ÿþ<HEAD><TITLE>London Buses </TITLE> <META name="keywords" content="London Buses, Transport for London, Night Buses, Bendy Buses, Doublke Deckers, Desmon Decker."> <META name="description" content="Review of London Buses."> </HEAD> <BODY BGCOLOR="#FF9900" TEXT="#330000" LINK="#330000" VLINK="#FF33CC" ALINK="#FF0000"> <TABLE> <TR> <TD width=95> <img src="blank2.gif" width=95 height=1> <TD width=750 align=left> <img src="01.jpg" border=1 width=750 align=left> <TR> <TD width=95> <img src="blank2.gif" width=95 height=1> <TD width=750 align=right> <font size=2, face=arial,verdana,helvetica,bookman> No.74 Bus to Putney, Hyde Park, 2008, <a href="http://www.ravishlondon.com/exhibition/mikewilliams">MW</a>. </TD> </TABLE> <TABLE> <TR> <TD width=95> <img src="blank2.gif" width=95 height=1> <TD width=750 align=left> <font face=impact size=10>London Buses<BR> </I> </B> <font color=black size=2>@www.ravishlondon.com</B></font></B><BR></font> <font face=verdana,arial size=3> <!--<TEXT putting <BR><BR> between each para>--> <P>The red bus dominates the London scene, and maybe one day in some post-apocalyptic dystopia, when the Chinese have finally taken control over the whole of Western Europe, their first move to take any last hope from our spirits, will be to paint all the red London buses.... <P>The bus network the lifeline for the true working classes, those with little income, or whose income barely edges over their rent, bills and food. Without the buses, they'd have to take up cycling, and failing that they d be bankrupt. The buses save the poor from even further depravation. Lets face it, this is a socialist issue - under the conservatives the buses would be called a waste of tax payers money, we'd find reasons to streamline the service, make it more efficient, and the poor as a result would loose out, becoming worse off economically and more isolated. Mind you, as James Cross has pointed out, for a single unemployed person, whose cash income is between £6.50 and £8.20 per day depending on their age, the £2 cost of a return bus journey can be prohibitively expensive. In 2005 11- to 15-year-olds were able to travel free on buses. In 2006 that privilege was extended to under 18s in full-time education. <P>In 2007 Ken signed a deal with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, in which Chavez supplied fuel with a twenty per cent discount for London s buses in return for a team of experts from Greater London Authority working in Venezuela on recycling, waste management, traffic and reducing carbon emissions. Ken s plan was to use the savings to give tax breaks to people earning over five hundred thousand pounds a year. Only joking, his plan was to instead provide half-price bus and tram travel to some 250,000 Londoners on income support. Whether this actually materialised I don t know. Incredibly, the Conservatives, traditional standard bearers for Latin America s poor (who can forget in 1983 when Michael Heseltine famously bought about the downfall of Britain s timber industry by stopping wood imports from Brazil on account of the destruction of native Indian s habitat?), started banging on about how Venezuela s poor were being deprived of wealth that was being used to subsidise London s cheaper oil. The Conservatives are dirty slimy cockroaches. Venezuela is swimming in oil it has one of the biggest reserves in the world. The poor are better off under Chavez than they have been under previous US bedfellow government. <P>London s twenty-four hour bus service also helps night revellers to return home relatively safely and very cheaply. Taxis cost a bomb at any time of the day, but no-one wants to add another fifteen quid to what was already an expensive night when they can get a bus ride home for seventy pence. <P>The first buses doing the tour of London s streets were horse drawn. They appeared in the early nineteenth century and the last ones were still in use until the dawning of the twentieth century, when combustibles appeared on the scene. <P>The London  Routemaster was a bus designed specifically for London, and is an icon of London between 1950 and the early 1990s. The Routemaster had a rear entrance, where the conductor would sit and take fares, and a spiral staircase which led to the top deck. It inspires memories of people running to catch it as it moves away from the stop, jumping on the back and holding on the pole, which the conductor used to steady himself on. </TABLE> <BR><BR> <TABLE> <TR> <TD width=95> <img src="blank2.gif" width=95 height=1> <TD width=750 align=left> <img src="02.jpg" border=1 width=750 align=left> <TR> <TD width=95> <img src="blank2.gif" width=95 height=1> <TD width=750 align=right> <font size=2, face=arial,verdana,helvetica,bookman> The London Bendy Bus, Kings Cross, 2008, <a href="http://www.ravishlondon.com/exhibition/mikewilliams">MW</a>. </TD> </TABLE> <BR><BR> <TABLE> <TR> <TD width=95> <img src="blank2.gif" width=95 height=1> <TD width=750 align=left> <font face=verdana,arial size=3> <font face=verdana,arial size=3> <P>In contrast to the Routemaster, the bendy bus, which was introduced in the last ten years, has been the object of the public s antipathy. The bendy bus is rather cumbersome, being two lower deck buses stuck together by an extra large accordion, which allows the bus to hinge on a circular plate which rotates and allows the bus to bend as it moves around corners. The Bendy Bus has come in for a great deal of stick, mainly for knocking cyclists clean off the road, and for the fact that they have several points of entry, allowing people to avoid paying. London blogger  Diamond Geezer has also pointed out that despite being nearly twice as long as the old double deckers a bendy bus has a third less seats. So generally not welcomed and no more are being made. <P>The future may be hydrogen buses. In 2007 <I>The Register</I> reported that London Mayor Ken Livingstone had placed a £10m order for 10 hydrogen-fuelled red buses to run on the capital's streets. Five of the vehicles will burn hydrogen in ordinary Ford combustion engines which will power electric generators; the other five will use fuel cells to produce electricity directly. The buses will cost around one million pounds each, eight times the cost of a diesel. Hydrogen is a fuel that gives off water when burnt, so it means cleaner cities, although the creation of hydrogen requires electricity which invariably requires the oxidation of carbon. </TABLE> <BR><BR> <TABLE> <TR> <TD width=95> <img src="blank2.gif" width=95 height=1> <TD width=750 align=left> <img src="03.jpg" border=1 width=750 align=left> <TR> <TD width=95> <img src="blank2.gif" width=95 height=1> <TD width=750 align=right> <font size=2, face=arial,verdana,helvetica,bookman> Two Ladies With Headscarves, Camden, 2008, <a href="http://www.ravishlondon.com/exhibition/mikewilliams">MW</a>. </TD> </TABLE> <BR><BR> <TABLE> <TR> <TD width=95> <img src="blank2.gif" width=95 height=1> <TD width=750 align=left> <font face=verdana,arial size=3> <BR><BR><P><B>Eavesdropping on London Buses</B> <P>Bus culture is a relatively unexplored but socially rich environment and something that all of us, apart from those crypto-fascists who claim they don t like travelling on buses because there s too many people that smell on them, have an intimate knowledge of. Being on a bus often affords you a transient view into other people s world. If you are on your own and there are two people in front of you in animated conversation you can immerse yourself into their world, learn a little bit about their lives. Its great when its two people that barely know each other, you can feel the tentative steps both parties take into getting to know each other that little bit better, in cracking a joke, or in expressing an interest. It s like reading a novel. Sometimes it s not so much curiosity and nosiness that leads you to delve into others lives. Instead it s the sheer volume. This happens often when there is some guy or girl at the back of the bus usually in his or her teens or early twenties, with the speaker on the mobile phone switched on so that everyone can hear the conversation. </TABLE> <BR><BR> <TABLE> <TR> <TD width=95> <img src="blank2.gif" width=95 height=1> <TD width=750 align=left> <img src="04.jpg" border=1 width=750 align=left> <TR> <TD width=95> <img src="blank2.gif" width=95 height=1> <TD width=750 align=right> <font size=2, face=arial,verdana,helvetica,bookman> A Pair Of Legs, Green Lanes, 2007, <a href="http://www.ravishlondon.com/exhibition/mikewilliams">MW</a>. </TD> </TABLE> <BR><BR> <TABLE> <TR> <TD width=95> <img src="blank2.gif" width=95 height=1> <TD width=750 align=left> <font face=verdana,arial size=3> <BR><BR><P><B>Night Buses</B> <P>When the small hand reaches eight and the big hand strikes twelve bus society, fuelled by alcohol, begins to change. People enter a new state of mind, sometimes lost in their own drunkard whimpering and sorrows, sometimes extravagantly extroverted, showboatish and communicative, sometimes animated and aggressive. Welcome to the night bus. London night buses offer a deeply fascinating insight into the edgy violent emotional side of London life. Someone should write a film based on them. Youtube is full of great night bus moments and we have selected some of the best moments for you below. <P> GeordieHelen for example captured perfectly the kind of excitement you can find on a night bus, as ten people on the back of the N38 in Dalston in the East End of London embarked on a five minute long version of Heh Jude. For seventy per cent of the song, the revellers repeated the chorus, and for the entire length of the song a disconsolate looking guy, towards the middle of the bus, sat with his head in his lap in despair. From time to time you could hear a guy shout  shut the fuck up . It is the tension in such moments, the mixture of hostility and frivolity, which makes night buses such interesting places to be. Just one spark and laughter could end in tears. On this occasioned the laughter was left to burn itself out. <UL> <LI><a href= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYgeRz_4KF0 >An audacious rendition of  Heh Jude on the N38.</a>. </UL <P>As well as being a place where people can sing their way home, it can also be  last chance saloon for anyone willing to make a last ditch attempt for a mate.  Scootbenet secretly videoed a German trying to pull one of two women; clearly utilising the technique of reverse psychology to create desire in his potential mate. Said the German to the young English maiden,  I don t love you. I like you. I don t want to be your husband. The girl asked why not and the German replied,  You re not my type ; which was much to the amusement of one of the friends of the cameraman who found it hilarious that the German had been chatting the women up for so long just to say  you are not my type . <UL> <LI><a href= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwrsoeg_pgk&NR=1 >German man on the pull on a nightbus.</a>. </UL> <P>Each night bus has its own distinctive character. The N29 runs from Trafalgar Square and travels northwards via Camden and Finsbury Park towards Wood Green. The make up of the bus, in this case a rowdy mix of working class immigrants or sons and daughters of immigrants, reflects the make-up of the final destination. With it being packed and such, there is always a lot of noise, and chatter, with the occasional confrontation. Invariably there s some kind of aggravation as blokes who haven t pulled, keep a stiff upper lip, forget about their failures, and try to get their kicks through acting hard. Just the slightest touch can sometimes provoke. I remember on one occasion four stocky small Indian lads squared up to this black guy, who was twice as stocky and a little bit taller. They all tumbled out of the bus, and I saw the four Asian lads kicking shit out of the black guy. They all ran away, and the black guy got up and ran after them. The bus drove off leaving our imaginations to play out the ensuing scenario. As you get nearer to Wood Green and the numbers dwindle, in one in ten rides there'll be some guy, probably French, just recently arrived, drunk, trying to be friendly with everyone, who tells you about how crazy London is and how much he loves it. <P>The N43 in contrast, heading towards the wealthier and whiter Highgate, Muswell Hill and Friern Barnet, is usually full of comedian wanabee white guys, who buoyed by alcoholic excess feel the need to bathe everyone in their soon to be televised wit. Some of it is quite funny, but I do also find that that middle class scornful sarcasm sometimes gets on my wick. I remember one night there were two white guys dishing out the scorn and sarcasm to everyone, brutally insulting a girl with a big nose, safe in their little bubble of mutual masturbatory ridicule. Sat in front of me was this non-too attractive, slightly overweight, ordinary looking girl, who once her friend had gotten up and left, turned to her side to talk to the guys. She didn t know them but she had this amazing conversational confidence and wit. The guys thought they were on for a field day but she tied them up in knots. I felt privileged to watch it. The knockout blow came when she invited the guys back to her house for a blow job each. They asked her if she was serious and she said yes and that it had been a long night. The two guys were stunned. Eventually the girl got off at her stop, and whilst the boys shouted at her to get her attention as she walked down the stairs, neither of them ended up having the balls to take her up on her offer. Maybe they didn t want it, but I suspect that at least one of them did, and probably bitterly regretted not doing it. </TABLE> <BR><BR> <TABLE> <TR> <TD width=95> <img src="blank2.gif" width=95 height=1> <TD width=750 align=left> <img src="05.jpg" border=1 width=750 align=left> <TR> <TD width=95> <img src="blank2.gif" width=95 height=1> <TD width=750 align=right> <font size=2, face=arial,verdana,helvetica,bookman> Transport for London, Together for London Campaign, Hornsey Train Station, 2008, <a href="http://www.ravishlondon.com/exhibition/mikewilliams">MW</a>. </TD> </TABLE> <BR><BR> <TABLE> <TR> <TD width=95> <img src="blank2.gif" width=95 height=1> <TD width=750 align=left> <font face=verdana,arial size=3> <BR><BR><P><B>Dangerous Buses?</B> <P>A recent report by the London Assembly suggests that passengers report feeling less safe on buses than on other methods of transport. There s not much doubt about that, when considering the only other forms of transport are taxi (which rape of young girls aside), trains and underground are safer, primarily because they are more expensive and tend to attract wealthier people who are less motivated to want to pick on random members of the public for their own aggrandisement  the wealthy usually get these kind of kicks in the family home or at work  or by getting the poor to entertain and pleasure them. <P>So buses tend to attract your street kids, whose only source of respect comes from their physical presence in the here and now. This Youtube video shows a White skinhead nutter telling a bus driver to get out of his cabinet, presumably so the nutter could beat him to a pulp. <UL> <LI><a href= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpSTCtRDums&NR=1 >White skinhead threatens London bus driver.</a>. </UL> <P>In 2007 Transport for London launched a campaign requesting people to spare a little thought for others. The campaign involved four or two  butter wouldn t melt in their mouths sanctimonious little do-gooders smugly pledging things like  I wont shout on my mobile and  I ll offer that person my seat . The poster campaign was accompanied by a short film made by Oscar nominated director Mike Figgis, which was shown in cinemas in February 2008. The film tells four parallel stories showing how the travel experience could be improved for all, if people just showed a little more thought for each other. <P>The campaign is right about one thing. People can be awfully intimidating on buses. The worse moments are when you are on the top deck and an aggressive group of youths get on the bus. Whilst gang culture is prevalent in all walks of life, and you can find violent arse holes everywhere, more often than not the where an aggressive gang of intimidating youths is on a bus in north London, that I know about, it is invariably Black British males, with Caribbean heritage. The type that walk straight past the driver with no intention of paying, who stomp their way on to the top deck, banging the windows and smashing stuff up. They ve usually got their pants half-way down their arse and baseball caps on, waddling around like alpha-male ducks with a superiority complex. You can feel the anxiety in the air when they re on the back of the bus shouting their mouths off, laughing like they re possessed, shouting and cussing, and telling someone on the mobile phone  I m gonna fok you up . I guess it s what a life time of relative depravation and watching MTV Bass and gangster rap does to you. <P>I remember on one occasion two black guys on the back of the bus on the top deck. One guy, who from the sound of his voice seemed full of himself shouted,  Heh you, come over here and suck my dick. Heh, did you not hear what I was saying to you, come over here and suck my dick . He sounded so confident, and into himself, that when I heard the guy who he seemed to be talking to reply,  Suck your own fucking dick I was so startled and silently amused that I was more than tempted to turn around and see how the first guy was going to respond. <P>On another occasion, on a summer s evening I got on a bus to Dalston from Turnpike Lane, always a bad move in my opinion, because you pass right through the Tottenham heartlands. It was a summer evening and on the top deck there were a few tough looking Turkish guys, one outrageous looking punk, and one of those foreign guys where you don t know where he s from, but he looks like he s scraping a life together. I wouldn t mess with any of them. There were two or three little Black kids, who got on with me, and like me they went to the top deck. They were causing a lot of noise. The youngest, probably about nine or ten, was the most riotous. He started taking the piss out of the punk, putting on a Jamaican twang calling him punky. The punk two and a half times his size ignored him. Then as the bus was pulling past a barber s on a street corner on West Green Road, turning into Black Boy Lane, the eight year old, seeing a load of Black guys sat outside the barbers, poked his head outside the window, and started shouting  A whimba whey, a whimba wey and hurling racist abuse at them for being African. His friend tried to restrain him telling him the guys weren t African but Carribean, but this little eight year old would have none of it. He was like a verbal machine gun, so quick and witty, but also insulting and nasty, it was incredible. At the front of the bus there was this black lad with a limp who hobbled his way to the middle of the bus and started remonstrating with the kid, saying stuff like  Look I know we re both black and we ve got to take care of each other but have some respect, you re going to get yourself hurt behaving like that. But this eight year old was on another planet, whilst he didn t respond aggressively, he just looked right through his black brother  he wasn t answerable to no-one. Even his friends were just objects caught in his whirlwind of energy  that he had no intention of relating to. The older guy limped back to his seat. The young kid then decided to shout abuse at some girls, who had just gotten off the bus, who were a good five years older than him, who had been talking to him for a while, and one of whose arse he had tried to pinch. As the girls got off the bus the boy wanted to hurl abuse at them so he went to the other side of the bus and stood up on the empty part of the seat which the impoverished guy was sitting on. He leant over the guy to shout out of the window. The guy started getting agitated, and a mini-mayhem broke out. Things began to settle down, but this little kid just carried on. Then as they were getting off just before his head began to disappear below, out of nowhere he produced an egg, which he threw at the punk. The egg smashed on the window, covered the punk, and hit the Turkish hardman who was sitting behind him. The punk started tutting, he was quite disturbed, the Turkish hardman wiped himself off with a tissue, with a slight grin on his face. The boys scarpered. This kid s either got a career in comedy or a long-term jail sentence coming his way. From my point of view he was making me nervous as fuck even though he never said a word to me. It s difficult controlling yourself in that situation. He s only nine years old, you want to teach him a lesson for his own good . <P>The  Together for London campaign is as everyone knows a political stunt. It taps into and recognises peoples concerns a few months before the election but it is a completely ineffective vehicle for addressing the problem. Its effectiveness is likely to be zero. Anyone who feels a deep resonance with the characters in the advertisements is already likely to be a model citizen. In the middle there will be plenty of everyday people, who are generally respectful, who have their boisterous and girlsterous moments, and who will be sickened by the polite moralistic overtones of the advertisements, who will feel a strong urge to go and rip up some seats at the back of the bus in defiance. <P>The  don t give a fuck brigade, who the advertisement is aimed at are precisely those who take great pride in intimidating and irritating everyone else. Like I said, for these people the only way they know of gaining respect is through imposing their physical dominance in the here and now. Their psychology is that to spare a little thought is a sign of weakness, to make people scared of you is a sign of strength. Shame because thinking like that turns them into obnoxious little cunts, but those advertisements are only going to make them laugh. <P>Take for example the guy in this You Tube video, who was with a group of guys the police thought were exhibiting intimidating behaviour. The policeman asked him to calm down, and warned him if he swore one more time he d be nicked. And the result? The guy told the policeman to  fuck off  precisely because that boosted his street credibility  precisely because to have done otherwise would have been to have shown weakness. And what is this kid, precisely the kind of person these adverts are aimed at, going to do when he sees the advert? Pour scorn on it. <UL> <LI><a href= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNL-3c3Jihk&feature=related >Kid arrested on a bus for swearing.</a>. </UL> <P>Besides, the real problems on buses are not people talking loudly on their mobiles, or eating smelly food but physical, verbal and sexual abuse. Rather than wasting their money on chintzy politeness campaigns maybe backed up by governmental legislation Transport for London should fund public beatings of public transport miscreants  Taliban style; or as a more sensible rationale measure put two or three coppers or community officers on the busiest most troublesome buses. <P>I wonder if playing supermarket jazz in buses, melodious-like, would reduce the anxiety levels and aggro on buses? <P>Furthermore although you have to respect what Ken Livingstone has done as a mayor over the last eight years, benefiting the common man much more than anyone else would ever dare to, this  together for London thing rings a bit hollow when you consider the behaviour of the financial corporations which make up the heart of London. Their philosophy much like the philosophy of the meatheads on the back of the buses being  screw everyone else has only served to fill their pockets; turn the housing market into a hyper-inflated bubble, and reduced decent human beings into economic slaves of the system. Financial policy supported by the government of the day has been geared towards creating an hysterical orgiastic investment fest of  get quick rich  buy a house which is reminiscent of those  alchemy schemes that slimy con artists tend to play on stupid and desperate working class people in deprived northern towns. On the subject of 'together for London' how about four little patronising businessmen smugly pledging:<UL> <LI>I'll lend the public's money responsibly so as not to artificially inflate the value of the housing market and not to jeapordise the nation's economy.<LI>I wont spend copious amounts of money on call-girls and prostitutes, a great number of which were sexually abused as children and agressively forced into the prostitution business.<LI>I wont use my economic wealth to undermine the principle of political equality which underpins 'one person one vote' by making political donations to the Labour and Conservative Party in return for policies which favour my personal business interests.<LI>And I'll stop transferring all my savings to off-shore tax free bank accounts, which enable me to avoid making contributions to the public purse, from which general improvements in the public's life are funded, whilst still benefitting from those improvements. </UL> </TABLE> <BR><BR> <TABLE> <TR> <TD width=95> <img src="blank2.gif" width=95 height=1> <TD width=750 align=left> <img src="06.jpg" border=1 width=750 align=left> <TR> <TD width=95> <img src="blank2.gif" width=95 height=1> <TD width=750 align=right> <font size=2, face=arial,verdana,helvetica,bookman> A Bus Depot, Paddington, 2008, <a href="http://www.ravishlondon.com/exhibition/mikewilliams">MW</a>. </TD> </TABLE> <BR><BR> <TABLE> <TR> <TD width=95> <img src="blank2.gif" width=95 height=1> <TD width=750 align=left> <font face=verdana,arial size=3> <BR><BR><P><B>Open Top Buses</B> <P>In February 2008, the top of a double decker bus, which had been redirected away from Camden, due to the recent fire at the market, was completely ripped off, when it tried to pass under a bridge between Hampstead Heath and Pimlico. View the BBC reference below for a great photo. According to the BBC website, a passenger called Richard commented,  There were road markings on the bridge and on the road telling drivers to keep to the middle, but I saw the bus go into the wall. All the windows popped out and the roof just peeled back about half way. The people at the back had time to duck and were protected by the chairs. <BR><BR><P><B>Bus Fares</B> <P>The bus fares in London are some of the cheapest in UK cities. It s only seventy pence for a single. Nevertheless a lot of people like to try and dodge paying fairs, especially when they get on to the bendy buses, which have no conductor, and which rely on the good faith of the commuter to purchase a ticket or swipe his Oyster card on the bus readers. The fine for not paying is twenty pounds. <I>Time Out</I> reported that 45,150 passengers were given a twenty pound penalty fare in 2006. <P>Visit Ravish London <a href="http://www.ravishlondon.com/londonbuses/gallery.htm">'Back of the Bus'</a> gallery. <BR><BR><P><B>References</B> <UL> <LI><a href= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7238711.stm >BBC News (2008) Six hurt as roof ripped from bus</a> <LI>Lazarus, D. (2007) (He s not) got a ticket to ride, <I>Time Out</I>, October-November 2007, p.11. <LI><a href= http://21stcenturysocialism.com/article/red_buses_01421.html >Cross, J. (2007) Red Buses, <I>21st Century Socialism</I>.</a> <LI><a href= http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/479d0a60-4f38-11dc-b485-0000779fd2ac,dwp_uuid=b975eba6-d314-11dc-b861-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1 > Burgis, T. and Mahtani, D. (2007) Chavez oil dollars buy bus tickets for London, <I>Financial Times</I>.</a> <LI><a href= http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/15/london_hydrogen_bus_chavez_bitchslap/ >Page, L. (2007) Mayor Ken buys hydrogen buses for London: Possible break with Chavez?, <I>The Register</I>.</a> <LI><a href= http://www.londonbusroutes.net/ >London Bus Routes</a> <LI><a href= http://www.aqoul.com/archives/2007/07/post_7.php > Aquol (2007) Eavesdropping on London Buses and Other Political Pastimes, July 16th 2007.</a> <LI><a href= http://lndn.blogspot.com/2004_12_01_lndn_archive.html >Ten reasons why bendy buses are rubbish, Diamond Geezer, December 27th 2004.</a> </UL> </TABLE> <BR><BR><BR> <SCRIPT charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=US&ID=V20070822/US/ravilond-20/8002/c6ab97f4-c9e8-44d9-9de5-efd065579563"> </SCRIPT> <NOSCRIPT><A HREF="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=US&ID=V20070822%2FUS%2Fravilond-20%2F8002%2Fc6ab97f4-c9e8-44d9-9de5-efd065579563&Operation=NoScript">Amazon.com Widgets</A></NOSCRIPT> <BR><BR><BR> <script type="text/javascript"><!-- amazon_ad_tag = "ravilond-20"; amazon_ad_width = "600"; amazon_ad_height = "520"; amazon_ad_discount = "remove"; amazon_color_background = "F7850A"; amazon_color_link = "0E0F10"; amazon_color_price = "0E0101"; amazon_color_logo = "1A1005";//--></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/s/ads.js"></script> </body>