All posts by Keith

I’m a controversialist and catalyst, quietly enabling others to develop by providing different ideas and views of the world. Born in London in the early 1950s and initially trained as a research chemist I retired as a senior project manager after 35 years in the IT industry. Retirement is about community give-back and finding some equilibrium. Founder and Honorary Secretary of the Anthony Powell Society. Chairman of my GP's patient group.
history, photography, pleasures, thoughts, topographical

1000 Photos on Flickr


Double Departure from Alexisbad (2), originally uploaded by kcm76.

Double Departure from Alexisbad

This is my 1000th upload to Flickr in just 2 years and 2 days — so I thought I’d better make it a good one!

One of a series taken at Alexisbad during RailTrail charter from Quedlinberg to Wernigerode, 13/02/2008. This was specially set up for our photoshoot; the train on the right is our charter train; the one on the left was a service train which had just terminated. And I must say it was a magnificent sight and not something you will see these days during normal service. It would have been even better if there had been the snow we should have rightly had in February. This is the sort of thing which Railtrail do well: the tours are well researched with special shots like this set up where it can be done because they know that one of the big attractions of this type of tour is for the photographers, as well as those who just want to ride on “pretty” trains!

I have a feeling we might well do this one again sometime; perhaps in Spring (tho’ not this year).

photography, pleasures, topographical

Admiration


Admiration, originally uploaded by kcm76.

I’ve just put up on Flickr the next batch of my photographs from the Harz Mountains trip last month (in fact we left exactly one month ago today). I’ve got probably three more batches of 8 or so to post, which I will hope to do by the weekend — and I’m keeping some of the better ones for the end; it’s called an incentive to come back again! Although that holiday was hard work, with lots of early starts, it was a great break and I would thoroughly recommend Railtrail as specialist tour company: everything was superbly organised and ran like clockwork; the two guides were friendly and knowledgeable and not always chivvying us to get to somewhere else; all very relaxed. I already feel the need to do it all over again.

memes, personal, photography, thoughts

Scruffy Triptych


Scruffy Triptych, originally uploaded by kcm76.

Here’s this week’s self-portrait. I was mucking about and decided to try something different: this is a composite of 4 frames taken under identical conditions — well I had only to swivel my chair! I’m not sure if it works, but it’s different.

photography, pleasures, thoughts, topographical

Driver's Eye View


Driver’s Eye View, originally uploaded by kcm76.

I’ve just posted the latest series of pictures from our trip to Germany in February. This set are all of the Wuppertal Schwebebahn which runs above the streets and the Wupper river for about 8 miles (13km). Apart from one in a German theme park, this is the only public suspended monorail in the world. More information in the Schwebebahn Wuppertal item on Wikipedia. And the full set of photos is at www.flickr.com/photos/kcm76/sets/72157604071758017/ — they’re not brilliant pix, more for illustrative purposes than intended to be arty, but hopefully interesting for those who like curiosities or railways..

beliefs, history, people, personal, science, sexuality, thoughts

Infinitely Boggling Science

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Time to catch up on some Scientific American articles I’ve read over the last few weeks.

Remembrance of Things Future
An interesting article on how a writer in December 1900 thought things would be a century later. As expected some right:

  • ready cooked meals will be bought from the equivalent of bakeries
  • no street cars (ie. trams) in large cities

but mostly wrong:

  • mosquitoes, flies, rats and mice will have been exterminated
  • the alphabet will not longer contain C, X and Q
  • all traffic will be below ground, consequently
  • cities will be free of noise
  • Nicaragua and Mexico would be part of the USA

Full article
Complete list of original predictions

Infinity
Hard question of the year: Does infinity come in different sizes?
Hard answer: Yes.

This back-page “Fact or Fiction” article from January’s Scientific American contains some interesting insights, and some interesting mathematical sleights of hand. We probably all accept that there are an infinite number of integers (the natural numbers 1, 2, 3 …). And between each pair of adjacent integers there are an infinite number of fractional numbers (2.1, 2.11, 2.111, 2.112112 …). That means there are infinity to the power infinity real numbers (natural numbers and fractions) – which is an infinitely different ball-game in terms of defining the size of infinity.

Full article

Love, Sex and Robots
Finally an item from the March Scientific American which considers the proposition that we might one day (soon) be able to have a relationship with, marry and even have sex with, a robot of the opposite sex. Scary? Probably for most of us. Fantasy? Probably not. After all go back 100 years and the idea of male homosexual marriage was absurd. Apparently there is a lot to be said for allowing the socially inept [my phrase] to gain some mutual comfort from a relationship with a robot. And there are already experiments showing that children (at least) will spontaneously treat a robot as (almost) sentient, for example by putting it to bed when its batteries run flat. I see the arguments, but I remain firmly skeptical.

Full article
amusements, personal, photography, pleasures, topographical

Watch Our Backs, Mate


Watch Our Backs, Mate, originally uploaded by kcm76.

I’m still working through the photographs I took on holiday in German a few weeks ago. I’ve put the latest few online on Flickr. Some of the shots are pretty grainy (like this one) as they were taken in absolutely appalling light — in the case of this shot it was very grey and overcast and getting on towards dusk. Lots more to come which I intend to put up about 8-10 at a time over the next few weeks — and I’m keeping the best of the steam train shots ’til last (probably). I still have some 30% of the shots to look at in detail.

memes, photography, pleasures, thoughts

Thinking

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Thinking, originally uploaded by kcm76.

Apologies for the long silence here; I’ve had a very hectic 3 weeks: a week’s holiday in Germany (pictures here with many more to come; I’m still working my way through the 1000 shots I took!), a business trip to the enticements of Manchester, a really filthy headcold and mountains of work. But with luck normal service will be resumed RSN.

I actually took a day off work today, and apart from a doctor’s appointment, I’ve done almost nothing. The most creative enterprise of the day is this self-portrait. It really is about all I’ve got to show for the day!

I have Monday off as well, so if the weather is good I might take myself off on a photographic trip somewhere. If I can get myself out of the sloth of lying in bed that is. 🙂

beliefs, current affairs, freedom of speech, nudism, sexuality

Unintended Consequences

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The Law of Unintended Consequences is alive and well! Diary of a Nudist has blogged about the reaction to recent attempts to clamp down on perceived indecent images. In two cases, ABC being fined for showing female buttocks before the watershed (see here and here) and the charging of a store for using almost revealing photographs (see here), the result has been that the images in question are now far more widely spread that they otherwise would have been. Moreover some parts of the US are also cocking a snook at their “stripper” laws. Such activity is always one of the possible outcomes of censorship. Great that the officious have had their bluff called. Let’s keep it up chaps and expose this stupidity for what it is!