bookmark_borderNo Access


No Access
Originally uploaded by viralbus.

I tried The Squinty Bridge for the first time today. It’s really nice (except for the prohibited left turns that Phyllis mentioned on her blog, but as a non-driver, that doesn’t affect me), but I was really annoyed by the way access is denied to the south east of the bridge (see the photo on the right, and also this and this).

Having lived in that area (the Festival Park) for three years, I do know that the owners regard that bit of the river front as their private garden. It’s really annoying people living there – they have a suburbian mentality that just is no good in the city centre!

Fortunately, there was a notice that the city council are still trying to open up the area. I really hope they’ll succeed!

bookmark_borderLungwort



Lungwort
Originally uploaded by Dave ®

My New Year posting made me read up a bit on the French revolutionary calendar. It turns out that each day was associated with an animal, a plant, a mineral or a tool. I was born on 19th Pluviôse 180, so according to Wikipedia, I was born on the day of the lungwort. Not sure whether that’s better or worse than having been born on the day of the cow (Phyllis), the cat (Miriam), the apricot (Sebastian), the silkworm (Mum), or the nightingale (Dad).

bookmark_borderPolitical Compass

I just found a site called the Political Compass, which lets you fill in a questionnaire and then places you on a grid with both a economically left/right axis and an authoritarian/libertarian (it’s an American website, so that would be socially liberal here) one. I got values of -3.38 for the former and -7.08 for the latter – in other words, a bit to the left, but strongly liberal.

bookmark_borderHappy New Year!


A very happy new year to all the readers of this blog!

And no, I’m not mad: Today is the first day of the year 215 according to the French revolutionary calendar. If it had been almost universally adopted, like the metric system, we would all have had the past five days off – Sunday was le Jour de la Vertu, Monday le Jour du Génie, Tuesday le Jour du Travail, Wednesday le Jour de la Raison, and Thursday le Jour des Récompenses.