All Time XIs – Match Ups 55

Continuing my extended analysis of how the all time XIs I created for each letter of the alphabet. Also a couple og bonus features in addition to the regular photo gallery.

Welcome to the latest instalment in my extended analysis of how my all time XIs fare against one another. This is the first of two posts which between them will cover every match up in which the Ps come alphabetically first. They have 49 out of 75 points coming into the spotlight. There are also a couple of bonus features, after the main body of the post and before the final photograph gallery.

THE Ps V THE Qs

Close contests involving the Qs have been rare in this series, and this one does not buck that trend in any way. The Ps absolutely boss the batting, have the better captain, the better keeper and a far better pace attack. Only in spin bowling are the Qs possibly ahead, and if they do have an advantage there it is not enough to alter the scoreline: Ps 5, Qs 0.

THE Ps V THE Rs

The Rs have the better opening partnership – Rogers clearly outranks Petersen, while no lesser person than Sir Donald Bradman, an Aussie team mat of Ponsford to boot, rated Barry Richards ahead of Ponsford. Ponting outranks Viv Richards, though not by much, while Root’s larger sample size does not wipe out a 10.83 run per innings gap in batting averages between him and G Pollock. Pietersen would seem to outrank Ranjitsinhji, but the latter played in an era when batting was more difficult, with pitches often treacherous, and Ranji got no easy opponents to cash in on (all his tests were played against Australia). Pant outranks Robins with the bat, while the latter is on a par with Procter as a skipper and outranks Prasanna as a bowler. Procter outbats Russell, while the latter was a finer keeper than Pant, and Procter is up there with any of the Rs fast bowlers, as great as they are. S Pollock outranks Roberts in both departments, while Rabada marginally outranks P Pollock as a bowler. Rhodes undoubtedly outranks Parker as a left arm spinner. The Rs are ahead in batting and keeping and about even in fast bowling, the Ps have an advantage in spin bowling. This is close, but I think that the the Rs are just winning it: Ps 2, Rs 3.

THE Ps V THE Ss

The Ss have the better opening pair – Sutcliffe was a near contemporary of Ponsford and outdid him at the highest level, while Strauss definitely outranks Petersen. Ponting wins the number three slot, bu G Pollock outranks S Smith – all evidence points to Pollock being on an upward trajectory when the curtain came down on SA’s first period as a test playing nation. Sangakkara outranks Pietersen with the bat, but Pant rates higher than him with the gloves. Sobers wins his batting match up with Pant, and has no bowling equivalent in the Ps ranks, though Parker was a finer exponent of left arm orthodox spin. Stokes wins the batting match up with Procter, but the Saffa was a much greater bowler than Stokes. Stevens outranks S Pollock as a batter, and marginally loses the nearest bowling match up for him, against Prasanna. The pace bowling is quite close in terms of the front liners – the Rs are a little better on averages, but the Ss have Starc’s left arm to add variety. Also, the Ss have back up in that department in the form of Stokes and the quicker versions of Sobers the bowler, which tips the scales in their favour in that department. The Ss thus win on batting and pace/ seam bowling, tie on captaincy, lose narrowly on spin bowling and heavily on keeping. I think the Ss are winning, and score this Ps 2, Ss 3.

THE Ps V THE Ts

The Ts have the better opening pair – Trumper’s average of 39.04 on Victorian and Edwardian pitches is a more impressive achievement than Ponsford’s 48.22 on the shirtfronts of the interwar era, and ‘tubs’ Taylor clearly outranks Petersen. Ponting wins the batting match up at three, but Tarrant offers a bowling option comparable to Parker in quality. The number four batting match up is a draw, featuring two all time greats of the game. Superficially Pietersen seems to have Thorpe beaten in the number five slot, but Pietersen had a lot more support from the rest of the order than Thorpe, so I am giving Thorpe the verdict. Ross Taylor outranks Pant with the bat, while Bob Taylor was much better keeper. Procter outranks Bob Taylor with the bat, and also wins the bowling match up against Thomson. S Pollock outranks Trumble with the bat, but is outranked by Trueman with the ball, Peter Pollock just loses his match up against the even quicker Frank Tyson, and Trumble comfortably outpoints Prasanna in the battle of the off spinners. It is close with the bat, and in the fast bowling department, both sides are well captained, but the Ts have clear advantages in keeping and spin bowling, so I give them a narrow win in the contest: Ps 2, Ts 3.

THE Ps V THE Us

The Ps have an overwhelming superiority in batting and fast bowling, the better keeper and a captain at least the equal of his opposite number in that role. Underwood outranks Parker with the ball and it maybe that in time Ur Rahman will end up outranking Prasanna, but at the moment he is unproven. Nevertheless, I will concede that the Us win the spin bowling department, and allow them one big day out: Ps 4, Us 1.

THE Ps PROGRESS REPORT

The Ps have scored 15 points out of 25 today and move up to 64 points out of 100, 64%.

A BOOK REVIEW

I have just finished reading “How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch: In Search of the Recipe for Our Universe” by Harry Cliff, a quirky account of the current state of play in Particle Physics and Cosmology. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and heartily recommend it.

CLIMATE CHANGE AT WORK

Bear in mind as you read this section that we are in the middle of November, and my home is roughly 100 miles north of London. This morning I walked into town by way of Bawsey Drain, and back by the route I use most frequently for this trip. On the outbound trip I saw a red admiral butterfly in a patch of nettles – a creature I have never previously seen in Norfolk any later than September. Then, on the homeward journey I saw a ruddy darter, a species of damselfly and hence even more out of place in Norfolk at this time of year, sunning itself (yes, a damselfly sunning itself in an English November, you read that right) on a brick wall.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Time for my usual sign off…

India 3 South Africa 0

Some thoughts on the recently concluded India – South Africa test series, some stuff about the environment and climate change and some photographs.

INTRODUCTION

This post looks at the just concluded test series between India and South Africa, and also features a couple of other things plus some photographs.

AN APPROPRIATE END TO AN EXTRAORDINARILY ONE SIDED SERIES

India had already settled the series by winning huge victories in the first two games, but they did not rest on their laurels. A batting performance led by Rohit Sharma (212) and Ajinkya Rahane (115) saw India rack up 497-9 declared over most of the first two days. In the last stages of day 2 they captured two cheap South African wickets. Day 3 was the day the match was settled – South Africa were rolled for 162 in their first innings and then by the close were eight down in the second with stubborn opener Dean Elgar injured and unlikely to resume his innings. The final wicket fell at the start of day 4, with Elgar as suspected not resuming his innings. The second South African innings mustered a mere 133, making the final margin a whopping innings and 202 runs.

India are traditionally hard to beat at home, but there were two factors about this series that should be seriously concerning for the rest of the cricket world:

Historically, although they have had some great opening batters down the years India have not had many great opening pairs – their main batting strength has always been in the middle of the order, and they have tended to struggle against quick bowling. In this series a key feature of their success was that Rohit Sharma and Mayant Agarwal both had excellent series at the top of the order, with Rohit producing a string of scores that Bradman in his pomp would have been proud of.
India’s successes have historically been dependent on spin bowlers taking wickets, with genuine pace bowlers few and far between. In this series, even with Jasprit Bumrah unavailable due to injury it has been the quicker bowlers who have done the most damage.

In short not only have India made South Africa look very ordinary indeed, they have also shown massive strength in what have been historically their two greatest problem areas – fast bowling and top order batting.On fast bowling the following graphic from cricviz analyst further emphasises the point:

The good average recorded by Ireland’s pace bowlers was of course assisted by one of England’s most ignominious recent batting collapses (85 all out at Lord’s).

The other two matches don’t read much if any better for South Africa than this one – the first match saw India score 502-7 declared and 322-4 declared while SA managed 431 and 191, to go down by 202 runs, while the second saw India tally 601-5 declared against 276 and 189 by their opponents, for a margin of an innings and 136 runs. India in this series have thus tallied 1922-25 for an average of 76.88 runs per wicket, while South Africa have scored 1382-59, for an average of 23.42 per wicket. At the back end of 2019 India soundly beat Australia in Australia, while this summer England were more than a little fortunate to emerge from a home series against Australia with a 2-2 scoreline. The series just concluded shows that India are now even better than they were a year ago. Can England with what looks like a sensible test squad manage an impressive series in New Zealand?

For more detail about the recently concluded India – South Africa series start by clicking here.

ON THE ENVIRONMENT

I have a number of things on this important issue to share with you. I start by drawing your attention to Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK on the subject of Sustainable Cost Accounting:

Why We Need Sustainable Cost Accounting
Sustainable Cost Accounting Recognises The Myth Within Current Accounting
Sustainable Cost Accounting – The Short Guide
For those really interested in the detail here is a PDF

Courtesy of Team4Nature here is:

The People’s #100Actions4Nature: a Response to the State of Nature Report 2019

There is a petition just started on the official site for petitions to the UK government (you have to be a UK citizen to sign) “Grant additional funds to scientists to mitigate the effects of climate change” – click screenshot below to sign and share:

Here is a map showing what The British Isles could look like in the year 2100 if we do nothing:

I end this section with a note about the London Mayoral Elections. The incumbent Sadiq Khan is failing to help himself, the Tory vote will be split between the official Tory candidate Shaun Bailey and the nominally Independent but actually thorough-going Tory Rory Stewart, which all leaves Green candidate Sian Berry (3rd place in 2016) in with a very good chance of winning the election. I have already indicated that if I had a vote then under the system used for these elections my first preference would go to Sian Berry, and my second to Sadiq Khan as an insurance policy against either Tory getting in and my message to any one who is reading this and does have a vote is to do likewise – let’s get London a Green mayor.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

P1280001 (2) — Three shots of a swan taken in pitch blackness on my way home from an evening event at the library.

P1280060 (2) — Cars parked on the PAVEMENT on the approach to the clinical psychology unit at Queen Elizabeth Hospital – ugh (note that this necessitates pedestrians walking in the road, and that a wheelchair user would have to be in the road all the way as there no way back on to the pavement after one has passed these cars if one cannot mount a step.

P1280066 (2) — A water vole peering out of its hole in a King’s Lynn riverbank to see if the coast is clear (nb I was on a footbridge crossing the river, would not set foot on that bit of riverbank even id I did not know od the existence if this hole).

How My Predictions Panned Out

A look at my predictions in yesterday’s Royal London Cup matches, some important links and some of my photographs.

INTRODUCTION

In yesterday’s post I ventured predictions on the outcomes of the five Royal London Cup matches that had reached their half way stage at the time I was posting. Today, with the next Royal London Cup fixtures taking place tomorrow I am going to use the main body of this post to reveal the actual outcomes of yesterday’s matches.

PREDICTION VERSUS FACT – HOW I DID

Some people (especially fans of whyevolutionsistrue) will recognize that this section heading is a riff on the title of Jerry Coyne’s second popular bestseller, Faith Versus Fact. I will start with the two matches I called incorrectly:

Gloucestershire v Surrey – Gloucestershire 235, Surrey 88, Gloucestershire won by 147 runs
An unconscionable collapse by Surrey. The two bowlers who did the principal damage, slow left-armer Tom Smith with 3-7 and medium pacer Chris Liddle with 3-17 do not have overall records that suggest them to be destroyers, so it is hard to understand how Surrey who appeared to have done the hard work by restricting their oppponents to 235 could make such an almighty hash of their own of batting.

Essex v Glamorgan – Essex 326-7, Glamorgan 146, Essex won by 180 runs
I made my prediction for this one based on the ridiculous scoring that had happened during the championship game at Cardiff a few days earlier. Unfortunately, having demonstrated in that one that they cannot bowl or catch, Glamorgan this time showed that they cannot handle pressure, with only a late 36 from Marchant de Lange reducing the margin to under 200 runs (he came in at 82-7). Siddle and Bopara did good work with the ball for Essex.

Now for the ones I called correctly:

Durham v Northamptonshire – Durham 342-5, Northamptonshire 270
A comfortable enough win, although one of the less one-sided results of the day. Jason Holder (86) and Alex Wakely (66)_batted fairly well, but no one else did. For Durham 20 year old medium pacer Matty Potts took 4-62, 26 year old medium-fast bowler Matt Salisbury 3-51 and 19 year old slow left armer Liam Trevaskis partially redeemed himself for his blob with 2-65.

Yorkshire v Leicestershire – Yorkshire 379-7, Leciestershire 166
An obvious call, but not even I was expecting the final result to be this much of a thrashing. Four of Leciestershire’s batters got into the twenties, but the highest score for them was Cosgrove‘s 42. South African born fast bowler Matt Pillans took 5-29, England left-arm medium pacer David Willey had 2-26 and legspinner Josh Poysden took 2-26 to outshine England man Adil Rashid who went wicketless.

Lancashire v Worcestershire – Worcestershire 367, Lancashire 242
Even more one-sided than the final margin suggests, given that Lancashire were 191-8 at one point – a tail wag from Steven Croft (32 not out), Jimmy Anderson (4) and Matthew Parkinson (10) assisted them. The real batters failed to provide a single really major innings between them – five of the top six got into the twenties, but the top score was a mere 54, from (I hope) ex-England man Keaton Jennings. The wickets were widely shared around, with no one having outstanding bowling figures.

That leaves the match that I did not call as it was too early, which was:

Kent v Hampshire – Hampshire 310-9, Kent 220
While saying it was too early to attempt to call this one I also said that if Hampshire could get up around the 300 mark I would make them favourites, while if Kent held them to about 250 I would make them favourites. The first scenario happened, and Hampshire duly won, but there is no way be sure (especially given that every side that batted first won on the day, and that batting first tends to be even more advantageous when floodlights come into play) that Kent would have been successful chasing the lower total. Therefore I do not claim this as a correct call but also do not accept it as a wrong call – I said it was too early to call, and I hold to that. For Hampshire Sam Northeast (ex of Kent) scored 105 not out, while List A debutant Matt Milnes took 5-79 for Kent. For Kent Zak Crawley top scored with 49, while the margin was reduced to double figures rather than treble by the lower-order efforts of Stevens (30), Podmore (40) and Milnes (26). Chris Wood, Kyle Abbott and bits ‘n’pieces man Liam Dawson each took two wickets.

Thus I was right with three predictions out of five. These results demosntrate the danger of formulaic thinking – many one-day captains on winning the toss put their opponents in without even thinking about it, but every single team who batted first on this day ended up victorious.

LINKS AND PICTURES

First, a teaser from brilliant, although I make it more difficult than they did by removing the multi-choice element:

To lead into my usual sign off we have a selection of closely related pieces, starting with two from Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK.

I do not often link to Newspaper front pages, but this from the Mirror, which I saw by way of twitter (which I have formatted as a link so that you can read the article) had to be included.

Finally, for those of my readers who are UK Citizens there is a petition about this issue on the official government petitions site, which I urge you to join me in signing and sharing – screenshot/link below:

Now for today’s photographs:

P1220901 — A preview of my birthday present – on display in the shop. It has a terabyte of storage.

P1220915 — Good to see a polinator at work.

P1220917 — This creature appears to be missing a leg – I see only seven and it sjurely have eight.

India Demonstrate How Not To Polish Off an Innings

Some thoughts on the current test match, some mathematics, some climate change themed links and some photographs from an upcoming militgaria auction.

INTRODUCTION

Although my first and main focus in on the current test match between England and India I also have my usual assortment of other goodies.

SWITCHBACK RIDE AT THE OVAL

When England were 120-1 at one point yesterday it looked like they were making a solid if slow start. India then took control of the game, England finishing the day 198-7, with Jos Buttler looking to marshal the tail in a recovery act (the first time this millennium that an uninterrupted test match day in England has yielded less than 200 runs). When Rashid was out fairly early this morning to make it 214-8 the question was whether the Broad and Anderson could last long enough to see England to 250. Thanks to some crazy Indian tactics the final England wicket did not fall until the total had reached 332, Buttler top scorer with 87 and Broad a useful 38. Buttler was last out when it finally occurred to India that it might not be a good idea to allow him singles at will and set a field that necessitated improvisation if he wanted to farm the strike.

The “tactic” of concentrating all one’s efforts on the tailender and declining to make any effort to pressurise the senior batter is not one I have ever approved of, and today saw one of it’s many ignominious failures.

Having failed yet again Jennings now surely has one innings left to save his test career. There are seven test matches for England, six overseas and one at home against recently elevated Ireland before the Aussies come calling, and it is those matches which can be used to bed in a new opening pair (it would be a major ask for an opener to make their debut against them) – and I do not see Jennings being one half of that pair. As I was writing this paragraph Stuart Broad picked up the first Indian wicket. Those who read my previous post know that I have my own highly unorthodox solution to the problem of who the new opening pair should be (the driver of the bus I travelled home from work on yesterday, who is a follower of this blog, commented approvingly on the controversial element of this, so I am not alone).

If, as now seems to be one of two live possibilties (a draw and overall 3-1 being the other) England end this series with the scoreline 4-1 in their favour India will have chucked this match in the first part of day 2. Virat Kohli is a great player but on all available evidence he has precisely no aptitude for captaincy. In thirty years of being an avid cricket follower I cannot recall a finer demonstration of how not to polish off an innings.

TEASERS

First up solutions to the problems I set on Wednesday (all problems in this section come by way of brilliant.org):

WHICH STAR IS CLOSER?

First the answer:

The blue star has changed relative position more than the red, hence it must be closer, while all the other stars are so far distant that they have not changed relative position.

BULLETS

The answer:

Here is Brian Moehring’s solution:

NEW PROBLEMS

Here is another problem:

LINKS

Three closely related pieces here.

Richard Murphy brings news of a campaign victory – the BBC has admitted to getting its coverage of climate change wrong and has warned people that it is not necessary to give airtime to climate change deniers for the sake of balance. Here is the end of Murphy’s piece on this:
Of course I am pleased.

And massive credit to Rupert Read for achieving this.

Next the BBC should stop platforming tax deniers.

And those who will not disclose their funding.
Rise for Climate – this is a new source of information about actions being taken to combat climate change – feel free to visit and sign up for emails as I have.
Anna presents a detailed and very clearly laid out Q & A on the campaign the prevent the building a big new road through Trosa. An English version follows the Swedish.

PHOTOGRAPHS

These pictures all come from our militaria sale that will be happening on September 19th. Disclaimer: one of the items pictured is a relic from one of history’s vilest regimes – I show it because it is a remarkable specimen which has already attracted large amounts of interest.

Lot 2 – this dagger is definitely genuine – and will go for a lot of money.

Lot 10, this will be on the front cover of the catalogue.

Lot 407 – this uniform will bring the cujrtain down on the sale.

It’s time the BBC realised that the opposite of reasonable debate is not unreasoned extremism

An excellent piece by Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK. This piece was provoked by Rupert Read’s response to being invited by the BBC (to whom I refuse to give any of my money for reasons highlighted in this post and others) to debate with a climate change denier. As Read pointed out in his … Continue reading “It’s time the BBC realised that the opposite of reasonable debate is not unreasoned extremism”

An excellent piece by Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK. This piece was provoked by Rupert Read’s response to being invited by the BBC (to whom I refuse to give any of my money for reasons highlighted in this post and others) to debate with a climate change denier. As Read pointed out in his refusal there is no serious debate on this issue – the evidence is overwhelming, and by insisting on giving climate change deniers air-time the BBC are doing great harm. Referring to his own area of expertise Murphy also points out the regularity with which folk from the Tax Payers Alliance and the Institute of Economic Affairs are given air-time, with no scrutiny of them or their organizations (at a barest minimum such organizations should be required to state publicly where their funding comes from, and the BBC should display this information whenever one of their representatives is speaking). Please read the original in full and post comments there.

Source: It’s time the BBC realised that the opposite of reasonable debate is not unreasoned extremism

Marxism 2018: Martin Empson on Climate Change

My first post about Marxism 2018 – which has kicked off in fine style.

INTRODUCTION

The Marxism Festival is always one of the highlights of the year for me, and it got underway today. My train to London ran a bit late, but I was still at the venue in good time to do everything that I needed to before the first meeting.

CLIMATE CHANGE: WHAT DOES THE ANTHROPOCENE MEAN FOR REVOLUTIONARY STRATEGY

Just before I get on to covering this excellent meeting I wish to deal briefly with a related matter: Jeremy Corbyn has been getting stick in certain circles for choosing to use Prime Minister’s Questions this week to tackle Theresa May on the state of buses in Britain. He was right to take her to task on this topic, and she floundered hopelessly as she usually does, unable to answer the questions. Here are a couple of charts from nomisweb.co.uk that between them make quite clear the rightness of Corbyn on this issue, which I found by way of the twitter feed of somebody called David Ottewell:

and with car journeys added to the chart:

That vast number of people using the car as their main mode of transport outside of London is a major problem in many ways, and is caused in large part by the scandalous state of bus services outside the capital. As a concrete example, King’s Lynn is the third largest town in Norfolk while Fakenham is a market town in the middle of Norfolk. The last bus out from King’s Lynn to Fakenham leaves Lynn at 5:40PM, while the last bus back from Fakenham to King’s Lynn leaves Fakenham at 5:30PM – and this is still a better bus service than most of Norfolk can count on.

The meeting began with an explanation of the term Anthropocene, and then covered some details about recent heat records:

3E before Martin Empson meeting — The room in which my first meeting was taking place.

Martin at the ready — Martin Empson preparing himself.

Speaker and chair just before the start — Speaker Martin and chair Jasmine just before the start.

The chair introduces the meeting — Jasmine introduces Martin

Heatwave slide I — The first of six record temperatures set in a very short space of time to be shiown here.

Quriyat min temp — This means that there was whole 24-hour period in which the temperature was never at any point less than 42.6 celsius in this location.

Colorado — A heat record set in the country with a climate change denier as president.

Heatwave slide - final — The final slide showing all the records.

After this the speaker went on to talk about the inadequacy of the provisions made at an important meeting in Paris, the demonstration that occurred in Paris at the same time as that meeting and to end with a message:

Gas Platform — This is the largest floating object ever built by humans – an offshore gas platform owned by Shell.

System Change Not Climate Change — The ultimate message of this meeting.

There then followed an excellent discussion as people asked questions and made contributions, before Martin came back to tie everything together. This meeting was an excellent start to my Marxism 2018.

Camilla contributes from the floor — This young woman was to be the main speaker at the second meeting I attended, and her contribution from the floor in this one was excellent.

Martin summing up the meeting — Martin Emspon summing up.

Save Trosa nature – Behåll och stärk Trosas natur

An excellent and important post from Anna, with some sp;lendid infogđraphics/memes/drawings – please read and share!

Annas Art - FärgaregårdsAnna

Läs detta före 9 januari 2018, så har du chansen att bidra till att bevara och stärka Trosas natur.

Read this before January 9 2018 of you want to participate in the efforts to save Trosa nature.

Du har antagligen redan läst att 2017 uppmätte de högsta medeltemperaturerna någonsin (sen vi människor klarat att mäta de värdena). I SvD uttalade sig professor Johan Rockström och sade följande: “Om vi ska kunna leverera på Parisavtalet får vi inte chansa. Om planetens förmåga att buffra våra utsläpp går ner måste vi minska våra utsläpp ännu snabbare.” Han sade också “Vad vi gör de kommande fem åren blir avgörande för klimatets framtid”.

You have probably already read about how 2017 was the warmest year ever since mankind started to measure temps. In the Swedish newspaper SvD the professor Mr Johan Rockström said “If we’re gonna live up to Paris agreement we can’t take…

View original post 371 more words

Anderson Joins 500 Club and Other Stuff

Jimmy Anderon’s 500th test wicket, some links, some puzzles and some photographs.

INTRODUCTION

As well as the title piece this post will feature links, pictures (items that will be going under the hammer at the end of September principally) and puzzles – including answers to a couple.

ANDERSON JOINS 500 CLUB

As predicted by me in a previous post the third and final test match of the England v West Indies series has featured a moment of cricket history as James Anderson duly collected his 500th wicket in this form of the game. Among bowlers of anything other than spin Glenn McGrath leads the way overall with 563 (off-spinner Muralitharan’s 800 for Sri Lanka is the record, followed by leg-spinner Warne’s 709 for Australia). The two spinners have set marks that are not realistically within Anderson’s grasp but the 563 of McGrath is well and truly catchable.

The historic moment came near the end of play yesterday, in the West Indies second innings (btw as I write this Anderson has increased his tally to 504) and it was a dismissal worthy of the occasion. He was denied in the West Indies first innings not by their batting (they managed a meagre 123 all out) but by a remarkable spell from Ben Stokes who finished that innings with figures of 6-22 – a test best for him. England led by 71, which looks like being decisive – the top score coming from Stokes (60). This combination of circumstances leads to me to finish this section with a raft of predictions/ hostages to fortune:

The Brian Johnston champagne moment – James Anderson’s 500th test wick – 100% certain whatever happens in what is left of this match!
Player of the match – Ben Stokes barring miracles.
Player of the series – Ben Stokes – 100% nailed on.
Match and series results: England win and take the series 2-1 – West Indies have just been dismissed for 177 in their second dig leaving England 107 to win – Anderson a career best 7-42 taking him to 506 test wickets.

LINKS

I am grouping my links in categories, starting with…

AUTISM

Just two links in this subsection, both from americanbadassactivists and both concerned with that hate group masquerading as charity Autism Speaks, or as Laina at thesilentwaveblog calls them A$.

PETITION · KIEHL’S: END YOUR #KIEHLSXAUTISMSPEAKS CAMPAIGN · CHANGE.ORG – This sets out what the petition is about and links to it (I have signed). Here is the feature graphic:
#KIEHLSXAUTISMSPEAKS | SEEKING #ACTUALLYAUTISTIC BLOGS, POSTS, VIDEOS ON TOPIC TO REBLOG/SHARE ON AMERICANBADASSACTIVISTS.ORG. #PEERVOICE – this is the follow up seeking support from #actuallyautistic blogs, hence why I am sharing it here, and urge everyone to support americanbadassactivists, sign the petition and share the message.

NATURE

This subsection features four links:

First, courtesy of Wildlife Planet a piece titled “A Plant That Glows Blue In The Dark“.
With the unprecedented sight on weather maps of America and the Caribbean of three hurricanes poised to make landfall simultaneously (by now one of those, Irma, is already battering Cuba), A C Stark has prodcued a very timely piece whose title “Climate Change: The Elephant in the Room” is sufficient introduction.
This subsection closes with links to two posts from Anna. First we have Part 7 of her series about Butterflies in Trosa.

The other post features a link to a video of a swimming sea eagle (only viewable on youtube) and a picture taken by Anna in which 11 sea eagles are visible.

POLITICS

This subsection includes one stand-alone link and four related links. The stand-alone link comes from Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK is titled “Scottish people deserve the data they need to decide, whatever their political persuasion“.

My remaining four pieces concern a single individual who is widely tipped to be the next leader of the Conservative Party. It is this latter fact which has exposed him to intense scrutiny, resulting in the following collection about…

JACOB REES-MOGG

To set the scene we start with Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK’s piece simply titled “Jacob Rees-Mogg“.

The second and third pieces in this sub-subsection both come courtesy of the Guardian:

Harriet Harman, referring to comments of his about how even though he is the father of six children he has never changed a nappy labels him as a “Dead-beat dad“.
Marina Hyde has an excoriating piece titled “Who could see Jacob Rees-Mogg as authentic? Only the gullible Tories” which is a really enjoyable read.
My final piece comes courtesy of the Skwawkbox. It is titled “MOGG: “DENY ABORTION TO RAPE VICTIMS”. PHILLIPS: “LET’S DO CHELTENHAM!”” referring simultaneously to one of the more odious statements to have emerged from the ‘honourable member for the 18th century’, and Jess Phillips’ friendship with him. The body of the piece fleshes out the difference between the Phillips approach and the more forthright approach of new MP Laura Pidcock.

A SEGUE LINK – A QUIZ

With apologies to those of my readers whose first language is not English, and who therefore cannot take on this quiz, I offer you courtesy of quizly a test on one of the biggest sources of grammatical mistakes in English, safe in the knowledge that my own score in said quiz can be equalled but not beaten:

PUZZLES

I appended a question to a link that featured the year 1729 in a recent post. This was the question:

The puzzle I am attaching to this is: which two famous mathematicians are linked by the number 1,729 and how did that link come about?

The two famous mathematicians linked by the number 1,729 are G H Hardy and Srinivasa Ramanujan. The link came about when Hardy visited Ramanujan in hospital during the latter’s final illness and mentioned the number of the cab in which he had travelled – 1,729 and went on to suggest that this was a very dull number. Ramanujan said in response “No Hardy, it is a very interesting number, the smallest that can be expressed as the sum of two cubes in two different ways”.

The other puzzle I set in that post was this one from brilliant:

If the statement on door 1 is true, then the treasure is behind door 2, which makes the statements on doors 2 and 3 both false = not acceptable.

If the statement on door 2 is true then the treasure is behind door 3, which makes both the other statements false = not acceptable.

If the statement on door 3 is true, then the statement on door 1 could also be true, making the statement on door 2 false – this scenario is acceptable.

Thus we open door 2 and collect the loot.

I finish by setting you another puzzle, again from brilliant, the 100th and last problem in their 100 Day Challenge, and a cracker:

Don’t be intimidated by that maximum difficulty rating – it is not as difficult as the creators thought. Incidentally you still have a couple of days to answer the problems properly on that website should you choose to sign up – although it would be tough to them all in that time!

PICTURES

This is lot 1 in our next sale – the first of 200 lots of old military themed postcards. Can you guess which of the lots pictured here is on my radar as a potential buy?

329-a — Lot 329 (four images) – a fine volume when new but this copy is in terrible condition.

£2 - Trevithick 2 — I picked up this coin in change at Morrison’s today and I took two photos of it, both of which I offer you to finish this post (it is only the Reverse that makes it interesting – the Obverse is the usual portrait of ludicrously over-privileged old woman).

Marxism 2017: Climate Change

An account of the three meetings at Marxism 2017 that focussed exclusively on climate change.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to this latest post in my series about Marxism 2017. This post deals with three meetings from the event and also features some external links as well. This post features green body text because of the subject matter – headings still in red. This post features pictures in ’tiled mosaic’ form – to view them at full size left-click/ single finger push an image to open the gallery, and if you right-click/ two finger push you get a drop down menu that enables you to open a single image.

MEETING 1: FACING THE ANTHROPOCENE – JEFFREY HALL, SATURDAY – IAN ANGUS

The Jeffrey Hall is the second largest venue in the Institute of Education, with a seating capacity of 500. It was pleasingly full for Ian Angus’ talk about Facing the Anthropocene. This talk was accompanied by numerous slides. Here are the first few pictures:

Due to the size of the venue a speaker slip system in operation, and Martin (crouched) was assisting the chair to decide what order speakers should be called in.

From this start the speaker went on to define the anthropocene:

This what the Anthropocene is NOT

Only global environment defo fit for Homo sapiens

Note – current CO2 Levels are at 409-10ppm, with almost no one reckoning they can be stabilised below 450ppm and some talking in terms of 560ppm.

Before the Anthropocene the earth had seen five mass extinction events, and all evidence points to the fact that a sixth is upon us. Here are a few links to recent articles about this:

A piece in The Guardian titled “Earth’s sixth mass extinction event under way, scientists warn”
A piece on http://www.independent.co.uk titled “Humans may face extinction sooner than we thought, study finds“

Now here are my remaining pictures from this meeting:

9 of 12 indicators beyond bounds of Holocene variability

The TEAM logo

one of those who spoke from the floor

A collection at the meeting – venue hire for this event cost £60,000 in total – in Central London everything is expensive.

The website climateandcapitalism can be accessed here.

MEETING 2, SUNDA: A REDDER SHADE OF GREEN – MALET SUITE – IAN ANGUS

This was conducted in an informal style. Martin, chairing, asked Ian questions about his latest book (it is a good read btw) and Ian answered. After about half an hour questions were taken from the floor, and they were mainly excellent contributions. At the end of the meeting Ian signed copies of his book for those who were interested. Here are some photos:

PART 3: BUILDING THE MOVEMENT AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE AFTER TRUMP WITHDRAWS FROM PARIS – SUZANNE JEFFERY

This meeting was in the session immediately after the second Ian Angus meeting, and before the closing rally. This was a really excellent meeting, with many people speaking from the floor about campaigns they were involved in, and the mood generally confident. Here are some photos:

Speaker and chair — Chair Jasmine and main speaker Suzanne before the meeting.

Jasmine introduces Suzanne — Jasmine opening the meeting.

AFTERWORD

This post being about climate change and by extension nature I have decided to end with some links courtesy of Anna who has produced some excellent stuff about nature:

This “Save Trosa Nature” post
This “humans lost in space” picture
For those willing to undertake a longer read the ‘how not to’ story of Yanno, Dunno and Victor.

Marxism 2017 – Day 4: Outline

An outline of Dat 4 at #Marxism2017.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to this latest addition to my series about Marxism 2017. This post covers day 4 up to the start of the closing rally, which will have a post of its own to close the series. Before that one there will be two others, a big climate change post featuring Ian Angus’ two talks and Suzanne Jeffery’s talk, and a post about Beth Greenhill’s talk on mental health.

THE START OF THE DAY

As I would be returning to King’s Lynn that evening, and Logan Hall is closer to King’s Cross than my accommodation was I took everything with me. As had been the case on Saturday, my first meeting as at Friend’s Meeting House, this time in the Sarah Fell room, so I had both bags with me for that, as the baggage room was in Student Central, where my second, third and fourth meetings of the day were due to be. Therefore I handed in my keys on my way out.

The fob gives access to the entire complex, by way of the reception building, the first of the three larger keys unlocks the particular block in which I was staying, the biggest key opens the flat in which my room was located, and the middle key of the three opens the door to the specific room I was staying in. The CG12 on the metal disc refers to the fact that this room is room 2 in flat 1 on the ground floor of block C.

On my way I photographed a building near my accommodation that had fascinated me:

MEETING 1: CLIMATE CHANGE
AND SCIENCE FICTION

This was very interesting, showing how science fiction writers approach’s track real world events. The first “cli-fi” (a back formation from climate change and science fiction) referred to ice and floods, with fire and warming coming later as apocalypse scenarios. Here are some photographs, which I am presenting as a ’tiled mosaic’ – to view as a gallery left-click (or single finger touch if you have a finger pad like mine):

Note the second book on this list – the first ever to acknowledge the possibility of anthropogenic global warming.

OVER THE RAINBOW: LGBT+ LIBERATION IN THE 21st CENTURY – NICOLA FIELD

This meeting took place in the Malet suite at Student Central, so I was able to deposit my bigger bag in the baggage room which was across the corridor from this room. I picked it up just before heading to the Institute of Education’s Logan Hall for the closing rally. The speaker gave a history of the development of the LGBT+ movement going back to the Stonewall riots, and contrasted the complete commercialisation of the London Pride march (people having to pay to actually march!) with the recent launch of the UK’s 66th pride event, Lancaster Community Pride.

CLIMATE CHANGE AFTERNOON

Both the meetings I attended in the afternoon were in the Malet Suite and both were about climate change, and I am covering both in a separate post. A solitary photo before moving on:

THE CLOSING RALLY

I am giving this and my journey home another post. Suffice to say for the moment that it was an excellent finish to the event.

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	sidestreambob on Should Bairstow Keep Wicket Fo…
	Thomas on All Time XIs – England B…
	cindy knoke on All Time XIs – England B…
	All Time XIs –… on All Time XIs – Staffords…

INTRODUCTION

AN APPROPRIATE END TO AN EXTRAORDINARILY ONE SIDED SERIES

ON THE ENVIRONMENT

PHOTOGRAPHS

INTRODUCTION

PREDICTION VERSUS FACT – HOW I DID

LINKS AND PICTURES

INTRODUCTION

SWITCHBACK RIDE AT THE OVAL

TEASERS

WHICH STAR IS CLOSER?

BULLETS

NEW PROBLEMS

LINKS

PHOTOGRAPHS

INTRODUCTION

CLIMATE CHANGE: WHAT DOES THE ANTHROPOCENE MEAN FOR REVOLUTIONARY STRATEGY

INTRODUCTION

ANDERSON JOINS 500 CLUB

LINKS

AUTISM

NATURE

POLITICS

JACOB REES-MOGG

A SEGUE LINK – A QUIZ

PUZZLES

PICTURES

INTRODUCTION

MEETING 1: FACING THE ANTHROPOCENE – JEFFREY HALL, SATURDAY – IAN ANGUS

MEETING 2, SUNDA: A REDDER SHADE OF GREEN – MALET SUITE – IAN ANGUS

PART 3: BUILDING THE MOVEMENT AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE AFTER TRUMP WITHDRAWS FROM PARIS – SUZANNE JEFFERY

AFTERWORD

INTRODUCTION

THE START OF THE DAY

MEETING 1: CLIMATE CHANGE AND SCIENCE FICTION

OVER THE RAINBOW: LGBT+ LIBERATION IN THE 21st CENTURY – NICOLA FIELD

CLIMATE CHANGE AFTERNOON

THE CLOSING RALLY

MEETING 1: CLIMATE CHANGE
AND SCIENCE FICTION