An Important Letter to be Delivered on International Women’s Day

An important letter to be delivered to world leaders on International Women’s Day (8th March) and a few other bits. Read, enjoy and please share widely.

INTRODUCTION

This blog post features two special sections to start, and then some regular aspiblog fare to finish. We start with…

A LETTER TO WORLD LEADERS

Because I am on the mailing list of ONE I received their email containing a letter about education for girls and a button to click to add my name. Here is the text of the letter

A Letter to Leaders

You couldn’t be where you are today without a good education.

But because poverty is sexist, 130 million girls across the world are denied this basic right. Indeed, if the number of girls out of school formed a country, it would be the tenth largest on the planet – bigger than Japan or Germany.

All children deserve a good education, but in the poorest countries girls are denied it more often than boys. Education is vital for moving out of poverty. Every additional year of school that a girl completes increases her future earnings, which is good for her family, her community and her country.

We cannot afford to squander the potential of 130 million girls to cure diseases or end wars, invent brilliant technology or revolutionise an industry…or simply to access opportunity.

We are coming together and uniting across our divides to get every girl into school and to make sure she gets a quality education once she’s there.

But we need you to do the same.

Your education helped you to get where you are today – and it is in your power to help millions of girls to get theirs. Please act now, with the right policies and the necessary funds.

Show us that politics can work for the people – starting with the people who need it most.

To add your name to this letter, as I already have:

ADD YOUR NAME WITH ONE CLICK

The letter will be delivered to various world leaders on International Women’s Day, March 8th.

SOME SPECIAL COINS AT AUCTION

These pictures are of lots 1036-40 in James and Sons’ February Auction. This auction, like our January auction which is Monday-Wednesday of next week is a three day affair, although day three, which the coin lots will be opening, will be at the Maids Head Hotel, Norwich, after two days at our shop in Fakenham. Save for the picture of the presentation box for lot 1040 these images are all ultra hi-res (600 dpi) scans…

Lot 1040, a medallion rather than a coin.

1040-b — This will be the front cover picture on our printed catalogue for the February auction.

A COUPLE OF LINKS

First from Neurodivergent Rebel this post titled Frienships & Loneliness.

Second, courtesy of People Need Nature comes this report entitled A Pebble In The Pond (it is a 16-page PDF and thoroughly worth reading).

PICTURES FROM KINGS LYNN

Here are some pictures from earlier today…

Nonuple Nelson

My 999th post on aspiblog – an appropriately quirky melange – share if you agree!

INTRODUCTION

The title of this post comes from a cricket related quirk, explained by the image below, which is an extract from Mike Brearley and Dudley Doust’s book about the 1978-9 ashes series (six matches, Australia 1 England 5):

The ‘nonuple’ part of the title comes from the fact that this is my 999th post on aspiblog, and like the old Gloucestershire spinner Bomber Wells who deliberately retired on 999 first class wickets I have decided the commemorate 999 rather than the more conventional 1,000. By the way, although 999 is indubitably part of the ‘Nelson’ sequence I suspect that never mind me as someone immune to woo in all its forms even the late legendary David Shepherd might have considered that at 999 there was little to worry about (in point of fact it is 0% success rate as a score at which wickets fall – twice in first class cricket a team has scored that many – Victoria both times, against Tasmania in 1922 and New South Wales in 1926 and both times they reached the 1,000 safely and won the matches by monster margins – an innings and 666 and an innings and 656 runs respectively).

SOME RECENT FINDS

First a story which I reblogged from Why Evolution Is True yesterday, but which is so spectacular and so well presented that I am sharing a link to it today as well – click the picture below to visit:

Second, a suggestion that London should take its cue from Paris and make public transport free of charge (what are you waiting for, Sadiq?). I have already shared this on my London transport themed website, and now take the opportunity to promote it here – via two pictures, the first of which contains a link to the original article on www.independent.co.uk:

transport-ii — The image in the twitter link that put me on to the story.

Still on the transport theme is this piece in The Guardian about how Uber are (mis)treating their drivers.

My next link concerns libraries, and the fact that they are being hit by huge funding cuts. At the bottom of the article mention is made of the library from which the most items have been borrowed this year – Norwich Millennium Library (and although that is the library I use least frequently of my three regulars my visits there are not entirely unconnected to the large number of items borrowed there!). Click here to see the original piece.

My final link in this section is appropriately cricket themed. Before getting on to it I note by way of observation that as the third day draws to a close the current test match between India and England seems to be capsizing under an overload of runs (Eng 400, Ind currently 445-7). A new cricket blog has appeared on my radar, and I introduce it to my readers by way of a link to a review of Steve James’ book The Art of Centuries.

PICTURES

To end this post here are some coin images from yesterday at work (on this occasion high-res scans rather than photographs as these were small lots):

This is lot 122 (all lots featured here have three images – a composite and close-ups of each face). These lots will be going under the hammer in mid January.

Lot 157 – note the alteration to the obverse face of this coin.

Congratulations to England Women’s XI

INTRODUCTION

While Alastair Cook and his team are fighting hard in Visakhapatnam, the women have recorded a tremendous victory in Colombo.

A SPECTACULAR RECOVERY

You may recall that in my last post I detailed the recovery of the England Women’s innings from 58-6 20 241-9 in their 50 overs. Rain then intervened, so the players reconvened today for the Sri Lankan response. Natalie Sciver, whose 77 dug England out of trouble followed up by accounting for both Sri Lankan openers. Danielle Hazell and Laura Marsh who had continued to Sciver inspired batting recovery then cashed in on the early breakthroughs , Marsh taking 4-21 from her full ten overs and Hazell finishing with 3-21 from 8.1 overs.

While all three of the young women mentioned above performed outstandingly I would say that Sciver who played the major innings and then made the early breakthroughs that the other two capitalised on was the key to this astonishing turnaround. The cricinfo scorecard makes no mention of a Player of the Match award, but if there was one it should have gone to Sciver with honourable mentions for Hazell and Marsh.

THE SOLUTION TO THE MATHS TEASER

Below is the pair of simultaneous equations from my last post – the challenge was to pick and solve one of these pairs:

73X + 43y = 211 685,463X + 314,537Y = 2,685,463
31x + 83y = 199 314,537X + 685,463Y = 2,314,537

If you did the non-mathematicians thing of selecting the pair of equations featuring smaller numbers you get zero credit. If however you managed to avoid being scared by the large numbers in the second pair you might have noticed that the number of Xs in the first pair equals the number of Ys in the second and vice versa, or in other words, temporarily removing the numbers we have:

aX + bY = c
bX + aY = d

This gives us options for possibly simplifying the equations. First up let us look at adding the two initial equations together which gives us:

(a+b)X + (a+b)Y = c+d

Feeding the numbers back in, we get:

1,000,000X + 1,000,000Y = 5,000,000 which simplifies nicely to X + Y = 5

we can also subtract the bottom equation from the top one, giving us:

aX – bY = c-d

Feeding the numbers back in gives us 370,926X – 370,926Y = 370,926, which at first glance may not look terribly pleasant, but a second glance shows that the number of Xs and Ys are equal and that that number appears on the other side of the new equation, so in other words it simplifies to X – Y = 1.

Thus the solution to the original pair of equations with those huge numbers is the solution to this pair of equations:

X + Y = 5
X – Y = 1

Thus X = 3 and Y = 2.

SOME PICTURES TO FINISH

234-a — These images are all of lots in our December auction (takes place on the 14th), starting with some coins

Lot 593, four images. This is a particularly fine specimen of the Kukri or Khukuri, the knife carried by Gurkha warriors.

Saturday Shares

Sharing the best stuff I have found on the internet lately, and some of my own pictures.

INTRODUCTION

No – I’m not getting into financial writing! This title refers to the fact that this post is largely devoted to sharing interesting stuff I have found recently, with some pictures, mainly from work.

I STAND WITH HARRY – UPDATE

The latest stage of this campaign to get Brentwood County Hugh School to confront and deal with their bullying problem, a campaign being run by veteran anti-bullying campaigner and autism advocate Kevin Healey, is calling for people to post pictures of themselves holding an “I Stand With Harry” poster. For the record this is the one I posted:

MAKE VOTES MATTER

The “Make Votes Matter” campaign have launched a thunderclap as the latest stage of their efforts to get the antiquated and defective FPTP system under which British general elections are fought.

SEA WORLD PETITION

Another long standing campaign entering a new phase. The new development is a map to which you can add your presence:

A NEW INTERACTIVE MAP

I have already posted a couple of links about this on my London transport themed website, but this is so good that I am posting about it here as well:

The Time Out piece that set me wise to this
The two links posted on my website (here and here)
To check out the tool (I caught it out once – when although it correctly had me change at Stockwell to the Victoria line for a journey between Tooting Bec and Great Portland Street it then had me change at King;’s Cross to the Circle/ Hammersmith and City/ Metropolitan, instead of alighting at Warren Street, strolling round the corner to Euston Square and travelling one stop west – a net gain of three stops with little time difference in the interchanges) click the screenshot below:

PICTURES

As already stated, most of my pictures are from work on Thursday and yesterday.

Lot 1 in James and Sons auction that will take place on November 30th.

phylogenetic-tree-pin — Finishing appropriately given the nature of the post with an image of a pin badge that I spotted on twitter. The design is a phylogenetic tree btw.

Midweek Mishmash

Pictures from the last few days, an important video and petition link.

INTRODUCTION

I have a variety of pictures and links to share with you.

IMAGES FOR THE NOVEMBER AUCTION

These images are from yesterday.

I took two lpictures of this fort, lot 419, onje with the drabridge down and one with it up. It also disassembles readuly, with a drawer in the base for putting the bits in when it is not in use.

Lot 598 – a selection of interesting beer mats – I made a display of the best ones, keeping the box with the rest inside it in shot.

NEW SEAT DESIGN CELEBRATES PIONEER AUTOBIOGRAPHER MARGERY KEMPE

Margery Kempe was born and raised in King’s Lynn (one of her former abodes was on the site now occupied by 117 High Street. For more about her check out this link. The seat design is for the Saturday Market Place, which happens to be pretty much on the doorstep of the formed abode of hers mentioned above. Here is a picture:

TIMES CARTOONIST NAILS IT

The picture below is The Times cartoonist’s take on our current Prime Minister:

A PHOTOGRAPHIC WALK

These are a staple of this blog, and I offer you these pictures from Monday:

CAMPAIGN FOR CLEANER AIR IN BRISTOL

Bristolians are campaigning over pollution levels in their city, and deserve wider support. Below is a video, followed by a link to a 38 Degrees petition:

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js#

Sign the petition

Cricket, Images and Links

A somewhat delayed account of Monday and Tuesday, with plenty of photos.

INTRODUCTION

A few brief commenst and some pictures.

AUGUST IMAGING

I havce made sure that nothing big has been left unimaged, with my flgiht out to Sweden now only three days distant. Here are a few imaghes from the last couple of days…

AN EMPHATIC ENGLAND WIN

Although for various reasons I did not catch much of the action in the second test match betwen England and Pakistan I congratulate England on responding in emphatic style to their defeat in the first match. While I consider the decision by Cook not to enforce the follow-on when looking at a first innings advantage of 391 to be bizarre, at least his team still managed to win. Possibly the most red-faced captain of all time over a decision not to invoke the follow-on was the Hon Freddie Calthorpe who in the final match of the 1929-30 series in the West Indies declined to do so with an advantage of 563 on the grounds that the match was scheduled to played to a finish. Unfortunately for him a combination of the weather and England’s return journey caused the match to be abandoned as a draw anyway. Six years earlier in a county game Calthorpe had suffered a different kind fo embarrassment when his Warwickshire side made 223 in their first innings, bowled out Hampshire for 15, and had them 177-6 after following on. Hampshire then made a spectacular recovery to reach 521 in that second innings, with Walter Livsey who had only reached even double figures three times in the course of the season before then making a century at no 10, and bowled a dispirited Warwickshire out for 158 in the second innings. Back to the present, and in the test match that finished yesterday evening Joe Root had the kind of match which had it been presented as fiction would undoubtedly have been laughed out of the publishers office – 254, 71 not out, four catches in the first Pakistan innings, and when given a bowl late in their second innings he picked up a wicket with his second ball!

SOME FINAL PHOTOGRAPHS

I conclude this post with a few non-work related pictures:

Images and Other Stuff

Highlights from today at work, a mention of yesterday, a comment on the Melania Trump story and lots of pictures.

INTRODUCTION

This post is about today at work and a couple of other things.

TODAY AT WORK

Apart from the fact that it is so hot that for the first time in over three years as a James & Sons employee I went to work in shorts, the things I did at work covered three areas…

RESOLVING QUERIES RELATING TO THE JULY SALE

These numbered five, one of which was a repeat question therefore requiring no new work. Nos 2 and 3 which I will treat together featured a mishap over coin lots, which I was easily able to sort out, by producing and uploading the following images:

Lot 28 was an incorrect image, and he wanted to see both faces

Lot 29 was incomplete rather than wrong – now resolved.

Query no 4 related to a medal – someone wanted to see pictures of the rim, which are fiendishly difficult to produce, but I came up with these…

The final query was more involved, requiring detail as to whether the item was still in working order, and more info about its provenance. To help with this I produced these images:

The main bulk of my day’s work was…

IMAGING FOR THE AUGUST SALE

There were some interesting items today and a decent variety. I will start with the non-coin items…

309 — This box of matches may be sufficiently old that they are not so safe as ton be impossible to strike!

317 — The cloth and the two bowling balls fir snugly inside the carrying case

388 — There was so much stuff in this lot that I took two images and joined them together.

Finishing the August images where the queries started, here a few more…

COIN LOTS

I am not going to share all the coin images I did today (even with a mere 18 lots done that would be 54 images) but here are a few of the best…

USING OTHER PEOPLE’S STUFF

I recently posted about the Lynn News taking the entire text element of a report that had the byline of one of their journalists from my blog (see here for more details) and pointed out that while I was grateful to them for covering the event I would have been even happier had they acknowledged me. Now today Melania Trump’s speech has hit the news for the wrong reasons – as whyevolutionistrue (who I am happy to acknowledge as my source for the quotes that follow) among others have noted it is all but identical to an earlier speech by Michelle Obama. For WEIT’s whole post click here, meanwhile for comparison, here are the two speeches:

Here’s the text from Trump’s speech:

My parents impressed on me the value of that you work hard for what you want in life. That your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise. That you treat people with respect. Show the values and morals in in the daily life. That is the lesson that we continue to pass on to our son.

We need to pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow. [Cheering] Because we want our children in these nations to know that the only limit to your achievement is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.

And here’s Obama:

And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you’re going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don’t know them, and even if you don’t agree with them.

And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and pass them on to the next generation. Because we want our children — and all children in this nation — to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.

In this latter case, of course we can be absolutely sure that Michelle Obama would not be pleased to hear her words from the lips of Mrs Trump.

To sum up this section:

If using stuff from someone else (and Melania Trump’s speechwriters must have been aware of the origins of the words in her speech even if she was not) make sure that you are using it in a way that the original author would condone.
Even if you have carte blanche to use stuff from someone else for goodness sake acknowledge the fact that you are doing so.

SOME FINAL PHOTOS

These last few photos come from yesterday, some of them featuring a barbecue lunch in East Rudham, with my parents, my aunt and my nephew.

DSCN7673 — Two boats moored on the pontoon jetty, South Quay (before setting off in the morning)

DSCN7678 — The first of two shots of my newphew tending the barbie!

DSCN7683 — Bees love the wild marjoram the grows just outside my parents house, and this was the best shot I managed to get of one.

DSCN7688 — Heading for home that evening – a couple of shots of the newly restored building on Purfleet Street – I would have knocked it down and started over but this still a massive improvement on what was there.

Some Autism Coverage in the Lynn News

A grateful acknowledgement to the Lynn News for their coverage of the Autism Awareness Cup accompanied by a minor ethical quibble and also some images from today at work.

INTRODUCTION

At the end of this post I will be sharing some images from work today, but it is mainly about the Lynn News (and, one ethical quibble aside, positive about them).

THANKS FOR THE COVERAGE BUT AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT WOULD BE NICE

On Sunday the inaugural Autism Awareness Cup took place on the astroturf at Lynnsport, and on Monday I produced this blog post about the event: https://aspiblog.wordpress.com/2016/07/11/the-autism-awareness-cup-a-new-event-takes-root/

Before creating the blog post I had also created a facebook photo album about the event.

Having published the blog post I then produced this email:

For clarification of the intended recipients, here is a second image…

Today the Lynn News produced the following:

You will note that save for the misplaced while between cup winners and Holland every word of this article appears in my blog post. While I thank the Lynn News unreseverdly for printing a story about this event, which will be the first of many, I would have been even more grateful had there been some acknowledgement, and maybe a mention of my blog.

SOME IMAGES FROM TODAY

Coins and Militaria for Auction, Records for Ebay

An account of a day’s imaging, including some of the most interesting pictures.

INTRODUCTION

This post is about the imaging I have done at James and Sons today. In total I have produced 180 images today (no, I am not going to share them all!), using the scanner for the coin lots and the camera for the rest.

THE BULK JOB – THE FIRST TRANCHE OF COINS FOR THE AUGUST SALE

The coins I imaged today were lots 1-50 in the August auction, except that lot 3 was missing. Images of both faces of each coin were required, which meant two sets of scans, and then some editorial work, resulting in three images for each lot. Here to further explain the process is lot 1…

The image that becomes 1-a in the images folder

The two images joined together (1 in the main image folder.

I scan these many lots at a time at very high resolution (600 dpi), the exact number of lots depending on the size of the coins, and on the number of coins that make up the lots. The 49 coin lots I scanned today were achieved in four tranches (i.e eight scans in total). Here some of the more interesting specimens…

Lot 50 – last of today’s tranche of coins

RECORDS FOR EBAY

There were some interesting items here. In total there were 11 separate items, all boxed sets of multiple records, and I offer you a selection of images…

La Boheme - Teatro Dell'Opera Di Roma — Unlike a couple of others that I imaged today this is not a duplicate – it is a different recording of La Boheme to the one that I imaged on Tuesday.

THE FINAL SESSION – MILITARIA

Having finished the records it was time to image some items of militaria. This once again required the camera. Here are are a few highlights to conclude this post…

The July Catalogue Cover

An account, with lots of pictures, of the main thrust of todat at James and Sons.

INTRODUCTION

The catalogue for James and Sons July auction (27th, Maids Head Hotel, Norwich) went to the printers today. This post is devoted to the images that will be appearing on the covers (outside and inside) of the catalogue.

THE FRONT COVER IMAGE

Lot 151 was, as expected, the front cover image, and it went through several takes…

151-cover2 cropped — The second cover image cropped but not edited

151-cover 2 — The edited version of the cover image

THE OUTSIDE BACK COVER – COINS

All of the coin lots had already been imaged, but for the sake of uniformity of appearance I was asked to provide new images for nine of the selected coins…

THE INSIDE COVERS

While I had already done some of the images used for the inside covers, most were of new items that I had to image from scratch, which came in two categories…

RECORDS

This is now the third sale at which we have had significant quantites of records, and here they are in tiled mosaic form…

The pick of the above images were used to fill one whole page of the catalogue (this part of the process is not generally part of my job, although I am well capable of it – it merely entails creating a table in word with the appropriate numbers of rows and columns and inserting the images), while on the other inside cover as well as some other lots filling spaces left over were all of the following…

HATS AND HELMETS

Not every image below was used, exceptions will be noted in the captions…

	GP on A Cornish Christmas 1: A Curat…
	Renegades Blown Away… on England Fightback Comes Too…
	The First Two Days i… on A Successful Auction
	Marizanne’s Mastercl… on From Victory to Rout in Two…
	From Victory to Rout… on An Extraordinary Opening …

INTRODUCTION

A LETTER TO WORLD LEADERS

SOME SPECIAL COINS AT AUCTION

A COUPLE OF LINKS

PICTURES FROM KINGS LYNN

INTRODUCTION

SOME RECENT FINDS

PICTURES

INTRODUCTION

A SPECTACULAR RECOVERY

THE SOLUTION TO THE MATHS TEASER

SOME PICTURES TO FINISH

INTRODUCTION

I STAND WITH HARRY – UPDATE

MAKE VOTES MATTER

SEA WORLD PETITION

A NEW INTERACTIVE MAP

OTHER LINKS

PICTURES

INTRODUCTION

IMAGES FOR THE NOVEMBER AUCTION

NEW SEAT DESIGN CELEBRATES PIONEER AUTOBIOGRAPHER MARGERY KEMPE

TIMES CARTOONIST NAILS IT

A PHOTOGRAPHIC WALK

CAMPAIGN FOR CLEANER AIR IN BRISTOL

INTRODUCTION

AUGUST IMAGING

AN EMPHATIC ENGLAND WIN

SOME FINAL PHOTOGRAPHS

INTRODUCTION

TODAY AT WORK

RESOLVING QUERIES RELATING TO THE JULY SALE

IMAGING FOR THE AUGUST SALE

COIN LOTS

USING OTHER PEOPLE’S STUFF

SOME FINAL PHOTOS

INTRODUCTION

THANKS FOR THE COVERAGE BUT AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT WOULD BE NICE

SOME IMAGES FROM TODAY

INTRODUCTION

THE BULK JOB – THE FIRST TRANCHE OF COINS FOR THE AUGUST SALE

RECORDS FOR EBAY

THE FINAL SESSION – MILITARIA

INTRODUCTION

THE FRONT COVER IMAGE

THE OUTSIDE BACK COVER – COINS

THE INSIDE COVERS

RECORDS

HATS AND HELMETS