Irish Correctness!
I saw this newspaper on a bus this morning, as I came home from shopping and having lunch at Canary Wharf.
Irish Correctness!
If you can’t read it, by the side of the headline of Keano 3 Latvia 0, someone has written + Martin in green ink.
The Only Rollercoaster I’ve Ever Ridden
This article about Dreamland in Margate caught my eye.
I rode it once in probably the 1980s. I think it’s best we don’t delve into how I found myself enjoying one of the few wooden rollercoasters.
It was the only time, I ever rode on one!
I’ll go again, when and if it reopens.
Norwich In Ninety
I travel regularly on the Great Eastern Main Line to Ipswich and have used the line since the 1970s, when we lived just north of Ipswich.
In those years, there has been very little improvement in journey times, although the trains are newer and perhaps slightly more comfortable.
So I was interested to find this report on the Treasury’s web site. Here’s the first paragraph.
Plans for a new expert group charged with finding ways to speed up rail services to the East of England by as much as 25% have been set out by the Chancellor.
Personally, I will be pleased if the speed improvement to Norwich, is matched on my shorter journey to Ipswich.
At present Ipswich and Norwich take 67 and 110 minutes respectively on a typical train. If Norwich were to be reached in ninety minutes, then Ipswich should be a few minutes or so under the magic figure of one hour.
Given that these trains would probably interface to Crossrail at \Shenfield, Stratford and Liverpool Street, it should be possible to go from Ipswich to Heathrow in under a hundred minutes. The Norwich figure would be two hours ten minutes.
I would think that this could be one of those small improvements, that show a very high return on the money invested. At least the line is fully electrified and all of the major stations can accept long high-capacity trains.
The major problem of delays caused by freight trains going to and from Felixstowe is also being solved with the Bacon Factory Curve, so I’m hopeful that by the end of this decade, we’ll be seeing much reduced journey times to East Anglia.
Will we also be seeing more electrication in East Anglia, like Ely to Norwich and Ipswich to Peterborough? I doubt it, although the latter would really help with the movement of freight out of Felixstowe.
More ARM Processors Than People
A friend has told me that he was in a meeting and one of the founders of ARM pointed out, that there were probably more ARM processors in the room than people.
As I type this, I’m wondering how many ARM processors are in this room with me.
For a start, there’s my Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini, which has an ARM CPU and GPU. As the CPU is dual core, is that a total of three or two?
There’s also a modern Samsung television, two set-top boxes, four Nokia phones, including three 6310i, two digital cameras and a Samsung Tab, all of which might contain one or more ARM processors.
I think that I’m outnumbered! But take note that in 2012, they sold 8.7 billion units!
London’s Name Advantage
It has just been announced that London has now acquired the .london domain name extension.
If you go through the major cities of the world, it generally would seem to work for many like Paris, Berlin, Rome and New York, but it doesn’t work for cities with longer names like Edinburgh, San Francisco and Copenhagen.
So do the short-named cities like London have an advantage? try typing in the domain name for the mayor of Vladivostok!
Keeping Cyclists And Pedestrians Safe
There is a big row at the moment over safety on London’s cycling superhighways.
I wemt to Islington twice today in the morning and to Walthamstow in the afternoon. I saw several instances of bad behaviour, by drivers, pedestrians and cyclists, but the most dangerous ones, were when drivers were turning left and ignoring Rule 170 of the Highway Code and not giving way to pedestrians. In one instance the driver braked hard to avoid pedestrians and a cyclist ran into the back of his car.
So perhaps the best way to cut deaths and injuries to cyclists and pedestrians, is for all road users to obey the law as best they can.
As I said in this post, the Scots have some of the worst pedestrian death rates in Europe and it appeared to me, when I visited, that Scots are much more impatient, than modt of the pedestrians in my part of London.
After my experiences in Croydon yesterday, I would think that signposts showing the shortest and most convenient routes for pedestrians would help too. In a lot of places, cyclists already have these.
Hampstead Heath Station Gets Upgraded
Upgraded might be to soft a word for the work going on at Hampstead Heath station. Demolition and rebuilding might be better.
Lifts are being installed, a new ticket office is being constructed and the platforms are being lengthened to take the five-car Class 378 trains, when they arrive after the end of this year.
Sadly, not everybody would appear to be happy, according to this article in the Ham and High. But then, when the station is finished, it will be a lot better for access than most of the stations on the Victoria line, which handle a lot more passengers.
I think too, we often forget what happens in reality. Yesterday coming back from IKEA, I needed to get on the Overground at West Croydon for Dalston Junction. I had an awkward bag with me and I ended up on the wrong platform at West Croydon by my mistake. To get across, I needed to go up a ramp and down two sets of stairs. So I was asked if I needed help and I said that I didn’t! In the end a member of staff escorted me down the steps to the train.
So provided they are trained and helpful, surely one part of a disabled access strategy, is extra staff on the station. After all, one group who need assistance in unfamiliar surroundings are those who are blind or partially-sighted. I’m no expert, but surely a trained human guide is the best solution to their problems in these circumstances.
How To Do Interchanges
The London Overground wasn’t built to a generous budget and in some places it shows.
But not here in the two interchanges between the East and North London lines at Canonbury and Highbury and Islington stations.
The wide central platform handles a lot of the transfers with a simple walk across and then if you need to use the footbridge, there are lifts to avoid the stairs.
At Highbury and Islington, there is also a second footbridge,
Both stations have a coffee stall on the central platforms, which also have seats and shelters.
Note too how the freight train is some way from passengers due to the wide platform. This can’t be said of all stations on the Overground.
It just shows how a tight budget and good design often produce something that works well. If money had been no object, the stations would have had escalators, but these don’t allow for disabled and buggy access, which of course the stair/lift combination does.
Only In Waitrose In Islington
I couldn’t help noticing the carrots in the Waitrose in Islington.
Only In Waitrose In Islington
Perhaps, though the idea worked as I bought two!
I’ve seen carrots stacked neatly in places like India and Africa, but never in the UK.
The Anonymous Widower 