Tag: Photography

Neurotribes (Book Review)

A review of a book that will surely come to be regarded as a landmark in the history of writing about Autism.

INTRODUCTION

Another Christmas present, this time a copy of Steve Silberman’s “Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and how to Think Smarter About People who Think Differently”.

A DEFINITIVE VOLUME

I was delighted to receive a copy of this book. I had heard good things about it, and I noted instantly the presence of a foreword by Oliver Sacks (if you have not yet read Uncle Tungsten I suggest you rectify the omission asap) which could not do other than improve the quality of what was on offer.

It is beautifully and clearly written, providing a detailed history of the development of Autism research and the understanding of Autism from the disastrous early theories of Kanner and Bettelheim which caused a vast amount of unnecessary suffering through to the present era.

Of course there are still many many problems with the way autistic people are treated. Here in the UK for example 75% of adults with an Autistic Spectrum Condition are unemployed and a good portion of the remaining 25% (including me) are in low paid and/ or part time jobs.

If you are interested in a warts-and-all history of Autism and Autism research this book is a must-read. Although as understandings change over time there will be additions to this book I do not foresee any need of subtractions.

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Future Plans

A post setting out future plans after a quiet period.

INTRODUCTION

It has been a while since I did anything on either this blog or my website, www.londontu.be due to it being Christmas, and me spending a few days with family. I will be resuming posting properly from tomorrow, and for today will let you know what is in store and share some recent pictures from work.

FUTURE POSTS 1: THE BLOG

I have several ideas for posts on the blog:

  • A review of Steve Silberman’s book Neurotribes
  • A review of Jerry Coyne’s Faith Versus Fact
  • A review of Robert Harris’ Imperator
  • Something about Spectre, which I saw on Boxing Day

 

THE WEBSITE

Other ideas besides these will occur to me, but at the moment I have two definites:

  • A post about some London Underground playing cards
  • A post about London: A History in Maps (three of the maps do relate specifically to London Transport.

 

PICTURES

Just a few today, featuring stamps that will be going under the hammer on January 27th…

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Great Centenary Charity Auction II

An account of last night’s presentation at Fakenham Racecourse.

INTRODUCTION

The first Great Centenary Charity Auction was held on June 28th 2015, and the Centre for Blast Injury Studies at Imperial College London benefitted to the tune of £20,000. The second auction, for which we have already received some donations, will take place on June 29th 2016. This post is about an event that took place last night at Fakenham Racecourse which was simultaneously a presentation of certificates for those who had contributed to the success of the first auction and the official launch of the second.

GETTING THERE

The journey there was uneventful, and I arrived very early, having walked direct from Oak Street where the bus drops off down to the racecourse. Once I had located the event, which was happening at a…

NEW VENUE

Rather than use the same venue that had been used for the auction, we were in the newly opened Cool Roxy Owners and Trainers Bar (named in honour of one of the most famous horses to have raced this course).

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Within the bar was a nice display which served as a backdrop for the presentations.

The bar itself had some very interesting features…

Because we had the great good fortune to have the head of The Royal British Legion, John Crisford, taking part in the presentation we also had a standard bearer…

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THE PRESENTATIONS

Auctioneer and Director of the Great Centenary Charity Auction David James told everyone the names and a bit about each person who was collecting a certificate, and they received their certificates and posed for a photo (one of the pictures of someone posing with their certificate looks different from the rest because the official photographer could not do the photograph of himself!).

SOME CLOSE UPS OF IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS

Here are some of the more important documents for you to see…

Certificate
A hi-res scan of the certificate.
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The flyer for the auction
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Info about the Blast Injury Studies Centre
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Early donations for auction II

A SMALL MISHAP ON THE WAY HOME

The plan had been that since there are no buses running from Fakenham late enough for me to get home under my own steam my parents would give me a lift back, but they forgot. Thankfully, a very helpful member of staff at the Bull on Bridge Street was able to locate a taxi, and my parents covered the fare for me. By the time I made it home I was too knackered to check and edit the photos, so I attended to that at 6:30 this morning, before setting off for work. I will conclude this post with a few mor pictures that are tangentially connected to its subject matter…

A Monday Mixture

INTRODUCTION

Not really a proper post this time, just a few unrelated things to get down and a handful of pictures.

WHICH? LAUNCH SUPER-COMPLAINT AGAINST RAILWAY COMPANIES

Which? have launched a super-complaint against the railway companies demanding that they make it easier for customers to claim refunds (good timing, as we are firmly in the season for delays). I have three links for you to follow up:

  1. The post I have just put up on my London transport themed website
  2. Which?’s own press release
  3. Which?’s petition, which I urge to sign and share.

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!!

 

STRICTLY – A RETROSPECTIVE

Strictly Come Dancing is over for another year. On Saturday night we were privileged to witness a spectacular grand-final in which tremendous stories attached to all four of the pros who had guided their celebrities that far. For Giovanni, it was his first series on the show. At the opposie end of the experience spectrum, Anton has been involved as a pro on Strictly since it started but had never previously made a grand final – 13th time lucky for him! Kevin made history by guiding a third successive celebrity partner to a grand final appearance (and for my money should have won the series). Aliona, the sole female pro to guide a partner to this year’s grand final also made Strictly history by becoming the first pro to guide two partners to a series victory (also Harry Judd in 2009).

The grand final was so superb that even the Judge Jeffries of the dance floor (aka Craig Revel-Horwood) managed to locate his 10 paddle.

SOME PICTURES TO FINISH

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Christmas tree without using the flash – does better justice to the lights.
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Christmas tree with flash – does better justice to the tree.

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AN ANTI-CUTS MEETING IN NORWICH

Brief coverage of an important meeting that took place in Norwich this Friday.

INTRODUCTION

This meeting took place at Blackfriars Hall in Norwich on Friday. It featured an excellent panel of speakers plus contributions from local activists.

GETTING THERE AND BACK

With the meeting starting at 7:00PM I had either to arrange to stay overnight in Norwich or get back to my flat at about 1AM. Fortunately I was able to find somewhere to stay overnight in Norwich, which made the event more manageable.

THE MEETING

The meeting was well worth all the travelling to get to and from it. There were many excellent contributions, both from the platform speakers and from local activists. As for one piece of future activity, there was a leaflet awaiting us on the seats…

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For the rest of this post, I have two sets of pictures, first those showing aspects of the meeting…

My second set of pictures focus on the hall itself, which is in a building called The Halls, which adjoins another historic hall, St Andrews Hall.

Although I stress once again that I enjoyed and appreciated every contribution, I have also to say that I was drawn to this meeting by the presence of two particular individuals, Jo Rust (who showed considerable enthusiasm about my presence when we met just outside the hall as I was heading to take my seat) and Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK who was as impressive in person as he is in the pages of his blog.

Please share this and help spread the word, especially about January 16th.

 

NAS West Norfolk

An account of a couple recent events run by NAS West Norfolk, with some photographs.

INTRODUCTION

This post covers two recent events run by the National Autistic Society West Norfolk branch. Read, enjoy and please share!

A FAYRE IN THE FENS

On Sunday a Christmas Fayre took place at Walton Highway Village Club  (a few miles outside the town of Wisbech) raising funds for NAS West Norfolk. Judging from the hour or so during which I was present it was an extraordinarily successful event – the place was heaving, and lots of stuff was sold at the various stalls, including two bespoke calendars, each of which raised £5 for NAS West Norfolk.

THE NAS WEST NORFOLK COMMITTEE CHRISTMAS LUNCH

This took place today at 12:00 (I had booked a day’s leave for the occasion) at the Lynn Restaurant. Although this is situated practically underneath my flat I did not, as people who live closest to venues often seem to, arrive last.

As part of the festivity we were doing a ‘secret Santa’ whereby we each bought someone whose name we had been given a gift, and had to ensure that they did not know who it was from. This went splendidly. I have put up a post about the gift I received on www.londontu.be and suggest that you visit this post for more information. The gift that I had purchased as part of this was probably the second most popular behind the one I received!

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The picture I took of the other diners in our group.
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The photo that includes me.
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Secret Santa struck gold with this gift!

Incidentally, the picture above was my second shot at the Tea Towel, the first had been spoilt by the fact that the lens was steamed up. I cleaned it up and tried again (using nothing more sophisticated than a Glasses Wipe – £1.49 for a box of 54 wipes from King’s Lynn LIDL).

I opted for garlic bread to start, followed by spaghetti Bolognese. Both were excellent.

 

 

CUSTOMISED CHRISTMAS GIFTS

INTRODUCTION

This post was inspired by Anna of Anna’s Art who put up this post about painting rocks to turn them into Christmas presents.

THE CALENDARS

While I would be very unlikely to produce anything worthwhile by painting rocks as I have no talent for that sort of things many people have noted that I possess a talent for photography, and at mother’s suggestion I used this to design calendars for use as Christmas presents. Here are some photos of the completed calendars, made to my specifications by Vistaprint:

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Save for the front cover which does feature a composite image all the photos used were single pictures, and with no exceptions all were of things seen within walking distance of my flat in central King’s Lynn. Those of you who follow me on twitter will recognize the August photo, because that forms the basis of my current thank you message.

Maybe you have a talent that you can use to produce presents that only you could provide.

JAMES AND SONS’ NOVEMBER AUCTION

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to this post about James and Sons‘ November auction, which took place on Wednesday.

GETTING THERE

I managed to catch my intended bus, departing King’s Lynn at 6:50, and at that time of the morning it was no great surprise to enjoy a clear run to Fakenham, alighting at Oak Street at 7:30. Fifteen minutes later I arrived at the auction venue, the Prince of Wales Stand at Fakenham Racecourse. I was the first James and Sons employee to arrive at the venue. I took a few pictures of the auction lots out an display…

THE AUCTION

In spite of a few technical hitches we got underway at our scheduled start time of 10AM, and the last lot went under the hammer at approximately 2:30PM, a little behind schedule because some of the lots attracted very  intense bidding (i.e for the right reason). I am going to cover a few of the truly outstanding highlights and a couple that were of personal interest…

LOT 34

This was a file of photographic negatives of 1940s vintage (approximately 800 pictures worth – I did a count in response to pre-auction query), estimated at a modest £10-20, it soared to an eye-popping £300, the result of an internet bidding war involving at least four people.

LOT 183 – CANADIAN TOKEN

This Prince Edward’s Island halfpenny token was valued at £15-25. We knew that it was a rare item, but obviously it was much rarer than even we had supposed. A frenzied internet battle pushed the price up to a barely believable £410. Appropriately enough the successful bidder proved to be a Canadian.

LOT 452

We had suffered a disappointment in the militaria section, with irrefutable proof that what should have been the star item of the whole auction was actually a clever fake rather than the real deal. However, a couple of items fared well. This item, a collection of Arabian/ Ottoman empire medals attractively displayed in a glass fronted box had been valued at £45-60, but internet interest pushed the hammer price up to £190

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LOT 481

This German Luftwaffe Pattern officer’s Sword was valued at £90-100 and sold after some lively bidding for £240.

Our next auction, on December 9th, consists entirely of militaria, specifically badges and cloth patches collected over a lifetime by a Suffolk gentleman. Unusually for a James and Sons auction it will be taking place at our shop, 5 Norwich Street, Fakenham, NR21 9AF

LOT 504

This splendid Kelly’s Map of Bucks (actually Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire) dating from 1920 sold to yours truly for £18. More can be found in this post on my London transport themed website where it has been given a whole post to itself.

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LOT 577

Whereas the bid I put in on lot 504 was made more  in hope than expectation, this item given its nature really had to end up in my possession, and duly did so. Like lot 504 it has a post to itself on my website.

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THE CLEAR UP

A two stage process, beginning with getting the stock that was still at the racecourse (either unsold or sold to bidders who were not present to collect) back to the shop and concluding with transferring the rostrum and a few other items to our storage unit in Syderstone. This done, my colleague Andrew dropped me off in central Fakenham on his way home, and I had time for a well earned pint at the Bull Inn before catching the bus home, arriving back at my flat almost precisely twelve hours after having left in the morning.

Filibustering

My take on dealing with filibustering, provoked by yet another disgraceful display of egocentrism on the part of Philip Davies MP.

INTRODUCTION

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.

PREVENTING 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 HOW

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:

  1. For a first offence a warning
  2. For a second offence a ban on speaking in the house for a set period (say one month)
  3. For a third offence, a compulsory by-election to enable the offenders constituents to pass judgement.

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.

PICTURES

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)…

 

Catalogue Now available for James and Sons’ November 25th Auction

A blog post embodying the announcement that the catalogue for my employers upcoming auction is now ready for viewing.

INTRODUCTION

The catalogue for James and Sons’ auction at Fakenham Racecourse on November 25th is now available. Printed copies can be picked up at James and Sons’ premises at 5 Norwich Street, Fakenham for £4, while an online catalogue can be viewed here.

THE BULK EMAIL

Yesterday I sent an email our to a large number of people about this auction, a jpg of which I reproduce below:

AAlert

JAMES AUCTION ALERT

PICTURES

For the extra pictures I am going to concentrate on the silver vesta cases, most of which I was able to scan at very high resolution, but some of which I had to photograph, and because they are silver photographing them came with the challenge of minimizing reflections and avoiding the distorting effects caused by strong artificial light shining on silver…

Lot 63.
Lot 63.

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Lot 64, usually convexity is what prevents small items from being scannable, this time it was concavity.
Lot 64, usually convexity is what prevents small items from being scannable, this time it was concavity.

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Lot 210 - this was particularly tough to get a good image of.
Lot 210 – this was particularly tough to get a good image of.
Lot 49, first of the vesta cases the needed to be photographed rather than scanned.
Lot 49, first of the vesta cases the needed to be photographed rather than scanned.

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The vesta cases that were scannable were these…

This is lot 47, the last lot you will see is lot 65 (lot 210, the big bulbous vesta case seen earlier is this only one out of sequence.
This is lot 47, the last lot you will see is lot 65 (lot 210, the big bulbous vesta case seen earlier is this only one out of sequence.

47-a 47-b 48 48-a 48-b 50 50-a 50-b 51 51-a 51-b 52 52-a 52-b 53 53-a 53-b 54 54-a 54-b 55 55-a 55-b 56 56-a 56-b 57 57-a 57-b 58 58-a 58-b 59 59-a 59-b 60 60-a 60-b 61 61-a 61-b 62 62-a 62-b 65 65-a 65-b