Moyes Noise
Naturalist, mountaineer, photographer, computing, social media, peregrines, Derbyshire botany, biological recording, public speaking, Wikipedian. You name it, I've given it a go! I was a natural sciences curator at Derby Museums and Art Gallery for over 25 years. Now retired and going uphill as well as downhill.
Monday, 6 December 2021
Thank You, Ann Bowker
Sunday, 13 June 2021
Do Not Lie Down In That Hot Sun
Do Not Lie Down In That Hot Sun
Do not lie down in that hot sun
Your skin will burn and peel, but not get tanned;
Red raw you’ll be, and have no fun.
You ladies, you go out and think you’ve won,
You know that oils and creams have not been banned;
Do not lie down in that hot sun.
Young studs, be careful in the day, for as night’s begun,
You’ll wish to dance and sing and soon get canned;
Red raw you’ll be, and have no fun.
Crazy days of beer, banana boats and beaches can be done,
But seek the shade that often lies so close at hand.
Do not lie down in that hot sun.
As burning, bursting rays of UV light, as from a gun,
Pour down from cloudless skies upon that arid land.
Red raw you’ll be, and have no fun.
And you, my child, grown up, burnt like a bun,
Your youthful ageing skin, I see it blister there upon the
sand.
Do not lie down in that hot sun.
Red raw you’ll be, and have no fun.
Explanatory notes
Written during the long hot summer of 2005, whilst staying
at the charming and isolated VillaNelle in the south of France. I learnt my lesson that year; no longer
will I lie in the sun, unclad.
It was sheer stupidity on my part. I know that now. At times
the pain in my Dylan Thomas became unbearable; poetic justice you might say. So
I penned these words of warning to anyone foolish enough to bare all, like me.
Perhaps it would have been better to have simply called it “Rage, rage against
the burning of the light!”.
I owe a debt of thanks to the men and women of the French postal service who, throughout that summer, carried up to the Villa all my deliveries of calamine lotion and sun cream. I knew none of their names, of course, just their service numbers. To anyone considering a stay in that delightful villa, I especially commend to you Facteur 50.
Tuesday, 12 September 2017
Wikimedia and the Tower of London poppies
Images that don't meet these requirements sooner or later are liable to be deleted, but only after discussion and consensus emerges.
Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red (8) Taken and uploaded by MercerMJ (Creative Commons by SA 2.0) Currently in use on Wikipedia, but for how much longer? |
This week a big debate erupted on Wikimedia after more than 250 images of Paul Cummins' magnificent poppy installation at the Tower of London in 2014 were put forward for deletion (see this link). Other images that people have taken and uploaded of his currently touring "Weeping Windows" installations (co-created by theatre designer, Tom Piper) are also proposed for removal.
This means that this Wikipedia page could soon lose all its photographic content, and with it the ability for the world's greatest free encyclopaedia to visually communicate the impressive work of Derbyshire artist, Paul Cummins. Is this acceptable? Well, actually, yes it possibly is. Or at least that's what has been put forward by the proposing editor.
But do I have the right to photograph a temporary artwork created by another people like Paul Cummins (and then to freely release that image for others to use) when the artistic content isn't mine to give away in the first place, and I don't have their permission?
Well, the policies of Wikimedia apparently say "No", and so photos are routinely listed for deletion and a public discussion on the right ways to implement those policies then takes place. Usually within a week, a consensus will emerge and the decision is then rapidly implemented either to 'Keep' or to 'Delete'.
It doesn't matter about the quality of the image under discussion - it's the content that counts, and any breach of copyright (dependant upon the country it was taken in) has to be recognised and acted upon. This includes consideration of each country's own laws on 'Freedom of Panorama' as well as copyright and 'Derivative Works', and all can be very technical. In this instance, that freedom to publish a photograph of a public place in Britain appears to be irrelevant, but concerns relate instead to the artists' right not to have images of their temporary art installation made available on Wikimedia and Wikipedia for all to see and use without their explicit consent.
So the numerous pictures taken by ordinary people like me of Paul Cummins' amazing poppies may soon disappear from Wikipedia. That would be a great shame, but it may well be the right thing to do.
Of course, if the copyright owning artist were to give their formal permission for images of their work to be released under a Creative Commons Share Alike licence without any restriction on personal or commercial use, then that's another matter. . .
Blood Swept Lands And Seas Of Red Tower of |London. Image credit: Deror_avi; Creative Commons Share Alike Licence 3.0 |
So, rather than moan about Wikimedia's over-conscientious rules, I decided to take action myself. Late on Sunday I sent Paul Cummins an email via his website, asking if he'd be willing to consider granting permission, either for particular images currently in use to remain online, or for all such images of his work to remain and be available under that creative commons licence. But Paul's a busy man (now mapping where all 888,246 poppies have ended up around the world). So whether he thinks it's worth taking time out to reply to some nerdy Wikipedia editor and to navigate through Wikimedia's image licensing process remains to be see. I hope he will
Personally, I think Wikimedia needs to sort out its act. It needs to make its interface with the public on image rights much simpler to navigate; it can't expect ordinary organisations, artists and other individuals to understand and wade through its complex permissions process, and it needs to find an effective way to give more time to editors willing to undertake to make contact and negotiate with a copyright holder over permissions for images to remain there. Perhaps it needs a 'Defer deletion' process whereby images identified for deletion are held back and not automatically removed until some agreed time-period - perhaps between one and three months - has expired. In reality, an image can sit unchallenged on Wikimedia for many years, but then someone spots and challenges it and we're all suddenly expected to be able to resolve any issues within seven days. Laughable, if you want to try to contact the holder of rights within an image, but that's how it works at present. Trying to do get permission once an image has been deleted is pointless as you can't show the person the image in question, even if it can be restored by a Wikimedia administrator! And don't you dare go on holiday - ever!
I don't confess to fully understanding the intricacies of how Wikimedia volunteers manage these complex processes and, in doing so, defend not only this amazing resource's reputation, but also the rights and interests of individuals. (I used to call them 'WikiNazis' because of what I saw as their heavy-handed implementation of those rules and summary deletion of images that I and other photographers had innocently taken and uploaded for use on Wikipedia.) But rather than insult these volunteers, they should really be thanked. They're mostly doing a fine job in identifying issues and raising concerns.
Maybe the way things are handled could be done differently, but its only by volunteers being vigilant and careful that can we be sure both Wikimedia and Wikipedia's reputations remain in a good state, that people's copyright interests are appropriately defended, and that the fifth most popular website in the world continues to provide information and images for everyone to use in a fair and legal manner, whoever and wherever they are.
In a future blog post I hope to be able to look in further detail at the interpretation of the relevant laws and how consensus is reached by debate amongst Wikimedia/Wikipedia editors, and some of the different responses and views that are being made right now on this issue.
Meanwhile, here's my email sent to Paul Cummins via his website on 10th September 2017:
Hi Paul I'm a former member of staff at Derby Museum with a close connection to the Derby Silk Mill, and I adored the display of your work there last summer. I'm retired now, but I contribute a lot of my time to improving articles on Wikipedia (like this one and this one). Thousands of people have photographed your work, and quite a few have been uploaded to illustrate articles on Wikipedia about the different venues your poppies have visited.
Unfortunately, every one of them is about to be permanently deleted, unless you are prepared to step in to prevent this from happening. The problem is that any picture uploaded to Wikimedia (which holds images on behalf of Wikipedia) requires photographers to permit commercial use of that image. But because you have published a restriction on commercial use on this page (http://blog.cwgc.org/poppieswave/), and because they were part of a temporary installation, not a permanent one, every single image of your poppies on Wikipedia has been proposed for deletion, primarily to protect your interests and to conform with UK law. If you're ok with this, you need do absolutely nothing.And here's the story of those poppies in Paul's own words:
But if you would like Wikimedia/Wikipedia and others to be able to use photos of your work for decades to come, you really need to step in right away and give your explicit permission now. This could either be for selected images - or all of them - to remain on Wikimedia for both non-commercial and for commercial use. It's only with the consent of you, the copyright holder, that photographs of temporary installations like yours will be allowed to remain on Wikimedia. Please let me know your general view on this. I might be able to hold off total deletion of every image of your work on Wikipedia until we can sort out how to best to arrange for your formal permission for a selected few (or all?) of those pictures to remain and to be used. It would be a real shame if the all the Wikipedia articles about your work were to be devoid of any image for many decades to come. (Including this one about you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cummins)
If you don't step in to stop deletion, this is precisely what will happen. Kind regards Nick Moyes Derby (-former Senior Keeper of Natural Sciences at Derby Museum; winner of Derby Arts Festival for ceramics, 1996; Wikipedian)
Where are the individual poppies now? Follow this link to learn more.
Monday, 11 September 2017
Women in Red
Newnham College, Cambridge University |
It was a fascinating learning experience, so I thought I'd set down my impressions of the day and make a few suggestions for improving editathons in the future.
Dame Carol Black with Roger Bamkin |
I'd been asked to help out by event organiser, Roger Bamkin (User: Victuallers), who has tons of experience in organising similar events. But what was initially a general invitation to assist by taking a few official pictures of the event, soon turned into a request for me to produce a video of the day, carry out interviews with a range of attendees. And even that later transmogrified into a request to prepare a video for showing in Montreal at the 2017 Wikimania Conference. No pressure then! (see video below)
Doug Taylor ran introductory classes, every hour, on the hour. |
The first thing I did was buy a low-cost lapel microphone. I chose a £15 Boya Lavalier microphone on Amazon, which I thoroughly recommend. Had I not acquired this useful bit of kit, none of the videos would have been of much use, such was the level of enthusiastic background noise on the day. (A shotgun microphone I had borrowed form a work colleague for use on a backup video camera failed to produce anything like the same sound quality, and collected far too much ambient noise)
Format of the day
The event started with a welcome from Dame Carol Black, the Principal of Newnham College, plus a few words by Roger.
In one half of the room we then had Doug Taylor from Wikimedia UK who ran hourly introductory sessions for beginners new to editing on Wikipedia. His style was both enthusiastic and engaging, and he was assisted by Marianne Bamkin who operated the laptop which was projected for everyone to see)
People could drop in at any time during the day, and these included academic staff, support staff and a number of really interesting Cambridge alumnae who came for the whole day. In addition, there were also a number of established Wikipedians like Clem Rutter, Charles Matthews, RubbishComputer, Deryck C and others.
The majority of people who attended had never edited a Wikipedia article before, but had come armed to make their mark and to help-redress the male-female imbalance in Wikipedia articles. Many focussed on articles about current or ex-Cambridge University women achievers. One alumna who came to learn (but might also merit an article in her own right) was Elizabeth Hodges - who, we understand, was first female surgeon commander in the Navy.
I was able to record interviews with a number of people during the day - some being brand new to editing, others being established Wikipedians. One of them (a retired biology technician with the Human Genome Project) gave a particularly insightful account of how that project shared their data via Wikipedia. Some of her words appear in the video below).
Registering school users on Wikipedia |
I would observe the following:
Good Points:
- The day was enhanced by having an introductory talk on editing Wikipedia every hour for all newcomers to editing.
- Most attendees had their own mobile devices and soon got to grips with understanding the basics of making and saving their first edits.
- A Wikipedia Admin was present to help school groups create new accounts for each student.
- It was very rewarding to be able to talk with and to assist people completely new to editing Wikipedia
- Seeing young schoolchildren attending and getting stuck in to editing alongside somewhat more elderly participants was delightful.
- A photo of each person we interviewed was taken of them holding an image release form.
- 70 new editors were trained during the event.
- Capture and record the Usernames of everyone attending. With either a blackboard or register, this would enable organisers not only to assess achievements made on the day, but also visit new users, check their work, and offer help or encouragement in the weeks that follow).
- Encourage users not only to sign in, but to write down names of articles they are working on.
- Avoid having the same room for introductory lectures and personal editing. (especially important if you want to interview and record people!)
- Clearly display the WiFi name and password
- Provide every brand new Wikipedia editor with a "What do I do next?" leaflet to take away.
The day ended with an invitation to join Dame Carol Black as her guests of honour at 'high table' in the beautiful surroundings of Newnham College. All in all - a wonderful, but tiring day!
Roger Bamkin chatting with Newnham College staff at formal dinner. |
And here's the video I eventually produced for showing during a Women in Red presentation at the Wikimania Conference in Montreal:
Yes, it was a great event! |
Sunday, 19 March 2017
Adobe Premiere Elements - activating H.264 and MPEG components in old versions
Some years ago I purchased Adobe Premiere Elements (ver 1), which served me well for home video editing from my miniDV video recorder on Windows XP. Unfortunately my new DSLR camera produces MP4 format files, and these are not compatible with that version of Premiere. I needed a low cost solution for my unpaid work with Wikipedia, so I purchased an unused version of Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements version 7 from eBay.
Component Activation window in Premiere Elements 7. |
So, I spent some time editing my first 15 minute video sequence and familiarising myself with some of the changes, only to then encounter a total inability to save it in anything other than AVI format. Neither saving as MPG nor H.264 encoding would work as a popup appeared for each one, telling me that that an unlock key was needed to activate the encoder.
To get this code, one simply needed to copy an inordinately long string of letters and numbers from that popup, follow the given link to an Adobe webpage, and paste it in so you could then retrieve an activation key which Premiere needed in order to proceed. (This is on top of the original serial number needed on first install.)
First problem: The link is no longer functioning (http://www.adobe.com/go/encoderactivation)
A search online quickly identified a new url for Adobe encoder activation: (http://www.adobe.com/special/encoderactivation/sw_activation02.htmll)
Encoder activation page - but it would not recognise the product |
THE SOLUTION: Trial and error with innumerable Google keyword searches finally yielded up this little gem on Adobe's own website: http://www.adobe.com/motion/mpegactivation.html
This page works! http://www.adobe.com/motion/mpegactivation.html |
Simply paste in the long character string given to you by the Premiere popup when you try to save and output a file. As at March 2017 the page shown above generates a fully functional key for your individual computer. You then just paste this back into the Premiere popup and click 'OK'. You can use the same page for activating the MPEG encoder within Premiere Elements 7, and for activating the H.264 encoder, although you will be given separate text strings for each one. Bingo!
Activation code successfully shown (blanked out here) |
A typical 'cri de coeur' for software that people think can't now be used, but which can |
Wednesday, 19 October 2016
Hurricane - the Hen Harrier song by Bob Dylan
His song 'Hurricane' really shows how much he cared for our British uplands
Maybe this is what really got him the Nobel Prize for Literature - such a heart-rending tale of innocent moorland folk. . .(here's the music: https://youtu.be/gGMSfiH850o)
Bob Dylan ecozealot and moorland campaigner? (Photo by Elsa Dorfman) |
Hurricane - Bob Dylan
Shotguns ring out in the moorland night
Enter Amanda Anderson from the upper hall
She sees the Hen Harrier in a pool of blood
Cries out "My God, they killed them all"
Here comes the story of the Hurricane
The game manager the authorities came to blame
For something that he never done
Put him in a prison cell but one time he could-a been
The champion of the moors.
Three raptors lying there does Amanda see
And another keeper named Bello moving around mysteriously
"I didn't do it" he says and he holds up his hands
"I was only burning heather I hope you understand
I saw them flying" he says and he stops
"One of us had better call up the cops"
And so Amanda calls the cops
And they arrive on the scene with their blue lights flashing
In the hot Caledonian night.
Meanwhile far away in another part of town
Mark Osborne and some toffs are out driving around
Number one contender for the grouse moorland crown
Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down
When a WCO cop pulled him over to the side of the road
Just like the time before and the time before that
In Scotland that's just the way things go
If you manage grouse moors you might as well not shown up on the peat
'Less you wanna draw the heat.
Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap from the cops
Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowling around
He said "I saw two men running out from the heather
They jumped into a white Landy and made off, hell for leather"
And Miss Amanda Anderson just nodded her head
WCO Cop said "Wait a minute boys this bird's not dead"
So they took it to the vets
And though this bird could hardly see
They told it that she could identify the guilty men.
Four in the morning and they haul Osbourne in
Take him to the vets and they bring him upstairs
The wounded ringtail looks up through its one dying eye
Squawks: "Wha'd you bring him in here for ? He ain't the guy !"
Yes here comes the story of the Hurricane
The keeper the authorities came to blame
For something that he never done
Put in a prison cell but one time he could-a been
The champion of the moors.
Four months later the moorlands are still in flame
Osbourne's down in South Yorkshire, fighting for his name
While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the raptor-killin' game
And the WCOs are putting the screws to him looking for somebody to blame
"Remember that murder that happened up on the moor?"
"Remember you said you saw that four-by-four?"
"You think you'd like to play ball with the law?"
"Think it might-a been that grouse manager you saw running that night?"
"Don't forget that we are - right".
Arthur Dexter Bradley said "I'm really not sure"
WCO cops said "A boy like you could use a break
We got you for the carbofuran job and we're talking to your friend Bello
Now you don't wanna have to go back to court - be a nice fellow
You'll be doing society a favour
That sonofabitch is brave and getting braver
We want to put his ass in the stir
We want to pin this triple raptor murder on him
He ain't no Gentleman Jim".
Osborne could take a brace out with just one shot
But he never did like to talk about it all that much
It's my work he'd say and I do it for pay
And when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way
Up to some paradise
Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice
And ride a horse along a trail
But then they took him to the courthouse
Where they try to turn a moorland man into a mouse.
All of Mark's cards were marked in advance
The trial was a circus - he never had a chance
The judge made Osbourne's witnesses poachers from the slums
To the ecozealots who watched, he was a revolutionary bum
And to the BASC folks he was just a crazy nigger
No one doubted that he pulled the trigger
And though they could not produce the gun
The DNA said he was the one who did the deed
And the all-white jury agreed.
Mark Osborne was falsely tried
The crime was raptor killin' - guess who testified
Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
And the Times newspaper, it went along for the ride
How can the life of such a man
Be in the palm of some fool's hand ?
To see him obviously framed
Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land
Where justice is a game.
Now all the criminals in their tweeds and their jackets
Are free to rear red grouse and make themselves a packet
While Mark sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
An innocent man in a living hell
Yes, that's the story of the Hurricane
But it won't be over till they clear his name
And give him back the time he's done
Put him in a prison cell but one time he could-a been
The champion of the moors.
Langholm hen harrier "Annie" - found shot on a Scottish grouse moor |
Tuesday, 26 July 2016
Faulty Jessops filters?
The chaps in Jessops in Derby were superb. Lots of time to talk me through my preferred choices, and I eventually opted for my first choice: a Canon EOS 760D with Canon's own 18-135mm lens, and a second Canon 10-18mm lens. They both seemed very well reviewed as first lenses, and I saw no point in buying the kit lens with it. Jessops prices were competitetive, too. It did however make sense to buy a 67mm UV filter for each of these zoom lenses, just to protect and keep the lenses clean, if nothing else. So, two Jessops own-brand filters were immediately fitted, and I also bought a Jessops own-brand 67mm polarising filter. Such a useful first accessory to play with!
The UV filters fitted perfectly, and of course, for best optical results one would remove the UV filters and replace it with the polarising filter. But they should also work well by being stacked together, and this is where the problem lay. Although initially screwing on perfectly, the Jessops polarising filter failed to stop screwing round. It should have mated up and then allowed me to rotate just the polarised element. Instead, the whole thing kept turning, clearly jumping the thread each turn.
I tried it on the other lens and filter, and the same problem occurred. It wouldn't lock on the UV filter's screw thread, though it did lock properly straight onto the Canon lenses themselves.
I tweeted to Jessops, asking if this was a known issue. Their reply was negative, and was advised to speak to the local branch. So I went in yesterday and the friendly Derby staff quickly appreciated the problem, suggesting that for best results one should use one filter or the other. But we did both agree we would have expected them to fit one another properly.We tried another filter from the shelf, and this exhibited exactly the same problem. So it looked like a batch fault in the manufacturing was the cause of the problem. The staff member then suggested maybe this was an intentional design feature, perhaps to avoid damage to the screw thread. But that made no sense - a slipping thread does more harm than one that fits screws tightly. Nor did I ever experience this problem all those years ago int he days of 35mm film and my trusty Minolta X700 camera.
So, back to Jessops on Twitter and we'll await to see what response they give.
Oh - brill - just as I'm finishing writing this they've asked be to DM them my email address, so you can't say fairer than that for responsive customer service, can you?
Watch this post for further updates . . .
http://peakhhday.blogspot.co.uk/
http://nomoorshooting.blogspot.co.uk/