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It’s been a some years since I’ve seen a sticker like this with a political message. This one is on a lamppost in Nanterre, Paris, and is calling for an end to homophobia, lesbophobia and transphobia.

Waiting for the train to Paris. While walking up to the stopping point for coach 17 i noticed that Eurostar does not have a coach 13.

The museum of Medieval Torture can be found on the South side of Charles Bridge in Prague. There is a review of this museum over at Anti-War.Com:

Upon entering one of a series of gloomy, cave-like rooms, filled with the implements of the dismal craft that had its heyday from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century, you would notice a range of mechanical devices and iron tools (also illustrated in drawings galore), all once meant to pierce, prod, or otherwise drive some poor heretic into the agony of confession. Often in those years before video cameras were available, all this was done in public sight.

And then, as you wound your way through the exhibit, you would come upon one of its centerpiece displays – the “water torture table” to which Bradbury [the head of the US Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel] alludes. After you’d checked out the period drawings of prisoners being tied to the edges of the flat tabletop or read about the interrogation method in which the water-filled abdomen was struck repeatedly with heavy blows, you might stop for a moment to consider the more detailed explanatory text nearby.

It would inform you that, over the course of these centuries, several water torture techniques were developed, one of which involved “inserting a cloth tube into the mouth of the victim [and] forcing it as deep as possible into his throat. The tube was then filled slowly with water, swelling up and choking the victim.” This is, in fact, an almost exact description of what has been described as CIA-style waterboarding.

Bonus link: Links to various torture museums around the world.

This evening I received a short email from a woman working at Service Canada, headed “YAY!” and advising me that we could relax as she was not pregnant, as her period had arrived.  I was obviously very relieved not to have made her pregnant, especially as I don’t even remember us actually meeting…

This is an old building in Pyrcroft Road, Chertsey. I was struck by the bits of roof and drainpipes on the side of the house and adjacent to the chimney.

This is the Roman Amphitheatre at Chester, with the Newgate section of the city wall pictured in the background.  The building on the extreme right (partly obscured) is a public house called Off the Wall.  According to English Heritage, the Cheshire Amphitheatre is

The largest Roman amphitheatre in Britain, used for entertainment and military training by the 20th Legion, based at the fortress of ‘Deva’ (Chester). Excavations by English Heritage and Chester City Council in 2004-5 revealed two successive stone-built amphitheatres with wooden seating. The first included access to the upper tiers of seats via stairs on the rear wall, as at Pompeii, and had a small shrine next to its north entrance. The second provided seat access via vaulted stairways. The two buildings differed both from each other and from all other British amphitheatres, underlining the importance of Roman Chester.

There are visible signs of excavation (fenced off areas, tarpaulins and the like) and 24 Hour Museum has a 2004 story about a two year project to conduct excavations on the site.  I hope that these were not abandoned half-way though, because that’s what it looks like! 

The Black and White Pics website has more detailed information on the amphitheatre, and they say that it is not the largest (of the 19 Roman amphitheatres of Britain), the largest being at Maunbury Rings, Dorchester.  According to the Black and White Pics website (ibid):

They were mainly used for military training, but were also opened to the civilian population for ‘recreations’ (spectacula) such as bull baiting, cock fighting, mock hunts- in which well-equiped huntsmen slaughtered wild animals released into the arena- wrestling and boxing. This latter was a popular, though brutal sport in Roman times.The fighters wore no protection, and instead of gloves had metal-studded leather thongs wrapped around their wrists.
Amphitheatres were also used for the public execution of criminals- both military and civilian- and for the celebration of state and religious special events. These latter would have featured the sort of gladiatorial combat (munera) with which Hollywood has so recently once again made us familiar. A relief carving on slate, found nearby in Newgate Street, showing a retiarius- a gladiator who fought with a trident and net, would seem to confirm that this type of activity went on here
...
Gladiators could be of either sex and were drawn from the ranks of slaves, prisoners of war and petty criminals, to whom the dangers of the arena may well have been preferable to the alternative fates that awaited them elsewhere. Those offenders against the state- including many early Christians- who were deemed a threat to Imperial authority, were condemned ad bestias, ‘to the beasts’- these unfortunates were left tied to a stake, or as an extra ‘refinement’ were pushed naked and unarmed into the arena, where wild and half-starved animals were turned loose on them.
In the centre of the arena here in Chester, a series of postholes set into narrow gullies (hidden from view today) suggest the possible presence of a timber platform of some kind- possibly a scaffold. This structure may have been temporary, being erected only when required. (It was this structure that encouraged the original assumption that the original amphitheatre had been timber-built).

Here is a second photograph of the Chester amphitheatre, which I took looking in the opposite direction from the top of the city wall at Newgate:


As always, click on either photograph to embiggen.

In both photographs the rather shambolic state of the site is evident, despite the fact that the light was not very good when I took the photos. Unfortunately it was also windy so I did not explore the site nor read the notices that would advise as to the status of the archaeological dig.  The Official Blog of the Chester Amphitheatre Project was last updated on 30 October 2007, so hopefully it has just shut down temporarily for the winter.

It was here that I found the German-speaking machine on Saturday.

Chester is a city famous for its complete medieval walls - the only city in the United Kingdom that has a full remaining set of such walls.  However this is a somewhat misleading fact, because the walls have been built and renovated several times since the medieval times.  There is a rather patchy article at Wikipedia which has some historical information:

The city Chester was founded as a Roman fort at the head of the River Dee estuary in AD 79, in the territory of the Cornovii tribe. It was named Deva either after the goddess of the Dee, or directly from the British name for the river. Deverdoeu was still one of two Welsh names for Chester in the late 12th century; its other and more enduring Welsh name was Caerlleon, literally “the fortress-city of the legions”, a name identical with that of the Roman fortress at the other end of the Marches at Caerleon (Mon.). The colloquial modern Welsh name is the shortened form, Caer. The early English-speaking settlers used a name which had the same meaning, Legacæstir, which was current until the 11th century, when – in a further parallel with Welsh usage – the first element fell out of use and the simplex name Chester emerged. From the 14th century to the 18th the city’s prominent position in north-western England meant that it was commonly also known as Westchester.

The photo above is (apparently) of the second-most photographed clock in the UK which, according to aiden,

is regarded as the most familiar and most cliched image of Chester.

I have previously posted a photo of the most photographed clock in the UK.

The Black and White Picture website has some in-depth information about the clock:

At the end of the 19th century there was much discussion as to the best method of commemorating Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee - 60 years on the throne - and a committee was convened to settle the matter. Altogether, Chester had raised £1,800 for the Jubilee Fund, one-third being for “general rejoicings”, one-third for a nursing scheme but the final third was the subject of much debate. Some wanted support for their favourite charities. Extensions to the Bluecoat School and Infirmary were suggested. The inevitable statue was proposed. But then the offer of a commemorative clock was made by Colonel E. Evans-Lloyd, and this was accepted. The eminent Chester architect, John Douglas was asked to design it, and some local relations of his, the Swindleys of Overleigh Road, who happened to be specialists in ornamental ironwork, were commissioned to produce the mounting for the clock and the railings for the top of the gate. The clock itself was made by the old company of J. B. Joyce of Whitchurch, who are to this day responsible for maintaining it.

The clock was run by weights instead of springs, thus enabling it to keep more accurate time. The pendulum was said to beat every one and a quarter seconds and the pendulum ball weighed one hundred-weight. The clock’s builders formerly had to make frequent visits to wind the mechanism but since its conversion to electricity, this is no longer necessary.

The clock was formally unveiled by the Mayoress of Chester and Miss Sybil Clarke, Col. Evans-Lloyd’s niece. During the ceremony, Colonel Evans-Lloyd said the clock was his humble contribution to his native city and he “hoped that by day and night it would prove to be a comfort and convenience, noy only to the citizens, but to the many tourists who visited the city”.

For years, he said, he had wished to see a clock on the Eastgate and he had first investigated the possibility ten years previously, though the difficulty had always been to find a receptacle on which to place it. The handsome Jubilee Memorial Tower had finally solved the problem.

J. B. Joyce, the designers of the Eastgate Clock, continue in business to this day- they even have a website- and are now part of the Smith of Derby Group. Founded in 1690, they are arguably the oldest surviving clock-making company and their clocks grace buildings throughout the world. One of the most famous is the magnificent mechanism and dial at the Shanghai Custom House. Built in 1927, it was the largest clock ever made at the time and became affectionately known as Big Ching.

Other Joyce clocks are in the post offices in Sydney and Adelaide in Australia; in Nairobi, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth in Africa and in Rangoon, Calcutta, Delhi and Kabul in Asia. There are also Joyce clocks in North and South America and in Canada, and there’s even one on the Falkland Islands, at Port Stanley.

I found some historical photographs of the Eastgate:

• Circa 1910, showing a tram passing through the gate
• 1896, before the clock was installed
• View from the wall, showing the concrete paving on top!

• Frozen River Dee at Chester in 1917

The Wikipedia article does contain some interesting information about the city, but you can see why I referred to the article as patchy just from the following excerpt:

On January 13, 2002, Chester was granted Fairtrade City status. This status was renewed by the Fairtrade Foundation on August 20, 2003.

Cestrians are often jokingly perceived as being anti-Welsh. This supposed animosity could be the reason that the Town Hall clock does not face west towards Wales so as not to give the Welsh the “time of day”.[citation needed] An archaic notice states any Cestrian may shoot a Welshman with a longbow if he loiters within the walls after sunset when the curfew bell chimes (although this law no-longer offers legal protection against prosecution for murder and this urban myth may be rooted in a local byelaw).

And as you can tell the Wikipedia sentences are badly constructed too!

From inside, looking out through the doorway, after the civil partnership ceremony was over. 

Mmm. So they had to climb down on the tracks to scribble that?

Please don’t run (down the ramp at East Croydon rail station). I’m en route to a civil partnership ceremony at Camden Council offices this afternoon.

The machine is “speaking” to me in German. But I thought I was in an (historical) English city.

Today is the 92nd anniversary of the Battle of Verdun and according to the poster in this photograph there is a gathering organised by the Maire of Nanterre (outside Paris) to commemorate it.

In October 2004 I visited Verdun, and the Ossuary at Douaumont.  At the time I wrote:

The battle of Verdun lasted under two years, but 400 thousand French soldiers, almost as many German soldiers and several thousand US and Canadian soldiers perished.

A review of the book 14 - 18 (published November 2003) on the Barnes and Noble website (taken from Publishers Weekly) makes the following interesting comments:

Over the last 15 years, French scholars have produced a body of research that has fundamentally altered the history of WWI, though much of the work remains largely unknown in the U.S. The authors, directors of the French Museum of the Great War, draw on much of that work and see the war through three transformative, overlapping lenses: violence, crusade and mourning. In a striking contradiction to current U.S. historians’ approaches, the authors assert the necessity of battle history-not as a techno-historical end in itself, but as source material for a richly textured analysis of the interrelated effects of violence on soldiers and civilians alike, culminating in a discussion of the way the confinement of military prisoners and the widespread internment of civilians combined to institutionalize a “concentration-camp phenomenon that would reemerge two decades later in far more sinister contexts.” Further, when the combatants began by defining the war in patriotic terms, as a war of national defense, it became a crusade. Patriotism escalated into a perception of the conflict as between civilization and barbarism, a dichotomy accompanied by crude hatreds and reflexive dehumanization of the enemy, fueled by the experiences of military occupation, and by the myths (or what we might now call “urban legends") produced by it. The final consequence, the authors argue persuasively, was the development of full-blown eschatological expectations-that the war would really prepare the way for God’s dominion on earth. The resulting disillusion opened the way for individual and collective mourning as the bereavements caused by war finally sank in. Disillusion, however, also opened the path to even higher levels of violence to force achieve the frustrated messianic ends. In the final analysis, the authors suggest, the Great War left a dual legacy-grief and totalitarianism.

The other two reviews of the book at the Barnes and Noble site are also interesting.

One of the authors of the book is an academic at the Paris X University Nanterre. This University was founded in the 1960s and played a significant part in the events of May 1968 in Paris.

Photo from Pinkbelt.

I thought this story of alleged Swedish cultural imperialsm towards Denmark was quite amusing.  Almost as amusing as the story about the Heraldists who wanted a penis reinstated on a military badge.  Army boys and their toys, eh?

Basically a Danish newspaper accused IKEA (the store) of “bullying” Denmark:

Why is it, the paper wondered, that Swedish and Norwegian place names are always associated with the shiniest, comfiest furnishings in the Ikea catalogue, while the names of Danish towns are reserved for doormats, rugs and carpets?

“It seems to be an example of cultural imperialism,” Klaus Kjøller, Assistant Professor in Political Communication and the Danish Language at the University of Copenhagen, told The Local.

“Ikea has chosen the objects with the lowest value and given them Danish names,” he added.

Doormats and rugs such as Köge, Sindal, Roskilde, Bellinge, Strib, Helsingör and Nivå are all “seventh class” citizens in the hierarchical world of Ikea furnishings, according to Kjøller.

“Ikea is a very professional company. I don’t think this can be a coincidence,” he said.

If you look historically at the relative power between the countries then one would expect Finland and Norway to be the “poor cousins” of Denmark and Sweden. Perhaps this is why Denmark is so touchy: being associated with rugs and carpets downgrades their perceived “high status”.  A quick websearch also indicates that Lonely Planet semi-accused Denmark of “cultural imperialism” in their review of Africa beer. Carlsberg produces Kuche kuche in Malawi and this is what Lonely Planet had to say about it:

Carlsberg dominates the Malawian brewing industry (Danish cultural imperialism?), and this is their ‘Malawian’ label. Not as good as Carlsberg itself (that’s really saying something!), but it does come in a bigger bottle…

Carlsberg was originally a Danish company, but merged with the Norwegian company Orkla ASA in 2001. It is apparently the 5th largest brewery company in the world.

I have mentioned IKEA product names previously. From Wikipedia, here is the way they organise their product names:

• Upholstered furniture, coffee tables, rattan furniture, bookshelves, media storage, doorknobs: Swedish placenames (for example: Klippan)Beds, wardrobes, hall furniture: Norwegian place namesDining tables and chairs: Finnish place namesBookcase ranges: OccupationsBathroom articles: Scandinavian lakes, rivers and baysKitchens: grammatical terms, sometimes also other namesChairs, desks: men’s namesMaterials, curtains: women’s namesGarden furniture: Swedish islandsCarpets: Danish place namesLighting: terms from music, chemistry, meteorology, measures, weights, seasons, months, days, boats, nautical termsBedlinen, bed covers, pillows/cushions: flowers, plants, precious stones; words related to sleep, comfort, and cuddlingChildren’s items: mammals, birds, adjectivesCurtain accessories: mathematical and geometrical termsKitchen utensils: foreign words, spices, herbs, fish, mushrooms, fruits or berries, functional descriptionsBoxes, wall decoration, pictures and frames, clocks: colloquial expressions, also Swedish placenames

Looking at the above categories I wonder again whether the Danish newspaper’s problem was that carpets were given Danish names or whether more “high status” items were given Norwegian and Finnish names. 

Extra link: IKEA game.

Well it was too cloudy last night to get a photograph of the lunar eclipse. I tried at two-thirty and then again at three this morning. Here’s the 13:10 to Waterloo again. Without yesterday’s fog.

The 13:10 to Waterloo approaches the Chestsey crossing.

Hopefully the fog will clear for the eclipse of the moon in the wee hours of tomorrow morning.

The Oxford Belles sing their third and final song in the 2008 ICCA Quarterfinal at Oxford - One Way or Another.