Stuff that occurs to me

All of my 'how to' posts are tagged here. The most popular posts are about blocking and private accounts on Twitter, also the science communication jobs list. None of the science or medical information I might post to this blog should be taken as medical advice (I'm not medically trained).

Think of this blog as a sort of nursery for my half-baked ideas hence 'stuff that occurs to me'.

Contact: @JoBrodie Email: jo DOT brodie AT gmail DOT com

Science in London: The 2018/19 scientific society talks in London blog post

Sunday, 30 October 2022

Consultation Watch - keeping an eye on consultations from UK Governmental departments

Back in 2012 I wondered if there was a single online place, on the Gov•UK website, where people could find out about all the various governmental consultations that were currently open for input. Since then, yes, it's here -

1. Get Involved
- information about all sorts of ways you can be that bit more civic-minded, which includes information about submitting a response to consultations.

2. Open Consultations
- this link takes you straight to the page of open consultations. [RSS feed (opens an atom file)]

I was reminded of this recently because I missed hearing about the government's consultation into bias in medical devices, which was announced in November 2021, launched in August 2022 and closed in early October 2022. There was quite a lot of fuss kicked up when Sajid Javid announced it last year with people opining that it was all nonsense (it isn't) and the Daily Mail also wrote about it. There was so little fuss about the actual consultation that I missed hearing about it until 3 weeks after it closed and only because I went looking for it after writing a related article for the work blog.


To help me keep an eye on this sort of thing I've created an automated Twitter account, called @ConsultationsUK (had to be less than 15 characters so couldn't use ConsultationWatch alas) which I've set up to send a Tweet whenever a new consultation is added to the Gov UK's website. See Technical details below for an explanation of how.

Department or country-specific consultations

I searched on Google using both the following search strings

inurl:gov.uk inurl:consult
inurl:gov.uk inurl:consultations

and this returned several departmental pages and also pointed me to country & county pages too.


Local examples (there are many more)


There's no https://consult.greenwich.gov.uk/ though!


Technical details

To make the Twitter account announce consultations I've used a free online app called IFTTT (IF This Then That) which lets you set up a trigger, in this case an update to the RSS feed from the Open Consultations page. I've linked the Twitter account (@ConsultationsUK) so that when a new feed item appears (the trigger) the resulting action is that that account emits a tweet with the title of the new consultation and its link.

I won't know if it's worked until a new consultation is added!





Friday, 21 October 2022

Mayoral Christmas card competitions for kids in the UK

A cartoon of a Christmas tree that I drew

 

Today I had a (regular subscription) email from the office of the Mayor of London telling me that there's a Mayoral Christmas card competition for kids age 4-14 in London. This is the sort of thing I tend to tweet so I searched for the link (I do this to save writing my own tweets and surface someone else's!) but didn't find it, so widened my search to include mayor christmas competition.

Gosh! It's not just London then :) I found a few more from putting the search string into Google too. It seems like there should be a Gov.UK web page that gathers these all together (a similar page exists for school term times / holidays).

Here are locales which have a Christmas Card competition. There will be others but I will leave you to search for those.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, 9 October 2022

Christmas 2022: Where to watch ELF in cinemas in London

December - it's the most wondELFul time of the year. 

There will be several screenings of Elf in cinemas in London and it's pretty likely that more will be announced between the publication of this post and the start of the Elf season. Hooray!

"See Elf in cinemas in London in 2022", in Curlz MT font.

1. Spreadsheet of published screenings
2. Screenings organised by venue and provider
3. Bonus material


1. Spreadsheet of published screenings

https://bit.ly/Elf2022London - I'll be adding new screenings here when I hear about them (am actively looking!).

 Version for mobile phones (scroll up/down or left/right)


Wider version for desktop / web (scroll up/down or left/right)



2. Screenings organised by venue and provider

One Aldwych near Covent Garden are doing a 3pm screening on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th September with a big meal before and a glass of champagne and popcorn during the film.

The Exchange in Twickenham has a single screening on Sunday 4th December in aid of SEEN charity.

North Greenwich Peninsula has a screening on Sunday 4th December too, at its Enchanted Forest cinema pop up.

The Rose Theatre in Kingston upon Thames has one screening on Thursday 15th December. 

Brentwood Theatre has one screening on Friday 16th December.

The Landmark Arts Centre has one screening on Tuesday 20th December in Teddington.

The Rivoli Ballroom in Brockley has one screening, thanks to Crofton Park Pictures, on Friday 23rd December.

Backyard Cinemas currently have 28 screenings published (not sure of precise venue location yet).

The Luna Cinema has 11 screenings (6 at Bluewater, Dartford (as a drive-in) and 5 at Kensington Palace Pavilion) in December.

The Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square has 4 screenings (1 a Quote-Along) in December and Elf also features in two Christmas Pyjama Party screenings which are all-nighters with several films included.

Premiere Cinema in Romford has three screenings on Christmas Eve.




3. Bonus material

This article, from Art of the Title, about the creation of the film and its opening sequences is amazing.

Buddy the Elf - the original costume, now on display.

The article above about the costume also drew my attention to the making of Elf.