A petition, a Thunderclap, a message to Aldi, some photographs, and a couple of little snippets.
INTRODUCTION
Although there will be a couple of minor items tacked on that the end, this post is mainly devoted to a thunderclap and a petition, both regarding an area of woodland that adjoins a Nature Reserve and is under threat from plans by supermarket chain Aldi.
SAVE QUESLETT TREES
There are two parts to this, starting with…
A THUNDERCLAP
To participate in the Thunderclapyou need to be on facebook and/or twitter and/or tumblr. Below is a screenshot formatted as a link:
Linked to the Thunderclap is a petition, a screenshot of which appears below, again formatted as a link.
The main business of this post ends with…
A MESSAGE TO ALDI (AND PLANNING AUTHORITIES)
I feel very strongly that Aldi should accept the initial negative decision, especially given how many supermarkets (including two other Aldis) are located close to this area already. I am a fairly regular customer of Aldi stores in my own part of the world, but that may not remain the case if Aldi do not reconsider their stance over this. I conclude with some advice for all involved in this decision to consider, tendered in the form of a picture created by Anna from a comment I posted on her blog:
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here are some of my recent photographs, before I finish off with a couple of minor items.
A COUPLE OF NUGGETS
The last few days have seen two numbers come up for me:
300 – the number of successive days on which I have solved at least one of brilliant’s problems – here is one of them for you:
900 – my Lumosity Performance Index has just exceeded this value (after this morning’s workout it now stands at 917. Below, concluding this post is first the breakdown of my LPI, and second a little puzzle for you: Solutions will be in a future post.
Some links to excellent pieces by autistic writers, especially on the subject of Judith Newman’s book To Siri With Love. Details of a thunderclap on the subject of driven grouse shooting and some of my own photos.
INTRODUCTION
I have had a busy few days imaging for James and Sons’ final auction of the year (takes place on Wednesday – click here to view on online catalogue), so it is only today that I have time for another post. Before getting into the main meat of today’s post there is a small matter of an…
APOLOGY
Some of you may have noticed snowflakes falling across pictures on this blog (as I did today, when I accessed it at the library to get a picture I needed for something I was doing). I am aware that some of my followers have sensory issues that make this sort of thing unwelcome, and I have changed my settings so that those snowflakes will not appear again. I apologise to any who were inconvenienced by this ‘seasonal’ addition of WordPress’s.
SOME AUTISM RELATED PIECES
I will start this section by stating that most of the pieces I link to here were drawn to my attention by Eve Reiland at americanbadassactivists. Another excellent source of good material by autistic people is Laina, both in her own right at thesilentwaveblog and via her specialist sharing blog Lainascollection.
My first links concern the representation of autistic people in the media:
Eve (see above) has produced an excellent piece giving details about how we are misrepresented in the media and linking to a…
The remaining links in this section all related to…
#BOYCOTTTOSIRI
The title of this section refers to the backlash by the autistic community against Judith Newman’s book To Siri With Love. Although they make unpleasant reading, because of what they reveal about the book, I urge you to follow up the links I give, all of which, save one, are to pieces about this book written by autistic people. The exception, which ends this section, is to an alternative reading list, and was also created by an autistic person.
I start with what is actually last piece I read about this issue, “An Autistic’s Thoughts On To Siri, With Love by Judith Newman” which was posted on writeabledreams.
To take part in a thunderclap you have to be on at least one of facebook, twitter and/ or tumblr. I am on the first two named, and as such have contributed approximately 5,500 connections to this thunderclap calling for a ban on driven grouse shooting.If like me (see here for a previous piece on this subject) you hold those who take pleasure in shooting at birds in utter contempt, and you are on one of the three networks mentioned please add your voice to thunderclap – more details below:
PICTURES
This network of cracks were in the upstairs front window of an X29 bus – when it is a double decker I invariably sit upstairs, and the best seat is the front window seat on the side opposite the driver.
I needed this 50p for my bus fare, so I could not keep it until a better opportunity to photograph it arose.
This is a collection of interesting things I have seen on the internet recently. They are grouped broadly in three categories, the second of which includes a few pictures I took today.
POLITICS
I start this section with an important open letter from Make Votes Matter. Below is a screenshot of the beginning of the letter. This is formatted as a link so that you can add your name to the open letter should you wish to:
My only link in this section, which forms a natural segue to the nature section, is to a thunderclap organised by Team4Nature and tagged #VoteForHopeVoteForChange. Below is a screenshot which also functions as a link:
NATURE
I am going to start this section with another thunderclap, before sharing a couple of recent posts from Anna that caught my attention and finally ending this section with some of my own photographs.
THUNDERCLAP: 30 DAYS WILD
This one has been launched by The Wildlife Trusts and the screenshot below links to it:
ANNA’S POSTS
The first of the two recent posts from Anna that I am sharing is titled “Which Future Do You Wanna Give The Next Generation?“. This post contains both Swedish and English text, and is in particular focused on the campaign to Save Trosa Nature. Here is Anna’s picture from that post:
The second post from Anna is titled “Old Tjikko” and starts by introducing us to the world’s oldest tree (9,500 years old since you ask). It concludes with a marvellous tree infographic which is reproduced below:
Time now for some…
PHOTOGRAPHS
These were all taken today…
Other than moving the tree pic to the top of the pile (see the end of the previous section for clarification) these are in the order in which they were taken (tree pic was no 6 originally).
This one is a bit blurry because it was taken very quickly.
I end this post with yet another reference to the rainbow coloured infinity symbol that Laina at thesilentwaveblog introduced me and many others to. The version below is an envisaged centrepiece for the front cover of the 2018 Calendar (see this post for more on my calendars) and features my name in white text incorporated into the symbol and the addresses of this blog and my London transport themed website in each loop:
Some of the best science and nature related pieces I have recently come across.
INTRODUCTION
Having started the day with a science related squib I finish it with a full length post concerned with Science and Nature. As this is a post where all the text will be the same colour please not that links are in bold and underlined. Before proceeding here is a list of all of today’s previous posts:
Yes another thunderclap for those of you who are on social media to support. Click on the screenshot below for more…
THE EDEN PROJECT
The Eden Project in Cornwall, of which I have very fond memories, has just added to its laurels by winning VisitEngland’s award for Inclusive Tourism. Thus I have two links, each accompanied by a screenshot to share:
I am indebted to WEIT for this. It is an app that is free to download. For more details please visit the WEIT article on this:
PART 2: SOME FANTASTIC EVOLUTION MEMES
I found these on twitter by way of their creator, whose twitter name is Lord Cropes. Below is the particular meme which caught my attention:
This is just one of 129 memes of this type that he has created, and you can view all of them by way of the website pinkheretic.com. Here is one more to further whet your appetite:
PART THREE: PHOTOGRAPHS
I finish with some of my own photographs:
An adult moorhen and two chicksAdult and two chicks close togetherClose up of a chick
Preparations for tomorrow, photographs from in and around King’s Lynn and pointing up a couple of things brought to my attention by DPAC
INTRODUCTION
The links I am sharing in this post are to do with disability rights. I am also going to be setting the stage in this post for the main thrust of tomorrow’s blogging, which is where the autism part of the title comes in.
NETWORK AUTISM
I will be attending an event in Dereham tomorrow morning which has been organised jointly by Autism Anglia and ASD Helping Hands. Dereham has been chosen as a location because we are dealing with a large area, and King’s Lynn to Norwich is too long a journey for most to consider acceptable (and even more so in reverse). Along with everything else, I have been making preparations for that.
GETTING THERE AND BACK
I have mad arrangements with someone who lives in Watlington and will be travelling by car to be given a lift. In order to avoid the necessity of the driver coming into the middle of King’s Lynn at what would be a busy time we have arranged to meet in the car park of the Gatehouse pub. It being fine outside I was up for a walk anyway, so I started by walking the best route between my house and the car park in question. Those familiar with this blog will not need to be told that in aspiblog terms when talking about walking routes “best” and “shortest” are not necessarily synonymous, and my chosen route is not by any means the shortest. However I class at as the “best” walking route because it minimises the amount of time I spend close to busy roads.
I set off at 13:31 (I needed to time this first section) and headed over the bridge across the upper Purfleet, across King Street, and down to mouth of the lower Purfleet, where I crossed the other pedestrian bridge to walk along the bank of the Great Ouse as far as Millfleet, from where I took the path around old Boal Quay to the Nar Outfall, and briefly rejoined the riverbank until I reached the path through Hardings Pits to Hardings Way, which I followed to its end near the South Lynn Baptist Church, where I crossed the road it joins, crossed the Nar and walked along to the South Gates roundabout, where one more road crossing took me to the edge of the car park which tomorrow morning will be my destination. Having recorded that I had got to the car park at 14:02, and hence been underway for 31 minutes I continued my walk by way of the cemetery, The Walks, Lynnsport and finally back into town by way of Bawsey Drain.
When I got back I found a facebook message awaiting me telling me that the ETA for my lift at the car park tomorrow was 9:20 – 9:30, so factoring in the timings for today and reckoning that if anyone has to wait it should be me I am planning on leaving my flat at approximately 8:40AM tomorrow.
Here are some of the pictures I took while out walking (including some in the first section which I was timing – where I go my camera goes).
The sun shining on the Great Ouse.Marriott’s – note the people using the outside seats.
More light tricks courtesy of Helios and the Great Ouse.The former Wagg-Jex building been done up and turned into flatsThe South GateThe Gatehouse pub
A DPAC DUO
Disabled People Against Cuts have put out two very important pieces today. First, they draw our attention to a day of action against the vicious barbarism known as “Benefit Sanctions” organised by UNITE Community for March 30th. Please read this piece in full by by clicking on the image of an anti-sanction badge (from that post) below:
The second piece from DPAC relates the upcoming mayoral elections in Manchester. The Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People has developed a Disability Manifesto. This manifesto has been sent to all the mayoral candidates, and for those of you who use social media, a thunderclap has been launched to oput further pressure on the candidates to sign up to this manifesto.
The Thunderclap, which I have already supported, and urge those of you who are on social media (facebook, twitter, tumblr or any combination thereof) to do likewise by clicking on the picture below:
TOMORROW
My aim tomorrow is to put a post before I set off finishing the sharing of links I have started today, and then once I am back from Network Autism to put up a post about that.
I have no pictures to share currently, but several important links which seem to me to be related.
A THUNDERCLAP AND A BYELECTION
Starting with the second, the result of the Richmond Park Byelection is in, and Sarah Olney of the Liberal Democrats has beaten the nominally ‘Independent’ but actually Tory Zac Goldsmith. The Tories in their arrogant certainty that Goldsmith would retain the seat and could then be persuaded to retake the Tory whip did not field a candidate against him. UKIP also declined to stand against Mr Goldsmith. On the other side the Green party did not field a candidate, while although Labour did have a candidate (transport expert Christian Wolmar) they ran a very low key campaign.
Since none of the candidates standing in this election supported the expansion of Heathrow Airport (the issue that triggered Mr Goldsmith’s resignation) this election was not about that. Nor in a constituency where over 70% of people voted to remain was it about Brexit.
This vote has come about because many Tory voters were not enthused by the prospect of voting for an ‘Independent’ Zac Goldsmith, and by way of being a backdated punishment for the appalling campaign Mr Goldsmith ran in the London mayoral election.
I have two links for you to get more detail about this byelection:
I have signed up to support the 24 Hours of Reality thunderclap the message of which is “We have a climate agreement – now it is time for bold action“. To be part of a thunderclap yopu need to have an account with at least one out of facebook, twitter and/ or tumblr. The thunderclap brings together all the connections of everyone who takes part. I would urge everyone who can to support this thunderclap.
THE “GET NATURE ON THE NEWS” THUNDERCLAP – ONE DAY TO GO
This thunderclap currently has 1944 supporters with a total social reach of approximately 12.5 million. If you would like to support it and have an account with any of facebook, twitter on tumblr (you can, as I have with my facebook and twitter accounts support it with two accounts if you have them) please click on the screen grab below…
PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION
Here in the UK we are lumbered with an antiquated voting system that has enabled a party with the votes of 24% of the electorate to form a ‘majority’ government. For this reason Make Votes Matter have put up a petition on the official government petitions website (which means it is only open to UK citizens to sign). To view and sign the petition click the screen grab below.
As you can see, when I screen grabbed the above image there were just over 9,000 signatures. There are now almost 14,000 and growing.
THE CALENDARS ARE HERE!
The photographic wall calendars that I have created for next year are now in my possession. I am delighted with how they have come out.
A NEW PHOTO
Once I had picked up the calendars this morning I had time to kill before catching the bus, but not enough to warrant a return to the flat, so i took a little loop through The Walks, where I got this picture…
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