Ninety-Eight Years Ago...

 The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway opened.

"The official opening took place on 16th July 1927, with Hercules hauling that inaugural train from Hythe to New Romney. When first opened to the public the line only covered, in double track, the eight miles between Hythe and New Romney. Owner Captain Jack Howey soon had his eye on extending the line and in 1928 double tracks carried the trains to Dungeness via Greatstone...."

Twenty Years Ago

Twenty years ago today, I was in my office at the British Museum, which looked out over Russell Square. I have a vague memory of a large bang being heard – but if anything, I assumed it was just one of the many noises you get around central London.

Then, about twenty or so minutes later, one of my team came up to see me – they said that a colleague had just arrived in some shock. He said he’d just seen a bus explode. That must have been the bomb in Tavistock Square, although we didn’t know that at the time. And I believe we may have heard it go off, unknowingly.

In fact we weren’t sure what he’d seen. I made suggestions to help get him looked after, and said he could consider going home and resting.

The traffic began to ease off, outside, and we began to hear sirens. The story circulated that there were problems on the tube lines (power failures).

About an hour or so in, one of the Security team arrived to tell everyone to move away from the windows. Yes, there had been a bomb, and a follow-up attack could shatter the glass dangerously.

By now, apart from distant sirens, it was unsettlingly quiet outside. And our mobile phones had stopped working. The rumour started that the emergency services had commandeered the network, although it might have just been overload.

Around lunchtime, I was called across the estate to a senior managers’ meeting. Yes, there had been a number of bombs, and and many casualties. There was a need to keep people inside while the emergency services worked. Then, mid-afternoon, we would all be needed to help the visitors leave and give them directions. This was mid-summer, and there were 15-18,000 visitors on site, many from overseas. We needed to help them understand how to get home, or to their hotels, in the absence of any public transport.

(During the briefing, I finally received a call from my son at school (they had sensibly let the children use their mobiles) – so I could tell him I was OK, and he could pass the message on to the rest of the family).

Once the Museum was empty, we left, too. I remember walking with others through an eerily quiet city. Finally managing to grab a bus home near Elephant and Castle.

The Mayor, Ken Livingstone, was on the news. He was in Singapore – the day before, he had been celebrating London winning the right to host the 2012 Olympics. He looked tired, but he gave the best speech of his life.

I want to say one thing specifically to the world today. This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty and the powerful. It was not aimed at Presidents or Prime Ministers. It was aimed at ordinary, working-class Londoners, black and white, Muslim and Christian, Hindu and Jew, young and old. It was an indiscriminate attempt to slaughter, irrespective of any considerations for age, for class, for religion, or whatever...

Londoners will not be divided by this cowardly attack. They will stand together in solidarity alongside those who have been injured and those who have been bereaved and that is why I'm proud to be the mayor of that city.

Yet there was an increase in racist attacks over the following days.

The next day, I think it was, I was on the bus to work, and the atmosphere was very jittery. Years later, I had a letter published in the Guardian about how the marvellous Betty Boothroyd stood up then, and helped everyone stay calm. (This was written a few days after the Manchester Arena bombing).

A week later, several other attacks were attempted, and failed, more by chance than effective security.

Yesterday. Bluebell Railway and Model Railway Show...

 

Beginning

 Roughly fifty years ago, give or take, I solved my first ever Guardian cryptic crossword clue.  It was an Araucaria, of course.  We were in the library at school.

The clue was "Begin description of dining room (8)".

This week's Prize crossword by Matilda included "Start talking about the restaurant I went to last night? (8)".

They do, of course, have the same answer.

Vetinari at the National Gallery...

 He is in disguise as Don Justino de Neve. 1665. By Bartolome Esteban Murillo.

Another Show

 Following on from an earlier post, another event we went to was a talk by Randall Munroe, called What If? A decade of Imagining the Impossible, at the Barbican.   
If you know XKCD, you'll understand the attraction.  Although he came across as a little meandering, and there was less of a focus to his ideas.
Still worth going to, though.

Another Anniversary This Year

 In addition to the anniversaries mentioned earlier, it is perhaps worth mentioning that it is 80 years since the first of the Reverend Awdry's Railway Series.

Dwarf

 So this has arrived...

Shows...

 We at the Trees have been to a lot of shows recently - or it seems more than normal.

So here is a list of some of them

Groundhog Day (Tim Minchin's version) at the Old Vic.  We did like the film, but felt the musical was better in a number of ways.

English Kings, Killing Foreigners. A reworking and reconsideration of Shakespeare's Henry V from a queer colonial perspective.  At the friendly Camden People's Theatre.

Tom Lehrer is Teaching Math and Doesn't Want to Talk to You.  Upstairs at the Gatehouse, in Highgate Village.  Essentially a Tom Lehrer jukebox musical, and all the better for it.  Of course, given how gifted Lehrer was, they needed a pianist and a singer.  And there were a few cuts to the songs. Hey ho.  It was still brilliant fun.  The audience were mouthing along with joy.

The Pirates of Penzance at the ENO.  Done straight, pretty much, but great fun.

Dr Strangelove, with Steve Coogan.  Not a bad go at the classic film. 

Guys and Dolls at the Bridge.  A great show. Really fun.

Die Fledermaus at the Greenwich theatre.  Good, if not perfect.

Nye At the National.  Absolutely wonderful and uplifting.  Everyone should see this to understand where the NHS came from.

Dear England at the National.  Another piece looking at the state of England.  Worth seeing, but we argue it isn't really about the football!

Some Biology

 Rebecca Helm, a biologist and an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, Asheville, US writes:

Friendly neighborhood biologist here. I see a lot of people talking about biological sexes and gender right now. Lots of folks make biological sex sex seem really simple. Well, since it’s so simple, let’s find the biological roots, shall we? Let’s talk about sex...[a thread]

If you know a bit about biology, you will probably say that biological sex is caused by chromosomes, XX, and you’re female, XY, and you’re male. This is “chromosomal sex” but is it “biological sex”? Well...

Turns out there is only ONE GENE on the Y chromosome that really matters to sex. It’s called the SRY gene. During human embryonic development, the SRY protein turns on male-associated genes. Having an SRY gene makes you “genetically male”. But is this “biological sex”?

Sometimes, that SRY gene pops off the Y chromosome and over to an X chromosome. Surprise! So now you’ve got an X with an SRY and a Y without an SRY. What does this mean?

A Y with no SRY means physically you’re female, chromosomally you’re male (XY), and genetically you’re female (no SRY). An X with an SRY means you’re physically male, chromsomally female (XX), and genetically male (SRY). But biological sex is simple! There must be another answer...

Sex-related genes ultimately turn on hormones in specific areas on the body and reception of those hormones by cells throughout the body. Is this the root of “biological sex”??

“Hormonal male” means you produce ‘normal’ levels of male-associated hormones. Except some percentage of females will have higher levels of ‘male’ hormones than some percentage of males. Ditto ditto ‘female’ hormones. And...

...if you’re developing, your body may not produce enough hormones for your genetic sex. Leading you to be genetically male or female, chromosomally male or female, hormonally non-binary, and physically non-binary. Well, except cells have something to say about this...

Maybe cells are the answer to “biological sex”?? Right?? Cells have receptors that “hear” the signal from sex hormones. But sometimes, those receptors don’t work. Like a mobile phone that’s on “do not disturb’. Call and cell, they will not answer.

What does this all mean?

It means you may be genetically male or female, chromosomally male or female, hormonally male/female/non-binary, with cells that may or may not hear the male/female/non-binary call, and all this leading to a body that can be male/non-binary/female.

Try out some combinations for yourself. Notice how confusing it gets? Can you point to what the absolute cause of biological sex is? Is it fair to judge people by it?

Of course, you could try appealing to the numbers. “Most people are either male or female” you say. Except that as a biologist professor, I will tell you...

The reason I don’t have my students look at their own chromosome in class is because people could learn that their chromosomal sex doesn’t match their physical sex, and learning that in the middle of a 10-point assignment is JUST NOT THE TIME.

Biological sex is complicated. Before you discriminate against someone on the basis of “biological sex” & identity, ask yourself: have you seen YOUR chromosomes? Do you know the genes of the people you love? The hormones of the people you work with? The state of their cells?

Since the answer will obviously be no, please be kind, respect people’s right to tell you who they are, and remember that you don’t have all the answers. Again: biology is complicated. Kindness and respect don’t have to be.

Note: Biological classifications exist. XX, XY, XXY XXYY, and all manner of variation, which is why sex isn't classified as binary. You can't have a binary classification system with more than two configurations even if two of those configurations are more common than others.

Biology is a shitshow. Be kind to people.

Massed Capital Marches on London

 

Microsoft Annoyances

 So, we at the Trees have invested in a new computer.  

As we are too old to switch, it is another Microsoft Windows box.  

It is fast and powerful.

But it has taken days to set it up.  Mostly spent switching off all of the 'features' Microsoft now ships, from news feeds from providers we have no interest in, Bing and Edge, Copilot, in fact all AI, prompts in all the wrong places, encouragement to use their version of the cloud (aka someone else's computer) for our files.

And on and on.

Ludvig

 An enjoyable cryptic April Fool crossword in the Graun, today

Fry on AI

 This Substack article by Stephen Fry is rather good...

AI: A Means to an End or a Means to Our End?

A Radical Teatowel

 

Dear UK Government...

 

Alexandra Palace...

 

Anti-Fascist Chener

The display window in Chener books is currently wonderful.

I wonder what prompted it?

Rustic...

 Pear tarte tartin...One way to spend a morning...

Farewell: No Fireworks

 Fifteen or so years ago we wrote about the Pyrotechnists' Arms.  It was never our favourite watering hole, but it had a great name and a fine and quirky history.  Albeit a mildly contested one.

Sadly, however, it is now shuttered and closed. 

Whether or not it is a loss as a pub, we can mourn the  loss of the name....

Morning Queue...

 This is the morning queue to get into the British Library.  Some people are keen to get the best desks!

Medieval Women

Yesterday, we went (for the second time), to the Medieval Women exhibition at the British Library.  Productions by women.  Queens with significant power, visionaries, abbesses and anchorites.

Ii Included some particularly wonderful items - such as a letter with the signature of Jean d'Arc, and the single longform copy of The Book of Margery Kempe, as well as gorgeous illustrated versions of works by Christine de Pizan.

The team that organised the show were supported by a group of academics, including Professor Anthony Bale, who led the Birkbeck MA we at the Trees completed a while back, in Medieval Literature and Culture.  But looking at the Birkbeck site, it appears that the course is no more.  Which is sad.

However, Professor Bale is now at Cambridge, the Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature (1954).  This was the chair created for CS Lewis, and has included very noteworthy holders in the past (Helen Cooper and Jill Mann, to name but two).  So that, at least, is heartwarming.

Net Zero Good News...

We thought this from the Guardian was good news...

Some Anniversaries in 2025

 There are doubtless many more occasions to celebrate, but these caught the eye of the Trees...

350 years   Royal Observatory Founded (and Flamsteed as first Astronomer Royal)

            Cassini division discovered (by Cassini), in Saturn's rings.

250 years   Jane Austen's Birth

            JMW Turner's Birth

                     

200 years   Royal Institution Christmas Lectures Began

            First Passenger Train Ran

100 years   First TV transmission

Another Kielder Post

 Missed posting this the first time...

See Kielder for more.

Local Sign

 But universal, as well...

Astrofest

Earlier this month, I went to the exhibition at Astrofest, the European show and conference about all things astronomical.  There were big telescopes for sale (very pricey!), and computer controllers, observation domes, and cameras of many types.

I was bowled over.  And almost tempted to buy the new Dwarf 3 astronomical camera (you point it, using technology pre-sets that include a reasonably large star atlas, and off it goes).  That would be a relatively easy way to get some very good images, and is less expensive than a telescope.  Although a telescope would probably deliver better images overall.

But that got me thinking.  What is it that attracts about astronomy?  There is a certain pleasure in setting up the telescope, fiddling and fettling, adjusting it to point in the right place and focusing on your target.  That is all lost, to varying degrees, by the servomotors that point at the object of your choice, and keep it in scope.    And by the use of cameras rather than the naked eye.  When we went to the Kielder observatory in 2019 there was a real thrill in seeing the Andromeda galaxy through an eyepiece.  Not in imaging it.

So I don't know.  

It is tempting, though...

Jay Rayner's Rant

 I thought this rant was rather fun...

Woolwich Model Railway Show

Before Christmas, I went for a gander.  This was a small show, seemingly organised by Dawn Quest.  But I liked the fact that the layouts tended towards the quirky and unusual.