Quacksalver / Obelise / Blague

Maybe I'm pushing myself a little far to try and write three blog posts in one, but since I've missed so many, I need to catch up on the ones I've missed before I can get back into the rhythm of updating. So in the usual fashion, just three times over, today's first word means someone who pretends to have a knowledge of medicine. The second word, obelise, means to condemn as corrupt or spurious. I have, of course, saved the best till last. It might be noted that I am writing a blague blog, since it means pretentious nonsense. Wow, there's quite a bit of bold in there. Wicked.

Ok, let's get started on these posts (I've already lost focus around five times. It's awful.). I believe that in my last half-post, I mentioned about social networks being considered as a sort-of super-organism because all of the nodes (human beings in the case of a social network) are so closely related. They are so closely related in two manners. The stronger and more well-known phenomenon of the two is known as the Six Degrees of Separation. This is the theory that any one person in the world is related or has some connection to any other person in the world by a maximum of six degrees - that is, any other person in the world is only as far away as a friend's friend's friend's friend's friend's friend. Of course, friendships aren't the only type of connection between human beings. It can be as complicated as your spouse's brother's friend's aunt's coworker's son, but you get the idea.

Some of you must be thinking "How can this be possible?", so imagine this. If you know around 250 people (including Facebook friends, family, coworkers, et cetera), and each of those people know 250 people, and each of those people know 250 people, at only the third degree of separation we have almost 16 million people. At the sixth degree we have reached over forty times the Earth's population. This can be used to show that every node in the network is, in some way, connected with any other node.

The second and lesser-known phenomenon is known as the Three Degrees of Influence. This has less of a reasoning behind it, but is more of an observed phenomenon. It is shown, by monitoring a social network, that when a person, for example, gives up smoking, it creates a ripple effect throughout the social network with the behaviour extending to only three degrees of separation, after which the effect seems to have a negligible effect, rather like a ripple in a pond losing energy. The first and second degrees feel the most effect, with rises in the chance of giving up of around 50% and 30% respectively, and the third degree feeling only a meagre ~5%.

The actual effect on the social network is not just a standard outwards ripple effect, similar to a pebble being thrown into a pond. It is similar to a handful of pebbles being thrown into a pond. Why? Well, it is not only one person that may give up smoking at any one time. Many people may give up, each causing their own ripples. And these ripples may intersect, causing an effect of both of the ripples combined. For example, consider person X at two degrees from person A, who has given up smoking, and three degrees from person B, who also gave up smoking at the same time. Person X would experience a rise in the chance of giving up smoking of ~35%. Well, I thought that was pretty interesting.

My second and third posts are somewhat combined here.

Last night, I went to see a comedy gig in Camden (more specifically, Mornington Crescent, Dom). It was a thoroughly enjoyable gig (for those interested in watching the two shows that I saw, watch Stand-Up For The Week on 4OD for Saturday 19th March and Saturday 26th March, though the latter was considerably better. Mike Wilmot is a comic genius) at Camden's KOKO Club.

Koko's is an old, traditional-styled theatre that has been converted into a club / function venue. A beautiful venue, it has televisions and bars on every floor, while overlooking the main floor and stage, on which they frequently have acts and bands playing. Since the gig was free, they had unfortunately jacked the bar prices sky-high to make up for it, but on a normal night, the prices would have been more than respectable. It really gives a feel of the hidden side of London, with the classic theatre look and old theatre ticket booths still in operation. I would absolutely recommend this place to anyone, be it for a club night or to watch a show. The venue was fantastic, and even on the uppermost balcony you have a fantastic view of the stage.

On the journey, however, we went for a little exploration of Mornington Crescent station. Upon taking a flight of stairs down into the station, we discovered a corridor with several doors, all locked. This then began a train of thought (excuse the pun) that took me back a few years.

Back in the Summer of 2009, I met up with a handful of Muse fans from the online forum to do a spot of filming for an actual video (alas, the footage mysteriously disappeared, but we had a great day nonetheless). The task was to film ourselves singing in well-known and iconic parts of London, and being the utter genius that I am, decided that I'd take on the task of checking out filming in a Tube station. It appears that station staff get quite on edge when they see a group of ten people filming themselves singing in a station. And apparently, it's illegal to film in them or something. Still, we weren't going to be able to film without around six months notice and a whole lot of money. Neither of which we really had.

So I began looking into old, unused stations, and came across another one of London's hidden gems. Near Charing Cross and Strand, is an old abandoned station by the name of Aldwych. This isn't a station for which construction started and then ceased halfway through. It is a fully functional station that is just closed due to lack of use.

Aldwych Tube Station is a branches off of the Picadilly line (The 1933 Tube map shows this well - Picadilly line is in blue and the Aldwych branch is just after the Picadilly line crosses over the then-named Central London Railway), a branch solely created to serve that one and only station. The old branch-off can still be seen on a good day on an eastbound train on the Picadilly line, shortly after leaving Holborn station. It used to run only at peak times to save on financial losses, due to the low volume of passengers using it, before being cut down to just a single running line in 1917. It was then finally closed tothe public completely in 1994, when it was resulting in a net loss of around £150,000 per annum. There are still occasional tours of the stations, and for a fee of approximately £1,500 one can get into the station for filming and photography purposes for a day.

I cannot stress how incredible Aldwych Station is. Maybe it's the feeling of seeing an abandoned and disused Tube station, but it is also one of the scariest things I've experienced. For copyright reasons, I cannot publish any photos on here, but go here to see an almost complete tour of the station. I actually cannot look through these pictures right now, because it's late at night and they just creep me out so much.

 "You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."






Final note - I know I mentioned a few posts back about how London gets tiresome and that I prefer places like Cambridge. While this is for the most part true, there is no other place in England that has the beauty and intricacy of London. You can always find something new in London, another hidden secret from deep within its fantastic history. I know it sounds like a cheesy advert for the place, but I love places that keep battlescars from their history, be it an old ruin, or a network of tunnels buried deep beneath the city centre that no one uses anymore.
J.