The solution to yesterday’s observation test.
Yesterday morning I set a little observation test (borrowing the idea from whyevolutionistrue) using this picture which features some magpies…
Three of the magpies were very easy to identify, but I wonder whether all of you spotted the fourth – here is the big reveal – red rings highlighting each magpie…
A little observation test to start the new week.
Taking my cue from the folks at whyevolutionistrue I offer you this teaser: how many magpies can you see in the following picture, taken yesterday at Harding’s Pits?
This one is not especially difficult, and I will reveal the answer in my next post…
An account of developments in Lib-Dem world since I published my “Open Letter To Tim Farron”
This can be thought of as a follow-up to my “Open Letter to Tim Farron”. Yesterday and today have seen some further developments that I believe warrant commenting on.
Both Tim Farron and Sir Vince Cable have spoken of large scale defections from Labour to the Liberal Democrats. Meanwhile, IRL the first defection has happened – Councillor Jennifer Churchill switching allegiance from the Liberal Democrats to Labour. I have two versions of the story for you to check out:
Meanwhile, also IRL, the number of people who have joined the Labour Party since the result of their leadership election was confirmed now exceeds the total membership of the Liberal Democrats. For more on this and other numbers associated with the Labour leadership election check out this piece from labourlist.
I also note, courtesy of Politics Home, that Mr Farron, who previously awarded the Liberal Democrats 2 out of 10 for their performance in the coalition (a mark that to me seemed generous) has backtracked on that. I also note, courtesy of The Guardian, that Mr Farron would apparently go back into coalition with the Tories in 2020 should that possibility arise. This latter practically beggars belief given that being in coalition with them from 2010-15 well-nigh destroyed the Liberal democrats as a party. In the 2015 General Election people who actually wanted Tory policies voted for the real thing rather than a poor imitation, and people who did not want Tory policies were not going to trust the Liberal Democrats, so voted for other parties. To even be considering another Con-Dem coalition as a possibility in these circumstances seems to me to allow only two possibilities:
What is emerging from the Liberal Democrat conference is proof positive, from the horses mouth, that they cannot be considered in any sense of the word to represent any sort of opposition to the Tories. For that people must look elsewhere.
Jeremy Corbyn has been under constant fire from the right, including supposed party colleagues of his for some time. It is time that the media, and more especially right-wing Labour politicians recognised the triumph of a man who garnered more than three times as many votes as any of their chosen candidates could muster and stopped seeking to do him down. Please sign and share the petition.
I conclude thIS part of this post by sharing this, just in from politicalsift.
For those who have read this post through, here are some pictures from the last couple of days to enjoy…
The fourth in my series of posts about Heritage Open Day, featuring the Red Mount Chapel, The Guildhall, “Cormorant Platform”, the South Gate and the Bandstand.
This is the fourth post in my Heritage Open Day series (there will be one more small post to finish the series) and features several classic sites, starting with…
I have shown pictures of the outside of this building in many previous posts, so therefore I am concentrating my attentions on the inside, which a little like that of the South Gate contains more than you would believe from looking at the outside. The only windows most of the building possesses are tiny slits, while the uppermost level has fleur-de-lys windows which are not visible from the ground. At various stages of this buildings history its true purpose had to be concealed, because it was not safe to be known to be a centre of Catholic worship (n.b. the danger was never from unbelievers such as me, who also could not declare themselves at the time I am writing about – it was from those whose interpretation of Christianity differed from that of the Catholics). Now for some pictures…
After this we spent a bit of time outside waiting for signs of the spitfire fly past but none materialised, and we had to buy bread as a contribution to lunch, which thanks to my aunt was a feast. After lunch we started by paying a visit to the…
This is the second most iconic building in Lynn (behind the Custom House), due to its possessing this frontage…
Heritage Open Day however represented an opportunity to check out the inside of the building, including a ceiling that definitely dates from at the latest the early 1420s…
The plan was to visit the South Gate, and then go back to the park to catch some of the live music at the bandstand. A special tour bus (think routemasters of yesteryear!) caught our eyes but it was full, and it definitely was not worth waiting 20 minutes for the next. The walk to the South Gate needed little tweaking to take in one of my favourite minor attractions, which I have dubbed…
Thankfully, the cormorants did me proud, and I was not required to provide any explanation as to my name for the structure…
There were no further diversions before arriving at the…
No external picture of this – I have shown many in the past, and on this day it was all about the inside of such buildings. Suffice to say that my companions for the day, my cousin Edward and his partner Rachael endorsed my earlier description of this building as a ‘medieval TARDIS’ – there is much more inside than you would believe possible from the outside…
Following a short cut well-known to me to not to that many others (at least when it comes it King’s Lynn I can say echoing Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings that “My cuts, short or long, don’t go wrong”) we arrived in the parkland area via the Seven Sisters gate, walking past the Walks Stadium (home of the mighty Linnets, a.k.a King’s Lynn Town FC – just another five promotions would see them in the premier league!) and the Guanock Gate to arrive at our last attraction of the day…
The Bandstand dates from 1904 and regularly hosts live music. For Heritage Open Day we had a brass band who produced some excellent music for us…
A post created in support of Chris Packham, and therefore featuring nature. I also have some important links and a great infographic for you.
I am producing this post to offer public support for Chris Packham, who has been targeted by group of hunters/shooters/fishers who call themselves the Countryside Alliance. I hope that you will all enjoy it and that you will share it.
It will not be news to followers of this blog that I take a great interest in nature. One of the reasons why living where I do works for me is that as well as having the amenities of a town centre on my doorstep I have open green space within comfortable walking distance and a river with all its associations even closer at hand. The combination of the fact that I do not drive and the scandalous state of public transport provision for out of town areas mean that I have to live in a town centre.
Most days I get out for a walk, and I usually get some good pictures (there is only one kind of shooting that I am interested in, and my weapon of choice is a Nikon Coolpix P530). Here are a few highlights from today…
Just in case any of you are not already familiar with him Chris Packham is a naturalist and nature photographer who sometimes presents stuff on the BBC. I included a link to his official website in my introduction, and repeat that here.
The claim made by the Countryside Alliance is that he has violated BBC neutrality. Frankly I would regard being targeted by this group as something to be proud of, and I am adamant in saying that the BBC should stand by him. I finish this section by including the full link to a petition to tell the BBC not to sack Chris Packham:
https://www.change.org/p/bbc-don-t-sack-chris-packham
Please sign the petition and share this link!!
I wish to draw our attention to two things coming up in the near future:
I have a few other links I wish to share, starting with two that should both make unpleasant reading for the…
My remaining links are all connected with…
I will start with a link to the website of the West Norfolk branch of the National Autistic Society. Their most recent newsletter includes this quote: “a member has pointed us towards www.autcraft.com the online version of minecraft for people with autism”. As the member who provided the information I am delighted, but I must also assign credit where it is really due – I only happened to know about Autcraft because Autism Mom has written about it in a number of blog posts, such as this one.
Although various social media organizations have verified Kevin Healey, twitter have still yet to do so, and Kevin’s petition about the issue is still running.
My last link is the twitter account through whose good offices I located an infographic in the “Never mind gold, that’s platinum” class with which I shall end this post. They are called identifor and the infographic is this:
A Retropsective on the World Athletics Championships, More on the Inhumane Despicable Sociopath case, some photographs and some important links.
As well as my title piece I have some photos, links and infographics to share, including a section following up my much shared “Inhumane Despicable Sociopath” post..
At the World Athletics Championships which concluded yesterday Britain won a total of four gold medals, their best ever. Mo Farah with both the 5,000 and 10,000m, Greg Rutherford (Long Jump) and Jessica Ennis-Hill (Heptathlon) all ascended the top step of the podium in Beijing, all having experienced Olympic misery there seven years previously. There were also a stack of best ever performances from less experienced British athletes, encapsulated by BBC TV in this infographic…
Shelayna Oskanp-Clarke had never previous broken two minutes for the 800m, and until Proctor did so no British female long jumper had ever gone beyond 7.00m. The performances of Asher-Smith and Hitchon were also British records. Dina Asher-Smith having already become the first British woman go sub 11 seconds for the 100m and being part of the 4*100m relay team now has three British records against her name.
Partly because of a twitter storm conceived by a well known twitter user named Gail which tied in perfectly with it my blog post about the revelations of DWP deaths, forced out after a long and hard fought campaign, was very widely shared. I have a number of superb related links to share in this section:
Now, a few infographics about this story, starting with this great tweet:
This, formatted like a DWP case study, differs from them in being a true story:
Finally to the end this section, a screendump from a text book of the future that somehow appeared on my screen…
I am dividing this in to two main subsections, starting with…
Within this section I am starting with a case which is reaching a conclusion soon…
I have blogged about this outrageous case of an autistic grade 6 boy facing a lifeltime with a felony conviction, but since the case is now going through the courts I include these two links:
Also, for twitter users (I have already done so btw), here is a temporary profile pic you may wish to use in solidarity with Kayleb:
I start with a couple of petitions:
I have three more links to purely text based material:
My last link is to a wonderful protest song by Welsh singer Charlotte Church.
An account of a walk around King’s Lynn, accompanied by photos. Also some important links.
I am in the process of putting together a very large post indeed as an experiment, and meantime I offer you this little post…
I did this walk immediately after lunch yesterday. Setting off I headed through Baker Lane Car Park, across the upper Purfleet and down to the Great Ouse by way of the lower Purfleet. The first photo I got was this one of a bird that was perfectly positioned for the shot…
I headed along the river bank and across the Millfleet, then took the path that skirts old Boal Quay round to…
This meeting point of the Nar and Ouse provided some fine photos…
Just beyond Cormorant Platform is the path through Harding’s Pits, from which I then headed across the Nar, stopping to photograph a swan…
Up through the South Gate, across the London Road, through a little known passage and along to Seven Sisters, at which point I entered…
The water by the bandstand is generally good for a few pictures, and today was no exception…
After the bandstand I followed the path the exits the parkland by way of the church of St John the Evangelist, walked up past the train station and on to the second loop of the figure of eight, following another little river in King’s Lynn until the path diverged from it to go past the first of two ponds separated by the width of a road. The river provided a few pics, but nothing was happening in either pond…
From the second pond I followed the road I was round until I reached the path through the meadow that leads to a bridge across Bawsey Drain, on to another path that I followed back towards the town centre. This section of the walk yielded only one picture – a green insect that because of its size I was not sure I would be able to capture…
On the last stage of the walk I got a picture of the model spitfire that currently adorns the Trues Yard museum…
After I was home, I got one final picture of a military aeroplane that flew very low (by the standards of powered aircraft) overhead…
My first link is to a document outlining Mr Corbyn’s mental health policy, for which I am using a quote from the document itself – the second bullet point to be precise…
My next two links both come courtesy of DPAC (Disabled People Against Cuts):
This piece from disabilitnewsservice makes some unpleasant but hardly surprising revelations about Maximus, the vile American company responsible for administering the notorious fitness for work tests that have blighted so many lives.
Finally, and on a completely different note, here is a link to an excellent blog post by Wayne Pacelle of the Humane Society.
A sequel to the most popular post in this blog’s history, “Autism”.
Welcome to this post, which you may consider to be the official follow up to my most successful ever blog post, which was posted on Saturday under the title Autism.
Yes – there are situations where having an autistic spectrum condition gives me a positive advantage (or so I see it anyway).
A couple of links here that relate to my subject matter:
I hope you have all enjoyed this, my second full-length essay in writing about autism from the viewpoint of an autistic person, and that some at least of you will share it.
This autistic person’s view of autism and autistic spectrum conditions, leavened with a few photos.
This post is by way of a public response to two blog posts that I have recently encountered. I am writing this because in twitter speak I am #actuallyautistic.
The post that first planted the germ of an idea for this piece in my mind was published by Autism Mom under the title “Sometimes I don’t know what to think”. In it she mentions being at an autism related event and hearing someone talk about “curing” their son’s autism.
The other post that helped to spark this was published this morning on parents.com under the title “15 things I tell my friends when they’re facing an autism diagnosis”. As a sample of what to expect I offer two paragraphs (they are not contiguous in the actual piece)…
Be wary of “cures” and “recovery.”
One of the first books I read about autism was a “recovery narrative.” It was well-wrttien, but what it told me was that if I just worked hard enough, poured enough money into chasing a cure, and found the right combo of supplements and therapies, my son would get over his autism. It’s a destructive mindset to have, and it caused me and my child heaps of stress. Autism is a neurology, it’s a different way the brain is wired. You can’t recover from neurology, and a more productive focus for everyone is helping your child become his or her best self.
and
Don’t get bogged down in the debates in the autism community.
There are a lot of camps in the autism community. Some people want cures, other blame vaccines, and others demonize autism. Autism self-advocates are changing perceptions of the disorder through their advocacy. People will tell you to cut gluten, try cod liver oil, and the fights can grow nasty. I align with certain views, and I try to live those. But I tell my friends to keep the focus on their child as they wade through all the extra noise in the autism community. I also always recommend that parents new to a diagnosis read what writers with autism are saying as a way to navigate some of this debate.
Here are a few of my recent photographs from in and around King’s Lynn
The common usage of the phrase Autistic Spectrum Disorder can lead to a suggestion that Autism can be treated like a disease and thence to talk of “cures”. Therefore save for the single sentence I have just written I used Autism or Autistic Spectrum Condition. In each case, although I have emphasised the words that I change in the phrase the key word of the whole phrase is “spectrum”, which implies, correctly, a broad range of attributes.
An Autistic Spectrum Condition is neither a disorder nor a disease – having one makes us different not lesser, or in some way incomplete. This is, if you like, my take home message to neurotypicals: learn to see beyond the condition we have and to appreciate the things we can do, rather than making the things the we cannot into impassable obstacles.
As I hope I have made crystal clear, I believe that any talk of a “cure” for autism is fundamentally misguided. I for one can say with no shadow of a doubt that even if some wonder drug was devised that had the power to make me neurotypical I WOULD REFUSE TO TAKE IT.
I end with a request to any and all of you who make it this far: please share this piece.
An announcement of some Anti TTIP action, some important links and some good pictures from in and around King’s Lynn.
I have many things to cover in this post, including a number of very important links.
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:
To begin today’s links section, a nod to youth…
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:
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.
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!
My final two links, the second being in the nature of a segue:
I bring this post to a conclusion with some pictures taken in and around King’s Lynn yesterday morning and today…
aspiblog 