Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.
The Genealogical Society Observer
While researching for an article I was directed to this monthly publication of the Genealogical Society of Utah. Written for employees and volunteers, it contains news about the Society with a leavening of humour. The item below is from volume 5, no. 1 (Jan. 1969).
If you want to know the real purpose of the LDS genealogical endeavours check out the editorial on page 3 of the issue. It's no secret but rarely so plainly stated.
Vernon Ontario Directories
There are now 473 directories advertised as in the collection of Ontario directories, up from 465 when mentioned on the blog on 26 November.
19th-Century London’s Extreme Wealth and Poverty, Mapped
A review of a new edition of the always fascinating Charles Booth’s London Poverty Maps.
Remove car lanes, restrict vehicles and improve transit to reduce traffic congestion
Although promoted as the best option in one of the sources cited the article does not mention congestion pricing. That source is also cautious about enthusiasm for public transit —"there is such an enormous latent demand for road space ... that whenever a driver shifts onto public transportation, another one quickly grabs the open lane.
Why Don’t We Know More About the Subway Cost Disease?
If better research could cut construction costs by 1%, it would be worth spending tens of millions on that research. It might be true for Ontario's rapid transit systems too.
How can we actually create happy societies?
Creating a happy society does not just depend on creating the right conditions. It also depends on creating the right institutions and processes for discovering those conditions.
1 comment:
I had known where one branch of my family was living in about 1835 when a couple married. That address in hand, I rented a tiny flat in Bayswater for 5 weeks in 2010 to look for that address, among many others. I knew the church the couple had been married at, and it still is an active church, so I knew the neighbourhood as well. I walked all over the neighbourhood, and no one knew of the address. I simply could not locate that address, which frustrated me hugely.
By coincidence, a few days later I was at TNA at Kew, and copies of the Booth Poverty maps were on sale. Also on sale was a wonderful book by Sarah Wise, the Blackest Streets. Yes, my family had lived in the Old Nichol, as it was called, some of the blackest streets of all, before the land and streets were reconfigured circa 1890. A resident later showed me the LCC for the London County Council and 1893 stamped on the lead downspouts from the buildings roofs. Wow. It's surprising any of them survived. Cheers, BT
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