Bow is changing

Bow (E3) in East London is changing, and changing rapidly. Spurred on by the convergence of the post-Olympic development frenzy from Stratford and the adoption of new "hip" areas (popular with an ever growing young wealthy generation....think smart phones and coffee with pretty frothy designs) surrounding Shoreditch and Islington, and combining with excellent access to London's ever growing financial districts (the city square mile, and Canary Wharf), and London's general expansion into a mega-city, the East End of London is changing. In Bow itself, the estate agents (realtors) are moving in, quirky independent coffee shops are popping up, and new housing developments are springing up faster than you can say "gentrification".

Using updated imagery available in Google Maps Street View, I've put together a series of before and after views to show this change occurring.

The main high street for Bow is Roman Road, which, while it still has some way to go to become any future East End Chelsea which some suggest, it's clearly changing. New coffee shops and funky arts cafes, such as Muxima and the Roman Road Art Cafe are opening, along with the more established chains such as Costa Coffee and Tesco.


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Here's a good map, created by the ever-interesting ""Diamondgeezer" blogger."


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The most noticeable change is the sheer number of new housing developments, mainly apartments. Just in 2014 alone, there are three medium - large new developments ready, or soon to be ready for occupation within a quarter of a mile of Roman Road, and many others, throughout the E3 postcode boundary. Most of these developments have a significant number of privately owned flats for sale, bringing a renewed energy and wealth into an area that has been in much need of investment. Here is a selection of the changes seen in the Street View imagery.

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And there are many more coming. This is just one example...

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I've put together this Google Map with markers for any developments I'm aware of that have been completed within the last ~5 years or are under construction at the moment. Quite a lot!



Gentrification is happening in Bow, and the next few decades are going to be very interesting and exciting for the area! 

Are we really doomed?

Turning on the TV to see the news usually shows us a world of horrible things. It's been like that for as long as I can remember (well apart from when Trevor McDonald had his "And finally..." section on the News at Ten). Recently though, the stories being reported feel even more horrific than usual. Wars seem more intense. Human behaviour seems to be more cruel. We're seeing horrific killing taking place in Israel and Gaza. Children being killed, homes destroyed by Israeli bombs, and then on the other side, Palestinian militants calling for the destruction of a nation and firing rockets with the hope of killing anyone they can. In Iraq, we're seeing ISIS/IS committing unbelievably cruel acts on, well anyone really. Actual genuine thoughtless cruelty. In the Ukraine, innocent business travelers and holiday makers shot out of the sky, and then their remains not being treated with dignity. Young innocent girls in Nigeria are being kidnapped, probably raped and sold into slavery.

And then comes the realisation that all these acts are being committed by humans. That's us. I'm a human. My friends and family are human. Even those who confuse your and you're are human. And we ask ourselves if we as a species are just cruel? Are we doomed? Should we lose hope? I feel that the answer is no. A very clear no. Please allow me to explain why. It's kind of in two parts.

I cannot for one moment pretend that these horrible acts are not happening. They are. Humans are killing humans. Right now. But I think it is a huge mistake to see the minority of acts being perceived and presented as what the majority do. The outrage at all of the horrors I listed above has been far greater than the praise. One thing I really don't like about news coverage (and I would like to suggest that collectively, as humans we make more of an effort to say we want a wider variety of good/bad stories), is that all the news is bad news. News as a definition is a story that is new (the clue is in the first three letters!), but I don't see why it needs to be bad news. I suppose that's for another day where psychologists could discuss our desire to learn of suffering so as to avoid pain or something. But we must, I feel, bear in mind that we are seeing horrible acts, committed by a minority. The vast vast vast majority of people around the world don't get up and kill someone. I'm in my early 30's, and I've never killed anyone. I've not found it difficult either to not kill anyone. I know so many people who also haven't killed anyone. Not just in my own country, but around the world. 

I also see a world, where, despite often going unreported, so many kind acts are done every single day. They might not be big acts, but they are kind, thoughtful, and show absolutely NO harmful intent towards any other human. It might just be holding a door open for someone, it might be donating £5 to someone who's doing a sponsored run, it might be texting a friend who you know has had a difficult day to see if they're OK and let them know you're there for them, or it could even just be smiling at someone. Then there are the bigger acts of kindness, that are even so huge, they make the news. The main one that stands out to me is that of Stephen Sutton. 

Basically, most people are good, and we should make sure that we give ourselves some time not to lose sight of that.

The second part of this is that I actually think this current world situation of fighting and cruelty (a lot of which is taking place in the Middle East) is just part of the world, and the mindset of humans evolving. More continents than ever before are stable. That's not to say there isn't discrimination and other issues that need to be resolved, but I'm talking about full scale war where countries are bombing one another, mass killing is taking place. Those areas are reducing all of the time. 

In historical terms, humans tend to take quite a long time to catch up to the notion that we basically need to get on and work together, and well, essentially not go round killing others. Sometimes, hundreds of years. For much of the 20th century, Europe was engaged in war, with many other countries from other continents joining it. World Wars one and two were truly horrible and disgraceful. Millions died. Many millions more suffered. I don't think we'll ever really be able to mentally realise the magnitude of what happened there. Europe, as a whole though (yes I know there are still conflicts, especially in Eastern Europe) is stable. A person traveling to most parts of Europe doesn't even need to think too hard about accidentally stepping into a war zone where they might be butchered to death. Sure, there's crime, and certain sections of society that are discriminated against, but as a general rule, we can travel about in Europe. The same applies to North America, quite a lot of South America (I know there are drug/gang problems in some places), Australasia, and even a fair bit of Asia. All of these places previously have had significant wars, where unfathomable horror occurred. So, I put it to you that as a whole, this process of humans realising slowly that it's better just to be civil is continuing to evolve and improve. 

Now until there are no wars, we're still not doing something right, clearly, but we do seem to be fighting less, as a whole. Charitable donations seem to be higher than ever, events where people are just really overtly kind towards strangers seem to becoming popular (like flashmobs for kindness etc), programs that promote awareness and compassion and increasingly making their way into schools, and big companies, and the collective sentiment in the majority of the world (where wars were once much more common and cost many lives) is still one of outrage when a heinous act is witnessed. So, in a way, I think the more people who question "if we should lose hope?" and "are we really cruel?" is probably a good thing, because it's a clear awareness and rejection of cruelty.

Now as I said near the top of this post, I cannot pretend bad things aren't happening. They are, and I think as a global society we need to keep pressing bad people to stop, pause and get talking. But we're not doomed. We're just continuing to evolve, unfortunately slower than probably we should given our apparent neurological capacities. We are together, learning to be good. So let's keep pushing on that, because if you look around you (maybe we need to look a bit harder at the moment), goodness is out there in huge huge volumes.

Thank you for your time, and I wish you well.

The View From Space - LIVE

So, last weekend, I discovered one of the most amazing websites in the history of all amazingness : The NASA HDEV website. HDEV, in this case stands for High Definition Earth Viewing (HDEV), and to quote the NASA project page is an experiment which "places four commercially available HD cameras on the exterior of the space station and uses them to stream live video of Earth for viewing online." AMAZING. I MEAN, SERIOUSLY AMAZING!!!

I am completely addicted to it and have spent literally hours and hours watching it, and I would encourage you as much as possible to spend some time viewing the camera and exploring your own planet. It's beautiful. Over the past week, I've taken quite a lot of screen shots of my computer. Here's what I've seen of the earth over the past 7 days. Not bad eh? So enjoy these, but go look yourself and see what you can see. 

And if anyone from the HDEV program happens to stumble upon this blog post, then thank you, thank you so much for this. It is just....well, there aren't enough superlatives to describe how amazing this project it, but thank you (did I say thank you?)

All the services are provided by the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA-Johnson Space Center. "The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth." http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/HDEV (there, that's my recommended citation out of the way)

So, without further ado...

A sunset...pretty awesome huh?

Baja California

California, Edwards AFB, Los Angeles metro area, Californian Channel Islands

Northern Canada, near Greenland

The Greek island of Crete

Somewhere over Earth....a cloudy region!

Florida - see how the clouds hug the shape of the state. 

Portugal, Spain and the Straits of Gibraltar 

Spain, the Straits of Gibraltar, and Morocco

Portugal, with Lisbon showing just to the left of centre

The start of another beautiful sunset, with the light shimmering on the ocean beneath. There's a sunset ever 90 minutes.

Lake Mead (bottom right), Grand Canyon, Arizona

Lake Superior, USA/Canada

Libya

Madagascar

Lake Malawi, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania

Moonset

The coastline of Peru and Chile

I can't quite remember this one, but I think it was the Rocky Mountains

This definitely was the Canadian Rockies

The world's largest salt flat, the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia.

The region of Galicia, Spain, and the Atlantic Ocean

Spain

The UK (Cornwall) and France (Brittany)

England, (top), English Channel, and France

The Suez Canal, Red Sea, Dead Sea, Israel, Jordan and Egypt

The Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, Yemen, Djibouti and Eritrea

Sunset

Peru, Bolivia, Salar de Uyuni and Lake Titicaca



Texan/Mexican border, looking south



A hazy California, showing Lake Tahoe and just on the edge, a hazy San Francisco Bay Area



California and Nevada. Can you spot Lake Mead and Edwards AFB?



Egypt, Sahara desert and the River Nile



Lake Tanganyika, Lake Mweru, DR Congo, Zambia



Coast of Western Sahara, Mauritania, Atlantic Ocean



The eastern coast of South Africa/Durban



Coast of Angola



Colorado's Front Range, with Denver, Colorado Springs and Boulder below.



The coast of Texas, Louisiana, New Orleans



Great Salt Lake Desert, Salt Lake City, Utah



Pretty cloud formation over the South Atlantic

The Gulf of Mexico, with the clouds hugging the land mass of the US.



Lake Michigan, Wisconsin, Chicago, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan



Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, Toronto, Georgian Bay, MI, OH, IN, PA, NY, CA-ON



Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, Chesapeake Bay, Portsmouth, VA



Namibe Province, Angola, Etosha Pan, Skeleton Coast, Namibia



Mauritania, Senegal, Dakar



Qinghai Lake, Gobi Desert, China



Xi'an, Qinling mountains, Shaanxi province, China



The northern tip of Qld, Australia, from Princess Charlotte Bay to the Gulf of Carpentaria



Lake Titicaca, Salar de Uyuni, Peru, Bolivia



The Andes, Chile, Argentina



Lake Titicaca, Poopó Lake, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Salar de Uyuni



Chile, border with Argentina, La Serena



San Juan province, Argentina



Catamarca province formations in Argentina



The coastline of Chile



Namib desert, Namibia



Lake Tanganyika, DR Congo, Tanzania



River Nile, Egypt, Sudan



River Nile



River Nile, Luxor, Egypt



Egypt, Gulf of Aqaba, Gulf of Suez, Saudi Arabia, Jordan



Northern Egypt, Israel, Gaza, Negev Desert, Dead Sea, Israel, Jordan



Tassili n'Ajjer desert, Algeria



Tassili n'Ajjer desert sand dunes, Algeria



Coastline of Libya, Tripoli



Idhan Murzuq desert, Libya



Libya coastline, Benghazi



Caspian Sea, Kazakhstan, Dagestan, Russia



Chechnya



Lake Chad, Chad



Nile Delta, Cairo, Alexandria, Egypt



Salar de Uyuni, Lake Titicaca, Poopó Lake, Bolivia, Peru, Chile



Gulf of San Matias, Argentina



Southern UK, Isle of Wight, Bristol Channel, Northern France



Western Sahara, Fuerteventura, Gran Ganaria



Western Sahara, Mauritania



Andes, Salta province, Argentina



Black Rock Desert, Nevada



Mountains, Atacama desert, Chile



Cornwall, UK and Brittany, France



Gijon, Asturias, Castile and León, Spain



North Coast of Spain (Bilbao) and Atlantic Coast of France (Bordeaux)



France



James Bay, Canada



James Bay, Canada - overhead view



Brittany (Brest), Normandy, France, Jersey and Guernsey



English Channel, south coast of UK, Isle of Wight, Dover, Calais, northern France



California - From San Francisco/Santa Cruz Mountains on the left to San Diego on the right




Buenos Aires, Argentina, Uruguay, Uruguay River



Ireland, UK, northern France



England and Wales



Crossing between Dover, UK and Calais, France



Deforestation in Rondônia state, Brazil



Coastlines of Libya and Egypt, Mediterranean Sea



Greek islands (Crete, Karpathos, Rhodes)



Cyprus, coastline of Turkey, Antalya



Caspian Sea, Ural River, Kazakhstan



Aktobe Province, Kazakhstan, North Aral Sea



Tunisia, Tunis



The boot of Italy, Sardinia, Malta



The leg and boot of Italy - perhaps the most recognisable land shape!



Tarawa atoll, Kiribati



Nile Delta, Gulf of Suez, Egypt, Dead Sea, Israel



Cyprus



Lake Assad, Euphrates River, Syria, Atatürk Barajı, Lake Van, Turkey



Lake Baikal, Russia



Tunis, Gulf of Gabès, Tunisia



Sicily, Italy, Malta



Albania, Ionian Islands (Corfu, Kefalonia, Zakynthos) Greece



Taranto, Vesuvius, Southern Italy



Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dalmatia, Croatia



Canary Islands, Spain, coast of Western Sahara



Wales, Swansea



East coast of Australia, Brisbane, Gold Coast



New Caledonia



Sunrise



Albania, Ionian Islands (Corfu, Kefalonia, Zakynthos) Greece - above



Macedonia, Greece, Thessaloniki



Port-au-Prince, Haiti



Northern UK, Irish sea, Isle of Man, northern Wales, Merseyside



White Sands National Monument. Fort Bliss, White Sands Missile Range, Trinity Site, Carrizozo Malpais lava flow, New Mexico, El Paso, TX, Cuidad Juarez, Mexico, Roswell



Libyan coastline, Benghazi



Greece, Athens, Crete, Greek islands



Turkey, Lake Tuz, Black Sea



Crimean Peninsula, Ukraine, Russia, Sevastopol, Black Sea



Cancun, Mexico



Florida, The Bahamas



Eastern coast of Newfoundland, Canada



Cornwall, UK, north coast of France



Lake Winnipeg, Canada



Spain, Bay of Biscay, France, English Channel



Bahamas



California, Salton Sea, Nevada, Area 51, Grand Canyon,  Arizona



Lake Nipigon, Canada



Great Northern Peninsula, Newfoundland, Canada



Baja California, Isla Ángel de la Guarda, Mexico



Ahaggar Mountains, Algeria



Crimean Peninsula, Ukraine



Volga River, between Volgograd and Saratov, Russia



Barlavento Islands, Cape Verde



Canary Islands



Straits of Gibraltar, Tangier, Morocco, Malaga, Seville, Granada, Sierra Morena mountains, Spain,



Valencian Community, Valencia, Spain



Côte d'Azur, Marseille, Toulon, French Riviera, Étang de Berre, France



Panama City, Saint Joseph Bay, Apalachicola Bay, Tallahasse, Florida



Cape Cod, Boston, Massachusetts, Providence, Rhode Island, Long Island, Lower New York Bay



Nova Scotia, Halifax, Canada



Newfoundland, Canada



San Francisco Bay, Monterey Bay, Silicon Valley, San Jose, Santa Cruz Mountains, Modesto, Stockton, Sacramento, Lake Tahoe, California



Coastline of Belize, Belize City, Banco Chinchorro, Turneffe Atoll, Lighthouse Reef



Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island, Prince Edward Island, Anticosti Island, Newfoundland, Canada



Boot of Italy (Sicily), Malta, Gozo, Mediterranean Sea



Coast of Libya, Crete, Greece, Mediterranean Sea



Portugal, Spain, Straits of Gibraltar, Morocco



Portugal, Spain, Straits of Gibraltar, Morocco, Algeria



Barcelona, Spain, Andorra, Pyrenees



Sardinia, Corsica, Italy, Genoa, France, Nice, Monaco, French Riviera



Ukraine, Crimea, Sea of Azov, Kakhovka Reservoir



Cyprus, Nile Delta, Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Palestinian areas, Gulf of Suez, Red Sea



Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Dead Sea, Palestinian areas, Syria, Suez Canal, Jordan, Saudi Arabia



Nevada, Groom Lake, Sierra Nevada Mountains, Black Rock Desert, California



Cape Cod, MA, New York, NY, Long Island



Balearic Islands (Ibiza, Majorca, Menorca), Spain, Algeria, Africa



Volga River, Delta, Russia, Caspian Sea



Sicily, Italy, Tunis, Gulf of Hammamet, Tunisia, Mediterranean



Great Salt Lake, Salt Lake City, Utah, Nevada, Arizona



Morocco



Hawaii



The toe of Italy



Aswan, Aswan Dam, Lake Nasser, Egypt



Morocco, Spain, Alboran Sea, Gibraltar, Malaga, Marbella



Eastern France, Paris, Alps, Switzerland, Italy



Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, Caribbean Sea



Netherlands, Amsterdam



Crimean Peninsula, Ukraine , Russia



Isfahan Province, Namak Lake, Kuhrud Mountains, Iran



Yazd Province, Iran



Southern Florida, Lake Okeechobee, Cape Coral, Everglades, Florida Keys



Curaçao, Aruba, Venezuala



Balearic Islands (Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera)



North American Great Lakes (Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario)



Canadian Rockies, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada



Garabogazköl, Turkmenistan, Caspian Sea, Kazakhstan



Greece, Greek Islands (Crete, Rhodes, many others), Western Turkey



Ha'il, Northern Borders, Jawf, Tabuk regions, An Nafud desert, Saudi Arabia



Boa Vista, Sal, Cape Verde, Atlantic Ocean



Salem, Eugene, Oregon



Virginia Beach, Portmouth, Newport News, VA, MD, DE, Washington, DC, Chesapeake Bay



Coast of Brazil, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro



Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, Tarapaca region, Chile



Kauai, Niihau, Hawaii



Borders of Maranhao and Piaui states, Parnaíba River, Brazil



Mouth of the Amazon River, Belem, Guamá River, Ilha de Marajó, Abaetetuba, Pará River, Brazil



French Guiana, Suriname, Maroni River



Barbados



Solimões River, Japurá River, Juruá River, Amazonas state, Brazil



Santa Marta, Barranquilla, Cartagena, Magdalena River, Dique Canal, Guajaro reservoir, Colombia



Pinar del Río Province, Artemisa province, Cuba



Quintana Roo state, Mexico, Belize, Yucatán Peninsula



Sudan, Egypt, River Nile, Lake Nasser, Sudan, Egypt, River Nile, Lake Nasser, Libyan desert



Libyan desert, Haruj volcanic field



Coastline of Libya



Tunisia, Malta, Gozo, Sicily, Italy



Balearic Islands, coastlines of Spain, France, Pyrenees



Great Salt Lake, Salt Lake City, Utah



Mount Jefferson, Mount Hood, Mount Adams, Gilbert Peak, Mount Rainer, Mount St Helens, Ochoco, Malheur and Umatilla National Forests, Oregon, Washington



Sofala, Inhambane provinces, Save River, Bazaruto Archipelago, Mozambique



Salar de Uyuni, Lake Poopo, Bolivia



Idhan Murzuq desert, Libya, Tassili n'Ajjer, Algeria



Spain, Straits of Gibraltar, Morocco



Antofagasta province, Llullaillaco National Park, Chile, Salar de Arizaro, Salta Province, Argentina



Jamaica, Cuba



Yellowstone National Park, Bighorn National Forest, Wind River Range, Wyoming



Socotra island, Abd al Kuri, Yemen, Eastern Somalia



Yemen, Oman, Gulf of Aden



Saudi Arabia, Rub' al Khali (The Empty Quarter), Qatar, Bahrain



Iraq (Al-Anbar, Al Najaf, Al-Muthanna, Al-Basrah, Karbala, Baghdad, Wasit, Babil, Al-Qadisiyah, Misan, Thi Qar provinces), Saudi Arabia, Persian (Arabian) Gulf, Kuwait



Syria, Damascus, Lebanon, Euphrates River, Haditha Dam, Iraq, Lake Tharthar, Israel, Gaza, West Bank, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Gulf of Aqaba, Dead Sea, Jordan



Cyprus, Gulf of Suez, Gulf of Aqaba, Syria, Iraq, Israel, Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon



Nile Delta, Egypt, River Nile, Gulf of Suez, Gulf of Aqaba, Israel, Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia



Greece, Athens, Greek islands, Crete, western coast of Turkey



Heel and toe of Italy, Albania, Montenegro



San Francisco Bay Area, California coastline



California, Santa Barbara, Vandenberg AFB, Edwards AFB, Bakersfield, Los Angeles basin, San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, San Clemente, Santa Catalina islands, Salton Sea, Baja California



That's it for now. I may add more later.

Now what are you waiting for, go look! http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/HDEV/