Adverts and Imaging

INTRODUCTION

The title section of this post refers to today’s activites at James and Sons, but I also have some important links and quality infographics to share. On the subject of sharing, I hope that some of you are encouraged to share this post.

ADVERTS AND IMAGING

Today was productive, but not as productive as it might have been due to the fact that my efforts on the imaging front were interrupted by the need to send a couple of very basic adverts to the Diss Express and the Bury Free Press respectively about collector’s fair. A copy of one of the ads is below and I will provide links to the original word documents for both…

COLLECTORS FAIR AND AUCTION VALUATION DAY

WEDNEDAY 5^TH AUGUST

STOWMARKET FOOTBALL CLUB 10AM TO 3PM

A wide range of coins, stamps, postcards,
banknotes, militaria etc. for sale.

COLLECTIONS PURCHASED

Please ask for David James

Tel: 01328 855003 Email: admin@jamesandsonsnorfolk.com

Collectors Fair Diss CF

IMAGING

The imaging workload was nicely varied, featuring most kinds of item we sell save for militaria…

COINS

The coin lots I choose to share come in the form of high resolution scans…

68b 68a 67b 67a 60b 60a 57b 57a 56b 56a 53b 53a 52b 52a

STAMPS

The stamps were all in albums and hence required the use of the camera…

403 403a 403b 403c 405 405a

EPHEMERA AND TOYS

These items were also done with the camera, and apart from a few football programs I will sharing the full range. The items categorised as toys are actually as you will see collector’s models – not intended to be played with…

50a

This gazeteer is not in great nick but then it is over 250 years old

348b 348c
350 351 351a 352 354 354b 355 355a 356 356a

POSTCARDS

To end the section on today at work, some more scans, this time of postcards…

421 423 424 413 416

LINKS

I do not have as many links as sometimes, but they are all very important, starting with…

CECIL THE LION

This is a story about a self-indulgent rich bastard (I make no apologies for the strong language – I do not often resort to it) from Minnesota named Walter James Palmer and an African icon. The circumstances of this particular piece of “trophy hunting” – Mr Palmer apparently has a long history of such activities – have generated it vast international publicity. The lion was decoyed out of the protected area in which it lived by bait, shot with a crossbow and ultimately finished off with a rifle – all so a rich American could indulge his perverted sense of fun. I have two links for further information about the story:

1)This from avaaz

2)And this article in a newspaper not often cited by this blog – The Telegraph.

AN UPDATE ON “ROOSH V”

The campaign to prevent “Roosh V” from being allowed into Canada continues to gather momentum – here is the latest news.

VOTING REFORM

Just a single link here, to the Voting Reform Declaration.

VOX POLITICAL ON DISABILITY

Two excellent pieces from the ever reliable Mike Sivier today, both on the subject of disability:

1)This one about the assessment system as orchestrated by the vile American company Unum.

2)This horror story about a case of discrimination by association – sacked for being a family member of a disabled person.

A NEW DISCOVERY COURTESY OF A GREAT SUPPORTER

Autism Mom is a long standing supporter of this blog, and it was from her blog that I located the details of pucksandpuzzlepieces whose most recent post features tackling an assault course!

INFOGRAPHICS

My first infographic comes with a link this article on Discover…

Lizard Family Tree

Next, a return to the Telegraph – unlike the story which I am told was big and bold this correction was tiny and in the bottom corner of a page, so I am giving it a bit of extra exposure!

Torygraph exposed

Finally to end this post two excellent infographics relating to the Conservative Party…

Tory Bastards selfservatives puc

A Very Varied Day’s Work

Accounts of some elements of yesterday at work, some important petitions, a couple of autism related links and some cracking pictures.

INTRODUCTION

Apart from a substantial links section, this post focuses on yesterday at work. I hope that you will enjoy it and that some of you will be encouraged to share.

CATALOGUE OUT

The catalogue for James and Sons’ auction on Wednesday is now out in print form. It can also be viewed online at the-saleroom.com…

The auction will taking place at the Maids Head Hotel in Norwich, and those who cannot be there but see something of interest can bid online via the-saleroom or Delcampe or leave bids with us either by emailing admin@jamesandsonsnorfolk.com or phoning 01328 855003.

RESOLVING A QUERY

One of the tasks I was given yesterday was answering a query about one of our lots in the next sale. The request was for some extra images, and here is how I resolved it…

This is the image that is available online.

The selection I chose to serve as highlights.

LINKS

My selection of links divides into two subsections, a selection of important petitions and a couple of autism related pieces.

PETITIONS

The first petition I have for you comes via change.org and is aimed at putting pressure on Pakistan to overturn Asia Bibi’s death sentence.

My next petition grew out of a Freedom of Information request submitted by Mike Sivier of Vox Political regarding deaths following the stopping of benefits. I have two links relating to this:

1)The petition itself

2)An accompanying blog post by Maggie Zolobajluk

My next petition is one that has already achieved its original goal but is being used as a jumping off point for tackling similar behaviour by an authority in Kent:

1)The original petition

2)An article on kentonline.

Last and in the chief place among the petitions is Joanne Fowler’s petition motivated by the needless suffering inflicted on her father in his last years

AUTISM RELATED STUFF

My first piece in this section comes from Dr Lisa Sulsenti, who runs an autism related facebook group of which I am a member and takes the form of an open letter to someone who responded badly to an autistic child in a restaurant.

Secondly, here is Autism Mom’s latest offering.

AUGUST IMAGING

I conclude this post with pictures of some of the items I imaged for our August auction (26th, Fakenham Racecourse)…

This British made tobacco shredder is lot 340

A Wonderful Weekend of Sport

INTRODUCTION

As well as the sporting events that I shall be writing about I have some important links to share. Faced with more sport than I had time to follow I had to make choices, and with I settled on cricket and athletics (in the form of the European Team Championships). I will write about each in turn starting with…

A FINAL MATCH THRILLER

To set the scene for Saturday’s action, the series was level at 2-2, and records had been tumbling left, right and centre throughout. The actual result was pretty much a secondary consideration given the quality of the cricket that had been on show through the series.

NEW ZEALAND BATTING

Very early on in their innings New Zealand passed their all-time record aggregate for a five match ODI series, a feat that England had achieved in the previous match. For the first time in the series batsmen found it difficult to really get going, and it took some big hitting in the closing stages to get New Zealand to their eventual 283-9, the lowest first innings score of the series.

THE INTERVAL AND DUCKWORTH-LEWIS

During the interval between innings it rained, and it kept raining for some time (this is England after all). Eventually, by the time play was possible again there was time for England to bat for 26 overs, and the Duckworth-Lewis calculation (a very complicated formula that has produced the least unfair way for resolving rain affected ODIs yet devised) gave England a target of 192 off 26 overs.

ENGLAND’S CHASE

The England innings got off to a disastrous start, with three wickets falling in next to no time. The fourth and fifth wickets did not take a whole lot longer to fall, and at that stage England were looking down both barrels. Then Eoin Morgan and Jonathan Bairstow, the latter only playing because of an injury to Jos Buttler (scorer of the first and second quickest ODI centuries by an Englishman) shared a good partnership. When Morgan was out, England were still second favourites, but Adil Rashid joined his fellow Yorkshireman Bairstow for a partnership that gradually brought the asking rate back to manageable levels. Seventeen were needed off the last two overs when for the first of them the ball was given to a debutant who until his late call-up had been playing Devonshire League cricket. Bowling the penultimate over in these circumstances would be tough for anyone, and in the end the last over was not required, as a combination of fine strokes from Bairstow and Rashid and a loss of nerve by the bowler settled the issue.

A RAPID TURNAROUND

Just a few months ago England were having their all-time worst ever World Cup campaign, being hammered by all and sundry and being exposed as being sadly behind the times in their approach to one day cricket. To have come from that to even taking part in a series that is a jewel in the crown of international cricket (and ultimately winning it) is an extraordinary transformation. What brought this about? Well England were forced to recognise by the sheer awfulness of that World Cup campaign that they had to change. The new picks for this series were guys noted for 20-20 (ultra-short form) success. Also, however there has been an attitude change. In this series, England never went on to the defensive, there was never a period of seriously slow scoring. Even when those three early wickets went down on Saturday, there was no ‘consolidation’. In the second half of the summer England have another set of visitors from the antipodes to contend with, and it will be interesting to see what kind of account they can give of themselves in that situation.

EUROPEAN TEAM ATHLETICS

The European Team Athletics championship, which I watched on i-player, is decided on a points system. The top nine countries from last year, plus three promoted from the second group, do battle. Twelve points are accrued for winning an event, down to one for finishing. A disqualification in a track event, or a failure to record a valid distance/ height in a throwing or jumping event results in a zero.

In the end, after a some excellent results, and some very bad ones, Britain finished in fifth place, behind Russia (winning comfortably on home soil), Germany, France and Poland.

Probably the person who overachieved the most for Britain was Rhianwedd Price who, on international debut, came third in the 1,500m.

LINKS

CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT THE FAIRY POSSUM

This tiny marsupial is on the critically endangered list, and the campaign to protect it by creating a preserved environment for it is being run by The Wilderness Society. I have two important links for you:

1)The article which gives full detail about what is happening.

2)A petition which I hope you will sign and share.

WAR ON WANT PETITION TO CANCEL GREEK DEBT

Just a single link, which I urge you to follow up.

AN ACCOUNT OF A TRIP TO THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM

This is an excellent piece detailing both the visit and what was seen, and the differing approaches taken by Autism Mom (the author of the piece), the Navigator and Autism Dad. I have already shared this piece with my twitter and I am delighted to include this link to dinos-photos-and-his-own-world.

CONCLUDING REMARK

I hope that you have all enjoyed this post, and that you will be encouraged to share it. For those of you who have stayed with this post right to the end I have a final message…

TY3

A Sharing Post

INTRODUCTION

Although I have been out and about today, and have some good pictures which will feature somewhere, this post is going to be almost entirely given over sharing stuff from other people, as I have some fantastic links and a couple of decent infographics.

VOX POLITICAL AND A VERY IMPORTANT FOI REQUEST

There are a number of links in this subsection, which relates to a long running campaign by Mike Sivier of Vox Political. As well as some stuff from Mike himself, I have a link to a piece about the MP for Newcastle, who has weighed in on our side, and a very important blog post from Jayne Linney which I have already shared with my twitter followers. I hope you will visit all the links below:

1)The Petition – please sign and or share.

2)Vox Political first post – on Downing Street and the deleted emails

3)Vox Political 2nd Post – on DWP continuing dishonesty.

4)Newcastle MP weighs in our side.

5)Jayne Linney blog post “Truth Seekers“.

AUTISM

Two excellent pieces in this section, firstly one of the finest explanations of Asperger’s Syndrome (my particular form of autism) that I have so far come across, courtesy of Durham Regional Autism Services. The second link in this section is to an old favourite, Autism Mom, and her latest post on visiting these shores with the Navigator.

THE ABI LONGFELLOW CASE

Two links here, a Mirror article and a petition:

1)Read the latest article about this case.

2)View, sign and share the petition.

THE LAST FEW LINKS

I have three more links to share with you. First, courtesy of Take Part Daily, a story about the method used by inhabitants of one tiny island to tackle illegal fishing in their protected waters. Second, a piece in the Independent about the disgraceful treatment of Raif Badawi. The links section began with Mike Sivier, and we finish by coming full circle, to his piece about Tories deeming it clever to back Corbyn for Labour Leader.

INFOGRAPHICS

First up in this section is a graphic representation of TTIP…

TTIP

My other infographic, saved on my computer as “Sprawl-mart” concerns a certain US Supermarket and tax havens where it has shell companies but no stores…

Sprawl-mart

ANOTHER EVENT AT KING’S LYNN LIBRARY

Details of an upcoming event at my local library in pictorial form…

SOME PHOTOS FROM TODAY AND A CLOSING STATEMENT

I hope that you have enjoyed this post, and that you will be encouraged to share it. I finish with a selection of today’s pictures…

DSCN8012 DSCN8013 DSCN8014 DSCN8015 DSCN8017 DSCN8018 DSCN8019 DSCN8022 DSCN8023 DSCN8024 DSCN8028

Travel and Other Stuff

INTRODUCTION

As well as my title piece I have some links, and few photographs to share. I am producing a post specifically about travel because I have always enjoyed travelling and also because in honour of a forthcoming visit to the UK one of my favourite bloggers, Autism Mom

THOMAS ON TRAVEL

PUBLIC TRANSPORT AND SUTCLIFFE’S FIRST LAW

Not only do I not drive, I knew long before I was of an age to drive that I would never do so, so all travelling that i do under my own steam is done on public transport. Since I am now 40, my experience of public transport is long, and because I am British it is also not entirely happy!

The second part of my title refers to a law I have coined for travelling by public transport which reads as follows:

Sutcliffe’s First Law of Travelling by Public Transport – If you allow time for things to go wrong they won’t but if you don’t they will.

The practical application of this somewhat cynical ‘law’ is that when planning a journey where you need to be at your destination by a certain time you should work out the particular bus or train you need to catch and then aim for the one before to allow for mishaps.

These pictures of an RAF rescue helicopter were taken through the window of an X8 bus on the way home from work…

DSCN7486 DSCN7487 DSCN7488

IN TRANSIT

When in transit I either seek to enjoy the scenery (if I am not familiar with the route) or to read a book (if I am)

Another reason that travel is much on my mind at the moment is that my local bus station, which I use frequently is in the process of being refurbished. Here are a couple of pictures…

DSCN7133 DSCN7489

LINKS

My first link comes courtesy of Autism Daily Newscast and features some advice from Jamie Lee Curtis.

Next, we have a little gem of a post from my friends at Faraday’s Candle.

Now, a new discovery for me, seabirdwatchireland

Next two items concerned with the 50:50 campaign for gender equality in parliament:

1)A blog post on Huffington Post

2)A link to a petition related to the above blog post.

My final link, to end this section on an upbeat note is to news of a victory of a campaign in Hackney.

CONCLUSION

I hope you have enjoyed this post and will be encouraged to share it.

Summer Arrives

INTRODUCTION

As well as my title piece I have a variety of links, some infographics and some photos of my own to share…

SUMMER ARRIVES

We are enjoying the best weather of the year so far – yesterday was an authentic shorts and t-shirt day and today looks like following suit. On Saturday, which was prevented from rivalling yesterday only by persistent strong winds, Leicestershire played a one-day match (50 overs per side) against New Zealand. When New Zealand were 153-5 it looked like being a decent contest, but then Grant Elliott and Luke Ronchi smashed extremely rapid centuries to boost to the total to a daunting 374-5. Leicestershire were never in the hunt, and in the end only just got the margin of defeat down below 200 runs.

Yesterday, Leicestershire were straight back in action, against Surrey in the county championship, and although the turn around was not so dramatic, they again let a good start get away from them, as Tom Curran swiped 60 from number 9 in the order for Surrey. Leciestershire regained some of the ground they had surrendered when, Surrey having finally been dismissed, their openers then saw things through to the close without mishap.

INFOGRAPHICS

The first infographic (of a total of four) that I choose to share is this one on domestic violence:

Infographics two and three both concern the case of Stephanie Bottrill, just one of the idiotic delusional sociopath’s (IDS for short) many victims…

To end this little section a bit of humour concerning the Republicans…

PHOTOGRAPHS AND CLOSING STATEMENT

Just before ending this post with some pictures, I thank everyone who has read this post, hope you have all enjoyed it and that you will be encouraged to share it. The first two pictures relate to a Cosmos Up story concerning the possibility of microbial life on Mars, while the rest are mine, all taken yesterday…

Important Items to Share

INTRODUCTION

This post is going to be made up entirely of Links and Infographics (I have a lot of important and interesting stuff to share).

LINKS

TAX RESEARCH UK

Tax Research UK in spite of the uninspiring sounding name is often a source of good stuff, and today I provide links to two of their recent stories:

1)The need to eliminate competition from the NHS.

2)A piece about electoral reform, which connects to…

2a)This blog post from the Electoral Reform Society.

SCIENCY PIECES

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:

1) Faraday’s Candle on bees.

2) Oxfam on dumping coal into the dustbin of history.

3) An Avaaz petition about climate change.

SOME INFOGRAPHICS

A devastating comparison of the difference between actual inflation and rail fare inflation since 1994.

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.

Forty

INTRODUCTION

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.

Auction and its Aftermath

INTRODUCTION

This is going to be one of my ‘interesting mixed posts’ as John P Ointon of notesfromthenorth recently described one, featuring my main body piece, links, infographics and photos.

AUCTION AND ITS AFTERMATH

James and Sons had their May auction this Wednesday just gone, at The Maids Head Hotel, Norwich and Thursday was therefore tied up with attending to tasks created by the auction. I made sure that my database was fully updated with details of people who had bid online, produced a word document containing a full list of all of these individuals for our records and also made a start on the press releases.

The auction day was marred by the fact that the venue was far too hot, and for much of the day we could not open any windows due the noise of roadworks going on outside. Nevertheless, there were some good moments, as there should have been given the quality of the stuff we had going under the hammer…

DSCN6287 DSCN6290 DSCN6291 DSCN6292 DSCN6293 DSCN6294 DSCN6295 DSCN6299 DSCN6300 DSCN6301

The dog decides to sample the view from the auctioneers chair!

There were two items which stood above all else, and gave the themes for my press releases, lot 218 a gold $20 coin in a sealed plastic box which having been estimated at £1,000 actually went for £1,800, and lot 251 a Waterloo medal, which was estimated at £1,500-2,000 and went for an eye-popping £4,700.

218 251FC

One the Thursday, while prepping the press releases I assembled a composite of all the images I had of the gold coin, and I will conclude this part of the post bu sharing the full gallery with you…

This is the composite image... — This is the composite image…

While this image and the next five are the component parts of that composite.

218 H2 218 218a 218b 218T

INFOGRAPHICS AND LINKS

First up, my one stand-alone infographic…

A POST FROM AUTISM MOM

This wonderful post fully deserves a subsection to itself, and comes with some excellent infographics, which I have included here:

View Full Post

Autistic Learning Barriers Control 2

A WARM WELCOME TO MY LATEST NEW FOLLOWER

I have gained another new follower both for this blog and for my twitter account this morning, and I take this opportunity to share her latest blog post, a wonderful open letter to a fellow parent.

WIND POWER

Take Part Daily provided this superb feature on the possible future of wind power in the United States. As well as links to both the full post and the graphic I include a still of one part of the graphic:

1)The whole post.

2)Graphics

Wind Power

A FEW FINAL LINKS

I have three more links to share. First of all, this one from Vox Political on the DWP’s desperate attempts to avoid revealing what they obviously know will be a devastating truth. From Manchester comes this horrible story of a speeding motorist who killed someone, bragged about his speeding, and still only got sentenced to six years in jail. Finally, an important petition: El Salvador has one river still capable of providing it with clean drinking water, which will soon not be the case if one greedy mining company gets its way. I urge all of you to sign and share this petition.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Just before moving on to my final set of photographs I hope you have enjoyed this post, and if you have I urge you to share it. These last pics are all from a display in Fakenham Library…

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A Pot-Pourri of a Post

Some good links to various interesting and important items, an important infographic in among them, a couple of classic recipes and some excellent images.

Before I get into my own stuff, I have some links to share…

LINKS

I start with a series of posts about the general election that has just happened:

First up, the ever reliable Mike Sivier of Vox Political. It was also Mr Sivier who provided the introduction to the my next post, written by David Hencke. Another frequent source of good material is John P Ointon who blogs as notesfromthenorth and who provided a fine response to the general election. My final piece of election related material, given that the Tories have an absolute majority in the house on 36% of the votes cast, is a petition calling for a change in the system of parliamentary representation courtesy of change.org, accompanied by a graphic showing what the the break down of MPs would be under PR…

My penultimate link is to the petition currently being run via 38 Degrees by the Save Southwark Woods campaign.

My last link is to a post from Autism Mom.

IMAGING AND OTHER STUFF

A combination of two busy and eventful days and a sleepless night in between (following the election) has meant that I have not posted recently. I revisited a classic recipe of mine this week, my own customised version of Madhur Jaffrey’s Lemony Chicken and Coriander, although rather than using thighs I used a half chicken cut into managable size pieces with the aid of ‘the world’s sharpest knife’. This recipe featured, along with another that I have not used in a very long time in my first ever blog post. Here are both recipes in a graphic…

Kitchen Specialities

The ‘PR’ graphic I put up earlier of course is based on actual votes and not on how people would have voted had PR been in force (e.g. I voted labour in the general election for a combination of reasons which would not have applied under PR – the question would have been whether to vote Green – as I did in the local elections – or for the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition, TUSC). In view of the number of people who clearly did not vote the way they had told pollsters they would, here is photographic proof that I did precisely what I said I would…

DSCN4993

I have done some interesting imaging at work this week, finishing off the May stuff and imaging one piece of stock for the June sale that needed to be protected from damage…

These five images are of the medals that feature in lot 424A in our May auction. There were two pics, one taken with flash and one without, the latter of which was treated in three different ways and the former in two.

Flash No Flash - edited

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No Flash

These date from Thursday, now some stuff from yesterday…

The documents that accompany the medals pictured earlier.

The next six images are of lot 653 in the June sale (It was mighty hard to capture every detail of something so intricate as this, hence so many pics)

653a 653b 653c 653d 653e 768 768a 768b

ON SHARING

At the start of this post I shared various things from other sources, because they had made an impact on me. If you enjoyed this post I would be very grateful for you to share it, and I also encourage you to share individual items from within it if they particularly appeal to you. My final words, once rendered by the estimable Mr Bilbo Baggins as “thag you very buch” are embodied in the image with which this post concludes and apply to all who read it through to the end:

	GP on A Cornish Christmas 1: A Curat…
	Renegades Blown Away… on England Fightback Comes Too…
	The First Two Days i… on A Successful Auction
	Marizanne’s Mastercl… on From Victory to Rout in Two…
	From Victory to Rout… on An Extraordinary Opening …