Barney Stringer

@barneystringer.bsky.social

2682 Followers 1006 Following

Retired. Former Senior Director at Quod Regeneration, housing, development, economics, demographics, cities, schools and community infrastructure đź“ŤLondon http://barneystringer.wordpress.com

Aisle of a Chinese supermarket in London, labelled “Oil, Spices, Sauces” and “Ethnic”
Supermarket shelves on an aisle just called “sauces”. They are from, or styled from, many places including Mexico, Thailand, Caribbean, USA, South Africa…
Phone notification saying “Sleep Score: very low”
Close up of one of the horses. It’s heart has just dropped to it’s stomach as it realises how much trouble it’s in for being late
A pedimental relief sculpture of rampant horses flanking a clock. The horses are absolutely terrified. Just swivel eyed and open mouthed, flailing in shock as they look at the clock. It’s at the Household Cavalry Barracks, Hyde Park, London
Screen grab from phone health app, section titled “Mindful Minutes”, shows 1min, in August 2021
Motor fuel ration book: MOTOR CAR (inc. Tricycle) not exceeding 1100 C.C. The coupons in this book authorise the furnishing and acquisition of the number of units of motor fuel specified on the coupons.
Close-up of some roast potatoes. They were good.
View of the stage in Royal Albert Hall. To be honest you can’t see anything but a backlit red haze of smoke
An XKCD four-panel cartoon about an IT upgrade titled “AS A PROJECT WEARS ON, STANDARDS FOR SUCCESS SLIP LOWER AND LOWER.” Panel 1: “0 HOURS - OKAY, I SHOULD BE ABLE TO DUAL-BOOT BSD SOON.” Panel 2: “6 HOURS - I'LL BE HAPPY IF I CAN GET THE SYSTEM WORKING LIKE IT WAS WHEN I STARTED.” Panel 3: “10 HOURS - WELL, THE DESKTOP'S A LOST CAUSE, BUT I THINK I CAN FIX THE PROBLEMS THE LAPTOP'S DEVELOPED.” Panel 4: “24 HOURS - IF WE'RE LUCKY, THE SHARKS WILL STAY AWAY UNTIL WE REACH SHALLOW WATER. IF WE MAKE IT BACK ALIVE, YOU'RE NEVER UPGRADING ANYTHING AGAIN.”
An avenue of pink cherry blossom in a park (Hammersmith, London). Crowds of people taking photos, and picnicking on the grass under the trees.
A graph of electricity used (green line), and solar power generated (yellow line) over the course of today. If you’re fortunate enough to be able to, now would be a great time to install solar and a house battery
The viewing corridor of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, from near the King’s Mound in Richmond Park. You really can’t see much, but across the road there’s a narrow gap in the trees. It’s there somewhere.
Tattered flags over London’s Oxford Street, half torn off. (These are actually official flags, rather than racist ones…)
Latvian “Tramway” beer
“Anti Tram” earplugs
Picture of a shiny new record player (sorry I mean a “vinyl turntable” or something) on a shelf
A map of southern England showing live locations of lightning strikes - a big storm coming into Kent from the Channel
A small conveyor belt passing through a hole in the wall. The hole is the exact size and shape of a wine bottle
Graph showing home battery use yesterday, with multiple charging and discharging periods. Green line shows how full the battery is, on right hand scale. Blue shading shows the power going in or out, from or to the Grid
A Bluesky post saying “I voted early”, then listing the Bluesky handle for three candidates. Except one of them is me. Apologies to Scott Stringer I guess
Picture of an empty gas meter cupboard, with the meter removed
A smart meter display saying “Cost now per hour £0.00”
Big tasty dish of venison rendang curry. Yum
A Sankey chart, showing flows of power from Solar, Grid and Battery, to Home, Battery and Grid. Home consumption is mostly solar either direct, or from the battery. About 10% of consumption is from the grid, with much more than that exported back to the grid
Casserole now full of meat and spices, very gently simmering. Some liquid now for cooking, but that will all dry up later
Pan with diced red meat, nicely browning. This in only a third of it
The casserole is nearly half full of chopped spices. Will the meat even fit in? (yes)
A casserole dish with a huge quantity of mixed finely chopped spices. Not telling you what spices (mother-in-law’s secret recipe), but from the colour it’s pretty obvious one of them is fresh turmeric
A twisting arrangement of shiny copper pipes. Hope the plumber knows what they all do, but can’t help thinking they’re just showing off here
Eleven solar panels crowded on to a roof. Not the neatest arrangement, but once the scaffolding is down, only Google satellite view will ever know…
Picture of an air source heat pump, sitting unconnected in a garden
A “bee hotel” with about fifty hollow bamboo tubes, of which about a third have been filled with bee nests and plugged with mud, ready to hatch next year
View of Michael Kiwanuka on stage
Google Streetview of Rue la Vieuville in Paris. Lined with bollards, but instead of taking up the pavement space they’re on the road side of the gutter
Picture of Bluesky app settings page showing the “require Alt Text before posting” box checked
An airport shop called “Books and Drugs”
View down a sushi restaurant conveyor belt in Japan. An automatic flipper diverts orders into sidings for each individual table
A tiny Kei car in Tokyo. Strictly limited size and power - a cute squashed little box.
Suburban T own centre of Ekoda, Tokyo. Right outside the station. Not a car to be seen, just pedestrians, cyclists, and parked bikes in front of shops
The Ikebus in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. Tiny bed bus, 10 wheels
A tall narrow building in an urban street. The floors are open, with lots of planting enclosed by a grill.
A pedestrian crossing in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. Just zebra stripes as far as the eye can see
Image of a Christmas card - a fun view of three French hens
Long view down the inside of a completely empty train, like an infinite corridor. Or maybe a scene from The Shining.
A vista through Pancras Square in Kings Cross, with new buildings framing the gothic clock tower of St Pancras station. This place works.
Photo of an old promotional leaflet for a planning application. Includes a map showing a monorail from Shepherds Bush Station into a shopping centre
Text in image: - The marginal price paid by users does not always correspond to wider social costs - There is no effective link between what users pay for transport and what is invested in it. The result is more traffic than would be expected with economically efficient pricing, and less investment in infrastructure than is justified by demand and economic efficiency. This leads to excessive congestion (and consequent economic costs) as well as excessive pollution and other environmental costs.
Document title page which says: Post Graduate Certificate in Economics 1996/97 Applied Economics and Statistics project Own-price elasticity of travel on London Underground Barney Stringer
Melanie Thaw, Janet Ellis and Lucy Foxell, on stage at the Hammersmith Club Society hall, for the White City Theatre Project fundraising event. These people have done amazing things for local kids
Twitter account deactivation screen
A tourism ad for Taiwan, which is entirely taken up by an unglamorous-looking branch-line style train
Sunset view towards City of London From Canary Wharf. Lower Pool of the Thames curving in the foreground
Red northern lights, above buildings
A photo of a jar of moles
A tall building labelled “National Portrait Gallery” and a wide building labelled “National Landscape Gallery”, cartoon
Photo of an American plug socket, looking like a scared face
Picture of polling station in an old London School Board primary school
Weather forecast for Friday. Rain
View of Wembley from the Saints end, for the Championship playoff final