel its anonymous author into a lucrative book and (who knows) Hollywood film deal.

The second offering from Avon and Somerset has actually been around longer. The Webchats aim to bring members of the public face to face (in a virtual sort of way) with front line senior officers. It will probably do my Google rankings no good whatsoever to admit that I've never taken part in a webchat (unless you include that conversation I had with a technician from India via Blueyonder Support when my Internet connection was lost for three days.) The next scheduled one is with Inspector Julie Bowle and Sergeant Timothy Hill on all things police-related in east Bristol. I wonder how many Eastville and St George residents will be logging on on Feb 27th.

If I find out I'll let you know.

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