Category: Uncategorized

I think this sort of thing is amazing:

It’s a visualisation of my contacts on the Facebook social networking website, generated by the Nexus Friend Grapher. The black dots are people I know, and the lines connect mutual friends together. Using a Hooke’s Law type of mechanics, where the black dots are masses and the lines are springs, produces this sort of graph, where clumps form.

I think this sort of “personal social footprint” is as powerful a way to show your identity and uniqueness as conventional demographics. Every person’s graph will have a unique shape and pattern.

It’s also an interesting conceptual idea to find the “shortest line” from one side of the graph to the other. This in effect discovers the “best way” that two completely unrelated friends could get to know each other, just by meeting other friends of mine along the way, without me needing to be around to do the introductions.

By the way, forming the biggest clump, on the right, are the orienteers. The top part roughly corresponds to SLOW – not as tightly connected as it’s not a student club. The middle part is JOK and the bottom-right OUOC.

Just noticed that the protective fencing has just come down on the newest City building, on the Thames waterfront beside Cannon Street Station. The building is called Watermark Place, although a prominent wooden beam at the building’s main entrance has the inscription “One Angel Place” on it. Although the building is mainly glass and steel, it has some nice wooden and metal slatting on the riverside, to protect it from the sun. The massive wood beams are rather attractive. Some small wooden planks, possibly some offcuts of the wooden beams, have been turned into some benches. The combination of the rich wood colour, the trees and some well placed spotlights, make the front of the building look very attractive from the neighbouring London Bridge.

OpenStreetMap has been duly updated with the now-open Angel Lane walkway.

[Updated] I somehow missed this last week (although it received very little publicity) – a new bridge across the Regent’s Canal has just been lifted into place. It’s a foot/cycle bridge, linking the middle of Mile End Park, by the climbing wall and the Palm Tree pub, to the new access road for the Suttons Wharf housing development in Meath Gardens. Once the landscaping works are finished and the bridge opens at the end of next month, this means there’s now an attractive and direct non-road route between Bethnal Green and Bow.

[Update – I’m not so sure now that it links to the access road (i.e. Meath Crescent) to the west, as this road is accessed by electronic gates. The path may swing northwards to go into Meath Gardens themselves, which makes it a less useful route. The ramp on the east side also swings north, again making it less useful for going east-west – oh well!]

Tower Hamlets Council have a webcam looking over the bridge, facing west to Suttons Wharf and the London-Stratford railway line. It seems to update about every minute until around 4pm. I’ve shamelessly pinched one of the photos from it below.

The new bridge is particularly exciting for me for a couple of reasons – firstly I’m hosting a street orienteering event in Bow in early September, and this bridge is slap-bang in the middle of the map. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like it will be ready for the event, which is a shame as the bridge will enhance route choice in the area. Secondly, it will also allow an extension of my Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and Mile End Park orienteering map – a test event was run on this map in 2008, and we are likely to have another race on this map next summer or in 2011. In an ideal world, the link path from the new bridge, under the railway bridge to the north end of the university campus would also be opened up – however I suspect this will remain closed for security reasons.

I’ve marked on my QMUL orienteering map the rough location of the bridge, in purple, and the access road to it.

The bridge is one of the 79 Sustrans Connect2 projects that were set in motion by the charity winning £50 million in the Big Lottery TV competition in 2007.

I made it to London from John O’ Groats – “Joglon” – a couple of weeks ago, but there was a missing link in the journey. I took an unplanned recovery day on the Edinburgh-Morpeth leg.

Having been back up in Scotland for the last week for the Scottish 6 Days orienteering races, I had a chance yesterday to complete the link. After a largely dry week for the orienteering, the rain was back, but this was nothing new – it had rained on 10 of the 11 Joglon days.

I set off at 0830 with unmoveable target – a 1730 train from Morpeth back to Edinburgh. The back roads to Temple and along down to Galashiels were pleasant enough, a very green landscape through the pouring rain. At one point a deer leapt across the road just in front – if it had hit me or the bike it would have been game over.

At Galashiels it finally stopped raining. I passed through Melrose, around the Eildon Hills, through Newtown St Boswells and on to the dreaded A68, before stopping for lunch at the half-way point at Jedburgh. It was pleasantly warm but I got some funny looks from the locals in my cycling attire.

Back onto the A68, which was pretty quiet and not that bad really, up and up to Carter Bar, the Scottish-English border, at 420m altitude. Interestingly the Scottish Saltire flies on one side and the Northumberland Flag, rather than the St George’s Cross, on the other.

It started to rain again, so I quickly headed off down to Otterburn and Elsdon, before gradually descending on a very straight and quiet road to Morpeth. On the way I passed a rather bizarre hangman’s gallows, complete with wooden head, on a moor beside the road. This is known as “Winter’s Gibbit”.

Cycling time was just under 7 hours, with just an hour on breaks, for 155km.

I had an hour between trains at Alnmouth on the way back, so wandered around the tiny but extremely pretty village and bay.

Here’s how the route compared with what was planned:

Here’s how the weather was, and where we went

Here’s all the cities, towns, villages and attractions I’ve cycled through in the last 12 days.

The styling of the text shows if it was raining, cloudy or sunny.

0	Thurso > Castletown > Canisbay > John O’Groats > Mey > Dunnet > Castletown > Thurso
1	Thurso > Reay > Melvich > Strathy > Bettyhill > Strathnaver > Altnaharra > Crask Inn > Lairg > Falls of Shin > Carbisdale Castle
2	Carbisdale Castle > Ardgay > Evanton > Culbokie > Munlochy > Kessock Bridge > Inverness > Dores > Inverfarigaig > Falls of Foyers > Whitebridge > Carn an t-Suidhe > Bridge of Oich > Invergarry > Laggan
3	Laggan > Commando Memorial > Gairlochy > Banavie > Neptune’s Staircase > Fort William > Onich > Ballachulish > Glencoe Village > Clachaig Inn > Pass of Glencoe > Rannoch Moor > Bridge of Orchy > Tyndrum > Crianlarich > Ardlui > Inveruglas > Tarbet > Luss > Inversnaid
4	Inversnaid > Aberfoyle > Thornhill > Doune > Bridge of Allan > Wallace Monument > Tullibody > Alloa > Dunfermline > Rosyth > Queensferry > Dalmeny > Barnton > Edinburgh > Lasswade
5	Lasswade > Temple > Fountainhill > Stow > Galashiels > Melrose > Newtown St Boswells > Jedburgh > Carter Bar > Otterburn > Elsdon > Winter’s Gibbit > Morpeth
6	Morpeth > Dinnington > Newcastle > Gateshead Millennium Bridge > Gateshead > Saltwell > Angel of the North > Ouston > Pelton > Grange Villa > Edmonsley > Sacriston > Durham > Shincliffe > Bowburn > Coxhoe > Sedgefield > Stockton > Infinity Bridge > Middlesbrough > Ormesby > Guisborough > Birk Brow > Scaling Dam > Sandsend > Whitby
7	Whitby > Hawsker > Robin Hood’s Bay > Ravenscar > Cloughton > Burniston > Scarborough > Osgodby > Cayton > Folkton > Hunmanby > Rudston > Kilham > Driffield > Walkington > Ripplingham > Welton > North Ferriby > Humber Bridge > Barton > Kirmington
8	Kirmington > Caistor > Walesby > Market Rasen > Wickenby > Stainton by Langworth > Scothern > Nettleham > Riseholme > Lincoln > Bardney > Tattershall Bridge > Holland Fen > Boston > Fosdyke Bridge > Long Sutton > Sutton Bridge > Clenchwarton > King’s Lynn > Castle Rising > Wolferton
9	Wolferton > Castle Rising > North Wootton > King’s Lynn > Watlington > Downham Market > Ten Mile Bank > Queen Adelaide > Ely > Witchford > Wilburton > Cottenham > Histon > Cambridge > Great Shelford > Sawston > Whittlesford Station
10	Whittlesford Station > Hinxton > Ickleton > Arkesden > Clavering > Stocking Pelham > Much Hadham > Widford > Hunsdon > Roydon > Lower Nazeing > Enfield Lock > Lea Valley > London