Ipswich Town Signing Tells It As It Is!
Ipswich Town’s new signing, Aaron Maclean is reported to be critical of the shopping in the town centre.
T’was ever thus! And it’s not just the shopping, but the pubs and restaurants as well!
When I first started drinking in the early1960s, I was living in Felixstowe. At that time pubs in Suffolk closed at eleven, but those in Ipswich closed half-an-hour early. So no-one in their right mind invested in pubs in the town. What made matters worse, was the great rush out to the county to get an extra half-hour of drinking time.
Before, I was a coeliac, when C and I lived north of the town in the 1970s and 1980s, we rarely ate there and if we did it was usually in the Golden Panda, a restaurant where we knew the owner and the establishment gave a name to one of our horses.
Although, we both worked there, except for Boots and Marks and Spencer, I doubt we ever bought anything of substance there.
Now I just go for the football and always arrange any meal before I get to the town, as it is a veritable gluten-free desert. People have tried to open decent restaurants but only a couple have lasted. If you want a good meal, you go a few miles outside the town.
Ipswich suffers too because of rivalry with Bury St. Edmunds. Ipswich has the trains, the football club, the port and perhaps a better hospital, whereas Bury has a cathedral, the beer, much better shops and a pro-business Council. The only other thing better in Ipswich is the street sculpture and the art galleries. Ipswich used to have Suffolk’s only airport, but it shut that, as the Council decided it was just rich men’s indulgences.
I blame the Council of the latter part of the last century. They were so anti-business, that even though we had created a hundred or so jobs in the town, we got no co-operation and help, as they wanted real manufacturing jobs. Their great saviour was Robert Maxwell, who effectively did nothing for Ipswich except shut Ransomes and Rapier.
Green Lanes Ventilation Station
The picture shows the ventilation station on the Piccadilly line between Manor House and Turnpike Lane stations.
Green Lanes Ventilation Station
Note that it actually looks like a station, although its purpose is only ventilation. According to Wikipedia, it was intended to be a station.
It was also planned to build a station between Manor House and Turnpike Lane at the junction of Green Lanes and St Ann’s Road in Harringay, but this was stopped by Frank Pick, who felt that the bus and tram service at this point was adequate. However, a ‘Ventilation station’, in similar architectural style to tube stations of the time was provided at the site, and is visible today.
But all we have today is the ventilation station!
Frank Pick’s assertion about the buses and trams probably doesn’t hold today, as although the 29s and 141s are fairly numerous, they can get crowded.
The gaps between stations is long too and there is a plan to move Manor House station to the Victoria line and build a new station underneath Harringay Green Lanes station. I doubt it will happen in the near future. If ever!
What’s Wrong With Snooker?
The news from Pakistan just seems to get worse.
The latest was this bombing of a snooker hall in Quetta.
I doubt that any religion or sect could be against such an innocent game of snooker and it looks like Sunni Muslims were attacking Shias.
I just can’t understand anybody wanting to kill anybody, except in exceptional circumstances!
Is This EL James’s DIY Store?
I passed this shop today on a 141 bus.
Is This EL James’s DIY Store?
I wonder if they sell chain and rope?
One Of London’s Step-Free Bus Stops
The picture shows one of London’s new step-free bus stops.
One Of London’s Step-Free Bus Stops
The stop was also changed from a Request stop to a Compulsory one.
They may make it easier to get on and off a bus, but in some ways because they stick out, it does seem that getting a clear view round the parked cars to see approaching buses is more difficult.
The Onward March of ARM
I’ve always kept a watching brief for ARM Holdings. Partly because it was local to where I lived, but mainly because one of the founders was Robin Saxby, who was in my year at Liverpool University.
I have just read this report in Forbes. There are some facts in that report, that will shape the world. Consider this abstract.
East (The ARM CEO) notes that by some estimates IT equipment now suck down 10% of the world electric power already; he also notes that there are estimates that in the next few years that the amount of data creates could increase 100x, or maybe 1000x. Even at 10x, he notes, we’re going to run out of power at the current consumption rates. “They are going to switch to ARM because it is all about the power,” he says. “The digital world is not going to become a reality unless servers and network infrastructure is designed in a different way….ARM is a tool in the toolbox for making this stuff more sustainable.”
Generation of electricity is one of the causes of global warming, as so much is generated by fossil fuels. So a small company in Cambridge will become a major player in the fight, just because its chip designs are so much more efficient.
Reading the Forbes article, says to me, that ARM can only get an awful lot bigger. But it is all about brain power and not about manufacturing in the traditional sense. On the other hand, ARM has been and will continue to be a company, whose technology enables other companies to start up in innumerable fields.
Moorgate Gets Ready To Welcome Steam Trains
On Sunday, London s celebrating one hundred and fifty years of the Underground.
Moorgate Gets Ready To Welcome Steam Trains
A steam train will run through to Moorgate from Kensington Olympia.
Interchanging At Walthamstow
For years it has been claimed that you can interchange between Walthamstow Queen’s Road station on the Gospel Oak to Barking line and Walthamstow Central station on the Victoria line.
But the promised footpath hasn’t been delivered.
It should make a lot of difference!
The Mpemba Effect
I was alerted to this tale of a scientific curiosity by The Times.
A Tanzanian student; Erasto Mpemba, found that hot water freezes quicker than cold water, contrary to what would be expected. It is now called the Mpemba effect.
I don’t find it surprising that no-one has fully explained the phenomenon, despite it apparently being known to such as Aristotle.
I think it does show though, that sometimes anybody can make a scientific discovery with the most basic of equipment. And in most cases, to be taken seriously by the establishment.
There are some curious phenomena out there in the real world.
One is that when water freezes it expands and thus ice always floats on ponds. If it didn’t you wouldn’t get any fish in water that could freeze.
And then there is the odd property of the speed of sound in air and water. In the former it is 343.2 metres/second and in water it is 4.3 times as fast at 1484 metres/second. Now I know my physics and when asked what the speed of sound in a bubbly mixture of air and water is, I did what I thought was obvious and said somewhere in between.
I was of course wrong, as surprisingly it is less than 50 metres/second. There’s an interactive display here.
I have used this phenomenon to mix oil and water. They do mix, if you get the parameters right.
The Anonymous Widower 