Category: from the blogroll

Old & New

Posted on

This is from late last month on the now infamous (for 6000 miles… readers, at least) BrianMicklethwaitDotCom blog, and I also shared it on twitter, but I really do like it and since we’re due in London shortly, I think it needs a mention on here as well.

Shard+ToL1

Click for bigger.

That’s one of the Towers of the Tower of London in the foreground. As Brian’s post explains:

It is not clear exactly when work started on the Conqueror’s White Tower or precisely when it was finished but the first phase of building work was certainly underway in the 1070s.
Nothing quite like it had ever been seen in England before. The building was immense, at 36m x 32.5m (118 x 106ft) across, and on the south side where the ground is lowest, 27.5m (90ft) tall. The Tower dominated the skyline for miles around.

And of course the Shard in the background (at 308m (1010ft) in height), also dominating the skyline for miles around. But that’s where the similarities end. It’s actually a photo full of contrasts: old opposed with new, short with tall, dark against light, solidity versus crystalline translucence. I love it.

And for all our technological progress, I have to ask – will the Shard still be there in 940 years?
I doubt it.

Blog-related QOTD

Posted on

Once more, to Brian Micklethwait, who is producing some lovely stuff lately. This quote:

As I often warn readers, this blog will, as I get older, be, more and more, about the process of me getting old.
Don’t get me started on automatic supermarket checkout machines.

Brian is older than me, but somewhat concerningly I can see 6000 miles… headed that way as well in the future.

Waterloo Sunset

Posted on

I don’t think this is actually anywhere near Waterloo, but poetic licence and all that.

I was going to (and almost certainly still will) send this photo to Brian Micklethwait of BrianMicklethwait Dot Com because it’s London, there are Big Things, a couple of Cranes and it is begging to be Thinned. That said, I’m quite sure that the Venn Diagram of our respective readerships is far from a perfect circle so (aside from the fact that he might not want to post it anyway), I think that I can get away with putting it here too, because I think it’s very pretty.

ldnsunset

Shared via a friend on Facebook, so I’ve actually no idea who to credit, but whoever it is has done a very good job there.
Well done. All credit to you. Or… er… not.

And despite being a regular reader of Brian’s, it seems that I have comprehensively failed to keep up with the incessant and rapid growth of the London skyline and so I’m not sure what’s what here. I can obviously see the Gherkin slightly left of centre and next to that, possibly the old NatWest Tower (now Tower 42 or something?). Incidentally, I think that tiny sliver of light on the left hand side of that building is actually incredibly important in making this photo really good.
Oh, and right over on the left, if you’ll excuse the oxymoron, is the Walkie Talkie of LONDON SKYSCRAPER IS SOLAR DEATH RAY! fame, yes?

Otherwise, I’m lost.

The Three Second Rule

Posted on

Not to be confused with the Five Second Rule, this quote doesn’t relate to microbial contamination of fallen foodstuffs, but to pedestrians crossing roads.
But I guess that you could apply it to any task – or indeed any time period.

…it’s amazing how far you can travel in three seconds, if you know that three seconds is all that you have, but that you definitely do have three seconds.

That from Brian Micklethwait at Brian Micklethwait dot com, tangenting from the news that London buses will now tell you whether there are free seats upstairs when you get on them, useful to save your legs up the stairs, sure, but moreover:

The technology “saves that ever-so-English embarrassment of going upstairs, popping your head up like a meerkat at the top of the stairs for a look around, only to come back down again”

Yes.

Now all they need to do is find technological solutions to these other problems too.

Point of Ayre

Posted on

Busy day today. Busy evening ahead too, with LCHF being thrown to the wind as I head out with the boys for beer, banter, burgers and alliteration.

So just time for a quick QP. This one is another gem from Peter Killey of Manxscenes.com:

Point-of-Ayre
It’s the red and white lighthouse at the Point of Ayre in the Isle of Man – the most northerly point on the island. Red and white because there’s nothing directly behind it, so the contrasting colours make is more visible during the day, much like the Cape Agulhas lighthouse, which also has very little directly behind it.

Do we still need lighthouses? Well, the people who look after our lighthouses think so, otherwise there would be no value in spending a lot of money refurbishing them. The (probably not ever so impartial) Lighthouse-News.com warns that an over-reliance on electronic aids and a poor visual lookout can still result in disaster – even in the 21st Century, although the line:

Actually, the presence or absence of the lighthouse made no difference in this case.

probably detracts from his case somewhat.