City of Lost Tourists
I’ve said before that tourists seem to get lost in London.
Today it was a Dutch couple, I encountered at Shadwell in the mezzanine level above the Overground, who were trying to get to the British Museum. I was pretty sure, they’d seen the tube map and thought they could get to Bank on the DLR to get a train nearer their destination. So I led them through the gates to the nearby DLR station and up in the lift to the platforms for Bank. Some of these interchanges to and from the DLR are tricky, to say the least. But that is more to the nature of the DLR, which has grown like the proverbial Topsy.
My nominations for bad interchanges to and from the DLR include.
- Canary Wharf, where the DLR and the Jubilee line are two separate stations.
- Canning Town, where there are two DLR lines and the Jubilee line on various levels.
- Poplar, which is a major DLR interchange and a good place to get lost.
- Shadwell, where the DLR and the Overground are two separate stations.
- West Ham, where the DLR and the Underground meet haphazardly, nowhere near West Ham United Football Club.
Note that three involve my least-favourite Underground line; the Jubilee line.
I suppose one of the DLR’s problems is that most of the stations are unmanned and most of the maps only show the DLR and its interfaces. So the system assumes a certain amount of knowledge amongst the passengers. On the other hand, every train has an excellent Train Captain, who can usually give you the information you require.
Perhaps what is needed is a Route Finder at each station, similar to those on the bus spider maps. It would give a list of major attractions and the route to take.
Harry Plays the Statesman
Harry Redknapp doesn’t appear to be at all miffed he didn’t get the England job and to be fair, he’s very much played the statesman since Roy Hodgson was appointed, wishing him well and the best of luck. It’s reported here in the Metro.
To be fair though, I haven’t read much negative comment from players and other managers. Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher were both fulsome in their praise in an article in the Independent.
A Memory of Liverpool University Panto Week
My late wife and I, both went to Liverpool University and the Rag Week then, was called Panto Week and it was rounded off by a fancy dress ball called Panto Ball. I don’t know whether it’s still the same, but the aim of Panto Week was to raise money for various charities.
One year, the Panto Secretary was a girl, who wasn’t particularly liked. So that year, a male student, went to the Ball dressed in exactly the same elaborate and expensive ball-gown she’d hired for one of the other balls earlier in the year. She had fairly recognisable hair to say the least and an appropriate wig was secured. She was reported to be absolutely incandescent and even more so, when she found out that her look-alike had been danced with by something like fifty gallant engineers.
Getting Into the Habit
This was one of the headlines in the second part of The Times on Tuesday and it described why more women are becoming nuns.
I would say it is their choice, but surely in these days there are much better things that people can do for the general good of society. There was a Catholic chaplain in Alder Hey hospital in Angels of Mersey. She was doing the practical things that benefit those in emotional difficulties, rather than being out of it all in a Convent.
I do feel that some who go into closed orders are just opting out of real life to the detriment of society.
The United States Censors The Thick of It.
According to this report, the American version of The Thick of It has been censored for bad language.
What does it say for a country, where you can’t say “Fuck” on television, but you keep the death penalty?
A Fiesty Debate In Paris
It would appear that it was a feisty debate in Paris between President Sarkozy and his challenger, Francois Hollande. But no one got in a knock out blow.
Now there’s an idea!
Perhaps the two of them, should meet in the boxing ring!
It would be a world-wide TV hit!
Wot No Bins
I bought a drink in Marks and Spencer at Brixton and it wasn’t until I got back to Waterloo on a train from Clapham Junction did I find anywhere tro put it, as South West Trains, don’t seem tom believe in rubbish bins either on the stations or the trains.
In the end, I put it in a cart, which was being used by a cleaner.
I hope that when they finish Waterloo, they at least put in somewhere to discard your rubbish.
The EU’s Effect On Executions in the United States
This is a piece I found on the Internet. It shows how the EU’s stand against the death penalty and their reluctance to sell needed drugs to states like Oklahoma and California is stopping executions.
Oklahoma, which executes more prisoners per capita than any other state, said on Wednesday it has only 1 remaining dose of pentobarbital, a key drug used to kill condemned prisoners.
One reason the state is running out is because of a ban on the sale of drugs for such purposes by the European Union, which opposes the death penalty.
Oklahoma has a single vial of pentobarbital left after the execution on Tuesday night of 57-year-old Michael B. Selsor, prison spokesman Jerry Massie said.
Oklahoma is the 1st state to publicly admit it has nearly exhausted supplies of the drug but other states may follow because of the EU clamp down, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.
Pentobarbital is a sedative that is the first of a 3-drug cocktail administered by Oklahoma. It is followed by vecuronium bromide, which stops breathing, and potassium chloride, which stops the heart.
Oklahoma was the 1st state in the country to use pentobarbital in 2010 after a shortage of another anesthetic, sodium thiopental, caused penal officials in death penalty states to look for an alternative.
11 other states also use it. Arizona and Ohio use a single injection of pentobarbital for executions while nine states use the multi-drug protocol, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Lundbeck Inc, the only manufacturer of pentobarbital, is located in Denmark and forbids its U.S.-based wholesalers from selling the drug for lethal injections, while the European Union forbids its member countries from exporting drugs for executions.
Oklahoma could resort to another anesthetic never used before in executions, Massie said, or it could try to tap existing supplies of pentobarbital.
A 3rd option, he said, would entail going back to sodium thiopental. “It’s available but you run into the same kind of problem. Companies don’t want to use it for executions,” Massie said.
The only manufacturer of sodium thiopental in the United States, Hospira Inc, halted production last year.
Dieter said even if states have stockpiled a large supply of pentobarbital, expiration dates eventually will require new orders, he said.
Any change in death penalty procedures typically are met with legal challenges and sometimes lengthy administrative reviews, Dieter added, noting that California has not had an execution since 2006 because of exhaustive review procedures. A measure has qualified for the ballot in November in California calling for repeal of the death penalty.
Oklahoma has executed 3 men so far this year but has no more executions scheduled. There are 60 people on death row in the state, Massie said.
The state has the highest number of executions per capita since the death penalty was restored in the United States in 1976. Texas has executed more people but has a far larger population.
If the Americans are serious about executing people, they could surely manufacture the drugs they need themselves. Of course they should always use the Iranian method and hang people in public from a crane. I’m certain that the American public would like that. It might even be good for the tourist trade!
The Anonymous Widower 