Brief mentions of the Hanseatic Water skiing and the World Athetics Championship, with pics and links.
INTRODUCTION
This is in the nature of a catch-up post about events from this weekend.
WATER SKIING AND WORLD ATHLETICS
The water skiing reference is to the Hanseatic Ski Racing which took place on the Great Ouse right here in King’s Lynn this weekend just gone. Although my involvement was very peripheral I have a few pictures…
The World Athletics championship got under way this weekend. There have been many great moments already,none more so than Jessica Ennis-Hill regaining her world Heptahlon crown a mere 13 months after having her first child. The way she surged past Brianne Theisen-Eaton of Canada in the final stages of the 800m to win that event outright was reminiscent of London 2012. The other result that was greeted with near-universal approval was in the men’s 100m where Usain Bolt retained his title. People were rooting for him because of who his main rival was – if I was a betting person I would be pretty confident of putting my money on the proposition that no one not named Gatlin wanted Justin Gatlin to beat Usain Bolt – that is a penalty that one pays for being a twice-caught drugs cheat – even if bad rules which are badly applied allow you to return they do not make you popular.
A PHOTOGRAPHIC INTERLUDE
LINKS
On Saturday I produced two of my most successful ever blog posts. My most successful ever, which I will be referring to more extensively in my next post, was this one about autism. The other was the latest in my “London Station by Station” which, carefully produced to coincide with day three of the Oval test match, was dedicated to Oval and Vauxhall. This latter post attracted the favourable attention of historylondon who included it in their “gobbets of the week” post. One of the other posts that made the cut for inclusion in that list was londonist’s offering “the walker’s tube map”.
As someone who writes frequently about London Underground I finish this fairly brief links section by pointing you to this splendid defence of tube workers.
An announcement of some Anti TTIP action, some important links and some good pictures from in and around King’s Lynn.
INTRODUCTION
I have many things to cover in this post, including a number of very important links.
THE BONKERS TRADE DEAL
The bonkers trade deal is officially known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP for short), and I am mentioning it in this post for two reasons:
This Saturday at 11AM there is action taking place against it, starting outside Top Shop on King’s Lynn High Street.
And linked to the above, I got my action pack from 38 Degrees through the post today.
LINKS
To begin today’s links section, a nod to youth…
THE CASE OF THE DRACONIAN DRESS CODE: AN UPDATE
This refers to an American school whose dress code is both draconian and being applied in a very sexist way. This has given rise to a change.org petition, and today there has been coverage on yahoo:
To conclude this subsection a photo showing the “revealing clothes” for which a girl was called, which ignited the controversy:
When wearing this falls foul of a “dress code” I think the problem is fairly obvious.
JUSTICE FOR KAYLEB
Just a single link, but I make no apology for giving it a whole subsection to itself. This is a truly shocking case involving a 6th grader (English equivalent of this would be a year 7 student) facing the possibility of spending his life with a felony conviction on his record. Please sign and share this petition.
AUTISM AND CREATIVITY
Another single piece, this time courtesy of Huffington Post, about a study into autism and creativity. I start with a quote from the piece:
“Wong and Doherty said we should think of autism in terms of differences rather than deficits. And these differences, as the study suggests, can give rise to important and unique creative insights.” NB The italicisation is theirs not mine.
The full article deserves to be read and shared. Naturally as both an autistic person and the creator of this blog I wholeheartedly concur with the notion that autistic people can be especially creative!
SCIENCE AND NATURE
My final two links, the second being in the nature of a segue:
An account of yesterday, with some good pictures. Also some high quality links and infographics.
INTRODUCTION
Although some of the links I have were located this morning, this blog post is really, as the title suggests, about yesterday.
A MORNING WALK
My walk started with the parkland. There is always plenty to see there, and although it was to elusive to capture on camera, I even got a glimpse of a water vole before it darted under cover. Still I did get some good photos…
I left the parkland via the Seven Sisters gate and headed past the South Gate and thence to the river via Hardings Pits, which at this time of year means one thing to a photographer…
BUTTERFLIES
There were many of these creatures in evidence, and I was able to get several good photos…
The river although not at particularly high tide was looking splendid…
Of course no walk along the Great Ouse would be complete without…
CORMORANT PLATFORM
This structure, which I have named for the birds that are its most distinctive users was once again proving popular…
Back in the heart of the town, there were many boats in evidence. One was a small family owned boat using the jetty, and there were various research vessels, at least one of which was owned by company called Gardline…
EAST RUDHAM
A Sunday lunch in East Rudham and afternoon spent sat out in the sun were both very enjoyable, and the latter yielded some good pictures…
I had noted a while previously that this £2 coin had a special picture on its reverse (the obverse was the usual prrofile of a ludicrously over privileged woman) and so I picked a suitable moment at which to photograph it.Wild marjoram, freshly harvested for use in cooking.Wild marjoram serving its principle function as a bee magnet.
BACK TO KING’S LYNN
Arriviing back in King’s Lynn I bagged a few photos on the way home. A quick check on the computer revealed the Australia had emerged from their tour match at Northampton with a draw – cause for celebration on their part given recent events!
LINKS
I have a variety of links to share with you, starting with several about…
I take the opportunity of having this section to once again remind people of the project to create a museum that really is about the women of East London. My next two links belong together:
A piece by fargaregardsanna which features a humorous use of one of Maurits Escher’s most famous pictures – I realize that some may quibble of me classing this as science, but I believe that since the explanation of how such optical illusions work is scientific that this is justified – and also it makes this section of my post neater!
A heretical suggestion for the Australian Mens team selection for the fifth ashes test, some photographs, a section on the Labour Party leadership contest and a section on Carl Sagan.
INTRODUCTION
My title piece is about the current woes of the Australian Mens side, and I also have links (though not on this occasion a dedicated links section), infographics and photographs to share.
DESPERATE TIMES CALL FOR DESPERATE MEASURES
With the destiny of 2015 Mens Ashes safely settled I am going venture a very radical selection suggestion for them. At the Oval, on what is usually a flat pitch both sides would be well advised to ensure that they have five genuine bowling options available. Australia’s batting having failed in four straight innings they also need some depth there. Watson (although he is playing in a tour match at Northampton today) is out of favour, neither Marsh brother has been convincing and that is all Australia have in terms of batting variation available to them in their official squad. However, there is an Australian all-rounder in England at the moment who is in the form of their life: Ellyse Perry, fresh from playing a starring role in the Aussie Womens team victory in the test match.
I admit that this is a stretch, especially given that Perry’s stock in trade as a bowler is pace, and in the men’s game she would not be especially quick, but in the state that Aussie men are in at the moment the move could hardly make things worse – and maybe even if she proves unable to do much herself against the men the presence of someone with current winning experience will be a boost in and of itself.
Do I really believe that a woman could mix it with the men? Yes – there are plenty of aspects of cricket that are not all about brute strength and although, in spite of the premise of this piece, I would not particularly expect a female to be able to bowl at 150KPH I could see a specialist batter, a spinner or a wicketkeeper being able to mix it with the men.
A PHOTOGRAPHIC INTERLUDE
A few photos from in and around King’s Lynn…
Earnest cleric to JBS Haldane “what have your studies told you about the creator?” Haldane’s response “That he is inordinately fond of beetles.”
Butterfly with closed wings.
The first of two ponds separated by the width of a Road.The other pond, with a particularly luxurious carpeting of lilies.
BEES
A very important and well presented infographic from 38Degrees that I picked up by way of Mike Coulson on twitter:
THE LABOUR PARTY LEADERSHIP CONTEST
I have a purely watching brief on this, since I am principled enough not to have taken advantage of the “register as a supprter for £3” trick. This infographic is revealing about the voting patterns of the three long serving MPs in the contest (Kendall has only been around long enough to have voted on two of the issues covered, and utterly unsurprisingly to anyone who knows anything about she is 0 for 2):
My second offering in this section is a headline about an open declaration of intent to sabotage. If this is telling the truth those two MPs (no surprise that they are Blue Labourites Umunna and Hunt – and I’ll bet that the dishonourable Danczuk is in cahoots with them) should be expelled from the party – this is TREACHERY:
I end this section with link to a piece by Molly Scott Cato MEP (as an aside born in the same town – Stroud, Gloucestershire – as me although a little earlier) which talks about one potential consequence of a Corbyn victory – a red/green coalition.
CARL SAGAN
The late legendary Carl Sagan was a superb writer and populariser of science. I was motivated to produce this section when I stumbled on a thread on twitter that had developed from a Turin Shroud picture overlaid with a great summing up of the religious approach, and then a Sagan quote – which led to me to extract some Sagan books from my shelves and photograph them…
The infographic that started it all.The Sagan quoteA montage of my Sagan books – I have given Pale Blue Dot extra prominence because although any book by Sagan is guaranteed to be an excellent read this one is particularly special.
An account of a walk yesterday morning, the journeys to and from East Rudham, and Sunday lunch in East Rudham, with a subsection devoted to bees enjoying wild marjoram.
INTRODUCTION
This post concerns yesterday, and us set part in King’s Lynn and part in my parents village, East Rudham. A running theme is nature. I hope you will enjoy it and that some at least of you will choose to share it.
PART 1: KING’S LYNN, MORNING
It was a beautiful sunny morning, so I decided to take a long walk from my flat, planned to finish at the bus station in time to catch the 11:55 bus to arrive in East Rudham for Sunday lunch. Right at the start, the upper Purfleet yielded these pictures…
South Quay then yielded a few more good pictures…
A gull swimming in the Great Ouse
A few minutes later came one of the regular highlights –
CORMORANT PLATFORM
The set of pictures I have this time indicate precisely why I have given this structure which sits at the meeting point of the Nar and the Great Ouse the name I have…
Before leaving the river there was just time for a couple of shots looking back at the town…
On leaving the river I headed through Harding’s Pits, which at this time of year means…
BUTTERFLIES
It is difficult to capture butterflies on camera, but I got a few pics…
After this, the next pictures worth sharing came from near the end of the walk, along a stretch of river near Morrison’s…
My photographic comment on Australia’s recent batting performances!
A VARIATION ON THE USUAL BUS JOURNEY
A combination of a spectacular day and herd mentality increased the journey time to Hunstanton and the sea to two hours and rendered the Knight’s Hill junction with the A148 effectively unusable for buses, so the X8 towards Fakenham went by way of Leziate, Ashwicken and Roydon joining the A148 just short of Hillington and its first out of town stop. Thanks to this intelligent alteration of the route the bus was only a couple of minutes late arriving at East Rudham.
PART TWO: EAST RUDHAM
Following a delicious lunch of roast beef the afternoon was spent sitting out in the courtyard outside my parents house, until it was time for me to get the bus home. I was reading the book by Robert Bakker that I mentioned in a previous post – keep an eye for a review in the near future – and also endeavouring to do photographic justice to…
THE BEES
As well as being useful for bringing out the full flavour of lamb, the wild marjoram that grows in abundance just outside my parents door is much appreciated by bees. Bees are a vitally important part of the ecosystem and are under ever increasing threat from the combination of the insensate greed of pesticide companies and the cravenness of governments (the latter do not have the guts to stand up to the former). Their activities so close to where I was sitting were an irresistable opportunity for the only sort of shooting I am interested in – that done with my trusty Nikon Coolpix P530!
THE RETURN JOURNEY
The bus turned up precisely when it was scheduled to, and until it hit the now customary traffic jam on Gaywood Road (at which point I decided to get out and walk the rest of the way) it ran exactly to schedule all the way.
PART THREE: KING’S LYNN AGAIN
In this last section I am going to share some pictures from yesterday evening and also the pictures I got of the bus station immediately before setting out…
The new London Connections map, one of the many things that can be obtained from the visitor’s centre at King’s Lynn Bus Station.On the reverse side the whole of the South East.
The front of the vistor’s centre and the Lynn museum
Focus on the visitor’s centreThe clock, courtesy of King’s Lynn Civic Society.The barrier at stand C – interleaving Captain Vancouver and the Custom House.
An account, complete with a fine haul of photos, of a walk around King’s Lynn. This is followed by some important links and some interesting infographics. Please share widely.
INTRODUCTION
Being up bright and early this morning and noting the sunny weather I headed off for a walk. The body of this post is devoted to sharing the best sights from that walk. After that I have some links and infographics to share. I hope you enjoy this post and will be encouraged to share it.
THE WALK
My first ports of call were…
THE TUESDAY MARKET PLACE AND ST NICHOLAS CHAPEL
These places looked very fine in the sun. The extensive restoration work on the chapel is now nearly complete.
From there I headed to…
BAWSEY DRAIN
This is a far more significant waterway than that name may suggest, and was rewarded with a clutch of fine pictures in that section of the walk…
Watching and waiting in the undergrowth…
I left Bawsey drain part way along it’s length to head towards the Great Ouse by means of a nice route that I know, but I am briefly going to diverge from strict geographical recounting for a subsection on…
BUTTERFLIES
The butterflies were out in force, but it is always difficult to photograph them due to their speed. Nevertheless, I did get some good pics to share…
This was the last butterfly I got, while walking through Hardings PitsThis was the first butterfly pic I got today.The only non-animal flyer I got today – a helicopter (Helico- = spiral, pteron = wing)This one had its wings folded.
ARRIVING AT THE GREAT OUSE
Just a few pics here, but it was a delight to see the river at very high tide…
My next set of pictures are themed around a small but (to me) very significant little landmark which I have dubbed…
CORMORANT PLATFORM
The very high tide meant that most of the structure was submerged, and the presence of boats and the river and West Lynn Church on the far bank also contributed to a great set of pictures…
A brilliant piece of photobombing by the flying gull!Multiple species of bird coexisting peacefully.The platform and a boat.
The church contributing to the scene.
Two cormorants took wing in my direction.
Not all of the boats i saw on the river were there for leisure purposes – there was also a…
RESEARCH VESSEL
Four pics showing the boat and website details…
From here all that was left was…
THE HOME STRETCH
The pictures I took in these final few minutes are very varied…
One last boat pic.The Custom House.Looking north from the Lower Purfleet.An adult moorhen in the Upper PurfleetThe smallest baby moorhen I have ever seen.
We have reached the end of my walk, but I do hope some of you stay for the…
LINKS
I have a shed load of important links to share, starting with some on…
Although it was a universally revered lion whose demise sparked this activity they are not the only species targeted by noxious individuals, and my next link is to a take part petition on behalf of the elephant.
Finally in this subsection, from Mark Avery comes a story about hen harriers which was written in response to a piece in the Telegraph that was shockingly inaccurate even by the “standards” of that detestable rag.
I mentioned this yesterday, and the story has moved on since then. My source today is Socialist Worker with a piece giving great detail, including the fact that the museum which got planning permission on false pretences did not open yesterday as planned – let us hope that in it’s current incarnation as a musuem dedicated to Jack the Ripper it never does open its doors. here are the two links:
This post may be considered my personal response to the death of Cecil the lion.
INTRODUCTION
This post can be considered as my response to the tragedy involving Cecil the lion. Before getting into the main body of it I am once again going to share details (as I did in my previous post) of The Art of Autism’s calendar for 2016, currently being sold for $12. Full details can be seen on their own post on the subject, but I offer you this picture as extra inducement…
A picture to show you why as well as wishing to support the activity I am genuinely enthused by this calendar.
ON APPRECIATING NATURE
We are now in the main part of the post, which as well as what I am writing on my account will feature some photographic highlights relating to nature from the last few months, a variety of important links, and leading from here into the rest of the post my first essay in the craft of infographic creation…
CECIL THE LION
Cecil, a 13 year-old lion who jointly controlled his pride with another lion called Jericho, was shot by a wealthy American who had paid $50,000 to have him lured out of the reserve in which he lived. Walter Palmer, the shooter, has a long and bloody history of such activities, including at least one felony conviction involving poaching. Cecil was a huge tourist attraction, and even from the purely monetary angle (not a viewpoint with which I identify) his death has cost far than the $50,000 that was paid to bring it about. Before moving on from this introduction I have a bunch of Cecil related links to share with you:
There seems little doubt that Mr Palmer’s activities, and those activities that were paid for with his blood money were in breach of Zimbabwean law, and as a staunch internationalist I would say that the American government has a duty to ensure that Mr Palmer gets appropriately punished, either by putting him on the next plane to Zimbabwe to be punished in the country where he committed the crime or by arranging for him to be tried, convicted and punished in America.
I would also like to see a blanket ban on “trophy hunting”, enforced with stringent penalties for those who breach it. Also, I have concentrated on the American, rather than the two Zimbabweans involved in the atrocity because it is the American who bears full responsibility – without his money the two Zimbabweans would have had no motive for their nefarious contact – Mr Palmer is guilty on his own account and has made criminals of the other two involved.
SOME PICTORIAL HIGHLIGHTS
This subsection is devoted the only kind of shooting I am interested in performing – that done with my trusty Nikon Coolpix P530. Yes I have recently acquired a set of five obsidian arrowheads – but that was purchased as on object of interest, not with any intention of using them as weapons!
The first two pictures are of an insect that was crawling on the window of an X8 bus in which I happened to be a passenger.
These two robins, enjoying the local park, formed the basis of my second ever pictorial thank you message.This lone robin was by the bandstand in the local park.
A squirrel preparing for the main ascent!
A Moorhen
A swimming gull, reflected back by the smooth water.
A moorhen showing a turn of speedThis one was standing on a submerged logA cormorant – the first of many.
Cormornant showing off its wingspanFully extended.
A cormorant on the structure that I named Cormorant Platform because they make so much use of it.Swans in the parkland off Littleport Street
Bunny enjoying the thick grass.
One of my ornithological alter egos – a magpie.The only time I have ever got a really got shot of one of these white butterflies – they move seriously fast
A cormorant and black backed gull together.
A cormorant in swimming mode.These were the first ducklings I saw in 2015.This crafty duckling had realised that it could use the lily pad as a kind of boat.
These three shots were gold from my point of view – usually if a cormorant is swimming it is looking for food and therefore dives regularly, making it tough to capture on camera.
Gulls in full flight
Mallard drake and moorhen being companionable on the edge of the upper Millfleet.I had seen swans on various rivers, but until July 2015 never on the Great Ouse which is tidal and flows seriously fast.
These birds like marshy land best, but mud flats when the Great Ouse is at low tide are clearly also acceptable to them.The base of my current pictorial thank you message.
Every single photo in this subsection was bagged within walking distance of my “compact” town centre flat – if you truly appreciate nature you do not have go very far to find glorious sights, and nothing need be harmed.
A FEW NATURE RELATED LINKS
These two links are both to petitions that anyone who takes an interest i nature should sign and share:
To finish the main section of this blog I have another infographic, which gives the same message as the one I opened the section with – the fundamental message of this post…
Finally, to end the post, a link to a new find that came by way of Fargaregardsanna, Harsh Reality, who are offering the opportunity to share a blog post, which I shall by accepting!
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:
First up in this section is a graphic representation of 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…
ANOTHER EVENT AT KING’S LYNN LIBRARY
Details of an upcoming event at my local library in pictorial form…
The front of the library.The event poster.A combined picture.
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…
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…
LINKS
My first link is to a story from the Newark Advertiser featuring yet another example of DWP cruelty.
My next link comes with a couple of pictures, and is brought to you courtesy of Cosmos Up and features the Hubble telescope.
My next link is to a blog I have only just come across which looks both interesting and important, by someone called Eve Thomas – the post that caught my attention being this one.
That is all my general links, but I also have a couple that I have given their own subsection, which relate to…
AUTISM
The first of the two links in this section is a blog that I had not previously come across, mylifemyautism, run by Dr Marquis Grant who I came across on twitter.
From a new find to an old favourite, my final link is to this post from Autism Mom.
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…
I will be starting as usual by sharing some important links, before moving on to some other stuff…
LINKS
To start with, a reminder that the autistic community is still awaiting an apology from Katie Hopkins. On this topic, a prominent supporter of our campaign is Lucy Hawking, daughter of Stephen and mother of an autistic child – check out this piece.
My penultimate link is to a list of demands to the next government on behalf of disabled people.
Last of all, courtesy of the Anti-bulliying Alliance comes a suggested anti-bullying charter for use in schools.
PICTORIAL INTERLUDE
Close up of a swimming cormorant.
MIDDLESEX SECOND INNINGS WOES
Middlesex demonstrated in their match against Durham that batting again rather than enforcing the follow-on is no guarantee against a disastrous collapse. Middlesex reached their eventual 2nd innings total of 83 only because Tim Murtagh, batting at no 11 and suffering with a hamstring strain top scored. Chris Rushworth and John Hastings each took five wickets in this remarkable display.
I was sitting outside listening to the commentary on this and periodically enhancing my collection of photos…
My best aeroplane shot yet……with this one a decent second
Back in the heart of the town, there were many boats in evidence. One was a small family owned boat using the jetty, and there were various research vessels, at least one of which was owned by company called 
aspiblog 