I am a founder member and currently secretary of the West Norfolk Autism Group and am autistic myself. I am a very keen photographer and almost every blog post I produce will feature some of my own photographs. I am an avidly keen cricket fan and often post about that sport.
As well as my title piece, I have a few links to share. I also have some good pictures, so it will not all be text.
UPDATE ON THE GREAT CENTENARY CHARITY AUCTION
The Great Centenary Charity Auction takes place on June 28th, and after two hard days at the silo in Syderstone where stcok for this auction is currently being stored and an intense day of editing at my desk on Fakenham (today), virtually all the images are ready. Given the situation we were in not very long ago (the Irishman in the joke about directions would definitely have been saying that he wouldn’t start from there – and he would have been 100% justified!) this is little short of miraculous.
The VC in the pictures below has a particularly interesting history – it was stripped from the person to whom it had been awarded when he was convicted of several serious criminal offences…
As a very keen bridge player, this twin pack of cards naturally appealed…
My last set of pictures is of lot 537…
LINKS
Just a few links for you this time. Firstly, from the Visit Norfolk website, a very interesting piece about our region’s 1,000,000 year history of human habitation.
Cosmos Up, regulars in this links section have two interesting offerings today:
Welcome to the latest installment in my “Station by Station guide to London’. Previous posts in this series are available on this link.
MUSIC, MAPS, A MARKET AND A MUSEUM
Although Covent Garden is on the original 1906 section of the Piccadilly line it did not open for business until 1907. This may be because with being only about 300 yards from Leciester Square the need for an extra station there was not immediately obvious.
That said, as the title of thsi section implies, Covent Garden is a major destination. Access from the platforms to the street is either via lift or by climbing 200 steps (I generally choose this latter option btw since I am not a big fan of lifts).
The music part of the title refers to the English National Opera, housed in a splendid building in Covent Garden. I have not been there for good while but I remember enjoying a performance of ‘Simon Boccanegra’ there.
Covent Garden Market is well worth a look around. Also, adjoining the market, is the London Transport Museum, a place I have visited several times and which I thoroughly recommend.
Finally, as a map lover, I cannot mention Covent Garden without mentioning Stanfords, THE map shop. On the subject of maps I recommnend to those with an interest in such things the blog mapsworldwide.
Before I finish with a couple of pics, a couple of last comments:
1)I hope that you have enjoyed this post and that you will be encouraged to share it.
2)A reminder that previous posts in that series are can be seen here.
My first piece in this section comes courtesy of Patheos, and just before highlighting the link I wish (as someone who is a very strong supporter of theirs) to criticise them for publishing under their banner a piece by Russell Shaw in which he has the nerve to claim the American Christians are being persecuted. The piece to which I include a link concerns the use in science classrooms in Louisiana of a book that has no place there.
My next three pieces are linked, both being concerned with countering environmental damage:
A devastating comparison of the difference between actual inflation and rail fare inflation since 1994.This is our feature image.
DISABILITY, MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES AND AUTISM
This is my final set of links, starting with this piece from Jayne Linney. Huffington Post, a regular source of good stuff, provide this piece from Laura Roche. Although I am not an ebay user, and therefore not able to take direct action, I was of course thoroughly disgusted to come across this from Vox Political about disability hate products being sold via that site, and I urge those of you who do use ebay to complain loud and clear as VP suggest. This blogpost from Natalie Leal provides some shocking detail about deaths related to DWP sanctions. Finally, to end this section, a post from Autism Mom, which features Alan Turing.
CLOSING STATEMENT
I hope that you have all enjoyed this post, and that you have followed up some or all of the links I have shared. I encourage people to share any or all of this post.
Yes, another post in my series giving a station by station guide to London. I felt that it was not inappropriate for a series based on British public transport that after none yesterday there should be two in a row today!
A GOOD IDEA DEFLECTED
North Greenwich is one of the stations on the Jubilee line extension finally opened in 1999. North Greenwich serves what is now the O2 arena, having started life as the Millennium Dome. Unlike any of the other stations featured in this series (more available here) this is one that I personally have never used as destination, though I have passed through it a few times.
When the Jubilee line opened in 1979 it was intended that there should be a south eastern extension from the then southern terminus of Charing Cross. Unfortunately, a combination of obsession with the Canary Wharf development and the vanity project of the Millennium Dome caused the original plans to so warped that the new terminus of the Jubilee line is at Stratford, and it no longer serves Charing Cross.
By the way, although as a public transport user I am always keen on improvements to public transport, I do not automatically support. For example I do not consider that a high speed railway that only the wealthy will be able to afford to be something to celebrate, and neither does a cable car link between two minor stations seem especially impressive to me!
This is the latest post in my series providing a station by station guide to London. Previous posts in the series can be viewed on the following link. Enjoy…
THE SOUTH BANK OF THE THAMES
Waterloo has more main line train platforms than any other station in the country, is served by four underground lines (all ‘tube’ rather than ‘surface’). The Waterloo and City line, originally run as part of the London & South West Railway, opened for business in 1898 making it the second oldest of London’s deep level tube lines after the City and South London Railway (now part of the Northern line). The Bakerloo line opened in 1906, the second underground line to serve Waterloo. A southbound extension of the Charing Cross, Euston & Hamsptead line to enable an amalgamation with the City and South London to form today’s Northern line took place in 1926, making it the third underground line to serve Waterloo. Finally, in 1999 the Jubilee line was extended via Waterloo, although the original intent to serve the still under-equipped parts of south east London and west Kent has been warped by a combination of greed and vanity about which more in my next post.
Waterloo is as the above makes clear a major interchange. It is also a superb destination in its own right, being home to The Old Vic theatre, The Royal Festival Hall, The complex of the Purcell Room and the Queen Elizabeth Hall, The National Film Theatre, The National Theatre, The Museum of the Moving Image, besides serving as a good starting point for a walk along the Thames which depending on how energetic you are feeling could be stop at Southwark (Jubilee line), Blackfriars (District, Circle and main line railways), London Bridge (Northern, Jubilee, main line railways) or even further east.
To end this post here are a couple of pictures for orientation purposes. I have chosen (as will be general policy in this series) to use the Diagrammatic History rather than a current schematic diagram…
As well as my title piece I have some links and pictures (the latter connected with the title piece). Enjoy…
WORKING FOR THE GREAT CENTENARY CHARITY AUCTION
Todat I have been working on some stuff for the Great Centenary Charity Auctioin, the first running of which takes place on June 28th (another auction is planned for March). Most of today’s work was imaging small items, but there was also a poster to create, based on the fact that the Eastern Daily Press gave us almost a whole page in their Monday issue. There was an advert that we did not wish to display in our poster, so I occuipied that space with a picture of Lot 1 and some accompanying text…
Given the size of the newspaper in question this required two scans and then some clever editing to combine them. By the way the chap in red jacket next to the auctioneer is yours truly.The first individual scan.The 2nd scan.
There were some very interesting items to image, including a decorative piece featuring a picture of the Obelisk of Hammurabi (King of Babylon circa 1,700 BCE, creator of a famous code of laws)…
Lot 556 (the ‘Hammurabi’ piece) in fullFocus on the dish itself.An ultra-close up of the inscription.
My remaining links are both connected the same story, somneone who got a work experience placement at Job Centre and has produced a damning expose of the behaviour anbd attitudes of staff there:
This is the sixth post in a series I have started recently, in the form of a station by station guide to London. Before moving on to the meat of today’s post, here is a link to the previous five.
LOUGHTON
Loughton has been served by the Central line since 1948, but before that it, along with the rest of the eastern end of the Central line was part of the Great Eastern Railway. Nowadays there are only three stations beyond Loughton on the Central line, but as you will be seeing in a later post there used to be more. This is the first of the stations I have covered in this series to be on the Central line, so a mention of Danny Dorling’s marvellous book ‘The 32 Stops’ is mandatory – complete with link to snapshot review and a picture…
As a preamble to talking about Loughton itself I am going to say a bit about going there, for which I need to make some very brief technical points. London Underground (the correct name for the whole network) comprises two separate systems, the older lines (Metropolitan, District, Circle and Hammersmith & City) known as ‘surface’ lines whose tunnel sections were built using the self-explanatory ‘cut-and-cover’ method and the newer, deep-level ‘tube’ lines. The older lines were built to the same spec as mainline railways, while the newer lines are built for much smaller stock. Where there are direct cross-platform interchanges between older and newer lines the platforms are built to a compromise height so that there is a step down into a tube train and a step up into a ‘surface’ train.
My preferred method of getting to Loughton, unless I was starting from a Central line station, would be to get on to either the Hammersmith and City or District lines first, and change at Mile End, which is an interchange that is unique – it is a cross-platform interchange between ‘surface’ and ‘tube’ lines that is in tunnel (the Central line rises to the surface at the it’s next station eastwards, Stratford).
I first visited Loughton for a Geography project at school, studying the Loughton Brook. In spite of this introduction I subsequently returned of my own volition more than once – it is very scenic, both north towards the sources of the brook and south to where the brook flows in to the river Roding.
To finish this post I have a few map pictures for you…
This map has got a bit damp stained over the years, but it does reveal how much the central area of the network is expanded in the schematic diagrams that are usually shown at stations.
This map shows what the London Underground system looked like in 1950, just after the Central line had started serving the stations out to the then terminus at Ongar.
This is a blog post of my most frequent type – a title piece, some infographics from various sources, some links and some photographs. Enjoy…
A WET SUNDAY
Although the weather was far from appealing yesterday I did manage to get a decent length walk in en route to my aunt’s house for a birthday meal, and as you will see late there were some good pics to be taken.
The meal was superb, and there was some decent television afterwards.
I got home just in time to catch the final stages of the day’s play in the test match. England are going to need to bat very well to win (and with two days to go a draw is almost out of the question.
INFOGRAPHICS
My first infographic is an important ‘mythbuster’…
The next infographic concerns the requirements that the Tories plan to impose on strike ballots. Bbefore showing it I will say this: I do not think that those who choose not to express an opinion deserve to be taken into account, which is why when talking about the vote gained by the Conservatives at the last election I always refer to the 36.9% of the votes cast that they receive and not the 24% of the electorate that voted for them. Now for the infographic…
My last two infographics are both aimed directly at Mr Cameron…
LINKS
COSMOSOLOGY
Cosmos Up are a very reliable source of interesting material, and today the provide the first two links that I choose to share:
It is no secret that I sign and share a very large number of petitions. This, courtesy of change.org, is a story of a petition that has achieved the desired result, and I am delighted to share the celebration of this success.
PHOTOGRAPHS
I hope that you have all enjoyed this piece, and that you will share it. Here to round it off are some photographs…
This bird is so small that was very difficult to capture it at all.
Not a bad pic of something that is a quarter of a million miles away!
This is a different post from my usual style – there will be no pictures, and just the one link which I feel must be shared and which will feature at the end of the post.
FORTY
It is inevitable when writing about the number 40 that there will be considerable overlap with the detail contained in Derrick Niedermann’s wonderful book Number Freak but I hope that some of the stuff I come with is new. One of the things Niedermann talks about is the use of forty in ancient times to denote ‘a large number’ in which he context he mentions various biblical references and the tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves – which reference particularly appeals as I am the proud owner of both a four volume boxed set of the complete 1,001 nights and a Folio Society edition of the highlights.
SOME OF THE PROPERTIES OF THE NUMBER 40
It can be expressed as the sum of a square and a triangle in two different ways: Two squared added to the eighth triangle number or five squared added to the fifth triangle number (note 8+2 = 10 and 5+5 = 10).
It is both double and quadruple a tetrahedral number (10= 1+3+6 = the sum of the first three triangle numbers and 20 + 1+3+6+10 = the sum of the first four triangle numbers).
It is the sum of the fourth triangle and the fourth pyramid number (10 = 1+2=3+4 and 30 = 1+4+9+16) and it is also thus the sum of third tetrahedral number and the fourth pyramid number.
Another connection of two fours and forty is that four squared plus 4 factorial = 16 + 24 = 40.
WHY THE NUMBER 40?
I have written about the number 40 because today is my 40th birthday and I thought this would be a fun way to commemorate the landmark for followers of my blog.
THAT ONE LINK
I am sharing one link with this post, from Autsim Mom, who will be visiting this country shortly. This post was first published before I had started following that blog and I am delighted to share it now.
This post is the fifth in a series I am running on this blog providing a station by station guide to London.
HISTORY, ASTRONOMY AND DETECTIVES
Baker Street was one of the original stations that opened in 1863 as The Metropolitan Railway, the world’s first underground public transport system, on January the 10th 1863. Those platforms, two of 10 at that station (the most on the entire system) to be served by underground trains, are still in service today, and have been restored to look as they would have done when first opened. Ironically, they are no longer served by the Metropolitan line, which uses two terminal and two through platforms just to the north of the originals, its tracks joining those of the Hammersmith and City and Circle lines just east of Baker Street. By way of explanation I turn to Douglas Rose’s London Underground: A Diagrammatic History
The other two lines that serve this station are the Bakerloo and Jubilee lines. Baker Street is a division point between the old and new Jubilee lines – south of Baker Street is all new track, northwards old, dating from 1939, when it was opened as a branch of the Bakerloo, taking some of the strain of the Metropolitan by taking over services to Stanmore and assuming sole responsibility for intermediate stops between Baker Street and Finchley Road, and also between Finchley Road and Wembley Park. When the Jubilee opened in 1979 it comprised the old Stanmore branch of the Bakerloo and three stations south of Baker Street.
Reverting temporarily to the Metropolitan, those four platforms at Baker Street, from which trains go to a variety of destinations developed from what started as a single track branch going only as far as Swiss Cottage. It grew out of all recognition during the tenure of Edward Watkin, who saw the Metropolitan as a crucial link in his plan for a railway system to link his three favourite cities, London, Paris and Manchester. At one time, as my next picture shows, the Metropolitan went far beyond it’s current reach…
Baker Street is home to Madame Tussaud’s and the London Planetarium, both of which merit a visit.
Of course, no post about Baker Street would be complete without something about it’s most famous ever resident, Mr Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective.
I am an avid fan of the great detective, having read all the original stories and many modern stories that feature the great detective. As well as owning a respectable collection of my own, I regularly borrow books about this subject from the libraries that I use…
A remarkable recent find.The great originalsSome of my modern Holmes stories.
To end this post, along with my customary hopes that you have enjoyed it and that you will share it, a couple more maps, first a facsimile of the original Beck map of 1933 and then for comparison a facsimile of the 1926 Underground Map…
When Beck first produced a prototype of this map in 1931 his superiors thought that no-one would like it – but eventually they agreed to a trial of it in 1933, and now every public transport system in the world uses schematic diagrams of this type.
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