Signs of the times

Graffiti in Hong Kong, which reads:
‘We can’t return to normal, because the normal that we had was precisely the problem.’

(via https://www.ica.art/ica-daily)

Caution - bananas!

Or rather ... wet floor. Don't slip!

Ivory

A Thai customs officer checks confiscated smuggled African elephant tusks
during a press conference at the Port Authority of Thailand in Bangkok.
Thai authorities seized the estimated 200 million baht ($6m US dollars) of 739 pieces
of smuggled ivory tusks, weighing 4,000 kilograms, found loaded inside
a cargo container (Picture: EPA/RUNGROJ YONGRIT) (via)

An elephant plays with mud on the banks of Yamuna river
 in New Delhi (Picture: AFP PHOTO/MONEY SHARMA) (via)

Shouldn't, really...

Wordless Wednesday

Danger of mispronunciation

Automated traffic on your blog (scary!)

This quote comes from the useful Spamspoiler blog, and highlights something that all bloggers should be aware of --

"If you have a blog and check to see where the traffic to your blog originates, you may notice traffic from websites called Vampirestat.com, Adsensewatchdog.com, Villainstat.com, Uglystat.com and/or Zombiestat.com. First off, don't click on them to find out why they are sending you traffic.

Neither Adsensewatchdog, nor any of these others have anything whatsoever to do with Google or Google AdSense and are essentially spam sites that use automated traffic to blogs to attract clicks to their own sites from blog owners such as you. Once you're at their site, at a minimum, you'll be fed ads. At worst, you might fall victim to malevolent code that seeks to infect your computer with who knows what (although I haven't verified that these particular sites are seeking to plant anything on your machine).

Stay away. "

"Domain secrets revealed!" - hmmm....

A couple of other I see a lot on my stats are 7secrets.com and searchconduit.com. Both of these seem to be "domain information" sites. Look up the latter and you will find lots of info on how to remove the virus it inserts if you have clicked on the link on your blog stats.

(I heard about it here.)

Fresh air

After a while you need to get out of the house, rain or no rain. Taking our flimsy and broken umbrellas, we braved the wind and gloom and went to the top of Parliament Hill (95m above sea level) -

 and found it muddy -

Not a lot of people about - altogether we saw six runners, four dogs and their walkers, and two solitary walkers with umbrellas.

Everywhere was muddy or flooded, or both -

 At Hampstead Mixed Bathing Pond, the sign says "No swimming" ("Danger sudden drop") -

 and all year long, you are reminded to keep off the ice: "Ice Kills".

Danger signs - 66000 volts

Electricity substation, Hatchard Rd, N19

Danger signs - Kew Gardens

The Temperate House at Kew Gardens is being surveyed for repairs - £28million is needed and the repair progamme will last up to eight years. The previous repairs to this beautiful building were 35 years ago. It's the largest surviving Victorian glasshouse structure in the world ... a bit high-maintenance, then ....

Danger signs - Kensington Road, SW7

Did you always wonder what's inside the big red postbox?

The danger sign warns that there may be hypodermic needles ...

Danger signs - Kew Gardens station

Electric

Kitchen garden at Hidcote, near Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds.

Danger signs - Africa

This is from one of those collections of photos that's making the rounds by email. The mind boggles...

Doubly dangerous

Notting Hill tube station.

Danger signs - Hampstead Heath

Danger signs - Camberwell College of Art

Third floor, Peckham Road building.

Urban and rural dangers

On the Skytrain, Vancouver -and in the forest, Vancouver Islands (thanks to Barbara Pollard for spotting this one) -

Danger signs

South Hill Park, Hampstead, London -Battlehill, Huntly, Scotland -

Danger signs - Bishop's Avenue N2

Amid the gated mansions on Millionaire's Row, this decrepit alleyway -- and a bit further along, this desperate signage -
One of the houses for sale had a sign with an aerial view of part of this palatial road -