Learning to touch type - some free online resources

If you want to learn to touch type here are some resources that should point you in the right direction. It just involves a lot of repetition of typing nonsense words to teach your hands where the letters are on the keyboard so that you don't have to consciously think about them. 

Listen
This record from 1960 sounds like it should have a text book to accompany it (not found an online copy yet) but also the man who's 'narrating' reads everything out, so for example he says 'fff space ddd space sss space' and so on rather than relying on you having to read something. I've only listened to 10 minutes or so, so perhaps there's a point where the lack of book becomes a problem. To be honest you can really just make up some exercises and words using letters on the 'home row' (asdfghjkl;) and familiarise yourself with the nobbly bits on the 'home keys' (f and J) which is where a touch typist naturally anchors their hands.

"Touch Typing Made Simple: A Sound Teaching Method" (YouTube). It's also available as an audio file on the Internet Archive.

Read
The Internet Archive also has several books related to touch typing. This search results page will show you everything that they have that's related to touch typing between 1930 and 1980.

 

 

 Learn Touch Typing in 4 Easy Lessons (1968) - to read this you'll need to create a (free) account at the Internet Archive and then borrow the book for an hour at a time. There are a lot of repetitions - "The the following about 25 times..." - that's really all touch typing is. Below is an excerpt from page 9 of 50.
 

Other books include "Touch typing in ten lessons" from 1963 (84 pages) which will teach you to type "a lad has a glad dad; dad had half a shad salad;" or "Modern Typing an Australian Basic Course" from 1967 (129 pages) which will teach you that 'skill comes from drill' - I don't think you need an account to read that one.

Online
Just a selection but try Monkey Type or TypeRacer or just type (ha!) typing test into Google or your preferred search engine.

And just to prove that I can type below is my one minute test, I was 86 words per minute with 98% accuracy. Normally I prefer to type faster and make more mistakes because I think everyone has a natural typing speed in much the same way that everyone has their own natural walking pace... 

For the work blog (CS4FN) I also wrote a little about the history and limitations of the QWERTY keyboard which might be of interest, though won't help you learn to type of course: Stretching your keyboard: getting more out of QWERTY.

Background
Touch typing is a useful skill as it generally makes you a lot faster and more accurate when typing on a keyboard, and you don't need to look at your hands - it's ideal if you wanted to type up written notes for example. That said plenty of people are very whizzy with the 'hunt and peck' method of using a couple of fingers. Touch typing uses all the fingers (8 to type letters, thumbs for spacebar) so is just faster.

I was chatting with a couple of people on Twitter yesterday about touch typing, something I learned as an 18 year old and have found incredibly useful on a daily basis. My mum was a competent typist and we had a typewriter in the house I grew up in and was occasionally allowed to play with it. I'm not sure if mum put the idea into my head that I should do a short typing course at a local secretarial college - I must have been quite keen (otherwise it simply wouldn't have happened). My memory of it is that it was a two-week morning course (Monday to Friday) of repetitive 'drills' of letters and words (some gibberish, just to practise moving your fingers over the keyboard). I don't remember practising at home but may have done. 

Two weeks later I had a typing certificate of 55 words per minute (wpm) and never took another lesson. I just got on with typing and 35 years later I'm fairly comfortable at 80 wpm and can type faster to play about on tests but don't go much above 85 when I'm trying to be reasonably accurate. Any higher and I just make more mistakes.

Making mistakes when typing on a laptop keyboard isn't much of a problem though because it's so easy to delete or overwrite, so I type fast and 'fix in post-(production') ;) On a typewriter moving the 'cursor' to cross something out and redo was a bit more effortful or it might also involve Tippex or other liquid paper to paint over the wrong letter then retype once it had dried. If the mistake is one that often occurs you can put things in place to ensure that everytime you type, for example, 'teh' instead of 'the' the computer automatically corrects it. 

I don't know if people should be learning to touch type or if it offers any other transferable useful skills but I'm glad I have it.

 

 

Currently at war with the Victoria & Alfred Hotel in Capetown, which will not stop emailing me

For the last six years (since October 2017) I have been receiving unwanted sporadic emails from various email addresses related to Newmark Hotels in South Africa. I don't seem to be able to stop it for any length of time.

It looks like someone used my email address to create an account. This means that unsubscribing doesn't actually work because if that person makes a booking the hotel will continue to send the booking information by email, even if they stop emailing marketing stuff. So I have recently been getting booking information for someone else, who was staying at the V&A hotel. Apart from being annoying it also seems like a privacy problem or security flaw.

"Please note if you unsubscribe from the Newmark Hotels email list, we will continue to send you important, time-sensitive messages related to recent transactions, such as reservation confirmations." 

😬

Presumably the person also managed to get their booking information, somehow, as I later got an email inviting me to give feedback on 'my' recent stay.  Or perhaps it was automated and the person didn't get their info and didn't manage to stay at the hotel.

All attempts to contact the hotel or the chain through various email addresses to try and nip this in the bud (too late) hasn't worked and there seems to be no way of stopping them from emailing me. I've had to set up filters on my email so their future attempts will bypass my inbox.

I'm sure the venue itself is perfectly adequate for hotel stays but persistently emailing people who aren't interested doesn't warm me to them.

Tried leaving a message on their Instagram account too but it was rejected as spam, so the war continues ;)

Another spam email, promising me millions ;)

I do love a good scam email. This was correctly categorised as spam by Gmail and placed in a folder, however I am unable to resist playing along (if you do this, don't click links) so I hoiked it out to see what they send out when you 'bite'. 

Not surprisingly an almost identical version of the second email can be found here https://stopscamfraud.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=25093

This arrived first, apparently from someone at HungKuang university in Taiwan, who may have had their account hacked or phished. Email address begins with letter u then there are eight numbers.

_________________________________

On Tue, 24 Oct 2023 at 20:30, Name redacted <[email address redacted]@ms.hk.edu.tw> wrote:

Hello

I apologize for the urgency, but could you please speak with me at your soonest possible convenience?”


*Sincerely,*

[Name redacted]
*President of BNL – Head of BNP Paribas Italy*
--
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.

_________________________________

 

I replied disingenuously that this had reached me in error, which of course triggered this one:

_________________________________

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: [redacted but now a Gmail address]
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2023 at 08:22
Subject: Re: Mutual Benefit
To: [me]

Hello [me]

Thanks for your swift response, firstly, I will formally introduce myself to you, my name is Mr. [Name Redacted]. I am currently the President of BNL – Head of BNP Paribas Italy. I am sorry to have encroached into your privacy in this manner, without further delays, I will immediately proceed with the details of the proposal as said in my introductory email to you.

I would respectfully request that you keep the contents of this email confidential and also respect the integrity of the information that you are coming across as a result of this email. I contacted you privately and no one is aware of this communication thus the reason why I had us communicate strictly via our email.

I am the personal accountant to one (Late Mr. Robert), a foreign contractor with Royal Dutch, who has an investment account with my bank. Unfortunately, my client died along with his nuclear family in France while on a Sabbatical leave during the summer of the year 2011, may their soul rest in peace. He died without leaving a Will. Several efforts were made to find his extended family through his embassy without success.

Furthermore, I received a notification last week to provide the next of kin of my late client being his personal accountant or the account risk being transferred to the government (es-cheat) in 14 days' time. I am contacting you to assist me in repatriating the funds left behind by my late client. This claim will be executed without breaching any Turkish laws and success is guaranteed if we co-operate on this. The bank will release the account to you because of the recommendation of you as the next of kin.

I am a man of high integrity; I will not lie to you and I expect the same from you. The amount involved is €8,250,700.00EUR (Eight Million Two Hundred And Fifty Thousand Seven Hundred Euros), I propose we share the proceeds 50/50, I think this is fair?

I will provide you with all the necessary information about this deal when I get your response. I am contacting you to assist me because I know you can handle this. The bank could not identify any of his relatives because nobody came to make claims, of which no one knows of his account with my bank. That's the reason I contacted you, to stand in as the NEXT OF KIN to my late client because in a few weeks' time all the assets will be handed over to the government, so I thought it wise it could be of benefit to us if we did co-operate as one to archive this.

I assure you that there will be no form of Risk or illegality in carrying out this transaction because I have been working on this for a very long time and have made sure that the process is free and fair for both of us. I anticipate your cooperation. Treat this proposal with utmost confidentiality and urgency for 100% success. Do not take undue advantage of the trust I have bestowed in you.

My position as President of BNL – Head of BNP Paribas guarantees the successful execution of this transaction. If you find yourself able to work with me, I urge you to indicate that without delay. Once again, do note it's confidential, and be assured that this transaction would be profitable for both of us.

Thanks in advance for considering this, and I await your prompt response.

*Sincerely,*

[redacted, in case they've stolen a real person's email account and are using their name]
*President of BNL – Head of BNP Paribas Italy*

 _________________________________

Inundated with spammers trying to get a link on my posts ;)

A post I wrote back in 2009 and updated in 2013 receives a disproportionate amount of spam attempts in which someone tries to get me to add a link to the page. Of course the link they want me to add has nothing to do with the page (it's very clear they've not read it or understood the page). 

The intention in getting the link onto my page is to 'tell' Google that my site thinks their page is worth linking to. Nope. This has been going on for a decade and I have kept 50 or so examples which I'll gradually add below, with their link, name and email address redacted. 

The page in question is which is a fairly popular page but is actually only my 10th most-read page is (inexplicably!). You might expect they'd want to pick a more popular one but perhaps are hoping to go under the radar.

Where London science communicators might work (24 July 2009) - this one attracts all the spam despite being much less popular than nine other posts.

All-time views for the most-read posts on this blog - the one
that attracts all the spam is the one right at the bottom!

Here are some examples from the back catalogue.

Suggestion of a link about nursing but my page is not about that.

I get a lot of requests from people claiming to be teachers or home educators saying that a small child in their class is terribly excited to share a resource with me and please can I add it and then tell them I've added it so they can celebrate. Bit too social engineering for my liking. Hard no.

The most recent one, on holistic ophthamlmology.
Note that 'click to unsubscribe' link at the end. I hadn't subscribed ;)

Spam link attempt from weight loss surgery and diabetes

Spam link attempt from someone with a guide
for safe travelling for people with diabetes

And a couple of bonus emails from people who've misinterpreted my post showing how you could (in 2012) "bypass" a third-party resource for handling RSS feeds sent to Twitter.

Handy Twitter RSS feeds to bypass IFTTT Twitter trigger switchoff (30 September 2012)

Someone asking me to post advice that is about heart bypasses on a
page where I'm talking about a completely different type of bypass.

This one is hoping to get a page about heart disease
and hair loss after a bypass on my page.

Another one just came in later this evening!

 

Making your event easy to use (film festival screenings in particular)

Pic credit: Dean Leggett

I help run a free film festival in Greenwich (specifically the Charlton and Woolwich Free Film Festival) and every year when preparing the listings I try and keep the following things in mind. My aim is to make it easy for people to know what to expect at our screenings and either reduce or at least draw attention to any barriers.

1. Subtitles / captions

If a film screening can be subtitled then that helps to include people who are d/Deaf or who have a degree of hearing loss or audio processing difficulties. Those difficulties can also be exacerbated by the acoustics of the venue. 

Even people with good or perfectly adequate hearing (me!) can pick up extra stuff they'd not even realised they'd missed. For me it helps solidify how place or character names are spelled which generally helps me remember and know what's going on. 

Subtitles do exclude people who find them a visual distraction though. They also tend to appear on-screen just before the character speaks them, so can ruin the joke or flow a bit. 

It's fine to have no subtitles but the most important thing is to state whether a film will have them or not. Just let people know.

Also if you are subtitling a film that gives you access to another advertising venue: http://yourlocalcinema.com/

In my own listings I've used the "Regional Indicator Symbol Letter S" to denote subtitled events 🇸

2. ♿️ Wheelchair accessibility: venue and loos

A venue may be wheelchair accessible but if the screening room is upstairs and there's no lift... not so much. If possible visit the venue yourself and see but if you are able-bodied you may miss some subtle things that seem fine but which might be a barrier or annoyance to someone using a wheelchair. A good website to check a venue's accessibility is https://www.accessable.co.uk/ - with information gathered by people who've visited a site and know what to look out for.

For a film screening many people can manage the couple of hours duration without needing a loo, but others will need to know the loo situation, particularly if coming from work or elsewhere. It's a helpful kindness to say in your advertising blurb if there is only a standard loo or if it's accessible. Emojis are a quick shorthand but do also write it out for users of screenreaders.

♿️ 🚽 ❌
   
♿️ 🚽 ✅

3. Different exits?

This one is my pet peeve and I've been to two events which caused me a bit of stress on leaving as I'd not been aware before the screening that we'd all be leaving a park by a different gate from the ones we'd come in by. 

Open air park screenings are fantastic but parks often close during the screening and everyone is shuttled through a single exit. This can be a bit of an unpleasant surprise. Sometimes there's a financial cost too, e.g. I can walk into the top of Greenwich Park and walk home from the same gate, but if we're all leaving by Cutty Sark at the bottom that's a bus ride home or a longer walk up a steep hill. Fine, but helpful to be able to plan for this (particularly, I would assume, for people using wheelchairs). 

Also for me personally, having no sense of direction I prefer to know exactly where I'm heading for on leaving and can't necessarily guarantee a good signal to get that info from the CityMapper app!

 

4. What3Words location markers

These are super helpful for outdoor events where people might need to know the location of any preferred (nearest, or where the ticket-checkers are) entrance, the exit and the actual screening area if a walk is involved. Adding a link to the Google Maps map is also very helpful as people can zoom in and see what the nearest bus stops are, plus other transport options or nearest car park.

This one will give you a nice view of the row of cherry trees in April: stay.path.wizard

I remember the first time I saw my colleague Paul do magic at a work event I was at. It was great fun anyway but he also linked some of the science of the tricks to the science behind the work that we were doing (medical device safety) and honestly my mind was just ever so slightly blown by that. 

He and our colleague Peter McOwan (who died in 2019) at QMUL used magic to talk about computing and maths topics as well as human-computer interaction, particularly in schools talks. One example is that a trick has a set of steps to be followed (a bit like a computer algorithm) and also a method of getting the audience to 'look over there' (a bit like the user experience). 

Paul's just published a book (co-written with Peter with additional material added after Peter's death) called Conjuring with Computation which is for sale, but almost all of Paul and Peter's magic-themed output via CS4FN (Computer Science For Fun) is completely free, and brilliant. 

There are lots of fascinating overlaps between magic and computational thinking, and lots of discussion about teaching computational thinking in schools. It has wide applicability (a way of approaching and solving tasks that can be useful beyond programming). 

This thought now keeps popping into my head: should magic be taught in schools? And if so what would the curriculum be...

I'm neither a teacher nor a magician but in line with my series of "Imaginary" posts here's what I have let my mind come up with while on longer bus journeys...

Magic Circle - 15th Century manuscript via Wikipedia

 

✨ Imaginary GCSE Magic ✨

Firstly it would be super interdisciplinary, linking to other different curricula including history, maths, chemistry and so on. See how we've sneaked computing into various other subjects in our 'Computing and...' interdisciplinary computational thinking page. Also I came up with an interdisciplinary game (Combining Careers) where you pick two topics and try and come up with a job that incorporates both - I think this was inspired by hearing about a Cow Historian on the TV programme Coast and learning about a Hairdressing Archaeologist who works out how complex hairdos of yore were actually put together.

Presentation skills 🖥
A bit of showmanship is quite handy when doing magic tricks, learning how to work with and respond to an audience, that sort of thing. Obviously a magician pretty much also has to lie to their audience so I might not want to take that too far with a classroom - but the audience know they're being led a merry dance at least.

The importance of practice
You can't just learn a trick and then do it, it needs repeated application and effort - a useful thing to learn.

Critical thinking skills, spotting pseudoscience
I remember reading or hearing James Randi say that the faces of 'psychics' would blench somewhat when they knew he was in the audience. The strategies of cold-reading and hot-reading can be (mis)used to give the impression of supernatural knowledge, or used to debunk nonsense. General 'logical thinking' skills, always useful.

History
You could really go to town on the history of magic (both as a form of entertainment as well as a deliberate deception). The history of women accused of witchcraft and how they were treated too 🧙‍♀️.

Botany and chemistry etc ⚗️
I think the Harry Potter-ish aspects of Herbology and Potions can definitely be included here. I like to think that either the text books or lab notebooks can be made to look a bit steampunk too, with lots of lovely drawings and doodles in the margins. Anyway the chemistry syllabus in its entirety is magic, converting one thing to another and emitting colourful light 🎨  and heat 🔥and useful products. Practicals would definitely include re-creating 'mauveine' from highly dangerous chemicals and making explosions 🧨 from metals in water etc. 

Poisonous and hallucinatory plant products would get an airing - I suspect my GCSE wouldn't pass health and safety checks. Plants are also inherently magical, turning light and carbon dioxide into glucose and oxygen.

Also the history of folk beliefs and superstitions, and plant-based cures for various ailments.

Psychology
Obvious things like 'how are we fooled?' and how to avoid getting duped (incredibly widely applicable!). I might also bring in things like sound design in TV/film/theatre and film scores and how they can augment what an audience is feeling

Physics
I don't really know much about quantum stuff but it sounds pretty magical, possibly that can be incorporated!

Drama / acting
I think it's pretty magical that a person on stage can say some words and affect the emotional state of the audience, even without fancy set design.

Film / CGI
Literally creating something from nothing through the medium of pixels. Miraculous.

Religion
The nature of believing something which may or may not be true.

Maths and magic
This is already pretty well mapped out (we have some books on Maths and magic^^) but thing like trigonometry, Fibonacci weirdness, solving problems, mathematical curiosities. Also Islamic and Celtic art and patterns follow maths structures and the result is pretty magical but I may be stretching the meaning somewhat :)

Music
A nice mix of physics, maths, acoustics and emotion. It's basically alchemy.

What would you have in your Imaginary GCSE Magic course?

 

Maps of where you can see real gas lamps (lit with gas!) in London

London has lots of lamps that are lit by gas! Here is where you can spot them.

Pic credit: me.
Three types of gas lamps commonly seen in London. On the left is a Windsor style lamp outside the National Portrait Gallery in Trafalgar Square which is lit with a gas flame. The middle and right pictures both show mantle-style lamps, middle is a Grosvenor lantern on New Row in Covent Garden, rightmost picture is an upright Rochester outside Theatre Royal Drury Lane but taken on Catherine Street (outside The Garden at The Lane restaurant). Westminster lampspotters' guide: PDF

 

1a. London's gas lamps - focused area maps

These precise maps of specific areas of Westminster (where gas lamps were under threat, though 174 are to be retained and not converted to LEDs) are from The London Gasketeers and London Lamplighters.

Pic credit: The London Gasketeers and London Lamplighters' maps showing the precise positions of London's lamps that are lit with gas. More examples below.

• Carlton House Terrace: https://thelondongasketeers.com/maps
• Covent Garden: https://thelondongasketeers.com/maps or https://www.instagram.com/p/ClI-x25IJ-6/
• Horse Guards and surrounding areas: https://www.instagram.com/p/CukGhnENZeM/
• Green Park: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cuore4Ft5_Z/
• The Mall https://www.instagram.com/p/CvEu5M0NSZN/

Instagram, for photos of individual lamps
The London Gasketeers | London_Lamplighters | WSuggLighting

 

I'd always heard there were still gas lamps near St James's Park, but never spotted one til today. This is Horseguards Road behind the Foreign Office. pic.twitter.com/tRj5jqjFW1

— Simon Belcher (@nimbos) October 12, 2018

(Tweet above includes a short video)

 

1b. London's gas lamps - walks, photos etc

Guided walk
Old Westminster by Gaslight from Walks.com - every Monday 

Self-guided
Gas lights in London - a pictorial walk from the Petroleum Philatelic Society International, including local items of historical interest and some photographs of stamps depicting same.

Hidden in plain sight: London's gas lighting from Look Up London.

Exploring London's last gas lamps from London X London. Note that the photo accompanying info about the patent sewer gas lamp is of the one further up the road outside the Coal Hole pub. If you were in the photo just turn 180˚, walk down the stairs and head towards the river, the Webb sewer gas destructor lamp is on your right.

London X London have also created a Google Map (the sewer lamp is marked in the right spot): https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1lPM9PBpW0BqxrI--TzZsILq_Dqhppg0

2. London's gas lamps - Google Maps map of wider London

There are 1,500 gas lamps in London and I'm adding some of them to this zoomable map. Currently there are about 50 there, plus 30 or so that I've not confirmed as gas-lit or which may have been converted to LED. All pic credits me / Google.

https://bit.ly/LondonGasLamps

Google Maps map of gas lamps in London. Blue are lit with gas, orange = not sure etc.

Map as above but zoomed in, showing purple (the one in St James' Park decorated for royal events) and green flame (the sewer gas destructor lamp on Carting Lane) lamp markers.

Zoomed in: the blue map marker at Lazenby Court (near
Garrick Street) has been selected, an info panel appears on the left.

You can zoom in and click on any of the flames to find out more about that lamp (legend and info at the end).

 

3. Interactive map of London's gas lamps (historic)

British Gas used to have this map (link no longer works) on its website https://www.britishgas.co.uk/the-source/lamplighters/ according to this Londonist article. 

Here's an archived copy of the 'Ye Olde Lamplighters Map of London' from Buckingham Palace to Covent Garden. The link at the top right saying 'Download PDF' no longer works which means the PDF doesn't seem to have been saved on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. The filename is Lamplighters_Map.pdf in case you have a copy and want to let me know about it :)

4. Background to the Google Maps map

In October last year I discovered, to my amazement, that we have several (~1,500) actual real-life gas lamps in London. I found out about it when 275 of the ones in Westminster were under threat of being converted to LED lighting and there was a campaign to prevent this (Westminster City Council has agreed to retain 174 gas lamps).

I didn't even know we still *had* gas lamps in London! Where should I be looking for them? https://t.co/1V6J96kaGp

— Jo Brodie, mastodon.social/@JoBrodie in extremis (@JoBrodie) October 31, 2022

I wanted to go and have a look at them. As someone very new to gas lamps I wasn't sure how obvious it was going to be which were definitely gas lit and which were replicas (its generally fairly obvious though if the lamp's been converted to bright LEDs and the gas-handling mechanism is completely absent). Have a look at Westminster's 'photos of lanterns' PDF to see what I mean. Page 1 shows three kinds of lanterns lit by gas, page 2 shows same kinds but converted to gas-effect LEDs.

Also there are lots of lamp posts in London and there are some streets that have a gas lamp on them but also has non-gas lamps, so information at the level of a street isn't much help - I needed more precision. 

There are over 80 lamps listed on the Google Map (I created it with lots of input from helpful people on Twitter who suggested additions or corrections) of which over 50 are marked in a blue flame to indicate that I'm reasonably confident they're lit with gas. Red flame ones are those that have been converted to LED and orange ones I've not been able to determine. If you visit the map and click on any of the flames you'll find some information about them.

For some of the flame map markers I've found photos of the gas lamp on Flickr and, where the licence permits, I've added those in (with credit). I've also "driven" up and down streets (with a mouse!) via Google Streetview then zoomed in to see if a lamp has its gas mechanism in place. An incredibly useful resource has been the Instagram pages of The London Gasketeers, Sugg Lighting (who have been creating and repairing lanterns since 1837) and the London Lamplighters (the people who maintain London's gas lighting), all linked above. 

 

5. Copy of the (quite long!) text that's on my Google Maps map

There's a lot of text there and it involves a bit of scrolling to see it when on the map. Here it is all at a glance (and also more searchable via Google, which the map isn't).

The map's short link is https://bit.ly/LondonGasLamps
You have my permission to use this map in any legal way :) I don't know how to make the map CC0 (public domain) but note that any linked images (e.g. on Flickr will have their own licences).

Click on any flame on the map for more localised info.

🔵 🔥 Blue flame = lit by gas
💔 Red flame = not lit by gas
🤢 Green flame = Carting Lane sewer gas destructor lamp, off Strand btwn Savoy and Thames
🍊Orange flame = gas status unsure
💜 Purple flame = lamp that was redecorated for the Queen's Jubilee then for the King's Coronation.

Links below - for desktop computer users: right click, open in new browser tab.

More precise maps of specific areas of London are available from The London Gasketeers on their website https://thelondongasketeers.com/maps (includes Carlton House Terrace) and their Instagram page (@TheLondonGasketeers https://www.instagram.com/thelondongasketeers/), specifically
• Covent Garden: https://www.instagram.com/p/ClI-x25IJ-6/
• Horse Guards and surrounding areas: https://www.instagram.com/p/CukGhnENZeM/
• Green Park: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cuore4Ft5_Z/

See also @London_Lamplighters (https://www.instagram.com/london_lamplighters/) on Instagram, the "Service and Repair engineers maintaining London’s Historic gas lamps" for additional photos and locations.

London gas lamp trails: https://www.ppsi.org.uk/ppsi_new/gas_lights.html and https://mappinglondon.co.uk/2016/lamplighters-map/ (though the PDF it links to has disappeared)

The lamps in Westminster WERE under threat (see https://thelondongasketeers.com/,  @LondonGasketeer (Twitter) and @thelondongasketeers/ (Instagram), also Facebook, thelondongasketeers for more info) and https://linktr.ee/thelondongasketeers. Most (but not all) have had a reprieve and efforts are ongoing to get some unlisted lamps listed to give their heritage some protection, see https://www.facebook.com/thelondongasketeers/posts/pfbid0LoHuo5jTi8vW8NLWNbBzjagRWVz3kaekiqyu1iPwUJobHZPHaCCboRGs4zVAUioql and https://www.westminster.gov.uk/news/weve-listened-council-retain-174-heritage-gas-lamps-following-consultation for more.

I thought I'd go and see some gas lamps in Westminster borough with a pal while that's still possible so have made a map to help us track them down. This is where some of London's lamps are that are still lit by gas. Much of the data is taken from the internet so treat with caution. I've expanded beyond Westminster (those outside that borough don't seem to be under immediate threat).

Westminster City Council's review CLOSED on SUNDAY 20 NOV 2022 https://bit.ly/GasLampReview

Old map (archived) from British Gas https://web.archive.org/web/20170325052011/http://www.britishgas.co.uk:80/the-source/lamplighters/

Pics of the 3 main different kinds in Westminster (Rochester, Windsor & Grosvenor) https://www.westminster.gov.uk/media/document/photos-of-lanterns (opens as PDF).

Examples
GAS
upright Rochester - https://www.williamsugg.co.uk/products/upright-rochester-gas/, see also the similar Littleton https://williamsugghistory.co.uk/lighting/street-lamps/rochester-littleton-2/
Grosvenor https://www.williamsugg.co.uk/products/grosvenor-gas/
Windsor https://www.williamsugg.co.uk/products/windsor-gas/

ELECTRIC
Pembroke - https://www.williamsugg.co.uk/products/pembroke/

 

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Science festival packing list - string, scissors etc and other practicalities

Tape: brown packing tape, sellotape, masking tape, Pens: marker pens, biro pens, colouring in pens, Pencils: colouring in pencils, pencil sharpener, Tethering: string, glue (Pritt stick), blue tack, cable ties, Cutting: kid-safe scissors for activities, scissors for adults, scalpel or other thing to cut open boxes of material, Decorations: laminated sheets, logos, QR codes, bunting, painted stone weights, plastic table cloths, Other useful items: small plastic boxes to put pens / pencils in, plain paper, hole puncher, comments book + pen, evaluation forms (if used), stickers, post-it notes, Health & Safety: baby wipes, antibac spray, plasters, note location of medical tent once on-site, black bin bag for waste, green bin bag for recyclables, Packing: return address labels, pen to address, tape + scissors.

Festival of Communities 2023 - marquee at the ready

I did a stall at an event on 10th June. The event itself wasn't actually a science festival (much wider remit, across all departments of QMUL and with stalls from local Tower Hamlets organisations too) so I did struggle a bit with the title of this post! 

Trapping the packing list info (summary above, detail below) will certainly be useful for me the next time I do this, and I thought it may be useful for others. 

During the preparation phase of this particular event I've made, as I always do, extensive use of WorkFlowy the excellent free list-wrangling tool that I've used for at least a decade. You can write a to do list as bullet points, then click a button to mark-as-complete any of your list items. You can also move tasks within the bullet point list (up and down, or indented). It's fab. You can view my WorkFlowy event-packing list.

Anyway, here's the annotated list with explanation.

Tape (masking, sellotape and packing tape)
Masking: We produce 20 page A4 magazines which come in cardboard boxes which double up as transport for everything I do. A bit of packing tape strengthens the joins and closes them so that tape is essential - I keep one in a box and one in my bag.

Sellotape: Some of our activities involve folding paper and taping it together so sellotape for that (also need scissors that will cut sellotape and kid-friendly paper-cutting scissors don't). Definitely keep adult-friendly scissors in your bag too.

Masking tape: just useful to have around. Sometimes you can hold something in place or stick it to the wall of the marquee tent (where other tape is not allowed).

Pens (marker, colouring in)
Marker pens: useful for re-addressing boxes if you can't find the labels you so carefully placed at the top of one of them...

Biros: if you have any evaluation forms that you want adults to fill in they'll find these types of pens a bit easier than colouring in pens.

Colouring in pens: for colouring in various activities. Downside of pens is loss of lids and mess.

Pencils
Coloured pencils: often preferable to pens but less vibrancy in coloured in items.

Pencil sharpener: several of these usually on the go. 

Festival of Communities 2023 - coloured pencils and some stickers

Tethering (string, glue (Pritt stick), blue tack, cable ties)
100% promise you that you'll be glad you packed these. Cable ties are great for pinning up laminated QR codes. We use glue sticks for some of our paper-based activities. 

Cutting
Kid-safe scissors: useful for cutting paper not much else

Adult scissors: useful for cutting sellotape, but keep away from activity table and stow in bag.

Scalpel: ideal for opening boxes of material without damaging. Keep very much away from children. Know where your plasters are before making your first cut.

Festival of Communities 2023 - the post box

Decorations
You probably want to make your stall look nice and inviting. A few years ago I made some bunting with our project's logo on it, printed the bunts out on A4 paper then laminated them. Hole punch and connect with a bit of string. We also have stones painted with our logo on (stones and paint from Hobbycraft) - these are for holding things down when the wind gets up. Plus bits of paper saying what we do that adults can take away. For drive-by visitors we have QR codes that take people to our website - you can create a bit.ly link and get a QR code from that, or you can use QRstuff to get one. 

Other useful items
Because we have so many pens and pencils I got some cheapo collapsible plastic boxes to put them in from a pound shop (they usually cost about £5 each), plain paper is always useful as is a hole puncher (for affixing bunting via holes for string, or laminates with cable ties etc). We always have a comments book plus pen - visitors use the front, stallholders can add notes at the back for future improvements. We don't always use evaluation forms on stalls but I'm adding it in so I don't forget. If you've got kids doing an activity they might like a sticker that says "I did this activity". I make all of ours using Ryman's labels and mailmerge, with the design done in a combination of Inkscape (free) and PowerPoint (not free). Post-it notes are always handy.

Festival of Communities 2023 - coloured stickers

Health & Safety
Obviously you need to do a risk assessment before the event anyway but it's also a good idea to pack some plasters (paper cuts!) and antibacterial wipes / spray etc. To keep your stall tidy I recommend a black bin liner for waste and a green one for recyclable stuff which you can then decant into the official bins (or take home!). Once on site make sure you know where the medical tent is so that you can tell others on the stall and point any injured members of the public towards.

Packing to go home again
At the end of the event anything to be returned needs to be boxed up and addressed. I usually print large address labels and stick these on the tops of boxes. But if you can't find them (it happens!) then some of that plain paper, the marker pens, your scissors and tape will help. You'll need the packing tape to secure the boxes and scissors to cut it.

The 'sextortion' bitcoin email scam is back

Found this in the Spam mailbox on one of my email accounts today. It's a load of tosh copied and pasted and sent out in the hope that someone will bite. I see the address has already been reported, and it looks like some people have sent money. I've forwarded it to report@phishing.gov.uk and have added my report to those already on ChainAbuse / Bitcoin Abuse.

If you get one of these do not give them money. They are talking nonsense.

Screenshots at the end.

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From "hakapgijvnwwfvjfscs@ns1.engenho.io"

Hi,

I'm a hacker and have successfully managed to hack your operating system.
Currently I have gained full access to your account.

I've been watching you for a few months now ╭ ᑎ ╮

The fact is that your computer has been infected with malware through an adult site that you visited.
If you are not familiar with this, I will explain.
Trojan virus gives me full access and control over a computer or other device.
This means that I can see everything on your screen, turn on the camera and microphone, but you do not know about it.
I also have access to all your contacts and all your correspondence.

You may be wondering why your antivirus cannot detect my malicious software.
The malware I used is driver-based, I update its signatures every 4 hours.
Hence your antivirus is unable to detect its presence.

I made a video showing how you satisfy yourself in the left half of the screen,
and the right half shows the video you were watching at the time.

With one mouse click, I can send this video to all your emails and contacts on your social networks.
I can also make public all your e-mail correspondence and chat history on the messengers that you use.

I believe you would definitely want to avoid this from happening.
Here is what you need to do - transfer the Bitcoin equivalent of $500 to my Bitcoin account
(that is rather a simple process, which you can check out online in case if you don't know how to do that).

Below is my bitcoin account information:
18P9Lu2n6uB6s3QeL1C9D2pA4wCaiU1z9H

Once the required amount is transferred to my account, I will proceed with deleting all those videos and disappear from your life once and for all.
Kindly ensure you complete the abovementioned transfer within 52 hours (more than 2 days).
I will receive a notification right after you open this email, hence the countdown will start.

Trust me, I am very careful, calculative and never make mistakes.
If I discover that you shared this message with others, I will straight away proceed with making your private videos public.

Have a nice day! 

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - 

 

1. Image above shows google search results from entering the bitcoin wallet into the search bar.

 

2. Image above shows two reports already made by other people about this address

3. Image above is a screenshot of the email sent to one of my Gmail addresses, as it appears in the spam folder.

 

 

What support is there for over 50s economically inactive / underactive to find more work?

The Government has announced that it would like more over 50s, who are able to work*, to come back to the workplace after apparently lots of people took earlyish retirement during the (ongoing) Covid pandemic. I'm not quite in that position (never retired) but since 2018 I've been working two days a week and so have some spare time, and I have no objection to the Government's wish to extract more of my free time as paid labour.

But I think it has to meet me halfway.

I asked at my local Job Centre Plus about their over 50s work champions (or whatever they're called) but it seems that as I don't receive benefits I probably can't use that service anyway.

What I would find useful may not actually exist, but it's this.

As much as possible I'd like to outsource the 'cognitive load' of looking for jobs, tailoring my CV / filling in an application form, tailoring my covering letter and generally applying for jobs, as I have minimal interest in doing any of that. I don't mean that I should simply be given a job, just that I want to go through the annoying part of the process once and be 'sorted' into one or more (temporary) jobs.

I would like to be assigned a job through some sort of labour exchange or employment agency. After going through my CV and interviewing me, and discussing what I'd enjoy / not enjoy doing this employment agency would then work in the background to match me with a job. I'd then get a call saying "Jo, on Wednesday you'll be at WidgetCo's factory making widgets" or whatever it is they find for me to do.

Does this arrangement exist? 

I did upload my CV to what I thought was an employment agency website but that just attracted unsuitable-job spam including regular invitations to work in Dubai. Nope. I also don't use LinkedIn (you'd still have to apply for a job if your attention was drawn to it, they don't just give you jobs - as there's no pre-approval thing that I'm aware of).

*I am not talking about those who are unwell or who have caring responsibilities or already trying to find work.

 

 

I recommend pre-emptively blocking emails from Cupventi and quite possibly Beehiiv for good measure

Occasionally I get spam in my Gmail account. 

It's usually fairly straightforward to deal with - deleting, unsubscribing, reporting as spam etc. You can also set up a redirect so that if an email arrives containing a keyword it bypasses your inbox and goes to the Bin or some other holding mailbox. 

Generally telling Gmail that an email is spam and unsubscribing means that's the end of it, not so with 'Cupventi' who seem more determined to irritate me with their spam emails about coffee, using Beehiiv as their newsletter provider (Beehiiv are somewhat the innocent party here). A different spam newsletter, also via Beehiiv, was easier to get rid of.

I initially unsubscribed from the daily (!) Cupventi newsletter and reported it as spam so was surprised to receive another message a day later. I contacted Beehiiv on Twitter to let them know that Cupventi were misusing their system and they told me they'd look into it. 

Everything went quiet for a while but a couple of days ago I received another one so I repeated the process of unsubscribing, reporting as spam and letting Beehiiv know. I also set up a redirect so that anything that mentions Cupventi or Beehiiv is automatically re-routed to my Gmail bin so I'll literally never see another message from them again unless I check. Guess what I stupidly just did. I'm quite irritated.

So... I have decided to republish without permission their copyrighted text, mangling all the links to they can't point to anything to show you precisely what you're not missing. No need for you to wait to be subscribed unwillingly to their repetitive (see bits I've bolded) blethers about coffee, feel free to pre-emptively block Cupventi, and possibly Beehiiv for good measure. 

Spam email below

 

Adjudications etc by the Advertising Standards Authority against misleading #homeopathy claims

Originally posted in July 2015. Bizarrely flagged up today (!) for containing adult content. I've removed a word from Comfort Click's upheld ASA adjudication for 'Wartrol wart relief spray' as the location of the warts appears to have triggered the flagging...

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Original post

These days it's fairly rare to get an actual Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) adjudication on a misleading homeopathy claim. That's because most homeopathy complaints are fast-tracked to the ASA's Compliance team rather than being investigated (because the ASA, like so many others, has previously investigated homeopathy and found there's no evidence that it's effective for any condition) and the Compliance team doesn't publish its findings.

Last week there was a new adjudication, against Teddington Homeopathy, for claims made about using 'CEASE Therapy' for treating autism.

There are now 11 ASA adjudications upheld against misleading homeopathy claims, 2 upheld in part and 1 not upheld. There are also 11 'informally resolved' complaints where the homeopath has agreed to amend their website and remove the incorrect claims, so no further action needs be taken.

Since most homeopaths do amend their website when asked by the ASA relatively few of them find their way to the non-compliant online advertisers but the Islington Homeopathy Clinic has managed to make it there.

Here's the list.

ASA adjudicatons upheld

Teddington Homeopathy
Re: CEASE therapy
Date: 22 July 2015
Decision: Upheld

Happy Homeopathy
Re: menopause relief
Date: 11 June 2014
Decision: Upheld

Islington Homeopathy Clinic
Date: 26 February 2014
Decision: Upheld

Steve Scrutton Homeopathy
Re: homeopathy for depression
Date: 18 September 2013  
Decision: Upheld

Steve Scrutton Homeopathy
Re: homeopathy for influenza
Date: 8 August 2012  
Decision: Upheld

Society of Homeopaths 
Date: 3 July 2013
Decision: Upheld

Dr Batras Positive Health Clinic (UK) Ltd
Re: homeopathy for psoriasis 
Date: 27 April 2011  
Decision: Upheld

British Institute for Allergy and Environmental Therapy
Re: allergy testing
Date: 9 March 2011  
Decision: Upheld

The Homeopathic Clinic
Re: thermal mammography
Date: 2 March 2011
Decision: Upheld

Comfort Click Ltd t/a ShytoBuy.co.uk
Re: homeopathic wart relief spray
Date: 4 July 2012  
Decision: Upheld

CNM The College of Naturopathic Medicine Ltd
Re: naturopathy
Date: 13 March 2013
Decision: Upheld

ASA adjudications upheld in part

Homeopathy: Medicine for the 21st Century
Date: 3 July 2013
Decision: Upheld in part

Ainsworths (London) Ltd t/a Ainsworths Homeopathic Pharmacy
Date: 27 July 2011
Decision: Upheld in part

ASA adjudications NOT upheld

Neals Yard (Natural Remedies) Ltd
Date: 2 February 2011
Decision: Not Upheld

Informally resolved cases

Happy Homeopathy                                         23 Oct 2013
Maya Homeopathy                                           23 April 2014
Naturally Well Homeopathy                            12 Feb 2014
Amanda Hughes Homeopathy                         12 Mar 2014
Classical Homeopathic Healing                       22 May 2013
The Kernow Chiropractic Clinics                     19 Jun 2013
Team Health Windsor                                       14 Aug 2013
The Rock Clinic t/a Rock Clinic Association                   19 Jun 2013
North Lakes Clinic                                                            19 Jun 2013
University College London Hospitals t/a
The Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine        2 May 2012