An important post from the owner of Autcraft, the Minecraft server for autistic people…
This is what I see from children who are afraid that their parents see them as disappointing, broken representations of the child they really wanted.
Source: The effect that blaming autism on vaccines has on actual autistic children
Accounts of England’s triumph in South Africa and of a local fund-raising triumph for NAS West Norfolk.
My title refers to one great sporting triumph and one fabulous fund-raising triumph, which I shall cover in that order.
An extraordinary Test match at the Bull Ring in Johannesburg ended on the third day. South Africa batted first and reached 313 without anyone managing a half century. England gained a lead of 10 largely due to the batting of three people, Root (110), Stokes (58) and Bairstow (45). South Africa had a tiny bit of batting before lunch which they achieved without loss, before things started to happen immediately thereafter. Stuart Broad settled the match, the series and the destination of the Player of the Match award in 10 overs which brought him 6-17 (I heard the commentary on the first five, but had to leave with South Africa score 67-8, and by the time I was back from my engagement, the last two South African wickets had fallen and England had knocked off their victory target for the loss of three wickets).
Molly, a barista at the Hardwick branch of Costa Coffee who has an autistic brother and whose mother is a former chair of NAS West Norfolk decided to do some fundraising on our behalf. She managed to raise £335.20 in cash which Costa will be matching with a direct payment into the NAS West Norfolk bank account, meaning that in total the organisation benefits to the tune of £670.40 from her endeavours.
We had arranged a presentation and photo-shoot at Costa Hardwick at 2:30PM today (not being clairvoyant I had not realized when I agreed to the arrangement that it would mean missing England sealing their series victory over South Africa).
Of course, it was not only at Costa itself that I got some photos…
Now for the fundraising pictures…
An account of a talk given by Georgina Sait of Contact a Family to NAS West Norfolk at the scout hut on Beulah Street.
I attended my first NAS West Norfolk event of 2016 today, a talk given by Georgina Sait of Contact a Family, a charity which exists specifically to help families with disabled children. As so often with NAS West Norfolk meetings the venue was the scout hut on Beulah Street.
Refusing to be daunted by a day so foul it simply did not appear ever to get light I walked, up to the Tuesday Market Place, out to the town end of Bawsey Drain, along to Lynn Sport and thence round to the scout hut, picking up a few pictures along the way…
The talk was done as a slide show, and the slides were very well produced, containing enough information to enable one to follow the talk but not so much as to cause sensory overload (I have seen many talks accompanied by slide shows but few where the slide show element meets with my unqualified approval). I will provide pictures of some of the slides, and also a few important bits of paperwork…
There were a couple of important print outs as well…
I have contact details, including a picture, and also a location map showing where their London HQ is.
An account of the creation of the front cover image for James and Sons February auction catalogue, complete with images, and som,e bonus pictures of very old coins.
The most important thing I did at work today was create an image for use on the front cover of the catalogue for James and Sons general sale on February 24th (we having a First Day Covers sale tomorrow, and a Postal History/ Stamps sale on January 27th as well).
My employer wanted a collection of weapons (museum pieces just to be clear) to feature on the cover, so the plan was to take one image of the whole collection if this could be managed. Thus, to prepare for taking the image, I cleared a table in the shop downstairs on which the items could be posed, reversed the display cloth on said table so that the plain side rather than the red provided a background that could not interfere with the image and set the items out. The lot numbers were 535 through 546, so I posed numbers 536-544 vertically, numbers 545-46 horizontally next to them and lot 535 horizontally either beneath or above the rest of the display depending on which angle one prefers (I have three complete images). Finally, to get sufficient elevation to get everything in a single shot I had position a chair adjacent to the centre of the table so that I could stand on it to take the picture.
I emerged with three complete pictures, a close up of lot 535 (which I subsequently augmented with an even closer shot of the maker’s name), a shot of the other bladed weapons and a shot of lots 545 and 546…
Of course I have done a lot of other imaging for this auction as well, and the items that particularly took my fancy were these very old coins (lots 101-14 inclusive), which I imaged a few days ago with the aid of the scanner…
Some social housing related links, pointers to some stuff on http://www.londontu.be and a couple of extra pictures.
This post has two main strands, pointing you in the direction of items on my website, www.londontu.be and also sharing links to some excellent articles on social housing in the wake of Cameron’s announcement regarding “sink estates” this weekend.
The social housing situation in West Norfolk, where I have lived since December 2005, is such that I was unable to find social housing for myself, and was only ultimately able to move into a place of my own by renting privately. Thus, my first concern with the Cameron plan as announced is that we have not been told what effect it will have on the overall availability of social housing (though we can all guess, given the Tory record on this issue, and Mr Cameron’s steadfast refusal to give a straight answer when questioned). The second and more serious concern is the laughable inadequacy of the £140 million figure quoted by Cameron if the intention was actually to improve the situation, rather than opening up another front in the Tories ongoing war on social housing. A housing estate a stone’s throw from my own flat in King’s Lynn has recently seen a redevelopment project stutter to a halt because £10 million proved insufficient for the purpose. More detail on the Hillington Square project is available on their official website.
That is enough of me on social housing, now for some links:
The Natural History Museum at South Kensington has a new exhibition coming up which is featured in this youtube clip, which I pressed on to my own website earlier today.
Also, nicely combining public transport and responsible shopping practices, here is a post about my latest London Underground themed purchase.
Finally, I have made use of the fact that the Dafabet Masters, one of Snooker’s triple crown (along with the UK and World championships), is now under way at Alexandra Palace by putting up an appropriate post.
This picture came via google: https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-rVSI8L_R9pw/AAAAAAAAAAI/AAAAAAAAAOQ/iOf_mQ2ABr8/s0-c-k-no-ns/photo.jpg
An excellent infographic/ meme.
This is another meme I found over on the over 18 site, 1000 Natural Shocks. It succinctly makes the economic point Mike over at Vox Political, the Angry Yorkshireman and many other bloggers have been making for a very long time: that it’s the poor that drive the economy by spending their money through sheer necessity. All the money the rich save in tax cuts is effectively thrown away, because they don’t spend it. The trickle down economics beloved of Thatcher and Reagan is a lie.
An excellent short video on the evidence for evolution.
At last! An evolution video that is informative and doesn’t have any big problems (at least none that I could find). This video, concentrating on cetacean evolution, might be useful for classes that give the evidence for evolution. There are some great photos and great evidence here. The video is made by Stated Clearly, which you can support on Patreon.
A BBC producer has admitted in a BBC blog – now deleted – that Andrew Neil, Laura Kuenssberg and himself manipulated the news to negatively impact Jeremy Corbyn during Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday.
In the blog, the producer – Andrew Alexander – openly admits the BBC team were not just reporting the day’s news but trying to influence it:
“this was a story where we could make an impact”
Alexander also admits the BBC team were fully aware that their actions would influence events:
“we knew his resignation just before PMQs would be a dramatic moment with big political impact”
And expresses pleasure in seeing the PM use their actions to attack the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn:
“we took a moment to watch the story ripple out across news outlets and social media. Within minutes we heard David Cameron refer to the resignation during his exchanges with Jeremy Corbyn”
This is not reporting news.
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The story of a failed pair of spectacles, plus a few other bits.
This post covers the new glasses in the title, a day at the races and a new badge.
This is a story that spans some months. First one arm came off the frame (and as the picture at the end of this section will show, refixing it properly was an impossibility). Then the second arm detached itself in the same way. I visited the Eye Man, an independent optician in Fakenham, to see what he could do, and as a proper repair job was impossible he did a band-aid job for which he did not charge.
That band-aid job then ceased to function properly, so eight days ago I obtained my prescription from Specsavers and took it to the Eye Man to have a new pair made. The Eye Man had an unexpected delay receiving a delivery, so it was only yesterday that I was able to pick up the new glasses, which by the way are a great success. In the mean time, the old frame developed one final problem at the tail-end of its working life – the frame had slightly warped, so that the left lens was no longer tightly held – and fell out several times.
I conclude this section with a picture of the defunct pair of glasses…
New Year’s Day was a race-day at Fakenham. I was staying at East Rudham, there being no buses, and attended along with several other family members. My mother had two huge wins, which between them left her some £200 in credit for the day (even though she paid for day memberships for all five of us), and all of us save one had a win somewhere along the way. I have some pictures from the day…
That evening my nephew set off some sparklers in the courtyard…
Yesterday was my first day at work in 2016, and a colleague gave me an old badge (I had earlier given him one of my calendars) which he had got hold of. As a public transport user and proud supporter of Bring Back British Rail I was delighted with this…
Links to information about a wonderful idea concerning London transport put forward by Sian Berry and to a campaign being run by Which?
I have today seen two public transport related items that I wish to share, one of which I have already pressed on to my London transport related website. I have also tweeted about both items.
The Sian of this heading is Green Party candidate for London Mayor Sian Berry. The suggestion that I am so enthused by is that the entire area covered by London Transport should be a single fare zone, so that people who work in London but cannot afford premium property prices near the centre do not also get hit by higher fares. For more details I have two links for you:
I wish Sian luck in the London mayoral contest.
Just a brief piece here pointing you in the direction of the Which? campaign to make it easier for customers who have been let down by rail companies to secure refunds (I still remember how much work I had to do when claiming a refund from Midland Mainline 12 years ago, which was so clear a case that they actually gave me more in compensation than I had asked for). To find out more, and hopefully sign up to this important campaign please follow the link below:
aspiblog 