An important petition about the NHS – please sign and share.
This comes courtesy of the campaign group weownit.org – click the screenshot below to sign and share this very important petition:
Setting the stall out for today and some stuff about autism. Read, enjoy and please share.
This is my first of what will be a number of posts today. I have come across a variety of interesting and important stuff over the last couple of days, and have decided that I have too much to share in one post, so I am attempting to group my links into categories. Thus a title the three main words of which begin with A, B and C – this is the first of a series of posts I shall be producing through the day, and as it is the first I shall start near the beginning of the alphabet, with some autism related stuff.
I am starting with a reminder that following its successful launch last year the second Autism Awareness Cup football tournament will be taking place at Ingoldisthorpe Social Club on June 4th. There are three links relating to this, accessible by clicking the images below: the first image will take to you to the Autism Awareness Cup homepage, the second to the Autism Awareness Cup facebook page, and the third to NAS West Norfolk Sports Co-ordinator Grant Cotton’s own facebook page:
This relates to a petition created by an autistic parent and aimed at Brighton & Hove Council. As well as the petition itself, which I urge you to sign and share by clicking on the screenshot that ends this section, there are two other links that go with it:
Although this petition is not about autism specifically I am including it in this post because autistic people are disproportionately likely to be among those confined to institutions. As with the other petition I urge you to sign and share it.
This Wednesday just gone there was an NAS West Norfolk coffee morning at the Willow Tree cafe in central King’s Lynn. I was able to get there, and enjoyed it. Here are some pictures from that morning:
On Tuesday I will be in Dereham for an event organised by Autism Anglia and ASD Helping Hands under the catchline “Help to shape Norfolk for autism”. I booked the day off work for this some time ago, because I considered that as someone is both NAS West Norfolk branch secretary and #actuallyautistic it was an absolute necessity that I be in attendance.
A link to an excellent and important petition, and also a mathematical teaser.
There will be no photographs in this post, but I wanted to put something up today because I several new people are following this blog – my thanks to you all.
This puzzle comes from one my books at home (cannot remember which) and has a particular relevance which I will reveal in my next post: take any three digit number, and multiply by 7, then multiply the new number 11 and finally multiply that number by 13. What do you notice about this latest answer as compared to your original number? For a bonus what two numbers would you need to use as multipliers to achieve an equivalent effect with a four digit starting number?
My latest twitter follower, Laura Warwick by name, has created a petition on the British government’s official petitions site (which means it is open only to UK citizens to sign) calling on the government to not allow train companies to increase their fares until they have improved their services. Click the screenshot below to sign and share the perition:
A pot-pourri of a post in which you can read a great story from Paula Peters of DPAC, an account of England’s win in the World T20, find a petition to sign and share and link to the latest post on my website.
I have a few new pictures to share, a few good links to share, a good news story that has already had considerable attention but is so great I just have to share it (it will also be going on my London transport themed website for reasons that will become obvious) and news of today’s game in the World T20.
England lost the toss and were put in by Sri Lanka in today’s all-or-nothing game in the World T20. A magnificent innings by Jos Buttler (66 off 37 balls) boosted England’s total to an adequate 170. It looked even better when Sri Lanka were 25-4 in the sixth over of the reply, but this England team never seem to do things the easy way. With Angelo Matthews blazing away, Sri Lanka got back into the contest and at times looked like they could do it. Then, with 15 needed off the final over, Ben Stokes who had earlier hit the last ball of the England innings for 6 (the only ball he faced as well!) and taken a fine catch, kept a cool head, and remarkably conceded just four off that over to finish with 0-19 from his four overs. Thus England won by four runs, and will face New Zealand in the semi-final, at the same ground and on the same day as the England women take on Australia in their semi-final.
Just a couple of links today:
As it’s title says, this post is a mixture of all sorts of things – enjoy!
I have a wide range of stuff for you, including pictures and links.
In the second of my series of posts about “Buildings of King’s Lynn”, I put up some pictures of Greyfriars Tower. Tucked away in one corner of the grounds is a scale model of the friary as it would have been back in the 14th century…
For more about what this company does click here.
More details about the company that this second survey boat belongs to cna be found by clicking here.
For the opera lovers among you.
I have a plethora of links for you today. I start with a subsection dealing with…
Two petitions today:
On the Government’s own petitions website, is this call to protect academic freedom. The government have new legislation in the pipeline to include an ‘anti-lobbying’ clause in all government grants, and this petition seeks to exempt academic research from this law.
My second petition is on a matter of local interest. A new factory farm is planned for Sedgeford, Norfolk and if you find the notion as repellent as I do please click here to sign and share the petition against it.
Appropriate because the MP about whom this piece was written, the dishonourable Julian Lewis, is in a club of one as a British MP who will not accept communication by email.
The website cosmos up has been in fine form recently, and here (two of them accompanied by images) are three crackers they have produced in less than two full days…
First up, details of a method by which we could get to Mars in three days.
Second, with no images, this about the brightest and darkest objects in our universe.
Thirdly, is this examination of the question of what life would be like on a donut shaped planet.
This picture shows the orbital path of a donut planet’s moon should it have one.
A reminder of the existence of my London Transport themed website. Today’s new post focusses on London Bridge, partially inspired by this picture…
This will be taking place on April 15th at the Dukes Head Hotel, Tiesday Market Place, King’s Lynn, starting at 9:30. It has proved very popular – my latest information is that just 13 tickets are yet to be bought.
The post below is reproduced from my website, www.londontu.be:
It makes absolute sense to petition an organisation that spends £750 million a year on electronics and therefore has folk falling over themselves to gain custom to sign up to an organisation with the aims set out below:
Enter Electronics Watch. TfL is about to vote whether to join other public bodies in an initiative called Electronics Watch that uses clauses in public contracts to require better standards from suppliers, and funds essential monitoring to make sure promises are really kept. The decision is next week, meaning we have only hours left to make our voices heard and spread the word:
Can you ask TfL to join the Electronics Watch initiative to use its buying power for good?
For more and to sign and share the petition please click here
Source: http://action.sumofus.org
My take on dealing with filibustering, provoked by yet another disgraceful display of egocentrism on the part of Philip Davies MP.
This post is provoked by the Downright Dishonourable member for Shipley, Philip Davies making the news yet again for talking out a bill that had cross-party support. Following on from his deliberate talking out of a bill to provide carers with free parking at hospitals, Mr Davies’ latest effort is to talk out a bill that would have made first aid training a compulsory in schools. Therefore, before sharing some pictures with you, I am going to provide my plan for stopping the practice of filibustering.
Before getting on to the ‘how’ which is the main part of this post, I am going to address the ‘why’.
Mr Davies (IMO he should be renamed Phil E Buster after his recent performances) has merely highlighted a practice which is profoundly anti-democratic and dissatisfying. The anti-democratic nature of the practice is obvious – it prevents the matter being discussed from being voted on. The dissatisfying nature of the practice is obvious in cases where the bill that has been talked to death is one you support. However, even if the bill under discussion was one I did not support I would like to see it voted on – I prefer to settle the issue fair and square rather than have it go undecided.
The first part of my suggested solution would be to pass a law requiring that all bills put to the house get voted on no matter what. Secondly, to prevent scum like Mr Davies from making such a law unworkable, impose limits on the amount of time for which someone is allowed to speak and back them up with severe discipline, my suggestion being:
I reckon that one person losing their seat in these circumstances would be sufficient to deter all other would-be filibusterers. If you would like to see filibustering stopped, please sign and share this petition.
I have some pictures from in and around King’s Lynn, and also some badges that will be in our auction on December 9th (a full catalogue for our November 25th auction can be viewed here)…
Accounts of some elements of yesterday at work, some important petitions, a couple of autism related links and some cracking pictures.
Apart from a substantial links section, this post focuses on yesterday at work. I hope that you will enjoy it and that some of you will be encouraged to share.
The catalogue for James and Sons’ auction on Wednesday is now out in print form. It can also be viewed online at the-saleroom.com…
The auction will taking place at the Maids Head Hotel in Norwich, and those who cannot be there but see something of interest can bid online via the-saleroom or Delcampe or leave bids with us either by emailing admin@jamesandsonsnorfolk.com or phoning 01328 855003.
One of the tasks I was given yesterday was answering a query about one of our lots in the next sale. The request was for some extra images, and here is how I resolved it…
My selection of links divides into two subsections, a selection of important petitions and a couple of autism related pieces.
The first petition I have for you comes via change.org and is aimed at putting pressure on Pakistan to overturn Asia Bibi’s death sentence.
My next petition grew out of a Freedom of Information request submitted by Mike Sivier of Vox Political regarding deaths following the stopping of benefits. I have two links relating to this:
2)An accompanying blog post by Maggie Zolobajluk
My next petition is one that has already achieved its original goal but is being used as a jumping off point for tackling similar behaviour by an authority in Kent:
2)An article on kentonline.
Last and in the chief place among the petitions is Joanne Fowler’s petition motivated by the needless suffering inflicted on her father in his last years
My first piece in this section comes from Dr Lisa Sulsenti, who runs an autism related facebook group of which I am a member and takes the form of an open letter to someone who responded badly to an autistic child in a restaurant.
Secondly, here is Autism Mom’s latest offering.
I conclude this post with pictures of some of the items I imaged for our August auction (26th, Fakenham Racecourse)…
An account of the first part of Sunday at Marxism 2015 and a fistful of important links.
Welcome to the latest installment in my series of posts about my experiences at Marxism 2015, the five day political festival in central London organised by the Socialist Workers Party. Check out the previous posts in the series. As well as the post itself I have some important links to share – and on the subject of sharing I hope you will be inspired to share this post!
The journey in had two variations on previous days – firstly my host was able to give me a lift to Walthamstow Central, saving some money on the Oyster Card, and secondly I decided to change to the Piccadilly line at Finsbury Park because Russell Square is actually the closest station to the Institute of Education. My dislike of lifts reduced the theoretical benefits of saving distance because the only other method of access to street level is via the stairs, of which there are 175.
Here is my program of meetings for the day…
You might not expect a theoretical meeting first thing on a Sunday morning to be lively, but it was. However I will settle for sharing a few photographs…
From this meeting I ascended two floors to Nunn Hall for my next meeting, Amy Leather (organiser of the whole event) on fracking. Here are some lowlights associated with fracking…
Instead of supporting this means of generating power we should be looking more deeply in renewables (for which Cameron and his cronies have cut funding while they are pushing fracking like billy-ho).
I will end this section with a few more photos…
Each of these petitions comes with two links, the petition itself and a related article. First up, a petition calling on SeaWorld to release Tillikum the orca:
2)An open letter to Harry Styles of One Direction, who recently urged his fans not to go to SeaWorld.
The second petition I am sharing with this post is the one calling on Theresa May to establish a legal exclusionary zone around abortion clinics:
2)A related article in the Guardian
My penultimate link is to a story on Take Part Daily about how roads could be made from plastic waste.
Last up, a story from Vox Political about the Speaker of the House making some very revealing remarks about the way in which Iain Duncan Smith conducts himself.
An account of a concert at King’s Lynn Corn Exchange featuring Crispian Steele-Perkins, some links and some infographics.
Having put up three new posts about my experiences at Marxism 2015 today I decided a variation was called for, and fortunately, especially given the links and infographics I also intend to share I have the perfect change of tempo ready…
King’s Lynn’s historic corn exchange (see pics below) was last night the scene for a classical concert featuring that master of trumpet playing, Crispian Steele-Perkins.
The first half of the evening, with Steele-Perkins the centre of attention was magnificent. I have only a few pics because there is a no photographs during the performance rule which I obeyed to the letter…
Although I enjoyed the story behind the coach horn, and hearing said instrument played in the Mozart piece, the highlight of the entire event for me was the Haydn Trumpet Concerto, one of the greatest pieces ever composed for the instrument, and played quite magnificently.
In the second half there was no Steele-Perkins, and the quality was much less – there was one piece where one could not tell if it had been played well or badly so undistinguished was it.
There are so many links to be shared that I have split them into subsections, starting with…
The first petition I am sharing is the one calling for statistics on benefit-related deaths to be revealed. I have two links connected with this:
2)A Huffington Post article connected to the above.
My second petition is the one on change.org calling for automatic Group B Strep tests to reduce deaths of newborn babies.
My next offering is this from those who want to keep the National Gallery from being privatised.
Last and in the chief place in this subsection is the petition calling for clemency for William Underwood.
I shall lead into this little section with a piece showing just how low SeaWorld are prepared to stoop in their battle against those who dare oppose cruelty to Orcas.
Phuketbirdwatching introduced me a species of bird I had ot previously seen in this, their latest offering.
My next link is to a piece about the discovery of a new particle, the pentaquark.
Faraday’s Candle can be relied on for good stuff, and their take on Nasa’s recent Pluto fly-by is no exception.
First of all, a piece celebrating an event of 100 years ago.
My next piece, on dealing with London’s polluted air, is a must-read.
Huffington Post are back, with this piece which viciously exposes the misogynism and ignorance of UKIP’s Paul Nuttall.
My next two links are both to pieces from Socialist Worker:
1)On the home front, this piece about tube workers.
2)This about Iran.
Finally, chosen because it leads into the next section, this link to what will be my first infographic.
I hope that you have enjoyed this post and will be encouraged to share it!
aspiblog 