Life in London: August 2014

Sunday, 10 August 2014

What makes tonight's full moon different from other full moons this year?

This is the closest full moon of the calendar year. The moon orbits around the Earth but it's not a perfect circle so this is it's closest approach.

What kind of moon can I see?

The perigee moon will seem 14% larger and 30% brighter than the smallest full moon of the year.

How many supermoons are there this year?

There is only one supermoon, ie the closest to the Earth and it is tonight!

Supermoon2014 and Spectra

The lamps are going out all over Europe - SpectraLondon

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London 2012, a distant memory

It's grey rainy days like this where I like to reflect on all the amazing opportunities London has provided me and many thousands of others.

Highlights of 2012

When Elizabeth Streb came to London

BT London Live - Free Event for 1,000s

Paralympic Agitos in London

Houses of Parliament Projections

It's all happening on Southbank

Thames Festival

World record breaking music marathon

Athletes Parade - well done to all involed

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Dickensian London

Dickens started to write Oliver Twist in 1837, the same year the Victorian era began, when the Anti-Poor Law agitations had reached their peak. He was a fierce critic of the poverty and social layering of Victorian society. Read more

Victorian London in Oliver Twist

Oliver Twist is a novel all about the gritty realism of everyday life in London. Many of Dickens’ contemporary critics and reading public feared that novels could be too realistic, and that naïve readers (often female readers) wouldn't be able to tell the difference between fiction and reality. Read more

Music Halls and Cinemas of Holloway Road

Most people think of the Seven Sisters and Holloway Roads as two nondescript traffic choked roads with nothing to detain them on their way in and out of town. Nothing could be further from the truth. Read more

The Lost Euston Station Arch

Euston railway station, also known as London Euston is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden and is the sixth busiest rail terminal in London (by entries and exits). Euston Station is now the subject of a major redevelopment plan as the high speed line HS2 will start from here. Read more

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood - an Intro

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was an organised group founded in September 1848, a Victorian world filled with dramatic technological and social change. The Brotherhood met for five years at 7 Gower Street, London where there is now an English Heritage blue plaque. Read more

London History Timeline

A break down as to the history of London including the Kings and Queens of England. I have tried to join interesting pieces of information together and used themes accordingly. Discover more

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Monday, 4 August 2014

We Will Remember Them

Some of you will be aware that today marks the centenary of when Britain declared war on Germany for invading Belgium. Everyone in the UK has been invited to turn their lights out from 10-11pm this evening leaving a single light or candle to mark the moment the UK entered the First World War, exactly 100 years ago today.

Roll on 30 years to 4th August 1944 a 15 year old girl was arrested with her sister, parents and four others by the Gestapo after hiding for two years inside a building in Amsterdam. Her name was Anne Frank. Seven months later Anne died at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Lohheide, Germany. Her diary lives on: "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." — Anne Frank (1929-1945).

Today's Google Doodle marks 180th birthday of English logician and philosopher Jon Venn who is famous for introducing the Venn diagram which is used in many fields, including set theory, probability, logic, statistics and computer science. See Independent's article

Life in London