Loitering through the lino

On a recent bike ride I noticed that red signs and a metal fence had proliferated from nothing. A trawl though the local paper revealed what was happening. A week later, we were out for a walk and those red signs reflected the locals' response.  It would seem that redevelopment is on the cards, not a popular move!

We wandered along the fence which hadn't by any means totally enclosed the off-cuts from the old lino factory once owned by the 'Lino King', James Williamson (Lord Ashton) .

We look out onto part of what was Willliamson's empire, a building that is falling into decay and dereliction but which is nevertheless a wonderful sight.

The light on the building changes constantly and provides endless photographic opportunities. Noisy magpies  sit and clatter on the top of the roofless walls, and at night owls can often be heard.

Lectures - how things have changed

A week of Physics lectures has set me to comparing things now with what I experienced in the 70s.

Now	Then
A strange metal box is passed round the class and each student inserts some sort of electronic key to prove his/her attendance.	There was a piece of paper outside the lecture theatre on which we signed our names.
Memory sticks are plugged into the ubiquitous computer found in every lecture theatre. Content of said stick is then projected onto one and sometimes two screens.	The more up to date lecturers had the use of an overhead projector, the majority made use of chalk and blackboard.
PowerPoint slides are the order of the day providing more or less total legibility, but any inaccuracies are indelible.	Students were at the mercy of lecturers' handwriting, though any errors made while they scrawled could be easily corrected.
All PowerPoint material seems to be accessible through computer log in; this maybe explains why many students seem to take minimal notes, if at all. The notepads in evidence or often of the computer variety.	Most students took copious notes, on paper.
Lecturers are wired for sound, so are audible throughout the lecture theatre; as a result, lecture theatres seem to fill from the back forwards.	Poor acoustics and lack of microphones ensured that it was the front rows of lecture theatres that filled first.
Film and image media are at the touch of a button as current, up to date websites and Youtube videos are accessed instantaneously, seamlessly fitting into the lecture content.	The highest tech we experienced was the occasional "slide show", with its attendant technician to operate the slide projector. The lecture theatre was dimmed, making note taking a challenge and slides that had obviously seen better days having been shown to previous generations of students were projected with varying degrees of skill ("oops that one is upside down").

Tempus fugit

My dad cross stitched this. I had it up in my biology lab when I was teaching, the pupils never really "got" it, I think they just saw it as evidence that their teacher was a bit loopy

My blogging intentions have been good but the gap in the postings reflects the reality of time sneaking in and speeding by. I was 60 last week, where has the time gone?

Last weekend we went to Edinburgh, a celebratory birthday weekend which happened to coincide with the bi-yearly catch up with flat mates of nearly 40 years ago, and then coffee with a friend from university days. Alphabetical order brought that friendship about. In those days lab sessions required that we sit in alphabetical order. That lucky happenstance resulted in a great friendship that has continued for 42 years, though distances have been greater than the 2 work bench widths that separated us in those biology and chemistry labs.

University memories were reawakened this week as I started note taking for a Physics student. Until now my note taking has mainly been history and creative writing with minor forays into criminal law and business studies, so it was good to get a subject I feel I should be a little more familiar with.