Continuing my series about my holiday in the far west of Scotland around the time of my birthday, with a post about The Waverley, the world’s last seagoing paddle steamer. Features three short videos and a photo gallery.
In my last post in this series about my holiday in the far west of Scotland around the time of my 50th birthday I prepared the way for posts about the paddle steamer Waverley, the world’s last seagoing paddle steamer. This post is about the Waverley itself, before I then post about the voyage.
THE WAVERLEY
The Waverley is a ship with two funnels. The engine can be viewed by the public, and there are detailed displays on board relating to the history of The Waverley and of paddle steamers in general. Paddle steamers were the first kind of steam ship, displacing sailing ships because they were faster, and not being dependent on the wind could steer a more reliable course. Being steam powered they developed around the same time as the first railways (the photographs in this post will show more detail about this), and those railways that served port cities generally ran their own shipping lines so that they could sell all in one tickets covering the train journey and the sea voyage.
VIDEOS
Before the photographs this post features three short videos…
PHOTOGRAPHS
Some photos of and about The Waverley…
Advertising for The Waverley, spotted in TobermoryA first view of The Waverley from the pier at TobermoryA small but highly important document – my ticket for the voyage.A lot of pictures from the display areas inside the ship.Photos from the engine room (x3)More from the engine room.Close ups of the outside view of the paddle (x3)Another close up of the paddle. A final farewell to The Waverley before it was lost from sight as we waited to board the ferry back to Kilchoan.
Detailed looks at the men’s match between Australia and India and the women’s match between South Africa and England that are currently in progress, a mention of the men’s match between New Zealand and England, a 35 second video and a photo gallery.
The New Zealand and England men’s teams are currently playing the third match of a series already won by England, while the Australian and Indian men’s teams are playing the third match of a five match series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and the South Africa and England women’s teams are playing a one-off test match to end England’s tour there. This post looks at goings on in these matches, the second and third in a bit of detail as I have been able to follow them. As for the first, suffice to say that it looks like England are copping a hammering and that said result will be entirely justified.
THE GABBA: AUSTRALIA v THE WEATHER
The third match of the series for the Border-Gavaskar trophy in Brisbane has lost a lot of time to the weather with possibly more interruptions in the two days that remain. The weather has done rather more to stand in Australia’s way than India have managed. India won the toss and opted to field, a lure that has tempted several captains there in the past, though the results should influence modern era skippers against doing so: Hutton put Australia in in 1954-5 and they scored 601-8 declared and won by an innings and 160 runs, though England fought back to win the second, third and fourth matches of that series; Border put England in in 1986-7 and they scored 456, bowled Australia out twice and knocked off the runs needed in the fourth innings; and finally Hussain put Australia in in 2001-2, the hosts were 367-2 at the end of day one and won a thumping victory. Unless the rain persists Rohit Sharma will come away with the same result as those three did – Australia have scored 445, a total kept within some sort of bound only by Jasprit Bumrah who emerged with 6-79. In such batting time as the rain has allowed them in their own first innings India have limped to 48-4, meaning that Australia need 16 more wickets to win and are 397 ahead, given that we are going into day four and there is still rain about, if they do indeed bowl India out for 245 or less it will be mandatory to enforce the follow on.
THE GHOSTS OF DRS PAST AND FUTURE HAUNT CSA
This test match will almost be the last such game involving either sex not to feature the Decision Review System – both the England innings, and the South African response still in progress have featured moments where the absence of DRS for this match has been crucial, and England have been the beneficiaries of both. Tammy Beaumont was given not out in response to a concerted appeal for LBW on the second ball of the match, and South Africa would certainly have sent it upstairs had DRS been in place, and would very probably have seen it overturned. In the South African innings their skipper Laura Wolvaardt was on 65 and frankly looking impossible to dislodge when a ball from Ecclestone struck her pads and she was given LBW. Wolvaardt made it obvious that she was certain that she had nicked it into her pads, and with DRS in place she would have sent it upstairs and it would have been overturned. Maia Bouchier scored a century on her test debut, and Natalie Sciver-Brunt also contributed a ton, reached off just 96 balls, to England’s efforts. England fell away a bit late in their innings, but a score of 395-9 declared is not to be sniffed at. At 237-3 with Marizanne Kapp and Sune Luus going well South Africa looked to be heading for somewhere close to parity, but Kapp being bowled by Ryana McDonald-Gay opened an end for England, and wickets have been falling regularly since then. The latest go has been Chloe Tryon, clipping one from Lauren Bell straight into the hands of Tammy Beaumont. Luus had succumbed just previously to a fearsome burst from Lauren Filer, finally fencing one into the gloves of Amy Jones behind the stumps to go for 56. Number nine Tumi Sekhukhune has just got off the mark with a four, but at 275-7 South Africa are 120 adrift with only three first innings wickets standing. Things have moved on while I have been preparing this post for publication – Lauren Bell has bowled Jafta with a beauty and then with her next ball, assisted by the number 10 backing away so much that she was practically in a different post code from the ball, removed Nonkululeko Mlaba’s middle stump. Nat Sciver-Brunt has just terminated the innings by pinning Ayanda Hlubi LBW for 1 and South Africa are all out for 281, giving England a first innings lead of 114.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Before I produce my latest photo gallery I have a short video to share with you…
Cricket, Politics, Public Transport and Photography, features two excellent videos.
INTRODUCTION
This post looks at the goings on in the first test in New Zealand and at the upcoming election. I also have plenty of photographs to share.
ENGLAND IN CONTROL
England had made a solid start on day 1, reaching 241-4. Burns while never really looking convincing managed to chisel out a half century, while Denly and Stokesalso made runs. Day 2 started with a lot of the good work being undone, as Stokes and Popeeach played loose strokes to surrender their wickets, and Curran and Archer fell cheaply. However, Jack Leach’s adhesiveness combined with Buttler’s strokeplay to save England’s blushes, and a final total of 353 looked respectable. Sibley on his test debut managed 22, and shared a half-century opening stand with Burns.
By the end of the day it was looking rather more than respectable as New Zealand were 127-4, with the prize wicket of Kane Williamson falling just before close when a delivery from Curran leapt at him and he could only fend it behind for a catch. The Williamson dismissal indicates a pitch that is just starting to misbehave, and the kiwis will have to bat last on it. I would reckon that even 250 in that fourth innings will be too many for the kiwis.
An end of day 2 scorecard can be viewed here, and thefulltoss blog’s take on these first two days can be read here.
GE2019 LATEST
First of all, a little local item:
Video featuring Labour candidate Jo Rust speaking to two first time voters:
A good lead in to detail on the Labour party Manifesto…
The Labour Party’s manifesto was launched yesterday, and it is excellent. Here are several links for you to follow:
Please read it all for yourself (a PDF version is here), including the accompanying documents.
To end this section, another video, courtesy of GMB by way of The Skwawkbox hilariously showing Johnson trying to concoct a manifesto:
A MORNING JOURNEY
I was required to be at Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s Opthalmology reception by 8AM today. Making my usual allowances for things to go wrong I arrived there at 7:30AM. Just about an hour later it was time for the return journey, and I discovered that I had hit the start of a long gap between services heading into town. This strikes me as a something of a problem for a service catering among others to hospital patients, but I am fortunately in fairly good physical shape nowadays, and decided that rather than hang around waiting I would do some walking. Getting to the bus stop at which the routes from the Fairstead estate joined those from the hospital I checked the timetable, and seeing that I would not have much less long to wait even there, I kept walking, deciding that I would break for homeward journey by making a brief visit to Gaywood Library, after which I would leave the main road and head home by way of the Gaywood River path. I arrived back at just after 9:30AM having enjoyed the walk but conscious of the fact there would have been some who could not have avoided waiting for the bus, and conscious also of the crying need for the integrated public transport system outlined in yesterday’s manifesto. I have presented photos of the information boards along the Gaywood River path before, but deem them worth seeing again:
PHOTOGRAPHS
Here are the rest of my photographs for this post…
Hunstanton Library, where I was on Wednesday morning.
Michael De Whalley’s leaflet (two images) – I understand that he is good local councillor, and I would be more than willing to vote for his party, but the only chance of non-Tory MP for my constituency is to vote Labour.
This short but powerful video was brought to my attention by an email from We Own It, and I am sufficiently impressed by it to share it here, so that those of my followers on this blog who do not use Twitter, Facebook or Youtube can see it.
A post for “Earth Day”, which argues that every day should be Earth Day. Read, enjoy and please share.
INTRODUCTION
Today is “Earth Day”, and it is all well and good to name it so, but the truth is that we should by now be capable of realising that every day should be considered to be Earth Day. This post is therefore dedicated to “Earth Day” but also to realising the inadequacy of “Earth Day”. There is a parallel here with the various “Autism Awareness” days, weeks and months (yes there is one of each) and their unfitness for purpose which I written about elsewhere. All of my own text in this post will be in green because it is about nature. Links where they appear will be in bold and underlined.
INTRODUCTION TO “EARTH DAY” COURTESY OF LIVESCIENCE.COM
Four days ago I came across this excellent post about the development of “Earth Day” on livescience.com. It is simply titled “Earth Day: Facts & History“, and it is an excellent read. The screenshot below will serve as an aperitif:
A MESSAGE FROM SWEDEN
Five days ago Annaput a post sharing a poster created by one of her friends under the title “Power listen to the voice of nature“. Anna’s message in that post is simple and compelling. Below is her friend’s poster which inspired it:
Poster by Margareta Arnedotter Jansson
A THUNDERCLAP
This one is for those of you who are on any of facebook, twitter and/ or tumblr. I have shared it before, and on its final day I do so once again. It is titled “Birds Join Bees this Earth Day“, and focuses on the damage pesticides are doing to pollinators.
A GCSE IN NATURAL HISTORY
I consider this to be an excellent idea. Once again this is something that I have shared previously, and with eleven days to go until the deadline on this petition I do so again, considering it perfect subject matter for “Earth Day”. Pleasesign and share if you are UK citizens and have not already done so – let’s use today to get this past 10,000 signatures!
THE NETHERLANDS STEAM AHEAD WITH TRAINS POWERED BY GREEN ENERGY
ALL trains in The Netherlands are now powered by wind generated (i.e renewable) electricity. For more and a video (also embedded below) please click here.
CYCLISTS NOW HAVE THEIR OWN VERSION OF THE ‘BECK MAP’
Since he gained permission from his employers to unveil it to a wider public in 1931 Henry C Beck’s schematic diagram of the London Underground network, known colloquially as the “Beck Map” has taken the world by storm and become the template for public transport maps across the globe. Now, in it’s home city a Beck style map has been produced for the benefits of cyclists. There is a detailed article about this on indy100.comfeaturing this map, which is reproduced below for your benefit:
EVERY DAY SHOULD BE EARTH DAY
We need to appreciate nature and the Earth every day of our lives. One day per year is most emphatically not enough. We also need to remember to very important things:
1. There is no “Planet B” at this moment – if we turn this planet into somewhere completely inhospitable to Homo sapiens we have nowhere else to go.
2. Following on from that first point we need to always bear in mind that we need Earth more than Earth needs us.
To finish this post, save for a few of my own photographs I turn again to Anna, and a piece of artwork I have shared before which she created based on comment that I made on one of her blog posts:
These pictures of items that will be going under the hammer on the 22nd,, 23rd and 24th of May at James and Sons.
I travelled on this railway in my childhood, too many years ago to mention.
This picture, reminding us of where we and everything else on earth comes from seems an appropriate one to end the post.
As Autism Acceptance/ Appreciation Month gets underway I share some of the best autism related pieces of the moment, some thoughts of my own and some photographs.
INTRODUCTION
I have a number of autism related links to share. Some of you will notice that the heading of this section of the blog is a different colour from usual. One of the links I shall be sharing gives more detail on this. For the moment suffice it to say that for the month of April save when it features in photographs the colour blue will not feature in this blog. As for the second half of this post’s title, I refer you to my last post, accessible by way of the graphic below:
TOO MUCH INFORMATION
Last year the National Autistic Society released a video entitled Too Much Information. This year they have produced a second, which has already had approximately a million views. As I cannot embed this particular video I link to it by way of the screenshot below and this link to the original.
We start with a post titled “Autism Science to Watch Out For”, which you can visit by clicking the screenshot below.
My second selection from this site, titled “An Open Letter from an Autistic Child in Meltdown, Written by an Autistic Adult Who Still Melts Down From Time to Time” does precisely what it says on the tin. Again the link is by way of a screenshot:
This brings this section to a close because although I have a couple more links to share they are on the same theme and I have chosen to give them a section to themselves…
LOOKING AHEAD –
ACCEPTANCE TO APPRECIATION
Autism Acceptance Month is a better title than the old title for this month. Some however, and I fully sympathise with their reasoning, consider that even this is inadequate, and have introduced another title, Autism Appreciation Month. This appeals greatly to me, as an extension of the principle by which the title Autism Acceptance Month was arrived at. I have two superb posts to link to which between them make a good case for Autism Appreciation Month:
Eclectic Autistic, whose post titled “Autism Appreciation” appeared not long after my own post of yesterday. Click on the screenshot below to read this excellent post in full:
Finally, no post of this nature would be complete without something from thesilentwaveblog. This post, titled “#RedInstead ~ Autism Acceptance / Appreciation Month” both fills out the case for Autism Appreciation Month, and provides some detail as to why I am not using blue in the text sections of this blog during April, and why with blue ruled out I made red the first colour to appear. To read it in full please click on the picture below.
SOME FINAL WORDS
At some point in the near future I will be putting up a general sharing post, and a post about public transport specifically. Also, this afternoon I will be attending a Musical Keys session, and I will take plenty of photographs there for sharing – this session will definitely feature in a blog post as well. I have no doubt that I will also find plenty more excellent autism related posts to share. My final words before the photo section are these:
“DIFFERENT” AND “LESSER” ARE NOT SYNONYMS
and
ENJOY AUTISM ACCEPTANCE/ APPRECIATION MONTH!!
PHOTOGRAPHS
The first five pictures in this selection were taken on Sunday.
A video from twitter this morning showing London folk going about their daily lives.
This video, shot by Dan Snow and posted by him (@thehistoryguy) on twitter as a counterblast to Fox News’ coverage of the aftermath of yesterday’s tragic events in London. I will not name the person this disreputable organisation used as I choose not to give them extra publicity. As a clue, this person recently lost a lot of money in a libel action brought by Jack Monroe. Here is the video…
If you’ve been watching Fox you may have been told that London is defeated and demoralised.
A warning note courtesy of http://www.indy100.org, some stuff about public transport, some stuff about science, a link to a satirical pamphlet and some photographs.
INTRODUCTION
The title of this piece comes from an article on www.indy100.comalthough I am sharing many other things besides that, including some of my local photographs. However before I get into the main meat of my post there is one other matter to attend to:
ERRATUM
In a recent post I identified a bed of yellow flowers as daffodils. It has since been brought to my attention that they were in fact yellow crocuses. I apologise for the mistake, and please note that I am not resorting to the equivalent of putting the apology in six point type somewhere in the middle of of page 27!
TOXIC EARTH
Reading this article put me in mind of Anna’srecent post “No 17 drawing in my goals for 2017” where the drawing is about a group of people stranded in space looking for another planet to replace the one that they had to leave behind because they messed it up too badly. Click on the image below to read this important and sobering article.
A COUPLE OF LONDON
TRANSPORT RELATED BITS
I usually reserve stuff about London transport for my London transport themed website http://www.londontu.be, where indeed I shared the second piece in this section yesterday, but I felt these two bits should also be shared here.
LAURIE PENNY ON UBER
Laurie Penny has turned her fire on private cab hire firm Uber, and the result is a devastating article in theGuardian, which I hope will succeed in weaning a few people off this vile organisation. Please read the article in full please click on the image below.
TUNNEL ARCHAEOLOGY AT THE MUSEUM OF LONDON
The central section of the Elizabeth line (nee Crossrail) cuts through London on an east-west axis, and there being no space on the surface it also cuts vertically through millennia of history. It is this latter that has led to the creation of a new exhibition at the Museum of London showing the best finds unearthed during the building of the line. Accompanying this exhibition is a short video, embedded below. After the video are links to more about this and about the Museum of London.
This is a petition put together by Going to Work which calls not only for affordable affairs on our railways but also for a fully publicly owned and publicly accountable rail network. To view, sign and share the petition please click on the screenshot below:
PHOTOGRAPHIC INTERLUDE
Here are some pictures from in and around King’s Lynn:
Planning information posted near Lynnsport.
The good and the bad of Bawsey drain in one photo – it is home to many species but in spite of continued efforts to clear it is still used by uncaring human residents as a dumping ground.
This bridge crosses a stretch of the Gaywood, carrying Littleport Street across said river.
The inaugural NAS West Norfolk curry night took place on Thursday, delayed by a week due to bad weather. Although some of those who had originally booked did not make it, those who did enjoyed it.
My choice – Lamb Rogan Josh. The accompaniments are boiled rice, two small poppadoms and a garlic naan. The curry was a little spicier than I would have liked but other than that splendid. The accompanying drink, included in the £6.49 price tag, is a pint of Doom Bar ale (and yes for the record I drank only the one)
One of many fine pictures to adorn the wall of The Globe, and the only one I got a clear shot at.
ATHEISTS ARE BECOMING MORE POPULAR
Here is a truly international link – a Brit sharing a post written by a New Zealander about the USA. Heather Hastie has carried out a typically thorough comparison between the Pew Research Centre’s findings of three years ago and of just recently. Please read Heather’s post in full by clicking here.
A TRIO OF SCIENCE PIECES
The first two pieces in this section were initially posted on whyevolutionistruestarting with a piece drawing on the work of Pliny the in Between, who runs a website called The Far Corner Cafe, and of a doctor who posts under the name of Orac on scienceblogs, whose piece can be read here, to demonstrate that Chiropractic is not merely nonsense, but dangerous (indeed potentially fatal) nonsense at that. Jerry Coyne, creator of whyevolutionistrue (it takes its name from his landmark book of that title published in 2009), has received many hostile comments in response to previous pieces he has written that are critical of Chiropractic. To read this piece in full please click on the image below, the first in a series of five drawings from Pliny the in Between that were used to illustrate the post.
Second of the trio, again courtesy of WEIT, is a piece linking to a paper published in the journal Nature that mentions the discovery of potential traces of life in sediments that range in age between 3.77 and 4.28 billion years (the earlier end of the scale being about as early given what is known about our planet’s turbulent beginnings as life of any sort could have taken hold). To read the post in full and possibly move from there to reading the paper in Nature please click on the image below:
The third in my science trio comes from the Smithsonian and has the self explanatory title “NASA Wants the Public to Log In to Help Find Plant 9”. To read the piece in full please click on the image below.
A SATIRICAL PAMPHLET FROM UNLOCK DEMOCRACY
To read this pamphlet from Unlock Democracy in full please click the screenshot of the cover below:
SOME FINAL PHOTOGRAPHS
This set of pictures are of items that will be going under the hammer in James and Sons’ March auction, a full catalogue listing for which can be viewed here.
Lot 127
Lot 128
Lot 140
Lot 141
Lot 142
Lot 143
Lot 149 (three separate images joined together)
149-a
149-b. In the past, before the American way of reckoning up large numbers took over, a 1 with nine zeros after it was not designate one billion, but either one thousand million or one milliard, and one of the banknotes here shows that the Germans with a small difference in spelling used the same word when necessary.
149-c
150
152
153
154
155
164
170
171
172
172-a
172-b
393
393-a
393-b
393-c. When putting these together I decided to make this image the centre of the picture, thereby splitting the two sets of booklets.
407 – a four piece composite image
407-a
407-b
407-c
407-d
407-e – I could not resist extracting this close-up.
Introducing the Cosmic Skeptic, who I came across by way of twitter.
INTRODUCTION
The debunking takes place in a seven minute video that was drawn to my attention by twitter, but there is also a cosmicskeptic website, which I recommend to your attention.
PASCAL’S WAGER DEBUNKED
A SECOND VIDEO FROM COSMIC SKEPTIC
Here is a second video from the Cosmic Skeptic (real name Alex O’Connor).
From the Australian Governments “Australian Antarctic Division” by way of whyevolutionistrue comes a truly wonderful video featuring footage from underneath the sea ice of East Antarctica…
The Australian Governments “Australian Antarctic Division: has produced a wonderful 8½-minute film of video taken by a submersible camera under the sea ice of East Antarctica. It’s full of colorful life down there, and I bet a lot of these species haven’t yet been described and named. The action ends at 4:58 and then there’s explanation.
How many groups can you identify? Did you see any fish?
aspiblog 