Showing posts with label England. Show all posts
Showing posts with label England. Show all posts
Monday, 18 February 2008
Signs of Spring
I awoke suddenly this morning with a palpable sense of dread. I did not know the time, but I had the feeling that I was very late. I was supposed to be teaching at 9:30, and I felt I had already missed this. Why? Because there was sunlight in my room. The actual time was 7:40, and I was not late at all. But England is so freakin' depressingly dark in the winter that any hint of sunlight must mean it is nearly noon. A typical UK winter's day: dawn at 9, dusk at 3:30, and dim gray wetness inbetween. So waking up to sunlight must mean Spring is just about here! Thank you! My vitamin D reserves are most grateful!
Sunday, 9 September 2007
Canterbury: Pictures and Video
I got back from Canterbury just before midnight on Saturday night. The conference was good, but not exceptional, which is what I was told it would be. A few talks stood out: Peter Hegarty rocked with his presentation about how bias creeps into research through the use of "typical" exemplars. Michelle Ryan had a great overview of the Glass Cliff findings, with a focus on people's reactions to it. There were plenty of other good ones too, and a few boring ones as would be expected. But it was a good medium-scale event for my first "real" conference. I'm looking forward to going (and hopefully presenting!) at a much bigger one in Croatia next June.
The University of Kent is subtly bizarre in ways that are difficult to explain. It seems like a good school, but something just felt a bit strange about it. The campus itself is beautiful. The room numbering system is Byzantine - I never did work it out completely. The en suite dorm bathrooms are like big showers with a toilet and sink inside them - and no barrier between the shower tile and the bedroom carpet, so water will seep into the bedroom if you turn the shower on all the way. But the upside: they gave us University of Kent branded soap and body wash (why doesn't Exeter do this?!) The University of Kent branded one-use disposable bath mat was a little weird. I think one thing that disoriented me is hearing so many American voices in a quintessentially English place. Parallel universes... slowly... colliding...
My favourite experience was at breakfast in the cafeteria. I asked one of the workers if she knew what food was vegan. Looking helpful, she said she would check with the cook and be right back. A few minutes later she returned. "The beans and tomatoes are vegan, of course. The vegetarian sausages are vegan as well. Unfortunately the potato wedges have onion in them though" she said sincerely.
"Oh, eh, well, thanks for checking."
The cooks also cut the crusts off of my vegan sandwiches (and none of the others.) Not sure what that was about. The complete non-comprehension of veganism was almost like being back in Georgia. The food was tasty though.
The conference ended on Friday afternoon, so I headed to Kipps Hostel for the evening. It wasn't bad, especially for £15 for the night. I headed to a pub to meet a friend/fellow-conference-goer to watch the rugby game. It was my first time watching rugby. All I can say is that I've never seen that much blood coming out of peoples' ears. During the day Saturday I wandered around the city of Canterbury. It's really the perfect size to see by foot in a day. There are plenty of things to see, many for free. Here are a few pictures:
The city walls were originally Roman, but have been rebuilt a few times through the millennia. Like most of the stonework in the city, they are made of cloven black flint river cobbles. Canterbury gave in to William the Conqueror without a fight, so they didn't see action then, but they did successfully fend off a number of Viking raids in the centuries before. Now a highway encircles the area where Vikings and Saxons fought and died for control of the city.
St. Mildred's church, near the castle ruins, was built by the Saxons before the Norman conquest.
St. Mildred's again. The flint cobbles were gorgeous. They are glassy black, almost like obsidian, and surprisingly sharp.
Greyfriars, the oldest Franciscan building in the UK, is perched upon the river Stour. It's small and humble, but the gardens were some of the best in the city.
I found most of my lunch in the Greyfriar gardens actually: hazelnuts, beech masts, blackberries, haw berries, apples, pears, and sprigs of rosemary and peppermint. This juicy pear was soon to be eaten.
This sycamore tree near Greyfriars had a trunk about the size of a small car, shaped like a mound. There was no sign to say there was anything special about the tree, but it looked to be one of the oldest in the city.
Just a few feet from the sycamore tree is the River Stour, down which you can see the massive Westgate Tower. You can see cars driving through the main archway between the towers.
Canterbury Cathedral was founded by St. Augustine at about 600 CE. As you probably know, it is the centre of the Anglican church. You probably didn't know you can buy the Archbishop's own special orange marmalade in the gift shop for £3.50.
The cathedral again. It was impressive, but not head and shoulders above other cathedrals I've seen. There are several shots of the inside in the video below.
The castle keep's ruins were desolate. I spent about 30 minutes there and did not see a single other person (on a Saturday in good weather.)
The castle again. There are more thorough views in the video.
I took this video of Canterbury with my regular digital camera (ie decent camera, but not meant for taking high quality videos). In order, it includes the city walls, Grayfriars, the Cathedral, the town centre, and the castle ruins. I did the editing in a hurry, so it is a bit of a rush-job. The music is from Sigur Rós' Taak.
The University of Kent is subtly bizarre in ways that are difficult to explain. It seems like a good school, but something just felt a bit strange about it. The campus itself is beautiful. The room numbering system is Byzantine - I never did work it out completely. The en suite dorm bathrooms are like big showers with a toilet and sink inside them - and no barrier between the shower tile and the bedroom carpet, so water will seep into the bedroom if you turn the shower on all the way. But the upside: they gave us University of Kent branded soap and body wash (why doesn't Exeter do this?!) The University of Kent branded one-use disposable bath mat was a little weird. I think one thing that disoriented me is hearing so many American voices in a quintessentially English place. Parallel universes... slowly... colliding...
My favourite experience was at breakfast in the cafeteria. I asked one of the workers if she knew what food was vegan. Looking helpful, she said she would check with the cook and be right back. A few minutes later she returned. "The beans and tomatoes are vegan, of course. The vegetarian sausages are vegan as well. Unfortunately the potato wedges have onion in them though" she said sincerely.
"Oh, eh, well, thanks for checking."
The cooks also cut the crusts off of my vegan sandwiches (and none of the others.) Not sure what that was about. The complete non-comprehension of veganism was almost like being back in Georgia. The food was tasty though.
The conference ended on Friday afternoon, so I headed to Kipps Hostel for the evening. It wasn't bad, especially for £15 for the night. I headed to a pub to meet a friend/fellow-conference-goer to watch the rugby game. It was my first time watching rugby. All I can say is that I've never seen that much blood coming out of peoples' ears. During the day Saturday I wandered around the city of Canterbury. It's really the perfect size to see by foot in a day. There are plenty of things to see, many for free. Here are a few pictures:
The domjohn behind the city walls is the mound that was the basis of the original Normal motte and bailey castle. It was originally a Roman burial mound. Now it is a public garden with a panoramic view of the city.
The city walls were originally Roman, but have been rebuilt a few times through the millennia. Like most of the stonework in the city, they are made of cloven black flint river cobbles. Canterbury gave in to William the Conqueror without a fight, so they didn't see action then, but they did successfully fend off a number of Viking raids in the centuries before. Now a highway encircles the area where Vikings and Saxons fought and died for control of the city.
St. Mildred's church, near the castle ruins, was built by the Saxons before the Norman conquest.
St. Mildred's again. The flint cobbles were gorgeous. They are glassy black, almost like obsidian, and surprisingly sharp.
Greyfriars, the oldest Franciscan building in the UK, is perched upon the river Stour. It's small and humble, but the gardens were some of the best in the city.
I found most of my lunch in the Greyfriar gardens actually: hazelnuts, beech masts, blackberries, haw berries, apples, pears, and sprigs of rosemary and peppermint. This juicy pear was soon to be eaten.
This sycamore tree near Greyfriars had a trunk about the size of a small car, shaped like a mound. There was no sign to say there was anything special about the tree, but it looked to be one of the oldest in the city.
Just a few feet from the sycamore tree is the River Stour, down which you can see the massive Westgate Tower. You can see cars driving through the main archway between the towers.
Canterbury Cathedral was founded by St. Augustine at about 600 CE. As you probably know, it is the centre of the Anglican church. You probably didn't know you can buy the Archbishop's own special orange marmalade in the gift shop for £3.50.
The cathedral again. It was impressive, but not head and shoulders above other cathedrals I've seen. There are several shots of the inside in the video below.
The castle keep's ruins were desolate. I spent about 30 minutes there and did not see a single other person (on a Saturday in good weather.)
The castle again. There are more thorough views in the video.
I took this video of Canterbury with my regular digital camera (ie decent camera, but not meant for taking high quality videos). In order, it includes the city walls, Grayfriars, the Cathedral, the town centre, and the castle ruins. I did the editing in a hurry, so it is a bit of a rush-job. The music is from Sigur Rós' Taak.
Monday, 16 July 2007
Mythbusting Monday II: Man-Eating Badgers Not Actually a Secret Terror Weapon of the British Army
This myth may not be as well known in the US and UK, but apparently in Iraq many of the people around Basra believe the British Army has been releasing man-eating bizarro badgers into Basra to eat and terrorize the populace.
They appear to be non-dangerous honey badgers who have come to the area because of flooding in their usual habitat north of the city.
Best. Myth. Ever.
As web-based political cartoonist August Pollak says, not many people in the world get to say, "We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area." as a part of their official duties.
When I was living in Reading, England nearly four years ago, I was watching tv with one of my then-housemates. One of those when-animals-attack shows came on. When these come on in the US, they usually feature rather horrific encounters with bears, alligators, mountain lions, or zoo elephants. In the UK edition, the highlight of the 'wild animal encounters' was a badger that got stuck in somebody's empty swimming pool. A badger. I was discussing this with my housemate whom I was watching with, and she said of badgers: 'They can be quite vicious you know.' Alaska has grizzly bears. India has cobras. Africa has black mambas. South America has tiny barbed fish that swim up your urethra when you pee in the water. Australia has an untold number of nightmare creatures. England has badgers.
Pmmfth. That was me stifling laughter at how non-dangerous Europe is compared to every other continent in the world.
They appear to be non-dangerous honey badgers who have come to the area because of flooding in their usual habitat north of the city.
Best. Myth. Ever.
As web-based political cartoonist August Pollak says, not many people in the world get to say, "We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area." as a part of their official duties.
When I was living in Reading, England nearly four years ago, I was watching tv with one of my then-housemates. One of those when-animals-attack shows came on. When these come on in the US, they usually feature rather horrific encounters with bears, alligators, mountain lions, or zoo elephants. In the UK edition, the highlight of the 'wild animal encounters' was a badger that got stuck in somebody's empty swimming pool. A badger. I was discussing this with my housemate whom I was watching with, and she said of badgers: 'They can be quite vicious you know.' Alaska has grizzly bears. India has cobras. Africa has black mambas. South America has tiny barbed fish that swim up your urethra when you pee in the water. Australia has an untold number of nightmare creatures. England has badgers.
Pmmfth. That was me stifling laughter at how non-dangerous Europe is compared to every other continent in the world.
Monday, 9 July 2007
Buh-Bye Tony
So Tony is gone. I've got to say, I'm not as saddened as Zoe above.
I don't know what to think of Gordon Brown yet. However, I've been pretty satisfied with how he has settled the recent terrorist attacks. Instead of running around with limbs flailing wildly, creating ineffective new Orwellian-sounding government departments, trying to discreetly scare the hibby-jibbies out of his own citizenry (like some national leaders I'm familiar with), the response has been sober and measured. Instead of proposing we invade unrelated sovereign nations, the matter has been treated as a serious police issue. Only those involved were arrested, rather than indiscriminately arresting thousands of Arab men in the US as happened after Sept. 11. And most importantly, it has worked. The baddies were caught with no injuries or deaths.
And a political ploy it may be, but offering to give up to Parliament the ministerial power to wage war is wise indeed. No single man should have that authority.
No conclusions on Brown from me yet, but so far, so good. If only the US leadership had been as wise or responsible in reaction to terrorism.
Saturday, 7 July 2007
Finally Some Sun! And Bunnies.
For the first time in, what... a month? six weeks? it has gone a full day without raining here. We had the wettest June in England's recorded history, floods have devastated much of northern England, leaving 30,000 homes abandoned in ruins. Also, there may be a nation-wide vegetable shortage, with brassicas and potatoes hit hard, and with about a quarter of the pea crop ruined. Come on storm-clouds, can't we just give peas a chance?
My heart goes out to all that have lost their homes, especially those without insurance. Not all, but much of the flooding happened in areas on flood plains - flooding is a fairly predictable event to occur in a flood plain. Some places - like those subject to natural, cyclical flooding or wildfires - are not meant to be built upon. I don't think anyone in particular is liable for blame, but it would be wise for governments to stop issuing building permits for areas that are hit with predicable, cyclical natural disasters. Just saying.
Anyway, all that is preamble to the fact that today has been a beautiful, sunny, warm but not too hot, breezy but not too windy Saturday. It seems like half of Britain has gone to the beach (the car park at Tesco was full of people in shorts with plastic pails and spades), and the other half has held a BBQ party. I got some good gardening done at home, and will be doing more allotment gardening on campus tomorrow.
The bunnies thoroughly enjoyed it, after a month of being water-logged and/or cooped up. Here are some videos of what may be the laziest bunnies you'll ever see:
That's right - Chockas is being so lazy he is eating while laying down - and slowly propelling himself with his forelegs, dragging his back legs behind him.
Nom nom nom.
My heart goes out to all that have lost their homes, especially those without insurance. Not all, but much of the flooding happened in areas on flood plains - flooding is a fairly predictable event to occur in a flood plain. Some places - like those subject to natural, cyclical flooding or wildfires - are not meant to be built upon. I don't think anyone in particular is liable for blame, but it would be wise for governments to stop issuing building permits for areas that are hit with predicable, cyclical natural disasters. Just saying.
Anyway, all that is preamble to the fact that today has been a beautiful, sunny, warm but not too hot, breezy but not too windy Saturday. It seems like half of Britain has gone to the beach (the car park at Tesco was full of people in shorts with plastic pails and spades), and the other half has held a BBQ party. I got some good gardening done at home, and will be doing more allotment gardening on campus tomorrow.
The bunnies thoroughly enjoyed it, after a month of being water-logged and/or cooped up. Here are some videos of what may be the laziest bunnies you'll ever see:
That's right - Chockas is being so lazy he is eating while laying down - and slowly propelling himself with his forelegs, dragging his back legs behind him.
Nom nom nom.
Sunday, 1 July 2007
Breathing Easier...
I've been waiting for 1 July for months now, and it is finally here. Why? Smoking is now banned in all public/commerical buildings in England.
That may seem fairly trivial, but the air in English pubs can get so smoky as to be unbreathable. Many times I have sat down to enjoy some chips and a pint 'r two, and had the experience rendered completely unenjoyable by a suffocating haze emitted by smokers. It's not just distasteful - research suggests 600 pub workers in the UK die every year from second-hand smoke. In fact, smoking is responsible for about 20% of all premature deaths in the developed world - in the US this translates to about 434,000 deaths a year (cocaine kills about 7000 a year in the US - about 1.6% as many deaths as tobacco. In fact all illegal drugs put together kill less than 5% of the people killed just by tobacco.) If people want to have an ocassional smoke that's fine by me - I've had a cigar or two in my day - but I'm very grateful it is banned in restaurants and pubs. I'm not the only one - the ban is supported by nearly 80% of the British public - an unprecedented mandate in public policy. Some of the smokers groups are moaning that beer sales will go down, because smokers will refuse to go to pubs, but I find that highly doubtful - smokers still go to malls, even if they can't smoke there, and in places where bans have been implemented, beer sales have not gone down. Furthermore, people like me will be going to the pub a lot more often now that the air is breathable. Hmm, that's a good idea... I'm thinking sooner rather than later.
The Guardian has a nice summary of the expected health benefits.
That may seem fairly trivial, but the air in English pubs can get so smoky as to be unbreathable. Many times I have sat down to enjoy some chips and a pint 'r two, and had the experience rendered completely unenjoyable by a suffocating haze emitted by smokers. It's not just distasteful - research suggests 600 pub workers in the UK die every year from second-hand smoke. In fact, smoking is responsible for about 20% of all premature deaths in the developed world - in the US this translates to about 434,000 deaths a year (cocaine kills about 7000 a year in the US - about 1.6% as many deaths as tobacco. In fact all illegal drugs put together kill less than 5% of the people killed just by tobacco.) If people want to have an ocassional smoke that's fine by me - I've had a cigar or two in my day - but I'm very grateful it is banned in restaurants and pubs. I'm not the only one - the ban is supported by nearly 80% of the British public - an unprecedented mandate in public policy. Some of the smokers groups are moaning that beer sales will go down, because smokers will refuse to go to pubs, but I find that highly doubtful - smokers still go to malls, even if they can't smoke there, and in places where bans have been implemented, beer sales have not gone down. Furthermore, people like me will be going to the pub a lot more often now that the air is breathable. Hmm, that's a good idea... I'm thinking sooner rather than later.
The Guardian has a nice summary of the expected health benefits.
Monday, 25 June 2007
Rain... Surely Not in England?
We've had quite a bit of rainy weather here over the last two weeks. The forecast for today, as it appeared on BBC News this morning and yesterday is "Flooding and Strong Gales." That's always nice to wake up to. They are expecting over 100 mm of rain within a few hours, which is what we would normally get in six weeks condensed into a few hours - get it? Condensed? Eh, ok. Seriously, several towns have been flooded up to several feet, and last I checked over 60 schools were closed. The weatherman just said it is the wettest day in 50 years. United States, we will trade you one week of torrential rain for two weeks of drought. You won't find a better deal this side of the tropics.
Update: That forecast wasn't kidding. Thankfully the Southwest is mostly unscathed.
Update: That forecast wasn't kidding. Thankfully the Southwest is mostly unscathed.
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