BRITISH LIBRARY DELIVERS..

An early Christmas present was delivered by the British Library this week. It unveiled a million images that it has placed onto a free to use Flickr account.

Anyone can now browse, download, re-image or edit through the collection of illustrations. Each illustration is taken from the massive British Library resources of 17th to 19th century books it has in the archive in London.

I had an hour of browsing and curated my own collection of interesting map images below.
Click an image and it will open the British Library collection in a new tab.

#1: Leonardo Da Vinci's World Map. Da Vinci produced this between 1513 and 1515 (exact date not known). This is an incredibly important map as it is a) the first to name 'America' on it, b) the earliest map showing the West coast of America unconnected to Asia.
Drawn on a strange construction of what are known as Da Vinci-Reuleaux triangles. This is one of the two maps that when placed side by side make up two halves of the globe as Da Vinci saw them - a lot different to our usual representation of the world on a flattened cylinder.
This style of map based on Reuleaux geometry inspired Cahill Butterfly projection maps in the early 20th century.

Image taken from page 84 of 'A larger history of the United States of America to the close of President Jackson's administration ... Illustrated, etc' published 1885

#2: A very nice illustrated Edinburgh map, still showing agriculture in the city centre!
Image taken from page 279 of 'Cassell's Old and New Edinburgh ... Illustrated, etc' published in 1880


#3: The Earth as imagined by the Greeks in the time of Homer (not Simpson, the other one!). Interesting to see how they got the Mediterranean pretty spot on in mapping terms. 
Image taken from page 18 of '[The Countries of the World: being a popular description of the various continents, islands, rivers, seas, and peoples of the globe. [With plates.]]'


#4: A really detailed map of the Balkans - love the simple use of colour for internal political boundaries. Also note the European side of Turkey (Eastern Thrace) is called Rumilla - something I cannot find any links to on the web? Research for another day..
Image taken from page 159 of '[History of the Russian Empire from its foundation by Ruric the Pirate to the accession of the Emperor Alexander II ... With ... engravings.]'


#5: An interesting collection of lakes and inland waters in Eastern Hemisphere (shame they didn't have the plate for the West included in the collection). Shows the truly massive scale of both the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
Image taken from page 101 of "[Appleton's European Guide Book illustrated. Containing ... maps, etc.]" published in 1879


I may put up a second blog post in a few days with other types of images - but I love maps so this was an obvious first choice.

There are so many interesting plates/scans in there that you really have to go and take a look yourself if you have any interest whatsoever in illustration or early graphic design.

Next year the British Library are going to launch a crowdsourcing ability or app so that anyone can go and look at the collection, and append notes to the diagrams/illustrations etc

Thank you British Library!

NO ALCOHOL JANUARY..

Last year I raised £160 for Cancer Research UK by not drinking alcohol during January.

This year I'm signing up again to their annual DryathlonTM and have set the target at £200 like last year. I suspect it might be a little harder this year as there's a limit to how many times you can ask your facebook friends to donate. It's not fair to keep digging the same people in the ribs and asking them to cough up money.

So, if you donated last year do please consider whether you can do the same again this year. If you can't it is not a problem. If you don't want to, again it's not a problem.

We all have our favourite charities that we give to and everybody is different in that respect. I do this one for Cancer Research as the scientific programmes that are run in the UK are world class and deserve to be supported. I also give a little bit each month to the Royal National Lifeboat Institute here in the UK too. I am from a coastal town and have had experience of the good work they do (not me airlifted out of the sea, my brother!).

Here's a link direct to my JustGiving donation page - entirely free, the money goes direct to the charity. If you click and donate, thank you.

If you want to do it the easy way, from a UK mobile phone you can simply text like this to 70070. You choose the amount - £2 is just my example!

Finally, if you want to know more - here are some links to the Dryathlon pages, twitter and facebook etc

REALLY BIG BUILDINGS..

Here's something that has slipped my net in the last year.

Europe's tallest building was The Shard in London (310 meters high) during 2012. But, actually it wasn't. At the time the Shard was 'topped off', technical construction term for finalising a building, another tower was already higher than it but hadn't been topped off/completed.

During 2013 the building was finished and ready for occupation. At November 2013 it is Europe's tallest building. In fact, despite many other skyscrapers that are much much taller, it is currently the World's tallest building built of reinforced concrete.

Here's a picture. I really like it's copper cladded look. Bit retro, but I bet it glimmers like crazy in the sunshine.

Sunshine that I guess it doesn't get too much of when you learn where it is.

But, before that. The technical spec:
Height: 339 meters
Floors: 75 + 5 basement floors
Start: 2005
Finalised: 2013
Architects: Mikhail Mikhailovich Posokhin, Frank Williams & Partners LLP

I really like the shape and the look of it.

So, where is this copper clad beauty then?

Moscow, of all places.

It's called Mercury City Tower - strange given the very different colour of Mercury to the building's cladding you might think? There is a reason. The developers are called Mercury Development Company - bit difficult to plan a fluid, liquid-based building made from mercury yet though!

There's a really good set of pictures at this website.

Next door however, there is a new 'tallest building in Europe'. The Russians have been busy putting Moscow back on the skyscraper map. Cue Federation Tower, a real monster construction at 506 meters high.

For now, one last look at Mercury City Tower with the final floors still to be clad (Federation Tower already started to the right).

 

THAT'S THE POINT....???

This amused me today as I read through my first 30 minutes of news etc online -

Then it got me a bit angry really.

If you read the first headline it is all about the benefits to Royal Bank of Scotland in reviving an old family name for a part of their bank, opening new branches on the High St (things going round in circles?!) as their business surveys and advice have been that people like family based names and images for business - good, solid, reliable and not too risky. Just the sort of thing you'd want from somewhere you are taking your hard earned money each week. You get the point.

The second headline is all about market research that suggests people apparently don't like family-based businesses (reader: err.... we've already just covered how people like their reliability haven't we? Polko: yes, stick with me on this...).

Ah, hang on though, it gets better. The article then goes on to suggest that one reason people are not so in favour of family business is because they don't have as much of a voice in business organisations (like the CBI etc) as they do elsewhere. This might be true.

The more powerful argument however, is that family based businesses appear to be boring and slower moving when people want to see 'The Apprentice' style flashy bastards, doing deals, making loads of cash and sitting round in gloss white boardrooms in perfect suits being 'entrepreneurs' (sic - or more like "be sick").

In actual fact, the rest of healthy Europe know the value of family based businesses, low in borrowing, slower moving but growing through time to strong, solid organisations and often producing major products for overseas customers. These firms gain maximum respect in their local areas for being cautious and not throwing away their workforce's pension schemes on some half thought out diversification into property development or online retailing. Google 'Mittelstadt' see what comes up - or better still just click here if you want a quick intro to these types of business.

Sometimes you can come across a similar firm in the UK. Though, it must be said, they are getting thinner on the ground these days. Everybody wants to be a property developer or wannabe Alan Sugar it seems.

Family firms are not boring or conservative. They are dynamic but they take decisions for the long-term, in the best interests of their family members and family members to come. This means they can make much, much longer term decisions and maker braver ones than those looking for a short-term kill.

Long live family businesses. Shame Williams and Glyn's will just be another big corporate bank dressed up in the family's heirlooms.

USEFUL OUTLOOK TIP..

Now here's a strange thing. And a problem. And a solution to the problem.

All in one blog post.

Can't be bad?

I use Outlook to collect my work emails like a lot of people. Today I created a message and saved it to the draft folder as I wasn't sure I wanted to send it (it was a rant!).

Then I carried on working. Something went wrong and I had to restart my PC.

When I loaded up Outlook all was ok and I was happily receiving and sending out mail. However, when I clicked on the 'Drafts' folder where the saved message was it froze Outlook.

The only way out was to hit Ctrl+Alt+Del and force the Outlook process to end. It did the next time. And the next time.

Stuck in a loop (even after another reboot) I didn't want to not have access to the drafts folder. I often save messages down to calm off and then decide whether to send them or not!

A solution was found. If you are ever in the same pickle you need to know it (if not stop reading now obviously, but remember where you saw this issue last!).

The solution is to start Outlook in safe mode. By that I mean
go to the start menu (bottom left)
select Run...
type "outlook.exe /safe" (without the quote marks!)

Then you should be able to navigate to the offending folder and delete the offending message. Don't forget to then go to the 'Deleted Items' folder and delete it a second time - if you don't it is likely that next time you go to the deleted items folder to clean out your system Outlook will crash once again.

Solution disseminated. Good deed done for the day. I'm off to the pub.
 

STROKE THE ROOSTER..

Joe Thornton.

Name mean anything to you?

Probably not to most of my European readers. But the twitter-sphere and lots of US TV channels have been set alive by a comment he made recently. Here's the story.

Joe Thornton is the 34 year old Captain of the San Jose Sharks ice hockey team in .. well San Jose strangely enough.

His team mate and new player in the NHL Tomas Hertl scored his first NHL hat trick when playing against the New York Rangers last week. Only it wasn't a hat trick, he went on to put the puck in the net a fourth time - a rarity in hockey at the best of times but for a rookie player, quite the talking point.

Fast forward to a press conference in Vancouver on the following Thursday night.


Thornton butted into the chat at this point by saying that if he had scored four goals, “I’d have my cock out if I scored four goals. I’d have my cock out, stroking it.”
There was no way a room full of reporters was not going to make sure that comment went as far and wide as it could. And it did.
The sports news, twitter and every other social media platform ignited with re-reporting re-tweeting and embellishing the original story. Page after page of dedicated stories popped up on the comments made rather than the amazing performance of Hertl (like this one - lol).

There are even plenty of image meme's popping up and being sent around with a young Joe Thornton holding a rooster, etc. Here's another to keep it going! 

You know I couldn't resist it with the recent chicken themes I've had on my blog.

It's still doing the rounds - if you're on twitter check #joethornton

Youtube is now filling up with parody songs too...



More hockey news in a few days...
  

HYBRID ICING. ?

Well, it's that time of the year again.

The time when I sit at my desk each morning with a 'big cup of Joe' and dial up last night's hockey games to catch up on events. At the end of the week I then bore my bemused friends (best type to have) with stories of strange central european names who have been heroes or pussies this week. Who scored what and where, etc.

As I'm in England my friends have no clue about hockey - except those I keep up with on facebook who I used to play with and against in my earlier years - and never seem to tire of my incessant stories. Well, not much anyhow.

So, this short post is as much a thank you to them for putting up with me as it is an attempt to start writing more often again - let it slip a bit didn't I - work commitments and all.

Best game this inaugural (very US word) week (if you're interested) was:

Buffalo Sabres v Detroit Redwings
Detroit won in a low scoring 2-1 game with goals from Samuelsson and Datsyuk (see central europeans abound!)

source: nhl.com

Mrs P will be happy as she's a fan - not of the hockey you understand, just one player in particular. ;-)

One more thing to bore people with - and if you are really not into learning about hockey then you can skip this bit!

This year the NHL have decided to amend the rule book and changed the icing rule - this is one conversation that seems to enthrall my football-oriented friends as they like to go on about the complexity of offside rules (which appears simple in comparison).

The icing rule is a bit of a mystery to most when they first start watching hockey - especially people here in the UK.

Basically, the attacking team cannot simply shoot the puck from their half of the ice (behind the centre ice red line) way into the attacking zone as this would have the effect that each time it happens the other team has to skate all the way back, go and get it and start their attack again. Wastes time if the team doing it are in the lead.

So if the puck is fired in this way but an attacking player can skate like crazy and beat a defending player to it before it passes the goal line, then the icing is waved off. If a defending player can get to it first, the ref blows the whistle, icing is called and the play is resumed with a face off back in the attacking teams defensive zone.

This is called the Touch Icing rule

The new rule change effective in NHL season 2013/14 is termed Hybrid Icing. Now, the linesman or referee does not have to wait for a defending player to touch the puck when the icing happens. Instead, they can make an icing call (stop play) if they feel the defending team will definitely get there first. This stops the race for the puck and danger to the players of both crashing into the end boards with serious force in their attempt to touch it - i.e. the new rule is deemed a safer rule.
One of the most quoted events where a player was injured due to the race for the puck going wrong happened last season (2012/13) when Carolina Hurricane's Joni Pitkanen was seriously injured.. 



In summary, an official can now make an icing call based on where the players are on the ice, but the overall basis of icing still remains intact.

Check out rule 81.1 in the NHL's official rulebook for a full explanation.
Want more? There's a really good blog here that goes into a lot more depth..
   

MERCEDES CHICKEN CLASS

The title of the blog just about says it all really. 

Mercedes. Chicken. Class.

Class engineering that is.

Such a great ad concept.. Mercedes engineers observe the natural world and incorporate it into their suspension/body control.


Got to hand it to German engineers.. ENJOY!
(& thanks to Mrs P for the link!)

Advert details
Advertising Agency: Jung von Matt/Neckar, Stuttgart, Germany
Executive Creative Director: Peter Waibel
Creative Directors: Robert Herter, Lukasz Brzozowski

Art Director: Lucas Osis
Production: BIGFISH

Director: Daniel Warwick

And here is the youtube video that shows the latest S Class technology that came from studying chickens..

iOS7 - Iconic?

Before I start on this iOS stuff, I'd like to put a plug in for a great Blog that should interest any of you that have any feelings whatsoever for Manchester. Manchester UK that is, not Manchester, Ontario or Manchester, New Hampshire or any other part of the world that shares a city or town with the same name. 

It's called Skyliner. Written by someone I don't know personally but regularly read - great stories of little known parts of the city, buildings and long lost moments. If you live in Manchester, I'd say you need to have a browse through it. It will change your view of the city.

So, on with iOS7.

The download? Where to begin?

I know I live on a far flung hill, high above Manchester and the internet connection is as good as it gets for the peace and quiet it affords (actually not so bad these days at 1 Mb+ down) but how long?????? It took from 8pm last night to 11:30 for the upgrade to come in and install itself. You have been warned.

As you can imagine I was expecting a fanfare when it re-booted and some sort of dancing ladies show.

The very first thing I really liked about iOS7 is the fact that they have enhanced 'Find My iPhone' - the iPad I use cannot now be reset or cleared without using the password that only I know. I'm sure there will be ways around it for the most hardened thief and their gangs, but if you ever lose or have your device stolen it should serve to make accounts secure for a while longer whilst you go in and reset the passwords.

Didn't get the fanfare though.

However, the icons and the colour gradients are (mostly) beautiful. Operating systems have long been stuck in trying to make every icon and menu item look as shiny as possible with eliptical layers but not iOS 7. Instead they have gone arty and 'flat'. Gradients and colour phasing is everywhere. I like it I must say. Here's an example.

They have also simplified the look of almost all icons too. I'd say successfully. Some might take some getting used to, but in large part, they are still very obvious what they relate to though one or two are too simplistic and miss the point. Example 2 here clearly is about Videos? 

But why oh why didn't they include a play symbol like all other video/mp3 icons everywhere on the web? After all, the play button has been around a long long time.

That would surely be better?

One icon I really REALLY (get it Google?) don't like now is the one for Google Chrome that I use rather than Safari - being mainly a PC user and having an Android phone - it has a white background and when sat on the quick launch bar at the bottom simply looks out of place. I'm sure that will change quickly.

SHAPE SHIFTING - OR AT LEAST A LITTLE NUDGE?

The one change that I didn't get straight away was the fact that someone has come up with a great idea to slightly shift the background image if you move the iPad. This creates a 3D illusion effect. Just as 3D TV is going out of fashion (did it ever really come in?) Apple have decided to bring their home screens to life. I like it, not necessary, but aesthetically very pleasing. Design for designs sake almost - not my usual reaction to this - but I just keep finding myself wriggling the iPad slightly to witness the effect. It is probably better on my setup as I have a close up photo of grafitti on a wall so the icons literally look like stickers on the wall. With a photo of a cute dog or a family snap it probably doesn't work?

USEFUL NOTIFICATIONS - AT LAST!

Apple had never managed to match Android on the use of notifications but iOS 7 now allows you to swipe the alert from Facebook or Gmail and go straight to the app. Finally, don't just tell me about it, let me do something about it.

The notification panel is a bit too much for me, but I'm sure some will really like the integration - and apparently it is better on the iPhone with missed calls/texts etc. I like the inclusion of weather - though it isn't a patch on Android tablet offerings to be honest.

The bottom swipe panel is also much much improved. Now you can swipe on the iPad and turn bluetooth or wi-fi on and off quickly rather than having to resort to settings all the time.

The AppStore or clunkily named iTunes Store 'look and feel' is brilliant - you can tell this is where they make that recurring income!

There's more, much more - like the ability to shoot square Instagram friendly photos... I'll be back to review the deeper things I find in a few days time.

STREET (de)SIGNS..

As you wander any part of the planet you are surrounded by street signs and furniture. In a short leap of time since the first formal signs started going up in the world we now have literally thousands of varieties of sign that say essentially the same thing but in different languages, with different graphic design and in different colours.. How come?

I'm going to make an effort to start taking lots more photos of these things on my travels from now on. You could easily start a blog just about the photos you gather as you wander (in fact someone did right here) - but I'm not going to do that. If you do have an urge to upload pictures, live or travel in the US and they are of older signs you can do that here.

Instead, I travelled the world today sat behind my 21" screen armed with Google Images to bring you a quick bunch of sign images that struck me as particularly well designed.. So, here they are..

And from New York, a series of Haiku styled road signs to make people think..

Not so 'well designed' but at least it does what it says on the tin.. of paint that was used to do it?!

And this has to be included as a statement of the obvious and scare tactic..

And that's that.

Except for this. A very funny story about one of my favourite roads and an artist who did a piece of "guerilla public service" or "public service performance". 10 out of 10 to him. Los Angeles was transformed forever.

  

MISSED THE BOAT...

In January I was given a gift. It came in the form of two words = Baillie Gifford

Their share price was touted around in early 2013 as one to watch or, if you had the balls/foresight, to invest in. At the time it was 150p per share.

Baillie Gifford Japan Trust plc are a securities house that invest funds across a range of Japanese companies, property and other investments to make other people money and themselves a good cut of the profit. Despite my interest in Japan and things Japanese (and I don't just mean the japanese girls comments I've made in the past!) I didn't do anything about it.

Lately though, the news has been full of the turnaround in the Japanese economy that has been made in the last 5 months, mainly being attributed to the new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe - last weeks' Economist magazine even hailed him a Superman!

The Nikkei Index, Tokyo's main stock tracker index has gone up in value by 55% in the last 5 months.

So, I checked the stock price for Baillie Gifford again today. Rightly enough it has gone up. But I wasn't quite ready for the magnitude of the gain.

Currently priced at 312p per share, a gain had I had the balls (?) of 108%, dwarfing the 55% general index increase...

Sat here in May those two words have turned into one.

Balls...
 

GRAND THEFT AUTO...

I had to share this with you as it is a piece of genius data analysis. A comparison of car theft crime rates with sales of a video game purported to be one of the factors behind a rise in crime over the same period...

Shoots (pun intended) down those who say video games promote crime.

It comes from an interesting infographic that looks at car crime rates, unfortunately in the US rather than anywhere else, though there is a small section on international rates of car crime. This includes the alarming statistic that 9.7% of all car theft in the world occurs in Britain.

By any measure this is quite a surprise given that Britain's 62.2 million people account for barely 0.1% of the world's entire population. However, our car stock is going to be higher given much of the world doesn't even own one.. leaves the blog to go and find statistics on global car pool..

HOCKEY & MOZZARELLA..

HOCKEY..
A slightly disappointing start to round 2 of the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs for New York Rangers. Down 2 games in the first 2 games to Boston Bruins..

Current standings are (21 May):

Boston really are the surprise at this stage being 2 straight games up. Pittsburgh and LA are my personal favourites and I would have thought would be 2 or 3 games straight up but both have conceded a game.

Detroit, Mrs P's team (for different reasons to judging hockey skills and more to do with likeable players!) are looking a bit scrappy in their games but have been helped by Chicago's similar performance. Who knows which of those two teams is going through to the semi-final..

New York being down 2 games is in fact a good thing. As each game they lose goes by my yearning to be in New York later in the month to soak up the atmosphere of a game and some great Brooklyn beer and freshly smoked mozzarella pizza is slipping away.

MOZARELLA..
On that, I have just found out that Joe's Dairy, a family run cheese shop in SoHo that used to make the best smoked mozzarella I have ever tasted closed last week (11 May 2013).

Unbelievably, the shop was suffering from not enough walk in sales for their home made cheese.

I went in 2007 and witnessed the steam being blown across the road as the vats were being opened one morning. Bought some smoked, sliced by Anthony Campanelli at that very counter below and he wrapped it for me in a paper wrapper. I had it in my backpack, visited Bleeker St record store and then found a great Brooklyn Brewery real ale style pub close by at lunchtime and really enjoyed it for my lunch. One very memorable morning spent. Seems that won't be happening again. Shame. Real shame. Here's the official report.

In fact, it deserves two links it was that great a place - here's a really good review on a blog called Vanishing New York. Joe's reminded me of the types of store I used to see on Starsky & Hutch or other US TV programmes when I was a kid. Still a lot around, but not too many in Manhattan it seems. These days you have to venture out to Brooklyn, Long Island (not a bad thing - I am a fan of the New York Islanders after all!) or up to the Bronx.

Happy hunting.

MAN v CITY..

Let's take a look at the evidence..

Click the video.



This game is, yet again, about a world where things are falling apart.

This game is, yet again, taking the genre further.

This game is, yet again, looking incredible.

This game is, yet again, being developed by Ubisoft.

Watch Dogs.

I rest my case. Ubisoft, by far the most imaginative games designers out there!

A TALE OF 3 CITIES..

Trams... Not many places have the benefit of them in the UK.

This is especially surprising since a lot of towns started their adventures into commuting and expanding housing estates with horse drawn, then electric powered tram systems shuttling people backwards and forwards.

Those days are gone. Dead and buried some thought. Then came a resurgence in light rail systems during the 90s - across Europe as well as interest in them in Britain.

Just one or two cities had retained their systems; London obviously (the Underground is classified as a light rail/tram system in the Census), the Newcastle area has benefited from the excellent and very far stretching (47.5 miles of track) Tyne and Wear Metro since 1980 - it was the first modern light rail system to be opened in Britain and is the longest but is not technically a tram system.

GLASGOW SUBWAY
Perhaps more surprising is Glasgow's Subway, opened in - wait for it - December 1896 - powered first by cable pulleys and then by electric.

In fact, Glasgow's subway system is the third oldest metro system in the world (London Underground 1863 or 1890 depending on what you take to be an underground system, Budapest Metro May 1896).

However, technically it is not a light rail system and is classified for UK regulation as an underground railway system. For that reason I shall shut up about it. Nice colours and design to the logo though!

MANCHESTER METROLINK
Manchester was quick out of the blocks and the first part of the Metrolink system running between Manchester Victoria railway station and Bury 9 miles to the north was in fact converted over from standard railway rolling stock (with an electrified third rail) to a new overhead electrified line in the summer of 1991.

At the same time, work was undertaken in the city centre between Manchester Piccadilly station and Victoria and out of the city in a south west direction to another large satellite town Altrincham. The line was opened in April 1992 after some delays but allowed travel from Bury to Altrincham and linked the two main railway stations of Manchester together for the first time (plans for an underground rail tunnel and a monorail system between the two having been discussed and dropped in the 1960s and 1970s).

Manchester's network was expanded further in 1999 and 2000 (Phase 2 to Broadway and then extended to Eccles), and again in Autumn 2010 (Eccles extension to MediaCityUK at Salford Quays), July 2011 (a South Manchester extension to St. Werburgh's Road), June 2012 (Victoria to Oldham, north east of the city) and December 2012 (a further extensnio from Oldham out to the very edge of Manchester's urban area at Shaw). This latter line was extended to its full planned length in February 2013 and now reached as far as Rochdale. Another line running directly east from the city centre, the unconfusingly named East Manchester line, was opened in February 2013.

By the time new lines to East Didsbury (summer 2013), Ashton (winter 2013/14), Oldham and Rochdale town centres (2014), and Manchester Airport via Wythenshawe lines (2016) are complete, the network will cover 95km (59 miles), more than three times the original 30km (18.5 mile) network that opened in 1992.

Recently redesigned and the logo is looking slick. Well, this is Manchester. What did you expect?

SHEFFIELD SUPERTRAM
Sheffield followed suit and started building its own system in 1991 with the first tram running in March 1994  between Fitzalan Square and Meadowhall shopping centre.

The network currently runs out along three lines from Park Square/Pond's Forge on the eastern edge of the city centre. North easterly bound services go past the Don Valley Stadium and onwards to Meadowhall shopping centre, northern services (2 lines) past the University and on to Hillsborough (football ground) and Middlewood where there is a large Park & Ride facility. Southbound services link Sheffield railway station and Sheffield Hallam University into the network and go on past the very suburban Crystal Peaks district to Halfway Park & Ride scheme 7.5 miles out of the city centre.

It was announced in January 2013 that a new line will be built from Meadowhall to Dore south west of the city centre. This line will link into the planned Meadowhall High Speed railway station on its completion. Other planned extensions have been dropped in favour of investments in local bus services.

Dog awful logo. Colours are fine but what idiot picked that font? And why do Stagecoach have to print their authority all over the company?

NOTTINGHAM NET 
Nottingham's system is called NET, standing for Nottingham Express Transit.

It was a relative latecomer to the tram scene of northern(ish) England towns, opening in March 2004.

However, as I will show you later, it has been extremely successful indeed. The original system consisted of just one line running between Nottingham railway station on the southern edge of the city centre north to Hucknall 7.5 miles to the north of the city.

Phase 2 is under construction and extends the coverage of the original line southbound from the railway station with two lines - Line 2 to Clifton town centre and a large Park and Ride scheme that will allow a fast commute route in and out of the centre for those living further out, and the second southbound from the station and running past NG2, a large Business Park site, the Queens Medical Centre and University to Toton and another Park and Ride scheme (Line 3).

Logo a bit bland on this network don't you think?

MIDLAND METRO
A System I am not going to cover here is Midland Metro, running 12 miles between Wolverhampton and Birmingham Snow Hill railway station with a very short section 'on street'.

Other street level lines are planned but it is doubtful where the money will come from for construction at this stage. Nice easily recognisable logo though?

So, to measuring success?

Let's just look at the three new systems in place in the north of England (all £ figures in 2013 prices)..

Manchester
opened: 1992
cost: so far... £1.4 billion = Phase 1 £223.7 million, Phase 2 £200.75 million, Phase 3 £994.4 million (Phase 3b in progress will add £124.5 million by 2016)
length of tracks: 43 miles (59 miles by 2016)
frequency: 1 tram every 6-12 mins
network: 65 stops, 5 national rail interchanges
daily use: first full year 11.3 million 1993/94, 21.8 million 2011/12

Nottingham
opened: 2004
cost: Phase 1 £229 million. Phase 2 underway, max cost £570 million.
length of tracks: 9 miles
frequency: 1 tram every 5-6 mins
network: 23 stops, 3 national rail interchanges, 5 Park & Ride sites
daily use: first full year = 8.5 million 2004/05, 9 million 2011/12 (exceeded 10 million in 2007 and 2008)

Sheffield
opened: 1994
cost: £276.2 million
length of tracks: 18 miles
frequency: 1 tram every 5-10 mins
network: 48 stops, 2 national rail interchanges, 4 Park & Ride sites
daily use: first full year = 5.3 million 1995/96, 15 million 2011/12

[due to new lines in Mcr and Nott stats are subject to major revision during 2013]

But, my favourite way of judging things is to use graphics. Maps in particular.

Take a look at this below (click the image for a full size version) which shows the % of population at 2001 Census and then again at 2011 Census that were using light rail/tram systems to commute daily.

There is only one significant shift in behaviour in the three north of England cities. That occurs in Nottingham (bottom right with the place pin in for my non-UK readers) where comparison of the two dates show a much higher proportion of people using trams in 2011. This is a great result given that Nottingham's trams started almost half way through the period 2001-2011 and the other systems were in operation throughout the decade. For that reason, and despite being the smallest at the moment, it for me is the most successful.

Oh wait, Manchester Metrolink have been 100% powered by electricity sourced from a renewable energy company since 2007, and hydropower at that! None of the others get close. That's success of a different, more visionary, kind.

BEARS BEAT RANGERS..

Game 1 of the NHL Stanley Cup second round started Thursday evening for New York Rangers with a visit to the TD Garden Arena, Boston. An ice hockey venue I have yet to visit - next on my list in actual fact.

I'll keep this one short. ish.

Most of the shots on Lundqvist in the first period hit dead centre of his shirt logo. You are not going to score against "possibly the best netminder in the NHL" doing that.

Just over 12 minutes in though, a scrabble in front of net ended up with the puck in the back of it and Boston taking a lead. Scorer: Zdeno Chara, a Slovak national standing and one of the tallest players in the league at a huge 6 foot 9 inches! Huge! See below:

Last 20 seconds saw Sagan almost even up with a shot on the net that went wide. You couldn't cut it finer. 1.3 seconds to go in second period and NYR evened up. 1-1 as McDonagh fired in a medium strength snapshot from midway to the blue line.

Then, just 14 seconds into the third period the Rangers scored again. Derek Stepan this time (who is currently 2nd in both the regular season and the playoffs for the amount of game winning goals achieved.. strange stat, but clearly a key player for the team). Two goals with 16 seconds of playing time. 2-1 Rangers.

Didn't last long though, newcomer defenseman number 47 Torey Krug got his first NHL goal just before the three minute mark of the period. 2-2. This was his first ever playoff game having only played one game for the Bruins in the regular NHL season following signing from non-league team Indiana Ice. Keep your eyes on him next season - wikipedia page here.

The pressure was kept on by the Bruins for the next few minutes before play settled down into an end to end pattern for the rest of the period. 

Powerplay Boston and a dangerous try 22 seconds to go in the third. Then they hit the goalpost as the clock ticked to 0.0 seconds. New York Rangers thrown a lifeline at the very sound of the horn...

Overtime. Powerplay and, to be honest, Boston looked dangerous throughout.

4:20 left in OT and Boston took game one 3-2 with Marchand's first goal in the playoffs.

Shots on goal: Boston 48, New York 35.

One up for the bear. Let's hope the park Rangers get him at Madison Square Garden on Sunday afternoon (3PM ET).

The other game last night was San Jose Sharks v LA Kings. End score: 4-3 to LA. A very very close game with LA only just evening up to 3-3 with 1:43 left in the third period and then, amazingly, 4-3 with 1:21 left. You can tell these two teams are going to come to major blows very soon.

And in other news, non hockey readers of this blog will be happy to know that I am going to post a non-hockey post later today. Mind you, if you think trains, trams and subways are boring....

TO THE MADHOUSE..

We have to wait until this evening for the first face off between the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins. It's going to be a rough, tough fight between those two old time rival teams.

Last night, Wednesday evening, saw the first of the second round games for the NHL Stanley Cup involving the other two of the four 'Original 6' teams - Chicago Blackhawks v Detroit Redwings. In Chicago. Welcome to the Madhouse..

Detroit didn't show much promise it must be said! Chicago went 1-0 up within 10 minutes of the game start as the Czech $63.3 million signing Marian Hossa (read "star player, major power shooter") made sure his slapshot went straight into and nearly through the back of the net.

Detroit managed to even up two minutes later but that was one of the only high points in their forwards game all night to be honest. Their saviour - if you can call it that given the end score - was Jimmy Howard, their 6 foot netminder who seemed to fill every space possible to stop more pucks going in the net.

The second period didn't happen. Still 1-1 by the end of it. Enough said.

Then Chicago turned it on and dominated the Redwings throughout the third period, two more goals coming at 8:02 and 11:20 minutes in. Oduya snapping up a rebound and then Kruger with a cheeky backhand shot.

3-1 into the final minutes and in a move of desperation Detroit pulled their Jimmy out of the net and played 6 men up front. That didn't work out though as Pat Sharp found an opening and outskated Detroit's Franzen to put himself in front of the net with nobody there to save the last shot. In the net. 4-1. Game over.

Best of seven though. Early days yet.

The 'Shots on Goal' stats show very clearly the uneven nature of this game:

ROUND 1 OVER..

So, Islanders out - see my last blog - but some surprises at the end of the first round of the Stanley Cup this year.

Mini-me supports New York Rangers (think he does it to wind me up as a New York Islanders fan!) and so we've been head to head in round 1 NYI playing Pittsburgh Penguins and NYR playing Washington Capitals. Both tough match ups.

The Rangers managed to hang on in there to game 7 of their first round and the last game of round 1 for them was undoubtedly their best yet. A real treat for anyone watching (except Caps fans of course) which ended in a 5-0 shut out by the Rangers and their progression to round 2 winning 4 games against 3. Lundqvist again proving himself to be, "probably the best netminder in the League."

Round 2 has started - some amazing match-ups top come.

New York will play the Boston Bruins, close rivals and both teams quite hard hitting. It will be a great round to watch from game 1 on.

Detroit Redwings will play Chicago Blackhawks, again close rivals and another source of family rivalries in this house as Mrs P has adopted Detroit as her favourite team. Largely due to the presence of one Henrik Zetterberg it must be said. She knows nothing about hockey! lol

Detroit v Chicago is the first of these Original 6 games facing off tonight in Chicago at 8:00PM ET (1:00AM here in the UK).

All four of those are 'Original 6' teams, a term used to recognise the group of six teams that composed the NHL for 25 seasons up to 1967 when the League was expanded.

The remaining match-ups feature non Original 6 teams and are Pittsburgh Pengiuns v Ottawa Senators (Pittsburgh are up one game already), LA Kings v San Jose Sharks (LA up one game with a 2-0 win on Tuesday night).

My money is on Pittsburgh v LA in the final but anything can happen in the Stanley Cup...

 

NOT NEW YORK..

Game 6 of the first round of 2013's Stanley Cup playoffs. New York Islanders fighting to stay in with a chance to go through to the next round against the number 1 seeded team from the east Pittsburgh Penguins.

All excitement. They've done extremely well to get to this point.

And opened well by putting themselves into the lead after only 5 and a half minutes. The Islanders completely dominated Pittsburgh, spending what seemed like 90% of the on-ice time in front of the Pittsburgh net for most of the first period. Rewarded for their effort by scoring their second goal with barely 30 seconds left to play in the first period - a truly amazing split second response by McDonald.

The Penguins though, never let it faze them and matched the Islanders goals first 1-1 by 7:39 into the first period, then 2-2 after 11 minutes of the second period. The 3-1 lead by the Islanders grabbed just into the third period lasted until 14:44 when Martin's slapshot whistled past Nabukov and returned the game to even numbers.

Brooks Orpik put the last goal into the Islanders net, a slapshot from the blue line that hit the left hand post, bounced to the right hand post and bumped inside the net line. It could so easily have bounced the other direction and maybe, just maybe the Islanders could have been in with their 7th game chance this evening.

Here's a link to the highlights video

So. To my blog title. Not quite right as it happens. The New York Rangers managed to hold on to a 1-0 lead on Sunday evening  against the Washington Capitals and with a series tied at 3 games each will now play their 7th game of round 1 this evening at 8pm ET.

Vokoun, the Penguins netminder summed up the NYI-PIT series well, "Give them a lot of credit. They played a great series and they played really hard. They're an up and coming good team."

And the web is full of commendations to a team that is only just getting into its stride. Young players abound. Only two guys with Stanley Cup playoff experience? Tavares already a major star player and he's only 22 years old... There's clearly a lot more to come from this line up.

At least I won't be tempted to stay up late now and catch the playoff games live is over, I'll catch up each morning from now on- until the final final of course! And with the Islanders now out of the running I am not planning to jump on a plane and travel to NY for a final series sometime in June - the sun of Gran Canaria beckons instead.

#PITvsNYI over.

See you next year!

TWO GOAL BREAKAWAY..

Correction, three goal breakaway...

That's what killed NY on Thursday night at the Pittsburgh Penguins v New York Islanders game. Game 5 of a best of 7 Round 1 Stanley Cup playoff match up. Islanders hanging in there and have to win two in a row now to stay in.

Until Thursday the Islanders had done well to come back from a disastrous first game (5-0 loss) by winning the last two games and arriving at 2-2 game stand off.

So, the Penguins first made a two goal lead, then a three goal lead thanks to Sidney Crosby (one of their star players) in the second period.

To add insult to injury they opened it further to 4-0 within the first 6 minutes of he third period.

The Islanders didn't really look like they were communicating most of the game. In my eyes, the real star for them in the series so far has been Nabokov, their netminder. Even he didn't shine on Thursday night and was pulled and replaced by 23 year old Kevin Poulin for the last 15 minutes and 4 shots on goal - none got past him.

Amazingly, some of the best playing of the game by the Islanders came in the dying minutes. They managed top keep the puck out of the net in the last three minutes even when faced with a 5 on 3 players situation  following a whole heap of penalties - Hickey for elbowing at 18 minutes, Hamonic and Cizikas for roughing at 18:39 (matched by 2 Penguins players) and  Strait, Aucoin and Martin 10 minute enalties for misconduct at 19mins 36 (joined by 2 Penguins players for the same).

The Penguins netminder was changed in the last game from Fleury to Vokoun and this seems to have had the desired result for them, Islanders 31 shots on goal during the game being kept out of the net by the 37 year old Czech player from Karlovy Vary.

Pittsburgh: 31 shots on goal - 4 goals
New York: 31 shots on goal - 0 goals

Says it all.

Roll on Saturday night when Pittsburgh play on the Islanders home ice at the Nassau Centre, Long Island. I'm staying up to watch! You gotta be positive.

Note: for US readers, the games that start at 7PM ET air live here in the UK from midnight so we have to stay up and watch late night games - adds to the ambience for me though is a little annoying in the mid-week when work calls the next day!

IN THE NET..

Game 4 last night between New York Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

A real game of ping pong this one. First one team scores (the Islanders got the first lead as Brian Strait got his first ever NHL goal), then the other evens up 45 seconds later. 1-1 out of the first period.

2-1 to New York 6 minutes into the second with Pittsburgh making it even again within 60 seconds.

Pittsburgh then took a 3-2 lead at the end of the 2nd period and it all started to look more familiar as the Penguins game tightened up.

It took the Islanders a while to get back the 3rd goal in the second period, but guess what? With 1 minute 25 to go they did it. Then the Penguins stuffed another one in to make it 4-3 in the first minute of the 3rd period . No panic though, 15 minutes 30 on the clock to go and the NYI evened up to 4-4.

5-4 lead for the Islanders after some really close in work by Tavares. First one shot with a rebound and then proof that persistence pays as he got another chance to hook it round Fleury's right hand side.

Then the first two goal lead of the game opened up. 6-4 to the Islanders in the last minute and a half as Cizikis simply walked it into the net past the Penguins Fleury.

This was the first time that the Islanders have won a playoff game at home since 2002.

Two games each in this best of seven.. Pittsburgh host the Islanders on Thursday 7th, then it's back to Long Island on Saturday 11th. I wish I was not so busy with work and there to soak up the atmosphere!

Persistence paid in another game too.

Montreal were leading 2-1 into the final few seconds of their game against Ottawa on Tuesday. But they managed to even up with 22 seconds left. The game went into overtime  and Ottawa managed to get the winning goal in the first three minutes of OT. 3 games to Ottawa, 1 to Montreal and it looks like the Canadiens may bow out in round 1 this year..

STANLEY CUP SO FAR..

Spot that break from tradition up there? Usually my blog titles are three words only. Couldn't quickly make up a 3 worder today. Sorry.

Anyway, the Stanley Cup is well into the first round of the playoffs. 16 teams playing for the ultimate cup. 8 teams from the Western Conference, 8 from the Eastern.Each round is best of 7 games - an exhausting haul to mid-late June with teams playing every other day, home or away. They're earning their dollars right now.

All for this..

My teams, New York Islanders and the Montreal Canadiens are both faring ok - little early to tell but the NYI at the very least are doing incredibly well given they were drawn against the favourites from the East Coast, Pittsburgh Penguins (PIT in chart below). Three games in, won one, lost two - but only just to be honest and the last two games being high scoring - proving the NYI can score against the Penguins. And a lot when they get their act together. 

The first game was a write off as they lost 5-0 but they came back to a 4-3 win and then took the Penguins into overtime in game 3 to win 5-4.

Here's the run down so far (at early evening 7 May). Eastern Conference on the top row, West on the bottom for the uninitiated!

The other team I follow closely, Montreal, are faring a lot worse against Ottawa Senators (OTT in chart above).

The surprise so far has been the New York Rangers, not my team but I like to watch and they are 'mini-me's' favourites. They seem unable to start the playoffs proper against the Washington Capitals (WSH above). 3-1 down in game 1, then a very uneventful game that went all the way into overtime (OT) with a score of 0-0 until the Capitals scored 8 minutes into OT. Then a 4-3 win for them in game 3.

Their school report says "must try harder". Especially when they get Power plays (the other team have a player off ice for a few minutes - again for the uninitiated).

Also watching Detroit Redwings (second on bottom row above) closely as they have failed to ignite their star players so far (lots of late night catching up on my tablet in bed with Gamecenter Live!)

If you want to keep up with progress, the NHL have a great, constantly updated results chart here.

More soon..