Half of people arrested in London may have undiagnosed ADHD, study finds. Really!

Food for thought! Sounds like a serious case of overdiagnosis! How was ADHD defined? Call me skeptical!

Good news for defense attorneys!

Good news for criminals to plead not guilty for reasons of neurodevelopmental disorder!

Caveat: I did not read the entire article.

Half of people arrested in London may have undiagnosed ADHD, study finds | University of Cambridge "Offering screening for neurodivergence to people detained by the police could help ensure access to appropriate support and fairer treatment in the criminal justice system, say Cambridge researchers. A study from the team suggests that one in two individuals arrested and detained in London may have undiagnosed attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and one in 20 may have undiagnosed autism."

London Mayor Sadiq Khan labels President Trump as ‘racist, sexist, misogynistic and Islamophobic’. Really!

This London mayor has a fine tuned, ideologically driven vocabulary! 😊

Thank you President Trump for exposing this fool! Trump has way too much fun triggering certain individuals!

"The war of words between Sadiq Khan and Donald Trump has escalated, with London’s mayor this afternoon labelling the President as ‘racist, sexist, misogynistic and Islamophobic’."

Spectator

The wannabe visionary! 

An Entire Roman City Is Hidden Beneath London | Walking Tour

Very recommendable!

Ambitious London "super sewer" finally complete after decade of construction

Good news! What goes on beneath! 

"... The super sewer has a length of 25 km (15.5 miles). Its main tunnel is 7.2 m in diameter (23.7 ft), the equivalent of three London double decker buses, while its connection tunnels are either 5 m (16.4 ft) in diameter or 2 m (6.6 ft) in diameter. It has a capacity of 1.6 million cubic m (roughly 56.5 million cubic ft), which is a whole lot of sewage.

Construction on the project began in earnest in 2016 at 24 sites around London. Over 20 deep shafts – some as wide as the dome of St Paul's Cathedral – were constructed across the city. Six tunneling machines were used in all ..."

Ambitious "super sewer" finally complete after decade of construction "A decade after it was first revealed, London's "super sewer" is now finally complete. The £5 billion (US$6.3 billion) project is expected to revolutionize the handling of human waste in the British capital."

The Tunnel

Airbnb rentals linked to increased crime rates in London neighbourhoods

Just correlation or peculiarity related to the sample chosen?

The researchers did not seem to investigate whether any criminals stayed at any AirBnB rentals.

"... London is one of the most popular Airbnb markets in the world. An estimated 4.5 million guests stayed in a London Airbnb during the period covered by the study. ...

They mapped AirDNA data from 13 calendar quarters (January 2015 to March 2018) onto ‘Lower Layer Super Output Areas’, or LSOAs. ...

Crime statistics from the UK Home Office and Greater London Authority for 6 categories – robbery, burglary, theft, anti-social behaviour, any violence, and bodily harm – were then mapped onto LSOAs populated with AirDNA data. ..."

From the abstract:

"Private short-term letting via Airbnb has exploded in the last decade, yet little is known about how this affects neighborhood crime rates. We estimate the association between Airbnb short-term letting activity and six types of police-reported crime in London, as well as an intervening mechanism, collective efficacy. We estimate these associations with maximum likelihood dynamic panel models with fixed effects (ML-SEM) using data on Airbnb lettings in 4,835 London neighborhoods observed for 13 calendar quarters. We explore mechanisms for the observed effects using multiple lag specifications and by disaggregating lettings into entire properties and spare rooms. We find that Airbnb activity is positively related to robbery, burglary, theft, and violence. These associations are attributable to lettings for entire properties rather than for rooms. Furthermore, associations are contemporaneous, as is consistent with an opportunity mechanism, rather than delayed, as would be consistent with a social control mechanism. Similarly, we find that the association between Airbnb activity and crime is not mediated by collective efficacy. Overall, these results suggest short-term letting contributes to neighborhood crime and these effects are more likely to be attributable to changes in criminal opportunity than erosion of neighborhood social control."

Airbnb rentals linked to increased crime rates in London neighbourhoods | University of Cambridge "Latest research has revealed a ‘positive association’ between the number of properties listed as Airbnb rentals and police-reported robberies and violent crimes in thousands of London neighbourhoods between 2015 and 2018."

The promise and perils of the sharing economy: The impact of Airbnb lettings on crime (open access)

Superstar-Überraschung: Plötzlich gibt Alicia Keys ein Mini-Konzert

Enjoy! Viel Vergnügen!

Inside the violent world of London's luxury watch thieves

Am I glad I only wear a cheap Casio watch! 😊

First baby beaver born in London in 400 years

Extinction is not a one way street! Deextinction is live!

"Centuries ago, London (and the rest of England) was teeming with wildlife. But most of it (including beavers) were hunted down or pushed aside by urbanization. But in recent years, London has been pushing rewilding efforts — and, as part of the efforts, a few beavers were released around the city. Now, scientists note the first baby beaver born in London in some 400 years."

First baby beaver born in London in 400 years

The kit was spotted for the first time this summer

Inside the UK tropical greenhouses that grow Thai vegetables for Thai restaurants in London

Bon appetit! Grow it where you eat it! London for food lovers!

British Museum treasure thefts by insider

Museums are irresistible! Pardon my pun! 😊

Apparently, the thief was clever enough to steal rather low value items that were possibly not even catalogued. Almost a perfect crime!

"... Police are now investigating the theft of items including gold, jewelery and gems of semi-precious stones. ..."

"Peter John Higgs, a prominent curator who was employed at the British Museum for 30 years, was identified in UK press reports as the person alleged to be responsible for stealing priceless artefacts from the museum's collection. Higgs denies any wrongdoing. ...
Crucially, it is also unclear if all of the missing items had been catalogued. ..."

British Museum thefts: What we know so far - BBC News The British Museum came under pressure this week after it sacked a member of staff over treasures reported "missing, stolen or damaged".

Thefts at the British Museum prompted director’s resignation, say media reports

A Bridge Builder

Posted: 6/9/2018

Today, I learnt from this excellent documentary video on YouTube The Bridges That Built London (History Of London Documentary) | Timeline (Presented by Dan Cruickshank, 2012; IMDb) that the latin word pontifex (maximus, pope) translates into bridge builder. I was stunned for a moment. I do not recall ever having learnt this.

What a great title and program for the leader of the Roman catholic church.

Core Western Europe Won The Olympic Games 2012 In London

If you add up the gold medals of the four countries making up the core of Western Europe, i.e. France, Germany, Great Britain, and Italy, then you come up with 57 gold medals as compared to 44 for the USA (As of Saturday evening 8/11/12). Adding up the population of core Western Europe gives you 269 million or fewer than that of US or of China.

Table: Medal Count (As of Sat. evening 8/11/12)

Rank	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total	Population
1	Core Western Europe (DE, FR, IT, UK)	57	52	53	162	269
2	USA	44	29	29	102	312
3	China	38	27	22	87	1,347

Notes: Population in millions.