Month: August 2015

A Heretical Idea to Help Aussie Mens Team

A heretical suggestion for the Australian Mens team selection for the fifth ashes test, some photographs, a section on the Labour Party leadership contest and a section on Carl Sagan.

INTRODUCTION

My title piece is about the current woes of the Australian Mens side, and I also have links (though not on this occasion a dedicated links section), infographics and photographs to share.

DESPERATE TIMES CALL FOR DESPERATE MEASURES

With the destiny of 2015 Mens Ashes safely settled I am going venture a very radical selection suggestion for them. At the Oval, on what is usually a flat pitch both sides would be well advised to ensure that they have five genuine bowling options available. Australia’s batting having failed in four straight innings they also need some depth there. Watson (although he is playing in a tour match at Northampton today) is out of favour, neither Marsh brother has been convincing and that is all Australia have in terms of batting variation available to them in their official squad. However, there is an Australian all-rounder in England at the moment who is in the form of their life: Ellyse Perry, fresh from playing a starring role in the Aussie Womens team victory in the test match.

I admit that this is a stretch, especially given that Perry’s stock in trade as a bowler is pace, and in the men’s game she would not be especially quick, but in the state that Aussie men are in at the moment the move could hardly make things worse – and maybe even if she proves unable to do much herself against the men the presence of someone with current winning experience will be a boost in and of itself.

Do I really believe that a woman could mix it with the men? Yes – there are plenty of aspects of cricket that are not all about brute strength and although, in spite of the premise of this piece, I would not particularly expect a female to be able to bowl at 150KPH I could see a specialist batter, a spinner or a wicketkeeper being able to mix it with the men.

A PHOTOGRAPHIC INTERLUDE

A few photos from in and around King’s Lynn…

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Earnest cleric to JBS Haldane "what have your studies told you about the creator?" Haldane's response "That he is inordinately fond of beetles."
Earnest cleric to JBS Haldane “what have your studies told you about the creator?”
Haldane’s response “That he is inordinately fond of beetles.”

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Butterfly with closed wings.
Butterfly with closed wings.

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The first of two ponds separated by the width of a Road.
The first of two ponds separated by the width of a Road.
The other pond, with a particularly luxurious carpeting of lilies.
The other pond, with a particularly luxurious carpeting of lilies.

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BEES

A very important and well presented infographic from 38Degrees that I picked up by way of Mike Coulson on twitter:

38D

THE LABOUR PARTY LEADERSHIP CONTEST

I have a purely watching brief on this, since I am principled enough not to have taken advantage of the “register as a supprter for £3” trick. This infographic is revealing about the voting patterns of the three long serving MPs in the contest (Kendall has only been around long enough to have voted on two of the issues covered, and utterly unsurprisingly to anyone who knows anything about she is 0 for 2):

Lab Leadership

My second offering in this section is a headline about an open declaration of intent to sabotage. If this is telling the truth those two MPs (no surprise that they are Blue Labourites Umunna and Hunt – and I’ll bet that the dishonourable Danczuk is in cahoots with them) should be expelled from the party – this is TREACHERY:

Sabotage Plans

I end this section with link to a piece by Molly Scott Cato MEP (as an aside born in the same town – Stroud, Gloucestershire – as me although a little earlier) which talks about one potential consequence of a Corbyn victory – a red/green coalition.

CARL SAGAN

The late legendary Carl Sagan was a superb writer and populariser of science. I was motivated to produce this section when I stumbled on a thread on twitter that had developed from a Turin Shroud picture overlaid with a great summing up of the religious approach, and then a Sagan quote – which led to me to extract some Sagan books from my shelves and photograph them…

The infographic that started it all.
The infographic that started it all.
The Sagan quote
The Sagan quote
A montage of my Sagan books - I have given Pale Blue Dot extra prominence because although any book by Sagan is guaranteed to be an excellent read this one is particularly special.
A montage of my Sagan books – I have given Pale Blue Dot extra prominence because although any book by Sagan is guaranteed to be an excellent read this one is particularly special.

The Great Outdoors

An account of the Ordnance Survey’s Get Outside pledge, the associated hashtag and my own activities in relation to that pledge. Some important links and a platinum infographic as well.

INTRODUCTION

The title piece refers to a scheme being promoted by the Ordnance Survey, which I choose to endorse by way of this post. I also have lots of other links to share, and a very funny infographic about the right wing Republican approach to religious freedom to share.

THE GET OUTSIDE PLEDGE

I was already moving towards lengthening my walks to and from the bus station on work days before I came across this idea being promoted by Ordnance Survey. For twitterites like me there is a hashtag, #GetOutside that you can use to publicize this. I urge you all to check out this link, and if you can make a pledge of your own.

Yesterday morning I got underway a little later than planned, but still got in a bit of riverside and parkland walking, while yesterday evening, my first post-pledge journey, I got off the bus at Gaywood and took a long walk home. Here are some pictures from these walks…

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Enviro-serve, the company running at least some of the boats pictured above were set up to provide appropriate vessels for people developing renewable energy – check out their “about us” page.

Now, here are the evening pics…

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"Cormorant Platform" at high tide
“Cormorant Platform” at high tide

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LINKS

I have lots of links to share, and so have divided this into subsections, starting with:

PREVENTION OF TROPHY HUNTING

This section includes three links in total, two petitions and a blog:

.RELIGION

This subsection also includes the infographic. Lots of goodies here:

A COUPLE OF PIECES ON THE LABOUR PARTY

Two excellent pieces about the current state of the Labour party:

ANTI-DISCRIMINATION

I conclude this post with a number of links that relate to issues of discrimination. I make no apology, given the current standards of behaviour of the DWP for including a piece about the welfare state in this section.

Navigators, Cormorants and Cricket

An account with pictures of a morning walk and a day’s cricket listening, some important links and a couple of cool infographics. Coverage given to the East End Womens Museum project along the way.

INTRODUCTION

As well as my title piece I have some links and a couple of high quality infographics to share.

NAVIGATORS, CORMORANTS AND CRICKET

Before settling into day 2 of the test match between the England and Australia women’s teams I was able to enjoy a morning walk, which featured the first two elements of my title.

NAVIGATORS

One of the things to be found where the lower Purfleet flows into the Great Ouse is a circular display with compass points in the middle and details of navigator’s round the outside. I created a photographic montage from pictures taken this morning…

KLNAV

Having shown you the montage, here are the individual pictures in their full glory…

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CORMORANTS

The cormorants were in their usual location…

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Making use of a freely available resource.
Making use of a freely available resource.

My next set of pictures feature the walk from the river to the library via the South Gate and the parkland…

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The library itself is usually worth photographing, and on a day like this doubly so…

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A sideways view also showing the top of Greyfriars Tower
A sideways view also showing the top of Greyfriars Tower
The top section of the tower.
The top section of the tower.

This is a part of King’s Lynn Minster that does not all that often get photographed…

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CRICKET

The test match currently in progress is going Australia’s way at the moment – England are playing over defensively having lost a few wickets. Australia declared at 274-9, with Jess Jonnasen making 99 on test debut. She shares this fate with Arthur Chipperfield in the 1936-37 men’s ashes. England’s principle remaining hope is Natalie Sciver.

LINKS

My links are grouped in several subsections, starting with…

THE INGLORIOUS TWELFTH

The title of this section refers to the fact that today is the start of the grouse season, a date referred to by the kind of rich vermin who get their rocks off shooting birds as “The Glorious Twelfth”. My opinion, shared by a gratifyingly large number, is precisely the reverse, and I have two links to go with it:

GENERAL POLITICS

My first link in this subsection is to a petition calling on the Gidiot (a nickname compounded of the name Gideon and the word Idiot for Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer) to stop using public money to finance private corporations.

My remaining two pieces concern the dishonourable Simon Danczuk MP who has today revealed for all to see how utterly contemptuous he is of both the members of his own party and the democratic process:

  1. The Vox Political piece that first alerted me to this story.
  2. A splendid piece courtesy of zelo-street on the same story.

EAST END WOMEN’S MUSEUM

This wonderful project (please check out their website) continues to gather support. The latest person to express a wish to be involved is Marie Proffit of womenshiftdigital. I am very optimistic that we will succeed both in getting a museum that really is dedicated to women’s history established and consigning the museum whose planning permission was fraudulently gained (which provoked this resposne) to the dustbin of history.

AUTISM

My first link in this subsection is to a piece produced by autistictimes which is a searing indictment of the organisation that miscalls itself Autism Speaks.

Finally, Autism Talk have produced some splendid stuff today, making this a segue to…

INFOGRAPHICS

Autism Talk

Autism Talk 2

Imaging and Other Stuff

An account of a day at James and Sons, with lots of lovely images, and a selection of quality links to round things off.

INTRODUCTION

The body of this post features today at James and Sons, but also I have plenty of other stuff for you…

BACK TO WORK WITH A BANG

Today was devoted to catching up on imaging for our August sale (two weeks tomorrow, Fakenham Racecourse). The day started with some coin lots done with the aid of the scanner…

72a 72b 73 73a 73b 75 75a 75b 82 82a 82b 84 84a 84b 87 87a 87b 89 89a 89b 93 93a 93b

After the coind there were some general lots done with the camera…

40 40a 296 296a 296b 359 547

My final items of the day were militaria, and involved both scanner and camera…

The next six pics relate to lot 22, which I scanned first and than also did with the camera to see if I could improvee the images.
The next six pics relate to lot 22, which I scanned first and than also did with the camera to see if I could improvee the images.

22a 22b 22P 22Pa 22Pb

Lot 160, done exclusively with the camera.
Lot 160, done exclusively with the camera.

160a 160b

Lot 187 was a scan job.
Lot 187 was a scan job.

187a 187b

Lot 199, back to the camera.
Lot 199, back to the camera.

199a 199b

LINKS

I start this final short-ish section with two pieces that refer to…

ATHEISM

First, a real life horror story concerning the fundamentalist Pat Robertson – I was sickened to read about him advocating that a grandmother take her grandchild away from its atheist father.

My second, at the opposite end of the spectrum is a really wonderful collection of thoughts from atheists on how they find fulfillment in life.

OTHER LINKS

Vox Political feature with this excellent piece about welfare benefit cuts.

This piece is from primepolitics is about something we desperately need – electoral reform.

A good news story from Sweets Way Resists, about bailiffs being sent away empty handed – yes!!!

For the finale, what looks like being a magnificent resource for anyone interested in autism.

A Sunny Sunday in West Norfolk

An account of a walk yesterday morning, the journeys to and from East Rudham, and Sunday lunch in East Rudham, with a subsection devoted to bees enjoying wild marjoram.

INTRODUCTION

This post concerns yesterday, and us set part in King’s Lynn and part in my parents village, East Rudham. A running theme is nature. I hope you will enjoy it and that some at least of you will choose to share it.

PART 1: KING’S LYNN, MORNING

It was a beautiful sunny morning, so I decided to take a long walk from my flat, planned to finish at the bus station in time to catch the 11:55 bus to arrive in East Rudham for Sunday lunch. Right at the start, the upper Purfleet yielded these pictures…

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South Quay then yielded a few more good pictures…

A gull swimming in the Great Ouse
A gull swimming in the Great Ouse

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A few minutes later came one of the regular highlights –

CORMORANT PLATFORM

The set of pictures I have this time indicate precisely why I have given this structure which sits at the meeting point of the Nar and the Great Ouse the name I have…

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Before leaving the river there was just time for a couple of shots looking back at the town…

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On leaving the river I headed through Harding’s Pits, which at this time of year means…

BUTTERFLIES

It is difficult to capture butterflies on camera, but I got a few pics…

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After this, the next pictures worth sharing came from near the end of the walk, along a stretch of river near Morrison’s…

My photographic comment on Australia's recent batting performances!
My photographic comment on Australia’s recent batting performances!

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A VARIATION ON THE USUAL BUS JOURNEY

A combination of a spectacular day and herd mentality increased the journey time to Hunstanton and the sea to two hours and rendered the Knight’s Hill junction with the A148 effectively unusable for buses, so the X8 towards Fakenham went by way of Leziate, Ashwicken and Roydon joining the A148 just short of Hillington and its first out of town stop. Thanks to this intelligent alteration of the route the bus was only a couple of minutes late arriving at East Rudham.

PART TWO: EAST RUDHAM

Following a delicious lunch of roast beef the afternoon was spent sitting out in the courtyard outside my parents house, until it was time for me to get the bus home. I was reading the book by Robert Bakker that I mentioned in a previous post – keep an eye for a review in the near future – and also endeavouring to do photographic justice to…

THE BEES

As well as being useful for bringing out the full flavour of lamb, the wild marjoram that grows in abundance just outside my parents door is much appreciated by bees. Bees are a vitally important part of the ecosystem and are under ever increasing threat from the combination of the insensate greed of pesticide companies and the cravenness of governments (the latter do not have the guts to stand up to the former). Their activities so close to where I was sitting were an irresistable opportunity for the only sort of shooting I am interested in – that done with my trusty Nikon Coolpix P530!

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THE RETURN JOURNEY

The bus turned up precisely when it was scheduled to, and until it hit the now customary traffic jam on Gaywood Road (at which point I decided to get out and walk the rest of the way) it ran exactly to schedule all the way.

PART THREE: KING’S LYNN AGAIN

In this last section I am going to share some pictures from yesterday evening and also the pictures I got of the bus station immediately before setting out…

The new London Connections map, one of the many things that can be obtained from the visitor's centre at King's Lynn Bus Station.
The new London Connections map, one of the many things that can be obtained from the visitor’s centre at King’s Lynn Bus Station.
On the reverse side the whole of the South East.
On the reverse side the whole of the South East.

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The front of the vistor's centre and the Lynn museum
The front of the vistor’s centre and the Lynn museum

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Focus on the visitor's centre
Focus on the visitor’s centre
The clock, courtesy of King's Lynn Civic Society.
The clock, courtesy of King’s Lynn Civic Society.
The barrier at stand C - interleaving Captain Vancouver and the Custom House.
The barrier at stand C – interleaving Captain Vancouver and the Custom House.

The 4th Ashes Test

INTRODUCTION

Welcome this little look back the test match that finished yesterday morning. I also have links, photos and infographics to share.

ENGLAND REGAIN THE ASHES

The third and fourth matches of this series have just about totalled five days (one test match that goes the distance) between them, such has the speed with which England destroyed Australia in both games. Previously England had won the first match comfortably, but were utterly monstered at Lord’s in the second. All in all, this means that England now have an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five match series. Given what happened on the Lord’s shirtfront the groundsman at the Oval would be well advised to prepare a pitch with some life in it for the fifth match.

In four successive innings Australia have had their batting wrecked by four different bowlers (never before has one country had four different bowlers pick up six or more wickets in four successive innings). The figures that Stuart Broad produced in the first Australian innings of the match that concluded yesterday still test credulity.

Both captains had good moments near the end of the match: Cook by giving the youngster Mark Wood a chance, duly accepted, to finish things, and Clarke by announcing that the Oval will be his last test match, thereby sparing Cricket Australia an unpleasant but necessary decision.

Stuart Broad deservedly got the man of the match award for his destruction of the Australian first innings which set England on the road to victory, while Ben Stokes’ sensational catch (check it out here) deservedly won the champagne moment.

A PHOTOGRAPGIC INTERLUDE

Here a few pictures from yesterday evening…

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This picture and the next two come from the same original but with different degrees of cropping.
This picture and the next two come from the same original but with different degrees of cropping.
A closer crop
A closer crop
The closest crop - a little blurred because it is so close.
The closest crop – a little blurred because it is so close.

LINKS

Not so many links to share as sometimes, but enough to split them into subsections.

PETITIONS

Three petitions for your consideration this morning:

A SINGLE AUTISM RELATED LINK

This piece, from respectfullyconnected is a heart-wrenching account of a piece of thuggery perpetrated someone referred to due to their conduct as “Ableist, Sexist Jerk” or “ASJ” for short. I am sharing at here, as I already have done elsewhere (twitter, facebook, google+) not in any hope that “ASJ” will see it but because it so outraged me that someone thought it was OK to behave in the manner described. The title of the piece is “Don’t You Dare Call My Autistic Son a Sissy”

A TRIO OF FUN FINDS

Switching away from the serious for a moment…

  1. A National Geographic piece about scientists successes and fails at fieldwork.
  2. A link to what looks to me be an excellent free resource.
  3. A link to quirky new blog, featuring Walthamstow among other locations, which I wish every success, called dutchgirlinlondon.

A SEGUE LINK

This is to a new find from this morning, which I got onto courtesy of a post on twitter by Jon Swindon. It is a blog called pollysshortattentionspan and it will no surprise to anyone familiar with Jon Swindon that the segue is to…

INFOGRAPHICS

This was the one that caught my eye on twitter.
This was the one that caught my eye on twitter.
And this caught my attention when I visited the blog for a closer look.
And this caught my attention when I visited the blog for a closer look.

An Autism Awareness Day Event

A brief, personal account of an Autism Awareness Day event organised by NAS West Norfolk.

INTRODUCTION

This is a brief post devoted to an event that took place at Gaywood Community Centre today.

THE EVENT

As someone who lives in the centre of King’s Lynn there was only ever one way I would be getting to an event in Gaywood: walking. Although principally concerned with locating the event I did get one pic en route…

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I heard the event before I actually saw it because they had a live music act performing…

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After briefly taking in what was on offer I headed to the main National Autistic Society stall, picked up a flier and took some photographs…

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I spent £2 on tombola tickets and £1 on a keyring (It was an NAS keyring featuring Thomas the Tank Engine – as an autistic railway fanatic named Thomas I could hardly not buy it!).

I did not stay terribly long, but I was very favourably impressed – while it was not really my type of event it was very vibrant and very well attended – well done the NAS. The homeward journey yielded another couple of pictures…

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RELATED LINKS

I will present these as a bulleted list:

Yesterday’s Big Finds

Some important and/or interesting links, some pictures, some comments about England’s ashes triumph.

INTRODUCTION

Although this post is mainly dedicated to stuff I found online yesterday, there are also some of my own photos from the morning. I am also working a little against the clock – can I complete this post before England produce the three good balls they need to win the Ashes this morning. As soon as the cricket finishes I will be off on a walk with Gaywood Community Centre as it’s final destination because of this…

AAD

Starc has just gone giving Ben Stokes his sixth wicket of the innings (back to back matches in which two England bowlers have bagged six-fors).

AUTISM AND DISABILITY RELATED LINKS

Just before I start on these links another update – Aus are now 9 down – just the one more to go.

My first link comes courtesy of a new find (for me), aspiewriter and is about new diagnostic criteria for autism.

Next, comes a piece from Autism Mom about the importance of trees.

My third, fourth and fifth links all feature themighty:

1)Their most recent newsletter.

2)A shocking story of discrimination directed against a young boy who needed a service dog.

3)A good news story about Ronda Rousey and Apraxia of speech.

A PHOTOGRAPHIC INTERLUDE

These pictures were all taken yesterday…

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ENGLAND COMPLETE STUNNING VICTORY!!

Yes!!! while I have been creating this post England have terminated Australia and secured the Ashes. The final moment appropriately saw the stumps being spreadeagled the way Australia have been in this match. It was Mark Wood, in for the injured Anderson who had the pleasure of taking that final wicket – well captained Mr Cook.

A FEW FINAL LINKS

Time constraints dictate a swift finish, so just one old petition, one new petition and one other link:

1)A reminder about the efforts to stop the vile misogynist known as “Roosh V” from getting into Canada.

2)A petition calling on George Osborne to stop selling public assets at knock down prices to his city cronies.

3)A piece for dragonfly lovers.

Now as soon as I have put this up it is off to Gaywood!

The Cockaigne Overture

An account of the launch of project to build a museum that really is dedicated to the women of east London. A section on London Underground that opens with some support for the workers who run that system in their effort to secure a limitation on the number of night shifts they can be forced to work and concludes with some quirky stuff about London Underground.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to this post with a triple purpose title. Those purposes are:

  1. A tribute to a wonderful piece of music, composed by Edward Elgar
  2. This is the first of several posts that I will be putting up today
  3. Also, some elements of this post will indubitably be springboards for launching future posts.

LONDON TOWN

The Cockaigne Overture is a musical invocation of London Town, and it fits with this post because this post is about London. There are two elements to the body of this post:

  • Some stuff about an exciting new project in East London
  • And some stuff about London Underground

EAST END WOMEN’S MUSEUM

This is the most important part of the post, being dedicated to the exciting project mentioned above. Before I get right into it, I must mention as an extra sharing forum my newly created second personal email address, thomasavsutcliffe@gmail.com and its associated google+ account. This project has grown out of the anger at a piece of vile duplicity, when what was claimed to be a museum dedicated to the women of East London turned out to be dedicated to Jack the Ripper. The first response, by way of 38degrees, was this petition entitled “Celebrate Suffragettes not Serial Killers“.

Then came the idea to create a museum that really was dedicated to women of East London, for which I offer the following links:

I conclude this part of the post by urging all of you to get involved in any way you can with this really excellent and exciting new project.

LONDON UNDERGROUND

Before getting into the two main parts of this section, I draw your attention to my series of posts “London Station by Station“.

THE STRIKES

The first thing to say about the strikes that are currently rocking London Underground is to make a point that opponents of these workers are doing their damnedest to deliberately obscure: THIS IS NOT ABOUT MONEY. The dispute is about working conditions, and specifically about changes in connection with the introduction of the Night Tube (as it’s instigator, BoJo the Clown calls it). What these workers want and which management have thus far refused to do is a guaranteed upper limit on the number of night shifts any individual can be made to work in the course of a year. To finish this introduction by I reiterate the opening point: THIS IS NOT ABOUT MONEY.

I have a link courtesy of The Independent to a really excellent article about these strikes.

I support these workers wholeheartedly in their struggle and I conclude, because this really cannot be over emphasized by saying one final time: THIS IS NOT ABOUT MONEY.

SOME OTHER STUFF ON LONDON UNDERGROUND

I have two links and some accompanying graphics in this subsection.

  1. londonist have produced a very interesting post featuring a map of what the Londinium Underground might have looked like had the Romans had the means to create it.
    Londinium Tube Map!
  2. Huffington Post have used the creation of new style tube map by a Hong Kong based individual as a starting point for a post that is a must see for anyone who loves railways, maps or (like this writer) both.
    LUM

I finish this subsection with a blast from the past – a jpg of one of the Metropolitan Railway’s early maps…
MRCCONCLUDING COMMENTS

I hope that you enjoy reading this post as much as I have enjoyed creating it. I also hope that some of you will share it!

England on the Brink

INTRODUCTION

Just a very quick post this time – a brief account of the second day’s play in the fourth test match between England and Australia.

BAD LIGHT DELAYS ENGLAND

Bad light has just ended the second day’s play with England 3 wickets away from regaining the ashes. The last time England won an ashes match in two days was in 1890, while Australia did it in 1921. Five second innings wickets for Ben Stokes lit up the latter stages of the second day. While a mid-series change is unlikely it is hard to see Michael Clarke’s tenure as Aussie captain lasting beyond the denouement at the Oval. Right from the start of play yesterday, when Aus were 10-3 after eight balls this match has progressed at ludicrous speed, but given the circumstances the craziest passage of play of the lot was just before tea today when Australia gave four wickets away in the twinkling of an eye. Adam Voges has to his name the highest score of the series by an Aussie batting at 4, 5 or 6 with 48 not out.

What both this match and its predecessor at Edgbaston have amply demonstrated is that the current Aussie side is full of ‘flat track bullies’ – they can score colossally when the ball isn’t doing anything (witness a combined tally of 820-10 in their two innings at Lord’s) but as soon as there is sideways movement they cannot cope.

Shaun Marsh, who replaced his brother Mitchell for this game to strengthen the batting twice threw his wicket away for next to nothing, creating the prospect of a baton pass from brother to brother back to brother in as many matches.

My final word for today is this: congratulations to the Trent Bridge groundsman for producing a wicket on which both bowlers and batsmen had a fair chance of success. We have had two days of superb entertainment.