The E gates at IAH are very scenic. That's a fiberglass swordfish in the foreground, part of a restaurant sign.
The Natural History Museum.
Westminster Abbey.
This is where my friends live in London, on the top floor a couple doors down on the right.
This is the view out the window of my friends' flat. Very British.
That night we walked around Clerkenwell, this is the old Smithfield's meat market building.
Banu and Doug.
Pouring beer the old fashioned way, none of this pressurized tap nonsense.
Drinking a Fuller's London Pride in London.
British Museum has gaming pieces from ancient rome including 6 and 20 sided dice. They played D&D in ancient Rome?
Lots and lots of mummies.
The Rosetta Stone.
Most of a temple reconstructed right inside the museum.
The Elgin Marbles, taken from the Parthenon.
Originally these statues stood just under the roof up on one end of the Parthenon.
More gaming nerd stuff -- this is the board for an ancient game, scratched into the base of an Assyrian statue. The guards would play this game to pass the time.
You can get very close to many of the stone relics, they just tell you not to touch.
Don't have to walk far to find pseudoscience in London.
More somewhat dubious information in the bookshop next door.
That night we went out and ran into yet more pseudoscience.
Note the fellow inside wondering why I'm taking a picture of his shop.
St. Paul's Cathedral
I didn't know David Hasselhoff was from London?
We walked across the Thames on the Millenium bridge, this is the view back toward St. Paul's.
Doug has this weird knack for finding parades while walking around. This was a group of people doing a night hike for charity or something.
The London Eye
Well, at least this shop selling nonsense went out of business.
Cool old architecture on Chancery Lane as we walked down toward the Thames.
Yes, they still use the wigs in court, here's the shop that sells them.
Doug took some pictures too, despite this being down the block from his house.
Strange display in the front window of a pub near the courts. This pub has a housecat with a reserved seat at the end of the bar.
Doug found another parade! Well, a couple thousand bike riders anyway.
Another Egyptian artifact, this time outside next to the river instead of inside the British Museum.
The London Eye from a different perspective.
Fortunately it was not falling down, since we had to pass under it.
Tower of London
Going under the Tower Bridge.
Canary Wharf. Doug works in one of those glass towers in the background. No, I'm not telling you which one.
Doug's making a remark here about how I pick backgrounds for photos poorly.
The Old Royal Naval College at Greenwich.
The Painted Hall, a tribute to William & Mary that took 19 years for Sir James Thornhill to complete.
The grounds of the old Naval College with Canary Wharf in the background.
The sign is correct, at least from this angle.
Posing by the remains of William Herschel's telescope.
When the red ball dropped at 1:00 PM each day, ships in the Thames could synchronize their clocks.
I'm standing on zero - zero degrees longitude. One foot in the Eastern Hemisphere, one in the Western.
One of the many old clocks that were used at one time to keep official time here. I found out later I wasn't supposed to be taking photos in this room.
Another ancient timepiece.
Natural History Museum
Dinosaur in the lobby. That's a Charles Darwin statue at the top of the stairs.
The dinosaurs on the right are animated, I'll post a YouTube of that later.
The very first T-Rex jawbone ever discovered.
And a life-size moving replica!
The little guys close up.
I found the Loch Ness monster in London!
Whales in the mammal section. Note how large they are compared to elephants.
Chuck is the hall monitor in the lobby.
Boy, they really liked this Albert guy, he gets this sweet memorial...
...and his own theater across the street!
Kensington Gardens
Kensington Palace
The lobby of the Victoria & Albert museum.
A roomful of life-size plaster castings of ancient monuments. There are two more such rooms. Offsite backup for ancient art.
It's like visiting every cathedral ever, all in one room.
Look, a Ming vase! (Well, Yuan-Ming according to the card).
Actual samurai armor.
The courtyard of the Victoria & Albert. That colorful sculpture is made of chairs.
Literally tons of sculpture.
The original art for the Rolling Stones' logo in the Recent Acquisitions room.
Big crowd at London Skeptics in the Pub on Monday Night (Sept 21).
Hey look, its me and Simon Singh. Nothing bogus here. (Not pictured: Simon's lawyer, who was following him around all night).
Took it easy on Tuesday, went to St. Bartholomew the Great and the Tate Modern and walked around a bit. This is St. Bart's.
Interesting how people were buried right inside the church in ancient times.
St. Bartholomew the Great, a few blocks from my friends' flat. This was where they filmed the last wedding in Four Weddings and a Funeral.
Like many churches in London, St. Bart's has lots of bits and pieces from different eras. The oldest parts date from the 13th century, but the tower is newer. Many parts of the church were demolished over the years - it used to be much larger.
The entry hall of the Tate Modern. No photos inside, which was fine by me--most modern art seems pretty goofy to me. Did see some nice stuff by Cezanne, Rodin and others here, though. This building was converted from use as a power plant, this room used to house the turbines.
Wednesday I got an earlier start to go to the Tower of London.
The Beefeaters will give you a nice overview of the place in a tour that is included in the price of your ticket. E II R means Elizabeth II Regina.
The White Tower inside dates from the 11th century.
The folks that run the place actually live here, in these and other houses inside the walls.
The Crown Jewels are kept in the building with the clock, a 19th century structure built as a barracks.
Lots of armaments around. There's a whole museum inside the White Tower, but no photos allowed.
It really looks like the classic version of a castle.
View of the tower bridge from inside the tower itself.
Beauchamp Tower was where noble prisoners were held. It contains some quite elaborate graffiti left by some of the prisoners.
Monument to the Great Fire of London, built by Christopher Wren in 1677. It's 202 feet tall and you can walk to the top.
331 steps according to the guide book.
View of Tower Bridge et.al. from the top of Monument.
I'm no Matt Lowry when it comes to self-photos.
Westminster Abbey. This is the main entrance where parishoners enter.
The North entrance, where you go in for the tour. Unfortunately photos are prohibited inside, but I did see Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin's tomb. Imagine that, scientists buried in a church.
Parliament and such.
Like most national capitals, there are the requisite protestors.
Later that evening we went to Chinatown for dinner. Do I See Woo?
Why yes, yes I do. (Just a few feet away from the previous photo).
This one is for A Kovacs. A sign in another herbalist shop.
If you know anything about Durians, this package is slightly frightening.
Doug took us into his favorite liquor store, which has an almost museum-like collection of fine booze. Check out the price on the Macallan 1926.
This was in a different liquor store nearby. Extremely Dangerous Absinth!
More pseudoscientific nonsense nearby.
Piccadilly Circus.
Picadilly Circus
On the tube.
Thursday I went to Samuel Johnson's house, a few blocks from the flat.
This is the garrett where Johnson compiled his famous dictionary of English.
Johnson was very fond of his cat, Hodge.
Later I went to Covent Garden, here a busker is using half the audience as his assistants in a magic trick.
Another busker posing as a statue in Covent Garden.
Back through Chinatown on my way to Ronnie Scott's to see JTQ. Unfortunately no photos allowed there, so I can't show you what the club was like. Too bad, it's a nice club.
It amused me for some reason that this Chinese medicine shop in Chinatown is in the same building with lawyers.
Honesty in business.
Friday I took it easy, walked around the Russell Square area.
Russell Square
Royal London Homeopathic Hospital. Wondering what sort of homeopathic emergency would require an ambulance?
Went back to the British Museum, as I'd only seen about 1/3 of it the other day.
The Lewis Chessmen.
Oliver Cromwell's death mask.
Some antique astronomical instruments.
Napoleon's death mask.
An ancient Egyptian grave, non-Pharaoh variety. Burial directly in the sand would dessicate the remains.
Special exhibition of Dogu.
Later that night we played games with Doug's work friends, this is a sunset view from his friend's apartment showing the Millenium Dome and Canary Wharf.
Saturday we went to Borough Market, where you can buy all manner of things.
The remains of Winchester Palace nearby, 12th century residence of the Bishops of Winchester.
Riding the Tube up to Hampstead Heath.
OK, I get it already.
Walking around the neighborhoods a bit.
Then down an alley into the Heath itself.
Most of London laid out behind me.
At this point, many were getting quite tired.
A refreshing beverage after our long walk.
Later that night we played a game called Dominion at a pub in Clerkenwell that Doug hadn't been to before (The Green). Here we're totting up the score of the last game.
Here's the jazz club I went to on Thursday, forgot to get a photo of it at that time.
We went for sushi on Monday night, right across the street from the flat. They have VERY large bottles of Sake.
Our table. The boxes are to drink Sake from.
Went walking around Waterloo station, here's the Old Vic Theatre. Going to see a show there Friday.
The Florence Nightingale Museum was closed for renovations. So I skipped on to my second medical museum in one day, the Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret.
This greets you as you enter.
The actual museum is in an attic and the only entrance is through a very narrow spiral staircase.
Lots of 18th and 19th century medical items.
And did I mention herbs? Oh yes I did.
Medical specimens.
Cupping and Scarification, oh my.
More herbs.
They used to spray carbolic into the air to neutralize bacteria.
Surgical instruments.
I found it interesting the dates on this schedule exactly match the week I was there, though 208 years later.
The operating theater.
When they said “garret” they weren't kidding.
St. Paul's is quite the impressive edifice. Over 300 years old too.
Unfortunately no photos allowed inside and they are quite strict about it. I saw several people scolded.
But you can climb up and out onto two balconies on the outside of the dome for views of the city. This is from the first one, the Stone Gallery some 53 meters above the pavement.
Here's the view from above.
Note the back of the statue at lower right. I was amused by the contrast with the marbles Elgin brought back from the Parthenon. Some of them have amazing amounts of detail on the back, which would never be seen. Christopher Wren, on the other hand, was a practical man.
Self-shot to prove I was there. The railings are high, I was standing here.
The final ascent takes you up some iron spiral staircases, between the inner and outer domes. I actually found this part a bit scarier than standing outside.
Hard to get a good photo here, but this is a little glass window in the floor that lets you look straight down to the floor of the church. The brown area is the altar, 85 meters straight down.
The view from the “Golden Gallery” just below the cross & ball.
Here I am at the top. (The TAM London venue is in this photo, hidden behind another building).
Trafalgar Square with Big Ben in the background, from the front porch of the National Gallery.
Went to the National Gallery later that day. No photos inside, of course.
Nelson's Column, and one of his lions.
Burlington House is home to the Royal Academy of Arts and several of the scientific societies. On Wednesday Sept. 30, a TAMLondon “fringe” tour of the Linnean Society's collection had been arranged for us.
Darwin is shy today. (Actually the painting, the original of the famous “hat in hand” Darwin picture, is out for conservation work).
Opening the underground vault to the collection.
These are Carl Linnaeus' own books (above) and specimens (below).
Some of the pressed flower specimens.
Looking at the insect collection.
This one is just for Maria (aka @masalaskeptic)
He had a section in his original taxonomy for cryptids like hydra, satyrs and dragons. Right in the middle of that section: pelicans.
First edition copy of Origin of Species and other key papers of Darwin's. Black box at left is his sample case, used on the Beagle voyage.
An unnamed visitor sometimes leaves little offerings to the statue of Linneaus in the library.
It's hard to capture without a fisheye lens but the library is a very impressive room.
Relaxing in nearby Green Park afterwards.
Buckingham Palace.
Once we were at the pub, some were dubious of Roger's choice of drink.
Grabbing some dinner at Old Star pub near St. James Park, the first stop on the pub crawl.
Many skeptics arrive for the pub crawl.
Sid and Matt tell us a bit about local history.
Our second stop: The Coal Hole on The Strand.
After Coal Hole closed at 11, we went to an after-hours place nearby that seemed to be a converted bomb shelter.
He wandered up and started talking about quantum something.
I may have found George Hrab's doppleganger.
Waterloo Station. The Old Vic is center left, just behind the station.
Looking straight down!
Looking skeptical
Various odd buskers on the waterfront.
I'm not sure what this act was about.
I loved this for its originality. That's supposed to be a baby DJ. He's actually a puppet manipulated by a hidden puppeteer.
Somerset House.
Later that night we met near the Tower of London for a Jack the Ripper walking tour.
Stop at a pub afterward.
This sign on a construction site caught my eye for some reason. I agree with this goal.
Friday we set off for Darwin's house in Downe. This required a train and bus ride starting here at Victoria Station.
Bus ride completed, now for a walk.
Walking from the bus to the museum. Horses are popular out here in Kent.
It is a fairly large house and quite nicely restored. No photos allowed inside, unfortunately, too many 120+ year old rugs and paintings and such.
Learning about Darwin's weed germination experiments, the little box in the grass is a recreation of the experimental setup he used. The audio guide is quite good, and includes commentaries by many scientists. It covers both the house and the gardens.
The back of the house. In need of a bit of a “haircut,” to use Emma's phraseology.
They have a full gardening staff and do their best to keep all the gardens as authentic to the time as possible.
The family's favorite Magnolia tree, just behind the house, is barely hanging on at age 250.
In the foreground is the stone used to indirectly measure the amount of earthworm activity in the soil, by precisely tracking how it sank.
Darwin's greenhouses and experiment building.
Carnivorous plants at the far end in this photo (closest to the house), orchids in this section, ivies & creeping plants behind the camera.
The back area, another orchard that also contains a tennis court.
The kitchen garden, where they grew their own food. Darwin even experimented here too.
The gate to the sand walk.
The view back toward the house from the sand walk.
You can understand why he came back to the walk to think, it's quite tranquil and beautiful.
Legend has it he would kick stones like these to one side to count how many laps he had made, until he had walked a mile. His children would sneak up and put the rocks back so he would stay out in the yard with them longer.
Yes, I was here.
We had lunch there, and Christian did it like a proper Englishman. Scones & tea, and a sandwich with cucumbers in it.
Later on Friday evening Christian and I attended “Inherit the Wind” at The Old Vic featuring Kevin Spacey. No photos inside of course, but here's the outside of the theater on show night.
TAM London began on Saturday morning with a rousing session of Skeptics in the Queue
Registration
Coffee
The crowd gathers in the theater.
Prof. Richard Wiseman was the emcee.
Prof. Brian Cox and the famous “pale blue dot” photo of Earth.
Jon Ronson, among other things, showed some footage he shot of Alex Jones attempting to infiltrate Bohemian Grove.
Simon Singh spoke next. He got a standing ovation when he entered.
Simon Singh responding to questions.
Lunch!
Ariane Sherine gave us the history of her atheist bus ad campaign.
Ben Goldacre spoke on bad science coverage in the media.
Film crew interviewing Simon Singh at the lunch break.
Ben Goldacre chats with Phil Plait as Phil signs autographs.
Ben Goldacre getting a bit of the “rock star” treatment that he well deserves in this crowd.
Another standing ovation for James Randi, appearing via Skype.
Simon Singh accepting the JREF Award as he receives a standing ovation.
Surly Amy's stuff on sale, along with many great books and other JREF items.
Simon's award.
Waiting for dinner to start.
The (optional) dinner on Saturday was bangers and mash.
Our entertainment Saturday night: Robin Ince & friends.
Chris Cox (@bigcox) tortures an audience member.
Ben Goldacre did a bit of standup too!
Robin Ince does a reading with support in the form of interpretive dance, violin and opera singing.
Skeptics adjourned to Dogget's pub across the Thames after Saturday festivities.
Sunday morning.
Much Twittering was going on, here's one row of folks so engaged.
George brought Prof. Wiseman and Phil Plait out to do a dramatic reading of Twitter posts.
Glenn Hill tells us about the Cottingley fairy photos.
I tried to explain to the venue staff that the second item on the menu is a bilingual oxymoron but I think they decided I was a plain garden variety moron.
Tim Minchin performing “Storm”
Brian Cox spoke of the Big Bang in the first talk; Phil Plait fittingly ended TAM London with a talk about the end of the world.
We adjourned to the Black Friar pub quite near the venue.
Then we headed over to Doggett's again for some food and conversation.
Someone grabbed my camera and got all Spielbergy.
On Monday a bunch of us met at the Natural History museum for a tour of the brand new Darwin Centre.
Our tour guide was Karen James (@kejames) a scientist who does genetic research here.
Remember Darwin's sand walk which I visited Friday? The actual flints he used to track his progress around the walk are here.
Here we are inside the vault where rows and rows of cases contain millions of specimens of plants and animals.
The tank on the right contains a giant squid!
A special locked case that contains some of the actual samples brought back from the voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin.
Note “Beagle” on the labels.
Exiting through the airlock.
The Darwin Centre has this giant concrete egg-shaped building.
One of these four things does not belong in a science museum. Can you identify which one? (This is actually just a simple display on how to classify items, no real harm).
After our Darwin Centre tour I decided to head over to the nearby Science Museum which I had missed earlier. Here's a Cray 1.
The first video tape machine.
An Apple I.
Babbage's second difference engine.
Prototype of Babbage's analytical engine, never completed.
This is the actual fragment of fuselage that peeled off the de Havilland Comet G-ALYP, retrieved from the ocean floor, that allowed investigators to figure out the flaw that caused several crashes. This changed how jet airliners were made forever.
I was disappointed to see this display using the term “allopathic” in the Wellcome Collection exhibit on the history of medicine. It was the first of many references to complementary or alternative medicine that did not clearly differentate things which have a scientific basis from those which do not.
This display of another phrenology head does in fact indicate it is quackery -- in the smaller print below the word “Phrenology.” This is one of several phrenology or anthropometry mentions, but the only one I could find that made it very clear it is nonsense.
It gets worse. Theres a whole section devoted to “traditional” medicine that covers homeopathy, acupuncture and other things and never really makes the point (that I could see) that these traditions are not scientific.
As if that weren't bad enough in a science museum, there is another whole section that is based on personal testimonials to the effectiveness of this quackery!
More testimonial crap, this time about African traditional medicine.
The pink area is the extent of the CAM exhibits, but several mentions of phrenology and homeopathy occur in the blue section too.
Again, a phrenology instrument displayed with no indication that it is based on complete nonsense. Caption: "Phrenological Head Measurer, c. 1850: If a phrenologist discovered that a person had a particularly weak mental faculty, that person could endeavour to improve it. Inv. 1985-1722. Source: Alain Brieux."
Here's Conway Hall where The Amazing Panel took place.
An appropriate venue indeed, as they are running a nice pro-Darwin exhibit as well.
The Amazing Panel
Christian was the photographer for the panel shots.
We adjourned to Penderel's Oak, the site of London Skeptics in the Pub.
