Tring

Tring is a small town in Hertfordshire, England. It's about 30 miles northwest of London, or about 45 minutes by train. If you take the train be prepared to wait a long time for the bus into town or just walk the 2 miles. I walked, I saw trees, fields, houses, and the usual stuff one sees in England, nothing remarkable or even picture worthy.

Grass Car, London 2010

Not even the grass car in the above picture. I saw this in London a few days ago so I thought I would throw it into the blog just in case anyone missed it on Facebook. It has nothing whatsoever to do with this blog except that I didn't see it in Tring.

St. Peter and St. Paul, Tring

The local old church was beautiful in that really old sort of way, but one comes to expect every town in England to have a really old beautiful church. So why did I visit this homely little town. It turns out that a very famous American's grandfather lived in this town at least for a few years, Lawrence Washington, yep George's granddad. Well, being the great American that I am, I had to visit.

The Natural History Museum at Tring

Actually, I came to visit this place. I didn't know about Lawrence until I read it on wikipedia. This is the Natural History Museum at Tring. It's been a part of the NHM since 1937.




The Rothschilds' built this place to house their oldest son's hobby. Walter (the oldest son) was a collector, some say he was obsessed, some say he was just a little eccentric. I think he was an obsessed eccentric with really great parents.




If my parents are reading this, I'm not trying to say that you were in anyway terrible parents, maybe just a little stingy with the money, that's all. I mean how much could something like this cost anyway.



Below is a picture of Lord Rothschild. I borrowed this picture and most of the facts for this post from the NHM or Wikipedia websites. Please visit them as they covered his life in much more detail than I could.

Lord Walter Rothschild

Rothschild with his famed zebra (Equus burchelli) carriage, which he drove to Buckingham Palace to demonstrate the tame character of Zebras to the public

Apparently at the age of seven Walter announced to his family that he was going to own a museum. He started collecting at seven and never stopped. He amassed the largest private zoological collection in history. At it's peak, his collection included 300,000 bird skins, 200,000 birds' eggs, 2,250,000 butterflies, and 30,000 beetles, as well as thousands of specimens of mammals, reptiles, and fishes. Apparently he had to sell off most his bird collection to the American Museum of Natural History as one of his mistresses was blackmailing him.

Fennec Fox, NHM at Tring

Now I'm thinking that this little guy hopes that the Night at the Museum movie series is true and he is able to run and hide every once in a while. I'm not sure what the heads (below) would do as they can't be terribly mobile.




Did I tell you that Lord Rothschild is the main reason that I am in London today. Walter inherited the majority of his parents fortune and also his father's title of Baron. He used this money to send expeditions to the far reaches of the world to collect animals of all sorts. I would estimate that at least 85% of the moth specimens I am working on came from these expeditions.



He also hired numerous people to identify all the critters. Remember now that these animals were all collected around the early 1900's. At that time all the insects from the nether regions of the world were new to science so he employed numerous people to identify these specimens. Some species were named several times as each identifier recognised it as new. So that's why I'm here, to help sort all those names out.



This is only a small selection of the animals on display. He even has a whole row of cases dedicated to the domestic dog. If you ever get a chance, and you enjoy looking at zoological stuff, Tring is a must stop.

Location:High St,Tring,United Kingdom

NHM Part Two

The blog experiment seemed to work so here are a few more pics. Oh by the way, I did have to do some editing on the pc. The pics just weren't sized right but the edits took all of five minutes to finish.

Alright back to the dinosaurs. That's the Camarasaur again just from down below. Now were going back up the staircase to the upper walkway again to pick up where we left off. It really was a brilliant idea to let people walk along at eye level with these skeletons.

Camarasaurus

This of course is an Albertosaur, relative of Mr. and Mrs. Rex although they probably didn't socialize all that much. If you look close at the teeth in these last two pics you can see one is (oops that should be was) a meat eater and the other just munched a little bit on plants.

Albertosaurus

Tuojianosaurus

This little dude is a stegosaur. But of course not just any stegosaur. This is Tuojianosaurus, the first stegosaur discovered from China. Apparently those upright plates on the back were supposed to help with defense. Something about discouraging meat eaters. Hmmm, do you really think an Albertosaur thinks all that much, ever, I mean especially about the size of a stegosaurs plates. He or she is going to rush in and try to kill it and then eat it if it succeeds. Dino, avoid them plates, they nasty (That's not really my idea of how a dinosaur might talk even if it could).
I guess I don't really have any ideas for what they were really used for, probably just used to impress the ladies or ladies impressing the men. Feel free to leave your ideas in the comment section. Now where was I, oh yeah dinosaurs.

Dromaeosaurs

These little guys have got to be what the velociraptors from Jurassic Park were based on. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Anyway the two on the right have fed recently as they are quite active and I must say they look a bit better than the skinny guys next to them. They are called Dromaeosaurus and apparently liked to hunt in packs.
Ok time for the coolest dinosaur of all.

Tyrannosaurus (animated)

No not him and no it's not me either. It's this.

Deinocheirus (the arms are 2.5 meters long)

Ok it's just the claws, arms, and shoulders of some creature which has never actually been found. There is a skeleton out there some where that is missing a few parts. This thing had to be really cool, I'm thinking even way cooler than most Scooby-do monsters. Alright maybe I went too far with that one. Please send drawings of what you think this creature might have looked like. I promise to include the ones that are good in a future post.

Location:Air St,London,United Kingdom

Natural History Museum

Hi All,

I am bringing back the blog. At least I'm going to try. I'm trying to do it using the iPad. You would think this would be somewhat simple, but I'm afraid the software just isn't there yet. Either it's that or I'm somewhat deficient using it. Maybe a little bit of both. Anyway here it goes, wish me luck.

This might be a little different than before mostly because I am limited in time and resources. I'm using blogpress to write the posts. It works great up until the save option appears, that's when things can go really bad. Sometimes it just quits, no reason it just turns off and goes back to the main screen. Not much of a problem except that none of your changes have actually been saved. So retyping gets really old, really fast. Save more often is my new motto and copy your new work before you try doing anything.

So, I'm back in London again, still working on the moth project through the Smithsonian and The Natural History Museum. I figured that the best way to start the blog up again was by visiting the museum I'm actually working at. So I became a tourist for a few hours and here a few of the things I saw.

The NHM has a fantastic dinosaur collection. The lines to get in this area tend to be huge but also tend to move along pretty fast. So don't worry you will probably get in to see the dinosaurs in under an hour.

All the people on the left are waiting to get in to see the dinos. Here are a couple of my favorites.

This is the Camarasaurus. No I am not going to make fun of it's name. I would if it was spelled Camerasaurus because one doesn't pass on something like that. But anyway this is the huge skeleton that you see when you first walk into the dino area.

That's all for now. Have to publish this and see if it works. If it does I'll continue with more dinosaurs later.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Gloucester Rd,Kensington,United Kingdom

Philadelphia Marathon

Hi All,
It's been a long time since I blogged. Since I've been back in the states, Cheryl and I have been busy doing all sorts of stuff. Hopefully I'll share some of the more interesting stuff with everybody a bit later (when there is time).
This blog is about Cheryl and running. I know I've done other blogs about Cheryl and running. This ones a little different since she's already done. Yes, she ran her 4th Marathon, her third in 13 months. This one was in some ways the hardest and in other ways the easiest. Don't worry I'll explain.

That's Barbara and Bob with Cheryl above. They put us up for the week and put up with us for the week. I know a lot of you out there know what that's like. Hopefully they won't be scarred for life.

Back to the story. This marathon was by far the hardest for Cheryl to train for, the motivation to train was somewhat nonexistent at times. Some of the reasons (not necessarily in this order) were the weather, a husband back from London, and who the heck wants to train for another marathon already (she's been there and done that). So in a lot of ways we were both glad this day has come and gone.
I think the one thing that kept Cheryl on track for this one was the memory of a friend who had passed away during the last couple of months. Here I'll let her explain.

As many of you know, this has been a momentous year for me - in both good and bad ways. And one thing I've crazily compelled myself to do is run my third marathon in 13 months. That takes dedication and support, and sometimes both are hard to find. But one thing that's moved me this year is the loss of a dear family friend. I'd known Roni Lemos my entire life - literally. Our parents are lifelong friends; Roni, her sisters, my brother and I shared childhood weekends together at the pool, the shopping mall, and in each other's rooms late at night when our parents thought we were all asleep.

Over the last few months, it's been hard to hit the pavement, and as the weather cools and the days get shorter, motivation dwindles even more. But one thing that I've kept in mind over the last few months is the fact that I could get out there and run - that I was healthy when someone about my own age was in and out of the hospital, surgery, chemo. It made me appreciate what I'm able to do all the more, and moved me to make the most of it.

That's why I've decided to dedicate my running of the Philalephia Marathon on November 23 to Roni and her memory. Please consider supporting my efforts.
Donating through this website is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to support my fundraising efforts.

Many thanks for your support -- and don't forget to forward this to anyone who you think might want to donate too!

Here are some links just in case you would still like to donate. Any amount would be appreciated and would help the cause. Don't feel it's mandatory since this blog has always been free and will remain free until the end of time or the end of the internet (whichever comes first). Oh yeah, Thanks to all those that have given already.

Cheryl's Firstgiving Page

National Ovarian Cancer Coalition

Back to the run. Now don't the girls above look warm. I borrowed this picture from the Marine Corp Marathon that Cheryl ran last year. The cheerleading squad didn't make the trip to Philadelphia but if they did they would have been dressed a little differently.

Have I mentioned yet, that it was cold in Philadelphia that morning. It was 24° F at the start. Who in their right mind is outside standing around waiting for a marathon to start when its that cold. It turns out some 20,000 runners and some 60,000 or so spectators were crazy enough to do it.

Cheryl's face in the picture above (she's the one in the orange vest) basically sums up the experience. They started playing the theme from Rocky shortly before the start of the race and somehow I think that song made everyone forget how cold it was and then all were ready to just start running already. Thanks Rock.

Finally they started running, and I headed for Starbucks to wait out the 4 hours or so of running and then meeting Cheryl at the end. Ok that would have been the smart way to do it, I'm not that smart. I got coffee and headed out to join the real crazy people standing around watching the crazy icicle clad runners.

It was pretty easy to getting around to see the runners as they wound around Central Philly. I saw Cheryl at mile 6 and mile 13. Bob and Barbara saw her between miles 19 and 20 and reported back to me by phone that she was still going strong.

I saw her again at mile 24.5 and she was still smiling and looking great. Some of the other runners were really suffering at that point.

It turned out Cheryl ran her second best marathon ever. Second only to her first one back in Chicago some seven years ago. You really are (and were) amazing.

Here are her times for all those that like to keep track of these things.

For Cheryl's celebratory lunch we went for Philly Cheesesteaks. These are probably the best cheesesteaks in the world or at least on that side of the street. If you go to Philly you should be required to go to Pat's (often), here is their website http://www.patskingofsteaks.com/.

Trafalgar Square

Hi Everyone,

I've been working on this post for a while now, this one and a few others that are almost finished. I've come to the conclusion that the longer I work on a post doesn't really make the post any better but at least it keeps me occupied.

This post is full of pictures of what is probably the most visited and photographed place in all of England. Smack in the middle of central London is Trafalgar Square. I would imagine that if you've been to London then you've been here.

I think the picture above is an absolutely great picture. Unfortunately its not mine. I borrowed it from the Bike Radar site at some point last year. I've cycled all over this area, trust me on this, it is a crazy, busy place. Sometimes I think it would be great if all of the people in London, before being allowed to drive their cars, taxis, and buses had to ride a bicycle around Trafalgar Square for a week. This city would be a much nicer place to live and even ride because they would have experienced their London in a new way and gotten a little knowledge of what cyclists might be thinking as they pull along side that huge red bus. This picture says to me that you should try to see the world from a cyclist point of view. Of course to get this particular view the cyclist would had to have fallen off the bike and been sprawled on the ground but that is being way to literal. The moral of this paragraph is (isn't it cool when a paragraph has a moral) is get out of your cars and get on your bikes and see the world a little differently. Either that or just give a cyclist a smidgen more room than the day before so he doesn't ever have to look at the world through his back tire again.

Since I'm talking about a picture from Bike Radar, I might as well mention that they recently acquired cyclingnews.com. I pretty much visit this site everyday in order to keep up with what is happening in the cycling world. You get all the race results plus a whole lot of great photos. This week (and the next two) is The Vuelta a Espana. Sunday the Tour of Britain starts here in London. I will be there and will hopefully get a few pictures. No rain, please.

So where was I, distracted already, not a good sign. Oh yeah, Trafalgar Square. The picture above is looking at the square from Piccadilly Circus. Below is pretty much the same view but you can see one of those cyclists over there on the left.

As you can tell, I liked to take pictures from this spot. No I'm not standing in the middle of the road, ok maybe technically I am, but I'm on a traffic island with a nice steel fence to protect me from the cars and the people (there is a crosswalk just in front of me and hordes of people cross when the traffic lessens or the light turns).

Now before we actually see some of my pictures of the square it's time for a history lesson. You can't just come to my blog and look at the pictures. You also have to put up with me trying to learn a little more about a place than anyone really needs to know. Ok, I guess I can't stop you from just scrolling through all this but you would be missing out.

The square was completed in 1845. The name commemorates a British Naval victory during the Napoleonic Wars, the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

The guy on top of the column is Admiral Horatio Nelson. Horatio, you would think, would be a much more common English name than it curently is. Not sure why it didn't catch on. Anyway Horat's Column, see not a good nickname (Rat's Column didn't work either, and Hor's Column, well we just won't go there). Anyway Nelson's Column looks south toward Westminster Abbey. The picture above is from the steps of the National Gallery.

Across the street to the east of the National Gallery, that is to the right in the picture above is St. Martin's-in-the-Field Church (below). They just finished a large part of the restoration work and it is once again open to the public. Just so everyone knows, Leicester Square is basically just behind the National Gallery.

Below is Admiralty Arch which leads to the Mall and Buckingham Palace.

Ok now it's time for some more pictures. The horse police people and horses in the above picture were great at slowing down the traffic around the square. They (the police people) did quite a lot of yelling, mostly at taxi drivers and dumb pedestrians that wouldn't pay attention to the lights. I saw a few drivers that looked like they just wished they would get out of the way already.

I bet you would have never thought that you could ride a Lion in central London. Its actually been pretty tough to get a picture of the Lion's without a tourist or two on them. Just for those of you that are curious. The four Lions at the base of Nelson's Column were designed by Edward Landseer and finished in 1867 and apparently ridden by tourists ever since.

This is a statue of King Henry IV. Notice the pigeon on his head and that spire really isn't jutting from his back. The feeding of pigeons in the square was banned completely in 2007 and their numbers have been getting smaller and smaller. The flock had reached an estimated 35000 birds at one point before most people had finally had enough of them. My source for most of this stuff is of course Wikipedia, it's a very useful site.

A lot of events and rallies take place at the square as well. For the 2 weeks of the Olympics you could watch live coverage and replays throughout the day and all the way until 9 pm. I went a few times after work and on weekends, when it wasn't raining it was a fun place to sit, eat, and watch. You can tell from the size of the crowd that the rain had just started again and people are heading for cover.

That is Michael Phelps winning another gold medal and setting another world record. It was a pretty impressive accomplishment and seeing it on the big screen in Trafalgar Square was also pretty impressive.

That's all for now.