Congestion Charge Consultation
I have just filled in the Congestion Charge Consultation on the Transport for London web site.
I am broadly in agreement with the proposals, but the Western Extension of the Zone, needs to be reinstated to make public transport work better in Kensington and Chelsea.
One of my worries about the Congestion Charge Zone, when it first came in years ago, was that the technology wouldn’t work. It did and I think it generally works well.
So I’m rather surprised that other areas of the country don’t use it to cut congestion and pollution.
Labyrinths In The Underground
To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the London Underground, each station is going to get a new artwork from Mark Wallinger. It’s here on the BBC. The first stations were unveiled yesterday.
The first stations to have the design are: Baker Street, Bank, Embankment, Green Park, King’s Cross St Pancras, Oxford Circus, St James’s Park, Tottenham Court Road, Victoria and Westminster.
I shall check them out today.
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- Baker Street – 58
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- Bank – 142
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- Embankment – 63
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- Green Park – 232
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- Kings Cross St. Pancras – 172
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- Oxford Circus – 176
Baker Street was the first I found.
Kids-Free Zones
I can’t see what all the fuss is about! I’ve never ever had a problem on an aircraft with other people’s children, except for two thirteen year olds, who wouldn’t even take notice of the stewardess. But it was Olympic.
Now I’m a widower, who has also lost a son, which means I have no contact with my well-behaved granddaughter.
So don’t knock it! I must admit though, that I do avoid certain restaurants at certain times, but that’s not the kids, it’s the buggies.
Following The Horsemeat
The horsemeat in food saga goes on and on, with Findus lasagne, the latest product to be cheval-rich, according to this article on the BBC.
In all of the problems reported, there doesn’t seem to have been one, which has occurred with a gluten-free product.
It is also reported that a drug called bute is found in some of the meat. This led to some wag on the radio, saying that these products will be good for your gout.
It will be interesting to see, if we’ve changed our eating habits in a couple of months.
I haven’t! But then, I never knowingly buy or eat food from the bottom of the pile and I doubt most of the restaurants I visit, source their meat in that area too!
Paracetamol Deaths Fall
According to this article on the BBC, smaller pack sizes for paracetamol has led to fewer deaths, many of which are suicides.. However the number of suicides on the railways continues to grow to such a level, that special measures had to be taken.
And yesterday, it would appear that someone jumped off the roof of Eastfield. Accident? I doubt it!
The trouble with suicides, is that we try to stop them, by limiting the methods, when it would be better to stop the reasons people feel they might take their own life.
As to pain-killers, I rarely take them! A couple of years ago, I did have some severe pain after the stroke and had to resort to paracetamol, codeine and later amitriptyline. But I haven’t had a pain-killer since late 2010, although I may have had a small glass of the Scottish all-purpose remedy.
Crowd Funding For Research
I sometimes get involved in helping research projects at Liverpool University and I will also lob small amounts of funding towards projects I think are worthwhile.
I also look into innovative ways of raising funding for individuals and businesses, like Zopa and Funding Circle. I also loan money to the Developing World using Kiva.
So can their methods be used to raise funding for research projects.
Let’s take a researcher interested in how patients manage with the gluten-free diet, they need for coeliac disease. They perhaps want to interview as many patients as possible and produce a report that highlights both the problems and the successes, possibly on a regional basis.
So they have two needs.
A small amount of money is probably required, the size of which would depend on the size and scape of the project.
The second thing, that many projects, like the mythical one I outlined, often need subjects for the research.
Surely, a properly designed system could do both.
Similar things have been done under the general heading of crowd funding. There’s more here on Wikipedia.
How would such a system work? I would steal some of the methodology from sites like Zopa and Kiva.
The on-line system would be uploaded with suitable research projects, which borrowing from Zopa’s methods, would be checked as to the veracity of the researcher.
Prospective funders and participants would join and then search for projects, they might like to support, just like you search for suitable borrowers on Kiva.
Obviously, you could also rate researchers, just as you rate buyers and sellers on eBay.
There are some obvious winners, if this could be made to work!
I know from those in Universities, I’ve talked with, that getting funding for small projects is difficult and a lot of time and money is wasted.
Are there going to be any losers? Not directly, but I suspect some charities and their inefficient structures might be by-passed.
I will probably not develop the system, but someone will! On the other hand, if anybody wants to, I’ll be happy to advise.
Is CrossRail 2 Going To Follow The Palace Gates Line?
The latest plan for CrossRail 2 shows the line going to Alexandra Palace. I assume they mean the main line station although the route is a bit vague. This article seems to think the line will come from Seven Sisters station up the Palace Gates line.
I used to watch the old steam trains on this line in the 1950s, sitting on the ledgers at my father’s print works in Wood Green.
I don’t know whether they could get the trains through, although the main obstacle is probably the shopping centre on the High Road.
Following Crossrail
There are a series of articles on the Crossrail web site.
If Crossrail builds the tunnel as well as it distributes information about the project, we’ll have no worries about the project looking like it says on the tin.
I find it unsurprising that the most viewed article is this one, which shows aerial views of various locations.
Where’s The Plaque Gone?
Although, I can’t ever remember seeing it, it may have cropped up in conversations at home.
But I’ve finally found proof on this page of the British Listed Buildings web site, that there was a plaque at Oakwood station, indicating that the first land you’d hit if you travelled east was the Urals. This is the paragraph from the web site.
The booking hall originally had a plaque claiming that the station occupied ‘the highest point in Europe in a direct line west of the Ural Mountains of Russia’, a reference to the site being 300 feet above sea level.
I would like to see the plaque restored.
The Anonymous Widower 