Monday Mixture

My 1,000th post on aspiblog, a typically eclectic mix of stuff – read, enjoy and please share!

INTRODUCTION

As the title suggests this post contains a variety of different elements. There is another reason for choosing this title which will be revealed later.

MUMBAI MASSACRE

With two scheduled days to go the 4th India vs England Test Match in Mumbai seemed to be headed for a high-scoring draw, but two things happened thereafter – India got right away, pushing their first innings total up to 631, and then England fell in a heap in their second innings – all out 195, beaten by an innings and 36.

THE NAS WEST NORFOLK COMMITTEE CHRISTMAS MEAL

This took place on Thursday at Frankie and Benny’s on the Hardwick Industrial Estate. Here are some pictures…

dscn7901 — Rachelf (sic!) showing true Christmas spirit.

dscn7903 — Karan (branch chair) hold aloft her Poldark colouring book.

dscn7904 — Santa reveals a little secret.

dscn7905 — A chicken puppet – she owns some real chickens, currently confined to their run because of an avian flu alert.

THE DUKE’S HEAD HOTEL

Those familiar with my 2017 wall mounted calendars will recall that the Duke’s Head Hotel frontage featured as the April picture. Well, since then it has been done up – here are a couple of pictures…

dscn7928 — The Duke’s Head frontage as it looks today after being redone.

THE PUZZLE IN THE INTRODUCTION

My title for this post “Monday Mixture” is apt given its nature, but I also chose this particular title because both parts thereof begin with the letter M, the Roman numeral for 1,000, and this is my 1,000th post on aspiblog.

LINKS AND CLOSING PICS

My first link is to a petition on avaaz protesting against an Australian plan to put a toxic coal complex next to the Great Barrier Reef. Please click on the image below to sign and share the petition.

My next link, also contained within a picture is to a piece on whyevolutionistrue titled A Photobook of Biological Marvels and My Own Take on Them.

Rachael Swindon’s new blog continues to impress and amuse. Her target in this post, struck in the bullseye as usual for her, is hard right Tory MP for Witham, Priti Patel.

I started this links section with an environment related piece and I end it with another, courtesy of the Guardian, which provides this report of a study detailing how wind power is key to curbing greenhouse emissions – click the image below to read more…

I end this post with some more of my own pictures…

Hydrogen Powered Buses and Clean Air for London

Some environmental news and some pictures – enjoy.

INTRODUCTION

Having recently shared the latest of Anna’s posts about her campaign to prevent a big new road from being built through an area of outstanding natural beauty I thought a couple of stories showing a more sensible approach were appropriate (and I have some new pictures to share and was looking for something else to put in the post).

HYDROGEN BUSES AND A CLEAN AIR PLAN FOR LONDON

Hydrogen buses are already a feature of the streets of the city of Aberdeen, and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan intends them to be in service in the capital by 2020. Buses are less damagaing than cars anyway because they carry more people, but hydrogen buses have an extra plus point – zero emissions. To read an excellent article on this theme click the picture below:

hydrogen-powered-buses — A hydrogen powered bus.

Councillor and London Assembly member Caroline Russell has produced a very detailed plan for making London’s streets healthier, backed up with evidence of a successful scheme in Walthanstow. To read the whole document click on the infographic giving details of the Walthamstow success that appears below:

PICTURES

dscn7833 — A Brunel £2 received in change

dscn7837 — The next four pictures show ice on the surface of the lower Purfleet (yes folks, here in the north of the world it is winter)

Nature, Music and a Few Other Things

A good news story about nature from the village of Balcombe, West Sussex, a King’s Lynn walk, some stuff about music and a few other things.

INTRODUCTION

This post incorporates a King’s Lynn walk but also features plenty of other stuff.

NATURE

This morning I reblogged a post by Anna about the folk of Trosa and their continuing fight to preserve their nature from greedy road builders. I start this section of the post with:

GOOD NEWS FROM WEST SUSSEX

The small village of Balcombe, West Sussex (and having done a walk in that part of the country some years back I can confirm that it is indeed small) was targeted not so long ago by fracking villains Cuadrilla. Not only have they beaten back the frackers, they are on the way to becoming a solar-powered village. Please watch the video below for more:

This is what new developments for the 21st century should look like – big new roads are so last century!

A KING’S LYNN WALK

Although it was not terribly inviting outside I went for a walk this afternoon, taking in the Great Ouse, our river. Here are a few pictures:

At this point I saw a rare visitor to King’s Lynn –

A GREY HERON

Here is a picture taken looking across the Great Ouse, and the page of my bird book that gives info about the Grey Heron:

After the Grey Heron there were no more exceptional sights but a few more photo-worthy moments:

MUSIC

As part of today’s Hili Dialogue, Grania at WEIT mentioned that among those born on this day (happy birthday Ayaan Hirsi Ali) were Leopold Mozart (father of the more famous Mozart) and Fanny Mendelssohn (older sister of Felix) and linked to this video of a performance of Leopold’s Toy Symphony, which I offer you below:

Also, last Saturday was a Musical Keys session, and I have a few photos from there:

dscn7266 — A keyboard that enables the player to produce the sounds of other isntruments. The coloured patches stuck to various keys come in to play when Kirsten held up a sheet to indicate which colour one should focus on – although I was on a guitar by then and was using my left thumb to press on a coloured patch, shortening that string.

dscn7267 — This instrument, here held for me my Kirsten, one the people who runs the Musical Keys sessions is filled with beads and played by being upended, held until all the beads have fallen and then upended again for as long as you care to.

WHAT IS NORMAL?

I found this infographic on twitter and had to share it – I think it is splendid:

HONEST AND DISHONEST PHOTO EDITING

I have shown you some examples of honestly edited photos already in this post. What follows focusses on dishonestly edited photos. Two “newspapers” whose names I refuse to give, one owned by the fourth Viscount Rothermere and on which the good folk of Liverpool refuse to buy, produced photographs purporting to show Jeremy Corbyn dancing towards the Cenotaph yesterday (Remembrance Sunday). To do this their photo editors had cropped out from their original picture the 92 year-old WWII veteran who Mr Corbyn was accompanying and who hotly denies any suggestion that he was dancing:

rwpress-rumbledc — Two incisive infographics juxtaposed

rwpress-rumbled — the individual infographics.

Cricket, Photos and Links

Some thoughts on the recently concluded England v West Indies women’s series and the match in progress between England and Bangladesh, some links and some photographs.

INTRODUCTION

I will start with the cricket related stuff before moving on to some other stuff later on. Without further ado I will move on to…

CRICKET

Before moving on the match in Chittagong which is superbly poised at the moment a few words on…

ENGLAND WOMEN’S SERIES WIN IN WEST INDIES

Having surrendered tamely in the fourth match to bring the series back to 2-2 the England Women played superbly to win the fifth match and with it the series. Highlights were the bowling of Alex Hartley and a unbeaten half-century from Natalie Sciver (to date the only international cricketer to have been born in Tokyo).

CHITTAGONG CRACKER

With two days to play the first Test Match between Bangladesh and England at Chittagong is superbly poised. England are 228-8 in their second innings, leading overall by 273. A six wicket haul on debut for 18 year old Hasan Mehedi Miraz, runs for Tamim Iqbal and a second innings five for for Shakib feature among the highlights, but the starring role thus far has belonged to…

BEN STOKES

Having started the third day by taking 3-2 for give him overall innings figures of 4-26, Stokes came in to bat in the second innings with England rocking at 46-4, which soon became 62-5. He proceeded to produce the highest individual score of the game so far, with 85.

PHOTOGRAPHS

LINKS

We start with a couple of petitions:

First, from Norfolk’s only current Labour MP, Clive Lewis:

Defend NHS Services for Older People

Tory NHS cuts are heaping yet more pressure on an Adult Social Care system already being cut to shreds. This is exemplified by the proposed closure of the 24-bed Henderson unit at the Julian Hospital due to lack of funds. Cuts like these are a false economy and make no sense in the long run. This government is squeezing the life out of our NHS by demand huge so-called savings at the same time as demand is soaring. Sign my petition to help us defend NHS services for older people.

Sign my petition to help us defend NHS services for old people.

My second petition comes from Hope Not Hate and is in support of of Gary Lineker and Fatima Manji who have both been subjected to a a barrage of bigotry in the last few days. Please sign here.

My next link is to the Mirror website by way of my own London transport themed website for a story about a London bus crashing into a bridge.

I now have two links to cricinfo in connection with first section of this post:

The current state of play in the test match at Chittagong.
Cricinfo’s official report on the third day’s play in Chittagong.

I end this section with a link which segues in to some more photographs. Having described and imaged huge numbers of posters for James and Sons’ October auction I was given a similar task for the November auction, this time involving lobby posters and brochures. It was while scouting for information on the set of three lobby posters that will be lot 689 in that auction that I noted the IMDB did not have an image for the movie this posters were advertising (it is an obscure film that was made in 1966), so I submitted my image, which you can see here.

SOME FINAL PHOTOGRAPHS

These photographs are all from work…

Lot 689 – if you want the posters that feature as IMDBs official image bid for them on November 30!

647 — This brochure should find a buyer.

pi2 — This composite image was for a poster advertising our November auction which will be on show at a collector’s fair in Newmarket tomorrow.

poster – this is the link to the complete poster.

The Calendars are Here, PR and Last Chance to Join a Mighty Thunderclap

INTRODUCTION

Three little things for you….

THE “GET NATURE ON THE NEWS” THUNDERCLAP – ONE DAY TO GO

This thunderclap currently has 1944 supporters with a total social reach of approximately 12.5 million. If you would like to support it and have an account with any of facebook, twitter on tumblr (you can, as I have with my facebook and twitter accounts support it with two accounts if you have them) please click on the screen grab below…

PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION

Here in the UK we are lumbered with an antiquated voting system that has enabled a party with the votes of 24% of the electorate to form a ‘majority’ government. For this reason Make Votes Matter have put up a petition on the official government petitions website (which means it is only open to UK citizens to sign). To view and sign the petition click the screen grab below.

As you can see, when I screen grabbed the above image there were just over 9,000 signatures. There are now almost 14,000 and growing.

THE CALENDARS ARE HERE!

The photographic wall calendars that I have created for next year are now in my possession. I am delighted with how they have come out.

A NEW PHOTO

Once I had picked up the calendars this morning I had time to kill before catching the bus, but not enough to warrant a return to the flat, so i took a little loop through The Walks, where I got this picture…

An Important Autism Related Document

Some stuff about autism, and on World Mental Health Day some stuff about mental health.

INTRODUCTION

I have various things to share in addition to detail of this document. Also, of course, there will be some photographs.

A DRAFT AUTISM STRATEGY FOR NORFOLK

Here is a link from which you can access the document and below my own saved copy:

Autism Strategy

draft-norfolk-all-age-autism-strategy-october-2016-word

Overall I am not unhappy with this document, but there is one thing on which I have to pick them up – their use of the word ‘autistics’, which to me feels dehumanising as compared to such phrases as ‘autistic person’ or ‘person wiith autism’.

NAS SCHOOL HONOURED

The Sybil Elgar school in Ealing, which is run by the National Autistic Society, has had a visit from the Mayor of Ealing, who had the pleasant task of handing out awards to 13 students who have successfully completed the ASDAN transition challenge. To read more about this story click here.

WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY

For general information on World Mental Health Day and what it is all about please read this article. Also on World Mental Health Day is this courtesy of the TimetoChange twitter account:

THE PHOTOGRAPHS

Saturday Scattergun

INTRODUCTION

I have some pictures to share, and a few links, but no main subject matter, hence the title of this post.

THE MUSEUM OF LONDON

This is a signpost to my London transport website, and simultaneously a mention of James and Sons’James and Sons’ next auction, since the post was built around lot 737 in said sale…

How does this poster connect to the Museum of London? To find out follow the link below.

http://www.londontu.be/the-museum-of-london/

AN AUTISM RELATED PIECE ON WWW.INDEPENDENT.CO.UK

This story is about a 4 year old boy who was hospitalised after being fed a ‘holistic cure’ for autism on the advice of someone describing themselves as a ‘naturopath’. The notion of any sort of ‘cure’ for autism is of course offensive nonsense. Equally, the idea that a ‘naturopath’ should be entitled to prescribe remedies for anything should probably be considered offensive nonsense. The combination of one person’s belief in the offensive nonsense of a ‘cure’ for autism and one person’s cynical willingness to exploit this gullibility created a situation that was very dangerous for an innocent child. The full piece can be viewed here.

SAJID AND THE FRACKERS

Some of you will know that the Dishonourable Sajid Javid has recently made a decision to ignore the will of a community and give Cuadrilla the go ahead to frack there in defiance of clearly expressed local wishes. Mr Javid receives big money from fracking companies and as such should have had the decency to admit to a conflict of interest and say that this was a decision that he could not be involved in making, but of course Tory and decency do not go together, and so unsurprisingly he made a decision in favour of his rich mates and against the community and against the environment. I end this section by linking to a piece that details the environmental impact of fracking.

THE PHOTOGRAPHS

I am presenting this pictures in two tranches, starting with the general…

I bring this post to a finish with some pictures of the new £5 note, which before I got this one in change I had not seen in the flesh…

The two faces of the note in one picture

Autism and Other Stuff

Some stuff about autism, some important links and some photographs.

INTRODUCTION

Although this post includes some links that are not specific to autism, and of course some photos, enough of it is autism related to warrant the first word of the title.

AN IMPORTANT EVENT ON MONDAY

This Monday an ‘autism positive’ event is taking place at the Theatre Royal in Norwich. I will be present in the dual capacity of autistic adult and branch secretary of NAS West Norfolk. As well as a display with full information about our branch we will be distributing leaflets about efforts to get some adult oriented events and activities going. Apart from the official NAS branding and header which I copied and pasted from the website the leaflets are entirely my work…

leaflet-social-media-whole-doc — This is a screenshot of the whole document – two leaflets to the page.

leaflet-social-media-single-leaflet — This is a close up of a single leaflet.

Advertising attended to, the second part of this section relates to:

AUTISM AND EMPLOYMENT

First of all, here is the grim truth about autistic people and employment in the UK:

75% of us are unemployed.
Others are employed in low paid and/ or part time work, so that 85% of us are classed as underemployed.

So, what can be done about this? Well, recruitment practices need to change and here is for me the single most important thing that could be done:

Abolish standard interviews, which place one in a position that one will never be in when in the job, making skills testing mandatory instead. Many autistic people however mujch preparation they put in cannot do themselves justice in interviews, while if you have them do the kind of work that they would be doing in the job they will fare much better, and you will learn not whether they can say the right things but whether they can actually do the work.

As a segue into the next section of the post, here is a link to a petition created by an autistic adult (Chris Packham), which calls on the Government to:

Introduce a moratorium on the hunting
of critically declining wading birds

LINKS

My first link in this section comes courtesy of the consumer group Which? who have managed to get the Consumer Rights Act to cover all travel sectors. Please read the full piece here.

My second link, courtesy of Richard Murphy at Tax Research UK is to a piece that demonstrates that Jeremy Corbyn’s investment program will cost less than the Tories current QE program.

I give the last word before the photographs to DPAC, who have prepared some online action to coincide with the Tory conference for the benefit of those who cannot make it to Birmingham but want to be part of the protest. Please click the link below to see how you can be part of…

ONLINE SHENANIGANS FOR THE TORY PARTY CONFERENCE

PHOTOGRAPHS

All the photographs below were taken yesterday…

dscn5845 — Having seen an abundance of cormorants where the Nar joins the Great Ouse it was a fine bonus to see these swans enjoying the Nar.

dscn5858 — To be able to capture this creature on camera was a huge bonus.

Grab Bag

A variety of things that have come to my attention recently.

INTRODUCTION

This post is about a mixture of things from the last few days, hence the title.

CHAMPIONSHIPS AND CONTRIVANCES REVSITED

Some of you may remember that I put this post up on Thursday, with Somerset having secured an emphatic win in their game and Middlesex and Yorkshire going head to head in theirs. Sadly, when I checked what was going on on Friday afternoon, Lyth and Lees (the two opening batsmen, neither with any sort of status as bowlers) were purveying out-and-out filth for Yorkshire to help Middlesex set an agreed target. Yorkshire paid for accepting such an arrangement when their batting subsequently collapsed handing the title to Middlesex. Sadly, Somerset were innocent victims of this scam by Middlesex and Yorkshire, being robbed of would have been their first ever county championship not by good cricket but by dirty back room dealings.

BEES AND PARKS

This refers to two important issues that came up this weekend. Firstly, Greenpeace have exposed Bayer and Syngenta as having covered up evidence that their products were hugely damaging to bees. Greenpeace’s release can be viewed here, and here is a copy of their accompanying picture:

The parks part of the title of this section refers to an effort by 38 Degrees to secure better protection for our parklands. Living in King’s Lynn at this time gives this a particular resonance for me, so:

Britain’s parks are at risk. There’s no legal responsibility to look after them and squeezed budgets mean our local green spaces – from playgrounds, to the park you relax in on your lunch break – don’t have the money they need. We could end up being forced to pay to use our parks – or lose them altogether.

A group of MPs are looking into the crisis right now. They’re thinking of making protecting parks a legal requirement, and they’ll advise the government on what to do. A huge petition, signed by all of us, will prove how much we love our parks. It could convince the MPs to come up with a water-tight plan for protecting them.

Can you sign the petition now and demand that looking after our parks is made a legal requirement by the government? It only takes 30 seconds to add your name:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/save-our-parks

Here are some pictures of my own, including a few from King’s Lynn’s own parkland areas:

LABOUR LEADERSHIP ELECTION

I will let these beautiful infographics culled from twitter do the talking for me on this one:

SOME AUTISM RELATED STUFF

As NAS West Norfolk Branch Secretary and as someone who is #ActuallyAutistic I am always glad to share really excellent autism related content, and I have two absolute gems for you:

Courtesy of The Art of Autism I give you “12 THINGS THAT MAKE ME WEIRD #WEIRDISGOOD #WHOIAM“
From Autostraddle comes “Telling Myself the Truth: 5 Strategies for Fighting Internalized Ableism“

Finally to end this section, as regular readers will know one of the activities I am involved in via NAS West Norfolk is Musical Keys, and this is an advert they have recently produced:

THE FINISHING TOUCHES

One of my favourite blogs is that of singer Charlotte Hoather, who has just started at the Royal College of Music in London. Her post about her first week there can be viewed here.

To end this post I give you a series of pictures starring a snail…

dscn5734 — This is the original picture that I took.

snail-cropped — This is cropped but not otherwise edited.

snail-normal-edit — This is the snail after my normal editing routine.

snail-cb — This is a colour-boosted version.

snail-contrast-enhanced — This version has the contrast enhanced.

snail-the-works — Finally, this version has had the colour boosted and the contrast enhanced.

Cormorants and Calendars

A brief post showcasing some cormorants from earlier today and announcing my intention to produce a calendar.

INTRODUCTION

This post combines showing some new pictures with being the official announcement that I shall be repeating last year’s experiment of producing calendars as Christmas presents.

CORMORANTS

I decided once I had completed my online NAS branch officer’s training this morning that I would go for a walk, and I was delighted to see the structure I call ‘Cormorant Platform’ was very busy…

dscn5546 — The first of the cormorant images – this one shows precisely why I call it ‘Cormorant Platform – notwithstanding the three Caspian gulls also on there, it is the cormorants (five on this occasion) who stand out.

dscn5550 — Just before leaving the river I got this picture of a cormorant in flight.

dscn5553 — A couple of moorhens to finish with…

CALENDARS

The calendars will be large, month to page, each month decorated with a picture. Learning from last year I will be aiming to have no borders, and certainly no patterned borders, just pictures taking up the whole available space. This is very much a work in progress, but here are the pictures I have so far picked out as being good enough (feel free to add your own suggestions of pictures you particularly enjoyed when I first posted them in the comments sections, although remember that I am limited to 13 pictures (front cover plus 12 months):

	London Underground t… on Project Piccadilly
	Thomas on All Time XIs – Detective…
	Anna on All Time XIs – Detective…
	amsutcliffebtinterne… on All Time XIs – Detective…
	All Time XIs –… on The Museum Detectives