Monthly Talks at London Canal Museum

    Our monthly talks start at 19:30 on the first Thursday of each month except August. Admission is at normal charges and you don't need to book. They end around 21:00.

November 7th

    The Canal Pioneers, by Chris Lewis. James Brindley is recognized as one of the leading early canal(运河) engineers. He was also a major player in training others in the art of canal planning and building. Chris Lewis will explain how Brindley made such a positive contribution to the education of that group of early“civil engineers”.

December 5th

    Ice for the Metropolis, by Malcolm Tucker. Well before the arrival of freezers, there was a demand for ice for food preservation and catering(保存和供应)，Malcolm will explain the history of importing(进口) natural ice and the technology of building ice wells, and how London's ice trade grew.

February 6th

    An Update on the Cotswold Canals, by Liz Payne. The Stroudwater Canal is moving towards reopening. The Thames and Severn Canal will take a little longer. We will have a report on the present state of play.

March 6th

    Eyots and Aits-Thames Islands, by Miranda Vickers. The Thames has many islands. Miranda has undertaken a review of all of them. She will tell us about those of greatest interest.

Online bookings: www.canalmuseum.org.uk/book

More info: www.canalmuseum.org.uk/whatson

London Canal Museum

12-13 New Wharf Road, London NI 9RT

www.canalmuseum.org.uk   www.canalmuseum.mobi

Tel:020 7713 0836

    If you're traveling with kids in London, many London hotels have special services and features to help the family holiday, offering services to kids as well as games, bike hire and free ice cream!

Athenaeum

    The five­star Athenaeum is a fantastic family hotel，particularly with the addition of its kids' services. Even before you arrive, they'll be in touch to make sure your kids have their favorite DVDs, treats and anything else to keep them happy. And they can arrange your perfect family activities, from bike hire to theater tickets.

Novotel

    Novotel's family rooms are designed to accommodate two adults and two children. Accommodation and breakfast are free for under­16s(up to two staying in their parents' room)．You can also enjoy a late check­out at 5 p. m. on a Sunday, and while you lie in, the kids can entertain themselves with the Cartoon Network.

Chessington Safari Hotel

    At Chessington Safari Hotel, kids will love staying in an African adventure­themed room, having breakfast, overlooking the animals of the Wanyama Reserve, watching family­friendly movies and getting into the theme park before it opens.

The Ritz

    Kids at The Ritz are treated just as well as their parents, if not better! Children can enjoy computer games and DVDs, free ice cream and their own bathrobes and slippers. Under­16s can stay for free in their parents' bedroom, depending on the room type.

Marlin Apartments

    Marlin Apartments operate more than 700 serviced apartments in London. Apartments are all within five minutes' walk of the Tube(Good for tired little legs！) with flat screen TVs, fully equipped kitchens and free Wi­Fi. One or two bedroom family apartments have extra room for folding beds in the living area.

    The loud continuous noise of the cars or the sound of a plane can force its way into the deepest forest, yet it's not only humans that ere bothered by the noise.

    Bioacoustician Bernie Krause has been studying the effect of noise pollution on wildlife, and has come across some interesting behaviors, especially among animals that communicate by vocalization（发声）, like humans. Birds use sound to communicate, but in noisy places, these animals have to shout over the natural noise to be heard.

    Krause mentions a study of nightingales to clarify what he means. The birds responded to traffic noise by singing louder and louder until they actually went beyond noise pollution standards in the city. To belt out (sing loudly) their songs, they increased their lung pressure fivefold, but scientists state that this is not dangerous for the birds themselves.

    Studies show that sudden noise can cause certain birds to leave their nests, exposing the young to their enemies. One study also showed that songbirds that nested close to busy motorways were much less productive than those that nested farther away. Mammals（哺乳动物）too are affected. A recent study showed that nursing caribou responded to plane noise by not producing enough milk to feed their young.

    In some cases noise pollution can actually help some animals while harming others. Toads（蟾蜍）and frogs are known to vocalize in synchrony（同步；同步方式）so that no predator (their enemies) can zero in on them. Krause found that when planes flew overhead and disturbed the toad's song, they lost their synchronicity, and it took them 45 minutes to get it back again. That gave their natural enemies plenty of time to find and catch individual toads by sound.

    According to Kruse, “Not only will noise pollution bother wildlife, but it won't help our lives either.”

    Language is always changing. In a society where life continues year after year with few changes, the language does not change either. The earliest known languages had difficult grammar but a small, limited vocabulary. Over the century, the grammar changed, and the vocabulary grew. For example, the English and Spanish people who came to America during the sixteenth century gave names to all the new plants and animals they found. In this way, hundreds of new words were introduced into English and Spanish vocabularies. Today life is changing very fast, and language is changing fast too.

     There are several major(主要) language families in the world. Some scientists say there are nine main families, but other scientists divide them differently. The languages in each family are connected, and scientists think that they came from the same parent language. About 3 percent of the people in the world speak languages that are not in these major families.

    I have a special place in my heart for libraries. I have for as long as I can remember. I was always an enthusiastic reader, sometimes reading up to three books a day as a child. Stories were like air to me and while other kids played ball or went to parties, I lived out adventures through the books I checked out from the library.

    My first job was working at the Ukiah Library when I was 16 years old .It was a dream job and I did everything from shelving books to reading to the children for story time.

    As I grew older and became a mother, the library took on a new place and an added meaning in my life. I had several children and books were our main source(来源) of entertainment. It was a big deal for us to load up and go to the local library, where my kids could pick out books to read or books they wanted me to read to them.

    I always read ,using different voices ,as though I were acting out the stories with my voice and they loved it !It was a special time to bond with my children and it filled them with the wonderment of books .

    Now, I see my children taking their children to the library and I love that the excitement of going to the library lives on form generation to generation.

    As a novelist, I've found a new relationship with libraries. I encourage readers to go to their local library when they can't afford to purchase a book. I see libraries as a safe haven(避风港) for readers and writers, a bridge that helps put together a reader with a book. Libraries, in their own way, help fight book piracy(盗版行为) and 1 think all writers should support libraries in a significant way when they can. Encourage readers to use the library. Share library announcements on your social media. Frequent them and talk about them when you can.

Most of the 20th century has been a development on the Industrial Revolution taken to an extreme: people now own more products than ever before; there are enough unclear weapons to destroy the earth several times over; there is hardly any forest left and pollution has got to the point where we buy water. Within a few years I predict you will be able to buy air. (There once was a time when you didn't need to buy food or shelter either.)

Important developments in the last century are the breaking down of the class structures left over from the Industrial Revolution stage, bringing with it the empowerment of the "common man": the working day is set by law to only 8 hours a day; everyone has the vote; the media has less obvious government control; people have landed on the moon, sent spacecrafts to Mars and so on. Families have also shrunk drastically (强烈地); the nuclear family came about, and especially in the last half of the 20th century, one­parent families are becoming more common. This shrinking in the size of the family shows the increased independence of people — once upon a time people had to live in large groups to survive.

As humans have "become the gods", they have realized their individuality and independence and taken their control of the world to an extreme. In many countries the land is almost completely used in the production of food and as living space and they live in small cities which are entirely human constructed, made from materials which are also entirely human constructed (concrete bricks) with hardly any remains of nature. Weeds are poisoned because they are messy; even parks have trees grown in tidy lines; grass is mowed to keep it short and so on. I think the massive drug "problem" troubling people is a result of too much of this influence, humans needing to escape the stark world they have created by entering fantasy worlds.

Over the last 100 years, the 20th century consciousness has spread throughout the world; most of Asia has been thoroughly "Westernized", and most of the Third World is being overrun by Western ways of doing things and living.