Not sure of the reason, perhaps it is the spare time I have had recently due to my tendon injury, or perhaps it is just another transient phase I am embarking on.
But I have started collecting English coins that are differently marked than their respective currency valued candidates.
So far, I have a different 1p and 2p, 5p, 10p, 2op and several different 50p's. This quirk could have been sparked by a visit to the Perth Mint during my trip to Australia but I remain unconvinced - although I did bring home a minted coin.
Next time you walk up the road to your local boozer with all the change which seems to reproduce inside your pocket (£1, 50p, 20p, 10p, 5p, 2p and 1p) remember it was not always this way.
Depending on how far we want to go back here, from the "One Penny" coin estimated to have been in use from the year 757 we get a fair idea of how our currency has progressed.
Just to feed our wandering minds, let's go further back.
If we think about it most of us would guess before a standard form of currency was used as "money", things like cattle and crops were used as a bargaining tool. It is estimated this sort of thing was occurring from around 9-6,000 BC.
Lydia, in Asia Minor are said to have made the first coins around 640BC and they became metallic shortly afterwards and China was the first to use notes as currency Est. 806AD.
I suppose it seems a logic step : "Person A says to Person B : I want X of yours. Person B says fine, if you give me Y what you have." But to come from swapping whatever you can find around to around 180 differing currencies in the world is fairly incredible to me.
Back to old English then, we can go from the farthing, to a groat, crown, guinea and so on. And coins I have never heard of including "mite" "angel" and "noble".
England changed to decimal coinage on 15 February 1971. Before this, the pound was 240 pence rather than 100. So £1 = 20 shillings and 1 shilling = 12 pence.
Coins in circulation, prior to 1971, included the half-crown, Florin (2 shillings), shilling, sixpence, threepence, penny and halfpenny.
In terms of coinage, the pre-decimal sixpence (2.5p) was withdrawn in 1980, shilling (5p) in 1990, two shilling (10p) 1993 and the farthing around 1980.
The half-penny was demonetised in the 1980's as it was deemed too small to be useful and the £1 coin started to replace the £1 banknote from 1983.
Just when everything appeared settled along came the Euro. I remember going on a few holidays before this was introduced in 2002.
Take a moment here to look back and remember some of the old currencies such as : the Greek Drachma, the Spanish Peseta, the French Franc and Deutsche Mark.
Also, how different currency is valued in differing countries. The comparisons in the wages of men and woman in the Western World, between that world and Africa - Fair Trade does its bit but there are some fundamental issues created years ago as inflation in one part of the world grows and others suffer recession.
And we now have the Euro in financial crisis - Greece and Portugal especially, Italy and Spain rumoured to be not holding up to well either. Even without the Euro, England and USA are really struggling financially with the numbers of debt mentioned staggering to someone like me.
It might be time for China to set up to the plate but of course any kind of co-operation needs to be right for them. But if it is, they will certainly become the global super power most already think they are.
Who knows what the future holds then from a simple exchange of cattle thousands of years ago, to the "Mite" and now we are talking about billions. Are we in danger again of tipping ourselves over the edge financially? Some will say we have already done that.
SOURCES:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_bank_notes_and_coins
http://www.coins-of-the-uk.co.uk/coins.html
http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/RDavies/arian/amser/chrono1.html
http://www.predecimal.com/key_dates.htm
http://woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/moneyold.htm
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
B for Buildings
From the basic wooden shacks that class as houses in Third World countries of today to the pyramids of Egypt this post will aim to put a roof over your head.
Having been to Australia and seen Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, the Parthenon at the Acropolis in Athens, the Mona Lisa in La Louvre and the Statue of Liberty in America I consider myself fortunate to have witnessed these buildings in all their glory with my own eyes.
[Soliloquy: The trip to America a few years ago was tinged in sadness, walking past the site of 9/11, recently commemorated by a 10-year anniversary. Still the picture on my computer desktop is that of Gate 3 of the World Trade Centre site. A humbling moment.]
Buildings can be used as houses, commerical property, storage, museum, stadiums and landmarks among other things and, despite only seeing other houses as I look out of my window, my curiousity has been summoned at how bricks and mortar shaped the world.
When talking about impressive buildings it is hard to look past the pyramids in Egypt. The first pyramid was built around 2750BC out of sandstone and desert clay. Excavations seem to show the builders of the pyramids were Egyptians who lived in the surrounding villages. One day I hope to visit Egypt and the pyramids in Giza.
But nowadays we are building structures such as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates - currently the tallest building in the world at a sky-scraping 2,723 feet tall and contains a whole lot of steel.
Almost every country has an iconic building - Big Ben in England, the pyramids in Egypt, Sydney Opera House in Australia, Eiffel Tower in France, Great Wall of China, Colosseum in Italy etc etc.
Buildings are used as home sweet homes where the majority of people may read this from and could contain wood, mortar, metal, bricks and stone.
All this came from a couple of sticks in the mud, once we decided to move out of caves. Yet some people do still live in caves, others in tents, wooden shacks, brick structures and for an unlucky few there is nowhere to shelter as the winter approaches.
And we cannot finish this entry without a mention of "La Sagrada Familia" or the "Unfinished Cathedral" in Barcelona. Work started on this in 1883 by Antoni Gaudi and the work is not expected to be completed until 2026 - the 100 year anniversary of Gaudi's death.
Next time you come home from whatever venture just take a moment to look at where you have made your home and those dwellings around you - how did your building come to be?
source :http://www.timelineindex.com/content/view/1178
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pyramids/pyramids.html
http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0772716.html
http://www.famousbuildings.net/
Saturday, August 20, 2011
A for Animals
Since I have two "pets" we shall start there. The first is a cat we adopted from the local animal shelter and she is around two (of our) years old and still considered a yearling. We are all familiar with a cat but the bitesize content below may broaden your knowledge.
Cats started being domesticated from the time of the ancient Egyptians and in Cyprus 10,000 years ago, but are believed to descend from the Fertile Crescent and the "Near Eastern wildcat" 70-100,000 years ago.
A female is a "Molly" or "Queen" while a male is a "Tom". Domestic cats can see around six times better than humans at night, while we hear frequencies from 64Hz-23,000Hz, cats range from 45Hz-64,000Hz and they can smell around 14 times better!
The other animal in our household is the goldfish, which has been around my house for close to 15 years and is a member of the Carp family.
Goldfish originated in China around 1,000AD.
There are a few things people think they know about Goldfish but the main one - their short memory (we're talking seconds here, folks) has been proven incorrect.
Their memory is at least a couple of months long, maybe more. Goldfish don't have a stomach and they sleep with their eyes open. Spooky!
We don't have to look far outside the family home, to find the next animal in our roulette. Bats.
Most of us know they do not see well and combine that with hunting at night and they should have a problem. I would be a bit groggy after sleeping upside down in a cave all day/
But if evolution has taught us anything, it is that every species adapts (maybe not always successfully but back on topic). Bats use sonar to get around, they emit pulses of sound and navigate by the timing and direction echoes that bounce back from objects in their path. Some insects emerge at night due to less predators, meaning the bat has more than enough to feed on.
Kangaroo fart.
Exactly, an attention-grabber if there ever was one. From outside the home to the other side of the world. A certain TV show once broadcasted that Kangaroos cannot or do not fart/trump.
A little look into this and maybe my memory has let me down and they can pass wind but it is nowhere near as harmful to the environment as the methane passed out by cattle and sheep. Some articles say they can and others say they cannot.
Scientists in late 2007 were reported to be looking at using bacteria found in a Kangaroos stomach, transmitting it to cattle and sheep in the hope it would cut down on their Greenhouse Gas production. No news as yet as to whether this worked or not/is still in progress/was abandoned.
There are 25 "Quite Interesting" facts about animals posted on the Telegraph website from an extract of a "Quite Interesting" book.
An example from the above link: Spiders' silk is five times stronger than steel and 30 times more stretchy than nylon. An average spider will spin more than four miles of silk in a lifetime and this can be collected and woven into garments.
Cats started being domesticated from the time of the ancient Egyptians and in Cyprus 10,000 years ago, but are believed to descend from the Fertile Crescent and the "Near Eastern wildcat" 70-100,000 years ago.
A female is a "Molly" or "Queen" while a male is a "Tom". Domestic cats can see around six times better than humans at night, while we hear frequencies from 64Hz-23,000Hz, cats range from 45Hz-64,000Hz and they can smell around 14 times better!
The other animal in our household is the goldfish, which has been around my house for close to 15 years and is a member of the Carp family.
Goldfish originated in China around 1,000AD.
There are a few things people think they know about Goldfish but the main one - their short memory (we're talking seconds here, folks) has been proven incorrect.
Their memory is at least a couple of months long, maybe more. Goldfish don't have a stomach and they sleep with their eyes open. Spooky!
We don't have to look far outside the family home, to find the next animal in our roulette. Bats.
Most of us know they do not see well and combine that with hunting at night and they should have a problem. I would be a bit groggy after sleeping upside down in a cave all day/
But if evolution has taught us anything, it is that every species adapts (maybe not always successfully but back on topic). Bats use sonar to get around, they emit pulses of sound and navigate by the timing and direction echoes that bounce back from objects in their path. Some insects emerge at night due to less predators, meaning the bat has more than enough to feed on.
Kangaroo fart.
Exactly, an attention-grabber if there ever was one. From outside the home to the other side of the world. A certain TV show once broadcasted that Kangaroos cannot or do not fart/trump.
A little look into this and maybe my memory has let me down and they can pass wind but it is nowhere near as harmful to the environment as the methane passed out by cattle and sheep. Some articles say they can and others say they cannot.
Scientists in late 2007 were reported to be looking at using bacteria found in a Kangaroos stomach, transmitting it to cattle and sheep in the hope it would cut down on their Greenhouse Gas production. No news as yet as to whether this worked or not/is still in progress/was abandoned.
There are 25 "Quite Interesting" facts about animals posted on the Telegraph website from an extract of a "Quite Interesting" book.
An example from the above link: Spiders' silk is five times stronger than steel and 30 times more stretchy than nylon. An average spider will spin more than four miles of silk in a lifetime and this can be collected and woven into garments.
An octopus has three hearts, nine brains and eight tentacles and can change colour depending on emotion. Like a Chameleon, who do not change colour to match backgrounds, it is a reaction based on their emotional state.
My above synopsis and the 25 or even 100 in the book will hardly begin to scratch the surface of how amazing and diverse a planet we live in with regards to all creatures great and small. I am growing to embrace every crumb of knowledge, as I know I will never be able to obtain the loaf.
But we are ignorant and take for granted the majority of other species we share this earth with. Hopefully, just for a moment we can appreciate just how wonderful (and weird) this life is.
SOURCES: http://www.lsu.edu/deafness/HearingRange.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/06/070628-cat-ancestor.html
http://www.happy-goldfish.com/blog/10-goldfish-facts/
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,812332,00.html
http://www.greenlivingtips.com/blogs/109/Kangaroos-dont-fart.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/features/3634153/Gorillas-can-talk...-and-24-other-QI-facts.html
Thursday, August 04, 2011
before we begin . . .
Before we launch feet first into our A - Z world and beyond I feel compelled to post where I am up to professionally and personally.
I can now add a football club's PR assistant internship to my rejection pile. That makes it Lancashire Telegraph, Adfero, Sale and Altrincham Messenger, Scunthorpe Telegraph, Bury Free Press, BBC and Australia to have rejected me after interview stage.
I am not sure what to do next, still working at a supermarket I could give up the journalism dream and press on with rising up the retail ranks, find a new job completely or go on another working holiday - Canada possibly? University for this year at least has been disregarded, mostly because of the cost and the debate of how much it would actually help me.
Football does not interest me as much anymore, cricket is my main vice now. England V India at Trent Bridge has been seen and Twenty20 finals day at Edgbaston will hopefully be next.
I still hope I can post somewhere in the next 26 posts of a journalism job or at least another interview but with my qualifications getting more and more out of date and my self-confidence taking a further bashing it seems unlikely.
I can now add a football club's PR assistant internship to my rejection pile. That makes it Lancashire Telegraph, Adfero, Sale and Altrincham Messenger, Scunthorpe Telegraph, Bury Free Press, BBC and Australia to have rejected me after interview stage.
I am not sure what to do next, still working at a supermarket I could give up the journalism dream and press on with rising up the retail ranks, find a new job completely or go on another working holiday - Canada possibly? University for this year at least has been disregarded, mostly because of the cost and the debate of how much it would actually help me.
Football does not interest me as much anymore, cricket is my main vice now. England V India at Trent Bridge has been seen and Twenty20 finals day at Edgbaston will hopefully be next.
I still hope I can post somewhere in the next 26 posts of a journalism job or at least another interview but with my qualifications getting more and more out of date and my self-confidence taking a further bashing it seems unlikely.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
The quest for knowledge
I have had more and more free time recently (even while at work) to let my mind wander to the "What, why, who, where, when, how" questions. The questions, I suspect and hope, we all dwell on time to time but never really take the time or effort to answer.
Of course some are unanswerable, some you can piece things together to guess at and some we have solid indisputable evidence to prove or disprove.
This blog will turn its attention to this for the next 26 posts. An adult version of an A-Z of the world, there will be no "A" is for apple here. I aim for a post to be made hopefully fortnightly starting from the beginning of August.
Granted as I am far from an noted academic most of my sources are going to be online-based and I am going to have to rely on my memory probably slightly too much to make this comfortable reading but I feel ready to set off on this quest for knowledge anyway.
I hope to shed a light on subjects ranging from animals, currency, food, music to technology and we will see at the end whether we are enlightened or we have wasted precious moments yearning for knowledge that no-one gives a toss if we know or not.
As highlighted above any corrections/adaptations/additions etc are welcomed and encouraged as I do set off on this quest horribly unarmed and viciously unprepared for what I may stumble across but in the hope it will help me improve myself mentally and physically.
Of course some are unanswerable, some you can piece things together to guess at and some we have solid indisputable evidence to prove or disprove.
This blog will turn its attention to this for the next 26 posts. An adult version of an A-Z of the world, there will be no "A" is for apple here. I aim for a post to be made hopefully fortnightly starting from the beginning of August.
Granted as I am far from an noted academic most of my sources are going to be online-based and I am going to have to rely on my memory probably slightly too much to make this comfortable reading but I feel ready to set off on this quest for knowledge anyway.
I hope to shed a light on subjects ranging from animals, currency, food, music to technology and we will see at the end whether we are enlightened or we have wasted precious moments yearning for knowledge that no-one gives a toss if we know or not.
As highlighted above any corrections/adaptations/additions etc are welcomed and encouraged as I do set off on this quest horribly unarmed and viciously unprepared for what I may stumble across but in the hope it will help me improve myself mentally and physically.
Friday, May 13, 2011
sad deathnight
The time of the year has come around again where I celebrate a birthday. I didn't do much celebrating this time around, already had over 20 of them. My day consisted of beer and music.
I still need a new camera and money from kind and giving relatives will go towards that. I got a few happy B'day texts but no facebook (or any other social networking site) messages as privacy remains paramount. Yet I have a blog?!
Obviously I share my birthday with hundreds/thousands? of people but here are a few of the well-known ones (at least from my perspective):
Kieron Pollard (West Indies cricketer)
Graeme Dott (Snooker player)
Jonah Lomu (New Zealand Rugby player)
Jim Furyk (USA golfer)
Catherine Tate (actress and more)
Tony Hawk (skateboarder)
Emilio Estevez (Actor)
Yogi Berra (one of the few Baseball players I have heard of)
Florence Nightingale (Nurse and probable inventor of the pie chart)
But May 12 is synonymous with another date and not a pleasant one either. The day is when a book by Kate McCann will be published called "Madeleine". Just to jog your memory a little further, if needed, Madeleine McCann went missing on May 3 2007 from a Algarve apartment in Praia de Luz.
Whatever you think of the McCann's eating dinner with friends while the kids were unsupervised in the apartment (despite regular checks), the Portuguese and UK investigation, all the media attention and the "are they suspects, are they not" parade. Some will criticise and others will sympathise.
It doesn't seem privately or publicly we are any closer to knowing whether Maddie is dead/alive in Portugal or in USA or anywhere else. I'm not a parent so have no idea of their emotions but as the fourth year passes by I could guess the not knowing factor is not getting much easier. Let's hope one day we can embrace in a bit of good news. . .
I still need a new camera and money from kind and giving relatives will go towards that. I got a few happy B'day texts but no facebook (or any other social networking site) messages as privacy remains paramount. Yet I have a blog?!
Obviously I share my birthday with hundreds/thousands? of people but here are a few of the well-known ones (at least from my perspective):
Kieron Pollard (West Indies cricketer)
Graeme Dott (Snooker player)
Jonah Lomu (New Zealand Rugby player)
Jim Furyk (USA golfer)
Catherine Tate (actress and more)
Tony Hawk (skateboarder)
Emilio Estevez (Actor)
Yogi Berra (one of the few Baseball players I have heard of)
Florence Nightingale (Nurse and probable inventor of the pie chart)
But May 12 is synonymous with another date and not a pleasant one either. The day is when a book by Kate McCann will be published called "Madeleine". Just to jog your memory a little further, if needed, Madeleine McCann went missing on May 3 2007 from a Algarve apartment in Praia de Luz.
Whatever you think of the McCann's eating dinner with friends while the kids were unsupervised in the apartment (despite regular checks), the Portuguese and UK investigation, all the media attention and the "are they suspects, are they not" parade. Some will criticise and others will sympathise.
It doesn't seem privately or publicly we are any closer to knowing whether Maddie is dead/alive in Portugal or in USA or anywhere else. I'm not a parent so have no idea of their emotions but as the fourth year passes by I could guess the not knowing factor is not getting much easier. Let's hope one day we can embrace in a bit of good news. . .
Sunday, May 01, 2011
Change
I don't like it. Never have, never will. From the 1 and 2p's in my pocket to the circumstances I have to adapt my approach to, be it in the real or online world I am not a advocate of change "if it isn't broke don't fix it".
However, in the technologically driven age we live we have/are forced to change. This change is probably too quick but at lot of it has opened up unimaginable possibilities to the average joe which even 50 years ago would have been laughed off stage.
I don't keep up to speed on technological news, I haven't got a ps3, IPod or IPad, Blackberry and my phone is more than five years old. But I don't think I could live happily ever after without my technological comforts to pass the time (ps2, phone, TV, radio, laptop).
As my intellectual level is slipping by the day the only speech I can offer about change is the one the Janitor makes in TV sit-com Scrubs when J.D. announces he is leaving. And to top that off, I can't actually find it online anywhere but he says something along the lines off: "...and there it is, change begets change, begets change".
There is more than that but it gets at my basic point - and I hope I am not alone - in not embracing change.
As I am still looking for a journalism job I keep browsing the jobsites and recently the MEN jobs mine has changed as it is now powered by Fish4Jobs, Gorkana has a different layout and even Holdthefrontpage has had a refresh.
I love a good re-design, not sure all of the above have made their sites more user-friendly, but who am I too judge that? Even the Maroondah Journal I worked on in Australia has become the Maroondah Weekly and most editorial staff I knew at the newspaper have moved on as it is approaching two years ago now since I had my Aussie adventure.
Maybe that is why I am trying to put a dent in change. Because, at the moment, I have none of it. Still at Asda, not getting anywhere in job applications, almost mid-20's - all my life seems to consist of is : wake up, pass the time, drink, eat and sleep in varying orders!
I am able to do most things at a basic level - sport, piano, drive, computer games, Spanish, shorthand, understand local and global news, grasp how the human body works and how the universe works but none anywhere near good enough to use as my Mastermind subject. I lack the drive and decisive skills to pick one and run with it and I can only see that as being one of my many downfalls.
Seems like change is here to stay though so what can I do except embrace it and shut up?! Dust myself off, make some goals and try and reach them instead of moping in my comfort zone routine. I do hope other people suffer the inner conflict that change bestowes on me, not because I want others to be as confused as me but it would be nice to know I am not alone.
However, in the technologically driven age we live we have/are forced to change. This change is probably too quick but at lot of it has opened up unimaginable possibilities to the average joe which even 50 years ago would have been laughed off stage.
I don't keep up to speed on technological news, I haven't got a ps3, IPod or IPad, Blackberry and my phone is more than five years old. But I don't think I could live happily ever after without my technological comforts to pass the time (ps2, phone, TV, radio, laptop).
As my intellectual level is slipping by the day the only speech I can offer about change is the one the Janitor makes in TV sit-com Scrubs when J.D. announces he is leaving. And to top that off, I can't actually find it online anywhere but he says something along the lines off: "...and there it is, change begets change, begets change".
There is more than that but it gets at my basic point - and I hope I am not alone - in not embracing change.
As I am still looking for a journalism job I keep browsing the jobsites and recently the MEN jobs mine has changed as it is now powered by Fish4Jobs, Gorkana has a different layout and even Holdthefrontpage has had a refresh.
I love a good re-design, not sure all of the above have made their sites more user-friendly, but who am I too judge that? Even the Maroondah Journal I worked on in Australia has become the Maroondah Weekly and most editorial staff I knew at the newspaper have moved on as it is approaching two years ago now since I had my Aussie adventure.
Maybe that is why I am trying to put a dent in change. Because, at the moment, I have none of it. Still at Asda, not getting anywhere in job applications, almost mid-20's - all my life seems to consist of is : wake up, pass the time, drink, eat and sleep in varying orders!
I am able to do most things at a basic level - sport, piano, drive, computer games, Spanish, shorthand, understand local and global news, grasp how the human body works and how the universe works but none anywhere near good enough to use as my Mastermind subject. I lack the drive and decisive skills to pick one and run with it and I can only see that as being one of my many downfalls.
Seems like change is here to stay though so what can I do except embrace it and shut up?! Dust myself off, make some goals and try and reach them instead of moping in my comfort zone routine. I do hope other people suffer the inner conflict that change bestowes on me, not because I want others to be as confused as me but it would be nice to know I am not alone.
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